"What was that?" Ajuka asked curiously, though I have no doubt he knew exactly what it was, along with the entire make and model, every spell and trick hidden in that wand by now. It had already been in his hands for a minute or so. Knowing him, that was more than enough time.
"It was a flashbang spell, meant to protect Rias from attack while she transforms and the defensive spells on the dress take effect. In reality, villains don't wait for the magical girl to finish transforming. This way, at least she stays safe because the opponents are stunned and blinded by the sudden flash of light. It was made with the best of intentions, I promise you, Lord Ajuka, Lord Gremory."
"Couldn't you have warned us?" Lord Zeoticus asked with consternation as he loomed over me while the rest of the guests recovered from being flashbanged.
"House Phenex apologizes deeply for this, Lord Zeoticus." My chaperone turned to me, after bowing deeply to the guests, "What were you thinking young lord?!" The officer- I really should remember his name- cried out in frustration as he scolded me.
"I wasn't."
"That- you… what?" He was confused by my straightforward reply.
"I was so excited to give Rias my gift… and seeing her so happy, I was lost in the moment and I forgot. I couldn't think of anything else but her smile." I answered wistfully, a silly smile on my face.
The response stopped the inquisition in its tracks. No one expected that answer.
And that gave me the time to make my move.
"Again, I sincerely apologize." I bowed in apology as well, "I should have been more careful." I looked concernedly at the rest of the children rubbing their eyes and even one child crying. Diodora Astaroth.
Wow.
A boy my age, crying when Latia beside him was being far more mature about it.
I suppressed the urge to chuckle.
Keeping up my poker face, I turned to Lord Zeoticus.
"Let me make it up to Rias. Make this a party to remember for the rest of her life."
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Sirzechs asked, a curious smile on his face.
Good to see my last comment warmed him up to me. I knew it would work wonders on this sis-con bastard.
"Lord Surtr was going to give us a demonstration today, wasn't he? Why not make it a tokusatsu battle. He can act like the villain and have Rias fight him in a fun, mock battle. Let her enjoy being a real magical girl, just like on TV." I didn't wait for their answer, and turned to ask Rias.
"Don't you think that'd be fun, Rias?" I smiled at her and she jumped up and down in joy.
"Wooo!" Rias ran up to her brother and begged, with the cutest little set of puppy dog eyes, "Can I? CanIcanIcanI Pleasepleaseplease! Onii-chan! Pleaaase!"
Goodness, that level of cute is lethal!
No wonder she's the protagonist of DXD. Even at six, she was just heartachingly adorable.
Must not get- hnggh!
Cuteness aggression!
And it was no surprise when Sirzechs agreed.
"Ok." He answered, hiding his face in his hands, the faintest trace of a nosebleed in the air.
Pervert.
"No. Sirzechs, she doesn't even know how to use that thing yet." Lady Venelana objected.
"I will be with her, Lady Venelana. Don't worry. I will guide and protect her." I pulled out a ruby red crystal rose with gold inlay and a bottle green crystal stem with pitch black thorns from thin air.
The counterpart to the magical girl wand.
"After all, no magical girl is complete without a mysterious knight to protect her from the shadows!" I twirled the rose between my fingertips, before drawing a glowing black circle in the air above me, "Midnight Rose Knight – Transform!"
My clothes fluttered as they were replaced by a black tie tuxedo, with a long coat lining swaying in the wind behind and a red and black cape to go with it, alongside a domino mask on my eyes and magician's top hat on my head.
Inspired by both Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon and Kaito Kid from Detective Conan, it was my attempt at winning over the costume maniac Zeoticus Gremory. My gift to him, to cement my position in his heart as well.
The boy who gave him more playtime with his daughter. More time, to spoil her with all his overflowing love.
Because that is the one thing you cannot buy. Time. Your daughter's childhood. Memories as a family.
Something he will cherish forever. As will she.
Because however long we may live as devils, we grow up, physically, just as fast as humans, till we reach our prime, at which time we stop aging.
"That is no fair!" Serafall cried out with envy, biting her lips, "You even got a knight costume!"
"Serafall." Sirzechs gave her a look and she stopped, though I could tell she was dying inside, "I'll call Surtr." He added as he walked off.
