20 days before the wedding...
This was it.
Today was the day.
Though it had only been a week and a half, it felt like Raylix had been waiting a year and a half for this day to come.
Without a second's hesitation once his eyes open, he slipped out of bed and briskly walked towards his closet, swinging the door open and grabbing the first clothes he could get his hands on.
It didn't really matter what he wore when leaving, considering that he wouldn't be around for very long. After slinging on a blank, black t-shirt, black hoodie, black jeans, worn black trainers, he exited the closet, strode across his bedroom and pulled the door open. Before he stepped out, however, he slowly turned around and gave his bedroom, the room he'd spent the most time in out of any others in the Gremory Castle since it'd been built so long ago, one last look over.
It wasn't exactly in the tidiest state that he could've left it in, but it definitely could've been even MORE messy. The... stuff, that he and Zest (who had woken up before him and left, judging by her lack of presence in his bed right now) had gotten up to last night definitely contributed to that, in one capacity or another. Yawning, Raylix's eyes shifted from his bed to the wall directly across from where he was standing, with that striking painting of the moonlit lake that had stretched from floor to ceiling.
Commissioning that painting had been weird, Raylix internally remarked, as he thought back to those few days. He'd been able to describe the scene he wanted painted on his wall as well and as detailed as if he'd been recalling it from memory... but for the life of him, he couldn't recall ever being to a lake like the one he'd described for his picture, especially not at the time of day he'd commissioned it to be at. Not on his own, not with Sabemka and Tomosei, never.
Oh well, he thought, turning around. Wasn't really worth thinking about. Just another of life's great mysteries that would go unsolved. Like the female voice that occasionally spoke to him when he was asleep.
Speaking of, that had happened again last night, as Raylix slept. Something about never seeing someone as her son? That made about as much sense as all the other stuff that had been said to him... that was to say, none.
Yawning again, as sleep hadn't seemed to have fully left him, Raylix took another breath, turned around and walked out of his bedroom, shutting the door behind him for what would hopefully be the final time, and began to make his way down the hallway.
The Gremory Heir could feel himself almost shuddering with anticipation as he continued to put one foot in front of the other, made his way through the residential wing of his family's home castle. Try as he might to keep the shudders from becoming too noticeable, try as he might to reassure himself that today was just like any other day- leave the castle, travel a safe distance away with Josarry and Ereht, then go their separate ways- he just couldn't.
Today WASN'T like any other day, was it now? No, today was the day that he'd finally be gone from the Gremory Clan. Forever...
Hopefully.
Raylix exited the door that led to the residential wing, and after taking the few steps that took him to the castle's main staircase, he began making his way down them, his eyes squarely on the front doors, the only real thing in between him and freedom. It took everything in his power for him to not break into a run as he hit the bottom of the stairs, made his way towards the doors. Fifteen steps, it would take him to reach the door, fourteen, thirteen...
What would the Old Satan Faction- or True Satan Faction, whatever the hell their name really was- be like? Would they even accept him into the group, being who he was... or had been since the start of the seventeenth century, when demonic aristocracy as a concept began to solidify in the Devils' side of Hell.
Twelve, eleven, ten...
Hell, the faction's animosity towards him probably stretched back even further than that. Since the Devil Civil War, most likely. Either way, it didn't seem too likely that they'd be all too welcoming towards him.
Nine, eight, seven...
Maybe they'd hold him hostage, maybe even kill him, but some small, irrational part of Raylix almost didn't really care about that. All it cared about was getting as far away from his family, and Devil nobility as a whole, as possible. Whether it would amount to anything or not, he had to at least try. Worth it all to risk the fall, Tomosei had said some time ago?
Six, five, four...
He was so close, now. He could practically reach out and touch the door at this point. He couldn't stop himself from breaking out into a faster walk, almost a half-jog.
Three, two, one-
"Raylix!"
...Shit.
Against all of his better instincts, Raylix stopped in place, INCHES away from the door, and turned towards of where he'd heard his father's voice coming from. Venelana was there too, stood beside her husband in the doorway of the dining room.
"Morning." Raylix greeted his parents, his voice slightly stiff. "I was just... going out."
"Bit early for that, don't you think, son?" Zeoticus asked, smiling. "Why don't you come and have some breakfast?"
"Not hungry." Raylix replied, his eyes flicking to the door and back to his parents. "Had a big dinner last night, you know?"
"True, I seem to remember you did, Raylix." Venelana replied. "Why don't you come in anyway, though? I think your father wanted to talk to you about something important that's happening today."
"Yes, I did, Vene." Zeoticus nodded, turning back towards the dining room. "Raylix, come on. Renzo'll be here any minute, and we can't have our new wedding suits made for us without you, the groom, there!" The Duke Gremory offered himself a chuckle at his own remark as he took a couple of steps back into the living room.
"Any minute?" Raylix repeated, glancing at the door and back at his retreating father. "Does it have to be today? Can't we push it back to... tomorrow, or something?"
"Renzo's busy with preparations on his end for all of next week, Raylix." Zeoticus replied. "The schedule's become tighter and tighter, the closer and closer we come to your and Ruvella's big day, so we can't afford to push this back any further. Whatever you want to do today will just have to wait, I'm afraid."
Raylix sighed, and after shoving his hands in his pockets, followed Zeoticus into the dining room. Whatever, he thought, the quicker this got done, the faster he could leave, make it to the village he'd attended the True Satan Faction rally at ten days ago, and be gone.
He could make it. He HAD to make it.
"Fine." the Gremory Heir muttered, following his father into the dining room as Grayfia passed him on the way out. The two Devils, for a fraction of a second, shared eye-contact as they passed each other, with Grayfia offering the smallest of nods of greeting, that Raylix was only barely able to notice as she continued, towards the stairs that he had just come down, and began heading up them. Raylix, however, followed his father further into the dining room and, when indicated to, sat down close to Zeoticus, who took his seat at the head of the table.
"Hopefully Renzo doesn't take too long in getting here." Zeoticus remarked, taking a breath. "Hopefully this whole... new suit process, doesn't take too long. I'd like to be done as quickly as possible."
'You and me both.' Raylix thought, silently nodding at his father's words as he met his eyes for a split second, before looking away. 'Probably for INCREDIBLY different reasons to you, though.'
"Raylix?"
Raylix looked up, again, and almost recoiled at the sight of Zeoticus looking directly at him again, more intently than he usually did.
"Are you okay?" Zeoticus asked, his eyes narrowing slightly. "You've been a bit more... on edge, I guess, than you usually are? Are you feeling okay?"
"I'm fine!" Raylix replied, realising a second after the words had come out that he'd said them a little louder and more insistently than he would have liked to. "It's just, I... uh..."
Something seemed to dawn in Zeoticus' eyes, before he- to Raylix's surprise- let out a chuckle, leant over and-after a second's seeming to wonder how to express affection for his younger son- settled on resting a hand on his shoulder and gripping it semi-tightly.
"Oh, I understand, Raylix." The crimson-haired Duke Gremory nodded, a smile back on his face. "It's okay to be nervous, now that you're less than a month away from officially tying the knot with Ruvella. To be perfectly honest, it's nice to see you nervous. Means you're... well, not 'only human' as they say, but... I guess the right word is, fallible?"
"Yeah, that. Yeah." Raylix replied, nodding. Had he been calmer, he'd probably have been able to know what word Zeoticus wanted to refer to, and confirm whether or not he was right, but now? His heart was going nearly twenty miles per minute from how close Zeoticus seemed to come to realising his intensions. That kind of state didn't exactly gel well with the idea of knowing what word his father wanted to say to convey what he meant.
Zeoticus removed his hand from Raylix's shoulder, and let out another short chuckle.
"I was nervous too, Raylix, just like you are now, during the lead-up to when I married your mother." Zeoticus continued. "That kind of nervousness, you don't ever get used to it. I sure didn't, not with Vene around. I- Renzo!"
Raylix looked up and around, standing up alongside Zeoticus as Renzo Phenex came walking into the dining room, a wide grin on his face as he approached his friend and friend's son.
"Sorry I'm late!" Renzo remarked, nodding to Zeoticus as he stopped on Zeoticus' other side, directly opposite to Raylix. "Rika and Ruvella took a while to get ready, you know how they are."
"Not really, but I've got a good idea." Zeoticus replied, chuckling to himself. "Anyway, we've got the tailor in the living room ready for us, so shall we be off?"
"Yes, let's!" Renzo nodding, clapping his hands together. "Let's be off, indeed!"
Zeoticus quickly caught up with his friend, with Raylix bringing up the rear as the three nobles strode through the door that connected the dining room and living room, where a group of official-looking guys in suits (Raylix counted seven) were stood around, quietly chatting with each other. Though when they heard the doors opening, saw Renzo, Zeoticus and Raylix moving in, they quickly stood up. A bald Devil, who stood a couple of inches shorter than Raylix, and who wore glasses, stepped forward and inclined his head to the three nobles, with his six companions doing the same a second or two later.
"Duke Gremory, Marquis Phenex," The bald Devil spoke, his head still inclined. "Allow me to thank you, again, for this honour. We won't let you down, I swear on my life."
"Thank you." Zeoticus nodded, as he, Renzo and Raylix stopped. "I trust that Grayfia told you of the situation when she hired you for us?"
The bald Devil nodded.
"Wedding suits for the groom, and the fathers of the bride and groom." he replied. "Yes, I was informed. Shall we get started?"
"Yes, let's." Zeoticus nodded in return. The bald Devil snapped his fingers, and the six other Devils around him moved forward, with two surrounding Zeoticus, two surrounding Renzo, and two surrounding Raylix.
The next few hours seemed to snail by, at least for Raylix. Standing around in one place and barely getting to move, measurements of just about every part of his body taken and re-taken, questions upon questions asked about every detail of the wedding: of everything Zeoticus and Renzo didn't answer for him, the answers he gave were less committal, more neutral. He only barely paid enough attention to the questions asked of him to allow him to formulate answers that actually made sense in the context of the aforementioned questions, rather than just giving the same answer every time with no change.
