Chapter 192: Consequences

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Days after Erik and Azazel had re-sealed Samael, one god of the dead could be raging while walking from one side to the other inside his throne room. Near him, two young humans were standing and looking rather amused at the vision of the angry god.

"Why? Why?!"

The god of the dead, Hades, yelled in a frustrated tone. From him, waves of black energy were being released due to his emotional state.

"Why can't I remember where Samael is sealed inside Tartarus?"

Hades yelled again while taking both of his white skeletal hands to his white skull.

"You ask me, but then who do I ask?"

One of the young men replied while shrugging. He had dark purple hair and an athletic build. His name was Cao Cao. Hades snapped his skull and looked at him. If the god was not in his 'natural' form, the expression on his face would be showing fury in it. George, which was the name of the second young man, had come to talk with him due to a problem that they had encountered. The duo, just like some of the other members of his group of miscreants, could not remember at all the location in which Samael was sealed, and taking into account that the cursed being was an essential part of their next plan, they went to talk with Hades about this… problem. To their surprise, the powerful god of the dead didn't seem to remember the location of it either and that was very vexing for the nigh immortal being.

"Keep your mouth shut, the two of you. I don't want to hear anything coming from you."

Hades said while snapping at Cao Cao and George. The second had flinched with fury and aura that was being released from the god while the first one just smirked and behaved like it was nothing. Hades then turned and continued to pace from one side to the other while taking one of his hands to his jaw.

"Pluto, Thanatos. Attend me!"

Hades suddenly yelled as he continued to pace in his throne room. It didn't take ten seconds for a pair of black-clothed beings to appear kneeling by Hades. They were Grim Reapers. A race of supernatural beings that served Hades in the Realm of the Dead.

"You called, Milord?"

One of the black-clothed beings said while keeping his head down. His name was Pluto and he had a smaller build in comparison to the other Grim Reaper. The tone in his voice was dripping with respect and awe for the god.

"Yes. I want you, Pluto, and Thanatos to immediately go into Tartarus to investigate the position of Samael's prison."

Hades ordered the duo.

"But Milorde, isn't Samael's prison's location already known to us?"

Thanatos, the more bulky and stronger Grim Reaper asked the god.

"Then, please, tell me, where is it located?"

Hades replied to his subordinate while turning his skull to stare at him. Even without showing facial expressions, one could feel the mocking that dripped from the god's tone.

"It is… It is… I… I can't remember where it is."

Thanatos stuttered while trying to say the location. He was asked because, at first, he was very sure that he knew the location of Samael's prison, but while trying to say it, his facial expression changed to a frown and, after a little time trying to recall the location, he admitted that he could not remember it.

"And that is exactly why I want you two to investigate it. For some unknown reason, the knowledge of the location just disappeared from the heads of anyone that knew it."

Hades said to his Grim Reapers. The angry tone in his voice made a comeback at this.

"As you command Milord."

Pluto said to Hades after nodding his head shortly together with Thanatos, disappearing from Hades' throne room in a burst of speed soon after. Not a second later, Thanatos disappeared too. Both Grim Reapers had totally ignored the presence of the two humans in the room since they were not worthy of their attention. After some more seconds of silence. In which Hades turned again to pace in the room, the god snapped at the duo of humans still waiting.

"What? You two will stay here and wait for the end of the investigation?"

Hades snarled at Cao Cao and George. The holder of the True Longinus smirked at that, thinking that it was very amusing to see the god of the dead in this state.

"Then, do contact us when you find anything. George, let's go."

*grrr*

Hades growled at that answer and watched as the duo disappeared inside a soft purple mist that enveloped them.

"If not for your patron, I would have your souls already being tortured in some very special ways."

Hades said while growling after Cao Cao and George disappeared. He then continued to pace from one side to the other in his throne room while trying to figure out how he, and every other person, had managed to forget the location of Samael's prison seemingly at the same time. If not for his sour mood, the god of the dead would have noticed the tanned beauty that was his wife, Persephone, silently giggling at her husband's ordeal.

'I would have to thank the girls and aunt Hestia for such entertainment at a later date.'

The goddess thought while watching her frustrated husband pacing in his throne room before walking away to take care of her garden.

–

It didn't take long for the Hero faction to show their faces again. The group of terrorists decided to attack one of the Devil's Rating Games in which Sona Sitri was matching against Rias Gremory. Unfortunately for them, Erik was concealed while watching the match as in no way in the seven Heavens would he miss a Rating Game match from his little sister. Having accounted only for the presence of Serafall Leviathan and Sirzechs Lucifer, Cao Cao and the rest of his group found themselves utterly outmatched. Not that Erik's non-presence would have helped them, since they had severely underestimated the power that Satan Leviathan was packing. The Magical Satan-Girl had made short work of the thugs that Cao Cao had set to 'entertain' her by quickly freezing and breaking them apart while he, himself, fought against Sirzechs Lucifer. George, the one responsible for taking their injured people out of the battlefield while staying hidden, had no time to react at all before some of his comrades met their icy demise. Not that he could do it, anyway, because Erik had sneakily put up a barrier to make things more difficult for the user of Dimension Lost.