"Why doesn't your transformation have a blinding cover?" Lord Zeoticus noticed and asked.
"I am a Phenex. I am immortal. Even if I am attacked in the middle of transformation, I can heal. Rias does not have the same gifts."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise at the depth of the thought put into it and his expression softened.
"You are a good kid, Riser." He patted my head with a soft smile.
"Who made these glorious, legendary artifacts?" Serafall scooted over to me as soon as Sirzechs was out of sight, trying to weasel out my sources.
"I would like to know as well." Ajuka added, covering my escape subtly.
I just smiled politely in response. They want to sweat me, but they forget- A phoenix is immune to heat!
"It was a reclusive master magician. He owed my brother a favour, and agreed to make these for him, despite being deeply offended at our request to use his esteemed skills for such a thing." I chuckled, "To hear my brother speak, it seemed like he burned a bridge to get these. The magician said he'd break all ties if we insulted his craft like this again. So, if you desire to have more of these made, I'm afraid, that will not be possible. It took him four months just to make these and he has sworn never to make these ever again."
"Four months… then you must have placed the request right after your birthday?" Ajuka caught on to my trick.
I knew he would. He wouldn't be Ajuka Beelzebub if he didn't.
I smiled.
"Yes, Lord Ajuka." I nodded, turning to him, "I asked these to be made right after my birthday. When I learnt Rias liked Magical Girl anime, I knew what present I wanted to give her on her birthday. I wanted the present to be ready for Rias' birthday, and I didn't know if anyone had ever made such a thing. So, I asked for it with time to spare."
"How considerate of you." He smiled, knowingly.
"Thank you for your kind words, Lord Ajuka." I smiled back, in defiance, "I only want to make Rias the happiest girl in the world."
He had played right into my hands.
He knew it. I knew it. He knew I knew it.
There was no secret artisan.
I could tell from the way he looked at me. There was no hiding the truth from him. But that didn't mean I couldn't lie anyway.
What was he going to do? Call out a ten year old in front of everyone?
Heh. No way.
That was his weakness. Being bound by decorum. Social rules. His position as Satan and his image. Something I had already accounted for. I couldn't match him or any of the other geniuses on the fly, but I could do something else.
Plan ahead. Exploit their weaknesses, stab at the chinks in their armor.
No one is perfect. Even geniuses aren't the best in every field, every manner, every thing.
There's always something to dig into. And I was a dwarf in heat, baby! Diggy diggy hole. A month deep into planning.
All he could do was roll with the punches, and then reveal the truth to the Gremorys after the party. But by then, I would have already made my play. It would be too late.
"Rias." I took her hand, "Let me teach you how to use the wand before we go and play with Lord Surtr."
I took the wand from her hand and began explaining their functions.
----------x----------
"… and it also has a vibrate function, for massaging your muscles after exercise." I pointed at the vibrating wand in my hands before shutting off the function, "This one is based on our Phenex Enterprises Full Body Massage Machine. Its going to be out in a few weeks, only in our stores in the Phenex Territory.
It has all the functions of a regular massage chair, but with body forming gel, that grips and digs into every corner and crevice, giving deep tissue massages to your whole body, all at once."
I knew what I was doing as I grabbed the attention of every woman in the party. I acted innocent, of course, as I slipped in some advertising for our new range of products, but the wise need only a clue. Their imaginations would do the rest of my work for me.
Frankly, I'm surprised no one else had introduced these to the market yet.
Designed by yours truly last year, they were in quality checking and R&D till recently, and were about to be released to the public in the underworld soon.
A whole slew of modern gadgets and knick-knacks. Bringing the underworld to the human world's tech standard, just in time for them to adopt my internet.
It was part of a long running plan of mine. To make the name Phenex synonymous with quality and happiness.
To make them addicted to our products in all fields, entirely, until, like Pavlov's dog, they can only associate us with good feelings.
Because that's what people remember. Not your products or your deeds or words.
No. They remember how you made them feel.
And the name Phenex is about to make them feel a whole lot of good.
Just then, I felt the temperature of the room rise as Surtr, The Second entered the room.
"Young Miss Rias, shall we?"
