"Please…"
"Please what~?"
"Please, Lilith… let me cum…"
"Hm, really? You sure I should do that, when I'm just Lilith to you?"
"I… ah! You… you're…"
"I'm what, big boy?"
"You're… hnng- my- a Goddess! Please, G-Goddess, let me cum!"
-----
"Damn right I- ahh~ -am…"
Leaned up against the wall in her shower, Lilith let out an unrestricted moan as the water-jets from the shower head, gripped in one hand and held up close to her crotch, flew out against her crotch. Her other hand slid up her flawless body, towards her humungous tits. Her fingers- more on instinct than by any conscious choice- drifted across her nipples: rubbing over the sensitive spots, rolling them between her fingers, pinching them, stretching them slightly, to complement just what the water-jets were doing to her even-more-sensitive pussy and clit.
Her eyes, half-lidded with lust, flicked up to get another sight of the well-sized AgareScreen she'd had installed into the wall on the other side of her shower, for pretty much this exact occasion. Another moan escaped her as she beheld the memory of a certain night two weeks ago, where she and Raylix had spent that whole night making up for centuries of lost time together.
She heard herself, in the memory that was playing, letting out a giggle as the tail she'd had wrapped around the base of Raylix's cock loosened in response to her auburn-haired lover's desperate and lustful plea, and licked her lips as she heard Raylix letting out the moan of a lifetime, and have the climax that she'd been preventing him from having for at least half an hour.
Lilith opened her mouth, letting out another moan as she continued her work on herself, her crimson eyes fixed on the absolute TORRENT of cum that was flying free from Raylix's cock in her memory. The near-foot-long member that had served as her personal dildo for the night was acting more like a firehose in that moment, with the sheer volume of baby-making batter it was spewing out all over the place. She couldn't stop herself from licking her lips as she watched her memory-self look down at all the cum that was landing all over her bed back in Hebeth, and all over her lover's body.
She felt her body stiffening up slightly in response to the feeling of something, a familiar something… building up, inside her, before slackening again as she warped the showerhead (the type of stimulation the water-jets were providing just weren't doing it for her in quite the way she wanted anymore) back to its holster and began furiously rubbing at her clit with her now-free hand, continued to pinch and prod at her nipples with the other, driving herself closer and closer to a peak that she knew was coming…
"Oh… shit~!" Lilith moaned out as she eventually hit it, almost losing her footing and sliding down the wet wall of the shower from the weight that her self-inflicted orgasm. She stayed up, however, her breaths becoming slower and deeper as after a few seconds spent at climax, she felt herself coming back down. As soon as she felt like she wouldn't lose her footing on the slippery floor if she moved more than a couple of inches, she raised her hand from between her legs and held it up to the water-jet coming down from her shower head, clearing it of the femcum that had landed and settled there a moment or two ago.
Once that was done, she lowered her hand back to her side, her breaths now having slowed back down to their normal pace, and closed her eyes, waving her hand at the AgareScreen to turn off the memory that was now just playing away to itself, and basking in the sound of nothing but water falling around and on her nude form.
But only for a moment. With what she was planning to do today, she couldn't relax for more than a moment. She just didn't have the time.
Reaching out to the valve and twisting it to turn the shower off, Lilith stepped out of the shower and stretched her arms, sprouting her tails as she did so and using a couple of them to reach for some towels. As she pulled them towards herself, wrapping one of them around her hair with one hand while rubbing down her body with the other, she found her thoughts drifting a bit. Since she was heading back to Hebeth later, she was more surprised than not that Hebeth hadn't come up in her mind sooner.
"Not for my boyfriend. Not for my… I don't know. Maybe something more? Fiancé, maybe?"
"Maybe. Honestly, I don't know WHAT I want to be right now, when it comes to you."
She was even MORE surprised than not that the conversation she'd shared with Raylix, the night before her return to Gid, hadn't crossed her mind more times than right now.
"I'll only be gone a couple of weeks, so you've got a while to think about it. Get your head clear, hopefully you'll have an answer by the time I get back."
"Sure, yeah. I'll have an answer for you by then, at the latest."
Just what KIND of answer, she wondered as she rubbed the towel over her humungous breasts, down her waist, around her hips, between her legs, down her legs, laid it out and stepped on it to dry her feet… once she was satisfied and confident that she wouldn't slip while walking on her bare feet, she snapped her fingers to dispel the now-wet towel from beneath her soles, and made for the door that connected her bathroom to her bedroom.
His mind might not have anything on hers, but Raylix still had a decent head on his shoulders. He was smart, decently so at the very least. Enough to surely know that- with what they'd been through together so far- they were surely more than just regular acquaintances or comrades.
But it wasn't just him that she was thinking about. Katerea was still a valued part of what she'd built up so far, and with what she was planning to reveal to the faction she'd usurped the leadership of not even a full month ago, and try to convince them of, she- along with Raylix- were the ones that she'd need to focus on.
It definitely wouldn't be easy, she thought to herself as she stepped back into her bedroom, pulled the towel from her hair-coloured head, and began channelling a spell that blew warm air through one of her hands in order to dry her hair quicker, running the other through it to straighten it out with another spell. But, then again, nothing she'd endured so far on the path she'd started down- nearly a century ago at this point- had been easy. And she'd gotten this far, so she wasn't worried.
Not in the slightest.
Just as she was done drying and magically straightening her hair, though, and about to summon her choice of clothes onto her body, the sudden feeling of a magical presence very close by caught her attention, and she turned around to face where she felt it coming from: her bed. A small magic-circle was blooming across the silk sheets, with an extremely familiar symbol at its centre. A silver-coloured four-winged bat, with Devil horns on its head, that glowed along with the rest of the circle.
A smile crossed Lilith's face as she took in the sight of it glowing softly, as what looked like a file appeared from it, with a small note attached to the front. The magic-circle vanished a couple of seconds later, leaving only its contents behind, which Lilith immediately stepped towards. With a flick of her hand in the direction of the file and note, the note detached itself from the file and floated towards her face so she could quickly read it, and smirk at what was written on the note.
'Almost cost me my familiar getting this information. You owe me one.'
Letting out a small snort from her nose, Lilith flicked her hand again, disintegrating the note with a pulse of demonic energy as she focused her attention on the file, that she leaned over to pick up from her bed. She turned away from the bed as she opened it, moving over to her vanity as she flicked through it, read through its contents and lightly licking her lips as she did so.
