The Protagonist System

17 One Last Hurrah

“You realize that when they recover from the shock, you will be the most hunted Devil in the three realms.” Grayfia said when we entered the transportation room.

“Not for the reasons you think.” I said and nodded at the teleportation circle. “Can you set that to Akeno's room?”

“It would be easier to go to Rias' mansion first and walk up the stairs. Knocking first would be the polite thing to do.” Grayfia said.

“Good point. Make it so.” I said and and stepped into the circle.

“I could set this for the moon.” Grayfia said as her magic altered the coordinates.

“I'm leaving this world anyway, so all you'll do is disappoint Akeno if you do that.” I said and her eyes widened. “Before you ask, I changed too much too quickly. The ripples are going to alter... well, everything. I only have about an hour or so before I explode from magic overload.”

Grayfia opened her mouth to speak, shook her head, and stepped into the circle and activated it. We disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in a nearly identical room. “This way.”

I followed that great ass out of the room and up a grand staircase to the west wing of the mansion. She pointed to a door and I knocked.

“EEP!” Akeno's loud voice came through the door and then there were several thump sounds.

“And that is why we knock.” Grayfia said with a small smile on her face.

I chuckled and waited patiently. I wasn't exaggerating, either. I really shouldn't have harvested Kokabiel's and Baraqiel's powers. I now had three different and very strong aspects of magic fighting for dominance inside of me and it was pretty much tearing me apart. If my own magic wasn't holding me together and regenerating the damage, I might have died already.

The bedroom door opened and a dishevelled Akeno stood there with wide eyes as she saw who it was that knocked. She didn't bother covering up her near nakedness in the see-through nightie. The lack of panties was slightly distracting me, though.

“Ufufufu. Are you getting a good enough look, Issei?” Akeno asked, her teasing manner taking over from her surprise.

“I'm not sorry.” I said and looked up at her face. “You're very pretty.”

Akeno blinked her eyes several times. “Excuse me?”

“I want to bury my face between your legs, because you look good enough to eat, and I want to make you scream before I die.” I said and she looked stunned. “I brought you a going-away present.”

Akeno's mouth dropped open when I handed her an ice-covered head. It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at and gasped. She let it go and it fell to the floor, bounced once, and rolled to a stop at my feet.

“Yes, it's your father's head. I just harvested it during the meeting.” I said and reached down to form it into a solid square block of ice and made it permanent. “Hang it on your wall, take a sledgehammer to it, piss on it. You can do whatever you want to it.” I picked it up and handed it back to her. “You're welcome.”

Akeno stared at the thing and looked completely lost.

“Well, I think she's too shocked to accept my offer. Let's go, Lady Grayfia.” I said and walked down the hallway.

Grayfia followed me and Akeno didn't call us back. We made it back to the teleportation room and Grayfia gave me a questioning look.

“I'm sure I read it somewhere that there are wild areas in the Underworld that are full of terrifying and ravenous mutated beasts that could devastate the population if they ever made it to civilization.” I said and Grayfia nodded. “Could you find the coordinates to one of the biggest ones and drop me off there? I'm not sure how much damage I can do; but, I'd rather take out as many of them as possible before my time is up.”

Grayfia looked very conflicted. “Issei, I don't think I can do that.”

“Why not? Serafall sentenced me to death with the Fallen Angels for killing 32 fake exorcists. I actually killed three faction leaders today, so you don't have to feel guilty about it.” I said and then remembered something important. “Dammit, I almost forgot about that. We need to make a quick trip back to the house, discreetly of course, and then we need to go to Sona's.”

Grayfia was all for delaying me killing myself by monster breeding pit and we teleported into my room. I dug through my normal pants pockets and pulled out the red King Piece and Grayfia sucked in a sharp breath when she saw it.

“This was inside Serafall.” I said.

“Of course that's how she beat me.” Grayfia whispered and teleported us to Sona's mansion.

We left the room and announced to the maid in the lobby that we were there. Barely a few minutes later, Sona and most of her Peerage had surrounded us.

“How dare you show your face here!” One of the girls spat at me.

“Shut the fuck up.” I responded and they all looked shocked. “I came here to give Sona the only thing Serafall had that was as important to her as her little sister was.”

Sona stepped forward and her glare was tinged with sadness. “I can't imagine what that was.”

I stepped close and looked down slightly into her teary eyes. “Power and her Peerage, my dear.” I said and wrapped an arm around her and kissed her deeply.

Grayfia created a barrier around us to stop the other girls from attacking us and it obscured us from sight. I took the King Piece and placed it on Sona's chest as we kissed. The bright glow as the piece sunk in changed slightly as it adapted to a new host.

Thankfully, it had been designed for a Sitri, so Sona's compatibility with it was very high. I had to go another 1,500 Karma points into debt to ensure that it worked; but, I was already 32,160 points in the hole anyway, so it was cheap in comparison.

