DxD: Celeste 12

DxD: Celeste 12

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Commissioned by Chaosbrain and Althero

Wordcount: 2000

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Hell looked… less like shit than I expected.

“So, this is how things are if Hell hadn’t lost?” Azazel offered to meet with the Satans about a better deal for the current peace, which they took without much hesitation. I went along as his latest secretary. It felt a bit weird, but he had two Homunculi acting as his dates, so that helped make it feel a little less weird. “Neat.”

Azazel nodded at me.

“From what you’ve told me of Hell in your world, it sounded like a bunch of warlords and territories held together by glue. Glue that didn’t have a magical girl hobby.” Azazel jutted his chin towards a poster I’d been desperately trying to ignore. “So… Serafall Leviathan was the strongest, most amazing Devil in your world?”

I recalled Serafall Leviathan in two lives.

In the first life, I recalled her as the Devil that I needed to take on myself, otherwise I’d endanger the few Archangels I had left. She was a terrifying creature that had near-absolute control over temperature, which let her manipulate molecular movements to a limited degree. She hit hard, was incredibly fast, and hard to bring down, and that was before she trained, got herself equipped with a ludicrous amount of powerful equipment, and devoted herself to combat.

The keystone of the Hell that kept it together and lashed it together even after it fell apart.

In my second life, I mostly recalled the depressed young woman who found love in Sheridan Creighton and had an incredibly blessed wedding. The last I’d heard of her, I’d heard she was pregnant and picking out baby clothes, as she was set to introduce another Creighton into the world.

The woman who’d been forced to become a weapon, but who was finally given the chance to be a person, and who embraced it completely.

Honestly, it was a perfect ending for a great story about an incredible person.

The Serafall Leviathan in this world was a Devil who dressed up like a Magical Girl costume several sizes too small and had her own show.

I was afraid that just knowing about this universe’s Serafall would have the one I knew reach out through time and space to kill me to keep the secret.

It was terrifying, even if the contrast between the two was hilarious, so I did my best to not laugh.

Just in case.

“I plead the fifth.” I defended myself from answering Azazel, while pushing up my wireframe spectacles. The rest of my outfit was a black pinstriped suit and clipboard, while my hair was done up in a ponytail. It was tailored for my figure, so I was still plenty attractive. However, barring some specific fetishes, most people wouldn’t look at me. I’d have to check back home if the people I was interested in had those fetishes, but I filed that away for later. “I’d like to know how the Devils managed to get this strong though.”

“A whole race of shapeshifters that want you to sin and offer you immortality? I have no clue because they’d be strong on a planet with eight billion willing supplicants.” Azazel gestured at the city around us. Honestly, besides a few standout buildings, the city in Hell wouldn’t have looked out of place as a major metropolitan center. The only difference was that there were more people walking and that there weren’t any cars, since most people could just fly. “They won the humans over and invested it all into themselves. Naturally, they found themselves with a ridiculously powerful nation.”

Azazel said all of that with complete confidence, which made me think before I spoke again.

It allowed me to come to a certain realization.

“Oh, right. Humans aren’t even in the running to be a major Faction here.” I shook my head. With my latest life, I’d never seen a moment where humanity wasn’t rocketing forward to join the rest of the Factions. CORE, the Templars, the LRU, and the CSG didn’t exist in here. Not only that, but with Heaven losing the worst in the Great War, the Church wasn’t as strong and capable of protecting humanity. I’d checked and there was no sign of any Crusade fleets or secret Church organizations that protected the people. “I need to change that.”

“Can you ask me my thoughts about uplifting billions of humans, before you do it?”

“Nah.” I waved aside Azazel’s concern, while he glared at me. I crossed my arms and pushed up my glasses again. I hoped that they did the shining ominously thing. “They just have to get stronger and have their own cards to play. Hell, I think they need a seat on the table. This is their planet, after all.”

Azazel rolled his eyes, but didn’t contend with my words.

He knew better than to try and convince me to abandon humanity.

Anyway, after that little spiel was finished, the phones we were provided rang.

“Well, I suppose it's time to see if the Devils are willing to play ball… or if you have to do the thing.” Azazel brushed off the wrinkles on his clothes from our walk, while unfurling his wings to take flight. A few Devils stared our way. His Homunculi had white wings, which freaked a few people out, since they thought there were Angels in Hell somehow. That allowed me to take flight without any wings or anything particularly noticeable, while everyone else was distracted. Yep, look at the artificial lifeforms and not at the reincarnation of God.  “The thing where you threaten them with some sort of bomb?”

I shook my head at Azazel’s oversimplification.

