Capítulo 25: V-5: New Bonds Established II
"Are you sure about this, dear?" Venelana asked, fidgeting slightly in her position on the couch as she looked over at Zeoticus. "There are still other ways to restore our Clan's reputation: the Enterprise has pulled in record profits in the Human World in the years since-"
Zeoticus' head whipped around to return the look Venelana was giving him. The expression on his face saying, without him even needing to open his mouth, that he didn't want to hear any of what his wife was saying right now. And the daughter of Zekram complied… for a couple of seconds, before clearing her throat and continuing. If she was going to say something, she was going to say all of it, be damned to whether her husband WANTED to hear it or not.
"Since Raylix left." She continued, letting out a breath. "There's no reason we can't put those funds towards an expansion to the castle? New statue in Gemyem to go along with the one of Sirzechs? Increase our stake in the armed forces and carry out a campaign within our territory? We don't have to go with something this high-risk, do we?"
"Those exact thoughts have passed through my mind over the last few years, Vene." Zeoticus let out a breath and replied, his voice calm and measured, as he averted his eyes from his wife and focused on the door of the living room that they were both sat in. "And yet, this is still the best course, I believe. The profits of both the Large Enterprise and PhenexCorp could rise exponentially if we were to merge, and do I need to even remind you about the potential of a child with both the Power of Destruction, and Flaming Regeneration?"
Venelana let out a sigh, and composed herself on the couch just as Zeoticus was doing.
"I suppose you're correct, Zeoticus." She replied. "You do have a point."
Zeoticus nodded as he returned his gaze to the closed door of the Gremory Castle's living room. The Duke Gremory took a breath to steady himself, doing his best to steady the slight nerves that were creeping up on him. Honestly, he thought, Venelana had a point as well: from an objective standpoint, there probably WAS just as much to gain, and almost definitely less to lose, by using the potential methods that Venelana had laid out as a campaign to restore his Clan's lost reputation to anything close to how it was before Raylix left. But from his subjective standpoint, there was no question of continuing to pursue the Gremory-Phenex business merger, and seal it with a marriage between members of the next generations of their Clans.
Rika wasn't stupid, he thought, he knew for a fact she was capable of acting out of mutual self-interest. He was certain that, with what he had to show the Marchioness Phenex today, they could be back on the track that his youngest son had so rudely and selfishly derailed them from.
The Duke got to his feet, extending a hand to allow Venelana to pull herself up as well. Husband and wife exchanged a silent look before leaving the living room and making their way to the castle's huge double-doors, which the guards stationed at them immediately pulled open before they got there. Zeoticus and Venelana walked outside, waiting on the top step for only a couple of seconds before a familiar orange magic-circle appeared at the bottom of the steps, bearing the symbol of the Phenex Clan.
Zeoticus let out another breath to calm himself as Rika and Renzo Phenex, in a flash of light, appeared from the transportation-circle, gazing up at Zeoticus and Venelana. Silence stretched out between the two Clan Heads and their spouses for a couple of seconds before Rika cleared her throat.
"Zeoticus." She spoke, her voice even but still with a hint of coldness behind it. "How… nice, to see you again."
"Good afternoon, Rika." Zeoticus returned the greeting, inclining his head to the blonde Marchioness as she ascended the steps, Renzo just behind her. "Thank you very much for agreeing to take some time out of your day to meet with me. I know your opinion of me and my Clan has definitely suffered thanks to… certain events, but that only makes me appreciate this opportunity to repair broken bonds."
"There's no need to flatter yourself." Rika replied. "The only reason I agreed to this meeting at all is because Renzo vouched for you, swearing that you'd told him of a potential method to fix what your Heir broke between us four years ago. If whatever you've cooked up in that head of yours isn't to my satisfaction, we're done. Permanently."
"R-right, of course." Zeoticus nodded, resisting the urge to openly sweatdrop in front of his guest. She might be below him in noble rank, but that certainly didn't stop Rika from being blunt when she wanted to be. In a way, the crimson-haired Duke found that somewhat attractive. "If you'll come this way, I've had some of the staff prepare us refreshments in the main lounge."
Turning on his heel, Zeoticus stepped back into the castle with Venelana in tow, and Rika and Renzo bringing up the rear behind the Duke and Duchess. As the four nobles made for the Gremory Castle's main lounge, the door to the kitchens opened and Grayfia stepped out. The sight of the Lord and Lady Gremory escorting the Lady and Lord Phenex through the main hall of the castle immediately caught the head maid's eye, and she silently looked over at Zeoticus. Zeoticus, in turn, returned Grayfia's quick look before flicking his eyes in the direction of the stairs, not saying a word to her.
Grayfia, seeming to understand what Zeoticus was saying without him even needing to say it, nodded and continued walking past the four nobles, politely inclining her head to them as she passed, before making for the castle's staircase and silently ascending it, as Zeoticus, Venelana, Rika and Renzo entered the lounge that the former two had solely occupied just a moment earlier. Renzo was the first to take a seat on a nearby chair next to the couch that Zeoticus and Venelana had been sat on earlier, with Rika sitting down on the couch in question, on the side closest to her husband. A quick snap of Zeoticus' fingers pulled a couple of chairs across the room so they were directly across from Rika and Renzo, into which he and Venelana sank. Another wave of the Duke's hand summoned a table between the four Devils, with a plate on top of it that was piled high with small snacks and refreshments of all kinds, including glasses of expensive-looking wine that Rika and Renzo took one each of.
"So, let's get to it." Rika remarked, sipping at the glass of wine she'd picked up and allowing herself an approving smile for a couple of seconds at it. "What is this 'potential method' you've got in mind that you think could fix things between us, Zeoticus? It had better be good."
"Believe me, Rika," Zeoticus replied, picking up his own glass. "It's very good. She'll be with us in just a minute."
"She?" Rika raised an eyebrow as she lowered her glass. "So you haven't found Raylix?"
"Unfortunately, no." Venelana replied. "But what we've got in mind is, we think, even better."
Rika and Renzo shared a look with each other, scepticism clear on the former's face. Renzo's expression was a little bit less readable, but both turned to the door as a knock sounded on it, ringing throughout the room.
"Perfect timing." Zeoticus remarked, before turning to the door himself. "Come on in, Grayfia!"
The door was pushed open, and Grayfia entered first before stepping aside, allowing Rias to walk into the room unimpeded. Her crimson hair reached to just below shoulder-length, and was done up into a simple single braid without a strand out of place. Her dress, held up by shoulder-straps, was the same deep crimson as her hair and elegantly flowed down to her knees. Delicate golden embroidery worked its way around the front and back of the dress in intricate patterns, coming together at her chest a bit more solidly in the shape of a rose.
Rias' face almost immediately lit up at the initial sight of her parents sat in front of her, her mother in particular with a warm, inviting smile on her face while her father's smile was more measured. Though at the sight of the two strangers with them, the three-year-old Heiress' excitement almost seemed to shrink a bit.
"Mother? Father?" Rias asked, her eyes flicking from her parents to the two strangers, who looked upon her with interest. "Is everything okay? Am I in trouble?"
"Of course not, Rias." Venelana replied, extending a hand over the arm of the chair she was sat at. "Come, there are a couple of friends that your father and I would like you to meet."
Rias nodded, and made her way over to her parents, her eyes still on the two blond strangers that were sat across from them. Once she was close enough, Venelana casually magically lifted Rias up into the air (eliciting a light giggle from the young child), before gently setting her daughter down on her knee.
"Rika, Renzo, this is our daughter and Heiress, Rias Gremory." Zeoticus remarked, gesturing to Rias. "Rias, this is Lady Rika, Marchioness of the Phenex Clan, and her husband Lord Renzo. You remember them from your studies, don't you?"
"Hm? Oh!" Rias looked up at her father for a second, before looking over at Rika and Renzo again. Her eyes widened in recognition before she slid off Venelana's knee, stood in front of Rika and Renzo, and gently inclined her head towards the two older nobles, even performing a little curtsy. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Rika and Lord Renzo. I am Rias Gremory, Heiress to the Gremory Clan."
"It's nice to meet you, Rias." Rika replied, inclining her head in return. "If I might ask, how old are you?"
