Disclaimer: I don't own High School DxD.

The Trails of Avarice

Betas: None so far, you're welcome to apply

Chapter 7: When there's no more room in Diyu, the dead will walk the Earth

"I still don't like the idea of having to coordinate with the rest of the alliance." The Satan Mammon complained to her right hand woman and her spymaster. "I liked the idea of working alone."

By which you mean working with your Peerage. Clyde commented as she eavesdropped on the conversation between her King and her two childhood friends while everyone waited in a courtyard of the palace to set off on their latest sortie against the Chaos Brigade. Though to be fair, it's not like we left her with much choice in the matter.

It was true, Mammon had repeatedly made clear that joining her Peerage didn't mean that they had to go into battle with her. But that had not stopped all of them from doing just that. For Ravel, the twins, Valerie, and hell even Bonnie, the reason was obvious. They were all in love with the Satan and wanted to do everything in their power to help her. Clyde could understand why, Devi, as she insisted her Peerage call her, was beautiful, kind and had saved most of their lives. And if Clyde could get over the hang-up of having to share her, she'd be right with them. But she was no polygamist, so as wonderful a catch as Devi was, she wasn't interested.

Which put her in the same boat as Jackie in terms of why they were willing to go into battle with Devi, they wanted to be successful. Shortly after becoming Devils, their Peerage's Queen, Ravel Mammon, had taken them aside to explain the facts of what being a Devil meant. And the one thing that stuck in their minds from that talk was that in order to get anywhere in the strict Devil hierarchy you needed to show merit. Which for a member of a Peerage meant being of use to their King.

And the only way either girl could be of use to Devi was to follow her into battle like the rest of her Peerage did.

Though, Clyde was hypocritical enough to ignore the fact that a good part of her willingness to do so was because it gave her a chance to get some revenge against those Chaos Brigade assholes who killed her. She presumed Jackie and Bonnie felt the same.

Clyde was pulled from her thoughts, when Leloucia Amon replied.

"I know you did, Devi. But coordinating with everyone is more efficient and will allow us to hurt Chaos Brigade more. Take today for example, while you'll be dealing with these facilities along the China-Vietnam border, other teams will be attacking other bases elsewhere."

"I know that. But I'm still not happy that they insisted we agree to coordinate our efforts before they were willing to pass on the intelligence they promised me for attending the Young Devils Gathering."

Clyde could commiserate with her King, she hadn't wanted to go to the party either and then to have the reward for going denied them until another condition was met, it was just infuriating.

"Well, that was something the Norse insisted on and since this is their intel, we just have to bear with it." Atlan Furfur opined. "Besides, this also has the plus point of quieting the talk about you being a loose cannon."

As much as it rankled, Clyde could only with Lady Furfur's assessment. Even just being a Devil for a month she'd heard plenty of people call her King a loose cannon in her quest to hunt down the Chaos Brigade.

"I know." Devi whined. "But I just don't like it. And a girl has to vent."

Both Ladies Amon and Furfur smiled at that, and even Clyde couldn't resist one herself. Despite her station, Devi could be surprisingly normal at times.

Lady Amon was about to say something, but Clyde was distracted from her eavesdropping by Tohru Honda, Devi's ghostly head of R&D, materializing directly in front of her with a stern look on her face.

Startled, Clyde squeaked and jumped back, even as Tohru told her quite seriously that, "Eavesdropping isn't nice, Clyde-chan."

The trio of higher ranked devils that Clyde had been spying on earlier turned to see what the commotion was about, but once they spotted Tohru just shook their heads in amusement and returned to their conversation. Not surprising, Tohru had a reputation for startling people by suddenly appearing out of nowhere whenever she wanted to talk to them.

Calming down, Clyde managed a reedy, "Right. Sorry. Won't do it again."

"You better not." Tohru said sternly, before abruptly becoming cheerful. "But enough of that, here's your bento for the trip."

"Bento?" Clyde asked in a bewildered voice.

"Yup. A packed lunch. I made one for everyone going on today's trip with us." Tohru informed happily, as she handed said packed lunch over.

"You're coming with us?"

"She is." Ravel confirmed as she came over. "You ok there, Clyde? Tohru didn't startle you too badly?"

"I wouldn't!" Tohru cried defensively, but Ravel ignored her and looked to the Pawn for her answer.

"I'm ok. It's not the first time. Honestly, I thought I'd have gotten used to it by now." The Void Gear user said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it. I've lived here for years and even I freak out once in awhile when Tohru pops out of nowhere." Ravel reassured.

Tohru just pouted at this.

"Umm… So why is Tohru coming with us today?"

"We're going to be targeting a couple of labs today," Tohru explained, a bright smile on her face with no indication that she'd been pouting just a minute ago. "So Devi-sama asked me to come along to help her study the Chaos Brigade's research."

"That makes sense."

"So you all ready to go, Clyde?" Ravel asked. "You have your vials of Phoenix Tears and other emergency kit?"

"And are you feeling well? If you're unwell, you can stay behind." Tohru added, a caring look on her face. It fit her but also looked odd on a face that Clyde knew best as wearing an expression more suited to some kind of comic book mad scientist.

"I'm fine, Tohru."

"Good. Good." Tohru said with a smile, "Gotta go. Still have to give bentos to the twins. See you two in a bit."

Without waiting for a reply, the specter dematerialized and reappeared across the courtyard in front of the twins, who Clyde noted to her surprise didn't react at all.

"They knew she was coming." Valerie explained as she walked over, "You're not the only one who's been eavesdropping, Clyde."

Ravel snorted at that, and commented that, "If anything that's the twins' favorite hobby."

The two older Devils giggled at that. Clyde just smiled.

"It's a bit odd to see Tohru all sweet and caring, isn't it?" Valerie noted.

The other two women nodded.

"Nice but strange." Ravel added her agreement.

"Alright, it's time to go." Devi suddenly announced to her Peerage. "Put Tohru's lunches into your subspace storage and let's get going."

Clyde, the twins, Bonnie and Jackie all rushed to follow their King's instructions. The latter two apparently having not done so despite receiving theirs well ahead of time because they'd been peeking at what exactly were in the lunches. The subspace storage was one of the first bits of magic that Devi had taught the members of her Peerage, which did as its name suggested and created and allowed access to a pocket of subspace that the user could use as storage. Putting her lunch into the magical storage space, Clyde was ready to go.

"Everyone ready?" Devi asked, and got a chorus of confirmations back. "Ok then."

With that she snapped her fingers and summoned a large magic circle in the center of the courtyard, and the whole Peerage plus Tohru stepped onto it.

"Have a safe trip." Lady Amon said as she and Lady Furfur waved them off, even as the light engulfed them and they teleported away.

The teleport dropped them off on top of a hill in a rather mountainous area, with a single large building right in front of them. It looked like your typical modern office building with glass windows all around, making it seem almost as if it was made entirely out of the reflective material. It would not have looked out of place in any major metropolis but it stood out like a sore thumb in the empty wilderness around them, so far from civilization.

"Not very subtle, huh?" Bonnie said, stating the obvious.

"No they are not." Devi said with a amused nod, before her demeanor grew stern and became more commanding. "We have our target. Move out!"

Deep within the facility that the forces of Mammon were about to assault was a massive walk in refrigerator, filled with rows upon rows of nondescript metal lockers just large enough to fit a human body. Inside one of these lockers was a teenage girl with rich deep brown eyes and chocolate brown hair that was combed neatly, with the bangs tucked behind her ears and held in place with red bobby pins. This young woman, couldn't close her eyes, she couldn't control her body at all.

Sealed into the pitch black confines of her coffin, the teenager could only dream about the life she'd lost and how it had led her to where she was now.

Her name was Binh Trieu and at her last count she was 16, not that her age mattered anymore, and she had been born to a family of Taoist shamans affiliated to the National Supernatural Control Force (NSCF), a state sponsored supernatural suppression force in Vietnam. As a result, she had been trained from a young age to join the NSCF. Training that only intensified when she discovered to be a Heroic Descendant of Trieu Thi Trinh, a famous 3rd century woman warrior of her people who once led them in fighting off Chinese invaders and from whom she inherited what her teachers all called an 'inhuman' talent for martial arts.

Despite the fact that her training was incredibly arduous, Binh persevered, determined to be the very best she when it came time for her to fight for her nation. When she was 14 she was finally deemed ready for service, and was duly inducted into the NSCF. That had been the proudest day in her life, receiving her documents of office from no less than the Prime Minister himself and in front of her parents too. What an honor!

