The world of High School DxD was not exactly peaceful.
No, calling it peaceful would be like calling a volcano mildly warm.
There was always some bullshit happening somewhere.
A civil conflict.
A terrorist group.
An Alien invasion.
Fallen angels plotting nonsense.
Church extremists doing Church extremist things.
Dragons. Yeah, their existing was bad enough.
The world was basically held together by overpowered beings glaring at each other hard enough to maintain temporary civilization.
What do you mean a world has like a dozen beings who could easily destroy said world.
Still, the strength of a Super Devil was enough to deter most threats.
Or at least reduce the list of people capable of threatening me down to a number countable on fingers.
And the funny thing?
I wasn't even truly a "Super Devil."
That was just the label devils slapped onto me because it was the closest thing they could understand.
See, Super Devils weren't some fixed species or special bloodline.
It was more like a title given to monsters who broke common sense.
Take Sirzechs Lucifer for example.
The guy was born terrifying.
His mutated Power of Destruction basically made him scarier than most gods.
Then there was Ajuka Beelzebub.
That mad scientist became a Super Devil through sheer genius.
Honestly, that was even scarier in some ways.
At least with naturally gifted monsters, you could blame genetics.
Ajuka looked at reality and apparently decided:
"Nah, I'd calculate."
Sure, he also possessed absurd talent naturally, but his intellect was what truly elevated him into a different dimension entirely.
Couldn't be me.
The devils believed I belonged to the same category as Sirzechs.
A born Super Devil.
Naturally monstrous.
Naturally overwhelming.
But they were wrong.
Very wrong.
Because my powers weren't just mutated Phenex abilities.
The Phenex bloodline itself honestly wasn't bad.
Actually, compared to many devil clans, it was ridiculously stacked.
First, there was our famous immortality.
Well...
"Immortality."
Honestly, calling it true immortality felt like buying something from Walmart and pretending it was luxury.
Phenex regeneration was basically extremely overpowered healing with several annoying weaknesses attached.
Still useful though.
Then there was our fire magic.
Wind magic too.
Both solid offensively.
And of course...
Phenex Tears.
The cheat item responsible for making House Phenex richer than some entire countries.
Healing medicine so absurdly effective that everybody wanted it.
Add fire wings on top of that, which looked cooler than normal wings, and honestly?
Phenex bloodline sounded pretty amazing on paper.
Unfortunately...
Reality existed.
And reality revealed all the flaws.
First problem?
Every member of House Phenex was either lazy, arrogant, or both.
Honestly, our clan practically specialized in generational overconfidence.
Second problem?
Holy power.
The moment holy energy entered the equation, our so-called immortality suddenly started looking very mortal.
And unfortunately for us...
The primary enemies of devils used exactly that same holy power.
Unlucky.
Third problem?
Stamina.
Phenex regeneration wasn't infinite.
Once your energy reserves ran dry, you died like everyone else.
Meaning our immortality had a battery life.
Not exactly ideal.
So overall?
The Phenex bloodline was powerful.
But nowhere near as invincible as it initially sounded.
That's where the Phoenix Force entered the picture.
And honestly?
Comparing the Phenex bloodline to the Phoenix Force was like comparing a lighter to the fucking sun.
The difference was absurd.
Cosmic fire manipulation alone was already insane.
Unlike ordinary Phenex flames, Phoenix Force flames could burn concepts themselves.
Time.
Space.
Life.
Death.
Basically reality itself could catch on fire if the Phoenix Force decided violence was necessary.
Then came resurrection and rebirth.
Not fake regeneration.
Not "heal if enough stamina remains."
No.
True immortality.
Then there was matter manipulation.
Honestly?
I still didn't fully understand how that bullshit worked.
But apparently I could change stones into gold and stuff.
Which sounded cool.
Time manipulation too.
Self-explanatory.
Reality warping?
Probably my favorite.
Because why not, I mean whatever I wanted would happen, goated stuff.
Then telepathy.
Honestly, telepathy was alright...
It was useful.
But not flashy enough for my tastes.
Why read minds when cosmic fire already solved most problems?
Then came creation and destruction abilities.
Meaning eventually I could literally create things from nothing and erase things from existence.
Casual god behavior.
And finally...
Massive boosts to basically every single stat imaginable.
Strength.
Durability.
Energy.
Mental abilities.
Everything.
Can you see the difference now?
Imagine if I had been one second slower during that wish selection.
I would've been stuck with only ordinary Phenex abilities.
