Chapter 63:
– Serafall –
Serafall slipped out of the guest room bed with a grin that could have lit up the entire Underworld.
Her body was still shivering.
Yes, she was a shameless pervert. She was a Maou, after all. It came with the territory.
She turned back and let her gaze linger over the bed.
Harry lay on his back with Rossweisse curled against his right side and Lilja tucked into his left, all three of them gloriously naked and tangled together beneath a single thin sheet that hid absolutely nothing. Rossweisse's silver hair fanned across Harry's chest. Lilja's hand rested possessively over his stomach, her fingers twitching in her sleep like she was ready to stab anyone who got too close. Harry's arm was wrapped around each of them, holding both sisters against him even while unconscious.
Serafall licked her lips slowly and shuddered.
And Sona. God, Sona! She couldn't wait to do this with Sona!
A sharp headache lanced through her skull!
Right. She was a devil. She couldn't say that word, even in her own head…
She had waited months for Sona to come around, to accept Harry, to accept herself. The threesome in her bedroom after Kokabiel's attack had been a dream come true, but that was just the beginning. The next time all three of them were alone together, Serafall was going to bury herself inside her little sister until neither of them could see straight.
Serafall bit her knuckle to keep from squealing out loud. Focus! She had things to do.
Her mind drifted sideways into professional territory. The gears of television production never stopped turning, even at four in the morning in a fey woman's underwater palace.
Season four of Magical Girl Levia-tan was shaping up beautifully. Gabriel's villain arc was already confirmed, but now Serafall was getting ideas for the main storyline. What if Gabriel's evil boss character placed a genderbending curse on Levia-tan's lover, Cassium? Cassium would be transformed into a woman, confused and vulnerable, and Levia-tan would have to break the curse with the power of love. And with her cock, of course. The ratings would be astronomical. The doujinshi community would lose their collective minds!
Now then, how can I convince Harry to use his Metamorphmagus powers and actually go along with filming it?
Eh. She'd think of something. She always did.
Serafall snapped her fingers. Every trace of sweat, saliva, and cum vanished from her skin in an instant, erased by a pulse of demonic energy so practiced she could have done it in her sleep. A second snap and her Magical Girl Levia-tan outfit materialized over her body in a cascade of pink sparkles, the familiar weight of the costume settling onto her shoulders like armor. Her heart-shaped wand appeared in her hand, and she twirled it once before tucking it into her belt.
She glanced back at the bed one final time. Harry shifted in his sleep, pulling both Valkyrie sisters closer. Rossweisse made a soft, contented noise and nuzzled deeper into his neck. Lilja's grip on his stomach tightened.
Serafall's chest ached with something warm and ferocious. She cast three layered protection wards over the room, each one keyed to her personal magical signature, strong enough to keep out anything short of a dragon god. Then she stepped into the hallway and pulled the door shut behind her without a sound.
Viviane's underwater manor was quiet at this hour. The corridors were lit by bioluminescent algae that pulsed gently behind crystal panels, casting everything in shifting hues of blue and green. Schools of tiny silver fish drifted past the transparent walls in lazy spirals. The fey woman's taste was exquisite, Serafall had to admit. Impractical and dramatic and beautiful, which were three of Serafall's favorite qualities in anything.
She found Gabriel exactly where she expected to.
The Archangel sat in the same meeting room from earlier, perched on the edge of a cushioned chair with her hands folded in her lap and her twelve wings tucked away.
Gabriel's enormous blue eyes lifted as Serafall entered.
Their gazes locked.
Neither spoke for three full seconds.
Then Serafall grinned and plopped herself down on the opposite couch with enough force to make the cushions bounce. She crossed one leg over the other, her magical girl skirt riding up her thigh, and leaned back with her arms spread across the backrest.
"I suppose we should talk now," Serafall said.
Gabriel nodded once, slowly. "Indeed." She studied Serafall with an expression that was equal parts curiosity and caution. "I want to know why you helped me, Serafall. Why offer to pay Viviane on Heaven's behalf? Why ensure we receive a powerful new holy weapon?" Her brow creased delicately. "The other devils will be furious when they find out, won't they?"
Serafall took a moment to compose herself. Her racing thoughts were bouncing between half a dozen threads at once, which was normal for a Satan who juggled international politics, television production, and an increasingly complicated family sex life on a daily basis. But this particular conversation required focus. Real focus. Not the theatrical kind she performed on camera.
"At this time… I think it would be better if the Underworld and Heaven had a closer relationship." There was a lot to unpack here, and she needed to frame it correctly. "I don't trust Odin and Azazel," she said flatly. "Those old meddling schemers…"
Gabriel tilted her beautiful head to one side. "What do you mean?"
