18 A Meeting of the Anti-Maou Faction
Having sent out the signal for an emergency meeting I left my office once more through a teleportation circle.
Then in the second next I was in front of my home.
The Belial castle.
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Its construction was completed shortly after I turned 25 years old, and once it was I moved in. Since then I have been using it as a base of operations in preparations for the upcoming war. Like for the meeting that is about to take place.
The Maou descendants and their supporters have been none the wiser.
I and my allies have made sure of that.
Moving on, I walked down the road to the entrance of the castle. The guards on duty letting me pass without saying a word.
Then as soon as I entered I was greeted by the sight of Angelica and Roygun.
My lovely and beautiful wives.
We tied the knot right after I turned twenty and was officially named clan heir. No one saw the point in waiting any longer. The three of us have been very happy together.
In other news Angelica still wears her hair in twin-tails.
No matter what anyone says she won't change her hairstyle, so finally we just decided to let it be. Besides, it's not like her hairstyle affects her strength.
And she is strong.
Roygun is no slouch either.
Both of them after continuously training with me are at the level of ultimate-class devils. But not just in power alone. They have the battle experience to back it up. We three and a few others regularly go out on hunting expeditions into the various territories of the underworld. A lot of dangerous beasts with human-like levels of intelligence make their homes there, and we have fought against and killed many of them.
This one time during an expedition we even encountered some grim-reapers.
But that didn't turn into anything since we were in neutral territory and they attacked us first. So Hades didn't have a leg to stand on.
However even if he did try something I could defeat him, but killing him is another matter entirely. He is ranked in the top-ten strongest beings in the world after all. Even during canon, that Ainz look-alike managed to survive the combined power of Issei and Vali even when they were using their Diablos forms.
If we fought seriously the world around us would be warped beyond recognition.
But thankfully he didn't make a peep about that incident.
Anyway, right after I walked in Roygun walked up to me and planted a kiss on my lips. Then as soon as she separated Angelica did the same.
"Welcome home husband." Roygun said. "Would you like dinner, a bath, or maybe us?" She said, pulling Angelica into her giving me a seductive look.
'I really shouldn't have taught her that saying.' I thought. She uses it all the time.
Not that I mind at all. I take all three when I can, and most of the time not in the order they are offered to me.
"As much I would love any of those right now we don't have time." I said. I then leaned in closely to the two of them and whispered. "A code black incident just took place in the Eligos territory. Camio and Elysia are fine, but I called a meeting so we can discuss things." I told them, moving back once I was done.
Right after I did Roygun and Angelica both put serious expressions on their faces. They then nodded.
Once they did they split apart.
Then the three of us started moving through the castle. We headed straight for a set of stairs that took us down to the lower levels. Once we were there we headed straight for the room at the end of the corridor.
Arriving I placed my hand on the handle and injected my demonic power into it.
That's the only way the door can be opened. It's like a devil fingerprint scanner.
The door opened within seconds. Right after it did the three of us went inside the room, closing the door behind us.
We then took a seat at the giant round-table with multiple chairs at the center of the room. Then a few moments passed, until one by one, holographic images of our central allies and leaders of the anti-maou faction began to appear around the table.
The first to appear was Ruval. Then after him came Sirzechs, Serafall, Ajuka, and Falbium in that order.
Unlike during canon because of my influence Sirzechs and the others have been apart from the anti-maou faction from the beginning. The same with the Phenex clan, and of course my own Belial clan. We are the leaders of the anti-maou faction, along with two others.
After my friends images appeared, the next to appear was my uncle Callum. He has been our inside man in the national army. Thanks to him we've been able to gather many generals and top-commanders to our cause, since for the most part a lot of the national army is loyal to the original maou clans.
Which just goes to show you how good my uncle is as recruiting.
In other new Cleria has been born.
She appeared shortly after I entered my thirties.
My uncle finally found a woman who could put up with him. We were all so happy, but Cleria's mother died during childbirth.
It's actually not a rare-occurrence among devils. Given how low are birth rates already are compared to other species, when devil woman do give birth it's a lot more trying and dangerous. There are often a lot of miscarriages, and that is one of the better outcomes.
I'm pretty sure the devil-race is like this given how we were created.
But I also have several projects in the works to improve natural birth-rates, and the survival rates of the mothers as well.
Moving on, after my uncle Callum arrived came the last two people.
