Exalted

Chapter 43, Pack your stuff, we're going to Hell

Also, it is April 7th today, right? Happy 8th anniversary of Minato arriving in Iwatodai!

[I'm super sick, so this is a belated message now that the 7th has passed.]

Minato's outfit was inspired by Bloodborne, but also as an evolution of his current attire of a double breasted velvet blue suit. The first coat is double breasted as well and closed from the chest down, hiding his shirt and vest from view except for towards the neck.

What I mean by that is the extra coat allows him to have access to some form of shadow when it is stationary, moving or thrown, considering Kuroka has proven that in a bright enough area with enough sources of light, he might not have access to enough shadows to summon his more powerful weapons or use his method of quick traveling. Same for his hat.

The cane isn't a cane, it just looks like a cane. While he might look a bit odd carrying a walking stick with him, it is far more inconspicuous than carrying around a sword-spear.

I don't see Minato wearing heavy armor, so I need to give him clothing that not only works for being nice enough for politics, but combat as well. A high school uniform just doesn't work for the attire of a being in control of his own faction, nor does a normal business suit. Therefor, why not have a nice middle ground between the two?

On the question of why Asia is using healing spells and not just relying on Twilight Healing, I want to point out a few things. Twilight Healing is only capable of healing wounds, not sickness or stamina loss, while spells are capable of healing all three. As it is, Asia has gained the ability to use Twilight Healing as if it were a focal point for her spells, increasing the effectiveness of both due to the nature of Twilight Healing.

That guest review complaining about Messiah, AGAIN, gave me conniptions.

I do not own anything relating to either series. Seriously. What a shocker.

[EX]

Minato looked down at the piece of paper in his hand with a small grin, a feeling of pride growing in his chest as he compared it to the piece of paper on his desk. He never really thought he would be feeling pride for another person as he was now, considering his long fight with apathy, but it was roaring through him most profoundly now.

Bennia had certainly improved her grades tremendously, earning quite a few remarks from her teachers on her studious nature and how she seemed eager to be called on in class in the past few weeks, unlike when she first started to attend Kuoh.

All of her grades were within the top ten of her class, something that Minato honestly didn't expect from the petite Grim Reaper.

With a sly grin on his face, Minato spun in his chair and faced away from his door, doing his best to make his aura and presence intimidating as he tugged on his link with Bennia thrice as a way to summon her.

It was the 'come here, now' signal, indicating that Minato had something to say to her that was important. As a matter of fact, this would have been the first time that he used this particular signal to summon her, having only tugged on their link once or twice, never thrice.

Bennia came running into his office with a pale face, panting as if she had run up the stairs instead of teleporting or taking the elevator. She must have gotten so caught up in reaching him that she neglected to remember the skills or machine that would have brought her to him much faster.

"Bennia, we need to have a few words." Minato deepened his voice before setting his face into a grim frown, doing his best to maintain the look and not ruin the 'Mood' he was trying to create. It wouldn't be good if Bennia found him out half-way through his little trick.

"Yes, M-Master!" Bennia was standing at attention when Minato turned slowly in his chair, her long, purple hair dripping wet with a towel clinging to her body. She had hardly grown half an inch in height over the past few months, something that would have concerned Minato if she hadn't assured him that she took after her mother. Physically, Minato was told that, naturally, she was going to remain the same size for the rest of her life, only having perhaps an inch or two left to grow in height.

The frown on Minato's face became real instead of a false one, upset with himself for not making sure that she wasn't busy before pulling his little trick. He had no intentions of interrupting her bath, knowing that she took three a day or even more, depending on her mood. It was just another one of her creature comforts, finding comfort in the warm water just as Minato did. It seems that all beings who held the same cool darkness within them suffered from the same withdraw of body heat.

'Too late for that.' Minato groused to himself lightly, chiding himself before slamming the thick manilla folder he slipped her report card into onto his desk for dramatic effect. The impact kicked up a few of the loose sheets of paper that were still off to the side of his desk, though they hardly mattered for the moment.

Just the piece of paper itself would have hardly the effect he wanted, needing something a bit more dramatic to drive his little prank home.

"Bennia... take a look at this for me. Take a nice, hard look. Do you want to know what happens to those in my care who receive grades like these...?" Minato allowed his voice to gain a rasp, causing her to flinch slightly before reaching out to open the manilla folder.

