Satan, May 20th
Two weeks had already passed, Satan continously stressing over the war. After the loss of Grey and being unable to do anything, his blood boiled and his immense guilt overtook him. He threw himself into his work, trying to stretch his limits, working as much as possible. He could rest later, right now Ayuzuma needed his help.
And so that was what Satan was doing at the moment, hauled up in his room the entire day. He kept nodding and dozing off every couple minutes.
‘What time is it?’ Satan turned his head to the clock.
‘Seven. I missed dinner completely, shit… Oh well, I’ll just grab a snack and keep working.’ Satan thought as he rose from his chair. He stretched, feeling his bones pop and crack with every movement.
He walked out of his room to the kitchen to see… everyone? Even Lucifer who was supposed to be on Earth.
“Finally, he’s here. Shut up.” Araya mumbled something as he approached.
“So, Satan.” Araya greeted as she glared down Satan.
“So? What’s going on?” Satan asked as he went to the fridge to scavenge for food.
“What’s going on? Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Araya said.
“Not particularly. I do know a war is going on and I should probably get back to that-” Satan said as he tried to scurry away, half knowing what was probably about to go down and half confused.
“No, no. Stay.” Araya cut him off.
“Ria, you’re confusing him. Satan, you’ve been working constantly. Are you alright?” Arsene asked.
“I’m fine, I can catch up on sleeping and eating once-”
“There is no catching up when your magic goes and you become another case study on what happens when an immortal doesn’t take care of themselves!” Araya yelled, starting to get a bit annoyed.
“I don’t know if that matters right now. I need to put my all into the war, or else-”
“You still have Zeta and the rest of his crew. I know they’re willing to help They won’t explode if you take the time to take care of yourself better, promise.”
“Alright then, I’m gonna eat, go to my apartment, shower, then crash.” Satan sighed, deciding to eat out in the dining room of the castle for once while having small talk with everyone else.
A few minutes into his meal, Satan heard footsteps. All the advisors and people he had to meet with were dismissed for the day, and everyone at the palace today was right in front of him. He felt his stomach sink as dread flowed through every part of his body.
“Guys, am I hearing noises or do you hear footsteps?” Satan leaned in to whisper to everyone.
“Yes. Shit.” Araya got up from her seat and summoned her pole and went to the wall just near the entrance of the dining room, ready to swing.
Everyone else summoned, or in the case of Lucifer, ran to get their weapons. Satan teleported himself into the throne room and creeped up to every area he thought someone could be hiding. He was stopped in his tracks by the sound of a pole hitting something, and the voice of… Yami?
He quickly teleported back to the dining room and saw Araya using her magic while Yami covered his nose.
“Yami?” Satan said.
“Yes, it’s me. My mistake by rushing in and not announcing it, I’ll tell everyone else that too.” Yami said.
“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me…” Satan bit his lip.
“We’ve been working with that Detective, they found out Takahiro and company plan to take over Orange.”
“Orange? But that’s the motherland of Black!”
“Don’t ask me.”
“But he is your great-great… too many greats of a grandpa to say out loud.”
“True, but I was never close with him. Something about this feels off though.”
Yami was cut off by more footsteps and Zeta pushing Yami and Araya out of the way.
“They don’t just plan to take over, they’re doing it right now! Look!” Zeta shouted, shoving a phone in Satan’s hand.
Zeta was facetiming someone. The screen showed someone clearly part of Takahiro’s army looking down at Queen Amber. While she tried to lift herself off the ground but kept falling back down. Satan noticed the bone poking out of her leg.
“Shit, we need to leave, right now!” Satan gave Zeta the phone back and rushed off.
“No, you still need to take a break from working. We can handle this.” Araya said.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“Alright then, see you later. Oh before I forget…” Satan rushed back to his old room in the palace and came out with a thick notebook with post-it notes, notecards and bookmarks sticking out from the sides. “I’ve made many potential plans for if Takahiro takes Orange. I don’t have anything for this exact situation but it may help you.”
“Alright thanks. Now go take care of yourself for once.”
“Yes ma’am.” Satan slightly smiled.
***
Araya, May 20th
The group rushed over to Orange immediately. As soon as they made it on Orange Kingdom soil they rushed over to the palace. Araya gripped her pole harder as they walked through the palace on high alert. The palace was made up of many circular parts with orange clay walls and roofs made of grass. The largest of the rooms was thrice the size of the group and had a large door. The entrance before the palace even had sticks that made an arch as well.
The group stormed the castle, and the same scene that played out over the phone was playing right in front of their eyes, if playing was really what it could be called.
The members of Takahiro’s army turned around to face the group. They all charged at the group, but Araya dodged them, leaving them to everyone else that came. Araya approached the woman on the floor with her pole in hand, and slid to the floor. She had skin like deep mahogany and short coily hair with a deep red color. She didn’t recognize her before but now it was clear that the woman was Amber Murazvo.
“Oh my god, Mrs. Mendoza! I haven’t seen you since I was thirteen!” Amber half smiled, half grit her teeth.
“Hi Amber. Are you the Queen now?” Araya asked as she examined the woman’s leg.
“Yes. I would’ve loved to have you at my coronation.”
“And I’d like to have been there, but I couldn’t thanks to him.” Araya motioned to Lucifer as he fought off Takahiro’s army while begining to use her magic.
“Who? Wait, he kinda looks like Mr. Satanel… Is that his brother?”
