Volume 9 Chapter 510 - Juggernaut Drive part 1
Akeno immediately conjured a school uniform for the naked Asia. Being grateful, Asia jumped into Issei's arms while crying and thanking everyone for saving her.
After calming down, everyone got ready to leave. But before that, Asia requested for everyone to wait for her because she wanted to pray. It was her habit of praying after successfully passing some kind of hardship and she had no intention of changing that.
Asia went to the middle of the room and kneeled down. She thanked God for making things right and thanked him for letting her meet everyone. Finally, she wished that she could stay with everyone forever. As she finished her prayer, golden light surrounded her and before anyone could react, Asia disappeared without a trace.
"W-what?" Issei muttered in shock, "What happened?"
But before anyone could answer him, another voice resounded, one that didn't belong to anyone there, "Enough playing around, Diodora Astaroth." A second later, a green magic circle appeared above everyone and a handsome man dressed in black armor with a cape emerged from it. He had long brown hair that went down to his hips with many bangs covering his right eye.
"Who are you!?", asked Rias. She still didn't know what happened to Asia, so she was a bit feisty.
"Dear little sister of the despicable fake Satan. I'm the descendant of the original Beelzebub. I'm Shalba Beelzebub.", was how the newcomer introduced himself.
"What do you want!?"
However, Shalba just ignored her and looked towards Diodora who was kneeling on the floor, injured. "Shalba! Lend me your hand!", requested Diodora, "If both the old and current Satans combine their strengths…"
But before he could finish what he wanted to say, Shalba blasted a hole in his stomach without any mercy. "H-huh?", gasped Diodora and looked down at his body. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"Fool." Shalba then pointed his palm towards him and a golden light engulfed Diodora, erasing him from the battlefield. It was the same golden light that engulfed Asia earlier.
Seeing this, everyone finally understood what happened. If Diodora was killed just now in an instant, then Asia's chances of survival couldn't have been better than him.
While everyone was stunned and shocked, Shalba continued speaking to Diodora who was no more, "Current Satan you say? Calling the true bloodline 'old' is a mistake in itself."
"You despicable terrorist! I'll never forgive you for killing Asia!", screamed Rias and released most of her power. She started to bombard Shalba with every ounce of her Power of Destruction.
But Shalba only manifested Ophis' blessing and used it to power his barrier, effectively blocking all of her attacks, "Little sister of the impostor Sirzechs, I'll have you die as well."
While everyone was getting ready to risk their lives to take revenge, one person couldn't accept reality and kept calling for Asia, "Asia… Asia… Where are you? We have to go home… We still have to practice for the three-legged race of the sports festival… Stop hiding and show yourself to me… This isn't funny.", muttered Issei as he blankly walked and looked around the room.
Everyone became heartbroken after seeing this. Even the intensity of Rias' magic decreased considerably after witnessing Issei in a state of denial.
Rias ran towards Issei and silently hugged him. She knew that it wouldn't be easy for Issei to accept Asia's death and even now, he was still continuing his search.
The first one to go into battle was Xenovia. With tears streaming down her face, she launched an attack at Shalba, "AHHH!!! Unforgivable!!! Unforgivable!!! I'll kill you!!! I'll cut you down with my blade!!!"
However, even with her desperate attack, she was only tossed back by Shalba's strong demonic powers, resulting in some injuries. "Xenovia!", shouted Akeno, who hurriedly ran to her side and supported her.
But despite her current state, Xenovia hadn't given up and tried to stand up to fight, "Give Asia back!!! She's one of my only few friends!!!"
Thanks to Xenovia's voice, Issei awakened a little, "B-Buchou, Asia isn't here…"
Rias grimaced after seeing Issei's hopeless face, "…Issei."
Seeing this, Shalba started mocking them, "Seriously, the princess of the Gremory Household has such a bad taste." He then looked straight into Issei's eyes, "Listen up, you red piece of trash. I sent that girl to the Dimensional Gap."
Issei looked towards him blankly and Shalba continued explaining, "Within such a place, that girl has no way of surviving. Surely, her body has perished by now." With a big grin, Shalba finished his words, "In other words, she's already dead."
Issei gritted his teeth as he lost himself to grief and rage. His eyes then started shining with the same light as Ddraig gems and he started to walk towards Shalba.
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After erasing Creuserey Asmodeus, Michael, Sirzechs and Azazel discussed their next steps while waiting for their soldiers to clear up the remaining enemies. But while doing so, the gem on Azazel's Sacred Gear which contained Fafnir started shining, warning him of something.
The three leaders then looked towards a certain direction and saw a little girl in a goth outfit standing in mid-air not far from them. "Oh perfect. I certainly didn't expect you to show up in person.", said Azazel.
"Azazel. It's been a while.", replied Ophis.
"If we defeat you here, are you going to finally let peace win out?", asked Azazel while hoping for a good answer.
But Ophis only unceremoniously answered with a small smile, "Impossible. You cannot defeat me." And that held true, even if the three leaders were to join forces to fight her.
Azazel knew this was true, so he didn't really argue with her and just continued asking, "Well then, can you tell us why you're doing this now, when you never showed any interest to the world before?"
"Indeed. I would only like to know why you are leading a brigade of terrorists.", added Sirzechs.
After hearing their questions, Ophis looked up to the red sky before answering, "…A world of silence. I would like to return to the Dimensional Gap which is my home and reclaim that silence. That is all."
'The Dimensional Gap, huh… If I remember it correctly… I see, Vali. I can finally guess what you want.', thought Azazel as he took away his Sacred Gear, intending to ask a few more questions to Ophis like her involvement with both Kisuke Urahara and Serafall Leviathan.
But before he could do that, an explosion of strange aura caught their attention. "Hmm? What happened? Is this Issei's aura?", asked Azazel and looked in a certain direction. Before they knew it, Ophis was already gone.
"So what should we do now?", wanted Michael to know.
"I think that she'll follow that aura. Let's go to clear the enemies first and follow her afterwards.", replied Sirzechs, before he sent a wave of Power of Destruction towards the remaining enemies.
The two leaders nodded at him and started clearing out the enemies, too.
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Vali, Bikou, and Arthur were within a bubble of magic power that protected them against the void, while scouring the Dimensional Gap to take a glimpse of their target.
"Hey Vali, is it really here? In this Dimensional Gap?", asked Bikou after the search for their target went on for a few hours.
"We'll definitely find it.", answered Vali confidently. He decided to search for a few more hours, when he suddenly felt a familiar surge of Draconic Aura, "Hmm?"
"What's wrong?", asked Bikou.
"Change of plans. We're going to the underworld.", commanded Vali.
"Why are we going so suddenly?"
But before Vali could answer him, Arthur, who was controlling the magic bubble that protected them through his holy sword, found a blonde maiden silently floating in the chaotic void, "Hmm?"
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Editors:
28th00: Ah, so it did go pretty much the exact same as canon. I wonder if Ophis will go like, "Oh, that's bad.", because she knows that Issei is 'The Hat's' friend. Asia being a natural Dragon Tamer would also make her go "Oh, that's really not nice."
Alexander: After all, them getting hurt without her preventing it, would result in no cookies anymore, from 'The Hat'. Basically a death sentence.
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