As the transportation-circle containing one of his subordinate soldiers and the younger brother of his best friend closed and disappeared from the castle grounds, Ajuka Astaroth let out a small sigh of relief. If Raylix had died on the battlefield, by the personal hand of one of the leaders of the Royals Faction no less, he was sure that Sirzechs would have gone on a one-Devil rampage against the Royals, and personally killed every last one of them as revenge.
That would (probably) be good for the Underworld, as the months-long civil war that they'd been trapped in would be brought to a very sharp end, but he was also sure that Sirzechs would have never recovered from the death of his only sibling. Which, as his best friend, Ajuka didn't want to see anything close to that.
But that hypothetical future didn't matter now, as Raylix was safe, as Ajuka hung on his own ten Devil wings, a couple of dozen meters away from the very woman who had almost killed Raylix: Tsufaame Tereaku Leviathan. It went without saying that, if he was able to do so, bringing her down would deal a major blow to the Royals, and give the Anti-Royals a strong advantage in the civil war.
A series of fast-moving balls of condensed demonic energy, each of which powerful enough to kill (or at least severely injure) an Ultimate-Class Devil, came flying at Ajuka, who brought up a barrier to keep them from hitting him. As Tsufaame slowly descended, glaring down at the green-haired Devil as she did so, Ajuka made a couple of small movements with his hands, calling upon his immense reserves of natural power. Tsufaame blinked a couple of times when she saw what looked like dozens of Ajukas flying upwards to meet her, with them all arranging themselves around her in unison. It was impossible to tell at a glance where the real Ajuka was.
'Opening the fight with a duplication spell?' the daughter of Leviathan thought. 'Cowardly. But... not the worst idea in the world.'
All the dozens of Ajukas (Tsufaame counted at least fifty), in perfect unison, began to charge up what looked like powerful beams of demonic energy. She poured her demonic energy, of which she surely possessed far more than that of ANY descendant of one of the Pillars, into a barrier that, rather than hold it in any one direction, she expanded and wrapped all around herself, wearing it like a full bodysuit, just in time for all the various Ajukas to fire off their lasers of demonic energy.
Tsufaame's confidence in her own power was seemingly justified as all the energy-lasers that were fired off at her, from every direction, harmlessly bounced off of the barrier that she had wrapped around herself. She couldn't help herself, and burst into laughter as she let out an omnidirectional wave of energy that wiped out all the Ajuka's, who all let out their own death-cries as they fell to the ground below.
"You REALLY thought that your little light-show could hurt me?!" Tsufaame asked incredulously, through her laughter as she dispelled the barrier she had formed. "The arrogance of you Pillar-descendants never ceases to amuse me! As does your refusal to accept that, in every possible way, the Satans and us- their descendants- will always reign above you-"
Tsufaame's arrogant declaration was cut short by a yell of pain. She found herself involuntarily flying slightly forward due to a rather strong force striking her in the back. Whirling around in mid-air, Leviathan's daughter narrowed her eyes as she saw Ajuka floating a dozen or so meters away from her, holding out his hand, having clearly cast the attack that had hit Tsufaame.
No... he hadn't just hit her, a rightful Queen of Hell. He'd outsmarted her, with his little duplication-trick.
He'd HURT her. She could feel the shock of the attack still in and around her body, and the sting of the attack itself from where it struck her back. She also felt a warm liquid beginning to run down her back, originating from exactly where in her back Ajuka's attack had hit her... he'd made her bleed.
Tsufaame's colour may have been purple, but at that moment... she just saw red.
Letting out a scream of rage that sounded more like it came from a wild animal than a Devil, Tsufaame became engulfed in a hazy blue light, and seemed to grow in size from within that light. She grew so much that Ajuka had to back up several feet, so Tsufaame's growth wouldn't end up hitting him. By the time her growth was over, Ajuka wasn't looking at Tsufaame anymore.
Well, technically he WAS, but he was looking at her in a form that would make any regular Devil simultaneously piss and shit themselves with pure fear: Tsufaame had transformed herself into a gigantic flying Sea Serpent, a literal Leviathan. At least twenty meters long and with blue and purple scales, Tsufaame didn't wait to allow Ajuka a good look at her in the form she accessed through her mother's power- Sea Serpent of the End- instead, she opened her mouth and fired a beam of demonic energy out of it, a beam that seemed to make straight for Ajuka.
