2012

The artificial sun that hung above the Underworld every day was about half an hour away from rising, to greet the new day. A starless purple sky, so dark you could mistake it for black, that still seemed to glow in a foreboding manner, hung above what used to be the town of Phey, a large town situated atop a large hill in the territory owned by the Phenex Clan... or at least, it used to be. The civilian townsfolk that lived there had been evacuated to a safer environment more than half a year ago, and the town itself had been essentially reduced to heaps of rubble, glass and scrap metal in the battle that had followed.

The battle didn't mean much, in the grand scheme of the events of the last three years. It wasn't the bloodiest battle, or the longest. The battle didn't play host to any epic final clashes between opposing siblings, or between a child and their parent. There weren't any major changes to the perceived good that the servicemen and women of either side fought for, or the perceived evil that they fought against. It wasn't even the battle responsible for decimating the family of noble Devils that held the supposed right to rule the town, or the India-sized territory that the town was situated in the north-west of, no.

The clash at Phey had been as hard-fought as all of the other battles that had started and ended over the past three years. It was just another skirmish between the two alliances that made up the ongoing conflict: one side came out the better, the other was defeated, both moved on, and Phey had sat as a destroyed mess ever since, with no-one even bothering to try and rebuild the place. Ever since the clash, not a sound had been heard, or single being seen, in or around what used to be the town.

...Until now.

A crimson transportation-circle, bearing a symbol that roughly resembled a rose in the middle, formed around a kilometre outside the ruins of Phey, barely making a sound as it did so. The circle rose and dissipated, with two beings, one a female 'pure-blooded' Devil and the other a male Infernal Dragon (the name given to a hybrid of the Devil and Dragon races), appearing in the spot that the circle had done seconds before.

The female Devil possessed beauty that some who looked upon her would call 'stunning', 'incredible', or 'heart-stopping'. A voluptuous figure that many would kill to have, either for themselves or in a partner, clad in a sleeveless double-slitted wine-red dress that went down to knee-length. Blue eyes that, in spite of the innocence that once lived behind them long-since ripped from them and destroyed, in spite of the shadows that hung around them, still looked out on the world with mixed love, sadness, anger, and a small tint of... hope. Rich, thick crimson hair, that turned the heads of all who had encountered her, a staple of the family that she no longer had. Her hair used to hang free, down to her thighs, but she had recently taken to doing it up in a high braid. That was how she wore her hair now, with it travelling down to around waist-length.

A pair of black low-heel combat boots, black crew-length socks, an engagement ring on her right ring finger, a pair of red elbow-length gloves and a shoulder-length cape, coloured the same crimson as her hair, completed the outfit of the absolute knockout that was Rias Gremory. A real lady of war, if there ever was one.

The male Infernal Dragon standing next to her, the one who had given Rias the engagement ring she currently wore, was a tall young man who stood at six feet, with an extremely fit and muscular build. His chocolate-brown hair, shoulder-length when untied, was tied up in a man-bun, but with a few small clumps of hair hanging down over his face and framing his light-brown eyes. His outfit was far simpler than Rias', consisting of a tattered dark-green jacket over a plain red t-shirt, and loose black pants.

Issei Hyoudou looked up at what used to be Phey, a slight scowl forming on his features for a second or two, before looking over at his fiancée.

"This the place?" he asked.

"This is it." Rias replied, keeping her eyes focused on the ruin in front of her. "It's a good thing we got here first. We've got time to prepare."

"Yeah." Issei affirmed. "All of..." he reached into his pockets and pulled out his phone. "Ten minutes." he looked up from his phone and at the ruin in front of him and Rias, clenching his phone tightly in his hand as his scowl returned. "Before HE comes as well."

"Yes." Rias nodded, swallowing. "Before... he comes." The fact that Issei had practically hissed the word 'he', out of pure anger, didn't go unnoticed by Rias.

There was a short, silent pause between Issei and Rias. Rias' eyes travelled to the screen of Issei's phone, which still displayed the time and date, and let out a small snort: one so small and so quiet that it would've gone unnoticed by any normal being. However, normal was just about the last thing that her fiancé, throughout the last four years, had proven to be.

"What's funny?"

"The date." Rias replied, pointing to Issei's phone. "Though, I guess 'funny' isn't exactly the right word."

Issei looked down at his phone, and upon seeing the date that the screen displayed, let out a snort of his own.

"April 9th." he remarked, a small smile replacing the scowl. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you." Rias replied. "I never thought that... this," she idly gestured to the ruin in front of her. "Is how I'd be starting my 22nd. Or any other day in my life, for that matter."

"And I never thought that I'd be spending it with you, Rias." Issei replied, his smile growing wider. Rias smiled back, with the two basking in the newest moment of small happiness that they now shared. Under the circumstances, it had become rather hard for Issei and Rias to share these moments, especially in recent months.

Issei's smile slowly dropped as he put his phone back into his pocket, and looked away from Rias and back to Phey.

"Though if I were you..." he spoke. "I'd probably be doing my best to spend my 22nd birthday as far away from HIM-" he spat the word like poison. "As possible. I mean, I'd understand if it was unavoidable, or if HE was coming after you, or us, but... this?"

"We've been over this, Ise." Rias replied. She opened her mouth, but Issei spoke up before she could continue.

"I know, but I still don't get it, Rias." His voice raised a tad. "Why do you think talking to him is worth it? Do you really think he deserves it, after everything he's done, everything he's taken? To and from us, our friends, and everyone else?"

Rias didn't reply, at first. She simply looked towards Phey, crossing her arms underneath her inhuman bust as she contemplated her answer, but Issei spoke up

"Is it because he-"

"I don't know, Issei!" Rias replied, her voice raising a little more than Issei's had just done. Her fiancé was instantly silenced by his King's raised voice, while said King took a couple of breaths to calm herself. "You... might be right. Kiba, Gasper, everyone else, they might all be right. He might not deserve it. In fact, you know what, yeah. You're right. He doesn't deserve it, at all."

"Then why do it at all?" Issei asked. His teeth were clenched, his hands were balled up into fists and his eyes were at the ground, as just looking at Phey, the place that HE would be arriving at any minute now, was enough to make his blood boil and to make his Infernal Dragonic instincts start roaring for bloodshed.

"Because..." Rias spoke, before trailing off. She swallowed again, and looked over at Issei, reaching over to him and gently tilting his head towards her with a gloved hand. "Because I need to, Ise. I know my mind is telling me not to bother, that it won't be worth it, but I just have this... feeling in my heart. That if I talk to him, get some kind of closure... I'll be able to join you, and everyone else, in taking him down, making him pay for everything he's done, everything he's doing, with a clearer conscience."

