AN: I'll admit that I took a long time to get to this chapter. Thankfully, I'm focusing on this story more than my others for the next couple weeks. One or two people have made comments trying to correct me in the fact that Ddraig doesn't need to invoke "boost" to increase power. That is true, and it was mentioned in the 2nd chapter. All those people did was look like idiots and annoy me... On the other hand if you do find a real discrepancy, please tell me.

Important! I edited last chapter slightly. I suggest a re-read before moving to this one.

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Ch 5: Dreams

Issei bit his lip. As much as he appreciated the gesture from Rias, the thought that he, an eternal dragon, needed guidance from a young devil in how to use his own power was absurd. On the other hand, he had never bothered with magic before, seeing how it was rather pointless from the perspective of nearly all dragons. The most any of them ever learned was to shift forms like Tannin or Tiamat, and neither Ddraig nor Albion even learned that. For him specifically, it had always been about increasing his strength and his power until he had no equal. That hardly had anything to do with the typical flashy, overly complicated spells used in magic.

"Don't give me that look, Issei-kun," Rias sighed as the two of them came to an open field. The school's grounds were enormous and provided ample room for any type of supernatural training nonsense. "I know exactly what you're thinking about this. The fact remains that, however renown you are as a dragon, it has nothing to do with your power as a devil."

"Yeah, yeah," he murmured unintelligibly, "why don't you remind me how weak I am again, huh?" Ah, what was he saying; sarcasm would get him nowhere, and Rias had only been good to him.

They walked for a couple minutes until they were in a relatively remote clearing behind the school. "Okay! No one will bother us here. Just try not to destroy the place."

"T-that was that one time!" Well, he was actually a rather destructive fighter normally, so the outcome of his fight against the fallen wasn't unusual to say the least. But he was turning over a new leaf! Maybe...

"Was it then? So the tales I head about the immense devastation wrought by the Heavenly Dragons were false?" She did not just say that.

"Oi, that's not fair at all," Issei protested halfheartedly. Then, he grinned proudly at the memory. "Well, it did take all three factions teaming up to even pose a threat to me." He frowned again though. "If you know that, then why the hell do you think that helping me with training will do any good?" No one taught him how to become one of the strongest beings to ever exist, he trained his body an insane amount to reach that position.

"It may, it may not. The point is that you're my servant, and I am obligated to help my servants with their problems. Yours is that you have no conception of devil magic or how it may be a clear benefit to learn it, instead of relying solely on a power that shattered your hand and nearly destroyed your body. There's more to magic than just transport circles," she added with a sigh.

"Even so," Issei replied slowly, thinking this through. On one hand, she was obviously more knowledgeable about being a devil, but on the other she would never comprehend the true threshold of a heavenly dragon. At present, his body provided a harsh restriction to his boosting, but if he were to train possibly to the point of regaining his dragon form, there would be no contest. That said, it could take years, even with the help of his draconic essence and aura. "Mastering one type of magic would probably take as long as increasing my power normally."

Rias smirked. "Devils don't use the same magic as you're familiar with. Humans use formulas and complex calculations to bring about a certain effect, but devils... we use willpower. Whatever you desire, it is in your power to make it reality, with some practice of course."

"W-what," he gasped, looking at his hands. If he could do that. "Would it be possible to regain my dragon form then?"

The king seemed amused. "Nothing so drastic. Besides, that would require a dragon's aura to work. You could learn an illusion to make it appear as if-"

"No," Issei interrupted. "Illusions are the product of those without the courage to fight on equal grounds."

Rias hardly expected something along those lines. "Perhaps. That is quite a profound thing to say. I fail to understand how you can be both an awkward teenager and an esteemed dragon at the same time." After realizing she went off on a tangent, she nearly berated herself. "Nonetheless, the possibilities are endless. First, you must learn how to gather your demonic energy in the first place."

She was already moving on regardless of his opinion? Dang, that was some serious confidence that he could use this. 'Heh, I guess if she's so insistent about it, the least I can do is see whether I'm any good at devil magic.' "As long as I upstage that prissy jerk, that's fine by me."

That made her grin. "Let's get started then."

