"Eren has Ophis!"

The yell burst from Issei's lips in a panic, loud enough that half the house would have heard it despite its size.

Maybe, if Issei hadn't been so tired, so surprised, or overcome by desperation, Issei would have chosen different words.

Maybe he would have waited for others to join him.

Maybe he wouldn't have thrown himself out the kitchen window, Boosted Gear Scale Mail covering his form instantly as he shattered glass and wood in his rush to reach his Senpai before he took Ophis.

... Maybe Issei would have said goodbye.

He didn't.

He moved on instinct, trusting his friends to be right behind him.

It was not a conscious thought, just the habit he had formed from his desire to be the wall protecting his friends.

And, as much as she was driving him to exhaustion with her 'help,' Ophis was still someone Issei wanted to protect.

All Issei could think about was the boy he hadn't seen since that night on the beach and the pure, simple dragon that didn't want to hurt her family.

All Issei could think of was stopping a plan that would hurt Ophis, his friends, his family, the children of the Underworld, and even Eren.

[Boost!]

As he ran, Issei vaguely heard the girls making their way down the stairs freeze, exclaiming in surprise and Xenovia jumping the remaining distance on the stairs as she rushed toward the kitchen to join him.

[Boost!]

[Boost!]

Issei didn't hear his girlfriend call his name in confusion as she stared out the shattered window into an empty street.

There was no sign of Eren, Ophis, or Issei in the fading mist.

[Boost!]

[Boost!]

[Boost!]

[Boost!]

All Issei could hear was the sound of his Boosts, the beating of his heart, and Ophis speaking as Dimension Lost closed around him.

"Don't want to hurt-" Ophis cut off as the red armoured form slid between her and the boy with an outstretched arm. "Ddraig."

Eren looked- He looked the same. No different in body than he had been only a few weeks ago on that beach.

His face, though... It was empty. Dead.

Hollow in a way Issei had never seen, even on Senpai's worst day.

Blank silver eyes looked at Issei, not really seeing him or reacting to his appearance. Then, without even acknowledging the boy, he returned his empty gaze to Ophis once more.

"Sen-"BOOM!

Issei's attempt to talk was interrupted by a fist crashing into the side of his armoured skull, an explosion detonating with the impact that sent him flying across the barren land of this pocket dimension.

Eren kept talking, even through the noise.

"It will only hurt for a bit. Then you'll have silence."

Issei couldn't pay any attention to that conversation as he suddenly found himself in a precarious position.

"Red Dragon Emperor," the massive man who had punched him grinned at Issei. He punched a fist into a palm, tiny explosions igniting with the impact. "Name's Heracles. Yeah. That Heracles. Got his spirit. So let's have a bit of a fight before you die."

[Issei.]

'I know.'

As he landed, Issei had taken a look around to orient himself.

He wasn't in front of his house anymore but in a large expanse. Just ground and mist as far as the eye could see without a sky above.

Issei was alone in this world, and he still couldn't teleport worth a damn.

Everyone's efforts to keep him and Ophis safe had gone out the window because he was an impulsive idiot who acted without thought.

'Sorry. But I can't let him have Ophis.'

It was a bad situation all around, but there was an easy way out.

Get Ophis.

There wasn't a barrier in the world that could stop her if she decided to leave. Issei might be stranded because of his own faults, but she wasn't. He just needed to convince her to leave.

And if he could finally talk to Eren, finally ask the questions burning in his heart while he did so, then all the better.

"Where is he?" Mikasa asked, swords already drawn as she appeared in the wreckage of the kitchen.

"Get out of my way," Issei growled at the mountain of muscle. He continued to Boost, every second growing stronger but also risking Eren doing... whatever he needed to do with Ophis. "I'm not letting you guys get your hands on Ophis!"

"Try and stop us then," Herc's grin redoubled as he launched himself at the Rook with an explosion.

Issei quickly found he didn't have time to focus on anything else but defence as the hero laid into him with everything he had.

Every punch, every kick, and even a headbutt was accompanied by an explosion that deafened Issei slightly. It singed his armour, tossing him this way and that with every blast of fire and force.

Heracles wasn't without skill, either. He fought with more technique than one would expect from someone of his stature, his every blow leading to another. Every explosion destabilized Issei just enough for him to be unable to counterattack.

It was clear that Heracles had spent considerable effort mastering his Sacred Gear, Variant Destruction.