Ajuka, still hanging in the air on his wings, floated to one side, dodging the beam of demonic energy easily enough. Such a predictable and boring opening move, he thought, Tsufaame's Super-Class power was the only thing that kept him from having defeated her already. Though Ajuka had dodged Tsufaame's energy-beam, the town that they fought on the outskirts of wasn't lucky enough to escape the blast, and even from his position within the ruins of the Gusion castle, Ajuka could see the damage that was done by Tsufaame's direct hit on it. If the Great War hadn't been enough to ruin the town, then that energy-beam would most certainly have done it.
Tusfaame let out a roar, and flapped what looked like her fins (which resembled wings, more than anything), and summoned countless magic-circles around and above her Leviathan-like body, all of which began to seemingly charge up. After letting out another roar, she unleashed the power that had been charging up in those magic-circles, sending many, many forms and versions of magical attacks all at Ajuka. Just from a glance, the green-haired genius could tell that Tsufaame must have had at least strong control over Demonic (of both the Devil and Lilim variants), Norse, Black, White, Fairy, Spirit, Olympus, Zoroastrian and all possible elemental combinations of magic.
She was clearly an expert: wholly justified due to her long life and immense amounts of training that she must have done in hopes of succeeding her mother as one of the rulers of Hell. But that hardly mattered to Ajuka, who simply extended one of his hands forward towards the barrage of attacks flying towards him and... stopped them all in their tracks.
Tsufaame could only let out a screech of "WHAT?!" before Ajuka raised his hand, seemingly taking control of all the magical attacks that she had sent at him and sending them up into the dark-purple Underworld sky. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!" she screamed, flying down at Ajuka, dragonic jaws agape and hoping to eat him alive, rather than overpower him with magic. If he could seemingly take control of any attacks she fired at him, then what was the point of firing any more at him?
As she came down at him at speed, jaws agape, Ajuka activated a transportation-circle on himself just as she reached him and began closing her mouth around him, disappearing from her mouth milliseconds before Tsufaame's dragonic jaws snapped shut. Leviathan's daughter came to a stop in mid-air, chewing the air for a couple of seconds in hopes that she would find Ajuka's mangled body inside her mouth. Upon realisation that Ajuka was, in fact, not inside her mouth, Ajuka lowered the hand that he'd used to send all of Tsufaame's magical shots up into the air, bringing them all back down upon their original caster and enhancing them with his own power.
Further screams, these ones of mixed pain and anger rather than simply apoplectic rage, came from Tsufaame as the very magical spells and bolts that she had thrown at the insect that now buzzed around behind her were returned to her with pinpoint precision. While most of the attacks simply struck her dragonic scales and fizzled out there and then, the ones that DID make it through that line of physical defence and flew into her flesh like bullets... hurt. A lot. It certainly didn't help her case that, in spite of the higher natural defences that she possessed in Leviathan-form, there was just... more of her that was possible to hit than if she was in her more regular, sexier (according to most) human-like form.
The last of the magical bolts that Ajuka sent back at her fizzled away on Tsufaame's scales, and though she bled profusely from all the fresh wounds that the more powerful attacks had opened on, in and around her body, that still didn't stop her from raising herself up into the air, turning around and trying to rush at Ajuka again, sure that she would be able to destroy him in spite of how he had gotten her before. However, unlike before, where she'd managed to get to where Ajuka was floating at (before he teleported away at the last second. How annoying of him), she was suddenly brought to a halt mid-flight by what looked like another barrier, which the green-haired insect in front of her seemed to have cast at the last second.
It was powerful enough to repel Leviathan's wounded daughter, who bounced off of it, slightly dazed. Before she could recover and try to fly at Ajuka again from a different angle, Ajuka snapped his fingers. The barrier between him and Tsufaame moved forward, and seemed to engulf her, wrapping around her similarly to the barrier she had formed against all the duplications of Ajuka earlier in the fight. She was essentially trapped, no matter how much she physically strained to try and get out of the barrier that Ajuka had wrapped around her.
As she struggled, both magically and physically, to escape the barrier, Ajuka floated down and... simply looked at her in silence. He knew that Tsufaame would be able to escape the seal/barrier that he'd set up around her in time, as he hadn't set it up to be anything permanent. Though in the back of his mind, he hoped that her break-out of the barrier would come later rather than sooner. It would allow him more time to set up his next- and hopefully last- trap for her, after all.
It took about a minute for Tsufaame to finally blast her way out of the barrier that Ajuka had formed around her, after which- rather than instantly try to attack Ajuka again, she looked down at him, with an... interesting expression on her dragonic face.
"I think I remember you, from the files on Devils that are the most dangerous to the Royals." she spoke, her voice coming out as a half-coherent hiss. A diplomatic-sounding hiss, but a hiss all the same. "Ajuka Astaroth, the one who controls techniques and laws. With your study and mastery over demonic power, what you're able to do with it as a result, and your reserves being of the highest rank... is there anyone who can match you?"
