A legend among Devils

by theLawbringer

The devils face a power vacuum thats divided the species in two with the death of the originals. with this, The Underworld is consumed into a Civil war that threatens the eradication of the very species itself. however, a new arrival appears at the peek of the conflict, a man with potential far beyond imagination... (Civil war timeline/OP OC/Harem/Canon time line coming soon...)

10. Jericho

-Jericho-

If there's one thing I know for sure about 'belief' is that belief itself is a very fragile concept used to motivate the masses and as a way to live one's life.

It was used in ancient times, most prominent example being the crusades – the idea that most kings of old used the fear of god and the promise of paradise to fuel the masses to do their bidding. Because of those times, most humans didn't exactly possess profound thought – they never considered ideas that went against their lords and even the word of god and because of that they lived in an age of fear, oppression and manipulation

Darwin was right... we have evolved

To me the concept is simple – you believe in what you think compliments you and who you are as a person, ignore the haters and just live life with the shoulder you've chosen to lean on for support but that's coming from a human 1500 years in the future – I've already learned that lesson and I'm sure most people have as well

But aside from the benefit of motivation and creating high moral with sugar coated stories glorifying beings long since dead there is a dangerous edge to this principle. Those who use belief as their motivator unintentionally step out onto a thin line

...dangling over an abyss of despair

Belief is a double edged sword and if one uses it as their foundation in life then when – or if – that source of balance is disrupted then despair is your new best friend

And trust me... I've slept with despair... she does not make good company.

This was the old-Satan's brutal weakness; somehow the portal left behind by Euclid Lucifage led me and the others to the underworlds most famous or infamous city

Lucifaad

It was the underworlds crown jewel – supposedly – sporting massive spires and large black obsidian walls, Lucifaad made cities like Leviathia and Lilith look puny in comparison... even the ancient city of thorns looked small

It was testament to how prideful Lucifer was... he had an ego, that's for sure and it had been the old-Satan's central hub of planning and resources from the beginning of the civil war to now – so far any attempts at even trying to take the city was considered impossible as the levels of security were beyond anything I've ever seen; there was a lot of faith placed in the city and a lot of man power was used to make sure it remained that way for as long as devils existed; by simply holding it kept the old-Satan's moral high, taking it was impossible...

Ever heard of the city of Jericho?

You'll know after this...

---

Ryden over looked a massive ridge which was located a few clicks from the massive city covered in a thick treed off forest. They had been hiking towards the city for a few hours now, covering a good distance of land in a small amount of time. Since they were so far away from the city limits they were free to at least make travel with their wings exposed and while this at first made Ryden nervous he simply frowned at the idea and bunny hopped along with the pack of three flying devils – making sure his sour attitude was noticed

Ryden was aware of the odd glances but had made no attempt to tell them the truth – obviously – but as time grew on Nyx approached and had asked why he didn't use his wings. Ryden's answer was simple

Just ignore the odd looks and keep silent

No surprise the others were confused by his lack of response and while they at first desired an elaboration he simply grunted – frowned deeply at their attempted at pressing the issue – and took point without a second reply and even gained a large distance with a quick jump in speed which was why he was overlooking the large city of Lucifaad from the ridge at the moment which loomed over a small lake near the bottom, the others not too far behind...

The first to arrive was Rosalina – sporting eight wings in total – then followed Abigail who had six and Nyx who possessed the same. They eyed him momentarily but thankfully they didn't press the issue.

Ryden fought a sigh

This had been one of the few contingencies pertaining to keeping his true identity hidden by him and his new family before leaving; humans obviously didn't possess bat-like wings as a means of transportation but devil's did and they liked using them in the military for most aerial insertions so in order to ward off any suspicion Sirzechs proposed the idea of him just straight up ignoring the question, that being a clear sign of him having his wings cut off by the Old-Satan forces. It didn't matter to either Sirzechs or Ryden if anyone learned of his six month vacation in the Halphes territory but they deemed it a touchy subject, they were right, it was a very touchy subject but Ryden relented and considered it valid; so far there was no cultural taboo amongst devils with having no wings – quite the opposite actually. It was an extremely evil thing old-Satan's inquisitors did as a trademark torture method that would destroy the resolve of any devil

The anti-Satan forces consider it appalling and had orders of executing anyone that had done this act, be it ally or enemy... they sure didn't discriminate

But for him, it was the perfect cover, all he had to do was act pissed whenever it was brought up... simple enough – it did piss him off... he'd seen it done many times after all.

So the three simply gave him a pity glance – received a glare for their accurate assumption – and moved on ahead of him and this time remained on the ground with him for the rest of the journey, according to Rosalina they had made good on their approach and now they were moving down the ridge towards the relatively sized lake below them and from there, was a road – a supply line... Ryden was getting the picture

"So, planning to catch a ride into town?" asked Nyx sarcastically, Rosalina simply chuckled before she dropped down into the ravine along the right side of the road before turning to them

"Something like that... come here, I'll fill you guys in" she instructed and without second thought they all plopped down alongside her

Abigail, whom had been quiet for most of the journey took out a single arrow from her quiver and stood back up and began chopping down a few branches from a few trees deeper into the forest – making sure not to damage any of the trees closest to the road then within a minute she was back and dropped a dozen branches down on top of them

Rosalina simply watched her with half lidded eyes while Nyx eyed the cleaved limbs of trees with mild interest and then ignored them; Ryden however was starting to see the picture

It was a simple plan yet dangerous and highly risky to pull off, he didn't have a full idea of what she was planning but he was getting a very 'star wars – sneak off the death star' kinda feel that helped him paint a pretty good picture

"Nothing gets by you does it Abigail?" asked Rosalina who watched the ranger turn the simple ravine into a small camouflaged bunker, after dropping another slew of shrubs and other foliage down in front of them, she dropped back down and rest her back against the small bank facing away from the road and then smiled at Rosalina

"You are in my domain Rosa... I expected you to know that" she shot back with a bright smile, Rosalina then took in her surroundings and then grumbled upon remembering that they were in a forest – Abigail's preferred hunting ground – or any hunters favored terrain really.

"Whatever..." she said but then dropped the mood "Anyways, Nyx, Abigail I need you two up high" Rosalina glanced around before she spotted a large boulder down the road in the opposite direction of the city "there, from there you will be our look out – when one comes by, signal us and then try and drop one of the trees lining the road, doesn't matter which one just block their route before they pass us, from then on me and Ryden will use the chaos as cover and ambush them" explained Rosalina, her tone was serious enough to garner firm nods from Nyx and Abigail, then without another word they hopped up and hoofed it towards the aforementioned boulder, soundless and swift

Ryden watched them for a moment until they simply melted into the shadows of the dark road and then silence enraptured him, the only thing he heard was the sound of soft breathing and a few under the breath grunts. He then had a small stack of leaves and bush dropped on his head, he blinked before he turned and noticed Rosalina smirk down at him then dropped down and did the same to her self

"Can't be seen right?" she whispered

Ryden hummed in agreement but kept silent, already finding a comfortable spot to keep a look out along the road and again – the treetops

"There aren't any prowlers in the area right?" he asked as he kept his eyes on the trees

He heard a small shuffle of motion to his side which turned out to be soft chuckles, the woman in question regarded Ryden with amusement in both her eyes and smirked through the thick shrubs made it impossible for him to see fully, but he could almost feel it radiating off her

"Scared of them?" she asked, not at all whispering

Ryden shook his head lightly and dropped the silent tone "No... I'd just rather not get jumped while we wait" he said in reply, eyes still locked on the tree tops

Rosalina saw this – somehow – and sighed lightly "So far as I'm aware, we're nowhere near a Dead Zone, the lack of wildlife in the area means that the hunting in this area scared off pretty much everything... you probably won't find a prowler for miles and it wouldn't be from where we came from" explained Rosalina

Ryden glanced over to her "why's that?"

The woman smirked "Because no prowler would be dumb enough to hunt in the familiar forest" revealed the Phenex

Ryden blinked, they were in what? Neither Venelana nor Zeoticus told him of such a place so what Rosalina said barely caused him to react and she took notice of that but misinterpreted his ignorance with nervousness

"My, you're nervous over prowlers but not at all spooked by being in a forest of predators... you're much odder then I assumed you to be lord Ryden" teased the woman

Ryden snorted "Mind my ignorance, I've never heard of this 'familiar forest' you speak of" he retorted back causally

Rosalina then suddenly gasped lightly – silent enough not to make a noticeable echo but enough to get Ryden's attention "I forgot... you were raised in isolation by a mid-class family, the Vale family right?"

Ryden nodded, eyes going into a slight downcast

"What territory we're they housed in?"

"Malphes..." he replied without thinking

Ryden cursed his quick reply... Malphes was the spot where he landed – leaving behind a massive crater caked in a mysterious energy. And that was before Sirzechs had marched a division there – six months before it fell back into anti-Satan hands... Ryden cursed himself again.

"I see, then that means you were too far from –" her words stopped dead in their tracks upon realizing his words and Ryden's heart thumped noticeably in his chest when the woman's wide – shell-shocked eyes locked onto him. The woman's mouth softly quivered in a similar state as her expression while he simply regarded her evenly, already knowing what he'd done

Bollocks

"Your foster family... are they...?" she asked slowly – her emotions disabled her ability to finish but it was clear to Ryden what she wanted

He simply remained silent – the message being interpreted as a good enough answer as to what she was dreading to hear. While Rosalina appeared overconfident and most of the time fit the picture perfect description of a noble she did however know that the death of a family member was not an easy occurrence – especially by means of execution. And whether it was low-class or high-class she did not discriminate the value, quite the opposite... she was no fan of death, for anyone.

Ryden watched the emotions of sadness appear on her face but felt nothing – it was a lie that his parents were killed by old-Satan extremists. They were most likely safe and sound back in his original timeline, scared shitless at where their eldest son had disappeared to but his dad would probably wave it off as him suddenly – or finally – getting the gumption to get out into the world and his sister would probably go "Finally! That idiot's doing something!"... It's a comforting thought and he knew that the entire barb was in good nature but Ryden knew that thought would only comfort him for so long. He didn't know exactly what time was doing but if common sense played a part then they won't be hearing from him for a while

Guess he could always favor the idea that once his time would come then all he'd do is replace the version of him that vanished and that nothing's changed

He'd dwelled on this... dwelled on it as he despaired with his other family – and he wasn't talking about Venelana and Zeoticus...

"I'm sorry, lord Ryden... if I'd known what you'd been through then I'd –"

"–have continued to act like nothing's happened, you'd still be that woman with a larger ego then Fulgur's perversion" Rosalina blushed at that and Fulgur Shown in indignation at his barb "you'd toss around the sophisticated undertones and I'd tease you in return – and you'd blush like mad and hide it with more Noble comments like 'stop this teasing at once!' or 'cease this disrespect!' or whatever... you get the idea"

The woman at his side remained silent for a moment, chewing on his words. After a few moments Ryden began to see an emotion of anger sprout on her – enveloping her gaze that bore into the ground and the tightening of her hands that which were gripped tightly together, then after a minute she spoke with a small hint of frustration that soon grew in tone "Are you not even angry?" she all but growled out – her own anger shown at not his words but of his circumstance and he could understand her aim. He was no stranger to feeling righteous fury for a misdeed done unto someone else and even felt frustration at the dismissal of the injustice by the victim

He had an answer for her though

"I enjoyed it you know..." he said calmly

The look in Rosalina's eyes suggested she had misinterpreted his words "You enjoyed it?" she mirrored, clear dumbfounded shock in her words and expression

He corrected her – calmly

"I enjoyed killing them... the inquisitors back at the crucible..." he said while his eyes watched the tree tops, not for prowlers or the minor chance of danger but to simply lose himself in watching them sway back and forth from the breeze in the night sky. After noticing Rosalina quietly settle her emotions and he continued "I've never killed anyone before then, never experienced the feeling of taking a life" he started – eyes still on the trees and hands gripping together gently "they always told me the feeling will drain you, make you feel like crap at first but sooner or later it just stops hurting; you'll have a few nightmares, maybe even shed a tear but after awhile you'll just go numb... my anger made me skip all that" he swallowed deeply and then glanced down at his hands "I'm angry when I fail in a spar... I'm angry when I miss a sword stroke... and I'm angry when my mom orders me around... If that's 'angry', then what kind of anger makes a man consider a life as nothing but void and null?"

Ryden raised his left hand – palm down and wide open... motionless, not a shake or shimmer to be seen

He chuckled softly "see that?"

Rosalina sat idle as she stared at the practically frozen limb held parallel with the ground before she commented "Perfectly poised and still... I understand your point" she spoke, clearly seeing that his nerves were not at all hindered by conscious weight

Ryden however chuckled again before he rose his right hand "Yeah but I swung with this hand"

Rosalina shifted her gaze to his other hand and deadpanned... his right hand was vibrating like an electrocution victim via Arc energy. She paused in her inspection and glanced to Ryden's face only to see a wide shit eating grin that caused her to further deepen her deadpan

Ryden laughed at that

Rosalina growled... he was teasing again

The two sat there as silently as possible due to the humor present for only a few more minutes until Ryden's soft chuckles died down and the seemingly perpetual frown on Rosalina smoothened over into a slight furrowed brow – her eyes still holding slight distaste at Ryden's continued dismissal of the injustice done into him

While Ryden was content with the silence – the sound of the breeze and trees bringing a sense of tranquil air along with the sound of nothing gave him time to ponder within his own mind, however Rosalina was anywhere but there. She was a flame of the Phenex, no silence could bring her peace of mind nor can anything else. The empty feeling that Ryden had brought to her was eating at her mind – her ideals – and everything she believed was the Anti-Satan's main goal, justice – noble justice. She couldn't understand it, how could Lord Ryden smile when the ones that took him in after being abandoned were killed by fools being led by even greater fools?

Mid-class or not they were still devils in the end; the Vale family had raised Lord Ryden well. He was a patient man and very noble in his words and actions which she had seen herself in his match against Valeria, how he demonstrated true leadership and inspiration by not belittling the lower class and instead raising them up, empowering their hearts – she smirked bitterly at that – she felt oddly like a hypocrite saying this but she would be lying if his words and actions didn't move her in a way that had caused her to reconsider her outlook on 'nobility'... she was guilty of doing the opposite. Her second meeting with Ryden had caused her another shift in her ideals, one that made her picture her family powers as not as a boon but a curse depending on the perspective.

"I've always believed that those who have the ability to do what's right have the responsibility to take action, anyone who hordes power without using it is simply a coward"

Those were his words that rang within her mind; they were wise words that spoke of his ideals to a major extent.

That extents true length was finally shown to her when Nyx and Abigail told her of what Ryden had done to save a little boy's father from death. It was during the long trip through the eastern forest of the Lucifaad territory that the two of them had told her this. It was an unheard of action – to use a Phenex tear to save a Low-class devil was insane, but they told her that he did it without any hesitation; they even told her how angry he looked before hand... then he gave the child the priceless vile as a token for a reason neither they nor she understood but the picture was already painted to them.

Ryden Vale Gremory was no ordinary devil.

Rosalina glanced to Ryden who was now simply leaning against the roadside, the small number of branches and shrubs covering him did for the most part cover his red attire from view but his face was well in her vision. His eyes were closed gently suggesting that he was actually napping but the sudden deep breaths and small rhythmic taps from his fingers on her knees told her otherwise, the slight tensing in his muscles along his chest and biceps even went as far as hint at an underlying message of danger to anyone dumb enough to assume that he was sleeping.

Ryden was good at hiding many emotions and Rosalina could say that without a hint of damage to her womanly pride but she could tell he was ready for anything, regardless of his gentle appearance she knew he was a danger like any other devil.

Rosalina took that as a cue to ask one final question to the man before her... a man she knew was a rising star among the masses, painted among them as a devil without damage, without sorrow and without any scars... she knew the secret now.

"How can you smile when you've lost so much? Why do I not sense any anger from you?" she finally spoke.

Ryden gently rose his head back up and regarded Rosalina calmly and studied her expression. He was impressed, honestly he was expecting straight up curiosity that would tell him that no, she was not worthy of an answer but she was however displayed confusion and sadness in underlying expressions within her lips and eyes that which told him she was genuine of her question and his answer

He hummed softly and leaned his head back down "Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die... it's useless to me, if I'm to deal the hand of vengeance onto the one responsible then I need to do it right. Simply driving myself with rage in the passenger seat will only make things worse" he said calmly

Rosalina shook her head "I never said rage..."

Ryden hummed again "But you are frustrated that I do not show anger... showing anger in the wrong place is rage, ever present – always there for everyone to see. To me anger is subliminal; a spark that which can be used... rage is an uncontrolled flame, a defining feature for those too far gone to hold back and is simply swallowed whole in the end... I plan on standing tall in the end"

"Anger is controlled therefore useful, rage is uncontrollable therefore useless to you..." muttered Rosalina

Ryden chuckled softly "You learn quick grasshopper" he retorted with amusement

Instead of being affected Rosalina sighed at his light humor "your smile confuses me Lord Ryden... happiness and anger doesn't go hand in hand, they are enemies, not partners" reasoned Rosalina

Ryden smirked at her

"I disagree" was all he said

She blinked "Explain..."

"A sword swung without anger is like a dragon without wings... I understand the principles of war and the lengths one must go to win them but I do it differently, I do it right, like a professional and smile – then I do it again the next day, smile... either do it right, or don't do it at all, it's that simple" Ryden reasoned calmly

Rosalina drew silent upon his words and fell back against the opposite bank to Ryden. His words did it again – shifted her ideals marginally. She knew anger and rage possessed major differences, one was a fuel used to fight and the other was a mental factor that over time took possession of major personality traits. She was a small fool – she summarized – how she mistaken Ryden's emotions with calm dismissal when in fact she was speaking to a tempered warrior that already passed the test of combat

She didn't realise that he was six months passed his 'test' but she was aware of it enough that she was confident in him from that moment on. She was simply confused at his way of handling it, most devils she knew grew cold, distant or simply became like Nyx and Abigail – bloodthirsty. Ryden did it differently, in a type of approach she now branded as the professional approach to keeping one's mind clear of negative lash backs and used humor and smiles to cool the coals that fueled the war machine within

Rather simplistic and slightly rustic if she had to say but by how Ryden was turning out... it fit well

Before Rosalina could press the matter a soft 'thunk!' echoed out from a black arrow that smacked into the side of a tree trunk just to the right of the road and a few meters between where Abigail and Nyx had vanished to

Rosalina hummed as did Ryden "Show time" he said simply before he and Rosalina slid down further into the ravine, hiding every portion of themselves in the shrubs.

Along the roadway came two convoy sized carriages, six wheels in total for each black carriage. The first one was rigged with only a passenger cabin which suggested the presents of high ranking officials. The second was outfitted with a much larger cabin that was outfitted with a black fabric that which hid the ones within, no windows were seen nor was their side exits.

A prisoner convoy... that was the conclusion made by Abigail

She smirked to herself, this was a perfect 'two birds, one arrow' scenario and she was elated to have this opportunity presented to her in such a time as this.

She gripped the black arrow and notched it and then snapped her aim to the tree just a few meters from Ryden and Rosalina's position and released it without a moment of measure.

The arrow struck where it needed to be a nanosecond later

Abigail smirked before hunkering down and waiting for Ryden and Rosalina to mop up the escort.

Ryden mulled over his choice of action as he heard the symphony of carriage wheels upon the dirt road above his head. He cured silently when he remembered his only weapon he had on him was Infernum Fulgur which felt a little bit to overkill for the occasion; not to mention the demonic energy released by the blade could be enough to warn the main capital

A distinct sensation in his chest answered that worry within a second, Fulgur sensed its masters worry and made short work of its excess energy release – it was an insulting action but so far Fulgur had no intention of making easily avoidable problems arise when it had the power to ward them off... her master was rubbing off on her it seemed, normally Fulgur would hiss at hiding its potent energy but she could assume it was her undying affection for the powerful human

He just didn't cease to impress...

