This, for upwards of a year, had been the day they'd been waiting for.
It was supposed to have been perfect.
It would have been the grandest event in Hell's history since the wedding of its founders. Which every Devil alive at the time (including both of them) had attended and celebrated.
Everything had been planned out, confirmed, double-confirmed and even triple-confirmed.
It would've gone off without a hitch.
But...
"We were too soft, Vene... we were too FUCKING soft, I know we were!"
Venelana sighed, from her sitting position on the couch, as Zeoticus repeated that phrase for what felt like the millionth time in the past few days. An extremely prevalent part of her agreed, her aristocratic instinct that craved further power and influence for the family that she'd married into, but that didn't stop the constant repetition from getting on her nerves slightly. Just like all the backlash and mockery from their fellow aristocrats: it had only been a couple of days, so things were still relatively fresh, so Venelana- to an extent- understood the initial deluge of criticism of the Gremory Clan pouring in from every angle.
"Couldn't keep a handle on their delinquent son-"
"Utter teases, built up that wedding as such a big thing, only to cancel everything at the last minute-"
"Failures of a Duke and Duchess! Should be demoted!"
Even though he hadn't been officially involved in anything to do with his family since ascending to the throne of Lucifer, Sirzechs hadn't exactly escaped everything that had come Zeoticus and Venelana's way, either. Of course now, after everything was said and done, were people saying that he should've stepped in and helped out in stopping his brother from doing anything incredibly rash, like running away, rather than continuing to remain a neutral (officially, at least) party. Some of the more… fervorous, among the anti-Gremory nobles were calling for Sirzechs to abdicate his throne as Satan Lucifer and take up the mantle of Gremory Heir in Raylix's stead. Not that Sirzechs was ever going to do that, but the mere fact that some were even calling for something like that said enough.
"Why the hell couldn't we have just kept Raylix grounded until the wedding?" Zeoticus sighed, sitting down on the couch beside his wife, who laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We could've made that happen, right?"
"Of course, we could have." Venelana replied, soothingly rubbing her husband's shoulder and back. "But we can't blame ourselves for having our… kindness, taken advantage of. There's no way we could have known that Raylix was planning on leaving at the last minute."
Zeoticus took a breath, calmed a good bit by Venelana's hand and words, before looking over at her.
"I suppose you're right." The Duke Gremory nodded. "I really thought Raylix had changed-"
"We both did." Venelana replied. "But raging about what we could have, or should have, done isn't going to change what IS, dear. It may well feel good in the moment, but change anything? No."
"Right…" Zeoticus took another breath, and straightened himself up slightly. "Alright. That reminds me, did you ask for aid from the Bael Clan in trying to find Raylix?"
"I sent along a message last night, yes." Venelana replied. "But I'm not exactly optimistic that we'll get much of a positive response… you know how Volgareth feels about Raylix, especially after what he did to our father."
Zeoticus nodded, adjusting his position on the couch.
"Yeah… you're right, Vene." He replied. "But whatever, if the Baels don't want to help, then- no offence to you- screw them. We've got the resources to find Raylix. Sirzechs' peerage are already on the case, we've got everyone out that we can spare, and I can only hope that some of the Clan Heads that owe favours to me would be willing to honour them, even now."
"I'm sure they will." Venelana nodded, unconsciously smiling from her husband's use of her pet name. "But we can't also just wait for Raylix to be returned to us, or for him to return of his own volition. We've got to plan for the future, this new future ahead of us."
Zeoticus nodded again, standing up.
"Agreed." He remarked, taking a breath. "Well, assuming the worst and that Raylix NEVER comes back…"
He paused for a second, looking down at the floor, with Venelana letting out a quiet sigh. Inwardly angry as she was at her younger son for bringing on all that had transpired over the past couple of days, she couldn't help but worry about him, hope that whereever he could have gone, whether in Hell or in the Human World (if she had to pick one as a place that Raylix could have gone, it was probably the human world. It was far less familiar to Devils than their home realm, so probably much easier to hide from them. That, and Raylix did always seem to like the things that the single-centuried came up with up there), he was alright and hadn't immediately gotten himself killed.
"We might actually have to start trying for another child." Zeoticus finished, his eyes shifting to his wife. "Another Heir. One that…"
Venelana did her best to conceal another sigh as her husband returned to his musings. The topic of dedicating themselves a third child had come and gone from the conversations that she and her husband had had over the centuries: Satan knew they could afford it, and another child would certainly have brought more joy to the Duke and Duchess' life as both Sirzechs and Raylix had done so long ago. That and, as the Gremory family went from being… just a family, to one of the most powerful and influential noble Clans in Hell, it was a common idea that having more children could well equal more power and influence for the family once those children were all grown up. One that had- she supposed- proven true in Sirzechs' case, considering the whole 'Crimson Satan' thing and all. And Raylix… had he not run away, Venelana knew (and knew that Zeoticus knew as well) that he would have been a fine Duke Gremory, and Ruvella a fine Duchess alongside him.
But in the situation they were in right now, with Zeoticus just having said it out loud, straight up: having another child for the explicit purpose of REPLACING their runaway second child as Heir to the Gremory Clan, some part of Venelana couldn't help but feel… off, about it.
It also didn't help that the prospect of having constant sex with Zeoticus, in order to win the proverbial lottery for a third time and go through the process of having a third child… she couldn't lie, after the first time she had taken Jarahn into bed with her nearly fifty years ago, and with every time the two had shared time and secret pleasure together, the idea of going back to Zeoticus wasn't the most appealing thing in the world.
The brunette Duchess was about to open her mouth, tell her husband that trying for a third child was definitely a valid option, and one that they could even get started with tonight if he so wanted, but found herself interrupted before she could even start, as the doors to the living room that they were in opened, and a butler came jogging in, his face white as he came to a sudden stop, while Zeoticus and Venelana looked over at him.
"Yes?" Zeoticus asked, standing up. "Is something the matter?"
