A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back!

It's good to finally be back after everything that's been going on in my life. A LOT of things have happened to me since I last spoke to all of you in my last chapter and they kept me from writing anything fanfic-related at all.

I won't bore you with the details of what I've been through the last few months; I doubt you'd be interested anyway.

With that in mind, moving onto the chapter. This ended up being longer than I expected so I hope it makes up for the delay. I won't say any more about except that this chapter will progress the story along a bit and add more new content into it.

I would like to also talk a little bit about how I'll be handling reviews in this chapter and beyond. Firstly, I would like you to know that I appreciate them all and read Every. Single. One…even the ones from those that hate my story for whatever reason and have stopped reading it entirely. Because of the number I've been getting during the time between chapters, I have decided to mainly respond to those with questions and friendly critiques about my story, and only respond to any others on an individual basis.

Please don't think I don't read every one though.

Hope you enjoy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ben panted heavily as he ran down the long, dark corridors that were both similar to the corridors of Kuoh Academy, yet at the same time very different from them. As he ran down them in a desperate bid to flee from the thing pursuing him, he noticed his arms were bereft of his Sacred Gears and that he could sense neither Azmuth nor Ddraig's presence within his mind.

His heart rate increased rapidly as a terrifying aura slowly engulfed his being in the wake of a bone-chilling, goosebump-raising laugh which echoed all around him.

"You can't escape from me, Tennyson!" the chilling voice cried out, cutting through Ben's very soul with its shrill, piercing tone.

Ben continued to sprint down the dark school corridors in his desperate bid to escape his pursuer. As he ran down the corridor he tried opening several doors in his path, searching for a place to hide and escape…but every single door he tried was locked tight and wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. As his fear quickly grew, Ben became more and more desperate to be free from the soul-piercing laughter and sped up his pace, eventually forgoing trying any of the doors he came across and, instead, simply trying to outrun his pursuer and find another way out.

He ran down the corridor as fast as he could changing direction every time he came across a split in his path. He had no idea how long he had been running for, always just ahead of his pursuer, but dread consumed him when he slowly noticed that each corridor he went down was similar to the previous one and it quickly dawned on him.

He was running around in circles!

As he came to this realisation, the thing pursuing him seemed to read his mind and spoke up again, its chilling voice echoing inside Ben's mind.

"That's right, Tennyson! There's no way you can leave this place!" it cackled triumphantly.

He was so taken by surprise with the sudden voice in his mind that ran through him like a knife that he lost his footing when he tried to go down a corridor on his right and tripped, hitting the floor and quickly coming to a stop.

He spun around to see the darkness completely consuming the corridor he had just come from and the ghostly, spectral creature that now floated in front of the darkness as it towered over him, its ghastly, upturned mouth twisting into a gnarly smirk as it glared at him.

"Given up already? I don't know why I was expecting anything else. You were always a failure, both as a human and even more so as a devil! Now, if you wouldn't doing me a favour…."

The spectre's face suddenly became disfigured as it morphed into the familiar face of Julie Yamamoto who looked down on Ben with a sneer on 'her' face.

"…would you please die for me?" the creature asked, its voice now perfectly mimicking Julie's.

Those last words, said with both 'Julie's' face and with her voice, struck Ben the hardest and he cried out in fear, backing away as the spectral creature bore down on him, taking immense pleasure in Ben's torment if the glee on its face were any indication.

The creature stretched out its hands towards him but, just as it was about to grab him, the entire corridor was suddenly engulfed in bright emerald green light. The creature reacted immediately, screeching in agonising pain as it recoiled from the bright light, quickly retreating into the shadows which were pushed back down the corridor by the bright light.

In contrast to the creature's negative reaction to the emerald light, Ben felt a comforting warmth surround him as he was engulfed by the light. He turned away from the fleeing shadow to where the light was originating from, seeing that it was coming from behind a doorway directly in front of him which wasn't there before, but one he instantly recognised as the school entrance.

Without hesitation, Ben clambered back onto his feet and quickly closed the gap between him and the doors, not bothering to slow down as he pushed the doors open and charged through….

. . . . .

Ben's eyes snapped open abruptly to see a clean, white ceiling above him. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down from his nightmare. Feeling a slight itch in the back of his left hand, he glanced down to see that he had been hooked up to a drip which was attached to a stand beside his bed.

Looking at the various medical apparatus at the far side of the room he was in, Ben put two and two together and realised he was in a hospital ward.

'What am I doing in a hospital? How did I get here? What happened to the Rating Game?' Ben's mind asked in quick succession of each other.

"Good to see you finally awake."

Ben's gaze snapped back towards the direction of the voice's owner to see Azazel who was leaning against the opposite wall, his arms crossed across his chest and a troubled look on his face which lessened slightly upon his eyes meeting with Ben's.

The Governor-General wasn't Ben's only visitor as he also noted Odin presence, sat in a simple chair at the end of his bed, leaning on his cane with a similar, troubled look on his wrinkled face.

Unable to contain himself, Ben pushed himself up to lean against the back of the bed he was lying in before quickly asking his most pressing questions.

"How did I get here? W-What happened to me?" Ben asked with a grimace, clutching his head which was pounding incessantly with his hand. After a few painful seconds, the pounding thankfully began to subside.

As he did this, he failed to see Azazel and Odin exchange looks of concern with each other before returning their attention to Ben.

"You were teleported here directly from the arena as is the standard practice in Rating Games. As to what happened to you which led to you being brought here, well…we were rather hoping you could tell us," Azazel explained, none of his usual carefree attitude in his voice. He pushed himself off the wall as he said this and walked over to stand at Ben's bedside.

"What do you mean?" Ben asked in confusion, glancing between Azazel and Odin waiting for a further explanation though he received none.

"What's the last thing you remember before waking up in here, kid?" Azazel asked, changing tactic to try and get some much-needed answers.

Ben didn't respond for a few seconds as he thought back to his last memories before waking. He remembered the beginning of the match as well as his fight against Saji and one of Sona's knights…but when he got to the moment he went to transform into Big Chill and bypass the barrier Sona's bishops had made he drew a blank; made all the worse when a sharp pain started throbbing in what felt like just behind his eyes.

He winced at the sharp pain, closing his eyes tightly and pinching the bridge of his nose instinctively before speaking again.

"Urgh! I can only remember the moment I was standing in front of Sona, her two bishops and the barrier they had created. I remember transforming into Big Chill…uh, my Necrofriggian form, but nothing else after that. Everything between then and waking up here is a total blank," he told them, rubbing his eyes to erase the ached behind them.

"That's it? You're certain you don't remember anything else?!" Odin asked sternly, leaning forward in his chair. "This is important, kid. You need to be certain!"

"I-I'm certain, Lord Odin…," Ben replied, surprised by the All-Father's sudden change of tone.

[I told you he wouldn't know,] Azmuth's voice called out, the back of Ben's left hand glowing a faint green as the ancient dragon spoke.

"We had to be sure though, Azmuth," Odin retorted with a heavy sigh, the previous tension filling the room slowly dissipating as the patriarch of the Norse Pantheon leant back in his chair, his shoulders visibly losing their tension.

"This only raises more questions though," Azazel muttered, glancing between Odin and Ben.

"You're not wrong there," Odin replied with a sigh, stroking his beard as he contemplated the implications.

Nobody spoke for a moment, and it was Ddraig who broke the silence, Ben's right hand glowing red as the Welsh dragon spoke.

[I want to know how that thrice-cursed creature's DNA ended up in your Sacred Gear, Azmuth….] he demanded sternly. […I doubt you'd allow an abomination like that to be a part of you, let alone let one of those things near Ben.]

At the power in Ddraig's deep, booming voice, Ben was reminded that, even though he was the son of the Dragon God of Life, he was still an immensely powerful creature in his own right. He was the Red Dragon Emperor, a dragon that inspired both immense fear and respect from the lowliest human to some of the most powerful supernatural beings…including many gods!

[I absolutely would not!] Azmuth retorted fiercely, growling fiercely as if daring Ddraig to tell him he was wrong. [There is no possible way that I would have allowed an Ectonurite to be merged with my Gear, nor would I have ever let Ben even consider becoming one! Their species were completely purged after the war. One can't exist at all, let alone one get close to my Gear that it absorbed its DNA without me knowing….]

"…Unless someone has rediscovered the method to create them," Odin muttered with concern at the implications of his own suggestion.