.

'I'm such a failure,' Issei sighed as he walked home. It was well past sunset, and he had already called his parents to say he was doing devil stuff and they shouldn't worried. 'After practicing for over five hours, I still suck at devil magic. Probably should have just stuck with my dragon abilities, since I worked so hard to get them to this level.' Those five hours could have been spent bulking up, training his body so that he could take more power increases, but instead he tried in vain to learn devil magic. Though, he was making progress, it wasn't anywhere near what he'd need in order to beat a longinus-class Sacred Gear user. He wasn't naive enough to think that he could learn and develop a new ability in a solely a week then use it to best his rival.

"Our magic is all about visualization, Issei-kun. What are your goals, what do you want to accomplish? Feel your energy powered by your desires, and have it flow through your body to a single point."

"That would be great, but I don't know what I want anymore..." Yes, he did have the goal of humiliating Albion once and for all, but what was there to do after that? He would be left alone at the top, no one to compete against and no reason to get stronger beyond improving himself.

Dragons were selfish, but their desire seemed insignificant in comparison to the avarice and greed innate in all devils. While the former species was known for the freedom of flying through the skies, devils spent their entire lives building harems, acquiring land, and controlling others all for personal gain. It was a cynical way to look at it, but Ddraig felt as if the fact that he was comparatively terrible at devil magic was proof of the moral superiority of his species. Seriously, if he acted like a selfish jerk like Albion, he could make his problems go away, but that was just dumb.

"Well, even if devil magic isn't for me..." he shrugged it off. "When I find that reason, I'll be able to do something." Why was he worrying so much about this? He had a whole lifetime to figure out what do with his life, no worries of being trapped in a wretched Sacred Gear again. And it wasn't like he was weak without the support of devil energy, although he did have some limitations.

Wait, why did he sense something off? It was like... "Are you kidding," he called out, "I'm just trying to walk home from my club." Did everyone have to bother him on his walks home? What was this, the third time already?

"I'm impressed you noticed me so quickly." A woman stepped out from an alleyway behind him. On closer inspection, she was tall, over six feet, and had a thin body. That's not to say her trench coat didn't fully expose an exceptional amount of cleavage, because it did. Issei's eyes were right to her well-highlighted double D's, her curvaceous figure only accentuated by the straight blue hair and unfeeling brown eyes. Something about just screamed sexy. "I wasn't expecting someone like you based off of the description, but I am certain you're the one I was sent to find."

It seemed she was one of the fallen angels, if her scent was anything to judge by. "Look lady, I have already had enough of you fallen angels. Raynare was alright, she helped more than she realized, but this is just getting ridiculous."

"I'm surprised you're still alive," she continued, ignoring him. "My name is Kalawarner, and I have orders to destroy you." Two black wings opened from her shoulders and a yellow light spear materialized effortlessly in her hand

Issei groaned. "Hey, come on, please don't be like this. The last time this happened I blew up a park." That, and he wasn't insistent on fighting after growing tied from hours of training. Magical exhaustion took a decided mental toll that, unlike physical exhaustion, wasn't easily overcome.

"Y-you did that!?" In an instant, her eyes were filled with fear. "You killed Dohnaseek!?"

So that was his name. Issei didn't feel too guilty about obliterating the fallen angel Dohnaseek. It was a tough world out there, and he'd had plenty of time to learn that anyone who went looking for a fight should be prepared to meet their end. The insane amount of Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing users perishing at each other's hand as often as others was a prime example. "Yeah, he attacked me. Only idiots go after a dragon in their own territory."

"N-no way. I refuse to believe it." She threw the spear at him with one huge motion.

Issei flared up his aura a bit, slapping the light spear away with the back of his hand. Then, he let out a terrifying grin filled with the beginnings of a couple sharp fangs. His eyes pulled into deadly slits. "It takes a lot more than that to scratch me, weakness to light or not." With the rook bonus, he could see his defense becoming an absolute monstrosity in dragon form. After fighting Dohnaseek, he also knew that the light spears from a fallen with only a single pair of wings weren't a threat as long as he increased his power a little.

