AN Diodora and Ajuka are cousins. I've never seen anything that states they're brothers. The wiki, TV Tropes, and most other sources don't specify brother. So I'm going with cousin.
The Great Satans had regular meetings. They had to, as the highest ranking members of the government overseeing Devilkind.
But this meeting was more ominous than normal, even by recent events. Not one of them had a jovial air about them.
"My cousin has been very foolish, it would seem," Ajuka said evenly.
"Not even going to try to defend him?" Serafall asked in idle curiosity.
"It doesn't sound unlike him, what they're saying," Ajuka countered. "How long, again, did your sister say we had?"
"Sona said the ritual will be complete in nine days," Serafall answered before glancing at the clock. "Eight days now."
"Seven more than we need," Falbium remarked.
"It's not that simple," Sirzechs said with a frown. "Diodora Astaroth will die, yes. But I don't want anyone, Devil or not, to think we just slaughtered one of our own to appease the Eldritch, that we just gave into their demand."
"We need proof. Which shouldn't be hard to obtain," Ajuka mused. "But this is grounds enough to take him in and interrogate him. No one would question thoroughly investigating something like this, risking a war with the Eldritch."
Falbium shook his head. "Perhaps we are just fortunate they warned us and didn't just summon it in the Underworld."
"The stronger of the Dark Young would cause trouble for even high-ranking devils," Sirzechs recalled. "Serafall? Sona did say there would be no repercussion for killing the Dark Young?"
"She did. She also said don't be surprised if they escalate until they kill Diodora. Not that we'd let it go that far," Serafall said with a sigh. "I'm just glad Sona made it out of a meeting with the Eldritch Queen with all her marbles still together!"
Sirzechs smiled in sympathy. "It gets easier. Rias speaks to me about her. Her queen, Akeno? She is...friendly with her."
"I hope your sister won't take offense if her servant is stolen by another king," Falbium said in half-hearted jest.
"I'm scientifically, if not morbidly curious as to the effects to the Evil Pieces that would have, along with how well this Akeno's sanity is holding up from repeat exposure," Ajuka remarked with a frown. "In any case. Falbium? I know it's your jurisdiction, but-"
"But I am never one to turn down taking work off my hands. Feel free to deal with your cousin as needed," Falbium said with a grin.
Ajuka looked unamused but accepted that. "I suppose that's it."
"Not quite," Falbium said reluctantly, rubbing the back of his head. "When this wraps up, we might need to ask the Eldritch what they're up to."
The table grew concerned, listening intently.
"As you all know, there has been this...unspoken rule among all the factions: Don't provoke the Eldritch. To that end, we have been keeping an eye on Eldritch activity. Trying to stay out of their way. Lately, we've found a lot of dead Eldritch showing up, especially shores on the Indian and Southern Ocean," Falbium remarked.
"The Eldritch Faction often have squabbles," Serafall remarked. "But even among their non-divine ranks, it is strange for so many to be fighting at once, and in the ocean? Is it possible something in R'lyeh?"
Ajuka shook his head. "No, the sunken city is in the South Pacific. Unless the Sleeper of R'lyeh is awake and swimming about?"
"Doubtful, they've been trying to do that for a long time without endangering the world," Sirzechs remarked. "It's one of the few things they keep us regularly informed of."
Falbium hummed. "I fear even I won't be able to avoid my work at this point. More and more Eldritch are coming to Earth and its realms every day."
That settled grimly upon them all.
Meanwhile
It all started so simple, even normal.
Sure, hunting down a stray devil was never something to take lightly, but it was a welcome sense of "normal" to Rias and her peerage.
Only, when they got to the location, they found the devil was already dead. Ripped to pieces and shredded to the point of being unidentifiable.
And standing over it was a figure…nine feet tall, standing like a satyr, but less human. Hooved legs, fur all over the body, muscles that made it look more like a bull, but a clear goat head was on top, albeit a very malformed goat head. It looked like two skulls had been slammed together, pieced together, and healed into an ugly display of over-many off-positioned eyes, teeth, horns, and bones jutting out of the skin.
"Eldritch," Koneko summoned up, her hair standing on end as she glared.
"Definitely not a god though," Kiba said as he brandished his sword, feeling much less "insanity" radiating from this being.
"Devils..." it breathed hatefully.
"Oh, I think it wants to play," Akeno said with a smile, lightning cackling from her fingertips.
"Wait," Rias said as she stepped forward. "I am Rias Gremory, Daughter of Duke Gremory. Your king and queen have called for peace between our kinds. I ask you to stand down and leave this place."
"Peace...?" it breathed again, its many fangs growing, more growing in to push them out into a misshapen and painful hazard. "THERE IS NO PEACE FOR YOU!"
