A Cliché Multiverse Story

Tamako was reasonably surprised to see her enemies fall. In another moment, she found herself in a forest. When Asahi made his presence known, her senses became overwhelmed with one oppressive thought. She forced down the thought of submission with her willpower.

"W-Who are you?"

"I'm not an enemy," Asahi clarified his identity before she took him as a foe.

Tamako unconsciously nodded her head. "You saved my life."

"Forget about that. I wanna know more about this devil."

Tamako nodded again and told Asahi about how she was chased throughout Kyoto by these devils.

"So you don't know why he wants you?"

"No."

"I'll ask his mind then."

Asahi used the mind-reading skill on the ronin leader. The reason for the devil's forced mutation was a black ring with indecipherable letters written in its radius. A silver-haired man had given it to them with one simple order.

"Bring as much yokai as you can."

For every yokai, they would be given money or a more refined version of the ring.

'Why do they want yokai? Are they experimenting to turn youkai into devils?'

A half-youkai and half-devil will be more powerful than a normal half-human half-devil.

Asahi looked at the shaken kitsune. "Should I escort you home?"

Tamako shook her head. "I-I can go there myself."

She wasn't going to bring a stranger to her base. The devils were lurking about for her kind.

Asahi patted her head. "I'll see you later then."

Tamako simply nodded her head before she turned around and fled into the forest.

"Master, will she be okay?"

"I tried to help but she rejected."

Asahi invited Grayfia to get her opinion on the entire situation.

Grayfia frowned. "It's unlikely that this is done by a top family. They are too terrified of losing their powers… there is still a chance they contracted a lower-class family to do their biddings... our only option is that clown running around with these rings."

Asahi had examined the ring with his appraisal glasses, only to find that they were filled with corrupted demonic power. The words on the ring were a spell that Grayfia had never seen before. So their only lead was this mysterious devil merchant, who only came at midnight.

"Let's kill some time."

Asahi took Ray and Grayfia around Kyoto, killing the half-human half-devil experiments. Even women were involved in the whole ordeal. All of them were people who lusted for power or simply wanted to kill. Asahi had no remorse for killing these people.

With all these 'good' deeds, he had some leverage over the youkais in the negotiation.

***

Meanwhile, in the Underworld.

Lilith was sitting in a bright room, glaring at the middle-aged man with long silver hair. A red-haired maid on his lap was fervently kissing his chest.

"Rizevim, I'm demanding your respect. At least stop messing around with your maid when I'm here."

Rizevim Livan Lucifer was Lilith's son. Yet, he had no ounce of respect for his mother, or the newly crowned Devil King.

"Mom, the first step to being evil is giving no respect to elderlies."

Rizevim had been itching to do something after the Great War settled. Pissing Lilith off helped that itch for a moment.

Lilith crossed her legs, narrowing her eyes. "Then do something evil for me. Kill some high-class devils."

Her propaganda couldn't get enough heat. Most people were skeptical of her claims since the Devil Kings gave her an equal position. The extremely low population of devils only helped the peace route Devil Kings were going for.

Rizevim gave an amused smile. "Care to give their names?"

"Bael, Sitri, Valefor, and Gremory. I want their heads."

Rizevim might be the strongest devil in the Underworld. His demonic power was simply immense even compared to his father, Lucifer.

"What will I get in return?"

He didn't need her motives. He needed compensation for lifting his fingers.

"Those assassinations will cause a civil war."

They needed to empty some space with authority for a struggle of power to occur.

Rizevim yanked the maid by her hair and tossed her aside. He closed his robes and grinned. "Consider it done, Mom."

Lilith smiled. "You're a good son."

"But my father is useless." Rizevim shook his head, disappointment written all over his face. "What did I hear when I was fighting the dragon queen and her army in the Underworld? The Great Lucifer got his ass kicked by a human. The shock was so great, he went crazy and became a saint."

"He is not just a human. He is the stand-in for Biblical God after he retires."

"Still human." Rizevim spat before he left the room. "What a disgrace for the Lucifer name."

Lilith sighed. 'I can only hope he doesn't fuck this up.'

She didn't have any choice but to depend on Rizevim. The constant rallies against the Devil Kings had taken some toll on her.. Besides, she was never much of a fighter as her name and aura alone could scare off most of the devils.