A group of Royals Devils, dishevelled and tired, charged as a single unit at the crimson-haired traitor before them, hoping against hope that their charge against him would count for something in this final stand. None of them knew what their leader- and future King- Bidleid was thinking with sending every Devil under his command into one place for a final stand of any kind... but orders were orders, and they believed in his goal.
Their conviction was rewarded by being blasted by a number of small shots of the Power of Destruction, courtesy of their opponent. The Royals Devils that had approached him didn't even see the shots coming, and were dead before they even had a chance to block or fire back. Not that it would've done any good against one of the two Super-Class Devils of the Anti-Royals, particularly the one that was the more powerful of the two.
Sirzechs turned around in mid-air and, after noticing a group of his own soldiers being born down upon by a large group of Royals soldiers, formed a barrier out of his demonic power and flung it towards his allies. The barrier wrapped around the group of weaker soldiers, protecting them from all damage as Sirzechs finished off the larger group of Royals soldiers who'd been attacking them. Before his soldiers could thank their commander for saving them, said commander turned around and continued his flight throughout the city, heading towards its centre. He conjured up vast amounts of water with his demonic power and dumped it onto a burning building that he passed, putting it out almost instantly.
It may have been Serafall and Ajuka's jobs to minimize the destruction that the Royals were causing, as well as evacuate civilians, but it wasn't like Sirzechs WASN'T going to help where he could. Particularly not when he hadn't found his main target yet. When said main target was found, and when said main target was killed... this would truly be over.
Sirzechs sighed, as he noticed another few Royals soldiers attempting to sneak up on him. A wave of his hand and a subconscious thought caused his mother's power to flare up around them, obliterating all of them in an instant and not even distracting him enough to shake him from his thoughts. Had he fully had his way, with nothing or no-one around to influence his opinion or actions, he wouldn't have gotten involved in this whole civil war at all.
He'd long-since had enough of all the death and destruction that all war brought by the time the Great War was halted, and though he was the most powerful Devil alive once everyone once all the fighting was done, he would've been more than happy to never raise a hand against anyone ever again. But then came the battle against Ddraig and Albion: a quick, but necessary battle for the sake of the Underworld... as well as somewhat heart-warming, in a way. All four factions come together and fight against a common enemy, so soon after they'd stopped fighting each other, seemed like the perfect time to fully put the war behind them and permanently unite, right?
…Wrong. The leaders of the Angels, Fallen Angels, Devils and Lilim all seemed to agree that rebuilding themselves from the brink of oblivion took priority over directly pursuing official peace of any kind. Hardly a decision that Sirzechs agreed with, but whatever. With the four original Satans- the symbols of Devilkind- gone, the last of Sirzechs' Hell-based patriotism (which had been greatly diminished as the Great War went on for longer and longer) was all but sapped from him, leaving the young wonder with only two things left that he had any loyalty to: his best (and only) friend Ajuka, and his family. Zeoticus and Venelana, his parents... Alcina, his grandmother... and Raylix, his wonderful little brother.
And it was that loyalty that had kept Sirzechs here, in Hell, fighting and killing (definitely more of the latter. Strongest Devil alive and all) his fellow Devils. It definitely wasn't a task that Sirzechs relished all too much... or really felt anything about, anymore. He'd long-since been numb to the act of killing others, internally justifying it as self-defence, both for himself and his family. After all, if the Royals took power, they would lead the rest of the Devils to extinction against the Angels and Fallen Angels, and if that wasn't bad enough, they'd straight-up tried to KILL everyone who had agreed to stand against them. THAT was unforgiveable, and absolutely warranted retribution in Sirzechs' eyes.
So here he was, probably having contributed the most out of any Devil still alive to the Anti-Royals' adgenda throughout the Civil War. But with who he was going to be killing now, and what that would mean, his status as the hero of the Devil Civil War would be without question. And he... had no idea how to feel about that. But, whatever. No changing what other Devils thought, and no way to back out of the current battle.