“Yes.” Araya finished up using her magic. Amber’s leg had wood with bandages wrapped around it. While one of Takahiro’s agents tried to approach Araya from behind, Araya grabbed her pole and smacked them away, leaving them to Lucifer and the others.
“There. Healing magic never fully fixes anything unless it’s something small, I’d say my magic fixed about… ninety percent probably? Don’t get up yet, stay here. I want to attend to the others.” Araya instructed, but she was stopped as quickly as she started to make her way across the room.
“Oh no, they’re fine. I’m not.” Amber explained. Araya looked to where the other two were. On the left was someone with the brightest green hair she’d ever seen, and the right someone with a long white coat. She squinted, trying to remember their names. She was sure she’d met them before she left.
“Is that…. Kiyoshi Watanabe- or wait, was it Kurogiri? Or both?” Araya thought.
“Watanabe. Hi, Mrs. Mendoza.” Kiyoshi greeted.
“Hi. Not to sound like every adult ever but you’ve gotten so big.”
“Yeah, I know.” Kiyoshi chuckled.
“They cut my fucking hair!” The one with the long coat complained as they grasped at their short hair, black and cut unevenly into a bob.
“It’ll grow back, just give it a day.” Kiyoshi reassured.
“I know, but still! That’s one day of not being able to use my hair for anything!” They said as they rushed over to Amber.
“Use… your…. Hair?” Araya puzzled.
“That’s Kuroyami. You know, the one that had the long hair that moved like arms.”
“Oh! I didn’t even recognize him.” Araya said.
“Are you almost done? Some help would be nice!” Lucifer yelled from across the room as him and the others were fighting off Takahiro’s agents.
“Yes, sorry!” Araya apologized. She quickly teleported herself over to them and finished off the rest of Takahiro’s agents by throwing them onto the ground.
“Yay! Crisis averted!” Lucifer cheered.
“It wasn’t really anything, only crisis was that they fucked with our powers, so now we can’t use them.” Amber commented.
“Oh, you should’ve told me. Here.” Araya went back over to them and used her healing powers. Amber and Kuroyami immediately after being healed tested out their powers, Kuroyami shrouding everyone in darkness and Amber using her fire which cleared the darkness.
“Am I the only one that feels suspicious about this? It felt too easy compared to all the others battles we’ve fought.” Yami pointed out.
“Uh, yeah, about that, you might wanna come look at this.” Amber said, pointing at her phone. They all gathered around her phone to watch the footage.
The footage showed a bunch of agents of Takahiro, again, chasing around assumed citizens in a desert. The citizens were all varied species, from centaurs, to werewolves. Nearby buildings were set on fire by Takahiro’s agents, whilst other buildings were set on fire due to surrounding buildings. A large majority of Takahiro’s agents all raced towards the top of a dune that had a large shelter made only with sticks for a rounded framework and leaves and bark covering the outside. The shelter was only on one side while the other was open, with only carpeting and a modest throne pieced together with only sticks.
“Where is that?” Lucifer asked.
“Must be Yellow near the capital. Yellow’s a large kingdom, if we lose Yellow then we’re screwed.” Yami paced.
“Then let’s get over there!”
“If it’s just the six of us, we’re gonna need the army on this one.” Zeta said.
“Not six, eight. We wanna help too.” Amber butt in, glancing over at Kuroyami.
“You sure?” Zeta asked.
“Yeah. Kiyoshi can handle things here until we get back, and if anything happens there’s always Bree too.” Amber said.
“Wait, where’s Bree?” Nico asked.
“Getting groceries.”
Almost as if she waited for someone to mention that from the entrance, Amber noticed Bree walking down the path with the grocery bags floating all around her with her blood magic. She opened the door, eyes drawn to Takahiro’s agents littering the floor.
“What the hell happened while I was gone? Wait, dad?” Bree’s eyes fell on Nico. The two rushed to hug each other.
“Average actions of Takahiro.” Kuroyami said.
“Of course.”
“Oh yeah, seems like Takahiro and his gang or whatever wanna take over Yellow now, wanna join in?”
“Count me in! Uh, you’ll be alright on your own, right Kiyoshi?”
“As long as someone scans the area and makes sure there’s nothing nearby, I’ll hold down the palace just fine.” Kiyoshi said.
“I can check real quick, then we can go.” Amber said, before rushing off to inspect the surrounding area quickly.
As soon as the group gathered an army to help them properly, they teleported to the capital of Yellow. They teleported slightly away from the capital to survey the scene from afar. Then, they began walking in sweltering heat, sneaking closer and closer to the capital. The same scene they watched on Amber’s phone still playing out in front of them. Though Araya was dressed the most suitably for the heat of Yellow, sweat still tricked down from every pore on her body.
The group was now behind an acacia tree, hiding from Takahiro’s agents as much as they could manage. They began discussing and formulating potential plans on how to help, when they heard hooves on the sand approaching them closer and closer. They all either pointed their weapons in the direction of the sound, or started up their magic.
In the distance was a centaur woman, who wasn’t just a human from the torso up and a horse’s body attached, but she has a small curved horn protruding from the front of her head, horse ears and a pair of yellow wings. She wore both armor as well as a light and airy yellow shirt.
“Are you-” Yami was cut off.
“Queen Jodie? Yes.”
