Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this story are eighteen years of age or older. Any sexual content involves only consenting adults. This is a work of fiction.
A Marvelous Devil.
Chapter 52: Uninvited Guests.
Nyra's PoV.
The Ashen Court was thriving in a way I didn't even believe was possible. And sure as hell didn't expect I would be part of it. Even less to this point.
Never in my two hundred years did I imagine myself acting like I was, much less ordering things in place of my lord and being listened to.
… Managing it was becoming a logistical nightmare. A nightmare more grandiose than everything I had ever dreamed, and I hated and wanted Dante for every damn moment.
By Lucifer, it was a mess. And I couldn't be more thankful to the asshole and my impertinence in throwing my way with him. I had gotten lucky, devils more important than me were vying for his attention in hopes of getting my place.
Sitting behind my desk… something that alone was more expensive than anything I ever had while I was part of Lord Asmodeus's forces, I rubbed my temples as I reviewed the latest census reports.
Dante's territory. Our territory, my new home, had literally exploded in population over the last few months. Devils from every corner of the Underworld, whether seeking refuge from its harsher territories or hailing from its more traditional families, were flocking to our borders like men possessed.
From the lowest of the low, to even some surprising devils that wanted to see if the Ashen Courts were truly as good as people said on the devil net. We had things the rest of the underworld lacked, and in spades.
All thanks to my bullshit boss and his bullshit woman.
I wanted to ride them both until I couldn't feel my legs and tongue. It was the least I could do considering how much Dante changed my life.
But that wasn't that important right now, because they were who knew where, doing their own mysterious things without explaining a single SHIT to anyone that might find that information useful.
"Oh, Nyra," I tried to imitate the asshole's voice as I slumped in my seat, looking at the ceiling, "I'll be visiting Tandy's hometown; I will stay in touch."
He fucking didn't. Not that his presence was truly required, if I was being honest.
But it still would have been nice. At least to know they were safe.
I ignored the small voice in my head that told me I could have written him whenever I wanted.
I had no fucking idea where Tandy came from, but seeing the bullshit she could pull off at the drop of a hat, I wasn't sure it wasn't dangerous even for someone as strong as both of them.
Someone like Tandy didn't appear out of nowhere. I was still almost sure she might be an archangel's daughter at this point.
Wouldn't be that surprised if that was the case. Knowing Dante, he would be capable of stealing Gabriel's daughter under her nose.
But again, the Ashen Courts were thriving under our leadership.
Lady Celestine, Lord Hadrian, and even Lady Misla were so damn helpful in running this place as well as it was.
It might have been because Lord and Lady Andromalius knew about the suffering a normal devil went through, given their history. They had become very popular with the population. They focused, and I agreed, that we had to invest everything in the advantages we had over every other territory in the underworld.
Agriculture was a self-sustaining economy. Tandy's cleansing of the ground made the ashen courts just so damn fertile, and the food that grew here was healthier, more numerous, and had a small regenerative factor. The animals that we grew up with were thankful for all those advantages, making them sturdier, healthier, and everything that entailed.
I didn't even understand half of it. I wasn't a farmer, but those who worked under us praised Tandy as if she were a Goddess, a gift to devilkind with all her miracles.
It wasn't even a secret anymore, and that had a big part of the devil's nobility fuming.
Food had always been scarce in the underworld, for obvious reasons, and many families made sure to keep that industry in a chokehold, and Tandy ruined all that… while not even staying in the underworld.
It was glorious. And dangerous.
My ears were still ringing from the last time Lord Paimon barged in to try and make an alliance, getting Dante into his grimy hands and under his control. He didn't care, or probably even preferred that Dante wasn't in the underworld when he did so.
Obviously, I didn't accept. I didn't have that kind of power, even if Dante liked to drop everything on us while he did his own thing. Even if I could, why would I?
That made Lord Paimon drop pretenses and start with the threats.
