Chapter 61: An Eternity Later.

Disclaimer: All characters depicted in this story are eighteen years of age or older. Any sexual content involves only consenting adults. This is a work of fiction.

A Marvelous Devil.

Chapter 61: An Eternity Later.

Dante Andromalius.

The Ashen Courts.

“Don’t you have better things to do, Dante?” Jean asked somewhat curtly as I escorted her to her room in the castle.

Tandy had gone to do Tandy’s things until I called her back for Misla’s meeting, while Akeno, out of nowhere, decided that she was Rogue’s new best friend and would show her the way.

I was somewhat unsure about how that friendship would go. But honestly speaking, the touch-starved mutant would totally enjoy what Akeno would bring into her life. And Akeno would get someone in her life who would call out her bullshit whenever it went too far.

Win-win? I had no idea. It could also go completely sideways.

But I would keep an eye on it.

The reason why Jean was acting so curt was that, after the very amusing first meeting with the Queen, I stopped hiding her mind from the redhead. She saw all the depravity hidden behind one of the most stunning girls I had seen in both lives.

She was troubled, and her mind had to be a gutter with all those things swimming inside of it.

I preferred not to use mind reading because soul reading was a lot more truthful, but Jean didn’t have that advantage.

“So ready to throw me out?” I asked. “Without asking to see? I assure you, my dear, she wouldn’t mind if you were there.”

Jean blushed before hitting me on the arm.

“I want nothing to do with that... that...” she sputtered.

“Wench? Harlot?” My lips quirked.

“Ugh,” Jean shuddered. “Shut up. I know you made a deal to know how we talk in this day and age.”

“Slut, then?”

My companion huffed before hitting me again. She had that disapproving look down to perfection. She probably learned it from Ororo.

“It still feels wrong calling her that. It’s demeaning, Dante.”

“Excuse me, my dear Charles,” I rolled my eyes at her.

She reacted as if she had been struck. Her eyes went wide, looking disgusted with herself for a moment.

She opened her mouth to say something, but I just raised my hand and smiled calmly. “While we pushed the teasing because you were reacting so much, that doesn’t mean what any of us said was meant to harm her. Akeno is more than mature enough to put a stop to it whenever she wants, and so are the rest of the people living in this castle, Jean.”

“She really likes that?” she asked quietly.

I didn’t bother responding. She knew the answer to that well enough.

“Anyways, here we are,” I cleared my throat and pushed the immense doors open.

I still wasn’t sure if Ajuka was like the rest of the devils who did everything absurdly, or if he simply decided to do the usual, expecting I wanted something like this.

Or he just did it to fuck with me. Could be any.

He was surprisingly hilarious in his own way.

The gold and red outlines were just short of becoming ostentatious. It was barely below the line, but I didn’t care enough to complain.

For humans, though? Yeah... Jean stopped cold at the entrance, and her lips started twitching.

“I didn’t expect this from you, Seere,” she said after a moment of taking in the room. “Doesn’t this remind you of Mephisto’s throne room?”

“It’s a reminder of what not to become,” I deadpanned before stepping in. “I wanted to have a talk with your roommate before going to another meeting. You up for it?”

“Hm,” Jean nodded softly, taking a seat on the comfy bed.

Her eyes widened once more before she kicked her shoes away and just plopped onto the bed, moaning in satisfaction.

“What in the world is this made of? Also, will you still be paying us even if we aren’t at the café? We barely did three shifts before you brought us here. And we still have needs, Dante.”

“Already thinking of splurging my money once more?” I rolled my eyes even if I didn’t care.

I didn’t have the exact number, but I saw through my parents’ souls that they had no idea what to do with the absurd amount of liliums and gold sitting in the vault.

Jean just pressed her face into the pillow.

I didn’t blame her, though. Things here in the Underworld were of superior quality when compared to the human world. Only if you had the money, obviously, because things grew absurdly expensive due to the effort of culling the lower class.

The Satans tried, but as I said, they weren’t exactly the epitome of rulership. They were pretty bad if you looked at it from the outside.

Just good enough to avoid the race imploding from the inside out, and strong enough to deter the outside forces that were interested in eradicating us.