Serafall held up a finger. "This mission. This sudden, out-of-nowhere favor call from Odin, conveniently paired with Azazel's missing team in Church territory. It was a test, Gabriel. A test for Harry." She waved her hand in a lazy circle. "It's no secret those two have been working together behind the scenes for decades now. They share intelligence. They coordinate operations. They probably drink together on weekends and bitch about their employees while ogling stripper titties."
Gabriel's brow furrowed delicately. "A test for what, exactly? What are they testing Harry for?"
Serafall paused. She chewed the inside of her cheek and stared at the ceiling of Viviane's underwater sitting room. Should she admit this? This was world-changing information. The kind of revelation that could reshape alliances, start wars, or end them.
But if Azazel and Odin obviously already knew, then Heaven would find out eventually. Better it came from Serafall directly, on her terms, than from some spy or secondhand whisper.
Fuck it.
"Ophis is in love with my son," Serafall said bluntly.
Gabriel blinked once. Twice. Her expression didn't change. The silence stretched for five full seconds. "I'm sorry," Gabriel said politely. "I didn't quite catch that."
Serafall chuckled. "You caught it just fine." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. "As unbelievable as it sounds, I'll say it again. The Infinite Dragon God, Ophis, the Ouroboros, the second most powerful being in existence, is in love with my nineteen-year-old half-devil son." She ticked off examples on her fingers. "She's been visiting Harry at Hogwarts. Going on dates with him. Letting him feed her pies and pastries. Sitting in his lap at picnics by the lake. Happy as can be the entire time!"
Gabriel's composure cracked. "What the fuck?"
"HAH!" Serafall shot upright on the couch, jabbing her finger across the room with the triumphant energy of a prosecutor catching a witness in a lie. "You DID swear earlier! I KNEW it! That's twice now, Gabriel! Twice! The mighty Seraph Gabriel, dropping F-bombs like a sailor!"
Gabriel's cheeks flushed a lovely shade of pink. She pressed her lips together and smoothed her hands over her dress. "That is not important right now." Her composure reassembled itself with impressive speed, though the blush lingered. "I want to know how this happened. How did the Ouroboros Dragon fall in love with your son?"
Serafall dropped back onto the couch with a bounce and shrugged. "My son is the most amazing man in the world. So obviously it was inevitable." She grinned, sharp and wicked. "I'm sure if you spent enough time with him, you'd probably offer up that three-thousand-year-old virgin angel body of yours to him too."
Gabriel sputtered. The flush on her cheeks darkened from pink to rose and her blue eyes flashed with genuine indignation. "Serafall, be serious."
"I am being perfectly serious," Serafall said, and she meant every word.
Gabriel held the glare for another two seconds before she exhaled through her nose and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the Archangel had regained her composure, though her fingers were gripping the fabric of her dress a touch too tightly. "What does this mean?" Gabriel asked quietly. "...If Ophis truly stands with your son, then the Underworld could, in theory, crush virtually every other pantheon and faction in the world." She met Serafall's eyes directly. "Is that going to happen?"
Serafall scoffed. "HELL NO! Me and the rest of the Maous all love peace. Peace is the best. Peace is literally my favorite thing." Her voice picked up speed and warmth as she counted off reasons on her fingers. "I can have all the sex I want with Harry, his peerage, and my amazing So-tan. I can have fun. I can make my TV show. I can be a magical girl forever!" Her hands dropped and her expression flickered, the brightness dimming for just a fraction of a second. "If we go to war, then I'm back to being Serafall the General."
She shuddered.
Serafall hated her time on the battlefield. There was a vast, ugly difference between a skirmish here and there and a full-scale war. The battle against Kokabiel a month ago had been a minor engagement. A footnote. Nothing compared to the horrors she remembered from the Devil Civil War. The centuries of grinding slaughter. The friends she'd watched die. The things she'd had to do to survive and to win.
She never wanted to go back to that. Not ever.
Gabriel studied her for a long, quiet moment. Whatever she saw in Serafall's face must have been convincing, because the tension in her shoulders slowly released. A warm, genuine smile spread across her face, bright enough to fill the entire room with something that felt dangerously close to holy light. "The devils really have changed so much since Lucifer first created them," Gabriel said softly. There was no condescension in her voice. Only something that sounded like pride. "I am so proud of how far your race has come!"
Serafall scoffed again, though it came out weaker than she intended. "Yeah, whatever." She crossed her arms and looked away. "Listen. If the Fallen Angels or Asgard try some shady shit down the line, can we count on Heaven to have our backs? Help us out and stuff?"
"Of course," Gabriel said, and smiled again.