[Is that possible?] Azmuth asked, directing his question to the room. [It's been millennia since I was last fully aware of the powerful beings which existed on this world. Are there any who exist in this era who could perform the ritual?]

"It's difficult to say," Azazel admitted reluctantly. "It takes incredibly powerful dark magic to perform the ritual to bring Ectonurite's into the world. Without looking into it properly, I can't think of anyone with the required magical power combined with the necessary twisted mind to successfully perform it.

"An important question we should be asking is whether this is a single, isolated case or whether this one is merely the only one we are aware of and there are more hidden somewhere, both in this world and the human world," Odin stated as he continued to stroke his beard.

[Highly unlikely. It's one thing to create one Ectonurite; it's an entirely different matter for a single being to create multiple ones,] Azmuth replied. [They only exist if they use the one who summoned them as an anchor and use their soul as a tether. I only know of one who was ever capable of this feat but that foul creature has been sealed away forever.]

"That doesn't change the fact, though, that there is definitely one of those things out there somewhere when Ectonurite's are meant to be extinct. I was there at the aftermath of the Great War when God gave the order for his angels to hunt down every last one of them and scour every corner of existence," Azazel stated, a far-off look in his eyes as if remembering an old memory, a very old memory in his case.

Unable to take being left out of, what was clearly, a serious discussion, Ben suddenly spoke up, directing everyone's attention on him.

"What are you guys talking about?" he asked, glancing between Azazel and Odin as he did so. "You're saying things that don't make sense. What exactly happened to me in the Rating Game?!"

Nobody answered him at first, as if unsure exactly what to say. Eventually, though, it was Ddraig who broke the awkward silence and answered his question.

[At some point in your life, you came into contact with an Ectonurite and managed to take some of its essence and merge it with Azmuth's Gear. When you tried to transform into your Necrofriggian form, it took advantage of the opening you inadvertently created and slipped through, taking control of the transformation.]

"What do you mean it took advantage?! How can a piece of DNA stored in Azmuth's Gear do that?"

"Because an Ectonurite's consciousness exists in even a single strand of DNA," Azazel cut in, attracting Ben's gaze. "That was the main reason it took angels centuries before we were certain we had purged them completely. The one you came into contact with effectively copied its entire being in your Gear."

"So, what happened when I transformed into it?

[The Ectonurite phased through the Sitri barrier and attacked the two Sitri bishops, retiring them from the match, before Azmuth could intervene and forcibly cancel your transformation and stop it before it did some real damage,] Ddraig explained sombrely.

"You were unconscious when the transformation broke and you were immediately brought here. Many of the higher-ups watching the match wanted it stopped immediately but Sirzechs managed to convince them not to," Azazel added.

"It was that serious?" Ben muttered nervously.

"Oh yes," the Fallen Angel leader nodded slowly. "It was worse from the very small number who actually fought in the war, but everyone else remembered the stories they had been brought up with. A few outspoken high-class nobles even wanted you placed under observation and examined closely but that idea was quickly shot down by Sirzechs, as well as Lord and Lady Gremory."

It took Ben a moment to fully take in everything he had just heard but there was so much in such a short amount of time that it made his head dizzy.

There was so much to dissect, but he had two questions which were pressing most on his mind.

"So what exactly is an Ectonurite?" he inquired after a moment of silence.

Azazel looked like he was about to answer the question, but Azmuth cut him off just before he could do so.

[All you need to know is that they were demons which plagued the universe when it was in its infancy, back during the Dark Times. They infected long before even the Angels were first created, existing solely to sow chaos wherever they were unleashed.]

"Can the one in your Gear take over my body again?"

[No it can't. Unfortunately, I'm unable to remove its essence now that it's become a part of my collection now. However, now that I know of its existence, I've placed multiple wards and barriers around to keep it contained.]

Ben sighed in relief at the last piece of information. He was starting to worry about how he would be able to continue using his transformations if there was a risk of him being possessed by a demon.

"But what about that other thing you were just talking about? That 'Great War' you were talking about."

[A dark page in the universe's history. A story for another time, that is all it is now,] Azmuth stated firmly, stopping the subject before it went any further.

"Well, if that's everything I'd better be heading off," Azazel declared as he stepped back from Ben's bed and began to make his way towards the door. "I need to find Sirzechs and let him know what we learned from this conversation."

The Governor-General then looked over at Odin who was still in his chair. "You joining me?"

"Yes, I think I will," Odin grumbled as he stood up from his chair. "I have a few things I need to discuss with Sirzechs and Michael myself."

The two of them then left through the door to the hospital corridor. Ben quickly noted the Valkyrie, Rossweisse, standing guard outside just before Odin closed the door behind him.

Barely a second after the door closed behind them that remembered about the Rating Game. He didn't know if they had won or lost the match. He doubted the match was still going on as they'd had a short time limit and he had fallen unconscious near the end of the limit.

Deciding to go find Rias and the others, Ben pulled back the bed covers and got out of bed. Aside from his jacket which was hanging from the drip stand, he still wore the clothes he went into the Rating Game with. As he took his jacket off the hook, he faintly heard Odin's voice through the door.

"Oh my, yes. I couldn't take my eyes off these beauties the entire match. Such a welcome treat for an old man," Odin remarked to himself before Ben heard a faint yet audible "Thwack!" and a grumble from Odin.

"You must stop that, Lord Odin! I've told you before not to stare at people in such a creepy manner like that," Rossweisse's voice chided sternly while Odin grumbled something about Valkyrie's being old maids who wouldn't let him have any fun.

As Odin departed down the corridor, his voice growing steadily fainter as he left, the door opened as Rias entered the room, a slightly flushed look on her face while one arm covered her breasts.

Ben couldn't help but smile at her arrival. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the nature of Odin's admiration was.

Rias closed the door behind her, her eyes widening at seeing he was awake, rushed towards Ben, a warm smile on her face as she tackled Ben back onto the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck as she lay on top of him. Ben couldn't help but chuckle at this and happily reciprocated the hug, wrapping his arms around her waist and held her against him.

"I assume from this that we won the match," he deduced, blowing the loose strands of crimson hair which lay across his face as he gently stroked her back.

"Yes. It was hard-won, but we were victorious!" she rejoiced, pulling back to stare down at him though making sure to keep her arms around his neck, enjoying the physical contact between them.

"Are the others ok?"

"They're fine. They're just resting and recovering from their injuries. I wasn't injured too badly but I just had to come and see how you were. What happened, Ben? What was that demon you transformed into, and why were you forcibly retired from the match?" she demanded with concern.

Having already deciding not to hide the truth from her, Ben started to tell her about the conversation he'd just had with Azazel, Odin and his two dragon companions. He told her about the Ectonurite that had interfered with his transformation and how Azmuth had forcibly stopped the transformation before anything bad happened and that this had caused him to fall unconscious which led to him being retired from the match.

"And that's about it," he concluded, looking up at her as he spoke.

Rias stared at him in silence for a few seconds as she digested his tale.

"So, you can't transform into that thing anymore?" she asked after a short moment.

"No. Azmuth placed a barrier around it to contain it so it can't take me over again. I just need to avoid it when transforming in future.

"Good," she remarked before she pulled his head towards her, pressed her lips against his forehead and kissed it affectionately. "All that matters to me is that you're safe."

Ben couldn't help but smile at that, touched by her concern for him before changing the subject.

"So, what happened after I was gone? How did you win the match?" he wondered with a small smirk on his face, an expression which Rias mirrored back as she told him her own story of how the rest of the rating game had gone without, from it being revealed that it wasn't actually Sona he had seen with her two bishops; rather, it was a decoy she had created to lure Rias out into the open. Rias' story ended with the match's epic conclusion on the roof of the arena where Rias and Sona battled it out against each other one-on-one with Rias being the victor and winning the game for her and her peerage.

Their first-ever official Rating Game victory!

"Wow, you were all amazing! I'm sorry I couldn't be there with you when you won."

Rias ended the hug and pushed herself away from him, sitting down on the edge of the bed beside him and leaning against him while he wrapped his right arm around her back and holding her shoulder with his hand.

"It was a close victory that was only due to everybody's efforts today. It was only because I had all of you with me that I was able to reach Sona and beat her. I'm so lucky to have all of you in my peerage."

"And we're glad to be a part of it," he stated, smiling and kissing her forehead fondly.

Rias sighed happily and rested her cheek on his shoulder.

"Stay with me forever, okay?"