"Um…" Rias' eyes widened slightly as she turned to her parents, raising a hand and holding up three fingers. When Zeoticus nodded, and gestured for her to keep talking, Rias turned back around. "I'm three!"
"Three, huh?" Renzo replied. "That's pretty young, for someone already so refined. How are you finding life as the Heiress of your Clan?"
"Good." Rias remarked, nodding. "Studying is hard, but I'm learning a lot! It's all so interesting!"
"And what might it be that you're studying in particular, Rias?" Rika asked. "It's good to hear that you're beginning your education as the future Duchess so early, but that good would be wasted if it's all just useless stuff you're learning."
"Um…" Rias began, humming for a second. "I'm learning about Underworld history: the Great War, the... uh, Devil Civil War, the structure that the noble Pillars and new Satans brought to the Underworld after all that. Did you know that one of the Satans is my brother?"
"Yes, we did." Renzo replied. "Sirz- Lord Lucifer is a hero to us all, definitely the best of our new generation. You're really lucky to have him as an older brother."
Rias nodded again, grinning at the new people's praise of her older brother, her idol. Another knock at the door of the living room caught the attention of all, with Grayfia stepping inside again once the door was pushed open.
"Rias?" Venelana asked, catching her daughter's attention. "Why don't you get changed and head outside with Ms. Grayfia? I'm sure she could summon Enku for you to have another ride around the gardens while us adults talk."
"Really?!" Rias almost entirely lit up at the prospect of another ride on Sirzechs' Pawn's back, and dashed over to the silverette maid. "Can we, Ms. Grayfia? Please, Ms. Grayfia?"
"I'll see what I can do, Lady Rias." Grayfia replied, looking like she was holding back a sigh as she escorted Rias from the room, leaving Zeoticus, Venelana, Rika and Renzo alone in the living room again.
Another couple of maids entered the room with plates of sandwiches and other small refreshments, as well as more glasses of drink that were laid down on the table, before silently retreating from the room and shutting the door behind them. Zeoticus, who had finished his first glass, leaned over to grab a second glass, raising it to his lips and taking a sip.
"So, what do you think?" the crimson-haired Duke asked, looking over at Rika, whose eyes were initially on the door that Rias left through. Rika returned her attention to her fellow Clan head, while reaching for the nearest full glass to her and picking it up.
"I think, first of all, that it's pretty lucky that you were able to immediately sire another Heir, so soon after Raylix left." Rika replied. "She seems polite enough though, for her age. But the more important question, I think, is as to what YOU are thinking… or who."
"Riser." Zeoticus replied, immediately. "He's unmarried, he's not that much older than Rias, his latent power shows a lot of promise… he'll be the perfect match for our Rias once she's mature."
"So it would seem." Rika remarked. She and Renzo shared a look between each other, and silence stretched out between the Clan once again for a moment, before Renzo spoke up again.
"How can you be sure she won't make like her older brother and leave right before the wedding, were we to go through with this?"
"We're making every effort to ensure that Rias fully understands the responsibilities that come with her position." Zeoticus replied. "Raylix, regrettably, was not. The fault is mine for not taking the opportunity to have him taught when we ascended to our current position, and that's cost us all dearly. We're not about to make the same mistake twice."
Rika nodded, an unreadable expression on her face.
"We've hired the best tutors this side of Hell." Venelana continued. "To make sure that our Rias is the best future Duchess Gremory she can be. Training and honing of the power she inherited from us, diplomacy, Clan management, etiquette, leadership for her future peerage, trust me. By the time she makes her debut, by the time she's ready for marriage, she'll be everything Raylix... wasn't."
"I should hope so." Rika replied. "And, well, from what we saw of her so far, she definitely seems on her way to that. Although..." she leaned forward slightly, after taking another gulp of her drink. "If this engagement is what you really want, for both of our Clans, then Renzo and I," she briefly cast a look over at her husband, who gave a slight nod in ascension to what his wife was saying, and about to say. "Might have a few extra… demands."
Zeoticus and Venelana shared a look with each other, with the Duke noticing the look on Venelana's face that said- without her even needing to open her mouth- "I told you so". Turning back to Rika, Zeoticus let out a small sigh.
"Alright." He replied. "What demands might those be?"
----- ----- -----
Raylix casually rolled one of his shoulders as he pushed the double-doors of the training hall open, making his way inside the arena with the kind of ease and casualness to be expected from someone who had done this exact thing at this exact time, every day for the past couple of weeks.
Had it really only been that short a time since he and his crew had found themselves staying at Lilith's human-world villa, with Hikari and Kurumi for company? With how quickly Raylix had found himself in a routine of train, eat, train, eat, relax, sleep… with a shower thrown in every day-and-a-half or so, it really felt like… longer. Though he supposed, when he thought about it for at least a little while as the doors to the arena automatically shut behind him, leaving him alone, that routine was always his thing, when he had a consistent place to call home.
In Hebeth, it was train contingent, eat, do paperwork for Katerea, train (either alone or via sparring with Katerea), sleep. Back in the Gremory Castle, it was hang out with Sabemka and Tomosei for the whole day, usually get something to eat in the middle of that, head home at the end, enjoy one or more of his favourite maids, retire for the night. Hell, way back at the relatively-small residence that Zeoticus, Venelana, Sirzechs and he had called home prior to their ascension to noblehood, it had been train, get updated about the goings-on of the demonic effort during the Great War, eat, train some more (maybe with Sabemka and Tomosei, if they were around), eat some more, then sleep.
'Suppose I'm just a routine guy.' Raylix thought, summoning Gaeneron to his side and giving what used to be the Gremory Clan's prized sword a couple of experimental swings and thrusts. Though as his mind swirled through all the possible training regimens he could put himself through today, the sound of the doors to the arena being pushed open met his ears, and he turned around to see Hikari walking in. Clad in a grey crop-top that matched her hair pretty nicely, and a tight pair of similarly-coloured leggings that hugged her lower half EXTREMELY nicely, she cast a look across the arena at Raylix as the doors shut behind her as well.
"Morning." Hikari remarked, looking Raylix up and down as she slowed down and stopped a few steps away from him. "Figured I'd find you here."
"Morning, Hikari." Raylix replied, lowering his sword as soon as he saw that it was her, rather than anyone more potentially hostile. "Uh… can I help you?"
"Maybe." Hikari replied, rolling her head around her shoulders a bit as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I was in the mood for a bit of training this morning, myself. And since you're here, I was thinking... maybe a bit of one-on-one training? A spar, if you will?"
Raylix looked the silverette down and up, an unreadable expression forming across the Devil's face. "No Sacred Gear?"
"Fine." Hikari replied, shrugging. "No weapons?"
"If you want to go that way." Raylix replied. "Haven't fought hand-to-hand for a while."
"Me neither." Hikari remarked, raising her hands to protect her body. "Always good to keep your skills up, though."
Raylix nodded, cracking his knuckles as he raised his fists.
"Can't argue with that." He replied, shifting into a defensive stance. "Come on, then."
Hikari grinned, cracking her neck from side to side before dashing forward, opening up with a quick jab from the right, aimed at Raylix's head. The auburn-haired Devil ducked, and sidestepped Hikari's attempt at a sweep-kick aimed at his legs. From his free position, he dashed forward, aiming a punch at her exposed stomach that connected pretty solidly. Unmoved from the impact but still letting out a small grunt at being punched in that area, Hikari aimed a headbutt at her opponent that connected just as hard as Raylix's punch, this time catching him right in the face hard enough for him to stumble back a couple of steps.
The silverette took the opportunity created by Raylix's stumble to go on the attack, opening up with a quick one-two combo at Raylix's chest, followed up by another sweep-kick that connected this time, knocking Raylix down on his ass. The Divine Dividing wielder didn't let up, practically diving towards Raylix and throwing another punch his way, though the former Gremory Heir was able to roll out of the way just in time and jump backwards, unfurling his wings to float away from Hikari for a couple of seconds before landing on his feet, putting some distance between the two of them.
"Come on!" Hikari called, letting out a low giggle. "I heard from Mom you're pretty strong... you gonna show me any of that? Or is the new Lucifer's little brother all talk?"
