Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 40) (Patreon)

I stare at the white dragon emperor with a frown on my face, the sword in my offhand seemingly turns to liquid and flows back up to my gauntlet, where it completely disappears.

"So... we finally meet my eternal rival-"

"if you are just going to quote shit at me from that edgy book of 'things to say to your rival' you wrote when you were like eleven... I'm going to leave." I scoff as I turn away from him, pull out my phone, and take a half-lidded selfie, a peace sign in my other hand, making sure both Vali and the face down form of Kokabiel are in frame.

I see the armored figure tense slightly in the background.

"That's right. I know." I hum with a smug smirk as I begin typing a text. "I also know that if we were to fight, I'd kill you... you'd be even easier to beat the Kokabiel... but I don't think you are here for that idiotic destined battle, are you?"

"Idiotic destined battle?" A voice rings out as the blue orbs on the figure's armored body glows. "Are you truly one to say that? Partner of Y Ddraig Goch?"

"No, no." My ring glows. "My partner as a point... in the grand scheme of things, as humans put it, you are small potatoes... a fish in a well, not knowing the vastness of the ocean... we have better things to do with our time. Potential incredible foes to prepare for."

I finish my message, attach the image, and click send.

"Felt cute in this picture, might stop a cadre- with that same spooky shadow power Diodora had- from killing my fiancée and her best friend later... oh wait." - Gaius 23:32

The barrier seems to regain energy and reappears as I put my phone away.

Oh. Those two outdid themselves. Auto repairing and recharging? One that could stave off three divides before being broken? I'll have to get them to make some runic arrays in Remnant.

"You DARE ignore our tremendous bout?!" Albion snarls.

"He's not ignoring it." I shrug as I turn and slowly walk away. "He won it. What do you get when you take away Divine Dividing's main ability to Divide the power of things?"

"A Gear without Purpose or power." Ddraig answers. "A gear the boosted gear will never lose to."

"I'd grab that fallen you're here for if I were you..." I slowly state. "I've got mountains of paperwork to do, and I still need to find that old fat priest he was working with."

I turn away and continue walking towards the barrier surrounding us.

'he's going to attack you.'

'Oh, I planned on it.'

"You are awfully arrogant, Red Dragon Emperor!" The Satan descendant snarls as he lunges forwards.

Power floods my body as I duck his haymaker without even looking, as he slides to a halt, he looks over his shoulder in surprise, my hand blurs into the side of his head as I shoot forwards, we are carried through the forest and slam into the barrier Le Fay and Meredith constructed.

The white dragon emperor's helmet cracks slightly as it makes contact with the barrier, the metal creaks as I put more weight into it, several small hairline fractures quickly passing throughout.

"Here. Let me get that for you." I state slowly as I reach forwards, past his visor, my finger touches the barrier.

[PENETRATE!]

The entire massive barrier shatters like glass as I roughly shove the armored figure through it, my foot suddenly smashes into his open back and sends him flipping head over heels as he crumples to the dirt a short distance away.

He slowly gets to his feet as I step over the line in the dirt the barrier was once at.

"Vali. You can't beat him. Run."

"Tch- Run? You're seriously telling me to run?" The half devil lowly growls as he turns to face me.

"The only reasons the boosted gear and Divine Dividing aren't among the highest tier Longini is due to the fact that the god of the bible sealed most of our strength... limiting us to merely Boost, Divide, Transfer, and Half Dimension... He unlocked the ability god sealed away... the ability to pierce all defenses. Your balance breaker armor will be nothing more than tissue paper to him."

""The only reason you're still alive is because he didn't want to kill you."" The devil flinches as I calmly echo what Albion said at the exact same time, he said it.

I slip my hands back in my pocket as I stand across from the dragon Emperor. "I'd suggest you do your fucking job and take Kokabiel's corpse away from here, Lucifer."

I begin to glow as a magic circle appears below me.  "Later."

**Linebreak**

My footsteps create a dull tapping noise as I walk through an old abandoned... auditorium?

I'm fairly certain that's what it is, ceramic tiles and concrete lay strewn across the floor, there are fragments of glass here and there.

