The Holy Chronicles of Baator

Enormous AU DxD, Big Crossover with Mechanical God Emperor AU, Cultivation Elements (like WMW), Cross-Overs, Self-insert, World Building, Kingdom Building, Wars, Polygamy, Slow-Romane at Start, Multiple Universes, not every chapter is fight or war, no pokemon catching, no MC centric novel... This is not a novel where there exists a single character which is MC, this isn't a novel where MC gets all female characters, and MC isn't any kind of playboy/alpha male or a natural seducer

In this novel, there would be a focus on side characters, kingdom-building elements, other people besides MC, and their fates and lives, (as I try to take some elements from Western Fantasy and combine them with elements of the Eastern Fantasy). Additionally, in my world, which is created from multiple Universe, MC isn't a single Transmigrator, there are countless reincarnators, transmigrators, or people similar to that... (1st I wanted my MC to be special not for something that was not even his devise but rather his Power / Personality / History. 2nd reason is I have always found it unrealistic that in enormous worlds, across all time and space, only MC was reincarnated.)

 

Chapter 1 – Prologue

"My Lord, please wake up."

Said the soft voice belonging to the female as I slowly opened my eyes. I looked around with a slight panic, but I quickly suppressed my emotions and started thinking.

My surrounding was different; the place was other, everything seemed different. And then, my head started hurting like hell. My memories began flooding, or should I say memories belonging to the previous host of the body, or whatever just now happened.

I waved at the maid that was waking me up as she bowed and left my bedroom.

My name was Zeoticus Gremory, a new Duke of Gremory after my father was killed in a recent skirmish with Fallen Angels. The timeline was before the Great War of the Biblical Faction, and tensions rose in the last decades.

Currently is the year, 1,414 so only around two decades until the Great War will break out.

​

'Hmm... basically a self-insert. Though I admit... this is good, my dream finally came true. Now just to see if my little friend also came with me. Architect.'

[Here.]

"So, you transmigrated with me... what the hell happened? I have died, that is for sure, but my memories are blurry."

[That is correct. There was an accident in the laboratory, and unfortunately, the explosion led to the immediate death of the entire team of scientists and the collapse of the building.]

Said Architect in his usually cold mechanical voice.

"I knew it... researching that things those bastards brought from those ruins were a bad idea, but I couldn't help myself."

[Humans. Consistently overestimating their capabilities. Though now you are not human, I dare to say. From your memories, I can judge that you are a race known as Devil in this Universe known as Draconic Deus.]

"Yes, do the scan of my body. Use all available knowledge you have and my memories as well."
[It shall be done.]

[Name: Zeoticus Gremory
Race: Pure-Blooded Devil - Bloodline: Gremory, Lucifer
Occupation: Lord of House of Gremory, Duke of Gremory
Age: 180
-
Class: High - only due to Demonic Energy Level
Demonic Power: 76
Strength: 14
Agility: 20
Vitality: 27
-
Clan Trait:
Dark Light
The Devour - Sealed
-
Abilities:
Devil Magic - Adept]

"Hmm... if I remember, the scaling system is set with number 1 as Extreme Human limit. Meaning I am 14 times stronger than a normal human, twenty times faster, and my Vitality is higher 27-times. Architect, use the available data, to calculate stat range of classes from Low-Class to High-Class."

I said as I looked at the information provided by Architect. I see that I had Dark Light from my mother's side, as he was a Lucifer Clan member. Father always told me never to show this power to anyone, anyone. He was right; I would probably be getting killed by descendants of the Lucifer Clan without any power to back myself.

The Dark Light trait was rare even among the Lucifer Clan, as currently, only Original Lucifer had it. It was able to create light like Angels and Fallen, but with a Dark element. Meaning, it was deadly for beings of Light affiliation and also Darkness affiliation.

Though the Clan Trait of the Gremory Clan was sealed, the Devour... looked intimidating and exciting. It should be about devouring magic or demonic energy... I will search the library.
[Claculation has been done.]
[Low-Class - 1 - 15
Mid-Class - 30 - 50
High-Class - 75 - 99]

"Hmm... this is bad. I am currently the same as most Pillar Devils. I became High-Class only due to my lineage and Demonic Energy reserves, but my body is no better than a weakling. In close combat, I could be killed by any trained exorcist with a strong body or practically by any martial artist of the Middle-Class. Damm."

I remember this from anime. The usual problem of Pure-Blood devils depended on bloodline too much that they didn't bother to train their bodies. So in close combat, I could be easily killed.

"I have approximately 20 years before the Great War will start. Because of my pedigree, I would lead troops and participate in the war. But right now as I am, I would die for sure, and even if I don't die, I cannot fight, so my merit would be very low."

I cursed.

"Now my top priority should get train my body to that of Pinnacle of High-Class Level, and then reach Ultimate-Class in Demonic Power. With the Ultimate-Class level of power, I could be counted in the upper spectrum of powerhouses participating in the war, so I would be able to do something. My second priority should be securing enough merit for the promotion of my house. Duke is too low, but King doesn't so bad."

I thought out loud.

"Architect. Start creating a training regime to strengthen my body as much as possible. I will go to the library and start studying magic in my free time."

[It shall be done. With the available information, perfect training regiment creation would take 1 week.]

As I stood up and looked at the mirror as I marveled at my new appearance, Answered Architect. I had long crimson red hair tied in a loose ponytail with a black hairband and bright blue eyes. I was the embodiment of handsomeness.
On top of that, I had a rather muscular body and a gigantic d...

"This life would be fantastic... Hmm... after Great War, just deal with the Devil Civil War, and I could enjoy peace and training for another five centuries, till the Khaos Brigade is formed. Hmm... think of it, if Lucifer Clan is wiped out in the Devil Civil War, I would be the only survivor, at least, the non-criminal survivor could fuse our Houses of Gremory and Lucifer. I could also get Grayfia; she was hot... should I feel sorry for my unborn son?"

I thought as I put on my clothes and went to eat some breakfast. As I was Lord of the House, my only duties were to guard my territory, and that was all. I would be studying magic for this week, as having only Adept ranked mastery was a disgrace for me.

"I will reach the top..."

I muttered as I walked out of my bedroom.​

 

Castle Fuerig was a majestic and beautiful place built by the first Gremory, who was my grandfather. It housed countless servants and soldiers and oversaw the huge territory of the Devil Race.

Gremory territory bordered the demilitarized zone, on whose other end was the territory of the Fallen Angels. So, there were often skirmishes between the two factions. As the God of the Bible was still alive, Heaven was strongest, followed by Devils, with Fallen getting the 3rd place.

After eating my breakfast which was pretty lavish, I went directly to the long-awaited place, the library. When I opened the door to the library, I was shocked... it was huge, far bigger than I imagined. There were thousands upon thousands of books.

I thought that is not that surprising. Gremory Family held the rank of Duke and was an old one. My grandfather was a magic researcher and a magic book collector, so he had an enormous collection of magic books, numbering in thousands.

It ranged from books on elemental magic to racial types of magic, like Devil Magic, Fairy Magic or Asgardian Magic, runes, and countless others. I was instantly amazed and immersed in looking at all of this beauty.

"As one would say... the knowledge is power."

I muttered as I proceeded and used a simple spell to bring me a book on the topic of Gravity Magic. Using Devil Magic was extremely easy for every devil with even moderate demonic power reserves.

Devil Magic is all about imagination. Just imagine something and fuel it with enough demonic power to happen, and voa la, it happens.

Learning Gravity Magic would be of great use in my upcoming physical training and could also be used in combat. Thanks to the A.I. Chip Architect that fused with my soul, I had basically eidetic memory and memorized everything.

After several hours, I learned the basic magic circles on Gravity Magic and how to increase gravity by x10. Though I didn't end it here, for the next three days straight, I closed myself in the library as I delved into the study of the mysteries of the arcane.

As a scientist in my past life, magic was just another type of science operated by different rules, but alas, it was science. From my own racial magic to the Norse Magic, which operated on runes and precise calculations, I started learning.

As I was practically absorbing one book after another and occasionally testing the spells I had learned, I didn't even notice that the week was already up until Architect woke me up from my trans of constant learning of magic.

[Training regime complete.]

When I heard the Architect's voice, I closed the magic book that I was learning and went to take a bath. I literary spent an entire week holed up in the library and learning magic, so I was expected to get dirty.

Afterward, I took a bath, went to the training yard, which was my personal, and tried the new spells and magic I had learned. A Norse Rune of yellow color appeared behind me with a wave of my hand and shot a lightning bolt at the training dummy, completely obliterating it on the spot.

"Hmm... Norse Magic is harder to learn by Devil Magic by a huge margin, but destructiveness is on a whole other level."

My Demonic Energy reserves have increased by 4 points in one week, probably due to constant usage and proper training.

After testing the Norse Magic's strength, though I had learned only the Lightning Rune and was only a Novice, it was a good result. The next thing was the Gravity Magic, which was cast with the usage of Devil's Magic.

Soon enough, I have already created the purple magic circle and felt that everything around me was heavier. I had a harder time moving, and the gravity became ten times higher than before.

"This should be enough."

I said as I dispersed the Magic Circle.

"Architect, what about the training regime?"

I asked as I sat down on the ground cross-legged.

[Within one year, if you train accordingly to this, you could bring your body to the Pinnacle of Mid-Class, with 50 points in each physical parameter. The training is solely dependent on physical exercise under higher gravity.]

"Hmm... that is good for just one year of training. I have enough time, the Great War won't start sooner than 20 years. What about breaking the limits and entering the High-Class?"

I asked as I wanted to have my body at the Pinnacle of the High-Class before the start of the Great War. For example, Sairaorg from anime trained his body so much that without Touki, he was basically a Pinnacle of High-Class strength with physical prowess alone.

[Several options to break the limit on the body. 1st would be to learn Touki and Senjutsu, manipulate the Life Force and refine your body with Chi. 2nd option would be doing the same thing with your Demonic Energy, though you would need to have energy reserves at the Ultimate-Class, to do that. 3rd option would be creating some alchemical strengthening potion out of the blood of physically strong creatures.]

Explained the Architect in his typical emotionless machine voice.

And now this was becoming a bit of a problem. 1st option of learning Touki and Senjutsu was extremely problematic, as almost nobody in the Underworld knew such skills. Even if I find some devil who knew it, the possibility he would teach me is already low, not talking about that one needed to have an innate talent for it.

Now that leaves me with 2nd and 3rd options. 2nd one could be realized only if I reach Ultimate-Class in my demonic energy reserves, which is also my goal, so I will leave this option to be my second choice.

And now, 3rd. It is the winner. Why do you ask? Because I can easily refine such a potion with the help of my A.I. Chip, learning Alchemy is no problem for me with help from Architect. Also, obtaining the blood of such creatures is pretty easy for me, as I am rich...

 

The first month of physical training was an absolute nightmare.

Even though I was physically far more powerful than in my previous life, it was no different from torture under heightened gravity.

I have started with simple exercises, such as push-ups, squats, crunches, and running. I was never for physical things; in the past, I actively and successfully avoided as possible, but now, I wanted to have every advantage in a fight in this life.

My thirst for strength was infinite. For me, the physical path was just another way to gain more power. Fortunately, Architect constructed the best body training method possible, based on my own library and things I have bought from the Celestial Court of the Jade Emperor.

I called it proudly, [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method]. Based on my plan, after gaining initial physical condition, I can train in the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] according to the Architect. I also had him create a simplified version of it, called [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method], and ordered commanders of my legions to train soldiers in it.

In the Great War, It would save countless lives of my soldiers, and the strength of the Gremory Legions would be superior to other Pillar Houses. I planned to do the same thing for the Bael Clan, to obtain the support of Zekram Bael later in my plans.

Back to the topic of [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method].

It allowed one to reach the Pinnacle of Middle-Class in physical attributes, using Demonic Energy in training and training under extremely high gravity and some supplements. Mainly some rare herbs and pills.

In addition, I also started training in martial arts, so I could defend myself when it came to hand-to-hand combat, though I hope it would not.

After one month of simple exercises, I noticed that my physical strength had gone higher, especially the strength and agility of my body. Unfortunately, the vitality remained the same, though the Architect explained to me that the body's vitality was the hardest to rise.

Apparently, even most of the Ultimate-Class devils I have seen had vitality of only around 40 to 50 points. Even for devils, it was tough to rise.

[Now, you can start using the Devil Outer Body Tempering Method. The first step is using your Demonic Energy to strengthen your Bones and Muscles. Start from Bones and let them absorb as much as possible. Though I must warn you, the process would take several months to achieve and would be extremely painful.]

"Like meditation and cultivation stuff from Celestial Court?"

I asked Architect. Cultivation wasn't foreign in this world, as entire factions depended on it, especially the Celestial Court of the Jade Emperor, where Immortals and Celestials resided.

From what I know, it was the only faction that took humans from Earth, not from the Immortal Region of Three Realms. Though from what I heard, humans of Earth have a low talent for Cultivation, most of them can reach only Nascent Soul, which is around the same as the High-Class of us Devils.

But, the other Three Realm of the Celestial Court were powerful, remarkably. Though they are reclusive, they were actually the most powerful faction in Draconic Deus Universe currently. Even one of their Armies would be able to wipe out Devil Race with ease.

That was the reason why I had decided to raise our racial strength, of course only after I had gained control of the devil race, after the Civil War, when I planned to dispose of every enemy or a potential traitor.

I started channeling the Demonic Energy in my body exactly as [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] instructed me to and infuse it into my bones.

'Damm, that hurts like hell. Fortunately, I used a magic seal, so my screams won't wake up the entire castle.'

The Architect was underestimating the pain the process was bringing.

And thus the time was flying, and week after week, went by as I was in secluded training. For devils, as long as we had magic to absorb passively, there was no need to eat food often, so I didn't have a problem to spent several months in seclusion.

After two months, I almost didn't feel any pain as I continuously infused an enormous amount of Demonic Energy into my bones, making them far denser and far more durable than before.

[Congratulations. The process is done. Now the second part is to repeat the same thing with your muscles. Be careful, as elementary, to tear them apart if you are not cautious with your control over the Demonic Energy.]

"Good to know. Also, how much higher is my physique after finishing the Bone Refinement part of the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method]?"

[Physical strength increased by 16 points, and Vitality increased by 5 points, and Agility increased by 9 points. Altogether, by finishing the pre-training and first part of the Devil Outer Body Tempering Method, your body has officially entered the Middle-Class. I think, congratulations.]

Truth be told, I was feeling fantastic.

Far more powerful and even healthier than I was when I transmigrated. My physique also became more attractive due to all that training, as I became a bit taller and more handsome, I think.

"I will go take a good bath. I need to rest for at least one whole week before going to complete the second phase of the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method]."

I muttered as I exited the training room, where I was spending the previous two months. I needed a bath, as my clothes were sweaty from the training, and I was dirty and sweaty from not seeing water for two months.

 

Today, I have set my sight on mastering my magic. I will take one week from the physical training, as my magic mastery is pathetic. Devil Magic is only at the Adept-Ranked Mastery, which is pretty low, and my Norse Magic is only at Novice, though I only know Lightning Rune.

One huge advantage of that I am Head of the House, besides that I can do whatever I want, is that I don't need to participate in all those formal events, especially the Young Devil Gathering, where descendants of Four Satans are flaunting their little strength and a huge ego.

Though not much longer, when the coup would be successful, all of them would be dead or end up as experiment material.

I went to the library; it was one of my favorite places at the Fuerig Castle at all, thought before I went there, I noticed someone waiting for me, it was Borke.

Borke was General of Gremory Legions, a middle-aged devil with rather an ordinary appearance, jet black hair. Still, his crimson eyes were genuinely terrifying, complemented with that massive scar over his right eye; he gave an authentic warrior general vibe.

"My Lord."

Bowed Borke after noticing me.

[Name: Borke Zagan

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil - Bloodline: Zagan

Occupation: General of Gremory Legions

Age: 456

-

Class: Ultimate

Demonic Power: 196

Strength: 72

Agility: 69

Vitality: 50]

As I used a scan of Architect on him, I saw that he was on the upper scale of the Ultimate-Class. While mainly magically focused, his body was already on the High-Class level itself, and his Demonic Energy reserves were also pretty high.

He was one of the strongest Ultimate-Class devils I had under my command. Overall, I thought I had around 5.

"How is the training of our legions going with the usage of [Devil outer Body Tempering Method] I gave to you?"

I ask him.

"Very good, it is precious, and I predict within five years of training, I believe I can raise all Low-Class Devils, with low magic potential to reach Middle-Class. Also, I have been working on the other orders you gave me, and first preparations are already complete."

Reported General Borke.

"Hmm... We need to buy more factories that produce military supplies. War is coming soon, and this will be the greatest opportunity to expand our influence and wealth. Also, continue to fortify the territory. We are on the edge of the demilitarized zone; when the war starts, we would need to withstand most attacks from Fallen."

I said quietly. The Great War was of many opportunities. Currently, there were around 20 years till it would erupt, and almost none of the noble Families were anticipating full-out war. Maybe some, I heard Great King Zekram started some military drills, similar to Archduke Agares and Lucifer.

Some of them were already beginning to notice rising tensions, and soon enough, the war would erupt. And it was then I asked a question myself. What was a better opportunity to make out a ton of money. A lot of Soul Coins would flow into my pocket.

