Leaders React

Military Complex outside the Mountain

The town was in an uproar. An ice witch blocked the mountain path and started cutting down everyone who would get close like weeds. It didn't matter if they attacked with high level vampires, ultimate levels or even one infinitely close to Satan level, they all died in the engagement, thought the near Satan-level Vampire lasted a while. That lasted for about half an hour before she disappeared.

What made the situation worse is the realization that key figures throughout the town were being assassinated. It was madness, almost everyone in a higher-level managerial position with a role relating to combat was gone. It didn't matter if it was arms or logistics, they were all taken out with a swiftness that terrified the people. The problem was, they had no way of leaving the area with those people gone. This land prevented teleportation for those beneath ultimate class and everyone that was able to do so was now dead.

Then, if that wasn't enough, the blood flowing from the mountain started to dry over the following days. Not just that, but it seemed like a curse was passed into it as everyone who drank from it died shortly after. It was a nightmare. Hopefully help would come soon or everyone in this town was doomed.

Truthfully Rias had forgotten that once Akame and Esdeath did their work, the people would be stranded. She didn't even consider that fact and it likely wouldn't ever come up unless her brother brought it up later.

Seventh Heaven (Heaven Michael P.O.V.)

A tall blond-haired man wearing a set of holy armor rushed into the Seventh following a rapid series of alarms from the heaven's system. Rushing to the console, he started reading through the alerts and what he saw left him stumped. Four sacred gears have disappeared. Two original Longinus class and one that had achieved Longinus class a few years ago. There was another one as well, but it wasn't as concerning at the moment.

'How is this possible?' He felt like he couldn't breathe. A holy relic may have been destroyed. That was the only way for the Sephiroth Graal to disappear like that. An even more worrying prospect was the potential freeing of the red dragon emperor. It may have been that someone used the Graal's power to revive him. The odd part was the Nereid Kyrie. Shouldn't the person responsible have kept that gear intact? That gear may make it possible to control the newly revived Ddraig.

'This needs investigating.' He entered in a few commands to the system to call a council. "We have an emergency situation. I'm calling the Seraphim for an immediate meeting to discuss the situation." He declared through the system. All recipient Seraphim would hear this message.

'I may need to contact Serefall and Azazel for a meeting in the near future. For now though, we'll have to conduct our own investigation.'

Sirzechs's Office (Sirzechs P.O.V.)

It had been a long couple of days. He had received the biggest shock of his life when his father sat him down and explained what Rias told him. She was a Demon Goddess? Was that true? Would she turn out like the original Lucifer? She said she wouldn't but how true is that? They've only had one other example and that was Lucifer.

All these thoughts swirled in his head like a whirlpool as he started planning his next actions. He hadn't briefed the other Satans yet as he was still trying to grasp the implications, so he could take the initiative without losing control of the situation. Even if the other Satans don't tell anyone, they'll still act on the information and word will get out at some point. Once it does, it'll take on a life of its own, so it's better to get things straight now while it's a family secret. Hopefully she doesn't do anything too radical in her search for the grail. In any case, it's best to start assessing our best courses of action going forward.

*Sigh* 'If only I didn't love my sister so much. This would be so much easier' as that thought finished flashing through his mind, a teleportation circle opened in his office. Instantly, he stood up.

'That belongs to Rias' His eyes narrowed as he waited for a few seconds and saw nothing coming out. Then, two frozen heads and three crystals popped out. One crystal was embedded in the ice of each head, while the third was by itself.

His eyes widen as he recognized the heads. He jumped out of his seat and rushed to the closing circle. Just as he was about to reach it, it closed. Sighing, he walked back to his desk. Hesitating for a minute, he pressed a button on the side of it.

Moments later Grayfia walked in and froze when she saw them. Eyes narrowed, she looked up at him.

"What happen Sirzechs" She was mad, very mad. It had been quite a long time since she called him by his name without shortening it or adding master behind it.

"I don't know. Let's check the free crystal. It's the only one not associated with them, so maybe it'll give us a clue." He said as he picked it up. Slowly, he began inserting his demonic power inside. As he did, visions started flowing into his head. Information on a pureblooded vampire settlement, a rescue operation, a grand ritual, invasion plans, and more. The part that explained the heads seemed to involved the two dead devils guiding the invasion plans and confronting them in battle.

One hand holding his forehead, he handed the crystal to Grayfia and proceeded to watch in fascination as she watched what her brother and ex-liege wanted to do, her face slowly shifting to horror. Then, they looked down at the two crystals seemingly containing their full sets of memories.

*Sigh* "This is going to be a long day and the perpetrator isn't even here to explain it." Grayfia nodded.

"Master, at least we can use this to strike a major blow to the Anti-Satan faction. The amount of intelligence in their minds must be staggering. We need to figure out an extraction plan. One thing does stick out to me though." He nodded.

"Yes, my sister has caught up to me in strength. It's even possible she could beat me in a fight if things came down to it." His face shifted into a bright smile. "She's grown strong". Grayfia's face shifted into her own stoic variant smile.

"She has, though it'd be nice if she told us before she shifted the entire landscape of the underworld." His eyes began to narrow at those words.

"It may not just be the underworld. If what she said about her abilities is true, then heaven will find out shortly that a sacred gear has disappeared. Then there's the question with what she will do with the boosted gear, that may disappear as well. If she were to integrate that ability, then…."

"We may have another heavenly dragon to worry about, especially if the Graal's life transmutation interacts with it". Grayfia finished his statement. She caught on to what was probably going to happen. She was a lot more experienced in magic than her sister-in-law. She's experienced many situations where powers conflicted. It's one of the reasons devils don't often specialize in more than one. Not everyone gets to be a demon with assimilation powers.

