Odin peacefully entered the Alliance, not just with the Three Factions, but also with the Japanese Mythologies. However, he left Rossweisse once again, which resulted in the poor Valkyrie crying in the corner for a whole day.

Seeing her situation, Rias thought of it as a chance and invited Rossweisse into her peerage. Rias knew that she didn't have much of a chance, but the sulking Valkyrie immediately accepted it after Azazel offered her a job as a teacher for the Kuoh Academy, which gave a better salary than her being a bodyguard.

It was then that Rias' Peerage welcomed their new 'Rook'.

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It was October and it had been a month since the incident with Loki. Issei had successfully recovered from his injuries without leaving any hidden damage. In fact, his body became even more durable thanks to that incident. However, he knew that he couldn't replicate this feat, as he was still not confident that he wouldn't lose control of himself once he took out Kisuke's 'gift' again.

The Chichigami's blessing did play a big role in keeping his mind intact for the duration of his fight with Loki.

Also during that month, Issei went to spar with the strongest youngest Devil, Sairaorg Bael. Despite not having the Power of Destruction that members from the Bael Clan possessed, Sairaorg trained his body to the limit and he was acknowledged as the strongest young Devil in their generation.

It was clear that Issei was no match for Sairaorg despite going into his Balance Breaker, but he also shocked Sairaorg for how resilient he was.

Aside from that, Ajuka also inspected Issei's Evil Pieces because he noticed something strange about it. As the creator of the Evil Pieces, it was impossible for him to not be interested in the changes of his own creation.

After inspecting it, he noticed some codes within Issei's eight Pawns. Although it was normally not that noticeable, once Issei used the full extent of his powers, it could prove to be detrimental for him. Ajuka assumed that the changes happened due to the Juggernaut Drive and the strange orb within him.

He then fixed the problem and modified Issei's Evil Pieces, so that they could adapt to the changes brought by the Boosted Gear and the strange orb. Although it made Issei weaker in the short term, his potential as a Devil became a lot better.

Alongside it, Ajuka also gave Issei a key which seemed to be related to his Boosted Gear. When Ddraig saw it, he immediately understood what it was and told Issei that it was about time for him to unlock more power for the Boosted Gear. But he didn't tell him what to do with the key.

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As second years, Issei, Yuuto, Xenovia, Asia and Irina had to attend the school trip to Kyoto.

On their way to Kyoto, Ddraig suggested to him to partially recite the incantation for the Juggernaut Drive. Issei was shocked, but Ddraig explained to him that we wouldn't actually enter Juggernaut Drive. Instead, he would be able to meet his predecessors.

And Issei did indeed meet his predecessors, but all of them were just staring at blank space. Not knowing what to do, Issei was about to ask Ddraig for what he was supposed to do in this space, when a woman with long, wavy blonde hair and decorated with a head accessory while wearing a light purple dress appeared. She introduced herself as Elsha and Ddraig said that she was the strongest Red Dragon Emperor host among the women.

She then provided Issei a box which contained Ddraig's real powers and told him that Ajuka's key would be able to open it. But at the moment he opened the box, its content jumped out of his inner world into the physical world, disappearing among the people of Kyoto.

Issei wanted to find it but he had no idea how to do it and could only leave the thing as it was.

The first day of their school trip went successfully, but on the next day, they got embroiled in Kyoto's Youkai Faction as they were accused by a certain young kitsune as being the kidnappers of her mother. The group then returned to the hotel and reported it to Azazel.

Azazel also didn't know what was going on so he asked the person who probably did. Grayfia, who came to Kyoto to invite the factions into their Alliance, met the group and explained what had happened.

Grayfia explained that the talks couldn't be pushed through, because the leader of the Youkai Faction was abducted by some group.

Hearing that, Azazel immediately launched an investigation himself and contacted the Intelligence Bureau of the Grigori. A few hours later, they got ahold of information that the Hero Faction of the Khaos Brigade had been active lately around Kyoto and assumed that this was their doing.

Everyone from Rias' group already knew about the existence of the Hero Faction as they were the ones who kept attacking Kuoh Town as of lately in the name of the Khaos Brigade. And from their encounters it became known that everyone from the Hero Faction were pure Human and Sacred Gear users.

At the same night, the Youkai Faction contacted Grayfia and said that they wanted to discuss something. As they arrived at their headquarters, Issei and the group met the young kitsune once again, apologizing for their attack yesterday. The young fox Youkai introduced herself as Kunou, the daughter of the current leader of the Youkai Faction.

After further discussion, everyone got a clear view of what had happened to their leader and Azazel gave them information on who might have done it. Kunou, along with her mother's advisors, asked for their help to take back their leader, Yasaka.

Issei didn't hesitate to help after seeing the little girl pleading for help.

They then planned to take a look around Kyoto tomorrow to gather some more information. At the same time, Kunou proposed to guide them around the city as she knew almost everything about it to which the group happily agreed. While they searched for Yasaka, they would also continue their school trip.

On the next day, Kunou showed everyone the tourist spots and the shortcuts to reach each and every one of them. It was a peaceful and happy time for the group, until they were enveloped by a purple fog that covered the entire city.

Issei then recalled one of Azazel's lessons about the Longinus and thought that it was similar to one of them. Yuuto confirmed his thoughts and it was indeed the Longinus Dimension Lost which could trap anyone in the personal space of the user.

All the normal people around them disappeared and the scenery was replaced by a bleak and purple copy of the city. The space was similar to that of a game field used for the Rating Games and it was probably based on those.

It was then, that the main force of the Hero Faction arrived. They were led by Cao Cao, a descendant of the famous Cao Cao of the past. He was also the possessor of the True Longinus, the first and most powerful Sacred Gear.

They admitted that they were the ones who kidnapped the leader of the Youkai Faction for a certain experiment. But the main reason for them to appear in front of them now, was for Cao Cao to gather data on Rias Gremory's famous Peerage, especially on the current Red Dragon Emperor.

The first one to make a move was a child called Leonardo, who possessed one of the thirteen Longinus called Annihilation Maker. This Longinus could create monsters from the user's imagination and with enough energy, he could potentially create anything ranging from small weak monsters until colossal monsters, capable of slaying Gods. Due to this ability, this Sacred Gear was dubbed as one of the most dangerous and could potentially destroy the world.

Leonardo summoned almost a hundred monsters which were capable of casting strong light attacks that were fatal for Devils. However, Issei magnificently overturned their advantage by commanding his comrades.

Meanwhile, Azazel in his Balance Breaker, took on Cao Cao. The battle between the two of them destroyed the surrounding scenery, and frankly speaking, their battle was too high leveled for Issei to follow.

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Editors:

28th00: At the pace we're going, we should reach the part where Kisuke came in by like 4-6 more chapters.

Alexander: Yeah, and the trashing of Cao Cao is easily one of my most anticipated moments in this arc.

28th00: Honestly, the trashing of Cao Cao is so deserved after what he DARED to do to Phis-chama, i'd call it karmic justice, but Telos Karma was not involved in this.

Alexander: Was, is and always will be.