Sirzechs was finally driven out of his thoughts by a colossal flare-up in demonic power a few dozen meters away from him, followed by a scream and the sound of something being launched in his direction. Turning towards the source of what had come on instinct and after taking the half-second needed to process the numerous spears of demonic energy flying his way, the crimson-haired Anti-Royals ace flung up a barrier to block all the attacks fired his way, glaring through the barrier at the one who had fired at him... who just so happened to be the very Devil that he was meant to be killing.
"Come to die, along with the rest of the Underworld, have you?" Bidleid asked, one of his eyes twitching as he floated on his own twelve Devil wings, about on a level with Sirzechs. "I'm glad that you were able to make it here, along with the rest of your traitor friends... so you can all die, DIE, DIE! IF I'M GOING DOWN, I'M GOING TO TAKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU BASTARDS WITH ME!"
Sirzechs could only let out a sigh.
"I've got nothing to say to you, Bidleid." he remarked, his normally-blue eyes now turning a deep crimson. "You're clearly not going to surrender, so I won't waste my time."
Almost immediately, the whole area began to shake. Every Devil, both inside and outside of Lucifaad, felt the beginning of the shakes. Ajuka, who had been hanging on his own twelve Devil wings around the edge of Lucifaad's borders, looked up as he felt the shakes, which grew steadily more and more intense by the second. He didn't have to guess where they were coming from, as only one Devil alive that he knew could cause such an effect by releasing their demonic power.
Bidleid felt the shaking too. Crazed as he was, his eyes still widened in shock at the shaking going on all around him. It didn't take him long to figure out who was causing all the shaking to happen. Prideful to the very end as he was, that didn't stop a twinge of fear from beginning to set in.
As he looked back at Sirzechs, Bidleid noticed a dense crimson aura beginning to appear and surround his crimson-haired opponent, who simply looked back at him with a blank, neutral expression on his face. As outwardly calm as he looked, the twinge of fear that had entered Bidleid before, which he was trying his damndest to force out... just wouldn't go away. The aforementioned crimson aura, which was growing steadily denser and denser around Sirzechs, definitely wasn't helping matters.
"S-stop it!" Bidleid shouted, sweat beginning to form on his face. He couldn't look away from Sirzechs, nor the crimson aura that continued to surround him and get denser still by the second, to the point that it was about to envelop him entirely. "N-no Devil should be able to do that!" He received no response from Sirzechs, who had been completely enveloped by the crimson aura by this point. Almost hyperventilating at the sight in front of him, Bidleid extended his hand towards Sirzechs and formed all manner of horrific-looking insect-like abominations out of his considerable demonic power, sending them all at Sirzechs. However, once they were halfway between Bidleid and Sirzechs, they were simply... destroyed, vanishing from existence as if they'd never been there at all.
Letting out a scream of mixed anger and fear, Bidleid fired more powerful bolts of demonic energy out of his hands towards Sirzechs, with just one of them most likely being enough to kill an eight-winged Devil in one strike. But again, just like with the insects Bidleid had formed and flung at him, these powerful bolts of demonic energy didn't even get the chance to damage Sirzechs, as they too were destroyed by the dense aura that had enveloped him.
"MONSTER!" Bidleid screamed, beginning to back up and fling more and more attacks at Sirzechs, to about as much effect as all of the other attacks flung in his direction had had. "Y-YOU'RE A MON... A MON..." Evidently, Bidleid's fear had ascended to such a degree that he'd lost the capacity to form words. He was full-on hyperventilating at this point.
The shaking then stopped, and the crimson aura around Sirzechs faded away, leaving... a being comprised of only the Power of Destruction, which was shaped into the form of a human: Sirzechs' 'true' form.
One look at it was enough for Bidleid to let out a scream of pure terror at the THING in front of him, and begin firing everything that he could at it. However, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on one's perspective), nothing that he fired got even halfway towards Sirzechs, as it dissipated in mid-air. The destructive power surrounding Sirzechs' true form was such that nothing Bidleid could do would be able to touch him, let alone hurt him.
