Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 44) (Patreon)

I knock my knuckles on a pink door with a small frown on my face.

The door opens a moment later, revealing a pink, brown and white haired, multicolor girl that blinks slowly.

Her hair is messy and frazzled, she gives me a half-lidded stare for a moment before quietly yawning, turning around and walking back into her room as she leaves the door open.

She raises her arms above her head and stretches.

With a loud 'flumph' two large bat-like wings sprout from her back, they extend to their full length and contort slightly as she continues to stretch.

She lazily rubs her eyes as her wings retract, then she faceplants on her bed.

I step inside and shut the door behind me.

I blink owlishly at the black haired woman sleeping on the floor atop several newspapers. Around her neck is a red collar with the words 'Bitch' on it.

She wears a very slutty maid outfit, frankly it looks more like a bikini than a legitimate maid uniform.

I glance to the other side to see Emerald sleeping on a futon, also within a maid outfit, but this one is slightly more tasteful. She has a legitimate skirt, and her top is more of a tube top than a bra.

"Showing more respect to Emerald instead of Cinder?" I question idly, glancing between the two girls with an amused expression on my face.

The girl turns her head, glaring at me for a moment, then makes a couple of signs my recently purchased mastery in sign language translates. "Cinder was the boss. Emerald was probably like us. Doesn't mean that the bitch didn't choose her side, though."

"Fair." I shrug watching the girl face plants back on the bed.

I take a seat on the foot of her bed. "Are you... feeling alright?"

She sits up slowly, a twitch in her eye as she looks slightly deranged.

She swiftly signs another lengthy explanation to me. "These FUCKING senses have kept me up all fucking night and I am about to go fucking crazy. Why the HELL can I hear those limp dick gangbangers across the street shooting up drugs and giggling to themselves?!"

"Hm... Aura enhances your senses, and devil abilities do so even further." I mutter slowly.

"My aura's gone." She signs with narrowed eyes.

"Huh?" I blink.

"I don't have aura anymore."

"You can still use your semblance, right?" I question.

The girl nods slowly.

"And create barriers around yourself?" I continue.

"It's harder. Aura is like water. Everything is being powered by something that feels like caramel."

Leave it to an ice cream based girl to describe something thick and hard to move as caramel instead of something like mud.

"Hm." I hum. "Well, that’s to be expected. Aura is just worse magic, but you have grown accustomed to using it. Now it has been replaced by something several times more dense and powerful. You have devil magic now. It'll probably take your body a while to get used to your new energy output."

The girl lets out a long breath as she rubs her temples.

"Look, Neo. If you are feeling so bad right now, I could always cast a sleep spell on you." I state slowly with a slightly concerned look on my face.

Her eyes widen, she looks down at her hands then looks up and nods repeatedly, quickly climbing under the blankets with an insane smile.

She looks cute, bundled up under the huge blankets brought up to her chin, numerous pillows littered around her.

"This spell will last for fifteen hours. You won't wake up unless someone physically shakes you awake. Sound good?"

Her eyes gleam as she nods again.

"I'll make sure to tell Emerald and Cinder to protect you."

She signs up at me. "Get on with it."

"Fine." I snort "Goodnight Neo. Tomorrow your first real day as a devil begins."

I hold a hand above her; her smile grows as her eyelids become heavy and drift downwards.

She is asleep in the next moment.

"Well." I whisper. "There go my plans to take her to the Schnee heiress today... I'll finish up work on this side of the interdimensional station."

**Linebreak**

I sit down at a table, Ajuka sits across from me, Serafall to the left, the people most 'invested' in the other world gathered for an important meeting.

"I believe I've found a way to fix the world's magic issue." Ajuka smirks.

"Oh. That's actually incredible." I reply, a large grin working its way onto my face as the green haired Satan continues.

"Yes, I believe that the 'corruption' of magic has something to do with the Ley lines. If we can purify even one, the world can begin to heal itself. The main problem is that... the world is unused to magic. And the blockage on the Ley lines I have seen have been far too great for even I to overcome in a reasonable time. The blockages will likely weaken as magic returns to the world, we just need to find one small enough and allow magic to freely flow through it once again."

