A Devil’s Temptation(Whitebrand & Tigra9)

[tigra9]

Lena glanced back at mei “fallen remain able to use their abilities as angels, they merely can’t return to heaven” she then look at the man who spoke and replied in German, thanks to being devils they could by nature speak and understand all verbal languages though they still had to learn written the same as any human “oh it’s not my concern that is true… however”

“Just… end it… you bastards…” the fallen angel girl coughed her eyes already getting heavy “I… won’t submit… to heaven… or the fallen….” She forced out her words despite the severe pain from the holes in her chest and her fading consciousness

Lena blinked as the girl spat out her words and hmmed “would you be willing to make a deal with me then? I’ll save you but you become mine in body and soul”

The girl drew in a ragged breath “fine…” was all she could breathe out before she finally succumbed to her injuries her body becoming lifeless

Lena for her part just smiled “then the deal is made, Mei, put up a barrier around this girls body, I’ll only need” she walked towards the men “10 seconds” at that a windstorm picked up around Lena and she lifted her sword into a thrusting stance the wind beginning to gather around her blade. Even if the men tried to escape they would find themselves fighting against gale force winds due to the air being drawn towards Lena and after a few seconds she lunged forward the wind flowing around her sword and her body becoming a mass of slicing wind blades that would tear into the men and shred whatever the winds touched. Even the light bullets could not pierce the air around Lena being destroyed the moment they neared her.

What men managed to just escape the initial lunge would find themselves swallowed up by the twisting winds she made changing direction to match the swing of her sword, Lena while still in the growing stages of her power was a high class Devil and had the natural prowess to back that rank up, and she constantly trained to improve herself on top of that so against these at best low middle teir exorcists she was far beyond their ability to handle if she struck first.

[Whitebrand]

Mei produced a handful of papers and threw them. A shield of light covered the Fallen's body and protected her from the reflexive fire from the exorcists.

The men were saved by their body armor but not one escaped unscathed. Each of them looked like they had been hit by a mad cheese grater, bloodied and battered. Several fell unconscious. The remainder had to use all their strength just to stand.

The leader lifted his rosary towards Lena.

"In Nomine Patris..."

Pain struck the devil girl, but Mei put a stop to it. Another piece of paper smacked over hid mouth and its magic stole his voice. In that one move their greatest weapon was gone.

"Be silent in the presence of nobility," Mei said, bringing a fan up in front of her face.

[tigra9]

Lena winced at the start of his chant but when his voice was taken she just smiled “if you want to be stubborn that’s fine..” at that the windstorm that had surrounded her until this moment seemed to fall silent… no it was as if the very atmosphere fell silent as she calmly lifted her claymore length sword above her head “pray to god with your last breaths… maybe heaven will take you” with that she swung her sword down striking the man and cutting through him and his body would fall split cleanly into two halves “now then.. I have business with the girl laying over there, if any of the rest of you guys wish to keep your lives…” she turned walking towards the fallen angel girl “then take your wounded and leave… if you are still here when I am done, your lives are forfeit” Lena threatened them in a cold tone, of the group that had been chasing the girl their number was now reduced to four and they were all worse for wear while Lena had only barely exerted some of her strength, the display she just did with the windstorm while it did consume a great deal of stamina from her was not enough to tire her out.

Once back to the girl Lena sat down and placed her hands on the girl a green glow wrapping around her hands then covering the girl as a mature voice that sounded both male and female at the same time would speak up from around Lena’s stomach “that was more merciful then I expected of you child, perhaps you do know something of the value of life”

“Not now Windom I’m focusing here” Lena commented as she healed the girls body, once she felt it was enough she created a magic circle over the girls body and pulled out from the game in her glove a small case opening it to reveal her evil pieces “hmmm she seems to have good compatibility with the Knight..” she would take out one Knight piece and place it on the girls chest as the circle would then shine and spin before the piece sank into the girls chest a silver aura enveloping the girls body before fading away “alright, though she still needs more healing…” she looked at mei “can you track down the horse I rode please mei? I will take her back using yours” she turned back to the fallen girl and began stripping her, making sure to be careful of any potential holy items on the girl which thankfully there was a single cross amulet and nothing else, the amulet didn’t even have much power in it, but once the girl was stripped Lena formed a magic circle and applied a shrinking magic to the girl for easier transport.

