Welcome, Welcome one and all to yet another fic. Yeah I get your trepidation at the sight of yet another one, especially one in the DxD section. How many does that make now? Who cares. This one has that boy Minato in the lead and I need to make a big thanks to those that helped me get this structured up and ready to be written. The folks in AizenTheGoat's discord server most especially Lupa and Gatt were a huge help. Couldn't do it without them really.
So some clarification. This story is set in the devil civil war era, well a bit before it and then during it. There will be a lot of original characters. I almost feel such a thing should be obvious but still I think it's important to state since the four satans currently in charge will all be original. Other characters may act a bit out of character. I suppose that is to be expected from fanfiction but I know that someone will complain about it and while it may not change anything having mentioned it here, it does make me feel better. Kind of.
Anyway enough rambling on and on. Time to get to the actual story you came for.
King of Hell
Chapter One
Servant's Journey
Minato stood tall and proud as he stared at the item presented before him for a moment. To him the moment felt like it was long and drawn out. To those watching it was hardly noticed at all.
The next moment saw him reach out and grip the item solidly in his hands before holding it up as if inspecting it. A crown. Silver in color and simplistic in design by his own request. A thin ring with raised points every few inches.
He turned from the man he had taken the crown from and held it out toward the gathered mass of nobles from across the underworld. They all bowed readily as he settled the crown onto his own brow. Among them all were those that he had known during the war. Friends, comrades, even some former enemies. All kneeling before him respectfully.
That of course excluded the man who had handed him the crown. As well as his new wife who stood to his right, and lastly his four closest friends and confidants just behind her. All the rest bowed down though. It was terrifying to see so many willingly place themselves at his whim.
Among them two stuck out without trying. They shared his coloration, and his blood. His aunt and uncle. The newly appointed Lord and Lady Phoenix. They bowed even lower than the others, their foreheads nearly pressing against the floor.
'How strange to be here. The complete opposite of where I was." He thought as he stared at them.
Memories of his childhood threatened to invade his mind, but he fought them off to give the small speech he had planned along with the man that had made all of this possible for him.
Still the thoughts of a time not so long ago for most devils ran through the back of his mind as he continued to reel with his new found position of ruler. He still had yet to truly grasp the magnitude of his role after all. That of the singular and undisputed, King of Hell.
Nearly two decades ago and things were quite different. Minato was the one that knelt. He bowed and scraped despite the humiliation and abject pain he felt. His own parents towered over him with faint sneers of disgust marring their inhumanly perfect faces. A look reserved for the lowest dregs of their society, and now for their failure of a son.
"Not even a hint of regeneration. You lack my gifts boy." Monsgrad Phoenix, head of the clan spat as he glared down at him.
"Bad enough you control the flame and wind spells so poorly that you burn yourself but this…the rumors that will start." His mother Yallara Phoenix shook her head, worried more for the remarks and veiled taunts her fellow noble ladies would have than the blistered and burnt hand that Minato cradled under his form as he bowed.
"You cannot remain the heir without the bloodline." Monsgard growled while turning away from Minato in thought.
"Worthless. Truly worthless. Why couldn't you have been stillborn. Less rumors that way. Less bad publicity with the other houses." The man continued to complain with Yallara seeming to nod along .
Minato remained silent. He was a bright boy and despite what his parents were saying now, he was far more advanced than most of his fellow heirs. Unfortunately, his fellow heirs had their family powers and support to fall back on. Minato had neither. He had grown to not expect it either.
He didn't expect their hatred though.
"If we kill him now, we can at least try for another heir of some capability." His mother suggested gently taking her husband's hand in her own.
Staring at the floor with wide eyes, Minato waited to see if the blow would come. He had seen his father extinguish the life of servants before with a flick of the wrist and a gout of flame so hot that it left permanent marks on any surface it touched. At the least it would be fast if he was killed like that. A near instantaneous disintegration.
"Brother, that's terrible." Another voice called, causing Minato to dare twisting his head just enough to see who spoke.
