"So, Kuroka said some stuff which made you doubt life, and you wanted to discuss it with a friend, so you came to discuss it with me, your fiancée…"
Rias leaned back in her chair, blue eyes glittering with malicious amusement.
"I can see she had a point, honestly."
"I did not say 'doubt life'," I replied. "I said her comments introduced additional variables to my long term emotional trajectory."
She stared at me for a long second.
"Magdaran."
"Yes?"
"Do you… hear yourself?"
"Frequently." I say slightly confused.
She let out a long, suffering sigh, then covered her face with one hand, shoulders shaking.
At first I thought she was exasperated.
Then I realized she was laughing.
"Unbelievable," she said between chuckles. "You seriously came here like, 'Hello, Rias, I am having an existential crisis because my Nekoshou told me I don't know how to live.'"
"That is an oversimplification," I said. "But not entirely inaccurate."
She grinned, viciously pleased.
"This is so sad," she said. "My fiancé has no friends, so when his own peerage tells him he is a stiff, unfun robot, he comes to me to ask what 'fun' is. You realize how pathetic that sounds, right?"
"I have Kuroka, Akeno, and Shirone," I pointed out. "Statistically, that is already more social proximity than you. Your 'friend group' consists of exactly one person."
Her smile froze.
"…what."
"Sona Sitri," I said. "The entirety of your peer social web."
Rias slammed her palms on the table and stood up.
"Get up," she said.
"I am already sitting," I noted.
"Get. Up."
I complied.
She marched around the table, grabbed my wrist, and began dragging me down the Gremory corridor with the determination of someone going to war.
"Where are we going?" I asked.
"To my rich and fulfilling social life," she said darkly.
That was not reassuring.
We stopped in front of a door. Rias flung it open dramatically.
Inside, Sona Sitri sat at a desk, surrounded by books, papers, and a neat stack of documents. She was reading, glasses perched on her nose, aura calm and contained.
She looked up slowly, deadpan.
"…Rias."
Rias gestured grandly toward her.
"Behold, Magdaran," she declared. "My amazing friend group."
I looked at Sona.
Then at Rias.
Then back at Sona.
"Hello, Sona," I said. "You are the entirety of Rias's social support structure."
Sona closed her eyes for a second as if in prayer.
"Rias," she said. "You dragged me into this."
"Fix him," Rias said, pointing at me. "Kuroka told him he's a stiff, joyless workaholic and now he's questioning life."
Sona regarded me again.
"You are questioning life," she repeated.
"Not life itself," I said. "Just my usage of it."
Sona studied me for a moment.
"Let me guess," she said. "You spend your days training, planning, reading, training again, occasionally teasing Rias, then returning to more training."
"That is an accurate outline," I admitted.
"And you do nothing purely for recreation," she said.
"I do eat desserts sometimes," I said. "Rias insists."
"That does not count," both of them said at once.
They exchanged a look.
Rias turned back to me, smug again.
"See?" she said. "Even Sona, the queen of boredom, thinks you're too boring."
Sona adjusted her glasses.
"To be fair," she said, "I am not an ideal model for 'fun' either. My idea of relaxation is structured strategy games."
"Which he would probably enjoy," Rias muttered.
"Probably," Sona agreed. "But that will not solve your problem, Rias."
She turned her attention back to me.
"If you want him to loosen up, you need to remove him from his environment," she said. "Take him somewhere he cannot default to training or scheming."
Rias's eyes began to shine with dangerous enthusiasm.
"Somewhere he cannot work," she repeated. "Somewhere he has no advantage. Somewhere he has to just… exist."
"This sounds ominous," I remarked.
Sona ignored me.
"Human world," she said. "Take him there. Preferably somewhere chaotic."
Rias smirked.
"That was my thought exactly."
She grabbed my wrist again.
"Come on, fiancé," she said. "We are going to fix your soul."
"I was under the impression devils do not possess those," I said.
"Then we'll install one," she shot back.
Sona sighed, but there was amusement in her eyes.
"Try not to destroy too much," she said. "And Rias, inform your parents properly. You always forget."
Rias stiffened.
"I was going to," she lied.
I did not comment.
We diverted to Zeoticus and Venelana before leaving. Proper protocol.
Zeoticus listened to Rias's rushed explanation. "Going to the human world to 'find peerage members' and totally not run away to have fun," was how she phrased it.
He smiled indulgently.
"As long as you do not cause an incident, Rias," he said. "And as long as Venelana knows."
Venelana stepped closer to me.
"You are going as well, Magdaran-chan?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "To supervise."
"To be shown how to have fun," Rias corrected.
