"My lord, you need to see this."

Agoman Phenex, the head of the Phenex clan of devils, turned towards his subordinate who pointed towards the room that the subordinates had just busted open.

"What is it Dalvol?"

"…We found out what those rogue Nilrem bastards were doing here. It is better for you to see it than hear about it."

Lord Phenex put down the vials that he was examining and moved toward the room, ignoring the dead bodies that littered the floor that were being cleaned up by their familiars.

But the moment he walked into the room, he felt his blood run cold as he instantly recognized the characters used in the magic circle that the human mages were working with.

"..These fucking humans, they were experimenting with the Dimension Gap?"

"It gets worse, my lord. We found out who they were experimenting on with the Dimension Gap."

Just who was the unfortunate soul that ended up being subjected to this torture?

Walking behind his servant, they soon arrived at a room that was aflame. The dark purple flames were held back by the sheer might and will of his wife, Rigath Phenex, who was an Ultimate Class devi. Even then, she was only barely holding the flames back and was being strained.

But that was not what Lord Phenex focused on. It was the child staring blankly at the group in the center of the room that held his full attention. The moment he laid eyes on the child, he immediately recognized who it was that he was looking at, and the reason why his wife looked so heartbroken.

"..How?"

"From what we gathered, The Nilrem were cloning your family members, My lord, in order to produce Phoenix tears. Somewhere along the way, they must have replaced Master Riser with a clone that died soon after, allowing them to perform experiments on Master Riser without anyone searching for him."

Lord Phenex felt like the ground disappeared from below his feet as he could do nothing but stare at the child, his child. His son whom he thought he had buried with his own hands just a year ago after he passed away due to some unknown cause that no one was able to discern.

With golden blond hair, dark blue eyes, and a face that was a perfect mix between Lord Phenex and his wife. There was no doubt that it was his son. Not to mention the fact that he could still feel the connection between the child and the Peerage pieces that he took to keeping in his coat as a reminder of his son.

"My Lord?"

It was the voice of his most trusted subordinate, Dalvol, that brought him out of his thoughts.

"Dalvol. How did the rogue members of Nilrem manage to hide right under our noses like this? how did they manage to kidnap a son of the Phenex family, one of the 72 pillars, so easily and replace him with a clone that even we, his parents, were unable to differentiate from the real deal?"

When Lord Phenex was alerted to the presence of intruders in his domain in the morning by a sudden torrent of purple flames reaching the sky, he had not been expecting this.

Watching the child stare blankly at them, Lord Phenex could not suppress the despair rising within his heart. What kind of torture and experimentation did he go through for those eyes that were always filled with happiness, wonder, and pride to turn into these lifeless orbs?

Lord Phenex walked past the barrier put up by his wife, allowing the dark purple flames to wash over his body and allowing his constitution as a Phenex to negate the damage. At least, that is what he wanted to do.

The moment his body came in contact with the Flames, his constitution, which was the pride of all Phenex family members, nearly failed him as pain the likes of which he had never experienced assaulted all his senses.

But it was also this special affinity towards flames that all Phenex devils have that allowed him to find the reason for this pain.

The Flames were, for a lock of a better term, destruction incarnated. Similar to what he knew about the Bael Clan's Power of Destruction, these flames were capable of annihilating anything that they came in contact with, even other forms of fire.

Thankfully, the source of the flames was still a child. If it were an adult, Lord Phenex knew that he would not have survived for even a few seconds in the face of these flames.

A part of him felt pride for his son, knowing that it was his son that unlocked such powerful flames, but another part was even more worried than before, no knowing where these flames originated from and what his son went through for them to manifest in the first place.

Pushing out his power as an Ultimate Class Devil, he soldiered on and approached the boy who still showed no signs of movement.

Either his son was extremely brave, or broken to such an extent that he simply did not care. Given what he knew about those human magicians and their methods, it was not hard for him to realize which case was more likely.

Kneeling down in front of the child, Lord Phenex spoke.

"Riser, are you alright."

"…"

"….Can you speak? Do you recognize me?"

The only response Lord Phenex got was a nod from his son.