Raylix himself obviously got the most attention out of himself, Zeoticus and Renzo during this whole morning. Made sense, he supposed, considering HE was the groom and all, and would be the most important man in the room, on the big day in (nearly) three weeks' time. Though it didn't make things any faster to get through- quite the opposite- which was the absolute OPPOSITE of what he needed right now.
"We'll have your suit ready for you a couple of days before your wedding to the Phenex Heiress, Raylix." the bald Devil spoke, taking a gulp from a glass of water as he finished speaking. "Thank you, again, for this honour."
"You can go now, Raylix." Zeoticus remarked, to his younger son, with a small chuckle. "Whatever you were so up for doing today, you can go and do it now."
Raylix didn't need to be told twice. As soon as the words had left his father's throat, he had already turned on his heel, and summoned his hoodie and t-shirt back to himself. He'd had to take it off and replace it with a more formal shirt, so the measurements of the suit-jacket that would go over it were more accurate. Or at least, that was the reason Zeoticus gave when he'd asked Raylix to do that: for all he knew, Zeoticus just did it because he didn't approve of his younger son looking more like one's idea of a computer hacker than a Devil Clan Heir.
But that wasn't the point, not anymore. Once Raylix was out of the living room, he made a beeline for the doors that he'd been so close to getting out of a few hours before, not even noticing Grayfia, backed up by a couple of maids, coming back downstairs behind him as he shoved the doors open, spread his ten Devil wings, and took off into the skies without even waiting for Josarry and Ereht to show up.
Once he was high enough in the air, Raylix took off, only taking a moment- which was long enough to fully apply a fresh glamour to himself- to fly far enough away from the Gremory Castle and from Gemyem that he couldn't be seen from either of those places, before opening a transportation-circle a mile in front of himself. Half a second later, he was through it, and had popped out near the village he'd visited (in disguise) ten months ago. He descended quickly, maybe a bit too quickly, as he half-crash-landed into the ground. He was back on his feet almost instantly, though, and ran into the village.
It was quiet. Very quiet. Raylix couldn't see anyone around the village: no-one going about their business as usual, no-one heading towards some kind of secret meeting place, nothing. That mattered less today than now, considering that Raylix knew where said secret meeting place was upon arriving this time, rather than last time.
Without even breaking stride, the disguised Gremory Heir turned, taking the exact route he'd taken when being taken by the two women he'd met upon arriving in this village the last time he'd come, towards the same nondescript, abandoned-looking building under which the meeting with the TSF member had taken place. There wasn't any burly Devils guarding the outside of the place, which allowed Raylix unrestricted access into the building. Through the first door, couple of steps, different door, descend the staircase. Raylix chose to simply spread his wings and float down the staircase. He could move in the air faster than running down the staircase, and there was less opportunity for him to trip over himself and subject himself to a fall, which would've been equal parts painful and humiliating.
Closer and closer Raylix came to the bottom of the stairs: he could hear his heart pounding in his ears from the anticipation. As he came into the underground room at the bottom...
Nothing.
There was no-one there.
…
It only took Raylix a couple of seconds to realise what had happened. Growling in equal parts anger and disappointment, he forewent the trip back up the staircase, and opted to just fly straight back to the surface through the ceiling of the underground room, which he was able to do within seconds.
"Shit." the Gremory Heir muttered, landing on the ground shaking his head to get mud and soil out of his glamoured-blond hair and clothes, his anger and disappointment in himself at having missed the opportunity that he'd found to leave the Gremory Clan forever bubbling, brewing, almost boiling over. "Shit, shit, crap, shit, LILITH-DAMN IT!"
Raylix's glamoured green eyes returned to their dangerous red, and a ball of red and black destructive energy formed in his hand. One that the disguised Gremory Heir sent flying at the building he'd just entered. Raylix turned away from the building as it blew up, taking a couple of breaths in a futile attempt to calm himself.
He wouldn't be running away. He wouldn't be leaving the Gremory Clan. He wouldn't be joining the True Satan Faction.
Not yet, at least. And to be fair, this wasn't the worst thing in the world that could've happened: he was sure that other, similar, opportunities could come along. Although the chances of any coming along before he tied the knot with Ruvella, and just about all of the freedom he presently held as Gremory Heir was sure to go out the window... he was less sure of that.
A series of growls and snarls met Raylix's ears, raising him from his thoughts. He turned around, and saw a trio of Demonic Wulves. Each about ten feet in height, each eying Raylix like a particularly good-looking piece of meat, all of whom looked pretty damn hungry...
Raylix scoffed, dispelling the glamour around him (there wasn't any point in keeping it around, as there probably wasn't a Devil within 200 miles of him at the very most), and raised his fists. He was still pissed-off, both at Zeoticus and at himself, for him missing his chance to leave the Gremory Clan, and he just needed something to punch.
----- ----- -----
17 days before the wedding...
"I should've just gone." Raylix mumbled. His head in his hands, he hadn't even touched the cup of tea that Malech had served him five minutes ago. "I should've just gone, screw the whole suit-fitting bullshit, I should've just bolted out of the door and headed straight for that village."
The first chance he'd gotten, three days after the suit-fitting situation, three days after he was MEANT to have left for the True Satan Faction along with the inhabitants of a now-deserted village who he'd attended a rally alongside nearly two weeks ago, Raylix had dashed out of his family home and headed to Sabemka and Tomosei's home village, meeting with Malech and heading over to his house like he often did now.
Malech let out a sigh as Raylix continued to quietly ramble to himself, as he took a calm sip from his own cup of tea.
"That wouldn't have been wise, Raylix." he replied. "Sure, you would've made it to the group who you would be travelling with, but to burst out on your parents like that? They'd doubtlessly try to get you back as soon as you left their sight in such a way, by whatever methods they saw as necessary. Probably up to and including sending every servant and soldier in their employ after you, resulting in the True Satan Faction potentially being exposed. Would you really have wanted that, when you were about to leave and join it?"
Raylix lifted his head up, looking at Malech with a hard-to-read expression on his face. The pair of them held their respective looks for a couple of seconds, before Raylix looked back down.
"I guess you're right... ugh." his head gently thudded against the table, before he lifted it up again and grabbed the tea-cup, raising it to his lips and downing its contents in one go. "Still doesn't mean I have to be happy about the fact that I missed my chance to leave."
"I'm sure another will come." Malech replied. "I'll keep an eye and an ear out for you, and let you know as soon as I hear or see any."
"Alright." Raylix looked over at Malech, nodding and swallowing down the last few drops of tea. "Thanks."
"No problem." Malech waved his hand, and some more tea began to fill Raylix's cup again. "Thank YOU, by the way, for letting me know about your family being on the lookout for anything relating to the Old Satan Faction. Had you not given me the heads-up, I'm sure that I- and the village as a whole- would be facing... unpleasant, retribution, from your family."
"Yeah, no worries." Raylix replied, lifting his now-refilled cup to his lips and taking another sip of his drink. "I actually met my mother's Queen looking around one of the places I visited throughout the territory. Nearly three weeks ago, in fact."
"Huh, so you took my advice, then?" Malech asked. When Raylix simply nodded in return, he let out a short snort from his nose. "I'll be honest, I didn't think you'd actually do that. So, what did you find out? After wandering the Underworld not as Raylix Gremory, but as another common denizen of the Underworld?"
"That shit is messed up." Raylix replied, simply, as he took another gulp of tea. "And the majority of lower-born Devils seem to support the Old Satan Faction. Or at least hate the nobility with a burning passion. Rallying against them, destroying effigies, throwing shit- and I mean ACTUAL shit- onto flags... I always thought the nobility wasn't that popular, but not to that level."
"Indeed." Malech replied, taking a sip of his own. "Some things, you can only see from a certain perspective. And I think I heard something about that last one you mentioned, a defaced Gremory Clan flag being hung up in Gemyem? Your father must have been... not happy."
"Yeah, he was pretty pissed." Raylix replied, chuckling. "It was kind of funny... until he probably had the people who hung the flag up in the first place killed."
"Hm." Malech hummed, nodding as he took another sip. "Yes, that being a likely consequence of what happened certainly isn't funny. Although, what I do find... well, I find it more interesting than funny, is that when you refer to the demonic aristocracy, you don't seem to include yourself amongst them."
Raylix shrugged.
"It's not like I really see myself as one of them." he replied. "Haven't for a while, really. Not for... yeah, over half a year, I'd say."
"I see." Malech replied. The smallest of smiles played around his lips for the shortest of moments as he waved a hand, refilling Raylix's mug for the second time as the Gremory Heir finished off his second mugful of tea. "I doubt your family would too happy to hear that. And the Phenex family, even less so, considering you're going to be marrying their daughter pretty soon."
"Well, if I'd managed to leave for the True Satan Faction a few days ago, then that wouldn't be a problem I had to w- care about." Raylix retorted, slightly stumbling over his words slightly at the end. "But now, I'd be lying if I said that possibility wasn't at the forefront of my mind. The wedding's only two and a half weeks away."
"I'm well-aware." Malech nodded. "Even all the way out here, I can barely go a couple of days without hearing some kind of attempt by your family to further promote yours and the Phenex Heiress' wedding as the grandest social event of the last century, the rise of the next generation of the Gremory and Phenex Clans, the strengthening of bonds between two of Hell's hottest projects, or whatever they decided to promote it as this week."
Raylix hummed, shrugging as he took another gulp of tea.
"Yeah, wouldn't put it past dear old Dad to pass this off as something great." He remarked. "When in reality, all marrying Ruvella amounts to is more public appearances amongst those scumbags, further grooming into a good Clan Head, and the pressure to get busy working on a replacement Clan Heir. Not even the fact that Ruvella is one of the good ones makes all that shit worth it."
Malech raised a silent eyebrow at the last part of Raylix's remark, which Raylix sighed at.
"Relatively good ones, I mean." he added, quietly, before taking another gulp of tea. "Like I said. Still not enough to make me want to stay. Not by a long shot."
Malech nodded, another small smile on his face for a moment, as he took another sip of his own.
"Good call." he replied. "If you'd like, I wouldn't mind keeping my ears open for any opportunities that come up. To join the Old Satan Faction, that is."
"Wait, you're serious about that?" Raylix's eyes widened slightly, as he put his mug down. When one look at Malech's expression told the Gremory Heir that he was, indeed, serious about this, he let out a slightly breathy chuckle, and a smile split across his face. "I- thanks!"