Raylix scoffed, straightening up for a couple of seconds before spreading his wings and launching himself at Hikari with enough force to crack the floor beneath his feet, crashing his fist against the silverette's face with enough force to send said silverette right off her feet and flying backwards. Hikari caught herself in mid-air, feeling something warm and wet coming out of her nose, which was later revealed to be blood when she reached up to feel around the area that Raylix had punched.
Upon seeing her own blood on her fingers, Hikari smirked from her position in the air, looking down at Raylix as she flicked the blood from her hands.
"There we are." She muttered, more to herself than anything but still loud enough for Raylix to hear. Letting out another dark giggle, she launched herself down at him, grabbing him around the waist once she got close enough. Raising herself up a bit, Hikari span around in mid-air and threw Raylix down with enough force to crack the ground he landed on again, even kicking up a few loose bits of the arena floor from the impact. Without hesitation, Hikari wheeled back around to lay down another attack while her opponent was down, but said opponent was right back on his feet in the second or two it took her to come back around at him, and raised his hands to catch her just as she came at him.
Raylix and Hikari struggled against each other for a couple of seconds, the former trying to push the latter away from him and the latter trying to push the former back down onto the ground. After a few seconds' struggle between the two, Raylix seemed to surrender, allowing Hikari to bring herself in closer to him before taking a hold of her arms. Hikari had only a second or two to realise what had happened before Raylix threw her away from him, before stomping the broken floor to crack up a decently-sized block of it. Catching the block he'd cracked up, he span around to build up momentum and tossed it in Hikari's direction. The wielder of Divine Dividing was still in the process of righting herself when the block- about the size of her entire body, if not a bit larger- came flying at her, and she was forced to contort her body in order to build up the momentum needed to spin around and perform a mid-air kick on the block, which was powerful enough to shatter it outright.
As the rubble rained down to the floor around them, Hikari landed lightly in the middle of it, smirking at Raylix as he shifted into a more ready stance, awaiting her next move.
"So that's how you want this to go?" she asked, cracking her neck a couple of times, before doing the same with her knuckles. "Okay. Fine."
The silverette leaned down, coating her fingers in demonic power before digging them into the semi-broken ground. After half a second's seeming struggle, Hikari tore a huge chunk of floor out of the ground and tossed it in Raylix's direction. Her opponent could only just acknowledge what was happening in front of him before he felt air being displaced somewhere behind him. Turning around, he saw Hikari appearing behind him just in time to get grabbed by the front of the shirt, and thrust forward into the large advancing fragment of ground, with Hikari essentially using him as a battering ram against the fragment she'd flipped up.
As Hikari forced Raylix through the large fragment and out the other side, the latter let out a small grunt before reaching out himself and grabbing the hem of Hikari's crop-top, yanking her in close enough to catch a headbutt to the face to match the one she'd given Raylix earlier, and dazing her just enough for her grip on his shirt to slacken a little.
That little was enough, just enough, for the mid-air struggle between Raylix and Hikari to swing back into Raylix's favour, which he took full advantage of by spinning around a couple of times to build up momentum, and toss Hikari into the chunk of floor that she herself had thrown up, shattering it on impact and sending rubble in all directions. Raylix wasted no time in diving through the thrown-up dust and settling rubble to continue his assault on Hikari, but found himself met with a foot to the face that interrupted his dive in a pretty big way, sending him right back in the direction he came from, spinning over and over in the air until he spread his ten wings to right himself in mid-air, looking down at Hikari.
She was back on her feet, nose rather bruised and bloody from Raylix's punch and headbutt. Her crop-top was slightly off her chest due to how hard Raylix had yanked it, but it still covered the most important areas of her chest. A smirk was on her face as her stance slowly relaxed, and she took a breath.
"That's us warmed up for the day, I'd say." She remarked. "I think we'd better call it there, lest we completely wreck the arena. Mom'll have it fixed either way, but I doubt she'd be happy if we ended up risking the entire house."
"Fair enough." Raylix replied, slowly descending to the most solid bit of floor be could find directly below his feet, and dispelling his wings as he landed. "You fight pretty good."
"You should see me when I'm not holding back." Hikari replied. "But, thanks. The rush you get from a good fight... not exactly something you can easily replicate, huh?
"Yeah." Raylix nodded, rolling one of his shoulders and letting out a slow breath. "I know the feeling. Maybe if we get the chance, we'll get to go at it without holding anything back."
Hikari just let out a giggle.
"Didn't know you were into losing." She remarked, before shrugging, her smirk growing a bit wider. "But if it's what you want, then sure. I'm sure we can figure a time and place."
"Nah, I'd win." Raylix replied, snorting at the very notion. "But yeah. Something like that would be pretty nice." Taking a breath, he turned to the arena doors, the only things in the room that had come out of his and Hikari's bout relatively undamaged, before looking back at Hikari. In the few seconds since her last remark, a flush of red seemed to have come over her face, and she was in the process of turning away from him. "I was gonna gonna get some breakfast, you coming? Hey, you okay?"
"Huh?" Hikari looked around, her face still red. "Uh... I'm good, I'm alright. I'll get something for myself in a bit, Raylix. See you around, yeah?"
"Hm, see you." Raylix nodded, turning on his heel and leaving the training arena, leaving the silverette alone in the half-wrecked room, free to let her blush fully come out, and to obey the instinct that was screaming at her to rub her legs together, at least a little bit, now that Raylix was gone.
Damn Succubus instincts, she thought to herself. They just HAD to start acting up around him, didn't they? And right after a little spar like that… ugh.
Meanwhile, as he made his way downstairs, Raylix brushed some strands of hair from his face as he reached the bottom of the stairs, and turned towards the half-open door that led to the kitchen. Heading over and pushing it open, he moved inside, acknowledging but not reacting to the fact that there was only one other person in the room. With her hair completely down rather than being up in any long tails or anything complicated, and clad in just a white t-shirt, black jacket over it and a pair of shorts, Kurumi looked over at the sound of the kitchen door being pushed open as she reached into a bowl of fruit, pulling out an apple.
"Morning." She remarked, idly tossing the apple up into the air before catching it. "I guess you had something to do with those shakes earlier?"
Raylix nodded, leaving the kitchen door open behind him as he moved in, heading towards a cupboard and opening it. After a second's hesitation, he reached inside before pulling out a box of cereal with one hand, and a snap of his fingers with the other hand summoned a bowl into his hand that he poured a sizeable amount of it into. After replacing the box in the cupboard and shutting it with his free hand, he headed over to the fridge just next to the cupboard, opened it and pulled out a bottle of milk with not much left inside. After pouring the bottle's remaining contents into the bowl to accompany the cereal, Raylix casually reduced the plastic to nothing in his hand with a quick pulse of his Power of Destruction before catching a spoon that Kurumi tossed his way.
"Figured." Kurumi remarked, leaning against the counter as she watched Raylix stick the spoon in the cereal-filled bowl. "Mom's back, by the way."
Raylix, who had turned around and was heading for the door that would lead to the dining room, turned back around to look at Kurumi.
"Lilith?"
"How many other people do you know who I'd call my mom?" Kurumi asked, suppressing a giggle. "But yeah, she got back about half an hour ago. I think she's in the shower right now."
The dark-haired teen took a bite of her apple as she looked over at Raylix. His reaction wasn't quite as… animated, as Kurumi thought it'd be, but his eyes widening slightly and his entire body seeming to tense up ever-so-slightly absolutely did NOT go unnoticed by Kurumi.
"Right." Raylix replied, turning around again and pushing the door to the dining room open with his foot. "Okay."
After Raylix made his way into the dining room, he set the cereal-bowl down and sat down in one of the chairs, pulling up to the table and beginning to work his way through the morning meal he'd poured for himself.
"I just hope you'll have an answer for me when I return."
Her words from a fortnight ago rung in Raylix's head. His answer… what could that even be? Well, he knew that much at least, he'd known for at least a week and a half… the main matter was how he would word it to her?
The former Gremory Heir did his best to put those thoughts out of his mind for the time being. Though said thoughts were immediately replaced by mental images of Lilith… in the shower… naked… and of the cereal and milk he continued to shovel in his mouth over the next minute or two, until the bowl was pretty-much empty.
