Chapter 59: Make a campfire from the debris

Lemons?

Lady Phenix stirred from her sleep, feeling groggy, sluggish and sweaty.

'What… What hour is it? What day is it?' She thought as she struggled to get up from a bed that she didn't recognize as her own, managed to get her hand on a bell by the bedside and ring it once to call for a servant to deliver her something to drink.

'...What happened?' The woman narrowed her eyes as no-one came to serve her, and she crept sluggishly towards the door, feeling as if she'd been in a coma for a day or two. She then noticed that she had been clad in a revealing outfit, and became even more suspicious. 'Did I see a nightmare? I must have eaten something expired. Ha, there's no way my husband would accept to divorce me because of some contract without fighting for my sake first… '

She shook off the creeping feeling of dread and went to the wardrobe of the room, finding out more clothes of the same variety she currently wore. '...What? Is, um, did… I don't remember buying these…'

A revelation struck her as she recalled the antics of her son. 'Ah, I see. Hubby must have picked up on some of Riser's antics and got me some of the same clothes we saw one of his Peerage members wear… Yubelluna-chan, I believe?'

She walked out of the room after not finding any decent clothes and instead using [Power of Imagination] to create herself a simple, and temporary, deep crimson dress. 'I'll have to scold the servants who fail to attend to their master… But, first, something to drink.'

Lady Phenix walked through a few familiar corridors, wondering why she had been put to a wing that was usually occupied by Riser and more specifically his Peerage, and walked past a room… and stopped as she heard a chorus of vaguely cheer-like voices in it.

She backtracked to the door, glanced at the plaque and realized that it was one of the servant's breakrooms, and opened the door.

Lady Phenix paused as she saw a gaggle of maids and servants who had gathered around a plasma television showing a Rating Game in progress. 'What are these slackers doing?'

"Ahem!" Lady Phenix coughed, causing the maids to jump a bit in surprise, then turn towards her with a chorus of apologies and other assorted sounds. "What is going on here?"

"Um, my lady, there's a Rating Game between Tru… erm, Momon-sama and Serafall Leviathan-sama…" One of the maids explained guiltily. "I-it's a recording since the fight had concluded already, but… ahem…"

"You believed that your time would be better spent watching television than serving your master?" Lady Phenix's tone could have frozen ice and the maid-girl flinched hard. But there was a defiant fire behind her whipped look, making Lady Phenix a bit worried.

"Yes, my lady. Witnessing the True God's glory is worth more than- Mhght!" A hand was placed on the defiant maid-girl's mouth before she could complete her sentence, and she was dragged off by another girl.

"My apologies, my lady. We were at fault, and shall receive just punishment for our actions. How may we serve you?" A more elderly devil in butler's clothes turned to address Lady Phenix after the defiant maid had been dragged off.

However, Lady Phenix was a bit preoccupied with something else than the man's words. 'Momon? Wait, that nightmare wasn't just a dream… Then… Riser, and Ravel, and… and…'

Her pose turned wooden, and she took a few shaky steps towards the seats the servants had set in front of the television. "That… that Rating Game. It's… Momon versus Serafall?"

"...Yes, my lady." The butler seemed a bit confused.

"Get me something to drink." Lady Phenix ordered offhandedly, then sat down on a vacant seat, staring at the television as if transfixed.

'...What kind of monster have I contracted myself to?' Lady Phenix accepted the glass of sparkling water with numb movements as she stared at the recording. 'Just who is Momon, truly?'

Another thought struck her. 'Did that girl just call Momon 'True God'?'

.

.

Meanwhile, in the Human World:

Construction crews were working overtime repairing the damage to Kuoh's waterways and buildings, and a TV blared about 'unforeseen earthquake and near-shore tsunami'. However, those who had been present knew better.

Yet, Miki Hyoudou, the mother of Issei Hyoudou, didn't even try to figure out the truth behind events that had taken place in Kuoh, nor try to get in touch with the Self-Defense Force of Japan, unlike her husband who had been trying to get in touch with them for a day now. She knew that there would be some truly awful things lying in wait under the lid of a closed pot, so she chose ignorance over dangerous truth. At least as far as she could, anyway, since she had been explained that mystical beings existed, and magic was real, and it even seemed that the maids of the mansion that belonged to her son were actually biblical angels in disguise.

