FLASHBACK:
"Alcina?" Raylix asked, stretching as he came downstairs.
It was a couple of days since he'd come out of hospital, in the aftermath of the disaster (as far as Raylix himself was concerned) that was his attempt to retake all the important points of Gusion territory. Sabemka and Tomosei... were alive, but injured in their own ways. Tomosei had lost an eye during her battle, and Sabemka had both lost a few fingers and nearly bled to death. It was a miracle that both of Raylix's friends had come out of their respective battles alive.
And, as it just so happened, Raylix and Sirzechs' grandmother Alcina- Zeoticus' mother and daughter of the original Gremory- had come to visit... it was just one of the things she tended to do with her free time.
Currently, she was sitting at the dining room table, drinking a cup of tea while dressed in one of her many flowing crimson-red dresses that seemingly strained against her bust, which was even bigger than Venelana's.
Raylix's grandmother put her teacup down and looked over at her grandson, a smile coming to her face.
"Raylix." Alcina greeted him, putting a hand on Raylix's head and rubbing affectionately. "Nice to see you out of hospital. Are you well?"
"I'm fine, thanks." Raylix replied, as Alcina took her hand off of him. "While you're here, I actually wanted to talk to you about something... about your power. Or, I guess, my use of your power."
"Oh?" Alcina spoke, raising an eyebrow and taking another sip of her tea. "Well, sit down. You've got my attention, boy, don't waste it."
Raylix internally bristled slightly at being called 'boy', but forced the feeling down as he took a seat opposite his grandmother, who looked over at him with an expectant expression on her face, while taking another sip of tea.
"It's... Amalgamation." Raylix began, holding up a hand and summoning a single Amalgamation-hole for a second or two, before dispelling it and putting his hand down. "It's... kind of hard to put into words, actually."
"Well, take your time." Alcina replied. "I might be old, but I've still got time." She let out a small laugh at her own joke, as Raylix swallowed.
"Right..." he spoke, looking down at his hands. "You know how our- your power combines multiple kinds of attacks together, to make something new?"
Alcina nodded.
"And how it can take the attacks of enemies, as well?"
Another nod.
"Well, I was thinking about a... different way of using Amalgamation." Raylix continued, looking up for a couple of seconds at Alcina before back down at himself. "A way of, uhh... combining the power behind attacks fired at me, with my own reserves of demonic power?"
Alcina put her teacup down, an eyebrow slightly raised in a non-verbal invitation for Raylix to continue, to elaborate.
"You know, in case I ever ended up in a really long battle, and my reserves ended up running low." Raylix continued, obeying his grandmother's non-verbal request. "I think it'd just be- uhh- a good way of being able to keep fighting?"
Alcina picked up her teacup again, and finished whatever was left in it in a single gulp. After putting the cup down on the table that seperated her from Raylix, she stood up, silently walking to the door. Raylix stood up as well, but didn't move beyond that.
"It was just an idea." he spoke, his voice quieter as Alcina made her way towards the door. "Probably not one of my better ones. Honestly, not even worth bothering with. F-forget I said anything."
"No." Alcina replied, turning around on her heel to look back at Raylix. "It's a good idea, Raylix." She waved her hand at the door that led to the garden, causing it to spring open, with a smile forming on her face. "Let's see if we can get this potential technique of yours working, shall we?"
END OF FLASHBACK:
"Why does it matter what you need, filth," Damaidosu spoke, his voice practically a hiss as he began walking towards Raylix. "When you're about to SUFFER and DIE for your TREASON?!"
"Alright, I'll take that as a no." Raylix replied, forcing down the wave of fear that had washed over his entire being. "As far as the previous question goes... oh, shit." he whispered to himself, as Damaidosu spread his Devil wings... all TWELVE of them... and rose into the air, calling a great amount of demonic energy to one hand. Raylix tensed up, preparing to leap to the side to dodge the attack that Damaidosu would surely fire at him, though he had a distinct feeling that the son of Asmodeus was about to get VERY serious with him... meaning that his time was most certainly shortened.
Damaidosu finished charging up his attack, and with a yell, prepared to fire it at Raylix, but just as the power was about to leave his fingertips, the son of Asmodeus was suddenly engulfed inside a large shell of ice, freezing him and the attack he was about to fire solid. Almost instantly upon this happening, the shell (with Damaidosu inside it) began to shake, with Raylix choosing to move out of the way now and question what was going on later. One dive out of the frozen Damaidosu's line of fire later, he looked up to see...
"Serafall!" Raylix grinned. "Nice to see you again."
Her staff out and pointed squarely at Damaidosu, Serafall looked down and spared Raylix a smile before looking back at Damaidosu. However, she wasn't the only one who had seemingly shown up to aid Raylix, as the sound of two pairs of feet touching down on either side of him indicated, with the two Devils said pairs of feet belonged to-
"Emka, Tomo!" Raylix remarked, a short breath of relief escaping him. "What took you so long?"
"Got held up back at the HQ." Tomosei replied. "Apparently that Euclid Lucifuge guy we kicked the ass of was a pretty high-profile target for the Anti-Royals, and Zekram had a hard time believing that we were able to kick his ass."
"Sorry we were so long, Raylix." Sabemka added. "You must've been struggling really hard against that guy- wait, does he have-?! How did you-?!"
"Twelve wings, same as Sirzechs, yes he does, fight first, talk later." Raylix replied, quickly. He looked back up at Serafall, who hung in place on her ten wings. "Where's Sirzechs?"
"Took over with chasing the Royals out of Valefor territory." Serafall replied. "He seemed pretty eager to get to it, so I let him. Satan knows that's what he's good at." She gritted her teeth as the icy shell she had conjured around Damaidosu began to crack. "Anyway, if you and your friends are done talking, you ready to help take down Damaidosu?"
