NMHA Ch. 28 - Sequence


CW: Torture, and the pleasant side-effects of such. Really earning the story's M rating with this chapter, namely in the last section, fair warning to you all.


It was a bright day, sunny in such a way that a beach visit would have been warranted had it been summertime.

As it was, however, the early springtime, the air was still cool, the waters of the lakes still all but frigid.

That did not stop Lunarunn from enjoying the day not far from the water, however. Clad in a blue sundress and a straw wide-brimmed hat, she sat beneath the shade of a tree with a book in hand. Eyes flicked from page to page as the brunette read, thoroughly engrossed in her reading.

However, that did not last for much longer, the Worldweaver closing her eyes and shutting her reading material as she heard footsteps to her right. An opened eye in that direction revealed a blond Devil dressed... in tights and a bright red tunic?

The urge to comment on it was overwhelming. "Kind of an odd choice of clothing, don't you think? Almost looks like you plan on going hunting in the medieval times."

"A noble must always look the part," he shot back, though it was with no actual bite. Indeed, there was even a faint smirk on his face as the Phenex heir sat down perpendicular to the brunette, back also against the tree. "Even in times of relaxation such as this. Besides, who is to say I hadn't planned to go on a hunt today?"

"I take it I'm the prey in your analogy?" she opined, lifting a brow alongside her dry remark as she turned her head to look at him in earnest.

"Your words, not mine." He paused for a moment. "But your perception once again boggles the mind. Way to ruin the gag."

Luna stuck out her tongue. "I live to be a spoilsport."

Ruval hummed. "Were that truly the case you wouldn't have agreed to take a day to visit the Phenex gardens."

Gardens was something of a misnomer, the brunette thought. Wide, sweeping landscapes filled to the brim with idyllic images, flowers of every shape, color, and size entering full bloom, and a lake so clean and clear that were it not for the rays of light glancing off the surface Luna would be able to see to the bottom.

She was very glad that it was still the early springtime, though.

"Maybe I figured it would be worthwhile to take a break from all the bull that the Assembly throws at me daily."

Once more, the other Devil made a noise in his throat. "You have been a particularly persistent presence there. That does not mean I don't appreciate your stopping by, though."

"I... might have to more often." Luna took no shame in admitting that. Though the Bael lands themselves were a little - okay, maybe not so little - slice of paradise in the Underworld, there was a notable difference between the typical Bael territory and the personal gardens of the Phenex nobility.

In a way, she mused, it was like how some people could look good in just about anything, but when they actually tried they were able to take peoples' breath away.

'...Maybe I could put a little more effort into cleaning myself up in the future.'

"I'm not really one for plant life; I'd be more at home in a library than in a garden," the brunette continued. "But even I can tell that this place would either inspire landscapers or make them cry tears of blood from envy."

"I'll be sure to pass your compliment on to the landkeepers." Ruval smiled. "I'm sure they would appreciate their hard work being recognized by an outsider."

Luna chuckled. "To be quite honest, you could probably open this place up for tours and make some good bank off of it."

"And that's why we don't; that way, when the Phenexes want to visit someplace quiet and beautiful..." He cast a glance in Luna's direction. "We're able to have these moments all to ourselves."

"True." The brunette inclined her head to concede the point. She could see the logic.

Still, it left her with more questions.

"So why did you invite me here, anyway?"

"Hm?" Ruval blinked owlishly. "Did I not already explain?"

"Sort of, but not entirely. I more meant... why invite me along for a trip to a highly private property?" She cleared her throat. "We aren't going over ideas on how to tear Sirzechs a new asshole, after all."

"Is it not obvious?"

"Well." Her shoulders lifted, then fell. "I guess it might have something to do with our supposed relationship. But that doesn't really make sense."

The Phenex heir crossed his arms, tapping one of them with a finger as his gaze shifted up to the foliage shielding them from the artificial sun of the Underworld.

"Considering that is the case, I'm curious what about it makes little sense to you."

"The fact that... well, you invited me to your family's personal gardens." Luna gestured out toward the lake with an outstretched hand to emphasize her point. "That's not to say I'm ungrateful - really, I am, and I'm honored to have had the opportunity to see something as stunning as this for myself - but I thought we had something of an unspoken agreement that our courtship was basically a cover for our efforts to get vengeance for Sirzechs's lies."

"That's not what I had interpreted."

"Really?" The Worldweaver turned to look back at Ruval, outstretched hand coming to rest on the ground as she lifted a befuddled brow. "Then what did you have in mind?"

"You mentioned before that even if you did not see this relationship working at the time I gave you that pendant, there was the off chance that you might come to welcome it. At some point, I decided to show you what you might miss out on. After all, how would I have a chance, if I do not take it?"

The Worldweaver lifted a hand, cupping the very pendant that Ruval spoke of, the one holding that valuable Tear within. She barely even noticed she'd done so. "...And why would you do that? You know that you're probably not gonna succeed."

The Phenex did not immediately reply to that, slowly tilting his head to the left, then to the right, then back again, over the course of several seconds whilst keeping his gaze on the leaves.

"I do know. Yet still, I wanted to try."

She couldn't exactly form a good response to that. Because she had, in almost every way that counted, given him permission to try and convince her that she could appreciate more than just women as partners.

The brunette, even if she still wasn't on board with the idea, wouldn't deny him that chance after giving it to him.

"Do you know why I decided to go into the Ratings Games?"

The non-sequitur threw Lunarunn for a loop, and she made sure that he knew, leaning forward to better twist Ruval's way and send him a disbelieving face. "...How does that have anything to do with your being into me?"

She got a small smile in return. "It is a rather roundabout topic. Just bear with me, okay?"

Well. The brunette supposed she could. "Alright. Then explain away."

And so the Phenex obliged. "...I've always possessed a hunger for challenge. I excelled in every aristocratic art; oftentimes I showed up my own teachers in how to act as a proper noble, back when I was but a child. Learning the bloodline I was born with much the same, even to the case of possessing flames hot enough to stand out even amongst the fire-aligned Phenex family. It all came so easily to me."