She didn't really know what to do with the information, so she just chose to ignore it.

The fact their home had been utterly leveled during the battle of biblical proportions that had happened in Kuoh meant that the two were more or less left stranded until the insurance company came through with the funds for finding a new home, or rather renting a new one as the whole neighbourhood had been leveled.

However, the maids of Issei's mansion had offered the two parents lodging until they found a new home- although Miki suspected that the offer had been made because of the unique training she could offer the maids.

"And then you use it like this, and…" Miki demonstrated efficient use of broom and window-wiper to clean the winding corridors and windows of the mansion to a crowd of six maids who all took notes.

She had been fairly surprised to find that the 'maids' were not actually 'actual maids', but rather girls who just wore maid's clothes- indeed, the girls had been utterly useless as actual caretakers of the mansion, seeing that Miki had caught one of them staring at a broom with their usual flat, emotionless stares almost as if she was trying to decipher some deep meaning from the cleaning tool.

And then another trying to wipe a window clean by manifesting a pair of angel-wings and wiping the glass with them, resulting in the grime getting spread all over and causing the girl to panic.

And then the third one tried to cook something for the Hyoudou couple, but the 'food' looked positively like something out of a horror movie, and Miki could have sworn she thought she saw a halloween-decoration human skull floating in the stew.

It hadn't taken much mental gymnastics to put two and two together, and figure out that the girls were utterly out of their depth as maids. Angel-wings notwithstanding.

"And tadaa! Sparkly and clean!" Miki demonstrated proper cleaning technique and then moved towards the kitchen. "And now I'm going to show you how to cook a basic stew… do you have ingredients?"

"Yes, Miki-sama!" One of the maids responded in their emotionless voice, which Miki had grown accustomed to and could pick minute changes in their tone. Thus, she could tell that the maid in question was feeling pumped up and excited. "We have prepared ginger root, tantric essence potion, birch bark, a live human…"

"No, no, that won't do!" Miki waved her hand at the maid's jest, and the maid blanched a bit and crept off guiltily. "Anyway, we need some beef, pork, carrots, noodles, onions… Oh, and afterwards we'll see about garden work and how to prune bushes and cut grass and..."

The rest of the 'maids' kept taking notes, looking positively euphoric as they absorbed Miki's instructions on how to be good wardens of the estate… and also proper housewives.

.

.

Momonga moved a step to the side. Then a step to the other side. Then he moved his hands to the side he had moved previously, and then to the other side like if he was switching places with himself but holding onto his imaginary copy's shoulders.

He stopped as he realized he was doing the 'skeleton shuffle'-dance from YGGDRASIL as he celebrated his victory in the 'after-action room' of the Rating Game arena, after he had been guided there by the somewhat shocked staff and he had re-activated his anti-divination countermeasures which he had disabled before the match so the audience observing the fight through a spell wouldn't get unintended fire-balling. 'Ulbert, I understand that 'a victory-dance' is appropriate, but… time and place. Yes, I'm aware I'm alone, but…'

The beastman-like plushie objected, drawing his cape around his shoulders and covering its goat-like face partially with his hand in a 'cool and mysterious' way.

"...Momonga-sama, I am scared, please, I need an adult."

Momonga was only half-certain that Ddraig was poking fun at his 'Chuuni' side, which had materialized in his head in the form of Ulbert-plushie.

'Enough, I need to think. Alone, please. I mean, alone-alone, mind-alone.' Momonga despaired over the crowd in his head.

"You need a doctor. Psychiatrist. Probably a whole crowd of psychiatrists." Ddraig's tone was dry. "Out of all my wielders, I must say you top the cake in terms of strength, cunning, and insanity. Not a good combination, my guy."

Momonga sighed.

A door opened and he turned to see Rias, who paused on the doorframe while holding onto the doorknob.

She looked… like she did normally. That was, resigned, a bit paranoid, and more than a little tired. Except now she looked a bit surprised as well, but in a 'normal' way, not in a 'everything is suddenly on fire' way.

"Huh, you've grown taller, Iss- um, Momon-kun." Rias noted as she walked into the room and took Momonga's host body's hand.

Momonga noted that Rias looked smaller than she had previously, since she used to be a few inches taller than his 'host body' but now she was almost half a foot shorter. Or rather, he was half a foot taller and a bit wider.

