NOVEL WEB ymir’s will
My body felt like a wreck as if multiple bombs had exploded inside of it. The worst I think is that it wasn't even hyperbolic. I didn't exactly know how it would feel but I had been burnt so many times that I could guess.
"What do you think Mathers?" I asked the bishop of my brother.
The bishop sat on the rocky ground at my side. My blade had disappeared leaving behind an open wound the size of a fist.
The Bishop didn't seem to be panicked as blood gushed onto his clothes. I guess that when you were an ultimate class devil, such wounds became literally minor flesh wounds.
"You did good Rias-Sama. It was a well-deserved win," he answered.
"Doesn't feel like it though," I admitted. "I used my demonic energy at the end in conjunction with my flames to create a new spell." I was supposed to only use my flames and my body. Nothing else.
"It doesn't change anything Rias-Sama. The goal was to make you use your flames. This is what you did."
"I told you before to call me Rias," I told him. It felt weird the way his voice filled with adoration and almost infinite respect when he said my name. I didn't need devotion. I didn't need respect that wasn't deserved. I only wanted to be left unbothered and respected by someone like him, only because of acts that were truly mine.
"You did," he simply confirmed. In other words, yeah, you may have asked me to do this thing but I won't.
"The spell you created at the end with your flames, Adolla burst you had said. It was as if you had teleported but I had created barriers in a fifteen-meter radius around me that would have stopped any kind of teleportation."
I turned to look at the man. A frown was marring his face. I could his eyes moving, hear his synapses firing as he thought. A chuckle escaped from my lips "Maybe, your barriers weren't strong enough and I teleported through them with my flames."
"I know you did something different. The only way you could have touched me would have been to normally cross the distance. This had been one of the flaws of this spell but it was a flaw I understood, it was a flaw I had turned into a weapon until you broke my misconceptions." His gaze locked with mine, his eyes, waiting, begging for an answer.
"Let's take time and space Mathers," I told him. "If I'm not mistaken, your spell locks any spatial disturbance around you in a precise radius."
"It's kinda a very simplified way to see it but yes, this is the case," the mage spoke
"Can things move faster than light?" I asked him. According to the laws of physics, it shouldn't normally be possible because the more an object went fast, the more energy was needed and for something even as little as a nail to reach relativistic speed, you would need an almost infinite level of energy. Well, maybe I was wrong about the infinite part but the energy that would be needed would be I knew mind-boggling immense.
The thing is that paradigm changed when it came to supernatural beings like us devils. We could use our magic to cheat. We could literally warp the world around us to our will as long as we were strong enough and had enough imagination. Sometimes, strength was the only thing needed.
"Yes, it is possible," Mathers answered. "It is something capable of being done by Ultimate class beings either through sheer strength or through innate mystical energies. What you did though was different. my defence or I would have been able to react if it was only the speed of light."
Only the speed of light, only the speed of light, 299 792 458 m / s and he said just only as if it was something rare but not unheard of.
"I don't think I could move to this speed without hurting myself. I know I would need a spell, my demonic energy to do so." Sure, my essence would have healed me, made me stronger, more durable. It doesn't change that in the end, my essence only activates when I'm hurt and I'm not a masochist, unlike Akeno.
"So I did something else." The goal had been for me to only use my flames to win so this is what I did. "The more you come closer to the speed of light, the more time slowdown. When you reach light speed"
"Everything stops," Mathers finished for me. If light speed was equal to time stopping. If coming closer to it was slowing time. Shouldn't moving forward regress things?
I wonder if it could be an explanation for why the speed force allowed speedsters like Flash to move and travel through time. At some point, you didn't go forward. You went back.
I watched Realization enter his eyes making them widen "You moved faster than light. You moved faster than light and due to this went back! My wards didn't stop you because you didn't teleport. You crossed the distance before."
"Bingo," I told him with a smile. "The flames of Kagutsuchi are divine. They are not merely physical. They are more."
I closed my right palm and opened it back to reveal something that hadn't been there before, a bird made of flames.