Because of that, I was currently using every Soul Coin available to me to buy all production lines or factories that focus on making weapons, magical ammunition, and other necessities needed for war. This would expand my influence enormously, as when everyone noticed that the war was inevitable, the need for weapons and armors and other things would rise drastically. And what was best, I would be holding a monopoly over weapon and armor production in the Underworld.

"We have started building Magic Tower all around the territory and Fortresses on strategical places. All around, the fortification is going very well."

Overall I was satisfied with the progression of my territory. After hearing the reports, I went to the library and took around twenty books on Devil Magic and ten on Norse Magic and started studying.

While Devil Magic was pretty easy to cast, it had one defect. It had a high requirement on spells if you don't know proper techniques and methods of casting, which means, for example. You can cast a simple Fireball Spell, even without knowing mechanics, as you imagine Fireball, and consumption would be 1 unit of Demonic Energy.

But... suppose you know the proper technique and methods of casting and inner working of spellcraft. In that case, you can reduce the consumption of Demonic Energy and even enhance the spell, all of just 0,1 units of Demonic Energy.

So, all devils who had magic as their primary form of combat would spend hours learning proper casting methods and techniques to lower the consumption of Demonic Energy.

In truth, learning magic wasn't like it was presented... many would think about casting spells, experimenting, making explosions... nople.

The reality was different.

Mastering magic is instead the opposite. I spent more than 14 hours a day in the library, memorizing casting methods, spell construction models, and reading magic books, and recording them to Architect's memory, which was also my memory, as he was fused with my soul.

After more than ten days spent learning Devil Magic techniques and casting methods, it was a bit longer than I originally planned; as I dwelled into depths of the arcane, I cannot stop, fortunately, or unfortunately, time would say.

Currently, I was casting some simple spells with the usage of Devil Magic. Mainly elemental ones, as they were easiest to use for Devils.

"Architect, how exactly is the consumption? I feel it is several times lower."

[Demonic Energy consumption lowered by another three times. According to the classification, your mastery over Devil Magic has reached Expert Level.]

"Good. According to your calculations, how much time would it take to reach Master-Ranked Mastery?"

[With cheat called A.I. Chip at least 5 years of serious magic training and study.]

"Tche. It is not cheating... you are a literary part of my soul. Even if it is an annoying part of my soul."

[What is annoying are you, organics. Always thinking with emotions and not with logic. The flesh is weak.]

"Idiot... you are part of the flesh too."

 

Several months later, I was still training in the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method]. After finishing the first part of the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method], which was tempering my bones with the Demonic Energy usage, I was currently undergoing the second part of the method, which was doing the same thing with my muscles.

Though it was less painful, as I increased my pain resistance tremendously, from tempering my bones, it was far slower. I needed to be especially careful not to tear apart my muscles and not cause myself some injuries.

But the results were good, very good. My body became more flexible, stronger, and faster. With each passing day to the tempering process, I could feel how much stronger I had become. My physique also changed as my muscles started compressing, and I now looked more muscular, not like some bodybuilder, but rather some athlete.

When I looked in the mirror, I couldn't stop marveling at my upgraded form or something like that.

"Architect, scan me."

I commended as soon transparent window appeared before my eyes with precise information about my strength and how stronger I have gotten in the past six months.

[Zeoticus Gremory

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil - Bloodline: Gremory, Lucifer

Occupation: Lord of House of Gremory, Duke of Gremory

Age: 180

-

Class: High

Demonic Power: 82

Strength: 47

Agility: 48

Vitality: 45

-

Clan Trait:

Dark Light - Adept

The Devour - Sealed

-

Magic Affinity: Lightning, Gravity

Devil Magic - Expert

Gravity - Novice

Norse Magic Runes (Lightning) - Novice]

Currently, my Physical state was probably the best I could achieve with my current training. [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] was essentially complete. The rest of the physical stats would hit 50 passively, without some special training, and then I only need to acclimatize myself to my new strength.

'Now, what was left on my list-to-do in the foreseeable future.' I thought as I was looking at my progress. Now that my body has attained the high end of the Middle-Class in all parameters, I would focus on mastering magic.

Reaching High-Class in body tempering is hard without excessive training, and truth to be told, I don't have time or what I have found out lately, I don't have a talent for it.

For example, if I have training in the same way as Sairaorg in canon, it would take me more than 50 years to reach the Middle-Class. I have also tried learning Touki, just from curiosity, as I found some instruction manuals on it in my library, but alas, I had no talent for Touki.

My innate talent lies in two things, Clan Traits and Magic. I had an extremely high talent for Dark Light manipulation, and lately, I was also attempting to awaken Gremory Clan Trait, Devour.

Apparently, Devour was very rare to have even among Gremory Family, as only one person had it, and it was the first Gremory, my grandfather. Unfortunately, my father didn't awaken the Clan Trait, and I, too, didn't have it awakened. What was fortunate was that Architect was making a method how to awaken it, so it only wanted time.

From my grandfather's diary, Devour was basically a straightforward Clan Trait. It was used to devour the Demonic Energy or Magical Power of the killed person and increase your own strength. The downside was that it is effective only against someone with the same energy quality as your own, meaning I, as High-Class Devil, can Devour the Demonic Energy of Magical Power of only another High-Class being.

If I attempted to devour higher-quality energy, I could cripple myself or, worse, kill myself. And If I devoured energy of lesser quality, it would do nothing, just refill lost magical power, but it cannot increase my reserves.

My grandfather was a strong Devil at Satan-Class of lower end thanks to the Devour. Still, after breaking through and reaching Satan-Class, he couldn't progress anymore, as he needed to absorb more beings of the same level. Still, like those on that level, the problem with that was usually holed up in their respective territories. So my genius grandpa, in his greed for power, decided to hunt for some monsters on Satan-Class to devour their energy. Unfortunately for him, though he managed to defeat that monster, apparently it called helpers, they surrounded him and tore him apart.

It is a sad story but with a great lesson. Control your greed.

So I learned my lesson from this story and decided to wait till the Great War patiently. I was sure I would awaken Devour Clan Trait before the Great War, and in the Great War, I could Devour the energies of countless Fallen, Angels, and maybe... some Devils.

I have decided to secretly kill some strong descendants of Lucifer, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and the other Six Houses of Lucifer. Sooner or later, they would all become my enemies and threats to my family and me. So, I would be killed several flies with one stone.

"Hmm... I am a bit eager to test my strength on the field. There should be some monsters around... maybe some from other factions that are wandering the Underworld. Or I can just engage in a skirmish with Fallen... not a good idea. It might expose my Dark Light Clan Trait, as it makes me partially immune to Holy Light. Until I am at least Pinnacle of Ultimate-Class, I won't reveal it."

I muttered as I thought about where I could test my combat ability. What I needed right now was life and death combat to gain more experience. While I had power, I didn't have almost any battle experience.

Even some random Middle-Class entity with the proper strategy would defeat me If I was not careful. Because of that, I needed practice.

"So, only monsters it is then... I heard that around a hundred kilometers from Fuerig, there should be several Golbin Tribes that were causing a stir. Goblins, while generally weak, being only of Low-Class while some of Middle-Class are depending on their number... hmmm... they would be the perfect training

 

Goblins were little green-skinned creatures, around one meter tall and ugly as hell. They usually lived in tribal societies and primitive cultures.

I was currently somewhere in the outskirts of the Gremory Territory, where multiple goblin tribes were residing in some mountain range. Nobody bothered to kill them, as they were pathetically weak; most of them were only of Low-Class, while mutated or stronger reached Middle-Class, so basically, they were no threat.

Any High-Class being could kill thousands of them without breaking a sweat. I currently stood at the entrance of the mountain range, before a nearby valley, while in my right hand, I was holding my new weapon of choice.

It was a scythe that I found buried within the treasury of the Gremory Family. Apparently, it was obtained by my Grandfather from deep within the Underworld.

It was around one and a half meters in height, with a staff blade on the scythe's end and the top. It had an ax blade with the runic inscription upon it from the one side, while from the other side was the scythe blade, which was around half a meter long. Upon the entire scythe were inscribed some runes that I didn't understand, but I knew that they originated from the will of the Underworld itself.

Its name was Rosencreutz. Growth-type Soul Weapon. Capable of tearing through any energy or material that feeds on the blood and souls of killed foes. Additionally, it acted as the perfect amplification of my magic, so it was like mystic code.

I needed to train with Rosencreutz more, as currently, my moves were more like a joke; I didn't even attain Novice-ranked mastery over Scythe mastery.

I shrugged my head and just walked into the mountain range.

Sunset Monster Mountain Range was called due to the extremely high concentration of monsters and other magical creatures. It housed many even on High-Class, Ultimate-Class and deep within the core mountains, some monsters could easily be classified as Satan-Class.

I planned to stay in the outer layer of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range as it was inhabited only mostly by Minion Monsters which are the same as Low-Class, Warrior Monsters, same as Middle-Class, and Commander Monster same as High-Class.

In the inner layer were territories of the General Monsters that are as strong as Ultimate-Class, and even deeper are Monarch Monsters, the same as Satan-Class.

So Outer Layer of was best for me.

Still, as I walked through the valley, I couldn't help but sigh, as the entire place was like some wasteland. Only some yellow grass was growing on the hills and mountains, and everything else was like death...

I planned to say here for several months to polish my combat skills, as they were practically non-existent at this moment. Then I would return and study magic and continue working on expanding Demonic Energy reserves to reach the Ultimate-Class.

Reaching a higher class didn't mean just an increase in reserves, but also your energy becomes purer, denser, and more potent.

After around thirty minutes of walking and constant usage of the detecting spells for some life that could be killed, I finally found my target.

Goblin Village. A small one, as there were only about fifty or so Goblins.

"Architect, scan the Goblin. One of the Minion Level and one of the Warrior Level."

I said to my A.I. Chip. Strongest goblin in this village. He sensed that most of these Goblins were of Minion Levela, and one, probably the chieftain was of Warrior Level, so it was fragile even for Goblin standards.

[Class: Middle / Warrior Level

Magical Energy: 18

Strength: 32

Agility: 26

Vitality: 15]

"Hmm... that Chieftan is pretty weak. What about the average level of Minion level Goblin."

[Class: Low / Minion Level

Magical Energy: 8

Strength: 14

Agility: 10

Vitality: 9]

"Even weaker. I will just destroy the entire village with my spells. It's not worth engaging in active combat. Should I find some Commander-Level monster that has the strength of High-Class, it would be better, but this not."

I said to myself as I conjured a magic circle of silver color. As I had a heritage of both Gremory and Lucifer, I could use both magic circles. While I had an appearance typical of the Gremory Line, my magic was inclined more to the Lucifer Line, so I was more comfortable using the magic circle of the Lucifer Family. Not that someone would see me here.

Several magic circles were conjured, and each of them started shooting lightning bolts at the Golbin Village like some artillery. It was added with even more firepower, as I used some of my Norse Magic with my magic circles, as I was using lightning rune in the spellcraft.

Enhanced with Norse Magic Rune, my lightning bolts caused immense destruction, as they were hitting everything at the goblin village, be it primitive wooden shacks or goblins that were killed either by being hit or by collateral damage.

Within just five minutes, when I used a life-detection spell, I couldn't find any, so it meant that the entire village of goblins was properly annihilated. I briefly searched through the goblin village for some valuables, but everything I found was some Soul Coins and a few bricks of Gold that I all stored into my dimensional storage.

Every ounce of gold is good.

When I left the village, I conjured a massive flame and burned it to the ground as I could not look at such a filthy place.

"I need to find some stronger targets. Maybe some Orcs, Kobolds, or something similar with at least High-Class strength to have a proper fight. Still, I will destroy everything I see... this mountain range could be used as a good fortification point at some time, maybe a build fortress in the cleared area... it could be then used to hunt for monster materials and other things."

 

After walking for more than five hours, I finally arrived in the forest. Green trees and various wildlife were a very refreshing change compared to the outskirts of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range.

During my journey here, I have killed tens of Minion Level monsters; all of them were pathetically weak. But it was worth it, as I got was I currently needed most, practicing my spells and Clan Trait.

Using my Dark Light was probably the best experience I had in my new life so far. Dark Light looked exactly like Light abilities performed by Angels, Fallen Angels, and Gods of Light of various mythologies, just with the exception it had several streaks of Darkness in it.

Like creating weapons out of it, I could mold it similarly like Angels do it or coating my own weapon to give it additional destructive power. I could create Dark Light Spears, which was also my favorite, as I constantly tried to mimic Gilgamesh from Type-Moon I watched as my aim was recreating the Gate of Babylon.

In truth, it wasn't that hard, as I was pretty talented with Dark Light molding. Unfortunately, I could create only one portal that could continuously shoot Dark Light Spears, but it was good to start now.

Based on Architect's calculations, I would create the initial Gate of Babylon when I had Expert Mastery over Dark Light. Then half-open, with tens of portals if I have Master Mastery over Dark Light and be Ultimate-Class, and finally to replicate full Gate of Babylon, I need to reach Grandmaster-Ranked Mastery over Dark Light and Satan-Class of later stages, as Demonic Energy to sustain it needs to be enormous and only then my energy regeneration would be enough.

Still, even now, Dark Light is a truly destructive Clan Trait if I have just one portal.

I sat down on a nearby rock, as I was tired out of all of this walking, not physically; with my physique, it was impossible to be tired out of something small, but mentally.

I sat down and started training in the Dark Light ability, as this place was very silent and peaceful. And thus, as I was sitting on the rock and training the Dark Light, hour after hour passed as I was immersed in my training, not hearing that someone already stood behind me and watching me.

I only noticed it thanks to Architect detecting the Demonic Energy signature. As soon as I noticed it, I took out the Rosencreutz and coated it with Dark Light, as I also created several Dark Light spears aiming at the person behind me.

When I turned around, I was pretty much shocked to see who it was.

"You don't need to be wary of me, Lord Gremory or Lucifer, or Gremory von Lucifer... whatever you are."

Said a young woman with flaxen hair and violet eyes. She had a beautiful figure, and the most notable feature besides her warm smile she was displaying was her breasts, which I could not help myself peek a little, to which she giggled a bit.

Venelana Bael is apparently currently in the Sunset Monster Mountain Range.

'Architect scan her.'

I commanded in my head.

[Name: Venelana Bael

Race: Pure-Blooded Devil - Bloodline: Bael, ???

Age: 160

-

Class: High

Demonic Energy: 99

Strength: 25

Agility: 28

Vitality: 20]

When I looked at the scan provided by Architect, I was surprised, but not by much. I knew that Venelana was strong, far stronger than she looked. She was younger than me by 20 years and already was nearly an Ultimate-Class Devil, as her Demonic Energy reserves were at the pinnacle of the High-Class.

Though her physical body was weaker than mine, I doubted I could beat her. Even though I have one advantage: Dark Light and a stronger body, she had more Demonic Energy, her Clan Trait Power of Destruction is as destructive as my Dark Light, and most importantly, her combat experiences are probably a hundred times richer than mine.

"Gremory von Lucifer sounds good; maybe in the future, I will use it. What do I owe this pleasure of meeting you, my Lady, the Brown-haired Ruin Princess?"

I bowed slightly as I kissed her hand.

"Fate, my Lord. Would you believe that answer?"

"Maybe."

"I, too was training in the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, as I am preparing to reach Ultimate-Class, and I wanted to fight some General Level monster to experience Life and Death Battle."

Said Venelana with a soft voice that gave me chills through my spine for some reason.

"And as I was looking for some targets to practice, I felt some demonic energy waves, so I was curious to see someone here, so I needed to check. Imagine seeing my surprise, seeing that the new Lord Gremory is also a descendant of Lucifer. Don't worry, your little secret is safe with me, though I want something in exchange."

"What?"

I asked out politely. It was understandable that she would want something in return. It was an equivalent exchange.

"We will train together... this is the perfect time to know my fianceé."

Said Venelana with a sweet voice.

"I accept, training is always good, my aim is to be supreme, so ok. Wait a minute... what did you say? Fianceé? Me? We have a contract?"

Only after several seconds mechanics in my head start working and connecting the dots.

"Yes. It was agreed to by Granpa Zek and your Grandfather Zeldrian Gremory. I personally didn't want to marry you at all, but seeing you in the first person, maybe there is a slight chance, but not unless you can defeat me."

Said Venelane in a prideful tone, which ignited my inner battle maniac ego. In truth, I loved fighting, I don't know where it came from, but I felt such a thrill and some other indescribable feelings...

"Understandable. Among the current generation of devils, there aren't many who can match your social status as the eldest daughter of the Great King, of course, not counting Satans, as their families are too conceited and arrogant to look at somebody else than at each other."

 

Sometime earlier, Sunset Monster Mountain Range, 3rd POV.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid rules. Why can't I inherit the position!"

Said in anger, a young-looking woman as she sends a wave of crimson energy that disintegrated everything it touched; in this case, its target was a small group of thirty orcs of Warrior Level.

"Damm. That dolt half-brother of mine is not even reaching 30% of my power, and his mastery over magic or clan trait is pathetical. Idiot."

She was Venelana Bael, hailed as the strongest woman from the Bael House of all times, as her talent in the usage of Power of Destruction was nearing that of Ancestor Zekram, and while being of very young age, just only 160, she was already nearing Ultimate-Class.

"There is no helping to it... maybe I can find some good targets to vent my anger on."