'Hm, it seems that my body has 'leveled up', or rather had some sort of growth spurt.' Momonga wondered as he held Rias's hand and kept their joined hands on her chest-level. 'Fascinating.'

"Or your body adjusted after you spent so much energy, remodelling it to better suit it." Ddraig noted. "I recall seeing that you were, hm, eight feet tall when you were in your 'skeleton' form?"

'That was just the pauldrons and hood giving off the impression, the character was actually roughly seven foot tall and about three feet wide…' Momonga half-heartedly noted, and then paused. 'Hm, so my physical body is adjusting to fit my 'original' self? Interesting… So it reacted to the power I released?'

"Well, your abilities seem to be powered by life energy in some way. Or death energy? I'm not certain." Ddraig seemed a bit wary over speaking about the subject. "Well, I'm sure everything will be alright as long as you don't become an all-devouring monstrosity that consumes entire worlds in a swarm of dead, or something."

'You know, I'm not blind to what you're implying, and your fears are unjustified for I feel the same.' Momonga sweatdropped internally, then shook his head physically as Rias seemed to become a bit puzzled since his 'physical body' was just frozen staring at the two's joined hands.

"Sorry, I guess I'm just a bit… well, in a daze. Yes, that is definitely so, umu." Momonga explained to Rias, and she sighed in turn.

"I imagine so. That was a good match… They're going to be talking about it for years to come. A legend of the Underworld against an out-of-the-blue 'deluded fool', or at least that's the impression I got before the match from the non-worshipping crowd… and the underdog won. And without visible difficulty."

"There were a lot of difficulties, I just didn't let my injuries or setbacks show on the surface. No need to give the enemy indication that their attacks are working, neh?" Momonga reached to stroke Rias's chin, keeping an eye on his 'experience gauge' and wondering if such a small touch could give some for him. It didn't, but he chalked it up to a successful experiment.

"You need to kick back and relax sometime." Ddraig interjected its thoughts into his once more. "Have you even considered your… Peerage, lovers, wife, or any of them to be your allies and consider their feelings? Or consider them as something else than expendable chaff or experiment subjects? I feel Issei was infinitely superior in this matter. At least he saw Rias as 'Rias', and not as 'Hostage to be held against Gremory family and expendable body between you and a melee-focused enemy'"

'Hm… I suppose no, not really.' Momonga felt a bit wary. 'But in my defense, they all will turn on me if they learn of my true nature, so some distance is justified.'

"And they will turn on you, if your true nature is revealed to them when they are distant to you and you've kept them at arm's length, and were content just poking at their personalities to see what makes them tick. Devils are people too, and most of them strive for close relationships with people around them. Rias and your other lovers are giving you a chance, Rias is even going as far as to give you a chance despite knowing 'Momon' 'replaced' the real 'Issei', so you should at least give them a chance." Ddraig sounded outright reprimanding.

'I'll keep that in mind.' Momonga noted and Ddraig sighed. "Anyway, Rias, I have something I'd like to ask you…"

"Yes?" Rias seemed a bit confused.

"You revealed the secret I entrusted to you." Momonga told the girl. The fact their hands were entwined would make it easy for him to use [Negative Energy Touch] to disable the girl just in case she became hostile from him confronting her. He didn't really believe she would, but being safe was better than sorry. "Why?"

She froze a bit, but then a defiant flame ignited in her eyes. "Because your Peerage deserved to know, and because there was a high chance you'd come to blows with Belial-sama and the others if the two of you met, back in the swamp, after you had gone 'undead' to infiltrate that thing's base."

"Hm?" Momonga tilted his head a bit. "I had 'gone undead?'"

"E- erm, I thought…" Rias seemed to pause for a moment. "Um, didn't you pick Gasper to go with you specifically so he can 'kill' you and turn you into your 'undead' form, and that way you could infiltrate the enemy's base?"

'Damn, that would have been a great excuse… oh well…' Momonga cursed inwardly as his confusion would cut off the explanation Rias had seemingly come up with on her own. "Well, no, not entirely… The thought passed my mind, but if I did do that then Yubelluna and Xuelan would have likely, well, not liked that so I refrained from using that particular approach. In truth I was planning on just breaking through by force after you made a ruckus, but it seems that Gasper and I were detected, the enemy split us up, and then I was led to a trap in the enemy's base."

