Ripples on the Pond

Human World, Sicily, Cefalu.

On the terrace of a beachside villa, around the time James escaped from the horror of Shion's cooking, two men sat and watched the recording of James battle against Sirzechs on a tablet. While the first of the two, a tall, dark-skinned young man with a sharp gaze, black circles around his eyes, long dark brown hair, and what appeared to be light blue tribal markings all over his exposed skin wearing a high collar black cloak and baggy black pants with the same tribal markings all over them, a pair of what looks like red claws around his neck and a golden sash, stared at the tablet with an unreadable expression in his eyes. Although the murderous intent leaking out of his body would let anyone know that he wanted to kill one of the two fighters on the tablet.

"*Whistle* That boy sure is strong." The second man, a middle-aged man looking to be in his forties with long silver hair, a beard of the same color and silver eyes, said with a grin on his face. "He's probably even stronger than my dear grandson."

"That boy is using [Dragon Slayer Magic]." the dark skinned man growled. "Which means that he must die."

"I know, and he will." The silver haired man, Rizevim Livan Lucifer, said with is grin widening. "But now isn't the time. We have much more to prepare for the final battle."

"I won't wait much longer." The dark skinned man said, returning his gaze to the tablet and staring at James' figure. "All dragons must be destroyed."

"I find it Ironic that the Apocalypse Dragon, Acnologia is so eager to annihilate all the dragons." Rizevim said with a chuckle. "Either way, I'd appreciate it if you didn't get rid of the dragons that are on our side until my plans are completed."

"As long as they stay out of my sight, I can tolerate their existences for now." Acnologia said, not even considering the dragons, other than Crom Cruach, a challenge.

While Rizevim was controlling the Tepes Faction of vampires, the first dragon that Lucifer revived with Valerie Tepes' [Sacred Gear], [Sephiroth Graal], was Acnologia. However, because he had the intention of reviving the other Evil Dragons, Rizevim realized that leaving Acnologia in the Tepes Castle was a bad idea, so he had him transferred to his private property in Sicily.

"As a matter of fact, we'll be ready to implement our final plan in the next few months if everything goes as we expect." Rizevim said with an insane grin. "Once I get my hands on that little Valkyrie's research, I'll be one step closer."

"As long as all the dragons are eliminated, I don't care what you do." Acnologia said, still staring at the tablet.

Heaven, Sixth Heaven.

"He's much stronger than we expected." Uriel said, uncomfortable after seeing the power that James displayed in his duel with Sirzechs. "It's a good thing that our spies in the Underworld were able to get us this recording. Otherwise, we would be unprepared when this boy turns against the alliance."

Immediately after saying his piece, Uriel could feel that someone was glaring at him. When he turned his head to see who it was, he was shocked to find his sister, Gabriel, glaring at him with tears forming in her eyes, a pout on her lips, and her cheeks puffed out. At the same time, Michael and Raphael could only stare at Uriel with pity in their gazes.

"Gabriel, Sister, what's wrong?" Uriel asked in a panicked tone.

"James is a good boy." Gabriel said in a clearly upset tone. "He wouldn't betray us."

Not knowing how to handle this situation, Uriel turned to his brothers for help. First, Raphael, who seemed to not notice his silent plea for help, as he was studying a particularly interesting point on the wall of the meeting room. Then, when he turned his gaze to Michael, Michael only smiled kindly without offering a word of advice.

"Okay, Sister, I'm sorry." Uriel said, unable to handle Gabriel's tearful gaze. "I won't say anything like that again."

'You knew you were going to end up apologizing for it.' Raphael thought to himself. 'Then why even bother saying it.'

"*Cough!*" Michael coughed lightly to get everyone's attention. Once he had it, he brought the conversation to another topic, that he figured would make Gabriel stop pouting. "Grayfia Lucifuge contacted us with an inquiry from James Alaverus."

"Oh, what did he want to know?" Raphael asked.

"As I'm sure all of you are aware, James was the first devil to be granted a second peerage." Michael said.

The other three Great Seraphs nodded in response.

"Well, James would like to know if only his original peerage will be allowed into Heaven when he visits." Michael said, transmitting the message to the other Seraph.

"Well, that depends." Uriel said with a slight frown. "How many does he want to bring in total?"

"The message didn't specify." Michael replied.

"How many of the sin suppression devices do we have?" Michael asked.

"We have fourteen." Gabriel said in a bubbly tone. "So, that means that James can bring his first peerage and two of his second peerage."

"But his first peerage only has eleven members." Uriel said, a bit confused. "So, he should be able to bring three from his second peerage, right?"

"No, no, no." Gabriel said while wagging her finger at Uriel. "One of those devices is reserved for my friend Leona."

"Then, that means he can bring is first peerage, his mother, and two from his second peerage." Michael said with a kind smile. "I'll respond to Miss Grayfia with that."

Underworld, Satan Territory, Capital City, Lilith.

Around the same time, the Four Great Satans were meeting in Sirzechs' recovery room.

"Yawn* Your impulsive actions have caused us some trouble." Falbium said in a tired tone.

"What do you mean?" Sirzechs said listlessly.

"It seems that videos of your duel have been spreading to other pantheons at quite the speed." Ajuka said.

"And how is that my fault?" Sirzechs asked with a frown on his face. "If James had waited for a more appropriate time to challenge me to the duel, none of this would have happ..."

