Devils

The oppressive silence returned.

It was Sona who broke it.

"Why," Sona pressed, an intense look on her face.

"So-tan," Serafall chided gently. "Mi-chan just told you why she did it. I know Eren is-"

"Not that!" Sona snapped at her sister, and Serafall recoiled as if struck.

Sona ignored the look of pain and refocused on Mikasa.

"I get why he became the man he did, I followed the story, but pieces are missing. Pieces you've been avoiding. And it has to do with Eren's plan. Why did he choose that end? Because he did choose it. Not just The Rumbling, but he chose to die. Akeno knows something."

The Queen bit her lip and looked away.

"And you've left enough hints that something else was going on. So tell me!"

"Sona..."

Serafall's heart broke a little as her sister, who had stayed strong and focused this entire time, finally broke her hold on her pride. 

The tears started to fall.

"Please," Sona begged wetly, her voice cracking. "Please let me understand. I promised Eren. I promised him. But I don't. Not yet. So please tell me why. Why did he choose that future? A billion and a half!" Sona exclaimed with a helpless expression. "A billion and a half. Why did he choose that? I just don't get it! So why!?"

Mikasa pulled Sona into a tight hug as the younger girl cried. 

Serafall glared around the room to get the others to look away to save So-tan's pride from further damage.

Icy mist fogged the air, and Vali and his team suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"I was going to tell you," Mikasa said quietly to her niece. "I promised him as well. I was just... this is hard, Sona. Talking about it is hard. And this next part... It's even harder. For a lot of reasons."

"I know," Sona whispered, hugging the older woman tightly. "I know. But if I'm going to understand... If I am going to teach about your world, I need to know everything."

Mikasa took a deep breath, pulled away from Sona, and gave her a nod.

She faced the rest of the room again.

"This next part... It is the most confusing part of the story," Mikasa spoke, and the room refocused on her. "So much of this is guesswork, piecing things together, and looking back. I... We had no idea how much of it was true and might be purely our ideals and for our self-satisfaction. But, like you, we tried to understand why things happened."

"There were holes," Azazel nodded, listing points on his fingers. "Too many coincidences with Eren's plan. What was the nature of the creature parasite? Why did its death lead to all the Titans disappearing? If it did, why can Eren still use his abilities? How did he know Falco would be able to fly? And, if he had the Founder, why did he not stop any Eldian from fighting him? He would have won. With that power, he could have lived the rest of his life without fear of reprisals."

"Eren would never do that," Rias said with complete confidence. "Forcing other people, controlling them like that, would go against everything he believes in."

"You know him well," Mikasa gave the redhead a thin smile before addressing the room. "I've told the story from our perspective. One event after another. We were in the dark, trying to understand the world, Eren's plan, everything really. There is another way to listen to the story. Eren's perspective. Only by having both can you begin to understand why Eren chose the end that he did."

"Why would his perspective differ from yours," Sona asked with narrowed eyes.

"Because Eren knew how the story would end," Mikasa said seriously. "This information comes from piecing together clues and accounts from after Eren's death, with one exception. Eren had talked to Armin in the Paths when he started The Rumbling but had wiped it from his mind using the Founder. He... couldn't do the same for me because the Founder can't control my memories as an Ackerman. He told Armin about his plan, The Rumbling, Ymir and what would happen. He could do this because of how the powers of the Attack Titan mixed with the Founder."

"You rated it as the most dangerous," Akeno acknowledged with a frown. "Alone, it's weak for a Shifter, but with the Founder, it would make Eren the strongest. Why?"

"The Founder connects to every Eldian through their bloodline, letting its host control them, see through their eyes, and manipulate their memories. A limited form of omniscience." Mikasa looked deadly serious as she watched the room. "All Shifters gain memories from their predecessors. The Attack Titan lets its host receive memories from the future. Together, Eren could see the past, present, and future." 

Everybody sat up at that, even Serafall.

