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Betad by morde24
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The Gamers Guide to Freedom
Chapter 12.5: Gods and Goblins
Isis is the best, truly she is.
I have no idea what you are talking about Master. I just fixed a minor issue with dungeons. It definitely doesn't give you any advantages at all.
Heh, loopholes.
She made a slight change to how the dungeon realms function that has massively increased how much I can use them. She altered the time dilation so instead of one hour outside equating to one hour inside, as long as I am in the dungeon, one hour outside is six hours inside, as soon as I leave the dungeon time in it freezes.
It's the most I could do with the restrictions the Game left, I'm still looking at the different rules and finding as many loopholes as I can
I don't like the limits it placed on me any more than you do, and at this point I'm doing it out of spite.
Spite is a good motivator.
But regardless of the reasons, it means I can slip away for a few hours at night when I'm supposed to be sleeping and work on my levelling and my growing army.
It turns out greenskins are easily impressed by over the top shows of power, and the fact that my tower... towers over everything else in this dungeon has impressed them.
Enough that I've already had defectors abandon the army I just smashed and come to me instead. Almost a hundred goblins, and a couple dozen orcs have joined my side.
I also captured a single troll, once I pulled it out of the giant ants' lair, the flesh they ate healed up eventually and I had the thing heavily chained up to stop it from trying anything.
Which leads me to my next problem, I need a leader for my goblins. Like Vesra is for my Naga, I need a goblin or orc who can lead the others and be smart enough to not need my orders to breath properly.
They also need to be strong enough to be respected, which is how we ended up in this position.
"My gold is on the big one with the warhammer." Miza says as she leans against my blackened throne. My tower only vaguely resembled what I had planned for it, as soon as the spell was cast Isis took some creative liberties to improve upon my designs and add some basic functionality. But then, my genius design was literally 'big tower'. I did make it during a battle to the death so give me a break.
She added everything a burgeoning Dark Lord could possibly need to succeed, including a colosseum where I can make my minions fight for my amusement and/or approval.
There's no killing here, and I've even managed to develop a new ward (with the reluctant help of Izan after I dragged him out of his room) that helps with that.
Mending Ward
A ward that mends the wounded flesh of those within its boundaries
Putting my knowledge of fleshcrafting and my skill with the Warping Mend Flesh spell, I created a ward that mends the wounds of those in the arena. It has its flaws, not least of which is how slow and power-intensive it is, but it keeps wounds that might have been fatal from killing my minions and slowly puts them back together.
"Nah, I think the little fucker with the axes is going to win." I retort, watching a little goblin with a pair of twin axes lunge at one of the orcs. I'm doing this for a simple reason, I can't waste all my time and resources making every single one of them stronger so I want to separate out the best fighters before I move to the next phase.
"Lezea could beat these guys, but she's still being so stubborn." Miza grumbles, making me chuckle. I had my two prisoners moved to the tower dungeons, they have a better ambience to convince rebellious prisoners to stop being annoying. The spikes and blood are a nice touch and it has kept Bryria nice and quiet, the little berserker is still as rebellious as ever though.
But that is fine, because I've been doing some research, asking some questions and the more I hear about Lezea's big sister the more valuable Lezea becomes. Her older sister is basically a goblin mad scientist, building deadly mechs from her lab which I can see from the top of my tower. Kinda hard to miss a giant Zeppelin thatq hovers over the town where most of the goblins live. That's her domain, she was given control of the goblins by the war-chief, and that makes her my next target.
There's also the main city where the War Chief rules, and a ruined castle under the control of an orc mage, if all three of those places fall then I'll have this dungeon firmly under my control.
There's some smaller settlements and outposts, but if I take control of the three bosses then I'll have won, Greenskins tend to follow the strongest and if I beat the other important figures they will all fall in line.
"Looks like its coming to a finish, have the winner and the ten runners up head to my lab." I order as I rise, watching a small goblin whirling around the arena with his axes, heavily wounding the orc Miza thought would win.
"Will do boss man." Miza agrees quickly as I rise, heading out of my little box overlooking the arena. The cheering of the other orcs and goblins makes me chuckle a bit, it's no surprise that they like bloodsport so much. Mazoga, the previous war chief, outlawed it because of how many orcs died fighting for fun since they are still at war with the Alliance dungeon.
...it is rather annoying that I'm going to inherit the Greenskins enemies, but at least I won't run out of people to fight for experience anytime soon.
Being a leader comes with some unique problems, such as how the fuck do I feed a couple hundred goblins who just dropped in my lap? The answer, magic of course.
The forests around my tower have plenty of wildlife, which is how the outpost fed itself before I showed up, but it simply doesn't have the numbers required to feed a force this large...
Until I stepped in and changed a few things.
