DxD: Gambling With Fate

Dulio, on the other hand, was walking around the Labyrinth with caution. Having seen Noa reach out his hand, the change in expression on his face was a surprise, but even though it shouldn't, Dulio was pretty happy at Noa's panicked face.

Not because he was a sadist in any way, but it showed that Noa wasn't the inhuman character that a majority of the Church believed.

Rather, seeing that expression, it made Dulio think… Why did he even think that Noa felt inhuman in the first place?

With those thoughts in the back of his mind, he was walking around rather cautiously in the long hallway he found himself in.

Like Noa, he had attempted to physically break the Labyrinth, and was able to break the walls, but similarly the walls fixed themselves like they were never broken when he took another step.

Experimenting a little more, Dulio came to the same conclusion that Noa came to. Every step transported Dulio to a different 'Space.'

Noa's Furthest Earth required Noa to 'Take a Step,' which resulted in space displacement. In a sense, this was the perfect counter to Noa's Furthest Earth, as every space was everywhere at once.

This was because even though Noa's Furthest Earth removed the steps from A to B, it meant that Noa still had to be able to walk to that location. But the moment he took a step, the process instantly changed, preventing that process from following through.

Now Dulio had two options. Try to navigate through this place by himself, or wait for rescue.

Dulio didn't know why that masked assailant targeted him, but it meant that he was the target. If they were able to create something of this scale, then that meant that they were a large threat.

Discovering that even flying still resulted in a change in space, Dulio decided to make the most destruction. After all, Lavinia was with Noa, and he had full confidence that they were able to defend against the majority of his attacks.

However, just as he raised his hands to deploy the largest storm he could manifest, Dulio could feel a faint shift in space.

Looking into the distance, Dulio could see what looked like a human but wasn't at the same time. Narrowing his eyes, he could see a dark purple implant into the doll's chest, its energy spreading throughout the puppet's body.

While the puppet's face by itself didn't have any defining facial features, the model was unmistakably male, despite the physique looking like a malnourished male.

Dulio narrowed his eyes at an unusual physical feature that the puppet had, as the contours of the bones were visible due to the malnourished look. One of the puppet's ribs was missing.

--+--

"Have we truly locked onto the wielder of Zenith Tempest?"

A dark haired man asked the old Magician beside him, five pairs of gray wings attached to his back. The old Magician next to him inwardly frowned. He had asked this question over 10 times after Innovate Clear was deployed.

However, due to the Fallen Angel being leagues above him in strength, the old Magician couldn't complain. Rather, all he could do was bootlick the Fallen Angel. Afterall, the Fallen Angel was the one who was able to provide the old Magician with the prototype of the Sacred Gear Remover created by Satanael.

That fact that they were able to remove Sacred Gears from their original wielders meant that the Fallen Angel's plan could come into fruition. Or rather, his. But with the Fallen Angel providing everything from money to manpower, outwardly he had to make progress with the Fallen Angel's request.

"Yes, Lord Yomiel. We have been able to track the wielder of Zenith Tempest."

Getting the wielder of Zenith Tempest was considered unnecessary in the first place, as originally this project shouldn't have made this much progress.

Afterall, while Yomiel had somehow provided Innovate Clear and Annihilation Maker, they still had no idea where to begin to start Yomiel's goal. Afterall despite Annihilation Maker being one of the biggest bugs of the Sacred Gear System, even the human imagination of the new wielder that Yomiel chose couldn't begin to think up how to create Yomiel's desired goal.

However, with the death of the Witch of the South, Glenda, her research was revealed amongst the Wizards of Oz. Her secret of being able to fake death.

Puppetry Magic.

While not to the exaggerated extent of Aozaki Touko, which transferred memories upon death to a perfect copy of herself, the closest thing to the Third Magic, Glenda utilized her unique branch of Possession Magic in order to transfer a small part of her consciousness to a Puppet, allowing for full conscious control of the puppet.

This was what allowed her to fake her death multiple times.

However, the unique domain that Doomsday Come fell under was able to perfectly destroy Glenda's soul even when it was only a small portion.