"The reason the air is like that because it's... stagnant?" Serafall questions with a raised eyebrow.

"Stagnant and was crippled by some force which I believe to be from one of the two creators of Remnant, the 'Dark God'." Ajuka explains with a small frown. "Most of the Ley lines typically are around where there are massive reserves of Dust. A possible byproduct of the dark god blocking they Ley lines."

"Hm... if he's still around, we're going to need to kill him, yeah? Did you see that extinction level event several million years ago?" I note with a small frown. "It was probably him and his bitch brother."

"I came to that conclusion as well." Ajuka slowly nods in agreement. "If they do eventually come back, then something will need to be done about them. Personally, I am even having doubts about them being the creators of Remnant... they could have just happened upon Remnant early in its creation and used the Ley lines to increase their power severalfold."

"This world has two gods?" Serafall mutters, eyes narrowing as she brushes a strand of hair out of her face, she looks a little nervous, and honestly, she's right to be. Two gods which blocked the Ley lines? that could honestly be a threat to the devil race.

"They've certainly lost any and all of their right to rule Remnant... a king does not slaughter their subordinates that freely. Those are the actions of tyrants." Ajuka agrees as he cups his chin. "I do not feel bad about using the world they left behind... and if they return, I will certainly assist in the defense of this world."

"I'll help if I can as well." Serafall agrees.

I nod slowly accepting their pledges to protect Remnant in the case of the twin god's return.

"Well. That's your thing, now for my thing." I state slowly as I reach into my bag, my hand idly sifting through papers as I continue speaking. "I have reincarnated someone from Remnant as a pawn, and they lost their ability to use Aura entirely, their 'semblance' now being fueled by demonic magic instead. She has had a little issue in combat strength due to the apparent difficulty of moving her demonic power as well."

"That is to be expected." Ajuka mutters. "This person was used to moving inefficient energy through her body, if you were to give her something much denser like demonic power, it is only natural they would have some difficulties."

"The second thing I have come across is that her senses were increased far beyond a normal person's when they first become a devil. Going far enough that she was unable to sleep because she could hear the people across the street through her wall. I don't even think we should humor the fact that these are 'humans'. They are something else." I ominously state, eventually finding what I was looking for within the bag of holding.

"Hmm." Ajuka mutters as he strokes his chin. "That is along the thoughts I have come to myself. While they do call themselves humans, it would perhaps be for the best that we as a supernatural society have something to call them to differentiate them from the weaker humans in our world."

"Homo-Magus?" I suggest blandly with a small shrug.

"Hm... that is a good name as any I suppose." Ajuka nods slowly.

I turn to face Serafall. "Now, for the second thing I have discovered. But first. Here take this, Sera-Tan."

I hand the woman a small folder with a couple pieces of paper within. "I keep remembering what I said to you when we saw Neo, I was blinded by greed, and honestly, it was idiotic and really mean. So, I hope this makes it up to you and you will forgive me."

"I already forgave you, Gai-Tan." The Satan pouts as she opens the folder. *GASP* "She's SO cute! You want me to get Sona to reincarnate her, right? Right?!"

"I do... but also her sister. They'd be valuable members to any peerage once their limits are removed. You'll have to find a way to convince them. I have already been doing contracts for them, so maybe one day I could introduce you... additionally, they aren't kleptomaniacal criminals who don't blink at shivving someone. But this leads me into my point. The repercussions of fixing magic in this world."

"Hm?" Ajuka hums, not exactly seeing where I am going with this.

I lay another folder on the table, this one far thicker than the one I gave Serafall.

Ajuka opens it slowly and skims through it. "People?"

"Not just people... look at their semblances." I reply with a flat stare.

"Copying fighting styles... Mind Control?! Time manipulation and Grimm control?!"

He looks to the last. "Dust enhance-"

He sharply inhales, eyes growing wide.

"Is this-"

"If we have confirmed that Dust is magic... this girl has a magic ability to multiply the power of other magics. In that folder are seven people. Four with the incredibly powerful Schnee magic- or at least the potential to retrieve it, and three outliers. What do you think would happen if we were to suddenly unlock magic for everyone on Remnant?"

