Chapter 56: a dance with the devil

The paradise that was once Takagamahara lay under an eternal shroud of frost and rhyme, the air itself frozen in time, heavy with the weight of infernal wrath. Ice-encased trees, their branches bowed under the burden of the bitter cold, stood as skeletal sentinels in a world that had known too much pain. The heavens above were perpetually overcast, dark clouds swirling in silent torment. It was in this frozen hellscape that I awaited the arrival of Yasaka, the leader of the Youkai faction with my brother and my nephews and some guards.

My heart felt like stuck in a tumultuous storm. Maybe I was wrong but I felt as if I already knew why Yasaka wanted to see me, why she was desperate enough to try to meet with the person that could be said to directly and indirectly be the cause of the end of the Shinto Pantheon, a pantheon the Youkai were a part of and also the beloved little sister of The Lucifer who would not hesitate to bath her people and her in destruction if something he found wrong occurred.

There was a difference between being in Japan and being in the Underworld. More than the two of them being in separate realms of existence, In the Underworld, my mind wasn’t assaulted by the constant stream of prayers, of voices, of curses like it was the case here.

It's as if the underworld had been a cocoon allowing me to profit exclusively from the benefits that came with usurping a god or maybe something had changed since my departure weeks ago.

Nevertheless, all of that was to say that cannibalizing Kagutsuchi allowed me to hear the voices of ‘my followers’, of those falling under the blessing/curse I had created for humanity.

It allowed me to hear the screams of triumph and joy of a man who was lured into the wild by A Jorogumo. Unlike what the Youkai thought would happen, it wasn’t the man who died. It was him and I watched as the man who had been unaware of the supernatural hours ago, who had due to his cleverness and his indomitable human spirit slayed a Youkai while he was at Izanami’s doors began to heal, the gaping wounds in his body closing, healing, as the strength and the might of the spider Youkai became his.

Most Jorogumos were low-class level existences but even between a mundane and a weak supernatural creature, there was a difference in power that was akin to the distance between the heavens and the Earth.

This strength will allow that man to be able to protect himself and others around him more effectively.

On the other side though, I could see through the eyes of some of the people who had received my blessing. They were not defending themselves or others, they weren’t slaying evil monsters. No, instead, they were hunting, butchering innocent Youkaï for the strength they knew they would gain. I should have seen it coming since the beginning.

What was first intended as a way to protect would be, had been misused. Innocents Youkaï died, were dying and will die.

It was just a prediction but something told me that if nothing was done, it was most likely that the Youkai Race would disappear soon.

A hand on my shoulder brought me out of my head.

“I'm just behind you,” Sirzechs spoke. “If she tries anything, I'll make sure it fails.”

I tried to smile at him even if the smile that bloomed on my face probably looked false. Sirzechs hadn’t wanted me to speak With Yasaka.

She was after all still a part of a pantheon who had attacked me and that we, devils were the cause of their near extinction both directly and indirectly.

I looked to my left, to the crouching form of Millicas seemingly absorbed and preening over the frozen paradise that Takagamahara.

His face was full of child-like wonder. If I wasn’t wrong, this was technically his first time seeing something not of the underworld.

The son of the devil in a paradise made of infernal ice looking at a butchered realm with innocence. It almost was poetic in a way.

“Yes, I know that,” I answered him. I just hoped I thought as I began to feel power, one that could easily fit into the lower classes of the ultimate class, almost with the same feel, the same taste as Koneko’s.

*scene*

Yasaka arrived in a swirl of shimmering snow, her nine tails flicking behind her, each movement betraying the deep anguish within her. Her eyes, pools of golden light amidst the desolation, locked onto mine. The silence between them was a chasm filled with unspoken sorrow and bitter regrets.

Her eyes recognized with a glint both the presence of the King of the underworld and his sister.

For Yasaka they looked almost human, almost like angels, almost kind when it could be nothing but the contrary.

She could feel their gazes on her form, how it felt as if she was an insect being studied by higher beings wondering if they should step on her and that.

More than that, her sensing abilities confirmed to her the fact that if things went wrong, the odds would in no case be in her favour.

“Your majesty, your graces,” she said with a shallow bow. No matter how much she hated lowering herself before devils, before the ones who were the cause of the suffering of her people, the need upscaled her wants.

Additionally, the crimson Lucifer was said to have butchered almost half the remaining pillars to seize more power, that his benevolence all this time had been a mask and that he was truly the worthy successor of his ancestor.

“I am grateful that you accepted my demand of meeting.”

The little sister looked uncomfortable. Was she unfamiliar with such meetings or was it something else Yasaka wasn’t able to catch?

If the girl hadn’t been a devil, if her smell wasn’t so unfamiliar, so other, Yasaka would have been able to navigate this with much more ease. This was why it was so much harder to deal with beings like devils than humans or even other earthly Youkais.

“It's not a problem but may I know why did you wish to meet me?” the crimson-haired girl asked her as if they both didn't know why.