"No way," she bit out. "I've got better things to do than to deal with this crap." As she turned tail and began flying away, Issei contemplated taking her down. This was Rias's, and by extension his, territory now, so he was obligated to protect it as a self-respecting dragon. However, he wasn't concerned about a single fallen angel of her rank whatsoever, so it was better he left her alone. A fight with her would be practically worthless and an unneeded use of his great power.

"Meh, she's right. I've got better things to do."

Time to go home and train!

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If he was tired yesterday for skimping out on sleep, he almost a zombie this time. It was a day after his encounter with Kalawarner, and he had been incredibly occupied with preparing himself for the upcoming fight against Albion. Not only did he train his physical strength through lifting absurd amounts (by human standards), he also attempted to figure out how to use his devil energy. That was a tall order for one night, and even with his inhuman recovery capability, it was plenty to leave him drop-dead exhausted. Technically he didn't need sleep as a dragon, they were being comprised mostly of energy after all, but he still had a human (or was it devil now?) body. It's kind of ironic, then, that most other dragons were notoriously lazy like Midardsormr. Even Ddraig was accused of laziness when trapped in the Boosted Gear, though that was totally justifiable.

Ah, his thoughts were going off on a tangent again. Having a mortal body always made his focus go out of whack. Here he was, walking home on the way from school and all he could think about was how ironic the world was. 'I guess I'm too used to having nothing to do but think.' He shrugged, deciding that the problem'll fix itself out eventually.

'Man, I think I'm gonna skip out on training today...' He rolled a sore shoulder, yet it was no worse than the rest of his aching body. He yawned. 'No, wait, I have to beat this Vali guy. I can rest afterwards.' First things first. He only had five more days to get ready for their fight, and he couldn't afford to miss one. Besides, he had an enormous amount of dragon energy from being a heavenly dragon, so his body wouldn't suffer any permanent damage from over-training. Once he was strong enough, he'd be able to accept more of that energy and double or triple his healing factor. When he got his dragon body back, all of this was basically irrelevant anyway.

'Heh, one week? I could take the White One's host on right now!'

"Aaahhh!" Issei's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden yelp of surprise coming from behind him.

He turned around to see that a young girl wearing a white shawl with green trim and a dull blue nun outfit was sprawled on the ground. Her blond hair practically glowed in the sunlight and flowed past the shawl to her waist. Based on the attire, he figured she must have been a Sister at the local church.

"Are you alright there?" He asked, extending a hand to help her up.

"Uah, I tripped again," she said, cutely frustrated with her clumsiness. After grabbing his hand, she smiled warmly, "thank you very much, mister." Thanks to the devils' ability to instantly understand all languages, Issei had no problem with her Italian.

"Don't mention it. Least I can do is help a pretty girl up." Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment for a moment.

As she rose to her feet, a small whoosh of wind caught the white shawl and whisked it off her head, exposing her wide, surprised green eyes. It struck Issei just then that she was absolutely beautiful, in a pure kind of way. The silver cross hanging around her neck only reinforced this image. He grabbed the shawl that flew off.

'Hmm, I wonder how my life would have turned out if I became a Holy Dragon back before I was sealed?' Would following someone else's moral code have ended up turning his life around? In a way, it made him grin at how similar that is, ironically, to serving a devil. The church was just as bad as the other factions, even if the former did have a higher regard for life in general.

"U-um, are you okay mister?"

Oh, right! "Y-yeah, don't mind me," he replied quickly, realizing how awkwardly distracted he must have looked. He handed her back her shawl. "It's just that... I haven't seen too many Sisters around here recently." No doubt due to the fallen angels.

She nodded. "I was recently assigned to the church in this town. You must be a resident, then?" She bowed her head quickly. "It is a pleasure to meet you." She was incredibly polite and kind.

"Yep. Lived here all my life."

With a breath of relief, she smiled. "I, um, can't speak Japanese very well. I got lost and people couldn't understand me. I just can't find my way to the church. I-if it isn't too much trouble..."

"Not at all!" Issei assured her. "I can help out. Heh, I was looking for an excuse to wander around anyway."

