Game of Monsters - 86 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

To Make Sleeping Giants Wake Up

“Misteeta, come on!” someone cried out before Joshua nicked them a handful of times with his daggers. With a groan, Gandoma deflated, letting himself fall to the ground. Almost distractedly, the human then blocked a sword to his back, courtesy of Kiba.

“I’m trying goddamnit,” Sairaorg’s Bishop replied then, waving his staff around. “He has too many tricks for me to take aw- Fuck!” he screamed then, as a holy dagger embedded itself in his thigh. The man would be fine though, since Asia was on healing duty at the moment.

“Come on, Coriana,” Kuisha called then and a handful of her Hole appeared in the air. The purpose for them was apparent as her fellow peerage member shot an attack that started traveling between the Hole not unlike a pinball would. Joshua didn’t just sit there though, dashing forward. The Hole repositioned themselves, but he was not concerned. His Sensing skills would tell him if anything got even close to hitting him, after all.

“Girls! Make it quick!” Beruka told them, readying his lances as Joshua charged at him. For once, the plea of one of them was heard, when the attacks Coriana and Kuisha were coordinating finally seemed to shot towards him. However, at the last second, Joshua grinned widely.

Parts of his body dissolved then and there, earning cries of surprise and confusion from his opponents. The magical attacks phased through his body, the same as Akeno’s thunder. The sound of the last one only served for Joshua to rescind more power to Setan Kober. The dagger replied in kind, eager to give him power for more of his rage.

Carnwennan wouldn’t be outdone, however, so it decided for something drastic. There were many ranged opponents left in the fight still, so it went for one of them. Joshua’s arm snapped to the side almost on its own and the legendary weapon flew true, hitting one Rias Gremory in the shoulder and taking her out.

Setan Kober, for its part, took out Beruka.

“And then there were four,” Joshua announced, turning to look at Coriana, Kuisha, Kiba and Akeno. Distractedly, he pulled out one of Jeanne’s holy daggers from his Storage Spell. “Or not,” he added, grinning widely as all four of them tensed up. That didn’t save Kiba, however, as one of his Neutral Ropes shot up from behind him, wrapping him up and taking him out. “Then there were three.”

With that, he started shooting Neutral Bolts to everyone and anyone indiscriminately. They weren’t supposed to take anyone out, after all. The barrage of attacks was only for distraction purposes. It didn’t quite work, since Coriana and Akeno could easily dodge or tank them while shooting and Kuisha could redirect them with no trouble. However, it was still a pull on their focus and Joshua could take that.

Besides, their attacks only passed through his body as he turned parts of it into sand. ‘Set’s blessing is insane,’ he thought, just like he had the first few times he’d tested the new ability it gave him. Joshua was fairly sure the supremely smug feeling from the Charm was the god in question.

He deserved to feel like that, quite honestly. The ability to turn parts or his entire body into a small human-shaped sandstorm was amazing. Mainly because it let him ignore most attacks, really, but also because it added quite a few possibilities. One of which was, to his delight, flight.

‘You are still cool, Shed,’ he added at the offended feeling he got then. Joshua almost wanted to roll his eyes, but he still meant those words. If not for Shed, he probably wouldn’t even have gotten the attention of Nephthys or Set, so he appreciated that the god had put his foot in the door.

Joshua still had his doubts if there wouldn’t be another shoe to drop at some point, but that was for the future. As it was, there was no reason to resent the Egyptian deity, really. So, he’d just be grateful and wait with a healthy amount of concern to see if anything bad came from their relationship.

Joshua then felt two annoyed presences through the Charm and one very smug one. He was fairly sure he could guess who was who that time too, but he decided it might be better to just not. Besides, he had a spar to get over with anyway, so he’d focus on that instead.

“Fuck!” Coriana cursed as he got to her. “That’s so fucking unfair,” she grumbled then, stepping away as she left the battlegrounds. So the rules said and so she did. Joshua, for his part, prepared to face both Akeno and Kuisha. Neither of which seemed to realize the weakness of his new sand transformation, from what he could see.