Issei remained silent for a few seconds, both taking in his first fiancée's response and enjoying the feeling of her gloved hand on his face, before she pulled back.

"Do you understand?" Rias asked, blue eyes meeting Issei's brown.

"I think so, yeah." he replied. "I've had that feeling, a few times. It's a... weird one, isn't it?"

"Very." Rias replied, nodding as she turned towards Phey and summoned her own phone out of a magic-circle. "Four minutes." she muttered, before depositing her phone back into the magic-circle she had pulled it out of seconds ago. "You should meet up with the others, Issei. And please... stick to the plan."

"Yeah, I should." Issei replied, spreading his Infernal Dragon wings, wings that featured both the bat-like structure of a Devil's wings and the membrane of a Dragon, all ten of them. "And don't worry, Rias. I will."

Issei then leaned towards Rias and tenderly pressed his lips against hers, with Rias pressing back. The kiss between the two deepened momentarily as Rias wrapped her arms around Issei's neck, pulling him in deeper. However, as deep and passionate as the latest kiss out of countless ones that Issei and Rias had shared over the past three years and five months was, it didn't last long as Issei pulled back, a smile back on his face.

"Stay safe, Rias." he said, by way of a temporary farewell, before the wielder of the Boosted Gear lifted himself up into the air on his ten wings, and flew away. Rias stood where she was for a couple of seconds, watching him fly to the east of what Phey used to be, where the other members of the final incarnation of Kuoh Academy's Occult Research Club had teleported to, at around the same time as Issei and Rias had travelled to where they were now.

Rias tore her eyes away from her fiancé's flight, and spread her own Devil wings- all ten of them- and began flying towards Phey. As she steadily approached the ruin that used to be a town, she couldn't help but think that, in spite of the strategy that she had painstakingly put together, all the preparation that she, Issei, Kiba, Gasper and everyone else had done for this fight, all the psyching up she had done- and was still doing, to an extent- everything... she couldn't stop the dread of all of it going wrong, and she and her friends meeting their ends at HIS hands.

Kiba being disarmed and sliced to bits by his swords... Gasper being overpowered and blasted to death by his magic... Issei, his armour destroyed, and body reduced to something unrecognisable...

Rias shook her head, trying to get rid of the mental images as she arrived at the gated entrance to the town (which, semi-miraculously, hadn't been completely destroyed in the battle nine months ago, and still stood- to an extent- nine months later) and touched down.

Just as she did so, Rias felt the presence of another transportation-circle opening up in the middle of the town. The aura behind the transportation-circle she sensed wasn't that of anyone among her and Issei's team, and at the same time, it felt familiar to her. With that in mind, there was only one explanation: it was him.

Taking another couple of breaths to calm herself, and forcing down whatever fear she had left, Rias walked into the town.

The sound of her boots on the ground were the only thing serving as a distraction to Rias as she walked through Phey's ruins, her heartbeat quickening further and further with every step she took. She felt it reaching almost frantic levels once she reached what used to be the town square, and clapped eyes on...

Him.

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1486, Precisely 526 Years Ago…

Gid was having a rather quiet night.

For a city so often assailed by the light of the Fallen Angels and Angels, the two species that the Devils and Lilim (consisting of both the Succubus and Incubus races), it was rare for the largest city in all of Hell, and the capital city of the shared Devil/Lilim region (formerly the capital city of all Hell, before the Fallen Angels moved into Hell and took roughly a fifth of the area as their own territory) to be as quiet as it was tonight.

The city, as all cities were, wasn't completely silent, however. Small numbers of Devils hustling and bustling around the inner areas of the city that was their home, soldiers patrolling Gid's fortified outer border and other assorted noises made up the general din of Gid's night. Though quieter than usual, the noise was still noticeable.

One area of the city where activity was more intense than most others, however, was the Lucifer Hospital. Named after the first Devil, present King of both Devils and Lilim, and one of the strongest beings in the world, the workers within the grandest and best hospital in all of Hell worked around the clock attending to and treating the sick and injured. Throughout the last seven years, the majority of subjects of the Lucifer Hospital were injured Devils and Lilim, specifically casualties of the war against the Fallen Angels and Angels, but other treatments and procedures continued carried out within the facility.

One such procedure going on right now was in the Lucifer Hospital's maternity ward, where surrounded by Devils that had been trained as medical staff, a female Devil, with shoulder-length light brown hair and violet eyes and dressed in a simple nightgown, lay in a bed with her legs open. The fact that this was the second time she was giving birth, rather than her first, meant that the whole process she had gone through over the past nine months, and which was coming to an end today, had been easier for her, her husband and her oldest son, who was minutes away from being an older brother. However, she still clutched at the hand of her husband- with crimson hair and blue eyes that looked encouragingly down at his wife- so hard that said husband had his teeth clenched from the pain of it.

"H-how long left... until my baby is finally in my... arms, i-instead of my belly?" The woman asked, trying to hold back her pained whimpers.

"At the rate you're going, Venelana," one of the doctor-Devils replied, "About five minutes."

Venelana, granddaughter of the Pillar Devil Bael and wife of Zeoticus, grandson of the Pillar Devil Gremory, gritted her teeth as her eyes teared up from the continuous pain of her five-hour labour.

"It won't be long until you're at ten inches." The doctor reassured Venelana. "Once you are, we'll be able to begin."

"G-got it...!" Venelana replied, trying her hardest to keep her pained whimpers under control, while Zeoticus stood at her side, brave enough to not draw his hand back when Venelana had been nearly crushing it in hers for the past few hours.

The doctor positioned himself, doing his best to keep calm while in the presence of one of the most powerful Devils alive. The next five minutes practically snailed by, until, finally-

"She's at ten inches, doctor!" one of the nurse-Devils called out, with the doctor nodding in response, keeping his focus on Venelana.

"Alright, Venelana." the doctor called out. "I need you to start pushing now, okay?"

Venelana gritted her teeth some more, and as she clamped down on her husband's hand even harder than before, causing Zeoticus to clench his teeth himself, she did as the doctor asked. Her only verbal reply was a pained cry as she began pushing, anxious for her pain to be over soon and for her second child (which she and Zeoticus had found out beforehand was going to be a boy) to be in her arms.

