Third Person PoV
Cain was currently taking the latest member of his peerage to his mother, he had informed through Grayfia, the other members of his peerage and household about Ingvild.
He was sure that she would take time to become settled with the other members but devils had plenty of time.
Hence he was sure that in a few years or at max a decade, Ingvild would get along with the others just like a family.
Cain knocked on the door of the room in which his mother resided.
The succubus was half lying on her bed, in her devil form. Seeing her child come inside with a new girl, she sat upright and looked at the girl with intrigue.
"Mom, this is Ingvild Leviathan, my second bishop."
"Oho! A Leviathan? Is she the last?" The devil mother asked
"In Hell yes, but overall no, Katrea is still alive somewhere out there."
"Well she is dead anyways if she comes across any of the new satans. Now what is her story? I can already feel her turbulent emotions, and your nervousness."
Hearing that Cain sighed, even after being a part incubus and learning empathy he was still unable to hide his emotions from his mother.
"Well…."
Cain explained in detail about Ingvild's past to Lilith, and to her credit she listened attentively.
"So she is basically like me?"
"Yes."
'Ah such a missed opportunity, to say she is like me fr fr.' Cain thought mentally, a bit disappointed that no one would know this joke until very late.
"And what do you want me to do? Give her therapy like Echidna?"
The mother of Cain said in an exasperated tone. It seems that Echidna was really troubled, such that even Lilith was troubled.
"No, I want you to act like her mother."
Silence, that was all in the room. Even Ingvild's breathing was not heard.
"She is the closest devil to you after me. Your situations are the same, not to mention she doesn't know anything about a family, her memory of her parents is all but gone."
"You did this because I asked?"
Lilith said with tears filling her eyes. Nobody had done anything for her, Lucifer only asked her to do things for him, never did he do anything for.
"Yes. I thought you had forgotten, you were quite drunk when you mentioned it, but it seems you remember the conversation we had."
Cain was once again, engulfed within the modest blossom of his mother. As she was in her devil form, it wasn't as good as her succubus form, but to Cain the warmth was all the same.
"Thank You!"
"We are family, no need for thanking me."
Ingvild was watching them with envious eyes, but Lilith knew this and then left her son. She walked the young devil and hugged her.
Only to receive an awkward response.
"Aren't you just as small as me? How can you act like my mother? Sera told me that appearance is important. Even she has a bigger chest than yours!"
The last part was a whisper but the beings in the room were sensitive enough to hear it.
"Hahaha!" Cain couldn't control his laughter.
Lilith was embarrassed, even in her long life no one dared to make fun of her like this.
'I must remedy this.'
With a thought the white haired succubus queen was once again walking in Hell. And again hugged the Leviathan, who was now buried in her chest.
"I am more than qualified to be your mother! Little girl."
She also brought Cain into her blossom to stifle his laugh.
"And stop laughing, you brat!"
And thus Ingvild gained a mother figure, Lilith gained a daughter in whose life she could be present for her, and Cain got an honorary sister.
…
Cain was standing in front of one of the volcanoes in Soulscape. As he was informed by Ereshkigal that a soul had finally been put inside the most dangerous punishment.
Cain was thinking about the conversation he had with Ereshkigal.
…
"So why did you call me?" Cain asked the former Mesopotamian goddess.
"Finally after all this time, someone was deemed sinful enough to warrant a stay in the highest level of punishment."
Ereshkigal said
"Oh? But what did you say, 'deemed'? Who decides that a soul is sinful enough?"
At that Ereshkigal went silent, and Cain was also mentally rebuking himself.
'Such an important thing and I forgot to ask about this! I must be slipping due to the things I had to do in the past few years. Let's take a well deserved break after this, and then go to deal with the Shinto.'
"Umm, I am not sure but it is most definitely the heavens system."
Now Cain was already having a headache, as if the system of heaven decided the level of severity of sins, then it would not be fair at all.
Even if he was the king of Hell, he believed that the punishment should be equal to the sin.
"Elaborate."
"Well as the spirit of the world tree is not mature, when souls go to heaven after the body dies,they are accepted if the heavens system deems them pure, or else it puts a mark on them, representing the level of sin and then reroutes them, to us. Then they come here, our current system just studies the marks and sends them according to it."
Cain was facepalming. If anything he should be grateful that only one person was sent to the volcano, not many.
"Do not send anyone inside the last level until I say so. Keep them in the second, I am going to see if the person inside is really that bad. Also how to find out their sin?"
"There should be a mark somewhere on the soul, just touch it and you will understand. I will till then barricade the system of our own."
"Please do so!"
Saying so, Cain moved towards the large volcanoes at the end of the horizon.
…
Now that he once again checked his memory, he found that he had not thought it through, as he did not know how to enter the volcano.
"To my surprise it seems the inherent devil urge to do things lazily over a long period of time is messing with my brain, as I am doing things too quickly."
"So how do I go inside? No, if I go inside, how will I watch? It is full of lava. Can't change the topography of Soulscape now can I?"
Cain called upon his authority as the king of this realm, he was like a god king in certain regards, hence he knew that he could do this.
And as he willed the volcano opened like a gate. The magma flowed and split in the middle.
This was like Moses split the sea, but instead f water here is magma and it's in Hell not on the red sea.
Cain walked inside thinking about this new ability of his.
'I am invincible now, inside Hell at the very least. Now once I gain my domain, I can connect it with Hell and gain even more power.'
