I mulled over his words. I knew that giving us Takagamahara was more than a privilege afforded, more than a reparation.

 

It was literally a divine gift and I wasn't sure if I truly wanted it. It felt weird. Sure, I wasn't happy with the attack of Kagutsuchi on Kuoh but ruling a realm where the previous inhabitants had been slaughtered, some of them probably innocent left a bad taste in my mouth. I kept those thoughts to myself.

 

I focused instead on what he just said before “You speak of a foothold in the East. The war, is not something that can be avoided, isn't it?” I asked him even if I already knew the answer.

 

His eyes turned sad “It is unfortunately the case,” he said softly. “Even if we don't want to, we can't not answer. Kagutsuchi and his subordinates weren't the only supernatural threats who attacked devils on Earth. There will be a vote issued by the parliament.”

 

I restrained myself from scoffing. Our parliament was made up of eighty-six seats. Seventy-two of those sits naturally were reserved for pillar devils. Ten other seats were reserved for the most prominent extra demon clans like the Abaddon and Lucifuge clans. Two of the four remaining seats were reserved for common blood devils who had been able to reach the ultimate class. The two last seats were held by the voted representatives of reincarnated devils and the sentient demonic creatures living in the underworld that were not truly seen as devils like succubus or fiends.

 

There were three bodies of governance in our society. There was the legislative side which was the parliament in itself, the executive office led by my brother and the other Satans and the judicial side led by designated pillar devils with the Satans also serving as the equivalent of the Supreme Court of Justice.

 

The parliament was the one that could create laws, and resolutions that would be applied even if the other branches disagreed with it. One of the known injustices of our system was that every law voted was directly applied the day after. It was only when the decision was revoked, designed unfavourable to devil kind that it stopped making effects.

 

It meant a law that stipulated that no reincarnated devil should be able to change their status would be one that would be followed until the Satans intervened. It had literally happened in the past.

 

This was a concession I knew my brother had to give to pillar devil clans to make them more accepting of his rule and to make them want to pursue the construction of a devil’s society.

 

After all, each high-class devil was as strong as a minor god. We were literally superior beings. We could do almost everything as long as we were strong enough. We didn't need to be together, to be united.

 

We had been created to be weapons but our creators were gone. We didn't have any true purpose anymore that reunited all of us.

 

It kinda made me understand the old Satans. The only true directive we had left was plunging this world into Chaos, to ruin everything created by the divine. It was probably why they wanted us to go to war with Heaven even though we would probably have been almost extinguished as a race.

 

It didn't excuse their actions though. A slave obeyed and a man chose. We are supposed to be more than the sum of our parts. We are supposed to be free and clinging to a dead dream was nothing but slavery. It was choosing to be a slave.

 

It made me respect my brother even more. Sirzechs had been able to take literal devils and make them better, kinder.

 

Sure, most devils were probably assholes but compared to our ancestors and the cruelties that they inflicted on the world, we were more like chickens and dinosaurs.

 

“The seat of the demon Amduscias was claimed,” he told me his eyes turning cold and calculating.

 

“By whom?” I asked him.

 

We all knew that the current lord of the Amdudcias clan hadn’t been able to claim the seat of his father and the authority that came with it. There were rumours that the demon had favoured someone else and had made sure only this person would be able to claim the seat. He was a king without a crown so no king at all and everyone knew it.

 

The only reason why he still had some relevance was because he was seen legally by the immaterial laws of the underworld as the actual heir. No one maybe him and his relatives knew if it was because there was someone else supposed to inherit but who hadn't claimed what was theirs yet or if the demon had despised so much his spawn that he made sure he would not be able to inherit after his death.

 

“Apparently, the demon had chosen as a successor before his death his half-blood grandchild.”

 

A chuckle escaped me. I tried to hold everything inside but it was so funny. Laughter exploded out of my lips. I would probably seem mad for someone who didn't understand.

 

Our parliament could be said to be divided into factions. We had a conservative one that was similar to the old satans. The only difference was that they were loyal to our current regime.

 

There was the great king faction, composed of few members but that only comported pillar devils whose clan could technically be said to be from a royal status. The Bael clan ruled this faction. The Sitri, the Gremory and the Astaroth clans were also members of it.

 

The last faction was the progressive one only composed of extra clan devils and the representatives of the reincarnated devils and the non-devils inhabitants of the Underworld.

 

The Amduscias clan could have been seen as a member of the conservative faction but the new head was a half-devil, a Cambion and there was nothing that those conservatives hated more than those they considered lesser, tainted.

 

It meant that the Amduscias clan had probably shifted its allegiance which meant that it was possible for the power of the Great King faction to increase, something that would surely make things better for my brother and his allies.

 

I could see that I wasn't the only one that found it ironic. I could see the shadow of a smile on the lips of my brother. Good, he looked so much prettier like that.

 

“I wish I could have seen their faces when he claimed the seat,” I said to my brother after my amusement subsided a little.

 

“It should be in the news tonight,” my brother told me. It would probably be exaggerated too. There was a kind of person who was always there mocking someone so much when something embarrassing happened that they wished they could die on the spot.

 

Take this person, multiply by a hundred and you find the average devil. We were meant to create Dissension. This was literally in our essence.

 

“Rias,” he called my name softly, too softly as if he wanted to prepare me for bad news “There is something you must know Rias.”

 

His gaze moved travelling from me to Akeno and fear began to pool in my stomach “Even though there is an illusion of vote, we all know the result, that we would go to war.”

 

Under the table, I held the hand of Akeno “I don't…understand what you're saying.” I wasn’t sure I wanted to understand.

 

“There are always soldiers in a war Rias.”

 

“I know this brother. I know we would probably have to fight bu-”

 

“You won’t be fighting,” he cut me.