Ryden hummed in appreciation to the blades action and forged his plan according to his weapons choice.

Upon this point did the carriages reach the point in where the arrow had struck and the effects of the black wispy energy made itself known

Once the carriages passed the black energy on the arrows shot out in two directions, one for the first carriage and the second for the last carriage... then they suddenly stopped moving, simply grinding to a halt a few meters from his and Rosalina's position

EMP magic, a black energy that which targets distinct mechanical magic signatures and destroys the reception between driver and vehicle for a prolonged period of time... Ryden fought a chuckle, he didn't expect that at all and judging by the explosion of commotion from the Old-Satan inquisitors they didn't either

He turned to Rosalina and nodded "Hard and fast..." he worded softy, she nodded as well before the two hopped out of their ravine and gunned it to the convoy

Due to the chaos and confusion present within the ranks of the few Old-Satan extremists both Ryden and Rosalina had made it into their ranks without detection. Ryden unsheathed his weapon while Rosalina summoned hers out of white flames. It was a giant mid-handled blade with its blade running down the guard and seemed to glow white hot at the longest section of the weapon.

Overkill and dangerous and far from the elegant, weapon Ryden suspected her to favor if she even used a weapon in the first place. But here he saw its use in action first hand and he had no choice but to re-evaluate his opinion of it.

The first two went down in a flash of crimson Arc and white wisps of hot embers, then the second two found the same fate before their presences was realized

"Ambush! All units form up!" shouted an officer.

Within the small time frame of reaction the old-Satan's had, only a few made it into formation while the others were brutally cut down by viciously efficient swings and powerful jabs from both Ryden and Rosalina respectively. The formation put together was hasty as none of those present expected an ambush so close to a glorified fortress city as Lucifaad and it showed glaringly to the veteran officer apart of the prisoner transfer brigade.

Ryden finished an inquisitor wielding a lance by side stepping a thrust and driving the legendary blade into the devils chest cavity – zero resistance – immense pain was all the inquisitor felt before crumpling to the floor the moment Ryden moved on to his next target.

Rosalina ended a shield totting devil by superheating her weapon and swiping cleanly to the side, the thousand degree blade met no resistance to the shield and armor which dropped the devil in two separate pieces – cauterized enough for no blood to be seen.

What remained of the Old-Satan forces were simply one lancer and the officer

Thunk! Thunk!

Two red arrows made swift work of what remained of both the officer and the lancer, courtesy of Abigail, leaving both Rosalina and Ryden standing silently amongst the ten dead inquisitors. Ryden swiped his blade clean of blood before sheathing it while Rosalina simply dismissed the weapon – all wounds inflicted hadn't drawn blood even slightly, the weapon itself was like a lightsaber that only diced and cauterized.

"Clear?" asked Ryden as he surveyed the area of any movement.

Rosalina nodded. "clear," she answered

Ryden sighed slightly and looked towards the rock both Nyx and Abigail were stationed at, he waved the all clear for the two and then turned to Rosalina

"What's up?" he asked upon seeing her slightly shocked expression

The Phenex devil in question was staring at the black fabric covering the carriage with a look of slight surprise. Ryden furrowed his brow before stepping to her side and looking at it with confusion of his own.

"Sooo, what am I looking at?" he asked again

"A prisoner transport..." was all she said

Ryden slightly rose at her words before stepping forward and running his hand along the fabric. It didn't take him long to feel the distinct sensation of metallic bars on the other side.

Ryden released a breath before he followed the fabric to the rear of the carriage, found the opening and pulled it open gently and then simply tossed the only thing off to reveal a cage full of devils, about six or so cramped in a cage fit for four. Rosalina gasped lightly at the sight of multiple ragged and bruised low-born's within while Ryden simply furrowed his brow again and unsheathed his blade.

The many low-born devils within seemed terrified of this action, the small looks of desperate fear in their eyes shone like bright lights in Ryden's view but he ignored it and brought the blade down on the chain holding the cage gate closed.

Relief and awe gripped the silent devils within before – very gingerly – did they file out one by one

As this occurred Abigail and Nyx arrived to Rosalina's flank

"I see you've noticed..." was all Abigail said to the blonde woman, a solemn expression lined her face as she and Nyx watched Ryden assist the freed devils down from the cage

"It's a good thing we arrived when we did" muttered Nyx. The lancer noticed a distinct lack of covering on a few female prisoners and turned to the many dead inquisitors – sighed – and began rummaging through them for spare clothing, even simply stripping them down for the clothing all together to gather enough for the majority of female devils present – that being pretty much all of them.

Rosalina assisted as well while Abigail turned and hopped up onto the lead carriage as a lookout.

Ryden was lost in the action of assisting the devils from the cage, many of them simply stared at him with dumbfounded shock within their eyes – probably not really believing that they were being saved. Ryden knew that feeling, Sirzechs didn't see it but once he felt the invasion force of devils arrive to the Halphes territory he was beyond elated, the sensation of finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel was heart wrenching to even the most hardened of men and he was no exception.

His mind paused when he felt the arms of a young female devil grip his coat tail as strongly as they could in vice grip. Ryden knew the sign – the dam was opening, he whirled around slowly to see a surprisingly calm expression dotting the face of the young female. Ryden hated the dead look in her eyes, eyes of youth like hers shouldn't be filled with such despair. Ignoring his distaste he squatted down to the girl's height and smiled kindly

"What is it little one?" he asked gently

She pointed to the carriage "Big... sister... Rivia... is hurt... can you... help her?" she asked in nothing higher than a whisper, the pained expression lining her face suggested dehydration... they needed water.

Ryden nodded and then turned to see a older woman, wearing nothing but rags sitting alone in the back of the cage unmoving. He turned back to the girl and smiled to her "I'll see what I can do" was his reply before he stood up and turned to fully digest the damage done onto the older woman.

In any other time the woman might have been a beauty beyond exemption, sporting long blonde hair and an ample figure anyone would brand 'heavenly'... but the old-Satan's always make it their mission to destroy those kinds of images, or at least they tried to with her...

The rags were small and only slightly covered the modesty of the wounded woman; she was practically naked within the cage, Ryden fought a growl at that. The woman's breathing was shallow and hoarse, suggesting extensive damage to the chest and ribs. Ryden ignored his gentlemanly side and dived into evaluating her condition fully, his hands ran over her form – from her feet all the way up to her neck and head – so far Ryden could identify multiple wounds on the abdomen and ribs, most of them blunt in nature and a few other lacerated wounds on the bottoms on her feet and palms of her hands. Extensive bruising on her wrists obviously from the metal cuffs she'd worn for however long she'd been in captivity, her knee joins were swollen which suggested dislocation as well. Ryden ran his hand gently from her knees then up and down her upper and lower back and frown deeply when his hands met blood.

Two massive cuts were located on the woman's shoulder blades – directly where her wings are located.

This was both a good thing and a horrible thing for her... the good news was her wings were not severed, however the major lacerated wounds to her back suggested her captures were incredibly determined to remove them by applying extensive nerve damage to the area in order to force them out

She was very tough, probably experienced incredible pain the whole time but never once let them have what they wanted

Ryden's hands distinctly sparked with Arc energy...

He breathed deeply and continued his assessment. Ryden cringed at the sight of a disfigured collar bone on the woman – left hemisphere of the body, clearly signs of a broken collar bone. He pressed on and noticed more bruising on the cheeks and neck area and then paused harshly when he noticed small amounts of bruises located in the navel area and slightly lower... he held his breath before peeling away the fabric on her legs and noticed zero bruises located within the inner thigh

He breathed a deep sigh of relief before summoning a Phenex tear vile... the woman was losing blood from the lacerated wounds on her back, feet and palms; that and the fact her collarbone and ribs were probably broken making breathing ridiculously hard to do... she'd die before she'd get any kind of medical treatment of any kind so he had no choice but use it

He gently massaged her neck to make sure it wasn't damaged before tilting it head up and placing the vile to her lips and emptied it

The effects were more numerous then when he used one on the father back at the crucible, rather than watch a deep slice close up, Ryden watched as joints and bones popped back into position, realigned, skin nit itself together and bruises disappeared in seconds

Seconds later and he was in a cage alone with a practically naked woman in prime health

It was mildly awkward but it truly became awkward when Nyx tapped the cage and snickered at the sight of him sitting over the body of a naked beauty "You work quickly" he said with clear sarcasm

Ryden deadpanned the devil "HueHueHue... very funny" he replied before he gestured to the blonde haired devil laying down before him "Little help?"

Nyx chuckled before dropping the set of clothing he pillaged and hopped in and picked her up by the legs; Ryden did the same with her upper body and together they hauled out the half naked beauty and set her down on the black fabric canvas cover that had previously covered the cage

Upon placing her down, a few young devils surrounded the woman and smiled lightly at the woman's new condition. Nyx used the excess fabric to cover the woman's modesty while the few devils present regarded them with small smiles

"Thank... you... lords..." one said in a hoarse whisper

Ryden simply pat the head of the one who spoke before turning to Nyx "Any idea where we can get some water?" he asked

Nyx shook his head "I'm no nature expert, check with Abigail on that" he said dismissively

Ryden went to find the devil in question but she found him first along with Rosalina. Both of them had just finished tossing the bodies of the deceased inquisitors into the ravine and used the shrubs to cover them

Rosalina went to Ryden about their next move but froze when she noticed the unconscious devil covered in black fabric in front of the devil she was looking for. Her eyes remained on the blonde haired devil as did Abigail who noticed a second after the former

Both Ryden and Nyx glanced at one another upon seeing the looks of reverence and disbelief sprout onto their faces. Nyx scratched his beard while Ryden glanced down to the sleeping woman before looking back up to the two, evident confusion in his eyes.

"Know her?" he asked

Abigail snorted "Know her? Hell yeah we know her! She's considered a hero in the anti-Satan forces" she said, clear shock at seeing the woman before her

Rosalina breathed as she stepped toward the woman "She was the one to hold the line during the evacuation of the Abaddon family of the extra demons three months ago, many said she was killed in action whilst defending the line single handily but... it's clear that wasn't her fate" explained Rosalina

Nyx hummed while Ryden blinked "that's all nice to hear but I'd like to at least know her name... the others call her 'big sister Rivia' is that her actual name?" he said

Both females nodded, even a few POW's among them did as well

"Yes, her full name is Rivia Abaddon, head of the Abaddon family... or, at least she was, her younger sister took over after her supposed death a month after the evacuation of her territory" revealed Abigail

Rosalina then approached Ryden, a fierce look in her eyes "what condition did you find her in?... did they..."

Ryden knew what she was insinuating and shook his head firmly "No, she does not show signs... however she was banged up pretty bad, if I didn't use a Phenex tear she would have bled out within another hour... silver lining, she still has her wings"

Rosalina and Abigail sighed deeply at his words but it was clear his mentioning of her wings being present had hinted to them that the Old-Satan pricks had at least tried to remove them – the balling of their hands and the grinding of their teeth was a clear indication of their disgust.

Ryden needed to stomp down on this now "Listen ladies, I know this woman was a inspiration and that her circumstances is utter bullshit but keep your heads on your shoulders, we're currently in enemy territory with six severely weakened devils present, we cannot afford to lose our heads" he cautioned before raising one finger up for all of them to see "Priority one at the moment is to get these devils out of danger; I remember passing a small lake a few miles back so if we get there not only do we get these guys some water but we also get them out of danger, sound good?"

All present remained silent until Abigail nodded slowly, marveled at Ryden's asserted action

"You got a plan on getting six weakened devils across rough terrain? What are you gonna do? Carry them?" Nyx pressed, sarcasm evident in his words and actions

Ryden however smirked "Good idea, we do happen to have one extra carriage then needed"

?!

"What?" came a puzzled Rosalina

Ryden ignored her, stepped passed the three and informed the POW's present his plan. The others watched as the young females chuckled softly – weakly – at what he said before they slowly began climbing into the lead carriage. Ryden turned back to them and then picked up Rivia Abaddon bridle style and took her over to the carriage. The three wondered what he was doing but dropped that topic when Ryden simply turned to them – smirked at them – and then picked up the carriage and rested it on his back

"What?" repeated Rosalina, eyes almost bulging at Ryden's shown strength

Ryden smirked at them again, even added in a soft chuckle at their collective expressions of befuddlement and disbelief

It was easy to him, the telekinetic powers he possessed augmented more than simple mental abilities, sensory abilities, and defensive augmentations but straight up beefed his physical strength much further than even a devil. Ryden fought a savage smile, the amount of times he'd wanted to be this strong was infinite

His legs tensed distinctly, the air in the area displaced around him and any soft or loose objects rose slightly from the ground... he squatted low - the ground cracked, fissures reaching out in all directions and then he jumped.

He was 300 ft in the air within a second leaving Nyx, Abigail and Rosalina staring completely rooted in position

Abigail swallowed, Rosalina released a cough... Nyx keeled over laughing

"Hahahahaha... did... did I just see that!? Hahahahaha" bellowed the devil, the sheer ridiculousness of the event was too great for him to fathom with a straight face so only major humor was present. Abigail swallowed again, completely ignoring Nyx's sudden outburst and Rosalina released a second cough; both females remained frozen in position until the dark red haired devil turned to Rosalina and nodded

"It's official... he's absolutely nuts" she clarified with multiple nods

Rosalina only nodded profusely as well while Nyx breathed deeply before looking in the direction Ryden had jumped to

"Brinyalf didn't have even the slightest chance did he?"

None of the girls found any reason to argue that comment and merely nodded dumbly

---

Ryden knew what he was doing was gonna cost him in the future. The training he'd done in the forest by the Gremory getaway estate was rife with large boulders and he'd used them to test his physical limits; in combat he could throw as many rock shattering punches as he wanted but when it came to lifting those very boulders that number shot all the way down to five hours total. First limit test was how much he could do with his own body weight – hence his ability to 'mercer' jump (an ability named after Alex Mercer; badass bunny hopping edge lord from the game prototype) and found that he could go on for miles at a time before feeling a slight ache in his head that which vanished after three minutes of simply stopping for a moment.

Not bad...

However the limits stacked in amount, the boulder was weighed at least one ton plus his own body weight on that – 220lbs of what he now considered as pure muscle. The food the maids made was delicious and probably laced with so much protein and nutrition it would make Dwayne 'the rock' Johnson actually become... The Rock

So in all cases, he was in the best shape he could possibly be – and he would be in that state for a long time, probably even grow more in the future. What he now faced was mildly lighter but more surgical then simply jumping up and down on flat terrain, he now faced lighter weight but steep inclines, followed by sharp declines and the odd marsh lands and even a bloody swamp in his trip. At first it was tedious for him – the lightweight of the carriage on his back was not an issue and nor was the odd changes in terrain. his landings were powerful enough to displace earth and the lift offs were strong enough to rip trees from the ground... it was exhilarating for him

But...

After a few minutes of 'boom' 'whoosh' 'pop' 'boom' 'whoosh' 'pop' made Ryden grow incredibly bored after a good ten minutes of hoping through the forest, he even tried to sight see a bit to get his boredom tamed but no animals were in sight. He softly grumbled at that.

His patients however was his key factor and somehow his boredom only lasted for a few minutes longer until the waterfall he was looking for suddenly jumped into his field of view and with one last thunderous leap did he land into the flat open field.

The final boom of his arrival displaced the field slightly, his last landing have been forcefully slowed down in order to not disturb the area... why he chose that he didn't know but he got this distinct feeling of being watched.

Ryden blinked and then set down the carriage and approached the side doors, knocked once and then opened it. Inside sat the six roughed up but healthy POW's within, they had been lying down the whole time in order to keep Rivia Abaddon held down in case his jumping caused her to flail around within. By doing that they protected themselves from injury as well... two birds, one stone

His mode of transportation was time efficient, dangerous yes but it had made the travel distance of 6.4 miles in record time – that being thirty minutes – which gave him enough time to secure the area.

He locked eyes with the oldest devil, her name being Hyria from the east and nodded to her gently "Give me a few minutes to make sure it's safe, I'll knock three times upon my return ok?"

She simply nodded

Ryden gave one last smile before closing the door and turning towards the small lake behind him. It was not exactly a lake to be perfectly honest, Ryden had only seen a small glimpse of it upon passing it an hour prior but now that he had time to look at it, it was a mountain water fed pond roughly the size of two Olympic sized pools that hugged the side of a mountain, the mountain itself being more like a wall of sheer stone than anything else.

He had to say it but the area was incredibly clean and tranquil, the grass at his feet was finely trimmed and the water in the pond was crystal clean with no signs of contamination, there was even a small sandy area before the pond – finely crushed and soft to the touch. Ryden let it fall from his hand slowly as he kneeled before the shore to inspect it for any kind of dangers.

He was mindful though. Rosalina had told him that this was the familiar forest so he couldn't take risks. what he could be seeing could possibly be an illusion made from some kind of creature – he didn't truly know – as mention Venelana and Zeoticus had never once spoken to him about the familiar forest probably due to the fact that it was located to the far east of the Lucifaad Capital, closer to the city of Lilith – the mother of all monsters and currently in enemy hands for what seemed like the foreseeable future

Guess they didn't factor in his legendary 'first day luck'

Ryden sighed before standing back up and unsheathing Infernum Fulgur, holding it high in the air for anyone to see it... a sign of dominance, that he was alpha... best idea he could think of in a forest filled with animalistic creatures of various types and or styles

"... I know your there" he said lightly – knowing his words were heard easily

His simple comment was responded by a soft distant chuckle, feminine in nature and deep in tone, suggesting a size difference in the responder. Ryden grew alert quickly when the waters in the pond shifted harshly and parted to reveal a large reptilian shape breach the surface slowly. Pale blue scales shimmered in the night sky as did deep blue sapphire eyes that which sharpened and shimmered upon noticing him.

It became perfectly clear to Ryden...

The distinct features, the rows of sharp teeth, the cowl of horns – four in total, two small, two large – jutting out and flowing back perfectly straight upon the back of the creatures skull... every detail, everything shown to Ryden just what was before him...

A Dragon... a large...Dragon

Oh. shit

His muscles locked upon realising that the creature before him was in fact a dragon. Ryden had fantasised what it would be like to face a real dragon, he'd seen them in movies and heard them in stories – mighty beings, mistaken as messily reptiles that hoarded massive treasures and prided themselves with the power they wielded... most of it being unrivaled. Now here he was facing one down in hell itself

Life was still being a bitch it seemed...

He stood there, sword in hand held low and casually at his side – he wondered if sheathing it would deter any kind of confrontation but he ignored that. If he knew one thing then he knew that cowardice in the face of dragons was considered a weakness so dishonorable it was like cutting wings off of a devil

Big no-no

Ryden sighed deeply and simply regarded the dragon with the most casual of waves he could muster

"Hi..." he began awkwardly, before he released a deep breath and clicked his tongue "... yeah, this is awkward" he added after seeing no reaction from the dragon, which was until the lips slightly pulled back to reveal just enough teeth to suggest something to him...

Was... was that a... grin?

His eyes furrowed before his world was suddenly rocked to its core

"Awkward for you maybe, but at least you weren't caught in the middle of bathing... pervert" came the barbed feminine tone he'd heard before, coming from the very dragon before him.

.

.

.

"No fucking way... you can talk?" he breathed out, completely ignoring the pervert comment directed at him

The dragon before him simply tilted its head at his words – a very distinct chuckle echoed out after a moment of it staring before she slowly sunk back into the water and out of his sight

At first Ryden thought the dragon was leaving and sighed softly to himself but a soft yet bright glow from under the water suggested something else was happening and he flexed again upon noticing. Then it happened after the glow died down

The water parted again but this time it wasn't as large as before but rather it was more humanoid, rising from the depths. Ryden's eyes widened as a woman stepped from the water, form the picture perfect definition of defined and perfect, her skin was the smoothest he could describe – close to silk even – complemented by the droplets of water that slide down her body. Long flowing pale blue hair swayed gently against her back, three bangs hugged the sid of her heart shaped face while one simply fell down and rested itself over her gentle nose. Between the three bangs sat slitted blue eyes that pierced the darkness like a knife through butter. His descriptions and assessment of the woman/dragon ceased when he notice that the dragon turned humanoid was indeed naked, he was slightly mesmerized by the dragons 'headlights' long enough to realise that yes... those were nipples he was looking at.

