September 13th, 800 NA
Gremory Territory, Devildom, Underworld
Tonight was the night of the Full Moon, a very special night where the Worlds connected to Arz and the Underworld had complete moons shining down on them. But this special night had a very short window of only three and a half hours, and it occurred only twice an Underworld Year.
On this special night, beasts and magical creatures from all the worlds linked with the Underworld could come to the Familiar Forest, a magical place that was built by Lucifer and Lilith themselves. Whilst most returned to their respective Worlds at the end of the night or on the nights of the next Full Moon, some stayed and made it their new home. And after tens of thousands of years, the place was believed to be home to some of the most mystical creatures in existence.
Right now, on a barren piece of land situated between rocky hills, a lot of young Devils were gathered.
There was still time in the hours of the Full Moon to begin, and so, they were watching a certain young boy with blonde hair training with his sword against one of the most renowned Swordsman in the Underworld, Okita Souji, the Knight of Sirzechs Lucifer.
The boy was none other than the Knight of Sirzechs' younger sister, Rias Gremory. After all, who else could have the privilege to get trained by someone like Okita? He was undoubtedly only doing it because the Satan Lucifer of the Underworld doted on his little sister a little too much.
"He has improved a lot," Freya commented with a smile, making a certain red-haired girl smile proudly.
"He has worked hard." Rias nodded.
It had only been a few months since she and Raizel returned to the Underworld, and Kiba had exponentially improved under the tutelage of Okita Souji.
Part of his determination stemmed from his desire for vengeance, more from his desire to protect the girl who was still sealed inside a Barrier, his dear friend, Tosca, and majorly to protect his King and the Peerage he now belonged to.
The Gremory were known to treat their Peerages like their Families, not that there were no other Devils who did the same, but they certainly took things a step further. For instance, Rias treated Kiba and Gasper like younger brothers, and she would not even shy away from calling herself their older sister.
However, strangely enough, like a beautiful Devil that she was, she did not let them forget that she was still their King. And they knew if she ordered them to do something, they had to do it.
Perhaps, she would have been a little different if Raizel was not present in her life. But since he was there, she never wanted to give him a reason to look down on her. She wanted to become the best version of herself so that he could take great pride in her. And since she looked up to him, she did try to learn a lot of things from him, especially how he treated people around him.
She briefly glanced at her Fiancé, who was not standing with them but sitting away from them with his Neko. She pouted a little when she saw what they were doing, but then returned her focus to watching Kiba fighting against Souji.
Raizel and Kuroka were seemingly the only ones who were not interested in watching Kiba train, and far away from the rest, they were busy playing their own game.
"It tickles, nya~!" Kuroka had her entire face flushed and her body quivering under the ministrations of her King, who was resting his head in her lap and playing around with her tails, stroking and caressing them.
"Should I stop?" He teasingly asked, and Kuroka did not hesitate to answer him.
"No~!"
"Good girl." He chuckled and he suddenly pinched one of her tails, sending her body into an uncontrollable fit of trembling, and the moan that leaked out of her sweet mouth would have driven the men and boys crazy if they could hear it, but they could not.
She looked more beautiful than ever to him at this moment, and before she could regain her bearings, he reached up and captured her lips in a deep kiss, tasting her flavour that he enjoyed a lot.
What Raizel was quite fascinated with was how Freya, Erza, Kuroka, and Moka all tasted very different. And they tasted delicious.
Perhaps it was his lust kicking in, but he had seemingly grown addicted to kissing them.
Kuroka only leaned into his kiss, not pushing him away, and she did not mind it in the least that his hand had sneaked inside her Yukata and was now squeezing her left boob.
It felt good to have his hands on her skin, and she could not even describe the feeling into words.
When they separated, her golden eyes looked into his crimson orbs, almost pleading him to take her away from this place and do something more to her, to ravage her, and as much as he wanted to do it, he knew he should not give in to his lust just yet.
After planting a quick kiss on her cheek, he reached for her neck, and Kuroka already knew what he was up to.
She tilted her head sideways, giving him more access to her neck, and then moaned when he pierced his fangs into her skin, drinking her blood.
Unconsciously, her Touki burst out of her body, and soon a crimson-coloured Touki burst out of Raizel's body as well.
In the last few months, he had decided to learn how to use Touki, and though it would have not been easy for most, and nearly impossible for rest as it required unimaginable pain and hard work to access it if you were not a Youkai, the Prince of Darcaedes was simply a cheat thanks to his Clan's Trait. He managed to gain access to it by drinking her blood and learning how it needed to be utilised.
