Scene 1
Ten POV
"This place should be called a village. Bring me the map and some markers to place. Also send the men to clear out the surrounding demonic beasts. We'll stay along this forest edge until it's our time to move."
Commanding the servants to hurry, I stepped out from beneath the darker cover of the trees and looked over the small settlement below. Calling it a town had been generous at best. A few clustered buildings of dark stone and warped wood. A dirt road cut through the middle like an afterthought. Thin smoke rose from cookfires and chimneys in crooked streams beneath the purple light of the Underworld sky. It looked less like a place meant to endure and more like a supply point people had been forced to build because the road demanded it.
The servants rushed to lay the maps out across a reinforced table while the assigned war advisors gathered around me. Their armor was already stained by the damp breath of the Demon Forest, their boots muddy from the climb. Around us, my men were spread through the treeline in disciplined silence while hunting parties moved outward to clear the surrounding demonic beasts from our immediate perimeter. Every so often I could hear the distant roar of something deeper in the forest, followed by the short burst of clashing steel or magic from one of the squads putting it down.
Our position sat inside the Demon Beast Forest after traveling through the fringes to avoid being spotted. We'd come to a stop at an intersecting point between Leviathan territory, closest to us through the Sitri side, and Ajuka's sphere through the forest separating Leviathan and Beelzebub lands. The place itself mattered less than what touched it.
"Place the minor clans as well. We'll use familiars to maintain a watch over these key points."
I leaned over the map and pointed to the first path, using the village as the obvious supply point into Leviathan territory from Beelzebub's side. Then my finger slid toward the mountain path not far from here, where I'd already sent scouts to establish a lookout. Finally, my hand came to rest on the lake in the middle of the Demon Forest, a stretch of dark water that connected movement between the Four Satan families if someone was either desperate or arrogant enough to use it.
The head advisor studied the lake and frowned. "Anyone with water familiars needs to send everything they have to watch the inner forest. If they make it through there, then it'll be hell breaking loose. If it's a ship then all the better, but it's still a risky strategy to reinforce over the lake."
I nodded once. The air around the table smelled of wet bark, iron, and the faint sulfuric bite carried from farther south. Behind us the forest shifted with the restless sounds of devils making camp, chains dragging, blades being checked, beasts being butchered. Above all of it hung the constant pressure of the Underworld itself, a world that felt too quiet before war and too eager once it started.
"Depends on who we're facing," I said, tapping the map again. "Our goal isn't to secure this village. It's to stop anyone from getting into Leviathan territory. Supply lines aren't worth paying attention to unless it's the obvious point. Depending on which path is used, that'll tell us who we're facing before it tells us how to confront them."
Dragging my finger across the lake, I let the thought settle over the advisors.
"If it's from the lake, then it's a Satan family making a move while they're under siege. Risky, but still correct if they think the reward justifies it. These rebel forces have spent more time arguing over who benefits than securing territory. So if one of the Satans sends even a single elite unit to target inattentive generals, they could clean house before half these idiots understand the board changed."
A few of the advisors stiffened, though none of them argued. Good.
Then I moved my finger to the mountain path.
"If it's the mountain passage, then that's an unknown force. Could be devil clans making a move. Could be Bael from what I've learned about him. If they come through there, then our goal is simple. Retrieve Serafall and retreat from this war. At that point the smarter option is to wait out the remaining eighty years Bael pushed for everyone to reorganize."
Finally, I tapped the village itself.
"Now the village is the interesting one. If Ajuka or anyone else comes through here, then it's war instead of a skirmish at the lake or a retreat from the mountains. As long as it's someone within a couple levels of Serafall, I can hold them back while injured. Your job is to kill as many of their forces as possible. Whether it's Ajuka, Sirzechs, or Falbium, anyone coming this way isn't friendly. They already agreed to focus on their own wars."
That got a round of silent nods. The head advisor immediately began assigning three different advisors to separate squads so they could make executive calls without waiting on me for every little shift.
"We could aid you in facing the—"
Raising my hand, I coated the bandaged arm in black lightning.
The white wrappings from earlier years were long gone, replaced by black cloth layered in seals to restrain my laws from pressing too hard against this world. The cloth itself had come from Rhea. The Sitri clan had only added their demonic inscriptions over it, creating a restraint that hissed softly whenever the lightning crawled across it. Even now I could feel the pressure beneath the seals, the old hunger of my laws wanting to break through and remind this world that I was still not meant to fit inside its limits.
"Nope," I said. "From what I've learned, these three are dangerous for good reason."