After quite a time later Lena having returned to the villa they were staying at would finally exit the guest room she has been holed up in since returning and looked at the clock, 7 at night. “Well… she is fully healed now it’s just a matter of waiting for her to wake” Lena commented looking at mei, the lights were on but dimmed currently, despite this though one look would tell mei all she needed to know, Lena was completely drained, her skin pale and her demonic energy practically spent

[Whitebrand]

"Then you should rest, my lady," Mei said as she presented her mistress with a cup of warm chamomile tea. "You will need your powers and your wits about you when she wakes. The moment she does I will alert you."

Mei's tone was polite but firm. Not quite an order...but it was an order.

[tigra9]

Lena frowned “I am the king it’s my responsibility since I made her my servant” she put her hands on her hips defiantly… though under Mei’s gaze for a few seconds Lena relented, she was quite stubborn and proud, but if you knew how to handle her right she would relent pretty easily and mei has been with her long enough to know how to handle her “fine” she said taking the offered tea and walking to her room which was across the hall shutting the door behind her with her foot.

When mei entered the room of the fallen angel girl she would sense Lena’s demonic aura from the girl, it was starting to fade but clearly Lena in an attempt to give the girl enough demonic energy to fully heal had used her clan trait to attach the demonic power to her wounds. She would sleep almost as if in a coma until 3:30 in the morning where she would finally open her eyes, her vision swimming and her head pounding “I’m… alive?” She commented as she realized she was looking at the ceiling of a room, her eyes wandering the dark room around her though she found she could see better then ever before in the dark, it wasn’t until her vision cleared enough though she noticed Mei in the room and that shook her awake causing her to force her body to sit up… and immediately regretting it as she was overtaken by severe aching pain all over her body which made her just curl up and do a spiel of curses under her breath in at least 12 different European languages.

[Whitebrand]

"You are alive," Mei confirmed. "My lady has ensured it. However you are not completely healed. You need rest."

She sent a paper bird to fly to Lena's bed and poke her awake.

"She will see to you presently," Mei said to her new co-devil.

[tigra9]

The fallen angel girl finally noticed she was naked and shot her gaze back to the girl that was standing in the room “why the hell am I naked?! Where is my stuff!!” She winced grabbing her side”ow ow ow ow”

Lena for her part was sleeping good so when the paper turned shikigami bird started bother her she smacked it away shifting her body to do so, repeating the gesture 4 more times as it just kept landing next to her and bothering her, the final time though she swung her hand towards herself to get the bird shikigami and it dodged causing her to smack herself in the face hard “ow!” She finally opened her eyes that had attempted to stay closed the whole time and glared at the shikigami but she sighed getting out of bed “fine! Fine! I’m awake” she yawned and looked at the time rolling her eyes before she walked across the hall fixing her hair as she walked and not bothering at all to put anything on. When she entered the guest room she shoved the human shaped paper slip she now held in her hand against mei, the bird shikigami having accomplished its mission had returned to being paper “here is your shikigami Mei… it was more irritating then that dog shikigami you used last time” she commented then looked at the fallen angel girl, she has already seen the girls entire body but looking at her awake Lena couldn’t help but realize the girl had to be younger then herself and Mei, the girl still had a lot of her childish physical features and while she had small breasts they were only just at the size of warranting a training bra just barely, she was also a full 7 inches shorter then Lena was but she would walk over and took a seat in a chair, the room was dark but Lena could still easily make out the dresser with a large mirror on it, the window that had its dark out blinds pulled closed, and the twin size bed the girl was in “so first things first, what is your name? We didn’t exactly have time to talk at all before”

The girl looked towards Lena and spoke out with a grunt from the pain “Lois… that’s all, my mother forwent her last name well before my birth and my father is an archangel with no last name”

Lena hmmed putting a finger to her lips softly “Lois huh? Rather fitting given what we saw yesterday…” She blinked and then jumped looking at Lois with wide eyes “wait, your father’s an Archangel?!”

