[DxD]

"Life, life is cruel if one was to look at it from an outsider's point of view, one could easily see one event leading straight into another, and as such change their own or another person's actions before they ended up as good or as bad as they would have."

"For example take the protagonist of a book, a game, or cartoon\ anime, isn't strange that the hero somehow nearly always ends up with the girl - and an overwhelming amount of power and so on."

"I ask of you how is that possible?"

"I'm here to offer you a trade something simple and easy enough for the two of us to be able to move on without any major issues," Max said to Rias who sat in front of him, on the surface, Rias looked as calm and collected as she always did

One would be forgiven to believe that, that was in fact how she was truly feeling, however, the truth was that the red-headed demon was far from calm, the moment Max called for her, her mark began to burn and she knew that he demanded her presence.

Considering that none of the other girl's marks reacted to his call meant that her master was summoning her and her alone.

Rias was well aware that beings that have reached a certain amount of power didn't negotiate with those beneath them, she understood that far too well.

After all once word spread of her enslavement to someone working for heaven, she was instantly stripped of her position of a high-class devil and was now considered a lowly demon, where once she could enjoy the luxuries of life.

Now however she would be lucky to be allowed to lick the shit of a toilet, such is the difference in living standards for demons and devils.

Her friends were no different because they are her subordinates, they are now viewed as even lower than her.

No, she knows that beings like the man in front of her didn't negotiate with those that are lower than themselves, so she knew better than to consider any offer he made to her because the outcome would be even worse for her than her current reality.

"Heres my offer, you and your friends go free, and we never see each other again"

"In exchange, you and your friends stay away from anything to do with my section of Iscariot," Max said to Rias knowing full well that Iscariot didn't exist in the world he was in at the moment.

Rias couldn't believe what she was hearing, the man was dangling her and her friends freedom in front of her, but she knew it was just a trick, and even if it wasn't the only thing stopping every devil from coming after her and her friends was the very same man that had enslaved them.

"What do you want in exchange?" Rias asked Max.

There was no reason for her question, no, after all, if she agreed to accept the man's offer to let her and her friends go free, then they would all be considered a discarded bunch.

That thought alone frightened her beyond anything she ever thought possible.

To be thrown away.

They say that men and women eventually grow to become attached to those that harm them, this is an unfortunate truth in the world and for a devil, it's an all too real reality.

The moment that mark had been placed on her shoulder Rias had begun to feel herself becoming the man's slave and as such, she both hated him and desired to be of use to him.

She belongs to him in every way.

If anyone that wasn't familiar with the ways demons and devils worked ever asked her why she so readily accepted the man in such a short amount of time, they would be surprised to discover that it was in their very nature to do so.

One just had to stop and think, how are Humans that have recently been turned into lower-level devils suddenly become capable of fighting frightening creatures that would make even war veterans tremble.

"What I get, is the satisfaction of knowing that I had the devil's little sister under my control and he couldn't do anything about it" Max answered Rias.

She was right the man was cruel, he had shown up, destroyed everything in her life just to get to her family, she didn't even matter in all of this.

"No" Rias answered Max, as she remembered the fate that would have befallen her and her friends had Rizer been the one that would have taken control of her.

To this man they were nothing, but to the phenix, they were nothing more than playthings, for him to enjoy until he found someone else, and then he would discard them and give them to someone else to do who knows what.

No, she knew full well what they would do to them, how their bodies and minds would be used until there was nothing left of their former selves, she had seen this happen over and over again.

So if she allowed this man to abandon them, no she couldn't allow that to happen.

"I see," Max said before standing up and walking towards Rias.

'Don't cause any problems for me" Max said as he opened a portal and left Rias inside the occult research groups club room.

Rias quickly checked her shoulder and let out a relieved breath her mark was still there, she still was worth something.