Ch 117: The strongest Human vs the strongest Hero.

Rias used Ddraig's power to boost twice the ball of destruction energy in her hand, and threw it at the enemy leader. A young man with short black hairs and blue eyes calling himself Cao Cao. Instead of trying to evade it, he infused one of the seven orbs floating behind him into his spear, the True Longinus, and pointed it at Rias's projectile.

The projectile abruptly slowed down, then came back in Rias's direction, and she jumped aside to avoid it. The explosion buffeted her back but didn't cause her any injury, as she was covered by the Boosted Gear Scale Mail. Her head wasn't covered, giving her an unrestricted field of vision, but the armor generated a barrier to protect it.

"You guys should just step aside. We aren't there for you." shrugged Cao Cao.

"You're here to prevent the signature of a peace treaty! And you call yourselves descendants of Heroes? Do you have no shame?" scolded Rias.

"It is precisely because we are the descendants of Heroes that we can't accept peace." said the one called Perseus. "Do you know what it's like, to live in the shadow of an ancestor you could never equal or surpass, because you are born in a peaceful era?"

"What a ridiculous motive!" shouted Kiba, as he and Kuroka were fighting against Jeanne, the descendant of the French Saintess. Jeanne, a young woman with long blonde hairs and blue eyes, wearing a orange plate armor over a black under suit, constantly created holy swords that she controlled with her thoughts, and Tosca had to hurriedly create barriers around Yuuto of Kuroka several times already. As devils, they were particularly vulnerable to holy swords.

"Heroes are those who save civilians, not those who put them into danger just to satisfy their own ego!"

"Believe what you want, we aren't there to convince you. Your opinion doesn't matter. We are going to reintroduce the age of monsters and Heroes, and we will build our own legends and surpass those of our ancestors!" declared Hercules.

The tall, burly man with long gray hair wearing a brown leather armor was surrounded by Xuelan, Koneko, and Irina. Hercules was keeping them at bay whenever he punched or kicked, creating detonations in the air of the ground.

"Rias Gremory, aren't you a disappointment? You have the Boosted Gear, and yet, you do not dare get close to me, and those two in your peerage are clearly stronger than you". Said Cao Cao, pointing at Irina and Xenovia.

Rias bit her lower lip in grief. Part of her really wanted to punch Cao Cao and give him the Riser treatment. But she also knew it would be suicide to enter the range of that spear. It was already all she could do to evade the ranged attacks it produced.

If only she possessed the abilities Noah could share, she would be a lot more confident. She really regretted not being more assertive with him.

Thankfully, the answer to her quandary came, in the form of an ally appearing close by. Ren Yamashiro, looking dashing in her uniform of the Anti-Demon Corps.

Ren calmly looked at the intruders and glanced at Rias.

"Who are they?"

"Descendants of famous heroes, wanting war just to have opportunities to boost their fragile egos. Cao Cao, Siegfried, Jeanne, Heracles and Perseus. Still, they are strong." admitted Xenovia.

Even with Shunpo and Augment, she wasn't quite strong enough to defeat Seigfreid, who fought with four artificial arms in addition to his natural ones and held four demonic swords. She had caused him a few minor injuries, but that man only seemed to grow stronger and faster.

Ren nodded to herself, glancing at each hero in turn, and suddenly, she smiled.

"It has been so long, since I had an opportunity to fight seriously. You may be able to satisfy me."

A she spoke, she activated her own sacred gear, Vairocana (The infinite universe that makes up all of creation). Eight cards appeared and circled around her, each inscribed with a Buddhist mandala.

Ren mentally selected two of the cards, and their mandalas appeared in her pupils.

Then she moved, using Shunpo to appear four meters away from Heracles. The later, having experienced what a fight against a Shunpo user like Irina was like, instantly reacted and punched in Ren direction, causing the air in front of his fist to detonate.

Despite not being in melee range, Ren executed a roundhouse kick, and a supersonic shockwave burst from her leg. Heracles's eyes widened as his detonation was erased, and the shockwave struck him squarely, knocking him off his feet and breaking a few ribs. Before he could regain his footing, Ren was already right beside him, seizing his face with her right hand and brutally smashing him down on the ground, hard enough to create a crater. Ren released his face and straightened. Heracles was limp, his open eyes only showing white. He was already dying from a shattered skull and neck vertebras.

