Wiping his eyes a little bit with his sleeve, Raylix pushed open the door to the top-floor landing in the URF's compound, taking a couple of breaths as he stepped through and paused for a moment as it swung shut behind him. Having just wrapped up the conversation with Irene, Cinder, Esdeath, Tamamo, Katerea, Hikari and Kurumi about Sabemka and Tomosei, which had only started with how they met during the Great War and ballooned into a two-hour talk about damn near everything there was to talk about when it came to the pair of them… suffice it to say he'd gotten a little bit emotional at certain points of his recollection.
The girls had been surprisingly accommodating about it, too. Even Irene and Esdeath, the emotionally-harder of those he'd come to really know over the last year-or-so, hadn't been too negative or mocking about it when the waterworks started coming. Which he was pleasantly surprised by, as well as drained.
Both emotionally and physically, as a result of the last 24-or-so hours. And his throat was dry as a bone after all the talking, he could use a drink… if only he'd realised that downstairs, he could've gotten something good to soothe his throat. But oh well, grabbing a cup and getting some water from the bathroom sink would have to do.
'Guess you were right, Lilith.' The former Clan Heir thought to himself, as he came up to the door to his bedroom and laid his hand on the handle, before pushing it down and opening the door.
"Of course I'm right."
Raylix jumped slightly at the sudden voice, spinning around towards where he heard the familiar female voice coming from, a couple of seconds before Lilith came out of her own bedroom. Seeing the shocked look that occupied his face for a fraction of a second before Raylix realised just WHO had answered him prompted a giggle out of the Lilim Queen.
"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you." Lilith spoke, by way of greeting as she leaned against the wall in front of Raylix. "I trust things went okay downstairs?"
"Yeah, they went fine." Raylix replied. "Better than fine, actually."
"Glad to hear it." Lilith replied. "I thought it would." Shifting herself off the wall, she took a couple of steps closer to Raylix, reaching out and resting a hand on his cheek. "Are YOU doing okay, though?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly as she asked the question, searching Raylix's for any signs that he wasn't. Raylix nodded, though, letting his cheek rest in Lilith's hand for a bit. It felt… really good, her skin on his. And in a not-sexual context, too… he could get used to this.
"Mmhmm." Raylix hummed, as Lilith pulled her hand back. "Just drained, is all. I could use some rest."
"I bet." Lilith nodded, her eyes flicking down to Raylix's hand as it made its way back towards the handle of his bedroom door. "…You sure about that? Wouldn't you rather have some company?"
Before Raylix could even answer, Lilith unfurled her horns and tails from her head and beneath her dress, sending one out towards Raylix and wrapping it around his waist before pulling him close, letting out a giggle as his head jolted forward and collided with her enormous chest.
"M-maybe…" Raylix replied, his voice slightly muffled by his mouth being right in-between Lilith's tits. Even with his face in such a position, Lilith could still see her lover going slightly red. Resisting the urge to giggle again, she let Raylix move back a bit before turning and opening the door to her own bedroom with one of her other tails, and releasing Raylix altogether as she moved inside.
Swallowing, as his throat was now even drier than it had been a couple of minutes ago, Raylix followed her in, shutting the door behind the pair of them… and found his eyes involuntarily widening as he saw Lilith immediately slipping the dress she'd been wearing off of her body.
Turning around and smirking at Raylix gawking at her naked body beneath, Lilith tossed the dress aside (where it immediately disappeared in a flash of light, probably to whereever the laundry was done within the URF's compound) and made her way towards her bed. Resisting the urge to gulp, Raylix hastened himself with doing the same.
Once that was done, and Raylix was under the covers with Lilith, just as naked as she was and trying REALLY hard not to openly gawk at her body, the Lilim Queen raised a hand and snapped her fingers, calling out as what looked like a human-sized cat-flap formed into being on the door she and Raylix had just come through.
"Adam!"
Half a moment passed in relative silence, before the sound and sight of the enlarged cat-flap moving met their ears, and the semi-familiar sight of the broken, effeminate-looking First Human crawled through, making his way over to Lilith's side of the bed before coming to a stop.
"Drinks for my boyfriend and me." Lilith commanded, looking over the side of the bed and down at her first husband with a slight scowl on her face. "You know what we both like, by now, so make it quick."
"O-of course, ma'am." Adam replied, inclining his head to her before turning around, crawling out of the room, through the cat-flap and getting back to his feet. Raylix could hear him walking away from the door, his footsteps fading before he looked over at Lilith, an eyebrow raised.
"Boyfriend?"
"I think it's safe to say we're more than just a leader and her subordinate, after last night." Lilith replied. "And with how you've crushed on me your entire life, I think it's also safe to say you don't exactly oppose that label."
"Truth be told, I don't have much of an idea of where we are right now." Raylix remarked, resting his head in one of his hands for a second, while grabbing a pillow from behind him with the other and pushing it further up against the headboard of Lilith's bed so he could more comfortably rest in a sitting position. "My mind's just..."
Lilith nodded, shifting herself slightly closer to Raylix.
"I get it." she replied, simply, before wrapping a couple of her tails around Raylix's waist and pulling him in closer to her, so his body was resting semi-fully up against her larger one. "I could help you clear your mind, you know. Pick up where we left off last night: I've got a feeling there was a good bit more you wanted to do before you fell asleep at the wheel.
She let out a small giggle at her own remark, and could practically FEEL Raylix's face heating up with how close it was to her body, even if she couldn't see it. What she DID see, however, as well as feel, was Raylix gently pulling himself away from her. Hesitating for a couple of seconds, she slackened her hold on him with her tails, allowing him to slip free and back into his original position.
"Not tonight, please." Raylix replied. "Still a bit sore from last night, you know? Not to mention pretty drained from talking with the others just now, and my mind's in- like- six places at once from everything that's been happening lately."
Lilith nodded, her expression softening as she reached out with one arm, gently wrapping it around Raylix's waist in a one-armed hug before releasing him again.
"That's completely understandable." she replied, looking down for a second before meeting Raylix's eyes again. "Hell knows it's not as fun when one party isn't as into it as the other."
She began to settle into a more comfortable sitting position herself, before noticing the look on Raylix's face that indicated he still had something on his mind. Raising an eyebrow was all she needed to do to indicate that she wished for Raylix to be out with it.
"I did... want to talk to you about some things, though..." he spoke, after a couple of seconds as his eyes shifted away from hers. "...That week. When you visited. When we went out together one night. When we talked, when we..."
"Took each others' virginities by the lake." Lilith continued. "I remember that night well."
"And when you sealed my memories of the whole night." Raylix continued, his gaze meeting hers again. "I'm still trying to fit that night back into place in my head, but I'm having trouble... figuring out why you did it. Why you sealed my memories of that night."
Lilith paused for a moment, before nodding.
"Yes, I suppose you should know my reasoning back then, if you're going to trust me going forward." she remarked, taking a breath. "To start with, it's worth remembering what the situation was between us, the Lilim, and you, the Devils, back then. We'd only just gone independent, not even half a century before then. Definitely uncharted territory, considering that for all intents and purposes we'd been one faction, up until then."
"Yeah, I remember." Raylix replied. "If I had a Soul for every time I heard Sirzechs complaining about some new thing that needed to be set up as a result of you going independent-"
"You could probably buy a country, or something like that." Lilith replied. "Yeah, things were certainly rather tenuous in that first century. Rather stressful for all affected. Definitely not the kind of situation that could take any unneeded controversies between our two factions. Like, say... I don't know, it coming out that the leader of the Lilim, Lucifer's loyal Queen was trying to gain advantage for her newly-established faction over the Devils, by taking sexual advantage of the Crimson Satan's very own little brother. And over the newly-established Gremory Clan in particular, of which you were named as the Heir. Somehow I doubt many Devils would have taken the best view of that."
"Especially not Mother, Father and Sirzechs." Raylix replied, taking a breath. "And I somehow doubt that had things panned out that way, it would've been good for you."
"Precisely." Lilith nodded. "And built on bullshit as it might be, my reputation as Lucifer's widow is a useful tool to keep handy. That will probably have taken a hit too, especially within my own faction, had it come out that I'd had a fling with someone FAR- ah- lower of station than my former husband almost immediately after his untimely death."
"Though who's to say that it would've come out at all?" Raylix asked. "No-one saw us doing what we did, it was just you and... me..."
"Yeah. You." Lilith replied. "Not even a century old, as wet behind the ears among your kind as one born in that time could be in that day and age, who'd been crushing on the famously-unattainable Queen of the Lilim, Lucifer's former wife, ever since he'd come to learn what crushes even were. Maybe even before then, if we're being honest."
Raylix opened his mouth for a second, and then closed it, choosing not to make any attempt to deny Lilith's point.
