High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 33

Chapter 33: The Second Dragon King

In the Underworld, the prejudice of pure-blooded devils looking down upon reincarnated devils was a tale as old as time. It was a systemic arrogance, woven into the very fabric of their society.

Because of this deeply ingrained bias, Diodora concluded right from the start that the helpers surrounding Levi couldn’t possibly be a threat., he felt the dark power surging through his veins—he was already a powerhouse at the Satan-class level, an existence that could be counted among the true elites of the Underworld.

And finally, Tiamat was currently suppressed.

After running through this series of judgments, absolute confidence swelled in his chest. Diodora swaggered forward, his chin tilted up in supreme arrogance. “Levi Lucifer… hand over that dragon behind you. That is my Familiar.”

The clearing fell dead silent.

Sakura and Ingvild simply stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. Was this guy who just popped out of nowhere completely delusional?

Even though Levi had already brought the situation under control, when he extended his invitation to Tiamat, he had deliberately used the respectful title of “Servant.”

A Familiar?

Compared to a Servant, who was ostensibly a subordinate and a comrade, a Familiar was basically just a polite word for a slave. Even the current Four Great Satans wouldn’t dare claim they could collar a Dragon King as a mere pet.

Where did a minor devil who wasn’t even a true Satan borrow such suicidal courage?

Tiamat let out a deafening roar, the sound wave shattering the surrounding trees. A violent gale rushed out from behind Levi, tearing through the forest.

Diodora had anticipated this. He grabbed the pitch-black snake hidden on his person. Dark energy erupted from his body like a geyser, and his aura instantly skyrocketed, piercing the threshold of the Satan-class.

Tiamat was still suppressed by the lingering effects of her previous battle. This bit of wind pressure was nothing to Diodora now.

His arrogance inflated further. “Levi, what are you still standing there for? Get lost immediately. Don’t think that just because you carry the Lucifer name I wouldn’t dare touch you. This is not the Underworld, nor is it the territory of your Old Satan Faction. Even if I kill you here, not a single soul will know.”

He sneered, adding another layer of mockery. “And even if we were in the Underworld, in your House of Lucifer territory, so what?”

“Your grandfather Rizevim has already tucked his tail and run away! So what if I kill a piece of trash like you right here and now!”

Sakura and Ingvild’s gazes turned as cold as glacial ice, piercing right through Diodora. But before either girl could summon their magic, Levi raised a single hand, stopping them in their tracks.

Seeing Levi’s reaction, Diodora laughed out loud. When Levi looked up at him with a smile spreading across his face, Diodora was utterly convinced the boy was terrified and trying to placate him.

Hmph.

He would let him off for now. After returning, he would use this Dragon King Familiar to elevate his status to the absolute peak of the Underworld, and then he would pin the entire debt of the Familiar Master contract on Levi. The House of Lucifer still possessed a wealth of territory and resources. If he played his cards right, all of it would belong to him.

Diodora’s mind spun with grand delusions, already mapping out his glorious reign after becoming a Satan.

While he was lost in his fantasies, Levi walked right up to him. The smile on the young Lucifer’s face grew increasingly brilliant.

“Diodora, seriously, I really have to thank you,” Levi said, his voice smooth and conversational. “You reminded me that no one knows what happens here. And seeing you act so incredibly stupid… I feel especially at ease. Especially happy.”

Hmm…?

Diodora nodded instinctively at first, but as the actual meaning behind Levi’s words registered, his smug expression shattered. “You—”

He tried to summon his demonic power to strike.

But before his hand could even twitch upward, Levi’s palm had already connected with his face.

CRACK.

A heavy, visceral slap echoed through the clearing. The sheer kinetic force sent Diodora’s head spinning a full two times around his neck.

Levi had smoothly tapped into his Devil Trigger.

The terrifying vitality of a high-class devil meant Diodora didn’t die instantly. He stood there, his twisted neck completely mangled, staring wide-eyed at the Levi before him. He felt that undisguised, overwhelming power radiating from the boy. Diodora opened his mouth to speak, to beg, to scream—but with his head spun two full circles, his vocal cords were shredded. He couldn’t make a single sound.

