The Protagonist System

266 From The Beginning

Serafall Leviathan clutched at the lifeless body of her beloved sister and a cold and ruthless anger filled her. She had been too late showing up at Kuoh Academy after Kokabiel's attack that he used as an excuse to restart the war between the three biblical factions.

“Yes! I can feel it! Your anger!” Kokabiel shouted as his minions, angels, fallen angels, and devils attacked the population of the town. “Come at me, ice slut! Let me feel your wrath as you desperately take revenge on me for your loss!”

Serafall slowly let her sister's body go and placed it on the ground. She stood up, her hands covered in blood, and she turned to face the floating form of the being that killed the only person she ever loved.

“You wanted a war?” Serafall asked in a whisper and she saw the glee on his face. She let her power out, something she had kept restrained with all of her might, so that she didn't kill anything near her instantly. “You don't deserve a war.”

The glee on his face changed to a frown. “I killed the precious sisters of the Satans! What else do I need to do to you to give me what I want?”

Serafall ignored him as she floated up into the air. “What you deserve is to be exterminated like the vermin you are.”

Kokabiel growled and braced for a fight and held a piece of Excalibur in a ready stance.

“Ice Age.” Serafall said with a flex of her power. Everything within 50 miles around her instantly froze solid. She floated over to the icicle that was the powerful fallen angel and saw his eyes twitch. “You're still alive?”

The blade in his hand started to glow and Serafall flicked her finger at the ice covering it. The blade shattered, as did his hand and arm, and his muffled scream made her smile.

“Goodbye, vermin.” Serafall said and flicked his forehead. His body shattered and she turned to look at the rest of the attackers. A snap of her fingers had them all shatter as well.

A ritual circle appeared on the sheet of ice and the White Dragon Emperor appeared in his full armor. “Now that you've defeated him, I'm here to retrieve...” Vali Lucifer stopped talking when he saw everyone was dead except for Serafall Leviathan.

“More vermin.” Serafall said and a beam of ice lanced through the air and sheared off half of Vali's chest as if his armor was made of paper.

Flee, my host! She's insane and will kill us all! Albion shouted.

Vali couldn't believe his brave dragon turned out to be a coward and hesitated. It was just long enough for Serafall to appear next to him and she tore his armored gauntlet and his other arm off. Vali screamed as the rest of his armor dissolved and he fell hundreds of feet to the ice below and died.

“Pathetic.” Serafall said and crushed the gauntlet with a single hand. She flew down to stomp on the idiot's head, crushing it, and created a teleport spell on his face. Both she and the body teleported into the Grigori headquarters.

Azazel gasped when they appeared and he lunged to his feet. “Serafall! I sent him to help you!” He said and then choked when a ruined armored gauntlet was shoved into his mouth and partially down his throat.

“If you were half the leader you pretend to be, my sister would still be alive.” Serafall said and froze him and shattered him into a thousand pieces. Then she left his office and continued the slaughter of the Grigori and the rest of the fallen angels.

After several hours and being less and less satisfied by the results of her actions, Serafall finished off the last fallen angel in the underworld and returned to the human realm. She needed to retrieve her sister's body to bury her and create an appropriate tomb for her.

Serafall had just finished carving out the block of ice her sister's body was encased in when a portal opened up near her. She blasted it with her ice powers and nothing happened, so she turned to look at who would dare approach her in her time of grief.

“I'm sorry for interrupting.” The tall blonde haired man said. He wore a skin tight mostly white bodysuit with gold accents. “My name is Atlas and I have an offer you will be interested in.”

“Die.” Serafall said and another magic pulse froze everything around her instantly... and not him. She was so shocked by it that she didn't try to move away when he walked over to her and placed a hand on her forehead.

“I don't normally interfere like this; but, you're useless to me if you're too lost in your grief to listen.” Atlas said and Serafall sucked in a sharp breath as her mind cleared of the haze it had been under. “I can bring you to the next dimension over where Sona lost you and feels the same grief you do.”

“She lost me? How?” Serafall asked. She was the most powerful female devil and wouldn't have died easily.

“I killed her with a surprise attack when she threatened my mother.” Atlas told her.

Serafall suddenly had the scene play in her mind and sighed at her analogue's stupidity as he gave her the knowledge about what had happened. Fallen Angels were not to be trusted and placating them over something like an attack on their illegal base was incredibly naive.

“So, do you agree?” Atlas asked.

