Game of Monsters - 116 (Patreon)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Highschool DxD.

If We Can Make It in the End

[Joshua Davis]

Delving into the divinity of the Minor Blessing of Egypt was proving to be… something.

Joshua wasn’t too sure how to go about even explaining it, if he were honest. He’d thought it was more or less the same as before, just flexing it like a muscle that had always been there, like the blessing of Set seemed to have been. Instead, it had changed into something else entirely.

Maybe it was the much greater amount of divinity.

Maybe it was a new approach that the deities had taken this time.

Maybe it was something related to his status as Great Column/Pharaoh, even if he didn’t have the title equipped.

Regardless of the reason, the fact was that this was now very different from before. He needed to work on it, get used to it. There were things to test out and things to try. He’d been doing that when Kuroka had decided to be a fucking idiot and he’d found out something both interesting and concerning.

He couldn’t tap into the entire divinity as a whole. Instead, he could reach and tap into the divinity of one deity at a time. At that very moment, however, Set had reached out to him instead of the other way around. Joshua wondered why that was, but there were a bunch of reasons to explain such an action. One, because he was a god of chaos, so it checked out that he’d do something randomly. Two, he wasn’t a particularly nice god, so helping Joshua in a moment of anger and negativity made sense. Three, the god might or might not have a soft spot for him, he supposed.

After all, he often got a sense of approval from Set, concerningly enough.

Those were his guesses, at least.

At least the Pantheon didn’t seem to care overly much about that, if the mostly amused feelings he got through his link to them was any indication. Joshua took some solace in that fact, at least. He rather doubted many of the gods would be on board if Set were scheming something. They also would know, he imagined, and if not, they’d help if something ever happened.

And if that didn’t work, at least Joshua had people on his corner that would help him deal with that.

Sitting down, Joshua reached inside himself, touching the divinity and following it towards Shed’s side. Lines formed on his skin, symbols and designs that he didn’t know the meaning of. Taking a deep breath in, he tried to process the new senses he got.

Joshua could definitely understand how a god could decide to focus on their domain’s feelings. He himself thought he might get lost in those. There were many new things to experience. He could feel all the animals close by, for example, but he could also feel them across the world, some more strongly than others. The more dangerous and wilder the animal, the more they seemed to stand out. He could feel people saving others, be it doctors, firefighters, policemen and many more. He could feel hunters, animal or human, stalking their prey or preparing to out looking for them.

It was overwhelming, but also… comfortable.

Like laying in bed during winter, soothing and so very tempting to just stay.

With all those things came strength that he didn’t have, even after all the boosts he got. His normal senses felt sharper, his fingers more dexterous. Taking out a dagger from a Storage Spell, he threw it at a target away from him. His aim had never held so true, the motion flowing as easy as breathing.

‘Neat,’ he thought, feeling the god’s proud and happy feelings bleed over into him. It was concerningly smooth, that part, which made Joshua worry that he might be… Not possessed, but influenced by whatever god he decided to “channel” for lack of a better word.

As it was, he was just lucky he hadn’t lost control against Kuroka when Set had reached through. It was also fortunate that it felt like it’d be easy to sever the connection on his side. He hadn’t tried it then, but he was fairly sure that applied even if a deity decided to take things into their own hands, like the chaos god had.

Joshua just needed to get the hang of it, which was why he was trying to channel those gods that struck him as the best. Shed was his first choice, from there… Well, he’d had some talks with Yasaka and Serafall in regards to where to go from there. There were some gods that they thought would be good choices. Joshua imagined he could ask Shed about where to go with that list.

Several deities had taken some offense with the “screening process”, but none had actually decided to cause trouble. Either they were very patient, had thicker skin than he expected, or Joshua was held in higher regard than he thought. Regardless, he didn’t want to bet on that with anything, much less his life or that of others.

The fact that several beings agreed and approved of that through his link was both good and bad, honestly. Were they approving of that because it expressed humility? Or were they agreeing with his assessment that he was not that special? Was it something else?

