The Deal: Chapter 11: Meetings (Patreon)

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Chapter 11: Meetings.

- Damien –

I sat in the private room of a bar, waiting for the other party to arrive. The only one accompanying me is Gretel in case we need to leave with Dimension Lost.

It has been six months since we escaped from the Old Satan Faction.

These six months have been extremely productive for my entire group.

Kuroka had been the first one to get a hang of Chakra in merely two weeks followed by Shirone. Youkai had an innate advantage when trying to control their life-force and spiritual power. Those are basically Touki and Youjutsu. I wonder if Kuroka can somehow use the Naruto style Senjutsu by absorbing Nature’s energy and balancing it within her own body. That would surely increase her strength by a lot.

The Nekoshou however unlike normal humans from the Naruto world had much more chakra reserves due to being a supernatural race.

It kind of made me wonder the similarities between the Senjutsu of this world and how the Otsutsuki’s like Kaguya, Hagoromo, Hamura and the others used chakra – without any hand signs, directly manipulating the chakra.

It was probably due to the Chakra fruit or maybe due to their affinity to chakra.

That said, I noticed that Kuroka and Shirone can manipulate and control Chakra even better than me and I have been using Shadow Clones for a few years now.

I put in trading the senjutsu and chakra affinity from a Youkai prisoner for myself and my subordinates.

And while a little slower than those two, others picked up the skill as well. Helena taking the lead this time, surprisingly. I saw for myself why she was called the best female researcher in the entire Underworld. She had that….that look of a possessed person when she was busy in her research. The normal calm and composed girl somehow vanished as soon as she took up research and was replaced by a true mad scientist.

When I had explained to her about the Shadow Clone jutsu and its applications, she had started practicing it like a woman possessed.

Then again, it was understandable. The Shadow Clone Jutsu was basically the wet dream of every mad scientist. Several copies of yourself to do the experiments that you don’t trust others to do, perfect feedback of all that data and no injuries in case of experimental accidents. It was everything a researcher could ask for.

As for the mental load of the feedback, we are devils. We can get used to it or find ways to overcome it.

She was currently working on creating a new dimension in the Dimensional Gap. We realized that the bases in the Underworld can only carry us so much. I mean despite everything, what we were doing there was hiding from everyone. The area was still under the control of the current government. What we needed was a place of our own, a place that no one could claim any stupid legal right and use it as an excuse to declare a war.

Thus came the idea of creating a new dimension for ourselves.

The Underworld, Heaven and many other dimensions are connected to the Human world but there is the Dimensional Gap surrounding it.

The Rating Games are conducted in the temporary dimensions created in the Dimensional Gap.

The popular belief that Ophis and Great Red would attack anyone who trespasses the Dimensional Gap, the truth is very different.

They just don’t care.

It was also understandable in many ways; after all, would you kill every ant that wanders around in your entire property.

Ophis is fine as long as she is left alone.

Great Red is fine as long as he is free to do whatever he wants.

Helena was currently reading over the ancient ways of making a dimension. After all, many of these dimensions were made by someone. If it was done before, what stops us from doing it again? A new dimension will also give us a place to be free.

Gretel has been assisting her with this enterprise.

Dimension Lost can create dimensions and its Balance Breaker is known to seal things inside an unbreakable dimension of sorts.

Dimension Lost has a spirit inside it but nothing was known about it. It never talks and even the barest communications that it makes with its user is instinctual than anything vocal.

Just what kind of being was sealed inside the Dimension Lost and just what is its connection with the Dimensional Gap. This is a question that we are trying to figure out.

I gave Innovate Clear to Helena to use temporarily.

The power to create a world and life within it.

It is a combination of both Dimension Lost and Annihilation Maker because it can make both different dimensions and living creatures within it.

We are studying ways to replicate these powers.

Helena hides the presence of her Sacred Gear under several enhancements.

She has been sending her Shadow Clones to public gatherings in her place since she learned the technique and only attending a few of them herself.

I also made progress with my own Sacred Gear.

Telos Karma is a piece of art.

I tried using it with my Mad Doctor experiments.

Recreating the enhancement drugs was not hard. I even made some improvements to it. The good part came when I was checking it on the prisoners.

With the use of Telos Karma, each of those prisoners survived two doses. Above two doses, the probability became lower and the rate of survival was reduced. The probability varied from person to person.

That said I was using the weakest of the low class devils I could.

The increase was also different for each person despite surviving the same amount of drug.

A mid class devil got a higher increase in Demonic Power compared to a Low Class Devil.

A five times more increase.

To understand it in a simpler way, imagine both Rock Lee and Might Guy opening the fifth gate. Lee couldn’t even beat Gaara while Guy could smack Kisame with it.

It was the difference between basic stats. The Enhancement Drugs provided a percentage increase in strength.

Anyways, a low class devil was elevated almost to the level of a High Class within two weeks after the enhancement while a Mid Class Devil became a Peak High Class.

The problem that arose after this was that they became mentally unstable or their bodies began to slowly degrade after a few months.

Only 40% of them survived and among them only 20% were left sane.

This was not the result I was looking for.

I will need more samples of blood from other people.

 I wondered if I could make a drug from the blood of a Super Devil. Would it be a lower or higher grade than the current one?