"You c-could say, Duke Gremory." The butler replied, immediately inclining his head to his superior and taking a breath to calm himself "I just received a call about something that… you should hear about."
"Oh?" Venelana raised her eyebrows. "Would this call be urgent, or something that can wait a bit? The Duke and I are in the middle of a rather important discussion about the future of this Clan right now."
"Urgent." The butler replied, nodding his head rather rapidly. "Definitely, definitely urgent."
Zeoticus and Venelana looked at each other for a moment, seemingly sharing a silent conversation, before Venelana sighed.
"Alright." She replied, first out of the two nobles to look back at the butler. "What is it?"
----- ----- -----
It, for upwards for a year, had been the day she was waiting for.
It would have been the best day of her life. She would have woken up, gotten ready with the female members of her peerage (all of whom she'd chosen as her bridal party, with Salem in question as her maid of honour), and been wed to the most desirable bachelor in all of Hell, with all the nobles of the Underworld there to witness the glorious event.
And she would have been wearing a wedding dress that had been chosen and customized to perfection by her, Salem and her mother. A stunning crimson number, with golden phoenix-based patterns all the way down, the top part of which hugged her incredible body and the bottom half of which flowed beautifully to the floor, it was truly a work of art worthy of the future Duchess Gremory.
As Ruvella, from her bed, looked over at the dress in question as it hung on the wall, her mind couldn't help but wander to the man that she would have married, had the wedding between them gone ahead. Raylix wasn't a bad guy, Ruvella knew that for sure: they hadn't known each other all too well prior to when they heard that they were going to be married, but during the small interactions they had shared over the centuries, the Phenex Heiress had gotten the impression that the Gremory Heir was of a generally good-natured disposition. Laid-back, polite and could carry a conversation pretty well, especially when it was regarding a topic that Raylix himself was passionate about. And after the initial (and understandable) shock of hearing that he was going to be marrying her wore off, the same had held true.
But from the night of the reveal to the rest of the nobles of the Underworld that they were engaged, things had changed in her fiancé. Ruvella certainly understood the initial rationale behind the change within Raylix: his two bodyguards, who as far as Ruvella understood had been his best friends ever since before the end of the Great War, had been killed in an attack by Fallen Angels. She certainly understood, and even sympathised, but even that wasn't a good enough reason to verbally explode like he had all over everyone like he had eight months ago, insult one of the Satans and ATTACK Zekram Bael, his own grandfather!
Whatever his parents had done in the aftermath, along with grounding him, however, seemed to have worked: Raylix was a lot quieter and seemed to hold his tongue a lot more in the times that Ruvella had seen him after that gathering in particular: and once Raylix had been released from his grounding, he'd practically become a model Clan Heir. Willing to run off and do his own thing a little more than what seemed necessary, but Ruvella wasn't going to begrudge him that. Some people just preferred their own company. In the month-and-a-half leading up to their wedding day, Ruvella had found herself getting more and more excited about it. Raylix's family themselves were nice enough, the man that she was to be marrying was a decent one, and it would've ended up with both her and Raylix's Clans becoming closer and sharing their respective immense resources with each other, with both families coming out of it more powerful. What could possibly have gone wrong with that?
…
Raylix. Sneaking out in the middle of the night, three days before the wedding was to even take place. That's exactly what could have gone wrong. And exactly what DID go wrong.
When Ruvella had first heard about it, through an anonymous tip from inside the Gremory Clan that had made its way to the Underworld News Network (one of the many branches of the Underworld media empire that the Vassago Clan ran, which her younger brother Rarzeth was the president and essentially second-in-command of), she initially couldn't believe it. She thought it was a prank that her oldest younger brother had been trying to play on his big sister, one that she'd reminded him wasn't funny AT ALL. And then she realised that he wasn't joking, and that the tip was true: Raylix was gone…
Even then, Ruvella didn't want to believe it. She was SO CLOSE to the kind of wedding she had dreamed of, a day that had been planned to perfection and would have been- without question- the greatest day of her life. A day that she would have looked back on with fond memories for millennia to come, and absolutely recounted time and time again to her and Raylix's children and grandchildren on many an occasion. There was NO WAY that fate could have been so cruel as to rip such perfection away from her when she was so close, SO SATAN-DAMN CLOSE, to experiencing it!
But alas, it seemed that fate was in fact that cruel, and that the perfect wedding day, Ruvella's dream, had crashed down into nothingness. And to say that she'd taken it well would be nothing more than an outright lie.
For the past three days, from when she'd first heard the news about Raylix having ran away up until now, she hadn't even come out of her room. She'd remained in there, not letting anyone in, not talking to anyone that tried to enter, not even EATING. Just lying on her bed and staring at the wall, practically having shut down from what she'd heard. But as her eyes shifted to the wedding dress once again, Ruvella Phenex felt something for the first time in a few days… anger.
Anger at Raylix. How could she not? He'd just left her, all-but at the altar, literally the worst thing a groom could do to a bride! And with any explanation, any attempt at justifying his actions? No, of course not! He'd been a good fiancé to her, a good Devil in everyone's eyes, right up until the last moment, then just ran away at that last moment! Anger at whatever entity had decided to screw with her by making this happen, because there was NO WAY that something as bad as THIS could've just… happened! No way in hell!
And most of all… anger at herself for not seeing something like this coming. What would've happened would have been absolutely perfect, and absolute perfection didn't exist. Something had to happen, in order to mess this up.
Ruvella's breathing quickened slightly, her eyes involuntarily widening more and more the longer she looked at the dress, as rational thought left her mind. Her breaths became audible, more like pants that ascended to small growls. Those small growls ascended further still into a scream of mixed hatred and grief that she let out as she stood up and extended one hand towards the dress, lettin out a beam of fiery energy that struck and engulfed the dress nigh-instantly.
