Chapter 20: IV-3: A New Mission
"Nah. Too uneven."
Raylix let out a sigh as he dispelled an image conjured up out of his memories of a range of hills somewhere in the north-east of France. Sitting back down on the couch in Irene's room that also served as his bed- which he'd just woken up on a few minutes ago- he focused on a location that he'd visited two days ago, in the southwest of Spain on the border with Portugal. It was a decently flat stretch of land situated right next to the Guadiana, the river that ran across a long stretch of said border, thinking back on what he'd found of the place when he looked there.
It only took him a couple of seconds to mentally toss that place aside as a potential new base for the URF, as well. The mine on the other side of the border, close to where he'd gone, had come up in his memories: mines meant workers, and workers meant potential eyes that could see too much and would end up having to be dealt with.
Not a prospect he liked the idea of having to even bother with, so out that idea went. As the image faded away into smoke, Raylix let out another sign and settled back on the couch. He'd woken up a LOT earlier than he usually did. The sun was usually pretty high up in the sky when he got up, but it was still extremely dark outside the cave in which Irene's house sat, nowhere even close to morning yet. As he hadn't been able to get back to sleep, he'd initially decided to try and look through some of the places he'd visited the day before and selected as candidates for places that could be used as TSF bases, but he was just getting more and more bored by the minute.
Not even the kind of bored that you could easily fall asleep from, he just felt his mind going numb. Taking a breath, he cast his eyes around Irene's quiet living room for a second, before said eyes landed on the bookcases surrounding the fireplace. Magical Staves for Dummies, histories of Angels and Gods, tomes on Technomagic and Illusionary magic, history of Vampires, tomes on Geographical magic, Augmentation magic, Surveillance magic, history of Dragons, a tome on the Black Arts, guides to Sacred Gears from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a history of Devils, tomes on the White Arts, Duplication magic and Memory magic… damn, Irene needed someone to help sort her books out into at least SOME kind of order, Raylix thought.
Irene's organisational skills (or lackthereof) aside, Raylix figured that flicking through a book or two would be a better use of his time than the heart-stoppingly boring task of going through more and more locations and deciding whether or not they'd make for good TSF bases. To be honest, he'd compiled enough reports on potentially suitable places in the couple of weeks that he'd been staying with Irene for Katerea to (he hoped) be satisfied, so he didn't see much of a need to unnecessarily add to the workload of whoever ended up looking over the reports in question.
Raylix made his way over to one of the bookcases, flicking one hand in the direction of the unlit fireplace and setting it alight as he did so. Reaching up, he drew the index finger of his other hand along the case, before coming to a stop on the 19th Century guide to Sacred Gears. Pulling it out of the bookcase and holding it under his arm, he made his way back to the couch- which he'd been fast asleep on less than an hour ago- and sat down upon it, the light of the fire flickering around and illuminating the room just enough for the book's contents to be made out by a regular human as Raylix leant back and opened the book.
Not that he NEEDED the fire at all in order to see said contents, being a Devil and all. He'd just come to like the aesthetic of having a fire going in the background while he read something early in the morning… or late at night, any time where the sky outside was dark, basically. That, and it was warm, he liked being warm, sue him.
Taking a breath as he turned the page of the book, Raylix adjusted himself slightly on the couch, settling into a more comfortable reading position as he began reading about the most modern volume on Yahweh's artifacts seemingly available in the world.
Raylix wasn't unfamiliar with the concept of Sacred Gears. He knew the most basic of basic things about them: that the God of the Christian Pantheon had created them as a method of enacting 'miracles' among humanity without explicitly revealing himself (and the supernatural at large) to them, only humans (or those with at least 50% human ancestry, Raylix believed was the exact figure) could be born with them tied to their soul, and that anyone born with a Sacred Gear was extra likely to become a famed figure in human history… or die extremely early on, with the only record of them anywhere at all being in a book such as this, which chronicled this kind of thing.
But the more that Raylix read, the more pages he turned, the further he progressed into the book, the more he found himself engrossed in the subject.
There was far more to them than he'd ever thought there could be. They came in all shapes and sizes, categorized into many different classes and types, with powers and abilities of all kinds. The state-changers like Twice Critical and Aegis Mineralization, the recovery-types like Twilight Healing, the Creation-types like Sword Birth and Blade Blacksmith, the Defence-types like Night Reflection, the elemental-types like Nereid Kyrie and Flame Shake, the barrier and sealing-types like Trick Vanish, the time and space-types like Gravity Jail and Dreamlike Curse, the avatar-types like Freezing Archaeopteryx, with every page or two that Raylix turned, there was always another that perked Raylix's interest, drew his attention for a minute or so as he read about the Gear's abilities, known wielders and forms that it had been known to take throughout millennia.
And then, there were the Longinus. A class of Sacred Gear completely unto themselves, the most powerful of their type, all of which with the potential power to kill Gods. They were named as such after the blind Roman centurion that speared Jesus Christ in the side, whose sight was healed after some of Christ's blood fell upon his eyes, with said spear becoming the first and most powerful Sacred Gear.
Thirteen in all, and just as varied and diverse as the rest of God's artifacts: like Dimension Lost, which could both block attacks and transport beings through the mist that it took the form of, or Annihilation Maker, which could create all kinds of creatures from one's shadow with the only major limit being one's imagination, or the Boosted Gear or Divine Dividing, which had the souls of Ddraig and Albion sealed inside them… Raylix couldn't help but allow himself a small smirk as he recalled that battle nearly five hundred years ago, and the extremely minor hand he'd had in the latter's demise.
There was also the Sephiroth Graal- the Holy Grail from the Last Supper that possessed all manner of abilities connected to life itself, with restoration, resurrection, soul-manipulation, creation of organisms and awakening of inner potential (whatever that meant) listed among its known abilities. And of course, there was the True Longinus, the very spear that pierced Christ's body, and was rumoured to possess God's own will as well as immense… wait, was that RESURRECTION he'd read among the Graal's abilities?
Immediately flicking back a couple of pages, Raylix looked over the description of the Sephiroth Graal far more intensely than the first time he'd gone over it, even touching his finger to the page and running it down the list of known abilities… until it stopped on resurrection: returning a deceased individual or individuals to the world of the living, ideally to full health.
Raylix let out a slow breath as he gently tapped his finger on the word 'resurrection', the cogs in his mind turning quickly. Being able to bring people back to life… well, he could sure as hell think of a couple of people he'd like to use THAT particular ability for the benefit of.
----- ----- -----
Moving the eye-mask she wore to bed away from her eyes as she sat up, Irene let out a yawn. She waved her hand to bring some light into the room, as her bedroom window didn't face the outside of the cave that her house was in. After that, Irene flung the covers off of her, not wanting to spend any longer in bed than she really had to.
All it took was a wave of one hand for her to magically freshen herself up, to clean herself of the previous day's stink and get her hair braided back up in the way that she always had it done, and another wave of her hand to replace the simple black nightie that she wore to bed with some casual morning clothes: just a long-sleeved t-shirt, jeans and a pair of socks, nothing fancy. She wasn't planning on doing anything today that would require her to officially act as a Magician, so there wasn't much point in getting all dolled up into her official Magician's garb.
