I'm so sorry. And I know.
I know it's been months since I updated this fic, I know the LAST time this happened for OA you got one of the longest single chapters that anyone's ever written for it, while this is... not that. There's no excuse, only an explanation. And it's a lot more simple than explanations for most things.
I'm burned out. On DxD, specifically.
Some newer readers might not know, but I've been working on a a DxD fic of SOME kind- whether it's OA , Nephalem (which is done for GOOD, btw), Runaway Gremory, or god-forbid one of my smaller DxD ideas that barely got a few chapters off the ground before I realised just how ass they were and scrapped them entirely- for nearly a decade. Pretty much as long as I've been a fan of DxD as a series, I've been working on something to do with it in one form or another, and... I'm so tired.
That's why I'm stopping OA once I hit the end of its first saga, and starting something else to go along with And Then There Were Quirks- my Ben 10/My Hero Academia crossover fic (which you should check out if you haven't already, if you're a fan of either series)- and starting something new in its place. I'm not dropping OA for good, I don't want anyone to come away from this thinking I am, because this fic is (in my opinion) BY FAR the best DxD fic I've penned so far, it's just... I need a break.
Anyway, hope you readers enjoyed what I put out this time, and you've got it in you to review, let me know your thoughts, or just chat with me via PMs or Discord (name in profile) or even join the Discord server (link to join is also in profile, just take out the spaces), I don't mind one bit.
Seeya.
Line Break
"Incubus… Incubus… Succubus… Devil. Incubus… Succubus…"
Letting out a breath as he leaned back in his chair, trying his best to not allow his eyes to side towards the mountain of papers and reports on one side of his desk, Raylix set the document in his hand- one detailing just some of the latest URF recruitment cycle that had been going on over the last couple of weeks.
New faces from the Devils' side of Hell always came in: a family here, a couple of former peerage members there, maybe even a whole village on a particularly good day, but it had always generally been pretty slow and steady. Hardly a bad thing, especially not when the True Satan Faction-turned Underworld Reformation Faction had been a project multiple centuries in the making. Numbers of new recruits, even something like a few hundred to a thousand over the course of one year, definitely added up over several hundred.
But that had changed over the past couple of weeks: ever since that fateful conversation with Lilith where she'd come clean about her true intentions, and brought freaking OPHIS into the fold, things had really changed. Seemingly on a dime, in comparison to the number of Devils that usually joined over an average couple of weeks, there had been an absolute DELUGE of new recruitments from the Lilim's side of Hell. Like, genuinely, just from what he could recall today from just the past hour or so, the number of Lilim that had signed up compared to Devils had to be a ratio of at least five to one. Probably six. Maybe seven. Eight at a push.
Raylix didn't know much about how the Lilim's side of the Underworld was run, but on the basis of pure numbers and potential diversity of opinions, there had to have been at least a few Lilim that wanted better for the Hell that they occupied alongside the Devils and the Fallen Angels, maybe even had the outright same wishes as the URF as they were now, even before Lilith made the recommendation to Katerea that they start appealing to the Lilim as well, rather than just the Devils. So overall, from that certain point of view, it wasn't that big of a shock.
But from a paperwork and processing point of view… definitely a different story, he thought to himself as his eyes unconsciously slipped over to Mount Paperwork on the side of his desk, that he'd been trying to avoid looking at. Letting out a breath, he reached up for the folder at the top of it, but froze for a fraction of a second as the sound of a knock at the door met his ears, cutting through his focus.
"It's open!" he called to whoever was on the other side, pulling his hand away from the folder and leaning back in his chair. The door swung inward, revealing Katerea Leviathan on the other side. She looked into the room, her eyes immediately catching the paperwork that Raylix had been steadily working through and an eyebrow raising as she stepped into the room, raising a hand and summoning a small black ring-box from a magic-circle.
She immediately tossed it over to Raylix, who caught the box neatly in one hand before laying it down on the desk.
"Thanks, Katerea." He remarked, looking from it to the busty Satan-descendant as she walked over. "I owe you one."
Katerea let out a small exhale from her nose as she stopped in front of Raylix's desk.
"Maybe you could handle some of my side of the recent barrage of paperwork we've had to deal with lately... kidding." She replied, half-smirking for a couple of seconds before dropping it when Raylix simply stared blankly back at her. "But seriously, are you okay? You've been cooped up in here since midnight last night, and it looks more like you're prepping for a bonfire than anything else."
Raylix sighed as he grabbed the folder that he'd initially been reaching for, pulling it down from the top of the pile and dropping it in front of himself before flicking it open.
"As tempting as that sounds in the short-term, I don't think Lilith would appreciate that very much." Raylix remarked. "Someone's gotta do my side of this shit."
"Delegate it, then?" Katerea replied, crossing her arms beneath her bust as she took half a step closer, before pulling up a chair and sitting down on the other side of Raylix's desk, watching him pull out a couple of sheets from the folder he'd just opened. "You're not exactly lacking on options. I saw Esdeath earlier while heading up here, I'm sure she'd help you out if you asked nicely enough."
Raylix let out a dry chuckle.
"Yeah, or she'd skin me alive while drenching me in quintuple-concentrate saltwater and turning my cock inside out." He replied. "I thought you weren't mad at me anymore, why in Hell would you go and suggest something like that?"
There was a silence between the two Devils for a couple of seconds, before the tension was broken by Katerea letting out a small giggle, with Raylix following an instant after. The latter leaned back in his chair as he did so, before letting out a breath and calming himself.
"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to get someone to help out with all of this." he remarked. "And you're right, I AM pretty spoiled for choice on options. It's just that everyone I could think of that I might potentially ask to help out are either way too busy with their own stuff, wouldn't know where to even start when it comes to this sort of thing, or… they're Esdeath."
Shrugging, Katerea leaned back in her chair herself, her bust bouncing slightly within her dress as she did so.
"Can't argue with that." She replied. "If you wanted it, though, I could ask some of my own staff to help you out with your side of all of… that." She gestured to Mount Paperwork. "For the foreseeable future, at least."
Raylix blinked, processing what Katerea had just said for a couple of seconds before allowing himself a soft smile and nodding.
"If that's alright, I'd definitely appreciate it." He spoke. "Thanks, Katerea."
"No problem." Katerea replied. "And hey, at least you're actually giving a shit about this side of the revolution. Way more than Shalba and Creuserey ever did, back when they were calling the shots alongside me."
"Oh?"
Katerea moved back forward in her chair, her eyes slightly harder as they flicked from Raylix (who hadn't looked up from the papers he was now reading, but his tone betrayed interest in what she'd just said), to Mount Paperwork, to her thighs as she looked down.
"They cared more about what they were gonna do once we'd taken Hell back than the actual process of taking it over." She explained. "Hypothetical execution and humiliation orders on descendants of pillars that had wronged their ancestors in one way or another, twisted ritual destructions of all the infrastructure and systems the new government's put in place without any thought to what to replace it all with, endless Satan-damn vengeance fantasies on the new Satans in particular… all piss and vinegar, no actual planning. Rage and no roadmap. Just acting like everything was gonna pan out for them in the exact way that they wanted because, I dunno, they really wanted it and nothing else."