I just had my new minions capture a bunch of wild boars and did a little modification on the creatures to make them more efficient.
Making them docile was easy, making them twice as big was even easier.
...changing them so that they grew to full size much faster and could be breed in days instead of months while also lowering the amount of food they need to grow was actually really fucking hard, and several of them exploded before I managed to get the hang of it.
But you can't make an omelet without blowing up a few eggs, and at the end of the day I had the perfect creature for feeding my forces, happily living in the caves beneath my tower where they can be bred and butchered for meat by my servants.
Having what seems like unlimited meat available and the freedom to beat each other with pointy metal sticks has kept my minions happy, I wish everyone was so easy to please.
Maybe I have truly found my people, they are happy to let me laze around as long as the meat keeps coming.
I tried modifying some fruit trees as well, for the variety, and I know it is possible to alter plants with fleshcrafting because I've read about it in my Grimoire.
The tree came to life and hit me in the face with a branch, so I burnt it.
I'll try again later but for now just boar meat will have to do, at least until I work out how to set up an underground fishery and make a few adjustments to some fish. Maybe some sheep and cows as well, but it turns out Greenskins aren't that picky as long as it's meat.
Goblins don't tend to be allowed to eat much fresh meat since it normally gets saved for the orcs, so my goblins are pretty fucking happy.
After all, it looks like meat's back on the menu boys.
Heh.
A day may come when I will be less easily amused, but it is not this day.
The fact that I've ended up in charge of anything at all is honestly terrifying, I clearly should not be trusted with any kind of power. But then again, neither should 95% of people who end up in power so I'm in good company at least.
Heading to my lab, I look over my supplies with a smile. Fun fact about trolls, they can regenerate from almost anything as long as it doesn't kill them outright, so something as small as having their flesh carved isn't really a problem because it just grows back.
If you have a single troll, you have all the troll flesh you will ever really need, and I was kind enough to crush the creatures mind before I started having my Ghouls carve it up. I'm not that cruel, it's providing me with a valuable resource, there is no reason for it to suffer during the process.
Thankfully, my newly upgraded lab has plenty of storage for materials so I don't need to be the one to do the carving, I can just leave it to my ghouls and put the excess in my inventory when I check up on them.
My smile fades slightly as I feel another tugging on my magic, making me sigh. When I am much stronger I am going to kick Azazel in the dick for getting me into this mess, but for now I can't do anything about it.
When I summon a soul and then cancel the spell, it is supposed to simply go back to where I summoned it from. Devils and Fallen go to Super Hell, while Angels go to the Void. Gods are supposed to go back to the void as well, but it should come as no surprise to discover that Gods have power even after their death and it appears Freya decided she didn't feel like going back to the void, she can't summon herself but she has worked out how to get my attention.
I've been pretending I can't feel her attempts to get me to resummon her this entire time, but it is highly annoying. From what I can tell she has essentially pulled herself to the edge of the void, the barrier between the mortal realm and the afterlife, by using me as her anchor.
I need to keep that in mind, not all souls will be so willing to leave once given an out, and some have the ability to take action.
I'm going to have to deal with her sooner rather than later, but for now I have fleshcrafting to do.
The winners of my little tournament need their well-earned reward, and I have enough troll flesh to get to work. I've already used a lot of it to give my Ghouls and Nagas a regeneration factor and increased strength, but I have some I can spare for my newest minions.
Time to get to work.
- Later -
Sitting in my royal bedroom atop the tower, I frown to myself as I look over the dark purple robes I've placed on a mannequin and the Amulet sitting in a display case.
The Robes of the Lolth-Sworn and the Amulet of Maglubiyet, I can feel the power coming from them without even touching them, but I haven't gotten the slightest clue what they are supposed to do. Only the dumbest of fools would put on a mysterious magical artifact but having two very rare items at my disposal and no way to use them is infuriating.
I also have my armour on a stand, along with the other curiosities I've gathered,all on display around the room, a mostly empty bookshelf holding my grimoires.
It took me a while to realise why I prefer keeping things like this out of my inventory, but I've figured it out. I can see them this way, it's not just a line of text in a box but something I can actually admire. It pleases my greed to be able to look upon my treasures, even if it is risky.
I've warded the hell out of this room and the entire tower so it better be safe, but if anything gets stolen I'm burning this dungeon to the ground.
Going back to my artifacts, I frown as I reach out towards the robes with my magic and immediately feel it reaching back, cancelling the spell and cutting off my connection before the dark and shadowy magic can touch my magic.
The magic of the amulet feels angry, almost like it hungers for bloodshed and hates being left to gather dust in a warded display case, but until I know more about them neither of these two are being used.