And yes, she wasn't wearing anything else either... complete birthday suit in perfect view

His eyes closed gently in order to preserve her modesty before he repeated a mantra "Not a scalie, not a scalie, not a scalie"

As the woman drew near she became distinctly aware of the breeze on her body and simply remedied that issue by dowsing herself in her draconic energy, moments later the energy solidified into a soft blue dress that resembled the night sky – stars and small hues of blue and pink dotted her dress and seemed to move in rhythmic fashion as if alive. She stopped a few feet from the devil that had intrigued her, her arms crossing over her large bosom and her weight shifted onto her right leg, a slight sign of intrigue was sprinkled in her otherwise indifferent and cold expression

"Are you going to simply stand there and repeat that ridiculous line of speech or are you going to introduce yourself? Speak quickly devil I'm not in the mood" she all but spat

Ryden opened his eyes – thankful the woman was covered in that blue dress – and regarded her with an apologetic bow, small and shallow just like he'd done to Rosalina hours ago. After raising his head he locked gazes with the dragon turned human

"My name is Ryden Vale Gremory, youngest brother to Sirzechs Gremory" he introduced, he relented in adding in his military rank because he had a feeling the dragon couldn't care less about it and simply went for the casual approach. He was mildly aware the dragons expression and her posture slightly loosened upon his words however it lasted for about a couple seconds before her previous gaze of pure 'I don't give a fuck' was back on her face, her weight then shifted onto her left leg and a small sigh escaped her lips.

"I see... you are not with those fools in the capital then" she breathed out, her expression then went dark "If you were then I would have killed you.." she hissed, her eyes for a second shown bright – sparks of what Ryden could assume to be blue lightning arcing from her now more prominent draconic eyes.

Ryden didn't flinch however – intimidation stopped working on him months ago.

He released a small chuckle and gently leaned on Fulgur, that which he had pressed into the ground before him for leverage "if I was one of them then I would let you, but fortunately for my sanity I'm not one those baby killers, I'm my own man and my allegiance is to a more personal cause" he reasoned back smoothly, oddly revealing a little bit more of himself then he desired.

The blue haired woman was momentarily taken back by his dismissal and all around calm nature – her aura wasn't to be taken lightly and even ultimate-class devils shirked at her gaze. This devil was matching hers this entire time...

...Color her impressed

"Oh? And what 'personal cause' is that? Did they kill your son – murdered him in cold blood? Or did they rape your wife before your eyes?" she pressed darkly, clearly looking to probe him for details

Ryden ignored those words, she was trying to get rise out of him and while the latter did piss him off at the possibility of that happening he made sure his mind was clear in order to make sure he didn't piss of the dragon in front of him. He sighed "the old-Satan's have clearly gone off the reservation and limits of common decency but that's not my main ideal" he paused before regarding the woman with underlined annoyance "if I'm to tell you then I must know the one I'm speaking to first, common courtesy amirite?"

Before Ryden could react the woman was on him – literally

His back was pressed against a tree just a few feet from the pond, the pale blue haired woman mere inches from his face, clear signs of excitement and mild bloodlust contained under a thin vale of actual lust that was then hidden behind a mask of a simple smile – one that promised any flavors of pain. Her left hand held his right hand up against the tree trunk that which was unfortunately without his sword – Infernum Fulgur was still gently sheathed in the earth a few feet back. Her own right arm was pressed across his collar, pinning him against the tree like a vice and Ryden became painful aware of many things that which didn't at all fit with his situation

One was that her body was pressed tightly to his own, her headlights smooched against his chest...

The other was that her eyes twitched between lust and bloodlust... not at all finding common ground

And the other was much more awkward... he glanced over the woman/dragon's shoulder and noticed the damn carriage door was open to reveal Rivia Abaddon watching this the entire time. On an off chance his mind brought up the relief of seeing the woman up and about but another half pointed out that his position with the dragon against the tree was much more deplorable then it actually was

He didn't know what he'd die from first – embarrassment or disembowelment via horny dragon. It didn't matter which one however, because either or was not a preferable lasting quote for tombstone material

The woman leaned into him – form pressing tighter to his own – and her eyes, now slitted and glowing, remained locked on his confused orbs before exploring his nape. Ryden felt the distinct sensation of being sniffed, practically inhaled, by the dragons powerful sense of smell and then he felt something else...

It wasn't a sharp pain, Satan only knows how long it's been since he felt pain but it was a sudden pull on his ear lobe that caused his mind pause... it was both that and the sudden adorable 'umu' that was released from the dragon who was in the process of nibbling his ear!

"Ufufu..." she snickered in a small whisper, the sensation of her breath on his ear and neck made his skin crawl and the hairs on the back of his neck even stood up from the slight hint of static laced in her lips "I never would have guessed it... to be so close to a human and not notice, I'm must be getting rusty" she breathed out in a breathless tone.

Ryden froze, his muscles gone perfectly still

The woman continued...

"As for my name... you may call me, Tiamat – the Chaos Karma dragon"

---

There were many things Ryden knew and didn't know about hell. The majority of it being simple ignorance due to poor preparation but then again no one could really predict that his first day in the Anti-Satan forces would send him to Lucifaad – with a demonic nuke in his shorts – and save six practically doomed POW's, one of them being a hero renowned by a large sum, and then meet a freaking dragon king

Ryden wasn't aware of the amount of money his adoptive family was paying him, nor was he aware of what the military service pay was, but even if they were both six figures an hour it still didn't pay to get outta bed at times.

Tiamat had released her hold on him a small moment ago and was now simply standing before him with a wide shit eating grin on her face, probably influenced by Ryden's dumbfounded expression. Take a minute to think on this matter, Ryden had speculated what it must feel like to be in the presents of an actual dragon – most of those thoughts were met with loud roars, screaming civilians and burning cities along with a fight between the hero and a large pose of 'red shirts'. While he was aware that even a dragon can be handled by dwarves he had to remember that Smaug wasn't a dragon king, or at least he thought so... but he was talking to MF Tiamat! And she was one.

His memory was sparse of information regarding the dragon, all he knew from a distant memory in a history class was that she was aligned with Babylonian mythology and according to that she was suppose to be dead – killed by Marduk and used to create the heavens and the earth with her body... lovely. But after that he was at an impasse.

Now here she was... in hell. He was starting to assume that she did in fact die and was simply reformed in hell but he didn't ask as that may very well be a tender subject that could wipe the smile from the dragons lips the second he'd ask.

He'd rather not piss her off, after the little episode of CQC with the dragon and he was fully aware of the physical strength difference between them... not a winning fight that's for sure.

His mind stopped doing hurdles when he noticed the form of Rivia Abaddon stop at his side. Tiamat regarded the woman passively while the woman herself simply set her gaze on Ryden that only shown with a look of curiosity within her golden eyes

"Oh? I wasn't aware we were being watched... speak of your name devil or you will be removed" spat Tiamat. Rivia didn't even notice her and only kept her eyes on Ryden – lost in his eyes.

Ryden stood up – having fallen on his ass due to the many shocking moments and nerve wracking surprises and quickly diffused Tiamat's growing frustration by stepping into the path of the dragon, garnering her attention from the silent and watching devil.

"It's ok Tiamat... she's with me, I brought her and a few others to gather water for them but it would seem I've stepped into your territory" he defused calmly. He turned and then stepped towards Rivia in order to inspect her condition. Seeing his advance Rivia slightly tensed and stepped back a foot

Ryden stopped, trouble expression dotting his face "my names Ryden Vale Gremory, lady Abaddon... I'm general Sirzechs' brother and I'm with the Anti-Satan forces, I'm not going to hurt you"

A mild look of surprise rose onto the woman's face while Tiamat simply shrugged her shoulders at the quiet woman's actions, to her the woman seemed more dazed then fully coherent.

"She seems to have issues Gremory" she commented

Ryden nodded at her observant analysis "my team and I ambushed a prison convoy on route to Lucifaad just a few minutes ago, there is a few more in that carriage there that were among the prisoners and they need serious medical care and water" he explained while turning to the dragon, seriousness fully activated

Tiamat nodded simply "You are on your way to Lucifaad? What plans do you have?"

Ryden shrugged before glancing around "I'd answer that – I would even show you – but I'm afraid the demonic energy output would tip the old-Satan's of our presents and I'd rather make this easy"

Tiamat furrowed her brow and then simply snapped her fingers, confusing him slightly

Ryden grew surprised when a large ghostly blue dome of energy enveloped the area. Its presents lasted for a moment before suddenly fading into transparency, the underline layers of the energy blanketed the area and completely cut off all signatures from the outside

Tiamat regarded him with a small smirk "I'm waiting..."

Ryden sighed and stepped towards the dragon – reached into his pocket dimension – and summoned the golden orb, the light of the orb illuminated the area in a pure golden glow, and the energy that resembled the flame of a Phenex embraced the area in a warm embrace that caused Tiamat to slightly shiver in response to its sudden presences.

"Is that?..." she muttered in question

He nodded "The absorbed energy of a Ruina Imperium and an ultimate-class devil... I plan on shoving it up the Old-Satan's ass over at Lucifaad" he revealed casually before dropping the orb back into the pocket dimension, the golden light and warmth disappearing along with it

Ryden was aware of the disappointed expression on the dragon but ignored it to press his issue and point further "Currently we – my team and I – face a time critical operation, the old-Satan's tried to destroy the Bael clan territory via Ruina imperium but we managed to harness it for our own retaliation which was already stated. However they have already mobilized a force of 10,000 strong and are currently preparing to assault the territory I came from"

"You plan on extinguishing a fire with an even bigger fire" she summarized

Ryden nodded "Exactly..." he replied before taking a deep breath "I'm gonna go out on limb and say you're not the biggest of fan of the Old-Satan's... are you?"

She shook her head

"I guessed so..." he breathed before he turned to the woman behind him, she was still staring at him – unblinkingly – and the distance in which she had created before was closed significantly, her form almost leaning on him for some reason. An idea popped into his head a moment after he turned back to look at the dragon, but this time he had a small smirk on his lips

"Let's make a deal... if you allow these devils some water and medical care, I'll erase Lucifaad and wipe it off the map for you, and you'll have no need to worry about pesky devils again" he bargained

The dragon before him suddenly smirked widely at him "that's a large bargain Gremory..."

Ryden smirked "I've got a large bomb in my pants... I'm sure I can get it done" he said but then paused after realising what he was talking to

Dragon = dragonite... Chance!

He tapped his finger against his chin, a mischievous glint sprouting in his eyes "What can I do in order to get a couple pounds of Dragonite mixed into that deal?" he asked with a cheeky smile – a mild hint of greed laced in his words and expression

The dragon before him paused at his offer before she suddenly started laughing

"Fufufufu... what a greedy little devil you are, fufufufu" in her laugh she paused to ponder over her words "Hmm... to ask of such a thing from a dragon king is very brazen but now that you've offered I may have a task for you that could be the opportunity you seek... dragonite metal is very cherished by my kind but it's worth is more useful as currency than a treasure for me" she explained, soft yet dangerous smile lined her lips

Ryden listened intently, eyes so unblinking in their gaze on Tiamat she was mildly put off at his eager disposition

She ignored it and pressed on "In the Necropolis, the furthest distance northwest, past Lucifaad – lay a tomb of a devil that which stole a treasure from my den, its value is significantly more important to me then a couple pounds of harden rock"

Ryden blinked "I'm guessing there's something there that's protecting this treasure of yours?" Ryden hummed before scoffing "Must be a dangerous foe to ward off a dragon king"

"If you are assuming mold and grime as a worthy foe then yes... yes it is" added in the dragon king who was at the moment idly inspecting her lengthened nails.

Ryden stopped thinking "Wait... so you're saying there's nothing there but just dirt and grime?" he asked but then a sudden glare from Tiamat caused him to halt his questioning tone

"if you seek danger then the Necropolis houses the living dead – puss covered cretins risen to guard the body of a demon named Valefor; the demon thief" her nose crumpled in disgust "those things are everywhere, the last time I tried to get my treasure I was covered in the damn things – took a week to clean off all the—ugh! Never mind that" she added before she then hugged herself in even more disgust

"And the spiders... Their HUGE! Almost the same size as me in dragon form!" she whaled

Spiders... same size as dragon... fuck that!

"Ooook! I can see why you haven't gone" he commented with wide eyes brimming with arachnophobic fear "I can safely say I might shit my pants for doing this but Challenge accepted" he said with gusto, moments afterwards however and his body sagged in despair "oh god I'm gonna regret the shit outta this but damn do I want a dragonite weapon" he clenched his fist tightly "imma need a loooot of fire to get that done"

As he said that he felt the sword at his side – now back in his hand – shimmer slightly. He paused and raised it to eye level and listened to the sword spirit. Tiamat, who had been watching him silently suddenly became very aware of the weapon in the humans hand. Her eyes shot wide open after a moment of processing that what she was looking at was actually true and judging by the look of sudden surprise from the blonde devil behind him meant she'd noticed as well

"Gremory..." she breathed out "is that... Infernum Fulgur?" asked the dragon, eyes lined with very distinct surprise... such a weapon should have been noticed by her, yet its presence was perfectly hidden somehow.

Ryden stopped listening to Fulgur momentarily and regarded Tiamat casually "Yes... I ran up into a raging storm and yoinked it from an obsidian stone prison at the top of a mountain" he glanced around for a second – eyes shifting from side to side – before he finished in a whisper "it was actually pretty easy, I didn't even know what it was until later"

She stopped thinking after he said that and simply remained where she was. Rivia Abaddon heard what was said and froze as well – both knew what stood before them at that moment...

An Arbiter

Safe to say Rivia's body wasn't going to move for a while and her gaze wouldn't find anything else more important than the back of the one who'd saved her and her allies

Ryden clicked his tongue before looking to Tiamat with a wide smile "Turns out Ashfeld is in that direction – little bit more north – and apparently Infernum Ignis is sitting there waiting... guess I found the fire I need" he summarized casually. Tiamat couldn't believe what she just heard and simply waited for reality to return

It didn't, the human or whatever he was, was still before her...

Taking a small period of time to release a couple breaths, Ryden sheathed his sword and held out his hand to Tiamat who stared at it hesitantly "So... we got a deal?" he asked, smirk raising high onto his cheeks

The female dragon king stood idle for a moment while Rivia Abaddon stared at the scene with a look of awe. To see a devil look so calm and tranquil – even humorous – stand on equal ground with thee chaos Karma dragon was not something even she was capable of fantasising of, but here it was. Hours ago she was writhing in agony from a severe beating and drowning in despair at the fate that awaited her and her friends at Lucifaad but now she was standing free with multiple rays of hope in the horizon and she couldn't feel any bit more elated, especially with the knowledge at exactly who had saved them

She was unaware of her collapsing form until a shocked set of eyes – owned by one Ryden vale Gremory – was gazing at her in worry, her body held gently in his arms.

It was a second after Tiamat shook his hand when Rivia suddenly collapsed, soft streams of tears leaked down from a set of eyes that held no hint of even crying – it was as if they simply chose at that moment to fall. He was at her side in seconds and holding her up by her back with gentle care so to not harm the healthy by severely weakened devil

"What's wrong?" he asked, slight panic in his tone

For the first time in two months, she spoke...

"The... Arbiter... saved... me..." she mouthed before a faintly chuckle escaped her lips, tears still falling from her staring eyes.

The added chuckle was pure emotion Ryden mused and the tears were obviously related as well, when one spends so long in despair the air of freedom was freezing to the touch and could cause anyone to shake at its embrace and even he was no exception; Ryden was just glad there was a semblance of emotion in her tone and elated eyes, so far she'd looked distant and even broken which didn't at all help improve his mood, but now he was elated to say that she wasn't as damaged as he at first theorized

Lord only knows what he would've done once he got into Lucifaad if his theory was true...

He sighed before looking to the dragon "Got any water?" he asked with a small cheeky grin

The dragon simply rolled her eyes at his sarcastic question before gesturing for him to follow with a wag of her finger. He nodded and picked up Rivia bridal style and turned to the carriage where the remaining devils present were standing. With a gesture of his head – the others followed.

Ryden stopped at the shoreline while the dragon simply walked back into the crystal clear water and stopped when she got to her hips "hand her to me, she needs to be fully submerged in order for this to work... tell the others to disrobe as well, I don't want blood in my pond" commanded the dragon king

He nodded as he handed Rivia Abaddon to the dragon before looking to the others "You heard the dragon..." was all he said before turning away and calmly walking back to the carriage. They hadn't before but Ryden wondered if the lead carriage housed any bits of Intel they could use so he decided to delve into that hunt while the dragon turned bloody caretaker handled the POW's... hard to form that train of thought into actual words Ryden noticed. Dragon. Assisting. POW's... doesn't sound right but that was exactly what was happening at the moment but Ryden ignored the oddness – he had a feeling this wasn't going to be the last of the odd occurrences in his time in hell.

Oh he had no idea...

Remembering a few bits of his ride in the military carriage back at the Gremory estate he remembered that there was a selection of drawers located below the seats and started his hunt there. No dice, bottom of the seats was clean of any kind of furniture so he frisked his hands along the sides of the cabin only to again come up with nothing. His mouth twitched before he climbed fully into the carriage and felt around before suddenly coming up with something.

It was a small manila folder, couple inches thick with what Ryden assumed as intelligence on something important hidden in a small canopy on the ceiling of the carriage. Considering this was a military prisoner transport he assumed the Intel would pertain to information regarding prisoners – obviously – and for the most part he was correct in his assumption. A good quarter of the Intel had named lists of highly important information regarding devils aligned with the Anti-Satan forces, he even found Rosalina Phenex and Abigail Valac in the list of 'HVT's' the Old-Satan's wanted captured for reasons unspecified... he could bloody well guess why though as only females were on this list. Ryden rolled his eyes at the otherwise morbid thought

Fucking perverts... what's next? Panty raid plans?

Skipping over the Old-Satan's degeneracy plans Ryden finally came up with something that wasn't disturbing. It was filed under the code term 'Revenant' – a person thought dead, actually being alive. It took him a few minutes to read through the mumbo jumbo of prophetic dialect and lunacy normal heard from zealot rejects found at local bars but that's when he noticed the issue of the plans...

Resurrection, obviously hinted by the word 'revenant' written in the file and it for some reason had to do with the necropolis and... The Malphes territory? That was all that was inscribed, the rest was covered in scratch marks and black ink leaving Ryden covered with a blanket of questions. Common sense leads him to think the Old-Satan's planned to resurrect the dead. The necropolis was a mass grave of dead demons and ancient warriors of hell – but then how does the Malphes territory fit into that?

He didn't know demonology enough to fully form an answer but he did know this information was valuable to the right people so Ryden stuffed it into the pocket dimension before hopping out of the carriage.

As he approached the pond Ryden mulled over the plans he'd found further but upon doing so he never became aware of the devil standing before him. He blinked to shake his confusion from his face when he accidently bumped into her, he glanced up instinctually to apologise but went rigid when he realised he'd bumped into a perfectly healthy – freshly clothed – Rivia Abaddon, standing before him, her arms resting on her hips and a small smirk placed gently on her lips

He blinked again – leaned to the side – and noticed Tiamat sitting in the pond cleaning the other devil's with what he assumed to be disinterested interest – though she looked uninterested in helping the little devil's she did however scrutinize every inch of their bodies until they were perfectly clean and then would order them to dunk under the water. Ryden rolled his head around before quickly looking away – having noticed that they were all naked – and reengaged his gaze with a staring Rivia Abaddon.

