DxD: Celeste 18

DxD: Celeste 18

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Commissioned by Chaosbrain

Wordcount: 2000

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I had hoped that we’d get Ouroboros to jump us as we made our way to Ophis’s location.

Instead, the expedition in my Vimana was made all the more tense by the fact that none of our possible enemies were showing up.

“Still all clear?” Azazel tried to pretend that he was lounging on one of the stations at the bridge, but he was still covered in a bodysuit that could summon his armor in an instant. His new Homunculi were also in their cores and on his person, rather than in their bodies. Everyone was ready for a fight. “The wait is killing me, dad.”

“Indeed, waiting is the worst part of battle… besides the battle itself.” Sirzechs was on the bridge too, but he was standing away from any of the machines. Well, he had a tablet that I tossed his way that he removed a gauntlet off of to play with. He was in a hulking suit of magically-enhanced armor with drones at his back ready to teleport him out of the way or take a hit for him. Like an ancient knight in all black with a scarlet cape, but with sci-fi drones as his squires. “How close are our replicas to the location?”

We were flying in the Vimana while fakes of ourselves with replicated energy signatures travelled close to the ground.

The plan was to get those guys jumped on, then jump on the guys who jumped on them, as a counter-ambush ambush.

Then, we take Ouroboros out of the equation, and manage to speak with Erica with Erica being the only issue.

Ophis.

She’s Ophis here.

Damn, that I can’t run away from that fact, can I?

“The worst case scenario is that they’re psyching her up to kill us the moment we show up. According to Sheridan, Ophis barely cares about anything. It took years for her to actually start caring for real. However, right now, she could be used to do all sorts of terrible things.” Infinity Spheres were the best case scenario. Maybe, Ophis’ patience was used up by Ouroboros solely for the creation of power sources that can destroy the planet and power the creation of whole armies of demons and cloned super soldiers. At the very worst scenario, she could just start blowing apart the Three Factions and anyone who’s a threat to Ouroboros until the planet is theirs. Yeah. None of that is good. “Best case scenario is that they pissed her off and know they can’t do anything to stop us, so they’re just watching and waiting to pounce.”

“Great, we’re walking into an ambush with Lucifer’s bloodline leading the charge. That’s great.” Azazel snarked and shook his head, but he did calm down a little at my words. Information like that, and the fact that we were seeing no signs of the enemy, let him relax. “Alright, ladies. I know you love me, but I need some alone time. Carry on with your day.”

He got up to leave, probably giggling with his new ladies with their neural links inside his head, while he went to slot them into their rest bodies.

Leaving me alone to keep an eye on the sensors, while Sirzechs played with the tablet.

There was a deafening silence for a long time, making me wish that I was less meticulous about auditory stealth inside the hull, until I addressed the Satan.

“So, how’s the games? We’re banking on those keeping her distracted and happy.”

Sirzechs paused in his idle shifting of a character on the screen of the tablet as innumerable lights flashed and enemies died and numbers came up.

“…You said this was aimed at children. I can imagine a child being utterly engrossed in this game and many others.”

“Thanks, that’s the point. Technically, I’m breaking a whole lot of laws making that, too.” Addictive gameplay aimed utterly bombard the senses of children was a big no-no. It was even a bigger no-no to have those games have purchases. Back home, if micro-transactions were a thing in a game, you needed to verify your age, your ID, and have a part-time job. No gacha for people living only on universal income. Food is free and rent is free, but your universal income is for keeping you sane and happy for the long term. Not for gambling. AI watched you too, so you don’t develop an addiction and start breaking your relationships apart for cash and selling what you own off. “You’re looking at over fifty years of refined addictive gameplay from my world. It has all the sparkling lights, all the progression you could want, all the satisfaction, and it’s easy until it’s hard and tests your skill. Putting that game in the hands of a kid will get you a felony.”

Sirzechs slowly put the tablet down… and frowned at his hand when he reached for it after a few seconds of silence between us.

“That is more potent than I believed. I can see why you’d go to lengths to keep it away from children.” Sirzechs said stiffly, combating the urge to keep playing the game. He was a bit of a test case for the game. It looked like it worked. “I saw other forms of games there. Some of them mentioned requiring a headset?”

“Yeah. That’s the win-condition for us. We get Ophis inside a virtual realm. I made it to train Ise up, and to get some actual rest.” Ophis started maturing more rapidly in the time-dilated space of various MMOs. She managed thousands of forks, interacted with hundreds of AI daily, managed multiple lives across hundreds of servers, and interacted with multitudes of people through each instance of herself. We needed to turn Infinity into a NEET MMORPG gamer. “I’ll be distributing AI around the planet and setting up server infrastructure. The more worlds and people she’s interacting with and speaking to at all times, while under moderation, the better.”