"I don't know," Xenovia continued to whirl around, looking for her boyfriend. Fear welling up in her with every second of silence that passed.

Yet... Issei was the Red Dragon Emperor.

Every second, he grew exponentially stronger, faster, and tougher.

It only took three seconds for him to be able to endure the explosions without flinching.

It only took five seconds for Issei to reach his current Boost limit.

The limit he could hold indefinitely, at least.

Usually, the strategy was to continue to Boost until one reached the limit their body could hold, then expel that power as a burst in one devastating attack. Repeat as needed.

Issei usually did the same when he had those around him who could cover him as he regained his power between blasts.

Balance Breaker shorted the time between each Boost to only a second instead of ten, but Issei knew he couldn't allow himself even that time.

"Georg," Kuroka said plainly as she teleported beside the growing crowd of teenagers, all looking worried and on edge. "He could be anywhere by now. I can't sense Ophis either."

Not here, alone, far from any help.

Issei wasn't anywhere near helpless, though.

As a Rook and one who spent considerable time training, Issei could hold more than almost all other Boosted Gear holders in the past in a low-level simmer.

He was possibly only second to Ddraig himself, though the full might of the Red Dragon Emperor was still a fair bit out of Issei's reach.

Dragons were just that broken.

Still, holding twelve Boosts without expending them? The equivalent of over four thousand times his base strength as a Rook?

The explosion detonated in Issei's face without moving him, and Issei used the cover to throw himself at the hero.

"Shit!"

The ground cratered and dented with the force of the punch that the reincarnated hero barely dodged. The strange ground ruptured with an earthquake of power that shook the entire dimension.

Issei had only half a year with the Boosted Gear, a minuscule fraction of time compared to the monsters of the world who spent decades, or even centuries, training. Who knew what he could become if he had more time to grow.

...If he had time to grow.

[Partner!]

Issei threw himself out of the way at Ddraig's warning, barely avoiding a blade that would have severed his leg.

"I can't use Casteling," Rias declared, panic seeping into her voice despite her best efforts.

"Ha," the blonde woman laughed as she hopped backward, her holy sword trailing a line of light through the dust cloud of the battle so far. "He almost got you, Herc."

"Shut up," the giant man grumbled, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'd have been fine."

[Watch out!] One of the Senpais in the Gear called out, and the panic in their voice had Issei throw himself away again, putting even more distance between him and the heroes as two blades sought to impale him from behind.

It also pushed him further from Eren and Ophis.

"Perhaps," a more serious voice spoke. "We ought to work together? This is the only warm-up we'll get before the big day."

He looked like Freed, Issei realized. The silver hair. The face. The casual arrogance. It all reminded him of the crazed exorcists he had met that first week as a devil.

And the swords in his hands. One was a light sword, the same as Freed, while the other was...

[Gram.] The Senpai who warned him earlier said gravely. [Be careful, Issei. Gram is one of the strongest Demonic Swords in the world and is a dragon-slaying weapon. It killed me.]

Issei had no intention of going easy on any of these people, and both the Holy Sword and Dragon Slaying Sword wouldn't care about his Rook durability, even Boosted, and could be fatal to him.

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"I can't teleport to my mark on him either," Le Fay said sadly. "Either they are blocking us, or they destroyed it."

Still, Issei had to ask.

"Why are you doing this?"

All three heroes looked at Issei, the blonde woman tilting her head in surprise.

"What do you mean, Oppai Dragon?"

Issei didn't even comment on the choice of name, his attention half on them and half on Eren and Ophis in the distance.

They seemed to be arguing, though not strongly, and Ophis kept looking toward Issei, but she was too far for Issei to make out any expression on her otherwise placid face.

Eren didn't look at him once.

"Why are you helping Eren?" Issei demanded. "He's gonna kill a lot of innocent people! You are heroes, right?"

He recognized these three from Kuroka's list of notable members of the Hero Faction, but he just couldn't wrap his mind around why people who wanted to be heroes would work with the other factions of the Chaos Brigade.

"What can we do," Xenovia looked around, eyes wide and terrified. "There has to be some way we can get to him!"

All three looked at Issei like he was stupid.

"Oh, I get it!" The girl suddenly exclaimed in realization. "He thinks we're heroes like in his show." Then she laughed. "That's not it at all."

"Man, you're dumb," Heracles snorted out a laugh as well.

