Diabolus est Melodiam

by Adudefromthesea

Reincarnation, I read about it once, or rather, I have the memories of reading about it once. It's a strange experience to be born with another set of memories. But these memories taught me much, and they have showed me the true nature of the world that I now live in, and I promise to use the gift they gave to its fullest potential: [Self Insert/Oc] [Reincarnation] [CYOA]

21. Chapter 17

A/note: This is chapter took place during a entire year, the exact period between the scenes isn't important what is important is to know he will be twelve in the next chapter.

Also a reminder that Demons and Hellbeast are the same thing, I established that in Chapter 10. Some characters will call them Hellbeasts, others will call them demons.

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Beta'd by eveakane and gaouw. back on QQ forum

Chapter 17

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This was a bad idea.

No, the idea itself wasn't bad. I have been planning to visit other parts of the underworld and see how life worked in other regions for some time now, and mother has been nagging me to meet my friends more often, plus with my evil piece ceremony getting closer and closer, I would need some political points to keep my family's 'overseers' from crafting some bullshit reason to keep me from my rightful set like they did with my Mother. Not that I needed their approval to get a set of my own, but it was a family honor thing.

So, when my long-time pen pal Sona Sitri proposed a rare face-to-face meeting in the Sitri region's capital city I jumped at the opportunity.

And it was a bad idea, a very bad idea…

Not because of the city itself, no; Bella Fiume is by far the most beautiful city that I ever lay my eyes on; it's structure was clearly based off of the Italian city of Venice (or perhaps it was the other way around?). It was a colorful collection of building separated by canals of crystalline water that usually did not obey common logic due to magic, and a diverse population that could range from normal modern looking individuals to JRPG-looking characters. Nor was it because of the company; Sona Sitri, even with her current inability to form proper sentences, was a very adorable and charming nine-years-old devil girl.

No, what made this a bad idea that is steadily growing into a horrible idea, was the Death Glare from an angry Satan at my back.

Serafall Leviathan has been accompanying us, unseen in the background, ever since Sona and I met up. I have no idea where she was, but I could feel her glare. Occasionally, I caught glimpses of her in the crowds or on some weird places, like a random window or a small hole in the ground, or dressed as a mascot for a storefront.

I could locate her easily with my shadows but…

I'm scared.

I mean, my shadow powers are not completely undetectable, that knowledge is something that I took a serious note from during my trip to Kuoh, and someone at the level of a Satan will definitely be able to feel it if I tried to do something suspicious. Hell, the fact that I could detect Leviathan's presence was already something that would look suspicious as hell for someone of my age; I'm known as a prodigy, but a normal ten-year-old devil can't be that good. And there is the glare itself. The dreadful, hateful, and seemingly ever-present glare that I couldn't escape from no matter how many obstacles I put between it and me. I-I never felt something like this before, the pressure of a predator aiming at the prey's throat; it's usually the other way around with me.

It's…suffocating.

I could only fall back to my natural acting instinct and hope to whatever divine that is ok with devils that I don't freak out and blow my cover.

"T-That's the wartime museum," Sona said, pointing to a castle-like building as we slowly crossed a small bridge. "It's here that, ah, T-T-T-Th… ah hum…"

I turned to look at her and noticed that she was looking downward with a bright blush on her face… which told me that she took a look in my direction.

To give the situation some context, Sona Sitri is an incredibly intelligent girl for her age; she is very well spoken in the letters she writes. We had many interesting and complex conversations from the years we have been in contact.

But when we meet face to face in social gatherings, she usually has difficulties in forming coherent sentences. It usually takes a while before I crack her wall of shyness enough for us to talk freely.

However, today is by far the worst instance of that shyness. Part of it is no doubt the pressure she is feeling for being the organizer and host of my visit, and another… another is most definitely my fault.

I discreetly brushed my fingers against my new magical amulet, a metal piece in the shape of the Dantalion's symbol that hangs from a long cord on my neck. A pulse of magic gave me the diagnosis of the highly complex enchantment inside, showing that, despite what I had expected, it was working fine.

This was something I created to fight against the rapidly growing passive effects of my Breeder essence, because it was becoming too strong as my growth into maturity approached. Its effects were evident on the expressions and reaction of the maids of my castle. Their looks are starting to become a little too intense for my taste, my presence now proves to be too distracting for them to focus on anything else... I swear if I find another maid masturbating on my bed, or trying to steal my underwear I will… Anyway, it is becoming ridiculous.

Fighting against the essence itself yielded no results, but I manage to hide the effects of the essences behind a highly complex and undetectable glamour, essentially locking my appearance in the level that it was when the glamour was placed. It's not a perfect solution, and it would need more tweaks so it would accompany my growth as I matured, but it was the best I could do in short notice.

However, I'm still on a level that could be called distractingly beautiful, and poor Sona was getting the brunt of it.

Aaannd the glare on my back was progressively becoming heavier and colder the more embarrassed Sona looked.

D-distraction! This girl needed a distraction, both for her and for myself.

"I read about it. Tha Sitri's region was the battlefield for many military operations during the civil war, right? Is this the famous museum which became the resting place for the banner of the Bold Three Hundred?"

Sona kept her eye firmly to the ground.

"Y-Yes." She murmured quietly.

… Awkward.

"So!" I chirped, trying not to look like I was about to be vaporized. "Are we going to enter it? I remember you wrote that you found an interesting aisle in the letters."

"Y-y-yes! I-I will show you. L-let's go." She started to lead us inside with uneasy steps.

She paused at the middle of the steps, her head dropping quite a bit as she turned to face me.

"Uh, E-Elias, I-I…" She raised her purple eyes slightly before lowered them back down. "I-I'm sorry f-for being… b-boring-"

She suddenly sucks up a breath and quickly snapped her head to the side.

Ah, She noticed…

I turn my head slightly, watching the 'innocent bystanders' that compose the crowd.

It was quite common for a pillar heir to be tailed by a bodyguard or two while they are outside their ancestral home. Even when they are having a rebellious phase and don't want a bodyguard near them, there is always someone following close by, in case something happens.

In the wake of the appearance of the Crimson Sabbat and their infamous, heir-killer leader, it was only natural that the noble families would increase the protection.

But still, to fill the entire plaza with disguised agents seems a little too much even for me… but then again, we were talking about a Satan's direct family.

Sona seems to enthusiastically share my opinion. She promptly stomped her way up to the bodyguard she managed to recognize.

"What is the meaning of this mister Alfonsi!? Haven't I said I wouldn't be needing your services today!? How dare you go against my orders!"

The poor guy couldn't stay in character and broke cover; he needed more training. "Um, m-milady, I…"

There was nothing left from the usual shyness I have come to expect from the little heiress currently chewing a grown ass man in front of me. I had to blink confusedly at the sight; it went against what I knew of Sona Sitri. I always thought that she had difficulties talking to people directly and could only communicate properly through letters, maybe it's because she is used to that guy?

"And not only that but you saw fit to tail us at a distance, like, like some kind of stalker!" She huffed disgustedly. "You are a proud warrior of the Sitri household! To act in such an undignified matter is so, so- Wait, is that miss Udinese I see there!?" Sona's purple eyes widened with the realization, the bodyguard began to sweat. "HOW MANY OF YOU ARE STALKING US!?"

Well, at least little Sona is talking now and… and the glare on my back is getting deadlier- Oh fuck! I'm clear for wide area assault now!

Thinking fast, a plan that involved me staying as close to Sona as possible formed on my mind, and considering the current situation at hand... a grin appeared on my lips.

I practically teleported to the girl's side and grabbed her by the wrist.

"They're all over the plaza," I informed after she turns her attention back to me, my smile grew. "Let's bolt!"

So we did.

And pandemonium began.

Do you know how hard it is to catch a pair of athletic kids on a large city? A pair of kids small enough to sneak in every nook and cranny of the spider web of alleys between the buildings? If you do, then imagine if these pair of kids could use magic and knew how to parkour, imagine how much more difficult it would be.

"Young Lady, young master please wait!" One of the bodyguards nimble enough to keep up shouted.

"No way!" I mocked with laughter, still dragging Sona behind me. "Go annoy someone else!"

The circles that I left in the walls of the alley activated, he dodged that of course but was hit by the spell that came from above, because attacking from obvious directions was for losers.

We burst out from the alley with five bodyguards about to land before us, my eyes already identified a way we could use as an escape route, so I brought up my magic to deal with-

Suddenly, the ground where they're about to land shone in the blue light of a Sitri styled magical circle, then they fell deeply into a water pit that formed.

"Come on! I know a place where we can lose them!" Shouted the Sitri heiress, pulling me along.

"MILADY, PLEASE!" A bodyguard appeared out of nowhere and was instantly hit by one of Sona's expensive shoes, which she used as a projectile.

Oh. Hell. Yes.

The whole afternoon was spent like that; it was an uproarious fun time.

By the end of the afternoon, we watched as the light blue bolt of magic sailed through the air, hitting the boat that was pursuing us dead on, and turning the last two of our pursues into popsicles.

The sound of our childlike cheers could be heard throughout the city as our stolen gondola burst from one of the city many canals into the big lake in the center of it.

"We got them! We got them!" Little Sona danced, waving her hands in the air, rocking the gondola. She was barefooted, the jewelries she was wearing were mostly gone, her once pretty and elegant dress was covered with dirt and sweat, and she looked like she was having the time of her life.

"We did," I said cleaning my forehead with my arm, noticing that my shirt was now sleeveless. "I think we killed them though."

"No we didn't, they're tough." Sona sat back, still smiling widely, then her purple eyes shined as she turned to me. "You can use long distant magic circles!"

"Huh? Oh yeah, I-"

"TEACH ME!" She all but jumped to my face.

"Sure, it's really simple…"

What followed was a conversation about magic, then about the new classes we were having this year, then about the latest rating games, and then about the new technologies spreading across the underworld and the new discoveries made by Beelzebub's magic development team. We were well into gossiping about the embarrassing things we witnessed on the many high society gatherings we attended to when night finally fell.

This was the Sona I knew, the Sona I talked to all these years.

"Huh?" A small light caught my attention on the side. Soon, more lights started to appear.

I turned my head to see the population of Bella Fiume crowding the pier and noticed that many boats and ships had moved around us. Each person was casting a colorful ball of light and letting it fly up slowly to the night sky.

"What are they doing?" I asked, prompting Sona to look.

"Oh, that is just the annual Seeking Lights festi…val…" She trails off, and then jumped to her feet, rooking the gondola again. "The festival! We were supposed to- oh wait, we're already here."

I chucked at her reaction. "So, what is this Seeking Light festival anyway? I never heard anything about it."

Sona's eyes dropped, and she blushed a little. "It's a local festival, not something we really talk about because it's not really… devil-like." She takes a deep breath and explains. "It a festival to let us cast our seeking lights for the year, the light that is supposed to help you find what you seek the most, whether it's power, wealth, fame… or even…" She babbled the last word incoherently.

"What?"

"N-Nothing!" She turned her red face to me. "W-W-Would you like to try? I-It's really easy!"

"Sure, what should I do?" The lights were now converging into a slowly rising pillar; it's honestly quite beautiful.

"You make a pink ball of light and sent it upward- ah but you can't put too much power into it. It has to follow the natural magical stream that will form along with the others."

"Seems easy enough." I looked at the floating lights. "But why pink? I can see some of different colors-"

"It has to be pink!" Sona shouted uncharacteristically loud.

I turn back to her and blinked; she was facing the other direction, with her ears brightly red.

"Ooookay." I said, raising my arm and forming a pink ball of light over my hand, "Like this?"

She looked back- Yep, that's a rather bright blush. "…Yeah, like that." then, she formed her own pink ball of light and we sent them to the sky.

Or twin balls of light slowly joined the rest. The magic in the lights was blending to form a current that rises up, taking the light balls with it and making them converge into a twirling formation, the light was so intense now that a human wouldn't be able to see things clearly.

Man, this is really beautiful; I wish mother could see th-

DEATH

I clamped down on all my instincts. Staying in place while my everything was telling me to jump into the nearest shadow and run. My hearing and my vision slowed to a crawl, the beating of my own heart overtook all my other senses, and the colors seem to wash out from the world…

I fucking forgot about her!

I flickered my eyes to the side for just a second. But it was enough to see her.

Serafall Leviathan was standing on the border of the pier, among a cheering crowd. She was clad in a Magical Girl outfit, but a different one than the one she used on the show. She was standing utterly still, with her face locked in an expression of pure neutrality while her fixated eyes bore directly into me.

H-Holy shit she is even more pissed off now! W-Why!? What did I do!? The glare stayed the same while we were blasting bodyguards so it couldn't be it, but then what!? What could have pissed her off more than me literally dragging Sona around!?

"Hey Elias, are you ok?"

"Y-Yes, I'm fine…"

Is it because of my family? Did she think I'm a potential enemy!? FUCK I knew I was treading dangerous waters by interacting with the close family of two of the Satans, but I didn't have a choice! They came to me, not the other way around! It would be suspicious to dismiss them right then and there, and I definitely didn't want them saying something like 'The Dantalion boy is an A grade asshole!' to their sibling; it could bring unwanted attention-

"You don't look fine Elias, maybe with should get back… Look! the pier is really close-"

"Pier!? No pier!" I snapped back to Sona and forced a smile. "I'm perfectly fine, honestly!"