Until Sai, the adorably hunky devil, stepped into the room. And threw him out because, of course, he did. At least he waited until the devil lord tried to force the issue, which gave us all the excuse needed to kick him out of the territory and ban his family from buying our products.
Last I heard, he was still frothing at the mouth. It obviously didn't stop him from obtaining Tandy's leaves or even the food, but he had to pay much more to third parties, and the embarrassment of being publicly thrown out was what stung him the most.
We were devils… our image mattered more to us than what we would like to admit.
Having the current Satans backing was the cherry on top.
Before I could muse on how much my life had changed, a sharp knock on my office door pulled me out of my daydream.
Feeling a bit giddy that someone had even knocked and waited for my approval before entering, I plastered a smile on my face.
"Enter," I called out before making a mess on the desk to make it look like I was working hard. It wouldn't do if someone noticed I was cursing my lord instead of working in… whatever it was that I needed to do.
The door opened, revealing my third-favorite woman and someone who had been part of my wet dreams lately, since the absurd pair had been away for a couple of weeks. Misla Bael.
Sairaorg had a hot mom. And I wasn't complaining.
The former main wife of Lord Bael was a MILF, with all that entailed. But right now, she wasn't acting like she usually did. She looked at the floor, fidgeting slightly with the sleeves of her dress.
I frowned, having a bad feeling out of nowhere.
Her posture simply screamed apology, but the faint smirk she was trying to hide completely ruined the effect.
I sighed, cursing Dante once more for leaving me in charge of all these adults.
Adults who created more messes than even Dante did, who didn't care about normal social norms.
"What did your son do this time, Misla?"
"My baby didn't start it," she answered quickly, stepping into the room and completely failing at hiding her amused grin, "You know he would never do that, Nyra. He was merely sparring with Rias and Sona near the southern border."
A headache started forming, and I could swear to the Satans that I could feel a vein on my forehead throb once.
"The southern border," I repeated flatly, "The one directly adjacent to the Phenex territory?"
"Yes," Misla nodded unabashedly, "It seems the commotion attracted some attention; you know how things are lately with so many spies around the territory."
She shrugged while I felt the vein throb once more.
"Riser Phenex must have heard that her fiancé was in the underworld and arrived with his peerage. He said that the noise of their battle was bothering the town next to us. Can you believe the cheek of that child?"
I closed my eyes. By Lucifer, she didn't even need to say more.
It didn't help that Riser Phenex was a famously arrogant and entitled noble. Worst part, the Phenex weren't particularly happy with us, considering that our most famous products were quite good and cheaper alternatives to theirs. And Dante had been ignoring their family's gala invitations for months, as well as more personal settings.
They were already insulted, and for a family like them… well, I couldn't even begin to imagine how much that rankled them.
"Please tell me he didn't kill him," I almost begged Misla, who just beamed proudly at her son.
"Of course he didn't. He merely shattered the boy's jaw, broke his ribs, and embedded him into the floor to a point where his queen had to use a bit of her explosion magic to dig him up. His regeneration handled the worst of it before they teleported him away."
Despite the mounting stress, my lips twitched at the image. I didn't particularly like devil nobles, Dante notwithstanding.
"What did our esteemed neighbor do to deserve that?"
"Eh~… I didn't ask for many details. I believe he said some things about Rias that left my baby fuming, but what broke the camel's back was when he started insulting Dante." Misla shrugged in a 'what can you do' way. "You know how thankful Sai is to his Lord. Quite a good vassal, don't you think?"
Yeah… I wasn't touching that. Sairaorg's respect for Dante, despite my lord's assholish ways, was a known quantity in the Ashen Courts. It got to the point where, if I hadn't seen Sai's eyes glued to his queen's ass, I would have suspected something.
It was heartwarming in a way; devils weren't exactly known for being this honorable.
"Lord Phenex is going to demand reparations," I sighed, pulling a fresh sheet of the best parchment I had available. "Sai just gave him all the ammunition he needed to excuse the stink he will raise in the council chambers. Probably sent him knowing that something like this would happen."