"Ah…" Rias's breath caught. "I… see. I remember that from the debrief, but it didn't mention how you got in…"

She then took a deep breath, pulled one of her hands from Momonga's and… poked at his forehead in a reprimanding way. "In other words, you were being an idiot."

'Huh?' Momonga blinked in confusion.

"You could have told us about the undead thing beforehand, so I didn't have to reveal your secret to protect you. We… we were so worried that you'd do something rash to get Ravel back. And you almost died in that trap, at least if Sirzechs-nii's explanation of your state was anything to go by." Rias seemed to gather steam. "You don't have to do everything on your own! Your Peerage is there to help you, and you need to be there to help your Peerage as well! Sirzechs-nii had to do after-action healing and recovery for us, and overall you've been extremely passive as the King of a Peerage!"

"Well, in my defense I haven't really received a manual on how to operate a Peerage or anything…" Momonga excused himself. 'Hm, it seems that Rias chose to reveal my nature to protect me, at least if her words are truthful… I should overlook this slight. Now, what's this about being a 'proper King'?'

"She's pretty much saying what I just told you. Get to know your Peerage, trust them and they'll trust you in turn. From what I saw in your memories, at least in the ones you showed to me and written in your memoirs, you didn't have any problems trusting your 'guildmates'." Ddraig noted exasperatedly. "Just, consider your Peerage to be your 'guildmates', if that makes it easier for you?"

'Never.' Momonga's initial gut-reaction was to instantly deny the dragon's words. After all, nothing would replace Ainz Ooal Gown in his heart…

"Your Peerage doesn't need to replace your 'guild', Momonga.'" Ddraig noted. "Sheesh, you're pretty obsessed with them, aren't you? I'm sure they wouldn't like to see you cling to them this hard. Then again, it seems that some of your guildmates live in your head, so…"

Momonga sighed. '...Well, I had considered the possibility once before… That I'd elevate the status of my Peerage to be, well, not on par with my guildmates, but at least immediately below that… I guess I just never got the thought into action.'

"At least consider your lovers to be something more than meat sacks that need occasional pumping to keep their loyalty 'level' high." Ddraig's tone was dry as sand. "It's pretty hard to watch that from here, you know."

'I wasn't that bad, was I?' Momonga blinked.

"Dude…"

'...I see.' Momonga felt as [Emotion Suppression] grabbed his sudden embarrassment and pushed it down. '...I suppose I need to do better than that…'

'Momonga' could practically feel Touch Me-plushie's reassuring hand on his shoulder from the thoughts.

He returned to the present as he felt a pair of lips on his, and looked down to see Rias having leaned in to kiss him.

"Dear?" Momonga blinked as he pulled back a bit.

"...I figured that it'd bring you back, since you spaced out again. Because of the 'destroyer-mode', I guess." Rias blushed. "So, I figured a kiss would snap you out of it, seeing that it worked for Gasper… and it did."

Momonga sighed, then placed his finger on her lips. "Listen, I need to tell you something…"

"Probably not a good idea to tell the whole thing, but…"

'I figured as much.' Momonga used his free hand to open his inventory in front of Rias, causing her eyes to widen. 'But, since I have the amnesia card… I can just pretend I'm waking up to 'myself'.'

"That should do." Ddraig seemed to approve of his new plan.

"W-what? Ophis's portal?" Rias seemed to be extremely puzzled as she stared at the rift in space.

"Not exactly. I discovered that I had this a while back. It's an inventory of sorts, I guess. It contains items. I… remember some, but not others." Momonga mixed lies and truth together into a patty cake and served it to Rias, looking at her reaction. "I found the [Boosted Gear] there… and these as well."

"...Ah." Rias stared at the eight 'Pawn' Pieces in Momonga's hand. "T-those…"

"Indeed. I think these were yours?" Momonga offered the eight Pawns to her. 'They're inert so it's not like they have much collector's value…'

Rias took the eight Pieces with shaky hands and she had tears pouring down her face.

