A/N: Surprise bitch, bet you thought you'd seen the last of me. Ha-ha, anyways yes I have returned. My apologies for taking so long. School has definitely been keeping me busy with AP exams and HSA's. But anyway as always review and enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 5: The Game Begins

We instantaneously made eye contact with each other the minute I had walked into the room, our eyes widening synchronously. We didn't move for a few moments, simply taking in each other's presence. However, it did not take long before our weapons were drawn at each other's throats.

"Did you come back for round two?" I quipped sarcastically. I noticed she had discarded her black robe to reveal a long sleeved royal purple noble shirt with a small skirt to match.

She opened her mouth to retort but paused when the man that was with her earlier stepped beside her.

"Edna, please control yourself" he said with slight irritation in his tone.

We stood there for a few moments, neither of us moving an inch. She then rather abruptly turned her head to the line of my siblings, looking at each one of them for a few seconds as if calculating something. She then turned back to me, astonishment written all over her face.

"…So that means this brat…" she said in a hushed tone more so to herself than to me. She suddenly retracted her spear into a small leather hoop extruding from her belt and turned her back to me, a mixture of anger and despair on her face.

She sunk to her knees and placed her hands on her head.

"Why me? This stupid brat is going to be my replacement? What did I do to deserve this?" she went on like that for minutes, repeatedly asking an absent supreme entity "why" this and "why" that.

The man sighed in frustration and put his hand on one of her shoulders. "Get a hold of yourself, Edna"

I lowered my sword and sheathed it; it was apparent the old hag, Edna I think it was, wasn't in any mood for a fight. But the obvious question still lingered in my head. What was she doing here? And what did she mean by 'replacement'?

I felt Cepheid tug lightly on my shirt, pulling me to follow him to my other siblings in line. Cepheid took his place in the line, leaving me to find mine. I noticed a gap between Samael and that lavender haired freak, Astaroth.

"Great. My two favorite people" I thought and took my place between them. "Not to say I could really call any of them my favorite"

I still had Clair behind me, however I decided I could let go of her arm. I was still unbelievably pissed at her, but for the moment, it would have to wait.

I stood at attention and glanced briefly at everyone else. They were in the same stance as I was, their faces however, differing between each one of them.

Most of them seemed either nervous or afraid, being in father's presence again, save for Amaimon or Samael. Of course, there were those like myself who were trying to hide the fact that they were terrified and doing a bad job of it. It was difficult to control my facial expression, no surprise there. Nevertheless, I tried to keep my face as straight as possible as I always did.

I took this short moment to take a look around the room. For a so called arena, it was rather bland. The walls were a stony gray, no defining features apparent. It was almost literally blank.

After a few more minutes of Edna's undignified complaining she got up and glared in my direction. I glared back of course. I wasn't too happy she was here either.

She walked over to the line that was behind father with the other man and stood, her face still decorated with malice.

For the first time, I scanned the faces of the line of seven who were standing behind father in similar stances to mine. I had no idea what they were there for, but they must've been important if they were here with us. They were certainly a colorful group, each with uniquely colored hair. As I looked them over, a strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.

"Well then" father said rather suddenly, an amused grin on his face. "I suppose we can begin"

He turned on his heel and faced the seven strangers behind him, his back to us.

"Now then, as you may have guessed, these are my lovely children" he gestured with a swing of his hands towards us. "And in quite a few years, your replacements"

There was that word again; replacement. What was that supposed to mean?

"And these people" he said and turned back to us. "Are Gehenna's Hierarchy, or in other words, the eight demon kings of Gehenna"

I suppose I should've been more surprised at this; these were Grade A royals after all. But after you've met the supreme ruler of Gehenna, anything lower simply doesn't amaze, or terrify you as much.

I assumed 'king' was a relative term, considering Edna was a woman. Or at least, as far as I could tell with those mega boobs sticking out of her shirt.

They began to introduce themselves one by one, the man at the far left end starting first. He stepped a foot forward and began to speak.