It was another twenty minutes of hard pushing and pained whimpers from the contractions before the doctor saw the first sight of Zeoticus and Venelana's baby coming out head-first... another five for the top of the baby's head to begin leaving his mother's body... and another five for the baby to be fully out. Now that it was finally out of his mother's womb, the baby let out his first cry as the doctor used magic to gently clean him up, wrap him up in a blanket and hand him off to Venelana. After some quick magical tests, the doctor let out a sigh of relief.

"Congratulations, both of you." he spoke to Venelana and Zeoticus. "A healthy baby boy."

Venelana panted as she held onto her and Zeoticus' second child, with Zeoticus (who had to focus minor healing magic into his hand after all the clutching Venelana had done to it over the past few hours) leaning over to take a look as well. The baby's initial crying had died down, and he opened his eyes for the first time, revealing the same blue eyes that his father looked down at him with looking up at him.

"W-well, we sure know who gave him his eyes." Venelana spoke, her panting breaths dying down as well. "Two out of two there, dear."

Zeoticus let out a little chuckle, but looked up at the door as he heard the sound of someone running towards the door to the room that he, Venelana, the doctor and several nurses were in. Venelana looked up too when the door opened, and she and Zeoticus' first son Sirzechs entered.

With a few small, yet crucial, differences, Sirzechs was the spitting image of his father. The same crimson hair, the same blue eyes, the same physique- hell, even the same choice of clothing (short-sleeved t-shirt and pants). The differences between the two were small, but more than enough to distinguish Sirzechs from his father: Zeoticus' hair was back-length, and tied in a low ponytail with black headband, while Sirzechs' hair was a similar length to his mother's and hung free, same as hers. Sirzechs was also clean-shaven, as opposed to his father, who possessed a small chin-beard. Zeoticus too, as one with over half a millennium on his older son, possessed the lines on his face that seemed to naturally come with age.

"Really sorry I couldn't come sooner!" Sirzechs spoke, by way of greeting, in an apologetic tone. "The meeting overran, I had to see off some troops, and-" a slightly saddened look came over his face. "I missed it, didn't I?"

"Unfortunately." Venelana replied. "But don't worry about us, Sirzechs. Or your little brother, Raylix is just fine. Come take a look."

Sirzechs approached the bed, his mouth open in amazement as Venelana moved Raylix, slightly more securely wrapped up in the blanket that the doctor had first put him in, towards him. Sirzechs knelt down so he was on a level with his newborn brother, and slowly moved a hand towards him. He extended a finger out towards Raylix, getting the minutes-old baby's attention instantly. and gently stroked the boy's cheek. His face split into a wide smile when he heard Raylix breaking out into a light babyish giggle, evidently finding his older brother's action ticklish.

Venelana shifted Raylix slightly further towards Sirzechs, so he could keep going with what he was doing. Happy tears began welling up in her eyes at the sight of her newest child, already getting along with his older brother, and she could already tell that the two brothers would stick together through everything.

Her mother's instinct was never wrong, after all.

"He likes you, Sirzechs." Zeoticus spoke, a smile also on his face as he performed the same action to Raylix as Sirzechs had done, which got a similar reaction out of his second son. "Seems to like me, too."

"Yeah..." Sirzechs replied, looking down at the baby Raylix like he was the last thing he would ever see. His reverie was interrupted by a light knock on the door, followed by the door opening to reveal an Incubus (identified by the pair of horns on their head, as well as their arrow-tipped tails, of which this Incubus had three) dressed in light combat gear.

"Zeoticus, Venelana, Sirzechs," the Incubus spoke, bowing to each of them. "I... apologize for the interruption, but-"

"It's fine, Bosei." Sirzechs replied, standing up. "What's up?"

"The situation near Hebeth has... worsened, drastically." Bosei replied. "We're taking heavy losses against the Fallen Angels, they've almost taken the city. We need your help!"

"Understood." Sirzechs nodded, casting an apologetic look over at his parents and newborn brother. He was greeted, in return, by looks of understanding from his father and mother, with a nod from his father accompanying his own look. Turning around, he followed Bosei out of the hospital room, with the sound of their footsteps fading from earshot over the next moment.

"We'll... give you some time alone with your baby." the doctor informed Zeoticus and Venelana, as they left the room, shutting the door behind them and leaving the parents and child alone. Zeoticus and Venelana shared a look with each other that held for a few seconds, before Venelana looked down at Raylix, who had settled more snugly into Venelana's arms and was taking his first nap.

"You know..." Zeoticus broke the silence between them, quietly. "That if the war keeps going for much longer, he-" he looked down at Raylix, who peacefully slept on. "That Raylix- will have to fight. You know that, right?"

"Yes." Venelana replied, nodding as she looked down at Raylix as well. "We've both heard about the children of Devils being called up to fight as soon as they're eligible, but it's a different feeling when you know it'll happen to you and your child." She bit her lip, and the silence between husband and wife descended again for a few seconds, before Venelana spoke again. "I don't like it. Not one bit... but it's not like either of us can do anything about it."

"Definitely not." Zeoticus shook his head, rubbing it with one hand for a second. "I've never heard Lucifer or Lilith making an exception for anyone, for any possible reason."

He then stood up and walked over to the window in the room, looking out over the lit capital. He had a good view of the entire city from where he was stood, as well as the royal castle, where Lucifer, Lilith, the other three Satans, their wives and all their servants lived. At twenty-five stories tall, and a height of over a hundred and fifty meters, it was an imposing residence that towered over everything else in the Underworld, including the hospital that Zeoticus looked at the castle from. The castle, and the area around it, was also crawling with guards, both Lilim and Devil alike, both on the ground and in the air. The number of guards surrounding the castle was such that Zeoticus could see many squadrons of Devils and Lilim flying around the castle, even from the hospital window that he looked out of.

"Indeed." Venelana nodded, in reply to Zeoticus' previous remark. "I guess the only thing we can do... is prepare." She looked back at Raylix. "It's not like we're likely to have a third child, so we'll have to make sure Raylix is trained. To fight, and to survive, as soon as he's old enough to start."

"Yeah." Zeoticus replied, turning around and returning to his wife's side. The two shared a kiss, as the doctor and nurses returned to the room.

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1497

In the grounds of the estate that served as the home of Zeoticus, Venelana and their two children, the younger child scratched an idle itch that formed on his head as he opened the back door of the house, stepped outside and stretched.

Four feet eight in height, dressed in a plain long-sleeved black t-shirt and pants, going without shoes or socks as the gardens of Zeoticus and Venelana's provided estate were pleasant underfoot, his short hair (a rare chestnut combination, rather than crimson like his father's or brown like his mother's) neatly styled, it wouldn't be out of the question to consider Raylix Gremory a cute eleven-year-old.

