42 days from the wedding...
Raylix and Ruvella entered the gathering hall together this time, hand-in-hand, with their respective parents in front of them, and Ruvella's two siblings behind the pair of them. With Raylix in a different (but no less extravagant) suit from the one he'd worn at the last gathering he'd been to six months ago, coloured red and white, and Ruvella in a body-hugging gold-coloured gown with crimson trim, the pair of Clan Heirs cut a striking image as they came into the hall.
All eyes naturally shifted over to the crowd of seventeen Devils (Zeoticus, Gyokuro, Venelana, Jarahn, Raylix, Josarry, Ereht, Ruvella, Salem, Rika, Renzo, Riser, Rarzeth and their Queens) entered the hall, with Venelana offering a nod of greeting to Erechus as the group entered.
The Head of the Bael Clan, a good-looking young man who looked in about the same age-range as Venelana, with neck-length black hair and a light beard, didn't offer any kind of greeting to his half-sister, her family or his fellow noble Clan, opting to simply glare at the group of seventeen heading past him into the gathering hall. His glare, in particular, was focused in the direction of his chestnut-haired nephew Raylix, something that didn't go unnoticed by Venelana.
"Raylix has changed, Erechus." she quietly remarked. "There's no need to worry about him doing anything like... what he did, six months ago."
"Tell that to our father." Erechus replied, shortly. "I still don't understand why you and your... husband," he cast a disparaging eye over at Zeoticus, who was talking rather animatedly with Rika, "didn't kick your son out of the family entirely, or at the very least remove him from the line of succession to the title of Duke Gremory. Grounding him was far too lenient a punishment, Venelana."
"Don't lecture me about how to be a parent, Erechus." Venelana replied, her voice quiet but sharp. "It's not like we have any other children that would be accepted as Gremory Heir. Plus, there's more to be gained in helping someone learn from their mistakes than jumping to such extreme punishment."
Erechus scoffed, muttering something under his breath that sounded like "weak excuse" as far as Venelana could hear, and dismissively waved his half-sister along into the party hall to join her husband. Letting out a quiet sigh, Venelana did just that. Erechus had always been pretty up-his-own-ass about the fact that he was the older (by not even a decade) out of the pair of them, like that small fact gave him innate knowledge on literally everything to a greater extent than Venelana could ever hope to achieve, but after things had calmed down after the Devil Civil War, and he had been pronounced as the Head of the Bael Clan, with the title of Great King...
It had enhanced some of his worse qualities, to put it lightly. As she took her place beside Zeoticus, her eyes wandered towards Raylix and Ruvella, flanked by their respective guards. She could see various nobles from around the Underworld offering greetings to the two Heirs, verbally renewing their excitement for their upcoming wedding (what with it being less than two months away and all), some even making it very clear that they would be attending said wedding.
Though Ruvella was happily nodding along with everything that the various nobles were talking with her about, even offering polite replies to some of the remarks, Raylix was so bored that he was about to blow himself up, right here in the gathering hall. Though the fact that the nobles that had made the choice to come over and chat to him and Ruvella were being significantly colder to HIM than to Ruvella certainly didn't help things, either. Though in all honestly, it was hard to entirely blame them for their point of view. From their perspective, they'd seen the most influential man in all of Hell, THE man responsible for the vast majority of the wealth and prestige that all noble Devils had hoisted themselves up upon, being publicly- viciously- attacked by someone who, truth be told, was little more than an ant, prestige-wise, in comparison to him.
'Still, better that than let him say what he said and go unpunished for it.' Raylix thought to himself, plastering as realistic-looking a fake smile he could onto his face as Xenia Purson, the Lady and Head of the Purson Clan, inclined her head to both him and Ruvella and walked away with her husband Vohrihr. Muttering something to Ruvella about needing to get a drink, he stepped away from her and Salem (with Josarry and Ereht barely a step away from him on either side, of course) and made his way over to the nearest Bael Clan servant, one of the many that roamed the party-hall with an expertly-balanced platter in hand, with drinks-glasses on top. After grabbing a glass off of the plate and offering a quiet "Thanks" to the servant he'd grabbed it off of, he moved off to a quieter corner of the party hall, lifting the glass to his lips and gulping down some of the drink (a single bottle of which probably cost more than the average non-noble Devil made in half a year) as he leant against a wall, scanning the party-hall, and the hundreds of Devils within it.
He barely registered the cold and scornful looks thrown his way by several of those that passed- with Jiltea and Hyier, the Lord and Lady of the Beleth Clan (Raylix might have been seeing things, but he could swear that he could see a baby-bump of some kind around Jiltea's stomach-area), giving him the dirtiest looks of them all- not with his mind so far away, focused on the conversation he'd had with Malech.
The Old Satan Faction, a group whose goals (according to Malech, at the very least) meant the dissolution of the demonic ruling class, pretty much everyone that Raylix was seeing in this very room. He'd been giving it quite a bit of thought, ever since coming home from Malech's village a week ago: their goals certainly SOUNDED pretty nice, all things considered, and though the possibility of them being led by the children of the leaders of the Royals Faction (a faction that Raylix had faced death against more times than he could count) still lingered in the back of his mind, it hadn't stopped the occasional thought of joining them from wandering into the Gremory Heir's mind and taking hold. And each time he'd tried to cast it from his mind, it had come back sooner or later, and stronger than before.
Did he have the strength to do it, though? Leave everything he'd gained over the approximate half-millennium: a (relatively) painless existence at the top of the demonic pile, one of the most eligible bachelorettes in all of Hell (THE most eligible, when discounting anyone in any major position of power among the Devils or Lilim) engaged- soon to be married- to him, his every wish fulfilled? All for what, a faction that he knew next to nothing about beyond its goals, and the chance that it could go and restart the Great War the minute that it took power in the Underworld? Assuming, of course, that it even ended up taking power in the Underworld, and Raylix didn't end up bleeding out on some battlefield like countless other Devils before him.
As redundant as this line of inner questioning was (after all, even if he actually wanted to go, and had the strength to do so, he didn't have a damn clue where the dark corner of Hell the Old Satan Faction were hiding away in), it didn't stop Raylix's mind from nigh-constantly revisiting it. Like an incessant itch that just REFUSED to go away, no matter how much you scratched at it, it just kept popping up, no matter how much Raylix tried to focus on something else.
"Hey!" a sharp voice echoing from across the party-hall caught Raylix's attention, temporarily wrenching him from his own thoughts. He (and a good number of the Devils in the room) looked around towards the source of the voice: his aunt-in-law Oriessa Bael, Erechus' second wife, in one of the most overly-extravagant violet dresses that Raylix had ever seen, and dark-blonde hair in an inverted bob that was longer at the back than it was at the front. Erechus had married her relatively recently, after all-but-kicking his first son Sairaorg and his first wife Misla out of the Clan, for being born without the ability to use the Power of Destruction and for producing a child that didn't have the ability to use the Power of Destruction, respectively.