"My name is Sirius" he said with a vibrating deep voice. He was an interesting character, no doubt. His charcoal like hair was bound in an almost spiky pony tail. In a matter of fact, it looked more like a black flame on the end of his head rather than hair. He wore a navy blue vest that barely covered his mid-riff and some kind of black noble man's pants. "King of fire. You would be wise not to forget it"

I was somehow not surprised that he ended his introduction with an indirect threat.

He stepped back and the next man stepped forward.

I recognized this man; the same that accompanied Edna a few minutes ago. I remembered his creamy hair and greenish eyes.

"Gale, king of wind. A pleasure" he said simply and stepped back. His introduction wasn't nearly as brazen as Sirius's, more so it had a more calming effect. He, like Edna, had removed his black robe and was shown to be wearing an oddly regular white t-shirt with a strange symbol on it with tan khakis.

The next man had yet to discard his black robe, assuming they weren't his normal attire.

"The name's Kage. King of shadows" he said and crossed his arms. His hair was short, black, and curly, just barely coming down to his chin. He was a skinny one, that's for sure.

Next was Edna, her head held high and expression filled with constricted annoyance. Most likely towards me.

"Edna, king of light" she said and instantly looked away from us and to her right for the next man to go. I doubted it was out of shyness, but for some unknown reason it seemed she wanted to get her introduction over with as soon as possible.

The next man stepped up.

"King of water, Kaia. At your service" he said with a light bow.

This man reminded me of Cepheid a little too much; personality wise. The very same sweet smile he gave as he stepped back, the long navy blue hair pulled back in a thin ponytail, and the way he held his hand in his white yukata sleeves; he was basically Cepheid with blue hair.

Next was a shorter man; not too much shorter than the rest of them, but noticeably so. His hair was a dark green and slicked back with its ends pointed. He was wearing a long sleeved brown shirt with black slacks; one could easily resemble him to a tree.

"Avani" he said and smiled ever so slightly. "King of earth"

"Why am I not surprised?" I asked myself.

The last one was definitely the tallest, pure white hair reaching his back much like father's that complimented his unusually dark skin.

"Asmodeus. King of spirits"

With that, he stepped back, completing the introductions.

Father nodded from where he was standing and turned fully towards us.

"There you have it, kiddies. These will be your trainers for the next millennium"

"But we can discuss that later. First, there is something I'd like to take care of…" he eyes shifted slowly to me as he began to walk towards me.

My body immediately tensed as he got closer and closer. What had I done? I wasn't late nor did I speak out of turn. What could he possibly with me want now?

He towered in front of me, looking down at me with a wide grin. He reached his hand slowly forward, making my eye twitch slightly.

"Freya, tell me…" he said and to my surprise, his hand passed my face. I wondered what he could possibly be reaching for since there was nothing but air behind me. Or so my forgetful mind thought.

I heard a sharp squeal and felt a light kick to the back of my head that could only belong to a child. I turned my head a few degrees so I could barely see Clair being lifted by her collar, her hat falling to the floor, and kicking the air violently, struggling and yelling for release.

My face immediately paled and I instinctively reached for her. Of course, the second he looked at me I retracted my arm hesitantly, not knowing quite what to do. All of my sibling's eyes were on me now, some with their eyebrows raised, Amaimon without an expression as usual, Cepheid looking passively worried, and Samael, of course, grinning impishly.

"What have we here? A human child?" he said, a smirk painting his lips. I grit my teeth behind my lips in fearful anger, remaining silent. A wave of helplessness washed over me and I internally began to panic.

"What is he going to do?" I thought to myself, anxiety creeping its way up my spine. I unfortunately realized that whatever he did, there wasn't much I could do to stop it. There wasn't much I could do against a God after all.

"I was wondering where that putrid smell was coming from" I heard from the man named Kage walking beside father.

Still holding Clair, father turned to me and bent down slightly closer to my face.

"Tell me Freya, who is this?" he said casually, looking at her writhing form and back to me.

She looked to me, tears beginning to form in her eyes, silently pleading with me to help her. But whether she knew it or not, there simply wasn't anything I could do. There was no way I could fight my way out of this one; so talking was my only plausible choice.

