Talking Business

Zeoticus's Study

Upon arriving in the rather large office, her father took his site behind his desk. She took a seat on the left side of the desk, while the rest of the group sat on the other side.

*Sigh* "Alright Rias, before we continue our family bonding, we need to get the business out the way. While it's not ideal to discuss it now, it needs to happen for procedural reasons. It can also help to get the tension out the way, so you can feel relaxed during our interactions these coming days". Rias nodded.

"Agreed" She stated simply.

"Before we get to your decade-long journey, let's start with the immediate situation. Why did you declare a death match without our consent?" He asked firmly. While he may act foolish, he did not like far-reaching decisions impacting the house to be made without his input and consent.

"Because I already knew how you are, what you wanted in this situation, and determined that based on that information, we had a conflict on interests. Seeing as how I didn't need your input for this particular action, I invoked it without hesitation. The quicker it happened the less ability you had to stop it." He slowly nodded.

"Rias dear, you know that we only mean the best for you" her mother providing her input. "You know this was rather abrupt and can send the wrong signals to the various houses. Even if he's not the current heir, Riser is a prominent member of the rating game scene and his death in this manner would impact our relations with all competing houses. It'll impact your future."

"Mom." Rias stated firmly as she looked straight into her eyes. "I don't need the various houses to accept this. I just need to send a message. I am perfectly fine with going back to the Sin lands to create a permanent residence. I have finally achieved the strength needed to do so." As she said this, her demonic divine energy began radiating off of her. "If the current pillars don't accept me, then I'll create new ones. Who cares for bloodline purity, Lucifer did it once, I will do it again."

The four were baffled at the statement. Bloodline purists weren't so ingrained in their ways for the fun of it. It was because it was the only way they'd keep the unique abilities their respective houses granted them. Creating pillars has always been the ideal, but there hasn't been an existing method yet. To have such a goal could be called the height of foolishness, yet looking at her strength, it was clear that she was not like all other high-class devils her age. She could easily compete for the strongest devil in her generation. Though, feeling how densely powerful her demonic power was, it was arguable whether she wasn't a demon herself rather than a devil. They didn't know how right they were.

"Is that so? Maybe you would like to work with Adjuka? As the most prominent mind in the underworld, he'd clearly be a great person to apprentice under." Sirzechs stated. While he didn't feel like she was being silly, he found it hard to believe she'd be able to accomplish what millions of others had failed to accomplish. Create demon pillars.

The thing about the pillars was that they bestowed a form of derived divinity. What most current generation devils don't know is that they were once called Demon God Pillars in the days when they were in use. As long as the central demon does not fall, his pillars cannot die, but the opposite is true as well; if the center dies, so do the pillars. It's why they don't currently exist. The only one ever know to create pillars was the original Lucifer and due to consuming the blood of Satan, his personality shifted to one who wouldn't even think of leaving his greatest power for future generations. By consuming Satan, the discarded dark half of the biblical god, he not only inherited a portion of his divinity, but also integrated the characteristics that made that half dangerous enough for the biblical god to shed it in the first place.

"I wouldn't mind taking on that offer in the future, but for now I believe my answers lie in the Sin Lands. There is a lot of undiscovered potential there I believe that my search should start there. My power supports me in this belief."

"Your power?" asked Zeoticus. He had a guess what that meant, but he dares not hope. It would be a great boon for his guess to be correct.

Rias nodded. "My power of prophecy. It supports that assumption with the vague impression in my mind that my ideals may be realized in that land."

"The power of prophecy!" The males present snapped up to their feet. It should be understood that this power has been lost to the Gremory for a few Centuries now. It's the primary reason they need to marry Rias out in the first place, to maintain their place as a pillar family. If what she said was true, then this farce of a marriage wouldn't even be necessary. It would also fix any damage done to Rias' reputation that resulted from her disappearance. With her re-emerging with overwhelming strength along with the reality that her decisions were motivated by the power that brought the demon pillars victory after victory, all ill would be wiped clean. Her public image would experience such a strong rebound effect, it wouldn't even take a week before she's inundated with more marriage requests. They wouldn't even need to prove anything. The obscene improvement to her demonic power to Satan class levels, if Grayfia is to be believed, would be proof enough that prophecy is on her side.