The black arcs snapped once between my fingers before fading.
"Ajuka, who's arguably the most dangerous, is creating a new magical system. There's no telling how violent that can become once it stabilizes.
"Sirzechs is in possession of a domain comparable to my Death Domain. Destruction can unravel your very existence if you get too close. The fact his mother lived is a miracle of this world.
"And Falbium, although least likely to make a move, is still capable of ignoring Sirzechs' outburst alongside Ajuka. Whether he's a good fighter or spell caster like the other two isn't the issue. He could simply be playing at leaving their sphere to secure the Seat for their group."
My eyes drifted back toward the lake on the map.
"Now the lake is pretty interesting. Only the Lucifer family would truly earn my attention there. Although the spy hasn't been found among the four Satan families yet, I wouldn't doubt it if someone sacrificed the only battlefield still stuck at a stalemate just to make a way out. Lady Sitri is still convinced the direct Lucifer heir is already gone from the Underworld, so from her perspective they're the only compromised side."
This time the nods came easier. The advisors began dividing the remaining five thousand men across the different regions, while spell casters were sent ahead to set the traps I'd planned. Familiar handlers started marking channels of movement. Scouts vanished back into the trees. Supply teams moved lower into the forest line to keep our camp hidden beneath the black branches and silver mist.
The village didn't matter.
The paths did.
And over the next hundred years, those paths would tell me which devils still understood war and which ones only understood ambition.
Scene 2
Sixty Years Later
Lord Sitri POV
"Oh? Did you show up this time for a rematch?"
Grinning, I already had my sword drawn when I met him at the edge of his territory.
The mountain wind cut cold over the stone path, carrying ash, sulfur, and the distant smell of scorched earth from battlefields too far away to see but too close to ignore. Bael stood opposite me beneath the red gloom of the Underworld sky, broad-shouldered and composed in the way only old monsters could manage. The servants and guards behind him were silent, though not relaxed. They knew what kind of conversation this was the second I stepped into his path with a drawn blade.
"Hmm," Bael said, his gaze settling on me with that familiar contempt. "You've grown bolder lately. Or rather your wife is placing all her cards in this play."
Watching my brown-haired rival stare at me as if my existence itself was a disrespect to the hierarchy I had been raised under, I only smiled wider. That old way of looking down on everyone outside their preferred order had always suited him. It was one of the reasons I knew Serafall could never be allowed to remain trapped beneath that system.
"We had to do something," I replied. "Or our daughter's future would've been a shallow existence you milked for influence. So let's sit back and watch how things play out, why don't we? You already have the Lucifer Seat."
The moment the words left my mouth, destruction rolled off him.
It came like a silent wave first, bending the air before the force behind it struck. I stepped through it, my demonic energy flowing over the edge of my sword as ice bloomed outward in a crescent slash. Behind Bael, several of his servants were too slow. Their bodies distorted, collapsed, and broke apart into ruined matter from the pressure of his own outburst. That alone earned a sigh from me.
"You've grown arrogant in your days as my brother's student," he said. "Sitri should've taught y—"
Swinging my blade, I sent a sword wave of freezing demonic power toward him. The air shrieked when it met the shield of destruction he raised in one hand. Ice hissed and cracked against annihilation while the ground beneath us split in dark lines.
"Let's not go there, Bael. I haven't disrespected you once, so leave my teacher out of this."
His frown deepened. Over his shoulder, I caught sight of some of his siblings watching from a distance with the sort of interest old devils reserved for entertainment they believed could never truly threaten them. Bael, the only one of the original Seventy-Two who refused to fully step away from the affairs of the current clan heads, still held on to influence as if the world would collapse without his hand around its throat.
"Fine," he said at last, cutting his connection to the energy around him. "But Tenebris won't be free from the affairs of the Underworld for much longer. You'd better pray to Lucifer your daughter can wrap up this war. Everyone is waiting on her."
I held his gaze for a moment, then nodded.
Because there was no use pretending the warning hadn't landed.
Over the last sixty years of movement, pressure, and quiet repositioning, Serafall had become the opening. Her war had stretched long enough for other powers to stop viewing it as only hers. Every delay gave them more time to observe. More time to measure where Sitri's hand ended and where Tenebris' began. More time to decide whether her campaign was weakness, opportunity, or both.
Bael turned and left.
His servants followed in broken order, some of them still unsteady from having stood too close to his temper.
I sheathed my blade and opened a teleportation circle back to my study, the icy residue of our clash still melting across the stones at my feet.
There was no point wasting another word.
The warning had already been given.
