NOVEL WEB No wind resistance
After accepting the proposition of Mathers, I talked longer about possible logistics. It was clearly just the skeleton of a plan but it was the beginning of something.
There was a little voice in the back of my head doubting, still wondering if I had made the right decision. Sure I would literally be backed up by special forces but it didn't change the fact that they were there only for one reason, destabilization, a coup.
I had originally just wanted to capture Idunn and some of her apples. I knew that there was a chance of things going wrong, of more chaos happening beyond my will and I was fine with that. You couldn't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.
Now, it was different. I would be surprised if the plans of Mathers and the other devils 'backing' me would limit themselves to just Vanaheim.
A coup d'Etat no matter how simple one looked never was simple. This was a work of finesse, of art and timing.
If one wasn't done the way one needed to be, it only created bigger messes. Most of the time, the ones affected in a coup d'etat weren't the lords, the rich or similar people of 'importance'. Those who are affected are the ones who never asked anything, those innocent of ambition whose only reward would either be their blood spilt or their subjugation.
What I would be doing would create much more suffering than I originally wanted to create.
Was I ready to still go forward when I knew bloodshed and suffering would be the only things I left behind me?
I knew the answer immediately. Of course, I would. I remembered a quote. What is best for my loved ones and what is fair for everyone else.
They could have their fairness with Death. I wouldn't hesitate. I won't hesitate because I know what doing such a thing could mean.
The portal I had summoned while lost in my thoughts finally opened. I didn't want to go back to my brother's castle yet.
There had been something I wanted to do, that had been in the back of my mind since I came to the underworld.
I took a step through the portal leaving behind the artificial world created by Mathers to another world, one submerged by water.
I purposefully flared my demonic energy. It would make sure that the lords of the Castle would be aware of it presence. In those days, pillar devils had more than enough reasons to be more than jumpy when a Satan or someone really close to them appeared before their ancestral house.
The Sitri clan had been before the day of slaughter a princely one, just under clans like the Agares or the Bael clans.
Now that Serafall, my brother and the other Satans had gone native on most pillar devil clans, things had changed. The Sitri clan was now at the top of the royal hierarchy of the Underworld equal to The Bael clan.
I wonder if it was the reason why things had changed so much. The Sitri territory hadn't been like this before.
I knew this due to the numerous memories I had inherited. I was almost as familiar with this place as I was with the Gremory castle.
A simple flick of my will created a thin barrier of Destruction centimetres away from my skin separating myself from the water.
The ocean was one full of demonic energy, raging, angry, almost alive. I could almost hear its thoughts, feel what it was feeling.
This ocean was one full of hatred and Sadness, of emotions so raw it felt as if I was being undone from the inside even though I was still separated from it.
I watched from the corner of my eyes monsters, titanic creatures the size of mountains roaming, patrolling.
One came closer to me. It looked well ugly with its giant tentacles with pointy teeth, its octopus head and a body that seemed to be the cross between a bodybuilder and the spongy body of a mollusc that seemed to endlessly change shape. It didn't look pleasant to the eye. Did I also say the fact that there were inside its eyes what appeared to be fangs?
His eyes seemed to analyze me as if pondering if I was a threat or not.
"Gatan!" I heard the voice of a voice say. I turned toward it. The man looked more human, more humanoid and pleasant to the eye.
The only things that marked him as different, from others were the snake-like tentacles flowing from his head in a replacement of hair and the bloody breathing gills on his neck and his cheeks.
"She isn't an enemy, she is a member of this family! She is to be treated like Princess Sona, understood?!" the guard shouted at the giant creature.
The thing, Gatan, nodded, a weirdly human gesture for such an abominable creature. It almost looked cute. Before my eyes, it left continuing its patrol. Could I have one? I'm sure that if I ask for one, Sirzechs would give one to me. I just needed -
"Your grace," the guard said bringing back my attention to him "I am sorry such thing happened. We were unaware of your coming today."
"No need to apologize," I answered him. It was kinda understandable. We were technically already in war with Heaven. I wouldn't also be surprised if there were people angry due to the Satan's actions. Adding more security was the logical thing to do.
I could see coming a contingent of soldiers and guards like him. "I am there to see Sona, would that be a problem?" I asked him.
