An Insane Plan

I stood with my hands on my hips, staring at the towering structure in front of me. My once already-huge palace had expanded again.

It now covered the entirety of the mountaintop, and it stretched upward with so many floors that it looked as if I was trying to build a staircase to the moon. I hadn't been the one to request it be expanded, but Raya had insisted on it.

In her own words, it was to 'celebrate my victory' and so that 'Tiamat wouldn't feel left out.' That wasn't necessary, as Tiamat had both a human form she could take as well as being able to shrink herself as my familiar, but the thought was nice nonetheless.

Two months had passed since my defeat of Tiamat, and things had changed quickly. Very quickly.

Now that the entire forest was under my rule, the actual civilization-building had accelerated. The forest barely even looked like a forest anymore, at least in some parts, as a large portion of the trees had been cut down to make homes.

Now, there were more than a fifty flourishing cities within the Familiar Forest - or, as the new floating box above the territory called it…

[Owned Territory: Domain of the Beast King]

The cities were rather divided based on races, as there were still hard feelings left over from the war. The dwarves in particular still largely lived in the 'Land of Iron' - which didn't actually exist anymore, but they lived in the portion of the forest where the kingdom had once been.

The huge wall surrounding it had been torn down, and now the entirety of the domain was connected. The majority of the succubi also still lived in the area that had been the Meadow of Love, and even most dire wolves were living in the area directly surrounding my palace.

But there was some progress being made as far as racial relations went. Many of the cities within the center of my domain, between the three former separate territories, were populated by many different species.

The wall around the entire domain had also been finished, turning the majority of my large territory into a fortress. But I said 'the majority' for a reason.

"I wonder if this will bite you in the ass, brat," Tiamat said with a small smirk. I turned around to look at her, taking in her human form.

I had already seen her in this form before, but even after two months I was still slightly taken aback by how beautiful she looked. I was starting to worry that I'd turn into a blushing mess if I saw any of the top-tier women in this world, such as Rias.

She had long pale blue hair that flowed down to her rear, which framed her beautiful pale face. Her eyes were dark and her overall vibe made her seem cold, but I had quickly learned that was far from her true personality.

Beyond her natural beauty, the woman also had a level of sexiness that could've rivaled even a succubi. Her body was soft and thin despite her insane strength. 

She had an hourglass figure as her waist thinned and her hips widened, leading down to her thick thighs and plump rear. She also had a rather large pair of breasts, which weren't quite as big as Kyon's in pure size but were well-shaped.

Her typical human-form outfit consisted of blue scaly leg guards and boots that matched with the gauntlets on her hands. That was where her actual armor ended, as besides that she walked around nearly naked. She had a thin pair of sky blue fabric covering her crotch as well as two seperate pieces of blue fabric that cupped each of her breasts.

[Great Dragon King] [Chaos Dragon Karma] [Tiamat] - Level 757

Reputation with [Tiamat]: Liked

The 'liked' reputation might've seemed underwhelming, but it was a lot better than it had been two months ago. Tiamat hadn't exactly been eager to become a familiar, so my starting reputation with her had been 'hated.'

But over the past two months I could tell the dragon had come to like me a fair bit, as the constant 'I would kill you if it weren't for this familiar contract' comments had disappeared, and she had even started giving me advice and supporting me.

"I think it's a pretty exciting plan, nya~" A more amused voice resounded to my side, which belonged to a busty catgirl leaning against a wall. Kuroka winked at me as I looked over at her, but I ignored it.

Yes, you heard that right - Kuroka. 

[SS-Class Criminal] [Nekoshou] [Kuroka] - Level 350

Reputation with [Kuroka]: Liked

Imagine my surprise when one week after defeating Tiamat I woke up to the Nekoshou lounging in my home. She had invited herself in, and it was a bit concerning that she could get in so easily without myself or anyone else noticing.

Luckily, she didn't come here to try and assassinate me in my sleep. Instead, she had simply sold me the story of being a wanted criminal in the underworld who wanted my protection.

While that was technically true, I didn't trust the girl fully yet. Tiamat had told me that Rias Gremory had been wanting to get a familiar, and that was the main reason she was pushed into fighting me. Based on the rough timeline in my head, Kuroka should've been in the Khaos Brigade by now.

I trusted her even less as she became a part of my daily life. The catgirl hung around me at pretty much all times and was a bit too nice to me. Despite her reputation only being at 'liked' - as opposed to Raya, Shera, Layna, Runa, Kyon, Momo, and now even Velrissa's all being above 'loved' - the catgirl had made no small effort to seduce me.

It had almost worked a few times too, as Kuroka was just as sexy as I remembered her. Her body was thin and soft, which made her plump rear and large breasts deceptively sexy. Along with that, she had a certain nimbleness that she utilized as she 'stretched' in front of me constantly, which usually resulted in her ass being shoved near my face. 

But I hadn't indulged in her suggestions yet because I felt like something was up with her. From my prior knowledge of DxD I knew that she wasn't actually a bad person, as she killed her former master to protect her sister, and I doubted she had randomly tracked me down to have sex just for the fun of it. She wasn't that type of woman.