Erechus' second wife, the current Lady of the Bael Clan, seemed to be yelling at once of the servants, who was carrying out a platter filled with drinks. After shifting himself slightly to get a better look at what was going on, Raylix recognised the servant she was yelling at as the very same one he'd grabbed a drink off of a couple of seconds earlier
"Where the hell are the crab-filled mushrooms?! I asked you flunkies SPECIFICALLY to bring them out once the important guests had arrived! Why can't you follow the SIMPLEST ORDERS?!"
Oriessa then stepped forward and shoved the servant away from her, causing him to drop the platter of drinks. Glasses smashed as soon as they hit the floor, and the expensive liquids contained within spilled out everywhere, all over the floor.
"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE MADE ME DO!" Oriessa shrieked, jumping back away from the mess like someone had shot at her, an incensed look on her face. Thankfully, both for her sake and for the sake of the servant that she'd pushed, none of the drink had gotten on her dress. "Clean that mess up, and after that, get out of here! You're fired!"
A rag appeared out of a magic-circle in front of the servant-Devil, which was flung into him via a pulse of magical energy cast by Oriessa, before she stalked off. The silence that her outburst had caused continued for a few seconds, before hundreds of little conversations slowly resumed, after which everything was essentially back to normal within the party-hall. Everything APART from the servant who Oriessa had just tossed the rag at, of course: he dejectedly knelt down and began wiping up the liquids, taking as much care as he could to avoid the shards of glass, not wanting to cut himself and spare the effort needed to magically heal.
The end of the shittiest day in a string of shitty days. Getting fired, in all honesty, could spell disaster for his entire family. What with his mother's business barely making any money anymore, and his father dead from a beast attack half a century ago, his salary from this job was the only major source of money that he, his mother and his two little brothers really had to live off of. And with such a public sacking by the Great Queen Bael, there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that he'd be able to get any kind of job working for any of the noble Clans ever again, which were the only jobs- short of attempting to start his own business, which he didn't have the first idea of how to do- that could make any kind of major (by the standards of commoners) bank in the Underworld, on the Devils' side of things.
They'd be able to survive off of what he'd saved up for a little while as he searched for new jobs, but the only option that had any major chance of working was emigrating, maybe to the Lilim's side of Hell, maybe the Human World, or join the rumoured-
The servant-Devil, still on his knees, nearly fell on his ass as two small intense-looking beams, roughly the width of human eyes, descended onto the very liquid and glass that he was gently wiping off of the floor, vaporizing both as if they were never there in the first place. The servant looked up as Raylix continued, destroying the remaining liquid and glass within a couple of seconds, and blinking a couple of times as his crimson eyes faded black to blue. As everyone seemed to have turned away from the now-sacked servant, leaving him to his work, no-one saw this happen.
"You don't have to do that." Raylix remarked, in a lower tone in order to avoid anyone hearing him. "You were fired, remember?"
The Gremory Heir offered a small wink to the now-sacked no-longer-servant Devil, before turning on his heel and walking off, leaving the servant to get back to his feet and stare after Raylix's retreating form, conflicting feelings firing off inside him. The dull stab of hatred of any noble Devil, the dull sadness at the aforementioned fact that he was now unemployed, and a slightly warmed heart at the small act of kindness from one of the very nobles he hated so much. And not fake kindness that was more condescending than anything else, but an ACTUAL act of kindness, small as it was. The no-longer-servant Devil was left with those feelings as he got to his feet, and slunk out of the party-hall.
The sacked servant walking out, by contrast, WAS noticed by several of the nobles, and as Raylix made his way through the gathering hall (with Josarry and Ereht, both of whom gave no comment to Raylix helping their fellow Low-Class Devil, right behind him), there were snippets of conversation that could be heard from everyone else.
"He should've known better-"
"Should've been grateful for the opportunity to work for the Bael-"
"Hopefully Erechus can find someone of better stock to replace that failure-"
"Peasants like him are a Soul a dozen, it's not like they've got anything to stand out!"
"Not like us!"
Raylix scoffed, under his breath, continuing through the crowd towards the edge of the hall, where party-food (including the aforementioned crab-filled mushrooms that Oriessa had mentioned during her rant at the no-longer-servant Devil, who had now left the party-hall) was being served up. Raylix grabbed a plate for himself, quickly used magic to transport a mixture of food he liked and what looked like food he'd like onto said plate, and moved away from the table, picking up one of the crab-filled mushrooms and putting it into his mouth.
Not bad, the Gremory heir thought, as he chewed on it thoughtfully. Actually, pretty good, by all accounts.
After swallowing the morsel in his mouth, and placing another one in his mouth after plucking it off of his plate, Raylix moved to a free spot of wall and leant up against it, still not exactly in the mood to talk to anyone. He could pick out Ruvella from his position across the party-hall, happily chatting with his parents and with Sirzechs, who Raylix hadn't seen within the hall at the time he'd arrived.
Even when simply looking at his older brother, Raylix still felt a not-insignificant wash of anger through his entire being. He still hadn't forgiven the supposed hero of Hell for what he'd said just over six months ago, and to be honest, he wasn't sure if he ever would. Not even with the sincerest of apologies, NOTHING (as far as Raylix was currently aware) that Sirzechs could do would completely heal the wound dealt by the metaphorical dagger that he'd jammed into his heart. Though Grayfia- quietly stood a step or two behind her King- had definitely been a pretty good help ever since the incident with Zekram six months ago.
Turned out, for her strict and emotionless nature when acting as the Gremory Clan's head maid, his older brother's Queen, or both at the same time, Grayfia was a decent listener. Okay, scratch that, she was a REALLY GOOD listener. Whenever she'd been available during the time that Raylix had been grounded (which, admittedly, wasn't 100% of the time that Raylix had wanted, but she'd definitely made an effort), she'd been more than willing to let Raylix dump out whatever anecdote he had knocking around in his head about Sabemka and Tomosei at the time to her. Not only that, but she'd actually talked back, shown some actual Lilith-damn interest in them beyond just making it seem like Raylix was just talking to a brick wall.
Truth be told, over the last six months... it'd been slow, it hadn't happened instantly, but whenever Raylix saw Grayfia, or even thought about her all that much, a certain warm feeling couldn't help but worm itself into the pit of his stomach, and wouldn't leave for quite some time. The Gremory Heir couldn't help but draw comparisons to how he felt about Lilith, in his early life, with how he felt about Grayfia now. It was as wrong as wrong could possibly be to feel that way, it didn't take a genius to tell him that, considering he was meant to be marrying Ruvella in less than two months time, AND that Grayfia was Sirzechs' Queen, but... he couldn't help it.
Sighing, and shoving his feelings down while plucking the last crab-filled mushroom off of the plate he was carrying, tossing it into his mouth, and teleporting the plate away from his hands, Raylix shoved his hands into his pockets and took a couple of steps towards the open double-doors, in the mood for some fresh air. Or to just slip away from the party entirely and head back to the Gremory Castle, it wasn't like anyone here really wanted to talk to him, or vice versa.
