A Marvelous Devil.
Chapter 27: An Irresistible Offer.
The Underworld.
Dante Andromalius.
I lifted a single eyebrow, completely unconcerned about the ice and the anger Serafall was emitting almost subconsciously.
Was it stupid to needle her to this point? Maybe.
But I had two very good reasons why I was still smiling teasingly at her.
First, it was hilarious how flustered she got. Not because I knew what she felt. She wasn't ashamed of her love for Sona.
But it was probably the first time someone called her out so shamelessly.
And secondly?
By Seere, just imagining Sona's reaction when she found out made it all worth it.
Especially since I could see the very pure love Sona also had for Serafall.
It wasn't as… intense as Serafall's, obviously, but it existed, held down by propriety and Sona's worry over Serafall's position as a Satan. It was muddled, much to my shame, smothered by jealousy and fear.
That made it even more interesting.
Was it wrong? Hell no.
But if there was one thing I learned over millions of years watching mortals, it was that they could be weird with their beliefs.
As if they weren't products of incest. Literally every human was related in some form.
Every creator made only a damn pair and let them go wild; in the whole cosmos, all timelines were the very same.
So no, I didn't care about Serafall wanting Sona beyond the interesting things I could get out of this.
Serafall didn't look away, almost huffing and puffing, which did some interesting things in her chest department.
She was damn stacked. Funnily, they weren't the biggest I had ever seen, but she was small. They looked bigger in her frame.
No wonder Sona felt jealous of being compared to Serafall. I couldn't imagine how many times she went through that in her life.
Whether it was Serafall's power, figure, or achievements, she had always overshadowed her.
But I didn't care about that. I wasn't that shortsighted.
Sona still had room to grow, after all. And she had something Serafall lacked and would push her to greater heights if she so desired.
She could have me.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Serafall's grip on her spear tightened even more, to the point that I grinned even wider.
My hand rose ever so slightly, enough to touch the spear under her narrowed eyes.
She didn't move as my hand shone for a second, and the spear shattered.
She had weakened it herself to the point I barely had to do anything.
Serafall didn't respond; she didn't even look like she cared.
Not that I intended to fight. So, I walked out of the way, and a snap of my fingers made a magical circle appear on the ground.
A table rose from the ground.
Another snap and two mugs of tea appeared on it. Stronger than what I had given them before, and not even her anger stopped Serafall from gulping thickly as the aroma enveloped the room.
"Please, have a seat, Miss Leviathan," I motioned calmly towards the table, walking next to a seat and pulling it back.
Serafall glared at me, then at the drink, then she moved towards the seat.
I grinned, pushing her chair like the gentleman I was.
Once she sat and took a sip of her tea, I took mine and looked at Serafall.
"I had a question. What do you think of souls, Miss Leviathan?" I asked, genuinely curious.
Serafall's eyes narrowed before she took another sip. She would have looked more serious, but the peppy hum that left her throat as the tea went down ruined her act.
The frost was retreating even faster than before; by now, barely any was left.
She didn't answer immediately, her eyes studying me over the mug with a look that showed how intelligent she was behind her childish act. I had seen rulers that didn't measure their words; at least she was better than the norm.
"Is this how you grew this strong this fast?" She looked serious, a portion of her magic flowing out of her body, causing a frigid breeze. "It is illegal, you know?"
I retained my smile even at the barely concealed threat.
She waited for me to answer, but when I didn't respond, she sighed.
"Souls are power, and anyone who says otherwise is lying. But they're also the only thing that makes someone… unique."
Serafall's eyes widened as soon as she finished speaking, and I couldn't help but remember Sona's similar expression when she noticed the effects of my domain.
I nodded at her thoughtfully, "Sona had the same expression the last time she was here. And I'll tell you the same thing I told your sister: I dislike lies."
"And I haven't consumed the souls of any humans," I added with a wink. "Nor devils, for that matter."
The Satan turned serious, realizing that I had done something to her without her noticing. It was plain to see when I rose a few notches in her danger scale.
I didn't fault her; I supposed she wasn't used to the bullshit we did back home, inside what beings like us called a domain.
And even if she was stronger than me, she had to abide by my rules inside. And she walked here willingly. Why would her strength matter to conceptual decrees?
"Interesting point of view," I nodded, "I am glad you see how important they are, even if the scope you use is limited."
"Limited?" she asked, a hint of curiosity bleeding through her eyes.
She wasn't as angry anymore, probably thanks to her refilled mug.
She kept sipping from it, and the first time it refilled, her eyes brightened enough to worry me.