"Well, firstly the grimm would overwhelm the cities, as everyone would in turn- apparently- lose control of their fighting abilities... but then... people like these will rise to the top." Serafall adds in skimming through the folder of information Ajuka hands her.

"The Adel girl's semblance already multiplies the strength of dust severalfold. What happens if we change that from its current 'So weak it couldn't be considered magic' and evolve it into its true form?" I question.

"I... did not think that this world would have such threats to our own." The green haired Satan whispers while Serafall's eyes grow wide at the possibilities.

"That ability is quite similar to the boosted gear, is it not?" I ask rhetorically.

"It is." Ajuka nods. "Startlingly similar... perhaps we need to look into semblances and mark those who may become a threat when magic is released into the world."

"There are actually a couple of other ones that have caught my eye. The first is no longer an issue, since its wielder has died, but Marcus Black had a semblance that could supposedly steal other semblances" I continue.

"Steal other semblances?!" Ajuka exclaims. "That's preposterous! To have the ability to steal powers comparable to clan traits is nothing short of a Longinus level ability! Even in its weakened form!"

"that is why it is relieving that he is dead, killed by his own son whom he used the ability on... I assume there was a limit, of course, otherwise there was no way this could have happened." I explain as I cup my chin. "However, there is Qrow Branwen, and Clover Ebi to consider, both seemingly mimicking the effects of the Longinus sacred gear Taelos Karma, Qrow Branwen giving everyone around him uncontrollable bad luck, while Clover grants everyone nearby uncontrolled good luck. Would multiplying their semblances give them the ability to control it, or does it simply create good luck and bad luck 'bombs' on Remnant? Any level of probability manipulation is a little sketchy to deal with."

"It is." Ajuka agrees. "This causes quite a few headaches, then. But better now than when they become an issue."

"It would be best to see if we can turn these people to our sides." Serafall adds in slowly as she lays the folder back down on the table.

"Coco Adel, and Velvet Scarletina is entirely possible. They are students at Beacon Academy. It merely becomes a matter of tempting them into a peerage with something they really want. Coco would be a great help to the devil race, and Velvet could copy any fighting style with a mere glance... which is really overpowered when you could just show her the greatest swordsman in the world once, and she is suddenly on par- at least technique wise- with said greatest swordsman in the world."

"For the Schnees, it would be fairly easy to Turn Weiss Schnee to our side, she wants to get away from her controlling father. You could probably convince her that if she wants to get away, going to an entirely new world is about as far as she can get. Whitley Schnee is also a possibility, but he is a bit of a little shit... his drunkard of a mother is also easily convincible... most of their problems seem to come from Willow Schnee's husband, actually..." I announce, breaking down the potential recruits to our side. "But I don't see Winter Schnee turning. She is a specialist in the Atlas military and is in close connection to General James Ironwood, who seems like a 'no nonsense' type of guy... Clover Ebi also works under him, so he is a no-go."

"And, to get off topic for a moment," I snort with an amused expression. "I would like to mention that James Ironwood's semblance 'Mettle' allows him to 'make tough decisions'... which is fucking stupid. All things considered."

"Not all people can be Winners and have super speed like the adorable Ruby-chan, Gaius." Serafall shrugs.

"Why don't they just call his Semblance 'Sociopath mode' and be done with it. What would magic even GIVE him?! The ability to make OTHER people sociopaths?!" I frown.

"Anyways." I continue on, my frown disappearing to an impassive expression of slight annoyance. "The mind control woman is in Vacuo, claiming she is some sort of queen and is slowly trying to overthrow the government with her mind-controlled slaves, it's probably for the best that she died. If she can cause this much potential chaos with her current abilities, I fear what she could do with unsealed powers... small sidenote here, her brother can slowly drain aura, which might become something if magic came back, so it might be for the best for him to be gone too..."

I pause for a moment, judging their expressions, Ajuka seems unbothered, and Serafall seems to agree that it's the best that those two perhaps die. It'd probably be different if they were 'nice', but I've lain out that they are currently trying to destabilize the world, and, if serafall can speed read, she'll know that they hold an underground fighting ring where they force mind controlled people to duke it out for the entertainment of others.

