I didn't try to play, to follow the whims of the sentient structure that was the castle of my older brother. My demonic energy exploded around me breaking space, opening a breach.

For an infinesmental moment, I saw the Gap. I saw colours, colours that didn't exist, that shouldn't exist. I saw something fleeting, something red before I reappeared in the Room of Issei.

Everything was on fire. It's as if a bomb had detonated and was still detonating. With my gaze, I could see everything happening around me as if time had been stopped, as if I was a superior being not bound by concepts like causality and time.

I could see Asia. My bishop was behind the form of a maid. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth opened as if she was saying something. More than that, She looked scared.

The maid before Asia wasn't the only one that had responded, that had appeared. I could see butlers and maids who were slowly being consumed by angry flames.

Some of them looked desperate, others looked weary as if they had finally reached the end of a mind-breaking journey.

The cause of this chaos, of this new hell taken form stood in the place where minutes ago, he was sleeping with Asia on a bed.

He looked healthy physically at least. Nothing would have seemed different about Issei except his eyes.

His soft light-brown eyes which turned gold under the light or when he usually used his supernatural power, which were usually only gleaming with joy, excitement and perversion were replaced with cold angry orbs of green.

The green had replaced, swallowed his pupils and his scleras. Anger was painted on his face as if he was a cruel deity here to punish heretics.

This wasn't the boy who I reincarnated in my peerage. This wasn't the boy I loved and cared for. This wasn't the loyal boy whom I called proudly family. Before me was a monster, a beast, a dragon in human shape.

I acted, using my authority and my demonic energy to wrestle away from my pawn the control of his flames. It was hard, unbelievably so, more than I expected. A surge of my essence gave me all the necessary power to win this false tug of war.

The flames moved, rushing at me as if they were being sucked by a vacuum to coalesce between my hands in the form of a little scarlet orb not bigger than a tennis ball.

I tried to crush it into nothing but stopped myself from doing so. Faster than lightning, an idea had bloomed into my mind. I had already usurped the flames of Kagutsuchi. My essence had also given me a resistance to flames with my fights against Riser and the Shinto god.

Fire could affect me as long as it was as hot as the core of our sun but even then, my essence and my authority made sure that nothing under this temperature could hurt me.

I remember reading about a pink-haired dragon slayer capable of eating flames to bolster and strengthen himself.

I knew my essence would protect me as long I wasn't facing something which could instantly erase me in less than an instant or that could be considered a primordial aspect or mechanism of reality like the anti-life equation or an Endless.

Issei’s green gaze was locked on me and me alone as if what had replaced my pawn recognized I was the biggest threat here.

I wondered how draconic flames even though they weren’t the mythical ones who could destroy anything that came from the essence of Ddraig tasted. I hoped it tasted better than Kagutsuchi did. While still looking at him, I pushed the orb into my mouth with my two hands and swallowed it.

Nothing seemed to happen at first. I felt it burn through my flesh until my essence acted and made my insides more durable, more fire-resisting. Instead of having swallowed something as hot as a star, it felt as if I had eaten something mildly spicy.

‘Was this all?’

A star bloomed in my heart as bright and dangerous as my authority. Sovereignty and domination, I understood them more. They were not just words! They were concepts as real as the sky, as real as the stars shining in the sky.

A giggle escaped me even in this situation “Oh, Issei, you are so much more than I had ever thought,” I whispered yet a snarl appeared on the face of my pawn.

He moved, rushing at me, fire propulsing him at unreal speed. I blinked and a fist was before my face.

I ducked, crouching under the punch of my pawn. The fire consumed the place where I stood instants before as if Issei’s fist was a flamethrower.

He screamed.

I wouldn't know if it was in frustration or anger but the sound emitted by him was reminiscent of the sound of lightning splitting the heavens. More than that, a shockwave erupted as if his voice was a weapon.

With my eyes, I saw how the air currents changed. With my eyes, I watched as the air currents were weaponized. I watched the wave move.

I could try to move.

The wave was fast but not so fast that I wouldn’t be able to avoid it. I didn't worry about me. I worried about the other people present in this room.

I didn't want to hurt Issei. If he had been my enemy, he would have fallen the moment I had appeared but he wasn't one. He was my family and this was the problem.

