The temple had a rather interesting mechanism; when they decided to enter, they were directly teleported to a hidden dimension above Rome through a teleportation circle in the form of a magical formation.
They were in the Roman Olympus.
It was not like the Greek Mount Olympus, raised in the air and suspended above the clouds like an ethereal dream. The Roman Olympus was a fortress-city built upon a colossus of white marble and black granite, rising like a mountain forged by the hands of the gods themselves. Military towers flanked the walls, adorned not with garlands and wine like their Greek cousins, but with red and golden war banners. Bronze eagle statues, each larger than an elephant, guarded the entrances, and the gates opened not for pilgrims, but for legions of immortal soldiers.
Above, the sky was not blue. It was golden. A dome of light radiated, as if the Sun itself had been imprisoned and placed there to eternally illuminate the home of the gods. Among immense columns, palaces of colossal proportions rose. Each pillar seemed carved to bear the weight of entire mountains, and with every step they took, Kazuya felt as though he were walking in a field of divine forces pressing against his soul.
Scáthach narrowed her eyes.
"They really wanted to build something that screamed power. Not bad…"
Kazuya nodded.
"I prefer my Chaldea…"
"… So do I, Master," said Enkidu with a smile.
Gilgamesh, on the other hand, walked ahead with the same nonchalance as someone strolling through a market. His crimson eyes glinted with disdain.
"Pathetic. Cheap copies of the Hellenic gods trying to assert themselves with cement and stone. I see nothing here but imitators who needed to raise walls to hide their weakness."
No sooner had the words left his lips than an immense shadow fell over them. From the top of the main staircase, a figure descended, its presence emanating ancient power. It was Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, clad in black armor, with flaming eyes and a gleaming spear. Her gaze fixed directly on Gilgamesh, then on Scáthach, and finally on Kazuya.
"Mortals and abominations have no place in Olympus," said the goddess, her voice echoing like thunder within the marble. "Turn back from whence you came, before you are crushed by the wrath of Rome's gods."
Kazuya smiled, amused, and said,
"A warm welcome. It's clear you didn't come to talk."
Gilgamesh let out a short, mocking laugh, his voice dripping with venom.
"You dare raise your voice before me, useless woman? Bellona… a cheap copy of Athena. I, Gilgamesh, do not negotiate with scum."
Before the goddess could retort, the space behind Gilgamesh distorted. The Gates of Babylon opened, revealing a storm of divine treasures. Blades, spears, and swords danced in the air, vibrating with power.
Bellona roared, charging with her spear in a strike that could split mountains. But Gilgamesh didn't even move. A single golden blade shot from the Gates of Babylon and pierced her throat as if it were butter. Another treasure, a black chain, bound her arms and legs. Before the goddess could recover, Gilgamesh made a bored gesture.
Three swords launched simultaneously, piercing her chest, abdomen, and skull. Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, fell to her knees, a stifled scream echoing in blood and light.
Gilgamesh walked toward her as if observing a dying insect. He grabbed her face by the chin and forced her to look at him.
"You are nothing but a joke. Not even worthy of being remembered in my collection."
And with a single motion, he decapitated her with a golden blade. The goddess's body fell like trash onto the gleaming marble of Olympus, her head rolling down the staircase.
Kazuya sighed and said,
"There won't be anyone left to fight if you keep this up. I'd like to test my strength against one of these 'divinities' myself."
Gilgamesh shot him a look.
"I don't waste time with gods who think they're important."
At that moment, a boom echoed through Olympus. War bells rang, reverberating throughout the fortress-city. The gods knew intruders had arrived. Colossal gates opened, and legions of immortal Roman soldiers began marching in formation, their armor resounding like metallic thunder.
In the golden sky, Kazuya saw figures moving among the clouds: divine shadows approaching, preparing for battle.
Gilgamesh smiled arrogantly, opening the Gates of Babylon even wider.
"Come, all of you. Today, Olympus will fall like a sandcastle before the true king."
The golden sky of the Roman Olympus split with thunder as a colossal figure emerged above them. A god, armed with a flaming club, descended amid flames and heavy clouds. The gleam in his eyes reflected ancient power, and his voice resounded like thunder splitting mountains.