Heracles had been killed in barely a second. Cao Cao immediately lost his air of casual arrogance and ran toward Ren, his spear ready.

Ren, however, had other plans than to just wait for him. To her, Cao Cao was the plat de resistance, and she was in the mood for a few more entrées first. Keeping the mandalas of shockwave and magic nullification, she used Shunpo to appear near Perseus. The young man panicked and interposed his shield, engraved with the horrible face of medusa, and tried to petrify Ren. The magic didn't have any effect on her, between her active anti-magic mandala and the immunity offered by her bond with Noah, and she delivered a mighty palm strike to the shield. The shield, a manifestation of Perseus's sacred gear, might have withstood the attack, but the arm holding it was only made of flesh, and he suffered multiple bone fractures as he, too, was knocked off his feet.

Changing one of her mandalas from magic nullification to teleportation, Ren used Shunpo to appear near Perseus again, touched his shoulder, and teleported him over six kilometers deep into the Mariana Trench, where the water pressure would kill him instantly, hero or not.

Ren looked at Jeanne next, and the female hero froze in fear as she saw the killing intent contained in the eyes of the ADC Commander, but Ren guessed that Noah might want her and chose to spare her. She glanced at the injured swordsman fighting Xenovia, but with two of the Heros neutralized, Irina, Xuelan and Koneko would be free to support Xenovia and defeat him.

"Fight me, you damn monster!" roared Cao Cao as he sent a ranged attack from his spear. The attack looked like a lightning strike, but moved slowly enough to be avoidable.

Ren leaned to the side and avoided the strike, then changed her mandalas again to golden body and magic nullification. Golden body created a barrier around her body, fitting her like an invisible armor and though enough to shrug off modern anti-armor weapons with ease.

"I didn't want to use that, because it would be cheating! But you leave me no choice!" shouted Cao Cao as he slowed down before reaching her, and another of the seven orbs behind him merged with his spear.

Ren blinked as she felt a slight tingle, and the eight cards circling around her disappeared. But the sensation disappeared just as fast, and she felt her power was ready to be activated again in an instant.

"What is this?" she asked curiously, walking toward Cao Cao.

"The Second of the Seven Treasures, Itthiratana! It can completely stop the special abilities of women!"

"I see. An ability straight from a sexist era." nodded Ren, understanding why Noah had warned her against that Spear. It seemed like a very strong sacred gear, if all those floating orbs were comparable in potency to this one, on top of shooting those energy blasts. It was the first time she encountered something that could shut down even her own sacred gear and be an actual threat. A true peer to her Vairocana, and well deserving of its Longinus classification.

Thinking that this sacred gear would be a good asset for Noah's faction, she decided that she wouldn't kill this man before Noah had a chance to steal it.

"Ren Yamashiro, you killed my friends Heracles and Perseus! Prepare to die!" angrily shouted Cao Cao as he jumped toward her.

That was his mistake. If he had been just a little less furious, he might have paused long enough to notice that Ren wasn't too worried about losing her powers, and gotten cautious.

But when the spear head was about to pierce Ren's chest, her right hand struck like a viper, striking the flat of the bladed tip away and sliding down to reach the shaft, seizing it. At the same time, she reactivated her Vairocana, stepped closer, and threw a fist toward Cao Cao's face.

Cao Cao managed to evade by bending backward, but Ren's punch was actually a feint, and Cao Cao noticed Ren's kick to his extended leg too late to do anything about it. With a crunching sound, Cao Cao's right knee shattered, and he screamed in pain as he fell.

Not wanting to give him a change to recover, Ren kept a firm grip on the shaft of the True Longinus and proceeded to quickly break his arms and other leg as well.

"Cao Cao!" screamed Jeanne, wanting to intervene, but kept at bay by Yuuto, Akeno and Kuroka.

Siegfried wasn't in a position to act either, as Irina had joined the fight, and his injuries were accumulating much faster. He felt like he was only seconds away from receiving a fatal injury.

And at that time, three more women appeared.

Cao Cao, Jeanne and Siegfried felt from their auras that the three newcomers weren't any weaker than the two cornering Siegfried, and they despaired.

"Tche! We came too late to see Ren in action." said one of them, the twin with blue eyes.

"All three of you. Surrender, or die." called out Ren, not taking her eyes away from Cao Cao, ready to punch his face in at any time.