"You know it!" Raylix replied, giving off an adrenaline-filled, slightly maniacal grin as he did so, before turning to Sabemka and Tomosei. "And you?"
"Of course I'm ready!" Sabemka cried, slamming one fist into his hand and giving off a similar grin to Raylix. "Let's do this shit!"
"Likewise." Tomosei replied, summoning her staff and twirling it for a second in her hand before pointing it at Damaidosu and the shell that encased him, which was looking ready to shatter at any second. She and Sabemka got into battle-stances as the icy shell surrounding Damaidosu shattered completely. Damaidosu immediately fired the huge shot of energy he'd intended for Raylix at Serafall instead, which she blocked with a rapidly-formed barrier.
"Stay on the move!" Raylix shouted to everyone (but mainly addressing his two friends), spreading his eight wings. He fired a bolt of destructive energy at Damaidosu and flew around to the back of him, reaching to his side to draw out the projection-blade that Sirzechs had given him so long ago. It had been damaged during Raylix's 'battle' against Tsufaame (who knew that being compressed from all sides by fathoms of water controlled by the very sexy daughter of Leviathan could damage even demonically-created machinery?), but was easily repaired and outfitted with a new thaumatium crystal, infused with ice-magic.
The length of the projected blade had also been customised, making it more functionally similar to a dagger than a sword and giving it a unique place in Raylix's arsenal as a backup- or secondary- weapon as opposed to his main melee weapon.
Just as his destructive energy-bolt hit Damaidosu in the lower-chest, causing him to stagger in mid-air and opening him up to a more powerful blast of demonic energy from Serafall straight to the face, Raylix ignited the projection-blade and drove it into Damaidosu's lower back, right between his left and right sets of wings, drawing out a gasp of surprise and pain from the Super-Class Devil. Raylix pulled the projection-blade (or was it now projection-dagger? …Yeah, that sounded more appropriate) out of Damaidosu's back and quickly floated backwards as Damaidosu whirled around, and with a growl of anger and contempt, extended a hand towards Raylix and released what looked like black smoke, that quickly wrapped itself around Raylix before disappearing.
Almost instantly, Raylix was able to tell that something was wrong. His rapid flying backwards was halted instantly, forcing him to float helplessly in mid-air.
"The hell?!" he cried, straining himself in an attempt to get moving again. "Why can't I move?!" He looked over at Damaidosu who, with a sinister grin on his face, turned away from him and focused his attention back to Serafall, Sabemka and Tomosei. He snapped his fingers and summoned multiple bolts of lightning from above that targeted the latter two, but they were able to dodge and block the bolts as best they could.
'I guess that rules out Damaidosu just having sealed my movement.' Raylix thought to himself, continuing to strain against... whatever Damaidosu had done to him. 'Else, he'd have just ended me already and moved on. So, what the-'
It was at that moment that Raylix, against his will, felt his left arm raising from its place at his side and pointing towards Sabemka and Tomosei, who had both dodged another bolt of demonic energy from Damaidosu, before he rose his hands to defend against a number of large icicles thrown at him by Serafall.
'Oh, shit.' Raylix thought as his arm continued to raise. 'Shit, shit, shit, no, no, no, shit, no, no, shit!' "HEY!" he screamed, in an attempt to get the attention of Sabemka, Tomosei and hopefully Serafall, who was dodging Damaidosu's returned-fire. "I can't control my body!"
"Shut up, worm!" Damaidosu shouted, firing a bolt of energy into Raylix's stomach that would have forced Raylix to double over in pain, had he not been controlled by Damaidosu right now. "End your boyfriend first, and then finish that one-eyed bitch!"
Against his will, Raylix's body began to charge up a powerful bolt of the Power of Destruction, aiming squarely at Sabemka. In spite of how he tried to turn off the charging power, in the same manner that he'd done with many cancelled shots throughout his life, his mother's power continued to charge up.
Not even bothering to hide his satisfied smirk, Damaidosu refocused his attention onto Serafall, now the sole threat to him, and as he noticed a powerful beam of demonic energy flying his way, he fired one right back at her in return, hoping to overpower and kill her. The two beams of energy clashed right in-between Damaidosu and Serafall, and didn't move for a couple of seconds. Damaidosu's beam began to move against Serafall's, however, as he poured more power into his attack, though it stopped moving as Serafall bgan to focus more power into her own beam, which then began moving back against Damaidosu's in turn as she began focusing more power still.
"FOOLS!" Damaidosu screamed, as he focused even more power into his fired beam of energy. "You are, all of you, beneath me! I am the son of Asmodeus, a GOD amongst you dull creatures! And you will not stand in the way of our salvation!"
Neither Serafall, Sabemka or Tomosei replied. Rather, Serafall disengaged from her fired energy-beam and simultaneously flew upwards, out of the way of the laser that Damaidosu had fired, which continued on through the area that Serafall had been at not even a second earlier. Scowling, Damaidosu disengaged his own laser and focused on Serafall in her new position, beginning to charge up again as he heard Raylix firing off a bolt of his Power of Destruction. Not even bothering to look around, Damaidosu prepared to fire at Serafall again, and hopefully end the young Sitri child this time. However, he was distracted from his preparations to fire at Serafall by the sound of two pairs of feet rapidly moving across the roof, and the sound of wings being spread.
Half a second later, a fist crashed against one side of Damaidosu's face, hard enough that the Super Devil span over in mid-air a couple of times, followed up by a powerful bolt of energy striking the Super-Class Devil in the back.