He wouldn’t live much longer anyway.

Levi looked at Diodora’s mangled state, the pleasant smile never leaving his face. “Diodora Astaroth. If I remember correctly, you are a blood relative of the current Satan, Beelzebub. Both of you come from the 32nd Pillar of Asmodeus, or rather, a branch family of the Asmodeus clan.”

Levi casually weighed a small vial in his free hand, the corners of his mouth rising slightly. “Just in time. I was lacking experimental material. The Asmodeus blood is mine, and besides—”

He waved his hand. The movement was so fast it didn’t even register in the physical realm.

A flash of spatial sword energy swept outward. Diodora’s head cleanly detached from his shoulders and rolled onto the dirt.

Before the headless corpse could even hit the ground, the spatial separation ability of Yamato automatically activated.

A pitch-black little snake was forcibly ripped out from the falling corpse, twisting and struggling violently in mid-air.

Levi’s expression remained entirely neutral. A dense roll of magical power shot forward, trapping the squirming entity tightly. “This thing is rare.”

He narrowed his eyes, studying the little black snake, his tone laced with dark playfulness. “Although trying to secretly contact the Infinite Dragon God by relying on this is impossible… if it were handed over to Sirzechs, that would definitely be a great achievement.”

He glanced down at the bleeding corpse and scoffed.

Thank you, Diodora, for delivering the goods right to my door, and throwing your life in for free.

Meanwhile, in a dimension far removed from the Familiar Forest, Ophis saw everything.

The very moment Levi’s magic grabbed that snake, her vision synchronized with it.

When the aura of the third Dragon God had erupted days ago, no one else in the world could pinpoint the source. The clues left behind after Levi burned his magical power were impossible for ordinary beings to track.

But Ophis was different.

The moment her snake touched Levi’s magical power, it secretly swallowed a microscopic trace of it.

The Infinite Dragon God licked her lips, her doll-like face entirely expressionless as she savored the taste. “Hmm. That’s right.”

“Found you.”

As soon as the words left her lips, she reached out, tore open the fabric of space with her bare hands, and stepped toward the Familiar Forest.

Trash is always trash.

Even if you wrap it in the power of an Ouroboros snake, it only makes the trash look slightly less pathetic. But deep down, the core remains garbage.

Just like the remnants of the Old Satan Faction. After getting their hands on Ophis’s snakes, they all boasted to the heavens, genuinely believing they had reached the Satan-class. But the moment they encountered someone like Azazel, they couldn’t even take a single one of his strikes. If it weren’t for a certain Leviathan’s special magical power and the ferocity of the Delphinid Dragon, they wouldn’t have been able to touch a hair on Azazel’s head.

The rest of them died like stray dogs by the roadside. It was a complete disgrace to the title of Satan-class.

True Satan-class entities, Dragon Kings, Seraphs, Fallen Angel Governor-Generals, and the top-tier gods of various pantheons—this group represented the absolute ceiling of the world. They were the small handful standing at the very tip of the pyramid. Excluding the anomalous monsters that walked outside the rules of the pyramid altogether, they were the strongest.

None of them were to be trifled with.

Diodora had let the artificial power inflate his ego. He felt that by relying on the snake, he had forcibly stacked his stats up to the Satan-class. But a Satan-class supported by a snake was fundamentally different from a legitimate, battle-hardened Satan.

The chasm between them was ridiculously large.

Unfortunately, Tiamat didn’t know any of this.

Sirzechs and the current Underworld administration hadn’t even figured out what the snakes were yet. Let alone Tiamat, a veteran Dragon King who had been in deep seclusion for countless years.

So, in her golden eyes, that casual slap Levi just delivered was him effortlessly one-shotting a legitimate Satan to death.

Tiamat’s mind was racing. Previously, she had calculated that while Levi’s transformed state gave off an immense sense of oppression, she was still a Dragon King. If they really fought to the death, it wasn’t certain who would win. Her foundation was similar to Grayfia’s; with just a bit more opportunity, she could touch the threshold of the Heavenly Dragon-class—what the devils called a extraordinary.