Though before he could get much closer to the door, another snippet of conversation reached Raylix's ears. Muffled as it might have been by the conversation going on, Raylix still picked it up, and the sound of it was enough for him to slow down, at least a little.
"My son rallied a village's worth of lowers to help him on a hunt! It saved SO MUCH money that would've gone to the military ministry, Galldas, you wouldn't believe it!"
Raylix's head turned, slightly, towards where he'd heard that declaration coming from. He recognised the voice as coming from Urlead Zepar, the Head of the Zepar Clan, as he chatted casually with Galldas Stolas.
"Oh, really?" Raylix heard Galldas' voice in reply to Urlead's. "Needed your family's prized red armour cleaning again, Urlead?"
"Of course!" Urlead replied, chuckling. "Money well-spent, too, the way it shines now... hmm, sublime!"
"I can imagine." Galldas nodded. "How did the hunt that your son rallied those lowers onto, go?"
"Oh, he brought back SUCH a massive Wulf-Head!" Urlead replied, letting out another chuckle. "Like, the size of those double-doors-" he pointed over at the doors to the party-hall, grinning as he did so. "Took quite a bit of effort to get it mounted up in his room, a deserving reward for his efforts!"
"Incredibly deserving." Galldas nodded, again. "I'm sure the lowers must've been incredibly honoured to serve alongside the future Marquis."
"I'm sure they would have been, had any of them lived to make tell of their hunt." Urlead shrugged. "Their deaths were surely honourable, in service to us."
"Indeed." Galldas replied, nodding for a third time, with neither Clan Lord noticing the pair of crimson orbs baring down on them from their right side.
Raylix didn't think it was possible to be THIS angered by something that had technically no effect on him, but right now... rage didn't even begin to describe it. What he'd just heard went beyond the regular kind of cruel that you'd expect Devil nobles to pull at any time, and into the tier of pointless, intense cruelty that couldn't be excused by ANY possible explanation. It wasn't even just letting a bunch of commoners die... for all he knew, the Zepar Heir could've coerced the commoners under his command for his hunt, and simply led them to die for his own amusement.
Hell, that was probably what had happened! After what he'd heard from Malech about his own family (who were the apparent kindest, both to their servants and to the lower classes of the Devils' side of the Underworld... saying a lot, he knew) and experienced of the nobility at large, he REALLY wouldn't put it past the Zepar Clan or its Heir (who he hadn't exactly heard the best things about) to do something like that.
Raylix's vision was squarely trained on Urlead's head, aimed precisely at the location of his brain. He could picture it in his mind's eye, letting loose and avenging the commoner Devils that the Zepar Heir had coerced into dying for his stupid hunt, spraying bits of brain, blood and bone all over the gathering-hall. Maybe certain bits would end up flying all over Galldas' face, he was definitely close enough to Urlead for that to be QUITE possible, depending on exactly where in the head Raylix hit him with his destructive eye-beams.
Doubtless, it'd feel pretty good in the moment, working out newfound anger on someone that, in all likeliness, deserved it. Though as Raylix's eyes continued to glow ever-more intensely, to the point that it looked like he was about to go ahead and do commit cold-blooded murder on the Marquis Zepar, a certain rational part of his mind spoke up, causing him to hesitate. Though it would absolutely feel good to dispatch Urlead from the realm of the living into whatever the hell lay beyond for their kind, the consequences- if Raylix were to go through with such an action- were decidedly less good.
Simply maiming Zekram was probably enough for his parents to consider removing him from the line of succession to the title of Duke Gremory, but actual MURDER OF A CLAN HEAD would probably warrant any potential punishment going far beyond that, most likely straight to being exiled from Hell entirely. Maybe he'd end up marked for death like the average Stray Devil, meaning that rather than just being kicked out of Hell, he'd probably have to book it out of his home realm in order to have a chance of surviving for very long. And after that, it'd be a life of running from place to place, never staying anywhere for all too long, having to dodge anyone looking to collect the reward that would doubtlessly be placed upon his head as a result of his crime...
Yeah, not the kind of life he wanted to live, not anytime soon. DEFINITELY not worth the brief, temporary pleasure that would come with killing Marquis Zepar. The Gremory Heir shut his eyes, taking a quiet, deep breath to himself before opening them again, the angry crimson fading back to natural, neutral blue. Though it wasn't quite enough to cause his eyes to change back to red, a wave of anger crashed over Raylix as he continued to look on Urlead and Galldas, so he turned around and stalked off, with Josarry and Ereht following directly behind him.
"Sir?" Ereht spoke up, quietly leaning over towards Raylix and speaking in a lower tone than usual. "Are you okay?"
"Need some air." Raylix muttered, his eyes squarely focused on the double-doors that led out of the gathering-hall. "Probably gonna go back to the castle, too. Tell my parents that... or don't, I don't care."
Raylix sped up his walking, leaving Josarry and Ereht behind as he made his way closer to the doors, which began to be opened by a couple of servants on either side of the door as he approached. Though as he came within a few steps of the doors, he heard the footfalls of someone approaching him. Though he heard them coming, he didn't stop, or even turn to look at them as he came to the now-fully-opened door.
"Raylix?"
"Piss off, Serafall." Raylix muttered, storming through the doors. As he exited the party-hall, he didn't hear the footfalls of the Satan Leviathan behind him: not that anything she could say would get him to come back. He took an immediate right after heading down the steps from the party-hall, his breaths heavy as he continued to walk for a moment or two, eventually coming to a stop.
" The Old Satan Faction. That's their real name."
"Just because something 'makes sense from a certain perspective', Raylix, doesn't mean that it's right."
"-the system of nobility we've been in for half a millennium MUST be dismantled. Wipe the slate clean, burn it down, build a better, stronger, Hell from the ashes."
"And if the Old Satan Faction can do that, then, well..."
"The rest of your life at the top of the pile, one of the most eligible bachelorettes in all of Hell married to you, your every wish fulfilled... or actually doing something with yourself, and taking a chance to try and fix your broken homeland?"
As the anger, initially quite overwhelming, steadily subsided from Raylix, his mind drifted- as it had been doing a lot, lately- to last week's conversation with Malech. Even when physically occupied with other, more 'noble' pursuits of his time, he couldn't wrench his mind away from last week, not for very long. The more and more that he'd thought things over since returning home from Sabemka and Tomosei's home village, the more he was beginning to realise that the Old Satan Faction, the Devils' Reformation Faction, the Low-Class Liberation Army, whatever the hell their name really was... what they were peddling had a lot of truth to it.
And with what he'd heard just now, and what he'd realised as a result, he was beginning to come more and more around to the idea of actually going through with it: leaving the Gremory Clan entirely, leaving his life at the top of the pile behind, and joining the Old Satan Faction. Though there was still the issue of figuring out exactly WHERE they were holed up, and how to get there. With how they were apparently gaining support among the lower classes, it wasn't that much of a stretch to assume that among them would be where Raylix needed to look, if he was to find the answers that he sought.
