DxD: Celeste 14

DxD: Celeste 14

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Commissioned by Althero

Wordcount: 2000

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“This artifact will keep us safe from Lucifer?”

“Not just this one.” I wiped the sweat off my brow and tried to get some air by pulling on my shirt. Sirzechs didn’t glance at me, but even after a few months without any relief on that front, I wasn’t about to get worked up over a married man not being interested in me. “It’ll be a series of these artifacts. We’re going to rework the Destruction portion of your bodies that’s the cornerstone of your souls, where Lucifer left his contingency plans.”

Grayfia appeared beside me and offered me a pitcher and a glass full of cold water. I idly made sure it wasn’t poisoned out of reflex, before taking it was a nod. Damn, she really is Elena Heart with a few centimeters added to all the right places. Wow, I’m really getting bothered by a hotter version of a person who I thought of as an Aunt.

Azazel must never know about this.

Anyway, I explained after downing the pitcher without spilling a single drop down my soaked dress shirt.

“Devils are made from Demons and Demons are made from the Aspect of Destruction. That’s the building blocks of your very souls. We can’t just use one, but this’ll stave off most of the danger.” I explained, while patting the nondescript beacon radiating Destruction off. It was the Gremory variant of the power. Lucifer held back on controlling a few Devil strains to create more powerful creatures for his armies. The masses were less than lucky. “We’ll have this reconfigure this city. It’ll take a few days, then we could send it to the next one, while installing the newer one that’ll handle what we’ve missed. The next one will the same.”

“Iterative design based off of the results.”

“Exactly.” This was how AI did things back home. Solution one was broad-spectrum, but they refined things, until they arrived to an eventual conclusion that was practically perfect. Until I had my own AI up and running with some Homunculi Cores, I wasn’t going to be working at the same pace. This world’s computational technology wasn’t that good, so I had to increase my personal asset’s processing power significantly, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to create a digital cradle for the soul I’m planning to upload. But that’s for later. “No one will notice, just like they don’t notice that they have a kill switch inside of them, but they’ll be able to resist Lucifer now.”

“…Thank you. We cannot hope to repay you for this, but whatever you ask—

“I want help finding and putting down Lucifer. As far as I’m concerned, that’s plenty in terms of payback. I know how dangerous he is more than any of you.” There was the possibility that he could rise and become an Aspect. I wasn’t sure about how Aspects worked within alternate dimensions. Hell, I could be on another plane altogether with that portion of my knowledge base practically worthless. It would’ve been great if I could just hitch a ride back with Great Red, but all accounts of the Dragons of Dragons said that he’s flying around as a massive creature instead of on a souped up, tricked out babe magnet. “Also, it keeps him from turning you all into Demons, which is a big plus.”

“I see. That would be quite the inconvenience for you.” My rejection made the Satan wilt. Grayfia was quick to go to his side and offer him her shoulder, while also pat him on the head. It felt like déjà vu. Sheridan would play up being rejected and being comforted to guilt trip people just like this. Was it possible that Sheridan was a Devil and Sirzechs here? Hm, I didn’t have the metaphysical analysis equipment that I’d need for that claim. More importantly, Sirzechs only had one wife. That pretty much confirmed that he couldn’t be Sheridan Creighton. “Well, still, if we can help—

“Ask Azazel and he’ll give you all sorts of things to get that we need.” I shook off the odd memories, chalking them up to missing home, and refocused. “I won’t say no assistance, but unless you’ve got a few dozen Dwarves running around that can keep up, this production line is throttled through me.”

A single-person limit to saving an entire species would usually be unacceptable. However, I was the Aspect of Creation. Couldn’t exactly say that I wasn’t up to the task, but I wasn’t stupid enough to keep at it alone. I needed to find where I’m most useful in the production chain, place myself there, and leave everything to everyone else.

Refreshed by the water, I got up and looked around my thoroughly ravaged suite.

“I need another room, an entire buffet, and the best bed you’ve got. I’m going to bathe, eat, bathe, and sleep for the day. Maybe two, then I’ll get to work on a full charge.” If I were less experienced with trying to handle everything on my own, I’d have tried to keep going at this point. But I knew better. I wasn’t the type of Aspect that could just keep going and going without rest in the face of adversity. That was Li. “If you can find anyone who could help and be trusted, bring them along, but if don’t if you have the slightest bit of concern.”

Both the Devils in the room nodded, before taking out phones to give out orders.

I wobbled a bit on my feet, but moved to do the final checks on the device.

This was going to save a lot of lives in the near future as it was, but that was no excuse to get complacent, and if it had any mistakes it needed to get fixed before I made the next one.

