High School DxD: Return of the Crimson Dragon Emperor

Chapter 555: Chapter 545: Full-Scale Clash

At the bottom of the massive crater gouged into the earth, something began to spill forth from the abyss.

Shaking the ground beneath us, it spewed high into the sky before pouring down like rain. The shower drenched us, and—

”What is this...? This smell...”

That metallic tang—it was blood.

I hate to admit how familiar I am with it, but there was no mistaking that scent; I’d smelled it countless times before. But as I wiped it away, the liquid on my skin was pitch-black. Right—what had geysered up from the depths of that darkness was black blood.

Which meant that what was currently drenching us was a rain of black blood.

The moment everyone realized that—

”AAAAAAGH... AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!?!?”

Someone on the battlefield screamed in agony. Following that first voice, shrieks erupted from all around us.

”...AAAAAAHHHHHH!”

”EEEEEEEEAAAGH!”

”H-Hiiiiiiieeeee!”

”GYAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

W-What is this!? What the hell is happening—?

Looking around, my eyes caught sight of my companions trembling uncontrollably, wrapping their arms around their own shoulders. Miu dropped to her knees, curling inward on the ground.

”W-What... is this...!?”

”Miu!?”

I pulled Miu into a tight embrace, but her shaking wouldn’t stop. Looking at the others—Rias, the rest of the team, and the reincarnated angels—their faces had turned deathly pale, their bodies shivering violently. Even the absolute strongest among us like Vali, Sairaorg-san, and Dulio were affected. While they hadn’t succumbed to total madness like the rank-and-file soldiers, their bodies were clearly suffering from an abnormal strain.

Ignis spoke up, her voice echoing clearly for everyone to hear.

「What’s attacking their bodies is pure fear.」

Fear? What do you mean?

「To put it simply: that rain amplifies the fear inside anyone it touches. Quite intensely, in fact. And the stronger the individual, the more potent the effect.」

Azazel-sensei nodded in understanding at Ignis’s explanation.

”I see. Fear is something the powerful tend to forget... something they rarely feel. So it’s forcing an instinctual terror onto us, huh? Haven’t felt something like this in a damn long time... Shit...!”

Even Azazel-sensei, the former Governor General of the Fallen Angels, was drenched in a cold sweat, his breathing heavy and ragged.

An instinctual, subconscious terror that bypassed logic. To think just touching it was enough to drive ordinary people mad...!

Wait a second. If that’s true, why am I fine? Even with Asia and Koneko-chan healing me, I’m nowhere near peak condition. My physical strength and mental stamina are both completely drained. Yet despite being in this state, I feel fine. My body feels heavy, but it was like that before the rain started.

「That’s because I’m neutralizing the rain’s effect from within you. If I weren’t, you’d be in the exact same state as the rest of them right now, Issei.」

Right. Ignis was protecting me. Unbeknownst to me, a goddess was shielding my back. She’s acting surprisingly divine for a useless goddess. I should at least thank her later.

While those thoughts crossed my mind, the rain of black blood came to a stop.

Then, from the depths of the pit—

”So, only a third of your forces were shaved away? Heh heh heh... More survived than I expected. I suppose you didn’t reach this place on luck alone.”

A figure wrapped in black mist emerged from the hole, ascending into the sky above.

That black mist looked similar to Gasper’s when he awakened, but the level of danger it radiated was in an entirely different league. It also felt distinct from Assem’s usual aura. A terrible premonition welled up inside me—and sure enough, it hit the mark.

The dense cloud of black mist floating in midair gradually thinned out. The one inside was, naturally, Assem. But his form retained no trace of his original appearance; he had transformed into something entirely different.

Ash-gray skin with scaly limbs. On his back sprouted the wings of every imaginable beast—birds, dragons, bats—with a single, extraordinarily massive butterfly wing rising among them. Seven tails extended from his waist, their tips bearing the heads of the beasts originally belonging to Trihexa: a bear, a leopard, a dragon, and the rest. Ten horns crowned his head. His height wasn’t much different from mine, but his silhouette was completely inhuman.

