Progress

Underworld, Gremory Territory, Gremory Estate.

After telling James the when and the where of his duel with Sirzechs, Grayfia returned to the Underworld. After appearing in the Gremory Estate, she quickly made her way towards the bar, thinking to numb her emotions with a drink... Or ten.

However, when she arrived, expecting the bar to be empty, she found Venelana standing behind the bar smiling at her kindly.

"Take a seat, Grayfia." Venelana said as she finished mixing Grayfia's favorite drink. "I'm sure you need to talk."

Sighing in response, Grayfia did as Venelana said and took a seat in front of the bar. A moment later, the drink Venelana had just finished mixing was placed in front of her. Wasting no time, Grayfia picked up the glass quickly and placed it on her lips.

*Gulp!* *Gulp!* *Gulp!*

"*Sigh* I can't say that I know how you feel exactly." Venelana said after watching Grayfia begin to chug her drink. "But I do know how it feels to fall out of love with someone you've been with for centuries."

Placing the, now, empty glass back on the bar, Grayfia listened to Venelana intently.

"So, what I would suggest is you taking some time away from Sirzechs." Venelana said. "And I don't mean to just stop sleeping with him. I mean to stop associating with him for a time. You should stop your work with the Satans, at least until you know exactly what you want and how you feel."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Grayfia asked while she covered her face with her hands. "I'm his [Queen]."

"That is true." Venelana said with a nod. "But perhaps that will have to change... Temporarily, at least."

Instead of saying anything, Grayfia stared at her mother-in-law, waiting for her to continue. However, Venelana, with a smile on her face paused to make Grayfia another drink.

"There." Venelana said while placing Grayfia's new drink on the bar top. "Now, where was I."

Grayfia continued to stare at Venelana, not even touching her drink. It was clear she was more interested in hearing Venelana's idea of what she should do about the situation.

"Fine." Venelana pouted a little. "You're no fun right now. I really hate seeing you like this. I'll suggest trading my unused [Queen Piece] with Sirzechs. After the duel with James, of course."

'I see, that is an option.' Grayfia thought to herself. 'But why wait until after the duel with James?'

"I'm sure you're wondering why I would wait until after the duel to request the trade, correct?" Venelana asked with a smile.

Grayfia simply nodded in response.

"Because, we can't give Sirzechs anything he could use as an excuse if he were to lose to James." Venelana said, answering her own question.

'I see, with pride as high as his, He'll definitely come up with some kind of excuse to explain away his defeat.' Grayfia thought as she finally picked up the glass in front of her.

"I don't know how possible this is." Venelana said as she began mixing a drink for herself. However, her expression darkened as she continued to speak. "But if Sirzechs is to go back to who he was, his pride will need to be crushed... Thoroughly."

'It looks like it's not just me who was disappointed in Sirzechs' actions, huh?' Grayfia thought as she sipped her second drink. '*Sigh* After explaining what happened to Millicas, Sirzechs' image took a hit in his mind, too. Well, I guess that's no surprise, Millicas has looked up to James as his hero for a long time now. I just hope that the father son relationship can be salvaged.'

Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

The next day, after school while Scathach was training the peerages and Yusuke, Leona came down into the training room.

"Huh? Mom... Is in the training room?" James exclaimed while balancing on a spike using one finger and a thin layer of demonic energy. "Are there three suns rising from the south?"

Hearing that, all those who had known Leona since they were children began to laugh and giggle. Leona even noticed Cassiel among the group of laughing people.

"Ha ha, laugh it up." Leona said with a smile. "And Cass, I'll deal with you later."

Immediately, Cassiel's laughter was caught in his throat.

"Setanta!" Scathach shouted, causing all the laughter to stop. "Your breakthrough is imminent. Do you have the time to laugh right now? Focus!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Cu Chulainn shouted in response.

"Oh, so Lancer is about to breakthrough into the minor god-rank, huh?" Leona said with some interest. "Well, that's not all that important right now."

"So, what brings you down here, Honey?" Cassiel asked, trying to butter up his wife who intends to deal with him later.

"Oh, a message from Heaven arrived for James." Leona said with a smile.

"For me?" James asked as he flipped off the spike he was balancing on. "Heaven's never contacted me before, I wonder what this is about."

After James drew near, Leona handed him the letter from Heaven. After opening the envelope and unfolding the letter, James began to read. The longer he read, the more his eyes lit up.

"So, what does it say?" Leona asked, full of curiosity.

"My peerage and I have been invited to tour heaven." James said with a smile. "And they're allowing me to set the date, since they are aware of the upcoming duel with Sirzechs."

"Seriously?" Cassiel asked in an incredulous tone. "You'll be the first devils to set foot in Heaven since the creation of our race."

"I know, right." James said with a smug smile. "I'm pretty awesome. A trailblazer if you would. Doing things that devils have never done before."

"Okay, take it down a notch, Chevy truck." Leona said. "We don't want you to get too prideful like that asshole Satan."

"Uh, Mom, his sister is right over there." James said sheepishly while pointing to Rias who was working on more finely controlling her [Power of Destruction]."

"Oops." Leona said, covering her mouth with her hands.

"It's fine, what my brother did was unacceptable." Rias said without losing focus on her training. "In fact, I have every intention to give him a piece of my mind."

"Be careful everyone." Akeno said with a smile. Then, while gesturing with her fingers, she continued. "Rias is this far away from going into raging bitch mode."