The old Magician didn't need the Possession Magic, but the knowledge of being able to create Puppets so close to the human body meant that he wouldn't have to go through the trouble that Alchemists did when they created Clones from blood samples, similar to Siegfried.

Afterall, being able to create a puppet body that had the specifics of what that needed was able to restart their research.

Through this, they had tried multiple avenues of completing Yomiel's goal, which could be likened to Human Transmutation.

They had even kidnapped a young High Class Devil and sealed him up in order to be able to reference the Evil Pieces in order to gain insight into 'Reincarnation', with varying degrees of success, but what was ultimately needed was the combination of various concepts.

This was where Innovate Clear came in, and the creation of the Fake Labyrinth was a test to see whether Innovate Clear could generate concepts.

And through this process, the Stray Magicians that were under the employment of one of the Cadre of the Grigori, had decided that if the Fake Concept generated by Innovate Clear was changed due to something 'Real', that combination would inevitably also become 'Real'.

There were theories on what Zenith Tempest was based off of. Gaia was one of the more well known theories of what God based Zenith Tempest off of. However, Yomiel, one of the Twenty Original Watchers of God, knew the Truth.

Zenith Tempest was created from God's Breath of Life. 'Weather' as a phenomenon was a derivative of Nature, with the full potential of the Sacred Gear being able to recreate God's first Seven Days, even if it was on a much smaller scale.

Dulio, however, knew none of this, and neither did any of the people in the Vatican, but in the eyes of Yomiel, he was the last piece of the puzzle.

As the first few passages of Genesis, it was closely related to what Yomiel was planning to create.

By combining the omnipotent nature of Innovate Clear, the perfect Vessel using Annihilation Maker, and the Miracle of Genesis through Zenith Tempest, there was a small chance that Yomiel's goal could be achieved. A perfect Trinity of Sacred Gears.

Despite being a Fallen Angel long before the death of Father, Yomiel had wept for fifty days and fifty nights after learning about the Death of God.

Afterall, what child could truly hate their All-Loving and All-Accepting Father?

Yomiel, while falling due to sin, loved Humans to an excessive amount, that obsessive love being the main reason behind his fall. And with no God, no Son, and no Holy Spirit, how could these beautiful existences made in the image of God attain true Salvation?

Yomiel knew he himself couldn't give Humans true Salvation.

For all his love and compassion, he wasn't like Father.

Despite being God's Messenger, he was never created in the image of God.

Even now, despite Father's wishes of Humans being able to rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground, weren't they the most bullied Race?

The undisputed 'weakest?'

…How could this be?

How could such lovely existences be the 'Weakest?'

However, what about the First Existence that was created in the image of God?

Surely, if Salvation was a being that wasn't God, the Son, or the Holy Spirit, it must be the First Human without Sin, before Eve's Temptation and the subsequent exile from the Garden of Eden.

The First Man. The Father of Humanity. The First Ruler.

Adam.

With a new King of Salvation to replace the Son, wouldn't Humans truly attain Salvation?

With a banner to rally under, couldn't they render the Supernatural asunder, becoming the true Perfect Existences that Father meant them to be?

The True Rulers of Earth.

Yes… so even if sacrifices are made, Father would surely forgive me.

Right, Father?

For Father's Love is All-Encompassing.

Amen.

--+--

A/N: Short daily chapter. Lowkey just taking the time before my lecture to finish my chapter, and now I can finally start and try and build up chapters for patreon. Time zones lowkey fucking suck.

Aiming for 7 or 10 extra chapters for the patreon if yall willing to pay.

I don't actually know what to price it as, cause I don't know the norm. Do I just make the entire collection 5 bucks or make it 5 bucks a month...? I kinda want more money... Don't worry if you don't have money, extra chaps are still a thing.

--+--

Powerstone Goals

1500 PS - Extra Chap

3000 PS - Extra Chap

4500 PS - Extra Chap

Max is 3 extra chaps a week.

Extra chapters will be released the day after the goal is reached, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM KST cause that's when I'm free. They'll also be generally shorter than normal chapters.

Normal Chapters will be released every day during the times from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM KST cause I normally get inspo throughout the day.

Also, comments, powerstones, and reviews are always appreciated.