"Don't mention it." Malech replied, as he himself put his mug down. "It shouldn't come as any surprise to you that I, too, am sympathetic to the aims of the Old Satan Faction. Probably for different reasons to yourself, Raylix, but that's neither here nor there. The point is that, if you're allowed to join after leaving to do so, I have no doubt that you'd be an incredible asset to the faction. Therefore, I'll let you know if any opportunities to join the Old Satan Faction come up. Hopefully one comes up before you get married to the Phenex Heiress, yeah?"
"Oh yeah, hopefully." Raylix nodded, letting out another quiet chuckle. "Doubt it, though. Might have to pull some kind of great escape from the married life in order to not get followed. Stage a Stray Devil on wherever I might be, fake my own death, that sort of thing."
"I think we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, as the humans say." Malech answered, adjusting his position in his chair. "If we end up getting to it at all, that is. You never know what opportunities might turn up, Raylix."
"Mmhmm." Raylix nodded, stretching as he stood up. "Thanks for today, Malech. It's honestly... pretty nice, talking with you from time to time."
"No problem." Malech replied, standing up himself before making his way around the table, towards Raylix. He raised a hand, conjured what looked like a small slip of paper out of it with a magic-circle drawn on it. A second later, he flicked the slip of paper in Raylix's direction: it struck him in the chest, and dissipated on contact, with the area on Raylix's chest where the paper had struck him glowing lightly for a fraction of a second, before the glow dissipated.
Raylix let out a quiet snort from his nose, as he looked over at Malech. For as often as they talked like this, it was a bit of a wonder that neither had shared their power with the other. It was a common thing that Devils (and most other supernatural species) did with each other, in order to make establishment of magical communications between them easier to achieve.
Made sense to do it now, Raylix thought, as he doubted that there would be time for him and Malech to arrange another in-person meeting with one another, once either he or him (most likely him) found an opportunity to join the Old Satan Faction.
"Thanks." Raylix nodded, raising a hand in temporary farewell to Malech as he made his own way out of the village chieftain's house, leaving Malech alone again, another small smile playing about his mouth.
----- ----- -----
14 days before the wedding...
One of Raylix's legs bounced up and down, at a near-rapid pace, as he turned the page of his copy of the book he was reading on. He reached over the side of the chair he was sitting in with one hand and grabbed the bottle that was stood on the floor beside him, raising it to his lips and gulping down a couple of mouthfuls worth of whatever alcoholic drink he'd grabbed for himself several hours before, before setting the glass back down and refocusing on his book.
Or, at the very least, trying to.
Two weeks away. What felt like years, but had only been months since it'd been thrust upon him and Ruvella, was now reduced to only two weeks. He could only hope that Malech would find an opportunity for him to bail on the Gremory Clan- the whole system of the noble pillars in general, really- before the remaining two weeks passed, and the wedding between him and Ruvella happened, effectively tying the pair of them together in unholy matrimony.
Raylix sighed as he set down his book, unable to concentrate on its contents for any longer. Raising a hand to his forehead, he gently rubbed his temple as a familiar thought, the thought of just running away right now. Forgoing all pretences of being a good Heir of the Gremory Clan and just booking it: fly out of the window and leave everything behind, find his own way to the Old/True Satan Faction, everything else be damned.
But he couldn't. He really couldn't, the rational side of himself pointed out once again. Leaving right now, and in such a manner as what he'd just thought of, would instantly attract immense amounts of unwanted attention, he was sure. Attention that would reach his parents, who would doubtlessly use any and all methods and resources at their disposal to bring him home by force. Up to and including a certain Head Maid: his brother's Queen, Grayfia, and potentially the rest of his peerage too, if Sirzechs ordered them to aid in the hypothetical search.
And that, when it came down to it, was what Raylix was... well, he wouldn't exactly call it AFRAID, more... wary, of. Yeah, wary. Certain members of Sirzechs' peerage, like Enku and Beowulf (his two Pawns), in spite of their strength in comparison to other Pawns (Beowulf in particular was considered one of the top 5 strongest Pawns among the Devils), Raylix was sure he could handily beat them in a fight, if it came down to it.
Other members, however, Raylix was less self-assured about his chances against. MacGregor Mathers and Souji Okita, quintessential Bishop and Knight, contenders for best in their respective fields. However, as Bishops and Knights, the weaknesses that one could expect out of them still existed, as much as they- under orders from their King, no doubt- did their best to mitigate such weaknesses. Weaknesses that Raylix was sure he could exploit in a potential fight, and work out some kind of victory against them.
His brother's Rooks, however, were entirely different beasts. Both metaphorically and literally.
Surtr Second, the one out of the two that Raylix knew more about, the second-strongest member of his brother's peerage, the Ultimate Rook, and VERY much worthy of that unofficial title. The second-to-none strength and durability granted to him by way of the Mutation Rook piece that he'd received from Sirzechs upon being reincarnated into a Devil meant that physical attacks, of any kind, were out of the question when the question of how to go about fighting him, in such a hypothetical situation in which a fight was necessary, entered Raylix's mind. The ability to grow himself to truly enormous sizes (at least 150 metres, as far as Raylix himself was aware), and his ability to manipulate fires that rivalled certain Dragons in its potency certainly didn't help matters, either.
So that left fighting him through magical means as the optimal option, instead. It had to be admitted, Raylix wasn't QUITE as well-versed in magical combat as he was physical combat (he'd consider swords his specialty, though he wasn't opposed to just punching something if it came down to it. As the trio of Demonic Wulves that had ran afoul of him nearly a week ago could have attested to, were they still alive), so he felt his chances against Surtur were... less than certain. Definitely more even than the others, Raylix would say.
Then there was Bahamut, who Raylix actually knew very little about. All that he really knew about it was that it was his brother's other Rook, it was referred to as the Glowing Fish of the Deep Sea, and that it was mainly used for transportation purposes. Raylix had never actually seen Sirzechs' sole non-Mutated Rook in person, and had next to no idea of its potential in combat, but from the fact that it didn't require a Mutation Piece to reincarnate into a Devil, and the fact that being a Rook meant that its resistance to magic was probably middling at best, Raylix's best guess was that his chances of beating Bahamut in a fight were higher than that of beating Surtur Second, but lower than that of beating Souji Okita, or MacGregor Mathers.
And then, on top of all of that... there was Grayfia. Freaking Grayfia. Probably the most all-around (in terms of her set of skills) of his brother's peerage, and by far the most powerful member, Raylix honestly didn't see much of a realistic scenario in which he came out on top against her, even in a one-on-one fight. Grayfia had seriously fought Serafall, for Lilith's sake, and come out of it alive, if that was enough of an indicator, and he doubted that Grayfia was the type to allow herself to slow down, in any sense, in the nearly half-millennium since.
And that wasn't even mentioning the possibilities of Sirzechs' peerage banding together to take him down, or even Sirzechs HIMSELF stepping in to bring Raylix in, were he to run away. If either of those possibilities were to come to pass... well, the outcome seemed pretty obvious to Raylix.
So, yeah, all in all, it made more sense to leave as stealthily as possible, minimise the chances of raising any kind of alarm, minimise the chances of Sirzechs' peerage being sent after him for as long as possible. And leaving with a plan to instantly go to where the Old Satan Faction were located (wherever in Hell that was) meant he wouldn't be running around Hell like a headless chicken, which would surely lead to his recapture.
And it wasn't even like he had a peerage to fight back with, having never used his Evil Pieces on anyone, and having discarded his Evil Pieces soon after being grounded in the aftermath of the whole thing with Zekram... he had no idea where they'd landed after tossing them out of the window, and he didn't really care at this point. As long as they weren't found, it wasn't worth thinking about them again.
Raylix picked up his bottle, and took another couple of gulps from it as he leant back in his chair, doing his best to put the thought of fighting the strongest peerage in the Underworld, alone, out of his mind. Though he was able to do that, that only gave way to something else worming his way into his mind. Or rather, someONE.
The Gremory Heir couldn't help but feel bad for Ruvella. Her family was a lot of things, not many of them things that he'd consider positive, but Ruvella herself, to be completely honest, wasn't all that bad of a person. As far as he'd seen, the Phenex Heiress seemed to treat her servants (and all those beneath her) pretty well, or at least better than 99% of noble Devils that Raylix had seen did. She was also absolutely gorgeous: Raylix completely understood why she was considered the most wanted bachelorette among the Devils (that wasn't a Satan), and- prior to Sabemka and Tomosei's deaths rather skewing his priorities- he remembered feeling pretty proud of himself at the fact that she, of all demonic bachelorettes, had been chosen to become wed to him... or was it he that was chosen to be wed to her? Eh, that didn't really matter at this point. And on top of both of those facts, she'd genuinely been nothing but nice with him. Maybe things could have worked between the pair of them, had... certain things, not happened.
She'd doubtlessly be sad once he was gone, but that wasn't exactly something that Raylix could really worry about right now. There was no way he'd be able to convince her to come with him, and even if he tried to pitch the idea to her, he ran the risk of her just running to either her parents or his own and ratting out his desire to leave, which would just scupper the whole thing... which he obviously didn't want. So yeah, it was just safer to not tell her, go it alone, confide his Old Satan Faction-related thoughts with only those he knew he could absolutely trust with such information... the number of which he could count on one hand, with multiple fingers to spare.
Raylix's inner musings, and his consumption of the final mouthful or so of drink from his bottle were interrupted by a light knock at the door, somewhat startling him and causing him to cough, as some of it went down the wrong way.
"C-come in!" Raylix forced out through his cough, waving a hand in the door's direction to unlock it. He did his best to force down his coughs as the door was pushed open, and looked up at the one entering. "Oh, Rhel. Hey."
Rheliesh offered Raylix a smile as she stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. There was a silence between the two of them, as Rheliesh shuffled her feet upon the carpet that served as Raylix's bedroom floor, and fiddled a little bit with the hem of her skirt as she struggled to meet Raylix's eyes.
"So... what's up?" Raylix asked, tilting his head slightly, and making a move to stand up. "Mother or Father want to talk to me about something or other?"
"N-no." Rheliesh replied, clearing her throat slightly. "It's just... me. I wanted to talk to you, Raylix."