Muttered Venelana as she looked around the half-destroyed place from the waves of Power of Destruction. It really deserved the title of the most destructive Clan Trait. It instantly disintegrates practically any organic or inorganic matter it comes to contact with.

As she was looking at the forest, suddenly, she felt the strong presence of demonic energy. It felt a little weird compared to normal demonic energy, which gave off a pure dark feeling; this one had a bit of a holy feeling, like with Angels or Gods of Light.

And thus, she used a detection spell to find the source of that weird feeling of demonic energy, unleashed three pairs of devil wings, and flew off to find her target by following the detection spell.

After ten minutes of flying, she felt she was getting closer and closer to the source; thus, she landed down and decided to go the rest of the distance by foot, not to attract unwanted attention if her new source of interest was violent.

When she saw the source of the demonic energy waves, she was shocked to see a rather familiar young man with long crimson hair molding the light between his hands.

'So the new Lord of Gremory is also a descendant of the House of Lucifer and even inherited the Clan Trait that nobody else in the entire Family has. Interesting.'

Thought Venelana before she decided to introduce herself.

***

After an initial talk with Venelana, we both started walking and searching for some strong monsters for us to fight, though both of us were careful while fighting as we didn't want to cause some collateral damage.

My Dark Light was deadly to any being of darkness or light simultaneously, while her Power of Destruction was literally annihilating everything in its matter.

When we killed some monsters, we decided to rest a bit before continuing our search. Venelana was admiring the beautiful nature around us while I was training in my Clan Trait.

"So, tell me, why are you desperately training to be strong?"

Asked Venelana as she looked in my direction; after nearly two hours, we have been here.

"Truth? Fear of the future."

I answered directly, as it wasn't something to hide.

"You mean the Great War?"

I knew someone like her ready noticed the tension between the Three Biblical Factions was becoming too much, and the war was inevitable. Still, to her question, I shook my head in disagreement.

"I will ask you a question. What are the strongest Factions in the world currently?"

This was important to know.

"Then allow me to introduce it to you. Currently, among all Pantheons and Factions, there are two that cold literary wipe out entire three Biblical Factions combined with ease. Those are the Hindu Pantheon and the Celestial Court of the Jade Emperor. Those two factions are so strong that not even Big G doesn't dare to mess out on them and preach his religion there. After them, there is Asgard of Norse Pantheon and Takagahamara of Shinto Faction and their Vassals Yokai that are practically at the same level of strength as the Three Biblical Factions combined. Then there is for example Greek Pantheon, which is theoretically stronger than the Three Biblical Factions, but similar to our Pantheon, their own is also divided into three Factions consisting of Primordial Gods, Titans, and Olympians Gods. For last notable factions are Vampire under the leadership of True Blood Kindreds, but fortunately, those Blood Lords are in a deep sleep."

I then make a dramatic pause in my explanation.

"Now, you may ask where I am moving with this speech. The answer is simple. Soon enough, the Great War between our Pantheon would happen, resulting in the severe weakening of Angels, Fallen, and Devils. When this happens, what do you think other factions would do?"

I ask as I look at Venelana.

"Attack?"

"Bingo!"

I exclaimed happily.

"Here lies the crux of the problem. The relationship of the other Pantheons and our own are practically terrible, especially thanks to Christianity, Angels and Fallen Angels preaching their religion practically all around the world, minus the territory of Celestial Court and Hindu, or else Big G would have been killed long ago. So we have a neutral relationship with the two strongest factions rather, though from what I heard, both of them despise Angels and Fallen. And then, there is Asgard, Vampires, Takagahamara, and Olympus, which would be glad to wipe our faction from the Supernatural World."

"Now that you say it in summary, it makes great sense."

"Yeah. Basically, we are fucked up thanks to Big G and Church preaching their religion so aggressively. The entire supernatural either hate us to death or despise us. But it also has an advantage."

"And that is?"

"Devils are ignored. You see, we devils never participated in preaching or stealing worshippers from other Pantheons, so their opinion about us is mostly neutral, if not a little greedy for souls. But that is all. So... I plan to build a good relationship with Asgard and Takagamara. This would help our race to survive better after the Great War."

I exclaimed with a wide grin.

 

"And how may you achieve such a feat?"

Asked Venelana curiously as she was playing with a ball of demonic energy in her hands.

"Simple. When the Great War starts, Angels and Fallen would be hit hardest, as they have territory on the Earth while we don't. The entire Church would be vulnerable and won't have protection from Angels, and Big G. Their exorcists would be forced to carry out the dangerous missions without backup from Heaven, and then there is where my plan starts. Their crusade of preaching religion would be stopped due to war. I will leak internal information about their exact strength, numbers, and other things to Asgard, Takagamara, and Vampires."

I said with a bloodthirsty grin.

"And all of their factions would do the job for you. Killing the target with a borrowed knife, while you also have a good reputation and become an ally. The presence of Angels and Fallen would be severely weakened as the blood of countless exorcists, priests, Angels, and Fallen would flow in rivers, and they would lose approximately 50% of their territory in Europe and their entire territory in Asia. With such influence cut, we devils could use this as an opportunity to launch ambushes through Earth."

Venelana finished the sentence for me.

"Perfectly. I plan to become the strongest being in all of existence; it will be only then that I can live in peace. You see, the future is uncertain, but only one thing can decide the future. Strength. Without strength, you are nothing; you can do nothing and achieve nothing."

I said as I looked at Venelana, who was listening to me.

"You think the same, aren't you? That is why you are training so seriously while other young ladies enjoy tea and lazily around."

"You are right, but I also train to prove everybody wrong. You see, my half-brother is going to be the next Lord Bael, as if he really would have some real power, but that is not important. I can't inherit the position because my mother is just my father's second wife. While I am born to a second wife, I don't have privileges, but I have chosen to prove one thing. That I am far superior to my idiotic brother. And truth to be told, I have succeeded beautifully, as currently, my brother can't display even a third of my power, his technique is terrible, and his mastery over magic and clan trait is pathetic."

It was apparent that Venelana despised her half-brother, and that for a good reason. In fact, she was the daughter of the second daughter of his father and not the main wife; the Lordship would befall onto her half-brother, who was incapable, weak, and without talent.

"That is understandable, Lady Venelana. Don't worry; during the war, you can prove your might and leave your name in murals of history."

I said with a slight smile.

"The same could be said about you, Lord Gremory. Don't you want to accomplish military merit to expand your influence?"

Asked me, Venelana.

"Yeh. The best thing would be increasing my noble title, meaning more territory and more power. Of course, If I would have enough merit for that, but hopefully, I would be able to reach at least an intermediate stage of the Ultimate-Class when the war starts; if not, we would be just cannon fodder."

I said to which Venelana nodded. Getting military merit as a High-Class was impossible because beings of High-Class strength would just act as glorified cannon fodder. The main combatants would be Ultimate-Class beings along with Satan/Seraph/Cadre-Class beings.

"That is a good idea... I heard that later someone started buying practically everything that has something to do with creating military supplies, weapons, or armors. Do you know something about that, My Lord?"

Asked Venelana with a cheeky smile as she looked at me suspiciously.

"Maybe... or maybe not... who knows."

I gave out a mysterious smile.

"The War... truth to be told, I fear what it would be."

Thought Venelana out of loud. In truth, she had more reasons to fear the upcoming war than me, especially when it came to family members. She feared for her mother, father, and even Grandpa, though the last one was useless, as Zekram was on the level of Super-Devils, while maybe just an early stage, but alas, he was powerful.

On the contrary, I had no relatives in this world, so I didn't have these motions.

"Beal Territory is guarded strictly and it is in the middle of Devil Race territory, so there is a small chance the war would be drawn there. If I can predict, I think most battles would be fought either at the territories belonging to Houses which have them at the outskirts of the Devil Species territory, near the demilitarized zone with Fallen, or we would either fight in Dimensional Gap or Earth."

Shortly after, Venelana nodded, hearing my words. Yes, Houses that have territory near the buffer zone with Fallen would be hit hardest; for example, fortunately, I have been preparing for that. Then the second place where most fighters would take place would be Earth. And lastly, battles between top combatants would take place in Dimensional Gap.

The existence of Super-Devil Class or High God could, with their strong attack, destroy smaller orbital objects like a moon. Even a Satan-Class entity could, with a strong attack, destroy a continent. Of course, if we are talking about existences that reached the Class in energy reserves. Their energies are extremely dense, pure, and potent.

A single spell from Super-Devil, High God, or someone similar would be enough to destroy the entire city. So it is understandable that such fights would take place in Dimensional Gap cause if not, collateral damage would be astronomical.

When talking about strength, I always wondered how exactly strong the Big G was... He sealed Trihexa, which was being at the Apocalypse-Class similar to the Great Red or Ophis, but from what I have heard, he was never known for his combat abilities but rather for crafting and magic.

Interesting... still. If even Big G didn't want to mess with Hindu Pantheon, Shiva must be stronger than what I remember from the canon novel. Meaning... I can't depend fully on my knowledge of the canon.

 

"We have rested enough... don't you think it is a time to find some training targets, Lord Gremory/Lucifer?"

Venelana asked me approximately one hour later as we were talking about various things.

Truth be told, I pretty much enjoyed spending time with her. She was a fun person, strong-willed, and wanted to make a name for herself with her own hands, not depending on anyone. She was even well-versed in magic theories, so we even compared notes.

"If you want, you can call me by my name. If we are to be wed together, it is weird for you to call me so formally."

I said to her. She blinked at me several times before having a slight blush over her cheeks that faded rather quickly as she regained her composure.

"That would be nice, Zeoticus. Then, you can call me Venelana too. If we are already calling each other with our names."

Said Venelana with a sweet smile that hit me in the chest. I had to admit that she was beautiful, as my heart started beating slightly. 'Architect, what is this weird feeling in my chest right now?'

[Something you organics call affection or falling in love. Usually, it leads to procreation and copulation to create a new generation of your useless species.]

Said Architect in his head with the refined voice of an older man.

'Didn't your voice change? I remember before you sounded like a pile of metal scraps, and now you sound like some kind of nobility.'

[I find this one more appropriate to my standing.]

I didn't bother with him more, but it was interesting. My A.I. Chip started evolving... I don't know if I should fear the consequences or not, but probably not. During the research, in my previous life, it should be that tablet we were researching... it was that that bound my soul together with the newly birthed soul of this piece of metal.

"Venelana, I have found a settlement of orcs, approximately thirty kilometers to the west. There are tens of High-Class energy signatures, meaning many strong orc warriors and even magicians. Shall we?"

I asked with a bloodthirsty grin as I wanted to test my might against strong enemies. In truth, Devils were fundamentally a battle race that enjoyed the thrill of battle, similar to dragons.

Soon enough, we arrived at our location, which was a small settlement of orcs; from what I sensed with my detection spells, about two hundred orcs were living here, and around thirty of them were of the Commander-Level. Some Orc shamans were here even too. The rest of the orcs were too weak for me to count them as something.

"So... who will have the first honor? Ladies first."

I said with a small wave of my hand as I gestured to Venelana that she could have the first attack. She had the Power of Destruction, so her attacking first was a logical choice, as she would be able to create most confusion and chaos with just a single attack.

I watched as Venelana was conjuring small balls created from the Power of Destruction until she conjured about ten of them, each as big as an average human head, and she dropped them to the orc village, aiming at the largest houses and buildings. When the orb created from the Power of Destruction fell on its target, it exploded, obliterating everything around the diameter of ten meters.

"Fascinating. You have managed to destroy half of the village with just a single attack. How is the consumption of such attack?"

I asked out of curiosity, but I already saw that she used approximately 1 Unit of Demonic Energy per one ball of Power of Destruction. Her regeneration speed was fast, so within five minutes, those 10 units used would be swiftly recovered.

"Small, and on top of that, my recovery rate is fast. Now is your turn."

Said Venelana as she looked at tens of orcs rushing at us; all of them were Warrior level and some even Commander level. When I looked closer, I noticed that behind them were four orcs shamans with energy readings of High-Class.

"Then allow me."

As I said, four Dark Light portals appeared around me and started shooting one Dark Light spear after another at the incoming orcs. When the Dark Light Spear touched the orc, it pierced through it like nothing. Be it Warrior Level or Commander Level orc, and they fell like cabbage.

The only way to defend against energy attacks was to have either armor suitable for it, a terrifying physique that would be able to ignore those attacks or use magic to defend yourself. These orcs were either stupid or too weak, but orc shamans successfully defended from my Dark Light Spear as they jointly created some magical shield that protected them, but not for long as I shot another ten Dark Light spears at them until the magical shield broke down, and all orc shamans were killed.

"They are weak."

Muttered Venelana in frustration as she looked at my onslaught of the orcs.

"And what did you think? They are orcs. Green-skinned orcs are the weakest of their species, and only orc shamans or mutated ones are worth something. For example, shamans I have killed were probably just Adepts of Magic, as their magical shield was full of mistakes, and of course, a strong orc shaman would have probably long ago escaped when he sensed two High-Class Devils."

I explained slowly. While orcs weren't strong races, they were adaptable and had high numbers. I heard that in some parts of the world or in some dimensions belonging to some factions, they have a great problem with orcs, as when they are in high numbers, they are troublesome to deal with.

There is currently even an orc nation, or whatever it is called. Apparently, it is located in the territory of the Celestial Court of Jade Emperor, and the Chieftain of the Orc Tribe is comparable to the Super-Devil of the late stage.

 

"Do you think there may be something valuable?"

Asked me Venelana as she looked around the ruins of the orc village.

"You really think that orc village would have something valuable? Even if it was true, it was probably already destroyed by your Power of Destruction."

I said as I looked around the destroyed orc village. Power of Destruction was truly fearsome.

"Do you want to go deeper into the forest, or shall we return already back?"

Asked Venelana as she was playing with a ball created from the Power of Destruction between her hands.

"Descending deeper is a foolish thing to do, as inner parts of this mountain range is swarming with a strong monster with similar power to the Ultimate-Class, even though both of us probably could take on one weaker General Level Monster that has the power of Ultimate-Class, as they don't generally know how to use Magical Power, if we are unlucky we could encounter some strong and old monster, and that would be our doom. It would be best to stay in the outer part of this place, as it is relatively safe... probably."

I explained as I was not that interested in exploring deeper parts of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, it would only spell my death.

"That sounds logical. We are already near the inner parts."

Agreed with him, Venelana, while I was a bit scared when I realized that the orc village was located practically next to the inner parts of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range. Just as we were preparing to leave, I felt something weird.

'Architect, did the detection spell find something?'

I asked my A.I. Chip. From the moment he got consciousness from part of my soul, Architect could cast some simple spell by himself or maintain spells that I cast, using my Demonic Energy.

[There is movement, one kilometer from your position. Energy signature unclear; the target is heading here.]

Answered Architect calmly.

"Venelana, we have a slight problem. Something is heading our way here."

I said grimly, as I had a pretty bad feeling about this for a simple reason. We were near the inner parts of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, and several minutes ago, we were throwing a huge amount of demonic energy around.

As I said that, both of us got into a battle stance as we waited for the arrival. I saw that the target was approaching at an enormous speed from the detection spell, so it was useless for us to run, and I felt that the intruder might be a General Level Monster. My only hope was, it was a weak one.

Venelana was generating many balls of Power of Destruction while I was preparing Gravity Magic runes and several Dark Light portals that would shoot out chains created from the Dark Light, to trap the enemy.

Soon enough, the monster arrived. It was a huge ape-like monster, around 13 meters in height, with silver fur and several horns on top of its head. It had bulging muscles and looked pretty intimidating, so physical strength was its forte.

'Architect, scan it.'

I commended in my head.

[Race: Ape-??? not enough information

Level: General Monster

-

Magical Power: 90

Strength: 139

Agility: 127

Vitality: 100]

'Hmm... Vitality is strong. Hopefully, the Power of Destruction and Dark Light on our level would be enough to overcome the regeneration power of the creature. Problematic is its speed and strength. Probably two or three attacks if hit us, it would be done, if not protected with magic. Still, it seems that this one can't use magical power consciously, so that would be our advantage. Architect, start the calculation.'

[Best course of action would be to trap it and then attack it with a Power of Destruction and Dark Light Spears barrage. Regeneration of this monster is very high, but alas, to regenerate from Power of Destruction and Dark Light instantaneously is impossible, but it will be able to regenerate its wounds very quickly.]

'So trap it.'

I thought as I waved my hand and created several Nordic Runes for Gravity Magic, five appeared around the Ape, and I increased the Gravity around it fifty times, which was enough to slow it down enough, so we could easily dodge its attack.

Next thing, I mimicked Chains of Enkidu and created chains out of the Dark Light, which started wrapping around the General Level Ape, binding it down, as the Ape was struggling very violently.

"Vene, start attacking it with all you got, it has very high Vitality, but with enough firepower, we would be able to cause enough damage to kill it."

I said as I was focusing on binding the Ape. For us, it was not an important thing to kill it; I would be glad just to scare it away; killing it would be just a good bonus.

Venelana did as I instructed and started throwing balls created from the Power of Destruction at the General Level Ape that was struggling in the Dark Light Chains that were binding it under heightened gravitational pressure.

What shocked me was that the Ape had already broken three chains; fortunately, I could replace them rather quickly, as I was focused only on that. The Architect was maintaining the Gravity runes for me, as he was part of my soul.