Lois hmphed though gritted her teeth at the pain that action gave her “one of the four great seraphim Uriel… but you can say whatever you want about him, it won’t bother me” she turned her head away from them partly cause she didn’t want them to see her expression, and partially cause the fact Lena was sitting there naked was bothering her

Lena sat back clearly caught off guard… but after a moment of processing she tilted her head “but your fallen.. did your mother sin while pregnant?”

“No I despaired, I was a miracle child and gifted in combat, but on one of my early missions an incident occured and I ‘fell’ from it, the fallen angels tried to recruit me but I turned them away, the church tried to have me killed because i had fallen from gods grace” she looked at herself “and now I’m a Devil…” she let out a small chuckle gripping her sides from it “what irony”

Lena listened looking at mei for a moment before looking back at Lois “Lois, how much do you know about devils?”

“They lead others to sin by tempting them, corrupting people by taking advantage of their desires and stand firmly against god and his servants the angels… so what’s your name? You never did introduce yourself, is that also a thing about you devils?” Lois commented blandly still not looking at Lena, she was curious about the weird tattoo she saw on Lena’s groin area but wasn’t going to ask that

Lena hmmed “seems the church goes on similar tangents they did long ago then. Well my name is Vladilena Eligos, heiress to clan Eligos holding the title of duke among the 72 pillars, I apologize for the late introduction, this is my servant Mei, she holds my queen piece, while you now hold one of my Knight pieces”

[Whitebrand]

"There are many hurtful stereotypes about us, Lois-san," Mei added as she folded her paper away. "Most are inaccurate. As you will learn. Would you liked anything to eat? You will need to regain your strength."

[tigra9]

Lois looked back finally “I’ll pass on eating, just sitting her is making me hurt so much I half want to curse… though I can’t stand it anymore, Vladilena? Why are you naked and so calm about it?!”

Lena blinked and smiled “I’m not embarrassed, we are all girls here, though you must be quite the innocent closet pervert for my half matured body to leave you embarrassed”

Lois blushed “I’m only 13! It’s quite embarrassing for me cause up until a year ago I was living in the church where such things was not allowed”

Lena blinked “13? Oh then your only a year younger then me and mei!” She smiled

Lois hearing lena mention her and Mei’s ages glanced at mei with a raised eyebrow then back to lena “there is no way she is 14…” she said skeptically pointing at mei

Lena shrugged “well she is, but you go ahead and get some rest Lois, we will speak another time” she stood up and turned to leave “Mei come on, nothing more to do then” with that she walked out of the room waiting for mei to exit before speaking “well then…that was quite the enlightening conversation wasn’t it?”

[Whitebrand]

"Eye-opening," Mei agreed. "Uriel? I didn't know he had it in him. Her mother must have been...very special.

"But she didn't tell us other things...what church specifically raised her, how she survived since her fall, or what caused her fall in the first place. Surely there must be some record of all his somewhere."

[tigra9]

Lena shrugged “calling her existence a miracle is a bit of an understatement even for miracle children… as for the rest… it wouldn’t be good to pry to quickly, I want her to come around to her loyalty on her own without going stray” she crossed her arms her silver eyes looking at the doorway “well for now go rest, you’ve been up since I got up yesterday but haven’t slept like I have Mei, I’ll stay up a bit longer and think over everything, too awake to go back to sleep anyways” she smiled scratching her head “guess I probably should put something on though, have to atleast keep some manners even if we are alone here” she walked back into the room of hers, mei had her own room but they had pretty much agreed to share their one room normally but Lena would get out a nightgown and slipped it on, it was blue and sleeves and hem of the nightgown was grilled rather cutely, it was not see through and the skirt of it while very loose and stretchable reached below Lena’s knees. After fixing her hair and tucking mei in regardless of Mei’s comments Lena went down to the living room and sat down in front of the fireplace once she lit it and sat there just thinking over everything she did find and writing down stuff on paper and a clipboard she had grabbed along her way writing in Devil characters.