She made high marks in every subject, though not quite the perfect score. Bennia thought she was safe from punishment, that her grades would be good enough to please him.

"I... I'm sorry! I thought-" Bennia tried to speak, only for Minato to raise his hand to stop her. The frown left his face slowly before it became completely blank.

"I am going to show you just what happens when those in my care allow things such as this to happen..." Minato murmured out, "Close your eyes, Bennia."

Instead of verbally replying, Bennia closed her eyes and tried to get her body to stop its shaking.

The sound of rattling chains grew closer and closer, as did the sound of something... snoring?

"You may open your eyes, Bennia." Minato whispered in her ear, leaning close enough to her that his breath danced across the surface of her skin. Leaning back just in time to avoid the whiplash of wet hair, Minato allowed the sleeping figure in his arms to be the first thing that Bennia saw instead of himself.

When Bennia opened her eyes fearfully, she came face to face with the sleeping form of a large, sleeping puppy that had lengths of chain wrapped around its body, somehow conjoined with its flesh while appearing as if it were a natural growth and not bound to it. At the perfect moment, the very large creature opened up its fiery eyes, a sleepy orange and red meeting an equally sleepy gold.

Bennia felt her eyes widening slightly from her usual half-lidded stare, unbelieving that her Master had pulled such a prank on her. Not only did he make her think she was in trouble, but he did it well. She felt her heart beat a bit harder upon the realization that he did have a hidden prankster within him beyond acts of petty revenge.

"Those who do well are rewarded, Bennia. Good job." Minato spoke after her jaw dropped open and she began to impersonate a fish, "I remember hearing you mention that you wanted a puppy, so I went and got you a Barghest. He hasn't been named yet, so I leave it up to you to come up with a name."

Bennia flopped her mouth open and closed it rapidly like a fish before she lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Minato, her towel long forgotten. The lazy Barghest puppy didn't seem to mind when he was gently set down in the chair next to him, instead curling up into a ball and falling asleep once more, its ebony colored hair contrasting against the plush blue chair that was set out for whomever had an appointment with him.

Minato wrapped his arms around Bennia in return after depositing the Barghest safely, his gloved hands fitting perfectly against the small of her back and between her shoulder blades. He had to lean over the slightest bit to get a good position to return the hug, something he wasn't used to due to his height being mostly average five foot seven. For one of the few times he could remember in his life, he almost felt tall for once.

When he felt her body trembling a bit, he figured she was cold. Being mostly wet and hugging Minato was not a good idea, his body being almost as cold as ice itself due to the extremely dark nature of his energy, the entropic nature devouring most of his body heat completely. His organs shouldn't have been capable of surviving at the constant low temperature, but he figured Divinity had to be good for something.

Allowing his magic to release the slightest bit, Minato used the Dress Create skill to create something that wasn't exactly an article of clothing, but a piece of fabric none the less. A much larger, and fluffier towel than the one she dropped was draped around her, one with a heating rune etched into its surface and powered by Minato to keep her warm.

Bennia looked up at him with a watery smile, causing Minato to give her a small, but confused smile in return.

"Is everything alright, Bennia?" Minato questioned, concern coloring his voice as he furrowed his brows the slightest bit, "You are... crying."

"I'm okay, just really happy!" Bennia explained in her usual cheerful yet sleepy tone, standing on the tips of her toes to give her the slightest bit of extra height, closing the small distance between herself and Minato.

Minato knew what she wanted and granted it, leaning downwards to capture the lips of the petite Grim Reaper with his own. It was sloppy, lazy, and so like Bennia that Minato didn't mind. She had no idea what she was doing and it showed.

It was already difficult for her to overcome her nervousness enough to kiss him this once, if he spoke negatively of her first kiss, she would likely be devastated.

Minato nibbled lightly on her bottom lip before pulling away, leaving a heavily blushing and sputtering Bennia to stare up at him with even wider eyes than before.

Bennia was more flustered about their first kiss than even Asia was, something that Minato would remember until the day he died. The trickster that stuck up for everyone in the cult by pranking any bullies and naysayers was so rattled she was rendered speechless.

