*Beep!*

*Beep!*

*Beep!*

The heart monitor's beeping filled the room that was otherwise silent.

Nathan's eyes slowly opened as he woke up to the sounds of the heart monitor. The moment Nathan regained consciousness, almost as if he was notified, Ajuka immediately appeared by Nathan's side.

"Sekirai?", Ajuka spoke concernedly as he looked down at the boy who was wearing a hospital gown and covered in bandages. His right sleeve was empty.

Nathan evidently struggled to sit up, prompting Ajuka to assist him. As Ajuka helped Nathan sit up, Nathan locked eyes with Ajuka and asked, "Where's… Balher?"

Ajuka froze momentarily, before sighing, "You know the answer."

He did. Nathan subconsciously knew the answer to his question, but he asked it anyway. The first stage of grief was denial, after all.

"Where's Balher?" Nathan repeated the question like a broken record.

"..." Ajuka remained silent, refusing to answer Nathan's question.

"Where is he?" Nathan looked to Ajuka, desperately hoping that he would deny the truth. Hoping that anyone would deny the truth. "Balher. He was with me in the barrier."

Ajuka finally sighed, and without making eye contact, he replied, "Don't deny the truth, Sekirai. You know what happened to him."

Nathan then felt a loss of strength as he brought his knees up to his chins, before wrapping his arms and hugging himself.

What felt like hours passed before Nathan lifted his head up, his eyes tainted with red, tear marks still on his cheeks.

Nathan shakily said, "Why?"

"... I don't know."

Nathan tried to clench his teeth, but couldn't find the strength to do so.

Ajuka then asked Nathan a question, "Do you know who it was?"

Nathan turned to face him and said tiredly, "Grim reapers."

Ajuka closed his eyes, "Can you…confirm it?"

Nathan clenched his jaws and gritted his teeth as he said, "If my lifespan isn't good enough proof, then what is?"

At that, Ajuka didn't say anything. Ultimately, he said, "This could very well turn into a war between mythologies."

"Then let it.", Nathan coldly replied. "We can win this war."

"You don't want that. You know it. You're smart for your age, Sekirai. You know what would happen if a war broke out between us and Olympus."

"I know that you and Sirzechs would be able to fight them. Both of you are part of the Top 10 Strongest Beings In the World, are you not? There's one of them, and there's two of you."

"It's not that simple. Do you think that the 12 Olympians would stand by and watch us fight Hades? No, they overpower us in sheer manpower. Yes, we could win the war in the end, but that could mean the end of us Devils because only Sirzechs and I would be standing in the end.", Ajuka retorted mercilessly, before softening his gaze.

"I know that it has been a hard experience for you. Don't worry, we'll try our best to get revenge for Balher."

Nathan noticed the flaw in Ajuka's wording and grabbed onto it, "Try your best? I don't want that! I want fucking revenge!"

Ajuka, who somehow still managed to stay calm, replied, "... We'll try our best. That's all I can promise you, as I'm not the sole leader of us Devils. Sirzechs, Falbium, and Serafall also have a say in the decision."

Nathan speechlessly looked at Ajuka, before gritting his teeth, "Am I fully recovered?"

Ajuka hesitated to give a reply, "If I said yes, would you walk out that door and head to Hades' domain?"

"No. I'm going to the Human World and eating ice cream with children.", Nathan sarcastically said, before saying, "I'm not stupid. I won't head straight for his home. Too many powerful figures there."

"Then where will you go?"

"... I never said that the grim reapers' families would be safe, did I?"

"So you're committing genocide? Is that it?"

"I wouldn't call it genocide. More like revenge. Something that you can't give me."

Ajuka sighed, something that has become very common since the start of his conversation with Nathan, "Sekirai. You're a smart kid, but you're angry right now. Calm down, and we'll talk about this later."

"You didn't answer my question yet. Am I free to go?"

Ajuka turned around and coldly looked at Nathan, "No."

Nathan gritted his teeth, "I'm fully healed, am I not?"

"You may be physically fit for release, but you're not mentally fine. I'll come back later once I have a talk with the other Satans."

Nathan glared at Ajuka, and prepared to stand up, but under Ajuka's invisible pressure, he ultimately sat back down.