Serafall's stomach did something complicated.
Fuck. Gabriel was really, really sexy when she smiled like that. All warm and innocent and radiant, like she genuinely believed the best in everyone and everything, and somehow that sincerity made her more attractive than any seduction technique Serafall had ever encountered.
Serafall cleared her throat aggressively and pointed at the Archangel. "This doesn't make us, like, friends or anything. You are still my rival and my nemesis."
"Whatever you say, Levia-tan," Gabriel said gently.
Serafall's mouth opened. It was the first time an angel had ever called her that. Levia-tan. Her name. The one she'd chosen for herself.
It made her happy and made her pout at the exact same time, which was an infuriating combination that she blamed entirely on Gabriel.
– Harry –
The next morning…
I woke up to warmth on both sides and the sound of sisters bickering.
"I'm just saying," Lilja's voice floated over me, laced with that particular brand of affectionate cruelty that only an older... well, in this case younger sister could manage, "an orgy during your very first time. That's quite the debut, Rossie."
"It was NOT an orgy!" Rossweisse's voice cracked on the last word. "It was... it was a... a shared intimate experience between consenting adults in a private setting!"
"You rode Harry's cock while watching your baby sister get railed by a Maou two feet away on the same bed. And then we switched. That's an orgy."
"Lilja!"
"You also screamed so loud you made the walls pulse. They breathed faster because of you."
"They were already doing that! That's just how this strange building works! It's made of coral and coral breaths!"
"Mhm."
"It IS!"
I kept my eyes closed and smiled into the pillow. Two warm, naked bodies were pressed against me, one on each side, soft skin and tangled limbs and the faint residual scent of sex and sweat and something floral that belonged to Viviane's enchanted bedsheets.
The conversation had apparently been going on for a while, because Rossweisse's voice had already reached the pitch of a woman who knew she was losing an argument she never should have engaged in.
"I just think it's worth noting," Lilja continued with the serene calm of someone twisting the knife, "that the legendary Rossweisse Nornas, pride of the Valkyries, Odin's most decorated shield-maiden, the woman who once filed a formal complaint against a frost giant for leaving muddy footprints in her office, chose to lose her virginity in a four-person pile with her sister and her sister's devil boyfriend and his mother."
"I am going to smother you with this pillow!"
"Eheheh! How scandalous!"
"LILJA!"
I opened my eyes.
Two faces turned toward me immediately.
Lilja was propped up on one elbow, her red hair spilling down over her bare shoulder and across my chest, green eyes bright with mischief. She looked gorgeous in the soft blue-green glow of the underwater manor. She had that particular expression she wore when she was having the time of her life at someone else's expense.
She smiled when she saw me looking, leaned down, and kissed me. Slow and warm and familiar, her lips parting just enough to catch my lower lip between hers before pulling back. "Good morning, my King," she murmured against my mouth.
"Morning."
On my other side, Rossweisse had gone very still.
I turned my head and found her watching me with those wide green eyes, her silver hair a complete disaster, tangled and sleep-mussed and splayed across the pillow in every direction. Her cheeks were already pink from Lilja's teasing, and the addition of my attention made the color deepen to a proper red. She clutched the sheet against her chest with both hands, which was endearing given that I had seen, touched, kissed, and thoroughly explored every inch of what she was trying to hide.
She swallowed. "G-good morning, Harry." She leaned forward, hesitant, uncertain, her eyes searching mine for permission or reassurance or both. Then she pressed her lips to mine. It was softer than Lilja's kiss. More tentative. But when I brought my hand up to cup her jaw and held her there for an extra second, I felt her melt into it. Her fingers uncurled from the sheet and rested against my chest. She pulled back with a trembling exhale. "My King," she whispered.
I chuckled. "Not quite yet. But I will be soon."
"I know," she said softly.
Both sisters sat up, and the sheet pooled around their waists, and I was treated to the kind of view that made a man grateful to be alive.
Lilja stretched her arms above her head with a satisfied groan, arching her back in a way that lifted her breasts and pulled the lean muscles of her stomach taut. Her body was a weapon and a work of art in equal measure.
Rossweisse, beside her, was built on a slightly different blueprint. Where Lilja was athletic and sleek, Rossweisse was fuller. Rounder. Her breasts were larger, her hips wider, her thighs thicker. Her skin was flawless and pale, completely unmarked except for the hickeys and bite marks I had left on her.
She noticed me staring and made a small "eep" noise, her hands twitching toward the sheet before she stopped herself. She forced her hands back into her lap and let me look.
Good girl.
I glanced around the room. The third woman who should have been here was conspicuously absent. The spot on the bed where my mum had been lying was still faintly warm but empty, the sheets tossed aside carelessly.
