Ok people, trigger warnings galore on this chapter. Seriously. This one gets fucking dark. Marius is a monster in this universe, and not a cuddly one. We're talking slavery, rape, pretty much every horrible thing you can imagine someone doing, Marius is into it. Basically I'm writing him as a sister obsessed sociopath who killed his own family to take over the kingdom, and I don't see anyone that unhinged being anything but a hedonistic monster as a king. If you have any severe traumas that have to do with any of these subjects DO NOT read this chapter. I'll do a recap next chapter to cover the plot salient points for those who don't want to continue, but as rapey as the DxD verse is in some ways this isn't going to be played off for a laugh like the show does it. This guy is capital S sick and its going to be on full display here. Disclaimer over guys, don't go flaming me later if you don't like what you see here, you've been warned. I think Harry needs a wakeup call that not all beings in DxD land are harmless and this world can be just as awful as his own. Well, cant warn you any more than I already have, proceed at your own risk.
The actual trip to Romania was…enlightening. I had to stop myself from going full on magic geek when we fucking teleported into Castle Drakul. Apparently Devils can just hop in a circle and beam themselves to wherever they feel like going. Which was just completely unfair, I was a damn Dragon and I couldn't teleport. Probably. The room we ended up in was…spacious. It looked like some kind of entrance hall, which I realized pretty quickly was probably exactly what it was.
We were standing in front of a huge wooden door, bands of iron anchored in with heavy metal bolts held up together the huge planks of ancient dark wood. Each door was weather, but only superficially. Either these doors were new and someone had tried to age them or they were old and they were sturdy as hell. The floor, because obviously this whole place was as stereotypical as possible, was grey stone split down the middle with the plush red velvet carpet we stood on, the gold edges of which were about twenty feet on either side from the lines of empty suits of armor lining the drab stone walls.
The torches were there, though in an unexpected bit of novelty the flames in them flickered blue in the sconces and didn't appear to be consuming the wood. On each wall hung a banner, ironically, though not unexpectedly, the standards were each a red dragon on a field of black. I took the entire room in within moments of landing, filing it all away for use, which was probably good, because about five seconds later I got real distracted. At the end of the carpet, lined up and waiting in a line at the base of the stone steps leading up to archway I couldn't see through, were women.
Well, I say women, but not all of them were adults. Some of them were closer to my apparent age, and a few were even younger. Some tall, some short, some brunette, some blonde, some pale, some dark skinned, some busty, some thin. Pretty much the only thing about the dozen or so women that wasn't variable at all was that every last one of them was buck ass naked.
I don't mean skimpy lingerie either. I mean, full on, ready for bath time, cutting glass, nude. Which probably should have been hot, I mean creep factor of the place aside, a dozen hot naked girls obviously put there for us (not that I would touch any of them, I'm not a monster) should have at least given me a moment of arousal before the situation overrode my teenage hormones and made me uncomfortable. But it didn't. I didn't stop to gawk, I didn't get turned on, I just got pissed.
It was their eyes. They all had this glassy, emotionless look on their faces. They were staring right at us but you could tell they didn't see a thing. The lights were on, but no one was home. There were bite marks too. Some on their thighs, some on their necks or wrists, some on their breasts, but all recent, all fresh, all very blatantly on display, as if to say "Here you can have these, I broke them already, but maybe you can do something with them." I knew then, that this wasn't going to end diplomatically. I knew that despite what the devils wanted, I wasn't going to let the thing that had done this walk away.
One of the naked girls stepped forward. A slim blonde with blue, blue eyes and a ponytail, she looked about fourteen "Hello my lords. My name is Ana, my king has bid me welcome you to his home. He is currently indisposed, but he sent you many playthings to choose from to keep you occupied. He offers our services until his business is concluded and bids you take one of us home as a souvenir of your stay. Of course, my Lord prefers women, but if your tastes run another way there are also several very handsome serving boys I can fetch to entertain you."