I wouldn't be surprised if she could launch lasers out of her eyes, given how excited she was.
I nodded at her question, "Indeed. But I don't fault you."
Taking a sip of the tea, I closed my eyes for a moment.
"You know what I think the soul is?" I asked rhetorically, "You were right, in a simple way. Souls are history. The stories that were, are, and could have been. Every soul is different, be it a monster, human, devil, or even gods, and all of them tell the very essence of a being."
Serafall's eyes were wide as she listened to me, staying silent through my explanation.
"You know what the most interesting part is?" I asked her, my lips curling, "Souls don't lie. A person can hide every tell from their body to mask their feelings; if they know enough, they can even make sure to show only what they desire at almost every level of their being. But souls? They are the purest thing the universe has, the closest thing to our very creation."
"You can see souls," she gaped at me.
Then she went still, realizing where I was going with this.
"What did you see?" she asked dangerously.
I laughed gently, "Love, what else?"
Then I frowned… before nodding and deciding on my course of action.
Well, this would make it or break it, but I was confident in my choice.
"The same kind Sona shared," I said almost as an afterthought.
Serafall gaped, and the way her cheeks reddened in excitement made me grin.
But before she could say anything, I continued. Knowing full well I was about to break the adorable devil.
"Jealousy, too." I smiled sadly, "A lot of it, along with frustration. Maybe it's not news for you, but she has spent her entire life being measured against someone like you. She is simply too young to match you, and while she knows that, she doesn't believe she'll reach your level."
There was no coldness in the room anymore, just silence.
"Sona loves you," I said quietly, "but it is buried under so much that it wouldn't come to light unless some specific things happen. Ever."
"She's also tired of being coddled, but you must know that," I finished, snorting.
"You can't know that," Serafall almost whined.
She might hide it from everyone else, but I could see how much it shattered her to hear this.
"And while I don't know the why," I shrugged, "I believe we're both smart cookies and can infer."
Serafall winced, but I continued as if I didn't notice.
"First, you are a Satan, and no one will approve of you in a relationship that will cause your and the Sitri line to end. You know that."
Serafall's eyes turned dangerous at that.
Snorting, I shook my head, "We both know you don't care about that, but that's not what matters, no?"
"Sona would never harm you that way. She loves you too much."
"So, you're saying it is impossible?" Serafall asked angrily.
I shrugged with the same smirk as before, "Who's to say? The future is always changing, and I can't see the future."
She stomped her foot, hard enough to crack the reinforced floor. Angry tears pooled in Serafall's eyes, and for a moment, I believed that I ruined my chances.
Damn.
"You seem awfully willing to believe me," I pointed out calmly, "Who's to say I'm not tricking you to keep Sona all to myself? As you can see, she's not particularly unhappy about that development."
Serafall glared once more, "I might be horribly sad right now, but you have no reason to lie. You are too young to be tricking me, boy. I deal with Gods almost every week."
Hm. Someone is overconfident.
She was lucky she was cute. Also, mortals were perverts, and I now included myself in that list.
It would be hard for Sona to see things my way, but deep inside, she'd also love it.
I just needed some time. Time to turn her into putty under me.
"So, you might not get what you want, but beyond all those lewd thoughts," I winked in her direction, "You want to see Sona happy, don't you? So, I ask you again, what did it feel like to finally see her let loose?"
Serafall bit her lip, her eyes vacant for a moment.
"What are you implying, you fiend?" Serafall asked angrily.
Or so I would have believed, but her breathing came in short, ragged pants.
"You know what I mean," I grinned, "as I told you, you can't hide anything from me, my dear. I saw what seeing us today made you feel."
Serafall blushed prettily, opening and closing her mouth even as no words came out.
Heh, they were just so similar.
"Sona's flushed cheeks, her skewed glasses, her wild eyes," I stood up and walked next to her, my finger tapping the table closer and closer to her hand.
But I didn't touch her, because I feared that it would break her daydreaming.
"Seeing her grind against me," I whispered hotly, "Watching me grab her ass as she explored every cranny of my mouth."
"Or how her nipples showed through her dress, rubbing against my chest. Believe me, they felt heavenly."
Serafall was panting like an animal already, and I smirked in victory.
"And you can't cause that," I added plainly, "but I can give you what you fantasize about. Every. Single. Night."
Then I touched her hand, and she stood up like the seat was on fire.
Her eyes crossed, looking like she was about to attack me.
"I knew you were a monster!" she shouted, "Acting all lovey Dovey with So-tan and doing this behind her back!"
