High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 32

Chapter 32: The Primordial Fear and the Fool’s Arrival

She didn’t dare to nod. “I don’t agree—”

The moment the words left her mouth, the temperature in the clearing plummeted. Levi’s eyes frosted over. Demonic energy surged, instantly coating his frame as his devil transformation took hold. Yamato materialized in his grip, its dark scabbard gleaming with lethal intent.

He had never been a soft-hearted man.

“Wait…” Sensing that bone-chilling killing intent, Tiamat let out a long, trembling sigh. “I think… I can explain. I hope you can hear me out.”

Levi paused. He had assumed Tiamat was the sort of proud dragon who would rather die than submit. If that were the case, he would have simply cleaved her in two to eliminate any future trouble. Yet, she wanted to explain. What surprised him more was the distinct scent of genuine fear rolling off her the moment he drew Yamato.

The Dragon Clan… actually feared death?

This sparked a flicker of genuine interest. He was curious why Tiamat dreaded death so much, and why, despite that dread, she still refused his offer.

He lowered the blade a fraction. “Speak.”

A single, commanding syllable.

Behind him, Sakura and Ingvild shifted their gazes to the massive dragon. Unlike Levi’s cold scrutiny, their eyes held a quiet curiosity, easing the crushing pressure on Tiamat just enough for her to breathe.

“This starts with my ability…” Tiamat murmured, her massive form shifting uneasily. “Devils, have you ever heard of the Imaginary Number World?”

Sakura’s eyes widened slightly. The Imaginary Number World? Of course she knew it. Her own magical attribute was ‘Void’, granting her the ability to open and manipulate Imaginary Space. As long as her magical reserves grew and she explored deeper into the void, finding the entrance to the Imaginary Number World was only a matter of time.

Unaware of the girl’s internal realization, Tiamat saw the flicker of understanding across their faces and continued. “My innate ability is tied to the Void attribute. I can freely enter and exit Imaginary Space. Having lived for so long, roaming those empty dimensions, I naturally stumbled upon the gate to the Imaginary Number World hidden deep within.”

“I am a dragon. A powerful one,” she said, her voice laced with bitter self-mockery. “Back then, I was bold. Arrogant. I charged straight through that gate, wanting to see what secrets were buried in the Imaginary Number World.”

The fear on Tiamat’s draconic features deepened, her scales shuddering. “I saw a black sea. Beneath those dark, stagnant waters, a terrifying mass of energy was compressed—shrunk down into a single, suffocating point. That existence… who knows how many eons she had been exiled there. She was completely overflowing with pure, unadulterated malice.”

“I attacked her.”

“But no matter what I threw at her, it was entirely useless. The opponent didn’t even bother to retaliate. Just a strange, haunting song and the sheer aura radiating from her form made me turn and flee.”

“Since that day, I’ve become terrified of death. Once you run away once, it becomes so much easier to run a second time… a third time…”

A look of deep helplessness washed over her face. To her, that encounter was a catastrophic disaster that had fallen from the sky.

“Afterward, I investigated,” Tiamat whispered. “My name is Tiamat. And she… she also seems to be called Tiamat.”

“To this day, I still haven’t figured out whether she is a god, a dragon, a devil, or something else entirely. But you devils should know better than anyone—for ancient existences like us, names are not chosen lightly. A name carries a specific meaning, a fundamental nature.”

“She is far older than I am. I don’t know her true form, but my instincts scream that the Imaginary Number World won’t be able to hold her forever.”

“Once she breaks free, I—the Tiamat born long after she was exiled and forgotten by the world—will absolutely become her target.”

“I know this. That is why, for centuries, I have hidden myself. I live a low-profile life, avoiding conflicts, never causing trouble.”

“Because of this cowardice, even though I am the strongest of the Five Great Dragon Kings, fewer and fewer people even remember my name.”

“I deliberately let the world forget me.”

“When that monster finally breaks out, I plan to hide deep within Imaginary Space and never return.”

Sakura and Ingvild listened in stunned silence, treating the ancient dragon’s confession like a dark myth.

Levi, however, narrowed his eyes, piecing the puzzle together.

A Tiamat trapped in the Imaginary Number World. If his memory served him right…

“If I’m not mistaken,” Levi said, his voice cutting through the heavy silence, “the one trapped in that space is the Primordial Mother Goddess of Mesopotamian mythology.”

He paused, letting the weight of the title settle. “She is one of the seven Evils of Humanity. The Beast who governs the concept of ‘Regression’. Beast II.”

Meeting her… then Tiamat’s sheer terror wasn’t surprising in the least.

While this draconic Tiamat was a pitiful sight right now, the other one was an absolute monster among monsters. Levi was certain Beast II possessed power that ranked within the top five of this entire fused world.

Whether it was her or Goetia, these Evils of Humanity stood at the extraordinary class at the absolute minimum. Their raw strength eclipsed that of Chief Gods; ordinary deities were nothing but fodder before them. Unless a Grand Heroic Spirit descended with the world’s blessing, every manifestation of a Beast guaranteed catastrophic, world-ending destruction.

Levi let out a dry, mocking sneer. “It’s a good thing you didn’t accidentally release her back then. Otherwise, the two of you would likely have been wiped out on the spot.”

Tiamat lowered her massive head, accepting the harsh truth.

“However, I understand your reasoning,” Levi continued, his tone shifting back to a cold, calculating baseline. “But my stance remains unchanged. In fact, if you are truly terrified of her, you have even more reason to join my peerage.”

Tiamat blinked, her reptilian eyes filled with confusion as she stared at the young devil.

Levi didn’t bother offering a lengthy explanation or a grand display of power. He simply met her gaze, his voice carrying an absolute, obvious weight. “You cannot deal with her. But I can.”