The problem was, I didn't know what to say and it was hard enough to think. I had a feeling telling him I was contracted was a bad idea. Based on other's reactions to her, I assumed contracting with something they called a hue-man was some sort of taboo I had never heard of. I had to come up with a lie; anything believable.

"T-The market place" I said simply, my voice wavering ever so slightly. "I found her lost in town, in the market place, and wanted to bring her back to her home. But I was already late, so I decided to come here first…"

It wasn't the most convincing lie, but it was the best I could come up with. I could only hope he'd be convinced and let it slide.

"Hm, I see" he said and looked to her again. She whimpered and screwed her eyes shut, trying her best not to cry out.

I looked at him intently, wondering what he was about to do next. He could easily make her burst into flames in a blink of an eye and that thought alone made me want to pass out.

"So she's just a stranger" he said and looked back to me, his smirk widening.

I nodded nervously.

"Then there's no reason why I can't kill her then" he said and began to squeeze, making Clair claw at his hand and give a choked scream. I couldn't imagine how much he was holding back, considering her head didn't pop off right away.

"F-Fre…ja…" she managed to choke out, her eyes beginning to dim.

"Ah, wait! Stop…!" I said, panicked to no end. I reached out my hand toward her again, coming disturbing close to grabbing his wrist. However I halted when I saw his grip lighten and look at me with a raised eyebrow and grin.

"What's wrong Freya?" he said in a mockingly high pitched tone and cocked his head to the side. "You don't want your dear old dad to kill her?"

I lowered my arms slowly, not daring to say anything else, let alone move. I looked at him as hard as it was, my eyebrows furrowed. My eyes shifted to Clair, who was breathing rather audibly, trying to return the air in her lungs. Or at least as much as she could with him still holding her off the ground.

After several moments of silence I shook my head and looked to the floor, scared and embarrassed.

"Oh?" he said mockingly and lowered Clair a bit. "Then tell me the real reason she's here"

I bit my bottom lip, more out of hatred now rather than fear or anxiety. I didn't know why he found it necessary to mess with me, especially in a cruel way such as this. But then again, this was Satan we're talking about.

"W-We're contracted" I said shakily and looked at his face. Short and simple. Less details the better.

"Good girl" he said after a moment of thought and stared back at Clair. Her breathing had slowed down to a steady pace, however her eyes were still screwed shut. I didn't blame her.

"I should kill her, as a punishment for lying" he said threateningly, eyes back to me. That word alone, 'punish' made my entire body tense. Was it just me, or was it getting unbearably hot in there?

"However…" he said. "I have something else in mind"

He finally put her down on the ground, making me release a noiseless breath I didn't realize I was holding. She finally opened her eyes and instantly looked to me, tears streaming down her face. She was scared out of her wits; poor girl.

Father still had a tight grip on her arm as I had just a few minutes ago.

"I won't kill her" he said casually and shrugged his shoulders lightly with a grin. No words in Gehenna could describe how much relief that had brought me. However, the tension instantly shot back up at his next words.

"I won't kill her" he repeated. "But only if you win my little game"

I tilted my overly stiff head to the side, questioning what he meant. But at the moment it didn't matter to me. As long as he wouldn't hurt her or worse, I could relax, if only a little. The mere thought of me being unable to fulfill my end of the contract made me sick.

I was about to ask what he meant when the cream haired man, Gale I think it was, stepped forward and stood next to father, question written all over his face.

"Pardon me Sire" he said in an almost hushed tone. "But didn't she tell us they were all boys?" his eyes darted to me for a split second before raising an eyebrow at father.

My eye twitched a tad, annoyed at the constant recognition of my gender. I didn't understand why that even mattered, but all I could gather was that someone was clearly spreading lies.

"She did" he said and turned to Gale. "She either lied or was simply too stupid to notice"

"Pretty hard to confuse a man's genitals with a woman's…" I thought silently to myself. Whoever they were talking about, they must've been pretty stupid to confuse something as blatant as that.

"It doesn't quite make a difference regardless" father said and grinned thoughtfully.

