It takes less than a second for me to both come to terms with and recognise the fact that Sirzechs fucking Gremory, the one guy I did not want to be seeing any time soon, is currently stood in front of me.
All I can see is red when I look at him. The signature blazing hair, the red cloak that covers his entire body held aloft by two pauldrons atop his shoulders, even his bloody shoes are red.
As I consider my next move, every alarm bell in my head blaring in sequence, Serafall answers his question, seemingly too embarrassed to admit she had been beating me within an inch of my life.
"Ha, haha... hey, Sirzechs! What are you doing here, of all places? Shouldn't you be out in Anurvondo?" She speaks through a grimace.
"I got a bit lost on the way there." He says, smiling as though he had told the funniest quip the world had ever yet known.
Seconds pass in silence, and I can almost feel the tension deflate inch by inch.
"Hm. I guess that one didn't land so well." He mutters to himself, a hand rubbing his chin for a moment. Was that an attempt at humour? Fuck me.
"Anyways, I mostly just came here to see what riled you up so much that the weather changed for a few miles out." He says, an almost proud look in his eyes as Serafall sweats momentarily.
"Well, you know how things are! Training gets really hard these days, gotta keep my bones strong... ehehe."
"Well, I'm glad you haven't started slacking over the last few months then. Hell forbid you become like Falbium." He chortles out.
"How is he, by the way?" She asks hastily, most likely having not heard from him in years.
"Same as always, sitting in the Calanir Crypt, keeping the barrier running. Sometimes I wonder if he enjoys it, I think I caught him smiling once or twice."
The news seems to brighten Serafalls mood somewhat, the conversation no doubt helping to take her mind off of the last half an hours events.
She opens her mouth to respond, but is interrupted when Sirzechs suddenly sniffs the air, his eyebrow raised and a small glance at me from the corner of his eye.
A second later and they're back to small talk, the conversation an incredibly slow and dull one, leaving me on the wayside.
Fuck it. No more risks, no more chances. He doesn't recognise me yet I don't think, and I've likely got a few more seconds in the background spare to get shit done.
Given he more than likely holds me as the reason he couldn't help Grayfia escape the first time around, blaming me in part for her trauma, I've no doubt there's going to be some malice from him when he eventually finds out. I need to try and alleviate that.
LUK: 57
40 LUK Skill Unlocked!
Restless Gambler: User is a beacon of good fortune, and is far more likely to succeed in any luck related activities/encounters.
Investing all 18 Stat Points I got from the battle against Jack into LUK may seem a silly decision, but I couldn't care less about the long term effects of this action.
LUK is just about the only Stat I can think of that would help me actively avoid a fight. I've only barely managed fighting for my life against one to-be-Satan. I'd rather not do it again, low as the chances may be.
The instant I finish investing the Stat Points though, I can't help but feel like I've made a mistake as a new Quest appears.
Emergency Quest: Destined Confrontation has been issued. Rewards to be calculated based on performance.
"Pardon my asking, but... you wouldn't happen to be a half-devil, would you?"
His words send a jolt down my spine, memories coming back to me of Serafalls words, about how infusing Stats causes intense Mana fluctuations. I drew his attention to me. Fuck. Play it cool, Ali.
"Yes, I am. How could you tell?"
"Your scent. A half-devil has a very unique scent, far different from any Devil's." He says, walking over to me and offering a hand as he introduces himself.
"Sirzechs Gremory, 1st General of the Satanihilus, and you must be Alistair Mammon - Serafall's little protege." He continues speaking as I shake the offered hand, his tone utterly indecipherable.
"Truth be told, this meeting is a stroke of good luck on my part, I was intending on finding you at some point soon." Oh, the sweet fucking irony.
I try to keep a calm demeanour as I respond, but his power is so overbearing that it leaks out around him, the air feeling slightly heavier in his presence.
"For what reason, General Gremory?"
"Lord Lucifuge spoke highly of you before the High Council, and made some frankly incredible claims. Both the council and I wanted to corroborate his story with your own side of things."
"He's alive?" I damn near shout out, having expected the worst. "How is he?"
"Lord Lucifuge is in good health. Lord Bael had insisted he was taken care of properly despite his prisoner status, and he only told us his account yesterday. What he said... it changed their perspective of the Lucifuge clan, to say the least."
Distantly, I watch Serafall's fist clenching as she hears those words, another small flicker of guilt in her eyes.
"Good. I owe him my life. I'd feel like shit if I heard he'd died, or worse."
To my surprise, Sirzechs laughs. "He said the same thing. Called you an uppity brat, one who he owes quite a lot to."