"Don't mind these two," the silver-haired man said, though he was smiling as well. "What they mean is that we aren't the type of heroes that save people. We are heroes that kill monsters."

"You work with monsters!"

"Yep, yep," the blonde nodded. "A bunch of them. But see, using monsters to kill monsters just makes good sense, don't it?"

"Jeanne has a point," the dual sword wielder said. "Oh, I'm Siegfried by the way, Issei Hyoudou. If nothing else, you deserve to know the enemies who kill you."

"We don't have to be enemies," Issei tried to argue them down. "Just let me talk to Eren. You don't have to hurt Ophis, and we don't have to fight. Just step away."

"Can't do that," Heracles shrugged, but the smile on his face showed how little he actually regretted the action. "The Boss ain't done with her."

"We can't," Azazel said grimly. "Dimension Lost is a Longinus for a reason. Our entire plan to keep Issei safe was based on the notion they'd come and attack. Once he left the wards, we couldn't stop them from scooping him up."

In the distance, Issei saw Ophis shaking her head.

"We're not being cruel, Oppai Dragon-kun," Jeanne said, her smile turning a bit melancholy. "We are trying to save the world, ya know? And to do that, you gotta die. Sorry about that."

Eren extended his hand and a young man appeared beside him from the mist.

"Hate us if you wish," Siegfried sighed. "If there is an actual hell, we'll join you there soon enough, so don't feel too bad. But if we have to become the villains of the story to save the world? Well, we are heroes, after all."

Another swirl of mist and... it appeared.

Issei had seen a lot of unsettling things since becoming a devil, from mutated stray devils to the aftermath of Freed's slaughter of one of their clients.

This was wrong. Vile. Disgusting. An abomination that should never have existed.

It was large, larger than any humanoid Issei had seen so far, and its upper body was vaguely shaped like a fallen angel, but that was where its normal features ended.

Its entire lower body was that of an eastern, serpentine dragon, and its face was just as draconic, with a fang-filled mouth. Its eyes, hidden behind a blindfold, wept continuous streams of blood.

And it was crucified.

All over its body, in its wings, tail, arms, legs, torso, and even its neck, were impaled by nails driven cruelly into flesh, radiating light from golden runes that hurt Issei to look at.

The creature radiated so much pain, jealousy, resentment, and suffering that Issei could physically feel it even from this distance.

Its cross was held beside Eren by tendrils of white bone, and the second it appeared, it let out a howl of pain and hatred that lit Issei's heart with fear like nothing ever before.

[Samael.] Ddraig growled. [You cannot let it touch you, Issei. No matter how many Boosts, you will die. Body and soul.]

Holy swords. Dragon Slaying swords. Samael.

Everything in this dimension could be fatal to Issei.

He wouldn't let that stop him.

"I should have considered Eren would know how to lure him away," Sona, still in her nightgown, bit the tip of her finger as she thought. "He knows Issei."

Issei's stomach fell as the thing's tongue shot out like a squid's tentacle, wrapping around Ophis.

Power. Unending, infinite power flowed from the small girl's body through the creature and gathered in a chalice Eren held in his hand.

"Ah."

It was not loud. It was not an agonized wail of pain that tore at the soul.

But the fact that Ophis, the Infinite Dragon God, was even making sounds as her power was torn from her told Issei what sort of agony she must be going through.

Issei couldn't waste any more time.

Hardening his heart and gritting his teeth, Issei launched himself toward Eren and Ophis.

[Boost!]

Eight thousand times.

The eyes of the heroes widened, but they didn't falter, placing themselves between Issei and Eren.

Issei bowled over Heracles, even as the hero detonated everything around him.

A stomp on the ground pushed Issei above Jeanne's lunge.

Siegfried was there, with four extra arms grown from nowhere, each wielding a demonic blade of their own.

Issei didn't try and fly away, nor did he try to fight the man. He had no chance of overcoming the man's skill with his own.

So he went right through.

[Boost!]

Sixteen thousand times his base strength and durability.

Issei crashed into Siegfried, knocking the swordsman from the air with his burst of sudden speed before he could bring any of his weapons to bear.

Issei landed with a cratering explosion, his body straining with every muscle twitch.

"And now Issei is trapped by that genocidal madman!" Xenovia growled in helpless rage. She whirled her glare on Mikasa and Kuroka. "Where would the Child of Evil take him?"