Lord Phenex suppressed his rage towards the humans who did this to his child and was about to speak again. But his wife was not someone that patient and her motherly nature and stubbornness came to the front immediately.

With a surge of power, she pushed through the flames and ran towards their son, immediately taking him into a crushing hug as she sobbed.

The moment Lady Phenex took hold of the boy and hugged him to her chest, the flames that were threatening to devour everything in the vicinity instantly went out as the child's expressions slowly morphed, from apathy to anger, to despair until he finally broke down crying in his mother's arms.

With a watery smile, the Phenex matriarch spoke to her husband.

"M-mother and Father are going to freak out when they find out."

Thinking back to his parents and the despair that they felt when Riser 'died', Lord Phenex could not help but think the same as his wife. Riser Phenex was always spoiled rotten by the previous Lord and Lady Phenex, the parents of Agoman Phenex. It was also the old couple that felt the most heartbroken when their favorite grandson died.

It did not take long before Riser lost consciousness in the warmth of Lady Phenex's hug, his continuous use of his powers taking its toll on his mind.

On that day, the Phenex family declared war against the Nilrem magicians with the support of many of the Pillar families and scoured the entire Underworld for them, finding many of their hidden bases across the Underworld in various territories.

They also found out that Riser was not the first Devil child to be the victim of these twisted humans and their experiments with the Dimension Gap. However, it turned out that Riser was the only survivor of such experiments across all the bases found by the Devils.

But, whatever the experiment was, it changed Riser Phenex forever.

"Agoman, didn't we agree to wait until Rias's graduates from university to proceed with the marriage?"

"I know that, Zeoticus. But, things are progressing in a way that I had never anticipated. That old bastard Zekram is pushing for fixing the rating games even more than before, which is already a disgrace and something that I can't stand by anymore, and is trying to make my family give him even more Phoenix tears than before for the same price. I don't think I need to spell it out for you, Zeoticus, why he is doing this."

Zeoticus Gremory, the father of Sirzechs Lucifer and Rias Gremory grimaced at the words of his closest friend.

It was just a few weeks ago that Zekram had tried to push the Satans into establishing a law that would stop Reincarnated Devils from assuming important positions in the government in an attempt to make sure that the Underworlds were ruled by the Pure Bloods, something that most of the Pillar families approved of. What they did not approve of, was the extreme laws that the old Devil was trying to establish, something that Sirzechs Gremory made very clear to the Bael Clan's proginator with a judicious use of political and demonic power.

Ever since then, Zekram Bael had been trying to find ways to undermine the Four Satans and try to gain power for himself and his compatriots.

On some level, Zeoticus understood the urgency of his friend in trying to tie their two families together. If two Pillar families were tied together through marriage, they held the right to interfere in each other's territories legally. Thanks to the fact that Zeoticus's wife, Venelana, was a Bael by birth, the Gremory could easily interfere with Zekram's attempts at pressuring the Phenex family.

On the other hand, Zeoticus also understood the heart of his daughter and was very reluctant to proceed with a marriage that she did not want, even if said marriage had been fixed when she was a newborn and it was made in the name of the Gremory house, which meant that should he break the vow, the entirety of the Gremory name would lose credibility in the Underworld.

"But, Agoman, Rias has still not changed her mind about Riser and the marriage as a whole. If the reports I received from our spies are anything to go by, she seems to have only become more stubborn and insistent on canceling the marriage and has made some reckless moves very recently which got her injured."

"Rias was injured? Does Sirzechs know?"

"Since the underworld is still intact and the source of her injury is still living, he does not, and I would like to keep it that way."

"Got it. But, I still don't understand, what is so wrong about Riser that Rias hates him so much. Is he not the perfect pure-blood devil? He is powerful, reaching the rank of Ultimate class at such a young age, he is from the Phenex family, one of the 72 Pillar families, and he has already been designated to be the next clan head unanimously by my wife and me along with the rest of our children. What else does she want from him?"

At Lord Phenex's words, Zeoticus could not help but nod at his points, but he did not reveal the fact that there were two things about his son that Lord Phenex was forgetting.

His blood lust and his arrogance.