Which suited him just fine. If anyone did, things would get much harder for him. After all, it was rather abusable, all things considered. One just needed to attack his whole body. Even if he could turn completely into sand, he could still be hit. The trick he was using was transforming parts of his body into sand so the attacks would fly through him. If enough sand was hit, however, he’d start receiving damage.

He’d found that out rather painfully, after all.

It wasn’t absolutely broken, but it was certainly nice to catch people off guard. He didn’t expect he’d be able to use that trick too many times, especially if his power became known. People were bound to start trying new stuff instead of just falling for it every single time. Or so he expected, at least. Stupidity should never be underestimated, after all.

“And then there was none,” he announced, a holy dagger to Akeno’s throat while Setan Kober poked Kuisha’s midriff. “Good fight, everyone! It was fun,” he called.

“You are getting progressively more insane,” Kuisha grumbled, pouting at him, to which he only grinned at her, which made her blush a little. “Idiot. Are you sure you should be fighting like that? Didn’t you say you weren’t completely healed?” she asked then, to which he rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I’m fine, Jeanne,” he replied, hearing a huff from his sister off to the distance where she helped her boyfriend stand up. “I’m actually fine, Kuisha. I’m still recovering, for sure, but I just have to be careful not to push past a certain point, that’s all. I appreciate the concern though,” he added, letting out a sigh and relaxing. He did feel like he might have pushed things a little. Not enough to really be considered a mistake, but still.

“Is there anything I can help-?” Kuisha started asking, moving a little closer only to be interrupted.

“Joshua!” Rias called from off to the side. “Are you going to come pick this up?” the heiress asked as he turned towards her, pointing towards Carnwenna, which was on the ground.

“Yeah, sorry about that by the way!” he replied, jogging towards the redhead to pick up his dagger. “I hope it wasn’t too bad.”

“It definitely was,” Rias grumbled, massaging her shoulder. “Thank the Satans for Asia though. If not for her, things would be much more unpleasant.”

“If not for her, I wouldn’t even go as far as we do in this spars,” Joshua commented with a chuckle. “I appreciate you going to these lengths though. You certainly don’t have to,” he added.

After all, she was a heiress of a devil pillar house. She could definitely say their spars were too dangerous for her and pull away. Instead, she’d gone out of her way to reassure him that she’d talked with her family and such in case any accidents happened. Hell, Rias was the one that had requested they train even harder. Fortunately, accidents were unlikely, since Joshua had full control of the wards around and there was Asia. Something very crazy would have to happen for something serious to… Well, happen.

“With how much you and this training is helping me? No way,” Rias replied, shaking her head. “I think I might actually have a chance,” she added, a shy smile on her face. “And it’s thanks to you.”

“You were the one that started putting actual effort into it. Don’t give me the credit for that,” he told her, waving her thanks away.

“You still helped,” she shot back, before her expression turned nervous. Looking at her curiously. Joshua raised an eyebrow. “I… Well, I wanted to ask you something,” she mumbled, looking down and away from him as her foot started poking the ground under her.

“Yeah?” he asked, tilting his head.

“Well, we know that Hyoudou has a Sacred Gear thanks to your wards,” she mumbled then and suddenly the puzzle became very clear for Joshua. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that though, if he was honest. “Sona and I were talking about if we should approach him or not, especially me since I needed… Well, I needed all the power I could get before. We are still interested, but we know you kind of… Took him under your wing. So, neither of us wanted to get on your bad side for that…”

“So…?” he urged her, not letting anything show on his face.

“We wanted to ask for your… permission, to try to get him to join one of our peerages,” she finally said, to which he nodded slowly. “We don’t need an answer immediately. We can wait. We just wanted to… Well, to ask.”

“Ok,” he said neutrally, looking away to see the rest of their gathering still recovering from the fight. Asia in particular was rushing between people. “You can approach him,” he told Rias, to which she sighed in relief, which was a little amusing. How had he reached the point in which he could make a pillar heiress and sister of a Satan nervous? “Just… explain things to him clearly and… if possible, try to make sure he doesn’t jump face first without thinking.”