"LEAVE OUR FRIEND THE FUCK ALONE!" Sabemka and Tomosei screamed, in unison. Sabemka, who had jumped up into the air and been the one that punched Damaidosu as hard as he did, flew back to the roof as Raylix, now freed from whatever controlling stuff Damaidosu had done to him, flew over and delivered a brutal axe-kick to Damaidosu's head, sending him back to the rooftop as well, where Serafall followed up by impaling him with an extremely large icicle that pinned him to the rooftop.
Damaidosu let out a yell of pain upon being run through by an icicle, and attempted to move himself off of the icicle. A quick glance behind him and the sight of how huge the icicle in question was, however, told him that that wasn't going to be possible without enduring unacceptable amounts of pain. Grimacing, Damaidosu reached behind him and directed a cutting wave of demonic energy through the part of the icicle that had been sticking out of his back, splitting the offending weapon in two. He then pulled the part of the icicle that was still stuck inside him out of him with only a grunt of pain, and threw it at Sabemka. Raylix's male friend rolled to the side, grinning as he straightened back up. Damaidosu extended his hand towards Raylix again, with the same black-smoke-like substance appearing around his hand and beginning to fly towards Raylix, but Serafall distracted him enough with a bolt of ice that froze one of his feet to the ground that Damaidosu was forced to cancel the attempt to control Raylix's body again.
Seeing an easy opening, Raylix and Sabemka dashed forward, both of whom slammed their fists into Damaidosu's face at the exact same time, sending him rocketing backwards before he could free himself from the icy shell that had engulfed his leg. Serafall followed up with another powerful bolt of demonic energy from above, that flew right into the hole made by her earlier impalement of Damaidosu's stomach and detonated, forming a gigantic collection of medium-sized spiky icicles inside Damaidosu's body. Had Damaidosu not been a leader of the Royals Faction, the asshole who had come the second-closest to killing Raylix out of anyone in the world, just a general piece of shit, or even any one of the above rather than all of those at the same time, Raylix would have probably winced in empathy for the scream of absolute agony that Damaidosu let out at Serafall's attack.
But he wasn't, so he didn't.
Now most likely completely overtaken by the agony of being internally stabbed multiple times, Damaidosu began firing powerful shots of demonic energy in every direction, flying like a madman at Serafall out of a manic desire to get his own back, and tear one of the Anti-Royals' aces limb from limb as punishment for what she'd done.
"GET BEHIND ME!" Raylix yelled to Sabemka and Tomosei as he saw a couple of bolts of Damaidosu's energy headed their way. Both Devils immediately heard and obeyed, either flying or running behind Raylix as the two bolts of demonic energy that were meant for them only met the hard rooftop that they were all fighting on instead. However, a larger bolt of energy was fired towards Raylix's location a couple of moments later, which Raylix caught with a single Amalgamation-hole. Closing it and glowing red for a second, he cast a powerful barrier that covered himself and his two friends, both of whom looked at him in surprise.
"When the hell did you learn how to do that?" Tomosei asked, simultaneously looking surprised and impressed. "Was that a new form of Amalgamation?"
"You could say." Raylix replied, whirling around as he heard the barrier that he'd cast beginning to crack. Seeing that Damaidosu had turned his attention away from Serafall and onto him, he spread his wings and flew over the barrier, summoning a spear of his Power of Destruction and throwing it straight at Damaidosu... who realised far too late what was coming for him.
The spear of destruction was enough to blow Damaidosu's legs clean off his body, and stun him enough that he spiralled down to the rooftop, crashing into it and lying there motionless as Raylix and Serafall landed. Damaidosu opened his mouth again, most likely to let out another string of curses towards the supposedly-pitiful attempt by the treasonous Anti-Royals to usurp the rule of the Royals, which they obviously had every right to, but Serafall simply sent a cutting wave of ice at Damaidosu's neck, severing his head from his shoulders and not allowing him the dignity of final words.
There was quiet for a moment as Raylix, Sabemka, Serafall and Tomosei looked upon the headless, legless corpse of Damaidosu Zereikel Asmodeus, with the only sounds being that of Raylix dispelling the damaged barrier that he'd formed, and the panting breaths of all four Anti-Royals fighters.
Two Royals leaders down... and one left to go.
----- ----- -----
The death of Damaidosu Asmodeus, so soon after the death of Tsufaame Leviathan, had collectively dealt an incredible blow to the Royals Faction. With the loss of two of the three top leaders of the Royals Faction within... not even a month of each other, had shocked many within the Faction. Clans Wechuge, Namtar and Sargantanas had all instantly surrendered to the Anti-Royals as soon as the news of the death of their lord reached them, and were taken into custody.
The Mammon Clan had been the only Extra Demon Clan that served Asmodeus that hadn't surrendered to the Anti-Royals. Rumour had it was that they'd joined back up with Bidleid, son of the original Beelzebub, and would unfortunately continue to fight for the Royals.
Most of the grunt-soldiers on the Royals' side that had participated in the battle in the former capital of Valefor territory were either captured or dead, with some of the Royals-faithful even defecting from the Royals entirely to fight on the side of the Anti-Royals. The most notable of these defectors was Grayfia Lucifuge, who after the blessing of her dying father, Fenriad, was placed into Sirzechs' army, now the largest and most capable of all the armies that fought under the banner of the Anti-Royals Faction. It was said that, after he'd heard of what happened, Grayfia's brother Euclid had descended into what could only be called... insanity.
Serafall had received enormous praise for her part in the battle at what used to be Valefor territory, and the fact that she had been the one to kill one of the Royals' leaders was enough to instantly propel her name into the conversation for who would be chosen to take up the mantle of 'New Satan' when (as opposed to if. It would truly take the demonic equivalent of a miracle in the Royals' favour for their situation to be reversed) the Anti-Royals had defeated the Royals once and for all.