I didn't want to hurt him, I couldn't hurt him. How could I damage someone who was mine? ‘How could I damage a part of my Tresor?’ my body seemed to scream at me.

I already knew where each person in this room was. I was already a copycat. Why not go further?

Teleportation magic in itself was something very precise even for us devils. It was breaching space and time, creating a wormhole through reality.

An error when trying to teleport and you would at best split yourself up in an ugly and bloody way.

I didn't want to use the usual teleporting method. It wouldn't work the way I wished it would right now.

What was Boogie Woogie? It showed and was activated by a clap. It allowed its user to switch places with an object or a person of their choice. It seemed simple said like this but Boogie Woogie was more than this.

I had unleashed My demonic energy in my body letting it suffuse me, strengthen me, guide me.

A clap was an acclamation of the soul. This was why Todo could activate his technique and why when his soul was damaged by Mahito, he lost his technique.

Magic worked because of my will and my imagination but how could It work when what I was thinking was anathema to my being?

Todo had seen the action of clapping an acclamation of the soul. I found it respectable but I didn't.

I bit into the inside of my cheek hard. If boogie woogie could be said to be activated by an acclamation of the soul, my blood, the proof that I was still alive to the universe, to myself was the way for my soul to acclaim this world.

Blood gushed between my teeth, flooding my mouth and leaving me with the metallic taste and thick texture of my blood.

My replica of the Boogie Woogie was different. It could even be considered better. As if my blood was the signal the universe was waiting for, things switched.

Unlike Todo, I wasn't limited to my immediate surroundings. We reappeared in the circle of greed away from the castle of my brother on a platform standing over the tortured deceased souls that had fallen in hell.

“HELP ME!”

“GOD, GOD I REPENT!” a voice shouted desperately.

“MOM, IT HURTS!” I heard the voice of a child probably not older than seven scream in pain and agony.

“WHY?! IT WAS ALL THEIR FAULT!”

“IT’S NOT FAIR!”

“HELP ME!”

“HELP ME!”

“HELP ME!”

“GOD, GIVE ME ONE MORE CHANCE!”

I tried to ignore the smell of burning flesh. I tried to ignore the nightmare-fueling screams. I tried to ignore the pain I knew the people under me were feeling, the prayers to a god who was no more.

Every crime needed to be punished but what was happening under me wasn’t punishment. It was torture for torture's sake. There would be no lessons taught here on how to be better. The only thing taught will be how long it takes for a human being to be skinned, how much pain a soul can take and how much things could be broken and repaired and broken endlessly.

‘We are always being manipulated’, I remembered. I didn't want to hurt Issei but I wasn’t naive to think it would mean the same thing. I wasn't naive to think that he'd not do his utmost to destroy me.

His rage, his hatred, let it become a source of mercy. Better the agony of his flames and the salute they would ultimately give to the suffering souls under us than the continuous torture inflicted on them since aeons past.

The system created was one that was already deficient and lacking since the beginning but since the one who created this system and the one first appointed to enforce it were gone, wouldn't it be good to finally end all this?

No more suffering, no more torment, just death, nothingness. Existence didn't always mean happiness and the sinners under us were the proof of this.

Issei opened his mouth wide as if he was preparing himself to either swallow or regurgitate something huge.

Crimson flames pooled from the ether to the material plane before his mouth taking the familiar shape of one of his dragon shots.

“Do you truly hate me?” I wondered out loud. It would be logical if it was the case yet my heart ached at this thought.

His flames glowed ominously illuminating the abyss we had fallen into. It was a new light created in the underworld and like everything coming from the underworld, it destroyed.

Issei swallowed the orb of fire before releasing the draconic flames at me in the form of a giant energy beam.

I jumped back letting myself fall into the abyss, the lamentations and the screams. I closed my eyes. For a brief moment, it felt as if everything was right in the world, that there was no war, that all the members of my peerage were more than alright.

I opened my eyes back to reality. The flames had begun following me as if they were alive as if they were predators and me their prey.

I used my demonic energy willing myself to fall faster. My feet met with the ground in a loud BOOM!

The Earth caved in under the force of my fall almost bouncing. Sinners, torturers, tools of torture, they were all sent flying in the air, flying toward the incoming flames.