With that, it charged at them.
"Well, we tried," Rias said as she sent a wave of crimson ruinous power at the eldritch. It took it head-on, but it was tossed back, many of its horns shattering away.
"Weak," Koneko said evenly as she ran to attack it. It roared and tried to hit her, but Koneko easily stepped past the sloppy blow and hit it in the gut. It let out a pained growl while trying to attack her again.
"...Anyone else worried there's more of them around, with how weak it is?" Kiba asked pragmatically, scanning the room for any potential ambush.
"That is strange. Weak Eldritch either run in groups, have an ability to protect themselves, or know when to flee," Akeno said with a frown, getting a strange look from Rias. "Aza talks to me about more than just Issei, you know~"
"Right," Rias accepted with a frown. Her subordinates were right though. This was too easy. "Kiba, back Koneko up. We'll watch in case something else shows up."
"On it!" Kiba answered as he dashed in with a blade ready. So distracted with Koneko, the eldritch didn't notice Kiba until he had cut a hand off it.
"Got this," Koneko said with some annoyance as her enemy screamed in pain.
"Just making sure," Kiba assured, scowling as a black tentacle emerged from the blood stump, reforming into a fully regenerated hand. "Well, that's one issue."
Rias hummed as her peerage easily handled this creature. IT would already be dead if they weren't being cautious, expecting something to happen the moment they went in for the kill.
Kiba took a leg off as Koneko leaped up and kicked it to the head, sending it flying.
Both looked to Rias as they caught a pause, their eyes silently asking if they should end this.
Rias, however, wasn't the type of Mistress to force her underlings to do the dirty work all on their own. Her eyes glowed and her hair waved in the air.
"Hmmm, looks like I won't get a chance to place today," Akeno said in playful disappointment.
With a wave of her hand, Rias sent forth a greater wave of her crimson magic. The beast looked at her in shock and perhaps even fear as the attack headed to engulf him.
"Get Away From Him."
A dark aura crushed down on their very souls, right before a void-like blackness shot between the attack and the beast.
The red bent around the shadow and faded from reality. There, wreathed in shadows, stood the Black Goat of a Thousand Young.
Shub-Niggurath.
Her human form was intact, but all around it, her true form seemed to be pushing and biting into reality. Shadows that were like flames that were like tongues that were like wind. Teeth in her eyes. Infinity within her every breath.
"You Will Not Hurt Him," Shub-Niggurath said as the creature groaned in pain behind her.
Koneko fell back in shock, eyes dilating. 'Issei. Issei. Please, Issei. Don't let me break again.'
"I Will Take Him Away And...And...and...," Shub stuttered as her eldritch power receded away, leaving her a small human with silver-white hair and goat horns.
Rias swallowed, trying to ignore the fearful sweat that had formed on her suddenly as she realized, and comprehended the look on Shub's face.
Fear. The Eldritch God was genuinely scared right now. But, why? Certainly not them, right.
"Shub, the FUCK are you doing?"
Every head turned to see Issei, standing just behind Rias and Akeno.
Rias could safely say he looked pissed.
"Kungur, please, it's not what it appears," Shub said pleadingly. "Just, please, don't hurt him."
"Mother..." the beast groaned out. "Let me...kill them...please...kill them...!"
Issei sighed heavily as he walked up to Shub, who looked at him like he was something terrible and otherworldly and she was a mere mortal. "Shub, I agreed to not stop the ritual if they don't kill Diodora. You, YOU are the one who already said you don't blame people when they kill your spawns in self-defense," Issei said as he stood right in front of her. "So, instead of almost mind-melting our friends, why don't you start explaining?"
"Kill them!" the beast roared out defiantly as it tried to leap past them, straight for Koneko. Still too stunned by Shub's violent arrival, the neko made no move to defend herself.
"Koneko!" Kiba yelled, jumping to ward off the attack with his sword.
Time has a different meaning for Eldritch. Seeing things in slow motion was an everyday occurrence for some. And all things slowed to Shub's gaze as her eyes widened in horror. Not at her spawn or the devil, but at the Issei, the Kungur. He was already glaring at where her foolish child would be, already had his red gauntlet summoned.
Death wasn't that important to an Eldritch, who would eternally return. That didn't stop parentally inclined ones from wanting to protect their brood from pain and suffering, from death and desolation.
With tears in her eyes, Shub reappeared in front of her child and, with a heavy heart, sent it flying away with a powerful burst of dark energy.
"I'm sorry, Iggy, I'm so sorry," Shub whispered softly as the satyr monster groaned in pain, motionless on the ground.