Maglubiyet is the God of Goblins, a god of war and leadership known as the Battle Lord, and I've quizzed Miza enough to know that he is still worshipped, but as far as I can tell the gods are silent in this dungeon, if they act they do so subtly, and from what I can learn from his amulet, Maglubiyet isn't exactly the subtly type.
Lolth is the Queen of Spiders, Goddess of the Drow. I know that from my DnD days, and I have heard rumours of the War Chief having a Drow servant. I definitely do not want to deal with anything connected with Lolth, dealing with a crazy sadistic man-hating spider goddess isn't my idea of a good time.
It annoys me that I can't make use of the clearly immensely powerful robes, but they can just be a trophy for now. Maybe one day I'll know how to deal with them.
- Iymrae, the Drow Mistress -
"Are you certain?" Iymrae asked, staring down the Llezrym, the Head Priestess of Lolth, intensely.
"Of course, I could not mistake it for anything else. Lady Lolth's magic is radiating from the newly erected tower." Llezrym confirmed, a mixed expression on her face, a mixture of joy and concern flooding her.
She understood why.
Their home realm had been destroyed by the Alliance, and with it Lolth had all but abandoned them for their failure to defend themselves against the arrogant High Elves, and that had been the last they had heard from her.
It was understandable, they had survived by all but selling themselves into slavery in service of the Horde, a necessary evil but it went directly against all of Lolth's teachings for them to submit to the orcs.
The return of their Goddess was something that should bring them hope, but her power was coming from the domain of their newest enemy. Had she abandoned them completely, choosing to support their enemy?
Or was this a message?
"I sent Faeryna to assassinate this new invader." she admitted after a moment making Llezrym's eyes widen. "Mazoga wants this devil lord dead."
"If he holds the favour of Lady Lolth, then it is our duty to support his war against the orcs." Llezrym said seriously, making Iymrae hide her frown.
"I know, I'll message her. She's still trying to work out how to bypass the magical barrier around the tower anyway. Make sure the other priestess's do not alert the orcs before we are ready to act, we won't survive if they turn on us before we can turn on them." Iymrae ordered as she sat down, watching the stern priestess leave.
Lolth would not support a male devil over her chosen people, not when she had always favoured the fairer gender and supported turning the males, even Drow males, into servants.
There was something she wasn't understanding.
After a moment, her eyes widened and a wicked smile grew on her face.
When she first arrived in this realm, she secured her place as an advisor to the old War Chief by the tried and true method. He was an old orc, prideful and greedy, and seeing a beautiful elf like her it took him no time at all to want to take her like he did so many of the high elves.
It took her even less time to bend him to her will, controlling him by his lusts. It worked for years before he became to unruly for her to guide anymore, so she convinced Mazoga to rise up and challenge him, poisoning the War Chief the night before he was due to fight her. It was her mistake, she acted too submissive to avoid riling up his anger when she should have brought him to his knees and made him serve her, it gave him delusions of importance and stopped him from taking her advice.
Lolth had brought her a second chance, she just needed to position herself by this devil's side and break his will, he could rule this realm while she ruled him.
A shame, she did like Mazoga, but the orc was simply too stubborn for her own good. Perhaps she'd have the new ruler of this realm keep her as a trophy. The stubborn ones were always the most entertaining to break.
Firstly though, she needed to turn her assassin into a messenger.
- Kuro -
Stupid gods and their stupid relics.
And speaking of stupid gods, I suppose I better deal with this one before she drives me to Deicide.
Bracing myself, I reach out and grab Freya's soul, yanking it back to the land of the living roughly. The mana drain is immediate and unpleasant as she reforms in front of me, scowling down at me.
"Can you please stop poking my magic?" I ask with a sigh as she stares down at me in disapproval.
"Why have I not yet been reunited with Odin? I have followed your actions after you attempted to send me back to the abyss, you have done naught but sate your lusts and revel." Freya asks immediately, making me groan.
Oh great, she could see what I was doing. I've always wanted a Goddess watching my every action. Azazel is definitely getting kicked in the dick.
"Azazel said to wait, he needed to go talk to Lord Odin and I've heard rumour of a war between the Norse and the Greek brewing, and frankly Lady Freya I don't want anything to do with that." I admit as I sit on the edge of the bed. "Even if I knew how to get to Asgard, I'm not going there while war is on the horizon. Getting caught between Hades, Loki and Odin doesn't sound very healthy." I deadpan, making her scowl slightly, even as she nods.
"A fair point, if you die I will have no escape from the abyss." Freya agrees.
It's nice to see her priorities are in the right order.
"In that case you will keep your magic cast, I have no desire to go back to the abyss. Your magic has awoken my soul, and the abyss is cold and dark now that I am awake to experience it." Freya orders making me stare her down.
"...you do realise how draining it is to keep a goddess summoned, right?" I counter making her frown. "If I kept you around, I'd be stopping myself from casting anything."