Scene 3
Forty Years Later
Ten POV
"Falbium has sent a message to Lady Sitri that he'll be securing the village since she aided him in securing the Asmodeus bloodline as a wife. Should we withdraw the soldiers we have hidden there and dispatch them to the other groups?"
Listening to the report, I watched a new marker get placed on the map beside the one representing the recently accepted heir of Asmodeus.
Frightening politics.
Each event only compounded the others. Falbium taking that marriage could easily be read as a direct stance against Bael and Sirzechs, proof they'd tried to pull him into some agreement surrounding the Satan title and failed to secure him cleanly.
"No. Leave them."
The tent was dim beneath the layered beast hides and dark cloth overhead, lit mostly by the pale glow of spell lamps and the orange flicker of a fire bowl near the entrance. The air smelled of roasted meat, old parchment, damp leather, and the faint metallic scent of blood from the beast leg in my hand. Around me the advisors stood in a half-circle, tired but sharp, their armor marked by years of forest living and battlefield movement. Outside, the night wind rolled across the hilltop and over the lake below, carrying the smell of black water and wet stone up to the camp.
"If we pull them and something goes wrong, then we'll be late to resolve it. If Sirzechs attacks in retaliation, then we need enough strength there to at least aid Falbium with a couple of high-rank devils and several squads of middle ranks."
I moved one of the markers from the mountain path back into the forest.
"Everyone is still using middle-rank devils as commanders and squad leaders. So at worst, those men can secure Falbium if he's attacked by Ajuka and Sirzechs both. In fact, pull some men from the mountains. It would appear the head of the family is out and about himself."
One of the advisors frowned at the board. "So guerrilla tactics if pushed to it?"
"But only show yourselves if Falbium is dealing with two enemies," I replied. "The Satans have been too quiet after the Asmodeus clan defeat. Someone is going to jump now or never."
Summoning my spear from its tattoo, I let it rest against my shoulder before waving for the tent to be moved again. The hilltop overlooking the lake had been useful, but usefulness and permanence were two different things. Deeper in the forest, stronger beasts still lurked—creatures old enough and vicious enough to rival Satans if left alone too long. Even here, the ground never truly belonged to devils.
The next five years were spent readjusting our main camp.
Only Lord and Lady Sitri knew where we had truly moved. The rest of the front was fed false trails, abandoned campfires, proxy officers, and old fortifications left just active enough to draw the wrong eyes. Meanwhile the teams under me used the time to hunt high-rank demonic beasts, refine themselves, and turn the forest into something more familiar than the roads ever were.
By the hundredth year of this front, the movement itself had become our greatest weapon.
So when less than a month passed on the new hilltop and the devils under me began losing their connection to their familiars, I already knew someone had finally started answering back.
"Pull the remaining ones back and track the path they're using. They'll have to regroup after traveling across the lake."
Tearing another bite from the beast leg, I listened to the next reports while grease and blood ran warm over my fingers. The advisors were just starting to move when a scout burst into the tent hard enough to nearly trip over the entry flap.
"Ajuka is moving against the Asmodeus clan by himself. He's pulled Falbium away to defend his new territory."
Old news.
Waving to the reserve advisors, I sent them off with spell casters to teleport to that battlefield and take command.
"If Ajuka isn't around, then go ahead and cripple his forces. The village is still inside Beelzebub territory, so take out as many farms as possible. Don't retreat back to Sitri territory once you're done. Travel deeper inside and target the Lucifer villages. Kill the warriors and spare the noncombatants. But burn everything else down."
That got their full attention.
"Maximize the damage," I continued. "And if you think they're sending reinforcements, retreat to Asmodeus territory before regrouping and teleporting back into the Demon Forest."
They nodded and left immediately. Lady Sitri hadn't wasted her effort cultivating these men. They understood the difference between cruelty for its own sake and pressure applied where it mattered. Burn the structure. Break the confidence. Leave the civilians alive to remember which side failed to protect them.
I finished the last of the beast leg and tossed the bone aside.
"The rest of you, let's get ready to track down this ambushing group."
Walking out of the tent, I stepped into the cold damp air and looked down over the lake for myself.
The black water reflected almost nothing beneath the Underworld sky. Only the faintest ripples gave away movement below the surface, while the trees surrounding it stood like walls of shadow around a wound in the earth. Somewhere deeper in the forest, a demonic beast roared loud enough to shake loose birds from the branches. Closer to camp, weapons were already being gathered, familiars recalled, and men assembled in tight silence.
A hundred years of movement had finally come due.
And now the board was beginning to answer back.