“Nice to see you. Unfortunate it had to be now of all times, but we’d like to offer our help.” Yami said.
“Thank you for the aid. We should hurry up, or else there’ll be nothing left of the capital.” Jodie began to run down the dune, “Your army should focus on Takahiro’s men. I’ll focus on getting the fires out and evacuating my people.”
“But how are you getting those fires out?”
“Some of the Water Elementals from Light Blue are helping us out.”
“Oh, perfect!” Yami said.
The group all began to split up. Araya and Lucifer headed for the left area of the capital, Yami, Kuroyami, and Amber went right, Arsene and Nico went straight ahead while Zeta went around to take on the northern area. Jodie followed Arsene and Nico only to take citizens out of the capital. Each took a portion of the army with them as well.
Araya and Lucifer ran on forwards, Araya regretfully glancing at the burning houses and apartments.
‘If only I could stop, then I could heal all the houses, so at least these people wouldn’t be loosing everything… I’d exhaust my healing magic just by doing that unfortunately.’ Araya thought.
Her thoughts were broken by the sight of a small group of Takahiro’s group. Small, meaning fifty, wouldn’t hold a candle to the resistance’s portion of the army of five hundred. Araya raised her pole in the air, ready to strike, while Lucifer raised his scythe in the air and readied his magic, but the army jumped out in front of them and took Takahiro’s men on themselves.
“Huh?” Araya asked, dumbfounded.
“Save your strength for when you really need it, we’ll handle the rest for now!” One yelled out as they kicked one of Takahiro’s men to the ground.
“I have an even better idea.” Araya retorted. From her bag she took out another unconscious potion, simultaneously one of the most useful to use on others yet annoying on yourself potions in all of Ayuzuma, maybe even the universe. She motioned for the army to move away from Takahiro’s guard and threw the potion. The glass shattered all over the capital’s streets, and the liquid splattered everywhere. If even a tiny drop touched one of Takahiro’s men, they’d be out until awoken again. Of the fifty that initially showed up, thirty were made unconscious thanks to the potion, leaving another twenty the guards would need to take out.
“Those potions sure are helpful. Do you need to splash them on the ground though?” One soldier asked.
“No, good idea. I only have so many of these so I should probably also use them only if there’s a lot of enemies” Araya said.
Araya, Lucifer and the army got into a good few fights. Run into Takahiro’s men, survey how many there were. If there were just a few, the army would take care of it. If there was a lot, Araya would splash unconscious potion liquid on as many as possible. And if there looked to be especially strong opponents, finally Araya and Lucifer would get to step in. But it seemed the more they marched on, the more of Takahiro’ men they’d encounter, the more injuries the soldiers sustained and the longer they’d need to stop for her to heal everyone.
And now, they were waiting again. They’d run into probably a thousand of Takahiro’s men, so the unconscious potions and Araya and Lucifer stepping in was a must that time around. But when looking in her bag, Araya only saw one potion that could be used.
Araya teleported on top of a shorter apartment building, and took out the potion.
“Please get as many of Takahiro’s men as possible.” Araya wished while she tore of the cap and poured it down, shaking it to get as much of the liquids out of the bottle.
She looked down, and there appeared to be a little less than half of the army unconscious. She stomped at the sight, then teleported back down.
“Hey Nen, are you busy? I’m kind of out of unconscious potions right now…” Araya tried to use her walkie-talkie while fighting off some of Takahiro’s men, sloppily dodging swords and bullets and lazily throwing her pole around with her one hand.
“Yes, they’re everywhere! Can you wait a few minutes? Ove- Nico!” Arsene yelled from the other line, the sound of a gunshot giving Araya that feeling of her stomach dropping.
While not fully paying attention, one of Takahiro’s men finally managed to land a hit on Araya. They managed to leave a deep cut in her arm and were forceful enough to make her fall backwards. She landed on the ground and one of the few soldiers able to fight charged back at them. A soldier helped her up.
“Thank you.” Araya mumbled. She ran off to a nearby dark corridor to focus on healing herself, but as she began using her magic she felt faint and her eyelids grew sleepy. Her vision became blurry and she held onto a nearby wall to stop from collapsing. She took out her walkie-talkie as quickly as she could manage.
“I think… I’ve depleted all my healing magic for today. Can someone help?” Araya’s weakened voice asked.
“All our healers are overwhelmed, sorry.” Yami panted into the walkie-talkie.
“Same here.” Nico coughed.
“You too? Damn I hate magic sometimes!” Zeta screeched.
“Is there a lot of Takahiro’s men for you too?” Araya said.
Everyone replied yes.
Araya silently cursed as she made her way over to where the soldiers and Takahiro’s men faced off. There looked to be even more of Takahiro’s men, and some of the ones that were unconscious before were being awoken by his men.
“I think we may need to fall back, there’s too many.” Araya slowly slipped back down the corridor.
“What do we tell Jodie then?” Zeta said.
“Takahiro’s getting too powerful.” Araya said.
All separate groups managed to get away from Takahiro’s men. Araya, Lucifer and their portion of the army simply teleported, Yami, Amber and Kuroyami escaped thanks to the Koizumi’s shadow powers and managed to sneak away, Zeta used his powers to paralyze Takahiro’s men, and Arsene created a giant bear while she and Nico teleported away. They regrouped somewhere in the desert, away from the capital.