"And before you even turn eighty, you suddenly find yourself alone with said crush, and the best night of your life so far happens." Lilith continued. "And you wake up the next morning, with that knowledge fresh in your mind... how do you think you'd have reacted? How do you think you'd have changed?"
Raylix opened his mouth again, but didn't close it immediately this time. He looked like he was thinking for a couple of seconds, before closing it again.
"I don't think I'd be able to go two hours before blurting out what had happened to someone." He replied. "Probably Sabemka and Tomosei, I remember going to see them after waking up that morning. I probably would have told them what you told me that night, too, the stuff about you never having loved Lucifer, all the shit you went through with him, the Lilim as a whole being made to be sex-slaves to the Devils, Grayfia being your daughter- shit, I'd probably have asked her some stuff she wasn't prepared to talk to me about."
Looking back at Lilith for a second, and meeting her impassive gaze back at him, Raylix licked his dry lips before turning away, staring down at the sheets he was relaxing under.
"And I doubt I'd be able to keep my ego in check, either, with the knowledge that I'd scored with... well, with you."
"No need to be ashamed about it, it's been known to happen with damn near everyone I've slept with." Lilith replied, leaning forward to rest a reassuring hand on Raylix's shoulder. "Go on."
"I... I might have..." Raylix spoke slowly, trying to cast his mind back to his 77-year-old-self and apply an objective lens to it, with the hypothetical scenario of knowing what Lilith had sealed away. "I'd probably have left the Gremory Clan for the Lilim territory, tried to find you, probably tried to start a relationship."
Lilith hummed, nodding.
"My point exactly." She replied. "All of those sound like pretty big problems… problems which the Devils and Lilim didn't need. Which I didn't need. Best to reduce any chances of any of those problems coming to pass to zero before they even had a chance to rear their ugly heads. And erasing the memories of the one person out of the pair of us that I wasn't absolutely certain could keep that kind of secret was just the easiest way to do such a thing."
"That makes sense… I guess." Raylix remarked. "Although that leads me to the next thing I was wondering about: why me? Why did you pick me, specifically, to be the one you lost your restored virginity to?"
Lilith took a breath, seemingly thinking over her answer- or how she was going to specifically WORD her next answer- before opening her mouth to respond again.
"What would you consider your dream partner to be, Ray-? Actually, no." she cut across herself as she saw Raylix opening his mouth, immediately anticipating what he was going to say before he even said it. "Let me rephrase: what traits in a person would make up your dream partner? Nothing's off the table, doesn't matter how minor a trait has to be, just something that appeals to you."
Closing his mouth as Lilith rephrased her question, Raylix licked his lips for a couple of seconds, considering the rephrased question before opening it again to respond.
"I guess someone strong, who can actually fight, would be nice." He remarked. "Don't really like the idea of having to do all the fighting out of the pair of us, if we ever went into battle together. Uhh, knowing what she wants, not being super insecure, that's something I guess I like too. Can pull off a classy look, or is just outright classy, if that makes sense. Being hot and having a nice rack wouldn't go amiss, either…" he added, trailing off for a couple of seconds before regaining his train of thought. "Those are the main ones, I guess."
"I see." Lilith replied, suppressing the urge to openly giggle at Raylix's blunt words. "And what I'm getting at, Raylix, is that for us, those traits are what differentiates any random guy or girl on the street that a Lilim might encounter, any potential meal or one-night fling, from those that we might actually want to establish a full-on relationship with, beyond just being a meal or fling. Important and necessary distinction, considering how Lilim need sexual energy- or better yet, the act of sex- to feed off of."
"Huh… right." Raylix nodded. "And I'm guessing Eve has some of those traits, considering how you act with her?"
"Damn right she does." Lilith replied. "She's a gorgeous gal, and someone who's more than happy to let me take control when it comes to the bedroom. Those are two of my preferred traits in an ideal lover, I've found, that Evie happens to have… but I happen to have a few more than two preferred traits. You see where I'm getting at, right?"
Raylix nodded again.
"Guess that explains why she's your pet, rather than your wife or something." He remarked.
"We do consider each other girlfriends, for what it's worth." Lilith replied. "Eve knows she's not wife-material for me, and she's okay with that. Honestly, I think she prefers being a pet to a life partner, she's THAT level of submissive. It's hot~"
"Oh, I bet." Raylix replied, nodding and chuckling. "But how do I fit into all this?"
"By having more of my most-wanted traits than Eve." Lilith replied. "All of them, in fact. Not only were you just the cutest little guy back when we shared that night together by the lake, and it certainly doesn't hurt your case that you've gone and matured into a perfect 10, and not only do you seem to know your place," she allowed herself a smirk, trailing one of her tails down the lower half of Raylix's chest, flicking the very tip of the heart-shaped end over the tip of his cock. "But you're also really strong. To the point that if my sources in the Devil side of the Underworld are accurate, you'd actually have been in the conversation for the title of Satan had your older brother not been around. I guess the fact that you're a capable leader wouldn't have hurt your case on that front, either."
"Oh, really?" Raylix replied. "Everyone was always surprised that I wasn't bothered when Sirzechs got named Satan and I didn't, but… it's Sirzechs. Dude's pretty much everything you could want in a Devil."
"Hm… agree to disagree." Lilith shrugged. "But anyway, there's also the fact that you'd actually be able to get me pregnant, if- actually, no- WHEN we decide it's a good time to try for a kid. Actually, hehe…" she couldn't hold the temptation to let out a giggle down this time, as she shifted closer to Raylix. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you knocked me up last night. If not then, then pretty soon."
Raylix felt himself going slightly red at Lilith's remark, and how close she was to him. Swallowing a little, he took a couple of breaths before responding.
"Okay, I guess that all makes sense." He replied. "But all that sounds like how pretty much everyone else gets into relationships. What makes the Lilim so different?"
"How far an average Lilim is willing to go for their potential future lover, in comparison to pretty much everyone else." Lilith replied, almost immediately. "You ever hear of 'love at first sight', Raylix? The whole 'red thread of fate' thing? Wouldn't be surprised if those concepts only became popularized in human culture thanks to some of the things some of us have done for our prospective lovers."
"Oh, so that's why Naamah-" Raylix began to reply, but Lilith cut across him before he could finish- or even start- a story that damn near every Devil or Lilim in Hell knew like the back of their hand.
"Yup. You'll remember that that didn't end well for all concerned, too, so it's not an immediate guarantee that a Lilim and their prospective lover will end up together." She spoke, leaning back herself and turning away from Raylix a little, looking out across the room before out the window. "You were the first person with all the traits I'd want in a lover that I actually met and had an opportunity with, after Yahweh restored my virginity, and I guess something primal clicked within me. When I sensed you heading out for that walk, I realised I had my opportunity… and I took it. It's really that simple, Raylix."
Taking a breath, Lilith looked down at the bed, before back at Raylix.
"I don't know what you were expecting my reasoning to be, Raylix, but I've got a feeling it wasn't… well, all of that." She continued, her voice a couple of tones softer than the way she normally spoke. "I totally understand if you feel like I took advantage of you, all the way back then, and you didn't even know it until last night. I can't, and won't, make any excuses for what I did back then, because honestly… I did. And I'm sorry."
Raylix remained silent for a few seconds, shifting a little bit away from Lilith while looking out the window himself for a couple of seconds. After a moment's thought that, to Lilith, felt a good bit longer than a single moment, he shifted around.
"It's okay." He replied, after another few seconds. "I mean, you didn't force me into anything, I was okay with everything we did. Honestly, I'm flattered that I seem to fit your bill of an ideal lover, and if what you did led us here… well, I guess it can't have totally been the wrong choice to make."
Lilith blinked a couple of times, taking in what Raylix said in full-on, legitimate surprise for a second or two before slowly exhaling, and shifting back towards the auburn-haired Devil to pull him into a two-armed hug, holding his body close to hers as she rested her head atop his.
"That's really nice…" she spoke, her voice softer still. "To hear you saying that. Thank you Raylix… truly."
"No problem..." Raylix replied
Raylix let out a quiet hum acknowledging Lilith's thanks as he rested in her arms, shifting himself a slight bit to make himself more comfortable. The pair of them enjoyed their silence for a moment before it was broken by the door opening again, and Adam coming in with a tray in his hands, that itself had a couple of glasses on top of it. Raylix immediately recognised one of the glasses as being full of the Dantalion Clan's prized vanilla whiskey, his favourite… and the other one being filled with some kind of expensive (probably) wine.
Looking up as she heard him coming in, Lilith jerked her head at the bedside table closest to her, which Adam immediately moved over towards, transferring the glasses from the tray he was holding over to said table before taking a couple of steps back. A few seconds of silence passed, before Lilith narrowed her eyes at her slave.
"What the hell are you waiting for, me and Raylix to start putting on a show for you?" she asked, her voice harsher than it had been a couple of moments ago. "We're not doing that tonight, so G E T O U T ."