I ignored her.
Venelana smiled.
"Then I am less worried," she said. Then, as Rias went to prepare the teleportation, Venelana moved slightly closer to Grayfia and lowered her voice.
"Grayfia," she murmured. "Please keep an eye on them from the shadows. Just in case."
Grayfia's expression did not change, but she inclined her head.
"Of course, Venelana-sama," she said quietly. "If anything happens, I will intervene."
Data point 1: Gremory maternal instinct triggered. S-class maid deployed as hidden safety net.
Rias didn't notice. She was too busy dragging me to the teleportation circle.
"We're going to America," she announced. "Big, bright, noisy, lots of potential candidates."
"You have no specific targets," I observed.
She winked.
"I have Gremory luck."
That was not a valid scouting protocol.
The circle lit up. The Underworld dissolved.
We stepped into chaos.
The human city was a flood of lights, honking cars, crowded sidewalks, smell of fried food, oil, smoke, and sugar everywhere. Neon signs blazed advertisements. Skyscrapers clawed at the night sky.
Rias inhaled deeply like it was the purest air she'd ever tasted.
"Freedom," she said happily.
"Statistical density of Sacred Gear holders is no higher here than anywhere else," I remarked.
"Shut up and look around," she said.
She grabbed my sleeve and pulled me into the flow of the street.
Humans moved around us, oblivious to the devils walking in their midst. Their mundane concerns washed over my senses; work stress, romantic tension, hunger, boredom, minor joys.
"I see no viable candidates," I said after ten minutes. "Your method lacks structure."
"Your face lacks joy," she countered. "First, food."
Ten minutes later I was sitting in a noisy food court with an obscene amount of fast food in front of me.
Rias bit into a greasy burger with blissful abandon.
"This is terrible and amazing," she said.
I looked at my own burger. It was structurally questionable, nutritionally awful, visually unappealing.
I took a bite.
The salt, fat, sauce, and meat hit at once. My brain, used to balanced meals, registered offense and interest simultaneously.
"It is… aggressively flavorful," I admitted.
Rias grinned, cheeks puffed.
"That means good," she translated.
She forced me to try several other things: fries, milkshakes, something called "onion rings". By the time we left, my digestive system was confused, but there was a small part of me that understood why people loved this.
"See?" she said proudly, walking beside me under city lights. "Step one of not being a joyless machine: bad human food."
"Bad is accurate," I said. "I will likely crave it again."
She laughed.
We spent the next day in an amusement park.
This was not my idea.
"Rias," I said, looking up at a roller coaster that looked like a structural safety hazard. "Is this necessary."
Although as devils even if an accident did occur, we both would probably be safe, but still...
"Yes," she said firmly. "You train day and night. Now you will train your ability to scream."
"I see no practical value in this," I said.
She dragged me into the line anyway.
We sat side by side, strapped in by bars that were clearly designed with human durability in mind, not devil.
As the ride climbed, Rias looked exhilarated. I looked at the height and calculated velocity, friction, structural stress distribution.
"Do not calculate," she said. "Just let it happen."
It dropped.
Humans screamed. Rias screamed, hair flying, expression somewhere between fear and delight.
My body registered acceleration, stomach tilt, pressure shifts.
I did not scream.
I simply held the bar and observed, though I would have to admit that my grip was a bit tighter, and there was a funny feeling in my stomach.
At the end, Rias was slightly breathless and laughing.
"How was that?" she demanded.
"Suboptimal," I said. "But interesting."
She groaned.
"You are hopeless," she said fondly.
We tried other rides. Some were more tolerable. Others were simply bad engineering.
Afterward, she dragged me to a shooting game, then a ring toss, then a claw machine. She was terrible at all of them.
"I almost had it," she complained, staring at the stuffed animal trapped behind glass.
"You missed by a wide margin," I said.
"You try then."
I observed the machine, calculated claw grip strength, angle friction, drop timing.
Three attempts later, I had won the largest toy.
Rias stared.
"Cheater," she muttered.
"Skilled." I corrected, handing her the toy.
She hugged it reflexively before catching herself.
"I didn't ask for-"
"You chose the game," I said.
She huffed, but she held onto the prize.
Day three, we walked around quieter areas. Neighborhoods, parks, small shops. No devil signatures, no Sacred Gear or strange auras flares that matched my target profile.
"Your method is inefficient," I said eventually. "We have consumed large quantities of food, tested multiple amusement devices, and played unbalanced games. Peerage candidates remain nonexistent."
She flung her arms out wide.
"Yes," she said triumphantly. "And?"
"And this is a waste of time," I said.
She stopped, turned around, and poked my forehead.