In the centuries he had lived, Zeoticus had never seen a young devil that had as much blood lust as Riser Phenex. Sometimes, it feels like he is not looking at a Devil, but a Demon instead when Riser goes on hunts to bring down powerful 'Stray Devils'. Worse yet, Riser is somehow able to direct this Blood Lust into his powers and his targets, making him unmatched in battle among the young devils. As far as anyone could tell, the only other young devil who could give him an even fight was Sairaorg Bael.

And then, there was his arrogance. While it might be justified that his arrogance was earned thanks to his power, it was also true that his arrogance has been the number one cause of all the fights that he ever got into since his childhood with many of the other clan heirs and young devils.

Just as Zeoticus was about to find a way to convince his friend to let go of the engagement, the doors to their meeting room were opened with a bang and the devil in question walked in.

Objectively speaking, Riser Phenex is a handsome man. With blond hair and blue eyes set on a perfect masculine face, he would be the dream boyfriend of many girls and some men.

But the thing that ruined that visage was the twisted smirk on his face that he always had no matter the situation. The only time that smirk ever came down into a more genuine smile was when he was in the presence of his family.

"Hello, Father, Lord Gremory. I heard that you two were discussing the matter of my marriage so I could not help but walk in."

"…Riser, where are your manners? Is that how you are going to greet the head of a Pillar family?"

Riser looked annoyed at his father's words before he stood straight, his face morphing into a mockery of a polite expression before he exaggeratedly gave a courteous bow.

"Riser Phenex of house Phenex greets the head of the Gremory house."

With a sigh, Agoman Phenex leaned back in his seat while rubbing his eyes as Zeoticus Gremory could not help but laugh with genuine amusement at the antics of the Phenex.

But that amusement soon died when Riser excitedly looked towards him.

"So? Where is Rias? Did you two decide on a date already?"

"..I am afraid we have hit a wall on that front, Riser."

At Riser's confused expression, Agoman looked towards his son and answered for his friend.

"Rias is still objecting to the marriage and is firmly against it. From what we learned, she wants to marry someone that she falls in love with and not someone that we pick out for her."

"I can understand that logic, but how is she supposed to love anyone when she spends all her time in the human world? At this point, doesn't it just sound like an excuse to run away from her responsibilities?"

Zeoticus stared with a dumbfounded look on his face while Agoman grinned towards his friend for the perfectly logical point that his son raised against Rias, the image of a reckless and powerful youth that had formed in the Gremory's head thanks to the many rumors shattering with a single sentence.

"..I don't know since she never elaborated on that point."

"Then, the path forward is clear, is it not? I just need to visit the human world and talk to her myself."

Riser Phenex beamed at the logical conclusion he got while Zeoticus contemplated on the suggestions.

But an opposition rose from a source that no one expected.

"Absolutely not! You are not going to the human world."

"But father-"

"No, means no, Riser. You don't even have a peerage, how do you intend to protect yourself should you be attacked by the Angels and the Church, or the Fallen for that fact?"

Riser smirked at his father's words as Purple-Black flames rose around him.

"Then, let them come. I'll show them the power of an Ultimate Class devil."

Without waiting for any other words, Riser rushed out of the room, leaving behind a contemplative Gremory and a panicking Phenex.

"Agoman, why are you panicking like that? It's not like there is anything in Kuoh that can harm your son, shouldn't it be fine to let the young ones talk about this issue among themselves and come to a conclusion?"

"I trust my son, Zeoticus, but what I don't trust is his temperament when humans are involved."

"What do you mean?"

Agoman Phenex shut his mouth, knowing that he could not tell the truth to his friend, not only because of his pride as a Phenex but also because he did not want others to think that his son was broken, even if it was the truth.

Whatever it was that those Humans had done to Riser, it had caused his son to develop in a strange way.

In terms of power, there were no problems and neither was there a problem with his social life.

The thing that was truly wrong, was his personality. Specifically, the strange dual personality that he has.

Agoman could do nothing but prey on the ancestors of the Phenex family and the Satans, hoping that his son would not triggered into doing anything drastic in the human world.

The poor Phenex did not know that at this point, it was guaranteed that something would go wrong with his son's visit to the human world thanks to the presence of a certain family in the territory of the Gremory and Sitri heiresses.