The bird left my hand going higher, flying in a circle above us "What is the divine if not miracle manifest?" I said to the bishop of my brother.
Even with my explanations, a frown was still present on his face "It's not all of the picture," I heard him whisper under his breath.
"I don't know why but I'm sure there is more to it."
"You're not wrong," I agreed. "Let's go deeper, more metaphysical. Names are important because they can help shape or change spells. You already know that. What does Adolla mean?"
Sure it sounded Chuuni as hell but when doing so helped you make your attack more powerful and more controlled, why wouldn't you when only one error in a fight could mean your death? Shame didn't exist on a battlefield unless you were so strong that you could saddle yourself with it.
"Adolla could be said to have different meanings. I know it had been an Arabic name, that it meant kind but I don't think you would have used it in conjunction with your flames if this was just that. In Japanese, if I'm not wrong depending on the Kanjis, it could mean a different world or even an alien world but I think it's not that. I guess that in the case of your spell, it must mean Underworld," the Bishop spoke.
"Bingo," I told him. With a flick of my will, a cookie appeared between two of my fingers "Take a cookie."
"No thanks Rias-Sama. I don't like sweet things," he told me.
I almost believed him. I would have if I wasn't a devil and my senses hadn't become so much sharper due to my essence. Unfortunately for him, I could smell lies. They had a distinctive smell. I had learned against my will that They smelled like Spaghetti Bolognese. Such a shame, more for me I guess.
"You're a liar," I accused him. "You know what? I'm going to eat it myself!" following my will, the cookie began to float, moving toward my mouth.
Magic really made me lazier but I couldn't be blamed for that. I'm sure I wasn't the only supernatural being like that. Everything was so much more comfortable and easier with magic. Everything would be perfect if some assholes didn't use it to bomb one of the bases of Heaven on Earth.
I took a bite from the cookie and heavenly sweetness assaulted my senses. I pushed down a moan of pleasure. Maybe, maybe this was the promised Utopia.
It made me respect even more the chefs of my brother's manor. This was good but I'm sure that if I asked them, they would be able to manually make cookies that were better than what I was eating. Maybe I needed myself a Uraume. Something told me that maybe I should have at my side someone who could cook humanoid flesh. You never knew, mayb-
My thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Mathers "Rias-sama, focus please." This was as stern as possible that Mathers could appear with me.
"Sorry," I told him before swallowing the rest of the cookie. I was a devil but I wasn't a monster. I couldn't let this cookie be uneaten.
"Yeah, Adolla mean Underworld. You're right on that. Do you know Some people say that originally when Helel shaped the universe, the Earth was just a giant ball of Magma, one identical to the most fiery layer of Hell?"
"Yes, I do," the reincarnated devil answered me. "Texts proved this theory was right. It had been the case until the Hornblower put the finishing touch to the universe."
"The vision I had of the Adolla burst was a spell capable of making me due to my flames move faster than light. My demonic energy was there to give structure with a name. The divine flames of Kagutsuchi had two goals."
I lifted one of my fingers "The first was to make me move faster than light. They did so by accelerating me."
I lifted a second finger "The second goal was for them to protect me. I didn't want to be split in two or something alike. It wouldn't have been pleasant. They did this by changing and transforming me. Most people think that the laws of physics don't allow anything to move faster than the speed of light. This is false. Tell me, Mathers, what can move faster than light?"
"Subatomic particles," he instantly answered as if it was a quiz he had been studying for more than a decade. I wouldn't be surprised if he already did so with something else. "Subatomic particles! Of course, it was so clearly before me! I had forgotten that it was possible for you to use the laws of the material world to create something more! I had underestimated you and had it been against an enemy, I may have lost."
My gaze moved away from the bishop to turn toward the sky "As if. Had it been a real fight, you would have done everything to kill me the most quickly possible."
