Chapter 81: Off to Kyoto!
Within the confines of the Belphegor Estate, the manor's living room hummed with the air of excitement and anxiety as Alduin sat with his hands folded over his lap, enduring the skull-pierceing stares of Roygun and Thora. Both of whom seemed ready to explode on Alduin with thousands upon thousands of questions, enough to make his ears bleed in agony.
"I should probably start by saying I'm alright, I've already undergone a full medical examination by Lord Beelzebub." If his word wasn't enough to warrant a clean bill of health, then Alduin wasn't sure what was.
The tension in the posture of the two ladies toned down a notch, but remained nonetheless. Alduin had just made himself responsible for an immense loss of Great King Faction's influence and power, perhaps even to a point where they'd snowball into collapse any minute now.
One could only imagine the horrific thoughts that were swirling around Zekram Bael's head, most of which were probably brewing with the sole intent of finding a way to get back at his 'grandson' and somehow salvage the damage that had been done to his sphere of influence.
"Still, shouldn't you rest a while longer?" Roygun countered, Thora's face making it abundantly clear that she had her full support. "You may have been unconscious at the time… but I saw the state of your body after your battle with Bedeze ended. It wasn't pretty."
Alduin pressed his lips together. She was right, he had no idea what he looked like after he went down. But based on the damage he had sustained before his world went dark, and the fact that even someone with his level of natural regeneration needed to be hospitalized for four days painted a gruesome, yet presumably accurate picture.
"Trust me, I'm fine. Better than fine actually." Alduin raised his hand, bright-green demonic power swirling around his appendage.
It took Thora a second to understand what it was she was looking at, but Roygun's eyes widened immediately, her mouth agape with stunned realization.
"You're Satan-Class!" She yelped.
"...Already?" Thora muttered in disbelief. Alduin's natural talent was in a league of its own, she had always known that, it wasn't a hard conclusion to come to taking his lineage into consideration. However, growth like this wasn't a product of mere talent, it couldn't be. It was the product of something that had yet to be understood. An inexplicable factor that dwelled somewhere within Alduin's core.
"Mhm. Already."
He wasn't ashamed to gloat a little. But he didn't remain that way for long, he needed to maintain a certain level of maturity for the conversation that would ensue.
"But before I talk about that, I should probably tell you two about a little… argument… me and Serafall had while I was still in Lord Beelzebub's facility." He sucked his teeth. "Which may or may not have resulted in my vacation being revoked completely."
"Argument?" Roygun raised her brow.
Alduin took a deep breath, and started to explain everything about his involvement with the Governor-General. From the moment they first made contact, to the point when Azazel handed over the Artificial Sacred Gear to him as an insurance policy just in case Kokabiel ever decided to rear his head somewhere his former boss couldn't reach in time.
"I had a feeling this would come back to bite you in the rear sooner or later." Thora let out an exhale of exasperation, shaking her head in disapproval.
"You knew?!" Roygun's voice neared a shriek.
"I did," she side-eyed the Belphegor. "I'm surprised he didn't tell you as well. Though I suppose you wouldn't hesitate to inform Lady Leviathan in order to drive a wedge between her and Alduin."
You'd have to be devoid of all five senses not to notice the woman's animosity towards Serafall.
"How dare you—!"
"Roygun." Alduin interrupted her. He didn't raise his voice or try to sound like he was scolding her. He simply offered his fiancée a blank, knowing look.
"F-Fine, maybe I would've. But you didn't know that for certain! So you should've told me anyway!" She huffed. Crossing her arms and turning her head to the side with a childish pouty-face. "Besides, so what if you colluded with our enemy's faction leader a little? That doesn't give her the right to cut your vacation time short! Hmph, she's just jealous she doesn't have anyone to spend a vacation of her own with."
'I'm pretty sure it does though.'
Alduin wasn't sure what else to do but chuckle nervously.
"Point is, I'll be leaving tomorrow morning to head over to Kyoto with Serafall. I'd spend more time here if I could, but duty calls and all." Whether or not he'd be promoted to Vice Minister was still up in the air, but at present, he remained a representative of the Leviathan's Foreign Affairs.
"What about Zekram?" Thora added. "You've hurt him, and he's not the type to accept a loss with grace. There's a good chance he'll try to hurt you back."
Alduin chuckled again. The sound a product of amusement rather than nervousness this time.
"That won't be a problem. He won't be able to move a muscle with Sirzechs around, not just physically, but politically too thanks to the damage he's sustained. I doubt his thirst for vengeance will vanish anytime soon, but he won't be able to act on it while he's preoccupied with preventing his faction from collapsing and looking for a way to restore his lost influence."
A fangless, clawless lion could roar all it wanted. It'd still just possess all bark and no bite.
Moreover, Alduin was already Satan-Class. In the rare scenario where Zekram actually managed to compensate for his losses, Alduin would more likely than not already be strong enough in the time it'd take Zekram to accomplish that to stroll straight through House Bael's front door, and submit the ancestral devil all on his own by force.
