Lord Belial sat by his wife's side, drinking the tea given to him by the young man who had stolen his beloved niece from him.
Truth be told, the old devil did not like Masaomi. Not one bit.
Putting aside his profession, which was the literal antithesis of a devil like him, even if he were a regular human, Lord Belial would still have hated Masaomi's guts. Simply because he made Cleria fall in love with him.
However, since things had already happened, there was nothing he could do but accept it.
Taking in the rich air of the Earth that was full of power, thanks to how many divinities and demonic creatures called this planet home, He gave a sigh as he glared down at the young man, making his beloved niece glare at him in return.
"So, I take it that you two have already decided on the date for your wedding?"
Cleria nodded without hesitation as she proudly displayed the ring on her finger, making Masaomi slightly embarrassed as Lady Belial cooed a little and engulfed her niece in a tight hug.
But just as quickly, the older woman controlled her strength so as not to hurt her niece and pulled back.
Seeing this entire interaction, Lord Belial sighed before speaking softly.
"I still don't understand why you decided to become a human, Cleria. Unlike us, the older devils, the Heavenly System no longer harms or suppresses you, right? After the Satans negotiated with the heavens to suppress only those with negative karma."
Cleria nodded her head.
"True. However, I already chose to become a human before this new change was enacted in the system. And even if I were given the choice again, I would still take the deal."
Lady Belial gave her niece a sad look, to which Cleria replied with a brief hug.
"Why, Cleria?"
"The Great King Faction."
A chill shot down the spines of both the old devils as Lord Belial glared down at his niece in warning.
"Don't use that name lightly. I already warned you not to mess around with the organization since that old fool Bael is on a hair trigger these days. Look what happened when you tried to-"
"Uncle, I know. But now, I don't care anymore. Besides, what can he do to me that he can justify now? I am human, which means that I am now under the direct protection of the Heavenly System. If he or anyone of his goons dares to step on earth, they will be directly suppressed. And if they make a move against me, they will either be killed by the System or be marked for execution. Potentially even restarting the Great War, which is something even he does not want. This is why I chose to become a human. So that I could be free of his pursuit and attacks."
The determined and proud look on his niece's face was so similar to his own son's that Lord Belial was momentarily left speechless.
With a sigh, he leaned back into his seat.
Ever since that ancient monster of an angel had returned, things had been really hectic for his kind.
First, it was his overt actions in dealing with the Barbatos clan heir and his forces. Something that Lord Belial was very much grateful for since the angel had saved the life of his niece. Who knows what that brat and his forces would have done to her if the Angel had not been there?
When news had spread about this incident, Lord Belial had not hesitated for even a second before leaving the Great King Faction, right after giving a solid right cross to the face of Zekram Bael.
Unfortunately, this was the only positive thing that Lord Belial could think of after the Angel came back from wherever he was hiding.
Because after this incident, the devils and every other supernatural race in the world had been facing headache after headache due to his actions, one way or another.
The first issue was the strengthening of the Heavenly System, which meant that all the tools and weapons that the Exorcists of the Church use are strengthened beyond what they could originally do.
Holy Water, Crosses, and Holy Swords were already deadly for most devils, save for extremely powerful ones. But now, even those high-ranking devils can't escape the effects of these things.
This was reason enough to stop many of the devils who usually went to the human world to have some 'fun' as they call it, from venturing out.
Even the Gremory and Sitri family were reconsidering sending their heirs out to the human world after this incident. Although given how stubborn those two girls were and how their siblings spoiled them rotten, there was no doubt in Lord Belial's mind that they would get their way no matter what.
Then, after the strengthening, came the sudden changes made to the Sacred Gear System and the introduction of Karma.
This was the biggest change that directly crippled many of the 72 pillar families. Specifically, their heirs, since the power base of modern devils is mostly centered around their peerages, which are in turn mostly dependent on the Sacred Gears that their peerage members have.
Frankly, Lord Belial and his wife had felt extremely disappointed when they saw the way the younger devils behaved once their peerage members were deprived of their sacred gears.
The way they either expelled them, condemning them to become strays, or tried to kill them outright to get back the evil pieces within them.
In the younger generation, there were very few devils that genuinely cared for their peerages and had not made any changes or forced anything on their members ever after they lost their sacred gears.
Thankfully, that old angel up there had probably thought that something like this would happen, so he made it so that every human being that was reincarnated into a devil, be they sacred gear user or not, got a chance to become humans again, and then teleporting them back to their homes in the human world if they chose to become human.
Then, after this change came the suppression from the Heavenly System that suppressed anyone who was not human when on Earth, directly pushing them down by at least two ranks. Making them easy prey for anyone looking to kill them.
This was the biggest blow to the devils, right beside the Sacred Gear sealing.
While the older devils were largely unaffected since they rarely left the Underworld and used proxies to carry out their business in the human world, the same could not be said about many of the younger devils who had businesses of their own in the human world, forcing them to manage said industries remotely.