"...If you say so." She conceded but narrowed her eyes with the blatant suspicion only a child would have.

Great, now the younger sister is also onto me!

I have to compose myself quickly, and, and-Distraction! That's it! I needed another distraction!

Luckily, I came prepared.

"So!" I announced, pulling a chessboard from my shadow storage. "You always boasted that no one on your household could beat you in chess anymore. Care to put that to the test?" I stated my challenge while trying to ignore the Satan wishing for my violent demise. This would not only distract Sona, but it would buy me some time to think about how to get out of the situation.

The Sitri heiress' eyes narrowed again, this time in pure eagerness.

… And so, on the calm waters of Bella Fiume's central lake, on a stolen gondola illuminated by a thousand different lights, and under the burning glare of an furious Satan; Sona Sitri and I played chess.

I admit, Leviathan's glare distracted me quite a bit, so I forgot to play on Sona's level.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to mind the loss, in fact, she looked happier for it, and quickly asking for another game.

Look like I gave her the chess rival she always wanted.

-0-0-0-

A squeak.

I heard a squeak.

And not the fun kind of squeak that I get from fondling mother in just the right way; it was an animal kind of squeak.

Opening one eye from the part of my face that wasn't submerged in the land of warm marshmallows, I saw a close up of Belinda's naked form, and the rest of the dark room above. Belinda has also been awaked by the squeaking, but didn't take any action and has yet to open her eyes. Mother's cute snoring from behind indicated that she, unlike us, was fast asleep.

The squeaking continued for a few more seconds, and Belinda and I waged a brutal, unmoving war to see who would be the one that had to deal with it.

...Fucking lazy maid, exploiting my curiosity.

Sliding my upper body off the marshmallow prison, and purposefully ignoring Belinda's victorious smile, I raised myself until I could look past my mother's sleeping form.

Behind her, on top of the nightstand, stood a squirrel.

"My Emperor!"

Fuck no.

"My Emperor! Please wait! There is a situation on the motherland!" The squirrels squeaked

Of all the hellbeasts in my forest, why did it have to be them?!

Urg, fine.

I pushed myself to a sitting position.

"What is it?" I ask mentally to the creature so I didn't wake mother; she would probably hug it to death.

The squirrel's language isn't exactly something a humanoid could reproduce. It consists mostly of squeaks and body language, but I could understand it somehow. I kinda suspect that it's the work of my essence, but it didn't work with any other marked hellbeasts, so it could be one of the squirrel's quirks.

"My Emperor! One of the special intruders had entered the forest, my Battle-Brothers are keeping it at bay, but those filthy lupines are getting restless, we fear they might intervene with our righteous duty soon."

I groaned, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. Great, a special intruder, just what I needed. These are the people I had ordered the hellbeasts to stall instead of kill, either because their death would be troublesome for me, or because I wanted to deal with them myself-Wait it was an intruder, so why didn't the alarm…

I was awake in an instant, flexing my magic to the seals painted on the walls where I could access the center of the castle's magical defenses.

Belinda felt that, of course.

"Elias." She whispers in a serious tone, rising next to me. "What is happening?"

"Someone tried to teleport in, they managed to bypass the alarms," I informed her, analyzing the data with my magical senses. "But they couldn't bypass the spell jamming wards, it threw them into the forest."

But still, a teleporting spell that could bypass the alarm framework that I designed; that's some serious stuff right there.

And it was from a special intruder too, who could it be? A member of Leona's gang? One of Silvanna's people? Or somebody else?

Belinda wasted no time and quickly jumped out of bed, an armored maid uniform formed around her like a symbiote. "I'll set the alarm and see to it myself, you stay here."

"No wait, let me check something first."

"Mmm, What is going on?" Mother whined in an adorable sleepy voice that made me want to pat her head, but I already shifted my perspective to one of my squirrels.

"HOLD THE LINE, HOLD THE FUCKING LINE YOU PATHETIC SONS OF OTTERS! WE MUST NOT KILL THE ENEMY WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH!"

"SIR! IT'S TOO STRONG! WE HAVE TO HAVE OUR EQUIPMENT BACK OTHERWISE WE'LL-"

"THE GOD EMPEROR REQUIRES YOU TO FIGHT NAKED, SO YOU WILL FIGHT NAKED SOLDIER! ELSE I'LL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF"

"Y-YES COMMISSAR!"

…This wasn't my idea, none of this was my idea, I swear. I don't know how they got this way, they just gained sapience someday and now there are some trees in the forest that were actually the squirrels' hive cities.

It also wasn't my idea to become their god emperor; I just had to intervene when they were waging a losing war of survival against every other species of the forest, and tried to end it all by kamikaze-nuking the forest to oblivion; the ass kicking they received was so great and memorable that their entire civilization swore undying loyalty to me.

They have been nothing but a headache since.

Putting the Game Workshop's squirrels aside, I took a look on the person they were fighting against, and managed to catch their entire front line being obliterated by a dark bolt of energy. That made me raise a metaphorical eyebrow, it takes some serious firepower to kill even one squirrel, let alone an army of them.

Then the spell dissipated, and I saw who it was.

"AGRH! Get away from me you little rats!" Shouted a pretty girl with vibrant red-hair and aquamarine eyes, she's waving around a large bubble of conceptual destruction like she was a water bender.

Rias Gremory …Great … Just fucking great. After MONTHS of avoiding a pissed off Leviathan, who suddenly developed a stalker-like interest in me just because I hang out with her sister once, now I had to deal with yet another Satan sibling.

A Satan sibling that was about to be killed by the looks of it, not by the squirrels, of course, these guys will follow my orders to a religious degree, but by the invisible wolves circling around the trees. It seems the fight has spread into their territory, and they aren't very happy with that.

I sighed and shook my head, this is going to get the Lucifer on my ass; I just knew it.

"False alarm Belinda, it's not an enemy."

I figured appearing there myself would raise some questions, so I made a guard patrol diverge from their route enough for them to 'happen' to find the lost heiress. After they all left, the wolves jumped on the squirrels, and the squirrels pulled out their plasma weaponry and power armors and started beating them back.

Less than an hour later the Dantalion family was officially greeting the Gremory heiress.

Mother immediately knelt in front of the girl, inspecting her injuries.

"Oh my! Are you ok sweetie?" She asked gently, pushing the red-haired head to the side to inspect a shallow cut there, Rias could only blush at the attention of the stunningly beautiful woman... and at said woman's state of dress.

"I-It's alright Lady Dantalion, it just a scratch!"

"Please sweetie, you may call me aunt Araneya! Now, hold still, these need to be treated."

The tiny redhead squeaked not unlike the squirrels from earlier when mother began the treatment. Now, very few devils know about or are even capable to use healing spells; our natural energy is just too volatile for it. But there is a common technique that serves as a pseudo healing spell for lesser injuries and exhaustion, it consisted mostly of using your own demonic energy to coax another devil's demonic energy toward self-healing. It could also be used to fill up another devil's energy reserves if they were low. This is the technique used by Rias on Issei in canon.

Mother is stupidly good at it; she could do with a hand on the cheek what most devils would need a naked full body contact to achieve. That was almost unnerving to watch… I wonder if this is what other people feel when I pull a mindboggling act without much effort?

Furthermore, the fact that she could even use this technique on Rias was also very telling of her feelings towards the girl. She is essentially sending her demonic energy inside the girl's body, an energy that is extremely reactive toward a devil's emotions, so if she had even the slightest animosity toward the heiress, the energy could react badly and end up causing internal injuries or even worse, but that didn't even show signs of happening.

This is good; if Rias told that to her family, it'd be another point on the Dantalion's favor.

"There you go, how are you feeling now sweetie?"

"I… I'm fine." Rias avoided my mother's gaze, blushing. "T-Thank you."

I judged that to be an appropriate time to send the puppet forward.

"You are far away from home, young lady." Said the puppet, stepping in. "We were lucky to find you when we did, this land is very unforgiving to outsiders, especially at this time of the night. That was very foolish of you."

Rias, as expected, pouted in the face of authority, but she answered all of the same. "I'm sorry Lord Dandelion, I won't do it again."

I can imagine what she was doing here, the traveling clothes and backpack are a dead giveaway, I just needed. to confirm it. So, I commanded the puppet to ask her.

"Now, may I inquire you about the reason for your visit?" She turned her face away like the stubborn child she is, mother giggled at that. "Do your parents know you are here?"

That did the trick.

"Don't tell my parents!" She babbled quickly, "Please!" Now she is sending puppy dog eyes to the puppet.

I wanted to roll my eyes. Running away from home, really Rias? That is so human.

I made the puppet blink. "Well, this is a delicate situation you see, I can't just-" Rias actually jumped and grabbed the puppet's pants.

"Please Lord Dantalion I can explain I…" She looks around for a reason before her eyes fell on me. "That's right! Elias and I were planning a sleepover! And… and the reason my parents can't know about it is because… because- because my mom's birthdays is coming! And I'm going to make her a present in secret, Elias is going to help me!"

Two watering aquamarine eyes send me a pleading look.

…Alright, time to bite the bullet, but she better say nice things about us to her parents!

"Indeed father, we were making plans for this," I said, but I added a jab at the end. "But someone forgot to tell me the date she was going to show up."

The Gremory heiress rubbed the back of her head with awkward laughter.

I made the puppet protest one last time.

"Mm? I didn't know the Gremory celebrated birthdays-" I didn't expect mother to cut in.

"Oh shush dear husband this is not the time." Hoooly shit! she is interacting with it! How many years has it been since she even looked at its general direction? "You can stay for as long as you like sweetie…" I could see her face trembling and I knew that her Lady Mask was about to fall. "Ahh, Mommy's so happy one of Ely's friends come to visit! I was starting to get worried!" So that's the reason.

She pulled Rias into her bounciness, making the girl's entire body turn into the same color as her hair. Yep, that's what happens when Araneya Dantalion hugs you while wearing a semi-transparent nightwear, unforgettable experience anytime it happens.

"Very well then." I made the puppet say, keeping its eyes away from mother. It didn't deserve to have her image in its mind. "We will get a guest room ready in no time." It nodded to some maids on the side and they promptly left. "Elias, please take care of miss Gremory until then."

"Yes, father." I said, stepping closer to save Rias before mother could cause any more irreparable damage to her sexuality. "Shall we?"

Soon, we were walking down the shadowy corridor leading to my room... with mother and Belinda close behind. Mother was creeping close to the shadow, using them to cover her form and silence her steps and occasional giggle. Belinda didn't bother with any fancy tricks to hide herself, she just activated the maids' natural background-blending aura, and thus was better hidden than mother.

"Thanks… Ely!" Ah hell, she heard my mother using my pet name. "I knew I could count on you!"

"Yeah, a little warning first would be nice," I grumbled. "Why did you run away from home?"

She gasped dramatically. "What-I didn- I didn't run away from home!" a burst of loud exaggerated laughter followed her words, "That's a funny joke Ely, only you, Hahaha!" she punctuated this by slapping my shoulder.

My unamused look held strong until her defenses grumbled.

"Alright! Fine! Stop looking at me like that!... It's my parents ok. They were being too…" She made a frustrated face. "Too much lately! It's always Rias do this, Rias do that. You have to learn this, It's essential that you memorize this, you must do better, you must get stronger. All that, all the time, all day long!" She gradually raised her voice as she went on. "We don't even talk anymore, it's always 'how is your progress going', or 'your tutors are saying you're lacking on this aspect', no 'nice going memorizing half the library Rias!', no 'good job for finally starting to control your power Rias!', no 'how was your day Rias?'. It's like they don't care anymore! And to top it all off, I can't even leave the castle! Can you believe this that!?"

I waited for the girl to finish ranting before stepping closer to her panting form, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"It's because of the Sabbat," I explained quietly. "With them actively aiming for the nobility, it's only a matter of time before they target the pillars. They are just worried about you."

"…I know that." She croaked out in a tearful tone. "I'm not dumb, I heard the rumors… But still…"

"I know," I said, pulling her closer, we didn't exactly hug, and she didn't exactly cry, but she looked better by the end.

"By the way," I asked as we started walking again, "How did you get here? And why did you come here in the first place, I thought you and Sona were closer." I'm more interested in the first question, to be honest.

"Oh, I useeeeed…" She stretched the word as she checked her pockets. "This!" She announced, producing a piece of paper and showing it to me. "Don't tell anyone about it, I stole this from my brother; it's one of mister Ajuka's thingy."

There was a magical circle for a teleportation spell drawn on the paper; only it was unlike any other teleportation spells I ever saw. The framework was cleverly complex while looking wonderfully simple, the amount of energy this thing could hold was incredible, and there was next to no magical leak on the final output, the end result should raise the quality of the spell while keeping the energy consumption to a minimum, and the simple trigger should allow anyone to use the spell regardless of the mastery level of the one casting it.

I was expecting some exclusive spells to stay at the hand of the Satans, but something like this…no wonder Beelzebub is considered the best spellcaster in the Underworld; it goes above and beyond what I was expecting from him. It also makes me a little proud that my own jamming wards were able to counter it. If Rias had used this while aiming for any other castle in the Underworld, even, dare I say, on the non-devil-controlled parts, she'd get there without fail, all castles expect the Dantalion castle.

