Mephisto smiled, pulling a ridiculously long, enchanted scroll from his coat and unrolling it across his extravagant desk. He presented me with three tiers of targets for my expanding army, tapping the parchment with a gloved finger.
"Target One," Mephisto began, pointing to a moving ink illustration. "A massive clan of rogue Oni hidden deep within the Tateyama Mountain Range. They are renowned for their martial prowess, but they are currently leaderless and causing a rather annoying amount of chaos in the region."
A horde of giant, martial-arts-obsessed demons sounds like the perfect frontline to me, I thought, nodding. "Okay, who's next?"
"Target Two," Mephisto continued. "A horde of low-level elemental goblins that I've managed to corral into an abandoned realm. They aren't particularly strong individually, but their sheer volume is impressive."
I rubbed my chin, looking at the moving ink. "I'll take them," I decided. "If they're truly elementals, I can just use my flames to evolve them through training. A few weeks in my dimension and they might actually turn into somewhat of a threat."
"A visionary approach," Mephisto chuckled, before his finger slid down to the very bottom of the scroll. "And finally, Target Three."
He didn't name the demon. Instead, he slid a heavily warded, black-clasped dossier across the desk. "An ancient, imprisoned demon that even the Vatican is utterly terrified of. Someone I suggest could serve as your Second General."
I picked up the dossier, my interest definitely piqued by the Oni and the mysterious Wildcard. "Alright then, I'll start making house calls. Anything else?"
"Just one more piece on the board," Mephisto said casually. "Amaimon will also be joining our side for the upcoming war."
I raised an eyebrow at that. "Is he at full power? Because when we faced off back then—before I even unlocked my full power—he didn't feel particularly strong. I mean, for a literal Demon King, he felt severely weaker than he should have been."
Mephisto's smile widened into something much more ancient. "Astute observation. That is because Shemihaza sacrificed herself to seal parts of Amaimon's true power and persona into crystals around her frozen form, shortly after his rampages caused mass destruction across the landscape. In exchange for sparing him from complete annihilation, a pact was formed, binding Amaimon to serve Shemihaza and her descendants."
That genuinely intrigued me. "This is like the second or third time I've heard about this Shemihaza. Who are they? And how are they powerful enough to stop one of the Demon Kings?"
"Shemihaza, the Emperor of Creation, is one of the Sol—the Twin Stars," Mephisto explained, lacing his fingers together. "They are incredibly powerful demonic emperors that hold a higher hierarchical rank than the standard Eight Demon Kings. Shemihaza is also one of the supreme founding advisors of the True Cross Order. She chose to side with humanity to help mankind defend itself against Gehenna's demons."
Mephisto gestured grandly out the massive stained-glass window toward the Exwires training in the yards below. "And Shiemi Moriyama is one of those descendants."
I blinked. "Mmm, so that means Shiemi-girl is capable of holding a Demon King off."
"Some, but not all," Mephisto corrected smoothly. "She's considered a Nephilim proxy—half-human, half-demon offspring. She wouldn't be able to stand up to the likes of Lucifer without losing her own life in the exchange, but she would do very well against the likes of Astaroth."
"Mmm, okay. Her high demonic power and spiritual energy make a lot more sense now," I mused. Then, a realization hit me like a truck. "Wait a minute. If Amaimon is technically tied down to Shemihaza's descendants... then that means Shiemi-girl can..."
"Yes," Mephisto grinned. "She has the power to bring forth his full power and command him as a familiar."
I didn't say anything for a moment. I just turned and stared out the window. Down in the yard, Shiemi tripped over her own feet, accidentally dropping a wooden training sword on her toe and apologizing profusely to the air.
I turned back to Mephisto and completely lost it.
"Ahahahahahahahahaha!" I laughed uncontrollably, holding my stomach. "What an idiot! How could the King of Earth have gotten himself into a situation like that?!"
