12. Showing the Decoy Sigil to the Satans.

│1st Person POV of Meliodas│

[Underworld Realm, New Lilith, Lucifer's Castle…]

"Well, let's start the meeting, shall we?" Sirzechs announced with a clap of his hands.

The other Satans replied positively in their own way.

Serafall let out a "Yup." while popping the p, Ajuka just nodded his head, and Uncle Falbi… Well, he was half asleep…

Anyway, with the agreement of others, Sirzechs opened the meeting, "Well then, before we proceed to give the floor to Meliodas, is there any other important news any of you would like to share?"

The first to answer was Serafall, "Meh, nothing interesting happened in the last six months. No altercation between Church and Devils, no big Stray Devil incident, no rogue Fallen causing trouble, etc. etc."

Did she… Did she just predict the major Canon events?

Or do events such as the ones she described happen from time to time? And it is just the ones mentioned in Canon were extra special ones?

"Nothing new to report from my department either." Ajuka stated before I could more on the subject of whether Serafall did 'foreshadow' some future events.

Next, Uncle Flabi mumbled, still half asleep, "The borders… were… calm.., apart from some… minor skirmishes."

"Well, there were also no major internal problems that popped up in the past six months. So the last six months were problem-free for all of us, right? That's wonderful.

"I hope the—"

"Zechs-chan!!" Sirzechs was interrupted mid-speech by Serafall's shout.

"Zechs-chan! You were about to raise a red flag right there. You shouldn't do that, you know." Serafall explained while standing on the conference table and booping Sirzechs on his nose.

Sirzechs just smiled apologetically in response, "I promise it won't happen again, Sera. But, could you first explain to me what a red flag is?"

"Oh! I totally can! I just came across this incredible concept a few months ago."

With that, Serafall launched an explanation of how raising the red flags worked.

A few moments later, when she returned to her seat with a satisfied expression on her face, I couldn't help but say, "But Sera-nee-chan, didn't you raise not one but three flags yourself earlier?"

I watched as Serafall froze.

A few seconds of complete silence passed before Serafall wailed loudly, "NO!! What did I do?"

None of the others reacted strongly to Serafall's Serafallness.

They were already completely immune to her antics it seems.

Sirzechs allowed her to go on with her drama for a few moments before he stopped her, "Well, I am sure you could easily deal with whatever problem crops up in the future."

Not one to miss the chance, I said, "You just raised another flag, Father-in-law."

I just grinned when he gave me a half-lidded stare.

Serafall on the other hand succumbed to her knees and started crying even louder. However, she suddenly stopped and looked up with wide eyes.

The next second, she was in front of me, asking with a frantic expression on her face, "Wait Melio-tan, what did you just call Zechs-chan?"

"Oh! Oops, I guess?" I said with an 'innocent' smile.

"What do you mean by 'Father-in-law', Melio-tan? I thought you were saving yourself from me? Are you breaking up with me now?"

Wait what?

Before I could respond to Serafall, I heard Uncle Falbi's question, "When was the contract finalized?"

Looking over, I saw that Uncle Flabi was fully awake now and looking at Sirzechs curiously. Even Ajuka stopped fiddling with his magic circle.

"Yesterday, actually. I was going to surprise you guys with the news with a house party later." Sirzechs answered, though not before giving me a stink eye.

At this moment, Serafall looked at the three male Satans. As if she had figured out something, she pointed a quivering finger at them, saying, "All of you knew about this beforehand.

"How could you, Zechs-chan? Ajuka-chan? Flabi-chan? How could you all hide this from me?" Serafall accused with an aggrieved expression.

"Maa, maa, Sera. No one was hiding anything. I was going to reveal this to all of you after the engagement was finalized." Sirzechs attempted to calm down Serafall.

However, she didn't give him the chance to complete his explanation.

"Then, how do you explain Ajuka-chan and Flabi-chan knowing this? Only I was in the dark."

Sigh—!!

Sirzechs let out an exasperated sigh before answering, "I didn't tell them anything about this. Falbium found out about this subject from Meliodas' father, Lord Valefor.

"Ajuka guessed the reason after he noticed Grayfia's frequent visit to Valefor Mansion while not wearing her usual maid attire. He also saw me talking with Lord Valefor in private one time.

"Once they knew about this, I was going to tell you about it too. However, I didn't get the chance to do so as you were busy with your magical girl show. I am really sorry, Sera."

Serafall seemed to accept the explanation. Then, she looked at me and I immediately spoke up before she could say anything, "I only found out about the engagement yesterday, Sera-nee-chan.

"If I knew anything beforehand, I would have definitely told you."

Serafall pouted at my words before she declared, "I am not giving up on you, Melio-tan. You are my soulmate after all. I will definitely capture your heart with my magical girl charm."

I am your what now?

Then, she picked me up and returned to her seat, placing me on her lap, and saying, "Let us continue with the meeting."

"Alright." Sirzechs agreed, completely ignoring Serafall's confession? Promise?

Well, whatever. I leave this for my future self to handle.

"Meliodas, Serafall told us you wanted to share something important with us. May I ask what it is?" Sirzechs directed the question to me.

I really wanted to answer with something like 'You may'.

However, I was talking with Satan Lucifer right now. It wouldn't be all right to joke now so I restrained myself.