I quickly move on. "as for Qrow Branwen, he works for Ozpin, the headmaster at Beacon."

"The mage?" Ajuka blinks owlishly.

"The mage." I nod as I turn to Serafall to explain. "The one who almost discovered us in the forest. It also sort of explains why Qrow Branwen actually has some magic."

"Oh? Is that so?" Ajuka questions with an interested glint in his eye. "I believe quite a few pieces of Remnant's history and knowledge could be filled out if we speak to this... Ozpin..."

"If you want, by all means." I shrug. "I certainly don't want to. It might be possible to reason with him... but if you plan to speak with the general of Atlas, I'd suggest against it. He'd probably see us as an 'invasion' and in the worst-case scenario, reveal the supernatural to the world at large before we are truly ready. If we ever are."

"Controlling the information to rally Remnant against us. Making us look worse than we actually are. Making it borderline impossible for us to get contracts and removing one of the prime reasons for us to even be there." The Satan mutters. "Yes. I see. Very well. I'll see about speaking to this... Ozpin..."

"I've also more or less finished a stable portal as well... the only issue is that it has a travel time, unlike my own variant. This was primarily used to save power in the gate; however, it is still quite energy intensive. Requiring demonic power comparable to my maximum reserves to keep both doors open for a mere twenty-four hours. I could probably increase that by simultaneously increasing the travel time, but as it is currently, two hours by train seems like a bit... much... doesn't it?"

"It would probably be for the best to increase the duration of travel. It would be considered long to some, sure, yet this is completely new territory. All inventions have to start somewhere. Eventually after a couple hundred years or so, maybe we could improve the energy efficiency of these 'Gates'." Ajuka replies.

I look to Serafall. "What do you feel is more appropriate, eight hours, or go for a further extreme of twenty-four?"

"A twenty four hour travel time is a bit... much..." The girl slowly states. "But in this manner, it should allow the gates to stay open twelve days for the same amount of energy, right?"

"It should." I nod. "But in this case, the train would need to be less a train, and more of a mobile hotel... do either of you know of any engineers which take requests? I feel like this will need to be custom made."

"I personally suggest the company that most clans purchase underworld trains from." Serafall states as she pulls a card out of her... cleavage... and hands it to me.

Actually, it looks like she used her breasts as cover to cast a subtle portal spell. Huh...

"I'll look into it." I nod slowly.

**Linebreak**

These trains look... vaguely expensive...

Normally I would simple be like 'fuck it. Lets take it out of the 'betterment of the underworld fund'

But a thought occurs...

If I do that, reasonably a large portion of profits would in turn go back to the underworld as a whole...

If I purchase my own train, build my own station, and run it myself, nobody can say shit about me reaping ALL the profits.

Well, a large majority of the profits. Taxes exist regretfully as a method to more or less force us to 'give back' to the devil race at large to prevent us from hoarding ridiculous amounts of wealth.

A rough estimate of what I want would place this train in the several hundred million price range... when a normal train costs anywhere from five hundred thousand Lilium to a few million.

"My lord, the heiress of Gremory is here to see you." A maid announces.

It's merely a nameless maid, a level one follower granted by my leadership feat.

She isn't really important, all things considered. What is important is that she is slowly but surely growing in power merely by serving me and doing a little training here and there.

So while right now, she is merely a 'level one' devil with a randomly assigned class. In a year or so, she might be a level two... in one thousand years she might even be level twenty.

It's an investment.

I let out a low click of annoyance as I look to the door. "Let her in please."

I was hoping to leave this for a little while longer. Allow tempers to cool for just a while longer, buuut it appears she has forced my hand.

The maid bows her head and swiftly steps back outside.

A red-haired girl enters a moment later, followed shortly by a black-haired girl with her hair tied back in a ponytail.

Rias doesn't allow any real emotion to show on her face as she takes a seat in the large chair in front of me.

We sit in silence for a moment as Rias loudly and taps her foot on the floor in an annoyed manner.