Gulping, Adam immediately dropped to his knees, turned around and crawled away from the bed, back towards the door. As he dropped and turned around, from where he was sitting/lying in Lilith's arms, Raylix noticed what looked like a tattoo of a yellow choker with a heart-charm on it, similar to the red one he'd seen on Eve a couple of weeks ago, glowing on and around Adam's neck. But as he made his way closer to the door, it faded away after a couple of seconds. As Adam went through the enlarged cat-flap on the door, that Lilith dissipated with a wave of her hand the second he was through it, Raylix twisted himself around a bit to face her.
"So what's that all about?"
Lilith blinked, hesitating for a second before replying.
"I thought I'd already told you about that." She replied. "When Yahweh made the deal with-"
"No, not that bit." Raylix replied. "The glowing… yellow thing around Adam's neck." he reached up and touched his own neck to indicate what he was talking about. "Eve had one too, I think, but it was red. Saw it on the day we took over the URF."
"Oh, that." Lilith nodded. "Just a little something I put on Adam and Eve when they first came into my custody." She explained. "I'm surprised you… hm, well, I doubt you'll have seen one of them in your side of the Underworld for a while, not with the Evil Pieces being a thing among the Devils now."
"What do you mean?"
"Those were Servitude Bonds, I've got on Adam and Eve." Lilith replied. "Pretty common method of keeping those that Devils and Lilim placed into servitude in line, or at least it was way back when."
Raylix paused for a second, before nodding.
"Yeah, I think I've heard about them, but yeah… long time ago." He replied, reaching over Lilith's body to grab his drink before pulling it closer to him and taking a gulp out of it. "What's with the different colours, though?"
Lilith let out a giggle at how Raylix had just had to contort himself to reach his drink, before easily wrapping one of her tails around her glass, and transferring it to her hand before taking a sip out of it herself.
"To differentiate how close whoever's the 'servant' in the Bond is to their Master." She replied. "Each colour represents a certain tier of trust… yeah, I guess that's way the easiest to put it. You already know how I feel about Adam, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that yellow is the lowest."
"No, it doesn't." Raylix replied, letting out a nervous chuckle as his eyes flicked to the door Adam had just left through, then back to his glass as he took another gulp out of it, while Lilith rested her free hand on the sheets just beside Raylix.
"Green's next up the list from there." She continued, raising said free hand a little bit off the sheets, and continuing to raise it even further as she continued speaking. "That's for a more neutral relationship. Then blue, for the beginnings of friendship. Then purple and pink, those two are for feelings beyond friendship- infatuation, love, that kind of thing- and finally red. That's the closest thing to married as you can get between a designated Master and Servant."
Raylix nodded. Guess that made sense, he thought, given how close Lilith seemed to be with Eve… in stark contrast to Adam. He noticed Lilith had raised her hand up to around a level with his neck, before shifting it over to rest it on his shoulder and rub her thumb on the side of his neck. He took another gulp of his drink before turning around slightly.
"Are you planning to-"
"No." Lilith replied, immediately cutting across Raylix before he could even finish. "Absolutely not. Don't need to… and I don't want to."
Putting her glass down on the bedside table before she could take another sip, she gently guided Raylix to turn around a little more to fully face her, before moving herself down a little to rest on her back, pulling Raylix with her.
"Not for my boyfriend." Lilith half-murmured half-whispered, planting a kiss on Raylix's head. "Not for my…" she let out a sigh. "I don't know. Maybe something more? Fiancé, maybe?"
Raylix let out a breath, shifting himself out of Lilith's lap and back onto the bed.
"Maybe." He replied. "Honestly, I don't know WHAT I want to be right now, when it comes to you. Going from just serving the OSF to co-leading the URF, everything you told me, us… getting together, trying to turn over a new leaf with the others… everything's just happened so fast, I need some time to think about it."
Lilith nodded, shifting herself a little further down onto her back as she spoke.
"Hey, I get it." She replied. "You don't have to have an answer for me right away, I'm leaving tomorrow anyway."
Raylix blinked, settling down a little himself as he looked over at her.
"Oh… you are?"
"Yeah." Lilith replied, shrugging. "Some stuff's come up back home on our side of Hell, and it's unfortunately the kind of thing I can't just blow off. I'll only be gone a couple of weeks, so you've got a while to think about it. Get your head clear, hopefully have an answer by the time I get back."
"Sure, yeah." Raylix nodded, resting on his back before rolling onto his side to face Lilith. "I'll have an answer for you by then, at the latest."
"Good man." Lilith whispered, as she rolled onto her side to face him, reaching out a hand and resting it on his cheek. "Come on, come here."
After a second's hesitation, Raylix did as he was bidden, shifting closer to Lilith and allowing her to wrap her arm around his whole body, pulling him in close and allowing him to rest up against her own body, his head centimetres away from her enormous breasts. The softness of Lilith's bed, the extra-softness and warmth of her body so close to his…
If a Devil's paradise ever existed, this was probably it, he thought to himself as he shut his eyes, adjusting his position to make himself ever-so-slightly more comfortable, pulling one of his arms out from between himself and Lilith to lightly rest on her waist as he felt Lilith's tails wrapping around his body in turn.
Line Break
"Hm-hm-hmm, hm-hm-hm-hmm, hm-hm-hm-hmm- hm-hmm…"
Kurumi, her long black hair done up into a messy high ponytail rather than the usual elegant twintails, idly hummed to herself as she pressed down on the bacon she was currently cooking for a couple of seconds, before slipping some of the pieces between the pancakes she'd finished off a few minutes ago. As she waited for the other pieces in the pan to finish frying to perfection, she took a couple of gulps of coffee from a mug that she'd poured some into earlier.
Placing the mug down in around the same place as she'd picked it up from, Kurumi took a couple of steps back from the counter and half-sat against the table, watching the pan full of bacon intently while adjusting her dressing gown a little. Her mismatched eyes flicked from the plate of Raylix's favourite breakfast (source: Lilith) that she was presently working on to the pan, to the toaster that suddenly went off at that very second.
A quick pulse of properly-aimed magic was all Kurumi needed to bring the toasted bread that popped up further out of the toaster, far enough that she could easily grab the pieces with her hands and toss them onto a nearby plate with such practiced ease that it was almost automatic to her. As she began to butter it, Lilith's second daughter cast her mind back to the night before, the conversation she'd been a part of with Raylix.
It had been interesting, she thought, to hear about the former Gremory Heir's life before he'd thrown it all away and begun this one. He'd certainly lived a hell of a life so far, full of experiences that few could say they'd lived through, places few could say they'd gone to, and perspective that few could say they had access to. And all with the kind of friends that EXTREMELY few could say they'd made.
Or even had the chance to make, considering that Raylix had known Sabemka and Tomosei since the start of the fifteenth century. Nearly 500 years, up until the day they died…
'And I thought accidentally killing Sawa screwed ME up.' Kurumi thought to herself, finishing buttering one of the pieces of toast and starting on the other, keeping an eye on the remaining bacon in the pan as she did so. Though as she busied herself with the remainder of what needed doing for this specific breakfast, she heard movement behind her and turned to see Irene making her way into the compound's dining room. Clad in seemingly nothing but a long-sleeved t-shirt, a pair of pyjama shorts and her long scarlet hair looking rather… bedhead-y, it looked like she'd only just got up.
"Hey." Kurumi addressed the highly-ranked Magician, jerking her head in the direction of the pot she'd poured her coffee from earlier. "If you want some."
"Tha… thanks." Irene replied, yawning as she made her way over, grabbing a mug and pouring some of the remaining dark liquid into it. Sitting down at the table and snapping her fingers to summon a book from (Kurumi presumed) her room, she took a couple of gulps of the coffee she'd poured while opening it. "Mm, lovely."
"Glad to hear it." Kurumi remarked, finishing buttering the other piece of toast before depositing it on the plate. After doing so, she transferred the remaining now-done pieces of freshly-fried bacon into the stack of pancakes, before adding some syrup onto the concoction she'd conjured up. She waved her hand over the plate, casting a quick spell to hold it (and the food on it) in time until the guy she'd made it for was ready to eat, before turning around. "You want anything before I go shower?"
Irene looked up from her book, shook her head and swallowed the mouthful of coffee she'd just taken in.
"Nah, I'm alright." She replied. "Might have something later, but not feeling all that hungry right now. Thanks for the offer, though."
Shrugging, Kurumi wiped her hands on her dressing gown before leaving the kitchen, immediately making for the stairs across the hall with the aim to head back to her room for that shower. Though that wasn't the only thing she was planning to do while up there, though whether she'd get to do it or not depended on whether she'd be able to find-
"Oh, morning Kurumi."
Looking around just as she was about to head into her room, Kurumi saw the door to Lilith's room opening up, and the woman herself stepping out, clad in a simple t-shirt that stretched over her enormous chest, and shorts that stretched over her wide hips and thick thighs. Her long black hair looked slightly damp, she'd probably just had a shower herself.