It would certainly be a lot harder to do that when married to Ruvella, with how many public appearances he would be expected to make with her in front of the demonic nobility as husband and wife, than in the six weeks- just under a month and a half- that he had left as a bachelor. Meaning that, if possible, he had to figure out how one went about joining the Old Satan Faction, and... do just that.
"Raylix?"
Raylix was roused from his thoughts as the sound of footfalls steadily approached him. He looked up, raising an eyebrow slightly as he saw Ruvella coming towards him.
"Oh, there you are. What are you doing out here?" The Phenex Heiress asked, quickly closing the distance between herself and Raylix. "We were all worried that you had left early, and gone home."
"I was considering doing just that." Raylix replied, stretching himself. "Just came out for a bit of fresh air though, is all. What's up?"
"I'm glad you didn't leave." Ruvella remarked. "I was just thinking, since the music had just started up again, and we've never had an opportunity to dance together yet, especially not at a gathering like this..." she shifted from one foot to the other as she looked down at the floor for a moment, before looking back at Raylix. "Would you, uh, like to?"
Raylix resisted the urge to sigh, as he could, indeed, hear some kind of melody coming out of the party-hall, with said melody being caught by his ears.
"...Fine." he replied, shoving his hands into his trouser-pockets and following Ruvella (who looked like she, herself, was holding back the urge to jump for joy) back to the party-hall.
----- ----- -----
38 days from the wedding...
A transportation-circle opened just beyond the borders of a small town, barely a few dozen miles on the Gremory side of the border between Gremory and Sitri territory. Though anyone who looked hard enough at the transportation-circle, for the half-second that it had appeared for, would have seen the circle-encased rose in its iconic crimson, none would have recognised the blond young man that came out of it, with tanned skin, dark-green eyes and clad in tattered, torn-up clothing with suspicious blood-like stains on the pants.
Glamours were a wonderful thing, after all.
Slipping his hands into his pockets, the unidentified blond Devil walked through the town's gates, following a small group of Devils that made for the town centre. Word outside of the noble circles was that some kind of anti-noble rally was going on here, far away from potentially prying eyes. And there was definitely plenty of anti-noble works plastered up all over the town, the nameless blond Devil noticed as he made his way closer and closer to the town centre.
Looking down a smaller, narrower street that stuck out from the main street that he was walking down allowed a large, wall-sized poster that depicted Duke Zeoticus Gremory himself, as an incredibly fattened man in a camel costume that looked far too small for him (judging by how it was stretching on his body in every way that such a costume COULD be stretched, and there were noticeable tears practically everywhere). There was a hole in the crotch, where what the blond thought was a penis (it was somewhat hard to tell, considering that there was barely anything there) sticking out of the hole. The fattened Zeoticus was lying on his back, seemingly too fat to get up.
The unnamed blond let out a short exhale of breath through his nose, as one did when they found something mildly amusing, and continued on his way towards the town centre. He could hear a commotion coming from the area of town that he was making his way towards: probably the anti-noble rally that he'd heard about over the past week. Another of the smaller, narrower streets that led off from the main street that the blond walked down revealed another wall-sized poster that, rather than focusing solely on Zeoticus, focused more on Duchess Venelana.
Venelana, in real life, wasn't unattractive, not by any stretch of the imagination, but her beauty was INCREDIBLY enhanced in the poster that the blond currently looked upon, to the point that it would've actually been somewhat comparable to Lilith... if certain touches weren't made within the poster's depiction of her to make her seem far more... openly malevolent than she appeared to be in reality. The blond was no artist, he didn't have the first idea regarding how to make someone look so malevolent in a drawing with such small changes to how they really looked.
The Venelana in the poster was depicted with a chain in one hand- the other end of which was attached to a collar, which was around the neck of a dejected, overfed-looking camel (the blond was beginning to notice a theme, here. Especially considering that the face of the camel in the poster looked... somewhat familiar to him)- and a man's (exceptionally large) cock in the other. The face of the man whose cock the Venelana in the poster was gripping (and presumably stroking) wasn't depicted, though the blond figured that it didn't really matter. He got the message anyway, and moved on towards the town centre, where things were getting louder and louder, with a similar short exhalation of breath from his nose being his only reaction to the poster.
There were more and more posters lining the walls as the blond came closer and closer to the loud town centre, which the blond slowed down slightly to get a good look at, considering how many of them and how varied they all were. One of the most striking posters the blond saw was of a faceless (presumably Low-Class) Devil holding the bloodied, severed head of Duke Zeoticus, with his dead, headless body knelt down in front of them. Though there were others, such as one that essentially depicted the entire Devil nobility using the lower-classes (who VASTLY outnumbered them) as a giant, sentient seat. Upon further inspection of the poster, Raylix noticed some of the figures depicted on top of the low-classes (who were depicted with expressions of great pain on their face, as one would have when holding up hundreds of people) deliberately stamping down on their sentient seat, making it much harder for those below to hold the nobility up.
As he came closer and closer to the town centre, the blond saw posters and recruitment material for the Anti-Aristocratic Association pasted up amongst the anti-nobility posters. A small smirk crossed his face, though briefly: he knew the trick behind the Old Satan Faction's recruitment, and it was a good one. And trick or no trick, judging by just how much anti-nobility material was posted in this town, and by the fact that there was an anti-nobility rally going on RIGHT NOW, there was a sizeable chunk of this town that seemed to be in support of such a movement.
The blond finally stepped into the town centre, casting his eyes around the rally that was taking place. Many, many Devils (Raylix counted at least two thousand) were gathered- some on the ground, some hanging in the air on their Devil wings- together in a vague shape that somewhat resembled a circle. Some chanted, some cheered and some laughed, all of which seemed to be directed at something going on in the middle.
Though there weren't any magical blasts being thrown around, the blond could feel an incredible energy in the air as he made his way through the crowd. A grin couldn't help but worm its way onto his face as he got closer and closer to the centre of the circle that the group had formed, though he was curious to see what was going on in the centre that the crowd was getting so excited about. He had a feeling that it was something he was going to end up liking.
It took a good few minutes, in all, for the blond to get the whole way through the crowd. The combined volume of the chanting, cheering and laughing seemed ever-increasing: it was almost deafening, even with one's stronger Devil eardrums in comparison to Humans. Though once he was finally in the middle, he saw what the crowd had been so worked up about, which he hadn't been able to fully see from the back when he'd just entered.
There were several Devils in the middle of the circle, holding what appeared to be effigies, four of them. One each of Duke Zeoticus, Duchess Venelana, Sirzechs Lucifer and Raylix, the Heir to the Gremory Clan. None of the effigies were one hundred percent accurate to their real-life counterparts: Zeoticus was MUCH fatter than he was in reality, and given camel-ears instead of his more regular-looking ears, and Raylix's hair was the same crimson as his father's, brother's and grandmother's, rather than the more muted, chestnut-like colour that he had in reality.