*CLANG*

I slowly peer through a doorway to see a blonde haired teen weaving in between two human exorcists, one holds a sword with an absolutely ridiculous swirl around the blade, making it technically useless as a sword beyond stabbing, thus making it my NEW most disliked sword.

The other wields just a simple dual edged short sword. It doesn't look all that impressive... but then he disappears.

Kiba ducks at seemingly nothing, then slashes a black and white sword upwards at, once more, seemingly nothing.

He clearly hit something, as there is a resounding clang, the figure that disappeared reappears as the Gremory knight steps forwards and slashes down at him.

His blade cleaves through the Excalibur fragment and leaves a deep gouge upon the exorcist, he whirls around and deflects a slash from the other exorcist wielding Excalibur nightmare and as another blade, the exact same as his first appears in his other hand, he slashes this exorcist across the chest.

He seems to notice that I am there, a small smile forming on his face as he nods. "Gaius."

"Oh. Kiba..." I frown as I look around the carnage. "You seem... less tense?"

I spy Arthur stood amongst the corpses of three six winged fallen.

"I would like the apologize to you, Gaius." The knight sighs. "I... was wrong... you were right. My rage at the sword was pointless... my anger towards you- and even those exorcists- was unjust... thank you for letting me see that... I feel like my head is clear for the first time in years."

"I-" he falls silent for a second. "I even lashed out at that blonde girl that was with them... despite the fact she had nothing to do with Excalibur... she's just an innocent girl, expended like a pawn for the church's gain..."

"Pretty much, yeah." I slowly nod.

"Tch- you damned devils!" A voice snarls.

I look over to see a portly older man stood in a cylinder-like barrier.

"When Kokabiel returns, all of you will DIE." He cackles.

"Hm. Hm. Quite... shouldn't it be 'if' he returns?" I hum as I slowly turn to the Excalibur fragments. "I mean... he won't... as he's currently very dead... I'll be taking these Excalibur fragments to get those exorcists off our property."

"Lies! Kokabiel isn't a person you can merely KILL! You have no right to touch those swords, Devil."

"I am legitimately engaged to the lady of the lake you old bastard... I have far more right to touch my soon to be wife's work than you do."

"Wait what." The man blinks.

"Wait... you were actually serious about the lady of the lake being your familiar?!" Kiba blinks.

I turn to face him after silencing Valper as he looks like he is about to say something extremely stupid and annoying. "I very rarely, if ever lie. Her name is Vivianne... and she's pretty pissed at the church for them kidnapping a bunch of fey swordsmiths to make the fragments into their own blades when she refused to fix it. Anyways, I've got to get back to those two Exorcists and the girl in over her head, they've suffered a horrid mental break recently and I feel that me not shutting Kokabiel's mouth sooner may make me slightly responsible for that. Sorry about the slap, by the way."

"No, no, the slap was deserved... I was acting like an idiot." The teen sighs.

"No hard feelings?" I ask.

"None." He shakes his head. "You set me straight. Thank you."

"I wish the same could be said for Rias." I mutter under my breath as I turn and walk over to the swords, making sure the teen hears my quiet sigh.

I nod to the glasses wearing man. "Hey Arthur."

"Hey." He greets idly.

I scoop up the pieces and hilt of Transparency, then pick up the dropped Nightmare.

"Well, I should be off... Serafall is probably already in the city after I sent her a selfie and I need to speak to her before she causes chaos, then I need to go return these to the church to prevent a war, sow seeds of doubt, maybe reap the souls of the innocent or something, y'know, devil things." I grin as I stand back up, I make sure to allow Kiba to see my grin falter slightly as my eyes pass over him.

His eyes widen slightly as a saddened frown appears on his face.

"But before I go..." I continue as I calmly flip a pebble in between my fingertips. "Let me just open this pesky little barrier for you."

I hurl the rock as hard as I can.

[PENETRATE!]

It slips through the barrier like a hot knife through butter, it pierces both sides, a good foot above the fat priest's head, it promptly goes through the wall behind it as well, then through the wall after that, then it breaks a window, and- is that a tree falling?