Hot tears slid down the Phenex Heiress' face as the fiery beam that she'd let out faded away, a couple of seconds after it was cast. Her breaths slowed slightly as she lowered her hand, her eyes focused on the ashes- all that was left of the dress that she'd just incinerated- that dropped down to the ground and settled in the carpet on her bedroom's floor. Ruvella dropped down onto her bed, holding her face in her hands and quietly sobbing, not even mentally realising that the bedroom door had been swung open until she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her. She looked up, and saw that her mother was the one that was hugging her, with Salem having entered the room as well and shut the door behind her.
"Ruvella?" Rika asked, her voice soft. "Are you okay?"
"N-no…!" Ruvella replied, through her tears as she shifted herself around and embraced her mother. "It's just… is it me? Was that why Raylix left? Am I just not good enough? Was I ever good enough?"
"Of COURSE you're good enough!" Rika replied, pulling back and shaking her daughter slightly before embracing her again, slightly tighter than before. "What could POSSIBLY make you think that you were the problem in all of this?"
"Raylix was far more the problem than you, Ru- Lady Ruvella." Salem spoke up, tentatively settling on the bed just beside her King. "I mean, he wasn't exactly a great Heir, now that you think about it. Slapping you, insulting the nobles, attacking Zekram Bael, and from what I've heard had been going out on his own to do Satan-knows what rather than being involved in the planning of his own wedding… the signs were definitely there."
"Your Bishop's right, Ruvella!" Rika nodded at Salem, before looking back over at her daughter and Heiress. "With all that in mind, I'm not surprised- disappointed, yes, but not surprised- that Raylix did what he did. Abruptly leaving without any explanation or goodbye, not even to his parents or even his future wife… you're not just good enough, you're TOO good for anyone who'd pull something like that! Much too good! To be completely honest, Ruvella, I think someone who'd do something like that doesn't deserve ANYONE: never mind you, MY daughter!"
"Ahh…" Ruvella pulled back from her mother's embracing, letting out a slower breath than the ones she'd been letting out throughout the entire conversation. "I… you're right, Mother. As usual."
Rika nodded, allowing Ruvella to move forward again and embrace her, suddenly feeling quite a bit better.
----- ----- -----
If he'd stayed, Raylix just realised while adjusting one of his bracelets on his wrists, today would have been the day that he would've been married to Ruvella.
…
…
…
Eh. Oh well.
"Again!" Raylix shouted, snapping his fingers. He applied a sound-amplification spell to the snap in question, so it rang out across the area that he- and the other Devils that had travelled to Hebeth with him from Sabemka and Tomosei's village- were standing in. Katerea had had the good sense to see that Raylix didn't need any form of training like the rest of the forces of the True Satan Faction did, and so decided to place him in charge of those in question that had come with him.
Since the start of the day, Raylix had been working with the group to produced combined, co-ordinated attacking spells: the result of which would- in theory- be stronger than any one attack that any one (relatively) ordinary Devil would be able to work up on their own. It'd taken a while for Raylix to figure out who would be best-suited to conjuring up the magic-circle that the combined attack would be powered through, therefore being the ones to channel their demonic power into the attack in question. And a little while longer to figure out who among them could work out a decently well-put-together fire spell, and a decently well-put-together ice spell, which when combined with each other and fired at a target, would be MUCH more powerful than either spell could possibly be on their own.
It would also be much more volatile and at higher risk of messing up (with potentially disastrous results), but there was never any progress without risk.
Floating on his five pairs of wings, about twenty feet in the air and fifty feet across from those he'd accompanied to Hebeth, Raylix flicked his hand to create a powerful barrier between him and the other Devils.
"Get that circle up!" Raylix called, amplifying his voice to make himself clearly heard. The village-Devils across from him, all looking like they'd been through some relatively intense training… because they had, but some showed it quite a lot better than others. Either away, after Raylix made the call, the circle went up. With all the ones channelling their power into the same circle, it seemed to pulsate slightly.
"Prepare the spells! And be careful this time!" Raylix called out again, his voice still amplified. At his command, several more Devils- split into two groups- worked respective spells of ice and fire towards the magic-circle. Even though he, a Devil in a similar league to the current Satans in terms of power, was in no real danger no matter what came of this most recent attempt to get the result he wished for, that didn't stop him from tensing up slightly. More out of anticipation for what would happen than anything else, though no matter how powerful he was, that didn't suddenly turn the potential prospect of mixed fire and ice flying into his eyes at great speed into a very pleasant one.
"Aim at me, I'm your target!" Raylix called out, spreading his arms wide to make himself as large a target as possible. As he did so, he saw the magic-circle beginning to glow intensely, practically oozing demonic energy. He could tell that the attack was prepared, only a spoken word or a thought away from being unleashed upon him. Like a racing car at high revs, that was only a lifted clutch away from roaring off into the distance. "Ready… FIRE!"
And fire they did: the charged-up attack was fired from the magic-circle: a beam of bright, near-white energy that streaked across the afternoon sky and straight at Raylix, who didn't move. Even in spite of the barrier in place in front of him, his battle-worn instincts still screamed at him to make SOME kind of move out of the way of the beam fired his way, but the former Gremory Heir ignored those instincts, remained still.
The combined fire/ice energy beam, well-put together by the Devils that Raylix had been working with the whole day so far, streaked across the sky and struck the barrier that Raylix had conjured, only a couple of inches away from Raylix himself. Immediately upon making contact with the barrier, an enormous explosion that would've surely destroyed the ears of any ordinary human, were they to be in the position that either Raylix or the village-Devils were in when it went off. Even from behind the barrier, Raylix felt the power of the attack fired at him transferred into the explosion, powerful enough to severely crack the barrier in question. Along with that, the blowback of the explosion was enough to unsettle the redhead from his position in the air, causing him to wobble and almost drop.
He righted himself, however, and dispelled the barrier as the appearance of the explosive blast faded, allowing Raylix a look again at the village-Devils who'd cast the attack: he cast an approving nod their way.
The blowback from the explosion had gone out in all directions, reaching extremely far away from when said explosion had originally gone off at. As well as effecting Raylix, it affected the village-Devils who'd originally cast the attack that caused the explosion in the first place, and went out further still: to the point that hundreds of metres away from where Raylix and the village-Devils had been training at, Katerea felt the blowback of the explosion.