But for the rest? Well, they tried despite everything. That’s the best I could say.

“Yes, and?” She lifted an eyebrow, looking at me with an air of superiority. “Didn’t Tandy say you’re basically our sugar daddy while we’re here?”

“Careful, Red,” I grunted, locking eyes with her intense greens. “You don’t know what you’re playing with.”

Her eyes never left mine.

“I know it better than the rest,” she smirked before we were pulled into her soul plane.

Just for a force of nature half my size to impact against my chest and send me flying. Or, I should have gone flying, but the little thing with ungodly strength clenched her hand around my arm.

Despite not having bones as we were, I felt as if my arm was pulled out of its socket.

“Seere!” the little firebird with Jean’s face and white eyes shrieked. “You weren’t lying!”

“Of course I wasn’t,” I patted her flaming hair. “Did you think I would ever lie to you?”

“Yes,” she nodded instantly.

You know what? Fair.

Jean snorted behind me, looking at us with a soft smile. A feeling of contentment washed over her soul.

It was still... complicated, to say the least, but much better than before.

“Phoenix,” Jean nodded and also patted her head after hesitating for a long time. “How are you feeling? Anything weird?”

“Nuh-uh,” she shook her head, still clutched against me. “I told you it would be fine. And the world didn’t explode from my presence as I feared, so we’re good.”

“But the Phoenix knows about this,” I added, ignoring the second part which she hadn’t mentioned. Good thing I had enough experience with both realities at this point to know the chance of something like that happening was... small.

The full Phoenix? That was a different story. But ours? It was manageable since this place had a whole different architecture of how things worked.

“There’s no way she wouldn’t feel this partition separating this way. It’s different than jumping to another timeline or alternate reality.”

She nodded against my chest, looking up from where she held on.

It was like playing catch with a bomb capable of erasing us all.

Surprisingly enjoyable, to be completely honest. It was cute, even if it filled me with something I didn’t know how to name, seeing her brought this low.

“She won’t do anything,” the Phoenix said after closing her eyes in bliss from my hand. “I connected to it when you broke the seal. She knew since then what happened to me.”

“Do you think if it wanted to do something, it would have done so already?” Jean asked almost sadly.

They both reacted like mortals at the news. It showed how bad things were. The Phoenix should’ve understood why the whole was ignoring us.

The little Phoenix's eyes and lips began trembling as she hid her face against my chest.

Jean and I shared a look.

“Don’t think about that for now. How have you been feeling?” I tried to help her.

It didn’t help. Her shoulders were trembling as little sniffles came out of her nose.

I... I looked at Jean for help, almost panicking because the plane itself started trembling and an absurd amount of negativity began to flow into it.

Jean’s eyes were gentle as she pried the little thing away from me. Something she could only do because the Phoenix allowed it.

She cradled her against her chest and began rocking, muttering against her ear.

Little by little, the negativity disappeared, and the plane was filled with contentment as the Phoenix's body grew enough to match Jean's.

“Are you better?” Jean asked curiously as she tried to move away.

Only to fail because now, the Phoenix didn’t want to move.

“Hm. Comfy,” she said absentmindedly, completely ignoring both of us as she hid her face against Jean’s chest.

Jean looked torn between blushing and being weirded out at having someone so similar to her in that position. But she showed that she was better than Xavier by staying put against the overpowered thing in her lap.

“What about your... tasks? Do you feel the need to do it here? Or is it as silent as I hoped?” I asked after spending some minutes in silence.

I didn’t want to push her or, worse, make her have a temper tantrum. And it was a genuine danger because of how delicate she currently was.

“This place is weird,” the Phoenix answered, her voice coming out muffled. “There’s some... weird thing behind a seal. It shouted at me before I looked away from it. But everything else is silent.”

I wondered, if only for a moment, if she even understood herself. Because I didn’t.

“Also, didn’t I ask you to be cautious, dear?” I said a bit firmly.

She... she stuck her tongue out at me.

“I was cautious,” she rolled her eyes. “I only said hi to your friend and thanked him for helping you after your death. We had a nice chat, but he was busy hiding from some gods in the human world.”