Her entire visage brightened. "That's great! Thank you so much, mister."

"Ah," Issei said, waving his hand, as they started walking. "You don't need to call me 'mister.' My name's... Hyoudou Issei." Huh, was that really what he should call himself now? He was a heavenly dragon, no matter how week, and surely he should embrace that more? He shook his head. 'Later, after my fight with this Vali guy.' Once he proved himself strong enough, he would reveal his true identity.

"Pleased to meet you, Issei-san. My name is Asia Argento."

People like this were so rare... he couldn't imagine what it would have been like if someone like Asia had received the Boosted Gear and used the power to help people. He wouldn't be the first dragon to admit that he was selfish, and it seemed almost all of his wielders in the past shared that quality. Well, until the case where he was sealed in himself. Wow, that was a strange thought. He knew exactly how weird this was from both ends. One where he couldn't talk to his host, and the other where his life was changing and he couldn't figure out why. He chuckled a little.

"What is it, Issei-san?" Asia asked curiously.

He shook his head, amused with himself. "Oh, nothing. It's just that I've had a really weird life, ya know." He rubbed the back of his head. "In truth, I'm not sure what I want anymore." All the sudden, the rivalry seemed so much less important. He couldn't tell if that was because half of him was some normal high school student or if it was because all this time in the Boosted Gear had changed him. The competitive edge that drove both him and Albion to become heavenly dragons had been dulled, and he had no idea what his life would be like without it. "I guess everything's so different now."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out!" The nun asserted compassionately.

The two of them were disrupted by a loud crying. Issei turned his head to see a kid on the ground, holding an injured knee and wailing in pain. Asia turned her head at the sound and instantly rushed towards the boy's side.

"A big boy like you shouldn't cry over a scrape," she encouraged gently, placing her hands over his knee. "Don't worry, you're going to be fine." The silver ring on her left middle finger glowed green, and a warm, tingly feeling washed over Issei.

The boy stared in wonder as the wound began to close up and the pain disappeared. Issei's eyes widened. 'That's a useful supporting sacred gear.' He could imagine how overpowered that could be if he transferred his power to it. 'Wait, could I even transfer now?' He wondered idly.

"That was pretty cool," he admitted, grinning as Asia stepped away from the boy and the two continued walking.

Asia brightened. "Thank you! I consider it both a gift and a blessing." Issei noticed a dramatic shift in tone as she looked downwards, as if remembering something painful. "Truly, it's wonderful."

He didn't want to pry, and he seemed to put her on a touchy topic, so the two walked in silence around town for a couple minutes. A part of him wanted to take whoever or whatever made her feel this way and remove it. Nothing this pure and innocent deserved hardship like that. Still, he wasn't about to ask, and it was probably better that he didn't get too involved. For himself, as a 'selfish' dragon, and because he was a devil.

"Oh, there it is!" Asia jumped excitedly, pointing towards the old church. It was situated atop a hill just outside the town, and Issei had never seen anyone use it. Come to think of it, it was incredibly likely that it was the base of the fallen angels that he'd been encountering the past couple days.

"Yep, that's the only one we've got here." Suddenly, a cold shiver ran through his body. 'Damn, I know that you don't like God, stupid weak devil instinct!' Urgh, he was always going to be vulnerable to holy artifacts for eternity... how fun.

"Thank goodness I found it. I'm so glad that I met someone kind like you to guide my way!"

"Hehe, it was nothing, seriously." This was a good distraction from being a devil and dealing with his unusual identity.

She placed her hands together, seeming as if she just thought up some amazing idea. "Would it be a problem for you to come inside with me?"

"I-I'm sorry. I can't go at the moment." He doubted God would appreciate him intruding much in his domain. Though the guy was dead, he had sacrificed a respectable amount of his power to contain both him and Albion in sacred gears. Obviously, there was a disagreement somewhere in the past. Then there was the fact that he was a devil. While he never cared for politics, and still didn't, he knew it could be extremely problematic for Rias, and as he was right now, sparking a war was a poor idea.

She frowned cutely, obviously a little disappointed. The expression didn't last long though. "That's okay. I should probably get going anyway."