The group of Low-Class Devils in the middle of the giant circle, cheered on by their lower-class peers, were proceeding to beat, maim and just overall violate the shit out of the effigies that they had a hold of. Kicking them around, violently throwing them around, two male Devils in particular even decided to start sexually 'abusing' the effigy of Venelana, while another held up the effigy of Zeoticus, seemingly forcing it to watch his wife being violated in front of him.
An unseen grin formed on the blond's face as he outstretched his hand an unnoticeable amount, using a small amount of his demonic power to conjure up a platform beneath the group of effigy-violating Devils, and raise it up high enough that everyone in the crowd could easily see it. Everyone in the crowd looked around, their anti-nobility fervour temporarily interrupted by a general curiosity as to who had just raised up the leaders of the present rally, before deciding that it didn't really matter, and continuing as normal, as did the effigy-violating Devils that stood atop the platform that the blond had raised up. Though those that stood at the very front of the crowd all took a few steps back, and some further back even took to the air, to either make it easier to see from the ground, or to make more space for everyone else standing on the ground.
A few more Devils close to the blond dashed forward, jumping up and climbing onto the elevated platform to join their low-class brethren in violating the effigies. One of them joined in with the two that were raping the Venelana-effigy, and the two others joined in with beating the shit out of the effigies of Sirzechs and Raylix, seemingly spurred on by the raucous cheers of the vast majority of the crowd below.
"TAKE THAT, YOU ELITE PRICKS!" the blond could hear one of the Devils in the crowd, probably a few meters back from him, yelling out above the cheers. Further shouts and jeers, disparaging and mocking the aristocratic Pillars (particularly the Gremory Clan), rang out across the area, creating a cacophony of noise even louder than before... somehow.
"GREEDY BASTARDS!"
"DISGRACE TO EVERYTHING HELL STOOD FOR!"
"YOU SHOULD JUST DIE ALREADY!"
"FUCK THE PILLARS!"
The blond himself had yelled out the last one, though it was drowned out by all the other yells. The blond hadn't felt this much adrenaline rushing through him for over half a year, and as horrible that last situation had been, this one definitely wasn't as bad. Quite the contrary, the blond felt pretty damn good, all things considered. Ever since that day, when he'd lost the two (platonic) loves of his life, almost everything that he'd really known or lived for had felt like it was steadily slipping away from him, and he'd just been going through the motions in an effort to keep any semblance of normalcy. But now, in the midst of this anti-nobility rally, he felt like he'd finally found something that he could dedicate himself to again.
He'd almost forgotten how it felt... but unholy shit, did it feel good. The kind of good that everything else could well be worth casting away without missing it much, by comparison.
Atop the platform, one of the Devils who'd been raping the effigy of Venelana stepped away from the action, outstretched their hand, and summoned fire in the middle of it. The cheers, once again, increased in volume as the four Devils that had been roughing up the effigies of Sirzechs and Raylix, without hesitation, thrust the effigies into the flames, whereupon they ignited practically instantly. The crowd roared in approval, hurling verbal abuse at the two noble Devils.
The effigy of Venelana was next to go, with the two remaining Devils who'd been gangbanging it tossing it into the flames to join the effigies of her two sons as soon as they saw the flames rising up. Like the first two, it ignited on contact with the flames, leaving only the effigy of Zeoticus unburned. The sole Devil that had been holding onto Zeoticus, rather than throw it into the flames immediately like the effigies of his wife and two sons, decided to get in a little more brutality upon the effigy of the ruler of his home territory before condemning it to the flames.
It started with the legs, which were stamped on at the knees before being twisted off, first the right, then the left. Both legs were tossed upon the flames before the arms came next, with the Devil in question resting his foot on the Zeoticus-effigy's chest before bodily ripping the arms off, first the left, then the right, before tossing the arms upon the flames. The legless, armless effigy of Duke Gremory was thrown down upon the platform, with the Devil resting his foot on the effigy's neck, bending down and ripping the effigy's head off of its body. The legless, armless and now headless body was kicked into the flames without even being looked at, while the head was held up for the crowd to see, cheer and jeer at before it, too, was thrown upon the flames.
The Devils that had been roughing up the effigies before throwing them into the fire (Raylix counted seven, in all) spread their wings and floated off of the platform, with the one who had been holding Zeoticus summoning a magic-circle, and pulling out a large flag with the Gremory family crest emblazoned upon it. A snap of his fingers had the flag floating in mid-air, as opposed to needing to be held by anyone in particular, with some more manipulation allowing the flag to be stretched out, for all to see.
"We're gonna be raising this in Gemyem soon!" The Devil shouted, pointing at the flag. "I think it could use a bit of redecoration, don't you?!"
Most of the crowd below immediately began firing upon the flag with bullets of demonic energy, with the bullets tearing through the flag and making it look far less pristine than the other flags. The blond joined in, catching the top of the rose that served as the clan's symbol with his own bullet of plain demonic energy. Some of the Devils further back in the crowd forwent the use of demonic energy to damage the flag, instead throwing other things upon the flag. One Devil flew up, carrying a bucket with him, and tossed its bloody contents onto the flag, to roars of approval from below. Another Devil flew up, carrying some smaller bags, before opening them and throwing the contents out onto the flag, contents that the crowd almost immediately identified as actual, probably self-produced faeces. A not-insignificant amount of laughter broke out amongst the further roars and cheers of approval.
The blond was among those that broke out in laughter at the faeces on the noble family's flag. As rotten fruit and vegetables were thrown upon it, and as more demonic bullets cut through it, further defacing and destroying it, the thought of Duke Zeoticus and Duchess Venelana's reactions to THAT being flown up in their territory's capital city, for all to see. And he couldn't lie, what he came up with in his head was pretty Lilith-damn amusing.
The blond turned around and, unnoticed among the events around and above him, made his way back through the crowd. There were more of them here now than there had been when he arrived at the village earlier in the day, so it took him quite a bit longer to get out of the crowd than it did to get in. Though once he was out, making his way to the town's gates, and beyond them in order to get out of the town, was an easy job, as the town was practically deserted everywhere aside from the town centre.
A short chuckle escaped Raylix Gremory's lips as he cast a transportation-circle, unseen, and disappeared from the town, the glamour he'd cast upon himself disappearing as he went.
35 days from before the wedding...
Under the same glamour as he'd gone under during his attendance of the anti-noble rally, Raylix appeared through another transportation-circle, just on the outskirts of a different town to the one he'd last gone to. In comparison to where he'd been the other day, this town was on the other side of Gremory territory, just a couple of hundred miles from the border between Gremory and Agares territory. Almost immediately upon stepping through the anti-teleportation borders that were placed around most towns and villages in the Underworld, he could see that this town was only BARELY safe for anyone to live in, and that was being generous.
Most of the town's outer walls were crumbling, or looking like they were well on their way there, there was many a building that looked like it just had a chunk bitten out of it, there was debris all around. Most of the civilian-Devils that Raylix passed as he walked through the town certainly didn't look all too happy about the conditions that they had- no doubt- been forced to deal with for a while, now.
