Cao Cao stared into his drink, paying no attention to the noise behind him.

His comrades were never quiet, except for Georg, of course, and their new... boss had stirred them up.

Deliberately, Cao Cao could see that now.

He'd provoked them by showing up with a descendent of Lucifer, a holy sword wielder, a witch, Kuroka the Black Cat, and a yokai. A more provocative group Cao Cao couldn't imagine.

Then Eren went and declared himself their new leader and essentially challenged the Hero Faction by himself.

Said Hero Faction was now busy pestering his team of devils and Yokai about what on earth had just happened.

The one with the most information was the three-tailed nekomata, the infamous Kuroka, but she was deliberately coy.

Jeanne was having more success with the small witch, but her brother was hovering around her protectively.

Cao Cao would get any actual pertinent information from Georg or Sieg later.

Right now, he faced a choice.

Should he go along with this... Eren Yeager or pretend to do so while undermining him and searching for a weakness.

Yeager was human but surrounded himself with monsters. Yokai and devils.

He was strong, but how much was... debatable.

If Cao Cao believed the absurd claim that Eren could see the future, he could be a game changer. Just what his budding faction needed to really achieve their goals.

But if he believed that, Cao Cao would have to accept the young teen's words.

Cao Cao couldn't move, trapped in the grasp of the enormous being.

His spear, the True Longinus, was stabbed into its eye, yet it didn't have any effect it would usually have on devils or other inhuman beings.

Around the created battlefield, his comrades lay just as defeated as himself.

Herc was trapped in a sphere of white material, continuous explosions ringing out fruitlessly.

Jeanne was trapped in this giant's other hand, her sword trying to carve through its giant fingers without success.

Sieg was suspended in the air, every one of his eight limbs held in place by more of that white material like a spider trapped in a web.

Only Georg hadn't participated in this battle, though he was the one keeping this battlefield around.

And, right in front of Cao Cao, the giant lowered its head, exposing the back of its neck to the reincarnated hero.

There was a release of steam, and the boy emerged, tendrils of flesh still connecting him to the monster that had crushed the budding Hero Faction.

Eren Yeager reached out a hand, and another white tendril dropped the True Longinus into it.

"I've proved my point." That empty, dead voice. As if nothing he had done truly mattered. As if he had no life. "If I wanted you all dead, I'd kill you now."

Cao Cao's eyes were on his Sacred Gear.

It had no reaction to being held by the boy, his enemy.

Eren twirled the ornate spear casually as if he wasn't holding the strongest Sacred Gear.

Then he grasped it right under its tip and held out its shaft to Cao Cao.

"In every future, without my intervention, you fail to achieve anything significant," Eren said simply, holding out the spear and ignoring the blood dripping from his hand that steamed as it met the air. "You cause an incident. You attack someone important. You sometimes kill them. But that is it. A footnote in history. You aren't remembered as heroes. In most timelines, the Hero Faction is not remembered at all."

Cao Cao grasped the handle.

"With me," Eren said, empty silver eyes boring into Cao Cao's. "Every devil, angel, monster, or mage will remember you. You will carve your name into history. Humanity will know the Hero Faction as-"

"When I was a boy, I wanted to be a hero."

Cao Cao's thoughts were interrupted by their subject.

Eren wandered over casually, empty grey eyes staring out over the horizon.

"You are a boy," Cao Cao responded blandly.

"In my last life. In my last world." Eren stepped up beside Cao Cao, leaning against the railing that came up to his shoulders. "Humanity was beset by monsters. I wanted to kill them all. I did kill them all."

"Yet you are with monsters now."

"What I realized," Eren continued as if uninterrupted. "Is that humanity are the monsters. If I wanted to kill all of them, I'd need to kill every human. This world might have other races, but that has not changed. There is no such thing as a hero, just a well-known killer. People give 'heroes' on their side glory and 'heroes' on the other are monsters. Murderers."

"Humanity needs heroes," Cao Cao disagreed. "We need examples. We need ideals. We need people to point to and say, 'They did that! I can, too!' That's what it means to be a hero."

"Humanity needs nothing," Eren shook his head. "People do not unite behind heroes. People do not unite to fight monsters. A common enemy does not make a common cause. Humanity could face its doom, and they'd still tear each other to pieces. Still pull their comrades down just so they won't die alone. I saw it in my old world. I saw it in this one. Nothing has changed, and nothing will change, whether they have heroes or not."

"If that is what you believe, why are you here? The Hero Faction was created to fight for humanity," Cao Cao glared down at the boy. "To kill monsters. To prove that we won't be pieces in their games."