Any sort of clairvoyant ability was taken deadly seriously in the supernatural community. A few gods had limited omniscience of either their area or domains. This usually manifested as the ability to know everything in their direct area, like a person's thoughts, which they used to predict what would happen.

Still, the ability to see the future, or even a hint of it, was so rare that there was only one confirmed case of anyone ever having it to a degree comparable to what Mikasa was talking about.

And Serafall couldn't say His name.

Perhaps if the information hadn't been so shocking, someone might have noticed that the surprise on Kuroka and Team Vali's faces was a touch too exaggerated.

"Not just see. He was there. From the first second the Paths were created till their end. Eren saw and experienced everything any Eldian had ever experienced. He had no future. He had no past. It was all the same to him from when he had contact with Zeke."

"So Eren really did time travel?" Issei asked in confused wonder.

"No."

Serafall's eyes whipped toward Sona at the sound of her voice. Something had been in it that should never have been in So-tan's voice.

Despair.

"Not time travel." Sona had gone completely pale. "It's a time loop. One that never ends for the person involved, even as time passes regularly on the outside."

"A stable time loop," Azazel breathed out in amazement. "That's how he had such an intricate plan. He had already succeeded and was just setting up the pieces to reach victory. A literal self-fulfilling prophecy."

"I... don't get it," Asia admitted sheepishly, eyes still red from tears.

"Remember that '1-2-3' and '3-2-1' example earlier," Rossweiss asked, and a few of the audience members nodded. "This is someone who is at 1 and, 2 and 3 at the same time. So they can make sure they happen in the order they want."

"Not just that," Mikasa shook her head. "From what Armin could piece together, Eren could also see 'what if' scenarios. Futures that didn't exist. Eren simply chose the one he wanted."

"Why'd he choose such a terrible one," Xenovia asked, though her tone was gentler than when Mikasa had started her story.

"He needed it to be stable," Azazel hypothesized. "Which means he could only make decisions that would lead to the moment he first got the power. Only after that could he really change things. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gained the power in the first place. He couldn't change anything that would prevent his birth. He couldn't change becoming a Shifter with the Attack Titan and Founder. And he couldn't change that... he'd need..." Azazel trailed off, looking lost in thought. "There's a problem here. A hole. Why didn't he gain the power when he first touched Dina?"

"The requirements for the royal bloodline," Mikasa gave the fallen a look of grudging respect. "This is one of the things Armin thought of later, so I only have his guesses. Zeke pulled Eren into the Paths, where he freed Ymir. Every other time he touched someone that could activate the Founder, he could use it, yes, but Ymir was still bound, and Eren wasn't in The Paths to free her. He had no idea what he was doing. So the Eren that met with Zeke needed to be the one to start the Rumbling, not an earlier version. Though, it could be another reason."

"Still," Azazel frowned. "That doesn't answer why he didn't set things up in such a way to be in contact with Zeke when he left you in Marley."

"Because he had other goals than the Rumbling," Yuuto answered, just as confident as Rias had been earlier. "It was just a tangential thing. A tool to get the ending he wanted. He wanted to ensure his friends had a happy life, right?"

"...As far as we can tell, Eren had three goals," Mikasa muttered, hands caressing her scarf absently. "Revenge. Our safety and happiness. And the complete annihilation of Titans from our world. He had two limits. The fact that his omniscience was limited to Eldians and that he couldn't see beyond his death."

"If he could see the future through the bloodline, he should have been able to see through your or other's eyes," Akeno pointed out. "Even after he... you know."

"No." Sona denied again, her face as pale as it had ever been, but Serafall was glad the despair was gone from her voice. In its place was a grim understanding. "Because to remove Titans from the world, he needed to destroy the Paths themselves. And to do that, Eren, as the Founder, had to die. Eren would only choose a plan that led to wiping out titans, and in all those futures, he'd be dead and have no way of knowing what would happen."

Mikasa closed her eyes and nodded slowly.

