V-2: How To Revive Your Kitsune

"I can't believe it was THAT easy!" Cinder murmured, leaning against one of the rails to either side of the bridge that she, Raylix, Irene and Esdeath were standing on, overlooking the area that enshrined the stone that they just so happened to be looking for. Raylix let out a light snort, nodding in agreement: it really hadn't taken them all that long to find the so-called Killing Stone. Not with the help of signs all over the area north of Nasu, which had led them pretty easily to the shrine in question. It was late-afternoon, and the four supernaturals weren't the only ones around... though that didn't mean the area was all that heavily populated.

Only a few humans around: one older Japanese guy on his own on the edge of the bridge, and a couple that looked more like tourists than anyone relatively native to the area on a wooden walkway, a bit closer to the stone. Apart from that, and them, the area was pretty much deserted.

Esdeath flicked a little bit of fluff off the bottom hem of her summer-dress, and leaned on the same rail that Cinder was on, her eyes flicking around each of the humans in the area to the stone that they had come for.

"I concur with Cinder." the bluenette remarked. "That was INCREDIBLY easy."

"Yeah, you'd think whoever made this place up would be a bit more careful with where they put a stone that is, technically, the body and soul of a being that killed as many people as Fat Man." Raylix remarked. "Or at least, put it somewhere under enough protection that we couldn't just waltz in here with no issue. Were they stupid, or something?"

"Either that, or just didn't know what they were dealing with." Irene replied. "I mean, it has been over eight hundred years. Way crazier things have passed into legend in less time."

Raylix shrugged.

"Guess so." he replied. "So, then, we've got the soul. And I suppose it wouldn't be the hardest thing in the world to do to transform the stone back into a body for her to inhabit, right?"

"Oh, no." Irene remarked, lightly shaking her head. "No way. I can do that, easy."

"Uh-huh, right." Raylix nodded. "That's the body, then."

"Leaving only the lifespan." Cinder remarked. "Assuming that none of us volunteer to pump a constant stream of energy into Tamamo to get her up and running, how exactly are we going to get what we need for her?"

There was silence for several seconds between the four. Cinder and Raylix's eyes were focused on the stone in question. Unknown to the two, Esdeath's eyes- again- flicked to the tourist couple, to the old man, to the stone, back to the tourist couple-

"I doubt that would work all too well, Esdeath." Irene remarked, the only one of the three to notice the look slowly coming onto Esdeath's face. "That couple over there, there's probably a century of lifespan between them. And that old guy? Twenty years, and that's being pretty damn generous."

Raylix and Cinder looked over at Esdeath, who was looking over at Irene, but not replying.

"A hundred and twenty years, that would barely be a drop in the bucket for Tamamo." she remarked. "Not even a percent of a percent. If we're going to go through with this, we'll need to suck a lot more lifespan out of far more people. Which, if we want to be discreet about this, could take a while."

"Why don't we just find one of, you know, us?" Raylix remarked, gesturing to the four-strong group. "A supernatural being- two, if we want to be thorough- that'd give us all the lifespan we could want and then some."

Irene let out a slow breath, shifting her body slightly closer to the rail to make way for the old guy, who seemed to have looked his fill at the so-called Killing Stone, and was making his way across the bridge to exit the shrine-like area. She- as well as Raylix, Cinder and Esdeath- remained silent until he was well out of earshot.

"That does sound more feasible." The scarlet-haired Platinum replied. "The only problem is that your average Youkai, if you want to find someone local, is going to be rather harder to find and pick up than any group of regular humans. And they're not going to come quietly, either."

"So rounding up a bunch of humans and slaughtering them for their lifespan is the easier option?" Cinder asked.

"I'm saying it's AN option, that should remain open." Irene replied. "We find a Youkai, we take it. If not, we take the human route, agreed?"

"...Sure, yeah." Raylix nodded, taking a breath as he straightened up. "So should one of us stay here, watch the stone, while the rest of us pan out over the area and look for someone?"

"I'll stay." Cinder replied, instantly. "What?" she added, as everyone looked around at her. "You three are more likely to be able to take on any Youkai you see than I am, I'd rather not end up pointlessly losing my life trying to find a sacrifice for that thing!" she jerked a thumb over at the stone, which Raylix looked over at before looking back at Cinder. As he did so, he subconsciously registered the sight of the two tourists walking past them and out of the area in his mind, meaning that the four of them were the only ones left in the general vicinity of the Killing Stone.

"Alright. That's fair." He replied. "You stay here and watch the stone. Irene, Esdeath and I'll look around the surrounding area, see if there's any Youkai we can nab, then meet back here."

"Sounds like a plan." Irene remarked, nodding. "Let's-" but before she could finish that sentence, she suddenly pulled out her staff and brought up a magical barrier around herself, Raylix, Cinder and Esdeath, fractions of a second before what looked like bolts of energy struck it.

It wasn't a kind of energy that Raylix had seen before: it seemed a lot more... flowing, than similar bolts of demonic energy or human magical energy. When it impacted the barrier that Irene had put up, it seemed to spread out over its surface-area before fading away into the air, rather than just fizzling out on the spot.

"Sage Arts..." Irene muttered under her breath, as she, Raylix, Cinder and Esdeath immediately got ready for a fight. "Maybe we won't have to go looking for a Youkai to sacrifice, after all."

Narrowing his eyes, Raylix looked up over at where the energy-bolt had come from, and saw two beings standing on the other side of the Killing Stone from where they were. One was an elderly-looking, bald man with a strangely gourd-shaped head and dark- almost black- eyes, dressed in a brightly-coloured kimono, while the other was what seemed to be a middle-aged woman. Short white hair, dark-gold eyes, dressed in a similar kimono to the gourd-headed man but in rather darker colours. She didn't possess any oddly-shaped face, or any other weird features like the elderly man did, but what she DID possess were a pair of what looked like cat-ears, as white as her hair, atop her head. As well as that, from her back, Raylix counted one- two- four- five- seven cat-like tails, all waving about. A Nekomata, he mentally surmised.

"Devils and Magicians," the gourd-headed man called out, his eyes narrowed. "I must kindly ask that you step away from the stone, and leave this place immediately."

"Didn't know we had stalkers." Raylix remarked to himself as he moved off of the bridge, narrowing his eyes slightly as well. "I think you've got the wrong guys. We're just tourists, we heard about the..." he raised a hand, pointing over at the stone. "whatever that is, and-"

"I heard your desire to steal the Killing Stone and use it to bring Tamamo-no-Mae back to this world." The white-haired Nekomata cut across Raylix before he could even finish. "And I've been observing your group, and every conversation you've had about potential... methods, since arriving in this town."

Raylix remained silent, only letting out a quiet snort and sharing a look with Irene, who shrugged and summoned her staff. Cinder and Esdeath took the hint, summoning their swords, with Raylix summoning Gaeneron in one hand as well.

"There's no need for this to get violent!" the gourd-headed man called out, raising a pair of pacifying hands as he looked down at Raylix. "I'm not sure if you know this, Devil, but that-" he pointed at the stone. "Is one of the most evil beings to have ever walked this earth. As many people have fallen by her hand as when one of the atomic weapons were dropped on this nation nearly half a century ago! If she were to be unleashed upon this world again, there's no telling how much destruction Tamamo-no-Mae could cause, how much would be on YOUR hands by doing so! This is your final warning: put down your weapons, leave this nation immediately, and-"

Raylix had heard enough of the gourd-headed Youkai- who he'd mentally identified from what Sirzechs had told him via accounts from Serafall, as Nurarihyon, the leader of the East Youkai Faction. Quickly raising his right hand, Raylix sent a bolt of destructive energy at Nuraihyon and the Nekomata by his side, that struck the ledge they were standing on with pinpoint precision with a loud bang.

A cloud of dust was kicked up by the attack that Raylix had fired off, but when it faded away, neither Nurarihyon or the Nekomata were where they'd been standing a moment before.

"Alright, whatever." Raylix remarked, lowering his head and turning to Irene, Esdeath and Cinder, who were looking over at him. "Cinder, grab the stone. Irene, Esdeath, let's-"

Before Raylix could even finish his sentence, Irene suddenly levelled her staff at him and fired a powerful bolt of energy, one that Raylix was not prepared to have to counter or block. Instinct kicked in and he dodged to the side, with Irene's energy-bolt striking the natural wall behind him and leaving a nasty-looking scorch-mark. Raylix looked up, and noticed before he could ask Irene just what the HELL she was playing at, that her eyes didn't look like they normally did. They were a darker colour, almost black... just like Nurarihyon's.