"I have seen every horror you can imagine," Eren said in that empty voice. "Theft. Betrayal. Rape. Murder. Genocide. By humans and against humans. I have been the victim and aggressor. I've killed more people, more of humanity than any monster you can name. And I did it all while being human myself."

Eren turned and looked at Cao Cao, his empty voice ringing out hollowly.

"I have seen countless ways this world can end. Some by gods. Devils. Things you can't imagine. Or by humans themselves. It doesn't matter what does it in the end," Eren shook his head. "In every one, humanity plays a role in its own doom."

For the first time, looking into those empty eyes, Cao Cao believed the boy could see the future.

That he had lived countless lifetimes in futures that would never be.

"Being a hero for humanity means being a hero for monsters. For devils. For gods. Because they exist here. They will be inspired by you, just as every human," Eren said bluntly. "Forget humanity. It is a meaningless concept. Just focus on being a hero."

"I won't forget it," Cao Cao rejected. "And you didn't tell me why you're here. You can see the future. You should know that is not something I will agree to do."

"You will agree. I am here because I need the Hero Faction, and you need me," Eren met Cao Cao's glare with the eyes of a man looking at a corpse. "You will do what I say when I say it. You will kill who I tell you to. You will die when I tell you to. You will work alongside the monsters you hate so much. You will even save some of them."

"And in return?" Cao Cao demanded. "What can you offer me that is worth selling my soul?"

"I will accomplish your goal. I will ensure this world knows how strong a 'human' can be. Never again will they underestimate our potential. I will turn you from a victim of this cruel world into the aggressor that shapes it, a 'hero.' Every wielder of the True Longinus after you will know 'Cao Cao, the human who killed a god.'"

"A human killing a god?" Cao Cao tasted the words on his lips, hiding the rampant desire in his heart.

He wanted that.

He wanted that so much.

But...

"You are asking us to die for you. I will not sacrifice my comrades for that. I can... We can kill a god without your help."

"No. You can't. No Longinus, not even the first and strongest, has ever killed a god." Eren's empty eyes pinned the older man in place. "You won't just kill a god. With me, you'll kill one of the Top Ten."

Cao Cao's rampant heart froze.

That... that was more than he ever dreamed of being possible in his life.

"I cannot force anyone to follow me except with the threat of violence," Eren continued as if he hadn't just uttered something positively absurd. "But you will anyway. Some people just can't stop themselves from moving forward, from fighting. I'll ask a simple question instead of trying to convince you anymore. How do you want to die?"

When Cao Cao set out to create this gathering of heroes, he knew that he was setting himself up for death. A hero gave everything they had for their dream.

If they were still alive, they still had more to give.

Heroes never live long, happy lives.

Cao Cao looked back toward the horizon.

And made a decision.

"I want to see the peak. I want to die having witnessed humanity's greatest potential. I want to die a hero who will inspire others to chase that peak."

"There is no peak," Eren said simply. "Just another horizon, another mountain. Another wall to tear down or another ocean to cross. That's the bitter truth of the world, of all worlds. There will always be more enemies. You will never be free of them."

It would have been easy for the boy to lie and claim getting Cao Cao in a position to kill one of the Top Ten was the farthest humanity could go. Already, that was well beyond what anyone else in the world thought a human was capable of.

But he didn't.

Eren Yeager simply showed Cao Cao a peak he never even knew existed.

"But I can give you this promise," the Devil promised the Hero. "You will live long enough to see a human kill the Dream."

That was when Cao Cao decided to follow the boy toward the end of whatever Path he was walking.

********

"Was this what you saw in his mind?" Hades asked Indra casually, not taking his eyes off the projected image of the battle.

Even from so far away, they could still feel the vibrations of the earthquakes caused by Eren's struggle with Great Red.

There was also the small matter of the sun going out and the weather shifting every few seconds, but they were gods of such a high order that such things didn't concern them.

"More or less," Indra replied, his tone less casual.

Unlike his viewing partner, who watched without a blink or a twitch, Indra's gaze was not locked on the battle between man and dragon but rather between the hero and devil kings.

Cao Cao should be dead.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

It was the simple, unavoidable truth.

The once handsome and heroic figure was now in a pitiable, wretched state.

Half his scalp had been shorn off by a blast of Destruction dodged too late. What remained of his hair was a matted mess of blood, and the rest of his face wasn't much better.

His left arm was useless, a limp black lump of flesh from the necrosis of frostbite.

All his clothes had been torn, destroyed, burnt, or shattered. Nothing remained to preserve his modesty, allowing any observer to see his countless wounds that wept blood or puss.