"It won't be your grace," he answered me. "Lady Sitti was the one to send me to escort you."
Of course, it wasn't surprising. Sona's mother could literally see the future. I would have been disappointed if she couldn't see what would happen in her territory.
"Your grace," the other guards bowed seeing me. A nod was my only reaction.
"Let's go," I spoke before we began moving, well swimming for lost toward the castle. I chose my demonic energy to guide me, almost like a pushing and directing wind.
Alphelandra Sitri was waiting for me at the doors. Dressed in expensive-looking clothes, with jewels probably more expensive than the total GDP of a first-world country and a fan made of what seemed to be diamonds and corals, She looked as perfect and sublime as always. The only thing that differed was the lack of her usual smug smile.
I had expected to see it plastered on her face. After all, I was sure that she gained social status and power beyond her dreams through my brother, her daughter and the other Satans.
"You took too much time to come child," she spoke displeasure evident in her voice.
"Excuse me?" I asked her.
"My husband and my eldest daughter may be satisfied with the state of my territory but I am not."
Well, hello to you and thanks for being clear "I still am not following Aunt Alphelandra," I told her. The way she spoke, it seemed as if she had been waiting for me, that she knew I would come through her bloodline power.
She pointed with her fan to the Ocean that had submerged her Estate "The demonic energy permeating this ocean, Doesn't it feel familiar to you Rias?"
It did but it was something I had chosen to ignore it. The Sitri clan main estate was one as big as the moon. With my eyes, I could see the ocean expand endlessly, covering everything. This was something only someone between the high end of the class and the low end of the Ultimate class could do. This was something I would have expected from Sona's father, from Serafall, maybe Alphelandra, not Sona herself.
If Sona had been this strong before, She wouldn't have lost her peerage. If Sona had been this strong before, what happened in Kuoh would have gone very differently.
There was also the fact that unlike me, Sona didn't have an essence that ensured she had a never-ending growth.
"How?" I asked Alphelandra.
The anger etched on her face morphed to leave behind what appeared to be sadness "Walk with me Rias," she said before penetrating into the Sitri Castle.
I followed her. Behind me, I felt the doors close. The inside of the castle seemed to have been unaffected.
My gaze met the sight of familiar servants patrolling, doing their duties as if nothing had changed.
"I wasn't born a Sitri but you already know this," Sona's mother spoke. "Most people know that we can see the future. People hated and envied us for this. This was also one of the reasons why my ancestor was directly targeted by the flame of the heavens."
Uriel, my mind instantly translated. The angel was one of the last remaining Seraphim. More than being known for his zealotry, the angel was seen by the enemies of Heaven as a butcher. He was the monster you warn your children off at night.
Babel, Gomorha, Egypt, the Mesopotamian pantheon had suffered from his flames. Only Egypt remained to this day and it had only been because of Helel. Everyone else who faced him, who faced his father and met him burnt into nothing.
He was a being who killed millions with as much easy as someone stepped on an ant. The only difference between an Archdaemon and him was his allegiance. Nothing else, nothing more.
"What most people don't really know is that we don't truly see the future. Maybe we could if we tried but no one wants to intrude in Time's domain."
The word felt heavy as it was capitalized, as it was something tangible. The world seemed more heavy, more slow as if something was watching, judging.
It lasted for an instant before disappearing. This felt similar to the presence of Olethros but more. This felt like the Darkness.
Alphelandra continued to walk as if nothing had happened. The only telltale sign that I wasn't the only one to feel it was the fact I could see her body had tensed as if she was in presence of a predator and ready to flee at any moment.
"Our true gift is to talk to the world around us," she said.
"Talk to the world like a senjustsy user?" I asked her.
"Similar things but different in the end. I said We talk with the world but it would be more precise to say that we force it to acknowledge us, to share its knowledge with us when Senjutsu users like the monkey king communicate. The world becomes them and they become the world. Different methods. Different rewards."
She took a turn to her left. I copied her. I had been so engrossed in the conversation that I had almost forgotten that I was still following a devil in what was her abode. Maybe not the most logical and safe thing to do even though we were technically 'family.'