Cleaning and dressing herself had taken all of a few seconds for Irene, and once it was done, she made her way over to her bedroom door, pulled it open and moved out, with the first sounds meeting her ears upon leaving her bedroom being the crackling of the fireplace, and the turning of a page in a book. Passing the door to the bathroom, Irene began making her way down the stairs, noticing something that confirmed the suspicions that had popped into her head as soon as she heard the fire and pages-turning: Raylix was here, and he was awake.
"Morning." Irene spoke up, nodding to Raylix in greeting as she reached the bottom of the stairs, immediately turning around to head towards the kitchen. "Fancied a bit of early-morning reading, Raylix?"
"Mmhmm." Raylix nodded, without looking up from the book he had his nose in. "Morning."
Pushing the door to the kitchen open, Irene strode in, quickly waving her hand in a practiced motion at the coffee-machine in the corner in order to get it going, and quickly transporting a glass underneath it in order to catch the coffee that came out. There was a fruit bowl just by the coffee-machine that Irene snagged a couple of apples out of, slipping one into her pocket and taking a bite out of the other as the coffee dropped out of the machine and into the glass. Ground up and iced simultaneously, magic could absolutely wonderful sometimes.
"Hey, Raylix!" Irene called, through the open door into the living room. "You want anything to drink?"
"No, thanks!" Raylix's voice back back through the door, a couple of seconds later. "I'm alright!"
Letting out a sigh and nodding, Irene pulled her glass out of the machine and took a sip as she made her way out into the living room, and after noticing that Raylix was still on the couch, took a seat on the armchair just across from him. Pulling the table between the two of them slightly closer to her with her foot, she set her glass down on the table and held up her hand. After a couple of seconds, the book on the history of Dragons flew from the bookcase it was situated on and landed in Irene's hand, which she opened to a page near the beginning of it and held on her lap while she took another bite out of the first apple she'd grabbed.
Silence, apart from Irene's quiet chewing, the occasional sips of coffee that she took, the pages of books turning, and the continued light crackling of the fire, reigned throughout the room for the next couple of hours, with Raylix idly putting the fire out as soon as the sun had risen outside the cave to the point that the light that the fire gave off became unnecessary.
Once Irene was essentially done with the glass of coffee, and had finished the apples, she got back to her feet in order to dispose of the cores and take the glass back to the kitchen. She cast half a glance over at the book Raylix was reading- had been reading and hadn't stopped since Irene had come downstairs, probably before then- and raised an eyebrow as she noticed its title.
"Interested in Sacred Gears, are we Raylix?" she asked, before turning around and beginning her walk back to the kitchen.
"Just one." Raylix replied, again not even looking up from the book as Irene made her way into the kitchen, tossed the apples into a bin and put the glass in the sink, before heading back into the living room.
Irene raised an eyebrow as she made her way back to the chair, sitting back down in it and looking over at Raylix.
"Just one?" she asked, as her eyes moved across the page that Raylix's book was open on. "Huh. The Sephiroth Graal… a Devil interested in the Holy Grail, never thought I'd see the day."
Raylix let out a quiet snort, looking up from the book at Irene before marking the page and shutting it.
"What do you even want the Grail for?" Irene asked, looking down at the book that Raylix had put down on the couch. "You're already damn-near immortal, and I'm guessing in decent health. Or maybe not?"
"I'm in fine health." Raylix replied. "And I don't plan on using the Grail, not for myself. Well, I guess FOR myself but not for my explicit benefit, you know?"
"Alright, then." Irene nodded, folding her arms beneath her breasts, pushing up them up slightly as she did so. "What do you want that the Holy Grail can give you?"
Raylix reached down to the couch, picked the book up and opened it to the page that he'd marked, pointing to a specific section of the pages in question.
"Sabemka and Tomosei." Raylix replied, tapping the word 'resurrection' a couple of times. Silence hung in the room again before Irene closed her eyes, nodding. Re-marking the page, Raylix sat back down on the couch, setting the book down on his lap.
Irene got up from her chair, slowly made her way over to Raylix, and sat down beside him. Raylix's eyes were solely focused on the book, so he didn't notice Irene raising a hand to place it on his shoulder, but lowering it before she could lay it down upon him.
"Alright…" the scarlet-haired Magician spoke. "How are you going to find the Graal, Raylix? Unless you've just been focused on the fact that resurrection is one of its known powers, I'm sure you noticed that there hasn't been a recorded wielder of that Gear for… centuries. Maybe even millennia, the last person we know of that's come into contact with the thing has been dead for nearly a millennium and a half."
"And?" Raylix replied. "We can search for it. Many have."
"And all have failed." Irene retorted. "It wouldn't be the most coveted artefact in history, by both humanity AND the supernatural, if it was easy to find. And what makes you think I'd help you with looking for it and its wielder? I don't remember agreeing to that, Raylix."
"Well, the more the merrier on a search like this, right?" Raylix asked. "Your insane knowledge and my power, I'd say that makes for a good enough team to find anything, even the Holy Grail."
Irene let out a small snort at Raylix's words.
"I'm flattered you have that much faith in the knowledge I've acquired over the centuries, Raylix, but I'm just not certain that it would be enough." She replied. "And besides, we both have our respective duties to consider. You've got your mission with the Old Satan Faction, I'm on the Magicians' Council, and I've got my own Guild to oversee as well, we can't just drop all of that to go on a potentially endless quest for the Holy Grail."
"I'm sure some Magicians right now think that the quest to sitting on the Council is an endless one, too." Raylix replied. "Okay, maybe 'quest' might not be the right word, but I think you know what I mean. The point is, it's not some kind of forever-road with no end in sight, you're- everyone on the Council right now, I'm sure, is proof of that."
Irene remained silent, thinking back to her situation before becoming an official SS-Rank Magician, which was required to sit on the Council in the first place. Quite a few times, usually when a fellow S-Rank got elected to the Council when a position opened up instead of Irene herself, she'd felt like all of her work and study prior to those points had been for nothing, that the timeline of her ascension up the ranks of Magehood would be extended further and further and further, going on forever. And on top of that, when she was younger and lower in rank, when getting her research on Dragon-based magic published and distributed throughout the world, she'd always felt that there was more to do, more to study, more to put out there that could probably increase her chances at being recognised and further ascending the ranks… it had eaten at her, and even when she'd reached the top, it still did.
The desire for prestige… there was no losing it once you had it.
"That, and, well," Raylix continued. "Being the Magician who helped find the Holy Grail seems to have a nice ring to it. Would be good for Alvarez, too, I'd say quite a few Magicians would rush to join a guild headed by the one who finally discovered the most coveted artefact in world history, yeah?"
"Yeah…" Irene replied, a small smile coming to her face. "That's a good point, Raylix. I suppose I could potentially dedicate some of my time to helping you. I'd have to think about it, though."
Raylix nodded, a smile returning to his own.
"Alright." He replied, standing up and looking outside, where judging by the angle of the light coming into the cave, it was now midday outside. Bending down and picking up the book on Sacred Gears, he stretched one arm, looking back at Irene as she stretched herself out over all of the couch. "I think I'm gonna, you know, take those reports I've been cooking up back to Hebeth. I'll be back soon."
"Then why take the book?" Irene asked, her eyes flicking to the book that Raylix had put under his arm.
"Bit of light reading if I end up being there longer than I think I will be." Raylix replied. "I'll be careful with it, I promise."
Irene nodded, narrowing her eyes slightly in a way that said "You'd better." Without her even needing to open her mouth. Raylix nodded back, making his way to the front door.
