Highschool DXD : Gacha Life

The silence that followed the massacre was deafening. For a moment, the only sound in the blood-soaked square was the distant crackling of fires I had started with my explosions. Then, like a dam bursting, chaos erupted.

The humans—both the fresh prisoners and the broken cattle—began screaming and running in every direction. Some fled toward the outskirts of town, others dove into buildings or alleyways. I couldn't blame them. Standing there in my evolved Incursio form, drenched in vampire blood with bio-metal blades extending from my armor like organic weapons, I probably looked more like a demon than a savior.

But it wasn't just the humans who were fleeing.

The few vampires who had survived my rampage—maybe a dozen at most—were also running for their lives. They moved with the desperate speed of creatures who had just witnessed their supposedly invincible lord torn apart like tissue paper. Some transformed into bats, others simply ran on foot, but all of them were getting as far away from me as possible.

Good. Let them spread the word. Let every monster in this world know what happens when they prey on the innocent.

I watched them scatter like roaches when the lights come on, feeling a grim satisfaction. But the satisfaction was tainted by something else—concern. The human cattle, the broken ones who had been used as livestock, they were running too. And in their condition, weak from blood loss and psychological trauma, they wouldn't survive long on their own.

I need to help them properly. But first, I need to make sure there are no more prisoners.

. . .

I made my way through the mansion, my evolved armor making each step silent despite the bio-metal additions. The building was eerily quiet now, most of its occupants either dead in the square or fled into the night. But as I moved deeper into the structure, Incursio's enhanced senses picked up something troubling.

There are more humans here. Multiple heartbeats, but they're weak. Very weak.

Following the sounds, I discovered a series of holding cells in what had once been servant quarters. The sight that greeted me made my rage threaten to surge again. Dozens of humans, all in various stages of being drained. Some looked like they'd been here for weeks, others for months. Men, women, children—all reduced to hollow shells of their former selves.

Breathe. Control it. These people need help, not more violence.

I could feel Incursio responding to my emotional state, the bio-armor's aggressive additions starting to recede as I forced myself to calm down. The spear in my hand shifted back to its more familiar form as I began breaking open cell doors.

"It's okay," I said, trying to make my voice as gentle as possible through the armor's distortion. "You're free now. The vampires are gone."

Most of them just stared at me with those same dead eyes I'd seen in the square. A few whimpered and pressed themselves against the back walls of their cells. I couldn't blame them—even trying to project calm, I still looked like something out of a nightmare.

One by one, I guided them toward the exits, my heart breaking with each vacant stare and trembling step. These people would need real help—medical attention, therapy, time to heal from what had been done to them. But at least they were alive.

How many more towns are like this? How many more monsters are out there treating humans like cattle?

The thought made my jaw clench, but I pushed the anger down. Right now, what mattered was making sure this particular nest of evil was completely cleaned out.

. . .

As I made my final sweep through the mansion, something nagged at my senses. The building felt empty, but there was something... a presence I couldn't quite place. It was coming from below.

I found the entrance hidden behind a bookshelf in what had been Marius's study—a stone stairway leading down into darkness. The air that wafted up carried the scent of damp stone and something else. Fear.

There's someone down there.

The stairs descended much deeper than I'd expected, eventually opening into what could only be described as a dungeon. Ancient stone walls, rusted iron fixtures, and the kind of oppressive atmosphere that spoke of centuries of suffering. But it was what I found in the deepest cell that made me stop in my tracks.

A young woman, probably around my age, chained to the wall with heavy iron shackles. She had short blonde hair that was matted and dirty, and when she looked up at my approach, I saw eyes that were unmistakably red—vampire eyes. But there was something different about her, something that made my enhanced senses pause.

She wasn't like the others.

The space around her told a story of long imprisonment. Scraps of moldy bread scattered on the stone floor, a rusty bowl that might have once held water, and scratches on the walls that looked like they'd been made by desperate fingers. This wasn't a guest room or even a regular prison cell. This was a place where someone had been kept for a very long time.

When she saw me approaching in my evolved armor, her red eyes went wide with terror. She pressed herself back against the wall as far as the chains would allow, trembling like a leaf in a storm.

"Please," she whispered, her voice hoarse from disuse. "Please don't hurt me. I'll do whatever you say, just... please."

