Chapter 36: The Unseen

Rias gaped at the mountain-sized black sphere that hung low in the violet sky of the Underworld, an uncanny green power radiating off its curved edges. Two days had passed quickly, and she had set off with her family and Queen to the summit of the most prominent Devils Lords in the Underworld.

“This is Yfel?” She asked disbelievingly.

Behind her, Akeno remained still and uncertain, while her father and mother stood perfectly poised at the front. All of their eyes locked on the dark orb in the sky.

“Yes and no,” her father said as he stroked his thin beard. “Yfel is infinite in size, but from the outside perspective from the Underworld, it is limited in scope. I’d explain the mechanics behind it, but quite frankly my daughter, your foundational knowledge of Paracasual Geodesics is nonexistent.”

“Think of it like Doctor Who, bigger on the inside.”

They all turned in concert towards the new voice. And Rias was surprised to see her older brother standing there smiling, his hands folded behind his back.

“Sirzechs?” The Duchess asked, a small frown of disapproval on her lips.

“Hello, mother,” he responded as he walked to her and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

Gingerly grabbing onto his elbows, the Duchess’ frown became more pronounced. “What are you doing here? Should you not be with the other Satans?”

Her brother gave a careless shrug that exasperated Rias.

“Oh, I’m not really here. This is merely a simple magical avatar. The real me is currently in Yfel, doing his best to try and not strangle old Zekram.”

Everyone blanched at his words.

With his brows heavily furrowed, her father looked at her brother and asked, “The Devil are you doing with that monster now?”

Sirzechs waved him off. “Oh, the usual nonsense. Listening to him drone on and on about his precious bloodline while also trading subtle threats. Nothing to worry about.”

Her brother then stepped away from their mother’s arms and waved in her direction. “Hello baby sister, little Akeno. Enjoying your first trip to Yfel?”

Akeno immediately gave a polite bow at the waist, but Rias, instead, crossed her arms. “Doctor Who?”

He walked over and ruffled her hair, to which she instantly pushed his hand away. She spent twenty minutes getting her hair perfect this morning, thank you very much!

Her brother simply chuckled. “And I suppose you’re the only one allowed to have human interests?”

Rias rolled her eyes but fought to keep the smile off her lips.

“Also, you’ll be happy to know,” her brother continued, “I’ve sent that no-good, foul, orange-headed, sister-traumatizing, dastardly former Pawn of mine far away from here!”

And instantaneously Rias’ mood plummeted as she was reminded of the malevolent red eyes and fiery power of the Crown Prince of Wrath. A shiver went through her spine as she recalled the cold clutch of death that had gripped her soul at his blatant rage. As well as the immense sense of disappointment and self-loathing that came afterwards.

“Sirzechs!” And Rias looked up at her mother’s admonishing tone. “Are you starting fights with the other Satans because of your sister’s matter?”

Her brother puffed his cheeks and pouted childishly. “We’re not fighting, mother. You’ll kindly note the continued existence of the Underworld? All I did was ask Ichigo to reinforce patrols between Pillar territories while everyone is gathered in Yfel. Never mind he’s relishing the opportunity to get away from the meeting and the politics of it all. Conniving brat…”

Rias fidgeted in place, she was still incredibly apprehensive about the upcoming trial, not to mention the inevitable price her father and brother would be forced to pay the other Lords for leniency.

As her brother sighed, Rias looked back up at him. “Well, I suppose I’ve taken up enough of your time. You’re a bit early though, only Lord Phenex and Lady Valca are here, they had a short meeting with Ichigo before he went off.”

Her father nodded his head. “As I intended. I figured I could corner the stubborn few who have refused my communications as they arrive.”

Sirzechs’ raised his brow and hummed in agreement. “Good idea…still, every time I am forced to play along with all Lords and their posturing, it makes me nostalgic for the old days. To think I would live to see the day that murder would be robbed of all fun due to bureaucracy of all things.”

Their mother tutted disapprovingly as she crossed her arms. “Oh, when are you going to grow up, Sirzechs? You’re not a hundred years old anymore! Stop behaving like a child!”

He merely smiled and waved a hand, and Rias felt a pulse of magic wash over her. “What’s the point of being the Devil if I can’t indulge in some playful sin?”