His gaze went to slightly extended hand, out palm-up to hold a small, flickering of a brilliant azure within its grasp. "Too easily. I learned everything mother and father had to offer in a fraction of the time they did, and at a level of proficiency that made theirs pale in comparison. I am holding evidence of such right now."

The hand clenched shut, and with it the blue flame snapped out of existence. "Do you know what happens, when a gifted child is told that they are destined for greatness, that they are special in a way that others are not? Even if it is obvious, and it was such for me, it should not be said directly except to acknowledge the achievements they had already made."

"Expectations on expectations..." Luna's eyes slid shut. "You ended up coming to not care about such things. Disinterest took hold, huh? Acedia?"

"Exactly. What was the point of trying, if I was going to succeed anyway? What was the point of giving something my all, when it was clear that I was going to be exceptional regardless?"

"Then what about the Rating Games?"

"An overglorified cage match, nothing more." Ruval turned to see Luna staring at him with disbelief, and chuckled. "I suppose my public persona was quite effective, if even you're surprised by that."

"Considering that your Rating Game rank in the Underworld, I do find that kind of hard to believe you'd have such a low opinion on them."

"Reincarnated Devils, they are supposed to be close allies and advisors of their King. People that their king can rely on without fail, even when the world itself stands against them. To be Reincarnated as the Piece to a King should be a great honor, and something worth celebrating." The Phenex turned away, a stern frown on his face.

"Yet, as it is now for the most part they are seen as mere tools to get further ahead in the Underworld, whether it's as additional aid for the Ratings Games, or to parade around like... show animals."

Given that his frown deteriorated into almost a snarl, it was clear that Ruval was speaking plainly. "When the Rating Games are just another avenue to push an agenda that state the only Devils that matter in Peerages are the Kings, how can a true King think that a good thing? Every piece has value. Even then, to dilute the essence of an individual down to what chess piece they have embedded in their chest is a disservice to them."

"Then why participate? And why stay in seventh? Why not try for first and then denounce the Rating Games as the King of them, or drop out entirely?"

"I see you have plenty of questions. Allow me to answer them in order." A look of amusement flickered across the Phenex's face, wiping away the distaste. "Because it's the easiest way to support my family, because that's as high as I can get without putting in much actual effort, because I don't want to damage the Phenex's reputation and hurt my parents or brothers' prospects just to make a statement, and because who would believe the Blue Phenex could ever drop out of the Rating Games rankings when he's still in his quote-unquote 'prime'?"

The brunette's eyes shifted, now staring long at the lake. "I think you've made your point. I'm surprised that you haven't talked to the other Ten Kings about this."

"Diehauser Belial does share a similar sentiment, and even Roygun Belphegor has questions about how only the Kings are glorified despite being obsessed with Rating Games." Funny, considering those two were notable characters within canon. "But even then, to declare such a thing themselves would have their own families shunned, and themselves stripped of any legitimacy in the eyes of the people. In a sense, we are bound by our Pillars to silence on the matter. Ironic, considering that those same Pillars would give us the clout required to actually make an impact with such statements."

"Panem et circuses," Luna muttered, getting a chuckle out of Ruval.

"That isn't entirely incorrect, and as part of the Rating Game's highest caste, I very much accept being party to that circus."

"That's so fucked up."

"Language, madame," The Phenex chided, holding up a finger as he looked back at the Worldweaver. "But you are completely correct."


Something cold struck Luna's face, and she awoke coughing and aching. Her arm was still numb, thankfully, but she couldn't see, her ears were still ringing painfully, and her body felt gross, like there was something uncomfortably hot and sticky roiling within her.

Right. That trip had happened a couple months back, hadn't it? But now it was summer rather than spring.

The memories came back, though unnervingly slowly. It took the brunette several seconds atop the initial realization for her mind to catch up to what had happened.

She'd been ambushed. Shot, then led straight into a trap. After that, she couldn't remember anything more.

Had she been out?

How long had she been out?

What had even hit her?

"Flashbang." Ulan was still there, allowing the Worldweaver a modicum of comfort. At least whatever it was that was making her body feel like shit wasn't at the level of the soul. "You took it point-blank, and it was crafted to be particularly nasty. You're lucky that your body has a minor healing factor due to being a Devil, otherwise you'd have gone completely deaf."

Luna shuddered, even as her mental state fell back to simply 'stressed' rather than 'panicked'. That... would have been terrible if she'd actually lost her hearing, and even still she could tell that her hearing was shot to hell. There was still a loud ringing that just wouldn't go away - tinnitus, she remembered from her old life - and a muffled voice beyond the confines of whatever it was that was blinding her. A cloth bag, to keep her from waking up and recognizing the environment?

Something pressed against her stomach, and her sense of balance shifted as gravity went askew, and it wasn't until she felt the timed tremors that the brunette recognized that she was now being carried.

It really drove home what happened though, that she was in such a sorry state.

"I... should have seen the signs earlier. The shot was to anger you and lead you away from aid, so that your assailants could capture you and make an easy escape."

Would it have mattered, though? After being shot, her fight or flight response kicked in, and it had firmly been in the direction of the former. Luna wasn't sure she'd have listened to her patron had she recommended fleeing deeper into the hotel.

Which could have lead to the entire place being bombed. She wasn't sure how she'd have handled it, knowing that she was the reason an entire hotel's worth of innocent people got caught in the crossfire.

"That is true. Still, it is a bad situation we find ourselves in now."

Yeah. No clue where she was, how long she'd been out, who attacked her beyond them using modern weaponry, or who put the grab order out on her.

The brunette could take a few guesses though. That'd be better than nothing, right?

Considering that her departure to the overworld had been mostly hush-hush, only for Ruval to mention in the Assembly when they recognized her lack of presence, that meant that whoever ended up kidnapping her probably was someone from the Assembly. The OSF loathed her, so some family there was a likely candidate, though considering she walked all over the tradition of bloodlines the GKF wasn't overfond of her either, even if she was technically an ally by virtue of being courted by Ruval.