Like Serafall, Sirzechs' younger brother Raylix had also received strong acclaim for his role in the battle against Damaidosu as well, though UNlike Serafall, his name hadn't come up as often- if at all- in terms of potential New Satan candidacy.
"Does it bother you?"
"Huh?"
Raylix looked up from Sabemka's couch, which he was casually lying on, over at Tomosei, who was sat at a nearby table with a book in her hands. Sabemka was in his kitchen, working on lunch for the three of them. Fortunately, the loss of the majority of his fingers on his right hand hadn't impacted his ability to cook all that much, if at all.
"No-one's heard your name come up." Tomosei replied. "As far as candidacy for becoming one of the next Satans goes. Does that bother you, Raylix?"
"Hmm..." Raylix put on a concentrated face, as he seemed to think over Tomosei's question. However, for however concentrated he actually looked, he seemed to come to an answer rather quickly. "...Nah. Not really. Sirzechs would make a much better Satan than me, a blind Devil could see that. They'll obviously pick him over me."
"Good thing I'm only half-blind, then." Tomosei replied, putting her book down. "Though don't you think there's a chance that you might get picked alongside your brother?"
"Nope." Raylix remarked, pushing himself back up into a sitting position and turning around to fully face Tomosei. "No chance. You think the other thirty-three Pillar-descendant families would stand for two descendants of the same pillar both becoming Satans?" he let out a dry chuckle. "That'd probably start another Civil War. Best way to avoid that would just be to keep it to one descendant, and out of me and Sirzechs..." he shrugged. "Sirzechs is the logical choice, and I'm just fine with that. Besides, me? One of the leaders of the Devils?"
"I don't know why you're so confident you won't get chosen, Raylix." Sabemka's voice came from the kitchen, as he came out with two plates piled high with food for Raylix and Tomosei. "I think you'd make a pretty good Satan. Besides," he added, a sly smirk coming to his face as he put the plates down on the table. "If you were a Devil leader, you'd get to interact more with Li-"
"Sh-shut up!" Raylix cried, his face going slightly red. He turned away from Sabemka and Tomosei- both of whom burst out laughing- not wanting them to see his embarrassed face. "I told you I don't have a crush on Lilith! Just drop it, will you?!"
"Alright, alright, fine, fine." Sabemka replied, holding back further laughs. "Anyway, your food's here, so get it while it's hot. I'll be right back with mine." He walked off, leaving Raylix (who had gotten off the sofa and was heading towards the table) and Tomosei (who had already tucked into her meal) alone together for a moment or two, before he returned with his own plate. Taking a seat next to Tomosei, the three of them ate in relative silence for a few minutes before Tomosei spoke up again.
"So, what about that new technique of yours, Raylix?"
"Oh, that?" Raylix replied, his voice muffled thanks to his mouth being as full of food as it was. After swallowing, he was able to speak more clearly. "Yeah, I managed to make it work after some help from Grandmother. Really saved my ass, too."
"I can imagine." Tomosei replied. "You come up with a name for it, yet?"
Raylix blinked.
"Uh... no?" he replied. "Is that really important, though?"
"Not really, no." Tomosei replied. "At least not for anyone else, but for you... still not the most important thing in the world, but it wouldn't hurt to come up with SOME kind of title for your new Amalgamation-technique. If only to differentiate it from regular Amalgamation."
"You CAN still perform regular Amalgamation, right?" Sabemka asked, looking up from his own meal (which he'd hardly touched compared to Raylix and Tomosei. It was hardly a problem, he just took his time with his food compared to his two best friends). "Or has that new technique just replaced your ability to use-"
Raylix rose up both of his hands, and summoned a single Amalgamation-hole within each hand.
"Tomosei?" he asked, an eyebrow raised. Tomosei looked up from her own meal, and getting what Raylix was asking, pointed at one of the holes that Raylix had conjured, firing a bolt of icy energy into the one over his right hand. Raylix then infused a small amount of the element of darkness into the hole over his left hand, combined the two together, and fired the product (a black icicle no larger than Raylix's own hand) out of the open window. He then looked back at Sabemka, who shrugged.
"Well, that answers that." He remarked, going back to his meal. "Was just curious."
"And that's fine." Raylix replied. "Going back to the whole 'naming' thing, though, the only thing I can really come up with for the new ability is... Absorption? You know, since I'm absorbing power from attacks fired at me?"
Tomosei, who had gone back to eating, looked up at Raylix, paused for a second, and shrugged.
"Seems simple enough to me." she remarked, continuing to chow down through the meal that Sabemka had made for her until there was nothing left on her plate, in record time too. "Anyway, Absorption. Are there any limits to it? That you've encountered, at least?"
"Only one, as far as I know." Raylix replied. "Any power that I take thanks to Absorption fades away after I've recovered my power reserves. After the fight with Damaidosu, I distinctly remember having some of the power I got from his attacks left over, but that power seemed to... I don't know, dissipate, after I fully recovered? I didn't feel any more powerful than I usually do at full-power, at least. That, and I don't think taking in an Angel's power would go all too well, but I don't have much of a way of testing that, so..."
"So you can't use Absorption to increase your demonic power reserves?" Tomosei asked.
"No." Raylix replied. "At least, not right now. I'm sure that I'd be able to find a way to do it somehow. I mean, Ajuka didn't fully come up with Kankara Formula in a day, right?"
"Right." Tomosei replied. "I mean, I know he's smart, but a feat like that would just be going too far."
"Exactly my point." Raylix remarked, enjoying the last mouthful of his meal before swallowing. "So, at least for the time being, I'm limited to only temporarily adding to my reserves of demonic power during fights."