The desperation in her voice was heartbreaking. Here was someone who had clearly been broken by whatever Marius and his followers had done to her. But if she was a vampire, why had they kept her chained down here?

I raised my spear, and she flinched violently, squeezing her eyes shut and turning her face away. But instead of striking her, I brought the weapon down on the chains binding her wrists. The bio-metal cut through the iron like it was paper, and the shackles fell away with a loud clang.

She opened her eyes in shock, staring at her freed hands like she couldn't believe it.

"Who are you?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as non-threatening as possible.

"V-Valerie," she stammered, still pressed against the wall. "Valerie Tepes."

Tepes? Related to Marius?

"Why were you kept down here?" I continued. "If you're family..."

"Because of my power," she said quietly, rubbing at the raw marks the shackles had left on her wrists. "I can heal people, and... other things. My brother, he..." She swallowed hard. "He said I was too dangerous to be left free, but too valuable to kill."

Her brother?

The pieces were starting to come together. This wasn't just some random vampire—she was Marius's sister, kept prisoner by her own family because of whatever abilities she possessed. And from the looks of this cell, she'd been down here for a long time.

"Where is he?" Valerie asked suddenly, her red eyes searching my armored form. "Where's Marius? And the others? I can smell... there's so much blood on you."

Her voice was getting smaller with each word, like she was afraid of the answer but needed to know.

"Dead," I said simply.

She went very still. "All of them?"

"The ones who didn't run away, yes."

For a moment, she just stared at me. Then, to my surprise, her shoulders sagged not with grief, but with what looked like relief.

"They're really gone?" she whispered.

"They got what they deserved for what they did to innocent people," I said, watching her reaction carefully. "For turning humans into cattle. For all the suffering they caused."

She nodded slowly, and I saw something in her eyes that I hadn't expected—understanding, maybe even approval.

"They were monsters," she said quietly. "What they did... what Marius made me watch..." She shuddered.

I turned to leave, then stopped. "You're free now. The chains are gone, the vampires who held you are dead. You can go wherever you want."

"Wait!" The desperation in her voice made me turn back. "Don't... don't leave me here. Please."

"What are you asking?"

"Let me come with you," she said, the words tumbling out in a rush. "I know I'm a vampire, I know you probably hate what I am, but I'm not like them. I never hurt anyone, I swear. I can be useful—I can heal, I can help people. Just... please don't leave me alone again."

I studied her for a long moment. She was terrified, that much was obvious, but there was something else there too. Hope, maybe. The first real emotion I'd seen from her besides fear.

She's been a prisoner just like the humans. Maybe longer.

Slowly, I began to dismiss Incursio. The bio-armor flowed away from my body like liquid metal, revealing my true form underneath—just a young man with black hair and tired eyes, covered in vampire blood but otherwise human.

Valerie's eyes went wide. "You're... you're just a boy."

"Not much older than you, I'd guess," I said, managing a small smile. "My name's Akira"

The change in my appearance seemed to help. She was still wary, still scared, but some of the raw terror had left her eyes.

"You really killed them all?" she asked.

"The ones who deserved it, yes."

"And you'd... you'd really let me come with you? Even though I'm what I am?"

I looked at this young woman who had been chained in darkness by her own family, who had been forced to watch unspeakable horrors, who was now asking to join the person who had just slaughtered everyone she'd ever known. And I saw something in her that reminded me of the broken humans upstairs—someone who needed a chance to heal, to be something other than what others had tried to make her.

"Everyone deserves a chance to choose who they want to be," I said. "What matters isn't what you are, it's what you do with the choice. So... what do you choose?"

Valerie Tepes looked at me with those red eyes that held so much pain and hope, and for the first time since I'd found her, she smiled.

"I choose to help," she said. "To never let what happened here happen to anyone else. To be better than what my family was."

I extended my hand to her. "Then welcome to the team, Valerie Tepes."

She took it with trembling fingers, and I could feel the weight of the decision we'd both just made. This world was full of monsters, but maybe—just maybe—some of them could choose to be something else.

As we climbed the stairs out of that dungeon together, I couldn't help but think that this was just the beginning of something much larger. The night had shown me that evil existed on a scale I'd never imagined, but it had also shown me that sometimes salvation could come from the most unexpected places.

...

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