Anything you recognise isn't mine.
"Alright, I think we'll leave it there for today, Roxas." Kali remarked, a smile on her face as she sipped on a new cup of tea and watched her silver-haired student, who was sweating from the concentration that it took to get the clone of himself to summon a sword made of the Power of Twilight (which looked like it was flickering, as if it was about to fall apart at any second). "You've done well for our second lesson."
"Th-thanks." the real Roxas took a breath and relaxed himself, as both clone and Twilight-sword faded away before his and Kali's eyes. "Shit's difficult, but I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it."
"You certainly look like you are." Kali replied. "I'm impressed. The first few times you try to create a clone and make it do stuff are always the hardest. Soon enough, it'll become second-nature to you, just like your skills with the sword I've seen and heard so much of." She smirked as Roxas looked over at her, wiping the sweat from his face.
"You know, I get the feeling that you're referring to more than one type of sword, Kali." Roxas remarked, as he heard his phone ringing (with his ringtone being the song 'The Number of the Beast' by Iron Maiden).
"Maybe~" Kali replied, licking her lips when Roxas turned around, bent down and picked his phone up.
"Hello?" Roxas spoke, after answering his phone. "Oh, hey Xenovia… alright… she look like the Jeanne from Roygun's peerage? Or is it someone else? …Ahh… oh yeah? …Okay. I'll be back soon. Give me, like, five minutes, I'll be back soon. See you." he then hung up.
"How convenient." Kali remarked. "That you get a call that requires you to leave, just as we wrap up our lesson."
"Yeah, real convenient." Roxas replied, putting his phone into his pocket and stretching. "Anyway, see you later, Kali."
"Later." Kali gave her student a little wave as he opened a transportation-circle for himself, stepped into it, and disappeared from her home, just as Sienna Khan came back into the living room, clad in literally nothing except a white towel, which was wrapped tightly around her naked form.
"So, he's gone?" the dark-skinned Nekomata asked, shaking her damp hair. "How did he do?"
"Pretty well, actually." Kali replied, downing the rest of her tea before standing up and stretching. "I'm sure Roxas will be able to create fully-functioning clones that are indistinguishable from the original, soon enough."
"Fair enough." Sienna replied, stretching herself. "Anyway, I'm going to meet with Lady Yasaka. Don't do anything I wouldn't do until I get back."
"Say hello to Kunou for me." Kali replied. "If you see her, that is." Sienna simply nodded in reply as she turned around, and walked back through the door she came through originally. Kali could hear the sounds of stairs being stepped on as Sienna made her way upstairs, and the sound of a transportation-circle activating as Kali's wife left.
Line Break
The transportation from the middle of the hidden supernatural region of Kyoto (which, incidentally, was about three times the size of the Kyoto that could be accessed by regular humans), to the coasts of Greece was instantaneous, which Roxas was all too thankful for as he landed just outside his home, and strode through the door into the residence.
Asia, Xenovia, Valian, Venelana and another blonde girl (whom Roxas assumed was the 'Jeanne' that Xenovia had told him about over the phone) were sat on the sofas, with the former four women looking at the latter girl, who looked slightly awkward at the sight of four pairs of eyes focused on her.
Asia and Xenovia instantly stood up at the sight of Roxas walking through the door, with Valian standing up after a second's hesitation. Roxas chuckled at the sight, and raised a hand.
"Hey, no need to greet me like a damn gangster boss." the silver-haired Nephalem chuckled. "I'm not Al Capone or Michael Corleone."
"And thank Heaven, Hell and everything in-between for that." Venelana replied, as she adjusted her position on the sofa. "How was your lesson with Kali, Roxas?" she asked of her grandson and boss.
"It was alright." Roxas replied, walking towards the sofas as Asia, Xenovia and Valian retook their seats, and sat down beside Venelana, facing the girl that he assumed to be 'Jeanne'. "So… You this 'Jeanne', I've heard about from Xenovia?" he chuckled. "You're definitely not the Jeanne I know."
"Y-y-yes." Jeanne replied, her eyes flickering nervously in comparison to Roxas, who looked calm and at-ease. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Jeanne, the..." she took a breath in an attempt to calm herself.
"...the reincarnation of Joan of Arc."
Jeanne resisted the urge to cringe in fear, with difficulty, as Roxas, Asia, Xenovia, Valian and Venelana processed what she had said. Their reactions were simultaneous, as well as varied.
The calm smirk on Roxas' face faded slightly, and his crimson eyes seemed to harden as he looked at Jeanne.
Asia and Xenovia both jumped, looked at each other, then at Jeanne, their mouths open.
Valian simply raised one silver eyebrow, and folded her arms as she looked at Jeanne, the expression on her face the same as her King, and first cousin once removed.
Venelana's eyes narrowed, as she looked at Jeanne with slight suspicion, and the beginnings of mistrust, on her face.
"Reincarnation?" Roxas repeated. "First time I've heard of something like that. Gotta admit, the topic of reincarnation isn't my area of expertise, so I wouldn't even know if someone was a reincarnation of someone else."
"How can you be sure that you're a reincarnation, though?" Venelana asked, leaning forward as her brow furrowed. "All sorts of people have claimed to be the reincarnation of some famous figure, and not many have had any kind of evidence to them."
"I-I'm not lying!" Jeanne squeaked, seeming to shrink backwards. "I'm telling the truth?"
"You sure?" Roxas replied. "Is there any way that you can prove that you're a reincarnation? That you were Joan of Arc in a past life?"
["I think I can answer that."] the voice of Albion piped up, as the two wings that Valian's Sacred Gear took the form of, unfurled themselves. ["You. Claimed-reincarnation of Joan of Arc. Your life-energy feels... different, to other humans I've met."]
"It does?" Roxas, Valian and Venelana all replied, in unison.
["Yeah."] Albion replied. ["It's almost like... I'm not quite sure how to put this... the souls of two beings rolled into one. But they aren't equal."]
"What do you mean by that?" Valian asked.