… Better make sure she doesn't comment on that to her brother.

I noticed that she hasn't stopped speaking. Oops, got a little distracted there.

"… And because of that I couldn't go to Sona, weird right? But its better this way, she'd have nagged the entire time if I did. And the rest… Hum, Seek-chan is training on the Human world, and Sai… Sai's been weird lately…"

"So, I'm your last option." I felt kinda relieved by this.

"Yup!" She agreed gleefully, then seem to realize what she implied. "N-Not that I don't like you or anything Ely! I-It's just that I know them for longer, so they'd be sad if I went to you first. I like you Ely, honestly!" She shouted. And yet again only realized what she had implied later. "N-N-NotLike-like you, m-more like l-like you, you know, e-even though… Garhhhh do you get what I'm saying!?"

"Yes, Rias I get it." I let the dramatic pause prolong for a few moments, then opened one of my 'bullshit smiles'; which it's what I call the smiles that makes my mother, quote: 'See flowers and shooting stars in the background when they happen.' end quote. "You like me."

"Guh!" Rias became the color of her hair again, and I swear a little bit of steam burst out from her ears.

I, as the unquestionable lord of shadows, can hear anything that happens within the shadows close to me, but I didn't even need that power to hear mother's high-pitched squeal. Luckily, Rias was too distracted to notice.

Yes mother, you can cross the 'watch your son making a cute girl fluster' from your wish list. Ah, the things I do for you…

"A-A-A-ANYWAY!" She shouted and turned back, dropping her backpack on the floor, "I-I also have another reason for coming here, the biggest reason, here!" She's still very red, but seemingly able to rein back some control as she turned to me with a mischievous look. "BEHOLD!" And she pulled something from the bag.

"... Dvds?"

"Anime." She whispers conspiratorially. "You're the only one of my friends that I still haven't introduced to the world of anime! This can't continue!"

Anime… and to think I have been to Japan itself, and the possibility of watching anime didn't even cross my mind… granted I was lewding two beautiful women at the time, but still.

When was the last time I watched some good old anime? Fuck, I don't think I ever watched it in this life yet.

"Anime?" I said slowly, an honest smile forming on my lips. "That sounds interesting."

And then we finally reach my room, where the binging began.

In the end, Rias ended up staying with us for an entire week. I had the puppet write a letter to her father on the same night she arrived of course, because not doing so would be extraordinarily stupid. The Gremory's response was sending a squad of five of their strongest battle maids to temporarily join the staff during Rias' stay, together with daily secret inspections from one of the Gremory Head's own peerage. All of that went completely off Rias' head, she believed she had fooled her parents till somebody came to take her back.

The Gremory's actions were, honestly, a bit insulting, but understandable given the history between our families. And it all paid off massively a few weeks later when the puppet reported that the suspicions about the Dantalion were all but cleaned, with only a token effort remaining. They even started to discretely pull back their spies from the castle's staff, planning to leave of about a third of total behind.

And Rias… she is ok, definitely a fun girl to hang out with, but it was good that she left when she did, because she had decided that she didn't need to use the guest room when we could perfectly well share a bed together, which meant I couldn't share a bed with mother, which meant mother was about to explode due to sexual frustration by the time the heiress finally left.

All in all, it was a fun week.

-0-0-0-

Say what you will about the pillar families, but we do know how to travel in style.

The Phenex family's main carriage, for example, was a beautiful construct made from dark wood and armored with many sheets of living metal. Its color depicted the crimson and gold of the house it belonged, with a stylized version of the house's symbol painted on the side. The humongous vehicle was pulled by a pair of equally large Furcas thoroughbred shires; they are war machines shaped like horses. Not only can they provide protection for the carriage by themselves, but also pull it to speeds surpassing those of a race car if the need arises.

The insides were the size of a wide limo, and decorated like a seven-star hotel's presidential suite. Complete with a full complement of food, drinks, entertainment, and the finest cushions. Everything about it would cause jealousy in the heart of the filthiest of human billionaires.

Not bad for the wealthiest of the Pillars, If I say so myself.

"That was so fun!" Little seven-years-old Ravel Phenex gushed, looking very much like a princess with her blonde curls and puffy red dress. She was surrounded by the purchases she made today. "Ne ne Ely! Will you come shop together with me again!? You're much better than my boring older brother!"

"Sure!" I said, patting her in the head to her delight. Honestly with my mood right now, I would probably do anything if the person asks me nicely. "But you shouldn't talk about Riser like that just because he is a little grumpy. You need him to leave the castle remembered? Got to pamper him a little bit."

"But he's being a grumpy face meanie!" She protested.

"I know he is being a grumpy face dumb meanie, but he is your brother and you already kicked him in the shin, so now you must forgive him."

"But Riser is a grumpy face dumb smelly meanie! I don't want to forgive him."

"Yes yes, Rise is grumpy face dumb smelly cantankerous-"

The girl giggled. "What does cantaketou means?"

"It means… grumpy." That caused more giggles

The grumpy face dumb smelly cantankerous meanie that was boiling on the background exploded.

"ENOUGH!" Riser screamed, pointing at me. "YOU! Traitor! I will remember this betrayal for the rest of my life! I shall whisper about it on my last breath!" his finger moved to little Ravel. "And YOU, how dare you!? My minion came all the way from the far-off lands of the Dantalion's region to visit The Great Me and you greedily hog his entire day to yourself! We were supposed to go hunting demons today! Not buy frivolous stuff like toys or dresses!"

"Shut up, stupid brother!" Ravel stuck her tongue to the increasingly angry Riser "How do you know he hasn't come to meet me instead! We're going to marry someday you know!"

I actually blinked at that. I didn't know where she took this idea from; looking at my family's situation, my chances of marrying a Phenex, one of the biggest allies of the Gremory, were very slim; my family is still too much of a security risk for this to happen, even if most of the suspicions had already been cleared. The marriage talks usually starts for real when a pillar kid reaches twelve and gain their set of evil pieces, but considering the current political climate, and the paths it'll most likely go in the future, I say my engagement, almost surely, will be with-

Ravel interrupted my thought by jumping on my lap.

"See!" She shouted victoriously. "I fit in his lap! We were meant to be together!"

… Well, she certainly knows what she wants.

"W-What are you talking about! You are small; you fit on everybody's lap! There is no logic in your argument!" That is rich coming from him. "Listen, Elias came to visit the Great Me, so we could hang out together, and you are wasting our time!"

I did come to visit Riser, but it wasn't to hang out. I came because the brat told me that his family finally taught him the secret ritual to make phoenix tears, so I came here to steal that knowledge. The only reason I remained was because my mood was so good from finally learning the secrets of the devilkind's super elixir, that I don't particularly mind dealing with Riser for a few days.

"Hey, the day isn't really over yet, we could just spar or something when we get to the castle." I offered, and to my amazement, Riser mood did a one-eighty.

"AHA! so you wish to prove your worth against my might! As expected of the Great Riser Phenex's minion!" He beat his chest proudly. "But I must warn you that I'm not the same person you fought before, you aren't dealing with an average Phenex anymore-"

"Stupid bother is gonna lose."

"Silence Ravel!"

I chuckled at the exchange. "Well, if all you plan to do is use fire bullets and flame weapons you're really going to lose." I had to double take when I saw the look on his face. "Wait, Are you really planning to use just that!? I already established that it doesn't work! You have to add some variety to your spells man, try to use ice or something."

"Never! Fire is the pride and joy of the Phenex family, The Great Me shall achieve victory using only our ancestral element!"

Ravel raised her head to look at me. "See? My stupid brother is going to lose."

"Why you!"

And the sibling bickering continued. I must say I'm impressed at the level of sass little Ravel was displaying, she used to be quite timid the last time I visited, about a year ago, when we were formally introduced. I wonder what changed?

"If you going to insist on your fire tricks, you could at least be creative with them, just… I don't know, combine the two and make flaming sword bullets or something…" I tried to suggest, but I don't think Riser heard me over the growing argument. "Ah forget it!"

On the corner of the carriage, I began to hear the sound of a soft giggle, I turned my head to see the last member of our little group, giggling at the antics of the fiery siblings.

A smile formed on my face; good, she must learn that the other pillars devil are just normal people just like the rest of the devils, she's still too nervous when she gets close to any member of nobility other than me, and she must get used to them if she wanted to stick close to me.

That's why I took her with me in the first place.

"What the-hey you! Are you laughing at me!?"

"Hih!"

And looks like Riser needs murdering!

You know what? It's not me who is going to do the murdering this time.

"I-I'm sorry my lord it was not my intention-"

"Elias!" He turned to me, completely ignoring the trembling girl. "What is the meaning of this!? You are the great Riser Phenex's minion! For your family to send such a pathetic retainer is an insult to both you and The Great Me! To think this trash there has the gall to call herself your bodyguard… hn! I will do you a favor and generously provide a true warrior of the Phenex family so you can ditch this useless little girl."

"... Oi, Riser, you sure like to shit through your mouth sometimes" Ara? Little Ravel went stiff because of my tone; only Riser to managed to get me this riled up unintentionally. "Reiko may still be an apprentice maid, but her combat skills are unquestionable. I won't have you insulting her in my presence anymore."

Riser huffed a breath. "You're still unreasonable as always Elias, I'm telling you that I will provide you with a much better warrior than this no-name child. Just take it and be happy!"

"Well look at you all big, and strong, and telling me what to do. It's almost like you forgot who you're dealing with." We bored our glare at each other, neither of us yielding an inch. Fuck, if this keeps up, I wouldn't be able to hold back and will pulverize him myself, and that would defeat the purpose… fine! I'll let him have it this time. "If you have doubts about her strength, then test her yourself! If you find her to be insufficient then I'll take your warrior."

"EHHH!?" Reiko squeaked on the side. Shush sweetie, I'm making you defend your honor by manipulating an immortal devil into trying to kill you.

"Hoh? Interesting…" Riser was looking pretty smug from his tiny, pathetic victory in the glaring contest. "So, The Great Me just have to crush her to make you see reason hum?" He dropped a predatory look on Reiko, making her squeak again.

Oh, I'm going to enjoy this.

"U-Uh, p-please wait Phenex-sama!" Reiko tried, her nervousness made her shift back to her native language, which is a small faux pas given that a devil should always use the language that devil of a higher station is using if they were in the same room. "Ah… um… E-Elias-sama what should I do!?" She looked desperately at me, I mouthed her a 'good luck' and sent her a thumbs up before Riser got in front of her and blocked the vision. "Ph-Phenex-sama, I didn't mean to come out as insulting, please let's talk about this!"

Riser didn't bother talking; he just pounced.

Now, if someone is being attacked by a pillar devil in close quarters, they are generally pretty much fucked, even if the pillar devil in question is a child. We were all well-trained little buggers and genetically superior to a normal devil in every way possible, plus if the pillar devil attacking is a Phenex then the person is double fucked because the tiny fucker attacking them is pretty much immortal.

People react differently to a situation like this. Some say, "Fuck that!" and try to run, others get a bravery sickness and try to fight back, and some just stay still and accept that they are fucked. People usually fall in one of these three categories.

Reiko? Well, her pupils' shrunk until they were pinpoints, her demonic energy sparked, the storage seal tattooed on her arm shone brightly, and she ducked under Riser's flaming bitchslap. When she moved next there was a silver spoon on her hand, which showed that she was kinda peeved with Riser's earlier comments.

What happened next was too gruesome to put into words, but it involved a lot of blood, fire, and ice-cream allegories.

"Hey Riser, you are ruining the cushions you dumbass!" I laughed at the flaming shitpile. Thank Satan the carriage has smoke filters.

"I-Is it over?" Ravel murmured, her hands pressed tightly over her eyes.

I draw her close and began to stroke her blonde curls, "I don't know… Is it over?" I asked the pale faced maid sitting beside me.

Reiko drew a sharp breath and let the bloody spoon fall from her hand. "I…I didn't… Oh, Satans! I lost control!"

"Relax, Riser is the kind of guy that only thinks straight after a death or two. Isn't that right, Riser?"

"Hn!" A newly regenerated Phenex aggressively grumbled as he dusted his clothes, the excessive amount of blood and burn marks in the area around him only accentuated how immaculate he looked. "You are too clever for your own good, my minion."

Meh, not really, that was third-grade manipulation right there.

"A-Ah, Riser-sama, please forgive me for this insolence I-I shouldn't have-"

"You!"

"HIH!"

Riser nodded at the maid before announcing. "The great Riser Phenex acknowledges your strength! You may thank me for my infinite humbleness now."

Poor Reiko just blinked confusedly "H-Hah? Um, Thank you?"

The Phenex heir scorned her meek response. "You are Elias Dantalion's bodyguard. Speak more proudly!"

"H-Hai!"

He huffed a smoky breath and sat down before me, or more precisely before the girl in my lap.

"Ravel, you covered your face…"

The little girl looked downcast.

"Yes."

"Never do that again, the life of a devil is full of brutality, you have to get used to the sight." He leaned back and sends her a mocking smile. "Honestly, our parents coddle you so damn much. You can't even handle a little blood."

That breathed some energy back to the little blonde girl "Well I wouldn't have to if my idiot brother didn't make such a pathetic display, what happened back then? Have you forgotten your training!?"

