DXD - The Presence Chapter 68 66 - Between Oceans and Drops

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[POV - Yuuki Rito] [Tiless Dinsion]

I shouldn't be here.

That's the most honest truth I can think of while watching the white-haired boy convulse in the center of this room that doesn't exist. Boy. What a joke. Vali Lucifer has more blood on his hands than I have years of life, and yet, now... now he seems so fragile.

HUMMMMM...

The space around us vibrates with a frequency that shouldn't be audible. But it is. Everything here both is and isn't at the sa ti.

I brought him here... how long ago? Hours? Days? In this dinsion, ti is just a suggestion, a courtesy I maintain because I still need to rember I was once human.

Am human.

I need to keep repeating this to myself.

But watching him... it's making question again.

[First Hour - Or Would It Be First Day?]

Vali is sitting in lotus position, perfectly still. From the outside, it looks like just deep ditation. But I see beyond. It's a curse of this power — I always see beyond.

CRACK... CRACK... CRACK...

His soul is being torn apart.

No. That's not it. It's being... deconstructed? Every layer of ego, every mory he uses to define "Vali Lucifer," is being questioned by sothing that isn't . It's the universe itself. It's as if reality had asked:

"Who do you think you are?"

And he has no answer.

This is fascinating and terrifying at the sa ti.

I could end this. One thought from , a fraction of the Presence I carry, and he'd be free. But... no. He chose this. When I felt his accidental touch with sothing that shouldn't exist in this multiverse — an echo of that crossed dinsions — I saw what happened to him.

His ego didn't just break.

It was atomized.

And in the void left behind, sothing began to germinate. Sothing he always had but never let grow.

The possibility of being more than power.

[Second Day - Estimate]

DRIP... DRIP... DRIP...

Blood.

Vali is bleeding. Not from physical wounds — this body is just a vessel now. The blood cos from within. From a place that shouldn't be able to bleed.

Karma, I recognize. Every drop that falls on the non-existent floor of this room carries a mory, a regret, a pain caused. I see faces forming in the crimson liquid before evaporating:

Kuroka crying.

Bikou laughing alone, with no response.

Arthur silently asking: "Why?"

And Vali? He doesn't resist. That's what surprises . The Vali Lucifer I knew — arrogant, hungry for power, always running to the next battle — that Vali would have fought. Would have rejected. Would have burned everything around him rather than admit weakness.

But this one?

HISSS...

He's accepting.

Every invisible cut that tears his soul, he embraces. Every accusation karma throws, he confirms:

— Yes. I did that. Yes. I caused pain.

There are no justifications. No "but I had my reasons." Just pure and devastating recognition.

When was the last ti I saw soone face their own darkness with such honesty?

Even I, carrying this absurd power, still have dark corners where I don't look. But Vali is being forced to illuminate every shadow, and he's not running.

Respect begins to grow in .

Genuine respect.

[Fourth Day - Maybe]

WHOOOMP.

Sothing changed.

The room beca... dense. As if reality itself had held its breath. I can feel it because, technically, I am reality here. This space is an extension of the power I carry.

And yet...

Yet, sothing greater is manifesting.

Vali stopped moving completely. If I were an ordinary observer, I'd think he died. But I see the threads. I see the tapestry of existence, and the threads connected to him are... vibrating. No, singing. At frequencies that shouldn't exist.

SHIMR...

He's being offered a choice.

I can feel temptation materializing around him like golden mist. It's everything he always wanted: absolute power, strength to crush any opponent, ability to rewrite his own tragic history.

It's real. The offer is genuine. The universe is saying:

"You can have all of this. Just take it."

For a mont — a fraction of a second that stretches for an eternity in this place — I see Vali's hand move. I see the old desire, that core of "I need to be stronger" that defined him since childhood, shining like a dying star.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

My own heart accelerates.

Which choice will he make?

And then...

HAHAHA...

Then he laughs.

It's not the arrogant laugh I expected. It's sothing broken, but also... free? It's the laugh of soone who finally understood the joke.

— I don't want this anymore — his voice echoes in the room, weak but crystalline.

And sothing inside , sothing I inherited from the Presence, recognizes this truth. It's not renunciation from despair. It's not giving up from defeat.

It's conscious choice.