“What’s a brothel, Seere?” she asked innocently.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Fucking Red.

Jean’s eyes also showed alarm as parts of The Phoenix conversation with the Dragon of Dreams passed through her essence.

And of course, he was receiving a pretty... enthusiastic lap dance when he was surprised by someone not from this world.

Then she had said my name, and Red just accepted it as normal.

The bad thing was that he decided that since I was involved, he didn’t need to stop the dancer from corrupting the firebird.

“I’ll take Jean to one later if you truly want to know,” I deadpanned, and ignored the protests from Jean with surprising ease.

Everything to keep this adorably scary thing happy.

The Phoenix, deciding enough was enough, simply grabbed Jean’s shoulder and got comfortable as she began caressing Jean’s hair.

She had a curious smile.

“See? It feels nice, no?” she chuckled. “Thank you, Seere. It means a lot knowing I could trust you.”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about,” I continued, ignoring Jean’s flailing legs and how her eyes begged me for help.

I wasn’t getting in the middle of that. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Phoenix decided it was my turn after Jean, and I wasn’t sure if we would be able to look each other in the eyes if that happened.

“Hoh?” She lifted her eyebrow as her hands tightened even harder against Jean, completely shutting down her protests against her bosom.

Good thing we didn’t need breathing in this place, because Jean wouldn’t last much longer in the real world. A worthy way to die. I approved.

“I planned to start... fixing your connection with Jean, but I can’t fix the one with your whole at this point in time. Also, I don’t want to risk infecting the whole with your problems. This way, you will have a better way to experience new things through Jean, rather than just watching. I can’t separate you two, and I don’t think that’s what you want.”

She shook her head even as she hugged Jean harder.

Jean had already stopped moving.

“We’re Jean,” the Phoenix said simply. “And I know you can’t fix it at this point in time. I’m not stupid.”

The Phoenix glared at me hard enough that I worried for a moment she would act rashly.

“Thank you for trying,” she said softly.

“Anytime,” I smiled calmly.

Inside, I sighed in relief.

Only to flail a second later.

It looked like I wouldn’t escape what I had been dreading for the last few minutes as the Phoenix finally let go of Jean, who scurried away from her doppelganger.

And I was too slow leaving the plane before The Phoenix’s hand clenched around my arm and pulled me against her lap, cradling me like she had been doing with Jean.

And Jean was too busy laughing at me to waste time feeling as strange as she should have.

The last thing I thought before my eyes were blocked by something was...

Soft.

Dante Andromalius.

An eternity later.

Jean and I would never speak about what happened inside the soul plane. For her sake and mine.

I couldn’t have her ruining my reputation after everything I went through under the Phoenix’s hands. And I would totally ruin hers by saying how her doppelganger did all those things to me. With just enough tweaks, I could even fool anyone with memories by replacing the details of the Phoenix with Jean’s.

Mutually assured destruction and all that. Not that she was even in the mood to talk about it after we came out of the dive. Time passed differently in there, and it had felt like a very long time.

At least it helped me fix Jean’s connection with her primordial copy. Not perfectly, but way better than before.

As soon as Tandy saw me, her eyes grew worried at my haggard appearance.

“Do I want to know?” she asked quietly.

“Fuck no. I command you as your king to never ask about today,” I grunted, getting a disbelieving laugh from the blonde.

“I will totally find out one day,” her dimples showed as her eyes brightened in amusement.

How she managed to make her eyes shine whenever she grew excited or curious was beyond me. The fact that she wasted something as precious and unique as the Light Force on it didn’t surprise me, though.

It made me like her even more.

“How much time passed?” I asked curiously.

“Like two hours, give or take. Misla is still in her office, though, don’t worry about that,” she waved me off, looking even more curious about my suffering.

I nodded. “And what did you do while I was... busy?”

“Hm,” she hummed teasingly. “I had a very... interesting talk with Nyra, then I went to drink some tea with Mother. She missed you a lot, you know?”

“Missed us,” I smiled. “But you know my reasons for not explaining what we’re doing. The devils here are not used to these kinds of things. Also, I’m still hesitant to create a constant connection between the two places. I don’t want to risk someone from either side learning about it.”