After that, she had dutifully served her country for over a year destroying all manner of dangerous supernatural creatures when her life came tumbling down. It had supposed to have been a simple mission, she and her squad were to head to the remote border regions near China and suppress a jiangshi outbreak. Jiangshi weren't generally much of a threat, especially in comparison to other supernatural threats she and her comrades had faced, they were basically a simple reanimated corpse maintained through the power of magical talismans. No special powers or magic. Just destroy the bodies or the animating talismans and they're dealt with. They'd believed their biggest problem would be with whoever was creating the damn things, but even then whoever was making jiangshi of all things couldn't have been much of a threat. Or so they believed. In sum, they had thought the whole thing would be a cakewalk.

They couldn't have been more wrong. What they found when they had arrived on site was a base belonging to the Chaos Brigade, a dangerous organization that they'd only heard rumors about and one which their superiors had told them to avoid at all costs. But in this instance, they couldn't do that, not when the base was clearly the source of the jiangshi ravaging the surrounding countryside. In the end, confident of their abilities, the NSCF team decided to infiltrate the base with the aim of destroying it.

Almost as soon as they got into the base, they were beset by hordes of jiangshi, who through weight of numbers slowly overwhelmed them. Binh remembered zombies filling up any open space and pressing at her from all sides. The team had thrown all they had at them but there too many of the undead and soon they were all separated, with innumerable undead between them. She never saw how the rest of the team died, and she knew they did, she'd seen the jiangshi made from their corpses. She did however remember how she died. She had fought the swarm of living dead for what felt like hours, pouring every ounce of her magic and skills into a desperate struggle for survival. But in the end, there were just too many of the enemy for her to defeat, and when she had grown too exhausted to keep fighting, the zombies had overwhelmed her and in a gore filled frenzy killed her.

Unfortunately for her, she was not granted the peace of death. Instead, one moment she felt herself seemingly being torn to pieces by the jiangshi and the next she was reanimating as one herself. Not that she knew that was what was happening at first. When she first came to after her death, all she knew was panic as she struggled to but could not control her body. This lasted for hours before someone moved her into one of hundreds of standing lockers in a refrigeration unit, during the process of which she ended up spotting the bodies of her comrades and dozens of other people converted into or in the process of being converted into jiangshi. It was then she realized she was one of them.

Days later, one of the Chaos Brigade scientists who had come into the locker and ran some tests on each of the zombies, probably to make sure the procedure was successful and was lasting, had a strange reaction when he came to examine her. He didn't reveal what he'd discovered but whatever it was had him very excited and soon he returned with someone who must have been his superior, muttering about "How it's incredible how she's maintained her thought patterns!"

So she'd somehow managed to retain her mind after being transformed into a zombie. That wasn't something worth celebrating in her opinion, since it just meant being a prisoner in her own undead body.

The scientists of course disagreed and proceeded to put her through a series of tasks only to discover to their amazement that she could still use all the skills she had when still alive. A fact that they hypothesized was due to her being a Heroic Descendant, something that made her hate her ancestry for the first time in her life. Especially so when they declared her abilities meant she was more useful than the other cannon fodder and may even be a stepping stone towards their reaching their goal. They never made clear what that goal was, but whatever it was it made Binh feel terrible to think she had in any way contributed towards the monsters reaching it.

Binh was pulled from her thoughts when the lid of her coffin suddenly opened and she felt her body climb out of it.

More tests? No it can't be, there aren't any scheduled for today. I think. Binh mused uncertainly. It was often hard for her to keep track of time, so she might have gotten the days mixed up. Though she doubted it, she just had a test yesterday and she didn't think her sense of time would have slipped so soon.

As she climbed out of her coffin, she noticed she wasn't the only one. Every jiangshi in the refrigeration unit, one of several in the base she'd learned, had likewise done the same.

All of us? That can only mean an intruder and dangerous ones if they are mobilizing this many jiangshi. Binh would have smirked maliciously then if she could still control her lips. I hope these intruders kill all these Chaos Brigade scum.

Even as she thought this, her body moved to engage said intruders in defense of the Chaos Brigade. She quickly moved away from the growing numbers of her mindless fellows, who were being herded together in preparation for horde tactics and instead was sent ahead by her controllers to presumably scout the enemy.

It didn't take her long to find them, they had gotten remarkably far into the base, all the way into one of the football field sized testing rooms where the scientists tested out various tactical uses of their undead puppets. The intruders consisted of nine beautiful women who all screamed power, especially the one with long black hair and orange eyes.

Binh observed them from a safe distance for a long moment, as her controllers gave her no new instructions. As she watched, the women seemed to be cautiously examining the testing chamber with its large amount of bloodstains and other signs of gore, the Chaos Brigade having never seen the need to clean the room.

"The dead here are noisy enough as is!" A woman with blond hair and red eyes complained.

Was she implying that she could talk to the dead? Does that make her a medium of some kind? Or a necromancer? Binh pondered even as she was given the command to attack.

Completely against her will she summoned forth a dozen talismans from her pockets, the sheets of yellow paper flying out and forming a straight line in front of her before shooting forward and transforming into a barrage of elemental attacks that shot towards the women. Drawing her sword, a kiem, she took an acrobatic leap and followed after her attack.

A short while earlier…

So far this place has been a waste of time. Ravel complained bitterly across the Peerage network, which Tohru had been added to for the day, as the group walked into a dimly lit chamber the size of a soccer field.

She wasn't wrong either, so far the Mammon group had found nothing of value as they investigated the Chaos Brigade facility. All they'd found were hastily abandoned offices. They hadn't even encountered any resistance.

"What is this place?" Bonnie asked, sounding vaguely horrified as she pointed to what seemed to be a large bloodstain.

Looks like things just got interesting, the twins sent to Ravel pointedly.

The wife of Mammon just blew them a raspberry.

The others ignored the byplay, their curiosity or horror drawn to the room with its clear evidence of copious violence.

This looks like my test labs back home. Tohru mused, an excited feel to her telepathic voice that was matched by the look of delight on her face. Most of Mammon's Peerage shivered in disgust. They had all seen the labs she was talking about and the undead abominations she created whose combat effectiveness she tested there. Devi and Ravel were the exceptions though, they had known Tohru the longest and had already become used to her and her monstrous pets.

There's someone spying on us over in the shadows created by the broken light fixture over at the other end of the room. The twins informed.

Leave her be. It's only one person, not a threat. Devi declared confidently. Probably just a scout.

Shouldn't we deal with it anyways? Clyde queried even as she pointed her [Dragon Maw Cannon] vaguely in the direction of the unseen enemy.

Not when they're about to attempt to ambush us. It would give away the fact we know their plans and force them to change tactics. We've walked into their trap and I mean to spring it. Devi explained.

Why on earth would you do that? Jackie asked incredulously.

To test the capabilities of the opposition. Ravel announced. This is the first time we're actually attacking a Chaos Brigade base, we want to check out what kind of defenses we can typically expect from them.

Oh! Bonnie and Jackie both exclaimed.

But with how divided they are wouldn't it vary from base to base or at least faction to faction? Clyde asked.

It would. The twins confirmed. But something to build our future expectations on is better than nothing.

Really? Clyde skeptically asked.

To be honest. Devi said, I'm mostly doing this because I want to see what they can come up with to deal with me.

That- Clyde began only to be cut off by a annoyed Valerie.

All of you are being too noisy!

"The dead here are noisy enough as is!" Valerie finished verbally.

Valerie had barely finished talking before Devi announced that, Here they come!

As if on cue, a salvo of elemental attacks came streaking towards them from the shadowy corner where the scout had been lurking. Ravel responded quickly, summoning a spiraling barrier of wind that easily deflected the attacks. This was followed a moment later with it sending a teenaged girl armed with a sword flying as she tried to close to melee.

The girl hit the ground with a thud and the Pawns flinched, the force the girl had hit the ground with was enough to seriously injure a human and would have been painful enough that even Devils with their improved durability would have left them unable to fight. The girl however didn't react at all.

"Wha-?"

"She's undead. A jiangshi." Tohru explained as she drew her scythe from her subspace storage. Well that explained why the girl didn't react to the blow, if she was undead then there was a good chance she couldn't feel pain at all.

Suddenly the girl did an an acrobatic flip and landed on her feet.

Bullshit! Clyde cursed in astonishment. I've read about jiangshi, their bodies should be too stiff to pull that off.

