PRIORITIES

With the end of this battle, the casualties were that of one thousand. Vanir's army became Sargon's, making the grand total of Five thousand, six hundred and sixty six, all who swore their loyalty to him. Wendell pledged to follow him. Sealing the deal, he drank his blood. To house the new demons, in addition to the growing population came some changes, the town was vastly expanded to house the new citizens, a workshop was added for the dwarfs which joined upon Sargon’s victory. With the help of the dwarfs the castle was heavily fortified turning it into a fortress the rundown and beaten up weapons and armor were melted down and made into more durable and powerful ones. With these changes came a new beginning, and so the small castle town of Entel was renamed to the fortress Babylon. In the conference room Wendell’s heart was returned to him and he was given a seat at the high table and was promoted to commander of the fortress.

"Now then, let's get started with today's agenda." Sargon grinned as the new additions to his table settled in, he crossed his legs and glanced Diya giving her the signal to start.

Somewhere in the cosmos. Two supernatural beings were casually playing a game of chest surrounded by many alternate universes.

"That's a checkmate."

"Ahh again? That's the fifth time."

"You're losing your touch Zeus."

"I just haven't gotten serious yet, Shudan."

Shudan reassembled the board for another round.

"I must say, that boy of yours, I never guessed he would have eaten his own brother." Zeus spoke

"Sargon was what your daughter called him right? Said Shudan.

“And Takagichi was what his human mother named him." said Zeus,

"You sound like none of those are his name." Zeus finished. Shudan laughed.

"That's because it isn't, Zeus we've known each other for millennia. I may have been the first ever demon king, I've created many demons and adopted them as my children. But none of them were of my true blood. But I grew tired of it. Every day was the same. So after i met my love, I left and then each of them began fighting among themselves to claim their right as king, but only a handful now remain."

"A handful out of a hundred." Zeus added,

"But then when he was born, I took one look and knew immediately I knew he would sit on my old seat." said Shudan

"Out of all your children, he was the only one to share your blood, mixed blood at that." said Zeus.

"That's right, but he is the only one to receive a large portion of my power and to access it he needed to die and come back alive." Shudan spoke.

"That's where you needed me." replied Zeus.

"I didn't plan on your daughter to become his woman." Shudan said as he laughed

"Neither did I, but we caused it." They laughed.

"We're lousy fathers aren't we." Zeus stroke his beard.

"With the death of Vanir, the war just started." Shudan said

"I could imagine, well let's have our children handle it, they aren't kids anymore." Zeus replied

"You're right, we'll watch over them, until the day my last born earns his true name; until the day he's called ..."

Zeus accidentally knocked over some of the chess pieces.

"My bad, what was that?" he asked him, Shudan just exhaled,

"No, nothing at all." he smirked.

Dong! Dong! The bells on the church rung, as white doves took to the sky.

“do you, Demon King of the North and Lord of Babylon, Sargon, take thee Lady Diya, goddess of the heavens and right hand to your army, as your bride?” Lia asked.

“I do.” he replied. She then looked at Diya,

“and do you, goddess of the heavens and right hand of the demon lord take thee, Sargon as your groom?”

“I … I have a confession.” Everyone gasped. “I no longer love you.” Sargon stood staring at her. “I, I still love Ares.” she said.

The glass shattered above them as Ares descended draped in a veil.

“come to me, my love.” He said to her as she sprouted her divine wings and grabbed hold of his hands.

“ah! My love, I’ve missed you.” she said to him.

“now, let’s go to the heavens where we belong.” he said as they flew to the sky.

Sargon stretched out his arms and began shouting her name. That's when he jolted awake and began cold sweating on his bed. He heard footsteps approaching his room. The door flung open.

“What’s wrong Sargon?” a panting Diya stood at his doors.

“you’re really here?” he asked

“yes, I am.” She began walking towards him. “would you care to tell me why you’re sweating buckets?” she sat on the bed.

“I had a bad dream.” he pouted.

“Is that it?” she raised her eyebrow.