"A worthy sacrifice, devil." Freya continues making me narrow my eyes.
"But not one I'm willing to make, goddess. I'm not one of your worshippers, and I don't take orders from you." I drawl. Goddess or not, I'm not giving up my magic so she can hover around like a bad smell. Could I put her in a body like I did Araquiel? Possibly, but honestly I don't want to even try.
Yes, I'm that spiteful.
She stares at me in shock for a moment, baffled at my casual refusal. I suppose she has missed the last few hundreds years and she still remembers the glory days when the gods were treated with the greatest of respect all to well, but those days are over. Most pantheons barely have any followers any left, reduced to living in their realms and hiding away from the rest of the world. She hasn't experienced the slow downfall of the Gods, so she just remembers being worshipped and respected.
But I only worship my Game-gifted bed. Nothing else is worthy of my respect and adoration. Okay, my bed and Nyx but nothing else.
Stupid birdbrain, I spoil her way too much.
Still, Freya isn't stupid and as she goes to respond she pauses, taking a breath as she stares at me. I can banish her again, and she knows it.
"Then can you not give me a human body for now, like you did for the Fallen?" Freya asks, her tone more respectful though clearly forced. She's a prideful one and I can tell it is galling to have to be respectful to a devil like me.
- Freya -
Resisting the urge to glare at the lazy devil sitting in front of her, she mentally sighed.
A part of her hoped that Odin would rush to be reunited with her, but she couldn't say she was surprised that he had instead gone to hunt her killers. Odin always had a burning temper that rivalled the flames of Muspelheim, and she doubted it had cooled any in the centuries she had been dead.
So when he was finally given a target for his rage, she doubted he even hesitated to charge into action, and any war could take a considerable amount of time. Hades always was incredibly powerful, perhaps even more so than his brothers, though Zeus would never admit it, and Loki would be a difficult opponent.
Odin could kill Loki easily, but Loki knew that and would never fight him fairly. The coward had likely already gone to ground, cowering in the shadows and waiting for a chance to strike, like the snake he was.
Or perhaps Odin didn't want to face her with her death unavenged, it sounded like something he would do.
Which meant she was stuck in the freezing abyss of the afterlife until he was finished. She was thankful that she was summoned back to warn Odin of Loki's actions, but in being summoned her situation had changed.
When she was summoned for the first time it was as if she was awoken from a deep sleep, but now what she was awake she felt every torturous moment in the void. All of its horrors, countless glowing lights floating aimlessly around a pitch-black abyss, with winds so cold they even affected her, despite her lack of a physical form.
It had taken her some time to find the barrier, using the feel of the devils magic as her guiding light, but she quickly realised she couldn't break it alone, only push herself against the barrier futilely.
Following the trail of the magic that had summoned her, she was able to peer through the barrier into the life of the devil with the power to simply ignore the barrier that kept millions of souls imprisoned.
It proved a nice distraction from the biting cold, and it didn't take her long to realise that he could feel it when she tried to use his magic to help herself break out. It was subtle, but watching him pause and look around for a moment after she first tried told her that he could feel it, even if he chose to ignore her.
Which admittedly angered her, but he was right about one thing. He wasn't one of her followers, he was a devil with no real reason to listen to her. Nothing he had said or done was wrong, he was right to avoid Asgard with a war approaching, he was right not to want to get involved in a battle between Odin and Hades, he was right not to want to lose his magic so she could remain in this realm, he was right that he didn't have to listen to her.
It didn't make it any less insulting to be ignored.
She was the Queen of the Valkyries, the Queen of Asgard, and this devil dared to simply ignore her? Her pride couldn't take it.
"I probably could, but honestly I don't want to. Bringing some minor Fallen back to life is nothing, barely anyone is going to care. But you? Giving a Goddess physical form again? I don't know if you'd have any of your powers but it hardly matters. Do you know how many Gods have died? Most pantheons are barely at half strength now, and I don't want to deal with an endless stream of Gods coming to bother me because their husband/wife/son/daughter/sister/brother/all of the above died and they want them back. It's going to be enough of a pain when Odin inevitably wants to find a way to keep you around, I'm not doing it on my own." Kuro said with a shrug, making her glare at him.
Again, he wasn't wrong. That didn't mean she had to like it.
"I can remain hidden, few should remember my appearance and I don't even know where we are. This isn't the mortal realm after all, nor is it the underworld. I highly doubt I'll be recognised here." Freya reasoned, making him sigh.
"True, but if this has taught me anything it is that Gods are bullshit. You weren't supposed to be able to just poke me like this, the last thing I need is you pulling some divine nonsense and overcomplicating my life." Kuro said with a shrug.