He's letting go of what he desired most his entire life because he finally understood: seeking power was just a way to run from the void.

And he's no longer running.

FWOOOOSH...

The golden mist dissolves. Temptation accepts the answer.

He passed.

And I realize I'm smiling. A genuine smile, perhaps the first since this power found .

[Sixth Day]

...Silence...

Void.

Vali disappeared. Not physically — the body is still there. But the presence, the essence that made him "Vali," is completely gone.

For hours, I observe an empty shell of flesh and bones. There's no aura. No ki. Nothing.

Did he truly die?

For the first ti since this began, I feel fear. Not for myself — what a joke that would be, the bearer of the Presence's power being afraid. But for him.

What if I miscalculated? What if exposing him to that cosmic fragnt was a fatal error? What if, instead of enlightennt, I delivered a talented young man to existential annihilation?

I consider intervening. The power within whispers that I can bring him back. I can rewrite this choice. I can...

No.

If I do that, I invalidate everything he's achieved so far. I invalidate his choice.

So I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

[Eighth Day - The Return]

GASP!

He returns.

But God, he's not the sa.

Vali's body inhales — the first breath in days — and when his eyes open...

WHOOOOOOSH...

I feel it.

Even I, carrying power that shouldn't exist, feel the change. It's not power in the conventional sense. There's no energy explosion, no terrifying aura expanding.

Actually, it's almost the opposite.

It's absence.

But absence in the most complete way possible. Like a black hole that doesn't devour, but rather... balances. Like silence after a symphony — not empty, but full.

SWISH...

Vali stands, and his movents...

Holy shit, his movents.

Before, every gesture was efficient but tense. There was urgency, there was hunger, there was always this underlying need to prove sothing. Now? Now he moves like water. No, like the concept of movent itself.

He looks at .

And for the first ti since I inherited this absurd power, soone truly sees .

Doesn't see Yuuki Rito, the clumsy boy from Sainan. Doesn't see the bearer of the Presence, the being with cosmic power. He sees... everything. The complete set. The contradictions, the fears, the hopes, the loneliness of carrying sothing too large.

He sees , and doesn't judge.

There's compassion in that look. Genuine compassion.

And it breaks a little.

[The Conversation]

— You ca back — I say, and my voice sounds strange even to . When was the last ti I spoke with soone real?

— I never left — Vali responds, and his voice... changed. It's still his, but there are layers now. Echoes of sothing ancient and sothing newborn at the sa ti. — I just stopped clinging to the illusion of separation.

Step... step... step...

He walks toward — no, he flows. Every step is in the exact place it should be, as if the universe had arranged itself to accommodate him.

— You carry an impossible burden — he says, and it's not a question.

I laugh, but it sounds bitter.

— Funny. I should be the one consoling you. After all, I just watched you be torn apart and reassembled nine consecutive tis.

— And in each tearing apart — Vali says calmly — I realized sothing. The burden you carry isn't the power itself. It's the loneliness of understanding what that power ans. Of seeing beyond the veil and not being able to share that vision.

How does he...?

— Because now I see too — he continues, answering my unspoken question. — Not at the sa level, not in the sa way. You are the ocean; I am a drop that understood it was always water. But this drop understands the ocean's loneliness.

CRACK.

Sothing inside , sothing I've kept locked since this power found , breaks.

I don't realize I'm crying until I feel the tear slide down my cheek.

— I didn't ask for this — I whisper, and it's both confession and accusation. — I just wanted... to be normal. Have a normal life. But now I see EVERYTHING. Every possibility, every universe, every choice that leads to other infinite choices. How do I go back to being just Rito after this?

TOUCH.

Vali places his hand on my shoulder, and the touch is... an anchor. Real. Present.

— You don't go back — he says with brutal but gentle honesty. — But you also don't have to lose yourself. Rito and Presence aren't opposites — they're layers of the sa existence. You can be both.

— How? — The word cos out broken.

— By accepting that being human isn't about limitation — he smiles, and it's genuine, without a trace of the old arrogance. — It's about choosing the human experience even when you can transcend. Every mont you choose to be Rito, the clumsy one who trips over girls, is an act of will more powerful than creating universes.

Why do these words hurt so much and heal at the sa ti?

[The Change I Observe]

As Vali speaks, I truly see what changed:

The arrogance disappeared. It wasn't replaced by false humility — simply... there's no longer a need to prove anything.