Honestly, what a depressing timeline that would've been.
Now the truly beautiful part about all this?
Unlike Marvel characters like Jean Grey or Firehair, I wasn't merely a host for the Phoenix Force.
I was the Phoenix force itself.
Which meant, I did not have any of the problems which phoenix force users had,
No personality corruption.
No emotional instability.
No random cosmic schizophrenia.
No inner entity trying to hijack my body dramatically.
Honestly, huge win.
Which meant the only real thing I needed to work on was understanding my own powers better.
And unfortunately...
That required science.
I hate science.
Deeply.
Passionately.
Violently.
But apparently reality-warping cosmic god powers become easier to use if you actually understand concepts like matter, energy, dimensions, and time.
Annoying.
Very annoying.
Like genuinely, I still didn't understand what half my abilities were even supposed to do.
Matter manipulation?
Cool.
How exactly?
No fucking clue.
Still, I wasn't ashamed about being stupid.
Honestly, I considered it an advantage sometimes.
Smart people overthink everything.
Meanwhile I enjoyed life peacefully.
You'd see smart people envying me.
You'd never see me envying them.
Ignorance truly was premium mental healthcare.
Besides, with how absurdly overpowered the Phoenix Force already was, scientific knowledge felt more like bonus content than necessity.
I was already broken enough.
Still...
Every protagonist needed a training arc, right?
And honestly?
What training could possibly be harder for me than studying science?
Exactly.
This was true suffering.
Later in life, I could proudly declare:
"Everything I achieved came from hard work."
Then conveniently leave out the fact that the hard work involved reading textbooks for twenty minutes before wanting to die.
With that thought, I finally closed the book in front of me and stretched lazily.
'Hmm...'
It felt like I forgot something.
What was it?
I frowned slightly.
Then realization struck me.
'Shit.'
Studying.
I sat down here intending to study seriously.
Instead, I spent almost the entire time talking to you guys...
Still...
Nothing could be done now.
I already closed the book.
That meant today's studying session officially ended.
No point reopening it.
'I will start studying seriously tomorrow,' I nodded solemnly to myself.
Then I walked out of the library.
"Hey Riser, wanna play a match of Smashing Brothers?"
I looked up.
Rorsch.
My older brother.
Also the black sheep of House Phenex.
Honestly, I felt kind of bad for him sometimes.
Not because he was weak.
He actually wasn't.
Compared to ordinary devils, Rorsch was perfectly respectable.
The problem was his competition.
His older brother Ruval Phenex was an Ultimate-class devil and future heir of the clan.
Then there was me.
A literal cosmic abomination disguised as a child.
Poor bastard never had a chance.
Even if he trained endlessly and reached High-class devil level eventually, it still wouldn't look impressive standing beside monsters like us.
Honestly, fate did him dirty.
"Sure," I replied with a grin. "Though I was thinking about playing Hellcraft first. Still, Smashing Brothers together sounds fun."
Then I pointed dramatically.
"But afterward, we play Hellcraft."
Now, before anyone asks...
Yes.
Hellcraft and Smashing Brothers were exactly what they sounded like.
The Underworld's shameless bootleg versions of Minecraft and Smash Bros.
Though honestly?
Our versions were superior.
Why?
Simple.
Devils made them.
Devils better.
Humans bad.
Basic logic.
So naturally, instead of training properly, I went to play games with my brother.
Technically both of us were skipping training.
But realistically?
Only Rorsch would get scolded if we were caught.
After all, I was a Super Devil.
Apparently that title came bundled with:
political immunity,
excessive praise,
and freedom from responsibility.
Beautiful system honestly.
Even if Mother got angry, big brother would absorb most of the damage anyway.
And honestly?
He was already used to it.
You see, Ruval was absurdly talented.
Rorsch spent his entire life trying and failing to keep up with him.
Then I was born.
After that?
He basically gave up completely.
At some point, the competition simply became too ridiculous.
Now he mostly just enjoyed life peacefully.
Played games.
Relaxed.
Avoided expectations.
Honestly, not a terrible lifestyle.
As for why he was here gaming instead of training?
Simple.
He no longer believed effort could overcome talent.
And considering his life experience...
I couldn't even blame him for thinking that way.
I wanted to comfort him sometimes.
But me saying:
"Talent isn't everything."
would've sounded hilariously hypocritical coming from a cosmic phoenix god-child.
So I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Still...
At least he wasn't depressed anymore.