"Yes!" Rias jumped to her feet, snatching the wand from my hand as she beckoned me.
"Riser! Come, quick, quick!" She near about pulled me to my feet on her own as I stood up and followed.
I turned slightly to look at Lord Surtr II and spoke softly, my words carried upon the wind only for his ears.
"Please guide me as per our contract during the demonstration. I will be listening, your whispers in the wind. Only me."
He raised a fiery brow in surprise, but contained his curiosity under his mask of professionalism as he gave me the tiniest of nods in acknowledgement.
My way to get the best of both worlds. A secret auditory channel opened by my complete mastery of wind manipulation. Allowing me to learn from Surtr, while at the same time avoid letting the rest of the audience know anything about it. To keep my desire for divine flames and house Phenex's research into it, a secret.
One of Ruval's support spells from his time in the rating games, the reason he managed to keep his team's tactics a secret from his opponents while still maintaining a line of communications open between them all.
Whispering Wind.
----------x----------
"Mwahahahaha!" Surtr smacked away a pink ball of energy with the back of his hand and a swiped away at a shower of pitch black thorns shooting at him from my wand, burning them to ash in the air in a great pyroclastic display that lit up the sky, "Your puny little attacks cannot do anything to me, Magical Girl Rias-tan! Prepare to face your destruction! Your doom! Mwahahahaha!"
He hammed it up even as he silently, explained his flames to me.
"…and since the world of Norse myth is based upon the world tree, Yggdrasil, by virtue of the concept of 'fire burns wood', my flames can burn away reality itself. Of course, this is a simplified explanation of it, but you can grasp the concept now, yes?"
"Yes. Fire burns wood. Trees are made of wood. Fire burns tree. If a tree is the base of reality, your fire can burn reality by piggybacking your flames off of this concept. To impose flammability upon the intangible concept of reality… It's so simple, yet so beautiful!" I replied, softly, before asking, "Could I trouble you to demonstrate that part of your flames next?"
"How so?" he asked.
I smiled.
"Not so fast, Surtrmon! Be bound by the thorny vines of love!" I cast one of the preset spells of the Rose Knight wand, and the ground began to shake as massive vines burst forth from within it, three meters thick and full of magically enhanced thorns, imbued with the concept of Yggdrasil. Something I bought from a Vanir magician via Rigal's connection. It was a costly seidr spell, modified specially for my wand, that called upon Yggdrasil's roots, or in this case, vines to entangle the target.
It really is a shame that I plan on gifting this wand to my father-in-law today. I had hoped to study the seidr spell a bit more.
Eh, I'll just employ a walkure tutor later.
One of the benefits of being filthy rich~
I smiled.
I had pretty much gathered the idea behind his flames even before I came here today and his explanation had filled many of the gaps in my theory. All I needed to do now was get a measure of how exactly they interacted with reality that differed from that inside the Norse realms.
Do they burn it slower? Worse?
I had already seen them burn local reality during this mock battle.
Now I just need a control group reading to see the standard interaction it had with it's myth of origin, and while yes, having him burn up an actual branch or leaf from Yggdrasil would have been better… that was out of question.
The Norse pantheon would never allow that. They're already paranoid about Ragnarok. I can only imagine their reaction if I were to come up to them and ask 'Could you let Surtr's clone burn down the world tree, pretty please?'
Nah, the substitute will have to do for now.
Besides, these divine flames weren't the only ones I was going to sample. They were only the first step.
There was already a world destroying flame that was tinged with the energy of the underworld. That one would be the base of my spell.
Surtr's flames were only there so I can graft the concept of 'burning away reality' to the spell I planned on making.
But, then again, that's putting the cart before the horse.
Zoning back into the fight, I scanned Surtr's flames now burning the false Yggdrasil's vines with my spells, all the while I made my way to Rias' side.
"Magical Girl Rias-tan! My vines of love cannot hold him for long! You must use your ultimate attack! Follow my lead, and we will defeat Surtrmon and save the world!"
"Un!" She nodded seriously, though I could see the giddiness in her eyes, the mirth spilling right over onto her smile. It was adorable.
I couldn't help but smile seeing her so happy.
