When fiction becomes reality.

It was nighttime, roughly 3 o'clock. The half-moon hung overhead in the clear sky, its enchanting silver beams pouring through the gap of the window blinds, somewhat illuminating a single room.

Inside, a skinny young boy lay sleeping on his stomach, his legs stretched in a comical P-shape. His shoulders rose and fell periodically. His medium-length chestnut hair covered his eyes as the boy continued his expedition of the dream realm.

It was normal.

It was serene.

It was like another night in the Hyoudou household when a gust of breeze interrupted the calm. It excused itself through the window, carrying with itself an invisible pressure that soon descended inside the four walls.

The gust made no sound, however, it glowed with a mystical presence- a presence foreign to everything that made its surroundings.

A beat later, it had taken the center of the room, churning and swirling with increasing velocity, slowly gaining momentum with time. 

Yet, despite all of the theatrics, all physical objects remained untouched. 

No curtains flapped against the breeze. No books flipped pages. The sliding door remained closed. And the boy continued snoring.

It was as if the wind didn't exist in the same reality.

Deep inside the sleeping brunet's soul, an ancient power stirred awake. Its massive draconian body rose as he felt the change in the air.

Ddriag, the Welsh dragon- foggy and disoriented- blinked, sensing the disturbance. 

As soon as the fog clouding his mind cleared slightly, Ddriag found himself peering outside his host's body, his curiosity peaked. Why had he woken up so soon? He thought, when his host wasn't even aware of the power dwelling inside him, much less having awakened him?

Following conventional standards, he should be sleeping by now. His consciousness dulled to senseless by that cursed prison till the day his new host- whoever it was that stupid system had deemed compatible enough to be patched with- awakened him.

So then, why? Why had he regained his senses prematurely? 

Determined to find the answer, Ddriag shifted his sight to the center of the room. The mystical wind called for him, its surreal ambiance drawing his attention. 

Ddriag's slitted eyes narrowed as he regarded the strange phenomenon occurring near the footboard, a confused frown creasing his brows. 

'Hmm, What is that?' Curious, he tentatively reached out his front limbs to study the astral breeze, only to freeze the next second, remembering that he was still imprisoned in the loathsome cage and that his new host had yet to awaken him.

Right now, even if he wanted to study that weird occurrence, he'd be limited to just his vision; even if he wished to study it, he'd have to make do with visuals presented to him. Since it wasn't his host that had awakened him, he'd be unable to stretch his magical senses beyond the cage, and he wouldn't be able to influence the outside world in any substantial way. 

Disgruntled, he lay back down, his curiosity dampened. 'Whatever,' He rolled his eyes, snorting, 'Not like I was interested or anything'.

Yet just as he was about to go back into his hibernation, the room shook. The invisible pressure accompanying the winds rumbled with unknown intent. The spectral wind that seemed purposeless till now hovered above his host's body.

'What's wrong with this thing?' Ddriag grumbled, his annoyance growing. However, his breath stopped the next moment when most of the wind dispersed. 

Simultaneously, a tear appeared in the fabric of space where the winds floated just now. The tear grew slowly until it was about the size of a square door large enough to allow the passage of a football. The other side of the door was a void of infinite imagery colors. 

'Huh…' 

From the void, a bright sphere about the size of a clenched fist drifted in. The Welsh dragon watched, frozen, as the surrounding wind, or whatever remained of it, tightly clung around the illuminating sphere, forming a protective covering.

'T-That's a soul…right…?' Ddriag's jaws dropped when he deduced the nature of the spherical ball invading the world. What was a lost soul doing here? Where did it come from? How was it able to sustain itself in the living world? And, most importantly, 'This soul just came out of the dimensional gap, right!?' 

Ddriag's Millennia-old mind tried all sorts of gymnastics and formed countless half-baked conjectures as he tried to make sense of the situation unfolding before his eyes. Just how? How could a soul survive in the treacherous dimensional gap without any protection? 

Just a small graze of the energy dwelling in the dimensional gap should be enough to snuff everything out of the soul. So how come it was here, glowing in a dazzling brilliance as if the dimension gap did not affect it…

…

…

'Wait…glowing…!!' 

The glowing spherical soul slowly drifted closer to the oblivious boy's body. Like an unstoppable force, it dove into his soul, rendering his body's natural physical or spiritual defences meaningless. 

It used Ddiag's stirred conscience as an anchor and invaded the sacred gear attached to his soul. 

The mysterious soul easily reached the boosted gear's mental landscape- the prison of Ddriag's conscience and floated steadily. 