"Huh." Raylix blinked, and while half-up, allowed himself to fall back into the chair that he'd been sitting in, letting out a quiet belch as he looked up at the blonde maid.
"Well, you're here right now." he remarked, flicking his hand in the direction of the door, locking it as Rheliesh took a couple of steps further into the room. "And I don't have anything to do. Not at this moment, anyway, so... talk away, I guess."
Rheliesh let out a small laugh as she advanced a bit closer to Raylix, standing rather awkwardly in front of him for a couple of seconds before taking a breath, walking over to his bed and perching on the edge of it, glancing a couple of times over at her superior, but not speaking for the first couple of seconds. Raylix was about to open his mouth, prompt her to speak again, before the blonde favourite of his did so on her own.
"You're getting married to Ruvella soon."
It was a statement, rather than a question. A quiet one, that Rheliesh gave out while only casting her eyes over in Raylix's direction momentarily, before refocusing her attention on the hem of her skirt, which she continued to fiddle with as she spoke.
"Yeah." Raylix replied, shrugging as he tried to keep his tone as even as possible, to not betray his real intentions. "That's what they say, anyway. Why?"
"Yeah..." Rheliesh repeated, in a sort of half-whisper, before clearing her throat again. "Well, I was sort of- not sort of, actually- just thinking. Have been for a while, really: things are going to change a bit, once you and Ruvella are... well, wedded. Aren't they?"
"I... don't see why they wouldn't be." Raylix replied. "One of our families will probably have me and Ruvella set up in one of the big properties in either Gremory or Phenex territory. Would be pretty awkward for one of us to be both married and living in our parent's castle, wouldn't it?"
"It would, yes." Rheliesh nodded, looking up to meet Raylix's eyes again. "I was just wondering, about after when that happens... will we have the chance to keep doing what we do?"
"I don't see why we wouldn't." Raylix replied. "I haven't exactly kept it a secret from Ruvella, what I do with you, Zest and the rest. And unless she has some last-minute change of heart about the whole thing, she doesn't seem like she has much of a problem with it. Same goes for her parents, and I know mine don't care."
"Hm." Rheliesh nodded, again, a small smile coming across her face. "That's... that's a relief, Raylix. I have to say, it really is."
"Good to know." Raylix replied, slowly getting to his feet. "Though I've got to ask, where's this coming from? You haven't exactly been the kind to..." he raised his hands and gestured vaguely in the blonde's direction. "Do, this kind of thing. To see you coming in like this kind of has me wondering, are you okay?"
"I'm alright." Rheliesh replied. "It's just that hearing about you and Ruvella's engagement, and the fact that it's fast-approaching now, helped bring... certain things out into the open for me. Helped me realise some things."
"Oh, yeah?" Raylix asked, raising an eyebrow as he looked over at Rheliesh. "Like what?"
"Like..." Rheliesh looked up at Raylix again, and her breath seemed to noticeably quicken as she got to her feet. "Like... I like... damn it, this can't be very professional to say to you, especially when you're so close to getting married, but screw it: Raylix, I'm in love with you!"
Raylix's eyes widened slightly, at the passion of his maid's declaration.
"I think I have been for a while, but I never realised it until really recently!" Rheliesh continued. "How you are in bed is definitely a factor, but... ahh, it's just everything about you! Your power, how much time we've spent together, how you actually care about me, Zest, the rest; I don't know if they feel the same as I do, but if they do, I just wanted to be the first to say it... I love you, Ray-"
Raylix closed the distance between himself and Rheliesh in a single step (the sight of which caused the blonde maid to gasp slightly, ceasing her ramblings instantly), gently tilted her head up so she was looking right at him (there were a few inches difference in height between the two Devils), and leant down to press his lips against hers. Rheliesh almost instantly got the gist of what Raylix wanted, wrapping her arms around his back to pull him closer to her. Raylix's hands, in turn, wrapped around Rheliesh's back, making their way down to her behind. Rheliesh let out the smallest of gasps as his hands trailed beneath the skirt she was wearing, and felt up her bare behind.
"Nothing down there, huh?" Raylix muttered, pulling back just far enough to speak clearly. "You must've come in here really hoping we'd get down to business after you confessed, huh?"
Rheliesh could only let out a nervous giggle, though the look on her face, and in her eyes, told Raylix that he was right on the money in his assessment.
"Heh. I'd have to be a real bastard to deny a lover." Raylix replied, chuckling as he leant back in and pressed his lips against Rheliesh's again, gently moving the pair of them to the point that they fell onto the bed together, still locked at the lips and still with their hands all over each other.
Rheliesh's hands trailed downwards, too, across Raylix's back, over his shirt, down to the bottom of his shirt, which she began tugging on in an attempt to get it off of him. A couple of tugs was all it took for the dark-coloured cotton garment to be torn off apart at the seams, and ripped off of Raylix's back.
"You really want it, don't you?" Raylix chuckled, as his lips descended from Rheliesh's own lips to her neck, upon which he laid several more kisses while lifting the rest of his body up, allowing his torn-up shirt to drop off of his body and down onto Rheliesh's own. After removing his arms from what remained of the shirt, he tossed it aside, off the bed while beginning to suck on his maid's neck, offering her a love-bite much to her pleasure.
Rheliesh could only let out another moan by way of reply, a moan that increased in volume as his hands trailed over her chest. Raylix let out another short chuckle as he gently squeezed her breasts through her maid's uniform, in the way that he knew, through more than enough experience, she liked a lot. Rheliesh's moans soon became a gasp as Raylix took a hold of her outfit, around her chest, and just like the maid had done with his shirt a moment before, tore her outfit right off of her, revealing the garments underneath... or absolute lack thereof. Sans her stockings and headpiece, the blonde was absolutely bare-ass naked beneath the Gremory Heir.
"Damn, not even a bra?" Raylix mused, smirking as his hands trailed across his favourite maid's bare tits, before looking down at the clothes that presently remained on his body. "I almost feel bad for having this much on, with what you've got left on."
"Then why don't you get rid of what you've on?" Rheliesh asked, reaching down and laying her hand on Raylix's toned chest, before moving it down towards his crotch and gently groping said crotch. "Come on, Raylix, you know what I want. Please~"
Rheliesh let out a breath as Raylix pulled back from her and, shrugging, pulled his pants down in one swift motion. His underwear got caught up in the motion as well, causing his penis (which, at this point in time, was only half-hardened) to spring up, free from the confines of his pants. Raylix couldn't help but smirk at Rheliesh's eyes instantly widening slightly and zeroing in on his... equipment, as soon as it became visible to her, and a light flush coming across her face.
After pulling off his shoes and socks, and kicking his pants and underwear in the same direction that he threw his shirt, Raylix- now naked- descended upon the bed again and pressed his lips against Rheliesh's. One arm was wrapped around her back to pull her closer to him and the other hand was used to guide his cock, which was getting harder and harder by the second thanks to the sight of the naked maid in front of him, towards said maid's pussy, which was practically quivering in anticipation to receive her master's cock once again.
Past experience in such matters allowed Raylix to guide his cock into Rheliesh's pussy without too much effort, drawing out a soft hum of pleasure from Raylix and a decidedly LESS soft moan of pleasure from Rheliesh, respectively, the latter of which was mostly muffled by Raylix leaning down to capture her lips in his once again. Though even as he kissed her, easily dominating her mouth and working his tongue into such, Rheliesh's moans grew louder as Raylix began thrusting: starting slow at first but steadily working his way up to speed.
As his thrusts continued, Raylix's hands drifted around Rheliesh's lower body, eventually settling on her waist, which he lightly gripped as he pulled back from his continuous kiss, coming up for air as he kept up a regular rhythm. Another smirk crossed Raylix's face as Rheliesh continued to let out moans, quieter than the last ones, in sync with every thrust that he made into her.
"M-maybe, after you're married to Ruvella..." Rheliesh spoke, between breathy gasps of pleasure as she reached up, grasping out for her lover. "I could be your... Q-Queen, maybe?"
"Maybe." Raylix replied, leaning down and pressing his lips against Rheliesh's again as he sped up his thrusts a slight bit, eliciting a louder, yet still muffled, gasp out of her as she grabbed at his back. He pulled back from the kiss, reaching up to caress her face as he offered her one of the most genuine smiles that he'd done for anyone in a while, and definitely the most genuine one he'd done in the confines of the Gremory Castle, since Sabemka and Tomosei had died. His hand trailed down to Rheliesh's chest, snaking in between their respective naked bodies and gently squeezing at her perky bust- not quite as developed as almost every other woman Raylix had ever seen, and absolutely the smallest out of any woman he'd ever bedded-, enjoying both the feeling of her right boob in his hand and the cute mixture of a moan and a gasp that Rheliesh let out as he squeezed one of her most sensitive places.
Grinning as another idea entered his head, Raylix leant down to the left side of Rheliesh's chest, and took her left tit into his mouth, applying nothing but suction to her nipple while continuing to grope and press on her right breast, with Rheliesh letting out a louder moan in response to further pleasure.
"Oh, S-Satan..." Rheliesh could only gasp out, forgoing grabbing onto Raylix and instead grabbing at the bedsheets as Raylix's sexual prowess assaulted her from three separate angles. "R-Raylix... RAYLIX- AHH~!"
Rheliesh was gripping on the bedsheets with white-knuckle strength, doing her damndest to keep herself from spasming out all over the place as Raylix, as calm and collected as if he'd done this fifty thousand times (though given his age, he probably had), continued his work, incrementally increasing the speed and energy that he put into pleasuring his favourite maid. Though he was definitely loving this too, judging by how his cock was pulsating rather violently within Rheliesh's pussy, a surefire sign of what was to come. He could tell what was coming on Rheliesh's end, too, judging by her gasps for breath coming quicker and quicker, and her inner walls twitching violently as they were continuously stretched out.