"See you later!" he called over his shoulder, reaching out with his free hand and pulling the door open, shutting it behind him once he'd walked through it and immediately casting a transportation-circle to take him out of Greece and back to Hebeth in a flash. Looking around and recognising where he'd landed as at the bottom of the building that his and Katerea's residence was at, Raylix immediately spread his wings and launched himself up into the air, his eyes on the window that he usually used to come in when flying through the city, which he reached within only a few seconds.
A light knock on the window with his free hand was all it took for him to get Katerea's attention- she was sat at the table reading, looked up as soon as she heard the knock in question, and got up to pull the window open.
"We have a door, you know." Katerea remarked, by way of greeting, as Raylix floated in and dispelled his wings, landing on the ground beside her.
"I know." Raylix replied, turning around and tossing the book down on the table, next to the book that Katerea had left open where she'd been sitting a moment earlier, his expression having slipped back into a more neutral one. "This way's just faster."
Katerea shrugged.
"Fair enough. You got any reports on prospective base locations?" she asked, cutting straight to business. Raylix nodded, waving a hand at the table where next to his and Katerea's books, a stack of files appeared through a magic-circle. Katerea glanced over, and gave a nod of approval.
"Nice." She remarked, as her eye wandered from them over to the book that Raylix tossed down. "I'll go over them in a bit… hmm." She moved over to the table and picked up the book on Sacred Gears, glancing at the cover before looking up at Raylix. "Bit of light reading on Sacred Gears, huh Raylix?"
"Yeah." Raylix nodded. "Met up with my Pact Magician recently- they were with me since before the Gremory Clan- they're alright." He added, at Katerea's raised eyebrow. "Anyway, I've been staying with them, and the book just caught my eye."
"I can see that." Katerea replied, running a finger down the edges of the pages of the book, clearly able to tell that they'd been used, before opening the book to the page that Raylix had marked earlier. "The Sephiroth Graal, huh?"
"Caught my eye." Raylix repeated, as Katerea sat down, looking closer and paying more attention to the book's description of the Graal. There was silence between the two for a moment as Katerea's eyes made their way down the page, and then down the next page as well. Once she made her way down the second page, she turned the page to see what it said on its other side (it was a overview of the Sacred Gear known as Holy Resuscitation, if Raylix remembered correctly), before marking the page again, shutting the book and looking over at him. Raylix looked back, wondering if she'd already figured out why the Graal had caught his eye, and why exactly he had taken an interest in it.
But Katerea didn't speak immediately, instead leaving the book open on the table and snapping her fingers, opening a couple of magic comms-circles on the table in front of her, with the top halves of Shalba and Creuserey appearing through said circles a second or so later: Shalba on the left, the closer circle to Raylix, and Creuserey on the right.
"What is it, Katerea?" Shalba asked, by way of greeting. "I thought our meeting wasn't until next week."
"Yeah, some of us have got important stuff to take care of between now and then!" Creuserey replied, before turning his attention to something just out of Katerea's sight. "Hey, watch the balls, bitch! Just because I'm not paying attention to you doesn't mean to get to slip up when working on me!"
Shalba rolled his eyes, reaching somewhere out of sight, grabbing what- a second later- was revealed to be a slice of pie almost as big as his entire head, and beginning to munch on it.
"Yeah, sounds like some pretty important work you're both getting on with, guys." Katerea replied, dryly. "Anyway, what I've found will probably be enough to get your attention."
Creuserey didn't verbally reply, still occupied with whatever (or rather, whoever) he was doing, while Shalba let out a half-interested "hmm?" with his mouth still full. By way of reply, Katerea opened the book on the table and placed her hand onto one of the pages, casting a demonic spell of some kind on it that caused it to flash purple for a fraction of a second. Raylix had to guess that it was something that copied the page and sent it over to Shalba and Creuserey, judging by how they looked up from what they were doing. She did the same to the second page a second or so later.
"One of those Sacred Gear things?" Shalba was the first to speak, a couple of seconds after Katerea had sent both pages over. "Katerea, what does this have to do with anything?"
"I think it'll become obvious when you read through what I sent." Katerea replied, sitting back in her chair and nodding at Raylix as he made his way towards the door, mouthing the word "toilet" to her as he went.
Silence fell among the three TSF leaders once again as Shalba and Creuserey perused the pages. None made any verbal comment, unless the couple of grunts that Creuserey let out as he read (or maybe they were grunts of pleasure as whoever was just offscreen on his end continued to suck him off) counted as such.
"Well, I guess it sounds like an interesting tool..." Shalba remarked once he was done reading, looking back at Katerea as he did so. "But I'm not sure I see exactly why it was worth bringing to our attention, Katerea."
"Maybe look through the 'known powere' section again, Shalba?" Katerea asked by way of reply, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Shalba's eyes darted back to the page, presumably to the section that she'd pointed out, but Creuserey was the first to speak up this time.
"Hey, resurrection is among the known powers!"
"Yes, resurrection." Katerea repeated, looking slightly more intently at Shalba. "As in, bringing a deceased being back from the dead? I don't know about either of you, but I can sure as hell think of a couple of ways we can use a power like THAT to our advantage."
"Yeah!" Creuserey replied, actually looking and sounding enthusiastically interested in the conversation Katerea had dragged him into for the first time since the call had began. "We could revive any of our soldiers that go down against the Fake Satans' military when we move against them! We'd never run out of numbers to throw at them with the power to resurrect people on our side!"
"Damn right, we wouldn't!" Katerea nodded, a smile coming across her face as someone seemed to finally understand what she was getting at.
"That's certainly an attractive prospect." Shalba remarked, nodding as well. "And I don't see any kind of limit on how long we can wait before not being able to resurrect someone, either. Not like with those Evil Pieces that that irresponsible excuse of a new Beelzebub invented after the Civil War ended."
"Me, neither." Katerea replied. "Kind of a weirdly specific thing to point out though, Shalba."
"Really?" Shalba raised an eyebrow as he looked back at her through the comms-circle. "I'm not sure it's that weird or specific, as you say. I mean, we've been working in the name of the Old Satans, the leaders of the Royals, this whole time... why not take that a step further?"
"Oh... OHH." Creuserey's eyes widened slightly as it dawned on him exactly what Shalba was implying. "Damn, Shalba, can't believe I didn't think of that! Just imagine the look on that slut Serafall's face when he sees my father alive and in the flesh on the battlefield once again! Or Sirzechs wetting his pants when Bidleid appears and beats the shit out of him!"
A grin crossed Shalba's face, as he seemed to seriously consider the prospect. But Creuserey wasn't done.
"Ooh, wait, wait! How about the look on LILITH'S face when Lucifer kicks down the door to his castle and puts that traitor in her place! We all know she deserves it given how she left us out to dry at the end of the Civil War-"
"Yes, yes, those all sound like great ideas." Katerea spoke up, before her male contemporaries could get too carried away with fantasies of violent revenge being conducted on those who had wronged them and their families. Though she had to admit, taking down Ajuka and driving a spear through his heart with her resurrected mother by her side didn't sound like the worst prospect in the world. "I take it you're for the idea I had in mind: including searching for the Sephiroth Graal among the missions of our operatives in the Human world?"
"Hell yeah, I approve!" Shalba cried. "I'm for it!"