["I mean, Valian, that one of the two souls seem to have dominion over the other."] Albion replied. ["Like one of the souls absorbed the other into itself. If the girl over there is telling the truth, then the only explanation I can come up with is that she was someone else, but the soul of Joan of Arc overtook the soul of the person she used to be-"]
"Y-yes, that's exactly what happened!" Jeanne cut across Albion, insistently. "It happened nearly three months ago!" she then took a breath to calm herself down slightly, and continued. "I remember the soul of my former body fighting to try and... well... keep me out. For around two weeks. It almost- it almost killed her, but my soul managed to win, and, uhh, here I am." she finished, raising her hands in a 'ta-dah!' gesture, though it came off as more awkward than any potential attempt to show off.
["...Well. That lines up with what I was going to say."] Albion replied, slightly miffed that Jeanne had interrupted him, but mostly proud that what he had guessed had turned out to be correct. ["I don't know about any of you-"] he remarked, and Roxas could tell that he was talking to his host, Asia, Xenovia, Roxas himself, and Venelana. ["-but I'd quite like to hear the girl out."]
"Same." Roxas replied, looking to Valian's Sacred Gear-wings, and then back at Jeanne. "So anyway, Jeanne, I heard from Xenovia that you wanted to meet and talk to me, that right?"
Jeanne nodded.
"Well, then." Roxas replied, stretching. "I'd like to know why."
Jeanne nodded again, and fidgeted slightly in her seat, before taking another breath.
"Alright, sure." she said. "Well, just over two weeks ago, around the time I'd gotten used to being, uhh, like this-" she gestured to herself again. "-I got a visit from a black-haired Asian-looking man."
"Mmhmm." Roxas replied. "This guy important? Any defining features to him beyond being Asian?"
"Yeah." Jeanne nodded. "He carried a spear, I definitely remember that about him."
"Right." Roxas replied. "Kind weird, but oh well. Continue."
"The man asked me to come with him." Jeanne continued to talk, her voice far steadier than it was when she first started speaking to Roxas. "Wanted me to travel with him to Kyoto. I didn't want to go, and I got a bad feeling about him as soon as I laid eyes on him, so I turned him down and he left. He looked really pissed-off about it, though. Like he expected me to say yes."
Asia and Xenovia seemed to have gotten over the shock of seeing the reincarnation of Joan of Fucking Arc in their King's home, and were listening to her story intently, as were Roxas, Valian and Venelana.
"And that was that, until a week after I met that man." Jeanne suddenly became very interested in the hem of her dress, and looked intensely at it as she kept talking. "Until two people came to my home and tried to force me to come with them, saying that it was for the man that came for me before." she took a breath, and continued. "I had to escape my home in Marseille while my-" she stopped herself, swallowing. "I mean, my former self's parents, tried to keep them back."
"They sound like good people." Roxas replied, his voice gentle. "The parents, I mean. Not the guys who came for you. They sound like total pricks. You recall anything about them?"
"Yes." Jeanne replied. "I remember them like they came for me yesterday. One of them was a young-looking man, with grey hair, and the other one was a woman. She had purple hair. I also heard the woman addressing the guy as Heracles, but I didn't catch her name."
"Mmhmm." Roxas nodded, momentarily thinking that Achilles would be amused to hear that another descendent of a Greek hero existed in the same generation as him. "They say anything beyond that, or were they the quiet types?"
"N-no, they spoke." Jeanne replied. "They mentioned the man who had come for me a week before them. The guy was calling him his Master, while the woman just referred to him by a name."
"With that name being...?" Roxas leaned forward, curious on hearing the name of this man.
"Cao Cao." Jeanne replied. "Why?"
Roxas leaned back, and had to take a few breaths of his own. He then turned around, and looked up at Valian.
"Hey, Val?" he asked, in a whisper. "Get in contact with Dr. Strange once we're done here, and tell him we've got a lead on that little shit Bergin."
"Will do." Valian replied, as Roxas turned back to Jeanne, taking another breath.
"Alright, so two people working for, or at least with, Cao Cao, came after you, and you escaped your house. Mine continuing?"
"R-right." Jeanne replied. "Well, I'd been running from Heracles and the woman for a few days, and I think I'd made it into Italy by that point. But anyway, around that time, I began hearing a guiding voice inside my head."
Roxas resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"This guiding voice say anything specific?" the silver-haired Nephalem asked. "Or was it just the regular 'don't give up, you'll be just fine, I work in mysterious and probably counter-intuitive ways' stuff that you hear people thinking they heard?"
"Uh... no." Jeanne replied. "It was... talking about you, actually, Roxas. It was telling me to come to you."
…
"Eh?" Roxas blinked. That DEFINITELY wasn't what he expected to hear. But one thing was for certain: it cleared up why Jeanne was coming to him specifically. "To me?"
"Yes." Jeanne replied. "The voice said that you'd be able to help me. I'm certain that it was God guiding me to you. He..." Jeanne's face then began to go slightly pink. "He also mentioned that you were the husband of his... his d-daughter, Palutena, right?"
"I am." Roxas replied. He felt the beginnings of scepticism of Jeanne's story settling in as soon as she began chalking the 'voice' inside her head up to God. It was KNOWN FACT that God, as in the Biblical God, as in Yahweh, was deceased, as He had disappeared in a final, climactic battle with the Four Old Satans (Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus), and since He hadn't returned to rule Heaven, the only logical conclusion that one could come to is that He had to have been killed.
The same could also be said for the Four Old Satans.
However, he was also flattered at the fact that Jeanne had the amount faith in some voice inside her head to travel across multiple countries, just to come to him. True or not, that took faith of the highest order, and Roxas had to respect the girl for that.
'Maybe she received a mental message through Heaven's system,' Roxas thought. 'Through Michael, as opposed to Palutena's dead divine daddy. Given that Michael IS God now, for all intents and purposes, Jeanne wouldn't exactly be wrong in saying that the message she got was from God.'
Shoving his internal musings aside and resolving to ask Michael later, the next time he got the chance, Roxas looked over to Jeanne, who looked like she was about to cry.