"It should." Tohru, their resident necromancer, conceded with an interested gleam in her eye as she observed the odd zombie girl who was now charging them again summoning a veritable swarm of paper talismans from the pockets of her tattered army fatigues and launching them. As they zeroed in on Mammon and her followers, they transformed into elemental attacks mid-flight.

"Impossible!" Devi said with a gasp, even as Ravel's wind barrier easily deflected the zombie's elemental assault. "A jiangshi that can use Taoist magic?"

"What's special about Taoist magic?" Jackie asked even as she transformed [Death in the Dark] into a long range hunting rifle and tried to get a shot on the jiangshi. But despite her skills as a Heroic Descendant of Calamity Jane, she couldn't get a clear shot. The girl with her acrobatics, was just moving too fast.

"Taoist magic uses the caster's life force to fuel its spells." Tohru explained, distractedly as she eyed the strange jiangshi like a piece of meat. "So for an undead to use it…"

"Should be impossible." Bonnie finished, as she saturated a whole section of the room with fire from [Rapid Death Dealer] in a bid to hit their agile opponent but failing. Not that she expected otherwise, the twins had been summoning their drones by the dozens since the girl attacked and was raining laser fire to do the same, and yet the girl had still managed to avoid getting hit. Even the homing beams from Clyde's [Dragon Maw Cannon] failed to hit her, with the girl jumping or spinning out of the way at the last minute and causing them to hit where she had been standing instead.

The strange jiangshi thus had everyone's attention. Devi and Tohru were mesmerized by her abnormal abilities. The twins and the Pawns were busy trying to shoot her. While Ravel was busy keeping up the wind barrier to deflect the elemental attacks that kept coming. The only one she had not distracted was Valerie, she knew full well her own ranged attacks would never have been able to hit the girl, not when the faster more rapid firing ones of the others could not. As such at the twins' urging through the network she'd taken to being the distracted group's eyes and ears for the unexpected, it was in this capacity that she raised the alarm that the next phase of the enemy trap had activated.

Hidden doors are opening! Valerie sent urgently, just as a horde of jiangshi poured through these new entrances.

"I'll deal with the strange one!" Tohru declared as the Mammon Peerage prepared to fight the new threat. "You girls handle the regular ones."

With that the specter dematerialized only to reappear in front of the sword-wielding zombie her scythe swinging down to cut her in half. In a remarkable display of agility though, the jiangshi evaded the attack and jumped away before Tohru could follow up. Tohru dematerialized again, likely to follow.

Ravel couldn't be sure though as she had to redirect her attention to the horde of zombies coming their way. Damnit! My wind barrier won't stop them for long, they'll just force their way through with sheer numbers even if dozens get torn to pieces in the process, we need something a little sturdier.

Thankfully, Valerie had just the right spell in mind as with a quick application of will she summoned a thick wall of ice around the Peerage.

I'll maintain the wall, you guys attack. The former Dhampir informed the Peerage, her voice showing the slightest sound of strain as the zombies pressed against her icy barrier.

Valerie, can't hold this wall for long. Let's take some pressure off her. Devi commanded as she summoned a dozen spheres of void deep within the ranks of the enemy disintegrating everything caught within them.

The twins joined in, quickly redirecting their drones from targeting the first jiangshi to the horde where they were doing a lot better, destroying dozens of the undead with each passing minute. They even threw in the odd lightning spell into the mix.

The Pawns weren't willing to be left out either and were dealing their fair share of destruction on the undead swarm. Clyde's [Dragon Maw Cannon] was firing as fast as it could recharge, tearing trenches in the enemy ranks. Jackie and Bonnie meanwhile were having a contest on who could kill more zombies, and despite transforming [Death in the Dark] into a machine gun, Jackie couldn't compete with Bonnie's [Rapid Death Dealer]'s insane rate of fire. Something the younger woman was happy to continually remind her increasingly grumpy friend.

Ravel on her part knew that using her fire magic would be counterproductive since the heat it would create would make the job Valerie had of maintaining the ice wall harder, plus her more destructive spells were out too since they would just serve to bring the whole building down on them. Instead, she was limited to her less damaging, area-of-effect wise, wind spells. That was not to say that she couldn't tear the enemy apart with those, just that they were so inefficient. Oh, how she wished she could use a fire tornado.

Instead she had to settle for steadily expanding her original wind barrier and using it as a blender that tore the jiangshi to pieces. Though between their numbers and how tightly packed they were, this was nowhere near as destructive as it could be and quite a few of the undead got through the barrier pretty much intact, having been shielded by the bodies of their less fortunate brethren. These she left to the others though she occasionally picked one or two of them off with a wind blade, instead choosing to focus the majority of her attention on moving her cutting wind barrier back and forth over the horde.

The battle dragged on, quickly devolving into a simple battle of attrition. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say it was such from the onset. Either way, the battle seemed to drag on and on.

After what must have been minutes of fighting, Ravel grew frustrated and turned to her wife, "Devi, let's just bring the whole building down. With the right preparations we'd survive that."

"No," Devi said with a shake of her head as she summoned another dozen void spheres to thin the jiangshi ranks. "There could be valuable intel in the building. Besides it's not like we can't win this, it's just a matter of patience."

For now. The twins commented. That could change depending on the number of jiangshi they have. Val can't keep that wall up indefinitely.

"I know." Devi admitted. "But for now, we can still hold out. So that's what we'll do."

Ravel nodded. Devi was right.

It took ages before the last of the jiangshi was finally destroyed, by which time Ravel was sure she never wanted to see another zombie ever again. She joined the others as they all breathed a sigh of relief that it over.

14 minutes 36 seconds. The twins announced. That battle lasted almost 15 minutes. The Chaos Brigade must have fled and destroyed all useful information by now.

Devi nodded, looking disappointed. "But at least we know that their tactic for handling an attack from an overwhelming force is to stall for time and evacuate. Besides there might still be something useful that they missed."

No one was in the mood to argue, though there was an undercurrent of dissatisfaction over how the fight had been handled.

"Where's Tohru?" Jackie asked as she finished taking what looked like a headcount.

At that, the Mammon Peerage scanned their surroundings, quickly spotting the missing specter by a wall, with the now limbless jiangshi pinned to it by her scythe, snarling at the ghost.

"You kept her alive, Tohru? Why?"

"Of course I did, Devi-sama~!" Tohru announced sounding giddy. "She's out of talismans and magic. Plus I've cut off her arms and legs. So she's not a threat."

Everyone shot the mad scientist a sharp look.

"Ok. Ok." The ghost said as she raised her hands in a placating gesture. "I mainly let her live so I could keep her as a specimen. She's just so fascinating."

Ravel just shook her head in amusement even as the others made similar gestures of mirth. That was just such an endearingly Tohru-ish response that they couldn't help but be pleased by it.

"Fine." Devi said with finality. "But she's your responsibility."

Tohru nodded.

"Alright then, with that settled let's go see what we can salvage from this operation."

Damn it! I could have handled that better. Devi cursed to herself in a private corner of her mind, detached from the group's telepathic network. It would not do for everyone to see her self-recrimination. I was so confident that we could handle anything that the enemy could throw at us that I let myself fall right into their trap.

And she had, the zombie rush that the Chaos Brigade had unleashed on them earlier had never been intended to kill her or her people. The Brigade knew full well that if Tohru or any of her Peerage were in serious danger, she'd have gone all out and destroyed the everything around her to keep them safe and with their only weapons being jiangshi there was nothing they could do to stop her. As such the trap was nothing more than an attempt to buy time, one which played on her self-confidence which made her hold back.

Sure, she had done so in no small part because unleashing her powers at full might have destroyed valuable intelligence as it would certainly have brought the building crashing down on them. But in light of the Brigade successfully making their escape, that was a flimsy excuse at best. Yes, there might still be some intelligence left behind, but most if not all the truly useful material would have been destroyed by the Brigade as they fled.

Buck up, Devi. Ravel sent comfortingly. Yes, you made a couple of wrong calls earlier. But just take it as a learning experience, ok?

Devi startled a little, worried that she'd unintentionally sent her earlier thoughts through the network, but Ravel assuaged her fears, We didn't hear whatever you were thinking. We didn't need to. It was written all over your face.

The Fifth Satan hurriedly schooled her features, which earned her giggles from the twins as they and the rest of the Peerages rummaged through the remains of the Chaos Brigade facility's labs. The twins were focusing on recovering what limited data they could from the data servers in the third basement level that the Brigade hadn't outright destroyed in their rushed escape through the use of their powers. Their drones and Val keeping watch over them while they focused. The Pawns on the other hand had grouped up and were searching the labs on the floor above that. While Devi and Ravel searched those on the first basement level. Tohru on the other hand had stayed behind in the room where they'd fought the horde of jiangshi back up on the ground floor to act as a rear guard, or more accurately to gush at her newly acquired specimen.

