DXD SI : Chapter 92 : YES! Alcohol! & Tragedy in the Underworld.... (Patreon)

Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.

Inner Sanctum, The Garden 

–Magdaran Bael–

“What the fuck, Magdaran?” Azazel practically hissed at him the moment the door closed on their meeting room. He sighed and sat down, even as Azazel looked at him with shock on his face.

He was confused about the reason. Was the Zagan name that much of a big deal? So, he asked the man the same.

“Why the fuck are you scared? He is just a High Class Devil. Not even Ultimate Class. You can smoke dozens of them with a glare.”

Azazel looked at him, sighed before sitting down, taking the offered drink from the Mother Tree, muttering a quiet, “Thank you!” before gulping the entire thing down, as if it were a shot of alcohol. 

“You do know that it's not alcohol, right?”

“Fuck you, Magdaran. You don't know the horrors of that name. There is a reason why no one was left from that House.”

He gestured for the man to go on, “Do go on. Tell me what horrors can the Zagan outside unleash upon the world that you or I cannot bring about ourselves.”

“It is not about that, Magdarn. The Zagan were not feared because they were individually powerful. They were feared because a group of High Class Zagan could and have overwhelmed a group containing multiple Ultimate Class Devils and Angels. They are one of the few Houses that act as a force multiplier, even in the face of Angels or Fallen. Their acts in the Great War led to—”

“Exactly!” He interrupted the man. “You are still thinking of the Great War. That time has long since passed. Plus, the man outside is not like the Zagan you know. Sigh. Here,” He threw the file he had on Aldric Zagan towards Azazel, who promptly began reading through it.

Azazel went through the entire thing in seconds before looking up at him with a dry look on his face. “Really? You mean to tell me that you found the sole Zagan who is more interested in plants rather than creating war horrors?”

He smiled and snapped his fingers, projecting what Aldric was doing right now, which was playing around in the mad, his entire being glowing green as he used his magic to make the entire paddy field grow with trees of multiple sizes and shapes, and then dance along.

Azazel grew silent at the display before he dispelled the projection.

“See? He’s practically harmless. Also, I take his responsibility. Don’t worry. He will not see the rest of the world for quite a while. He knows that and is perfectly happy playing around in the Garden.”

Azazel spoke after a minute of thinking, “Also, it probably doesn’t hurt that you now have something that will elevate all your products to the next level.”

He shrugged, not confirming or denying anything.

Azazel moved on from that as well, “Anyway, moving on from ancient horrors, I was here for a reason. It’s about the Pharmacist products. Tier II and Tier 1 Milk is confirmed to have reached Ajuka’s hands.”

He nodded. “That was within our projections. Anything else?”

“Yes. I wanted to know about that drink you gave Thor. Just hear me out,” Azazel raised his hands to ward off any opposition on his end. “I just wanted to know if you could create a much more diluted version for Baraqiel?”

“Oh,” he could certainly think about that.

“Sure, I can try, but I can’t make any guarantees. Would not want a repeat and accidentally wake up some hidden feature Big G left behind in Heaven’s systems.”

“Sure.” Azazel agreed to that as well.

___xx___

After that, there was some back and forth to determine the supply of his products in the market. Azazel was of the opinion that enough mystery had been generated about his products, and as such, he should capitalise on that and launch some new products, hinting heavily at prioritising any alcoholic supply he might have.

He could understand that, as until now, he had focused on regular stuff that was simply just too tasty and had the added benefit of increasing the power of even veteran warriors, as long as they were below a certain power level. That stuff was selling even at the exorbitant rates right now simply because most of the supernatural world was extremely curious about this new thing that had popped up out of nowhere.

He sometimes forgot about the time scale at which the supernatural world operates. For them, the last extremely ground breaking thing was the Evil Pieces, and that was more than 500 years ago. This had the opportunity to be even more disruptive, and as such, most supernatural factions were more than willing to cough up the asking price, not because they wanted the extremely minute effect, but because this was the new thing and they wanted in, or to somehow reverse engineer it, or they just wanted to satisfy their idle curiosity.