*Smack!*

With the sound of flesh striking flesh, the room fell silent immediately. What left everyone stunned, especially Sirzechs who just got slapped, was that Serafall was the one who slapped him.

What was that for?" Sirzechs asked angrily when he came back to his senses.

"This is your fault, and yours alone Sirzechs." Serafall said in a stern tone.

Hearing Serafall's tone and the fact that she did not add –Chan to Sirzechs name, everyone was shocked once again. The last time Serafall acted like this, an entire fortress full of Old Satan supporters were frozen into blocks of solid ice along with the fortress.

"If you hadn't provoked him in public, do you think that Jay-Kun would have challenged you in public?" Serafall asked sternly. "No, if you hadn't provoked him do you think he would have challenged you at all?"

"Yet it's okay that he's been provoking me for months?" Sirzechs asked angrily.

"Had he been provoking you or telling you like it is?" Serafall fired back immediately. "He told you that you weren't worthy of your title. And to be honest, when I found out what you did with the report that Grayfia-Chan brought, I couldn't agree with him more."

"The report that Grayfia brought?" Falbium asked curiously.

At the same time, Ajuka looked at Sirzechs skeptically.

"It's nothing to worry about." Sirzechs said while averting his eyes awkwardly.

"Don't give me that." Serafall said, stomping her foot as she spoke. "Grayfia-Chan brought you a copy of the report that was spread after James and Scathach's 'duel' with the former members of the Devil Council, months earlier."

Hearing that, Ajuka and falbium opened their eyes wide in disbelief. Then, they directed gazes at Sirzechs that were practically screaming: "Is that true?"

Once again, Siirzechs could not maintain eye contact with the ther Satans.

"*Sigh* I don't even know what to say." Ajuka said.

Falbium, on the other hand, did not say a word. He just stared at Sirzechs with a reproachful glare.

"Oh, that's not even the worst part." Serafall said, resting her hands on her hips. "When Grayfia brought him the reports, he destroyed them. Then, he gave her some crap about the Underworld's public stability. We all know that it was because his pride wouldn't allow him to publish something that he didn't order to be found."

"But it did destabilize things when the news was first released." Sirzechs argued weakly.

"Do you want me to slap you again?" Serafall asked with a scowl.

"No, Ma'am." Sirzechs said while shrinking back.

"Anyway, we got off topic." Ajuka said calmly. "What do we do about the whole of the supernatural world knowing about the duel?"

"It may not be as bad as we think." Serafall said after taking a deep breath and letting her expression change back to her usual cheerful one.

"What do you mean?" Falbium asked with his eyes narrowed. "None of the other factions/ pantheons, even our allies, are going to be too thrilled to know that we have another major god -ranked combatant."

"But it should also work as a deterrent." Serafall said with a smile on her face. "At least until they're sure exactly how strong Jay-Kun is. Lucky for us, he didn't have to use everything he had to beat up Sirzechs-Chan."

Sirzechs winced at Serafall's dagger like words, but he had nothing to retort with.

"Serafall is right." Ajuka said. "Until they know if he can fight on par with a god king-ranked opponent, since it is known that he can fight above his own level, we should have time until someone decides to attack."

"So, Sirzechs pride finally did something good, huh?" Falbium asked. "Things might have been much worse if Sirzechs had been training and made James go all out."

Human World, Japan, Kuoh.

After a few hours of laying the smack down on Issei in the latest installment of WWE 2K, James returned home and prayed to everything unholy that Shion had forgotten about cooking for him, for today at least.

"I'm back!" James shouted as he walked through the front door of the Alaverus Estate.

"Hurry into the living room.!" Leona shouted in return. "Grayfia is here with a response from Heaven about how many people you can bring."

Hearing that, James eyes lit up. This may mean that he could bring more than just his original peerage. Not that he would complain if he could not. But it was still something he was looking forward to hearing the answer to.

Quickly changing out of his shoes and into a pair of house slippers, James made his way into the living room to see Leona, Cassiel, Irene, Evangeline, and Grayfia playing poker. And judging by the expressions on everyone's faces, Cassiel was losing.

"Hey, Pop." James said as he approached the card table. "Doesn't look like things are going to well for you."

"Shut up, Kid." Cassiel replied without even looking at James. "I'm concentrating."

James only chuckled at the desperate tone from his father. He knew that none of these people cared about the money that was on the table in the pot. Instead, there must be something else that made his father so nervous about losing this hand. However, after seeing the manic smile on his mother's face, James thought it would be better for his mental health if he did not know the terms of the bet.

"Anyway, what's the verdict about how many people can come with me to Heaven?" James asked after Grayfia folded her hand and exhaled a sigh.

"Oh, the Seraphs said that there was a total of fourteen spots open." Grayfia replied while nodding at James as a sign of greeting.

"Fourteen, huh?" James said, beginning to count on his fingers. When he was done, he spoke once again. "So, I have two extra spots if I count my original peerage and Mom."

"So, it would seem." Grayfia replied. "Also, Michael, leader of the Four Great Seraph inquired when you planned on making the trip to Heaven."

"Hmm... Can you let them know that we'll come next Saturday?" James asked Grayfia with a smile.

"Consider it done." Grayfia replied with a slight bow of her head.

"Now, all that's left is to pick the first two members of my second peerage. However, I don't know who will accept, other than Kahlua."