With that thought dying down, she walked up toward her brother and knelt down to get a better look at his head. "I need to watch these memories Zechs" she started somberly "I need to know the atrocities he's committed under that man. I need to know where he's been and why he had to die."

"Are you sure? I can take care of this if you'd like. I can give you a summary and let you mourn him properly with the image of the man you knew still intact." She looked him in the eyes.

"I'm sure. I can't mourn him properly if I don't know who he really was. This is necessary." He nodded.

This will take a while. He couldn't keep this to himself. He needed to call a meeting with the other Satans. This would change everything. First, he needed to review the information, then he would bring it to the Satans. This intel can't get lost. Luckily for him, his sister's authority deals with knowledge management, so he probably didn't have to worry about that.

Four Satan's Meeting (One week later)

The four ruling devils in this section of the underworld sat at a large circular table. Sirzechs sat on the northern chair.

On the eastern chair sat what appeared to be a pale white skinned young girl in her late teens with a child-like body, hair in twin tails, purple eyes, and dressed in a white business suit. Ordinarily, she would be wearing a pink magical girl outfit, but with the implied seriousness of this meeting, she made an exception. This is Serefall Leviathan.

On the southern chair sat a white skinned middle-aged man with a bald head wearing silver armor with a purple cape. This is Falbium Asmodeus.

On the western chair, sat a young man with slicked back green hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a green jacket with a yellow lapel and purple handkerchief. This was Adjuka Beelzebub, the inventor of the devil peerage system.

"What's going on Sirzechs? It's not like you to call us all like this with such short notice." Adjuka started. This was strange, his best friend seemed awfully shaken.

"What could be so important that this couldn't be discussed remotely? This is a busy month for us; you know that." Falbium asked. The reality was that he simply didn't like the fact that there was probably extra work coming out of this meeting.

Serefall remained silent. Now was not the time for humor if Sirzechs grave appearance was anything to go by.

"Thank you for coming everyone. Let me start this meeting off by saying that last week, my sister thwarted a scheme by Rizevim Lucifer to use the Tepes Vampire Faction to conduct a simultaneous invasion of heaven and the underworld with an army of ultimate class vampires and around 20 Satan class vampires."

"What!" The three stood up, but before they could make further comments, Sirzechs raised his hand, silencing them.

"This operation resulted in the deaths of both Rizevim Lucifer and Euclid Lucifuge with their entire set of memories being recorded in crystals." As he finished, the other Satans expressions became grim.

"Have you verified this intelligence Sirzechs?" Falbium asked. He wasn't stupid. He could see the consequences of these actions and the possibilities they could use these memories for.

"Yes, I have reviewed the memories personally, visited the site of the conflict, witnessed the vampire settlement, talked with my sister's retainers still conducting a follow-up long-term investigation, and used some of Rizevim's memories to find some of the Old Satan faction's less important secret caches; I didn't want to spook them before we move in full."

"I don't mean to pry old friend, but how is your sister already strong enough to kill them and why were they there in the first place." Adjuka asked, curious on the new addition to the super devil lineup. While not officially elected, it was clear that anyone who could kill a super devil is one.

*Sigh* "I honestly wanted to keep this silent and I would like to request that my next words won't leave this room, but Rias has inherited and mantled a divine position. She's currently the Keeper of the Akashic records and was there to rescue the wielder of the Sephiroth Graal and make her into a pillar. She has currently succeeded in that endeavor." Sirzechs explained fully expecting the reactions on their face.

"Zechs." Serefall started with a serious expression on her face. "Are you sure she won't become the next Lucifer, a tyrant and megalomaniac?" She asked. This was important; the only other devil with divinity was Lucifer and that didn't end well.

"I honestly don't know. She mentioned that Lucifer went mad due to his divinity coming from the discarded dark half of God. It wasn't the divinity, but the source that was the problem. In Rias's case, her divinity stems from a record keeper. The reason she can create pillars is that soon after she disappeared a decade ago, she found a demon inheritance and became one. With her being a demon goddess, the power to create pillars became available." He finished. The others didn't react nearly as much as before.

"Sirzechs, could you convince Rias to let me run some diagnostics on some of her pillars? I would also like to see the process one goes through to become one. Witnessing the process could be just what I need to create artificial pillars. We may even be able to make the pillar abilities of the current houses available to more devils." Adjuka asked, already in his inventor mode. 'Finally, a thread I can follow. I've been stuck in a rut with nowhere to go with this for so long! With the natural process on full display, I can move forward!

"I don't mind asking. It'll be up to her though. With this, she's likely at least as strong as I am. Even I was never able to guarantee killing Rizevim, despite being stronger than him." Adjuka nodded.

"Sirzechs, what's the plan for the Old Satan Faction? With all the intelligence and a week of lead time, surely you already have the beginnings of a plan?" Falbium got back to the main point. They needed to move fast before the faction found out their advantage. They needed to catch as many criminals as possible!

"I do" Sirzechs slid three manila folders to his comrades; there was also one in front of him. Then he took out the memory crystals and passed one to Serefall and the other to Adjuka, clearly intended to pass them around the room in a bid of show and tell. "Watch these first and then we'll go over the courses of action I developed." They nodded and started searching. Falbium, not one to waste time, began looking through the manila folder at the current plans to get an idea of what to look for in the visions and also set his expectations of what he'd find. Before, he could get very far, a third crystal landed in front of him. "I almost forgot that one; it's significantly shorter than the other ones, but it's the operation memory crystal from the raid my sister conducted." Falbium nodded, put down the folder and proceeded to review the crystal.

Sirzechs nodded. Things were going to change in the Underworld. His sister just cleared almost every obstacle in one fell swoop and she probably wasn't even trying. She just wanted the Graal.