Either way, the products were being treated with attention they did not truly deserve, not unless he gave everyone a steady supply. After all, only continuous usage of his products could actually give someone a permanent increase in power. As of now, only Azazel and the Norse had access to a steady supply. 

After months of selling just these products, the advertisement part was done. So, now the next part was to sell stuff that would actually become a viable business later on. Stuff that generated profit, while being a constantly sought after commodity.

“Alright,” He agreed, much to Azazel’s visible delight, “I will start working on some Alcoholic options. I am warning you, though, I don’t think that I will have the high quality stuff right away. Some lower tier options can be sent to you for testing, though.” 

He scoffed at Azazel’s delight before standing up. “Alright, off you go. I’ll inform you once I have a stable batch ready.”

“Yes!” Azazel just cheered and left the Inner Sanctum, with a visible skip in his step. 

He rolled his eyes at Azazel’s happiness at just getting some new alcohol. Truly, ancient fucks were really weird.

Once Azazel left and took Vali with him, an entire spatially expanded cooler, likely full of ice cream and more, tucked under her arm, he called upon Aldric. He had an apology to tender, especially after he told the guy all about the outside world and how his entire House had been vilified beyond measure, to the point that it would be a long time until it was acceptable for him to move amongst society, or rather, until he was strong enough to ignore anyone stupid enough to move against him.

The way telling him that he had to train to become strong and had to fight enemies that were going to come after him had just drained all the energy within him had been sad to watch. Would he have become the same as him, had he not been a soul from another universe, and just had his natural plant talents as his sole power? A pacifist who got sad at the mere thought of being told to fight for his survival?

Shaking his head, he began walking towards Aldric when he realised that he was not responding to his messages. He could have asked the Mother Tree to just drag him here, but he supposed that just for today, this behavior could be excused.

After all, from tomorrow, he was going to have to accelerate his training, and that involved a lot of painful exertion of his Demonic Energy, and not for plant making, as Aldric preferred, but for combat training.

In fact, because he understood what Aldric was thinking, he was going to have to push him all that harder. It wouldn’t do for his first and only student to be someone who would turtle up at the slightest hint of danger, even though that was totally what he would and had done in the past.

___xx___

New Lilith, Underworld

–Serafall Sitri–

She appeared in a swirl of light in the meeting room in Ajuka’s lab, one of the most secure places in the universe. Since she knew that the agenda was going to be an important one, she made sure to dress in her Magical Levi-tan uniform, just to lighten up the mood, something that was becoming increasingly hard, due to all the information they had uncovered recently.

For one, Zekram was dead, for good. And despite that, there were no bombs, political or otherwise, that they had to deal with, which meant that either Zekram had no contingencies or someone had gone around disabling them before they could blow up in the Underworld’s faces.

She refused to believe that Zekram was the type of Devil who would go down quietly. Something monumental must have happened for Zekram to be taken out in such a manner, and the fact that it had happened right from under their noses had lit up a fire under Falbium’s ass, whose staff was terrified that Armageddon was about to arrive, as Falbium was never this awake, this visible, and this mobile, without an active war in the background.

Shaking his head, she was about to do her signature greeting, only to pause as she saw what Ajuka was holding, and that Sirzechs was once more in that horrible ritual circle, being subjected to such agony that it had changed him forever.

Rushing forward, she grabbed the railing that separated the projection area from the viewing area, and gripped it tightly, before asking Ajuka, “Why? Why again?”

It had taken Sirzechs years to recover from the previous experience. When she had first seen the ritual circle five years ago, she could never have imagined the amount of damage it would inflict upon Sirzechs’ body and his Demonic Energy. When she had first seen Sirzechs after he had recovered enough for Ajuka to let him out, it was as if she was back in her teenage years, when Sirzechs was only an Ultimate Class Devil. It was frankly, alarming how they had something that would damage their premier Super Devil to the point of becoming someone who could be killed by a single attack from her.