"Hey, Mom." Kurumi replied, stretching a little. "I saw Adam passing with drinks for you and Raylix last night… he's moved in with you, hasn't he?"
Lilith nodded, suppressing a giggle.
"Seems so." She replied. "He's still asleep right now, though. I imagine he might sleep in his own room while I'm not here."
"Fair enough, fair enough." Kurumi remarked. "Glad I could catch you before you left, I wanted to ask you something… but the shower's calling my name, and breakfast is probably calling yours."
Lilith couldn't suppress her giggle this time, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she looked down at her daughter.
"Yeah, sure is." She replied. "I'll come find you before I have to go, though. You go clean up."
Lilith rested a hand on Kurumi's shoulder as she passed, heading for the stairs that she'd just came up, and making her way down them. Immediately picking up the smell of coffee wafting from the dining room, she made a beeline for it as she reached the bottom of the stairs, entering the dining room and spotting Irene still at the table, a refilled mug in one hand as she turned the page of her book with the other.
"Morning."
The Magician looked up as she heard Lilith coming through the door, saw her out of the corner of her eye, offered a nod as Lilith passed her, making for the coffee-pot and pouring herself a mug as well.
"Guess everyone else is having a lie-in." Lilith remarked, taking a gulp of coffee out of her mug as her eyes flicked up to the pages of the book Irene was reading, while she walked past.
"Seems so." Irene replied, her eyes still on the book, though they flicked up again as she heard Lilith's mug being set down on the table, and Lilith pulling up a chair that she sat down at.
"Good that you're not, though, I actually wanted to ask you something." Lilith replied. "I felt it was probably better if this was done in-person."
"Oh?" Irene looked up fully from her book, still resting her thumb at where in it she was presently at as Lilith raised a hand, opening a magic-circle and summoning a book out of it. An incredibly ancient-looking, slightly-damaged-seeming book with disjointed pages stuffed into it, that looked like extra notes someone had placed into it. The sight of such a tome caught Irene's full attention immediately, as she magically marked what she was presently reading without even looking at it, sliding it away from her with one hand as Lilith laid the book she'd summoned down onto the table, gently pushed it over to Irene.
Just as gently, Irene took the book and opened it up, resting it on her lap as she flicked through some of the pages, grabbed the extra pages of notes before they could drop out and perused them for a few seconds, her scarlet eyebrows raising and her chocolate-coloured eyes widening slightly as she processed more and more of the information within. It took her several seconds to fully tear her eyes away from the book and notes, looking up at Lilith with an incredulous look on her face.
"Before you ask just how the hell I managed to get my hands on something like that…" Lilith spoke, just as Irene opened her mouth, and closed it again. "That's my little secret. Just know that I've been holding onto that tome for a while."
"Yeah, looks like it." Irene replied, gently closing the book and trying to make sure all the notes she'd picked up were with the right pages, before laying it back on the table.
"I've been trying to look into it whenever I've had free time," Lilith continued. "Trying to understand just what in there I'm dealing with, and how I can potentially make an advantage out of it. But unfortunately, I haven't been able to make head or tail of it… it's frustrating, to say the least."
Irene let out a hum, gulping down another mouthful of coffee as Lilith laid a hand on the book.
"But then something changed, quite recently, that could end up helping me out quite a bit." She continued. "One of the strongest and most studious Human Magicians, whose very magic system was developed a millennium and a half ago thanks to the studies of our," she gestured to herself with a tail "natural demonic power, suddenly began staying with me, because her Pact Devil was doing the same."
Irene blinked a couple of times, her eyebrows raised for a couple of seconds before her eyes widened, as it clicked in her mind what Lilith was getting at.
"Would you mind having a look at it while I'm gone, at least?" Lilith asked, gently pushing the book back towards Irene. "I have a feeling I'm just coming at this," she patted the book before pulling her hand away, standing up and picking up the coffee-mug she'd rested on the table a moment ago. "from a different angle might yield different results- better results. If anyone could see something in this that I haven't been able to… it's you, Irene."
The scarlet-haired Magician blinked a couple of times as she looked up at Lilith, before letting out a short giggle.
"Well, I won't say I'm not flattered." She remarked, stretching her arms before getting to her feet herself, lifting her mug to her lips and downing the rest of her coffee. After setting the mug down in the sink, she dismissed the book she'd been reading before Lilith came in with one hand, and picked up the ancient tome Lilith had given her with the other. "Sure, I'll give it a look later today."
Lilith nodded, shifting away from the dining room table with a smile on her face and towards the door.
"Thanks." She replied. "You don't have to do it right now, I'll be gone for a couple of weeks. Go at your own pace and all that."
Irene grinned herself, resting the book under her arm and shifting away from the dining room table as well, as both ladies heard the door being pushed open, and a slightly dishevelled-looking Raylix walking in.
"Morning, Raylix. See you in two weeks." Lilith remarked to her lover, leaning down and gently pecking him on the lips as she walked past and out of the dining room, leaving Raylix and Irene alone together. After taking a second or two to process the morning kiss, Raylix swallowed and looked over at Irene, who looked back at him.
A slightly awkward silence stretched out between Devil and Pact Magician, as neither really knew what to say to each other. Particularly Raylix, not after he'd been as open and emotional with everyone- including Irene- as he had been last night. The dynamic between them had certainly shifted a little bit, and Raylix had a feeling how he'd acted around them before last night wasn't going to fly anymore.
"So, uh, what's with the book?" Raylix asked, after several more seconds' pause. "Don't think I saw that back in your old place."
"No, you wouldn't have." Irene replied, looking down at the book under her arm and shifting it slightly so it was a bit more secure. "Lilith gave it to me just now, asked me to see what I could make of it."
"Oh, right?" Raylix remarked, spotting the bacon/pancake/syrup combo up on the counter and beginning to make a beeline for it before pausing.
"That mine?"
When Irene nodded, Raylix resumed his beeline-making and grabbed the plate when he was close enough, pulling a fork out of the nearest drawer and sitting down at the table to tuck in.
"That sounds interesting, the whole seeing-what-you-make-of-it thing that Lilith's got you doing." He remarked, after swallowing his first mouthful. "I'm free most of the day today, you want some help with that? Could be- eh- pretty fun."
Irene, who had turned and taken a step towards the door, turned back around and looked back at Raylix, one of her eyebrows raised. When she noticed Raylix getting up, an attempt at a winning smile plastered on his face, she immediately raised her free hand and fired a small pulse of magical energy in her Pact Devil's direction, aimed at his head. Nowhere near powerful enough for it to hurt him, or do anything CLOSE to hurt him, but just enough to stop him in his tracks and send him back to the chair he was trying to leave.
"Don't even think about it." She replied, flatly. "I know what you were trying to do, Raylix, and we're a ways off from where you obviously think we are."
Raylix blinked, before letting out a good-natured snort and refocusing on his plate of partly-eaten pancakes.
"Well, can't blame a guy for trying." He remarked, more to himself than anything.
"But you CAN blame him for only apologising for being a dick for the past year-and-a-bit, after having to have some sense screwed into him." Irene retorted. "And I wouldn't try anything similar with Cinder, Esdeath or Tamamo at the very least." She added, adjusting her grip on the book again and taking a couple of steps towards the dining-room door. "Apologising and explaining yourself was a good start, but your past actions aren't erased yet."
Her piece said, Irene was gone from the dining room after a couple of seconds, leaving Raylix fully alone at the table. He stared at the spot Irene had just left from for a few seconds more, before returning his focus to the morning meal in front of him and resuming his meal, wiping his mouth on one of the sleeves of the pyjama-top he'd slung on a few minutes ago as he did so. Though while he chomped down mouthful after mouthful of the, frankly amazing, bacon and pancakes before him, he couldn't help but feel a small pang in the pit of his stomach as Irene's words seemed to echo in his mind.
She wasn't totally wrong, he thought to himself, as he swallowed another mouthful and wiped his mouth. But while doing so, a slight flickering of a shadow caught the corner of Raylix's eye. Tilting his head slightly, he focused on the spot he thought he'd seen it happening… but when nothing else happened at that specific spot, he mentally shrugged and returned to his breakfast.
Meanwhile, a few floors up, as she finished drying herself off after her shower, Kurumi let out a smirk as what looked like a living shadow slithered under her bedroom door, and melded into Kurumi's own. As she snapped her fingers to summon a simple black dress onto herself, she blinked a couple of times and grinned.
"So that's how things are…" she muttered to herself, as she heard a knock on the door. "Yes?"
The door was pushed open, as Kurumi looked up to see Lilith standing in the doorway, a half-amused look on her face.
"Am I right in assuming that shadow I saw heading under your door came from the dining room?"
