Highschool DxD: Dragon's Ascent

Alright, it's decided, after this, I will be buying protection spells from Azazel.

Although I have my doubts as to whether it would be able to stop any other Ultimate Class Asshole kicking down my front door willy-nilly.

I looked with narrowed eyes at the Satan who just figuratively kicked my door down. The biggest question running through my mind was why she was dressed up as a magical girl out of all things.

A kink? The frick if I know. 

The admittedly incredibly sexy and dangerous Satan turned to me and struck another pose before her curious gaze landed on Mittelt who was frozen in the corner while she was rearranging the cupboard.

"Hmmm~? What are fallen angels doing here? Especially the very bad ones that hurt Takumi-chan in the first place?" I could see that Mittelt was close to pissing herself in fear with how much she was trembling from Serafalls presence, making me step in.

"Mittelt, could you leave us alone? It's nice to meet you Miss Leviathan. Thankfully I knew you were coming beforehand, so no... accidents happened. As for the fallen, Raynare and her party were given to me as gifts from Azazel. I assume your business is related to said fallen?" If I did not know she was coming I would have blasted her out of reflex, I have been really wary of surprise attacks ever since the fallen angel fiasco.

Serafall assumed a serious expression for a second before sticking back to her magical girl persona.

"Hmm~, so Azazel gifted you the Fallen, is it? That's unexpected, but then again you can't expect anything from that old snake. Anyway~! I am here to of course meet the enigmatic Alchemist in my little sister and little Rias' territory. And to thank you too."

I decided to play a little dumb.

"Thank me? What would a Satan have to thank me for?" Hearing my words Serafall puffed her cheeks and huffed.

"You can just call me Levia-tan~☆! you know? No need to be so strict, geez you are just like Sona-chan. But as for what I have to thank you for, it's of course for subduing the fallen and sending them to me. If it wasn't for that it would have been such a headache-inducing incident. Sorry I wasn't able to come earlier, I really wanted to meet you but Levia-tan~☆! may be strong but the evil forces of bureaucracy still pose to be mighty foe." She said, pointing her staff at an imaginary foe while I backed away a bit.

...What the fuck would backing from her do? She can glass Japan, a few steps back won't change anything stupid.

"Alright so... is that all? Because I don't think you take all the time out of your day just to see me and thank me right?" She smiled.

"You are right~! As thanks, I decided to give you a reward. So? What do you want? As long as it is within reason this magical girl promises on her magical powers that she will get it for you." She made exaggerated motions but I knew she was honest.

So I fell into thought.

What DO I want? Obviously, I want her but I am not that retarded just yet, maybe if I drink another vitality potion. I already have access to a magical ingredient supplier and a small favour like this won't really give me too good of an ingredient I can't get myself.

So what do I want?

"I want access to Stray Devils. Especially live ones."

Serafall tilted her head in a seemingly cute confused manner but I could see the cogs in her head turning as she tried to connect the pieces together.

"But what would you want with Stray Devils? They are nothing more than bad eggs who betrayed their masters."

"I am an alchemist you see. So having some test subjects, especially live ones are very important to me. More specifically I would prefer the bodies of Stray Devils who have mutated." I stated my reason and Serafall fell into deep contemplation and after a few dozen seconds she resumed her magical girl persona.

"Well~ I guess that could be done. It's not like we would lose anything by handing over live Stray Devils to you. But it is rare for a Stray Devil to be captured alive since they are usually killed on sight. But I think something can be arranged."

I bowed my head slightly in gratitude, this saved me from going out to hunt them myself. I should also ask Rias to try and keep any stray she finds in her domain. The mutation of the strays are very very interesting to me.

Snake lower body? How does that develop? An entire monster lower body? I must learn how that works asap. 

"Well, I am thankful ms. Serafall."

However, hearing my words Serfall pouted and turned her head away like a kid. 

"Hmph! Geez~ you are so formal and uptight aren't you Takumi-kun? I told you to refer to me as Magical Girl Levia-tan~☆! didn't I?"

I can tell that she will of course ignore the matter if I laugh awkwardly. But she wants to tease me like this? She is the one barging into my room in a magical girl costume she obviously has no qualms about me treating her that way.

"I see my apologies."

I took a deep breath in.

"As expected of the greatest Satan Magical Girl Levia-tan~☆! I am very grateful."

For a few seconds, Serafall just looked at me with a stunned face as I made direct eye contact with her.

Eventually, she scratched her cheek and me a thumbs-up with a grin.

"Yup~! That was perfect Takumi-kun, you get full marks! Now I will definitely get you that Stray Devil corpse! But first of all, do you have a DevilPhone?" I nodded and handed it over to her.

Watching intently as she handled my phone, if those fingers ever start hovering toward my gallery I am doing my damn best to restart the great war.

Thankfully, she just put her number on my phone and added herself to my contacts and handed my phone back to me.