"What did you say!? I'lll have you know that I could have turned the table anytime! The great Riser Phenex had everything under control!

"Stop calling yourself 'great' idiot brother, it makes you sound like you're over-compensating!"

I rolled my eyes at the sibling's antics and let my hand fall on Reiko's head.

"Good work," I said, playing with her hair.

"Ely…" She whined, but still leaned to my touch. "That was mean…"

"It work didn't it?"

And the rest of the trip to Phenex castle went relatively peacefully.

… That was what I wanted to say, but the carriage stopped abruptly an hour later, still far from reaching its final destination.

I wanted to sigh in exasperation.

"What is going on?" Little Ravel asked seeing me, Riser and Reiko going deadly serious.

There was a polite knock on the blackened window.

"Dubois?" Riser asked calmly.

"Ah yes, Young Master, it's me." Came a muffled voice from the other side.

Riser cast a quick spell to lower the black tint of the window. Revealing a short middle age man with a round face and an extremely thick mustache, wearing a sharp cut butler uniform.

"Pardon for my rudeness masters, mistress." He raised a handkerchief and started to clean the sweat on his neck. "But it appears we are about to be ambushed."

"That's interesting," I commented, lazily stretching my perspective to the shadows.

"Oh." Ravel realized.

"Mmm, Is it the Sabbat?" Riser asked, cracking his neck.

I don't think it is the Sabbat, this is not their usual-

"I believe not, Young Master. There are too many of them to be a Sabbat attack." Oh, the butler was good. "Nevertheless, I came to inform you that I will be going to deal with the situation. The horses should be able to get you to the castle easily enough."

Reiko immediately stood.

"I'll be going too mister Dubois," She said in a cold tone, the professional assassin fully replacing the nervous little girl.

"No one is going." Riser announced firmly. "If that isn't the Crimson Sabbat, then there is only one other group in the Phenex region who would attempt to do something this stupid. And if it is who I thinks it is, then it's a matter of family honor."

"The Bandit Queen." I heard Ravel whisper fearfully.

Hoh? Is There some history there?

Riser was immediately got out of the vehicle. "The Great Riser Phenex, alone, shall deal with this!" He announced as he left.

"Ah Brother wait!- That idiot."

I chucked. "So, what is this about the Bandit Queen stuff?"

"Ah." The Phenex girl sent me a troubled look, "I-It's from before I was born. Uh, older brother Ruval killed the head of the Esparosa family in a duel, and the family fell from grace soon after. The heiress of the family vowed to get revenge on the Phenex and-"

"And has been causing trouble since then, I can imagine." I rolled my eyes at the clichéd story. Local drama; every region has them.

"Do you wish me to help him El-Young Master?" Reiko offered.

"Nah, if Riser said he got it, then he got it."

The bird boy in question was having an argument with his family's butler, but it soon ended when the first of the bandits began to appear over the hills, and then more appeared… and more…

"There are so many!" Ravel exclaimed, her hand coming to tightly grip the sleeve of my shirt.

"Yep, about two hundred." And with three hundred more behind the hill, "Quite the excessive number. What did that heiress do, gather all the bandit gangs into one army?"

"I… I don't know, I didn't pay attention to the classes."

"Ara ara, you need to take them more seriously, Ravel-chan." I singsonged.

"A-Are you my mom!? Why did you switch to Japanese!?"

"M-Mou Ely never called me Reiko-chan…" Reiko complained on the side with a pout. Oi oi, I can hear you girl.

A bright flash of light draw our attention back, we turned to see Riser rising in the air with a pair of glorious flaming wings flapping behind him.

"Brother, he is going to be alright… right?" Ravel's grip trembled slightly. "I-I means we are immortal, so he definitely isn't going to die… right?"

Hum, Riser was right about her… I suppose you could afford to spoil one of the children when you have the luxury to have many, but to this extent? I wonder if she'd ever seen a true battle before.

Riser seems to have reached a satisfactory height to look down on everyone- I mean, to look at the battlefield, and magically enhanced his voice. When he next spoke, his words came like a booming explosion.

"Hear me, mongrels! You are trespassing in the Phenex family's private territory and spoiling the air with every breath you inferior beings take! To add further weight to your unforgivable crimes, you also have shown aggression toward the members of the pillar family themselves! Lay down your weapons now and I, THE GREAT RISER PHENEX, swear to make your passage to the afterlife a quick and painless one!"

H-Holy shit he calls himself 'the Great Riser Phenex' to the people he doesn't know too! That's chuuni as fuck!

The bandits, displaying the usual level intelligence of bandits everywhere, just screamed their battle cry louder and increase the speed of their charge. From over the hills a group of more distinct devils appeared, flying in the direction of the Phenex boy, they were being led by a purple-haired woman dressed like a 90's anime villain.

I could practically hear Riser clicking his tongue in annoyance. He seems to pull his wings closer to his body, before spreading them in a theatrical display; the flames of the wings grew in size and intensity, rapidly spreading until they were twenty-eight times bigger than their normal size; making it look like there was a solid wall of flames behind Riser's back.

"What he is doing!?" Ravel asked.

"I… Don't know?" I admitted.

Riser calmly raised his hand, and the wall of flames… rippled, for the lack of a better word, with many points of light forming on the surface and seems to push against it- Wait a minute…

"No," I mumbled as it dawned on me. "It can't be…"

"What? What!?" I felt little Ravel shaking me, but my eyes was still transfixed at the impossibility in front of me.

"He is pulling a Gilgamesh!" Where the fuck did he learn to do that!?

"A what?"

The light pushing against the surface finished taking form… and yep; swords, spears, lances, halberds and many other pointy weapons, all made of concentrated fire and packing enough magic to blow a truck sized hole on a thick castle wall were now hovering over Riser's shoulder.

The bandit charge was stopped momentarily by the appearance of the weapons, and the intense light and heat they were emitting.

"Ah yes, look at your demise, mongrels." Of course, he'd gloat, what was I expecting? "Look at My Majesty and Despair! And always remenber; You have brought this upon yourself!"

He brought his hand down.

…The bandits tried to put up a defense, they really tried; they were clearly used to fight against Phenexes as most of their equipments had strong anti-fire enchantments in them, and most of the spells they used seem to be designed to counter the pillar's signature element. So, the formation they had and the barriers they managed to pull together were the correct choices.

Riser just overpowered them all.

What is the use of defending against one, two, or even twenty flying flaming swords, when there was an unending rain of them falling immediately behind it? What is the use of nullifying the scorching heat they emanate if you still have to deal with the impact and explosion that followed? What is the use of having a shield that could perfectly defend against any fire spell exactly once, if you have to defend against an infinite number of them?

Most of the bandits died in the first few waves, the strongest ones or the ones that managed to hide behind a strong shield lasted a few seconds longer.

Riser didn't hold back, even after they all seemed to die. He spent a full minute carpet bombing the place. And by the end, there was nothing but fire and ashes on a deformed landscape.

…Seriously though; how the fuck did he learn to do that!? Does he play Fate? Wait; does Fate franchise even exist in this universe? If I'm not mistaken the first game was released in 2004, and it's still 2003 in the human world, so…

"W-Woah!" Reiko finally found her voice. "H-he's that powerful!... But then how did I…"

"Because he sucks at close quarters," I explained absentmindedly, still focusing mostly on Nasuverse bullshit. "That and because me and Ravel were in the blast range; he's a soft-hearted little bastard once you get past the over-the-top arrogance. But yeah, he would totally kick your ass in a better situation."

"… Oh."

"Hey, don't be like that, you would make him work for a victory. There is nothing to be ashamed-"

"WOAH! THAT WAS AMAZING!" Little Ravel finally comes out of her shock. She immediately jumped out of the carriage to greet her brother.

I laughed at the little girl's enthusiasm before turning back to Reiko. "Like I was saying, you're still not on pillar devils level… but you will be someday, that I can promise you. Now, let's greet the bird boy"

Leaving Reiko alone with her thoughts, I left the carriage to the image of Riser dramatically descending from heavens while holding a burning chunk of meat in his hand, with his little sister jumping around enthusiastically, and his butler clapping vigorously on the ground.

"Bravo! Splendid! Magnificent! Oh, Young Master, you have grown so much in so little time! The Lord and Lady will be so proud!"

"Brother! Brother!" Ravel immediately jumped to his stomach, hugging him tightly. "How did you do that!? There were so many blades and, and they were all so fast! Did you make them individually? How did you fuse the spell to your wing!? Brother! Hey Brother!"

I have known Riser for some years now, so I can say for sure that the look on his face right now is much better than the usual one.

"Hey." I greeted. Offering my fist

"… Is that a human thing?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

"It's called a fist bump, I offered because you did something genuinely awesome." He grinned and punched his fist into mine so hard that it broke his knuckle. Eh, good enough for the first time. "So, what the hell was that?"

"HAH!" He buffed a laugher. "You can't even recognize a move that you helped create! The Great Me is disappointed with you, my minion!" He leaned forward with an overconfident smile. "Flaming sword bullets remember? Behold the fruit of my unlimited creativity!"

That made me blink. So, he was listening.

"Young Master." The butler called to the side, standing over the burned chunk that Riser threw on the ground. "Should I dispose of this… thing?"

Hum? Looking closer the chunk seems to actually be a woman, a horribly burned, barely alive woman, but a woman.

"No, you are to give her a phoenix tear! Any woman that can annoy my older brother so much is worth keeping alive."

"Annoy our-" Ravel's charming blue eyes widened. "W-Wait, is that Yubelluna Esparosa!? The Bandit Queen!?"

"Yes!" Riser shouted, sounding satisfied with his decision. "The Great Me finds this woman interesting!"

Yubelluna- wait, haven't I heard that name before?

…Oh!

-0-0-0-

The Phenex's region was known throughout the underworld by its high mountains and volcanoes. Not the human's kind of volcanoes, of course, the underworld kind of volcanoes, which on average makes the one in Yellowstone looks like a high school science project.

Appropriately, The Phenex family castle was built on the mouth of the biggest, baddest one in the region. That monster was magically sealed in a state of a perpetually impending eruption, with the castle serving as a type of stopper to keep the apocalyptic event from happening, and it has been serving its purpose for thousands of years. Legends said that if the Phenex Castle ever falls, the seal would break and the entire underworld would be engulfed in lava and ashes.

The Castle itself was the most evil looking piece of architecture I ever saw, and whoever built it clearly had a worrisome obsession with fire; he filled the place up with torches, pyres, bonfires, and many other fire-related decorations just in case the chosen location wasn't enough of a clue. There was so much light and fire that the inside of the castle looks like it was constantly daytime, which perhaps was the point given that most of the castle stays covered twenty-four hours a day with a dark volcanic cloud coming from the ocean of lava boiling beneath its foundation.

It did have an environmental barrier comparable to the one in the Dantalion castle of course. Otherwise, the staff would have been cooked alive long ago.

The third son of the Phenex and I were walking through the long corridors on an unreasonable hour in the morning, fast on our way to our planned hunt. I suspected the reason Riser chose to start this early was to avoid having to deal with Ravel asking to come with us. Riser hated the fact that the little Phenex girl wanted to participate in every activity that I was involved in… but also couldn't really deny her if she asks cutely enough. Honestly, I had the same problem; Ravel Phenex is dangerously cute.

"…And this!" Riser paused on a page of the bestiary he had in his hands and pushed it to my face. "Is a Cockatrice, the crown jewel of this mountain. Extremely aggressive, capable of copying any fire spells used against it, with scales comparable to a mid class dragon, a paralyzing gaze, poisonous spit and much, much more. This is what we are going to be hunting today my minion. We will kill it, eat its hearts, and hang its ugly head on the trophy hall!" He closed the book with a loud snap and murmured under his breath. "That will teach my brothers not to doubt me…"

I chuckled at his comical expression. I highly doubt we would be able to find any Cockatrices like Riser wants; as soon as we step outside the castle, a team of battle servants will follow us unseen and 'filter' any hellbeast we find, so that they would be quite strong, but not strong enough that we couldn't dealt with it; this was the usual procedures when a pillar devil child hunted alone… Though it might be different with the Phenexes due to their nifty regeneration. Either way, I kept silent as to not burst his bubble.

"So this is the thing you were talking about. Leaving the best for the last isn't it?"

"Of course! I promised that your first stay at the Phenex estate would be a memorable one!" Riser smiled and trotted ahead. "We have to end it with a bang so that we can have a goal to surpass on your next visit."

I smiled a little. Yeah, my stay here was surprisingly enjoyable, I even ended up staying all the scheduled days instead of cooking out an excuse and escape on the second day like I had planned. The Phenex family were surprising good people to be around… from the 'not enemy devil' perspective at least. I already knew Riser of course, and learned to find fun in his eccentricities, little Ravel has really come out from her shell and now seems to enthusiastically follow me wherever I go, the Phenex lord was a nice enough guy, but I could see how his secret hobby could put some people off, Lady Phenex was a total babe that has a master degree in embarrassing her children in front of visitors, and the rest of the staff seems to be happy to work there; which do indicate something about the family, believe me. The only ones I didn't meet were the two older brothers, which by what I heard; are a professional rating gamer, and a television personality respectively.

