A stone hurtled through the air, impacting a glass structure and sending out shards to spray any who dared to get too close. That's what Sirzechs felt like in that moment, as though his entire world had come tumbling down around him. There had always been bad blood between the New Satan Faction and the Old Satan Faction, so much so that it wouldn't be strange for Devils to hunt down any survivor members and tear them down a few sizes. His Grayfia, had been spared from most of this due to her power, most were only ever willing to whisper harsh comments when they were in their own homes and believed no one could hear their curses. That and, his position as Satan had always worked wonders to cut down on any political scheming some over zealous Houses would work.
But with this recent news…
"Due to the rather recent research into the Devil physique curtsy of Lord Beelzebub, we've begun to incorporate his findings in the medical field. Particularly, it was found out that while our wings are a direct representation of how large our Demonic Energy pool is but it also works inversely as well. Damage to our wings, usually have some impact on our ability to cast stronger spells. Usually, most damage is minor enough that just retracting them back into our bodies is enough to recover just from basking in our body's energy. "Lord Sitri fell into that lecture mode, probably hoping to set himself up for the tough conversation to come. But if there was anyone in that room who knew exactly how Devil's worked, it was probably the Satan himself. After all, he had been one of the first people to actually receive a more detailed thesis than anyone else in the Underworld. "As for how it knows to recover itself? Our souls act as a mold, our energy pumps through our bodies to revert ourselves to it's most optimized state. But this damage was too sudden and violent, the trauma itself impacted her very soul enough to affect that mold. Currently, it's like her pool has been forcibly crushed down to below the size of a newly turned Devil."
"We don't believe this was done by a particular spell or anything," Lady Sitri spoke up from besides them, stepping in with a clipboard in hand. "Most likely, it was done by finely controlled strength….That's not all we found, her own magic had helped keep her injuries to a minimum but during out a search, we found scant amounts of foreign energy mixed in."
"Like poison?"
The Satan's face grew into a hard mask, at that moment he didn't care what sort of retaliation might be in store. He would fly over to that stupid mountain and erase it from existence, consequences be damned.
"Nothing like that." Sensing the palpable aura of destruction beginning to ooze off the man, the doctor held up her hands to forestall the international incident waiting to happen. "In fact, it helped reinforced her own energy enough to make sure her wounds wouldn't get any worse...If I might add, the signature wasn't that of a Devil, Angel or Fallen-Angel..It was too natural for that. It reminded us of a Yokai...a very familiar one from the war."
He didn't need to be genius to know exactly who she was talking about, she'd been there during the war and that damned fox had been too adept at healing to be easily ignored. It seemed that even centuries later, that part of herself hadn't been dulled in the slightest...but just because she stabilized his wives injuries that didn't mean there wouldn't be some reprisal for this. Maybe not now, but there would be a time to act.
And with that monster prowling about, now wasn't that moment. Not even a spatial pocket would be enough to cushion the casualties….but then again, why should he care about that? He was a Satan. When did he ever need to worry about such poultry things? Who cared if a country or two were wiped off the map? Humans were like rabbits, they could easily recover their population after just a single generation.
"What are our options?"
Sirzechs shook his heavy red mane, forcing down that ruinous nature deep down within himself. There were plenty of factions that called Japan their home, Shinto Deities that would come down on him so hard that could possibly even draw in the Church...or worse, the Old Satan Faction could see that as a chance to strike and completely undo everything they've worked so hard for.
"The first option is the simplest." This time, Lord Sitri stepped forward. An ice blue magical circle hovering just over his eyes as he gazed off to the distance. "We can graft another set of wings where they use to be. They'll be completely physical and she will need to go through a year of physical therapy to allow her to use them to fly. It won't fix her spiritual issues, but it'll allow her to maintain a somewhat normal life."
Flight, one of the few gifts given to them by a creator deity's very own love. It was fully apart of everyday life for Devil's everywhere. Not only were they a status symbol but even simple travel would be impossible without them, with a vast majority of their architecture centered around the idea of moving around in three-dimensions. This would allow her to be 'normal' on a purely physical levels..but other than that, it was a less than ideal solution.
"The second option is similar but with a few differences," Lady Sitri took over for her husband, a similar azure circle spinning above her eye as she gazed off into a different direction. "Instead of completely growing a pair of artificial wings, we can instead acquire donors...We could extract 6 pairs of wings from single winged Devils but it wouldn't have the best effects. From our calculations, a 12 Winged Devil donor has the highest likely-hood of minimal risks. And over time, it could heal the damage dealt to her spirit. Approximately 60 years, at the earliest. And after that, she should be fine if no long term side effects pop up...But I don't think I need to tell you how difficult it'll be to convince a 12 Winged Devil to give up their wings."
"Then she can have mine." There wasn't a single hesitation in his suggestion, and if he knew that tearing them out himself might mess something up then they wouldn't already been torn out by now. Sure his power might drop but with the pulsating King Piece in his chest, it wouldn't really mean much. The artificer acting like a multiplier on his power. And with his already innately powerful demonic energy, it would be more than worth the price. "When can we do this."
"Never." A new voice, sounding younger by a good margin and in from the hall, a short figure came marching into the room. Long inky black hair tied up into twin ponytails, that ridiculous bright pink magical girl costume nowhere in sight. Instead, she wore a simple lab coat over a rumpled business suit. Her youthful face ruined by what looked like days of minimal sleep. "Sorry Sirzechs, but you know that's impossible. And there's no way Grayfia would allow that either."
"That's my wife."
"And you're one of the leader of all of Devil-kind." It was strange for the usual comical character of the Satans to have have such a serious expression on her face. Even now, any moment he expected her to break out into that silly pose with her tongue poking out from the corner of her mouth. Sure, she might get slammed with a bolt of Destruction for her trouble but at least it would be the usual. "There are other options that don't require you to cripple yourself. We've been running the numbers and we've found that because of how cleanly they were removed, it's likely that if we can get our hands on them they would just slide back in place with some very minor application of magic. Sure she'll need a month to regrow accustomed to them in that case."
"But they're in the Heavenly Demon's hands…"
"Yes." Serafall nodded, some levels of confidence rising above the sea of exhaustion. "But it's been show that we can leverage Yasaka against him. I believe I can get him to relinquish them...but there will be a price to be paid if this does succeed."
"Do it." There were few things in this world that can move him so fervently, his family being the one exception to the world. He'd listened to the recording his wife had been able to send him before it all went wrong. And if Yamato Iori truly considered himself to be the very heavens in this era, then Sirzechs would become like those cultivators of old to fight against the Heavens. "The price doesn't matter, I wants talks to begin as soon as possible."