"Rias Gremory," Yasaka's voice was a whisper carried on the icy wind, "I ask of you to undo your blessing. It has brought nothing but death to my people and in return, I, Yasaka, ancient priestess of Amaterasu will give myself whole to you."

*scene*

I hid my shock behind a mask of indifference. Yasaka was one of the two leaders of the Youkai faction with the Nuhariyon. It could even be said that with the death of the Shinto gods, Japan was technically her territory.

Reincarnating her as one of my pieces would be a great boon not only for me but for the entirety of my race.

Reincarnating her would be adding another ultimate class being to our side, something that could only be helpful in the future war.

Yasaka also probably knew so many things about secrets but powerful arts or techniques like Youjutsu or Senjutsu or even the manipulation of Leylines that her becoming a devil would be a net benefit.

If what she knew could be taught, the chances of something wrong happening to my peerage would be lower. Koneko's fear of Senjustu would disappear if a good teacher showed her that it wasn’t something to fear.

Externally, I must have looked as if I was musing about the proposition of the priestess. Internally, I had chosen to telepathically speak with my brother.

‘What do you think?’ I asked him.

Sure, reincarnating Yasaka came with a lot of benefits but two things that I shouldn’t forget were that she was a kistune, technically a trickster spirit who had lived for a millennium if the myths weren’t wrong with tails sprouting each century, that I didn't know if she was tricking me in one way or another and that removing my blessing/curse would only bring back an old status quo where most humans were preys.

Besides that, something told me that in the hypothetical scenario that I removed my blessing, the Youkai of Japan wouldn’t forget what happened when humanity gained power.

Sooner or later, things would go back to the same way they were if not worse.

‘I think,’ I heard my brother say mentally ‘that she's trying to trick you.’

‘Trick me? How?’

‘Simple, Rias,’ and I swore that I could feel some mirth in his voice, that at that moment, the one speaking wasn’t Sirzechs but Lucifer ‘She’s acting as if you didn’t already have all the cards, as if she was bartering when in truth, she is begging. Right now, if you wanted to forcefully reincarnate her, with me at your side, surrounded by our guards, do you think she could do anything against it?’

I looked her in the face, weaving divinity and infernal energies to see more, to see what I originally didn't. I looked at Yasaka and in her, only saw fear and hatred. What was interesting was that while it was true that her hatred and fear were due to my doing, they weren’t because of what I could do to her. Sirzechs was right. The cards were already in my hand. It's just that I didn't know while she did.

I had everything to gain, nothing to lose while she had something she could lose.

‘A daughter,’ my brother whispered in my mind. ‘She has a daughter and since the dawn of time, whether they accepted it or not, children have always been a cause of demise for their sires.

‘You have all the cards. What if I told you instead of playing with one piece that you could take them all, sister?’

Those words were terrible, unmistakably prelude to evil yet they felt so sweet. Was this why humans gave their souls, why they dealt with the devil when doing so would bar them from heaven?

‘Do you want to take everything Rias?’ he asked me as if he didn't already know my answer.

‘Yes,’ I said to the devil.

‘Good. To have the entire board, you first have to know how to play, how to fake. You are just a precocious devil with too much power and not enough brain that was probably protected from the consequences of every one of her actions by her older brother, by her status.’

‘This is not true though.’

‘Yes, it is not,’ and I could almost feel a smile in his voice ‘but she doesn't know that. Let it become her truth. Play Rias, Play,” he whispered so this is what I did.

"I did not foresee this," I murmured intentionally, trying to appear as if I had thought out loud, as if I was talking more to myself than to Yasaka. "I wanted to protect humanity, to give them a chance to rise above their fear, to be more than prey."

‘Well played, giving the illusion of a fool who only wanted to do good and in the end, who only followed Prometheus footsteps. Watch how her demeanour changes now that she thinks she knows what kind of being she deals with.’

Yasaka's eyes narrowed, her voice not rising but becoming colder, filled with cold fury. "And in doing so, you have condemned countless innocents. Children, elders, those who posed no threat to humans—they are being slaughtered. Is this the protection you envisioned?"

‘Act as if you were ashamed, act as if you were regretting,’ my brother told me.

It felt too easy to do so, My gaze turning away from her losing itself in the distance, fixed on the horizon where the frost met the sky. "Do you think I wanted this? Do you think I wished for genocide? I am torn, Yasaka. My blessing was meant to empower, not to annihilate."

"But annihilation is what it has brought!" Yasaka cried, her voice breaking.

‘Strike one,’ my brother said to me with approval and mirth before the guards around us tightened their grip on their weapons and that outside, the amenable and pleasant face of my brother turned cold.

"We begged for mercy, for understanding, and instead we have received death. The humans you sought to protect have become the very monsters they feared."

Yasaka seemed unaware of what was happening around her or maybe she was and didn't care or maybe she was and thought she already won.

‘Now, act as if you felt slighted by her words, Rias. A demonic princess no matter how foolish, how guilty she is should have an ego. The contrary would be heresy and a glaring sign that something is wrong.’

