"Huh?..."
I felt weak not injured after a battle weak, but weak to the point that my power felt pathetic. I opened my eyes to see the light of the moon, I looked at my surroundings and all I can see were trees.
"System..."
I called for it but nothing happened. Not even a slight beep, just nothing.
My heart started to beat fast, I sat quickly and that's when I noticed something. I wasn't just weaker, I was smaller.
"System, what the hell is going on!?"
I tried standing up and I was able to, but not even a moment later I fell flat on my face. Not on the ground, but on the hilt of something hard.
I pushed myself up and took a good look at it, it was the same Katana I used to kill Muzan. The projection I created but oddly wasn't disappearing, it was the Yamato.
"This is really weird..."
I held the handle felt it's grip, and it was different from the projection I made. It felt weirdly solid.
"Up we go..." I stood up using the Yamato in it's sheath as a cane, I started inspecting my body. The Yamato was already up to my chest, which meant I was just a bit taller than 5ft but I was still ridiculously short.
"God I'm gonna be sick..." Standing up I noticed something weird, my Demonic Energy was almost empty, And all my other abilities felt faint.
I tried using Shadow but all that came out was a black puddle I couldn't expand, I tried using a ghost wire and thankfully I could still produce some thread's. But everything else felt so weak and faint.
"What the hell is happening to me..."
But before I could think about anything else, I felt something weird stir within me. It wasn't anything painful but felt more like a warning.
It was the very feeling I got when I first encourtered the stray that almost killed me when I first got reincarnated, the feeling of dread.
And without thinking, I leapt forward still clutching the Yamato.
BOOOOM!!!!
And in the place for where I once stood was a crater, I looked up as I laid on the ground and saw the floating figure with silver hair.
"Oh no..."
It was the main protagonist of a series I quite liked before I died, it was the Elf Mage names Frieren.
Or what Demons of this world would call her.
"Frieren The Slayer!" I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying it, but it was already too late. And from the looks of it she heard me say her title, and to be fair it sounded cool as hell.
"Zoltraak."
VMMMMM!!!!!
Multiple beams started flying towards me, everything looked so slow. I tried moving to react and dodge but my body couldn't even move.
But as it drew closer I realized something, My infernal energy was still the same. It was still filled and pulsing, because as weak as my body is right now. Infernal Energy was my soul itself.
My body couldn't move, but what if I didn't use my body to move?
As the beams came closer my whole body was covered by a figure, it was me. Not this weakened version of me, but me during my fight with Muzan. It was a doppelganger of me.
'How the hell am I even doing this?, last time I checked I couldn't project a doppelganger!!!'
I didn't have time to dwell on it as I used my doppelganger to parry the Zoltraak beams, I didn't remember how the spell work in the anime but I was confident it couldn't destroy pure burning soul Energy.
I caught a glimpse of her face, still stoic as ever since she saw me. I guess her hate towards demons truly is unmatched.
'But I don't even have horns, does she think I'm concealing them!?'
I looked at her while waving and rapidly running my hands through my hair, this got a head tilt from her but she pointed her staff at me and the ground started to rumble.
My vision pulsed blue for a second, I could see the mana she was gathering everywhere. The mana was a bit different from back at Home or what Rem used but it was unmistakably mana.
"Hell no old lady!"
I screamed at her I willed my projection to pick me up on it's shoulders and started running away from Frieren.
VMMMM!!!
VMMMM!!!
VMMMM!!!
As we were running Frieren was still shooting and chasing us with Zoltraak, and from the the looks of it she was definitely confused as hell why I wasn't fighting back.
The trees blurred into streaks of green and shadow as my projection sprinted forward, each step crushing roots and kicking up dirt. I held on tight, gripping the Yamato like it was the only stable thing left in this situation.
"Faster!"
A pulse of energy roared behind me.
VMMMM!!!
Zoltraak tore through the forest again. Trees didn't just break, they disappeared. Clean holes burned straight through them like they were nothing.
"She's seriously trying to kill me…"
My projection twisted sharply, stepping onto a tree trunk and kicking off sideways. Another beam passed so close to my leg that the heat brushed against my skin.
Too close.
I forced more infernal energy out. The projection flickered for a moment but didn't collapse.