And the world twisted around her and Rias struggled to stand straight as she lost her balance. Blinking away the dizziness and attempting to regain her footing, Rias looked behind her.

“Akeno?” She asked with slight worry.

“I’m fine,” her Queen said reassuringly. “But, what’s this magic around us?”

Rias frowned heavily and finally took note of the soft red glow surrounding Akeno. And it was a moment later that she realized it was around her as well. She narrowed her eyes as she inspected the magic and a hint of familiarity that it carried.

Rias opened and closed her hand experimentally, watching with some minor fascination as the defensive magic coated her skin. It was her brother’s magic, she would be able to recognize anywhere. Had he woven a layer of protection around them even as he teleported them to another dimension? All with a single wave of his hand?

Not for the first time was Rias forced to accept the sheer magical genius that was her older brother.

“A necessary precaution for the two of you,” her father’s voice said from behind her and Akeno. “The concentration of demonic power in Yfel is a thousand times greater than that of the Underworld. So infused is the power of the Crown Princes into the fabric of this reality that any Devil below Ultimate-class would immediately be vaporized. And if any other species attempted to enter this realm, they’d have to be as powerful as a Satan at least. ”

“Honestly, that boy.” Rias turned around towards her mother’s angry voice. “When is he going to start acting his age?”

“Oh, come off it dear. You’re the one who spoiled him rotten for those first few decades, after all.”

Rias looked away from them, finally taking note of the changed environment. A stark grey wasteland and skies as black as midnight. Though the horizon had a deep and startling crimson color.

“This is where the meeting will be?” She asked softly, her tone filled with disbelief.

“Oh no. That is where the meeting will be,” her father said as he pointed behind her.

Both she and Akeno turned around, and Rias felt the breath leave her body as she beheld the single largest structure she had ever seen.

It was a tower.

An impossibly large tower that stretched across the horizon and rose so far into the black void of the sky that Rias couldn’t even crane her neck back far enough to see its summit.

Its walls rose an absolute, soul-swallowing black that did not shimmer or reflect, but consumed light like a bottomless maw. Its surface bore no markings of construction, no bricks, no mortar, no architectural seams. A single black slab of demonic power that Rias could only imagine had been driven into the ground by the sheer force of the corruptive wills of the five Demon Lords who reigned over all Devil-kind.

She set her eyes to the base of the tower.

The land surrounding it was a dead plain of ashen stone, flat and endless, neither cracked nor weathered, simply blank. There was no wind, no rustling air, no echo. As she once again took note of the black sky, and the utter lack of stars, a simple thought entered Rias’ mind.

So, this is a world without the promise of Heaven.

Despite the stillness of the tower and how utterly dead everything was around it; it radiated a horrid weight. A dread gravitas so profound that it felt as though Rias’ soul itself was being bent towards it.

She chewed her lower lip.

Wordlessly, she reached behind and took Akeno’s hand, feeling her Queen’s quiet tremors and the coldness of her skin.

“Behold Vayn-Greigend. Behold the Lightless Pharos,” her father intoned gravely, “where Princes keep view.”

“Keep view?” She asked quietly, not daring to let go of Akeno’s hand.

Her father nodded. “Far above the summit of the Vayn-Greigend, there sit the Crown Princes of Hell. There they pour their energies against their enemies, peering and stretching the shadows of other worlds.”

“And that’s where I’m to be judged?” Rias could only stare in open horror.

“Oh no, perish the thought,” her mother said heavily. “None but the Princes are allowed in the place of their Thrones. The Lords themselves will gather in the Tower proper. Steel yourself, my dear daughter. You will be presented before the Parliament of Hell.”

Rias audibly gulped.

Her father rolled his eyes. “Don’t fret too much, my dear. Your mother is just trying to scare you.” Said mother gave her husband a pointed glare. “Your sentence is all but decided at this point.”

Rias gave him an uncertain glance. “Then why the need for all this?”

Her mother gave her a dry look. “Rias, you cannot possibly be thinking yourself important enough to warrant the full attention of our Empire’s most powerful nobility?”