I knew I wasn't the only one limiting themselves in the fight. Mathers was also the bishop of my brother, someone who was hand-picked to fight against a super devil. Had he been serious, well there was a reason the quote never fuck with a mage existed. This wasn't an anime fight where you played with your opponent. The rule was to kill and survive. Talking, underestimating your opponent was too much of a risk for most.
White clouds filled my vision. If I closed my eyes, I could almost forget the fact that I wasn't on Earth.
Mathers had chosen to create this pocket dimension for the two of us. Here, we were able to fight, to experiment, to train without being spied on, without having to worry about collateral damages.
Under me, I felt the rocky ground shift, change as new vegetation grew. In the sky, ashes and embers disappeared. The sky wasn't the colour of my flames anymore. This place looked like another Eden.
"Subatomic particles. You manipulated through your flames the rules of the natural world at a quantum level. It's prodigious. It's genius. I have already so many ideas blooming in my head. Maybe we could create with this spell a new teleportation method only our troops would have access to," the bishop thought out loud.
"Something like the Bifrost of the Norse pantheon maybe," I told him. "In any case, precautions would be needed. It's only an advantage as long as it can't be used effectively against us."
"You're right. You're right. We will make sure it won't happen." Not, I, we, Mathers had said. I was honestly a faker. Most of the things I 'created' were things I had seen before and copied yet when Mathers spoke of me with such confidence, with such respect….I didn't want it to disappear.
"One last thing. I still don't understand the link between the name you chose and the spell," Mathers spoke.
"Adolla means underworld or another world. What I wanted to do even if 'following' the rules of physics was something that shouldn't be able to be done in the current world. It is something that could only be done in a world so alien, so primordial, so different from us like the one that existed before the third Demiurgic Archangel acted or the place we devils call home."
What I saying wasn't technically all bullshit. I knew that what I was saying would be enough for him to if not replicate create his own version of the Adolla burst. At least, I hoped so.
"Rias-sama," he spoke something in his voice I couldn't decipher "We need to talk."
My mouth moved faster than my thoughts "Are you breaking up with me Mathers?" I told him. Why did I tell him this?! Why did I tell him this?!
Stay cool, that was just a joke, it was just a stupid joke Rias. "If by breaking up, you mean stopping our talks and discoveries about magic, I'm sorry to say that it won't happen any time soon."
I turned my gaze toward him. A little smile was present on his face. It was the kind of smile you had when you wanted to laugh but for any kind of reason stopped yourself from doing so.
"I am a member of the peerage of his majesty Sirzechs, your brother and due to this, I have many different duties," he began.
Peerage were representants, legally part of the households of their kings. It was expected from them to help, to help shoulder the weight of the responsibilities of their master. My brother was the Satan responsible for everything happening in the Underworld, in every devil's territory in the universe.
"One of those," he continued "Is the security of our territory. One of my roles is to make sure no menace could strike into the heart of our realm from the inside and to realize that duty, I was given nigh unlimited power. Even before the day of the slaughter, it was the case. There was nearly nothing that happened in the Underworld I didn't know."
The day of the slaughter was the name given to the day when my brother and the other Satans went French on the pillar clans of the Ars Goetia. It had only been two weeks but a lot of things had changed, things I didn't dislike.
It could have been said before that day that the other Satans and my brother were just successors, inheritors of a title, legacies of an old regime. They were the rulers because they were bearers of the mantles of the four Demon kings.
This wasn't the case anymore. They weren't mere placeholders anymore. They weren't the figureheads of an ancient system anymore. They were a new system.
A brand new one and a new system meant changes. The mantle of Satan Lucifer didn't technically exist anymore. It was the same with the other Satans.
Sirzechs and the others were the new kings. The original Lucifer himself could come back from the dead and it would change nothing. He would have to fight because this was a new regime. The descendants of the Old Satan faction weren't royal anymore. They were nobles. Nothing more, nothing else.
I on the other end was now literally a princess. The new regime was one revolving around Sirzechs and the other Satans. They had absolute power and due to the fact that they reminded everyone that they were the strongest, of course, it would be decided to make them and all their close relatives literally royalty.