The further she got through the file, and the more information she took in from it, the wider her smile got before, after she felt like she'd read enough, she shut the file with a quiet snap and tossed it back onto her bed, turned back towards her vanity, her smile now a full-on smirk.
Today had just gotten a little bit easier.
-----
Hm… warm…
Warmer than he was used to, actually.
As Raylix found his eyes flickering open, he couldn't help but allow himself a little smirk as the sight of a sleeping women came into focus right in front of him: Hikari, to be exact, her silver hair loose and spilling all over her face, the bed and his chest. He definitely appreciated the feeling of her warm naked form nestled up against his, though as he moved back in some attempt to cool himself down, he started slightly as he felt another warm, naked body almost right behind him.
It took him some time to roll himself over without feeling like he was disturbing either of the girls on his sides, but once it was done and was lying on his other side, he found himself face-to-face with Kurumi, who in response to his rolling over, had unconsciously moved her arm from its original position of being lazily draped across his waist (or rather, the covers over his waist) to holding it close to her chest in a way that Raylix just found… really cute.
And it was also really warm, being trapped between the pair of them and their respective body-heats, which certainly didn't do anything to reduce the powerful smell of last night's… events, that the three of them had shared together. Now that he was awake, he could practically taste it, such was the power of the smell's sources that had settled all over himself… yeah, he needed a shower.
However, the current arrangement of Lilith's daughters in his bed, on either side of him with him in the middle, presented an immediate challenge to that immediate goal. Any attempt to get himself up would almost definitely wake them. He couldn't get up on either side without disturbing at least one of them, he couldn't sit up and slide off the front of the bed without ripping the warm sheets off of both of them, and he couldn't just fly out of bed without his wings spreading probably knocking them both out of bed.
And as entertaining as it would be to watch their reactions to that… it'd also be just mean.
Letting out a breath, Raylix opted for a different solution: casting a transportation-circle underneath himself, and in the blink of an eye, he was done from the bed in a soft flash of light, and now lying on the carpeted floor just by said bed.
'Been a while since I had to do that on a morning.' The auburn-haired Devil thought to himself, getting to his feet and stretching himself a little bit, before heading for the bathroom that was directly connected to his room. Shivering a bit as his bare feet met the cool tiled floor of the bathroom in contrast to the bedroom's carpet, he moved into the shower and turned it on, rolling his shoulders and shutting his eyes. "Ahh~"
Raylix could feel it from the second he felt the warm, enchanted water cascading onto his skin, the remnants of the night before that still remained on his body (mainly around his face, chest and crotch) being washed away. Though as the dried sweat (not just his), cum (again, not just his) and other juices (DEFINITELY not his) were lifted off his physical form by the water, it was replaced by memories of last night popping right back into his mind.
Him eating Kurumi out as she made out with Hikari, while Hikari rode him... the pair of them both on their knees giving his dick and balls the treatment of a lifetime... Kurumi taking over dick-sucking duties on her own while Hikari played with his ass... shit, was he popping a morning boner over the memories alone? Were just the thoughts of what he'd gone through with Lilith's two daughters enough to get him this aroused?
...
Evidently, yes they were.
Letting out a half-snort of amusement at the sight of his cock rising and hardening, he turned away from the shower door and towards the shower head, letting out a slow breath as the water ran through his hair, down his neck and back. It was nice, feeling himself soothed and washed by the hot water… but not quite as nice as the sudden feeling of a soft female body- complete with pair of large breasts- pressing against his back, and a pair of delicate arms wrapping around his waist.
"Morning~"
Raylix exhaled, shivering from the feeling of the girl's hot breath so close to his ears, the light squeeze she gave his entire body as she hugged him slightly tighter before pulling back.
"Thought you were still asleep, Kurumi." Raylix remarked, a light smile crossing his lips though he didn't turn to face her immediately.
"I was." Kurumi replied, shifting herself past Raylix and slipping under the warm water coming from the showerhead. "Haah~ but the feeling and sound of someone suddenly teleporting out of bed jolted me enough that I woke up."
Raylix let out a chuckle, stretching slightly as he watched Kurumi running her hands through her hair for a few seconds.
"Sorry about that." He replied. "Just… really needed to get the stink off from last night."
"And probably take care of that, too." Kurumi added, pointing down at Raylix's twitching boner with one hand, as she snapped her fingers with the other to summon a bottle of shampoo to her hand, that she began lathering into her hair. "Bet it must have been nice for you back home, having a selection of female servants that could take care of any morning wood you might or might not pop."
"Yeah, it was pretty nice." Raylix replied, running a hand through his own wet hair as he reached for his own shampoo bottle. "Bringing one into the shower with me so they could jerk me off, or just working myself out with them right there in the bed. I guess that's one of the few things about the old me that I kind of miss."
It was Kurumi's turn to let out a giggle as, satisfied that she'd lathered all her hair in enough shampoo and gotten it in there, she stuck her head below the shower-head to start washing it off.
"Well, I guess if you were to play your cards right," she replied, smirking as her eyes made a very noticeable flick down to Raylix's crotch, and then back up to his face. "You might get that back, to an extent. A girl ready to empty you every morning, hell, maybe just whenever you feel you need it."
Raylix smirked as he watched Kurumi finishing washing her hair free of suds, before dispelling her shampoo-bottle and switching it out for some bodywash, that she began lathering all over her recently-enlarged breasts.
"You volunteering?"
"Is that what you think?" Kurumi remarked, giggling to herself as she rubbed at her bodywash-covered breasts with her hands. A faux-considerate expression appeared across the dark-haired time-manipulator's face for a couple of seconds, before she shrugged, and she set her bodywash bottle aside.
Her expression shifting to a smirk, she shifted up closer to Raylix, pressing her lathered and wet breasts up against his chest, slowly rubbing them across his body as she slipped around him, settled her body against his back as one of her hands danced down the front of his chest, towards his cock.
"I'll help you out this morning." Kurumi whispered, beginning to gently rub her breasts back and forth over her boyfriend's back as her hand slowly closed around the base of his cock. "Since you asked soooo nicely. And I just so happen to be in a good mood this morning."
