God succession system

After spending a few days with the dragonmen, Alex and co returned to Asora only for Nyx to immediately pull him to the side and say,

"We need to talk." Though he was tempted to make a remark about her attitude, seeing how serious she was being he kept silent and instead sent the rest ahead for some privacy. When they were alone Alex finally said,

"Ok, what's going on?" Nyx hesitated for a few seconds as if she was trying to put together what she was about to say, before eventually spitting out,

"Gabriel's turning into a real god." It took a few moments for Alex to process what she said, but when he did he immediately started massaging his temples while saying,

"Great.... I had hoped it wouldn't happen so quickly...." As he made no attempt to hide the fact that he suspected this would happen, Nyx demanded irritably,

"You knew this would happen?!" Alex nodded and explained,

"I've heard it mentioned before in stories that it was possible to attain godhood through believers worshipping you, but I didn't know it was actually true until I attained it myself. After that I suspected that Gabriel might eventually attain godhood because of 'Goddess Gabriel', but hoped it wouldn't happen until after we left Tortus." Nyx was silent as she took this in, as it was the first time she heard of someone "accidentally" becoming a god, and to add to the incredibly of the situation it was someone who hated even pretending to be a god due to her own faith. Sighing at the situation, she then said,

"We have to tell her, and soon. I've been keeping an eye on her the past few days, and her divine power is growing at an absurd rate, if it keeps up she'll become a full fledged goddess soon for real." Alex sighed as well as he was hoping the process wouldn't be so fast specifically because of this, but the damage was done so the only thing he could do was come clean about it.

"Go and gather everyone for an emergency meeting, I was planning to bring this up at some point anyways, but with this situation it'll have to now instead of later." Nyx nodded and immediately set out to gather the important figures in Asora, while Alex was the one to go and get Gabriel.

***

"B-but I don't want to be a goooooooooood!!!!!" Gabriel wailed as as tears started streaming down her face, making everyone look away uncomfortably as Alex tried to console her, though a few of the girls gave him the stink eye for "making a girl cry". He simply ignored them as he wiped away Gabriel's tears, and said soothingly,

"It's not all bad Gabriel-" but then she wailed,

"That's what you think! Oh what would the Lord say if He saw me now?!" Alex stared at Gabriel pointedly before saying firmly,

"I think He would be proud of you." This caused Gabriel to stop crying for a second, and even the rest of those gathered looked at him curiously. With his firm gaze and tone never wavering in the slightest, Alex continued,

"He isn't here, and so we did what we could to help those who needed it with what we have. The fact that you're gaining divine power so fast should be enough to show you how much the people of Tortus needed someone like you Gabriel, how much they needed "Goddess Gabriel"." As Alex finished speaking everyone was silent as they looked at Gabriel expectantly, before she finally said,

"Fine, I'm not mad at you anymore, but don't think I'm ok with being an actual goddess!" Alex smiled bitterly, but didn't say more on the matter and turned to explain what he had called everyone for.

"Now for why I called everyone here, I was planning to wait a little bit before discussing this, but with Gabriel's situation I decided to bring it up now. What I wanted to talk about, is the possibility of others attaining godhood as well." While ignoring the collective shock around the table, Alex then launched into a brief explanation of what Lauren told him before. There was a dumbfounded silence as they took in what he said, before Barakiel hesitantly asked,

"So anyone could become a god?" Alex nodded slowly while saying,

"I'm not saying it's an absolute, but it is possible; though we who have demonic powers would have to reach a state where our bodies could support the opposing energies." While a gleam of anticipation could be seen in the eyes of the gathered Devils, Vali suddenly spoke up,

"So I only need to find a god and come up with some way to steal their divine powers?" Alex gave him a deadpan stare along with the rest of those gathered before saying,

"No, as you are now the divine power will destroy you. Think about how much stronger than you I am, and how I was comatose for an entire week because of a temporary transformation. If you tried to take a gods divine power it would tear you apart, it'd be easier to just try to develop your own once you reach that stage anyways." Though Vali wanted to retort to Alex's rejection, Albion suddenly said,