There was little to no pro-OSF material anywhere to be seen in the town, in extremely stark contrast to the last town Raylix had visited half a week ago. Strange, he thought, considering that with everywhere he'd recently been, there was at least a noticeable amount of anti-nobility stuff that could be found around the place: this town, in particular, had the least amount of anywhere he'd recently been.
Like he'd internally said earlier. Strange.
As Raylix rounded a corner, his emerald-coloured eyes widened at the sight of a familiar face within the village: Jarahn, his mother's Queen, strolling down a street without a seeming care in the world.
'What in the HELL is he doing here?!' Raylix, under his glamour, thought to himself as Jarahn continued to walk, his hands in the pockets of his jacket, his eyes flicking over to him for the briefest of moments before refocusing on the street directly in front of him. 'Okay, can't worry about that now, gotta hide! Or maybe follow him? No, hide.'
Raylix changed course, and as quickly as he could without making it look too obvious, walked towards one of the small alleyways that shot off from the main street, and made his way down it as Jarahn passed where he was, without even looking in his general direction. Raylix let out a quiet breath of relief as Venelana's Queen passed, his mind still racing at all the possible reasons that his mother's second-in-command could even be here.
Had he been somehow followed? That couldn't be the case, he'd made sure not to tell ANYONE where he was going, and had paid off Josarry and Ereht again to keep their mouths shut about the fact that he'd been leaving them to constantly go and do his own thing. Could Jarahn have followed him via tracking him through his transportation-circle? Maybe, but he'd probably have sensed someone following him through it, if not outright seen Jarahn popping up close by, which he hadn't.
Was Jarahn being asked to survey this place, one of the many towns and villages in Gremory territory that could, in his father's own words "serve as another breeding ground for supporters of any of the various anti-Pillar groups"? That... seemed more likely, but it seemed odd for someone so high up the proverbial chain of servants to be given such a task, particularly for somewhere so far away from Gemyem and the Gremory Castle. If it was for Gemyem itself, Raylix would have understood, but all the way out here? Weird.
'He might have noticed me.' Raylix thought, as he slowly made his way out of the alleyway in which he'd hidden. His eyes trained on Jarahn as he turned right, heading towards the gates that he himself had passed through several minutes ago. Doing his best to look at least relatively casual, Raylix followed, keeping as far away from the Incubus as he could without losing track of him.
It didn't take Raylix long to find out where Jarahn was going: he was, in fact, leaving the town, though the Gremory Heir saw him making brief, but polite-looking, conversation with a small group of Gremory-employed soldiers (Raylix counted ten) of the Military Division. Raylix wasn't quite close enough to fully hear what was being said between Jarahn and the soldiers, but he could make out the words "nothing" and "keep watch", before Jarahn stepped away from the soldiers, over the anti-teleportation border, and disappeared through a transportation-circle, as the soldiers began walking into the town.
'Lovely.' Raylix thought, sarcastically. 'One family-employed asshole to ten. Absolutely wonderful.'
The soldiers split off into five groups of two, and began making their way into the town, with some pairs splitting off from the main street until only one pair of soldiers was left, walking down the main street.
At this point, Raylix figured that it was probably time to go. Was a bit of a shame, he thought, as he'd come all this way out into the countryside to try and find stuff that could relate to the Old Satan Faction, just to figure out whether it would, without a shadow of a doubt, be worth throwing away his noble life and leaving his family to join them. But there were many other such towns and villages around Gremory territory that he could just as easily visit today.
Raylix passed one of the pairs of soldiers, making for the town gates, but a loud cry, coming from one of the streets that one of the pairs of soldiers had gone down, made him turn. He quickly made his way into the street that he'd heard the cry coming from, seeing a young female Devil (who he assumed was the one who'd cried out) rushing towards one of the pairs of soldiers, who turned towards her.
"What do you want?" One of the soldiers asked, looking upon the woman with a rather lazy look on his face, as if he couldn't care less about his job right now.
"My boyfriend just called!" the female Devil replied, breathing heavily as she slowed down and stopped in front of the pair of soldiers. "H-he's seen a Giant Byrd overhead, and it's heading this way! It'll surely attack the town once it gets here!"
"Giant Byrd?" The other of the soldiers remarked, sounding like he was holding back a chuckle, before tilting his head back up towards the sky. "I don't see any Giant Byrd approaching, from any direction." he looked over at his fellow soldier, a smirk on his face. "You?"
"Nah, mate." the other soldier said, a matching smirk on his face. "I don't see one coming, either. But hey." he looked over at the young woman. "If one does come over, I'm sure we can both protect you. If you make it worth our while, of course."
Both Raylix and the female Devil instantly got what the second soldier was talking about, and though Raylix's disgust was silent, the female Devil's was... less so.
"Are you serious? What the hell?!" She cried. "You can't do that!"
"We can do whatever we want." The first soldier replied, taking a step closer to her and outstretching a hand towards her face, resting it upon her and gently stroking. "And if you think about it, you'd be doing this shithole a favour in providing us a bit of... incentive." As he said that, the second soldier stepped forward, making his way behind the female Devil and wrapping his arms around her, holding her in place. The first soldier stepped forward, smirking and leaning forward with clear intent to kiss the female Devil, but a loud screech, coming from above, caught everyone's attention.
Almost definitely the Byrd that the woman was talking about, Raylix suspected, as he dashed out of the street that the two soldiers and the woman were in, and onto the main street where he had a better view of the goings-on up above. The aforementioned Byrd could easily be seen: it was a good bit larger than the one Raylix had killed with Sabemka and Tomosei over half a year ago- a wingspan of over seventy feet, Raylix estimated- and without his two best friends to back him up, he almost wasn't sure if he could take it on.
…
Oh, who was he kidding, of COURSE he could take it on! The only challenge would be either by driving the Byrd off or killing it outright without blowing his cover. The first inner musings of how he could go about that were interrupted by a loud crash, as the Byrd swung around overhead and allowed its wing to crash into the roof of a nearby building, causing debris to begin raining down around both the woman and the soldiers.
Raylix's body moved before his mind. Reaching out with his dominant left hand, he caught the female Devil (who had tripped over herself in her attempts to run away from the falling debris) with his demonic power, and pulled her towards him, away from danger. A fraction of a second later, as she fell down in front of him, he noticed a particularly large bit of falling debris- a corner chunk of the building that the Byrd had struck- just above one of the soldiers, both of whom had spread their wings and were in the process of taking off. With his right hand, Raylix caught the soldier who had grabbed onto the female Devil, and with a pulse of his demonic energy, pushed him directly into the path of the large piece of falling debris. The soldier in question, that Raylix had caught and pushed backwards, had barely a twentieth of a second to realise what had happened, and was happening to him, before he was struck in the head by the chunk of building.