The family was fun… but what really interests me was the Dragon Mountain; a place right at the border of the Gremory and Phenex regions where the dragons allied to the Devilkind lived, and where Tannin the Meteor Dragon, one of the most powerful devils in the underworld, made his domicile.

The sheer awesomeness of seeing an actual, living, breathing dragon, even if only by seeing through the shadows, was worth the entire visit. Hell, the fact that I got the recipe for a super elixir felt like a bonus when it should be the other way around. There was just… something about dragons that drew people in. I don't know how to explain it; just… That bullshit about dragon smell? I completely understand now.

Riser is saying something.

"Sorry, what did you just say?"

He quickly turned his head to the side "N-Nothing."

…

Now I really really want to know.

"Seriously man, my mind wonders sometimes, you know how it is. I honestly didn't hear what you said."

He didn't reply for a couple of seconds, but in the end…

"I said; 'if you want to visit again that is!' there! Now let's go! The Cockatrice awaits!"

Is that what got him so flustered; that's kinda silly.

I open my mouth to reply-

And the magic in the air twisted.

My head ached instinctively. Goddamnit! Not again.

"What!" Riser gasped in surprise as the bright light of a clandestine magical circle shone behind us.

His first instincts took over, and an intense jet of flames was shot toward it-

It was met by an equally intense jet of water, spreading a layer of mist across the corridor.

"Sona Sitri!" Riser exclaimed after the identity of the invader became clear. "What is the meaning of this!?"

I could barely make out the image of an annoyed Sona Sitri narrowing her eyes, before my vision was overtaken by brilliant red hair.

"ELY!" Exclaimed Rias Gremory as she latched on to my shirt. She looked… She looked like she was about to cry. "You're super smart, right? We need your help!"

"Gremory's here too?! What is going on!? And how did you managed to teleport into the castle! RISER PHENEX DEMANDS ANSWERS!"

Something tells me that this is going to be a long day.

-0-0-0-

I always knew that this would happen, it was established in the canon timeline, after all, I just didn't know when exactly in the timeline it would happen, but it was always a matter of time.

And according to Rias, it happened five days ago.

"And-And he won't talk to me!" The Gremory heiress whined as we traversed the field of yellowish tall grasses. We were all politely ignoring the way she was wiping her tears. "Me and Sona tried to talk to him for hours, but he just blows us off! It's like our friendship didn't matter anymore!"

"Something like this can't be swept under a rug," I commented while pushing the bubble-shaped barrier forward. The blades of grass around these parts were literal blades of grass; they scratched and grazed against the transparent magical bubble barrier we cast with a metallic sound as we passed through. "I'm surprised that there wasn't any official statement by now."

"Perhaps there is… my mother wasn't eating breakfast with us, remember? Maybe she was in a meeting discussing the events." Riser shared his piece of mind. "But still to exile them here is-"

"A death sentence, we are aware." Sona cuts in. She could hide her emotions better than Rias, but I'm pretty sure her lower lip will start bleeding soon if she keeps biting it like that. "My sister and Rias' brother managed to get them a safe house close to the borders, but the Baels made it very clear that they want them inside the region, and to fight against the will of the Baels in the current political climate..."

"Bastards! All of them!" Rias bellowed. "They want them to suffer! They want to humiliate them! They're so mean! …. Sai worked so hard…" She sobbed, working more vigorously to wipe away the tears. "It's not fair!"

…Sairaorg Bael, or I suppose, just Sairaorg now. The Bael family finally figured out that he didn't inherit the Power of Destruction and exiled him and his mother to the Bael countryside.

All of that was nothing new to me; I already knew what was going to happen, not from remembering the anime, because he only made a brief appearance in the atrocious third season, but from remembering his wiki page, which told me precisely that.

But I never fully realize the implications of it until I was reincarnated here and learned about the true nature of the Bael 'countryside'.

During the Great War, this was the place where the original Beelzebub met his end, the place an original Satan fell, a deathbed of a Satan… and just like with the Dantalion region, it affected the entire landscape.

Comparing the two places, I can see that my Family had it easy; the only region-wide change was the eternal winter that plagues the land. But Devils could still make a life for themselves there. Sure, the weather, and the hellbeasts that evolved because of the weather were extremely hard to deal with, but because devils are devils that only made things more attractive for many that wished for a challenge. The true horrors brought by the corpse of Leviathan stays isolated to this day in one particular place, and didn't spread to the rest of the territory.

The Bael's region, by contrast, has been entirely affected by the full force of Beelzebub's corruption since day one, and it has become the most inhospitable place in hell because of it. The only safe haven, and the single example of devil civilization was the Bael family's gigantic moving castle, which also served as their capital city.

This place is like the Dantalion's forest on super steroids; everything here was designed to kill you and your entire family. The fauna, the flora, the insects, the minerals, the inanimate objects… everything here is a rapidly evolving, horribly mutating mess that is usually full of rot and diseases. And the danger didn't stop in things that were visible; the very air was littered with a cocktail of devil-grade viruses and bacteria; a single breath of unfiltered air would send an adult devil to the hospital for the rest of the year, and that was if they do it in borders of the region where things are more mellow. Lastly, there was this weird radiation that somehow stays accumulated in the sky, coloring it a sickly green color instead of the usual purple; if anything attempted to fly in this place, it would land a burbling pile of cancerous cells. Things get really fun there when it rained…

So yeah, the reason why we were moving like hamsters in a ball right now is more to have an environmental shield than to protect us against the sharp blades of grass.

"How much longer till we get there? I don't think staying here for too long is a good idea." I said.

"It's just past the grass field, we should be able to see the glow of the external barrier soon," Sona said, but then muttered under her breath. "I hope."

"Stupid teleportation circle!" Rias jumped at the opportunity to direct her frustrations at something. "First it failed on Elias' castle, now here! This stupid thing never works!"

"It worked to get into my castle." Riser clicked his tongue. "And why are you even taking us there? If you and Sitri didn't manage to get him to open up, what makes you think The Great Me and my loyal minion can? And besides, why should we help the weakling to begin with!?"

Riser did have a point there, but insulting Sairaorg in the presence of an emotional Rias Gremory was a really stupid idea.

"What did you just say!?" The little red hair was immediately up on Riser's face, pushing a finger hard against his chest.

"Now listen here you pompous asshole! Sairaorg is one of the kindest, most hardworking devils that I know! He had to prove himself every day to a family that never appreciated him, and he did so without complaining! All the things you and I receive just for being born he had to FIGHT his hardest for it! Fight against the stupidly high expectations of his bastard of a father! Can you imagine how it must have been, living like that!? No!? Then you have NO RIGHT to talk about him like that, in fact, if you're even HALF the devil he IS, you would be PRAISING him for his strength."

To punctuate her rant, the Gremory girl grabbed Riser by the collar of his shirt and violently pulled him down until their foreheads smashed together.

"And if I ever heard you run your mouth about him like that again. You will be dealing with me, got it!?" I could feel the intensity of the glare from where I stood. "GOT IT!?"

I was expecting a lot of thing from Riser at that moment; I was expecting him to pull back, outraged by the girl's insolence and start a shouting match. I was expecting him to submit to the girl's tone and conceded the victory. I was even expecting him to laugh off the words of a younger, and frankly, less powerful girl.

I wasn't expecting him to blush brightly and shyly turn his eyes away.

"G-got it." He said meekly.

…

...What the hell just happened?

I had no time to process what I just saw before my instincts started to flare. A second later, Sona shouted.

"ENEMY-"

Before any of the children could react, a long, serrated blade emerged from the tall grass and slashed against our barrier, luckily I had already reinforced it with my magic, so it just sent us flying instead of cutting right through it.

Our bodies smashed against each other as our bubble barrier bounced on the ground twice, I caught us on the next fall with a large, hand-shaped shadow construct.

"W-What was that!?" Rias exclaimed as she moved to sit down, unintentionally pressing more of her loli ass on my face.

"You are stepping over The Great Me, minion! Cease this insolence this very instant!" I guess Riser is alive, yay?

"T-Thank you, Elias." Sona was the first one to get out from the tangle of limbs. "Quick! We have to… Oh my Satans…"

"Bah! Enough of this! The great Riser Phenex doesn't have to... What is that!?"

"Rias, get up."

"Hum?… Oh, sorry!"

The girl finally got up, allowing me to see the enemy.

I had already seen it through the shadows, but seeing it through my own eyes was a whole different story.

It was the shape of a giant praying mantis, with four raptor-like front legs instead of two, but that is where the similarities ended. The abdomen was a bloated mess full of bumps that ended up in various deformed limbs, with four long hairy ones acting as the hind legs. The torso was long, fleshy and skeletal, with many open wounds along with rapidly regenerating ones; they lingered on its form like bloody jigsaw puzzles. Its face was as if someone had forcibly stretched the scalp of a human into a mantis head, with two long tusk-like teeth coming from the side of the mouth, curved like a pincer.

The thing's entire body was twitching constantly, and a pus-like viscous fluid was dripping from the wounds, instead of blood.

It only needed to preach about the wonders of Papa Nurgle to complete the image in my mind.

"Seriously, what is that!?" Riser still couldn't believe.

"Bael demon…" Rias mumbled.

"It's coming!" I shouted as the thing crossed the distance between us in an instant.

It started to slash its blades against our barrier in a brutally fast rhythm, all the while letting out an ear-piercing screech.

"We got to do something!"

"Can we even fight it!?"

No, definitely no, the answer is that simple; these kids are still not ready to take on something like this, the only one who would survive this encounter was Riser, and that's if the thing didn't have a super poison that constantly killed him until he ran out of energy or break down mentally.

That thing needs to be eviscerated alive with its own shadow, a feat that I shouldn't be able to do in the minds of the kids. But having their memories altered is better than death… thought that is also fixable… Nah, I would feel guiltier that way.

But first…

"I-It's cracking the barrier!"

Yeah, let's deal with that, I'm fairly sure I can handle the Bael region's toxic air, but I really don't want to put this to test without proper preparations.

Pushing past the panicking kids, I raised my hand and manifested the concave magic circle that was projecting the barrier. Then, I started altering the formula.

My actions seemed to have snapped them back to reality.

"Multiple layers?" Said Sona, reading the formula from over my shoulder. "That's genius!"

Soon a pair of hands joined mine, adding to my efforts, then two more pairs followed.

Hoh? What a surprise; they're better than I thought.

Soon the transparent bubble that was beginning to crack was pristine once again, with a new layer of protection stating to form around it.

The hellbeast noticed that and started to use the tip of the blade to strike us, that combined with the growing speed of the attacks managed to break the newly created layer. But soon, another one took its place; this one tinted yellow.

The beast's next strike sent its arm backward until it almost flew out of its shoulder as the impact was reflected back to it.

"HAH!"

"Nice job Riser!"

The beast let out an angry screech and twisted its body in a circular movement, using its entire torso as a whip to strike horizontally.

The strength was enough to overcome the barrier's new reflective effect and sent us rolling.

"That's it!" Riser jumps back to his feet after I stopped the roll with another shadow hand. "My new ultimate move will end this!"

"Do NOT spread your wings in there!" I shouted quickly.

"Rias, can you project your power of destruction from anywhere else other than your body?" Sona asked, putting back her glasses; it had a crack on the left lens.

"N-No, sorry."

"Then you and Riser will focus on maintaining the barrier. Elias and I will attack!"

Hoh, so miss Sitri is going to take the lead? Perhaps I should keep the shadow evisceration as plan B. This is much more interesting.

I started to make shadow spikes burst out from beneath the beast, remembering to put a magic circle before each one. The new time gap between the circle and the spell gave the beast ample opportunity to dodge it.

Sona began to show her new mastery over long distance circles by adding to my attack with ice bullets that shot the thing while it was in the middle of a dodge, but it was agile enough avoid it.

"It's fast, too fast." I heard her commenting.

The beast quickly figured out our rhythm and rapidly danced around it while moving in our direction. It got a step too close before activating Sona's trap circle and got blown away by a huge geyser.

"Yes, it fell for-"

"Too early!" I made the shadow hand drag us away as the hellbeast landed on the place we were in like a meteor. "It can't fly, but it can direct it's fall!"

Sona wasted no time in blasting a jet of water at the smoke raised by the impact. The attack, predictably, hit nothing.

"Where is it!?"

"My guess is-"

At that moment, the beast burst out from underground, it's blade hitting the lower side of the barrier with a strength that made Riser and Rias grunt. We shot upward in a perfect ninety-degree angle.

I kept my eyes on the enemy; it looked up and opened its mouth. The pincer around its mouth spread wide open, and the row of sharp teeth began to… roll like a freaking chainsaw… What the fuck is the biological explanation for this monstrosity!?

"What's it doing!?" Rias shouted.

"Trying to give us a hug- what do you think it's doing?" I snarked.

"Silence! I'm trying to think!"

Then, we were suddenly not falling anymore. There was a gust of wind blowing around our barrier, keeping us afloat.

We all turned to Riser who, because his hands were busy with the barrier's circle, had cast the spell with his foot.

"Hn! I may not be able to attack, but I'm not useless!" He shouted.

"N-Nice! Kept this up-"

"It's coming."

The hellbeast got tired of waiting for us to fall and jumped at us instead. Sona made a circle on the side in a desperate move. The jet of water hit us this time, pushing our barrier out of the way.

