Outsider Chronicles: Demon Magus

Its one thing to discover that reincarnation is an actual thing, but its quite another to find out that Gods are very much real as well. It certainly doesn't help that I ended up getting dragged head first into a fight between two of them, found myself with a ridiculously hot stalker and labeled as a Demon King. Add in a Grail War and you have the makings of a truly humongous headache.

Well, this should be interesting. Im not sure how far this idea will go, but it should be fun nonetheless. Oh, and before I forget, the Magus and the Mages have no idea each other still exist. They both believe that the other was wiped out centuries back. In terms of strength, Campione lay just a bit weaker than True Ancestors and serve as a bridge between Gaia and Humanity...when their not acting like, well, Demon Kings. For now though, enjoy!

Chapter 1

I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting when I died. Fluffy clouds? Golden Gates? Perhaps a tall fellow in a black cloak with a scythe? As it happened, I got none of the above. What I got instead was being reborn, an experience I am VERY glad faded from my memory very quickly. Still, I'm not going to complain. Sure, going through puberty twice would be a pain and school would likely be incredibly dull, but at least I knew what not to do this time! Tabula Rasa, a clean slate.

I was born into a perfectly normal family in Japan (I know I know, weeby as hell, but I didn't decide this!) with the only odd one of the bunch being my dear old Grandpa and that was mostly because he was an eccentric ex professor of history and mythology with a ton of old tablets, statues and scrolls laying around his house. I learnt all sorts of things from him growing up, from ancient languages to runes to things about mythology and history I never dreamed of. Looking back, I really should have smelt a rat considering I subconsciously recognized some of the things he spoke about. If I had, maybe I would have done things a bit differently in the future.

Anyway, its probably a good thing that I had such a close relationship with my Grandfather because, when I was just six years old, my family and I were caught in a massive fire that consumed a huge portion of the city, killing countless people, including my parents. Incredibly, against all odds, I survived. But then again, I had always been lucky. After the fire, my Grandpa took me in and raised me himself (my Grandmother had passed away shortly after I was born, so I didn't know her). Of course, even that was doomed to end sooner rather than later.

When I was 16, Grandpa came down with the flu and, as is unfortunately common with people as old as him, wasn't able to fully recover. He died shortly after, but not before leaving me with some parting words.

"Live for yourself, never allow anyone to tell you how to live your life."

Wise words and ones I fully intended to live up to.

Fortunately, I didn't end up getting booted into foster care. My Grandfather and parents had left me a not insignificant amount of money, as well as a small house and, other than a social worker occasionally sticking her head around the door, I was mostly left alone, provided I went to school, kept my grades up and so on. There was one last thing I needed to do for the old man though.

Other than the advice, one of the last things he asked me to do was return a tablet depicting Prometheus to an old friend of his in Sardinia. Fortunately, it was the summer hols and I'd always wanted to go to Italy, so I decided to make it a sightseeing trip as well. If I had figured out what had been bugging me about the tablet before then, I might have sent it by mail instead.

Since I could speak Italian, the trip started off rather well. My first stop was Cagliari, the island's capital, where I quickly found that trying to find the woman was much easier than I was expecting. Apparently, she had a rather large house a few miles out of the city.

"Well, that was a lot easier than I thought," I mused as I walked towards the train station to catch a train to the closest village to the house, "Now if only I could figure out why this thing is keeping me on edge..."

The tablet was about the size of an A4 sheet, carved with the likeness of Prometheus and the sun. Despite being nothing more than a lump of stone, I couldn't help but feel that it was so much more than that. I couldn't put my finger on why though.

"Hey kid," said a female voice from behind me, breaking from my thoughts.

"Hmm...HUH?!"

I turned, only to freeze in utter shock at the sight of the speaker. She was a beautiful young woman with long, blond hair, blue eyes and an incredible figure that was only enhanced by the red and black dress she wore. She was also threatening me with a pocket knife, but I was too busy trying to reboot my brain to really register that as a cold feeling settled in my gut.

"Hand over that Grimoire at once," said the woman, providing the kick I needed to restart my brain.

As soon as it was, I glanced down at the tablet in my hands and scowled.

"Oh you have got to be…" I said before bursting into a rather impressive set of profanities in around 30 different languages, including three dead ones and one that hadn't been heard since Gilgamesh was walking around calling people mongrels.

Erica Blandelli (because who else would it be?) seemed rather taken aback by the sudden barrage of verbal filth spewing from my mouth, although I doubt she understood all of it. However, the meaning behinds the words was perfectly clear even without understanding. Eventually though, I ran out of profanities and wrapped it up with an extremely succinct:

"...FUCKING KIDDING ME!"

In English. Really, modern languages have so little poetry compared to the old ones. Rage now spent, I took a deep breath and turned to the blushing and scandalized looking Erica with a calm smile that was completely at odds with my earlier storm of swearing.

"Sorry about that," I said, "I just realized that my Grandpa may have screwed me over."

"How did you even learn half of those languages?" asked Erica, before looking at me suspiciously, "Are you a Mage?"

"Nope, just a perfectly normal High School student," I said, "Anyway, you'll have to forgive the delayed interruption, my name is Kariya Ishida. And you are…?"