Even after their bout of honesty and openness, the Egyptian Pantheon seemed to have gone right back to being vague as fuck.

Joshua wasn’t a fan.

‘Things just can’t be easy no matter what, can they?’ he wondered, sighing. As he did though, he felt the Fallen coming back to the training facilities. They were a bit on edge as they did, especially when they saw him there. The trio had been… frankly terrified when they felt his shift with the whole Kuroka thing. Evidently, they felt like they were walking on an edge even more than they already did.

Unsurprisingly though, Raynare still walked up to him regardless of how she felt. She was determined, Joshua could give her that much. If anything, she seemed even more eager about working with him, for whatever reason.

“Do you need assistance with your training?” she asked, and Joshua regarded her for a long moment.

As he did, an idea occurred to him. One that had plenty of approval from the gods through his link and that was all that he needed to decide to go for it. Reaching in, he tapped into a particular pool of divinity. He felt the shift again, much stronger than with Shed. On his head, entire parts of his hair turned to golden feathers instead of blonde fringes.

“You up for some sparring?” he asked, his voice shifting into something sharper, deeper.

“Always,” Raynare answered, half filled with trepidation and half with excitement.

Well, it seemed that Joshua would have someone to test his new powers with.

[}-o-{]

“Almost missed this,” Joshua commented as he walked around the battlefield. Many an enemy was pressed to the ground as he walked around with the Fallen sending Light Spears everywhere around. Jeanne was off to the side, a little further away, having gotten a little excited and gone off on her own. He kept an eye on her just in case he needed to get involved but so far things were good.

Evidently, the time off they’d had had only meant they were stronger than before. On top of that, with his progress due to the Quest rewards, this was basically a walk in the park now, even more than before. He could have just ended the fight as soon as it started, but this was good training for the Fallen and Jeanne. It’d add experience.

Besides, this was also great for gathering data on several fronts. His spells were sensing everything inside the boundaries he’d set up, telling him all that he needed to know about what everyone was doing. Tapping into Nephthys, he felt the essence of magic around them and how it bent to the wills of the Hexennacht magicians around and, more importantly, himself.

He now could understand why the goddess said magic loved him.

It twisted to what he needed far more easily than it did everyone else around. It seemed to go out of its way to weave itself in the right shapes that he needed to make everything go more smoothly. It made every spell feel like running with favorable wind, now that he could better appreciate it with an enhanced sense of it.

He wondered if that was the system or a natural talent of some kind.

Joshua ran his fingers through his now long, straight and black hair. It had never been quite like that, even when he’d let it grow, but this was affected by the change in appearance that channeling one of the gods caused. As it was, even with his often weary look, the bags under his eyes had never held the pitch black color that they had at that very moment, as if he were using makeup.

He wasn’t sure he was a fan of looking different for every god, but it was a small price to pay, really.

“Josh!” Jeanne called, making him turn towards her. He didn’t need to, since his spells were telling him pretty much everything, but it was basically a reflex, really. His Parasitising Hexes drained a spell into non-existence before it was even halfway towards his sister. “This yours?” the girl asked calmly to which he snorted.

She was getting entirely too used to battlefields… Which was a good thing, he supposed.

“Yeah,” he replied, starting to walk towards the mage that had attempted to attack his sister. The old woman was, very understandably, scared out of her wits. Unsurprisingly, Hexennacht was starting to realize that they weren’t some nobodies. With more and more of their bases falling, there was no way they were confident in dealing with the attacks anymore. “You can surrender and be taken like the criminals you are,” he said as he approached them. “Or you can try to fight back. The choice is yours.”

Immediately, the woman put her hands up. The same couldn’t be said about some guy behind her, who raised his hand and spoke a chant. The circle appeared and the old woman moved away, crying out about him being an idiot.

Which he was.

Joshua tilted his head, letting his spells neutralize the attack before it could reach him. Margalo chose that moment to land on his shoulder and chirp something innocently, like a curious child. ‘He was actually that stupid, yes,’ he thought to his familiar as he considered the young man.