The entire reason the Crimson World Wall worked so well was because Issei never moved, reducing the burden all those Boosts placed on his body.

Moving at these speeds while actively using the power, instead of storing it up, would tear him apart, Rook or no.

Issei didn't care.

Issei launched himself, not to attack Eren or Sameal, but to free Ophis, whose normally placid face was contorted in a paroxysm of pain.

"Let her go!"

Issei Hyoudou, with all the strength he could, tore Ophis from Sameal's tongue.

And, in doing so, he pricked himself on the tiny thorn of white bone placed on Eren had subtly placed on her body right before Issei's arrival.

"Eren wouldn't take him anywhere," Mikasa's mouth was a thin line, and her eyes were hard. "He'd do everything as soon as possible to prevent anything from going wrong. That's what he did with the Warhammer."

Issei never saw the tiny needle.

It was too small and thin, and his entire focus was on getting him and Ophis out of there.

But he certainly felt it.

The needle, coated in the blood Samael continued to weep, passed through his Scale Mail as if it weren't even there.

[Reset!]

Boosted Gear dissolved around Issei as he crashed into the ground, Ophis in his arms as all strength fled his body.

[ISSEI!] Ddraig roared in his mind. [How- Hang in there! We can-]

Issei barely heard the dragon's panicked shouting in his mind.

Pain. Agonizing, soul-searing pain overcame Issei. It originated from one of the arms still wrapped around Ophis and quickly began to spread through his body.

"...Eren won't kill Issei," Koneko said, but her voice held no conviction.

"...Why?" Ophis asked, looking at Issei blankly and not moving from his arms. She had chosen this, chosen her silence over everything else. She hadn't asked to be saved.

Issei could barely hear her over the rush of blood to his head, his heart beating a thunderous cacophony as he desperately tried to keep conscious through the sudden onslaught of unexpected pain.

The best he could do was force out one word between teeth clenched so tightly they began to crack.

"...Hurts."

Ophis eyes widened slightly, but Issei couldn't notice.

The agony had spread to his chest.

And a boot crashed into his head, kicking him away from the weakened dragon.

Issei felt a tooth loose as his Rook durability failed him.

Bleary, unfocused eyes recognized the older boy with grey eyes glaring down at Issei.

"I saw your match," Sen- Eren spat in anger, the first proper show of emotion on his face Issei had seen today.

He hadn't even blinked as he violently tore power from Ophis. Said power was contained in the cup he held, violently bubbling and overflowing as the Grail failed to contain the Infinite.

Issei didn't notice.

His eyes were only on the man in front of him.

"I cannot tell you how much I hate Walls."

"If it was to accomplish a goal he saw as worth even his life?" Kuroka held her sister's hand tightly.

Issei wanted to tell Eren that he knew. That Mikasa had told him, told them all of Eren's world. Of what he had gone through.

What Eren had done.

But his tongue was like lead in his mouth as Samael's poison spread.

All Issei could do was weakly extend his still-moving arm, grasping Eren's ankle in a futile attempt to... something.

Stop him? Communicate? Beg for his life? Yell at him?

Tell him of the children who didn't deserve to die just because they had been born a certain race?

Issei wanted to say all that and more. He longed to have one more afternoon on the bench with his Senpai where they could talk one last time.

His plan had never been to fight Eren, just stop him. Talk to him.

Because Eren wasn't a villain. Even now, even on the edge of death, Issei couldn't bring himself to think of Eren as the bad guy.

He still held out hope that he could be reasoned with. Talked down from his plan.

But Issei couldn't even say a word.

Eren kicked him again, and Issei flew, rolling helplessly along the ground.

He came to a stop at the foot of a metal cross.

Not Samael's. The Dragon Eater had disappeared at some point, its job completed.

Another had appeared in its place, a complex symbol already drawn on the ground and powered by a vaguely familiar man with a spear that made Issei's soul shudder.

This crucifix was for a different if no less sinister, purpose.

"Start the ritual," Eren ordered Cao Cao as white bone lifted Issei roughly and affixed him to the device.

Issei, barely cognizant, spotted Ophis in the distance. She hadn't moved from where he had pulled her from Samael's grasp.

Ophis's eyes darted between Eren and Issei, then back to Eren. Issei. Eren. Issei.

Talking was well beyond Issei at this point. There was no air in his lungs, and his tongue wouldn't move.