Her clothing was simple yet very refined – Ryden suspected it was courtesy of Tiamat as her draconic magic was something of a mystery to him. If he had time he would have asked but it wasn't going to happen at the moment... shame, spontaneously creating clothes seemed very convenient.

Rivia wore an elegant and low cut black and blue dress that exposed a good chunk of cleavage – for 'reasons' Ryden didn't know. She had similar detached sleeves as Rosalina which had reached up into crowned shoulder guards leaving her shoulders bare for him to see, her left handed sleeve was dark blue while her right hand was onyx black. The dress also had multiple skirt tails trailing behind her, two large slits down the center and back of her dress exposed her long slender legs that which were covered by black thigh highs reaching up to her mid thigh and black high heel boots that reached up blew her knees.

Ryden wanted to whistle, she was beautiful before but now?... damn!

...Rosalina's got competition

Then he nearly choked on his saliva when – very vulgarly – Rivia reached up and tied her long blonde hair into a ponytail with a black barrette all the while making sure her breasts were perfectly accentuated by this action. Considering their proximity, this entire action covered his entire field of view and completely masked the large blush on Rivia as she did this. He paused in thought and slowly regarded the rather tall female with a look that said – very intelligently – 'Huh?'

"Well?..." she purred questioningly, shocking Ryden by the tone of her voice. If you could somehow turn the sound of cracking wood from a campfire and mix it with the soft sounds of flapping fabric in a gentle breeze then you had a perfect example of how bloody peaceful Rivia's voice was.

Better explanation – husked tone with a soft sensation of silky smoothness... perfect voice for an adult female of her beauty.

"You..." he all but breathed out, eyes wider than dinner plates as the tall female devil watched him expectantly "You..." he breathed again but then he just dropped it "You sure that pond didn't turn you into an angel by accident?" he commented light heartedly, still showing clear signs of shock

Rivia regarded him casually before she softly chuckled at his words "My, you are rather bold in your compliments... to call me an angel? Ufufu, bold man indeed" she purred out again

Ryden however took it the wrong way "Oh No! I didn't mean it as an insult Lady Abaddon! Twas a compliment I swear!" he screeched out

An uproarious laugh caught his attention while lady Abaddon simply giggled at Ryden's hasty reply, the man in question steaming with clear embarrassment.

Tiamat stepped forward from behind Rivia with a massive grin on her face "And here I thought you were a poised man Ryden Vale Gremory, for her to get your tongue tied up like that kinda insults me – am I not as beautiful?" she question but her tone and face suggested it was more along the lines of 'interrogated' then anything else.

Ryden swallowed – faintly hearing his balls busting under the combined gazes of a fully rejuvenated Rivia Abaddon and a scrutinizing Tiamat... a dragon king... that was mentioned before right?

Well when in doubt, exaggerate!

Ryden began blinking profusely "Ow... my eyes..." he muttered before he began rubbing them harshly "not to self: don't stare at two bright stars for more than two seconds..." he commented

Rivia chuckled again while Tiamat clicked her tongue in slight amusement

"Tsk... smooth answer brat"

Rivia merely smiled down at him gently but didn't speak.

Ryden breathed a sigh of relief, he'd dodged a bullet there. After getting his bearings back he shifted his gaze between the two devils with a questioning gaze, he even made sure they noticed his gaze on the mysterious clothes Rivia wore. The two noticed but didn't elaborate so he pushed

Ryden closed his eyes and breathed in softly "I get this small feeling I'm not leaving here alone..." he muttered knowingly

Tiamat hummed "sharp senses..." she wagged her finger at Rivia "this one requested it to me... she's pretty adamant about her reasoning so I'd be careful with letting her down if you so choose" she spoke, completely uncaring that the aforementioned woman was right beside her

He nodded before glancing at the woman currently staring at him with a new look of resolve, he stared at her momentarily – studying her expression and gait, even to her hands – before clicking his tongue and looking at Tiamat questioningly "what exactly is in that pond of yours? Phenex tears?" he asked

Tiamat shook her head "you mean you don't know?" she asked, shocked by his ignorance

He blinked and waited for an elaboration to which Tiamat obliged with a small growl of annoyance

"Dragon's have two distinct types of residual energy that they excrete from their aura's, one being a deathly poison type effect that destroys and corrodes everything they touch and the other being a healing or tranquil energy... you can guess what I have" she explained simplistically

Ryden nodded in understanding "So that water has got some serious healing energy seeped into it... Kinda ironic if you think about it" he replied casually

Tiamat's eyes flashed dangerously "...Explain"

He scratched the back of his head before replying "The chaos karma dragon... exudes a healing effect" he scratched his cheek this time in confusion "I guess the title was given later on than immediately" he then eyed the seemingly seething dragon – pride slighted just a little by his words – and smiled at her kindly "I take it you're a lot more refined than your title reveals" he chuckled to himself when Tiamat's eyes widened just a bit "I apologise if I showed you disrespect, I'm merely stating what I've seen"

The dragon suddenly turned her head from him, eyes glaring at the ground with a masked emotion "You are very brazen..."

Ryden chuckled again "so I'm told by many, I'm also considered to be nuts by both my allies and brother – considering what I'm doing – I would have to agree with them" he beamed good naturedly

Rivia watched as the devil before her actually conversed with Tiamat casually, even stepping onto a few thin wires pertaining to the title of the dragon with awe. Brazen didn't cover it...

After a moment Ryden sighed before looking at her, Tiamat doing the same after she regained her Barings and tossing a faint glare at Ryden.

He merely shifted his weight while again studying her closely. Rivia knew that he was trying to find any show of weakness and while at first she was offended by this – seeing as how she'd trained to contain her weaknesses through sheer force of will – she could understand his suspicion and even found herself growing angry at her own showing of weakness not a moment before... even if she couldn't help it. nonetheless her mouth opened to speak, conveying her own words before she even thought on them

"I'm not weak, what you saw was a disgrace... I am not that woman that which you saw" she said with passion, even momentarily causing Tiamat pause – as noticed by the lighting of her eyes momentarily - while Ryden merely raised a brow at her odd outburst

"Disgrace you say?... you consider that a disgrace?" he asked, Rivia was taken aback by his slightly disapproving gaze "you survived three months in the hands of savages, who tried to take your very wings from you – yet you remained strong and denied them that sickening pleasure" he explained, making Rivia advert her eyes

Ryden stepped forward towards her "In despair you even became a beacon of hope for those behind you, and somehow made yourself out to be their sister figure even" he paused before gently gesturing to Tiamat who watched the two closely "you even stood in the presence of her, without fear or even noticing the danger – all just to get to me"

He rest his hand gently on her shoulder which stiffened upon contact, Ryden locked eyes with the shocked woman before him and smiled gently "how is that a disgrace? No matter the degree of which you fell you still stood up and made an effort out of what you had, you shielded the weak and took the brunt of the pain head on" he gently squeezed and made a reassuring smile directed to Rivia "remember what you were at your lowest, so you can reach your highest and never fall again" he added before letting go and stepping back

"anyways..." he started, ignoring the reverence in Rivia's eyes and the small smirk on Tiamat "... it was not weakness that I'm searching for, that's inherent – everyone's got a weakness – I mean a second ago I was a blubbering mess when in the face of two gorgeous women" he jested before shooting out a visible shrug

Tiamat laughed "ok, now you're just kissing ass"

Ryden nodded "maybe... but it's still true" he replied casually

Tiamat rolled her eyes at his comment while Ryden then returned his eyes back onto Rivia

"if your thinking I'm going to tell you to sit on the bench then you're wrong, frankly I wouldn't dream of it considering what they all have said about you" upon that comment Rivia's eyes slightly rose at his words before Ryden hit her with a causal question "You wouldn't happen to know a Rosalina Phenex would you?"

She shook her head at that, not having heard of her

Ryden continued on "well she and a few hundred others – that's to my assumption – speak highly of you, even going so far a regarding you as a hero, they even told me of the great evacuation of the Abaddon territory" he lightly tapped her abdomen "You single handily held a line against insurmountable odds for how many days? I don't know but that's gotta be something worth noting" he summarized before he glanced to Tiamat while Rivia blushed up a storm at his complements "why wouldn't I want that on my team... all we're doing is making a special delivery, so hell yeah she's in" he beamed but then paused "speaking of which, since I'm taking lady Abaddon with me, what will they be doing while she's not here to take care of them?"

Tiamat tapped her nose "sorry Gremory, that's a deal made between me and Abaddon... the kids will be in my care, so don't worry about that" she glanced to Rivia with a knowing smile "I'm sure you are aware of our deal, be sure to follow through with it"

Rivia simply nodded "Of course lady Tiamat"

The dragon sneered at the title "Just Tiamat brat... 'Lady Tiamat' sounds like a grannies name and I ain't a grandma"

Rivia waved her hands, placating the dragon "Of course Tiamat"

"I thank you Tiamat, one of these days I'll grab that treasure for you" spoke Ryden

Tiamat merely growled at him "don't get ahead of yourself Gremory, you got a city to erase first so get that done before you even think of running off"

Ryden smiled, nodding all the while "yes yes, I'll be sure to expand on your territory for you as soon as I can"

She smiled viciously at his change in phrasing the deal "I'll be waiting for the light show... now GET!"

Both Ryden and Rivia were suddenly pushed out of the large barrier by an unseen force, leaving Ryden smiling at the dragon's slow change in personality and leaving Rivia staring stoically at the five devil's casually sitting in the pond.

She turned away a moment after mouthing something Ryden didn't hear and began walking into the forest "Let's go" she worded resolutely

Ryden nodded gently at her words but stood there for a moment, idly watching the young devil's sitting in the sand of the small shoreline of the pond, Rivia hadn't noticed but they had looked over the moment she looked away leaving Ryden to witness the bright smiles on their faces. Tiamat noticed his gaze and simply waved him off – gesture more aligned with 'piss off' then what you'd assume

He took the message and sent a small – flamboyant – wave to the devil's and then followed behind a distant Rivia. He followed behind for a moment until he lost sight of the clearing in the thick woods. They continued to walk for a few more minutes until the female devil paused in a small clearing and tapped the space before her. Ryden was surprised to see a tear in space open before her, being the perfect size for a humanoid figure to casually walk through.

"This will lead us back to the road..." instructed Rivia

Ryden nodded and wordlessly stepped towards the portal but was suddenly stopped before entering by Rivia who place a hand on his shoulder

"hmm?" he hummed while glancing to her

"Thank you... for what you said before, I... I needed to hear that" she mouthed quietly, eyes downcast

Ryden merely smirked before he pat her head of all things and answered gently "Your welcome lady Abaddon... just remember what I said and you'll never fall again, not now that you got me by your side" his reply grew a small blush on Rivia before she sprouted up suddenly

"Rivia..." she mouthed before locking eyes with him "Just call me... Rivia" was her final comment before she grew silent

Ryden smirked brighter before nodding "Sure thing Rivia" he casually said, in a lighter tone

Rivia smiled brightly at his words before she let go and stood to the side "after you..." she said kindly, gesturing towards the portal

He smiled in return.

Soon after his little trade of formalities he stepped into the black void, Rivia following not a moment behind and he duly noted the large smile on her face as she followed. Ryden knew of many coping mechanisms used for recovering from what she'd been through, what she sought was connection, maybe something else but what he did know was that, because of his words he set her a more correct path than the one she had chosen. To hate herself and her weakness in times of despair was only going to cause a bitter poison to corrode herself over time, Ryden was glad he managed to divert that and upon that thought he let the subject escape him and lost himself in the sensation of what surrounded him. The sensation was odd to him – cold even – the space itself was an ideal definition of void as there was nothing within but pure blackness and Rivia following closely behind him and it was at that moment when Ryden realised that he was walking in the Abaddon families most well known trait...

The intelligently named power called "hole"

No joke... that's what it's called, swear on the Gremory's name... riveting stuff honestly

He'd learned of the most prominent family house powers and attributes with his time at the getaway estate. The Bael family had the power of destruction – a literal power to erase pretty much everything. After learning about it he then knew then why Sirzechs was adamant in keeping their spar's weapons only, because he might just kill him with his power – no need to test it after all. The Sitri family specialized in water and ice manipulation, Serafall being the most powerful ice user to date; it's said that if Serafall were to be 'freed of all restrictions' then she could literally freeze half of hell with the snap of her finger...

Get that girl a damn Nerf... too damn OP!

Astaroth family possessed powerful intellect – Ajuka was their prime trophy of that bragging right. Agares family had – to a limited extent – time manipulation and the Belial family had the notorious power of worthlessness which basically shuts down any kind of power if the caster understands the power he's disabling and considering it was notorious for most devil's to broadcast their abilities basically made the family a power house.

Not bad...

The Abaddon family had the power of hole which literally uses holes in space that can absorb any attack and redirect the attack at any given time – even store them. The extent of the power was provided before him in another field of specialization

Teleportation via void gate... nifty shit... Saved Ryden a good bit of time and he sighed at the convenience provided before him because he hadn't been looking forward to bunny hopping on rough terrain again

The void effect lasted for only a second longer until a light sprouted up before him and boom... he was standing before three extremely shell shocked devil's that bore holes not only into him but the woman standing quietly at his right flank

The three remained silent... staring

Ryden simply watched in awe as the black mass of intangible energy swirled in its spot behind him for a moment before fading away soundlessly. Ryden whistled at that "damn... that was really cool" he mouthed in slight awe

Rivia giggled "I'll be sure to show you it more if you want..." she offered kindly

Ryden's eyes brightened "Perfect... I'll keep that offer in mind"

With one last smile, Rivia regarded Ryden kindly before she turned to the three stunned devil's and gave them a small nobles bow – crisp and perfect – and then regarded them with a warming smile

"Greetings... you must be the ones that saved me and my dear friends – my names Rivia Abaddon, former head of the Abaddon house, it's a pleasure to meet you all" she greeted professionally

Ryden noticed that some time during his leave, the three must have worked hard to clean up the mess they left on the road. Each of them were covered in some kind of dirt and even had bits of branches and leaves stuck in their hair, looking further into it Ryden even noticed the single lone carriage was parked perfectly at the side of the road while all of the corpses were buried respectfully a few feet away from the road in a small clearing... didn't expect that Ryden mused

The three simply stared at Rivia for a moment before they suddenly locked their eyes onto Ryden, looks of grand confusion were wrought on their expressions and an even clear sign of wonder was mixed in with it... two emotions that correlate perfectly via definition and they were expressing them both at the same time.

That's some next level confusion if he had to say...

Then they asked the one question in perfect unison

"What the hell happened?"

He smiled brightly at them, knowingly... one long ass explanation coming right up!

---

Couple of minutes later – or what felt like hours – Ryden managed to fill in the gaps and questions floating around in the heads of the Devil's like a wild and angry hive of bees. Sometime during his story they relocated off the road, making sure to hide the carriage from view and now they sat in a thick area obscured on all sides by trees and thick shrubs. Rosalina was leaning casually on a tree, her eyes simply staring at both Ryden and Rivia with deep interest while Abigail did the same, she was located up in a trees branch a couple feet above them as a look out, her eyes were mainly on the new arrival herself however, a look of reverence dominating her gaze. Rivia herself simply sat seiza style at Ryden's left flank – eyes closed calmly and simply taking the time to meditate and clear her thoughts; the man of her interest had taken a seat on the green grass who simply sat campfire style.

Nyx was the only one standing and pacing back and forth

He didn't take the story well... much to Ryden's amusement

"So... not only did you suddenly jump off with a carriage on your back – inadvertently or purposely show off unnatural strength – you make it to a clearing in perfect time and ran into FUCKING TIAMAT!?" roared a heavily breathing Nyx Oriax "WHO WAS FUCKING BATHING NO LESS?!" he added, equally as loud as before. The devil took a deep breath before adding again, with clear dumbfounded awe "how – in Satan's name – are you not dragon shit right now?"

Ryden chuckled

"Don't you laugh dammit! This is some serious shit, Tiamat is not – and I repeat – NOT meant to be fucked with!" he laminated with severe gusto

Ryden chuckled again...

...A vein popped on Nyx's temple

However before he could literally explode Ryden simply gestured for him to calm down "I'm aware of the danger Nyx" he eased

"Doesn't bloody feel like it..." he jabbed

Ryden shrugged at the shot "That's mainly because I'm a Swanson..."

"A what?"

"Nothing..."

Nyx seethed at Ryden's light tone before huffing and dropped down in a childish sulk, amusing Ryden further. Seeing that opportunity in the action to make her move, Rosalina stepped from and locked eyes with Ryden

"What happened to the other devil's?" she asked genuinely

This caused Rivia to open her eyes calmly "they are safe, the Arbiter made a deal with the dragon king that safe guarded their lives and provided medical care for them and myself... It is why I'm in perfect health" she answered casually, unaware of the sudden development of shock on all three devils present

Ryden popped in "Mighty fine medical treatment if you ask me" he commented off handily

Rivia smiled at him "indeed"

Abigail shot up after a moment of thought "You said Arbiter... who or what, is that?"

Rivia simply turned her gaze to Ryden who simply leaned back and rest his back against the trunk of the tree behind him. The others noticed the eldest woman's gaze and gave off three different reactions, Nyx grew confused, Abigail smirked at something else entirely and Rosalina snapped her fingers

"That's the word I was looking for!... you're an Arbiter – he who wields the weapons of hell shall be granted the title of Arbiter, the Infernum armis are those very weapons" she explained

Ryden whistled but remained confused "and what does that entail or even mean?" he asked

Rosalina's reply was interrupted by Nyx who simply waved off that question "Who cares about that Arbiter crap, did you just say he made a damn deal with Tiamat?" he questioned Rivia forcefully

The woman in response to his words frowned deeply at the belittling of the title of Arbiter but regardless, answered him anyway "yes... for providing medical care and shelter for my friends, the Arbiter will destroy Lucifaad"

Ryden suddenly piped in "don't forget I made an extra deal for a couple pounds of dragonite ore"

Rivia nodded "And he made a bonus deal with Tiamat for dragonite ore" she added – practically mirroring him word for word

.

.

.

"He's nuts... officially nuts" muttered Nyx with a ghostly expression

Abigail snickered "I thought we already established that?" she added questioningly

Rosalina simply stood before Ryden, an aura of authority radiated off of her form as she glared down at the uncaring devil below her

"What deal did you make Lord Ryden" she asked with extreme seriousness

Ryden shrugged "All I need to do is retrieve a stolen treasure from the demon Valefor's tomb in the Necropolis" he said before shrugging "I figured that after we blow up the capital, we evacuate the devil's in Tiamat's care back to the anti-Satan forces then jump over to Ashfeld"

Rosalina and Nyx were too shell shocked to answer but Abigail was still coherent enough to press on

"What's at Ashfeld?" she asked

"Another Infernum Armis... since the necropolis is crawling with the living dead and giant spiders that even give Tiamat the willies, I thought it would be perfect to grab Infernum Ignis for some good ol fashion spider extermination via hellfire" Ryden planned out before clicking his teeth "Sounds like fun to me..."

Abigail took a deep breath while Rosalina simply shook her head and dropped her reply all together, finding the rather crazy comments coming from Ryden to be extremely off putting

"Whatever... let's just try and get this capital out of our way first, before we go on your little adventure" she said

Ryden shot up at that "perfect... what's the plan boss?"

Rosalina sighed again at the sudden display of energy from Ryden before she simply gestured for them all to follow her.

It was odd for her to fully grasp it, not too long ago did she and Ryden have a serious conversation and she thought she had seen the full extent of Ryden's character but like before – it was still not all of it. Not only did Ryden take his 'smile' to a whole different level, he went well beyond her realm of preparation and now she was slightly afraid she'd be left behind.