After a second of wondering what to do, he decided that this was as good a time to test something as any. Flexing his fingers he reached towards the one inactive spell he’d cast around the place. ‘Time for summer to shine,’ Joshua thought. He’d already tested Fall and Winter, after all. Might as well try and get them all done, see how they worked.

So, he targeted the spell on this man and the magic immediately reached towards him. It scanned the man, reading his magic flow to the last detail before going through with its purpose. The spell took a hold of the man’s magic from inside him, wrenching control away from the natural flow of the energy. And then…

It pushed.

The magic inside the man’s body was made to flow as it normally would, but much faster. Like someone had taken a video of it and then sped it up to five times the usual. The effect was immediate and a little shocking, but not completely unexpected.

The man blew up.

“... That was… summer, right?” he heard Mittelt ask from behind him as everyone looked at the small red stain on the ground, the only remains left from the young man that had tried to attack them. The battlefield had gone silent then, as everyone turned to look at what had happened. Especially those Hexennacht members closer to where the young man had been.

“Yes, it was,” he confirmed with a nod as he looked curiously at the result of his experiment. It was disturbing, admittedly, but not all that different from just using a regular magic attack or stabbing someone to death, as far as he was concerned. One could say this was kinder than some, since the man had died almost instantly. “So, how’s it gonna be?” he asked the people around. “My spell could use some more testing,” he added idly.

Immediately, everyone dropped to the ground.

“Well, now I have to deal with this, I guess,” he mumbled, letting go of Nephthys’ divinity and running his fingers through his hair.

“I could do it,” Raynare offered, making him turn and raise an eyebrow. That was a little more… helpful than she tended to be, but she seemed to be getting more and more… deferential as time went by, which was all sorts of weird. However, Joshua wasn’t going to let the chance to not have to deal with the whole thing pass him by.

He just needed to make sure she’d do a good job.

“Go ahead,” he told her, flexing the magic of his spells a bit to make the threat clear.

As she left and started barking orders for her fellow Fallen and some of the surrendered magicians, Joshua turned his attention towards the bloodstain on the ground. ‘That was interesting,’ he thought with a tilt of his head, pondering on some of the info he’d picked up during the brief moment between the spell activation and the death.

He went over that and what he’d learned of Project Winter.

‘Hm, I think I need more data on both,’ he thought, turning to look at the Hexennacht magicians around. He was suddenly hoping one of them would try something. If they decided to be stupid and he needed to deal with them, well, it was just convenient that he also had spells to test out, right?

‘I might have become an awful person,’ Joshua considered. However, he was an awful person that was dating – ‘Doesn’t feel like the right word for it.’  – two very awesome women somehow. So… He couldn’t be that bad, right?

He chuckled in disbelief.

‘Man, I feel like it’ll take a while for that to fully sink in.’

[}-o-{]

Kunou giggled to herself, making Joshua and Yasaka share a fond, if slightly exasperated, look.

It seemed that the girl had gone through a whole new illusion project after she found out about the change in their relationship. Either that or she’d made it some time ago without him noticing. She’d tinkered a spell that made it so that pink hearts popped up and floated about between them. It was a little awkward but funny at first. After an hour, it had gotten old really quick.

Kunou giggled again.

At least she was having a good time.

“I do hope that you are doing your homework, or there won’t be any spellcrafting time for you, just saying,” Joshua commented, making Kunou gasp and turn towards her very much not done homework. “Honestly,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

No that he wanted to ruin her fun, but she did need to get that done.

Across from them, Yasaka giggled behind her hand. She seemed to be a lot more open about… pretty much everything, as long as they were alone. It was very nice to see, he had to admit. It was also a little sad though, that she had to be so guarded most of the time.

“Have I told you how much I like seeing you be a father to her?” Yasaka asked then, taking his insides and twisting them with no effort at all. He looked down at his own work. He had never been good at taking compliments regarding stuff that he wasn’t confident in. The system had helped him by making him more confident on stuff, like his spell crafting.