Really, General Level Monster that has an Ultimate-Class physique was terrifying. The Ape, even under the binding of Dark Light Chains that were burning through the skin of the Ape, and gravitational runes were still able to move faster than we.

Fortunately, Venelana's attacks on the Ape were proving effective, as countless wounds were appearing on its body, and the healing factor of the General Level Ape was doing everything in its might to heal it. Still, it was a good thing for us; we were causing more damage than what it could heal.

'Architect, how are my reserves?'

[Stable regeneration is high, with this tempo, you could fight approximately for twenty minutes before consumption is higher than the regeneration rate.]

 

I am still not experienced and everything, so I can fight short time. Before I get tired, my regeneration of Demonic Energy would be lowered than consumption, and I would run out of energy.

Compared to me, Venelana was better, as she could fight probably four times or five times longer than me. She was also more experienced in combat than me, but I was on the other side, more versed in magic, from what I saw. Venelana depended solely on her Clan Trait and a few spells; I will need to teach her more magic in the future.

'Architect, use Rosenkreutz amplification magic sequence.'

I commanded in my head as I summoned my scythe Rosenkreutz. In addition to being a weapon, it also served as a Mystic Code, which basically was like a magic amplification device or something similar.

I have inscribed onto the weapon a magic sequence that allowed Architect to control the weapon for a limited time, with which he would take care of gravity magic by himself, meaning he would be using ambient magical power in the air to cast spells, with the help of the Rosenkreutz.

What I got was a lessened burden. While I could let Architect control several magic spells that I cast in my normal state, it still took a part of my brain calculation area. With the usage of Rosenkreutz, which served as Mystic Code, Architect could temporarily pose as basically a separate person to maintain the magic while I was casting a new one.

Several Nordic Runes appeared around me, together with Dark Light Spears, as they shot at the struggling General Level Ape. Seven thunderbolts and three Dark Light Spears hit the Ape monster in dramatically manner, causing it to shriek in pain as it started breaking through the Dark Light Chains.

[Rosenkreutz can hold approximately for additional 125 seconds before the runes inscribed on it are destroyed.]

Said Architect in my head. One hundred twenty-five seconds, basically two minutes. We have two minutes to cause as much damage as possible before the control over gravity magic runes is returned to me.

'Shit. It is going berserk.'

When they concluded, many monsters, or more like when their instincts told them they were in grave danger, would go berserk. Meaning they would enter a practically uncontrollable state when they would attack with far higher aggression to fight for their lives.

"Venelana, create a distance and come to me, and prepare the teleportation circle. When it is prepared, I will release the bindings, and power up the circle, to send us as far as possible."

Our only chance was to flee. Personally, I wanted to kill that thing, but unfortunately, it seemed not possible... only if.

'Yes, why not use that? It is injured enough; maybe it will work.'

As I gave the command to Architect, I thought in my head and started creating Dark Light Chains wrapping around the General Level Ape as much as possible. The Ape was breaking them with ease, but he needed only a few seconds.

Venelana was already beside me and created a teleportation circle below us, ready to teleport us away. I was pouring the last bits into the Dark Light Chains wrapped around the General Level Ape.

"Venelana, now!"

'Detonate!'

I said and also commanded in my head, as I released the control over Dark Light Chains, as I instructed self-destruction, as we vanished from the place.

We appeared several tens kilometers away from our previous location. I stood up and looked in the direction when we fought with Ape and saw the explosion's aftermath even here.

'How are my reserves?'

I asked Architect in my head, as I felt tired as hell.

[4 Units of Demonic Energy remaining. If you lose more, you will lose consciousness.]

Damm. That was close.

"That was a good plan, Zeoticus. Do you think that Ape died?"

Asked Venelana as she looked at my pale state.

"Dunno. Use a detection spell in that direction. And could you please transfer some Demonic Energy... I am going to suffer exhaustion, probably."

Venelana nodded and started transferring some Demonic Energy to me, not much, just enough to raise my reserves above 10 units. After Venelana finished transferring the Demonic Energy to reach the minimum, I didn't suffer energy exhaustion. She used the detection spell to know if the General Level Ape died from that explosion.

"It is dead... fortunately. What now?"

"Nothing. Create a teleportation magic circle, and I will take the corpse. It is a valuable thing for alchemy potions and pills."

I said as Venelana looked surprised at hearing I had an interest in alchemy. There were very few Alchemists or Pill Refiners among our race; they could be counted on one hand. Though, most devils would buy what they wanted from some sects that were residing on Earth. Many of them were greedy for supernatural resources, as they were hard to come by on Earth.

Venelana nodded and created a teleportation magic circle that transported us to the place where we fought the General Level Ape. It looked totally devastated; the diameter of three kilometers or so became a literal wasteland.

"Quickly create a teleportation circle. When I have the corpse, we need to get out. Such a strong explosion like this would surely lure here countless General Level monsters and maybe even some Monarchs."

I said as Venelana started conjuring the spell while I went to the corpse. I was surprised it was mainly in good shape; only around 20% of the body was destroyed, so it was pretty good. I stored it with a simple storage spell and quickly went to Vena, who teleported us as far as possible to the outskirts of the Sunset Monster Mountain Range.

"Damm. Finally, it is done. I wanna rest, though you can go first. I will watch over."

I said as Venelana conjured a huge tent and went to sleep while I watched over. Theoretically, we could teleport to my home to rest, but alas, this was training, not a touring trip.

 

The next day, we continued our training as we searched for Commander-Level Monsters, especially those at the peak of the Level.

After some time, we started playing a game. Who will have the highest kill count of Commander-Level Monsters. I also taught some magic to Venelana, especially the Norse one, as Asgardians have one of the strongest branches of magic across the Draconic Deus Supernatural World.

On the other side, I have mastered another rune for Fire and even perfected my mastery of the Adept-Rank. My mastery over Gravity magic also reached Adept-Rank due to continuous usage of Gravity magic.

Concerning the Dark Light, I was far from reaching Expert-ranked mastery as Dark Light was a tough Clan Trait to master, similar to the Power of Destruction.

After another two months, I felt that I made plenty of progress in expanding my Demonic Energy reserves as I felt they expanded pretty well; while not reaching the pinnacle, it was a good progression.

Besides expanding the energy reserves by meditation or similar things, there was another, and a rather simple method, while it was tiring. Continuously exhausting your energy reserves to the brink of energy exhaustion and letting them regenerate. Slowly, the energy reserves would expand naturally.

I have also felt that my body got stronger with all that training, not much, but I was slowly reaching the pinnacle of the Middle-Class in Body attributes, meaning my physical might be good. Soon enough, I would be able to refine the potion or pill and reach the physique of the High-Class.

Today was one of the last days we spent in the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, as both of us had decided to go home already. I was Lord of the House, so I already had enough responsibilities and could not stay in the seat too long.

It was rather ironic, as when I am at home, I just cope in the library and study magic, but the difference is that I can always react to it if something happens. While I am here, it is not possible.

'Architect, do a scan.'

[Class: High

Demonic Energy: 91

Strength: 49

Agility: 49

Vitality: 47]

'Hmm... my energy reserves are rising steadily, and soon they would reach Ultimate-Class soon enough, while my physique should be able to withstand the potion I would use to reach the High-Class in my physique.'

I thought in my head as I observed the increase in power. Especially the Demonic Energy reserves, I have crossed 91 units which was outstanding progress. When I reach Ultimate-Class, it will be a new world for me.

My several-month trip to the Sunset Monster Mountain Range was worth it, as I got what I wanted to obtain the most.

Combat experiences.

While I may have power, I didn't have any kind of battle experience before my trip or had a minimum of them.

After completing the training trip, where I spent most of my time during the day and even sometime during the night fighting monsters or sparring with Venelana, I have gotten much better in combat, which made me feel rather accomplished.

"We should be going back home already."

I said as I was strolling through some forest in the dammed place with Venelana.

"Hmm... it has been four months already."

Muttered Venelana as she looked around.

"Are you perhaps sad that our short trip is ending? Will you miss me? I am sooo happy."

I said with a slight grin as I couldn't help to tease her a little.

"Maybe yes, maybe not... who knows. I will see you at a later date."

Answered Venelana back as she looked at me.

"You are welcome to the Castle Fuerig any time to visit me. Just sent me a message some time prior. I will be researching Norse Magic when I return back home, so I will be occupied."

I said with a slight smile.

I also planned to research how to awake my dormant Clan Trait Devour. An awakening that Clan Trait would allow me to devour demonic energy or magical power begins with the same power level as me, meaning I could easily grow in power very fast.

"That would be nice."

"Also, could you please arrange a meeting with Lord Zekram? I have some things that are in dire need of attention, and it would be very good to discuss them with him."

I said quietly. Getting Zekram Bael on my side was crucial for my plans to come to fruition. Even in canon, that man was practically ruler of the Underworld after the Devil Civil War, when Houses of Original Satans fell.

Now, he was practically the political rival of the House of Lucifer, and the might of the House of Bael could be currently matched only by that of the House of Lucifer. However, with House of Lucifer, there were Six Houses of Lucifer, which gave them a slight advantage.

That also brought me another problem, how to deal with them. Six Houses of Lucifer are loyal to the Lucifer House, and I can be counted as one. I predicted that when I reached Ultimate-Class, my bloodline would also get stronger, and it may affect my appearance, among other things, so getting trademark silver hair could be cool, but I would need to hide them with illusion.

Still, Six Houses are not a problem; if I became Head of the Lucifer House, which in reality is rather easy, as in canon, Rizevim wasn't interested. The entire house was led by Lord Lucifuge, who was the father of Grayfia and Euclid.

If I do that, then only the other three houses of Leviathan, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus would be my enemies. So I will focus on them and kill as many descendants of them during the Great War. During such chaos, nobody would notice a few carefully planned assassinations.

"That would be possible. I will talk to grandpa."

Said Venelaan with a smile, though she looked a bit uneasy, and I quickly understood it.

"You can tell him."

"Really?"

"Yeh."

This was a bit of a gamble on my side. But alas, I need to get Zekram on my side, and as I know him, he wouldn't be able to pass an opportunity like this. He will realize very quickly that I want to replace Original, and if it is successful, House of Bael, through the marriage of Venelana and me, would rise to new heights.

 

After some time, I finally returned back home to Castle Fuerig. While I was in the Sunset Monster Mountain Range for about 4 months approximately, here, nothing changed. Though, it was understandable, as the perception of time from the Devil's view of the point was drastically different from that of humans.

Now I finally had a chance to study magic more complexly. After I had reached Adept-Ranked mastery over Norse Runes, more precisely Lightning Rune and Fire Rune, were two I have learned.

While I used the runes until now in a more crude way, meaning just conjuring Rune and throwing it around.

Now I will try to mold the energy into shapes and objects.

I had some simple ones, to the more complex ones like Lightning Dragon Spell.

Compared to complicated Norse Magic, Devil Magic was straightforward to learn and master, even though this type of magic's firepower was severely lacking. In Norse Magic, it was all about the spell construct that I was working with.

After I returned to Castle Fuerig, I took a good bath as the first thing I did. After finishing the bath, I needed to meet with General Borke Zagan to receive the report about what happened before I left for my training.

Four months was a short time for Devils, but I left many commands before leaving the Castle about what needed to be done.

As I returned to my study room, I already found General Borke Zagan waiting there for me as he bowed when I entered.

"My Lord."

"General."

We greeted each other as we sat down.

"So, you can start with your report."

I said to him; afterward, I looked through the window of my study room.

"Cleaning process of the army is done. We have found spies and other infiltrators from the Houses of Satans and killed them all. It created some minor holes in the chain of command, but that would be solved quickly."

Reported General Borke Zagan quietly. I wasn't that surprised; probably, each army belonging to the 72 Pillars or Extra Demons is infiltrated by loyalists of the Four Satans. Probably some powerful Houses like Bael or Agares already cleared their traitors. Before the war starts, it is an important thing to do.

"Good. Have you started the selection process for loyal soldiers to receive the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method]?"

"Yes. We have signed the Geass Contract with each one, so there is no risk of betrayal, desertion, or selling the method to other Houses. Currently, more than 400,000 soldiers that fulfilled the criteria and signed the Geass Contract for life with House of Gremory."

I was pretty satisfied hearing this. While the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] was a great invention, it was useless if I didn't use it on my soldiers. That also brought up a possibility of leaking the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] to other Houses that I was not allied to, or even worse, to Four Satan Houses.

While I wasn't concerned about the House of Lucifer and its Six Houses of Lucifer, right now was not the time.

Because of that, I ordered General Borke Zagan and other Generals on Ultimate-Class loyal to the House of Gremory to search for every spy and traitor in my army and kill them without mercy.

Afterward, they would be searching for suitable soldiers that would sign the Geass Contract with the House of Gremory, pledging their eternal loyalty to the House of Gremory, especially to me.

Then I could give them safely the [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method] for training, as it would produce Middle-Class beings of power, in physique aspect rather easily and quickly.

"How is the current state of my Army and Legions?"

"Currently, the entire army has 3 million soldiers, divided into 15 Legions, with each of the Generals commanding three Legions. Most of the soldiers are of Low-Class, while around 40% are of Middle-Class if we are making the ranking based on Demonic Energy. If we are talking about the physique aspect, the percentage is much lower, but with enough time and [Devil Outer Body Tempering Method], we could raise all of our soldiers into Middle-Class in the physique."

I wasn't surprised to hear this; most ordinary devil soldiers are not that strong. Only a few Houses have strong soldiers, like the House of Lucifer, which has almost all soldiers of Middle-Class, or the House of Bael, which is similar, to or House of Agares.

My aim was the same as theirs, to raise the quality of my soldiers.

"How long do you think it will take? War is coming, and if we have an army of Middle-Class beings in terms of physique, while half of them would also be Middle-Class in Demonic Energy, my army would be exceptionally powerful."

Until the Great War was around 19 years, approximately, so I had enough time to see some results.

"Hard to say, if Your Lordship invests some Soul Coins into the soldiers' training, it should sometimes be between 10 to 12 years before we train such an army."

Ten years or 12 years actually wasn't a bad prediction. I had enough time before the Great War started, so this time frame was acceptable, and maybe even good, as there is still enough time even after the time frame is up to improve.

"Investing some Soul Coins isn't that problem. With my current business situation in the Underworld, practically every house is buying weapons and armor from me, so Soul Coins are one of my last concerns. Use it well and speed up the training process."

Currently, I owned practically the absolute majority of places where weapons and armor and other stuff for the army were manufactured. So everyone that was arming their forces was buying it from me, and coins were just flowing into my pocket.

Even the quality of weapons produced by my factories increased, though not as good as mass-produced weapons like those by dwarves in Nidavelir; it was still far better compared to old devil ones.

 

"You can go, General Zagan."

After finishing discussing essential topics with General Zagan, I let him go, as I wanted to focus on other things that required my attention. One of the most prominent ones was the creation of a potion that would break my physical limits.

"Architect, how are your calculations going?"

[Slowly, it will take seven days to complete such a complex potion refinement process. Unfortunately, your library doesn't have enough books on Alchemy, so my database is rather limited. I need to work with the available knowledge, and some parts of it, need to be changed to suit the creation of this potion, as it is from General Level Monster.]

"Tch. Unfortunately, devils don't have enough materials for proper alchemy. Maybe some Houses have it for Potioneering, but for refinement of pills, that knowledge is only at the hands of Pantheons and Celestial Court. I will need to travel to the Three Realms at some point. They have tons of knowledge that would be useful to us."

I said out loud. Afterward, I fell into deep thought as I thought about something.

"Architect, take out the Project Arachne. It should be optimized by now, right?"

[Are you sure, sir?]

"Yes. Even if I construct some basic drones, they would be good for some menial tasks; I need to create and maintain a laboratory. They would be proto-type for Arcanotechnology. Another advantage our race has but wasn't even developed."

Arcanotechnology was basically magical technology. Asgard mainly used it; they had developed their magical technology to the extreme. It allowed them to create vessels able to travel through the Dimensional Gap or energy-based weapons. It was no wonder runes worked best with Arcanotechnology.

Pantheons such as Egyptian or Celtic also had a decent level of such technologies.

Big G developed Sacred Gears based on that; basically, Sacred Gears are nothing more just very advanced Arcano Soul Weapons, tied to God's System in Heaven.

[Very well. With current materials, we could probably construct 100 Drones. Their firepower is abysmal, and their combat level should be only around Low-Class, depending on the quality of material and runes inscribed onto them.]

Siad Architect, as I went to the work. There was an entire branch of magic called Golemancy that was all about creating golems. My own invention was something similar and yet so different. My creations were Automatons, mechanical constructs that were enhanced by runes and worked on runes.

For example, I didn't need to control them manually, as they had some basic level of intelligence; they could be programmed to understand everything from basic orders to complex blueprints. Also, they could be controlled by Architect directly.

Drone-Type was the basic unit of these Arcane Mechanical Automatons. They were mainly used to dig, work, construct, or deconstruct things and objects.

When I proposed this, I wasn't aware of how annoying work would be. Truth be told, it wasn't that hard to construct one drone. They looked like a spider and were made from metal, ordinary ones found in the Underworld.

With countless forges and blacksmiths, I had read them in several hours.

The troublesome part was the runic inscription.