I approached her, and she took a step back.
"Didn't you notice the base of our relationship?" I cocked my head curiously, "Thanks to you, she dreams of being in control at every moment of her life, but with me?"
I put my hand against the wall, over her shoulder.
What did the Japanese call this? Ah. Kabedon.
Serafall's eyes met mine, looking between panicked, flustered, and completely lost in arousal.
"I can make Sona do all with a single snap of my fingers, my dear," I said against her ear.
Serafall didn't move, her eyes searching mine for answers I wasn't willing to give, but she was smart and could read between the lines.
"And do you want to know the best part? When she finds out about this... She'd thank me for it."
That broke Serafall almost immediately as she pushed me with more force than necessary.
I wasn't sure if she intended to do it, but I felt my shoulder break in ten different places.
Hiding my wince, I healed it as soon as I could manage, then watched Serafall pace around the room like a woman possessed.
Serafall stopped pacing after five complete minutes.
She didn't speak, her eyes laser-focused on nothingness the whole time, and when she stopped, she was so still that I wondered if she somehow managed to freeze herself to death without an outward drop in temperature.
Then she laughed.
And it wasn't her usual peppy act. It was short, sharp, and completely without humor.
It was pure derision.
"The world wants to turn me into an NTR protagonist," she said flatly to no one in particular.
She looked at the ceiling for a moment, then back at me with an expression somewhere between disbelief, dark amusement, and grim acceptance.
"That's the only way, isn't it? The only way to get what I want without ruining my reputation or my relationship with Sona. To become a cuck."
She wasn't expecting an answer. It wasn't a question; it was a statement.
It was funny that she didn't think I wouldn't add her to my bed with just a few months of work.
She pointed at me, her finger trembling as she gritted her teeth, "I hate you, you monster."
"I know," I nodded, "And yet, we both know you'll agree."
She fell silent. Then Serafall smoothed her dress with both hands, took a breath, and sat down at the table like nothing in the past thirty minutes had happened.
She picked up her mug and drank it in a single gulp.
Waited for it to refill, then did it again.
When she did that two more times, she looked at me again, and the Satan was fully back. Her eyes sharpened, her back straight, and what I had seen before was nowhere to be seen.
Even her soul showed her acceptance, but beneath all that clutter? I could feel the root of anticipation.
And that's when I knew I'd won.
"So," she said briskly, "We have business to talk about, Dante Andromalius-kun."
I was willing to offer an olive branch, sitting down, and acting as if the last conversation didn't happen. I could at least do that much, even if I was absolutely asking for her number after we were done.
One hour later.
Serafall stood to leave, looking like a powerless mortal walking into a divine storm without an umbrella. If she had been a normal person, I was one hundred percent sure she'd be sweating up enough to fill the room.
She hid it well. Better than most would have, which showed her experience in negotiations.
But I could see the slight tension in her shoulders, and the way she played with her long skirt too many times for it to be natural.
I had offered the light-infused products exclusively to the Satans, free for a year in quantities I deemed acceptable. After that, they would have to pay like everyone else. If they wanted more than what I agreed, they also had to pay.
She hadn't even tried to negotiate that particular point, which told me she understood exactly what she was getting.
In fact, I knew that I could have asked for more, but I didn't intend to bleed them dry.
Then came the kicker when I admitted that I could cure the sleeping 'disease'. She had tried very hard not to look eager, but I reminded her with a grin that she couldn't hide her true feelings from me. I had been very firm in my stance that I wouldn't heal anyone and that I would ask for an exorbitant price for it, but the fact that a cure existed was all that she had in mind.
I didn't want to rock that boat too fast, mostly because I didn't want a war before I could settle my power base here.
Then came the full alignment of the Andromalius name with the New Satan faction, with the explicit understanding that I reserved the right to vote as I saw fit.
That one made her eye twitch, but she accepted it.
I doubted there would be many times I agreed with the great king faction, which made her ease up a bit when I said that.
And finally, the Gusion territory. As it was impossible to give me back the Andromalius territory since it had been shared by many important families from the council, she thought of this when I asked for a place.
She had presented it as a gift. An abandoned territory that was infested with demonic beasts. One that suffered the very heat of the Civil War all those centuries ago.
It was barren by now, and it was a headache for the Satans. One they were more than happy to hand off to someone else. I was expected to clean it, build it, and make something of it entirely at my expense.
She had a scary amount of anger in her soul as she offered it, along with a healthy dose of pettiness.
I had accepted without blinking.