Sirzechs silently raised his hand towards Bidleid, and five small balls of the Power of Destruction flew out towards him. Before Bidleid could even react, the five balls had collided with him, blowing him apart. The first hit him in the stomach, with the powerful yet compressed explosion that resulted from it being enough to separate his upper from his lower body. The second and third struck his shoulders, blowing his arms clean off of the upper half of his body, leaving only his head and torso attached. The fourth and fifth hit his legs, rendering them non-existent in an instant.
Bidleid could only widen his eyes in shock and amazement at the strongest Devil alive, before said strongest Devil alive sent one final shot of his signature power at his head and torso, obliterating all of it in a single strike and ending the life of the final leader of the Royals Faction.
As Sirzechs slowly exited his 'true' form, cheers rose up among the Anti-Royals forces who'd immediately witnessed him killing Bidleid. Anti-Royals further out, who heard the original cheers, offered their own, with Anti-Royals even further out then beginning to cheer themselves soon after. From that point, the domino effect continued until just about every Anti-Royals Devil was cheering uproariously at the fact that Bidleid, the son of Beelzebub and the final Royals Faction leader, was now dead, and the Devil Civil War was at an end.
However, their cheers were quickly interrupted by the sight of magic-circles appearing on every Royals Devil in the city, whether they were alive or dead. Said magic-circles, bearing Beelzebub's insignia (a capital "B" almost like an insect's wing that has an insect-like tail on top and a claw at the bottom), glowed momentarily, before every Devil that bore said Beelzebub magic-circles on their bodies... violently exploded.
"Shit!" Raylix, from his position outside the city, shouted, as a portion of Lucifaad's city walls came flying in his, Sabemka and Tomosei's direction as a result of the explosions. He threw up a barrier just in time for the chunks of stone and rock to bounce harmlessly off of it, rather than letting them fly straight into himself and his two best friends. From where he was floating in the air, he could see most of the buildings within Lucifaad being heavily damaged, or outright destroyed: either within the explosive blasts or by falling down as a result of the explosions taking out much of what the buildings needed to stand.
It wasn't a pretty sight, seeing the Devils' new capital practically blown up in an instant, with the joyful mood of seconds earlier being somewhat dampened as a result.
"Did Bidleid really implant all the Royals' Devils with explosive magic-circles?" Ajuka asked no-one in particular, as Sirzechs descended from where he had killed Bidleid at, looking around at the newfound destruction. "As a final... whatever this was?"
"Asshole." Serafall muttered.
----- ----- -----
1536
It had been six years since the Battle of Lucifaad, and the end of the Devil Civil War. The Royals Faction were essentially dead, though small pockets of sympathisers that had disobeyed Bidleid's call to attack Lucifaad during that climactic battle just over half a decade ago had survived, though they'd been chased to the furthest corners of Hell. There was no chance that the Royals could ever pose a serious chance of taking over ever again, with their numbers now so low and their powerful leaders all dead.
With the Devils now in their first period of peace (or, to be more accurate, first period without war) in over half a century, a more permanent Devil government was able to take power over the remaining Devils, led by the newly-chosen Four Great Satans, extraordinary Devils who took up the titles of their predecessors.
Falbium, a descendant of Glasya-Labolas, had been chosen for the title of Asmodeus, and was placed in charge of the Devil's military affairs. His tactical genius when it came to large-scale battles was second-to-none, and his might on the battlefield- when he could be bothered to get up off of his lazy ass and actually do some fighting- certainly didn't hurt either, so he was a natural pick for commander-in-chief of the Devil military.
Serafall, a descendant of Sitri, had been chosen for the title of Leviathan, and was placed in charge of the Devil's foreign affairs. Her affable nature and absolute desire to further the Devil race made her the best choice, above all others, for a position that would involve a lot of talks with the leaders of other faction-leaders. Her strength on the battlefield and the prestige that came with being the one who'd killed Damaidosu Asmodeus certainly helped her case, too.