A book rested under Raylix's arm as he headed down a short slope to an expansive garden, where he was free to train himself both physically and in the use of his demonic power, of which he'd inherited a growing reserve from his parents. This morning, he felt like working on the latter.

Sitting down at the bottom of the slope he'd just walked down, Raylix opened the book to the chapter that he'd been skimming through the night before, one about spellcasting. The chapter discussed various methods that a Devil could use to draw out their latent demonic power, as well as tips on how to easily increase or decrease the amount of demonic power you wanted into the spell you wanted to cast, depending on the effect- strong or weak- you wanted the spell to have.

He also knew the basic fundamentals behind forming a spell, if a Devil or Lilim were to cast it out of their demonic power: acquiring the power of imagination in order to shape your desires into reality... which in Raylix's opinion, was just an overly-fancy way of telling one to focus hard on what they wanted to make happen. Either way, he set the book down beside where he had been sitting, stood up, and opened his hand.

After focusing for a few seconds, a weapon appeared in his hand: a spear. It glowed a dark red with the demonic power that Raylix formed it out of, and as Raylix closed his hand around it and weighed it in his dominant left hand for several seconds, he found it to be almost weightless. Taking the spear in both hands, he practiced a couple of thrusts, a few close-range defensive positions against imaginary opponents and a combination of mid-range slashes, his focus on the moment-old weapon he had created being sufficient to keep it from falling apart in his hand while he worked. He finished by throwing the spear with a small grunt of effort, aiming at the roots of a tree just over a hundred feet away from his current position. The spear travelled through the air, and almost made its mark, but it began turning right as it came down. It embedded itself into the ground, a few feet short of the tree, and dissipated a second later.

Raylix just let out a sigh, and didn't even bother opening his hand as this time, after a couple of seconds of focus, a sword appeared in his hand. More familiar with a sword than he was a spear, he threw himself into an elaborate string of swinging, thrusts and lunges. He cut up imaginary opponents, ran them through, sent them up into the air before spreading his six Devil wings, taking to the air and continuing the imaginary combo there, all while careful to keep at least a portion of his focus on maintaining the sword in his hand. The second Gremory son was pleased that it took more focus to conjure up the sword in the first place than it did to keep it from dissipating.

Landing back on the ground, Raylix finished his impromptu sword-training session with a wild combination of swings, culminating in a powerful two-handed swing that coincided with the sword dissipating in his hands, the demonic power that it was formed out of visibly flying away in the same direction that Raylix had swung the sword that now no longer existed.

Raylix let himself have a small, satisfied smile at his work over the past couple of moments. He took a couple of breaths before focusing, and forming a pair of long chains out of demonic power, the ends of both chains clutched in one hand each, with the rest of them resting on the ground. He took a breath to steady himself before swinging his left arm in a wide motion, watching as the left chain curled around in the air from the momentum like a whip. He then did the same with his right arm, and watched as the right chain did similar to the left.

He then swung his arms around in circles by his sides, building up speed as the chains spun around, allowing momentum to carry his arms as he walked forward, grinning as imaginary opponents were bludgeoned, wrapped up or worse by the chains in his hands. He continued to walk forward, adjusting the angle at which he span his hands and noticing how that, in turn, changed the direction that the end of the chains were flung around in, until he reached the tree that he had thrown the spear at and missed.

Momentum now sufficiently built up, in his mind, Raylix flung his arms forward, still holding onto the chains, and let them wrap around the tree, which was a sturdy one. The left chain wrapped around the tree in a clockwise manner and the right wrapped in a counter-clockwise manner, just how Raylix wanted. After tugging on the chains to see if they were securely wrapped around the tree (they were), Raylix wrapped the other ends of the chains around his wrists to be more secure on his end, and began pulling hard on the tree. Pulling left with his left arm and right with his right, Raylix gritted his teeth as he pulled harder, straining himself slightly as he tried to both pull the tree apart and pull it out of the ground.

He heard the faint sounds of the wood of the tree beginning to crack around the area that his two chains were wrapped around, as well as the tree being pulled up from the ground, and was emboldened by the sounds to pull even harder. The tree continued to crack, and continued to come up, until it came up and broke apart very suddenly, with the top part of the tree sent backwards towards Raylix. Raylix, who had lost balance and fallen backwards on his behind, let out a shout of surprise and scrambled out of the way of the falling tree, which crashed down to the ground exactly where he had been seconds earlier.

Picking himself back up, Raylix let out a couple of breaths as he observed his handiwork, and the chains in his hands dissipated. He stretched for a second or two before bending down and pulling a leaf off of the tree. Spinning it around between his thumb and index finger a couple of times, Raylix focused himself on performing a different type of spell on the leaf in his hand than what he'd done before, while sending a small amount of his demonic power through his hand and into the leaf.

Within seconds, what Raylix wished for came to pass: the leaf transformed into a small flower in his hand. Raylix smiled, satisfied at how well his transformation-spell had turned out, and focused his demonic power through his hand into the flower, adjusting his focus slightly in order to change the flower into something else. It worked: within a couple of seconds, the flower had transformed into a pebble. Raylix played with the pebble in his hands for a couple of seconds, tossing it up and catching it again, before he focused his demonic power into the pebble, adjusting his focus slightly again in order to transform it back into the leaf that he'd originally picked up, which was exactly what happened.

Yawning as he tossed the leaf back onto the ground, Raylix cast his eyes over the bigger part of the tree that he'd pulled down a couple of minutes ago, before conjuring a sword again and using it to cleanly cut off the lowest portion of the trunk, before focusing his demonic power on that to lift it into the air through his power alone. The chunk of tree that Raylix was surrounded by the same dark-red glow that the spear he'd conjured a few minutes ago was, but as Raylix threw the tree-chunk into the air, the glow disappeared as Raylix released his focus on it. As it came down, Raylix caught the tree-chunk with his demonic power, slowing it down before it could hit the ground, before he brought it down onto the ground beside him.

Feeling sufficiently warmed up, Raylix opened one of his hands, and formed a crimson-coloured portal-like hole from it, before tossing it into the air. He then did the same with his other hand, and gave both portal-like holes a look before raising his hands towards both of them, and projecting two different types of elemental magics (out of the eight that one could naturally learn: fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, wind, light and darkness) out of himself, one from each hand and into each hole.