Since it was something that every living being had a chance to access, Raizel now permanently had access to it, unlike the time he had teasingly copied the Power of Destruction from Rias in fun, which would only last for a while.
Though he did have access to Touki now, he still needed to improve on it as it was not comparable to that of Kuroka, and he needed to harmonise with it. He discovered that drinking more of her blood made him feel closer to nature and helped in improving his Touki, so, he made sure that he tasted it every few days.
"You should start training on it now." She gently said when they separated and the puncture marks on her neck healed immediately.
Though her blood did help him improve his Touki, it was not going to be enough. But Raizel had not really invested much time into it in the last few months.
"I will." He smiled at her and then gave her a quick kiss on the lips, which made her moan again. "Thank you, my dear Kitty."
"You are welcome, nya~!"
The two of them then got off the boulder they were sitting on and walked toward their friends to inform them that it was nearly time.
Kiba's training had already ended, Okita Souji was taking his leave, and the boy was sprawled on the ground right now, panting heavily.
"You are going with Shirone?" He asked, and his Neko nodded her head.
She was the only one in his Peerage who possessed a Familiar, which was a magical black cat, and Shirone loved it a lot.
He had guessed that she would help her find one like it since she knew where they resided in the forest, so he was not surprised that she had such intentions.
"It's time." Raizel approached Sona and Rias, and his Peergae soon gathered behind him.
"Kiba!" Rias called out to her Knight, who managed to get back up on his feet and slowly walked over to them, bowing to Raizel in a greeting.
"The Familiar Forest is a dangerous place, and so venturing alone is out of the question." He told them after everyone had gathered. "But if we all stick together, we won't get time to find ourselves the right Familiars."
"So we are dividing into groups?" Sona asked, to which he nodded his head.
"I would suggest groups of two and three." He turned to look at the two Nekoshou. "Kuroka already has her Familiar, so she will take Shirone and Akeno with her. Moka and Tsubaki will go together..."
"Guts and Gasper."
"Ban and Loup."
"Hanekawa and Shera."
"Erza and Reya."
"Freya and Rias."
"I and Sona."
"Lastly, Akame and Kiba will go with the Familiar Master."
Rias pouted when she heard that he was going to take Sona with him, but did not say anything. She was quite surprised to learn that the two of them were engaged now, and thankfully, she was on good terms with Sona so she did not mind the idea of her being her sister-wife.
Thankfully, her mother had informed her that Raizel was likely to take multiple Pure-Blood Devil Wives as the Devil Houses would look for alliances and to make sure that their Bloodline saw a boon and was successfully passed down to the next generation. If she was not already prepared, she was not sure how she would have reacted to the news.
He was the man every Heiress would desire as her consort if she was concerned about the Bloodline of her family, and from what she had heard a few days ago, the Heiress of Agares had approached her parents to express her interest in him after the Devildom learned about the engagement between Sitri and Darcaedes.
And unlike Sona, she did not get along too well with Seekvaira.
"Ready?" Raizel asked, breaking Rias out of her throughs, and everyone nodded their heads in reply.
A large Magical Circle, bearing the crest of House Darcaedes, appeared under their feet, and then they all disappeared from the valley, appearing inside the Familiar Forest.
"Prince Raizel, Heiress Gremory, Heiress Sitri!"
They heard a voice as soon as they arrived and found a short man with a thick white beard and a head full of white hair bowing to them.
He was not really old. He was just short and gave an impression of an old man. In truth, he was a Devil, born of a union between a Magical Dwarf and a Devil, and like every grown-up Devil, he was capable of controlling his appearance.
"You must be Old Alviss," Raizel smiled as he watched the man bow to him again.
"Alviss is at your service, Prince."
"It's good to have you here as our guide. Since we have a few minutes left, guide us about the current state of the Familiar Forest, and these two," He pointed at Akame and Kiba, "will be under your protection as they search for their Familiars."
"Prince... your security is my responsibility..." He seemed a little hesitant to let them all explore the Forest on their own, but after Raizel spoke to him and told him about the pairs he had made, where at least one of them was strong enough to take care of the other, Old Alviss was quite relieved.
Several minutes later, when the sky above the forest started shining in aurora lights, and the Moon was brighter than ever, all of them separated into the groups that had been agreed upon and went their separate ways.