High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 54

Chapter 54: No Room for Choice

If the enemy was the same, it meant his original objective had just received an unexpected tailwind. Levi accepted the situation without a single shred of psychological burden.

His casual words, however, caused a subtle shift in Yakumo Yukari’s posture. The grip on her folding fan tightened. If she weren’t the absolute administrator of Gensokyo—certain that not a single whisper had leaked past the Great Hakurei Barrier—she would have suspected this silver-haired devil was one of her own residents.

‘How does he know everything?’

Realizing her veil of mystery had been pierced, the Boundary Yokai helplessly discarded her original script. Playing dumb when the opponent held all the cards was simply foolish.

“Sigh… since you already know, there is nothing left for me to hide. And since you understand the situation, you should know better than anyone that this is the only refuge left for me and the others.” She snapped her fan open, hiding the lower half of her face as her eyes curved into cheerful crescents. “Though, calling it Gensokyo makes it sound so grand. It’s really more of a cozy retirement home managed by a seventeen-year-old beauty like myself—”

Levi stared at her. ‘Do you have any shame at all?’

Seventeen years old. The Lucifer Clan’s archives recorded their first contact with Yakumo Yukari over one thousand two hundred years ago. She was an ancient yokai who had likely been wandering the world before the current pantheons of gods had even established their domains. He kept his expression perfectly neutral, swallowing the sharp retort resting on his tongue.

Unused to her age going unmocked, Yukari’s smile deepened, though a cold, calculating light flickered beneath her amethyst eyes. “There is trouble brewing in Gensokyo, and I cannot simply sit by while my people lose their home. You devils might look at the current state of the human world and think this little war has gone on long enough. But in my eyes? This commotion is far from sufficient.”

She lowered her fan slightly. “The night swallowing the day. Humans trembling in fear of the dark. If we want that natural order to return to this land, isn’t a war that shatters the current status quo the perfect catalyst? My grand design is already approaching its final stage. And now you arrive, demanding I stop?” A soft, airy laugh escaped her lips. “Hehe… rather than placing my faith in a devil, I prefer to trust the plan I hold in my own hands.”

Yukari wasn’t blind. She recognized the terrifying entity standing nearby—Tiamat, the strongest of the Five Great Dragon Kings. Her draconic aura alone was suffocating, placing her on the same precipice as Satan-class monsters like Grayfia Lucifuge or Serafall Leviathan, just a half-step away from the world of Super Devils. Yukari could also sense the overwhelming holy and draconic energy radiating from Artoria. She noted the distinct scent of Lucifer on Levi, the dormant Leviathan bloodline within Ingvild, and saw right through the nekomata, Kuroka.

If this escalated into a direct confrontation, even three of her wouldn’t be enough to secure a victory. Tiamat alone could likely crush her. But Yukari’s strength as the sole Boundary Yokai in history didn’t lie in brute force. It lay in her bizarre, conceptual evasion. If she wanted to run, not even a extraordinary could easily pin her down.

She was already calculating the spatial coordinates. As long as she slipped away, she could rally Gensokyo’s heaviest hitters—Kazami Yuuka, Ibuki Suika, Hoshiguma Yuugi. The entire realm was already dragged into this mess. She could summon the strongest gods and yokai to turn the tide. In the entire world, perhaps only Ajuka Beelzebub or Grayfia could reliably trap her.

Levi, however, read the quiet confidence in her posture. He knew she was holding an ace. He raised a single hand, halting Tiamat and Kuroka before their demonic energy could flare.

Just as Yukari’s eyes narrowed in confusion, Levi casually snapped his fingers. “Ophis. Catch her.”

“Okay.” The voice was cold, melodious, and echoed directly inside their skulls.

Yukari’s instincts screamed. She instantly tore open a gap in space, ready to dive into the boundary. It was too late. A delicate, pale hand reached out and effortlessly shattered the spatial rift like fragile glass.

The next instant, a terrifying force yanked Yukari out of the void. A dozen pitch-black snakes slithered down that pale arm, lunging forward to bite into Yukari’s flesh. They didn’t pierce her skin; they burrowed directly into her conceptual being. Instantly, her vast yokai power flatlined. Her limbs went completely numb.

The sudden, absolute weakness brought her to her knees. She was pressed firmly against the dirt by the small, black-haired girl, utterly incapable of mustering a single ounce of resistance. But she didn’t even try to fight back. Her amethyst eyes were blown wide, staring in sheer horror at the blank-faced girl holding her down.