Erica seemed to be getting more off balance by the minute, although I can't really blame her. I mean, my reaction to being held at knifepoint was to start swearing, followed by apologizing about it, admitting I'm not a mage, despite not really reacting as normal to that question, and introducing myself. Still, she managed to pull herself together and drew herself up.

"I am Erica Blandelli of the Copper Black Cross," she said, "And I must once again ask you to hand over that Grimoire!"

She gestured with her knife to the tablet in my hands.

"Actually, this isn't mine," I said, "My Grandpa asked me to return this to someone before he died."

"Who?" asked Erica.

"A woman by the name of Lucretia Zola."

Erica blinked in surprise.

"Wait, you mean the Witch of Sardinia?" she asked, "Why would she…"

She was interrupted as the air was suddenly rent by an enormous bellow that made the air and glass vibrate from its intencity and forced me to cover my ears in pain.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I spluttered, "What is that?"

Erica spun around, a scared look on her face that only got worse when she saw the massive pig that had just appeared in the bay.

"Oh god...its a Rogue God!" she gasped.

"That...can't be good," I said.

"Get out of here!" shouted Erica as she took off down the street, jumping onto the roof of a car as it drove past, no doubt driven by her maid.

"Yeahhhh, somehow I don't think that'll be an option," I muttered, but none the less took off in the opposite direction to the oversized ham sandwich.

Maybe if I could get far enough away I could avoid having to deal with this shit...I let out a yelp as I tripped over a bit of rubble, the tablet flying from my hand.

"Owww," I muttered as I stood.

"Does this belong to you?"

I looked up and suppressed the urge to sigh when I saw the purple haired boy stood a few feet away with the tablet in hand.

"Yeah, it does," I said, "You should get out of here though kid. Theres a rather large porker rampaging through the port."

Verethragna ignored me.

"Hehe, this is funny," said the God.

"Uh huh," I said, "So, who are you exactly? You don't look Italian."

Verethragna looked up and met my eyes and I had to suppress the urge to fall to my knees. Blimey, he sure does have a lot of power if he can do that just by meeting my eyes.

"I am the Victor," he said with a slight smirk, as if he was impressed by my resilience, "The strongest and he who will defeat every enemy."

He paused and looked thoughtful.

"Although I don't think its necessarily bad to have a taste of defeat. I try to revive the Kings of the Ancient Gods in order to fight them, but I have yet to be defeated."

I narrowed my eyes, but before I could say anything, Erica shot overhead.

"Huh, shes good," I muttered.

"Do you know that Witch?" asked Verethragna.

"Not really," I said, "I don't suppose I could have that back? Only, I promised my Grandpa I'd deliver it for him."

"Oh?"

Verethragna glanced between me and the Tablet, before bursting out into rather maniacal laughter.

"Oh, this is perfect!" he crowed, "It seems your a good kid and a good Warrior! This Thief has told me so!"

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, the sound of a scream reached my ears and I tensed. Despite my desires to avoid getting involved, I knew that if I didn't, Erica would likely die. There is no way that my conscious would allow that to happen, so I basically had to make my peace with getting dragged head first into a crazy ass magical world.

"Are you going?" asked Verethragna.

"Yeah, so can I have it back now?" I asked, holding out my hand.

The God looked thoughtful, before nodding and handing it over.

"Very well, I will let you hold onto this," he said.

"How nice of you," I muttered under my breath.

I don't think that stopped Verethragna from hearing it though as he smirked.

"Farewell for now little Outsider," he said, "I look forwards to seeing what you do with this power."

"Wait, what?" I said, but I was distracted by a brilliant light as a white horse appeared and the tablet glowed brightly.

By the time I could see again, the Heretic God was gone.

"Well shit, looks like I'll have to get answers later," I grumbled as I put the tablet into my bag and took off down the street after Erica.

It didn't take long to find her, not when she and the Boar were trying to overpower one another with energy attacks. It was clear that Erica was about to get pushed off the roof though, so I kicked the door of the building in and sprinted up the stairs, reaching the third floor window just in time to catch Erica as she fell past.

"Wha...what are you doing here?!" she gasped.

"Saving your pretty little ass," I grunted as I hauled her up.

Erica's cheeks pinked ever so slightly and she opened her mouth to respond, but before she could we were buffeted by a large windstorm. We both looked up to see the Boar struggling as a large tornado surrounded it.

"T-thats the Avatar of a God!" gasped Erica, before a large flash forced us to close out eyes.

When I could see again, I opened my eyes to see that both the Boar and the tornado had gone, leaving the destroyed port empty of threats.

"Well, that was interesting," I said.

Erica scowled and punched my arm.

Later, Erica and I were sat at the local train station, waiting for the train as Erica explained what and how Heretic gods were and affected the world around them.

"I don't get it though, how can you possess such a powerful Grimoire and not know all that?" she asked.

"Well, like I said earlier, this was actually my Grandpa's," I said, "I'm not entirely sure how he came to have it in his possession, but before he died, he asked me to return it."