"P-Please, Roxas..." Jeanne mumbled. "I don't have anywhere else to go. I'm sure that Cao Cao is up to something really bad in Kyoto, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I got forced into it in any way!" she then dropped off the sofa, and sank to her knees in front of Roxas (who found himself feeling a pang of sympathy for her, yet simultaneously forcing down the temptation to laugh). "Please, Roxas-"
"Okay!" Roxas replied, placing a hand on his forehead and sighing. "I've heard enough." he then slid off the sofa, and bent down so he and Jeanne were on a level. "I'll let you stay for a while, if that's what you want, Jeanne. You're safe with me, I promise." Jeanne looked up, and after seeing a look on Roxas' face, telling her that he meant every word of what he said, she actually began to tear up.
"Oh, thank you Roxas! Thank you!" Jeanne cried, throwing her arms around the silver-haired Nephalem in a tight hug. Roxas, after getting over the momentary shock that a human could hug so hard, temporarily hugged Jeanne back, before standing up and pulling her to her feet with him.
"Hey, no problem." he replied, before turning to Valian as Jeanne let go of him. "Remember what I said about getting in contact with Dr. Strange, Val?"
"Way ahead of you, Roxas." Valian replied, pulling her phone out of her pocket and unlocking it as she walked towards the stairs that led to the upper floors of Roxas' villa. "Oh. Hey Palutena."
Roxas looked over, and smiled at the sight of his wife (who now had a small, yet no less noticeable, baby bump on her belly) walking backwards into the room, while looking at Valian.
"Hi, Valian." Palutena greeted Valian as she walked up the stairs, and turned around to see Roxas, Venelana, Asia, Xenovia and Jeanne in the living room. "Hey, Roxas. Who's the girl with you."
"New houseguest." Roxas replied. "May or may not be temporary, depending on future events. Jeanne, this is Palutena, my wife. Or the main one out of the three that I currently have." Palutena smiled, and gave a friendly wave to Jeanne, whose mouth dropped open at the sight of Palutena Yahweh, daughter of the Biblical God, in the flesh. Her young mind short-circuited, and she did pretty much the only thing that such a devout believer in God could do when faced with physical confirmation that the God that she had believed in all throughout both of her lives had, indeed, fucked. And borne a daughter, at that.
She fainted.
"Oops." Roxas blinked, and magically summoned a large mattress underneath where Jeanne fell, which she landed upon without issue. "Guess I should've warned her."
"Yea, you should've." Palutena replied, an amused smile on her face as she walked over to the couch that Jeanne had been sitting on only a minute or so ago, and waved her hand to turn on the TV via magic. Just as she did that, the door opened to reveal Esdeath and Akeno walking through the door. Akeno's clothes were slightly torn, revealing more skin than her clothing choices usually did, while Esdeath had several spots of blood on her face and clothes. Roxas turned around to his second Rook and first Bishop, and grinned at the sight of them.
"Hey." he greeted the pair of sadists. "I assume you took care of that Stray Devil?"
"Of course." Akeno replied. "Es and I made sure to make him scream before we put him out of his misery~"
Roxas rolled his eyes at the grin on Esdeath's face, confirming Akeno's statement.
"Yeah, you would." he muttered. "Anyway, hate to burden you after a mission, but can one of you take this girl-" he bent down and picked up the unconscious Jeanne, as easily as if she were made of feathers, rather than flesh and bone. "Then find Shyelin, Katerea of Catora, and get them to set up a bedroom for her?"
"I'll do it." Esdeath replied, immediately stepping forward and allowing Roxas to gently deposit Jeanne in her arms. "Anything else you want done, my love?"
"Not from you, Es." Roxas replied. "You can chill out for the rest of the day if that's what you want. Though you might wanna clean yourself up, though."
Roxas' bluenette Rook nodded, turned around and walked towards the stairs that Valian had gone up a few moments earlier, smiling when Roxas gave her a light slap on the butt as she left. Once she was gone, Venelana stood up.
"You want me to find some clothes for Jeanne, other than what she was wearing, Roxas?" she asked.
"Please do." Roxas replied. "Buy some for her, if it's needed. I'll foot the bill." Venelana nodded, and left, while Xenovia and Asia walked off, with Roxas catching something about seeing if Jeanne had woken up in their conversation, while he flopped down onto the sofa and allowed Palutena to wrap one arm around him.
"So, Roxas." Palutena addressed her husband, while she adjusted her position slightly. "What was with the girl that fainted in your arms? I know you're handsome, but I don't recall seeing anyone fainting in your presence. Unless they were a major fangirl, like proper-maniac-fangirl."
Roxas chuckled, and calmly recounted the events of the conversation that he'd had with Jeanne, and his agreement to allow her to live in his home for a while, while Palutena silently listened, while paying minimal attention to the TV show that she had switched to. Once her husband was done recounting the meeting of before, the greenette deity gave a small giggle.
"Just like you to let a good-looking girl live with you." she remarked. "First Akasha and Penemue, then Valian and Akeno, now pretty much all of your peerage, and now Jeanne. Not to mention most of Rias' peerage, even if it's only temporary. And Venelana, too."
"Not a problem, is it?" Roxas asked, allowing Palutena to rest her head on his shoulder while he wrapped an arm around her waist. "I mean, the house still has plenty of space, but if anyone wants to move out and get their own place, I'm not gonna stop them. Hell, I'll help them if they want-"
"That's not what I meant." Palutena replied, patiently. "But that's true, too. And it's not a problem with me if you have so many women living here- I mean, I love the company." she added, suppressing a yawn. "But I can't help but feel that you had other things in mind, besides protecting Jeanne from Cao Cao, when you allowed her to stay here."
"I won't deny that stuff like that crossed my mind." Roxas replied. "And if Jeanne ends up wanting it, I'll give it to her. No victim, no crime, right?"
"Right." Palutena replied, closing her eyes and giving a small sigh of contentment as Roxas' hand found its way to the bump in her belly, and casually rubbed it. "Hmm. That feels good."
"I'm sure it does." Roxas replied. "You been feeling okay, by the way?"
"Yeah." Palutena replied, yawning. "I'm fine right now, at least. Just been feeling more tired than normal as of late. And my head's been hurting a bit in the mornings, but nothing too horrible. They go away after a few minutes, and I feel okay."