All that was damning enough already. Lacking Eren's regeneration ability, Cao Cao would inevitably succumb to his wounds and die unless treated by something equivalent or greater to Twilight Healing.

But it was the fracture, zigzag patterns of white gold that covered the hero's flesh that would be his real doom, healing or not.

Like a broken piece of porcelain, held together by molten gold yet liable to shatter any second, Cao Cao stood against his foes with the aid of his spear.

He should be dead.

Not only was he facing the four Satans, each powerful in their own right and used to working together as a team, but they were not holding back.

Serafall had shed any pretense of the jovial Magical Girl she was once and, in her place, was just the cold killer of the devil Civil War.

Falbium barely moved, yet neither did his Absolute Defence, acting as a bulwark for his allies against a weapon designed to kill them.

Adjuka's Kankura Formula rotated around the devil, a mass of complex mathematical spellwork that allowed him to manipulate magic to a degree never seen before. No spell would ever be able to act against his will.

And then there was the monster.

The Crimson Devil.

Sirzechs Lucifer was an... abomination.

Something this world should not have birthed and should have removed as soon as possible.

He stood there, no longer a man or devil but a void.

A blight on reality.

Sirzechs' true form was nothing more than a mass of destruction, so powerful and overwhelming that even Hades had regarded the devil with apprehension witnessing this form.

Just changing into this... violation had caused an earthquake that equalled any one Eren and Great Red conjured.

Facing and surviving against any one of these four would be an accomplishment for anyone in the world.

Facing all four should have been suicide.

Cao Cao should be dead.

But he wasn't. Not yet.

Because, like his namesake, the hero's greatest weapon was not the one a dead God gifted to him at birth but the strategic mind of a mortal.

He'd set up everything he could to ensure he had every advantage. He didn't use spells, just his spear and body. Both were anathema to devils, meaning they couldn't get close enough to hurt him.

Cao Cao did everything he could throughout the battle to lock down his opponents.

Sirzechs' power was great, yes, but it was also uncontrolled. He was Destruction, but in this form, he lacked the control he had trained centuries to attain.

If he attacked with anything less than the greatest care, if he so much as moved, he risked killing his comrades as much as his enemy.

Yet he had been forced to take this form.

Cao Cao was definitely wretched and pitiful, but he wasn't the only one injured.

Serafall's left leg had been replaced with one of ice. True Longinus had nicked her ankle, and she had to sever the limb before the Light spread to the rest of her body.

Across Ajuka's face was a seared hand print, burned so deeply into his flesh that one could see the swirls of a fingerprint. Cao Cao had grabbed him by the skull, ready to run him through in the moment of surprise following the unveiling of his Balance Breaker.

His touch alone, from a body so sanctified by the Holy Grail, was enough to wound the Super Devil.

Only Sirzechs's quick movement had saved his friend's life.

He'd managed to unleash a bolt of destruction close enough to Cao Cao to carve out that chunk of skull, but it had also left him open to a slash from the True Longinus against his chest.

To stay alive, he'd been forced to convert his flesh into Destruction as Falbium sent the human back.

Ever since that exchange, there was an almost deadlock.

No longer surprised by the esoteric abilities of the True Longinus' unique Balance Breaker, the Satans hadn't allowed Cao Cao to gain another opportunity like that again.

Both had reason to want to break this equilibrium as soon as possible.

Cao Cao because more white gold cracks crawled across his flesh every second that passed. A countdown to his death.

The Satans because they could see their home, their friends, and their family under attack. Just being in proximity to Great Red, or an equivalent being was counted as a death sentence, and every breath spent on this fight was one where someone they loved could die without their protection.

Yet victory remained distant for both sides.

Cao Cao would rush in, either physically or with an ability from his Balance Breaker, only to be fought off by the conjoined effort of the Satans before he could do any damage.

Similarly, the Satans would rain down attacks or lay out a trap, but Cao Cao's greater mobility would allow him to evade.

Something needed to change.

And it was from the battle so far away that the change came from.

"Pigeons and crows," Hades grumbled with the sound of rattling bones at the sight of the angels and fallen coming to aid the devils in defending the Crimson World Wall. "I suppose it doesn't matter. They're just closer to the Titan now. Let them join the bats in making my Underworld their grave."

Indra didn't say anything, didn't even look at the battle that would define an era, and just kept watching Cao Cao.

Hearing the God of the Dead's words, almost all attention had briefly shifted to the image of the battle near Lilith.

Almost.

Adjuka had used the opening to blast a spell from Cao Cao's back.

The hero dodged out of the way with a sidestep, but the spell bounced as if hitting a wall and followed him.

With narrowed eyes, Cao Cao wove out of the way as the spell bounced in jerky, angular motions.

