Disclaimer - I don't own any of the characters appearing in High School DXD or the Anime or the manga whatsoever.
Bael Estate
–Zekram Bael–
He just sat there, on his throne, eyes half closed as he awaited the arrival of Zephyr who had begged for a meeting, even going so far as to kneel outside his castle for weeks, having an inkling of an idea of what it was all about. After all, the spike of power in Bael Estate was significant enough for every staff inside the Compounds to feel it. He was informed of it moments later and as he saw the readings that had been measured by the wards, he had smiled, a happy and pleased one.
For it was good news. The best one he had heard in decades. This was probably the best news he’d heard since it was declared, not just to the Underworld but also to the entire supernatural world, that Sirzechs was going to be crowned as Lucifer, his descendant, using his power, was going to rule the Underworld.
Sure, they might butt heads on many issues but it was an indisputable fact that Sirzechs was his descendant. The Strongest Devil alive uses the Power of Destruction, was something that was known to everyone across the world, a fact that he never failed to rub in Runeas’ face, something that brought him great joy.
After all, in this age, he barely had a few peers and Runeas was the only one with whom he could still talk amicably without reaching for each other's throats. He shook his head, dismissing the nostalgia as the pride at having such a strong descendant surged forth.
The Devil race might be secure right now, but only a fool would be blind to the many faults of their current governing structure. He was living proof of it. The fact that Sirzechs and Ajuka still allowed him to have any power over their words was proof that the current structure needed to change. Either he needed to change the mindset of Sirzechs and Ajuka or he needed someone with the right mindset to take their place. Even if his plan never comes to fruition, a little competition to their ruling structure should make them take a long, hard look at their current actions.
Which is why he started looking for ways to create Super Devils, or atleast make Devils with the potential of one. He was not interested in the Malebranche's powers, for they were sentient weapons that were more likely to eat their wielder’s minds and then wreck havoc on the world. They had no structure, no goal, nothing he could leverage their strength with. They were as they should be, hidden and forgotten to history. It was better this way. In fact, he had ruled out enhancing devils to reach that level of strength because it was not going to work. If power could not come from within, then that power will always fail in the face of power that was not taken from someone or something else, which made him rule out many options that were documented in his personal library.
After all, he was one of the two Original Pillars who were still alive, and as such, he had quite the substantial library, most of it having been stolen from other Pillar houses and some even from Lucifer’s personal libraries. The decimation of the Lucifuge House had given him a treasure trove worth of information about Devil physiology and just why they were made as they were by their creator.
It also held documentation about the hundreds of ways the Lucifuge House had found that could increase the powers of Devils at various stages of their lives. That’s where he found it. A small ritual that worked on pregnant Devils and went on for a few years after the birth as well. It was deemed a failure because of the emotional aspect of the ritual.
The ritual required for the mother to have no malice for the other entity in the ritual while fully being aware of the toll it was taking on her body. The conditions required were all but impossible to fulfill. After all, Devils were inherently beings of emotion and it was impossible for the mother to not feel even a little bit of malice towards something that was actively killing her.
The ritual needed a pure emotion, untainted by anything.
He had long since discarded the possibility of even using the ritual, especially since unlike the times of Lucifer, they couldn't mass produce devils anymore and with their fertility, had to be careful about every single Pillar Devil, only to suddenly receive a letter, appearing directly on his table, in his office, located in a pocket dimension, under the strongest wards he could buy, with none being the wiser.
He had fired all the staff, killed many, shattered the wards and had them analysed completely before raising an entirely new set of wards, on top of a different pocket dimension, his perception of security in his own home shattered as he read through the letter.
It spoke of stuff no one should know, things that would burn the entire Underworld down, stuff that would most definitely make Rizevim himself move, and that alone had forced his hand. The letter demanded that he use that ritual on a woman, years before the news of her being pregnant ever reached him.
In the face of choosing one woman’s life over the current version of the Underworld that was most beneficial for him and his interests, the choice had been an easy one. While he had complied with the letter, he had spent a fortune trying to track down the sender of the letter and how they had managed to get past his security, only to come up with nothing.
Instead of finding any leads on the ghost, he had burned up his bridges with multiple Gods focusing on Divination. It seemed that anyone trying to use supernatural means to look for the ghost ended up with a significant backlash.
Multiple humans ended up with their minds and bodies shattered and even a Minor God had sustained injuries trying to look past the fog that kept the ghost’s identity and means secret. That alone had made him cross out any of his current enemies from the perpetrators list. After all, if someone could do that, they would most definitely kill him.
So, he’d made Zephyr do that. He had the woman tempted with the ritual’s effects, telling her that her son might just end up becoming someone like Sirzechs, knowing full well that the chances of that happening were miniscule. After all, the ritual’s warnings were clear.
If the woman had even a hint of malice during the entire process, all the effects of the ritual would be undone and the baby would have his Demonic Energy partially expunged, crippling them from birth.
No sane Devil would even think of going through with the ritual but his hands were tied and the woman, knowing full well that she was never going to amount to anything more than a maid, if her son did not become someone powerful, went along with it.
He had pawned off the task to the Furcas woman, knowing that she was more than competent enough to handle that insignificant manner but just like everything else, Zephyr had to butt his head in, and Furcas, knowing full well what her role was, only enabled him and made it feel like it was all his idea.
He’d made some offhanded inquiries about the baby after it was born, but had received only expected results. The baby only had average reserves, and the bloodline trait was not as pronounced as it normally should be, which was expected since the maid was of low stock.
He had the baby and the mother, both isolated from everyone in the castle, because what was going to be the point of telling the world about their existence? Both of them were doomed either way.
Only he had been proven wrong in the most satisfying way, multiple times.
He was powerful, he knew that, even back when he went into his garden, but he also clearly had something extra with his power of Destruction. An innate talent that allowed him to work with plants, making them bloom in otherwise completely hostile environments. He had investigated the maid’s lineage, and had received the expected result. She was of low stock with not even a hint of anything exotic, that would explain Magdaran’s interest/obsession with plants.
That was fine with him. After all, as a result of his actions since Magdaran’s birth, the boy had been isolated from the rest of House Bael and if his garden could be used as leverage, all the better.
He could hold sway over a powerful young Devil without ever needing to threaten or spill the blood of yet another Devil. After all, Devils, True Devils, like them were in rarity these days.
But this? The spike from the day Zephyr made the stupid decision to provoke a response from his wayward son, made him reconsider the viability of that ritual.
He heard the frantic footsteps outside, as the magnificent door to his Throne room was pushed open, as Zephyr kneeled before him, his head bowed low, “Anestor.”He regarded the man for a moment, knowing full well the terror he must be feeling at the moment. After all, he had discovered that his son, the one he had neglected all his life and whose mother he had killed, was not just hostile to him but a High Ultimate Class Devil, an existence so far beyond Zephyr that no one, not even Zekram would say anything if Zephyr was wiped off the face of the Underworld, for no reason, let alone revenge.
After all, no matter what happened, this was a matter of House Bael, and no one would dare interfere in their internal matters. In fact, if Magdaran’s rage could be sated by killing Zephyr, he would gladly watch it happen. After all, after giving birth to Magdaran, it would be Zephyr’s best achievement to sacrifice himself so that the Bael heir did not leave the House.
It was only when the pressure in the room reached a crescendo, did he speak, “Speak.”“It is Magdaran, Ancestor.”“Hmm. What of it?”“He is a danger to House Bael, and needs to be trained.” A danger to you, you mean. He thought with amusement, even as he played along with whatever scheme his descendant’s pea sized brain had come up. Clearly, he had spent the past few weeks thinking.