"Oh, sh-shit!" Rheliesh moaned, throwing her head back, feeling herself overwhelmed by the onslaught of pleasure that Raylix delivered onto her, feeling a familiar pressure within her coming closer and closer to spilling over as Raylix's thrusts within her started coming faster and faster. "Raylix... Raylix, I'm gonna... FU-"
Raylix suddenly moved up with his next thrust, instantly claiming Rheliesh's mouth with his own and silencing her as the pair of them reached their respective climaxes at the same time. Though still muffled by the fact that Raylix was kissing her pretty damn hard right now, Rheliesh let out a mixture of a moan and a squeal as she couldn't hold in her body-spasms. Her inner walls clamped down on Raylix's cock to the point to a vice-like degree, helping her red-haired lover with letting out his own emission. Said red-haired lover's cum flew out of him in long, thick, heavy ropes, filling up the inside of Rheliesh's pussy and womb as his thrusts slowed to a stop.
Rheliesh's moans tapered off, too, though they didn't go away completely. Feeling Raylix's warm seed flowing through her and settling inside her was enough for her to continue her moans, just at a lower volume than before, even when their lips came apart and Raylix smiled down at her.
"You good?"
"Ye... yeah..." Rheliesh whispered, her breaths slowing down to a more normal pace than they were at before, back when Raylix was railing the hell out of her. "I'm alright, just..."
Before Raylix could even react, in his post-orgasm state, Rheliesh pulled a quick move with her leg that flipped both of them around, rendering her on top instead of her lover, with said lover still inside her. The blonde maid yanked her headpiece out of her hair before tossing it aside, and rested her hands on top of Raylix's chest, that hungry look coming back to her face.
"You could've asked, you know." Raylix remarked, looking Rheliesh up and down as she began lightly rocking herself back and forth atop him.
"Where's the... fun in that?" Rheliesh asked, letting out another light gasp of pleasure as she worked herself up to a more regular riding pace. Her and Raylix's moans intermingled with each other as their respective pleasure mounted, with Raylix's winning out slightly in terms of volume. Rheliesh's hands, still resting on Raylix's chest in order to keep herself balanced as she rode him, dug into her lover slightly as she increased her riding pace, letting out a quiet laugh as she saw her lover's face scrunching up, for a fraction of a second, in pain. Though Raylix's face returned to its pleasured expression as quickly as the pained look had come, as if it had never been there in the first place, now used to the feeling of Rheliesh's fingers dug into his flesh.
"This n-nice for you, Raylix?" Rheliesh asked, using her thumbs to gently rub on Raylix's nipples as she continued to rock atop him. "Lying back and l-letting your woman handle things for a while?"
"It's a good change of pace... that's for sure." Raylix replied, letting out another low moan as Rheliesh continued to rub his nipples, a sensitive spot for him. "You'd know as well as anyone that taking the lead is more my thing, but... I could get used to this."
"I sure hope you do, Raylix." Rheliesh replied, leaning down from atop him until their faces were inches away from each other, an almost catlike smirk on her face as she worked herself back and forth on his cock. "Because when we get to do this more often, I can see things like- hmm~ -this happening more often. Maybe with me, maybe with Ruvella, maybe with Zest and the rest, maybe with any other lovers you decide to take, before and after you become the Duke Gremory."
"Heh..." Raylix let out a chuckle as Rheliesh leaned further down, capturing a portion of his neck and gently sucking on it as she continued to work her magic atop him. Even while... occupied, he still considered- for the briefest of moments- confessing his true intentions to Rheliesh. Surely, if he could tell ANY ONE PERSON that could be found within the confines of the Gremory Castle what he really wanted to do, hopefully before marrying Ruvella, it'd be her, right?
Not Grayfia (as much as he hated to admit it. As nice as their talks during his grounding had been, her loyalties lay with Sirzechs as her King, and Zeoticus and Venelana as her employers, not Raylix), not any of the other servants (who he barely knew), and DEFINITELY not his parents (...duh). His favourite four maids were the only ones that he was even mildly confident wouldn't rat him out, and out of the four... Rheliesh was absolutely his favourite.
Rheliesh pulled back, smirking as she observed the love-bite she'd given her master, her lover, before straightening back up and, deciding to take things up a notch with Raylix while she was on top, stopped rocking herself back and forth atop him and instead began bouncing herself up and down, much to both her and Raylix's sudden- and intense- pleasure. The blonde's mouth hung open in a silent moan as she bounced on top of him, shifting her grip on his chest slightly with her more intense movement in mind, while Raylix could only let out a louder moan than his previous ones had been as he moved his hands upwards, resting them on Rheliesh's waist like he'd been doing before when he was on top.
"C-couldn't keep your hands off me for long, c-could you?" Rheliesh asked, letting out a breathy laugh as she continued to bounce up and down on top of him. "Grope all you want, Raylix, I know you love it."
"Damn right, I do." Raylix replied, smirking as his hands trailed upwards towards his maid's breasts (which actually bounced rather impressively, in spite of their lack of size in comparison to other women), with said maid in question moving her hands to grip onto the bedsheets, to allow Raylix ease in grabbing onto them. Enjoying the sound of her moans as two of her most sensitive areas were stimulated as she continued to ride him, Raylix rolled his thumbs around her nipples a couple of times, just as Rheliesh had done around his own nipples earlier, before trailing his hands down off of her breasts, past her waist, and down towards her shapely ass, which he allowed to travel up and down as Rheliesh kept up her bouncing.
Smirking, Raylix pulled back his hands before allowing them to come down on Rheliesh's ass-cheeks in loud smacks, startling the nude blonde and sending jolts of mixed pain and pleasure through her body. Raylix's smirk endured as his hands trailed back to her waist, his hands rising and falling alongside Rheliesh's as she bounced herself harder and harder on top of him.
"Raylix... oh, Raylix~!" Rheliesh moaned out, throwing her head back. She lifted one of her hands off of his chest, moving it to her pussy so she could rub herself out while riding him. Her eyes rolled around in their sockets with every bounce she made on top of him, and Raylix could see her body shuddering from intense pleasure: it was easy to see that she was coming close to her second orgasm of the night (just as he was). "Oh, Satan, I- huh?!"
The blonde's eyes widened as Raylix suddenly sat up, his hands off her waist, his arms instead around her in a bear-hug, trapping her in place. Now having taken control from below, there was nothing that Rheliesh could do to stop him from beginning to thrust, hard, fast and continuously, into the maid from below. Her pleasure seemingly amplified tenfold by how the tables had turned below her, Rheliesh couldn't stop herself from letting out a primal shriek of pleasure as she writhed around within Raylix's tight grip. Words seemed to fail her as Raylix continued to jackhammer her from below, driving both towards the cliff's edge of climax far faster than they were going before.
Rheliesh broke first, her shriek even louder than before as she climaxed, her juices squirting out everywhere as she, herself, wrapped her arms around Raylix, clutching onto him like a lifeline. Her orgasmic shrieks were joined by Raylix's own loud moans a couple of seconds later as he hit his own climax, letting out just as big a load- if not an even bigger one- than the first time he'd climaxed several minutes earlier. Any unoccupied space within Rheliesh's pussy was now completely filled out within seconds, as the Gremory Heir's second big load flowed into her: some of his load even spilled out of her pussy, even with his rock-hard cock still in there plugging her up.
"Hah... oh, Satan..." Rheliesh whispered, her eyes half-lidded, her breaths coming out in animal-like pants as she came down from her latest high. "Oh, Raylix... my..."
"We're not done." Raylix replied, smirking as he pulled back, gently setting Rheliesh down on her back and pushing her over so she was lying on her front. "On your hands and knees, Rhel. I think I'm in the mood to give it to you from behind now."
"Oh... o-okay." Rheliesh whispered, pushing herself upwards onto her hands and knees. Though she almost immediately slipped and fell back onto the bed: it was rather clear that, due to her post-orgasm shakes, she couldn't hold herself up under her own strength, at least at the moment.
Not that that mattered all that much to Raylix, who simply raised both of his hands to conjure bonds of some kind out of demonic energy, attaching them first to the ceiling and then wrapping them around Rheliesh, lifting her up both by the waist and by the arms until she was at the perfect position for him to screw her at.
Raylix let out a dark chuckle as he took his cock- coated in a mixture of his cum and Rheliesh's juices, in one hand, and quickly guided it back to her pussy. Though his maid's lower lips oozed cum in the aftermath of two of his loads being fired straight into there, he didn't hesitate in thrusting right back in, didn't bother in starting slow and building up, returning to his faster-than-average thrusting pace from the word go.
Rheliesh wasn't in much of a position to resist her lover's actions, with her present lack of post-orgasm strength and being bound in place on the bed, but it wasn't like she was in much of a mood to. After her energy had been pretty much sapped by her previous climax, she was more in the mood to just take it from Raylix, let him do the work for now. This was usually what happened when she came onto Raylix, and the two of them had sex one-on-one. She'd run herself ragged way before Raylix did, leaving him free to do whatever he wanted with her.
The blonde maid let out a gasp as she felt Raylix grabbing at her hair, wrapping some of it around his hand to have a better grip on it, and using that (as well as the bonds that currently held her) to hold her up as he increased his thrusting speed, ploughing her from behind. With his other hand, he reached out and groped at her breasts (which were at a more optimal angle to be groped at, thanks to Raylix pulling her upwards by the hair.
"Oh, Lilith, this is hot!" Raylix leant over and half-whispered, half-growled into Rheliesh's ear. "You like it, Rhel? Want more?"
"Y-yes!" Rheliesh moaned out, her suspended body rippling slightly with every thrust Raylix made into her, with the slapping sound that his hips made against hers dominating the room. "Oh, Satans, I would love m-more! I love y-you!"
"Oh, I know." Raylix whisper-growled in reply, leaning just a little bit further and gently nibbling on one of his maid's pointed ears, drawing out another small gasp of pleasure from her. "Believe me, I know." Said maid's gasps and moans were replaced by a loud shriek as Raylix increased the force of which he thrust into her, groping her tits with both hands rather than holding her by the hair. He both adjusted his position on the bed and the position of the conjured bond around Rheliesh's waist to make it easier for himself to do so, allowing himself another smirk as the waves of pleasure that came with satisfying his desires continued to wash over him.
