Marius, Crom, and Rizevim, oh my

They filed into the throne room, and saw several nobles standing here and there, while a woman around twenty sat in the throne and a young looking man was standing not too far away. Alex turned his attention to the woman on the throne, Valerie, and felt angry at what he saw. He thought he learned this by now, but it was still shocking to see how words on a page never did justice. Her eyes were empty and hollow, and the smile she had was nothing to be happy about, as it only inspired pity. As they approached the throne she looked at them and spoke,

"Hello, I guess I am the new head and Queen of the Tepes family, Valerie. Oh my Gasper you've gotten quite big!" She said as her gaze narrowed onto Gasper. He was currently in girl form, and grimaced as he looked at her. He forced a smile on his face and walked forward.

"It's good to see you Valerie." She smiled in response to hearing him, and looked at everyone surrounding him before saying,

"It looks like you've got quite a few friends Gasper, thank you all for taking care of him." Suddenly she faced another direction and started talking in a language that none of them could understand, even with the Devils translation abilities. Azazel immediately told everyone not to look at the place she was speaking, especially Asia, Xenovia, and Irina, while Alex frowned and asked Lauren,

'She's speaking to the souls of the dead, right?' Lauren sighed and responded,

'You could say that, the holy grail in this world actually allows one to touch upon the principle of life itself. Some of the ones it contacts are even those from other worlds, which is why it not only drives the user to insanity, but is also one we watch over closely. Even if you look for it in the shop you can't find it, just because it's one of the few powers we deemed too dangerous to mass produce. Though there's several powers that can bring back the dead if used right, the Sephiroth Grail is one of the most dangerous. It's no wonder Rizevim was drawn to it during his research to other worlds.' When Alex heard her words he was dumbfounded, and a quick search of the shop proved that she was right and it wasn't there. At that moment,

"Valerie, it's not nice to focus on the "others" while we have guests. Greetings to our esteemed guests, I am Marius Tepes, fifth in line for the throne and current mayor of the temporal government, while also heading the sacred gear research department. I am also Valerie's brother if you're wondering about pedigree." Alex narrowed his eyes at the speaker, Marius. Azazel also narrowed his eyes, and asked,

"I see, then I'm guessing that you're one of the ones who started the coup d'état, so why did you go through with it?" The man smiled evilly and simply said,

"I simply wanted to research the sacred gear Sephiroth Grail as much as I wished, and my father and brothers were in my way so I had them removed. There was no other reason." Azazel was gaping in disbelief, while the nobles were flustered that he put it so bluntly. Valerie on the other hand just continued to smile, as if she couldn't register that he pretty much admitted she was his guinea pig and puppet. Gasper looked as if he was about to cry, while Xenovia was about to take out her durandal and attack the man, until Alex put his hand on her arm and stopped her. She looked at him in disbelief, until she saw where his gaze was. Her action caught everyone else's attention, and they looked there as well, and saw the person leaning against the wall.

There was a guy with long hair colored both gold and black, to match his eyes. The right being gold, and the left being black. Though he was looking at them his gaze was completely focused on Alex, as an intense pressure was felt. It was obvious that he wanted to fight Alex at once, but unlike Grendel he was holding himself back since it wasn't part of his current mission, yet. Alex could say without any hesitation the feeling was mutual. He then said to the man,

"May I presume the Crescent Circle Dragon, Crom Cruach?" Everyone looked surprised at Alex's words, but the man continued looking at him and simply said,

"Red dragon emperor, I anticipate the day we can fight." Alex smiled and nodded in response. Right after that Marius called an end to their meeting and they were escorted to away to meet with the head of the Tepes family, Gaspers father.

As they were walking down the hallway, they came face to face with an elderly looks man with silver hair. Though this was the first time Alex met him, he recognized him almost instantly, due to the similarities with his grandson, Vali.

"Rizevim lucifer!" Azazel choked out when they saw him. The man had a creepy look of joy when he saw them, and said,

"If it isn't uncle Azazel, and the sister of the current lucifer, and also the current red dragon? My, my, my, thing are sure to be interesting here soon." Aazazel continued glaring before asking,

"Why're you, the one who disappeared during the Devils civil war, here now? are you planning on getting revenge like the other Maou descendants?" Rizevim laughed at Azazel's words, and said,

"No, no,no, I have something much more entertaining to do now, that's why. Should I tell you uncle Azazel, or no?" And like that the man was debating with himself while Azazel continued glaring at him, before he finally decided to say,

"I think I will, say uncle Azazel, did you know there's other worlds out there?" Azazel and Kiba were the only ones to react, as they were the only ones still in the dark about Alex's past. But neither of them or Rizevim noticed this and he continued, but his next words sent a chill down Alex's spine,

"You see there was a man researching the multiverse theory while also being a magic knowledge genius, I happens to come across him a few years ago and after killing him looked over his research. According to his research there exists other worlds out there, with their own people and gods, but he never succeeded in contacting or documenting them. I dismissed his theories until I found one partially juicy piece of information, eighteen years ago he picked up an anomaly within the human world that didn't match any existing data from those who exist here, in other words a visiter from another world!" While Azazel was confused at Rizevim's words, Alex could feel a cold sweat going down his back, and some of the girls started looking at him. Rizevim continued,

"But almost immediately the signal disappeared and the man was never able to find it, almost as if it camouflaged itself or left. I was disappointed that no results were ever reached, but took the equipment he had in the lab to study further later, and I'm glad I did because there was another hit, just less than a month ago." At this point even Alex was confused, as there shouldn't be any other world travelers for nearly two years, unless there was something Lauren wasn't telling him. The woman in question was sweating herself at her blunder, as she was sure it was her visit that he picked up; and she also made a note to send to her boss about the progress this world was making, as it was even more advanced than she ever thought.

After telling them all of this Rizevim started walking past them, and left them there to think about his words.