Chapter 263:
Now that they weren't trying to kill me anymore, I was in the middle of giving our guests from Earth DxD-C a quick rundown on our own home Universe. I wanted to get the majority of the info dump out of the way so that they could enjoy the next week visiting with Rias and Sona. I started my explanation by giving them the rundown on how our Earth was split into two halves, with one of them containing a disproportionate amount of the world's supernatural community. I explained to them how the barriers were breaking down between the two halves and there was only a few years before the two worlds would merge again.
"Do you know how insane that all sounds? How the hell would Big G have even gotten the power to do something like that. How the hell does someone just rip a planet in half without killing every single living creature on it?" Serafall asked in disbelief.
"That is quite the interesting story," Cecilia Sitri added. "Your god definitely sounded more powerful than the one in our Universe."
"I'm not saying I don't believe you about all of this, Layla, but it would be nice to have some proof other than your own words." Sirzechs remained skeptical, as did his wife Grayfia.
"I would offer to give you all a tour of the other half of our Earth, but Devils aren't particularly well liked over there," I explained to them. "I could only really take you to the Underworld, and that would get pretty awkward considering there's other versions of you all currently living there…for now."
"For now…?" Serafall asked me curiously. "What, are you going to kill them all or something?" she added jokingly.
"Yes, but we'll get to all of that later." I waved her off.
"Wait, what!?" Serafall openly gaped at me. "Why would you kill them all!?"
"They're all evil and most of them still feed on human souls." I gave her the quick explanation. All of the Devils grimaced upon hearing that. "Even the young Devils like Millicas have already consumed hundreds of human souls at this point," I said while pointedly looking at Sirzechs and Grayfia.
Grayfia finally lost her cool and sputtered loudly. "This universe's M–Millicas has eaten over a h–hundred human souls…? Oh Lilith…"
I nodded at her and gave her a quick rundown on the time I met him and took him hostage. "They've been feeding him a new soul every month pretty much since he was born. It made him very powerful for a young child, but I don't know what the repercussions will be on him. I don't know what they'll be on any of the Devils actually," I said.
"I can answer that," Cecilia said to me. "I'm old enough to remember some of the worst times. Devils are creatures that naturally desire power, but many are too lazy to properly work for it. Consuming human souls became the perfect solution for all those lazy Devils."
"What happened?" I asked her.
Cecilia continued, "It made them stronger, but the price wasn't worth it. It became an addiction that those Devil's would never be able to get rid of. Souls are the most addictive drug there is for Supernatural beings. The withdrawal is horrible, if the addicted don't regularly consume souls then they start to go feral! When the Great War ended, consuming souls became outlawed in the Underworld. All of the Devils who regularly prayed upon humans were forced to stop cold turkey. The results were not pretty. The withdrawal symptoms they experienced got so bad that many of them tried to devour other Devils to stave off their hunger," Cecilia told us with a grimace. She then went on to explain something I was not aware of. Serafall and Sona were actually half sisters. Serafall's father was one of those Devil's who used to consume human souls!
"That was one of the reasons for the Devil Civil war. Many Devils flocked to the Old Satan Faction because they promised to sate their hunger," Sirzechs continued her explanation. "When we eventually defeated them, we had to put most of those Devils down."
"Was your first husband one of those?" I asked Cecilia delicately. Did she have to kill him herself?
Cecilia didn't seem particularly upset about discussing her dead former husband. "He was, and good riddance I say. He was a useless good-for-nothing who sat around all day and did nothing but torment our servants. He constantly tried to act like he was the Lord of the house even though the Sitri Clan is matriarchal and he married into our family. The only good thing he ever did was give me Serafall, and even then I'm not so sure he was the father. DNA tests didn't exist hundreds of years ago, and I did have a harem back then after all…" she trailed off fondly.
Serafall and Sona both blushed when their mother mentioned she had her own harem. I gave her a thumbs and she smirked at me.