"As you wish, my lady."

. . . . .

Train station

Three days later and Rias' peerage was receiving a final farewell from Rias' mother and father, Sirzechs, Grayfia and Millicas as they stood in front of the Gremory train which would take them back to the human world. The entire station section they were in had been temporarily closed to allow the family privacy while they said their goodbyes.

As Rias hugged Millicas and said goodbye to Sirzechs and Grayfia, everyone else boarded the train, Ben being the last one to board. As he was about to board, though, Rias' father, Zeoticus, had called him back to wish him good luck in his future endeavours and tell him that he was welcome in their home at any time. He had even asked Ben to pass on his best wishes to his parents, hoping they were doing well in their new home and enjoying their holiday.

Ben promised to pass on Zeoticus' message and thanked him for his kindness towards both him and his parents when Rias' mother, Venelana, cut him off, affirming what her husband had said and went on to say that they wanted Ben to consider himself part of the Gremory family even if it wasn't official…yet. She then went on to ask that Ben continue taking good care of her daughter as she worried about her terribly.

A red-faced Rias suddenly stepped into the conversation and stopped it from going any further by dragging Ben away from her embarrassing family while giving them one last goodbye as she pulled Ben onto the train as he heard chuckling behind from both Sirzechs and Zeoticus.

. . . . .

Later on, as the train was well on its return journey to the human world, Ben had decided to have a short nap due to the time they still had before they arrived. Unbeknownst to him though, not long after he had fallen asleep, his lap soon became Koneko's pillow as she quickly took up the space next to him and decided to have a nap of her own, curling up close to him and purring softly, a warm smile forming on her face as Ben subconsciously brought his hand up and slowly stroked her cat ears which were protruding from her head and twitched slightly whenever he scratched a specific bit. Her tail, also exposed, was twitching every so often as she dreamed.

"Looks like Koneko is comfortable," Akeno chuckled from her seat on the opposite side of the carriage.

"Yes, she sure does," Rias agreed, silently frustrated with herself for deciding to give Ben some space while he had his nap and, for a second thought about joining them. However, her small bout of jealousy was quickly quashed when she looked at the two of them sleeping and, even she couldn't help but acknowledge how adorable they looked like that.

'Just this once,' she thought with a deep sigh, ignoring the quiet chuckle from Kiba who sat near the back of the car, in the midst of a game of cards with Gasper. Asia and Xenovia appeared to share similar sentiments by the looks they each gave Ben and Koneko with puffed-out cheeks and clearly jealous looks in their eyes at the Nekomata's sleeping position.

A small smile slowly formed on Rias' features as she stared at her bishop and knight.

'Looks like I've got even more rivals for Ben's affection.'

. . . . .

Kuoh, a few days later

When they finally returned to the human world, they quickly returned into their daily routines for the last few days of August before they had to return to school. This routine was composed of a mixture of completing the mountain of homework they had been given by the school before it broke up for the summer and training in the spacious first basement in Ben's house which contained a large training room that, while not large enough for him to train with his biggest transformations nor his transformations which could fly, was still large enough for him to train with many of his other transformations.

While Ben periodically honed his skills with each transformation and their various powers, his main focus during this time, now, was to increase his swordsmanship skills with Ascalon. This was something that both Kiba and Xenovia were only too happy to help him out with as they ran him through different lessons, occasionally sparring with them; a somewhat dangerous thing to do considering that they were all using incredibly powerful swords. Thankfully, though, when the training room had been built by Zeoticus' people, they had taken their power into account and had magically reinforced the entire structure of the room, making it virtually impenetrable to anything they were capable of at their current levels.

It also helped that Ascalon always encased Ben in crimson, dragon armour whenever he wielded it, protecting him from the blows he was subjected to, and that Kiba and Xenovia both had excellent skills with their blades.

As this routine took up their time during the day, their night-time activities involved spending quality time with each other in the living room, playing games, watching movies and eating their evening meals together with the girls taking turns each night to cook the meals; even Ben occasionally cooked a meal for everyone but, while the girls would humour him by expressing how much they loved it, Ben was fully aware that his cooking skills were very far from perfect when compared to the delicious meals they prepared.

As well as this, their evenings also brought them various devil jobs from across Kuoh by their current contracted humans and any potential human contract summoning them for the first time.

This is exactly what had happened to Ben as he closed the door to the house of his most recent contracted human, their request carried out – to help them prepare for an important presentation they had to give at work in the morning – and was making his way back home. While he had appeared there via a magic circle and could've very easily returned through the same method, he often liked to walk back home after finishing a contract. The reason for this was that he wanted to familiarise himself with as much of the large town which was Kuoh, especially when his contracts took him to places where he had never been before, such as was the case tonight. His recently contracted human lived on the very edge of Kuoh, a fairly run-down area where there were a number of building projects dotted around the area that had been either temporarily put on hold or outright abandoned.

'I sure know how to pick my contracts,' he mused as he made his way through the run-down area on his walk home, not bothered by the darkness thanks to his devil eyesight. As he passed a three-storey block of abandoned apartments on a dimly lit street he came to a sudden stop when his ears suddenly picked up a faint noise, so faint that there was absolutely no way a normal human could've heard it. He glanced up at the building, surrounded by a 9ft chain-link fence with a large, red sign telling him to keep out because of the unsafe nature of the structure attached to it. He simply brushed it off as some animal which had moved in and was the cause for the noise. He started walking again but stopped after only making a few feet when he heard the same noise again, slightly louder and this time accompanied by the sound of glass smashing.

His curiosity getting the better of him, Ben took out his phone and quickly sent Rias a text saying he would be a few minutes late before leaping over the chain-link fence surrounding the building. He felt something strange quickly overwhelm him as soon as he landed. He looked back up at the building, his eyes widening at the sight before him. Where, before, the building looked only a little run down a second ago, it now looked perilously close to completely collapsing in on itself as several large, gaping holes now appeared all over the building's surface, revealing its interior.

As well as the building's sudden drastic change in appearance, the noise that he could only hear faintly before, merely dismissing it as some small wild animal, was now much louder and clearly the sounds of a fight happening somewhere inside.

"An illusion," he quickly realised, looking back and only now seeing a very faint shimmer in the air around the fence he had just leapt over. It was the only conclusion he could come to, now understanding why he didn't see the building's true appearance before. He also knew that it was a low-level illusion spell surrounding the property, meant only to keep nosy humans away by the fact that his devil hearing still picked out sounds that illusion spells were meant to keep hidden.

It seemed that, whoever had created the illusion barrier, was relying on the building's distance from anywhere a supernatural being would likely be to remain hidden. Whether it was because a low-level spell was all they could manage or whether the caster had another reason, Ben had no idea, but the fact remained that someone wanted the building's true purpose concealed.

Choosing a different entrance to the building, Ben unfurled his black, skeletal wings and flew up to the second floor where the largest hole was and entered what looked like it would've been the kitchen of the apartment if it had been finished. His nose instantly wrinkled at the strong smell of blood suddenly entering his nostrils.

"Oh shit," he breathed quietly behind his hand as he looked at the carnage which greeted him. The apartment was completely torn to shreds with blood covering almost every surface, including even on the ceiling!

"What the fuck happened here?" he wondered as he slowly edged further into the apartment interior. As his eyes darted all over the place in anticipation for any ambush or sudden attack, they noticed the floor wasn't just covered with blood.

He crouched down carefully and picked up a pitch-black feather.

"Fallen Angels," he muttered to himself as he stood back up.

[Be careful, Ben. Remember the last time you were in a building covered in blood,]Azmuth warned through their mental connection which caused Ben to experience a flashback to his first encounter with the insane exorcist, Freed and how he was nearly killed by him.

"It's okay, I'm a lot stronger than back then," he replied back, also through mental means so as to not give away their location. His mind suddenly brought up memories of his Underworld training appeared in his mind.

[Still though….]

"I know. I'll be careful."

Once he was sure there wasn't anything of importance in the apartment apart from the blood-slickened floor, walls and ceiling, he slowly made his way across the room and through the door that led to the building where his gaze focused on the only door along the corridor which had light emanating from it, even if it was faint. Creeping up to the door as carefully and quietly as he could, he tested the door by pushing it ever so slightly, pushing it further when it turned out to be unlocked, tensing as it creaked before entering the room.