I did have my own but my blood was unusable due to the King’s Essence’s power so this route was closed.

There were other projects too.

As I was thinking about how to expand my network and influence around the world, the one I had been waiting for arrived.

A man with black hair and golden fringes, dressed in a purple yukata walked into the room.

He stared at me and I noticed his eyes widening for a moment before he controlled himself and then he burst out into a laugh “Hahahaha Damien Lucifer, I really didn’t believe him when he told me how you looked but color me surprised….half the underworld would have gone to war just looking at your face.”

….

“I am not into men.”

That cut his laughter abruptly as he spluttered.

“And neither am I, brat.”

“Your words seemed to imply otherwise.”

“….fuck, what I meant was who you look like. Do you not realize that you look hauntingly similar to Lucifer?, so much so that people would rather call you his twin than Michael?”

Huh?

THAT, I had no idea about.

“I’m afraid that I was unaware of that. There were no pictures of Lucifer I could peruse.”

“Well just look at a mirror.” He snorted before picking up a glass of whiskey and downing it in one go. “That hit the spot.” He then looked at Gretel, standing behind me. “Is she the Lucifuge girl? Greta?”

“Gretel Lucifuge, my aide.” I introduced myself as she bowed slightly.

“Lucifers and their maid fetishes.” I heard the man whisper which earned him a death glare from Gretel which he ignored.

This was the strongest Fallen Angel in history and I could sense that he was stronger than anyone else I had seen except Rizevim. He was almost twice as strong as Razevan and that is beyond a Satan Class Devil. Wasn’t he supposed to be as strong as Serafall and such? Why is he stronger? He also has the Downfall Dragon Another Armour on top of it to increase his power.

But in hindsight, this also makes sense. After all, which faction doesn’t have a trump card or two. It wouldn’t make sense if they didn’t have any back hand to at least stop a Super Devil level threat if not defeat them. They did fight in the Great War after all.

Gretel and I stand no chance against this person in a straight out fight and we can only escape with Dimension Lost if such a situation arose.

“So, Razevan told me about the change in plans. Apparently you have a few followers of your own that you would like to bunk with.”

I felt the wild fluctuation in Gretel’s emotions. She had almost collapsed when she heard the truth about Aria and Razevan. Although she didn’t need the Vritra type Sacred Gear anymore, she was still moved from the care of those two towards an orphan like her.

Too bad that Razevan had passed away a month ago….or at least that was the news circulating round. He was killed in the Old Satan Faction’s main base but not before causing more than half of it to collapse.

Euclid lost almost half of his limbs and I don’t know how but Rizevim lost an eye to the madman on a death run.

Later on Katerea informed me that he had taken in suicidal amounts of Enhancement Drugs and something else that increased his power enormously for a short period of time but at the cost of all his vitality.

Rizevim had underestimated him and paid the price for it but when he had gotten serious, Razevan stood no chance.

The good news is that while he had caused chaos in the base, Katerea and Ophelia had taken the opportunity to free some of the high profile war captives from the main base. This included several of the 72 Pillar Devils who were thought to have died in the Great War and the Civil War. They also emptied the research base for valuable materials.

That is mainly what we were using for our research.

She informed me that Euclid was planning to conduct an experiment on a very special test subject but she couldn’t find out who that was.

I had an idea but there was no way to bring the test subject – Lilith out. No one knew where Lilith was at the moment.

Too bad Euclid somehow survived the ordeal. That said more than two dozen Ultimate Class Devils had died in the fight.

I pushed the thoughts out of my head and concentrated on the conversation. “I feel more comfortable with them.”

He raised both his hands, “Hey, whatever’s good for you. In any case I have already gotten the payment and I owe Razevan so I will help you out at a later date if you need. That said, I have heard that he managed to collect some good specimens. I was wondering if I could trade them for something.”

“Sorry, those have already been used by my people. I don’t have the habit of trading my people.”

“I’d be fine for a chance to study the Sacred Gears alone. I could provide you with anything you need from me in return.” He continued.

“What are you studying?”

“Hmm let’s see. I am trying to create Sacred Gears of my own. It is obviously much harder than one might think. Centuries of work and I can only make some half-baked ones. My current biggest project is to create a Draconic Type Sacred Gear so I was wondering if I could study the Divine Dividing. I assure you that no harm will be caused to Razevan’s Daughter obviously.” He added the last part when Gretel’s demonic power leaked slightly at Vienna’s mention.

“I will have to ask her about it but it will not be without one of us supervising and not in the next two years. She needs her own training.”

“I can help her master her Sacred Gear if you want.” He offered.

I did sense that he wanted to study the Divine Dividing but he had no intention of actually harming Vienna. The Prince of Lies makes it almost impossible for people to hide from me. On second thought, Razevan being the true user of The Prince of Lies still wanted to entrust Vienna to this person and should have already given me the answer about his intentions. Azazel had no intentions of any harm towards us.

“I want her to study some of the basics first before making her concentrate on her Sacred Gear. Albion agrees with my training method as well.”

“Oh, The White One agrees. Now that is a surprise. The Heavenly Dragons are usually too aloof to talk to anyone but their hosts but from your words it seems that you have a good relationship with him.”

“He has lived a long life and has many valuable experiences that I can learn from. I like talking to him when I can.”