"Sacrilegious! No mortal, no unworthy spirit steps on Olympus and lives to tell the tale. Let the fury of the gods fall upon you!"
The god raised his weapon, preparing to crush the group with a single blow that seemed to carry the weight of the entire sky. The ground trembled, the air shattered in sparks of divine power.
But before the attack could land, a red flash tore through the skies. An incandescent spear, enveloped in divine flames and a roar of absolute power, pierced the god's chest.
It was Karna.
He appeared with a smooth step, but his presence was like an erupting sun. Mana Burst exploded from the tip of his spear, expanding into a sphere of fire that consumed the divine body as if it were nothing more than paper thrown into flames. The god roared, his titanic form dissolving into light before even comprehending what had struck him.
"… My Master is worthier than someone like you, who seems to have no honor…" said Karna, with his unshakable calm, raising his spear again.
A second god, enraged by his companion's death, descended from the skies with a war cry, brandishing a golden sword that seemed to contain the sun itself. He charged at Karna, but before he could get close, the air was torn by the whistle of an arrow.
Arjuna had arrived.
His stance was calm, his eyes half-closed in absolute focus. The arrow pierced the enemy god's chest and then expanded into a thousand rays of light, each one piercing organs, soul, and essence until nothing remained but divine dust scattered by the golden wind.
"I won't allow anyone to defeat Karna but me…" said Arjuna, his voice cold as steel.
The air exploded with furious shouts. Other gods, consumed by rage, advanced in formation. Their voices were thunder, and each strike of their weapons shattered the air like hammers against the glass of reality. One of them, swift as lightning, appeared before Kazuya, his fist charged with enough energy to obliterate cities.
But the impact never came.
The metallic sound of a shield reverberated, the attack halted by a bluish wave of absolute defense. Mashu had materialized, her silhouette glowing with particles of light. Her shield shone, blocking the blow with steadfastness.
"Master!" she shouted, pushing the god back with the force of her shield. "Are you okay?"
Kazuya smiled, almost mockingly, as if he had just come from a picnic and not a divine massacre. He already knew this would happen due to his [Omniscience], so he wasn't the least bit surprised.
"Me? I'm always fine. But I'll admit, that was a dramatic entrance."
Mashu blushed slightly but held her stance. The battlefield roared around them.
It was at that moment that the Roman gods met absolute terror from the Heroic Spirits who would protect their Master with tooth and nail, showing that they were on his side… that he was no longer alone… that life was worth living… that he didn't need to smile and pretend everything was fine…
From the shadows, the Knights of the Round Table emerged. Not all of them, as Bedivere was not among them, but the rest formed an unstoppable tide of legends. Lancelot, shrouded in fury and madness; Gawain, radiating the sun in his sword; Tristan, with his strings of pain. Alongside Mordred with her explosive arrogance, and their kings: Artoria Lancer and her Alter version, two spears gleaming like twin moons; Saber Alter, who looked ready to rip someone's head off. And with them, BB, Morgan, Semiramis, Skadi, Medb, and the unmistakable Edmond Dantès.
And also, the Sun King himself, Ozymandias, who arrived simply by felling Pluto himself while laughing loudly.
"… False gods, you dare make a mockery of this King's friend? You're begging to be destroyed!"
It was as if all the eras of humanity had united against the gods.
The gates of Olympus opened, and hundreds of immortal soldiers marched. But they lasted no more than seconds. Mordred charged into the enemy line like a bolt of lightning, Clarent roaring with crimson energy. Each of her strikes destroyed dozens of warriors, their armor shattering like glass under a titan's hammer.
"Come on! Today's the day I cut even the throats of gods!" she bellowed, her warlike grin shining on her face.
Morgan didn't lag behind, using her mastery of Magecraft to effortlessly fell thousands of soldiers.
On the other side, BB merely laughed, spreading tentacles of digital energy that corrupted the immortal soldiers, turning them into puppets.
Medb also killed several warriors who approached her with ease while mocking them.
"… Weak warriors don't interest me in the slightest."
"Gods or not, they all sound funny when they scream in desperation. I love that sound."
