The Mandate of Chaos: Interlude - Literally Satan (ch. 12)

“Ajuuuukkkaaaaaaaaaaa!” Serafall Leviathan slammed her foot into her friend's laboratory door, blasting it clean off its hinges, and found herself being surprised by his deeply focused state, eyes glued to whatever trinket he was working on now. Not because it was rare for Ajuka Beelzebub to be doing so, much the contrary in fact, but because she’d grown accustomed to him anticipating her arrival, with her favorite cookies and tea already steaming, no matter the situation.

It had been almost a week since she had talked with the young Asutarotos, but it was only now that she had found the time to harass her friend over the absolute shitshow his actions could have caused. They had had briefings about this for Hell’s sake! She had made a Power Point and everything!

With a negligent flick of his wrist, the complex materials shimmering on Ajuka’s desk rearranged themselves and vanished as he turned around to face her. “Serafall.” He nodded towards his fellow Maou, with that blank lifeless look on his face that she had unwillingly gotten used to.

Better it than the mask he used with everyone else though. It had been a work of decades to have him drop it around her too instead of just Sirzechs, and she was not about to set back all her progress because she was a bit annoyed.

“You absolute dumbass!” she yelled, striding forward. “I thought you’d gotten better at this!”

“You thought wrong.” The flat out admission surprised her. Serafall had thought he was getting better at dealing with other people, and in social matters she was rarely—if ever—wrong about something. “I simply learned to use my Kankara Formula in… innovative ways.”

The Kankara Formula. It was something every devil—and a lot of non-devils—knew of (a terrifyingly complex theorem of probability and causality), but only a few knew how it truly worked. That was by design of course, even Serafall was not one hundred percent certain she understood her friend’s power in its totality.

Ajuka got up and began setting up the room for them.

“Do you remember that explanation I gave you on determinism? Around seventy years ago?”

Seventy years ago… she remembered. Ajuka had invited her to see the handiwork of one he said would become his newer pawn. She hadn’t expected much of it at the time, but she should have suspected something was wrong when instead of taking her to a lecture hall, or a controlled environment, he had taken her to Japan and handed her a pair of special glasses.

She hadn’t thought it related when she heard the planes pass above her head—as a devil she had much less appreciation for those than some other races like the youkai for example—but she really should have suspected something by then.

She saw it again in her mind’s eye: the small, unassuming metallic cylinder falling.

And Ajuka Beelzebub had smiled.

Fear, cold and primal, had slithered down her spine then.

Little Boy, she had come to learn it was what the humans had named that specific iteration of the explosive device.

There was nothing little about it.

The object vanished behind the distant skyline. A fraction later—a point of light, impossibly intense, flared into existence.

Almost immediately, the air around them seemed to compress, a flash expanding outward as a near-spherical fireball formed at the center. The fireball grew rapidly, its outer surface a shifting mass of incandescent gases, vaporized materials, and plasma. Within moments, the shockwave arrived—a sharp, concussive force that rattled the ground and structures nearby—followed by the deep, rolling roar of the blast.

The rising column of hot air pulled dust, debris, and smoke upward into the now-forming stem of the mushroom-shaped cloud. The core of the cloud billowed outward at the top, continuing to climb into the upper atmosphere as the fireball’s brightness slowly diminished. Heat radiated outward long after the initial flash, and the pressure wave continued expanding for kilometers beyond the point of detonation.

She understood then, why he had asked for her to accompany him instead of Sirzechs. Her other friend would not be able to understand, as a being of pure Destruction, he would merely gaze at the device and shrug, for he could do better likely with less effort than it took him to clench his buttcheeks.

She looked to the side, and saw Ajuka Beelzebub clapping.

“When I first warned you, three hundred years ago, to be wary of humans,” Ajuka had said, “you asked which Longinus bearer concerned me. Your mind couldn’t conceive of humanity itself as the threat. Two hundred years later, when I repeated the warning, clarified it was humanity, you laughed. You thought it my first joke.” He had turned fully towards her, his hands never stopping that incessant noise, the clap. Clap. Clap. He droned on with the tone of voice of a tired university professor.

“In 8000 BCE, they learned to cultivate the land—agriculture.

In 4000 BCE, they shaped copper and bronze into tools—metalworking.

In 1000 BCE, they forged iron and steel.

In 1750 CE, they tamed steam, electricity, and chemical energy—industrial civilization.

Today, in 1945 CE, they split the atom, releasing energy once held only in the cores of stars—nuclear weapons.” His voice had been a monotone recitation, as if he was giving her a simple history lesson.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Even Serafall, who cheerfully admitted intellect wasn't her primary weapon, grasped the terrifying trajectory. The intervals between leaps were collapsing. Human evolution wasn't linear, it had never been linear. Human evolution was exponential.

He had continued, relentless.

“Around the fifties, they will amplify that energy into thermonuclear devices.

Around the seventies, they will put men on the moon.”