"Hm. Should have dialed back the strength on that perhaps." I note as the barrier shatters like glass.

I allow sound to return to the priest.

"AAAAHHHHHHH"

"Until we meet again~ it... will probably be a while..." I sigh as I teleport away.

**Linebreak**

I spy two girls sat side by side, looking down at a phone. A third blonde girl has her head laid in the lap of the brown haired girl, it appears that she is still unconscious.

Irina stares down at the phone a lifeless frown on her face while Xenovia has her teeth grit, eyebrow twitching, she frankly seems absolutely livid

"You three have broken the singular rule that all exorcists live by. You have sinned." An elderly man's voice exclaims from the device. "You are hereby excommunicated. We will send someone to reclaim the Excalibur fragments, however you three failures of exorcists are forever banned from our facilities-"

"Asia wasn't even an exorcist! Yet you sent her on this damned Suicide mission!" The blue haired girl snaps. "How DARE y-"

"Is it true that God is dead?" Irina rasps, Xenovia's head snaps over to look at the girl, that was probably the first time she has spoken since they made that shocking discovery

"…" the man on the other side falls silent.

"It would be in your best interest, girl to hold your tongue. We were going to simply wipe our hands of you sinners, but if you keep asking questions like that an unfortunate accident might befall you."

"You sent us on a Suicide mission! A suicide mission that brought Kokabiel the remaining fragments of Excalibur! How were we ever supposed survive this?!" Xenovia snarls.

"…"

"I'll be sending someone to retrieve the fragments of Excalibur. Keep your mouths shut or else."

The phone call seems to end as Irina lets out a shuddering gasp, Xenovia stands, fists clenched as she marches away and leans on a tree, crossing her arms as she quietly broods.

I silently walk up, the fragments of Excalibur transparency, and the blade of Excalibur Nightmare wrapped in cloth.

Xenovia looks over, a piercing glare on her face that rapidly softens as she realizes that it's me.

Irina is completely unresponsive... and Asia is still unconscious.

Xenovia's eyes follow me as I shoot her a sad smile as I take a seat on a nearby stump, the tree itself laying nearby, a casualty of war with Kokabiel.  "I've gotten all of the fragments of Excalibur for you."

"What's the point..." The blue haired exorcist whispers, cradling her head in her hands. "They just... threw us out."

"…"

I let out a long sigh as I brush a hand through my hair, refusing to speak as I stare ahead at Irina and Asia.

"Xenovia..." I suddenly mutter. "Why don't you try living for yourself for a change?"

She slowly looks to me as I press on. "All your life, you have lived for the churches sake. If they said 'jump', you asked 'how high'. You did your job expertly... the perfect example of what an exorcist should be... yet... they just don't care... it's sort of ironic that one of the only human supernatural factions... sees humans as expendable... and it's simply not right... one day, they will probably regret this decision and come crawling back to you... kicking out two extremely promising exorcists and a nun with one of the rarer healing sacred gears isn't exactly a good idea, but... if you want my honest opinion? Why should you even go back? They've shown how little they care about you... Live for your sake. Accomplish a dream that you always had, yet never could strive for. Your life is your own now."

"Live... for myself..." She whispers slowly as she turns and looks to the ground.

I can tell that she is thinking deeply on it, Irina slowly looks over to the two of us.

"Was it true?" She whispers, looking a little hollow. "Did... my father really murder the previous devil residing in this town?"

"Your father- oh... I see... yeah, it is. I won't sugar coat it. He did kill the previous owner... and his friend under the orders of the church... working with the devil faction who wanted to silence Celaria Belial for something she found out."

She bites her lip, looking conflicted as she continues. "I... see..."

I scratch my temple and let out a long sigh. "Well... you three can stay with me until you get on your feet... I know not having support will be difficult for a while, but in time, I believe that you can make a life for yourself and live life without regrets."

"Yeah..." Xenovia whispers.

I feel a sudden chill and look over my shoulder.

Serafall is standing there, her face inches from my own.

I flinch back. "Serafall?!"