And the beast dove inside the stream and began to take a swing at us — what a persistent little critter.

I made a shadow quickly rise from the ground up to get in its way. The effect was like a Looney Tunes character hitting a wall at high speeds. But the move also cut the stream and made us fall, until Riser made another wind current. We stayed afloat just above the tall grass.

"Where is it!?" Sona turned to me. "Can you see it!?"

"Me too… Sona me too, tell me how I can help!?" We heard Rias shouting from behind us.

The hellbeast burst out of the grass. I reduced the time between circle and spell and battered it to the side with a shadow whip that came from the ground.

"There it is." I said, watching the tallgrass rippling around.

"We have to trap it first." Said Sona, holding her chin. "It's the only way we could land a hit."

…Oi girl, did you see what I just did!?

"Hey, how do I make one of those far away circles!?"

"Not now Rias!" Sona snarled back.

The thing jumped again, this time already adapted to my shadow whip's strength; I was barely able to change its trajectory.

No, it was not adapting, it was…

"It's getting stronger." I finished out loud.

"What!?" Sona snapped, then her eyes widened in realization, "The more it moves the stronger it gets! That's why it keeps running in circles around us. We have to get out of here!"

Too late, a mantis shaped bullet flew from the tall grass in a scary level of speed. Oh boy, I don't think the children are fast enough to react to that.

Ok, if it manages to break the outer layer, I'm killing it.

As the blades were about to hit us, a blinding flash of light flared; it came from a horribly misshapen magic circle that appeared right in front of the flying hellbeast. I could see it was an explosion spell, a good idea given that most offensive spells explode if they fail anyway, but this one failed so hard it turned into a light spell instead.

The thing screeched painfully and flinched violently. Crashing on us with its back instead of its blades. It soon was on the ground, squirming.

Mm, sensitive eyes… makes sense considering the speed it could reach.

"That's it?... That was all I could do!?" Rias said in a desperate tone.

"No Rias"... Commented Sona, watching the bug writhing on the dirt, "You saved us!" She sends her friend a thankful smile before focusing back on the immediate threat.

A bright blue, Sitri-styled, magic circle appeared right beneath the mantis, sending it upward in another geyser. Half of the way another Sitri circle appeared in the opposite direction; shooting its own jet of water. Soon, a series of the same type of circles appeared from the sides, trapping the hellbeast in a prison of circular rapids.

"T-There!" Grunted Sona, the effort of keeping multiple spells activated evident on her voice. "Someone… please-"

"I got you."

I pointed two fingers forward and made a Dantalion circle appear just above the water prison, then I pointed upward, and made more and more appeared until it resembled a pillar.

The simple lightning spell started on the highest circle, and with each subsequent one it passed through, it grew in size and strength, making it more powerful.

It crashed on the target as a colossal bolt of lightning, the impact was felt almost physically as the world was overtaken by sounds and fury.

When we could see again, there was only a wide crater with a black, scorched mass at the center.

The kids stayed in shocked silence for a few moments.

"We… We did it." Riser's astonished voice was the first one that broke the silence. "We killed a Bael demon."

That opened the gates, and the cheers started, cheers of a group of happy children could make; I stood stoically silent like the badass I was.

Alright, I also joined in. I couldn't help it; these kids' enthusiasm is extremely infectious.

"You were incredible!" Little Sona jumped on me while Rias and Riser chanted 'we are awesome' in the background. "The way the circles fed power to the primary spell, and, and the way it passed through them all without any rejection!" Her purple eyes were sparkling as she got closer to my face. "I didn't even know this was possible!"

"Hey, don't go dishing the stunt you pulled back there; keeping twenty-three different spells activated at long range, each one with their own formula must have needed some mad concentration there." I gave her a friendly smile. "We make a good team Sona."

She opened her mouth to respond but suddenly frozen. I was almost turning back to see what was behind me before she moved again.

"GIH!" She makes a strangled sound with her throat, and quickly turned until I could only see the back of her head. Her ears were extraordinarily red.

"I-I-I-I think… Y-Y-You… I-I mean. Y-yes we do E-Elias…"

What the- did I send her my 'bullshit smile' by mistake?

Whatever…

"You can call me Ely if you want, you know. Rias already does and Ravel started doing so as well. It's only a matter of time before everybody calls me that."

There was another strangled sound; one much higher pitched this time. I got the impression that she only heard the first part.

*C-Crack!*

A loud cracking sound suddenly echoed through the air. We immediately focused on the source.

"…No." Murmured one of the girls.

The scorched mantis hellbeast stood back up, his body trembling like never before, with bit and pieces of it falling to the ground.

"How that hell is that thing still alive!?" Rias exclaimed.

"Calm down and look at it, it looks about to fall over. It must be about to die."

I regretted these words as soon as they came out of my mouth.

With a gross, skittering sound and a lot of shaking, the thing's burned skin began to elongate, stretching forward in a display similar to the Star War movies' hyperspace effect. Then with a louder crack, the scorched skin fell from its body entirely, revealing a fully healed mantis demon beneath with its new skin pink and healthy.

… Okay, that's kind of cheating.

"...Yep, that's it. I'm toasting the bastard." Riser suddenly announced, breaking the shocked silence. "Elias, is there some way to get only my wings out of the barrier!?"

"Well, It's certainly possible, maybe if we make a hole in the inner layer while leaving the outer layer closed-"

Whatever battle plan we were starting to cook up was interrupted by the appearance of an enormous blur leaping over us from above and crashing on the mantis hellbeast like a speeding locomotive. There was a loud crunching sound, and the bug was ripped in two before we could barely blink.

Hum, I was wondering when the ruckus we were making would attract a new hellbeast.

Our new problem came in the form of a gorgeous lion-like creature the size of a school bus; it looks like a perfect example of an adult African lion, save for a pair of large bull horns sprouting from its forehead.

It turned its head and looked at us with a pair of freakishly intelligent yellow eyes. Blood and other unmentionable fluids of the mantis demon still dripping down its muzzle- wait, is that safe to put in its mouth?

"Great, another one. This just keeps getting better and better!" Fumed Riser throwing his hands up in exasperation

"At least we don't have to deal with the mantis anymore." I smiled sardonically, trying to get a feel of the newcomer's strength.

"Wait, Wait, WAIT!" Rias suddenly puts herself in front of us. "It's not an enemy!"

I raised my eyebrow, and Riser grumbled a "You better be certain about that." From the side.

"It's true," Sona added, "It's one of Sairaorg's mother's lions. Huh…"

"Mr. Fuzzywhiskers!" Rias finished, before turning around and press her hand against the barrier wall. "Hello, Mr. Fuzzywhiskers!"

… Leaving aside the giant black lion named Mr. Fuzzywhiskers… No, let's focus on the giant lion named Mr. Fuzzywhiskers. Why is the giant lion named Mr. Fuzzywhiskers?

"That's a… a Vapula raised lion, right? I didn't know they made it this big." Riser commented as the giant lion named Mr. Fuzzywhiskers approached.

"They keep the best ones within the family. Aunt Misla is particularly good at raising them, so she has a lot of super strong ones!" Rias explained without turning her head.

Ah yes, the Vapula bloodline ability of 'power of lions'. Just like the Furcas', it was deceitfully weak sounding ability when put on paper, and it's true that it doesn't bring any immediate personal power, but when one takes a moment to think about the full implications of it, and remembers that a devil's ability is only limited by their imagination, then the majesty of the power begins to appear.

A Vapula can take a small and sickly lion cub and turn it into a killing machine after a few short months of training. They can train their lions to obey the command of their masters like a normal trainer does, but they can also train them to grow on command, to turn invisible, to breath fire or to spit poison, and many, many other things… Sure, the process itself must be more complicated than that, and it requires time and effort, but what a skilled Vapula can do with a well-bred lion cub is, frankly, scary.

The Vapula family and the Furcas family's abilities are basically making super hellbeasts out of ordinary animals, they have enough versatility with it to easily land them a spot among the pillars.

To be honest, I had underestimated their power when I first heard about it. But now, standing so close to one of their creatures, and feeling the power it radiated, I definitely won't make that mistake again.

"Hey, there big guy," Rias said as Mr. Fuzzywhiskers bumped its huge nose against the barrier. "Can you take us to your mommy?"

The lion licked the barrier…Ew.

"W-What is he? A dog-WOAH!"

We all screamed as he bit the side of our environmental bubble, his long fangs easily piercing through the outer layer.

"Wh-What are you doing boy, you can't- OW!"

Mr. Fuzzywhiskers suddenly raised us, and bolted forwards, stepping over the sharp blades of tallgrass like they're nothing. He even managed to keep us stable while he ran.

"Oh, he is just taking us there."

"… So, that means it's over?... we did it?"

After a few moments of silence, the three children fell on their backs and let out their respective sound of relief.

I sat back and chuckled at the display. It was definitively a good decision to not kill the mantis immediately. I'm damn proud of these kids; not only do they kept their head relatively clear while fighting the strongest type of hellbeast of the Underworld, also the place's boogeyman coincidentally, but they also pulled a victory against it. Sure, I was there to help along and fix things if the worst came to pass, but they didn't know that, and Sona just used me as another piece in her strategy, so it still counts.

Plus, I had a lot of fun.

Closing my eyes and leaning my head against the barrier, I let the rushing sounds of the wind, and the very soft shake of the bubble drift me into a nap.

As always, my perspective automatically fell into the shadow-

What the fuck is that!?

"Ow! What the-?"

"An earthquake?" I heard the children's voices in the world of light.

... It was big, really freaking big, colossally fucking big actually!

And it was right beneath us!

"ELIAS, wake up!" I snapped open my eyes to the worried face of Rias, "Something is happening, Look!"

I did, and I saw the jagged white pillars rising from the earth on the horizon. I already knew they were its teeth.

"Oi lion! GET US OUT OF-"

I didn't even finish my shout before Mr. Fuzzywhiskers accelerated. Our immediate surrounding becomes a blur and a cone of air soon started to form around us. Indicating that we already surpassed the speed of most race cars and were getting close to subsonic velocity.

The titanic hellbeast also moved with frighteningly fast speeds, its mouth soon appeared in the horizon like a cover of solid darkness and began to rise; it was like watching a mountain valley forming in fast forward, and it resonated with the sounds of tectonic plates moving.

Deep fissures started to appear on the shaking ground.

"I-It can't be, I never heard of a hellbeast this big-or, or anything this big for that matter," Sona mumbled on my side.

"Bael region; it always come out with new ways to fuck you over!" I remarked, and turned back to our vehicle, "FASTER LION, FASTER!"

I can't believe that worked, but it did.

Mr. Fuzzywhiskers groaned and accelerated even more. His paws broke the ground behind him with the strength of his steps. He had to jump and dodge when the fissures spread too deep and had to leap when the ground began to go up vertically and practically turned into a platform game, but he somehow kept up the speed.

Then, when the light of the sun was about to fade away, and the mountains that overtaken the world were about to close up forever, we went from jumping in the absolute darkness, to flying in a tunnel of light. And the world became clear once again as we start falling on the outside. The shockwave of the mouth smashing close was so strong that we used it to boost our fall.

"… Well." I croaked out after we got a mile away from it. Is it wrong to laugh right now? The adrenaline is getting to my head, oh fuck I think some laughter is going to escape. "That happened."

All the kids groaned in response, we fell limp to the barrier floor soon after. Hehe, I noticed that they huddled together around me; tiny devils searching for comfort are cute.

"The great Riser…" Said the man himself, leaning his back directly against mine. "Needs a rest."

"Me too." Murmured Sona, resting against mine and Riser's shoulder.

Rias shifted, she was on the opposite position than Sona, "You know, we could have used the teleportation circle to get away…"

…

…

But it would be the coward's way out! We, as the badass pillar devils that we are, had decided to stick with our loyal companion Mr. Fuzzywhiskers, until the end! Even at the risk of being eaten alive! Yes, that is exactly the reason! We definitely didn't forget we had a teleportation circle!

Definitely!

Sighing, I leaned my head against Riser's and looked back at the titanic creature superimposed over the horizon. It started to let out a booming, whale-like sound that made the air itself tremble. Hearing that, I couldn't help but think about the small woodland creatures back on my forest.

Man, they sure have a long way to go.

-0-0-0-

Mr. Fuzzywhiskers couldn't keep the transonic pace for too long and had to significantly reduced his speed a few moments after the immediate danger passed. Though he was panting heavily against the barrier and clearly needing a rest, he kept going, moving at the speeds of a sports car.

We passed through what was left of the grasslands and entered a barren landscape that wouldn't be out of place in an early Fallout game. There was a vast amount of nothingness around us for a while, but soon a dome-shaped form emerged in the distance, and the lions started to appear.

They were lurking around the area, at a distance from each other, trying to patrol the maximum amount of land. The only thing similar about them was that they all resembled a lion in appearance, but besides that, they looked vastly different from one another. They had different color schemes, different sizes, different animal part on their bodies, some of them were even bipeds; these ones looked particularly weird.

I noticed that a great number of them were injured in one shape or form. Though many looked treated, it didn't strike me as the best idea to let them out in the Bael's toxic air with open wounds.

"How many super lions does she have?" I asked the girls as we ran past lion number eleven: the Chimera knockoff version.