"Shut up, Akeno!" Rias shouted, absorbing her [Power of Destruction] back into her hands before she could lose control. "Or I'll show you a raging bitch."

Once again, laughter and giggles were heard around the training room, while Cu Chulainn continued to focus on his breakthrough.

"Damn it." Dante muttered while he watched Cu Chulainn attempt his breakthrough. "He's getting ahead of me again."

"Quit your bitchin'" Lady said without mercy. "It's not like you haven't improved in the last few months either. Hell, we all have."

"I know that." Dante muttered. "I just don't' want to fall to far behind those two."

As Lady said, everyone in all three peerages from the Younger generation have improved over the last few months. Most have gone up one level, while some have gone up by two. For example, everyone in James' peerage has gone up by at least one level. What that means is, no one in James' peerage is below ultimate-rank now.

Scathach predicted that either today or tomorrow, Cu Chulainn would break through into the minor god-rank. While Flora, Lady, and Shuna had broken into the initial-level ultimate-rank. Dante reached the peak of the same rank while everyone else went up a level in the rank.

In the case of Rias and her peerage, Rias increased her level to the advanced level of the ultimate-rank. Asia, Xenovia, Mio, and Maria have all raised their ranks to high-rank. With Asia, Mio, and Xenovia rising by two levels in the last few months. Also, Akeno broke through to the Ultimate-rank, while Koneko, Yuuto, Gasper, and Issei all went up a level in the high-rank.

Sona's peerage had also shown good progress in the same time frame. Sona, like Rias, has also raised her level to the advanced-level of the ultimate-rank. While her [Queen] Tsubaki went up a level in the ultimate-rank as well. The members in her peerage who were below high-rank, namely, Tomoe, Tsubasa, Momo, Ruruko, and Loup, managed to all rise to the high-rank. All be it at the initial-level, with the exception of Tomoe who made it to the intermediate-level. While those who were already at high-rank, Reya, Genshirou, Rossweisse, and Bennia, all went up to the next level in the high-rank.

"Now that I look around, this is a scary talented group of young devils." Cassiel said, proud to be able to witness the growth of the devils who would carry the future of the Underworld. "How could he try to stifle this?"

"Because he's an arrogant, egotistical, jackass who forgot who he was." Leona said before walking back toward the elevator. "Anyway, now that I've delivered the message, I have no business down here."

"Just a moment, Leona." Scathach said, appearing behind Leona with her hand on her shoulder. "I do believe we had a deal."

"A deal, what could you possibly be talking about, Scatti?" Leona asked with sweat running down her back.

"If I recall correctly, if you were to ever make your way down into the training room while I was conducting training..." Scathach said, tapping her chin with one of her index fingers like Rias often does.

'Holy crap, that's unexpectedly cute.' James and Leona thought simultaneously as they watched Scathach.

"Hey, Akeno, is Master Scathach copying me?" Rias whispered to Akeno.

"It looks like it." Akeno said while licking her lips. "Punishing her while she's acting so cute would be so hot."

"You know what?" Rias said as she turned away from Akeno. "I'm done with you."

"Haha..." Leona began to laugh dryly as Scathach continued to stare into her eyes.

"What did you promise to do?" Cassiel asked full of curiosity.

"*Sigh* I promised to join the training for the next month without complaints." Leona said with a tearful expression.

Cassiel, knowing how much Leona hates training, was dumbfounded that Leona would ever make a promise like that. In fact, the only time he could remember seeing her train in the last twenty years was when she was doing James water bowl training method. And that was only so that she could throw water at people once her control was good enough.

"And here I thought you would attempt to deny it." Scathach said with her usual expression on her face.

"I'm a lot of things, Scatti." Leona said, almost sounding offended. "But I am not someone who breaks their promises. However, if you had forgotten, that would be a different story."

"Would it?" James asked. "That still sounds like breaking a promise to me."

"It would." Leona said proudly. "Because until Scatti said something about it, I had completely forgotten."

*Smack!* x 2

In response to Leona's shameless statement, James and Cassiel face palmed simultaneously.

"I would expect no less from you, my wife." Cassiel said in a dry tone.

"Of course." Leona replied with a nod and a smile.

"Why do you look so proud that you forgot?" James asked.

Ignoring James question, Leona turned her attention back to Scathach.

"I'll start tomorrow." Leona said. "I just want to enjoy my last night of freedom."

"Very well." Scathach replied with a nod. "But you will be down here tomorrow evening. Even if I have to drag you down here, kicking and screaming."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Leona said as she began to walk towards the elevator again.

Before Leona could get too far, however, Cu Chulainn's demonic power began to rise. The pressure that his presence alone began to put on everyone else in the training room was on the rise as well.

"Looks like he did it." Scathach said with a smile.

"Yeah, as soon as you weren't breathing down his neck anymore, he broke through." James said absent-mindedly.

"Would you care to repeat yourself, my disciple." Scathach asked in a cold tone.

"*Sigh* Master, you may not realize this." James said in an exasperated tone. "But you really put a lot of pressure on us, Lancer and me. The thought of disappointing you, the person we both respect the most, can be debilitating."

"I see." Scathach said as the corners of her mouth began to curl ever so slightly.

"Anyway, I guess I better go spar with that idiot before he starts to get out of hand with his power going to his head." James said with a sadistic grin on his face.

"You know, I feel a bit sorry for Lancer, all of a sudden." Cassiel said while shaking his head.