Volume 9 Chapter 519 - Assault on the Dragon God
Carefully sneaking into Le Fay and Ophis's room, Akeno and Irina didn't hold back in appeasing the not so obviously sulking loli Dragon. After taking out a variety of snacks and playing cards, Ophis finally forgave the two of them and returned to normal.
Sighing in relief, Akeno and Irina then explained their actions to Ophis, which she silently accepted. Off to the side, Le Fay was trying her best to not to laugh at the unexpected situation and Ophis's adorable side. She thought she already knew everything about the Dragon God, but she relinquished that thought after witnessing this.
While Irina was distracting Ophis, Akeno invited Le Fay to the corner and asked, "Tell me. Ophis being here wasn't just because of the fact that she was interested in Issei-kun's transformation, right?"
Le Fay nodded with a serious expression, "Yes, Akeno-sama. Vali-sama thought that she would be safer here."
"Why is that? For better or for worse, Ophis is the Dragon God of Infinity and there shouldn't be anyone who could become a threat to her aside from Great Red."
"That is indeed that case. Ophis-sama is very confident that no one could defeat her and has been disregarding any warning of danger. And that's understandable since there's virtually nothing that could harm her." Le Fay then cleared her throat before continuing.
"However, due to that, she doesn't have an instinctive sense of actual danger. Different from that, Vali-sama can very well feel the danger approaching her ever since the rumors of someone targeting Ophis-sama appeared within the organization, combined with Cao Cao-sama's move in Kyoto."
"Kyoto?", muttered Akeno and fell into deep thought for a minute. She tried to recall every single detail of what happened during the Second Year's excursion and it was then that something clicked in her mind, "The Hero Faction tried to summon Great Red. And even though I've only heard of Cao Cao through reports, I can very well imagine what he is like… A careful and cunning person."
"That is correct. This is also the very reason that Vali-sama is extremely careful around him. Cao Cao-sama wouldn't have summoned Great Red without a clear and sure way to defeat or contain it, and it became disturbing when he also mentioned the preparation of the 'Dragon Eater'."
"Dragon Eater?"
Le Fay shook her head, "We have no idea what kind of being it is or if it is some codename to some extremely powerful weaponry."
"What actions did you take? And what should we do?", asked Akeno.
"Vali-sama planned to lure out those who're targeting Ophis-sama by going around with a fake of her. He also hopes to bait this 'Dragon Eater's' appearance. For now, we should stay near everyone and keep Ophis-sama's presence from everyone else a secret."
"Understood. You're fine with me informing Serafall-sama about all of this, right?"
"Of course. If we have Serafall-sama's help from the shadows, the pressure on us will be far less."
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Their time went by peacefully as the three Devils prepared for their promotion. It was all peaceful except for the fact that Asia and Xenovia always tried to get into Issei's pants after they discovered that Rias had already taken the next step forward.
Issei did his best to resist the two of them because it wouldn't feel right to him. Although he dreamt of being a Harem King, he just got into a relationship with Rias. It wouldn't be right for him to do it with other people without fostering and growing such a relationship first.
On the day of their promotion exam, which was held in the Underworld, it was in the area under Ajuka's administration to be specific, and Issei was very nervous because he was very afraid that he would fail to live up to everyone's expectations.
As the first part of the exam, Issei, Yuuto, and Akeno took the written test. Once Issei received his exam papers, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch, because some of the questions were about the pop-culture in the Underworld like 'who're the characters who did this in Oppai Dragon' or 'who saved Magical Girl Levia-tan from this monster.'
'I-is this alright?', thought Issei, but didn't delve any deeper into it and just focused on answering his sheet.
However, once he took the second part of the exam, which was a battle test, Issei was very shocked at the power difference between him and the rest of the examinees. Of course, this would be the case as he had always been fighting existences that are around High-Class Devils and above and never thought of their rank beforehand because it was not really important in life and death situations.
And another reason for Issei's twisted perception was due to him hearing that it took years or even decades for a Low-Class Devil to be promoted and no one actually bothered to explain to him how abnormal his growth and those around him were.
So he was very surprised when he heard afterwards from Azazel that, at least in terms of battle strength, Issei was already treated as a High-Class Devil, almost Top-Class.
After the exam, Issei sighed in relief. He was already confident that he would be passing the exam and become a Mid-Class Devil after the results came out. The three of them returned to the hotel that they rented out.
Since they received the news about Issei and Rias going out, the media of the Underworld continued hounding them whenever they had a chance. 'Serious relationship between master and servant' was too tasty a bait for them to pass up.
And after it leaked that Issei would be taking the promotion test, the reporters had been camping around the venue for days without their enthusiasm decreasing. So in response, Sirzechs rented out a big hotel not far from the venue and requested direct teleportation which was approved due to their circumstances.
