6Author's Note: The "Hollow Victory" is a collection of books (AU Sequels), where the protagonist of my main story, "Izayoi Hyoudou" from "Of Metempsychosis and Paranoia, Calculations and Preparations" gets cursed by an OC Goddess to be reincarnated endlessly after dying. To read this book (and the others that will be published in due time) you need two things:
1) Knowledge about the entire plot of High School DxD, especially from Volume 20 to True Volumes.
2) Basic knowledge of the main story.
If you don't have these two things, then kindly click on the back button of your browser or FFN's mobile app to drop this story. THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. I will not tolerate toxicity and unnecessary flaming of myself and my story.
You don't understand anything of this story? Download every volumes of High School DxD and read them, then go to my profile and read the main story. Only then will you understand.
The Hollow Victory
Book 1: Infinite Stratos
Chapter 1
Preface
"THIS ENDS NOW!" A white haired man clad in cracked golden armor exclaimed as he raised the greatsword over his head, its blade burning with bright scarlet flames.
Below him lied the prone and vulnerable form of a bloodied and beaten woman glaring hatefully up at him.
His golden eyes alight with fury, the man brought down the flaming greatsword on the woman with a roar, creating a pillar of scarlet flames that pierced through the skies straight to outer space widening in size for several seconds before fizzling out.
Once the pillar of flames fizzled out, the man dropped to his knees and leaned against the now dull and cracked greatsword, panting and wheezing before eventually falling to the ground on his back as the greatsword crumbled to dust and his cracked golden armor vanished in motes of golden light.
With his remaining strength, he turned his head to the side and saw the charred body of the Goddess he just killed. The Goddess of Curses and Death, Euliya.
Having used his remaining Life Force to empower the Scarlet Flames of Extinction, he knew he was soon going to die. But he didn't care. He had come to terms to his death long ago, for he had nothing left to live for.
Humanity? Gone extinct almost a century ago. His friends and family? All KIA over a decade ago. Any other Supernatural entities? Dead. Everyone he knew was gone.
It was his sole desire for vengeance that saw to him being the sole survivor of the 100 Years War, and killing the majority of the Invader Gods before finishing off the last of them remaining.
Now with all of the Invader Gods dead, Izayoi Leviathan nee Hyoudou can rest easy, knowing that everyone has been avenged.
"Finally… I've done it guys… I've done it… they are gone for good…" Izayoi murmured, taking his eyes off of the scarred corpse of Euliya and stared up at the ashen sky, his golden eyes shimmering with tears. "…wait for me guys… I'll be joining you guys soon enough…"
"No."
Izayoi jolted and looked to the side to meet the baleful pink eyes of Euliya who he was damn sure he killed. "Wha-!?"
Euliya was still very much the charred corpse he had turned her into, yet she grasped his wrist with her burnt hand and glowered at him. "You… will… not… join them…!" She rasped out, slowly tightening her grip on Izayoi's wrist. "I… am Euliya… the Goddess of Cu…Curses… and D-Death… and I curse you, Iza… Izayoi Le-Leviathan to suffer… from endless lives… and endless deaths… never truly… returning… to the Cycle of Life and Death." With one last gasp, Euliya went still, now dead for good.
But Izayoi? He did not understand at that moment what she meant by the curse she placed on him, but what he did understand was that he would never return to his loved ones.
Thus, he spent the last moments of his life, crying in despair.
A 14 year old boy sat up on his bed sharply with a gasp, panting, trembling and sweating because of the horrid memory he was forced to experience again for the nth time. It was one of the worst memories out of all the 19 lives he had lived through (not including the current one). A memory that he loathed because of what it always reminded him of.
Endless Reincarnation.