"Well, I wanted to show you this."

The next second, I summoned a huge magic circle in the middle of the conference table with a snap of my fingers.

The magic circle then projected a holographic image of the runic magic sigil that I cooked up a year ago in the air above.

Though in the past year, I have massively improved the power of the sigil as I tinkered with it from time to time.

Ajuka immediately summoned his green magic circle and started analyzing the holographic image.

I took the chance to take a proper look at his specialty, Kankara Formula.

The last time when I saw him use it at my 7th birthday party, I didn't completely see it as more than half of the magic circle was out of my line of sight.

Now, after getting to see it in use for the first time properly, my Essence of the Archmage helped me understand how it worked.

It couldn't do this originally.

However, after it got upgraded by the Essence of the Blank, its capabilities increased quite significantly.

Firstly, instead of just copying the 'magics' of others with just a glance, it also helps me understand how they actually worked.

For example, with Sharingan, you can copy any jutsu. However, to truly master the jutsu, you would still have to put in some effort.

My Archmage Essence is now capable of copying the jutsus of others and providing me with an explanation of how they worked.

Secondly, the Archmage Essence now also gives me insights on how to effectively combine different spells, 'magic' systems, etc. forgoing the need to experiment to find the right way.

And lastly, it now allows me to teach others 'magic' systems that they weren't capable of by imparting my experience to them directly.

"So, what does this do?" Sirzechs question brought me out of my introspection.

I saw that Ajuka had completed a preliminary examination of the sigil, so I allowed him to explain, "This is quite an ingenious piece of work, so ingenious that something like this shouldn't be possible."

He then looked at me and asked, "How were you able to combine the different magic systems without them exploding in your face?

"And how were you able to hide the existence of this from the different pantheons whose magic systems you used?

"After all, if they were aware of this, which they should be under normal circumstances, they wouldn't have spared any effort to eliminate you as they definitely wouldn't allow something like this to even exist."

I smiled and gave the explanation I had already prepared, "I just imagined the different magic systems working together flawlessly before pouring, excuse my words, shit ton of Demonic Power to make it work."

Ajuka looked at me with narrowed eyes. He didn't buy my explanation right away and I didn't expect him to.

"The reason I said that something like this isn't possible is because I have tried doing this before exactly as you have explained.

"The combined amount of Demonic Power from both Sirzechs and me isn't sufficient to make this work. While your Demonic Power reserves may exceed those of Serafall and Falbium together, they are not nearly as big as Sirzechs' and mine.

"If you don't want to provide an explanation, that's alright, I won't force you to. However, lying to avoid answering is unacceptable."

As expected, even after honing my skills at hiding my suppressing my reserves for over a year, I can't fool Ajuka yet.

He is still able to determine the true extent of my Demonic Power reserve.

Facing his displeasure, I answered him calmly, "What you said is true, Satan Beelzebub. However, consider the fact that my Demonic Power recovers at a rate thousands of times faster than the average Devil.

"I can easily put ten times the amount of your Demonic Power reserve into the formation of sigil without coming anywhere close to exhausting my reserves."

Ajuka's eyes widened upon hearing my words.

Even the other three Satans, who were silently watching the confrontation between us, had looks of shock on their faces.

"If you want proof of my claims, you can test it in any way you desire. I promise to fully cooperate with you."

My words brought Ajuka out of his shock and he nodded. He looked at my future Father-in-law and asked, "Sirzechs, do you mind if I take control of the Castle's wards for a moment?"

"Huh? Oh no, I don't mind. Go ahead." Sirzechs mumbled out an affirmative reply.

Getting permission, Ajuka proceeded to summon another magic circle with his left hand as he was still using his right hand to examine my sigil.

I doubt he would be able to find out the core matrix of my sigil though.

In addition to all the built-in security measures, I am also using Parallel Calculation to divide my thought process into two, using one part of my mind to stop his prob from going deeper into the sigil's matrix.

My main focus was on the new magic circle Ajuka summoned.

He connected this magic circle to the ward matrix around the castle before creating a new component, allowing the circle to transfer any surplus Demonic Power beyond what was needed for its upkeep to the wards, thereby reinforcing them.

It was quite impressive how seamlessly he was able to do this.

I fear what would happen if someone like him gains the Essence of the Archmage and Blank.

After finishing configuring the magic circle, he said while looking at me, "Pour your Demonic Power into this circle as fast as you can."

I nodded and stepped in front of him before placing my right hand on his magic circle.

Then, I looked at my future Father-in-law and said, "Please place a barrier on the room to prevent my aura from leaking outside."

Sirzechs didn't hesitate to follow my request and once he finished placing barriers, I let the floodgates open.

Immediately, an obscene amount of Demonic Power continuously discharged from my hand before getting absorbed by the Ajuka's magic circle.

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed a magic circle appearing near Sirzechs ear and him giving a command to the Devil on the other side to stop anyone from panicking after feeling the wards growing stronger.

For a few moments, the conference room fell silent as me and Ajuka did our own thing with the other three watching us silently.

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A/N: I didn't upload any chapter yesterday because I was suffering from a killer headache. Even today, I got migraines from time to time.

I composed this chapter by powering through the headache.

If you see any mistakes, please don't hesitate to point it out. I will correct them tomorrow.

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