“No no, the surprising part is him talking back. So any experience you want to share?”

“He seems to hate your father second only to Ddraig.”

“Ahahahaha that is a funny piece of information. There are many who do the same though.”

The talks were interrupted by the waiter knocking and bringing some food in for us.

“So what made you think of inviting us to….this place for a meeting?” Gretel had been on edge since we entered the place and I somehow couldn’t find words to soothe her either.

“What! You don’t like the Oppai Club the members of Grigori have set up? I dare say it is one of the most successful businesses in the country.”

“Using lust based Fallen Angel to indulge in their habits and earn money as well as make connections among the upper class society people that come here is indeed a brilliant idea. What I was asking is why did you call a twelve and half year old to this place?”

“Eh, details aside, you are kinda my nephew. I was just doing my part as the cool uncle showing you fun things to do. Father knows what Lucifer did to raise Rizevim to make him the way he is? I’d rather you steal girlfriends and wives from humans than their souls like my brother dearest had been preaching back then. In that way Razevan was much better than both his father and grandfather. One of the reasons I got on so well with him.”

I looked at the man in front of me and surprisingly…..extremely surprisingly….there was no lie in that statement.

 “You really like humans, don’t you?” I asked curious. All the knowledge I have about this….this ancient being, someone who is older than all the devils currently in existence, came from the light novels and anime, that I have learned first-hand not to rely on at all or from the mouths of other people.

“Of course I do. I was thrown down because I taught them some fun things to do. Apparently my father didn’t like my enthusiasm. It is too early, he said.”

“I heard you slept with a human woman and that got you kicked out.”

The man almost choked. “Hey, I was teaching her that not everything comes free. If she wanted beauty products, she had to pay for them. Teaching people to work to earn their keep, isn’t that good stuff?”

I sensed some inconsistencies in his words and called him out for it. “You loved her.”

His eyes widened slightly, and he recovered so quickly that it might as well have been a mirage. “Obviously I liked her. Why would I sleep with someone I don’t like?”

“You loved her.”

“Hah? Me? I am Azazel, the Angel of Playboys. My love cannot be reserved for a single woman.”

Lie.

“Is that why you don’t have a single child in all your life of sleeping around?”

He winced. “We have too low fertility rates.”

“I can sense when you lie.”

I saw his mouth hanging open. “T-that’s Razevan’s Trait.”

“It is.”

“sigh That brat left this as a surprise for me. Say, how about you forget that bit just now. It just doesn’t go with the image.”

“You mean all that ‘Angel of the Playboys’ image.”

“Yes yes that one.”

“Hmm sure, why not.” I smirked. “You owe me one”

This is probably the best conversation I have had with a male in this whole world. The men in my base all call me boss and are a bit reserved.

Desmond and the members of Cleria’s Peerage are also similar.

“Heh, a devil through and through.”

I merely raised my glass towards him.

“So, can we get to the main topic for today?”

He straightened up. “You said that you wanted to cooperate with the Fallen Angels through me while hiding your identities.” I nodded. “With what?”

“Information, resources, jobs that you might find difficult to do with your people among other things.”

Money.

Funding and influences with Alicia’s and Ophelia’s companies alone wouldn’t cut it for our needs. For the initial period, my people would need more, much more funds to establish ourselves, expand and gain more people.

I couldn’t let both Alicia and Ophelia become the center of attention if they tried to expand. They would immediately be contained and shut down by both the Current Satan Faction and the Great King Faction when they find out about it.

Those two factions almost always keep fighting with each other but wouldn’t hesitate for a single moment to cooperate and crush a third force from making a foothold in the Underworld.

Every move made between the members of these two factions is because of this.

From the recent news it seems that Sirzechs has had a child named Milicas. This has sent out some murmurs about the next Gremory Heir.

The traditionalists don’t want Millicas to become the heir because that would mean that the future House Gremory would be in control of the New Satan Faction completely. There is also a fact that boys can easily have more children with harems whereas girls would be restricted and thus preventing the house from having more members, restricting its power.

The House of Gremory is already strong enough to be a threat in the eyes of the Great King Faction.

Zeoticus with his connection to Zekram via Venelana at least maintains a mirage of ties with the Great King Faction and they don’t want that to be broken.

This in turn puts a lot of pressure on the current heiress, Rias.

Zeoticus has been talking about arranging an arranged marriage of Rias with the House of Phenex, the so called richest house in the Underworld to provide her with enough backing to fend off the future pressure as well as any puppets sent by the Great King Faction to take Rias’ hands and gain control over the house.

The cooperation of two of the biggest houses of the Underworld would make a power base that wouldn’t be trifled with easily. The children part was just an excuse for it.

There is another girl in a similar position, Sona Sitri. She is currently engaged to a puppet of the Great King faction.

I have heard through the grapevine that they wanted to make the engagement binding but Serafall had personally visited the other party and that decision had been held off. Ophelia later confirmed that to be true.

The Sitri are the biggest medical service providers in the Underworld with their services being used by other territories just as much as their own.

Phenex Tears, while marvelous in their effect, were not able to cure sickness, only injuries and physical and mental exhaustion.

This made the services of the Sitri that much more valuable.

Demonic Power is very chaotic and thus healing powers are almost non-existent among Devils.