The first was the founder of the Anti-Maou faction himself and the first Bael.
Zekram.
Like I said, this man is incredibly shrewd, pragmatic, and also a realist. Despite his loyalty to the original maou he founded this coalition to take down their children and their other descendants, all so the devil race as a whole could survive.
I respect him for that.
But that doesn't mean I trust him at all.
However I follow the saying: keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
It's the reason I approached Zekram myself and helped him in founding the Anti-Maou faction.
We've actually worked quite well together, despite knowing their is no love and trust in our relationship whatsoever.
Actually that makes our relationship even better since we're not trying to bullshit each other.
It's refreshing when I speak to him.
After Zekram came the current head of the Agares family.
Dio!
No, no I'm messing with you.
The actual name of the current head of the Agares clan is Killian Agares. The man who is going to be Seekvaria's father in the future.
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So with their arrival's everyone has assembled.
Zekram looked at me. "Asterius, why did you call us all here so suddenly?"
"Tonight a group of devils launched in attack on the Eligos clan." I revealed, causing the others to tense up. "Do not worry though, I arrived and swiftly aided them in defended themselves. However even with the Eligos clans members using their [Psychometry] power they are not able to gleam any information from the corpses of the assailants or from anything they had on their persons. Which tells you one thing. That the assailants were prepared to counter the Eligos clan trait even in death."
"And the only ones with the knowledge on how to do that are the Eligos clan members themselves." Ruval spoke.
"And there patron, the Fleurety clan." I spoke. "So you can see why I called this meeting. The time for the war to begin is close at hand."
Everyone nodded, knowing this had been coming for a long time.
"So, how long do we have?" Falbium lazily asked. Even so at the moment he is deadly serious.
A rare occurrence for him.
"My best estimate, another three to five years." I said.
"I concur with Aster." Ajuka spoke up.
"We do as well." Killian said. He and Zekram nodded their heads in agreement. "We have been doing our best to hold of the maou children from officially claiming their parents positions, but their impatiences is finally reaching a beaking point." Killian explained. "Soon it will be time for us to fight."
"But is there really no other way?" Serafall questioned. "Isn't there a way we can convince our leaders not to sacrifice the lives of our people?"
'Even now she is trying to win without fighting.' I thought. I can see now why she in charge of foreign affairs in the future.
Zekram shook his head. "Unfortunately young lady Serafall there is not." He said. "I have tried what you are suggesting a few times since our original leaders died, but those children are too stubborn, spoiled, and filled with the lust for blood and greed for the spoils of war to listen to reason. They are already too far gone, so to keep our race alive we must grind them into dust. Swiftly and quickly, so as not to weaken the devil race any further than it already is."
"Yes." Callum agreed.
"We must fight to ensure our survival, despite it being against our own kind. But sometimes that is the nature of war." Ruval spoke.
He's not wrong at all.
Humans are one of the best examples of this.
And it looks like we devils are no different.
"So, what is the plan moving forward?" Sirzechs asked. "If the Maou family's and their allies are getting even more aggressive in moving against those that are or might oppose them, how are we to counter? We are still not ready for battle after all." He said.
"It's actually quite simple." Roygun spoke up. "All we have to do is get the Eligos clan to present the attackers to the underworld. That way all the other clans will be put on high alert for attacks against them, making it harder for the Maou and their allies to make another sneak attack move." She explained.
This is one of the reasons I love this woman. Her amazing brain.
Also her giant breasts that I use as a pillow most nights.
But in this case, her brain is winning out. She just proposed the same idea I was going to.
"Yes, that will work fine." Zekram said. "This will tie the hands of the Maou and their allies for a short while while we put the finishing touches on our preparations for battle. We can also use this chance to gain more pillar clans and extra demon clans as supporters." He said.
"Then let's put it into practice." I said.
Everyone nodded.
Once the plan to deal with the attack was decided upon, we discuss a few more things before the meeting came to an end.
Right after it did Roygun, Angelica, and I exited the meeting room and went back up to the main castle.
Soon after we did I went into one of the private bedrooms and threw up a silencing spell.
I then used a magic circle and sent out a single.
A few seconds after I did a teleportation circle appeared in the room.
As it died down Grafiya stood in front of me.
The moment she was solid I walked up to her and we shared a kiss, taking in each others bodies and scents.
It's been a while since I've seen her after all.