Though it was around that time that the subject of the majority of his thoughts walked through the open door to the dining room, with Raylix almost choking on his last mouthful of cereal as he looked up and saw Lilith, her hair slightly damp and dressed in nothing but a long black dressing-gown, moving inside. Looking over, she noticed Raylix and smiled at the sight of him.
"Raylix, good morning." The first Succubus remarked. "Nice to see you're still here."
"Well, you said we could stay." Raylix replied, coughing behind his hand to free some of the chewed-up cereal from his throat before swallowing it down again without issue. "And here is… better than the alternative of cramming into Irene's place and popping to a random place around the world every couple of weeks, so… here we still are."
"Indeed, you are." Lilith nodded, allowing herself a small giggle at Raylix's words. "Just got back this morning, just had a shower… you mind staying down here while I quickly get something to eat, Raylix? I'd just like to have a little chat."
As Raylix nodded, the dark-haired Succubus turned on her heels and headed for the kitchen, sprouting one of her tails to pick up the empty bowl that sat in front of Raylix as she did so, leaving the former noble alone in the dining room. It was only for a couple of minutes though, before Lilith returned with a plate with buttered toast on it. Sitting down in the chair at the end of the table, only a couple of spots away from where Raylix had sat down, she took a couple of bites of her toast before looking over at him again.
"I'm pretty sure you know what I want to talk with you about." Lilith began, after swallowing her mouthful. "Follow up on our conversation about the True Satan Faction and the Khaos Brigade, a couple of weeks ago."
Raylix nodded, shifting slightly in his chair as Lilith took another bite of toast. After she chewed and swallowed, she continued.
"About the possibility of entering the True Satan Faction into the Brigade's pact." She remarked. "I just wanted to know if you've given any thought to what I said, or not?"
Raylix remained silent, in the wake of the Succubus Queen's eyes on him. He didn't try to meet her eyes, or even look at her at all at first, lest the temptation for his eyes to just slide over her perfect body (which he'd have been more than happy to try his hand- or eyes- at that… but this just didn't seem like the right time) become too much: rather, he just kept his eyes down on the part of the table directly in front of where she was sitting. He nodded, swallowing as silently as he could.
"Yeah. I've thought about it a good bit, since you've been gone." He replied. "And, well, I can't think of much reason to not take you up on, well, all that. The True Satan Faction, the Khaos Brigade... they could definitely work together, if what you said about them is true."
Lilith looked up, having taken another bite of toast, a smile on her face as she chewed and swallowed.
"That's good to hear, Raylix." She replied. "Really, really great, in fact, I'm happy we're on the same page."
"Yeah." Raylix nodded. "It'd be nice to have something like the Khaos Brigade in the True Satan's Faction's corner. I mean, I'll be blunt, there's no way we- with the forces we've got right now- have a snowball's chance in Hell of taking over our side from those in power right now. Not when they've got all the noble Clans behind them, pretty much the entire Devil military, and the Satans…"
"I understand." Lilith nodded. "To be honest, the Satans by themselves could take on the entire faction. Hell, Sirzechs would probably be able to pull it off by himself, to be honest. But with the wider Khaos Brigade backing you… you'd absolutely have more of a chance: an advantage, even. In exchange for your assistance with the Khaos Brigade's wider goals, of course."
"Yeah." Raylix replied. "Though that's more up to Shalba, Creuserey and Katerea. Definitely worth pitching to them, at the very least."
Lilith hummed, nodding again as she took a final bite of toast, before transporting the plate out of the kitchen with a wave of her hand.
"Indeed." She remarked. "One thing I can definitely think of that's worth putting in that pitch would probably be the fact that the Brigade has recently acquired the aid of a very, VERY powerful figure. One of the strongest figures in existence… maybe even the strongest outright: Ophis, the Ouroboros Dragon. You heard of them?"
Raylix seemed to perk up a bit at the mention of Ophis' name, blinking a couple of times.
"Ophis… yeah, I think I've heard of them." He replied. "Sirzechs might have mentioned them once or twice? Don't they have, like, infinite power or something?"
"Nothing is truly infinite, Raylix." Lilith scoffed. "Contrary to what a title like the Infinite Dragon God might suggest, there's no way Ophis' power is anything close to that. But believe you me, they're more than enough for any organisation they back to be worth taking seriously, simply because of that."
Raylix let out a sigh, leaning back in his chair a bit as he finally looked directly at Lilith… for a couple of seconds before shifting his eyes away from her gaze, before re-shifting them back to her.
"Well, that… definitely sweetens the deal a bit." He remarked. "I definitely feel at least a little better about thinking… well, the way I thought."
The smile that had been playing around Lilith's lips throughout their entire conversation widened considerably, as Raylix looked back over at her. Leaning forward in her chair a bit, and resisting the urge to smirk herself when she noticed Raylix's eyes flicking- as if on pure reflex rather than anything deliberate- to her gigantic breasts bouncing slightly in response to the motion, she nodded.
"Well, like I said, I'm happy we're on the same page." She replied. "I knew you'd understand."
"Yeah…" Raylix nodded. "I mean, I still have some concerns. I'd rather whoever's in charge of the Khaos Brigade didn't, you know, throw the True Satan Faction straight into a death-trap and sacrifice us for some pointless cause, for absolutely no reason… or anything like that."
"That won't happen." Lilith replied, immediately. "I guarantee it, Raylix. When the True Satan Faction is in the Khaos Brigade pact, you'll be under my protection. Chernobog, Seth and Ahriman won't touch you, you have my word on that."
Raylix didn't reply immediately, instead choosing to lean back a bit on his chair again as he looked over at Lilith.
"Alright." he replied, after a couple of second's pause. "That's nice to hear... I guess all that's left is the 'how' we're gonna pitch this whole... idea, to the higher-ups."
"Don't worry about that." Lilith remarked, raising a hand. "I'll handle it, Raylix, though I might need your help with some of the finer details. I'm sure you know Shalba, Creuserey and Katerea well enough that you can come up with some way to cater things specifically TO them. That would make it more likely for them to accept... which is what we want, isn't it?"
The dark-haired Succubus got to her feet and stretched as Raylix nodded, getting up as well.
"Yeah, I'll help." Raylix replied. "If it's what you want."
"It's a date." Lilith nodded, smiling and lowering her arms. "I'll let you know when I'm ready to work on the pitch, but I think I'll hit the hay for a while. I like to have a nap after a good wash, you know?"
"Alright." Raylix remarked, stretching himself. "I think I'll have a shower myself. Morning training, might or might not have shaken up the place a bit, took more out of me than I thought it would."
Lilith let out a small giggle, moving away from the table and towards the door.
"Kurumi told me about that when I got in." she remarked. "Hikari can be intense like that... but hey, I'm cool with whatever you get up to, as long as you don't end up destroying the place. Lot of Souls went into putting this place together, you know? Like, multiple millions."
"I bet." Raylix nodded. "Yeah, we'll be careful."
"Good." Lilith replied, nodding back and opening the door to the dining room with a wave of her hand. "Good talk, Raylix. I'll see you around."
Without another word, Lilith left the room, leaving Raylix alone in the dining room and immediately making a beeline for the stairs. Though as she reached the stairs and began ascending, her mind- as it often did- began to work. There was something... a little off about Raylix.
He was still the same guy whose ass she'd kicked, group he brought into her home, and chatted about the Khaos Brigade with, two weeks ago. But between then and now, he was a bit more... what was the word, muted? Sure, he'd been one of the more passive Devils she'd had a conversation with, but that could be explained. She'd been introducing him to the concept, it made sense that she'd be on the front foot for a majority of the conversation.
And this time around, it was the same... but different, at the same time? The muted passiveness just seemed a little less natural, that was the only way Lilith could think to describe it. As her mind worked, she couldn't help but feel herself unable to put the proverbial puzzle-pieces together. Nothing quite fit right... or maybe, there was something missing?
Maybe. Definitely something worth looking into a bit more. But that could wait, Lilith thought, reaching the top of the stairs and approaching the door to her bedroom.
Her bed, and maybe a relaxing eating-out from Eve, was calling her name.
----- ----- -----
"Treason, duh."