Then, he surprises me yet again by moving in close and patting me on the side of the arm, no trace of hatred or venom in his eyes.
"You've done well, Alistair, especially considering how young you are. Thank you, for all your work in Lucifaad."
His words are so sincere they almost throw me off guard, but I know better than to trust a kindly face and some niceties. Surely he has harbours hate for me. A deep pit of spite.
"Now, I'd hate to take you away from your training with Serafall, but as I said, the High Council in Lilith are quite eager to meet you."
He looks over to Serafall, who'd been in quiet contemplation these last few minutes, as if asking for permission. She nods, before quickly adding something a moment later.
"Ali, before you go, can we talk?" After speaking she seemingly folds in on herself, half-sure of her own words as she says them. Part of me wants to say no, to leave her to stew in her own regrets.
"Of course. I'll be back in a moment, General Gremory."
He smiles, waving a hand. "Go ahead, take your time. I get the feeling this is an important conversation."
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Sera clearly hadn't wanted an audience, because the second I move over to speak with her she teleports us away to some battered town I've never seen before, a charred sign holding the word Reticohl barely visible several meters away.
Decimated homes, burnt, half-clothed skeletons in the streets, and a lake that looks more blood than water. From where we teleported, a cliff-side overlooking the lake, you can see almost the whole village.
"Sorry for the scenery. I just wanted to be somewhere else and... this was the first place I thought of, I guess." She whispers out, looking almost wistfully at this town.
"I used to come here with my family every now and then. Between all those days they spent training me, there were a few moments where we just relaxed together."
Tears begin to form in her eyes as she looks at the lake, slowly taking a seat with her legs hanging off the ledge.
"Am I a bad person, Ali?"
She speaks the words as though they poison her lips, unable to look at me as she stares out.
"You should already know I have a biased answer to that." I say, deciding to sit beside her despite prior events.
"Right." She laughs to herself briefly. "Even after all the broken bones and cuts, you still don't hate me. You're like a dog, you know that? Even when I kick you away, you come right back to me."
"Don't be mistaken. I'm angry with you. I'm furious at how callously you almost killed me. But I don't hate you. It's difficult to harbour a grudge against someone you can almost sympathise with."
"Almost?"
"I can't speak as someone whose friends have all been killed I'm afraid. But, from the outside looking in, I can understand why you feel the way you do. I'm not condemning you for how you feel, Serafall, only for how you lashed out against me."
She blinks away the wetness in her eyes and looks up, the purple skies shifting and ebbing like a living thing.
"...she took so much from me. I still remember the way they all begged for me to help them, screamed my name as they died." She takes a shuddering breath.
"I don't know if I can ever forgive her, Ali."
The words come to me instantly, like they're the simplest solution I've ever found.
"Then don't."
"What?" She looks at me, confused.
"Don't forgive her." She blinks, as if she'd not expected me to say it again.
"I'm not asking you to forgive her for what she's done to you. I'm not asking you to become buddies with her, Sera. If you never want to, then you won't. All I'm asking is that you show mercy."
"...You say that like it's easy."
"I know it won't be. I'm not asking you to do it because it'll be easy. I'm asking you to do it because it's the right thing to do."
She suddenly turns, incensed by either my words or her own thoughts.
"Is it really? Is it the right thing? What would you know about right and wrong, huh!? You think you can just shove yourself into this, tell me what I should and shouldn't do like you know anything!?"
Her finger pokes into my chest, and I can see the dried tears on her cheeks as she looks at me, guilty all over again. She waits eagerly for a response I don't have.
"My sage advice runs out here, I'm afraid."
"Wh-what? What the fuck does that mean?" She blinks, confused yet again.
"It means you're right. I don't know right from wrong, at least not as well as I might think. I don't know the Underworld's culture, I don't know the morality of revenge. There's a lot of things I don't know."
"But there's one thing I know is true. She doesn't deserve to die, no matter what you might think, or how you might feel, because she's just as much a victim as you are." I'm not sure where this confidence comes from, but it's certainly helpful.
"She actually reminds me a lot of you, now that I think about it."
"Don't you fucking dare compare me to-"
"Hold on, hold on." I say, pushing her finger away from me as she glares me down. "Let me finish."
She doesn't respond verbally, instead sitting back slightly, her eyes never once leaving mine as she waits patiently.
"From my point of view, you're both victims of circumstance, both forced to become something worse to try and survive in this world. You've both suffered and grown stronger because of it."
"How fucking poetic." She bites out through gritted teeth.