"Something tells me they're none too pleased about Lilim joining up in droves." Raylix remarked, his eyes flicking from the document in his hand to Katerea and back again, eliciting a scoff from her.
"Let them be." She remarked. "Gonna take some doing for them to have a chance of overthrowing us back, especially with the faction getting bigger and better by the week, Lilith and Ophis backing us, and them not having their Clan powers anymore… how in Hell did Lilith DO that, anyway?"
Raylix shrugged.
"Couldn't tell you." He replied. "I'll ask her when I next see her, when I give her- this-" he poked at the ring-box with one finger, drawing out a snort of laughter from Katerea.
"That'll be a hell of a tone-shift." She remarked, before switching to a deeper tone, some half-joking attempt to imitate Raylix's voice. "Hey, Lilith, here's this ring that I should've gotten you two weeks ago back when I proposed, also how did you sap Shalba and Creuserey's abilities out of them?"
The pair of Devils shared a short laugh between each other, as Raylix returned to his paperwork. A comfortable silence stretched out between the younger brother of one of the New Satans, and the granddaughter of one of the Old, for a moment or two before the granddaughter broke it again.
"But seriously, what do YOU think about all this?" she asked. "Lilim joining up, what Lilith said a couple of weeks back about taking out the Khaos Brigade and replacing it with something else, freaking Ophis is hanging around now… I'm gonna be honest, they creep me out a bit. I was getting a snack after training this morning, I turn around, and they're just standing there, watching me eat."
Raylix let out a breath, shutting the folder once he was done processing its contents and tossing it to one side.
"Things certainly are pretty different, now." He replied. "But if we're going to take the Underworld back, then we're going to need all the numbers and power we can get. Lilith, Ophis, any Lilim sympathetic to the cause that are joining up now, things would certainly be harder- hell, maybe even impossible- if we didn't have them to aid in the fight against the new Satans and aristocracy."
Katerea hummed, narrowing her eyes slightly as she studied Raylix's face. He SOUNDED pretty certain about what he was saying, but anyone with even one eye, never mind two, would probably be able to judge by the look on his face- or in his eyes- that he didn't a hundred percent mean what he said. Or at the very least, he wasn't as certain about what he was saying as just the words on their own would fully imply.
"An aristocracy that you were once a part of." She spoke, after a few seconds' pause. "You might not have been born into nobility, strictly speaking, but your family sure as sin became it after the Devil Civil War, and you were that ever since then up until you left. If push came to shove…"
She let the words hang for a second, as Raylix took a breath, now fully focused on the woman sat in front of him.
"You think you'd be able to face them? Fight them over the fate of our home?"
Raylix's eyes shifted again, back to the desk- but not the paperwork this time. Rather, he just looked down at the polished wooden surface, almost as if he was looking for something beneath it, or embedded within it. After a pause that stretched out much longer than any of the others that had extended between himself and Katerea ever since she came in, he spoke again.
"…Yeah. I think I would."
Leaning back in his chair, Raylix's gaze shifted from the desk to Katerea for a fraction of a second, before he shifted his eyes towards the wall behind her and took a breath.
"I mean, I don't have much of a choice." He spoke, his voice more level, almost unnaturally so. "I'd have to be really naïve, really stupid or a combination of the two to figure that I wouldn't have to face them sometime in the future, after I pulled the trigger on leaving. And even if I wanted to, I'm in way too deep to back out now, what with helping lead the URF and being… engaged to Lilith and all."
Katerea raised an eyebrow, and another silence stretched out between the two Devils for a few more seconds, before she spoke again.
"You sure about that?" she asked. "You don't seem all that convinced… or at the very least, you don't SOUND it."
Raylix let out another breath, his jaw tightening as he shifted his eyes over to meet Katerea's, and didn't shift them away this time.
"I'm convinced." He replied, slightly insistent-sounding. "I ABSOLUTELY am. It's just… as convinced I am, and how much I know they're part of the problem that we're looking to root out, I still can't just forget about the good times we had. The many… MANY good times."
Katerea didn't reply, simply letting out a breath and letting Raylix talk, as he rested his head in one of his hands, leaning down against the table.
"Almost every time I fall asleep, I'm remembering some nice time I had, back when I was still a noble." He continued. "A fun spar with Sirzechs, Father talking me through some Gremory business shit and actually helping me understand everything that was going on- even when I made a few mistakes- Mother helping with my… education, heh." He let out a breath and straightened up again, as the hand that he'd been resting against his head moved over to his chest, his fingers almost subconsciously playing with the front of his shirt. "I guess in spite of knowing- objectively- that they should be taken down a peg as members of the aristocracy, I still feel somewhat guilty at having left them in order to do it. But nothing worth achieving was ever easy, was it?"
He let out a short, humorless chuckle for a couple of seconds before looking over at Katerea.
"Sorry if you've got a problem with anything I just said, if it makes me a traitor to the cause or whatever." He added in a half-joking manner, as if daring her to answer. All he got in immediate response, though, was a raised eyebrow and unreadable expression from Katerea, before she shook her head after a couple of seconds.
"Nah, it's fine." She replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Truth be told, Raylix, I can relate to how you feel. Shalba and Creuserey might have turned out to be selfish dicks in the end, but that doesn't erase all the fun I had with them back when times were good, all the legit work we got done before they started being all rage over roadmap, as I put it earlier. Just feeling conflicted about people you have to face after having respected them for so long isn't a problem in and of itself, it's not being able to put those feelings aside when the time comes to do what you know you have to do that is. So as long as you don't do that…"
She shrugged again, and got to her feet, moving over to the opposite side of Raylix's desk from where Mount Paperwork was stacked up, and perched on it.
"Besides, you could argue everyone around you now is a family of sorts." She remarked. "One that actually heard you out when it came to the deaths of your best friends, and actually gave half a shit."
The moment those words left her mouth though, Katerea winced, seeming to visibly regret them and begin backpedaling immediately.
"Wait, I didn't mean- Raylix, I-"
But when Raylix let out a small chuckle, Katerea's apology died in her throat as she looked upon Raylix with a surprised expression.
"You might be right, actually." He replied, before she could say anything else. "Honestly, that kind of thought's been knocking around in my mind for a while, so I'm glad I wasn't the only one."
Taking a breath and getting to his feet himself, Raylix looked over at Katerea, as she slid off the desk and got her feet as well.
"…Thanks." He spoke, his voice slightly quieter than it had been since she walked in. "The whole… family thing, that's kinda been on my chest ever since before we took over the URF. Nice to get it off, in the direction of someone that gets it."
Katerea leaned over, closing the distance between herself and Raylix before laying a quick- but gentle- kiss on his lips before taking half a step back, a gentler smile on her face than Raylix thought he'd ever seen on her.
"Anytime." She replied, turning on her heel quickly enough for her dress to flick up a little bit in response to the movement (giving Raylix a half-second's opportunity to gaze at the thong she was wearing beneath it) before making for the door to his office and opening it… to find Malech stood on the other side, one fist raised as if he was just about to knock. "Oh, hey Malech. Go ahead, I was just leaving."
Raylix's number two took half a step back, allowing Katerea the space to move past him before he moved forward again, into the office while letting the door shut behind him.