The rest of the week went about less eventful and soon they were on their way back to the underworld, Lois didn’t speak on her past any more yet but she did on the second to last day when she had finally recovered enough to move about easily knelt before Lena and make a vow, what the vow was mei didn’t know as she was away at the time and Lena after telling her what happened didn’t elaborate on the vow as it connected to a deal directly between the two of them. Now the trio were standing at a train station Lena looking very annoyed at a security officer that had stopped them, he has been ignoring her to speak to mei who appeared the oldest though even mei was being treated like a kid since she clearly wasn’t an adult yet.

“Look I’m sorry but as I keep telling you children aren’t allowed beyond this point no matter who’s permission you have, I’m just trying to do my job here so please give me a break on it” he was speaking in German, the area they were going to, or rather trying to go, was a staff only elevator in the train station since it was the elevator that connected to the devils underground train in this area of Germany, they couldn’t just teleport back like they had to arrive thanks to having Lois with them

“And I’m trying to tell you I’m Vladilena Eligos! The Eligos family should have already alerted the station master to let me and two girls pass!” Lena commented with puffed cheeks, she had already tried to use demonic power to adjust his mind enough for them to pass but for whatever reason none of the magic they could actually pull in public worked on him which annoyed Lena even more

[Whitebrand]

"I think I see why this man had his job," Mei said with a slight smile on her face. "He seems especially resistant."

She was content to let Lena flounder a bit before she intervened. Like a cat, she sometimes found Lena's occasional misfortune amusing.

There was a limit, though. She certainly wasn't going to let Lena fillet the men in her frustration...his resistance to influence made him a good guardian.

"Perhaps if you contacted you supervisor...?" She suggested diplomatically.

[tigra9]

The man looked at mei “their currently in a meeting with some important people so I can’t contact them currently” he commented seriously, though he would turn his head as a voice came from behind him in the staff area, or more specifically the staff elevator the girls were trying to get to

“You can let them pass Eric, I am here and I was expecting them” a female figure walked out of the elevator, she looked like Lena would if she was about double her age and held the allure of a beautiful young woman in her late 20s with a voluptuous figure that would make any guy turn for a second look, indeed the only difference between her and what an adult Lena might look like was the color of her hair and eyes, both of which were auburn

The man, Eric as he was so called, stepped aside “Ah forgive me Madam, I didn’t not realize they were your guests or I would have let them pass immediately.” He bowed to the older woman

Lois just tilted her head, she had remained because she felt it wasn’t her place to intervene, and Mei hadn’t acted for quite a bit so maybe it was still in range of what lena could handle? Seeing the woman that looked like Lena’s big sister though she couldn’t help but let her mouth drop

“Mother! Why didn’t you come sooner?! I was close to taking drastic actions” Lena spoke openly to the woman who was her mother, not even noticing the now much wider mouth Lois ended up sporting

Lena’s mother, Reina Eligos, if there was one word to describe her, it had to be perfect, certainly she had her faults but she managed as a mother, a wife, was owner of a fairly successful travel agency that managed and had connections in nearly any conceivable major transportation service and a high ranking duchess in the Devil realm all at once and still managed to constantly help with her husbands work and spend plenty of time with her daughter on the side. But there was another word mei would’ve learned to describe her… and that made itself apparent with Reina’s response to her daughter “oh and what drastic actions would that be? Eric is the grandson of my bishop… and fully aware of our existence so I do hope those “drastic actions” did not include harming him” she didn’t change her tone or her expression but the girls would all feel an indescribable pressure that would be rather frightening, Reina was one of those who had a very tranquil fury type of anger

Lena at that froze “eh, ah, umm… of course not mother, my drastic measures would’ve included contacting Artoria… umm… as the first option…” she spoke nervously, clearly inflicting harm on the man named eric had been one of the options she was considering… and she shrunk herself under her mother’s unchanged smile practically cowering behind Lois suddenly, Mei was just gonna get out of the way so no point cowering behind her!