Rias blushed, and her father coughed in his hand. “What your mother is trying to say is that there are other things that need to be discussed. You will not be the sole topic of conversation. Indeed, not even the main one. The Satans demanded our presence. No doubt they have something of import to say.”

A light silence fell amongst the four, and the Duke Gremory turned back towards the grand tower.

“But really. Was it too much to ask that this troublesome son of ours teleport us a tad closer to the tower gates?”

Rias silently agreed. It was a remarkable distance from where they stood to the gargantuan tower. Still, minor inconveniences like this is what magic was for.

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Ichigo sat quietly in his penthouse in Infernity. Tiamat curled contentedly in his lap, her legs drawn up and her head pressed into his shoulder. He looked down at her as he felt her light breath tickle his neck as she slumbered. A stray strand of white hair softly moving as it was caught in her inhales and exhales.

His chest rumbled with a chuckle as he leaned down and kissed her brow. Even after all this time, it still amazed him just how much Tiamat slept. Dragons, by nature, tended to be lazy. But the fact that Tiamat could easily spend more than half of her day knocked out baffled him.

Lazy pain in my ass, he thought with fondness.

Still…

An unsteadiness filled him. It had been two days since he had sat with the other Satans. While he had agreed with the course of actions that Sirzechs had set for them, Ichigo felt troubled by how…reactionary, it all felt. One of the things he had learned in his tenure as a Crown Prince: empires did not move quickly.

It was a machine, an incomprehensibly large thing with a seemingly never-ending series of moving parts. Each of which had to be taken into account before massively consequential decisions were ordered by the Satans.

Decisions like war.

Nevertheless, it was something Ichigo was unaccustomed to. He was used to living in the moment. All his life, he made decisions on the fly. Doing what he thought was best for the now. Taking Rukia’s offer that first set him onto this path, leading his old friends on a wild incursion of Soul Society, breaking into Aizen’s fortress in Hueco Mundo to rescue Inoue, taking up Sirzechs’ offer to become a Devil, agreeing to allow Tiamat to bind their minds in the familiar ritual…yeah, Ichigo Kurosaki was not one to hesitate.

You'll die if you hesitate.

The Old Satan Faction. The attack on Kyoto two years ago. Kokabiel’s invasion of Japan and the revelation that Rhongomyniad wasn’t just a fucking myth. And now Khaos Brigade and the Infinite Void behind them subtly making waves. It was connected. All of it. He just couldn’t figure out how. Nor could he do anything about it.

Waiting for the others to politic did not sit well with him. But bureaucracy and politics were a necessary evil, he found.

But even as Ichigo stewed in what he felt was his inability to do anything, he still carried out the duties assigned to him by Sirzechs. Even as he sat there annoyed – brooding, corrected Tiamat’s amused voice in his thoughts – his mind and senses were spread out over the totality of the Devil Empire. Tens of thousands from amidst his private armies moved over critical passage points and places of enormous natural resources. And he was fully aware of each and every single legion stationed battle-ready, ensuring no scheming Lord would take advantage of the gathering in Yfel and take military action against their neighbors.

A part of him wished one would. Just so he could have an excuse to get up and do something.

However, from the darkest corner of his mind, he felt a mental tug, a familiar echo of a voice. Frowning, Ichigo traversed the webs of his mind and touched the psychic presence of Serafall. And one by one, the other three Satans made their presence known in this mental call of theirs.

“There’s been a development,” Serafall’s voice rang. “My agents have discovered a pocket dimension, a stronghold of the Old Satan Faction.”

Ichigo’s brows instantly rose high. And he started to sense Sirzechs’ and Ajuka’s immense amusement and Falbium’s obvious displeasure.

“Lucifer, Ichigo,” Falbium’s lazy drawl manifested in his mind. “Care to curb your enthusiasm just a touch?”

Ichigo merely chuckled to himself but remained silent as Serafall continued despite the interruption. “The entrance to the dimension is located in the old Eligos territory. The scouts’ report indicates the dimension is little more than a city-sized subspace. A proper headcount couldn’t be done, but a rough estimate puts the total forces at somewhere between two-hundred thousand to a quarter of a million. Valend Eligos has been confirmed as the commander.”

“Eligos chose his own ancestral lands as a hideaway?” Sirzechs asked, sounding flabbergasted. “That’s not very clever.”