"Alright." Roxas smiled, leaning down to press his lips against Palutena's. "Let me know as soon as anything becomes too much for you to handle, okay?"
"Hmm." Palutena hummed. "I will. Don't worry."
"Good." Roxas nodded with a smile, as Valian came back, a neutral expression on her face as she carried her phone, which Roxas noticed. "Hey, Val. You talked to our resident Sorcerer Supreme?"
"I have." Valian replied. "He's promised to pass it on to Sun Wukong, and to Kali." Roxas nodded, and stood up.
"Cool." he replied. "Anyway, I think it's time for the training session that Rias' peerage usually has, right?"
"I'd say so." Valian remarked, stretching. "Want me to call the usual suspects?"
"Yeah." Roxas replied. "But Elsha, instead of Asia, this time around. Tell them to meet me outside the time-chamber."
"Got it." Valian nodded in reply, as she left again, while Roxas walked over to Palutena.
"You up for a little faux-Rating Game-overseeing, Palutena?" he asked, extending a hand to her in case she needed it to pull herself up.
"Yeah, I am." Palutena replied, reaching out and taking Roxas' hand, allowing her husband to pull her up and into his arms, in which he held her for a second before letting her go. "Let's go." Husband and wife then headed downstairs to the time-dilation chamber underneath Roxas' house together.
Line Break
Barely five minutes later, all the people that Roxas had asked to come down to the time-dilation chamber were there. Roxas himself, Valian, the 'usual suspects' (who consisted of Kuroka, Akeno and Xenovia), Elsha, Rias, her peerage, and Palutena. Palutena's signature staff was propped up against a wall in the room, while Palutena herself had one hand outstretched against the door to the time-dilation chamber, and had her eyes closed as she generated a battlefield inside the chamber, which was large to the point that twelve supernatural individuals, who varied greatly in strength and power level, could fight on without much difficulty.
While she did that, Roxas turned to the other eleven individuals in the room.
"Okay, everyone." the Nephalem addressed the other Nephalem (or rather, eight Nephalem, two Nephalem/Youkai Hybrids and one Nephalem/Vampire Hybrid, for the pedantic ones out there). "Here's how this training session is gonna go. As practice for future Rating Games that I know we'll all be part of in the future-" Roxas shared a sideways glance with Rias, who had confided in him the desire to start playing in the Rating Games once she finished her education, which Roxas was all for. "-The twelve of us are gonna be having a faux-Rating Game, in the time-chamber. Once Palutena's done reforming the arena, that is." he added, smiling as Palutena retreated from the wall, and opened her eyes.
"The arena's all set." she informed her husband, who nodded.
"Cool." said husband replied, before turning back to everyone else. "Anyway, the six of you-" he pointed at Rias and her peerage "Are gonna be against the six of us." he gestured to himself, Valian, Kuroka, Akeno, Xenovia and Elsha. "It's not gonna be as big a massacre as a Rating Game between your peerage and all of mine would be, but I'm not gonna go as easy on you as I do in bed, I'll tell you that much."
Most of the women in the room giggled at Roxas' remark, though Isane could only feel herself going red, while hearing Shirone mutter "Pervert" under her breath.
"Anyway." Palutena stepped forward, picked up her staff and tapped it on the ground, creating three blue-white portals from it, with one in front of Rias and her peerage, one in front of her, and one in front of Roxas and his peerage members. "I'll also be pulling you out of harm's way if you get knocked out during the battle. Now, shall we get started?"
"Yes, let's." Roxas replied. However, before he could step into the portal, he heard the sound of someone coming down the stairs that led to the room that he stood in, and a few seconds after such sounds appearing, Venelana appeared.
"Hey, Venelana." Roxas greeted his assistant. "What's up?"
"I just got a call from Lilith." Venelana replied. "She informed me that she wants to speak with you at her castle. As soon as you can make it, she said."
"Is that so?" Roxas blinked, before sighing slightly. "I'll go now." He walked over to Palutena and pressed his lips against hers, before he created a transportation-circle and prepared to step through it. However, before he could, he turned around to Venelana. "Hey Ven, could you do me a solid and act as the King for the faux-Rating Game that I was gonna be in between my crew and Rias'?"
"Hm?" Venelana blinked, processing Roxas' question. "Yeah, sure. I could use some practice in combat, anyway."
"Sweet. Thanks." Roxas replied, nodding to his grandmother before walking towards the transportation-circle. When he was just a couple of paces away, he turned back to his peerage members, who Venelana was making her way towards. "One more thing. Kuroka, I'd like you to promote yourself to Rook for this training session."
"Will do." Kuroka replied, winking at her King and doing just that, as said King stepped into the transportation-circle he activated, and proceeded to disappear from the room. After a couple of seconds of silence, Palutena tapped the ground with her staff again, and the three portals that she had created moved over those that they were closest to, warping them directly into the time-dilation chamber.
Meanwhile, Roxas came out of his silver transportation-circle, just outside the gates of Lilith's castle, in the Sex Demons' territory of the Underworld. It still looked as large and impressive as it did when he and Serafall visited the place together, in the aftermath of the Kokabiel incident.
Taking a breath of the Underworld air, Roxas strode forward, taking a few minutes to make it to the front doors of the castle, which were (just like last time) guarded by six Incubi, all of whom wielded tridents. One of them seemed to recognise Roxas from last time he showed up, however, so he opened the doors to let him in without issue. Roxas walked into the castle, into the same entrance hall as before, in which he saw his grandmother sitting on a chair and reading a book.
Pretty much as soon as he entered the castle, Lilith looked up, noticed Roxas, and smiled. Setting her book aside, she got up and walked over to him.
"Hi, Roxas." She greeted her Nephalem grandson. "It's been a while." Roxas gave a smile in return, while casually scanning what his grandmother was dressed in. As opposed to the bodysuit, she was now in a translucent black evening-dress that seemed to do a better job of showing off the lingerie that she wore underneath than covering up her skin.
"Y-yeah, it has been." Roxas replied, already feeling the beginnings of a boner sprouting up inside his pants. Lilith, not noticing this (either that or noticing it and choosing to ignore it) walked over to Roxas, took his hand in hers, and walked off with him into her living room, which looked much the same as when Roxas and Serafall visited, with one major exception: the fact that there was a sword hanging up on the wall, above one of the sofas.