"So?" She asks suddenly. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I let out a low click. "If we are doing it like this, no. Not really."

"You slapped Kiba!" The girl snarls.

"Kiba was threatening the entire underworld with a second great war! Do you have any idea what the church would do if they found out that after Kokabiel stole most of their artifacts, that a DEVIL killed their attempt at getting them back?! Rias. They would have called for not only Kiba's head, but YOURS as well. He, clearly wasn't thinking straight so I slapped some sense into him."

"He was thinking perfectly rationally. You don't know what those swords did to him."

"No, Rias, I don't think YOU know what those swords did to him... literally nothing. Kiba has already come to terms with it. I saw him when I went to reclaim Excalibur for the exorcists. He holds no hard feelings, and in fact, he said that I was right."

The girls eyes narrow. "Are you really one to talk about straining the relations between factions? Don't think that I didn't see those exorcists around. I also noticed how you didn't even consult Sona or Myself before allowing several supernatural beings to reside in our shared town."

"They exorcists were excommunicated for working with me despite the fact that it was literally their only option, I felt a little responsible for their excommunication, so I let them stay here." I state blandly.

"You still didn't talk to Sona or myself about it... nor when you allowed the pendragon heir into this city."

"For the exorcist, We weren't exactly on talking terms." I state with a half lidded stare. "And I had assumed that Serafall told Sona. I'll make sure to clarify it with her later if she was unaware."

"As for the pendragons being here, it was really none of your business. Le Fay was my contractor before I offered them a place here, then she and her friend became a part of my peerage. Of course, I would extend niceties to her brother whom is possibly my only male friend."

Rias opens her mouth to say something.

"And the filthy fallen you got your hands on?" Akeno scoffs, cutting the redhead off. "What of her? I thought you'd be smart enough to not allow a spy into your peerage."

I open my mouth to say something then close it. "Oh wow... I almost said something really hurtful right there. Akeno, please don't start picking verbal fights with me... it's something you won't win."

"She has a point, Gaius." Rias states slowly. "I thought you were better. To associate with fallen. Despicable."

My eyebrow twitches slightly, my impassive frown becoming slightly more strained.

"Rias... Akeno. You can poke at me verbally, you can taunt me, you can come in here on your massive faux high horse and preach about how I wronged you, but I will not allow you to badmouth my peerage. Not you of all people. I am warning you here. I am starting to slightly lose my temper with you and I really don't want to as I will say something I will regret. I feel I am being extremely patient with how you walked into my home like you owned the place, and arrogantly started judging my peerage."

"What do you mean by 'You of all people'?!" The girl snaps. "Are you insinuating that my peerage are worse than a simple fallen?!"

I let out a low click. "Rias. Please take my next words to heart and get your peerage the help they deserve. Kiba was a ball of hatred, going absolutely feral at the mere sight of any holy sword, Gasper is a shut in who is desperately afraid of his own power. You coddling him won't make that better. Give him a bag to put over his head. Kokeno is afraid of herself and has turned HERSELF into an emotionless husk because she has childhood trauma over her sibling murdering her old master. Akeno is a mess of self-loathing who is always prepared to hurl insults at any fallen she meets over some fallacious hatred of not only herself but any and everything with black feathered wings regardless of any potential political fallout."

"My father got my mother killed! He abandoned us!" The black-haired girl suddenly snarls. "You don't know what it's like-"

"Both of my parents were murdered, Akeno...  My parents died because they would have been a tremendous advantage to either side of the civil war. If Serafall, Ajuka, Sirzechs and Falbium didn't decide that not going to war is badass, my family probably would still be alive. Yet do you see me looking to Serafall, shaking my fist in hatred and frothing at the mouth at any sign of her? No. No, you don't. Because I don’t hold them responsible for it."

"Why you hold your father responsible for this instead of the people who attacked you, I have no idea. Yes, he failed to save your mother. But he is one of the leaders of the Grigori Akeno. You can't truly be stupid enough to think that he left you two because he wanted to? He has a job as one of the leaders of the fallen faction and that requires him to leave home sometimes."

"But. At the end of the day. At least your father loves you." I scoff with a half lidded stare. "Something Mittelt will never have."