Probably with Gabriel. Or harassing Viviane about the swords. Or both simultaneously while somehow also planning her next television season.
"How do you feel?" Lilja asked, drawing my attention back.
Rossweisse looked confused. "Feel? Why would he feel different?"
Lilja turned to her sister with the patient expression of someone about to deliver an explanation they had given many times before. "Harry's Sacred Gear activates when he sleeps with a supernatural woman for the first time. It copies aspects of her abilities and integrates them into his own power."
Rossweisse stared at Lilja. Then at me. Then back at Lilja. "What kind of SHAMELESS Sacred Gear is that?" she sputtered, her blush returning with a vengeance.
I laughed and rubbed the back of my neck. "In my defense, it was created by Merlin himself, who was by all accounts one of the most prolific perverts in recorded supernatural history. The man apparently slept with thousands of women across dozens of species over his lifetime. That's how he collected so many exclusive bloodline magics."
Rossweisse looked like she was trying to decide whether to be outraged or impressed. "So every time you... with someone new…?"
"I potentially gain something, yeah." I held her gaze steadily. "But I don't go out of my way to sleep with random women just for power. I never have. I only sleep with women I genuinely care about. Women I love."
Rossweisse's expression softened. That blinding smile threatened to make a comeback, tugging at the corners of her lips. "That's very sweet," she said quietly.
"Mmm," Lilja hummed from my other side, her tone deceptively casual. "Very romantic. So tell me, darling, then why exactly did you sleep with Fleur and Gabrielle's mother? Do you love her too?"
I coughed. "That doesn't count," I said, far too quickly.
She gave me a shit-eating grin. "Hoh? It doesn't count?"
"That was a veela mother and two veela daughters, Lilja. Together. At the same time! That's a once in a lifetime opportunity. Any man on the planet would have done the same!"
Lilja leaned over and kissed me again, before pulling back with a smirk that told me she had already won this exchange and was simply choosing how long to let me dangle. "I'm sure that 'once in a lifetime opportunity' will be happening again and again in the future, knowing you," she said sweetly.
I really couldn't deny that.
I shifted my focus inward instead, closing my eyes and reaching for the deep well of power that sat at my core. Something had definitely been added.
I felt stronger. Broadly, generally stronger, in a way that suffused every magical pathway in my body. That was expected. Roseweisse was an Ultimate Class Valkyrie, the strongest shield-maiden in all of Asgard, and I had been her first.
I grinned despite myself. I had now deflowered two Valkyries. Something to be proud of, honestly.
"Well?" Lilja poked my shoulder. "Don't keep us in suspense."
I dug deeper, searching past the raw power gain for the specific ability the Sacred Gear had copied. There was always something distinct. Veela fire from Fleur and Gabrielle. Metamorphmagus shifting from Tonks. Ice magic from Sona and Serafall. Every woman left her own unique fingerprint on this power.
I found it.
Then I groaned and dropped my head back against the pillow.
"What is it?" Rossweisse asked, leaning forward with curiosity.
"What did you get?" Lilja pressed.
"Riding mastery," I said flatly.
Silence.
"...Riding mastery?" Lilja repeated.
"Riding mastery." I rubbed both hands down my face. "I can now tame and ride wild or magical animals with vastly increased ease. Mounts that would normally throw or kill their riders will instinctively accept me. Flying creatures, war beasts, magical steeds, all of them." I dropped my hands and stared at the pulsing coral ceiling. "Kind of a let down, to be honest…"
Lilja pressed her lips together very tightly. Her shoulders were shaking. She was trying not to laugh.
"Don't," I warned her.
"I didn't say anything."
"You're thinking about it! Besides, it's your lame power anyway!"
That made my Queen pout at me. "Hey! It's not lame! You tell him, Rossie!"
"The pegasus ride yesterday was a novel experience," I continued, digging my own grave with both hands and no shovel, "but honestly I wouldn't do it again. I prefer riding brooms with my girls. More control, better speed, and I don't have to worry about the horse judging me the entire ti..."
I trailed off because Rossweisse's green eyes had narrowed to dangerous slits. "My pegasus," she said slowly, "is a divine mount blessed by Odin himself. He has carried Valkyries into battle across nine realms for over eight hundred years. He once outran a bolt of lightning thrown by Thor."
I tried to cut in. "Right, and that's very impre..."
She interrupted me. "And you would rather ride a stick?"
Lilja buried her face in the pillow and wheezed with laughter.
The door to the guest room flew open before I could come up with a defense against being bullied into pegasus riding lessons. It swung hard enough to bounce off the wall, and my mother's grinning face appeared.