"Do I want to know what happened?" he asked, his tone mostly-neutral but still somewhat curious.
Raylix shook his head, leaning back in his chair slightly, a faint smirk that one would usually give in the direct aftermath of being kissed by a VERY sexy woman playing about his lips for a few seconds, before he took a breath and refocused his attention on Malech.
"Nah. Just Katerea delivering on a favour," he gestured with a couple of fingers to the ring-box on his desk "and a chat about something we have in common. Nothing major."
"I see." Malech replied, nodding as he moved over to Raylix's desk, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a folded paper, which he tossed down onto the desk in front of him. Picking it up and turning it over, Raylix noticed what looked like a transportation-circle, registering the paper's design as something close to the papers most Devils used for summoning-contracts nowadays.
The main difference, though, Raylix noticed some handwriting- that he could only assume to be Lilith's- on the back of the paper. Flipping it over, the former Gremory Heir's eyes scanned down the paper:
Stray Guild Gnurene. Known supplier of arcane weaponry and dimensional interface sigils, both produced in-house and procured from black markets. Confirmed allies of Khaos Brigade. Transport-circle will take you past the outer anti-teleportation wards. Collaboration preferable.
"Nice." Raylix pocketed the paper as he got to his feet, stretching a little bit. "I could use a break, anyway. Assemble the Elite Company." He ordered, walking around the desk, past Malech and towards the door, which he pulled open. "We're dealing with this now. We move out in fifteen."
"Understood." Malech replied, nodding and following Raylix through the door, with the two moving in opposite directions. Raylix over towards his bedroom to get changed- in a dressing gown and pyjama shorts as he was- and Malech towards the downwards-stairs.
Line Break
Just under a quarter of an hour later, any faint murmuring from the gathered URF Elite Co. members died immediately as a familiar transportation-circle opened before them, with a fully and properly-dressed Raylix stepping out of it.
After visually sweeping over his gathered elite force, and offering a quick nod of thanks to Malech, he pulled out the pocketed paper and focused some of his power into it, activating the transportation-circle on one side of the paper and expanding it to envelop not just himself, but Malech and the hundred-or-so gathered warriors, before finally activating the circle and whisking them all away from the park-garden that had become their usual gathering spot.
A second later, they reappeared somewhere else, all standing on a magically-generated platform, a few dozen feet away from what looked like a jagged cliff's face with ocean waves crashing against it.
Raylix immediately turned towards some of the more magically-oriented of his elite company, who immediately began work drawing up sensory spells over the next moment or so.
"This is Gnurene's HQ?" Malech muttered to himself. "Inside the cliffside?"
"It would seem so, sir." The one among the mages that Raylix recognized as a former member of Ulmel Zepar's peerage, replied. "The entrance… it's there. Just to the right of that rock, you see?"
"I do see." Raylix replied, stepping forward a half-pace as a wave that had come up at where the former peerage-member was pointing, then came back down to reveal a small crevice within the cliffside, around large enough for someone to squeeze through. "I wouldn't have gone with anything like this if I was running a Stray Guild, but if it works…" he trailed off, shrugging as he turned back to the mages. "You got a read for how many there are?"
"Half-dozen or so on the clifftop, cloaked." Another mage replied. "I count about forty inside. Forty-five, tops. I'm picking up a couple of trap-glyphs on either side of the entrance, and a couple of reactive barriers a bit further in."
"Got it." Raylix nodded, spreading his Devil wings and summoning his Power of Destruction to one hand. "I know what to take out, then."
"You're going in alone?" Malech asked, raising a brow. Raylix turned to him, letting out a breath.
"At first." He remarked. "Maybe see if anyone in there has the capacity to act in mutual self-interest. Better to bring someone, or a group of someones, over to your side than deprive either side of them."
Malech let out a half-snort from his nose.
"Sounds like something Lilith would say." He remarked. "If depriving either side of these Stray Mages-" he gestured to the cliffside "-becomes the only option?"
"Then move in after me, and leave no survivors." Raylix replied, turning to the mages. "Maybe work on turning those anti-teleportation-wards against their casters, if you can."
"On it!" Ulmal's former mage replied, as Raylix turned around and stepped forward again.
"Until then, though, don't move until I let Malech know we need to do otherwise." He spoke, summoning two of the same little balls of light that he and Lilith had used during their initial trip to Hebeth back before they took over the True Satan Faction, handing one off to Malech and placing the other in his ear.
Another half-snort escaped Malech, along with a short nod as Raylix stepped off the magically-generated platform that he and his Elite Co. had been standing on, allowing his wings to catch him in mid-air and the wind to take him towards the cliff-side. Shifting his body, he moved over the wave as it broke against the rocks, and ducked under the ceiling of the entrance that Ulmel's former peerage member had pointed out to him. As he felt the aforementioned trap-glyphs activating, saw them glowing on either side of him, heard the very walls of the inner cliffside beginning to rumble around him, he span around in mid-air and fired off a couple of bolts of his Power of Destruction, destroying them both in one quick shot each.
Next came the barriers, that began flaring up and forming in reaction to both his movements in general and his destruction of the trap-glyphs. Immediately coating himself in a layer of the Power of Destruction, he felt himself slowing down as he came into contact with the layered barriers, but not stopped entirely.
It was a pale imitation of the form he'd seen Sirzechs take at his most destructive- only once in his life before, during the final battle of the Devil Civil War- but it still served its purpose, destroying the barrier around him and allowing him to fly through.
Immediately spotting somewhere to land once he made it through the barrier, Raylix maneuvered himself over there, dispelling his wings and landing smoothly on the free patch of dry ground he saw… right in the middle of a semi-circle of about two-and-a-half-dozen Stray Magicians that shimmered into view at that very moment. Robes billowed around waists and legs, eyes narrowed all around the former Gremory Heir, as a few magic-circles flickered to life in the hands of the Magicians, all trained on him.
"Identify yourself, Devil!" one of the mages barked, his magic-circle practically crackling with energy looking to be released. Almost like he was itching for a fight. One that, depending on how the next few minutes went, they might well get.
But not yet. Raylix raised both his hands slowly- not in surrender, but to show he wasn't casting anything, or preparing any attack of his own… yet.
"I come representing the Mother of Hell, herself." He spoke, clearly and evenly. "I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to parley with your leader, whoever they may be, if they're available.
There was a pause. Some of the magic-circles dimmed or flickered within the hands of Gnurene's membership, as they shared uneasy glances with one another. Raylix lowered his arms, turning to meet the eyes of the Stray Mage who had called out to him. But before he could speak, another voice- one not belonging to any member of the semi-circle, let alone the one stood inside it- called out.
"What's going on out here?"
Everyone turned as another mage stepped out of the darkness, one that Raylix immediately guessed was the leader he was looking for judging by how everyone seemed to stop in place at his appearance, with the ironic thing being that he didn't seem to have any of the markings of a mage: no hooded robe- he wore armour instead- a sword lightly-gripped in one hand rather than any raised hands or magic-circles- though it was returned to a scabbard a couple of seconds later- and the grizzled appearance of one who frequented the physical battlefield over the magical.