"...I… hic… I knew…" Rias hiccupped a bit while wiping her face. "I knew… that... "

"There, there…" Momonga hugged her a bit awkwardly, then pulled back as Rias froze for a bit. 'Hm, that's a bit… not exactly not what I planned, but I suppose I can use this too.' "What I meant was that… Well, it looks like I'm starting to remember all sorts of things. Some of them…"

He paused as Rias charged and jumped on his chest after he pulled back, and began kissing him desperately.

"I knew… I knew you'd… Issei…" Rias's hungry kisses broke her sentence into bits, but Momonga got some of it. "My Issei…"

'Uh?' Momonga blinked. 'What?'

Draig had covered his face with his claws in Momonga's mind. "Oh come on. You must have seen that coming, right?"

'Advise.' The clipped order caused the dragon to sigh.

"When you showed her my [Sacred Gear] you must have made her think you were actually Issei. With you pulling out those Pawns, and telling her you're starting to remember things…" Ddraig's tone was dry.

'Right, I'm starting to backtrack my process…' Momonga sighed and pulled out of the kiss, regretting cutting off the slow trickle of experience. "Rias… I've told you this many times before. I'm not Issei."

"I know. I know… You'll never be 'old Issei' anymore. You've changed, as we have all. But… I can see you coming back. Piece by piece, memory by memory. You'll never be the 'Old Issei' again, but… you're still the Issei I love." Rias's tone and face conveyed so much happiness that Momonga re-considered breaking the news for her in a harsher way. "I love you, Issei…"

'Ugh, and now I feel like a bastard.' Momonga sighed. "Call me Momon."

"Yeah, of course. I'm just being nostalgic, I guess…" Rias nodded and Momonga flinched a bit from the trusting, clear and hopeful look in her eyes. "I love you, Momon."

'Well, I guess I can leverage this too…' Momonga sighed. 'Back to square one, I suppose…'

"Better luck next time? You can always just dump her if she doesn't get that you're you and not Issei..." Ddraig noted, then flinched as both 'Momonga' and Peroroncino-plushie glared at the dragon in Momonga's mind. "No offense…"

'Stop, voices in my head…' Momonga was starting to feel that if he took a mental state evaluation test and didn't lie on it, the results would be so deep in the negative that it'd loop over back to positive. So instead he focused on the matter at hand, more specifically on the matter in his hands.

"So, how's Serafall? I didn't hurt her too badly, did I?" he felt that moving things along would be prudent so he instead feigned worry over the Maou's physical state.

"Um… Asia went to heal her, and she's alright at least bodily…" Rias seemed a bit wary. "But whatever you used as your last two attacks, the poison and the heart-grab-thing, caused quite a bit of worry to the doctors. Not only Serafall had to have her heart regenerated after she had to manually pump her blood in her body using her water-powers, whatever you did caused her blood to become poison to her and Asia only barely managed to heal her by making new blood in Serafall while the doctors bled the old blood out of her. It was a bit of a close call, actually…"

'Hm, as expected, poison deals damage over time, which was my 'second move' if the initial burst hadn't downed her…' Momonga noted the effectiveness of the poison. 'Making her move and fight would force her to circulate the blood-poison around her body and cause further damage… Well, at least the doctors managed to save her so I don't have to face the music for actually killing a Maou.'

"Serafall-chan seems quite smitten with you, and all you can think is how efficient your spells were instead of worrying over her safety…" Ddraig turned over in Momonga's head so the lizard's back faced him, making it clear the dragon was both pouting and shunning him.

'Oh… I recall you were something of a fan towards Serafall- er, Magical Girl Milky-something?' Momonga blinked internally.

"Yeah, and you're also being a right bastard, Momonga." The dragon pouted. "At least show some concern when you go see her. You'll go see her, right? Or were you planning on just tossing her off a cliff or something?"

'Alright, that's enough. Time-out blanket for you.' Momonga sighed internally as his 'mental plushies' threw a 'mental blanket' over Ddraig, causing the dragon's words to turn into muffles which was his mental representation of him tuning out the dragon's words.

He focused back on Rias who was starting to look a bit worried, and also like she'd kiss him again to break him out of his daze. "Right, I'm back."

"The Destroyer-mode again?" Rias sighed, then blushed, and then looked at Momonga in a reassuring and determined way. "Alright, lie down on the couch…"

The door opened before either could properly register what Rias was saying, and the two looked to see Sona Sitri in the doorway.

