DxD: Gambling With Fate

A group of Magicians walked through the dark hallways of the central room of the Labyrinth, making their way to the location where the Prototype Vessel of Aiwass was located.

Along the way, they passed where Royvel Belphegor was being held.

The Devil was sealed, but because of the Devil's mental state, it was necessary to constantly check on Royvel, solely due to the sudden volatile nature of Crack.

This meant that to prevent Crack from accidentally destroying Royvel's restraints, constant supervision was necessary.

While Royvel was normally unconscious, there were occasional bouts of consciousness, which mainly consisted of cursing at the Stray Magicians and attempting to escape.

It was truly an unfortunate scenario for Royvel. Like he normally did, he occasionally went to the Surface in order to look for worthy people to reincarnate so he could become the new strongest Rating Game Player, following the footsteps of his much older cousin, Roygun Belphegor, who was ranked Second.

While he was somewhat aware of the King Piece, due to his young age he wasn't able to know much about it, only that it was under the Great King Faction.

Yet during his outing, he was suddenly ambushed by a group of Fallen Angels!

Being a High Class Devil with High Class bodyguards provided by the Clan, Royvel wasn't particularly nervous. However, one of the Fallen Angels was a Cadre, killing his bodyguards and knocking him out.

Waking up in a cell, Royvel was forced to relinquish his Evil Pieces and imprisoned. The only positive part was that due to how the Evil Pieces were made, if the owner of the Pieces died, the Evil Pieces were no longer usable. This meant that Royvel was kept alive.

Unfortunately, he was forced to give intel regarding the King Piece, even if he didn't know much about the effects, but it seemed the old Magician extrapolated the purpose and was able to create a prototype…

Damn it!

Royvel cursed at the Magicians as he woke up in the now familiar cell. He had waited for rescue, but if even he didn't know where he was, then how would the investigators?

He didn't know how long he was imprisoned here, but do they believe that the Belphegors were weaklings?

"Who do you think you pathetic humans are? Do you know my Clan?!"

However, the Magicians who were on 'Psycho Watch' looked at him with a bored expression. After all, he had repeated this exact line multiple times.

The next line was: "My elder is the Second Ranker of the Rating Games!"

"My elder is the Second Ranker of the Rating Games!"

Wow. So surprising.

The group of magicians who were passing by to get to Aiwass glanced into the cell room, looking at the bored expressions and the constant that was Royvel. One of the younger magicians asked the group.

"Why haven't we killed him yet? Wasn't it verified that the Evil Pieces aren't necessary for Adam or Aiwass…?"

Another smacked the back of the rookie's head.

"Don't call them by their actual names. If Lord Yomiel or Prophet Crowley heard you, you might have died on the spot."

"...You didn't have to hit me…"

The Magician that said that rubbed the back of his head.

"Also, we don't know definitively if the Evil Pieces aren't needed for the Holy Guardian Angel." Another spoke up.

After all, none of the followers of Aleister knew how to materialize a 'Higher Dimensional Being,' if it even really existed… The only thing that they could think of was to create an overwhelmingly strong Vessel and pray to whatever deity that Aiwass accepted it as its vessel.

This was why Yomiel had accepted that the Prototype Aiwass was stronger than Prototype Adam.

Unlike Adam, which needed to consist mainly of theological aspects and concepts in order to manifest him in the state when he preceded sin, which was at his strongest, they just pumped any kind of strengthening abilities onto the Aiwass Prototype.

Yomiel would have Aleister's head if he tried to copy Adam's method of strength.

--+--

"...Are you only telling me now that the Sacred Gear Remover was stolen?"

Penemue looked incredulously at Satanael who looked at Penemue with the same calm expression he walked in with.

"...Do you know who stole it?"

Satanael nodded. "It seems my half successful Sacred Gear Remover Prototype attracted the gaze of my peer, Yomiel."

Penemue huffed in annoyance. That damned lunatic. Despite being a Cadre, Yomiel never assisted in any tasks, preferring roaming the Surface and mating with anyone he deemed 'Worthy,' with no preference as long as they were human.

The worst part was that the moment a child was born, Yomiel either killed it or abandoned it, calling it an accursed being trying to be human.

Like, what? Penemue may have a lower moral bottom line than the majority of Humanity and even some of her fellow Fallen Angels, but that was actually crazy.

A genuine Humanophile.

She would even prefer the warmongering Kokabiel over that crazy bastard.

At least Baraqiel mated with a human because of romance. Even if he may have some… unusual sexual preferences. But in this society, who didn't?

Penemue sighed into her hand.

"And do you know when Yomiel stole it?"

"Well, when he asked about it, I allowed him to borrow the experiment, and since I wasn't focusing on the Sacred Gear Remover due to the disadvantage of stunted Sacred Gear growth, I forgot about it."

"Answer the question."

"Around a few months ago?"

Dear Lord, was this man even sane? While time may not matter to Fallen Angels who were trapped as the same physical age, in this age of Human Development, it was rather unbelievable that Satanael completely forgot about it… maybe not.

Satanael was exactly the type to get too absorbed into an experiment.

Well, having a boss with a similar personality, Penemue had increased her tolerance over the ages… All she could do was lament.

"...And back to the original question, why are you only telling me this now?"

"I created a Prototype Sacred Gear Detector, in which while it didn't work like planned, detected two Sacred Gears with a wavelength that showed Incompatibility, meaning that Yomiel still holds my Prototype Sacred Gear Remover and was able to remove two Sacred Gears."

Satanael held up two fingers. What Satanael didn't say was that not only did it show a wavelength of incompatibility, with the potency of the wavelength, there was a high chance that Yomiel had access to Two Longinus Class Sacred Gears.

