Chapter 381: A New World | [Volume Four]

—

Humans in their base, are boring creatures. By base, she meant the humans back in the Prime Omniverse. In the Cube, however, humans were quite interesting. Living in worlds dreamed up by the Prime Humans as they do, they have higher ceilings and greater ambitions.

That didn't mean humans were her favorite of existence – no – the Mistress had no favorite. Death kills all indiscriminately without biases, after all.

However, across the passage of time, she had taken likings to a few humans who were a cut above the rest. How she judged that was based on how they avoided death. It was always interesting to see them do it.

Neji Hado fell into that category, even if he cheated his way through with his Patron, Lady Luck. Mistress Death has been observing him from time to time, never following him in real time, but just checking on his battles here and there. She had in fact tried to contact him a few times too, like recently when he was fighting Ereshkigal a few days ago when she reached out a title – [Loved by Death] – to him. But he rejected it.

Yet now here he was, coming to her so that he can continue his mission. Mistress Death by no means felt arrogant by all this, it was merely... bad luck, that Lady Luck got herself into her situation, and she was offered the responsibilities.

– Knock~

Death was sitting on the surface of a desolate moon. The empty space was all around her because this place didn't have an atmosphere. She sat on a throne, fully made of skulls and bones, while a grave of bones was splattered all around the terrain.

There was no door in this place. Yet, the sound of knocking spread in the air. Death smiled softly.

"You may come in."

The fabrics of space and time split like an eye, revealing the figure of Famine Fatale, one of her most accomplished agents, followed by none other than Neji Hado himself.

Famine was dressed in barely any clothes, as usual, wearing a white bra-top, and a pajama that was cut in her hips.

Neji Hado was dressed in the same outfit he wore before. A golden armor ran down his waist, while his torso was revealed for everyone to see; blue marks of divinity were dancing around and glowing occasionally.

The split closed, and Famine kneeled, lowering her head and greeting her, while the oblivious human looked around the terrain and absorbed the scenery.

Famine frowned, sweating, as she nudged her elbow on his knee, causing him to turn around and blink. He quickly went on his knees as well, but Death just laughed and gestured for them to stand up.

"You didn't bring your kitten? I was looking forward to touching her."

Given the shift in his expression, as she gave him a weird look, she assumed she must have sounded a bit weird by human standards. Whatever, she could care less.

Neji and Famine stood up, and Death rested her chin on her right hand when her elbow rested on the armrest of her throne.

"I hope you have solved everything in that world. It's time I fulfill Lady Luck's request to take on her responsibility as your Patron. Not that you'd be representing me, I will just be safely sending you to your three remaining destinations. You will also not be taking over anybody's existence, too bothersome for me. You will just be sent there with a pretty much waste-like background."

As in, an NPC background, basically a nobody.

"You can do whatever else you want afterward. I will be observing you, so at least don't finish your job in a day. It's kind of boring that way. At least spend a week, yes? I will send Famine after you're done, and the next world will be available to you right away."

Neji listened to her in silence. Half a minute later, he gave her a short nod.

* * *

Lady Luck was a valuable asset. Neji loved her a lot obviously, as he still did, so he didn't see her just as a patron, an asset. However, he had to admit she was very reliable, she helped him a lot.

Even when home arrested and with her power sealed, she provided more use than this woman. Well, it was stupid of him to assume she would help him as much as Luck... His Luck was more than just a sponsor, this woman wasn't.

Mistress Death was just looking out for him, not looking after him. She was making sure he didn't become what her enemy once was. She was doing so so that if she noticed him turning to that path even a bit, she could take action right away.

More than a sponsor, Mistress Death was like a government spy.

At last, Neji just gave her a short nod, accepting her words. Not that he had any choice. This was his only path.

"All right. Anything you want to ask?"

"Yes."

The woman raised an eyebrow when he replied fast. He opened his mouth and slowly asked a question.

"Contessa Fate... why didn't she stop this nonsense? Why didn't she stop Lady Luck from getting thrown into prison?"

Mistress Death smiled mockingly. She appeared darkly amused. She scoffed as she shook her head.

"From what it seemed to me, she was the one trying hard to send Luck into the Prison. I have no idea what's going through that woman's head because the 'crime' that Luck did is nowhere near what my sister, Lady Life, had done. It doesn't make sense why Luck would be sent to that prison."

Neji blinked. Then he frowned. What was going on? Fate seemed to care about Luck a lot from what he noticed.

"I think it's related to the Director,"

Mistress Death suddenly said, soon humming and nodding.

"Right, you were unconscious. Aren't you curious how much time passed by the time you regained consciousness? Or where that magic coupon appeared? Oh, you may have thought I gave it to you since it's a reviving power. But no, it wasn't by me."

"When you were unconscious, a force named The Director of the Last Act, the harbinger of Omniversal Apocalypse, came to stop Lady Celestine. I have no idea about what they talked about and only learned about her presence there after I descended. Her smell was still there, more so it was being radiated from the coupon you had."

That made Neji pause.

The Director?

Why?

Why did a being like that come to stop Ceslstine? No, just how powerful was she that she could stop Celestine? And that title, harbinger of...

No way, just what was going on?

"I don't know the details, before you ask me, boy. I don't want to waste time talking about it either. Just know that whatever had happened, Fate had seen, and that scene made her heart change so much that she betrayed her own little sister. Could never be me."

Neji stood still on his spot. He had no idea what to say or do. This wasn't it... how was he supposed to work like this?

