Chapter Eleven: His Master, Explaining
"Ciel! Are you certain that you should be fighting with Sebastian? If he's really four thousand years old, he'll clearly be more powerful than you."
"I'm not worried. Even Demons can't kill each other so easily. Come at me, Sebastian." Ciel said, having modified his appearance to make himself appear more adult like if only out of vanity. He would have to work on his skills. If he was going to defeat Shaitain, then he would have to become a lot more powerful than he was currently.
Ciel narrowed his gaze, focusing on Sebastian, and attacking immediately, hoping to get the element of surprise. He failed in this, though, and was kicked in the chest, and had the sword snatched from his grasp. Sebastian then cut Ciel on the cheek if only to show that he had lost. The cut healed almost immediately, but Ciel knew he had been thoroughly beaten. Ciel stood back up and put his hand out.
"Oh, no, Young Master. You have to take the sword back from me. I am the holder of the sword, now. You can't just expect me to give it back to you. If this were Gungnir, I would already have skewered your heart and you would be dead." Sebastian said with a wide smirk. Ciel nodded, and jumped in the air, twisted and kicked at Sebastian, connecting briefly and hitting his sword hand and taking the sword back, slicing at Sebastian and making a light cut on him which healed almost immediately.
Suddenly, Ciel was distracted by a loud and irritating voice.
"Ciel-kun!" Came Prince Soma's voice, running out and seeing the two demons fighting. Sebastian used the distraction to palm strike Ciel's hand and skewer Ciel through the arm.
"Do not allow distractions to tear you away from the fight. If you do that against Shaitan, he will kill you."
"Understood." Ciel said, tearing the sword from his arm and watching it heal almost instantly. He then turned to Soma and Agni and bowed politely.
"Hello, Prince Soma, Agni. How nice to see you." Ciel said with a genuine smile. Sebastian smirked and nodded.
"Quite. Actually, your timing could not be better. Agni, I need you to spar with the Young Master. Use your full prowess. He has a duel to train for, and frankly, he could not be less ready."
"You… Wish me to use my full strength against a child of Ciel's… Delicate constitution. I-I could never do such a barbaric thing, and I'm appalled that you would suggest it, Mr. Sebastian!"
"If you won't attack me, then I will attack you. I need training. If you win, I'll tell you the story of what exactly happened."
"Ciel… If I win, you'll likely be lying dead on the ground…" Agni said hesitantly. But he had time to say little more before Ciel launched into battle, using only his fists, and striking much faster than Agni was prepared for. Still, Agni managed to hit a few pressure points, and seemed to disable Ciel. For a moment, Ciel did nothing.
But then he moved his arm again, and jumped well over three feet in the air and did a spinning kick to Agni's face, which Agni barely managed to avoid, grabbing Ciel's arm and striking harder than he had intended to with his palm, breaking it, then striking Ciel's knee, only intending to temporarily immobilize him, but breaking his knee as well.
"Ciel! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to break your bones! I swear!" Agni cried, feeling horrible that he had hurt Ciel so badly. But then, Ciel stood back up, brushed himself off and shook his head.
"If you had really wanted to defeat me, you would have ripped my arm and leg off. They would have grown back, but I wouldn't have been able to fight back."
"I-I could never do that! I didn't even mean to hit you as hard as I did!"
"You will be less sympathetic once you hear the story of how this happened. Please come in for some tea." Ciel said, inviting the group inside for a while
"Now, is your tea acceptable, Prince Soma, Agni?" Ciel asked, reclining as Lizzie joined them and sat down. She smiled politely at the two rather eccentric looking men. She had only met them on one occasion, and even then, they had seemed quite the eccentrics. It was hard for Lizzie to wrap her head around them being royalty.
"Yes, of course, Ciel. Your Khansama is an excellent cook." Agni said cheerfully. Soma looked at Ciel oddly for a moment, then spoke.
"You seem so… Content. You're actually smiling for once. You're… Different than usual. You used to be so melancholy."
"Well, my story should explain all that. Not that I think you'll believe it any more than Lizzie did when she first heard it. See, this all started about a year ago after I was revived from the dead… See, Sebastian is a Demon, contracted to me via Faustian Contract. In exchange for my soul, he swore to help me get revenge on those who wronged me in the past."
"The ones who wronged me were the same ones that killed my family, so I swore revenge, and Sebastian, dutiful Demon that he is, helped me along the way. Our investigation led us to a fanatic cult to a deranged angel named Angela, who also had a male version named Ash. Eventually, during the fire that ripped through London, Sebastian and I confronted the angel, and Sebastian killed it. After that, my soul was his to take, for that was the price of our contract."