"Same!" Creuserey replied, as the door to the hallway opened and Raylix came back through, zipping up his pants and stretching one arm. "You'd better be working twice as hard out there, Raylix! If we find out you're not giving your all when Katerea isn't around to save you, you're dead!"
Whatever response he was hoping for out of Raylix, the grandson of Asmodeus found himself disappointed to have gotten none. He got one from Katerea, however.
"I think even you can afford Raylix a little slack, at least for a bit." She remarked. "I mean, it WAS him that brought this information to my attention, after all."
Katerea had to hold herself back from giggling a little as Creuserey's mouth hung open- rather stupidly- for a couple of seconds before he shut it again, and said nothing.
"Did he really?" Shalba replied, his eyes shifting from Katerea right in front of him, to Raylix just at her side. "Well, I suppose thanks of a kind are in order, Raylix. Did you know that when you came across this information, it would be of such great use?"
"Of course." Raylix replied, averting his eyes slightly from Shalba's as he looked over at him. "Got to use every advantage you find against an enemy, right?"
"Precisely!" Shalba replied, bringing his hands together before looking up, past the comms-circle. "We'll talk later, Katerea, someone's just walked into my office."
"Same." Creuserey remarked, looking down past the comms-circle as Shalba's comms-circle disappeared. "All this damn talking's getting me soft! Gonna need another slut or two to fix that!"
"Right." Katerea replied, as Creuserey's comms-circle disappeared a second later, leaving her and Raylix as the only ones left in the room. Letting out a breath, Leviathan's granddaughter reached over to the still-open book on Sacred Gears, before shutting it and handing it back over to Raylix. "I suppose I should let you have this back, Raylix. Shalba and Creuserey have all the info they need, and it DOES belong to your Pact Magician."
"It does, yeah." Raylix replied, accepting the book back from Katerea. "I guess I'm free to go, unless you need me to do anything else?"
"Yeah, you are free to go." Katerea replied. "You didn't hear this because, well, you weren't here, but you're to search for the Sephiroth Graal, as well as look for potential human-world bases for us. I'll have a look over those reports you brought back, and get back to you in due time, okay?"
"Okay." Raylix nodded, flicking his hand to create a transportation-circle between him and Katerea before stepping into it. A nod was all he shared with Katerea after that, before he activated the transportation-circle and disappeared from Hebeth, re-appearing outside Irene's door a second later. Without a second thought, Raylix stepped forward, opening the door and walking in, shutting it behind him.
Irene was still exactly where she'd been when Raylix had left, minutes earlier: stretched out over the couch with a book in her hand, though her attention immediately shifted away from said book once she heard the door opening, saw Raylix striding through it.
"Well, at least you brought the book back." Irene remarked, her eyes flicking down to it momentarily before shifting back up to Raylix's face. "How did things go?"
"Well." Raylix replied, walking over to one of the bookcases and pushing the book back into it. "Pretty well. So..." he turned around, looking back at Irene once he'd done so. "You given any thought to the whole 'helping me out with looking for the Sephiroth Graal' thing?"
"Yeah, I'd say I have." Irene replied, shutting the book she was reading with a snap and sending it back to the bookcase with a wave of her hand. "And, well, I'd say helping you out sounds pretty worth-it, Raylix. I'm obviously not going to be able to help you out all the time, but in the spare time I do have?"
She didn't speak beyond that, only giving a subtle nod. It was all Raylix needed, though, to grin.
"Nice." He remarked. "Thanks, Irene."
Irene didn't reply, instead only standing up and snapping her fingers, immediately switching out the casual attire she'd dressed herself in upon waking up for her official (and sexy) Magician's garb: revealling top, loincloths over crotch and ass, boots, clawed gloves, hat, the whole shebang, complete with her hair automatically doing itself up into thick braids.
"No problem. Shall we get going?"
Raylix started for a second, having clearly not expected to begin the search for the Holy Grail NOW of all times, but now that the offer was there, he wasn't about to say no. Being the one closer to the front door than his Pact Magician was, he moved over to it and pulled it open, holding it open with his foot as Irene came closer to- and eventually moved through- it, and shut the door behind the pair of them. As Raylix opened his hand to create a transportation-circle, Irene held up one hand, summoning her staff into the other.
"Not yet, Raylix." She remarked, holding her staff up into the air for a couple of seconds, a focused look on her face before she brought it down to the ground, with it making a rather loud, echoey banging sound as she did so. Almost immediately, a scarlet energy of sorts poured out from the staff and spread across the cave towards the house, first going across the cave-floor beneath it and then spreading upwards, across its entire surface-area over the course of several seconds.
Once that was done, the scarlet energy surrounding the house began to glow intensely for a few seconds... and then the house disappeared from view, with Irene's staff glowing just as intensely with the same scarlet energy for a second or so, before the glow faded and eventually vanished. Her work done, Raylix's Pact Mage turned back towards him, a satisfied look on her face.
"Alright, NOW we can get going." She remarked. "You got anywhere in mind that we could look first, Raylix?"
"Yeah, somewhere." Raylix nodded, re-casting the transportation-circle that Irene had stopped him from casting a moment ago. "Probably isn't there, but can't hurt to try."
Irene nodded, stepping into the circle with her Pact Devil as he activated said circle, with the pair of them disappearing from the cave- as if they'd never been there in the first place- in a flash of light.
----- ----- -----
As it turned out, Raylix was right.
His first guess for where the Sephiroth Graal could be, the area formerly known as Hatay that was now the southernmost province of Turkey, had a lot of things. Most of them people, over a million in fact, a good few mountains- none quite reaching the same peak as the mountain that he and Irene had met each other on- and a decently rich history behind the province being the way it was today.
But a Holy Grail? ANYTHING relating to the Holy Grail? Nothing. Nada. Neither did the next few places that Raylix found himself brought to by anything even slightly resembling a lead that he came across.
The latest of such leads- about a week and a half since Katerea had directed him to start looking for the Sephiroth Graal as well as potential new locations for TSF bases- was what had brought Raylix and his Pact Mage to where they were now, a rather remote English village with barely anyone around as they walked on one side of the single road leading through it. A small church could be seen on one side of the road, the side that Raylix and Irene were walking on, and a hotel with a few parked cars in front of it was situated on the other side, just about directly across from the church.
"Did you want to cross?" Irene asked, her tone low. Her eyes shifted over to Raylix as with every step they took, they came closer and closer to the church.
"Nah, I'm fine." Raylix replied in an equally low tone, shaking his head. "Next to no presence in that church anyway, save for a couple of believers. Unless there's some mega-powerful Angel just below the surface that's concealing their presence far better than any paranormal stationed here really has any need to in this nothing-town, I somehow doubt the Grail's here."
"Yeah." Irene nodded, stepping up off of the road as a car came down the other side, and taking a couple of steps up a short slope before sitting down on a bench, just a couple of dozen yards or so from the church in question. Raylix stopped in place, looking almost quizzically at her for a couple of seconds, before joining her.
Silence, a common occurrence between the former Clan Heir and his SS-Rank Pact Mage, stretched out once again as humans walked past in both directions- some with pets, some not- cars were driven by, animals grazed in the field just across the road, surely just what went on everyday around here. The silence between Raylix and Irene didn't last forever, however, as the latter spoke up while turning slightly towards the former.
"Raylix, do you hate your family?"