“We can do that, thank you,” Rias told him, beaming. Then, much to his confusion, she sent what looked like a smug look towards somewhere behind him. Turning, slightly confused, he only saw Kuisha, who waved at him when he looked at her. “I guess I should go talk with my peerage. We have to think over the spar and see what we can take away from it. Maybe come up with some strategies. It’s rather sad that everyone got taken out by you. No offense.”

“None taken,” he replied, turning towards her once more. “And, I mean, Sairaorg didn’t join in.”

“That’s not very reassuring, you know?” the heiress told him, giggling as she moved away. “Be sure to rest some, ok? I don’t need Jeanne to get on my case for pushing you too much, even if she’s here to make sure of that herself.”

“Sure,” he told her, shaking his head as he moved to the side to take a seat with his familiars as he took a break from the training. Maybe he could go over his magical research for a bit, he supposed. He had many ideas to improve his battle capabilities, after all.

He had plenty of things to consider and tinker. Some more straightforward things, some less so, some defensive wards too and on top of all that was the still pending Healing Spell. He’d get there, however. There was no way he wouldn’t get there.

His relaxed expression became a lot more serious as his thoughts turned to a darker place. Soon, it seemed that he’d need to go out on hunts once more. No more leaving it to the alliance of factions he’d helped form. No, Khaos Brigade needed to go down faster. Maybe it wouldn’t do much, or maybe it would, but Joshua would add his grain of sand to the pile regardless.

No way he wouldn’t get a chunk of those bastards if he could get away with it.

He was already gathering information about Hexennacht, not only through House of Water, but through Serafall and Yasaka. Hell, he’d sent Azazel a message that he’d give him more Sacred Gear-oriented wards if he could get him information he didn’t already have through the others.

Besides that, he was starting to go over his knowledge from the series. There had to be other ways for him to approach this. There had to be other ways for him to hunt down Khaos Brigade and its allies. He’d find them all…

And he’d destroy them.

They deserved nothing else.

[}-o-{]

Joshua looked to his side, to see a beaming Kunou. Maybe to say she was beaming was a bit of an understatement though. She looked like she might actually start glowing at any second and he wouldn’t even be surprised if it happened. She was that happy.

“Definitely no regrets about getting convinced to do this, huh?” he asked, turning to give Yasaka a half smile as the woman sat in front of him. The three of them were sitting at a restaurant’s table with illusions over them making many slight changes to their appearance and changing their hair color to black. “Can’t remember the last time she looked that happy.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I can be out in the open with my mom and my dad!” Kunou exclaimed, looking like a thoroughly happy camper. It was almost too adorable for Joshua. Almost, but he didn’t think he’d ever have too much Kunou. “Thank you, mom.”

“Well, thank Joshua, he’s the one that’s keeping the illusions up and making sure it’s not broken,” Yasaka said, throwing him under the bus as the girl turned to look at him like he was her absolute, best, greatest hero. He honestly couldn’t stop himself from straightening up a little and puffing his chest with pride. It felt great to see his daughter so happy for something he did.

‘Definitely get why dad did half the things he did for me now,’ he thought to himself, feeling the slightest sting in his heart, one of his hands moving to thumb the locket over his chest. It wasn’t the time for those thoughts though.

“It’s nothing. Just a circle more complicated than usual, so it’ll hold a bit better if it’s broken,” he waved off regardless of his pride. “And a few wards over this place to reduce the chances of anything breaking them to begin with,” he added. Sure, he’d had to make a few trips to set everything up and it had been a bit of a hassle, since it was a very public place. However, the look on Kunou’s face made it all worth it.

“Thank you, dad,” the girl told him as a waiter brought their meals. Kunou looked at her plate like she wasn’t sure if to eat it or not. “I don’t wanna eat,” she mumbled, pouting at the offending item. “Once we are done, we’ll have to leave,” she added, glaring down at her food.