"Hey,"

Suddenly, Neji looked at Death. Her golden eyes were calming, they felt familiar because of Kurai's similar eyes. So he could openly speak his mind.

"Contessa Fate and you... are from the same Class, yes? Can you remove the mark of herself that she had left within me? She calls it a blessing, but I don't know. Can you remove it?"

Mistress Death stared at him. They were in outer space, with countless universes and multiverses visible in the far, and under all these dots of light, her silence was cold and long.

In the end, she sighed and snapped her finger. Immediately, Neji felt something inside him break apart, vanishing into essence.

"There you go. She may be a little mad at me for this, but screw it. Never liked her anyway. This incident of her betraying her own sister just made her impression worse to me."

It seemed this woman loved her sister, Lady Life, a lot. She said she accepted Luck's offer because she was doing the same sacrifice as Life. So it obviously angered her seeing what Fate did, as an older sister herself.

"We are twins, but I am the younger sister. It's funny how different I have become since she left."

"Ah."

A few stars in the far exploded as Death snapped her fingers. A picture formed in the air, it was a younger Death from perhaps eons ago.

[Image Here]

Indeed, that picture didn't give off an older sister vibe, unlike her current self.

With another snap of her fingers, the image disappeared and she spoke.

"People think Death's more powerful than Life. While it's true in some cases, in pure utility and sheer force, Life is an unbeatable concept. I can only kill what exists, but she could create life from nothingness. She could also kill beings by taking their life away, and she could revive things as well. She has my power sets, somewhat, and her own as well. She could create just about anything. She once created a living star that ate death energy, when fighting an Evil Death God who thought he could kill her. The sun just devoured him. She could also give life to threads of fate, and make them listen to her. She was just... so, so powerful."

Neji never thought like that. In his mind, a God of Life was someone simple, a super healer for example. But on an omniversal scale, a being of that authority had more powers than imaginable. Couldn't she just create an army of zillion soldiers that could fight for her? She sounded overpowered.

"Anyway, talking about this is a waste of time, isn't it? Let's move on. It's time you choose which world you will go to."

Death said and Neji returned back to the center. This wasn't a topic he should waste time on. Not that it would bear any fruit whatsoever. She was locked, just like Luck, thinking about just how powerful she was a waste of time.

"At this point, I was thinking you'd just throw me to any of the three worlds. It's great that you're giving me a choice."

Death smiled. "Yes, be thankful. You have three choices. Worldline X-861^7, Worldline Z-234^76, and-"

"Wait wait wait, I don't know any of those worlds. Wasn't it like DxD, Bleach, and Tensura that remained?"

Neji frowned at her, as the woman tilted her head and blinked.

"Ahh, right. You mortals know these worlds by those names. Yes, that is correct. Those three are the ones."

"Good."

Neji released a breath. He was nearly scared something went wrong. He was about to choose right away, but then he decided to ask her something.

"By the way,"

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me which girl is in which world? Lady Luck couldn't due to her sealing. But you know, you're so strong, perhaps..."

"Nope, it's not fun that way. Figure it out yourself. Now choose."

Neji frowned. His impression of her had increased a bit, seeing her love her sister so much, but it went down the gutter again. Along with the other things she was doing in this job, she also was just trying to rid her boredom.

"I choose... High School DxD."

Still, Neji's destination was clear this time around. This time, he was sure that Kimi was in that place. There was no spec of doubt left.

Finally, he would meet his love, and he knew they would think of something better than what he could think of alone.

"All right,"

Mistress Death smiled. She stood up and raised her hand, ready to snap.

"Go wreak havoc or whatever. Just make it fun."

Snap. Her fingers danced, and the floor beneath him vanished. Neji fell into the dark abyss.

....

Neji fell for nearly a minute in the darkness, but he didn't panic. Instead, it was strangely comfortable. The void was lovely and embracing. He felt similar when he was traveling with Famine just a while ago, even though she said it was dangerous he found it lovely.

After a minute, the darkness changed. It's as if he passed through a dark cloud and suddenly he was in the sky, still falling down.

He noticed his outfit had changed, and was relieved to see his armor stored in his inventory. He wore a pair of formal pants and a white shirt, as he fell from the sky to the city below.

A human city. A modern city. From the text on the billboards and buildings, as it was nighttime and everything was lit up, this was Japan.

Finally, a world with modern Japan.

Neji shifted in the air, turning around and using his telekinesis to control his body. He could have brought out his wings but that would have destroyed the shirt. So he simply controlled his body, paused his fall and stopped in the air.

"Huh."

He was on top of a park, and looking down, he found an incident happening as per cliché. A girl... a nun was getting harassed under the blanket of this dark night.

"So it begins."

With a puff of breath, Neji dropped to the ground and approached the scene.

Neji remembered something. A small request that Lady Luck had made back in the day. That he must pretend to be God's Reincarnation when he goes to DxD.

So, it must be fate that he was meeting a nun out in the open as his first scenario in this world.

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Master4thWall Note: And it started. The DxD Arc is here!

I know many would just skip Fate and jump to this, but for those readers, I highly suggest you read from Chapter 359 of Fate Arc, or at least skim through it. It's filled with more The Cursed Gamer plot than Fate, such as the wife of the Primordial. So it doesn't need you to know Fate + is highly required if you want to keep up with the happenings of the main storyline.

Other than that, happy reading! A lot awaits this time around, and happily - no Nerf either.