"Sona-chan!" Rias closed in to the girl instantly and hugged her. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"I feel the same, Rias-san." Sona's glasses had gone all wonky again as the well-endowed red-head hugged her, which due to their height difference meant that Sona's chin was buried in Rias's chest. "But I figured I'd come to see my… new fiance, I suppose, so can we postpone our conversation for later?"

"Greetings, Sona-san." Momonga turned to nod courteously to the girl who paused and paled a bit while she and Rias moved back into the sparsely furnitured but luxuriously decorated after-action room.

And after the duo came a group of people Momonga faintly remembered as being the same crowd that had chased him out of the student council room in Kuoh. 'Oh?'

It seemed that the whole group were quite hostile towards Momonga, but didn't charge him outright… this time. "Hm, would this be your Peerage, Sona-san?"

"Correct." Sona supplied, then took a reassuring breath and calmed down. Even though she remained quite pale. "I suppose I should introduce you properly as the last time you met went… not optimally. This is Tsubaki Shinra, my Queen, and this is my Rook, Tsubasa Yura…"

Momonga nodded to each devil in turn, and received an icy nod back… except from the tall blonde-haired man in the group who Sona introduced as Saiji, a Pawn, who kept staring at him defiantly.

"And you are, of course, Momon Phenix… and my fiance." Sona finished the introductions, introducing Momonga to the girl's Peerage in turn.

"I veto! This isn't right! I object to this arrangement!" The blonde-haired man objected instantly and marched between Sona and Momonga despite the former's attempt to block him. "I won't let Sona-sama be disgraced, humiliated and defiled! You already forced yourself on her, raped her in the student council room, you bastard! Now you somehow managed to weasel your way into Sitri family's business and forced her to become your fiancee!"

"Saji!" Sona seemed scandalized as she tried to hold the man back, failed and the man charged at Momonga.

Momonga grabbed the almost painfully slow punch the man threw at him and prepared to neutralize him with [Negative Energy Touch] if the punch was a trap.

He felt his mana and 'health' sap a bit from the touch, guessed that Saji had some sort of vampire-like ability and the punch was indeed a trap, but before he could do anything… the man screamed in pain.

"AAAAGH! MY HAND! ARGH!" Saji collapsed on the floor, holding to his hand which had turned rotten and twisted in an instant, flesh oozing off the bone like if it was overdue jelly.

"Momon! Stop! Please! He didn't… Please don't kill him!" Sona threw herself between Momonga and Saji.

"Sona-buchou… I'm sorry…" Saji seemed to become delirious and flopped to the side. "I'm sorry… I'm too weak, I couldn't… save you… I love you... "

"NO! Saji! Stay with me! Rias! Help me! You know healing magic, please!" Sona turned towards Rias who nodded and placed her hands on Saji's rotting flesh, causing it to sizzle as a green energy circle formed around it.

"U-ugh… I… can't heal this…" Rias struggled and paused as the rot continued to spread. "Momon! What did you do?!"

"Nothing. I felt that he attempted to absorb some of my power… I guess it isn't compatible with Saji-san's body." Momonga told her while observing the man's state, refraining from interfering as it looked like the rest of Sona's Peerage would attack him if he moved despite their shaking hands and pale faces. No doubt the Peerage had seen Momonga's fight against Serafall and knew their chances, but loyalty to Sona triumphed over their fear.

Sona paused and paled visibly after hearing Momonga's words, but she looked away instantly when he turned to look at her and lifted his eyebrow.

'Hm, indeed… Having a Peerage as loyal as this would be good…' Momonga suddenly figured that he could observe Sona to see how a 'proper' King of a Peerage would need to function, and replicate some of the effects.

Nonetheless he should probably do something about Saiji, who Momonga guessed had tried to somehow absorb Momonga's power. And in the process had absorbed a hefty load of Negative Energy, which caused quite an extreme reaction in unprepared living flesh.

"Move to the side, please." Momonga told Sona and Rias. Rias moved aside instantly while Sona hesitated, staying in the line of fire. "I'm not going to kill him, Sona."

"Sona, just… trust him." Rias told the girl while tugging her, finally managing to get her away from Saji. The rest of Sona's Peerage were eyeing Momonga warily while some of their hands shook visibly as Momonga lifted his arm towards Saiji. 'I imagine I could use a healing potion, but honestly he's not worth the sacrifice… I don't have infinite potions, after all.'