“Kunou,” Yasaka sighed, giving her daughter a look, even though Joshua wasn’t sure what emotion was behind it.

“Well, good thing I thought ahead, unlike a certain someone,” he commented, starting to eat and grinning at the curious look Kunou gave him. “You see, I thought just a meal was a bit… lackluster, so I went ahead and prepared a few other places just in case,” he explained with a shrug, hiding a smug look at the way Kunou bounced back from annoyed and sad to beaming once more. Instead, he continued eating as if what he did was nothing.

“What places?” the girl asked, visibly trying and failing to contain her excitement.

“Aren’t you gonna eat? Your food will get cold,” he pointed out, ignoring her question. In front of him, Yasaka hid a giggle behind her hand before starting to eat herself, seemingly happy to watch him interact with Kunou.

“Dad!” the girl protested – whined, more like, but she would never admit it – while looking at the ceiling despairingly. “Stop being mean.”

“Well, I put a few wards over a cinema, a park and a mall. Wasn’t sure what else to cover, honestly. I’m open to ideas for the future,” he answered with a grin, watching as Kunou’s face lit up. He could almost see her eyes turning to stars. “I take it those are good?”

“They are great!” Kunou exclaimed.

“Those are good, Joshua. Thank you,” Yasaka herself replied, and if he hadn’t known better, Joshua would have thought she was blushing.

“Well, good to know I did a good job. I really didn’t know where to even put the things,” he admitted, nervously fidgeting with his locket for a moment. “I should have asked instead of trying to make that a surprise,” he added before focusing on his meal.

“You don’t have anything to be nervous about,” Yasaka reassured, smiling kindly at him, which made him smile in turn, if not quite as widely. “I’m sure Kunou will think up a dozen more places for you to do that to, however. So I hope you are ready for that.”

“No place you can add to that list then?” he asked, his self-consciousness assuaged for the moment. “It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s relatively quick.”

“I’ll keep that in mind once Kunou is done with her list,” the woman answered, and he was pretty sure her smile widened the smallest bit.

[}-o-{]

“So, how are we doing this?” Joshua asked, looking around at the people that were doing some last minute adjustments to their equipment and such things. “And how did you convince me to do this again?” he added, an amused smile on his face to show that he was only joking. Well, half-joking, really, but still.

“You already know your part, Joshua,” Serafall said, waving off his doubts with a grin before narrowing her eyes at him. “Or you should, I did give you the script.”

“I know my part, but I don’t know how this works, Serafall. Should I do something specific while we do this. Stand somewhere, what about the crew and their equipment,” he said, waving towards the people around them. “Besides, there was this character that I don’t even know who they are supposed to be. Are they new? I’m sure I’m caught up in the series,” he told her, growing increasingly nervous as he addressed all his worries. “I’m not sure this was a good idea. I’m no actor.”

“Just think about it as if it were a real thing,” Serafall reassured, placing a hand on his arm. “You’ll do fine. And if you don’t, that’s fine too. I know you aren’t an actor, Joshua. If things don’t work out, that’s that. I thought you wanted to do this,” she pointed out, with no judgment in her gaze whatsoever.

Joshua deflated.

“It’s just… I’m just nervous. I was kind of excited about this, honestly. I just… I guess it hit me just now that I’m really doing this,” he mumbled, looking around at the crew, the stage, the equipment… It was kind of intimidating, really.

“I told you that you were jumping into things without thinking,” Sona commented from where she stood, a little off to the side. She’d been kind enough to offer to bring him to the Underworld for him to participate, for the first time, in Serafall’s show.

Admittedly, he was kind of busy with other things at the moment to bother with such a thing, but the Satan had made a good argument. There was an actual, practical reason for him to participate other than just… Well, money, which he didn’t really have a great need for. Joshua could use the added good PR with the Underworld’s population, especially considering the stunt he was planning to pull with the Phenex family.