The sword was ornate, but fairly unremarkable-looking. The guard was in the shape of a "W", vaguely resembling horns, while the handle seemed to have a spiral-pattern on it. There were four skulls on the pommel, with a spike at the top. The only noticeable thing Roxas got from the sword was the fact that he could feel demonic power radiating from it. Not much, but still a noticeable amount.
"Something caught your eye, Roxas?" Lilith asked, a small smile on her face as she looked to where Roxas was looking. "Ohh."
"Yeah." Roxas replied. "It's a cool sword. Didn't know you liked them to the point that you would hang one up on your wall, though."
"Well, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't." Lilith remarked, sitting down on one of the sofas in the room, and indicating that Roxas do the same. "But after recovering that sword from what remained of the Old Satan Faction after you did in their leaders, I decided that I'd keep it with me until I could find a wielder." She then looked over at Roxas. "You want it?"
"Nah." Roxas replied, leaning back. "I don't need another sword. I'm happy with Clarent Galatine, thanks."
"Not to mention the sword in your pants." Lilith added, raising an eyebrow at the bulge coming from her grandson's crotch, without missing a beat. "Or are you just excited to see me, hmm?"
The First Succubus burst out laughing as Roxas' face turned as deep a crimson as the eyes that she and Roxas both shared. While Roxas just looked down, and made an attempt to conceal his boner. As much in vain as it was, he still tried for a few seconds, before giving up.
"W-well, yeah." He replied. "M-maybe a little."
"Fair enough." Lilith replied, her laughter trailing off. "I'm not gonna give you shit for getting a boner at the sight of your grandmother, Roxas, loads of guys have. It's not rude, I'm used to it. Anyway." She brought her hands together. "That's not why I asked you to come here today."
"It's not?" Roxas asked, doing an expert job of concealing the slight disappointment he felt at the idea of not fucking Lilith.
"Not really." Lilith replied, opening a moderately-sized magic-circle on the table between them, and summoning a hard case. "That is."
"What?"
"I wanted to give you this." Lilith spoke, gesturing to the case. "Or rather, what's inside. Open it."
Looking from his grandmother to the case a couple of times, Roxas obeyed the ebony-haired Succubus' commands, and opened the case to reveal... a pair of pistols.
Roxas immediately recognised the design of the pistols, both of which were dark in colour, as something similar to the Colt M1911 design, but upon closer inspection, Roxas noticed several customisations that had been made to the guns.
The most noticeable ones (in no particular order) were that the guns had target sights fitted onto them, the ergonomic wood grips on the handles of the guns, and that one of the guns had a reversed extractor and ejection port, which would allow spent shells to be ejected in the opposite direction to where they would usually go when the gun was fired. Evidently, these twin pistols were meant to be dual-wielded, and the one with the reversed ejection was meant to be used in the left hand.
"How do they feel?" Lilith asked, as Roxas pulled the guns out of the case, to get a feel for them in his hands.
"Pretty good." Roxas replied. "Not the biggest fan of the grip though, even if I'm pretty sure that's just because it was made for someone else, not me."
"Makes sense." Lilith replied. "It was."
"They're also a lot lighter than they look." Roxas replied. "Definitely lighter than the gun I'm used to."
"Pretty sure the term 'portable cannon of pain, misery, suffering and death to all who find themselves staring down the business end of it' would be a more apt description of what you call a simple 'gun'." Lilith replied, smirking as she gestured to the magical tattoo on her grandson's left bicep, which was out in the open for all to see thanks to the tanktop that Roxas had changed into just a few minutes earlier. Chuckling, Roxas nodded in agreement.
"And by the way," Lilith added. "If you want those guns customised for yourself, I can recommend a chain of gun stores in the US that work with supernatural weapons. They're owned by the Branwen Clan, so I'm sure Raven will be happy to help you.
"I see." Roxas replied. "I'll talk to her about it once she gets out of hospital." As he was about to place the guns back in its case, he noticed engravings of what he assumed were the names of the guns, on the outward sides of both of them, with the names accompanied by images of a smiling half-sun/half-moon face.
The names of the guns, if the engravings were to be believed, were Luce and Ombra.
Line Break
At around the same time that Roxas arrived at Lilith's castle, Venelana had exited the portal that Palutena sent her through, with Valian, Kuroka, Akeno, Xenovia and Elsha in turn, in a V-shaped valley between two hills, that had a small stream running through it, which the six women stood beside.
Venelana opened her hand, and created a hologram that displayed the Palutena-created battlefield that everyone stood on. Roxas' wife seemed to have created a pair of valleys on either side of a large stretch of land that lay at the top of the hills, with one valley serving as the 'base' for her and Roxas' peerage members, and the other valley serving as the other base.
"Right." Venelana looked to Valian, the promoted Kuroka, Akeno, Xenovia and Elsha. "The five of you, split up, travel up the hill and cover the entire stretch of land at the top, so you can stop my daughter and her peerage from coming close to here. We clear?"
There were general murmurs of ascent, as Valian, Kuroka, Akeno, Xenovia and Elsha all spread their white Devil wings. At the exact same time, they took off and flew up the hill towards the land at the top, splitting up once they made it to the top. Once they landed on the ground, the five peerage members walked forwards, preparing for fights against their counterparts in Rias' peerage.
Fights that they would very likely win, but still. The meaning behind the training session was to gain experience in a combat situation, not to have a dick-measuring (or tit-measuring, if that's what you prefer) contest.
Kuroka was the first to meet an opponent from Rias' peerage, in the form of-
"Shirone." The black-haired Nekoshou smiled at her younger, white-haired sister, with a wink. "You ready to get taken down again, nya?"
"Not if I beat you first, big sister, nya!" Koneko, or Shirone as she was now officially known, replied, closing her eyes and covering herself in a dense white aura. As she did so, Kuroka smiled at the sight of a pair of white cat-ears, as well as a pair of matching cat-tails, popping out of her little sister's body. "Bring it on!"