They burnt faster than should be possible, faster than their realization of what was happening.

I pushed softly with my left heel launching myself back before rolling in the air, switching, exposing my back to the fiery flames following me.

Dark wings coated by the power of destruction exploded from my back. I watched from the corner of my eyes how the laser divided into multiple ones.

One accelerated rushing at me faster than I thought it could. I pirouetted dodging it and watching it go through damned souls and annihilate them.

Others followed after me. One came from above. I pushed my hand against the still-bouncing ground to push myself to my right side.

Sinners were swallowed by the fire. I looked into their eyes as they were consumed and I only saw one thing which made my blood boil, I saw relief.

Ignore it, ignore it Rias. You’re allowing them to rest. You're doing what is right!

I pushed myself, going even faster than before. I met some kind of resistance before the world caved and erupted in fire.

I plunged into the abyss with my own will. I plunged into the depths of this layer and was followed by Issei’s flames.

Fire burnt everything not even leaving ashes behind. I watched how realization entered into the eyes of the damned.

“THANK YOU!”

“IT’S FINALLY THE END!”

“IT’LL FINALLY END”

“THANK YOU!”

“THANK YOU!”

“THANK YOU!”

They screamed in happiness as the flames consumed them. They thanked me as if I was a merciful god. They thanked me while they were literally undone.

I hated this, I hated it with all of my heart! How was this fair?! How was this right!? Suffering just for the sake of suffering only brought despair!

What was the lesson? What did change? Did Someone who stole money deserving of an eternity in a lake of fire?! Did Someone who wanted more deserve to suffer as worms crawled into their skin?!

It was changing nothing! I hated rapists more than anything. There were people I hated with all of my beings, with what they were able to do to me, to my body because they were more powerful than me when I was younger but even then, I wasn't sure I would have been okay with this or something similar happening to them. I wanted them to suffer. I wanted them to pay, to understand what they put me through. I didn't want worse inflicted on them. I didn't want to be the cause of unneeded suffering.

Abruptly, I chose to rise. The flames burnt everything under me. It looked beautiful weirdly. Beautiful in a melancholic way.

I knew it would only make things harder for me. Zekram had shown me that brute strength wasn't the only thing that mattered but even then, what was the point of living if you let fear shackle you? What was the point of living if you abstained from doing something that you thought was right, was kind because of the consequences?

I raised my head to be confronted with a claw centimetres away from my eyes. I blinked and switched places with Issei. The blood in my mouth allowed me to switch with him.

He fell into the abyss like a falling star. He met the ground. The Soil exploded as if a mini-nuke had gone on and gigantic columns of blackened Earth and Lava rose in the air. It looked pretty like a painting of fireflies.

I knew it was just a question of time before someone came, someone who could be dangerous and possibly hurt Issei. I needed to ask Sirzechs to give me enough time.

I opened my mouth to speak even though I knew my brother was kilometres away from me “Brother, I’m sorry to ask you this but I need you to make sure no one intervenes.”

‘There’ll be consequences Rias,’ I heard him whisper in my mind. There were always consequences. I knew this a long time ago.

I could almost hear him sight ‘I’ll make sure the two of you are unbothered and Rias, be careful.’

I felt a little smile bloom on my face “Thank you, Brother,” I whispered knowing he'll hear me.

“BALANCE BREAKER: FLAMES OF THE END!” a voice chanted before hell itself rushed at me.

So that was his balance breaker. It was different from the one he should canonically have. Looking at the fiery death coming at me, I could only feel pride “You made something completely unique,” I whispered. “I just wished it would have been done in different circumstances, circumstances where you wouldn't have suffered as much.”

I released my power of destruction in this world. I let it roam free, almost unshackled. I only gave it one order, not consuming Issei Hyoudou.

His bright flames and my dark destruction met in the middle of the sky and Earth of this hell layer.

I could see how my destruction and his flames clashed, how all this layer was covered in darker-than-black destruction and crimson flames.

I turned toward the horizon at the endless sight of our respective powers clashing, shaping, and remodelling this layer to our will.

The only places that hadn't been consumed seemed to be rare castles and cities where barriers or spells were or had been erected in case something like this would happen one day.

I didn't worry about my brother or the other members of my peerage. I knew Sirzechs would not allow anything we released to affect and touch his castle.

“BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST BOOST!” chanted the voice of the sacred gear.

His flames surged, taking a white colour. They clashed even harder against my power of destruction. I pushed my demonic energy into my power of destruction to fuel it more, to allow it to continue to exist in this plane.

“The boosted gear is truly ridiculous,” I murmured under my breath.

With only one boost, the strength of his wielder was doubled. Another and it’ll be quadrupled and it continued like this endlessly as long as the host of this sacred gear had a body strong enough.

Before the Rating game, Issei had been able to boost himself from the level of a low to the level of power of a middle-class devil to the very low end of the high class. He had been able to go from what could be considered someone capable of levelling a street at best to someone capable of putting a hole into a mountain, something, if the calculations of my past life were right, was in the release of a kiloton of energy of TNT. Kilotons as the two bombs launched on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I understood why this sacred gear was said to have the potential to kill a god. No red dragon emperors had been able to do it though at least before Issei.

Issei was now stronger. He had killed a god and I could still feel the icy authority beating in his soul to a patient rhythm.

The most impressive thing was that The boost ability wasn't something inherent to Ddraig. This was a spell he had created because of his rivalry with Albion.

All those things didn't change the fact that Issei didn’t want this power. Issei hadn’t wanted to become a devil. Issei didn't want to lose his town or his family because of nebulous forces and reasons beyond him, so beyond us.

More than that, I only made things worse by my existence. If I hadn't transmigrated, he would have been the one to free Rias Gremory from her engagement. He would have gained a love interest, the first member of his harem. He would have won, have his true first victory after Raynare’s Death.

I was also different from the original Rias. I cared for him, I loved him but the way you would with a little sibling, not how you would with someone you loved in a romantic sense. For him, it must have been as if the moment he proved himself useless in defeating Riser, I began to ignore him.

There was also the fact that a second great war shouldn't have happened. I didn't know if it was because of the amalgamation of different universes this reality was or if it was because I was simply different but things changed, for the worse. I gained everything I could have ever dreamt of and the world suffered in return.

“I'm sorry Issei, I'm so sorry!” I shouted to the hell under me.

A deafening roar of hatred and anger was the only thing that answered back. It wasn't working! I wasn't able to reach him!

“Boost!” chanted his sacred gear and his flames grew stronger, deadlier making me have to push more demonic energy to my power of destruction.

Think Rias, think! I turned my gaze toward Issei. I tried to ignore the material plane and focused on the immaterial.

Issei had all reason to hate me but I liked to think that I knew him. Issei at his core was honest, kind. It may have been buried under mountains of perversion but Issei Hyoudou wasn't what was before my eyes.

My eyes widened as I realized the cause of Issei’s behaviour. I had already seen how his soul had been changed, altered.

I had just thought it would have just given him more power. I was a devil yet I had forgotten how selling your soul always had consequences, always.

There was a story as close as a children's tale that every pure-blood devil had been read by their mother before sleeping, a variation from the classic tale of Alice in Wonderland, a tale we knew was mostly true.

In Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Alice is a young girl attempting to escape boredom. After chasing a talking rabbit down a rabbit hole, she ends up in a nonsensical fantasy world populated by anthropomorphic animals, personified playing cards, and the Hatter, who hosts a never-ending "mad tea party."

The story of Alice continued in the version we devils knew. Alice died still young, still innocent in wonderland and her soul wandered. Her soul would wander between worlds unable to reach Heaven or Hell due to the metaphysical distance between Wonderland and the human realm.

It's in this between state that the Daemon Nebirius would come in contact with her soul in one of his travels.

The Daemon's speciality was necromancy, the manipulation of souls. The Daemon chose to do an experiment on the young human soul he found.

The Daemon Nebirius was very close to the Archdaemon Belial. Some rumours said that they cared for each other more than siblings normally should.

What the tale says though is that With the assistance of the Archdaemon Belial, they convinced the girl to sell her soul to the two of them so that she'll be able to be free.

Alice accepted and in exchange found her soul twisted by the two children of Lilith and Helel. They corrupted her with their essences to the point that when they finished, there was no innocent girl anymore. There was instead a newly created Daemon, something even Satan Beelzebub hadn't been able to replicate yet.