"You keep looking at me like that and your face might get stuck in that position." Minato idly noted, though she seemed to infer something else from his words than he intended and began to sway a bit in his hold. When her body became slack in his arms, he quickly corrected his hold on her and picked her up, growing greatly concerned.

When he heard her mumbling under her breath about ecchi things with her Master, Minato began to understand just what happened.

So not only was she shy enough to pass out on him, but also a closet pervert as well. 'Why am I not surprised?' Minato thought to himself as he walked from his office and into his bedroom where the extra large mattress lay centered in the middle of his room.

Contacting Azazel to order an even larger bed than before caused him to question why Minato needed an even larger bed, something Minato was not willing to expound upon. Azazel took his silence for what it was and sent it to him in the next hour, leaving the other massive bed to go to a different section of the tower.

Minato focused on tucking Bennia into the extremely large bed with the comforters pulled over her now clothed body, having created a small night dress for her to retain a small iota of her modesty. The fluffy towel was neatly set beneath her head to continue drying her long hair.

After making sure she was as snug as a bug in a rug sipping suds, Minato leaned down and kissed her forehead gently before departing from his room and back into his office, where the loud snoring of the Barghest puppy kept him company for quite a few hours.

[EX]

Rossweisse had requested to take the day off to gather the rest of her belongings from Valhalla now that the backlog of paperwork had been mostly dealt with, leaving Minato to finish what was left by himself. The Valkyrie had been most polite throughout her time working with him so far, even offering to take more responsibilities to take up some of her free time, which Minato denied as politely as he could. Rossweisse was also easily flustered and had a habit of reading too much into the comments Minato would make in passing.

If she wasn't apologizing for one thing or another, she was doing her best impression of a stiff plank of wood with the way she held herself. Minato had done his best to try and get her to relax and it had worked for the first few days, but something seemed to cause a regression in his attempts of trying to get her to loosen up a bit.

Perhaps it would be best if he tried to talk to her over a cup of coffee. She seemed to enjoy the beverage as much as Minato did, and hopefully the familiar drink would get her to relax long enough for him to get to the bottom of things.

Now, however, he was once more in his office, fighting against a dreaded enemy that he was beginning to think he would never defeat, not fully nor in any meaningful way. No matter how many documents he read over and signed off on, they kept coming.

The sound of snoring and the occasional whine from the Barghest puppy caught his attention, though he did his best to ignore the instinctual desire to pet, ogle and love on the creature and let it continue its rest.

The alone time was something he had been lacking in lately, especially ever since his acceptance of the Harem proposal posed to him by Koneko. It allowed him much time to sit and reflect on the craziness that had enveloped his life, causing him to fear that his hair would go gray soon from the stress alone.

Things with Heaven had been going great, as far as the contact between Michael, Gabriel and himself went. As it was, there was nothing that Minato could really do if they wouldn't accept his help as far as their quarantined section of Heaven went. He didn't think revealing that he could summon Angels, very powerful ones at that, was a good idea, not at the present time.

Minato honestly didn't think it would be good for the state of the worldly politics for him to start summoning dead Gods, Demons, Angels, Devils or other beings any further than he already did. Michael was a bit of a stiff, and Minato wasn't sure if he could placate the man if he decided to go up in arms of his disturbing the rest of his fallen comrades.

While the Angels under his command were loyal to him, they were all very much so loyal to Heaven and their Father as well. This created a confliction that Minato nipped in the bud before it could grow even more problematic than it already was.

In all honesty, Minato feared that Metatron or Sandalphon would mention a bit more about his past than he would like to have revealed to Heaven at this time, perhaps even his one time companion Messiah.

Something about Christians and the word Messiah made things go a bit crazy. Minato was not touching that topic of discussion and that was that. Michael and Heaven would not know of what he could summon, or what he gained through his sacrifice for his family. Gabriel seemed to know, however, due to the quick analysis of his energy that she performed.

It was an invasive analysis, sure, but she had no reason to use that information against him, nor any capability of doing so either.

Something about the doe eyed woman disarmed him and made him want to trust her. Perhaps it was the innocent photos she continued to send him of the many different human things she has gathered to study further, ranging from her obsession with Dogs to her love of Disney movies.

Minato wasn't sure why Gabriel decided to text him of all people, but she was fun to talk to in a way. It reminded him of Elizabeth in the way that she was completely clueless of the current generation of humans and the way they did things, technology once again creating a gap in knowledge between the older generation and the younger generation.