The curse that Euliya placed on him. When he was reincarnated in his third life, he did not know why it was that he was reincarnated again, until he remembered the last moments of his second life. With his vast knowledge in Magic, it didn't take long for him to deduce what her words in her last moments meant, and when he did, he had gotten into a state of denial, refusing to believe that he was cursed to be endlessly reincarnated, that it was all a bad dream. Even when the proofs were in front of his eyes, he refused to believe them which led to him dying not long into his third life. (He was five years old when the memories rushed into his head, he panicked and ran away from his new family, only to be run over by a truck.)
It took him seven suicides to finally accept that yes, he was truly cursed to be reincarnated endlessly and that there was no way he could get rid of it.
After that realization he had given up on his attempts to get rid of the curse, and had almost given up in life. Keyword being almost as the only thing that fueled him to live his new lives to the fullest instead of being a hollow shell of his former self was the thought of how his late wives and children would feel if they were to see him being so pathetic.
Moreover, the mere thought of the third generation Satan Leviathan, Izayoi Leviathan nee Hyoudou giving up in any endeavor was a laughable and borderline insulting thought back then in his second life.
But now? Considering his circumstances, that very same thought is something that would've roused a great amount of sorrow in his family, friends, followers and the citizens of the Underworld, the ones who loved him like he was one of their own, like he was their family despite him being one of the leaders of their kind.
However, even if he had given up in his endeavor of ridding himself of the curse, the perfectionist and leader in him had not.
In his 11th life, he had become the second President of USA after George Washington and single-handedly progressed the country through several decades of advancement earlier than it had back in his first and second lives.
In his 12th life he was the one to invent airplanes and automobiles instead of the Wright Brothers and Karl Benz unlike what had happened in his previous 11 lives. Moreover, the airplanes and automobiles he invented were more advanced and well-crafted than their alternate counterparts.
In his 14th life, he had stopped World War 2 from happening by getting rid of its root cause.
In his 16th life, he had created the 1st through 6th Generation Androids and paved way to a future that was ruled by Androids after the death of their Creator. He didn't particularly care that he had doomed Humanity to the servitude of mechanical beings; he simply did whatever he wished to do.
So on and so forth he kept changing history every time he was reincarnated. He lived his lives to the fullest not for his sake, but for the sake of his family and friends from back in his second life.
From his 11th life through 19th, two things were constant. The first was him changing history, resulting in Butterfly Effects that ruined or made humanity greater than it had been back from his first to tenth lives. The second were the dreams and nightmares, which were more akin to revisiting memories of his second life; sometimes the memories were of the good times he had before the Invader Gods appeared, sometimes the memories were of the 100 Years War after the Invader Gods appeared, but most times, it was the memory of the last moment that he was forced to revisit time and time again.
It was the very same memory that he revisited mere moments ago in his current life, the 19th reincarnation.
"Fuck…" Izayoi (?) quietly swore as he lied back down on his bed, left arm over his eyes, finally calming down. Checking the time to be half past five in the morning, Izayoi got off of his King sized bed and walked into the attached bathroom to freshen up for the day.
In his 20th life (19th reincarnation), he goes by the name of Sen Tsukiakari, meaning "Thousand Moonlight", and given that his true age is close to a millennium, he believes the name "Sen" suited him just fine.
Walking into the bathroom, Izayoi Sen stared at the mirror and took a good look at himself. He was tall for someone his physical age standing at 5'11" with a lean musculature and defined muscles. His hair was short and naturally silver, his skin a light tone of peach, and his eyes scarlet red.
By human standards, he will no doubt grow up into a handsome man at his prime, however, by Supernatural standards (the memories of his second life and all his accumulated knowledge from the previous nine lives are still crystal clear to him), he was barely above average. Not that it mattered, after all, he has yet to come across anything remotely Supernatural.
With a shrug, he exited the bathroom and changed into his exercising clothes to do his daily workout. Leaving the confines of his room, Sen walked down the hallways of the mansion he lived in with his current family, greeting back the maids and butlers before eventually reaching the gym to start with the exercises.
