Location: Gremory Castle - Grand Terrace
Event: The Victory Celebration
Time: 9:00 PM
The Underworld was partying. The sky was lit with magical fireworks spelling out "TEAM VOID".
Raiden sat on a throne made of ice (courtesy of Serafall) and fire (courtesy of Ravel). He was currently holding a wine goblet the size of a bucket.
"To the Champion!" Sirzechs Lucifer raised his glass.
"TO THE CHAMPION!" thousands of nobles roared.
Raiden sighed, taking a sip.
"Too loud. And the appetizers are tiny."
Runeas Gremory sat on the armrest of his throne, looking regal.
"Enjoy the adulation, Raiden. You defeated a Chief God. You are now officially ranked in the Top 10 Strongest Beings in the World."
"I just want the prize money," Raiden grunted. "Rossweisse said we can buy a private island with a wagyu farm."
Rossweisse was in the corner, weeping tears of joy while hugging a giant check. "We're rich... finally, we're solvent!"
Suddenly, the atmosphere shifted.
It wasn't a demonic aura. It wasn't a holy aura.
It felt... static.
The music stopped. The magical lights flickered and died.
A sound echoed across the terrace. Not a roar, but a mechanical screech.
SCREEEECH.
Above the castle, the sky didn't crack; it glitched. Pixels of reality tore apart, revealing a dark, metallic void beyond.
"What is that?" Rias summoned her destruction aura. "It doesn't feel like magic."
Ajuka Beelzebub, who was attending the party, stood up abruptly. His face, usually calm, was pale.
"That signature... it's the Kankara Formula. It's not from this universe."
From the glitch in the sky, a cylinder dropped.
It landed in the middle of the buffet table, crushing the lobster tower.
CRASH.
Steam hissed as the cylinder opened.
A figure stepped out. It was humanoid, but its skin was chrome. It had no face, only a single glowing red optic. It held a weapon that looked like a tuning fork made of light.
[Unit: Scout UL-77]
[Affiliation: World of Evie Etzali - Melvazoa Faction]
[Objective: Scan and Delete Anomalies]
The machine spoke. Its voice was a synthesized monotone.
"Analysis. Local Divinity Levels: High. Threat Detected: Designation 'Joker'."
It pointed the tuning fork at Raiden.
"Target locked. Initiating Erasure Protocol."
Raiden stood up slowly. He looked at the crushed lobster tower.
His eyes narrowed.
"You..." Raiden growled. "You ruined the seafood."
The machine fired.
A beam of white energy shot toward Raiden.
Raiden raised his hand to catch it. [Bael Art: Destruction].
The two energies collided.
FIZZ.
They didn't explode. They canceled each other out perfectly.
Raiden frowned. "It neutralized the destruction power? That's new."
He blurred forward, appearing in front of the machine.
He punched it in the chest.
CLANG.
It felt like punching solid titanium reinforced with force fields. The machine skid back, digging a trench in the marble floor.
"Sturdy," Raiden noted. "Let's see how you taste."
Raiden grabbed the machine's arm.
[Gluttony: Metal Eater]
He bit the chrome plating.
CRUNCH.
Raiden chewed. He paused. His face twisted in disgust.
He spat out the metal chunk.
"Gross!" Raiden yelled. "It tastes like batteries and aluminum foil! No seasoning! No soul!"
The machine didn't react to pain.
"Physical damage sustained. Re-calibrating."
Its arm transformed into a spinning saw blade of pure plasma.
"Extermination Mode."
Issei and Vali (who was crashing the party) jumped in.
"Dragon Shot!"
"Divide!"
Issei's blast hit the machine, but a geometric barrier deflected it.
Vali tried to divide its power.
"Error," Albion announced. "Target has no biological life force. Cannot divide artificial energy source."
"It's a machine!" Vali shouted. "A high-level one!"
The machine spun its saw blade, slicing through Issei's armor like butter.
"Gah!" Issei rolled back.
"Enough," Raiden wiped his mouth. "I hate bad food."
Raiden's aura flared. Sparks of Black Lightning (Indra's power) began to arc around him.
"If I can't eat you," Raiden stepped forward, the floor cracking under his pressure. "I'll just scrap you."
[Authority: False God of Lightning]
[Technique: EMP Blast]
Raiden charged the black lightning in his fist. He didn't shoot it; he slammed it into the machine's chest.
ZZZZZPT!
The black lightning bypassed the physical armor and fried the internal circuits. The machine convulsed. Its red eye flickered.
"Sys...tem... Fai...lure..."
Raiden grabbed the machine's head.
"Destruction."
He channeled the Bael power directly into the mainframe.
The machine disintegrated into grey dust.
Silence returned to the terrace.
Raiden dusted his hands. "Trash."
Ajuka Beelzebub walked over to the remains. He picked up a microchip that had survived.
"This confirms it," Ajuka whispered. "The ExE world is moving."
"ExE?" Rias asked. "What is that?"
Ajuka projected a hologram. It showed two worlds. One was DxD (their world). The other was a dark, metallic world.
"There is a parallel universe," Ajuka explained. "The world of Evie Etzali. It is ruled by beings we call 'Evil Gods'. But they aren't gods of myth. They are gods of machines and biological horrors."
He pointed to the dust.
"That was a scout from Melvazoa, the Machine God of ExE. He seeks to 'reset' worlds that become too chaotic."
Ajuka looked at Raiden.
"Raiden. Your existence... your Gluttony... it is creating ripples in the dimensional gap. You are attracting them. Melvazoa sees you as a virus in the system."
Raiden picked up a fresh chicken leg from a surviving plate.
"A Machine God?"
Raiden took a bite.
"Does he possess oil?"
"Oil?" Ajuka blinked.
"Machines need oil," Raiden grinned savagely. "If he comes here, I'll drink him dry. I need a lubricant for all the dry meat I've been eating."
Suddenly, the hologram Ajuka was holding distorted. The red eye of the machine appeared on the screen.
It wasn't the scout. It was something far, far bigger.
A voice echoed - cold, logical, and terrifying.
"Target: Joker. Threat Level: Absolute."
"I am Melvazoa. You consume chaos. I bring Order."
"Prepare yourself, organic lifeform. The Reset is coming."
The hologram exploded.
The party guests were terrified. A declaration of war from another dimension?
Raiden just yawned.
"Order? Reset?"
He walked to the edge of the balcony and looked up at the stars.
"Sounds boring."
Runeas stood beside him. Her face was serious.
"Melvazoa is said to be stronger than Great Red. He is a being of metal and logic. You cannot intimidate him."
"I know," Raiden said.
He turned to Rossweisse.
"Valkyrie. How much money do we have?"
"U-Um... a lot! Billions!"
"Good," Raiden pointed to the sky. "Invest in anti-mech weaponry. And buy me a lot of iron supplements."
He looked at his hand, sparking with black lightning.
"If the next enemy is made of metal," Raiden's eyes glowed. "Then I guess I need to learn how to eat steel."
Location: The Dimensional Gap
Time: Unknown
Great Red, the Dragon of Dragons, was swimming through the void.
He stopped.
He sensed the intrusion from ExE.
"Melvazoa is moving," Great Red grumbled. "Noisy metal head."
He looked down at the dimension where Raiden was.
"The Eater... he is the beacon."
Great Red did a barrel roll.
"Interesting. Let's see if the Human Glutton can eat the Machine God. If he does... maybe I'll let him take a bite out of me."