The sentienceless ball of light floated disarmingly before the red dragon, its presence no less magnificent than the Beast contained within.

As it happened, Issei's body twisted unnaturally in the real world. His limbs bent and cracked audibly, his joints making grinding and popping sounds amid the night's stillness. His brows furrowed, and a frown marked his sleeping face- as if he were going through an intense nightmare.

Despite the visible discomfort, Issei didn't wake up. How could he when his very soul was being pressured under the metaphysical of 'something' that even made the millennia-old dragon apprehensive?

Ddraig, directly faced with the deceptive intruder, frowned within the mindscape. Since the mysterious soul had crossed the boosted gear's cells and had come to his doors, he could somewhat deduce its nature. 

He could also guess what was happening to his host's body. And if his guess was right, Ddriag couldn't say he liked where this was going.

After all, his host was being possessed. Slowly but surely, this foreign thing was gaining control over his body.

Worse, it was no ordinary spirit or ghost possession. No, it was far more insidious, and while Ddriag wasn't big on the bullshit good and bad dichotomy, even he found the process somewhat repulsive.

While in the normal possession, where the soul of the body's owner is merely suppressed to a deeper level, making it easier for the caster to hijack control of the target's body, what was happening with Ddriag's host was completely irreversible. The very connection of Issei's soul was being severed from the body.

If left alone, Issei's soul, left with no connection to the living world, would soon depart to the afterlife- the heaven's system in his case. That in itself wasn't problematic. But if Issei departs, Ddriag, through his connection by virtue of the heavenly chains, would also return to the system- forced to go into another long hibernation before any new compatible soul emerged.

Thinking of that, Ddriag frowned. He wasn't too keen on realizing that possibility. His rationale was, 'If I have reappeared in this world, then the white one must've also reawakened. I won't let my host die before he even gets to fight the white one's host.' 

Of course, the other reason was, 'How dare this puny thing disturb my sleep, much less attack me.' 

Sure, it hasn't attacked him, per se. But an attack on his host, by proxy, was an attack on himself, was it not?

Snorting arrogantly, Ddriag prepared to extinguish the glowing, and curious nuisance himself, Its origins be damned.

…

…Or so Ddriag thought.

Instead, the windy protective coat around the soul unraveled itself before his eyes and stretched into a thin rope. Its one end latched onto the peeling soul, while its other end attached itself to the lingering regretful conscience wandering the boosted gear's virtual space- forming a connecting bridge directly between the physical body and the boosted gear.

*Whistle

"Damn, you're one evil thing…" Ddriag spoke for the first time, his powerful voice tinged with surprise and...approval? "To think you'd use my host's soul as a building material to connect myself with the physical body- the one you wish to inhabit- effectively not only gaining a body but also retaining my powers to yourself. I am impressed."

The ball of light continued its work, unaware of Ddriag's musings. It systematically and step by step peeled away the old colors of the canvas and began to paint new colors over its cleared path.

Ddriag watched all this with a conflicted look, debating whether to intervene and help his rightful host or turn a blind eye to it.

Ideally, He should do the former- After all, Issei was the one meant to be the next Red Dragon emperor, his new representative in this age. 

But the latter promised so much Ddriag desired. 

Most prominent being the guaranteed uncertain future it brought with its otherworldly origins. 

To Ddriag, who has spent more than five hundred years inside the boosted gear, nothing felt more tempting than a promise of relief from boredom- however short it might be. 

After all, it was the boredom that had led him to push all his hosts to compete against the white one, no matter the age. It was one of the few things that still made his blood boil and made him forget his wretched state. 

Compared to the offers this foreigner brought to Ddriag, the idea of preparing his new host for his ultimate tussle with Albion's host felt quite underwhelming. 

…

Yeah, Ddriag knew his answer.

With a heavy gaze, he addressed his Issei, "Even though I know you cannot do anything right now, I shall still withhold myself from aiding you- for you haven't called for my help, and even as you take steps in your adulthood, you have yet to awaken me." He took a short breath before continuing, even though he knew Issei couldn't hear him. "That tells me much about yourself. However, I shall refrain from judging you. I only ask that you take this impending challenge by yourself. Were you to prevail, I shall lend all my strengths to your every endeavor…"

"...But were you to let yourself be conquered, be dominated…that just means the heaven's system has failed terribly in choosing my host."

Ddriag's solemn words hung in the air. Like a tyrant's decree, they vibrated in the virtual space, abruptly concluding the overstretched farce.

…

And thus, the curtains fell on the most promising young Issei Hyoudou's life. His body and life were plundered by the mechanization of fate to a foreigner hand, who wasn't even aware of his wrongdoings.