The Archdaemon Belial and the Daemon Nebirius disappeared after. It is supposed that they left with the new Daemon they had created, a new Daemon who lusted for the pain and suffering of all living beings.

It is said Alice would visit misbehaving children at night and "befriend" them by killing them in their sleep and taking them to the afterlife.

More than scaring young devils, this tale’s goal was to teach us one thing and one thing only. Whether our essence could be technically considered a soul or not, the story made clear that allowing your soul or essence to be changed by an exterior influence could end very very badly.

The innocent Alice due to the deal she made with Nebirius and Belial died to be replaced by a twisted copy.

Issei had given his soul to Ddraig for more power. The dragon had modified Issei’s soul and this was the result. I wanted to give Ddraig the benefit of the doubt. My memories pointed me to this cool dragon in Issei’s arm who encouraged or shared advice with him but the world I actually was living in was real, more realistic.

Ddraig was a dragon whose soul had been imprisoned for thousands of years. I didn't know if I was dealing with a being ready to do anything to escape from his prison or if it wasn't the case at all. More than that, what made me anxious was the fact that there was a reason the devil was depicted in the book of Apocalypse in the Bible as a dragon. Devils were far from being the only beings who stole souls. We just were the most prolific and dangerous.

Issei would have normally done everything possible to not hurt or make Asia sad. This Issei didn't. If I hadn't been so quick, Asia could have been hurt or worse.

Issei would hate himself even more if he knew what was happening right now. The issue was soul deep. It meant I had to touch his soul.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes mentally preparing myself before opening my eyes back and dragging my power of destruction back into my soul.

I let myself fall. The flames seemed to stop as if they didn't understand what just had happened before they all rushed at me with viciousness.

I pushed through the flames and the mind-breaking pain. I pushed through them as they set my skin ablaze. I pushed through them as I felt the liquids inside my body boil.

I pushed through them as I felt my internal organs rupture and my eyes explode making everything go dark yet even in this darkness, I knew where Issei was. I could still hear him and that's all that mattered.

I knew without a doubt that if it wasn't for my essence, I would have been dead the moment I came close to the flames. Those were flames that had swallowed gods, that only found their match against the white dragon emperor Albion.

I used my demonic energy willing it to guide me toward my pawn, toward Issei. I felt something inside me break as what seemed to be a claw bisected me in two.

I would have laughed if I was still capable of making any noise. I hugged him locking him in my grasp.

He roared like a cornered animal and tried to escape from me by burning me to nothing. When this didn't work, I felt his hands bite into my flesh and drag my remaining organs and my regenerating guts outside my body.

I would have lied if I said it didn't hurt. I would have lied if I said I already felt something physically more painful than this but the thought of failing Issei even more hurt more than my guts being ripped out.

With my power of destruction and my demonic energy, I plunged into his soul, into his sacred gear.

I felt my conscious drift, move. When I opened my eyes, it was the sight of a gigantic red western dragon.

“You intrude into the soul of my host,” the voice of the dragon rumbled like thunder. “Why shouldn't I try to devour you Daemon.”

“You could try but you won’t succeed,” I told him honestly “And did you forget? You took what was not yours to take. Issei is mine and I'm here to bring him back.”

A chuckle that felt more like a tornado came out of the dragon “So arrogant, so proud, so caring. It's a shame you were not alive back then. Things between us could have been interesting. He was the one who accepted the deal. It is too late to negate this.”

“Look at this false sky,” the dragon spoke. “Draconic energy is endlessly flowing into his soul mutating it to be more like mine. Reversing it is impossible. I thought he would have been able to deal with it but it seems I was wrong. I think it's a shame that my first god-slayer turned rabid. I wished to see how far he could go.”

The colour of the sky was dark red. With my gaze, I could only see red angry clouds the colour of blood that only seemed to go up.

“I am sorry about the way things happened. I'm not perfect but I love you and I care about you. Soon, everything will be back to normal because I am here,” hoping wherever the true Issei was, he could hear me.

I gathered all My demonic energy and called on all my power of destruction. It surged into me ready to be released “Issei is so much stronger than you could ever think. Everyone is capable of falling one day. Sometimes, even strong people need help, need their family, their friends. Maybe for you, it is impossible but I'm not you Red Dragon Emperor. I believe in myself and in the boy I consider family.”