 

His eyes were locked on my queen “Please, don’t tell me what I think you're going to tell me,” I begged him.

 

One of his hands moved sweeping his hair back “I have never lied to you Rias and I wish today would be the first time but it would only be a disservice to you. Kings aren’t the pieces sent forward. They are the most important pieces.”

 

His gaze locked with mine “Pawns, bishops, knights, rooks, Queens, they are disposable. There can always be another Queen or rook or knight but there could never be another king because when the king falls, everything falls.”

 

I wanted to vomit everything I had just eaten “Do you truly believe that?” I asked him.

 

A sigh escaped him “I don't but since when did what I believed matter? It was only strength that mattered.”

 

“I won’t let them be taken away from me to go fight a war, a war against angels as old as the underworld itself!”

 

“Rias,” Akeno spoke at my side. I turned to look at her. “It's okay,” she said softly when it wasn’t! Things between us truly began only yesterday. More than that, she had already suffered enough. Why did she have to be fighting again? Why did she have to suffer again?

 

Asia and Issei, they had lost everything dear to them except each other. How could I allow this, do nothing as they are dragged into another battlefield, one not of their making?

 

Koneko almost died because of a god. How could I ask her when she woke up to go fight other divine beings, stronger than the one that almost killed her?

 

Yuto had already died because of the church. Even with his balance breaker, I didn't want him to fight.

 

I had hoped when I helped with the scared gear of Gasper that it would allow him to live a normal life, one where he wouldn't have to be scared. Sending him to war would defeat the purpose of my past actions.

 

“What if I refuse?” I asked my brother.

 

“You can’t Rias. In the eyes of our society, you matter. They don't.”

 

He hadn't understood what I truly meant. There was only one supreme rule that defined our kind. It could be called our constitution. Strength was the supreme privilege, only strength was respected.

 

“You didn't understand me Sirzechs,” I told him coldly. “What if I killed them all? Crushed them like the insects they are?”

 

I released my hold on my demonic energy and my authority letting them go rampant. The world shook around us as my presence began to erode this artificial realm into nothing.

 

My demonic energy spread like a cancer covering the eternity of this realm, corrupting, and destroying it. Only the platform hadn't been affected. Everything else was gone.

 

I began thinking about trying to create a plan of escape. I had two possibilities before me. I could try to flee with my peerage, disappear with them. The question was where? If I chose this option, I needed to find a place where no devil or angel or fallen would be able to find me.

 

The second option would be to kill the members of our parliament. I wouldn’t hesitate if I had to kill every member of our parliament. I knew my brother would hate it but I knew he would never put himself on my way.

 

The dimensional gap was supposed to be the gap between the world. Wasn't it from it where other worlds could enter in ours?

 

I had my magic, my stolen authority and my essence. I'm sure that I could find a way to reach another reality and travel to another one as if I were using the Kaleidoscope.

 

Sirzechs rose from his chair “Think, Rias, Think!!! What do you think would happen if you tried to kill the members of our parliament? Let me tell you what will happen. You'll fail and only ensure the demise of the members of your peerage.”

 

“Thinking!? I am thinking! Why are you acting as if it wasn't right?! You are supposed to always be at my side! You are the strongest! If you forced them, they would follow!”

 

“I am at your side Rias! Do you think I like this!? Do you think I like the fact that I would probably send millions to their death?! I don't but it is necessary! If I did use my strength to make them comply, I would be no better than our ancestors. I would be showing them, proving to them that kindness, respect and the law we worked for thousands of years to implement don't matter! All the progress we made as a race would be gone! The only one who could change anything is our grandfather.”

 

I wanted to scream, to yell, to destroy something. “There is no chance Bael would help us.  He doesn't care abo-”

 

Sound died. I moved my lips but no sounds came out. My demonic energy disappeared as if I had never released it. Sirzechs appeared in front of me faster than I could see a bubble made of the power of destruction surrounding us.

 

The false star in the sky made of Destruction opened. The silence had been replaced with the sound of an ominous symphony, one of screams, of anguish, of despair. I turned toward Akeno. Unlike me and my brother, she wasn't fine. She was bleeding from her nose, her eyes and her ears. She touched her blood in shock as if she was before an impossibility. The sound! It was the sound! I put my hand on her ears trying to make sure it would not reach her.

 

A giant hand made of bones, black ooze came at first out of it. It twisted and moved disgustingly.

 

The rest of the creature began slowly to make itself known. Sinews and exposed bones the colour of ebony made themselves known. I could see with my vision screeching lights flowing through the body of the monstrosity. Thousands, millions, maybe billions of screaming lights.

 

No, it wasn't right. Those screams were too human? Too human!? I focused back on the abomination. Disgust welled up in me as I realized with my demonic sight that those lights were souls, sentient beings' souls that were suffering endlessly.

 

I could feel nothing from the creature before me. It was as if I was before a void. I could not feel any divinity, any demonic or holy energy, any magic.

 

The head was the last body part that came outside of the dark scarlet sun. The creature had three heads. One looked like the head of a sabertooth. I could see from where I was its shining razor-sharp-looking teeth.

 

The head over its right shoulder was the one of a crocodile. The head was looking at us with eyes I would say only contained malice.

 

The third head, the one in the middle, was one who looked human, who looked regal, who looked like Sirzechs and I, who looked like our mother.

 

The monster was as tall and big as an old mountain. He was as tall if not more tall than the Titans of old referenced in the Greek myths.

 

“What does Zekram want?” I heard my brother whisper under his breath.

 

The horror spoke, its voice more like a propagating satin on the universe than a physical thing “Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.” The abomination, my grandfather smiled “Pride of my being. You called me. What kind of grandfather would I be if I didn't come?”