When Ajuka first told her that it was something that allowed Sirzechs to safely use all up of his power, he didn’t inform her that it was akin to fighting himself, over and over again, until every single ounce of Demonic Energy was forcibly extracted from his body. Such a process inevitably left behind marks, and while physical damage could be healed within years, a laughably small time for them, mental damage was much harder to deal with.

“It was a mistake on my part.” Ajuka apologised.

“I thought you didn't make mistakes, Ajuka.” She flinched a bit at the venom in the voice, turning around to find Falbium marching up to Ajuka, looking extremely displeased.

“Do you have any idea just how hard it is to manage morale and military readiness when I am told that the two people whom I have relied on for the security of the entire race have been damaged? Then, after years of that, we finally get good news about both of you recovering, and then you tell us that a mistake has sent us back years once more?!”

She sighed as Ajuka remained silent in the face of Falbium’s outrage, a common tactic from the man, as he thought it would be best for people to get the rage out of their system before he talked.

“Ajuka, can you tell us what happened?”

Ajuka nodded, "Certainly. Rizevim is about to be free.”

“WHAT?!” She and Falbium both shouted in outrage, as she zoomed forward to grab onto Ajuka’s arms, only for an invisible force to hold her in place.

“Listen first before you start shouting.” A rare note of irritation entered Ajuka’s voice, as he effortlessly immobilised both her and Falbium.

Ajuka sighed before speaking, “I have been otherwise occupied with my spell over Rizevim threatening to unravel before it was time. I have done all I can, but it seems that Rizevim’s escape from my grasp is inevitable. Due to the nature of my first attack, I can’t repeat the same with anyone ever again. Sirzechs came to visit me when he read my report and saw this." Ajuka picked up a small bottle of what looked like milk, but was…

She shook her head. There was so much to unpack there.

“Wait, how long do we have until Rizevim is totally free to move?”

“5 at the earliest.”

“What is that?” She pointed at the milk carton.

Ajuka gave her a look like she was stupid to even ask. “This is the Tier II milk from the Pharmacist.”

“And Sirzechs’ power went out of control the moment he saw that?”

Ajuka shook his head. “No, he drank it, and it created an odd power interaction that has forced my hand, but do not worry; the damage this time will be healed within months at best. I have learned a lot from the previous recovery procedures.”

“And what of mental damage?” Falbium countered. “I have seen the look on Sirzechs’ face when he thought no one was looking. We can’t keep doing this, Ajuka. Sirzechs is dying inside."

Tears gathered in her eyes at the realisation.

Ajuka spoke up once more, “We have solid confirmation that Magdaran Bael is the Pharmacist. Only his powers have caused Sirzechs’ own to behave in this manner.”

“Well, his products are only going to explode in sales from here on out. How do we deal with that without having Sirzechs become…unstable?”

Ajuka gained a rare unsure look on his face. “I am…unsure.”

“Great! That’s fucking Great!” Falbium turned around and slammed his hands on the table, heaving, as the toll of the information was heavy.

“What if we asked Magdaran?” She spoke up, drawing both their attention, “Or Odin? We both saw what Magdarn did with Asgard that day. Rumour has it that Odin has grown his soul magic expertise to never before seen heights. Maybe they have something that could help.”

“Serafall,” Falbium sighed, “Even if Odin could help, we can’t expose Sirzechs’ soul to a foreign God, least of all Odin, who has been in constant contact with Magdaran. We have no idea what they might do.”

“Establishing contact with Magdaran has to be our priority now,” Ajuka spoke up. She turned around as Ajuka explained.

“The problem is that I don’t know what is happening. If we can figure out what exactly is causing the issue with Sirzechs’ power, then we might be able to resolve it, or mitigate its effects.”

“Odin would never allow for it. Magdaran is their new Golden Goose. It’s impossible.”

She spoke up, “We won’t know until we try.” Saying so, she hurriedly left.

She had a letter to write, and a dear friend to save.

A/N - Kinda Heavy, but it had to be done.