For a moment I worry she's going to get mad again, but suddenly she deflates, her anger leaving her instantly.
"You're right. You really don't know shit, do you?" She says, her eyes back on the lake as she continues, speaking softly.
"Why do you care so much, Ali? Why does any of this matter to you? Me, Grayfia, the war. Why haven't you just ran away and lived a normal life already?"
I've had this question myself a few times. Why do I care, why do I want a seat on the table, why am I putting my life on the line for these people? I try and convince myself the answer is morality, to fight to good fight, and while that definitely plays a part the truth is far more selfish.
My first life was stolen away from me by bad luck. I never got to live it to the fullest. I won't allow that to be the case now that I've been given a second chance.
"I want my happy ending."
She looks at me like I'm dull in some way, like a man would look at a monkey.
"Ali, I'm not going to have sex with you just because you gave me a therapy session."
I'll admit, I hadn't expected that. I can't help but burst into laughter after she says it, surprised by her sudden sense of humour.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." She doesn't respond, instead giving a small smile as she looks away, allowing me to continue.
"When I say I want my happy ending, in truth I'm referring to everything that this life has to offer. I don't just want to fester away in some quiet village, vanishing into obscurity."
"I want everything. Power, prestige, land, titles, money, women, a kingdom of my own, everything I can get my hands on. I want to spend the next 10,000 years of my life with no regrets. That is my dream, and I would happily fight to the bitter end for it."
"Maybe I could have all of that and still live life away from the Underworld. Maybe I could abandon you all, and let things play out naturally. But I don't want to. I want to experience life to the fullest. To take every chance I can and fulfill my ambition."
"If I get to play the hero and save people's lives as I do it? Then all the better. I'll never turn down the opportunity to be a good person, to help those in need. And what better way to fulfill all those desires than by fighting this war alongside everyone else?"
I hadn't realised just how long I'd spent yapping away, but to my surprise Serafall seems to have been listening attently the whole time.
"You sounded like just about every Devil I've ever met until the end there, Ali. Hella generic, don't you think?" She snickers as she says this.
I dont get an opportunity to respond properly before she suddenly shifts, leaning her head on my shoulder now.
"I admire it, though. That willingness to fight for your dream. So many people say they want everything in this world, but they're never willing to struggle for it."
"You've worked so hard though, done so much in such a short time. I still can't believe it's only been a month since we first met."
She pauses for a while, a comfortable silence passing as she contemplates her next words.
"...I'm sorry, Ali. For everything."
After that, silence yet again. Blissful peace as I wonder just where things between us will go from here.
We spend the next few minutes, sat there on that cliff-side, until finally I decide that I've left Sirzechs waiting for long enough and teleport back to the Manor, leaving Serafall by herself on the ledge.
------------------------------------
"Finally! I almost thought you forgot about me!" He says the second I show up, laughing yet again.
"You make a good impression, I'm afraid it's quite hard to forget a man called the Architect of Ruin."
He looks away, embarrassed, as he scratches his cheek. "I always hated that title. Not like you can say much, though."
Fucking what? Seeing the surprise on my face, Sirzechs follows up quickly.
"I guess you didn't know. The Loyalists have been spreading stories between themselves about the Demi-fiend, who came in the dead of night and made the Lucifuge vanish."
That is, without question, the worst possible label I could've gotten. I'd have taken something utterly tragic like Blonde Haired Doctor of Murder or literally anything else, but no, my cool title is literally just racism. Species-ism? It's fucking derogatory that's all that matters.
"I'd rather you forget about that title and move on with this conversation, General Gremory."
"Hey, I'm not the one who made it popular. You can blame Bidleid for that."
Like a knife's edge ran across my back, I stand ramrod straight, suddenly far more invested in this conversation.
"I beg your pardon? Did you say fucking Bidleid said that?"
Sirzechs smiles wryly, a hand the back of his head as he speaks. "I guess you didn't know about that either." He sighs.
"I don't know what went down in Lucifaad between you two, but you poked the bear, for lack of better words. Woke the sleeping dragon. Now he's making moves all across the Underworld, hunting down any trace of the Demi-fiend."
His eyes sharpen, his arms folded beneath the cloak that covers him. "You royally pissed him off, Alistair. He wants blood, and so do the High Council, because you've given them a brand new thorn in their ass."
And again, like another knife along my back, he keeps talking, saying the words I've been dreading for so long.
"But they can both wait. There's something else you and I need to talk about."
He moves in close, his eyes suddenly shining with a ruinous power as I stare down at him.
"Where is Grayfia?"
Emergency Quest: Destined Confrontation is now active!