"Indeed, you are." Tomosei replied, standing up from the table and summoning her staff to her hand. "Doesn't mean you can't at least try to push the limits of Absorption."
"Come again?" Raylix blinked, looking after Tomosei as she headed towards Sabemka's front door.
"You're unable to permanently add to your reserves of demonic power right now, right?" Tomosei asked, turning around and looking back at Raylix. "No time to start trying like the present, right?"
"Heh. Right." Raylix replied, sliding off of his chair and, after thanking Sabemka for the lunch that he'd cooked, followed Tomosei outside, leaving Sabemka alone. The scarred brawler let out a short chuckle as the sounds of Raylix and Tomosei's footsteps faded away from his ears, and he began to clean up his dining room.
It was a nice change of pace for Tomosei to be helping Raylix out with something training-related.
----- ----- -----
-1530-
Bidleid Bashalun Beelzebub... hadn't been having a great last few months.
After his two fellow leaders of the Royals Faction had been slain in battle against the Anti-Royals, in the span of two weeks, things just seemed to go from bad, to worse, to even worse, to horrible, to bottom-of-the-barrel-dreadful, to somehow-even-worse-than-bottom-of-the-barrel AWFUL. Any armies of soldiers that Bidleid would send, either to defend against territory that the Anti-Royals were advancing on or in an attempt to secure new territory for the Royals... would be summarily defeated, with the majority of soldiers that he sent either being captured or killed. Mostly the latter, thanks to their refusal to give those traitors, the Anti-Royals, anything.
The worst defeat since the battle at the abandoned Valefor territory, where Damaidosu had died, was one where troops led by Clans Mammon and Belphegor advanced on the Anti-Royals' HQ... all of them were defeated in a single stroke by Falbium, a descendent of Glasya-Labolas... the lazy bastard. Lilith only knew how he was able to pull that off.
However he was able to do it, that failed attack seemed to have opened the floodgates on a not-insignificant portion of the Royals' forces exposing themselves as the COWARDS that they truly were, and defecting/surrendering to the Anti-Royals in exchange for their personal safety, with the worst loss of all being that bitch Grayfia. Never mind that creep Euclid, once he'd fully taken the Underworld (alongside Tsufaame and Damaidosu, had they still been alive), he would certainly have made Grayfia his wife (whether or not she would be willing to marry the future King of Hell was irrelevant). That woman just had... SOMETHING about her that drew so many Devils, male and female, to her, and it was an incredible shame that she seemed to have thrown her lot in with the Anti-Royals, particularly a man named Sirzechs.
After everything, the Royals' numbers had dwindled to around fifteen percent of the numbers that they had had at the start of the Civil War, which was Bidleid's biggest concern right now. It was an undeniable fact that to have the best chances of securing his rule in the Underworld, Bidleid needed more forces at his disposal than the Anti-Royals... but he didn't, not right now at least.
But fortunately, Bidleid had a good idea as to where more forces could be secured. Which was why he'd travelled all the way to Gid, and why he was currently walking up the path to Lilith's (formerly Lucifer's) castle, the large doors of which were currently guarded by four Incubi. A glare at the Incubi in question and small flaring of his power was enough for them to all freeze out of abject fear of the son of Beelzebub, and allow him to pass without question. Bidleid strode past them and forced open the doors to Lilith's castle, striding into the entrance hall as if he owned the place.
"Halt!" an Incubus dressed in a butler's attire called, looking over at Bidleid the second that the Devil had made his entrance and hurrying over to him. "What do you... want?" he faltered and stopped in his tracks the second that he seemed to realise just who had come bursting through the door to his Queen's castle, the expression on his face going from conveying an unflinching determination to perform his duties no matter the cost... to conveying little more than pants-pissing-tier terror in the span of a couple of seconds. Something that Bidleid, inwardly, found quite amusing.
"I seek an audience with your Queen, Lilith." he replied, a dark smirk on his face as the butler looked up at him, looking like he was about to have a panic attack. "NOW." he added, flaring up his demonic power a little and spreading his twelve Devil wings. The Incubus-butler let out a squeak and left through a transportation-circle, leaving Bidleid alone. The son of Beelzebub was barely alone for more than a minute before the Incubus-butler returned, looking no more courageous than before he'd left.
"L-Lady L-Lilith will s-see you in h-her throne room n-now." he stammered, meekly opening a transportation-circle. "R-right this way, p-please."
Bidleid silently stepped into the transportation-circle that the butler had cast for the pair of them, and was warped to another location within Lilith's castle. A pair of double-doors, nearly as large as the ones that Bidleid had forced his way through a minute earlier, stood in front of him, doors that he'd recognised after walking through them so many times with his father. Without even waiting for the butler's direction, Beelzebub opened the doors and strode into the throne room.
It was almost the same as the last time Bidleid had seen it. The enormous room's walls and ceiling was dominantly coloured a light silver, there was a black and red carpet throughout the middle of the room leading directly up to the throne, there were several ornately-designed windows on one side of the room that gave view to the dark purple Underworld sky, and there were statues of various creatures- mostly dragons and snakes- arranged at all corners of the room. The throne itself was exactly where Bidleid remembered it being: at the far end, elevated above the rest of the room, with a small stairway leading up to it. The throne was situated within a small dome, and was the only object (sans the throne's occupant, obviously) within said dome, further emphasizing its importance.