The glow settled and Sona's eyes changed slightly as the power boost increased her own inherent power by five times. Her pupils almost looked like deep ocean pools of water and the warm smile on her face when I broke the kiss, told me all I need to know about this being the right decision.

I stepped back to bow deeply to Sona. “Please take care of Mil-Tan. She needs someone as strong as you to keep her safe and to look after her as she runs Levi-Tan's media empire.”

Sona reached out to lift my chin and made me stand up straight. “You're leaving for good, aren't you?”

“I have no choice.” I said and wrapped my arms around her to hug her, then I whispered in her ear. “Imagine what you just felt, only a hundred times worse, and with no one to stabilize it like I did for you.”

Sona's breathing sped up and she leaned back to look into my eyes. “Your body can't handle it.”

“Maybe in a hundred years I wouldn't have had a problem. Since I'm a newly reincarnated Devil, I apparently bit off more than I could chew.” I joked and she frowned.

“How are we supposed to play chess for my hand in marriage if you're dead?” Sona asked.

I chuckled. “Something so valuable shouldn't be so easily won.”

Sona blushed and gave me another kiss, this one soft and full of feeling. “I hate you for killing my sister.”

“I hate having to kill people to make them see reason; but, I still did it. I want to keep the people I love safe.” I said and gave her a long and tender kiss. “I hope you can forgive me someday.”

Sona nodded. “Maybe. Someday.”

“Goodbye, Princess Sitri.” I said and stepped back from her. “Lady Grayfia, a hasty exist.”

Grayfia dropped the barrier, picked me up and threw me over her shoulder, and ran. Magical attacks followed us down the hallway and we ducked into the teleportation room. A flash of light later and we were back in the Underworld.

“Stay here. This is the Gremory Clan mansion. You do not have permission to be here.” Grayfia said and left the room at a fast walk.

I had to wait for a long twenty minutes before Grayfia returned, so I used the time by carefully dismissing my party members and paid the Karma cost to stop any negative effects. Grayfia had a piece of paper in her hands and I saw that it was a hastily drawn map of the demon monster breeding pits.

Because there were no actual map coordinates for the area, she had taken the time to reference a few things around the area to find proper coordinates near where I needed to go.

“I really don't want to do this.” Grayfia whispered as she altered the teleportation circle's destination.

“Neither of us has a choice now. It's too late to go anywhere else.” I told her.

Grayfia sighed and finished, then she stood to glare at me. “I give my word to keep an eye on your children for you.”

I stepped close to her and gave her a passionate kiss, grabbed her ass, and pressed my erection into the front of her skirt. “I'd fuck you and get you pregnant if I had the time.”

Grayfia let out a growl sound. “Why didn't you offer before?”

“Like I said, there wasn't enough time to fuck you properly.” I said with a smirk and stepped back to the middle of the circle.

“You bastard.” Grayfia said with a smile and added magic to the teleportation circle.

“My parents are married, thank you.” I said and blew her a kiss as the circle lit up. “Just wait twenty years and one of my sons should be happy to give you a child. They'll love you as much as I do.”

Grayfia gasped just as I disappeared in a flash of light. I laughed at her shocked look when I appeared in the air above some kind of canyon and dropped down twenty feet to the ground below. There was a light rumbling sound as a giant six-legged creature with three horns came out of a cave in the wall. It was half-lizard and half-fuck-knows-what and it breathed fire.

I pointed a finger at the thing and an iceberg formed from the tip of my finger and froze the thing and covered the cave entrance. I was surprised when I received 200 Karma points for killing the thing and started to smile. I had about 45 minutes left before I went critical. If I worked hard to gather as many creatures as I could to be as close as possible when I blew, I might come out of this whole thing ahead.

“Let the slaughter begin!” I shouted and twelve bat wings popped out of my back.

*

Rias sat at the kitchen table and stared at her crystal ball. She had snuck her familiar under Issei's collar to watch what happened at the meeting. Everything that happened to him since then had pretty much made her catatonic. She hadn't even noticed when Akeno showed up a crying mess and had latched onto her, lamenting that she hadn't accepted Issei's offer when she had the chance.

This latest thing, fighting the monstrous abominations that inhabited the wastelands of the Underworld, made her feel numb at the sheer power he was unleashing. Icebergs the size of high-rise buildings, bolts of Holy Lightning that outshone Akeno's strongest attacks, and bright beams of Light that seared the wings and limbs off of city block-sized creatures.

If Rias had looked closer, she would have noticed that Issei's arms and legs were slowly shredding apart. The amount of power he was discharging wasn't helping his desperate situation and it seemed to only hasten the speed at which he was losing integrity.

There was a sudden surge of creatures as a wave of them, car-sized and larger, swarmed Issei's position. She could see the happiness on his face as he was quickly overwhelmed, felt sad that he wanted to die like that, then the crystal ball glowed a bright white and blanked out.