Eric had a shift in his eyes as it finally clicked but he didn’t speak, when one of the most esteemed business owners your place of office did regular business with was having a conversation you did not interrupt unless it was important! Though he didn’t feel any sorrow for the young heiress since she basically admitted harming him had been an option for her.

[Whitebrand]

Mei just continued to smile as she stood with her hand clasped in front of her...making no sudden moves.

"Lois-san," she said. "Don't let her hide behind you. Let her face her fate on her own."

She kept her tone light enough that Lois probably couldn't tell whether or not she was kidding. She was absolutely not going to interfere between mother and daughter. As much as she loved Lena, she knew better.

[tigra9]

Lois tried to step aside and Lena followed perfectly causing Lois to look back and sweatdrop, was her master practiced at hiding behind people?

Reina stopped right in front of Lois and Lena and put a hand gently on Lois’ head to make the girl stay still and grabbed lena by the wrist with her other hand… and then closed her fingers into a fist as lena vanished on the spot and Reina stepped back and turned “come along girls we will be going to the underworld now”

Lois had stopped at the hand on her head knowing well what the gentle gesture meant but her eyes went wide as Lena vanished and looked around worry on her face… she would follow Reina though but she was still worried about Lena!

Mei would know Lena hadn’t really gone anywhere and her hearing would pick up Lena struggling in her mother’s hand, Reina had created a spell long ago that allowed her to shrink others and though mei didn’t know all the specifics she would atleast know Lena who also knew the spell never stopped touching whatever she shrunk with the hand she used to do it in the first place, of course Lena’s skill with the spell was an absolute far cry from her mother’s due to experience and Reina had on several occasions handed the still shrunk Lena or object to Mei and it remained small for a time

Once the now party of three seemingly got in the elevator Reina pulled a card out of her cleavage, she was wearing a casual Victorian style dress that was brown and had a v cut to show off her impressive cleavage but she would swipe it through the card reader which caused the blue light on the pad to turn red and the elevator to start descending “now then..” Reina put the card back and then leaned down looking at Lois smiling this one was a genuine happy smile petting Lois on the head “Lena said you were a cute little girl and I gotta say she didn’t do you justice in her description” she blinked looking at her still closed hand and squeezed her fingers tight briefly causing Mei to hear a squeaky yelp before Lena finally settled down then turned her attention to Mei and hugging her, Mei may only be a servant Devil but Lena’s entire family treated Mei like family too, though Reina seemed especially fond of the young catgirl “mmm did you grow again in just a week? You already look like an adult way to quickly, you should try to stop yourself from growing more or you’ll look old” she teased Mei in a motherly tone planting a kiss on Mei’s forehead

[Whitebrand]

Mei found herself purring immediately and blushed.

"I will look into it, ma'am," she giggled. "But I think its just one of these things that comes with growing up."

[tigra9]

Lois hadn’t been able to respond other then to blush, clearly confused, however her life has been so far clearly she wasn’t used to the affection and compliment Reina just gave her

Reina giggled “then perhaps you desire to be an adult to much, it is our desire that drives our demonic power and we can control our appearance to a degree, while it will also respond to our desired image” she spoke as if instructing the girls.

Once the elevator ride that seemed far to long finally came to an end at -B201 Reina would step out of the elevator and open her hand releasing Lena who fell to the floor returning to normal size during the fall so she had no chance to spread her wings and fly as she landed sprawled out on her back with an oof “Now Lena dear so be on your best behavior from here on out, we are going to the capital before we go home”

Lena groaned sitting up rubbing her head but got up without a complaint, hearing they were going to the capital though she looked at mother “did something happen?” Her posture shifted back to that of one befitting her noble status as she then followed her mother to the train not looking away

Lois had gotten off the elevator and looked around at the station that seemed fairly large atleast comparable to the station above ground but currently only a single train was in it, a red train with 5 cars to it, she would follow though she whispered to mei who she walked alongside “I figured her family was important since she called her clan a Duke, but isn’t this place too much?”