Not only that, due to the wavelength emitting from the Incompatible Longinus, it inadvertently resonated with the nearby Longinus, revealing the existence of THREE more Longinus wielders.

That was 5 Longinus Wielders in one location.

As someone whose wish was to create more and stronger Longinus, studying a Longinus was a literal Gold Mine. While Satanael didn't know how Yomiel was able to obtain two Longinus in such a short time, it was an unexpected boon.

However, Satanael also knew that even if he held Arondight and a few soldiers, with someone of the same strength and Five Longinus in that area, the chances of Satanael being able to take the Longinus from Yomiel was extremely low.

This was why he revealed it to Penemue. Not only because Azazel was busy, but there was a chance that Azazel would also take his possible experimental subjects.

Satanael knew for a fact that Azazel would try and prevent the Longinus from getting into his hands too.

This was because when he had proposed making contact with the Three Longinus Wielders of the Vatican that their spies had gathered, Azazel had declined, saying it was because of political reasons.

A Liar.

A Pacifist fool who can't think of the future of Sacred Gears. An Angel who gave up after the death of Father.

Satanael wasn't like that. He would develop Father's tools, his weapons.

But Penemue wasn't a fool. Penemue, as one of the Twenty Watchers of God, and the curer of stupidity in man, while she may not be specialized in scientific endeavors, that didn't mean she knew what Satanael was aiming for.

Any Sacred Gear wouldn't result in this reaction.

This meant that it had to be a Longinus at the least.

Penemue had similar thoughts to Azazel regarding keeping the Status Quo, the temporary lull in fighting. Weapons like the ones Satanael kept trying to develop didn't belong in a peaceful world.

However, Penemue also knew that even if she declined that Satanael was trying to imply, his obsession meant that he would go to another, and another, until he found someone willing.

After all, the allure of a Longinus was like finding diamonds for all the Pantheons in the World.

But that didn't mean Penemue would risk her life.

"...So what do you need?"

"I only want my Sacred Gear Remover back." Satanael had an innocent expression.

"I'll see what I can do. But I need more information."

While Satanael would like for a small operation, looking at Penemue's expression, it was obvious that she would betray him in an instant. Afterall, the Grigori wasn't like Heaven's Angels, or under the governance of the Four Great Satans. They were stragglers, taken in by Azazel and the other Watchers.

And Satanael was self aware of his insanity and fanaticism. So he changed his original plans.

He would explode this event to the greatest he could. He would need to contact his acquaintances. Afterall, there was a higher chance of him being able to extract it during the chaos rather than it definitively being stolen by Azazel.

While Satanael didn't have use for Sacred Gears that could no longer develop, the other three?

"There are Five Longinus wielders converging onto a single location."

That bombshell froze Penemue mid thought.

"...Excuse me?"

"I have good evidence to believe that there are Five Longinus Wielders in one location. Two of which were stolen by Yomiel."

Five Longinus. Out of the 13 Longinus, all of which only had one copy, there were almost half of them in one location?

Wait. Satanael said that two of them were the Stolen Sacred Gears, the only way there could possible be 3 more in one location was–

*Clang!*

Arondight crashed into her instantly manifested spear of light.

That was purely out of reflex, but Satanael's calm expression didn't change.

"Ah, I always disliked such fast thinkers. Maybe I should have asked that Lovebird Baraqiel instead." Satanael shook his head like it was inevitable. Penemue's quick thinking meant that she would easily put the pieces together and determine that the other three were the Three Longinus Wielders of the Vatican.

While most of the spies weren't able to get visual pictures of the three, she knew of their age, and as a result, inexperience. Penemue also knew that Satanael wouldn't prioritize the other two Longinus, after all, he had said earlier that he had neglected the project because the extracted Sacred Gears couldn't grow.

But if Satanael targeted the trio, that was a war waiting to happen.

"My plans have changed. Unfortunately for you, Penemue, it seems War was always inevitable. But no need to fret. After all, War has made the strongest weapons."

Satanael slammed Arondight into the ground creating a Miasma that caused Penemue to back off. Despite falling from Grace, Fallen Angels were still weak to Demonic Power, like how their Light still countered Devils.

"Hmm… who would be interested… Maybe Erebus? Nyx? I remember them being worried about the Longinus…" Satanael drawled, before teleporting out of the room that they were in.

…Damn it. If she reported this to Azazel that was exactly what Satanael wanted. But it wasn't she couldn't.

With a world weary sigh, she quickly made her way to Azazel.

--+--

A/N: I have an unfortunate announcement to make...

You know I've been doing daily chaps? I would 100% like to do that shit consistently, but I have fucking summer courses that are lowkey fucking my ass.

Ima have to lower the daily chaps to 3 times a week, Mondays Wednesdays, and Fridays(Korea time). However! The chapters will be double the length you see here. Not only does this give me time to write higher quality chapters(trust) i can finally fucking start on making progress on the Patreon and my homework.

Extra Chaps are still a thing, but they'll also be released every monday wednesday fridays along with that chapter. But the lengthll probably be shorter.

Also, if you're wondering why Satanael is here, its my butterfly effect. While he puts priority on the three natural Sacred Gears, in MY og timeline Satanael would report this to Penemue not for the sacred gears but to go back and get the prototype sacred gear remover back. And because Yomiel didn't make much progress on Adam due to the puppet tech, he's easily overpowered and imprisoned.

--+--

A/N: I'm still SUPER thankful for all the fucking support on my first book that I made cause I had nothing to do over the summer. But doing this shit, going outside, and taking classes is cancer.

Also might take the time to clean up some previous chapters that keep bugging me.

--+--

Powerstone Goals

1500 PS - Extra Chap (In Progress)

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.