Jeanne, seeing the hopelessness of her situation, dropped her weapon and lifted her hands in the air. Siegfried did the same seconds later, and Cao Cao eventually unsummoned his spear.

The three of them quickly found themselves with a Stop rune drawn on their skin, shackled, and kneeling. Only then did they receive healing.

"We should go South, Noah said that Loki and Fenrir are over there."

"Fenrir?" asked Ren, a gleam of interest in her eyes.

"I'll finish securing this one" said Asuna as she placed a hand on Jeanne's shoulder. "You guys take the others with you and go… ahead." Her voice trailed off as she saw Ren was already gone.

Ren had teleported to Noah almost as soon as she heard that name. She really wanted to tame the legendary wolf.

…

Hundreds of angels, fallen and devils were all over the Academy, and Noah relaxed. The whole attack had been solved in less than three minutes, and as far as he could tell, only Loki has managed to escape, as his body turned out to have been some kind of mechanical puppet. He truly was the god of trickery.

His biggest worry had been that Aizen and his Arrancars might had found out his identity and attacked during the conference, but that hadn't happened.

And the day had been, very profitable for him and his faction.

He had established connections with the heaven and Asgard factions.

Divine Dividing, True Longinus, and Twice Critical, three powerful sacred gears, had been collected, putting an end to the threat posed by the Vali and Hero Group, as well as the Hero Jeanne and eighteen young and pretty magician girls. Since they had come intending to restart a war that would have caused countless innocents to die, they would all get the Bad Girl treatment, breaking them down, only to rebuild them up into proper slaves and healers or human rights enforcers.

The irony of slaves enforcing human rights didn't escape Noah, but he could appreciate a good joke.

The peace conference had resumed over the ruins of the gymnasium and was about to conclude. All the points of contention had been ironed out, and copies of the treaty were being written. In a few minutes, they would be signed by all parties, and the war would officially be over.

Thinking about the DxD timeline, Noah only really had four things left uncrossed in his mental list. Recover Velerie Tepes, Gasper's childhood friend, murder death kill Rizevim Lucifer, that madman who likely led the Khaos Brigade. Further his relationship with Seekvaira, Rias and Akeno, and somehow get his hands on Rossweisse. And Sona Sitri and her peerage. And her sister Serafall, and maybe her peerage as well. Venelana. Kuroka, and Koneko in a few years. Le Fay. And Griselda, maybe. And surely there were other cute Valkyries beside Rossweisse. And what about the two kendo girls from Kuoh's high school? They were kinda cute. Maybe the whole kendo club, actually...

Noah smiled to himself as his list of things to do seemed to expand endlessly.

A few feet from him, Ren was sitting, leaning toward her new pet with a smile.

Noah and Alice's shadow creatures had battered the ten meters long divine wolf, but it was still very much in the fight when Ren came and asked Noah about dealing with it. Noah had nodded to her and focused his attention on Loki and his other pet, the gigantic snake Jormungandr.

Ren had then proceeded to slowly fly closer to Fenrir, and kick or punch him each time the wolf tried to bite or claw her. After the seventh or eighth time creating a crater on the ground, Fenrir, seeing or feeling something from Ren, tuck his tail between his legs and laid down with a whine of submission.

Obeying Ren's order to reduce his size, Fenrir had shrunk to the side of a particularly large wolf, and didn't resist as Ren fastened a black leather collar, created just then by Noah, around its neck.

And now, less than half two hours after the battle, the divine wolf was happily wagging its tail as his Mistress scratched behind its ears with a fond smile.

His thoughts were interrupted when Odin and Rossweisse walked to him.

"Odin-sama?" asked Noah as he stood.

"Noah, in the name of the Asgard pantheon, I wish to apologize to you. Loki is our problem, and ultimately our responsibility. It is our shame that we failed to stop him before he participated to this disturbance."

"I accept your apology, Odin-sama, but I do not hold you or Asgard responsible for Loki's actions. It is well known that he is your enemy, and out of your control."

Noah wasn't worried about Loki. He would wait until he gained a lot more levels, then just teleport to him and make him one head shorter. No number of clones or puppets would stop the teleportation ability from locating the real him.

"That may be so, but still… As a gesture of apology, I'm giving you Rossweisse." smiled Odin.

"L-Lord O-Odin!" yelled Rossweisse in shock.

"Quiet down, you Valkyrie who never got a boyfriend! You're about to get one, you should be happy about it."