How could a man with so much blood on his hands smile so brightly, joke so easily and laugh so casually and even care so valiantly about the well being of others like he did? She didn't know the full answer to that but she had a partial answer

So far he did all these things easily and without a hint of hesitation and even branded it as professional approach to handling anger. But he did one other thing even easier...

He disregards his own safety

Ashfeld was miles behind enemy lines, the necropolis was too, being even further than the former and held by numerous members of the Old-Satan's elite fighting force, the Lucifage families private army...Death knights. There was talk within the brass about possible troop movements along the borders of Lilith to the small town of Ashfeld. What they were doing was a mystery but their numbers were undeniable,

They were numerous... far too many for a small team like theirs to make any headway so in the end it was suicide to even think about going there. Did Ryden not care about his own life? His own words suggested that he did but his previous words contradicted them fully...

Was she looking too deeply into this? Perhaps she was...

Ryden showed signs of wisdom when given the chance so it wasn't as if he was stupid or ignorant to obvious danger. Perhaps his power was the key to his overconfidence? She hadn't really brought it up but during his game, Ryden had displayed powers beyond what the power of destruction possessed. She was aware of Ryden's dishonorable discharge from the Gremory family some five hundred years ago and had assumed it to be because of the pathetic ideal most nobles had nowadays. The concept that any devil that didn't inherit the family trait was for some reason an absolute failure.

If that was the case then she really wished to have seen lady Venelana's face when Ryden showed up at the doorstep, prancing on her noble pride with powers beyond her imagination and an Infernum armis strapped to his back

That would have been a sight to see... But she digressed

Whatever his reasons or motives, Rosalina knew she'd only get answers the longer she stayed at his side so that's what she planned to do

A mad blush sprouted onto her face suddenly upon that last thought before she tempered it down with a few soft but harsh pats to her cheeks

What the hell was she thinking?

Rosalina shook her head of the annoying thoughts and hardened her resolve

She only wanted to see the full extent of Ryden and the mystery that surrounded him

Yeah...

...That's all she wanted... at least that's what she thought...

---

For a few minutes Rosalina led the small team a few miles from their commandeered carriage. First they crossed a moderately sized gorge and then traversed over rough terrain in order to achieve enough elevation so they could get a perfect view of their target. As this was happening Ryden took in the sights of the capital city and where exactly it was based in.

He didn't know the full measurements but it looked two times the size of 2 New York City's mashed together to form a giant mega city. It sat in a perfectly rounded field besieged on its north, east, and west sides by wide mountain ranges that span for miles in their perspective directions. To its south was a massive spanning waste land of forestry with no mountains at all; According to his geographic study on hell, Lucifaad was in the top left side of the squared map, from that point he remembered where exactly allied lines were.

They were all the way near the bottom right side of the map, now having taken the capital city of Leviathia the anti-Satan forces were 'on the map' now but they had a long ways to go before they even came close to where Ryden and co. were... it just went to show him just how alone they truly were.

The slight shiver in his spine was ignored...

After the long hike they stopped on a cliff side perfectly overlooking a main gate on the eastern side of the capital – exactly where his team would be approaching from. Once they stopped Rosalina got down to business on her plan...

"We'll make our entrance into the capital from there" she said while pointing to the eastern gate "once inside, we'll use the cover of the carriage until we reach the stables at the second drop point here" as she said that her hand pointed to a stable area located further into the capital, about a couple hundred blocks from the large main castle within the city.

"What do we do about the gate inspection?" asked Ryden as he identified parallel lookout towers beside the main gate. Coincidentally a carriage convoy stopped before the gate and had two large searchlights – irrelevant for the conventional use – scan the convoy before releasing a small siren for the large double doors to open, the convoy easily pressed on in and the gates shut not a moment after.

Rosalina nodded at his question before resting her hand on Abigail's shoulder "simple... guards normally remain on watch for prolonged durations of time, Abigail will simply take them out once we reach the gate, the automated scanning system should open automatically and ping us in if enough time passes"

Ryden's brow furrowed at that "Pretty odd security system..." he commented idly

She simply shrugged "keeps the guards awake and alert, since no action hits Lucifaad most guards are pretty bored so it happens more times than you'd think so they installed the attention system in for their own torture then anything actually smart"

Nyx clicked his tongue "...wouldn't want to be caught sleeping on the job, I hear the punishment is death... you'd think this place to be more of a prison then a glorified monastery"

Abigail chuckled "I'm not complaining, the more idiocy they have the easier it is for us to get in... well... for you guys anyways, I'm already where I need to be"

"Just don't freeze on us..."

She smiled "I never freeze..."

Ryden mulled over the plan at hand before striking up a second question "that settles the getting in part, what's the plan on making sure were not made while we sneak around?"

Rosalina smirked before glancing to the crimson haired woman at her side. Abigail sighed deeply upon noticing her stare before stepping before him, slight frown adored on her brow.

"Hold out your left arm, palm up please" she ordered resolutely

Ryden seemed put off by her forcefulness but complied and held out his hand

She slightly huffed before taking it and running her finger down his forearm until she stopped at his palm and drew a small circle at the base of his palm, just below his thumb. Ryden was shocked as she did this when a faint trace of demonic energy – purple in color – followed her finger movements until a demonic sigil appeared on his hand. Its design was similar to every sigil except the interior emblem resembled a downward facing arrow head with what seemed like flames trailing down behind it

The Valac family crest... he'd never seen it before...

"Hey..." came Abigail's voice before her hand lightly smacked his cheek, his eyes shot up quickly to see a very serious Abigail glaring down at him "that's my trade secret, I spent centuries perfecting it so I don't want to see it on anybody else but the five of us present, got it?" she ordered with glowing red eyes. She was dead serious

Ryden nodded simply "yeah..." he said before humming "what does it do?"

She huffed again before she raised her own hand and demonstrated. With her middle fingers she formed a fist and pressed her fingers on the muscle area where the sigil was place and then she suddenly went invisible

!?

Ryden's eyes as well as Rivia's went wide in surprise at the display, moments later and Abigail was standing before a mildly startled Rivia; her hands simply gestured for her to do the same thing to which the silent woman followed his example and held hers out.

"This will allow you some options when traversing inside the capital, I designed it to remain undetected by energy scanners so abuse it as much as you want... it's got no limits other than the amount of demonic energy you have – pretty sure that won't be an issue – and it's also got a fun little bonus added to it; not only will you be able to see yourself, you'll also see others using it as well"

Ryden's eyes widened before he glanced down at the sigil along his left arm "Thanks..." he muttered with barely concealed awe

Suddenly the woman smiled brightly at him "you're welcome... just remember what I said about secrecy or else you'll find an arrow in your heart ok?"

Ryden very quickly regarded the woman with fear before nodding profusely while Rivia simply nodded – poised and professional courtesy.

Then Ryden noticed both Rosalina and Nyx hadn't received one and raised a brow at that "you two already got one?" he asked

Rosalina smiled at him before raising her hand – sigil sprang to life by the action "got mine a few hundred years ago, Abigail made me work for it but it was worth it" she said while the woman in question simply snickered at her... there was a story behind that, he knew it

Nyx yawned – raised his own hand like Rosalina – and casually replied "been friends for eons, got mine a long time ago" he said before a pebble smacked into his face roughly "OW! Damn it woman what now!?" he yelled

Abigail simply smirked at him with a dangerous energy on her eyes and lips "what was that about eons? I'll have you know I'm only 693 years old, Nyx Oriax... I am still very young so I'd appreciate it if you would refrain from associating me with your over exaggerations" she spoke dangerously

Nyx grumbled and rubbed his cheek "fine... sheesh"

"Anyway..." started Rosalina "we'll use this to move around the city without too much risk but I'd recommend you keep sudden movements to the bare minimum"

Abigail beamed up at that topic "exactly, too much motion disrupts the energy distribution around the whole body so unless you want to start shining like an angel then I'd advise you to move slowly... got that students?" she instructed, tone a perfect match for an over achieving teacher

Every hour he learned new quirks from the devil's at his side

Ryden reacted slightly at her tone and words but nodded anyway, Rivia followed easily along without uttering a word – soaking all information up like a literal sponge.

That was until she thought of something, a critical part of any covert op...

"What about communication? We can't use any sigil comm's while within due to possible detection; how will we be able to coordinate with each other?" questioned Rivia, her eyes staring at the distant city.

Ryden shook his head at that. "we won't, we'll establish a base of tasks and get them done accordingly... rendezvous point should be on you Lady Abaddon – your ability to cross massive distances easily should be our best route of extraction" he answered calmly, the others nodded along with him after having born witness to her capabilities.

Rivia nodded "then where will I be during the siege?"

Abigail piped "you should remain at the stable where the carriage will be stored, it'll make it easier for those inside to remember where to go if things go loud"

"And if it seems like you'll be overrun then the secondary point of interest should be there... see it?" added Nyx before pointing to a large tower located closer to the eastern gate "perfect landmark to see from within, if you're in need of falling back then go there and we'll be there once we're done" as he spoke Rivia noticed his point and nodded calmly.

Ryden glanced to Rosalina questioningly "by the way... what is your guys' job? So far, I'm aware we're just delivering a bomb and then high tailing it out but that kinda task should be easily done by just one man" he asked. It really should be an easy op for him if he was being perfectly honest, and now that he had a 'stealth upgrade' getting in should be even easier but now that Nyx and Rosalina were tagging along it only complicated it again.

What if one of them got captured once he triggered the bomb? Would he just leave them?

No... No he really wouldn't, but then he would be – very possibly – endangering himself to extreme heat and energy exposure the likes of which he didn't know the full extent of. Ryden hadn't exactly experienced what an energy shot to the chest or head felt like and he was not at all trying to see what kind of damage it could do to him. Regardless of his defensive abilities he wasn't brash enough to place his full faith into it, even though it had saved his ass more times then he would admit.

If it could? then great, but he wasn't willing to test one of the arguably many silver linings going for him... knowing his luck it might just be a temporary attribute

Rosalina nodded while Abigail actually sighed before pointing at Rivia in gesture "you know what she was not an hour ago?"

Ryden glanced to Rivia calmly and simply stared at her for a moment before it hit him and the look of revelation on him made both Rosalina and Abigail nod. Rivia was on a convoy carrying prisoners so it was highly possible that there was more within the city

Ryden knew that was important the second it was brought up

"I see... so you suspect there to be more prisoners within the city" he muttered while tapping his bottom lip in thought "and where would they be? I'm sure they wouldn't keep them all conveniently in the same spot"

Rosalina nodded at that but simply smirked knowingly at him which in the end gave Ryden pause

"No way... They do?" he asked with immense doubt, his eyes wide

Rivia hummed – a dark expression dotting her eyes "that's what they did at the camp in the Beleth territory. Crammed us in tight spaces and made us work slave labor, they even made us –"

Ryden suddenly set his hand on her shoulder the second he noticed her eyes glaze over and squeezed gently. The glazed look vanished and the woman seemed shocked of something before looking away from him... as if her previous action had dishonored her somehow.

A moment of silence passed awkwardly before Ryden tapped her shoulder gently and eyed Rosalina "where's this barracks?" he asked

She nodded quickly before turning and pointing to a decrepit building to his right, located just on the border of the two sections of the main cities districts, it had no activity inside and seemed to be almost heavily guarded – not enough to stop two eager ultimate-class devils but enough for some kind of finesse to make it work.

"Inside that building, I've studied troop movements two and fro and have narrowed down the location of the prisoners – even saw some guards discipline one before dumping her back inside" she revealed calmly

No one saw the clenched fist from Rivia Abaddon upon those words...

Ryden nodded "So that settles the Prisoner task but what about other security measures? If your gonna try and break free a large number of prisoners then I'd like some insurance, so if there's a possible 'alarm' or something inside you could disable before doing that, then that'd be great"

Rosalina mulled it over before nodding in agreement "small detour shouldn't hurt, we'll disable the what we can in the main barracks then high tail it to the prisoners barracks and pop the chains... we'll need to escort them to the stable however so we'll need someone to clear a path" she informed

"And I assume you'll need my support in clearing that path?" asked Abigail

"I'd assume so... given your specialty" hummed Rosalina casually

The Valac family devil smirked viciously "this should be fun..." she muttered darkly

Ryden nodded at the plan but suddenly got an even better idea, one that flowed perfectly with execution. If done right that is...

"you can forget about bringing them to the stables" he started before pointing at Rosalina and Nyx "once you get the prisoners make your way to the secondary rendezvous point and hold position, it should be quicker and less dangerous than moving across wide open terrain with a large contingent of bodies" he said before then pointed to Abigail "once they have the prisoners prepared to move, shoot one of your arrow's at me"

!?

Looks of surprise and shock developed on everyone's faces upon that request but before they could say anything Ryden placated them "a weak arrow, blunt point preferably and silent enough to not make a sound" he said casually before regarding them with a slight edge "you all saw me take Valeria's sword to the gut... what happened to it huh?" he asked – sniffling softly for no reason.

"...It shattered" replied Rosalina, eyes set in understanding – Nyx and Abigail followed quickly afterwards

Rivia's eyes widened at that, having not witnessed the feat. She wasn't expecting that kind of an answer at all. The gaze she redirected to Ryden – the arbiter – shifted into even larger hints of reverence that which was slightly noticed by Ryden on an off glance in her direction but he ignored it.

He smirked at Rosalina before pressing the issue with his eyes back on Abigail "exactly... since your stealth ability has the bonus of seeing others using it, you should be able to see me; I'll hunker down at the entrance to the main castle and wait, once it's time simply tap me on the back with a blunt arrow and I'll proceed with delivering the bomb. Once triggered, I'll hoof it to Rivia who will be at the primary Rendezvous point and we'll meet up with team 2 and extract, no one needs to wait for nothing, well except me anyways... that sound good?"

The others nodded shortly after thinking over his idea but then Nyx piped in with a question Ryden himself had been mulling over

"So what do we do if things go bad?"

"We'll prioritise the prisoners and open communication sigils at will; Rivia will be actively using her powers and will move to your guys' position as fast as she's able. Then you'll begin extracting as many prisoners as possible; once I'm done delivering the bomb I'll rendezvous with you guys and we'll extract from there... that work?" appealed Ryden

Nyx nodded while Rivia added in another question – one that Ryden had also been thinking of

"And if one of us is captured?"

Ryden sniffled again (damn pollen) and regarded the rather hopeless question with a casual and even arrogant disposition "the way I see it... we're five – ultimate-class – badass' surrounded on all sides by a large number of low-class assholes so you gotta ask yourself... are we locked in there with them? Or are they locked in there with us?" he said, ending his little speech with a set of rhetorical questions

He paused after a second before suddenly unsheathing his Infernum Armis "not to mention I got this puppy here, ol Fulgur is getting mighty dull right now so if you're captured... I'll show them some shock an' awe as punishment"

He knew a football captain before. The guy knew how to make a speech and Ryden wasn't about to let the man's lesson on amping up his team with words pass him by. He had a little bit of excess energy still coursing in his veins, so why not try and lighten the mood with good ol fashion testosterone?

To add to his words Ryden pat Rivia Abaddon on the head lightly before looking to Rosalina confidently, the others doing the same with smiles of their own

"Oorah?" he asked, using the most well known war cry in history of his time...

US marines baby!

The blonde haired Phenex prodigy breathed in deeply before releasing it in a long – nervous – sigh but then right after that her eyes lit with a confident aura that made Ryden's smirk grow into a fully fledged toothy grin

"Let's glass these Imps of the face of the underworld"

Oorah indeed...

---

For some reason or another, the quiet carriage ride to the eastern gate of Lucifaad felt kinda nostalgic to Ryden. It was an odd feeling to have right before undertaking the most daring, off the record, operation in Anti-Satan history but it was the most prominent feeling he had as it brought precious memories of him going to sports games back when he was a kid. The rides where rode in silence just like now. Ryden's dad was a sports fan – heavily so – and almost immediately once he could walk, dropped him on the ice at the age of two and taught him how to skate. From then on to the age of 19 Ryden basically lived and breathed the game. To him the rides to the arena always got him pumped; he'd be lying if he didn't miss it and now that he was once again riding in silence to an important event got his blood coursing with lightning and anticipation.

Who knew he'd be in hell – 1,500 years in the past – riding in silence to a military operation with three total strangers miles behind enemy lines? Life had a way of making him pause and that's what he was doing – pausing and taking in the moment.

The others were doing whatever they could to null their own nervousness, Nyx was up front driving the carriage – saying it was his job to make sure they passed the gate for their plan to even start; Ryden didn't question the devil when he made it clear it wasn't up for debate so he let the devil do whatever as it was clear he wanted to keep something of himself secret so Ryden did fight it.

Rosalina was casually sitting with her upper back pressed to the side of the cage which had been fixed back up before their departure. She was currently trying to be as low to the ground as possible – this was mainly because the cage floor was mostly uncomfortable for her to handle. Ryden could only agree to that notion, it was uncomfortable as not only was he doing it but Rivia was as well.

She however, was the odder one at the moment...

Rivia was handling her nervousness more – "exotically" – then he could possibly fathom but he had ignored it for the most part. The newest addition to the ragtag team of powerful devils had been through enough as it is and now she was even back in the cage that had nearly been her tomb not even an hour ago. Whatever was going through her mind must be hard for her to handle.

Or at least he thought... the small smirk of tranquility on her face spoke otherwise

It might have to do with the fact she was using him as a body pillow. Maybe... Call him prude but when a solid 50/10 woman holds you in a soft yet tight hug, could make anyone blush and he was no exception... not even by a mile.

But he tried to keep his cool and simply shut his eyes to think on other matters, ignoring the soft warmth the woman provided and definitely ignore the two large assets pressing into his chest and side

Due to this action he completely missing the jealous gaze from Rosalina Phenex herself...

He glanced down to the woman currently holding him tightly and thought on it for a second.

Not too long ago did he pull her from this very cage, battered and bruised and almost dead with wounds he couldn't believe someone would inflict on another. He was thankful the woman wasn't abused in that way during the long three months of captivity and he had no desire to know why upon that revelation so he dropped it the second it reared its ugly head. But now he was trying to understand the woman's mental stability.

He didn't at all desire the touch of another as you could guess to why that is but for some reason Rivia Abaddon was more 'cuddly' than Venelana herself – regardless of the physical abuse she suffered. Maybe it was a difference in character, he didn't really know but he admired the woman's strength of character nonetheless and found himself even liking the contact.

Guess he was starved for Physical affection...

He dropped the thought on the woman's status before pulling up another topic he hadn't dwelled into yet. Rivia and Rosalina spoke of this title 'The Arbiter' with great reverence. It became clear that regardless of the side, be it politics or ideals, legends or myths didn't change or become forgotten and it seemed his ability to wield an Infernum Armis was related to that title.

Arbiter; current definition: a person empowered to decide matters at issue; judge; umpire. A person who has the sole or absolute power of judging or determining anything.

A king, emperor, president – you name it. This title was basically the devils version of naming a successor to rule over the land. Ryden didn't know if he liked that title upon thinking about it – present love for halo notwithstanding – and simply disregarded it as a possible tradition left forgotten over the centuries. Maybe even preserved in small generations to keep its memory alive and considering the coloration with that title and the Infernum armis it might be one of the oldest traditions in hell so far.

Ryden silently hummed, he didn't know if it had any kind of impact with the society of today for devil's and severely hoped it didn't, last thing he'd want to do was cause a second civil after this one was finished – however long that would take.

While he thought on the matter Ryden became aware of the carriage coming to a small stop – probably at the eastern gateway. The stop lasted a couple of minutes with nothing but silence, it was a good sign; it meant Abigail had done her part with doing in the two guards up in the watch towers above them. Though Ryden couldn't help but feel slight nervousness grip him at such an eerie silence. His worries vanished after a moment more and soon enough they were moving again.