"Alright! Here, I added my private number to your contacts so I can call you up anytime to inform you about the dropoff ok? But now I have to leave to arrange for that Stray you wanted. Don't worry, I will get them extra mutated just for you!"

Like that, she gave me a peace sign and teleported leaving me to slump down to my chair.

I don't know if she intended it but that was the most draining political interaction I have ever had. Shaking my head to clear it of exhaustion I pulled up my phone to message Rias.

It basically was a message asking her to refrain from executing the Strays under her jurisdiction and instead take their battered bodies to me. Thankfully she agreed without much convincing

Even better was that they already had a stray in their territory, apparently Viser just appeared. It took them a bit of time to locate her dwelling.

...Was my appearance causing slight butterfly effects already? It's not like I didn't expect it but it is rather intriguing. But for now, there shouldn't be any effects that derail my plans or need me to alter them for.

✧—•✦•—✧—•✦•—✧—•✦•—✧

After the deal with Serafall, I had to make some preparations. More specifically I had to expand my basement. While I am comfortable in my man cave I cannot fit all of my experiments in this dingy space.

And I couldn't really expand underground without a permit due to the land of my house not exactly being too large.

But that issue was pretty easy to fix by actually asking Azazel for it. Within the span of several hours, I got the okay to expand my basement however I wanted.

This raised the question of just how much free time Azazel had to be able to basically answer my every request almost instantly but this wasn't unexpected. After all in "Cannon" this guy got a job as a teacher for shits and giggles.

Poor Shemhazai.

Anyway, once I got the go from Azazel I immediately got to work. 

And by that I mean I got to work on how I would work on this.

You see I still have my basic baby earth catalyst that I can use to expand my basement but that will be excruciatingly slow. And as I was thinking of ways I could make the process faster.

Then it clicked.

Remember how the Boosted Gear can assimilate weapons into itself like Ascalon and Divine Dividing?

Well, well, why couldn't that be applied to my catalysts?

{Well, I see why no reason why it wouldn't. Though I still don't know how you know all these details about the Boosted Gear.} Replied Ddraig from my mind as we discussed the possibility of it.

If this was possible not only would the weakness of needing to switch out my catalyst be eliminated but I would also be able to increase the potency of any catalyst to absurd levels.

I raised my hand up high, the flair was actually important. Willpower was one of the most important components of making a sacred gear work after all.

And responding to my will and desires.

"{Boosted Gear: Terra Catalyst}!"

A voice boomed as the boosted gear in my hands changed slightly, taking on a slightly darker hue with metallic brown outlines around the scales.

I felt the connection to my catalyst immediately.

It works!

Holy fuck it works!

With a thought, I raised my hand again.

"{Switch! Boosted Gear: Kelvin Catalyst}!"

The Boosted Gear gained blue engravings all around it that were all cold to the touch. With a simple thought, the moisture from the air was driven to my very fingers. Dispersing it I raised my hands again.

"{Switch! Boosted Gear: Ampere Catalyst}!"

This time the Boosted Gear's yellow portions started glowing yellow as golden engravings appeared on the gauntlet.

 "{Switch! Boosted Gear: Terra Catalyst}!"

I switched to the mode I needed as I laughed in glee. Truly I was a genius!

{I have to admit. You must be one of the most creative users of the Boosted Gear I have ever seen. Even I did not think of using it like this.}

Oh, you can praise me more you know? No need to be shy.

{Maybe it comes packaged with being clinically insane?}

...Pft, I am not insane.

{That is what most insane people say. Or are saying that putting both the Boosted Gear and the Absorption Line inside your body while having another sacred gear and just hoping to not explode was a thought a sane person would have?}

Ddraig my dear partner, the line between genius and insane is whether you can prove your theory is right.

{I... cannot argue with that I suppose.}

Takumi 1 | Ddraig 0

Marking a win on my mental scoreboard I got back to what I was aiming to do. Waiting a solid minute for my Boosts to reach a sufficient level I started terraforming the walls of my basement, just by putting my hand on the wall I could move several tens of tons of rock and dirt.

I started pushing back, packing the walls further and further to make room for my basement, it was incredibly fun actually, like playing Minecraft.

By the time I was done, my basement was completely overhauled. The basement was now around 150 meters long and wide(500 freedom feet). And I could expand it anytime I wanted to. The walls were made of hyper-compressed dirt that had turned into some kind of stone. I do not what kind of stone it is since I just went about it randomly with my transmutation but is incredibly dense. Like really dense. Harder than steel.

I needed a large space to create my homunculus lab after all.

All in all, it was currently just a big open space at the moment with basically nothing inside. And I had to change that.

It was time to finally expand my operations.

A/N: Even Takumi is out of his depth when it comes to talking to Serafall. A Satan capable of glassing Japan acting like both an older sister and cosplaying as a magical girl is a bit of a doozy to deal with.

Takumi is gathering materials to learn more about devils and start finally creating his homunculi. Also, what do you guys think about the upgrade to the catalysts? I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter.

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