A quick glance at the holes that Raylix had formed would have told anyone with a working pair of eyes that Raylix had projected the elements of water and darkness: darkness being the magical element that Devils were most naturally attuned to (as well as one that proved effective in battle against Angels and Fallen Angels, which definitely meant it was worth learning. Especially in the current climate), and water just being an element that Raylix had taken a personal liking to early on in his training. Though he knew that he'd never be as naturally attuned to the tasks of water conjuration and manipulation as the Pillar Devil Sitri, or any of his descendants.

After a couple of seconds of the elemental projection, Raylix stopped and drew his hands together, bringing together the two crimson holes that he'd been projecting water and darkness into and morphing them into one single, larger hole. As the two holes were combined into one, the pair of elements in the two holes were combined into one, the fluidity of the water combined with the pitch-black colour of the darkness. This was the signature power of the Gremory bloodline, Amalgamation: the power to combine multiple non-physical powers into one, which could then be wielded however the user wished.

The power could even catch the powers of others, be they friend or foe. It certainly wasn't as outwardly flashy or instantly useful as the other powers granted to the 72 Pillar Devils and passed down to their descendants- nothing like Worthless, granted to Belial. Or Infernal Phoenix, granted to Phenex. Or even the Power of Destruction, granted to Bael, and which Raylix had inherited from Venelana. However, Gremory had sworn by Amalgamation as something with incredible potential, both in battle and out... well, before he apparently got vaporized in a ball of golden divine light, that is. At least, that's what Raylix was told.

Raylix poured his demonic power into the single combined Amalgamation hole that he'd formed, charging up the water/darkness combination that he'd made, and looking around for a target to fire his gathered attack at. He settled on another nearby tree, a different one from the one he'd just ripped up, cut up and thrown around over the course of the past few minutes, but just as sturdy as the last. The younger Gremory son span around to face the tree, and fired his charged-up attack at it, focusing the water/darkness combination into a concentrated beam. Said beam blew out the entirety of the section of the tree's trunk that it hit, causing the tree to instantly fall. However, Raylix was already out of harm's way by the time the tree had begun to fall, so he was in no danger when the tree came down and hit the ground.

Taking a couple of breaths after the echo of the second tree crashing down faded away, Raylix yawned and stretched again, figuring that he was sufficiently warmed up. He summoned a couple of balls of the Power of Destruction, intending to destroy the trees that he'd brought down in order to clear up space for him to continue training himself, but the sound of a loud snarl reaching his ears from several meters behind him. Whirling around, he widened his eyes to find himself face-to-face with a Demonic Wulf.

Anatomically similar to wolves from the human world, Wulves were just one species of Underworld beast that fed off of demonic power to grow in size and strength, and this one... was pretty big. Even on its four legs it stood at nearly fifteen feet in height, over three times taller than Raylix himself. Saliva dripped from its open mouth, both of its pale-yellow eyes were trained on Raylix, and each of its blood-stained claws looked to be razor-sharp, as well as longer than Raylix was wide.

Raylix forgot about the bits of tree as he turned around to face the Wulf, holding up the two Power of Destruction-balls in his hands to serve as an intimidation tactic. Hopefully whatever excuse for rationality that the Wulf had would convince it that picking a fight with the eleven-year-old child in front of it wasn't a good idea.

It didn't: the Wulf let out another snarl and leapt at Raylix, whose instincts kicked in and, rather than attack the Wulf while it was in mid-leap, jumped out of the way, momentarily spreading his six Devil wings to allow himself some greater height and distance. He landed back on the ground around the same time the Wulf did, and it slid around on the ground as it kept its focus on Raylix, letting out a growl.

Raylix replied by re-conjuring the two balls of his Power of Destruction that he had earlier, and threw them both at the Wulf, aiming for its head. Much to the pre-teen's chagrin, both attacks missed their mark. One missed the Wulf entirely, and kept on travelling up and past the home that he'd come out of earlier, and up into the purple Underworld sky (where it would probably strike a Demonic Byrd, or just keep going until it fizzled out). The other missed the Wulf's head, but hit its shoulder. Though the Wulf's fur around the area that Raylix's second PoD shot was removed, leaving a bald patch, and the hide of the creature did look to be damaged, all the attack seemed to do was annoy the Wulf more than hurt it.

It glared down at Raylix and dived at him, jaws agape and stretched wide enough to swallow him whole. Raylix rolled out of the way of the Wulf's dive, and in a moment of inspiration, quickly levitated the closest chunk of tree-trunk into the Wulf's still-open mouth, keeping it pried open.

The Wulf let out a howl of anger (or at least, Raylix thought it was a howl. It was kind of hard to tell with the giant block of wood in the way) and began shaking its head erratically, trying to dislodge the chunk of trunk from its mouth. While it was distracted with this, Raylix lifted himself up into the air on his Devil wings and sent a smaller, more focused shot of the Power of Destruction into one of the Wulf's eyes, which had far more of an effect on it than the other one: its eye was blown out instantly, half-blinding it. A couple of seconds later, before the Wulf fully realised what had happened, Raylix blew out the Wulf's other eye, completely blinding it.

If the Wulf wasn't angry when Raylix had forced its mouth open with the tree-trunk a few seconds ago, it was positively wild with rage now. Letting out howls of agony and rage, it thrashed around the garden, constantly swiping in Raylix's general direction. Raylix, still hanging in the air on his wings, was sane enough to keep a VERY safe distance from the Wulf's claws. A single strike from one of them, in the state that the Wulf was in now, would result in a trip to the nearest Underworld hospital, or just the end of him outright. As the Wulf made a particularly idiotic dive, Raylix flew over its head and landed on its back.

Raylix made his way to the Wulf's head, clinging onto its thick fur with at least one hand all the time to make sure he wasn't thrown off by the large beast. Once he'd made his way to the Wulf's head, he continued to hold on with one hand, and summoned a spear of demonic energy with the other. Without a second's hesitation, Raylix lifted up the spear and drove it downwards, directly into where he knew the Wulf's brain was.

After that single, decisive strike, the Wulf was dead. It didn't even have the capacity to let out a final howl as it dropped down to the ground, lying still as a statue and dead as... any other dead thing.

As soon as the Wulf had fully dropped and had stopped moving entirely, Raylix dissipated the spear from his hand, carefully stepped off of the animal's corpse, and brushed himself off after he landed on the ground. He let out a couple of breaths as the adrenaline left his body, looking up at the sound of a transportation-circle going off inside the house. A couple of seconds after the sound faded away, he heard an unmistakable voice calling out to him.