It’d be a nice thing to have the general public on his side, if only a little bit. Granted, the Healing Spell would, by itself, earn him quite a bit of favor. However, the spell itself was kind of what would make not only the Phenex but most pillar families be wary of him, if not outright hostile, especially in the former’s case. He was kind of stealing one of their shticks for himself, he supposed, which wouldn’t go overly well with them.

‘Now, there’s an idea,’ he mused, thinking if he could, once he was done, try and copy some other family’s power. Or maybe a Sacred Gear? He was sure to be able to convince Issei to let him study the Boosted Gear once he unlocked it and such. There were some wards that powered up people inside them, but Joshua had always preferred to bring down other people. After all, a drastic change in his capabilities was bound to be weird to control, since he wouldn’t be used to that.

“Joshua~,” Serafall called him, tapping his head with her “magical” staff. “Your mind got away from here again, mister.”

“Serafall,” Sona chided, but he chuckled and waved the younger sister’s concern off.

“It’s fine, I kind of need that sometimes. I do let my thoughts drift a little too much at times. Especially when thinking about wards,” he explained, his hand moving to fidget with his locket.

“Do I wanna know?” Serafall asked curiously.

“Probably not,” he shot back with a grin. He could only imagine the headaches that him trying to get more of her people’s bloodline abilities would bring for her and Sirzechs. He was pretty sure the only reason they were allowing the Healing Spell at all was because they both cared a whole lot for Rias, especially the Satan Lucifer.

For some reason, both Serafall and Sona blinked at him as if he’d done something surprising or something of the sort.

“So,” he continued then, feeling his nerves creep up once more as he pulled one of the items he’d been given for his outfit for the show. “Domino Mask,” he mumbled, looking at the item his character seemed to be named after. “Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at the magical girl standing next to him. “That’s the name of my character?”

“What? It’s a good name!” the woman protested, pouting at him. To that, he only raised an eyebrow. Did she actually believe that or was this one of her joking moments?

“It is rather… simplistic, Serafall,” Sona commented, making the pout on her sister’s face intensify. “But I guess it’s effective enough,” the girl added, clearly unwilling to actually get into an argument regarding that. Understandable, considering how uncomfortable she seemed to be with the whole thing regarding that side of her sister’s professional life.

Which actually begged the question of why she was there, but Joshua didn’t think it was safe to actually point that out.

“I guess that’s good enough,” Joshua decided, looking back at the domino mask in his hand. Before looking down at the black tuxedo that completed his outfit. “How does this look, by the way?” he asked, shifting a little. “I’ve never been one for formal clothing, honestly,” he added. He was pretty sure he could count the number of times he used a button-down shirt with one hand, nevermind a full suit or anything of the sort. “Can’t say this is comfortable,” he mumbled, shifting again.

“You look great, Joshua,” Serafall cheered, making a show of jokingly looking him up and down. “And I’m sure you’ll get used to it. You did say we could choose your outfit so long as it wasn’t too out there. I think this is well within those specifications.”

Well, she had him there, he supposed. He was honestly surprised his outfit was so simple, really. All in all, maybe he should just take the win and be grateful that he’d gotten something relatively normal instead of… Whatever else, Serafall and the staff of the show might choose for him to wear.

“You do look well in that, if you were looking for a more… normal point of view,” Sona offered, making him grin wryly at her. He wasn’t sure how much her opinion counted as normal, but it was certainly more than Serafall’s, he supposed.

“Thanks, I guess I’m just back to worrying for nothing, huh?” he asked before Margalo came flying and perched on his shoulder. “Ready to face the music, girl?” he asked, receiving an excited thrill from the bird, which made him grin. Especially once she pushed her magic into it and Gentle Song reassured his nerves. “So, where do we start?” he asked, straightening and looking towards a visibly excited Serafall.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

I’m kinda curious about the reception of this chapter. I’m not sure how well I explained the effect of the Blessing of Set. Not sure how well I did with the other two scenes either, but I liked writing this chapter, so I hope it came out alright. Please, do let me know what you think, yeah?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Er… No idea. Anything you wanna tell me?

See you.