Hours after the broadcast…
Soleil POV
"So… you guys are reincarnated too?" I said, downing a glass of Martell while Aisha and David took their shots and nodded.
"Yeah. After I died in 2030, during the War of—" Aisha began, but I cut her off, certain I'd heard wrong.
"2030??? Bruh, you died way after me. What happened?"
"Nothing," David said firmly, setting his glass down. His unblinking eyes met mine. "Nothing happened. The past is behind us now—no need to dig up harsh memories. Especially ones that led to her death."
The message was clear: Drop it.
I complied.
"So how did you guys figure out you'd lived before?" I asked. "I started having dreams when I was sixteen, and it took me a while to piece it together. By then, my new life and memories were more dominant. The old ones just… served as guidelines."
I hadn't gotten my memories at birth. I'd lived as Soleil for so long that even after they returned, there was no ego death. I was still me—just… more.
"Basically the same," David said, a hint of relief in his voice. "Thank God for that. Otherwise, I'd only be comfortable dating women in their thirties and up—and I definitely wouldn't be with my boo."
A goofy smile crept onto his face.
"Oh, you're dating someone?" Aisha leaned in, suddenly interested. "How did that happen?"
I leaned in too, curious how romance was treating a fellow reincarnate.
David looked at us, sighed, then grabbed the whole bottle of vodka. He took a long swig straight from the bottle before slamming it back on the table.
"Why the interest in my tragic backstory?" he asked, suspicion leaking into his voice. Fair enough—we hadn't exactly earned his trust.
"Ahhh, piss off with that yeeyee-ass haircut of yours," Aisha shot back, throwing her head back with a weird, contagious laugh. I joined in, and eventually, even David cracked a smile.
"Bruh, calm down and drop the edgy Sasuke act, fam. It's not that deep," I said, still catching my breath.
"Sasuke?! Are you serious? Fuck you guys," David said, but he was laughing now too. Then he turned serious and began his story.
"I was born to a working-class family. My dad was a Ghanaian immigrant, and he somehow bagged my mom—a Danish citizen—while she was on vacation in Finland. They got married and had me. Life was normal. I checked for supernatural anomalies but couldn't find any, so I assumed it was just a parallel Earth."
"On my fourteenth birthday, my parents were murdered in a plane crash. In my despair, my power activated. I was born with an ability theorized on our original Earth—the Celestial Forge. It's the kind of power that can turn someone into a god, given time and feats. Sadly, mine was nerfed to hell and back. The truly powerful perks and items are out of reach."
"I can still acquire CP—Celestial Points—but I can't get anything worth more than five hundred points, and those are rare. It works like a mental gacha. I might roll something, but if I don't have enough points to buy it… the chances of seeing it again are slim. The catalogue is massive."
"I was bounced between foster homes until I found my way to Grauzauberer, where I met Mephistopheles… and my fiancée."
"Fiancée?" I interrupted, genuinely shocked. "You're hooked already? Bro, you're like twenty."
"I met Morgana during an exchange program with Golden Dawn, and we just clicked. It felt like I'd found my missing piece. I'm lucky she felt the same. She helped me work through the grief and anger. She even helped me track down who was responsible… and helped me take revenge."
"Who did it, brother?" Aisha's tone was solemn, all traces of laughter gone. "Who hurt your parents? Did any escape? We'll help you wipe them off the face of this Earth."
She meant it—every word. And she'd dragged me into it without asking, but I agreed. You don't fuck with family.
David smiled warmly—a true, unguarded smile. It seemed he was finally warming up to us, feeling the sincerity in her words and my silent agreement.
"Nah. I already killed her—and all the Fallen Angels involved. It was when I found Grauzauberer that I realized what reality we were in: High School DxD."
"Yeah, took me a while to figure that out too," Aisha said dismissively.
"Well, excuse me for not watching every anime ever. I didn't find a whiff of the supernatural until the Faceless One dropped it on our heads," I said, more petulantly than intended.
They burst out laughing. At one point, a glass even fell off the table.
Once we'd settled, I asked for more info about the setting. Aisha and David gave me the broad strokes, and truthfully… I wasn't impressed. It felt like A-tier worldbuilding wasted on a C-tier manga. Especially once I realized the differences between their version and this one. The power scaling here was significantly higher.
Great Red and Ophis were strong enough to be cosmic-tier even in Marvel. I promptly lost interest in this dimension—all that seemed left here were political squabbles and battles that didn't truly matter. Most of the future arcs they knew were already obsolete, thanks to the Faceless One.
We talked more, and I learned David had already killed Raynare. She and some Fallen Angels had killed his parents on orders from a Fallen Cadre—surprisingly not Kokabiel, but another never named in the series. Their motive? They wanted the tech company his parents had started, which was on track to become this world's equivalent of Twitter.
With help from Mephistopheles and the Grey Wizards, David had wiped out every Fallen in that division—including Lavinia, the ten-winged Fallen Cadre.
Aisha shared her past next. She was half-fae, raised in the Faelands under the Winter Court. She'd left for the mortal world just before Tobisson's barrier went up, trapping her outside. If she'd gone back, she'd have been sealed in with the rest of them.
I told them about my time in the Underworld, which fascinated them—a firsthand account of devil culture from someone who'd lived it.
Eventually, Aisha suggested something: a binding vow between the three of us, to prevent betrayal or sabotage. After learning about my Planeswalker-esque power, we agreed—a three-person team, watching each other's backs while living our lives.
I agreed. The vow took root, binding us against betrayal on pain of losing our unique abilities.
Afterward, we parted with a promise to meet again in the new world.
I teleported to the portal leading to the Marvel Universe…
And walked through.
Into my freedom.
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