"Though this knowledge gained," she continued "We're able to create an almost infinite amount of predictions, an almost infinite amount of future, well at least for those powerful enough. When done, we just have the follow the futures we think are more likely to pass."
In other words, it wouldn't be wrong tosay that they were more sentient computers than oracles, users of advanced mathematics to discover the future. It was eerily similar to the spell I created inadvertently by lying to Mathers.
It was also similar to the technique of a green-haired Satan. "Those last days, I've been encountering something unexpected, something that shouldn't be. I was wrong Rias."
We stopped at a simple door. She turned toward me "It wasn't only a minor error. It wasn't just a simple thread. All the futures I envisioned are now false, obsolete."
Madness appeared in her eyes as she peered at me "And everything began because of you Rias Gremory," she spat.
"Kuoh wasn't supposed to be attacked. A war between heaven and hell shouldn't be brewing. The other pillars shouldn't have been slaughtered. My daughter shouldn't have lost her servants! My daughter shouldn't have been broken," she hissed.
"It's not my fault. Do you have any proof? Do you truly think that I wanted all of this to happen? Do you think I like the fact that The inhabitants of Kuoh died?!"
"I don't have any proof and honestly, I don't think it would change anything if I did with your brother but we both know that this is your fault. You may try to deny it. You may try to give yourself endless reasons to absolve yourself but we know that you're the reason everything went wrong!"
What burnt the most, what angered me wasn't her words. It was the fact that she wasn't technically wrong. I was the butterfly that batted its wings and as a result, a tempest was born.
"What was the point of anything you just said, dear aunt?" I asked her. "I'm sure you don't need to use your powers to know that I won't agree with you."
Even if what she said was true. Even if all those things happening were my fault, even if countless people suffered just because of my existence, I wouldn't apologize.
I don't think that I was the kind of person who inherently found delight in the suffering of others but it didn't change the fact that I would do something as simple as guilting myself even more, as trying to put all suffering on my shoulders.
"Sona is in the room on the other side of this wall," she told me.
"This isn't her room," I thought out loud. This wasn't the door leading to the room I had partly shared with Sona since my birth.
"Her queen didn't wake up," the Sitri matriarch told me. "Whatever you did healed her body and brought back her soul but her mind is a completely different story. Sona hadn't left this room since she woke up."
"You want me to make her leave this room," I said in realization. Two weeks in the same room with a comatose queen. A world plunged into a literal ocean of despair and hatred.
"No, I just want my daughter back. I'm not a good mother," she admitted. "I could have if I tried but I didn't want to. I knew I didn't have to with my husband and Serafall but this still doesn't mean that I don't care for her."
Shadows lit up, crawling and simmering in her eyes as she looked at me "All of this is your fault Rias Gremory. You owe me. You must fix this or you can be sure you'll regret it," she threatened her voice morphing becoming deeper, guttural, evil. No her voice didn't become evil.
She always had been evil. She had just hidden it. I could see this now. Serafall Leviathan didn't fall from the sky. Of course, only a monster could birth another one.
I touched the doorknob "I'll try my best," I told her. "Sona and I may have had our differences but she is the closest thing to a sister that I have."
"Also," I added while looking at her allowing my flames and my destruction to simmer, to appear in my eyes "I'm going to let your lack of respect slide dear aunt this time."
Even though I hadn't brought them out of my body, the carpets, the walls, and the floors began to melt all around us. The monster inside of me smiled as I watched horror and fear replace the anger and hatred in the eyes of Alphelandra Sitri.
I ignored the whispers of my power of destruction whispering to annihilate, to let it feed on her "The next time would be your last," I promised before opening the door, entering the room and closing it behind me.
The room was big, as absurdly big as the rooms in my brother's home. I didn't try to focus on other details.
There was in the middle of the room a gigantic bed. In it, I could still the unconscious form of Tsubaki Shinra, Sona's queen.
Sona was at her bedside kneeling. From the back, she seemed to be praying, she seemed like a holy figure searching for the divine and its mercy, one she would never find.
I stepped to her side, my gaze fixed on the unconscious form of her queen "Hi Sona," I told her.
She stayed silent, Her attention remaining on her queen.