Reina answered her daughters question as they walked “Maou Lucifer asked to see you when you returned from vacation, but he didn’t tell me or your father what it was about” she commented with a sigh “really I feel like he has gotten cheekier of late, just what am I to do with him?” She put a hand to her cheek

Lena smiled “maybe give him a good smack? It’s not good even for a maou to be cheeky with his parents after all”

Reina blinked and smiled back at her daughter “hmm I was thinking the same sweety” it was at moments like these the two were clearly mother and daughter in more then just appearance similarity.

Lois just stopped quickly putting two and two together, of course she knew the name Lucifer… but her master was important enough to be called on by him personally already!? And also apparently her mother was his mother!?!? Lois was still thinking of the Lucifer written about in the Bible and didn’t know the political situation of the devils so her being confused was understandable.

Lena stopped right as they reached the train and spoke “Lois, board that train car with Mei, hurry up since we are going to Lilith” Lilith was the name of the capital city named for the first wife of Adam and the mother of all devils barring Lucifer himself.

Lois shook her head “ah… under… understood” she quickly followed mei onto one of the cars clearly beyond flustered by these bombs so casually dropped between Lena and her mother.

[Whitebrand]

"You'll get used to it," Mei assured Lois as she boarded the train. "Devils really aren't much different from anyone else. They have their quirks and flaws. Are you hungry? What do you feel like eating?"

Mei realized from Lois's expression that she was probably thinking about the myths that the humans had made up about the famous names she had heard.

"I'm happy to answer any questions you might have."

[tigra9]

Lois looked in absolute wonder once they were in the train car, it seemed like the design was one that took the basics and made it as high class as possible, the train itself seemed like one made in the early 1700s so the car had bench seats but each had modern cushioning to make them comfortable and there were two tables for people to sit at with benches set up for them to sit comfortably. The paper seems to be a dark red with grey dots decorating it and the cushioning of the benches matched that.

After walking over to take a seat Lois looked at Mei hearing the offer “Ah… yeah if you would… umm this Lucifer we are going to meet…. How… how could he be related to Lady Lena as a sibling?” She tilted her head “he should be ancient and the father of devils right?” The church may hold up the idea Lucifer and lillith where the progenitors of all devils but truthfully the pureblood devils that made up the 72 pillar clans did not comment on it beyond the fact Lillith was their mother and that Lucifer did not take her as his wife until long after the birth of all of the original 72 demons that Solomon called upon in the Bible.

In the front car Lena would be in a private changing room with a maid, she was naked and the maid was taking measurements “seriously it’s only been a week so why did mother demand this?” She commented, her mother wasn’t in the car with her having gone to the very front car for some task, it was going to take them about 12 hours to reach the capital so there was plenty of time to kill, Lena did know the maid tending her though, it was her personal maid that had been assigned to serve all her physical needs since she was a baby, Artoria and Reina did some raising of Lena too but this maid, who was only a quarter Devil if Lena recalled correctly had done the majority of it.

[Whitebrand]

"This is going to take some explaining," Mei said as she sat. "Humans tend to simply things to the point of absurdity. Lucifer is a family name..."

She went on to provide a thumbnail sketch of the 72 pillars and their significance...how the Devils had almost wiped themselves out by following their instincts and how they had imposed a degree of discipline on themselves to avoid extinction.

"The nobles still squabble among ourselves, out of desire or politics, so we have devised a system to handle such challenges. Nobles get 'pieces', bodyguards and warriors who battle one another when conflicts arise. Rarely to the death, but it happens. As one of her pieces ytou will have to be trained. From what I saw you will need it."