Until I got the whole system running, and everything was going well, I wasn’t going to let my guard down.

…

Back in my world, the Devils were stronger than they were here, and that reflected on how they treated their dignitaries.

A meal in Hell was something to behold. They had land, lots of it, and magical beasts and precious reagents were on the menu. Supernaturally delicious fruits and vegetables were side-dishes to whole roasts of magical creatures that gave even the best bred cattle a run for its money. Humanity did its best to keep its culinary roots, but there was only so much you could do with hydroponics and a few held territories on Earth.

Devils back home had the best food on the planet and they showed that fact off without a moment’s hesitation.

Meanwhile, here in this world, the food was “just” whole catering orders from the human world paid for with gold.

I wasn’t complaining, it was French cuisine delivered hot and fresh from excellent restaurants, but my surprise was more than enough for Sirzechs Lucifer to be curious, while I gorged myself on steak and frites.

I humored him.

“From where I came, Hell served only magical ingredients for their meals with dignitaries.” I read the files. When Sheridan started CORE, Hell was struggling to stay together with most of the Underworld being fought over by the Devils, while the Satans were doing their best to carve out a nation. However, with Ouroboros dealt with, trade lines, and everyone else having trouble with Chimera, an economic miracle fell on their laps. “It feels a bit odd to just get restaurant fare from the human world.”

“You told me that the Devils lost the Great War in your world. How were they better off in your dimension than us?”

“A lot of help, new friends, and an organization called Ouroboros getting fucked over, so they couldn’t hold you back anymore.” The name made Sizrech’s brow furrowed. I took a bite of steak, before following it with some fries. Mhmm, cooked in duck fat and seasoned with rosemary salt. Whatever way I used to get back home, I needed to make sure that it was a two-way trip so everyone else can enjoy. “I’ve been looking for them in this world, and managed to pick off one of their subsidiaries, but everyone else is too hard to find. They probably have pocket dimensions to hide around in.”

I looked in all the places that I recalled, but I had no luck. Not a single supersoldier production facility was present in the Middle East, and apparently all the gods were still alive. I couldn’t track down Ophis or Great Red either… and that’s before I had to go through the headache of discerning how Aspects translated over into different realities and dimensions. There was another me who died in this world, meaning it was possible that I had a younger self here, but I couldn’t find any trace of my power.

Maybe, the fact that I died here and become powerful in my reality, led me to fill in the gap in this one?

Ophis and Great Red travelled between realities like taking a stroll between neighborhoods.

What if this was how I was supposed to do things?

After I finished helping one world, I was just set to fall into one where I failed, until I figured out ways to go back and forth?

I put the thought aside with a grunt.

Not the time.

“Anyway, that’s the reason why I’m trying to put Lucifer down as quickly as possible. Whatever plans Ouroboros has is linked to breaking Hell down and making Devils Lucifer’s subordinates.” The plan back in my world was crushed and Hell was propped up into a superpower. However, now Hell was a superpower itself, and that made Ouroboros here more conniving and careful, but there was no chance they wouldn’t do anything. If they were willing to put so much effort towards securing the Hell of Sheridan’s time, then they would do more to secure Hell now. “Your people are the fastest vector towards victory Ouroboros has, so we need to handle the problem as quickly as possible."

Sirzechs nodded at my words and took a sip of wine. He hadn’t gone far with his meal, just picking at one plate. I took that as evidence that he was deep in thought.

“If Hell fell to Lucifer once again, despite all efforts, what would you do?”

That… that was a tougher question that I liked.

“I’ll be honest. The first thought was to send a lot of Light-based weapons through and saturate Hell to cut down your numbers.” Mankind developed a lot of weapons with Light Magic as the base. At the end of that was a weapon that could harm the Aspect of Destruction gravely. A few of those weapons of mass destruction would eradicate millions of Devils in an instant… and the lingering flames of Light that it would leave would kill millions more. It would be genocide… of a species that lost all its free will and would be used by Lucifer to kill the rest of the world. “But, I’d rather not do that. It’s a final resort. If I can, I’ll do my best to make something that can trap large swathes of the Underworld in stasis.”

I played around with the tech for a bit, once the war was over, but it was still prototyping.

However, for me, prototyping tended to be good enough.

“So, you will try to keep my people safe and save them from Lucifer, if he returns?”

This question was easy to answer.

“Absolutely.”

Sirzech’s gaze lingered on mine for a while, before he smiled and gave a single nod.

“I see. Thank you.”

It wasn’t something to be thankful for in my opinion, but I came from another place and another time where we discarded those ideas a long time ago.

This reality wasn’t so lucky.