"You're- hmm~ -you're welcome." Raylix replied, moaning lightly from the feeling of Kurumi's soft hand wrapped around him as she began to stroke him. His remark was met by another giggle directly into his ear (or as directly as she could, given the height difference) from Kurumi.
"Hey, I've got Hikari to thank for it as well." She remarked. "But yeah, thanks."
Raylix nodded, resisting the urge to let out another moan in response to Kurumi dragging her hand up his cock, almost towards the tip of it, before moving back down towards his base again. Her hand-movements were slow, deliberate, in decent sync with how she was rubbing her chest up and down, left and right, all over his back, trying to get every square inch she could feasibly reach with the height difference.
"Especially for having Hikari tied down and made to watch while you took me." She continued. Her tone remained light, as if she was merely chatting about the weather, as she picked up the pace of her strokes on his cock a bit. Not enough to cause Raylix to double over from pleasure overload or anything, but more than enough to make him feel the difference, at least. "Oh, how she writhed when you gave it to me right~ in front~ of her face~ that was so hot."
Raylix exhaled sharply through his nose, letting out a moan another second later as he found himself gripping one of the pipes just to keep himself upright, in response to Kurumi's strokes.
"Glad someone enjoyed themselves." He muttered, just loud enough to be heard over the rushing water.
A small wave of arousal washed over Kurumi as she felt Raylix's cock pulsating in her hand. He had to have been at least somewhat aroused when he entered the shower: given how long he was able to last with both she, herself, and Hikari giving him their best, it was the most plausible explanation for him being as on-his-way as he was right now.
"Of course I did." She remarked, shifting her stance onto her tip-toes for a second as she planted a gentle kiss on... well, it wasn't quite his shoulder, but just below it. "You did. Hikari did, we all did. Especially Hikari when you finally gave it to her up the ass."
"Who- mmm~ -knew that just sticking my cock in her other hole would get her going that hard?" Raylix asked, letting out another low moan as Kurumi squeezed his pulsating cock just a little bit harder, before returning to her regular soft grip and continuing to stroke him.
Kurumi simply let out a giggle, leaning forward again and laying another few kisses over the top of Raylix's back.
"For future reference, I'm a thighs girl." She remarked, her voice still casual as she continued her work. "Try kissing my inner thighs before you go down on me next time, and see where that gets you."
"Ha... noted." Raylix replied, gritting his teeth slightly as his cock continued to pulsate, steadily getting more and more violent in Kurumi's hand with every up-and-down motion she made on him. "Shit..."
"Okay, Raylix, I SWEAR you're doing this on purpose."
Raylix's eyes widened as Hikari's voice met his ears, along with the sound of the shower-door opening for the third time in nearly ten minutes. The silverette let out a sigh as she stepped into the shower, shut the door behind her and joined her lover and sister under the cascading water.
"Morning, Ass Dragon." Kurumi remarked, her voice when addressing Hikari particularly sweet, but still the same level of casual she'd been ever since she started jerking Raylix off.
Hikari didn't dignify that with a response as she moved around Kurumi and Raylix, standing in front of the latter as she stuck her head under the enchanted water-cascade, wetting her hair as well as she could.
"Are you actually doing this on purpose?" the Ass Dragon asked, exasperation all over her voice but amusement in her eyes as she looked Raylix up and down, down and up... with her eyes focusing a fraction of a second longer on his cock in her sister's hand than the rest of him. "I'm beginning to run out of fingers, the number of times I've walked in on you getting screwed, or jerked off, or just giving it to, Mom or Kurumi. Mostly Kurumi!"
"Start counting on your toes, then." Kurumi replied, jokingly aiming Raylix's cock at Hikari's stomach as she slowed her strokes, bringing their shared lover closer and closer to climax. "Though maybe, sis, it might not be Raylix that's making that happen. You ever wondered that you might just have some subconscious voyeuristic tendencies?"
"Or maybe- ohh, shit! -you're just a cuckquean in the making?" Raylix moaned out, from within Kurumi's hand. His cock was REALLY starting to properly throb now, despite her slow strokes... he was definitely close.
"You wish." Hikari replied, rolling her eyes and shrugging. "Might just be me having a case of shit timing."
"Yeah, probably." Kurumi replied, giggling over Raylix's continued moans as she slowed down her work on him even more, to drag out his pleasure even further.
Shaking her head as she began running her hands through her now-wet hair, Hikari gently kissed Raylix on the cheek as she leaned against the shower-wall and summoned her own bottle of shampoo.
"Anyway, did either of you remember that Mom's coming home today?" she asked, lathering the shampoo into her hair. "Or did you get distracted by screwing one of us every couple of days, Raylix?"
"Wait, she is?!" Raylix cried, his voice strained from the sheer pleasure that Kurumi was inflicting upon him, and the feeling of his peak fast approaching. "I- ohh, shit!"
"I'll take that as a no…" Hikari muttered to herself as Raylix finally hit his peak, sending familiarly thick ropes of seed all over the shower floor where it was then washed away by the hot water.
Kurumi giggled as the last drops of Raylix's release spilled down his cock onto her fingers, after which she let him go. Teasingly offering her cum-covered hand to Hikari for a couple of seconds- which Hikari smacked away, her face the slightest bit pinker than it had been when she stepped inside- before sticking it under the showerhead for a moment to wash it clean, she looked over at Raylix as he used his own wet hands to wash his cock clean of any remnants of cum that were still left on it.
"You all good, now?" she asked, smirking over at Raylix as he stepped away from the pair of adopted sisters, once he was all done.
"Yeah, thanks." He replied, leaning over and pressing his lips against Kurumi's for a second, before retreating.
As he shut the door to the shower behind him once he got out, he heard Kurumi and Hikari talking some more.
"Sis, I'll fund a lifetime supply of ramen for you from Ichiran if you lick Raylix's cum out of-"
"For Mother's sake, Kurumi, are you EVER going to let that go?!"
"Kihihi~ Nope!"
Grabbing a nearby towel and running it over his hair for a couple of seconds before moving on to dry the rest of his body, Raylix moved back into his bedroom, his brow slightly furrowed as he processed what Hikari had just told him, without the distraction of getting jerked off.
Lilith. Was coming home. Today.
"I'll only be gone a couple of weeks, so you've got a while to think about it. Get your head clear, hopefully you'll have an answer by the time I get back."
"Sure, yeah. I'll have an answer for you by then, at the latest."