As soon as Araya’s feet touched the desert sand again, she almost collapsed. Her body swayed but Lucifer grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Easy, easy, don’t faint on me Mendoza.”
Despite Araya’s exhaustion, she still thought like a healer, observing the injuries of the group. Lucifer had a deep cut in his neck from a sword, Yami had a black eye and limped, Zeta had some knocked out teeth and his hand bleed like crazy, Arsene’s shoulder had bone quite literally popping out. Nico was the only one not to have any injuries whatsoever.
They spotted Jodie in the distance and waved her over. Somehow, in the darkness, she saw them and rushed over.
“Jodie, we’re sorry, it-” Yami started, but was cut off by Jodie.
“I know. The entire capital is in ruins. For every water elemental that put out a fire there was another five shadow elementals that set fire to something else and then hurt my people. Everyone that pitched in got too exhausted, I even called for armies from other kingdoms but their power wouldn’t too anything.”
“What? How? How does he keep winning and taking over more kingdoms?” Zeta demanded.
“Could be related to the disappearance of Ayuma, could just be pure luck, or something else entirely.”
“It can’t fucking be luck that’s letting him take every single kingdom he sets foot it, it’s gotta be related to Ayuma’s disappearance or something else!” Zeta screamed.
“Hey, hey. I get your annoyed but yelling won’t fix-” Yami said.
“I don’t care! If Katherina wasn’t an influence in his life maybe my friends parents won’t be dead. Maybe my wife would still be here.”
“Your wife? Wait… do you mean-” Nico gasped.
“Yes! I’m surprised I’m even alive.”
While the former rulers all continued talking, Araya became dizzier, tuning out all voices and noises. All she could hear was a loud buzzing noise, and the headache she had certainly wasn’t helping. A blue figure approached Araya, likely Arsene.
“I need to get back to my apartment, I’m gonna collapse out of exhaustion sooner or later.” Araya dug her hands into Lucifer’s jacket, trying to keep steady.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
And then, Araya’s eyes closed as she finally collapsed.
Araya’s eyes slowly opened. She was in bed in her room at her apartment, and she heard Nico and Arsene talking. She slowly sat up in bed and got up. She tested her magic by lifting a random object, which thankfully smoothly floated in the air.
‘Yes! My healing’s gotta be fine now too, right?’ Araya thought. She opened the door to her room to venture out, trying to look for something to heal, but was greeted by Nico and Arsene sitting at the dining room table.
“Your awake, how are you feeling Ria?” Arsene said.
“Better. My magic’s working but I haven’t checked my healing. Can someone give me something to heal?” Araya said.
“Try this.” Nico handed her a mug with a part chipped off on the top.
Araya grabbed it and held her hand over it gently as she dispelled her healing magic. The area that was chipped slowly repaired back to what was assumed to be the way it looked before. Araya jumped up in the air as she cheered, accidentally letting the mug out of her hand and it shattered. Araya quickly went to fixing it again, and it was good as new. She placed it on the table.
“Well, my magic’s good again now. What happened after I passed out?” Araya slid out a chair from the dining room table and sat down.
“We told Satan what happened earlier. He’s not happy, to say the least. Not really at us but at… himself? He asked everyone stay away from him unless it’s something related to the war. Lucifer went back to Earth but I have a feeling we’ll need his help for something again.” Nico explained.
“Can’t say I’m surprised, but not much we can do but hope we get lucky soon, otherwise I think hope may be gone for the Ayuzumians…” Araya sighed. “Well, I’m fine now so I suppose I’ll be going to work. See you both later.”
***
Satan, May 28th
Satan stared at the blood pooling on his arm as he spaced out, thoughts of the past five months and everything that’d happened flashing through his brain. When he finally spaced back into the world, he only then realized the tears flowing from his eyes. Looking at the dozens of scars littered on his arm made him sick. He quickly took what little blood flowed and added it to his collection of blood. Another few links on his chains weren’t much, but it could be useful. He bandaged his arm and rolled down his sleeve. He stared at his reflection, a first in the long time. He knew he hadn’t even brushed his hair in a week, but it looked even worse with a closer look.
‘I can’t even look at myself.’ Satan rubbed his eyes and stopped his crying, grabbing the bloodied razor and teleporting it away, but not without adding the blood to his collection once. He threw a blanket over the bathroom mirror and walked over to his room. He brushed his hair quickly and threw it into a sloppy side ponytail.
‘Good enough.’ Satan made his way out of the hallway of rooms and down the stairs in the throne room to the meeting room. As soon as he opened the door he was greeted with the sounds of conversations of others, ranging from the recent battles to talking about breakfast. His eyes lingered on his friends and other ex royals before making his way to his usual seat.
Everyone began quieting down and shushing each other as he sat down.
“Thank you all for coming here. I apologize for not being quick enough but I believe I may have thought of a solution to the war ending.” Satan began. Some of the people in the room cheered and whooped, making Satan slightly chuckle. “This may be drastic and not something all of you want, but at this rate I think we’re all desperate enough.”
“Just tell us already!” Zeta yelled from across the room, making Satan roll his eyes.
“Alright, alright, I think we should kidnap them.”
“What?” A chorus of voices shouted.
“Listen, anytime we’ve tried to protect a kingdom from being taken over or try to take and return a kingdom to the original rulers, it hasn’t gone over very well. If we stop the problem at the source, then they can be thrown in jail and everyone that’s worked for them will have no choice but to stop.” Satan tried to argue.