"Sirzechs, probably." Ajuka replied. "If you know about me, then you're sure to know about him, right? Since, if I remember right, he has the highest raw reserves of demonic power out of ANY Devil still alive today. You've surely got files on someone like that, right?"
"Certainly." Tsufaame hissed as a reply. "That was his little brother you just saved, right? If only you hadn't done that, I'd have loved to have fought Sirzechs so I could kill him. That would've dealt a serious blow to your band of traitors."
"Assuming that you even saw Sirzechs coming, I would probably get more interest out of getting out of bed in the morning and brushing my teeth than I would out of a fight between you and him." Ajuka remarked, his tone of voice not changing at all. Tsufaame growled, narrowing her eyes at the Devil in front of her.
"Are you mocking me, Pillar?!" she asked, her hissing-voice lowering a little.
"If you truly reigned above me in EVERY possible way, wouldn't the answer to that be obvious to you?" Ajuka replied with his own question, brushing off something that had landed on the clothes he was wearing.
Letting out a screech of rage, Tsufaame dived down at Ajuka, her jaws opened wide in a third attempt to eat him alive. Third time had to be the charm, right?
'Nope.' Ajuka thought, dodging out of the way of Tsufaame's dive for a third time, and waving his hand in a complicated motion while doing so. As Tsufaame dived past Ajuka, the trap that the oldest child of Agmath and Vynia Astaroth activated the trap that he'd been setting up the whole time. The Leviathan let out a screech of surprise and anger as she found herself suddenly dragged downwards by a powerful gravitational spell, with that screech becoming one of pain as she landed on the ground, where large spikes of demonic energy flew out of the ground, impaling her in multiple places.
Tsufaame could only struggle against the trap, cursing herself for falling into another trap, as Ajuka floated down, to the point that he rested a few feet above Tsufaame's head lay. Speaking of her head, no sooner did Tsufaame feel her dragonic head released from the powerful gravitational spell that the rest of her body remained under did she feel her head begin to move, involuntarily, toward Ajuka. She looked towards him, and saw that he had extended his hand towards her, and seemed to be pulling her head away from her body with another gravitational-like spell.
"I highly recommend surrendering, Tsufaame." Ajuka remarked. "If you co-operate with us, I'm sure a place can be found for you in the post-war Underworld."
"Never!" Tsufaame screamed back at him, struggling madly against the strong gravitational spell that Ajuka had cast on the rest of her body, in spite of how her vision swam from all the lost blood due to being shot through and impaled so many times. "I'm the daughter of Leviathan, I will NEVER surrender to the ruined Underworld that you traitors plan on making! Making peace with Fallen Angels and Angels, letting the Lilim go independent, you'll destroy everything that the Satans worked so hard to make!
Ajuka sighed.
"Well, I can't say I didn't try." he remarked to himself as he increased the force of the spell on his hand, pulling Tsufaame's head with more force and forcing out another yell of pain from her. "If that unhinged way of thinking is how you truly feel, Tsufaame... then I'm sorry, but the Underworld has no need of you." Tsufaame let out one final scream of anger and pain, before her dragonic head... was ripped from her body, killing her.
Her impaled body slumped to the ground, and Ajuka dropped her ripped-off head the second it came off, allowing it to land on the ground with a thud.
There were no more major Royals Faction leaders in the area, and the news of the deaths of one of the Royals' three leaders would surely compel any Royals soldier left standing to surrender... or at the very least, to kill themselves. The mission to secure the Gusion castle town... was a success.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
It had been a couple of days since Ajuka's victory over Tsufaame Leviathan. Anti-Royals soldiers had moved into the Gusion castle town (or what was left of it), fully secured the area, and rebuilding could now begin. The other important areas of territory formerly governed by Pillar Gusion had also been secured, effectively meaning that Gusion territory had been reclaimed as Anti-Royals territory, rather than Royals.
Celebrations were had among a majority of the Anti-Royals, with Ajuka becoming the undisputed most popular Devil in the Underworld practically overnight, once word of his disposal of one of the Royals' three top leaders got out. Truth be told, the twenty-three Devils that Zekram had called into his castle also held celebratory feelings, but they weren't there to celebrate. They were there to discuss very important affairs.
Or at least, important affairs according to Zekram. Whether the other Devils in the room, direct children of the deceased Pillars Agares, Vassago, Gamigin, Amon, Sallos, Purson, Marax, Naberius, Glasya-Labolas, Astaroth, Forneus, Asmoday, Furfur, Stolas, Phenex, Shax, Balam, Gremory, Andrealphus, Amduscias, Belial, Decarabia and Dantalion, thought the same... remained to be seen.