"Tell that to Lucifer…"

"Well then, let's get started shall we?" he said, dismissing Gale with a wave of his hand. He moved from me to the middle of both lines, dragging an almost sobbing Clair behind him. She surprisingly walked with him, rubbing the tears from her eyes with her free sleeve and looking up at me another time. I tried to give the most reassuring expression I could muster, but the best I could do was my hardened straight face. But then again, I barely ever smiled to begin with.

"The reason you're here kiddies" he said. "Is for me to assess your abilities or lack thereof~"

It was always backhanded comments with this guy wasn't it?

"Therefore, we are going to play a game of sorts. A battle royal if you will"

We hadn't even started the game yet and already my chances were slim. I barely had any abilities to speak of; hell I didn't even know what kind I was supposed to have. All I had was a sword. But then again these guys weren't much older than me, so they can't be that much more powerful, right?

Wishful thinking. That's what that was.

"You will each receive a card. A unique one specialized to you"

As he said this a servant, who came out of Satan knows where, walked towards Iblis at the end of the line. He handed each of us a silver colored card, each with a different symbol on one of its sides.

I inspected mine with little interest, more worried about what we were to do with them. The design on mine was a strange one; looked sort of like a black arrow split in half. I had no idea what it meant, but figured it wasn't really my job to know.

"Your goal is to collect all eight within the given time period. Of course, this will mean confronting and most likely engaging each other in combat. The one to collect all eight gets a special prize~"

After he said this, he lifted Clair by her arm. She let out a gasp, clutching her arm to relive some of the pressure.

"You'll get to keep this little shit"

I never realized how quickly blood can drain from ones face. So in other words, if I didn't win, Clair dies.

Fantastic.

"Use any dirty tricks necessary to win. There are only two rules" he said and put up two fingers. "One: you may not kill. You may beat on each other as much as you'd like, but killing is a no-no. And two…"

His eyes shifted to me.

"Your first card must come from Freja. If you do not obtain hers first, you lose"

I could've sworn my blood froze over in that moment. So he was pinning everyone against me right from the get-go. Was it just me or was I being discriminated against?

"And now, for your arena". He rather roughly put Clair down and turned to the far wall behind him.

He snapped his fingers and the wall suddenly began to falter. It almost seemed like a curtain waving back and forth, until the wall itself began to warp into a strange greenish color. It almost reminded me of vomit; the green swirling grossly with brown.

After a few moments however, the image became more and more clear as I could start to make out trees and vines and other such forest décor. In a matter of fact, as the warping finally ceased, I came to realize that the wall had indeed, turned into a forest.

It looked like a generic forest, fit with multiple trees and other plants and wild life. I couldn't quite see too far considering how far I was. Honestly, it almost looked like a painting of a forest rather than a real one.

"There we go~" father said and turned towards us. "You will all have three hours to achieve your goal"

He looked to me again and said, "Freja, you will get a ten minute head start"

He said that as if he was doing it in the name of fairness. A reimbursement for literally pinning everyone against me. Luckily, I knew better than to believe that.

This was a game of survival in a sense. Collect everyone else's card but mind your own. It was certainly easier said than done.

"If you're all ready, let's begin" he said, snapping me from my thoughts. "Freja, your time starts now. Good luck~" he said and waved.

I nodded warily, hating how helpless I was. I looked to Clair one last time, her tear filled eyes boring into mine. For whatever reason I gave a slight shrug; perhaps a sign for her to hope for the best.

I clenched my sword tightly, knowing that it was my only defense against everyone.

I began to jog toward the magically cast forest, my footsteps being the only sound I could seem to hear. My mind felt so blank, as if all of my thoughts and feelings had been sucked out of me. But I soon realized that this wasn't the time to get depressed. If I even had a chance of winning, I had to keep my confidence.

When I approached the wall turned forest, I half expected to hit a wall with just a forest painting. But of course, that didn't happen and I began my trek into the arena.

"Game start huh" I thought to myself. "I just hope this won't be game over for me"

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. I realize this chapter is a bit shorter than my other ones, but the next few are going to be super long so no worries ;D. As always, if you have any comments or concerns feel free to pm or review.

See ya next chapter!