Chapter 436: Foolish Expectations

—

"So... now what?"

It was a conversation Neji had with Momo a very long time ago. Back when he was hiding inside the Arcane Plane with the girls. They spent eight months there, while a World War happened outside.

Neji and Nejire's parents died at the hands of Nawab's subordinate, that woman – Ujir. Along with Momo's parents. It was a foolish choice to bring the four parents out of Neji's inventory because the result was their death.

Momo initially blamed him, it was a stupid thing to do which she and everyone else knew, but Neji didn't mind. When she calmed down, she apologized. Nothing was his fault, after all. Rather, he was dirtying his hands for their sake.

"What do you mean?" Neji asked her back. The two of them were sitting on the peak of a tall mountain that reached above the clouds, their bodies resting against one another under the moonlight.

"Well, you said the situation outside is bad, and a World War is going on," Momo asked. "What do we do after we defeat the Gods? Should we rebuild Japan? Become rulers of the remaining world or something?"

She sounded oddly confident that they would win against the Gods. Neji looked at her from the corner of his eyes, while both of their heads faced the moon. "I don't know. We can decide that after we fight the Gods. And after we see what the state of the world outside is."

He knew what the state of the world outside was by now, but the girls didn't know that. The girls knew he was killing people outside, but they didn't know what extreme. They thought he was just killing the villains, and while that was true... he had killed a lot of heroes and in some cases civilians too. For what it counted, the only time he killed the civilians was when they were destined to die. Like if a nuke was falling on a country and was sure to destroy everything, then he'd slip in there and do a quick job of the numbers right before the nuke would hit.

The girls knew he had dirtied his hands... but they didn't know how much. Except for Kimi and Nejire, he told them about it. He needed to share the burden with someone, even if it was just a hug they could console him with. But really, wasn't it hypocritical of him to victimize himself when it was he who was killing them, context or otherwise?

"You think," she nudged closer to him. "...I can heal the world? Can I revive all those who died? That's the Phoenix's job, after all."

Was it? "We'll see." Neji hugged her shoulders. "I, uh, don't think the world will survive. If life remained after the war, it would all perish when the Gods attacked. There is a high chance that the planet won't be inhabitable by the time we finish them..." he left out the part 'if we can'.

"Mars, then?" Momo replied after a long silence. "With my powers, I can make that place habitable. I think. You also stole Kamui Wood's powers, so we should be able to grow trees there with it."

It hurt Neji a little seeing her try to bear all of the destruction on her shoulder. While he was only thinking about how to survive, Momo was here contemplating how she should repair the world. Neji didn't like that. Why must she bear his faults? The Gods were after him, not these foolish girls... Really, should he have fallen in love with anyone?

Though these days in DxD he didn't think like that anymore, but during his time in the Hero Academia world, he actively forced himself to not fall in love unless the person had a particularly strong quirk that might help them survive. Nemuri Kayama was the exception to that rule, but perhaps that was why he was too ashamed to embrace her even after he saved her brazenly. Because he had seen... no, he had killed Mina and Ochako with his own hands when he could have saved them.

Along with that, he was sure the girls knew what he was doing in the outside world. They pretended not to, but as Momo said, he had Kamui Wood's quirk. The girls didn't ask him once how he got that quirk because it was clear how he did. The man they loved was a murderer, who killed without discrimination. He had a clear cause because it was true that none of the heroes would have survived once the Gods came, the current Neji even knew that, but still, back then the girls knew that he was a cold-hearted killer.

Yet, they stuck with him. Till the end, until he... abandoned them.

He would like to say he didn't, that he promised to look for them, but of the five girls, the two girls he found had been waiting for him for more than a millennium. No sane person would believe for that long that they weren't abandoned... even if the reason, they must have theorized, was his death against the Gods.

"Yeah..." Neji let out a sigh as his hug tightened around her. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" Momo asked; she assumed it was because he was killing people but in reality, Neji apologized knowing such a grim future might await them. "Neji?"

Neji didn't reply. He just hugged her.

Momo was special to him. Well, all five of his initial girls were special. But Momo was his official girlfriend, only she had that title. So he adored her a lot.

That day, he decided, he wouldn't get mad if any of his girls found a new family in another world. He knew the possibility that a long time would pass was true, so he shouldn't blame them if they thought he was gone and found a new family. Just that... he would reclaim them as his woman no matter the situation.

To his luck, he hadn't faced such situations in his last two finds. Rumi took over Kaguya after Kaguya had already given birth to Hagoromo and Hamura. The same was true for Ryukyu, who took over Artoria's body long after Mordred was born.

But... both of them were somewhat chained for a thousand years. Rumi was locked inside the moon, and Ryukyu wasn't herself in her mind. So they didn't have the chance to forget him, to move on. He wondered if it was the same for Momo since the Phenex Ancestor was apparently "asleep" for a long time. However, he also kept the possibility in his head that maybe the Phenex Family was indeed her offspring. That she found someone else.