"Yeah, obviously. No shit, Shalba. Maybe something a bit more specific? Hmm… abuse of power?"
"Oh, Satan- yeah! How the hell else could their families suddenly be at the top of society?"
"Especially Gremory's descendants, Grandfather knows they're way bigger than they deserve to be! Might as well throw corruption on top of that as well!"
"Yeah!"
Katerea suppressed a sigh as she looked across the table in the main dining room of Shalba's home, where the most recent meeting between the True Satan Faction's three leaders was taking place… or well, she thought it was going to be a meeting. This time, she actually thought that something truly substantial was going to get done.
But this time, like most of the last few meetings the three remaining grandchildren of the Old Satans had had, it was less a meeting, more Shalba and Creuserey going off on tangents with each other about ways they could humiliate and punish the Satans for what they'd done to Hell and the Devils, once the True Satan Faction had risen up and taken power in the Underworld… and Katerea was just there, she guessed.
Don't get her wrong: on one hand, there was a part of her that longed to make the new Satans- especially Serafall, with how she flouted HER family name in such a childish way… just thinking about the term 'Miracle Levia-tan' made her gag- pay in so many ways for what they'd done to the Hell she'd grown up in, each more drawn-out and humiliating for them than the last. Ever since the announcement of the ascension of the four 'heroes' of the Anti-Satan Faction to Satanhood, she'd wanted it.
But on the other hand, before that could happen, there was the matter of… well, actually rising up and taking power in the Underworld in the first place. That would, obviously, have to come first, and Katerea knew that. But it seemed, at times, like she was the only one out of the True Satan Faction's three leaders that either knew or cared. Whether Shalba and Creuserey had forgotten, or just didn't care, she honestly couldn't tell which would be worse.
"We've got to find a way to sap their power. No way they'll be able to keep from getting what they deserve when they're essentially humans in all-but name!"
"Definitely, definitely. Hopefully our guys in Ajuka's Technology Department can find something that'd help with that. Wouldn't put it past that green geek to be cooking up something of that sort."
Katerea quietly cleared her throat, trying to be polite about catching Shalba and Creuserey's attention.
"One of us should definitely take Grayfia. Either do it right in front of him, or-"
"Dibs!"
"…Fine. Asshole. Anyway, if we can't make him watch directly, we should find a way to record it happening, and make him watch that instead!"
"Yeah, yeah!"
Katerea cleared her throat again, a good bit louder this time. Loud enough, in fact, to pierce whatever bubble that Shalba and Creuserey's shared tangents had made around the pair of them, and prompt the pair of them to turn and look over at her.
"What's up, Kat?" Creuserey asked. "You got something to add? Something you want to have done to Serafall? Anything you want, we could make it happen!"
"Quite a lot of things, honestly." Katerea replied. "But… isn't there a more pressing matter at hand?" Snapping her fingers, she summoned a pile of files out of a magic-circle, depositing said pile in the middle of the table between the three of them. "Like all these prospective locations for additional bases in the human world, that we've been sending Raylix out to scout for the past year-and-a-bit?"
"Oh, those?" Shalba remarked, before snorting. "We don't have to worry about them. Not for a couple of years at least, at the rate recruitment's been going. We've got ages to settle on a few potential places!"
Creuserey grinned, in clear agreement with Shalba. Katerea could only let out a sigh as she dispelled the files with the same snap of her finger she'd used to summon them, leaning back in her chair and letting out a sigh. Not that Shalba and Creuserey noticed, having gone right back to their brainstorming about things they could do to humiliate and disrespect the New Satans. Nor did they notice her just getting up from her chair, opening a transportation-circle for herself with a wave of her hand, and stepping into it before disappearing from Shalba's home.
After appearing back in the dining room of her own apartment, Katerea immediately made for her bedroom. More specifically, her own en-suite bathroom and shower. After slipping out of the casual dress and dropping it on the ground, she sent it- along with the underwear she was still wearing- back to her closet in her bedroom with another wave of her hand, before deftly undoing the bun that held up a majority of her hair. Taking a breath as the air touched her naked body, Katerea reached over to the shower and switched it on with a flick of her hand. Leviathan's granddaughter took a couple of moments to wait for the water to warm up, during which she felt a comms-circle appearing by her ear. More by reflex than anything else, the tan brunette reached up and lightly touched the comms-circle, answering the call.
"Katerea?" Shalba's voice came through the circle, after a couple of seconds. "Are you okay? You just kind of… left pretty abruptly, there."
"I'm fine." Katerea replied, immediately. "Just wasn't feeling my best is all, Shalba. Decided to head home, might just relax for the evening. Don't worry about me."
Katerea could hear Shalba letting out a breath on the other end.
"Alright." The grandson of Beelzebub's voice came through, after the breath. "I won't keep you, then. Talk to you later."
"Mmhmm." Katerea hummed, nodding even though she knew Shalba couldn't see it. "Talk to you later."
Katerea then cut the comms-link between her and Shalba, letting out another breath as she stepped into the now-warm shower. Habit dictated her routine as soon as she slid the door to her shower shut: after simply standing under the falling water for a moment to get all of her hair nice and wet, she turned around and grabbed the half-full bottle of shampoo from where she'd left it yesterday, before squeezing out a sizeable amount of what was left into her hand. She then replaced the bottle, and after rubbing the shampoo into both her hands, she began lathering it into her long hair.
She'd done it so often- tens of thousands of times at LEAST- that her body operated purely on autopilot. Her mind was pretty far from her shower right now…
--Flashback:--
-1532-
"You sure we should be drinking ALL of this, Shalba?" A young Katerea Leviathan asked, looking at the table that she, Creuserey Asmodeus and Shalba Beelzebub were sat around in one of the latter's human-world estates, a large castle-like home somewhere in the north of England. "I know it's harder for us to get drunk than humans, but still, all of this? One night?"
The table in question, made of the finest and most solid oak that could be sourced throughout the world, was positively sagging under the weight of all the differently shaped and sized bottles that made up Shalba's immense collection of alcoholic beverages. Wine, tequila, whisky, ale, you name the kind of drink, there was enough to kill someone at least a dozen times over.
"I'd rather drain my entire Satan-damn supply," Shalba replied, leaning back on the couch that he was sat on. "Than let those traitorous pieces of SHIT that killed our families and destroyed the Royals Faction get their hands on even a DROP of it!"
"Which they'll probably do pretty soon." Creuserey remarked, picking up one of the ale bottles and inspecting it. "They seized one of the Asmodeus estates back in Hell a couple of months back, there's no reason to think this place isn't gonna get raided any day now."
Katerea let out a breath, before picking up one of the bottles of wine and opening it.
"Fair enough." She shrugged. "As much as I wish I had as good a collection as this, I won't say no to free booze." Raising the bottle to her fellow remaining Royal Devils, she lowered the bottle to her lips and took a couple of gulps.
"Damn those 'New' Satans." Shalba seethed, picking up a bottle of rum, opening it and downing almost half its contents in one go before pulling back. "'New' Satans, as if our grandparents were antiquated failures that needed doing away with! That bastard Sirzechs who killed my father… that green geek Ajuka who took MY name, and does what with it? Ruins the esteem my grandfather built up with his useless gizmos and gadgets, rather than ACTUALLY doing anything good for the Devils he supposedly rules over now!"
"Doesn't help that he's probably into guys, too." Creuserey remarked, making for a couple of bottles of vodka, pouring them both into a large glass that he summoned into being with a snap of his fingers, and downed the entire thing in one go. "Someone that focused on something that useless can't be right in the head. And let's not forget who they got to replace ME."
"Or me." Katerea added, taking another large swig from the wine-bottle she was holding. "What right does Serafall think she has to take MY name, and use it to make Devils at large look like a Satan-damn laughing stock in front of the rest of the world?!"
"Or that sloth in Devil form, Falbium?" Creuserey replied. "If it weren't for the other two, our side of Hell would probably be overrun with Fallen Angels, Angels and Lilim by now! Falbium's probably put the entire military to sleep!"
"They don't have the right." Shalba affirmed, after downing the rest of the rum in the bottle, before tossing it away from him. The bottle smashed against the wall, though neither he, Creuserey or Katerea paid it any mind. "And I'm sure at least some Devils left in Hell after the Great War, and after our parents got overthrown, that feel the same way." He reached over and picked up one of the bottles of ale, before opening it and pouring a sizeable volume of it down his gullet. "We just have to find them."