Akeno's glare of burning hatred freezes briefly.

"You truly aren't arrogant enough to believe that you are the ONLY fallen to ever be born, right? You hate all fallen for their race, but you seem to make one key mistake. A majority of them are second generation like yourself. Never seeing those pearly gates of heaven, forever tainted on birth with black wings that make others view them as inferior. They didn't ask to be born as perhaps one of the most hated races in the entire supernatural. Mittelt never asked for any of this. Yet you still judge her as lesser than you despite the fact that you are two sides of the same coin. You are both fallen who have turned devil. Both fallen who have a leader of the Grigori as a father. But unlike you, she didn't fall into the lap of a devil heiress at a young age and had to fight and kill to survive in the Grigori. Azazel or her verbally abusive mother certainly didn't help her any."

My eyes slide back to Rias. "So Yes, Rias. I don't believe that you should be critiquing my peerage, as yours is full of so many broken individuals it isn't even funny. Perhaps you should focus on helping your 'family' before you start throwing stones in that glass house of yours... oh wait... I've already helped two of your peerage members far more than you ever have."

"How..." Rias fumes. "HOW DARE YOU."

Her hair flips through the air as her demonic power surges, her feet begin slowly sinking in the floor as a thing outline of power of destruction forms around her.

I place my hand atop the papers on my desk to keep them from flying away.

"Rias... I don’t think our relationship can fix itself after this... I'm sorry..." I look down at my table showing some guilt, causing the girl to pause her angry fueled rage. "For what it's worth, those two years when we were friends... was awesome... some of the best years of my life. I'm sorry it's come to this."

The girl pauses, her demonic energy becoming eerily calm.

I glance up to see tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.  "I thought you were different."

I give her a sad smile. "Apparently not... but please... take what I said to heart. If not for your peerage, then for your dream to be the rating game king."

Her eyes narrow. "You should refrain from insulting my peerage in such a way."

"And you should refrain from insulting my peerage in such a way. Every single one of my pieces means a lot to me. It doesn't matter if Mittelt was a fallen angel at one point, it doesn't matter that Le Fay was a Pendragon... it doesn't matter that Virgo is a pervert or that Tyra is a feral animal. They are my friends and my family. And you insulting my peerage is no different from me insulting your own."

"…"

"Goodbye Gaius." The red head growls, tears threatening to prickle out of her eyes. "Let's go, Akeno."

Akeno's eyes narrow at me, she stands from her chair and swiftly follows along behind Rias.

The lightbulb in the ceiling of the room shatters.

I give Akeno's back a half-lidded stare. 'Petty bitch.'

Rias will be back... eventually.

They both leave without another word.

I look back down to the papers littering my desk, conjuring a small orb of light above my hand.

"Lets see... I want to make this like a fancy cruise... I'll need to hire some high-quality chef. A bar is certainly needed. I'll need to make a few 'low class' rooms as well."

**Linebreak**

Man, when you can mind control people, purchasing a building is fairly fucking easy.

I am stood within a ramshackle run-down little building with cracked concrete floors. Pebbles litter the floor, as do bits and pieces of broken glass.

The size, isn't all that impressive, somewhere around one thousand square feet or so? It'll probably be bumped down to nine hundred or so when I add in a hidden staircase.

This used to be a hideout for a gang, but most things were seized. Everything else I have personally thrown out.

The only entrance is through an alleyway, nice and inconspicuous.

A tall woman beside me lets out a long yawn. "Ugh. This place looks like shit."

She has pale skin and wears a black hoodie and jeans that looks as if they were picked out of a clearance section in a clothing store.

She has piercing, almost ethereal blue eyes, and extremely light lilac hair that rapidly transitions into a light blue-ish periwinkle color. Frankly, she has E-Girl hair.

Two murky white horns sprout from her forehead, bending backwards above her head, they have several sprouting barbs that point back in front of her, each looking similar to horns you might see on an Eastern 'Lung' dragon.

Deep blue swirling markings go over one of her eyes, they glow in that same ethereal light, much like her eyes. Mist seems to cling to her body somewhat as she lets out an annoyed huff, faint flashes of color can be seen within the mist, flecks of white resembling stars here, a rainbow there.