'Hypnosis.' Raylix thought, quickly raising a barrier in front of himself to block a second energy-bolt from Irene. A quick glance at Cinder's normally-amber eyes and Esdeath's normally-blue ones told Raylix that they'd been afflicted with a similar ailment, and that they were preparing to attack as well. 'Gonna have to take down that twat to get rid of it on them, or else...'

Raylix looked around quickly, as he parried a swipe from one of Cinder's swords and jumped back to put some distance between himself and her. In the afternoon sun he was easily able to spot Nurarihyon, standing a good bit closer to the stone than he had been when he and the Nekomata (who wasn't with him now) had first appeared a minute or so ago.

'She might have gone for backup.' Raylix thought, spreading his wings. 'Not good. Gonna have to make this fast!'

With enough force to crack the ground around him as he did so, Raylix launched himself towards Nurarihyon, Gaeneron raised and poised to strike. When he was close enough, he swung, but found himself striking a wall of ice that had rapidly formed around around his sword and hand, as opposed to flesh. Turning around, he saw Esdeath with her own wings spread, one hand raised with the other holding her rapier. Sighing, Raylix turned back around (doing his best to ignore the smirk on Nurarihyon's face) and blasted the ice around his hand, freeing himself from his cold restraints just in time to dodge another few bolts of the same flowing energy as Irene had blocked before. However, when he turned to try and see where the bolts had come from, there was no-one there.

Apparently the Nekomata hadn't retreated to get backup, she was around. Probably under magical (or whatever the Youkai's version of magic was. Irene mentioned Sage Arts?) camouflage of some kind, and taking pot-shots at him while he was distracted... whatever. He'd been in worse situations and come out alive.

'I guess I'll have to knock a little sense into them, then.' Raylix thought, dodging a close-range thrust from Esdeath, parrying a second with his sword, and firing a bolt of destructive energy into the ground in order to kick up another cloud of dust, that covered his retreat away from the third. 'Will have to be careful with Cinder and Irene. Only Human, after all.'

Landing about ten feet away from Esdeath, who turned towards him and swung her hand, sending a thin, wide wave of ice in his direction that he was forced to duck under, Raylix's eyes and attention turned in Cinder and Irene's direction. The younger Stray Magician had a hand outstretched and- a second latter sent a beam of flaming energy in Raylix's direction, one that Raylix immediately swallowed up with a single Amalgamation hole that he opened with Gaeneron before dispelling it. The energy behind the flaming beam was a drop in the proverbial bucket for him as he absorbed it into his reserves of demonic power, but it was appreciated all the same.

The power Raylix received from Cinder's attack, and a fair bit more of his own reserves, was immediately spent on a barrier he was suddenly forced to create, as what looked like a humanoid-shaped collection of stones and rocks- Enchanted into being by Irene- threw a punch in his direction. Raylix's barrier shattered immediately when the rock-man's fist made contact, and he was forced to duck under the neck punch. While crouched down close to the ground, Raylix sent concentrated bolts of his Power of Destruction up at the arms of the rock-man, blowing them apart immediately and robbing it of its ability to punch. Before Irene- under Nurarihyon's hypnosis- could patch up her creation, Raylix dashed over to Cinder, casually waving aside the fireballs she sent in his direction without even needing to create barriers, quickly ducked behind her before straightening up, and before either Irene or Esdeath could fire off any attack, the chestnut-haired Devil had his left arm around the Magician's neck.

Cinder let out a gasp of surprise, and raised one hand in a vain attempt to pull Raylix's arm away from her neck, but she was already too late. Before the young Stray Mage could do anything, or even think about doing anything else, Raylix had his right hand behind her head, and a quick flex of his left arm for a few seconds was all it took to apply the needed pressure for her entire body to go limp, and for her to drop.

One down.

After gently setting the unconscious Cinder aside, somewhere where she wouldn't be in any danger of getting hit by any stray bolts of energy or anything like that, Raylix momentarily paused, considering who out of Irene and Esdeath he would be best going for next. On one hand, Esdeath was arguably the stronger out of her and Irene, so taking her out of the fight would give him the biggest immediate advantage over Irene. That, and Raylix felt he had more of a handle on what Esdeath could and couldn't do in terms of her combat ability, so she would be the simpler of the two to work around.

On the other hand, Irene wasn't a Devil, or even a half-Devil like Esdeath. She was Human, as Human as Cinder, so all Raylix would need was one opportunity to get in close to the scarlet-haired Platinum, and he could put her to sleep, and that would be that: much easier than whatever he'd have to do to bring Esdeath down. Not to mention, not EVERYTHING in her magical repertoire was exactly useful in a combat scenario.

In the couple of seconds it had taken Raylix to not come to a decision yet, he felt himself suddenly lifted off his feet by an extremely powerful gust of wind, courtesy of Irene. More out of instinct than anything else, Raylix spread his wings and turned around to face Irene, but twisted his head around to look over at Esdeath when he heard the sound of something forming out of ice behind him, and widened his eyes at the sight of what looked like a solid ice-wall, with spikes of all sizes and shapes- also made of ice- protruding from it.

So yeah, probably not the best thing to get oneself pushed onto.

Fully twisting himself around to face Esdeath, Raylix's focused eye-beams of destructive energy cut through the ice-wall, and some quick motions of his head were enough to fashion a large enough hole for him to manoeuvre himself through. Landing in front of Esdeath and immediately rolling out of the way of a swipe from her sword, Raylix felt his mind had been made up and, when he was back on his feet, launched himself towards Irene. Pointing her staff at him again, Irene sent another gust of wind- even more powerful than the initial one- in Raylix's direction. It succeeded in bringing Raylix's flight to a halt for a fraction of a second, but rather than drop to the ground and lose all momentum, Raylix pushed forward, put more into it, and was able to push through towards her.

Once close enough, he landed and re-summoned Gaeneron, swinging it up at Irene's staff and knocking it out of her hand. Immediately upon the staff leaving her grip, Irene's wind-spell was immediately cancelled: Without that force acting against him, Raylix almost found himself falling over, and wasn't able to right himself in time to take advantage of Irene's momentary defencelessness, which gave Irene time to snap her fingers and summon her staff back to herself. Rather than focus a spell through it at point-blank range, she (or rather, Nurarihyon acting through her) elected to attempt to bring the staff down directly on Raylix, but was fractions of a second too late as Raylix rolled out from under her. Swinging Gaeneron to deflect an icicle sent at him by Esdeath, Raylix was forced to parry a swing of Irene's staff, which was followed up by a bolt of energy from her hand, aimed at his head from point-blank range, that he was barely able to evade.

It was close enough to him that he FELT the air displaced by the bolt passing his head. He'd missed what would probably have been a nasty blow to the head by centimetres.

As he dodged another bolt of energy fired from Irene's hand that missed his chest by MILLImetres, Raylix jumped back for a second, out of range of Irene's staff as she found out the hard way when she swung at him and missed, before re-engaging. The missed swing from his Pact Magician was all that was needed for Raylix to now be the one pressing the advantage, which he took full advantage of by laying down blows, thick and fast, that Irene was forced to defend from as best she could. With every swing and thrust that Irene was forced to block with either her staff or a quickly-formed hand-shaped barrier, he could see her sweating just that little bit more.

All he needed was one more opportunity. It was all he needed. And he wouldn't waste it this time.

A low swing with Gaeneron, Irene manoeuvred the bottom half of her staff to parry. A swung fist at Irene's head, she raised a free fist to parry the blow. A headbutt, Irene met it with a magically-enforced headbutt of her own. A mid-level swing with Gaeneron, Irene jumped backwards. During the second she was in mid-air, Raylix suddenly dispelled Gaeneron and dashed towards her, grabbing her around the waist. With his immense physical strength, Irene was light as a feather for Raylix- even when holding back- to lift up and bodily slam down to the hard ground, immediately knocking her out.

Two down.

Re-summoning Gaeneron, Raylix began moving towards Esdeath, either cutting apart or simply knocking aside the icicles that the bluenette was now sending his way at a near-rapid-fire pace. Taking to the air when Esdeath slammed her boot into the ground, spreading ice across the ground, the former Gremory Heir rapidly closed the distance and landed in front of her, raising Gaeneron to block a swipe from her rapier. The two clashed again, with the position that Raylix was in forcing him into an awkward, disadvantaged state. Esdeath pushed back during the clash, forcing Raylix away from Nurarihyon and back onto the ice-covered portion of the ground, immediately forcing a slip from her opponent and sending him down to the ground.