"Thank you all for gathering here." Zekram spoke, to everyone in the room, who all relaxed in some variation of comfort within his expansive living room. "It's been a hard several months for the Anti-Royals, but with one of the Royals' leaders now gone, and there only being two major leaders left, it's safe to say that we've gained a major advantage in this conflict."
There were murmurs of agreement all around the room, as Zekram sat down in a particularly large, comfortable-looking chair.
"And if we press this advantage hard enough, I'm sure that we can end things very soon. Hopefully within another six months." he continued, calmly looking at everyone sat in front of him. "Hopefully, I'll still have your co-operation during that process."
Further words of ascent rose from all the Devils in the room. Some sounded more insistent about it than others, but no-one in the room remained silent, or turned Zekram down.
"Good." he spoke. "Now, to get down to business. I've been thinking, for a while actually... about replacements for the Satans."
His declaration was met with silence among all those gathered, initially, but one Devil spoke up quickly, voicing the first thought on everyone's minds.
"What do you mean, 'replacements for the Satans', Zekram?" Milromon Agares, a tan-skinned man with short blond hair, spoke.
"I mean choosing the Devils that will lead us into the future." Zekram replied. "Let's be honest here, the old Satans definitely knew how to keep order in the Underworld while they were still alive. With them gone, order is something that Devilkind will desperately need once this civil war ends."
"Why not become Satans ourselves?" Galgez, the son of Marax, spoke up. "Once Bidleid and Damaidosu are killed, just like Tsufaame was, and with the original 72 Pillars all dead, we'll be the oldest Devils around. Wouldn't it make more sense to just directly take power, like you seem to have already, Zekram?"
"Firstly, I must point out that I haven't, and don't intend, to personally rule over Devilkind." Zekram replied. "I only chose to act on Devilkind's behalf in affairs with other factions, like the Lilim, until society could be rebuilt in the aftermath of the Great War. However, for obvious reasons, that period of rebuilding just has to be... delayed, a bit. And secondly, building on my original point about returning to order, choosing four exceptional Devils- which might or might not include heroes from this very civil war- to serve as supposed rulers of the Devils, perhaps even bestowing the titles of Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Asmodeus unto them, sounds like an easier enough way to restore order among Devilkind than directly taking power for ourselves. It would require less work on our end, too."
"Are you getting at what I think you're getting at, Zekram?" Atinoth, daughter of Decarabia, asked. "You said 'supposed' rulers. Are you... ohhh. I'm in."
Zekram smiled, and silently nodded at Atinoth. The other old Devils looked at Atinoth, then at Zekram, as they each caught up to what the son of Bael seemed to be implying, at their own paces. One by one, all twenty-two of the other old Devils in attendance expressed their support for Zekram's plans, an act which very much pleased him.
"Good, good." he spoke, adjusting his position on his chair to get comfortable again, before continuing. "With that out of the way, how about we get back to the matter at hand? Thinking of potential candidates for the new Satans?"
"How about Ajuka?" Duthuur, son of Astaroth, spoke up. "With how he brought down Leviathan's daughter, he's an obvious pick for a future Satan!"
"I'm sure that's the only reason you're nominating him, Duthuur." Alcina, Gremory's daughter, spoke up for the first time since arriving at Zekram's castle. "Although, I don't disagree with the idea of your grandson leading us. He's clearly exceptionally powerful, and his intellect is second-to-none. However, there's a caveat..."
"Yes, he only seems to put effort into whatever seems to interest him." Duthurr replied. "He's always drawing up ideas for some invention or another, whenever I run into him at least. Convincing him that becoming one of the Devils' next leaders will definitely be a challenge."
"We'll handle that later." Zekram replied. "I, as well, concur with the idea of Ajuka as a new Satan. Any objections?"
Silence.
"Very well." Zekram continued. "Ajuka is our first candidate. Now, any other suggestions?"
"How about Sirzechs?" Kigozath, daughter of Pillar Shax, spoke up. "In contrast to Ajuka, his power among living Devils is second-to-none. He's also great friends with Ajuka, so if he were to be convinced to become one of the new Satans, then wouldn't it be easier to convince Ajuka?"
"Possibly." Zekram replied. "And I was about to suggest Sirzechs, myself. Any objections to him?"
Silence, again.
"Very well." Zekram spoke, again, waving his hand to project a list in front of him, which he added Ajuka and Sirzechs' names to with a thought. "Now, let's keep going."