As Ophis stared at him with her blank eyes, those same eyes that had begged him to help save her small family, Issei wished he could have said... something to her.

He wanted to tell her he didn't blame her. It was his own actions that led to this failure.

He wanted to beg her to go, to tell his friends he had failed. That Eren had everything he needed for his plan.

Issei... Issei wanted to beg her to save him... so he could live. He had so much he still wanted to do, so many things he hadn't accomplished.

It was all a mess of confusing thoughts, vague emotions and fears as the poison reached his head.

Issei went slack, all tension leaving his body immovable as Samael's poison continued to do its terrible work.

Issei's vision darkened around the edge, and he barely felt the power of the device course through him, so minuscule was the pain it inflicted compared to the suffering he was already going through.

Eren's angry voice was the last sound Issei heard before his hearing failed.

"He would."

"All Walls fall." Grey eyes rimmed in Titan Shifter marks met dying brown. Was Senpai talking to Issei? Or to himself? "All Walls must fall."

Silence.

A deafening, echoing silence.

[Issei.] Elsha-senpai sounded sad. [We can't save your life.]

'I know.' At least in his own mind, Issei could still speak, though his thoughts grew increasingly murky. 'Sorry. My fault.'

[Sameal's poison is destroying your body and soul.] Belzard-senpai said grufly. His voice was oddly wet, though. [There'll be nothing left. You won't even join us in the Gear.]

'Sorry.'

[Don't worry about it. You did good, kid.] Belzard sighed. [...I'm just sorry I won't get to see season two.]

It was all Issei's fault. He let down the children. He let down his senpais. He let down his friends. He let down his girlfriends. He let down Ddraig.

Issei... didn't want to die.

He wanted to continue living as a devil. He wanted to continue fighting in rating games. He wanted to keep being Oppai Dragon for the children of the supernatural world. He wanted to help his friends with their dreams. He wanted to be a Harem King. He wanted to keep being a wall they could rely on.

Issei wanted to hold Xenovia again.

"I have faith that Issei will come home," Asia gave the dour group a watery smile.

Issei wanted to see Asia's smile.

Ultimately, Issei Hyoudou was just a teenage boy who had gained power by a stroke of luck. One whose normal, everyday life had been upended when his first girlfriend impaled him in the chest.

Did he deserve the joy the power brought? The danger and death that accompanied it? Maybe. Maybe not. It didn't matter.

Nobody deserves anything.

'Ddraig. Sorry. Wasn't. Good. Partner.'

Now, Issei couldn't even form a proper sentence in his mind anymore.

The pain was gone, and numbness overcame him.

Issei could vaguely make out blurry shapes, amorphous blobs in his vision. They were talking, but Issei could not hear the words.

He could see the light, though.

The red light emerging from his chest seemed to be the only thing he could see.

That, and Eren.

Eren was... hovering. The details were a mess to Issei's failing body and mind, but he absently noticed the ritual circle disappear with the ground under him.

All the heroes had gathered together, watching Issei die as they floated in the void.

[...You were the best wielder I could ever hope for.]

A kind lie. Ddraig would have many partners in the future, Issei was sure. The first would be...

'Protect. Everyone.'

[You can count on me, Partner.]

Issei couldn't find any relief at the thought, overwhelmed as he was by regret at his failures.

Issei's last thought wasn't of home, of his girlfriends, of his regrets and failures.

No, his last thought was a confused, half-conscious thing created by a dying mind trying to make sense of the world.

Eren was there, floating in front of Issei.

Eren was... flying.

Yet... Eren wasn't... smiling.

That... seemed... so... wrong...

...

Issei Hyoudou died when Boosted Gear left his chest.

Barely three minutes had passed since he crashed through his kitchen window.

It was short. It was violent. It was painful.

It was fatal.

Eren's plan did not allow for any last-minute heroics, a surprise rescue, secret powerups or even the ability to say goodbye.

Issei Hyoudou just died without ceremony and without fanfare, and the empty body was tossed aside like trash.

Sometimes, the world was just that cruel.

Issei's corpse floated adrift in the infinite vastness of the Dimensional Gap.

Not for long.

Three seconds after the barrier keeping her from Issei disappeared, a gathering of desperate rescuers appeared in the colourful void beside the body of the Rook.

They were too late.

All they accomplished that day was to bring Issei Hyoudou's body home.