"Raylix? Raylix, are you awake?"

"I'm out here!" Raylix called out, knowing his voice would reach the house.

A couple of seconds later, the same door that Raylix had opened opened again, and Raylix's big brother Sirzechs came jogging out of the house. He paused for a second at the state of the garden in front of him, but flew down the slope towards Raylix, followed by his best friend Ajuka, a descendent of the pillar Devil Astaroth.

Ajuka looked to be around the same age as Sirzechs, and had light-blue eyes and slicked-back green hair. Dressed in dark-green robes with Astaroth's crest (a green capital 'A' with a curvy trail-like design) on his back, he had a mysterious aura around him that put Raylix slightly on edge.

"Raylix!" Sirzechs spoke, landing in front of his brother and intently looking him over, a worried look on his face. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" he looked from the destruction around the garden that both the Wulf and Raylix had brought, to the Wulf-corpse by Raylix's side. "Did you kill that Wulf all by yourself?"

"Yes, no and yes!" Raylix replied, taking a step or two back from Sirzechs' intense look. "I'm fine, Zechs. Really."

He then recounted all that had gone down during the course of the morning, as he and Sirzechs cleaned up the mess of tree-chunks and Wulf-corpse that littered the garden, while Ajuka flew off (also on ten Devil wings) where Raylix told him that the Wulf had come from, curious to see its route.

"Where are Father and Mother?" Raylix asked, looking up at Sirzechs after Ajuka had flown out of sight. Sirzechs looked from where the Wulf-corpse had been seconds ago (which he'd eliminated with his brand of the Power of Destruction, a far more effective and powerful brand than Raylix's, or even his mother's) to Raylix, sighing.

"The war council they're at is overrunning, so they're going to be in the capital for a while longer." Sirzechs replied. "Chances are they won't be home tonight. But," he smiled, opening his hand and summoning a package out a magic-circle. "What I commissioned for you was completed today, and I was able to pick it up." he handed it over to Raylix, whose eyes lit up as he took in the shape of the package, and was able to guess what was inside. "Open it."

Raylix opened the package, and a smile came across his face as he pulled out what was inside: What looked like the handle of a sword, but with a switch on it. When Raylix took the object in his hand, he was able to rest his thumb on the switch quite easily. The hilt had some noticeable weight to it, but Raylix was still able to hold it in one hand with ease. He looked up at Sirzechs, his smile still on his face, and Sirzechs grinned back down at him.

"You just have to focus your power into the hilt through your hand, and use the switch to turn it on." Sirzechs explained. "Your power will react with the thaumatite inside, and... actually, I don't quite know how it entirely works beyond that, but the point is that it'll work, right?"

Raylix did as suggested by Sirzechs, and an excited laugh escaped him when the weapon worked as intended: a meter-long blade was projected, entirely out of Raylix's own demonic power, from the hilt that he held in his hand.

"Should be easier to just focus on putting your power into the sword, rather than forming the sword and keeping it formed all the time, right?" Sirzechs asked, taking a quick step back as Raylix gave the sword a few experimental swings, testing how it felt to swing in comparison to a sword created out of pure demonic power, that Devils often summoned in battle at a second's notice.

Raylix had to agree with Sirzechs: it was absolutely easier to keep the sword's blade projected out of the hilt that he'd been given than summoning the whole weapon. He also liked how the hilt felt in his hand.

"Thanks, Zechs." Raylix replied, turning the blade off, walking over to Sirzechs and giving him a hug. "I love it."

"I'm glad you do." Sirzechs smiled, leaning down slightly so he could easily hug his little brother back. "And I'm pretty sure you'll love it even more when... well, give me the sword and I'll show you."

Raylix raised an eyebrow, but handed the sword over, allowing Sirzechs to take it in his hand and turn the blade on, this time projecting the Power of Destruction out of it. He gave the sword a couple of swings, just like Raylix had done with the sword earlier, and finished with a wide swing, sending a wave of the black and crimson energy forward from where he was standing until it hit a small clump of bushes, annihilating them all instantly.

Sirzechs had a very hard time holding back his grin when he turned the sword off and handed it back to Raylix, who practically had stars in his eyes from how cool his older brother looked.

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1499

A crimson transportation-circle, bearing a symbol that roughly resembled a rose in the middle, opened in the human world. Specifically, at the outskirts of the little village of Mikorio, an outpost for Magicians: humans who were capable of using magic.

Zeoticus, Venelana (both of whom were on leave from service in the still-going war against the Angels and Fallen Angels) and Raylix appeared out of the transportation-circle. Raylix recoiled slightly from the bright light of the human world's sun, something that Zeoticus noticed and chuckled at.

"You'll get used to it, Raylix." he remarked, giving his youngest son a gentle pat on the shoulder and guiding him towards the village that they had appeared in front of, with Venelana walking on Raylix's other side. "Though the sun is pretty bright and hot today, where we're at."

"Like the sun or not, you know what we brought you here for." Venelana spoke up, prompting Raylix to look up at her for a second, before turning his head towards the village.

"To find a Magician for me to make a Pact with. I've been told loads of times." Raylix replied. "I know, Mother."

"Well, then. Let's not waste time." Venelana replied, taking hold of Raylix's shoulder and taking over from Zeoticus in guiding him towards the village. When they reached the village, Raylix moved himself slightly away from Venelana, with a momentary look in her direction telling her quite plainly that he could walk on his own. He was thirteen years old now, not three months old.

As Raylix entered the village alongside his parents, Zeoticus brought his hand down upon his youngest son's shoulder again, prompting said youngest son to look up at him.

"You'll want to think carefully about the Magician you choose to make a Pact with, Raylix." Zeoticus explained, as they walked by the magical villagers, who all seemed to appear and look at the three Devils walking through. "Try to consider what the Magician you want to choose can offer you, in return for what they'll want from you."

"Right." Raylix replied.

"And remember," Zeoticus continued, as he, Venelana and Raylix slowed down slightly. "If the Magician you picked for your Pact turns out to have been the wrong choice, for whatever reason, it'll reflect badly on you and affect your standing in the Underworld. You'll recover from it, definitely, but I'm sure you remember that every little bit counts in our society, right?"

"Yeah..." Raylix nodded, already tuning Zeoticus' talk out slightly as he continued his walk through the village. He noticed as several, or to be more accurate most, of the Magicians that had gathered when he, Zeoticus and Venelana arrived, began displaying feats of magical prowess in very obvious attempts to impress the teenage Devil, and potentially tempt him into choosing them to make a Pact with over everyone else.