Ajuka, a descendant of Astaroth, had been chosen for the title of Beelzebub, and was placed in charge of the Devil's technological development. His aptitude for innovation, super-genius mind and status gained as a result of being the one who brought down Tsufaame Leviathan made him a perfect fit for the title of Satan. And even if he didn't have all of that going for him, being one of the two remaining living Super-Class Devils elevated him to the point that there really was no other position worthy of him OTHER than that of a Satan.
Sirzechs, a descendant of Gremory, Raylix's older brother, and the only other remaining living Super-Class Devil, had been chosen for the title of Lucifer, and placed in charge of the Devil's domestic affairs. As far as the Devils were concerned, Sirzechs had everything: the power to get shit done when it was required of him, the charisma required to both endear an entire race to him as their foremost leader and potentially bring others to said race's side, the reputation as the ultimate hero who had ended the Devil Civil War, there was only one real choice for who would carry on the mantle of the closest thing that the Devils had had to a God.
Soon after Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall and Falbium were crowned as the new Satans, Ajuka's brilliant mind birthed a new invention, arguably the most important invention in the history of the Underworld: the Evil Pieces. The product of Ajuka working to find a feasible way to repopulate the Devils' depleted numbers in the aftermath of both the Great War and the Devil Civil War (mostly the former), they were devices designed to reincarnate other beings into Devils.
Knowledge publicly available to the remaining Devil populous told them that the Evil Pieces took the form of chess pieces, with different pieces boosting certain aspects of the beings that they were inserted into: Rooks (of which a Devil would get two of in their Evil Piece set, just like in the game that the Pieces were based off of) offered a substantial boost to only a Devil's physical strength and defence, making anyone chosen for the Rook position a valuable tank, who would be able to take lots of physical punishment and give it back just as hard. Bishops (of which a Devil would get two of, like with Rooks) offered a substantial boost to only a reincarnated Devil's capacity for magic, making anyone who was made into a Bishop a strong magical caster, who could offer attack, defence or support in any situation. The Knight (of which a Devil would, again, get two of) offered a substantial boost to only a reincarnated Devil's speed, making anyone who was made into a Knight a valued speedster, who could perform high-speed attacks and manoeuvres.
The Queen (of which a Devil would get only one of) gave a combination of the boosts offered by a Rook, Bishop and Knight, making them great overall all-around fighters. Pawns (of which a Devil would get eight of) were similar, but offered minimal boosts to all aspects of a reincarnated Devil's physiology in comparison to the other types of pieces. However, like in the game that the Pieces were based off of, Pawns could 'Promote' to either a Knight, a Bishop, a Rook or a Queen, and receive the appropriate boosts in physical strength/defence, magical power or speed that such a Promotion entailed, so long as they were in a place designated as 'enemy territory', or with the permission of the Devil who owned the Piece that had been used to perform the reincarnation in the first place, better known as their King.
After their introduction, the Evil Pieces were steadily rolled out to certain Devils, starting with the Four New Satans (with Grayfia Lucifuge, Sirzechs' Queen, holding the honour of the first being to have an Evil Piece slid into them) and then moving onto the remaining Pillar-descendants.
"You think he'll be back soon?" Sabemka asked, from a chair. Tomosei, who was lying on the sofa with a book in her hands, looked over at her childhood friend, and shrugged.
"Probably." She replied. "How long should it really take to get your hands on a set of chess-pieces, right? Another thing, why are those Evil Piece things even chess pieces, in the first place?"
Sabemka shrugged.
"Ajuka probably just likes the game of chess." He replied. "Wouldn't seem too out of character with what Raylix told us about him."
"Hm, fair." Tomosei replied, going back to her book. "You think he'll-"
A transportation-circle appeared in the doorway of Sabemka's house, with Raylix popping out of it a second late. Scratching at a random itch that formed on his head, he entered the living room, yawning and raising a hand to his two friends to acknowledge their respective greetings.