Rias' brow furrowed as she tried to recall, "I don't know exactly… a lot?"

"Forty-seven." Answered Sona, "I counted when we visited earlier, and about fifty-three cubs."

A hundred potential super lions hm? I wonder if that is the average for a member of her family, or if Lady Misla Bael- or is it Lady Misla Vapula now? - was preparing for this.

As we got closer to our destination, we were able to see the broad, yet moderately high concrete wall that seems to contour a great part of the horizon. Getting even closer, we could see that the wall was recently made and didn't look like it would do much against the horrors of the region, but the strength of the barrier carved in it more than make up for the lack of defense.

The Iron Gate installed on the wall opened automatically as we approached, but the barrier stayed in place. Mr. Fuzzywhiskers approached, promptly pressed our bubble against it, and pushed hard.

After a moment of small bodies smashing together and children groaning and cursing, with popped inside.

"We are finally here!" Rias exclaimed, taking a noisy, vacuum-like, breath of the clear air. After hours of being cramped together with three others on a magical bubble, I can relate.

"HAH! Another challenge overcome by the Great RISER PHENEX!" Boasted the bird boy, spreading his flaming wings.

"Can you two keep it down, please? And pull back your wings." Sona talked next.

I ignore the children in favor of checking the place. It was just as vast and barren as the outside. But there were a few devil-made buildings around; I could see an indoor farm at a distance, what I believed were several storages, and of course, a big house in the middle, though calling it a house is stretching a little; a vaguely house-shape armored bunker would be a better description, in fact, all the building were like this. Whoever built them clearly placed protection over aesthetics, as they rightfully should.

Checking the shadows to get a better view, I noticed that every single one of them spread across a few floors underground, and were connected together by a web of corridors.

But the thing that brought immediate attention to me wasn't the armored building; it was the medical tents raised close by to where we are.

There were about nine giant lions being treated there, all in various stages of distress, from the healthy looking one with a few scratches, who looked ready to get back into the fray, to the unconscious one missing most of its limbs, who was clearly fighting for its life.

There were also some devils running around there, surprisingly. My guess is that they were loyal servants who couldn't abandon their beloved lady and the young lordling; every household had some of those.

"RIAS!"

The shout came from an exhausted-looking woman wearing a safari gear running to us.

"Aunt Mis-" The woman quickly pulled Rias into a hug.

"Oh Satans, you're alright, thanks Satans you are alright." Sona started to sidestep, but the woman was quicker; the Sitri heiress soon joined inside the bone breaking hug. "You're both alright!"

So, this is Sairaorg's mother huh? Like every other pillar mother, she was gorgeous. Even with the thick dark circles around her eyes, and the stress lines on her face, she still held an air of aristocratic beauty along with a kind, motherly aura. The grimy safari gear didn't show much skin, but her shapely curves pushed against it in a very attractive way.

She continued to speak.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Some of the hellbeasts managed to teleport inside earlier this morning, I had to add an emergency anti-teleportation ward to keep them outside. It didn't even occur to me that you would be back until I felt you slamming against it. I sent a rescue party but I feared- Oh thank Satans you're alright!" The poor girls groaned painfully as the hug became even tighter.

Wait a second; an emergency anti-teleportation ward that held against a Beelzebub-designed spell? Either good old Ajuka is losing his spark, or this woman is just that good.

She pulled back and, like magic, her mood shifted.

"Rias dear… Sona dear" She said too kindly while her fingers pinched the girls' cheeks. "…What did I say about coming back here?"

Oh, the motherly aura turned into the scary version of it. My own mother has been trying to achieve that for ages, but she still couldn't bring the right amount of irritation toward her child to do it.

"T-To not come back until you said so- Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!Ouch!" Poor Sona, her soft baby cheeks will never be the same.

"W-Wait Aunt Misla, I know we jumped into considerable danger because we came back but- Noooooooo!" There was no mercy for Rias' cheek also.

"Yes, very good! So, you remembered that I told you to wait until I sent you a message confirming that things are safe, that it would take a few days for the swarm of hellbeasts to get used to the new addition to their ecosystem, and that they wouldn't stop attacking until then, thus making this an extremely dangerous place for cute children like you to be around. And I also distinctively remember telling you to not use teleportation until we set up a proper saferoom for it, that it has a chance of failing and send you flying to the most dangerous place in the Underworld. Kinda like,exactly what just happened!"

"W-What a scary woman." Commented a horrified Riser besides me.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Guuuh! Bhut! Bhut! Therhe were no Hellbeasht for most of our whay here!" Sona, tried to argue.

"That's because of the Apple Orchard's presence, they will come back after it passes."

Apple orchard? The fuck? What does an apple orchard have anything to do with anything… wait, wait, wait that gigantic hellbeast is called Apple Orchard- Why is that gigantic hellbeast get called Apple Orchard!?

"Now." The older woman finally released the girl's cheeks, "Why are you guys back so soon?" She asked in a tone of someone who already knew the answer.

"We came to see Sai!" Rias responded, holding her aching cheek.

"Sorry for coming back without warning, but we couldn't leave him alone like this, not after the way we last spoke." Sona turned to us. "We even brought Elias to help!"

Hehe, Riser is grinding his teeth from being purposefully ignored.

"'My, Elias Dantalion, I heard a lot about you." She says with a tired smile, I bowed my head in a silent greeting. She turned to Riser "… And you are?"

The bird boy blew a puff of smoke, but open an arrogant smile nevertheless, "RISER PHENEX, Madam, Greatest devil of my generation!"

The little bastard declared that as an open challenge, cheeky brat.

Lady Vapula let out a soft peal of laughter and bowed politely. "It's a pleasure to meet you young Dantalion, young Phenex. And I thank you for showing support to my son."

I roughly pushed my elbow on Riser's ribs, preventing his snarky response, and answered instead. "Thank you for having us Lady Vapula. I wish we had met under better circumstances."

And don't think I missed how you worded your greeting there, you sneaky sexy MILF - trying to use our visit to gain some political points with the nearby Lords hm? Smart move, going against the Bael will require all the help she could get.

The corners of her smile twitched a little.

"It's still Lady Bael, I'm afraid. The creature that I married still holding on to some disillusion that I will abandon my son and go back to it. It is doing what it can to make the title stick for as long as possible."

That's… interesting, and I believe it goes against Sairaorg's wiki page, which told me that both he and his mother were forced to live in the Bael countryside. However, if I think about it, it makes sense that the Bael lord want to keep his wife, especially if what Rias said is true and she is 'particularly good' at her ability.

One would think that the mothers of abilityless pillars children would be shunned by society, and I'm sure they were at one point, but it quickly became apparent that this phenomenon wasn't genetic, and could happen to any devil at random. So today there is usually no repercussions to the mother in those cases.

Hum... The Bael lord wants her back, her birth family will most certainly provide shelter if she asked, and she could easily snatch another marriage if she wanted, for the fact that she has a son - a proof of her fertility - makes her extremely more desirable as a marriage prospect. This lady has options.

And despite all these options, she still chose to stay with her son…

I think I like her.

"Okay now that everyone has been introduced!" Riser chirped in impatiently. "Can we go see Sai!?"

Lady Misla's smile became brittle. "Rias dear, I don't think it's-"

"Aunty, please! I have to make things right!" The Gremory heiress practically begged.

Brown-haired lady gazes the little red-haired for a long moment before she trailed her eyes to the rest of us and did the same. In the end, she sighed.

"Alright, you know where he is staying, right?"

"YES!" Rias jumped and planted a kiss on her aunt's cheek, before taking off running in the direction of the house.

Sona sighed as she watched her go. "She could have waited for us…" The Sitri girl grumbled under her breath and turned to Lady Misla. "Thank you Lady Bael, we will be going now. This way boys."

Riser followed her with a petulant 'Finally!'

I stayed behind.

Lady Misla blinked confusedly "Aren't you going with them, young Dantalion?"

I shifted my weight over the sole of my feet and rubbed the back of my neck.

"Yeah, but… Will you be alright?"

She looked at me calmly for a few seconds, and then slowly rose to her feet, battering the dirt from her knees.

"… You got sharp senses for someone of your age." She commented as she straightened her back and rolled her shoulders. "What can you feel?"

A few miles from here, the shadows of hundreds of Bael-grade hellbeasts gathering. It doesn't seem to be a uniformed or even organized attack, but they seem to be almost instinctively drawn to this place. The wave of demons weren't numerous enough to be considered a zerg rush, but it's still a worrisome sight.

"They are coming from the west, I don't know the exact distance or the exact numbers." I lied smoothly. "But there is a lot of them."

"Ummm-Huh!" Lady Misla arched her back until there was a pop. She let out a moan of pleasure for it. "It means I have to get back to work! I will try to swing by later to see how you kids are doing."

She took a step closer and put her arm around my shoulders in a gentle embrace, then kissed the crown of my head. I took advantage of the generous opportunity to place a bind in her, of course.

"Thank you for worrying about this old lady, you are a gentleman!" She giggled happily. "But it's really nothing out of the ordinary for me, so you just go play with your friends and don't worry."

She walked past me in the direction of the gates. Her last words were muttered under her breath. They were so quiet that I had trouble catching it, and they came in a steel-clad tone that clashed against the image the woman presented.

"I just have to establish the pecking order."

Oh yeah, I really like her.

-0-0-0-

With the general layout of the area already on my head, it was easy to know where I was going.

Sairaorg was staying in a secure room deep underground, with food and water to last him months in case the worst happened in the surface, and a few custom teleportation circle for him to go in and out after the dust settled.

It was the one part of the house that resembled a nice apartment instead of a Soviet bomb shelter.

He himself was at a training room on the lower floor doing katas with heavy weights strapped to his limbs.

I was the last one to arrive, but the 'conversation' could be heard from the stair.

"… And so we were like 'Oh No!' but thankfully Elias and Sona Quickly formed a bubble around us!..."

Rias was talking with forced enthusiasm. The black-haired boy was ignoring her completely and focusing on moving from stance to stance with fighting shouts.

"We had to travel to the place like hamsters on a ball, can you believe it?! That annoying Riser complained the whole time! He kept saying things like…"

Sona was beside Rias with a difficult expression on her face. Sairaorg's actions were also affecting her a lot; she actually disliked being ignored with the same intensity as Riser, but she usually kept it under wraps.

"A-And then out of nowhere a Bael demon appeared! It was sooooo gross! It looked like a mantis but with a kind of human face, it was the grossest demon I ever saw…"

Sairaorg had a dark look on his eyes and a severe expression on his face, I'm sure it would be scarier when he's older and more muscular, but now it looked like he wanted to take revenge on the leaf village while wearing a blue turtle neck.

I honestly don't know what Rias and Sona wanted me to do here. I talked with Sairaorg five-no six times in my entire life; we were always relatively friendly towards each order, but we were acquaintances at best, definitely not close enough to have a heartfelt conversation without being awkward. Either way, it doesn't really look like he even wants to talk.

I sighed; ignoring Rias attempts to start a conversation, and moved closer to Riser, who was watching everything at a distance with crossed arms .

"Hey." I greeted, "How's progress?"

"Progress?" He snorted, and the shook his head, "I don't even know what we're doing here."

"Yeah."

We turn to the sad display in front of us.

"The Bael's heir…" He said after a few seconds. "What a letdown."

I hummed at his words. "You know him better than me, or fought against him more times anyway. Is it really a let-down if nothing has changed expect the fact that he won't be getting a cool power?"

"The best power a devil could have, supposedly. And yes, it's a let-down; I thought I would be facing him at his best in the future... Turns out the last time we fought was his best." Riser scorned as he continued. "It's a tremendous disappointment; he was my second-best rival."

"Hum? Who is the first?" I asked, then felt Riser grabbing the topside of my head and squeeze.

"Stop being cheeky you damn minion!"

"Ouch! Alright sorry." I said, pushing his hand away.

There was more silence between us for a few more seconds.

"… He was falling behind lately."

"I see."

We stayed quiet after that, hearing more of Rias' suborn attempts.

Until the inevitable happened.

"ENOUGH!" Sairaorg barked, startling both girls.

"A-Ah, Sai!? Wh-"

"Why are you telling me this!? Do you think it's funny that I can't go on exclusive heirs adventures anymore! Have you come to rub the fact that I'm too weak to hang out with you anymore, so you got new friends?!"

"W-What? No! It's nothing like that Sai! You are not weak-"

"I AM WEAK!" Yep; he is gonna cry. "I haven't made a single progress for an entire year now. I suck at magic, and my trainers have gone to say that I have the smallest energy reserves of this entire generation. I'm terrible at that book stuff and I can't memorize the things they tell me to, I just can't! The only thing I thought I was good at was fighting, but my little brother won easily against me. And I- I don't even have the…" He grabbed a handful of his shirt, right above his heart, and, like I was expecting, the tears came gushing out. His face shifted into an utterly desolate expression.

"S-Sai. Sai it's alright," Rias tried to hug him and got roughly pushed back.

"NO! You can't… I can't…" His tearful blank eyes swiped around the room, noticing the audience. "F-Fight me. Fight me Rias!"

"W-WHAT!? Why would I-" She got interrupted by a punch, which she instinctively dodged. "Sai, stop!"