“How would we make that happen though? Last time someone snuck into their palace it didn’t go over so well.” Yami brought up.
“Well, we could do a similar thing with more people, or we could invite them to one of the palaces under the guise of surrendering one of the kingdoms to them.”
“Going to one of their palaces again is too risky, they’d outnumber us.” Nico pointed out.
“But which kingdom would be willing to be our bait? Red in either sector is completely out of the question, I’d have to issue a bunch of passes and that’s not something I’d like to do. I don’t think Blue or Light works either, as far as I know they have no mermaids, no water elementals nor people with the right magic to make people be suited to be underwater.”
“The only ones left are Orange, Cyan, Purple, and Rainbow.” Araya brought up.
“Who’s most likely to accept this?” Satan said.
“Hard to say. Might have to just ask around.” Zeta said.
“Seems like it, of course. Why don’t we split up? Araya, Nico, Arsene, why don’t we go to Pink?”
“That’s an odd choice. You don’t just want to get out of the castle, right?” Araya commented as she got up and walked over to Satan.
“Totally not. Anyway, let’s get this over with.” Satan said.
“Wait, Satan! The royals at Pink are much different than any- Shit, he’s gone.” Zeta tried to warn Satan, but since it was too loud, he was already teleported away and gone before he could get his attention.
When they first arrived Satan couldn’t get his eyes off of the beautiful lush valleys of Pink, They were standing at the higher areas of the valley, and below them were the buildings and houses that were white and pink, with roman influence in mind. The buildings had arches and columns, and the people were dressed in roman clothing. Only Araya gently nudging his face with her pole broke him out of his trance.
“Which one is the palace?” Satan held a hand over his eyes to see better.
“Probably the one with the path.” Araya pointed at a large house with ornate columns and statues, as well with lettering in Roman and hearts. Lots of hearts.
They made their way down the hill and to the palace, and Satan kept loosing focus and staring at the capital in closer detail, needing to be brought back multiple times.
“Wait, do we need to make an appointment or something?” Araya asked.
“Already on it, and yeah, we do. Oh, did any of you know Pink seven six reigning rulers?”
“Wait, what?” Satan yelled.
“Yeah, they decended from the seven deities of love. Anyway, closest appointment we can get is at two in the afternoon, and it’s only twelve now, and we have time to kill. Should we get lunch now?” Nico scrolled on his phone while walking.
“I’m not hungry but I’d like to explore. I haven’t been able to do that in ages.” Satan said.
“You’re lying.” Araya said.
“What?”
“I can tell when you haven’t eaten, Satan.”
“How?”
“I just know. I can’t force you to eat, but I know you’ve barely taken care of yourself for the past week.”
Satan thought about how awful his week had been, from new cuts he gave himself to the bottles of alcohol he’d managed to empty, then he looked at Araya’s face. She frowned slightly, her bright yellow eyes almost glimmering.
‘Just for today, I can keep up the facade, at the very least.’ Satan thought, before giving in and going to look for a place to eat with the others together.
The quartet eventually found a very nice place to eat, one with fancy columns and statues but more casual food. They became distracted and at one fourty five, they rushed through all their food and drinks to pay the bill and teleport over.
They ended up in front of the palace. They hesitantly entered, then took a left into a small waiting room. It was almost like a Roman version of a waiting room, except with less chairs, only enough chairs to seat the four.
After ten minutes, the door opened to a young woman in her 20s in a bun.
“Hello, are you the ones with the appointment to meet with the royal family?”
“Yes.” They all rose from their seats.
“Right this way.” She held the door open as she lead them down a staircase to the right, and made a few turns down a downstairs hallway before they made it to the meeting room. She bowed as she took her leave and they entered.
The meeting room was like a theater, but on a much smaller scale. There was no big stage, but there was a circular middle that was presumably where they’d stand. A woman with pink curled hair stood up and walked over to them.
“Hello, you are Satan Satanel, the ruler of the Hell sector or Red?” The woman stuck out a hand.
“Yes, pleased to meet you. You are…?
“Queen Venus. The over six over there are my co-rulers and cousins.”
“Cousins? But you at look so-”
“Different? I know, we’re very distant cousins. Anyway, feel free to take a seat or just stand, whatever you feel like.” She motioned to the unoccupied seats next to the royals. The quartet each took their seats.
“So, I assume you know what’s been going on in Ayuzuma, right?” Satan began.
“Yes, it’s awful.”
“I know. Our luck has been garbage, so we’ve been thinking of something drastic.”
“Oh? Do tell.”
“I thought we could kidnap Katherina and Takahiro.”
“That is pretty drastic. Why does this involve us though?” Venus’ eyes darted over to her cousins.
“Well, the last time we went directly to the Black Kingdom Palace to stop them, it didn’t go over well. Inviting them to Red in either sector is risky since we have to issue the passes so they could just skip the surrending and take over themselves, and for the underwater kingdoms they probably don’t have the ability to go underwater without submarines. So we wanted another kingdom to take the bait. Would you be willing?”
“All cousins that would be willing, raise your hand.” Venus turned to her cousins, Venus’s hand immediately shot up, and five others as well. The only one that didn’t was the royal wearing much more frumpy clothes. “Pragma, why don’t you want to?”
“I thought this was democracy, not convicrary.” The man assumed to be Pragma rolled their eyes.