"Gai-Tan..." She grits out slowly. "Why. Are. You. Such. A. Problem child~"

"Oh boy." I sigh as I slowly stand. "Xenovia, Irina, take Asia and make yourselves at home... I need to go have some words with foreign affairs."

**Linebreak**

Serafall and I teleported a short distance away, the Satan crosses her arms and looks down at me disapprovingly.

"Why didn't you tell me that Kokabiel was here?" She demands suddenly.

"I would have thought that your sister told you." I frown as I cup my chin. "But... no, you're right. I probably should have told you when I didn't notice you appear and challenge Kokabiel to a duel."

"It would have potentially caused stress between our factions due to me mostly being forced to have a more passive role against other factions, yes, but I would have absolutely done that." The woman nods. "I will certainly have words with So-Tan after this about the importance of knowing when to abandon stubborn pride."

She lets out a long sigh, shoulders slumping. "All in all, I don't think I can lecture you about anything here, Gai-tan... thank you for saving So-tan."

"She's my fiancée and close friend... of course, I'd save her." I scoff with a small eye roll.

She frowns suddenly. "Why are you being so buddy buddy with a bunch of exorcists?"

"Ex-Exorcists. They were all excommunicated." I state blandly.

"…" she gives a long stare. "After a suicide mission?"

"Yep."

"A mission in which they brought several additional fragments of Excalibur into Kuoh, when Kokabiel's goal, seemed to be fusing the fragments into one blade..." She clarifies.

"Yep."

"A mission in which, as I stated before, had a chance closer to zero percent, than one percent of survival." She continues.

"Yeah." I nod. "What part don't you get? A girl with Touki, a girl with a powerful healing sacred gear, and a peppy girl with more faith than most all sent to die to Kokabiel because they like... I don't know... couldn't send a stronger Exorcist? As if it'd like, put them in debt or something?"

"Oh, it absolutely could have." Serafall nods. "If the devils here got hurt in the battle, I would have had a reaction ranging from recompense to a flat-out declaration of war depending on the severity, however, I would have been too grateful to do anything if they did their job, and they did it right."

"Ah, anyways." I hum idly as I rotate my wrist. "The higherups got really pissy that they accepted help from a devil- despite the fact that... in a normal scenario, if I weren't here, the literal only chance of survival they would have had is by working with Rias and Sona- and excommunicated them all on the spot."

The woman lets out a long sigh, bringing her hands up to her temples. "I swear... the church is even more evil than the devil race at times."

"Would there be any hang-ups about be reincarnating them?" I suddenly question with an inquisitive expression. "I can see potential in them. I'm not going to force them to do it, but I will give them the option."

Serafall winces. "Reincarnating church personnel has become... a little taboo after the Diodora incident... sooo uh... there will be no actual political retribution from the church, as they have clearly shown their thoughts on the matter, but the devil race may see you as a second Diodora."

"In that case just reveal that I was the one who killed the bastard." I shrug with a small smile swiftly thinking of something else. "Also, additional greedy thought here, I have the lady of the lake as a familiar and two pendragons in my peerage. What are my chances of taking excalibur and being all 'this is mine'."

"Don't." The Satan frowns with narrowed eyes. "You... are reasonably in your right- or at the very least, Vivianne would be, but that would place unneeded tension in between the devil race and the church... and we really don't need that right now."

"Ah... alright." I sigh dramatically. "At least now that this Kokabiel nonsense is finished I can go back to Remnant and try to get ice cream girl."

"You... haven't gotten her to join your peerage yet?" The girl mutters with a raised eyebrow.

"To be completely fair, I have been busy... and the summoning contract in that wallet she had? It wasn't her wallet. She took it from someone else, tossed out the identification and used it for a day. Went home, tossed it in a pile of other wallets, and never opened it again, leaving the upwards of fifty to one hundred Lillum worth of Lien- and my summoning contract inside." I scoff as I slowly turn away. "It seems like I'll have to get a bit more... obvious... with my attempts to reach out to her... I'm thinking perhaps a brick through her window, or maybe I could just show up at her door and be all 'Hello, do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior sataaaan?'.