Cum from Raylix's previous two loads was beginning to drip and ooze out of Rheliesh's pussy with how every pull backwards Raylix made before he thrust back into her, with the cum in question collecting all over the outside of her pussy to create a sticky yet alluring mess, or just dripping down onto the bedsheets below. Grinning at the sight of it, Raylix reached down with one hand, scooping up the cum that had dropped down directly onto the bedsheets before reaching around, offering it to Rheliesh as his thrusts continued. She took it gladly, leaning down as best she could and lapping it up, right out of Raylix's hand.
"Tasty?" Raylix asked, reaching below himself and scooping some more of his cum up, before offering it to Rheliesh again. "Want some more, Rhel?"
Rheliesh didn't even bother answering, just lowering her head down again and scooping up as much of Raylix's cum out of his hand with her tongue as she could, before audibly swallowing. Raylix could only chuckle at his maid's answer as he kept thrusting, steadily railing his maid faster and harder from behind all the time. After rubbing his hand on his thigh to get the remnants of the cum off of his palm, he raised it up again and pulled it both backwards and upwards, slowly both pulling the bond around Rheliesh's waist closer to her hips, and raising it upwards so her ass was raised higher than her chest and face, which flopped down onto the bed. As he did so, Raylix adjusted himself further so he was practically standing on the bed, and thrusting both down and forward into his maid's pussy rather than just forward.
"Ohh... ohhh!" Rheliesh moaned out, her body shuddering within its bond. "R-Raylix, I'm gonna... again..."
"Oh, I know." Raylix moaned out himself, his hands making their way back to Rheliesh's ass, which he delivered a couple of hard smacks to. "I'm close too, Rhel. I..."
Both Raylix and Rheliesh let out loud, orgasmic moans of their own that intermingled with one another as they, again, hit their respective climaxes. Rheliesh's, for her part, was louder as she shook like she'd been hit with an electric shock, her pussy quivering from being mercilessly ravaged by Raylix's love-rod. Said love-rod pulsated violently within the warm, wet confines of Rheliesh's pussy as it fired out the third load of the night, filling and overfilling the maid's inner area. Raylix's breaths came out long and slow as the intense high of his most recent orgasm began to slowly taper off. He pulled backwards, waving a hand and undoing the bonds that he'd done around Rheliesh's body and arms, allowing the maid to fully drop onto the bed, a quivering, panting mess.
Raylix dropped to his knees on the bed behind Rheliesh, his breaths still slow and cum still slowly leaking from his cock as thoughts that didn't amount to "keep having sex with Rheliesh" began to worm their way into his mind again. The idea of, possibly, confessing to Rheliesh his true intentions, maybe inviting her to run away with him to the Old Satan Faction...
…
Out of the question. She was a servant of his, a reminder of his noble standing in the Underworld. And given everything he'd heard about the Old Satan Faction, chances are they wouldn't take him bringing something like that into whatever dark corner of Hell they were stationed in: it'd be tantamount to striding into the city with a neon sign in the shape of a middle finger on it.
And even if the pair of them were accepted into the Old Satan Faction, there was the VERY REAL possibility that Rheliesh, in whatever battle with the mainline Underworld that the Old Satan Faction got into in the future, could die on Raylix's watch. Someone extremely precious to him, snuffed out in an instant, just like Sabemka and Tomosei had been, and Raylix wouldn't go through that again. He... couldn't, go through that again.
And on top of that, there was the slim- extremely slim, but not zero- chances of her ratting him out to his parents if he were to confide his intentions to her, before he even tried to leave. A very strong part of him hoped that Rheliesh wouldn't do that, if he were to confide in her... but he was so close, now. He'd lost one chance to leave, he wasn't going to lose another if it came up. Not for anything.
"R-Raylix?"
Raylix was jolted from his internal musings, and looked down to see Rheliesh looking up at him. She'd managed to work herself up into a sitting position, and had turned around to look at him with a concerned look on her face. "Are... you okay?"
"I'm fine." Raylix replied, nodding. He briefly cast his eyes to the bathroom door before looking back at his naked maid, holding out a hand. "How about we get cleaned up?"
Rheliesh let out a light giggle, leant over and took his hand, allowed him to pull her off the bed. The pair of them walked towards the bathroom, with Raylix's hand travelling down his maid's back. As he opened the door with his free hand, his fingers on his other hand played with the lips of her lower hole, the contents of which leaked down her legs at a steady pace. Said maid let out a gasp, followed by another giggle as she looked up at Raylix, the look in her eyes telling him that she very much wouldn't like the events of this evening to end.
Fine with me, Raylix thought, as he shut the bathroom door behind them.
----- ----- -----
3 days before the wedding...
"We've got Mittlefrank hired, right?" Ruvella asked, after swallowing her mouthful of food. "We definitely have?"
"Yes, Ruvella, we definitely have." Rika replied, laying a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I've doubled-checked, triple-checked, probably quadruple-checked at this point, but the answer's the same. You don't need to worry. They'll definitely be here to perform on your and Raylix's special day."
"Well, not exactly 'here', here, but at the reception venue." Renzo replied. "Which is being sorted out as we speak, right Zeo?"
"Yup." Zeoticus replied. "Our servants are putting the final touches on the decorations for the reception together right now. It'll be perfect for the wedding, Ruvella, I promise you."
Ruvella let out a sigh, nodding as she looked over at Raylix, who was finishing off his own mouthful of food. As the chestnut-haired Devil swallowed, Ruvella gently tugged at his sleeve, the sudden contact making him jump slightly.
"Isn't that wonderful, Raylix?" Ruvella spoke, a wide smile on her face. "The Mittlefrank Opera Company, performing for us, at our wedding! Best performance company in all of Hell, and they're performing specifically for us!"
"Oh, yeah." Raylix replied, idly picking up his spoon and spinning it between his fingers as he looked over at Ruvella, doing his best to look excited. "Yes, that sounds pretty great."
"Hey, you alright, Raylix?" Sirzechs asked, looking up from his own meal at his little brother across the table. "You seem a little... tense."
"Oh, no need to worry about that, Zechs!" Zeoticus spoke up, practically beaming at his son and future daughter-in-law. "It's only natural to be nervous, less than a week before tying the knot. Raylix can barely believe that he's getting married to the most-desired bachelorette in all of Hell, can you?"
Raylix simply let out a hum, and returned to his meal. It took all of his self-control to not burst out in a fit of sweat, in front of his fiancée, his fiancée's peerage, his fiancée's family, his brother, his brother's Queen, his parents and his grandmother. All of whom had descended on the Gremory Castle to spend a final afternoon and evening in merriment and celebration of the imminent union of their two families... well, not exactly FINAL final: Rika would've preferred it to take place the day before his and Ruvella's wedding, but some small things had come up at the very last moment regarding Raylix's wedding suit, and the only days in which Zeoticus and Raylix were freely available to take care of said issues were in the two days directly before the wedding, so the third-last day it was.
But of course, that wasn't where Raylix's head was at right now. Only three days before his and Ruvella's wedding, and he'd heard NOTHING from Malech about any plans to leave for the Old Satan Faction. He knew he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up like he had, he knew that Malech had made no guarantee that he'd be able to find anything before he and Ruvella were to be wed, but he couldn't help it.
And right now, as his and Ruvella's parents chatted excitedly about the Gremory-Phenex business merger that would be solidified by his and Ruvella's marriage, as Ruvella and Salem- who she'd chosen to be her maid of honour- chatted about the former's excitement at having the best performance group in the Underworld performing at their wedding, as Ruvella's two younger brothers- Rarzeth and Riser- conversed with their Queens (Raylix immediately identified Riser's Queen- a busty woman with long purple hair, dressed in a revealing blue dress- as a Succubus. It'd been a while since he'd seen one of them) about topics that he couldn't quite hear about, as Sirzechs and Alcina talked about the former's work as Satan Lucifer, as servants of the Gremory and Phenex Clans both lined the walls of the Gremory Castle's dining room... Raylix was beginning to get seriously anxious.
Even as the dinner party ended, and the nobles retreated to the living room to sit and chat with each other, that feeling of anxiety didn't leave. All the talking, mingling, drinking and celebrating just felt more and more like white noise in the background, as Raylix's thoughts continued to dominate his mind. It wasn't until he felt himself being lightly shaken did anything register in his mind other than his thoughts.
"Are you seriously alright, Raylix?" Sirzechs asked, sitting down beside his little brother once said little brother had recognised that he was there. "You've been... kinda out of it, this entire evening. Anything you want to get off your chest?"
"Uhh..." Raylix looked over at Sirzechs, then around the room, noticing that someone who had been at the dinner table wasn't there anymore. "Where's Grandmother?"
"Had to leave." Sirzechs replied, shrugging. "You know how she gets when it comes to talking with people: I'm sometimes tempted to do the same, you know. She sends her love and congratulations, and promises that she'll be at the wedding. She can't wait, I don't think any of us can."
"Right..." Raylix replied, looking back at Sirzechs as he accepted a drink from Grayfia. The silver-haired maid inclined her head to her King, before walking off. Sirzechs took a sip from the glass that Grayfia brought him, and looked over at Raylix again, whose eyes shifted from Gaeneron, up above the fireplace, back to Sirzechs when he noticed he was looking at him.
"Never thought it'd be you, out of the two of us, that got married first, Raylix." The Crimson Satan remarked. "You never gave off the impression that you cared all that much about relationships, marriage, or any of that kind of thing."
"And I still don't." Raylix replied. "Ruvella and I were picked out for each other by our parents and shoved together for the sake of a Lilith-damn business merger. Wonderful basis for a relationship." He remarked, the last five words coming out with some extra sarcastic bite.
"Ahh, yes, well..." Sirzechs lightly shrugged, taking another sip from his glass as he did so. "Chosen for each other or not, you and Ruvella look incredible together, though I might be biased on that front. And I truly can't wait to see you and Ruvella married soon, if only so I'll have another sister to love and care about."
"Sister-in-law." Raylix corrected, sighing. "And I'm sure you're probably too busy worrying about what's on your plate as a Satan to care much about finding a wife."How he wished Sirzechs would just stop talking.
"Well, nowadays, yeah." Sirzechs replied, taking the last gulp of drink and looking upwards. "But when I was starting out as a Satan, being the busiest man in the Underworld didn't stop me from pursuing someone who I'd had my eye on ever since before the Civil War started. Someone I... still carry feelings for, actually."