“Pragma, please, I just want to know why. Maybe we can help alleviate your fears or something.”
“Mr. Koizumi has the power of nine kingdoms now, and it’s essentially one against nine. If we’re bait, we’re gonna be next.”
“Oh no, you’re not doing this alone. All the former royals are part of the resistance, plus the Hell Sector. There’s citizens from the taken over kingdoms so it’ll be more evenly matched.” Satan clarified
“Alright, I guess that’s a little better. Fine by me.”
“I’m surprised you were that easy to convince.”
“If you agree, can I make you all hell passes? I’ll tell the others to come back to my palace, and we can discuss a fully fledged plan to kidnap Katherina and Takahiro.”
“Yes, might be nice to see Hell.”
“Alright then, we’ll be back a little later.”
Satan, June 3rd
Satan stood on the docks of a small rowing boat that rocked enough to make him nervous he’d fall out. He watched over the Pink Palace, close enough to get a good look but far enough not to attract too much attention. His eyes fell on his friends, all disguised as the guards of Pink. While some stayed stationary, trying to blend in, others quietly chatted or made faces at Satan.
“Hey, careful, they might spot you if you’re too red over here.” Yami mumbled, grabbing Satan’s robe hood and putting it over his head.
“You could’ve just said that.” Satan growled back as he adjusted his hood. He took a deep breath before he opened his eyes and looked down at his hand. Yup, normal skin color there.
“According to Takahiro, he should be over in five more minutes,” Queen Venus spoke.
“Did you plant the mics and camera in the castle so we can listen and watch? Over,” Satan mumbled.
“I didn’t, thank you for the reminder!” Venus said.
Satan listened to the sound of a microphone turning on as he tapped his foot, staring right at the entrance and now at an iPad screen on the bottom of the boat.
“Can you hear and see me?” Venus spoke as she backed up from the camera.
“You’re good. All fake guards planted?” Satan asked.
A chorus of voices answered ‘yes’.
“Takahiro and his men should be here very soon, every ready and knows what to do?” Satan asked.
Another chorus of voices shouted ‘yes’ the second time around.
A few more minutes passed, and then various versions and colors of magic appeared, each clearing to reveal more that were part of Takahiro’s army. In front of them all, were Takahiro, Katherina and Milena. Satan used his binoculars to see closer. Takahiro seemed to cast a glance at Katherina, who smirked back at him. Satan’s stomach dropped at the sight, and his blood boiled at the sight of Katherina. Milena had her arms crossed and rolled her eyes before finally entering, before them of course.
Satan and Yami got closer to the dock floors to watch the footage on the ipad screen. The army entered from the left, and all nine of the Pink royals were lined up together on the right.
“Hello, Pink royal family,” Takahiro greeted with a smirk.
“We prefer to be called the Amares.” Venus corrected.
“Listen, I don’t really know much about anything outside of Black, forgive me. Anyway, what is it that you needed us here for today?”
“Well, we’ve watched how the war has played out, and after we all discussed things, we’ve decided: we’d like to join your empire on peaceful terms. Instead of a conquer deal, maybe, we surrender ourselves willfully? You can be the emperor and make the decisions for the good of the empire, and we can keep up Pink while pledging our allegiance to you.” Venus proposed with a hand to her heart. Satan glanced over at Yami.
“Convincing?”
“Very much so.” Yami shivered. They turned their attention back to the ipad screen.
“Hm, that does sound like a nice idea… What made you want to change your mind?”
“Well, I saw how… good your conquered kingdoms are doing.” Venus hesitated. Satan bit his lip as he looked at Takahiro’s facial expression. He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows. Takahiro’s shadow powers began emitting from his hand, shadows blanketing everything.
“Fuck, jig’s up, everyone in there, now! Those with light or light-related powers, use them, it’s shadowy in there!” Satan yelled. He quickly pushed himself up to his feet. He glanced at Yami, who nodded at him.
Yami used his shadow magic to teleport, the shadows swallowing them up. When the darkness cleared Yami waved his hand to make his shadows disappear. They were on a raised platform with the nine thrones of the Pink royals.
Looking at the scene in front of them, Takahiro was fully in his shadow form facing the other way on the royal carpet. Besides his mouth and eyes which were gold, his entire body was a black shadow. The shadows Takahiro created had spread throughout almost the entire room, quickly eating Takahiro up until he couldn’t even be seen.
Thankfully, the door burst open to the Pink army, candles and lights in hand alongside their weapons. With what little they could see, they raced up to Takahiro’s army and began fighting them off.
Satan began readying his blood magic, transforming his chains to blood and moving the blood particles around in the air, while Yami went into his own shadow form and charged into the darkness. A minute later, Takahiro was pushed out of the cloud of darkness onto the floor. Immediately, Satan transformed his blood into a ball-and-chain and attached it to Takahiro’s foot.
“Wait, what? This can’t be!” Takahiro protested, as he tried to lift himself off the ground and run, but couldn’t get very far.
“It’s over.” Satan swiftly brought out a syringe and used his magic to move it to Takahiro’s skin. Takahiro dodged it, but eventually, Satan managed to inject Takahiro in his neck, causing him to collapse on the floor.
Next was Milena, who was still on her feet after being pushed out of the shadows. She looked around, and locked eyes with Satan. Immediately after she appeared, Satan used his magic to take the legcuff off of Takahiro and move it to Milena as she began charging at Satan, even able to get to the stairs before the legcuff was put on.
