New Lilith
–Magdaran Bael–
“Ajuka-chan! Magical Girl Levi-Tan is here”
His mind instantly snapped to attention, knowing with absolute certainty that there was no way that Satan Leviathan’s appearance here was a coincidence. They were both far too old and experienced to slip anything, especially something that he could track, but, judging the situation for what it was, it was abundantly clear that this was all preplanned.
A deviation from the standard process of getting the Evil Pieces.
Then, an invitation and a direct meeting with a Satan that was least seen in the underworld. Even meeting any one of the Satans was odd, especially for a young Devil, Pillar, or otherwise, but to get a direct meeting with Ajuka? The most secluded of the Satans, just before meeting Serafall? Yeah, this whole thing stank to high heaven, forcing him into a tense state.
Something that was undoubtedly noted by the two Satans present, but it was not like he could control it. You try sitting in between two walking, talking generators of Demonic Energy and try staying cool and calm while the possibility of them trying to press-gang you into something remains high.
Before he could even get a word in, Serafall’s form blurred as she sat on top of a chair that most definitely did not exist a moment ago, bumping into Ajuka’s chair as the Satan whose office this was, was sent reeling off, striking the wall of the office. The deadpan look Ajuka was giving Serafall, even as he did nothing to arrest the momentum of his chair, until he collided with the wall with a satisfying thunk, made him snort out loud.
He unconsciously relaxed, realising that this was a ploy on their part to get him relaxed, but the very fact that they were willing to do this instead of intimidating him was a positive step for him, so he let himself get relaxed. Standing up, he bowed lightly to the Satan, as was expected from anyone his age. Though, he did not share the awe and reverence that most of the younger generations of devils had.
“Satan Leviathan.”
It was only after they had become something, someone powerful or smart enough to know things, that the older generation took the effort to brainwash them against the New Satans. Most young Devils loved the Satans, but quite a bit lost that lustre as they grew up, especially the Pillar Devils, as they were fed information about the good old days, where their word reigned supreme, and they did not have to worry about pesky things such as laws and equality and no slavery.
Well, no overt slavery anyway. There might not be slavery in the traditional form, but the Evil Pices created and facilitated an entirely new system of slavery.
Serafall, without missing a beat, leaned on the table and said in the sweetest voice, which just sounded cringey to him, but that was only because he knew what lay behind this naive and silly facade and also because he’d seen recordings of her freezing entire Devil armies and then shattering them.
Despite lacking in terms of power, when compared to both Sirzechs, she had more recorded deaths in the Civil War. She, like Ajuka, was one to pull the punches.
“So, Ajuka-chan, who’s this cutie pie?”
He raised an eyebrow at that, pinning her with a deadpan gaze. Not to toot his own horn or rather, his house’s horn, but he was not an unknown, especially not now that he had been declared heir in the official circles that mattered, and especially not to the Satans who would undoubtedly be on top of any new involvement coming out of House Bael, arguably the greatest active House in the underworld as of now.
House Lucifer had Rizevim, who was someone he did not even want to see in his lifetime, if he could help it, but since he knew who and what the man was, he would settle on seeing him once before he destroyed the man, down to the last atom.
Serafall, despite his gaze, did not falter and continued to look at him with that smile on her face. Meanwhile, Ajuka had clearly zoned out of the conversation, the token to get his Evil Pieces lying forgotten on the table. It was funny. The agenda of the meeting was ignored by both parties as he sighed and straightened up, getting in what he liked to call his snobbish voice.
“I am Magdaran Bael, of House Bael. I am honored to make your acquaintance, Satan Leviathan.” There, he said it. With the words and mannerisms that were expected of him.
“Hi! Mag-chan! I was just in the area so I thought, why not go and bother–ehehe–I mean, meet my fellow Satan. You know, Ajuka-chan is such a meanie. He always blows me off whenever I try to get him out of his dreary lab! We might be devils, but we still need to see the light sometimes, you know. It is just not good for our eyes to—”
He could only sit there, and stare at her, his jaw slightly open, as Serafall just burst forth with words, overwhelming in a way he had never thought possible. His gaze met Ajuka’s, who looked at him with something akin to pity before he left without a sound, not even a hint of a magical circle anywhere around him to indicate the beginning of the spell.
It was impossible for Serafall to not have noticed Ajuka leaving, but even so, she continued speaking, as if he was in the room with them, as if he was listening to the drivel coming out of her mouth.
After what felt like forever but was probably only a minute, which too was an impressive number, Serafall turned to the side, hoping to see Ajuka, only to find nothing, not even the chair the man had sat upon. Her words were stuck in her mouth, as she mechanically turned around and looked at him with a sheepish gaze.
“Ehehe, I did it again, didn’t it?” Then she picked up steam, “See! Didn’t I tell you that Ajuka is a meanie? He left you here. Then again, what was the purpose of the meeting? I can definitely help you much better than Ajuka-chan.”
She thrust her thumb at her bountiful chest, straightening her back as she spoke with a confident voice, “This Levi-tan is much better than the dreary Ajuka, I can guarantee that.”
By this point, the shock had worn off. This was clearly a disarming technique from one of the femme fatale of the Underworld, and Ajuka had left because his purpose was fulfilled. What it was? He did not know, but he could make a few educated guesses, based on the fact that they needed him to appear in person. Sirzechs most likely knew of his strength, which meant Ajuka had likely done something to confirm it. Maybe even do a full scan?
But that would be invasive enough for him to recognise, or maybe a Super Devil like Ajuka did have strong enough means to fool the senses of someone at his power level or maybe it required experience, not power to recognise the telltale signs of being scanned?
Either way, what’s done was done, and now he would just like to get his Evil Pieces and stuff himself full of some more food, and then be on his way back. The day was not going according to his expectations, and that was somehow both good and bad.
As for answering Serafall’s question, “I was here for my Evil Pieces. I assume that,” he pointed at the token on the table in front of him. A sleek, red card that had yellow veins on it that ebbed and flowed in brightness, “is the way I can get them?”
“Ah! Yes, that is correct. Silly Ajuka, how careless of him. Come, let Miracle Levi-tan guide you. This whole place is a labyrinth. We wouldn’t want poor Mag-kun to get lost, would we?” Serafall said, swiping the card from the table and ushering him back to the elevators, despite her being one of the few people who could teleport inside their headquarters, or so he assumed anyway.
Instead, he had to go there the old fashioned way or he supposed that since this was the Underworld and elevators were the new thing, they were doing things the new fashioned way. Man, what an odd line of thinking.
“Come,” Serafall dragged him along, and he let her, as he tried to see if he could find anything useful on the way, but it was the same. The same drab hallway, and the red lined carpet, leading to the same reinforced door.
Serafall, clearly keyed into the doors, opened them with a push of her palm, revealing a room with, you guessed it, red carpet. Only this time, there was an elevated platform in the middle of the room, with ritual lines visible on the surface. The lines disappeared under the carpet, telling him that they were far bigger than just the platform, which made sense since the Evil Pieces were a really complicated piece of machinery.
Not to mention that once they were bound to you, you couldn’t lose them, and no one else aside from the owner of the Evil Pieces could use them.
“Come on. Go stand in the center of the circle.” She nudged him slightly as he sighed and stood in the center of the platform, in the conveniently marked circle.
A podium of sorts came out of the ground, in front of Serafall, into which she slipped the card.
All around the room, symbols began lighting up, starting from the platform in front of Serafall, ending in the ritual circle around him. He felt a huge amount of Demonic Energy pulse through the room, and then towards him as well, but it did nothing other than take a small sample of his own Demonic Energy.
He let it, as the energy in the room died down, only to flash to peak output a moment later, blinding him for a moment with a red flash in front of him. When he opened his eyes, a wooden book floated in front of him. He reached towards the box, and after opening it, he found the full set of Chess pieces.
Unfortunately, he didn't get any mutated pieces, but he supposed they were rare for a reason.
Shrugging, he pocketed the box and turned to Serafall, his hands in his pockets as the woman’s magical girl facade slipped for a second, her eyes giving it away as he looked at him with a scrutinising and calculating gaze, only for her mask to come back on.
She clapped her hand, “Alright! There you go, Mag-kun. That’s how devils get their Evil Pieces.”
He nodded, not knowing what else to say. Serafall clearly thought the same, as she just looked at him with a smile on his face, waiting for him to say something or enjoying the silence or something else. He did not claim to understand what went through the minds of Devils strong and stupid enough to rule over a species as volatile as the Devils. That too, in a benevolent manner.
Before he could say goodbye to her, she gasped, her pigtails flying about as she hopped in place for a bit, “Oh. Oh! How could I forget?”
She then reached into her cleavage and pulled out an ornate piece of paper that was clearly too big for–
Ignoring the physics, he took the handed invitation and looked at her, hoping for elaboration.
“It’s the coming-of-age ceremony for Sona-tan, my sister. It’s next week. You are most invited. I am sure an invitation would have reached you anyway, but since you were here, I thought, why not just hand it over in person!”
“...Right.” he nodded as she escorted him back to the lobby of the HQ, her bubbly persona still in place. He waved halfheartedly at Serafall who continued to wave at him until the Elevator doors closed on her.
When the doors finally closed, and he left the building, he sighed as if a huge burden was lifted off his shoulders. Stowing the invitation away for later, he followed the heavenly smell that reached his nose as soon as he turned around the corner and exited the wards in place that probably filtered the air.