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Cooled Passions Chapter 38: Statement of Intent
🕑 Added 2024-08-10 16:39:14 +0000 UTCChapter 38: Statement of Intent
We transitioned from the world of Tortus back into the Underworld, the lavish furnishings of my room surrounding us, causing Selene to look around with undisguised interest.
“This is my Manor within the Underworld.” I spoke, causing her to look at me, hand gently feeling the silk of the sheets of my bed, “You will get to choose your own room within the manor, which will be yours to do with as you see fit. A generous allowance is given to all members of my house, should you wish to use it to purchase anything let me or CC, who you will meet shortly, know and we will do our best to procure it for you.”
“I see.” She responded, “Will I be allowed to leave the Manor?”
“As I said, I do not want a slave, you can leave anytime you wish. It will be dangerous, as I have many enemies out in the world who will not hesitate to strike at you to hurt me. I would feel more comfortable if you asked Kasane or CC to accompany you should you wish to go anywhere. I will give you a necklace soon, to allow you to send a distress signal that will let all of us know you are in trouble.” I explained to Selene, causing her to nod as she stood up off my bed and moved towards me at my beckoning gesture.
“Now, would you like to meet your new family or do you want to rest first?” I gently hugged her to my side, reassuring her non-verbally that I did not mind which she chose.
“...I will meet them.” She spoke, a look of consideration on her face, “I want to see who I’ll be with from now.”
“Alright.” I smiled down at her, “They are waiting for me in the living room. Let’s go there now, okay?”
At her accepting nod, I started to lead her through the hallways of the manor, watching with an amused air as she rapidly took everything in, eyes drinking in the plush carpets and impressively coloured walls. It wore off after living in the place for the past few years, but the Sagan Manor really was beautiful. It helped that it was filled with women with better taste than me, who I gave my blessing to decorate as they pleased.
We arrived at the living room, entering to the rest of my peerage and my two extra-terrestrial visitors looking at us, obviously pausing an ongoing conversation at our appearance.
“Anything I should be worried about?” I directed my question towards CC, who huffed and rolled her eyes.
“We have been delivered two requests for meetings that are… interesting. I was just busy explaining to your ‘Consort’ who the ones requesting the meetings are.” My Queen responded.
“Indeed, My Lord.” Ranni spoke, earning a look from Kasane and CC, “This Gremory family has been most unwise in their dealings with thee. Thou hat been most gracious to train their daughter regardless.”
“I don’t like political games, but that doesn’t mean I can’t play them.” I sighed, sitting down on a couch, gently guiding Selene to sit next to me, “I much prefer to deal with others openly to mutual benefit. Sadly, a rare thing to be able to accomplish, it seems.”
“A common problem amongst those who do not age.” Melina opined, staring at me like hawk as she always did when I was in her presence, “They find their amusements in increasingly elaborate past times.”
“A good enough explanation as any.” As I replied to her, Shiro had crossed the room and claimed her space in my lap, staring at Selene who merely stared back, eyebrows raised in challenge.
“Ah yes, let me me introduce you all to Selene, our newest Peerage member.” I indicated the Vampire at my side, who swept her gaze across the room before returning it to me, ignoring my new lap ornament, “Selene, this is my family. CC, my Queen; Kasane Randall, my Knight; Naomi Randall, her sister and my Bishop; Shiro Sagan, my little sister and other Bishop. The last two are Melina, the Gloam-Eyed Queen and Ranni, The Goddess of the Dark Moon.”
“And thy Consort, lest they forget.” Ranni spoke, causing me to grin at her.
“Of course, my Goddess.” My cheeky response caused her to sniff in irritation, but a small smile appeared regardless.
“A pleasure to meet you all.” Selene spoke, before questioning me, “Chess pieces. Will I also be one?”
“If you wish to be.” I replied, “I can resurrect you into being a Devil like us, allowing you to access Demonic Power, magic that relies on imagination. If you agree, you shall be my Rook.”
She nodded, before CC spoke up, “Another quiet lost girl, you seem to have a type Damocles.”