Ryden was perplexed by the security detail and its design, you wouldn't at all hear of this kind of issue sprouting up from the white house or something so it left Ryden questioning the intelligence of the gate manufacturer with how blatantly stupid it all was. He didn't dwell on it further, if it's easier to get in then he wouldn't complain.

He blinked away some of the slight fatigue of the ride, 20 miles was a bit of a hike and he wouldn't be lying that some of the day's events had his mind filled with too much awe presented before him, and besides, how many hours had it been since he woke up? 12? Maybe more?

Whatever the case, the long ride had been enough to cause his mind to become groggy so he had no choice but to shake his head violently and add a few 'soft' slaps to his cheeks in order to get his mind back into full functionality.

After he did that he glanced down to the softly sleeping female resting her head on his chest

He gave her a light Boop! On the nose and she immediately sat up calmly, blinked away her fatigue and instantly dropped her tranquil expression with stoic professionalism. He was stunned by this woman's actions and oddly remembered that damn bipolar most devils had. Not a second ago was she peacefully snuggling to his chest like an adorable puppy but then like a light switch she was back into her stoic expression again – one that he'd noticed was her resting expression, cold dismissal and un-interest dominated her gaze fully. He quietly stared at her for a moment before he shook his head in dismissal and glanced over to the second blonde in the cage with him – One that had somehow scooted closer sometime during the trip...

Was... what was happening?

Ryden became befuddled by the sight of the – normal prideful – blonde devil sleeping peacefully not even an inch away from him. From the beginning of the ride she was basically hugging the back portion of the cage with him being closer to the front but now she was practically touching his shoulder – having shimmied a good couple feet in order to get to where she was now. The road they followed went from simple dirt to perfectly paved roads by about the half way point. There wasn't any extreme bouncing that could cause any subtle movement so it was probably done by her specifically.

Flattering...

Honestly Ryden was at odds with what to assume Rosalina's true personality but he could guess his earlier assumption of Tsundere to be about as close as he could get in fully understanding her and if he knew what those were then he could guess that deep down the woman silently trying to vie his attention was more soft then he believed. And again, he was completely confused as to what could have garnered the woman's actions, the only thing glaring him in the face was his actions that had done that. The more primal nature of his natural attraction for Rosalina was probably his power as well, call him arrogant but Sirzechs had pinned the title ultimate-class on his records with clear approval and pride so he knew that if it came from him then yes... he was a powerful son of bitch.

And when it came to devil's, power attracts... very easily

Mmmmm...

The carriage stopped for the second and last time – they had made it in. He shook his head again of those thoughts and moved to wake the sleeping Phenex below him but tensed when her reaction was more violent than he anticipated, she shook slightly and her mouth quickly moved to yelp at his sudden touch – suggesting actual consciousness – but it only came out as a muffled moan then anything when his hand quickly gripped her mouth.

He leaned in close to whisper the message...

"Easy there... we're here, get ready" he whispered calmly causing her eyes to widen at his proximity – he was aware that it caused her to blush and decided to retreat back. He sighed softly when she relaxed and let go. he turned to the back of carriage and softly opened the back fabric to the side. From there he noticed a perfectly empty cargo bay – almost modern in design actually – but its classification was a stable oddly enough, he guessed the devil's evolved faster than humans, not really much of a surprise there considering the age difference so Ryden simply ignored it. The bay was vertical in length and had multiple parking slots that which were currently empty along the side – they being the only ones there currently. Directly ahead of them was a map of the city for military use along with maid and butler usage. Turns out Lucifaad wasn't actually civilian purposed – that role was mainly for the city Lilith – and mainly populated military personnel for the army of the Lucifer's descendants, that being Rizevim liven Lucifer and some unnamed toss pot running around just calling himself 'Lucifer'

He was an obvious fake and actually confirmed to be the formers son, so that completely neutralized the 'second coming' bullshit they like spewing at several octaves louder then acceptable.

Whatever the case they were most likely here. What was left of the cargo was simply shipping containers housing wine and other spirits and 'poisons' for partying – probably even prostitutes... poor bastards.

He nodded calmly when he noticed the coast was clear and then jumped out with a quiet grunt of effort. Rosalina followed close behind him while the others were outside and gathered near a collection of boxes at the rear of the cargo bay. As they moved to join them Rosalina blinking away actual fatigue in her eyes...

She really had been sleeping.

Ryden calmly watched guard on the right of the stable while Nyx had cleared the left before returning to Rivia who quietly studied the area before leaning against a tall selection of boxes against the wall in the middle of the room. Rosalina quietly stepped towards the group after making sure they had not been followed in.

All clear on all ends... good so far.

For the most part, they had made it into the city with no issue. Abigail had done her part perfectly and had taken down the watch tower guards with casual ease which then allowed them easy passage into the city/monastery. Ryden had been slightly unnerved by the sheer military presence but simply dropped it. The rough count of actually tangos in the area was roughly close to double of the assault force estimated at the Bael clan territories wastelands which meant for him a larger body count than anything else.

Once they regrouped at the center, Rosalina piped up...

"We all know our objectives, stick to your tasks and we'll get this done easy... no deviations" commanded Rosalina, her bearings having be readjusted

The three nodded before Ryden shot off into the direction he last remembered the castle to be in and Nyx and Rosalina did the same for their own objectives, there forms fading as the vanished into their own respective doorways... unseen by the guards outside

Rivia nodded in the direction of the two teams – her eyes staying in the direction Ryden disappeared to longer – before softly stepping into the shadows nearest the center of the room – in between to containers – and simply melted into the shadows like a ghost.

The operation kicks off now... all in, or all out

---

Ryden sidestepped pass a couple of guards that patrolled along the sidewalk of the street he'd chosen as his pathway towards the castle. He made no move to remove them out of the equation since the numbers in the city severely outclassed the technicality of it and would only increase the odds of them being spotted by a larger margin. The only bodies they needed dropped were courtesy of Abigail and that's what he wanted; only her having to kill for the majority of this op but if he had no choice then so be it.

As Ryden made time with small jolts in sprints down the street when no one was around he took in the city sights for land mass markers to remember his fall back plan and to get a grip on what he was currently walking in and what kind of terrain he was subject to. It was oddly gothic yet modern in design and almost resembled perfect medieval design to the letter. All around the castle was shanty houses lined with black stone brick and simple greyish metal roofing with streets matted in the same ore, most of it was high design but that was because they had managed to pass through the secondary checkpoint with the disguise of harboring precious cargo – something that had been discussed before departing. The first check point was pure military – barracks, kitchens, along with recreational buildings and even alters to Lucifer himself to prey too were even among the many buildings in the first checkpoint. Since the military arm of the Old-Satan's were mostly low-class sheep the higher ups didn't press to much budget on making sure their living quarters were perfect

Case in point, they had passed into the rich district, which housed all the officers, elders, commanders and even generals. The majority of the numbers were in the outer portion of the Lucifaad capital – the poor district.

It was good but bad at the same time. If they were made then the enemy would not disperse like a normal combat reaction but instead diverge on them like a tightening hand – clench them into their grip by overwhelming numbers. Not preferable and Abigail and himself were main individuals that would make sure that never happened if it did; Infernum Fulgur would help in that regard fully – having appreciated his little comment prior to departure the blade was amped up, no pun intended, to destroy as many devil's as it could.

His pace continued...

The cloaking effect Abigail had invented was pure awesome for Ryden, not only was he perfectly unseen but also unheard as well or to an extent at least – the only negative opinion he had at first was dashed the moment Abigail mentioned the ability to see himself perfectly and in this case he could very well do that; his vision was dominated in a bluish hue that seemed to highlight unidentified individuals red while making sure to keep himself and other users highlighted a ghostly blue – not to bright to look at nor to blurry to fully make out.

Some Ghost recon shit right there...

He pressed himself faintly against a brick wall in order to avoid getting in the way of a second set of conversing officers. Like expected – they moved by without any idea he was there or that they were this close to curtain death if they did. Ryden wanted to laugh – actually. Being perfectly stealth was a different kind of high and he was elated to know the little gift Abigail gave him was permanent, now all he needed was a shoulder mounted laser cannon and a wrist blade and he'd be the perfect hunter

He'd just need to practice throat clicking...

As Ryden made his way down the street, he quietly bleed off into a side street leading towards the curved road that led upwards towards the castle door but suddenly froze when he noticed a large contingent of guards standing by the main gate way up the road; almost looking like a VIP entrance checkpoint if he was to say

Figures he'd hit a small snag in his approach. Ryden silently crept to the side and melted into the shadows of the bush just for added security and studied the guard's patterns for any possible ways to sneak in. From the bottom of the road leading up to the main castle was a small contingent of about six guards standing by a motion detecting sigil that covered the whole gate and he knew he was in a full-fledged snag.

'Snag' was a word not used often in his book, issues he could deal with and minor annoyances were the same thing but snag meant his whole 'mojo' was stopped dead in its tracks and it always annoyed him when that happened.

He knew this was way too easy at first...

He mulled over his options for a moment until he heard a soft, silent, thunk on the rock wall at his rear. He paused and glanced over to see a small – jet black arrow – lodged into the rock wall that led up all the way to the to the top of the castle gates which would drop him directly into the gardens – completely avoiding the checkpoints along the way

Three seconds later and a whopping six more arrows shot from the night sky and impaled themselves in perfect climbing formation along the rock.

Abigail sure was considerate... and creative

Ryden made a 'thumbs up' motion in the general direction of where the arrows came from before starting to take advantage of Abigail's scenic route. The shot was insane to make but Abigail was apparently Robin Hood, Oliver Queen and Hawkeye all wrapped up in one accurate package

The distance from which she shot was a good 20 miles... 19x the distance of Chris Kyle's legendary sniper shot with perfect accuracy and arrow placement

Though she did have the aspect of the supernatural on her side so that might discount some of her ability but it's not like he'd doubt her though. Ryden reached the top section of the rock hill and vaulted over the cobblestone wall and perfectly landed within the central park area of Lucifaad castle.

His eyes swam with what he saw...

It was like a scene from a heavily plugged CGI film made in his previous year in order to perfectly represent fantasy level architecture and gardening. The walkway that dominated the gardens was perfectly squared off and symmetrical that which gave off a perfect shine that complemented the white moon in the sky. Water fountains spewed red liquid that seemed to glow among the mostly black varnishing and brush. The trees – that which were also cut into angular shapes – were black in color and seemed to give off a slight crimson shine from the light exhumed from the aforementioned fountain. Black seats – perfectly cleaned – sat around a small crimson fire that gave slight warmth to the ones sitting around it.

It took him some time but he identified a number of individuals mulling about the area – simply lounging around and conversing casually while maids and butlers – clothed in the traditional family colors of the Lucifer descendants; that being gold, silver and darker silver... simple yet so refined.

Quietly he made his way along the outskirts of the gardens, making sure to keep Abigail located at his rear to make her 'tap shot' easier. After a moment of searching he found himself sitting in an island of trees near the southeast point of the garden, a distance away from lounging officers and easily sighted by Abigail 20 miles out... or at least he hoped

What was he thinking, of course Abigail was gonna hit him... he idly noted he sounded a bit to energetic on that notion...

He sighed softly and simply doomed himself to witness a boring party display itself before him

The easiest objective was done, now it was Nyx and Rosalina's turn...

---

Abigail was like a perfect statue, she stood stiffly yet loosely, her back straight, shoulders squared and legs shoulder width apart upon a sharp peak on the cliff side where they had forged their plans prior the departure of the others. The breeze in the sky did little to distract her and the slight nips at her ankles from the few grass and weeds barely registered, her outfit completely neutralized outside senses on otherwise useless portions of her body, her gloved hands, metal gauntlets and metal shoes were the only senses she made sure to clarify, everything else was pure distraction so she did away with it

She was calmly staring at the city, calmly assessing the two teams and impossible distance. Her eyes were alit with deep red energy, eyes slitted like a dragons and varies magic circles rotated around her orbs rhythmically

Distance analysis and vision enhancement spells

She was a woman of many mysterious, so many she may even forget some of them and this was one of those many 'mysterious' that would remain as her top achievement and never be forgotten. With her distance and vision enhancement spells she could easily watch the details of distant prey from a couple miles away.

A distance so far that if she so much as chose to miss, no one would know where the shot came from... that is if you don't factor in that she could actually cancel a shot mid flight meant she was a literal ghost, a death dealer. If you were a target then you wouldn't even know it... and she never missed

This was her natural style of hunting: long range and silent and if need be... an artillery strike.

From where she stood an array of arrows, mostly red arrows, surrounded her position in a perfectly organized fashion. To her right were her favored 'heart seeking' arrows and to her left were her high explosive arrows, ones that shone blue but cackled with red whips of dangerous arc energy.

She loosened up when she finished assisting Ryden traverse a steep hill side lined with rock and now she was watching him make his way up into the garden area at the base of Lucifaad castle and hid inside a well viewable portion of the well detailed gardens – his back perfectly facing her.

How considerate of him...

She smirked softly before she glanced to her right and spotted two glowing blue blips make their way towards the main barracks. She noted the time and realised that it was exactly midnight on her wrist watch, meaning the majority of the old-Satan inquisitors would most likely be sleeping by now or were too drunk to be of any threat. On a side note though, she hated the Lucifer territory most out of them all due to its permanent state of darkness, sure it felt nice but it made terrible with keeping track of the time, at least in the other territories they had the sense to copy the human world by have a day/night cycle of some kind, even if the sky just shifts a different color was more appreciated then this.

Just a few of the minor things that bothered her...

She tapped her right temple gently, the rotating magic circles around her eyes sharpened which in the end sharpened her gaze so she could see further ahead – she even lightly tapped it again and twirled her finger gently and her eyes shifted to x-ray mode upon noticing Rosalina and Nyx infiltrate the main barracks without exterior issue. She simply picked up a number of armor piercing arrow's and held them in her hand calmly while she unclipped her full bow from her left hand gauntlet compartment.

The full bow was simple in make but much larger than the gauntlet secured mode she had used for CQC engagements. The limbs of the bow were elegantly curved and decaled with a simple red metallic casing that ran along the majority of the bow until it suddenly jutted forward and away from the portion where her bow string clips to – that part was black in color and pulled down towards the bottom limb. From there a red energy shot down from the top limb and connected to the bottom limb before solidifying into a thin string that made a small acoustic sound when fiddled with.

Draw weight: 450lbs

She rolled her shoulders and returned her gaze back onto the two dare devil's currently within the barracks of the most heavily guarded city... she was arguing that fact as the two made perfect headway with little issue. Most guards were bored senseless so because of that lack of energy, both Rosalina and Nyx made easy work of getting in and even disabling the security systems without detection and without dropping bodies.

That was until they stepped outside upon finishing...

It was an odd angle of the perspective that had made the inquisitor standing at the corner of a street – a few feet from the barracks' entrance – suddenly pause when Nyx stepped out along with a slightly hasty Rosalina Phenex behind him. Not of their fault honestly, they both moved at a controlled pace that hardly displaced the stealth function but the moon light radiating from the sky and beating down onto the blackened streets created a nasty glare from the wrong angle and that had to be one of the most unlikely of occurrences to happen.

Yet it happened right before her...

She swiftly notched the arrow and released it, the heart seeking arrows were designed to complete her ranged assassin style. Her range and vision enhancement spells on her eyes was modded with a 'marking' function; if she spotted someone and kept her eyes on it throughout the whole second it took for her to engrain the signature of the target on the arrow fired then it was over.

That played out for the billionth time before her once she released the arrow...

Before even a peep was made the arrow she fired crossed an impressive distance and imbedded itself in the heart of the marked target within 2.2 seconds of releasing her shot

It wasn't a high velocity arrow – an arrow that basically teleported with how fast it was – and left no velocity rings upon release but its job was always perfect.

She watched with slight amusement as both Nyx and Rosalina suddenly jump at the sight of a red arrow slam itself into the devil that almost made them, it was funny to see and never grew old to Abigail; before the body hit the floor Nyx caught it and quietly dragged the body into a corner – away from public attention – and merely tossed a thumbs up in her direction and continuing on towards the border of the first and second gate.

The prisoner barracks

Abigail subtly picked up a few arrows and prepared herself for her support role

---

Nyx breathed easy, as did Rosalina who followed silently behind him. They had almost been made by a lucky devil not a moment before and had it not been for the intervention Abigail then the operation would have been FUBAR within ten minutes of it starting. It was not at all desired by anyone on this team for this plan to fall through perfectly, however they did prepare for the worst they all still did not desire it to happen.

Plan B was always the last resort, not at all a choice but a reaction to the unforeseeable events that could factor in.

So far the first objective was completed, neither Nyx or Rosalina knew Ryden's status but it wasn't their job to worry – he after all had the easier job of the two teams, hell even Rivia had an easier job then they did so it was all on them. Thankfully the security measures implanted into the city were sub dermal in nature. That meant the 'lock down' procedure was to actually quarantine the city with a massive dome that would lock all inside and keep everything out, regardless of the power output.

Nyx had made short work of it, even if they were made then they'd have a good thirty minute window of time to get out before it was brought back up online... that is if they even noticed there was something wrong with it.

Nyx and Rosalina had been nervous upon that first task but thankfully the guards present were more interested in sleeping then working, which made their jobs obviously easier. So now they moved like ghosts through the streets of the city – towards the barracks close to the border. Rosalina had noticed the issue of why they had nearly been spotted and that was the few patches of light radiating from the polished black walls and metal roofing that had shown a light on them, which meant the slight air displacement that was produced by the active camouflage was much easily noticed by the common folk. Such a minor issue had nearly cost them due to the nature of a jumpy guard wired on lucirum – a powerful drink that heightened reaction time and sharpened visual abilities to such a degree it could count as a hallucination trip gone bad.

What fine luck they had

They ignored that and simply countered the issue by remaining in the shadows and only crossed through the streets when it was absolutely necessary. Soon enough – after moving for what felt like thirty minutes – the two devil's arrived at the prison barracks.

The building was a long dilapidated mess outfitted with dated metal sheets and limestone walls that grew mold and mildew like the plague. The roof looked almost caved with a few bits of rock being lodged in the centermost portion of the large dent in the roof but seemed like it was still good enough to last a few more hours before it collapsed – killing a good number of those inside – which probably wouldn't at all bother the few inquisitors guarding the barracks entrance ways. They probably wanted nothing more than to do away with them if it meant less work in a city that was literally a continent away from enemy lines.

Nyx and Rosalina could agree to that... if it meant an easier time for them then they would appreciate less guards on duty.

The barracks had three entrance ways into it and seemed more like a large – long – barn then anything close to an actual barracks, it was probably a barn outfitted with barrack material just to keep the energy displacement sigils active longer. Rock didn't conduct magic energy very well so metal was the best conduit for keeping those strong enough inside too weak to put up a fight.

Three entrances lined the barracks; the first was along the wide main entrance to their right, which faced the mountains to the east – directly where Abigail's support fire was coming from. The rear entrance was parallel with the first – facing west and a side entrance facing south. Rosalina and Nyx chose to use the side entrance due to the fact it was the closest to their position and furthest away from the two guards on the east and west entrances.

Six guards in total were counted by not only them but Abigail as well – who lined her vision on the two guards loitering around the front.

As they approached, Nyx took the guard on the left while Rosalina silently rushed the guard opposite to his.

They struck in sync, surgical and deadly

"?!" not a sound escaped the throats of the two shocked inquisitors, who stared at what seemed like lethal air displayed before them, a soft shimmer of energy later and they noticed the two ghosts glaring down at them faintly – as if a displacement in the air – before eternal blackness overtook their vision.

Two down...

Nyx eased the body down while Rosalina simply tossed the body of her kill into a ditch just behind them. The slight distant sound of troop movements and carriages did the job of muffling the sound of a body hitting rock well enough but it didn't lessen the disapproving glare he sent to the eager blonde. Rosalina merely waved off his worry and caution before she stepped into the barracks/barn.