A few notable scars on his cheeks and chin, dark thick shoulder-length hair that he ran a hand through as he looked over his subordinates and the Devil standing in the middle of them, droopy eyes that gave off the air of perpetual unimpressed-ness, and some stubble over his jawline with a pointed goatee at his chin, framing a mouth that was also fixed into a flat, unimpressed expression.
"R-Rung!" one of the mages spoke up, turning and stepping away from the semi-circle towards him. "This Devil showed up just now, broke through our south-side defenses! He claims to represent the Mother of Hell herself, and wishes to parley with you."
Gnurene's leader, Rung, looked from his subordinate to Raylix, who had shoved his hands into his pockets and was casually shifting his weight from one side of his body to the other.
"Damn the French…" he muttered to himself, before letting out a breath and taking a couple of steps. "You. From Lilith's camp. Follow me."
The Gnurene magicians parted around Raylix as he stepped out of their formed semi-circle, following Rung further into the halls of their stronghold. Seemingly carved out of the very cliff itself, and dimly illuminated by magically-conjured lights that hovered near the ceiling, it would have been quite the dark and difficult hallway to navigate for one that didn't have natural night-vision, as Raylix had as a Devil.
Though the halls Raylix was led, down a set of carved-out semi-slippery stairs, turned left into a more well-lit chamber that looked slightly more formal and well-put-together than the rest of Gnurene's stronghold that he'd seen so far. Floating disks that- somewhat- resembled chairs surrounded a larger, oval-shaped tabletop suspended in midair, slightly above the chair-like disks.
With a wave of his hand, Rung sent all the chair-disks, bar two, away towards the wall of the conference room, taking a seat on one of them and gesturing for Raylix to do with the other one.
"Speak." He spoke, his voice a quiet bark as Raylix sat down opposite him. "What could Lilith possibly want with me?"
Raylix resisted the urge to snort at Rung's open rudeness, quickly casting his mind back to when he'd brought Lilith into Hebeth- back when the URF was still the True Satan Faction- and she'd spoken with Katerea, Shalba and Creuserey about the supposed idea of integrating the faction into the Khaos Brigade. She'd been measured, precise with her words, never pleading with her tone, never overtly threatening either.
He'd have to channel some of that, if he wanted to convince Rung to join them… worth a go.
"Your guild, Gnurene- curious name, by the way-" Raylix began, after taking a slow breath. "Positioned under the banner of the Khaos Brigade, pledged your services and support to them. I- or Lilith, I should say- is curious as to the circumstances under which that choice was made. I'm just saying in your shoes, I'd probably have kept my options open as to where the kinds of things that are known to run through this guild go to, if you catch my meaning."
Rung didn't answer immediately. Evidently, that wasn't how he was expecting to open a conversation with Lilith's self-appointed envoy. Raising an eyebrow and pausing in consideration of Raylix's statement and half-question for a moment, he eventually answered.
"It was just a few years ago, the Brigade approached us." He began. "We were just finding our feet on the black market, starting to bring in some regular income, but we were still adjusting to life as a Stray Guild after being exiled. An envoy of theirs approached us and laid it all out on the table. Offered expansion to our operation, protection, and above all, a new purpose in life to replace our previous life as Magicians, and beyond just shelling our wares out to the highest bidder. A stake in something bigger, in the coming worldwide revolution."
He shrugged, looking over at Raylix and adjusting his position on his chair.
"With an offer like that, I think it's easy to understand why one would accept."
"Certainly." Raylix nodded. "I can't lie, I'd probably accept too, were I in your shoes. You're satisfied with your role in the Brigade?"
"Generally, yeah." Rung replied. "They expanded our client list tenfold from what it was before, we follow their orders when they come down from on high. Give, take. It's a simple relationship."
"I suppose so." Raylix remarked. "And you exactly who's giving you those orders from 'on high', or at least in whose name they're coming from? Shalim and Xiuhtecuhtli of what's left of the Canaanites and Aztecs, Seth of the Egyptians, do those names mean anything to you?"
Rung scoffed, shaking some of his hair out of his eyes as he narrowed them at Raylix.
"Of course, they do." He replied. "It was Seth's own granddaughter- Kebechet- that came to us as an envoy of the Brigade in the first place."
Raylix hummed, mentally filing that name- Kebechet- away for later. Probably something to mention to Irene for research-purposes.
"I suppose such a statement gave you a lot of confidence that they- Shalim, Xiuhtecuhtli- shit, that's a mouthful to say- and Seth- could be trusted to carry out the mission that the Khaos Brigade claims to be chasing." He remarked. "Revolution, destruction of the status quo and something better built in its place, something to that effect. Am I right?"
Rung blinked, opening his mouth and pausing for a second, before closing it again and running a hand through his hair. For a brief moment, the briefest, Raylix noticed his gaze shifting away from him, up towards the ceiling of the room they were sitting and talking in, as if he could see through it to the surface above.
"Yeah." He said, his voice slightly- but still noticeably- lower and more guarded than he had been before. "I think so. I think they can."
Raylix hummed, nodding as he slipped a hand into his coat-pocket, pulled out a folded sheet- a copy of the sheet Lilith had enchanted when showing the true colours of the Khaos Brigade's leadership to him, Katerea and the others- and placed it down on the table between him and Rung, flicking it to enchant the sheet and play the recording that Lilith's 'trusted underling' recovered via their familiar for himself and Rung. As it played out, Raylix watched the Magician sat across from him carefully, watching how his generally-stony expression shifted slightly as each word from Shalim, Seth or Xiuhtecuhtli sounded off from the sheet.
When the recording finished, Raylix summoned the sheet back to himself with a flick of the hand, his eyes still on Rung as he shifted around on his chair a bit.
"Does those sound like people with the best interests of an entire faction at heart, to you?" Raylix asked, his voice, in turn, slightly lower. "Or of those that have the best interests of themselves- and ONLY themselves- at heart?"
Rung scoffed, waving a dismissive hand as he got to his feet. "That's bullshit. You show up with an unverified recording of our three leaders, saying exactly what you think will convince me to desert them, after all they've done for me and my faction… please. At least fake Ophis' voice as well, if you want to make it convincing."
"Ophis isn't with the Khaos Brigade, Rung." Raylix remarked. "They may have been recruited to the Khaos Brigade, but that was a ruse from Lilith. Whether or not you believe me on the recording, I can show you my memories right now to prove that-"
"Save it, Devil." Rung cut across Raylix, his voice a near-snarl. "Kebechet herself told me that Seth, Shalim and Xiuhtecuhtli would burn the bastards responsible for the shitheep the world's become over the centuries. Starting with the Council, that Irene would- that THEY would- pay for what they've done. And I'd be there for it!"
Raylix's eyes narrowed. He'd felt Rung's magical presence leaking out as he got more and more clearly agitated while he spoke, but to name-drop Irene in the manner that he'd done… that was a hell of a slip. Not to mention it was more than enough for him to start wondering whether or not it was worth even trying to recruit Rung or not.
Rung blinked over a couple of seconds, his eyes narrowing in turn as he looked at Raylix, the gears visibly turning in his head before they stopped, his eyes widened as he seemed to come to a realization… and seemed to resist the urge to burst out laughing.