The only thing that struck Bidleid as distinctly different from how he remembered the throne room being... was who sat upon the throne. Lilith was usually stood at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the throne upon which Lucifer sat, while he was alive, but now she sat upon it, legs crossed and casually leant to one side, looking down at Bidleid with slightly-narrowed eyes. The former Queen of the Underworld, now Queen of the Lilim, exuded the same calm regality that she always did while at Lucifer's side, now debatably even more so now that she was the one sat on a throne, and not the one standing off to the side.
She also exuded the same nigh-incomprehensible beauty as she did before. Even Bidleid, who'd lived for thousands of years and bedded many hundreds (potentially even thousands) of women in turn, felt something turning in his stomach as he looked upon Lilith: the sleek long hair, those blood-coloured eyes, the long dress that hugged her every curve, her legendarily large bust... she was perfect.
"Lady Lilith..." Bidleid began, dropping down to one knee out of respect for the Mother of All Devils. "It's lovely to see you in person again. I'm... humbled that you would accept my request of an audience with you, and-"
"What do you want?" Lilith replied, cutting straight through Bidleid's attempts at flattery. Truth be told, she wasn't in the best mood: she'd been in the middle of some REALLY important personal business, and Bidleid- the little demonic dickhead- had chosen NOW of all times to storm into HER castle and interrupt her. "My time is precious, Bidleid, don't waste it."
"V-very well." Bidleid, slightly taken aback by Lilith's sharp tone but still keeping his composure. "I'm sure you're aware of what's being going on in the Devils' territory of the Underworld, between the Royals and the Anti-Royals."
"I'm aware." Lilith replied, shifting a little bit on her throne and uncrossing her legs, before re-crossing them again. Bidleid's eyes flicked upwards, and momentarily widened at the sight of Lilith's enormous bouncing bust, as well as a seconds-long peak in-between Lilith's legs… she wasn't wearing any underwear.
Silence fell between the twelve-winged Devil and the six-tailed Succubus for a second, as Lilith looked expectantly down at Bidleid, expecting him to continue... which Bidleid did, when he realised that Lilith wasn't going to continue talking.
"I've come to request aid from you, the Lilim." Bidleid continued. "The Royals, the true future leaders of the Devils, are in a... bad place, right now, and to reclaim leadership of our species, the assistance of our longtime allies would be-"
"A terrible idea." Lilith cut across him again. "You're losing, badly, and you can't accept that, so you're gonna run to someone else in an attempt to get them to do the heavy-lifting for you. And I'm going to assume you were too busy attempting to claim your supposed birthright to notice that the Lilim are independent from the Devils now, and that's the most charitable version of what I think. Are you seriously stupid enough to think that any substantial number of my race would be willing to jump into another war, one that doesn't involve us in any way? Particularly one that solely involves the very race that we became independent from, not even a year ago?"
Lilith stood up, her crimson eyes boring straight into Bidleid's brown with an intensity that rooted him to the spot he knelt at, in very much the same way that he'd rooted the Incubus butler that he'd met a few minutes ago. Looking like she was holding back a sneer of contempt at the son of Beelzebub, she walked calmly down the steps that led from the rest of the throne room up to the dome that held her throne, and made her way past Bidleid without sparing him another look.
"Your request is denied." Lilith spoke, as she passed Bidleid and made her way towards the door of her throne room. "Leave."
Bidleid finally found the strength to stand up as Lilith prepared to open the throne room's door, and spoke up again, with the sound of his voice making Lilith stop, but not turn.
"So, that's it, is it?" he asked, an unpleasant look coming across his face as he glared at the back of Lilith's head. "You're just going to turn your back on the very race that crowned you a Queen in the first place? Leave us to fail and die while we continue what you and your husband started?!"
Lilith turned around, her eyes narrowing again. Bidleid had just touched a nerve that anyone who knew her well enough (the number of which could be counted on one hand, with fingers to spare) knew not to touch... EVER. Bidleid, who didn't see this, continued his tirade.
"What kind of wife are you?" he spoke, contempt clear in his words. "What would Lucifer think if-"
Bidleid let out a short cry of surprise as Lilith reached out and pulled him towards her, catching him by the neck and squeezing hard enough to stop Bidleid from talking. She was already tired of him, and he'd gone and pissed her off on top of that.
"Do I look like my husband to you?" Lilith asked, her voice coming out in a low, yet intense, hiss. "Do I?!"
Bidleid was unable to answer, thanks to Lilith squeezing his neck as hard as she was. He shook his head, hoping that it'd be enough for Lilith to stop attempting to strangle him. Super-Class Devil or not, he still needed to breathe. However, Lilith did not cease her grip on Bidleid's throat.
"That's right, I'm not!" Lilith replied, instead squeezing harder on Bidleid's neck, causing him to gasp and wheeze. "I'm not..." she took a breath to calm herself. "Lucifer. He's dead. Therefore, his opinion on what I do now matters about as much to me as yours. Don't EVER play that kind of card on me, or on ANYONE, particularly anyone who's quite capable of killing you. Got that?"
Bidleid, whose face was beginning to turn blue from lack of air, hurriedly nodded. Seemingly satisfied with this answer, Lilith released her grip on his neck and turned her back to him again, taking another breath to calm herself.
"Glad I was able to teach you something that your father couldn't." she remarked, pointing behind herself and casting a transportation-circle underneath Bidleid's feet. Without another word, she activated it, sending Bidleid out of her castle- out of the entire Lilim territory, rather- in a flash of light.
Bidleid landed on the ground just inside the Devils' territory of the Underworld, and had to take a moment to really realise what had just happened. His final chance of fully turning around the shitty situation he (and the Royals, overall) were in... was gone.
There was no possibility of the Royals coming out on top in the Devil Civil War. There was no way that he'd be King of the Devils, and be able to carry on the Great War like Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Leviathan and Lucifer had wanted to, before they died. Everything that Bidleid and the Royals, as well as Damaidosu and Tsufaame while they'd been alive, had done... had been for nothing.