"You know me so well, Mom." Kurumi replied, stretching a little before grabbing a hairbrush and going to work on her hair. "Irene isn't in much mood to jump Raylix's bones, and I somehow doubt Cinder, Esdeath and Tamamo are much different. Not so sure about Katerea… looks like he'll actually have to work for a girl's affection for a change, kihihihiii~ pity you won't be here to see it."
"Leaving him totally open to someone that isn't one of the five of them." Lilith remarked. "With one of the other two women here being someone who's been far less exposed to Raylix's… not-great, side than the others, and was willing to pose as a lingerie model within 24 hours of meeting the guy…"
The unspoken rhetorical question lingered in the air as Kurumi continued brushing her hair, shrugging.
"Well, you don't seem to have a problem with it." She replied. "Not after you took the top spot two nights ago. Might as well shoot for second place while it's available."
Lilith nodded, shifting away from one side of the doorway as she moved into Kurumi's room.
"Yeah, you might as well." She replied, raising her hand as it began to glow, before resting it at Kurumi's stomach. "But here, a little something that might help you out with that…"
Line Break
Letting out a chuckle as he saw the decent British driver, the really good Brazilian driver, and the REALLY REALLY good French driver embracing on the podium after a pretty decent end to this year's Formula One season, Raylix picked up the remote on his bedside table and switched off the TV, tossing the remote onto the sheets in front of him as he stretched out.
He'd never seen the point in owning any of those cars personally. Not when he could fly, he could teleport, he could move faster than any vehicle, period- never mind just any CAR- that those powerless (mostly) meatbags could dream up. But damn, it was nice to see them thrown around a track like the best of them could do... in a mind-numbing way.
He'd been back in his room ever since he'd heard that Lilith was gone, had headed back to her side of the Underworld. Didn't exactly feel right to be in a woman's room when she wasn't around... especially when said woman was, well, Lilith. And even while he'd been watching the race, his mind couldn't help but keep lingering on what Irene had said before she'd gone.
'Not wrong' was underselling it a bit: she'd been pretty freaking on the money. In fact, it wouldn't be wrong to call what she'd said absolutely 100% right. If it had been him, and- say- Ruvella had been a bitch to him for as long a relative period of time as he'd been a dick to Irene and the others, all wouldn't exactly be forgiven and forgotten after just an apology and explanation, even if she'd hypothetically dumped her entire life story on him.
It was good, at least, that Irene was at least willing to stick around with him after everything, as well as Cinder, Esdeath, Tamamo and Katerea. And none of them had entirely rebuked his wish to at least try to have some kind of relationship with them, which was also great to have heard at the time... but there was one small problem.
He'd never actually done the legwork in getting any girl he'd slept with to actually like him, under his own power. Now that he thought about it, back throughout his life, none of his lovers had ever... fallen in love with him before they'd done it with each other: Venelana was more an educational screwing than anything passionate or romantic, all his maids throughout the centuries- even Rhelish, who had actually confessed to being in love with him in spite of it- were paid to be around him for all that time until either he got tired of them or they left of their own accord, he and Ruvella had been set up to be with each other by their respective parents, and Lilith… well, there was no doubt she LIKED him, but outside of that specific aspect, that whole situation was such a mess that he didn't even know how to begin mentally unpacking that.
But Irene, Cinder, Esdeath, Tamamo and Katerea… they had no external compulsion or ulterior motive behind wanting to give themselves to him, and he hadn't exactly made the best case for them to do just that, either. But as good as the air-clearing talk they'd all had last night was, he really had no experience in trying to mend things with someone, or any idea of how to do it.
Hikari and Kurumi were a different story, though. The fact that he hadn't known them nearly as long as even Tamamo, the last of the women that joined his little group before he met Lilith in the human world, might have mitigated some of his asshole-ishness, but he couldn't know that for sure.
Raylix slid off his bed onto his feet, figuring that he could at least have a drink to help him clear his head before any attempts to repair things with the others. Stretching a bit as he disabled the light-orbs at the ceiling of his room, he made for the door and pushed it open, leaving his bedroom and beginning to make for the stairs. But before he'd even taken a couple of steps, he heard the sound of another door to a different bedroom, from a few paces behind him, opening and shutting, accompanied by a small surprised noise.
"Raylix?"
Turning around as he walked, Raylix found himself almost tripping over his own feet at the sight that met his eyes. Stopping and fully turning around, his eyes widening like a deer in headlights as he took in the sight before him.
"K-Kurumi?!"
"Took you long enough." Kurumi replied, grinning. Raylix blinked a couple of times as he looked Kurumi up and down, because… while it was definitely her? She did NOT look how she did the night before: her relatively small breasts could now only be described as enormous, around the same size as Eve's if not a little bit smaller. In fact, her whole figure looked pretty similar to Lilith's pet girlfriend now, with the only major difference being that her belly- supported by her right arm- looked rather enlarged.
Not like she'd eaten a shitload and suddenly gotten really fat, but more like she was pregnant, around eight to nine months along. Raylix knew Kurumi wasn't actually pregnant, but that was the only comparison he could come up with off the top of his head. And the outfit she was wearing over all of that, a set of dark-pink lingerie with black rose-and-thorns pattern over it, only emphasized and enhanced her incredible new figure. God- Lilith, did it look hot!
Kurumi reached up with her left hand to pull down the top part of the piece she was wearing a little, exposing a little bit more of her breasts to Raylix than she was already doing. As she did so, a seductive look on her face, she took a couple of steps closer to him… and almost immediately stumbled over. An involuntary cry of "Shit!" escaped her throat as Raylix immediately closed the distance between them and caught her before she could hit the ground. "Heh, guess I've still got to get used to walking around with this body… I take it you like?"
"Uh, yeah!" Raylix replied, setting Kurumi back down on her feet, his eyes practically unable to tear themselves away from her immense cleavage, that bobbed and swayed around a little as her body moved as well. "But how did you…" he blinked a couple of times and shook his head a little as he refocused his attention on Kurumi's face. "How did you get yourself like that?"
Kurumi let out another giggle, leaning against the wall and meeting Raylix's gaze with her own.
Flashback
"Wait, what're you doing?" Kurumi asked, blinking as she saw her stomach beginning to glow along with Lilith's hand. Her mouth still open, she was about to speak up again before she felt a sudden pulse of energy, and what she felt to be a mixture of warmth and chill spreading throughout her body. "This is… weird." She thought out loud as she rubbed at her glowing stomach.
She felt a sort of sloshing sensation within her stomach as it began to fill up with the energy Lilith was pumping into her. After a moment, the amount of energy that was being pumped into her began to physically show in Kurumi's stomach, like she was actually pregnant. Along with that, as the energy-pulses and warmth/chill mix began to spread from her stomach to her breasts, waist and hips, she felt those areas of her body beginning to expand as well. When the dress she'd just slipped into began to stretch against her expanding body, she looked down at it for a second and then up at Lilith.
"Woah, you-" she began, before she heard the dress beginning to strain to the point that it was uncomfortable to stand in. "Wait, wait, wait-!"
But it was way too late. Before she could even finish saying anything, her outfit gave out and ripped apart, coming down in tatters and leaving Kurumi standing naked in her room in front of Lilith, who had the grace to try and not laugh. A few seconds after that, her body stopped expanding, leaving Kurumi WAY more buxom than she was just a few minutes ago.
"Oops, sorry about that." Lilith spoke, as Kurumi bent down, making to pick up some of what remained of the dress that had just been destroyed, but almost as soon as she bent over particularly far, she lost balance and face-planted on the floor, which Lilith unfortunately couldn't hold back a giggle or two at. "Yeah, guess I should've warned you that a new body would take some getting used to."
"Maybe you could've warned me about what'd happen to whatever I was wearing?" Kurumi asked, looking up and accepting Lilith's outstretched hand, pulling herself to her feet and brushing herself down as Lilith raised her other hand, raising the tattered remains of her dress into the air and placing them semi-neatly by her dressing table.
"Yeah, sorry about that, too." Lilith replied, as Kurumi swayed a little bit once she let her go. With her hands free, she pointed one of them at the remains of her dress by the dressing table, reforming said dress in a way that looked like it would fit Kurumi's new body in an instant. As she did so, Kurumi took a tentative couple of steps towards her bed, before sitting down on its edge.
"I'll help you reshape what you've got, it won't be too hard to do." Lilith remarked, walking over and sitting down beside her daughter.
"Right…" Kurumi nodded, shifting around slightly as she looked down at her new body. "But still… damn, Mom!"
"You like?" Lilith replied, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed beside her daughter. "Figured now would be as good a time as any to show that you're my daughter. Especially since I have a feeling Hikari's blooming will be coming any day now."
Kurumi nodded, letting out a small giggle of her own.
"Yeah, about time." She replied, looking down at her belly and rubbing at it with one hand. Lilith followed Kurumi's gaze, and reached over to rest one hand on her belly.