"Huh?" Raylix blinked, turning slightly towards Irene as he processed what she'd uttered to him. "That came out of nowhere, Irene. What brought that on?"
"Curiosity." Irene shrugged. "Because, I mean, joining a faction that has the explicit goal of bringing down the very nobility that your family remains a prominent part of to this day isn't exactly something that one does when you love them. And have lived with them for, what, five centuries?"
"Around that, yeah. And no, I guess not." Raylix replied. "If it were between love and hate... I don't know. If you'd asked me around the time I'd first joined the TSF, it'd probably- no wait, definitely- be hate, but now..." he trailed off, looking far off over the horizon before leaning back on the bench, staring up into the cloud-filled sky with a blank look on his face.
"Now you're not so sure." Irene replied. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Or something like it, at least."
Raylix hummed non-committally as he sat back up, staring back down at his thighs rather than anywhere in Irene's direction.
"What they did- what everyone did- after Sabemka and Tomosei... you know," Raylix began. "Just rubbed me the wrong way, in every way possible. I couldn't NOT hate them, at least for a little while."
"Mmhmm." Irene hummed, now having turned a little bit further towards Raylix as he let out a breath.
"I think you nailed it, Irene: I'm not sure whether I love or hate them." Raylix continued. "But truth be told, I haven't thought about it that much. Once I left and join the True Satan Faction, my feelings stopped mattering. When I was accepted by the other side, I was in deep enough. Deserter, turncoat, betrayer of my own, no way I'd be accepted if I decided to go back. Not a snowball's chance."
Irene remained silent as she turned slightly away from Raylix, facing the road and horizon beyond.
"And besides." Raylix continued, shrugging. "I'll bet you anything that Father and Mother have got another child on the way right now, or are working on one."
"You think so?" Irene asked, turning back towards Raylix and shifting herself slightly. Sitting on a wooden bench for any length of time wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, especially not when all there was between said wooden bench and her bare butt-cheeks was her closed cape and the ass-covering loincloth beneath. "A million Souls?"
"Two million." Raylix replied. "And another five hundred thousand that they're doing everything they can to erase any chance of them turning out like me. Teaching them how wonderful and perfect the Gremory Clan and noble Pillars are, how the family's- or Father's best-interest should be their one and only priority, and probably married off to a fellow noble lady- or gentleman- before they hit their first century."
"Want to double that bet on whether that child will be an Heir or an Heiress?" Irene asked, a small smile crossing her face. One that shrank back to nothing when Raylix shook his head.
"Potentially five million in the hole on a coin-toss? No thanks, I'll stick with two and a half on a certainty."
"Fair enough." Irene replied, shrugging and holding out her hand, which Raylix took and shook. When both Mage and Devil pulled back from the handshake, Irene looked up, narrowing her eyes slightly as she noticed the clouds above as a little bit darker than they were when they'd sat down. "We might want to move on soon, Raylix, I think it's gonna rain soon."
"Yeah." Raylix nodded, standing up and stretching as Irene did the same. "Want to get lunch first? I don't think we had anything this morning, and I'm pretty sure that hotel has a restaurant as well."
"Sure." Irene shrugged, letting out a breath as she followed Raylix away from the bench, back to the pavement as they crossed the road, making a beeline for the hotel.
----- ----- -----
Irene was forced to raise her staff as a clawed hand came swinging towards her, infusing magic into the staff itself in order to stop it from immediately breaking once the claws struck it. Gritting her teeth as she struggled against the Stray Devil's strength for a second, she shut her eyes before sending out an intense blast of light from her staff, blinding the being in question as they got a faceful of the stuff, immediately withdrawing their hand from Irene to cover and rub their eyes. Stepping backwards for a moment, Irene quickly waved her staff and conjured up a barrier around herself, blocking a bolt of demonic energy that came flying at her from her right.
She returned fire with a beam of energy powerful enough to go straight through the Stray Devil in question, causing them to let out a final shriek of pain before they keeled over on the ground, a hole where their heart would have been had Irene not just blasted it out. Turning back to the Stray that she'd blinded, Irene twirled her staff around for half a second before thrusting it through the Stray's chest while they were still occupied with rubbing their eyes, driving it to the ground before channelling a minor explosive spell directly through her staff in order to blast the Stray's insides to bloody bits while still keeping everything inside their body.
Practice and experience stopped her from overdoing such a spell in such a situation, which would've sent parts of the Stray in every direction, and soaked her and her clothes with the outburst of blood and guts. Not something that she wanted to experience, not when she rather liked this outfit.
"I think that makes six for me, Raylix!" Irene called, turning around after taking a breath. "Raylix?"
"Ten!" Raylix called, more to himself than anyone else as a Stray that he'd just recently blown a sizeable hole in with the Power of Destruction flew across the field, landing next to and rolling past where Irene was stood before coming to a stop, where its blood leaked out of its body and soaked the ground it lay upon. Raylix descended through a hail of demonic bullets onto a quartet of Stray Devils, summoning Gaeneron in one hand to slash the closest one with, cutting deep enough in the right place that the Stray simply fell where he stood. "Eleven!" Raylix called out as he caught the fresh corpse with his free hand and tossed it towards the next-closest Stray, distracting him for the half-second or so he needed to dash past it and punch the next Stray with enough force to send them flying off their feet.
Even from where Irene was, she was able to visually make out Raylix's eyes shifting from blue to crimson, as his destructive eye-beams blazed from his eyes and pierced the Stray before it hit the ground, cutting them up into three or four pieces of Devil.
"Twelve!" he called out, looking around as the sound of demonic energy charging up caught his attention, and opened an Amalgamation-hole with his right hand just as as a beam of energy came out of the Stray who he'd tossed the corpse at a few seconds earlier. The energy-beam landed squarely in the Amalgamation-hole that Raylix had brought up, dissipating a second earlier as the Stray ran out of energy. Raylix closed his hand, and the Amalgamation-hole along with it, and let out a sigh as his body glowed for a fraction of a second.
"Really?" the chestnut-haired former Gremory Heir remarked. "That's the best you could do? Lilith below, you are pathetic!"
The last word came out just as Raylix leant to the side, dodging a diving lunge made by the fourth Stray Devil that was aimed for his head. Dispelling Gaeneron and reaching out with both hands, he grabbed the Stray by the head and neck in both hands and simply twisted its neck until it snapped, upon which Raylix dropped its corpse to the ground, resummoned Gaeneron and lazily tossed it like a javelin, where the point of its blade pierced the second Stray- now the last one left alive- through the skull.
"Fourteen, by the way." Raylix finished, snapping his fingers and re-summoning Gaeneron to his hand before the Stray that it had pierced even hit the ground, and turned around. "Did you say something, Irene?"
"Nothing." Irene replied. "But you were right, these guys have got to be some of the more pathetic Stray Devils I've ever faced."
"Agreed." Raylix nodded. "Wouldn't have even been worth bothering with them, if they didn't happen to be here." He raised a free hand and cast it around to the wider area at large, a decently large stretch of countryside on the continental United States. Before moving in on the Strays that had arrived at this spot first- and made a small base of their own out of the place- Raylix had since checked the surrounding area, there were no signs of any human settlement for dozens of miles around, so that wouldn't be an issue. And as well as that, the land was some of the flattest land he'd ever seen, so it would be INCREDIBLY easy to build whatever was necessary for any potential new TSF base. After that- assuming this location was chosen- it would only be a small matter of installing fresh anti-teleportation and repellent wards around the place.