EXTREMELY faintly, though: the extent of the effect that the explosion had on her, from her safe position so far away, was her long hair and dress blowing in the same direction as the explosion's blowback for a second or two, before returning to a more neutral position as there was no wind.
The granddaughter of the Empress of Envy allowed herself a faint smile. Noble or not, she had to admit that the younger brother of Sirzechs Lucifer was an effective trainer. She doubted that even Shalba or Creuserey could have whipped such relatively simple Devils into good enough shape to conjure and send an attack like THAT anywhere without it literally blowing up in their faces and vaporizing the lot of them. Her purple eyes narrowed slightly as she observed Raylix hovering over to the village-Devils, exchanging words with them that she couldn't hear, before the lot of them descended towards the ground.
Just as the Devils she was watching touched down upon the ground hundreds of feet away from where she was floating, Katerea heard a couple of transportation-circles opening behind her: she turned her head, and let out a breath as she saw Shalba and Creuserey floating in front of her as their respective transportation-circles closed behind them.
"Shalba. Creuserey." Katerea greeted her two fellow TSF leaders as she turned back towards Raylix and the village-Devils. It looked like the former was beginning to work on closer-quarters combat with the latter. "How goes business?"
"Good." Shalba replied. "Profits are up. We should be able to afford upgrades to the space-maintaining gems within a month or two, if growth continues as projected."
"Mmhmm." Katerea nodded. "We've been needing expansion for a while, so that's good."
"What about the traitor and his batch?" Creuserey asked, jerking his head in the direction of Raylix and the villagers. "Any of them dead yet? Please tell me Raylix killed himself!"
"Unfortunately not, Creuserey." Katerea replied, without looking back at him. "I've had him under close surveillance ever since you declared him my responsibility. It might have only been a few days, but during those few days there's been absolutely zero signs of Raylix being an undercover agent for their government. As well as that, so far he's been a good personal assistant to me. Far better with paperwork than I figured a former Clan Heir would be."
Shalba and Creuserey looked at each other, not giving much in the way of verbal answer, before looking back at Katerea, who continued.
"But a few days is hardly enough time to figure out the true loyalty of anyone, never mind a fellow Devil, so I'll continue to keep him under the same surveillance."
Katerea's assessment of the TSF's highest-profile new recruit had varying reactions from her two fellow faction leaders. Shalba nodded, folding his arms and shifting his eyes to Raylix, who was engaged in hand-to-hand sparring with what seemed to be five village-Devils at once, and holding quite an easy-looking advantage. Shalba had to admit, back during that night that Raylix and the village-Devils had arrived, during the debate that Katerea and Creuserey had had, he was quite close to siding with Creuserey, and declaring that Raylix be killed. But in conjunction with the points that Katerea had made (which were, admittedly, pretty good ones), he couldn't help but enjoy the idea of turning Sirzechs' younger brother- a powerful force in his own right- against the traitorous New Satans led by the aforementioned Sirzechs, the very man who had killed Shalba's own father.
As great a crime against Hell that Raylix had committed by playing a rather large part in killing Creuserey's own father as it was, Shalba was willing to overlook such a transgression if it meant such a fantasy of his could be lived out. An opportunity like that was just too good, FAR too good, to pass up.
The reaction from Creuserey, however, was rather… less silent.
"He should still die." He replied, his voice cold as he glanced over at where Raylix was at with the village-Devils, and scowled. "Let him finish training those that he arrived in Hebeth with. Maybe they'll end up making good soldiers, maybe they won't. But after that, he's got to die!"
Katerea rolled her eyes at Creuserey's repeated declaration for what seemed like the hundredth time in the last few days that he wanted Raylix dead. As much as Katerea valued Creuserey as a fellow Satan-descendant, as a fellow leader of the True Satan Faction and as an ally in general, he really got on her nerves sometimes. And this was beginning to feel like one of those times.
"Creuserey, I don't care if you want Raylix dead, but can you PLEASE at least keep your open declarations of such to a minimum?" Katerea asked. "Whether you like it or not, Raylix is here now, and we would be better-served to keep him here, in order to keep an eye on him at the very least."
Creuserey shut his open mouth, glaring at Katerea as if challenging her to continue. And continue Katerea did.
"I appreciate you keeping the declarations down around Raylix himself, but what do you think will happen if you slip up, and Raylix gets it into his head that he's not wanted here?"
"He's not!" Creuserey replied. "I-"
"That's not the point!" Katerea sighed, running a hand through her hair in frustration. "Whether he is or he isn't, if he ends up THINKING that he's not wanted, he's obviously going to try and leave! And if he does, what do you think he might do? Potentially run to the government he originally ran away from, and rat us out?"
Creuserey opened his mouth, but shut it again after a second's hesitation, and Katerea continued to speak.
"That CANNOT be allowed to happen, Creuserey! We might be strong, yes, our numbers might be many times greater than they were only decades ago, and they're growing every year. But there's absolutely NO way we'd be able to withstand a full assault from the current government with the numbers we have now! And there's absolutely no way we'll be able to for quite some time! If you continue the way you're going, you could very well bring about the destruction of this entire faction, and everything we've been working towards!"
Creuserey continued to scowl, but it was clear by his lack of words thrown back at Katerea that he didn't have much by way of answer for his second-cousin. Katerea took a breath, and continued some more, her tone slightly softer.
"I get that you don't like him, Creuserey. And you don't have to like him, I'd never ask that of you, I never WILL ask that of you. What I AM asking of you is just… keep a lid on it around Raylix? Please?"
Creuserey didn't reply. Rather than reply, he just cast another transportation-circle and disappeared through it, immediately closing it behind him and leaving Katerea and Shalba alone together.
"You are really beginning to make more sense than Creuserey nowadays, Katerea." Shalba remarked, looking at where Creuserey had teleported away from. "He's blinded by his hatred, to the potential detriment of us all. I'll probably have to have a talk with him pretty soon about it, so he can't immediately accuse you of sticking up for him because you want to get in his pants."
