The Swarm Of Iron (4/6)

Rias Gremory's peerage was making its way further down the artificial cave. Soon enough they were met with human bones spread across the ground. The numbers were high and they were able to link the bones of the deceased in Town and these, cementing their suspicions.

" It seems that we're on the right trail." said Rias, still ready to fire her power of destruction at any moment. Slowly, the group was becoming accustomed to the wretched scent of murder permeating the cave. Akeno right next to her advanced without showing any emotions, but the usual constant smirk had already left her face. Compared to the older generation of devils, as a pure-blood, Rias was somewhat unusual and did not like casualties, no matter their race. This was mirrored by the disposition of her peerage, that would only kill when needed and not out of convenience. The fact that she could not make any mistake during her time in the human world, Rias and her peerage was very cautious in their approach. Hostages would take priority if there was any, and any hostile activity would need to be explained with great details to the Shinto Pantheon. Whoever killed all of these humans was not a normal human, so Sirzechs had already left the Underworld in direction of Kyoto where they could contact the Shinto Pantheon with the Serafall Leviathan, the Maou in charge of foreign matters.

Their roles were to mitigate the situation if it went wrong, be ready to help Rias at any given point and explain the situation to the Shinto representatives, although the second point was far from being a directive but more something Sirzechs would do by himself. He gave his little sister an alarm card, which would only activate with her mana and that would send a signal to Sirzechs. It was supposed to be used in dire situations, but what Sirzechs did not account for what the current drive that Rias had. She was now determined to push through her problems by herself, so she had left the card at the Occult Research Club's room.

" Rias are you alright? " whispered Akeno to her King, seeing the thoughtful look the red-headed girl had. Rias brought out of her mind, looked in the eyes of her queen and smiled, " Yes I was just thinking about something. " But Akeno could see through her best friend immediately, " You can tell me if there's something wrong. "

Rias decided not to answer that, she just smiled back at Akeno, although this time it was a bit strained, she could not hide her worry from her queen. Although she knew that Deo was surely not a normal human, now that she had obtained proof, she found herself lost in what she would do from now on. The game between her and him would have to stop, not because she wasn't willing to play a bit more at finding each other's identity but because she knew that she wouldn't be able to hide anything from him. Her attention has been concentrated on either training or Deo during these last months, so she had already created a good grasp of his personality, or at least what he was willing to broadcast and what he showed unconsciously, his habits and so on. In human terms, it might have been called stalking, but for a devil, it was nothing more than a background check.

She knew he was too perceptive, even among the supernatural, so her lies would not go through. She almost felt like she wished she hadn't discovered anything. Even if she trusted him and didn't want to make him sleep and search his house, she had to do so because of the multiple murders. Deo was a certified supernatural in the town she had been entrusted to look after, she could not afford to give him any benefit on the ground that they knew each other. There was far too much on the line, and if she failed she probably not be able to meet him anymore anyway.

Now that she had a certification that Deo was aware of the supernatural, she was sure he was aware of who she was, or at least what she was. Her race had many stigmas attached to them, more than any other race actually, so she felt her heart accelerate every time she recalled that he didn't seem to care at all about what she was. Even then, these thoughts were not enough to distract her from all of the questions that popped up in her mind after she left Deo's house.

' What if he doesn't want to join my peerage ' Rias thought as she bit her nail, while Akeno looked at her with worry apparent on her face. The cave was lengthy, unnecessarily so for someone who just needed a temporary base of operation.

This question was the biggest in her mind, ever since she cut off her relationship with her father, she was in a slump with no motivation whatsoever to do anything. She loved her family and her friends, dearly so and because of that, when she learned that her father had whore her out to the Phenex family she was heartbroken. No matter what honeyed words her father told her to make her accept the deal, no matter her pride in the Gremory family and what it represented, she could not accept such a decision, even with all the benefits it entailed for the family. The problem was not the arranged marriage itself, at one point she even believed when she was younger that whoever her father would choose would be the best for her. The problem was Riser Phenex himself.

She had investigated into Riser's profile when she learned of her engagement and even if she hated the man because of their previous interactions, she hoped that he was not as bad as he looked to be. She was wrong. He was worse than she thought.

With that in hand, she confronted her father with clear evidence that Riser was nothing but scum. The words that left her father's mouth this night would be ones that she would remember for a long time, and no matter how painful it was, these words were the ones that cemented her idea to cut off from her father. She could not leave the Gremory family, her father's action did nothing to smear her pride in her name, but she could not be in the same room as her father without feeling the pain of betrayal through her body.