The sleeping method only works as the user circulates their demonic power to the other party to mend their wounds. It does nothing for sickness either.

This is where the Sitri’s command over water magic comes into play. Water Magic is second only to Holy Magic and Senjutsu for healing and even then Holy magic cannot be used to heal Devils. Previously the followers of the Original Leviathan were almost always well versed in water magic. Houses like Vepar, Halphas and others. Now among them, only the Sitri are financially well enough to maintain such business. One has to wonder how all the other houses were so conveniently bankrupted. Yes, bankrupted. There are still three such houses left but they cannot maintain their households anymore.

These kinds of power plays were pretty common among the people of the Underworld.

Now if such things happen so regularly inside a faction, one can already imagine what happens between two different factions.

Thus Azazel’s reaction to my offer had been completely expected and actually more on the good side.

He kept staring at me and I knew that I had to throw in something here. He was the leader of an entire faction and I was a twelve and a half year old runaway with two factions and potentially three Super Devil's chasing behind me. Why should he cooperate with us?

“I have some prisoners to exchange with you. Prisoners from the Great War thought to be dead.”

Now that got his interest.

“They were locked away in the main base of the Old Satan Faction and I made it a point to retrieve them when the chaos with Razevan was happening. Not all of them wish to join you though so my apologies for not trading them back.”

“Names. I want a list of names and your price.”

I handed them a note with all the names on it. The highlight would probably be the name of the son of Penemue, another eight winged Fallen Angel who was thought to be dead two hundred years ago.

“The price will be – connections. I want your connections to other factions. The Youkai, the Norse, the Shinto, the Celtics, etc.”

“You want me to give my millennia long connections to you through a backdoor and also help you to hide your ass.” I nodded pretty confidently about this one. That list had some pretty high profile names. “Tch, you have that annoying pride of Lucifer too. Any one faction, choose.” He replied, still looking at the list.

“Two and you give me information about potential recruits, Sacred Gear users, talented fighters and magicians and Hero Descendants.”

“One and I will give you information about potential recruits without any Sacred Gears and you allow me to study any Sacred Gears that you get your hands on.”

“ Agreed but not all Sacred Gears.” I didn’t expect Azazel to tell me about Sacred Gear users to begin with. That’s his hobby after all. It was just added to be haggled down. “The Norse.” I answered after a moment of thought. I can get the connection among the Youkai through Kuroka and the Shinto from the Youkai.

The Celts have declined a lot. The Greeks have a mile long stick up their asses.

The Hindu Pantheon is too dangerous and like to keep to themselves.

The only reasonable choice was the Norse.

He took a few minutes to look over the list and kept it down with a sigh resting his face in his palm.

“You said there were a few that didn’t want to join us anymore. Can you tell me their names?”

“….some of them have their privacy that I respect but I can give you an example.” He raised an eyebrow and continued. “Celine, the daughter of Uriel.”

I saw his eyes widening and a hint of guilt in them. “We thought she was dead. She….”

“Was captured and abused for over four hundred years until she was merely a shell of her former self. She didn’t have any sense at all when I met her, like a soulless body. She is currently under rehab trying to regain her senses. She didn’t want to have anything to do with the Fallen Angels.” I saw him lowering his head and asked. “Who was it?”

“Hmm.”

“Who was behind that attack? The incident didn’t seem to be your style at all.”

“Obviously. I had fought wars against the Angels but I never gave commands for people to rape them. My problem was with Father. To be honest, after a few centuries, I didn’t care. The life of a Fallen was good….much more suitable to me. For good or for bad they are all my siblings or nephews and nieces. I attacked them to save my people but THAT….that was something I would never allow.”

“However….”

“….there are some people in the Grigori who bear too much hate for the angels and heaven to do something like that. It was wartime and I couldn’t control all of them. I know I have made some decisions that were brutal but that was the Governor General of Grigori leading his troops but even I had lines I do not cross.”

No lie.

But thinking about it, Azazel was the first one to pull out of the War. It earned him the ire of many of the Grigori members but he held his ground and as a result, the fallen were the ones who suffered the least in the Great War….well relatively.

“Who was behind the attack?” I asked again.

“I can’t tell you.”

He won’t tell me.

So he is still in the Grigori.

He is someone relatively higher up so Azazel wouldn’t give up on him even with all this.

That higher up the command chain in Grigori can only be a Cadre.

Semhazai is not the type.

Penemue actually fell because of the incident herself when she chased after Celine, dissatisfied with the decision of Heaven and losing trust in her father. Kokabiel would rather kill than do such a thing. Barakiel was not the type either. The ones left are Sataneel, Amaros, Arakiel, Asmodel, Gadreel and Tamiel.

The others are not people who would survive this kind of a thing.

“Okay.” I can find that myself.

….

….

“What? Just that? No arguments, no persuasions?”

“No. Any information you give me now won’t be something I would trust.”

“Not holding back anything eh.” He took another sip from his glass while I ate the food in front of me. “Fine. I will send the information about the potential recruits to you. As for the Norse, wait for a few years. Deals are made between people of similar strengths. Weak ones can only submit or die. Get stronger. Be in a position where you can use the connections I offer you. Right now talking to Odin will only be suicidal to you. I had heard from Razevan about the two of you. A decade or so and you three can easily be a Leader Class and then you will have enough backing to negotiate with a major faction like the Norse.”