“I don’t know how Red deals with the burden,” Tandy sighed.

I did. By being so much fucking stronger than everyone else, to the point you wouldn’t be bothered by them. It worked surprisingly well.

I wondered what it felt like knowing you were that far ahead of everyone else in your home dimension. I never enjoyed that feeling.

Or was it even enjoyable? Red didn’t look particularly happy before my appearance.

“And after the tea?” I linked arms with my light.

“I also had a talk with Sai. He says he’s not sorry, by the way.”

That brought a snort out of me.

Of course he wasn’t. That’s why I liked him and his mother.

Did it piss me off that they were creating ‘problems’ for me? Not in the slightest. These might be problems for a normal devil, but no one could say I was normal by any stretch of the imagination.

I was hoping the meeting would happen sooner, in fact. I couldn’t wait to see what happened, even if I was still unsure how I wanted it to play out.

It might depend on the other devils. I found myself being incredibly spontaneous in this life.

Free.

I loved it.

“What’s new with him?” I asked to pass the time. Teleporting inside my castle was boring, and despite not saying it out loud, I also missed walking around here.

“He got a new piece!” Tandy smiled brightly. “He’s just the cutest little thing! I swear I wanted to smother him as soon as I saw him. I thought he was a girl.”

That didn’t explain much. Tandy was absurdly affectionate.

She made a copy of the boy with her light. It didn’t have many details, since her control wasn’t there yet, but the sheer size and girlish look?

I wasn’t surprised about Tandy getting cuteness aggression over him.

“Kuisha also invited us to dinner at their place when we have time, as an apology,” she smirked. “Leave it to the Queen to plan all that even with her fear.”

“That’s their job,” I nodded approvingly. “And Kuisha curbs Sai’s most... interesting quirks. She knows what she’s doing. Are they a thing already, or should we go back into playing matchmaker? It’s absurd how oblivious Sai is.”

Tandy burst out laughing as we finally reached Misla’s door and opened it without fanfare.

“Sai has eyes only for fists and muscles. And Dante, worryingly enough,” she said teasingly to his mother. “Want to get in on the team, Misla? I swear that man will need all the help in the world.”

“Way ahead of you, deary,” Misla let out a twinkling laugh, pulling out a stack of papers. “I was worried for a second, but truthfully speaking, Kuisha looks similar enough to Dante to have an advantage.”

It was hilarious how they all kept that joke going and going. And that Sai was oblivious enough not to notice what some people believed about him.

His gratefulness for me healing Misla went to the point of vassalage, and I became one of those closest to him because of that. And he was the kind of man who would give his all, including his life, for those who mattered to him.

Did it seem weird from the outside? No, not really. That didn’t stop my light from starting the damn rumor just because it was funny.

I called her a gremlin for a reason. It wasn’t only because she was one horny devil.

Then the rumor grew and grew, because devils were idiots.

And it grew to a point where Kuisha herself fucking believed it.

I was surrounded by idiots, and it was just so damn funny.

The first time she glared at me with surprising vitriol came completely out of nowhere. After peeking into her soul to ensure I hadn’t offended her for some reason, I barely avoided splashing her with the tea I had been drinking at the time.

She was competing for Sai’s affection with me. A man, of all things.

Sai wasn’t even attracted to men and had a massive crush on Kuisha, but just didn’t know how to show it.

“I know, right!” Tandy clapped with a wide, dark grin. “What do you think, Misla? We can take Kuisha on a girls' night out and cut her hair a bit shorter. This much, and it should match Dante’s,” she moved her hands just a small bit. “With a bit of gel, I know we could make it work.”

“Right!” Misla nodded enthusiastically, keeping up the joke. “I think I can find one of those bandages human women used to hide their breasts in the past because of sexist idiots. It came from Japan, right?”

Tandy cackled, and Misla couldn’t keep her straight face, joining my light as they laughed like proper idiots.

“You two are a lost cause,” I sighed, dragging my hand down my face.

My lips twitched. “Should I offer to sculpt her body? I mean, it’s not like I don’t see the vision. I’m damn hot, after all.”