Waiting for them were the members of Rias' Peerage, except for Rossweisse, who returned to Asgard to learn and practice defensive spells so that she could be more suited for her 'Rook' piece, and Gasper, who requested Azazel to help him getting more powerful and got sent to Grigori Headquarters for more research about his Sacred Gear and bloodline.
Among them were also Irina, Le Fay, Fenrir, and Ophis, who came with them to the Underworld. After a round of congratulatory greetings, the group decided to have a dinner party at the hotel's restaurant.
Everyone happily had their dinner and they were in for a night of partying after these weeks of working hard for the promotion. Ophis was stuffing her mouth with pasta while staring at Issei, when purple mist started spreading throughout the surroundings. Predicting who it was, everyone got into their battle stances and waited.
A few seconds later, from the couch in the restaurant, Cao Cao appeared along with Georg, who stayed behind him.
"So Cao Cao-sama ignored Vali-sama and came here.", muttered Le Fay.
Cao Cao explained that he sent the rest of his group to Vali, but he also figured out that Vali wouldn't be bringing Ophis around, so he came here after getting the information that Ophis became interested in the Red Dragon Emperor's change.
With almost everyone confused, Azazel told them his guesses that Cao Cao would be after Ophis. Although he didn't have concrete evidence, he was able to guess what was going on thanks to his experience. Le Fay also confirmed his guesses and supplemented additional information for everyone to understand what was going on.
"Cao Cao is after me?", asked Ophis while tilting her neck.
Cao Cao smiled and answered, "Yeah, Ophis. We need you, but we determined that we don't need the 'current' you."
"I do not understand. I would not lose to Cao Cao."
"That would be the case. You're too powerful. To tell the truth, I don't know what would happen if I took you head-on. ----So let's fight a bit." Cao Cao stood up and spun around his spear skillfully and from the tip of his spear, a really bright light blade formed. It had an intense light that would give any Devil a chill, the light from the Ultimate Spear.
With the sound of something cutting through the wind, Cao Cao disappeared without making even the slightest movement. Before anyone noticed, the blade of his spear already went through Ophis' chest.
A critical blow. If it was a Devil, he would have died in an instant. Not minding everyone's reaction, Cao Cao chanted, "Shine, the spear that destroys Gods!", and the light coming from the spear exploded.
Seeing that, Le Fay figured that it was really bad for all the Devils in the surroundings and hurriedly cast a spell that blocked the light. However, even with her best efforts, it was not enough to contain it. At this moment, Issei transformed into his Welsh Dragonic Rook with some parts of his armor black in color and released his Dragon Aura, which was both crimson and black, to block the remaining light.
Although it depleted Issei's stamina quite a bit, none of his comrades were hurt by the light.
The light from the Holy Spear suddenly stopped, and the situation between Cao Cao and Ophis was revealed. Ophis still had the same deadpan expression while staring at Cao Cao. Although there was a spear embedded in her chest, no blood was flowing out.
Cao Cao slowly removed his spear and watched the hole in her chest quietly disappear as if nothing had happened, "That would've been an instant kill if you were a devil. I even put a lot of power in it so even other beings would vaporize… It would have taken half of the power of one of the Gods who are weak against this spear."
He then faced Issei and told him, "Did you see that, Sekiryuutei? This is Ophis. You cannot give it a critical wound even with the Ultimate Longinus. The damage went through. To take down the power of infinite is not possible, even with this spear."
Cao Cao then looked back towards Ophis while putting his spear on his shoulder, "She won't even fight back against me who just attacked her. The reason is simple, it's because she can kill me any time she wants to. That's why she won't do it, even if I do something like this. Basically, she's not interested in anything besides Great-Red. Out of the Top 5 world's strongest not including Great-Red, the strongest one is Ophis, and there is a huge gap between her and the second strongest, where you could say that she is on a totally different level. This is what the embodiment of Infinity means."
Editors:
28th00: Phis-chama has been cheered up, but also annoyed greatly. Who just stabs loli dragon's in the heart? Rude. We're about to have Kisuke enter the scenario too! Don't worry Phis-chama, 'Hat' is coming to pick you up and take care of you! It's irresponsible to not take care of your Loli Dragon God's after going on vacation for a few months after all! Bullying Cthulhu is not a healthy life choice either, Cao-Cao. I just realised… He interrupted snack time. Farewell, you nazi~! You ded.
Alexander: This is the point, where Ophis should've made Shish Kebab out of him, for stabbing her is heresy.
28th00: I think it was one of those incredulous moments where she went "Why is this gnat poking me with a pointy stick?"
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