(Image: Nyx, Goddess of the Night)
Holding the bone shard in his hand, Akuto felt a gentle, warm sense of affinity wash over him.
The system wasn't wrong. Shuri really was a natural-born Fallen Angel, fundamentally different from those Fallen Angels who had once been Angels and then fell.
The biggest difference was this: a natural-born Fallen Angel was a product of nature, and there were essentially no inherent limits to how far she could grow. Ordinary Fallen Angels, on the other hand, had been Angels created by the God of the Bible before they fell. They were artificial lifeforms.
The God of the Bible could grant them an exceptionally high starting point, but if one wanted to research their nature, it became extremely difficult.
…
If Angels could be described as a "devolved form" of the God of the Bible, and the God of the Bible as an "evolved form" of Angels…
If the God of the Bible represented the ultimate pinnacle of holiness—a "Holy God"…
Then in this world, only natural-born Fallen Angels had the potential to evolve into the ultimate pinnacle of corruption—a "Fallen God."
Of course, that was only in a world where Akuto didn't exist.
Now, as long as one absorbed Akuto's chess pieces, whether Fallen Angel or Angel, they could break the old shackles and become something akin to a "natural-born Angel" or "natural-born Fallen Angel," gaining the possibility of advancing to the level of the God of the Bible.
A possibility. Only a possibility.
Akuto had done the math: with Gabriel currently at fourteen wings and ranked at the level of a Chief God, reaching the tier of the God of the Bible was so far away it could only be called distant beyond measure.
After all, for Seraphs, their strength had barely changed since the moment they were created. What they could accumulate was knowledge and technique, nothing more. As a result, they had never truly possessed a "cultivation mindset."
…
"Woom—"
A vast number of formulas and patterns were etched by Akuto into the bone shard.
Then he placed it into Akeno's hands.
"Akeno, in a moment, I'll awaken the bloodline power inside you."
"When the time comes, hold Shuri's bone shard, and call her name from the bottom of your heart."
"Yes. I understand."
Akeno's gaze gradually shifted from gentle to resolute.
A few seconds later, she accepted the prepared elixir from Akuto. First, she dripped the refined liquid onto the bone shard. Then she drank the remainder in one go.
Netherworld Ganoderma could use the connection of bloodline to communicate with a soul that had already passed into the Underworld to be reborn, while Soul-Return Grass possessed the effect of drawing a soul back.
As for Dragon-Saliva Flower, it could massively amplify the effects of the first two, and it could also strengthen the soul of the deceased—granting it the ability to return through the Gate of the Underworld.
Akuto had roughly inspected Shuri's situation. For reasons unknown, Shuri had never completed the full reincarnation process. She had not entered a new life.
Otherwise, if he were simply searching for a soul that had already reincarnated, it wouldn't be this troublesome.
It was only in the DxD world that reviving someone became this much of a hassle for him.
Because the DxD world—unlike the Apocalypse world and the Akame ga Kill world—possessed a complete reincarnation system.
In the Apocalypse world and the Akame ga Kill world, Akuto only needed to find a wandering, unclaimed soul still drifting between heaven and earth, then bind it and place the core components—soul and body—into the rebirth pool.
After he fully cleared the world, it would become even simpler. He could, at any time, pull a person from the timeline and revive them, as long as their strength did not exceed his own.
…
"Open!"
Akuto barked a command, and a circle rapidly unfolded beneath his feet from a central point.
Normally, at this stage, one would need to use a special method to further amplify the medicinal power of the Dragon-Saliva Flower.
But for Akuto as he was now, he could construct a unique artificial leyline with his own hands.
"Roooooar—!"
The dragon soul of the True Red Dragon Emperor surged out and plunged into the ground beneath Akeno's feet.
After the Red Dragon Emperor, countless souls followed—Danger Beasts born alongside the world of Akame ga Kill and Earth itself.
Originally, the Danger Beasts of the Akame ga Kill world cultivated primarily their bloodlines and racial talents. But Akuto had once combined the DxD world's cultivation methods and spread the teachings broadly throughout the Akame ga Kill world.
Not only humans—Danger Beasts, too, gained their own methods of cultivation. After cultivating, those Danger Beasts became existences akin to the DxD world's yokai and beastfolk.
One after another, those souls poured into the earth, helping Akuto create an artificial leyline.
In the next instant, Akuto lightly stamped the ground.
"Roooooar—!"
A surge of unprecedented dragon power and demonic power wrapped around Akeno in an instant.
"Akeno!"
Akuto snapped his gaze to her.