"Good riddance." Roygun smiled. "Honestly, Sirzechs should just hurry up and kill that cockroach already. There's no point in letting him squirm any longer."
"It's still too early." Thora shook her head. "With all the houses still under his faction's banner, removing Zekram right now is bound to lead to chaos. Lord Lucifer will need to systematically start convincing those houses to reconsider their allegiances before completely stripping Zekram of all his power."
"Exactly," Alduin nodded. "It'll take time, but time's the only factor at play now. Even my mother agrees that Zekram's era passed a long time ago, he'll never fully recover from a position like this."
Without a Super Devil on their side, political influence was the one and only weapon the Great King Faction could truly wield. And the manipulation of the Rating Games gave that to them in spades. Losing that source of influence was basically the equivalent of half their power being severed off. The other half laid solely on the fact that so many members of the remaining 72 Pillars still rallied behind Zekram.
The Four Great Satans had no reason to fear the Bael himself. Only the headache that his post-mortem buttery effect would cause them.
"Anyway, about this trip to Kyoto." Roygun circled back. "Did Serafall give you a time frame of when you'd be returning?"
"No, she can make estimates, but neither of us can guess how the negotiations will proceed for sure." Alduin rubbed his cheek. "And even once the negotiations are done, I might prolong my stay to learn whatever I can about Demonic Ki from the Yōkai there."
Roygun's expression tightened. Understandably, she didn't like being separated from her fiancé for extended periods of time. Especially when she was supposed to have spent the rest of his vacation with him, only for Serafall to butt in and cut it short amidst her betrayal-induced episode.
"Don't worry," Thora assured the cherry-haired woman. "I'll make sure to keep a close eye on him so he doesn't dig himself into more trouble than he's already in."
Alduin's expression mimicked his fiancée's. He knew he'd have to confront Thora about this sooner or later, and as much as he wanted to procrastinate, he knew keeping it to himself would only do her more harm in the long term than it would good. Whether he liked it or not, the bandage needed to be ripped off.
"Thora."
His voice echoed with solemn, layered resignation.
"Yes?"
And she knew him too well not to notice.
"You can't come."
She paused for a moment. Her hands trembled before she clenched them tight, forcing herself to remain composed.
"Why not?" Her tone lowered. "If this is about you not wanting to involve me in something—"
"It's not that, or any other form of irrational nonsense I've come up with." He hesitated. A testament to how reluctant he was to say what he needed to say. "Thora. The dangers surrounding me are a lot stronger than they used to be, hell, even the small sliver of Demonic Ki my mother infected me with is far more threatening than anything I've ever encountered. Tiamat's blood included."
Kokabiel aside. Now Sebastian was on his radar. Alduin knew exactly what, or rather, who his old man was fighting for. When it was time for their inevitable fight to begin, he wouldn't come after his son with anything less than a 1000% of his boundless strength.
He couldn't afford to have Thora by his side in a situation like that. There'd be no way for him to keep her safe from getting caught up in the crossfire.
Color drained from the maid's already vampiric face. She knew what she was about to hear, she knew the exact sequence of words that were about to leave Alduin's mouth.
"I'm sorry, I really am. But you're not strong enough." He wasn't heartless enough to use the word 'weak' on her, but that didn't change what his words meant. "Ultimate-Class won't do. I know better than to dismiss your desire to follow me, but from this point onwards, I can't let you do so unless you improve your ability to protect yourself."
Satan-Class was the bare minimum. Not the kind of Satan-Class Alduin was with all his miraculous genetic wonders. But Satan-Class nonetheless.
"Before I leave, I'm going to leave you with about a dozen vials of my blood to use to help you, should you choose to start training again." He stood up and paced towards the door. "But I won't force you to do anything, power has no bearing on the love I hold for you. Please don't forget that, ever."
Without another word, he took his leave.
For he couldn't bear to look at Thora's distraught, heartbroken expression for another second. A face like that was powerful enough to make even someone as stubborn as him reconsider the path he had chosen.
///
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Like always, Zekram was sitting in his office situated on the castle's uppermost floor. Alone. Brooding over the information a panicked, terrified Bedeze Abaddon had delivered to him in-person four days ago. An impossible tale that belonged to a madman's ravings, but one had found it's way into the Bael's reality nonetheless.
His spiritual grandson had done something insane. Zekram knew what he was doing when he told him the truth about Roygun Belphegor and the King Piece, a revelation designed to benefit his desire to separate a woman he deemed unsuitable for the boy's bloodline. How could he, the Underworld's self-appointed overseer of nobility, allow a fraudulent devil to contaminate a genetic miracle with her weakness? In his eyes, that'd be a criminal blunder deserving of execution.
He wasn't blind. When he talked with Alduin face-to-face, he knew he had seen right through his ploy. That didn't surprise him. What surprised was the fact that Alduin didn't seem to understand the necessity behind his separation from Roygun, Zekram couldn't for the life of him understand why the boy was so willing to tolerate such weakness. He was Martha's child. If she was in his position, she'd execute such an unworthy spouse without hesitation.