Serafall had almost laughed. Almost. The sound died, strangled by the rhythmic, chilling clap. Clap. Clap.

“Around the same time, unmanned probes will be traveling across the solar system.

Devices used to communicate from one corner of the world to the other near instantly will be developed in the following decade, and from there in around twenty years they will teach those devices to answer questions well enough that they will be near indistinguishable from humans in that respect.

Antimatter, Dark Matter, Strange Matter eventually all shall come to be under their control, and as such be turned into weapons. Beings like me and Sirzechs, and even you for a long while, may be able to survive their evolution, but will the planet though?”

His eyes, flat and depthless, had locked onto hers. “Tell me, Serafall. What do you think of humans now?”

A cold sweat, utterly unrelated to any lingering heat from that long-ago blast, prickled across her skin. The applause echoed in the suddenly suffocating silence.

“You have played pool before, right?” He had asked her, and she had nodded, for she had not trusted her voice not to fail her. "Before the cue strikes the white ball, the potential outcomes are nearly infinite. Yet, the moment the cue makes contact, the entire sequence is predetermined. Barring external interference, the outcome is fixed."

He had inhaled deeply and Serafall had been unsure how the air had smelled to him, but to her it had smelled simply horrible.

"The cue hitting the ball is the Big Bang. From that singularity, we’ve been hurtling down a path of destruction paved by the very species that old Yahweh saw fit to give the world to."

“…How do we stop it?" Her voice was a rasp.

"I don't know. I’m still working on that part."

And he had left her there. Teleporting away, he had left her standing amidst the echoes of his apocalyptic pronouncements. Even if she managed to rally her race against humanity, it would not be enough. The other Pantheons wouldn’t stand for it, for despite the many tales that depicted the fickleness and callousness of Gods towards humans, the fact was that none of them, as a united collective, had ever explicitly wished for the destruction of mankind. There was not a Chief God out there that didn't wish for their believers to prosper, procreate, and dominate the other religions.

A god who demanded their followers' extinction was a god signing their own death warrant.

She had managed to push it to the back of her mind, that is, until Sona had been born, and the little bundle of heat and fluids in her arms cooed and smiled and laughed at her, and Serafall felt all those worries crash back tenfold. What future would her precious sister be born to? How long did she have?

To this day, she did not know what to do.

“Do you know why I like Sirzechs, Serafall?" he spoke now, bringing her mind back to the present, as he poured her some steaming hibiscus tea.

Because you’re gay? She did not retort.

"It’s in part because,” Ajuka continued, putting down the pot and steepling his fingers, “when he releases his true self, I stop being able to predict him. One of the balls inside the table, temporarily, becomes able to Destroy even the predictions of my Kankara Formula, and as such I can longer know what will happen.” He nonchalantly sipped at his boiling hot tea and, for the first time in seventy years, smiled at her. It was a dry, humorless twist of his lips that sent a shiver down her spine.

“I’ve been working on using that to stop our own inevitable destruction, but I’ve found something better.” An image of the boy she had seen earlier in the week, Shinji Asutaroto, shimmered into existence above the table. "I'm still not exactly sure what it was that Zolgen did to him… but it gave him a means to access a piece of the Primordial Khaos. Of the universe before the Big Bang,” before the cue hit the ball, she translated, “when it was still full of possibilities.”

A Sacred Gear came to mind, but its powers didn't really work in the way Shinji's did. And anyways, if Serafall thought of it, then Ajuka most certainly had too.

“That’s why you couldn’t use your Kankara Formula to predict the time I would arrive!” She realized.

Ajuka slowly shook his head. “I couldn’t figure out the exact time you would arrive, but years of behavioral data still work well enough to give me a rough estimate. It’s the same for the rest. I am still able to predict most phenomena, especially when more or less isolated from the boy and near enough to the present. Even he, in the intervals between his power activating, is more or less still predictable. However, I’d wager that attempting to predict his future more than one month in advance would be a fool’s errand. Perhaps even a week or less, depending on how active the power inside him is during said time.”

Serafall gulped, and drank of the tea Ajuka extended to her. “You would not be telling me all this if you did not need something.”

“You’re Serafall Leviathan.” Ajuka stated while leaning back. Damn it he was starting by stating simple common knowledge. That always led to some absolute shitshows. “Before you were a magical girl—they are a rather recent construct after all—you imitated a rather popular Hollywood actress by the name of Marilyn Monroe. Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Marie Antoinette—you took and learned from each and everyone that you could learn from to become the icon you are today, with a position so well secured you can afford to show yourself being sexually assaulted by tentacles on primetime television without losing an ounce of popularity.”

Serafall, despite herself, felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Get to the point Ajuka.”

“Seduce the boy.”

Serafall choked, spraying tea across the immaculate floor, small magical circles coming to life beneath it and quickly atomizing the spilled liquid.

“This is not a frivolous suggestion,” Ajuka intoned, utterly unfazed. “And had he not attained the power that he recently did, I would not be suggesting it at all. However, you’ve been thinking of conceiving a progeny for a while, have you not?”