"I really thought she'd try something a bit better-thought-out than this." He remarked. "Though I guess I should've also figured she'd be that arrogant to think it'd work! Send her Pact Devil, claiming that he came from someone way more important than she'd ever be, and have him claim some wild shit in order to get me to come crawling out of the Khaos Brigade… right back into her shadow."
Whirling back around on Raylix, and raising a hand to gather crackling magical energy in preparation for an attack, Rung took a menacing- or an attempt TO be menacing- step towards Raylix.
"Get out."
Raylix let out a small sigh.
"If she thinks I'll be brought back into line, that she can use YOU to fix what she broke- then you can both go to Hell, you deserve each other! Get out NOW, or every mage in Gnurene will kill you where you sit!"
Raylix blinked a couple of times, before rising to his feet and running a hand through his hair.
"Alright, alright." He replied. "If that's what you believe, then I'll go. Just remember that I tried to be reasonable."
Line Break
'No good. Wipe them out. No survivors.'
Malech blinked, quickly rising to his feet as he heard Raylix's voice sounding off in his head, clearing his throat to catch the attention of the entire elite company.
"In we go!" he called out, pointing to the cliff-face. "Order's come out from Raylix, we're to wipe every last one of Gnurene's players off the face of the earth! Move, move, move!"
And the URF Elite Co. moved. Within a second of the final 'move' leaving Malech's throat, a massive transportation-circle was cast, large enough for the entire company to step into at once. Within two, it was activated, and the entire company were transported into the cliffside that Gnurene had made their base, slash home. Within three, the attack began.
Backed up by the mages, the physical specialists tore into the unsuspecting Gnurene operatives, tanking the fire head-on and taking out whoever was unlucky enough to meet a fist in the face or sword in the gut in just a few hits. The mages that weren't directly backing the physical vanguard up returned fire on the Gnurene mages that weren't immediately killed by the physical vanguard, overwhelming them through the sheer volume of their attacks. When it looked like, for the tiniest fraction of a second, that the Gnurene magicians might gain some semblance of an advantage, the support units immediately stepped up- casting practiced barriers over the physical and magical attacking units, causing any and all attacks fired their way to bounce off or fizzle out before they could do any damage.
Amidst the sudden chaos, cloaked infiltration/recon units slipped out of sight, moved around the corridors of the base that had been magically mapped, quickly returning to behind the remaining Gnurene mages, or chasing down the ones that attempted to flee further into the base/alert Rung. A quick knife driven into a spine when no-one was looking, or silenced magically-enhanced gunshot through the head was all it took for each and every straggler to drop like a ton of bricks.
Much less a battle, much more an execution. Or just a straight-up slaughter.
Line Break
Within a second of the URF Elite Co's first fired magical shots after transporting themselves into Gnurene's cliffside base, Rung had leapt to his feet. Within two, he'd correctly deduced that Raylix was behind the sudden attack on his guild- his PEOPLE- and in anger, raised a hand to fire the most devastating bolt of magical energy he could muster and charge up within such a short timeframe directly at the head of the auburn-haired Devil. Within three, the bolt had left his fingertips and was racing at speed towards Raylix… who had already summoned the black-bladed Rubilacxe to his hand, and casually raised it to deflect the bolt out of harm's way with the outward ease of catching a casually-thrown ball.
"Come on, man." Raylix remarked, his tone almost bored. "You've figured out who I am, you've gotta have SOME idea of what I can do, and you thought throwing fireworks at me from right in front of my face would work?"
Snarling, Rung swept his hand in an arc in front of Raylix, summoning a collection of differently-colored, differently-sized and differently-shaped energy-bolts and sent then all towards Raylix, with some of them making direct beelines for his head while others zig-zagged around the room, moving towards the wall before darting around Raylix and coming at him from behind. But without even blinking, Rubilacxe twisted and morphed within Raylix's hand, extending up and around his body in such a way that it blocked all the bolts of energy before any of them could get anywhere near him.
Raylix yawned as Rubilacxe returned to a more regular-looking sword-form with a thought, and narrowed his eyes as he focused his energy into another one of its dark powers: before Rung's very eyes, the scarlet-haired Irene- in her usual risqué witches garb, appeared in a kneeling position between Raylix's legs, reaching up to the fly of his pants. She cast a glance over at Rung, with her initially submissive expression momentarily shifting into a look of pure disgust before she looked back at Raylix, and continued unzipping his pants.
"What the-?!" Rung blinked a couple of times, shaking his head in pure horror at the sight before him before his eyes fixed on Raylix, and he lost all composure. "You piece of shit!"
Magical energy gathered and overflowing from his hands, Rung vaulted over the table and practically flew towards Raylix, tears even pricking at the corners of his eyes as he went, pulling back a fist in an attempt to sock him in the face. But just as he landed on the ground again and began throwing his punch, the illusion of Irene at Raylix's feet vanished from Rung's eyes, with the sight of that (or now-LACK of sight) distracting him enough that he didn't notice Raylix's fist entering his gut until he FELT it, and was sent flying straight into the wall as a result.
Letting out a cry of surprise and pain as he slammed into the wall, slid down to the ground and- try as he might- couldn't get back to his feet, all he could do was watch as Raylix casually lifted up the table that now separated the two, and tossed it aside with one hand as he walked up to Rung, closing the distance between them in just a few steps. He dispelled Rubilacxe from his hand, with an ominous, familiarly destructive energy gathering in its place as he looked down at the Magician with an expression that could only be described as chilling in its neutrality.
"W-wait… please!" Rung called, coughing up blood as he attempted to move again but- still- couldn't. "I'll join you- I'll hand over Gnurene's entire operation- I'll serve under- who was it you said- Lilith?! Whatever you want, just don't kill me… please!"
Raylix scoffed, stopping just in front of Rung and bending down, resting one of his hands on his cheek.
"You had your chance, but your words mean nothing now." He remarked, as the destructive energy around his hand began to intensify. "All you want is to save your own skin, nothing more… the world has no use for you."
"WAIT, NO-!"
Rung's head blew up within Raylix's hand, all-but vaporized. His body, intact from the neck down, remained in the same sitting position as he had been before Raylix killed him for a couple of seconds, though it flopped over to one side once Raylix returned to his full height, blood slowly oozing out of the neck to soak the ground.
Turning away from the now-headless corpse, Raylix stepped over it- wiping his slightly-bloody hand on his pants as he went- and into the hallway, almost tripping over the corpse of another Gnurene operative with a deep stab-wound in the back as he came out the door, as he raised a hand to his ear.
"Malech?"
"All done." Malech's voice came back into Raylix's ear, after a second or two. "Gnurene is no more. They were more talk than teeth, really."
Raylix hummed, stretching a bit as he moved through the hallway, and opened a transportation-circle for himself.
"Sweep the base." He ordered. "Artifacts, intel, client lists, anything useful, pack it up and bring it back. After that, wipe the base of the face of the Earth, then report back with what you found. Lilith'll probably want to hear about what you found if anything, as well as just what happened here."
A small grunt from Malech could be heard, as Raylix stepped into the transport-circle.