I multiplicated my power of destruction with itself. Unlike the first time with Sona and her queen, it was better, smoother. A white orb appeared in my right hand. This orb contained half my demonic energy. Another orb one of dark colour, of simple and familiar destruction appeared over my left hand, one containing almost everything I had left. I needed to do more than healing, I needed to do more than destroying.

I threw with all my strength the two orbs toward the sky. “What are you doing?” he asked me.

“A miracle,” I replied.

I activated the authority I had usurped from Kagutsuchi. Fire wasn't only destruction. Fire was also movement, life. It was a representation of the passage of time, of cleansing and going forward.

In the sky of the soul of Issei, the two orbs of black and white flew like twin stars. From my flames, a bow and one arrow came into existence into my hands.

“Please,” I prayed to my flames. “Bring him back to us.”

The arrow rushed toward the two orbs leaving a trail of fire behind reminiscent of star dust.

The arrow reached the two orbs that at this moment lost shape to engrave themselves on the arrow making it take a lighter almost spectral hue.

The arrow flew true as I knew it would. I turned toward a stunned-looking Ddraig “I will talk to you later but until then, it's a goodbye red dragon emperor.”

I felt a smile bloom on my face as the world erupted in world swallowing white “He'll be the best of your wielder not because of any bloodline or my help. I'll be because in the end, unlike your other wielders, he's kind and honest.”

An instant later, I was ejected away from the soul of my pawn back in the real world. He had stopped moving and attacking me. My organs, my skin, my flesh and my bones came back stronger and firmer as my essence surged into my body.

With a flick of my will, a simple black T-shirt and wide black jeans appeared to protect my modesty. I couldn't care about something more elaborate right now.

Slowly, I sat, Issei’s prone form still in my hands. I used my lap as a pillow to his head. Now, I just needed to wait.

scene*

The only thing Issei Hyoudou could see surrounding him was crimson. He felt as if he was drowning. A frantic part of him knew that something was wrong, that he needed to get out of this place.

With each second that passed, he could feel losing more of himself. First, it was his childhood memories. Memories of playing with Irina, memories of being spoiled by his parents, memories of meeting The old man in the park who showed him his dream.

After this, what was consumed was his middle school years memories. The memories of isolation, of disgust as his antics began to be seen more and more as undesirable as he became older.

He needed to escape yet he felt so powerless and so tired as if all of his strength had been sucked out of him.

He laid in this crimson realm unable to do anything as his most recent memories began to be consumed. He had always been weak, never good enough. Raynare, Asia, Rias, his town and his parent.

They had been right in the end. Issei Hyoudou was worthless. Issei Hyoudou would die leaving behind broken promises. Issei Hyoudou would die full of regrets.

He heard a voice, the familiar voice of the president, of Rias “Issei is so much stronger than you could ever think. Sometimes, even strong people need help, need family. Maybe for you, it is impossible but I'm not you Red Dragon Emperor. I believe in myself and in the boy I consider family.”

Even with everything she still believed in him. Even with everything, even with failing against Riser, she still considered him strong.

Issei wasn't sure he could truly believe in himself but he knew he could believe in the president and it meant he could believe in the Issei she believed in.

He tried to move, to escape. The oppressing realm bore down on him. A gasp of pain escaped him as he felt himself being crushed. He still tried to move.

He ignored how this crimson realm bathed him in fire. Issei Hyoudou still moved. She believed in him! He had made a promise to Asia! How could he leave now without a fight?!

Issei fought against what he knew was inevitable. An ant fought against the universe. This was a fight the victor was already known.

Only an impossibility, a miracle could balance the scales and a miracle was granted to Issei Hyoudou.

A star, no an arrow rose toward him, one that reminded him of her. He knew that this was his only way to win and the crimson place knew it too.

The skin of Issei began to break and flake off as if he were a Lego made of millions of little pieces yet Issei Hyoudou continued to move.

He sent his left arm toward the arrow. Before his eyes, the arrow turned into another one. Issei grabbed the hand and everything crimson was consumed by light yellow.

scene*

“I'm back Rias,” the boy on my lap whispered as he fixed me with his light brown and not green eyes.

I felt euphoric “Welcome back Issei,” I said with all my heart.