"That brings me to my question, did the Old Satan Faction win the Civil War in this Universe, Layla?" Cecelia asked me.
I shook my head. "No, the Underworld is still run by Sirzechs, Ajuka, Serafall, and Falbium. In fact, I think they hold even more power." I told them. "It might sound a bit cliche, but I think Devil's from my Universe are simply inclined to be more evil," I said while making finger quotes. "I think that works both ways though, the Angels in my Universe are much more active in their fight against evil." Gabriel and Michael had practically taken the demonic invasion of New York personally. Both of them slaughtered tens of thousands of demons with great enthusiasm. The Angels in DxD Canon pretty much let the Devils run around and do whatever they wanted.
"So basically, the Devils here are more evil but the Angels are more good to balance it out?" Serafall asked me before she frowned. "Ugh, I bet your Gabriel is even more annoying than mine then. I didn't think that was even possible…"
I snickered as I recalled some of my sister's funnier stories. "Yeah, she enjoys pulling vindictive pranks on our Serafall. One of her favorite things to do is sneak into Serafall's office and change things around. A few weeks ago she replaced all of the office furniture with perfect replicas made of cake. And they weren't good cakes either, they were all disgusting fruit cakes!"
[That's so incredibly petty… I love it!]
"Is there anything else we should know?" Sirzechs asked me. "We've been talking for over an hour and I would like to see my new niece soon. That's the whole reason we decided to visit." Sirzechs had a goofy smile on his face. "I wonder what Lia looks like? I'm sure she's perfect, just like my amazing Ria-tan!"
"There's only a few more things that you all need to know and then I'll let you meet my children," I continued with my tale and explained more about our Universe and some of the major events that had occurred in the past year. Of course, that included the recent invasion from Hell and the overall effect it had on the people of the world.
"Devils and Demons aren't exactly looked upon highly here." Cecilia correctly pointed out what I was getting too.
I nodded my head in confirmation. "Rias and Sona are fine because they're considered part of my Harem but you all should refrain from openly displaying your wings outside of our home." They could be randomly attacked in the streets otherwise by people thinking they were demon spies or something.
"This is certainly more than I was expecting, Layla. It's a lot to take in all at once," Sirzechs said. "Your dimension is absolutely crazy. And that's not counting the fact that your entire galaxy is filled with extraterrestrial life!" He almost wanted to deny it all, but he couldn't considering some of those aliens had paid his home universe a visit.
"It is absolutely crazy, but it's still home." I smiled.
…
"She's absolutely adorable!" As soon as Serafall laid eyes on her niece for the first time, she fell in love with her. She ran over to Sona, who was holding Sia, and gave them both a tight hug. "Your daughter is so precious, So-tan!"
"Hi there! I'm your Uncle Zechs-kun! Aren't you just the most precious little thing!?" Sirzechs acted pretty much the same way when he spotted Rias holding Lia. "I promise to love you forever and destroy any stinky boys who try to date you in the future!" He received a slap upside the head from his little sister after that second comment.
While the family were meeting their newest members, I took Hilga and moved towards the other side of the living room. The three goddesses were with each other as usual. They all got along surprisingly well considering none of them ever really interacted before they met me. Frigga was from a completely different pantheon than Artemis and Hestia. Artemis used to spend 99% of her time running around the forest with her hunters and hardly ever interacted with her aunt Hestia.
"I don't like them…" Artemis huffed in annoyance while pacing nearby. She was jealous that I had just met Serafall and there were already talks of a marriage contract. Artemis was also glaring daggers at Grayfia for some reason. I think she was jealous because Grayfia was also a very beautiful silver haired maid…
I grabbed her hand and pulled her down on the couch next to me. I rubbed circles on the back of her hand with my thumb while I spoke. "Don't be jealous, Artemis. I think you're much better than Grayfia. My tsundere maid is much cuter!"
Artemis blushed and pouted at the same time. "I'm not a tsundere…" She made no move to take her hand away from mine.