As Zeoticus and Venelana guided Raylix through the village in silence, the young Devil observed with interest as Magicians displayed their magical ability in various ways: summoning creatures that Raylix recognised as native to other supernatural realms and showing them off (obviously implying that they were strong enough to subdue such creatures), conjuring impressive-looking structures, or showing off examples of complicated magics with apparent ease. Raylix was captivated for a few moments by a trio of Magicians who evidently decided to get in a fight with each other over what they figured would be Raylix's attention.

Raylix had to jump out of the way of the body of one of the Magicians, who was blown to the ground by an attack from a different Magician, before Zeoticus and Venelana kept guiding him through different areas of the village, trying to get him to see every possible Magician in the area. Even the few female ones who, rather than try to impress the young Gremory with their magic, had taken to just dressing in garb that showed off a lot of their bodies in order to catch Raylix's attention in... other ways.

It was pretty clear that neither Zeoticus or Venelana didn't like the idea of Raylix making a Pact with any Magician that tried to seduce him into it, as they steered him away from them slightly more forcefully than any of the other Magicians that Raylix stopped to watch: particularly a fair-skinned Magician with wavy honey-brown hair and green eyes, who used a thick book to prop up her impressive bust, which already stretched the elegant purple and white dress that she wore...

Raylix didn't get much time to look at that Magician in particular as Venelana steered him away from her, and back into the village square.

"Have you seen any Magicians that you're interested in, Raylix?" Zeoticus asked. "Anyone that could make for a potential Pact?"

"Maybe." Raylix replied. "A couple might have caught my eye. Mind if I go and look around on my own?"

"Not at all." Venelana shook her head, patting Raylix on the shoulder and smiling down at him. "Just make sure to stay in the village. And if I might make a suggestion... don't make a pact with any of the Magicians like the one back there." she added, making a pointed look up the road they'd just come down, where the big-busted honey-brown-haired Magician that she'd steered him away from was at.

"Thought so." Raylix replied, taking a couple of steps away from his parents. "And I won't."

Zeoticus and Venelana watched their son leave their sight, and walked towards an elderly-looking Magician who was making their way towards them, Zeoticus' own Pact Magician, a warm smile on his face.

Meanwhile, Raylix wandered around Mikorio, getting another look at all the Magicians, most of whom all still did their best to impress Raylix in various ways. The trio of Magicians who he'd seen get in a fight with each other seemed to have finished their fight, with a blond well-built man with slicked-back hair seeming to have come out on top, lightning sparking in his hands as he smirked over his two unconscious opponents.

Raylix walked past, putting that blond guy on the list of possible Magicians to talk to later, as another Magician caught his eye: a good-looking woman with very long blonde hair, in what looked like a hybrid between a suit and a tight dress, which was stretched even tighter by her bust. Though she was absolutely an attractive woman, the fact that she had a bowl of some mysterious-looking... stuff, held in her hands, didn't help her image, in Raylix's opinion.

But who knows? Maybe it was good for you. But Raylix wasn't exactly interested in sticking around and finding out, even if the woman who was staring him down had a really nice set of tits on her...

Taking a breath and turning away from the busty witch with the bowl, Raylix continued his walk throughout Mikorio, almost making it to the entrance to the village, where he, Zeoticus and Venelana had walked into several minutes earlier. As he did so, another female Magician caught his eye: a gorgeous young woman who looked to be a few years older than he was, at the very least, with back-length scarlet hair. She had part of her hair done into braids that framed either side of her face, and dark brown eyes. Rather than anything that made her body super eye-catching, like most of the other female Magicians in the village seemed to be wearing today, she wore a simple white cloak around herself, and held a light-brown staff in her right hand. Said staff was pointed at a nearby tree, with said nearby tree glowing with a scarlet aura that Raylix recognised as magical energy.

Slightly curious at what the Magician was doing, Raylix stopped to watch them. From a safe distance, obviously.

His interest was further piqued when the tree seemed to force itself out of the ground, with its roots now serving as functional legs, able to hold it up. It also sprouted branches, around where arms would reasonably be on its trunk. It then stepped towards the scarlet-haired Magician who had, seemingly, endowed it with human-like attributes and sentience. Raylix continued to watch as the Magician pointed her staff at the tree again, with the scarlet aura around it intensifying.

After a couple of seconds, the scarlet aura seemed to travel inside of the tree itself, and the Magician stepped towards the tree, resting her other hand on the tree and closing her eyes, almost like she was magically sensing for something. After a couple of seconds, Raylix could only assume that she was satisfied with whatever she had been looking for, as as she stepped back, he could see a smile on her face.

The Magician seemed to finally notice Raylix, as she turned around to look upon where he was standing. After a couple of seconds of taking in Raylix's appearance, she did that small thing when one exhales through their nose at something they found slightly amusing.

"Like what you see?" she asked. "I know I'm beautiful, but I don't think what I'm wearing is showing me off all that well. Or am I wrong?"

"What?" Raylix blinked, before what the Magician asked really set in. "It's not that!" he replied, a second later. "I was just... watching what you were doing with that tree."

"Ahh." the Magician replied, looking from the tree and back to Raylix. "Impressed by my Enchantment, huh?"

"So that's what you were doing is called." Raylix remarked, taking a step or two closer to the Magician and her tree.

"Yes." she replied. "Oh, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Irene." she inclined her head to Raylix. "I guess you're the young Devil that's apparently making a Pact today. Raylix, right?"

"That's right." Raylix answered. "So, what's with the 'Enchantment' you were doing?"

"Well, it was multiple." Irene explained. "Bringing the tree to life was a separate thing entirely, but after that, I layered three Enchantments onto it at once. One that enhances the tree's movement speed, one that enhances its physical offensive capabilities, and another that enhances its defensive capabilities. It's a fast-moving tank that can deal out high damage, and it's completely under my control."

"Sounds interesting. And useful." Raylix replied, looking the tree up and down, before looking back at Irene. "How does it work, exactly? The Enchantment, that is, how do you do it?"

"Well, Enchantments also go by Augmentations, which I think explains it better." Irene replied, sitting down on a nearby rock. "It's a matter of projecting magical energy and attaching it to an object or being, with the calculations needed to perform the augmentation you want. It can be something simple like the three Enchantments I just told you about, or something more complex."

"Like?"

Thoroughly interested now, Raylix sat down on a different rock, a pace or two away from Irene, who smirked.