Besides, it's not looking that bad. The twins sent. At least not from our end. Most of the servers are intact and functional. Looks like whoever was tasked to wreck them didn't have enough time to do a thorough job.

The same up here, Bonnie added in. A lot of trashed equipment and plenty of burned documents, but after we put out the fires, there's still plenty that's intact.

But is any of it useful? Devi shot back.

In the servers? Probably not. The twins replied apologetically. Whoever was tasked with destroying the servers might not have time to finish his job but he had his priorities in order. We've only finding research data so far, no actionable intelligence.

Slingers? How about you girls? Devi asked hopefully.

Maybe. We honestly wouldn't know though, there's a lot of surviving documents here and well… It's not like we'd spot what's useful at first glance. Clyde responded just a tad hesitantly.

That's fine. Just store everything you girls find and we'll have Attie look through it when we get back. Devi replied with a sigh.

On it, boss. Jackie sent back.

Devi, are we supposed to clear this whole complex ourselves? Valerie asked tentatively, it was clear through the telepathic link that she'd been waiting to ask the question for some time but hadn't wanted to interrupt the previous conversation.

No, just do a preliminary sweep. Attie will be on her way with a bigger force soon. Devi announced.

That's good to hear. Valerie replied while breathing a sigh of relief, echoed by the others. This place is pretty massive.

If that's the case, why didn't we come with them? Clyde sent back accusingly.

Devi made to reply, but was preempted by Ravel. Because, Clyde, we're qualitatively superior despite being smaller in number than any one force Devi can bring to bear.

But wouldn't it have been better if we had at least more backup? Jackie questioned.

Devi pondered this for a moment as she and Ravel stepped into a once opulent office just off the lab area they had just been exploring. From the plaque on the door, it was the facility's director's office.

"Hopefully there's something useful here." Ravel said tiredly, the strain from the earlier battle was starting to show, as she began to search the office.

Jackie's right. Devi said after some consideration. We moved out with only us before now because as a small group we could deploy more quickly and covertly, but by now the enemy is expecting us. There's no need for that.

So what does that mean? Valerie asked, effectively speaking for everyone else.

Devi didn't respond to Valerie, instead choosing to take action. Tohru, can you hear me?

Right here, Devi-sama. The specter dutifully responded.

Good, Tohru. Attie and her men should show up in the next few minutes. Once she does I want you to ask her to detach a company of her men to reinforce my Peerage for when we assault the next base. The rest can stay here under her command to secure this one.

I'll tell her.

"Devi, I think I've found something useful." Ravel declared suddenly, as she gingerly placed a partially burned document onto a table.

"What is it?"

"Looks like a communique from Rizevim."

That caught Devi's attention immediately and she walked over to take a look.

A good portion of the communique was too badly damaged to be read, but from what was still legible, Devi was able to decipher that the Lucifer had gotten in touch with all the other Chaos Brigade Factions about data on resurrection and related magic.

Why would he need that? Valerie asked fearfully. Those powers… they're what my Sephiroth Graal can do… Is he trying to make up for not having it?

Don't worry, Val. I won't let him take you! Devi reassured, even as the rest of the Peerages sent similar sentiments..

Just then Devi sensed a dozen or so incoming teleports and tensed, fearing it was an enemy counterattack.

She relaxed though when she sensed Attie's familiar presence.

Devi-sama. Atlan-san just got here. Tohru informed. I'm giving her your orders now.

Thanks Tohru. Devi sent back, before redirecting her focus to her Peerage. Alright girls, finish up what you're doing and wait for Attie's men to relieve you then regroup back in the testing chamber on the ground floor.

A short while later, everyone had as ordered regrouped in the testing chamber. Attie had helpfully brought with her the equipment needed for a command post and had set it up, so everyone was seated on proper chairs and didn't need to sit on the gore soaked floor.

"Good choice on a place for us to teleport in, Devi. Very spacious and since it's already inside the building, very convenient too." Attie commented as everyone settled down and began pulling out their packed lunches. It was lunchtime after all, and it only made sense to eat while they debriefed and planned for the attack on the next base. Devi thus happily agreed with Ravel when she'd made the suggestion.

"Tohru was the one who did it." Devi replied, as she took a seat to Ravel's left and pulled out her own lunch, Attie taking a seat to her right.

"Where is that ghost, anyways?" Attie asked inquisitively. "Haven't seen her since I got here and she passed on your orders. I have your men ready by the way."

"Good, they'll come with us on the next attack. And as for Tohru?" Devi gestured to a far wall where Tohru was still happily examining the pinned zombie girl.

"New specimen?"

Devi just nodded, which in turn caused Attie to sigh at their undead friend's antics.

As Devi finished her first mouthful, she turned to her Peerage. She'd rather not interrupt her lunch, but time was of the essence here. "So let's review what we discovered here. Twins?"

"This facility is a research base designed to experiment with jiangshi and determine if they can be made into foot soldiers for the Chaos Brigade. More specifically trying to enhance them after they concluded normal jiangshi wouldn't work."

Devi nodded, and took another mouthful. "Anything about the base in China?"

"Nothing we could find." The twins informed with a shake of their heads.

"Good. So they won't expect us coming."

"Why not?" Jackie asked sounding confused. "Aren't we operating in the same area?"

"Yes. But since there's nothing linking this base to that one, there's no reason to assume we even know it exists." Clyde explained, showing why she'd been the tactician of their little gang when they had been human. "They might beef up their security due to us being in the area but they won't abandon all their hard work just because of that."

"Clyde's right. The Chaos Brigade have standing orders to only abandon their bases if and only if they are attacked by an overwhelming force." The twins added.

Jackie nodded in understanding, with Bonnie following her example.

"Found those orders in the database?"

The twins nodded. "Along with some SOPs [standard operating procedures] of theirs. We've already passed them along to Attie's men for analysis."

Devi looked to Attie who nodded in confirmation, before turning back to the twins, "Anything else useful?"

"Right now, no? Though we did find out the story behind zombie girl over there." The twins declared as one of their bodies gestured to the girl pinned to a wall.

"Really? So what is it?" Bonnie asked excitedly.

Devi was tempted nip this potential tangent in the bud and to get things back on track, but held back. After the wash of a morning, a little distraction was in order.

When Devi didn't object, the twins continued. "Her name is Binh Trieu, and she was the only success in of the Chaos Brigade's efforts with jiangshi. Probably because she's a Heroic Descendant of Trieu Thi Trinh, at least that's what they believed. She's also an expert Taoist Shaman as she showed with all that Taoist magic she threw at us."

"How did someone like that end up as a Chaos Brigade test subject?" Jackie commented incredulously.

"She was an operative of the Vietnamese state." Here the twins grew nervous, not overtly so, but as their lover Devi spotted it easily and quickly sent a telepathic burst of comfort. It was to be expected though, the twins had their own bad experiences with dealing with governments and the girl's story was an uncomfortable reminder of that.

Devi sensed the twins recomposing themselves before they picked up the tale again. "She was sent here on a mission and got herself killed and turned into a jiangshi. Unlike normal jiangshi though the poor girl is conscious but can't control herself. Instead, her body is being directed by a control talisman."

At this the Slingers all turned to look at Binh trying to spot the talisman.

"You won't find it. The Chaos Brigade made it like a Sacred Gear so it's embedded in her being, just like your Void Gears are for you." The twins explained with a giggle.

"Oh!" Bonnie exclaimed as she blushed in embarrassment, while Clyde and Jackie just took the explanation in stride. The latter two were a lot more accepting of the fact that they had a lot to learn about the supernatural world, Devi noted.

"If that's the case, Iwakuras, can't we free the poor girl by just removing that control talisman?" Ravel asked as she finished with her lunch. Unlike the others, both she and Valerie who had been raised as proper ladies, had apparently chosen to finish their meal before joining in the conversation.

"We could but that would also kill her." The twins replied with a sad shake of their heads. "The control talisman doubles as the anchor for the magic that reanimates her. So removing it will end her undeath."

Everyone shook their heads in dismay at that. The girl's story was quite sad and had stirred a great deal of sympathy among them.

"It's a pity." Attie chimed in. "If only there was another way."