"Anyways." I press on as I look back in the direction of the Exorcists. "I've got three girls, broken by the revelation that god is apparently dead to fix."

"woah woah woah. how did you-"

"Kokabiel revealed some things in a form of 'last hurrah' after I started beating the shit out of him. He had that strange power Diodora did but he died just the same... like a bitch." I slowly mutter over my shoulder before a grin splits my face. "Anyways, don't bother me tomorrow. I'm going to try and get laid. See ya!"

"Wait what- G-Gai-tan your first time isn't going to be with your big sis Sera-tan?!"

"Byyyyyye Sera-taaaan." I wave over my shoulder.

**Linebreak**

The exorcists have all retreated to a singular room which I have placed extra bed within, they... are shaken... Xenovia is making life changing decisions, Asia is heartbroken, and Irina is just... broken, seemingly looping from incredible depression to a halfhearted attempt to act peppy and 'be positive', then back to depression.

At least now I'm finally alone so I can look at the rewards for slaughtering Kokabiel.

Cadre Class Countdown:
Kokabiel is causing problems on a global scale, he stole from the church, then immediately ran to devil territory to instigate a war between the three biblical factions. The last great war molded the planet, but thankfully a majority of the other pantheons stayed out of it, but who's to say that they will this time?
Objectives:
Hold out long enough for Vali to stop Kokabiel or stop him yourself: [x]
reclaim the stolen Excalibur Fragments: [x]

Bonus Objectives:
Kill Kokabiel: [x]
Allow Kokabiel to use the power of Ophis Snake: [x]
Kill Kokabiel anyways, despite his incredible increase in power: [x]
Spare Kokabiel: [-]
Kill Vali: [-]
Call Serafall or Sirzechs and let them deal with the ten winged menace: [-]
Steal the Excalibur Fragments for yourself: [ ]

Rewards: 10,000 Electrum, 1 free feat, 1 Mythic Trial.

Bonus Rewards: 2 Mythic Trials, 55,000 Electrum, +2 to all stats, 4 Random 'Special Quality', 'In the Face of Infinity' achievement.

Randomizing Special Quality 1:

Potion Reserve: (Note: Requires Alchemist Extracts)
Alchemist Extracts are... fairly interesting. They duplicate the effects of spells through mere ingredients and the alchemist's poor magical capabilities. It doesn't make sense that these potions expire so quickly, no?
You have figured out a way to sustain your alchemical items, your Alchemical Extracts never expire, nor do they lose potency overtime. The downside for this special trait, is that your alchemical extracts now take ten times as long to brew.  
Note: you may still ONLY create as many potions as your class allows per day.

Fucking useless. I'm not an alchemist, nor do I want to buy anything that lets me do what they do because it's basically worse spellcasting... though I guess having permanent 'free' potions might make it worth it... eventually... but it takes A LOT to get a class's spellcasting. Even the cheaper ones like Assassin or Paladin still cost upwards of fifty thousand electrum to be treated as if you were the class in question for spellcasting. I'm assuming that this is about on par with bard spellcasting, as it has six full levels, in which case I'll need to grab one hundred and fifty thousand electrum.

Not worth it currently.

Not worth it for potions that I'd have to babysit to make.

Randomizing Special Quality 2:

Herculean Strength:
The many worlds have many varied threats, dragons, dungeons, and whatever is in between, but the greatest threat of all? Encumbrance.
With this perk, your maximum Carrying Capacity is calculated as if you were one size category larger. This has no effect in combat beyond being able to lift larger and heavier things.

This got my hopes up, but made them crash and burn almost immediately.

At least it is usable unlike 'Potion Reserve' which requires the alchemist's extracts class feature.