Her nose crinkled and her skin crawled at the smell and sight before her. Low end living was the only thing she could use to describe the life style provided before her. Among the large number of bodies present about a good quarter were male while the rest were female; all that was provided as clothes were raggedy old rags and cloth that hardly provided efficient protection and barely covered anything, their beds were simple straw stacks that which were lined in blood, dirt, and multiple other traces of degusting excrements. The conditions on the slightly numerous devils were varying to her and random per gender.

Some had bruises, lining the face, neck and wrists – even going so far as bruising on the legs and stomach.

Others had numerous lashing marks on their backs...

And others were simply malnourished, looking more like clickers with a sentience then anything a devil should look like. Rosalina's heart started to beat faster when she identified the ages among them, a good number were above the age of 100 while others were hardly breaching passed their first century of life

!?

Her eyes seethed and her hands – clenched and shaking – ached with eager bloodlust as she watched the devil prisoners before her practically wonder around the room aimlessly, despair stricken victims.

She kept calm enough to not overcharge the camouflage keeping her hidden from all but the idea of getting another old-Satan sheep in her hands was the most intoxicating feeling to her at that moment. She knew rage very well, it wasn't for glory that she aligned with the Anti-Satan forces but for her own desire of freedom and cause... she was a refined woman that saw the old-Satan's actions towards its own people as deplorable and unforgivable and upon hearing of their most darkest of deeds, lit the spark of her ire instantly.

She had shown her might a few times before and she'll show it again... without mercy this time.

Nyx kept pace with Rosalina as she slowly stepped up to the guards at the rear entrance, he knew it was her first time actually seeing an internment camp, and her reaction was surprisingly more poised then his was. Back when he first jump head first into the Anti-Satan forces he had nearly tried rushing enemy lines like a madman upon seeing what they did to the ones they captured.

Total savages...

From then on he was always aware of the horror one sees when witnessing the despicable acts of the 'smarter' side of the devil race. Rizevim was an idiot, the amount of times he'd seen his dumbass presentations at the rallies in this very city he knew full well the guy would sooner jump head first into a meat grinder if his father Lucifer asked him to.

Seriously... he wasn't kidding, the guy was that dumb

Rosalina however was handling it much better than he expected...

That's what he thought until she got her hands around the guard at the rear entrance, her hand gripped the devil's mouth roughly – warping the faceplate with her strength – and literally ripped the devil's throat out with her bare hands.

!?

Nyx's eyes were wide open as he did in his own guard, his was swift and clean – blade to the soft area along the throat – but Rosalina made sure the kill was as brutal as possible. As time passed by the small muffled groans and gurgles became mute as her grip crushed the helmet down enough that it encased the devils skull within a metallic vice, muffling his voice painfully.

The severe lack of oxygen and immense pain, along with the rapid loss of blood made the last moments of the inquisitor's life a literal nightmare, the slight thrashing and wailing arms slowly milled down until they went lax – kill confirmed.

Rosalina merely dropped the body gracelessly and glanced over to a nervous Nyx who regarded her warily

His hands motioned to calm down and Rosalina merely nodded calmly before she took time to breath in and out in order to keep herself from doing something so foolish again. While her reaction was expected it was still however incredibly unprofessional to allow pure emotion to take over on something as high risk as this. She steadied her breathing and relaxed before nodding to Nyx and falling in behind him.

The last two guards were already assured dead; the shots just hadn't arrived yet. Nyx went left while Rosalina took right and simply raised their arms slowly at the flanks of the devils talking leisurely to each other

The three had practiced this style of stealth a few times before in mild conversation; giving Nyx a nod they both reached up and tapped the right shoulder of the guard, the two guards glanced over but suddenly went limp when two arrows slammed into the two in perfect sync. The bodies went limp immediately afterwards both Nyx and Rosalina grabbed their targets bodies as they fell and slung them over their shoulders and simply carried them back into the barracks and disposed of them.

By then the many conscious prisoners had noticed the sudden lack of guards in their area and grew surprised when two bodies of their former wardens suddenly fell down onto a stack of hay in the corner of the barn, their eyes widened further when two devil's suddenly appeared out of know where a few feet from the bodies

Both Nyx and Rosalina simply held their fingers over their mouths as they faced them

"Been silent... we're getting you guys out" they said simply

Their tone was commanding but to them it didn't matter...

Relief gripped their despair filled hearts

In a span of two minutes, both Nyx and Rosalina suddenly became miracles to a whopping number of 20 devils...

---

Abigail released a small breath as she stood at attention, eyes watching the barn for activity while at the same time making sure no other guards decide the prisoner's barracks was a decent destination to make. For the most part the coast was perfectly clear; as a matter of fact the section containing the prisoners was one of the most baron part of the city. It was understandable from a cities perspective and when most occupants were relaxing soldiers from the front lines, it was a given that most of them would be relaxing then actually working.

Her eyes focused further down and noticed Rosalina was suddenly jumped by a small devil; her form was skinny and lacked proper clothing which caused Abigail to sigh after believing her friend to be under attack. This was one of the minor setbacks of this plan – since the enemy lines were so far away, the idea of being saved was about as hopeless beyond anything describable, all the unjust acts done to them would most likely go unheard of, even forgotten and all the horrors they'd face alone – cut off from family and friends – would be heart retching for anyone.

They had just done something they had long since believed to be a fantasy born on a really bad day

The hugs and tears were simply uncontained emotion, expected and understood

Abigail let a gentle smirk sprout up on her lips at the scene before her, poor Rosalina didn't know what to do, what with all the hugs and even kisses she got from the large number of prisoners was almost laughable but thankfully Nyx was experienced enough on the matter and calmly informed them of their plan.

Five minutes was all it took for the prisoners to organize themselves, thankfully there were no bodies being escorted out and even some of the older devils – empowered by a moral high – actually carried the much younger and weaker devils upon their backs before falling in behind Nyx and Rosalina, determination and sheer force of will domineering their expressions

Abigail was impressed...

But soon enough Abigail grunted before notching an arrow – brittle in makeup but sleek enough to cover long distance – and reacquired Ryden sitting in the garden... having hardly moved since sitting.

A small smirk graced her lips at that before she released her arrow, the faint sound of nothingness over taking all ambient sound in the area

Subsonic bolt

"Bring the pain Lord Ryden... let's give these gutless cowards a reason to fear the Anti-Satan army..." was all she said, an eager and bloodthirsty grin dominating her expression.

---

When he felt the soft 'tick' upon his back via Abigail's signal arrow it felt as if a fire – raging and untamed – was finally released. His eyes opened sharply, faintly lighting up ferocious blue before they were suddenly over taken by a slight crimson afterglow

Fulgur was ready as well...

He stood up and made his way forward, the many lounging officers around the garden had actually begun falling asleep along with a few of the maids that chose to sit by them as 'pleasure escorts'.

He ignored them as he casually walked to the castles garden entrance way. Inside was a high ceilinged interior with multiple chandeliers running along the halls in every direction, the castle was to convoluted to venture forth without valuable Intel so he made do with what he had.

He closed his eyes and focused, after a moment a pulse of energy – unseen and unfelt – rushed out from Ryden's position as he trudged forward at leisure pace. The energy bounced off all the walls, the ceiling, the floors, the knights running along the sides of the walls from the uppermost floor to the deepest most dungeons. His mind's eye saw everything from maids to officers to guards and to even heavily armored knights that which were all in the one room at the top of the castle where he even felt someone else up there as well... someone strong.

He popped his ears and heard the world...

His eyes narrowed in focus, he'd done this many times in the Halphes territory and there he was limited, before he got sparse comments and small conversations until his mind couldn't take it, but now?... now he had no such hindrances.

Finding what he wanted was easy, all it took was a single thought – a command – and the meeting up on the top floor was broadcast to him clearly...

"My Lord Lucifer, we have learned of the failure in the Bael territory, lord lucifage's plan has failed..." spoke a distant voice; the tone was urgent but strongly poised in its execution

Ryden ascended up the stairs, walking past a couple of unsuspecting guards before a second voice – one more vulgar and arrogant – sprang up in reply

"Don't be so negative you idiot, my servants plan will work, he hasn't failed me before – unless you discount that failure in Halphes!" it wasn't a shock to Ryden that he heard the voice of Rizevim liven Lucifer, the distinct tone of vulgarity and pride was easy for him to remember. He'd seen some of the recorded speeches... they were really hard to listen to.

His senses led him to the upper most portion of the castle – at the highest point of the castle. to his right was a large window that took up the majority of the right wall, leaving nothing but glass that which overlooked the city in its entirety, from there he noticed two guards wearing royal armor. The majority of it was silver in color and lined in crimson and gold, their helmets crowned in a crimson tuff while the back of their armor had two angelic wings extending from their shoulder plates, the color being pure platinum.

A homage to a dead 'hero'...

A third voice sprang up as he approached the door to the meeting room, he could smell the faint scent of burning wood and the other faint smells of wine and booze, clearly a small meeting.

"What about lady Leviathan? Her forces have been in position for too long and she fears her location has been revealed, if any more time elapses then she might be running into a trap... what should I tell her?" spoke a much more urgent officer – hinting to a slightly less degree of experience.

He heard Rizevim snicker slightly before his voice grounded it out a faint growl "tell that hot piece of ass to hold position until the Ruina imperium is detonated, I will not tolerate anything else – fuck sake – to her to camp there the night if she has to!"

Ryden's nose crinkled at the colorful title given to this lady Leviathan and on an off chance even found himself wondering just what the general of the serpent looked like but ignored that. Rumors told of Rizevim's legendary vulgarity and profanity – even his perversion and lust was in there and if following that then the old looking coot might just 'do the deed' with anything that had a pair of legs on it.

Base on what he was hearing, he wondered if the devil had a few slaves in there...

He probably did, now that he thought on it...

Ryden sighed before he waved his hand to the right - a slight displacement in the air followed the action.

It was like a gust of wind, faint and unheard yet it carried a level of lethality only he knew. The guards standing by the door had their heads suddenly twisted in a complete circle before they tensed, then crumpled to the floor – however Ryden caught them with his grip and gently placed their deceased bodies at the sides of the door frame, soundlessly and perfectly motioned by his very hand movement

Ryden glanced down at his hand as he stood before the door, feeling nothing from what he'd just done other then awe at the ease it took to kill to men

The weight of his enemy's lives... weighed in the simplistic motion of a gesture...

He smirked down at his hand before flexing it and then dropping it down to his waist, the ones inside had been talking about troop movements to the fight in the south – Ryden wondered if it involved the Andrealphus family territory. He couldn't say he fully remembered but it was one of a the few points they made while he dealt with the guards outside

Then they mentioned the idea of possible flanking routes, supply lines and slavery targets

It was morbid beyond what Ryden could digest. The old-Satan's VIP target list, the one he'd found in the carriage, was actually a list of VIP targets the old-Satan's wanted to break and use for demoralization of the Anti-Satan forces, why it mainly centered on female devils was obvious to him and the reminder of Rivia's transport meant she might have become one of the first 'hero's of the Anti-Satan forces' beaten, broken, abused and battered and then broadcasted on live devil television to show his sides forces the image of a beaten hero.

All heroes after all, garner moral and hope... toppling or destroying that image is a valid motive but not the most morally acceptable, but it sounded like Rizevim didn't care at all about morals.

That would make it easier on Ryden when he shoves his sword up his ass...

The Old-Satan's were like Mexican sicario's... dirty methods throughout

He'd heard enough...

Ryden casually stretched – popping every joint and muscle group – before rolling his shoulders and gripped the sword on his back but held it where it was. He reached up with his other hand and rapt his knuckles on the large double door

*tap* *tap*

There was a sudden round of silence on the other side of the door before he heard a voice call out with barely contained annoyance; he even heard the sound of a few heavily armored boots start shuffling around the room.

He smirked at an idea...

"Who is it this time?" Rizevim himself called out

His smirked shot up into a vicious and feral grin before he raised his right leg and yelled out at the top of his lungs...

"FBI OPEN UP!"

His leg then slammed into the large door, his powers amplifying the strength behind the kick to create a massive explosion of force...

*BOOOM!*

In the heat of the explosion multiple events occurred. Ryden sped into the room and identified the first target or targets – wearing form fit black under armor with large plate metal covering the majority of their bodies and screamed 'luxurious' and edgy by the gothic and gaudy design of black and silver along with the odd white glow upon their chest plates and pauldrons.

But what grab his attention was the skull like embroidery on the helmets worn by the quickly moving knights within the room.

On the other hand, the small team of death troopers converged into a defensive perimeter around Rizevim who at the same time made a B-line for the back door – all sense and purposes basically dropped the moment he witnessed the large sigil proofed door layered with multiple defensive barriers and sound proofing suddenly explode from a simply kick from a devil wielding a glowing red sword that spat large bolts of Arc Energy all over the place.

It was like a storm had just erupted in the room...

As Ryden entered he unsheathed his blade into a downward released swing and hurled a large blast of arc energy that actually vaporized two highly ranking death knights standing guard over Rizevim as he retreated, it then carved a large crevice in the marble floor and wall and then stopped in the other room. After his swing the red bolts that danced around him shot him into the danger zone of a death knight within the span of .03 seconds.

His sword was cleaving down again once the knight was in range. It felt no resistance – the extremely thick and highly tempered metal plating matter little to the unleashed rage and fury of a crystallized blade of calamity. Ryden moved the second the knight was bisected, the body crumpling in two parts gracelessly while Ryden chomped the head from the second knight standing just behind the first devil.

His follow up swing used the momentum of the first and carried it into a seemingly pointless acrobatic cartwheel that slice down the devils chest and stomach. The armor and skin parted to release the bloody guts within but the knight was dead before he followed his guts to the floor – the amperage of the Arc energy having literally shut everything down.

"Protect the Lord at all cost, he does not make it passed us!" yelled out the officer within the room, this one had red cloth dangling down the groin and hindquarters – trademark signs of extreme loyalty and experience.

The rest of the room was suddenly silent once the remaining five knights held their position – backs facing the room Rizevim had vanished into.

Ryden slightly sneered... devil moved quickly; he barely even saw the slimy old coot

Ryden swiped his blade to the side, his third kill had fallen to his knees before he joined the other two face down on the ground behind him, he sniffled slightly before he stared at the other knights calmly who stared back at him with deep fury.

Ryden sighed, noticing the jig would be up in a few minutes once Rizevim made it to someone capable of doing something so upon that thought he reached up to his ear and opened demonic comm's with Rivia.

"Rendezvous with the second team Rivia..." he commanded

There was a pause on the other end before the serious and slightly deep voice of Rivia Abaddon replied

"Understood... is everything alright?" there was clear worry in her tone, Ryden noted with a small smirk

"hmm? Oh! Everything's fine... I'm just gonna be a little late, I'll see you soon..." he cut the link the moment after

One of the more brazen knights of the order of Death sneered at him, obviously finding his lax words to be overconfidence and stepped forward with overconfidence of his own

"Pah! Such arrogance, here you stand against five of us and you think yourself the victor?" he went off – mildly causing an immense cringe to crawl up Ryden's spine. "We'll flail your skin from your wretched bod—"

*Bvvvv!* *SQUECH!*

A violent crimson bolt of arc energy met the skull of the devil instantly, the volts within being strong enough to turn the devils head into a literal fountain of blood and gore when it subsequently exploded upon contact – staining the room and the knights beside him with brain matter and anything else available.

The knights glanced from the dead knight at their feet before glaring at Ryden who regarded them with a set of blinking eyes, genuine surprise dotting his face

"What?" he asked genuinely "that wasn't me..." he pointed to the glowing sword in his hand "That was her"

They glanced down at the sword which seemed to glow brighter upon them looking at it – Fulgur expressing its distaste.

Ryden smirked when he noticed them suddenly tense after a minute of staring at his sword. The sudden and subtle shaking in their forms was a clear sign of their realization that they had been attacked by the last thing in hell that could actually bring fear to their hearts...

An Infernum Armis of all things...

"Now then..." he mouthed, twirling the sword slowly before dropping into a two handed sword stance, blade held to his right side – tip up.

"...Who's next?"

None made the first move...

---

Rivia took a deep breath before exhaling and locking her eyes on the three guards located in the room with her. She had been watching them inspect the carriage they'd used to gain entry into the city with extreme attention – making sure they didn't become suspicious of its actual use. None of them had been paying attention to the pair of glowing white eyes at their flank – eyes that watched their every move. While at first she was fine with sharing the room with the three guards, seeing as how her presents wasn't even noticed since they entered, she did become more desiring of ridding them once she received a message from the Arbiter.

One that meant only one thing...

"Rendezvous with the second team lady Abaddon..." he said, voice eerily calm

Her heart nearly sank at that. Did he get captured or did he get cornered? She had a hard time believing it was possible, Rivia hadn't seen the devil's power nor had she witnessed his preferred style of fighting but from what she'd picked up, Lord Ryden Vale Gremory was in fact very strong – point proven further upon noticing his possession of an Infernum Armis.

So why was he ordering her to follow the backup plan?

Whatever the cause she was sworn to him, his words were orders and his triumphs were examples of the highest of deeds imaginable. This was the ideal passed down to her; the role of a Guardian was in the shadows of the Arbiter

Ryden was the Arbiter... failure to adhere to his orders was unforgivable...

She nodded to herself resolutely but worry seeped into her tone

"Understood..." she said calmly before she unknowingly pressed a personal question "...is everything alright?" her cheeks singed with a small blush at the mistake

The Arbiter however seemed to not care and almost sounded surprised by her question "Hmm? Oh! Everything's fine... I'm just, gonna be a little late, I'll see you soon Rivia..." he replied lightly before the link was cut

Rivia's body remained motionless after that, her cheeks practically glowing with a fierce blush while her eyes stared wide eyed at the floor below her – shaking with concealed emotion

He... he really was... kind...

Rivia suddenly stiffened when she remembered the duty bestowed on her by the arbiter and suddenly step out of the shadows, her eyes set into a level of seriousness that somehow warned the guards in the room of her presence by the seemingly odd decline in temperature.

Their eyes suddenly turned to see a gorgeous woman standing on the landing platform in the center of the cargo bay, her eyes staring at them with such a degree of ferocity that it caused them prolonged pause.

She sneered at the insects blocking her before raising her hand, A white magic circle sprouted in her hand taking the image of the sigil of Abaddon – a circle containing a upside down pentagram and a wailing skull directly in the center. Various ancient letters were inscribed in the five points of the pentagram while the white light released from the sigil blinded all in the room, a loud wailing hiss soon followed before the power was released.

It was like a Railgun – fired three consecutive times in perfect sync – and the effect it had on the devils before her was absolute. The air displaced and twisted viciously, leaving behind a visible vapor trail that led from the sigil to what was once the heads of the devils that stood before her.

The three crumpled to the floor before the heavenly woman, the gaze that which was the last they saw was one of indifference and utter disgust hidden within a set of stoic and condescending eyes.

The Power of Annihilation... Abaddon's true power

Rivia barely stood still for a moment before she turned and walked into a black hole that which vanished immediately after she stepped in

Everything that she was was trained to fight alongside the arbiter...

Nothing would be held back now...

---

Ryden sighed faintly, watching as the last of the death Knight's fall to the ground from a final decisive diagonal slash. The majority of the last couple of minutes was mostly him dancing around what he assumed to be elite knights of the Lucifage family house by using every known scientific attribute demonic lightning had to offer. So far he got extreme speed, reaction time an automated defensive system and even long range blasts that moved so fast that it was basically a remote detonation beam that just said 'die!' in a really deep voice

The knights he fought were good and had coordinated positions and strategies that really complemented their partner's choice of weaponry perfectly.

Ryden liked Infernum Fulgur, he liked the design, the element, the fact it basically made sheet metal out of every sword held in his enemy's hands but the sheer overkill it brought was both a blessing and a curse. No weapon could compete, not one – not even Sirzechs would test his own sword against the bloody thing – so in the end it was as Serafall had said...