Devi just silently contemplated what could be done as she finished her meal. Likewise, her Peerage returned to their food, feeling a little down.

As Devi finished the last of her food, she came to a decision.

"There is a way to save the gir- No, Binh." Devi announced.

"You can't mean-" Valerie was cut off though by Devi.

"I do. But I'll make it a choice."

"Between?" Attie asked coyly.

"Death or joining my Peerage."

"But the girl, no, Binh, can't make a choice now, can she? Now with that control talisman thingy inside her." Bonnie asked sounding confused. She was not the only one, the other Slingers and Valerie looked just as bewildered.

"The Evil Piece can substitute for the control talisman as the source of the magic animating her, so I'll reincarnate her thus returning her free will and then have her make her choice."

Valerie still seemed befuddled though, Devi didn't understand why that would be and was about to ask but thankfully the twins seemed to understand why and stepped in to explain.

"It's not the same as it was with us, Val. Devi isn't equating the Peerage to a harem anymore, not since she revived you and definitely not since she had the Slingers join."

Devi blinked in surprise. That's what this was about?

The twins' little revelation elicited a mixed response from her Peerage.

Ravel actually seems disappointed, while the twins seemed neutral about the whole thing.

While Jackie and Clyde were visibly relieved, probably that the Peerage was not her lesbian harem like Azazel had jokingly called it. The two of them, Devi knew, had no romantic interest in her whatsoever.

Valerie and Bonnie looked conflicted. That brooked some consideration on Devi's part. What did she feel about the girls? But she could worry about that later.

For now though, she had a girl to save.

Walking over to the girl, with her Peerage and a curious Attie trailing behind her, she gestured for Tohru to step aside even as she summoned one of her two remaining Evil Pieces, a Knight.

Eying the Knight Piece, Tohru gave maniacal smile apparently having figured out in a single glance what Devi intended.

Conjuring a magic circle around her free hand Devi slammed it into Binh's body, instead of resulting into a spray of gore though, it slid into her body like it was made of jello instead of undead flesh. Devi rooted around inside the teenager's being for a moment before finding what she was looking for and yanking the control talisman keeping the girl in undeath out. The talisman revealed itself to be a strip of yellow paper inscribed with a whole host of arcane runes. Looking at it in disgust, Devi with a spark of will and a smidgen of magic, set it alight.

As the ashes of the talisman fell to the ground, the Super Devil activated her Evil Piece and inserted it into the dead girl's being. With the lack of fanfare typical to resurrections by the Satan, Binh gasped her first breath as a Devil.

"Binh Trieu, can you hear me?"

The newly resurrected devil looked towards her new King and nodded, obviously too overcome by her new freedom to respond verbally.

"Will you remain in my Peerage and live or would you rather I give you your final death instead?"

Gulping in a deep breath, the teenage Shaman, croaked a hoarse reply, "I want to live!"

Devi nodded and pulled Tohru's scythe free, unpinning Binh from the wall, and tossing the weapon to the specter who caught it easily even as she cheered at the development.

The Satan ignored her and instead lowered the latest member of her Peerage gently to the ground.

A few hours later, Devi had sent Tohru back to the Land of Greed with Binh to have her new Knight's limbs reattached and settled into her new life. At the same time, she had reorganized her forces. Based on what little she knew about the China facility, it was just as if not even bigger than the Vietnam one. It thus necessitated that she split them up to allow her to more quickly secure and prevent a repeat of what happened in Vietnam.

To that effect she had split her Peerage into three teams, each with a squad of a dozen of the men Attie had brought with her to back them up. Ravel led one and the twins led another, while Valerie and the still inexperienced Slingers would command a third. With one team with herself at the head, she had four teams. Which they all felt should be more than enough.

She had also arranged with Hansel back in [Spiral Urbis Opes] to prepare a battalion of heavy infantry to serve as reinforcements should the need arises. She'd underestimated the enemy once already, she was taking no chances this time.

As such with all their preparations made, Devi and her troops set off for China and the next battle.

For 16 year old Liou Xiaoyu, a typical Chinese peasant girl living in the hills along the border with Vietnam, the day had started off very well. The weather was good, everyone in her little village was getting along, even Old Man Zhou and Auntie Zhu, who for once were just giving each other the cold shoulder instead of hurling abuse at one another.

Unfortunately, her good day was not to last. It was almost noon, and Xiaoyu, a tall, lithe young woman with long black hair that she wore in two high pigtails, similarly black eyes and a fair complexion was just starting on making lunch for her family when suddenly a glowing circle appeared right in the middle of her kitchen and out shambled a walking corpse. Its body showed obvious signs of decay and its movement was stiff but it nevertheless shuffled awkwardly towards her.

Horrified, the teenager screamed and ran out into the living room of her house, only to find three more of the monsters there. More importantly for the girl, her younger brother Xiaohan was also there, staring stupefied at the living dead as the textbook he'd been studying from slipped from his nerveless fingers.

"Xiaohan!" The young woman shouted, as acting with bravery she didn't know she had she ran towards the monsters and grabbed her brother by the arm and pulled him along as she fled her home.

There was no safety outside their house though, as Xiaoyu quickly found out, for her whole village had been overrun. She could hear screams echoing from all around her, some of defiance, but mainly of agony and despair. All accompanied by the seemingly omnipresent sound of the monsters' moans.

Desperate to evade the creatures, Xiaoyu ran directionless through the village, all the while dragging her little brother along.

"Big Sister, what are those things?" Xiaohan asked, sounding terrified. "They are jiangshi? Aren't they?"

"I don't know." Xiaoyu admitted, as she led them down a narrow alley between two houses to avoid one of the creatures which had stepped out of a house, Uncle Liu's, just ahead of them on the path. "Maybe."

To her misfortune, the alley ended in a dead end in a large courtyard bordered on all sides by houses. Xiaoyu quickly looked to see if she could turn back, but was quickly disabused of that suggestion when she saw one of the jiangshi, they must be jiangshi, stumbling its way after them from the way they came. A particularly large one at that, which Xiaoyu was thankful for because its bulk was making it difficult for it to navigate the narrow alley, it was getting stuck every so often and was forced to muscle its way through the obstructions, thus slowing down its progress.

Frantic, the young woman pulled her brother towards one of the doors of the houses lining the yard. She tried to open it but it was locked and try as much as she tried she could not force it open. Giving it up for a lost cause, Xiaoyu tried the one across from it but couldn't open it either.

All this while, Xiaohan had been murmuring nonsense as the fear overtook him, but all of a sudden he screamed and as Xiaoyu turned to see why, her heart dropped. The jiangshi had caught up to the siblings and had shambled into the courtyard but it was not alone. Hidden from the Chinese girl's quick glance earlier, there had been two more of the undead creatures following behind it. Now without a narrow alleyway to impede their moment, they spread out to flank their larger counterpart.

Xiaoyu responded by making a mad dash to the last door she had not tried, literally forcing her to run just ahead of the grasping arms of the jiangshi. But just like the other two, this door was locked. With no routes of escape available, Xiaoyu ran towards her brother, again narrowly avoiding being caught by the undead and pushed her brother behind her as she awaited the inevitable.

I don't want to die. I don't want Xiaohan to die. To whichever god is listening please save us! The young woman prayed with all heart as she cowered before the advancing zombies, using her body to shield her brother in some futile hope that it would somehow help him survive this day.

If you really want to save your brother, then I'll oblige. A voice that Xiaoyu somehow just knew came from deep within her own soul answered her prayer.

I do! More than anything!

Good! Then use my power wisely and save him! The mysterious voice boomed in her mind, even as strength suddenly flooded her body and knowledge on how to use martial arts filled her mind. They were also accompanied by bursts of memories, but not her own, these were ancient memories. Memories of the being that was empowering her. She saw a aged father in ancient China receiving a notice demanding he report for military service and a girl dressing up in men's armor and going to war in his stead. She witnessed war and bloodshed and in the end betrayal by sovereign, lover and family.

As the memories faded the mysterious voice spoke once more, declaring, "Rise Liou Xiaoyu and inherit my will. Inherit the spirit of Hua Mulan!"

Just as the voice begins to fade, a pair of knee length black boots with a glowing green stripe running down the outer side of the boot that trailed off into a pair of energy streamers at her ankles suddenly appeared on her feet. The fading voice, now barely a whisper, sounded startled as it said, "Sacred Gear!? What a coincidence, or perhaps this is fate? Whatever the cause, these will be most useful. They are the Dark Boots. Use them with the kicks I taught you, my successor, and you and your brother may yet survive this day. Fight well, Xiaoyu!"