How their relationship had changed from the declaration of intent to actually courting in the eyes of the public had yet to occur to the Worldweaver - she supposed it was because the Phenex hadn't said anything about them drifting apart yet.

"You're getting off-track."

True. Her relationship status wasn't important, guessing who took her hostage was.

There was little use denying it; Luna was pretty shaken, though even if she could feel the dredges of a panic attack in the back of her mind she was able to ignore it in favor of focusing on getting as much information as she could.

Was she to be a political prisoner then? What were her standards of living going to be like over the next who knows how long?

"Focus on what you can deduce right now."

Right. So considering that the people that captured her were most likely either humans or Devils using human weaponry, that meant that whoever the person in charge was had dealings with modern society. That ruled out a good seventy percent of the possible candidates, since OSF members were pretty steadfast in their superiority and didn't like to dirty their hands dealing with 'lesser' creatures.

And Ruval would go ballistic if someone in his own party kidnapped her. Probably. Or at least, he'd be forced to act with severe prejudice. Nobody had good optics kidnapping someone else's date, much less their ally's. So probably OSF, but who would be angry enough to snap her up from someone else's territory...?

The world outside her vision shifted, and Luna felt her back impact the ground, coughing as the landing forced the air from her lungs mid-inhale. As she was pulled off the ground, something hard and barrel-shaped pressed against her back, even as the thing around her head finally was taken off.

She didn't need experience to get a good idea what kind of thing that was.

Finally, Luna could see the world again, and her eyes darted around to take notes of her surroundings.

Warehouse? Check.

No lights, save the faint moonglow peering through a high-up window? Check.

Figure silhouetted behind the moonglow? Check.

The Worldweaver's mouth moved before she could stop, feeling herself do so more than hearing. "Nice place you've got here. Abandoned warehouse on the docks? Basically screams 'stereotypical gang hideout'. Couldn't find anywhere more fitting to bring me to your boss?"

She couldn't hear any response, thanks to her ears still being damaged, but someone - one of the men who'd kidnapped her, she recognized - stepped around and kicked her in the shoulder. The damaged one.

Even numbed as it was, Luna couldn't stop the way her eyes screwed shut and had to suppress the scream as white-hot pain lanced up her wounded arm.

She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of getting a scream out of her from something like that, even if it was painful as hell.

"Sorry," she groaned, waiting for a second before adding to her 'apology'. "You're gonna have to speak up. My ears are still kinda blown out, y'see. Flashbang to the face kinda blows out hearing. Who'd've thought."

That at least didn't elicit another kick, but instead one of the other soldiers, this one looking more feminine though bearing a mask, walked around and knelt down.

Something snapped off Luna's neck, and it was with eyes wide that she recognized the pendant that Ruval had given her now held in the other person's hand.

She didn't take too kindly to that.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

The brunette shut up as the gun to her back prodded forward, as though threatening her. Which, to be fair, the person holding it probably was.

'This... is not good,' she decided. 'My body feels like shit right now, and even if I pull on Worldweave I might get a chestful of cold iron or lead or something before I can get out of immediate danger. Fucking... fuck!'

As if her growing panic didn't have enough content to continue doing so, it rubbed her the wrong way to be without the pendant, even as the top was popped open, and the contents within were proffered to the Worldweaver. She knew that refusing would get nowhere though, so it was with great reluctance that the liquid regenerative potential of the Phenex Tear went down her throat.

Almost immediately she could feel her wounds begin to close, the bullet in her shoulder pushing back out as the damaged flesh was repaired beneath it. Even her hearing started to clear, and with it she noted the silence of the warehouse.

...Though her body still felt uncomfortably hot and sluggish.

They must have done something to the brunette, if even after the Tear she wasn't back up to ship-shape.

'Shit, fuck, fucking... this is bad. This is really, really, really bad.'

"Good. With your hearing restored, we can finally move on to business." The person in front of her spoke, and once more Luna was given the distinct impression that it was from a female. The voice was remarkably soft for someone who was part of a hit squad.

She turned, this time to walk off and once more Luna was hit with a pang. "W-wait. What are you doing with the pendant?"

"Tossing it." The nonchalance was amenable enough, but the words still filled the brunette with a distinct sense of alarm. "With the Phenex Tear gone, it's little more than a pretty little ornament."

Gone?

Gone?

'No, no, nononono-'

"Wait!" Luna swallowed, hard, after the plea escaped her. "Wait, please. Could... could I at least keep it?"

"And why should we do that?" The one holding the gun behind her asked, voice thin but strong. "In case you weren't already aware, you're a hostage."

"Yeah. I know. It's just... I've had it for years now, worn it for years." She glanced down, eyes drifting shut. "I... it feels like I'm missing something. Like how your wrist feels bared after wearing a watch for a while, and then you stop wearing it?"

She wasn't quite sure how to put it, but it was a rather insistent pulse in the back of Luna's mind to get that pendant back.

"Exposed. Vulnerable." The one holding the pendant looked down at it, then briefly back at Lunarunn. "I certainly know the feeling."

"Exactly. So, no, you cannot keep the Phenex's courting gift. Take it away. Make sure nobody will find it."

A new voice, this one coming from directly in front of her. Almost immediately after that denial, the one with the pendant walked off, leaving Luna with a distinct pang of loss.

As though she'd been stripped of proof of her relationship with Ruval, and of the progress she'd made in the Underworld.

That... angered her. A lot more than she would have expected, to have something so innocuous taken from her.

Naturally, she spat that anger out. "And why's that exactly, asshole? Does it get your rocks off to strip others of their belongings?"

Another jab in the back, but this time she didn't give a damn.

"Funny you should mention that."

The person - no, Devil - stepped into the moonlight, hands behind his back as he stared down at the brunette with a baleful gaze. His demeanor, she could tell, was a naturally friendly one, but even now his entire posture and face radiated a dismissive contempt.