"I have seen your life, you are entirely capable of overcomplicating it yourself, but very well. I have watched your deeds from beyond the veil, I know how you usually make deals. Grant me a mortal body, and I will remain in this tower until Odin is done seeking vengeance, and for as long as that takes I will satisfy your lusts." Freya offered after a moment, making Kuro pause, his lazy expression fading in surprise.
"...Somehow I doubt cuckolding Odin is the smartest thing I could do." Kuro started before he paused. "Admittedly that would mean more if I wasn't cuckolding Sirzechs but you get what I mean." he said sheepishly.
Smiling despite herself, she chuckled a little.
"Boy, I am a Goddess of Love, Beauty, Fertility and Sex. I am as loyal to Odin as Odin is to me, and he's slept with almost all my Valkyries, not to mention the other Goddess's, mortal worshippers and many others. That does not mean I do not love him, nor that he does not love me, but immortality can be a curse and a blessing, and few Gods never stray. Just look at Zeus. Remind me to tell you the story of how I got Brísingamen one day." Freya chuckled. "Or some of the stories of what myself, Aphrodite, Ishtar and Bastet got up to before the war. I wonder what became of them..." she trailed off, frowning.
She had a lot to catch up on.
"Aphrodite and Bastet are still alive, the Greek and Egyptian pantheons didn't lose too many members. I looked up the gods after it became clear I was going to have to deal with them, but I don't know much about Ishtar. If she's around she's been keeping her head down for a long, long time." Kuro informed her, making her smile slightly. She doubted Ishtar had died. If she was good at one thing it was somehow surviving the chaos she caused.
Though it was certainly surprising to hear she had been keeping quiet, it wasn't like her not to accidentally cause a lot of trouble. Curious.
She had so many questions she needed answers to: How did her own pantheon fare? How were her Valkyries doing? Had her daughters finally settled down? Hnoss and Gersemi took after her a little too much, she could only hope her death had not affected them too much.
An odd thing to be saying to be sure, but this was an odd time.
"Anyway, do you honestly think I can be so easily convinced with sex?" Kuro asked, making her pause as she raised an eyebrow.
"...I have been watching your daily life." Freya said simply.
"Okay, fair but still." Kuro continued, sheepishly rubbing his neck.
"I am a Goddess of Sex. Even if I do not have my powers, can you really say you do not want to be able to say you bedded a Goddess? That you don't want to boast that you had a Goddess of Sex on call to serve your every whim? I doubt any other Devil can claim the same."
...probably, Aphrodite did once drunkenly claim she wanted to bed two members of every sentient race, a man and a woman. But then she had also been downing Ambrosia like it was water all day so it was hard to tell how serious she was being. Dionysus really knew how to throw a party.
The 'Great War' ruined a lot of things, including the live and let live policy most of the Pantheons shared.
She was even being truthful about not leaving, she was too weak to be of any help and her people couldn't afford the distraction of her return during a time of war, but she had things she needed to do here as well.
Like working out just who it was that was praying to her beneath the tower.
"...fine, but I'm putting a bomb in your body and blowing you up if you leave the tower." Kuro said after a moment making her stare at him, amused to realise he was being completely truthful. "I give it a 40% chance the body blows up the second you try and enter it anyway, Gods are weird like that."
"And you do seem to excel at blowing things up, those poor pigs." Freya said, amusement in her tone.
"Yeah, yeah. Maybe don't tease the person about to make you a body?" Kuro suggested as he rose.
- Kuro -
I really need to stop making decisions based on my dick, but that doesn't sound like a very fun way to live to be honest. Besides, it's better I work out how this works now than when Odin is looming over my shoulder.
I'm still kicking Azazel in the balls though.
As the servant arrives, I smile as she immediately strips down and lays on the table without a word. I realised that I have no reason to keep people as statues because I can just turn them into Servants and change them later if I need to, it's more efficient.
As for gender, well I can fleshcraft so male prisoners quickly become female servants, it's not like they can get offended.
"I don't suppose you can strip as a spirit?" I ask as I look over the revealing bikini armour she is wearing. Rolling her eyes, Freya goes to unclasp her armour before she pauses, her hands going through it. "Oh well, I can eyeball it. It's not like it is covering much anyway."
She is beautiful, but there is hardly anything supernatural about her appearance and I can replicate her looks easily enough, the only part I don't know how to do is the strange rainbow coloured tattoo up her right leg and stomach.
She has more muscle tone than my usual bed partners, but again that isn't hard to replicate. I'm not surprised Miss Fertility Goddess has such large breasts and thicc hips but honestly she is still smaller than Venelana. Maybe Venelana is secretly a Fertility Goddess?
Nah, that would make half the girls in DxD Fertility Goddesses and clearly that isn't the case.