"As you wish." He replied, as Raylix activated the circle, and disappeared from Gnurene's base before reappearing in the main hall of his home compound in Hebeth. Seemingly right on cue as he stepped out of the fading circle, he heard and felt his stomach grumbling faintly. Stopping and blinking a couple of times, he looked down at himself before recalling that- in fact- he hadn't eaten a damn thing all day.
Typical pitfall of having your office RIGHT next to your freaking bedroom, Raylix thought to himself as he veered off from his initial route towards the stairs, heading for the kitchen to find something to eat… and was wholly unsurprised to see someone else there as well.
That someone being Esdeath, who had her hair tied up in a messy bun rather than her usual down style, munching on a meat-sandwich she'd made while waiting for the kettle to finish boiling. She looked up as soon as she heard Raylix's boots on the floor, and nodded as she saw him coming in.
"Hey."
"Hey. Finally gotten out of the office? I don't think I've seen you out of there for a couple of days, now."
Raylix snorted, shaking his head.
"Just had something from Lilith that needed taking care of. Nothing massive, just some black market Stray Magicians that didn't know how to see reason."
He made a beeline for the sink, turning it on with a flick of his hands and sticking one of them under it, washing off the traces of blood that didn't quite come off when he'd wiped them on his pants. Which was where Esdeath's eyes trailed to, as well as his boots, as she saw the red stains swirling off of Raylix's hand and down the drain.
"Mmhmm." She hummed, taking another bite of her sandwich as she shifted slightly closer to Raylix. "Hope whoever that came off of got to suffer~"
"Not in the way you're probably imagining, but sure." Raylix replied, magically blowing some hot air on his wet hand with his free clean one, before moving over to the fridge. "Was a bit more like this," he tapped at his forehead as he went, "than like that." He mimed a motion of stabbing someone, which got an amused snort out of Esdeath.
"Boooooring." She remarked, drawing out the word. "But whatever, I guess."
Raylix rolled his eyes as he pulled a container full of batch-cooked chicken and rice out of the fridge, moved over to the microwave and stuck it in, before making for the cupboard and pulling out a bottle of whiskey and a glass, pouring himself a drink and wordlessly offering it to Esdeath.
The bluenette stared blankly at the booze-filled glass for a moment, before rolling her eyes in turn and taking it, giving both glass and drink a quick blow and handing it back to the auburn-haired Devil.
"Thanks."
"No problem." She replied, finishing the last of her sandwich and stretching. "I'll be in the pool, if you need me."
"Right…" Raylix nodded, taking a sip of his cooled-off drink as he watched her leave the kitchen. As his meal heated up, he quickly ran over the mental list of the net things to do. No matter what, EATING was top of that list, with the next thing he'd be best doing depending on how long Malech and his company took gathering whatever was useful out of Gnurene's HQ. If they got back and reported to him before he finished eating, which was… unlikely, it'd be logical to sort out the full report of Gnurene's demise, destruction and whatever the URF had gotten out of it, and hand it off to Lilith.
But if they didn't, Raylix thought to himself as the microwave beeped obnoxiously to let him know that the chicken/rice combo had finished heating up, then it might be worth seeing if Irene was back from her Platinums' Conference yet. The leader of Gnurene mentioning her by name, and how he'd reacted to the illusion Raylix had forced into his head with Rubilacxe (he hadn't expected him to react THAT strongly, he had to admit) had planted a seed of curiosity in the former Gremory Heir, so it was probably worth asking her what THAT was all about.
Call it curiosity.
Though the answer to the question (if one could even call it that) of which course of action he'd end up taking was answered was answered for him as he made his way up the stairs. Glancing into the main landing of the fourth floor, he saw a particular transportation-circle opening up outside a particular bedroom door, and someone stepping out of it. As Irene touched down on the ground, stretching slightly as her usual Magicians' garb shimmered off her frame in a cloud of arcane particles, with a soft woolen turtleneck and dark slacks reappearing in place of them. She reached out to push her bedroom door open, but almost immediately looked up as she heard Raylix coming into the corridor that led down to not just hers, but Cinder's, Esdeath's, Malech's and Tamamo's rooms as well.
"Oh hey, Raylix."
"Hey." Raylix replied. "Back from your… Conference, thing?"
"Mmhmm." Irene hummed, nodding as she ran a hand through her hair and headed towards her room. "Thank Hell. I don't think I'd have been able to take another day of hearing everyone talk about each other, rather than actually want to make any actual progress. Stay long enough not to be rude, make the comments everyone expects you to make, and piss off before anyone can loop you into a 'collaboration'." She faked a vomiting noise from her throat as she held the door open for Raylix to come in. "That's the way to do it."
"I bet." Raylix replied, half-smirking as he followed Irene in. "So no need to worry about them finding out about your little side-gig?"
Irene snorted.
"Absolutely none." She replied. "Believe me, we- the Platinums- don't care about each other's personal projects, as long as we don't directly step on each other's toes or break any supernatural laws. No reason to pry, even less reason for me to spill. They know nothing."
As Raylix dropped onto Irene's bed, summoning a fork in one hand and beginning to tuck into his chicken and rice, she walked over to a nearby mirror fixed to her bathroom door, snapped her fingers to summon a hairbrush and began running it through her hair.
A silent moment was shared between Devil and Pact Magician as Raylix worked his way through the first couple of mouthfuls of his meal, while stealing the occasional glance at Irene as she worked through her hair with the brush… she looked pretty damn good sat like that. Or rather, PARTICULARLY good. One didn't hang out with someone with her body-type for the better part of a couple of years without at least a few dirty thoughts entering their mind.
He took a breath once he'd chewed up and swallowed his third mouthful of food, though, and spoke up.
"So… random question, and feel free to blast my ass out of your room once I've said it."
Irene straightened up slightly, turning her head slightly- but not all the way- around towards him as she paused in her brushing. Her eyes narrowed a tad, but she didn't speak, which Raylix took as a sign to pose the question… in question.
"Does the name 'Rung' mean anything to you?"
Raylix caught Irene's eyes widening slightly in the mirror, from where he was sat. Irene seemed to have caught that, too, and let out a quiet sigh, closing them as she turned all the way around to face him, tossing her hairbrush down onto the bed beside him.
"It does, yes." She replied, crossing her legs as she opened them and fixed Raylix with a somewhat-cold stare. "And just asking that question means it means something to YOU, as well. How come you know it?"
"I just got back from wiping out a guild of Stray Magicians working for the Khaos Brigade." Raylix replied. "Whose leader went by that name. Attempted to negotiate them joining up with us, didn't go well, he tried to attack me, hit him with an illusion to piss him off further before I ended it."
"And judging by your aforementioned question, I'm guessing that illusion you cast had something to do with us." Irene spoke. "Might have even been us. Together."
Raylix let out a quiet snort as he set his tub of food down.
"Nothing gets past you." He remarked. "Yeah, you could say I did something like that."
Irene exhaled, uncrossing and recrossing her legs again as she leaned back in her chair, against her vanity.
"Of course, it was." She spoke quietly, more to herself than anything. "I suppose that would explain the reaction… he was my boyfriend-" She coughed, correcting herself almost immediately. "Fiancé."
One of her hands trailed up to her abdomen, briefly brushing it before she rested it on her thigh.