Selene’s eyes snapped to her at that comment, before taking stock of all the women in the room. She turned back to me, gaze accusatory, “Your family is only made up of beautiful woman. You didn’t mention that part.”
I was completely unashamed, “I am a devil. I have no compunctions in indulging my Greed.”
Ranni sighed, “Mine lord has become quite the womanizer.”
“If this is enough to stop you…” Shiro spoke, her small voice carrying throughout the room, “You should just give up now. My brother deserves the best.”
“I’m not giving up.” Selene’s hackles were raised, a hidden well of confidence welling up inside her, glaring daggers at my sister, “I will win.”
Well, she is certainly not shy to admit her desires.
---XXX---
“Rias-chan!” The taller redhead was dragged down into the expansive cleavage of the shorter, “It’s been so long!”
“Ack!” Rias struggled to disentangle herself from the grasp of her Ancestor, “Runey! I can’t breath!”
“Hee hee!” Runeas let the other Devil go, tittering into her hand, “You really know how to compliment a girl!”
“It wasn’t a compliment...” She grumbled in response, before recovering her bearing, “How can I help you, Runey? Is just this only a social visit?”
“You remembered to only call me Runey!” Clapped her hands and bounced in excitement, “Don’t tell anyone, but you are totally my favourite descendant! Anyway, what are you doing right now?”
Rias decided to not remind her Ancestor that she said the exact same thing to her brother the last time she was awake, and instead smiled while shaking her head.
“My training partner cancelled, so I was going to get my peerage together to train on our own to keep up the routine.” She decided to just answer the bubbly ancient Devil.
“My my, you’ve set up a whole training schedule? Was that a suggestion of the Sagan?” Runeas seemed impressed, but her words caused Rias to stiffen.
“How do you know it was with Damocles-kun?” She asked, like a child being caught with her hands in the cookie jar.
“Oops.” Runeas covered her mouth with her hands, before sighing, “I didn’t want to get into the serious stuff so soon, but now the camel is out of the pen…”
Her Ancestor fixed her with a serious gaze, “Your sparring partner has caused quite the ruckus, and your father and brother have informed me that they have rather badly burnt some bridges with him. I asked Lord Sagan for a meeting and want you to come along with me, to act as a mediator.”
“Why would you need me to act as a mediator?” Rias tiled her head, confused, “Damocles has always been reasonable and kind towards me. I’m sure he wouldn’t treat you unfairly.”
“You would know best.” Runeas conceded, careful not to dispute the younger girl’s words, “But he does have enmity with the older members of our House., I would rather be careful, you understand?”
“I do, I guess.” Rias trailed off, before hesitantly asking, “What… Why do you want to speak with him?”
“Oh my, being protective of him already? Should I expect more cute descendants soon?” Runeas teased, causing Rias to blush, “Don’t worry, I was friends with Remora and Pandora, his mother and grandmother. Enmity between our Houses would be a tragedy, so I want to re-establish that relationship with the Sagan.”
Rias nodded, still bright red. A fact that Runeas picked up on, “Oh, so you really do like him? That’s great! How is your relationship?”
“It’s… I can’t. I’m already engaged.” Rias seemed sad about that fact.
“Oh? Little Zeo didn’t mention that fact. Who is it to?” Runeas seemed interested, picking up on the fact that her descendant was not exactly thrilled with the arrangement.
“The Phenex Clan.” Rias responded, causing Runeas to cross her arms, chin resting in her palm.
“Hmm, I can see why Zeo would go for something like that. I’m sorry you are not happy with the engagement, but it’s a good arrangement considering our traits. He might have changes since I met him, but Ruval seemed like a decent Devil. I’m sure he would treat you well.” Indeed, when she was awoken for Rias’ birth she had met several of the Heirs of the underworld, and Ruval had made a good impression on her.
Rias, however, was confused, “It’s not to Ruval, though? It’s to Riser.”
“Riser?” Runeas tilted her head to the side, a searching look in her eyes, “Riser… Riser… Nope doesn’t ring a bell. Did something happen to Ruval for him to be Heir?”
“Oh. He’s not the Heir. He’s the third son.” That brought Runeas up short before she recovered.