Raylix could only let out a groan of pain that ascended to a full-on yell as some more flaming bolts of sage-energy struck his side. Writhing for a moment before the flare-up of pain ceased, Raylix was forced to attempt to roll out of the way again as Esdeath stepped onto the ice, stood over him, and drove her sword directly downwards.

He managed to get out of the way, but only just: with the surface below him being slippery as all-hell, he couldn't roll as effectively as he had done earlier in the fight, as he found out when Esdeath's sword cut through the back of the t-shirt that Raylix was wearing, with the tip of her blade brushing up for a fraction of a second against his back beneath.

The pain was barely noticeable, but it served as a good enough reminder to Raylix that he needed to end this, and quick. The close shaves with serious injury (or worse) he'd had throughout the last few minutes were getting closer and closer.

While still on the ice, Raylix drove Gaeneron into the ground with enough force for his weapon to penetrate both the ice and the rock-hard ground below. Using that as leverage to get back to his feet, he dashed around Esdeath, off the ice, and parried another sword-swing from her. When the bluenette tried to follow up with a thrust aimed at his chest, Raylix side-stepped and prepared to counter with a physical combo that he at the very least HOPED would unsettle Esdeath, maybe knock her out. But what he DIDN't expect to happen, however, was a cry of surprise to come from where he'd been when Esdeath attempted to stab him. His eyes flicked over to said spot, and he noticed Nurarihyon almost tripping over himself in an attempt to get out of the way of the business end of Esdeath's sword.

As he did so, Raylix heard a groan coming from Esdeath, and when looking over, he noticed that she'd dropped her sword and was clutching at her head with both hands. A quick glance at Nurarihyon, who was looking rather focused on the bluenette, told the full-blooded Devil all he really needed to know.

Dispelling Gaeneron, he fired a powerful bolt of destructive energy at the gourd-headed Youkai, that struck him in the side and immediately blew out a not-insignificant portion of his left side. Shards of bone, bits of what Raylix guessed were intestine and a metric TON of blood poured out from the spot that he'd blown apart, and Nurarihyon's focus on re-hypnotising Esdeath- understandably- vanished in lieu of a scream of pain. Right on cue, whatever Esdeath seemed to be internally fighting seemed to leave her: her hands left her face, giving Raylix a full view of her eyes having returned to their natural blue colour, and she picked up her sword.

"Glad to have you back." Raylix remarked. "You can handle him, right?" he asked, his eyes flicking to Nurarihyon, who had dropped to his knees. Esdeath looked over at the Youkai in question, a truly sadistic glint coming into her eye as she stared down at him.

"Yes…" the bluenette replied. "I think I can do that."

"Cool." Raylix remarked, his eyes shifting away from Esdeath and Nurarihyon. "I'll grab the stone. Then we can wake Cinder and Irene up, and get out of here."

"I think you're going to find that rather difficult, Devil." The voice of the Nekomata called out. Not from any particular direction, the voice just sounded like it was coming from all around Raylix and Esdeath. "For the sake of this world's safety, I won't allow you to take this stone!"

Raylix rolled his eyes, but quickly had to dodge another couple of bolts of chi energy that flew in his direction from seemingly nowhere, and form a barrier in front of himself to block another one that came, aimed at exactly where he came out of the roll. As soon as the chi dissipated across his barrier, he fired several powerful bolts of the Power of Destruction in the direction that the three chi bolts came from. As loud male screams began to cut through the air from where Esdeath and Nurarihyon were at, Raylix noticed a few more chi bolts flying towards him in a different direction from where the first bolts had come from a few seconds ago. The chestnut-haired Devil immediately flung up another barrier in front of himself, but he wasn't fast enough to stop the first of those bolts from slipping past it, and striking him in the lower chest. The area in question burned rather painfully for a second, but Raylix ignored it and returned fire in that same direction, taking to the air as he did so and dodging another volley of chi bolts as he did so.

'Hiding and taking pot-shots?' Raylix thought, gathering his mother's power in both hands once he was high enough above the shrine. 'Coward.'

Growling, Raylix opened his hands and began letting out many, many bolts of his Power of Destruction from both hands, starting with where the most recent volley of the Nekomata's chi energy bolts had come from and working his way across the area. Effectively carpet-bombing the area but on a much smaller scale than most other examples throughout history, Raylix did his utmost to make sure that there was nowhere- no single speck of intact ground- that the Nekomata that they'd seen with Nurarihyon at the start of the fight could easily stand to continue attacking him from.

As his destructive volley came closer and closer to where the actual stone was, Raylix noticed a barrier forming out of what looked like nowhere, which stopped some of the energy-bolts of destruction in place before they could impact the ground around the stone (he wasn't directly aiming at it, of course he wasn't) before fizzling out. Immediately knowing that that was where the Nekomata was now, it had to be, Raylix dived down at the barrier, which disappeared into thin air as soon as the last destructive energy-bolt fizzled out on the ground. Reaching out and grasping at the area that the barrier had been, Raylix felt invisible clothing within his fist, which along with the Nekomata wearing it, became visible after a second or so's struggle.

Glaring up at the Devil and hissing, the Youkai swung a hand close to him and sent a wave of flaming chi energy at him from point-blank range, forcing Raylix to release her and jump backwards, though he didn't take long to break out in a sprint, throwing a punch in her direction as he made his way to the stone. It connected with her nose, eliciting a yowl of pain from her to go along with Nurarihyon's agonized screams, as Raylix dashed towards the stone and grabbed it from its altar. Turning around, he took in the sight of Esdeath, and now Cinder and Irene- who seemed to have regained consciousness since Raylix had freed Esdeath from Nurarihyon's hypnotic influence- standing over the gourd-headed Youkai, with Esdeath pulling her sword out of his leg, on one of the only parts of the entire shrine-area left that he hadn't reduced to rubble.

To say that Nurarihyon looked rather the worse for wear would be severely downplaying it: cuts, burns, bruises, even the occasional patch of frostbite seemed to have been inflicted upon him by Esdeath, Cinder and Irene, all over his body to the point that he looked almost unrecognisable from before Raylix had left him for Esdeath to deal with. Blood steadily oozed out of every non-cauterized cut and tears from the pain streamed down his face as he tried- in vain- to pull himself away from the three vengeful women.

Out of the corner of his eye, Raylix noticed the middle-aged Nekomata landing on her feet from the punch he'd given her, clutching at her face. Even with her hand over it, he saw her eyes widening in horror as she took in the sight of Raylix holding the stone.

"NO!" she cried out, launching herself at Raylix with surprising speed, but not fast enough to stop him from bodily throwing the stone into the air, rushing forward himself and grabbing her around the waist.

"Heads-up, girls!" Raylix called over to the three, as the Killing Stone flew through the air. Against the Nekomata's struggling, he raised himself into the air and span around a couple of times to build up momentum before bodily throwing the Nekomata away, far away from the shrine-area and out of the fight. As she flew through the air, helpless to stop him, Raylix lowered a hand to her level, narrowing his eyes slightly as he focused on her rapidly-shrinking form. After a couple of seconds, when the Nekomata began to descend, he snapped his fingers and cast a transportation-circle at her location that brought her straight back to him, upon which he immediately swivelled around and threw a devastating punch that connected with her face full-force, smashing her nose and cheek-bones like glass under his fist and immediately sending her unconscious.

As she dropped to the ground, Raylix descended alongside her, looking over to see that the stone had been caught, and Irene was holding it while Esdeath had Nurarihyon held up by the back of his bloody kimono. Picking up the unconscious Nekomata by the back of her kimono as well, he made his way over to them.

"Sorry about that." He remarked, looking over at Irene and Cinder. "I'll help patch you up, if you need it from what I did."

"I'm fine." Cinder replied. "Don't worry about me."

"I'm adequate as well." Irene replied, shifting her grip on the stone so she could easily hold it in one hand before reaching at the back of her head. "I just feel a bit-" she winced slightly, when she touched the area that had hit the ground when Raylix slammed her down. "Tender, back there. But I'll heal up, fine. And I think we-" she looked over at Cinder as she took the stone back into both hands rather than just one. "both get that you had to do what you had to do. At least you didn't end up killing us by accident."

Raylix nodded, letting out a short, dark chuckle.