“How will you explain me being there and also my body?” Serafall asked.

“We tell the truth.” Atlas said and waved a hand over the ice block that was Sona Sitri and shrunk it to the size of a pendant, then it was encased in a clear material and a golden chain formed on it. He hung it over Serafall's neck and she couldn't help but smile at the gesture. “There's no need for deceit when it comes to family matters.”

Serafall nodded and stood. She would always have her Sona with her and that made her inordinately happy.

“Oh, and I already dealt with Kokabiel there by using your ice powers to freeze him and snapped his head off. He never had the chance to attack Sona or the school.” Atlas told her.

Serafall held her pendant with both hands. “What about the Grigori?”

“If Azazel doesn't handle them like he should have, then we can remove them and the Hero faction before they become a problem.” Atlas promised and she smiled. “Is there anything else here that you need to take with you?”

Serafall shook her head. All she needed was what she had around her neck.

“Then I need to disguise myself to fit in like I did before.” Atlas said and his form shifted slightly to look like the boob-loving idiot that had been murdered by the Fallen Angels and cost Rias Gremory her victory over her fiance by uselessly sacrificing himself.

“You're already dead here.” Serafall said.

“I know.” Issei said and put an arm around her waist.

“Hey, keep your hands to yourself.” Serafall growled and tried to step away.

“It's only a friendly hug.” Issei said and stepped with her, only for them to appear just as the remains of a bright explosion faded away and revealed a huge mass of blood and guts spread around them. “This is the moment right after I left this world.”

Serafall stared at the carnage and then looked at his face. “Why does this feel like my magic?”

Issei chuckled and waved a hand over the blood and gore to gather up the remains. He knew they were valuable parts that could be used for weapons, potions, and even as a delicacy to be eaten. A container appeared and he filled it with a seemingly impossible amount of things that shouldn't have fit inside.

“You will teach me that or make them for me.” Serafall said.

“Agreed.” Issei said and stored the container. “Do you want to visit Sona first?”

Serafall nodded and let him form the teleportation circle to get the coordinates. They were different from the ones she knew in her own dimension and would have to figure out the rest of them before she could travel on her own. They appeared in Sona's teleportation room and Issei opened the door.

“It's Issei again!” He shouted and more spellfire flew down the hallway.

“They don't like you here, either?” Serafall asked and Issei chuckled.

“I made out with Sona after gifting her your King Piece and boosted her powers.” Issei said and Serafall gasped. “You don't have one?”

Serafall shook her head. “I was offered one of the prototypes and refused. I didn't trust them and they were untested.”

“Understandable.” Issei said and leaned out into the hallway. “I have Serafall with me!”

The spellfire increased and several small water and ice dragons were also added in.

“They're so cute!” Serafall almost squealed as she reached out and caught one to pet it.

The spells died off and it was deathly quiet for several seconds.

“S-s-sister?” Sona's shaky voice asked. “Is th-that y-you?”

“Technically.” Serafall said and walked out of the teleportation room and down the hallway with the water and ice dragon in her ams.

“What do you mean technically?” Sona asked and caught her breath when Serafall stepped into the room.

Serafall caught her breath as well, then the two of them lunged towards each other and hugged the other tightly. They stayed like that for several minutes as they came to grips with having the other back in their lives, despite them just dying.

Serafall let her sister go and looked down at the floor where her dead body was carefully placed upon several nice blankets and she saw the death wound where her heart was.

“He really did kill me, huh?” Serafall asked.

“Yes, and I hate him for it.” Sona said, even as she blushed.

“Hate can easily turn to love.” Issei said as he entered the room with his hands up in the air. “I also had to make up for my mistakes and came back as soon as I knew I could.”

Sona looked from her alive sister, to the body on the floor, and to Issei. She could also feel how much stronger he was than he had been only a short time ago “How?”

“Dimensional analogues.” Issei said and she squinted her eyes at him. “No, not me. I did blow up; but, I moved on to another world and had several adventures, gained powers and abilities beyond anything you can imagine, and came back to fix all the things I messed up when I was here last.”

Sona couldn't really argue that he was lying, not when she could see how open and honest he was being. “And you just so happened to find Serafall and brought her back here, too.” She said, that part being easily argued against, since her Serafall was dead at her feet.

“Oh, no. It took me a long time to find her.” Issei said and covered the body of Serafall with ice, shrunk her to pendant size, and covered her with a clear material and formed a gold chain. He bent down and picked it up, then paused as several magic circles were aimed at him.