He wouldn't be mad, hurt, or surprised if that happened... It's been so long. But he would be hurt if she had already moved on from him. What if she didn't accept him for returning after so long? What if... she forgot all those sweet memories they had together?

Neji reached the supposed location in the underworld.

* * *

Neji knew that the provided location was authentic since Sirzechs had agreed with the Contract, he must have said the truth.

But he would have questioned it right now if it were not for his Jogan. He stood over an empty terrain, far from the civilization of the underworld. Since the underworld was as large as Earth, but the population was much smaller, it had a lot of empty land. This was one of those places, but Jogan did sense the presence of people.

Underground. With lots of magic seals that hid it well. It was so well hidden that none of Neji's other senses picked on it.

"Huh, they did give me the location, but it's entry is still restricted." His magical eyes looked at the many defensive mechanisms set on the ground. "Since it's devil magic, I suppose some Lumomancer skills should do the trick."

Neji raised his hand and a lance of light began to form on his grip.

[Luminous Lance: This skill can summon a glowing lance of bright light that can easily Defensive Magic, the potency increases if used against dark magic.]

He dove it down toward the ground. At the speed of light, a beam left the lance and it clashed with the many kinds of barriers. It took half a minute before the barriers were destroyed, shattering like glass.

Neji canceled the attack as smoke oozed out of the ground. There was a large hole in there, leading below. He dove down and into it, not bothering to waste any time. He dove deep through a tunnel, for kilometers, until he came out in a fiery volcanic area.

The roof was made out of earth, as this was a deep underworld, and there was a volcano on the floor below. A dark mansion stood near it, and that's where Neji sensed the presence of the Phenex Devils.

Neji's eyes scanned the mansion. In just a second, he found what he was looking for in the most gorgeous bedroom. A woman lay there on the bed, her eyes and breathing slowly. Many of the Phenex family members were there too, guarding her with a worried look on their faces as they looked up at the ceiling. They must have heard the sound from the attack.

Neji used Kamui and dropped down into the castle. He slipped through walls and into the room, between a startled crowd.

"E-enemy attack!" Yelled a man, raising a weapon at Neji. Neji snapped his finger as the man, along with all the other Phenex in the castle, vanished at once. He didn't kill them; they were teleported far from here.

Only Neji was left in the room. With the sleeping beauty in front of him.

"..." Neji looked at her. She was covered by a blanket, lying on her back with her eyes closed. Neji gently tossed the blanket away to find a revealing bridal dress, it had a headdress to boot.

Wrapped by the headdress, she had black hair, not matching the Phenex Devils, but she did have a bang of hair that was golden in color. It was red... the last time Neji saw her, but now it was golden.

However, there were no doubts.

===

Name: Momo Yaoyorozu | Ranefer Phenex

Tier: Peak Fifty-Seven [57]

Race: Demonic Phoenix

Age: 1,631

Powers: Click to Expand...

Special Characteristics: Under a Curse— The Curse of the Primordial Darkness cast by Nyx and Erebus. It makes her body very cold, weak, and sleepy. She is unable to regain her consciousness unless cursed off the darkness.

===

"It's really you." Neji smiled down at her. His eyes locked on the Tier. He wasn't even a little surprised. "Looks like you finally stopped pulling punches."

Out of all his girls, she has the easiest way to get stronger. She just had to stop being a pussy. She could create miniature nukes, but in this magical world, she could probably make magical weapons that could destroy the planet a few times over.

"But what's this? A curse? Which fucking idiots dared." Neji read the names and made a mental note to pulverize them later. For now, he had to cure it. He pressed his hand on her forehead. "Curse Purge."

[Curse Purge: A holy technique that can cure curses. Works best against curses cast by dark energies.]

His Lumomancer powers matched greatly with his Biblical God powers. Holy powers rushed through his hand and— Neji's eyes widened when Momo's skin burned. He quickly withdrew his hands.

"Shit. Right, she's a devil now..." Neji let out a groan. That complicated things. How could he cure the curse then? "Ah, wait."

Neji activated [Mine]. Dark void tendrils rushed out of his hand and rushed into her body, through her flesh. He felt a tug and pulled, yanking the curse out of her body. It was a dark purple light that absorbed with ease and increased his Divinity points.

"Easy." He replied and looked at her. Her eyes fluttered open. Her familiar eyes that had gone red after he had turned her into a phoenix.

Momo Yaoyorozu looked at the ceiling. Her eyes slowly darted and met with him.

Neji was about to smile and talk. But right then, her body let out an explosion, as if a Supernova went out.

— Boom!

The castle blasted into blisters, and the volcano behind also went out. The entire underground area was erased from the map, all the land above cleared up and now there was a kilometer-deep crater in the place.

The explosion cleared up as Neji coughed, his armor-pants now covering his entire body. He had burn wounds on his face, and it wasn't healing. The flames of the phoenix were potent enough to stop his natural dragon regeneration.

"Yahweh," it was a voice that he knew, yet it sounded so different. As if the person had been away for years. "For what have you awakened me?"