Reasonable.

As for him backing out….that was never the matter anyways.

I thought over it for a bit and nodded.

“So, when can I meet them?”

“Hmm, I will send you the address at a later date.”

“Fair enough.”

We discussed more things after that. He told me some stories from his time in Heaven and that’s when I asked him about something I had been trying to search for a long while.

“Can you tell me something about Lucifer?”

“Interested in the good old’ Dad' eh? Sure.” He poured himself another glass before leaning back on his seat. “Lucifer or rather Helel was the first of the two angels created by Father, his dearest son.” I raised an eyebrow and he chuckled. “Father valued him because he was the only one who didn’t agree to everything Father said readily and actually questioned. The ability to think is very precious is what he used to say. He was the most brilliant of all angels. Charismatic, talented and strong, always the center of attention and always the first to do any work. He loved his siblings more than anything. Compared to it Michael was a jealous middle child. He has grown up a lot since then.” He took a sip as a hint of nostalgia seeped into his voice.

“You seem to respect him a lot.”

“I did.”

“You don’t anymore?” I asked intrigued.

“Helel, yes. Lucifer….I don’t know.”

“What happened?”

“The more someone loves something, the more they can get hurt by it. Helel….he loved father, adored the very ground he walked on. That’s why when He started working on humans, Lucifer didn’t say anything. He carried on with his job. But with time, he started questioning Father's decision about the unworthy humans. Why should my siblings act as chauffeurs for them? He desperately tried to show everyone the faults of humans and how they were sinful and not worthy of Father’s love. Say what you will about the Old man but he was stubborn but so was Helel. Something happened. I don’t know what but Helel had left Heaven with Lilith. Father never told us what had happened and we only knew that Helel rebelled. Yes, all of us fell but he was the only one who rebelled. Of all the angels who went against Father, Helel was the only one who was not thrown out of Heaven. He left voluntarily.”

Now THAT was something I didn’t know.

This world’s Christianity is not the same as what I had known so I had no idea what to think.

“The next time I saw Helel, he called himself Lucifer. His magnificent wings had lost their feathers and looked like that of bats and his magic corrupted. I won’t lie but that was the first time I felt fear. I had fought against Gods of other Pantheons when under Father and had seen Father at his full power, not weakened when he was in the Great War and still….that day Lucifer….scared me.” His voice seemed a little hollow. “The brother I knew had changed. Didn’t fall but had become something else entirely. He had completely rejected Father’s powers. It seemed as if he was the antithesis of everything Father stood for and fallen I might have, I still had the power of light. I felt instinctively revolted. There was insanity in his eyes unlike anything I had seen before.”

He took a deep breath and continued.

“To truly hate someone, you have to love them just that deeply. After all, have you seen people hating random strangers with all their beings? He still had his charisma. He got together allies and created an entire Race, a feat rivaling Father but….that caring person whom we knew had turned into a proud tyrant. So yes, while I loved and respected Helel, Lucifer was another story. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t even believe that those two were ever the same.”

The atmosphere quieted down after that.

Azazel didn’t seem to be in a mood to speak anything else and I didn’t force him either.

I had asked him about Lucifer to know more about his myth in this world to find a clue about my Lucifer House Trait, if I had any. Till now, I had no idea what it was.

The Prince of Lies was from Razevan and I was pretty sure I didn’t have that ability and same was the case for ‘The Denial of the Divine’. So I had to have something else that Lucifer was known for. I had thought that I might get a clue if I asked Azazel. After all he was someone who knew Lucifer from even before the Devil Race was created.

We left after finalizing some other matters.

- Scene Change –

I walked into the meeting room, Gretel following me.

Vi was playing with Shirone who had come to visit.

Cleria was there with some other members.

I took the seat at the forefront of the table as Gretel stood behind me.

“How was the meeting, Master?” Cleria asked.

“It was satisfactory. Azazel seemed amiable enough.”

“He might seem like it but that is the most cunning of the Fallen Angels. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had cards hidden as well.” Ophelia commented.

“I never expected anything less. We got a decent deal. Here is the list of some potential recruits. Check them and see if they can be recruited.” I handed the list to Ophelia.

 “I don’t understand something, Young Lord.” Lavinia asked. Lavinia was….well an airhead. She was never afraid of asking or doing things or rather it would be better to say that she lacked common sense. I think Glenda didn’t care about her common sense and general knowledge at all.

She had once entered my bedroom and cuddled Vienna who was sleeping with me. When I woke her up, her words were, ‘Are, why are you in my room Young Lord. Do you need hugs for sleep?’ and then she proceeded to hug Vienna and me to sleep. I was too tired that day during training and didn’t even bother saying anything.

The main problem had been when Gretel had come to wake us up the next day. She was furious but was pulled into the bed by a sleepy Lavinia whom she was trying to scold.

She had been a little hostile to the airhead but was slowly won over by Lavinia’s simple and pure-hearted nature.

Nowadays she treats her like a younger sister even though Lavinia was the older one.

“What?”

“Why are you sending the Fallen Angels away? There are so many good people in them. We could have been friends.”

Ah.