"However, Sebastian had lost the arm to which the contract seal was applied, and so couldn't take my soul. In the Demon World, however, another Demon, one who named himself Claude Faustus, oddly trite name for a Demon, stole my soul from Sebastian and held it in a tin of tea leaves called New Moon. His plan was to merge my soul with that of another Contractor to alter the taste of it."
"Sebastian went to Claude's new Contractor's home, the Trancy Estate, and stole my soul from him, and returned it to my body. Once I returned, though, I had lost my memories of when I got revenge, so Sebastian waited and continued to serve me until I remembered.
However, he and Claude made a deal between them that had my soul as the bargaining piece. Sebastian would lead me to believe that Alois was the one on whom I needed revenge and Claude would use Sebastian as the scapegoat, and whoever won would get my soul."
"However, there was another Demon involved. How Alois, neurotic street urchin that he was, got five Demons to swear fealty to him, I know not. However, Hannah Annafelloz, Claude Faustus and the Demon Triplets that served at that party. They were Hannah Annafelloz's servants. Her scheme was to use Sebastian and Claude, who were both scheming to get me, to get Alois… That's a story for another time, I think."
"Hannah revealed at the end that she had used both of them, and took Claude and Sebastian to the Demon World and made them fight using a Demon Sword called Laevatin to fight to the death. Demon Swords are the only weapons that can kill a Demon permanently, and wounds inflicted don't heal on their own, or rather by The Seed. They must be healed with an excessive amount of Essence. But I've gone off topic. Alois's wish was originally for Claude to care about him."
"When he was denied that, he made a Pact with Hannah that precluded either Sebastian or Claude from getting my soul. Hannah could have potentially taken my soul, or killed me herself. But she wanted to carry out the spirit of the contract, and so, after she took his soul in payment, she transferred her Demonic soul to me, giving me The Essence, and turning me into a Demon."
"Thus, Sebastian can never take my soul, but because he swore to serve me until he took my soul, which will be never, he is forced to be my servant for all eternity. I have given permission for him to take secondary contracts so that he does not die from lack of sustenance. However, he must remain primarily loyal to me."
For a moment, neither Agni nor Soma said anything. Then, they both burst into laughter, which lasted for at least two minutes before it finally subsided, and they wiped the tears from their eyes, and Soma spoke first.
"I never knew you had such a sense of humor, Ciel!" Soma laughed, still giggling at Ciel's supposed joke. It was surely a long and convoluted joke, and Soma believed in gods and demons, after all, Kali defeated a demon, and was only saved from her bloodlust by Shiva, her husband.
Ciel merely smiled and told Sebastian to bring in a knife. Sebastian bowed and produced a knife as if by magic, a beautiful sacrificial dagger and handed it to Ciel, who sliced his wrist open and held it up to have Soma and Agni watch it bleed, then heal. For a moment, Soma and Agni could say nothing as the flesh knit and left them wondering just what they had really seen. Ciel grinned widely like the Cheshire Cat and spoke.
"Do you believe me, now, Prince Soma, Agni?" Ciel asked. The two men nodded. Soma was the next one to speak.
"So, Mister Sebastian, you probably know all about religion. Which religion is the right one?" He asked. Sebastian raised an eyebrow at Soma's question.
"Do you want me to tell you the truth as I know it, or do you want a lie?" Sebastian asked with a smirk. Soma and Agni looked at each other.
"What do you think?" Soma asked worriedly. Sebastian sighed. He wasn't all knowing. How could he read their minds?
"All religions are just different paths to the same ideal state. Whether you call it Heaven, Reincarnation, Nirvana, they all essentially mean the same thing. Whether you call your God Allah, God, Krishna or some other god, they all demand the same things from their worshippers with minor differences.
They demand that you attempt to live the best life you can and to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I cannot tell you the proper religion. Only that you have your beliefs, and they are not wrong any more than the Young Master's lack of belief in a God is wrong. Maybe all gods exist in some capacity. Maybe none of them exist. But they are all symbols of what humans want out of life and the afterlife."
"Thank you, Mister Sebastian. You truly affirm our faith with your words. You are truly an excellent butler and an excellent man." Agni said, standing and bowing in politeness and gratitude to Sebastian, who looked at the two of them disbelievingly.