After a good minute, I finally stopped laughing, wiping a tear from my eye. "Speaking of Nephilims, that nerd Lightning is one too, right?"
Mephisto's smile froze for a fraction of a second. "His situation is a rather unique one. But that's a closely guarded secret. How did you uncover that?"
"Oh, the universe told me," I said casually.
Mephisto stared at me, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to discern if I was joking.
"All I have to do is command it to tell me something about the universe, and it'll tell me," I explained.
Mephisto recovered his composure, leaning forward with undeniable curiosity. "Reaaally? How about a little demonstration?"
I shrugged. "Yea, sure, why not. All I really have to do is say something like this." I tapped into the boundless well of my Absolute Manipulation, holding one hand out toward the center of the office. "Show me why Lucifer is the way he is."
The office instantly warped.
The opulent walls dissolved into a swirling, cosmic projection, plunging Mephisto and me into a hyper-realistic viewing of the universe's history.
I watched as the Demon Kings started out as conceptual beings called Baals—immortal, formless entities bound to the raw elements of nature. Over thousands of years, as early human civilizations began to observe, fear, and personify these natural phenomena, the Baals evolved into distinct, conscious beings. They gained human bodies and began to indulge in human pleasures. We watched as these ancient gods became drunk and hopelessly addicted to human senses, ultimately gaining immense desires and massive egos.
"What the fuck?!" I blurted out, staring at the projection. "So you bastards really gained human bodies and got drunk on the high of the human experience?!"
Mephisto chuckled dryly from beside me. "Can you really blame us? We were formless concepts floating in an eternity of nothingness. The human world is a boundless feast to a starving entity. We merely took a bite... and never stopped chewing."
Then he turned to me with a knowing smile. "And besides, aren't you doing something similar with Ms. Kirigakure?" he questioned. "After all, isn't having a desire just another form of freedom?"
Tch, this fucking guy,I thought, shaking my head, a grin stretching across my face."Maybe," I responded.
Then I turned back to the projection to see that the "boundless feast" had a price. We watched as their human bodies began to decompose under the sheer weight of their demonic power. Which led to searching for various ways to make their bodies last forever.
Since Lucifer was the most powerful among them, his bodies deteriorated faster than anyone else's—not even lasting ten years, and most of that time was spent in excruciating, deteriorating pain. So, he eventually went crazy, and decided to take out his frustrations on humans: subsequently causing mass wars, sicknesses, floods, and plagues. He even convinced other demons to attack humanity just to share his misery.
Ain't that a bitch?! I thought, shaking my head. Inconveniencing the whole world 'cause he can't enjoy it.
Then the projection shifted. I watched as Mephisto and a few others who aligned with him realized that if Lucifer kept this up, humanity would go extinct. And if humans went extinct, the demons would lose their source of pleasure and indulgence. To prevent that, they formed the Knights of the True Cross Order, purely to balance out the conflict and keep the party going.
Man, this is wild, I thought. But it also makes more sense to why the Order is willing to work with other powerful demons like Mephisto. Even going as far as letting him govern an entire school of Exorcist and non-Exorcist alike.
The scene shifted to a grand, ancient dinner party with Lucifer, Mephisto, and the other Demon Kings. This was the moment Lucifer finally snapped. Unable to take the never-ending cycle of bodily deterioration, he declared he was going to plunge humanity into ruins by killing himself, releasing the full, unregulated extent of his power, and essentially nuking the planet.
Man, what the fuck! I scoffed internally. That's some bitch-ass behavior. Then I paused, and tilted my head. At the same time, from one hater to another, I kind of understand his logic. If I can't enjoy my time, no one else will either. We're all going down.
To stop Lucifer from dooming the planet, Mephisto introduced the concept of biological cloning to satiate him, and ultimately founded the creation of Section 13. The section that would spawn other sections where degenerates like Gedoin would later think they were untouchable beings doing a service to humanity.