"We might just be creating justifications after the fact," she said sadly. "But Armin believed that in any future where Eren died with the parasite in him, it would use the Paths to connect to a new Eldian. All the other Founders who died had it transmitted, though we don't know if any of them hit the thirteen-year limit or if it was all through consumption. This means that as an Eldian that couldn't be controlled or transformed by the parasite, I or another Ackerman had to be the ones to... kill him."

"But that doesn't explain why so many innocent people had to die," Asia said, eyes still rimmed with tears.

"It does," Sona said hollowly. When eyes locked onto her, she continued to speak, almost more to herself than to others. "If his revenge was tangential, like Yuuto said, then his goal was the elimination of Titans and your safety. But without Titans, Eldia was just a small country surrounded by enemies and with a military and technology base a century behind. And nobody would believe that Titans suddenly disappeared and wouldn't reappear. Fear and hatred would have pushed them to destroy Eldia just to be safe. Maybe a complete genocide of Eldians all over the world."

"Genetics were actually more advanced in my world than here," Mikasa gave a helpless shrug when Sona looked at her. "There was already technology to detect an Eldian from non-Eldian peoples. It's how they kept them segregated."

"So Eren couldn't just have you kill him in secret to eliminate Titans," Sona tried to continue, but Mikasa shook her head resolutely.

"I wouldn't have been able to," she said with certainty. "Even after... everything, I almost couldn't do it. The only other Ackerman was Captain Levi. He would have been able to, but he wouldn't if it left Eldia vulnerable."

"And Eren wouldn't have been able to get to a future like that because Zeke wouldn't agree," Azazel pointed out.

"So, Eren needed a future where he could get you to kill him or one where Eldia was no longer at risk," Sona nodded thoughtfully, her face still ashed in colour. "If he could have sabotaged every other nation in the world, he would have. But I imagine Eldians weren't privy to information or access to the military infrastructure, and he couldn't see through the eyes of non-Eldians, so the only way he could be certain of crippling all countries was to be thorough. Total destruction."

"You are sounding like you agree with his choice," Arthur said with narrowed eyes.

"I don't agree," Sona denied, taking a deep breath. "Just... trying to understand. The Eren I know would have looked for an alternative. He would have tried a million times to find a future where everything turned out perfectly. Where he didn't need to kill so many people. This is the one he chose. I need to understand why."

"Why?" Irina asked. There was no malice in her eyes, but she looked lost. "Why do you need to understand him?"

"Because he's doing it all again," Sona said seriously, her eyes flickering from Kuroka to her sister and aunt to Vali and his team. "Isn't he? He planning on unleashing something similar to The Rumbling in the Underworld. Our home."

Their silence was telling.

"I need to know why he did it then so I can know why he's doing it now," Sona said through gritted teeth. "The 'why' is the most crucial part. Even if I disagree with him, even if I can't imagine so much death and destruction, I need to know why. Only then can I know what to teach without bias or distorting history. Only then can I help prevent another Eren Yeager from being born."

Nobody said anything in the wake of Sona's impassioned words, so the Sitri Heiress looked back at her aunt.

"There are still a few points missing," Sona pressed through grit teeth. "What did Eren tell Akeno?"

The eyes on the student council president slid to the half-fallen.

"I don't know what exactly Eren told her," Mikasa breathed out, also looking at the Queen. "But I can guess."

"... Just what he did," Akeno said softly, drawing her knees to her chest with one hand and the other rubbing her cheek. "Not how. That still doesn't make sense. He was... trying to get me out of a bad place. It helped." Akeno's gaze swept from Issei to where Rias sat beside her. "It really did. But... Eren didn't bring it up again, so I know he was responsible."

"Okay," Mikasa breathed out. She clenched her fists and, with a visible effort of will, explained in a firm voice. "You are right, Rias. Eren wouldn't use his ability to control us, even if the future would be 'better' for it. But Azazel is also right. Eren needed to make sure certain events happened to lead up to 'Eren Yeager,' the boy who would do anything to kill all Titans, being born so the future he wanted would come to pass."