I also didn't mention the victorious glint in Misla's eyes. I was 100% sure she had suggested that Sai train the girls on that side of the territory so that something like this would happen.
Everyone here knew what she thought about her niece's marriage contract, but knowing what she went through… well, it wasn't that surprising that she was manipulating things in the background.
Not that Dante would care. If anything, he would find it hilarious and probably congratulate the MILF. He truly saw us devils as something that didn't affect him. How some of the old devils saw humans.
I still wasn't sure what he truly was, but… I was glad I jumped ships when I did.
If only he would return and ravish me along with that not-angel that made me bedroom eyes whenever she saw me drooling over her King.
Bastards. Both of them.
"Will you summon him?" Misla asked after a moment, allowing me to finish writing the letter explaining the situation to Lady Serafall.
Better she hears it from me than from anyone else.
"I believe it's for the best." I nodded calmly, ignoring the bubbling feelings inside my chest.
Something Misla noted, because she tittered amusedly.
Dante Andromalius.
It wasn't often that I visited Kama-taj. At least, both my light and I at the same time.
Lately, she was the one visiting almost daily for her training sessions with Wong and the other adepts here. She was well-liked, surprisingly enough.
They truly challenged my view of mortals. I knew that greed and jealousy were pretty intertwined in the race, enough to make me confused about why they didn't treat my light differently.
Maybe there was some truth to the saying Never fuck with the healers.
The light force was magnificent, and I wondered why it hadn't been conquered by the many cosmic forces that should have been interested in it. It was unique enough to attract my attention once I saw my light, after all.
And I wasn't saying that because of my connection with her.
It was just really special, and it filled me with pride to know how coveted she was going to be through both worlds. Because she was mine.
Stepping through the dark force in the central courtyard, because at this point I didn't fear anyone here, I pulled Tandy closer to me under the jealous eyes of many apprentices.
It didn't use to feel like this. At least to this extent, and especially from these lower life forms, as I used to think of them.
My lovely bishop smiled and waved as we walked towards the strongest presence inside the temple.
And she had already prepared enough tea for the three of us.
"You seem more at ease now, my dear student." She greeted me warmly. "Did your fight against Wenwu change something in your plans?"
"Not particularly." I shook my head, not the least surprised that she had seen the fight. Powerful sights like Heimdal's or Uatu were somewhat easy to sense because they had a different flavor, or those a bit crude, like the two magical women who were taking a peek.
Yao? She knew too many things for me to feel them all.
"What did you think?" I asked curiously.
"I'm also curious!" Tandy jumped on her seat, nodding at Yao after sipping her tea and sighing in contentment.
Then my light winced.
"Apart from starting to focus on the mental arts."
Yao laughed softly, smiling at Tandy.
She didn't even blame my methods as other mortals would have, but I knew why. She was one of the very few beings I knew who realistically thought a bit as I did. Not entirely, she was too young for that, but she wasn't as squeaky clean as some of the students thought of her.
She understood my reasons in a way very few people would.
"My dear, you're still young. There's obviously a lot you still need to learn, but in the short time you've been with us, you've made us proud."
Tandy blushed adorably, looking both proud and bashful as she tried to hide how she had perked up.
"That being said," Yao sighed, "yes, mental arts are a need. Especially now."
"Earth will enter very, very interesting times," Yao… no, the Sorcerer Supreme continued, her tone losing its previous warmth. "There are entities residing here, and others looking toward our dimension, that consider a mortal mind to be nothing more than a plaything. You must build your defenses, Tandy. You cannot rely on Dante to shield you from everything. And as you know, our doors are open to you. I'm willing to teach you the arts myself."
Tandy nodded seriously, the bashfulness evaporating from her face even as gratefulness showed through. The desert had proven exactly what happened when she dropped her guard.
When she didn't hear my warnings. I did not consider myself all-knowing, but I knew a lot. Much more than anyone she had met.
But as I have said many times before, Tandy was a mortal. Mistakes were part of that life; the only important thing was that she learned from them. That was all that mattered.