He had his answer, alright. He'd known what it was pretty much ever since Kurumi (and her clones) had all come at him with her new body, not long after Lilith had left in the first place. Hell, if he really thought about it, deep down it'd been something he'd always fantasized about asking her, ever since he was a young teenager.
And now he'd get the chance to do it for real...?
Raylix let out a chuckle as he tossed the damp towel aside, once he was done drying himself off. He strode over towards the dresser on the other side of the room, and pulled out a pair of loose-fitting pyjama pants and Slayer t-shirt. Sleeping naked with Kurumi and Hikari was nice and all, but that was while IN bed. OUT of bed on the other hand... it was more comfortable to wear something.
As he tugged the shirt over his head and stretched again, he noticed the dark-red scarf of Sabemka's that Malech had given him, which he'd tossed on there a while ago, with Tomosei's blue bracelets on top of it.
'Had this end of the scarf always been this faded...?' Raylix thought to himself, reaching out to it and brushing his fingers against the material before pulling away, making his way through his bedroom door and out into the hallway, his mind moving back to Lilith as he shut the door behind him.
Yeah, he supposed he'd get the chance to do it for real. All that was left that mattered was exactly how he'd go about it, and on that front... he was drawing a mental blank right now.
"Raylix?"
Blinking as another voice met his ears, Raylix turned around, looked down the hall to see Eve coming out of a room that was directly across from Lilith's, adjusting a dressing gown she seemed to have put on as she was coming out, before shutting the door to said room behind her.
"Hey, Eve." Raylix replied, his eyes flicking towards the door that Adam's ex-wife had come out of, before they moved back towards Eve's face. "Didn't know your room was right across from Lilith's."
"Hm, well, it is." Eve replied, shrugging. "Lily's gotta have someone around to enjoy while you're occupied with Hikari or Kurumi, you know? When she's here, I mean."
The knowing look on the Primordial Human's face told Raylix, without any need for further words, that she knew that- in her words, he'd been QUITE occupied very recently, in the way that Eve meant. Probably some subtle post-sex way he was carrying himself, he wouldn't be surprised if she'd been able to pick up on that kind of thing. Not when considering how often she'd been Lilith's loyal sex pet/girlfriend.
Letting out a non-committal grunt of acknowledgement of what she'd said, Raylix turned back around and began to make his way back down the hallway, towards the stairs. He heard the sound of footsteps rapidly behind him for a second, saw Eve coming up beside and falling into step with him.
The two reached the compound's main staircase, that stretched all the way from its ground floor to the very top where Raylix, Lilith, and evidently Eve's bedrooms were located, and began descending. Though just as they moved past the fourth floor and began heading down to the third, Raylix looked over at Eve again, and noticed her eyes still on him, like she was studying him.
"Something on your mind?" the female Human asked, her head tilting slightly as she and the Devil reached the third floor, and began heading down to the second. Raylix could only let out a chuckle, shaking his head a bit as he slowed down his steps slightly.
"That obvious?"
"Yup."
Letting out a snort, Raylix scratched an idle itch that had formed at the back of his scalp, beneath his slightly-damp hair.
"Well, yeah, I was a bit." He replied. "About, I guess, the others. You know, the women here that… aren't, Hikari or Kurumi.
"The ones you showed up at Lily's villa in the human world with." Eve stated. "And Leviathan's granddaughter."
"The very same, yeah." Raylix nodded. "I know it's been a while since I apologized to them all about… everything, but that- I know it isn't enough. I know I've got to- and I want to, properly make up with all of them. Get things with them back to at least the way they were before they… they started losing faith in me."
Eve hummed, rolling her shoulders slightly as she and Raylix reached the second floor.
"Well, I wouldn't say they'd lost faith in you." She remarked. "This place would be a bit more empty if Esdeath, Cinder and the others had lost faith, wouldn't it?"
Raylix exhaled lightly, shrugging.
"Yeah, I guess so." He replied. "Though I don't think things are exactly… amazing, between me and them, either way. I'd like to try and fix things when it comes to them- believe me, I would- but I just… don't know. I don't know what to do, don't know what to say. I've never really had to do that kind of thing with anyone that I wanted to… get with, before, and I just… don't know."
Eve let out a slow breath as she and Raylix continued down, towards the first floor. The two remained silent as they ascended the last stretch of the compound's main staircase before reaching the ground floor, at which point she stopped in place, a couple of paces before Raylix realised she'd paused, and paused himself.
"If you're asking for help, Raylix, I'm more than willing." She replied, stretching slightly and adjusting the position of her dressing gown on her body, smiling over at Raylix as she did so. "I know you care about them, and I don't want you to feel like you're… eh, up shit creek without a paddle, as Kurumi would probably put it."
Raylix let out a small chuckle at Eve's remark, resisting the urge to glance down at her bare legs- which he could see VERY well from where her dressing gown stopped at mid-thigh- once he turned around. Though when he was fully turned, and he got a better look at Eve's face for the first time in a couple of moments, he found himself taking in the sight of the smile on Eve's face as she looked over at him, found himself slightly… disarmed, by it.
Maybe it was him finally deciding to take proper notice of how people interacted with him, maybe he'd gotten more used to the more… overtly alluring, ways that people like Lilith, Kurumi and even Hikari (in the right mood) had flirted with him, but he couldn't help but blink and pause for half a second.
"You okay?" Eve asked, taking half a step over towards Raylix, her head tilting slightly as she moved. Raylix nodded, taking half a step back in turn.
"I'm fine." He replied. "Just, I don't know… actually, never mind."
"What is it?" Eve took a full step closer to him this time. "You can tell me, I promise I won't be mad or anything."
"Well, I…" Raylix paused, sighed. "Sorry, I just don't think I expected to see a smile so… I don't know, so wholesome, I guess-?"
Eve blinked, but didn't attempt to cut in.
"Coming off of you." The auburn-haired Devil continued. "With what I've heard from Lilith about you, I… honestly, I'm not sure what I was expecting to see on you, expressions-wise. Or you to not just figure that I can handle repairing things with the others by myself."
"Well, I'm more than the bits and pieces of my life you've heard about from Lily. I can tell you that much." Eve replied, shrugging. "And as for the other stuff you said… I just prefer to see the best in what people can become, and I like helping people reach that best. I know not many people are like that, but… I am."
