Chapter 35: The Meeting

“So then, you did know.” Rather than letting things blow up without him, Issei does what he does best… he throws himself right into the mix. Irina and Xenovia both look a step away from crucifying Sister Griselda with their gazes, despite or perhaps because she was almost certainly their mentor and the woman who taught them a lot of what they knew about being exorcists. However, when Issei speaks up, the two younger women both snap their attention to him, giving him the floor without a second thought. This does not pass Griselda by, the older woman, a MILF to be sure if Issei’s suspicions about her and Xenovia’s relations are any indication, noting the way he seems to command the respect of her would-be subordinates. Eyes narrowing and nostrils flaring, Griselda sits with her back ramrod straight. This has the added bonus of pushing her chest out just a little bit, but Issei doesn’t think she’s doing it on purpose. In fact, if he didn’t know any better, he’d say she was wearing some sort of bandage wrap to compress her breasts at least a little bit. The slope of her chest, while sizable, didn’t seem quite as big as it should be… especially not after what he’d seen from Xenovia. “… So then, it was you who told them.” Ah, so that’s how she wanted to play it, huh? Well, Issei had no problem being aggressive. Flashing a wolfish smile, the young man shakes his head and chuckles. “Actually, it was Ddraig, the Great Welsh who told all of us. You know, because I’m the Red Dragon Emperor and all.” As he speaks, he applies some of his pressure to the room. Luckily, everyone is sitting down so there’s no scene to be had with Irina and Xenovia’s knees buckling or anything like that. They do both blush and pale at the same time in an odd way, like they’re both afraid of him but also aroused by his power in the same breath. Scaroused, so to speak. Sister Griselda, meanwhile, doesn’t react at all outwardly, save for a thinning of her lips as she presses them more tightly together. Issei is reminded that he’s dealing with humans now… not devils. When it was Rias, Sona, and their respective peerages, even the faintest hint of power was enough to utterly destroy their concentration and make them all drop to their knees masturbating furiously. Not even Xenovia, who has given in the most out of the three women in the room with him right now, is sinking that low quite yet. She is squirming though, and Issei can smell her arousal on the air, even as he stares Griselda down. Finally, she unclenches her jaw and speaks. “Yes. God is dead.” It clearly takes a lot for her to make that concession and indeed that confession. Issei just smiles, even as Irina gasps and covers her mouth in horror, tears welling up in her eyes. It’s obvious that the young exorcist had still been holding out hope until now, but now it had been confirmed by her direct superior and there was no denying the truth. Not anymore. “The Holy Father’s… departure from our universe is no excuse to fall into sin, however. The Church is still an important institution that spreads His values and the values of His Heaven far and wide. Indeed, Heaven itself is still very real and very much alive. Those who live pure and pious lives can hope to go there… just as those who sin and live a life of darkness and evil can expect to go to Hell.” Cocking his head to the side, Issei snorts. “And what? Everyone in between is fodder for the Supernatural Forces of this world?” Griselda bristles at that, glaring daggers at him. “The Church does everything in it’s power to protect humankind from the evils that plague it, including those evils that can be found within the hearts of men. It is the reason that we Exorcists exist. It is the reason that those Excaliburs in your possession MUST be returned, so that we might continue our most holy work.” Reaching out to tap the swords in front of him, Issei raises an eyebrow. “These Excaliburs? The ones found in the hands of excommunicated exorcists and fallen angels? The Grigori use your cast offs to do their dirty work, treating them as fodder. Meanwhile, your Church exiles innocents like Asia Argento, sending them right into the arms of people with terrible intentions.” Grimacing, the older Exorcist glances aside and Issei knows he’s found a chink in her armor. “Asia Argento’s case… was a mistake. Her excommunication should not have happened.” A little surprised by the admission, Issei pushes forward, humming. “Oh? I’m surprised you’re willing to say as much. Not that it’ll be of any comfort to her at this point. But not to