Though he grumbled discontentedly, Vali didn't say anything else on the matter and ultimately conceded to developing his own power, especially since he didn't like using another's strength to begin with. with that settled Rias spoke up while asking,

"So we need to develop these things called "Laws" to ultimately become gods?" Alex nodded and explained,

"Yes, ultimately they'll become your respective divinities, like how Nyx is the goddess of night and darkness. Another example is how Gabriel will probably end up becoming a goddess of motherhood and familial love because of how she's been depicted to the people of Tortus." This earned him a look from Gabriel, but she ultimately didn't say anything as there were always worse things to develop divinities of. They then spent a bit more time discussing the various paths to godhood, before Alex decided to move on to the next topic he wanted to mention, and pulled out the crystal key that Hajime made.

"Now next, after a bit of looking into it I have concluded that this key.... will be able to help travel to different worlds in the future, but only ones we've already been to." Everyone was silent before Hajime spoke up,

"But, it can already travel to other worlds to begin with, even if we haven't been to them, I've already checked this out." Though he hadn't actually gone to other worlds, yet, Hajime had at least confirmed that the crystal keys he made with Conception magic were in fact able to bring one to a different world. Alex nodded his head and stated,

"That's true, but I'm referring to something else entirely. The world's we can travel to right now are, for lack of a better way to put it, within the same universe. The ones I'm talking about are completely different realities, even different earths that have near identical, but ultimately different timelines." He then went on to explain how it worked as Lauren also explained to him, about how the farther they wanted to go with the key the more magic power it took, but when it was about going to another reality, the amount of power needed was in a completely different league entirely. Worlds like Tortus and Hajime's earth, as well as the rest that Hajime and co ultimately went to in the After Story, were basically neighbors within the same universe; whereas the DXD world was in a completely different reality. If Alex were to use the keys to try and travel to these worlds, it'll take a tremendous amount of magic power to do so, even more than he was currently capable of producing, and it'll need to be a world that he'd already established a link with, meaning he'd have already had to visited it before. That wasn't what shocked the people around him though, it was what he said next,

"Hajime, that request for an "unlimited power source" I had in those papers I gave you, this is one of the reasons I added it. Not only would it be beneficial to the people of Asora, but i also fully intend to open the other worlds to us in the future, meaning Asora will potentially become the central hub of a network spanning dozens, or even potentially hundreds of worlds in the future." As his words dropped there was dead silence as they took in the scope of what Alex had said. On each and every planet there was always attempts to trade and interact with different cultures, and several difficulties that came with it; but what Alex was wanting to attempt was something that was on a scale that no one had ever even conceived before, it was the idea of a madman.

"Haha, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hajime laughed unrestrainedly for several minutes as everyone either looked at him strangely, or still tried to take in what Alex told them, before he finally said,

"So if I'm to understand this right, you want me to not only make an endless power source, but also open up a doorway to other realities to create a network the likes of which never before seen? Sign me the f.u.c.k up!" His excitement and enthusiasm caught several people off guard, making Barakiel asked,

"Wait, so you're ok with this?!" Hajime laughed once more and replied,

"Of course! Think about it, the scale of it! Every craftsman wants to make an "ultimate masterpiece", something to surpass everything they ever made and to set them apart from everyone else, why wouldn't I want to be part of this project?!" As he continued to laugh out loud, Grayfia then added,

"I can't believe how narrow minded I was to try and tempt you with the position of Maou before..... If this succeeds then even a Maou will seem like nothing more than a lower ranking nobility..." As they all went through various stages of shock Alex decided to end the meeting there, and asked Hajime,

"So how's that first project I asked for?" Hajime pulled himself from his mental planning and answered,

"It's done, and since I've had time to experiment and improve how it works in my own space-time orb, I was able to make some improvements compared to the one used for training." Alex nodded and had Hajime join him back to Misty Manor to show him the new space-time orb, while also escorting Gabriel back.

