DXD SI : Chapter 44 : The Aftermaths...... (Patreon)

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Bael Territory, Underworld

–Magdaran Bael–

Shit! Shit! SHIT!

He cursed himself frantically in his mind as he reached his garden and scrambled to do….something.

He had no idea what to do. He had just jumped the gun there, and honestly, he couldn't even blame himself. He should have realised that Zephyr smiling and telling him something with glee could never result in a good thing, but he had been so invested in this one question for most of his life that he couldn't stop himself from listening to the disgusting truth that came from Zephyr.

For it was the truth. As much as he desperately wished to be rid of the truth and have his mind cleaned out by mind magics to stop his mind from analysing that one moment of his life, he knew, in his heart and soul, that it was the truth. It explained everything perfectly. 

Her increasing weakness. The timespan between visits. Her last act. And then, his strength. 

Yes, his strength. He had thought that it was the result of being isekai’d, but no, it was all because of her. She had literally poured her life into him, and all this strength, everything he had built since then, was because of her, because one devil woman who knew she would not be able to come out of it alive, poured out her life into her son. A son who she didn’t even know, and was not even her son, just an interloper.

He turned around, barely having the presence of mind to use his power to zoom out of his garden and hurled all over the ground at the thought. His body shook as his mind continued to torture him with thoughts. Thoughts of her dying, thoughts of her being alive if only he hadn’t been born, thoughts of her happy life if he had just had the decency to die in that void, thoughts of—

His head snapped to the side as he hit the ground, the shock hitting him far more than the fall, as his head snapped back to see who—

“Serafall?” He whispered, shocked and confused and full of a cocktail of emotions that he couldn't correctly identify. Shaking his head, he mentally thanked her for the mental reset as he got up in a jiffy and used a precise blast of his power to get rid of the sweat. Yes, it was most definitely sweat near his eyes, as he walked back into the garden, trying to act casual, “What are you doing here?”

He stopped, turning around slowly as she had stopped right at the edge of the wards, looking at him with pity. He felt something akin to shame enter his system at that look, before he walked right out to talk to her. She deserved atleast that before he took some drastic step like taking the Mother Tree and gunning for the nearest branch of the Oppai Club. 

Odin wouldn't turn him away, hopefully. The thought of having to depend on the kindness and mercy of someone else, even after he’d spent his entire life working hard, sent a visceral flash of disgust through his body, forcing him to shove that thought deep into his mind before he looked at Serafall, “What’s up?”

Serafall didn’t say anything as he winced at seeing the state of her hand. She calmly uncorked a vial of Phenex tears and splashed it on her hand, which was more akin to a skeleton than an actual hand at this point. Her hand sizzled as the tears did their job and regrew her skin and muscles.

“What happened there, Magdaran? We heard reports of you destroying a significant portion of their estate. Devils died.”

He flinched at the death part, even after accepting this reality, which came with the intrinsic knowledge that people were going to die. People who, through no fault of their own, were way too close to fights and as such, were killed or, in his case, destroyed. 

He debated telling her everything and just pouring his heart out to the one Sympathetic Satan in the current government, but then, the habits of his entire life came roaring forth, forcing him to reconsider. He really was not in the right mindset for this. Even during the fight, he wasn’t really thinking. Otherwise, he could have killed Zekram and ended the entire thing in the first few exchanges alone, as the Old fuck was underestimating him and he hadn’t even used his conceptual destruction.

No surprise there, as it required some modicum of thinking to use, as concept reading was not an easy task, especially in the middle of a fight. Rewinding the fight quickly in his mind, he was glad that Zekram didn’t have time to use that spear. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to tank multiple of his Destruction Rasengans without even a crack to show for it. 

Without a doubt, it was a Holy weapon, something that would have severely injured him, and in that condition, without his mental faculties intact, it was practically a death sentence.

Thankfully, Zekram had used some sort of High tier Holy Water that made him snap out of it. It didn’t hurt at all, but something in it made him snap out of it. He supposed that the mind-clearing benefits of Holy Water translated to devils as well, provided they survived the initial damage?

Sighing, he answered Serafall’s question, “I…lost my cool. I faced some ugly truths and reacted immaturely. I apologise for that. Rest assured, the victims will be fairly compensated.”

That was all he was willing to tell her right now. After all, he was not ready to deal with the aftermath of that fight, chief among them being the now empty position as the Head of Bael House. He shuddered to think of what he would do if he had to sit in that position.

“What happened, Mag? This is no longer something that can be slipped under the rug by House Bael. The entire Underworld felt spikes of power not seen in decades. You have just painted a huge target on your back. You need to–”

“I don’t need to do anything, Satan Leviathan.” He coolly reminded her, his power forming a cloak around him. “I just had an episode and need to deal with the aftereffects. This will not be the first time Devil Lords have had a manic episode and had to be put down. Every Devil involved was a member of House Bael, the destroyed property & territory was of House Bael, and the dead Devils were of House Bael. I don’t understand the government’s role here. After all, these are our Internal Matters.”

Serafall was silent for a moment before she replied in a whisper-like voice, “So you killed your father?”