Randomizing Special Quality 3:

Budding Pyromancer: (Note: Requires the Arcane Reservoir class trait)
Pyromancers specialize in magic that manipulates fire, heat, brimstone and explosive force. Whenever a Pyromancer expends a point from their arcane reservoir to increase the caster level of a spell with the fire, electricity, or sonic descriptor, they increase that bonus by an additional 1. At 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the amount by which they increase the caster level of such spells further increases by an additional 1 (to a maximum additional caster level increase from this ability of 5 at 20th level). Alternatively, if the Pyromancer expends a point from their arcane reservoir to increase the saving throw DC of a spell with the fire, electricity, or sonic descriptor, they increase it by an additional 1. At 10th level, they increase it by an additional 2 instead.

Once more, technically something I can't use, but it thematically fits with me... I might pick up an Arcane reservoir in the future. Increasing my caster level by one or difficulty class by one for any spell would be really good, then it gets further increased by this. I'm less annoyed by this by the previous two. Besides, it's going to ABSOLUTELY be cheaper than purchasing a new type of spellcasting.

Randomizing Special Quality 4:

Realistic and Cheaper Dragons and Followers:
the base Pathfinder system, when it was nothing more than a game, it never intended for the players to gain a dragon ally in a meaningful way, you could gain a dragon cohort, sure, yet the cost was absolutely ridiculous and they would never grow even if in the world, years go by. Not anymore.
You may now gain a dragon as a cohort as long as it's CR does not surpass your level –2, instead of the ridiculous CR+8, then after that, your dragon grows on its own and your level simply does not matter.  
if one thousand years pass, and you do not gain another level, you would simply have a cr 20+ Creature as a cohort, while being a level 7, even if the rules do not technically allow that.
Additionally, you may have dragons as followers as long as their CR+10 is something you are able to control. They are also unhindered by any 'rules' and are free to grow.  
Please note: The same 'Uncapped Strength' applies to followers and cohorts which are not dragons, it makes no sense that they are unable to grow stronger just because you are not, so this perk makes it so! (However, it is a lot slower than a dragon's who learns things faster and also gains power through aging)

"…"

"Fuck."

Fuck fuck fuck. That's really good.

Followers in pathfinder fall off at like level ten.

You have an army of level ones. So what? Those are worthless. Literally just cannon fodder. The main reason you'd take leadership is for the cohort that is two levels below you... and maybe the sixth level followers if you could get them early enough... but with this perk... that changes.

You get an army of mooks at your beck and call. All of whom are steadily growing in strength.

I'll need to work with this soon. I'll pick me out a good dragon cohort... and I think I know just the one... with a SINGLE dragon, I'd eventually- in the next thousand years or so- gain an ability so FUCKING powerful, nobody would stand the slightest chance against me. Ever.

But do I really want to mess with the aspect of that dragon? You typically don't fuck with that force unless you want to randomly find yourself suddenly not existing.

Should I stick with a basic bitch red? Or should I go for gold... and get myself a time dragon? Granting myself the eventual ability to TRAVEL THROUGH TIME thrice per day?

'nah. I don’t trust my future self with time travel. If I got time travel, I would have already been tracked down by Ophis looking for child support or something.

"if I ever gain the ability to travel through time... I'm going to come back here and slap myself..." I slowly mutter.

Nothing happens as I cautiously look around the room.

"Oh good, either I get no time travel shenanigans, or future me knows to stay in his fucking lane."

'So, no Time Dragon? Sad.'

I shake my head and look to the last reward.

In the Face of Infinity:
Twice have you stared down The Infinite... and twice you have won... the first was a fluke, the devil weakling was merely that, a weakling, but Kokabiel was fairly impressive as mortals are. Clearly the unusual one here is YOU. You have taken two of the infinite's potential pawns. yet you ooze confidence that gives even her pause. It's as if you don't even care that you could be pissing off one of the strongest beings in existence... could you be the one to defeat the baka red? clearly, she needs to observe you more carefully... perhaps that way she'll discover why you smell so good.
Benefit: 'All Powerful' beings are now less likely to immediately kill you upon taking notice of you.

My smile freezes.

"Oh... oh no..."

Speak of the devil... or dragon loli in this case, and it shall appear.

I am now being stalked by a sociopathic dragon loli.

That is not good.

Less than ideal.

But I can turn it to my advantage. I know she adores food, so I should be able to buy her off with enough Toriko delicacies... get myself an incredibly powering being as an attack dog and all that jazz.