I wouldn't be able to shield her from every consequence of her actions. I would just make sure she lived to learn from them.
I reached into the pocket of my coat, deciding it was time to conclude our business before we went our separate ways, pulling out the sphere of condensed energy I had ripped from Wenwu's mind. The orb was bright, containing a millennium of hoarded martial knowledge and terrestrial history. As well as some interesting extraterrestrial information.
I admittedly didn't focus on it too much, even after getting it. Just made sure I wasn't 'tweaking', as Tandy amusingly called it. To find out where exactly those rings he used came from.
Surprise surprise. The damn dragons were still making a mess. I wondered how it would explode on his face when the time came. It would be amusing if nothing else.
I set the sphere on the wooden table.
"Payment for everything you've done for us." I smiled genuinely.
Yao waved her hand, and the orb vanished into the folds of her robes without a sound. She didn't thank me immediately. Instead, she fixed her gaze on my face with a hint of curiosity that I found endearing.
"You held his life in your hands," Yao observed. "I could feel your anger at one point. Why did you let Wenwu walk away?"
I leaned back, resting my arm over the back of Tandy's chair. "You're not exactly wrong. But he gave me a good time. It was… fun. That made me generous, I think. Also, those trinkets are more trouble than they're worth."
I paused, trailing my thumb over Tandy's cheek, who perked up and locked eyes with mine.
"He offended me, with his actions, I mean," I admitted, my voice was a bit lower than usual. "Taking control of my light is a slight I didn't enjoy. But... I stayed my hand. He showed her the exact lesson she needed to learn to move forward. He made her safer in the long run."
The table was quiet.
I turned my head, locking eyes with the blonde woman beside me.
"You are mine," I told her, completely ignoring my teacher across the table. "I want to see you reach the absolute pinnacle of what you are capable of. Because I love you. Because I want you to be at my side for eternity."
Tandy froze as her teacup rattled loudly against the wood.
A second later, she practically launched herself out of her chair.
She threw her arms around my neck, burying her hands in my hair as her lips crashed against mine.
Grabbing her waist to avoid falling from the chair, I pulled her tight against my chest as I returned the kiss without hesitation. She poured every ounce of her affection into the action, and I did the same.
A polite cough interrupted us.
I broke the kiss, keeping my arm firmly secured around Tandy's waist. Yao was looking down at her empty cup, but her soul told the whole story. I could literally feel the amusement, pride, and surprise radiating from her.
I rolled my eyes while ignoring a strange feeling on the back of my neck.
"Before we move on," I said, eager to shift the topic away from my words. "I felt Kaecilius prying during the battle. The stench is feeling even stronger now."
Yao sighed between pain and disappointment.
"Why do you protect him, even now?" I asked curiously. "You know I would love to ensure that flaming head doesn't get a foothold on this planet."
"Because he still has a path he must walk," Yao explained, looking toward the training monks in the courtyard. "A role that will be crucial for the timeline. And so do I."
I didn't press the issue.
Beside me, Tandy looked entirely confused by the cryptic exchange, but she was still staring at my profile with an admittedly dumb smile that made me want to pinch her cheek and kiss her more.
Yao turned her attention back to me. Her expression changed into something far more serious.
"I prefer to let you approach your affairs on your own schedule, Dante. But I think you'll want to know this before it explodes on our faces."
I raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"It concerns the mutants in Westchester," Yao stated.
I frowned in confusion. "The who?"
"A school for mutants," Yao waved her hand. "When you did whatever you did to turn Ms. Bowen into what you are, the resulting surge of cosmic energy and the light force echoed across the psychic plane. By bad luck, Charles Xavier was actively connected to Cerebro, a machine that vastly enhances his already fearsome abilities."
"And it fucked him up," I deduced, piecing the puzzle together. "I remember feeling someone watching."
"He fell into a coma," Yao confirmed. "That sped up some things that shouldn't have happened this fast. Things… big enough to worry even someone like us."
