DxD Crawling To The Top

Chapter 35



….
Athena smiles at this, the power she can feel from Haruto is something that she hasn't felt in a long time. Because even though Haruto isn't a raw power fighter, he is a technique fighter, but raw power helps him tremendously too.


Haruto in his golden armor which makes him look like a strange golden mecha with a crown made out of light.

He points both of his palms towards the cage with the dark creature inside of it. "Athena buff me."


He doesn't need to say anything anymore. A huge amount of divine energy pours out of her, and she starts buffing Haruto.

<Greater Strength>
<See All>
<Fly>
<Bless of Magic Caster>
<Infinity Wall>
<Magic Ward>
<Holy Life Essence>
<Greater Full Potential>
<Freedom>
<Life See Through>
<Paranormal Intuition>
<Greater Resistance>
<Mantle of Chaos>
<Indomitability>
<Sensor Boost>
<Greater Luck>
<Magic Boost>
<Draconic Power>
<Greater Hardening>
<Heavenly Aura>
<Absorption>
<Penetrate Up>
<Greater Magic Shield>
<Mana Essence>
<Maximize Magic>
<Greater Magic Boost>
<Maximize Boosted Magic>
<Divine Blessing>


Countless buffs wave through Haruto, and due to his strong body, he can handle them. His overall power is five times stronger than it would originally be, in raw power alone he would now be considered on the Top 20 in the world. Athena's buffs are no joke, as the goddess of Wisdom the countless spells that she knows are no joke either. 


She smiles as she looks at Haruto, they make a good team together. But her job is not done yet as she looks towards the thing in the cage and all her divine power bursts out in a magic circle above the cage. It flows through the beast. She is not only good at buffing… she is good at curses too, she turned a woman's hair into snakes and turned her into a gorgon. 


<Heal Reduction>
<Agility Down>
<Petrification>
<Devine Curse of Life Steal>
<Defense Down>
<Confusion>
<Power Down>
<Critical Hit Take>
<Curse Luck>
<Death Chance Up>
<Freeze>
<Health Burn>
<Leech>
<Poison>
<Weaken> 
<Sleep>
<Ability Block>
<Accuracy Down>
<Blind>
<Corrupt Mind>
<Death Mark>
<God's Curse>



Countless curses rain down on the creature, it weakens it a little, but what is important to Haruto is that it makes it more vulnerable to damage.


The creature is restrained, they are gonna weaken it as much as they can before Haruto even attempts to fight it. 

Haruto then also starts using his ability on the creature.


[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]
[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]
[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]
[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]
[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]
[Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse] [Curse]




The space around the creature raptures and starts twisting, creating vortexes and black holes that destroy everything within them. Though the dark creature doesn't seem to even notice it as it's ripped apart continuously. But it always seems to regenerate with no problem, Haruto instead of being discouraged by this… it just smiles.


"Athena, cover me while I go in there." Says Haruto.


Boom!!


He flies at speeds that even Athena can't follow, and in the blink of an eye, he is inside the cage and in front of the creature. 

"Hey, there little guy." Greets Haruto as different forbidden seals start being formed in the air by his mana. 


"HaRutO…" Growls the creature, it seemed as if a thousand people were speaking at once. But there was an unmistakable emotion through all the voices… they all had a deep hatred for Haruto. Not just simple hate, but hate that is filled with madness.


Burst!!

Suddenly Haruto's left arm explodes out of nowhere and the armor with it is wrecked too. His eyes widen at this and he looks at his arm, slowly a smile forms on his face. "Well, well, well… it seems like you got a new ability. Space Manipulation maybe?"



The creature doesn't say anything as…


Burst!!


Haruto's leg explodes out of nowhere. 

"Hmmm… Power Copy?" Wonders Haruto as he can see that it might be Telos Karma's power. "Power Reflection?" He asks again, unworried, even as he lost two limbs out of nowhere. But his mana drew forbidden seals all around the cage. Even though he knows this damage will reflect in real life, it doesn't matter.


Fwish!


The dark blob creature creates some tendrils that slash at Haruto whose eyes widen. He attempted to dodge, but he couldn't and his head separated from his neck.


"Hohhhh… this is surprising." Says Haruto, even as his head flies off. 


<Rewrite>


Suddenly something strange happened and except for his head, the rest of his body explodes in a burst of blood, and it suddenly reforms, and he is once more at full power in his Golden Juggernaut Drive.