“Oh, so it’s a concubine agreement? Not a full marriage contract?” Rias shook her head at that, before explaining.
“No, it’s a full marriage contract. Our children are to inherit the Gremory House, but the contract is a full marriage.” She looked angry as she explained this and Runeas joined her.
“That little… Do you dislike this Riser?” She made sure to get the full story before acting, “Did you consent to this match?”
“No. He’s been better these past few years, but I could never imagine marrying him. He’s a disgusting degenerate.” Rias’ nose scrunched as she thought of the libertine, “The Contract was signed before we were born.”
“Hoooooo…” The First Gremory’s voice was low, dangerous, “Funny. Zeo never mentioned this to me. I apologise, Rias. It seems I need to have words with him. Before I go, are you okay to come with me to Lord Sagan’s Manor?”
At Rias’ smiling nod, happy to finally be listened to, Runeas returned the nod and whiled on her heel, “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a child to discipline.”
Rias bid her Ancestor farewell with a smile and a wave, before the joyful girl skipped off to join where her Peerage was waiting for her. Was it a good thing, she wondered, that her Ancestor was the only one who actually cared to ask her opinion on anything? Either way, she was happy to have someone in her corner in the House for once.
Her brother would argue against that, but then again he ‘couldn’t interfere’, could he?
---XXX---
My new Rook was resting, allowing me to move on to the next part of my plan. You see, one of the problems of being as public as I have been so far, is that explaining where my Peerage members come from was something that I would need to be conscious of. Especially considering Selene was a Vampire, meaning that both the Tepes and Carmilla faction would turn hostile against me.
A sad reality of the world I found myself in, was that those with power could basically do what they want and those without would merely have to grin and bear it. To that end, if I demonstrated my power, the mere threat of it would cause many to stop asking awkward questions. That would not stop those who were my peers of course, but luckily enough Selene was a vampire.
Though I could not remember the exact details, I remembered another vampire who had a similar story to hers. One that was being held by one of the Factions that would be most upset by Selene joining me.
So it was a happy coincidence then, that I could accomplish three goals at once;
Acquire The Sephiroth Graal, denying it from the Khaos idiots
Provide a cover story for where I found Selene
Remove a Faction that would cause issues for me in the future, merely because they could.
Of course, to accomplish number two, I would need to silence anyone who could dispute my story. Luckily enough, that tied into another goal that I wanted to accomplish sooner or later.
Demonstrate that I was not to be fucked with.
There was the small matter of the possibility of innocents being caught up in my levelling of the castle in front of me, somewhere in souther n Transylvania, but collateral happened in every conflict. I just had to make sure to keep Valerie alive.
To that end, I raised my hand towards the warded gate, the gargoyles outside staring at me soullessly. Inexhaustible didn’t make me immensely more powerful, I couldn’t just destroy a country in a single blow. However, what it did allow me to do is use spells that would have drained me dry in a single cast before one after the other.
A massive boost to my combat power.
Thrusting my palm out, a wave of Demonic power rushed out of me towards the weakest point of the Tepes ward scheme, the full brunt of my reserves easily overcoming the defences as I spoke out, spreading my already refilled reserves to cover the entire area of the castle.
“Lock.”
Happy that no one would be escaping, I twisted my outstretched hand, magic reaching out towards the metal gate that was flanked by rapidly awakening animated gargoyles. Jerking my hand towards my body, a flash of purple ripped the gates from it’s moorings, a lour explosion of dust and rock ensuing.
It was incredibly loud, the whole gatehouse listing from the force, collapsing in to debris. There was no need for subtlety here. I wanted everyone to know who did this. To that end, I wore no disguises, made no attempt to hide myself as I walked forwards leisurely. The gargoyles rushed me, the magic resistant enchantments meaning that as I crushed them into the size of a pebble it was grossly inefficient, but that hardly mattered.
Dropping the new marbles I had created, I focused and blew apart the debris blocking the entrance. I was going to raze this place to the ground, destroy it so utterly that there would be no doubt as to just what happened here. Once I was done, I would engrave my sigil in the sky above the ruin, leaving a signature so they knew I did this.