***

As Hajime said there had been quite a few improvements from the first space-time orb he had created with Seekvaira, the first being that they no longer needed to add several orbs outside the main one to create different environments to train in. Hajime had found a way to layer them so that they could have different orbs within the main one instead of branched all around outside, though they were unable to layer time differences. Another improvement that was due to Seekvaira instead, was that her time manipulation abilities had made leaps and bounds due to her evolution into a super devil, and now the time difference could be increased even more. The main orb of course ran on the usual one month per day, but there was plans to create a unique space-time orb that could turn a single day into nearly a year, though this would be considered as a desperate use item. Within the orb itself however, the main residence was kept nearly the same as the original orb with a villa looking house surrounded by the ocean with islands, except now there were also floating islands similar to Ehito's divine realm drifting around the orb. Hajime had admitted that it was relatively tricky to get these to work at first, but he eventually managed it using Gravity magic to keep them in the air. Finally the last big difference was that the villa was styled more for comfort than practicality, as while it was also intended to be used for training for the manors residents, it was also intended to be akin to a second home to those living there, with several residents already planning to spend most nights within it to expand their days.

As could be expected there was great excitement for those who were unable to spend any long amount of time within the previous space-time orb, with this group mainly composed of Asia, Remia, Myuu, Millicas, Kunou, Gabriel, and Koneko, though Myuu, Millicas, and Kunou were limited to spending only nights within the orb due to their young age. What Alex didn't expect however was that there seemed to be a mad rush among the girls to "claim" a floating island for themselves as place to train or even build a small residence for themselves. He himself eventually went along with them at this himself, claiming one of the larger floating islands to build a small fighting ring for practice, as well as a small Japanese style stone garden for relaxing and meditation.

Akeno built herself a small private shrine on her floating island that was nearly identical to the one she grew up in with her mother, to the point that her father was reduced to tears when she showed it to him. On it she also planned to keep and train creatures that had an affinity for lightning due their shared affinity, and on which Sona's 'Queen' Tsubaki and Tio were regular visitors. Asia, Xenovia, and Irina on the other hand claimed an island to share where they built a small church-like structure that the former exorcist duo could train in, that would also function as a sort of infirmary in case anyone sustained injuries within the orb, as such it was also the closest one to the main residence.

Rossweise had also claimed an island for herself, creating a building to house several people where she claimed she intended to train those who were interested in becoming Valkyries in the future; though it also contained her own library/workshop where she could experiment and learn magic from each world they visited in peace. Ravel had also claimed her own island, and similarly to Rossweise she built a residence for many in order to turn it into training ground for her peerage members, with Sona, Rias, and Roygun all doing something similar with their own; the male members of their peerage being one of the very few exceptions allowed within the orb, and exclusively on their respective islands. Ingvild was somewhat similar in this regard, though she had yet to use her evil pieces and she had chosen to use one of the regular islands in order to be closer to the ocean, building both a beach house and a small stage to practice singing on. Of course due to various reasons Levi wasn't allowed within the orb, and had instead taken up residence in the oceans near the Dagon settlement where, after an awkward transition, she became the honorary mascot of the Dagons.

what had been surprising to almost everyone however was that even Grayfia had taken an island for herself, though when asked what she doing on it she refused to tell even Alex, only confiding in a few others like Ravel and Rias. Meanwhile Nyx unashamedly claimed an island for herself, making a shrine dedicated to herself that she felt quite proud of until no one went there to worship at it. Yue on the other hand built herself a small castle on a floating island while also making it to where it was always overcast, claiming that she intended to make it a place for any vampires that were involved with Alex, which needless to say Elmenhilde was a frequent visitor. Shia on the other hand had tried to model her own island after Verbergen, forcing her to rely more on Anne's help to build it due to her extensive knowledge on plants. Anne's own floating island was turned into her own personal garden, where she maintained a variety of plants that had a variety of purposes. Some were used for cooking, others could be made into medicines that she intended to give to Asia, while some very select few could be used as poisons, which she mostly had there because they looked nice.