On the Rating Game's battlefield, things were not different at all. When met with a common enemy, the two rival teams immediately joined forces and slowly, but surely, wiped out most of the terrorists' forces. Aside from the difficulty in activating his Sacred Gear's powers, George had managed to save some of their people, and, noticing that only Cao Cao was still fighting, he warned him of their defeat. While gritting his teeth, Cao Cao ordered George to get him out of there. Serafall was eyeing him while playing with a dangerous-looking blue ball of raw power since she had finished her battle. The young man concluded that the only reason for her not helping Sirzechs Lucifer was because she knew the powers that his True Longinus had over females, but that would not stop Serafall Leviathan from going for a pot shot when he was distracted, which could turn out to be fatal for him. While saying some ominous-looking lines worthy of a cheap villain, Cao Cao disappeared in the middle of a soft purple mist, leaving behind an amused pair of Satans.

Serafall's creative mind was already going a thousand kilometers per hour with the script for her new Magical Girl Levia-Tan movie.

–

Back in his faction Headquarters, Cao Cao was receiving the report of their losses from George.

"Ninety percent. We lost ninety percent of our people! How could this have happened?!"

Cao Cao said out loud while anger was showing on his face. He, just like Hades was some time ago, was pacing around the faction's leader's room. Cao Cao then stopped his pacing and turned to face George.

"Why didn't you take them out of the battlefield when you saw that they were defeated?"

Cao Cao asked George. They had planned for him to be out of any fights and stay hidden just to be exclusively on rescue duty.

"I tried, but there was some kind of protection around the place that made my job twenty times more difficult. Every time that I managed to bring out the power to teleport them out, they had already been killed by the Devils. Not to talk about how much we underestimated Serafall Leviathan. The woman took less than ten seconds to freeze and kill the people that we sent after her. Not even Heracles' physique was able to resist her ice. He was turned into a cube of ice in a second, and in the next one, he was all in pieces over the ground."

George reported to Cao Cao. Heracles' loss was a hard hit on their faction. The muscle-brained man was unruly and as dumb as one could get, but he was strong.

"How about the others?"

Cao Cao asked George with a serious look on his face. The Dimension Lost user shook his head at that.

"Of our main fighters, Jeanne was the only one who managed to survive, but she didn't do so unharmed. She lost her main arm while fighting Sona Sitri's Queen, Tsubaki Shinra. The woman is the disciple of Musashi Miyamoto."

George said to Cao Cao. who held himself from uttering a swear. He knew how dangerous the woman-samurai was with a sword in her hand due to reports that he had read while being trained under his patron's subordinates. Cao Cao was readying himself to ask George another question when both young men heard a 'pop' sound in the room. Turning to look in the direction that it had come, both young men saw a small red envelope on the ground that was sealed with red wax. Full of curiosity, the duo walked near it with some caution and observed it, noticing a peculiar characteristic about it: the small red envelope was slowly letting out smoke.

"Have you ever seen something like this before?"

Cao Cao asked George, who was the more magically knowledgeable of the duo. The young man shook his head negatively.

"No, I had nev-"

George started to reply to Cao Cao but was interrupted by the small red envelope that started to shake over the ground. The duo jumped back while Cao Cao took out his golden spear and pointed it at the offending object. After a few more seconds of shaking, the small red envelope suddenly jumped into the air and started to fold itself about a meter and a half off the ground. When it stopped folding, it had assumed the shape of a mouth made of origami that 'faced' Cao Cao while unafraid of the True Longinus in his hands. Unexpectedly, the mouth then started to speak to them in a loud voice that sent chills down their spines.

"I warned you to not get even close to any of the people that I hold dear. Now you face the consequences of your actions. The next time, no patron of yours will be able to save your hide. It will be total annihilation."

The voice said, booming through the entirety of the headquarters of the Hero faction, reaching every member in it.

"By the way, I do hope that you have enough toilet paper in your stock."

The voice said again with the origami animated mouth imitating a smirk of sorts before bursting into flames. Silence reigned in the room. George looked at Cao Cao with some confusion on his face and was met with an equally confused expression. But, before any of them could say anything to the other, they were attacked by an uncontrollable urge to shit.

And the answer was no. The headquarters of the Hero faction didn't have enough toilet paper in stock and one of their newer recruits had to be sent to get some from the nearby department store.

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