There were three steps in the creation of Arcane Mechanical Automatons. The first step was to create a mechanical construct. A skilled blacksmith could do that. The second step was the inscription of runes and the creation of a runic matrix in the "brain" of the automaton. The third step was connecting all rune points with the brain's runic matrix and activating the automaton.

The second and third steps were the hardest and must be done by me alone. Fortunately, I was well versed in Norse Magic, and my runework was very good, so I completed the inscription process fast and without any mistakes.

The first drone took me one hour to make, as I was cautious when inscribing the runes onto the automaton's body. When creating the Runic Matrix, I needed to be even more careful because it could easily explode if I made a single mistake.

"When I finish these drones, the first thing I will make is Factory. Hopefully, these drones could do inscription process instead of my, and maybe even creation of Runic Matrix."

I muttered out of frustration as I was finishing making the 30th drone. It was tiring work, and I was already fed up with it, but these little cuties would be a great boon for me.

Maybe I can even sell some.

The death toll of devils in the Great War was counted in hundreds of millions, probably reaching several billion, so it would be better to use golems or automatons for battles; they could lessen casualties. And in the future, it would mean more devils survived, and when Evil Pieces are invited, we won't be dependent on them.

Evil Pieces were useful; for example, we could get Sacred Gear users, talented humans, or members of other factions that went rogue or left. On the other side, they were used to enslave other species and members of other Pantheons.

In my opinion, they were created mainly for the repopulation of devils, which was stupid.

If we saved enough population in the Great War, and the Civil War would be solved with a Coup, I could pressure Evil Pieces to be given only to a few people. In canon, every High-Class Devil had set, I planned to give them only to Ultimate-Class devils that would obtain recommendation letters and to Heirs of Houses that passed an examination.

With this move, we could reduce the number of reincarnated devils by more than 90% and motivate holders of Evil Pieces to reincarnate only people with strong potential.

After working for three days straight, I finished all drones, and before I, were 100 Arcane Mechanical Automatons, of Drone-Type, of Arachne-Class.

"Architect, control the drones and let them construct an underground place, big enough to house my magical experiments and also a production line for automatons."

 

Drones were perfect workers; they had the highest possible effectiveness, and they never got tired or wanted a wage. They didn't need anything, just a magical power to keep them going, and that was no problem, as the ambient magic level in Underworld was very high. After exactly one day, the underground complex was done.

Not as high as the dimensional worlds of some Pantheons, but it was still enough.

"Excellent. Architect, how many Drones could these little guys produce within one day?"

I asked as I looked at the production line, which was currently being constructed by Drones.

[50 Drones. While Drones are intelligent enough, they can't do the runic inscription and matrix creation processes as fast as experienced runemasters.]

Said Architect in my mind. Arachne Drones were small; they were around half a meter tall and one meter in length.

"Good... then start the production. We need as many of them as possible. Their utilization in the war would be immense. They could easily serve as either cannon fodder or construction force."

I said as everything started to move. I was aware that my little creation would become hot merchandise among the nobles that would want to obtain suitable cannon fodder force to save their soldiers. The production cost of one Arachne Drone was cheap, and I wasn't planning to sell them at high prices for many reasons.

One of them was that part of my plan was to have as many of them on the battlefield, another one was to gain allies, and another was just a long-time investment in the devil species as a whole.

"Architect, start compiling a list of enemies that are to be disposed of during the Great War. We don't need unstable elements in the future, Baator."

I said with a malicious grin as I commanded Architect. The list included various nobility and houses that were known for their incompatibility with my ideas for unification.

As I watched the Arachne Drones working like some hardworking bees for several next hours, I was notified by Architect that the potion formula was finally calculated, at last.

"Can we go to the brewing process already?"

[Yes. The first thing to do is to dissect the corpse, which Drones would do.]

As I took out General Level Monster Ape's corpse, the Architect and three drones immediately started the dissection process. They worked extremely fast as they separated the monster's skin, flesh, bones, blood, and organs.

It was no wonder, as Architect was directly controlling the little ones, and after one hour, the entire process was done.

[You will need only blood, heart, and bones, especially the bone marrow and Nuclei.]

I took everything Architect told me and went to the cauldron. Nuclei was a crystallization of magical power that monsters created upon reaching the General Level. The main usage of the nuclei was either in Alchemy, as a power source, or amplifier with spellcasting.

[First the blood, then add in that dragon blood you bought and mix it together. It needs to be refined and compressed into 1/100 of what it is currently.]

There were tens of liters of blood boiling in the massive cauldron as I was infusing my Demonic Energy with the cauldron, regulating the process, where the blood would basically compress, or rather the energy from the blood would be compressed.

This step took more than 10 hours till the cauldron was almost empty, and only a small part remained. When I looked at the blood that was boiling there now, I felt the energy from it, as it was practically radiating and shining to all sides.

[Use the Heart Blood of that Ape and drop in the Nuclei. Activate the runic stimulation to the maximum. Afterward, add an extract from the Demonic Flower and other herbs I had prepared for the potion.]

As Architect was instructing me, I noticed behind me was Arachne Drone, with the rest of the resources the Architect was talking about. Various vials, with an extract from rare herbs that were bought by my subordinates for this potion.

Heart Blood was a special type of blood that was located in the heart and was practically the source of bloodline and strength of the blood in the body. If Heart Blood is forcibly extracted from a living person, he had guaranteed dead in most cases.

I added all Heart Blood that the heart of the General Level Ape could provide me and dropped the Nuclei of the monster into the cauldron. At the same time, I quickly activated the runic matrix over the cauldron, which started regulating the huge energy storm that was taking place in the cauldron, as I dropped Nuclei of Ultimate-Class being into a pool of liquid full of magical power.

Thankfully, the runic matrix controlled it perfectly for my heavenly or devil's luck, and nothing bad happened. Cauldrons tended to explode rather often. After I added those extracts from various herbs, I closed the cauldron and left it be, for the next day, as Architect instructed me to do.

"I wanted to ask, what is the difficulty of this potion?"

[This thing could be classified as Master-Level Potion. If not for my precise calculations and instruction, you would have never brewed it.]

Answered Architect, with only what I can call... pride. Still... he was right; pioneering was exactly that hard if you have something like A.I. Chip with impossibly advanced A.I. that calculated every possible step and navigated you through the entire process. Still, I will stay with my runes, I didn't mind creating some potion from time to time, but it isn't my thing.

One day passed, and Architect said I needed to check up on the cauldron as time passed. When I opened it, I was surprised that what was left, approximately 100ml of pulsating black-crimson liquid, was located on the bottom of the cauldron.

[Now, just bring some vial, fill it, and leave it to rest in a magically saturated area for another day. Afterward, your potion is officially done.]

Instructed me, Architect.

When I asked why the resting part, he answered that the potion could absorb ambient magic right now, so it would boost up the quality by some amount if I left it in a magically saturated area.

 

The next day, exactly 24 hours later, after I brewed the potion, I was finally ready to drink it and break the limits of my physical strength. My drone production was going well, I now had 150 Arachne Drones, and currently, I ordered them to expand the production line to reach an output of Drones of at least 500 per day, meaning expanding it by 10 times already.

I looked at the potion, grimaced a little, and gulped it down in one go. It tasted horrible; I heard that most potions tasted like shit, and apparently, it was true. When I drank the potion, I immediately started feeling its effect, as my entire body was like it was on fire.

My muscles were pulsating as they absorbed the energy from the potion, and even my bones hurt like hell when they were absorbing the energy from the potion.

After ten minutes, I felt that the pain was lessened, but it still hurt like hell.

But alas, I felt the immense strength flowing through my body, as each cell in my body was absorbing the energy from the potion, being refined and strengthened. What was even more shocking, my Demonic Energy reserves expanded by a significant amount, something I didn't foresee.

"Architect... scan my body."

I said, after another hour, when I felt that majority of the potion was already digested, and my body reached a High-Class level of power in terms of physique. I felt countless times stronger compared to before I drank the potion, and I was curious about the exact advancement in my strength.

[Class: High

Demonic Energy: 96

Strength: 78

Agility: 75

Vitality: 60

Also, the potion energy is not fully digested, and full absorption would take around one month, so your physical strength would rise during this one month. To maximalize the effect, I would advise increasing your physical training to the extreme.]

I looked at the scan as I heard the voice of the Architect. It was understandable that my body couldn't digest all of that at once; I would need some time, and my body would also get a bit stronger.

Now my physique was comparable to average dragons, meaning weak dragons. Dragons were one of the most powerful creatures here, besides Gods. They had terrifying physiques and enormous magical abilities. The heavy majority of dragons were of High-Class, and they could easily best those in the same rank as them if they were another being.

While I was not a close combat fighter myself, it was good to have a strong physique. I wouldn't be vulnerable as most of the long-range combatants, and also, my body could then easily hold more Demonic Energy.

"Architect, start controlling all Drones to focus fully on production. By the end of the month, I need to have 10,000 Arachne Drones ready."

I said to Architect as I left the underground complex to take a bath.

[It shall be done.]

"Also... start calculations for the Magic System."

***

One month later

Time really flew like water; after one month I spent studying Magic, I noticed that all my 10,000 Arachne Drones were already created and were like some small spider army. Most of them were just Low-Class cannon fodder, but their true value wasn't a combat or firepower but rather their construction abilities.

I spent all of my time on magic study. I wanted to realize one thing, which was the creation of a completely new Magic System. I noticed that Devil Magic, while being versatile, has weak firepower compared to other Magic Systems. On the other side Norse Magic System, based on runes, had mighty firepower while being more complicated.

To achieve that, I needed to have as much as possible magic knowledge about Devil Magic, Norse Magic, and also Human Calculation Magic. Merlin created human Magic based on his observations of Devil Magic and several other Magic Systems belonging to different Pantheons.

He then created a Magic System based on mathematical equations and calculations, where one with enough calculations of magical power could shape it to form spells.

My ambition was to fuse these three systems into one or take their strong aspects and advantages and create a wholly new Magic System. If possible, I wanted to complete the first stages of the Magic System before the Great Wars started, as it would greatly boost up the power of the Devil Race, only applicable to the weaker devils.

For Satan-Class or Super-Devils, it won't make a difference, as I can't create something like that if I myself am not at that level of strength or mastery over Magic.

I even sent my trusted subordinates to loot and kill human magical organizations or families and steal their knowledge. Humans were weak even with Magic, but to be sure, I assigned two of my generals that were on Ultimate-Class to lead the operation and get as many magic tomes, grimoires, and books as possible.

Everything then went straight to my library, as Architect scanned each book, continuously expanding his database.

I also bought many of these books from other Pillars, as many of Pillars had countless Magic tomes and similar things, just getting dust in their libraries, so most of them were eager to sell those books for a few Souls Coins or Arachne Drones.

What idiots.

With these new additions, I was able to lay a stable foundation for my Magic System. Surprisingly, I have attained Master-ranked mastery over Devil Magic and Expert-Rank mastery over Norse Magic after reading through all those magic tomes I deemed important to learn personally.

I also tried Human Magic; surprisingly, it was rather easy, as I could easily do mathematical calculations without Architect's help. Apparently, the Devils had more suitable brain development for such things if they tried it.

I had practically cheated my way to have Grandmaster-ranked mastery thanks to Architect's help regarding human Magic.

 

Bael Castle, Territory of the House of Bael

Bael Castle, of the House of Bael, was one of the most secure places in the entire Underworld. Not only in its robust and enormous construction but, more importantly, the magical protection created from over fifty barriers cast over it.

Currently, Venelana Bael was walking through the empty halls of the Castle as she was going to visit her grandfather Zekram Bael and give him the message from her fianceé, who wished to meet First Great King.

"Come in."

Sounded a male voice from behind the wooden door.

Zekram Bael was a middle-aged-looking man with black hair and peaceful, violet eyes. He wore simple yet noble-looking attire that strengthened the already strong aura of dignity that was exuding from him.

First Generation Bael, The First Great King, and the right hand of the Great Satan Lucifer, the primogenitor of all devils. His political power excluded even the other three Satans, as he practically controlled most of the 72 Pillar Houses.

Currently, he was sitting in his study room, drinking tea while reading a magic grimoire.

"So, what do you wish to say, Vena? Normally during this time of day, you would be practicing magic or physical exercises."

Asked Zekram. When Venelana returned from the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, she started training, even more, especially focusing on her magic and physique, as she was too feeble by her words.

"When I was in the Sunset Monster Mountain Range, I met my fianceé."

Started Venelana, as Zekram looked a bit surprised. He didn't think much about her fianceé, considering him, like any other Pillar Heir, automatically useless.

"And?"

"I was surprised."

"Suprised of what exactly, girl?"

"Where to start, maybe from the moment when I saw him using Dark Light."

Said Venelana to him; she got permission from Zeoticus to say this to her grandfather, as he needed something that would catch his attention to meet him for sure. When Zekram heard that, he looked like he was hit by 9 rounds of lightning bolts all over.

"That... should be impos... Rayla. Yes, Rayla."

Muttered Zekram silently.

"Who is she?"

Asked Venelana slowly.

"Rayla Lilian Lucifer, daughter of the Lucifer, and Lilith, the younger sister of Rizevim Livan Lucifer. She disappeared many, many years ago after getting into an argument with her father over something. We assumed that she left Devil Race's territory and went to another Pantheon's dimensional world. Who would have known, she was got together of previous Lord Gremory and even birthed a child."

Answered Zekram after a long silence.

"Is she still..."

Asked him when looking at his granddaughter.

"No, died after giving birth. I am sorry."

Said Venelana quietly. She knew from Zeoticus that his mother died after he was born.

"I want to meet with him."

"He wishes for the same thing."

"Why?"

"By his words to discuss the future of the next generations and devils as a whole."

Answered Venelana as Zekram's face darkened.

"So he noticed that too... hmm..."

Said he grimly.

"Noticed what exactly?"

"He noticed that under there is a problem with us. Our leadership, Four Great Satans, are obsessed with a goal that is impossible to achieve. The world dominance is a pipe dream, maybe if Three Factions united as one, there could be a chance, but now it is night impossible."

While Zekram holds a great deal of respect for the Satans, he was also aware of their rather self-destructive tendencies and the upcoming Great War. All of them were hell-bent on world domination, while they weren't able to defeat even the God of their Pantheon.

It was understandable, as the disparity between them was too great; Big G was too strong, probably already on the level of Ophis, a true Being of Law.

'Currently, in Draconic Deus, there were only several publicly known Begins of Law. Most notorious were, of course, Great Red and Ophis. Then there was also Trihexa; while it was of Law, it was overwhelmed by Chaos and went mad. From Pantheons, existences on the level of Being of Law were Christian Big G, Shiva of Hindu, and Jade Emperor of Celestial Court in China.'

Thought Zekram in his head. For Christian Pantheon as a whole, it was good that Big G was Being of Law; at least, it protected them from foreign threats.

While the Three Factions often attacked each other, they also often ganged up together when they faced external threats.

'Fortunately, Great Red and Ophis are interested in leaving Dimensional Gap; Trihexa has been sleeping for a long time. They aren't a problem. Leaving only Shiva and Jade Emperor. From what spies have found, there is a conflict between Shiva and Indra breeding in Hindu Pantheon. Jade Emperor hasn't left Celestial Palace for several thousand years.'

"We are becoming vulnerable. Without the existence of someone on the level of Big G, our Pantheon become vulnerable to those who are on the same level. Fortunately, most of those people are more interested in increasing their strength; like Jade Emperor, he created interesting cultivation for humans, but they can't reach higher than Early Ultimate-Class."

While cultivators were exciting projects of the Jade Emperor, the highest cultivation stage that was achievable was only as strong as the Early stage of Ultimate-Class. It was understandable, as Jade Emperor created it based on bastardizing the divine energy of Gods.

Without ascending as God, they would be stuck at that level of strength till death. Of course, every Pantheon was very careful when promoting a person to Godhood. Still, the cultivators' souls are perfect for devils, as they are stronger than ordinary mortal souls.

"Send a letter to the House of Gremory that I would visit next week."

Said Zekram slowly as he looked through the window, observing the environment of the Underworld.

 

"It shall be done, grandfather."

"And also prepare some gifts on our first visit to the House of Gremory. What shall be suitable?"

Asked Zekram as he looked at his granddaughter.

"Magic Tomes or Grimoires. Zeoticus is a fanatical magic researcher, especially on runic magic."

Answered Venelana.

"Hmm..."

Zekram then summoned old looking book that looked creepy with its pitch-black leather cover.

"This thing would do... who knows how strong he will become if he learns Abyssal Runes."

Said Zekram as he looked at the book. He quickly found out it wasn't of the universe, as it came from another world. He himself found it thousands of years ago, only several centuries after he was born.

Things like that didn't happen often, but if someone is lucky, he could find some stuff from a different Universe when Space-Time created a portal through Dimensional Gap appear.

After learning Abyssal Runes, he found out; that it was a powerful runic language, even superior to that of Aesir Runes that Asgard used. Zekram didn't know that Abyssal Runes would soon become the part used to create a whole new magic system.

***

[Architect, start the analysis process.]

I said as I was going to try the first spell of the new magic system I had created.

"Okey, casting process of the Zero-Tier Spell, Fireball starts."

I said as I was trying to cast the spell with the usage of the entirely new magic system for the first time.

It was only an experiment, so I would be glad if it didn't explode in my face.