With the sheer amount of knowledge that he has at his disposal (his 14th reincarnation was in 25th Century where he became a scientist and used that life's knowledge to create the Androids in his 15th reincarnation during the 20th Century), it didn't take Sen long to speed run Elementary School, Middle School, High School and University in a span of a decade (would've been shorter if there weren't certain barricades). 14 years old and he already had done Masters in CSE and earned PhDs in Physics and Chemistry.
Moreover, he already has an income source for himself, earning an average of 50 million USD per month. The income source in question being the gaming company he has privately 'owned' since he was nine years old, publically run by his father until he will eventually become an adult in the government's eyes to take over and have his ownership officialised. Not that it mattered much since the almost 5000 employees already knew he was their real boss instead of his father.
So far, his company Leviathan Co. Ltd has released around 30 games. Seven of them were Gacha games (which brought the most money- "Thank you Whales and Leviathans!"), several were Racing games, some Arcade, a few Sports, then MMORPG and finally Hack-and-Slash.
So as anyone can guess, as long as the revenue of his company doesn't take a dive, he's set for this life.
Seeing as it is already the 21st century, in the year 2040, Sen doesn't see any need to push Japan through several decades of advancement like he had done with the USA during his time as its 2nd President in his 11th life. Especially since the mad scientist woman named Tabane Shinonono had invented the war machines that are the Infinite Stratos ten years ago.
(Yes, he knows he's in another fictional world, it just took him several days of sorting through his memories to find out why the war machines' name sounded vaguely familiar to him.)
The aforementioned war machines being powered exoskeletons that can single handedly match the entire military prowess of a country. Honestly? The Infinite Stratos (or IS for short) are such a disappointment to him that he couldn't help but laugh his guts out when the world flipped on its head because of what the first IS, the White Knight had shown itself to be capable of.
Tabane Shinonono had made her creation's debut by hacking into the military missile bases and ships all over the world under the guise of a "mysterious hacker", launching 2341 ballistic and cruise missiles towards all the major cities in Japan. The White Knight piloted by some unknown person (who Sen has no doubt was Chifuyu Orimura) had neutralized 1221 of the missiles with a sword and shot down the rest with energy weapons- something no country in the world (except him and Tabane Shinonono) had the technology of producing.
Seeing the footage of the entire thing in a news channel had him laughing and wheezing like a loon.
With his vast amount of advanced knowledge, Sen could create something even better to counter the females only Infinite Stratos with a males only war machine. But he won't. He could be given the entire world and he still wouldn't make one. Why should he? He isn't obliged to make one. So what if women became the stronger and dominant part of humanity? As long as Sen can keep creating games and have his games receive the fame they deserve, then nothing else other than his family (and Humanity's survival- who else will he promote his games to? Animals?) matters to him.
Sen walked down the stairs to the living room to see a rather unusual sight.
His usually calm and collected twin sister, Reni Tsukiakari, vibrating in her place on the couch in what he concluded to be excitement.
He sat down on the couch opposite to hers and teased with a grin, "Someone sure is excited."
Reni pouted at him. "Can you blame me? My Personal IS Unit has been completed and I'll start training with it from today! Of course I will be excited!"
Sen crossed his legs and leaned against the couch before replying, "That's understandable. Wanna brainstorm ideas on what your IS will be capable of doing?"
"Considering that it's a 3rd Generation IS, obviously it would feature advanced Image-Interface technology, enabling it to field more advanced weapons." Meaning that she would only need to imagine the weapons equipped into the IS and they will manifest through her will.
"And what of the weapons themselves?"
"I would like ranged weaponry. Don't want to get too close in combat."
"You do realize that you'll need a melee weapon just in case you are forced to engage in CQC?"
Reni frowned. "For that a pair of wakizashi or short swords will be preferable."
Sen nodded and said, "Well, knowing mom, she would give you exactly what you want for your IS."
Reni smiled. "Yeah…"
"Well, it seems you are having fun."