I almost threw up then. At the casual cruelty this…thing showed these people. At hearing this little girl, who looked like she should be picking out a dress for a school dance, standing there naked, offering to let me keep a human being like a grab bag at a party. Her voice was high and sweet, her English barely accented with some kind of eastern European language (presumably Romanian), but it didn't have any of the warmth of joy a girl her age should have in her speech. She sounded like an iron bell. Melodic, cold, and unfeeling.
The thing that had done this was evil. I wasn't going to negotiate with it, I wasn't going to ask it nicely to stop. I was going to kill it, and then I was going to burn this fucking castle to the ground and take all of these girls somewhere where no one would ever hurt them again. But they werent the only innocents here. They'd mentioned serving boys, and the vampires sister was apparently a victim as well. I made very sure not to meet any of those empty eyes, I could quite comfortable live my whole life without finding out what those poor girls souls looked like.
For now I grit my teeth and cleared my mind. I needed to make sure I had all the people out of here before I murdered the shit out of every being complicit in this. So as much as I hated it, I had to play nice. For now. Subtle and quick to anger. That's me. I forced a smile onto my face "We're a bit tired, I don't think we're…in the mood, for entertainment. We can just wait here." The blankness faded for a second, replaced by a flash of visceral fear in Ana's eyes.
The girl stumbled forward, stumbling and trying to look sexual at the same time "Oh my Lord musnt strain himself, I will take care of your enjoyment, my Lord need only relax." She dropped to her knees in front of me almost desperately fumbling with my belt. Hells Bells, what was he doing to these girls. I put my hands on hers to stop the motion and she froze, her eyes widening and slowly panning up to mine, the fear was more than a flash now, her eyes panicked like death himself was behind me with a sickle. "M-my Lord? If I do not please you one of the others would be happy to attend you, my Lord need expend no effort, simply let us fulfill your needs."
Her voice was quavering in fear, and as she spoke desperation started seeping into her tone. I got the feeling ole Marius would see me turning them down as a failure. Marius didn't strike me as a three strikes and you're out kind of boss. But I was not going to abuse a fourteen year old girl so that her vampire master wouldn't kill her, this girl was going to be safe, and if Marius had a problem with it I was going to pull his spine out through his asshole and whip him to death with it.
I wrapped my hands around Ana's and pulled her to her feet, my Dragon strength easily, if gently overpowering the resistance her small body put up as she tried to figure out what I was going to do to her, and whether it was worse than she'd get if she didn't let me. My teeth ground together so hard I was pretty sure they were about to crack. I shucked off my coat and wrapped it around the girl that I suppose was only slightly younger than I was here. "Ana, I've decided that you're going to come with me. I'm allowed to keep one of you right? I'll keep you, so you need to listen to me, I'm not going to have sex with you, but Marius isn't going to do anything about it. I want you to stand next to me and keep that coat wrapped around you tight."
Her big blue eyes started to well with tears "I'm to belong to you my Lord? I will of course endeavor to prove my worthiness whenever you seek to enjoy me. My Lord is a large, strong man, I'm sure you will find me quite pleasing to use." Well, there went the almost throwing up again. Jesus Christ who talks like that, I was already regretting taking responsibility for her, but I wasn't going to leave her to get punished and I sure as hell wasn't going to have sex with her. I tried to ignore the urge to sweep her up in a hug and tell her it was all going to be alright. I had made her as safe as possible, and trying to somehow fix the shattered remains of her psyche was well above my pay grade. Hell she was wearing my duster, so she was safer than I was right now.
The other girls were still staring blankly ahead, though a few of the younger ones (none as young as Ana thank god) started she shift nervously in place. I could feel a vague impression of seething rage fro Oga, which comforted me, because if he wasn't so angry he was about to have a coronary I'd have probably killed him on the spot for it. Anyone who didn't find this whole scene disgusting made the world a sicker place just by living in it. I turned to my new…ugh, what, pet? Slave? Jesus this was going to be a mess, anyway I turned to Ana and gently prodded "Ana, sweetheart, I need you to take me to Marius."