"Yeah, that would've been bad." He remarked, before sighing. "Anyway, we got what we came for, and a couple of sources of lifespan as a bonus. All those opposed to-"

"No-one's opposed, let's do it." Irene replied, immediately. "Especially to this prick." She added, her gaze shifting over to the blooded and battered Nurarihyon, who looked like he was slipping in and out of consciousness. A look of disgust crossed Irene's face for a moment as she spat on the Youkai.

"Seconded." Esdeath remarked, shifting her footing slightly as she sheathed her rapier. Cinder nodded, a similar dark look in her eyes to that of Esdeath's.

Raylix nodded, his eyes shifting to the three women before taking a breath.

"Alright, then." He remarked, waving a hand to cast a large transportation-circle on some of the flat ground that remained unimpacted by the battle that had just taken place. The full-blooded Devil, the half-Devil and the two Magicians stepped into it, carrying the two Youkai and one stone (technically also a Youkai) with them, before Raylix activated the circle, sending them all away in a flash of demonic light.

----- ---- -----

"You sure… work?"

"… sure, Raylix. This'll… fine."

Pain.

When Nurarihyon regained consciousness, all he felt was pain. Everywhere on and around his body, it was just agony. His vision was rather blurry initially, and his hearing wasn't much better initially. Blinking a couple of times, he let out a low groan.

He was rather tightly bound, to the point that he could barely move, and was lain on his side. As his vision slowly returned, he acknowledged the presence of trees, trees all around him, and a small pond. They seemed to be in a clearing within some kind of woodland or forest, or whatever.

As he instinctively tried to move his arms up to his face, in order to wipe something rather wet and sticky off his face, pain flared up all over his body again, and he let out another- louder- pained groan, this one loud enough to attract attention from someone that he couldn't clearly see from his position and with his still-not-perfect vision. One of the blurry figures from across the clearing walked over to where he lay, raised a foot clad in a white boot and turned him over onto his back, giving him a good look at both the late-evening sky, and who had just turned him over: it was the blue-haired one who'd put him through the majority of the torture that he'd been forced through, after she'd been freed from his hypnosis. Es… desu, her name was, or something? Or Esdeath?

Nurarihyon's vision became just clear enough to make out the sneer on the blunette's face as she turned around and strode out of his line of sight, back to where the other figures were. Any attempts to roll onto his side to see what was going on were met with intense flares-up of pain all over his body, attempts at which the Youkai quickly abandoned.

Blinking a couple of times as he felt both his vision and hearing fully returning to him, Nurarihyon tried to recall what was going on before this… predicament, that he'd found himself in: he'd been tortured by Esdeath, Irene and that other little Magician, after that male Devil had freed them all from his hypnosis, during his and Magari's attempts to stop them from stealing… the stone!

Nurarihyon redoubled his efforts to roll onto his side, and through even more intense pain than before, managed to do so. Now he could easily cop a decent look at what was going on… and he didn't like it one bit.

Raylix, Irene, Cinder and Esdeath were gathered around a makeshift altar of some kind, upon which the Killing stone sat. Irene had her staff in hand, and was pointing it at the stone, which had magical energy gathered around it. Before everyone's very eyes, the stone began to morph and change, and within a moment, it had turned into what looked like the body of a humanoid female, and continued to change after that. As the transformation that Tamamo-no-Mae's body had undergone into the Killing Stone nearly a millennium ago continued to reverse, animal-features and all,

Nurarihyon's eyes widened, both at the sight of it, and at the sound of a low, female moan coming from somewhere behind him.

"Nuuu… Nurari?"

The pain throughout Nurarihyon's body flared up intensely again as he tried to shift himself around. It took a moment, a long painful moment, but he was able to shift himself around in order to face the white-haired Nekomata. She was just as bound as he was, her face was all-but smashed, with her nose essentially destroyed, and both her eyes blackened and horrifically bruised.

"Ammie above, Magari…" Nurarihyon whispered, his eyes widening still further at the sight of his companion so heavily-injured. "What did… never mind, how-"

"You got that anti-teleportation ward set up, Cinder?"

Raylix's voice cut through the quiet air, shocking the Youkai into silence.

"Yeah." Cinder's voice replied. "I did it when we got here." There was silence for a moment, before she spoke up again. "Hey, they're awake."

Nurarihyon then felt himself being lifted, not by any physical hands, but by an unseen force that he immediately recognised as some kind of magical energy. He couldn't quite pinpoint if the energy was human or demonic in its origin, such was his state, but at that point, he didn't suppose it really mattered. As he raised into the air, he saw Magari being raised as well. The pair of Youkai were both turned around, and made to face Raylix, his group, and the body on the makeshift altar. The reversal of Tamamo's transformation into the Killing Stone was complete: mid-back-length pink hair, a pair of orange fox-ears, nine matching tails at her back that were presently limp as noodles, and stark-naked…

it was like Nurarihyon and Magari were looking right at the very Youkai solely responsible for the species' poor reputation amongst any humans that believed in them… because they were.

"Esdeath?" Raylix asked. Within a second, Nurarihyon and Magari found their bodies encased in blocks of solid ice, with only their heads poking out from the tops of the blocks. As if being brutalised, knocked out, bound and dragged to Tsukuyomi-knows-where wasn't bad enough, the fact that they were frozen on top of all of this, and with anti-teleportation wards supposedly up around the area… any chance that Nurarihyon and Magari had of escaping what was about to happen was gone.

"We ready?" Raylix asked, looking over at Irene and shoving his hands in his pockets. Looking between Tamamo's body and the pair of frozen Youkai, Irene nodded and- after pointing her staff at Nurarihyon, muttering some words under her breath, and then doing the same with Magari- slammed her staff into the ground.

Two lines of energy sprouted from the bottom of Irene's staff, travelling towards the pair of restrained and frozen Youkai at speed. When the ends of the pair of lines made contact with Nurarihyon and Magari beneath the ice-blocks, the other ends merged with each other into one, and travelled towards Tamamo, eventually making contact with and going into her.

"W-wait!" Magari called out. "What are you- why are you doing this?!"

Thanks to everything from the neck down being frozen, Nurarihyon couldn't turn himself to see exactly how Magari was taking this, but he did get a perfect view of Raylix, Irene, Cinder and Esdeath not paying them any mind, focused completely on Tamamo's body and their lifespan flowing into her.

His lifespan physically leaving him at such a pace absolutely wasn't a pleasent feeling for Nurarihyon, either. It was like his body was getting tired, but his mind was as alert as it had always been as the leader of the East Youkai Faction. It was an imbalance, he didn't like it one bit, and it was getting worse with every passing second.

The fact that he was, again, frozen in a block of ice- VERY COLD ice at that- certainly didn't help how he was feeling, either.

"You think you'll be able to control her once you've brought her back into this world, Devil?" Nurarihyon called out, resisting the urge to let out a moan of pain as he felt his life ebbing out of him. "Better beings than you have tried, and ALL have failed! She'll turn you against each other, manipulate all of you for her benefit and her benefit only! You'll have lost everything before you even know what happened!"

Raylix and his crew didn't reply, or even turn to acknowledge Nurarihyon's words. They continued looking at Tamamo, whose body was beginning to glow slightly as his and Magari's lifespan flowed into her. As Nurarihyon's eyelids flickered as he felt the remaining lifespan within himself becoming noticeably lower than before this whole situation, he thought he saw Tamamo's eyelids flickering from over on the makeshift altar. Though since no-one among Raylix and his crew seemed to give any reaction, chances were that hadn't happened.

"She'll make all of Japan into her playground!" Magari yelled, doing her best to thrash around within Esdeath's ice, but to no avail. "Dozens of millions of humans will be at her mercy, and all of it because of what you're doing now! You can still stop this, if you'll let us go!"

"Let us go!" Nurarihyon repeated, joining Magari in thrashing around in his frozen bonds. It was then that, finally, Esdeath turned around.

"You," she began, pointing at Nurarihyon. "Hypnotised the three of us in a cowardly attempt to kill Raylix without getting your hands dirty. And you," she continued, pointing at Magari. "Failed to stop us from taking the stone. As the defeated, you're in a poor position to try and stop us now."

"And that gives you the right to do… this?!" Magari shouted back, looking down at her frozen self, the magical lines draining her and Nurarihyon of their lifespan and filling Tamamo with it instead. "Before this, we did NOTHING to you! What POSSIBLE reason could you have to sacrifice a pair of innocents to return her-" she jerked a head towards Tamamo's body "-to this world?!"