"Harry! Your SWORD is ready!" Serafall practically vibrated with excitement, her twin tails bouncing behind her. "Get cleaned up, get dressed, everyone up up up! Let's GO!"
Rossweisse moved to get out of bed, swinging her long legs over the side before pausing. Serafall was very obviously still standing there with her blue eyes locked on Rossweisse's naked body.
"Are you going to turn around?" Rossweisse asked.
"Nope," Serafall said, without an ounce of shame.
Rossweisse's mouth opened in protest.
"You get used to it," Lilja told her sister, already standing and stretching with the casual ease of a woman who had long since accepted that privacy was a theoretical concept in the Sitri family. She grabbed my hand and pulled me upright. "Come on. Showertime."
…A quick rinse later, I was dressed in the same dark jeans, navy shirt, and leather jacket from the day before.
Lilja and Rossweisse had both summoned their Valkyrie armor in twin flashes of silver-white light. Standing side by side, they looked like something out of a painting.
Serafall grabbed my hand the instant I stepped into the hallway. Her fingers laced through mine and she started walking at a pace that was less "leading" and more "dragging a reluctant teenager."
Her pink boots clicked rapid-fire against the corridor's living coral floor as she practically bounced with every step, tugging me along behind her.
"You're going to love it," she said, not looking back. "You're going to love it so much. Viviane wouldn't let anyone in while she was working, not even Gabriel, and Gabriel tried the puppy eyes, which apparently don't work on fey, which is fascinating because they work on literally everyone else in the known supernatural world including me..."
She kept talking. I let her. Serafall in an excited mood was a force of nature that you didn't interrupt. You just held on and hoped she didn't crash you into a wall on a sharp turn.
We wound deeper into the underwater palace, through corridors I hadn't seen before, past rooms filled with impossible things. A library where the books swam through the air like fish. A garden of luminous flowers growing from the ceiling, their roots dangling down like chandeliers. A room that was just water, floor to ceiling, a perfect cube of still, clear water that somehow didn't spill into the hallway.
Finally, Serafall pulled me around a corner and stopped in front of a heavy iron door that looked wildly out of place against the elegant coral architecture.
Bolted to the wall beside it was a brass plaque, and I leaned in to read it:
Lady Viviane's Super Awesome Forge!
I chuckled.
The door swung open and we stepped inside, and the aesthetic shift was immediate and jarring.
This was a workshop. The air was thick and hot, almost uncomfortably so, carrying the smell of heated metal and quenched steel and something deeper.
In the far corner, a fairy forge sat cooling. It was smaller than I had expected, barely the size of a large fireplace, but the embers inside burned a deep, impossible blue that cast no shadows. The heat radiating from it pressed against my skin even from across the room. Whatever Viviane used to fuel that thing, it wasn't coal.
Xenovia, Irina, and Gabriel were already inside.
Xenovia stood near the center of the forge room with both hands wrapped around the grip of a sword, and the moment I laid eyes on it my skin prickled and the devil blood in my veins recoiled.
It was beautiful. Silver and gold, seamlessly blended, with a blade that caught the blue forge-light and threw it back in prismatic shards that danced across the walls. Holy energy radiated from it in steady, pulsing waves. Like standing next to a bonfire. I could feel it pressing against the demonic energy in my core, and my instincts screamed at me to take a step back.
Beside me, Lilja shifted her weight. She was feeling it too.
It wasn't Excalibur reforged. I could tell that much. Excalibur had been a weapon of prophecy and legend, woven from threads of fate that could never be replicated. This was something else. Something new. Something that belonged entirely to the present rather than the past.
"How is it?" Gabriel asked, her blue eyes bright with barely contained anticipation.
Xenovia's expression was one I had never seen on her face before. It wasn't her usual stern intensity or her battle-focused scowl. It was reverence. "It's amazing," she said quietly. She turned the blade slowly, watching the light slide along its edge. "The best sword I've ever held. The balance is... I've never felt anything like this."
Viviane scoffed from her position near the forge. "Of course it is." The Lady of the Lake looked different from the night before. She was still tall, still impossibly beautiful in the way that fey always were, but exhaustion had settled into the lines of her face.
She had been awake all night, pouring her power into two legendary weapons in a single session, and it showed.
Irina was practically climbing on top of Xenovia, one hand on her shoulder and the other reaching for the sword's grip with the single-minded focus of a child trying to grab a toy from a sibling. "Let me hold it! Xenovia, let me hold it! Just for a second! I just want to feel it once!"
"Irina, get off me!"
"Just let me HOLD IT! Sharing is caring!"
"Your hands are sweaty."
"They are NOT!"