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
"Unngh..."
The first sound out of Raylix's mouth as he returned to consciousness was a low groan. His eyes began to slide open, but open being confronted with the bright lights of... wherever he was now, Raylix forced his eyes back shut with another groan. Though his eyes were shut, he heard the sounds of movement from people that weren't him, quite close by. Evidently, someone had noticed that he wasn't unconscious anymore.
"Raylix?" he heard a male voice, one that he was extremely familiar with, extremely close to him. "Son?"
Raylix opened his mouth to answer his father, but all that came out of his mouth in place of words was a large yawn. The kind that came when you'd woken up from an extremely long sleep... or hadn't slept in ages. Judging by the comfort of whatever it was that Raylix was lying on, he guessed that it was the former. He tried to open his eyes again, but the same bright light from before wormed its way into his eyes the instant that he tried, forcing him to close them again. Seconds later, he could tell from behind his eyelids that the bright light was being reduced, after which Raylix felt it safe to attempt to open his eyes for a third time, and see where he really was.
He seemed to be lying in a bed in a medical facility of some kind. It was rather sparse, at least when compared to Raylix's own bedroom back home, but about the same size. There was a small table on the right side of his bed, above which some devices hung on the wall, presumably to monitor his condition. There was also a window to his left, through which the dark-purple Underworld sky could be seen.
The walls were blank, and there was a single door to his right, which was presently closed. There were three chairs gathered around his bed: two on the left, one on the right. Zeoticus was sat in one of the chairs situated to Raylix's left. And speaking of Raylix himself, he wasn't in the same attire that he remembered putting on, the last morning that he remembered. Rather, his clothing had been switched out for a familiarly comfortable pair of pyjamas.
"Da- Fath-?" Raylix tried to speak, before suddenly breaking out into a string of coughs. He hadn't realised it before he attempted to speak, but his throat- and the inside of his mouth in general- was dry as a bone, which understandably impaired his ability to speak.
Almost instantly, Zeoticus had a large cup of water summoned into his hands, and he'd stood up and walked over to Raylix's bed, before offering him the drink. Raylix gladly accepted, and also accepted his father holding the cup and tilting the cool, refreshing liquid into his mouth. After a couple of mouthfuls, Zeoticus pulled the cup back, allowing Raylix to take a couple of breaths.
"That better?" Zeoticus asked, levitating the cup over to the bedside table that Raylix was on, before sitting back down.
"Yeah. Thanks." Raylix replied, nodding as he slowly sat up. He groaned lightly as he did so: his body felt really stiff. "How... long has it been? Since... the castle town!" Raylix widened his eyes. "The mountains, Gusoyn Field! Did... did we win?"
Zeoticus let out a light chuckle.
"We did. Thanks to a combination of your opening efforts, and the reinforcements that arrived at those areas... we won, as you put it." he replied. "And to answer your earlier question, I believe it's been about forty hours since you were brought to this facility, so nearly two days. You must be hungry." He continued, adding a small laugh at the end. "Venelana and Sirzechs just went out to see about getting something to eat for all of us- including you, in case you woke up. I'm sure they'll be back soon with something you'll like."
Raylix remained silent as he mentally acknowledged what Zeoticus had said his mind shifted from the sudden overdrive that it'd shot up to back down to a more normal level of functioning. Two days since the battles at the Gusion castle, Gusoyn Field and the Gusion/Barbatos border. Since everything that had happened in those battles. Since...
"How many?" Raylix asked, his voice coming out as barely more than a whisper.
"Sorry?" Zeoticus looked over from the door, the other side of which he could hear faint movement from, back to Raylix, who had reached down at the bedsheets and clutched at them.
"How many of my own subordinates did I kill?" Raylix asked. "Thanks to the ambushes that I sent them into? We could've handled them all, one at a time, if I'd just... led everyone at once and gone for each location one at a time, rather than trying to secure all three locations at once!"
"Raylix..." Zeoticus leaned in to try and comfort his son, but Raylix leant backwards, now clutching his head.
"The Royals had to have sent the same number of soldiers to the numbers I encountered at the castle town..." he mumbled, through his hands. "We could've taken them... We could've taken them, Satan-damn it! We wouldn't have been caught so off-guard by those Royals, we would've won, and-"
"And then what?" Sirzechs' voice cut cross his little brother's as the door to his hospital room opened. He stepped through the door, holding a couple of plates filled with food, with Venelana following with two similarly-filled plates. Almost the second that Venelana had the opportunity to put the plates down, she did so and had her arms around her youngest son, grasping him in a tight hug.