"You see, you took something that belonged to me," Eltren Naberius, heir to the Naberius Pillar spoke, inclining his head to the side as a cold smirk spread across his face. "So in a sense, I consider this the start of a duly-deserved comeuppance."


"What have you been able to determine?"

Ruval's voice was hard, and cold, but not hostile, a testament to his self-control and commitment to finding the Devil that had been shot, then taken from territory under the purview of the Phenexes to say nothing of their relationship.

"Unfortunately, not much, milord." The owner of the hotel, a slightly overweight man, wrung his hands with a grimace on his face. "We've been able to determine the caliber of the bullet embedded in the wall, and where it came from, but beyond that we have not been able to figure out more about what happened to Dame Bael. It's likely she left of her own volition. Maybe she saw the sniper and tried going after them?"

Ruval clicked his tongue and looked away, a hand rising to cup his chin. It made sense that Luna had went to deal with the sniper herself rather than try and get help. She always was rushing headlong into things, and she probably hadn't known that the hotel's staff were trained for a variety of situations, up to and including outright sieges on the building.

"That sounds... unfortunately accurate to her personality." The Phenex walked out to the balcony, crouching next to the small puddle of blood that he knew was the Worldweaver's. "Have you enquired with locals in the direction of the sniper about strange individuals?"

"We have," the owner confirmed. "Whoever acted to take Dame Bael hostage did so thoroughly. Our mentalist noted that there were several people, whether bystanders or workers in the area, who had previously been under some form of compulsion, and many had their memories tampered with."

Mind magics again. Just like how Luna was first outed to the world. Go figure that they'd use it to cover their tracks. Just like Sirzechs did.

The worst part was that without a master of the craft, undoing those tampered memories would ruin the minds of those people affected. Diodora was on a mission for whatever his party was up to, unaware that Lunarunn had even been kidnapped, and there was no way that he was going to bring the Dantalions into this.

Particularly as the evidence, little though there was, suggested they might have ordered or aided the kidnapping.

The Phenex heir was tempted to order the memory tampering undone without concern for the people, but held his Avaritia in check. The public optics on the action would be terrible even with his reasoning, to say nothing about his own moral compass.

They weren't his people though, he had no reason to consider their well-being...

Yet, what would Luna do if she learned that he all but rendered innocents braindead to track her down?

...Did she have to know?

'No. No lies, no omissions. She's been led around enough already.'

"Kh." Ruval lifted a hand to his face, covering his eyes and stifling a growl of growing aggravation. This was no time to dawdle. "Alright, then let's just discuss what definitive clues you have been able to uncover."

The portly man swallowed, then nodded rapidly. "Yes, milord, though there is not much. While we did not inquire into Dame Bael's actions yesterday, she checked in rather late, and in the company of a strangely-cloaked, black-haired man. Housekeeping heard Dame Bael's scream about five minutes after this man left the following day."

Wait, in the company of...?

Ruval's eyes narrowed faintly. "...What more can you tell me about this other man that Luna was with?"

"Not much, beyond the strange clothing and their apparent ease around each other." The owner paused, looking up in thought before continuing. "What is strange, though, is that he almost looked like an exorcist. Preposterous of course; Devils and exorcists in the same room and not fighting is like an open fire not igniting a powder keg. But it is still odd."

The Phenex stood, slowly, turning around to eye the man who had worked with the Phenexes to grow his hotel into what it was now. "An exorcist? Do you believe that he may have been in contact with the people who kidnapped Luna? Or that the Church itself was the one to kidnap her?"

"I..." Again, the human faltered, before finally continuing. "I cannot say anything for certain, milord. But the timing is rather suspicious. What does not make sense though is how they would know Dame Bael was here. Especially because she was to take her vacation discreetly."

The Phenex stared long and hard at the blood puddle on the ground, with all the intensity of a bird of prey scouting out its next mark. Indeed, if one looked closely at his eyes they may have noticed them sharpen in a physical sense, ever so slightly, as the tension in the air grew thicker and thicker with his silence.

Finally, after nearly half a minute of utter quiet, broken only by the sounds of the city below, the Devil exhaled, slowly. Following that, he finally spoke.

"I see." Ruval stepped inside from the balcony, pausing before glancing back at the hotel owner. "Thank you for your time. It appears I have a human to hunt down and interrogate."

The man bowed, evidently relieved that Ruval would spare him the ire of the Phenex family. "A pleasure to be of service, milord. I hope for your success and Dame Bael's safe return."

The Phenex nodded back, before turning to walk out of the room. Immediately, he was joined by a small figure, garbed in simple clothing, with a plain, androgynous face. Utterly forgettable, in fact.

Which happened to be an asset with this particular member of Ruval's Peerage.

"I've finished questioning the other managers of the hotel, milord. They mentioned how their searches turned up the signs of a scuffle in an alleyway roughly one kilometer away." The plain Devil explained. "There were faint marks spread around that when brought back together looked to be a scorch mark, probably an attempt to hide it, and locals in the area mentioned a single banging noise. There were also faint traces of unicorn dust."

"Unicorn dust," Ruval echoed, rolling his jaw. The ground up remains of a unicorn horn had long since proven quite effective at sealing most forms of powers, particularly 'evil' ones such as Devils. That being said, it was also excessively expensive to procure... "I was not made aware of this in my own meeting."

"People are more likely to gossip to some random passerby than risk the wrath of a noble," the other Devil offered with a wry smile.

"Indeed. I am... disappointed, in the owner of this establishment, for failing to bring this up. After the Phenexes went out of their way to provide him a risky loan as well."

"Do you want me to dispose of him, milord?"

"Depends. Were you able to find anything else of import?"

That wry smile turned crooked, and he held up a small leather bag. "From the looks of it, someone decided to pay our dear hotel owner a pretty penny for some information. Innocuous information, mind you, simply the people who end up checking into the hotel within a certain time period, but considering the timing and the guy's own omissions..."