"This is sacrifice," she said. "We are sacrificing recruitment efficiency to give your boring brain something to remember that isn't training logs. You're welcome."
"I did not request this sacrifice," I pointed out.
She smiled faintly.
"I did," she said.
Data point 2: Rias Gremory intentionally sabotages recruitment efficiency to increase my exposure to 'fun'. Claims this is necessary maintenance.
We did not find anyone that day either.
We sat on a bench near a park fountain as the sun set, watching humans move past.
"Still no candidates," Rias said, swinging her legs.
"At this rate, your peerage will consist solely of you," I said.
"That is not funny," she said.
"It is accurate."
She bumped her shoulder lightly against mine.
"At least I have a friend," she said.
"I am building a team," I said. "Not a friend collection."
"Yes, yes, Bael heir, very serious."
She leaned back, looking at the darkening sky.
After a long moment of silence, she spoke again, more quietly.
"…You know," she said, "this isn't so bad."
"What isn't," I asked.
"This," she said simply. "Just… being outside. No council, no elders staring, no politics. Just walking, eating, arguing with you, watching people."
"It is less noisy than the amusement park," I agreed.
She snorted.
"Always the romantic."
We stayed like that for a while.
Then, as we were heading back toward the main district, Rias suddenly stopped, head turning sharply to the side.
"Did you feel that?" she asked.
I did.
A flicker. A spike of something dangerous and golden, far off but distinct. Divine aura, bestial, proud. At the same time, I felt something ugly and twisted. Stray creatures.
"Monsters," I said. "And…"
"And something else," she finished.
We moved.
The signature wasn't subtle. Whatever was happening, it was messy.
We found it in an alley behind a row of run-down buildings.
Grotesque beasts, like partially melted wolves with too many teeth, circled a lone human girl.
Black hair, wild and tangled. Golden eyes, defiant even as her breathing came in harsh gasps. She was holding a broken metal pipe like a sword, blood on her arm, clothes torn.
She swung the pipe at one of the beasts, connecting with a loud crack. The creature snarled but didn't fall.
"Persistent," I noted.
"Magdaran!" Rias snapped.
"Yes."
I raised my hand.
Destruction flowed.
A quiet, controlled wave of Power of Destruction spread out from my palm like invisible fire. It touched the monsters and erased them entirely, their bodies dissolving into red dust that scattered on the dirty ground.
Silence dropped into the alley as abruptly as the beasts vanished.
The girl dropped to her knees, the broken pipe clattering beside her. She looked up slowly, eyes flicking between Rias and me.
Up close, her aura was clearer.
Not devil. Not fallen. Not angel.
Human.
But not just human.
Divine blood. Strong. It wrapped around her like a heavy cloak.
And at her core, there was something else.
A faint roar, not heard but felt. The impression of a lion, regal and unyielding. A fading golden radiance, dormant but present.
Regulus Nemea.
A Longinus.
This girl was a descendant of some demigod probably. In the original timeline, Regulus would eventually join Sairaorg as his Queen's Sacred Gear, the Nemean lion bound to his fist.
Right now, it lay inside a bruised, exhausted girl in a filthy alley in America.
Fate was very, very confused.
Rias stepped forward slowly, hands open, non-threatening.
"Hey," she said gently. "Are you okay?"
The girl flinched, then forced herself to glare.
"…Who are you," she demanded hoarsely. "More monsters?"
"No," Rias said. "We're devils."
That did not help.
The girl tensed.
Rias continued anyway.
"My name is Rias Gremory," she said. "What's yours?"
The girl's gaze flickered. Some part of her recognized the weight in the name.
"…Diana," she muttered. "Diana Doukas."
I ran the name against my internal database.
Doukas. Greek.
Everything aligned.
"Why were you being chased?" Rias asked.
Diana laughed, short and bitter.
"Because I exist," she said. "Because some old men decided my power is theirs."
Her hand trembled as she pressed it to her chest.
"They want this thing," she spat. "They want to use it. Or kill me so no one else has it."
Her aura flared weakly. The golden lion stirred.
Rias's face softened.
"Do you have anywhere to go?" she asked.
Diana hesitated.
Then she shook her head.
"No," she said. "Not anymore."
Rias didn't look at me, but I could feel her decision solidifying.
"You can come with us," she said simply.
Diana stared.
"We can give you a place," Rias continued. "Protection. A family. It would change what you are, but you would be alive. And no one would be able to take your power without going through us first."
Her voice was calm, but there was a cold fire under it.
Diana looked at her, then at me, then at the empty space where the monsters had been.
"You erased them," she said quietly. "Like they were nothing."
"Destruction is Bael's specialty," I said.
"Are you a bad person?" she asked abruptly.
"Probably," I said. "But I keep my contracts."
She snorted faintly. Then she lowered her head.
"Fine," she said. "I don't care what I become as long as I'm not a tool for those men."
Rias smiled, small and fierce.
"Then I'll ask you properly later," she said. "Right now, let's get you somewhere safe."
We moved quickly after that, covering our tracks, suppressing aura, keeping Diana supported physically and magically. Grayfia's signature brushed the edge of my senses once as we teleported, watching from a distance, making sure no one followed.
Nemea's roar pulsed quietly in Diana's soul.
Data point 3: Rias, with zero preparation and pure impulsive luck, located a Longinus wielder in a foreign country within days. Gremory luck trait confirmed as highly potent.
Back in the Underworld, formalities followed.
Rias made her offer again, properly this time. Peerage, reincarnation, devilhood. Diana accepted without hesitation.
Rias used her Queen piece.
The moment the Evil Piece sank into Diana's chest, I felt the Regulus Nemea react. The lion shuddered, then settled, its golden presence intertwining with devil magic.
Diana's eye color shifted slightly toward a deeper, more vivid gold as her body stabilized.
Gremory rejoiced.
Zeoticus smiled wide. Venelana looked both proud and relieved. Rias was glowing, flushed with success.
Her first peerage member.
Her Queen.
The Gremory held a small banquet. Not as grand as the engagement party, only family members. Sirzechs too was here.
He greeted me with a pleasant face, red hair framing that easy smile that hid a nuclear reactor.
"Magdaran Bael," he said. "Congratulations on your growth. I heard you broke into high class recently."
"High level," I confirmed. "Barely, but inside it."
"And my little sister has her Queen now," he added, eyes warm when he glanced at Rias. "Things are moving quickly."
"A result of her own initiative," I said. "And luck."
He chuckled.
"Luck has always liked our family," he said. Then his eyes sharpened, just a fraction, as he looked back at me.
"Still," he continued, voice dropping almost imperceptibly. "Since we are speaking of family…"
He stepped closer, leaning in as if to share a joke, and whispered in my ear.
"If you ever make her cry in a way I don't approve of," he murmured, voice still light, "I will erase the concept of 'Bael heir' from history. And I won't even need to try very hard."
His aura did not flare. It didn't need to.
I believed him.
"I have no interest in sabotaging my own long term survival," I said quietly. "Hurting Rias is counterproductive and not something I desire."
"Good answer," he said, voice normal again, smile back. "Please, treat her well. Even if you do it in your weird, calculating way."
He patted my shoulder and walked away, going to tease Rias and congratulate Diana.
Data point 4: Sirzechs has accepted the engagement tentatively, contingent on Rias's stated happiness. Threat of annihilation if I cross his internal line remains high.
The banquet ended.
Diana looked overwhelmed but determined. Rias looked content. Sona gave me a small nod of acknowledgment, as if saying, "Good job not emotionally imploding."
I returned to Bael estate that night.
The moment I stepped into my room, I locked the door and sat on the bed.
Diana's case had reminded me of something.
Traits.
Gremory's luck.
Bael's destruction.
Astaroth's absolute spell control.
My mother had told me that their bloodline wasn't loud like Destruction, but it was insidious. A gentle hand wrapped around all magic, bending it into perfect obedience.
If Rias could awaken both her traits and bend probability itself without even realizing it until now, then I had no excuse.
I closed my eyes.
When I awakened Touki, I had searched for something naturally present in all living beings. Life force, compressed and weaponized.
This was different.
A bloodline trait was not ambient. It was coded deeper, woven into my demonic and genetic structure, waiting to be called.
I dropped my awareness inward, past the level where I usually monitored demonic energy flow and Touki. Deeper, where my "self" blurred with the structure of my existence.
There, faintly, I found it.
A pattern.
Delicate, intricate, like a magic circle drawn across my entire being in invisible ink. Not activated yet, but ready.
Astaroth.
Absolute control.
I reached for it carefully.
There was resistance at first, like touching a locked gate that did not recognize my hand. Then I pushed a little harder, aligning my intent with what the trait represented.
Control.
Understanding.
Obedience of energy.
The gate recognized something in me.
Maybe the months I had spent micromanaging my demonic flow during training. Maybe the way I handled my breakthrough. Maybe my constant obsession with optimization.
The lock burst open.
It did not burst open with noise. There was no explosion, no outward flare of aura.
It simply… clicked.
And then a clear, cool stream of power flowed through me.
It was not more destruction, not more raw demonic energy. It was structure. A scaffolding that wrapped around everything I already had.
My entire internal system hummed.
It felt as if someone had taken my messy, albeit efficient, internal circuits and re-wired them into a perfectly organized network. Each node labeled. Each channel precise. Each process optimized.
My demonic energy obeyed my will with a responsiveness that made previous control feel crude by comparison.
I lifted my hand and summoned a small orb of Power of Destruction.
Previously, this was like forming a sphere of molten star. Wild, wanting to expand, an enemy to structure. I could shape it decently, but it always pressed against boundaries, impatient.
Now…
It rested in my palm like a tamed predator, perfectly spherical, not a single particle of power leaking. I could compress it, twist it into geometric shapes, flatten it into a razor thin plane, all with microscopic precision.
If I wished, I could embed a spell complex inside it, have it detonate in specific patterns, down to how much destruction each target received. Carving away everything except what I wanted to spare.
Absolute Spell Control.
I exhaled slowly.
My internal scale shifted.
Raw power wise, the trait awakening triggered a one time enhancement. My demonic core deepened, stabilized, expanded slightly. From 69 on my high class 0-100 scale, I now sat around 90.
Not near Sirzechs, not near Ajuka, nowhere close to Satan class, but undeniably far above average high class. Barely below the line where Ultimate class begins.
More importantly, something deeper had changed.
Potential.
If before, my genetic ceiling had been "respectable high class, with enough work maybe low ultimate", now that ceiling had moved.
Ultimate class was now not just reachable, but almost guaranteed.
Satan class? Plausible.
Super Devil?
Still distant. Still insane.
But not impossible.
For someone who started as an average noble with no great talent and a stolen soul, that was significant.
I let the orb of destruction dissipate gently, atom by atom.
Absolute control applied itself to everything.
Touki flowed smoother, matching my demonic energy like compatible code. My body, already dense from the breakthrough, felt even more tightly integrated. My spell casting templates reorganized themselves instinctively, circle designs simplifying without losing power.
Data point 5: Astaroth trait successfully awakened. One time boost to raw high class rating, from approximately 69 to roughly 90. More critical, effective control multiplier on all abilities increased drastically. Energy wastage during spellcasting approaches zero.
I opened my eyes.
Nothing in the room had changed.
Everything inside me had.
Mother's words returned to me.
"With your current progress and conviction, it would not be strange if our side of your blood began to respond."
She had been right.
I could already imagine what this would mean later.
Sirzechs, in his Super Devil state, lost fine control. His power overflowed, destroying everything. Conceptual destruction, uncontrollable.
If I reached that level with Absolute Spell Control wrapped around my Destruction, I would not simply obliterate. I would dissect reality.
It was an ambition that would have sounded ridiculous if spoken aloud now.
So I did not speak it.
I simply logged it internally.
New long term objective: reach Ultimate class before canon, then push into Satan class, with a stretch goal of Super Devil. Combine Bael destruction and Astaroth control to surpass both Sirzechs and Ajuka in my own domain.
Short term objective: test new control limits in safe environments. Rewrite current training regimen to reflect increased efficiency. Leverage improved potential to compress time needed for next breakthrough.
I leaned back in my chair and let out a low chuckle.
Kuroka had told me I did not know how to live.
Rias had dragged me through bad human food, dangerous rides, and spontaneous Longinus recruitment to prove that life wasn't just numbers.
They had both been correct in their own ways.
Now, with the Astaroth code online, my ability to shape my own path had grown.
Growing stronger, surviving, scheming… all remained.
But attached to them now was a quiet, stubborn desire.
To reach insane heights not only because it was logical, but because I wanted to see what the world looked like from there.
To enjoy the process.
To stand at a point where gods like Indra or Shiva were not incomprehensible legends, but entities I could at least imagine facing one day.
Ambitious, Maybe arrogant...But I was a devil now.
Ambition was baked into the architecture.
I closed my eyes again, feeling the perfectly obedient swirl of demonic energy under my skin, the calm hum of Touki, the invisible lattice of Astaroth control wrapping around everything.
And for the first time, when I thought of the future, I did not just see threat trees and survival strategies.
I saw the possibility of standing there with power that was mine, chosen family at my side, and the memory of idiotic human rides, bad food, Nekoshou lectures, and a redhead laughing at my lack of friends sitting somewhere in the foundation.
Not just a machine learning to optimize.
A devil learning to live.
_____________________________________________
Hey, I have one thing to ask everyone, I realized that the name of the story seems a bit lackluster, DxD: Bael.exe probably can't express the story, so everyone please suggest some good names.