The only silver lining in this entire incident was that the Devils had their own world to retreat to, so they could still wait out this sudden change.
Unlike the Vampires and other such evil creatures native to earth, who had nowhere to retreat to.
Then, the system changed again. And again, and again.
These days, it felt like the Heavenly System was in a constant flux, changing its abilities and restrictions every day with new updates added over the old ones or some restrictions becoming stricter or looser as time went by.
The latest significant update was how the System was giving the option to the Fallen Angels to become pure Angels again based on their Karma value. Something that had unsettled a lot of the older devils who remembered the times of the Great War.
The heavens were already troublesome to deal with back then, which might be the case now as well, given the many impossible reports that the devils were getting, which mentioned many an angel that was supposed to be dead, but were suddenly being spotted again.
Given how the the Heavens were now operating at full capacity again, with Guardian Angels roaming the earth with their chosen humans once again, and loads of angels decending to the human world descreetely to manage their forces personally instead of relying on the humans, many of these older devils had already theorized that the Lion of Heaven had somehow found a way to resurrect these angels of old who were supposed to be dead.
Now, imagine what would happen if even the Fallen Angels were to rejoin their former brethren and bolster the Heavenly forces further?
It was a nightmare waiting to happen.
Not only that, this latest 'update' to the system allowed other races who were reincarnated into devils to revert into their original races and be teleported back to their homes.
Well, most races except for the Vampires. For some weird reason, the Heavens seem to be especially hostile to the Vampires, not even giving them the chance, which might reflect the bias of Arael.
This was another blow to the Devils as many of the races that were either converted unwillingly or those who were unsatisfied with their masters directly went back to their former homes and converted back to their original race.
How the Heavenly System managed to do that is a mystery at the moment to the Devils, since the concept of creation was supposed to be lost to the Heavens after the death of their God.
What the devils did know was that their military power was directly weakened by more than half with a single move, making them extremely insecure about their position.
So, the Satans arranged a meeting with the leaders of Heaven to try and negotiate a deal.
A deal that went through, but could not be said to be a good or bad outcome.
For starters, the restrictions on all devils had been lifted, and the system would now only target those with negative karma. In return, the Devils were forced into signing a contract where they are prohibited from reincarnating humans into devils unless they have a comprehensive geas drawn up, which explains literally everything such a transition entails for the human in question.
They also made sure that the details would not be hidden in fine print and that it would be there to read plainly without effort, making sure that the devils could not pull any tricks like the old times.
And then, only if the human agrees to all these terms and expressly writes out their full names and signatures made with their blood on the geas would the devils be allowed to reincarnate the humans. Even then, if the human in question has a sacred gear, it would either be taken away by the Heavens.
While this kind of contract was not mentioned for other races, the Satans said that it was heavily implied by the Angels that this kind of contract system would be rolled out to all the races in the future, so it was in the best interest of the devils to follow this rule with all the races in the world from now on.
There were many such deals made in the meeting where the devils were 'handed the L' as the young ones say. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to accept such heavily disadvantageous deals.
Especially now that the Heavens have made deals with the other pantheons and even became allies with the Hindu pantheon.
Fortunately, not all was bad for the Devils in that particular meeting.
Lord Belial and his wife had breathed a sigh of relief when news reached them about a potential peace treaty being in the works with the leader of the Fallen Angels, Azazel, spearheading the project.
While it might not seem like that much of an achievement to the younger generation, who did not know the horrors that their elders had witnessed during the rule of the original Satans and the Great War, this news was truly a cause for celebration for much of the older generation, who had been looking forward to putting behind them all those harrowing times in the past.
Even if this peace treaty meant that they would lose a lot of power, they would still take it. Even that old monster Zekram Bael felt the same, which was the only reason why the Great King Faction had not retaliated against the Four Satans for coming back home with such disadvantageous deals.
By the time Lord Belial finally came back to reality from his thoughts, some time had already passed, and Cleria had disappeared into another room with his wife, leaving him behind with Masaomi, who was sitting up straight.
Lord Belial glared down at the human as he stood up.
"I will be clear with you. Yaegaki. I don't like you. Not one bit."
"You stole my precious niece from me. For that, you have earned my eternal hatred."
With every word spoken, he circled Masaomi and stood behind him.
Then, he placed his palm heavily on the human's shoulder, not with hostility, but with resignation.
"But, she still chose you over the entire underworld, even us. So, it is now up to you to protect her."
The old devil's power flared briefly, putting Masaomi under the same kind of pressure that he remembered from Vasco Strada, showing that this devil had been hiding his true power from everyone else in the world.
"Take care of her, Masaomi. Make sure that you never hurt her or break her heart. Because if you do, I will personally find a way to make your life hell on earth, the Heavenly System and the treaty be damned."
"Am I clear?"
"....Yes."
"Good. Now, come with me. The least you can do is buy me a drink after stealing my niece from me."
Masaomi did not know whether to laugh or cry at those words, but he followed the old devil all the same, heading to the nearest club to get hammered.
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Author Notes:
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