Was the portly man trying to cover for a side hustle gone sour? Ruval could almost admire such ambition, the very same drive that led the Phenexes to agree to lend a loan. It paid off in spades for both parties back then, but now?

"Make sure he comes across an unfortunate accident, John."

John Smith, Knight of Ruval and the Hidden Talon of the Blue Phenex, now had a positively bloodthirsty grin on his face. "Shame I can't make an example of 'em, but your wish is my command."

Indeed, hours later, that evening, as the hotel owner would be driving back to his home, he'd find the brakes and airbag would both be faulty as he drove through a red light into the path of an oncoming semi truck. He died on impact.

How tragic.


"Well, since you're here, you may as well help me out with some circle theory." Luna reopened the book she'd been reading prior to Ruval's appearance, back to the bookmark she'd ended up buying.

Why did she buy a bookmark? She liked reading, so it really was as simple as getting one to keep track of where in the book she was.

It did not have to do with her accidentally tearing a page of a rare manuscript because she tried dogearing it like she did with every other book she got her hands on and had to put down before finishing. Anyone who suggested that would be faced with complete denial.

"Hm?" Ruval turned, shifting in place so he could peer at the ground between them where the brunette set the book more comfortably. "Very well, though I cannot promise I'll be a good teacher. I've many skills, but teaching is not one I learned beyond the scope of combat."

"Even so, you grew up with this stuff. Considering I'm technically only seven and a half-years Devil, I still don't have all the intricacies of magical circles internalized."

"Fair point." He conceded the topic with his usual nobleman's magnanimity. "What is it that has you confused?"

Lunarunn's lips firmed into a thin line, gesturing to the book below and more specifically the cut-away image of a magic circle and each layer within that circle. "Mostly the terminology behind certain patterns and glyphs. It sort of reminds me of kanji, in regards to just how freaking esoteric they are, and how positioning both within the circle and connected to other symbols can provide wholly different meanings."

Ruval nodded slowly, understanding lighting up his face with an easy smile. "There is nothing to be concerned about there. Most Devils tend to struggle with the level of detail required to make sense of a magical circle, much less actually formulate one on their own."

Luna smiled back, but much more grimly. "Considering I'm aiming for the top, I can't exactly be content with 'passing knowledge' of one of our species' most foundational magic structures."

Again, the Phenex had no choice but to concede the point. "Well, what are you aiming for specifically?"

"At the very least, the ability to understand what's being thrown at me before I end up getting screwed over by an attack I didn't prepare a suitable defense against." With a wave of Luna's hand, a notebook shimmered into existence, and she set it above the other book, one side holding a somewhat shoddily-drawn theoretical circle and the other side blank..

Ruval hummed appreciatively. "Neat trick. Was that a summoning?"

The Worldweaver shook her head. "Hammerspace, actually. I've been doing a little practice in spacial manipulation, and at the moment I've managed to piece together a little hidey-hole in some corner of the Dimensional Gap that I can access at any time. It's not much, but as long as I don't put anything volatile or perishable inside, it works pretty well for not having to lug a backpack around everywhere I go."

"It almost sounds like you already have a good grasp of utilizing demonic power. Spacial manipulation is far from a basic or even intermediate topic, especially where the Dimensional Gap is involved."

"Did you see me use a magical circle?" she puffed out a cheek. "That was all Worldweave, but I want to have other tricks up my sleeve beyond a new bloodline power that I fluked into."

"I do not believe that 'fluked' is a word."

"It got the point across, didn't it?" Luna stuck her tongue out at the blond briefly, gaze returning swiftly to the books below. "Besides. I doubt I'm ever going to be a strictly physical fighter, so my best bet to prevent being hard-countered by some douche with a negation power is to have more than one power of my own to draw from."

The Phenex's next words were shockingly cold to come from the mouth of a firebird. "...Is there something I should know about Diehauser?"

"What?" The brunette's gaze shot back up in befuddlement, before widening as she recognized that he'd misinterpreted her words. She'd actually been talking about Rizevim, and her concerns that his Sacred Gear Canceller would shut her out of Worldweave, but he didn't know that, nor should he at this point in time. "No, no, no, I'm talking about more of a theoretical scenario."

"Luna..."

She glared at him now. "I'm serious Ruval, I haven't even met the guy. I get you're just looking out for me, but he's done nothing wrong."

"Very well." The Phenex heir breathed out a sigh, his chilly tone returning to its usual warmth. "I just wanted to be sure. So, if we're dealing with offensive magical circles, there's a few things I should go over regarding spell syntax. First is the layering level. More layers within a circle means a more specific effect, which in turn generates a more powerful effect. You are already aware of how a Devil channels their power?"

She nodded, glad to move off the topic of Ruval's brief bout of protectiveness. "Yeah. Devils need to guide their desires alongside their intent, their intellect, their civility. The more focused those desires are, the more powerful the effect they can create, but go too far and they become unstable, or lose control entirely."

"Indeed. Most Devils struggle to obtain an internal focus, so to speak, and so rely on magical circles to focus their Id into a tangible effect. This can range anywhere from teleportation, to a burst of fire, to a barrier, even to healing, though due to the chaotic nature of the Id Devils who are able to effectively heal others are a rarity. On a tangential note, this means doctors, nurses, and medics are highly valued, perhaps even more so than in the human world."

"I take it Devil magic is lacking in 'language' regarding healing?"

"Unfortunately so," the Phenex confirmed with a sigh. "While Ajuka Beelzebub is a master of magic and an aficionado of breakthroughs, even he has come to the conclusion that Devil magic just is not suited for medical purposes. It's why even a single Phenex Tear, difficult to produce in bulk as they are, is so prohibitively expensive."

"And you decide to give one to me, one you made yourself... as a courting gift?"

"It shows the person I am offering such to that I am serious about wanting to see if we are compatible." Ruval tilted his head and gave a small huff of laughter, eyes sliding shut. "Unfortunately, that has proven almost unanimously to not work out."