"[Reality Slash]" the spell hit Saji's arm just above the point where the decay had spread, severing the appendage and causing the man's pained expression to ease.

Then Saji looked at the arm-stump, screamed something and passed out.

"Good, good…" Momonga cast a silent [Detect Life] on the boy, seeing that his life-sign was stable. "Anyway… You wished to meet me, Sona-san?"

It seemed, however, that Sona was busy looking at the wound, half ready to tie a tourniquet above the stump but seemed confused over it.

"Ah… Did Saji have an arm in the first place?" Sona seemed confused, then shook her head as she saw the degraded appendage lying nearby. "Right, what the… No, I need to… Tsubasa! Help me lift Saji! We need to get him to infirmary right now! Tomoe! Grab the arm, but use something like a stick to carry it! Don't touch it directly! GO!"

The group of devils exploded into action and carried their wounded comrade out. Sona paused to send Momonga a murderous and more than a little scared look before she exited as well after hesitating for a moment.

"Well, that went… about as I expected. Honestly, I expected it to to far worse and there to be at least five bodies and the tapestry to be utterly caked in blood, gore and glitter." Rias sighed as only the two remained in the room. "What was that cutting spell? What happened?"

"Just something I remembered a while back." Momonga deflected the question, causing Rias to sigh. "And it seems Saji-san tried to absorb some of my power, but I suppose my power was still a bit affected by that poison-spell I used, and… well, it didn't end well for Saji-san because I think he absorbed some of the poison, but in more concentrated way than what I used against Serafall."

"It'd be nice if you were straight-forward with us for once and explained that stuff beforehand…"

"I'd like that too…" Momonga sighed back at her.

"What's stopping you?"

"Everything that's happening at once." Momonga gestured at the door. "There hasn't been many chances to sit down and talk."

"...Fair." Rias sat down on a couch and patted on a seat next to her. "The conference of Three Factions should take place in… roughly a week from now or so. So unless you do something equally crazy like challenge Sirzechs-nii to a duel we should have some time to quiet down, relax and get to know each other… again."

"I'd like that too." Momonga drew Rias on his lap, and she turned so that the two were facing and she was sitting bow-legged on his lap. "We should talk when we have the whole Peerage together, though. Otherwise I'll be just repeating myself constantly."

'Well, I can go see Serafall later… and Sona needs some time to calm down, I suppose…' Momonga thought as Rias kissed him and she reached to undo his pants.

The meat saluted her and soon afterwards disappeared into the girl as she moved forwards and took it in after grinding on it a bit.

Her eyes bulged and rolled to the back of her head as the size of the 'flagpole' had apparently grown with his body's growth-spurt. "N-ngh… It's bigger… Uuf… Th-that hits all sorts of spots…"

"Is it painful?"

"No… it's… kinda nice, actually… Just move slowly, I can feel it poking at my tummy from the inside…" Rias's tone was wobby as she recovered partially and Momonga started to move, drawing all sorts of gasps from the girl who hugged him adorably and squished her breast against his chest.

'Well, more experience is always nice…'

"Ugh…"

'Quiet, peeping dragon.'

.

.

Sona was tearing at her hair while tears were freely flowing down her face. "Saji, why did you… you idiot, you knew how powerful he was… why did you do that? For me? I'm lost! I'm done for! You didn't need to sacrifice yourself!"

Saji's unconscious body twisted a bit from Sona's desperate cries as it lied on an infirmary bed.

"Sona-sama…" Tsubasa put her hand on Sona's shoulder as the girl cried.

"...Please, promise me. All of you. No matter what happens to me, no matter how much Momon hurts me, do not attack him. Or try to save me. Please." Sona turned to address the rest of her Peerage, all of whom shared sad, despaired, angry and frightened expressions. "He… Ravel-san told me of his true nature. He's not Issei anymore. He's…"

Sona caught her tongue as memory of Ravel's twisted face returned to her head. "Did you think he'd hurt you? I tried to blow him up, and he broke my family…"- No, I can't tell them… He's going to torment them if I tell them of Momon's true nature and they'll do something drastic. Like how Saiji attacked him because I couldn't stop him in time, and Momon now torments both him and me…'

"Sona-sama, what do you…" Tomoe began but Sona cut her off.