The first thing he noticed was the multitude of lab equipment that lay on the numerous tables and the kitchen counter. The second thing he noticed was the vials and other pieces of equipment that had been knocked over and smashed by the three bodies – these ones being human bodies this time – that were sprawled across the tables with small knives sticking out of their necks where blood still trailed down their bodies and pooling beneath them. Despite these scenes of disturbance though, there was still a lot which remained intact, several tubes and flasks filled with strange liquids that Ben had no intention of going near.

'Who knows what fucked-up shit they were working on in here.'

As he thought this, he suddenly tensed up when the building shook from whoever or whatever were fighting elsewhere in its interior.

"I don't want to stay here too long, the whole building could come down," he muttered to himself as he walked over to a table covered with papers and began to quickly search them.

[Then why are you searching through those papers?]Ddraig wondered as Ben quickly scanned through the pile of paper on the desk before him.

"These guys were obviously up to something and, due to the effort that was put into trying to hide this place from prying eyes, I would say that it wasn't anything good. I'm looking for something…anything at all that can tell me what it is they were working on and show it to Rias; this is her territory after all."

Ddraig couldn't argue with Ben's reasoning and went silent as Ben continued to rummage through the papers, frustrated that more than a few had been burned away by something. He picked up several more papers before his eyes suddenly spotted a partially burnt binder with bold lettering over it.

"Project: Mr Hyde"

"This looks promising," Ben mused as he flipped through the few pages still legible. He couldn't understand most of it but still decided to bring it back to Rias and tore the paper out of the binder and shoving it in his jacket pocket.

No more than a second after he did this that the floor beneath him suddenly gave way and collapsed.

Ben cried out in surprise as he fell down to the floor below, landing on a pile of broken wood, plaster and flooring, the faint light from the floor above suddenly being totally extinguished, drowning the room in complete darkness though that made little difference to him. What did affect him, however, was the large cloud of dust that was suddenly kicked up by the broken floor collapsing.

"*cough**cough* What was that?!" he coughed strongly, pushing the bits of debris that had fallen on top of him.

A deep, angry-yet-pained roar stopped him in his tracks. He looked up to see a large, humanoid creature glaring at him through the darkness.

At first glance, Ben assumed he was looking up at a Tetramand but, as his eyes broke through the dust cloud, his eyes widened when he realised what he was really looking at. Standing at 8ft, the hulking creature towered over him, its well-developed muscles gave it an extremely intimidating presence. Instead of a Tetramand's crimson red skin though, the…thing he was looking up at had a sickly, pale colour. In addition to this, Ben noticed another difference that set it apart from a genuine Tetramand demon when he looked up at the creature's face.

While it was hideously disfigured and appeared caught halfway between trying to appear like a Tetramand, the face was still unmistakably human!

"What the fuck?" Ben grunted, quickly standing up and backing away from the horrifying human-demon hybrid. It looked down at him, roared at him loudly and madly and looked ready to close the small distance between them when its head suddenly exploded in a bloody mess, covering Ben in blood, brain matter and bits of bone.

Ben cried out in surprise at the sudden gore that landed on him, stepping back from the dark blood pooling around the monster's neck stump, its body twitching sharply for a few seconds. He looked past it to see someone standing a few feet away from him, their entire body covered in dark armour and adorned with various bits of equipment, and their face, like the rest of their body, was completely covered by a mask. They stood at the other end of the room, a magic gun in their hand that was now pointed in his direction, another hybrid creature lay dead on the floor behind the figure, a blade protruding from its throat.

Ben took up a fighting stance as the dark figure, without taking their gaze off him, reached behind them and pulled the bloody blade out of the beast's throat, shook the wet blood of it before holding it at their side.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, preparing to respond to whatever the figure might do.

When the figure failed to answer him, he boosted Ddraig's Gear to get his point across.

[BOOST!]

"This town under the control of Rias Gremory of the Gremory family! As a member of her peerage, I demand to know what you are doing here and if you had any part in what's been happening here!" he demanded again, conscious of the figure's stance and prepared for any trick they might pull.

The mysterious figure didn't answer him at first and Ben wondered if they were about to have their own battle when the figure finally spoke.

"I had nothing to with these monsters," they replied simply, their voice distorted behind the mask, though Ben was still able to identify it as the voice of a woman.

"So, you can talk?"

Before he could ask her another question, the mysterious woman, with extremely experienced motions, holstered her gun, reached into a pouch on her belt, took out a small, spherical object and threw it on the floor at her feet. As soon as the small object struck the floor, a pure white light lit up the entire room, blinding Ben and forcing him to bring up his arm to cover his eyes, ignoring the small amount of Light pain he felt from the light touching his skin.

After the painful light had disappeared, Ben looked back to see the strange woman had completely disappeared and a small fire was left in her place which was now quickly growing out of control. Deciding he had overstayed his welcome, he backed away from the rapidly growing flames, out into the corridor where he turned away from the flames and made his down the corridor looking for a way out.

"I need to get out of here and tell Rias about this," he groaned, holding the wrist of his arm which had been exposed to the painful light. As he looked at the red burn marks on his skin he realised the bright light must have had a Holy element of some sort in it, particularly painful for devils like him yet not strong enough to actually kill him.

As the flames began to engulf the building and consume everything within it, Ben quickened his pace before unfurling his wings and flying out of a nearby broken window, leaving the broken building behind him as he flew away from it, landing back down on the next illuminated street. As he landed, he looked back at the blazing building but could now only see the same abandoned building he had seen before everything had happened.

'Looks like the illusion spell is still working…for now,' he thought, wondering how long it would be before the spell eventually broke.

He grimaced as he looked down at his grisly appearance, covered head-to-foot in blood, his entire left arm appearing as if sunburnt from the exposure to the holy light 'smoke bomb'.

Not wanting to be anywhere near the place when the spell finally broke and the fire attracted the human authorities, Ben created a magic circle and, once he stood on the crimson circle adorned with the Gremory family crest, it transported him away, back home.

. . . . .

Unbeknownst to Ben, standing on the rooftop of another nearby apartment block, the mysterious woman was knelt down and looking at the devil who had appeared in the traitor's scientific outpost, interrupting her cleansing of the evil that was being performed there.

She and her teammates were acutely aware that the town was controlled by the Gremory clan and had planned to be in and out without being ever being detected by the devil heiress. However, they also understand that things don't always go to plan, and, despite the devil servant's unexpected arrival, she was still able to complete her mission to discover what was being researched there before setting the foul place ablaze, destroying the experiments and research along with it.

As she waited for the illusion spell to break before calling the authorities, she spotted the devil emerging from the outpost and land on the opposite street.

Using skills that she had acquired over the years, she completely masked her aura, preventing herself from being detected by all but the strongest individuals. Completely invisible to his gaze or senses, she pulled out a pair of binoculars from her belt and zoomed in on the devil's face to see exactly who had discovered her but was unable to due to the darkness.

However, as the devil stood on the magic circle he had created and began to disappear, the brief few seconds of illumination revealed his face and caused the woman's eyes to widen in recognition as the devil disappeared.

This changed everything.

'I have to get back and inform him about this,' she thought, referring to her superior and team leader. She would also need to catch up on what she had missed during the length of her mission as the secretive nature of her work meant that she was frequently left out of the loop for however long her missions lasted and subsequently ignorant of any developments to the wider world. With her mission completed, she could finally return back to base to be debriefed and learn of what she missed during her mission.

Turning away from the burning building, the illusion spell finally breaking, her previous intent to alert the authorities completely forgotten, she leapt off the roof and disappeared into the darkness.

. . . . .

Back at the Tennyson house

Just as Ben had expected, when he got back home he was immediately subjected to an intense interrogation of his recent ordeal while his injuries were treated by Asia, though not before he was given a stern talking to for not telling any of them where he was or that he was in trouble. Ben could only respond by telling them that he was sorry for worrying them, especially when he appeared in such a dishevelled state, covered in blood and gore, Holy light burn marks and debris.

After being sure that Ben was alright, Rias' worry was replaced by intrigue when he finished his tale of his encounter with the dead humans and fallen angels, the demon-human hybrid creature and the masked woman before he pulled out the papers he had managed to take from the building and handed it to her to examine.

"Project: Mr Hyde?" I've never heard of such a thing. I can't understand much of what's written here though; I'd better let my brother and Azazel know about this, especially if rogue fallen angels are doing something in my territory again," she stated before rising from her seat and leaving the room to make her call. While she was gone, the other girls gathered around him and asked him a multitude of questions about his ordeal, particularly about his encounter with the monstrous hybrid, cringing as he recalled the creature's horrific, deformed appearance.