"Sorry I was gone so long." He remarked. "They had this whole thing set up where I had to go to New Lucifaad, stand up in front of all the Pillar-descendants while Father gave a speech, then touch a statue to register myself as a King."
"Did you at least get the Pieces, after all of that?" Tomosei asked, sitting up and setting her book aside.
"I sure did." Raylix replied, reaching into one of the pockets of his pants and pulling out a small box. It was about the length of his forearm, and had Gremory's crest engraved on the top of it. He opened the box and showed its contents to his two friends: fifteen chess pieces (a Queen, two Rooks, two Bishops, two Knights, eight Pawns) that were all coloured a bright red.
"Nice..." Sabemka offered his opinion once he'd given the pieces a once-over with his eyes, before heading back to the chair that he'd been occupying before Raylix arrived, and sat back down upon it.
"They weren't originally red." Raylix continued, shutting the box and returning it to his pocket. "They were originally transparent, but only became red after they got synced with my power."
"Right." Tomosei replied, yawning and stretching. "Are you... actually, no."
"What?" Raylix sat down in one of the other chairs, and looked over at Tomosei, who was sharing a look with Sabemka. "What's up?"
"Before you arrived, I think we were both wondering, Raylix..." Sabemka began. Tomosei nodded, knowing where he was about to go with what he was saying. "If, after you got your Pieces, you were thinking of giving me and Tomo some of them."
Raylix blinked a couple of times, looking from Sabemka to Tomosei and back again. There was silence between the three friends for a moment as Raylix looked like he was considering it, a neutral expression on his face. After the moment passed, Raylix opened his mouth, his answer on his lips.
"...No." he replied. "I wasn't considering it, actually. And I don't plan on it, either."
"Oh!" Tomosei blinked herself, looking over at Raylix. "Huh."
"Yeah, because... why would I?" Raylix asked, looking between Sabemka and Tomosei again. "I mean, you're both Devils, for starters, so I wouldn't be contributing to the whole 'replenish the Devil population' thing, that was the whole reason that the Pieces were inventd in the first place, by giving you Pieces, would I?"
"That's fair." Sabemka replied. "Got any other reasons?"
"Yea, actually." Raylix nodded. "I don't need to bind you to me as my servants via these Pieces to know that we're still friends. I mean, you've stuck around me for the past nearly three-and-a-half decades, even when you... almost died because of me."
Sabemka and Tomosei both remained silent, sharing another look with each other as Raylix took a breath.
"I mean, even without that, I think we're past the need of you guys being made to stick around me thanks to these," Raylix continued, partially pulling out his box of Evil Pieces to make a point, before dropping them back into his pocket. "You've done it of your own volition for long enough, I don't see that changing unless I MAJORLY fu-"
"Alright, alright." Sabemka stood up, walked over to Raylix, and pulled him into a tight, one-armed hug. "You've made your point, Raylix."
"Glad I could." Raylix replied, his voice slightly muffled. A pair of rather smaller arms, Tomosei's, wrapped around Rayilx and Sabemka for a moment, as the third of the three-way friendship group joined the hug. For however brief it lasted, Raylix smiled from within Sabemka's chest before the hug broke apart.
"Anyway, want something to eat?" Sabemka asked. "All that waiting must've made at least someone among the three of us hungry."
"Yea, I could go for something right now." Raylix replied. "Or, in however long it takes for you to make something."
"Heh, noted." Sabemka replied. "Tomo?"
"Do you even need an answer from me?" Tomosei asked, a smile coming to her own face.
"Duly noted." Sabemka replied, stepping past Raylix and Tomosei, before making his way to the kitchen. However, before he could make his way there, he stopped and turned towards the window, something having evidently caught his eye.
"What's up?" Tomosei asked.
"Is it just me..." Sabemka spoke, "Or is the sky lighter than it usually is?"