Definitely worth composing a report on, Raylix thought. Once all the corpses were disposed of, of course. Sighing, he dispelled Gaerneon out of his hand and summoned the Power of Destruction into both of his hands, before beginning to walk around the area and toss waves of his mother's destructive energy at the bloody corpses, destroying each and every one. Irene took a seat on a nearby rock, taking off her hat and letting out a sigh and wiping her sweaty brow as she watched Raylix work.
It didn't take Raylix long to reduce the corpses to nothing at all: the twenty Strays that had previously made this stretch of land their home looked like they'd never been there at all within a couple of minutes. Once done, he turned and- after letting out a small sigh at Irene's comparative lack of work- walked over to a rock just next to the one that Irene was sitting on and sat down beside her. Silence reigned between Raylix and Irene for a moment or so before Raylix spoke up.
"Can I ask-"
"Don't ask if you can ask." Irene cut across Raylix, sighing as she picked at her teeth with one of her clawed fingers. "Just ask."
"Alright, fine." Raylix replied, lightly shaking his head. "If- no- when we get the Sephiroth Graal, what would you do with it?"
"So you don't plan on trying to kill me the second you get your hands on it?" Irene replied, letting out a giggle. "That's a surprise."
"I decline to answer that." Raylix remarked. "But, seriously, when we get it, what would you do with it?"
"Something like that? Probably a lot of things." Irene replied. "But I guess the first thing that comes to mind is for study. Of the soul."
"Of the soul?" Raylix repeated, adjusting his position on the rock slightly as he waved his hand in front of his right eye, forming a small magic-circle over the eye in question. He looked straight ahead, over the clear patch of land that he and Irene had just cleared of Stray Devils a moment before, and briefly closed his right eye, causing the magic-circle to flash for an instant.
The former Clan Heir looked to his right and did the same before looking to his left and taking a third picture, before dispelling the magic-circle and looking back at Irene, curiosity slowly crossing his face.
"Yes, the soul." Irene replied, flicking away whatever she'd just picked out of her teeth and rubbing her finger on the inside of her cape. "Always wanted to get into soul-related magics, but it's not exactly a kind many are willing to try and study when messing even the slightest thing up could result in the very thing that makes us… well, us, being torn to shreds. But with the Graal, and its power over souls, I'd have insurance."
"So for knowledge?" Raylix remarked, before looking out into the distance and nodding, allowing himself a shrug. "Good a reason as any, I guess."
"And you'd use it to revive Sabemka and Tomosei." Irene remarked, letting out a breath. "I don't see much reason in asking why."
"Yeah, because it's kind of obvious." Raylix replied. "They're my friends and they got reduced to nothing by a band of crows."
Irene suppressed a snigger at Raylix's words.
"Seven millennia of existing in the same Pantheon as the Fallen Angels, and you Devils can't think of a better insult for them than 'crow'?" she asked. "Really?"
"All the others I can think of are kind of hypocritical, given- you know- Devil." Raylix replied, shrugging as he gestured to himself. "But maybe I should try and think of something a little more hurtful for them. Lilith knows they deserve it."
Irene hummed in non-committal agreement, deciding against commenting on her Pact Devil's rather venomous tone during the last five words. Though he was back to a more neutral inflection when he continued.
"There's more to it, though. Saving the Underworld with the True Satan Faction, it's definitely something I want to do. But doing that all on my own, I don't know. It'd just be… hollow, I guess, without them around? We'd been together pretty much our entire lives up until… until a few years ago, so it's just… lonely, without them."
Irene hummed again, before getting to her feet.
"You got the pictures you needed of this place?" she asked, smoothing out her outfit and looking around at Raylix, who got to his feet and nodded, tapping at the top of his cheek just below his right eye.
"Yup." He replied, stretching. "I'll probably just write up the rest of the report when we get back to yours, and send it back to Katerea from there."
Irene nodded, raising her staff before tapping it onto the ground, upon which a scarlet energy that Raylix had seen several times over the past couple of weeks spread out from the bottom of the staff, across the stretch of ground beneath. Once it had stretched over a large enough area, the scarlet energy glowed, and Irene's house rose up in the glowing area, before the glow faded away.
Once done, she dispelled her staff and looked back at Raylix, who nodded and followed her through the door, back into the house.
----- ----- -----
"Come on! Just LOOK at her, Zechs! Just look at Sona's huge eyes that make you want to do whatever she wants! Rias is cute but she's cuter, no contest!"
"No way, Serafall! How can you even say that when you see Rias puffing out her cheeks like that? You've got to admit that that's just the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life!"
Grayfia resisted the urge to sigh openly as she adjusted the hem of her maid outfit. Her eyes quickly flicked over to the two Devil children, the Heiresses of the Gremory and Sitri Clans, just to confirm that they hadn't gotten into a fight with each other over any of the kinds of things that two-year-olds get into fights over, because Satan knew that Sirzechs and Serafall were too busy arguing with each other over which of the two were cuter to actually watch them closely.
Once the silverette was sufficiently satisfied with her summation that Rias and Sona hadn't started fighting with each other, she returned her attention to the window and what was going on outside: she'd noticed two Byrds that, while small from where she was standing were probably quite a bit bigger in person, had gotten into a fight with each other on the outskirts of Gemyem. She watched one of the large creatures momentarily disengage from its duel with the other before coming back with its claws out and beak open wide. Sirzechs and Serafall's conversation, and Rias and Sona's playing, were just background noise by comparison.
She could understand, obviously, why her King and one of her King's best friends were so overcome with affection for their newly-born younger siblings. Serafall in particular, her parents had been trying for another child ever since Clan Sitri was established at the end of the Devil Civil War. For all those centuries of efforts to have finally paid off and resulted in Sona's birth- a couple of months after Rias'- had to have been a dream come true for her. And Sirzechs, well, if she had a Soul for every time she'd heard her King going on about how wonderful and perfect a little sister of his and Raylix's would be, she'd probably be as rich by herself as one of Hell's lower-ranked noble families.
But that didn't stop the extremely minor annoyance at all the oohing and the aahing and the cooing and the squeeing from Sirzechs and Serafall over every tiny little thing their siblings both did and didn't do from showing as slight creases on her face and brow.
It just didn't add up in the mind of the Strongest Queen, how a pair of leaders of the Devil race- both centuries old war veterans at that- could get into such a passionate and heated debate over something so... small and petty. Something that wouldn't even matter once Rias and Sona had grown up, become adults and were just about the furthest thing from cute.
"Brother!"
Grayfia was torn from her thoughts as Rias' voice sounded out across the room, drawing the attention of Sirzechs and Serafall as well. Getting to her feet and picking something up that she'd been working with on the table between her and Sona, she dashed over to where Sirzechs and Serafall were sat, clearly bursting with desire to show her older brother what she'd done. But just as Rias was about to reach her older brother and one of her older brother's best friends, she tripped over her own feet. She would have surely gone over and landed on her face had Grayfia not immediately reacted and summoned one of the cushions from the couch that Rias had been standing in front of into Rias' path, giving her something soft to land on.