Raylix blinked, again, before letting out a short exhale.
"That's… a simple way of looking at things." He remarked. "But either way… thanks."
"No problem." Eve replied, stepping back and making to turn around, but paused. "And if you want some advice to start out, that'll apply to everyone you want to make up with… just making yourself available, even a little bit, I think that goes a long way."
The Primordial Human then turned all the way around, quick enough for it to count as a half-spin. Her dressing gown fluttered behind her as she turned, giving Raylix the perfect look- for a couple of seconds- at the back and bottom of a black and white swimsuit hugging her incredible body.
"Well, see you around!" Eve finished, raising a hand to wave to Raylix as she headed off, in the direction of the door that would take her downstairs, towards one of the compound's several swimming pools. Raylix watched her go, with it taking a couple of seconds after she left his sight completely for the scent of something savoury and rich to hit his nostrils.
Evidently, someone had gotten up before him and was making some breakfast of their own.
Making his way towards the kitchen and pushing the door open, he looked across the room and saw Tamamo, stood at the counter wearing a white and pink striped cardigan, black mini-skirt and thigh-high socks, her orange ears flickering slightly as she focused on preparing her morning meal. The moment she sensed him, she turned to face him.
"Morning."
"Hey." Raylix replied, stretching slightly as he moved towards the counter. "Something smells good."
Tamamo smiled, her tails swishing around her back slightly as she turned, returning to what she was cooking.
"It's nothing special." She remarked, before after a second, looking around at him again. "I'm already standing here, you want me to put something on for you?"
"Just some toast, I guess." Raylix replied, changing course and making for the fridge. "If that's alright."
"Of course it is, I offered." Tamamo remarked, looking like she was resisting the urge to roll her eyes as she procured some bread from the nearest bag, slid them into the toaster and turned it on before returning her full focus to whatever was boiling in her pan. When Raylix got to the fridge, grabbed some butter from it as well as a knife from the nearby drawer, he glanced over at the kitsune's face, noticed her slightly furrowed brow.
That alone, one could chalk up to her just being focused on what she was making, which was fair enough. However, when Raylix got a look at her eyes, specifically where they were pointing- or not pointing- he knew that there was something else going on. Her yellow eyes weren't even looking at what was going on in the pan in one of her hands: rather, she didn't seem to be looking at anything at all. Just staring ahead as her body worked on autopilot.
"You okay?" he asked, looking over at the kitsune as she grabbed a wooden spoon from nearby and began stirring the contents of her bowl. Tamamo flinched slightly, almost to the point she dropped the spoon in question, before blinking and half-turning to face him.
"Yeah." She replied. "I'm fine, was just… thinking."
Raylix let out a half-snort from his nose, leaning against the counter as he met Tamamo's gaze.
"We all do that, sometimes." He replied. "You want to talk about it…?"
"It was about… about before." Tamamo spoke, seeming to not even hear Raylix's attempt to backpedal on his question. "Before I met you, that is. Before I got… turned into a stone."
Her voice was quiet, her body slightly stiff as she said those words. Raylix's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Wouldn't be about the first time you experienced love, right?" he replied. "Didn't you say something like that to me a while back?"
Tamamo's ears twitched slightly, the rest of her body frozen for a second or two before she gave a small nod, by way of reply.
"I remember saying that." She replied. "You know how I came to the human world because I… I was curious about how humans could live, with such short lifespans in comparison to us?"
"I remember you saying that." Raylix nodded, folding his arms.
Tamamo nodded, procuring a bowl from a cupboard above her head and turning the cooker off, pouring the contents of her pan- some kind of soup- into it.
"Well, my first- and I guess only, with the benefit of hindsight- stop was Kyoto." She spoke. "Figured it was a good place to start, considering it was where the most humans lived, at the time, in the country that our pantheon- the Shinto Pantheon- had dominion over." Warping the now-used pan away, she caught the spoon that Raylix tossed her way, as the toast she'd put in earlier popped out of the toaster.
Pulling the pieces out and dropping them onto a plate, Raylix began buttering the toast as Tamamo kept talking.
"Almost immediately, I caught the attention of Emperor Toba." She spoke. "He was pretty taken with me, to the point that one morning I woke up to an invitation into his court. It was strange, at first, having that much attention on me, but he helped make it… not so bad. He'd fallen for me, and over time, I kind of fell for him too."
"Sounds nice." Raylix replied, watching Tamamo make to pick up the bowl of soup. She hesitated, however, instead tracing a finger along the edge of the counter.
"Oh, it was." She replied. "Oh, Gods, it was wonderful. We got along so well, and he was always so interested in what I had to say about the supernatural world. Helps that he also made all the human-world political stuff he had to talk about sound pretty interesting… and he wasn't bad in bed."
Raylix let out a chuckle, finishing buttering his toast before dispelling the knife, raising one of the pieces to his mouth and chomping down on it.
"Yeah, that always helps." He remarked, as he chewed. "But then he got sick, didn't he?"
Tamamo's body stiffened up the slightest bit in response to Raylix's words, and she shifted her eyes away from him. But beyond that, she didn't make any further movements.
"I didn't cause it, if that's what you're thinking of asking." She replied. "I was trying to cure it, actually, but healing and medicine aren't exactly my areas of expertise. Everything I tried to help him out… it just ended up making things worse. But right as I was- or I thought I was, I guess- on the edge of figuring something out, I got accused of causing the illness in the first godsdamn place."
"The astrologer..." Raylix remarked, quietly recalling Irene's recounting of Tamamo's story. "Right?"
Tamamo nodded. Her ears drooped a little bit, and Raylix could've sworn he heard the sound of a sniff coming from her as she continued.
"I don't blame the court for turning against me." She remarked. "Of course I'd be suspected: the emperor was fine before the mysterious woman, who might or might not be secretly hiding fox-ears on her head, was invited into his court and became his favourite lover. And then, he got sick."
She turned away from Raylix entirely, her body trembling slightly for a couple of seconds before she seemed to take a breath, and press on.
"All I could do, all I thought I could do, was run." She spoke. "Not just for my own sake, but for his. I'd have just made things worse for both of us if I'd stayed or tried to fight back. He'd probably have been killed in the crossfire of what ended up happening once I left."
"Yeah, you got hunted down." Raylix replied, his voice slightly softer than before. "Turned into a stone. I know the rest."
