Copy-pasted note cause im feeling lazy:
Hello everyone! I wanted to explain why I've been radio silent the past few days.
Things got worse with my grandma after her first hospital stay. She declined very fast over the following days, and three nights ago she needed emergency surgery around 2:00 AM. We had to rush her to the hospital all the way to the capital.
Thankfully, we did. According to the doctor, her gallbladder was very close to rupturing. If we'd waited until morning as we'd originally planned, she likely would have died at home. Just thinking about that... God, this was such a mess.
The good news is the surgery went well. Miraculously well, honestly. We brought her home yesterday, and I managed to write a bit. I even finished chapter 17.
That said, my brain decided a normal update wasn't enough and went into overdrive plotting chap 18.
So... yes, double update today! Just later, just in a couple of hours. I still need to write chapter 18 and polish 17.
But we're getting very close to jumping back to DxD. I'm really excited about what I have planned, and I hope you all enjoy it.
I'll update as soon as chapter 18 is done!
A Marvelous Devil.
Chapter 12: When Sleep Comes.
Dante Andromalius.
Three weeks later.
I wondered if the families living closer to the forest were petitioning Lord Sitri because of my actions. I wasn't sure if the cries of my victims reached that far, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Not much forest remained around here. After weeks, I'd twisted the terrain to serve both my advantage and lately, rage.
Trees split and caved beneath my magic. I wasn't even shaping it anymore, not in the mood to train the imagination aspect of devil magic. I just wanted to destroy.
The first demonic beast didn't even realize it was under attack.
One moment whole and hearty, the next a puddle of blood smeared across the forest floor.
Without looking at the pack, I ran to the next beast. I grabbed its tail, lifted the massive creature, and smashed it down again and again, until only what I held remained intact.
Small craters rippled outward. Each impact snapped roots and sent soil flying.
Hissing as claws raked my back, I twisted and lunged. My hand punched through fur and muscle, clenching around something solid.
And I pulled out the beast's spine.
The wet crack echoed through the trees. The remaining monsters shuddered at the sound.
A month was long enough for me to get used to this new body around my previous knowledge.
This wasn't training. I wasn't even focusing on the essence of the demonic beasts anymore, as wasteful as that was.
I was burning my anger against these beasts because I couldn't do this to the person who made me feel this way.
My breath came out hard. My magic roared inside my body, uncontrolled as it flattened the leaves beneath my feet. As soon as the energy from my clan trait dissipated, the forest recoiled.
Not because of how much magic I possessed. I wasn't at that level yet, but the sheer rage I was feeling, fueled by eons of killing beings that would make this world tremble, sharpened my bloodlust to something no one here could match.
The wildlife tried to flee, their hair standing on end as they let out cries of alarm. Some of them even forgot about their own feuds, helping each other to escape my wrath.
It didn't help.
They died howling.
Even as I was struck by fiercer beasts, I smirked ferally and welcomed the pain and the resistance from my opponents.
Every impact grounded me for a second before my anger surged again, worse than before.
I'd commanded the Legions of the Ashen Court.
I'd negotiated with Celestials. I spat in Dormammu's face once in a while, despite that monochromatic bastard being a bit stronger than me.
And I lived. Nay, I thrived.
I'd bent reality until it was nothing more than putty under my hand, rewriting outcomes that lesser beings called inevitable.
And now I was here.
Unable to stop one stubborn old devil from messing up everything thanks to his fucking pride.
The last beasts alive charged, their hulking forms dwarfing me, weighing triple my body weight.
A wave of my hand, and the whole group shone with an ethereal blue light. My clan trait enveloped their bodies.
I fell to my knees, feeling my demonic power basically deplete in a single move. But I was smirking darkly at the confused beasts.
They rose until I couldn't see them anymore, a speck in the sky roaring in confusion.
When the last speck of my magic was used, they fell. All of them at once, gravity remembering the beasts existed as they accelerated against the ground, reaching terminal velocity before the four monsters impacted the ground with a wet squelch.
Two of them ceased moving. The last two twitched, every bone inside their body broken as they whimpered in agony.
Standing unsteadily, I picked up a twig and used a sliver of cosmic power to forge it into a simple iron sword.
A waste, perhaps, but I missed using a weapon.
My knuckles throbbed from so much slaughter.
I drove the blade through their skulls. The forest fell silent, leaving me to my thoughts.
Damn that man.
I had never felt this powerless in my life. Even if it wasn't truly that.
It wasn't weakness. I wasn't afraid of consequences, though I preferred to live without them. I was still growing stronger, little by little. I just needed time.