"Finally, our power has returned! The Gremory's will rise up once again!" Zeoticus roared in joy and laughter. It was very obvious that some great stressor had been lifted off his mind.

Tilting her head, Rias looked toward her mother for answers.

"Rias dear, do you know the origin of that power you've acquired?" Rias shook her head.

She honestly thought it was the power of the demon she had inherited her newly evolved race from. A sealed demon whose remaining essence clung to its ruined throne seeking someone to claim its remaining power. No one want to leave this world without descendants after all, even demons in their own prideful way. It was through a lucky encounter with it that she evolved into a demon and awakened her prophetic ability. She had always thought it came from her benefactor, but it was clear that wasn't entirely correct.

"The power of prophecy is the inherited ability of the Gremory family, though it hasn't been inherited in centuries." Her clarification shook Rias. The fact that she hadn't heard of this before was highly concerning.

"It's also the reason why the marriage was necessary. Without the extra backing, the Gremory house would lose its status among the pillars." That was the bit that hit her the most. Although most would think Devil houses are small, they would be wrong. There are hundreds of blood-related devils in a given house. It's how the territory is so large. The reason why purebloods are so revered in devil society is that they are the vessels that carry the power of their houses to the next generation.

Since they hadn't believed Rias had the gift, they needed additional influence to stave off the hounds till the next generation, while also forcing that generation to come sooner than would ordinarily be necessary. The situation seemed silly to the older people in the room as they thought about it. Though in their defense, Rias really hadn't awakened that power till her evolution a year after leaving. At best, it was an unconscious compulsion to perform certain actions. A very weak, but still effective form of the gift. It would've required her to gather an impossible peerage and accumulate ridiculous feats to prove to the greater society that she had it. It would've been the ground she would've stood on to issue a rating game challenge should she not have left.

The adults in the room started discussing amongst themselves how they would proceed. Seeing as how she wasn't really needed, she turned to Grayfia, told her that she would be resting in her room and excused herself from the gathering.

As she silently teleported to her room, Grayfia nodded her head and thought to herself 'she really has grown up' Smiling, she returned her gaze to the rest of the family making plans for the coming days and shook her head. It was about to get really busy.

Gremory Mansion (Rias' Room)

Looking down at her terminal, Rias sent a quick message to two of her closest associates. Akame and Esdeath, two mercenaries she worked frequently with after the destruction of their empire in the lands of gluttony at the hands of the demon dragon "Great Tyrant", a being on the verge of ascending to the level of heavenly dragon. Angered after awakening to find his children dead and dissected by the local humans. Great Tyrant made quick work of every human he could find. Akame and Esdeath were the only survivors.

With her ascension to Demon Goddess, she had the ability to add them to her 72 Pillars. With Akame's extreme affinity for death, curses, and assassination and Esdeath's extreme affinity for death, ice, hunting, and combat in all forms, they would be perfect starting pillars. She would also need to reach out to a few of the other friends she's made throughout the years and ask them as well.

Bing! A response came almost immediately expressing interest in the prospect. After asking them to meet at the ruins of the old capitol, she closed her terminal.

Smiling at the prospect of a merry band of comrades she closed her eyes and laughed at the absurdity of the Sin Lands. The fact that the Biblical God used this place to sink any civilization he deemed unfit for the world above was laughable.

'I honestly can't believe no one's noticed until now. It's the perfect place to recruit great talent and learn about various supernatural cultures. I wonder how many of them realize that they're not in the main plane. While this plane has its own galaxy, it's still just a sub plain in the grand scheme of things. Maybe that could be a goal as well. Either create my own dimension for my society or turn the underworld into its own main plane. Thoughts for another day I guess'