Serafall had a terrible feeling at Mikasa's choice of words.

"He didn't need to do much," Mikasa continued, fists shaking. "As far as we know, the Eren who started the Rumbling only took two actions to lead to that future. The first is that he sent his memories of the future to himself in the past. Specifically, he connected to Eren Yeager, who had just learned everything from the basement and touched Historia during an award ceremony. He showed himself the future and what it took to get there. It's why Eren was so desperate for another option than the Rumbling. He hoped that the future was wrong."

"It wasn't. It couldn't be," Azazel nodded. "It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the very act of seeing the future ensures the future."

"It wasn't," Mikasa agreed grimly. "Eren was doomed to live it out precisely as he had seen. It's also why I hate the basement so much. Those memories came at exactly Eren's lowest point when we discovered that everything he had known about the world was a lie and that both he and Armin were going to die. If the basement had been destroyed, he could have learned about the truth gradually, without being overwhelmed all at once."

"Aunty." Sona's interruption was not harsh, but it was firm. "You're stalling again. What was the second thing he did in the past?"

"...To our knowledge, the only Eldian Eren ever actually controlled was a Pure Titan, and only for a few moments," Mikasa said, not meeting anyone's eyes. "He did it so that it would ignore Bertholdt Hoover, who was only a child at the time. He was alone, having just used his sole transformation of the day to kick down the gate to Shinganshina."

There was a collective intake of breath, but Mikasa plowed on.

"He did it by directing the Abnormal Titan inside the city toward a woman trapped in the rubble who couldn't escape."

"No."

"Eren killed his mother." Mikasa's voice was wet with tears as she ignored the horrified interruption. "Because Carla Yeager was the start of it all. Because if Carla Yeager did not die before his eyes, Eren would never have the conviction, the burning hatred and rage, to do what needed to be done to wipe Titans from the earth."

Nobody could say anything as they

"He betrayed everyone. Zeke. The Yeagerists. Us. Himself... None of us could provide him with the future he wanted. The future Ymir wanted. He activated the Rumbling because he wanted a blank slate. Eren alone chose the future he wanted. He did what everyone on our planet wished to do, remove Titans from the world. Eren gave up everything, everything he ever valued, to achieve it," Mikasa said helplessly, wiping at her eyes. "And it worked."

There was a beat of silence.

"...That's it?"

All eyes zeroed in on Xenovia.

"'It worked.' That's it?" She asked through grit teeth.

"Xen-"

"No, Irina," Xenovia shook off the angel's hand as she glared, not just at Mikasa but at almost everyone in the room. "I've mostly kept my mouth shut this entire time, but someone needs to say it. Eren Yeager is a monster."

"Xenovia!"

"What, Ise," the former exorcist rounded on her boyfriend. "What can you say to justify the death of a billion people?"

Issei didn't answer, and Xenovia looked back at Mikasa.

"I get how he became like that, the trauma and pain turning an innocent boy into what he became. I understand that your world was terrible, that Titans are an abomination that needed to be destroyed. I get that Eren Yeager is your lover, your friend, your Senpai, your comrade."

Xenovia looked around the room, meeting everyone's eyes as she spoke, ending on Azazel.

"I get that this world also has its fair share of monsters. I get all that. But I also get what you all seem to be ignoring. A man who can unleash that level of death and destruction, no matter the reason, is a monster. He had his reasons, but so does everyone else. Just because he's a traumatized child, just because he protected his home, just because 'it worked' doesn't make Eren Yeager right!"

"We're not saying he was right!" Issei argued back through grit teeth. "Nobody is saying that! Nobody wants something like The Rumbling!"

"They do," Xenovia pointed at Vali's team, and they tensed up. Then, her finger switched to Kuroka. "She does. Said it herself. All she cares about is Eren and her sister. If Koneko wasn't here, she'd be perfectly happy to let her lover stomp this world flat as well."