That only stretched so far though.

“Not much? At least, not that I can remember right now,” he mumbled, tapping on the edge of the paper he had been working on before. It wasn’t like he was going to do any work right then and there with his mind effectively made useless. “It’s nice to know I’m not messing up.”

“You are great, dad,” Kunou told him, poking his arm and smiling at him.

“You only say that because I spoil you rotten,” he replied with a matching grin. “I appreciate that anyway though,” he added, leaning to the side so that he’d push her a little.

“I mean it,” Yasaka told him then, earning his full attention once more, even if he was still feeling awkward. “You do a very good job, despite your doubts,” she reassured him and Joshua let out a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding.

“Thanks,” he replied. Feeling a little better, he decided to continue that conversation in a slightly different direction. “You do a lot better than you think too,” he told her, making the woman’s eyes widen a bit. ‘Come on, that’s enough awkwardness for today. Just man up,’ he thought to himself, trying to find his long lost backbone. “I know you feel guilty about not making enough time for Kunou and not being able to let her be a kid, but you are an amazing mother. You should be proud.”

“You should, mom!” Kunou was quick to agree, perking up and forgetting about her homework once more.

“Thank you,” Yasaka said then, smiling widely. “I guess I deserve that turnabout.”

“You do,” Joshua replied with a nod and a chuckle. “Speaking of making time for Kunou-”

“No, I’ve already told you that I won’t accept more help, Joshua,” Yasaka interrupted, her expression turning into a glare that everyone knew she didn’t mean. He simply grinned at her.

“I mean, you said we shouldn’t because people would assume I’m courting you… but that’s not that much of a problem anymore, is it?” he told her, and he was pretty proud of the slight pink dusting that his question caused on the woman’s cheeks.

“You know very well that there’s more to it than that,” she told him, looking like she was making an effort to appear annoyed and failing.

“I mean, yes, we are kind of keeping it secret and all still… but it’ll get out eventually,” he replied, waving things off. “Besides, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem once it becomes known that I have the backing of the Egyptian Pantheon, you said that yourself. If someone wants to cause problems, we can deal with them.”

“... I like that you said “we” there,” she replied, the smile winning the battle to appear on her face.

“Great, so-”

“Still no.”

He deflated.

Kunou giggled.

And the pink hearts were back, unsurprisingly.

Margalo even joined with a little song from where she sat on a corner, the lil’ shit.

[}-o-{]

[Rosar Phenex]

“What you are saying basically means that you can take away the spells from us if you feel like it!” he said, growing more and more insulted as the current discussion went on. The man across from him remained entirely unconcerned regarding his anger. If anything, he looked like he was dealing with a particularly troublesome kid.

Rosar wanted to burn him to ashes.

“I mean, you are not wrong,” the human had the gall to say. “This is still a deal. I can’t just take it away for no reason. All I’m saying is that I won’t allow you to use my spell to support yourself in a war I don’t agree with. I’m not giving you the option to do that through a loophole of any kind. I refuse.”

“Mr. Davis, surely we can come to an agreement regarding this,” Lucifer said then, joining the conversation for once. Rosar didn’t know if that was good or bad. The former Gremory had a lot hanging on this deal getting through, since it involved his sister being free of the marriage contract with Riser. On the one hand, that meant that he wanted to make sure the deal happened. On the other hand… that meant that he wanted to make sure the deal happened.

Whether it happened in favor of Rosar or not, it didn’t matter.

“This is non-negotiable,” the human said then, not harshly but firmly. It was a tone that Rosar very much doubted that many would take with Sirzechs Lucifer himself. If he weren’t so vexing an existence, he’d have respected Joshua Davis. “I won’t let you use my spell for war unless I agree with you in said conflict.”

“Joshua-” Leviathan started then, reminding Rosar of her presence and the fact that he very much still had reservations in regards to both Satans. He’d done some research and it was easy to find out that Joshua Davis was part of the former Sitri’s silly little kids’ show. There was a connection there, obviously.