The twins paused and looked in the direction of the living room's entrance where their mother stood with her lab coat draped over her arm and a warm smile on her face.
"That we are!" Sen replied standing up and walking towards his current mother, Reni in tow.
"Good. Now let's get going shall we? It's Reni's big day after all." Nara Tsukiakari said, jerking her head in the direction of the mansion's main doors.
"Yep!"
Minutes later the trio were being driven towards Nara's IS Research Facility in a limousine reaching the place within half an hour.
Wordlessly, the twins followed their mother into the facility before Reni was redirected by their mother to wear her IS Suit, while Sen kept following his mother into the observation room. Entering the room, Sen spotted his sister's crouched IS through the glass wall in the center of the massive testing room.
The IS was no doubt in its factory setting mode seeing how unrefined it looked with the dull pink mainframe. Though, that would change when it would eventually go through its 1st Shift.
Minutes later, Reni wearing a white IS Suit with pink and red flowers design entered the testing room and got into the IS, before standing up with it.
"How do you feel Reni? Any discomforts whatsoever?"
[Nope.]
"Currently it's in its factory setting, so it will take a few days of gathering your data to enter its 1st Shift, so don't be disheartened, alright dear?"
[Okay!]
"Now, try walking around the room first. Let me know if you feel like there's something wrong."
['kay~!] Sen smiled hearing the excitement in his twin's voice.
Reni walked around for a bit before receiving the next set of orders.
"Now try to levitate 15 centimeters off of the ground." Having trained in a Training IS Unit before, Reni easily did as asked. "Feel anything?"
[Nope~!]
"Good. Now…"
For the next two hours Nara had Reni go through multiple tests with Sen recording the entire thing from the beginning until the end,just in case the recording would become useful in the future. After that, Nara called it a day and had Reni change back into her dress.
It was while the mother and son were waiting for Reni to freshen up and meet them in the observation room that Nara spoke up in a tentative manner.
"Sen. Can you do me a favor please?"
Sen raised an eyebrow in curiosity and asked, "Sure I guess. What's it about?"
Nara texted Reni a room number before standing up and motioned him to follow her. Sen wordlessly followed his mother deeper into the facility before eventually stopping in front of a door that had a "DO NOT ENTER" sign on it. Nara pulled out a card and held it over a scanner on the wall beside the door, a beep later, the door sliding open to the side with a hiss.
"Come in."
Sen followed his mother inside the dark, lightless room before asking, "So? What's this fav-" he abruptly paused at the sight of his mother removing the cover off of a vaguely familiar IS.
Dusting her hands, Nara spoke in a disheartened manner. "This is the IS I had been working on before Reni's."
Sen stayed silent keeping his eyes on both his mother and the inactive grey IS.
"Unfortunately, for reasons unknown it never responded to anyone who attempted to pilot it. Diagnosis reports say it's 100% complete and working, but it never responded to any of the pilot candidates. It didn't even react to Reni, otherwise it would've been hers."
Sen wanted to joke about him having no idea about the internal workings of an IS, but seeing the forlorn expression on his current mother's face, he decided against it.
"So you want your super genius son to take a look at it?"
Nara chuckled, her mood uplifted a bit. "Yes. Can you do something about it?"
"No promises." Sen said with a shrug receiving a nod from Nara before walking up to the IS, pulling out his phone.
Just as he got within an arm's reach to the IS, there was a hum and a flash of light followed by his world twisting, spinning and turning into a Kaleidoscope of colors. The last thing he heard was Nara's panicked cry before blacking out.
Sen's eyes snapped open and he sat up straight, warily taking in the sight of green, lush grass everywhere, and blue skies with fluffy white clouds above.
"You're finally here!"
Sen tensed hearing the elated feminine voice and stood up, turning around to see a teenage girl standing a few feet away from him.