We hit the ground and pushed forward again.
Step. Pivot. Leap. Slide.
Every movement felt like it was happening just before death could catch up.
Then the ground started to shake.
Not from behind.
From below.
"What?"
My projection slowed, just for a fraction of a second, as cracks spread across the forest floor.
Something felt off, My vision pulsed blue again, and I saw mana which wasn't a lot but not hers.
Then a flash of red cut through my sight.
"Crap!"
The projection yanked me sideways just as the ground exploded.
BOOM!
A massive battle axe tore upward, carving through the exact spot where my leg had been. The force alone sent us tumbling across the ground.
I rolled hard before stopping, coughing as I pushed myself up.
"…You've got to be kidding me…"
I looked up.
Red.
That was the first thing I saw.
A figure stood in the crater, axe resting on his shoulder like it weighed nothing. His presence felt sharp, heavy, like every movement he made would hit harder than it should.
'Crap, it's Stark!'
Of course it had to be him.
Speed, Strength, Close range pressure.
Just what I didn't need right now, my grip tightened around the Yamato.
"If Starks here...."
And right on que.
VMMMM!!!
I turned just in time to see another barrage of Zoltraak ripping through the forest.
"You've got to be joking!"
Behind Starkk, standing at a distance with her staff raised, was another figure.
Calm, Focused, and completely locked onto me.
"Fern…"
So that's how it is, frontline pressure and long range suppression, One pins me down.
The other makes sure I can't breathe, I let out a slow breath.
My projection stepped forward, placing itself between me and Starkk, body lowering into a ready stance.
Behind me, more Zoltraak began to form.
In front of me, Starkk shifted his footing slightly, grip tightening on his axe.
"Hey Frieren!, You sure this guy's a demon!?"
Stark yelled upwards where Frieren was still hovering, She looked at me with hers eyes filled with hate.
"Despite the lack of horns, this is still very much a demon."
That's what all Stark and Fern needed before they came at me, Fern shot multiple Zoltraak's at me while Stark charged at me with his Battle axe again.
I took a grip of the Yamato before turning and using it to tear the space between me and Fern while my Projection clashed with Stark.
"Can we just talk about this!?" I screamed towards Frieren and all she did was tilt her head as she stared at me.
"As if we'd trust the words of a demon, despite your lack of horns we can still feel your demonic mana roaring out of you."
That's what all Frieren said before she shot her own wave of Zoltraak's at me.
A three in one was something I could handle easily, but my body was literally weaker than the first time I arrived at the DxD world. The only difference was I had the Yamato and my Infernal Energy along with all my weakened skills.
'How the hell do I convince them I'm not like every demon in this world!?'
The Zoltraak beams were coming from three directions now.
Left. Right. Above.
My doppelganger dropped flat, and I tucked myself underneath it like a shield as the beams converged on where I'd been standing. The explosion of mana hit the projection's back like a wall of pressure, and I felt the feedback ripple through my infernal energy.
It hurt, not my body but my soul.
'Even a reflected hit through my own projection does that much damage?'
This world's magic was no joke.
The projection flickered again, edges blurring like a flame in the wind. I could feel the infernal energy holding it together straining at the seams. I didn't have long before it collapsed entirely.
Stark landed ten meters ahead of me, axe dragging a line through the dirt as he slowed. He wasn't even breathing hard.
Of course he wasn't.
"You're pretty fast." He said it almost like a compliment.
"Thanks, I'm running for my life."
That got him to blink.
Fern was repositioning to my left, staff already glowing. Frieren hadn't moved from above, watching with that same expression she probably wore when she brushed her teeth. Calm. Completely empty of mercy.
I needed an out, and I needed one fast because my projection gave a sharp shudder and I felt it starting to dissolve at the edges.
'Think. What do I actually know about these three?'
Frieren doesn't trust words. Twenty eight years with Himmel and she still barely talked about herself, trust wasn't something she extended quickly and definitely not to something she could smell demon on.
Fern followed Frieren's lead. If Frieren said kill, Fern was already halfway through the motion.
Stark though, Stark was different.
He wasn't a hater, he was just someone who fought things that needed to be fought. He charged because Frieren told him to, not because he personally wanted me dead. There was a difference.