"And maybe bring them all together." Creuserey remarked. "Like a… a group."
"Or a faction." Katerea replied. "For the followers of the True Satans."
"Yeah…" Shalba remarked. "A True Satan Faction, or something…"
--Flashback end--
Katerea's memories were fuzzy, from that point on. She couldn't remember anything clear after Shalba's proposal of the formation of the True Satan Faction, until the morning after where she clearly remembered waking up on Shalba's couch, broken bottles everywhere and covered in a mixture of sweat, various alcoholic drinks, Shalba and Creuserey's cum and some of her own squirt.
Memories of a blackout drunken threesome from centuries gone by aside, Katerea let out another sigh as she grabbed a clump of her conditioner-laden hair to hold up to the shower, in order to rinse it all out. Somewhere along the line, between then and now, Shalba and Creuserey had begun to care more about personally sticking it to the New Satans than anything more concrete, more immediately achievable. Katerea didn't know when it happened: she couldn't pin down any one day, or moment, the switches flipped in her fellow leaders' minds from caring more for the Underworld to caring more about humiliating Sirzechs, Serafall, Ajuka and Falbium.
As she stepped out of the shower and summoned a towel to wrap around her body, and grabbed another to wrap around her hair, Katerea let out another sigh. She couldn't help but be saddened at how Shalba and Creuserey- her best friends as well as her second cousins- had fallen so far. And if she was being realistic, she couldn't help but feel that something between them was about to crack soon. And though that cracking could go several potential ways, she couldn't help but have a feeling that it was going to result in some kind of fight. One that, if she was continuing to be realistic, she probably wouldn't win.
Not alone, at least.
----- ----- -----
"Come on… come on… damn it!"
Raylix let out a frustrated sigh as he tossed aside the stick he was attempting to cast an Enchantment on. Watching it fly off into the distance and eventually over the horizon thanks to the force he'd thrown the small object with, the former Heir sat down against a nearby tree, just outside Lilith's villa, and took a couple of breaths while healing the cut on his hand he'd given himself a couple of seconds earlier.
He'd been at this for a while, but it was like smacking his head against a brick wall… actually, no, he'd probably be able to smash through a brick wall with just his head, wouldn't he? It was more like smacking his head against a magical barrier, that was being cast by someone with more power to pour into said barrier than he had patience to try and get through it. Ever since his difficulty with casting the same kinds of Enchantments that Irene was able to pull off with ease, she'd suggested he try something smaller, and work his way up to more complex spells.
What he was trying now was one of the lower-level Enchantments that Irene had suggested: infusing an object with some kind of magical property or spell. Which Raylix was trying… or HAD been trying to do on a random stick he'd found in the woodland just outside Lilith's villa, where he and his crew had first crossed paths with the Lilim Queen just over a couple of weeks ago. It was, as Irene had suggested, a simple thing: infuse the stick with a rudimentary healing spell, that would be enough to close a self-inflicted cut he made on his hand with Gaeneron- which was presently stabbed into the ground just beside where Raylix was sitting.
But the progress he'd made with such a small endeavour had been rather disappointing, to say the least. The furthest he'd gotten with any healing via Enchanted stick was a slight closing of a wound he'd made ten minutes ago, before any energy Raylix could feel he'd poured into the stick fizzled out into the air, leaving him to have to heal himself the more conventional way, and the stick as… just a stick.
With the direction he'd tossed said stick off in, it was probably flying over Toulouse by now.
The auburn-haired Devil quickly scanned the ground for a replacement stick, noticing a decent one after a couple of seconds. After getting to his feet and tugging Gaeneron out of the ground with his left hand, he brought the famed blade over to the palm of his right hand, and gently dragged it across his palm. He grimaced for a moment as he felt his skin breaking, and blood beginning to seep out of the self-inflicted wound.
After stabbing Gaeneron back into the ground, Raylix bent down and picked up the stick in his un-sliced left hand. He tried, again, to bind the spell he was focusing out of his hand into the stick itself, imbibe the object with the energy he was giving it. Looking down at the stick, he noticed it glowing with his own signature energy: a good sign.
Taking a breath to try and keep himself calm, Raylix tossed the stick up into the air a little, keeping himself in check enough that the stick only travelled a few feet in the air, keeping on glowing, before landing back in Raylix's hand. The fact that it kept glowing even after leaving Raylix's hand was also a pretty good sign, but now was the moment of truth. Raylix transferred the Enchanted stick from his left hand to his injured right, taking a breath as he held the stick close to the cut he'd given himself a second ago.
The stick continued to glow. Raylix could feel the cut on his hand beginning to close and heal beneath it, prompting him to let out a breath. Had he actually done it? Had he actually pulled off a small, but no less success-
Before Raylix's cut could find itself fully healed, the stick suddenly glowed far more intensely than it had already been before, and exploded after a couple of seconds. Tiny splinters burst out in every direction and landed everywhere: including on Raylix's clothes, on his face, in his mouth… thankfully not in his eyes. As the stick blew up, Raylix threw up his left arm to immediately protect his eyes, lowering it once all the splinters settled. All he could look at was the splinters that had remained in his hand in the aftermath of the stick exploding, which he rubbed off again his leg.
"Oh, come on!" Raylix muttered to himself, spitting splinters out of his mouth and sighing as he sat back down against the same tree as before. "Seriously?!"
Taking a couple of breaths to try and calm himself again, Raylix looked up as he heard the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer to where he was sat. Thinking it could potentially be Lilith, Raylix made to get back to his feet, but upon seeing that it was Irene that made her way into view, he sat back down.
"Hey." Irene greeted, looking around. "Training hall not it for you today?"
"Yeah…" Raylix nodded. "Figured I'd get some air while working on Enchanting stuff." He let out a sigh and shifted his position on the ground slightly, as Irene looked over.
"Not going well?" she asked, letting out a breath of her own when Raylix nodded. "Well, lucky for you that the girl who literally invented Enchantment as a concept is around. How about you show me what exactly you're trying to do?"
"Sure." Raylix replied, shrugging as he scoured the ground again for something small to try and Enchant again. After a couple of seconds' scanning, he picked up an apple that had dropped from the tree he was sat under a couple minutes ago, before Irene had even arrived, in one hand while tugging Gaeneron back out of the ground with the other. "I'm just trying to infuse an object- any object, really- with a healing spell. After looking back into his hand to see that the cut he'd given himself earlier still hadn't fully healed, he stabbed Gaeneron back into the ground. No need to cut himself again when he already had a perfectly-good cut on his hand to try and heal.
Irene hummed, nodding as she watched Raylix begin to focus his energy into the apple. Which, just as the stick had done, began to glow with his demonic energy. Both Raylix and Irene remained silent as the former poured more energy into the apple in his left hand, until after a few seconds, he transferred it to his cut right hand, where he began to feel the cut begin to close up and heal again.
Silence continued to reign between Raylix and Irene as the Enchanted apple did its work… for only a few seconds, before the glow around the apple began to dissipate over the next couple of seconds. Raylix let out another frustrated sigh as he raised the now-unenchanted apple to his mouth and took a bite out of it. After chewing and swallowing the chunk of apple in his mouth, he waved his hand in front of Irene's face. It still had a cut on it, but it didn't look as bad as before. What was on his hand looked more like a small scab or spot than anything resembling a cut that a sword would make.
"See?" Raylix remarked, lowering his hand and continuing to chew on the apple. "Works for a bit, then… that, at best. I tried it with a stick before you showed up, and it just exploded."
"I do see." Irene remarked. "And I guess that explains all the splinters." She gestured to the small fragments of wood all over Raylix's body, before pointing a finger at the scab on his hand and healing it immediately. "And if I may, I think I can also see a couple of issues with your attempts at Enchantment, if you'll hear me out."
Raylix nodded, getting to his feet as Irene shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she looked her Pact Devil up and down.
"The kind of Enchantment you're trying to pull off, just imbibing an object with your own energy to pull off a specific task, I like to think of it like pouring water into a glass." Irene explained. "The glass is the object, the water the energy you're pouring into it. There's only so much water the glass can take depending on how big it is, yeah?"