"Seems like what I needed to pump into you to make your new body was too much for you to naturally take." She remarked. "There won't be any problems, it should settle and clear up by tomorrow, so if you're planning on going after my lover anytime today…" she shrugged. "Just pretend you're having pregnant sex, I guess?"
Kurumi couldn't resist a small blush coming over her face at the thought of such an idea, or a slight lick of her lips as her mind flashed full of images of such a roleplay panning out with said lover. Small as those gestures were, though, it didn't go unnoticed by her mother.
"Oh, you want it BAD bad." She spoke, standing up and pulling Kurumi to her feet. "Come on, just show me what you want reshaping and we'll get it done before I head off."
Flashback end
"And she did." Kurumi remarked, shrugging as she looked down at her lingerie-clad body before back up at Raylix. "Did a damn good job, too, as I'm sure you can see."
She leaned forward again, slightly more tentatively this time so she didn't topple over, but still more than enough to show off her huge tits to Raylix even more.
"Oh, definitely." Raylix replied, his eyes immediately flicking down to the extra cleavage that Kurumi was showing off to him. "Just… wow."
"Yeah, wow is right." Kurumi nodded, straightening up again and leaning against the nearest wall, taking in the hungry look rapidly forming on Raylix's face. That was as good confirmation as any that he was wholly on board with her new body, pregnant-looking stomach aside, and a good sign that now was the best time to make her move.
And make it she did, reaching out and grabbing Raylix by the front of his t-shirt before pulling him in and pressing her lips against his, catching the former Gremory Heir EXTREMELY off-guard as she switched her grip from one hand on his shirt to both arms around his back.
Kurumi resisted the urge to let out a muffled squeal of laughter as she heard Raylix letting out an "Mmph!" of surprise at the gesture, only settling to let out a low moan as she shifted her body slightly, resting against Raylix's as she deepened the kiss that she'd started. While doing so, she made to gently pull him backwards towards her, or more accurately, towards the door to her bedroom.
It didn't take long for Raylix to figure out what Kurumi wanted him to do as he opened his eyes and realised just where she was trying to drag him towards, and he was more than happy to rest his hands just under her enlarged ass and lift her up- only vaguely acknowledging her wrapping her legs around his back once her feet left the ground- and carry her towards her bedroom with his lips still locked on hers.
He had to shift his grip on Kurumi's butt around slightly to easily reach out and open the door to her room, before pushing his way inside. Easily stretching out one of his legs to push the door behind him shut, Raylix opened his eyes in slight surprise as he heard a chorus of giggles from in front of him and Kurumi.
Before he could even process what he was seeing in front of him, Kurumi pulled a quick move, suddenly shifting her weight forward to catch Raylix off-guard and push him onto the ground, drawing out a cry of surprise from the auburn-haired Devil.
"What… the hell?" Raylix asked, more to himself than anything else as he looked up, while Kurumi slowly got off him and to her feet. "What was that for, Kur… umi…?"
Raylix's eyes widened as his eyes adjusted to the inside of Kurumi's room, the decently-large bed pushed up against the opposite wall, the… five Kurumis sitting in a row on the edge of the bed, all looking down at Raylix as he pushed himself back up into a sitting position. Each visually identical to the one that had seduced him into here and put him on his ass, with the only difference being that each one was wearing a different set of lingerie.
One was wearing the simple light pink set that (if he recalled right) he'd seen her wearing the first morning he'd been living at Lilith's villa back in the human world, one a nicely-patterned blue set, one an INCREDIBLY risqué-looking black set, complete with stockings and that… thing around the waist he couldn't remember the name of, one a nice-looking yellow set with light-purple flowers embroidered over the hem and one was in a shining white set that almost looked like bridal lingerie.
"Surprise!" Kurumi- the one that had kissed him in the dark-pink set- giggled as Raylix pulled himself to his feet, taking a couple of breaths.
"That was your plan all along…?" he mused to himself, looking at each Kurumi on the bed in turn before at the one in dark pink that had kissed him. "So, you're not as mad at me as Irene and the others?"
"Nah." The Kurumi in blue replied, shrugging. "I- or I guess she-" she lifted an hand and pointed to the Kurumi in dark pink, the base Kurumi. "or we, know what it's like, emotional scars and trauma from the past getting in the way of opening up to people in the present. And hell knows Hikari's the same, though she's got her own other thing going on…"
"Plus we weren't as exposed to your edgelord side as Irene and the others." the Kurumi in yellow remarked. "That definitely mitigated things a bit."
"Oh yeah, it did." The Kurumi in black nodded.
"I guess what we're all saying is, we're ready to let bygones be bygones." The Kurumi in white spoke, leaning forward slightly to expose her tits to Raylix a little bit more, before slowly getting to her feet. "If you're ready to make up for the last couple of months, and make us your number-two."
"Mom's got the number-one spot on lock," Base Kurumi explained, slowly stepping forward and latching onto Raylix's left arm with one of her own, snaking the hand attached to the other under his shirt, feeling up his chest a little bit. "We know it, you know it, everyone with eyes and a working brain knows it. Might as well shoot for the next-best spot before anyone else gets the chance, yeah?"
Seemingly following the leads of Base and White Kurumi, the other four Kurumis slid off the bed and approached Raylix. Yellow made for his pants once she got close enough, deftly unbuttoning them and sliding them down to his feet. Black moved behind him and pulled his shirt up, having to shove Base Kurumi off of Raylix's left arm to get the item of clothing off easier, before tossing it aside.
Raylix could only let out a soft breath as he felt all the Kurumis' hands and bodies on his (mostly) bare form, his eyes sliding over to Blue Kurumi as she took a hold of his right hand once his shirt was off, and made to slip it beneath her thong. He could see her mouth moving as she said... something, to the others, but whatever she was saying just wasn't registering in his ears and mind for whatever reason. This just didn't...
It wasn't...
He couldn't...
"Wait!"
Blue Kurumi blinked a couple of times when she registered Raylix yanking his hand out of hers, just when it was only a foot (or maybe even closer) away from her crotch. The other Kurumis paused in their attempts to drag him towards the bed as they all saw his action.
"Raylix?" Base Kurumi took half a step closer to Raylix, as the other clones instinctively either backed off of him, or paused in their movements towards him. "You good?"
"I'm good, I'm fine." Raylix replied. "More than fine. Hell, this is probably one of the hottest moments I've ever been in so… hell yeah, I'm good! It's just… I don't know…"
"Don't know what?" Kurumi asked, coming a bit closer to Raylix but stopping before she could touch him. "You sure you're okay?"
"Yes, I'm sure I'm fine!" Raylix replied, immediately. "I just don't know if I can go through with… well, this-" he gestured to the other lingerie-clad Kurumis, who all looked at each other before back at Raylix himself. "Just jump straight into it, when I've got so much else on my mind… about someone else."
Base Kurumi shared a look with Blue, before looking back at Raylix.
"You mean Mom, right?" she asked, her voice slightly softer.
Raylix nodded.
"After I talked with all of you last night, I talked a bit with Lilith." Raylix explained. "And she mentioned what- where we wanted to be with each other. You know, relationship-wise? I've been thinking about it all last night and this morning, and… and I just don't know. I just learned two nights ago that I lost my Lilith-damn virginity to her, right after that we spend the whole night making up for lost time, I'm trying to piece together SOME kind of plan to start making things up to the others for how much of a prick I was to them for all that time, and now someone else suddenly jumps me? Everything's moving so damn quickly, I've got so much going on in my head that I just… don't… know!"
The six Kurumis all shared looks with each other as Raylix seemed to clutch his head, taking a couple of deep breaths to try and calm himself. After a moment of non-verbal conversation with… herself(?), Base Kurumi closed the final half-step of distance between herself and Raylix, reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder, which was enough to get him to look over at her.
"Well, I can't exactly speak for the whole plan to fix things with the others… thing." Kurumi remarked. "Only you can really do that, as much as I'd be willing to help if you think you need it. But about the stuff with Mom… I'd honestly think a bit less of you, Raylix, if you'd jumped straight into an orgy with me as soon as I propositioned you."
Raylix blinked, his face screwing up in slight confusion as Kurumi continued.
"But this? Isn't this pretty much saying exactly how you really feel about Mom? How much you really care about her, enough to at the very least stop yourself from jumping straight into a fun night with the first other gorgeous woman that shows she's willing?"
"Jerking yourself off a bit there, huh?" PInk Kurumi piped up. "Also, it's still day."
"Quiet, you." Base Kurumi retorted, without even looking back at the clone that had spoken. "Now I don't know the ins and outs of what things were like between you and your family before things fell apart after Sabemka and Tomosei died, Raylix, and you left to join the Old Satan Faction. Or even the full extent of you, Sabemka and Tomosei's loving dynamic, I wasn't there for that. But you've got to- you definitely remember caring about them- I mean REALLY caring about them, to the point that they're on your mind even when doing something that technically doesn't have a damn thing to DO with them… that's what you're feeling with Mom, isn't it?"