The first step was the usage of Devil Magic. With the usage of Devil Magic, the first thing is to create an image of a fireball with demonic power. Afterward, the creation of a spell matrix is created based on the fireball model created by Devil Magic.

With the already existing model, the creation of a spell matrix from runes is easier. To create a perfect spell, and fuse both of them, model in my head created from Devil Magic and Runic Matrix, I am using calculations to achieve as high precision and perfect fusion as possible.

Soon enough new type of fireball was created. It was white in color, different compared to the orange-yellow when created with Devil Magic.

[Spell Analyzation complete. Stability of 74.65%, compatibility between Devil Magic and Aesir Runes is low, creating destabilization of the spell.]

That was something I was already expecting. My magic system was useless. The main problem was an incompatibility between the nature of Devil Magic, which came from Demonic Power, and Aesir Runes, which were a mix of energy similar to Divine Power and unknown energy.

My magic system was useless unless all spells were of 100% stability.

If I had a runic language that was closer in nature to the Devil Magic, that would be very hard to get.

"How is the power of the spell?"

[Ordinary Fireball created with usage of Devil Magic, has hotness of 1,000 degrees Celsius, this one has even hotter than fireball created with pure usage of Norse Magic, which was 1,500 degrees Celsius. This one is reaching a temperature of 1,700 degrees of Celsius. The spell's versatility and maneuverability are higher than the Norse Magic variant.]

Finished Architect the spelling analysis.

"Hmm... if I increase the stability of the spell, then we could consider the experiment a success. I need to search for suitable runic language."

I said to myself as I was thinking about the results of the experiment. Still, for a start, the results were pretty good. My initial idea of merging three magic systems appeared to be working rather well.

With devil magic model creation in my mind, creating a runic matrix is faster by two times. With the help of calculations taken from human magic, these two things could fuse perfectly, creating a wholly new spellcasting method.

Now it leaves my only stability problem. If I don't solve this, I cannot experiment with higher-tiered spells with higher destructiveness. Instability with those spells should be higher compared to Zero-Tier.

If initial spells, like those of Zero-Tier I have created, have the stability of more than 74%, then the next Tier, I have called Combat-Tier, should have stability only around 45 to 55%, which could be probably pretty dangerous if it exploded into my face, as the destructiveness of those spells, is high to take down the smaller building.

For the rest of the day, I have decided to stop training and retreat to the library to read magic books. For me, it was rather relaxing, and every time I did it, not only was I resting but also getting stronger, as my knowledge about magic was becoming higher.

As I walked to the library, I saw a Head Butler of the Fuerig coming to me.

"My Lord. There is a letter from the House of Bael."

As he gave me a letter sealed with not a sign of House of Bael, said the man, but it was a bit different, from what I recognized, it was a modified Bael Clan sign, used only by First Bael Ancestor Zekram.

"Thanks... you can go."

I said as I started reading the letter while revealing a smile of joy. Apparently, Venelana did her job, and Zekram wanted to meet me and would arrive one week later. This was pretty good. I need to create a good impression; maybe some military showdown of my newly trained soldiers would be good.

Only a few Houses have elite trained soldiers among the Lords, including Four Great Satans. From what I know, the best armies with the best training and strength levels were of House of Lucifer, Lucifuge, Bael, and Agares.

Many of the devil nobles didn't care much about their own legions, and their soldiers were untrained or even outright weak... this would, in the future, lead to countless death. Maybe if I can get the help of Zekram, he has a greater influence in the devil society than most.

 

During this week, I have spent most of my time in the library, as always. I was studying magic to complete my Tier Magic System, as I called it. Theoretically, I currently have two Tiers completed from the Tier Magic System. Not a very creative name; I was aware of that.

One was Zero-Tier, which any Novice Magician could cast, meaning he has Novice-ranked mastery. Spells of the Zero-Tier are either without destructive or weak destruction abilities, used mainly in one-on-one combat.

The second was Adjustable-Tier.

This one was a bit complicated, but the base premise was that the Tier of the spell was determined by the amount of Demonic Power/Magical Power used during the casting process.

Such spell was, for example, Gravity Fall. Based on how much Demonic Power I used in the casting process, this spell could have the power of Zero-Tier or higher Tiers, which are purely conceptual right now.

I have also trained a bit with my Clan Trait, Dark Light, and felt that soon I would be able to reach Exper-ranked mastery, meaning I could create a half-open Gate of Babylon.

"Vena was right... it appears your love for magic is fanatical indeed."

Said a voice belonging to a man. When I turned around, I immediately recognized the person who had come. The First Great King has come for a visit. Apparently, he found his way to the library.

"It is an honor to meet the First Great King."

I said as I bowed deeply.

'Architect, if you scan him, what is the possibility that he will notice that?'

[Very high. Though I can scan his energy ripples to detect his class, while not that accurate.]

'Do it.'

[Scanning process complete.

Demonic Energy: 900 to 1,000

The subject is probably around the Pinnacle of Satan-Class]

Said Architect in my head. Damm, he was strong. They are probably the strongest devil after Original Satans; they should be Super-Devils, though I don't know what stage exactly, but not Pinnacle, maybe Early or Intermediate Stages.

If not, they would have better chances at defeating Big G after he was exhausted from sealing Trihexa; maybe Lucifer was the Pinnacle of Super-Devil Class.

"We can sit."

Motioned Zekram, as we sat down, as he broke me out of my process of thoughts.

"I have brought you something as a gift to commemorate our first meeting."

Said Zekram as he took out the book titled Abyssal Runes and gave it to me. I was shocked when I noticed that book, and soon my shock turned into ecstasy.

"I obtained that book when I was still very young, probably 4,500 years ago. It fell into the Underworld, through the space-time crack in the Dimensional Gap, with several other things that, unfortunately, were not that valuable. Abyssal Runes are very compatible with Devil Magic and could greatly boost up your combat prowess."

Explained Zekram to me, as I was tempted to start reading the book right now, but unfortunately for my researcher tendencies, now there was business to talk about.

"So... what do you think about the current situation, young Lucifer?"

Asked Zekram with more emphasis on the word Lucifer.

"What exactly? Incoming Great War? Worsening situation of our Pantheon as whole or terrible tendencies of Satans?"

I named several things that came to my mind.

"We could start with the War. During my journey here, I noticed that you have already started training your army to be ready for the War. That is good; the quality of your soldiers is increasing steadily, give several years, and Underworld would have another elite army."

Praised Zekram.

"You should be aware of it far better, Lord Zekram. While Four Great Satans built the Devil Race as we know it today, they also led it to its doomsday. And this War, between our Three Factions, would be one for sure."

I stated my opinion while waiting for Zekram to say something. I knew that he deeply respected Four Great Satans, but he was also a pragmatic person who wanted the preservation of the devil race at any cost. World Domination tendencies of the Satans were self-destroying for us.

"That is certainly true, but alas, what can we do? In front of the strength of the Four Satans that reached Super-Devil Class, we were not their match and could only dance as they ordered. Our best chance is that all Three Factions receive enormous casualties that would end in a cease-fire."

Said Zekram after a short time of thinking.

"You should be aware that this is no solution. Aside from Rizevim, all other descendants, especially Bidleid Bashalun Beelzebub, Tsufaame Tereaku Leviathan, and Damaidosu Zereikel Asmodeus, are as hell-bent on world domination as their parents. Even if we survive the War, then there is a huge chance for Civil War erupting."

"I am aware of that fact. Then our only chance would be to dispose of the tumor in our ranks before it grows or Coup before the civil War breaks when it happens. Still... it would be a shame for bloodlines of Leviathan, Asmodeus, and Beelzebub to be lost."

Apparently, we had similar thoughts with Zekram. With the last sentence, I agreed fully, that their Clan Traits were powerful, but I had done some research on the Clan Traits and bloodline; maybe with enough research, I would be able to transplant the bloodline.

"What if that was not the case? What if there was the possibility of transplantation of bloodline from one to another."

I said with a malicious grin on my face.

"Oh?"

"I have done some research on our devil bloodlines, and I am confident that I should be able to achieve such a feat with enough research and experimentation. If only I had some living specimen."

I had done only some research on my body. Getting some living specimens with Clan Trait was extremely hard as Archduke Agares, or Great King Bael, managed all criminals, especially when it came to Nobility.

"Hmm... that should not be that much of a problem. Catch a few useless descendants of Satans during the Great War. Most of their descendants are absolutely useless and weak, so nobody would think there is something wrong if two or three disappeared; they would think they are weak. And Satans disdain everything weak, including their own blood."

 

"That is a good idea. What are our prospects for the future of the war Lord Zekram? I have personally thought about weakening Church and Grigori on the Earth. We could release some of their confidential information to several other Pantheons; they will do the dirty work for us. You should have surely thought about something like this."

I said as we were sitting and drinking tea in my library.

"Indeed. The Church is a great weapon of Heaven, though they are also heavily relying on Heaven. If the support of Heaven stops, they would have great problems with defending their own territories, especially those that were taken from other Pantheons, especially in northern countries and Eastern countries. Additionally, we could weaken their supply of Faith, meaning they won't have as many Divine Crystals used to cultivate angels."

Similarly, as Devils were feeding on souls and negative emotions to gain strength quickly, Angels could do the same with Divine Crystals. Those were basically crystallized faith power, which is created by gathering it from followers. Gods commonly use it to strengthen their Divine Power or create divine messengers like angels.

Olympians use it to create various monsters, Aesir on the other side to strengthen Valkyries or Einherjar, and much more of other uses. They could be used in Divine Magic or Holy Magic to boost up their power. And most importantly, they are used to strengthen the Divine Kingdom. That was the reason why Heaven was practically an impenetrable fortress in Draconic Deus.

The number of Divine Crystals used in strengthening Heaven was eclipsing other Pantheons easily.

"I have thought about selling this information to Asgard, Takamagahara, Vampires, and Olympians. Those prideful greeks have lost many followers to the Church, and the same could be said about Aesir. Vampires would be glad to take revenge upon Church, and Takamagahara wants to cleanse their territory from the influence of Church that is lurking in Japan."

I stated my opinion about which Pantheon and Faction should contact.

"Problematic part is, someone needs to go there and negotiate. It would be best if we went there personally. The most problematic ones to communicate with would be Olympians and Vampires, so I will contact them. They are not something young devil should bother with."

Said Zekram, and I just nodded in agreement and gratefulness. I was aware it was tough to communicate with stubborn Greek Gods, which were probably more arrogant than Four Satans altogether. Vampires were the same, and I didn't even know their location.

On the other hand, communication with Asgard and Takamagahara was far easier. From what I heard, Odin was a pretty reasonable god, and the same could be said about Amaterasu, God-Queen of Shinto Pantheon.

"So. That will leave me with Asgard and Takamagahara. I will make it done. Should we also exchange the intelligence we have gathered? The more damage Grigori and Heaven suffer from the hands of other Pantheons, the better."

I know it sounded a bit hypocritical. I was aware of the fact as the weaker we got, I mean the whole Three Factions, the worse situation in the future would be for us. On the other hand, nobody would stop the upcoming war just because I had several very good arguments that we could be easily targeted of Factions that have Beings of Law. Nobody would listen to me, and there is a high probability of being branded as a traitor. So, for now, the only thing I could do is follow the flow.

"Young Lucifer... what do you think we should do if hypothetically Four Satans perish in the war?"

Zekram asked me with a glint in his eyes while I fell into deep thought.

"Kill their descendants, for a reason mentioned, and ally ourselves with species that are not part of any factions, such as Dragon Clans and Oni Tribes, to create a strong nation. During the war, we will lose countless devils, and after the war, I don't doubt descendants of the Satans would be hell-bent on continuing the war. That needs to be prevented at all costs. This war isn't about who will win, as I think nobody will win. Everyone will suffer, subsequently creating a ceasefire to recuperate losses of lives. My thought is, that many dragon flocks would be a great addition to us if we were to create a new nation upon the ashes of the old one. The same could be said about Oni Tribes living in the Underworld. Even in nature, they are similar to us."

I said part of my plan. It was a good plan, a plan for Baator.

Dragons were the most powerful creatures; most of the dragons were on High-Class just after a few years of their life, with many of them with sufficient training could reach Ultimate-Class.

Also, all Dragon Kings were Pinnacle of their Class, with the potential to reach Heavenly Dragon Class. If dragons united under one banner, they would probably be the strongest faction in Draconic Deus.

Just one word from Great Red, and it would be done. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, we could recruit them to create a Faction together. When you think about it, Dragons are pretty similar to us, Devils.

Both of our species are power-hungry; we want to be stronger than anybody, we are greedy, and we are also lustful. Just a great combination together.

Zekram was thinking deeply about what I said. He was in a deep dilemma. He deeply respected Four Satans for what they had done; they have built the Devil Race and cultivated it where it is now. On the other side, he was a pragmatist and was aware of the fact that they are leading us toward our death, albeit slowly, but for sure.

He was aware that devils would be destroyed either by other factions or in endless civil wars that would come if we continued slowly.

"I have decided."

Said a Zekram with a deep and stern voice.

 

"On what exactly?"

I asked carefully as I continued observing Zekram.

"If Original Four perishes in the war, I will support your idea for the new form of government. If they don't, I will remain neutral in your endeavors and will not help either side."

Stated Zekram slowly. He wanted to see, and then he would support the winner because, for him, it was a win to win in both situations.

"That sounds acceptable to me, Lord Zekram. If I may ask, how strong are descendants of the Originals?"

I said.

"Lucifer only has one, Rizevim; including you, there are two members of the Lucifer Clan. Rizevim is already of the higher ends of the Satan-Class; soon enough, he will even be stronger than his father. However, the man himself doesn't interest in ruling or anything else, even if a bit connected with governing. The other three Houses of Leviathan, Asmodeus, and Beelzebub are weak. Only their inheritors are worth something, while branch members are absolutely worthless."

Stated Zekram. I wasn't surprised about Rizevim. He was around 230 or so years old and was already nearing Super-Devil Class and soon would reach it. It was terrifying talent. About others, it wasn't that surprising; I remembered that in canon, the last direct descendants were weaklings, barely classified as Ultimate-Class, and couldn't even properly use their Clan Traits.

"I see."

"Only shame that Rizevim didn't inherit Dark Light. Rayla, on the other hand, did, but unfortunately, she is dead. Dark Light is powerful, and I also one of the reasons why Lucifer could easily restrain other Satans and force them to obey his commands."

Siad Zekram. It was logical, as Dark Light was a mix of Demonic Element and Holy Element. It was lethal to Devils, such as it was to Angels and Fallen. With this as an elemental advantage, Lucifer could easily suppress other devils.

"I will. Also, Lord Zekram, I have something to sell that would be very useful in the upcoming war."

I said as I summoned one of the Arcane Mechanical Automatons of the Arachne-type. It only took several minutes for it to arrive. I wanted to sell them to Zekram for several reasons. They are good cannon fodder for taking hits and wonderful construction workers who work more efficiently on the battlefield than the traditional workforce.

Like many other races during the war, Devils had a workforce that worked on the frontline to create basic military outposts, fortresses, watchtowers, magic towers, and various other things. It mainly consisted of death sentence criminals, prisoners, or slaves that were captured. Slaves were mainly rogues from other factions. Still, that was unreliable and tended to rebel or slack off.

"This thing here is called Arcane Mechanical Automaton. I belong to the Arachne-type Drone, as they are great for balancing between office, defense, support, and construction. While their combat abilities aren't something great, just around Low-Class, their true value lies in construction abilities and cannon fodder tank abilities. You see, to destroy one of these Arcane Mechanical Automatons, you need firepower comparable to Mid-Class, as they are rather sturdy, and their runic instructions allow them to defend against energy-based attack very well. Also, as basic golems, they don't need to rest and can continue working as long as the runic matrix is undamaged and can convert ambient magic."

I introduced my creation. I also planned to create a Warrior as there would be a need for a primarily oriented Drone. From now on, it was without my capabilities, as I lacked the materials for such a feat for now. I relocated most of my resources available to producing weapons and armor.

Thanks to that, gold was constantly flowing into my pocket, and now I was one of the richest devils in the Underworld. Fortunately, nobody did anything about that, as the only thing I needed to do was bribery.

I directly bribed Noble Houses with discounts on large orders, and everyone closed their eyes over my little monopoly. Also, my childhood friend Raykleid Phenex, newly appointed Lord Phenex, helped me a bit with how to manage a monopoly. His House held it over Pheonix Tears and other medical potions.

"I must admit that I am interested. They would be a good boost for every army, as we don't need to bother with Dammed Ones. How are they commanded, and how many can you produce? I want to order them for House of Bael."

Dammed Ones were a collective name for expendables working force.

"They can be easily controlled by issuing commands. One of the Drones is called Commander Drone; you will open a runic matrix and basically bind with Commander Drone. Then you can easily just tell Commander Drone what you want. Commander Drone, in turn, will instruct ordinary Drones, as they have a basic level of intelligence."

I explained to Zekram how they worked.

"Splendid. I want one million of them. Is that possible?"

Asked him as I was shocked by the sheer number of them.

"Yes, but I need time and materials. A lot of materials. If I have enough, your Drones would be ready within 4 to 5 months."

Production of drones was easy; currently, I have 50,000. If all of them work, they could create around 10,000 per day if they work at maximum. The problem are materials; I have nowhere enough to create such a large number; I was glad I managed to boost up the production speed, as all of them now had experience and perfect method on how to make other drones.