"I could step in to fix it," Yao continued calmly. "But my methods would either be a temporary bandage or a final, lethal solution. Allowing the chaos to continue might yield useful results eventually, but fixing it properly now would strengthen Earth's defenses in the long run."
I tilted my head, my curiosity officially piqued. She wouldn't mention something like this for nothing. If she was asking me to step in, that meant there was something worth my while.
"What exactly happened?" I asked, feeling a thrill of excitement.
My dealmaking senses were trembling in a way they hadn't since the first time I saw Tandy.
I wondered how much I would gain from this.
Logan.
Xavier's institute.
Sniffing, I closed my eyes.
It was going to rain soon.
My cigar burned to cinders as I sat near the pond, my healing factor burning out the nicotine before I could even feel the buzz.
It was more of a habit, to be honest.
And it's not like I had much to do with all the defenses around the state. Chuck had made sure we had the best of the best without him lifting a finger. I didn't need to be checking 24/7.
Except Chuck wasn't lifting a finger these days. Not since the accident.
Months… Whole months of him lying in that bed down there, with machines doing the breathing his body apparently couldn't do for him anymore. It worked; it kept him alive, but no one had seen any way to fix him.
I hadn't realized how much of this place ran on something nobody could see. Chuck never raised his voice because he didn't need to. He had a way of sitting in the back of everyone's head, just enough to make them behave. To keep this place from turning into a den of squabbling little shits.
Now that he wasn't here, everyone noticed.
Storm did what she could, bless her heart. More than what she could, in fact. She gave it her all, ran the dorms, the training, and sat through every meeting that used to be Chuck's, and she never complained. Which… made me feel even worse about the complaining I did in my own head.
But she wasn't Chuck. Not that anyone expected her to be, including herself. The problem was, expectations didn't stop reality from poking at you anyway.
She could tell the kids to knock it off... She couldn't make them feel it the way Chuck did. The difference between a teacher yelling down the hall and a parent who's already disappointed before you even realize why.
We'd have more fights this month than the last six combined. Fights between these brats weren't like those in a normal school. Or at least, I hoped the normies didn't have to put out fires as often as we did. Or rebuild parts of the dorms.
It hadn't been that serious. Yet.
Then there was Hank.
He'd been with Chuck the night both went down. Whatever happened there hit them at once, even if they affected them differently. Hank was still blaming himself for Chuck's dire state.
At least he was conscious, and no one but him blamed him. Still blind, somehow.
He hadn't found a way to fix his eyes.
More importantly, Hank didn't like to talk about it. And that made me a lot more confused than the accident itself.
Whatever it had been, it was big enough to take out two of the smartest people in this house in one shot, in two different ways, without either of them seeing it coming.
That alone should have alarmed me more… but it got bumped down the list instead. Because of Jean.
Jean was the one who truly scared me.
Not like the other two idiots who were probably playing with things they didn't understand. That was part of the job, and it didn't surprise me that much. But what was happening with Jean felt like something happening inside her, getting worse by the week, and not one of us had the first idea why.
It started small. She got quiet after the accident. Which… fine, everybody was shocked. Then the quiet turned into something else. Red stopped eating with the rest of us, she stopped showing up to the common room in the evenings, and didn't want to go to the university like the rest of the brats.
She didn't even let Kitty braid her hair while she read the self-control books Chuck forced on her.
Then she started snapping at everyone.
First time I really clocked it, honestly, was when her boyfriend came up from the city.
Bit of an idiot, and he didn't know how lucky he was to get someone like Jean. But he was good, even if he smelled way too much to my senses. But he treated her well.
Brought her flowers and tried to take her for a walk in the ground, same as he always did.
She flipped him off and locked herself in her room.
Last I heard, she broke up with him.
And I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't come back together. He was the kind of man who believed such action emasculated him and reacted badly.
What worried me was that Jean almost attacked the brat when he started banging on her door and asking for an explanation.
I still felt the phantom pain of her pushing him away. Thank God I managed to move him out of the way before it hit him.