"This is the place I am supposed to be running?" The girl growls, eyes narrowing.

"It looks bad, now. But soon it'll be one of the main ways to get to the Abyss and by extension the underworld." I answer calmly.

"'Highway to hell'... really?" The girl states with a half-lidded stare.

"I am afraid the name is unnegotiable." I sigh dramatically.

This is my Cohort, Shevet. An incredibly powerful dragon conjured from my powers.

An Esoteric dragon... a Psychic dragon... a dragon of Dreams...

Sort of encroaching on the territory of Great Red, but eh, I don't think he'll mind. At most, at her age, she can see dreams. She isn't exactly powerful enough to do whatever the true dragon of dreams can do, sadly.

Eh, it might change eventually.

"Whatever." She scoffs with an eyeroll as I crack my neck.

"Well, I'm going to quickly see about making this place a little nicer, then I'll see about grabbing Neo and taking a swift trip to Atlas." I drawl as I raise a hand, summoning a golden lyre into my hands.

**Linebreak**

A white haired man's eyes widen.

She's awake.

The brown haired girl inside a large machine presses her hands on the glass, her face has a large scar, crossing over one of her eyes, but... she is doing a lot better than when she was in a coma, barely alive, kept breathing only by the machine she now resides in.

The machine hisses open as the white haired man pushes a couple of buttons.

"Are you alright, Miss Autumn." He gently questions as the girl collapses to the floor, breathing heavily.

"I-I'm fine." She defensively growls.

She forces herself to her feet and lets out a deep breath. "Where am I?"

"You are within Beacon."

The girl lets out another shaky breath as she tries to get her heart rate under control.

"Do you remember the faces of your attackers?" The man asks suddenly.

"No- I- one of them had an illusion semblance... I remember seeing this little girl, but then I got attacked by three people... I-I don't know more than that." The girl whispers.

"I see. Don't worry. We will make sure to find out who attacked you." The man soothes.

**Linebreak**

"So, I am going to show you the general ropes of contracts." I begin slowly.

The multicolored girl blinks slowly wiping her eyes, she had woken up about an hour ago, from sleep I didn't have to enforce.

She chews silently on a sandwich as I continue on. "Contracts are incredibly important to a devil as they are one of the ways to be promoted to a higher class. You Neo, are currently Low class with strength comparable to a medium class."

She raises an eyebrow.

"I know, our classing system is a little confusing. We simultaneously rank peoples strength based on the classes, yet we also refuse to rank them up for merely strength." I state with a small eye roll. "So a high class might be a high class automatically when they are born, realistically they might even have strength comparable to a low class if they are sickly or really lazy."

"There are many ways to rank up, however only one is currently accessible to you. The first, contracts. A devil will slowly wrack up 'points' for each successful contract with sizable rewards. It's a slow process unless your contractor is someone with great power and influence, of course, then you are given a fair amount more 'credit'. The second method, is military accomplishment... which is unlikely as the devil race isn't at war with anyone currently. And the third and final method, Rating games- which are those gladiatorial team versus team fights I told you about a while ago- but don't get your hopes up... I'm not old enough to officially participate."

The girl frowns slightly and taps her chin.

"Anyways, once you do have enough points to be promoted to 'Middle Class', you'll be forced to take an advancement test that has several parts to it, firstly, you'll need to write a report about your aims and ambitions, the second is basically a written test for the history and government of the underworld, and the final test is a one on one fight with another test taker, and as a pawn, you will be allowed to promote to any of the other piece types.

The girl blinks owlishly.

"…"

"You didn't know you could do that... did you?" I question with a disappointed stare.

She shakes her head.

I let out a long sigh and rub my temple. "This is now enemy territory. You are permitted to promote. This is triggered commonly by the pawn in question saying 'Promotion' then one of the four other pieces, Knight, Rook, Bishop, and Queen, but in your case, it might work by-"

Demonic power floods the area as the girl's eyes widen. She looks down at her hands as pink, brown, and white energy crackles around her body.

"Thinking about it... really hard..." I finish slowly.