"Huh?" Raylix replied, as he and Tomosei both moved over to the window that Sabemka was standing at, and looked outside. The large brawler was right: the Underworld sky was usually a very dark purple, to the point that you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was black. However, the purple was definitely a few shades lighter than it usually was.
"That's... weird." Tomosei remarked. "What's going on?"
"Hell if I know." Raylix replied. He opened his mouth, but was interrupted by a comms-circle appearing by his ear. "Just a minute." Touching the circle by his ear, he answered the call. "Hello?"
"Raylix, are you outside right now?" Zeoticus' voice came through the comms-circle, by way of greeting.
"Uhh... no, I'm at Sabemka's right now." Raylix replied. "But I can see outside. The sky's a bit lighter than usual, what's going on?"
"Oh, so you can see it." Zeoticus replied. "That's something that Ajuka's decided to implement in the Underworld from now on... for the benefit of any Humans who have to move to the Underworld thanks to being reincarnated into Devils."
"Why would having the sky be lighter than it usually is benefit them?" Raylix asked.
"Not quite." Zeoticus replied. "I know you haven't been there in a while, but in the Human world, they have something called the Sun, that rises and sets in a 24-hour cycle every day. When the sun is up in the sky, the sky is bright, and they call it daytime. When the sun is down, the sky is dark- like here in Hell- and they call it nighttime."
"...Alright." Raylix replied. "And something like that's being implemented across the Underworld."
"Precisely." Zeoticus replied. "Frankly, I'm not sure whether or not this'll turn out to be a good idea, but, well... it is what it is."
"Right." Raylix nodded. "Thanks for telling me, I was worried that something was wrong."
A chuckle could be heard from Zeoticus' end of the call.
"No, nothing's wrong, don't worry about it." He replied. "Though telling you about the new state of Hell's sky isn't the only reason I'm calling."
"Oh?" Raylix asked. "What's up? Do I need to come back?"
"Yes, you do." Zeoticus replied, his voice now several tones more businesslike than seconds before. "I've been told that a group of surviving Royals Faction members have been sighted, on the border between our territory and what used to be Amy's territory. I'm... busy right now, and Sirzechs is obviously-"
"Yeah, I think I get the picture." Raylix replied. "I'm on my way."
The comms-circle around Raylix's ear disappeared, and Raylix looked over at Sabemka and Tomosei, both of whom looked like they'd heard everything that Raylix and Zeoticus had talked about on their call.
"Adjusting the sky of the entire Underworld for Humans-turned-Devils?" Tomosei remarked. "Considerate."
"Yeah, and it makes sense." Sabemka added. "There's obviously gonna be a lot of Humans-turned-Devils in the future. If enough Devils get Evil Pieces and reincarnate enough Humans, they might end up outnumbering those who're... you know, born as Devils."
"Not that that'd exactly be a hard feat to accomplish." Raylix remarked. "Given how many Humans there apparently are compared to us Devils."
"Yeah..." Sabemka replied, pausing for a second before shrugging. "Oh, well. Shall we get to kicking some Royals asses?"
Raylix smirked, strode over to the front door of Sabemka's house and pulled it open, before heading outside. Sabemka and Tomosei looked at each other, not even needing to exchange words before following Raylix out. By the time they'd gotten out, Raylix had already raised his hand to cast a transportation-circle for the three of them, but had taken a second to look up at the sky. In the few minutes between when Sabemka had noticed the brighter nature of the sky, and when they'd headed outside, the sky had gotten brighter still. Truth be told... Raylix kinda liked this brighter sky.
He could also notice a ball of light high up in the sky. It was the brightest area of the sky, and looked to be where the brightness of the Underworld's new sky seemed to originate from.
"Let's go!" Raylix shouted, spreading his wings and flying through the transportation-circle, disappearing from that area of the Underworld entirely. Sabemka and Tomosei, spreading their own wings, followed suit, with the transportation-circle closing behind them.