I've seen a lot of things in my life, and I've encountered all manner of people. Some were good, some were bad, and some were not people.
You see, there is a line. A line that once crossed robs you of your humanity, transforming you into nothing more than a rabid animal that needs to be put down.
Diodora Astaroth was one of those not people, I knew that the second I saw him. There was nothing in his eyes, absolutely nothing.
And honestly, if I had just encountered the guy out and about in the world, I probably would not have cared about him because people like that end up dead sooner rather than later. It was his peerage that he called upon once we confronted him that made me see red. Broken, beaten down, terrified, but there is a more apt description.
Husks. Those women were nothing but husks of what they once used to be.
"Ah… this would have been Asia's fate, right?" I didn't even wait for an answer, the self-assured and confident grin that stretched on his face told me enough. He was guilty of whatever crime I chose, and he was going to die after receiving sufficient punishment.
"Incapacitate those women. Do not kill them." I said to Sirzechs urgently, as he looked like he might just mercy kill those women, and I instantly appeared in front of Diodora. Wasting no time at all, I simply tore off his limbs, leaving nothing but a twitching torso spouting blood like a fountain behind.
"Aaaahg W-w-a—" A pained cry was all he managed to do as I threw him to the ground with a wet squelch.
"Oh no. You're bleeding out. Let me fix that." I healed him back to full health since there was a lot more to come.
"Who are you?!" He demanded with a frightened voice. It's honestly amazing how quickly his whole confident demeanor crumbled.
"Don't worry about that. It won't help you where you're going." I grabbed him again. This time, by his head and as I was lifting him, I pushed both of my thumbs into his eyes, crushing them. He twitched and pissed all over himself.
"S–Stop… p-please."
"Nah." I healed him again and made him look directly at me. Which wasn't that hard, given the fact that I was still holding him by his head. Sirzechs, meanwhile already knocked out all of the women and was gently laying them far away from me. Which… Good call on that.
"W-why are you doing this?!" He sobbed as he tried to pry away my vicelike grip from his head.
"Hmm~ You talk too much." And just like that, his tongue was ripped out of his mouth. Said mouth immediately began to fill with so much blood that the guy might drown instead.
"Now eat it." My fist, still with the tongue clenched in it, plunged directly into his stomach, where I left it and healed the wound after I did so.
"Diodora Astaroth, you made a one simple mistake. You want to hurt my Asia. And unfortunately for you, that is a death sentence." His eyes bulged out, and despite the obvious pain he was in, he twitched defiantly in my grasp.
"I want you to know that nothing and no one will save you. Not the Satans, not Zekram, nobody. I will break you like you wanted to break Asia, like you broke those women, but unlike them, I will not put you back together. I will send you into the afterlife piece by piece." I spat in his face and proceeded to do just that.
Tear apart, heal, mutilate, heal, castrate, heal… it was quick, methodical, and I'm not going to lie, when I finally disposed of it, my rage, while not burning hot, was still there, cold beneath the surface. Instead, it turned its head toward the people who could have done something.
To Heaven.
But first the women.
"Well, Sirzechs… you're about to witness a miracle." I muttered while I concentrated on the flow of my power, on its shape, form, and most importantly, on its goal.
The light swelled around me, bubbled almost as I, one by one, reversed them back into humans. Then, since I understood that they were probably mentally damaged beyond my comprehension, I pulled their souls outside of their bodies. This way, communication was possible, since I could do pretty much the same thing the guy did to me, and make them calm down for a while.
As they stood before me, glowing faintly thanks to my golden light, I had nothing but pity for them. They did not deserve that.
"You ladies have a few choices to make. I can make you forget everything that thing did to you. I can send you off to the most beautiful afterlife there is, since you deserve nothing less. You can also get reborn, without memories, of course, but the soul would stay the same. Should you choose that option, I will make sure you are born into a family that would love you with everything they have." I took a deep breath and continued with my final and frankly, selfish option.
"Or you can join me and become a dragon. Revenge, ladies. I'm offering you revenge. Against heaven, against the church for letting you rot here, and against the Angels for not helping you when you needed it the most. The choice is yours." I told them, and while outwardly, their expressions did not change that much, I knew that internally, the story was completely different.
"Are you really going to attack Heaven?" Sirzechs asked me with an expression full of shock.
"Nah, I'm taking it. I'm sure you're at least suspecting what the other half of my powers is, right? Well, then let me make it easier for you. I'm stronger than He ever was, and I can take full control of Heaven without them having a chance to do anything about it. I was going to do that anyway, because of how they treated Asia, but this just expedited it to the forefront."
"It's just… bizarre, you know? You should be my enemy, right?" He asked with a sigh and a shake of his head.
"Why? Because I have the power He wielded? Power is power, Zechs, it's entirely up to me how I utilize it. To me, you are all just people. Doesn't matter how you came to be. And to be honest? You're an alright guy. I like you. So I have no reason to go all Sodom and Gomorrah on you." I said with a shrug.
"Pft— That's strangely comforting. So, another question… Can you really make them into a dragon?" He snorted and asked.
"Yeah. Not like me, obviously, but I can make them into Heavenly Dragons quite easily. That way, they'd be able to protect themselves should I not be there for some reason."
"Now this might really be the most insane thing I've ever heard, but I believe you."
In the meantime, the women, and I really have to get their names before this is over, came to a decision, and from the looks on their faces, it was not unanimous.
Three wanted to pass on, and from what I gathered, no amount of talking would convince them that they are not tainted and broken beyond repair. Surprisingly, only one wanted to have her memory erased, and unsurprisingly, she was the newest among them. She told me that she had been with Diodora for five hundred seventy-three days.
The rest save one chose to be reborn anew. Something I would take care of tonight after everything was done and I had a bit of spare time to mess with Samsara to insert them into nice and loving families.
Only one chose to follow me and become a dragon.
A Russian Orthodox nun named Mirana Shatarova.
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I'm back!
I'm using Mirana since she is an actual character from DxD and because I didn't want to make an OC that would frequently appear in the story from now on.