The door to my office suddenly slams open. "Ah, good. Gai-tan! you're here... and not in the middle of plowing Ravel."

I look to the black-haired magical girl wearing pink with a half-lidded expression. "You caught me at a good time. Ten more minutes and I probably would have left to go do just that. What do you need?"

She slowly walks over to my desk then lays an enormous stack of papers on it.

"What... is this?" I mutter slowly as I slowly look from the stack of papers to the grinning Satan.

"Just read it." The satan smirks.

"Is this payback for causing you tremendous amounts of paperwork today?"

"No... it's just a thing I have been working on for you since you let me see So-tan's beautiful supple nude body and cute little breasts~" she hums with a bright smile. "This is payment for that, and for dealing with Kokabiel, while also taking into account the fact that you fought basically on par with me for a while... also I guess this could also be payment for Diodora as well... I don't think we ever gave you anything for that since we went from a potential political nightmare right into you revealing a wonder drug... it was a bit chaotic and it slipped our minds... but this will make up for it!"

I fall silent as I look over the paperwork, my hand glows as I place a hand upon it and close my eyes, casting the third edition dungeons and dragons spell 'Scholar's Touch' which allows me to read a 'book' or sufficiently large stack of papers in a mere six seconds... as if I had read through the entire thing at a leisurely pace.

I flinch back suddenly. "What the hell is this?!"

My eyes snap up to meet Serafall's. "Is this real?!"

"Yes. All you need to do is sign it... if you want, of course." The woman smirks.

"What about the other Satans?" I mutter. "don't they also have to agree on this? Doesn't the great king faction also need to agree to this?"

"The first has been settled already. Ajuka whole heartedly is behind the decision, which is incredible because most of the time he prefers to remain neutral to decisions like this. But in this case, the satans are all unanimously agreed... and of course, it'll take some time to implement... and you seem to misunderstand one thing, Gai-tan..." She explains slowly, only for a menacing frown to appear on her face. "why should we care about the opinions of the great king faction?"

"That's fair." I shrug after a brief moment of silence. "But are you fine with the other things within this contract... or, rather, contract b?"

A smile crosses the Satan's face. "Believe me... it would be my great pleasure to take part in it... besides, that was mostly placed in there to quell the bitching of the great king faction. Two mutant clan traits coming together to create a child of incredible power. Reasonably, the only option is for me to marry you, right? And it wouldn't do for an incredibly important person like myself to marry anything but the best. Besides! I'll get to have really hot threesomes with you and So-tan!"

"Still, a declaration of Marriage from you is... quite sudden... I accept, but like, wow, Sera-tan... you're really just suddenly dropping this on me? Talk about mean."

That's right. One aspect of the papers within the stack... is for the union of myself and Serafall in marriage.

Her smile grows as she leans over the table, she quietly whispers into my ear. "This is for causing me so much work recently, Gai-tan. Also for being a meanie and taking ice cream girl from me."

"Eh, that's fair. I came off far more hostile than I meant then." I sigh as I scratch the side of my head and slump back in my chair.

I look back over to the paperwork and let out a long dramatic sigh. "it'll increase my workload, but I was already going to most of this work anyways so I might as well get an official recognized position for it. Besides the title does have a nice ring to it."

The satan in front of me smiles brightly. "I'm glad you like it, but keep in mind that we aren't going to make it official-official, until we are ready to release the information about your project."

"I get what I'll be doing, but like... will I get a cool title as well?" I question suddenly. "And will I have to abandon working on the Decarabia-Malthus clans as well? If so, I'll have to postpone accepting this."

"No, it'll be fine. You are the last of your family. It's to be expected that you'll be doing double duty at least until you produce an heir or heiress of acceptable age... and we've already picked out your name as well..."

She allows the suspense to build for a moment before a grin crosses her face. "Gaius Sathanas, the Satan of Dimensional Affairs."

Ooh. Fancy.

I'm absolutely going to continuously fuck up and continue to call myself Gaius Decarabia, aren't I?