Honestly, Xiaoyu thought she had gone crazy, but she didn't care. Not in that moment. Not when the craziness could save her brother. With a wordless battle cry, Xiaoyu followed Mulan's advice and attacked. Letting the inherited skills and instincts guide her, she leaped into the air and landed on the large jiangshi's face causing its head to explode in a shower of gore thanks to the enhanced power of her legs granted by her Sacred Gear. As the corpse fell, Xiaoyu did a side split, something she'd never have managed before, destroying the heads of the other two undead as well, before using the still falling body of the first zombie as a springboard to jump back, reducing it into a gory mess in the process.

She landed a couple of metres away from the three bodies or what remained of them and waited to see if they got back up. When they didn't, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her brother followed her gaze with trepidation.

"So destroying the head kills the things, huh?" Xiaoyu noted, as she turned to her brother.

"Big Sister, that was aweso-"

The young ten year old boy never got a chance to finish his cry of adulation, as mid-way through his sentence a pair of rotted hands burst through the door behind and grabbed hold of him, causing his scream to become one of terror.

Xiaoyu tried to rush to his aid by was blindsided when a jianghsi burst through the door to her left and tackled her to the ground. It bit at her and managed to tear a chunk of flesh from her arm before she managed to kick it away and finish it off with a roundhouse kick to the head. By this time, another four zombies had made it into the courtyard from the newly opened door and surged her way. Xiaoyu ignored them and turned in the direction of her brother, only to find a jiangshi had ripped his body to pieces and had bulldozed its way through the door.

Seeing red, the Sacred Gear user ran towards the zombie that had killed her brother and reduced it to a bloody smear through a series of rapid kicks. By this time, the other zombies had closed on her, but Xiaoyu was not worried. There was nothing left for her to worry about. All that mattered now was to use her new powers to send these murderous things back to their graves.

With tears streaming down her face at her loss, she blitzed them in a flurry of kicks destroying them utterly. It wasn't enough though, she wanted, no needed to destroy more of these jiangshi that had ravaged her village. Only then would she be able to avenge her brother and face him with dignity in the afterlife.

Driven by this angry determination, Xiaoyu scoured her village for more of the monsters. In her red haze of rage, she found and killed dozens of the abominations, but in the process due to the lack of focus brought on by her heightened emotional state, which was not helped at all by the discovery of her parents' bodies, and sheer inexperience she quickly accumulated a whole host of wounds.

Finally after a 10 minute rage fueled rampage, she becomes too exhausted to keep fighting and collapsed next to the sturdiest house in her village, one built by a young man who had gone to work at that mysterious new factory up the road.

"What a waste building such a fancy house. Your family are all dead now. The whole town is dead." Xiaoyu noted of the house, even as she did a quick check of her injuries.

"I'm bruised all over from their blows and being thrown into things. Scratched all over too. Plus my right arm is broken." Xiaoyu listed off absently, before she coughed, sending bloody spittle flying. "Oh and from that blood. I've got some kind of internal injury too."

Xiaoyu would have marveled at how a relatively uneducated peasant girl like her so easily assessed led her own injuries, but frankly after the events of the day so far, it didn't even surprise her.

Down the street on all sides, she could see a large group of jiangshi gathering, they were being surprisingly cautious, almost as if their controllers - Xiaoyu remembered that the legends said they were controlled - had learned to be wary of her. A bitter smile spread across her face at that, at least she'd left an impression.

Defiantly, she stared down the horde of abominations that would be her death.

Roughly 20 minutes earlier…

Valerie Tepes, Rook of the Satan Mammon was in a foul mood. This was not because her King had let her overconfidence lead to the failure of their mission objective earlier in the day nor was it because she had just had to fight her way through an entire base full of zombies. Both of those things she'd come to expect as part of her life as a Devil. Her King after all couldn't be perfect and would inevitably make mistakes, she was actually quite glad it was a mistake that had not led to any harm coming to their side. At the same time, zombies were just another supernatural horror for a Devil, and frankly no big deal.

It all started with the Slingers innocently asking about the difference between jiangshi and regular zombies.

"Well, for the most part? Nothing." The twins explained to the Pawns' question as they waited for their King to contact [Spiral Urbis Opes] and make arrangements for reinforcements in the event of an emergency. "They are just generally easier to control."

"Why?" Clyde asked inquisitively. That girl was quite the sponge for knowledge, Valerie noted to herself as she listened in on the conversation, having nothing better to do herself.

"Well, zombies are created by necromancy and so need an necromancer or at least someone skilled in at least the basics of that branch of magic around to command. In contrast, jiangshi are created through the use of animating talismans. These talismans are artifacts that anyone with skill in magic, of any branch, can use."

Valerie was quite impressed that the twins had chosen to say all that verbally. She knew they generally preferred telepathic communication. But the Slingers were new to it and not very comfortable with it yet, so the twins were making an allowance for that. The former Dhampir was also quite pleased to note that the Void Gear users were also meeting the twins halfway by not making an issue of the strange stereo quality to the twins' speech, created by them talking from two mouths at the same time, which their normal thought speech lacked. She knew it had to be disconcerting to the young women who until recently were ignorant to the supernatural world and its oddities.

"That would make them good cannon fodder like the Brigade wants them to be, but why not a zombie virus like in the movies? Wouldn't that create more troops more quickly?"

"Even I can answer that one, Clyde." Bonnie cut in with a giggle. "I mean, just look at the movies, those kinda things are too hot to handle. Imagine if it got loose?"

"Bonnie is correct, Clyde." Ravel chimed in. "It's been tried before, with disastrous results. The stories I've heard." Ravel shuddered. "Not pleasant."

"They were used?" Jackie asked wide-eyed. "When?"

"In the Great War. Devi saw it first hand," Ravel explained. "It still gives her the shivers thinking about it sometimes."

That sent shivers down everyone's spines. Something that could scare their insanely powerful King must truly be horrifying.

"Back on topic!" Clyde said, trying to veer the conversation to safer ground. "So if jiangshi are pretty similar to zombies, what else are they similar to?"

"In terms of the controllability aspect, golems I guess."

"Good example, Val." The twins praised genuinely, before a teasing glint entered their eyes. "Though you just reminded us, some people have called jiangshi 'Chinese Vampires'."

The former Dhampir knew what the twins were doing. They were poking fun at the vampire heritage of hers that she so despised. After all for the proud vampires to be compared to the mindless zombies that were jiangshi was quite the insult. Valerie was actually quite pleased by the idea.

"Wait, wasn't Val formerly a Dhampir? A half-vampire?"

"Yes, I was Bonnie. What of it?"

The Slingers all eyed Val over for a moment.

"You are nothing like a jiangshi." Jackie concluded.

"Of course not." Val angrily. "That Binh girl notwithstanding, jiangshi are all mindless zombies. Do I look like I'm mindless?"

"Peace, Val." The twins said placatingly, even as they telepathically sent, Sorry. Looks like our tease backfired.

Valerie just huffed in irritation.

The Pawns gave similarly apologetic responses, though Val barely gave them any mind. Their unintentional comparison to the unthinking jiangshi had hit closer to home than anyone had probably thought possible. After all, Val had at one point been reduced to a husk of a being with no thoughts of her own. It had only been Devi and twins' actions which had saved her from staying that way.

The Rook was so caught up in her upset musings that she didn't notice Ravel come up to her and give her hand a comforting squeeze. Startled, she shot the pure-blooded Devil a look of surprise, which was returned by one of comfort and camaraderie.

Devi came back then and informed them about the sub-groups she had set up for the next raid and Val found herself grouped with the Pawns and a dozen soldiers from Lady Atlan's forces. She thought they might be from her house guard, but wasn't familiar enough with the disposition of her forces to be sure. Though which exact formation they were from wasn't really important. As for the Slingers, she could understand why Devi had grouped her with them.

They were still inexperienced to the life of a Devil, much less actual supernatural combat and so her King had grouped them with her to make sure they would be alright. The twins couldn't take on the role as they were needed to access the facility's data core and giving them the task of watching over the Pawns would have been too much of a distraction. Ravel would probably have been a better choice, since she had more experience than herself, but Devi knew that. So assigning her the role instead must have been Devi's way of testing her.

Something she confirmed as she made the assignment via a private telepathic burst that told her to, Take care of them, Val. I trust you.

Valerie was honestly touched by that, but at the same time she was could not fully shake off the lingering annoyance she felt at the Pawns for reminding her of what could have been. She'd have to work through it though, there was no way she'd misplace Devi's trust in her.