"Sona…You must stop," I told her after a moment. I felt like hitting myself just after saying it. Way to go, way to go Rias.
"I don't think I can Rias," she said her voice hoarse as if she hadn't talked for a long time. 'She probably didn't,' I realized.
"You need to. You've been maintaining this ocean outside for more than two weeks. It is a miracle that something wrong hadn't happened," I told her.
Demonic energy could literally be said to be our vital energy, our lifeblood. What she was doing right was akin to making herself bleed for a long period.
"My sister had said the same thing," The Sitri heiress answered me. "She comes each day to beg me to stop. I probably would have been already dead if it wasn't for her," she admitted.
"What do you mean you can't stop?" I asked her.
"This ocean outside is just a pale reflection of what I feel Rias. I tried to stop but i'm angry, constantly angry Rias," she spoke. "I can feel this rage inside. Sometimes, it shimmers and travels through my veins begging me, only wanting one thing Rias, to be released. I always try to stop it but I can't. It leaves me and fuels the abomination outside."
She turned to look into my eye "In those moments where I lose control, in those moments of defeat, I feel near invincible. I feel as if I can do everything. I feel as if everything I wasn't able to do was finally in my grasp, mastered. I feel like a god capable of deciding my own fate. In those briefs moments, I feel like you Rias."
Water materialised from nothing and shifted around me, becoming alive. It moved taking the shape of a giant mouth full of needle-like fangs, one that seemed to just be waiting to swallow me.
"I feel like you, then reality ensue. I come back to reality and realize that I was just delusional. I come back to reality to see that every errors, every mistakes was still there, weighing me down. I remember and the rage recinds bubbling into nothing before blooming again in a never-ending cycle."
"I am not you. I am not strong. I am not half as smart as most people think I am."
"It's not true Sona," I told her trying to make her stop. A part of me ached looking at her like this.
"It is Rias and she is the proof of my worthlessness. Look at my queen Rias, my last piece, still unconscious because according to the healers, her body may have been healed Rias but not her mind."
"I am sorry…I thought that I was able to completely heal her." I could still try. Maybe I could try to copy the Yamanaka bloodline power.
"That's fine Rias. I can't expect everyone, I can expect you to come barging, solving every mess I make," she said softly like a person talking about a fact like the inevitability of death.
"That's not fair to you and you know it, Sona," I told her. "You shouldn't sa-"
"I'm tired of things I should or shouldn't be doing Rias." The water morphed expanding like the open maw of an abyss, an abyss we were in the middle of.
A crazed laugh escaped from her lips, a laugh that was so unlike her that I had to stop myself from instinctively taking a step back "Those last days taught me one thing Rias. You were right. Intelligence doesn't matter. Strategy doesn't matter. Power is the only thing that does. Everything can change in less than an instant. I was content with what I was. I was content with my mediocrity while I was dressing myself with fine silks made of lies and self-deceit. I was content and because of that, I lost."
"It's not true Sona," I told her even though deep down, I knew it was a lie. The words sounded false even to my ears, nothing but false platitudes. "You never were mediocre."
"You're really a bad liar Rias," she giggled. "I'm happy that at least, that didn't change."
"I'm sorry," I told her simply. What else could I say? Sorry for lying to make you feel better. Sorry for what? I wasn't even sure of what. I just felt guilt, guilt that gnawed in my heart like a cancer.
"Don't be. This was a wake-up call." She turned toward me away from her queen, a false smile etched on her "Better losing most than all, am I wrong?"
A question left my lips quicker than I expected "Do you truly believe that?"
For a brief instant, I saw for a brief moment the facade break to leave hatred and anger uncovered before her face was covered again by false emotions "I don't," she admitted "But this is what my mother told me."
"Your mother is excuse my words a huge bitch Sona," I told her. 'Maybe bigger than my mom,' I didn't say.
I wasn't even sure if anyone truly liked the current Sitri Lady, well maybe Sona's father did.
When you came from a clan with nigh Omniscience and an ego taller than the tower of Babel, it wasn't a surprise that most hated you. No one liked knew-it-all.
It seemed it also wasn't her only because most of her clan had been eradicated in the civil war. Sona's mom was one of the last members of her clan. I don't think she would still be alive if she hadn't been married to the Sitri clan.