It also meant that in the case something would happen to Serafall for example, the next in line for her throne would be Sona. Sure, strong devils would have the right to challenge her for it but in the case it would happen, I wonder what kind of devil would dare challenge Sona before my brother and the other Satans.
"Now," the bishop continued "That I'm not restricted, I am close as omniscient with my subordinates when it comes to the underworld. We heard not a long time ago something that could threaten our newly made regime."
"What?" I asked him.
"Some of my spies learned that the little sister of our king, the apple of his eyes was planning to invade by herself another pantheon, the Norse pantheon to be exact to steal golden apples," he said his eyes now hard.
I didn't back down away from his gaze "Do you know what would happen if you die Rias Gremory?"
"I won't die, Mathers," I said to him my voice firm.
"Helel didn't think he would die but he did. God didn't think he would die but he did! No one expects death but she is always there! Waiting! If it is because you worry about the tournament of your grandfather, there is no point! Our King would smother his own son before letting you go fight even if you lost the tournament then, my question is why? You are not dumb. Why would you want to do such things?!"
"I need to this Mathers because I'm not strong enough. I need to do this because my peerage isn't strong enough. I need to do this because we all aren't strong enough! Only one mistake! Only one mistake and even my brother could die! Only one look from a higher being and Asia would die!"
"We would protect you! Devil kind itself would perish before anything happens to you Rias!" he shouted.
"Jute like in Kuoh then?" I told him. An ugly part of me revelled in the flash of hurt that appeared on his face. He had told me once that Kuoh was one of his greatest failures and one thing I was sure about Mathers was that he hated failures. I wanted him to understand and even though I liked him, I wouldn't let anyone especially him stop me.
"You're truly your mother's daughter. So petty, so short sighed."
How dared he? All my soul screamed at me to flat him with my nails. I pushed it back. That's what he wanted. I knew that. This hadn't been the first time I had argued with him. Mathers liked to overwhelm people with anger to control them more easily. That was also how he fought "Go burn in Heaven Mathers," I spat with all my heart.
"You know that no matter what you say, I won't stop or let myself be stopped." I probably looked like a spoiled brat but I didn't care. Zekram had shown me that my brother could lose and that nigh-infinite power could be defeated by guile, knowledge and tricks.
Gabriel has been there since the beginning of time. I was sure without a doubt that what Zekram knew was just a sliver of what the Archangel could use against my brother.
I didn't want Sirzechs to die and to ensure this, there were two paths I could follow. The first was to make him stronger. The second was to become so much stronger that I could stand at his side. I yearned not for one of them. I was greedy and wanted them both.
We stayed silent, unmoving as our eyes continued be to locked. The eyes of the reincarnated devil were searching, almost dissecting.
With a sigh, he broke the eye contact "This is what I thought. Nothing I say will make you change your point of view., am I wrong?" he asked me.
"No, you're not," I confirmed. "Are you going to say it to Sirzechs?" I asked him
"No, I won't because he would have my head on a spike because I didn't tell him earlier and you would be locked in a place so fortified and protected that it would make Cocytus seem like a joke."
His gaze turned back toward me "It would also be a shame to lose our conversations so let's do something else. I won't stop you. No one would stop you. In return, we want you to do something," he told me.
"What do you want me to do?" I asked him with caution.
"We can't allow you to fail if you truly try to execute your plan. We want you to accept our help. We have agents, spies and people of interest native to the Norse Pantheon who want things to be different."
Realization dawned on my mind "You don't mean that?" I didn't finish. I needed to be sure of what I was hearing, of what I think he was implicating.
"The Norse pantheon had always been at odds with us especially since your brother reincarnated Surtr. We can't afford to give them an opportunity to attack us in the future or retaliate if you fail."
His eyes shone ominously with dark red "I think it is time for Ragnarok." He presented his hand to me "Don't you think the same Rias?"
I looked at the hand of the devil and shook it. No matter what, I'll do everything to protect, to ensure the ones I care about have a future and if it meant making others suffer, well, I had never been morally perfect.
