Chapter - 50

Sirzechs accepted a ceramic mug from his wife, slamming back the mixture of coffee and cream without any regard for its warmth. The heat scalded his mouth, but at least it woke him up. Thirteen hours in and their ragtag war effort had finally begun to approach some semblance of order.

The Senate might be able to overrule individual clans, but every one the thirty-three clans represented in it had their pride. Bashing the necessity of submitting their feudal armies to central command had taken longer than it should. Opposition at his 'power grab' only collapsed when news had rolled in that half of the Agrares territory farmland was burning.

"If I hold half of my forces in my own lands, I can devote the other half to restoring order in Agrares and rebuilding infrastructure." The Great King Bael leaned down over the detailed map table. Frozen purple eyes darted over the map, considering the most vital points in their country to hold.

"That was my thought as well, Uncle." Sirzechs agreed, pushing the empty mug back into Grayfia's hands. As cold as it was, some clan territories mattered more than others. They knew it, and the enemy knew it. Hence why Sirzechs had given up on the recently rebuilt Lucifer territory and committed the entirety of his troops to defending his father's lands.

Holding onto his own seat was a matter of prestige. Preserving the largest industrial center in their realm was a matter of survival. Just like how it was important for Falbium to be leading a force to defend the Phenex clan and their groves of rare medicinal herbs instead of reconquering his territory, or how his Uncle had just proposed marching straight past three beleaguered allies to preserve the largest agricultural sector in Gehenna.

Food, medicine, and weapons mattered more than the entertainment industry or luxury silks, no matter how many noble clans raged about being forgotten.

Sirzechs massaged his pounding temples, looking over the map once more. Everything was shifting too fluidly, and the battle lines likely wouldn't crystallize for a few more hours when their reeling defences stabilized. The Aztecs had really gotten the edge over them.

When Mictlan had slammed through the barrier between their dimensions, they'd done it at a run. There was only a single point where armies could easily cross, and by using the initial chaos of coordinated bombs all across Sheol, the King of Mictlan had been able to totally seize control of the Limbo Strip, relying on sleeper cells and suddenly vicious creatures to wreak havoc on the devils while his main force marched over.

"What's the latest from Michael?" Sirzechs demanded into the tense silence, spurring Ajuka to cross arms over his chest and scowl.

"There's nothing he can do for us. He had an emergency meeting with Quetzalcoatl. As long as the angels don't interfere, the Thirteen Heavens won't move. It's just us against Mictlan. For now anyway."

"What about Azazel?"

"There we do have some good news." The Satan Beelzebub grinned, stepping up to the table and motioning at a darkened cleft. "He'll move with us. They've pulled back to the Malebolge, so no one is getting in or out of Cocytus without a fight."

"Good." Lord Bael grunted, running an agitated hand through his salt and pepper mane. "The last thing we need is one of those degenerates breaking out of prison while our hands are full with the Mictlanese."

The doors to the war room were unceremoniously thrown open, Zeoticus striding in with a scowl and his carmine military uniform covered in blood and ash. "Azmarin is secure." The Duke grunted shortly, moving up to stand beside his brother-in-law and glare ferociously down at the map spread over the enormous table.

It hurt Sirzechs just a little bit to see the cold burn in his father's blue eyes. The Duke may have survived many years under the hand of a brutal warmongering dictatorship, becoming so fearsome on the battlefield his enemies nicknamed him the 'Warlock of Extinction', but he loathed conflict. That war had come again in his lifetime no doubt cut Zeoticus deep.

Skipping any pleasantries of his own, the Great King nodded sharply and turned back to the map. "You've left orders to begin retrofitting the factories for munitions production I assume?"

"Of course." Zeoticus growled, leaning down and scooping up a handful of figurines. He left a handful to show the reserves he'd left to hold his city, dropping the rest on the Agrares territory. With the way the two clan armies were arranged, they'd catch the invading regiment between them and sweep them away.

"I wish you would reconsider the sanction against letting the purebloods enter combat." Sirzechs cut in as the two older men weighed the outlay of the combat theatre. "It seems that we're just unnecessarily hamstringing our offensive ability to horde the 72 Pillars for a battle that may never come."

"Wipe the snot from your nose, boy." The Great King sighed, purple gaze shooting up to offer an irritated glance. "You know exactly why we've instituted the ban."

Truthfully, Sirzechs did. The reason that commoners and reincarnated devils were discriminated against even if they gained power all came down to ancestry. The thirty-three families that remained of the original 72 Pillars were the only certifiably pure devil bloodlines in Gehenna. The commoners were all either former humans, or the bastard descendants of purebloods who had mixed with other species.