Her eyes flew open wide with terror "My Lord! The King bade us entertain you, as he is engaged in other business, I…" she trailed off. Clearly trying to balance the fact that I was her new…master. With her existing orders, and being confused as to what to do. "My Lord, the King must not be disturbed. I belong to you now, so I understand you must make a firm example, shall I fetch a lash, or would my Lord enjoy punishing me with his hands. If my lord wishes me to scream I shall endeavor to fulfill my duties as best I can, or I can remain silent if the pain would grate on your ears."
I was…I had no idea. I was too angry for anger to even be a proper word anymore. Rage seemed like such an insignificant term for this sort of seething…malice. "Ana, I'm not going to hurt you, and I'm not going to let Marius hurt you either. Any of you. I'm going to hurt him. In fact I'm going to kill him." I somehow suspected this girl wasn't the kind of naïve innocent that shied away from death and violence, and I was figuring straight up telling her was the only thing that would convince her to lead me to this asshole. She was willing to get hurt for these girls, and I almost cried at the bravery this little girl was showing for the sake of her broken fellow captives.
Her eyes flashed, first with hope, then wariness and suspicion, then a strange mixture of more hope and a kind of… broken resignation. "The King is…enjoying lady Valerie. He told us we were to delay you an hour while she…attended him." And that was it. I turned and threw up all over the stone floor. Stars and Stones. He was raping his own sister. And from her tone, it wasn't the first time. Hell it didn't even sound like the tenth. I didn't wait for her to continue or tell me more, I barged past the girls with an order for them to stay put and headed up the stairs, determined to find this asshole and wipe him from existence. I was having a John Wayne moment, because this fucking universe was not big enough for the both of us.
Ana trailed behind me, pulling on my shirt, begging me to stop, not to keep going and crying the whole way, and that just made me more angry. The lavishly appointed hallway branched off but I kept going straight, following the most opulent furnishings, to a dark wooden door. I could hear smacking from the other side of it. I didn't even slow down. I just kicked the damn door down. A pretty blonde girl with red slit eyes was bent over the desk, blank eyes staring at the wall while a tall, well dressed man…well, what he was doing he didn't keep doing much longer. I didn't even speak out loud as I pulled on the Dragon and called fire in a white hot beam the size of a soda can, imbued with soulfire, and blasted it right through that bastards head, slagging the wall behind him without slowing down much, and killing him instantly.
The world seemed to hold its breath, his body falling to the floor, as the girl looked up at me from the desk. Her eyes were wide with shock as she looked down at her…brother, rapist, king? I don't know how she saw him, but however it was, it was in the past tense. He was gone. I guess he hadn't kept his guards around when he was…having playtime, because none of them attacked me, assuming there were any inside the castle. The girl…Valerie, looked numb for a second, then she looked at the body, then back at me, and started screaming.
Ok guys, like I said dark as hell. I did have legitimate reasons for this chapter. Ana is going to be a recurring character, and a pretty important one down the line, as is Valerie. Ana is obviously an OC, and probably my first OC main character. I gave everyone sufficient warning to skip this chapter if you didn't want to see it, so I hope I wont see a ton of flames on this, but I needed to change the tone of this story. This is darkest chapter I've ever written, but I needed consequences to be real and for keeps moving forward. The next chapter will deal with the fallout as the devils get called to play cleanup and Valerie takes charge temporarily around the shock to try to mitigate damage. Ana will be the only one of the girls staying with Harry not counting Valerie. I'm hesitant to even post this one but its going to be important later on. Especially for Valerie, who is going to have some very confusing feelings about Harry for quite some time, which is going to play a big role in the plot. And please review this one if only to try to guide me more on what the tone will be in the future if you guys think this is over the top. I feel like I turned this on a dime and it might've come out way too harsh as a result of not enough lead up. Though I don't know how much leadup would've helped since this was a necessary story element.