Artoria Lancer and Lancer Alter advanced together, their spears piercing with the force of royalty and fury. Their movements were like a ballet of destruction, each thrust a death sentence. Saber Alter, in contrast, walked slowly, her black sword unleashing waves of energy that erased everything in its path.
Semiramis raised her hand, unleashing a rain of poisons and envenomed projectiles.
And then, Skadi raised her arms, and Olympus was covered in winter. The temperature plummeted in an instant, the golden marble freezing, columns cracking under the expansion of ice. Roman gods howled in pain, their skin burned by the cold.
Edmond Dantès, meanwhile, emerged like a shadow among the columns, each movement leaving trails of greenish flames.
"I am vengeance. You, gods, are just the next name written in my eternal flame."
He vanished and reappeared, cutting divine throats as if they were grass.
The entire Olympus trembled.
Above them, Gilgamesh opened the Gates of Babylon even wider, launching treasures in all directions, each one destroying columns, palaces, and even the divine bodies that dared to face him.
"Ridiculous. You call yourselves gods, but you're nothing but trash adorned in golden togas. I am the only king that exists in this world!"
At his side, Enkidu unleashed chains, capturing entire gods and crushing them into the ground, his calm expression contrasting with the brutality.
Scáthach advanced, her spear cutting and killing divinities in strikes so swift they barely left traces. Her cold laugh echoed.
"For all these centuries, I've waited for challenges. I can't believe even the Roman gods fail to entertain me."
At the center of it all, Kazuya watched, hands in his pockets, as if he were merely a bored spectator. Another god's attack came toward him, but it stopped in an instant, as if it had hit invisible glass. Infinity opened around Kazuya, his absolute power repelling any attempt.
And he laughed, with the same irreverent mockery as Satoru Gojo.
The war lasted minutes but felt like a cataclysm. The Roman gods screamed, one after another falling under spears, swords, magic, poisons, arrows, and infinite treasures. The golden skies cracked, the palaces crumbled, and Olympus, which seemed eternal, began to collapse into ruins.
When the last scream faded, only silence remained. A heavy silence, broken by the sound of the wind over rubble and shattered columns.
The Roman Olympus, the golden fortress of the gods, had been reduced to dust in a matter of moments.
Kazuya sighed, looking around.
"Well… that was faster than I thought…"
He looked at Mashu, who was gazing at him with concern, then at Scáthach, Gilgamesh, and all the others gathering in the destroyed field. An army of legends, united only because they believed in him. And for the first time, even amidst divine ruins, he felt something no battle had ever given him: a strange, but real, sense of home.
But that wasn't his focus…
He couldn't help but think about how he would tell all his Servants about his past…
It was time to have an honest conversation with his Servants about his two lives.
Something he should have done a long time ago.
_____________________
(A/N: I want to apologize for the quality of the last chapters of the story. I know they weren't at the level you deserve, and I truly appreciate everyone who continued following along anyway. I promise that from the next chapters onward, the narrative will regain its strength, both in pacing and in character development.
In the next chapter, we'll begin with the incidents involving Kokabiel, as well as the appearance of characters who have so far been absent, such as Shuten Douji and Merlin. From there, the story will move into a sequence of final chapters, where all the unresolved issues in DxD will be settled before transitioning to the next arc: the journey to the world of Tensura.
For now, only Kazuya will travel there, while his current Servants will remain inside his [Pocket Universe], though they will gradually make appearances, with the focus shifting to different characters. I've also prepared new summons and plenty of surprises to keep the story exciting until the very end.
While working on this phase, I'm also planning another DxD story set in an alternate universe. This time, the protagonist will be a dhampir who reincarnates as one of Rias's servants and seeks his freedom. Unlike this story, he won't have any "cheat powers" aside from Valerie's Longinus, which promises a very different journey full of challenges.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. I hope you'll enjoy what's coming next!
(A/N: ✨ Extra Chapter Goals ✨
📚 For every 5 five-star reviews → +1 extra chapter released!(Only two left ~)
💎 For every 100 Power Stones → +1 extra chapter released!
The more support you give, the faster new chapters will arrive! 🚀🔥
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Thank you so much for your support, and see you in the next chapter!)