But when the clones failed because they weren't fit for possession, they pivoted into creating Elixirs instead. However, the experimental methods for developing them were absolutely horrific. Human lives were treated like disposable trash. I watched decades of extreme bodily mutilation, non-stop torture, and the creation of unkillable, agonizing monsters.
They eventually succeeded in creating a human vessel for Amaimon. Then they used that data and research to create another for Lucifer—but the plan catastrophically failed because a newly formed entity named Satan possessed the body instead, ultimately causing the infamous Blue Night Incident.
The cosmic projection finally warped away after giving me what I asked for. And Mephisto's office snapped back into reality.
I sat back in my chair, deeply intrigued by all I had just seen. Calling Lucifer a selfish idiot was an understatement, but considering it was a core concept of the ego he had gained, it made sense that he lashed out the way he did.
What really stood out to me, though, was the founding of Section 13. Mephisto creating this hidden branch to save humanity by committing atrocities proved exactly what I had suspected: the True Cross Order wasn't so different from the Illuminati. Both factions aimed to accomplish their ambitions by any means possible, even at the cost of innocent lives.
At the time, my promise to the Order about turning the war into a three-way battle was mostly just me trying to assert dominance over them and put them in their place. But with what I just witnessed, my decision to not want to work with them was completely validated.
The domino effect this section had was so immense that it made sense why the Order was trying to guard it with their lives. If news of its existence—sacrificing thousands of lives to satiate a Demon King—ever got out to the world, humanity would not only lose faith in the Order, but in every Exorcist as well, leading to all hell breaking loose.
I was also conflicted about the situation regarding the former Baals. On one hand, I understood the need to act upon desires and how utterly exhausting it must have been to have a body that limited the amount of power they could naturally produce. But on the other hand, throwing immortal tantrums and causing chaos and disorder because you alone are suffering ain't it.
They wanted to indulge in human desires, so they should get human problems as well. The full human experience, I thought. It's only fair. They're already immortal. Why should they not have to face some kind of resistance? If they had no weaknesses at all, then it would just bring about a massive imbalance to the world.
But then, another realization clicked in my brain.
Lucifer getting his vessel fixed with an Elixir was a one-in-a-million chance, if we're being honest. There wouldn't have been a long-term solution for him. But now that my flames have fixed him, they'll certainly fix the other Demon Kings as well. And if they get fixed, then Satan will definitely get fixed too—if they're still attempting to revive him—and he'll be even stronger than he's ever been.
I looked at my hand as three distinctive flames flowed cohesively with each other.
All of them being stronger could be a problem… for the world. But I could also use it as leverage, I reasoned. Being able to fix, decelerate, or accelerate their bodies would give me extreme autonomy over them. But then what? I become their new overseer, and become the exact same thing I hate?
I sighed internally, then smirked. What an annoying situation to be in.
Mephisto watched me process the information, noticing my internal conflict. "Demons are far more complicated than what they generally show, Rin."
"I've seen that," I murmured. "But tell me this: why is Satan more powerful than Lucifer, if he formed a lot later than the other Demon Kings?"
"Because Satan is the literal consciousness of Gehenna itself," Mephisto answered simply. "That makes his raw power infinite compared to the individual Demon Kings."
That intrigued me, yet confused me to no end. If Satan was Gehenna, then what caused him to desperately want a human body? Something for sure triggered those events. Something specific gave the consciousness of Gehenna an ego.
"Speaking of uncovered mysteries of Gehenna, what's the deal with Yukio's eye?" I asked. "Ever since we first ran into Todo it's been lighting up or something. And I even felt remnants of the blue flames in it."
Mephisto just smiled enigmatically. "That is something you will have to witness for yourself."
"Tch, fine," I sighed, raising my hand. "Show me—"
Before I could command the cosmos to unveil Yukio's unknown secrets, two familiar presences rapidly approached the office door. I immediately powered down my halo and pulled back my aura.
The door swung open, and Shura walked in, followed closely by Lightning.