“No one’s ever accused the Old Satan Faction of being clever,” Ajuka dully intoned.

“True.”

“Well,” Serafall asked, her tone clipped and business-like, “You lead the Ministries of War, Falbium. What say you?”

Falbium’s mental scoff echoed in Ichigo’s mind. “Pleeease. Like we all can’t sense Wrath practically giddy with excitement. Go on. Have it, littlest brother. Go have your fun.”

Ichigo scowled, though a hint of embarrassment colored his mind. Okay. Maybe he was just a little bit giddy.

“Anything I should know?” He asked, trying to keep his thoughts neutral and not allowing his emotions to show.

“Take Eligos alive,” Serafall said plainly. “Kill the rest.”

“Happy hunting,” Sirzechs said, before his presence winked out of his mind. Quick enough, the other three left as well, though not before Serafall sent him the exact coordinates of where he needed to go.

Ichigo blinked as he returned from within the depths of his mind. Slowly, his gaze landed on Tiamat, and piercing blue eyes stared up at him.

“I have had my fill of armies in these past days, beloved.”

Ichigo shrugged. “Guess I’m going to enjoy the carnage on my own, then.”

She gave him a light peck on the lips before fluidly sliding off his lap and moving to the bed. She wasted no time and quickly burrowed beneath the covers and had her head resting on a pillow. His pillow. She never slept on her side of the bed, if she could help it.

Ichigo shook his head with tender exasperation. He sent his mind in two directions, one towards Saviġuk and the other towards Humbaba. His wolf and giant would make quick work of a few hundred thousand Devils while he secured the remnant Eligos and brought him into custody.

Honestly, Ichigo could do it on his own, but he just wanted to take them along a cautionary measure. It wouldn’t do if he got so caught up in taking on an army and ended up killing Eligos by accident. Or worse, allowing him to escape. Not to mention, he was positive his Knight and Rook would appreciate the chance to stretch their legs and wreak some havoc.

Almost smiling to himself at the thought of this little incursion, Ichigo magically summoned his tablet to his hand. He idly flipped through military files and brought up the information on Eligos, his eyes flicking through the information.

Valend Eligos.

The original Eligos had been one of the most successful and key members of the 72 Pillars during the Great War. Originally a ten-winged angel, after he Fell, he took part in Lucifer’s pact with Hell and became one of the original demons. He was a ferocious warrior and general and had led numerous successful campaigns against the forces of the Grigori and the White City. He was eventually slain by Azazel himself halfway through the Great War.

His great-grandson Valend, on the other hand, was found completely lacking in the face of his ancestor’s legacy. His whole house had sided with the descendants of the original Satans during the Devil Civil War and were thus labeled extinct after Sirzechs and the others had purged most of the house in their victory. Valend had little ability beyond his inherited power and, if reports were correct, had little combat ability either.

He had simply been given command based on his birth and the fact that sheer genetics had managed to carry him onto the ranks of Ultimate-class powers.

Ichigo continued to scroll through the file as he familiarized himself with his soon-to-be-captive, when, suddenly, a powerful pang ached within his chest. It wasn’t painful, not even a physical feeling in truth, but something profound and deep.

Ichigo put a hand on his chest and frowned heavily, his brows drawn together in perplexity. He looked up from his tablet and met Tiamat’s worried gaze.

“Beloved?”

“Did you feel that?”

Tiamat mirrored his frown. “I felt it through you.”

From within his soul, Ichigo felt Zangetsu stir restlessly.

Ichigo raised his eyes towards the ceiling of the penthouse, his gaze going beyond the physical reality of the Underworld. “I have a really bad feeling…”

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Amaterasu turned her face away, and though her eyes closed, her sight remained as clear and clairvoyant as ever. The currents of time were shifting. She could see all of its infinite threads flitting in and out of existence. Possibilities and impossibilities being made into actualities by each and every decision of the weak and mighty alike.

And she feared.

She feared the choice she had made. A choice she had made years ago when two young soul visited her shrine in Ise and she beheld the growing child in that young Quincy’s womb. And she feared the choice she had made after the Slaying Spear cut the liminal veil between lands of the living and the lands of the dead. But she knew that fear came from doubt. And she was of the Undying. There was no doubt, no uncertainty. Just a false luxury she allowed herself in trying moments.