Raylix nodded again.
"Relating that to Enchanting an object like you're trying to do, the size of the glass depends on a few things." Irene continued, snapping her fingers and summoning the apple Raylix was holding directly from his hand into hers, and holding it up in front of him. "Well, more than a few, but with the level you're at, you only really need to worry about two. The physical size of the object, how much magical presence it has- like if it's made from naturally-magical materials, has existed in a magical environment for a long time, that kind of thing. Every individual object has its limit to how much energy you can pour in when trying to Enchant it, and you'll figure out those individual limits from practice. You following me?"
"Mmhmm." Raylix hummed, nodding. "Think so."
"Where I think you're going wrong," Irene continued. "And where you might well have already realised you're going wrong, now that I'm explaining it out-loud, is the amount of energy you're pushing into the objects you're trying to Enchant, and how you're doing it. I know it's not entirely your fault: son of a pair of Ultimate-Class Devils, trained a good bit beyond that, you've got a LOT of natural demonic power to throw around, and you've never had to hold back for something like this, right?"
Irene tossed the apple up into the air and caught it again to make her point, before handing it back to Raylix.
"Well, no." Raylix replied. "Shit, I thought starting with smaller stuff would make Enchanting easier… but it's just making it harder."
"Funny how that works." Irene remarked, suppressing a small giggle as Raylix tore another chunk out of the apple with his teeth, and chewed on it as she talked. "But hey, if you want to stick with starting with smaller stuff… I might have just the thing to help you with that, for a time."
Opening her hand, a magic-circle appeared in Irene's hand, out of which what looked like a magical staff, made of extremely old and gnarled wood, with a gem embedded into the top of it, emerged. Catching the staff in a free hand, Irene held the staff out to Raylix.
"Had this made a century or so ago for a member of Alvarez." She remarked. "He suffered from pretty much the same problem you did. Too much innate power, had a hard time focusing it for smaller stuff. Any spells or power that get cast through it," she explained, as Raylix took the staff in his free hand. "Will be limited."
Raylix swallowed the chunk of apple in his mouth, as he tested the weight of the staff in his hand. It was light… REALLY light, like it would snap in too even if he looked at it funny.
"It should help you with casting smaller Enchantments, and lower-scale spells in general." Irene continued. "Rather than damaging, or outright shattering, the glass from the force of which you push the water into it, and ending up with nothing, you'll be able to push the water in at a much more manageable rate, and figure out when to stop before you overfill. Understand?"
"Yeah, I think so." Raylix replied, transferring the staff from one hand to the other, looking at it, and then Irene. "Thanks, Irene."
"No problem." Irene shrugged. "You gonna give it a go?"
"Hmm…" Raylix hummed, looking around for a couple of seconds before taking a breath. "Maybe a bit later. Might get something to eat, do something else to clear my head for a bit, before getting back on it."
"Alright." Irene nodded, before turning on her heel. "Hope to hear your progress." She remarked, smiling slightly before heading back towards the front door of Lilith's villa. Raylix did the same, entering with her, but he made for the kitchen and dining room while Irene immediately made for the stairs. Though before he could enter the kitchen and grab something other than the apple (which he'd finished while walking with Irene, and disintegrated the core of), someone other than Irene called out to Raylix.
"Hey, there you are! Damn, that was lucky."
Turning towards the source of the voice, Raylix saw Kurumi descending to the bottom of the stairs, and quickly crossing the hallway.
"Hey, Kurumi." Raylix greeted Lilith's second adoptive daughter. "What's up?"
"Mom wants to talk." Kurumi remarked. "With you. Up in her office. Just across from her bedroom. Something about working on a pitch?"
"Oh… yeah." Raylix nodded. "That's happening now?"
"Guess so." Kurumi replied, shrugging. "All she told me was that she wanted to see you about it, she didn't say much beyond that."
Raylix let out a hum, nodding as he changed direction and made for the stairs as Irene had done. It didn't take him long to make his way to the top floor of the villa, where both Lilith's room and Lilith's office, as well as Hikari's, Kurumi's and his own bedroom were. Just as she'd said, Lilith's office was directly across from her bedroom, which in turn was a little further down the hallway on the top floor than Raylix's own bedroom was. As he passed the closed door to his own bedroom, and even knowing that Kurumi had told him that she WANTED to see him, he couldn't help but hesitate slightly.
Though as he paused his movement slightly, the closed door to Lilith's office opened slightly, startling the former Clan Heir slightly into moving towards said door, pushing it open and entering when he got close enough. He'd never been in here before, he had no idea what to really expect out of the concept of 'Lilith's office', but as he entered and shut the door behind him before quickly scanning around the room, he wasn't expecting it to be as… simple as what he'd walked into.
The only thing that really stood out about the room in terms of extravagance was the raw size of the place, and the large windows opposite the door Raylix just came through that let in all the natural light anyone could want when working in a place like this. Just in front of the windows sat a large, sturdy-looking oak desk, papers and files arranged neatly atop it and an unoccupied comfortable-looking chair between it and the windows.
Along the wall to Raylix's immediate left, there were a number of shelves that stretched all the way to the high ceiling, which housed an array of well-arranged books and files. Probably the kinds of files that Lilith didn't deem worthy of going into the filing cabinet in the far-left corner of the room, closest to the windows.
In the opposite corner of the room, there sat a small round table and a few chairs- smaller than the one at Lilith's desk but no less luxurious-seeming. In one of those chairs sat Lilith herself, who looked up at the sound of Raylix shutting the door behind him. She smiled at the sight, and with a wave of her finger she shifted one of the unoccupied chairs so it was easier for him to make his way over.
"You meet Kurumi on the way here?" she asked, by way of greeting as Raylix moved over. When he nodded, the smile on her face widened slightly. "Then you know why you're here. Why don't you have a seat, and then we can get started?"
"Sure." Raylix replied, moving over to the chair Lilith had moved out for him, and sitting down into it. Glancing over at the Succubus Queen, who was still clad in that same gorgeous black dress that he'd initially met her in just over a fortnight ago, he let out a breath. "Okay, pitching to the True Satan Faction leaders. What did you have in mind to pitch to them?"
"Well, I've laid out a few main points to emphasize during our pitch." Lilith began, snapping her fingers and summoning a piece of paper into her hand out of a small magic-circle, before handing it over to Raylix. He casually took it, scanning over what was written on it for a moment or two. "We just need to figure out how to make those points appeal to Shalba, Creuserey and Katerea, for the best chances of them accepting our proposal."
Humming and nodding, Raylix laid the paper down on the table between himself and Lilith, taking a breath as he looked over at her, shifting around in his chair slightly to make himself more comfortable.
"Common enemy, shared vision, enhanced reach and capability for both factions… yeah, I'd say this can work." Raylix remarked. "First one's simple enough, you could just call the current Satans an example of the very stagnancy the Khaos Brigade supposedly wants to get rid of. Li- Lucifer knows if you mention anything involving the new Satans in their presence, you're sure to piss them off. At best."
"Mmhmm." Lilith nodded, relaxing in her chair as well. "Yes, I suppose we could spin it that way. Good thinking."
Lilith noticed something that almost resembled a smile- a small one, but a smile nonetheless- crossing Raylix's face in reaction to her praise. But it was gone as soon as it appeared, so quickly that the first Succubus wondered if Raylix even noticed that he'd done that.
"Shared vision, I'd say that's also pretty simple." Raylix continued. "Just be straight with them, show them how similar the Khaos Brigade and True Satan Faction are, ideology and goals-wise."
"Indeed." Lilith hummed. "I was thinking the same thing. Great minds." She remarked, looking over at Raylix again with a relaxed smile. Though she noticed this time around that no smile, of any kind, made itself known on Raylix's face. "And as far as the enhanced reach and capability for both factions goes, we can just rattle off examples of the kinds of beings there are working within the Khaos Brigade's pact. Gods, Angels, Fallen Angels-"
That last one she said definitely got a reaction out of Raylix, Lilith thought. Out of the corner of her eye- which was mainly focused on the paper on the table between herself and Raylix- she noticed the former Gremory Heir's entire body seem to tense up. His jaw clenched up, his eyes (which were also focused on the paper in front of her) hardened to a full-on glare for a second.