"I wonder who she was?" Akeno wondered when Ben's tale reached his encounter with the woman who had effortlessly killed the two monsters and burned his arm before completely disappearing without the use of a magic circle.

"I've got no idea," Ben admitted, thanking Asia as she finished healing his injuries. "I couldn't sense any magic within her, so she must be a human…but then, I've never seen one with such skills and knowledge in the supernatural before. She completely overpowered those creatures and, from the sound of her fight when I entered the house, there had been more than just those two I saw. The fact that she didn't look perturbed at all by them and the fact she didn't appear to have been struck during her fight told me how skilled she must be."

Their conversation ceased when Rias returned approached them.

"Sirzechs has sent some of his people over to the address to see if there's anything left, and Azazel told me he'll look into the nature of this 'Hyde' project you discovered and let us know what he finds out. He shared my concern that more rogue fallen angels had snuck into my territory for their own schemes."

With her piece said and nothing else to do that night, Ben rose to his feet announcing he was going to have a bath before bed to remove the blood and grime which still covered him.

. . . . .

That night

Ben panted heavily as he ran down the long, dark corridors that were both similar to the corridors of Kuoh Academy, yet at the same time very different from them. As he ran down them in a desperate bid to flee from the thing pursuing him, he noticed his arms were bereft of his Sacred Gears and that he could sense neither Azmuth nor Ddraig's presence within his mind.

His heart rate increased rapidly as a terrifying aura slowly engulfed his being in the wake of a bone-chilling, goosebump-raising laugh which echoed all around him.

"You can't escape from me, Tennyson!" the chilling voice cried out, cutting through Ben's very soul with its shrill, piercing tone.

Ben continued to sprint down the dark school corridors in his desperate bid to escape his pursuer. As he ran down the corridor he tried opening several doors in his path, searching for a place to hide and escape…but every single door he tried was locked tight and wouldn't budge, no matter how hard he tried. As his fear quickly grew, Ben became more and more desperate to be free from the soul-piercing laughter and sped up his pace, eventually forgoing trying any of the doors he came across and, instead, simply trying to outrun his pursuer and find another way out.

He ran down the corridor as fast as he could changing direction every time he came across a split in his path. He had no idea how long he had been running for, always just ahead of his pursuer, but dread consumed him when he slowly noticed that each corridor he went down was similar to the previous one and it quickly dawned on him.

He was running around in circles!

As he came to this realisation, the thing pursuing him seemed to read his mind and spoke up again, its chilling voice echoing inside Ben's mind.

"That's right, Tennyson! There's no way you can leave this place!" it cackled triumphantly.

He was so taken by surprise with the sudden voice in his mind that ran through him like a knife that he lost his footing when he tried to go down a corridor on his right and tripped, hitting the floor and quickly coming to a stop.

He spun around to see the darkness completely consuming the corridor he had just come from and the ghostly, spectral creature that now floated in front of the darkness as it towered over him, its ghastly, upturned mouth twisting into a gnarly smirk as it glared at him.

"Given up already? I don't know why I was expecting anything else. You were always a failure, both as a human and even more so as a devil! Now, if you wouldn't doing me a favour…."

The spectre's face suddenly became disfigured as it morphed into the familiar face of Julie Yamamoto who looked down on Ben with a sneer on 'her' face.

"…would you please die for me?" the creature asked, its voice now perfectly mimicking Julie's.

Those last words, said with both 'Julie's' face and with her voice, struck Ben the hardest and he cried out in fear, backing away as the spectral creature bore down on him, taking immense pleasure in Ben's torment if the glee on its face were any indication.

The creature slowly stretched out its hands towards him as he tried backing away from it.

"Azmuth!" he cried out, vaguely remembering the monster being chased away by his emerald light.

However, no such light came this time, something the creature took great delight in pointing out to him.

"Nobody's coming to save you this time, Tennyson! It's just you and me!" it sneered as it suddenly lunged towards him.

. . . . .

Ben's eyes shot open and he sat up abruptly, his breathing heavy and his brow slick with sweat. His eyes darted around his surroundings and it took him a few seconds before he realised he was in his bedroom. He looked down to see Rias and Asia in their usual positions in his bed; his sudden movement had caused them to stir slightly but they quickly settled back down. Feeling a weight pressed against his legs, Ben lifted up the cover to see a slumbering Akeno and Koneko who, like Rias and Asia, were as naked as the day they were born.

He glanced at the clock resting on his bed-side cabinet which told him it was 3 AM before getting out of bed, taking immense care not to wake any of them up as he did so. It took Ben a few minutes to untangle himself from their hold on him and, once he had finally escaped from their warm embrace, got off the bed and headed towards his bathroom to wash the sweat off his face with some water and cool himself down, the nightmare still fresh in his mind.

Drying his face off with a towel, Ben still felt wide-awake up from the small surge of adrenaline released by his nightmare and knew it would be a while before he would be able to fall asleep again. With this in mind, Ben silently left his room, closing the door behind him and idly walking down the hallway, not really knowing where he was going as he tried to forget the nightmare which woke him.

His walk eventually led him into the basement where he heard faint sounds originating from the training room. Curious, he headed over to it, opening the door to reveal Xenovia, garbed in her Kuoh academy gym clothes, wielding Durandal and going through numerous motions with her blade.

Ben watched her go through her different movements for a while, admiring her posture as she trained. His eyes drifted all over her body, from her sweat-drenched face, her chest which illustrated the size and firmness of her breasts, and all the way down to her backside, covered by the gym shorts and her exposed thighs.

He continued to admire her beauty until Xenovia spotted him in the doorway and, seemingly embarrassed at being spotted, quickly stopped what she was doing.

"What are you doing here?" she questioned, her cheeks now bright pink.

"I could ask you the same thing?" he retorted with a smile, entering the room and approaching her. "I had a nightmare and couldn't get back to sleep. What's your reason?"

"I –," Xenovia began to say but stopped herself. She looked like she didn't want to say her reason and Ben was about to tell her she didn't need to tell him, but she continued before he could do so, "I came down here to do some more training. I'm not strong enough to protect everyone as I am now."

'Where is this coming from?'

"What are you talking about? You did so well in your training when we were in the Underworld. You've gotten so much stronger."

"But not strong enough!" Xenovia retorted with frustration, though it wasn't directed at him. "I wasn't able to defeat anyone in the Rating Game. I fell into their trap and was defeated, leaving Kiba to fight them by himself. I let him down, and I let Rias down…even if they tell me otherwise."

"You need to know your limits, Xenovia. you'll only hurt yourself if you push yourself too hard and too fast. You remember what happened to Koneko when she overdid her training?"

"I do, but I need to be better than I currently am."

Ben placed his hands on her shoulders and waited until she looked at him.

"You need to stop beating yourself up about this. No one thinks any less of you for what happened to you. Hell, I should be the one who feels they let you all down: I was forcibly retired from the match because I almost put everyone in danger."

"My point is that you have nothing to feel bad about. There are only a handful of people who are truly strong enough to protect their loved ones from all harm and none of them happens to be any of us; not even me, if you can believe it!"

Xenovia couldn't help but smile at Ben's statement. She had a beautiful smile and he loved seeing it.

"There we go, there's the kick-ass, blue-haired amazon warrior we all know and love," he declared, smiling as her face reddened at his description of her. With a nod of his head, the two of them withdrew from the training room and made their way to the lift.

"Trust me, you're doing fine. If you want, I can do more to assist you with your training and help you get stronger. As long as it's not at an unreasonable hour, we can do as much training as you want," he told her as they waited for the lift to arrive.

"You'd really do that for me?" she asked as they entered the lift once the doors had opened.

"Of course I would! I want to be there for every one of you in any way I can, and if I can help, I will."

Silence occupied the lift as it ascended before suddenly coming to a stop when it reached Ben's floor and the doors opened.

"This is my stop. See you in the morning," Ben said as he departed the lift. He barely took a step out when Xenovia tugged grabbed his arm, spinning him around to face her.

Before he could say anything, Xenovia clamped her hands on his cheeks, holding his head in place and pressing her lips firmly against his as they shared a passionate kiss, separating when the doors slowly began to close again. As he backed away from the closing doors, he saw Xenovia's face was almost crimson in colour, a direct contrast to her hair, before the lift shielded her from his view and resumed its journey to her floor.