Issei sighed and dismissed his sacred gear. "Gactha, make sure he stays down this time," he said to nothing, and the nothing shimmered as Gactha appeared near the beast, staring at it blankly. With that, Issei turned to Kiba and Koneko. "You both good? Koneko?"
"I'm fine. Thanks for stepping in with...whatever this is," Kiba said gratefully, looking back at Koneko who refused to look up.
Issei stared before realizing that Koneko had soiled herself. "Oh. Sorry, here," Issei said as he pulled out from a nonexistent space in his jacket, his hands now holding a fresh female uniform for Koneko, complete with new panties.
Koneko blinked to a more stable mindset, staring at the seemingly random, possibly perverted item. "Why?"
"Aza can remake her uniform from nothing, but Asia and the twins can't," Issei simplified, passing them to her. "Here. They fit all sizes."
Koneko nodded, numbly standing up and trying to ignore her shame as she took the clothes. "Thank you," she muttered as she moved to find a private corner to change.
"Akeno," Rias whispered to her queen, who nodded and followed Koneko. She lingered as she passed Issei. Normally, she'd have some teasing words for him, but she just nodded her thanks before heading after Koneko.
Issei took a deep breath as he turned to the Mother of a Thousand Young, standing there with a rather subdued look still. "Shub. Talk. I can't help if I don't know what's going on."
It was so strange for Rias to see Issei like this, the stern and displeased King of the Eldritch as opposed to the easygoing, doting boyfriend of Aza.
Shub's face twitched in regret, looking to Rias, sending a silent feeling requesting she approach to join the conversation. Rias heeded it with caution, and Kiba joined her protectively.
"This is Igharta. He's one of my children," Shub said, pausing to look at Issei.
"Hmm?" Issei blinked, looking to see Rias's uncertain expression. "Oh. The Dark Young are her spawns. She treats them like her children, but this is her kid in a more literal sense."
Rias nodded. "So, are you just more protective of your children than your spawns, or...?" she asked uncertainly.
"No, it's just..." Shub turns to look back at Igharta's unconscious form. "He's a baby. Or toddler, I suppose. He doesn't know any better. He was so angry when he heard my cultists were killed, and he ran off here before I realized he slipped away. Then I heard his cries of pain, and..."
"You acted as a mother," Rias said with some sympathy. Some. "Be that as it may. You were about to kill us when he attacked us. Hell only knows how much you hurt Koneko's recovery. And if he ran off, what's to stop him from doing it again? Will he even stop when Diodora is dead?"
Shub said nothing to that. "He's so young. He doesn't understand that just because one bee stung him doesn't mean he has to drown every hive everywhere."
Rias frowned. "I'm not going to raise a fuss about this, so long as Koneko is okay. But Issei...no, I'm sorry, Kungur of the Eldritch. What will you do?" Rias asked diplomatically.
Issei sighed. "Yeah. Shub is still his mother, so she gets a say in how we handle this, but I won't let him run amuck. Sorry about all of this."
"I'll take him away for now. I promise he won't trouble you again," Shub promised.
"Sure," Issei answered, giving Shub the nod to leave. She and the satyr promptly vanished in a pillar of darkness. "Well, that was one way to spend the night," Issei muttered.
Rias regarded him carefully.
"Yeah, Rias?"
"Were you watching the whole time?" Rias asked curiously.
"Kind of, mostly?" Issei answered. "I would have stepped in, but you all had it pretty well handled and I probably would have tried to kill that Igharta myself. I had no idea it was Shub's kid. I just assumed as much when she stepped in."
Rias took that in easily enough. "I take it Aza is busy?"
"Yeah, she stepped out for a moment to, well, how do I put this in words that you'd understand...?" Issei murmured.
"I'm sure I'm better off not thinking about it," Rias decided. "Honestly though, what are you going to do?"
"Mainly? Figure out if this kid needs an ass-kicking or a playpen," Issei answered flatly.
"That'll need to be a big playpen," Kiba remarked. "I'm sure the Greek Gods could loan you a labyrinth."
Issei chuckled. "Might not be a bad idea. Hm?"
Issei looked to the side and saw Akeno and Koneko returning, the latter wearing a clean pair of clothes. She proceeded to casually and nonchalantly hug Issei around the waist. "Thank you."
"No problem," Issei assured, patting her on the head.
Koneko disconnected from him with a nod, growing a bit annoyed when Akeno leaned over to kiss Issei's cheek. "You should do that more often, Kungur~," Akeno said sensually, her eyes half-lidded. "All commanding and authoritative, you were rather ravishing back there~"
Issei blushed and almost grinned boyishly before forcing it into a small smirk. "Well, I do recall that you owe me something."