Following his brother's look, Raylix noticed Grayfia talking with Ruvella, about something that he couldn't quite make out, over the general noise that came from everyone else's talking.
"What, Grayfia?" Raylix looked back over at Sirzechs, who continued to look over at his Queen with a rather wistful expression on his face for a couple of seconds, before looking back at his little brother.
"Yeah, Grayfia." he replied. "When I first saw her, I..." his mouth closed for a couple of seconds, as he seeming struggled to find the words. "It just hit me. Real suddenly, unexpectedly. Like lightning, but way more pleasant. I just knew, deep inside me, Raylix, that that was the woman I wanted to spend my life with."
A rather melancholy look came over Sirzechs' face after he said that, as he looked down at the ground and sighed.
"Grayfia saw differently, though." he replied. "She... just didn't feel that way about me. Or in ANY way about me beyond as a commander, as a new Satan, and then as her master. It was pretty hard, when we had that conversation with her, and even harder when my feelings remained in spite of that."
Sirzechs let out another sigh as he looked back at Raylix.
"I suppose it's small comfort that Grayfia actually took it pretty well, once I told her how I felt." he remarked. "But, oh well. I suppose there are plenty of other Devil women around that could catch my eye, that I could have some kind of close relationship with. Just not my first love..." he shrugged, and got up from the couch.
"Sorry to unload all of that on you at once, Raylix, I... think I got carried away, a bit."
"Whatever." Raylix replied, non-comittally, getting to his feet as well and shoving his hands into his pockets, yawning as he did so. "Might check out of this whole thing early and head up to bed. You're right, I haven't been feeling all that great today."
"Alright..." Sirzechs replied. "I'll let Mother and Father know. Goodnight, Raylix."
Raylix didn't reply, and turned to leave the room, not meeting anyone's eyes on his way out. As he pulled the living room door open to head into the castle's main hall, he felt a magical presence by his ear.
It took a fraction of a second for him to realise who was calling him, and what this had to mean. After shutting the living room door behind him and making sure that no-one was around, Raylix spread his wings and flew upstairs, through the door that led to the residential wing, and made it to his bedroom in record time. Slamming and locking the door behind him, he landed and touched the magic-circle by his ear.
"Malech?"
"Raylix." Malech's voice played right into his ear as he greeted the Gremory Heir. "I have good news."
"You do?!" Raylix, sounding the most excited that he had been in the past few weeks, replied, his heart suddenly skipping a beat. "What news?"
"An opportunity to leave for the Old Satan Faction has arisen." Malech replied, his voice even. Though Raylix had an inkling that Malech was holding back a smile at his excitement. "One that will happen... tonight."
"TONIGHT?!" Raylix, thankful that the soundproofing wards around his bedroom (installed for... obvious, reasons) were as strong as they were, practically shouted in shock, the most excited that he'd been in the past few seconds. "Unholy shit, Malech! From where?!"
"My village, as a matter of fact." Malech replied. "There was an emissary from the Old Satan Faction that arrived for one of those rallies today, and he was able to sway quite a few of the villagefolk to his side. Either that, or they were already sympathetic, but anyway, I threw my support behind him, had a chat, and long story short, we're moving tonight. You in, or-"
"You bet your old demonic ass I'm in!" Raylix replied. "When exactly, tonight, is this happening?"
"Midnight." Malech replied. "If you're in, come at midnight. If you're late, we leave without you. Got it?"
"Got it, yeah." Raylix nodded, letting out a slow breath to calm himself. "I'll be there, don't worry."
"Alright." Malech replied. "And Raylix?"
"Yeah."
"Don't ever call me old." Malech spoke, in a more deadpan tone than Raylix was used to hearing from him, before he disconnected the magical comm, seemingly just in time for Raylix to hear a knock at his bedroom door.
Letting out a yawn, he flicked his hand in the direction of his bedroom door, which unlocked and allowed it to be pushed open. Looking up, Raylix saw Venelana poking her head through the door. As she did so, Raylix heard the merry talking, laughter and music of the party that he'd just escaped.
"Raylix?" she spoke. "Sirzechs just told your father and me that you were heading up early. Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm fine, Mother." Raylix replied, walking over to the bed and flopping down upon it, kicking his shoes off as he did so. "Just... tired. Figured I'd turn in early, get some good sleep."
"I see." Venelana replied, fiddling with her dress. "That's a... that's a good idea, Raylix." she yawned. "Now that you mention it, I might do the same myself. Good night."
"Night." Raylix nodded, as Venelana retreated from the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. Before the door shut, Raylix thought he could hear his mother speaking to someone outside his bedroom, but the sound was muted by the soundproofing wards as the door closed, and Raylix thought nothing of it as he flicked his hand in the direction of the door, re-locking it.
This was it. Now or never. Get out of the castle, teleport to Malech's village, and leave for the Old Satan Faction.
He'd have to wait until closer to midnight, hope that the party downstairs had ended, before he made his move. Lying down on the bed, Raylix sighed, a part of him unable to believe his luck at what had fallen into his lap.
----- ----- -----
As Raylix pulled on a dark hoodie that he'd procured from the human world, pulled up the hood over his head, part of him STILL couldn't believe his luck at what Malech had told him a couple of hours ago. Contrary to what he'd told his mother, he hadn't been able, or even tried, to sleep. All he could do was go over and over how he'd finally be leaving the Clan, hopefully forever, in his head.
Leave bedroom, sneak through residential wing, descend the stairs, across the hall, out the door, fly across anti-teleportation barrier, teleport to village. Simple. Easy. Quick. Though that was assuming that everything Raylix was hoping for actually happened, the first of which was...
Raylix took a couple of breaths, casting one final look over the room that he'd called his bedroom for over two centuries, before turning around, magically unlocking his bedroom door, before pulling it open. And with that, Raylix knew that his escape from the Gremory Castle was going to be easier than the hardest that it could have been.
He couldn't hear any of the merry talking, laughter and music of the party that he'd escaped earlier. Everyone who had been here before had either left to return, or was asleep... Raylix could only hope to Lilith that that was the case. Maybe they were sneaking around the castle at night, just as he was, but he could only hope to Lilith that that wasn't the case.
As he shut the door behind him, and after mentally marking step one of Operation... Actually, He Hadn't Thought of a Name for This, Raylix walked, applying sound-muffling spells to his shoes to keep them from making any sound, he passed his parent's room. Zeoticus had thought it best to give Venelana her own room, for her to sleep in whenever he'd taken one of the members of his own harem into his bed for the night. Smart call, in all honesty, Raylix thought. The door on the right- Zeoticus' room- was shut and silent, leaving what he was doing in there entirely up to his younger son's imagination. He could be in the middle of a hot and heavy orgy with his harem, or just dreaming of whatever he was going to spend the Gremory Clan's money on next.
Good thing Raylix didn't have to worry about that, anymore.
Raylix was in the middle of taking another step forward, fully intent on keeping going, but a light noise coming from the door to his LEFT almost made the Gremory Heir jump out of his skin. Why did silence have that quality of making the smallest of sounds seem like they were being roared out at full-force by an angry Dragon?!
The soon-to-be-no-longer Gremory Heir was rooted to the spot, still as a statue, so unsure of what to do now that he almost couldn't even take a breath. His ears strained to pick out any other noise coming from his mother's room, while his mind worked to try and figure out why any kind of noise could be coming from his mother's room... beyond the fact that her door was slightly ajar.
Raylix's ear twitched slightly as he picked up another light noise, similar to the first one, coming from Venelana's room, and his brain almost short-circuited as he realised what it was: it was a moan.
The panic that had been solely occupying his mind for the past moment had to shift up a bit, make room for the curiosity that had come creeping into his mind. What in the hell was Venelana (that was ABSOLUELY Venelana. Moans or no, he'd recognise his mother's voice anywhere) doing moaning in her room at this hour? Had she and Zeoticus decided to have sex in her room, for whatever reason?
'Lilith damn my curiosity.' Raylix thought to himself, moving towards the door to his mother's bedroom, as silently as a mouse, and peeking an eye through the door. And what he saw...
His mother, Venelana, was butt-ass naked, and bouncing up and down on her bed, her hands on the chest of her QUEEN, Jarahn: not Zeoticus, Raylix recognised it was Jarahn by the long blond hair, that was splayed out across the pillows... plus the Incubus tails that he could see out and over the bed. His mother was clearly enjoying it, judging by her pleasured moans and how much energy she was putting into bouncing atop her lover.
'Turns out that effigy of Mother cheating on Father was more on the money than whoever made it probably thought they'd be.' Raylix thought, shrugging. 'Also, who knew that the last time I'd be seeing my mother before I buzz off forever would be her getting railed by another guy?'
After a couple of seconds continued staring through the crack in the door, Raylix tore his eyes away from the extremely sexy sight, and with a light blush coming across his face that he did his best to force down, he moved on, slightly faster than he'd been doing before.
After leaving the residential wing, Raylix came to the stairs, descending them in silence. Steps two and three of Operation AHHToaNfT complete. His heart skipped a beat as he looked forward: the giant double-doors to the castle were right in front of him (closed and locked, of freaking course). He could practically hear the night calling to him from the other side.
Taking a slow, near-silent breath, Raylix took a couple of steps towards the doors, before something else caught his attention: a glint of light, that had reflected almost directly into his eye. Turning towards the source of whatever had glinted into his eye, Raylix looked through the open door into the lounge that he'd left a couple of hours ago, the room in which he'd learned that he'd be marrying Ruvella.
Nearly a year ago, that had been. It felt like... a lot less than a year, to the centuries-old Devil. He was just about to turn back towards the doors and make his way out, before he caught sight of something else: Gaeneron, shining in the light of the fireplace embers. The weapon that he hadn't- that no one had- used in battle since before the Gremory Clan had even moved into this enormous castle.
'You deserve better.' Raylix thought, his decision made. He silently made for the lounge, his eyes on the sword that he'd wielded so long ago, that had caught his eye practically every time he stepped in that damn room, over the centuries. After he made his way inside, he made a beeline for the fireplace, spreading his wings and hovering up to where the sword hung. 'Much better than to be a Lilith-damn decoration.'