“It’s a D-Weapon. The D stands for Dimensional. It’s capable of hurting the Aspect of Destruction itself, which you know as Trihexia. It’ll heal through it eventually, but Demons and Devils won’t be able to do the same.” It was a human design and was mass-producible. I went out of my way to miniaturize it with techniques and abilities only available to me, so it was small enough to fit in a small subspace pocket. “The one I have can wipe this entire city clean of Devils and fill the Underworld with enough Light to seriously harm every Devil in a few dozen kilometers.”

“Sometimes, I forget that your actual Dimension is a shitshow, so thanks for the reminder.”

“No problem.”

“How’d you beat Trihexia without sealing it and sending a force with it, by the way?”

“The Aspect of Conflict, Serafall Leviathan, Metatron, and Assault Order worked together to beat it down enough, until Li Song literally cut through its karma and restarted its existence with a swipe of his sword.”

“You know what? If you don’t want to tell me, you could just say so.”

“I’m not lying. It was that crazy.”

“I’d honestly rather believe that you were lying…”

Azazel mourned, while the two of us flew to meet with Sirzechs Lucifer.

Hm.

Was Rias Gremory a massive weeb in this timeline, too?

…

I stared at Sirzechs Lucifer and he stared back, while Azazel did his best to pretend that he didn’t exist.

The Gremory eventually broke the silence that arose when our eyes met.

“Can I somehow convince you to spare this city of your wrath, God of Creation?”

Yep, he saw right through my disguise.

Figures.

“Relax, kid. I’m here to talk.” I looked Azazel’s way and he was quick to relinquish the chair he’d taken a seat in. I took the seat and made myself comfortable, before pulling out a tool from one of my pockets and throwing it up. It latched onto the ceiling and the walls became suffused with power that would block anyone from peering into our meeting. “Do you think that I died and came back without changing?”

“That’s how becoming one becomes a Devil through the Evil Pieces.”

“That’s not really dying. It's more like a conversion process that happens to give a full heal or revive.” I argued with a shake of my head, before poking at my skull. “I’ve got memories of my past life, their skill, and their power. But, I have a different soul, body, and experiences. It’s more like… new game plus with an avatar change, if you’re familiar with the term.”

Surprisingly, Satan nodded at my video-game analogy and looked to his left.

My eyebrows threatened to leap straight off my face when a Devil that looked like Elena Heart with boobs walked out of the shadows.

I did my best to not look very confused, but the stares sent my way told me that didn’t work.

“Don’t worry about it. She just looked like someone I know.” I waved off their concern and cleared my throat. Did Sheridan somehow NTR one of the Lucifers in our universe? The prospect somehow didn’t seem farfetched. “But, anyway, I’m not here for retribution or revenge. I’m here to tell you that Lucifer isn’t dead, and I’m here to finish the job.”

That made Sirzech’s eyes widen and his maid/wife almost dropped the teapot that she wanted to serve.

“How?” The Devil managed to choke out the question. He looked at me with a lot less fear than he did moments ago. In fact, I was sure the Devil was more afraid of my greatest failure than me. A pretty good set of instincts. I was here to help them. Lucifer had an off-switch for their entire race. “I thought the two of you killed one another!”

“It’d be simple if we could just do that, but he has a few cards in his deck. Lilith is the major problem, as well as Rizevim.” I lay back and nursed the sudden headache building in the back of my head at the thought of handling those people on my own. Back in my world, there was gigantic, Li-sized solution to those particular problems. I wasn’t so lucky with this one. The Tuzi didn’t even exist. “They’re working with the Aspect of Infinity, Ophis, and a lot of Demon bodies. They’re brute forcing his resurrection through sheer power, basically. Unfortunately, I made him too tough for his own good.”

The words took a while to soak in, but I was glad that I chose to meet with this universe’s answer to me on the Devil’s side.

“Any aid you can offer is welcome, and we are more than willing to let the past stay in the past as you have.” It was a smart play. He received my help against Lucifer, while also making it clear that I extended my hand in peace first, by referencing my earlier words. He didn’t lose any face giving into my demands, because if anyone contested him, he could point out that he chose to avoid a fight instead of running away. There’s a thin line between the two, but it was an important distinction. Unless you’re Miyakuro, then you’ll just rip anyone apart who things running away isn’t a valuable strategy. Man, I could use that jerk’s help right about now. “If there is anything you need, then please don’t hesitate to ask. I would rather not see my people ruined by the whims of the tyrant that created us.”

“Hear, hear!” Azazel laughed and raised a flask towards Sirzechs, even when I glared at him. “What? Are you going to complain about me finding common ground with a Satan? You should be proud of me!”

Nevermind.

Miyakuro would make Azazel worse.

It’s actually a miracle that they didn’t get along in my world.