That purity mattered, because clan traits like the Bael Power of Destruction or the Phenex family immortality were not learned. They were genetic, inherited from the first-generation purebloods their ancestors had been. And since Lilith's Ritual had been lost to time, they no longer had the ability to create new pureblood lines via the consumption of human souls. Once those powers were bred out by miscegenation, they were gone.

Ajuka's Evil Pieces could create new 'devils', but they were bereft of any sort of genetic inheritance. Comparatively, the blood of nobles was precious for the future of their species, while the commoners and reincarnated devils were expendable.

It didn't mean Sirzechs agreed with the notion that the lives of their subjects could be spent cheaply, but he could see the pragmatic reasoning behind it.

If only it didn't taste like ash in his mouth.

*

Watching Naruto rage after their ban from combat had come down would have tickled Sairaorg pink with sadistic amusement if he hadn't been shut out as well.

Two days into the sudden war and the battle lines were finally beginning to stabilize, which was good as far as reducing the loss of life and infrastructure went. And not so good because now that some semblance of order had been given to all the chaos, it was becoming impossible for the two purebloods to sneak back out to help their people.

It was no wonder the commoners had a hate-love relationship with their overlords.

"You done yet?" the Bael heir prodded when his cousin finally wound down and went silent.

Red suffused Naruto's cheeks, giving sign of the profanity filled rant he'd just run through. "I'm not gonna be done until they pull their heads out of their asses." The redhead denied heatedly, throwing himself onto Sairaorg's bed and glaring at the ceiling.

Sairaorg propped his elbows over his knees, leaning ahead on his chair to poke at the fourteen-year-old's feet. "You're going about this all wrong." Tickling at the redhead's soles, Sairaorg smirked when Naruto kicked at his hands and glared. "If we can't get involved one way, we'll just get involved the other."

"Wow, feel like being any more cryptic, you asshole?"

Violet eyes rolled with fond exasperation. "Think, Naruto. What is a war about? Is it about winning a few battles here and there? Saving a few lives now and again? No. It's about achieving strategic objectives. Who are we fighting? Why are we fighting them? What conditions do we have for victory?"

A thoughtful frown pulled at Naruto's eyebrows, the Gremory heir slowly rolling up onto his stomach to consider his co-conspirator with more interest. "It's a defensive war, so we don't need to go into his house and blow his head off. We just have to reclaim our territory and hold our ground."

"Exactly. We obviously want to avoid a prolonged 'in the trenches' sort of war of attrition. If you're focused too much on open battle, you can miss the opportunity to bleed him elsewhere. We obviously can't cross into Mictlan and start playing commando – the only gate is pretty smack dab in the center of their army, and creating one would be very difficult and very loud. But there are other targets. Softer targets."

Naruto swung his legs out of the bed, mirroring his cousin's position and staring with intense blue orbs. "Other targets like what?" he asked suspiciously, biting the inside of his cheek when Sairaorg hesitated.

"Like their worshippers in the human world. The whole cabal of them might be weaker than their prime because they have limited followers, but every devotee cult counts. If we can cut those supports out from under them, they'll be weaker. And since their creatures and soldiers are strengthened by their power too, their armies will also weaken."

Instantly, Naruto shied away from the prospect. Even if they were devils, Naruto himself had been human once. Regardless of what they believed, people were people, and didn't deserve to be slaughtered like animals simply for following a particular god.

And yet, could Naruto really let his personal scruples get in the way of ending the war quicker? At the end of the day he wasn't just 'some guy'. He was a member of the aristocracy. He might not agree with the system but he was still part of it, and he had his duties. If he let hundreds or thousands of peasants die just to try and play at morality, wouldn't his hands be covered in just as much blood, if not more?

Maybe he didn't have the luxury anymore to try and be that idealistic prophesized hero he'd been for Konoha.

"I'm in." he gritted out, steeling his determination. "Let's do this. How are we gonna get to the human world though? And how are we gonna find these guys?"

"Hard work and more than a little luck." Sairaorg chuckled, giving his cousin a steadying grip to the shoulder. "While we're at war conventional roads are going to be shut down, but the Bael clan has a backdoor or two. And it's not like my father's going to raise a fuss if I go haring off. The ban was meant for other purebloods in his mind, not for me. He'll just hope I get killed trying to be a big damn hero."

"Have I ever told you that your dad is a huge fucking asshole?"

"Yeah, a few times."