“I have to say that this is something even I had doubts about. They mightstand up against us, after all they were captured by Devils and tortured for years. It wouldn't be surprising if they wanted to take revenge. They could also make the other Fallen take actions against us.” Victoria spoke up, albeit meekly.

“You didn’t understand either, Victoria? Well then let me explain to you. Each one of them had to sign a loyalty contract to me. The contract states that they will work normally and live their lives in the Grigori but their ultimate loyalty will lie with me. They are my sleeper cells inside the Grigori in case we stand on different sides in the future. Some of them will make other spies for me inside the Grigori.”

“So the ones who didn’t want to leave?”

“Haven’t signed the contracts yet. If they don’t be of use then I can only make sure that they end up as a way to increase Celine’s powers.”

This was my goal from the very start. This is why I didn’t insist when Azazel lowered the number of factions to one because my goal from the very start was not his connections….but to make my spies gain entry inside the Grigori without being suspicious.

Now, although they will be suspicious, they will monitor these people but will find no anomalies. Moreover their release was due to a reason so Azazel himself will cover for them.

Azazel, as good as he might be, was still the leader of a faction. If there ever came a time where the profits of Grigori and my safety clashed, he would stand against me in a heartbeat.

That is why I had to make sure to infiltrate the organization. These released prisoners will do nothing odd or betray Grigori….that is unless Grigori acts against me.

“I will send some people to recruit them.” Ophelia said after looking at the list.

“Observe them first. Don’t make your presence known. Azazel might have put similar people in position to insert his own spies among us. It won’t work but it’s still good to be cautious. Anything else?”

“I am sorry to inform you Master but our funding cannot sustain all of our projects without attracting the attention of others. Currently most of the funds come from me and Alicia. A part of it comes from Helena’s patents and some from Diehauser Belial helping Cleria. Most of our forces are recruited from the Old Satan Faction and stray devils and thus cannot roam around freely which restrains our use of our manpower severely. We need some other ways of earning money. I apologise for our incompetence.” Ophelia informed me.

Her incompetence?

No.

The reason for this is my urgency.

I never realized this in the Old Satan Faction because I used to get whatever I wanted there. What with me being a child and the ‘Young Lord’. Here however we needed more money.

I had made it a point to keep Ophelia and Alicia funding me a secret but the construction of the new bases, the research, the widespread search for Sacred Gear users and even arming the armies for the raids….have all taken a ridiculous amount of money.

They didn’t inform me of this earlier because it was somewhat shameful for them and a bit because I was already busy with trying to escape the Old Satan Faction.

Now however our spending is bordering on a line from where the shifts in funds can be noticed by everyone.

Now, how to raise money?

I closed my eyes and thought of a few plans.

“If I remember correctly, Alicia has a firm grip on the entertainment industry, right?”

“Yes Master.”

“Does that include the Human World?”

“I do have some industries dealing in the human world as well.”

“Which industries do you focus on, Ophelia?”

“Mainly construction.”

“Hmm.”

Construction and Entertainment.

I wonder if I can plagiarize the manga and anime from my previous life. I don’t want to draw manga on my own but I can use illusions to show them to others from my memory and they can recreate it. The Mind Palace technique does give me an exceptional memory. I can recall almost all the plots perfectly.

“Do you have any reach in the Manga and Animation industry?” I asked Alicia.

“Not directly. I do have acquaintances that do.”

“Buy a small studio. Hire mangaka and animators. I will send you the recordings for the plot. See if it works. If it does, then continue. If not then drop it. It will be a small project.”

The entertainment in this world is shit.

Drag-so-ball.

I was tempted to burn the TV with my Blue Flames.

I mean if Serafall Leviathan’s show was a superhit in the underworld, it has got to say something about the stupidity that this world’s entertainment is.

“The major project will be other industries. We cannot start medical industries in the underworld without stepping on the Sitri’s and Phenex’s toes. The only way would be if we make a contract with one of these two. I’ll let you pick. In the meanwhile, Helena and I will try to make some medicines for humans to use. The Human world is much better for such kinds of things. Start a Pharmaceutical Company in the Human world.”

Alicia nodded.

With Helena and me working together with the Mad Doctor Essence, we could make a top rated Pharmaceutical Company in the Human World.

Later on, this industry can be spread in the territories of my subordinates on a lower scale. In the meantime if we can make a contract with any of those two houses, preferably with the Sitri, we will spread the industry through them.

“Ophelia.”

“Yes Master.”

“What about the agriculture and plantation industries?”

“There are no major industries for these things. Lords of various territories can simply buy it from others. It is only the lower class Devil who participate in such things and they have to pay taxes to the Lords. There are small factories but nothing too extravagant.”

“Oh? Why is that so? With so much area in the underworld and so little population, I would have thought that they would be farming huge areas to make profits.”

“It is not that anyone hasn’t tried it but the Underworld has had too many wars. These wars have left a majority of the land uncultivable due to the blood of extremely strong beings corrupting the places. Even three quarters of my own lands are like that. Thankfully the lands we have under our control are much larger than other Pillar Houses so we can make do with it. Because of these reasons, the farming part is not possible in most of the lands and where it is possible, it is more difficult. Water is not that easily available in all parts of the Underworld making it difficult to do agriculture. The main source of water in such places is magic and low class devils can only use so much of it. No High Class Devil would waste their time in agriculture now, would they?”

“Yes. I have heard that before the Great War, the Original Leviathan would use her Sea Serpent of the End to form massive water bodies in different parts of the Underworld. This would help the people of the Underworld grow their crops. Now however, no one does such a thing. Serafall would put the land in permafrost if she tried such a thing.”

Apparently seeing my bewildered look from Helena’s information, Ophelia continued. “While it might seem that Lucifer and the other three Satans had an easy time establishing the Devil Race in the Underworld, it was not so. The Underworld was a barren place at the start. It took a lot of effort from all the four Satans to make it habitable. While Beelzebub is known as the King of Flies and is known to bring ruin to crops, he could also control worms to tilt lands and make them more suitable for cultivation. Leviathan alone has created more water bodies in the Underworld than there are cities. They might have had their faults but there is a reason why even the Current Satans have to use their names to rule. They literally used their blood and sweat to create the Devil Race. The general population is also long lived and thus the Current Government cannot just vilify and bury the deeds of the Original Satans like they normally do in the Human World.”

Villains of one place, heroes of another.

Watching a story from a different perspective really does show us different things.

“Is there any way to reclaim the corrupted lands?” I asked.

“Hmm, there might be one but it is too difficult to try.”

“Oh!?”

“The Youkai and Spirits of the Land can use Senjutsu to purify the land without the use of light or holy magic. They can also enhance crop growth exponentially. It is just that, getting help from the Youkai is near impossible.”

The Youkai.

Kuroka is too young to use her to make a connection with the Youkai.

It seems I will have to make some moves myself.

“The Naberius. Have you found out any information about them? Any Youkai among any of their peerages?”

They looked slightly weirdly at me but continued nonetheless. “There has been news of a pair of twin Kitsunes in the peerage of a Branch House member of the Naberius. They are around thirteen years old and are doing very well in the lower leveled Rating Games. Both Brother and Sister are very talented in Senjutsu and might even rival Kuroka without your mark.”

So they did start the experiment.

I will have to find a way to get an insider in that place.

I need to find a way to use this incident to profit as much as possible.

A Kitsune twin pair.

“How many tails do they have?”

“Four.”

Not bad.

While not a Nekoshou, their talents will not be behind either.

“The Naberius are conducting experiments on those two and possibly more Youkai. Find a way to get an insider among them.”

“Experiments?”

“To use Senjutsu to create a Super Devil. I have no idea what they have in mind but they might be related to Shalba and the Old Satan Faction. Find and talk to Katerea if possible and see if you can find any information about them.”

Until the connections with the Youkai can be made, the land cannot be reclaimed. Or is there any other way?

I thought about it and a certain power came to my mind.

Growing plants and absorbing Demonic chakra – Mokuton.

If Hashirama Senju knew that his famed power was being planned to be used in this way, on a second though Hashirama would have been happy about it. Madara would have burned everything to cinders.

Can Mokuton be used?

It is a highly valuable power to use.

Even the ingredients for our research and medicines will need to be grown.

I am pretty sure I can recreate that power or one of my marked subordinates can. Probably Kuroka. Maybe some other additions as well.

She did have talents in Chakra and Senjutsu to fully use the power of Mokuton.

This is however a long term plan.

“Alicia, Ophelia, try to recruit the members of the pillar houses that have become broke and lost their nobility. They might have lost their nobility but they haven’t lost their blood. They are still more talented than the normal low and mid class Devils. If they join and sign contracts, inject them with the Enhancement Drug and employ them in your peerage. Do you have any peerage members who have their own Evil Pieces?”

“My peerage members are all over two hundred years old, Master. All of them are High Class Devils.”

“Same for me. All of my household members are High Class Devils.”

“Fill their Peerages with the talented members. Keep the top members out however. The Pharmaceutical Business we will be making will serve as a double as a way for making Deals. Deals with the rich and the influential people of the Human world. Businessmen, Sportsmen, Politicians, target them. We will be selling some drugs that are unavailable to humans. Drugs like Cancer Suppressants. Not cures. No. Employ a method of dividing our memberships in different levels, for example Cancer Suppressants will be in level two for which they will have to make 100 Deals with us to unlock, Anti-aging medicines will be for level for which they will have to make 10,000 deals with us unlock. We will use only mundane materials so no supernatural factions will be able to do anything to us. This method has a legal loophole that no one can blame. It will help your peerages to qualify for Mid Class and High Class level promotions very quickly without having to show their strengths in the Rating Games.”

“No joke Master but you sound like a Black Hearted businessman.” Charlene joked. She had a very lively personality with her friends.

“I am the Devil. What else did you expect?”

“It will attract the attention of the Current Government and the Old Devils. They will not like others gaining powers so quickly.” Ophelia commented.

“Don’t worry. By the time we start this business, they will be too busy putting out the fires in their own houses.”

I sat back thinking about what needs to be done.

- Azazel –

Azazel sat in his private room. There were two other occupants.

The Vice Governor of Grigori, Shemhazai and Penemue, the latter having tears in her eyes as she drank from the glass of whiskey.

“You wouldn’t believe me till you saw him for yourself. He looked like a mini Helel. I thought for a moment that he was trying to pull a prank on me but apparently he didn’t even know how Lucifer looked.”