His uncle Augrath Phoenix was kind to him, though distant. Still Minato felt nothing but thanks for the man as he and his wife stepped forward to his defense. Or at least a plea to spare his life.
"You claim little Minato is a failure, brother but he might fail in our family abilities. He is the best in other ways and you know it. Don't let that anger blind the both of you." Augrath argued with his wife Hedonna nodding in agreement from beside him.
"You speak out for him, little brother?" Monsgard asked with an edge to his voice.
Minato didn't flinch at that. This was the typical manner of the underworld these days after all. He'd heard some of the peasants say that the Great War had broken the hearts and minds of too many that it had corrupted them all and made them cruel and merciless.
He couldn't attest to that. The great war had ended, or rather been on pause for the last century. If only because none of the factions involved could continue without risking their extermination at the hands of the others.
For Minato, life in the Underworld simply meant one was expected to be ruthless and cruel, even to family. Perhaps especially to family. It made you stronger according to most. No one else was alive to argue.
"Monsgard, his demonic energy is more potent than most adults in the clan and he grasps most spells with ease. He only burned himself because the spell he was trying to impress you with was so large. He may not be right as heir but surely he will make fine breeding stock for our clan's girls." Augrath suggested.
Monsgard and Yallara shared a thoughtful look before Monsgard nodded to his brother. Minato would have blown a sigh of relief if he wasn't certain he would catch at least a beating if his father recalled his presence.
"Without the regeneration or mastery over flame and wind, he's next to useless with our name. Still it would be a wasted investment of the last few years if we simply got rid of him. Get up boy." Monsgard said as he turned to face Minato again.
The child climbed to his feet shakily getting an annoyed huff from his mother at the show of pain and difficulty as he did so. She stepped forward and tightly gripped his hand. Minato did his best to bite back the hiss of pain but the tears welling in his eyes were clear enough to all in the room. Yallara healed the burn to an extent. Not completely. She wasn't about to waste that much energy on him, he knew that. The fact that he was receiving any healing from her at all surprised him a bit and he could only imagine that it was some sort of deep rooted maternal instinct that didn't extend beyond the most basic of aid.
Or perhaps it was simply a whim or worry that people would say she was an abusive mother. Beyond the conversation today neither of his parents had ever struck him or spoken of harming him at all. Even if they so coldly conversed about executing him now.
"You will serve well as a servant. You would have even made a fine heir if you'd been born with our abilities." She said almost sadly looking down at him as she spoke.
Whatever odd feeling seemed to be hidden behind the stoic expression on her face faded away quickly and she snapped once to summon a servant. A distant cousin of theirs based upon looks. One born to a middle class parent or something.
"Move him into a servant room on the far wing of the estate. Put him to work out of sight for a few months while we look into options." She commanded the maid who simply bowed before taking Minato by the hand and leading him away. At least the maid's grip was more gentle and he no longer had blisters on his skin to be painfully popped.
Minato began to eventually wonder if perhaps his mother and father had forgotten his existence completely by the time his sixth birthday arrived. He spent it alone in his quarters. A small singular room with a bed, a table, and a small kitchenette. Servants were not allowed to use the main kitchens for themselves after all.
The room had been dingy and covered in cobwebs and dust when he'd moved into it, but it was a bit cozy now. More than enough for him anyway. It had room enough to practice a few smaller spells and thanks to the massive force of servants actually working for the Phoenix family Minato actually spent the vast amount of his time simply here in his room.
That was a blessing.
Since coming to be on his own, far from the finer portions of the palace, Minato had started to love not having to try and impress anyone or fear failing to do so. None of his fellow servants tried to invade his life or even judged him for lacking the abilities of his parents. It was almost nice.
It was also unbearable.
His work hours were few and far apart normally but they were also degrading. He scrubbed and cleaned things that he knew could far more easily be cleaned by magic. It simply was the style that living servants be made to do it instead. A sign of power and prominence in their society. He hated inefficient things like that with every bit of his being.