"Hmm... that is indeed problematic. Most of the places are already being used in Underworld, only leaving places like Dragon Mountains or Forbidden Regions, but that is not possible. Maybe you can look for juvenile dimensional space in the Dimensional Gap."

Dimensional Gap was connected to countless worlds. From time to time, if you are lucky, you can find a newly developing world that is empty of life and full of resources such as metal ores, gems, and magic materials.

 

"Dimensional Gap?"

I muttered out loud.

"Dimensional Gap is sealed space belonging to the larger one, called Astral Boundary. It isn't known who sealed it, but not even the Beings of Law; in these words, cannot break and reach the wider space called Astral Boundary. From what I collected, sooner or enough, the seal would collapse, and Dimensional Gap would be once again merged with Astral Boundary."

Explained Zekram to me. As I thought about that, it sounded logical and explained why there weren't existences above Apocalypse-Class.

"How large is Dimensional Gap compared to the Astral Boundary?"

I asked out of curiosity.

"Dimensional Gap, with its tens of planes, are just a small speck of the dust in almost infinity evergrowing Astral Boundary. Many Pantheons have countless books about Astral Boundary, from the time of the Mighty Stage Gods, during the Age of Gods."

I needed to learn more. If it was true what Zekram was saying, that when the seal that was separating the Dimensional Gap from the rest of the Astral Boundary collapsed, then I fear our entire world would be easy prey.

As he talked about it, I also formed my own theory of who actually put up the seal. It was highly possible; it was Mighty Stage Gods of various Pantheons of surrounding Planes. Mighty Stage Gods were mighty beings, but they weren't omnipotent. Mighty Stage Gods were the same as the Apocalypse-Class on the Divine PathGod, meaning they were beings of Law. I wonder what enemy was able to frighten them to the point of creating a Dimensional Gap. At the same time, it would also explain why all Primordial Gods have disappeared from the Draconic Deus, and none are remaining.

If my theory is correct, Astral Boundary must have countless beings on the level of Apocalypse-Class and even higher, so Mighty Stage Gods of Draconic Deus, who were aware they were weaker, decided to hide. While they may sacrifice their lives, they could reform thousands of years later. As long as their Divine Spark and Divine Body were intact, then they were alright. The body of god was a priceless treasure for Alchemy, Magic, and other disciplines.

"Are other Pantheons doing something similar? Searching for resources in the Dimensional Gap?"

I asked. Generally, Gods shouldn't be able to leave the world or plane where they ascended as gods; that was one of the ultimate rules of existence. Still, there always existed some way.

"Some. The most notable is Asgard. Aesir is very different from the other Pantheons, as they are not originally inhabitants of the Draconic Deus; they just somehow bound their realm, Asgard, to the Draconic Deus, becoming the inhabitant in the process, so they have their way around those rules. Their gods could leave Draconic Deus for a prolonged time before getting weaker over time. What do you think their Nine Realms are? They conquered different worlds. Other Pantheons, while not sending their Gods, tend to send armies and their strongest warriors from time to time."

Draconic Deus was limited when it came to resources. There were too many factions and Pantheons fighting for each piece of territory. So to prevent useless fights, they searched for resources either in the Underworld, as it was countless times bigger than Earth and someone ruled only a small part. The second option was to explore the Gap for new worlds.

"Don't worry; if I see someone from other Pantheons, I will kill them if they are weaker. If not, I will just order to retreat."

I said wisely. During situations like these, it would be extremely hard to find a real penetrator of the attack in the Dimensional Gap, so if I find someone with an army and power weaker than myself, I could safely kill. If not, the retreat was always an option.

"Good. I will send several of my magicians with coordinates to open up the passageway. Also, Vena would arrive here after several days; she wanted to tell you. And maybe you can take her with you on the expedition. Good opportunity to spend time together, not talking about the fact she is good combatant, shortly reaching an Ultimate-Class."

Said Zekram as he looked at me.

"Maybe it will be better to post tone the expedition till both of us are Ultimate-Class. I will be reaching the Class soon; I am already on the verge. It will be much safer."

I said, and Zekram nodded in agreement.

"Then I will send everything after you reach the Ultimate-Class. Dimensional Gap and Planar Conquests are dangerous, so better be careful now than sorry later."

Stated Zekram with a wise voice. Taking Venelana with me was a good idea. We could spend more time together, and she would be an Ultimate-Class soon, so I get another powerful combatant for free.

With me, there are two, and I will also take two of my generals, altogether four Ultimate-Class combatants. That wasn't bad if we talked about a plane with no civilization or an extremely primitive and weak one.

"It was a pleasure to speak with you, Lord Zekram."

I said as I bid goodbye to the Zekram, who teleported away from Castle Fuerig as he returned back to his domain.

When he left, I was pretty satisfied with the results of my discussion with him. Now my focus turned to other things that needed attention. The magic study, manufacturing of Arcane Mechanical Automatons, and preparation for the first Planar Conquest.

I felt that the world he talked about wasn't that weak and new. It was a test of my abilities. He wouldn't send Venelana to somewhere that was too strong for her to handle, so his proposition to take her with me meant that the world wasn't too strong.

And it probably had Ultimate-Class beings.

"Old schemer. But I like challenges."

I grinned as I was thinking about it. Zekram wanted to know the basic extent of my abilities and know if I was worth anything besides political talking and intrigue.

 

After finishing the meeting, I immaterially called all of my five Generals and gave them my orders. The first one was to double the numbers of my army so that each legion would consist of 200,000 soldiers. Meaning altogether 5,2 million.

It wasn't big enough to compare to some more militaristic Houses, but it was a nice number. During the Great War, a number of devils that fought there numbered in billions, or rather casualties were in billions.

Second, I informed them about my plan for small planar conquest and ordered an army to increase the training regime by x10. I also invested a lot of Soul Coins to buy precious potions and pills for soldiers.

The third thing was about increasing the combat process of the Generals. The first thing I thought about was buying some high-grade magical equipment from other Pantheons, so I gave that responsibility to General Borke.

I have also been thinking about the usage of Sacred Gears, but that possibility was not very realistic for several reasons. The first one was that currently, Heaven was at its strongest and controlled all Sacred Gears tightly; all users were pawns and soldiers of Heaven. On top of that, Sacred Gears were tied to God's System in Heaven, and it can know its current holder.

Obtaining Sacred Gears when Big G is still alive is just pure action of courting death. Also, I personally disdained depending on the equipment to increase my power. While it is basically a Soul Weapon, Sacred Gear can still be rendered useless. I also had the theory that Big G could directly control all of them, as he was their creator through God's System.

Rizevim had an ability called Sacred Gear Canceler, which worked on a relatively easy principle. It could nullify Sacred Gears of people who were weaker than the user, on the same level as the user... basically, it depended on the amount of energy used. I

remembered that it couldn't nullify Diabolos Dragon mode of that perverted trash in canon, as it was created with the power of Ophis, who was basically a being of law, far above Rizevim's level. So, if he had such ability, it was respectable that similar abilities, skills, spells, and methods existed in the infinite Astral Boundary.

Still, while I don't plan to use Sacred Gears in the foreseeable future, at least not until I find a way to sever them from God's System completely, I won't be using one. It is too dangerous to leave something that is connected to Heaven to be bounded with your soul.

Even though I can later get some of them for my subordinates as they are pretty useful weapons. After Big G is dead, Heaven won't have enough power to protect even the Church, not Sacred Gears, which were, in comparison, not that important with the source of their religion on Earth. So I can get a few of them.

Getting them was though problematic. God's System decided when the Sacred Gear would be bound to someone. Meaning the host of one Sacred Gear could appear only once for several centuries if unlucky. Searching for such a person was also pretty hard. Heaven had it easy; they could just look into the System and know who the host was.

Everyone else had it hard, as they needed to search for them.

I have even decided on which of them to obtain. The first one was Telos Karma. While I didn't plan on using it, this one was unique, as from what I heard about it, Telos Karma was built with the usage of infusement of Laws of Fate, thus capable of changing the probability of things. I don't want to use it for a simple reason; I would rather study the Laws of Fate itself.

If possible, I also aimed to obtain Sephiroth Graal due to its usefulness in genetic manipulation and its ability to use the Laws of Creation, Life, and Soul. Other useful Sacred Gears were Annihilation Maker and Dimensional Lost.

For me personally, Incinerate Anthem for its ability to use the highest-grade Holy Flame.

After the war, I can start my research upon Sacred Gears... maybe even compare notes with Azazel. I heard that even now, that man was spending most of his time in research. Then I started to wonder if Grigori could be recruited for my plan... probably not after the war... but later, who knows.

Once Underworld is mainly under the Devil's control, Fallen would need to be dealt off. Either by Grigori joining, expelling them, or annihilation.

I sat in my study as I was looking at the room's ceiling, and thinking about various things. There were currently many things to do, soon, the war would start, and I needed to be prepared as much as possible to obtain the biggest gains.

Additionally, I also needed to visit Asgard and Takamagahara to deal with the two Pantheons. Zekram would go to Olympus and Vampires.

When I looked for information about the Asgard situation, there wasn't ideal.

Apparently, Odin got into conflict with his eldest daughter Hela, and their relationship was almost at the point of the war. God-King of Aesir has decided to be a peace-loving fool for a foreseeable period, from what I heard. That wasn't something I wanted to hear. Now I can see why Zekram left it to me; that old man cheated me.

Odin molded Hela to be his weapon of conquest, and now that man has decided to end wars in his sphere of influence, she was practically made redundant for him.

God Queen Frigga, Prince Baldur, and Prince Thor have decided to remain neutral. Prince Loki is leaning towards Hela's camp. So... who should I get.

That only leaves me with one option.

Hela.

She was pretty strong, pinnacle Intermediate Divinity Stage, same Class as old Zekram. She would also soon enough reach an even Greater Divinity Stage. Maybe Odin also feels threatened; if she is like I read about her, it wouldn't be weird for her to challenge him for the throne.

 

Leaving aside my thoughts about meeting Hela and planning how to survive the meeting with her unscathed, I also needed to meet with the Takamagahara gods. Fortunately for me, the situation there wasn't bad, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

When it came to obtaining more resources, I have also thought about exploring Draconic Deus, not planet Terra, but rather the rest of the planets that were located in the Plane Draconic Deus. There are a lot of planets that are untouched... probably. I don't know if they really are; maybe other species live in the Draconic Deus besides those in the center of the plane, Earth.

The problem here was the lack of the Void Ships or proper long-distance teleportation methods. While the teleportation methods could be easily devised, I saw the future in the Void Ships. They would be useful in the future while traversing the Astral Boundary.

"Architect, bring out the blueprints for the Void Ships from my past life."

I commanded my A.I.

Our civilization was a very advanced one in my past life, capable of easily traversing void and stars, conquering worlds, and destroying other space-faring civilizations with ease. Mainly thanks to the fearsome advanced technology that Solar Federation possessed. Not advanced as those stupid pointy-eared bastards, it was enough to eliminate most of the enemies of humanity.

[At once.]

Said the mechanical voice in my head as I was looking through the currently available blueprints. What the Architect brought out were the only ones that I would be available to create with my current resources within Architect's calculations.

What was problematic was the energy source.

Here, I couldn't use traditional energy sources and needed to adjust it to Arcanotechnology. Another problem would be FTL, Faster than Light speed.

Aesir had similar vessels, and they used some kind of crystallized energy converter as their energy source. Maybe, I can adjust the Runic Matrix on the Arcane Mechanical Automatons to work on a much larger scale, drawing the power directly from the Astral Boundary, in my case, the Dimensional Gap, as it was still part of the Astral Boundary.

"After the conquest of the newly birthed plane given by Zekram, construction of one Void Ship would be much easier. I can then explore Draconic Deus to the fullest."

I grinned.

The only Pantheon capable of something similar was Asgard, as Aesir and Vanir species were dedicated to advancing their magical-based technology, thus creating many wonders. Maybe I can ask Hela how Asgard has progressed, but probably a lot; they should have already controlled several planets. So there won't be a huge competition.

I also understood the fact why not many Pantheons were attempting to do the same. When you compare the time needed to develop advanced magical technology, top the opening portal through the Dimensional Gap, then the last one is much easier and faster.

"Architect, start calculating process on adjustments to the Lunar-Class Cruiser. I want it to be done within the next year or two."

[As you wish.]

I was aware that such an advanced mathematical and magical project would take a long time, mainly when Architect would be dedicated to doing other things aside from this one. I wasn't in a hurry.

"Also, add an implementation of the Anti-Matter engines into the model, creating duel energy sources concept engine."

I said after a short thought. Anti-Matter Weaponry was probably one of the most destructive in the arsenal of the Solar Federation Military. Fortunately for me, I was part of a team tasked with researching more advanced usage of energy-based weapons and Anti-Matter weapons.

[Then, I will also start adjusting the blueprint to accommodate several Anti-Matter canons.]

I wonder what has happened to my home universe if I really was in a different universe. Maybe my past home was some kind of sealed space, just like Dimensional Gap is. Sometimes.

While I was happy with my current life, especially due to my high social standing, personal power, and long lifespan, I wondered how life was going in there.

I don't know even if the time flows exactly the same between the two Universes. I knew that the Laws of all existence were different, so maybe even time flew in different ways here and there. For example, here, gods were real, and Magic was real. In my past life, I only heard rumors about beings called gods; they were just superstitions of various cultures and races.

The same thing as Magic, though about that, some people theorized that what those arrogant pointed ears could do wasn't purely because of technology, and there was sorcery mixed in, but I have never paid attention to it.

After finishing these matters of replicating some technological wonders of my past life, especially the Void Ships, I have gone to study Magic once again. As a scientist and researcher, it was in my blood.

As time went by, soon enough, one week passed by from when I started learning the Abyssal Runes from the book Zekram gave me.

My Arcane Mechanical Automatons worked hard as bees, creating countless other Arcane Mechanical Automatons with every resource available. I have also given a blueprint for a weapon system for the Drones, so they would have weapons with the firepower of higher ends of the Low-Class.

I planned to use those Drones as a combat force in the upcoming conquest. I wanted to know how strong they would be. Unfortunately for me, probably 99% of the blueprints from the Architect's database were completely useless without prior adjustments.

Evidently, most of the energy sources used by the Solar Federation didn't seem to work in this Universe. I think it is due to different Laws of the Universe, or probably every Universe has Will, that is forcing the Universe to evolve in a certain way while simultaneously forbidding every other way. So If I want to replicate anything, I need to adjust it to work with "local" energy sources.

It was annoying as hell. If not for that, I would have probably more advanced technology than Asgard, or at least on the same level.

After a week passed, I realized something... Venelana was coming for a visit. I need to quickly take a bath and get new clothes, as I spent last week cooped up in the library again.

 

At the same time, with Zekram, Romania.

Romania was the ancestral home of the Vampire race after the first generation of the True Ancestors waged war on the Primordial Gods of the Greek Pantheon in ancient times and took it by force. Afterward, the Blood Lords went to deep sleep, never awakening in the past thousands of years. Zekram knew that True Ancestors were Beings of Law that arrived from Astral Boundary.

Though Romania remained as the taboo land for Greeks and mostly for other Pantheons, as ruling Blood Lords were too strong, stronger than average Greater Divinity Stage God, and they liked blood of gods, for Vampires, especially for the Kindreds, it was the fastest way to gain power.

Blood Lords were the second generation of Kindreds, direct children of the True Ancestors.

Greater Divinity God was the same as Super-Devil, and each Pantheon had at least several such powerhouses, especially strong Pantheons had many of them. Christian God has Archangels that, while had energy reserves comparable to the Super-Devil, unfortunately, their combat prowess was lacking to defeat one.

However, their elemental advantage could still cause them a great deal of damage.

Vampires and Kindreds were isolationists. They never left their territory unless somebody attacked them. Though Zekram would be sure that they would gladly attack Church, they hated Chruch and Angels with a grand passion.

As he appeared in Romania, he was immediately surrounded by twenty Vampire soldiers in crimson armor, each giving out an aura of an Ultimate-Class warrior. It was understandable, as when a peak Satan-Class powerhouse appears in your territory, it is bound to cause chaos.

"Zekram."

Said a man's voice as one of the Vampires took out his helmet. He was a middle-aged man with shining azure blue eyes and a stern look.

"Stand down. He is expected."

Commanded man as all Vampires put down their weapons and dispersed into shadows.

"Viktor. It has been a long time."

Said Zekram a bit emotionally. Viktor was Vampire Elder, the same Class as Satan-Class, and was very powerful among the Vampires. He was a direct descendant of the 2nd True Ancestor and son of Blood Lord. More importantly, he was also one of very few Zekram's friends.

"Yes, it has been, my friend. Come, they are expecting you. The Council of Blood Lords is awake in full attendance."

Said Viktor as he led Zekram deep into a fortress that was hidden deep within the mountain range, hidden and protected by countless magic barriers and spells. Zekram was surprised to hear that even Ancestor was woken up, but it was understandable. Here the final decision-makers are Ancestors, especially if the top is about attacking faction that has also Being of Law.

Zekram knew that while True Ancestors were on the same level as Christian God or a bit weaker, they would both lose even if they fought him together due to elemental disadvantage.

This was why Vampires and Kindreds actively avoided a fight with anyone of Holy / Light / Sun / Pure or similar alignment.