As I entered the castle courtyard, guards and soldiers rushed to meet me. Annoyingly, they were rather durable to my favoured Gravity magic, their Vampire constitution meaning that they could sustain grievous wounds and merely get back up. Even if I crushed them into dust, should they get some blood they would start to regenerate.
It was one of the reasons why the Vampires were so annoying to deal with. Their immortality made then very arrogant. They could really only be killed with fire, holy implements and the Sun. Thankfully, although I favoured Ice, Lightning and Gravity magic, I could still use fire magic. It turns out, a Devil of my power feeding their entire reserves into a fireball caused a rather large inferno.
My other option to deal with them was revealed as the captain of this group, who had wisely waited until just after the conflagration ended to rush in and attempt to surprise me met the point of the Dark Moon Great Sword. As the glowing weapon dug into his chest, the light it exuded flashed and I could briefly feel Ranni’s attention shift to my location before the impaled vampire burst into dust.
It seemed that her Moonlight was sufficiently ‘holy’ to be effective against vampires. Making a note to do something to thank her and somewhat despairing at the debt I would likely find myself in to her if this continued, I resumed my walk into the castle, flame following in my wake. Wiping out a squad with a blast of Moonlight, I grabbed the sole survivor in my gravitational grip.
“Your King, where is he?” The vampire spat at me, which I dodged with ease.
“You will regret this, Devil. Our King will flay you alive.” The grin he had on his face as he said that was vicious, but I remained unconvinced.
Not bothering to exchange any more words with the peon, I immolated him and continued my march into the castle. I remembered something about Valerie being in a tower? Oh well, either I found her my looking into them or I came across the throne room first. Either way worked for me to be honest.
So the purge of Castle Tepes begun.
---XXX---
Valerie clutched her legs, shivering as she curled into a ball behind her spare bed. A short while ago, an almighty sound had echoed throughout the castle, a massive bang followed by rapid-fire explosions. She had thought it might have been an accident at first, but then the explosions continued, getting louder and louder. Was it getting closer?!
She was proven correct when whatever was causing the noise started to do so inside the stairwell leading up to her room. The voices, which had been screaming, reached a crescendo, growing louder and louder, fell silent when a soft voice spoke outside her door. She almost collapsed at the sudden silence, the wails of the dead which had tormented her ever since she helped Gasper escape finally falling blissfully silent.
Her relief was short lived as the door to her cell burst open. Standing in the doorway, wielding a glowing blue sword, was a man with long white hair and shining red eyes.
“Just to make sure, are you Valerie Tepes?” He asked, his voice surprisingly masculine for such a youthful face.
“How…” Her voice cracked from disuse, “How did you know?”
“You’re the first woman I’ve found here who wasn’t dead or shackled to a table.” He deadpanned, causing her to blanch at that information.
“In any case, I am here for you.” he surprised her by his next statement, “Your prayers have been answered.”
She stared at him, mouth agape, before a broken laugh escaped her. The laugh fed into another, and soon she was overcome with her hollow mirth.
“I’ve had this dream before, you know.” She spoke bitterly, “I have long ago given up praying.”
“Well.” The man replied, bat-like wings sprouting from his back as her waved his hand, causing her to shiver as the wall of her tower was blown away, “Good thing I am not giving you a choice here.”
“What does that…!” She squeaked as he lifted her up into a princess carry, the sword fading away as it it never existed.
Clutched to his warm chest, she blushed as he grinned down at her, “It means you are being rescued. Please do not resist.”
With that he flew out of the hole in the wall, floating above the castle as the gained altitude. She gasped as she beheld the view. She remembered looking down at the courtyard, before they moved her to a different tower.
That courtyard was a gone, and in it’s place was a scorched crater. Underneath her abductor’s feet a magical circle flared to life, glowing bright purple as it expanded until it hovered ominously over the entire footprint of the castle. The circle flared, a sickly tear in space hurtling out of it and colliding into the structure, a deep canyon forming as the spell sliced into the earth and exploded, the castle blown to pieces as the blade violently destabilized.