"Sairaorg, you are going too far! There is no reason for-" Sona tried to step in, only to become a target herself. She blocked the kick sent her way, and slid out of his range.

The ex-Bael heir didn't stop attacking, and the two girls continued to avoid him and tried to talk him down; all of which only made him more frustrated.

"What the… This is…" Riser mouthed slowly beside me, he looked astonished by the turns of events. "This is shameful."

"No… It's more than that." I felt my fists clenching as I watched the travesty happening before me. "It's disgusting."

Something has always bothered me about Rias and Sairorg's relationship in canon. They are allies, they are friendly toward each other, but they aren't like the Rias and Sairorg I know now.

I don't know Sairaorg well enough to know the details, but it's obvious from hanging out with Rias, and hearing stories from Sona; that Rias and Sairaorg are extremely close friends, best friends in fact, they are frequently at each other's house, constantly in contact with each other, always talking about one another, and their families had practically adopted them as their other child- the mother side of a family in Sairaorg's case. One only needs to look at Rias emotional reaction to Sairaorg's situation to know how much she cares for him.

None of that is depicted in canon, or at least in the limited canon that I know of. I thought it was because of technical reasons, of the anime not wanting to make time to establish a character that was so close to the main heroine that he could threaten the main character's chances with her. But there is also another possibility… it was possible that something in the past happened that must have put a wrench on their relationship, and downgraded it into the distant camaraderie present in the show.

... This is it; this is the wrench of their relationship. The thing that made them grow apart. If this continued to happen each time she visits, then I could see how this could eat away at their friendship until it was a shadow of its former self.

"Please stop!" Sobbed Rias with a tearful voice. "I don't want to fight you, please!"

The crying Sairaorg made a bolder move and ended up triggering Rias' reflects enough for her to strike at his unbalance legs, sending him to the floor. "Ah! S-Sorry!"

The boy screamed against the metal floor and pushed himself back up. Tears and snot marked his face; his purple eyes are dulled by anger and despair.

Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

… Rias Gremory and Sona Sitri, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

That metal floor clanked as I stomp in. Burying my fist in Sairaorg's face and sending him flying backward until he hit the wall on the other side of the room.

"I will fight you."

"E-Elias!? is really isn't a goo-"

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING-"

"SILENCE!" A bombastic voice and a flash of light and heat indicated that Riser made his move. "You two have done enough!"

I ignored them and focused on the fallen boy before me.

Sairaorg pushed himself to his knees with trembling limbs, still looking dizzy for the sudden strike. He was holding his crushed nose with one hand, the blood dripping between his fingers.

"So how is it gonna be? Are you going to rise to the challenge Sairaorg No Name, or are you going to stay down like a weakling?"

My taunt provoked the boy enough from him to let out an angry scream and jump at me with a feral pounce. I easily slipped inside his careless guard and landed a brutal punch on his midriff for his insolence. He vomited his stomach's content, and fell over the puddle.

"If you're going to fight like an animal, then I will treat you like an animal!" I snarled. "What, did daddy kick you out so hard that you forgot how to fight properly?"

That struck a nerve and he lashed out with a wide arm movement and another angry scream.

I kick down his arm mid-strike, and then kick his injured belly. The last kick was on the injured nose; it threw him back to the wall with a trail of blood.

"Where is that bravado from earlier!?" I barked. The boy didn't respond, he couched, tried to pick himself up, and failed. "What? Is that it!? I guess I was expecting too much form a weakling like you!"

His fingers padded the wall until they find the small gap between metal plates. He used the new leverage to pull himself to his feet with a loud painful groan. I waited patiently for him to stop swaying.

Then, his limbs moved into a proper stance. His purple eyes that were full with directionless anger before now held something different.

"I'm not weak."

Finally, Now to stroke that ember.

"Prove it," I said, falling into my own fighting stance.

We met in the middle in an aggressive storm of punches and kicks, circling around each order while trying to dominate the fight.

Sairaorg was trained in various martial arts, which is common for a pillar devil who wanted to specialize in close quarter, along those fighting styles was one of the Bael family's secret ones that was extremely effective if used right, but he had a severe disadvantage due to his injuries and his current inability to breathe from his nose. There was also the fact that I was a master in every fighting style that he knew, but I was doing my best to fight at his level.

Still, it wasn't long before I had him cornered.

"You know? I want to fight without holding back, but I fear it would be boring."

"Shut the fuck up!" The sneaky bastard managed to use my own fist to get rid of the weight on his left arm, the others were quick to follow.

Good, he is using his anger correctly.

"Why!" I ducked under his punch. "Can't." Got out of the range of his kick. "I." Parried his elbow. "Hit you!?"

"Less talking, more fighting!"

I ducked again, my ankle hitting a fallen weight and receiving a head-butt for it.

"Got it!" He smiled for the first time in who knows how long.

"Lucky shot, brat!"

The fight lasted for longer then I imagined, I made him work for every hit he managed to land on me, and punished him for every failure.

After a while, I began striking him harder and harder in an attempt to bring him down, but he powered through it.

By the end, he was a bloody, dirty, swollen mess but still trying to stand up.

"Down," I said to the bloody bruise in shaped of a boy. "You will die if we continue Sairaorg."

He made a grumbling noise; his face was too swollen for him to speak clearly, but his brilliant purple eye, the one that could still stay open that is, communicated his unbroken will.

Forcing him down is the only way huh? Fucking stubborn little bastard.

I raised my leg high and brought it down in a vicious axe kick. If it was a human's head, it would have popped like a balloon, but with Sairaorg's it just imprinted his face into the metal floor.

And the motherfucker still punched his broken hands on the floor beside him and tried to push himself off.

I couldn't help but to nod approvingly at his drive, while I kept my weight over his head and suffocated him into unconsciousness.

... Sighing deeply, I kicked him to his back, and made sure he wasn't going to die before I went to collect my jacket that I took off sometime during the fight.

Instead of finding it on the ground, I found it on the hands of Misla Bael, who was watching from the sidelines.

Wait, when did she get there? How long have we been at it?

The woman threw the jacket around my shoulders and gave me a small thankful smile. She brushed her thumb against a bruise I receive on my cheek before moving to take care of her unconscious son.

... Not gonna lie; that made me blush a little. I can't help it; beautiful mothers really do it for me.

Shaking away these thoughts I moved to face the rest of audience.

The first thing I noticed was the ruined state of this part of the room. Looks like another fight had happened parallel to my own, and seeing a growling Rias being pinned on the floor by Riser told me who came out victorious.

I rolled my eyes at the little redhead's murderous glare. Of course…

Sona was looking much better if I say so myself; she was awkwardly rubbing her arms with the bangs of her hair overshadowing her eyes.

Good, I didn't even had to tell her to think about what she'd done, what an obedient girl.

Now, to deal with the unruly one.

Riser shrugged his shoulders at my silent gesture, and released the girl. She immediately lunged at me, as expected.

"YOU! HOW DARE YOU!?" I caught her straight punch; it held a deceptively decent amount of power for its size.

"Rias…"

"YOU LIKE TO BULLY PEOPLE HUH!? LIKE TO FEEL STRONG WHILE YOU BEAT SOMEONE IN A VULNERABLE STATE!?" Her other fist flew, I caught that one too, and the little red-haired tried to turn that into a strength contest.

"Rias!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? I THOUGHT YOU WERE NICE!" I narrowed my eyes as a few specs of pure destruction began to appear in response to her emotions.

"RIAS, STOP!"

The Gremory heiress drew a sharp breath and paused. She slowly turned to look at her dark-haired friend, shocked by the usually quiet girl's outburst.

"We were insulting him Rias," Sona explained bluntly, lowered her eyes with a guilty look. "We were spitting on Sairaorg's pride."

Mmm, a bit more than that, but at least she knows she fucked up.

"Wh-" Rias began but cut herself short. She snapped her confused look to me, then past me, to where Sairaorg laid.

I released her hands as her aquamarine eyes began widening with the horrifying realization.

"I-It can't… What was I… N-No, no, I didn't mean…" She placed her hand over her mouth as a hiccup escaped. "Oh Satans…"

I waited for a few seconds to let it sink in, before finally speaking.

"I think you are consuming a little too much human media, Rias." I moved my reprimanding glare over the Sitri heiress. "You too."

Rias let out a strangled sob, while Sona nodded weakly, still keeping her head down.

I held firm for a few moments before sighing deeply. I can't keep a hard face when cute kids are like that… maybe they aren't the only one who are a little too human.

"There is nothing inherently wrong with that, and it might even be a good thing in the long run, who knows? But clashes are bound to happen. If you continue like that, someone will get hurt." Who this 'someone' is debatable though. "Just… Don't forget what you are, in the end… And think about this."

"I really didn't mean it…" Whined Rias in a small voice.

I patted her on the head and left her to her own thoughts. I tried with Sona too, and gained a partly thankful, partly annoyed look in response.

"Hn! Look at who is talking!" Huffed Riser as we left the girls to their thoughts and went to sit at the stairs. "The Great Me would have left them to drown in their own shame!"

"Meh, I do what I like," I responded to the annoying bird boy.

"Whatever…" He cracked his neck. "…We never get to hunt that Cockatrice."

"We killed that Bael demon though."

"HN! The Phenex's Cockatrices are stronger!" Riser declared, clearly trying to compensate.

I chuckled and began to mull over what happened in these last few hours

All and all, it was fun coming here, I got to experience what an original Satan deathbed is like for the first time, and this experience will undoubtedly be useful for the trip I'm planning in the future, plus watching these kids unite to fight against that mantis thing was a blast. I got to see the true extent of the Vapulas' power, and the Furcas' if they follow the same logic with their horses, and met an A-grade Milf that is a hot momma to boot; meeting those always makes my day.

And Sairaorg Bael… I never noticed how interesting he is, the way he got back up each time he got down… That boy got a fire in him.

Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep contact, maybe visit from time to time using Rias as an excuse-

"Hey minion, it's getting boring, let's go do something!"

Of course, I can always trust Riser to interrupt my mental monologue.

I opened my mouth to respond, but got interrupted by a sweet voice.

"Ara, that is perfect! I do have something for you to do!"

Misla Bael appeared carrying the prone form of Sairaorg Bael, with a better-looking Sona and Rias trailing after her.

"Why don't you two kind boys help me get my son to bed. Then we'll talk about the chores he was supposed to do today." She made a smiling evil face at me in particular.

Oh boy.

-0-0-0-

…What am I doing here?

"SO! My glorious golden phoenix will attack your worthless mutt with her mighty 3000 attack points!"

"Not so fast! you activated my trap card!"

"NANI!?"

Seriously, what am I doing here? I know I said I'd be visiting Sairaorg, but I didn't mean two days after I made that decision .

Now I'm in a sofa so soft that I fear I might sink on it if I wasn't careful, with a growling Riser Phenex and a mummified Sairaorg playing a children card game in the low coffee table before me.

The small table cracked under the weight of Riser's tantrum.

"WHAT!? You can't do that, IT'S AGAINST THE RULES!"

"No, I'm pretty sure it's within the rules, at least the ones that Rias told us." The mummified boy shrugged, he managed to do so without wincing this time. "And besides…" He opens a lopsided smile. "What are rules anyway?"

I took my eyes away from them as Riser began to Reee and moved up to where the large human television stood. There was a way-too-attractive loli ass parked in the air beside it, and a huge, and way-more-attractive MILF one in the same position.

"And then, you put the yellow tipped cable in the same colored hole…" The tv suddenly lights up. Rias' upper body popped out from behind it to check. "Voila!" She said cheerfully.

"Myyy." Lady Misla also got out from behind the tv, to see the logo of the DVD player moving around the screen. She took a page of my Mother's fashion sense and was wearing a casual wear so tiny that'd probably break the decency laws of some countries. "The human's technology is so fascinating!" She beamed, clapping her hands enthusiastically.

I watched all of that with a blank expression on my face, until Sona entered the room.

"The popcorns are ready." She announced, presenting a large bucket of popcorn while five more buckets floated behind her, propelled by small magic circles. "Or I think so? I never did anything like this. I'm sorry if they're burned."

…What am I doing here, seriously? Shouldn't I be training or something?

"Alright!" Declared a smiling Rias after she turned the lights off. "The series we gonna binge today is one of my favorites, so everybody shut up and enjoy it!"

"Language, young lady!"

"Gah! Sorry, aunty."

The show started. Immediately, very familiar images began to appear, together with a very familiar song.

'I wanna be the very best,

Like no one ever was'

…There is literally no benefit for me being here.

'To catch them is my real test,

To train them is my cause (Ooh ooh ooh!)'

… I'm not placating the eyes of devil society, or gaining brownie points with the kid's families by being here.

'I will travel across the land.

Searching far and wide'

… Hell, I'm pretty sure they don't even know that we are gathered here.

So why the hell did I come!?

There was a soft tug on my sleeve; I blinked, and turned to find a blushing Sona Sitri, offering her bucket of popcorn to me.

"Hum… W-Would you like some… E-Ely?"

The smile came easily; it set comfortably in my face. The way the girl perked because of it almost made me laugh.

What an adorable little devil.

"Sure, I'd love to!"

I was about to put the popcorn on my mouth when I froze, the obvious realization dawning on me.

…

… Oh fuck.

'Ooh, you're my best friend.

In a world we must defend'

(Pokémon!)