Ben stood still, facing the lift doors as he processed what just happened. He wasn't ignorant of Xenovia's growing affection towards him, but this was still the first time she had actually kissed him.

"Yet another poor girl bewitched by your so-called gifts!"

Ben gasped sharply and fell to his knees by the piercing pain that suddenly shot through his head. One hand held his head while his other prevented him from falling, face-first onto the floor.

'It doesn't work like that,' he subconsciously retorted as he tried to push himself off the floor, giving up and hunching down on the floor when another lance of pain ran through him as the voice replied.

"If you truly believe that then why haven't you told the girls about it? Are you too scared of how they'll react? What they'll do if they find out their 'feelings' towards you are just a result of Azmuth's magic?"

The voice went silent as it left Ben with that lingering thought, leaving him curled up on the floor as he rode through the wave of agony he felt in his mind. After a few minutes of this, Ben released a sharp gasp as he was released from the pain's clutches. It took him a further fifteen minutes of just sitting in the hallway, his back pressed up against the wall before he felt well enough to stand back up and make his way back to his room, washing his face once again before returning to bed, easing himself into the space he had left.

As soon as he was back in bed, all four young women slowly reattached themselves to his limbs. A small smile formed on his face as he closed his eyes, hoping his slumber would be more pleasant than before.

. . . . .

The next day

Ben was sat at his desk in his room attempting to conquer the last mountain of homework he had left to do before school started again after the end of the upcoming weekend. He wasn't the only one as Asia, Kiba and Xenovia all had similar levels of homework to him although, perhaps unsurprisingly, Kiba had already finished all his homework, and Asia and Xenovia had grouped together to tackle the mountain between the two of them.

The reason he had ended so behind everyone with his homework wasn't that he found the questions too difficult. It was simply because he had so much stuff going on in his life that he had simply lacked the time to properly finish it.

Even though he understood this, Ben had no intention of this being the only thing he could do in the last few days of freedom before school started again. An idea suddenly came to him of a way to quickly conquer the obstacle before him and, summoning Azmuth's Gear, cycled through his transformations before slamming his hand down on the one he was looking for.

[Transform: Grey Matter!]

If anyone had walked into the room as the light disappeared they would've assumed that Ben had disappeared into thin air. If they looked at the desk though, they would've seen that this wasn't true. Ben was still at his desk, though he was now standing on it and only a mere four inches tall. His new appearance was that of a big-eyed, grey-skinned, frog-like creature which happened to be his Galvan form, his most intelligent form.

"This should do the trick," he stated, his voice now taking on a high, squeaky tone with his small stature, before picking up the large pen in his minuscule hands and continuing with his homework pile. Thanks to his vastly increased intellect, he was now streaming through the different problems presented to him as though they were child's play – which they happened to be to him in his current state – and, within five minutes had very nearly completed everything.

"Carrying the three over to the six and then divide the sum by twelve and then you have the answer," he muttered to himself quickly as he wrote down the answer and moved on to the next set of problems, not needing to double-check the answer as these problems were nowhere even close to being challenging for the Galvan demon of his vast brainpower to solve it.

"Looks like you're doing well with your homework," a voice observed from behind him.

"This isn't intellectually stimulating in the slightest. I could this blindfolded…," Ben droned on, completely on automatic pilot before stopping abruptly when it suddenly dawned on him that someone was behind him.

Spinning around, he was taken aback when he saw Akeno was sat down in his chair, resting her elbows on the edge of the table with her intertwined fingers supporting her chin as she looked down at him with a mischievous smirk on her face.

Ben's eyes were also drawn down to her humongous bosom which, while the biggest pair he had ever seen before, were now even bigger than before with his new size perspective which now made them appear the size of transit vans!

Akeno noticed where his gaze went but didn't comment on it. In fact, her smirk only grew at the effect she had on him.

"I wasn't aware that Rias let you use your transformation to do something as mundane as homework," she teased, knowing full well Rias didn't allow it.

"Uh…no, she didn't," Ben muttered nervously.

"Oh dear. I wonder what Rias would do if she knew about this then?" she mused, stretching her hand out to stroke Ben's frog-like head with her index and middle finger slowly and seductively.

"I could very accurately predict what would happen to me if Rias finds out I used my abilities to do school work…and that's why I would prefer that she didn't know about this."

"Well…perhaps I could be persuaded to stay silent," she purred, licking her lips ever so slightly. "But it'll cost you."

Ben gulped, his incredible mind already working overtime through different requests that the S&M-loving Gremory queen would ask him, each one more intense than the last.

. . . . .

Three hours later

"Well, this isn't what I expected, but it's not the worst."

Ben adjusted his shirt collar as he stood at the base of the steps outside his house waiting for Akeno to join him.

A date. Out of everything that his powerful, Galvanic mind had thought Akeno would ask him to do for her silence, asking him out on a date was nearly the last thing…strike that, it literally was the last thing his powerful mind thought she would ask for and it took him completely off guard.

That being said though, he wasn't hesitant in agreeing to her request. She had smiled brightly at his answer before surprising him again by asking if he was willing to have it today. When he replied that he would be happy to, a response which pleased her greatly. As she left his room, she told him to meet her outside the house in three hours when she would be ready.

As he stood outside his house, the summer sun occupying the clear sky in its last few days before autumn set in, he thought about what they could actually do on their date. He had told her that having it in such a short time-limited the things they could do but she brushed it off and said that just having him all to herself for a few hours was enough for her.

He smiled at the memory as he heard the door open behind him.

"Sorry for being late. Did I make you wait long?"

"What do you mean? You were the one who said to be here at this–," Ben began as he turned around to face her, his voice trailing off as he looked up at the young woman before him. "–time. Wow!"

Akeno was wearing a red sundress with cute, white frills. Her hair was down which, in Ben's humble opinion, accentuated her beauty even more than usual and, combined with her appearance, made her look younger, like a girl her age without any worries in the world should look. This woman wasn't Akeno the queen of Rias Gremory with the epithet of "Priestess of thunder"; this was simply Akeno Himejima, the teenage girl out on a date with her boyfriend.

"Stop staring at me like that, you're making me feel embarrassed. Don't you like it?"

"Far from it! You look beautiful!" he blurted out, unable to take his eyes off her.

"Thank you," Akeno blushed at his comment. "You look good too."

He looked down at his own appearance. He had opted to wear his smartest jeans and a dark red short-sleeved shirt because of the summer sun. It allowed him to show off the muscles he had built up in his arms over the past year since he became a devil.

"I look okay but it's nothing in comparison to you," he declared.

Akeno's blush deepened at this and she quickly slipped her arm around his and stood very close to him.

"So, where shall we go? I've never been on a date before and don't know what to do."

"Well, I don't have much experience either. I only went on one date and I was killed at the end of it," he chuckled light-heartedly, ignoring the vivid memory that suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Well, we'll just have to make it up as we go along then," Akeno stated as they slowly began to amble their way into town.

"Looks like it." Ben glanced down at the time on his phone. "It's around lunchtime now. Shall we start with something to eat?"

"Sounds good," she replied, leaning into him as they commenced their date.

When they made it to the centre of town, they went into the local 'McRonalds' to have their lunch, a light-hearted affair, but one that Ben enjoyed immensely, particularly when he offered her a taste of his chilli fries, something she'd never tried before, and she loved them.

It was a small thing, but Ben still took great pleasure in hearing that.

After they had finished their meals, they left the restaurant and continued on with their date, eventually finding themselves in the real-life version of the same shopping centre they had fought against Sona in their rating game.

'Talk about surreal,' he thought idly before he found himself being dragged into one of the various women's clothes stores by Akeno who then proceeded to put him through one of the most cliched dating activities that he'd seen in the numerous anime he'd watched and manga he'd read. This activity was, of course, her trying on various outfits and saying things like "Do I look good in this, Ben?" or "Does this suit me?"

Ben went through with the cliché happily, glad that she was enjoying herself.

"Hey, Ben. Could you come in here and help me with this outfit? I can't quite get it on," Akeno's voice called out from behind the curtain to her changing room cubicle.

Ben sighed theatrically, "Very well, if I must." He rose up out of his chair and entered the small cubicle, instantly met with the sight of Akeno facing away from him, looking at him through the cubicle mirror. She was wearing a violet, tight-fitting dress which showed off her figure extremely well as it hugged her body, emphasising her curves beautifully.