Yeah, I’ll give Ophis the ability to play in ‘unmoderated’ servers when she has the mental maturity of an adult… in their 40s.

I’m not risking this dimension’s stability by getting her hazed by crazed MMORPG players.

I know how bad they can get.

“We will assist you. Having more time, especially to rest, seems like a good benefit as well.” Being the biggest, toughest, and smartest guy gets tiring, huh? Well, champ, you don’t have to worry for long. I’m spooling up the fabricators to get MK1 VR pods up and about. You won’t believe how mellow society can get when they can hop into a VR pod for eight hours, rest completely, and live out days and days of relaxation and entertainment and hobbies inside before their next day. Needs a lot of automated drones and AI to keep it perfectly safe, but I’ve got a lot money and those are easy to make after you’ve made a few hundred yourself. “Hm. A whole artificial world where we can interact and work with one another whilst we sleep. A shared dream of sorts, but one that we control… this seems quite dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands.”

Glad this guy caught onto that.

“Yeah, without the right AI or Drones or Homunculi, the system can be misused.” As far as I knew, even in our darkest days, we never used VR to torture people. But it could be done and some sick bastards tried to do it. That’s why the software and hardware only works when there’s AI moderators to look at everything. A VR pod designed to extract information in a setting where the interrogator can effectively ‘control’ time? Yeah, I wasn’t making commandments anymore, but that was definitely going to be one of the big mortal sin ones if someone did it. “Don’t worry, we’ve got thousands of hours of physical and millions in virtual testing to figure this sort of thing out. None of this technology will be used to torture people or trap them… even if I have to put people in their place, I won’t let it happen.”

If there’s any reason at all for me to leave the shadows and start messing with humanity’s progress directly, it’ll be if they use this tech maliciously. Yeah, I’m not having that on my conscience.

Sirzechs was about to answer when Azazel’s footsteps clanked against the floor of the bridge after the door came open.

“Alright, that’s enough politics and Machiavellian scheming from the two of you. We’re all going to eat together now.” I ddidn’t know how long Sirzechs and I had spoken, but the Azazel had some jogging pants, a white t-shirt, and an apron with a few stains on it on. A scent wafted into the bridge from the kitchen. Before I knew it, I’d gone ahead and set the Vimana on auto-pilot. “Made some French beef stew and plenty of fresh bread.”

My plan was to get a tunnel between this dimension and mine up and running, so that everyone could enjoy all the things this Earth still had, but just in case I couldn’t come back here… I was going to make the most of things.

Hopefully, things will go well and everyone back home could enjoy all this.

…

In the very edges of the Underworld, we found Ophis as Sheridan first described her.

Is what I wished I could say.

“Azazel?”

“Yeah, pops?”

“Why is the Aspect of Infinity in a tiny body while wearing a gothic Lolita dress with the front portion missing with just bloomers and stickers covering up the important bits?”

“…Looks like our dimension is isolated from the rest of the multiverse for a reason.”

I looked at Sirzechs, but he shook his head the moment my eyes went his way.

Yeah, no comment from this guy, I guess.

Anyway, we weren’t getting attacked by Infinity, so I went ahead and cleared my throat.

“Hello there, Infinity!”

“…Hello.” Alright, we got a response and didn’t get murdered, it was time to lay on the compliments and—oops, my body is already moving and putting my coat over her and zipping it up. Sorry, mom, but I’m endangering my chances of living by covering this girl up. “?”

“Sorry, uh, just covering you up a bit so that I can talk to you without feeling like a criminal. Here, take this as an apology.” I offered her some chocolate. Augh. No, I’m not giving her candy and video games to get her to like me. I’m here to save this dimension and everyone living in it. “I’m the Aspect of Creation. The person who made Heaven, Sacred Gears, and all sorts of things, you know. You can call me Celeste. It’s nice to meet you.”

There was a deafening silence in for a second, before she plucked the chocolate piece out of my hand and ate it… wrapper and all. Her eyes brightened and she extended out her hand.

“More.”

“I only have a few dozen right now, but I can get you more if you come with me to talk.”

“Okay.”

Alright, well, this was a lot easier than I expected.

I almost expected Azazel and Sirzechs to be utterly annihilated right behind me somehow, even in their new, fully-armored forms… but they were just staring at the scene with the same concern and surprise that I was.

“Where do we go?”

Right.

If I tell her, she’ll probably almost break space and time to get chocolate right away, so I needed to be careful.

Using up what maternal instinct I had, I picked her up and put her on my shoulders, making her let out a little squeak of surprise… especially when I handed her the rest of my chocolates.

“Don’t worry, just eat and I’ll take you there.”

“Mhmm.”

Alright.

Operation pamper and teach Ophis is go!