“Boo!” Tandy rolled her eyes. “It had ended perfectly back then; you just ruined it!”

Misla nodded seriously.

I sighed. Juveniles.

“Anyways, you know why we're here, Misla. Start talking,” I waved them off.

Misla’s eyes were teasing as she started giving all the details about what had changed during our leave.

And in short? The Ashen Court was prospering, but we were hitting the peak of what we could get with what we offered. Things had stabilized after our meteoric rise in the Underworld, and my fame had petered off after my high-class exam and the promotion to lordship.

“I won’t say I told you so, because I didn’t, and you don’t need to hear it,” Misla tutted. “But coming and going, and barely coming at that, is not doing you any favors. Now, instead of the lower class seeing you as an example, it’s only the lords that are circling the territory like hungry hyenas.”

“Have they been causing problems?” I frowned for a moment.

“Hm. They are trying,” Misla snorted. “From all sides, at that. Some Lords raised a stink in a meeting, according to Hadrian, saying that the fertile land was kept by the New Satans for the next time someone who supported them grew in power. It was shut down, obviously, since... we have proof of the monsters inside the sealed zone, but they still weren’t happy.”

I didn’t care about what they said about me.

It must have shown on my face because Misla sighed.

“Now, they just say you’re an upstart enjoying the effort of the extinct houses that fought for the Old Satans. It marred your reputation.”

“They believe that?!” Tandy asked with an open mouth.

“Dear, devils come in all shapes and sizes. And the majority are idiots,” Misla deadpanned. “Apart from that, some devil families that have had the food industry in a chokehold since ancient times keep trying to get you under their thumbs, but Nyra has been dealing with them well enough. Sai has been helping, too.”

That motherly pride came off a bit wrong when it happened because her son kicked a bunch of nobles as if they were unruly brats.

It must sting their pride that someone this young was so much stronger than they were. The sealed zone token I had gifted him worked wonders in allowing his growth.

“Hm. Should I make an example out of them?” I asked absentmindedly.

“Nope,” Misla popped the 'p'. “That will only get you under even more fire. I don’t suggest a show of force. I was thinking about... diversifying.”

And so she went, droning on and on about some ideas she had. We spent about an hour and a half hashing out the details, and I felt increasingly drained the more Misla spoke.

She probably missed talking with people after being asleep for so many years. Because that woman had a set of lungs that honestly baffled me.

I obviously didn’t say it to her face. I liked my face as perfect as it was.

Tandy giggled as the overeager Misla kicked us out of her office and began sketching the plans. She probably wouldn’t sleep today.

Or the whole week, considering all the things she had on her mind.

“Was it that bad? Didn’t you have to do things like this back when you were Seere?” she asked curiously.

“I was a cosmic demon capable of reality warping inside my domain, where all souls belonged to me, Tandy. Do you think I even had meetings? I just gave the idiots a box I read every once in a while. They filled it with suggestions and I snapped my damn fingers.”

I slumped against the wall.

Tandy shook her head in amusement.

“Good thing I planned something nice for you, my love,” she smiled teasingly.

I grew curious and was about to read her, but she tutted and flicked my ear.

“None of that, it’s a surprise. Follow me, love.”

And as a dutiful boyfriend, I followed with my mouth shut.

All the way to the damn dungeons.

“This is the first time I've come here, you know?” I asked my light, growing more curious by the second about what she had planned.

It was cold. Like, metaphysically cold. It seeped deep into my very soul.

Ajuka was a master of magic, and this alone showed that.

Tandy shivered and got closer to me. It didn’t help.

I masked us from the effects with my clan trait.

Only to snort in disbelief and a little bit of excitement at what waited for us inside.

The cell had a bunch of spells I didn’t bother examining, because I was more focused on the two people inside.

Nyra, dressed in pure latex with a crop in her hand. And the second person? A very tied and very gagged Akeno.

And it looked like they had been here for a while.

Because I could see the sheer enjoyment on her expression, even behind her blindfold.

Tandy giggled perversely at that and knocked on the glass wall.

Nyra turned around, almost mechanically, only for her eyes to harden and turn sharp as she smiled.

What was it that mortals said?

Ah. I believe I’m in danger.