"He's become something much more frightening. Ravel-san came to me during the match, told me what he had done to her… you can't try to hurt Momon! Or save me! If you do… he's going to…" Sona paused to squash her imagination before it could conjure more horrors for her- of Momon torturing, abusing and forcing himself on Sona's Peerage in front of her if they defied the Tyrant's will, and then burned on a stake after Momon's cultists got their hands on them while Sona was forced to hear their dying screams while unable to help her Peerage. "Please! Promise me this! Do not oppose him, no matter what! Flee if he tries to go for you, and no matter what, don't try to confront him to save me! I'm done for!"

"...We promise, Sona-sama. But if Momon has your Kingship broken, and we become Stray devils with nothing to lose…" Tsubasa had a deadly glint in her eye. "Well, who knows what might happen?"

"...Please, don't fight him. Specifically if that happens. If you become outlaws and have kill-on-sight orders placed on you… just imagine what kind of horrors he can unleash on you." Sona pointed a slightly shaky finger at the degraded severed arm which was in a biohazard containment case next to Saiji's bed. 'This is bad… If what Ravel-san said is correct, he would probably have his 'servant' kidnap my rogue ex-Peerage if I do something to displease him and he breaks my Kingship... And then he can have his 'servant' do to them what it did to Ravel… I won't have it!'

She wondered for a moment if Ravel's assassination attempts would be more successful if Sona added her efforts to it, but discarded the idea. 'He'd see right through them. He broke Ravel already, and I suspect that if I tried to help her, she'd turn me over to Momon and do something vile to me to break me like he broke her…'

She hiccupped as the fear, desperation and hopelessness of facing the Supreme Being alone hit her. 'I can't approach Serafall, he has shown that he can seduce her and defeat her, so if I plead to her and she goes ballistic and goes after Momon then he'll just defile and kill Serafall… I can't approach the other Maous or my family, because Momon became a hero of sorts for rescuing Ravel and because I've slithered out of so many forced marriages already, that my accusations are just seen as me trying to smear a hero to get out of one more marriage contract…'

Her hands shook and she cried on top of Saiji's stomach. 'Why?! Why me?! What did I do? I just… I just told him we'd get along splendidly when I met Momon for the first time?! Was that it? Or was it something else?'

She despaired. '...I wanted a dutiful, gentle, intelligent, knowledgeable and compassionate husband, if I were to marry… Momon is all of them on the surface, but below gentleness is a mask of cruelty, intelligence a mask for unholy cunning, knowledge a mask for infernal plans, and compassion a mask for malice… '

Sona felt truly alone as her tools were torn off her hands, her options systematically exhausted before her eyes, and she was left naked and alone in front of a dark predator.

"Every trap you'll place you'll find at your own feet, every assassin you hire will poison your own food… This is the fate of all who oppose the Supreme Being" Ravel's eyes were empty and glossed-over as she spoke to Sona...'

'I'm scared…' Sona went for her last straw. 'I hope… I hope Rias is still intact… that he hasn't sunken his claws too deep in her… She's Sirzechs-sama's sister, so Momon has to be more careful with her than with Ravel or me… My last hope… Rias…'

.

.

Rias sneezed.

"Are you cold, dear?" Momon's reassuring voice came from below her and she leaned deeper into the burning-hot embrace of the Phoenix.

"No, I just got a feeling someone's speaking behind my back." Rias explained in a murmur while rubbing her naked, sweaty body on Momon's like a slug, enjoying the firmness of his body and the 'full' feeling downstairs as the rod entered her in slow, calm rhythm that caused her hips to shiver. "Mhm… Don't stop…"

"I know what you mean." Momon sighed and cuddled more with Rias, causing her to giggle a bit.

'Ah… Everything's going alright for once, Issei- um, Momon's personality is returning towards Issei as his memories are coming back, he's strong so he won't die easily like before… and his lovemaking is…. mhm… I'll just have to ask Asia-chan to heal Saji's arm afterwards, and ask Momon and Saji to apologize to each other and to Sona-chan…' Rias felt genuinely happy as she lied in Momon's embrace while the slow, methodical pumping motions caused her so much pleasure that her body shivered. 'I wish this could go on forever…'

Read, vote, review. Q&A chapter next.