He's still confident, but it's the confidence of a mountain: it doesn't need to declare it's solid.

There's humor now. Real humor, not defensive sarcasm.

Compassion perates every word, but it's not sticky or childish — it's recognition of shared unity.

HUMMM...

His aura doesn't "press" anymore. Before, being near Vali was like being near a compressed storm. Now it's like being near a deep lake — calm on the surface, but you FEEL the depth.

When he moves, reality subtly adjusts around him. Not violently, but as if he's always in the "right place."

His eyes see through masks. When he looks at , I see that he perceives every layer of defense I've built.

Paradoxically, I feel he beca MORE powerful by stopping the pursuit of power.

Divine Dividing is... different. Before it was a tool he wielded. Now it's a natural extension, like his own arm.

There's an inevitable quality to him now. As if what he decides to do simply... will happen, because it's aligned with the natural flow of things.

[The Most Terrifying Part]

He's no longer "separate" from reality. It's as if he beca a thread in the tapestry of existence, instead of soone pulling the threads.

And because I see the entire tapestry, I recognize:

He's right.

It's not illusion or trick.

Vali Lucifer genuinely transcended.

[Farewell]

— What will you do now? — I ask, finally regaining composure.

Vali looks at his own hands, opens and closes his fists experintally, as if testing a new body.

— Go back — he says simply. — There are people waiting. There are challenges I still need to face. There's a stupid rival with a red dragon who's probably worried, even if he'll never admit it.

— But you've changed. They'll notice.

— Yes — he agrees. — And it will be... interesting. Issei will probably think I'm sick. Kuroka will be suspicious. Azazel will be too intrigued for his own sanity.

He smiles, and there's genuine affection there. When was the last ti I saw Vali smile like that?

— But it's okay. Changing doesn't an abandoning. It ans growing. And for the first ti in my life... — he pauses, searching for words — I'm looking forward to seeing what cos next. Not because I want power. But because I want to live.

SHIMR...

— Rito — Vali says, pulling from my thoughts — thank you.

— For what? I only provided the space. You did all the work.

— Exactly. You could have interfered. Could have "saved" in dozens of ways. But you respected my choice to go through this — he bows, small but sincere. — That's a greater gift than any power.

I don't know what to say. So I just return the bow.

— When you go back — I say as I begin opening the dinsional portal — things will be different. People will react. So will understand, others will fear. Are you ready?

CRACKLE... CRACKLE...

The portal forms, tearing through space like a curtain being opened.

Vali looks at the portal, then back at . And in that look, I see unshakeable certainty.

— Fear and understanding are just perspectives. I can't control how others see . I can only be authentic in what I've beco — he smiles. — Besides, after facing existential void and the weight of a lifeti's karma... dealing with Rias Gremory having a fit when I refuse to battle the old way will be... refreshing.

I laugh.

Genuinely.

And I realize: this encounter changed us both. He found enlightennt. I found... hope? No. Sothing more subtle.

mory.

mory that, even carrying infinite power, I can still just be Rito.

I can still choose to be human.

[Return]

FWOOOOSH!

We cross the portal together.

POP.

And materialize back in the living room.

Ti hadn't passed. Of course not — it was my dinsion, after all.

Lala was still talking about robots. Mikan was still pouting. Asia was still cutting fruit. Haruna was drinking coffee. Irina and Xenovia were complaining about the seller who scamd them.

And the guests — Bikou, Kuroka, Arthur, Le Fay, Fenrir, Gogmagog, Sha Wujing, Zhu Bajie, and Ophis — all frozen at the exact mont we had left.

SNAP.

I reactivated ti.

— ...cookies! — Lala finished her sentence, noticing nothing.

But the guests...

GASP.

All of them felt it. Especially Kuroka and Ophis.

Kuroka looked at Vali, cat ears bristling, eyes widening.

— Vali...? — she whispered, voice trembling. — What... what happened to you, nya?

Ophis just stared, cookie forgotten in her hand.

And for the first ti since I'd known her, I saw real emotion in those empty eyes.

Admiration.

Vali smiled — that new, genuine smile — and said simply:

— I ca ho.

And sohow, everyone understood.

He had left.

And returned as sothing more.