Yahweh. The name of the Biblical God... Not Neji.

Neji stood hundreds of meters from her, but he could see her clearly. She could too, he was sure. Yet, her face showed no sign that she recognized him.

She didn't have any mental blockage like Ryukyu either, or else it would have shown in her Special Characteristics tab. No, she had simply...

Forgotten him.

[Image Here]

* * *

"You look different," in the kilometer-deep and just as wide crater, the woman with fire for hair spoke up. "You look irritating."

Maybe she hadn't forgotten him entirely. His blue eyes and white hair seemed to remind her of someone annoying.

"My bad," he replied, letting his armor fall down to his pants again. "But why so?"

"None of your business," the woman stood like an infernal warning to his senses as she glared at him.

To her defense–Neji tried to defend her– he was now a 6"5 hunk with muscles that he didn't have before. Blue eyes and white hair weren't as rare as he would like to be either. So maybe that was why she didn't recognize him.

"At least smile a little, I did save you from that curse. How did you end up getting cursed anyway?" He asked, slowly walking over. She wore a frown seeing him walk so casually. Half of his face was still burned, it wasn't anything grotesque, his skin was just red. "With fire as potent as yours, it's hard to see you fall to them."

"You bastard, it was you who teamed up on me with Nyx and Erebus!" The girl pointed a finger at him, making him once. "You knew you wouldn't be able to deal with me on your own, so you called those Darkness Gods for help."

"Oh," Neji let out a helpless chuckle. He just remembered she was telling the truth. "My bad, my bad. These new memories are kinda too long, a bit hard to recall unless."

"..." The girl went silent. She put her hand down. "You seem different."

"Do I?" Each of his slow steps took him hundreds of meters ahead. Soon, he stood just a dozen steps away from her. "You look the same as ever... except for that golden hair bang."

"..." She swallowed and said nothing. "I see. You look... taller now."

"Yeah... I guess," he replied.

From God's memories, he didn't find the exact time when Momo came to this world. Since God was a being of this world, and Momo replaced the Phenex by changing the reality, his memories were affected too.

"So, uh," he started. "It's been a while."

"Yeah..."

"How long?"

"What year is it?"

He wasn't sure if she was just humoring him, or if she had realized that...

"It's 2031," Neji replied.

"Then it's been 1231 years... though I slept 400 of it. Do the math." She replied, her eyes locked with his.

Her Status Page said her age was 1631, but she said 1231. So that meant it was the age she transmigrated into this 'Ranefer'.

He took in a slow breath and used Jogan's Sha Naqba Imuru power, the ability of Gilgamesh that allowed the King to look into the past, present, and future. He looked at her and focused on the past. God didn't know everything that happened in the underworld, so what he saw was entirely new things.

Exactly 1231 years ago, Ranefer Phenex went through a change in her personality. His eyes couldn't see any physical change, she still had the appearance she had right now, and that's how the replacing worked. But he noticed the changes in behavior.

Back then, she didn't have children. She didn't even have the name Phenex. That must mean... the clan came after. Along with its members.

With a heavy heart, Neji went through her story briefly. He didn't care about the wars she went through; he didn't care about anything. He only cared about the part where the Phenex Clan came to be. He said he wouldn't mind if she found someone new, but he wanted to know just how long she had suffered without him.

He finally reached that part. It was Five Hundred Years ago when the Phenex Clan came to be. So she waited for him for 700 years? Soon, Neji realized that wasn't the case. Far from it.

Funny. Just what was he expecting? He should be ashamed of himself.

He canceled the ability and locked eyes with her. "So you have... children now."

"..." She stayed silent.

Neji smiled. "I was expecting you to have found someone else in just a decade at most, to be honest. So it's not surprising that you have children... What I do find surprising is... the process. And the time. You shouldn't have held back that much."

A Phoenix could create everything.

Life was the easiest to create.

In the last thousand years, to experience the feeling of family, Momo Yaoyorozu created the Phenex Clan with her ability. Yes, she had never given birth to anyone. In fact, in the last millennium, she had stayed single... for 1231 years. While waiting for a certain someone.

Neji felt ashamed to have even thought that she would choose to be with someone else.

Momo was staring daggers at him now, her eyes glossy with wetness. "I'm surprised you can look into the past, but I don't know what you are talking about, Yahweh."

"I think it's a little too late for that act," he replied, feeling his own eyes blur a little. Ah shit. "I am sorry. It took this long."

"I will blast you if you walk any closer," she insisted and he walked forward, but she didn't make a single move to do what she said. "You idiot."

Momoz, his Yaomomo, jumped forward, just as he did. Her arms widened to embrace him, while he did the same. Neji felt a shudder run down his spine as familiar arms held him tightly, and a wild cry left her lips.

The lovers finally reunited.

**

**

**

Master4thWall Note: Was an enjoyable chapter to write 💓.

If you want to read the next 20 chapters right away, visit my Patreon.

Link: Patreon.com/Master4thWall