Athena looks at this from the side and is confused by it. Haruto never had this kind of power. What even is it?


Haruto of course knows that the creature in front of him is stronger than him even while weakened. That is how he wants it to be after all. But at the same time, he has always had hidden cards that he has kept close to his chest. This was one of the major ones, he has used Telos Karma to create a period of time in which he is unkillable. This wouldn't normally, but unless he is atomized he will live. He has pumped so much of his raw power into the Sacred Gear that has made it something of an <Illegal Move>... it can rewrite a very small part of reality. 


It's Haruto's way to try and copy Great Red's ability of the dream… but on a smaller scale. He can rewrite his death like this… but even then, it isn't free, though he doesn't feel it. Decades of his life span have already been lost due to rewriting the reality of his death once.



Fwish!!


His body is ripped apart by the black tendrils once more, he couldn't even resist once more. But again, his body reformed. 


"Well, now this is done." Says Haruto as he jumps back out of the case, his body is ripped apart once again. But once again he reforms his body perfectly back to how it was originally as if time itself was reversed. 


The seals inside the cage started forming and clashing against each other. And a dark pattern with strange writings forms around the cage.


Athena on the side smirks, she has repeated the cage while the monster wasn't trying to break it while it tried to kill Haruto. That is the reason he risked his life by entering the cage.


Break!


The armor around his body breaks and a heavily breathing Haruto appears out of it. But unlike the usual… he had white hair, gray eyes, and wrinkles along his face, his eyes had also sunken in. This was the price that he paid for his time in which he rewrote reality. He lost more than 90% of his lifespan. 



Athena has a worried look on her face when she sees this. "Haruto…" Is all she says, not saying anymore, afraid that she won't be able to stop herself. She knows… something like that can't be used freely even by someone at Haruto's power level. She doesn't care that he hid something from her… but what worries her, even more, is the elderly looking Haruto.


"Don't worry." Reassures Haruto, having a nice elderly smile on his face. "Anyway, let's get out of here."


Fwosh!


Both he and Athena disappeared in a flash of light from his mindscape. 


…
Once they are in the outside world again, an old Haruto just smiles as he looks at his hand. "Seems like my body won't be getting weaned for quite some time. Also, my magic power is back and I don't need to concentrate to hold the seal intact."



BOOOM!!!


Haruto's magical power bursts his body, even though he is elderly… The magic power he is releasing is overwhelming. Something that should be impossible for a normal human with no special heritage to have.


Athena is almost happy at this, but once looking at his old body she gets even more worried.


But that is when Haruto created a small magic circle above his palm and a red diamond-like stone drops on his hand.


Athena stops in her tracks and smiles. "I didn't know you were a good alchemist?"


Haruto shrugs and with a smirk on his face, he says in a suave voice. "Ah… the mystery must make you even more intrigued. So you must want even more now."


"Heh." Laughs Athena briefly. "With your old appearance, you seem more like an old pervert when saying that."


"Hey~ c'mon now." Whines Haruto. "Don't be so mean to an old man."


"Hahahahaha…" Athena laughs with relief. Only someone like Haruto can joke about something like being old so casually. 


She looks at the red stone in his hand and has a relieved look on her face. That is something that hasn't appeared for centuries in the world. The Philosopher's Stone… first created by Nicholas Flamel. The best alchemist known to mankind and different races too. One of the effects of the stone is to allow someone to create the elixir of life. Only now does Athena understand why Haruto never agreed to eat the Golden Apple or anything like it. He doesn't care about trying to live longer because he already will outlive the devils and even the gods. As long as he doesn't die in battle that is.

 He can just continue to create the elixir of life… Athena is glad at this. Because she now at least knows that she won't be dying after Haruto. That is something that she is very selfish about, she doesn't want to see Haruto die.


"Hey, Athena." Calls out Haruto, she looks at him and sees that he has a mischievous look on his face. "Before I regain my life span... Wanna try seeing how it feels having s*x with an old man?"

He points at himself masquerading his elderly appearance with a smile on his face.


'Heh… Haruto… never change…' Thinks Athena fondly.



….
A/N: Liking the longer chapters? 😉👍

P.S: Haruto's and Athena's relationship isn't bad… but just like every couple they have their own little skirmishes…