He hated the idea of someone treating him like nothing and getting away with it even more though. The idea that he might fade into obscurity here haunted him. It was a real possibility and no one would judge him. Fade away. Find a wife. Have children. Be normal and average in their society.
Be nothing.
He couldn't actually do that of course. Instead Minato spent every moment he could pouring over tomes he slipped out of the vast libraries and collections of his mother and father. With that he experimented with his demonic power as well. Not like the majority of devils liked to do.
Most other children of clans had their family ability and the usual magical abilities all devils had. Minato could only use the latter and had no special talent for controlling it compared to others. Any progress he made there would be through his own hard work and time spent training. Something he was particularly fine with.
No one would ever be able to say that he wasn't devoted and driven. He would at least accomplish that much.
His uncle had mentioned that his reserves of demonic power were vast even among the adults of their family. That much was true, but the reserves of devil's power were rarely the deciding factor in the true measure of power of that devil. What good was infinite power if it was inaccessible.
So that was where Minato started. Control. Absolute control to the smallest possible extent of his power.
A year after being made little more than a servant of his family, and Minato had moved on to the second stage of his self appointed training. He could control his power, but he needed to make the smaller controlled amounts more potent, so he began playing with his power.
He'd narrowly avoided punishments after blasting apart a couple of tables as he worked on it. He hadn't avoided a caning from the head maid sadly. Not when he accidentally put a metal platter through the wall about a millimeter from the end of her nose one day. At least his fellow servants had been kind enough to cheer him up after the fact. Encouraging him to aim a bit better in the future.
He took their words to heart just not in the way they likely expected him to.
Finally a year and a half after being sentenced to anonymity by his former parents he made a breakthrough. It didn't look like much. Simply a condensed ball of pure demonic energy. Most devils would scoff at the sight of it. They could hurl pure demonic power easily after all. Just like he could.
This was different though. A tiny amount of power forced in on itself over and over until it began to implode in a brilliant flash of light and heat. A slight alteration to the most basic offensive technique taught to young devils.
Most children were taught to incorporate demonic power into their fighting with everything. A little energy added to a punch or slash of a sword or some added oomph in a spell, but again this was different to all of that. It wasn't really a spell or an enhancement to another attack. It was a feedback loop. Energy collapsing into a micro explosion that fed more energy into subsequent explosions.
Not that it was infinite. If he stopped feeding it miniscule amounts of his demonic power the technique would rapidly burn itself out. However if he launched it before it could, the detonation was easily several dozen magnitudes more than the basic use of demonic energy.
And that was the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He could add his compacted demonic power to any attack just like the normal version. A punch, a kick, a ball of fire. Minato could make them all far more devastating than they appeared.
It was just the start he promised himself. He didn't feel ready to show this to others yet. He needed more. He was still a devil despite everything. He wanted more and keeping his cards close to his chest until the right moment would be how he could snatch up whatever that more he wanted was.
He never would have guessed the opportunity to begin truly reaching for something better would come so soon. Nor that it would come disguised as a terrifying return to the side of his parents for a night.
He hadn't missed the horrible social events of society during his time spent as a servant to his clan. Forced into a fine set of clothes that his mother had made for him and dragged along to attend Minato stood with his parents in a massive ballroom crowded with hundreds of other devils.
For some reason, Lord Zekram Bael had made the request of his fellow nobles to all attend a ball and feast at one of his estates, but the caveat was that they could only attend if they brought their legal heirs to the function. Despite his status as a servant being somewhat known, Minato was legally speaking, still the heir to the Phoenix clan.
At least until his mother eventually fell pregnant once more and his parents could try for their perfect heir.
He just hoped he could have some impact on him or her when they did arrive so that maybe they wouldn't be quite as awful to be around as his mother and father usually were. Even now the both of them had made it clear that they expected him to be with the Bael clan servants and making him useful in some way.