But to ask her to slap a Satan to death with a single, casual backhand?

Even she, whose combat power was considered top-tier among the entire Dragon race, couldn’t do that.

Therefore, when Levi’s gaze shifted back to her, the Heavenly Demon Karma Dragon—who had once been scared out of her wits by him in the Imaginary Number World—immediately began nodding frantically.

She had already made up her mind to take the gamble. If Diodora hadn’t interrupted to stir up trouble, she would have already agreed.

Now, she agreed faster than anyone. “Fine. I accept.”

Seeing her nod, Levi retrieved the box containing his Evil Pieces.

On his chessboard, there were still four special Mutation Pieces. One was the special Pawn used when reincarnating Ingvild, and one was the special Bishop used for Kuroka. Of the remaining two, one was a Rook, and the other was another Bishop.

The greatest benefit of Mutation Pieces was that no matter how absurdly high the target’s potential or raw power was, as long as they agreed to the reincarnation, a single piece could get the job done.

Tiamat’s strength was roughly on par with Grayfia’s. Levi was fully qualified to reincarnate her.

From the remaining pieces, he drew out a Rook that had never been used—the Mutation Rook.

He tossed the chess piece directly at Tiamat.

A torrent of black, flowing light instantly erupted, wrapping tightly around her massive draconic body. She didn’t resist; instead, she took the initiative to relax her magical defenses, allowing herself to slowly shrink within the cocoon of dark light.

Finally, she condensed down to the size of a human, and the pitch-black light completely sank into her skin.

Red hair, black horns, and a beautiful dress that resembled an elegant feather garment. This was Tiamat’s appearance after taking on a human form.

Hmm.

Levi observed her. Except for the color scheme, he had to admit she looked remarkably similar to the Tiamat from his past memories.

A pair of black bat wings unfurled from behind her back—the absolute mark that she had been successfully reincarnated as a devil.

Seeing the process complete, Levi clapped his hands together. “Congratulations. You are the second Dragon King to be reincarnated as a devil. The House of Lucifer welcomes you to our ranks.”

Hearing the formal welcome, Tiamat sighed helplessly. If she truly had a choice, she wouldn’t have wanted to bind herself to anyone. But she remained silent, pushing the lingering doubts away. Since she had already joined, there was no use in regretting it now.

She looked up at Levi, her expression turning serious. “Levi, since you have taken me into your peerage… if that monster in the Imaginary Number World really rushes out in the future… will you abandon me?”

As she spoke, her golden dragon pupils locked onto Levi’s eyes, unblinking. A dragon’s dynamic vision and insight were incredibly sharp; even the slightest micro-expression or twitch of a muscle on Levi’s face would be captured instantly.

She wasn’t trying to go back on her word, nor was she plotting a rebellion. She just needed to know in advance—what kind of ending this choice would ultimately lead her to.

Hearing her heavy question, Levi just hummed softly.

He didn’t offer any sweet, comforting lies. He didn’t spout heroic nonsense like “I will protect you forever,” which a cynical ancient dragon like Tiamat would never believe anyway.

His expression remained perfectly calm. He didn’t even put that so-called invincible monster in his eyes. “Let me abandon my Servant? She is not worthy of making me do that. No one is worthy.”

With those absolute words hanging in the air, Levi turned around and began walking toward the deeper parts of the Familiar Forest.

Ingvild and Sakura, already entirely accustomed to his dominant style, followed behind him without a single word.

Tiamat stood stunned in place for a long moment, the weight of his arrogant, unshakeable confidence washing over her. Finally, a genuine smile broke across her face. She took a step forward, hurrying to catch up.

“Looking at it this way… joining the House of Lucifer’s faction doesn’t seem so bad after all.”

I really want to travel back in time and slap my past self for hesitating so much.

“Hurry up and do it!” Levi’s voice called out, urging her again.

But Tiamat delayed in turning back into her dragon form for them to ride. She turned her head, looking at him, and asked the same question again: