Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD, the Anime or the manga whatsoever.
Mag’s (Relocated) Garden, Bael Territory
–Magdaran Bael–
He was lying in his garden, facing towards the sky, watching as it gradually regained its brightness as the artificial sun installed in the Underworld did its job to simulate a day and night cycle. Unlike the sun in the Human world, this one did not sting nor give him the feeling of weakening him, and that was expected since this was an artificial one, but for some reason, it brought along with it a sense of melancholy.
He had spent the entire night working on the garden. After he’d raised the wards to make sure that nothing would be able to penetrate the wards, unless they were super freaks of nature, the likes of Ajuka, he had gotten to work directly using the conceptual healing part of his power.
He had done all he could to make himself busy, to not let his mind drift away, towards thoughts better left unexplored, and yet, as he restored the Garden to its previous state, he found his hands free and his mind wandering. Once he was done checking up on the humble abode he’d created for himself using the root system of the Mother Tree, instead of sleeping inside, he had found himself right here.
Sleeping on the cooling mud, looking at the Purple sky of the underworld. It has been an hour since he took this position, and he hasn’t moved since then. He supposed that seeing the Two Satans with their families, their sisters, enjoying and laughing as half of the Underworld’s nobility watched, freely at that, had affected him more than he cared to admit.
It really put into perspective his actions and how much he had deprived himself of in the quest to remain both alive and strong. After all, he did not have the support systems they did, but then again, neither did he have to fight through an entire Civil War that spanned most of the Underworld, resulting in entire Houses going extinct. They potentially had to fight their own friends for this, so they most probably deserve all this.
It’s just that…
He sighed, sitting up and looking at the garden all around him. From this low angle, it was just plants and smaller trees, with the biggest one behind him. He took in the entire garden, and his shoulders just slumped as he realised that this was all he had.
That’s it.
He was 18, and in the human world, he was supposed to start doing something meaningful, something for himself, and in a way, he was. He was strong, he was smart about it and didn’t go boasting about it to the rest of the race which was quite literally programmed and bred for war against an overwhelming foe whose mere existence was pain for the Devils, and more importantly, he had enough mental acumen to realise that he still had a ways to go before he could truly try to exert his will around himself.
And then, he realised. He had nothing to exert his will on. No reason to do anything for the underworld or in the underworld. For the first time in years, he had allowed himself the respite for his mind to process this.
….He needed friends.
What a depressing and human thought to have, but now that he had the goal in mind, it was much easier to plan for it. He had his Evil Pieces, and they were quite literally contractually obligated to be his friends, be nice to him.
Was it kind of fake? Maybe. But that’s the option he had right now, and that was what he was going to take.
Also, it was really great timing that he also had a standing invitation from the overseer of an official Devil territory in the human world. It would be fun to go through the official channels for once, since members of the Bael House? Didn’t really believe in any official channel. They believed in power, and if you had the power to make the trip to the fucking Dimensional Gap, then it was your Lucifer given right to do so, doesn’t matter what kinda devil you were.
They were kinda empowering like that.
Shaking his head, he stood up, a clean burst of Demonic Energy cleaning his clothing and depositing the mud back in the soil, where it belonged. No need to destroy every fucking thing, especially since this soil was worth something. Not really expensive, at least to him, but devils had to buy fertile soil like this.
After all, the Great War did not just lead to entire cities being burned down, abandoned, or otherwise quarantined; it also quite literally changed the flow of energy, water, and more under the soil as well. Which is why, even areas that saw little or no fight whatsoever had soil that was poisoned by the mixture of all the exotic energy thrown around during the War.
Draigg’s energy, in particular, was quite poisonous and inhospitable to all life, let alone fragile plant life. How did he know that?
Smuggled books from the Fallen. He’d had the pleasure of reading a copied version of one of the earlier versions of Azazel’s book on botany, and it had been a revelation. Too bad the man did not sell the newer versions. Apparently, one had to become a member of the Grigory Research Facilities to gain access to the books, and even then, he did not believe, even for a second, that Azazel would give him the truly interesting shit, what with him being the heir of one of the most prominent houses of the Underworld.
Or he might just do it for shits and giggles. Who knew what went on in the mind of that mad researcher? After all, he was both the mad scientist version of Ajuka, not that Ajuka himself wasn’t a BIG mad scientist, and the Foreign Relationship manager of The Fallen, like Serafall was for Devils.
He was also the biggest gun the Fallen had in their arsenal, so in a way, he alone shouldered the burden of doing three things that the Underworld each had a devil for. Granted, the Fallen faction was the smallest of the three Abrahamic ones, but they also had the best PR of all three and had the most presence in the human world, outside of the Church anyway, but that was more akin to a rogue dog these days instead of the Church’s ram in the human world.
Only an absolute madman could take all this burden and actually remain functioning by the end of it.
Also, he was mad enough to take the half devil, half human Lucifer with the Divine Dividing. Azazel might just be mad or smart enough to just give him the latest books he had on botany, just to create a connection with the new, weird Bael heir.
Even as he cleaned himself and put on new clothing, his mind drifted back to that thought.
Maybe I have a chance of obtaining the books?
He was so sorely tempted to work on that immediately, but remembering the moping around he did all night because he had no friends and consequently, no life, he was determined to not get distracted and teleported to the outskirts of New Lilith.
He had to get on the Underworld-human World train. It would be his first time as well, and since he had the matching credentials, he hopefully wouldn't even have to wait in line.
And he was right, all he had to do was show up at the station, ignore the looks he got from the low class devils nearby, wait in line at the ticket counter, and state his name. After that, the Ticket Master looked up at him, his face twisted in a scowl as if about to reprimand someone for impersonating a Devil Heir, only for his face to blanch and pale as he realised that the real deal was standing in front of him.
After that, he was escorted to the Station Master’s office, where the man, very calmly, asked for his purpose and his destination and where he would be staying, and also informed him that Pillar House Heads and their families got free first class travel in the train, which made sense, he supposed.
So, there he was, sitting in the train, the only one in the first class cabin, looking out the window, as the train began moving without a jolt. It was very smooth, as was expected from a literal magical train. From the expressions on every single staff member he met on the way here, he got the hunch that no one important used the train, which made sense since the next generation, the one that will grow up on human entertainment and have some sort of knowledge about how humans went about their lives and actually take interest in them, had yet to grow up.
Also, strong devils could just teleport at will anyway, so he supposed this train was being used by its intended recipients. The low or middle class devils who can’t splurge for teleportation that far away or they could but chose not to do that, as that would leave them with a significant portion of their reserves gone, in the middle of what was technically still hostile territory in the minds of the Underworld.
After all, the War had never ended. They were just in a shaky ceasefire, as each side had suffered so much damage that it was deemed downright foolish to continue. Azazel had his respect for being the first to call it quits and preserve as much of the original Fallen fighting force as he could.