"Then I'll wait for you."

"I hope you do. For your sake, Sekirai."

In Ajuka Beelzebub's office, there were currently four figures sitting around a table.

The heavy atmosphere in the air was broken by Ajuka, "Sirzechs, Falbium, Serafall. I believe you guys know why I've gathered you here."

Sirzechs, who was sitting next to Ajuka, nodded. "The grim reapers' attack on Sekirai Agares."

"Then, I'll skip the unnecessary details. Clearly, this is a provocation towards us, no? They attacked a member of the 72 Pillars in broad daylight, and within our territory no less."

Falbium, who was sitting diagonally to Ajuka, agreed as he said, "It IS indeed a provocation. There's two ways we can go from here; 1. We let this matter go and compensate the Agares family handsomely, or 2. We retaliate. Personally, I'm leaning towards the first option. We're lacking in manpower to fight Hades, after all."

Sirzechs rebutted Falbium's argument, "There's no guarantee that the Agares family would stay quiet about this. Their influence is already high enough as the second-highest ranked family in the 72 Pillars. And that's not taking the other more bloodthirsty families into consideration. Those guys want war, Falbium. They want war."

Serafall joined the conversation, "How about we do a mix of both? We can compensate the Agares family, and also subtly attack Hades' army."

Ajuka, who initiated the gathering, gave his own opinion, "What could we possibly give the Agares clan that they don't already have?"

At that, the other three Satans went silent. Finally, Sirzechs spoke up, "Let's take this to a vote."

Falbium closed his eyes and said, "I vote for compensation."

Serafall sighed before saying, "I vote for compensation."

Sirzechs, who was the Satan with the most connection with Nathan other than Ajuka said reluctantly, "I… vote for compensation."

Ajuka stayed silent, before standing up and moving to the door. At that, Sirzechs asked him, "Are you not going to vote?"

Ajuka turned around and said to his long-time friend, "My vote won't change anything. I'll be visiting Sekirai now, if you don't mind."

"So, you guys are not going to take revenge for him?", Nathan calmly asked Ajuka, now that he had significantly calmed down.

"I'm sorry. It was a 3-1 vote, I can't change anything."

Nathan leaned back onto his pillow and looked at the ceiling, "I see…"

After a few more seconds of silence, Nathan sat back up and locked eyes with Ajuka, "I'll be going to the human world in two years."

"Why?"

"Two years is enough."

"For what?"

"Training. Training to defeat those things."

"The grim reapers?"

"Who else?"

"And I'm guessing you want me to train you, is that it?"

"Yeah. Training with you will give me the best outcome in two years."

"And why would I help you do that?"

At that, Nathan deadpanned, "Because I know you will. You voting for retaliation is a sign of that."

Ajuka relented to Nathan's words as he said, "Spend another week in the hospital, then come to my house. My lab is not a good place to fight."

Nathan nodded in agreement, before asking, "Does it really need to be in the hospital? This place is boring. I'd rather spend time in your lab."

"Why? So you can tinker with gadgets?"

"What else?"

"Haaaaa… then let's go.", Ajuka put a hand on Nathan's shoulder, and a moment later, they were in his lab.

Nathan immediately walked over to the area that he had called home for the time that he spent at Ajuka's lab, and when he was there, he sat down, and asked Ajuka over his shoulder, "Can I use the materials that you have for a weapon?"

"Feel free to do so. Make sure it doesn't damage the lab, though. It's a pain to fix the damages."

"Alright. I'll work on the blueprint now."

Nathan picked up a pen with his left hand (his only hand), and started designing his weapon.

After a few minutes of drawing and listing the materials that he would need, Nathan heard Ajuka call for him.

"Sekirai, I need your help with something. Come over here."

"I'll be there in a second!"

Nathan hurriedly organized the desk that he was drawing on, so as to not lose his progress in case of an accident from Ajuka, and got up to walk over to Ajuka.

As he was walking, he looked at the blueprint over his shoulder coldly, and took in the shape that he drew.

A scythe.

A/N: There might be a few mistakes in the dialogue for the past few chapters when Ajuka called Nathan 'Nathan' instead of Sekirai. It can get confusing sometimes, but bear with me, because I have plans for his identity as Nathan or Sekirai.