"To Lucretia Zola, right?" asked Erica, "But why would she give something like that to a Japanese person?"

"Hell if I know, but I got the impression he dated her for a while," I said.

"Sounds like he was quite the social butterfly," she said.

"That he was," I said with a fond smile, "He was also nutty as a fruitcake and loved pissing people off, just to see their reactions."

I sighed.

"I miss the old geezer…"

There was a moment's silence.

"Wheres the train?" I growled eventually.

"This is why I didn't want to take the train," said Erica haunterly.

"Right, and why are you tagging along again?" I asked, "Not that I mind having a beautiful girl as a traveling companion or anything."

Erica gave me a flat look.

"As a Knight of the Copper Black Cross, my duties will not allow me to leave that Grimoire be," she said, "And I would appreciate it if you didn't make such comments."

"Yeah, not likely," I said, "I won't quit until I make you blush. Think of it as payback for holding me at knifepoint earlier."

Erica's eye twitched ever so slightly.

"Anyway, hurry up and carry my luggage," said Erica as she got to her feet, "We'll go by car."

I snorted, but did as asked. It was only polite after all and Grandpa had raised me to be a proper gentleman.

About an hour later, we reached Lucretia's house, although how we managed it without dieing I will never know.

"How in the world did she pass her driving test?!" I growled as I stumbled out of the car.

"Oriana's only faults as a Maid are that shes terrible at making stew and she can't drive," said a completely unruffled Erica as she got out of the car.

"Next time, I'm driving," I growled.

"I haven't see you before," said a voice from the roof of the house, "Who are you?"

We looked up to see a black cat perched on the roof.

"Pardon the intrusion," said Erica, "We're here with a delivery from Soken Ishida for Lucretia Zola."

"Soken?" asked the cat.

The gate buzzed and opened.

"Come on it," it said and we did as bidden.

The cat led us into a rather spacious and tastefully decorated sitting room where a beautiful and shapely woman with long, pale brown hair and purple eyes was waiting, clad in nothing but some black and purple lingerie. All in all, exactly the kind of woman I'd be drooling over...if I wasn't pretty sure she'd slept with my Grandpa at some point. I do NOT want to touch a relationship like that with a ten foot pole.

"Oh, I'm sorry," said Lucretia in a voice that was dripping in sexuality, "I shouldn't be lazy just because I can use magic."

"Lemie guess, magic slows the aging process?" I asked.

"My, aren't you a clever one," said Lucretia as she shifted into a pose that showed off her every curve, "Yes, while I may be pretty old my normal standards, I'm nowhere near my decline. So what do you say big boy? Want to give this body a try?"

"How lude," muttered Erica.

"Pass," I said, "As tempting as that sounds, I really don't want to do it with someone who can honestly say 'thats not how your Grandpa did it'."

Lucretia giggled.

"Well, suit yourself I suppose," she said, "Its too bad though, I would have liked to see how you stacked up…"

Now that did make me blush, earning me a glare from Erica. Lucretia giggled again, before picking up the tablet I'd handed her earlier and she'd tossed aside in favor of teasing me.

"Hmm, ah, the Secret Book of Prometheus, this brings back memories," she said, making Erica gasp.

"Prometheus?" she asked.

"Oh yes," purred Lucretia.

"So, what will you do with it?" asked Erica.

"Hmm, I'm not sure," said Lucretia, "It'd be terrible if bad people started gathering because of this. If possible I'd like someone to look after it."

She narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Boy, did you happen to run into anyone else on your way here?" she asked.

"Well, there was this kid who was giving out a frankly scary amount of power," I said thoughtfully, making Erica stiffen beside me.

"Hmm, alright then, I suppose I'll give it to you," she said, tossing me the tablet.

"Oh deep joy," I said.

"Wait a moment!" said Erica in protest, "You do realize hes a beginner at Magic, right? If you give it to him then…"

"And I came all the way here to give it back," I said.

"It seems that the Gods wish it to be in the hands of that boy," said Lucretia.

"That can't be right," said Erica.

"Its inevitable," said the Witch with a smirk that looked rather sinister in the dying evening light, "All the strings of Fate are strung together…"

"Yeah well, I don't believe in Fate," I said.

"Maybe not, but belief does not mean that it does not exist," said Lucretia, "After all, so many people believe that Magic is nothing but a fairy tale."

I sighed in annoyance.

"Fine, I'll keep an eye on it," I muttered.

"Thats a good boy," said Lucretia.

"I can't believe this foolishness!" snapped Erica, "A Grimoire from the Era of the Gods in the hands of a novice? ARG!"

She stormed off.

"Well, that could have gone better," said Lucretia lightly.

I just gave her a flat look.

And done. So yeah, our hero, one Kariya Ishida, will be taking Godou's place as the Seventh King. Godou will probably still be making a cameo at some point though.

No, Kariya has no relation to Uryu and Bleach will not be making an appearance. As fun as it could be to have him kick Aizens arse up and down Reality.

I think it goes without saying that the fire he survived was the one caused by the Fourth War.

Next time, a new King is born. Hmm, I wonder what the addition of an Outsider as a Campione will do to this world? Keep reading to find out, but first, review!