But she was no fool and she didn't believe she would be able to simply bring up a non-devil boyfriend to her family and ask for their blessings. Her fight with Riser would be the first step in her plans, then making Deo a devil, although not necessary to her plans, would be the second biggest step in getting what she wanted. She did not wish to use underhanded methods to acquire Deo in her peerage and she wasn't even sure that she would succeed in those cases, so she would have to rely on her persuasion skills. Though if Deo was hiding his strength all along, and could go against the wrath of multiple devil families, she certainly would not mind being 'kidnapped' from her family and raise their half-devil half-whatever Deo was children away from the Underworld.

' No, bad Rias, stop having such fantasies. ' she thought, having to fight off a blush.

Let it not be said that Rias, although she certainly liked him for more than that, was a sucker for Deo's physique, and her kidnapping fantasies had a part where she would be able to enjoy it.

Akeno's words brought her out of her thoughts once more, " What happened Koneko? " The queen asked the rook as she saw her shudder uncontrollably. Koneko regained control of her body but not without hugging her body as if she was frightened. " Look ahead. " she said, but realizing that no one but her would be able to see anything at this distance, she advanced through the large area they found themselves in and gestured her team to follow her. Kiba made a sword appear with his sacred gear. It was long, sleek and with a basic iron handle. When Rias' peerage arrived where Koneko was pointing, they gasped in horror at the sight. Bodies were mutilated, charred, and half-eaten. The sight would have been terrifying were they not devils, but even then it proved to be still horrible.

While Akeno was having trouble not tearing her gaze away from the bodies, Rias' trembled in anger. She considered these people part of her territory to protect, and she felt nothing but anger for the one that committed such awful crimes. The Gremory protectiveness was talking once more. But clarity cleared off her mind a bit when she noticed something particular with the way these people were eaten.

" What kind of creatures eat flesh like this. " she said, both in anger and curiosity. Until she realized the answer and felt immense dread coursing through her body.

Her queen went through the same process because she turned her head towards Rias with wide eyes, not without a bit of fear in them and said, " Insects. "

Nobody in the group had an inherent fear of insects, but devils knew exactly how powerful millions of weak flying creatures were, considered one of their greatest figures was feared throughout the mythological world because of his control over fleas. Swarms of insects were difficult to fight against without specific methods, and more often than not they had a way to desecrate the bodies of their victims, using them as nutrients and reproduce over their corpses, allowing them to grow with each victim, until no enemy remained. The Demon God Beelzebub's tactics were studied deeply by devils, and they knew how screwed they were, without any source of constant and spreading magic in their team. Nobody was proficient enough in fire magic or anything with the same effect to be able to stave multiple waves of insects if the enemy was that powerful.

" Akeno, check if there's any barrier around us, Koneko I want you to focus on localizing anything that could mean a swarm coming towards us, Kiba is there any sword that you could create that would allow a fire to spread or ice to spread? " Rias, in crisis, quickly took multiple decisions. She had ever since that talk with Deo worked on her abilities, not only physical and magical but on her tactics and decision making amid a fight. She had wasted multiple years and that had hurt her development, but she was determined to close that gap.

" President, we are in a barrier indeed, we cannot teleport nor we can leave physically, only someone from the outside can rescue us. " said Akeno, a bit terrified at what that meant. Rias cursed under her breath, now feeling like a prideful idiot for not taking her brother's card. " Pride cometh before the fall... " she muttered, although everyone in her peerage heard her since they weren't aware of the card they could only look at her in confusion.

" President, lots of enemies incoming from that tunnel. " said Koneko, preparing herself to fight. Rias looked at Kiba, their sole chance if things went wrong. " I can easily create flame or ice swords President, but to create ones that would allow for it to spread would take a toll on my reserves. I can create at most 20 of them. " Rias nodded, biting her tongue. Kiba's Sacred Gear would work solely on his demonic energy, not with the inherent properties of whatever magic he was creating. That would mean that for a fire to spread, it would simply use more mana to continue burning off enemies.

While Rias' peerage was preparing to fight off his swarm, Malekh was looking at a crystal ball with his sockets, as if he could see as good as if he had eyes in them. In the crystal ball was the Gremory group. The moment Malekh zoomed onto Rias, he smiled evilly and cackled. Lokkart was next to him, simply waiting for the orders of his master.