CH. 298: Conference (II)

"The spirit that appeared during your fight. Did it come from Sacred Gear?"

Azazel couldn't contain his curiosity. He had pitted the idea of the Sacred Gears to Biblical God. His report on the Sacred Gears was somehow found and published by Michael.

The Blazer Shining.

His imaginary Sacred Gear name had earned him quite a few funny nicknames by his former Grigori members.

"It wasn't."

Asahi denied. Azazel knowing the Sacred Gears wasn't out of Asahi's expectations. The Artificial Sacred Gear with Fafnir's power would be solely made by Azazel in a few centuries.

"Then what was it? That person wasn't a human or any race I met before."

Asahi glanced at Biblical God. The old man hadn't asked anything about Baal and the other powers Asahi demonstrated in the duel.

"It's a secret technique."

Asahi gave a vague explanation.

"Why so mysterious?" Azazel muttered as they arrived at the door where the meeting would happen.

The redhead devil pushed open the door for them. The three Devil Kings and Lilith sat behind the gorgeous triangular table. A similar serious expression on each of their faces. Lilith was sitting in the middle while one of the five seats was unoccupied. As expected, Lucifer wasn't allowed here. In his place, over a dozen devils were idling by the tables set behind the Devil Kings. Some had youthful faces, some looked middle-aged, while some looked past their fifties. Despite their different outer appearance, they radiated a powerful aura about the same level as Grayfia when she was first summoned.

High-Class Devils.

Most of them had glowing enmity in their eyes while some looked at him warily.

'These must be the lords of the pillar clans. Noble bastards. They'll be the first one to get a kick out of my empire.'

Ignoring all of them, he smiled at Lord Lucifuge.

"Hello, Father-in-law."

"Father," Grayfia said only one word before returning to her calm self.

Azazel and Baraqiel walked inside and grabbed a seat while the devil lady stood behind Azazel with a meek expression. She wouldn't have a head on her shoulder if it weren't for Azazel's protection.

Asahi also didn't dally around and entered the room. God grabbed his shoulder and pointed at the middle chair, which respectfully belonged to the faction leaders.

"That's yours."

"Already?"

God briefly nodded and pushed him. "You have full authority to take any action for Heaven. Experience the power for one day."

Asahi just shrugged and sat. The seat belonged to him in the future anyway.

Gabriel stuck out her tongue at the devils showing clear hostility and sat on Asahi's left. Sandalphon smiled wryly as she joined Gabriel on her left seat.

Asahi gently patted Gabriel's head and rapped on the chair to his right. "Grayfia."

He tried to give a seat to Grayfia. Being the dutiful maid she was, she shook her head to deny his offer.

"Grayfia," he repeated in a firm voice. "We had a discussion before, right? The future."

Grayfia's eyes twitched for a second. She did promise to support him as his Empress, so sitting on his side made more sense. Her reluctance clearly showed her passion as a maid.

Before Asahi asserted in a firmer tone—which had high chances of arousing Grayfia's submissive feelings—Grayfia nodded her head. She assumed a calm expression and silently settled on his right. She squinted at the devils behind the Devil Kings and released her aura.

An invisible cold feeling swept over everyone in the room. The nobles, who were high-class devils at best, felt their legs shivering.

"We're to discuss," she said with a delicate smile and pulled back her aura.

The Devil Kings flinched in their seats. Grayfia's aura was on par, perhaps stronger than a normal satan-class devil. The current four Devil Kings and Lilith weren't your normal satan-class devils. Thousands of years had pushed them to the boundaries of the so-called Satan-Class. However, they couldn't go beyond as though they had hit a wall of sorts.

The woman with striking violet hair squinted at Grayfia.

"Another contender for my title."

The strongest female devil in the Underworld. Leviathan had kept the title for as long as she remembered, but Grayfia's presence posed a serious threat. After the serious beatdown of Lucifer, none of the Devil Kings underestimated Asahi and his companion.

Asahi stopped himself from rewarding his maid with headpats. He knew how much attention Grayfia paid to her image, something she might have gotten as a result of high upbringing. Giving her headpats might ruin her current cool lady exterior.

"Let's get this talk started," Azazel broke the ice with a grin. "We, the Grigori, are officially announcing our withdrawal from the Great War. Therefore, our faction will not be in any skirmish with neither Heaven nor the Underworld."

Azazel didn't care if he came off as weak in this treaty. He was fine and dandy as long as he got his research lab in Grigori and some women to fool around with.

Asahi smiled at Azazel's statement. "Heaven also withdraws."

He made his first declaration with his new position.

Lilith's lips parted to say something, but the Devil King with dark brown hair beat her to it.

"We have two announcements today."

Leviathan continued Asmodeus's words, "Everyone here must have watched or heard of the recent battle of our Great Devil King Lucifer and his change in mental condition. The best professionals cannot do anything to solve his condition. It is perhaps a reaction to the humiliation he faced."

A hint of smirk rose on Leviathan's face. Turning a blind eye to the commotion between the lords of devil clans, she proceeded, "After a long discussion, we concluded—until we find a cure, Great Devil King Lucifer's position will be taken by his wife, Mother Lilith."

Asahi couldn't hide his grin.

'Just according to keikaku.'

Meanwhile, Lilith clenched her jaw. None of the Devil Kings told her about kicking her husband off the seat.

'They wanted to hoard the power.'

She looked at Asahi, the only man who had any chances of curing her husband.

'I'll have to meet him later…'

Lilith decided with a firm expression.

"Onto the second announcement," Leviathan said. "Due to a large number of deaths in the Great War, our population has fallen to an all-time low. Taking it into consideration, we remove ourselves from the war."

"This concludes the meeting."

"We're having the same problem," Azazel said, grinning at God. "Well, we will be fine as long as the old man doesn't brainwash all emotions from the angels."

Baraqiel chuckled lightly. "He won't. He is different now."

God watched the two fallen angels with a frown. Did he change that much? He looked back at his actions, and a sigh slipped past him.

"That beast is responsible."