Blinking a couple of times, as what Kurumi was both saying directly, and indirectly implying, was all beginning to click into place in his mind, Raylix nodded.
"Well, then." Kurumi remarked, as she saw Raylix's head move. "I think that says a good bit, at the very least. Might not say EVERYTHING, exactly, but it should point you in the right direction of where you, at least, want to stand with her… relationship-wise, I think was how you put it."
Raylix nodded again, a small smile forming on his face.
"I love her." He whispered, just loud enough for Base Kurumi to hear, and allow herself a similar smile herself. "She's the best thing- alive, there is to me, right now."
"I know." Kurumi replied, shifting herself around so she was in front of Raylix, snaking one of her smaller hands into his and gently pulling him towards her now-unoccupied bed, with the other Kurumis parting to let them through as they both dropped onto it, the auburn-haired Devil on top for the moment. "That help? You feel better?"
"Much." Raylix nodded, letting out a soft breath as Kurumi reached up and laid a hand on his cheek, rubbed it for a second before shifting her grip to the back of his neck before pulling him down and capturing another kiss, performing another quick move that- before Raylix knew it- rendered Kurumi the one on top and him the one at the other's mercy below. "Heh, should've seen that coming."
"But you didn't~ Kihihiii~" Kurumi giggled, before looking behind her to her clones and jerking her head in Raylix's direction. "Come on, girls."
Line Break
"Seventeen incursions into Devil territory in the last five years alone, inclusive of the attack on Gemyem, three of which resulted in injuries to high-ranking Devil nobles, inclusive of Ruvella Phenex." Asmortael spoke, his black eyes sliding down the memo he was holding in his hands. Said memo had been sent by Serafall Leviathan, of the Devils, and detailed quite exhaustively all the recent actions that the Fallen Angels had taken against the Devils, the Devils' plan to sanction the Fallen Angels in response to it all, and a request (disguised as a polite suggestion) for the Lilim to consider joining them in doing so.
As a matter that concerned the entire Lilim faction, and given both its short notice and importance, it was only the Sovereigns that were presently discussing the issue. A message had been sent out the previous day to all the state governors and government ministers to stand by on a summons to Castle Gid, should their opinions be needed.
As the Sovereign most responsible for maintaining relations with other factions and Pantheons, Asmortael was the natural recipient of said memo.
"And most recently, credible intelligence has been received that no Stray Devils apprehended on the Fallen Angels' side of the Underworld border, or any of the Fallen Angels' known territories in the Human World, have been returned to the Devils. It's led to suspicion from Ajuka Beelzebub that said Stray Devils may be being experimented on."
As he reached the bottom of the list, which he folded up and slid into the pocket of his pants, Asmortael looked up at his fellow Sovereigns.
"As of when the Serafall sent this memo a few days ago, the Grigori leadership haven't responded to any of the Devils' attempts to reach out for explanations of their recent actions, beyond a boilerplate statement from Azazel that the most recent Fallen Angel incursion- which was unsanctioned, and that the perpetrators will be dealt with."
Naamah let out a scoff from her seat at that, but didn't interrupt Asmortael further as he continued.
"Lady Leviathan believes now is the time to finally take a stand against these troublemakers, the Fallen Angels." He spoke. "A formal announcement of sanctions against the Fallen Angel factions by the Devils will happen in the coming days, and I for one believe we should join the Devils in doing so. Such brazen actions against our close allies cannot go unpunished."
Naamah straightened up in her seat a little, nodding her agreement with Asmortael's words.
"Azazel's had a lax attitude when it comes to dealing with Hell's rightful owners for centuries, now." She spoke, her tone laden with derision and disdain as she ran one hand through her short hair while resting the other on the armrest of her chair. "The writing's been on the wall for ages: either he can't control the so-called rogues within his faction, he just doesn't care enough to, or he's pretending to not support the 'unsanctioned' incursions on the Devils' territory and secretly watching to gauge what he can get away with. Personally, I'm inclined to believe the second option: he's probably more interested in collecting and researching every Sacred Gear he can get his hands on than actually maintaining order in the Grigori."
The brunette Queen glanced across the room at her fellow Sovereigns, pausing for a moment before continuing.
"Besides, it's not like we're restarting the Great War." She remarked. "Emulating whatever sanctions the Devils have in mind for the Fallen Angels, a few well-placed extra restrictions of our own when it comes to trade, suspending further talks with Zaqiel, probably strengthen our military presence on our side of the border with them, that should get the point across nicely."
"Exactly." Asmortael nodded. "I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I personally don't think this is something we can afford to remain neutral on."
As Asmortael returned to his seat, the other five Sovereigns seemed to mull over his and Naamah's words, Between Naamah and Lilith sat Agrat, who twirled a lock of her dark-blue hair around one finger. She had a slightly uneasy look on her face, which Naamah spotted the instant she turned to look over at her.
"Something the matter, Agrat?" she asked, faux-innocence clear in her tone. "Mind elsewhere? At a certain Fallen Angel you've got history with, perhaps?"
Agrat looked up, her golden eyes narrowing in slight irritation at the accusation.
"Azazel hasn't been anything other than the leader of the Fallen Angels to me for centuries, Naamah." She replied, her voice just as even as the brunette's but just as tinged with edge as Naamah's was with fake innocence. "I'm simply trying to think through the broader consequences for our people that what you're suggesting could lead to, Naamah. You might want to try that yourself before you say something you might later come to regret."
Naamah's eyebrows raised at the retort, but before she could fire back, Asmortael leaned forward from his throne and spoke across the throne room to the pair of Succubi.
"You sure about that, Agrat?" he asked. "I do wonder where all those times you've been traced to Fallen Angel-owned territories in the Human World with Albedo fit into Azazel not being 'anything other than the leader of the Fallen Angels' to you. Or the times the Grigori's Chief Secretary, and sometimes Azazel himself, have been sighted in Lilim-owned settlements. Are you sure you don't want to excuse yourself from this discussion, before your personal feelings lead YOU into saying something you might later come to regret?"
It was noticeable immediately, to all the other Sovereigns, that the air had suddenly grown a slight bit denser and heavier after that remark from Asmortael. Agrat leaned over to look directly at him, her golden eyes glowing slightly and a demonic aura seeping off of her. Such an aura from such a being as her would have reduced anyone less than exceptional to a panicking mess on the floor… but the other Lilim Sovereigns weren't exactly less than exceptional.
"Don't bring Albedo into this, Asmortael!" Agrat replied, her voice a half-snarl as her eyes began to glow with a dangerous intensity.
"You know, you're not exactly making the best case for yourself here, Agrat." Naamah remarked, her expression shifting to one more serious. "I think Asmortael's quite right to ques-"
"No."
Before Naamah could continue backing Asmortael up, Lilith's voice- for the first time since she'd taken a seat on her throne an hour or so ago- cut through the air. Naamah immediately stopped talking, Asmortael blinked as he looked over at her, and even Agrat seemed to turn down the angry demonic aura seeping out of her a bit.
"That's enough, all of you." Lilith spoke, leaning forward slightly. "Naamah, Agrat's relationship with Azazel, for all intents and purposes, ended prior to our gaining independence from the Devils. Since then, she's given no reason for any of us to doubt that she deserves just as much a say on the issues affecting her people as the rest of us. Asmortael, if Agrat chooses to spend her free time with her family, then that's just as much her right as it is yours to endlessly try and woo Aphrodite into divorcing Ares in favour of you. And Agrat," she shifted slightly to face the blue-haired Sovereign. "I think it best you step outside for a little while, NOT because you don't deserve a say in this," she interjected, before Agrat could protest. "But just to cool off. Clear your head. If you're not done before we take this to a vote, I'll call you back in."
Agrat hesitated for a moment, before getting to her feet and leaving the throne room without another word, shooting Asmortael (who had the good graces to look slightly sheepish) a withering glance as she went. Once the door shut behind her, Lilith looked slightly further across the room.
"Eisheth, you look like you've something to say?"
Looking up, Eisheth nodded.
"Yes, I can appreciate the arguments in favour of joining the Devils in favour of sanctions." She spoke. "But I personally don't see how getting involved in their affairs benefits us. As Asmortael said, we've been close allies to the Devils ever since we went independent, but a very large part of that was simply down to us not being antagonistic to them, rather than any large shows of support. This simply seems more their problem than ours."
"Eisheth makes a fair point." Leohart remarked, leaning forward slightly from his throne. "We've kept a stable enough relationship with both the Devils and Fallen Angels, and kept out of all the spats they've had with each other over the centuries. This doesn't sound any different, especially when the Fallen Angels have never targeted us directly, even now. And there's also the matter of perception." He reached up and ran a hand through his purple hair as he spoke, shifting his weight from one side of his throne to the other. "If we throw ourselves completely behind the Devils on this occasion, what's to stop them from getting the idea that we want to formally reunite with them? After all the effort we went through at the end of the Great War to go independent from them in the first place?"