worry, she’s quite happy here… with me.” Clearly seeking a lifeline, Sister Griselda looks him in the eye, suddenly far more intense than before. “And do you not understand that it is by His Grace that you are so powerful? Dead He might be, but that doesn’t change the fact that God was the one who created the Sacred Gear System. The Devils and Fallen might abuse it to hell and back, literally, but Sacred Gears were originally made by God to give humanity a fighting chance.” Thrusting out her chin, Griselda’s eyes twinkle as she delivers her point succinctly and concisely. “All of your power and strength can be traced back to that Sacred Gear inside of your soul. And that Sacred Gear can in turn be traced back to God. Not because he expected gratitude, not because he demanded worship… but because he cared. Because he loved each and every one of his creations with all of his heavenly heart and wanted to give us all a fighting chance.” The funny thing is, Issei can actually sort of see where Griselda is coming from. He understands her point, and indeed a little bit of him can’t help but be grateful to God because without the dead deity’s work, he would have died a long time ago himself, at that young age when only awakening Ddraig had saved Issei’s life. Indeed, even if he had survived, he might not have been able to avoid getting caught up in Devil Affairs. Would he have had the choice to stay as himself and not be Reincarnated, if it wasn’t for the power that God had bestowed upon him? At the same time… Issei had fought and trained and clawed his way into his current position. Yeah, he’d started life with a hell of a hand, but it was only through his own hard work that he’d turned it into a position he could win any challenge from. While Sister Griselda had a good point, Issei refused to acknowledge it. He was a Dragon; he was allowed to be contradictory and ornery. Waving a hand dismissively, Issei smiles thinly. “God’s gift to me aside, I don’t see why that means I should care about the Church or their desires.” Griselda, of course, immediately falls into the trap he’s setting for her. “Because we follow His teachings! Because we carry out His Will upon this world!” “Do you though? Do you really?” As Griselda tenses up, Issei leans forward. “God is dead and has been for quite some time. And humans… humans aren’t perfect. All this time. All these hundreds of years… and you preach to me that the Church is still following his Will? Is Heaven still holding the reins when people like Valper can get away with their actions for so long? Or when mistakes like Asia’s excommunication are allowed to happen?” Gritting her teeth, Griselda shakes her head. “N-No one is perfect…” “You lied to your followers. Your entire Church is built on that lie now. Hundreds of years. You had hundreds and hundreds of years to modify Church Doctrine, to introduce new lore, to ease Christians and Catholics into the news that God was dead. But instead, you have billions of human beings across the world worshipping a dead God. And none of them knows better.” Griselda’s mouths opens and closes soundlessly for a few seconds, and it’s clear she’s not… entirely in disagreement with him. Obviously, the good Sister has struggled with these sorts of thoughts every second of every day since she first found out God was dead herself. Whenever that was… it wasn’t enough to break her faith like it did to Xenovia, but it had done something worse… it’d fractured it. She could argue doctrine and dogma all day long, but as they look into one another’s eyes, Issei can tell that Griselda realizes it just as he does… she’s never going to convince him of anything, because deep down inside, she doubts it all herself. With a disgruntled sigh and a shake of his head, Issei stands up and collects the Excaliburs from the table. “We’re done here for today.” Standing up as well, Griselda looks shocked. “W-What?!” Staring her right in the eye, Issei doesn’t hold back with his opinion. “You don’t have the authority to give me what I want, but feel free to hang around while you get someone who does. I want an actual angel to come and explain themselves to me and until that happens, I’m done talking to you.” With that, he walks out. He doesn’t bother concerning himself with Griselda possibly trying to leave and take Irina and Xenovia with her. For one, he’s pretty sure neither girl will be willing to go anywhere at this point. For two, he’s convinced that Griselda won’t leave without exhausting all her options. Now, does that mean she’ll actually manage to get a bonafide heavenly