Tamamo nodded, the sound of her breath hitching slightly cutting through the kitchen's silence, and her body began shaking again. Before she could say or do anything else, Raylix stepped forward, dropping the half-eaten toast that was in his hand back onto the plate, closed the distance between himself and the pink-haired kitsune in a few steps before gently wrapping one arm around her lower stomach, pulling her in closer towards him. His other hand found its way to her head, his fingers running through her hair and across her ears.
The kitsune stiffened for half a second in response to the sudden touch, but after that half-second passed, she leaned a bit further into the touch and, after another couple of seconds, let out a shaky breath as she nestled the side of her head up against his chest, letting out another- this one slightly more measured and controlled- breath.
Raylix opened his mouth, but hesitated before any sound could leave his throat. This- comforting someone- was foreign territory to him. Looking back, he couldn't pick out any moments in his memory that he'd actually had to personally comfort anyone. Maybe Sabemka or Tomosei a couple of times, during times where the loss of their respective families had been hitting them particularly hard, but beyond that… not really. Letting out a slow breath of his own before taking in another… he knew what he WANTED to get across to the kitsune he was currently embracing, but wording it right…
"You won't have to worry… about anything like that, happening again." He spoke, his voice more a firm whisper than normal speaking tone. "Not with me around."
Within his grasp, Tamamo moved herself around, tilting her head backwards to look up and meet Raylix's blue eyes with her yellow.
"I won't let it." Raylix continued, swallowing in an attempt to lubricate his dry throat. "Tamamo, I-"
Before he could even finish what he was going to say, Tamamo leapt (as much as she really could, given the lack of distance between herself and Raylix) forward, wrapping both arms and all of her tails around the auburn-haired Devil in a tight embrace that caught said Devil off-guard a little bit. He found himself stumbling backwards, but his hand now around Tamamo's back leapt, by reflex, to the counter behind him so he could catch himself.
Once he was sure he wasn't going to be moved much more, he lowered his arm, returned it to Tamamo's back, along with the hand that had been in her fox-ears and hair this whole time. Tamamo squeezed slightly tighter, nestling her head between his pecs, her breaths shakier and less controlled this time, almost like she was holding back the urge to cry.
"I know." Tamamo whispered, against his chest, her voice trembling just like her breaths. "I love you too, Raylix."
There was silence, aside from the kitsune's shaky breaths, in the kitchen for a couple of seconds as the two held each other. Over the next couple of moments, Tamamo's breaths returned- again- to a more even and controlled in-out rhythm, at which point Raylix felt it best to break the silence.
"Yeah..." He replied, nodding to himself as he moved one of his hands up from her back to stroke the back of her head. "And… I'm sorry."
Tamamo shifted back slightly, blinking a couple of times as she looked up at him again. Raylix couldn't help but notice her eyes looking the slightest bit wet, though she wiped them on her sleeve after a second or two.
"For what?"
Raylix stepped back a little, away from the kitsune as he stretched a little, and picked up the toast that he'd put down earlier.
"For being… well, me." He replied. "I can name a couple of times, and there are probably more that aren't jumping to mind immediately, where I could've treated you better than I did. A lot better. Back then, you know I was-"
"It's fine."
Before Raylix could even finish verbalizing his thought, Tamamo had cut across him, letting out an amused laugh as she did so. The rest of said thought died in his throat as she shrugged.
"Honestly, it's fine. I'm over it, now." She replied. "However emo you might have been back then, and as bad as I might have felt during that time, you're still the reason I was brought back to life in the first place, given the opportunity to… feel, at all. Whatever perspective the others might have on you, you earned yourself a hell of a lot of leeway from me on that action alone, so… if you're looking for forgiveness, you've already got it."
Raylix blinked a couple of times, taken slightly aback for a few seconds.
"Well, I… okay." He replied, after taking a breath of his own. "Thanks for… being so understanding, I guess."
Smirking, Tamamo slunk up to him, and used some of her power to float herself a few inches off the ground so she was more on a level with Raylix, before grabbing the front of his pyjama shirt and pulling him in for a gentle kiss on the lips that only lasted a couple of seconds, before she pulled back again, and dropped back down to the ground.
The pinkette let out a giggle as she scratched her nose, which was twitching slightly.
"You reek of Hikari and Kurumi, you know that?" she teased, amusement clear in her eyes. "Someone's been a busy man~"
Raylix let out a half-snort from his nose, finally taking the opportunity to take another bite of toast.
"You could say that." He replied, as he chewed. Tamamo simply shrugged, turning to grab her bowl of soup from the counter before facing Raylix again, and opening a transportation-circle under her feet.
"Well, if you can find time in your schedule," she remarked, her smirk growing ever-so-slightly at the last word "for little old me, I'll be there. On my knees, if you want~"
And with that, the transportation-circle activated, warping her out of the kitchen (and presumably back to her room) in a flash of soft pink light, leaving Raylix back alone in the kitchen, and swallowing his mouthful of toast. Picking up the plate and taking through the other door into the dining room, he dropped the plate and toast down onto the table and sat down, finishing it there while stretching with his free hand.
'Definitely not the worst start to a morning', he thought to himself, rubbing his butter-coated fingers against one of his thighs as he finished one piece, and moved onto the other. Letting out a breath, he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, just enjoying the silence.
Just as his mind was about to wander back to what he would say to Lilith once she got back (or rather, how he would say it), he felt a faint magical presence just beside his ear, that of a comms-circle coming from someone that- after a second taken to process its magical signature- he recognised.
Dropping the remaining piece of half-eaten toast on the table, he flicked his hand in the direction of the comms-circle to answer the call, leaning back in his chair as he did so.
"Morning, Malech." He spoke, casually, into the air. "Talk to me."
"Good morning to you too, Raylix." Malech replied. "Remember what we talked about a while ago, about assembling your own personal elite squad for the URF?"
"Mmhmm." Raylix hummed, nodding to no-one in particular as he allowed himself to sway backwards and forwards a little on his leaned-back chair.
"Well, I'll get to the point." Malech continued. "I've done some digging throughout what we've got so far, and I think I've got a shortlist of members ready for you. I can have the lot of them assembled to meet you personally at a moment's notice, all I need is your word."
Raylix let out a half-snort. Well, that sure explained why Malech had been so silent recently. Glancing down at himself and mentally acknowledging that he was still in his pyjamas, he cleared his throat, picking up the remaining piece of half-eaten toast again.