Wait, he didn't want to leave it on this note! He just met this really pretty and amiable girl, and he wasn't prepared to leave her alone. "Maybe you can come find me later? I'm a second year at Kuoh Academy on the south side of town." Call it what you will, the dragon stealing the maiden or some teen finding a blond beauty he could not take his eyes off of; he knew that she would become a part of his life somehow.

With a nod, she replied. "Meeting you was a stoke of good fortune. I hope we see each other again!"

As she walked away, Issei was left a bunch of conflicting thoughts.

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"You walked a nun to the church?" Rias questioned in a near-patronizing tone.

Thankfully, they were the only ones in the Occult Research Club room at the moment, seeing how everyone else was out getting contracts. Specifically, they were in Rias's adjacent office, the place where she gave out her inevitably patronizing comments. Issei wasn't eager for their consistent judgmental remarks, as contemptuous as it sounded.

"Well, not to the church. I did point out where it was to her, though."

The redhead sighed. "You know that you shouldn't get involved in the affairs of the church. It's enemy territory, and setting foot inside could have serious implications. Now that you're a member of a faction, those implications affect you too, Ddraig." Was she going to start calling him Ddraig in private now? He supposed it made sense. Not only did she confirm audibly that she had, somehow, acquired a heavenly dragon as a peerage member, it showed him that she knew exactly what he was and what he had done.

Maybe that was a little too cynical, but he wasn't too thrilled with her telling him what to do. "Look, Rias. I have lived for millenia longer than you, and I know plenty about how much the factions hate each other. The church is probably the base for those fallen anyway... not like I'd start anything serious."

"Even so, you need to be careful now. Your body doesn't heal, nor is it as strong as it was when you were a dragon." She crossed her arms. "That's why I'm so against you fighting Albion so soon."

"You think I don't know how pathetically weak I am?" He growled out. "Don't forget that I'm still a dragon."

He took a breath, calming down. Since Rias had been a big help over the past couple days, he wasn't intent on invoking her ire. "Eh, I'm getting too worked up about this, sorry. You have a point, Buchou, I know that I'm pushing too hard too fast. It's a mistake that I've seen too many times, but I made the same one despite knowing the consequences." He smirked. "Then again, I am Ddraig, the Red Dragon Emperor. That's true too, as weird as it sounds. It's been my dream for centuries to make it out of the sacred gear and end this petty rivalry once and for all. Too many people died from it, and I'm tired of causing this mess." He wouldn't have said anything like that if he had soley been Ddraig, but the part of him that was Issei could easily recognize the mistkes make in the past.

She cracked an amused smirk. "See, you do have a strong desire to fuel your devil energy after all." Her face grew serious in an instant. "There isn't much else I can do for you beyond giving minor tips on our magic. I only have one request that you must honor in your fight with the Vanishing Dragon."

"One request? I think I can deal with that."

"You are not allowed to die, Ddraig-kun."

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AN: Can you believe I thought I was going to get to the rival battle this chapter? Nope, my stories are paced too slow for that. It should be next chapter though.

After seeing the Asia scene so often in fanfics, I had to do something different. Even if it played out about the same, it was a good place for Issei/Ddraig to reflect a bit and wonder what's gonna happen in his future. What drives him? These seem kind of sappy (hey, I am a Fairy Tail fan), but they're important elements to developing a character. Especially when that character is as convoluted as one created from meshing two very different personalities. I know, I overthink these things a ton, in both abilities and plot. If you guys want me to write future fics as just 'action!... badassery!' then feel free to tell me I'm a sappy idiot.

In other news, these are the options as of now for the harem. I have my own plans, and it doesn't necessarily equal this list, but you guys are free to state opinions on all these characters and more. The actual harem will not be announced and instead will develop as this story comes along. This is 'cause I'm the type of person that hates to give away the plot. The harem will probably be 4-5 girls since a big harem makes it nearly impossible to show character development for all the members while maintaining their relevancy.

So, harem options so far:

Ophis

Asia

Rias

Akeno

Irina

Xenovia

Ravel

Sona

Raynare

A surprise addition to be introduced soon