If the Primordial Mother Goddess were to break out of the Imaginary Number World, her threat level to this current world would actually pale in comparison to the Beast Emperor, Trihexa. That apocalyptic beast was far more terrifying than an ordinary extraordinary. With the fusion of the two worlds, Levi had recalled certain Type-Moon lore and suspected that the Beast Emperor might even qualify as a Beast itself.

also, against a true Beast, the Counter Force would deploy Grand Heroic Spirits with special blessings, even sacrificing their Grand Saint Graphs at critical moments to secure a victory. Even if the Beast Emperor broke out, at worst, it was an entity that could be killed by grinding it down over ten thousand years.

And if all else failed—Levi still had his Sin Devil Trigger.

That was his ultimate trump card.

The current Levi activating his Sin Devil Trigger was no longer the same as before, back when he could only sustain the form for a mere forty seconds. Now that he possessed infinite magical power, the old problem of exiting the berserk state by simply running out of magic was obsolete.

He had developed several structural conjectures regarding the spell formulation to control it. While he hadn’t fully mastered the intricacies of the power yet, the duration limit was completely gone. Releasing the berserk state was a bit troublesome, but as long as he activated it… let alone the Primordial Mother Goddess in the Imaginary Number World, even the Beast Emperor would absolutely die by his blade.

Therefore, he had nothing to fear.

Tiamat fell into a long, heavy silence.

“I will only say this one last time,” Levi said. His voice wasn’t loud, yet the pressure rolling off him was suffocating. “I can handle the thing you fear. Knowing that, are you still unwilling to become my servant?”

Tiamat opened her maw but no words came out.

She was truly wavering. It wasn’t that she completely doubted Levi’s claim. But currently, the Devil faction had three Transcendents overseeing it, including the strongest extraordinary of the Lucifer Clan. If she really took this gamble…

She raised her head, looking deep into Levi’s unwavering eyes, and finally made her decision. “I—”

“Wait a minute!”

Levi’s eyes instantly turned to ice. He slowly turned his head toward the tree line.

Tiamat also snapped her gaze over, a low, annoyed growl rumbling in her throat. Sakura and Ingvild’s expressions hardened, their guard instantly rising.

From the dense bushes of the Familiar Forest, Diodora Astaroth strolled out, a smug, arrogant smile plastered across his face.

Levi had sensed his rat-like presence lurking nearby for quite some time. He had assumed that with a Dragon King’s aura suffocating the clearing, the fool wouldn’t dare show his face.

But looking at him now… this Diodora was even stupider than Levi had calculated.

Levi narrowed his eyes.

Diodora didn’t care about Levi’s icy glare in the slightest. He looked at the silver-haired devil with a mocking grin, his tone dripping with unearned superiority. “Levi Lucifer… hand over the dragon behind you. She should be my familiar.”

Diodora didn’t consider himself brainless. In fact, he prided himself on having more schemes than most devils his age. When he first entered the Familiar Forest, he had sensed Tiamat’s aura. He knew the dragon’s name.

But unlike the older generation of devils who knew Tiamat’s terrifying history inside out, Diodora’s knowledge was limited to a simple footnote: One of the Five Great Dragon Kings.

Compared to the other four—who were either ruthless monsters that brought absolute ruin or ancient relics sealed away—Tiamat had spent centuries hiding, possessing almost zero presence in the modern world.

Facing a Dragon King of this caliber? Diodora wasn’t panicked in the slightest.

This blind confidence didn’t stem from his blood relative, the current Satan Beelzebub—who likely didn’t even remember Diodora existed. It came from his own perceived strength.

Diodora’s talent was indeed high. As a young generation devil, he had already reached the threshold of an Ultimate-Class Devil. Add in the snake he had acquired from the Khaos Brigade…

With that snake boosting his power, he genuinely believed he could fight at the Satan-class level. A Dragon King, when converted to the Devil power scale, was roughly equivalent to a Satan-class entity. That was all there was to it.

Why should Diodora hide from a relatively weak, cowardly Dragon King? So, he had strolled right out.

He had originally just wanted to watch the spectacle from the shadows. But then—what an unexpected harvest!

Seeing the two girls standing behind Levi, Diodora paused, his eyes gleaming.

He recognized Levi. Honestly, there were very few in the Underworld who didn’t. From pure-blood Devils to Fallen Angels, everyone knew the useless eldest son of the House of Lucifer. The label was permanently glued to him. A devil carrying the bloodline of the original Lucifer, nearly an adult, yet possessing demonic power that couldn’t even match a Middle-Class Devil!

Why on earth is this trash standing so close to Tiamat? Diodora had wondered from the bushes.

Then he saw Tiamat lying motionless on the ground. He watched Levi draw his sword, clearly trying to take advantage of the injured dragon to force some kind of master-servant contract!

Seeing that, Diodora could no longer sit still.

Heh heh. This opportunity might have fallen into the lap of that trash Levi, but now that I’m here, the prize naturally belongs to me.

Tiamat must have run into some severe trouble to be reduced to this state. Otherwise, how could she be held at sword-point by a piece of garbage like Levi Lucifer?

As for the two girls behind Levi, Diodora barely gave them a second glance. He wasn’t the kind of man who lost his mind over any pretty face. He only had designs on Holy Maidens and devout Nuns. Female devils? Disgusting.

If they were high-ranking Pure-Blood Devils, he might have checked their backgrounds. But these two… one reeked of a Reincarnated Devil, and the other lacked any pure-blood aura entirely.

At most, they were just lowly lackeys sent by the Old Satan Faction. That entire faction was a joke, outdated and rotting. He had heard their strongest fighter was only at the level of an Ultimate-Class Devil—completely unworthy of his grand attention.