"I always love having guests, how long will they be staying?" Hestia asked me without looking up. She was currently in the middle of knitting together some clothing for the girls. Even though she could conjure up pretty much anything with her Divine Power, she preferred to make everything handmade. Otherwise, "it didn't feel like home."
"The Devils should be staying about a week. I was planning on giving them a few days by themselves to catch up with Rias and Sona," I told the three of them. "I don't expect them to give me any more trouble after I gave Serafall and Sirzechs a quick beat down."
"I hope not, I could sense your battle all the way across the ocean. You probably sent poor Bast running for the hills when you battled so close to her territory," Frigga pointed out.
I laughed at the mental image of a scared black cat running away in terror. "Good, she deserves it for trying to get all the pantheons to turn against me. I don't even understand why most Wakandans still worship her. She only gives her blessing to a single person every generation. Other than helping create the Black Panther, she does nothing else for them."
"That's how the majority of Gods and Goddesses act, Layla. Even I was guilty of that. We expected to be worshiped by all mortals and yet gave back very little in return." Hestia temporarily paused her knitting and looked up at me. I gave her a reassuring smile. She was still the nicest olympian by far. She never went out of her way to abuse any mortals like the majority of her pantheon.
"I suppose I can put up with the Devils staying if it's only for a week," Artemis grumbled while still sending a few annoyed glances across the room at Grayfia.
"Why don't you and I get out of the house for a while, Artemis?" I suggested. "I know you've had our date planned out for a few days now and have been waiting to ask me," I added teasingly.
"You knew about that?" Artemis blushed. "Ok, let's go…"
I put my hands together to make a quick Shadow Clone, but Frigga stopped me. "You don't need to make a Shadow Clone, Layla, I can watch Hilga while you two are out." Frigga suggested while smiling at my daughter. I stood up and handed Hilga to her 'grandma Frigga.' Hilga giggled happily when I passed her over.
"Thanks Frigga, we'll be back in a few hours…or maybe tomorrow morning, depending on how our date goes," I said while wiggling my eyebrows at Artemis.
"You're not getting lucky that easily…" Artemis scoffed at me. In a flash of silver light, her french maid outfit disappeared. Her outfit had changed to a tight vest and slim leather pants that accented her curves perfectly. She looked hot! "You might want to change as well, we'll be outside for the rest of the day." she told me and I swapped out my clothes for an outdoor hiking outfit.
On our way out of the penthouse we passed by Asia and Heather, who were sitting on the couch next to 'John'. He had been staying with us for the past week since he had nowhere else to go. Without his armor, he appeared to be a large but fairly average looking man. I definitely wouldn't peg him as someone who had stormed Hell multiple times and killed millions of demons.
[He still hadn't told us what happened after he stormed the green portal into Mephisto's realm.]
'I'm sure he'll tell us what happened there when he's ready,' I replied in my head.
They were all sitting in front of the TV watching John as he played a certain video game. The 1993 version of Doom. The Doom Slayer found it amusing when he learned there was a whole video game series based on his exploits. He really enjoyed playing them. I was just glad the games didn't give him PTSD or anything…
"Game Over!" Appeared on the screen as his character died under gatling gun fire.
John glared at the TV. "How is it that the pixelated version of the Spiderdemon is more difficult to kill than he was in real life!?" the controller he was holding snapped in his hands. "Dammit…" he said while turning to Heather for help. Clearly this wasn't the first time that had happened.
Heather giggled and cast a quick Reparo spell with her wand. The broken plastic controller fused back together.
"Don't worry about it, John. Old video games were for a different breed of gamers. They just don't make them as hard as they used to," I told him with a sigh.
Heather glanced up at me and Artemis. "Hi, Mom! Are you two going out on a date? Are you planning to be out all night?" she asked me with a knowing smirk.
"Why would they be out all night?" Asia asked innocently while petting our new family dog in her lap. It was Cosmo of course. Without his adorable astronaut outfit, he just looked like a regular dog–until he decided to speak that is.