"Eren never told me anything like this!" Kuroka hissed at the Knight, hand firmly clasped around Koneko's.

"Us either," Vali said with crossed arms and narrowed eyes.

"Just like he didn't tell them about it," Xenovia rejoined, thrusting her finger toward Mikasa for emphasis. "He's using the Chaos Brigade just like he used those Yeagerists. Using you. He's using violence and death to make the world in his image, just like every other monster out there. Face it. Eren Yeager is a cruel, manipluatavie, genocidal, monster."

"...You think I don't know that," Mikasa said lowly.

As she told the story, Mikasa was more emotional than Serafall had ever known her to be. She felt sadness and heartbreak. There was some wry humour here and there, but it was mostly an unending well of loss and pain. It was for an excellent reason that Mikasa never spoke of her home dimension.

Because it hurt.

But, except for when she spoke of the basement, she hadn't been angry.

Now, with her quiet words without tonal inflection, Serafall knew that her friend was furious.

The Satan stepped aside.

So long as Mikasa didn't go too far, letting her vent a bit at the Knight would do them both some good. Mikasa for the catharsis and Xenovia to realize something everyone else had subconsciously picked up on. Either because they knew Eren personally, had been in a similar situation, or because they were more empathetic.

Even the Devil can be loved.

"You think I don't know what sort of man Eren became?" Mikasa asked rhetorically as she stepped toward the former exorcist. "In the Paths, Eren told Armin that he might have started The Rumbling even if it wasn't the best way to achieve his goals. I never forgot Eren, who he or what he became. Not one day in eighty years did I forget that the man I loved did monstrous things. There was not a single day I forgot that peace and happiness I had, that Armin's very life, was all thanks to the death of a billion and a half people and the boy I had grown up with."

Step by step, Mikasa advanced toward the blue-haired girl until they were face to face.

To her credit, Xenovia did not back down, even as the anger fully bled into Mikasa's voice.

"You are forgetting," Mikasa hissed with no little venom. "That all these reasonings, all this extra information and justification I've given you on why Eren did what he did, I didn't have! All I had were his last words to me. He told me that he hated me! After that, I watched the man I love kill countless innocent people before my very eyes. I didn't kill him because I knew it would rid the world of Titans. I did it because what he was doing was wrong, and we all knew it. Him included!"

Xenovia did flinch as Mikasa's rage mounted, but she stubbornly remained in place.

"Then why, when you discovered he was alive, did you not tell anyone about what he was capable of," Xenovia asked heatedly, gesturing around the room. "You were the only person who knew about The Rumbling in the whole world. You could have stopped this! And if you couldn't, you could have told someone who could. But you didn't. You spent months with him, never saying a word. Why?"

"Because killing your heart is never easy. Because Eren shouldn't be a threat at all," Mikasa gestured toward Kuroka, sitting beside Koneko with a lost look on her face. "As I am now, I could stop the Rumbling in a minute. If it weren't for him learning Senjutsu, he wouldn't be able to start it. Even if I wasn't here, any Ultimate class could stop him. So I chose to be happy. And now, I chose to fight him again."

"It's too late," Xenovia scowled. "You missed your chance. You said it yourself, Eren Yeager is the strongest being in this world. He will choose a future; no matter what we do, it is part of his plan."

Ah. Serfall got it. That was where the girl's animosity was coming from.

Fear.

The Leviathan was familiar with the girl's story, just like all the other Kuoh students of note. Serafall expected that everyone here agreed with the former exorcist on some level. Even the thieving cat, who had stolen Mi-chan's man, was appaled at the idea of The Rumbling.

Xenovia's situation was just specific enough that she lacked the factors that aided the others in understanding where Mikasa was coming from.

She wasn't friends with Eren, was more confrontational than Gasper, and wasn't as empathetic as Irina.

Xenovia had recently learned that her God was dead, got excommunicated from the church, became a devil, and then discovered that her best friend had become an angel, something that could have happened to her if she hadn't heard of His death.