"Give me about, eh, ten minutes?" he replied. "Let me get ready, and I'll meet you, hmm, at the garden-park just outside my compound? Could you do that?"
"Easily." Malech's voice sounded through, a hint of easy confidence to it. "Talk to you then."
Raylix hummed, as the sound of the comms-circle dissipating from Malech's end met his ear… right as he felt himself leaning back in his chair just that little bit too far. He would've surely ate shit on the floor had his Devil wings not unfurled on pure instinct, keeping him afloat as the chair he was in a second ago crashed to the ground.
Righting himself in mid-air and chuckling to himself as he looked down at the chair, Raylix shoved the rest of the toast into his mouth, touched down, dispelled the plate and picked the chair back up before heading back upstairs. Once back in his room (which Hikari and Kurumi had evidently vacated after finishing up in the shower), he quickly picked out some more fitting outdoors attire for himself: nothing too fancy, just a black coat, matching pants, t-shirt underneath, and a pair of boots. Though when it was all on, and he felt himself ready to go, Sabemka and Tomosei's scarf and bracelets caught Raylix's eye again.
Putting his hand down and holding off on casting a transportation-circle from his room to the garden-park he'd mentioned to Malech, Raylix slowly moved over to the dresser, picked up one end of the dark-red scarf and looked it over.
It was definitely looking a lot more faded than he vaguely remembered it being when Malech had first given it to him. He'd have to look into getting it repaired, or restored, or whatever one does to clothing when that happens. Dropping the scarf back onto the dresser and turning around, Raylix raised his hand again and cast a transportation-circle, stepping into it and disappearing in the same second.
Immediately appearing in the park-garden, just outside his compound, that he'd mentioned to Malech during their call, Raylix took a breath and looked over at the outside of the compound that had, ever since wresting control of the URF from Shalba and Creuserey, had become his home.
A few weeks there, out of a few years in the hidden city of Hebeth, and it already felt more like home than the Gremory Castle had ever done.
The soft hum of another transportation-circle appearing near him interrupted his thoughts, and Raylix turned to see Malech materialising into view, adjusting his cloak as he approached.
The two exchanged nods, neither seeing any point in greeting each other again when they'd only finished talking less than two minutes ago.
"I've sent the word out." Malech remarked, once he was physically close enough to Raylix, turning to take a place at his side. "They'll all be here soon."
"Good." Raylix replied, half-turning to face the older Devil. "For the sake of disclosure, how many of these Devils- how many did you manage to get?"
"About a hundred."
"Right." Raylix nodded. "So, how many out of this about-a-hundred are Devils that you've personally commanded before?"
Malech hummed to himself for a moment, as he seemed to attempt to figure the number out in his head.
"About a third, I'd say." He replied. "I didn't just pick Devils I happened to like from that time, though, I evaluated everyone strictly on their competence. It just so happened that-"
"About a third of those you ended up picking were those you'd commanded before." Raylix finished. "I'm not accusing, Malech. Just curious."
Malech nodded, allowing himself a small chuckle as the soft hummings of more transportation-circles appearing in front of him, and Devils appearing out of them. Devils of all shapes and sizes, too: burly physical-looking types, smaller and more dainty-looking magical types, older veterans, younger rookies, but the one thing they all had in common was the air they all seemed to carry about them.
An air of capability. Of confidence in their competence.
Ideal.
It took a few minutes for the number of Devils that warped in in front of Raylix and Malech to hit that around-a-hundred figure that the latter had confirmed it to be, at which point Malech stepped forward. Any small smatterings of conversation in the air died instantly as the eyes of all about-a-hundred Devils stood before him and Raylix locked onto the pair of them.
"Alright, everyone!" Malech called out, a subtle voice-amplification spell present in his throat to make sure he could be clearly heard. "Anyone that might have had questions about what I was assessing you all for, consider this your answer: consider yourselves the founding members of the URF Elite Squad, headed personally by Great War veteran, former Heir to the Gremory Clan and one of your own faction leaders, Raylix!"
Raylix resisted the urge to snort at Malech's little speech, but stepped forward himself, taking a breath.
"Thanks for coming, all of you." He began. "Now that you're... all here, I just want to see what I'm working with, starting out: how many war veterans have we got here? Like from the Great War, Devil Civil War...?"
He trailed off, but didn't feel the need to try and verbally pick that question back up: a good number of the Devils before him and Malech had already risen their hands. Thirty- forty- fifty- more than fifty, around sixty to sixty-five of the around-a-hundred. Most of them with the battle-scars to prove it.
"Alright, okay." Raylix nodded. "Now, how about those who have experience working with anyone else within this group? Doesn't have to have been during the Great War or Devil Civil War, just... any combat context at all? If that's the case, just link up with who you've got experience with."
There was some movement over the next couple of minutes, as some of the Devils moved in-between each other to link up with those that they had experience working alongside, as Raylix had ordered. As Malech had said, about a third of them ended up in a group with each other, which Raylix assumed were the ones he'd selected from his former days as an officer under Lucifer.
Though they weren't the only group. He noticed a much smaller group, of about three or four, Devils both male and female, stood together a couple of paces away from the larger group of about three dozen. Raising a hand, the former Gremory Heir gestured to the larger group, and spoke up again.
"I don't need to ask about you guys, I already know the story, but…" He then gestured to the smaller group. "What about you?"
"We were all part of the same noble Devil's peerage." One of the females of the group replied, immediately. "Ulmel Zepar, their Heir. We all managed to escape him and join about two years ago."
"Good thing, too." Malech replied, an uncharacteristic bite in his voice as he took a half-step forward. "If we ever find him when we make our move against the Devil government… I'll kill him myself."
Raylix blinked a couple of times as he looked over at the older Devil, but shrugged after a couple of seconds, remembering what he'd heard about the Zepar Heir once upon a time. Granted, he'd wanted to deliver justice to that piece of shit ever since hearing about what he'd done, but if Malech had a more personal stake against him, then sure, he could have him.
"Okay." He spoke up, regaining the attention of all in the garden-park in an instant. "Got it, so." He cleared his throat, and looked across the group. "Now that you're all here, I'll make one thing clear right from the jump. The reason you're all here, isn't out of loyalty to those that used to be- and hopefully will return to in the future- ruling the Underworld: but because you're either the best of the best at what you do, or you have the potential to BE the best of the best at what you do. You're capable of making good calls under pressure, taking action, and carrying out what's expected of you without needing your hand held."