"As far as I heard, Tsufaame Leviathan herself showed up soon after you beat Voxnihr- nice one by the way- and almost killed you." Sirzechs continued. "Had the rest of the brigade you were assigned been at the Gusion castle town with you, they would almost certainly all have died against Tsufaame, had they the opportunity to go up against her alongside you."
Raylix's hands dropped from his face as he looked up at Sirzechs. The younger sibling seemed to be holding back tears as Sirzechs knelt down, so his and Raylix's faces were on a level with each other.
"You think you're the only one who's messed up during an operation?" Sirzechs asked, quietly. "You think I, Father, Mother, we haven't all messed up as well? That we don't think about what could've happened, had we done something differently, made a different call?"
"N-no..." Raylix replied, quietly. He blinked a couple of times as Sirzechs moved closer, placing a hand on one of Raylix's.
"You may have messed up, Raylix." Sirzechs continued. "Everyone does. But in spite of your messing-up, however bad you think you may have done so nearly two days ago, you're still here. And that gives you the chance to learn, and try again. And thanks to the fact that you messed up, you'll carry that experience of messing-up into the future, so you won't mess up again... hopefully." he added the last word as a sort of afterthought, even flashing a small grin at Raylix that, in turn, drew out a small chuckle from his little brother.
"Sirzechs is right, Raylix." Zeoticus spoke up. "Whatever your mistakes may have been, you can't dwell on them. Learn from them, yes, but they're in the past now. Got it?"
Raylix nodded, and accepted the plate of food that Venelana offered him. He picked up one of the fried Byrd-wings that was on the plate, and tore into the meat with his teeth.
"Will I have to stay here too long?" he asked with his mouth full, changing the subject.
"No." Venelana replied, summoning one of the plates from the bedside table onto her lap. "After all the water in your lungs was removed from your body, and Phoenix Tears were administered to heal you from whatever else that Leviathan bitch did to you," her tone became uncharacteristically cold for a couple of seconds, before returning to normal. "We were all just waiting for you to wake up. And now, you have. So once we're done eating, we can go home."
"Phoenix Tears?" Raylix repeated, finishing off the Byrd-wing he presently had in his hands before picking up the next one.
"Yeah." Sirzechs replied. "From Ruvella, actually. I believe you've met her."
Raylix nodded.
"You're lucky to be able to receive them and get yourself quickly healed; you know." Sirzechs continued. "With only two Devils of Phenex's blood left alive now, they're extremely hard to come by. Which is unfortunate, considering how many come in injured. Particularly soldiers from your group... or what few there were left, as a result of yesterday's battles."
"Right..." Raylix replied, putting down his second fried wing. He suddenly wasn't in much of a mood to eat, anymore, thanks to the reminder of yesterday's screw-up. Then a horrible thought struck him. "Wait... Sabemka, Tomosei. Did they...?"
"No." Venelana replied, putting a caring hand on Raylix's shoulder. "I know how much your fellow commanders mean to you, given how much you've been through together. I made sure to check up on them while you were out, and... they'll live. Recover, even. But they definitely didn't make it out of the Gusion/Barbatos mountains, or away from Gusoyn Field, unscathed..."
Raylix's blood ran cold. Zeoticus, Venelana and Sirzechs all let out various sounds of surprise as Raylix suddenly flung the covers off of his hospital bed and jumped out, landing on the floor and making for the door.
"Where are they?"
It didn't take long for Raylix to make his way to the room that his two best friends apparently shared, as it was a mercifully short distance from where he himself had woken up at. But, as Sirzechs had all-but-confirmed with his words, it was immediately obvious that they hadn't gotten Phoenix Tears like he had.
Tomosei seemed to have gotten off the better out of herself and Sabemka. There were several cuts and slashes on her face and arms, some definitely deeper than others, but from experience, Raylix knew that those kinds of injuries would naturally heal even without Phoenix Tears, maybe leave light scars at worst. The thing that most stuck out on his female friend, however, was a thick bandage wrapped around her head, with a medical patch covering her left eye... or where it was supposed to be.
"Blown out by a stray spell, apparently." Sirzechs remarked, as soon as he saw where Raylix was looking.
Raylix didn't respond as Venelana and Zeoticus arrived at Sabemka and Tomosei's room, remaining silent as their younger son pulled up a chair and sat down between their beds, looking mutely at the pair of them as they slept.
Sabemka definitely looked a lot worse for wear.
There were several deep lacerations all over his body, or at least the parts of his body that Raylix could see. He was sure that his chest, concealed by the hospital gown that he had been dressed up in, held similar wounds to the ones he could see. His entire head and both of his lower legs- feet included- were wrapped in bandages, so the extent of whatever injuries there were around those areas couldn't be seen. It was easy enough to assume, though, that they weren't good, judging by the bandages around Sabemka's head and right foot already stained with blood.