It was surprising, but still not that worrying. Stress did that to people, and I wouldn't be surprised if she was blaming herself a bit about Chuck's. I'd done it myself more times than I could count.
We gave her some space, a few days to calm herself by her lonesome. Then I went to talk to her myself.
She knew I wouldn't blame her. That I understood her as she understood me better than anyone.
That one took a lot of my regeneration to overcome. She didn't even tell me to get out of her room. Instead, she pushed me so hard that I found myself a couple of kilometers away in the middle of some rubble.
It would have stung more if I hadn't found out after I returned that she did the same thing to Scott. At least I recovered quickly.
I had to fight back the smirk that threatened to show.
But it was useful to know that. Because it wasn't about me.
Something was wrong with Jean, and the only one who might have had the first idea of what was happening was three floors up, hooked to a ventilator.
As if the inside of the house wasn't enough, the outside decided to pile on too.
Two runs in with Magneto's people in the last month. Nothing that big, but still troublesome. Humans were approaching and trying to get their slimy hands into the institute. The usual, but Chuck wasn't there to calm their ruffled feathers.
Then the worst of them all. The queen bitch.
Emma Frost showed up.
She offered to mend his mind from whatever put him under. She tried, truly, but whatever hit Chuck was completely beyond her skill. And wasn't that surprising?
That didn't stop her from having a very civil, very polite chat with four of our older kids about opportunities elsewhere. On her side of the fence. With a lot of… resources, more than what we could offer.
Three of them left that same day. The last one took three days, and she took her boyfriend with her.
Storm tried. She sat with each of them and made the case for staying, but you can't argue with riches and the added security compared to what we offered, when some normal humans wanted to grab our kind and do unspeakable things to us. Not when the one who usually does that isn't present.
Even if I thought Emma's method was better than Chuck's.
Didn't blame the brats. It wasn't their fight, but it stung anyway. The place was bleeding little by little, every damn week, and nothing any of us could do could fix it.
Maybe it was time we approached some other avenues.
I still had some trees I could shake. Maybe one of them could fix Chuck.
While things with Sylvie didn't end particularly well after she ghosted me, I knew she would be up to help. Magic was useful like that.
I didn't know where she was; the last time we fought together was during Project Sedan, but I could get some help finding her current location.
I was still chewing on that when Piotr's voice came over the comm. Calm as always, but there was an edge under it.
"Logan, prepare yourself. Front gate."
I lifted an eyebrow even if he couldn't see it. "What happened?"
"Two people are outside, just about to knock."
I stopped moving before jumping into movement. "What happened to the alarms?"
"They didn't notice. I only did because I was watching for signs of trouble between the kids."
That… that was worrying. Especially in a place with so many telepaths that should have alerted if someone unknown passed the gates and apparently walked all the way to the mansion.
By the time I got around to the front of the house, Storm was already there, with Scott trailing behind her. Piotr came from the side, with Kurt following with a deep frown that didn't hide his nervousness.
Nobody spoke. Words were too slow for a team like us.
But the closer I walked, the more I felt something.
I'd felt fear before. More than I'd ever admit out loud. I had faced monsters, evil mutants, and even demons. And this didn't feel like any of those times.
The rest noticed my silence, the way my shoulders tensed and my hands clenched. My claws were threatening to come out even if I didn't want to.
Scott's hand went to his visor as soon as he realized something was wrong.
"Piotr," Storm said simply, the smell of ozone growing noticeably.
He did, and the doors swung in.
A man stood at the front of the steps, a curious grin on his face as he hugged a woman who looked a lot like him.
They smelled… weird. And I didn't recognize any of them.
My nose had smelled almost everything the world had to offer by this point, but I didn't recognize their scent. I couldn't read a damn thing off it.
And the man's eyes lit up as he saw us, his grin growing even wider as they passed over each of us.
"Hello there," the woman waved excitedly, "I think we should talk."
I wanted to put my claws through the man's throat before he opened his mouth. Couldn't say why.
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