Such was the size of the chunk of building, and the speed of which it struck the soldier in the head, that it practically split his head in two upon contact. The soldier crumpled to the ground, dead, and his partner only barely registered what had happened to his brother-in-arms before he was pulled- rather than pushed- into the path of another, slightly smaller, chunk of building. He tripped over himself as he was pulled, and wasn't able to get to his feet in time to avoid the smaller chunk of building landing directly on his back, crushing his spine, lungs, stomach and heart. Unlike his partner, the second soldier wasn't killed instantly from his injuries, only having the energy to lift his head up and pathetically reach out towards the blond male who had killed him and his partner, and the woman that he was surely about to get some with, before both head and hand dropped down, and the soldier took his final breath.
"Trust me, those who bought them won't care." Raylix remarked, shortly, to the woman next to him, before grabbing her and swinging her around to face him. "Now, get out of danger! Take cover! Tell anyone you meet to do the same, you understand?!"
"R-right!" The woman, eyes wide, nodded as Raylix let her go, before turning around and dashing off, away from where the Byrd was currently flying around, while Raylix- by contrast- dashed towards where the Byrd was currently flying around. If he was to take the giant creature down without revealing to those around him (particularly the soldiers that he hadn't killed) that he was more than just some random Devil, usage of the Power of Destruction was almost definitely out of the question. As was usage of Amalgamation, Absorption, or even flying on his ten Devil wings. Granted, he could kill the soldiers, but even if it came to that, it wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities right now.
As Raylix came up towards one of the houses that the Byrd was flying over, he jumped up and, applying a little bit of magic to allow him to run on the wall, landed on it and dashed up, towards the Byrd. As he ran, he conjured a sword out of demonic energy and jumped off of it towards the Byrd, thrusting his sword towards the beast's throat. He didn't quite land the perfect strike he wanted to land, however, as the sword sank into the Byrd's upper chest, rather than its throat. The creature gave out a deafening screech of anger and pain, and began to swing around wildly in mid-air in an attempt to shake Raylix off. With the sword still in its throat, Raylix let go, allowing the Byrd to shake him off, and after righting himself in mid-air, focused his power beneath him to make a platform that he could land on.
A couple of seconds later, the disguised Gremory Heir leapt off of his platform and landed on the Byrd's back, grabbing onto it and pulling it up, trying to steer it up and away from the partly-destroyed town. Grunting from the exertion, Raylix pulled harder, eventually forcing the Byrd to fly upwards. A dozen feet, two dozen feet, fifty feet, a hundred feet, as much as the Byrd screeched and tried to swing around, the disguised Gremory Heir's immense strength won out, and the Byrd continued to fly upwards.
Once it was high enough in the air (about a hundred and fifty feet above the tallest building in the town) Raylix steered the Byrd into flying forward, away from the town and away from any possibility of it causing more destruction, practically steering the creature with his knees as he crawled his way up to the creature's head. Summoning a sword of demonic energy in his mouth (as his hands were both occupied with the task of pulling himself further and further along the creature's back), Raylix continued to climb for a few more seconds until he was within comfortable reaching distance of the Byrd's head. He held onto the soon-to-be-dead creature with his dominant left hand while transferring the sword he'd summoned from his mouth to his right hand, before reaching up and stabbing down with the sword, directly into the Byrd's head. In fact, the sword Raylix had summoned was long enough that the sword he'd summoned went straight THROUGH the Byrd's head, coming out the other side.
The effect was... pretty much instant. Any function that the Byrd was going through right now in order to keep it in the air, and any attempts to shake Raylix off of it instantly ceased, and it began to descend, rolling over and over in mid-air. It descended faster and faster, reaching a hundred and thirty feet, a hundred feet, fifty feet, before Raylix took the chance to jump off of his descending kill, and summon a transportation-circle right on top of him, going right through it and leaving the town behind with the creature that he'd just felled.
----- ----- -----
30 days from the wedding...
Raylix, under a different glamour this time, as he came out of a transportation-circle, somewhere way out in the countryside of the Gremory's territory, far away from the borders between it and the territory of any other noble. The glamour Raylix went under this time was of someone with exceptionally pale, almost vampire-like, skin, hair such a dark brown that it was almost black and red eyes. Had to be as different as possible, considering there were murmurings around the Underworld, even in Gemyem and the Gremory Castle, of someone matching the description of his previous glamour who had killed two Gremory-employed servicemen, and brought down a Giant Byrd all by themselves.
Apparently, the Gremory Clan had taken interest in such a person, and wanted to offer them a place among the Clan's servants, a concept that almost had Raylix sniggering to himself as he entered the village.
He was already stuck under Duke Gremory's thumb in one way (hopefully not for much longer), the thought of being such in another way made him want to throw up. But that wasn't why he was at this village, specifically. He was here because he'd also heard rumblings (not the world-ending kind, thankfully) of a secret meeting, led by an actual representative of the Old Satan Faction.
Well, no-one exactly knew it was the Old Satan Faction per se, but it was one of the 'factions' that was really just the Old Satan Faction by another name. The Low-Class Liberation Army, if he remembered right. Didn't really matter, to be honest. The point was that if there was any way that Raylix had a chance of really finding out anything concrete about the OSF, particularly how to join them, then this would probably be where he would find such a way.
The only problem right now... was how to get into the meeting. But before that, there was also the matter of how to find it. Even in a village that was located all the way out in the middle of nowhere, with no other settlements to be found anywhere, and where no-one of any importance in the Underworld had tread probably since the Devil Civil War (if not even further back in time), Raylix very much doubted that such a meeting would be held out in the open. Not like the general rally close to the Gremory/Sitri border that Raylix had gone to just over a week ago.
If not that, then it'd probably be held somewhere underground, right? Somewhere secret, that could be easily hidden. Wherever it might be, everyone seemed to already be there, because Raylix couldn't see anyone, anywhere. Either that, or everyone was staying inside for whatever rea-
"Come on, it's starting soon!"
Raylix turned at the sound of the voice, seeing a couple of female Devils moving quickly down the same street he was currently standing on. The one on the left, a young woman with orange hair and glasses, was the one who had spoken out to the disguised Gremory Heir, as she and her friend passed him.
"It?" Raylix asked, looking around at the woman who'd called out to him, as well as the other one- who looked of similar age but had chin-length, curly auburn hair- who were looking back at him.
"Huh?" The orange-haired one replied, tilting her head in slight confusion, before something seemed to dawn in her eyes, as she nodded. "Ahh, in case someone's listening. Good one, but no need to worry. No-one important has come out here since... I don't know, actually. Anyway, the LCLA meeting's starting soon, come on!"
"Oh, right." Raylix replied, inwardly grinning at how easy the knowledge on the meeting had fallen into his lap, before following the women at a brisk walk (the women in front of him were jogging) towards a nondescript, rather abandoned-looking building that looked sectioned off from the houses all around. There was a burly-looking Devil standing guard outside that nodded to the three Devils as they passed him, heading through the door, took a couple of steps towards a different door, went through that, and then descended a downwards-spiralling staircase. As they silently descended, with the orange-haired woman going first and the auburn-haired girl going second, with Raylix bringing up the rear, the disguised Clan Heir couldn't help but be reminded of the meeting that the noble Clans (before they were even noble Clans) had held, with Zekram at the helm, right before the beginning of the Devil Civil War.