"What seems to be the problem, madame?" he asked her with a small smirk on his face.

She returned his smirk. "I think the zip is jammed up, but I can't quite reach it. Would you mind helping me?" He looked down as she moved her hair to the side, revealing the undone zip, her flawless back exposed to him.

"I would love to help you, but I can't quite get to the zip in this tight space," he told her as he tried to get a look at the problem but couldn't due to the tight confines of the cubicle they were standing in without stepping out from the cubicle and ruining their privacy.

Akeno responded to this by abruptly spinning around to face him, her breasts firmly pressed against his chest, her face only a few centimetres away from his own.

"Is this any better?" she asked him innocently as she wrapped her slender arms around his neck, moving her head to the side lightly which gave him a full view of the mirror and the back of Akeno's dress, complete with the jammed zip.

"Much better," he replied as he placed his hands on her waist before slowly and deliberately trailing his fingers around her rear until he reached the zip at the base of her spine. He quickly fixed the zip and slowly zipped Akeno up.

"There we go," he remarked once he was done as he admired the full view he had of Akeno's back and rear. "Amazing."

"Enjoying the view?" she whispered into his ear.

"Immensely."

"We could stay like this for a while."

"Best not. There are only three changing rooms in this store and they're all currently occupied. I'd prefer our date not be ruined by us being kicked out of the store for acting in such an indecent manner," he whispered teasingly and causing Akeno to press her face into the crook of his neck to stifle her giggles.

"You're probably right. I wasn't planning to buy anything anyway."

"OH, so that fashion show was purely for my benefit, was it?" he gasped sarcastically.

"Maybe," she teased, her cheeks reddening slightly.

Once they had managed to leave the cubicle without anyone noticing them, they quickly left the store, trying to contain their giggles and left the shopping centre entirely as they continued their date. The wind picked up slightly to give Kuoh a cool afternoon and the two of them decided to go for a walk in the park, stopping by a street vendor to buy a snack as they went by.

"This is delicious!" Akeno gasped joyfully, taking another bite of her crepe as they walked by other people who decided to take advantage of the sunny day and spend it in the park.

"I can't remember the last time I tried one this good," Ben agreed wholeheartedly.

They took their time eating their food as they continued with their walk. As they walked, Ben made out the various comments aimed at him and Akeno by bystanders, most of it being complimentary of how adorable they looked together, and other comments not quite so nice about the indecency of their public displays of affection. Ben ignored those comments, not caring what complete strangers thought of him. He was out on a date with one of the most beautiful women in his life and loved seeing her truly enjoy herself.

They eventually finished their snacks and threw the napkins they used to hold them in a nearby bin as they made it to the large fountain in the centre of the park.

"I'm having such a wonderful day, today," Akeno sighed with content, her arm wrapped around his and her head resting on his shoulder.

"I'm glad to hear that. I feared that, with no time to plan anything, you wouldn't have the date you deserved."

"Silly boy. I told you before, I don't need to do anything fancy to have a good time. I'm happy just spending the day with you, just the two of us without anyone else getting in the way," Akeno retorted sweetly as they left the park and, without a destination in mind, simply ended up walking through the streets, turning off at random intervals. The dying summer sun having descended during the course of their date and turning the sky burnt orange as late afternoon slowly began to morph into the early evening.

"Still though, I wish we could've done something you wanted to do," he stated, subconsciously looking around and taking in his surroundings before stopping abruptly.

Akeno came to a sudden stop with him. "Why'd you stop?" she asked him, confused.

"It seems we took a wrong turn just now," he explained, gesturing to the buildings on either side of the deserted street.

Love hotels. They had inadvertently ended up in what the locals dubbed as 'love hotel avenue'.

"We'd best get out of here," Ben noted, turning back and about to walk away when he felt Akeno tug on his shirt sleeve. He looked back, surprised to Akeno's face the brightest red she'd ever seen it before; it was almost the same colour as Rias' hair.

"You did just say you wanted us to do something I wanted, right?" she asked him timidly.

It quickly dawned on Ben what she was implying and placed his hands on her shoulders firmly, looking directly into her violet eyes. He had initially planned to counter her statement with something witty but instantly decided against that when he looked at her. Gone was her usual erotic and S&M-loving demeanour, replaced by the innocent look of a young teenage woman whose bluff on their sexual experience had been called, revealing she actually had no idea what she was doing.

"You don't have to force yourself, Akeno. I don't want you or any of the others to feel like they need to do this if they don't want to. I'd never force you to do things like that unless that's what you really wanted," he told her firmly, wanting her to fully understand what he was saying.

Akeno's smile brightened, despite her embarrassed expression. "I know you won't. All the girls know this, and we love you all the more because of it. This is truly what I want," Akeno asserted, more confidently than before though her face was still red.

"Okay, if this is what you want…but wouldn't you rather do it at home where it's safer and more familiar?" he countered kindly, cupping her cheek with his left hand.

"Ideally yes, but you're always surrounded by the other girls and we never get the opportunity to be alone."

Ben conceded that point. He rarely found a moment to be alone with any of the girls as they all wanted to be with him, both enjoying his company and ensuring none of their rivals gets ahead of them. He would have to talk to them about that at some point in the future.

"Oh my, fancy meeting you here, Dragon All-father."

Ben and Akeno both looked in the direction of the voice's origin.

"Lord Odin! What are you doing here?" Ben asked, shocked to see the leader of the Norse Pantheon standing in the middle of 'love hotel avenue', a lecherous smirk on his wrinkled face. Unlike the last time Ben saw him, Odin had forgone his robes and now wore dark green shorts and shirt and cap of the same colour.

"Me? I just came here to relax and sample some afternoon delight after my meeting with the Gods of this country before having yet another meeting with Azazel who said it was extremely urgent."

"Lord Odin! There you are!" a female voice cried out from behind Odin. Looking past the Norse god, Ben saw Rossweisse and Baraqiel turning into the street they were on and hurried up the street towards them. like Odin, the Valkyrie had also changed from the armour she wore last time they met and now wore a light grey suit.

"Oh great, the spoilsport's here," Odin grumbled under his breath as she reached his side, a frustrated look on her face.

"Please don't just wander off like that. You're the leader of the Norse gods; please act like it!"

It was at this point that Baraqiel reached their little group. He too now wore a business suit. His eyes widened when he spotted Akeno.

"Akeno? What are you doing here?"

"Uh oh, busted," Ben muttered quietly as Baraqiel cast a brief glance in his direction.

Akeno glared at Baraqiel and was about to say something but Odin spoke up before either she or Baraqiel could say anything.

"As much as I would love to know what you were planning on doing here, kid, I'm afraid I must ask if you could direct us to your home. That is where Azazel said he would hold the meeting."

"Uh sure. I can take you there," Ben replied, hiding the surprise he felt at Odin suddenly asking him to lead them to his house. "Would you like to teleport there or–."

"Best not. I've been informed that the magical protection around your house hasn't yet been altered to allow Norse teleportation magic to work inside it and we don't want to scare any of your neighbours if we were to teleport to the street outside."

"Are you okay with walking there then?"

"Of course I am, boy! I'm not old enough yet to not appreciate the benefits of a little walk. How do you think I managed to ditch these two killjoys?" he explained, motioning to his two bodyguards who frowned at his admitting to getting away from them. "Lead on, boy."

With the date well and truly over with the sudden appearance of Odin, Rossweisse and Akeno's father, the walk back home was filled with an extremely awkward silence between them. Ben could feel Baraqiel's glare in the back of his head as Akeno linked her arm through his and walked extremely close to him all the way back. The silence was only kept at bay entirely by Rossweisse who spent a good portion of the journey berating Odin for his lacklustre approach to his own safety and lecturing him on his importance to the Norse pantheon.

Ben released a silent sigh as they turned onto his street, his house only a few feet away. Soon, he could escape from this extremely tense scenario he found himself in.

As they neared his house, Ben's eyes fell upon a young woman standing just outside his house. She had dark brown hair which had been tied into a ponytail which protruded from the back of the dark blue baseball cap she wore which hid her facial features from him. She wore a pair of dark jeans and thick black boots, a white t-shirt and an open, pale blue jacket. Slung over her shoulder was a small, black backpack, and at her feet was a large suitcase.

Curious, Ben walked up to the young woman, noting that she was looking at something on her phone and then up at the huge mansion and the houses on either side of it. He realised she must be looking for a certain house.