But despite all that, I couldn't find a solution to what he had done.
I could end it. And that was exactly the problem.
Hadrian wasn't beyond my reach. He wasn't protected by someone powerful or even someone cunning. He couldn't see the future to avoid my anger.
I could restrain him, silence him, even remove him so thoroughly no one would remember his mistakes.
I had done it enough times. I had done it for less.
And yet, he was my father.
Every time I followed that line of thought to its conclusion, something within me recoiled in disgust.
And I knew why.
Despite everything Seere was, I wasn't just Seere. I was Dante Andromalius, too, and these memories carried weight.
I could ignore the hesitation. I knew I could, but something whispered I'd regret it for the rest of my life.
Just thinking about how Celestine would react if I altered Hadrian's memories made my stomach drop. Or even Father himself, if one day I decided to return his memories… would he hate me? Would he understand why I did it?
I didn't have the answers. And I realized that I hated being powerless.
"FUCK THAT MAN!" I roared in the empty clearing, the sound more demonic as my wrath came into the open.
I needed to get that out. I loved him. Despite everything, I loved that man, but he complicated things so much that I had to leave. At least for a while.
It hadn't even been a week since he fucked everything up. And for the most asinine reasons.
Devils loved gossip. Hell, I counted on it to further my plans. That's why I asked Rias to let me be seen next to her.
Even with the minx pressing her body against me, complicating matters even more. But I allowed Rias to act this way because I had much more to gain from her actions.
Being that close with the heiress Gremory would be good for my reputation, and I intended for it to be known only in this territory for now.
I wasn't expecting full secrecy, obviously. I used my trait to avoid detection by cameras, ensuring that only rumors would spread. Word of mouth was easier to deny, since there wasn't hard proof.
Everything to avoid the knowledge from reaching the bastards from the council.
But my efforts to keep this secret failed.
The problem wasn't even father's being beaten publicly, as embarrassing as it was.
I could have worked around that.
His injuries were superficial, making me doubt it was a coincidence. The more time passed, the less I believed this wasn't premeditated.
Not that it made what father did less foolish.
They were tarnishing my name, saying I was ambitious beyond my station. How people said I had charmed the little sister of the current Lucifer, blah blah.
Nothing truly bothersome. Or even a lie.
But the whispers grew louder as he approached.
And my father lost his cool. He struck against some servant, believing that he could do so despite our station. A simple servant shouldn't be as important as a fallen noble.
But it turned out he wasn't a normal servant. Hadrian's punch didn't move him, his face hidden behind a barely moved veil and a single lock of golden hair.
He probably wasn't even a real servant.
And when the man responded? Well, it turned out he was a monster in disguise.
Without magic, the servant beat Hadrian brutally. Father fell, bloodied, as people gathered to watch the spectacle.
Another thing that pissed me off. My father didn't even wonder why, despite being on the territory's main street, the guards didn't arrive on time to break up the scuffle. He didn't even think of that, and I doubted he realized he had been played.
Father, angry beyond belief, had laughed. To everyone who watched his bloodied form.
Every word that left his mouth was damning. He condemned the council, describing how every pureblood, low- and mid-class devil struggled to claw their way up the hierarchy.
How difficult it was for us, while the council and government helped only their supporters, keeping everything biased. Under their tight control.
All truths, of course. Everyone knew that. But no one spoke them out loud.
Out of fear, or maybe they were happy with their situation.
Just thinking about it made me clench my teeth.
Kicking a fallen log, I watched it explode into splinters.
Someone filmed it. And the video was too clear, too focused on my father to be a coincidence. No, everything that had happened was targeted at my family.
Who it was, I had no idea.
By morning, the video spread everywhere.
The Devilnet loved this kind of news and what father had said… well, it was something that already existed. The tension in the lower ranks of this race was high even before my father went viral, but his words lit a fire under many foolish devils.
I didn't doubt that someone else was fanning up the flames. It didn't make sense; as much as the words were true, they shouldn't have gotten as wild as they did.
The momentum that carried that video was insane, to the point of some rallies forming around the underworld. Small gatherings outside the council building, even some lords were affected by them inside their territories.
Everything was too coordinated.
The government scrambled to silence it. The video vanished, they promised solutions, and did some clumsy damage control that hurt many lords' reputations for the first time in centuries.
And everything started with Hadrian.
The only good news is that his words took the brunt of the masses, my friendship with Rias was largely ignored. But it was known.
What pissed me off the most was that father even turned proud when he saw what he had caused. He couldn't see how his bout of idiocy had complicated everything I had built. Every step, every manipulation.