Rossweisse received another critical hit and crouched down, her head against her knees, as she started talking to herself in self-deprecation.

Noah burst into a nervous giggle for an instant.

"Let me guess, Odin-sama. you're interested in my ability to make my subordinates stronger, and you're using miss Rossweisse either as a gift, expecting something in return later, or for a demonstration."

"Exactly!" grinned Odin, choosing to expose his cards. "But I didn't expect you to find out instantly."

"You aren't the first representative of a supernatural organization to consider me a hot commodity, let's say. And if my hunch is correct, you won't be the last, either." shrugged Noah, thinking about the Azuma family's Banquet next week.

"At some point, I'll ask you and Rossweisse to visit Asgard, and I'll want to see how strong Rossweisse has become. And then, maybe we can make a deal."

"I can imagine what this deal would be about. I get more pretty girls, but they would still operate in your territory and under you, and you get stronger subordinates, either to fight hollows, or to be a deterrent against the other pantheons."

"Yes. The Greeks have always been a problem, but recently, the number of incidents with them being involved is increasing. Showing off a group of enhanced Valkyries with high mobility and combat power might make them reconsider before they decide to do something monumentally stupid."

"You must realize that me enhancing them, as you said, would also mean me standing above even yourself, as far as their loyalty will be concerned, right?"

"I'm aware. I talked about it to Venelana, and she told me about the requirements to share your powers. but I do not really mind. I do not see you or the goddess you serve as a danger for us in Asgard, and I know what you want. Girls. We'll just give you so many that you won't have time to start making trouble for us in the north!" laughed Odin.

"That's… a sound battle plan." grinned Noah. "I'd be a fool to decline, of course. As long as Asgard doesn't oppose the reforms I have in mind."

"Yes, your reforms. Venelana told me about those, too. I approve of them, or at least the intent behind them. And if there are problematic details, we can always talk about them like civilized people."

Rossweisse had stopped her self-pity session and was listening, completely flustered and not daring to look at anyone in the eyes, but able to understand Odin's logic.

"Yes. Thank you for entrusting miss Rossweisse to me. I'll take good care of her, and we'll visit in a few months."

"I'll count on you, young man." smiled Odin before leaving, heading toward Azazel. Rossweisse seemed to be hesitating, between her duty to act as the god's bodyguard and him giving her away like this.

"Miss Rossweisse, can I call you just Rossweisse? It looks like we'll interact quite often in the foreseeable future." asked Noah with a gentle smile.

"Ah, yes, feel free." she replied, nodding uneasily.

"Please call me just Noah as well. I realize that what happened has been pretty shocking to you, and you need time to adjust. That's why I won't pursue a romantic relationship with you for a few weeks, to give you time. And when we do, we will take it slow."

"For now, it will be fine if you just come to live with us in your new home, and get to know the people living there. They all are friendly and easy to get along with."

Rossweisse stared at him for an instant, then took a deep breath.

"Yes, you're right, Noah. And I will perform the duty Lord Odin expects of me."

"Will you need help carrying your belongings?"

"I have everything stored in my dimensional space already, but thank you for asking." smiled Rossweisse.

It was an uncertain, fragile smile, but it warmed Noah's heart.

"Ahem."

Rias cleared her throat, before walking closer, smiling at Rossweisse.

"Rossweisse, please call me Rias, too, since we'll be living together. Would you mind telling us more about Valkyries? I always wanted to visit Asgard, but…"

Thanks to Rias's interpersonal skills, in just a few minutes, Rossweisse was relaxing as she chatted with Rias and her peerage. Noah simply listened, a small smile on his face, as he considered what to do with his newly acquired sacred gears. Divine Dividing would go to Akeno, but the other two… Actually, assigning the True Longinus was easy. It would go to Kaede, as she already was trained in spearmanship and didn't have a sacred gear.

And Twice Critical… He would ask Miyabi first. She was a brawler type, and having four additional arms would help her a lot if she could master it.

As they were discussing, the VIPs completed the ratification of the Peace Treaty, and they started saying their goodbyes and leaving in small groups, taking the reinforcements with them.

Noah accompanied Maria, Iris and Layla to their home to help with packing their belongings, while Asuna brought Rossweisse to Hagun Island, and the girls able to use teleportation brought over those who couldn't.

And, once everyone was safely back in the Palace, Noah's system manifested itself.