"Would you really risk our position in Hell on a gamble like that, Leohart?" Asmortael retorted, immediately. "Have you forgotten just how much more territory and greater numbers the Devils boast in the Underworld, not just more than us but more than both us and the Fallen Angels, combined?"
He gestured broadly, leaning forward further as his eyes swept across the other Lilim Sovereigns.
"Suppose for a second we elect to stay out of this, and in future the Fallen Angels turn their attention onto us." He continued. "Could we really count on the Devils, in that scenario, to have our backs when we didn't have theirs? They've respected our independence and remained our allies throughout, yes, but something's clearly changed if they've decided now to be the time for sanctions on the Grigori. We should change accordingly, and make a stand with the Devils rather than risk being stuck entirely on our own."
"So you think we can't handle ourselves. Is that what I'm hearing our of you, Asmortael?" Eisheth asked, an elegant peach—coloured eyebrow raising and it seemingly being her turn for her tone to have an added edge to it. "You think so little of the project YOU'VE been a part of since its inception, and would risk jeopardizing everything the seven of us have worked for the minute there's a slight change to the status quo?"
"That- that's not-" Asmortael attempted to respond, but Eisheth pressed on before any more words could leave his throat.
"Have a little faith in your people, Asmortael." She spoke, a half-smile playing about her lips but her eyes just as sharp, if not even more so, than a moment ago. "And don't mistake your concerns for universal truth. We're a long way past the subordinate species we used to be."
"I'm well aware, Eisheth." Asmortael replied, visibly bristling at his fellow Sovereign's words. "But you shouldn't, in turn, mistake my pragmatism for lack of faith. However strong or stable we are as one people won't matter if we're the only ones looking out for ourselves!"
"Are you two done?"
Wilbert had been observing Asmortael and Eisheth's growing back-and-forth, and had made to speak before Lilith had verbally stepped in when Naamah and Agrat had begun to go at it. This time, however, he was the one to speak up, a faintly exasperated expression formed on his face. Scratching an itch that had formed on one of his pointed ears, Wilbert's eyes slid from Asmortael to Eisheth, across all the other Sovereigns, before sighing.
"Everyone who has arguments to make about this matter has spoken, have they not?" Wilbert spoke. "There's no need to go around and around in circles, endlessly repeating ourselves and not reaching any kind of resolution. Let's just vote on this and get it over with."
"Indeed." Lilith nodded. "We have more matters to attend to today than just this, getting endlessly stuck on this won't help anybody." Shifting herself forward slightly, she spoke seemingly at the double-doors opposite the thrones. "Agrat?"
After a couple of seconds, the doors opened and Agrat strode through, re-entering the chamber and looking a lot more visibly composed than she had been when Lilith had suggested she leave. Her eyes flickered briefly towards Asmortael, but no words were exchanged as she made her way to her seat, and resumed it.
"Alright, this is for joining the Devils in placing sanctions on the Fallen Angels." Lilith spoke, as Agrat settled and shared a nod with her. "Everyone, you all know the drill, so on my count: one, two... three!"
As one, all seven Sovereigns extended their hands and fired bolts of coloured light towards the throne room's ceiling, casting their votes for all to see. Also as one, as soon as the cast votes lit up the ceiling, all seven Sovereigns looked up towards the ceiling to see how the votes had panned out. Three of the coloured lights were green, marking three votes in favour of the sanctions that had been so hotly debated over for the last ten minutes. Opposite them, three red lights also shimmered, indicating three votes against. Slightly more interesting, however, a single white light floated in the middle, its glow a sign of neutrality amongst the sea of green and red above the seven.
One of them had abstained, not casting a vote either for or against
It had all happened so quickly, that no-one was quite certain who had been the one to do it. Quiet murmurs ran through the throne room as the Sovereigns exchanged glances and words. Lilith remained silent, however, her eyes lingering on the white light for a second or two longer than the others. Her gaze then slid down, shifted towards Agrat, who was sat calmly at her throne and not saying anything either. She couldn't conclusively prove it, as she'd been focused on casting her (red) light up, but she had a distinct feeling that the blue-haired mother of Penemue and Albedo had been the one to cast the white abstention vote. She'd looked almost distant since returning to the throne room to vote, despite her outwardly composed demeanour, so maybe she was still rather steamed after the argument earlier, and decided to simply stay out of it rather than vote with her emotions.
Or maybe her former husband was still more to her than she'd outwardly been letting on, and it was because of THAT she'd been unwilling to take a stand either way. Whatever the reason, it wasn't worth drawing more attention than was necessary: they'd voted, and the results were there for all to see.
"Deadlock." Lilith announced, after clearing her throat. "Three for, three against, one abstain."
None of the other Sovereigns looked particularly satisfied with the result. Naamah let out a small huff, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat, Asmortael's expression looked to harden ever-so-slightly, Eisheth closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh, Leohart ran a hand through his hair and shuffled in his seat, while Wilbert let out a slow breath in an attempt to seem composed. With the exception of Lilith herself, only Agrat didn't outwardly show any expression of dissatisfaction, which only compounded Lilith's earlier hypothesis as to who had abstained.
"Guess we'll have to get the Ministers and Governors involved after all." Naamah remarked. "I'll send out the summons to them now."
"Good idea." Lilith replied, getting to her feet. Naamah did the same and immediately made for the double-doors on the other side of the throne room, which opened from the other side as soon as she was close enough. "I suggest we all have a little break while Naamah does so, and reconvene for the next item on the agenda in... half an hour?"
There were murmurs of ascent all around as all the other Sovereigns rose from their thrones and dispersed. Agrat made straight for the still-open doors that Naamah had still left through, Asmortael and Eisheth left through separate exists on their respective sides of the room, while Leohart and Wilbert retreated to a corner of the room and began conversing in quiet tones. Lilith herself remained for a second or two longer, looking up at the ceiling one last time before the green, red and white lights all fizzled out.
As soon as they were gone, she exited the throne room through the same exit that Agrat and Naamah had gone through, and made a beeline for her personal quarters. Having traversed the route from the throne room to said quarters literally hundreds of thousands of times throughout her life, her mind immediately shifted into a sort of autopilot mode as she made her way up.
Once she was inside, and the door to her quarters was shut behind her with a soft click, Lilith took a couple of seconds to let out a breath once she knew for a fact she was fully alone, before crossing the room, making for the decanter that she poured herself a glass of wine from into a crystal glass.
Taking a sip before kicking her high-heeled shoes off and sitting down on the edge of her bed, she snapped her fingers to bring some of the enchanted lanterns that hung around the room to life, before shifting herself up the bed so she was resting against the soft headboard.
She couldn't help but let out a sigh as she raised the glass to her lips again. The vote, this whole spat between the Devils and Fallen Angels... truth be told, she couldn't really care less which side the Sovereigns, and now the Ministers and Governors, ended up deciding to take in the matter, if one at all. It was all so temporary, so petty, so...
Well, you wouldn't catch her saying it was INSIGNIFICANT, but what was unfolding under her watchful eye outside of her known occupation as Lilim Sovereign, she would certainly say was more significant than what the seven of them had just debated and stalemated over.
With the Old Satan Faction, or now the Underworld Reformation Faction, now reformed and under her control thanks to Raylix and Katerea's shared loyalty to her, the first major step on her path to the world she'd envisioned had been taken. It had been a while coming, and she couldn't see the whole way, but she was certain regardless that this completed step was the right one to take.
And there was no going back, now. All she could do was figure out the next move to make, and then make it. And she had a feeling that said move would be coming soon.
Her mind shifted, as she took another gulp of wine, to her loyal daughters. Hikari and Kurumi had grown so much from when she'd first found them and taken them in. They both definitely had a ways to go before they reached their full potential in terms of power, but they were still incredibly strong in their own rights right now. Though speaking of Kurumi, Lilith could only wonder- as a small smile played about her lips- how things were going between her and Raylix right now.
Raylix... she had to admit, what she'd seen of the new him, perhaps even the real him, since their talk two days ago... incredible first night in centuries together aside, she really liked what she'd seen of him. Definitely the best of all the men she'd gotten anything resembling close to in the centuries ever since Lucifer finally kicked the bucket... impulsive decision or not, and as little as it genuinely mattered in the grand scheme of things, she was definitely glad that he was the one she'd chosen to give her restored virginity to.
And she couldn't wait to witness what they'd accomplish together... well, yes she COULD, but still. She was just looking forward to both it, and a time in the future that they'd inhabit once everything- the constant scheming, the inevitable battles and bloodshed, the destruction of the old world's status quo, all of it- was over. Where they could finally rest, and watch the sunrise on a new world.
A grateful world.