"Before I became a Platinum." She continued. "A while ago. Long before we met up again."
"I figured." Raylix replied. "How did that happen, anyway? I don't remember ever asking you that."
"No, you never did." Irene shook her head. "And there isn't much to tell, officially. Nominated, interviewed, made my case, was selected when the time came."
Raylix raised a brow, somewhat interested about the word between 'tell' and 'nominated', that Irene had spoken.
"And… actually?"
It was Irene's turn to let out a small snort, before a more solemn look came over her face.
"About fifty years ago, there was a sect of Magicians- radicals in the Order. They decided they knew better than the Council about how to go about governing us. Said the Order was too passive and neutral when it came to its role in the wider both, both supernatural and mundane. That- at the time I'm talking about- we should start intervening in mundane affairs."
Raylix sighed, casting his mind back to half a century ago and the war that happened to be going on in the human world at the time… the world war.
"Somehow, I doubt many would appreciate exactly HOW that sect wanted to intervene." He remarked.
"Ehh, there was some debate about that." Irene shrugged her shoulders as she replied. "Some wanted to step in on one side, some wanted to step in on the other."
"And Rung? Which side did he fall on?"
"I think he's a bit too dead for that to matter, now." Irene said, sharply. "Honestly, I'm surprised that the wider anti-Order movement didn't splinter and die along those lines before… before I stepped in."
Blinking, Raylix leaned forward slightly.
"You?"
"Me." Irene replied. "My guild was the perfect fit for the job. And I was the perfect symbol to lead the counter-attack against them. Rising star in the Order, strongest Mage of my age thanks to studies of Dragon magic, already one of the top candidates for Platinum-hood around that time. Putting down a rebellion would have been the nail in the coffin for a top job, once a slot for one opened up."
"Even if that meant going against your fiancé." Raylix spoke, his voice slightly softer.
Irene nodded, leaning forward in turn and letting out a sigh.
"I always regret that it came to that." Her voice noticeably dropped. "That I had to choose between my own career, climbing the proverbial ladder in the Order I'd given so much of my life to… and him." She let out a slow breath, resting a hand at her face. "It might be pointless now, but I can't help but go back and forth with myself on whether or not I made the right choice. If I should have gone the other way… should have…"
She stopped herself before going any further, her hand trailing off her face and towards her abdomen again.
"I get it." Raylix replied. "No need to explain being conflicted about a past choice. Not to me."
Irene looked up, blinking a couple of times as she looked Raylix up and down.
"Sorry." He continued, looking down at himself and coughing, before looking back up. "Didn't mean to dredge up any bad shit for you."
Irene scoffed, getting to her feet and moving over to the edge of her bed, sitting down on it beside Raylix as she picked up her hairbrush again.
"Don't worry about it." She replied, laying a hand on Raylix's thigh as she looked over at him. "You were just curious. You didn't know. No way you could have known. And for what it's worth?"
A small smile touched her lips as she continued.
"It's better than you being a closed-off depressed asshole all the time." She remarked. "I could get used to this you, Raylix."
Raylix blinked, as the two of them locked eyes for a few seconds… before he reached over to grab his half-empty food-tub, and got to his feet.
"Glad you think so." He replied. "I won't keep you from chilling out any longer than I probably have. Report to Lilith isn't gonna give itself, you know."
Irene let out a small giggle as she got to her feet as well, sitting back in front of her vanity and resuming the hair-brushing that she'd been doing earlier. As the door behind Raylix shut behind her, the smile that had crossed her lips grew slightly larger.
She could REALLY get used to that new Raylix.
Line Break
1000 years… that was a hell (pun not intended) of a milestone for a Devil to reach in their life. With how long they lived, Devils usually didn't celebrate the day that they were born every single year, not like other species' with shorter lifespans such as Humans. You wouldn't catch your average Devil celebrating their 742nd, 2867th or 6644th birthday, not really.
Generally, after the first 50 or so years of life, Devils generally stopped celebrating every birthday, only celebrating their lives every 100, maybe 50, years, with said celebrations seemingly being much grander than an average human's birthday celebration to compensate, what with it being essentially 50, or 100, birthdays in one that were being celebrated. And the milestones among milestones when one counted in 50s and 100s, rather than 1s… those got EXTRA-special attention.
Which was why Grayfia was the furthest thing from surprised as she popped out of a transportation-circle along with her King, when she clapped eyes upon one of the most opulent, decedent displays by a noble Devil that she'd ever seen in her life. Gold and silver-tinged hellfire dancing in elegant patterns above Castle Phenex, enormous walking statues forged from what looked like liquid gold, cast in the image of the Phenex matriarch, banners celebrating Rika Phenex and her accomplishments in the Underworld stretching as far as- if not further than- the eye could see. When Sirzechs began walking towards Castle Phenex, she set off, remaining half a step behind him as the Crimson Satan and the Ultimate Queen made their way up the steps towards the open double-doors, within which they could hear elegant music, voices, laugher, general noble-party sounds.
All Devils that caught a glimpse of Sirzechs and Grayfia- noble and commoner alike- immediately parted for the pair as they strode into the atrium of the estate, making a beeline for the center of attention: Rika Phenex herself, her hair done up particularly high and looking particularly ornate and well-decorated, and her purple dress looking particularly extravagant and well-designed, more than enough to signify that SHE was the woman of the hour. She turned when she heard the din from behind her quietening down a bit, and immediately moved to sink into a curtsey at the sight of Sirzechs Lucifer himself approaching her.
"Oh, please, Marchioness Rika." Sirzechs rose a hand before Rika could get very far in her curtsey. "No need for something like that, not today. It's your day- if anything, I should be honoring you."
Rika stood back up, blinking a couple of times and seemingly resisting the urge to blush as Sirzechs closed the distance between himself and her.
"You honour us all with your presence, Lord Lucifer." She replied, opting for a simple head-incline as Sirzechs raised his hand, cast a small magic-circle and from it produced a sealed box, crafted from infernal glass with glowing crystals embedded at the vertices.
"As I'm reminded all the time." Sirzechs remarked, sending the box towards her with a flick of his hand and inclining his head to her in return as she received it. "Congratulations on your thousandth, and may you have many more."
Rika looked down at the box she'd received, openly beaming at the gift she'd received: a personal, symbolic milestone gift from one of the Satans themselves, a tradition carried all the way back to before the Great War. Composing herself after a couple of seconds, though, she sent the box away through a small transportation-circle of her own: it was customary for the recipient of such gift to be the only ones that got to see whatever the gift in question was.
Before Sirzechs could speak out to stop her for a second time, Rika Phenex openly sunk into a grateful bow before the Crimson Satan, which Sirzechs could only respond to with one of his natural, good-natured smiles and an incline of his head. As Rika straightened up, he moved away, having spotted another small gathering of Devils within the large gathering that he desired to speak with on this night. Grayfia followed her King, close enough to clearly convey to the Devils that continued to part before them like the Red Sea before a certain former prince, that she was with him… as if her status as his Queen didn't convey that already. All the way across the hall, with Sirzechs only half-pausing to pick up a crystalized wine-glass from a passing uniformed servant, but otherwise keeping a steady pace as he navigated the crowd of lavish Clan Heads, young Heirs and Heiresses, and attentive servants shadowing their Kings, towards his parents and younger sister.