Scratching an itch on his chin, he continued.
"That means that when I need something done, it's done. When Malech, in my name, needs something done, it's done. Any questions?"
There were none. Not that Raylix expected to hear any. After a couple of seconds, Malech stepped forward again, past the auburn-haired Devil.
"Physical combat specialists: frontline warriors, melee combatants, those who excel in raw endurance and destructive power… here!"
A sizeable portion of the group shifted towards a spot that Malech had gestured to, to his and Raylix's left while still being in front of them. Some were physically huge, much larger than Raylix himself, some even close to how big Sabemka was when he was still alive, but some were closer to Raylix's own build. He doubted it was a coincidence that those particular people, more than the burlier types, carried some kinds of weapons on their person: swords, spears, axes and the like.
Raylix counted about three dozen of them, with one of them formerly of Ulmel's peerage.
"Magical specialists: long-range casters, elementalists, sigil-weavers, anyone with a penchant for high-level spellcraft… here!"
Another sizeable portion of the group moved, slightly smaller in number than the portion of physical specialists. Raylix could feel the collective ambient energy coming off of the group- about thirty strong, again including one of the former members of Ulmel's peerage. He noticed some of them carrying magical staffs, like the one Irene carried and the one she'd given him a while back. They shifted to the left of the group of physical specialists that Malech had called out, and were more directly in front of him and Raylix, before he spoke again.
"Healers, support units: those that keep the rest of this group standing either by repairing damage they take, or just preventing it from happening in the first place… here!"
A much smaller contingent than the magical or physical-types arranged themselves into a group on the magicals' left. They definitely weren't as physically imposing as the physical-types, or even the offensive magic-types, but that wasn't really the point. They weren't exactly going to be taking to the frontlines in the first place: either hanging back to heal, or cast barriers from a distance.
Raylix counted just over a dozen of them, which didn't exactly surprise him. Good support units- the BEST support units, were hard to come by. Healers, especially.
"Recon and infiltration: those who specialise in intel-gathering, tracking, battlefield manoeuvrability and assassinations, making sure we always know what's coming before it hits us… here!"
The final section of fighters formed to Malech and Raylix's further-right: none of them looked all that physically imposing, but like with the healers and support units, they didn't really need to be. Didn't need to be intimidating to look at when, ideally, you wouldn't be getting seen at all. Raylix noticed the remaining two Devils formerly of Ulmel's peerage together within the recon-group, and now that he got a better look, he noticed how similar-looking they seemed to be.
Siblings, potentially.
Raylix counted around a dozen within the group, making for- as Malech said- nearly a hundred units for the URF Elite Squad. Ninety-six, to be specific.
"Looks good to me, thanks Malech." Raylix spoke, quietly, to the older Devil beside him before raising his head to speak to his squad at large. "I want your first few training sessions scheduled immediately. We never know when something you might be needed for will come up, and it's best to be prepared. I'll attend these sessions when I can, but you can expect Malech," he gestured with his head towards him "to oversee them, more often than not. I've only got- give or take- a decade's experience running contingents of soldiers, and nothing like this. While Malech, uh…"
"Centuries." Malech remarked, simply. There were a few murmurs of agreement, some quiet chuckles, particularly from the Devils that Raylix recognised as ones that Malech had picked out from his own days as a military officer. However, more importantly, there were no objections. Shrugging, Raylix gestured to the older Devil again.
"Well, there you go." He spoke. "Let's say, tomorrow morning at 8 for a few hours? Just so Malech and I can get a better look at what we're specifically working with, when it comes to all of you?"
There were general murmurs of ascent all around, which Raylix nodded to.
"Good. Dismissed!"
With that word, the Devils gathered before Raylix and Malech began to disperse immediately, some immediately warping away via transportation-circle, some breaking into smaller groups and walking off, talking amongst themselves. Stretching and turning away from the rapidly-decreasing group, Raylix laid a hand on Malech's shoulder while opening a transportation-circle for himself with the other.
"Well done." He murmured. "See you tomorrow morning, I guess."
"Don't stay up all night screwing Lady Lilith's daughters." Malech replied, the auburn-haired Devil's praise eliciting a small grin from him before he stepped away, through a transport-circle of his own making before warping away from the garden-park.
Raylix let out a snort as he stepped into his own circle, and warped back into the compound's foyer, immediately making for the kitchen to get himself a drink.
"As if I-" he began muttering to himself, but trailed off as the door to the kitchen swung open. Out of it- holding a glass of wine and looking every bit the goddess-like figure she was when Raylix had last seen her a couple of weeks ago- stepped Lilith.
Looking up, she blinked a couple of times as she took in the sight of Raylix, and his transportation-circle dissipating behind him.
"As if you what?" she asked, tilting her head slightly.
Raylix coughed, stretching as he took half a step towards her.
"Never mind, doesn't matter." He replied. "Hi, by the way."
"Hi." Lilith nodded, closing the distance between herself and him within a couple of steps. Raising her free hand and stroking it against one of Raylix's cheeks, she softly smiled as she gently tilted Raylix's face so he was looking up at her.
"How, uh…" Raylix took a step back, releasing himself from the Lilim Queen's grip. "How was the stint back in your side of Hell?"
Lilith let out a sigh from her mouth, before taking a sip of her wine.
"Had to wrangle a compromise with both sides of our government over how to handle something that- in a couple of decades- probably won't even matter anyway." She replied. "That, and deal with Serafall and Shemhazai's reactions both to what we came to. What does that sound like, to you?"
"Exhausting." Raylix replied, letting out a breath. "Serafall started whining like a child and Shemhazai was his usual invader self?"
"Eh…" Lilith shrugged, half-ignoring Raylix's emotional take on Serafall and his flat-out racist take on Shemhazai as she took the step forward needed to close the distance between herself and him again. "Maybe. But enough about my boring real job, how about what you've been up to back here?" She took a half-step to one side, opening up Raylix's route to the kitchen. "Were you going for a drink? We can head upstairs and talk about it."
"Sure thing." Raylix nodded, stepping past the taller woman and pushing the kitchen door open again. "Give me a second."