It didn't take much effort for Raylix to physically pry Gaeneron from the hanger keeping it on the wall, after which he descended to the ground, a smile coming to his face as he adjusted his grip on the sword. It'd been a LONG while since he'd used it, and his hands were different- namely bigger- since he'd last wielded it. Even in spite of that, the fifty-sixth Pillar Devil's sword felt familiar in Raylix's hand.
Though it wasn't the fifty-sixth Pillar Devil's sword, anymore. Hell, it wasn't even the Gremory Clan's sword anymore. Soon, when Raylix was gone, it would be HIS sword now.
Keeping Gaeneron in his left hand, Raylix silently shut the lounge door with his right, before making his way back to the door. A quick push against them told Raylix that they were magically locked, and that he wouldn't be able to get them open through physical force alone. Not without taking a long time of it, and every second still in this Lilith-damn castle was a second in which he could be spotted, his escape plans exposed and ruined.
He was the closest that he'd ever come to leaving, any thoughts of patience had long-since evaporated. Raylix raised his free right hand, calling his mother's Power of Destruction to it and preparing to just blast the doors open, knowing that he could just fly out after that and be beyond the anti-teleportation borders within seconds, if even that. Hopefully he'd be able to get enough of a headstart on whatever would immediately come after him that he could make it to Malech's village, and leave for the Old Satan Faction.
His right hand outstretched, Raylix was but a thought away from letting the energy he'd conjured fly from his hand, but-
"Cutting it a bit close, aren't you, Raylix?"
…
For a single second, Raylix was certain that his heart had stopped. Though judging by the fact that he didn't immediately lose consciousness and fall to the ground, it turned out that it hadn't stopped.
What to do now? Make a break for it? Try to lie? Fight? She'd probably catch him before he got through the doors, if he blasted them open right now, and there was no way in Hell that she'd believe any lie that he could come up with in the next ten seconds. And fighting her? With Gaeneron he MIGHT stand a chance, but he'd be lucky to not alert everyone in the Underworld, never mind everyone in the Castle right now.
Raylix turned around, Power of Destruction still activated in one hand and Gaeneron gripped tightly in the other, both of which pointed squarely at the one who had spoken, as Grayfia slowly descended the stairs, an unreadable expression on her face as she gazed down at Raylix.
"I was beginning to think weren't actually going to go through with leaving." Grayfia spoke, as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and continued towards Raylix. "But right after the pre-wedding party? With your parents at their most triumphant? Not the worst idea in the world, I'll admit."
The silverette maid let out a short giggle, as Raylix took a half-step back.
"If things had gone completely to plan, I would've been gone two weeks ago." Raylix replied, his voice as even as he could make it. Grayfia continued strolling towards Raylix, her gloved hands still clasped in front of her, as Raylix felt sweat forming on his brow. With just a movement of her hand, the Ultimate Queen could probably disable him before he had the chance to fight. Hell, she might not even need to move her hands to do so... "What gave me away?"
"Your demeanour, ever since you were un-grounded." Grayfia replied. "Your parents, your brother, your fiancée, your fiancée's parents, they might not have noticed it, as occupied as they were with other things, but I have. You've been quiet, distant, like you'd given up... or were planning something."
Raylix didn't reply at once. He adjusted his grip on Gaeneron and flared up his Power of Destruction a bit, as Grayfia came closer and closer to him.
"You got me, good for you." His quiet remark was no less dry. "Don't try and stop me, Grayfia."
"I don't plan to, Raylix." Grayfia replied, stopping in place, a few steps away from Raylix. Her crimson eyes bored into his as she did so, as if she was staring right through him. "Though I, in turn, would appreciate it if you lowered your sword and didn't try to attack me in return, unless you want to wake everyone up."
Quietly sighing, Raylix did as his brother's Queen bade him: dispelling the Power of Destruction and lowering Gaeneron to his side, though he kept a tight grip on it in case Grayfia actually tried anything, or in case anyone else came and saw what was going on.
"Back to the matter at hand." Grayfia continued. "I assume that you're leaving for the Human World, or the Old Satan Faction. I also assume that your desire to do so stems from the deaths of Sabemka and Tomosei. Am I correct?"
"Yeah." Raylix replied, not seeing much of a point in trying to bullshit the silverette. "Well, maybe less that, more how my par- actually, not just them, EVERYONE, how everyone reacted. They just brushed them aside like nothing, like LESS than nothing, and kept going like nothing happened. Like I hadn't just lost the loves of my life."
"Platonic, I'm assuming." Grayfia remarked.
"Yeah." Raylix replied. "Tomosei would've always gone for Sabemka over me, and I don't swing that way for him. Still would've taken them in a heartbeat over the new bodyguards, and the whole fair that Mother and Father held in Gemyem to find me new friends." His right hand balled into a fist, his knuckles going stark-white as he clenched onto Gaeneron's handle even harder in his other hand. "Them being called the most heroic commoners there have ever been, dying for me being the most noteworthy thing they'd ever done, 'more friends will come along'?"
In spite of the night, and the quiet that usually necessitated, Raylix couldn't help his voice rising slightly as he continued.
"Your brother certainly didn't help." Grayfia replied, a frown coming across her face. Her voice also became slightly colder, slightly more like the cold Head Maid that Raylix had known for so long.
"Lilith-damn right he didn't." Raylix remarked, taking a breath in an attempt to calm himself. "I think it was when he said what he said that I realised... I can't stay here. Not when I've seen everyone- well, mostly everyone-" his eyes briefly met Grayfia's, "for the heartless pricks that they are."
"I see." Grayfia replied. "Well, I won't argue with you. Do what you think is right, Raylix."
"Good, because I'm really not in the mood for arguments right now." Raylix replied. "Not when I'm about to-" Grayfia raised her hand, the sight of which Raylix instantly reacted to by raising Gaeneron up again. However, instead of making any move to attack him, Grayfia waved her hand past Raylix, in the direction of the door behind him, to which the door reacted by... unlocking and silently swinging open.
Raylix whirled around, looking out into the night, his expression switching from hardened determination to abject shock within the time it would take someone to snap their fingers, before turning back to Grayfia.
"You're... letting me go?"
"I am." Grayfia replied, lowering her hand. She then closed the distance between herself and Raylix in two steps, and proceeded to wrap her arms around him, the shock of which rooted Raylix to the spot for a couple of seconds: his mind was instantly overloaded by both the fact that he was getting a hug from Grayfia- of all people- and the fact that it felt... pretty good.
However, just as he was beginning to appreciate Grayfia being pressed up against him (or rather, two specific parts of Grayfia pressed up against him), Grayfia pulled back, a smile fully on her face, as opposed to any kind of smaller smile that Raylix had seen her wearing before. Seeing that kind of full smile on the silverette's face, and knowing that it was directed at him, seemed to turn something in the pit of Raylix's stomach, as a light blush came to his face.
What he was suddenly feeling now for Grayfia, and how intensely, it was a feeling he hadn't felt since...
"Go." The Gremory Clan's head maid whispered. "Raylix, wherever you go... I can only hope that we see each other again."
Raylix opened his mouth to speak, closed it again, simply nodded at Grayfia with a smile of his own coming to his face. Turning around, he spread his Devil wings and bent down for a moment, before leaping off the ground and taking to the air with such intensity and speed that the ground directly beneath him cracked, with pieces of the floor bursting upwards behind him as he flew into the air, out of the castle, away from the castle.
Towards the edge of the anti-teleportation borders. Towards freedom.
Towards the future.
Grayfia's eyes remained on him as he flew, at speed. Even with the darkness of the night, and the dark clothing that Raylix saw, she was able to pinpoint him with her eyes and keep on him until he made it beyond the borders of the castle grounds, after which he conjured up a transportation-circle for himself (which was only a speck of light, from the maid's position), which disappeared as he flew through it. Raylix was gone.
Taking a quiet breath, Grayfia shut and re-locked the doors of the Gremory Castle, mentally preparing herself for the utter shitstorm that would be kicked up in the morning, once it was discovered that the Gremory Heir was missing. But that could wait for then.
The Ultimate Queen was about to return to her own living quarters for the night, but a small noise from the top of the stairs caught her attention.
----- ----- -----
He thought they hadn't noticed him. He thought they were too distracted with each other (whether it be leaving the Castle, running away in the dead of night, or just watching him go after LETTING HIM GO) to notice him.
But as the butler, one of many in the Gremory Clan's employ, turned to quietly make his way to the residential wing, to notify his Duke and Duchess, raise the alarm to the fact that their Heir had just vacated the castle, with no intent of returning, and that their head maid had simply allowed him to do so, he felt an unseen force beginning to press in all directions, around his neck. He gasped for breath, but couldn't quite breathe as fully as he normally could.
It was painful, but he kept going in spite of that. The Gremory Castle had been his home for over a century, the least he could do to repay Duke Zeoticus at this moment in time was alert him of something truly important. Though the pain quickly increased, and the butler's capacity for breath quickly decreased, to the point that he slowed down, almost stopping as he reached for his throat.
He could hear slow, methodical steps behind him, but didn't turn around. He knew who was behind him, who was coming for him. His chances against her in a straight fight were probably in the negative numbers, so he tried to keep going, push the door to the residential wing open and dashing through, making a break down the hall towards Zeoticus and Venelana's bedrooms. His head felt like it was about to burst, but he didn't let that stop him.
What DID stop him, however, was the pain around his neck and lack of breath finally becoming too much for him, as he raised his other hand to his throat. He tried to gasp for air, but he couldn't take any in, his throat was being squeezed too hard. The butler dropped to his knees, one hand outstretching forward and the other around his throat...
The last thing he saw was Grayfia, the very woman who had approved his entry into the Gremory Clan's employ, casually strolling past him... and then his neck snapped.
He didn't see much after that.
As the butler's body dropped to the ground, life gone, Grayfia raised a hand, magically disposing of the butler's corpse. She'd seen enough corpses in her life to know what... nastiness, people could make upon recent death, and an action that resulted in her (or anyone else, really) having to deal with that in the morning was an action worth taking. Plus, she couldn't exactly leave the corpse of a butler on the ground right outside Zeoticus and Venelana's bedroom, as that would surely alert them to the fact that something was up.
'Good luck, Raylix.' she thought, before turning on her heel and leaving the residential wing.