His eyes widened when he realized what was happening, and he touched one of the seven orbs that surrounded him, his Balance Breaker.

Immediately, Cao Cao reappeared a distance away as the bouncing spell formed a magical formula.

Whatever it meant to do, it would have been nasty based on how everything within it seemed to... invert.

Not that the hero was safe. No sooner had he reappeared did a blast of Destruction carve its way toward him faster than he could blink.

Another of his Seven Treasure Orbs put itself between it and himself, sending the attack toward Adjuka.

Falbium appeared beside his friend, his defence up and deflecting the attack away from the battle.

It flew off, destroying a mountain in the distance, as the battle paused again, each side eyeing the other warily.

Then Cao Cao seemed to relax, leaving his stance and leaning against his spear for support.

His smile was one of pride, achievement, and joy.

"I don't suppose you're giving up," Serafall asked with a tight smile. "This battle is pointless. If that bitch Gabriel ends up saving So-tan before I can, I'll join the Brigade myself."

"I'm afraid the Brigade is done," Cao Cao laughed. Blood dribbled from his lips. "After today, the surviving factions will fragment and go their own way. If you want to coral them, go ahead. But you are not Eren Yeager."

"Your blind faith in the man has led you to your death," Adjuka pointed out, his formula spinning. He was undoubtedly using the brief respite to set up some fiendishly complex trap.

It didn't matter to Cao Cao.

Nothing about this battle mattered now.

Not when he'd already won.

The fighting... it had just been trying to get extra, really. The desire to see if a human could face all the Satans at once had been too much for him to resist, and it suited his goal of buying time.

Cao Cao had always known how to end this battle.

"I chose to die here," Cao Cao's head lilted to one side as if listening to something they couldn't hear. "Eren never made us heroes. We chose that. We chose the fight, knowing it would kill us. And we chose to follow Eren. We haven't regretted it once."

"Your loyalty is admirable but futile," Falbium said grimly. "The Dream will kill him. Not even Ophis, at their peak, could best Great Red. He overeached."

"Messed up your little slave state, didn't he?" Cao Cao laughed, coughing more blood.

Another crack of molten gold snaked along his face.

"We were already planning on releasing fewer Evil Pieces," Serafall smirked, twirling her pink wand casually. "It was part of the Peace Treaty. We already had the Brave Saint cards for most high-level angels made before the Kuoh meeting. Rating Games won't even disappear, as we planned to include other races in them now that we have peace. Face it. Eren's Rumbling failed to accomplish anything truly significant."

They all knew the Leviathan was generalizing quite a bit. Even if nothing else, the death toll of so many devils, particularly those from Pillar houses or Ultimate class, would be a massive blow to the devils.

It was good they had a peace treaty now because if this had happened even a few years ago, there was no doubt every other faction would have pilled on the devils. Extinction might have been unlikely, but there was every risk they would have been returned to post-Civil War numbers.

Even with the treaty, there was no certainty that other factions wouldn't pounce on the weakened devils.

Still, there was some truth to the fact that Eren's new Rumbling was nowhere comparable to his first world.

Of course, of the people there, only Serafall knew what the Rumbling was, and everyone else just thought it was a name the Magical Girl gave the assault on the Underworld.

"You don't get it," Cao Cao shook his head, pretending not to notice the icy mist covering the ground as they talked.

Or the magical circle the mist covered.

Or the fact that Falbium was preparing a veritable fortress of defences.

Or that Sirzechs Lucifer had not said a single word.

Instead, the hero leaned on his spear as if holding himself up was too much effort.

Around him, the seven treasured orbs of his Balance Breaker faded with the halo of Light that accompanied them.

Cao Cao was left standing there, naked, bloody, exhausted, and defenceless, as his body destroyed itself from the inside.

Yet, for all the blood on his lips or the gold cracks running through them, Cao Cao's smile was pure happiness.

"Eren."

Hades sat forward, attention riveted on seeing the Crimson Wall falling and the Black Rain.

"He'll deny it."

The mist crystalized, trapping Cao Cao's legs. He could no longer run.

Eren looked ready to finally kill the Dream when a ball of destruction tore through his hand.

"He'll fight it."

Having lost his Balance Breaker, Cao Cao could not teleport away as an enormous binding spell locked space itself in place.

Great Red lunged, tearing into the Titan's neck.

"But Eren's a hero."

Great Red roared.

Falbium finished his defences.

All this effort just to allow their friend the opportunity to fight.

Sirzechs moved through frozen space, his every twitch destroying the spell Adjuka was using to reduce the collateral. The abomination's very presence shook the air, tearing at Falbium's defences.