Esdeath, along with Irene and Cinder, looked over at Raylix, who remained silent. He hadn't moved since the pair of Youkai had woken up, and his eyes were squarely on Tamamo's glowing body. The same silence stretched out for a moment, only interrupted by Nurarihyon and Magari's laboured breathing. It was becoming physically difficult for them to remain conscious as more and more of their lifespan left them.

"…You don't have a good reason, do you?" Nurarihyon spoke, between heavy pants. "You want to bring her back a monster like her… just because?!"

In spite of his old age and draining lifespan, Nurarihyon redoubled his efforts to escape from his restraints and the ice-block he was frozen in, thrashing around madly as best he could.

"You're as bad as she was!" Nurarihyon yelled, his eyes wide with rage as he saw Raylix sighing, continuing to ignore him. "YOU'RE ALL MONSTERS! FUCKING MONSTERS, ALL OF YOU-"

"WILL YOU SHUT. UP?!" Raylix roared, finally turning around to face the pair of Youkai, his eyes a blazing crimson. His sudden raised voice startled all in the area into silence, with Cinder even jumping a little bit. Raising a hand to his head, he took a breath in some kind of attempt to calm himself. It probably worked, considering that his next words were spoken in a calmer, more even tone, but still with enough venom behind them to down a gorilla in an instant. "Esdeath, shut him- shut them both up."

Nurarihyon and Magari's continued yells of condemnation went ignored once again as Esdeath strode over to the pair of them, and with a couple of demonically-enhanced clocks to the head with her hands, knocked the pair of them out cold. Silence reigned over the clearing again as Esdeath returned to where she was standing, next to Cinder. With her staff still embedded in the ground, Irene looked over at Raylix.

"You alright?" she asked, her eyes flicking to Nurarihyon and Magari's frozen, unconscious bodies for a split-second before she focused on him. Raylix raised a hand to his face, turning away from Irene and taking a breath before replying.

"I'm fine." He replied, making a motion that looked like he was rubbing his eyes- though neither Irene, Cinder or Esdeath could tell due to him being turned away from the three of them- before turning back. "How… how much longer is this going to take?"

"Not long." Irene replied, looking at Tamamo's body. "Nurarihyon's down to his last dozens, Magari's not that far behind. We should be done and gone in a few minutes."

"Cool." Raylix nodded, running a hand through his hair and looking back at Tamamo as well. "Cool."

Irene nodded as well, looking over at Nurarihyon as, within his frozen bonds, his unconscious body began to physically age even further than he already naturally was. The sight of him practically withering away was quite a sight to see, for the few seconds that Raylix kept his eyes on it before turning away, refocusing his attention on Tamamo. The glow of the pair of Youkai's lifespans around her was rather intense now, and- it might have been Raylix's eyes deceiving him, but he was sure that he saw her eyelids beginning to flicker and shake.

Cinder and Esdeath seemed to notice, too, as their eyes were squarely on Tamamo as well. Irene was the only one not looking that way, still focused on draining Nurarihyon and Magari of all that they had. Within a couple of minutes, that task seemed to be completed, as Irene removed her staff from the ground and turned around. The magical lines connecting Nurarihyon and Magari to Tamamo disappeared when Irene's staff left the ground, and the intense glow surrounding the pink-haired kitsune seemed to dissipate into her body.

The silence that presided over the next moment or so was deafening. All eyes were on Tamamo, whose eyelids continued to flicker, but slightly more intensely. After a moment of nothing but this, Tamamo slowly- extremely slowly- took in her first breath in nearly a millennium.

Almost immediately after, she broke out in a coughing fit, doubling over on the altar and- after a second or so's struggle to keep balanced- falling off entirely. Raylix reacted first, dashing forward and catching her, holding her around the waist with one arm. Esdeath moved forward to help, taking one side as Raylix took the other, and the pair of them gently lifted her up onto her feet.

Irene and Cinder took a step back, with Cinder trying (and failing horifically) to avert her eyes from Tamamo's bare, bouncing breasts. As Tamamo's coughs subsided, she opened her eyes, which Raylix noticed were green. She blinked a couple of times, and kept her eyes narrowed for a few seconds as her eyes adjusted to the evening light. She opened her mouth, and looked like she was trying to speak for a couple of seconds, but couldn't quite find the energy to.

"Wh... where... am I?" she forced out, after a couple of seconds. She slowly turned her head from side to side, taking in the sight of Irene and Cinder in front of her, Esdeath and Raylix on either side. "Who... are you?"

Irene immediately summoned a cup full of water from the pond a few metres away, stepped forward and held it out. Tamamo reached forward and managed to take it in one hand, but immediately almost let it slip out of her loose grip. Raylix- again- reached quickest, catching the cup and holding it up to Tamamo's lips, allowing her to drink from it.

"My name is Raylix." Raylix replied, allowing Esdeath to fully take over helping Tamamo stay upright and moving around in front of her. "And my associates, Irene, Cinder and Esdeath." He remarked, indicating to each of them as he did so.

Tamamo didn't reply immediately, electing to continue drinking from the cup that Raylix kept holding out for her, until she'd swallowed all of it. Once done with that, she slowly shifted herself out of Esdeath's grip, attempting to stand on her own two feet. She swayed for a fraction of a second, but managed to keep herself upright.

"Raylix..." Tamamo repeated, raising a hand and pointing at Raylix. "Irene..." she did the same with Irene, who nodded. "Cinder..." she did the same with Cinder, whose blush at the pinkette's nude form still remained. "Esdeath." She did the same with Esdeath, who walked around in front of her and nodded. "Where am I?"

"Forest just south of Nasu, Japan." Irene replied. "We thought it best to revive you somewhere secluded. Away from any prying eyes."

Tamamo didn't reply immediately, looking down at her hands and steadily clenching them into fists, before unclenching them. She brought them to her bare waist, steadily running them up and down her body for the next moment, steadily feeling out the body that she was back in.

"Revived me..." she repeated, slowly, tilting her head back and looking up into the sky. "It's been... I can't remember how long it's been since I had this form."

Raylix and Irene shared a quick, silent look with each other, before looking back at Tamamo, whose eyes were on Raylix.

"You wanted me to be one of your... associates, right?" she asked. "Was that why you... revived me?"

"Well..." Raylix replied, looking down at the ground for a moment, before back at Tamamo. "I guess so, but there's-"

"Alright." Tamamo cut across the Devil before he could even finish. "I'll join, if that's what you want."

Raylix and Irene shared another look with each other, before looking back at Tamamo.

"You will?" Raylix asked. "Just like that?"

"For so long, I've been... trapped." Tamamo began. "Couldn't move. Couldn't feel. Couldn't speak. Couldn't see. Couldn't even smell..." she blinked, and Raylix noticed tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. She blinked them down, however, looking over at him. "You freed me. Brought me back. I'll join you."

Raylix and Irene shared another look. Irene could only shrug and nod her approval, before Raylix looked back at Tamamo.

"Okay." He replied. "Works for me." Turning around to Cinder and Esdeath, he didn't even have to ask before the pair of them nodded their respective approval. "Alright, then. Irene, think you can take everyone back to the house? I'm just gonna head back to Hebeth real quick, deliver the reports I've been putting together since I last went back."

"Sure thing." Irene replied, nodding and turning to Cinder. "You can take down those anti-teleportation wards, now, we're done here."

Cinder nodded, raising her hand. A focused look came over her face for a second, before she lowered it again.

"Done." She remarked, turning to Raylix. "See you later, Raylix."

Raylix nodded, flicked his hand to open a transportation-circle of his own, stepped into it and activated it without another word, whisking him out of the area and back to his bedroom in Hebeth. Without even breaking stride, Raylix was out of the transportation-circle before it faded away, pulled open his bedroom door, and was down the hallway of Katerea's condo within seconds. Pushing open the door and moving into the kitchen, he noticed Katerea sat at the table, her back to him, a glass in hand and a bottle of some probably-expensive wine from the human world an arm's length away. Rather than the bun that she usually tied most of her hair up in, her hair was down, and hanging over the back of the chair.

Though that wasn't the main thing he noticed about the woman who'd been supervising his tenure in the True Satan Faction for the past about-three years. No, the main thing that he noticed was her clothing… or relative lack of clothing compared to what she usually wore. Rather than anything relatively official-looking, all Katerea was clad in was a translucent black nightdress, and a pair of panties covering her ass and crotch. With her hair and the back of the chair in the way, he couldn't see any bra-strap on Katerea's back

Katerea turned her head upon hearing the door to the kitchen opening, quickly running Raylix up and down with her eyes as she took in the sight of him. If she was surprised to see him, she didn't outwardly show it.