"Gladly." Kuroka's smile grew as she bent down into a combat-stance, holding her hands at around the same level as her knees and focusing Ki into them, while observing Koneko breaking into a run towards her.
When there was about five metres between the two sisters, Kuroka flung her hands diagonally upwards, releasing her Ki as she did so in order to create two long swathes of Ki, intersecting with each other in an X-shape. A snap of her fingers sent her creation towards Shirone, who was still running at her.
As soon as she realised that Kuroka's attack was coming at her, Shirone jumped up into the air, dodging the X-shaped attack and performing a front-flip all in one go, landed on the ground and rolled forward towards Kuroka, coming out of the roll with a sweep-kick in an attempt to knock her over.
Kuroka, however, stepped back and fired a beam of concentrated demonic power at her younger sister, from point-blank range, a beam that Shirone tried to dodge. However, she was unable to dodge the entirety of the demonic beam when it was fired at her from that close a range, and part of it collided with her body, burning away her clothes around that area but seeming to do little damage to her actual body.
Shirone grunted from the force of the attack that hit her, rolled backward, used her hands to propel herself into the air, flipped over, and landed back on her feet, before dashing at Kuroka, who coated her hands in dense amounts of her own Ki, and got into another combat-stance as she prepared to fight hand-to-hand.
Shirone made the first move, a high kick aimed at Kuroka's face, but the older Nekoshou leaned back, dodging the strike again, but instead stuck out her left hand to grab the foot that would have collided with her head, and pull Shirone towards her and counter with a punch to her little sister's gut, with said little sister hissing from the force of the punch, doubtlessly thanks to Kuroka's Promotion to Rook. She had tried hand-to-hand combat without Promoting herself before with members of Roxas' peerage, but though her reflexes were great, and she was able to get hits in without much issue, the issue was causing damage. Without Promotion or infusing her body with Ki, she couldn't do any substantial damage to a fellow Pawn like Neo, let alone a Rook like Shirone.
Kuroka swung Shirone around and flung her away a couple of yards, before Shirone landed on her feet again, and paused for a couple of seconds before rushing at Kuroka again. She pulled her right fist back for a punch, aiming for her older sister's gut, which said older sister grinned at the sight of. She threw her counterpunch at Shirone's face, but to her surprise, Shirone swiftly dodged to the side, avoiding Kuroka's punch entirely, before grabbing her older sister's arm with her left hand and yanking it, pulling the older, bigger woman towards her diminutive (but still growing) form, and kneeing her in the gut with such force that Kuroka doubled over, leaving her vulnerable to being fully picked up, off the ground, swung around and around a couple of times by Shirone, and thrown away, travelling several dozen feet before she landed on the ground, rolling a couple of feet before coming to a stop.
She took a couple of seconds to get to her feet, slightly dazed and holding her head, while looking over at Shirone, who was stretching, before beginning to dash at her again. Shaking her head to stop herself from seeing stars, Kuroka dropped into another fighting-stance, preparing to take on her little sister again. However, before that even became a possibility, Shirone faltered, coughed and tripped over. She fell to the ground and didn't move.
"Shirone!" Kuroka cried out, forgoing the fact that she and Shirone were in the middle of a faux-Rating Game, and dashing towards her little sister, whom she could see had gone pale and was gasping for breath. Kneeling down beside her white-haired sibling, Kuroka placed a hand to Shirone's head and felt it.
She was cold.
'Crap.' Kuroka thought, realising what Shirone was going through immediately, as she had inadvertantly done the same, multiple times, when she was younger and just learning how to utilise Senjutsu in battle. 'Shirone must have overused the Ki in her body.' She took a breath to calm herself, and remind herself that it wasn't that bad, since Shirone was still breathing.
"Palutena!" Kuroka opened a magic-circle by her ear and called out to the Goddess in charge of the training session. "Can you open a portal, please? For both me and Shirone?"
"No problem, Kuroka." Palutena replied, directly into Kuroka's ear. After a couple of seconds, she added "Opening it now."
Kuroka nodded, just as a blue-white portal, similar to the ones that Palutena opened just outside the time-dilation chamber before, opened in front of her and Shirone. Without a second thought, she picked her little sister up, and walked through.
Elsha and Isane
Elsha was the next to find an opponent, a couple of minutes after Kuroka found hers. While walking past a couple of bushes and adjusting her dress, the former Boosted Gear host heard the sound of displaced air, as well as the rumble of magic in the air that, as a Magician in her past life, she was trained to notice. Her emerald-coloured eyes flicked towards the sound of where the disturbance was coming from (almost directly above her), and instinctively, she created a small magic-circle in one hand, and held it up to catch the bolt of lightning that was fired down upon her, escaping harm altogether.
She then proceeded to throw the bolt back where it came from, and the female shriek of pain was enough to tell Elsha that her redirected attack had made its mark. She looked up, and a small smile came across her face to see Isane Hyoudou, hanging on six Devil wings, and writhing from the pain of having her own lightning-magic directed back at her.
"Nice shot, Isane." Elsha praised her successor. "If I wasn't a trained Magician and as in-tune with magic as I was, I wouldn't have been able to dodge that. Well done."
"Th-thanks." Isane seemed to have recovered from the pain of having one's own lightning directed back at them, and dispelled her wings so she could drop onto the ground, and glare at Elsha, getting into a combat stance. "Let's do this, now." Elsha merely smiled, Isane felt the wind beginning to pick up around herself and Elsha, so she quickly engaged her Boosted Gear's Scale Mail armour and dashed towards her predecessor, coating her armoured fists with fire.
Elsha flicked her hands at Isane, sending several waves of wind at her, cutting the air around her and flinging her back slightly, while jumping back herself and, after looking around for a second, extended her hands towards the bushes that she was looking at earlier, and raised her fists while clenching them, ripping the bushes from the ground and bringing them to life. She silently pointed at Isane, who was flying at her on six Dragonic wings, extremely quickly, and the bushes rushed towards him on stumpy little legs created from pure magic. It would have been comical to observe, if not for the combat situation that Elsha was currently in.
The bushes jumped towards Isane, avoiding her fire-coated hands, and went for her face, spinning around so each individual thorn made for a potentially dangerous weapon. It didn't do much damage to Isane herself, but having two bushes jumping all over her and obscuring her vision made for an UNGODLY annoying experience.