The former Dhampir had little time to firm her resolve though, as shortly after that Devi had summoned four large magic circles, one for each assault team, and the raid was underway.

Moments later, the small army of devils appeared hovering in the air over what looked liked a nondescript factory nestled in the hills of rural China.

Immediately, something unexpected cropped up.

The village down the road is under attack by jiangshi! The twins announced to the whole force as soon as the light of their teleportation faded.

Damn it! They must be aiming to build up a larger force in the event we showed up. Ravel cursed via the Peerage network.

That or they expected us.

Not likely, Bonnie, if that were the case they would have kept their forces in the base. Splitting their already poorer quality forces up like this is stupid. Clyde disagreed.

It doesn't matter why the village is under attack. It's a distraction now and one we can't ignore. I will not allow innocent people to die if I can help it. Devi declared, before she began verbally issuing orders.

"Val, take your team and go deal with the jiangshi in the village. Save as many people as you can." Val nodded and was just about to fly off with her team when Devi added, "Don't overdo things though. If you need help, don't hesitate to call. We'll come running and Hansel has a whole battalion ready back home."

"Understood." The Rook replied as she had her contingent flew at top speed towards the village, the distance being too short to warrant a teleport. In the background, she noticed Devi and the rest of her forces, descend on the factory, actually the Chaos Brigade base, like a flock of deadly birds of prey.

She quietly wished them luck, as moments later she and her own team arrived in the skies over the village. A quick sweep of the village both with her eyes and her ability to sense life granted to her by her Sacred Gear, Sephiroth Graal, showed that the whole village had been overrun and that there was only one almost dead survivor lying exhausted against what looked like a small mansion. By the looks of things the girl was also a Sacred Gear user, if the strange boots she was wearing was any indication.

The girl was in quite the predicament too, as Val could sense her injuries were very serious and she was facing off against a large, and still growing, horde of undead.

"Slingers, mages, kill the things from the air. The rest of you with me!" Val ordered as she dove towards the girl's position.

Heeding her command, the three mages from the squad of Lady Atlan's soldiers and the three Void Gear users started to unleash a devastating barrage of attacks on the group horde of jiangshi. It was thus amid a rain of destruction that she and her remaining men landed.

Acting quickly, Val called upon her ice magic and just like the battle in Vietnam summoned a protective wall of ice in the shape of a hemicircle which together with the wall of the mansion completed a makeshift rampart around their position.

"Medic, you and two others stay here and help the girl. The six of you spread out into the village and destroy these things! Stay in groups of two." Val commanded as she leaped over her own wall of ice and engaged the jiangshi with a barrage of shadowbolts which took out the last few of the undead out in the open which had managed to survive the attacks from the air.

"Two of you with me. Focus on those inside the houses, our ranged attackers can't spot them when they're inside! "

Putting her words to action, Val stormed into a house down the right street from the mansion and into a living room and sent a slavo of icicles into the heads of a trio of jiangshi lurking within. As they fell, another zombie charged out of an adjoining room but was dealt with by one of the soldiers following behind her, courtesy of a trident to the head.

The Rook gave the other Devil a nod in thanks before picking up the overturned sofa next to her and throwing it at yet another jiangshi stumbling towards them. The well aimed blow took the creature's head off and killed it. But that was hardly a respite as half a dozen more of the zombies shambled their way towards the devils from various rooms in the house.

Val let a bloodthirsty smile spread across her face. Normally, she wouldn't have been as caught up in the thrill of battle as she was now. She generally was of the opinion that violence while necessary, especially in the supernatural world, should be avoided if possible. But now, her earlier annoyance was fueling her lust for battle. She was nothing like these mindless husks and she was going to prove it by destroying as many of them as she could get her hands on!

With that thought in mind, she charged a trio of jiangshi coming at her group from what looked to be a kitchen and with a series of punches enhanced by her Rook strength reduced their heads and a good bit of their bodies into pulp. Wasting no time she picked up a skillet from the kitchen and threw it at one of the undead like a frisbee, decapitating it. By which time, she turned to discover that her escorts had likewise dealt with their own opponents using their tridents and the occasional magic spell to destroy the abominations.

"I'm not sensing anymore here, but let's search the rest of the house to make sure then move on."

"Yes, Lady Valerie."

Valerie and her men did just that and once they were sure the house was clear they moved onto the next, encountering less and less resistance as they did. Despite this and the fact that the village the relatively small size of village, it still took longer to secure the area than Val would have liked. This even after she'd had the mages, Clyde and Jackie land and help with the house clearing, leaving Bonnie alone in the air as overwatch.

In the end it grew so tiresome that Val had called in reinforcements from [Spiral Urbis Opes] to finish the job. It irked her to have to do so, she'd wanted to settle this on her own, but she knew, from recent experience no less, that the mission came before one's ego.

Fortunately for her ego, Lord Leraje didn't raise an eyebrow at having his men deployed to do mop-up. Val honestly didn't know how her frayed temper, relaxed though it was from copious zombie smashing but tensed again due to needing help, would have handled things if he'd criticized her.

It was thus a whole fifteen minutes later and while Lord Leraje's troops were getting started with the mop-up that Val finally checked on the survivor who was still located within her now melting wall of ice next to the mansion.

"How is she?"

"No good, I'm afraid," The medic informed. "I've given her Phoenix Tears and that dealt with her external injuries but she's loss a lot of blood and badly damaged quite a few of her internal organs. Her liver and spleen are both practically gone. The tears can't heal those."

"And your magic can't fix them?"

The medic apologetically shook his head. "Her injuries are too severe for a field medic like me. She'd need a fully trained healer. In truth I'm surprised I've managed to keep her alive this long."

The Rook felt terrible, despite somehow surviving having her village overrun by jiangshi, the girl was still going to die. Giving vent to this sense of frustration and her own lingering foul mood, Valerie punched the mansion they were standing next to with her full strength. Empowered by two Rook Pieces, that was truly impressive strength indeed, as demonstrated when the single blow sent the entire structure tumbling to the ground with only the quick summoning of barriers by the surrounding troops preventing any injuries.

Valerie looked sheepishly at the destruction her little burst of temper caused and apologized, "Sorry about that, I-"

"No worries, Lady Valerie. We'd have had to knock it down anyway, since we're using an earthquake as a cover story." One of Lord Leraje's men said, dismissing her apology.

"As interesting as that is, what about the girl, Val?" Bonnie asked, sounding annoyed with the tangent the conversation had taken.

"Right. Sorry." Val replied as she switched gears to get back to the topic of the girl's welfare. "What options do we have?"

"Well, you could turn her into a vampire, right?" Bonnie said quickly cutting off whatever the medic was about to say.

"I'd never willingly turn anyone into a vampire!" Valerie hissed as she turned to Bonnie, her face a mask of fury, her fangs extended and peeking out of her lips.

Dimly, the former Dhampir noticed everyone around her tense as if expecting her to lose control.

Putting her hands up in surrender, Bonnie replied, "Look, I know you hate anything to do with your vampire heritage and after everything that you went through, I get it. But what other options do you have?"

"Ahem!" The medic cleared his throat loudly, to get everyone's attention. When everyone turned to him, he continued, "As I was about to say, the girl's best chance is to call for Lady Ravel. The third battalion that's reinforced us don't have any healers with them and I doubt those back in [Spiral Urbis Opes] can come on such short notice. Lady Ravel is our best bet."

Val hesitated. Ravel was, as far as she knew, involved in the ongoing assault at the Chaos Brigade base, asking her to come over might disrupt that operation.

"Can't we just transport the girl to a healer?" Clyde asked, while Val pondered her next move.

"Not with her injuries. Any movement now, even teleportation would be too much for her." The medic explained before turning to Val with a serious look. "Lady Valerie, we've wasted enough time already. If we're saving this girl we must act now. She's not going to last much longer."

"Understood. I'll contact Ravel now." Val announced as she drew a device from her storage space that looked like a bluetooth headset and settled in on her ear. It was a special artifact designed to cut through wards, most of them anyways, and allow for two people with the device to remain in contact. It also had the interesting ability to send warnings of incoming calls to its bonded users from subspace via telepathic messages, though it couldn't carry on a whole conversation while in storage.

The Rook was just about to make the call when the medic declared solemnly that it was, "Too late. The girl just died."

Everyone were stunned, some like Bonnie and Jackie let out exclamations of disbelief while others like Valerie were just too stunned to speak.