"Draw a heart in front of you, with me." I said, and touched my wand to hers as both of them began to glow fiercely, her hot pink energy mixing with my pale black to form a deep magenta.
""Super Love Love Beam – Love You To Death!"" We both chanted together as we completed the heart, and it pulsed with great power before shooting out in a meter thick energy beam that decimated everything in it's wake, before striking Surtr in the chest, right as he burst out from my vines.
"NOOOOO!" Surtr screamed dramatically, playing his part to perfection, as he collapsed onto the ground in defeat, before exploding into a brightly coloured display of fireworks, covering his teleportation away.
"Yaaaay!" Rias twirled around happily in the air, the little white wings on her wand fluttering with her.
"How do you like my present now?" I asked with a smile and Rias jumped onto me, her arms wrapped around my neck.
"Best birthday present ever!" She squealed, rubbing her face into my chest, and swung wildly, "Thank you so much Riser! I love you! Love you love you love you so much!"
"Only three love yous? I'm starting to think you don't really love me that much!" I teased and she jumped off, crossing her arms.
"My brother only gets one!" She huffed, pouting.
"Oh my~ I must be really lucky then, to get three!"
"You better appreciate it!" She pointed her wand at me and shook it authoritatively and I couldn't help but pinch her big, round pouty cheeks.
"I will."
"Don't pinch my cheeks!" She swatted my hands away and made to distance herself from me, but stopped.
"I really, really like your present, Riser." She added again.
"I know." I cupped my face, resting it against my knee as I knelt to her level, "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."
"I did!" She smiled, "Will you come play with me again?"
"Maybe~ If I receive a lot more 'Love yous'." I teased her again and she punched my shoulder with her tiny little fists.
"Don't bully me!"
"Ok, ok. I won't bully my Rias anymore." I laughed
"Who's your Rias? You're my Riser!" She clarified.
I raised an eyebrow, amused.
"Is that so?"
"Uhun!" She nodded effusively, "Don't you forget it!"
"I won't." I patted her head.
How cute~
Maybe I won't destroy her entirely at the engagement. Yeah. I'll let her off gently.
Still wiping the floor with Issei. No two ways about that. That pervert deserving an ass-whooping. Or two. Or ten.
But maybe I can afford her some dignity in the annulment.
Of course, that's if she's still insistent on following the canon way out.
I doubt that though, what with my intervention into the timeline. Maybe she'll be more diplomatic about it this time around, what with her having at least a decently friendly relationship with me.
Well, we'll see what happens.
I nodded to myself as I watched Rias join the group of kids for the cake cutting.
"Thank you." Lord Zeoticus came and stood by me, "She really seems to like that gift of yours, Riser." He paused for a moment as if fighting his fatherly urge to guard his daughter before he added, "You really should come by more often. I think Rias' will like it."
"I'm afraid not." I said, and he looked down at me, "But that doesn't mean she'll be without a play-pal."
I stood back up and undid my transformation, before handing the wand to him, "After all, a magical girl needs her knight in stylish tuxedo."
"You really are a good match for Rias." He laughed jovially, with a full-bodied bellow, and took the wand, "You can call me father from now on. We'll be family soon enough."
Mission 'Impress father-in-law' accomplished!
But…
"I think I prefer father-in-law, but I appreciate the sentiment, Lord Zeoticus." I replied with a genial but polite smile.
No point getting too chummy with them if Rias breaks up the engagement later. Why risk heartbreak? Burning a bridge built up with years of effort for nothing?
And if she doesn't cancel the engagement? I'll have a lifetime to get close to them.
"As you wish." He nodded, "Just know that you are always welcome in our home. It is your home too."
I nodded back in acknowledgement and that was that. As men, we didn't need any more fancy words to express what we felt. It was understood.
The tacit understanding between the husband and father-in-law.
...............
Big chappy. 3400 words.
Took a while to write. Anyways, tell me what you thought of it?
Any mistakes you noticed? Tell me in the in comments.
Thanks for reading.
Next time, an interlude of the Gremorys and Ajuka. Then timeskip!
Don't forget to donate your powerstones.
I will start posting faster now. Once every two or three days.
Will also post the extra chapters for the two times we reached 300 powerstones and the 6000 collections one soon.
Till then, see ya!