I felt like she was hiding something, but my [Lie Detection] skill hadn't found anything yet, so I was more confused about her than anything. She was a good ally to have, both because of her strength and because she was overall enjoyable to be around, so I didn't force her out of my domain. I'd just have to be careful around her.

"It's necessary," I said bluntly, "The Maou will find out what happened here eventually if I stay complacent. I need to make the first move."

The situation we were talking about was in regards to the 'majority' of the territory being walled in, as Tiamat's former territory had been left untouched. The sole reason for that was to deceive the Maou.

Having Tiamat as a familiar was great for reasons beyond just her power, as she was well-connected with Ajuka Beezlebub. Whenever a devil wanted to come to the forest to get a familiar, they had to get approved by Ajuka, who would in turn tell Tiamat.

Tiamat's job was the ensure that whatever devil came for a familiar didn't wander too far and didn't end up dead from a monster in the forest. At least, that's what her story was on paper.

In realty, Tiamat was a bit too smart to be deceived by Ajuka despite her laziness. The 'Familiar Master,' Zatouji, was the one whose real job was the keep the devils from wandering, but he also had the role of reporting what was going on in the forest to Ajuka.

Upon learning this, I promptly went to Tiamat's section with Velrissa. One [Charm] later, and now he was a double agent.

All of this was to lay out a rather risky plan - a plan to use the younger generation of devils to my advantage. Mainly: Ravel Phenex, Rias Gremory, and Sona Sitri.

Tiamat had scheduled for all three heiresses to enter the forest at the same time, as apparently my actions in the forest had temporarily halted any devils from being able to look for familiars. As a result, all three heiresses had been waiting for months to come get a familiar.

Once they entered the forest to find a familiar, they wouldn't be leaving. I'd take them as my captives and use the incident to officially announce my new faction to the world. Tiamat was very knowledgeable about magic, and she knew of a way to prevent them from using magic circles to leave.

This entire plan was all to ensure that upon the creation of faction going public, Sirzechs didn't just rain down a meteor-sized Power of Destruction on my head. I was forming a faction directly inside devil territory, so that was a very possible retaliation by them, even with Tiamat on my side.

You would think that exactly that would happen from kidnapping three noble heiresses, two of whom are siblings to Maou's, but them being near me was what prevented him. Even if Sirzechs was a Super-Devil, he wouldn't risk trying to fight me, an unknown person who had taken down Tiamat, with his beloved sister nearby. And, even if he was, I had a certain familiar on my side.

While Tiamat's level of 750 was likely far lower than either Sirzechs or Ajuka, and maybe even any of the Maou in general, her [Karma Control] skill was terrifying for the ancient devils who had multiple lifetimes of murders to rake up bad karma on.

Even just the lives they had taken during the Devil Civil War were probably enough to boost Tiamat up to an insane level while fighting them.

The combination of myself, Tiamat, and the three hostages would be enough to protect my faction from instant destruction. The Maou would have to walk on eggshells and negotiate for the heiress's safety.

"Kidnapping the sisters of two Maou's is pretty insane, nya~" Kuroka grinned widely at me.

"We're up against the entirety of devil society," I replied dryly, "To beat insane odds, you have to do something insane."

The plan was most certainly insane, as I was making my faction the devil's biggest enemies right off the bat, but I needed to do something drastic. Even if I was powerful and had gotten a huge power boost after defeating Tiamat, just me and Tiamat alone couldn't hold off an entire race.

My army had recovered a lot since the war, and the number of dire wolves in particular had grown a ton, but it wasn't 'taking down an entire race of devils' strong. I was usually the type of person to be blunt in my approach, but I needed to be smart here.

This was the first step to taking over the underworld from the inside. I would utilize my army of succubi the best I possibly could to slowly dwindle down their numbers, and grow my own at the same time, as I forced the Maou to be stagnant with the hostages. 

The stalemate that formed would also allow me to continue to grow my strength, as well advance my actual game [Faction] to make both Tiamat and the entirety of my army stronger.

"B-But if the heiresses come with their peerages, you won't hurt them, right?" Kuroka asked abruptly, the woman sounding a bit panicked despite trying to sound nonchalant.

"Of course not," I replied easily. I immediately understood her concern - she was worried Rias would bring Koneko, or Shirone as Kuroka knew her, to the forest to look for a familiar with her.

If the Gremory or Sitri peerage did arrive then that was just better for me. I'd have more hostages, even if they weren't as valuable.

And, most importantly, if I hurt them it'd sour my relationship with the heiresses themself. Even if I was going to kidnap her, Rias was still an S-Tier girl in this world. I wouldn't want to make our relationship irreparable. 

If anything, I hoped that by keeping her here she could understand that I wasn't actually that terrible of a person. But that might be hard when I was warring with her entire species.

"They'll be arriving soon," Tiamat chimed in as she glanced up at sky, apparently able to tell the time from looking at it. Despite being in this world for close to half a year at this point, I still couldn't ever tell what time of day it was.

"Then let's get ready to greet them," I hummed, a small grin appearing on my face.

Soon, I would have an entire world aching to cut my head off.

But that was exactly the way I liked it.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be out tomorrow!

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