“I’m disappointed in you. I thought you of all people wouldn’t become like them.” Satan admited, before injecting her as well.
Milena looked at him with a regretful expression before she passed out.
Last was Katherina, who had to be forced out with hands behind her back by Yami, rather than pushed out. Yami used his magic to force the legcuff around her leg while Satan readied another syringe. Yami kicked her to the floor for good measure, backing up a fair amount of distance.
“Hurry, she’s pissed.” Yami mumbled to Satan.
He nodded and swiftly moved to inject Katherina, but not without Katherina yelling and insulting him, of course.
“You don’t know anything about what you’ve done. You are and awful person and you know nothing about what Takahiro’s been through because of you.” Katherina rushed through her little speech, before she succumbed to her sleep.
Satan winced at her words, scrunching up his face before shaking them off. He looked in the distance again, and the shadows had dissipated by now completely. A large portion of Takahiro’s army either had injuries, were laying on the ground, or left. There were some fighting the Pink army, but slowly, they had begun leaving the scene.
“Holy shit. Wait, where’s the royals?” Satan’s head darted back and forth.
“Over here!” Venus waved from a opened door in a strained voice, the other royals looking on as well.
“You guys all alright?”
“Yeah. Did we do it?”
“I think so.”
“That’s amazing!”
“It is.” Satan slightly smiled, for the first time in what felt like a long time.
***
June 3rd, Takahiro
The first thing Takahiro felt upon waking up was the cold, hard floor. He slowly raised himself up off the floor, still seated, and noticed the prison bars.
‘Shit.’ Takahiro mentally cursed. He scooted closer to the prison bars and frantically glanced around. It was decently dark, not too dark to not be able to see anything, but enough to make it hard to see. Katherina was in the left prison cell and Milena was in the right, and both were also slowly waking up, getting up. Takahiro looked at the end of the hallway, and saw two guards passed out.
“Guys? What happened?” Takahiro asked.
“Satan being an asshole, that’s what.” Katherina growled.
“No, I mean, the guards. Did either of you stay awake before we got here?”
“No, that’s… not right though.” Milena said, sitting upright.
While they pondered, the jail cell doors slowly opened, creaking all the way. Takahiro could’ve sworn he saw magic particles floating around.
“What the fuck?” Takahiro said in a whisper-yell.
“Maybe these doors are broken.” Katherina shrugged.
“This feels like a horror movie…” Takahiro shivered.
“What are we waiting for, let’s get out of here.” Milena got back on her feet.
“Wait, we don’t know if the guards are setting us up or something!” Takahiro said.
“Hey, I know this situation seems weird, but I only want to help, promise!” A high pitched voice spoke, causing the trio to scream. “Are you done? I made sure you had a clear path to escape. Just go down to the left and hop out there. Now hurry!”
“Who are you?” Takahiro asked as got to his feet.
“A secret. Just know that… the Pink royal family would not be happy for you to know who I am. I’ll come see you as soon as possible.”
“Alright then. See you, I guess.” Takahiro said, before turning around and walking out of the broken wall. Outside it was night, the three moons of Ayuzuma shining down on the trio like spotlights. Takahiro used his shadow magic to teleport back home, lazily wrapping the shadows around the three of them.
When the shadows cleared, they were back in the blinding light of the Black Palace. Katherina immediately ran to her shared room with Takahiro and dramatically flung herself on the bed, face down.
“That was… something, to say the least.” Milena mumbled.
“Yeah… Glad to know there’s someone that wants to defect to our side.”
***
June 3rd, Satan
Satan was in the throne room of Pink, all rulers of the other kingdoms present. For the first time, Satan felt a sense of peace. No more dealing with the war, no more Takahiro.
He could finally see Phoenix again.
But what was supposed to be a closed meeting was interrupted by a guard frantically rushing in.
“What are you doing? This is a closed meeting.” Venus said.
“I’m sorry, but Takahiro, Katherina and Milena escaped their cells!”
‘No…’ Satan thought.
“Show us.” Venus got up from her throne. Everyone else who was sitting got up as well and followed the guard to the cells.
Just as expected, the cell doors were wide open, and on the other end of the hallway was a broken down wall.
“How did this happen?” Satan crossed his arms and tapped his foot. ‘Don’t explode at them. Don’t explode at them. Don’t explode at them.’ Satan repeated the mantra in his head.
“I don’t know, we just… fell asleep suddenly. When we woke up, they were gone.”
‘So you fell asleep on the job? Guarding two of the most hated criminals and Ayuzuma plus their biggest supporter? You should be fired for this negligence!’ Satan thought about what he’d say if he wasn’t filtering himself. It’s not even his guard after all.
“Do you have security cameras?” Satan turned to Venus.
“Yes, let’s look at them.” Venus used some of her magic to teleport to the security camera. Her magic had particles made up of pink and green hearts, a magic unlike anything Satan had seen before.
When the hearts cleared, they were in a small, dark room, overcrowded with the amount of people in it. There was a large tv-like screen with multiple, smaller screens attached to the black walls. Each screen showed footage of different rooms in the castle. In front was a table with a keyboard and mouse, and a chair where one man had his legs propped up on the table with a cup of microwaveable ramen in hand.
“Excuse me, can you show the footage of the cell room and go back?”