After that, she started dating the Red Dragon Emperor and discovered that his Senpai, someone she already didn't like, was the leader of a terrorist faction hell-bent on the total destruction of the Underworld and specifically targeted her new boyfriend.

Now Xenovia discovered that said man had killed over a billion people in the past, his friends and mother included and was as close to omniscient as this world had seen since the end of the Great War?

It was no wonder she lashed out. And it wasn't like she was wrong, per se; it was more like Xenovia was letting her fear of losing everything again prevent her from empathizing with someone she saw as indirectly responsible.

Serafall looked to her Pawn and considered intervening.

Mikasa, though, had it well in hand.

"Eren cannot use the Founder," Mikasa said with absolute certainty.

"You thought he couldn't be a threat, and look at us now," Xenovia pointed out. "Why wouldn't you be wrong about this, too?"

"Because there is nobody with royal blood in this world. Because he didn't know I existed in this world. Because Eren smiled."

Brows furrowed, and even Serafall tried to understand what Mi-chan was getting at.

"Sona understood right away," the former scout said grimly, nodding at her niece. "If Eren could use the Founder, he would never smile. Ever."

"Because he could see the future and the past?" Rias asked with a worried frown. "Or because he could see alternate timelines... no wonder he liked Jojo."

The last part was said quietly, but almost everyone heard the redhead's mutter of realization.

"He didn't just see," Sona said lowly. "We experienced."

"Time lost all meaning to him," Mikasa nodded gravely. "Past, present, future. It was all the same. Eren was there, with every Eldian to ever exist, from Ymir's first transformation to his death. He was there for every rape, every murder, every minor crime or great tragedy. He was the victim and the victimizer."

Already worn faces paled even further with every one of Mikasa's haunted words.

"He was his mother as she was eaten and Dina as she ate her. Eren was his aunt, torn apart by dogs. Freida Reiss and her siblings, as Grisha killed them. He was Sasha with a bullet in her chest and Gabi, who shot her. Eren was every Eldian crushed by The Rumbling as they ran for their lives. And not just for the two thousand years since Ymir. In the Paths, every second of that time was another two thousand years of a hell your dead God wouldn't give his worst enemy."

Every devil winced at the spiking pain from His name, but Mikasa didn't even stutter as she stared Xenovia down.

"And Eren did it to himself. His very quest for freedom and revenge trapped him in a prison of never-ending torment. That is why I am sure that even though Eren has the Founder, he can't use it. Because if he could, he wouldn't have been able to smile."

"But... there aren't any Eldians here apart from you, right?" Le Fay asked hopefully. "So... he wouldn't have to go through that again, right?"

"Even then," Mikasa said, tone softening. "Could you smile if you are having your worst day ever at every moment of every day? If you are fighting for your life, or killing someone, or experiencing the worst pain you will ever experience in your life? If... If Eren was anyone else, just the memories of his time with the Founder would have driven him mad to death. But..."

Mikasa drew in a deep breath as she looked back at Xenovia, her anger having faded.

"Even if he is a suicidal blockhead, even if he became the Devil, the Eren I know, the Eren you all know, would not be able to smile if he was forced to watch anything remotely similar to the Rumbling happen. We know his plan. And Eren would never have smiled if he was watching it play out."

"What exactly is his plan?" Irina asked after a beat of silence. When many people in the room looked at her, she gave an awkward shrug. "I, uh, I have no idea. Like, he's strong, right? But, um, so what? The Rumbling won't work. We can just fly, and he doesn't have millions of those Colossal Titans."

Serafall shared a look with Azazel and Mikasa, and they looked just as conflicted as she felt.

Vali, however, solved their problem.

"We'll tell you," he said cooly. When everyone, his team included, looked at him in surprise, he continued. "If you give us a minute," he nodded at his team. "I'll tell you what I know. Some of the stuff even Kuroka doesn't. Since we haven't done anything actually against the law yet, I think that should be enough for a promise similar to whatever deal she got."