Cosmo perked his head up at Asia's question and started sniffing the air. "I can smell Master's pheromones. She is hoping to be able to mate with the female next to her!" he explained while wagging his tail.
[Well, he's not wrong…]
Asia's face turned bright red. "Oh… T-That's um…" she was too embarrassed to say anything else.
"Bad dog, Cosmo! Don't corrupt Asia like that! She's too innocent!" Heather scolded him and he whined. "See you later, mom." she waved to us as we walked out of the room.
…
"So, where are you taking me for our date, Artemis," I asked her curiously. "I'm not the biggest fan of hunting…" I didn't mind hunting for food, but I didn't believe in hunting animals for sport or trophies. I believed it to be cruel.
As the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis had been almost mortified when she found that out, but it surprisingly wasn't a dealbreaker. I think she was convinced she'd be able to change my mind one day. "I'd love to go hunting with you, but I actually had something else planned out. As you know, I'm not the biggest fan of men…"
"That's an understatement." I snorted. I think the only man I've ever seen her openly speak to is the Doom Slayer, and that's because he 'hunted' more demons than any other being in existence.
Artemis blushed slightly. "Y–Yes…well, I didn't want any men possibly interrupting or ruining our date. I wanted to find a place we could enjoy that only had women," she explained to me as she reached her hand into her own personal pocket space.
"That sounds easier said than done," I commented as I watched Artemis pull out a device that I had seen before. "Huh, where did you get that?" She was holding one of the devices that Azazel had created for Universal travel.
"Penemue gave it to me after I talked to her. When your brother was still experimenting with the creation of these, he stumbled upon a few more interesting versions of Earth. Penemue told me that he traveled to one Earth that had an entire Island full of only women," Artemis said with a sigh. "It sounded like a paradise…"
I laughed at the thought of my perverted older brother ending up in such a place. "It sounds like his paradise! So what happened? How come I'm just hearing about this place now?"
Artemis smirked at me. "Your brother asked Penemue to keep that Universe a secret after every single woman on that island tried to kill him the second they laid eyes on him. Penemue filmed the entire event and was planning on showing everyone at the next Christmas party!" she said with a laugh.
"An entire Island full of women and he failed to seduce a single one of them?" I asked in surprise. I liked to tease my older brother, but there was no denying that he was known as the Fallen Angel who had seduced more women than even Zeus. When he wasn't acting like a nerdy scientist, he could definitely turn on the charm. "I wonder what he said to piss all of them off? I can't wait to see that video!"
"So, do you want to go? I'd really love to take you there for our date," Artemis told me while shifting nervously.
[I wonder if he went to the Island I'm thinking of…? An Island full of Wonder…]
It clicked for me. 'Is that where Artemis wants to take me?' Now, I wasn't sure whether or not this was a good idea. That Universe was full of dangerous beings on par with my own. 'Although, they do still openly worship the Greek Gods on that Island, so I suspect we'll be fine if we don't stay too long.'
[You're right, what's the worst that could happen?]
'Thanks for jinxing it, system…'
[Heh, who are you kidding? With your track record, you'll be lucky if the Island doesn't sink to the bottom of the ocean by the time you leave.]
Artemis was still waiting for my answer. She was looking at me expectantly while fiddling with the device in her hand. I could tell that she really wanted to visit this place. An entire society run by women was her dream after all. She was practically begging me to "say yes" with her beautiful silver eyes.
I could never resist a beautiful woman giving me a look like that. "...Ok, let's go, I'm sure it will be fine," I said with a sigh. The System already jinxed it all anyways, so whatever happens next won't be my fault…
[That's the spirit!]
Artemis pressed a few buttons on the device and I felt a fluctuation in space. Azazel's creation powered on and opened a swirling black portal next to us. It was remarkable how far his own portal technology had come in such a short time.
"Come on, let's go." Artemis reached out and took my hand in her own as we walked through.
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