Viviane turned away from the holy sword and its bickering new owners, directing her attention toward Serafall. The tiredness in her expression was replaced by something more lustful.
She licked her lips. "Where is my harem of hot men?"
Serafall waved a dismissive hand. "I want to see Harry-kun's sword first."
Viviane rolled her eyes, turned on her heel, and pointed one finger toward a nearby table. "There it is."
I looked.
A sheathed blade sat on the table's scarred wooden surface, resting on a folded cloth of deep midnight blue. The sheath was dark, almost black, made from a material I couldn't identify.
I trembled. The water vapor in the air around me shivered and drew closer, condensing in tiny droplets on my forearms. The blade was calling me.
I stepped closer and reached down.
Viviane's tired voice came from behind me. "Go on, child of Merlin and Leviathan. Pick it up."
I unsheathed the sword.
The blade slid free with a sound like rain hitting still water, a single, clear, ringing note that hung in the forge room's heavy air and refused to fade. Silver and blue. That was my first thought. The metal was unlike anything I had ever seen, a seamless fusion of bright silver and deep, oceanic blue that shifted depending on the angle, like looking down into the heart of a glacier.
A longsword. Perfectly proportioned, with a grip wrapped in something dark and smooth that molded to my fingers as though it had been cast from a mold of my hand. The crossguard curved gently outward in a design that reminded me of frozen waves.
I gave it a few test swings. Left to right. Right to left. A diagonal downward cut, the kind Lilja had drilled into me a hundred times in the Forbidden Forest.
Perfect balance.
The blade moved like an extension of my arm, no, like an extension of my intent. It was as though the sword was anticipating where I wanted it to go and arriving there a fraction of a second before my muscles caught up.
And then the blade glowed. Blue and white light erupted along the fuller, racing from the base of the blade to the tip in a pulse that I felt more than saw. It hit the edge and detonated outward in a corona of freezing mist that rolled across the forge room floor in every direction.
I gasped.
Something was happening inside me. My water magic surged like a dam breaking. My ice magic, the power I had only recently unlocked through Sona and Serafall, roared to life alongside it. Both forces slammed together at the center of my core, merged, and started climbing.
Higher. The power kept climbing higher. It was like standing at the bottom of a well and watching the water level rise past my knees, my waist, my chest, knowing it wasn't going to stop and not knowing where the surface was.
My demonic energy output doubled. Then doubled again. The air pressure in the room shifted, heavy and electric, and I saw Irina stumble backward a step. Xenovia planted her feet and gripped her new holy sword tighter. Gabriel's twelve wings rustled behind her, feathers lifting in response to the sheer volume of demonic power flooding the room.
Higher. Still climbing.
And then I felt something snap. Inside me. There was a ceiling that I hadn't known was there, it was the upper boundary of everything I had been capable of until this exact moment.
It shattered like glass, and my power surged through the gap and kept going, expanding outward, filling spaces I didn't know existed, settling into channels and pathways that had been waiting, empty and ready, for something strong enough to force them open.
My vision whited out for half a second.
When it came back, the power had settled. It sat inside me like a second heartbeat, vast and steady and mine. The sword hummed in my grip, satisfied, the blue glow fading to a gentle shimmer that rippled along the blade like sunlight on water.
The room was silent.
Serafall hit me like a missile. She buried her face in my neck and I felt her entire body vibrating against mine.
"Harry," she breathed against my skin. Her voice cracked. "Harry, you just... do you realize what you just...?" She pulled back, gripping my shoulders, and her deep blue eyes were shining. With pride. "You ascended to Ultimate Class," she said. "Just now. Right in front of me. My son just broke through to Ultimate Class!" She hugged me again even tighter. "I'm so proud of you," she whispered fiercely. "So, so proud."
I stood there, one arm holding my mother and the other still gripping the sword, and tried to process what she had just said.
Ultimate Class. Just like that? I really reached it?
I stared down at the blade of water and ice in my hand. The metal shimmered back at me, patient and quiet, as though it hadn't just fundamentally restructured my entire magical existence in the span of ten seconds.
"Hahaha!" Viviane's voice rang through the room, sharp and triumphant and utterly without modesty. "I do good fucking work, don't I?" She planted her hands on her hips, exhaustion forgotten, and swept her gaze across every person in the room as though daring them to disagree.
Nobody did.
"Now then," Viviane said, all traces of laughter vanishing as her expression snapped to something far more lustful. "I want my harem. Right now. Immediately. I have been awake for hours forging two legendary weapons for two groups who showed up uninvited to my home, and I was promised beautiful men as compensation, and I have been exceedingly patient!"