I hardened my expression, allowing a flicker of my demonic energy to surface unbound. "And what would you have me do? Remove the blessing and condemn humanity to once again be hunted and slaughtered? To be weak and fearful?"

‘Maybe after all of this is finished, you should maybe become a TV star, be a part of one of Serafall’s plays maybe.’

There was no chance that I would join Serafall’s magical girl show/Hentai. Sure, I had been turned into a devil and with it was changed, but it wasn’t to the point of being comfortable with being near raped by tentacular demonic monsters on TV for everyone to see.

Yasaka's tails flicked angrily, her eyes blazing. "There must be another way! A way to balance the scales, to protect both humans and non-humans. I'm sure that Your power is vast, Rias Gremory. Surely you can find a solution that does not involve the extinction of an entire race."

‘Now is the time time for jackpot Rias.’

In the outside world, I watched a little smile bloom on the corner of the lips of my brother.

‘Now, it is the time to take everything. Allow me to help you finish.’

*scene*

My mind raced as I continued to look at Yasasa. I wondered if the gold-haired Kitsune knew that she was already trapped, that unknowingly, she had been playing with the devil and had lost. Something told me that maybe if she could have thought more logically, maybe if she wasn’t so scared, she would have realized it.

The ice around us seemed to pulse with the infernal anger of Serafall, whose fury had turned paradise into a frozen wasteland. It was a stark reminder of the consequences of power wielded by monsters, the power that some entities of this world had and allowed them to shape it the way they wished to.

‘She probably expects you to cave, to accept what she proposed or a variation of it. It's a good thing that it is not how you will react. I was once told that the difference between despair and absolute despair was that, unlike despair, absolute despair came to be when only one little push was needed but never came and it is in despair that the devil is found like a great source of comfort.’

I knew what I had to do "I cannot undo what has been done," I said quietly, my voice tinged with sorrow.

‘Try to inject some indecisiveness.’

"But I'm not sure if removing the blessing is the good thing to do."

I was honest. Sure I was trying to trick her but I wasn’t lying to her. I probably didn't utter even one since we began talking.

“I don’t want your people to be slaughtered, I don’t want innocents to pay because of what I did but I can’t allow the broken paradigm that existed for so many years to come back.”

“What?”

For the first time, since we began talking, I felt in her voice unease, incomprehension as if the world had stopped making sense.

Yasaka shook her head, a single tear streaming down one of her cheeks, freezing before it hit the ground.

"I thought you understood. My people, my daught-”

She cut herself but I already knew what word she had almost uttered. It almost was a whisper yet it felt like a punch in the gut. Yasaka had done nothing to me yet while I could help, while I could truly try to, I was manipulating her and for what?

An image of what I gained came into my mind. Yeah, I already knew why. I also promised myself that I would stop hesitating. A little voice was still screaming that it was wrong on the back of my head.

‘Prepare yourself, sister. Here comes the despair, the shed of the perfect mask.’

‘How can you be sure?’ I asked him even if I believed him.

‘Because like her, I am a monarch and a parent.’

‘Action is needed. Every moment you delay, more lives are lost. Please, I beg you, find a way to end this madness."

Yasaka, nine-tailed fox, leader of the Youkai faction, an existence probably nearing a millennium and that was probably one of the strongest amongst what remained of her pantheon, the priestess of Amaterasu moved, kneeling before us, kneeling before me, her forefront against the icy ground.

‘Because Rias, as a monarch and a parent, there is no place for pride when it comes to the safety of the ones we have to duty to take care of. Let me handle the rest.’

I looked away from the sight before me. Yasaka's plea like a physical burden. It was something that left a bad taste in my mouth. If this was how it always was with my brother, I understood why he was feared and hated so much by those calling him an enemy and why Sirzechs hated the title of Satan.

“Lady Yasaka, please, raise your head,” my brother said gently but firmly. The nine-tailed golden-haired kistune did so, her golden eyes meeting with the greens of Lucifer.

“I was able to hear your demand to my sister and due to her indecisiveness, I would like to propose you another choice, one you're of course free to accept or refuse.”

“The blessing of my sister made sure that potentially, every Youkai in East Asia are in grave danger. Humans are everywhere and even some of them are hunting you. The only way for you to survive would be to try to escape them each time but we know the feasibility of it will be let's say difficult even more after the death of the Shinto gods. Sooner or later, they would find all your hidden havens, your hidden dimension pockets unless you go somewhere where they can’t reach.”

Somewhere, a place that wouldn’t be easy for humans to reach Youkais. As my brother had said, due to the number of humans, sooner or later, all the pocket dimensions where a lot of Youkai lived like the place where I watched fireworks with Akeno would be found unless it was somewhere completely divorced from Earth.

My eyes widened in realization. A place completely separated from Earth, a place nearly impossible for nearly 99% of humans to reach unless they died and that even if they could would be a safe haven due to its inhabitants.

“I want your people to migrate to the underworld,” my brother spoke and Yasaka wasn’t the only one to gasp.

“After all,” the devil spoke, “Don’t you want a bright future for your people, a future where they’ll be protected?”