Now that the tension between the Christian factions had settled, Gabriel had admitted to being able to visit Italy much more frequently, spending time with the sisters in the Vatican more often than not as of lately, interacting with the human population more than ever.

The Fallen had provided quite a bit of help when it came to setting up a laboratory for Lucifer and Euclid to operate out of, both having been incredibly adept in the art of not only working with ancient Devil technology, but studying Sacred Gears as well. So far, Euclid had still not been trusted to view any of those outside of Twilight Healing and Variable Destruction, but the insight he gained from the two more than proved his intelligence.

Under his suggestion, both Asia and Xenovia began to train their Sacred Gears to maximize their potential before the two could hopefully be pushed into a Balance Breaker. Asia had learned to project her aura outwards as a cloaking heal, causing it to act as a heal over time instead of one that instantly healed and dispersed. The projected aura was not a blanket effect, however, only sticking close to those that Asia willed to be healed.

The technique certainly was demanding as far as her energy reserves went, but Asia had reserves for days after the extensive training she had put into her skills regarding magic. She did not have the luxury of having Devil Energy to wield that allowed her to just use her imagination, instead having the strange mix of divine energy siphoned through the link with Minato and the healing energy that had always been with her.

Xenovia had proven her love of senseless destruction, having been able to project beams of explosive power from her swords thanks to her skill in wielding Variant Detonation. She was able to use the Sacred Gear to act as a strength enhancer as well, able to cause an explosion of concussive energy instead of an pyroclastic explosion like those wielded by Heracles.

There was not a sliver of technique in her fighting style, though she had picked up quite a few dirty tricks from Minato to use in her fights in between the sparring sessions held by the two. Morethan a few times Minato had been forced to reinforce his arms with energy to hold back the mighty blades she wielded, though she still had room to grow before he was comfortable with her ability to survive the coming conflicts.

Minato had gleaned quite a bit of understanding on the subject of Sacred Gear as well through the advice of Euclid, enough so that he could craft a singular seal that would keep the Anti Longinus under his control without releasing the torrential power of the weapon.

The use of such a large amount of fire power at once was situational at best, especially considering a portion of his fighting took place in populated, urban environments. Restraining such strength had become mandatory after seeing just what summoning the weapon did to the realm of Asgard. Odin complained about it being midnight for a week, though he was the only one to complain about it.

Yasaka and Kunou continued to write to him daily, each growing more and more excited about the next time they would be meeting. Lilith, despite not looking it, seemed to be excited for it as well. Minato had gone as far as dressing up in uniform and practicing lines for the show with her, deciding on what he could and couldn't say based on her reactions.

They ranged from blank, blanker, tilted blank and deadpan blank, the four expressions of Lilith that Minato could discern. Ophis was just as expressive with her emotions. Minato didn't admit it out loud, but he thought it was endearing in a strange way, very much so.

Due to these reactions, Minato was forced to scrap quite a few of the ideas he had for the show and come up with something else. While Lilith was likely not the best source of advice to seek as far as entertaining Devils, Adult and Child alike, he wasn't sure if he would like the ideas of entertainment provided by any of his other residents.

Kunou had begged quite a few times to be able to come visit and spend time with Lilith, though Minato kept reminding her gently that the two would be spending time together here soon enough. While he didn't mind if his daughter had a friend to spend time with, Kunou was the Princess of her faction and thus not able to just up and leave Kyoto to spend time with her friend whenever she wanted.

Yasaka had expressed much guilt in having to deny her daughter her small requests to the point that even Minato felt like a scumbag for even gently telling her no. When she asked if she was a bad mother for denying her daughter such requests, Minato had quickly told her that no, she was not a bad mother in the least.

She was acting as a good mother should, as a matter of fact. Letting Kunou do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted would have resulted in her becoming spoiled, something he was thankful that Lilith was not becoming in the least. Lilith was hardly as rambunctious, hardheaded or energetic as Kunou, however, being as calm as her father at almost all points when not flustered about something or another.

Okay, Lilith was extremely spoiled, but the things she wanted were incredibly easy to grant. If his precious little Dragon wanted to sit in his lap while he did paperwork, he would let her rest while he went through the repetitive process of reading and signing.