The moment of shock lasted only a moment though, before a furious Bonnie turned to Valerie, "Your indecision did this!"

"Bonnie! That was out of line." Jackie reprimanded sternly.

Bonnie looked mutinous but nonetheless backed down.

Valerie meanwhile reeled at the accusation, because she knew Bonnie was right. It had been her fault that the girl was dead. If she hadn't wasted so much time after finding her, maybe she could still be alive.

Jackie seeing that Val was in no condition to take charge at the moment, stepped up. "Look right now, the only way to save the girl is to revive her. So let's just wait for Devi to come over and let her decide if she wants to resurrect the girl."

"Err… Don't other people have Evil Pieces too?" Clyde asked uncertainly, clearly hesitant to get involved in the tense situation.

"And you'd trust them over Devi?" Jackie shot back.

"Point taken." Clyde conceded.

"Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but what if Devi doesn't want to?" Bonnie chimed in.

Val grimaced and looked away, she knew perfectly well that it was a possibility. Devi was a very generous person, and frankly didn't put much stock in who she added to her Peerage. But she only had one Evil Piece left and that might change things. She didn't think it would. But there was a chance and that possibility was killing her.

"That's up to her. We can only wait and see." Jackie concluded.

While Val and the Slingers were having a tense discussion about the fate of the village's sole survivor, Devi accompanied by the twins and Ravel, were taking a leisurely flight over to the village to regroup with them. They had left the men which had accompanied them for the initial assault with Attie when they had handed over the facility to her to fully secure and investigate. And were enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done as well as the relative safety of an area secured by hundreds of their men to fly slowly and enjoy the experience.

Ravel was even taking the opportunity to teach the twins a few tricky aerial maneuvers.

Watching on in amusement as her three lovers flew around her like a group of young Devils discovering their wings for the first time, Devi reflected on what they'd managed to discover from the base so far. Most of it had been more data on the Brigade's jiangshi research, the base having been a sister facility to the one in Vietnam, which was worthless to the Satan who had no plans to create a zombie army. Tohru and her abominations were more than enough for her tastes.

The prize of the operation though had been a complete version of Rizevim's communique about data on resurrection and related magic. In it, he explained that with the loss of the Sephiroth Graal, the plans for the Evil Dragons were unworkable without major changes and that he was requesting the aforementioned data to make it work. This discovery pleased Devi a great deal as it was proof that her efforts were indeed disrupting her nemesis' plans and more importantly because the complete version might offer some clues as to where he might be hiding.

She couldn't wait for the chance to carve him in two.

A few minutes later, Devi was pulled out of her revenge fantasies when she reached their destination and alongside her three lovers landed. She was pleased to see that Val had called in Hansel's men to help with securing the village, it was too big for her initial team to do on it's own after all. She was thus expecting to come up to her Rook and Pawns happy about their victory, but to her confusion she instead arrived to a tense scene.

She was surprised even further when it was Jackie and not a strangely subdued Val which came to her and explained the situation. The Pawn quickly informed her about how they had arrived to find one survivor of the attack - a Sacred Gear user -, and how Val had dealt with the jiangshi in the village easily but had due to indecision failed to save the village's sole survivor from succumbing to her injuries.

"And this tension?" Devi asked.

"Val really wanted to save the girl. We all did. The girl has been through so much..."

Jackie trailed off, but Devi understood. All of her Peerage except Ravel had been through hell to one degree or another before she'd resurrected them with her Evil Pieces and would likely sympathize or even empathize with the girl.

"And how did that lead to the tension?" Devi prompted.

Jackie shook her head, and continued, "That was mainly Bonnie's fault. It started when she suggested Val turn the girl into a vampire."

Devi winced. "I get it. Val hates her Vampiric roots and would be upset at that kind of suggestion."

"We kinda figured that out by her response." Jackie said with a nod. "That's about it really."

"I see. Thank you, Jackie."

The American gave Devi a nod and took a step back, acknowledging her clear dismissal. Devi meanwhile walked over to Valerie who was being comforted by Ravel and the twins, all of whom were looking concerned.

"Val," Devi said as she placed a hand on her Rook's shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly. "You did well here."

The former Dhampir wouldn't meet Devi's eyes, but replied, "I still let that girl die."

"People die all the time in battle. This whole village died. Why is this one girl different from the others?" Ravel questioned. "Because she's a Sacred Gear user like you?"

Val refused to answer until one of the twins' bodies nudged her shoulder encouragingly.

"I'm embarrassed." Valerie admitted in a whisper. "I let myself get upset by a bunch of things and they affected my judgement, made me waste time. And because of that the girl died. I'm ashamed that I let that happen."

Suddenly Val turned to Devi, her eyes opened wide and her lips pouting cutely, in short she was giving her the puppy dog eyes. Devi found it irresistibly adorable. "Devi, would you revive her please?"

"Sure." Devi said easily. She'd after all been planning to do so ever since she'd heard the girl's story from Jackie. Her tragic circumstances would make her fit right in. That she had a Sacred Gear was just a bonus.

In response to her acceptance of her request Val rewarded Devi with a bone crushing hug in thanks even as she shot Bonnie a victorious smirk.

The Pawn in turn just mouthed back "Devil's Advocate" before blinking and giggling as she likely realized how ironic that idiom was in in their situation. A few moments later she was joined by Val as she disentangled herself from Devi, their animosity from earlier completely forgotten.

Not that Devi paid much attention to that even as she smiled at their antics. Her mind was too preoccupied with thinking about the feel of Val's body pressing against her own and how good it felt.

Shaking her head to set aside those thoughts for later, and ignoring the knowing looks Ravel and the twins shot her instead summoning her last Evil Piece to revive a lucky young woman.

AN:

So we meet the last two members of Devi's Peerage who naturally are worth a description. So as usual here are their inspirations for reference.

Binh Trieu: Min from Blood+

Liou Xiaoyu: Lenalee Lee from D Gray Man

The Sacred Gear Dark Boots is just Lenalee's Innocence ported over

Now onto what i want to discuss about this chapter proper. I guess I'll start with the biggest thing which is that this chapter was a pain to write. In no small part because bits I'd initially thought I could cover in a few pages quickly ballooned well past my expectations.

But also because it involved my characters screwing up repeatedly and that was something of a downer, not helped by the specific way I wanted to do it which I will talk about in a bit. But let me explain the first thing first. I know that characters can't always succeed without becoming complete Mary Sues, so writing them encountering difficulties is a must. However, that doesn't make it easier to write a character you created and like doing poorly.

Now about how I wanted them to screw up. I was aiming for them screwing up in the specific way of winning the fight but failing to meet the objective. Let's face it, Devi is OP, deliberately so. There's no chance that the canon antagonists can stand up to her in a fight. That's one of the important points of her character and the plot. So that being the case, how can I have her still encounter difficulties along the way? Simple. Have her be outsmarted, like she was in the Vietnam base where the Chaos Brigade exploited her pride to make a relatively clean getaway.

Now some of you might go "But she fought in the Great War, she should know her tactics!" And you'd be right, but she let her overconfidence blind her and forget her lessons, just like RL commanders sometimes do the same [see Custer not bringing his gatling guns to Little Bighorn because he didn't think he'd need them and ending up outgunned.]. Others might say "She's a genius, she shouldn't be so stupid!" Well, genius aren't perfect. They make mistakes too and again remember to take into account her overconfidence.

In contrast to Devi, Val's screw up was at once easier to understand and harder to write. It was easier because it's simply her letting the emotions get the better of her and making a bad call plus her own inexperience as a commander. She might be more experienced than the Slingers but not by much. What with being very sheltered in her old life i.e. a prisoner in a golden cage, and having little to no memory of that life anyways. In fact, those common soldiers assigned to her have more experience in the field than her. In light of that, are you surprised she let Xiaoyu die?

As for why the medic didn't make the call and bring in Ravel on his own accord? Well, because he didn't have the means. Recall that device Val had to fish out to call her? Though even if he did, he wouldn't because he didn't care enough about the human to disturb her while she was likely in combat. He's a Devil, what's a human to him? He only suggested Ravel in the end because his superior, Val, asked him for options and he was giving her his best suggestion. This doesn't really come across because he was professional and did what Val asked him to i.e. help Xiaoyu, but this is just a little tidbit on Devil mindsets in the TOAverse on humans you might want to know.

That's all for today.

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter.

Also I'm still looking for a beta. If you're interested drop me a PM.

Please review. No flames please, they'll be ignored.