Sabemka's right hand was also wrapped up, but even with the bandages, Raylix could tell part of his hand had been removed from his body- whether it was by a spell, or the slash of a weapon, was neither here nor there- similarly to Tomosei's left eye. He couldn't see the middle, ring or pinky fingers of Sabemka's right hand, or any indications that they were there under the bandages, so it wasn't a bad idea to assume that they, at a minimum, were gone.
"I'm sorry, Raylix." Sirzechs walked over and laid a hand on Raylix's shoulder. "Your friends... I doubt they'll be the same after this. I could try and get them moved up the list of soldiers to received Phoenix Tears, but you know... only two people can make them... and there are a lot of Devils that are, unfortunately, higher-priority."
"Like I was." Raylix replied, slightly numbly as he looked back up at his brother. "It's fine, Zechs."
Sirzechs almost immediately leant down and wrapped his arms around Raylix, embracing his little brother in a brief, yet tight, hug, before pulling back and heading to the doorway, outside of which Venelana and Zeoticus stood.
"I'll give you some time alone." Sirzechs spoke, before retreating and shutting the door behind him, leaving Raylix to sit in silence in the company of his two unconscious friends.
'This won't happen again.' the younger Gremory sibling thought, his hands balling up into fists. 'This won't happen again, never. I won't let it.'
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
It may have taken only six months for the stalemate to break, but it didn't even take another couple of weeks for the Royals to strike back at the Anti-Royals in an attempt at revenge.
The INSTANT that the news of Tsufaame's death had reached Royals Faction ears, the higher-up leadership of the enemy Faction had called back a majority of their forces from the various fronts around the Underworld. Ten days later, the single largest force of the Devil Civil War so far had been sent towards territory controlled by Pillar Astaroth, with explicit orders to destroy everything in sight, as a form of payback for Tsufaame being slain at Ajuka's hands.
Normally, defence of such territory would fall to Astaroth's remaining descendants (including Ajuka himself), but a stroke of good fortune allowed Serafall to happen to be in one of the towns that the Royals had descended on in an attempt to destroy. After single-handedly beating back the Royals forces, she gathered up a similarly large force to the one originally sent to Astaroth territory and began working to push the Royals back, in what would become the longest campaign of the war.
It was clear from the outset that Serafall and her forces were the superior force in the exchange, but due to the Royals' leadership refusing to voluntarily concede ANYTHING to their enemies, Serafall and her Anti-Royals soldiers were able to push the Royals back and back, with minimal cost to her own forces in the process.
Skip forward a couple of weeks after Serafall's initial push began, and the few remaining Royals soldiers (barely twenty percent out of the original number of soldiers sent to Astaroth territory in the first place) had been pushed all the way back to the territory that had once been controlled by Pillar Valefor, before he and his family were wiped out. Thinking that they would be safe from the Anti-Royals' assault and that they could mount a possible counterattack from it, they settled into the capital city of what had once been Valefor's territory.
But it had been unsurprisingly easy for Serafall and her group to turn the Royals' attempt at defence against them, as they were able to erect strong anti-teleportation wards around the border of the city, trapping the Royals soldiers inside, cutting them off from their leaders and essentially turning the city into a prison: a prison which held about ten percent (if current statistics were to be believed) of all soldiers that currently served the Royals Faction.
Not wanting to have to execute thousands of Royals soldiers (but being more than prepared to, if there was no other option), Serafall had notified the higher-ups of the Anti-Royals Faction, who had supposedly sent a messenger to Royals territory in order to, again, negotiate their potential surrender in exchange for the release of all the soldiers she had trapped. In the back of her mind, she had a feeling that this attempt to negotiate with the Royals leadership was going to go the exact same way as every other attempt had done... with the body of whoever had been chosen to send the message sent back to the Anti-Royals with their head missing... and their body mangled and brutalised almost beyond recognition.
But her optimistic nature always reminded her that things might- MIGHT... be different this time, clashing with the realist side that had developed during both the Great War and the Civil War, which told her that she might as well end things now, as if the Royals hadn't surrendered at any time during which Serafall pushed the formerly-enormous Royals force that had been sent to Astaroth territory two weeks ago, practically decimating them in the process... then there was no chance that they would surrender now.