“yea, I dreamt we were getting married.” he spoke as she tilted her head in confusion,

“what’s wrong about our wedding?” she asked,

“It’s not that, it’s just before you said the I do, that ungrateful bastard swooped down and took you from me.” He glared.

“Sargon,” she said with a terrified expression on her face, “that isn’t a bad dream, that’s a nightmare.” She stood up, “shall I get Eris to bring you the finest holy water from the supreme temple and have you drink it?”

“Diya my love, do you wanna kill me?” he said to her as she flopped down unto the bed.

“That would be problematic.” she pouted.

Sargon stretched out his right hand as if he wanted to hold her, but couldn’t reach her. She glanced at him,

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“For some reason, I get this feeling you’re right within my grasp, yet I can’t reach you.” he uttered as she smiled,

“Then in that case.” She reached out and held him. “I just have to meet you in the middle.” she said as she interlocked their hands together.

The door creaked and they jolted. “oh, forgive me for intruding, just pretend I’m not even here.” Wendell said as he spied on them.

“I’ll kill him.” Diya said as she smiled.

“This time I won’t stop you.” said Sargon, they laughed.

Time passed as the army adjusted to their new surroundings and numbers. Sargon had regained his strength and can now turn into a demon and human. Diya, assisted by Lia trained the new recruits until all of the army were ranked fourth to eight. Lia herself ranked up to rank nine. With his she was no longer maroon, but red. Wendell himself was a noble but after swearing allegiance to Sargon, was finally able to transform himself into a humanlike appearance which took everyone by surprise, but although his appearance changed, he remained his humorous self. They all gathered at the training ground to test a new defensive weapon. The cannon, which was created by Alfreed the head dwarf and one of the newest members to Sargon’s high table was unable to hold his excitement; but after a design flaw in the cannon’s shell. Which resulted in the shell being stuck in the barrel, the cannon backfired and destroyed the training grounds. The backlash of the explosion was powerful enough to gain the attention of every demon in the fortress which resulted in their appearance in the training ground as if Babylon was under attack by some mysterious force. While everyone tried to access the situation, Sargon stood staring at the aftermath, with his arms in his pocket his eyes glowed with the intention of mischief, and a smile that screamed 'ah, i like it.' as Diya glanced over and saw his expression, she flinched with fear as if she knew what he was thinking.

“Alfreed, well done.” Sargon smirked, “now next time, perfect it.”

“Yes my lord.” Alfreed replied.

After that, the next big discussion was the relocation to Claw’s mountain where Vanir’s main army laid. It was decided that they would move as separate units. Sargon leads the main army of three thousand and five hundred, accompanied by Diya and Lia, Wendell following two days after with the rest of the army. After the meeting Ares and the other angels left for the white city.

“I was so looking forward to playing with the new weapon.” Sargon said as he flopped his head on Diya’s lap.

“Sometimes you have to fail in order to succeed.” She spoke as she played with his hair.

“You know; these days I keep having recurring dreams about my mother.” He said to her.

“Your mother? May I ask what sort of dreams?” asked Diya, he didn’t speak for a while.

“I keep seeing the night she vanished.” He finally spoke.

“Vanished?” Diya asked with a surprised look on her face.

“Promise you won’t speak of it?” Sargon said as he held out his pinky.

“I pinky promise.” she said and they shook on it.

“It happened about seven years ago, at that time I was thirteen and my name was Takagichi.” It was the first time since his revival that Diya heard his first name. “We lived alone, just the two of us not far from here actually. My mother was beautiful and I never met my father.” She listened attentively. “We would tend to the fields and sell it to the market to make our living, until that one night there was a knock on the door. I don’t remember much since I was half asleep.” He clenched his fist, which Diya held. “All I could remember was her coming to my room, kissing me on my forehead and leaving.” He exhaled.

“Have you seen her since?” Diya asked

“I waited for her for months until I finally left the house and came here, did various odd jobs and then signed up to be an adventurer. I thought if I became an adventurer, I would find her one day. but then I died.” he chuckled, “then brought back to life and became a demon lord candidate.”

he got up and walked to the open window taking in the cool breeze. Diya, who misinterpreted what he said, asked, “So what?” he turned around with a puzzled look on his face.