“Ophis…” she breathed out, her voice trembling. “The Infinite Dragon God… the strongest in the world.”

Levi stepped forward, his leather shoes crunching softly against the gravel. He gave Ophis a brief nod, signaling her to release the pressure. “I told you from the beginning,” Levi said, his tone entirely devoid of warmth. “I hate beating around the bush, and I have no intention of playing games with you.”

He looked down at the Sage of Gensokyo. “Did you actually think I was giving you a choice?” He tilted his head, a dry, mocking smile touching his lips. “You didn’t honestly believe that I, a devil, came here playing the hero, did you? That I heard about your little plight and rushed over out of the goodness of my heart? You overthought it. I wanted to intervene, so I intervened. Your only role here is to obediently accept it.”

“Refuse?” His crimson eyes glowed faintly in the dim light. “You don’t have the luxury of refusal.”

Yukari glanced sideways at Ophis. The terrifying Dragon God stood quietly beside Levi, looking like an obedient shadow who would never dare step out of line if he commanded otherwise. A bitter, helpless smile touched Yukari’s lips. “It seems… I truly have no room to negotiate.”

She finally understood his earlier bluntness. He didn’t need to convince her. He just needed her to submit.

“Exactly. Discard those grand plans of yours,” Levi stated, turning his gaze toward the estate. “I am not here to bestow charity, nor do I require your gratitude. Whether we get along is entirely irrelevant, so spare yourself the indignity of feeling wronged. I am going to press the pause button on this chaotic three-way war in the human world. Once I clean up this mess, I will personally visit Gensokyo to see what exactly is going on.”

Yukari slowly pushed herself off the ground, dusting off her dress. She had already digested her absolute powerlessness. She nodded quietly, but her cunning nature couldn’t be entirely suppressed. Hiding her face behind her fan once more, she blinked her eyes, forcing a playful lilt back into her voice.

“My Lord, this war has escalated to a point where it simply cannot be halted by mere words… It really isn’t that simple. How about you ask Lady Infinite to lift these restrictions on me? I can’t run away anyway, so why not let me show you what I can do to help…”

Levi didn’t even break his stride. “Not that simple?” He completely ignored her request, walking straight down the stone path toward the main house of the Nura Clan. Yukari and the rest of his peerage followed in his wake. Without looking back, Levi’s calm voice drifted over his shoulder. “Don’t be ridiculous. Forcing them to stop… how hard could that possibly be?”

He left it at that. Yukari froze for a fraction of a second before a wry, defeated smile spread across her face.

‘Of course.’ To a group boasting the Infinite Dragon God and a Dragon King, forcing the entire yokai faction to cease fire was as trivial as swatting a fly. It wasn’t just a little bit easy; it was an absolute certainty. Recognizing the futility of her schemes, she snapped her mouth shut, walking obediently behind them and sighing internally. She couldn’t run. She couldn’t win. Even if she summoned every god in Gensokyo, they would be slaughtered by that dragon. She had no choice but to accept her fate.

Levi’s motives were entirely pragmatic. He couldn’t care less about the yokai’s territorial disputes. The reality was far simpler: this chaotic war was actively disrupting the covert operations he had assigned to Tohsaka Tokiomi in the Far East. That was the only reason he was stepping in.

He didn’t view these yokai factions as threats. If even one of the three warring sides possessed a extraordinary-class powerhouse, Levi would have immediately relocated Tokiomi and left them to slaughter each other. Why would he care? But the reality was pathetic. Across all three factions, there were barely four Satan-class combatants, and none of them were even at the pinnacle of that tier. For weaklings of this caliber to delay his ambitions? They were practically begging to be crushed.

Levi never went out of his way to bully the weak—he found the act distasteful. But if the weak actively blocked his path, he would trample them without a second thought.

Walking slightly behind him, Artoria observed his broad back. She had been by his side long enough to understand his true nature. He was no righteous savior. He was a devil to his core—a true heir of Lucifer. Yet, he protected his own, rewarded loyalty, and adhered to his own strict bottom line. He wasn’t a good person by human standards, but he was far from a monster.

Concepts like justice or good and evil were utterly meaningless to him. He scoffed at self-righteous hypocrites and looked down on those who committed evil merely for the sake of cruelty. He stood only for himself and his peerage. If one had to define his alignment, it was simple: ‘I, Levi, am my own justice.’

Yakumo Yukari had just tasted the overwhelming weight of that philosophy. And as they approached the sliding doors of the main house, the Supreme Commander of the Nura Clan, Nurarihyon, was about to taste it too.