“Hehehehe I wonder what Heaven and the Devils will think when he reveals himself?” Semhazai laughed in amusement.

“Michael will probably have a heart attack.” Azazel joined in.

It was the only woman in the room who joined the conversation then. “You said Helel. Helel not Lucifer.”

Semhazai quieted down when he realized the words and looked pointedly at Azazel.

“He….he reminded me of Helel. Something of both him and Lucifer mixed in. I would never imagine holding such a civil conversation with Lucifer for Father’s  sake. The boy….the boy was a bit like….him. The him before he became….that.”

“Oh, how was he?” Semhazai asked, finding it rare for Azazel to be using these words. Helel had been a complicated topic for every Biblical Faction for different reasons.

“Apart from the looks, he had that charisma but then again Devils had that too. There was something, I don’t know, something familiar that reminded me of him when I looked at the boy. He was calm. Sure he was wary of me and had kept some guards in a mirror dimension to protect him. Ah that reminds me, they have the Dimensional Lost user.” Azazel threw in the bomb in between the conversation stunning the two easily but continuing the conversation without bothering with their reactions. “He had power too. A Satan Class Devil without even entering his teenage years.” Another bomb was thrown. “It was just the way he managed himself. There was a certain calmness containing the insanity that Lucifers generally have. He seemed more….more balanced in a weird sort of way. Just an instinct. I told him stories about the old days and he listened to everything attentively and had more emotions, no matter how much he tried to control them, than I would ever see in any Lucifer. Knowing what the boy has been through, I expected him to be a ball of angst waiting to burst but he was far more collected for his age. I saw how the Lucifuge girl was relying on him and him supporting her. It was in their body language. Lucifer would never allow that. No. That was a quality of Helel, something Lucifer would never show.”

“Is that why you agreed to share your connections, even an important one as the Norse with him?”

“The fact that he asked for the connections is what makes me more attracted to him. Alliances and friendships were not something Lucifer would ever make. In this aspect, he was better than even Helel. Helel was a daddy’s boy and never saw anyone worthy to be allied with Father. Lucifer on the other hand never saw anyone worthy of their Devil race. Damien however is more accepting in these areas.”

“What are you planning Azazel?” Semhazai asked, looking into the eyes of his longtime brother. “You know how much of a shit storm the boy can cause with just his presence. Isn’t that why there are only three of us in this room and not every cadre? They will not care whether he is like Helel or Lucifer. They will demand for blood. And that is not even considering the Devils. Both the new Satans and the Old Satans will be after him just because of his identity. I hope you know what you are doing here.”

Azazel simply looked into the sky outside the window.

“Call it a hunch, brother but I know that Damien Lucifer will change the world. For better or for worse remains to be seen, but he will. And when he does so, I want to see what the new world will look like.”

Semhazai quieted down while Penemue took this opportunity to speak.

“I don’t care about your hunches Azazel but this boy has saved my son and brought my niece, my student Celine out of that hellhole. For this alone I agree to support him. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d have torn off Sataneel’s head centuries ago but now knowing what Celine had gone through, I am rethinking my decision. He has been moving suspiciously nowadays. Keep a watch on him. If he does go stray though….”

None of the other two required any more words about what would happen. ‘Hell hath no wrath’ was true for all races. The Fallen Angels were no exceptions.

Unlike what most would believe, Penemue had fallen from Rage, rather than Lust.

_________________________________x__________________________________________________________________x_________________________________

Beta Reader: LuluViBritania(FF.N, SB and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author’s Note:

Wow, this chapter took very long.

I was trying to make an outline for the plot of this arc. Something to work on as a frame of reference. I want this story to have less plot holes. God helps because DxD would give a fucking seive a complex about the number of holes it has.

This planning took more time than I was expecting.

I will be concentrating on the characters that Damien has recruited, fleshing them out more in this arc. I will also be adding some new characters as well. Not all OCs.

DxD is a BIG world. It is illogical to think that only the so called canon characters have value in such a world.

I will be posting a chapter containing the information about the OCs soon.

Now, a few things happened in this chapter.

Razevan went full Rambo on the Old Satan Faction.

Too bad he didn’t have the plot armor of Sylvester Stallone to get through that alive.

He did take out Rizevim’s eye and Euclid’s limbs.

As for Azazel’s personality. Azazel was shown caring for Vali even after being betrayed. He worked to help Vali be adopted by Odin and recognized as a free man in the Underworld.

That goes to show that Azazel genuinely cares. I just tried to flumble around to explore this aspect of his personality.

The talks about Lucifer and Helel and the Satans in their early days and what they did for the Underworld was done to carve out the world in more detail.

DxD’s Christainity and ours are very different. We cannot assume that there is no change in the world due to this.

As for the financial aspect of the organization. Remember that Alicia and Ophelia have been using secret funds to support Damien. The same is the case for his other subordinates. It is to hide his organization and the full size of it. (Azazel only knows that he has some people. Not how many. He thinks that Damien is recruiting people.). This has restricted Damien in several ways.

He has to think of ways to get money and wade through the political mess that the supernatural world is. I know some will say that Telos Karma can make money easily but Damien needs a sustainable long term solution and not winning a lottery a few times.

I hope you like the next arc.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.