Following his instructions, Akeno awakened her bloodline power, then poured the memories she held of Shuri—etched deep in her mind—into the bone shard she held.
As Akeno's soul power continued to strengthen…
The Gate of the Underworld appeared.
"Next, as long as we open this Gate of the Underworld, we can retrieve Shuri's soul."
"Akeno, don't worry. If communication fails, we can take it by force."
"Besides, the one who arrives is most likely not an Underworld God."
"Because the vast majority of Underworld gates are public. The ones who manage them are usually not the Underworld Gods themselves, but subordinates—something like top-ranking Death Gods."
Under Akuto's watchful eye, a girl appeared before the Gate of the Underworld—wearing a blazer-style school uniform that looked distinctly modern.
As a Greek goddess, Nyx wore a contemporary, school-uniform-inspired outfit that made her look strikingly youthful. Coupled with her faintly arrogant, teasing posture and that playful air in her expression, Akuto arrived at a blunt conclusion.
This was a smug, teasing type of goddess.
…
"If I'm not mistaken," Nyx said, "you intend to plunder my treasury and take my collection, don't you?"
Despite being a goddess, Nyx was dressed in an ultra-modern school-uniform look. She was one of the antagonistic gods who appeared only in the late stages of the original storyline.
In the original story, she worked with her brother, Erebus, and cooperated with Hades to seek out new Sacred Gears.
In the end, they discovered the holder of [Ode of the Terminal Verdant Sea], Ingviel, and the holder of [Crown of the Sovereign Abyssal Deep], Meredith.
After confirming the function of [Ode of the Terminal Verdant Sea], they attempted to manipulate the Heavenly Dragon and the Infinite Dragon God.
By the late stages, Issei had already reached the phase where he could wield "Dragon Deification," making him terrifyingly powerful—yet even so, before the "Ingviel" controlled by Nyx, he was still suppressed, crushed by a profound sense of powerlessness.
…
Now, the Nyx who should have appeared only in the far late game was, due to twists of circumstance, standing before Akuto ahead of schedule.
In her hand, she held a golden sphere as she descended slowly from the air.
Akuto could sense it clearly: within that golden sphere was Shuri's soul.
Indeed, many Underworld-aligned gods would choose to collect unusual souls. And Shuri, one of the rare natural-born Fallen Angels, truly did have the "qualifications" to be collected.
Narrowing his eyes, Akuto released a presence equal to Nyx's—Chief God-class power flaring around him—as he walked toward her step by step.
As one of the Greek pantheon's primordial deities, Nyx possessed the strength of an early-stage Chief God.
At that moment, feeling Akuto's aura pressing back against her almost evenly, Nyx narrowed eyes as deep as night, then glanced up toward the sky.
So that was it. Before she even arrived, heavy layers of formations had already been set in place.
"Mm-hm?" Nyx smiled lightly and looked at Akuto. "From all this preparation, you already knew that using an art like this would draw an Underworld god, didn't you?"
Hearing that, Akuto advanced calmly, neither servile nor arrogant.
"Nyx-sama. I am Sai Akuto Leviathan, the current Red Dragon Emperor, and the General Council Chair of the Tdx agency newly established by the Three Great Factions."
"As you can see, the girl beside me is the daughter of the female wandering soul in your hand. I wonder if you would be willing to do her a kindness, and transfer this soul you've collected to me."
"Of course, I won't take Nyx-sama's possession for free. In exchange, I can offer you an item whose value is not lower than Shuri's soul."
Akuto chose a respectful approach. The Three Great Factions had only just finished integrating—he had no interest, in the near term, in stirring conflict with other pantheons.
Nyx shook her head gently.
In her eyes, this boy called Akuto was being far too wishful.
"Red Dragon Emperor, the reason I collected this soul is because this soul possesses a certain… peculiarity."
"Mm-hm? Fate?" Akuto narrowed his eyes. "What about fate?"
Could it be that Nyx had seen what made Shuri different?
In the next moment, under Akuto's gaze, Nyx spoke slowly.
"The fate-trajectory of the soul I collected has been altered. It is heading toward an unknown direction."
"That is why I used the Gate of the Underworld to seize her soul."
"I'm afraid you may not be able to produce a collectible of equal value to this soul."
…
"Hm? Wait…"
Mid-sentence, Nyx's eyes widened.
As she spoke with Akuto, she instinctively tried to observe his line of fate.
But she couldn't see it.
She couldn't see anything at all.
It was as if this person did not exist before her. She could not perceive Akuto's fate line in any way.
(End of Chapter)
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