She gaped as the man destroyed the Tepes castle in a single spell, but shivered in fright as her eyes picked out movement within the ruins. Of course, her family were Vampires. They could easily survive something like this and after a spell like the one he had just used, this strange white haired man must have been exhausted.
She was proven wrong as he merely waved his hand under her legs, jostling her slightly as several overlapping red circles flared to life across the ruin strewn canyon that was now Castle Tepes. They exploded into bright conflagrations, fire spreading quickly and devouring the survivors. Sweeping the devastation with his crimson gaze, her captor then swooped down to where she remembered her father’s throne room would have been.
There, covered in dust and broken stone, was the badly damaged and burnt body of her father, staring up at her captor with incandescent rage, “You! Sagan! Do have any idea of what you have just wrought?! I will not stand for this!”
Merely setting her down gently on a collapsed pillar, the newly named Sagan walked forwards and re-summoned his sword, stabbing it through her father’s chest without even replying to him, causing him to scream as he evaporated.
Dismissing his weapon again, he turned to smile at her as if he hadn’t just upended her whole life.
“Sorry about that Valerie. If you come with me, I can help you see Gasper again.”
Valerie just let out a bemused laugh, “Sure at this point, why not do that too.”
Ignoring her bewilderment, he emblazoned a glyph into the sky above the castle and then turned towards her, extending a hand.
As she took it hesitantly, he teleported them both to a comfortable looking room, causing her to jerk in surprise at the sudden comfort of the couch she was not resting on.
Her attention was stolen back to the Sagan as he spoke while holding her hand, “Allow me to introduce myself, Valerie. My name is Damocles Sagan. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Welcome into my home.”
Deciding that going with this insanity until she awoke from this dream would be easier than resisting, she merely smiled at him, “It’s a pleasure to meet you too.”
Comments
Zy Writings
I will probably include it in the next Shiro POV
Martian
TFC, we ever gonna get to see the convo where Shiro gets declared princess? Think that’s gonna be hilarious.
Zy Writings
The current helter skelter is pretty much over. Ranni's descent gave him the excuse to immediately pull the gun on Yue/Selene, who in turn gave him the perfect excuse to pull the trigger on Valerie. The issue with these two is that it was a time sensative thing to go for, with the excuse they gave for how Ranni found him he needed to use it pretty quicky, hence getting Selene, who in turn would have caused massive issues with the Tepes and Carmilla if he didn't do what he just did. With the objectives complete for now though, I will be able to bring the tempo down a bit and have a few chapters of interactions to settle the characters in to their new dynamics. You saw a bit of it in this chapter, ie: CC and Ranni jockeying around each other.
Feng Lengshun
Also, man, stopping edging us with the politics stuff lmao. Give me my political shitshow in my favorite kuudere political shitshow story gdi. Runeas is interesting - she's a mix of practical and sentimentalist. Out of everyone, she's the only one to not jump to conclusions and take the middle path to find a compromise instead of adding fuel to the fire. Valerie is a bit of a checklist item, but she's too important to ignore if you can reach for her. It does come across as coming out of nowhere though. Personally, I'd love for there to be a character interaction chapter again, with all these new additions, as well as a planning session to allow us to gather our bearings and see Damocles' exact plan (that will inevitably be ruined) and motivation for those plan. I feel like it's been REALLY frantic lately. I get the reason why, in-universe, but from a meta perspective, the word count has been too focused on getting shit down and the plot moving but it's starting to feel disorienting. But I get it, it's a LOT to balance at the current point in story.
Zy Writings
Thank you for the corrections, edited the fixes in.
Feng Lengshun
Nice, a new chapter. I'll think about grabbing a higher tier, once I saw the next chapter, but first, some corrections: > Naomi Randall*;* her sister and my Bishop; Should be comma instead of semi-colon as 'her sister and my Bishop' isn't a new item in the list > spreading my already refilled reserves to cover the entire area of the castle*/* should be period instead of slash > laving signature so they knew I did this. leaving > Annoyingly, the they were rather durable to my favoured Gravity magic remove 'the' > ever since she helped Gaspar escape finally falling blissfully silent. > If you come with me, I can help you see Gaspar again. Gasper.