Sona waved her friends off and Issei hung the new necklace on her neck.

“Now you match.” Issei said and stepped back and out of the way.

Sona's eyes went to the necklace on the alive Serafall's neck and her eyes widened.

“I lost my Sona like you lost your Serafall.” Serafall whispered softly. “Issei found me and offered to bring me here to you.”

Sona tried to not cry as she held the pendant. She knew this wasn't her Serafall, because hers was dead by Issei's hand. However, his hand had also brought her sister back to her and she didn't know how to feel about that.

Serafall let out a sob as tears came to her eyes, because she felt the same way. It was confusing and also a relief, that she had Sona back, even if it wasn't her Sona.

“What are we going to tell everyone?” Sona asked. “Devils don't come back from the dead.”

“It doesn't matter what they think. I'm not here for them.” Serafall said and stepped close to Sona. “I came here for you.”

“But... your job...” Sona hedged.

“I died here, so everything that was mine is gone. I have no responsibilities at all in this world, except for you.” Serafall said. “Nothing is ever going to take me away from you again, Sona. Nothing.”

Sona let her tears flow and she let her pendant go and hugged her sister again.

Issei stepped back once more, only this time it was to shift him from there to his old house at the Hyoudou residence. He could feel who was in the house and he had a choice to make. Reassure his mother and Koneko by joining them in bed, or surprise Rias and Akeno that were in his bedroom. It wasn't really a choice, so he went to his mother's room and stripped off and climbed into bed with them.

Not surprisingly, both Miki and Koneko thought they were dreaming as they had another enjoyable time with the young man they both loved beyond reason. He was dead and all they had left of him was his memory and his children growing in their wombs. They slept with smiles on their faces and their sadness floated away with the happy feelings they felt during the night.

*

I woke up with my arms wrapped around Koneko and Miki, making me smile. I had taken a huge chance by using my powers to find a Serafall Leviathan that had lost her sister, especially considering how she reacted when I appeared. It was the one time I was grateful for absorbing her powers, since that had sent me on my journey through so many other worlds before I was meant to go.

Now I was back where it all started, cheating by sidestepping the other world I had picked and 'saved it' by removing the devil that was going to destroy every race but her own, then she would cull the evil ones, mostly the Old Satan Faction, and there would be no one left to increase the devil's numbers using peerage pieces.

I still had to watch her, just in case Serafall chose to not wait to take care of all the fallen angels like I asked her to. There was still going to be a lot of fallout over what happened, especially with another her coming back and not resuming her duties. It was going to leave the Three Satans in a pickle, assuming Grayfia hadn't already assumed the Fourth Satan title.

I felt a teleportation circle at the front door and remembered I had asked Azazel to deliver Raynare's severed head to Rias, as proof he took the threat I made to him seriously. When I tried to move, Koneko let out a cute little growl and I felt her mouth clamp onto my neck and bite me to hold me still. It tickled and I chuckled, which made her wake up fully.

Koneko stiffened when she realized she really had me under her control and she very slowly opened her mouth to release my trapped skin. She leaned back to look into my eyes and I smiled at her. It took her several seconds before she licked her lips and her pupils dilated, because she had just proven to her senses it really was me.

“You didn't die?” Koneko asked, her voice flat.

“I did and was reincarnated in another world.” I admitted and her cat ears twitched. “I've actually died a lot since I've been gone and it's taken me a very long time to come back to you.”

“You came back?” Koneko whispered as her pupils shrunk almost to pinpricks. “How?”

“It's one of the many powers I've gained since then.” I told her. “It was... gaining it... well, I don't recommend having to go through everything I went through to gather as many different teleportation powers and abilities as possible to let them combine into the final version.”

Koneko gave me a deadpan stare as she thought about it. “Are you still Issei?”

I reached up and tapped my temple. “Each life gave me more memories and they're all up here. Like my powers, they are combining into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Koneko's ears went flat. “So, you aren't.”

I sighed and thought about how to convince her, then smiled. I took my arm away from around her and held my hand up as I pulled out one of the many desserts I had made during my travels. A triple chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Using both magic and my copy power, another 99 appeared around us in the room on many racks and shelves.

“I promised to make you a hundred cakes and I could never disappoint my favorite cat-girl by never delivering them.” I said and handed her the one in my hand.

Tears started to appear in Koneko's eyes and I put my arm back around her to hold her as she cried.