Cain knew that Ereshkigal can do the same thing he did but only in Soulscape while Morgan could do this in her garden.
And quite possibly only he and Nyx can do this anywhere in Hell. Cain had given the control and management of the dimensional core to Nyx.
She was experienced in such regards and thus was quite strong inside of Hell, and she was working on regaining her prime powers outside of Hell too, the last time Cain had talked with her.
Finally the soul came into view along with the so-called mark on its front or was it back? Cain didn't know souls were just like balls, the same from every side.
He knew from the shivering of the soul that in the short period of time he came here, it had suffered a lot.
"Talking and gaining information will be quite impossible then!"
Remembering the words Ereshkigal had said, he touched the mark intending to know what souls' sins were.
Surely they would be multiple, or maybe a down right horrendous sin that was complicated?
But no Cain only felt three words. And he frowned
"Obstructing God's Will? What kind of sin is that? This doesn't tell me anything!"
Cain was now confused about something that hadn't happened for a few decades.
"My only hope now is that the soul is at least capable of basic communication, even a name or place will do, but I need something to work with!"
And the soul was not capable of handling the horrors.
"Kinda expected, if this is not a mentally screwed person then now they definitely are. Well let's see if Lilith can do something with her empathy."
Cain took the soul along with him and returned the volcano to its original state.
Finding Lilith, he asked her
"Does your empathy work on the brain or soul?"
"Never thought about it, so I do not know."
Lilith was used to Cain spawning out of nowhere and asking her weird stuff.
"We will know that in a few moments."
Saying he gave her the soul and urged her to feel the emotions.
"If possible, reassure her that nothing will happen now."
"Sure I will try. What happened though?"
Cain explained the reason to his mom, and she worked on the soul and within a few moments she had an answer.
"Well getting her to talk might take some time, but she did tell me her name. Also what in the seven hells did she go through? Her mind is more messed up than some of the devils who fought in the GHW!"
"I will tell that later, what is her name?"
"Jeanne D'Arc."
"What?"
…
Cain was in his room, pacing back and forth.
"How can a veritable saint be obstructing God's will?"
Cain only had a single thought to this.
"She fought the weirder of True Longinus, forced him to use the Truth Idea and lost? That would indeed make her against God's Will but if there was a strong enough wielder of True Longinus, I would know."
Cain was confused now, and he could only wait till Lilith managed to get some more information out of the soul.
'A place would be helpful' Cain mused
He was trying to think outside of the box,
'Let's see, famous heroes of the past have descendants, those who do not have a bloodline, a part of their soul, resides in an individual worthy of their title, the original Joan of Arc died back in 1431, so this one must be a descendant. What more can I know?'
'A soul? A soul can be reformed from its fragments if somehow they come together and find a body, and they attract each other. Wait, didn't heaven do a reshuffling of souls at my behest? Did something happen to the original soul of the Saint?'
Cain was gradually making a theory in his mind but it will all be for naught, as what he was proposing was almost impossible to happen.
But the situation was mostly right, Souls released from heavens system control, No BigG to properly control it. And if there was a descendant of the Saint alive at this moment, then it is wholly possible.
Cain's mind connected the few dots he had and called my Grayfia, his ever faithful maid came immediately.
"Fia, go to France now and find out what is happening there, any news related to Saint, Joan of Arc, heresy or church find it out and return quickly."
"It will be done My Lord."
Now all that remains is whether Lilith can do something. And whether Grayfia can find something.
'If there is another stake burning planned then my hypothesis will be correct, a pity I can't tell this to any angel and I don't have a good impression with a fallen angel, or I could get more info.'
Cain waited for a few hours and then again went to meet Lilith.
"Anything?"
Lilith shook her head negatively.
"She doesn't know anything herself, Only her name, she was a holy Saint, and suddenly she was in Hell. Nothing more. Her mind is already too broken for me to enter and read her memories."
"Sorry for the trouble then. I have sent Grayfia to France, let's hope she had found something worth the trouble." Cain said, taking the soul back.
He sent the soul back to Soulscape, but didn't put her into any punishment. He simply kept her in a cage, he will let her reincarnate if Grayfia doesn't find anything significant.
…
Three hours later Grayfia came back from France, what would have taken any other person days to do she did in a few hours.
It was an urgent request from her Lord, she did as fast she could. Teleporting across France continuously for hours she gathered all the information she could about all the topics Cain had asked.
Cain had considered sending Vanessa, due to her Valefor powers. Even if she didn't have the clan trait she was still quite able to work without alerting anyone, but her strength was only high class.
If a fight occurred there may be chances she can die, hence Grayfia was sent. She still was very competent and didn't get caught.
"My Lord, the task you have asked is done."
"So, what did you hear?"
"There is a stake burning scheduled two days from now, for the witch who dares to call herself the Joan of Arc."
Grayfia had decided to only tell the most important thing, as she had mentally asked her Lord as to what she was to focus on during her work.
"Shit! Well on the bright side, I have a day to make a plan and execute it."
"For what my lord?"
Grayfia asked even though she knew what was going on Cain's mind. His voice was really calming for her.
"Of course, on how to get the Saint of Orleans to join my peerage and become a devil!"
The Lucifer said cheerfully.
"Only you say such a thing casually, Cain."
Cain just smirked at his loyal maid, he took her by the waist and threw her at the bed.
"Well you have been a good Maid, Fia, want a reward?"
Hearing the husky tone, Grayfia replied
"Yes, master!"
And the rest is history.