Minato was actually almost thankful that they were sending him off to work with the servants rather than fraternizing with the other clan heirs. He wasn't comfortable in all the fine clothes any more. Not to mention his etiquette had slipped slightly in the last year and half.
He just couldn't properly fit as a noble anymore if one were to ask him. He still felt more comfortable with other servants, and so just as his mother and father desired he'd made his way over to help the maids and butlers.
It took an annoying amount of time to find the place where the other servants were gathered filling drinks and cleaning glasses. A well oiled machine of lower and middle class devils easily churned out the party favors and drinks that hundreds of high class devils consumed in quick succession.
Most of them were much older than Minato himself was. In fact, more of them were closer the age of Lord Bael than Minato himself if the young boy had to guess. That was the first thing that made both himself and one other stand out among the group. Unlike him however, she seemed to almost be running the program.
He eyed her a bit suspiciously first before approaching. Many among the pillar clans or the Elite clans that were directly related to the four satan families liked to give the servants a hard time whenever they became bored. He'd seen it at home, though thankfully despite their cold and callous demeanor, neither of his parents had much patience for interrupting the work of the servants. Maybe that was where Minato got his own love for efficiency.
The girl was most definitely not harassing the servants though. Even though she clearly wasn't one herself she only seemed to be helping them.
Dressed in a fine dress with her long silver hair made up in a beautiful and elegant bun, the girl coordinated the servants like a woman twice her age could only dream to. The workers indulged her too, though he wasn't sure if it was because she was clearly highborn or because she was an actually effective coordinator.
Once he was certain she wasn't trying to toy with the servants here he stepped forward to introduce himself to her. After all, another highborn that was more comfortable among the staff than the party goers sounded like the exact kind of person Minato could see himself getting along with.
"Hello, why are you here instead of at the party?" He asked genially with a smile.
The girl barely looked his way before gracefully reaching up to snatch a flute of some drink off of a tray and holding it out toward him.
"This one is quite popular right now, my lord. It has a slight fruit flavor that most consider like sweet berries. However I find it closer to melon myself." She said, all but politely telling him to please go away.
Minato blinked as he reflexively took the glass from her before his mind caught up to his actions. He stared down at the glass before looking back up at her. She had still yet to look his way.
"Uh, sorry I wasn't looking for a drink." He said awkwardly.
"Ah, perhaps something to eat then. I assure you that we can accommodate you, please return to the ballroom though. I will not be allowing anyone to toy with the staff tonight." She said before finally turning to look at him with scarlet eyes that fit perfectly with her silver hair and pale skin.
"Toy with the- no. I mean I would never. I'm actually supposed to help them." He said with a blush on his face.
"Help them?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes." He said before clearing his throat. "Let me introduce myself. Minato Phoenix. Servant and temporary heir of the Phoenix clan."
He set the glass down and offered his hand before blushing again and shifting to grasping the girl's hand and kissing the knuckle instead.
"I…see." She answered with widened eyes. "Temporary heir?"
"My parents have decided the best place for me to serve my clan is in a literal servile role. However by birth I remain heir until they produce a younger sibling for myself." He said with a fragile smile.
She nodded at him while seeming to scan his face and general appearance much more closely now than before.
"I've never heard of a clan doing such a thing."
The laugh Minato gave to that comment sounded grating to both of them. He didn't quite have the social control of himself to hide the hurt regarding his status within his family perfectly. In fact he largely expected that he never would even if he got over the pain of being thrown aside eventually.
Still, he was quick witted enough to try and direct the conversation to a more appealing direction.
"I've decided to try and be a pioneer." He said with a weak grin. Though it strengthened when the girl giggled indulgently. It may have been a pity laugh but it did make him feel better about his situation a marginal amount.
"You know why I was sent to help the staff. Why are you doing it?" He asked her.
She hummed before shrugging her shoulders. "I can do as I please within reason. It pleases me to help them with this event. I haven't heard of one this big since the memorial ball for the end of the Great War. They need all the help that they can get."