"How is time treating you, Zekram?"

Asked Viktor as they were walking through the labyrinth of underground tunnels that were leaving the city of the Vampires. The Holy City of the Pale Blood, Yharnam.

It was where the Council of Blood Lords resided. Altogether there were four Blood Lords. There were two True Ancestors, from which two Blood Lords were descended from the 1st True Ancestor, and two were from the 2nd Ancestor. Each of the Blood Lords represented the main line of pure-blood kindreds: Brunestud, Tepes, Carmilla, and Corvinus.

"Not well since I need to prepare for war. Our three factions are finally going all out."

Sighed Zekram. Fortunately, Devils and Vampires / Kindreds had a relatively good relationship as they were pretty similar to each other, creatures of pure darkness.

"Hmm... I hope that I will be able to spill some blood of exorcists and angels."

Said Viktor with a bloodthirsty grin. Vampires and Kindreds hated Church and Angels probably even more than devils in a certain regard.

True Ancestors were not interested in anything in Draconic Deus as they were constantly researching the method of how to return to the Astral Boundary.

"Maybe you will, who knows. I will gladly see your Blood Legions march against the Church and Angels. But the question is, are True Ancestors willing to take a risk?"

The risk I was talking about came from the Greek Pantheon. Who knows, if some vengeful Primordial God remains alive and if True Ancestors made a move, they would attack Romania for sure. Not to mention that Vampires and Kindreds have attracted the ire of several Pantheons for their tendency to hunt for Demigods and even weak gods as a source of blood.

While some Pantheons might not have existences on the level of Beings of Law or in god system of power levels, Mighty Stage Gods, many of them have methods on how to injure or even kill one severely. Ancient artifacts, weapons, magic formations, divine weapons, and many more.

"Don't know... though most of our people would be eager to march to war. We don't know if our current enemies, besides Church and Heaven, will attack us. True Ancestors, on the other hand, aren't interested in the affairs of Draconic Deus; they are interested only in returning to the Divine Blood Plane. Our ancestral home."

Said Viktor as they were walking through the endless corridors.

"I am well aware, and I don't even want True Ancestors to act personally, that would turn this conflict in all our war between higher existence. Your Legions, on the other hand, are another thing."

Zekram's intentions were clear; he wanted Devils and Blood Races to forge an alliance; they were practically on the same side. That was an ultimate advantage that Devil Race had; they could forge alliances with similar races as them, something that Church and Heaven could not, due to their aggressive expansion.

"Hmm... that could work. Maybe even one of the Blood Lords would participate. Blood Lord Valerian Tepes is a battle maniac, so he won't miss the opportunity to go to battle and fight Archangels."

 

Holy City of the Pale Blood was genuinely marvelous. It was created with gothic architecture and gave of gloomy and dreadful feeling to everyone who was not a vampire or kindred and visited it.

Zekram visited this place for the first time in his life, as Kindreds were not allowing anybody to lay his eyes upon their Holy City.

This was a place where True Ancestors were sleeping and Blood Lords were residing. Contrary to most factions, it wasn't located in a separate dimensional space tied to the Draconic Deus but rather in Draconic Deus itself, deep under the planet's crust, hidden and protected.

Soon enough, they arrived at the huge castle of enormous size, dwarfing countless fortresses that the Devils had to build across the Underworld. Zekram could feel countless advanced magic spells protecting the fortress as he admired its beauty.

'No wonder that most local Pantheons are not fond and even afraid of these people arriving from Astral Boundary. The production and advancement abilities are far above natives.'

Sighed Zekram as he was looking at the Citated of Yharnam.

In Draconic Deus, there were essentially two types of factions. One was the so-called native, which consisted of Pantheons and factions native to the Draconic Deus, such as Takamagahara, Olympus, Hindu, etc. The second one consisted of those who arrived from the Astral Boundary before the Dimensional Gap was created in ancient times.

Those were Vampires, Asgard, and several others.

They were also not too friendly towards each other.

Viktor led Zekram to the meeting hall, where four Blood Lords were already awaiting him. It was a very dark room, with only moonlight illuminating four seats where four figures were sitting. Zekram observed each of the Blood Lords. Three of them were men, and one was a woman, probably from the Carmilla Family. She had long blond hair and beautiful azure blue eyes.

What caught Zekram's attention was a muscular man wearing pitch-black armor and gripping a sword in his hands. His crimson eyes were shining in the dark and thirsting for blood.

'That should be Valerian Tepes.'

Thought Zerkam as he looked at the man. Viktor told him that Valerian Tepes was a battle maniac, so he would probably support his idea for sure, but other three, he was uncertain. Kyrstia Carmilla was an isolationist, while the other two, Alexstrazs Brunestud and Marcus Corvinus, were unknown.

"My Honorable Blood Lords, I have brought a guest from the Underworld, proposing an idea to attack forces on Church and Heaven during the war between three Factions of Heaven, Devils, and Grigori."

Grigori was an organization of Fallen Angels, created by a mighty Archangel that fell, Azazel, who fell from Heaven. Soon enough, countless Pure Angels started falling for committing sins, and they soon enough created the organization Grigori.

The Watchers of the Children of God.

Azazel served as Governor-General of Grigori, but he wasn't too interested in faction management or anything; due to that, Grigori looked more like countless bandit groups banded together. There was no real authority; it was a very loose faction.

"Yes, the Great King of Bael, right-hand of Lucifer. What do you wish to propose to us?"

Said one of the Blood Lords; more precisely, it was Marcus Corvinus. A middle-aged man with an average look in every way. He wasn't looking anything special, nor powerful, nor exceptional. He deceived countless people with this strategy, and all of them became his nourishment.

"Cooperation, between Devil Race and Blood Races."

Said Zekram straightforwardly.

"Be more specific."

Answered back Blood Lord Corvinus with a low voice.

"As you have already noticed, tensions within our Pantheon are becoming too much to bear, and soon enough, war would erupt. During the war, one of our targets is the influence of Heaven on Draconic Deus, and we wish to strike Church as hard as possible. During the War, Heaven won't have enough manpower to protect and help Church, as it will have full hands with war with Devils and Fallen Angels. That is an opportunity for your faction to attack and exact revenge."

Explained Zekram his plan while four Blood Lords were in deep thought.

"And how can we be sure that Yahweh won't attack us."

Said a soft female voice of Blood Lord Kyrstia Carmilla.

"He won't, for several reasons. First is that you have behind you True Ancestors that could serve as a small deterrent; while not powerful as Yahweh, they could stall him enough for reinforcements to arrive and surround Yahweh. Second, Four Great Satans would be fighting Yahweh, so he won't be away from the battlefield; while the Great Satans are weaker than him, they have created a unique method to boost up their combat prowess actually to injure him. Third, you are not the only faction that will be doing this; Olympus, Asgard, and Takamagahara will all attack. Heaven has made too many enemies and no allies with the aggressive expansion. While he is strong, very strong, we could rely on numbers and other special means. Many Pantheons have their methods on restraining Mighty Divinity Stage God or Being of Law."

Explained Zekram with a great headache each time he mentioned the name of the Christian God.

"Your points are valid, Great King Bael. We could indeed rely on numerical advantage, but Yahweh has his advanced magical technology creations and several Archangels. It is still too risky. Not mentioning this is business of your Three Factions, not us Kindreds."

Said back Blood Lord Kyrstia Carmilla with a cold voice. Even Zekram understood the dangers of doing such a thing. While they had two True Ancestors on the level of Being of Law, genius Apocalypse-Class powerhouses, they couldn't defeat Yahweh due to elemental disadvantage.

If, by any chance, he attacks them, then they would survive, but the costs would be enormous.

"The method of Satans. How sure are you it will work?"

Asked one of the Blood Lords that had closed eyes the entire time and just listened in silence, Alexstrats Brunestud. He was also the strongest out of them.

"100%. They developed a special magic ritual, I won't go into details, but they would be able to fight him on equal grounds. Lord Lucifer personally guaranteed that."

Said Zekram with confidence.

 

Hearing this, all Blood Lords present fell into deep thought and were thinking about the possible outcome of their decision.

"You can l; for now, we will decide among ourselves."

Said Blood Lord Alexstrazs Brunestud with a neutral voice as Zekram slowly left the meeting hall. As he exited the meeting place, he saw Viktor already waiting there for him.

"So, what do you think their decision would be?"

Asked Zekram, his friend, as they sat down at nearby chairs.

"Hard to say. I can be sure that Blood Lord Kyrstia Carmilla would be against interference. That woman is isolationist to the core, so she won't support any kind of military expedition, especially that which is attacking Heaven. You have the support of Blood Lord Valerian Tepwho, will support this with all his might for several reasons, but most importantly, aside from his battle lust, Church almost killed his daughter when she was young. For him, it is personal."

Said Viktor with a low voice as he looked at the closed door which led to the meeting room.

"What about the other two?"

It was apparent that the votes of the two remaining Blood Lords would be crucial.

"Blood Lord Marcus Corvinus and Blood Lord Alexstrazs Brunestud are hard to predict. They will look at profit first and only then at consequences. If they judge that profits of this alliance are overshadowing its danger, then both of them would agree for sure."

Explained Viktor.

"What now?"

"We have approximately several hours before they call you back. I am hungry and thirsty, so we should go to eat. We have good dragon steaks and fresh dragon blood."

Said Viktor as he licked his lips.

"I am not a bloodsucker, but that steak sounds good."

Laughed Zekram a bit as both of them went away.

***

The meeting room of the Blood Lords.

"So, what do you think about the proposition, my fellow Lords?"

Asked Alexstrazs Brunestud with a neutral voice.

"I oppose. We don't need to provoke Yahweh even more than we did. True Ancestors together are not a match for that man, and if he brought here several of his Archangels, our losses would be astronomical, and we could only depend on the Holy City to survive. We are good as we are now. On top of that, this is not our conflict but the conflict between Three Christian Factions. Let them kill each other; this has nothing to do with us and will only bring unnecessary damage and danger."

The first one to oppose was Kyrstia Carmilla.

"On that, I don't agree with you, sister; this has everything with us. What do you think will happen if Heaven wins? If devils and fallen are annihilated? Who would be next? How much of our blood will die, then? If they lose, the blade of Yahweh and his armies would be turned on us next time, and we alone are not enough. Yes, we could escape with the help of True Ancestors somewhere in the Dimensional Gap, but what about our offspring and race? Do you want to spend your life as a hunted rat? I say we should fight! This is our fight, as much as devils! We are enemies of Heaven and the Church. Those shitty priests are hunting our young ones and killing small children just because of their stupid faith! This is our time to strike back! And I will personally lead the charge on the Vatican if it is possible!"

The outcome was expectable, but the process not. No one among them awaited emotional speech for a "brute" like Valerian.

"What about you, Marcus? At least you should be the voice of reason!"

Said Kyrstia as she looked at Marcus Corvinus in the hope of finding an ally.

"I must disappoint you, Kyrstia, as I agree with Valerian. Our Faction, too has enemies, and Heaven and Church will do anything to annihilate us. We could save our hides by escaping to other planes in Dimensional Gap, but that cannot be said about everything in our species. Sooner or later, Yahweh's blade will be pointed at us as we are the so-called creatures of the Darkness. With Four Great Satans restraining Yahweh, we could join and attack Church and Heaven, fearing not his retaliation, while we four could deal with Archangels."

Said Marcus Corvinus as Kyrstia's smile fell down.

"What do you think about this, Alexstrazs?"

Asked Valerian as he looked at the last Blood Lord.

"Kyrstia is fundamentally right... but she is also wrong. Yes, it is dangerous, but this is also our fight. We need to fight; Church has labeled us as their target of extermination, and what are we doing? Small skirmishes and small fights. We need to cripple them, destroy them, and leave them with no power to even think about attacking us for the next thousand years. Without Heaven, Church is nothing; we all know it. Thus I agree, we should help Devils and deploy our Crimson Paladins and Battle Mages."

With this being said, everything was already set in stone. It was three against one; the majority of the Blood Lords felt that it was suitable to be no longer passive and start an active counterattack.

If Four Great Satans would really restrain Yahweh, then they could safely attack the Church and the forces of Heaven.

"Then it is decided. Divine Blood Faction will participate in the war against Heaven and Church."

Stated Alexstrazs in a deep voice.

 

Shortly after the meeting of the Blood Lords, deep within Yharnam Citadel, two shadow figures with nothing but crimson eyes visible were looking at each other.

"They have decided to intervene in the war."

Stated one of the figures.

"Indeed. It was only a matter of time before Church and Heaven would have forced them upon this decision. They have become too aggressive."

Said another one.

"What if the plan of Satans fails and Yahweh won't be restrained and will attack us?"

Asked the first one.

"What else? We will escape to the Dimensional Gap."

Said the second one.

"That is always a choice. Our aim is only to regain our strength and return to the Divine Blood Plane. Nothing else matters; the only important thing in the lives of the Main Families of our blood; everything else is irrelevant. While I thought that you would have preferred to stay and fight to the death, Alucard."

Said the first one.

"Indeed, but due to our injuries, we are reduced to weak Apocalypse-Class individuals. Without the blood of enough other Apocalypse-Class powerhouses, we won't be able to return to our peak fast."

Answered back the second now, Alucard.

"It is still all your fault. Due to your stupid idea of exploring that creepy newly found Universe and subsequently being attacked by that Chaos God. Both of us were nearly killed and crippled, to the extent that even some random new Apocalypse-Class can bully us."

Said the first shadow to Alucard.

"Shut up, Brunestud. Who would have known that place would already have four Great Old Ones? It looked like a new Universe that was only a few tens of millions of years old. Nobody would think the such place would have even one Great Old One, not to mention four of them."

Shot back Alucard to Brunestud.

"Ts. Still, we will watch and sit. Maybe collect the blood of Devils, Angels, and Fallen. It is precious to our species."

***

In the meeting hall of Blood Lords, several hours later

Four Blood Lords soon enough called Zekram to hear out their decision.

"Great King of Bael, we agree to your proposal, but we have one condition for us to deploy our legions."

Said Blood Lord Alexstrazs Brunestud, while Zekram revealed a small smile hearing this.

"What condition?"

"We wish to harvest blood from corpses of Devils, Fallen Angels, and Angels."

Hearing this, Zekram was inwardly happy. On such a chaotic battlefield, nobody would care about the corpses of the killed, maybe with the exception of several people who would get a proper burial, but that was all. Practically Vampires and Kindreds would be doing a cleaning job.

"To that, we agree."

Said Zekram slowly.

"Then it is decided. We will meet on the battlefield."

After giving a small bow to the four Blood Lords, Zekram left the meeting hall and went to the waiting lobby, where Viktor was already waiting for him.

"From your expression, I can see that they have decided to wage war?"

Asked Viktor with a feral grin over his face.

"Yes, indeed. It will be a glorious war. Heaven is stronger than us individually, so we need to mobilize our advantages. Also, be careful of Church; they have a lot of Sacred Gear users; if possible, try to capture them alive and extract their Sacred Gears before killing them. As long Church doesn't get back Sacred Gears, its power would be cut tremendously in upcoming centuries."

The power of the Church came from three aspects. The greatest amount of it came from Heaven in the form of Angels that tended to participate in exorcism missions. The second was from the huge number of exorcists that the Church was capable of producing.

The last one was in the form of Sacred Gear users, which were all controlled by the Church. The strongest Sacred Gears users could rival even early-stage Satan-Class, which was pretty terrifying itself, as we are talking about pure humans that reached this stage, even if it is with the help of equipment.

Zekram would rather see those things being locked deep within the vaults of the Yharnam rather than being allowed once again to return to the hands of the Church. Of course, if possible, he too wanted to obtain them, but mainly because of Yahweh, he decided against it. Another deterrent was that all of them were directly connected to God's System in Heaven.

"So we will meet on the battlefield. Are you going to convince more Pantheons to attack them if this mess officially starts?"

Asked Viktor as he was aware that Heaven and Church had away too many enemies. They could enjoy their superior position mainly because Mighty Divinity Stage Gods of other Pantheons were incapable of taking action, and Yahweh was one himself and a relatively strong one. But alas, now, if Four Great Satans were restraining him, all enemies would start baring their fangs.

"Yes, my next stop is Olympus. My associate would be going to the Asgard and Takagahamara."

Said Zekram to Viktor, whose eyes twitched a little, hearing Olympus.

"Hmm... Greeks are arrogant, too much for their own good, but thanks to that arrogance, they will probably strike the hardest out of all against Yahweh. It was he who ended their golden age. And about Asgard, the only thing I can say... good luck. That place is getting messier with each passing month."

Said Viktor, grimly mentioning the situation of Asgard.

"Odin and Hela, I wonder if it will really lead to the civil war. That is not the best outcome for us."

Stated Zekram.

"Who knows? Maybe Hela will desert and become a local warlord. Who knows. She is no match for Odin, and she knows it, but she has wide support of Berserkers and Einherjar Armies; millions are willing to follow her."

Said Viktor, his opinion on the matter.

"It is not surprising. Aesir are a battle race; waging war is in their blood."

Said Zekram, while his mind thought about other things.

'I wonder... maybe he can convince her to join. If he did that, it would be wonderful... Emotionally Hela is on the level of a child, maybe seducing her isn't that hard. Seducing Goddes of Death... what a nice shock it would be, young Lucifer.'