Indra casually set up a barrier separating himself from the battle, protecting Hades in the process from the twisting and writhing form of Destruction.

With the greatest of care, Sirzechs Lucifer unleashed the attack that won the Civil War.

What Rias' Gremory's Black Rain was based on.

Ruin, the Extinct.

An entire lifetime dedicated to the ultimate concept of 'Elimination' took the form of countless bullets swirling around, encompassing Cao Cao in a hailstorm of Destruction.

"Because a hero always wins."

A white arm erupted from Great Red's maw.

Hades let out a noise of begrudging admiration.

And the world... glitched.

Something happened.

Everyone knew that.

Everyone could tell that something had happened.

But the how?

The why?

The what?

Nobody could understand.

Because miracles could not be understood.

All they knew was that the battle between Satans and Hero was fundamentally changed.

Cao Cao now stood outside the frozen, space-locked area, and the Satans were inside, under attack from countless bullets of Destruction.

The hero's eyes were not on the devil kings scrambling for their lives.

His eyes, like those of the God of the Dead, were glued to the sight of a human killing the Dream.

And he began to chant.

O Spear,

Adjuka hadn't taken more than a moment to dismantle his spell and realize what was happening.

As Sirzechs struggled to reign in his power to not kill his friends, Adjuka threw his into protecting them, even as a bullet of Destruction carved off his arm.

The true Holy Spear which pierces God.

Serafall and Falbium joined Adjuka only moments later, also understanding the danger they were in.

If Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear had something like Juggernaught Drive, why wouldn't the greatest Sacred Gear in existence?

Even without a being locked into the Gear, was there any doubt that God would have let the greatest weapon He gifted humanity be surpassed?

Take the ambition sleeping within this Hero's heart.

Truth Idea.

The lingering will of a dead God left behind in his Creation. An imprint. A memory.

A judge.

Pierce through the gap of Blessings and Curses.

If the holder's heart and ambitions were worthy, the Longinus would give the mortal the greatest blessings.

A miracle.

It could come in any form. Absolute power to annihilate their opponent or a blessing that could capture their enemy's hearts.

I shall declare the Will, and with my last breath,

The pinnacle of Sacred Gears and the system left behind by their creator.

And, with a body reinforced by the Holy Grail, Cao Cao used it twice.

Once to change the world to get him in position.

Once to allow a mere human to kill one of the Top Ten.

Blossom into a field of Glory.

...

Indra was the only one who saw it all, from start to end.

The reversal of the situation.

The scrambling of the devils to block an attack they knew they couldn't in the vain hope that at least one of their friends would survive.

The man and the spear. Both glowing with a faint, holy light. Not blinding, but sharp. Deadly.

The smile on the Hero's face was proud and peaceful as he entered the most basic weapon forms a human could learn. One taught even to the most common of unskilled peasants.

Indra saw the spear thrust.

There was so much distance between the spear tip and the target, enough that even the Longinus' extension would not have reached.

It didn't matter.

It wouldn't be a miracle if it made sense.

Cao Cao thrust.

And Hades died.

The God of the Dead never even noticed his own death, too enraptured by the sight of the end of the Dream.

Cao Cao noticed his death, but he greeted it with a smile.

He'd chosen his end and accomplished everything he needed to do.

...

Amidst the battlefield filled with corpses of the divine and draconic, Herc lay prone, staring up at the sky. He smiled as he activated his sub-species Balance Breaker of Variant Detonation. It allowed him to set off an explosion equal to any he'd witnessed.

An explosion equal to those Eren unleased rang through the battlefield between Ahriman and Angra Mainyu.

What was left after that... the mist took back.

...

Jeanne held the Holy Grail high as her blood pooled in its depths, joining that of every other hero she had led today.

When she died upon Mt Olympus, her spirit continued to lead those of her comrades with a smile.

After all, it wasn't like the Reapers would be around to claim them as a mist ferried the Grail and the bodies away.

...

Siegfried stood victorious, only Gram still in his hands as he stood over a swordless Arthur Pendragon. His smile was peaceful. Content. As if a long-held wish had finally been fulfilled.

And, when Arthur struggled to his feet from his injuries to tend to his wounded lover and father, he left the hero standing.

Sieg's victory had been earned at the price of his lifeforce, and Arthur would allow his one-time rival this dignity as the mist claimed one more.

...

Like all his comrades, his friends, Cao Cao died with a smile on his lips.

Never seeing the devil land on the Titan's hand as a familiar mist took the Hero to a place where he could finally rest.

Indra watched it all, a witness to the end of an era.

And the beginning of a new one.