“Sure.” He brought his feet back to the ground and moved the tab with the cell room to the largest screen and used his mouse to look at the footage.
Everyone in the room, or outside trying to get a tiny peek in, peered closely at the screen. According to the time on the bottom left, the cameras went static an hour ago. Only five minutes earlier, Takahiro, Milena and Katherina were all passed out and in their individual cells.
“Of course they did… Zeta, are you able to go back in time and see what happened?” Satan turned to look at Zeta.
“Can’t, it’s illegal to time travel without the time gods’ permission.”
“But aren’t they dead? Wouldn’t that not matter anymore?”
“Yes, they are, and I’m quite aware. While the major thirteen are dead, there’s still minor ones floating around currently traveling through time. All time travel has been suspended for months, they haven’t been able to come to a consensus since they died.” Zeta huffed.
“Can you not contact them and ask?”
“They’ve been unreachable since they suspended all time travel, unfortunately.”
“So we can’t do anything else to find out what happened?”
“No, but I think it’s clear now that their may be a traitor among us…” Venus wrapped her arms around herself, almost in a protective way while pushing past everyone.
“Who? We’ve all been sitting in a meeting for the past hour!” Satan said.
“Maybe if not one of us, maybe it’s someone in this castle, as unfortunate as that may be. I think… we’re done here for today. The rest of you can take your leave.” Venus walked off.
‘What’s wrong with you? Only you act like this.’ Satan breathed heavily as he stared down at the palms of his hands, his hands back to his light red demon skin. He felt seething rage throughout his entire body, almost shaking at how much rage he stored within himself. He ran his fingers through his hair, in some attempt to calm himself down, but it didn’t work. He wanted to rip his hair out, to kick something to scream, to cry, to cut, to bleed out. He eyed the razors sitting on his bed table. ‘No. We are not going down that route today.’ Satan fought off himself. He flung himself into his bed and laid there, limp for a couple minutes. Enough to let his rage fade away.
He opened his phone. The screen read 4:20 PM. ‘I should call Phoenix and Artemios. I’ll see if they’re free right now.’ He texted Artemios to set up a call with Phoenix. A few seconds later, the call screen showed up on Satan’s phone. He immediately pressed answer. The first thing he saw upon answering was Artemios sitting comfortably on his couch, his twists now up in a high ponytail. He still had the eyeliner and black lipstick from the last time Satan saw him, but now was wearing a black hoodie.
“Hi!” Artemios waved.
“Hi.” Satan waved back.
“You look tired.”
“When do I not? The war is… exhausting, to put it simple.” Satan covered his eyes with his hand and slid it down his face.
“I can only imagine. I’ll hand this over to Phoenix now.” Artemios got up and walked down a hallway and entered a room. He turned the camera around in the phone app, giving a slight showcase of Phoenix’s room. Since the first picture, Phoenix’s room on Earth had the same night stand, twin sized bed. Now, it had a candle similar to ones Satan had on the nightstand, a teenage mutant ninja turtles bed set, and a kiddie table in the middle of the room with papers stacked and spilling off the sides onto the floor and a backpack in the equally as small chair.
“Satan wants to talk to you.” Artemios said.
“Daddy!” Phoenix got off his bed and raced to the phone. Artemios bent down to hand Phoenix the phone, and Phoenix went back to sitting on his bed to talk.
“So am I gonna get to go back home yet?” Phoenix beamed.
“I wish… We got really close to ending the war but somehow Takahiro, Milena and Katherina all managed to escape, and we can’t figure out why. But enough about the war, how’s school?”
“School is awesome! I have a lot of new friends like Mike, Lorraine, Peyton, Isabelle, and Tiffany. My teacher says I’m ahead of my classmates so sometimes we do one-on-one time. We’re learning something completely new in history though, like what’s a president?”
“They run the United States, kinda like what I do. Get used to it, Earth history is much more different. Kids at school aren’t picking on you, right?”
“No! Although sometimes the magic gets messed up and they see my fairy ears. None of my classmates have ever seen my horns at least.”
“That’s good. How did the magic get messed up though?”
“I don’t know! Maybe it has something to do with Arete still learning.”
“Probably. Do you know what you’re doing over the summer?”
“Well, I thought I might be back home, so I didn’t really think of anything.”
“I know, I know, you miss home. I’m doing everything I can to end the war, okay? Promise.”
“Good!”
“Is there anything else you wanna talk about or?” Satan asked.
“I think that’s everything!”
“Alright, I’ll let you go. Tell Arete I said hi!” Satan waved before ending the call. He sighed. ‘Can I live up to that promise? Even when I get so close, they somehow find a way to fool me and escape.’
He rose from his bed and teleported back to the castle. He was back in the throne room, staring at the black throne with red plush accents. He made his way towards the throne before sitting in it.
‘I don’t know if I deserve to be sitting in this throne anymore if Takahiro can keep fooling me. I don’t deserve to be an heir, I don’t deserve to be called a king, or even a prince for that matter. Even asking to be called the Ruling Prince of Red, I still find a way to disappoint everyone…’ Satan thought, as water pooled in his eyes. A tear began to start sliding down his face, when he heard the sound of someone.
“Sir! If you can, someone wants to schedule a meeting with you!” A voice called out as he heard footsteps of them getting closer.
‘Back to work, I suppose.’ Satan thought as he wiped his tears and prepared to put on his brave face.