A little smile appeared on her face "You're not wrong and logically, I know listening to her isn't the wisest thing. Emotionally, this is the last thing I have that proves to me that I didn't completely fuck things up."
"I just…I just want to make the world itself pay. I am angry, so angry Rias. I am angry at myself. I am angry at you. I am angry at all of Japan. I am angry at Heaven because it feels as if everything boils down to them. I want to pluck the wings of each Seraph with my fingers. I want to burn their kingdom, their holy texts and their subjects before their eyes. I want them to watch, to not be able to do anything. I want them to feel what I actually feel Rias. Am I wrong to feel like that? Do you think I went mad?" she asked me.
"Maybe," I told her "But is it a bad thing though? Maybe what we all need is madness. Maybe if this world was more mad, maybe it would make more sense."
Maybe in a world more wonder-like, where only madness reigned, maybe in such a word, war would be seen as too insignificant.
"I'll be there at your side," I told her. Sooner or later, I would be confronting heaven. My promise changed nothing "But you have to get better Sona," I told her.
"Stronger?"
"Yes. You already know what it's like to lose your family. You are the last thing Tsubaki have. Care, cherish your life, not because of yourself but because of her."
"Does that work? Living for others when
you only want to end everything?"
"Don't know Sona," I told her honestly. I had realized something since coming here. Sophia's words only confirmed it.
This world wasn't probably real. Maybe this world was just a board and I, just an interesting piece placed for whatever reason on it. Whether it was the case or not, whether nothing truly mattered because nothing truly existed, I wanted when I was definitely gone to be able to look back without any regret.
Maybe in the future, I will stop caring. Maybe in the future, I would fail and those I learnt to care about would die. Maybe, I would perish completely.
The only thing I could do was try to live, to go forward. We were when boiled down all slaves. The only thing you could do was your reaction to those chains.
"What you're doing is killing yourself slowly. You have to stop for Tsubaki. You have to stop for your sister. You have to live so that you can avenge them, Sona. Please, try, I know you can do it," I begged her.
I presented my hand to her waiting for her to grab it "Please."
She looked at my hand for what seemed to be an eternity. A part of me was scared, scared that I had failed, scared that nothing I said would change anything.
She grabbed my hand. She felt cold. She felt heavy. Touching her was like plunging deep in the ocean. 'It hurt' I realized as my essence activated. Still, my hand didn't leave hers.
I looked at her and nodded. She nodded back before closing her eyes. Demonic energy flared from her like a beacon. I would be surprised if anyone in the territories her clan ruled couldn't feel her.
Outside, I watched as the ocean twisted and shifted like a beast fighting against capture, against death.
A frown had appeared on the face of the Sitri heiress showing she was having difficulties but even then, I wanted to believe in her. Sona Sitri was proud and I don't think her pride would allow her to fail before my eyes.
One of the windows leading outside cracked before the ocean broke through it rushing toward us, rushing toward in the shape of a stream.
It moved through the air like a snake turning around us in the form of a halo before jumping as if to bite, Sona.
The only thing the Sitri heiress did was to extend an arm toward the stream. The water was swallowed, sucked it into her hand. Blue veins appeared on her arm as if the water was affecting her from the inside.
The veins continued to grow, to propagate on her skin while she continued to absorb the stream.
Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, all the water had disappeared, absorbed.
My other hand moved, touching the right side of her face. Blue veins covered the skin giving the appearance of purposeful scarring.
I called my power of destruction. I twisted it changing it from negative to positive. It bloomed like from my hand like a white chrysanthemum erasing the damage that had been inflicted.
"Thank you, Rias," she whispered.
"Don't Sona. There is no need to."
"I'm still going to win against you in the tournament Rias. I don't care that my sister would intervene in the case I lose. I want to show to myself that I can do what I thought I could never do," she spoke.
A chuckle escaped from my lips "Do you truly think you could win? Because I won't hold back because we're friends Sona."
"I won't say that it won't be difficult. You'll probably cause me some difficulties."
"Don't you think you could lose?" I teased her.
"Nah," she spoke confidence and certainty dripping from her voice like a drug "I'd win."