Not even my mother's soothing words had calmed me down.
He had complicated my plans.
He had made us targets. Of devils we didn't have a way to face as we currently were.
I couldn't do any kind of damage control; I wasn't anyone important. Many of my moves had been crippled before they could even start. I couldn't act as I planned because every move would surely be looked into by the enemies father had created.
I needed brute strength.
As I thought of my options, my phone rang for the first time in a week.
I stopped.
The name on the screen froze me in place.
Celestine.
Answering the call, my stomach clenched.
She was crying.
Not quietly. She was bawling her eyes out. Pure agony in her cries that made the distance I had put between us during this long week of separation crumble despite my efforts.
"Dante, please," she said, her voice breaking. "Your father… he won't wake up. The healers can't... please. Please come home."
The forest was suddenly very quiet.
And my anger didn't have anywhere to go.
Later.
The house was too quiet.
It felt unnatural. Even my mother's uncomfortable phase during Rias's visit didn't feel this way.
It was as if no one inside dared to speak too loudly. Like such a simple thing would make things worse.
I stepped inside and felt it immediately.
There had been a lot of demonic power cast before I arrived. Magical circles overlapped on the floor, and I could see the traces of the ones who had already dissipated. Six healers surrounded the bed, old devils by the feel of them.
I didn't recognize a single one of them, but Mother seemed to trust them.
Celestine stood near the headboard.
Her face was streaked with tears, her whole mascara ruined in her grief. One hand clutched Hadrian's hand as if he would disappear if she let go. She didn't look at me when I entered. I doubted she was capable of looking anywhere else but father.
Hadrian lay motionless.
His skin was ashen, so pale that it looked like he had lost all his blood. His chest rose and fell slowly, every breath looking like it hurt more than it helped.
He was asleep.
The doctors turned toward me as I passed through the door.
I didn't say a word. I didn't need to.
I met their eyes, one by one, and the room turned colder.
Their muscles tensed as their bodies locked in place. I could see three of them trying to hide a tremble in their hands. Even their magic circles failed under my sight.
They probably didn't understand what was happening.
They were stronger than I was. And if this came to blows, I would lose. They knew that.
Yet, none of them could move.
"Leave," I said firmly.
No one argued.
In fact, it looked like they would fight each other to be the first allowed to leave. They backed away from the bed as if it were on fire, while some ran towards the door.
The door closed behind the last of them.
Only then did I move.
I stepped closer to the bed and looked down at my father. It was a pathetic sight that filled me with so many conflicting feelings. He looked bad. Like a soft wind would knock him over.
Celestine finally turned toward me, her expression breaking.
"They said it's the sleeping disease," she whispered brokenly. "They said they've never seen it advance this fast."
I didn't answer immediately.
I reached out, letting my senses sink deeper. I wasn't focusing on his flesh, or even his internal organs. No, I looked even deeper, toward his soul.
And it was a mess. His soul was whole and even healthy, which made me frown in confusion at first. But then I noticed that it was misaligned.
His soul was still there, still intact, but it wasn't sitting where it should. As if someone had nudged it half a centimeter out of phase with his body. They overlapped, but not as they should. A part of him was on a different frequency.
The body kept breathing because it was still connected to part of his soul. The soul stayed because it hadn't been severed. But I could see how it slipped every moment. Slowly, but… He would never wake up like this.
Not unless someone could touch the soul directly and force it back into alignment.
And until then, the body would keep going. Until he wasted away.
The effects weren't natural.
I felt something wet slide down my cheeks. I didn't know what it was.
I couldn't mess with his soul as I currently was. Yes, I had enough experience to risk it, but our race as a whole was new to me, and I couldn't risk harming him further without more practice. Or more power. Power I currently didn't have.
Celestine watched me, her face was a wreck of pain and confusion.
I opened my mouth to explain, but a knock sounded at the door.
Celestine flinched, her grip tightening on father's hand. She didn't look like she would move at all. And I wouldn't make her do so. Not right now.
"I'll handle it," I said quietly.
I left the room and crossed the hall. Every step I took brought back memories of years ago, when I played with my father on this very floor. Our laughs, our enjoyment. How we made mom insane with our antics.
And rage started bubbling inside my chest.
When I opened the door, I stopped in surprise, even as my anger grew.
Sona Sitri stood outside with a woman who looked like the photos of her queen at her side.
Both of them were dressed in human school uniforms, absurdly normal compared to how devils dressed. Sona's expression was composed, but her eyes were analyzing everything about my expression.
"We heard about your father," she said gently.
She hesitated, then met my gaze head-on.
"May we come in?"
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