Katerea let out a small giggle at Shalba's remark.
"Honestly, it's more likely to be the other way around." Katerea replied. "But thanks. It's just aggravating to hear from him when there are so many cons to just shutting up… plus, it's getting a little repetitive."
"On that last part, we can absolutely agree." Shalba nodded. "See you later."
Katerea nodded, as Shalba opened a transportation-circle of his own and disappeared, leaving the brunette she-Devil alone again.
----- ----- -----
"Alright, good work today!" Raylix called out, looking around upon the village-Devils, all of whom looked thoroughly spent by the day's training. "We'll focus more on sword-combat tomorrow! Dismissed!"
Raylix gave off another amplified snap of his fingers that the entire group of village-Devils could hear, allowing them to leave the field that they had been training on the entire day and begin making their way back to the city. It didn't take long for all of them to be gone from Raylix's sight, leaving him alone. He spread his wings, making to fly back to the city himself, but-
"'Good work today'. Same could be said about you, Raylix."
Raylix turned, looking over as Katerea flew over to him and landed, her breasts bouncing lightly within her dress as she touched down on the ground.
"You were watching?"
"Of course." Katerea replied, grinning as she stepped closer to Raylix. "I couldn't just let you do all that training without keeping at least an eye on you, could I?"
"Somehow I get the feeling you were keeping more than one eye on me." Raylix remarked. "If you were watching, it was probably closer to two."
"Mmhmm." Katerea nodded, understanding the former noble's point. "So, how would you say they got on?"
"I'd say they got on alright." Raylix replied. "They're not perfect fighters yet, but Hell wasn't built in a day, was it?"
"Indeed, not." Katerea remarked. "I felt that explosion from earlier. The one that you got everyone working on."
"Yeah, that was a good one." Raylix replied. "I'll probably get them back to working on stuff like that over the next couple of days. Play with the the formula a little bit, switch out some combinations of spells for others, see what kinds of attacks are the most effective, then focus on maintaining as much power in the attack as possible, all of that without it blowing up in our faces."
"Sounds like good work." Katerea nodded. "I look forward to seeing what you end up coming up with in the future." She paused for a moment, watching Raylix shoving his hands in his pockets and spreading his wings, preparing to fly off himself, before speaking up again. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be spent from all that training today too, would you?"
"…Not particularly." Raylix replied, refurling his wings and looking back at Katerea. "Why?"
"Well, I was thinking…" Katerea spoke, after a second's pause. "Or wondering, really, if you'd be up for a little spar? One-on-one?"
"With a TSF leader?" Raylix replied, raising an eyebrow. "Is that okay?"
"Well, it's not like many people in this faction could face you and give you… ANY kind of challenge." Katerea replied. "And I'm the only one amongst those in the faction that could that wouldn't face you with lethal intent. Creuserey wouldn't be able to resist the urge to try and kill you, and Shalba… actually, I'm less sure about whether Shalba would fall on the side of trying to kill you or not, but either way it'd probably be safer for all involved if I were the one sparring with you."
"Fair enough." Raylix replied, rolling his shoulders and shifting into a battle-stance. "So, did you want to start now, or would you rather-"
Spreading her Devil wings in an instant, Katerea flew straight towards Raylix, firing two bolts of demonic energy at the former Heir out of her hands. Raylix wasn't quite quick enough to block the first one: it struck him in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards a couple of paces, but he dodged out of the way of the second one and thrust his fist forward, meeting Katerea's outstretched hand. Katerea flipped backwards and landed on her feet a couple of paces away from Raylix, before swinging her hand in a wide wave and conjuring up what looked like a large tornado made of water, sending it straight towards Raylix.
Raylix's eyes glowed red for a second or so before beams of destructive energy streaked from them. These beams were slightly less concentrated than the ones he was used to firing, however, yet also larger than the ones he was used to using: large enough for him to spring forward and fly through the gap he temporarily made in the water-tornado, towards Katerea. Once he came out the other side, Raylix narrowed his larger eye-beams to their more regular, more concentrated size and continued flying at Katerea, who was forced to put up a barrier of her own to stop them from damaging each other.
Raylix cancelled the eye-beams once he got close enough to Katerea and threw a punch that collided with the barrier that Katerea had made, but left cracks all over it due to how powerful the punch was. Landing on the ground, Raylix laid a couple more punches into the barrier, the first of which laid further and deeper cracks into the barrier, the second of which broke it entirely. Katerea was forced to jump back a little to put some distance between Raylix and herself, thrusting her hand forward and sending multiple orbs of water towards Raylix that exploded as soon as his eye-beams of Power of Destruction (which he was forced to bring out again) came out and touched them. This time, it was Raylix's turn to put up another barrier to stop the boiling water from touching and damaging him, though he put it down just as quickly and continued his pursuit of Katerea, dodging her blasts of regular demonic energy to get closer and closer to her again.
Katerea's eyes widened slightly as she saw Raylix dashing in-between the many blasts and darts of energy that she sent flying his way, before she took to the air herself, firing bolts of water downwards as she went. From the position he was in, Raylix tried to dodge both of them, but one of them ended up landing in his eye, causing him to stumble as he instinctively raised his hand to his face to rub at his eye, opening him up further to a powerful blast of energy from Katerea that sent him flying through the air and slamming into the ground.
The male Devil let out a groan as he shook his head and picked himself up, rubbing at his eyes a little bit as he looked up at Katerea, who floated above and smirked down at him.
"You done?" Katerea asked. "Do I win?"
"Not yet." Raylix replied, spreading his own Devil wings and launching into the air, sending a wave of his own demonic energy out of his hands at Katerea, which was blocked by a similar wave that she sent out with her own hand. Raylix flew past the busty brunette, swivelling around in mid-air once he was past and immediately throwing up a barrier to block the first volley of bolts of water-energy that she sent at him. The second volley, however, was caught in an Amalgamation-hole that Raylix threw up as he brought the barrier down, smirking as he opened a second Amalagamation-hole and poured a fire-spell into it, and then opened a THIRD Amalgamation-hole which he poured his Power of Destruction into.