Serafall broke the hug, pulled a sleek devil-made smartphone from somewhere inside her costume that definitely should not have had pockets, and started tapping the screen. "Fine, fine," she said, already scrolling through her contacts. "I'll call my Queen Behemoth and have your incubus men sent over."
I turned away from my mother's negotiations and found Lilja standing a few paces behind me.
She was beaming. Her green eyes moved from my face to the sword and back again.
My Queen. My Lilja.
Then my gaze drifted across the room to Xenovia.
She had just pried the sword back out of Irina's hands and it was obvious just holding the blade had also done something to the two human girls.
Our eyes met.
Yesterday, when I had first met Xenovia she had registered as... competent I guess? To a devil of my caliber, not particularly threatening. Now, with that sword in her vicinity and the residual holy energy still buzzing across her skin, she felt different. She was a lot more powerful and a lot more dangerous than she had been twenty-four hours ago.
Xenovia's lips pulled back into a grin. The grin of a swordswoman who had just been handed the blade of her dreams and wanted desperately to find out what it could do. "Want to go outside and test whose sword is better?" she asked.
I grinned right back. That was exactly what I felt like doing. I had a brand new weapon begging to be swung at something that would swing back.
But before either of us could move, Gabriel stepped between us. One slender hand plucked the holy sword from Xenovia's grip.
Xenovia let out a noise that was somewhere between a whine and a growl. "Lady Gabrieeel..."
"No," Gabriel said firmly, holding the sword behind her back and out of reach. "Fighting each other with untested weapons forged from materials neither of you have trained with is a wonderful way to lose a limb. Or worse." She looked between us with sternness. "You can spar properly the next time you both meet, after both of you have had adequate training with your new blades."
"She's right," Serafall said. My mother had hung up her phone call and was nodding in agreement with Gabriel. My mother Serafall Leviathan had just voluntarily sided with the Archangel Gabriel on something.
I blinked. Was this an imposter?
"What?" Serafall asked, noticing my confused expression.
I looked between the two of them. Serafall, who had called Gabriel her nemesis and rival less than twelve hours ago. Gabriel, who was holding Xenovia's sword behind her back with a serene smile in Serafall's direction while Xenovia tried and failed to reach around her.
Something had shifted between them. They were standing closer together than they had been last night, and neither seemed to notice or mind.
"Did I miss something going on between you two?" I asked.
They both looked at me. Then at each other.
"No," they said in unison.
I didn't believe them for a second…
…We stood on the shore of Viviane's lake under a pale grey sky that couldn't decide whether it wanted to rain or simply threaten to. A cool wind rolled across the grass and tugged at my jacket.
Behind us, near the water's edge, Viviane was making noises. Very questionable noises. "Ooohh, yes, you are divine. No, no, don't stop rubbing there. You, the tall one, come closer. Closer. Mmmm..."
Five handsome incubus devils surrounded the Lady of the Lake in a loose semicircle, each one a sculpted masterpiece of male beauty wearing precisely tailored suits that had clearly been selected for maximum effect. Two of them were massaging her shoulders and neck. One was feeding her grapes from a silver bowl. A fourth was brushing her long hair with slow, worshipful strokes. The fifth was kneeling at her feet.
All five were incredible actors. They had arrived via Behemoth's teleportation circle twenty minutes ago with professional smiles and immediately begun fawning over Viviane like she was the most captivating woman they had ever laid eyes on. Whispered compliments. Lingering touches. Smoldering eye contact maintained at precisely the right intensity. They had been paid extremely well to serve the Lady of the Lake for the next year, and they were earning every coin already.
Viviane arched her back against the chest of the incubus behind her and let out a sound that made Rossweisse turn bright red and stare very hard at the horizon.
I decided to focus on the people in front of me instead.
Gabriel turned to face me, and that radiant smile of hers caught me off guard again.
"It was very nice to meet you, Harry Sitri," she said softly, her blue eyes meeting mine with a gentleness that made the words feel like more than just a polite farewell.
I rubbed the back of my neck, suddenly awkward in a way I hadn't expected. But something about Gabriel's earnest, open kindness threw me off balance every single time.
"It was nice to meet you too," I said. "I definitely wasn't expecting to meet an Archangel yesterday."
Xenovia scoffed from Gabriel's right side. "Then you shouldn't have snuck into Rome. Typical arrogant devil!"
"Xenovia!" Irina pouted at her partner, swatting her arm. "Be nice! He saved Tobio's whole team!"
Xenovia's scoff deepened but she didn't argue.
Irina turned her attention to me, and the pout transformed into a bright, sunny grin that was completely at odds with the fact that she was an elite Church exorcist trained to kill things like me. She gave me a once-over that was distinctly un-nun-like, her eyes lingering on my shoulders and chest before traveling back up to my face.