"Rias!" Sirzechs was on his feet and bending down in an instant, his arms half-around Rias as he helped her up off the cushion (which Grayfia sent back to the couch as soon as Rias was completely off of it), and setting her back on her own two feet on the floor. "You okay?"
"Mmhmm!" Rias replied, looking up and nodding rapidly up at her older brother, her shoulder-length hair flopping around her head as she did so, with some of it falling down over her eyes. She reached up to brush her hair out of her eyes, looking over at Grayfia as she did so. "Thanks, Mrs. Grayfia!"
"It's 'Miss', Grayfia, Lady Rias." Grayfia replied, her mouth becoming a slightly thinner line as she spoke. "And I advise you to be more careful next time."
As Rias nodded, and busied herself with showing Sirzechs whatever she'd drawn on the piece of paper that she'd been carrying over, Grayfia began shifting her eyes back to the window to continue looking at the battle between the two Byrds over Gemyem, but something caught her eyes that forced her to resume looking over at the two-year-old Rias. Namely, the young child's own eyes. Like all of Gremory's descendants before her, a pair of blue eyes- the colour of the human world oceans- looked out on the world. It wasn't the colour that caught Grayfia off-guard, she'd seen the Gremory Heiress enough times.
It was something a little more… subtle, that Grayfia picked up on. The shape and size of the young Rias' eyes, even at two years old, she couldn't help but notice that they were strikingly similar to the eyes of a certain other Devil that she knew. As she looked for a few seconds or more before shifting her gaze away from the four Devils- as Sona had ran up to Serafall with something of her own to show her big sister- the silverette could only marvel at how virtually-identical Rias' eyes were to his. Grayfia was damn near certain that if one were to compare Rias' eyes to Raylix's side-by-side, one wouldn't be able to find any difference. They were just THAT close to each other.
Raylix… three years since he'd left. What was he doing? HOW was he doing? Where had he gone? When would they see each other again, if ever? Did he have any idea of the damage that his leaving had caused to the reputations of Zeoticus, Venelana, Sirzechs and the Gremory Clan at large?
…Probably not, was the answer to the last question that popped up in Grayfia's mind. Even though she was right there to witness the reputational fall of her King's family- as well as said King to a slightly lesser degree- in real-time, and even though it'd been three years since said fall, she still sometimes had a hard time believing just how far the Clan had fallen in such a short time. Though in a way, it made sense: there were several unique factors to the whole thing, the effects of which had added up to the kind of drop in prestige that could only be called unprecedented.
Noble Devils being cast out of their families wasn't exactly a common thing, but it wasn't unheard of either. The casting-out being done voluntarily, however? Now THAT was something rare. But a Clan Heir? Someone first in line to their family's noble title? Nothing even close to that had EVER happened in the history of demonic nobility, so to see something like that happen with the Heir of an Ultimate-Class Clan like the Gremory Clan, was just even more shocking. And for it to have happened just a few days before he was to be married to the most eligible bachelorette among the Devils as well, that was just fuel on the fire.
All things considered, Zeoticus had reacted rather well to the sudden drop in his Clan's prestige among the other 31 that remained. Find someone to pin Raylix leaving- the very source of the drop in prestige in the first place- on and dismiss them from the Gremory Clan as publicly as possible. Rheliesh, Zest, Narberal and Hannah- the four whose services Raylix frequented most often out of all others- had been the most obvious choice for the Duke Gremory to blame for his youngest son leaving, and he made it as clear as possible that all of the vitriol, all of the anger that the other Clans had on missing out on the grandest event in Hell's history since the wedding of Lucifer and Lilith themselves, was on THEIR shoulders. THEY were the ones responsible, not him.
Thankfully, before anyone affiliated with any Clan could take any kind of revenge on any of the four, Grayfia had sprung into action from behind the scenes, found Narberal and Hannah before anyone else did, set them up with stable jobs in the human world. Shouldering the official blame for Raylix leaving was a permanent black mark on Underworld employment, so big that it was most likely all that they'd be known for, for the rest of their lives. It was fortunate that she'd been able to find those two, as the other two- Zest and Rheliesh- were nowhere to be found, no matter where she looked. It was unfortunate to think about, but unless Zest and Rheliesh were somehow better at hiding than Grayfia was at finding them, they were more than likely dead, killed by someone who wanted to take out their anger at the Gremory Clan on something related to it without actually trying to directly harm the Clan itself.
It sucked to think about, but that was life. You couldn't save everyone.
In the meantime, Zeoticus had done as much damage-control as could possibly be done without literally getting on his knees and directly sucking off/eating out the male and female Heads of every Clan that was left. He still had SOME kind of pride, after all. Though not long after Raylix had left, not even a month, a potential method of restoring the Gremory Clan's lost pride had come into everyone's lives. It was a miracle (or the demonic equivalent of one), but Venelana- like so many other noble ladies in the last century or so- had fallen pregnant with another child. The pregnancy went smoothly, and nine months later- like no time had passed at all- Rias Gremory was born into the new generation of young Devils.
It was weird, Grayfia thought, how in the last half-century alone, more noble Devil children than in the last three centuries altogether had been born. It wasn't only the Gremory Clan had another child bestowed upon them, but the Agares Clan with their new Heiress, Seekvaira. Sylpha had gone and birthed Sona just over a couple of months after Rias herself was born, as well.
The Glasya-Labolas Clan had been even luckier, with two children being born to them: Zephrydor and Iryuka. The same fate had befallen the Astaroth Clan, with Diodora and Latia coming into the Underworld. Rika had then, on top of all that, birthed a FOURTH child- making that a new record for noble Underworld women- whom she had named Ravel. But, weirdest of all, the unmarried Diehauser Belial had popped up out of nowhere with a daughter who answered to the name of Imogen, the subject of her parentage becoming one more of many talked-about rumours among Hell's elite. Diehauser's own daughter from an as-of-now unknown Devil woman, a niece or cousin once removed from another branch of the family, just some random Devil girl that had been stuck through an adoption ritual of some-kind to change her biology into that of a Belial? No-one knew, and Diehauser himself wasn't telling.
Grayfia's mind drifted back to Raylix, that night a few years ago when she'd opened the door for him, let him go with a hug and words of good luck, killed a butler that had witnessed that. The resignation letter to Zeoticus she'd put together in that butler's name was rather rushed and sloppy, by her usual standards of doing things, but it was still accepted without much question or fuss, with a replacement butler brought in within the week. She could only hope that, wherever he was, whatever he was doing with his life now, that he was okay.
"Come on, Rias! You can puff out your cheeks more than that! Yeah, just like that!"
"Don't let Rias embarrass you, Sona! You can make your eyes bigger than that! Go on, bigger!"
Grayfia found herself jolted from her thoughts once again, with the sounds of Sirzechs and Serafall's voices being what jolted her. Looking down, she let out a small sigh at what could only be described as a cuteness-contest between Rias and Sona being put on by their respective older siblings. Though anyone with a pair of eyes would be able to tell that- while Rias and Sona were definitely into it- the two demonic toddlers were definitely beginning to push themselves further than what they could really do in hopes of pleasing their older, cooler siblings. Rias had puffed her cheeks out so much that she was looking like a hamster, with her face slowly beginning to go as red as her hair as she held her breath. Sona's eyes, as well, were beginning to look rather strained from having been held open so wide for so long. Sighing, Grayfia moved over to put a stop to the proceedings.
Sirzechs and Serafall could get so damn carried away at times.