With the months/days trickling by, everyone busied themselves on building and maintaining their own islands while also making time to visit with each other and train. With Ehito gone they were mostly in vacation mode now, and the majority were planning to attempt the labyrinths they had yet to try, once a couple certain events had passed of course. As for Alex himself, he spent his days mostly by spending time with his women, helping them with their islands or simply being together while doing activities such as swimming and so on. Though he was also training himself, it was very light compared to before, and focused more on his new abilities such as his 'Domain' as well as trying to increase his divine spark. Of course the majority of his time was spent taking care of Gabriel and Koneko, who were both staying within the orb in order to be with Alex as they finished out their terms, though Gabriel was also because her rise to godhood was slowed there.

"KEEP YOUR GUARD UP!" Rias shouted as a magical hail of various elements descended onto Suzu's barriers, causing them to shimmer violently for several seconds before finally flickering out completely under the powerful attack. As the dust cleared she could be seen standing in the center looking a little banged up, but none the worse for the wear. Rias walked up to her and said,

"You need to be able to hold up under these kinds of attacks with the battles we may be fighting in the future, especially in the rating games." Suzu was huffing and puffing from exerting herself before saying,

"Suzu, haa, understands master, haa, she will do better..." Rias nodded as she was expecting it, while Rossweise flew down and said,

"Was it too much? I tried to cancel it when I saw the barriers go out." Suzu shook her head and said,

"If Suzu can't take this much, then I can't call myself a barrier master!" Rias grinned at her determination while Rossweise smiled before saying,

"Ok, just don't push yourself. Remember I have years of experience and I've been training myself so let me know when I overdo it." Suzu nodded and was about to say to go again, when suddenly a reddish-brown haired girl appeared from nowhere, who was one of Sona's Knights, Tomoe Meguri. While both Suzu and Rossweise jumped slightly from her sudden appearance, Rias barely reacted as she asked,

"Tomoe? What's wrong?" Tomoe seemed to be in a hurry and quickly stated,

"Alex and lady Sona sent me, they said that-"

***

While Rias was receiving her message, a certain black haired Nekomata was sitting cross legged on her own personal floating island, sweat flowing down her face as she concentrated intensely.

"Come.... on~Nya!" She spat out as she tried desperately to make some progress, while dozens of eyes watched her from the surroundings. She had made her island somewhat similar to Akeno's shrine, except at the center was a fairly large cat statue, and it was home to dozens of cats she had found somewhere in Tortus. They were all currently watching her intently as Kuroka struggled to make a breakthrough in her spatial magic. As she focused a small point in front of her, no bigger than the tip of a pin, had appeared in midair. Though this was a relative success, it wasn't the first time she had reached this point only to lose it all. She then tried to expand the space within the point hovering in front of her, but not where anyone could see.

"I can do it~Nya!" She muttered to herself, as she felt the space within the pinpoint expanding, but ever so slowly. It expanded to the point that within it was about the size of a small ball, causing a grin to spread on Kuroka's face at her minor success. Before she could do anything to anchor it and prevent her progress from disappearing however, she suddenly got a call that distracted her, causing the pocket in space that she had created to collapse on itself.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She wailed as her progress was lost, making her actually tear up since she'd have to start all over, again. She then answered the call that had so rudely interrupted her and practically shouted,

"What do you want!?" Grayfia flinched slightly on the other side from being snapped at suddenly, before cooly replying in a chilled tone,

"I'm just calling to let you know that Gabriel's going into labor, sorry that I interrupted your nap or something." She then hung up leaving Kuroka staring ahead somewhat dumbfoundedly, before she leapt up and started cleaning herself off. Though she was still annoyed that she had been interrupted, the current situation was actually more important, for the moment, and she quickly rushed to the main residence.