"I'll see you again, handsome guy," she said, her twin tails bouncing as she rocked forward on her toes. "Next time, I want to see those muscles properly!"
Before I could respond to that, Gabriel reached out and placed one hand on Xenovia's shoulder and the other on Irina's. Golden light erupted around all three of them, brilliant and warm and sharp with holy energy that made me squint. It blazed for a single heartbeat, and then they were gone.
The light collapsed inward and vanished, leaving nothing behind but a faint shimmer in the air and the lingering scent of something clean and bright, like sunlight on fresh snow.
"Good riddance!" Serafall declared the instant they disappeared.
I glanced at her sideways. The sword hung at my hip now, sheathed and quiet, its weight settling against my leg like it had always been there.
Even covered, I could feel it. Not like it was whispering in my ear or trying to possess me, thank fuck. It was just happy to be with me, like I had gotten a new puppy, except it was a magic sword.
"You were being pretty friendly with Gabriel in the forge," I said to mum. "Standing next to her. Making eye contact and everything."
Serafall turned to face me. The look of betrayal on her face was so theatrical it could have won an award at the Underworld's annual drama festival.
And yes, that's a real thing.
"I came to a small agreement with Gabriel about my show," she said. "That is all. We are NOT friends! I still hate her. She is my eternal nemesis." She jabbed her finger at the sky where the golden light had been. "And when I invade Heaven one day, I will make absolutely sure to spill her blood first!"
I snorted. Yeah right…
"I'm serious!"
"Sure you are, Mum."
"I AM!"
A soft, uncertain voice pulled me out of the teasing.
"What should I do now?" Rossweisse stood slightly apart from the group.
I reached over and took her hand. Her fingers were soft and cool against mine. I stroked my thumb across her knuckles slowly, feeling her pulse flutter beneath the skin. "Obviously you're coming back to Hogwarts with us," I said.
Her green eyes searched my face. Hope and anxiety were warring behind them. "Shouldn't I go back to Asgard first?" she asked. "To tell Lord Odin that I... that I'm resigning? Formally?"
Lilja's smirk was immediate and menacing. She stepped forward and slung her arm around her older sister's shoulders, pulling her close. "Hell no," Lilja said, her voice dripping with vindictive satisfaction. "Odin started all of this shit by sending Harry that letter and calling in a favor. So you can quit by sending him a letter!"
Rossweisse's face scrunched with visible discomfort. "That's so unprofessional," she muttered. "There are forms. Exit interviews. Equipment returns.."
"Letter," Lilja repeated firmly.
"But..."
"You will send a Letter!"
Serafall perked up beside us. "I'll write the letter for you!" she announced brightly. And then she giggled. It was not a good giggle. It was a low, bubbling, evil little sound.
Rossweisse paled. "That's really not neces…"
She got cut off.
"Dear Lord Odin," Serafall began out for her own amusement, "I am writing to inform you that your favorite secretary slash punching bag has been recruited by the hottest, most powerful, most sexually gifted half-devil in the Underworld, who also happens to be my amazing son. She will not be returning. Please forward her final paycheck, which you probably haven't paid in six months anyway, to Hogwarts. P.S. Your beard smells like a goat's asshole. Warmest regards, Serafall Leviathan, the Great and Wonderful Maou, Star and Executive Producer of Magical Girl Levia-tan, available on all major Underworld streaming platforms..."
I watched Rossweisse's face cycle through horror, resignation, and a tiny, reluctant smile that she tried very hard to smother.
I probably should have been worried about the diplomatic consequences of my mother sending a taunting resignation letter to the King of Asgard on behalf of his most valued Valkyrie.
Then I decided I didn't really care.
I just wanted to get back to the castle. Back to my people. Back to the chaotic, beautiful, overstuffed life that was waiting for me behind Hogwarts' ancient walls.
Sona was going to be super jealous of my sword. I could already picture her expression when I showed it to her. The competitive fire that would ignite behind her glasses as she started calculating how to acquire something equally impressive for herself.
And my peerage was going to think it was awesome.
Hermione would want to study it. Lilja already looked like she wanted to spar with it immediately. Ginny would want to test it out. Tonks would accidentally knock something over while trying to swing it. Lyra and Lyna would find a way to make the whole thing sexual. Narcissa would inspect it with quiet, aristocratic approval before asking where hers was. Fleur and Gabrielle were gossips and would be more interested in the crazy story of how I got it than the weapon itself. Asia would probably just smile like always.
I tightened my grip on Rossweisse's hand.
This was a strange weekend, but it was time to go home.
XXX