It had been a few hours since Serafall had heard about the messenger being sent off, with no further word from the messenger or from HQ. Sighing, the thought that she should've brought something to eat with her today crossed her mind for what seemed like the millionth time. However, that thought was interrupted almost the second that it materialised in her mind, as a comms-circle appeared by her ear. Before she could even ask who was calling her (as she wasn't expecting any kind of call right now), a panicked male voice blared into her ear.
"L-Lady Serafall, we've got a problem!" one of her subordinate soldiers called. "There are tons of transportation-circles opening, and Royals soldiers coming out of them! On the other side of the city from where you are! From the west! We got off a message to HQ, but- AAAGH!"
"What?!" Serafall called, flapping her ten wings and flying up another couple of hundred meters or so, looking down to where her subordinate had called from. Though she floated several miles away from where the caller was calling from, she too could visually pinpoint many, many figures popping out of many, many transportation-circles, and moving toward the city where the captured Royals soldiers were. Even from where she was, she could see that the Royals soldiers who had just teleported into the area had overwhelmed her own soldiers that she had stationed on that side of the city, and were beginning to move towards the city itself.
The busty young Devil gritted her teeth, and span around after hearing distant screams coming from another direction: to her horror, she saw the same sight as from the first direction she'd looked at: Royals soldiers popping out of transportation-circles and overwhelming her own forces, before moving towards the city.
'Well, I guess there's the answer, as far as the message goes.' she thought, summoning her wand out of a magic-circle. 'Whoever got sent to deliver the message, I just hope you weren't brutalised too bad after you were killed.'
Serafall flew down, preparing to blast the nearest group of Royals Devils to her as she did so. However, before she could fire off the spell that had quickly charged up on her wand, she found her right hand (the one holding onto her wand) as well as her whole arm, suddenly grabbed onto by what looked like several tentacles, formed out of a silvery demonic energy. Looking up, she saw the person who had seemingly grabbed her, with her eyes widening as she recognised the person in question, who hung on ten demonic wings, the same as her.
They were a woman, like her: an extraordinarily beautiful and buxom one, also like her. Looking to be in her late-teens and with striking back-length silver hair, done up in a single long braid, dark red eyes, and clad in light-looking dark-coloured armour from head-to-foot, the energy-formed tentacles seemed to emerge from the fingers of her left hand.
"Grayfia Lucifuge..." Serafall muttered to herself, blasting at the tentacles that she had grabbed her with in order to free herself. 'Well, the Lucifuges DID throw their lot in with the Royals, so of course we were going to run into her... Lilith-damn it.'
Grayfia didn't react to her tentacles being destroyed by Serafall, instead opting to simply fire a powerful beam of demonic energy down at Serafall from her position above her. Serafall, in return, raised her wand and fired a powerful beam of her own demonic energy back at Grayfia. Light-blue and silver energies collided with each other, with the outpouring of power from both female Devils being felt from all over the abandoned Valefor territory, and beyond.
Back on the ground, far below where Serafall and Grayfia had begun their fight, two crimson transportation-circles opened, quickly followed by dozens of others behind them, of varying sizes. Many, many Anti-Royals Devil soldiers appeared out of the transportation-circles, having been quickly organised by the higher-ups as soon as they'd heard of the sudden attack by the Royals.
Without even needing the two Devils that had popped out of the transportation-circles in front to give any orders (or maybe, because such orders had been given beforehand), the Anti-Royals reinforcements flew up into the air to aid their comrades against the Royals and their reinforcements.
"Alright, Raylix." Sirzechs spoke up, readying several balls of his mother's Power of Destruction to float around himself, as he rose up into the air on his twelve Devil wings. "You ready?"
Raylix stretched, summoned Gaeneron into his left hand with a flick of said left hand, and summoned an Amalgamation-hole to his right hand.
"You know it, Zechs." he replied, as Sirzechs flew forward. Raylix paused before charging forward, looking to either side of himself at his two friends, who had mercifully recovered from their injuries from their previous battle. "Emka, Tomo. You ready?"
Sabemka, dressed in his usual combat gear, had scars of varying sizes just about wherever his skin and flesh could be seen on his body (particularly on his face and hands). His middle, ring and little fingers were missing from his right hand, but what looked like crudely-made replacements for such still remained on said hand, thanks to a simple spell that projected the digits where the originals were supposed to be, learned from Tomosei.
Tomosei looked a lot better than Sabemka, with only a couple of light scars on her arms and an eyepatch covering her left eye. Tomosei summoned her staff and twirled it around a couple of times before spreading her wings, with Sabemka doing the same and getting into a prepared stance.
Both Devils nodded, looking at their friend and commander, who grinned back at them.
"Thought so!" he replied, spreading his wings and flying forward, his two friends behind him.