"Fuck! Get off me!" the current Boosted Gear wielder shouted, clawing at the bushes and lighting them on fire with her hands. However, even in spite of them making like the one in The Prince of Egypt and burning, the bushes that attacked Isane's face continued to do so for another moment or two, until Isane had had it with trying to get the bushes off her with hands alone.
"I SAID, GET OFF!" Isane shouted, with her shout sounding more like a roar than anything else, and she expelled a huge blast of Boosted-up energy from her entire body that reduced the bushes attacking her to twigs, while she proceeded to dash towards Elsha, who saw her coming just in time to duck her punch, and send a powerful wind-spell into her stomach to send her flying away a few feet. However, Ddraig's wielder landed on her feet and dashed towards Elsha again, powering through the offensive spells that the blonde sent her way.
"What's up, Isane?" Elsha asked, throwing out her hand and generating a magical force-field, which Isane found herself crashing into, with the force of which she did so being enough for small cracks to begin running across the armour, in several places. "You keep rushing in blind, exactly like I taught you not to. You're not thinking straight, are you?"
"I'm thinking straight, all right!" Isane yelled back, beginning to dash at Elsha again, as the blonde former Magician condensed the force-field down to the size of which it could be split into two hand-sized force-fields, did just that, transferred one force-field to each hand, and prepared for Isane to confront her. "I've been thinking that I need to kick your ass!"
"Well, yeah." Elsha replied, raising one hand to block Isane's armoured punch, jumping back to dodge an armoured kick, and raising both hands to block an armoured headbutt. "We're in a faux-Rating Game right now. That's the goal. But you're going wild about this. Either you're taking this way too seriously, or... there's something up."
Ducking under Isane's next punch, Elsha cancelled the force-fields and sent an explosion-spell directly at Isane's armoured midriff, blowing her backwards and shattering the armour around that area, with the rest of it coming off soon after to reveal Isane's sweaty form. She was down on one knee and panting.
"Y-y-yeah... there is something up." Isane muttered, as Elsha walked towards her, a cool expression on her face. "I've been hearing this voice... it's different from Ddraig, it's different from yours, but I can tell it's coming from inside this thing." she shook her left arm at Elsha, which still had the red gauntlet on it. "It's been telling me that I have to beat you. That that'll be the way to get what I want."
"Really?" Elsha blinked. "Never experienced anything like that when I had the Gear."
'Well,' Elsha reasoned with herself, a heartbeat after she said what she said. 'To be fair, I've never had a previous wielder of the Gear be revived and train me, while also being a subordinate of someone that I held in high... oh.'
"This is about Roxas, isn't it?" Elsha asked, looking down at Isane. "That voice is because of him, right?"
"Yes!" The brunette on the floor replied. "Yes, to both of those!"
To Elsha's immense surprise, Isane got up, shaking slightly, with a dense crimson- not red- aura surrounding her. Her eyes seemed to glow a bright green, instead of their regular chocolate-brown.
"I- I need to do this!" Isane cried, rushing at Elsha and throwing two punches and a kick. "It's the only way I can impress him; get him to notice me like... like..."
Her face had gone slightly red now, as Elsha dodged all of Isane's attacks, and countered with a few thrown punches of her own. She definitely wasn't as experienced in hand-to-hand combat as someone like Roxas or Koneko, but thanks to sparring sessions with her boyfriend, she knew the basics.
"Like what?" Elsha asked, genuinely curious as to what Isane wanted.
"Like he notices you!" Isane yelled in reply, the crimson aura around her growing denser and denser with every passing second. "Like Rias! Like Mira! Fuck, like V-Valian! I... I..." The aura around Isane then got to the point that it was impossible to see Isane underneath it, and a blast of energy, a few times stronger than the one that Isane had used against the bushes earlier, was expelled from Isane's body, and Elsha found herself thrown off her feet, before being slammed into the ground.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE LEFT BEHIND!" Isane's voice could be heard screaming from inside the crimson aura, which was now a pillar that shot up into the sky, and was rapidly growing in its volume before Elsha's eyes. Isane's scream tumbled in pitch yet didn't decrease in volume, though Elsha heard the sound of a Dragon's roar within the scream, which grew louder, and louder, and louder, to the point that she had to put her hands over her ears in order for them to not be damaged.
Eventually, the roar completely overpowered the scream, and the crimson aura-pillar faded away, leaving in its place, where Isane was formerly... a Dragon.
A five-metre tall, crimson Dragon, with emerald-green eyes with a wingspan of about twelve and a half metres.
["Welsh Dragon, Subspecies Balance Breaker!"] Ddraig's voice sounded. Elsha, who had picked herself up off the ground, heard Ddraig's voice coming from the Dragon, though the Dragon itself didn't open its mouth. ["Crimson Fiery Goch!"]
Line Break
"So, who did those guns belong to, before you gave them to me?" Roxas asked, with the case (with Luce and Ombra back in it) sitting next to him on the couch. "And why are you giving them to me?"
"Well, before they came to be in my possession," Lilith replied, idly uncrossing and recrossing her legs, which gave Roxas a temporary (and possibly intentional) view of the see-through thong she was wearing. "They belonged to one of my former husband's top military generals, Sparda. You heard of him, Roxas?"
Roxas shook his head.
"Well, I won't get into his whole life story here, as entertaining and as interesting as it is." Lilith replied. "Plus, it's not exactly relevant to the fact that his guns are now yours. As for why I'm giving you his guns..." she sighed. "well, they're pretty much the only thing I could think of giving you as thanks for your substantial part in crippling the Old Satan Faction, and taking all three of its leaders under your command to make sure that they'll never bother anyone again."
"You totally mean 'under my dick'." Roxas replied, without skipping a beat. "Don't deny it." Lilith just laughed.
"I think that goes without saying." she chuckled, while nodding. "But anyway, it was more my sister's idea than mine to give you Luce and Ombra. I was thinking of giving you a few Succubus servants to keep as your very own, but as you said. With Katerea, Shyelin and Catora under your dick, and your entire peerage thus far being made up of females, you've got enough sexy servants to keep you occupied for the time being, haven't you?"