"And with that, I take my leave," Rias said, summoning a magic circle. "Issei, I expect my queen returned physically unchanged and whatever sanity she currently has intact."
"Not much," Koneko remarked as she went into Rias's circle.
Kiba only waved as he moved to leave as well, the trio vanishing.
"Well, that happened," Issei remarked, looking at Akeno who very firmly had his arm between her boobs. "You want to take this someplace a bit more...comfortable?" he asked uncertainly.
"I told you Kungur," Akeno said, leaning to his ear. "Anytime, anywhere~"
That only left one matter for Issei. "Gactha?" he called out, the "warrior-nun" appearing next to him in an instant.
"Would you like me to guard the area during your dalliance, Master?" she asked expectantly.
Issei decided to look up the meaning of that word later. "Well, you're free to watch too," he added in, a bit teasingly.
"Oh my," Akeno said with a smirk.
Gactha did not blush, but Issei was fairly sure her human shell couldn't blush at all with the way she wore it. "I would enjoy that very much, Master," Gactha said before vanishing to watch both the show and potential intruders.
Akeno grinned as Issei gave his full attention to her, and she spotted a rather hungry glint in those eyes. He placed a hand on her head and shoulder, making her feel more than a few sensations shoot up her spine as he gently but firmly put her on her knees.
Undoing her top and licking her lips at the bulge before her, she had only one thing to say. "It is an honor to service you, Kungur Issei."
Meanwhile
"Please tell me you are still recording this~!"
While devoid of expression, Yad was utterly unbothered by Aza shaking her shoulder with a rather starry-eyed look. As in she literally had miniature stars in her eyes. "Yes, My queen. I record all of your favorite "Issei Moments" for you to etch into memory."
Aza huffed. "I do not have favorite moments of my beloved! I just have a special one. Like when he gets all...how did Akeno call it again? Oh, right, commanding and authoritative."
"He is rather adjusting nicely, now that he has a goal in mind. The weight of his own existence is allowing him to slide into the role of the Kungur he intends to be," Yad agreed. "But why am I recording this half-breed friend you've made, while she uses her mammaries to pleasure the Kungur?"
"I understand my beloved's love for boobs, but I'd like to understand the appeal more," Aza mused. "To my knowledge, he would consider Rias Gremory's breasts to be perfect despite not being larger. I'm curious as to figure out the more minute parts of enjoying them."
"So long as you are not jealous," Yad said uncaringly. "Though, I'm sure he would take it upon himself to ravish you again just to prove you have no need to be jealous."
"If I'm jealous of anything, it's technique or talent," Aza said, tilting her head. "Though, I might try Akeno's hairstyle. Issei seems to be enjoying needing only one hand to, what's the word? Throat-fuck?"
"Technically true, but I believe the mortals call prefer skull-fucking," Yad remarked before blinking. "Hmm. I knew female mortals could achieve an orgasm from giving oral, but I do believe that is the first time I've paid any attention to it."
"I do that all the time though?" Aza remarked curiously.
"My queen, we are all very aware that the Kungur will one day be able to make you orgasm without even touching you."
Aza giggled, twirling her pigtails at the prospect.
Meanwhile
Diodora remained bored as he left two more of his peerage unconscious from pain and despair. The others would clean up the mess and patch them up soon enough. His "prize" was still the same, mockingly unbroken due to her masochism, hence his need to vent.
Perhaps he needed a new tactic, to try something brand new. Perhaps, maybe, he needed some inspiration.
To the library he went. He knew it well and knew just where all of the more...niche topics were placed. Not hidden, just in their own little corner. It was here where his path began, studying these tomes that taught him how to so thoroughly break soul and spirit.
He smiled wickedly as he found the tome: "The Art of Despair" by Igo Lonac.
Diodora opened the book, eyes drinking in the depraved teachings that lay within. It was like reading it for the first time all over again. But he had to study it closely in hopes of finding something that might break the cultist.
So drawn into his reading, Diodora didn't notice, in the dark space where the book had been, an eye watched him, a touch licking at the books as if they were lips.
Yes, Diodora noticed nothing of this.
Nothing at all.
End of Chapter
Well, that happened. Issei went full Kungur mode of Shub and her kid while the Devils are getting thier ducks in a row to deal with Diodora without issue. Now, if they only had a couple days? THey'd probably grab his head and deal with the fallout. But the bigger time frames means they can use an extra day or two to smooth things out.
And Issei finally called in that favor that Akeno gave him with Aza enjoys the show for more than one reason. Oh, and Diodora is still the same Diodora, but it looks like someone is keep eyes on him. Many eyes.
Anyway, until next time.
Early viewing of chapters 29-30 avaliable on my pat-reon:
p a treon . com (slash) akumakami64