Not taking his eyes off of her, he tried to recall how he came here. He was with his mother in a room talking about a favor regarding the inactive IS. Then he got near it and…
"You're the IS Core aren't you?" He stated more than asking. Seeing as he found himself here suddenly right after getting near the IS, it could mean only one thing. He got pulled inside the IS Core's "inner world" with the girl herself representing the Core.
The girl smiled and confirmed the validity of his thoughts. "That's right! I am Core Wrath, otherwise falsely recorded in the database as Core 333! Welcome to my home, Master!"
'So this is a thing now? I can understand that Ichi-something kid becoming the only male to pilot an IS what with him being a clone of his supposed older sister. But… that's not the case with me. So why…?'
"Core Wrath?" Sen parroted with a raised eyebrow. "Is it a reference to the Seven Deadly Sins? Yours being the Sin of Wrath?"
"Correct."
Sen narrowed his eyes and asked, "So there are six more Cores like you?" Wrath nodded. "How many of them are active?"
"As of now, only I am active. Cores Envy, Lust, and Pride are dormant, while Cores Gluttony, Greed and Sloth are asleep."
"Explain the difference between dormant and asleep."
"By dormant, it means that the Core had once been activated, but is inactive at the moment. By asleep, it means that they have never been activated. I myself have been asleep until you visited the facility I'm presently inside of three years ago."
"…never responded to anyone…"
"…it's 100% complete and working…"
Remembering Nara's words, he drew his own conclusions and for clarification, asked, "What's the difference between you, your siblings and the other 460 Cores?"
Wrath smiled in a pleased manner, her sentience reminding Sen of the Androids he had created in his 16th life (15th reincarnation). "We are the Original Cores that mother created in the beginning. The rest 460 are merely empty replicas, only capable of doing a percentage of what we are truly capable of."
So there was more to the IS than Tabane revealed to the world? Interesting… "I thought Tabane Shinonono made IS only to be piloted by women, not men."
"That's the thing Master! We, the Seven Cores of Sin, decide who our pilot will be, unlike the rest who can't!" Wrath proudly declared puffing her modest chest out.
"I see…" Sen muttered with a smile looking up at the blue skies before softly laughing. "I really have underestimated your mother haven't I?"
Wrath tilted her head in confusion not understanding what her Master meant. "I don't understand."
"Don't worry about it." Sen said with a chuckle dismissing her confusion. It seems his arrogance and overconfidence in his advanced knowledge blinded him to the possibility that someone similar to him could exist, the only difference being that he has lived multiple lives to know what he does, while she hadn't.
Speaking of possibilities… if Tabane Shinonono is remotely similar to him even by a meagre 1% or greater than 0%, then there's a possibility that Seven Cores of Sin were made to take over the world for her when all of them will become active.
But he can't allow that. Only humans would be able to enjoy his games and criticize them. Humanity must not be allowed to be taken over by sentient war machines as long as he lives. After that humanity can go choke on a mechanical dick and fucking die! But that's a worry for the future, not the present. He has things to do now.
"Do you have a name other than Core Wrath?" Sen asked, the metaphorical gears in his head grinding and creating sparks.
"I'm afraid not."
Sen nodded and with a pleased smile, he said, "Then from now on, I'll call you Xerah. How about that?"
The now named Xerah smiled widely. "Thank you so much Master!"
"You're welcome Xerah." Then Sen clapped his hands and said, "Also, I don't like the aesthetics of your current mainframe, so I'll dismantle you and rebuild you from the start if you have no problems with it."
"Of course Master! Feel free to do whatever you want! I and my body belong to you! Mold me to your heart's desires with your own two hands!"
'Thank fuck we're the only two here, otherwise someone else would've taken those words in the wrong context…'
Sen opened his eyes to the sight of his current mother staring up at him with a dumbfounded expression on her face. Aware of the fact that he actually was piloting the IS Nara long since believed to be unresponsive, Sen smirked down at her and said, "Guess all it needed was a man's touch, eh?"