The die was cast.

Time was always moving. And the threads were being woven into the tapestry of the past.

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The All-Father stared down his beard into the rippling water of his cup. Around him the sound of festivities growing a distant quiet as the weave and ebb of Fate drastically shifted. Entire futures and possibilities had been strangled and rewritten. A great calamity had been averted... but, perhaps, an even greater one may have been created in its stead. 

Ah, well. 

It was no great concern to him. All it meant was fewer lines for him in another's story. He was hardly one to complain if it meant there was one less mess for him to clean up after. Still, he should probably think on the young She-Demon's offer. A pale smile made it's way to the All-Father's lips. 

He always did enjoy a good game, after all. 

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Sutekh of the Red Sands stood grim and steady at the forefront of the Mesektet, the solar barge that sailed through the isfet, the primordial chaos of the cosmos. And though his focus was on the oncoming ancient enemy, the swelling tide of endless darkness shaping itself in a midnight serpent, he felt a sudden shift in the weave of reality. It briefly caught his attention away. From behind him, a supernova of golden light burned the shadowed snake away, though he knew it would not be long before it came to strike again. 

"My Sister-Self has played a dangerous gambit," said Khnum-Ra, Eternal Sun of Resurrection. 

“Yes,” Sutekh replied. “What shall be done?”

"For now, nothing. There are other things that must unfold before our part upon the stage."

"As you will." 

Sutekh raised a hand and forged a titanic spear of red lightning, hurling it into the endless dark where it blasted away the reforming image of the fell wyrm Apep, scattering the darkness into crackling embers of red and black.

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The Infinite Ouroboros smiled, all of Time and Space swimming impotent in the mink touch of its endless maw. And the Illusion of Dreams danced on, uncaring for the ceaseless fiction it continued to beget. 

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In the ages that he had served in the Soul King's Palace, Hyōsube Ichibē had seen a great many things. In fact, he had named most of them too. And yet...

The light of the Soul King's domain began to dim, and the colors of this Immaculate World dulled and lost all sense of luster and hue. And most troubling of all, the Reishi that served as the very fabric of this reality fell to a deathly silence. And yet...

The surrounding space became a black void, a still and dead sea of opaque darkness. It did not move. It did not churn. It did not writhe like one would expect of an eldritch invasive force. It just was. Oppressive and ever-present. And yet...

He could not move. He could not speak. He could not even hear the cries of the sword in his soul. All he knew was the dread silence that encroached from the pervading dark. And yet...

A name.

A Name.

A NAME.

A NaMe.

a NAME.

aNaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAMENaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAMENaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAMENaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAMENaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAMENaMeaNAemAnamEanameANaMEaNaMEanaMeANameanAME. And yet...

He could not think of a name.

Not for the Shade.

“Your strength.”

And the words came like a flood. A tidal wave of tyrannical might. A diametric opposition to the stillness of the pervasive Shade. And it was with complete and utter horror that Ichibē realized the words were pronounced from his own lips. The words shaped by his tongue. The words sounded by his throat.

“Marvelous. I have not seen such a powerful Soul in many an eon.”

And still, he could not move. He could not muster any strength. His own spiritual power remained immobile and silent. As if it was dead. And yet...

“Yes. Dead. For all your strength, you are a dead thing. And the dead are mine to command,” said Ichibē.

Said the Shade.

Said the Shade.

Said the Shade.

“You wish for a name?”

The darkness had taken hold of the entirety of the Soul King’s palace now. There was no place it did not touch or saturate. And he could no longer sense any of the other members of Squad Zero. No, he could not sense anything at all. Not even the Soul King.

There was only…

And yet…

“I shall give it,” he said, even as the darkness entered his mouth and swallowed his eyes.

“I am Aidôneus, the Unseen One.”

And Ichibē fell into the dark, frozen and unmoving, save for his lips that moved against his will. Oh. But it wasn’t his will anymore, was it? There was nothing at all, only…

“Ah, but the world remembers me by another name,” said Ichibē.

Said the Shade.

The Shade.

Shade.

Sh

Ade

Ades

HADES