"Hey." She remarked, nodding. "Been a while."

Raylix nodded back, silently opening a magic-circle with one hand, reaching into it and pulling out a rather thick file, full of reports that he'd been putting together since the last time he'd come back to Hebeth. Once he was closer to the table, he tossed the file down onto it. The file slid across the table before coming to a stop against Katerea's wine-bottle, at which point Raylix's eyes shifted from it to Katerea herself.

He mentally registered, with the least amount of brain-power possible, that Katerea straight-up wasn't wearing a bra: her full, impressively-sized breasts were just hanging out, nipples and all, free for him to just cop an eyeful of. His eyes flicked down to take in the sight for a fraction of a second, something that Katerea immediately picked up on and smirked at.

"Like what you see?" she asked. "Didn't have anything to do today, so I just decided to have a me-day." Leviathan's granddaughter vaguely gestured down at herself, then at the glass and wine-bottle with one hand.

Raylix didn't reply, only reaching over and picking up the bottle that Katerea had gestured to, curiosity provoking him to turn it over in his hand to look at the label, just to see what kind of wine it was, before replacing it on the table where it was before he'd come in.

"You don't seem all that upset." Raylix replied, his tone neutral as he took a step back from the table and stretched. Katerea let out a snort as she watched him do so, before pouring herself another glass of wine.

"It's not like I've got anything you haven't seen before, I'm guessing." She remarked, setting the bottle down once she'd poured her fill. "Former noble, with sexy servants of all kinds at your beck and call, I bet. That, and I know you're not dumb enough to try and put the moves on your supervisor."

Raylix didn't reply, instead choosing to glance out the window as a couple of Devils quickly flew by. The sound of Katerea clearing her throat drew his attention back to her, however, as she reached over and grabbed the file with her free hand, holding it up.

"Reports?" she asked, gently shaking the file. When Raylix nodded, she nodded back and set the file down. "Thanks, I'll look through them later."

Raylix nodded again, raising a hand to cast a transportation-circle again, but the sound of Katerea's voice perking up again stopped him.

"Hey, how's the search for the Sephiroth Graal going? Shalba and Creuserey were curious, told me to ask you when I next saw you."

Raylix paused, remained still, for a couple of seconds, before replying.

"I haven't found any strong leads towards its location, yet." The Devil replied, looking back over at his nearly-naked supervisor. "I also haven't given up hope yet, though."

"Good." Katerea nodded. "Thanks, I'll pass that along. Your Pact Magician proving useful?"

Another nod, by way of answer, from Raylix.

"Very." He replied. "I've recently come across a few more useful allies, as well."

Now it was Katerea's turn to nod, a small half-smile crossing her face as she took a gulp of her wine.

"That's the important bit." She remarked, as Raylix returned to the hand-wave that cast his transportation-circle, not stopping this time when she spoke up. "When can I expect you back again?"

"When I've got enough reports to justify my return." Raylix replied, stepping into his transportation-circle and activating it, whisking him away from Hebeth in a flash of light.

Katerea blinked at the spot Raylix had disappeared from, before shrugging and taking another gulp of her glass.

"Fair enough." She replied, to no-one in particular, shifting herself slightly in her chair as her eyes shifted to the file that he'd left.

----- ----- -----

1993

'An honorary general of the Asuras after Variochana earned his loyalty through unknown means, Vritra was vanquished by Indra in a titanic battle that raged across South Asia. To prevent the Evil Prison Dragon King's return to the world, a deal was struck between Indra and Yahweh for Vritra's soul to be split into seven, and sealed into multiple Sacred Gears.'

Raylix hummed, scanning down the pages of the book on Sacred Gear that had all-but become his, with how often he was reading it. Stretching himself out a little as he lay across Irene's couch, his eyes flicked away from the page towards the slightly-open door to the kitchen, where he could hear Esdeath and Tamamo chatting with each other as they put dinner together. It had been a month and a bit since the crew's trip to Nasu, which had resulted in Tamamo-no-Mae's (or just Tamamo, as she preferred to be call) revival and immediate addition to the crew, and throughout her slow regaining of her functions and power, she'd been pretty great.

Always cheerful, always bringing the mood of any room she walked into up at least a little bit, and Raylix could tell she'd be pretty good in a fight once she got her full strength back, she'd rapidly proven a worthy addition. It helped pretty well that she got on with everyone quite well: sharing firsthand accounts of the ancient world with Irene during many-a-long talk into the late hours of the night, becoming an assistant in the kitchen of sorts to Esdeath when it was her time to cook for the crew, and had taken it upon herself to act as… well, not QUITE an older-sister-type figure to Cinder- Esdeath had happily settled into that role long before Tamamo had even joined up- but more of a playful cousin engaged in friendly competition with the elder sister over who would be seen as 'cooler' in the younger's eyes.

Something else about her- Raylix had mentally noted- was her tendency to try and find any excuse she could to hang around him: following him around whenever he went outside to stretch his legs, tailing and watching him when he went off to train, always trying to keep him talking whenever they got into a conversation about… well, any subject that they would get into a conversation about. Could be anything: music, life as a Devil, Formula One, Tamamo always seemed interested in what he had to say about it. Made sense, he thought, she had been trapped as a stone for nearly a millennium, the world she was in now was VASTLY different to the world she'd lived in in her first life.

Raylix looked up again as he noticed Tamamo pushing the door to the kitchen open, and stepping through. Over the simple white t-shirt and blue shorts that Raylix had bought for her (she couldn't exactly just walk around naked all the time) soon after her revival, there was a white apron tightly bound around her body. Immediately noticing Raylix lying on the couch, she moved over towards him, smiling all the while.

"What're you reading?" the kitsune, with all her tails and fox-ears out, asked, leaning over the couch as she did so. By way of reply, Raylix lifted up the book, displaying the cover to the Youkai, who let out a small "Ohh…" in reply.

"Anything you need, Tamamo?" Raylix asked, closing the book but keeping a finger on the page that he was at, in case this didn't take long and he could go back to reading.

"Not really." Tamamo replied, straightening up again. "Just that dinner's nearly done. Irene's just upstairs, right?"

"Mmhmm." Raylix hummed, sitting up. "Went up for a shower a while ago. I doubt she'll be long. And I think Cinder's outside." He cast his eyes through the window, where a long stretch of Canadian countryside stretched out for miles and miles. The male Devil paused for a second, looking like he was concentrating on something, before continuing. "I can still feel her presence, so she can't be too far. Want me to go find her?"

"I mean, you don't have to do that." Tamamo replied, taking a step back as Raylix set the book aside after marking the page, and got to his feet. "If she isn't that far away, I could probably find her pretty easily before we're done with dinner."

"Which you just said was nearly done, and not totally done." Raylix remarked, stretching himself again. "Besides, it's not that big a deal. I can find Cinder."

Tamamo shrugged.

"Fair enough." She replied, turning around. Her nine tails all waved about, somewhat of their own accord, as she did so before she began walking back to the kitchen. "See you in a bit."

Raylix nodded, and immediately made his way out the door of Irene's house, shutting it behind him as he looked up, trying to pinpoint exactly WHERE the presence of the young Stray Magician could be felt from. It didn't take him long to feel her energy coming the strongest from the direct south-east of Irene's door, at which point Raylix spread his wings and took off, keeping himself above the steady decline that stretched down in that direction. Once the decline evened out a bit, Raylix landed, now able to see Cinder- wearing just a red t-shirt and black pants- sat by a slow-moving stream, occasionally picking up flat stones and attempting to skip them across the stream.

Before Raylix could even open his mouth to announce his presence to Cinder, she'd immediately leapt to her feet and whirled around, fireball called to her hand, but immediately dispelled it upon realising it was Raylix that had come up on her.

"Oh, Raylix." She spoke. "Sorry. Just instincts from the time that I went Stray."

"It's fine." Raylix replied. "Just that, you know, dinner's nearly ready."

"Right, got it." Cinder replied, nodding and tossing the last stone in her hand into the river, without even trying to make it skip across the water. Turning around, Devil and Stray Magician began making their way back up the now-incline towards Irene's house, with Cinder moving into step with Raylix as they made their way up.

Silence reigned between the two as they ascended the incline, before as the house came into view, Raylix spoke up again.

"That reminds me, you never shared why you ended up going Stray, Cinder."

"None of you ever asked." Cinder replied, immediately. "Is it that important? Why do you ask?"