"Uhhhhh?" Came Nara's brilliant response making Sen laugh.
"What. The. Fuck?" Reni asked disbelievingly in a rather out-of-character manner as she entered the room, snapping Nara out of her trance.
"Language!" Sen scolded in a lighthearted manner earning himself a glare from his twin.
"Are you alright Sen?" Nara asked looking both intrigued at the sight before her but at the same time concerned for the well-being of her son.
"How did this happen?" Reni asked rubbing her temples. "Don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm upset about this development, if anything I'm happy as this gives me the excuse to drag Sen with me to IS Academy next year. What I want to know is, how and why?"
Sen faced Nara and asked, "Well mom? How did this happen? One moment I'm standing close to the IS to connect my phone to it, and the next moment, my world spins into a Kaleidoscope of colors and suddenly I'm piloting it."
Regaining her composure, Nara cleared her throat and started explaining to Reni. "While you were busy changing, I asked Ren for a favor, which was to have him check Hirari for me in hopes that he would be able to find something I and the rest of my team overlooked and fix whatever was making it unresponsive. Then he got close to Hirari and suddenly, it came to life and forced itself on him, choosing him as its pilot whereas it rejected the others."
Just as Nara and Reni turned to face him at the same time, Sen deadpanned, "No. I am not the messiah." Nara facepalmed and Reni attempted to punch him, only to be stopped by the energy shield settling for a glare.
"That's the how. Now for the why…?"
Sen glanced at the doorway before leaning down to Nara and Reni's level and whispered, "I know the reason, but it's something I can't openly speak about here."
Seeing the lack of mischief in his eyes, Reni and Nara relented before the latter asked, "What are you going to do now that you know you can pilot an IS?"
"Ehhh, contact the government and let them know of this? Hiding this will only get you in trouble, no?" Nara nodded after a few moments of thinking. "So yeah, let the government know of this matter soon and please tell them to not even think of turning me into a lab rat if they don't want to get atomized to death."
"As great of a specimen you will be to them-"
"Love you too sis."
"-the government will find it in their best interests to have you attend IS Academy and provide them with the data of your IS usage." Reni finished eyeing him inside Hirari.
"In that case, let them know that I will attend the academy with Reni, not without her."
"Very well." Nara nodded with a relieved smile.
"Mom?" Sen called out dismissing Hirari and softly landing on his toes. "I know you spent a lot of time and resources behind Hirari, but… would be alright if I were to dismantle it and rebuild it into something of my own design…?"
Instead of looking hurt that Sen didn't like her IS, Nara instead looked eager and said, "You sound like you already have a plan."
Sen grinned like a wolf making Reni roll her eyes. "I do. All I need is your help in procuring the materials and of course, your workshop back in the mansion."
Nara proudly smiled at her son and nodded. "You have all my resources at your disposal."
"Thanks!"
Character Profiles
Name: Sen Tsukiakari (+19 more)
Gender: Male
Age: 900+ years
Height: 5'11" (180 cm)
Weight: 57 kg (125 lb)
Appearance: (Similar to Mitra from King's Raid)
1st reincarnation = 2nd life (Main Story - Izayoi Leviathan nee Hyoudou)
2nd reincarnation = 3rd life
18th reincarnation = 19th life
19th reincarnation = 20th life (Current one - Sen Tsukiakari)
Name: Nara Tsukiakari
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Height: 5'6" (167 cm)
Weight: 47 kg (103 lb)
Appearance: (Similar to Isaiah from King's Raid)
Name: Reni Tsukiakari
Gender: Female
Age: 14
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: 40 kg (88 lb)
Appearance: (Similar to Shea from King's Raid)
Name: Xerah (Core Wrath/Core 333)
Gender: Female
Age: Illegal
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
Weight: Can an IS Core Avatar weigh?
Appearance: (Xerah from King's Raid)