Well, he could tell her that much atleast. He nodded, “Yes, Zephyr Bael is now dead.”

Serafall then tried once more, apparently having no end to her motivation as she rebuffed his attempts to rebuff her, “You must understand, Magdaran, the effects of today will no longer be constrained to just House Bael. That alone makes it more than just the Internal Matters of your house.”

His neck as well as Serafall’s snapped to the side, as a moment later, Destruction personified entered his line of sight, and for a moment, he felt his power flickering as the suppression from an overwhelmingly powerful Devil hit him; but a moment later, it stabilised as he refused to react to Sirzechs’ tactics, even if he had to burn through his Demonic Energy.

He was in his Garden. He was not going to take shit from anyone, not even the Crimson Satan, power difference be damned.

Sirzechs looked at him with a frown on his face, but before he could get a word in, he felt another teleportation right next to him, and he didn’t know what to feel at feeling relief, of all things, at knowing that Zekram Bael was coming here.

Serfall looked mighty displeased with Sirzechs, as did Zekram, who just marched right up to Sirzechs, uncaring of the expression of the Strongest Devil Alive. No matter what anyone says, Zekram really did have balls of steel, or maybe Sirzechs didn’t have heavy enough ones to handle Zekram.

Even as Zekram literally ordered the two Satans out of his property, his mind continued to think of the next step. He would have to accelerate his plan of getting out of here. He was operating under a timeline of years, but it would seem that he would have to get out within months. 

The gift from Odin told him that the Old Man was looking to get on his good side. He should be able to help. But he must want something in return, and he was not about to let himself get beholden to a faction, the end of which was quite literally prophesied and known to the entire supernatural world.

Azazel was an interesting entity, who was very much self serving, but at this point, who in the supernatural world wasn’t?

___xx___

New Lilith

–Serafall Sitri–

“I thought he was going to attack you. I felt a spike in power and—”

“I had it handled, Sirzechs! He hadn’t attacked me. He was clearly in the middle of a mental shock, and his power was about to run amok, which is why I snapped him out of it. Yes, I was injured! But it was unintentional on his part. I healed it immediately. The second time you sensed it was him shutting me out.”

“You don’t understand. His power; it felt different, alien in a way I can’t really describe. It felt as if it was fighting my suppression. That has never happened before.”

“Yeah, well, there has never been a Satan Class devil who hadn't reached his second decade yet. Just like there hasn’t been any Devil at your power levels. It is a time of everything new. Deal with it!

It still doesn’t give you the right to step in between an important conversation. I am NOT some Damsel in distress.” The area around her started frosting as her power expressed her displeasure.

AGH! She had never been so mad at him, not even when he had done some pretty stupid things that she had to deal with, not when he didn’t do stuff that led to even more disastrous outcomes. Outcomes that she had to deal with, on top of her own job.

And then, the frost was gone. She whirled around to glare at Ajuka, who had just raised his finger to dispel her power before replying, “I am working on something here. We don't have time for this.”

Ajuka’s words forced her out of her rage as she took a deep breath, shot Sirzechs a dirty look before marching towards Ajuka, “What do we know so far?”

After all, Ajuka was not a genius for nothing, and she had him install equipment that could sense and then hone in on a fight of significant power, scanning them in its entirety, something that was technically illegal, but only as long as the scanning was done on their own grounds.

Ajuka, obviously, had far more advanced machines.

“For starters,” Ajuka said before showing them footage of Zekram holding onto a Spear, “we now know where one of the Spears created by Angel Essence went.”

“He defied a direct order from Lucifer?” Sirzechs asked, leaning forward to get a good look at the Spear. It was one of the more vile things Lucifer had done. Taking Angels alive and then using their blood and essence as the quenching material to craft Spears.

Rumour was that he even used the essence of some Seraph to build them. He made three in total, and then ordered them destroyed before his final fight with the Creator of Heaven’s systems.

Unfortunately, it would seem that Zekram had stashed one for emergencies.

“With that, he could…” Sirzechs whispered, the implications clear, as once again, they were reminded of the depth of Zekram’s hidden means.

Ajuka shook his head, “No. It is not capable of killing you or me. Him, however? He would have died, no doubt.” Ajuka referred to Magdaran.

But why would he do that? From their argument after the fight, it seemed like Zekram was pretty protective of Magdaran.

___xx__

Bael Territory

–Magdaran Bael–

He sat on the floor of the hidden room right under his Garden, staring at nothing in particular, and had been doing so for who knows how long. After the Satans had left, he rebuffed Zekram and came straight here.

Zekram, realising that a fight would break out if he tried to force his way, didn’t follow, probably.

Ever since then, he had been sitting here, trying to process the feelings in his mind after the revelations of his mother’s death. 

Zephyr’s death didn’t bring him nearly as much satisfaction as it should. Partly because he knew that Zephyr was just the pawn and partly because the man died with a smile on his face. It felt like Zephyr won, despite dying, and that pissed him off.

Now, he felt it would have been better if he’d killed Zekram in his rage and then dealt with the consequences later on. But nooo, his reasonable and frankly cowardly mindset had to snap back to life, forcing him to flee.

No matter, I will take his life one day. One day.