I looked directly at him.
"Hey. Redhead!"
His eye twitched slightly.
"I'm talking to you. Before the old lady turns me into a crater." I held up one hand, the one not gripping the Yamato. "Five seconds. Just five."
Fern's staff hummed louder.
"Stark." I said it flat and clear. "I know your name. I know hers." I tilted my head toward Fern without looking away from him. "I know the old lady's title and her actual name and I didn't use it to curse her or call anything. I've been running for the last three minutes and I haven't thrown a single attack."
Stark didn't move but he also didn't swing, that was enough.
"I don't have horns because I'm not like whatever demon you're used to hunting." I kept my voice steady even though my legs were screaming and my projection was now missing its left arm entirely. "I woke up in this forest not even an hour ago with no idea where I am. I'm not your enemy."
Frieren descended slowly, staff still raised.
"Demons lie." Her voice was completely flat. "That's the first thing they learn."
"Yeah." I didn't argue that. "But most demons don't spend three minutes running in a straight line when they could be fighting back." I touched the Yamato. "I used this once. To create distance. Not to cut anyone."
Frieren's eyes moved to the Yamato for the first time, Something shifted there.
Tiny. Almost invisible. But I'd spent enough time reading people to catch it.
She recognized the sword.
Or at least, she recognized something about it.
"That blade." Her voice stayed level but something underneath it had changed by a fraction. "Where did you get it."
I looked down at the Yamato.
'Right. A Japanese katana in the middle of a western fantasy world. Even to Frieren that probably looks wrong.'
"It's mine, Has been for a while."
"That isn't an answer."
"No." I met her eyes. "But it's the truth, and I'd rather give you a true incomplete answer than a complete lie."
The forest went quiet.
Fern looked at Frieren.
Stark looked at Frieren.
I looked at Frieren.
Frieren stared at me with two hundred years of grief and hatred and experience behind her eyes and said nothing for a long moment.
Then.
"Your demonic mana is real." She lowered her staff by exactly two inches. "But your soul doesn't feel like theirs."
It wasn't trust, It wasn't even close to trust.
But it was the first sentence she'd said to me that wasn't a prelude to annihilation.
I let out a breath so slow I barely felt it leave my lungs.
'Okay. That's something. That's absolutely something.'
My projection finally gave out, dissolving into wisps of infernal energy that scattered like embers. Without it I was standing on my own two legs, which were embarrassingly unsteady, holding the Yamato like a cane, looking up at a two thousand year old elf mage who had killed more demons than I'd ever counted.
I probably looked ridiculous.
"I'm not asking you to trust me." I said quietly. "I'm just asking you to not kill me while I figure out what's happening to me."
Frieren looked at me for another long moment.
Then she turned and walked past Stark like the conversation was already over.
"We camp here tonight." She said it to no one in particular. "Keep an eye on it."
It.
I was an it.
But I was a living it, and right now that was more than enough.
Stark walked past me and clapped a hand on my shoulder hard enough that my knees almost buckled.
"Don't try anything weird." Stark said it cheerfully.
"Wasn't planning on it."
Fern passed on my other side without a word, though her staff stopped glowing.
"Hm."
I stood alone for a second in the torn up dark forest, crater behind me, trees with clean holes burned through them on all sides, projection gone, system silent, body weak, and absolutely no idea what came next.
I looked down at the Yamato.
It gleamed faintly in the moonlight like it was perfectly comfortable with all of this.
"At least one of us is...."
I turned to follow them.
Then I stopped, Frieren hadn't moved.
She was still standing exactly where she'd been, staff lowered, back half turned toward the direction of camp. But her eyes weren't on the trees or on me.
They were on the Yamato.
That same expression from before was still there, the one she'd tried to bury the moment it surfaced. It wasn't hate. It wasn't suspicion. It was something older than both of those things and considerably harder to read.
Like she was trying to remember something, or trying very hard not to.
She noticed me noticing, Her expression went flat again instantly, the way a candle gets snuffed out.
She turned and walked into the dark without a word, I stared at the space she'd just been standing in.
'What do you know about this sword, old lady.'
No answer. Just the sound of wind moving through trees with holes burned clean through them.