“Are you saying it was wrong of me to bring you back alive?” she became riled up.

“huh? What-” Sargon tried asking.

“Are you saying you were the only one who died that day?” she questioned.

“N-no, wait-” but he was cut off yet again.

“Forgive me for stepping over my bounds but; you went from being a nobody to the most important being in this city.” She raised her voice.

“Diya watch your tone.” He said

“No I won’t!” she shouted. “You’re the most important person to me, and I’m sure you’re the most important person to your mother, there has to be a reason why she left no mother will just abandon their child alone and”

“DIYA!” he shouted. As he shouted her name in anger, he momentarily lost control over his immense power, which rocked the fortress causing everyone to be frozen with fear.

“I see, I will say no more.” She whispered to herself. She got on one knee and bowed.

“Please forgive me master, I have severely overstepped my place, I will receive any punishment you deem fit.” she spoke coldly.

“No, Diya, I’m …” before he could finish his sentence, there was a knock at the door that interrupted him, as the door opened Lia hesitantly popped her head inside.

“F-forgive me,” she stuttered, “b-but is everything ok?” she asked as she glanced at Diya kneeling on the floor. “I-is there s-something ... wrong?” she was afraid to speak.

“No, it’s fine.” He replied. Diya got up and walked towards the door.

“Forgive me, I’m going out.” she said.

“Diya wait I’m not done speaking!” He shouted.

“I am.” She said as Lia made way for her to exit. Diya slammed the door behind her as Sargon threw a vase of camellia to justify his anger.

“Go after her” Lia finally spoke.

“What!?” he replied. She began picking up the broken glass.

“I do not know what transpired between you two, but you two are halves of a whole. That’s why when you two fight, it makes us all uneasy.” She got up. “And I know better than anyone else how much she cares about you, and how much you care about her.” She had flashbacks of the fight against Vanir. “So master, you don’t have to ask me ‘what’, you already know.” and she left the room. He smiled.

“I must be an idiot to make two beautiful women lecture me.” He located Diya, as she was flying south of the fortress and took off behind her.

While flying angrily and upset, she came to the forest and as she approached, she picked up on a faint presence of divine magic. She followed it all and her anger disappeared as this discovery peaked her interest. It led her to an old cabin. There were no signs of it being used. She calmly observed it.

“Ah, you found it.” Sargon spoke from behind her which made her startled. He quickly grabbed hold of her hand.

“I’m sorry Diya, nothing you said was wrong, you’re right I wasn’t the only one who suffered that day, I’m thankful you revived me, I got to meet you and I’m ever so happy to have you as my wife.” She smiled.

“I’m sorry for lashing out, but we’re not married yet.” she replied.

“You’re the first woman I've brought home, I’m sorry if it’s not tidy.” He held her hand as they descended.

“Home?” she asked puzzled. “This cabin is your home?”

“Yes, do you like it?” he asked

“It’s small. But cozy.” as they made their way to the door, Diya felt the divine presence stronger. As Sargon reached to opened the door.

“Sargon.” Diya spoke, he glanced at her,

“What is it?” he asked as he noticed her expression.

“I have something to report.” she said

“What is it?” he ask

“I sense divine magic from inside your house.” she replied.

“What?” as he opened the door, mountains of dust laid in every nook and cranny.

“It’s coming from the back.” she said

He noticed that the direction Diya was heading was his mother’s room; he had no time for reminiscence; he just followed her. They opened the door and dust particles slapped them in the face, after dusting it off they entered. There wasn’t much, a bed, a cupboard and an old rug lay on the floor. She saw the divine magic floating on the bed and looked below it. Aside from the bugs, there was something underneath it. Sargon lifted the bed and rested it against the wall. They uncovered a door. After looking at each other they both took a defensive posture.

“I’ll open the door; you stand behind me.” Sargon said.

She did just that and as he lifted the door open they found divine weapons.