"Curiosity, I guess?" Raylix remarked, shrugging. "I mean, Irene told me that it'd have to be for some crime against Mage-kind, and I was just wondering how hardened a magical criminal I've been working with for the past nearly-half a year."

Cinder hummed in acknowledgement, but didn't immediately reply as she and Raylix continued walking up the incline. As they reached the top of the incline, however, it was Cinder's turn to speak up again, stopping in her tracks as she did so.

"I nearly killed my adopted family."

Raylix stopped as well, turning to look over at Cinder. The two shared a silence for a few seconds before Raylix spoke up again.

"Well, that's... something." He remarked. "Adopted, huh?"

"I was given up to them by my birth-family." Cinder replied. "Non-Magiques, they were. Unrelated to what happened, I can't even remember why now, I was two. Maybe three."

"Uh-huh..." Raylix replied, nodding. "And I'm guessing those guys... weren't great."

"That's putting it mildly." Cinder nodded, sighing. "Rather than actually, you know, treat me as an actual child of theirs, they just made me their servant. Their inferior... mundane... insignificant servant."

"Right, right." Raylix nodded. "Guess there goes the theory that they were the ones that taught you how to do magic."

Cinder let out a small snort from her nose, shaking her head.

"Yeah, they had nothing to do with this." She remarked, stretching out a hand and summoning a small fireball, tossing it up into the air before catching it a second later, and then dispelling it as she looked back up at Raylix, pausing for a second. "Actually, well… in a way, I guess they DID have something to do with it, but not directly."

Raylix raised an eyebrow, a non-verbal invitation for Cinder to elaborate.

"I taught myself." Cinder continued, when seeing the raised eyebrow in question. "I guess twelve-year-old me wanted to prove that she wasn't so… inferior… to her fosters."

"And you managed to keep it from them?" Raylix asked. "For four years?"

"Three." Cinder replied. "And a bit. Every night, I practiced, and it was… really hard. I wasn't even trying to go for anything hard, just the basic stuff. Transportation-circles, summoning, elements… or rather just one element, nothing fancy. But eventually, I got the hang of it."

"Yeah, I figured." Raylix nodded. "But your foster folks found out?"

"Eventually." Cinder replied. "I was practicing again one night, it was just like any other night, but… I must have gotten too confident with my fire, and I ended up setting a carpet on fire by accident. My step-mother walked in, and… I guess my secret was out."

Raylix nodded, again.

"I'm guessing they weren't too pleased to see that their servant had become a Magician themselves, and had messed something up." He remarked. Cinder let out a dark, quiet laugh as she nodded, before letting out a sight.

"Truth be told, I don't really remember WHAT their reaction was." She replied. "All I specifically remember about that night was… just… everything coming up at once. All the mean things they'd said about me being inferior to them, all the horrible stuff as their slave they'd forced me to do, everything else, how it'd made me all feel that I'd forced down, I just let it all out… and burned their home to the ground."

Raylix let out a low whistle.

"And that's what got you declared a Stray Magician." he remarked, which Cinder nodded at.

"Yeah." She replied, letting out another dark laugh. "I guess in that sense, I got what I wanted: recognition."

"But as a criminal, rather than a fellow Magician." Raylix remarked, to which Cinder nodded.

"Well, fifteen-year-old-me didn't really care at the time." She replied. "She was a little bit more occupied with not getting captured by whichever Magicians at the time took it upon themselves to try and bring me in. That was nearly a year ago."

"Partway through which, Irene and I found you." Raylix continued. "And we both know the rest."

Cinder nodded, again, letting out a breath as she leant against a tree just outside Irene's door. Raylix took half a step closer, letting out a breath of his own.

"Well, I can't say I'm not sympathetic." He remarked. "Though I've never had to go through anything even CLOSE to that, so I guess I can't truly understand it. But for what it's worth, I'm sorry that you had to go through that. I guess all I can really do now that I've got you under my wing is… hope that we're- Irene, Esdeath, Tamamo and I- doing better than-"

"You are." Cinder replied before Raylix could even finish his sentence, shifting herself away from the tree and looking directly at him, a small smile coming back to her face. "You DEFINITELY are. I know it's only been a few months, but I'm more at home roaming around the world with you guys than I ever did back with my fosters in France."

Now it was Raylix's turn to allow himself a small smile. As he did so, though, the distinct smell of cooked food seemed to waft out of Irene's house, though all the doors and windows were closed, and meet Raylix and Cinder's ears. Whatever it was that Esdeath and Tamamo had whipped up this time, it smelled pretty damn nice.

"Good." he replied, before jerking his head in the direction of Irene's door. "I think dinner's ready."

Cinder was the first to move towards the door, pulling it open and stepping inside, holding the door open with her foot for Raylix as he followed her inside.

----- ----- -----

The loud clashing of sword against sword rang out across the deserted valley. Esdeath flapped her spread wings to attempt to put some distance between herself and Raylix, throwing her free hand out in a wide arc to conjure a horizontal wave of ice and throw it in his direction, which Raylix quickly dealt with via his own, vertical, wave of the Power of Destruction, closing the distance that Esdeath attempted to put between the pair of them. Esdeath switched direction, taking to the air rather than remaining on the ground: as she looked down, she noticed Raylix having reached out with his free hand in an attempt to grab her, but as she took to the air, she noticed that he'd missed her leg by centimetres, if even that.

Raylix had taken to the air right after that, as well. He was just inches, if even that, behind Esdeath even as she changed direction multiple times in quick succession, doing her best to evade his grabs at her. Raylix himself was weaving between the occasional icicles that Esdeath threw back at him as she did so. As Esdeath looked back once again, and saw that she'd managed to put a little bit more distance between herself and Raylix thanks to the icicles. She also noticed, however, that her opponent was just shifting himself from side to side, without any visible effort anywhere on his face. The movements seemed almost lazy, as if Raylix wasn't even putting any effort at all into this spar.

Whether brought into existence by frustration, the intense effort she'd put into her spar with him so far, a combination of both factors or something else entirely, Esdeath felt a bead of sweat forming on her head and sliding down as she thrust forward both her arms, sending out a wave of cold energy and icicles of all sizes: small bullet-like ones, larger missile-like ones, anything she could visualise in her mind that could bring down Raylix and result in her victory in this spar… or at least slow him down.

Some of the cold wind and smaller icicles that Esdeath threw out definitely seemed to affect Raylix, the bluenette definitely noticed him shivering slightly as the wind struck him, wincing slightly as some of the smaller icicles pierced his flesh, but that didn't stop him from throwing his hands up himself, bringing up a single Amalgamation-hole that swallowed up the rest of Esdeath's freezing attack without doing any harm to him.

"Thanks for that." Raylix remarked, his body having a crimson glow for a couple of seconds before he suddenly darted forward, faster than Esdeath could react, and caught her around the throat with one hand. Pulling her in close to himself, Raylix wrapped his free arm around Esdeath's stomach and changed course, diving straight for the ground. When he got close enough to the ground, Raylix span around mid-dive and slammed Esdeath into the ground, forcing all the breath out of her before jumping up into the air, flipping over and smoothly landing on his feet. "I win."

"Of course you do…" Esdeath groaned, picking herself up and sighing, clutching at her head for a moment before shaking it. "Of course you always suddenly outpace me by a mile, even though I was the stronger of the two for practically the entire spar!"

"Stronger?" Raylix replied, stretching his arms momentarily- looking over the horizon and into the distance for a moment- before looking back at Esdeath. "Or just throwing more of their weight around? Showing more of their strategy- or lackthereof- to someone with the knowledge and resources to counter said strategy- or again, lackthereof?"

Esdeath opened her mouth, but found herself unresponsive to Raylix's retort. Though it wasn't like she would have had time to make any response, considering how Raylix spoke up again before she had any chance to.

"That's why I was holding back during the start of the fight. To see what you'd do, formulate a counter-attack, and strike when I felt I had a chance to… and it worked. Again."

Esdeath let out a low growl, but didn't respond any further for a couple of seconds. Sighing, she looked behind her and noticed a dry, comfortable-looking patch of grass directly below her, before sitting down.

"You sound like Father." She remarked. "When we went on raids to hunt dangerous beasts throughout the world, or Stray Devils that we were contracted to take out, he talked about stuff like that a lot."

"Sounds like a smart guy." Raylix replied, pausing for a second before looking over and down at where Esdeath was sat, an impassive look on his face. "Oh, yeah. You lived with that group of nomads for a while, didn't you?"