Grinning, Raylix combined the three Amalgamation-holes together into one and brought his hands together in a clap, sending what looked and felt like smoke- thick, dense smoke- in all directions.
The smoke enveloped all, including Katerea, and she immediately felt the effects of it: along with not being able to see very well through it, she felt it rather harder to breathe while in the smoke than before Raylix released it. As well as that, she felt an unpleasent, prickly sensation running across all of her skin. But what began to set her mental alarm-bells off was when she noticed the dress she was wearing beginning to dissolve, right before her eyes.
Katerea flew straight up, rocketing out of the destructive smoke before it could do any more damage to her, looking around wildly for Raylix. However, she couldn't see him, no matter what direction she looked in...
She sure FELT him though, a second or so later, as his foot collided with her back and sent her spinning, flipping over and over in the air from how hard he kicked her. It took her a couple of seconds for her to fully right herself in mid-air, though, but felt herself thrown backwards once again as Raylix flew towards her and punched her again, this time in the chest. Winded, Katerea felt herself flipping over and over in the air again, but was more prepared for it this time and righted herself quicker, but still wasn't able to dodge Raylix's next punch. She was able to get a barrier in-between herself and Raylix's fist as she was sent flying upwards, rather than backwards this time, which reduced the instant pain of getting slugged in the stomach.
Flapping her wings to keep herself righted in mid-air, Katerea thrust both hands forward and sent out a powerful beam of demonic energy straight down at her pursuer, which Raylix simply flew to the side of before unleashing his destructive eye-beams upon her again. His aim was true, and both beams struck Katerea square in the chest, burning slight dents just above her breasts and drawing out a hiss of pain from the former princess of Hell. Though as Raylix came even closer to Katerea at speeds that would overwhelm the average Devil, he felt himself being the one that got slammed backwards by a very strong, very WET force that seemed to flow over his entire body.
The former Devil Heir almost took a breath, but realised just in time that he'd suddenly been brought underwater, and stopped himself. He looked around, slightly frantically, realising that Katerea had caught him in some kind of moving water-based structure… that was in the shape of a Dragon, she'd summoned a water-Dragon to carry him away from her. Twisting himself around in mid-air, Raylix looked at the rapidly-shrinking form of Katerea, who he could even tell from where he presently was was smirking down at him, and had one hand over where he'd lasered her chest- presumably to try and heal herself of the wound he'd dealt her. She flicked and waved her other hand around in the air, conjuring what looked like more water-Dragons and sending them Raylix's way. It was then, at that moment, that Raylix realised that he had to get the hell out of the predicament he was currently in before he ended up suffocating and drowning… like he almost had so long ago.
Letting out a growl, Raylix momentarily enveloped himself in his Power of Destruction like a cloak, and forced himself out of the water-dragon that Katerea had trapped him in. The male Devil flapped his wings and dashed straight over towards the female TSF leader, having to pull an aileron-roll in mid-air to avoid one of the water-Dragons she sent his way as he came closer and closer. Though as he came within a couple of dozen feet of Katerea, another of the water-Dragons she'd summoned while Raylix was trapped in the first one suddenly wrapped itself around a couple of his wings, unexpectedly pulling him down and causing his destructive eye-beams that he had just charged up to fire at Katerea again to miss horribly.
"The hell?!" Raylix cried out in surprise at the fact he was lurching downwards, and twisted around in mid-air to look over at the water-Dragon. Grunting in effort again, he summoned a ball of his Power of Destruction in one hand and directed it towards the water-Dragon, trying his best to dissolve it like he'd done with the first water-Dragon he'd burst out of. However, he couldn't get the best angle on it, and he was forced to cancel the destructive energy out of fear of dissolving (either partially or completely) one of his own wings, which he obviously didn't want.
As the former Gremory Heir was dragged further and further down towards the ground, he got another idea. Rather than channelling destructive energy into his hands and trying to direct that at the water-Dragon around his wings, he began channelling cold energy into his hands and directing THAT at the water-Dragon in question, hoping that it would freeze the being and allow him to escape easier. It only took him a couple of seconds for his hypothesis to be proven correct, as the water-Dragon began to slow down, and eventually freeze over entirely as Raylix continued his work on it. That didn't escape Katerea's notice, however, as another water-Dragon descended upon Raylix and wrapped itself around his stomach as the first one froze completely, and was shattered by a mere strong flap of Raylix's wings.
That flap sent Raylix in the right direction, as in upwards towards Katerea, again, but he didn't end up getting as far with that single flap as he really wanted to, probably thanks to the water-Dragon around his stomach making a concerted effort to continue the work of the one he'd just shattered/killed, pulling him down and away from its master. Things quickly turned into a battle of strength between the two as Raylix continued to flap his wings hard and fast, slowly but surely working his way upwards towards Katerea.
Katerea looked down at Raylix, eyebrows raised and actually rather impressed that Raylix was still putting up a fight in spite of everything she'd thrown his way. But the fight was clearly over, she thought, she just had to send some more water-dragons his way, enough that he wouldn't be able to destroy or freeze them all at the same time, and completely restrain him: then and only then could the win truly be hers. Extending her hand, Katerea conjured up several more water-Dragons out of her demonic power and sent them down towards Raylix, moving slightly further up into the air as he came closer to her.
But as the water-dragons came down close enough to Raylix, Katerea heard a loud blast of energy going off from where he was, and she only had time to widen her eyes as the water-dragons seemed to have all fallen apart, and Raylix- very much NOT restrained by any of them anymore- was flying up at Katerea so fast that she didn't have time to react to him grabbing her around the stomach, spinning around a couple of times in midair and straight-up piledriving her straight into the ground with the force and speed of a missile.