"Almost?"

"Almost." His eyes reopened, and he inclined his head forward with a small smirk whilst gazing into Luna's own. "Ask me that again in a decade or so. I may well have a more concrete answer to give you then."

Luna leaned back with a lifted brow and lips quirked upward on one side. 'Damn, that was actually kinda smooth.'

"Alright, back on topic ya damn fried chicken."

"Fried chicken?" Ruval lifted a brow, torn between offense and amusement.

"Yep. Phenex, phoenix, fire bird, bird on fire, chicken on fire, fried chicken." A simple explanation, but an effective one, judging by the way he snorted with concealed laughter. "I wonder if you would taste like fried chicken too?"

A twisted grin split across the face of said 'fried chicken', and for that brief moment the brunette saw that Ruval indeed had a dirtier side. "I don't believe we're quite that far in our relationship just yet, Luna, though if you were to insist..."

Luna froze, both at the boldness from Ruval and realizing her own wording, then broke into mortified giggles of her own. "Oh... holy shit, I walked right into that one didn't I?" Her spasming chest took multiple seconds to settle, and from that point spoke again. "Alright, I'll give you props for that pass, but I'm gonna have to stick with the 'still lesbian' card."

"A shame, but completely understandable." The usual amiable expression of the Blue Phenex returned, and his gaze returned to the notebook. "It looks like you have a basic grasp of the glyph structure in a magic circle, but..."

He looked up at her, expression contorting into a truly pained grimace. "...Could you truly not draw your circle... any better?"

"Heeeeey! Not all of us have lessons in calligraphy, Ruval."

"It's a circle, how do you mess up a circle so badly?"

"Circles are hard, okay?! I can't exactly draw a head, erase some of the more detailed features, and one-two-three end with a circle-thingy!"

Ruval stared at her for several seconds, completely not processing what Luna just spouted off. "I get the feeling you're referencing something."

She stared back with an equally nonplussed expression. "...I really need to get you introduced to children's cartoons then."

"Why? They're for children."

The brunette's face could only be described as completely disbelieving. "And you mean to say you're not still a kid at heart, still looking for those things to fill you with an innocent joy?"

"Why would I be? Well, beyond the second part at least. I'm still searching for those things that give me that spark, but I've been around for a pretty long time."

Luna couldn't make sense of what she was hearing.

"Jesus, Joseph, and Mar- OW, FUCK!" That one stung something fierce. "SCREW YOU TOO YAHW- Gh! Mother of a drunken whore!"

You would think that after seven-some years of holy names being taboo Luna would have long since learned to not say such names when not in Ulan's domain, but occasionally she ended up slipping.

Such as upon learning that Ruval had never encountered the raucous joy that was the golden age of cartoons.

The brunette leveled a teary-eyed glare at him, caught between mortification, indignation, and a justified rage toward the Phenex for not having learned about one of the finer joys in life. Also because he seemed to be taking some level of schadenfreude from her getting whacked by Heaven's System.

"You know what? Fine. I'm getting a season of SpongeBoy, and we're going to watch it when we're done here."

Ruval scrunched his nose in distaste. The damn fool. "SpongeBoy...?"

Luna puffed out her cheeks, maintaining her petulant glare.

After a grand total of two seconds, the blond caved.

"Alright, alright, I'll watch these cartoons with you." One hand reached up to scratch the back of his head as his gaze shifted away from those sparkling blue-greens. "I don't understand why you're so insistent on it, though."

The glare and pout vanished like ash on the wind. "Good. Just means you'll enjoy it all the more."

The Phenex heir didn't seem convinced, but he let the matter lie. "Okay, so horrendous circle drawing aside-"

"You're not exactly getting any closer to inside my panties with comments like that, buster."

He leveled a dangerously neutral stare at Luna until she looked away, a hint of her previous petulance returning in her pout to the side.

"So circle drawing aside," Ruval tried again, this time not getting a snide remark from the brunette he was trying to teach, "you have a good grasp of the basics. From what I can see, you are able to understand basic structures, though I am not quite sure how long it takes for you to do so."

"About thirty seconds," the Worldweaver admitted, wincing as she knew full well that such a slow pace of comprehension was completely unacceptable.

"So... you're barely literate in circle syntax," Ruval amended, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and breathe out a heavy sigh. "That is... that is not good. Certainly worse than I expected. It is still better than most commoners, but for someone who is entering nobility? Shoddy. Very shoddy."

"To say nothing of someone trying to, as I mentioned, get to the top." Luna knew full well that she'd need more than even a passing knowledge, so she accepted Ruval's take on her knowledge without missing a beat. "It'll be much better in the long run if I can learn this stuff from someone already knowledgeable in the subject."

"Like Ajuka?"

The two of them stared at each other.

And stared.

And stared.

Then Luna started cackling, and Ruval turned away with a pleased grin.

Once the rancorous laughter from the brunette died away, she explained. "The time I had with the Satans was basically me getting all trained up to draw the aristocracy's attention off of Rias and Sona. That meant more training in social skills, norms, as well as the state of relations between Pillars, instead of more foundational skills such as learning about anything more about magic circles than the crests of each family."

"That is... a significant portion of noble training left out of your previous curriculum."

"I only had five years to prepare myself for the clusterfuck that's the Underworld aristocracy, so I can understand skipping that stuff to a degree. Still, I can't help but wonder if Sirzechs had planned to throw me off the Maou boat the moment I agreed to work with him."

She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

"Perhaps it was, but we should be aware that this is Sirzechs Lucifer, the Devil supposedly more powerful than THE Devil. He's almost as much a manipulative mastermind as Zekram; he managed to convince one of the True Satan Faction's most powerful women, from one of their most loyal families, to defect, after all. The audacity of them becoming wed after the war was a particularly offensive slap to the TSF."

Grayfia. He had a point.

"So... basically, expect that he's got something for us in store, having already predicted that we'd try and get back at him in some way?"