"This is no longer enemy territory." I blandly state, causing the energy to cease immediately and for the girl to pout at me.

"That reminds me, we need to teach you how to use your demonic power... you seem to be able to use it similar to your original 'Aura', but demonic power can be so much... more."

"But." I concede. "A soul shield, increased physical abilities, and physical illusions is a very good start. Your semblance should also be several times more powerful now, have you experimented with it any?"

She shakes her head.

"Ah, we'll cover that when we get to teaching you how to control demonic magic." I shrug as I take a seat across from her. "Now... once our contractor finds the contract and builds up enough courage to summon us, I'll teleport us both over."

I allow my words to hang in the air for a moment.

Eventually it devolves into an awkward silence so I decide to continue talking. "But seeing as how she isn't doing that. That gives me a little bit more time to talk about contracts."

"Contracts are simple. You teleport over, the person who contacts you asks you to do something ranging from doing the dishes to blowing up the sun, you do it or you don't, you get paid or you don't, then you leave. Now, I am going to make this point VITALLY clear. You do not have to do a contract if you don't want to. It is purely up to you. Just because someone asks for something, doesn't mean you have to do it. If someone ever asks you for a kiss, or for sex, tell me and I will make sure to blacklist them from our future services."

Her eyes narrow as a blush appears on her face; she does a couple quick signs.

"Can't I just kill them?"

"Regretfully no. We aren't allowed to kill our contractors regardless of how much they piss us off or offend us."

"That's stupid." She mimes.

"I said we aren't allowed to kill them. I said nothing about subtly ruining their lives... maybe cutting the breaks on their car, perhaps disabling their smoke alarms, cutting their power. It's really up to you as long as it's not a knife entering their chest repeatedly." I state, causing a feral smile to appear on the girl's face.

"Of course, there are exceptions, it's not like you aren't allowed to defend yourself, I'll leave it to your judgement, like say for instance, you get summoned by a cult who wants to sacrifice a devil to appease their god. I don't think anyone would miss them. But if little Timmy summons you, pulls your hair, and is just in general being a little annoying bastard, you can't kill him."

"With devils, the laws exist, sure, but it really becomes a matter of if you are caught." I smirk. "As long as you leave no traces to yourself, and are subtle in doing it I hold no qualms with you enacting justice on people who well and truly offend you."

I hold up a finger. "But they are some caveats. This isn't a 'go ahead' to feed someone's dog poison if they bump into you in the street, I want you to have some restraint, but for those that are truly the scum of the earth, like those who ask for sex, I hold no real qualms with what happens to them as long as you aren't the one 'officially' doing it. Also, I would like to point out, almost all of my peerage are super innocent 'We have to save them because it's the right thing to do!' Types. So keep your thievery and less than moral things subtle or away from them entirely."

The girl nods slowly seemingly fine with my 'hey, I'm cool with you murdering people if you are subtle about it' clause.

"Secondly, I'd stay away from any and all revenge against devils. You don't know what exactly they can do to connect you to things quite yet." I hold up a second finger.

The girl nods slowly, more than likely remembering how I manhandled Cinder and her two goons.

"I am not going to lie to you. Because of your incredibly hot appearance, dozens of devils are more than likely going to ask me to trade you to them. I won't, of course. But I am warning you that people will probably pester you constantly."

Her face turns red as she glares at me.

"Stop calling me hot." She mimes.

"That would by lying..." I frown. "and the one thing I try not to do is lie... tell the truth in a manner it could be misunderstood? Sure. Refuse to elaborate? Absolutely. But not technically lying... and in this case, I am Neither lying or misleading. You are a stunning eleven out of ten."

Her face is steadily turning more and more red.

She pulls out a butter knife from the kitchen counter she is eating upon and holds it aggressively at me.

I pause as I feel a slight tug.

"Oh joy. The Schnee heiress appears to be summoning me. Let's go."

I reach over and pat the multicolored girl's shoulder, she flings the butter knife over her shoulder, causing it to sink a good inch or two into the drywall behind her, then eats the rest of the sandwich I had given her in a single bite.

In the next moment, we are gone.