"I'd take the servants AND the guns." Roxas replied. "But I'm guessing that's not an option, is it?"
Lilith shook her head, just as her grandson did a minute earlier.
"Oh, well." Roxas shrugged. "Can't blame me for trying." he sighed. "But anyway, going back to what you said about your sisters, I've been meaning to ask you for a while."
"Yes?" Lilith leaned forward. "What were you meaning to ask me for a while?"
"Well, you and your 'sisters'." Roxas replied. "Agrat, Naamah, Eisheth- why do you call them your sisters? I mean, think about it for a second. There isn't anything physical that could tie you together beyond your top-tier GILF-bodies, and I don't think sexiness is a family thing among Sex Demons as it is a species thing, is it?" Lilith snorted at Roxas' question, which immediately made Roxas think that he'd said something wrong.
"S-sorry!" he backpedalled. "I didn't want to offend you, or anything!"
"No, it's fine, Roxas." Lilith replied, holding up a reassuring hand. "It's a perfectly valid question. It's also one that requires a long answer." she chuckled. "Though I must point out that out of me, Agrat, Naamah and Eisheth, I'm the only GILF, strictly speaking. With the proof sitting before me." she winked at Roxas, who blushed again.
"R-right." Roxas mumbled. "A-about that long answer-"
"Oh, yeah. That." Lilith replied, leaning back on her sofa and frowning for a second. "You know what? Fine. I don't have anything else to do today that can't be postponed until tomorrow. I'll tell- and show- you it. Though I must ask-" her voice became hard for a second. "That you keep what I'm gonna say to you on the downlow. This is something extremely personal to me, and I don't want it getting out. Ever. We clear?"
Roxas nodded.
"Cool." Lilith replied, standing up and snapping her fingers. "Let's begin, then."
Before Roxas' eyes, the living room that he and Lilith stood in began to fade away, before his eyes, and be replaced by a cliff-side in the Human world (Roxas could tell, given that the sky was as blue as Xenovia's hair). The scene was quiet, peaceful and devoid of life of any kind, save for a couple of plants that grew close to the cliff, and the sight of the sea was as pleasant as it was back at his home in Greece.
Turning around, Roxas started slightly to see Lilith standing a couple of paces behind him, and several feet away from the pair of them, there sat two individuals, cuddled up together against a lone tree, one man and one woman.
The woman had wavy cream-coloured hair, which went down to below her shoulders, just as as' did (though the woman's hair was slightly longer), with green eyes. Her figure was quite busty, and she wore a simple-looking white dress that went down to around mid-thigh. Roxas certainly wasn't meaning to look, but he could see between the woman's legs and... she wasn't wearing any underwear.
The man, however, was who caught Roxas' eye. Not because he found him more attractive than the woman, but because of how similar he looked to Roxas himself.
It was slightly unnerving. The man's hair was the exact same shade of silver as Roxas', and it was just as long as Roxas' as well. He had the same figure as Roxas, his hands could have been his, and he had a feeling that, if the man were to stand up, they would be very similar in height, if not exactly similar. There were tiny differences, however: the man's eyes were hazel, his bangs were slightly shorter than Roxas', and Roxas definitely couldn't see himself wearing what the man was. It looked more like a toga than the shirts and pants that he usually wore in day-to-day life.
Roxas was so caught up in looking at the man that he jumped when Lilith stepped forward, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Found your dream guy, Roxas?" she asked, teasingly.
"N-no!" Roxas replied. "Who are those people, Lilith?"
Lilith took a second to look at the man and woman sitting in front of them (they seemed to be looking at each other, and seemed to have not noticed that Roxas and Lilith were there. If they could even see them, that is. Roxas had a suspicion that Lilith had done a Harry Potter and taken the pair of them inside a memory of hers), before answering her grandson.
"Well, the woman is me." she replied. "And the guy... that's Lucifer. My future- back then- husband, and your grandfather."
"Wait, the woman is you?" Roxas looked from the cream-haired woman on the ground to the Lilith standing next to him, back to the woman on the ground. "You look nothing like each other!"
"I know." Lilith replied. "We sure look different, don't we? Hell, I was practically an entirely different person back then. Different name and all."
"What was that name?" Roxas asked. He knew, as soon as the words left his lips, that the question was pointless, but his curiosity got the better of him before he could reign it in. Lilith paused for another couple of seconds, drinking in the sight of her and Lucifer sat on the ground together, before answering.
"...Eve."
Hope you had a happy Xmas (or Happy Shut the Fuck Up, as I like to call it) and a good New Year, everyone. Here's the thirty-ninth chapter of Nephalem, with quite frankly, a lot of shit going on. With Roxas and Jeanne finally meeting, the fact that Cao Cao is being a Cunt Cunt (as usual), Isane unlocking a new form of Balance Breaker in the ultimate 'NOTICE ME SENPAI' moment, Roxas' new guns, and the fact that LILITH WAS EVE FROM THE ADAM AND EVE STORY? I'm gonna have a lot of fun explaining that last one...
Not much else other than to say that, for anyone who liked my MHA fic, The Symbol's Son, it's gone now, and I'm extremely sorry to anyone that liked it. I just lost the motivation to write for it, and I had practically no idea where to take it without sticking to the main MHA plot like glue. Hell, I couldn't even find a way to put my own spin on it like I've done with Nephalem, and with my RWBY fic (an update for which is coming, by the way, don't you worry).
Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter. Whether you did or you didn't, please leave a review and let me know, because I really do love hearing feedback, of any kind. If you fancy letting me know about some possible ideas you might have for later in the story, or just have questions for me (because I'll be happy to answer them), let me know in a review, drop me a PM or hit me up on Discord (my name for it is on my profile)!
Three Sizes of New Girls:
Eve: 105-62-95
Next Time: Elsha vs. Isane, Venelana vs. Rias, Lilith's Past
Preview of Next Chapter:
"It took dozens of years of training to get myself to that point." Venelana remarked to Rias. "Constantly holding back on destroying everything as opposed to... what I did back there, is harder than you think."
Seeya!