The slight narrowing of her eyes told me she noticed I wasn't against it from the get-go, but I just smiled cheekily and told her there were no take-backsies.
"The family name restoration goes to Sirzechs," she said at the door, acting all prim and proper, "It should be a formality given everything else. I'll handle it."
"I appreciate that, Miss Leviathan."
She turned to look at me one last time.
"You're not what I expected," she admitted quietly.
I grinned, "You thought I would make the same mistakes as Hadrian, no?"
She didn't deny it. Just held my gaze for a moment longer than necessary before looking away.
"Your pieces," she said, reaching into her dimensional storage and producing the crystalline box from earlier.
She set it on the table between us.
Then she turned around, already walking towards the entrance, but I cleared my throat almost teasingly… and tossed my phone at her.
"Add your number. That way, we can contact each other if the situation requires."
Serafall froze for a moment, looking hesitant as her arousal grew. She looked between the phone and me, almost… conflicted.
But I wasn't letting her go, and with a wisp of my power, I recreated the scene on the Sitri mansion from memory.
And everything I felt at that moment came with it.
Serafall gave a full-body shudder, biting her lip… then she nodded, defeatedly.
Then she wrote her personal information before throwing the phone back at me.
She didn't say anything, just walking away like she owned the place.
"Heh," I laughed, sitting back on the table with the biggest smirk known to man. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this world so much."
And so would Sona. Of that, I was sure.
Seeing the crystalline box, I felt… giddiness. A new feeling, but I ignored it, focusing instead on how it would feel to make Tandy totally mine until nothing but death separated us.
And I would make sure Death never took us in her warm embrace.
My hand moved on its own, but before I could clench my fingers around it…
It was gone.
Like a mirage, the crystal box disappeared before my disbelieving eyes, as if it had never existed at all.
Then a note materialized where the box had been, written in surprisingly neat calligraphy.
That honestly confused me for a moment, at least until I read it.
Time to fulfill my part. Come find me, and we can work together.
-GR
I snorted in irritation; even the most secure place I had created was no match for him. Not that I expected it, obviously, but one could hope.
At least I could mock the bastard that he learned how to write thanks to me.
With a twitching eyebrow, the Dark Force swallowed me whole.
In a small bar in Iceland.
The first thing I noticed was that it was cold as fuck.
I had never been in such a cold place in this life, and it took me a moment to notice that it wasn't exactly natural.
There was an absurd amount of power saturating the whole city.
There was a cabin in the distance where I could barely feel Red's power coming from, and with a sigh, I walked in that direction.
I should have been more surprised when I opened the door and I found a bar. Or maybe not, considering our last meeting.
Red sat at the last table in the dimly lit establishment. The mortal bartender looked up in surprise, which shifted to curiosity when he noticed my focus settle on the idiot.
I threw a gold coin his way, then walked inside.
Red grinned when he saw me, idly playing with my evil pieces like they belonged to him.
Then Red completely hid his aura, and I felt a bunch of godly power descending on the town.
I looked around in surprise, then glared at the idiot.
"Why the actual fuck are there so many gods here?" I asked plainly.
And strong ones, too.
He laughed, patting his leg as he finished his beer.
A cheap one, from the smell of it.
"I told you I'm quite famous in this world," he snorted, "And Odin pissed me off a couple of weeks ago when he cornered me in a bar in Finland with his youngest son. I decided to mess with him after that, so I've been jumping into every country within their territory and flaring with aura before disappearing."
I cracked a grin at that.
"Well… the Odin I know is a cunt, so anyone who messes with him has my support," I nodded sagely, "Are his daughters hot here?"
"He has no daughters," Red cocked his head, "Though I doubt anything that comes out of his loins can be hot."
Without answering, I projected the image I had of Hela, along with a sense of her power. Then I did the same with Angela, projecting what I had pulled from her future self.
She was a babe the last time I saw her, but back then, peering into the future out of curiosity was trivial to someone like me.
I had to make sure that pissing off the angels would be worth it. And damn if it wasn't.
"I stand corrected," Red ogled Angela.
Heh, who knew the big apocalyptic dragon would have a libido?
Aldrif was mine, but a couple of her sisters looked similar. I might as well hook him up with one. They still owed me for sparing them, after all.
"So, what do you have in mind, Red?" I sat down and summoned a beer from the mortal's counter.
His eyes widened in fright, but I just snapped my finger and muddled his mind.
"Oh, what do you think of this, Dante?" he grinned toothily and began to explain.
I hated lies… and I had to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by Red.
This was going to be fun.
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