"Got your attention, have I, little Devil?" she remarked. "That's fine. Well, since Enchantment's not exactly a field of magic that's studied too often, not like something simpler like elemental, healing or sealing, I've had to make my own way when it comes to Enchantments, as in literally make my own. Or at least theories of possible Enchantments. And yes, before you ask, it's very hard."

"I... wasn't going to ask that, I just assumed that it was." Raylix replied. "But what Enchantments have you made? Or theorized can be made, I guess?"

"I made, and can do, one that temporarily turns someone, or multiple people, into mindless berserkers with increased abilities." Irene explained. "Goes without saying that it could definitely help turn the tide of a battle, when used right."

"Oh yeah." Raylix nodded. "Especially considering what's going on in the Underworld right now. And in Heaven as well, I guess."

"The ongoing war that the Devils and Lilim are wrapped up in with the Angels and Fallen Angels?" Irene surmised.

Raylix silently nodded.

"Well, anyway." Irene continued. "Another Enchantment I've theorized was one that allows the attacks of anyone I Enchant to be extra-effective against certain species, depending on how I modify the Enchantment. So, I could Enchant someone- you, for instance- to allow your attacks to have extra effectiveness against... I don't know, Werewolves, just for an example. If you were going into a fight with a particularly powerful Werewolf, but couldn't utilise its traditional weaknesses for whatever reason, it'd be a useful Enchantment to have."

"Incredibly." Raylix replied. "Depending on how powerful that Enchantment from you is, and how powerful the being you Enchant is, the results could be... insane."

"Very much so." Irene nodded. "But there's another Enchantment I've theorised, but never been able to try on a large scale." she reached for her staff and idly tapped the ground with it. "It's an Enchantment cast on the ground, and is theoretically able to alter the geography of the very ground we're on right now. Or any ground I cast the Enchantment on, really."

"Damn." Raylix replied. "Sounds crazy. But there's got to be drawbacks to an Enchantment like that, right?"

"Well, when I practice it on a smaller scale, I'm able to rearrange the location of stuff like trees, rocks, and even people." Irene explained. "However, when I do, the things that get rearranged are completely random. One time I try, I don't end up being shifted much at all. The next time I try, I'm standing at the top of a hill fifty miles away and I'm able to see this tree," she gestured to the tree she had Enchanted earlier, which still stood silently beside her "at the bottom of it. I don't think I need to explain the problem with something like that."

"Definitely not." Raylix replied. "Though I'm sure you'd be able to find a use for an Enchantment like that somehow."

"Yeah, hopefully." Irene nodded, looking up and past Raylix. Raylix turned around, looking where Irene was looking, and saw Zeoticus and Venelana approaching the pair of them. As they approached, Raylix stood up.

"Found someone, Raylix?" Venelana spoke first, looking from Irene (who had also stood up) to Raylix.

"I... I think so." Raylix replied, turning around as both his parents smiled at each other, then at their son. He looked at Irene, and opened his mouth to speak, but she was quicker.

"Want to make a Pact with me, right?" she asked. After Raylix stared at her, mouth still open, for a second, before nodding, she shrugged. "Sure. Let's do it."

And within minutes, the Mage Pact between Raylix and Irene had been drawn up (both parties agreed on a period of ten years before the possibility of renewing the Pact could be discussed) and signed, and Raylix, Zeoticus and Venelana left Mikorio for the Underworld, all three Devils satisfied with how things had turned out.

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1502

Raylix knew that this day would come.

Around the time that he'd turned eleven, Zeoticus and Venelana had taken him aside and told him about the ongoing war between the Devils and Lilim- led by Lucifer, Lilith and the other three Satans (Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus)-, the Fallen Angels- led by Azazel- and the Angels, led by Yahweh, the God of the Bible.

No-one on any of the three sides even knew how the war had even started, but what was known was that it'd been going on for three and a half decades, since before Raylix had even been born. And it had continued on, and on, and on... until now. Sixteen years since Raylix's birth, a servant of Lucifer himself had arrived at Zeoticus' residence to inform him, Venelana and Raylix that Raylix would now have to join the war effort against the Fallen Angels and Angels.

It wasn't a thought that anyone in Raylix's family relished, but they had no choice but to accept and wait for the next battle, which Raylix would be sent into. Ever since that wait began, Raylix had taken to sitting quietly in the gardens of his home, where he had trained to fight since he was young. As he played with the Hell Saber that Sirzechs had given him five years ago, the only thought that persisted in his mind was one of hope that the skills and techniques he'd picked up during the time he'd trained himself would help him survive during what was to come.

The sound of a transportation-circle forming a few paces away from Raylix prompted the teenage Devil to look up. He smiled slightly as Irene popped out of the transport-circle, and took a second to take in the outfit she had formed for herself and currently wore: she had forgone the white cloak she wore when she and Raylix first met, instead choosing to wear a simple black dress that was tight enough to accentuate her body, which, while nowhere close to Venelana, or most other female Devils in terms of voluptuousness, was certainly a sight to behold by human standards.

"Irene." Raylix spoke, standing up as his Pact Mage approached him, a neutral expression on her face. "Glad you could make it."

"Raylix." Irene replied, looking Raylix up and down. "My payment?"

Raylix opened his hand and summoned the 'payment' that he and Irene had agreed upon beforehand, in exchange for her lending her services to Raylix during the upcoming battle: a bag of uncut thaumatite crystals.

The exchange was silent and quick. After taking the bag from Raylix, Irene took a quick look through it, and a smile crossed her lips as she seemed to be satisfied by what Raylix had given her, before placing the bag of crystals in a pocket-dimension of sorts with little more than a thought.

"Thank you." Irene thanked Raylix, shifting slightly closer to him. "The amount you gave me, that'll be enough for two years at the very least. If I don't, well..."

"Don't feel pressured to keep fighting, no matter what, just because I'm paying you to, Irene." Raylix spoke across her. "This isn't your fight, I know that well. If you need to run for your life, do it. I won't hold it against you."

Irene looked over at Raylix in surprise, the faintest of blushes coming to her face as she did so, though she quickly turned away when Raylix looked back at her. The younger Gremory child opened his mouth to speak to his Pact Mage again, but whatever he was about to say was interrupted as a magic-circle appeared by his ear. Raylix reached up and touched the circle, answering the call.

"Yeah? ...Got it. See you in a minute, Father."

The circle disappeared from Raylix's ear, as Raylix turned to Irene.

"I'm assuming it's time?" Irene asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah." Raylix replied. "It's time."