Minato felt a genuine smile begin to build on his lips at her admission only to lean forward a bit as she seemed to want to say something a bit quieter to him.
"I also don't really enjoy spending time with the other elite clan heirs. They like abusing the lower class devils too much. It's disturbing."
"Oh. I wouldn't either. You really seem like a decent person though. Better than most I've met among the High class anyway."
The girls simply scoffed and told him not to look into it so much, though she had a very pleased look in her eye and faint blush to match his own as she did.
"You want to help, so you can help me fill these glasses here." She took charge.
"Of course, though, can you tell me your name first." Minato asked. He had to stifle a laugh as the girl stammered and blushed at her own breach in social protocol.
"Grayfia Lucifuge. My apologies for being so rude." She answered almost robotically.
"No need to apologize, Grayfia. Let's get to work."
The party went on for hours and Minato and Grayfia worked diligently alongside the Bael clan servants for hours as well. Most of the staff had initially been a bit awkward in working alongside them, but by this point in the night they had come to regard the two children as wonderful helping hands. Even if their attire made them struggle a little bit. Grayfia more than Minato since her dress repeatedly got in the way of anything she was trying to do.
As the hours rolled past though they began to grow tired and Minato had started to lose focus ever so slightly as he moved about collecting empty glasses and refilling drinks. His lack of focus of course led to the worst possible scenario as he bumped into someone with a full flute of champagne in hand, bathing whoever it was with the drink.
His stomach felt as if it had filled with lead at the thought of embarrassing a noble like that. Thoughts of his father quite literally killing him came rushing to the forefront of his mind as he stared at the man before him.
As his mind caught up to the moment and he processed who exactly it was he was standing before, the lead in his stomach doubled in weight and his heart felt as though it had become encased in ice. The man was older, a rarity almost to the point of nonexistence in devil society. Minato easily knew who the old warrior was.
Zekram Bael. The most powerful of the Pillar clan heads and host of the party. The one pillar clan member with as much respect from the current Maou as the elite clans. A living legend.
And Minato had just stained the man's shirt.
"Hmm. You're not dressed like one of my servants. What's your name, boy?" Bael asked with little room for defiance in his tone.
"Minato Phoenix, Lord Bael." Minato replied before bowing his head lowly in respect.
"Enough of that bowing, stand up straight and let me look at you." Zekram commanded, causing Minato to snap up properly once again.
"The young heir of the Phoenix clan?" Bael asked.
"Yes sir." Minato replied, feeling it was best not to add any modifiers about it being temporary to that. If the man realized who he was so easily then he really didn't think it was necessary to explain the rest. Zekram likely knew more about him than he was comfortable with anyway.
The older man had a different idea though.
"Why is the heir of the Phoenix clan serving out drinks at my party? Are my staff not doing the job I gave to them well enough?"
"No, or I mean they are. I'm a placeholder for an heir, nothing more without my clan's bloodline." Minato hurriedly responded to make sure the nice staff he had worked with all night didn't get into some kind of trouble because of him.
"That doesn't explain why you are doing the job of a servant." Zekram said bluntly.
"With all due respect, Lord Bael. We both know that it does." Minato said simply.
Bael smiled then. A real smile with no hidden malice like most devils had when they smirked at one another.
"Cheeky little boy. I look forward to seeing you again sometime."
With that Zekram Bael wandered off back into the party, completely uncaring for the stain on his shirt. Who would say anything about it to him among the Pillar families anyway?
Minato watched him walk off with a bit of desire though. The man was known to every devil in the underworld. Known for his old skills in the early days of the Great War as much as for his strategies later on and his leadership afterward in maintaining his lands.
He wanted so badly to be like him.
Hopefully they would indeed meet again soon.
Wow, this chapter is shorter than I expected. That's perfectly fine though. Means it comes out faster right? Anyway, this could almost be a sort of prologue, but here is chapter one. I hope you liked it.
Anyway
Till Next Time