At the mention of her name, the black cat looked up.

Her eyes were vacant and haunted, like she was barely there, and she didn't react beyond looking at the White Dragon Emperor.

Another look passed between the three adults in the room, and Azazel nodded.

"We can come to a provisional agreement," Azazel said. Then he gave a wan smile as he looked around the room. "And I think everyone needs a break."

Truer words were rarely spoken.

Everyone looked haggard. Some had been crying, and emotions had been running hot ever since Mikasa had arrived and Valeria had started screaming.

Issei had a quiet but heated discussion with Xenovia while Irina and Asia comforted each other.

Rias and Akeno, both pale and quiet, excused themselves to make some drinks for the group. They returned after a few minutes, holding a tray laden with cups full of hot chocolate. Nobody commented on how their hands shook or the red eyes as they gratefully took a cup.

Kuroka hadn't moved from her chair, grasping tightly onto both the cane and Koneko's hand as if terrified they would leave.

Azazel was asking something of a severe-looking Yuuto. At the same time, Gasper continued his vigil over his unconscious childhood friend, and Rossweiss cast a few spells to make the dhampir's position a bit more comfortable.

Serafall found herself torn. A part of her wished these children had not been here, had not listened to a graphic depiction of the horrors the world could bring, the pain and suffering that people could inflict on each other.

She wished that the peace they had worked so long for had come without opposition and that these young devils could grow up without worries of war and death.

Yet... Serafall couldn't deny a part of herself couldn't be prouder of both Sona and Mikasa. Both of them had been so strong tonight.

Just because the Satan wished they didn't have to be didn't mean she couldn't acknowledge the courage it took to both tell and listen to the story they heard tonight.

Sona stood alone in a corner. She looked deep in thought, and Serafall, no matter how much she wanted to hug her precious So-tan to her chest, knew her sister needed to process things alone.

So the Satan looked at her Pawn, saviour, and friend of nineteen years.

"It's done," Serafall said gently as she put up a barrier around them. "You did it."

They could still see and hear the room, but nobody could do the same to them.

"It's not done," Mikasa shook her head. With that motion, the facade crumbled, and the tired, emotionally exhausted woman underneath shone through. "It won't be done until Eren is stopped."

"...You don't have to be the one to do it," Serafall said, pulling her friend close. "There's no Founder in this world. You can go back home. Let us fight him."

"No," Mikasa shook her head, drawing herself up. "Last time... I hesitated. I couldn't bring myself to do what needed to be done. It cost hundreds of millions of lives and needlessly prolonged Eren's pain in the Paths. Eren... He wants to be stopped, Sera."

The Satan's lips twitched upwards as they always did whenever Mikasa used her nickname.

"Eren... he does terrible things, but there is always a reason, even if it's just vengeance. But no matter how much he might dislike devils, he wouldn't unleash the Rumbling on the Underworld just because of his dislike of the Evil Pieces."

"You think he's doing the same thing he did last time," Serafall nodded in understanding. "He's making himself an enemy that you can fight."

"...I think so." Mikasa clenched her fists. "No matter what Kuroka or they say, I don't think we will know Eren's actual plan until it ends. Until then, I will do what Eren knows I will do. I will fight. For what I believe is worth fighting for."

Gah! Serious Mi-chan was just too cute!

Overwhelmed, Serafall pulled her Pawn into a tight hug. She dissolved her barrier as she wiggled in place, holding Mikasa tightly.

The former scout didn't fight her despite the eyes on them. Instead, she just returned the hug.

Less enthusiastic, but no less tight.

Serafall internally smiled as she noticed a few smiles around the room.

Once more, Magical Girl Levi-tan had brought joy to the distressed children.

...Although, there was nothing childish about the derpy smile the Red Dragon Emperor had at seeing the two older women hug.

Still, the Oppai Dragon was much better than the overly 'cool' and edgy White Dragon Emperor.

Serafall cast a curious glance at the 'enemies' in the room.