"I was born into them, yeah." Esdeath nodded. "Weird that you'd bring that up now, though. There's no-one left of them but me."

She lowered her head, almost between her own legs, and let out a slow breath. She didn't realise it herself, but her breaths quickened as images flooded her mind: her father- a middle-aged man with light blue hair, same as hers, and matching eyes- presenting her with a rapier… her, her father and the Partas Clan sat around a roaring fire, enjoying food and drink in the aftermath of a good hunt… seeing their camp burned to the ground, and her father with a gaping hole in his stomach, bleeding out, the life leaving his eyes right in front of hers…

"Hey."

Esdeath opened her eyes, her breath hitching slightly as she felt a hand that wasn't her own landing on her shoulder. Looking up and over to the hand in question, before following it up to see Raylix looking down at her, bent down slightly so he was on a bit of a closer level to her.

"You alright?" he asked. "You looked like you were spacing out a bit. That's… not like you."

"It's nothing." Esdeath replied, shifting herself away from Raylix's hand, before getting to her feet and unsheathing her rapier. "I'm fine." Lifting the rapier up, she took a couple of steps backwards to put some distance between herself and Raylix, levelling the blade at him. "Another round?"

Raylix grinned, and summoned Gaeneron to his hand as well.

----- ----- -----

"Yeah, I think this spot'll be fine." Raylix remarked, coming to a stop as he led his crew of women into a clearing within some woodland, taking a breath as he did so before looking around a little. "Decently quiet, not very exposed, weather's not bad… this spot's pretty much perfect."

Irene nodded, summoning her staff as Esdeath, Cinder and Tamamo ceased walking as well. Esdeath looked out at the clumps of vegetation on the other side of the clearing compared to where they were standing right now, while Cinder just sat down, her back up against a tree. Tamamo leant against a different tree, but didn't sit down like the younger Magician did. Over the last few months since the pinkette kitsune had joined the crew in the aftermath of her revival, more and more of her power had been coming back by the day. Having long-since-eclipsed Cinder in terms of power, she was rapidly coming up on Esdeath and Irene with very little sign of slowing down. Part of Raylix had to wonder if- by the time her power had fully returned- she would end up somewhere close to his level power-wise, but that was truly neither here nor there.

Raylix looked over at Irene as she gently tapped the butt of her staff into the solid ground, causing the house to pop out of a magic-circle and settle on the ground as if it had always been there, as if it hadn't just popped into being literally seconds ago.

"I'll set up the expansion for your room in the morning, Tamamo." The scarlet-haired Mage remarked to her, stretching as she de-summoned her staff with a wave of her hand. "It's getting dark, and I'm tired."

"Did we really have to come back to France again?" Cinder remarked, from her position on the ground. "Didn't you and Raylix come here on the whole search for the Grail before you brought me in?"

"We did." Raylix replied, turning around and facing the young Stray Mage. "Though that was before I started thinking about where it could be in a different light, which opened certain places in this country back up to be worth looking at."

"And if you're worried about someone potentially catching wind that you're in this country, Cinder…" Irene added. "I wouldn't be. We've been bouncing around the world for nearly half a year, we're pretty much on the other side of the country compared to where we recruited you from, and if someone manages to sneak up on us with Raylix, Esdeath, Tamamo and myself all here, then I'll be very surprised."

"Right…" Cinder nodded, picking herself up from the ground and stretching, before brushing the back of her dress free of any bits of dead grass, leaves and mud that had stuck to it from her brief stint under the tree, and beginning to make her way towards the door of Irene's house.

Everyone else did the same, with Tamamo being the first to make it there. But just as she reached out and wrapped her hand around the door-handle, the kitsune paused, looking away from the house and into the trees, her body uncharacteristically stiff for a moment.

"You okay, Tamamo?" Raylix asked, stopping as he noticed her odd movements, or lackthereof. "Something up?"

"I…" Tamamo began to reply but trailed off, keeping herself turned towards the trees for a second or two longer, before relenting and turning back towards the door she had her hand on. "Just thought I sensed something for a second there. But it's nothing."

Raylix hummed, shrugging and pausing as Tamamo pushed the door open, allowing her to step inside first.

Not a million miles away, however, a silver transportation-circle was forming in the living room of a certain luxury villa. Said transportation-circle possessed what looked to be a similarly-coloured four-winged bat with horns on its head in the centre, a symbol that any self-respecting Devil or Lilim would recognise instantly, and immediately take seriously whoever happened to come out of it. Half a second later, a certain silver-haired young woman popped out of it. Her shoulder-length hair remained unbound, and her outfit- a high-collared black leather jacket over a dark green v-neck shirt, burgundy jeans with a silver chain drooping down over them on one side and black shoes with black buckles- hugged her figure impressively.

Immediately after touching down on the ground, Hikari moved over to one of the couches in the living room- the only seat in the room with anyone sat on it- stopping once she was a few steps away. Hikari could only see her dark hair flowing down the back of the light-coloured couch, but that didn't really matter.

"Mother?"

The dark-haired woman, Lilith, looked up from her book as Hikari spoke, a neutral look on her face.

"You're back." She remarked, more by way of greeting than anything else. "Did they see you?"

"Nope." Hikari replied, stretching as she flopped down over the sofa, taking a breath. "Got a good look at them, though."

"Hm." Lilith hummed, standing up and turning towards Hikari. Letting out a slow breath as her seven tails and horns appeared at her back and at the top of her head, one of the tails moved itself up towards Hikari's face, yet paused just before it got to that unspoken point that most could consider too close for comfort. Lilith's eyes flicked over to Hikari, non-verbally seeking consent that Hikari gave with a small nod. Nodding in return, Lilith moved her tail that little bit closer.

Silence reigned between the Lilim Queen and her great-granddaughter for several seconds, as Lilith peered into Hikari's memory of the last few minutes: when she'd sensed five presences moving around a little too close to the human-world villa- that had been her second home for just over two centuries now, and had been Hikari and Kurumi's ACTUAL home since Lilith had taken them in less than a decade ago- for her to be fully happy with it, and dispatched Hikari to survey the situation. Go to where she sensed the presences coming from, get a good look at them, come back: no need to make contact of any kind and ABSOLUTELY no need to attack… yet.

But what Lilith was seeing…

"One of the Platinums?" the Prime Succubus muttered, blinking a couple of times. "Ugh, what was her name again… couple of girls I don't know, and… huh."

"What?" Hikari replied, taking a couple of breaths as the unpleasant feeling of her great-grandmother poking around inside her recent memories began to mount, with every passing second. Noticing the look on her face, Lilith pulled back, allowing the silverette some momentary relief.

"If what you're seeing is accurate, Hikari, and that wasn't some imposter with those girls and that guy, then we're looking at a revived Tamamo-no-Mae… but she's been dead since Henry Beauclerc was in charge up north. Body turned into a stone, or something like that."

"Henry who?" Hikari asked.

"Never mind." Lilith replied, shaking her head and raising her tail. "Unimportant. Now, I just need to get a good look at the guy, and then…" she trailed off, and Hikari nodded as she allowed her foster-mother to enter her mind once again, rifle around in the last few minutes of her memory. "Come on, guy, turn around… turn around…"

Hikari's eyes flicked up, and as she caught a look at the expression on Lilith's face, and it was one that she hadn't seen before, not in the last few years she'd been living here with her. It was surprised, almost shocked to see whatever- or WHOever- it was that she was seeing.

The current wielder of Divine Dividing hadn't EVER seen Lilith surprised or shocked in her life before, and she wasn't sure if she liked it. But whoever it was that had caused that kind of reaction in her, even for a fraction of a second as her expression shifted back to a more neutral state before any normal person could even have noticed her surprise, they had to be someone important, whether just in general or important to Lilith specifically, at the very least.

"Well, I'll be…" Lilith whispered, almost too quiet for Hikari to even pick up on with her enhanced hearing, as she pulled back her tail and took a step back from Hikari, her immense breasts bouncing slightly at the semi-sudden movement.

"Mom?" Hikari asked. When Lilith didn't reply, she spoke up again. "Should I get Kurumi so we can deal with those guys? Drive them off? Kill them?"

"That won't be necessary, Hikari." Lilith replied, raising a hand herself and using it to cast a transportation-circle of her own under where she was standing, this one with the same symbol in the centre as Hikari herself, but jet-black rather than silver. "But thank you for offering. I think this is something… that I'll deal with myself."

Hikari blinked again, but didn't reply as Lilith activated her transportation-circle, vanishing from the area in a flash of dark light.