Being powerful – was truly – a curse...

He wanted to remedy that, as much as he loved the sword, it was still too OP for him to grow on. He couldn't help but feel dissatisfied with every fight with it because of that very fact. He learned nothing in fights other then the fact he had better 'loot' then his opponent, not skill. The Death knights moved like liquid and struck like hammers with the precision of a surgeon while all he did was move super fast and swing his sword with moderate skill.

It was like Brinyalf all over again, he let his defenses get to his head and because of that he was easily defeated by a person that actually met his match and then some. If Ryden wanted to grow to the highest of peaks then he'd need to grind, not surf his way to the top...

You always fall when you surf...

Fulgur was all for this – actually – and even desired him to find an opponent worthy to test him but Ryden doubted that. The religious icon for the Old-Satan army wasn't even able to release one of the Infernum armis' during his reign so what was the chance of someone doing it now? Whatever the case, Ryden knew the blade would still see immense amounts of action and bath in gallons of blood. Sure, he wanted to grow to his own heights in skill and obtain power the hard way – the respectable way – but to dismiss the power of the sword in his hands was just stupid.

If he was in the front lines facing an impenetrable fortress then heck yeah he'd bust it out and use it, but that was a tactical usage and much better suited for a blood thirsty blade such as Fulgur... the body count... would be immense...

He really wanted his Swordspear back though... fighting a small number of enemy forces was boring if there was nothing to learn from it. He'd have to wait for that treasure hunt and spider extermination before he could get his hands on some of that sweet, sweet dragonite...

Ryden visibly moaned at the idea before he reached down and yanked a bit of red fabric from the dead Death knight officer (try saying that 2x fast) and used it to clean the crimson blade in his hands. While he did this he suddenly jumped when a noise caught his attention.

"what the... Fuuck?" he questioned as his eyes locked onto a flat disk shaped item sitting on the table, directly where Rizevim had just been sitting at. It was like a series of beeps and hums – like a default ring tone – constantly filling the room with an annoying rhythmic tune. Ryden casually approached – being mindful of the bodies at his feet – before he pushed aside the bit of curtain that fell on the table and picked up the contraption.

His eyes narrowed briefly before he remembered what he was holding

"Devil's got mobile... who knew?" he joked with a small laugh

Ryden set down the flat long distance communicator on the table and tapped the top and pushed a tiny ounce of demonic energy into it, soon after the screen lit up briefly before someone he'd been looking for appeared on the screen...

A fierce grin stretched across his lips...

"My lord, I have finished preparations in the Halphes territory, we will—"

His smirk grew feral and his eyes briefly flashed red as he looked down at none other than lady lucifage

His smirk grew mischievous when her crimson eyes – exposed perfectly – widened upon seeing him, she was wearing an eccentric but formal dress that covered the majority of everything, same as always, and even had a set of small pauldrons on her shoulders – oddly new in addition since the last time she wore nothing there, just bare shoulder.

His eyes remained however on hers, the image the hologram displayed before him made the woman seem so small – so fragile... so weak... he found himself enjoying that a little too much.

He smirked down at her as she watched him plop down on to the chair previously used by Rizevim and set his feet disrespectfully up onto the table.

"Hiiii" he drawled out in greeting

The woman's eyes set into the fiercest sneer he'd ever bore witness to and remained silent... it amused him immensely.

He chuckled faintly before he looked down on her "How often was it that this role was the other way around?" he asked

Silence...

"how often did you receive my most vicious of threats? My most sincere of promises?" he pressed on, uncaring to her silent treatment and the clenching of her hands upon her arms.

He leaned back, having been closing the distance between him and the woman of his hatred; he sighed and glanced up at the ceiling

"I've lost count..." he commented before a bitter laugh escaped him "but now...now it would seem the tables have turned" he added before smirking down at the woman.

"Where. Is. he..." came her only reply, a demand – rife with pure rage

"Who?" he asked before looking around

A vein nearly popped on her forehead at his faked confusion

His eyes glanced causally to the door behind him, the one Rizevim escaped through

"...Pussed out like a bitch! Ran the second I came through the door" he replied with a mocking smile "mighty brave leader you have, to run the second danger presents itself... hehehehe, I think he shit himself actually, smells weird in here..." he added with a humors tone

The woman sneered harder – if that was even possible

"he has little need to waste his time dealing with you" she growled

Ryden laughed at her before countering smoothly "and I have little need to chase his fat ass down the street... I'm not here for him"

The woman actually raised a brow at his comment, obviously wanting an explanation

Ryden readjusted his position in his seat before he tapped his finger against the table rhythmically "apparently from what I overheard from Rizevim a moment ago, your brother forged a plan to wipe out the Bael clan territory, sounds familiar right? I mean... you were there" he said, eyes glancing down at the image of Lady lucifage with mirth.

She nodded but said nothing as usual

"Well I just happened to be there as well" he revealed before shifting his gaze into a slight frown "you really should have check in with me – seen how I was doing; you might have even liked what you would have seen, or ran the second you saw what I had obtained..."

Upon his words the lady of the Lucifage house raised another brow. In return to that action Ryden merely rose Infernum Fulgur to eye level and casually examined the blade while upon response of its reveal Fulgur allowed a slow show of power by summoning multiple arcs energy all along the blade and handle, even adding in a few grazes to Ryden's hand and chest as sign of its affection.

The reaction was something Ryden dearly wished to capture and frame, his eyes swam with sadistic glee upon witnessing it as he placed Fulgur onto the table for a simple reminder to the woman before him.

Her eyes widened and her hands loosened their grip along her arms that which were crossed underneath her bosom and her mouth parted slightly to reveal her pearly white teeth.

His glee grew on with the words spoken by his enemy.

"You... I have severely underestimated you..." she mouthed quietly

Ryden sighed deeply and loudly "it took you long enough... six months of your best and you still thought I was nothing" he shook his head roughly "sheesh! What does it take to please you? – eer, if I have to do that to please you then I'll have to decline... You're not my type" he jabbed

The woman's sneer returned "Vulgar cretin..."

Ryden merely laughed at her dejected retort before he sighed again "anyway, back onto that story... you assisted your brother in defeating Rosalina Phenex so you could use her as a conduit for the Ruina imperium... says a lot about that brother of yours" he jabbed, she sneered in return "well here's the thing lucifage..." he started

He reached into his pocket dimension and summoned the golden orb that used to be the Ruina imperium – it being something else entirely – and set it gently on the table "we disabled your plan, freed Rosalina and killed the three devils you sent as security, but do you wanna know the real kicker?"

He didn't wait; he knew she would be silent

"I reopened the sigil leading to Lucifaad made by your very own... kid brother" he revealed before he gestured proudly with wide arms "he's the reason I'm here, sitting in your master's office, killing your knights" as a sign of added gesture he picked up a discarded helmet wore by the Death knights "but that doesn't really answer my full reasoning on being here does it?"

He stood up and walked over to a fireplace just behind him "how do you take down a dictator? A tyrant? A god?" he asked rhetorically, lady lucifage merely listened. Ryden smiled darkly after a moment's pause "you don't kill them outright, that's just feeding the hydra's regeneration – were there is a greater evil there is always a lesser few scurrying around for the scrapes, vying for attention and masquerading as friend and ally, once you cut one head off, two more take its place"

Ryden turned and sat back down after admiring the purple flames inside the fireplace – rather odd color of flames if he had to add.

"In order to permanently remove any of those previously mentioned, you must destroy what makes them tick, what makes their ideals seem so real; destroy their money, their wealth; destroy their homes and destroy the belief created by glorified stories... kick out the foundations and drag the one on top down to the streets, humiliate them... then you can kill them" he explained, his eyes remained locked – with great ferocity – on a equally glaring devil "my aim is simple... for the price of your bondage towards the innocent under my gaze, I won't just take Lucifaad from you... I'll remove it, permanently"

His words were final and resolute and their meaning hit home for Lady Lucifage whose eyes widened considerably when the man's fist slammed down onto the orb, cracking the class sheen protecting the energy within

Fire – white and gold flames – over took the room but didn't over take him or the image of Lady lucifage for he didn't allow his words to end there

He had one final promise to make her...

He relocked his gaze onto her, his once blue eyes shown with the most clearest of crimson, arcs of lethal demonic lightning arced from his eyes in random directions "One city of history falls and another will follow as well... I promise you this, before this war is over – you will know my despair and the pain of the ones you had killed..."

His eyes flashed bright, brighter than before

And her bones shivered for the first time in ages upon the words next spoken...

"I'm coming for you... GrayfiaLucifage"

The last thing Ryden saw before the connection was destroy was the shell shocked expression on one Grayfia lucifage... having never uttered that name to know one for the past one thousand years

He smiled one last time before he quickly scooped up Fulgur and sheathed it and made a B-line for the large window in front of him. By then the fire had nearly consumed the entire room, only once did he leave and jump through the glass did the reaction he was looking for happen

*BOOM!*

What remained of the top floor of the Lucifaad castle was now a shredded and gutted husk but that wasn't the orbs doing

Ryden feel a good 100ft before slamming into the ground of the gardens, fissures and cracks sprouting from the impact but Ryden didn't pause to admire his handy work, instead he gunned it for the rock wall and jumped off their as well and landed into a sprint and continued his pace directly towards the secondary rendezvous point

"Ryden! Where the hell are you!" yelled the voice of Nyx

Ryden's sprint slowed as he pressed his finger to his ear "I'm on my way! I should be there in a second!" he yelled back

"Hurry up, Abigail's picking up a massive level of demonic energy a couple hundred feet behind you" he paused momentarily "She says it's going beyond the realms of a Ruina imperium, we gotta leave now!"

upon those words Ryden jumped to the side to avoid a massive spire of flames that sprouted up from the ground "Fuck! Yelling will not increase my speed!" he shot back

"yeah well it should... hey what the hell are you doing Rivia!? Get back here ! hey what the – oof!" Ryden grew suddenly confused by the exchange of words on the other end but that distraction made for a deadly mistake

*CRASH!*

Whether it was bad luck or simply stupidity it didn't matter to Ryden who found himself in a barracks full of Old-Satan extremists who were in the middle of rushing out the door at the sudden commotion from outside however upon seeing him they quickly changed their rush towards him, easily identifying the Gremory sigil on his red attire

"Oh crap..." he muttered

However before they even made it two one hundred meters from him a black portal opened in front of him before vanishing, leaving the form of Rivia Abaddon standing in front of him protectively

"You will not touch him..." was all she said before she summon a white – large – magic crest into her outstretched hand

His eyes blinked once at the difference in color but they blinked rapidly when she unloaded a massive pulse wave towards the large group of twenty devils, then like an eraser then large platoon simply vanished – poof – turned to dust upon the wave passing over them

What?

His mind was rocked back to reality when a few more spires of lava and fire exploded from the ground just a few meters from him. Ryden went to stand but a pair of arms interrupted his action and soon enough he was held bridal style in Rivia Abaddon's hands, the woman softly smirking and blushing at him admits the chaos around them

He blinked

She stared

"Uh... Rivia... we need to go... N-now" he urged awkwardly

She stared down at him for a moment longer until it then dawned on her and she merely hummed in annoyance "oh... Right..." was all she said

Then darkness overtook them...

And the last thing he saw was a world of fire over take Lucifaad

---

It was always an odd experience to travel through Rivia Abaddon's portals for Ryden, one moment he was standing in an erupting city surrounded on all sides by chaos and horror unlike anything he could imagine but then the next second was standing in the large pond area before a large group of civilian prisoners, the three other devil's he considered friends and a large blue dragon standing behind them...

Life was sure odd for one Ryden vale Gremory but he found himself uncaring to that particular subject

What he was preoccupied with at the moment was the look of actual humor on a dragon, a dragon that stared at the position he and Rivia was currently in. He knew he was tall by human standards but there was something in the devil's food or natural growth rates because he went from being the tallest to the shortest by at least a couple inches then add the embarrassing bridal carry he was in by a brightly smirking Rivia Abaddon and his confidence in himself nearly plummeted to the core of the earth

He glanced up at the woman holding him "C-can... C-can you put me down?" he asked

Not a hair moved upon the reply he got from a frozen Rivia Abaddon "No..." she all but said in a resolute tone, clearly enjoying the proximity

That was it and he knew it was final...

He suddenly pouted – instinctual by the sheer hopelessness before him, Rivia looked way to happy to care

A loud roaring laughter erupted before him and he glanced over to see Tiamat laughing her ass off in dragon form. His mind blanked at the sight of the large dragon – roughly the size of a B52 bomber plane – wheeze and grip its underbelly roughly at the sight of him in a bridal carry. It was really hard to imagine that this was actually a real life scenario he was in. A laughing dragon finding humor at his expense really brought clarity to his life...

And upon that clarity did he notice the 20 escape prisoners staring off into the distance – a distance in the same direction of a rising orange light.

The others noticed this, as did Rivia, who stepped forward towards a small parting in the trees to look at a perfect distant view of Lucifaad, the large city in the distance suddenly swelled up from the ground and then sank into the earth below, destroying everything within the city and obviously crushing everything within with high quality metal and rock.

Ryden was finding the idea of having just been down there a second ago to be mind boggling while a few disappointed gazes from the others suggested the reaction was bit lack luster

Until Tiamat spoke up

"Be aware devils... this may get a little bit hot" warned Tiamat who quickly tapped her front claw onto a rock just to her right, the same dome of energy used before suddenly sprouted up again... and just in the nick of time as well.

The ground beneath Lucifaad pulsed visibly, a massive ball of orange light suddenly jumped from the earth below the center of the city and then dropping until it was a hundred meters above the city, it was visible to all on the plateau of Tiamat's territory that the large orb of energy was going critical and noticed by the slight red arcs of energy pulsing from the orb, it grew more violent as the seconds went on until the orb started to vibrate and then shoot down into the earth below it

then the sky was lit in an orange light...

a light that covered the majority of the underworld...

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!*

The cry of the explosion was deafening and the aftershock was felt through the earth below them, a heat wave so thick kicked off and bashed into the dome Tiamat created violently but those within were merely too shocked at the massive fire ball before them to feel it.

Ryden heard of the Tsar bomba – the worlds largest bomb – the bomb created by the soviets and the effect it had on the world and the earth around it...

But this...

...This was much larger

Fire rose from the ground in a massive spire, velocity rings – high up in the sky – coiled around the rising heat loosely before dispersing before another to sprout up in its place

Lucifaad was the Ideal example of 'firsts'. From this point in history – the modified Ruina Imperium detonated within the castle itself produced the first sun ever in the territory of Lucifer's capital city, the crown jewel of hell itself

And now it was nothing but a smoldering crater...

Ryden sniffled before chuckling, the others soon noticed this and glanced over

"what the hell are you laughing about?" asked Nyx

Abigail hummed "hmm... I think he broke mid jump" she commented

"No... Ryden wouldn't break from that" Rosalina defended firmly

Ryden finished laughing to himself and looked the others in the eye, a wide smile adoring his face

"So... you guys wanna do that again?"

.

.

.

"Ryden?"

"yeah Nyx?"

"shut up... Just, shut up"

---

A/N: This chapter was WAAAAAAY longer than I anticipated but was it worth it? hell yes, throughout the week I've been receiving incredible reviews and so much positive feedback on this story it's honestly overwhelming to me

Overwhelming You may ask?

I say that mainly because this story has been in planning for 2 YEARS! Maybe less but it's been rolling around in me noggin since 2015 and throughout those years its evolved more and narrowed down into a more 'story' driven narrative then what I usually see on this site and what I had previously plan.

Not bashing anyone or any of those writers – their passion is their own and I feel no need to hate on them – but canon is severely overused and filled with edgy stories of this 'betrayal' Shtick I see running around and 'gamer' stories that to me are just massive power trips.

I'm making myself a hypocrite actually... I'm interested in the 'gamer' trope from a writing perspective but the other one bothers me for some reason.

Anyways, I'm deeply grateful that this story has sparked a hit and hasn't been bashed into the earth along with my will to live (just kidding) and I do also apologize for my grammar mistakes – though some say it's easy to overlook – I still wish to make the best damn chapter I can make, no matter how long it takes *eyes this chapter with fierce glare*

Anyways – again – now I'll start filling in some questions and maybe shed some light on a few issues that may sprout up within your minds...

First and foremost, that being how five devil's managed to take down a juggernaut of a city like Lucifaad on their own, and make it look freaking easy as well!

That's easy... imagine you're in a city and are currently at war with a country hundreds of miles over seas and your just lounging about in some military base in Nevada and some – unseen – highly trained and arguably overpowered devil's sneak into the base with active camouflage... you wouldn't even notice, and if you did then a sniper 30 miles out with a practical aimbot will simply take you out with the quietest long range weapon in history – a bow. yeaah, chances are they'll get in, get what they want, kill whoever they want – and leave without anyone noticing because no one's been warned of it, hell even the officers are Dicking around...

Next topic

While at first I wanted to keep a few things about side characters a secret I just wanted to point out the 'teams' new addition

Rivia Abaddon, chances are your probably wondering where the hell that second power came from and I have just one answer, easy and kinda agreeable... because I hate the power of hole

The DxD devil family power is confusing as shit... I looked up the demon Bael and noticed on the demonology page that he has no mention of being a destroyer, that's actually Abaddon's shtick, Bael has the power of making people invisible and to grant people wisdom... and he's OP in October

Sooo... yeah, I gave the power of annihilation to Rivia because I wanted to... there's more on that next chapter and also on her current mental state (for those wondering why she seems so poised after what she's seen) and her character design is based off of Cassandra Aoi from the anime freezing. Now upon that subject we have... 'the arbiter' as per mentioned by her multiple times

SIKE!

Stay tuned for what that actually is and I can't guarantee it's gonna be fully revealed next chapter either, that title is very important for the entirety of the civil war seasons so stay tuned

And yes... seasons. I've made categories of the multiple 'seasons' rather than 'arcs' because when a season ends you can expect a massive time skip in between them so I can close the gap towards canon. Not too massive but enough to feel like time has moved on and I'd expect a bit of a 'break period' in between season's so I can actually see some sun light for a moment...

What else?... Ah Tiamat! Character design is based off of Esdeath from Akame ga kill! (obviously, but your free to use anyone else for your preferred taste). I've noticed in a lot of stories that whenever Tiamat is introduce she's either already built history with the MC off page or seems incredibly easy to infatuate with just a bit of flashy powers and some white knight comments... yeah that won't fly in this story, Tiamat is a dragon king and unlike Ddraig and Albion, she isn't sealed in a sacred gear so in the end she's not easily impressed... dragons pride right?

Her tamed approach to Ryden was simple curiosity and a few other reasons, I can't really work off of the DxD page and what she acts like because she hardly shows up and isn't really delved into an actual character, all I know is that she's incredibly poised in both mind and body – hence her talk first, kill later approach to Ryden.

I have plans for her presence in this story, very important plans

Next topic... how does Ryden know Grayfia's name?

Simple... refer to the time Sirzechs first met Ryden in the Halphes castle. The conversation they had during that time should be able to piece it together for you guys and if not then it'll be mentioned in the future... (hint: it correlates with Ryden's powers)

*deep sigh*

This chapter breached into 35,000 words total, basically three and a half chapters worth of fresh content for you guys to chew on. Since this was my 10th chapter I saw it fit to make it extra long and full of brand new characters (that being only two) to add to the large list of characters I've yet to actually introduce, not to mention when I had at first made it to the 10,000 mark I hadn't even gotten Ryden's boots into the castle walls and I knew you guys wanted to see Ryden drop the bomb so I had to finish it at that point

25,000 words later and here we are...

I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I loved writing it

So that's about it for this chapter, R&R and follow or favorite if you wish for updates and join me next time when Ryden fights an army of giant spiders... eughhhh...

Peace!