"...my nipples are larger than that." Freya adds over my shoulder, making me pause for a moment before I follow her advice, she'd know better than me.
"I can do any other fixes later, I just want to make sure you aren't going to explode in my face before I waste the effort." I admit as I step back, following the all too familiar process of guiding the soul into the waiting body.
Immediately backing away from her, I prepare for the sudden and entirely expected explosion of blood and guts as she rises from the table, looking over her body.
Huh, she didn't explode?
It says... something about my life that I'm surprised when people don't blow up now.
"So, not dead then?" I ask after a moment, making her pause.
"It would appear not, you do impressive work for a devil." Freya admits making me shrug. "But what happened to putting a bomb inside me?"
"I did that a minute ago. It's a delayed spell, that will only activate if you leave the boundaries of the wards and will rapidly deform the body until it explodes." I admit making her eyes widen in shock. "But you're right, I do good work." I agree as I approach her, reaching forwards and groping one of her breasts roughly.
A quiet moan leaves her as I do, making me smirk slightly. If Odin tries to kill me for this I can just hide in a dungeon for a few years or something. Besides, she suggested this not me, I was quite content to banish her back to the uncaring abyss.
"You aren't the patient sort, are you?" Freya asks as I grab her and casually toss her over to the bed. She has more muscle than me, though not by much as she has more of a runner's, build similar to me, but she is a human at the moment and I am still a devil, making me far stronger than her.
Moving quickly, I unequip my clothes and climb onto the bed, grabbing her legs and pushing them up against her shoulders as her eyes widen. If she thought I was going to let her take the lead, she was very much wrong.
I need to make the power balance here obvious, and as I line myself up I smirk slightly, running the tip of my cock along her slit several times as she stares up at me challengingly even as she slowly grows wetter, her body responding.
With a single thrust, I sheath myself inside her incredibly tight pussy with a smirk. Okay fine, I made a few changes to her body as I was working on it, something she clearly realises as her eyes widen and a lewd moan leaves her mouth.
"D-Did you make me a virgin again, just so you could take it away?" Freya asks, staring up at me in disbelief. "...Aphrodite would love to learn that trick."
"Good to know, I suppose." I say with a shrug as I start to move, thrusting into her wet slit with a smile.
- Bonus Scene – Rias -
Things weren't going her way, even with Sirzechs agreeing to help her. Her marriage was approaching rapidly, barely a week before she was supposed to be marrying Riser and she didn't hadn't even made any progress getting Kuro's help.
She still didn't even know what Sirzechs was planning, only that it needed her to seduce Kuro for it to work.
Kuro who was friends with Riser. Kuro who she had already alienated with her actions and those of her Peerage. Kuro who she knew nothing about.
"Rias, if this is to work you need to make sure Kuro is willing to go along with my plan, if you can't achieve that then there is little I can do to help you." Sirzechs said with a sigh as he stared her down, their first meeting since she degraded herself for his pleasure.
The lustful looks he gave her had grown far more intense, and he barely tried to hide it now that his lust for her had been brought out into the open, his gaze lingering on her breasts and mostly exposed legs.
For the first time she wished her school uniform had a longer skirt, as she resisted the urge to try and pull it down further and cover more of her legs. She was currently sitting opposite him, and if she moved slightly he'd be able to see up her skirt more easily, which is why she was keeping her legs so close together.
She hadn't wanted to come here at all, but she was running out of time and had no idea how to even start convincing Kuro. Grayfia never left his side, and now even her own mother was lingering around.
It stung deeply to know that her own mother, one of the only family members she thought she could trust anymore, was working to prevent her from escaping her nightmare marriage. Why else would she be hanging around Kuro?
"How am I supposed to do that with Mother and Grayfia constantly around him, can't you call Grayfia back? She's in the way." Rias pointed out making Sirzechs sigh.
"No, I can't. Katerea Leviathan was spotted near Kuoh, and I have no doubt that Grayfia is the only thing stopping her from approaching Kuro. I can't risk Kuro ending up as part of the Old Satan Faction just so you have an easier time getting close to him." Sirzechs said tiredly. "I… think she knows about what happened."
"W-what? How?" Rias asked quickly, paling at the thought of Grayfia knowing what had happened.
"Mother, no doubt. People underestimate her intelligence. Grayfia was acting differently in our last call, she was already angry over me ordering her to serve Kuro, but I can tell she was furious. To make it worse, she brought up you with an uncharacteristic amount of scorn and disdain. The only thing I can think of is that she and mother both know that something happened between us." Sirzechs explained, making her flinch.
Her own mother probably knew she tried to seduce her brother. Not that she could talk, wasn't she using her body to get Kuro to do what she wanted? Wasn't Grayfia using her body to apologise?