It was as if the traits of Trihexa had been forcefully shoved into a humanoid shape.

Assem looked down at his new body and laughed.

”What a fascinating body this has turned out to be. My monster status has certainly taken a leap forward. Now then...”

An idea seemed to strike him. Assem scanned his surroundings, a faint smile creeping onto his face.

As if acting on its own accord, one of his seven tails began to move. The tail bearing the lion head locked its eyes onto the direction Assem was looking and spat out a tiny fireball.

The faction targeted by the attack instantly deployed multiple layers of defensive magic circles. But the fireball tore through them with terrifying ease—and began to expand right in the middle of their ranks!

With a space-rending groan, the rapidly swelling sphere of flames swallowed the entire battalion whole and exploded!

Countless bursts of fire detonated outward from the sphere, raining down indiscriminately across a vast area!

”AAAAGH! GUAAAAAH!”

The cascading fireballs rained down upon the warriors’ heads, reducing them to cinders as if mocking their defenses.

Saji shouted as he intercepted incoming fireballs, a clear strain of panic in his voice.

”He used his power that casually and caused that much destruction...!? Isn’t that even stronger than Trihexa’s flames!?”

Kiba nodded in agreement.

”He’s right. Even at a similar scale, I feel like Trihexa needed a bit more time to charge up.”

Right, both of them had faced Trihexa’s power firsthand. I’d fought Trihexa too, and just like they said, that attack felt even more devastating than Trihexa’s original output.

Rose provided an explanation.

”It is likely that he has mastered the efficient utilization of Trihexa’s power. Even with identical output, optimizing the magic formula allows for lower resource consumption and faster casting times. Given that he excels at such matters, it is entirely plausible.”

Right... Rose had managed to cast spells at a lower energy cost by continuously refining her magical formulas. Kuroka had once compared it to an RPG mechanics optimization, or so I heard from Le Fay.

Rias spoke with a grim expression.

”Then we’re in serious trouble. Handling Trihexa’s power alone was a nightmare, but this...!”

”That is not all,” Sona added. ”Because of that rain earlier, our forces will be unable to fight at full capacity. It is unreasonable to expect anyone to exert their normal strength while their fear is being forcibly amplified.”

She appeared calm on the surface, but her knees were trembling. She was actively fighting off the despair threatening to shatter her spirit from within, forcing herself to analyze the battlefield.

I’m scared. I don’t want to die. If I take even one step forward, will my life end right then and there?

I could feel those overwhelming thoughts of despair surging from the people around me. It was another side effect of becoming a Transformer. Parsing every single emotion flowing into me was difficult even for me, but among those countless feelings, there were emotions other than fear—

Saji took Sona’s trembling hand. Retracting his mask, he flashed a bright, confident grin.

”It’s okay. I won’t let you die. I might not be able to change the world or protect as many people as Hyoudou can, but... at the very least, I’ll protect the people precious to me right in front of my eyes. I am a Dragon King, after all.”

”——! Saji, you...” Sona choked up, lost for words.

I get it, Sona. Saji has grown so much more than you think. A proud, noble Black Dragon King with a heart strong enough to conquer fear to protect the one he loves. That’s Saji Genshirou.

Seeing Saji stand tall, those who had been shivering and cowering on the ground began to push themselves back up. The embers in their eyes that had almost gone out rekindled once more. No matter how terrified you are, if you have something you need—something you want—to protect, you can step forward. You can fight.

Just as everyone overcame their terror and stood up together—

”Say, Saji-kun? Would you mind giving me a very detailed explanation of what’s going on here? ☆”

Serafall-san chimed in with a beaming, radiant smile!

Right, she didn’t know about their relationship! Sona had been bowing her head to everyone around them to keep it a secret, so of course she didn’t know! Now the cat was out of the bag!

He acted like a total badass, only to get caught by the absolute last person who should have found out!

”R-R-R-R-R-Leviathan-sama!? T-This is, um... H-EEEEEK!”

Saji shrieked as Serafall-san radiated a terrifying, crushing aura.

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