Bidleid's body began to shake. His breathing became shaky as the last of his mind seemed to shatter. If the Underworld wouldn't accept him... then screw the Underworld.
He cast a transportation-circle and stepped through it, emerging in the Royals HQ- in a secret location within the Devils' territory of the Underworld- with his presence instantly being noticed by every other Devil in the room that he'd teleported into.
"Send everyone to Lucifaad!" Bidleid yelled. "Get the word out to every Royals Devil you can find! Send everyone to Lucifaad, RIGHT NOW!"
----- ----- -----
"Raylix? Raylix?" Sirzechs' voice could be heard as he hurried upstairs. "You awake?"
Immediately turning left and moving swiftly down a short hallway, Sirzechs knocked a couple of times on Raylix's door before pushing it open.
"Raylix!" Sirzechs called, slightly more urgently as he stepped into his younger brother's bedroom. As he stepped inside, Raylix was instantly awake, sat bolt-upright with eyes wide, and breathing heavily. His heavy breaths were quickly replaced by a coughing fit, which he instantly did his best to force down as Sirzechs looked upon him.
"You're awake, then? Good." he remarked. "We're all needed, as fast as you can. The entire Royals Faction's mounted an attack on Lucifaad, and Zekram wants the entirety of the Anti-Royals to bring them down, end the civil war once and for all."
"Wh-what?" Raylix, his coughing having past and his breathing steadily slowing back to normal. "Everyone?"
"Everyone." Sirzechs replied, using some of his demonic power to summon Raylix's combat-gear onto a nearby chair. "Be quick, we're heading out in a few minutes."
"Got it." Raylix answered, leaning back against the headboard of his bed and stifling a yawn. "I'll be... right out."
Sirzechs nodded and quickly withdrew from Raylix's room, shutting the door behind him. Raylix finally let the yawn come, before resting his head in one of his hands.
He'd been drowning, like he'd been against Tsufaame just over six months ago. Sirzechs' call had jolted him out of it so hard that, even though he knew he really shouldn't... he had to take a couple of moments to come down, calm himself in the aftermath of that nightmare.
Throwing off the covers of his bed, stripping out of his bedclothes and pulling on his combat gear, Raylix hurried out of his room and joined Sirzechs, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. One transportation-circle later took them both out of Zeoticus' home, and onto a hill on the outskirts of Lucifaad, the second-largest city in the Underworld and the one that was designated the new 'capital' of the Devils' territory.
It didn't take long for many, MANY more Anti-Royals soldiers, also dressed in combat-gear, to arrive through their transportation-circles and greet their respective leaders, with Sabemka and Tomosei being among the first to arrive and meet with Raylix.
"Is this it?" Sabemka asked. "Are we really going to end the war? Right here?"
"Well, not 'right here' specifically," Sirzechs, who was standing a couple of paces away from Raylix, replied. "But if reports from the Anti-Royals HQ are correct," he turned around and looked over at the city of Lucifaad, where the faint sounds of a battle beginning could already be heard. "Then the entire Royals Faction descended, seemingly out of nowhere and with zero build-up, on Lucifaad a few minutes ago, and have just been wrecking shit."
"Weird of whoever's leading the Royals to have the entire faction in one place." Raylix remarked. "They must be crazy."
"Well, knowing Bidleid," Grayfia spoke up from her position next to Sirzechs. "That's probably not too far from the truth. He probably finally realised that he's on the losing side in this war, and he's clearly not taken it very well."
"Anyway." Sirzechs spoke up, as more and more Devils began arriving. "Our goal is simple: retake the city. I'm picking up some pretty heavy-duty anti-teleportation barriers around the, so we'll have to fly in. My army will move in and engage with the Royals directly, I'm told Serafall's and Ajuka's units will work on minimizing destruction of the city and evacuating citizens, and everyone else will prevent any stragglers from escaping. You encounter any Extra Demons, capture them alive if you can. The rest, kill. Got it?"
There was a general murmur of ascent from everyone around.
"Good!" Sirzechs replied, spreading his twelve Devil wings and ascending into the air. "Then let's go! Let's end this!"
The majority of Devils following Sirzechs let out various battle-cries (which Raylix even joined in on, to an extent), before spreading their respective wings and taking to the air themselves, following Sirzechs over the hills and towards Lucifaad, from which smoke was beginning to rise as parts of the city seemed to be burning.
"Raylix, spread your group out over a section of the city's border!" Sirzechs called down to his younger brother, as they came closer and closer to the city. "Other groups will cover the rest!"
"Got it!" Raylix replied, slowing down and descending a little bit as Sirzechs, Grayfia and the rest of Sirzechs' army proceeded forward, into the burning Lucifaad. The rest of Raylix's brigade, Sabemka and Tomosei included, followed their leader as they approached the city's border, and eventually slowed to a stop. As they stopped in mid-air, they could see other Devils and their respective groups of soldiers emulating their leader. Raylix in particular could pick out Ruvella and her own brigade of Devil soldiers, not too far away from where he himself was floating. She was easy enough to pick out, with her fiery wings being an easy enough indicator of her presence in the battle.
He also noticed Ruvella firing a flaming beam at what he could only assume was a Royals Devil attempting to escape, most likely vaporizing them in an instant. Looking back, he saw a Royals Devil closer to him and his brigade flying over the city borders, attempting to escape the Anti-Royals. Unfortunately for them, that DEFINITELY wouldn't be happening, not if Raylix- or any of the Devils he was commanding- had anything to say about it.