Hopefully no-one would swoop in and try to kill whoever was down here, like what had happened nearly half a millennium ago, Raylix thought. He'd be able to get out fine, no problem, but everyone else down here (he could hear quiet voices, getting louder and louder the lower he went)… that was another matter entirely.
As he and the two women in front of him reached the bottom of the steps, one of Raylix's eyebrows raised slightly as he came into the underground room, which was far larger than the building it sat below. What he could only guess was the entire population of the village in question (which would certainly explain why it had looked all-but-deserted when he'd entered) was down here, gathered in front of a raised platform, another similarity to the meeting that the Pillars had had before the Devil Civil War began.
Raylix took a place near the back of the room, close to the stairs that he'd come down. Though he was right at the back, he still had a perfect view of the front of the room, and was able to pick out someone moving through the crowd towards the front, after which they ascended onto the elevated platform via their six Devil wings, upon which Raylix was able to get a better look at them. They were a young man, looking a little bit younger than Raylix himself by human-standards: their blond hair (which was so light that you'd be forgiven for thinking his hair was white) was done up into a tight ponytail, and wearing black armour.
Everyone who'd seen the guy and who had been talking quietened down almost instantly, but the one who now stood on the platform cleared their throat anyway, and silence fell.
"Good afternoon, everyone." he began. "I'm from what all gathered here today know as the Low-Class Liberation Army. You may call me..." he paused for a couple of seconds, before continuing. "Kuron. Yeah, Kuron."
'Almost definitely not his real name.' Raylix idly thought to himself, as quiet murmurs broke out amongst the crowd. Murmurss that were quickly silenced by Kuron raising his hand in a non-verbal call for silence, one that was obeyed by all in the crowd.
"I suppose I had better get this out of the way, just so we're on the same page. There... isn't a Low-Class Liberation Army: or rather, there both isn't and is."
The previously-silenced murmurs in the crowd returned, louder than before.
"What do you mean by that?" Someone in the crowd, a bit further forward than Raylix was, called out.
"Are you working with the Pillars?!" The orange-haired woman that Raylix had spoken with earlier yelled. Her yell seemed to trigger louder murmurs amongst the crowd, with some of them looking like they were getting ready for a fight. Kuron lightly sighed, up on the stage, before yelling out with a voice amplified by demonic power.
"OF COURSE I'M NOT!"he cried out, the sheer volume of his voice being enough for everyone in the room to instantly shut up. "IF I WAS WORKING WITH THE PILLARS, YOU ALL WOULDN'T BE HERE RIGHT NOW!"
Kuron let out a couple of breaths, which rung out within the silence.
"I know you must all have questions." he continued, in a more even, non-amplified tone. "And I'll answer the one that must be at the front of all your minds. The Low-Class Liberation Army exists as one of many factions created to divide the attention of the noble Pillar Clans. Making them think that there are many less powerful groups that oppose them. However, in fact, there are only one, one that continues to grow in strength and numbers all the time... The True Satan Faction."
Further murmurs broke out throughout the crowd, but no accusatory shouts broke out like before. Kuron raised his hand in another non-verbal call for silence, which was again obeyed by all in the crowd.
"That is, at least, what our leaders refer to the faction as, and when you become members, what you should refer to it as, too." Kuron continued, snapping his fingers and stepping back. What looked like images of who Raylix could only guess were the three leaders of the True Satan Faction appeared on the stage: two men and one woman. The woman (who Raylix's eyes were drawn to far more easily than the two guys), stood off to the left, was tall, taller than either of the guys, and had an extremely voluptuous figure. She had tan skin, not unlike the first of the glamours Raylix had used, and long brown hair, most of which was tied into a bun.
Her eyes were purple, similar to Venelana's eyes, and she wore an extremely low-cut dress with a high slit, that exposed a large portion of her... assets.
One of the men, who was in the middle and slightly in front of the other two leaders, was a handsome man dressed in dark black and purple armour, with a black cape with white fur on the top of it draped around him. He had long brown hair that descended to his hips, with many bangs covering his right eye. His left eye, the one that could be seen, was a lighter brown than his hair.
The man on the right was also good-looking, with rather pale skin, black hair that was tied up into a small ponytail and violet eyes, along with pointed ears. She wore noble-like clothing, which was mostly black with dark-red belts and motifs. He also had a cape, but it wasn't as large or impressive-looking as the man in the middle.
"Our leaders, Shalba Beelzebub," Kuron gestured to the man in the middle, with one of his eyes coloured by his hair. "Creuserey Asmodeus," he gestured to the man with the pointed ears. "And Katerea Leviathan," he gestured to the tan woman. "The founders and leaders of the True Satan Faction, with the express purposes of dismantling the noble elite that have seized and held power on our side of Hell for nearly half a millennium, and for creating a stronger, more equal Underworld in its place! Better for everyone, and not just the bratty children that piggyback off of the favour that Lucifer granted the original Pillar Devils!"
Further murmurs broke out amongst the crowd, though there were a few cheers amongst them at the idea of such an Underworld.
"Aren't they with the Royals, though?" The auburn-haired woman that had been with the orange-haired girl that Raylix had met earlier called out. "Are they, like, the kids of the leaders of the Royals Faction, or something?"
"They may be," Kuron replied, "But I can assure you that they don't share the goals of their parents at all! Bidleid, Damaidosu and Tsufaame were warmongering lunatics that were ready to lead the Devils to extinction just to satisfy their egos. Hardly the kind of ideology that's going to attract any real followers, unless said followers are crazy or scared, right?"
Some laughs broke out amongst the crowd, along with the murmurs and cheers that were already being let out by the crowd. Raylix himself let out a short chuckle, a smile coming onto his face.
"So, does that all sound good to you?" Kuron called, amplifying his voice slightly via his demonic power, though not quite to the same extent as before. Cheers and cries of affirmation rang out among the crowd, the sound of which echoed and bounced around the room to make it even louder, almost the same volume as the anti-noble rally that Raylix had attended last week.
"GOOD!" Kuron shouted, still managing to make his voice heard above the din of all the cheers. "MEET BACK HERE IN TEN DAYS, AND I'LL TAKE YOU TO THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE TRUE SATAN FACTION MYSELF, WHERE YOUR MISSION TO CREATE A BETTER HELL WILL BEGIN!"
Further cheers and applause rang out throughout the room, though Raylix slipped, unseen, out of the room and headed up the stairs, out of the sectioned-off building and towards the village's exit. Once he was sure that there was no-one around to see him, he let the glamour around him fall, revealling his true appearance once again.
Ten days... he could definitely wait that long. All he could hope for now was that nothing happened on that day.