----- ----- -----
"So, you think the birthplace of Jesus Christ himself could be a potential spot that the Graal could be at?" Irene asked, stretching herself slightly as the pair of them moved down a street in Bethlehem, the known birthplace of Jesus Christ, now a part of the recently-declared state of Palestine. "Don't you think that that would be too obvious of a place for the Church to hide it, or someone who wielded it?"
"Maybe." Raylix replied, shrugging as he strode on ahead, easily slipping through a crowd of people and moving into a smaller side-street, which Irene followed him into a second or so later. "Still, can't hurt to try, right?"
"I guess not." Irene sighed, leaning against a nearby building and opening her right hand to check a magic-circle she'd planted there, and was focusing magical energy to conceal herself from human eyes. "Still working. Yours?"
"Yup." Raylix replied, opening his left hand to reveal a similar-looking magic-circle there, before shutting it again and moving out of the side-street and back onto a busier main street, with Irene- again- following. She'd caught up with Raylix within a couple of seconds, and noticed him looking up at a rather large church. She might have not even been a Devil, but even she couldn't help but feel the strong Holy presence there. But then again, it probably made sense that this would be the place where one would feel the holiest of presences given- again- birthplace of Jesus and all.
God only knew what it felt like for Raylix, Irene thought, glancing over at him again and noticing precisely zero signs of outward discomfort from her Pact Devil. That was a surprise, considering he was literally a member of the species that the Church were most diametrically opposed to. Though maybe, she thought, the fact that he was as powerful a Devil as he was,
Devil and Magician walked in step for a moment or so, easily swinging by anyone who came at them from the opposite direction without much effort. As they got closer to the large church in question, and when there was a lull in the number of people either walking behind them or coming towards them from on the road, Irene spoke up again.
"Why did you choose to join the Old Satan Faction, Raylix?"
"What?" Raylix looked over at Irene, taking a breath as he processed the question. "What's gotten you curious about that, all of a sudden?"
"Boredom." Irene replied. "We've been jumping from place to place all day with nothing, I need something to pass the time before you're satisfied and we head for home. It's just- I get the hating nobles stuff, I'd probably feel the same if I were in your shoes- but aren't they essentially the successors of the Royals? You know, the guys you spent the better half of a year fighting for control over your side of the Underworld after your war with the Angels and Fallen Angels wrapped up?"
"Well, it was just the Angels by that point, but yeah." Raylix replied. "I guess if you look at it from the point of view of their leadership, then yeah, I guess they aren't that different. But as far as goals are concerned, they really aren't that similar."
"Oh?" Irene raised an eyebrow as she looked over. "How did you arrive at that conclusion?"
"I might not remember much about the Royals, or the Civil War in particular." Raylix remarked, looking down at the ground as he stopped for a second. "Just flashes and… certain moments."
Irene noticed Raylix's breathing becoming slightly heavier and quicker for a few seconds after he spoke, and both of his hands clenching up into fists temporarily as he kept his eyes on the ground. Before she could comment on that, though, he seemed to have gotten a handle on himself, controlled his breathing, and his hands were back in his pockets.
"But something I do remember about the Royals, specifically," Raylix continued, as if nothing had just happened. "They didn't really have much of a goal. Just take power in the Underworld in the aftermath of their parents' deaths, and restart the Great War once the aforementioned power had been taken."
"And the Old Satan Faction are different?" Irene replied. "I could be wrong, or you could have just explained it badly, but they really don't seem that different to me."
"It's probably both of those things, to be honest." Raylix remarked. "I obviously wasn't part of the Royals so I can't compare for certain, but the True Satan Factions just seems more… structured. There's more of a plan behind what they're doing than just 'go to a place, kill and destroy for a chance at getting what you want'. That, and there are plans for the Underworld that the TSF leadership have if- when they take power: a more stable system of government that isn't balanced between nobles that were just born lucky and four Satans who were formerly among those that were born lucky, replacement of the nobility system with one that judges Devils by merit over birthright, establish better relationships with other Pantheons so they're not screwing us over trade-wise, that kind of thing. I've seen the plans that Katerea's got drafted out, they're pretty damn good."
"If you say so…" Irene shrugged. "Anything else?"
"Well, you mentioned that we were fighting the Royals over the Underworld." Raylix continued. "And you're absolutely right, we were. Though the Underworld that we were fighting for back then, and the Underworld that was created after the Royals were defeated, were different. EXTREMELY different." He let out a breath, slowing down again as he continued. "When… what happened happened, it was the way that everyone reacted. Father, Mother, Sirzechs, Serafall, everyone… it was apathy at best, and open shit-slinging at worst, that's what woke me up. No way was I going to keep taking part in a society like that, even with all the benefits of being where I was in that society at the time."
Silence reigned, once again, for a moment between Devil and Magician, as Raylix began moving again, getting back to a more regular walking pace.
"…Okay." Irene replied, after that moment passed. "If you really believe in it that hard, then I suppose I can't fault you for it."
"Yeah." Raylix nodded, as they got close enough to the church that they stepped into its shadow, out of the sun's rays. "All my life, I've been acting for someone else: Lucifer and the Old Satans in the Great War, Zekram and the Anti-Royals in the Civil War, Father and Mother whenever I needed to act as the Heir of Clan Gremory. But taking down the nobility, wanting to improve the Underworld, I think it's the first time I've ever… actually believed in any kind of cause. Like REALLY believed in it, enough to want to fight for it."
"Took you long enough to get to that point." Irene remarked. "But better late than never, I suppose."
Raylix nodded silently.
"Though if it took you that long after the end of the Civil War to wake up to how the post-Royals Underworld really was, in your words," Irene continued. "The deaths of your best friends must have been a pretty major kick in the dick to wake you up to all of that."
She raised a boot-clad leg, half-playfully aiming it at that certain spot between Raylix's legs but not making any moves beyond that, putting her leg down and continuing walking alongside him.
"That, or you were willingly ignoring it until something happened, something that personally affected you." Irene added, her eyes shifting over to Raylix. The scarlet-haired SS-Rank Magician waited for a response from her Pact Devil, but none came: Raylix kept his gaze focused forward, clearly doing his best to ignore the fact that his Pact Mage was giving him a rather pointed look. When it became clear that Raylix didn't intend to reply at all to what she'd just said, Irene let out a breath of her own before falling silent, as the pair of them continued their walk towards the church.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
W_Alderson21
W_Alderson21 And that's Chapter 16 of Alliances finished! Raylix learns about the Sephiroth Graal, the Holy Grail, the literal MacGuffin to end all MacGuffins, and now everyone wants it for their own reasons! Funny how that happens with a Sacred Gear with as many abilities as it's stated to have...
And we get our first appearances of the fic from both Rias and Sona! Might be a while before I get to canon and have the chance to write them for this fic proper, but I'd be lying if I wasn't excited as hell. Especially for Rias... no wait, Sona... but there's that thing with Rias... and that other thing with Sona... screw it, I'm excited for both of them.
Hope you readers enjoyed this chapter, and you have it in you to leave reviews to tell me your thoughts, or if you want to chat with me (about the fic, DxD in general or something else entirely), drop me a PM, look me up on Discord (my name's on my profile) or join my Discord server (link to join that is also on my profile. Just paste it into a browser and take out the spaces). Any of those methods works just fine for me!
Seeya!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone