Scarlet

The next few days end up being rather awkward, since Aria keeps asking me to join her when Blue takes her out. And their interactions aren’t exactly what I’d say normal. Considering that they aren’t really saying anything.

In the end, I’m just kind of left spending the couple-hour-long outings each time training my Blood Manipulation. One of the very few skills that I can train without actually fighting something, considering how it’s not necessarily a 100% combat based skill.

Even if it’s very useful in combat.

Amelia even joins in on a couple of our outings, my biological mother seemingly rather happy that her brother is getting his emotions back. Albeit with some conflicting feelings about what he’s done while he was missing them.

Especially the time he almost killed me. She doesn’t seem to want to let that go, even if he didn’t have his emotions then.

Which, as a result, makes things even more awkward.

“And I thought your family gatherings on your father’s side was awkward…” Tar mutters, making me nod my head as I walk through the falling snow on Mount Everest not long after my most recent dinner outing with them.

If it weren’t for Aria asking, I would never go to things like that. It’s just too awkward and is honestly a bit of a waste of time considering that I could be fighting instead.

“And here I thought you were growing more normal after reaching Class V,” Tar says with a sigh. “A pity.”

Rude.

Although, I will admit, the Sin of Pride doesn’t seem to affect me as much as it did before reaching Class V.

“That’s probably because of your null magic becoming more solidified in your reality after you merged your reality and body,” Tar says, making me look up at the moon above.

Yeah.

I search around the mountain for a bit before finding a small outpost made by the demon army. And without hesitation, I crush the outpost with some blood rain and more than a few plagues.

“You do know that the demons are starting to fear you now, right?” Tar points out. “Before they just respected you because of some of your achievements and your bloodline, but now they’re truly starting to fear you just like your father and grandfather. Especially because of your plagues.”

Yeah, a lot of them are defaulting to calling me that title they made for me. The Warden of the Red Plague.

“That title will probably be a real Title soon enough,” Tar says.

I nod my head in agreement after dealing with the straggler demons before looking around the mountains once more and finally finding them completely clear of demons. So I send a message to the annoying general about that and quickly begin heading back towards the Arctic through the air.

Time for some more corruption.

The Oni Citadel

A woman can be seen standing on the wall of the main Oni Citadel belonging to the Lord of Hellfire himself as it overlooks the Class V Gate leading to Earth’s Demon Isle. The woman has two bat-like wings with a full figure, a narrow but sharp tail, blood red armor that covers every inch of her skin, and two horns that follow the curve of her head. But despite that, her face is soft and has a soothing look to it. One that doesn’t match the image most humans have of succubus in the least.

However, it’s something she’s proud of. If for no reason other than to spite her own Sin that she hates more than anything in the world.

Lily del Rose lets out a sigh when a pool of purple and red light appears next to her before it morphs into a screen to show two Nobles kneeling in the throne room at Demon Isle.

Two of the three Nobles she sent after the Princess.

“You don’t need to say anything,” she states, purposefully not looking directly at the two so that her Sin won’t act up.

They failed and even lost one of their number. I was already prepared for that to happen, but to lose another Noble while we’re still saving up reality energy for The Reaper’s passage…

Lily sighs before glancing in the direction of the sky, where a large bubble of blood can be seen blocking out the moon and any celestial objects as the planet itself slowly moves away from the void invasion. Then she turns her gaze towards the central continent, to the massive pillar of blood shooting up into the sky that she can see even from where she’s standing on the South-Western continent.

Several seconds pass in silence before she turns back to look at the Gate, wishing that she could pass through it herself and simply drag the Princess to Tartarus. But the Gate can’t handle her right now. It doesn’t have the reality energy.

And even if it did have the reality energy, they need to save it for The Reaper to pass through.

Now that Scarlet is a Noble herself, as a Princess as well, she has authority over any other Noble demon so long as she has her crest out. So none of the demon Nobles can harm her or even capture her to bring her back. Because if they send too many Nobles or too high a level Nobles, then the Princess will just escape herself or as a last resort use her crest. But if they send too few or too weak Nobles then she’ll just kill them, making their situation even worse.

If it weren’t for that White Knight…

Lily feels her eyes spark with a pink flame as her anger and the memory of the woman’s appearance the time she saw her with Leonidas, not to mention Leonidas’s appearance, sparks her Sin of Lust for a moment, only for Lily to dig her claws into her own palms to snap herself out of it. Then she takes a deep breath and lets it out.

Damnit.

The succubus takes another deep breath before glancing at the illusion showing the image of the two Nobles, still purposefully not looking directly at either of them as she says, “There’s only one thing we can do at this point.” She turns to face the Gate again. “Tell her about what’s happening.”

“Understood, Duchess Rose!” both of the Nobles declare before the illusion vanishes.

I’ll just have to hope that Her Highness decides to come back on her own.