But fine, Alduin was young. All things considered, his mother hadn't done a great job of parenting him, it wasn't unreasonable that his psychological profile didn't match hers 1:1. If Zekram had to step in and temper Alduin's understanding of what was and wasn't acceptable himself, then he'd do so. The Buné might rebel a little here and there, but that was to be expected considering the fiery temperament he demonstrated.
However, Alduin didn't just 'rebel a little here and there'. No, the boy went ahead and launched a full-on coup d'état.
He convinced Roygun to cast aside her King Piece, a level of persuasion that had to have come from his mother. Then approached Sirzechs and rounded up the other five bearers of the Ajuka's failed creation with his assistance, boldly proclaiming that he'd fight all five of them back-to-back. No breaks. No pauses. No recovery assistance from the spectating Satans. Just raw, continuous battle. The kind that'd make his ancestor, Selvaro Buné, grin from ear-to-ear with glee.
It was an incomprehensibly ridiculous notion. An Ultimate-Class challenging five Satan-Class rankers all on his own, a battle with their king pieces on the line. The act alone was in complete defiance of the Underworld's natural order. An insult to it, even.
And then he won.
He won against Tephos Beur.
He won against Dilra Marbas.
He won against Fimmil Vassago.
He won against Gragg Forneus.
And only once he was midway through his battle with Bedeze Abaddon, did he finally fall. As if that made the situation any better. What was Zekram supposed to do with a single pawn? How was he supposed to retain any control over the Rating Games with a single ranker that merely held the #4 position?
The answer was simple: he couldn't. In a single day, Alduin had completely dismantled the core of the Great King Faction's influence over the Rating Games. The Underworld's single most prestigious tradition since Ajuka first developed the Evil Piece System.
And for what? Zekram simply made his stance on Roygun clear, he had yet to even take any action. But apparently, his words alone were enough for Alduin to decide that action needed to be taken. Drastic action. A level of impulsiveness even someone as experienced as Zekram couldn't foresee.
He hadn't moved an inch outside his office for the past four days, his brain that had been developed over multiple millennium wracking itself to find a solution to a problem his faction had yet to even hear of. Only to blank each time he thought a potential route through.
To be blunt, he was fucked.
The scales were already tipped against him between his faction and the Four Great Satans, but at least he still had some leverage to work with.
But now? What could he possibly try to pressure Sirzechs or Ajuka with?
"Alvus." He spoke, his layered, aged voice summoning his Shade.
"I am at your service, great master!" His loyal creature popped up in less than a fraction of a second. Ready and eager to do its lord's bidding.
"I need you to send a message to Rizevim."
As the humans liked to say, drastic times called for drastic measures.
///
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Human World, Undisclosed Location.
Atop a remote, tranquil mountain situated somewhere in the human world's eastern hemisphere, sat a young, spiky-haired man with sharp, sanpaku-like brown eyes beneath a pair of spectacles that radiated a deep air of mystique and wisdom. His posture brimming with the academic confidence you'd expect from a seasoned bookworm.
He adorned a classic, japanese school uniform dedicated for fall with a dark-crimson, fantastical robe over it, one that looked like it belonged to part of some kind of high-quality cosplay set. Armed and woven with all sorts of intricate, top-of-the-line mystical enhancements and protective circuitry that only those who belonged to the supernatural world could ever hope to notice.
He was sitting on the ledge of the mountain's cliffside, his legs dangling over the edge as he flipped through the pages of a tome he was holding. The characters etched into its hard, leather cover runic in nature without the slightest semblance of palpable human literature.
"Georg."
A voice called out to the bespectacled young man, 'Georg', from his rear. Stemming from a similarly aged man with short, messy obsidian hair and deep-blue eyes. He wore the exact same school uniform as Georg, but instead of coupling it with a mage's robe, he sported ancient chinese hanfu attire around his waist, as if he were a character ripped straight from a Romance of Three Kingdoms.
"Cao Cao," Georg acknowledged his comrade.
"How are the preparations? Are we ready to move yet?" Cao Cao skipped over to Georg and plopped down beside him, hopeful eagerness shimmering through his oceanic irises.
"No," Georg adjusted his glasses. "I've finished preparing the first phase, the breaching spell to get us into Urakyoto. However, the spell to bind the Kyuubi to our will is going to take a little more time. The leylines are sensitive. If I make even the slightest miscalculation, they'll backfire and destroy us through an automatic defensive system centered around the Kyuubi. It's important the spell's incapable of detecting the subjugation of the—"
"Alright, alright." Cao Cao chuckled. "Spare me the details, you know full well that I won't understand a word of it. You're our resident genius, we all trust you to handle the nerdy stuff." He patted Georg on the shoulder.
Soon, their Hero Faction's days of operating in the shadows would come to an end. Finally, they'd be able to announce their intention to the world. They'd be able to let the other supernatural races who looked down on them know of their existence, fear it even.
For they were humanity's strongest representatives. Bearers of the Biblical God's ancient armaments that they planned to use to bring down their race's opposition. To annihilate the gifted creatures who believed themselves safe behind their armor of immortal flesh and bone.
That was their mission.
That was their reason for existing.
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