If she wanted a snack, the two would take some time to roast marshmallows on the custom metal skewers Minato ordered for Ophis, Lilith and himself, able to handle the heat of a Dragons Flame without melting and ruining their treat.

If she wanted to swim, Minato would stop what he was doing to spend time with her and Ophis, wading through the water with the two clinging to his arms. He almost grew to love the sound of silence as much as Ophis and Lilith did, though the pulsing colors did give him a headache.

Minato preferred the churning dark of the Abyss, the shaded colors being so much less painful to look at.

Nyx had continued to provide him with advice on things relating to Divinity, allowing him to manage the prayers he received daily much easier than before. The requests for protection and healing kept coming, as did other types of prayers that were relatively new to him.

Quite a few new voices, those of middle aged women, had joined the chorus of requests and thanks Minato heard in the back of his head, a muted cacophony of chaos that only he could understand. They requested help in becoming pregnant, asking for his blessing in bringing life into the world.

Thanks to his domain relating to Fertility, Minato was able to grant them an increased chance of bearing a child, though he was not skilled enough to determine which gender the woman would be blessed with. Men asking for the ability to get their wives or significant others pregnant had come last, almost as if the men were far more shy to ask of such things, or even admit that perhaps they just weren't as virile as they thought they were.

Minato had been amused to hear a few familiar voices of teachers from Kuoh as those praying in his name. Some were desperate for help, however, having prayed to multiple gods that seemed to be unable to grant their requests.

Whether these Gods were dead or just not answering their prayers, Minato was unsure of, nor did he care. If someone needed help bringing another precious life into the world, and it was within his power to help, he would do so. The cost in energy to answer these prayers was far higher than that of daily protection, even higher than the probability manipulation that was the very minor blessing of good luck.

As such, however, the amount of energy he would gain back after the birth of those children would be exponentially higher than the other prayers he answered so far. None of the children born from his blessing will have any trace of his presence, however, leaving them to have normal lives despite his helping hand in their conception.

If Vali didn't stop praying to ask for help in finding the 'Thiccest', Minato was going to lose his cool. Up in here, up in here. Issei had finally seemed to grasp the severity of the situation when he, too, stopped praying for help in forming his own harem in the form of a blessing.

That was not a blessing Minato was going to be passing out to anyone.

Le Fay was extremely quick to get started writing as many Grimoires as she could, making sure to separate the many different types of magic she could and couldn't reveal. Many of the forbidden spells had to be locked away in a Grimoire that only opened for Minato after she competed it, a personal gift from her as thanks for taking the two Pendragons into his home.

It was a very personal thing, to share the types of spells that she did. Minato could tell that quite a few of the sorceries and hexes written down within the large, leather bound tome were personal creations of hers. Minato promised that he would begin to teach her his own personal style of magic as compensation for her dedicated work, something she expressed great interest in beginning to learn soon.

Arthur had done his best to fit in as well, falling into a schedule of training with Xenovia and later Kiba whenever the Knight of the Gremory Group finally finished his personal training with Irina and Issei for the day. While he did say he wouldn't teach either of the two his personal style, he did offer to teach them lesser known techniques that had been taught to him by foreign teachers during his travels, something the two were eager to learn.

Minato was glad that the two were getting along with the residents of the Velvet Tower and the Gremory Group so well, honestly. He was a bit worried that Rias and her group, not counting Koneko, would have been weary to find two Pendragons within his home, though it seems that the negative reputation the two earned during their membership of the Khaos Brigade was easily washed away when Minato vouched for them.

Minato was drawn from his thoughts of the last few weeks of his life and the many strange situations he found himself in, having finished going over the large stack of paperwork after two hours or so of sitting at his desk.

All that was left of his work was a single envelope, addressed to him from the Queen of the Carmilla faction.

The Carmilla faction had been contacted back after Minato finally got around to reading the letters sent by their Queen, something he was almost scared to do after such a long period of ignoring her letters.

Thankfully, she seemed perfectly okay with the fact that his response was so late, displaying nothing but politeness in her letter back to him after his first response.

'Lord Thanatos,

It does Our cold heart well to see such a courteous reply to our latest letters. We apologize to hear that your schedule has prevented further communication, however We are understanding of thine woes.