Raylix immediately hopped up into the air, flipped over a few times and landed cleanly on the ground. He let out a breath as Katerea picked herself up out of the crater made out of the piledrive Raylix had pulled. She stumbled slightly as she got to her feet, holding one hand to her head and raising the other one as Raylix shifted into a stance again.
"No, no. I'm done." She remarked. "I guess I must be a bit rusty."
"You might be." Raylix replied. "If Shalba and Creuserey were the only people you had to spar against, you'd obviously be worse against different people with different fighting styles to whatever they've got."
"I guess so." Katerea replied, shaking her head slightly and taking her hand away from it. "Or, you know, you're just strong and you've had. I will admit I never saw much combat during either the Great War or Devil Civil War: neither Mother nor Grandmother really wanted me to do much fighting, so the gulf between us is probably pretty... significant."
Raylix hummed, shrugging and crossing his arms.
"Yeah." He replied. "I can't imagine your mother wanting their dear little Princess of Hell fighting for her life on the front lines. Not when there were so many others to do it for them."
Katerea narrowed her eyes slightly at Raylix's comment, but didn't offer any direct retort to what he said.
"Going back to the whole 'different fighting styles' thing," the brunette began, sighing as she shook her head again, probably to stop her head from spinning again. "Is there anything that I could improve on, anything you could give me pointers on…? What?" she asked, at Raylix's quizzical expression in response to her initial question. "You think that just because I'm a dear little Princess of Hell, I'd be above asking for advice from people?"
"Yeah."
Katerea blinked at Raylix's blunt answer, the former Gremory Heir's expression unchanging for a couple of seconds as he spoke the single word, but it came back to a more neutral expression as he shrugged.
"But if you're actually asking…" he continued. "I'd say your close-range combat skills need a good bit of work. You just kind of fell apart a little every time I managed to close the distance on you, and your only way out was to fly away, or try some kind of get-off-me move. Good enough tactic in a one-v-one fight, but it's not going to work as well if you're fighting multiple opponents at once, or if you're in a many-versus-many firefight."
"And you got into fights like that, did you?" Katerea asked, shifting her weight onto her left foot as she reached down and began focusing some healing energy into a spot on her right leg, that was concealed by her dress. Now that Raylix looked over that spot in particular, it did look a little more… reddened, than the rest of her tanned skin.
"Yes." Raylix bluntly repeated, again. "Dozens of them. Over dozens of years."
Katerea took a breath, nodding.
"Right." She replied. "Yeah, obviously. Shouldn't have even asked." She waved one arm (the one that she wasn't holding slightly gingerly) to open a transportation-circle, which she and Raylix stepped into. A second later, the pair of Devils were back in Katerea's personal residence: a rather neutral-looking apartment, nothing too extravagant that one would expect someone of her station (or former station) as a descendant of THE Leviathan to live in. Raylix remembered actually thinking that such a residence was actually some kind of joke that Katerea was playing on him, once she had taken him here for the first time after he'd been officially placed into her custody, but he also remembered being QUICKLY corrected by Katerea herself.
But looking back, Raylix guessed it made sense. Considering everything that the True Satan Faction had to blow their budget on, he figured there wasn't much left for personal accommodation. Not enough to splash on an enormous castle like the Gremory Castle, never mind something like Lucifer's (which was now Lilith's) Gid palace, no. ABSOLUTELY not.
"Is there anything more specific, regarding close-range combat skills?" Katerea asked, taking a couple of steps away from where she and Raylix landed before turning back to face him, as he hadn't moved from where they'd landed. "It's all well and good to say 'improve' but I don't exactly know WHAT to improve, you-"
"I DO know." Raylix replied, cutting across her, taking one step forward. "If I had to narrow it down to a few things, I'd say you at least need to learn how to properly guard against close-range attacks, like punches and kicks. You can make powerful barriers, sure, but making a good one quickly while under pressure from an attacking opponent is gonna be difficult, you get me?"
"Got it." Katerea replied. "Anything else?"
Raylix hummed for half a second as he stopped, looking considerate for a second or so.
"I'd say actually learning how to physically fight would certainly help you a lot." He replied. "Obviously, with who you are, you've got a lot of raw power behind any kind of magical attack you throw out, and you're pretty good at throwing out magical attacks. But if you're unlucky enough for that power to run out, what are you going to have to fall back on?"
"Nothing." Katerea replied, nodding. "I see your point."
"If hand-to-hand doesn't sound like your thing, I'm sure you'd be able to find a weapon that fits you." Raylix added. "Though, that's going to have to be something you figure out on your own. Depending on what kind of weapon it is, I could give you varying amounts of advice and pointers on how to fight with it."
"I see." Katerea nodded again. "Well, I'll definitely try to find some kind of physical weapon that- as you said- fits me, in any spare time I might get in the future, and come back to you on that."
Raylix nodded. He began to turn to leave for his bedroom before Katerea spoke up again.
"You sound like you've got a lot of experience behind what you're talking about: the close-quarters combat stuff." The brunette TSF leader remarked. "Was there anyone to teach you? Or was experience your only teacher?"
Raylix stopped dead, as soon as Katerea's words met his ears. After a couple of seconds' pause, almost as if by reflex, one of his hands reached up for one of the ends of his scarf, playing with it between his fingers. Given where his face was pointed, Katerea couldn't see his face, which was probably a good thing, considering she'd have seen his expression change rather suddenly from a relatively neutral look to a more… shocked, countenance.
Though it was only for a fraction of a second as Raylix- even though Katerea couldn't see his face, did his best to force his expression back into the neutral look he'd been naturally giving off before.
"I did have a teacher." He replied, continuing to play with and twirl the scarf he was wearing in one hand. "Someone important."
There was a silence between a couple of seconds, as subordinate and superior looked at the door that led towards their bedroom, and at the back of their subordinate's head, respectively.
"I see." Katerea spoke. "Well, they had to have been a pretty good teacher, if their lessons helped you survive this long."
"Yeah." Raylix nodded, still not turning around. "Really good."