Some personal history with the Fallen Angels, Lilith thought? She'd never seen that kind of reaction on any other Devil when just MENTIONING Fallen Angels in their presence.
"-Magicians, Dragons- or at least one Dragon as its figurehead- and Youkai- technically true, thanks to Tamamo- and that's just the ones I'm aware of." Lilith continued, as she noticed Raylix visibly calming down. Again, as soon as the Devil's neutral-looking façade dropped, it went right back up just as quickly.
"Right." Raylix nodded, looking up at Lilith and adjusting himself in his seat again. "All of that would probably be enough to convince them of how widespread the Khaos Brigade is, or at least is becoming, and how it wouldn't be a bad idea to back the horse of the future, or however you want to put that."
"Exactly." Lilith replied. "That should definitely be the general direction we take things in. Specific wordings and tone, we'll obviously have to play that by ear and maybe improvise a bit, when we actually get face-to-face with the faction leaders. Though when they've accepted and the True Satan Faction is under the Khaos Brigade's umbrella, a switch-up of who's really in charge in Hebeth could be in order. United front, collaboration, compromise, for those kinds of purposes. Maybe more."
Raylix blinked a couple of times, refocusing his gaze on Lilith in response to her casual declaration.
"Change of leadership?" he asked. "What, are you planning on taking over as soon as Shalba, Creuserey and Katerea agree to join the Khaos Brigade?"
"Oh, no." Lilith replied, raising her hands and giggling a little bit. "Nothing like that. Asherah knows, I've got enough on my plate as is: leading the Lilim, maintaining cover as a member of the Khaos Brigade, being a present surrogate-mother in Hikari and Kurumi's lives, you think I want to add 'directly leading a faction of beings that I'm not even one of' to that?"
"Directly?"
Another giggle escaped Lilith's lips as she leaned back in her chair, in response to Raylix's focus on that specific word.
"Smart one, you are." She remarked. "And, well, wouldn't you prefer the one in charge of a faction under your protection to be someone you can trust, hm?"
Raylix let out a breath of his own, shifting about a bit in his chair.
"You talking about Hikari?"
"I'm talking about YOU." Lilith replied. "I don't know Shalba, Creuserey or Katerea all that well. What I DO know and remember of them from their early years, I'll be blunt, I don't exactly like, and the fact that they'd probably use the Sephiroth Graal to revive their parents and grandparents the second you snatch it up for them doesn't exactly help their standing with me. But you… what I know of you, I'd say I like."
Raylix blinked again, but didn't immediately reply, as Lilith continued.
"You're dedicated to whatever it is you put your mind to- whether that's searching for the Sephiroth Graal or leading troops you get put in charge of during wartime- you're more mature than most male Devils your age I've met, and to be blunt, you're a super-strong son of a bitch. Takes a lot to be born into one war, fight through it, fight through another pretty much as soon as the first one ends, and survive a battle with the Heavenly Dragons in-between all that: by all metrics, you'd be a good leader for any group. Better than Hikari, at least: I don't know if leading a group, especially something as large as the True Satan Faction, is exactly her style."
Raylix, again, didn't reply to Lilith's remark. All he could really do was look down at the table again, as Lilith continued.
"Anyway, I think we've got a good baseline for what we want in this pitch to Shalba, Creuserey and Katerea." She remarked. "I'll think things over, iron out any potential kinks, and we'll head on over to Hebeth and have a little chat with the faction leaders, okay? …You can travel to Hebeth, right?"
Looking back up at Lilith, Raylix nodded, prompting a nod from Lilith herself in return.
"Good. Things could come up that could delay me, but I'll have something ready in… let's say a week? I'll let you know if I end up needing more time for whatever reason, that okay?"
"Yeah." Raylix replied, quietly nodding. "That's okay. My crew and I can stick around for that time."
"Alright." Lilith nodded in return, again. "Good. Thanks, Raylix, for helping me out with this, you've really helped me with putting this baseline together. I really appreciate it."
"No problem." Raylix answered, getting to his feet and making to leave, though the sight of Lilith getting to her feet and holding out a hand caused him to pause, and look back over at her.
"Hold on a second there, Raylix." Lilith spoke, a magic-circle appearing from the hand she was holding out. "I've got something for you."
The magic-circle glowed, and something came out of it. At the sight of it, and recognising what it was, Raylix's eyes widened slightly: it was a sword. Not just any sword, but one with a uniquely dark and malevolent appearance that was instantly recognisable to any Devil that had even heard of it. The blade, obsidian-black with an otherworldly glow along its edges, longer, thinner and more curved than Gaeneron, glinted in the sunlight coming through the window of Lilith's office. Intricate runes, glowing the same otherworldly silver in contrast to the pitch-dark blade, were etched along the blade's middle, all the way up to the tip.
The sword's crossguard consisted of strands of the same jet-black metal as the blade, twisting around and around each other before converging in sharp spikes. They resembled… thorned vines? Bones? Something in-between. The grip, which Lilith held onto after the magic-circle disappeared, was wrapped in a dark leather-like material. Most likely the hide of some ancient demonic creature, slain before Raylix was even born. The pommel featured a large, blood-red gem, which small strands of black metal gripping around it like a clawed hand.
"You know what this is?" Lilith asked, turning the sword in her hand as she looked over at Raylix. The sound of her voice was enough for him to tear his eyes away from the sword and look back at the person holding it, and nod.
"I thought it was lost." Raylix spoke, his voice almost a whisper. "After the war ended, I heard it disappeared."
"Well, things just have a tendency to turn up, don't they?" Lilith replied, shrugging and holding the sword out to Raylix. "I figure Excalibur's demonic counterpart, maybe its superior, would be a good token of our alliance, don't you think?"
Almost by reflex, Raylix reached out to take the sword, but paused before the sword could actually be handed off to him. His eyes flicked from the sword to Lilith once again, who slowly nodded and held it a bit further out, allowing the sword to slide from her hand into Raylix's. The grip settled almost immediately in the Devil's left hand, which dropped to his side as he looked over at Lilith, who was stretching.
"Haah… well, Raylix." She spoke, leaning forward slightly. "I'd say this was a pretty productive conversation. I wouldn't mind- I definitely wouldn't mind- if we could do other stuff together soon. What do you say?"
"Hm?" Raylix, who had returned his attention to the Demon Sword in his hand while Lilith was talking, looked back at her. "Yeah, I… guess so, too. Are we done?"
When Lilith nodded, silently confirming that they were indeed done, Raylix turned on his heel and left the office with his new sword, shutting the door behind him and leaving Lilith alone. When the sound of the office-door closing faded from her ears, Lilith sat back down in the chair behind her desk, letting out a slow breath.
She was sure that her incredible body, and just a touch of her innate charms as the most powerful Succubus, would have been more than enough for Raylix- who she'd known for ages had had a cute crush on her- to melt before her, right there. It had worked on beings like him before, even if they hadn't had an obvious crush on her since childhood, so why wasn't it working on Raylix?
Something was up, something was amiss about him right now, Lilith thought. Not making a move of ANY kind on any one of the many beautiful women he'd been living with for at least the past fortnight and a half, resisting her charms with unnatural ease?
She couldn't help but be somewhat intrigued.
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
W_Alderson21
W_Alderson21 FFN screwing itself for the past couple of months messed with my motivation to write in the first place, a bunch of IRL shit happened at once that cut into the time I'd usually spend working on this fic, and a bunch of ideas for other stories hit me so I had to get them down and out of my head so I could get back to work on this. There, there's your explanation for why this took so long. Sorry.
Anyway, that's Chapter 21 of Alliances & Assimilation done! One of the cornerstones of early-DxD canon is well on its way to coming about, things are progressing between Raylix and Lilith, and other things are also progressing between Katerea, Shalba and Creuserey! Will this come to anything? Will this make like Game of Thrones Season 8 and either come to absolutely fuck-all or be resolved in a stupidly-unsatisfying manner?
...I sure hope it doesn't end up the latter. I like to think I'm a better writer than the hacks behind the end of GoT, at least.
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!
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