"So I take it you'll be there?" Deus asked, looking right at Merciella.
Her hand pressed against her head, she moved the pile of documents in front of her to the side with the other hand. Peering while letting out a tired sigh, she nodded at Deus in agreement.
"I can't let Atlas get away with what he did, but I can't leave my domain to aid you either," resting her hand on the pile of documents, she infused them with her mana and soon they turned into origami cranes, and began to fly around in the room. "However, if you need a distraction, I can start pressing the emperor's army from my territory so that his army is stretched out to the limits."
Watching the cranes fluttering around, the creased stress on Merciella's face quickly melted into an expression of calm. Smiling lightly at her brother, she was reminded of the way Deus and Asmodia often fought over the most minute problems.
"That sounds great, I'll get Inferno to join the main army instead," although he'd already made the promise, Deus knew that convincing Inferno to join Haruki's army would be much harder than convincing anyone else.
Still looking at him with a gentle expression, Merciella grabbed her brother's army before pulling him closer to her face. Pulling forward from the desk, Deus was bent over forward with his eyes wide open in shock.
"After Asmodia," moving her head by his ears, Merciella began to whisper into the ears of her blushing brother. "You're my second favorite sibling, don't you dare die before…You know what I mean."
Even though they fought just as often as Asmodia and him, Merciella was a lot closer to Deus than any of the other demon lords realized. Pulling himself back, Deus looked away to the side and made Reya open up a portal behind him so he could go ahead and meet the last person he needed to convince.
"You're creepier than big sis when she's angry," although feeling a bit disgusted by Merciella's insinuation, Deus looked at her one last time before disappearing into the dark portal. "And you're not touching me again, even if that means losing your support for this war."
Placing both of her hands on the desk, Merciella rested her face on top as she continued on smiling at Deus. Clamping her cheeks with her hands on both sides, she spoke to him again.
"Whether you like it or not, I'd take my reward once this war is over," licking her lips, Merciella watched over Deus as he walked into the portal with a discomforted look.
'I'm glad it's over.' Deus thought while traveling through the dark portal and about to be spitted out to wherever Inferno was.
"You never told me what she did to you," Reya asked, her voice echoing through the dark even though she wasn't really there.
"You're not even gonna help in the war, why would I tell you?" A bit disgruntled, Deus didn't want to talk to the scaredy demon lord of sloth.
With nothing to retort with and having no intention to carry on with a quarrel, Reya kept silent and simply spit Deus out where he needed to be. Coming out into an enclosed hall filled with burning flames and smog, Deus looked around the place trying to find Inferno. At first, he couldn't see anything through the burning frame of the building, but then standing at the far end of the hall he noticed Inferno standing in his shogun form with his back turned towards him.
"Inferno!" He called, taking his first step forward.
As a sudden cracking sound came from under his feet, Deus stopped in his tracks and looked down to see what he'd stepped on. Squinting his eyes, he noticed a charred bone that could easily be mistaken for coal. Confounded by what he'd seen, he surveyed the floor with his eyes to find a sea of burned bones fueling the flames burning all around him.
"What the hell have you been doing?" Glancing back at his brother, Deus noticed him looking right at him now. In his frenzy to shell out his anger from Asmodia's death, he seemed to have lost his ability to discern friends from foes.
"Just one? Bring me more royal guard!" Thinking he was still talking to his servants whom he'd killed in his frenzy, Inferno mistook Deus for a royal guard of the emperor.
The mention of the guards made Deus look around the ground once more, and scattered through them he found the equipment of the emperor's guards layered under a coating of ash.
"Have you been kidnapping these idiots?" This time as Deus looked back up, Inferno was inches from his face with his giant fiery blade drawn.
"Shit!" He cursed, wondering how his brother even managed to shorten the distance without making any discernible sound.
His reflexes slowed down by his thoughts, Deus couldn't move away in time and took a direct hit of the burning sword. Flying through the burning hall, he hit his head against a few fallen wood columns before his body finally fell down to the floor.
"Ahhh!" Grunting through the hurt, he picked himself up and decided to subdue his brother before trying to talk some sense back into him. "Data scan! Astromech model: Impacticore!"
Activating his abilities, a transparent visor appeared in front of his left eye, and began scanning all the quantifiable stats from the enemy. Jerking his hands, Deus created a pair of translucent guns in his hand all the while a bulky cyborg made of pure mana stood before him as an impact shield. Through the transparent blue body of the cyborg, Deus watched as Inferno rushed towards him with his blade once again drawn, however, this time, he was more than ready to intercept it.
"Impacticore get ready!" As Inferno swung his sword, the cyborg took it directly on its body, but instead of cutting through, the blade bounced out of Inferno's hand.
Jumping above the cyborg, Deus held his guns pointed at Inferno's head and shot them both before landing behind him. The astral bullets that struck his brother didn't do much damage but they managed to daze him from the sudden burst of light they gave off. Using that small frame of time, Deus made the impacticore mimic his moment and struck Inferno down with a synchronized keep to his legs.
"Are you done yet?" Moving closer Deus held his gun right above Inferno's shogun helmet. "Or do you want me to cluster bomb this place like we did when taking over Gaia?"
"Gruhhh…" Grumbling still, it didn't seem like Inferno had recovered just yet.
"Very well then," shooting the helmet without pause, Deus kept on going until it began to crumble.
"Stop!" Screaming out in annoyance as his head was finally set straight, Inferno slapped the guns out of Deus's hands.
Taking a step back, Deus watched as Inferno got back onto his feet and his transformation into the armored shogun came slowly undone. Making his guns and the cyborg disappear, Deus reached into a deep blue portal and took out a bottle filled with cold water. Trying to hand it over to Inferno he held it towards him, but instead of taking it from his hands, his brother slapped it out of his sight.
"That crinkly bottle makes stuff taste awful don't ever offer it to me again," huffing out a grunt, he drew deep breaths and consumed the flames burning all around them.
Left with but charred coal under their feet, Inferno opened his eyes and looked down at Deus wondering why he was there.
"If this is about anything other than killing that bastard, you can go away now before I take my anger out on you for real this time," Inferno warned, his eyes burning with deep red flames.
"First off, you're probably the only demon lord who's less of a problem when you go berserk so I wouldn't consider that a threat, secondly, I'm here exactly for the reason you'd want," Deus replied with a smirk.
"Good, then let's talk outside," turning towards the exit, Inferno began walking away without a word more.
Following him out, Deus was led up a pair of stairs and when he came to the sight of a battlefield underneath the cliff they were on, he was left more than just a bit baffled. Standing on Inferno's territory in Scorchen Gaia, he began to sweat profusely from the heat of the land as well as the army of infernal demons fighting against the emperor's expansive army.
"Wanna bet on who takes down the most humans?" Looking at Deus from the edge of his eyes, Inferno had a giant smirk riding on his lips. "If you take down more than me, I'll help you regain your territory, but if you lose you'll give the most bewitching of ladies from your army of servants."
Turning to Inferno with a sigh, shrugged his shoulders as if to agree.
"I assume you only want tough women who can handle themselves in battle?" Knowing his brother's taste well enough, Deus made the offer himself.
"Ahaha! Most certainly!" And with that inferno jumped down the cliff to slay human soldiers.
'Why is everyone obsessed with the other sex?' Shaking his head, Deus jumped in as well.
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