Silence for a couple of seconds, again. Silence that Katerea spoke when she spoke up, again.
"There's some paperwork in your room that I had sent there this afternoon." She remarked. "I'll need that taken care of by tomorrow night, if you please."
"Got it." Raylix replied, before heading through the door and shutting it behind him. All it took was a trip down a rather blank hallway and a single left turn after that to take Raylix to his bedroom, which he shut the door of once he was inside. Allowing himself a cursory glance at the pile of paperwork that Katerea had mentioned a few seconds ago, he made for his bed and sat down upon it, taking a couple of breaths before pulling off the scarf around his neck. Considering he was indoors, there wasn't that much practical use in wearing it.
He still held onto it, however, playing with one end of it in his hand.
Flashback:
1977
"That was… I, uh…"
A Raylix of twelve years ago blinked a couple of times, his eyes re-adjusting to the human-world sunlight as he, Sabemka and Tomosei walked, along with many- MANY- other moviegoers out of a large cinema in the United States and back into the real world, after having come out of the viewing of a movie that could only be described as… indescribable.
"Take your time, boss." Sabemka remarked, bringing up a hand to hold onto the dark-red scarf he was wearing, for the evening was cold. Along with the black leather jacket (extra-extra-extra large, of course), t-shirt underneath, dark-green trousers, and his enormously muscular physique, he cut an imposing enough figure that the humans around them- whether subconsciously or otherwise- gave him, Raylix and Tomosei a semi-wide berth as the three of them made their way away from the cinema. "I'd suggest it was… amazing?"
"Fantastic?" Tomosei, from Raylix's other side, offered, rolling her shoulders slightly to regain feeling in them after having been sat still for nearly two hours straight. Rubbing one of her wrists (around which one of her light blue bracelets rested) and holding onto a part of the cute red dress she was wearing so the gust of wind that came through didn't blow it up anywhere and show more than she was willing to.
"Yeah, both of those." Raylix replied. "And more, like un-holy shit, how are humans able to make that kind of stuff on screen, and make it so convincing?"
"Without magic, no less?" Tomosei added. "With that in mind, it's insanely impressive." Taking a slight step ahead of Raylix and Sabemka and turning her head back towards them, she continued. "Best character?"
"Han." Raylix and Sabemka replied, instantly and in unison. "With Darth Vader as a close second." Raylix added, without Sabemka adding anything. "Dude was SO cool. What kind of name is 'Darth' though, anyway?"
"Wish Obi-Wan didn't have to die, though." Sabemka remarked, shrugging. "I liked him. The guy who played him did a pretty good job."
"Everyone did a good job." Raylix remarked, letting out a sigh as the demonic trio turned down into a quieter street, away from the hustle and bustle of the humans that continued to pour out from the cinema. "Man, we should do this more often, huh?"
"Oh, hell yeah." Tomosei replied. "Nice to just sit and relax for a couple of hours rather than go out taking care of Stray Devils or hunting down dinner."
"Though that has its merits, too." Sabemka added, which Tomosei shrugged at, seemingly conceding that point. The trio continued in silence down the quiet street, with Raylix leading his two bodyguards into an alleyway that led off from the quiet street that he'd initially led them down, to make absolutely sure that no human would hear the sound of his transportation-circle going off when he cast it.
Though there was something he wanted to take care of, first.
"So, want me to pay you back for the tickets to… that," he began, jerking his head in the direction of the cinema "now, or later?"
"What?" Sabemka and Tomosei replied in unison, turning towards Raylix.
"I mean…" Raylix looked from the muscular behemoth that was Sabemka to the comparatively small Tomosei, and back again, his eyes flicking down to the ground just after. "I mean, since it was my idea to even come out here today and watch the movie, I-"
"Dude, don't worry about it." Sabemka raised a hand to stop Raylix in his verbal tracks before he could even finish. "It's fine. It's not like the tickets cost us an arm and a leg to buy, right? Only like 2 or 3 Souls?"
"We're obviously not as rich as you, Raylix, but we're not so badly-off that we couldn't even afford THAT." Tomosei chided, gently punching Raylix on the arm. "Especially not on the wages your parents pay us."
"Besides." Sabemka added. "Star Wars was getting so big that people back at home were beginning to hear about it. One of us would've probably pitched the idea of checking it out sometime soon, if you hadn't done it first."
"Fair enough, yeah." Raylix replied, sighing. "Sorry, guys, I just-"
"We get it, mate." Sabemka cut across his boss again. "You want to help, but we don't need it. No need to keep asking, yeah?" he punctuated the last word by gently punching Raylix on the arm, just as Tomosei had done, but had to quickly follow up with an "Oh, shit, sorry." as his gentle punch almost sent Raylix stumbling straight into Tomosei, though the latter was able to react quickly enough to conjure a barrier that caught Raylix before he could fall on top of her.
"It's fine, it's fine." Raylix chuckled, picking himself back up. "Thanks, Tomo." He added, as he quickly waved his hand to cast a transportation-circle large enough for the three of them to easily stand in, and then activated it, causing them to disappear from the human world in a flash of light.
Flashback end
Sighing, Raylix folded Sabemka's scarf in a semi-neat manor, before laying it down on the table beside his bed. Tomosei's scarf received a similar treatment, once he was able to get them off his wrists. Forcing down more memories of his two best friends that were about to come bubbling to the surface as he continued to look at them, he tore his eyes away from them and over to the stack of paperwork that Katerea had mentioned earlier.
Figuring that now was as good a time as any to get started, he lifted himself off his bed, made the three-step journey over to the desk, pulled out the chair and plopped himself down into the nearby chair. He wasn't feeling particularly tired right now, even after a whole day of working with those who he'd come with from… from THEIR village, so there wasn't any reason that he couldn't get started on some of what Katerea had directed him to do now, and then finish the rest in the morning when the temptation to sleep finally got too strong for him.
This was his life now, Raylix thought, as he pulled the first few papers off the large pile and set them in front of him, in a pile that he could more easily get at. He could only hope that it was worth it.