"But- no one was supposed to know…" Rias said weakly, making him sigh deeply.
"Nothing stays secret forever." Sirzechs said defeatedly. "All we can do now is continue working towards getting Kuro on board with my plan."
"We? I'm the one having to do everything, you said you'd help me but you haven't done anything but sit around." Rias said before she could stop herself, watching his eyes narrow at her scornful tone.
The only reason she had been willing to go so far was to get his help, but even after agreeing to help, Sirzechs hadn't done anything. He just sat around telling her what to do.
"You haven't even told me what the plan is." Rias said quickly.
"The plan is the best I could come up with on such short notice with no allies to help. I need you to seduce Kuro so I can get him and father to agree to a marriage contract between you and him, nullifying the one with Riser. Kuro is the heir of three families, and three pillar bloodlines. He's a far more desirable son in law for father, and he won't be able to resist the chance to bring three new potential bloodline powers into the family." Sirzechs started making her glare at him.
"I don't want to marry Kuro, I don't want to get out of one marriage by throwing myself into another one." Rias growled.
"I know, and that's where the next part comes in. If we can get Kuro to agree, we can have him put a long time limit on the new engagement, buying us a few years before you'd have to marry him. Kuro is a descendant of the Leviathan, and I plan to arrange for Serafall to marry him to solidify her claim on the seat, and while it is legal to marry multiple women, it wouldn't be too hard to use my power to cancel the engagement between you and Kuro to ensure he focuses on impregnating Serafall with a new Leviathan heir for the good of the Underworld. It wouldn't be me using my power to help you, just me using my power for the sake of our race." Sirzechs continued making her pause.
"That seems… convoluted at best. I don't understand, you're the Satan Lucifer! Surely you can just cancel the engagement without all this nonsense?" Rias asked. Sirzechs had always seemed so powerful and influential when she was growing up, she'd bet everything on getting him to help her only for him to let her down. "Would Lady Serafall even agree?"
"She would, I've informed her that Kuro is the true heir to the Leviathan house and I have started to work on putting the idea in her head. The powers of the Sitri and Leviathan families would have amazing synergy, and any child with that combination would almost certainly end up as a Satan-class devil. Even if it turns out Kuro doesn't have the Levithan power, the political gain from such a marriage would be too much for her to ignore." Sirzechs said with a slight smirk. "As for why I can't just click my fingers and make it all go away… do you know what my job is?"
"You're the Satan in charge of domestic affairs." Rias answered, making him chuckle darkly.
"And do you know why I ended up with that responsibility? It's because we needed a Satan that groups like the Old Satans would be too scared to disobey. Conflict and rebellion is in our genes, and it is only my immense power that keeps them in line," Sirzechs said with a sigh. "But it's a balancing act, and every time I abuse that power, the scales tip against us and more and more devils find themselves contemplating rebellion, either open or otherwise. We as a race have too many enemies to risk in fighting, and this marriage has far too much support. Not only are the Phenex and Gremory families two of the most influential in the Underworld, Falbium has agreed to support them if I interfere. Ajuka doesn't care either way, and Serafall would side with Falbium if it came to blows. She didn't use her power to help Sona when she was engaged to a much older devil after all, though Sona didn't need the help."
Flinching at the unspoken point, she fidgeted in her seat.
"Ajuka would side with Falbium and Serafall if it came to that point, just to keep the peace and force me to drop it, and with three satans preventing me from interfering there would be nothing I could do." Sirzechs admitted.
"But what if I don't manage to convince Kuro? I only have a little over a week." Rias asked, making Sirzechs pause before he took a deep breath.
"Then you will have no choice but to marry Riser, and I will not be able to help you. I had hoped to arrange for a Rating Game between you and Riser but frankly he'd destroy you, especially since you can't use Kiba or Gasper." Sirzechs said, making her eyes widen in shock and rapidly growing anger.
"My Peerage-"
"Is inexperienced and outnumbered. Even with Ravel being traded to Kuro and taking two pawns with her, Riser still has a considerable numerical advantage, and despite him using them as a harem it doesn't change the fact that each of them is a Rating Games veteran. All your Peerage members have excellent potential, but they are untrained and untested. If you wanted to escape your marriage through combat, you should have spent less time playing school girl and more time training. Even if you challenged Riser one on one, you'd lose because you simply wouldn't be able to outlast him. That avenue has long since passed, wasted by your refusal to train seriously." Sirzechs said sternly, making her flinch at his tone.
He'd never spoken to her like this before.
"I offered to help you train with our Power of Destruction, several times as did mother. And every time you responded the same. You didn't want 'unfair' treatment, you wanted to do it all yourself. Then you went back to school and played around some more. It's why Millicas is already more skilled with our family power than you, he accepted my offer of training and didn't stubbornly decide he could handle everything on his own." Sirzechs said, his tone uncomfortably calm as he stared her down. "So yes, if you can't get Kuro to accept a marriage contract before your upcoming wedding with Riser, you will have to go through with the marriage."