"And that is why I want to make sure we have room to improvise, an escape plan, and a nuclear option, because there is a good chance when we finally make our move we will require all of them."

It was honestly kind of unsettling just how many overwhelmingly powerful masterminds there were in the Underworld government. Even if she had the tentative friendship of one of them despite everything that unfolded, there was still a not insignificant concern that she was still being used.

"Right." She swallowed. "Enough doom and gloom though, let's focus on what we can change. Like my threadbare proficiency in understanding circlecraft."


That memory flashed through Luna's mind as a circle sprang to life from Eltren's outstretched fingers, and though it wasn't a perfect comprehension Luna was able to understand that his spell was electricity-related in some way.

However, when she tried to channel her energy into forming some sort of barrier to block it, that slow broiling feeling within her body flared into a white-hot stabbing pain, as though forcing her arm through a hole the size of a coin. That alone would have been enough to make her cry out from the pain, but then the spell hit, and her world melted into sheer agony.

She wasn't sure how long it lasted. She wasn't sure who it was that was making that ringing in her ear. She wasn't even sure who she was, and this remained the case for several seconds after the excruciating burning across her body - both slow and fast, all white-hot - ebbed, and the world started coming back into view around her.

Luna was finally able to note that even as tears streamed down her face and she felt like laying down for a while her limbs kept twitching, and that her throat felt raw.

'Oh. I was screaming.'

"Can you understand me now? Good. Because more of that awaits you if you displease me in this place." The voice was filled with a sadistic glee, even as she noted him waving off in a direction, and the footfalls of those who'd kidnapped her in the first place taking their leave.

Supposedly, leaving the two of them alone.

With Luna's body rejecting the use of Worldweave, and as such completely powerless to whatever it was that Eltren wanted to do with her.

And with her as a woman of marrying age, and a not unattractive one at that?

It really sunk in then, just how fucked she was.

'Oh... oh shit. Oh shit, oh shit, this is actually happening, isn't it?'

That panic threatened to overwhelm her, her own body feeling too small, the walls seeming to close in, the reality of the situation sinking home and she needed air, she couldn't breathe, she couldn't speak, she couldn't think-

"Lunarunn!" Once more, Ulan's voice broke through the hysterical winds threatening to blow through her mind. "Focus! If you lose composure now, you will only make the situation worse!"

'How the flying FUCK could I make the situation worse Ulan?!' the Worldweaver nearly screamed back aloud, keeping the dialogue internal by the thinnest thread of reasoning still present. 'I'm completely at an egomaniacal Devil's mercy, if he wants me killed - or worse - then there's no way I could stop it!'

"Then do not give him a reason to! Try to appease the Naberius as much as you can, but if you go into a full panic then he has already won!"

'I... I...' Luna swallowed, throat feeling uncomfortably absent of its usual ambient moisture. 'o-okay. I... I think I can try.'

Those words managed to give Luna's thoughts ground to stand on, shaky though it was. But, it was a far better alternative to completely flying off the handle.

Gasping as her muscles protested, Lunarunn slowly climbed back to her hands and knees, limbs shaking as she struggled to keep the aftershocks from making her collapse again.

"What... what do you want?" she rasped out, only for the Naberius heir to tut and waggle a finger, looking almost disappointed at the way she managed to claw herself away from a complete mental breakdown.

"None of that now. I speak, and you listen like a good commoner, and only respond when I want to hear something from you. You are to remain silent, if you want to refrain from experiencing that again. And believe me, I let you off lightly for this first time."

As much as she wanted to snipe back, the brunette perhaps wisely kept her mouth shut. Not even her bout with Heaven's System before had caused her such agony; even now she was feeling faint. But also knew that to fall unconscious now would only warrant even greater punishment.

She might have been a smart-aleck and a rebel by Devil standards, but Luna wasn't stupid. And even near the brink of a panic attack, she'd learned to assess the situation as part of her political training.

If she ever saw Serafall again, Luna would thank her profusely for teaching her to compartmentalize.

"You learn your place quickly." Eltren's hands slid behind his back, and he started walking, circling the prone Worldweaver with all the satisfaction of a man who knew he had a foe at his utter discretion. "Now, what do I want? A simple question, and one with many answers. Really, I would have expected you to ask a more relevant question, but I suppose I had my expectations set too high. A shame too, considering that you may well be one of the more... intelligent, as far as the common chaff go."

Luna remained on hands and knees, but she'd at least recovered enough to eye him with a dangerous glare, only to drop to the floor again as even that glare was met with another burst of lightning from the Naberius. It wasn't as long or intense as the initial spell, but it still drew another strangled scream from her.

Above her, she heard the Devil continue speaking. "Apparently I was mistaken in my initial comment too. A lowborn whore like you doesn't deserve to so much as meet my eyes. How you managed to catch Lord Ruval's is beyond me, much like he is so far beyond you. Perhaps he took pity on a bitch who needed to learn her place, and decided he would make a kinder teacher of such."

She heard him stop, and the Worldweaver had to keep herself from snarling. It was difficult. The fear, and the indignation, and the rage coursing through her felt as though it were barely being contained. "Or, perhaps, you ensorcelled him with your supposedly new bloodline. Pah, preposterous. Even if you have a power never before seen by Devilkind, you will never be welcome amongst the truest of the Pillars."

Luna flicked her tongue out briefly, trying to wet her mouth after it went dry thanks to the electrocution that the Naberius had inflicted on her.

Then something grabbed onto her ponytail and yanked, forcing her head back up in a forward position with squeezed-shut eyes and a groan of pain, Eltren glaring down at the brunette. "Now, where are those two nekoshou you found? In case you weren't aware, those animals belong to me."

Wait... was that what the kidnapping was about?

She knew that the Naberius family was no good, but to kidnap a member of the assembly because she ended up finding Kuroka and Shirone?

"Just... how fucking nuts are you... to kidnap me over that?"

Judging by the rapidly darkening expression on Eltren's face and the magical circle that formed around his free hand, that wasn't a good response.