The problem was still the Egyptian Pantheon. Even if the three of them were conspiring together, Rosar couldn’t do anything. There was an entire Pantheon backing things up. Even if Davis and the two Satans were close, or even friends, it would make no difference. The Egyptians would still have their own reasons for anything they did in regards to this deal.

“No,” Davis interrupted. The human interrupted the Satan Leviathan. “This, is, non, negotiable,” he repeated, firmly. Then, in the blink of an eye Rosar and his wife both felt it, probably together with Lucifer, his wife and Leviathan. A pressure that hadn’t been there before radiated from the human. He hadn’t so much as twitched, but the entire setting had shifted. “You’ll agree to this, or this deal is off. As simple as that,” Davis said, stating that as a fact more than anything else.

Nobody said anything for a long moment, causing the human to tilt his head.

“I think you are forgetting something, Phenex,” he commented then. “I don’t have to make this deal with you. I’m doing this so that you will get something out of this and won’t decide to throw a tantrum instead. I’m trying to be nice and let you get a win out of this very bad situation for you,” he explained, his voice measured. “If you decide to be too difficult, I can and will decide to not bother and do as I want. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of people very happy with you if you do that… and a lot that won’t be.”

“Are you threatening me?” Rosar asked, unable to help himself and immediately feeling his wife’s nails digging into his thigh. That might not have been his best moment, admittedly.

“So nice of you to notice,” Davis replied, as if he was genuinely happy that he had, indeed, noticed the threat. “Maybe I’ll be extra petty and decide to replicate more Devil Bloodlines, blame it on you too. I’m sure that would go really well with everyone.”

Rosar felt his face pale then, imagining that scenario. If his whole family got a quick death after that, then it’d be a fortunate event. Suddenly, he found himself re-evaluating his opinion of Davis. He’d been terrifying and impressive enough before.

Now, Rosar was moving him up in his list until he was right next to the Satans.

As swiftly as it had come, the pressure left then, Rosar watching as Davis relaxed on his seat.

“I do hope you understand things a little better now,” he said then, piercing blue eyes staring straight at Rosar. He gulped. “I’m willing to compromise on a lot of things, but if you try to abuse this deal and my spell, then I’ll make sure you regret it. You don’t want to cross me, Phenex.”

To that, Rosar nodded slowly.

“... I’m sure we can trust you to decide when to best apply this… clause,” his wife said then, joining the conversation for once. Davis turned towards her and smiled. Not mockingly, but actually pleased.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” the human replied, as if the entire previous interaction hadn’t happened. “I assure you, I don’t want to take advantage of such an open statement, but I don’t want to risk things. I’ll be as fair as I can be with you, your family and your faction, Phenex.”

Rosar certainly wanted to believe that, because if the man wasn’t, then  this “deal” could very well end up with them being completely screwed.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, we are going back to the routine, it seems…

Or at we?

I don’t know, but I guess we’ll see. There’s always moving pieces, even when it seems like everything’s slowing down and stopping. The background characters are always doing their thing, whether we see it or not.

Maybe I should be showing that? Probably, but I like focusing on my characters and their lives better. Day to day life might not be the most interesting thing in the world, but this story is about Joshua, his struggles, his victories, his defeats and his moments of peace and quiet. All of it is what we’ll see.

Hope you don’t mind that, and that you enjoyed the chapter.

Announcement: I started another story in FFN that won’t make it to Patreon. The reason for this is because I’m working on it with Arclight from the Discord server. It’s also a “story” where we’ll post several different projects, just to get them out there and try to get opinions on them, so even if you don’t like what’s there, chances are that a new project will pop up later and you might like that one better than the others. So, please, give it a try and tell us what you think.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: How are you doing? I’m currently suffering from the heat, because Summer is coming my way and I hate hot weather. Oh, and I have a test tomorrow, so that sucks too.

See you.