"I got him!" Sabemka called, flying upwards and pulling back his fist in preparation for a punch. The Royals Devil in question attempted to blast Sabemka from close-range with a powerful bolt of energy, but he was knocked off-balance by Tomosei's own energy-bolt fired at his chest, opening him up to a fist deep in the stomach courtesy of Sabemka, which dazed him to the point that he didn't resist (or possibly even process) getting his head blasted out of existence by a bolt of the Power of Destruction, courtesy of Raylix.
"Good shot, Raylix!" Tomosei called out, floating back a few dozen meters to put some distance between herself and the city's borders, so she could get a clearer shot at any more Royals soldiers that came close to them. Raylix did the same, though he didn't go back as far. As someone who fought both with close-range combat and longer-range magic, it made sense to be somewhere between Tomosei and Sabemka, who fought almost exclusively close-range.
As Raylix floated in mid-air, he could see further armies of Devils proceeding overhead into Lucifaad, led by Serafall and Ajuka, and hear the sounds of battle going on within the city as Sirzechs' army took on the last remaining Royals. Damn sure as he was that this would be the battle that the Royals Faction was defeated for good at, and happy as he was that this would finally mean peace (of some kind) for the Devils for the first time since before he was even born... what could he do in the aftermath?
Ever since the very beginning, all he'd heard of from everyone was the next battle, the latest victory, all the lives lost to the Angels, the Fallen Angels, the Royals, whatever enemy he happened to have been placed in front of at the time. It was what he'd been predominantly raised on, and now that things seemed to be ending... what would be next?
Raylix's internal musings were interrupted by a shot of energy that came whizzing close to his head. Raising one of his wings on instinct, he deflected it away from himself, and spotted a few Royals soldiers flying overhead, pursued by a small sect of his own soldiers, led by Sabemka. He instantly flew up to assist them, catching up and grabbing one of the three fleeing Royals by the leg, holding him up long enough to punch him through the face with a Power of Destruction-enhanced fist.
'Think about that later.' Raylix thought to himself, pulling his fist and arm back through the corpse of the latest Royals soldier he'd killed, and casting a quick spell to clean his arm and hand before firing several shots of the Power of Destruction at the other two Royals soldiers (who had bolted as fast as they could upon seeing what Raylix had done to their comrade). However, from the range that Raylix had fired at, his destructive shots missed their targets, who disappeared through transportation-circles as soon as they crossed the barrier's border.
Cursing under his breath, a wave of anger washing over him as a result of the imperfection, Raylix turned around in mid-air and spotted another Royals soldier- a female- attempting to flee. As soon as she saw Raylix, he'd dashed towards her, hands coated in the Power of Destruction, and brought them together on either side of her face, reducing it to bloody chunks. The Royals' soldier's headless corpse dropped to the ground as Raylix cast another cleaning spell on himself, and brought out Gaeneron to block a series of bolts of demonic energy, fired by a nearby fleeing Royals soldier... who was punched to death by Sabemka seconds later.
Raylix took another breath, which was then sharply driven out of him as he felt himself being forced downwards, towards the ground, by a foriegn force of some kind. Shouting out in surprise, he fought against the force by reflex, doing his best to fly back to the height that he had formerly been floating at. It took a few seconds of effort, but he was able to make it, after which point the force seemed to lift away from him. Once Raylix was back at said level, he looked around wildly, looking for the Devil responsible for him being mysteriously forced down: his eyes yielded no-one who might have been responsible, though Tomosei's yell of shock from several meters away prompted Raylix to whirl around and see his best friend being forced down to the ground by a male Devil, who looked about the same age as Zeoticus.
With black, slicked-back hair, similarly dark eyes and dressed in fine-looking combat gear, Raylix was able to instantly identify him as an Extra Demon, as who else would be dressed that well, especially on a battlefield? As he forced Tomosei further down, seemingly without the need for directly touching her, Raylix instantly guessed that he was one of two things: either a member of the Fleurety Clan (which possessed the Clan ability Crushing, allowing them to- as the name implied- crush things with an invisible force. It was the closest thing any living Devil- pillar descendant or otherwise, had left to inherited gravity magic. Descendants of Buer possessed more direct gravity manipulation abilities, but they were long-gone thanks to the Great War), or just someone particularly good at gravity magic.
Figuring that the first option seemed the more likely, Raylix flew forward, drawing Gaeneron in his left hand and firing several bolts of demonic energy at the Fleurety Devil with his free right hand. The Fleurety Devil instantly released his Crushing hold on Tomosei and refocused on Raylix, extending a hand towards him and forcing him downwards towards the ground at an alarming speed... that was quickly halted as Raylix heard a louch punching sound, as well as the sound of bones breaking.
Looking up, Raylix grinned at the sight of Sabemka having flown over and punched the Fleurety Devil in the face, sending him spinning over in mid-air. He flew up and grabbed the dazed Fleurety Devil by the leg, span him around a couple of times and threw him back into the ground, landing on top of him just as he landed on the ground so he didn't have any chance to escape. Not that he would have had any chance in the first place, considering that he'd been knocked out: whether by Raylix's throw or Sabemka's punch, it didn't matter.
Sabemka and Tomosei descended and landed on either side of their friend. Tomosei readied her staff, charging it up with demonic energy in preparation to blast the unconscious Fleurety Devil. Before she could fire, Raylix grabbed hold of the staff and steered it away from him, causing Tomosei to stop and look at him.
"Extra Demon, remember?"
"Right..." Tomosei replied, nodding and getting back to the air, Sabemka following. Shrugging, Raylix picked up the Fleurety Devil and flew towards the edge of the anti-transportation borders, casting a transportation-circle as soon as he could and flying through it, with full intention to deposit his capture in a safe location and return to the battle.