Indeed, as that hand slammed into her midsection Luna's world became lost in a static of paroxysms and screaming once more, limbs jolting around as the nerves controlling them fired and misfired from all the electricity coursing through her.

As she came to again, it was to the Naberius keeping her painfully aloft by her ponytail and a harsh slap across the face. Incidentally, the sharp bite of the slap brought her consciousness back into more focus, though the brunette would still find herself in significant torment.

"My motives need no explanation. Where are the nekoshou?" At the slow blinking of the Worldweaver, he shook her by her ponytail, causing more grunts of pain in the process. "Tell me!"

"You... you really think... that I'd tell you, you twisted fuck?" the brunette breathed back, unable to help herself from spitting those words out like a curse, regretting them even as they flew from her lips. She would have answered him how he wanted, she would have, but those defiant words spewed out in a mixture of panic, pain, and deep loathing.

"Luna! If you antagonize him-"

Whatever Ulan said after that was lost in another white-out, and when Lunarunn was able to recover her senses again it was to agony, thick rolling tears streaked down her face and chest heaving with hiccups and sobs.

"I think you'd know that by now refusing me will get you nothing but suffering," Eltren's nose flared, as if he'd smelled something unpleasant. Maybe he did. She could hardly feel anything beyond the excruciating convulsions, senses occupied to the point where she could barely even hear him speak. "...Disgusting lowborn slut."

By that point, he dropped her, and unresponsive as her limbs still were that left Lunarunn falling to the ground in a heap, leaving the Devil above her staring down with distaste.

Something inside of the Worldweaver recognized that he was speaking the truth. At least as far as defying him went. If Luna continued, she'd just get punished more, and chances were he'd get what he wanted anyway.

She wasn't sure she'd be able to survive another electrocution like that, maybe she was overreacting, maybe she'd just go insane, but there was a part of her that violently recoiled at the thought of continuing to be rebellious. No, that was most of her.

"She... she was right... to worry 'bout you," Luna managed to whisper, chest spasming in a painful motion that should have been a laugh, though in this scenario was more of pained gasps between her whimpers. "I dunno. Dunno where. Left her to... to her own devices. Never saw where they lived... never... never saw the younger of the two, nothing."

"Am I to truly believe that you would leave such a rare specimen be? That you would be so idiotic as to do just that?" As Eltren was readying another dose of his electricity, a thoughtful expression came over his face. "...No, actually. That might not be entirely out of place. Of course you wouldn't realize just how important that animal is to the future of Devilkind."

"She... has a name," the Worldweaver protested, though this time Eltren didn't retaliate.

Instead, he gave a snorting laugh, derisive and dismissive. "Livestock like those two-tailed cats don't need names. Though a sheep trying to play at being a bitch wouldn't realize that. You just proved my point."

The other Devil walked away, one hand coming up to clasp his elbow while the other rose to the side of his face. "Still, if you do not truly know where the cats are, then I suppose I'll have to make this little meeting meaningful somehow. Question is... what to do... what to do...?"

Luna had a sinking feeling that what he meant by 'meaningful' had nothing good in store for her.

Her premonition proved correct when he stopped, turning around to eye her with a speculative gaze and a smile growing in both width and maniacal energy. "...Considering you do have a... unique ability, perhaps I may continue my research with you instead. There's always the chance that my sources find those two runaways regardless of your own knowledge."

As the Worldweaver realized what he was getting at with a rapidly increasing alarm, Eltren clapped his hands twice, summoning the troops which had captured Luna in the first place, their footsteps echoing through the empty warehouse as they drew closer.

"Take her to the holding cells. I have equipment to prepare."

"You... you can't get away with this!" It felt weak coming from Luna's mouth, even as she was hauled over the back of the largest soldier, but she continued. She couldn't stop herself, it had to get out, how could she keep it in? "You don't think... that people won't notice... that I'm missing?"

Eltren did not laugh like a evil mastermind, but the grin on his face certainly indicated he held enough mirth to do so if he so chose. "They can notice all they like. It does not matter if the trail has long since gone cold. And even if you do somehow manage to escape..."

He pulled what looked to be a newspaper out of his noble's cloak, and tossed it behind the retreating soldiers, where Luna would be able to catch and read the headlines. And what she read almost made her sick.

"Maestra of Microcosms, Muckraked for Monetary Mismanagement!"

"Even if you escape, you may well find you don't have any place to escape to."

She wasn't able to read the article itself proper as she was hauled away, but the headline itself was damning.

Upon seeing Luna's expression slackened in disbelief and horror, eyes dilating as the panic that she'd barely kept from overwhelming her entirely took hold, Eltren did finally laugh.

It was as enraging and despair-inducing as she could have imagined it to be, and Lunarunn felt herself going faint, all those horrors of the outside world fading for the sweet embrace of the void.


A/N:

yes i realize that i got the name wrong but its dxdverse shows arent gonna have the same name, also i dont want nickelodeon deciding to dmca some random-ass fanfic for using the name of their flagship mascot

Also, Welcome to the Internet by Bo Burnham is... kind of incredible. Both in how entertaining a song it is, and how unsettling it is in its accuracy to the internet today. If you haven't given it a listen yet, check it out. Fair warning, it's absolutely NSFW, as any accurate song about the internet probably should be

Not much to talk about here. I mentioned the chapter prior that I wanted to get the plot moving again. This isn't exactly what I was hoping for (*cough* wanted to timeskip *cough*) but I think it should provide a nice strong sense of tension for y'all.

Poor Luna though; between the torture and the headline Eltren used for his last word, she's in for a serious re-evaluation of her life choices.

I do try to aim for some level of realism in this story, and torture is a pretty dark topic. Naturally, any scene involving it is going to be grim. If I ended up making you uncomfortable with the final section in this chapter, then I apologize, but also am glad, because that was one emotion I was hoping to evoke.

As always, I hope you enjoy!

Tempura Wizard out.