angel to come along? Maybe not. But for now, Issei didn’t much care… -x-X-x- Later that evening, he’s in bed with Asia curled up against one side and Xenovia curled up against the other when the door suddenly cracks open. Issei doesn’t try to hide the fact that he’s awake and isn’t even remotely surprised when it’s Irina who’s creeping into his bedroom late at night. Indeed, as he’d expected, Sister Griselda was hanging around for the time being. Shut down most effectively during their initial round of negotiations, she had ultimately been very quiet all day long. Meanwhile, Xenovia and Irina had both avoided their former mentor and in Xenovia’s case, her likely birth mother. At the same time, Xenovia and Asia had been staying close to him all afternoon, and after dinner, the three of them had retired to his bedroom for some fun. Issei was half-expecting Griselda to interrupt them while Xenovia and Asia were in the throes of pleasure and he was plowing them both silly and fucking a couple creampies apiece into each of them, but she’d never shown up. Instead, it was now Irina who was slipping inside… and freezing up like a deer in the headlights when she saw him staring at her from the bed, not even remotely asleep. With a sigh, Issei carefully extracts himself from between Asia and Xenovia, sparing a glance back at the two just to see them close in on the empty space he’d been occupying and wrap each other in one another’s arms after a moment. It’s rather cute, watching the two sleeping girls hug. Whether they’re heavy sleepers normally or not, neither of them is waking up any time soon after the very thorough dual-plowing that he gave the both of them. Moving to the end of the bed, Issei sits there and raises an eyebrow at Irina, beckoning her forward. Blushing profusely, the girl finally unfreezes and carefully pads her way into the room, revealing that she’s wearing nothing but socks as she carefully closes the door behind her. Completely naked, his childhood friend is a scarlet red color as she gets closer to him, wiggling this way and that in embarrassment. “Irina…” “I-Issei. I… I want… tohaveyourbabiestoo!” She rushes it all out in a hurried hissed whisper, leaving Issei to raise an eyebrow as he deciphers what she’s saying. “… You want to have my babies too, do you?” Blushing at having her words parroted back at her, Irina just nods jerkily, clearly unsure of herself… but certain of what she wants if the smell of her arousal is any indication. Letting out a sigh, Issei reaches out and grabs her, pulling her into his lap as she squeaks and quickly wraps her arms around his neck to anchor herself. “… Alright. If that’s what you want…” “I-It is!” And then, as if to prove herself, she slips out of his hold and down onto her knees as quickly as she ended up in it. Issei watches as Irina takes his cock in her mouth, suckling at the tip while wrapping her tits around the base of his member. Unable to help himself, he reaches out and takes ahold of her twin tails, smiling and nodding down at her approvingly. “Good girl.” As she begins to suck him off, slurping away at his cock and swirling her tongue inexpertly but enthusiastically around his dick, Issei considers how he’s going to do this. There’s no chance in hell that he’s not going to fuck her and creampie her. There’s no way he’s not going to try and knock her up to the best of his abilities, just like with Xenovia. After all, if he was willing to give Xenovia what she wanted, it would be incredibly hypocritical of him NOT to do the same for Irina, right? With that settled, all that was left was to decide how to go about things. Part of him… part of him was feeling very vindictive. He hadn’t forgotten Irina’s comments about how he’d ‘changed’ or whatever back when they were fighting over the Excaliburs in the first place. To have her come crawling back to him now… part of him wanted to punish her a little bit. And at the same time, he had a guest right now who could stand to hear what her and her Church’s lies had wrought. The potential of making Griselda listen as he fucked and impregnated one of her wards was… certainly enticing. But maybe that was taking things too far. Maybe a simple mating press on the bed with Xenovia and Asia on either side as he fucked a baby into Irina would be best. It would certainly be the most intimate. And there was still a chance Griselda would hear Irina’s vocal cries of ecstasy as she creamed herself around his cock… Hm, it was a tough one. Use Irina to mess with Griselda, or just give her what she wanted, no strings attached?