"Excuse, can I help you?" he asked kindly, walking ahead of the small party with Akeno still attached to his arm to see if he could help her out.

When the woman turned to face him as he spoke, Ben stopped dead in his tracks, his previous expression quickly replaced by one of unease and trepidation.

"Fucking hell! Is that you, Ben?!" the young woman asked with shock in her eyes.

It took a few seconds before Ben could speak again. "W-What are you doing here?"

"I thought mum told you I'd be coming back for a few days."

"Shit, I forgot! And you had to come back today of all days?!"

"Sorry to disappoint you," the woman replied, not sounding sorry in the slightest.

"Do you know this person, Ben?" Akeno asked him, removing her arm and stepping to the side slightly.

"Unfortunately," Ben groaned as he gestured to the young woman before him. "Akeno, this is Jennifer, my sister."

. . . . .

Demonomicum extract:

Galvan

Appearance: Standing at a mere four inches tall, Galvans are among one of the smallest demons which can be found in the Underworld. Their grey skin and amphibian-like appearance give them a distinctive look compared with most other demons, their large green eyes with rectangular pupils only add to this.

Bio: 'Survival of the strongest' is the eternal law of the Underworld that all its inhabitants follow, whether consciously or not; from the lowliest of demons to the mightiest of gods. All creatures adhere to this law except one particular species – the Galvan. Unlike every other species that values the strength of the body, the Galvans value the strength of the mind. Apart from their particularly sharp teeth, their species possess no other physical powers or abilities that enable them to be taken seriously by the much stronger Underworld residents. The law of the Underworld would decree that, due to their lack of physical strength, they should've gone extinct centuries ago. However, Galvans make up for this dangerous weakness by having the strongest brains of any creature alive today, both in the Underworld and the human world. Their incredible minds combined with their small stature allowed them to survive the harshness of the wildlands for millennia.

This tenuous method of existence couldn't last forever though. No matter how adept they were at remaining hidden from most of the demonic species of the Underworld, they still frequently fell prey to their natural predators, the highly intelligent yet vicious Omnivoracious bird, which drove their species to the brink of extinction. As well as this, Galvans were also raided by several of the sentient inhabitants of the Underworld, Devils included, who kidnapped a number of the species and tried to persuade the proud Galvans to serve them and, when that always failed, they resorted to torturing them for their secrets, only further driving this incredible species to extinction.

Threat level: LOW

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: Aaaaand there you go. Hope you liked it.

I plan for the next chapter to keep the story moving on into one of my favourited arcs, the Juggernaut arc, hopefully ending the next chapter at the beginning of the battle against Diodora. While that's my plan for the main story, I'll first work on the mini-chapter I promised with two short stories, namely the Big Chill pregnancy story and my personal take on the fountain of youth story.

As to this chapter though.

I've finally introduced a sub-plot that I've wanted to for a while now; the Mr Hyde formula. I enjoyed writing that scene where Ben discovers it and stumbling into a fight between the strange, armoured woman and those human-demon hybrids. I decided to include because, while I didn't see the episode where it made its one and only appearance (*cough* Omniverse! *cough*) but when I did learn about it, I instantly saw the many ways I could use it in my story. For those of you who've never heard about the Mr Hyde formula, try looking it up on the internet (though it doesn't take a genius to figure out what it does really) and you'll see what I mean. Yet another wasted opportunity, in my humble opinion, by the writers of Omniverse.

What are your initial thoughts of Jennifer? This is her first-ever appearance. I do have plans for her in the progression of the story but she's going to be a recurring rather than a permanent character in future. This is mainly due to the organisation she's part of which will be revealed in the next chapter. You're free to guess who she works for but there aren't any prizes for getting it right as it's not the hardest thing to figure out.

. . . . .

Reviews

Nivek Beldo: I probably could've been more mysterious in introducing Vilgax into my story…but I found it quite difficult as he's an extremely memorable character; he's one of my top five favourite villains from cartoons.

Zs'Skayr has always been the creepiest character/villain in the entire Ben 10 universe and he'll be even more in my story. He'll definitely be hanging around in one shape or another.

Dracus6: Those are interesting crossover suggestions, unique and with potential. For now, though, I don't have any plans on starting another story from scratch at the moment. I have too much going on and I don't have a high enough knowledge base to risk upsetting fans of the different backstories and worlds.

Tryne: Thanks for letting me know. I strive to double/ triple check my chapters for spelling mistakes before releasing but there always a few that slip by.

Guest (collective): That is an interesting way of getting around a dragon being sealed within a Sacred Gear. However, I can't picture Azmuth ever agreeing to that if I'm honest. Even in his diminished state, he is still an incredibly prideful being who wouldn't consider such a thing unless it was a suitable body he would choose to transfer himself to.

In regard to the Potis Altiare. I had never heard of it until you mentioned but, after looking it up, I can't see what else it would bring to the story seeing as it has the exact same powers as the Boosted Gear but less so.

I'm trying to steer clear from the technological side of Ben's transformations because this version of the Omnitrix is wholly magical in nature. I'll strive to adapt the aliens/demons into this new world (such as with turning Upgrade from a MECHAmorph into a MAGImorph). I think turning NRG into some kind of elemental would be the best bet, to be honest.

E-BLOK5290: Now THAT is something I never thought about. I had read that the writers of DxD had intentionally left out Jesus from the canon story entirely for whatever reason (maybe for sensitivity's sake). The only issue I can see with it is that, from the other beings sealed in Sacred Gears, they were never done willingly. On top of that, I can't imagine Jesus would be thrilled being inside the very spear that pierced him when he was crucified (can't imagine why). That being said though, I don't know why he can't still be in the story somewhere; maybe something happened to him during the great war between the three factions.

Verdona will still be an Anodite as well as Ben's grandmother. She may be mentioned in future chapters but don't expect her to be appearing anytime soon.

I doubt that plan would be feasible, at the moment at least, when it's revealed who Jennifer currently works with. She has her own part to play in the story.

Yeah, Ben won't have a power like that. Instead, I was planning on using Pesky Dust who can enter a person's dreams, view them and manipulate them if needed.

I think it might be too late for that. My version of Ben hasn't met either of them yet, let alone have the time to become friends.

Ddraig does sometimes feel overshadowed but can you blame him? How do you compete when your sire is the Dragon God of Life? He will continue to remind people who he is throughout the story but it's hard to get out of the shadows of a character as huge as Azmuth.

I think I could easily make that a high-level version of his 'transfer' skill. it takes a lot more energy but whoever he uses the skill on would get encased in the dragon armour and powered up immensely.

I-ABOVE-ALL: Yes, at some point.

Reptil: If you have no issue with it, I think that would be a fantastic name for his vampire form. I mentioned the 'transfer' ability above but using it when he was already transformed could also work. They wouldn't be completely altered to look like the demon (maybe slight physical features, e.g. skin colour, eye colour, sharp claws etc) and would receive the abilities of whatever he had become. For example, if he had transformed into Fourarms, whoever he used the power on wouldn't suddenly grow extra limbs, but their skin would turn red and they would become incredibly strong.

Omnisaurus: In answer to your questions:

Demons ARE the Underworld's version of what we would call animals. They are very different to animals in most ways, yet they are similar in others i.e. they have their own ecosystems that they stick to, very rarely leaving it. A vast number of them are predators but the smaller/weaker ones stay clear of the bigger/stronger ones just like in our world. The ones that Ben will transform into are only the ones which are most interesting and useful in a fight; that doesn't mean they are the only ones running around.

Not all of the demons in the Underworld are sentient, neither are the ones Ben can transform into. When in control of the transformation, Ben is still in control of his 'body', it's just that he now has a different body. An example of this is Wildmutt: Vulpimancers are mindless demons which live instinctively (just like most animals) but when Ben turns into it he still has his mind, it's just that he's now got a different body.

Like with other extremely powerful abilities the Omnitrix has, I want to make it so that Ben is not too OP most of the time. Bringing a species back from extinction is one such power that would take a gigantic amount of power, a lot more than Ben has currently. If he ever did reach the point where he could do so, he would need a copy of the species' DNA stored so it knew exactly what it was bringing back.

No. In my story, not even God had the power to cross dimensions as Azmuth could.

. . . . .

I don't know when I'll release the next chapter but rest assured. I don't plan on stopping this story. It's just that I can't guarantee when chapters will be next available.

Until then, see you all next time. Looking forward to your reviews!