Would it be too much of Us to ask of thee to allow an emissary between our respective factions? We have heard much of your more recent exploits and wish to not get involved on the wrong side of the coming conflicts. The Tepes have grown bolder and bolder since the usurpation of King Tepes, their new ruler still mired in mystery. We can, however, admit to having evidence that the Tepes are working in collusion with this 'Khaos Brigade' as the terrorist ruffians ordain themselves, if that might catch your attention?

T'would be very good to hear from you soon, Our newest writing companion.

P,S, You have Our thanks for the beautiful bouquet of these strange crystal flowers, We have never seen such things in Our long, long lives! What manner of plant blooms at night and sleeps at day?

P.S.S, This is how one uses a post script, yes? Forgive Us, this would be Our first letter to someone that was as kind as you are, considering your status. Most would have only responded to Our missives with nary a specter of compassion for our prattling.

Queen Carmilla'

Minato set the letter down on his desk and tapped his finger against his chin rhythmically, doing his best to think of his reply. He had done his best to be polite in his return letter, but not come off as someone who would bend over backwards to please others.

She seemed eager to speak, if the many different letters she had sent were to go by. It was almost strange, how the first letter was so cold and distant, yet the more she wrote to him and received no response, the more detailed the letters would become, giving him a glance into her mindset, so to speak.

Queen Carmilla was polite, but at the same time, relentless in the way she wrote. Minato had never met her, yet reading the letters she continued to send him over the span of months made him feel like he did. More than once, Minato had to read and re-read certain letters to understand that she was writing to Minato as if he were a living journal and not a person, revealing probably more than she should have into her thought process.

Perhaps it was the stress of her situation, perhaps it was loneliness, or perhaps it was to lull him into a sense of complacency or closeness with her, but Minato couldn't help but feel as if he were familiar with her in some form or fashion after reading seven or perhaps even eight different letters from the Queen.

She did not like waiting, despite acting like she did. From the tone of her last two letters, it was almost as if she were becoming bitter with her lack of replies. Thankfully, Minato seemed able to salvage the situation before it could have went south, going far enough to butter her up with a bouquet of the strange pale crystalline orchids that sprouted up around the religious site his Cult gathered at.

Minato made sure to reflect that it was not a gift given to woo, but to provide an apology. It seemed that she understood, as far as Minato could tell.

He did know of rumors of her past, including the fact that most, if not all of her lovers in the past six hundred years had been female, resulting in no heir being produced by her family since the schism between the Tepes and Carmilla families. It was none of his business what she did behind closed doors, so long as she didn't try to steal away one of those whom he had grown closed to.

That would just be dirty.

He didn't know about receiving an emissary, but made sure to reply in such a way that seemed he was at least open to the idea. Minato wasn't going to let a total stranger into his home, however, and thus requested a dossier on the potential members she wished to have acting as a messenger.

Minato was pleased that communications had been opened up with yet another faction, even one as small and reclusive as the Carmilla sect of Vampires. While their rather prudish ways of separating the higher class Vampires Lords from the common resurrected Vampire was quite backwards, it was not his place to decide what someone could and couldn't do to their own people in their own territory.

From what he could gather, however, the Carmilla were a bit closer integrated with their civilian population than the Tepes, the largest of their cities being in the southern country side of Styria, one of the two locations the Carmilla faction was prominent in. Unlike the Tepes faction, who maintained control of the land passed down from generation to generation within Romania, the Carmilla had proven to be willing to expand beyond their duchies and smaller demesnes.

Their fighting forces were all gathered at the border that separated the two factions from contact within Romania, experiencing only a minor skirmish once a week, as if the Tepes were testing the waters and trying to poke for a weakness. If he was to get the Carmilla faction on board with the Alliance, he would be more than willing to help out with their little border problem.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that he now knew the Tepes faction not only held the Holy Grail, but was working in collusion with his enemies. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Gasper had complained many times to Minato about the treatment he received at the hands of those associated with the Vladi family.

Either way, it was looking more and more like Minato was going to be taking a trip to central Europe some time during the summer holiday.

[EX]

"Well, this is officially the last meeting of the Occult Research Club until the beginning of second semester. Good Job, team!" Azazel cheered with false happiness before his expression dropped into one that looked like it cared far less, "Or whatever. Okay, that being said, we have to talk before we all part ways for the time being."