“He's gone.” Koneko whispered and hugged Miki beside her. She picked the woman up, cradled her in her arms, and carried her out of the room and up the stairs.

Rias felt a tear run down her cheek and wiped at it. She didn't say anything as she packed the crystal ball away, took Akeno's hand, and brought her upstairs to Issei's room. The two of them crawled into bed and quietly cuddled.

Many of the women that Issei had known, thought about what their lives were going to be like without the man they loved to comfort them.

*

Whew! Now I know what adrenaline junkies go through when they get their fix. I thought with a laugh as I floated in nothingness.

Why did you kill yourself instead of spreading all that Karma Debt around?

Spread it around? I was absorbing it to get rid of it. I thought with a chuckle. It was bad enough I was taking it on and trying to do good at the same time, only that wasn't how everything came about.

There is just one problem with that. You murdered all those innocent creatures that never harmed you. They were just living their lives and...

Actually, I culled them. They'll breed for a few hundred years, maybe a thousand, and be back to the same levels. Well, assuming someone doesn't go in there to maintain the much lower levels they are at now. I thought, quite pleased. Plus, I gained a stupid amount of Karma at the end. I didn't get the popup with the total, though.

The box didn't show anything for several minutes.

The smaller blue box appeared with the word 'giggle' on it. One point. After all of that, you have a single positive point.

I couldn't help it and laughed and laughed. I had thought I would still be a few thousand points in debt and would be forced to go to a murder-world like a constant war zone, or a zombie apocalypse or something, to make up enough Karma to go to a normal world. Instead, my last hurrah had somehow let me break even.

Please choose a starting Protagonist. Warning: Limited choices are available.
Familiar of Zero: Replace Saito Hiraga
Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?: Replace Bell Cranel
High School DXD: Replace Issei Hyoudou (Completed)
Dragonball: Replace Goko

Wait, wait, wait! How did I get another choice? I only had one point!

Only the smaller box responded. It's run on percentages. If you had come back with a hundred points, you would have five new choices. More points, more choices, bigger worlds.

I blinked my eyes at that. So, you're saying if I had somehow died after I had over 20,000 Karma points, I could have gone anywhere I wanted?

If you had shown up with that much, you could have gone to Marvel or DC and picked any of the characters there and created a singular instance to become the Protagonist of your own story, including one of the villains. The bad guys have become popular lately for some reason.

I suddenly had the image of becoming a charismatic Doctor Doom, stealing that super-hot babe Sue Storm from her idiot husband Reed Richards, and then saving the world with magical technology.

That's a nice fantasy, especially the reveal when you open your armor and show off that body. The little box said and showed the word 'giggle' again. Dammit, now I'm imagining it, too.

I chuckled. The infection is spreading! Ha ha ha!

The 'giggle' word appeared yet again. Go ahead and make your choice. Your normal minder isn't coming back for a while.

I looked over my choices and I was really tempted to pick Dragonball. To go through Goku's early life while growing up with Ki powers would be great, not to mention the wishes with the Dragonballs every year. Oh, and Bulma. Milf before the milf.

I shook my head at that thought as I realized my short time as Issei had really changed my thoughts about things like appropriate behavior. I would need to keep a close eye on that to make sure I didn't screw things up for myself in whatever world I chose.

The Familiar of Zero was a decent choice, except for the whole being summoned as a peasant and being made fun of. Then again, I did spend a lot of Karma points to master tons of skills. I wonder if they would become prominent during the summoning ritual?

In any case, being branded as a slave wasn't high on my priority list after experiencing Rias' Peerage, even if Louise was cute. I was not sleeping on the floor on some hay, unless I'd fucked her senseless on it first, then it would be okay.

Whoa, I really needed to roll back on those kinds of thoughts. I thought and shook my head again. I guess that makes my choice for me.

You have chosen 'Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?'. Please choose a point in the timeline to be inserted.
Warning: Karma options available. Five choices are available.
Birth
Surviving in the City - First Death
Second Death
Third Death
Fourth Death

Okay, that's a lot more than I expected. I thought. I won't bother asking about the birth thing, since one point of Karma won't let me change much, except probably how old his grandpa was when he died.

How did you know that?

I chuckled at the first box finally responding. It's the only real event that impacts Bell's journey to the city to look for a Familia to adopt him. Everything else in his life is circumstantial and meaningless.

That was well reasoned. I kind of feel bad that you're going to be on the verge of starvation when you enter the story.

I thought about that. All of the insertion choices have that caveat, don't they?

He never eats well, despite Hestia giving him more of their meagre food. It's not shown, because having an emaciated lead isn't conductive to a good story.

I nodded at that. I would have to work hard to change that as soon as possible. I chose Surviving in the City - First Death.

Memories will be added when you wake up and you will be disoriented for several minutes. Good luck with your new life!

Thanks. I thought and everything faded to black.

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