"But- You said you'd help me, you can't just abandon me like that!" Rias said quickly, half-glaring at him. She had thought getting Sirzechs on her side would have been all she needed to escape from Riser. What was the point of everything she did if Sirzechs was just going to leave her to her fate anyway. "Why did I let you touch me if you aren't going to do anything to help me? I could have done all this by myself."
"...firstly, I am doing something to help you. I can't openly get involved without pulling Falbium into this, and as lazy as he is, he is likely to just force the marriage to go ahead immediately so he can go back to not caring. Secondly, you certainly couldn't do this alone. Even if you manage to get Kuro to help without me, you'll be stuck marrying him instead. You need me to get Serafall to marry Kuro in your place, or your choices are marry Riser or marry Riser's new best friend." Sirzechs said coldly, his eyes narrowing as he rose.
She was quickly realising that her relationship with Sirzechs had changed considerably, this wasn't the first time she had ranted at him, she'd even insulted and cursed him for not helping her in the past, but he never retorted. She was used to Sirzechs simply letting her say whatever she wanted, without retaliating. She should have known that things between them had changed too much for that.
"I-I'm sorry, I lost my-"
"No, Rias. You aren't sorry, you've said the same and worse to me repeatedly over the years and I've felt too sorry for you to retort. You're only sorry I don't feel like sitting down and taking it any more. Let me be clear, you need me, the rest of the family wants to see you married and you have no-one else you can go to for help. Also, don't sit there and act like I approached you and extorted you for sexual favours in exchange for my help, you came to me. You offered yourself to me, and the only reason you are still a virgin is because I had second thoughts about accepting. I will try to help you, but if I decide to 'abandon you', as you put it, there is nothing you can do about it." Sirzechs said, his voice getting darker as he went on. "I could have used you as I desired and tossed you out if I so pleased, what would you do? Complain to father that I wouldn't help you after you slept with me? Don't mistake the power balance here, Rias."
"I- I understand." Rias replied quickly as he stopped in front of her, staring down at her.
"Good. Stand up." Sirzechs ordered, making her rise rapidly. She'd never feared Sirzechs, despite his power, but she couldn't deny the way his glare put her on edge. "I have requested my own version of Riser's... 'Better Rias' and you will be modelling for it. This will give you an opportunity to be alone, and naked, with Kuro."
"...you are having a sex doll version of me made?" Rias asked, making him smirk slightly.
"Surely that isn't a surprise at this point, my secret lust for you is rather less secret now. Even my wife and mother likely know about it, so why hesitate any more?" Sirzechs scoffed, reaching forwards and placing one of his large hands on her covered chest, groping her through her shirt.
She shivered in disgust as he pawed at her breast, but she couldn't gather the will to stop him. He was right after all, she needed him more than he needed her.
After just a moment, he stopped with a frown and stepped back.
"Leave, I'll contact you when I have arranged the time and location with Kuro. Try to take some initiative for once and at least clear up the poor first impressions you and your Peerage made with him before then." Sirzechs advised as he left the room, leaving her alone.
- Sirzechs -
Everything had gone wrong, he knew accepting Rias's offer even slightly would have consequences but Grayfia's tone told him everything he needed to know. She wasn't angry, she was borderline murderous. He called mother for an unrelated thing and the disappointment she was trying to hide told him the secret was already out.
He was stuck on damage control, but he was in too deep to just back out now and even if he did it wouldn't fix things. So he was going to be very honest about his lust for Rias, with his decision to purchase a sex doll of her. Grayfia wouldn't be pleased, but she would come to accept it in time if it was just some mindless toy. He was hardly the first devil to have a strange fetish, and the Phenex's practiced incest anyway so was it really so bad?
The problem was that she was currently furious, and in the perfect position to interfere with his plans. He couldn't pull her away from Kuro without setting off alarms, and giving Katarea a chance to approach him, but he knew Grayfia enough to know she'd want to punish both him and Rias, and if she didn't support the arranged marriage before, she certainly did now.
He and Rias would have to work around her, and he had doubts about Rias's ability to be subtle. Ironically, with his new 'relationship' with Rias, he was seeing more of her negative traits and realising that he had exaggerated her positive ones in his mind.
It didn't make him lust for her any less, but he found himself less willing to sit there and let her complain at him as if he was responsible for all her problems.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder had never been more true, and having Rias come to him to complain several times a week made him wish for that absence once again.
Authors Note: To be clear, I do actually like Rias and she will be in Kuro's harem. Eventually.
Next Update: New Game Plus (or a short story)