Rias nodded her head graciously, obviously in no rush to leave back to the smaller tower she lived in with the rest of her Peerage and Issei's parents, "Sure, that shouldn't be an issue."

"We don't have to leave for a few hours, so I can stay for a few more moments." Minato agreed to remain behind for a bit longer with Asia, Bennia and Xenovia retaking their spots on the couch while Minato back down on one of the loveseats that had been added to the room. Koneko was quick to retake her spot in his lap, sticking her tongue out at Bennia who seemed the most upset of all of those sharing a relationship with Minato.

Asia and Xenovia didn't care, knowing that Koneko was extremely possessive of her position in his lap, though they wished they could do the same.

"Thanks, D, I appreciate it." Azazel nodded his head gratefully to Minato, knowing that the leader of the Protogenoi had quite a bit of work to do before he took his group to Hell for a small portion of the school holiday. "Now, since I have taken on the role of Teacher for the Gremory Peerage, it's been decided by Sirzechs that I get to follow you kiddies into Hell for your little summer vacation. Yay."

"That's... great?" Rias questioned more than asked, knowing that one way or another, her cute underlings would be forced to put up with the antics of the Fallen Angel more so than they already were. "We really, really appreciate it, Azazel-Sensei!"

"Good, because this shit is cutting into my fishing time, and that isn't cool at all! Now, I am only going to say this once, so listen close, alright?" Azazel questioned while leaning forward, his elbows propped up on the desk that Rias once used until it was taken over by the Governor General, "That shit show you saw with Azrael a few months back? I have a feeling that is going to be happening a lot more often. Perhaps not here, or even in Hell, but somewhere. Europe, central and eastern, have been attacked multiple times, and the damage reports keep coming."

Minato, though he was aware of this information, kept quiet and let the man speak, finding that Azazel's oration skills were far better than his own.

"Because of this, we have no choice but to be on high alert at all times. We have reason to believe that there is going to be a much larger attack here really soon. I'm not saying you should jump at every shadow, but watch your backs, yeah?" Azazel scratched the back of his head nervously, trying to express his concern for those he considered his students while retaining the image he had worked hard in crafting for himself.

Irina, Issei, Kiba and Gasper nodded their heads in unison while Koneko didn't bother acknowledging his words. Akeno and Rias were quick to voice their agreements as well, knowing from their contact with Azazel, Minato and Sirzechs that his words were true.

The performance of the Gremory Group left much to be desired, though it was hardly their fault that they were placed against such powerful people back to back, each one being further and further out of their league than the last.

Minato had done his best to give both the Sitri Group and Gremory Group as much of a fighting chance as he could, but there was hardly anything left he could teach them that wasn't considered 'forbidden' knowledge, or types of spells that he was trying to keep within his own faction.

Koneko and Sona were the only two Devils outside of Kuroka who would have access to spells, hexes, curses and sorceries that were created by Minato. The ability to wield mixed elements such as Dark Lightning was also limited to those who were associated with his faction, keeping the firepower of such spells out of the hands of beings that could potentially use those same spells against him.

The Devils were the first to admit that there were those among them that continued to support the Old Maou faction, thus keeping Minato from being as open with his knowledge as he would have been otherwise.

"I have faith that everyone in this room will survive whatever happens next. While you are not going to be expected to be seen on the front lines, your group has gained a bit too much 'airtime', so to speak, to keep you out of sight now. Live Strong and fight hard when the time comes." Minato spoke, addressing Rias as he did so. The redhead seemed thoughtful at his admission, her sea foam green eyes casting downwards as she mulled over his words.

Rias rose her gaze after a few moments, a fire lit in those orbs that Minato thought suited her. She was meant to be decisive, not unsure about herself.

"We won't back down from whatever comes for us, I promise you that." Rias declared, and her Peerage was quick to affirm their masters words.

Minato nodded his head after regarding her for a few moments as if agreeing with her sentiment before turning his attention to Koneko, who was burying her face in his chest while breathing rather heavily, sitting in his lap while being turning towards him. He didn't want to say anything in present company, but if she didn't stop trying to very subtly grind herself against him, they were going to have a majorly awkward issue on their hands and soon.