Serafall did not ask how he knew. It was obvious by now.

“He can provide that. In a single encounter.” Ajuka produced a small black usb pen and twirled it around in his fingers like a magician does a coin. “I can provide a comprehensive profile of his projected aesthetic and psychological preferences. You won't fulfill the 'virgin' archetype, but given your… extended period of celibacy… it may hold a certain appeal. It has been what, a hundred years by now?" A droplet of tea trickled down his temple where she'd finished spatting the second mouthful.

“Fuck you, Ajuka,” she hissed, unsure if she should be angry or mortified.

“No,” her fellow Maou said, his expression unchanging. “You need to fuck him.”

Serafall stared. The silence stretched, thick with the echo of his utterance.

Ajuka Beelzebub had just made a joke.

The world, Serafall Leviathan decided, was well and truly doomed.

- - -

As soon as Serafall swept out, leaving a faint scent of expensive perfume in her wake, Ajuka restored his laboratory to its former state of pristine order.

He had not lied to her. After four centuries together, directly lying to Serafall caused an odd, unsettling sensation deep in his core, an internal discord that made it nearly impossible to focus on his work. Humans colloquially referred to it as guilt, but he was certain that wasn’t really what it was. Certainly. Possibly. Maybe.

Anyways, the point of the matter was, Ajuka Beelzebub had not directly lied to Serafall Leviathan. He may, however, have… stretched the truth a little bit.

It was fact that his Kankara Formula was affected by Shinji Asutaroto’s power, but it was not to such a degree that it would cloud his judgment and prevent him from realizing that he should physically check on the youngsters once in a while if he wanted them to maintain a positive view of the Devil race, instead of the ambivalent one the boy had held.

There was no doubt in his mind that Serafall would soon, in her own terms, ‘max out his affection points and raise all his flags’ though, thereby compensating for any damage his absence might have caused.

At the end of the day, Ajuka Beelzebub was a Devil. When he struck a Deal—a true Deal, with a capital 'D'—he couldn’t help but feel compelled to see it through, to guide its trajectory to the most optimal outcome.

And such was the deal he had struck with the young Sakura Asutaroto, a pact that obligated him to conceal the nature of said deal with the utmost discretion, revealing it to no one unless such disclosure was purely beneficial for all parties involved, or if Shinji Asutaroto’s life hung in the balance.

With a wave of his hand, Ajuka summoned one of the multiple holographic displays embedded within the room. This particular interface was rarely active, due to young Sakura’s persistent efforts to conceal it within her Imaginary Number Space.

Ajuka also hadn't lied to Shinji Asutaroto in the only conversation he held with him. Sakura Asutaroto was no longer a Magus, nor did she possess the inherent ability to become one anymore. That, however, did not change what her Origin, Attribute and Element were. Or the fact that with outside help she could access them as easily as if she was a Magus herself. Enter: Kaleidostick Amethyst.

The image it displayed was blurry, obscured by a thin coat of viscous red liquid covering its 'eye'. Blood, Ajuka quickly realized.

That was unexpected. But by this point, he had come to expect the unexpected when dealing with those siblings.

Quickly forcing the Mystic Code to clean itself and refocus its 'eye', Ajuka assessed the situation.

The first thing he noticed was that Sakura Asutaroto had become a devil. Such was not unexpected, but it had occurred somewhat sooner than he anticipated. Something had triggered the surge of ambition she naturally held within her, a desire for power that had driven her to… Sona? No, Rias, his algorithms corrected, for Sakura felt her position more threatened by the former rather than the latter.

Sirzechs’ sister, of course, had been quick to accept, as was expected of one like her.

Still, it was peculiar. Amethyst was built in such a way that it was one of the few ways the world had to remove a Sacred Gear from a human without killing him. Yet, going by the state of the body, it was clear that dead was what the boy was.

Ajuka closed his eyes, tracing the path she would have taken after becoming a devil, the path she had taken before she had become a devil, the path that had taken her to this house, into the room of this specific young, perverted teenager. He analyzed its destruction, the state of the boy's body, of the infrastructure surrounding him. He examined the ley lines, the ambient magical energies, the subtle fluctuations in the Od within the room, and how some it had doubled momentarily—again, again, and then again once more—a mere few minutes ago.

Ajuka thought, and as usual, he arrived at the answer. There was a limited number of Gears that, in return for giving up a part of the user's self to the being inside it, or sacrificing part of their lifespan, it would dramatically increase the user's power. It was that same type of Gear where, if that power was used, even Amethyst would find it difficult to remove it while at the same time preserving its user's life, due to the added connection between the soul and the Sacred Gear.

Huh. The answer flashed in Ajuka's mind. She stole the Red Dragon Emperor's Gauntlet from this generation’s holder.

Slowly, he refilled his cup and drank the lukewarm tea while reclining in his chair.

Neat.