He had lied through his teeth on that one. As long as he had lived, he had found that in his experience, all religions were complete bullshit. Religions preached tolerance and love, but then condoned mass murder and bigotry.
Just look at the Crusades, the Salem Witch Trials, Vlad Tepes' crusade against the Ottoman Turks, the Inquisition, the Egyptians' enslavement of the Hebrews, the Romans' burning of Christians. True atrocities were committed supposedly in the name of God, and yet people all over the world believed in God without an iota of doubt or proof. It was just faith. It wasn't Sebastian's place to shatter people's faith.
"Hey, Rael…" came Bianca's voice from the other side of the room. Rael looked up from studying, pushed her glasses up her nose and looked at Bianca, gasping upon seeing that Bianca was quite naked and holding some very questionable objects, most likely sex toys.
"Y-y-yes?" Bianca stuttered, unable to look away from Bianca's nude body. She was certainly beautiful, though Rael didn't exactly swing that way. She was flattered that Bianca was infatuated with her. But she didn't want a relationship with the woman.
"If all goes according to your plan, you and Grell will eventually end up together, right?" Bianca asked. Rael squirmed uncomfortably.
"I-I-I don't really… Have a plan, per se. But I would like it if Mr. Grell took an interest in me like that…"
"Then, you need to learn how to pleasure your partner. You and I can work together on that." Bianca said seductively, moving toward Rael at a slow and sensual pace, taking her in her arms and kissing her lustfully on the lips. Rael shook her head, though.
"Your plan is inherently flawed. I can't learn how to please a man with a woman. It won't work. Men and women are different anatomically."
"Oh, sure you can! How different can men and women really be?" Bianca asked, waving off Rael's doubts.
"You just want to have sex with me." Rael said resentfully. Bianca smirked.
"Duh… Of course I want to have sex with you. You know I love you. But I also know that you don't feel the same way. So I'm sorry I made you uncomfortable. Just promise me one thing?" Bianca asked. Rael looked up questioningly.
"Yes?"
"Let me kiss you when you graduate… You know, to congratulate you." Bianca said cheerfully. That was honestly fairly specious reasoning. But Rael had no problem with one kiss.
"Okay… No problem."
"On the lips…" Bianca specified. Rael was a little less okay with that, but considering it would be the last they really saw of each other as roommates, she could handle it.
"O-okay. B-but no tongue…" Rael said firmly. Bianca nodded eagerly. "I promise." Bianca said cheerfully.
"Good. I have to go. I have a training session with Grell. I'll see you later." Rael said cheerfully, blushing upon mentioning Grell.
"Okay, Rael, do you have your weapon?" Grell asked expectantly. Rael nodded and took out her two swords. She had one katana bokken and one wakizashi bokken. She had trained for fifty years with a sword master.
She mostly trained in Niten Ichi-Ryu, but she also trained in Kendo, Ninjutsu, and a few other sword arts, and she considered herself to be pretty good. Nobody from her home sector could beat her except her teachers, but that was to be expected.
She looked fiercely at Grell. One of the few times she really felt confident was when she was fighting. She didn't want to hurt Grell, but she wasn't sure she could avoid it. He was only using a practice chainsaw that didn't rotate as it was made of wood, so she wasn't terribly worried. Suddenly, she moved much faster than Grell expected and showed up right behind him.
Grell twisted gracefully and blocked with his wooden chainsaw, then struck at Rael, who likewise blocked, and countered with a strike from her wakizashi, nearly hitting Grell, who cartwheeled out of the way, and twisted again, striking at Rael's legs, hitting her in the shins, accidentally hurting her more than he intended. She yelped and fell over from the shock of being hit like that.
"Sorry. I didn't intend to hit you so hard." Grell said honestly. He hadn't. He only meant to strike her shins lightly. But she moved again and it just sort of happened.
"Sebastian. You took us to the Demon World twice in the past, right?" Ciel asked. Sebastian nodded politely.
"Yes, Young Master. I am capable of making forays into the Demon World."
"Well, good. Are there any precious gems there?"
"Of course, Young Master. As Demons have little use for precious stones, such objects abound. Why do you ask, Young Master?"
"I wanted to make an engagement ring for Lizzie. It is getting close to the date that her parents will begin to expect her to get married. Within a year or two, it will be required of us to get married."
"Could you not just buy her an engagement ring? It would certainly be easier." Sebastian suggested. Ciel looked at him and shook his head.
"No, second best is second rate. Take me to the Demon World, Sebastian."
"Yes, My Lord." Sebastian said, bowing again to his master.