The three-year-old Rias, in particular, was dressed to the nines in a deep crimson-and-midnight silk gown that seemed to glimmer in more than just the light of the evening Underworld sun streaming in from outside, beaming at the sight of her awesome older brother showing up to the party that Mother and Father had brought her to. Sirzechs, as he greeted his parents and struck up a conversation with them about the recent human-world ventures of the Gremory Large Enterprise, ran a hand through Rias' hair- just as crimson as his and their father's- and shot her a brief smile as she hugged his legs.
Though Rias didn't stick with her parents, older brother and family's head maid for very long, not all that interested in the boring adult stuff they were talking about. Having spotted something interesting enough to her, she slipped away from them with surprising stealth, with Grayfia seemingly the only one to notice her moving towards the back of the room, inhabited by a cluster of laughing girls and handsome boys, all surrounding a certain young Devil in his late-teens: Riser Phenex.
More at-ease than any other time he'd been seen in public, and leaning against the wall at the centre of his own orbit: members of his burgeoning peerage fluttered around him, all the busty, overtly-sexy types that it couldn't be more clear was his preferred type (it hadn't been confirmed, but she was pretty sure Riser's purple-haired Queen had been a full-blooded Succubus before Riser had slid that piece into her), and a little further out from their King than a few daughters and sons of lesser houses, each easily identified by the crests on their clothing and jewelry, and all very clearly wishing to cement alliances between one of the rising stars of the next generation of Devils through charm, cleavage or a combination of the two.
But as soon as she'd clocked where she was going, Grayfia's eyes flicked away from Riser, and towards Rias as she slowly made her way towards Riser. Only half of one of her ears was trained on the conversation about the recent spat between Duchesses Gamigin and Amon that her King and his parents were having with each other as Rias approached the outer ring of Riser's entourage. As soon as she got close enough, she paused, only making small movements to try and catch her fiancé's eye, hoping to be welcomed into his conversation with open arms.
That was just about the furthest thing from what actually ended up happening, however.
Grayfia didn't hear it, not over the music and conversation that rung out all over the hall. But she, sure as her mother, saw what happened next. One of the noble daughters closest to Riser- who she recognized as Bereia, the Heiress of the Shax Clan- lean over to the young Phenex man (who hadn't even noticed Rias coming up to him and his group) and speak something into his ear while very obviously gesturing towards Rias as she spoke. Over the music and talk, she had to have said it relatively loudly, judging by how all the others- including Riser's peerage, including Riser HIMSELF- burst into laughter at her words… with one exception.
Rias.
She simply froze in place. With how she was stood, facing Riser and his entourage as their laughter trailed off, and he turned to address one of his male friends as if his own fiancée wasn't even there, Grayfia couldn't see the look on Rias' face, but she didn't need to to know that whatever Beria had said, combined with how Riser and his gaggle of attention-seekers had openly laughed at it in front of her, it had hurt.
Then, after a few seconds, she turned away from her fiancé, at which point Grayfia could see her face, and began making her way back through the crowd- but not back towards her, Sirzechs and her parents. Between the legs of a few chatting Clan Heads, skirting past a pair of servants that stepped past with wine trays, towards a door on the edge of the entrance hall, through it into some other more-than-likely-less-populated room within Castle Phenex. A few seconds later, a uniformed servant of Clan Phenex made her way towards the same door, and followed Rias through with the kind of quiet urgency that didn't draw attention from anyone.
Except Grayfia. Her gaze lingered on the door that Rias and the Phenex servant had headed through for a couple of seconds, before she looked away, scanning the gathering at large as the gears in her head turned.
The look on Rias' face: the look of someone that knew they'd been insulted and couldn't QUITE hold in their indignation at such a move against them, but was still doing their best to hold it in for appearances' sake. She'd seen it before.
A few times, in fact. Several years ago, on another Devil that she'd come to know very well through her time serving the Gremory Clan… him.
Raylix.
Seven and a half months before he disappeared, not even a week out from tying the knot with Ruvella, during a fateful gathering not totally dissimilar to this one, she'd first seen it for a fraction of a second on him when a pair of teenage nobles- who'd probably seen a collective few seconds of combat between them, as opposed to the decades of total warfare that she, Raylix and almost every other noble Devil in the room right now had slogged through for their home- had disparagingly referred to Sabemka and Tomosei as his previous, incompetent, bodyguards that had probably gotten sacked.
She'd seen it on his face for a few seconds, at most, before emotion overtook him on that occasion and he'd lashed out, causing quite the scene on that occasion. A rage-fuelled rant that involved referring to Serafall Leviathan herself as a- if she remembered right- 'Lilith-damn cosplayer, and not even a good one at that'. Which, had what happened right after that not transpired, Grayfia would probably have found somewhat amusing.
But what happened right after that DID transpire. Something far less amusing: namely, eye-lasering the balls off of Zekram Bael, his own grandfather, and attempting to kill him right there in the party-hall, with the Elder Bael's life only being spared by Zeoticus being quick enough to transport Raylix out of the party-hall before he could lay hands on him.
Not that that resulted in Zeoticus earning many points with his father-in-law, but it was the thought that counted. Maybe.
Movement at the door that Rias and the Phenex servant had headed through earlier: a couple of minutes after they both went through, they both returned, with the servant in question gently leading Rias by the hand and the little girl looking a lot more composed than she'd been when she went through, that brief emotional crack sealed away with an aristocratic precision that Grayfia couldn't help but quietly admire. She observed Rias being guided across the hall, back to her parents and older brother, the latter of whom scooped his little sister up into his arms without missing a beat in his discussion of the Bael/Glasya-Labolas trade dispute that he was having with the former.
As Grayfia's eyes shifted from Rias, to her King, to her King's parents, they lingered a little longer on Venelana before she looked out across the party-hall, another flicker of memory stirring in the back of her mind. A couple of months after Raylix had left Castle Gremory- or to be more accurate- a couple of months after Grayfia had let him fly out the doors of Castle Gremory into the night, never to be seen again by any civilized (or at least, the aristocratic definition of the word) Devil… the Duchess Gremory herself had turned up pregnant with a third child.
No explanation. No warning. Just a reveal, smiles and toasts, with preparations for the Gremory Clan's replacement Heir or Heiress beginning in earnest. The silverette maid hadn't questioned it at the time, for two main reasons: one, she'd been running administrative affairs for Sirzechs, who at the time, seemed to have taken up the hobby of inventing new ways to avoid paperwork. And two… well… it just wasn't her place.
She might be Sirzechs' Queen, and technically higher in noble rank than either Zeoticus OR Venelana on that fact alone, but to them- when working FOR them- she was still the family's head maid. And she took that position seriously enough- as she did all her other duties- to not bother prying into the Duchess' private affairs.
But something, Grayfia couldn't quite put her finger on what- as Rias nuzzled into her brother's shoulder, as Venelana let out a small giggle at some snarky remark that Zeoticus made about Erechus- something was tugging at her instincts.
Telling her that there was more to that whole situation, all of this, than met the eye.