A hushed conversation had broken out between Vali's team. It looked like they were debating something, but nobody could overhear their conversation after Le Fay put up a barrier like Serafall had.

Whatever they were talking about ceased when an unexpected voice spoke up.

"I, shall make a banana sanctuary," Ophis suddenly said, placing a fist on her tiny palm in realization. "I, give power to Glasses. Glasses makes banana dimension. Eren, makes banana trees. Lots of trees. I go to dimension when I want bananas. Silence and bananas." She pointed a finger at Vali, casually breaking Le Fay's barrier without issue. "You cannot trick me. Vali."

It spoke of their years as Ophis' minders that Vali's team immediately changed tracks to deal with her.

"You got me," Vali deadpanned. "Now, you just need to convince Issei to help you."

"We made a deal," Ophis said, pointing at the confused Red Dragon Emperor. "Ddraig becomes a Wall. Gives power to Eren. Eren beats up Baka Red. Ddraig gets a cookie."

Serafall really wasn't comfortable with one of the Dragon Gods being so close to Mi-tan and So-tan, but this was genuinely hilarious.

"I'm not gonna help Eren," Issei denied vehemently. Which was undermined almost instantly by his swallowing his saliva. "Even if it's for a cookie."

"You can't have two cookies," Ophis said immediately, forgoing her usual slowness in speech.

"It's not about the cookies!"

Ophis looked like her entire world was collapsing around her.

"You will just have to think of a way to convince him," Vali said with some schadenfreude. Ophis looked at him and Vali just shrugged. "Don't worry, you can stay with him until he joins. We won't tell Eren."

"Good," Ophis nodded seriously and then glared at Issei with a look that would terrify gods.

Serafall noted she looked like a kitten glaring at a rather tenacious ball of yarn.

"What are you up to, Vali," Azazel asked. "Decided to switch sides again."

"We've decided that we can't let Eren succeed with his plan," the White Dragon Emperor shrugged. "Kuroka told you about the Malebranche, right?"

Serafall, Azazel, and Mikasa nodded, growing serious once more.

"No?" Issei said, raising his hand as if in class. "What's that?"

"Superweapons created by the original Satans," Azazel explained grimly. "The devil equivalent to Sacred Gears made to be a counter to the Longinus. The only problem was that they were too powerful and had wills of their own, so the Satans sealed them away. Rumour has it that the weapons were 'extremely crazed combatants' and completely uncontrollable."

"The last time one of them was used was during the Civil War," Serafall picked up, no silliness in her voice. "A descendent of Beelzebub had one. Sirzechs had to go all out to win. And it was only partially unsealed."

"Satans," Rias exclaimed in horror.

Anyone with any knowledge of the Crimson Satan's power was equally terrified.

"They were all lost during the Civil War," Serafall continued darkly. "One of the Nebiros, one of Six Houses, squirled them away somewhere, and nobody knows where that is."

"Except for Eren," Vali explained while crossing his arms. "According to him, they are somewhere on Agares, the floating city where you had your final match against the Bael. But only he knows where."

"Agares is where most of the high-quality crystals needed for the Evil Pieces and Brave Saint cards are excavated," Sona nodded slowly. "It is also well known to be full of ruins from the time of the Old Satans. If the Malebranche were made of the same material, their original point of creation might be on Agreas."

"We searched there after the war," Serafall added to her sister's guess. "We confiscated, sealed, or destroyed anything we thought might be dangerous, but we never found any of the Malebranche or the lab that created them."

"Then how does Eren know where they are?" Rias asked.

"Senjutsu," Vali said simply. "Apparently, he sensed them when he and Kuroka passed through the Agreas territory. But there's a problem. They are almost equivalent to people and are weapons for devils. Eren, as a human, wouldn't be able to use them. So he recruited someone who was there when they were first created, the other leader of the Chaos Brigade, Rizevim Lucifer." The way the White Dragon Emperor spat the name made his feelings for the man all too clear. "My grandfather."