6 Chapter 6 : Rising tensions.

- Damien –

Me acquiring Dimension Lost, an indirect encounter with Rizevim and meeting Kuroka and Shirone were far from the only incident in the last year though.

Soon after that another incident happened that I had known was about to happen.

The execution of Cleria Belial.

It happened just as I had known it to happen. The love story of star crossed lovers meeting a bad end. I kind of wanted to call out the shit on Sirzechs and Grayfia because of this.

It did cause a massive political shit storm and while not direct, I did contribute to it as well through rumors that Zekram Bael was attacking Diehauser Belial because he was not on his side and such. These rumors were spread by people through discrete sources that had been planted months before the execution had even taken place and were just waiting to be triggered at the correct moment.

The rumors stated that Cleria merely wanted to recruit a Knight and a Holy Sword wielder like Masaomi Yaegaki was an excellent option.

Zekram Bael however feared the Belial's getting such a power and had organized it. It did hold weight because seducing church members to the devil's side was not something new.

I heard from Alicia as well as Ophelia that the Satans were running around in circles like mad dogs trying to find the source of the rumors to no avail.

The rumors also gained weight because it was accompanied by several other well hidden facts that were buried away and could cause massive reputation damage to the Great King faction.

They were naturally incensed and on not finding anything, they started targeting Diehauser but couldn't make any overt move in fear of provoking a bad image.

Now while I personally don't have anything against the Great King or the new Satans, it is also a fact that if my identity is revealed, I would become one of their most sought-after targets in an instant. The Great King faction would especially be threatened by my very existence and would do anything to remove me permanently or bring me under their control, more chances of the former.

That will just not work in my favour when I am out of the Old Satan Faction and on my own. This is why I am trying to undermine their credibility among the common populace as much as possible and make a network that can oppose that of the Great King Faction.

Political and social assassinations are very common among the high class society like these.

Diehauser was however supported by many other houses due to his reputation and thus was relatively unharmed from all scandals. I personally think that now that a scandal had been caused and there were blames being made on their names, Zekram personally backed down in fear if Diehauser knew and revealed about the King Pieces.

This however was not the correct time.

The implications of this incident were that Diehauser Belial had grown disillusioned with the current government and had joined the Old Satan Faction siding with Rizevim….to spy for me.

I had taken the opportunity to revive Cleria because she was bound by The Binder's Essence and thus her soul was under my control.

Diehauser had almost blown a gasket when he had seen a revived Cleria due to him thinking that someone was using her disguise to mock him. Thankfully Cleria's use of the Worthless calmed him down although it left him utterly confused. Everyone had witnessed the death of Cleria Belial with their own eyes.

She then proceeded to state things that only the two of them knew thus solidifying her identity. Safe to say Diehauser Belial was confused as fuck. I couldn't talk to him directly either. So Cleria had to convince him that she was safe and was protected by someone(namely me).

He did put off signing or pledging his loyalty towards me, that said Cleria has repeatedly reassured me of his support. That however didn't make me angry though. If anything I now had even more respect for Diehauser Belial. Not that I will be revealing myself to him anytime soon. I would like to keep myself a secret till I am sure of it.

Respecting someone and trusting someone are two completely different things.

Finally he decided to move on his own. His reason was that if the Great King Faction were responsible for his sister's death and the reason due to which she had to pretend to be dead even after being brought back to life, then he would bring them to their knees. It was quite different from what it had been originally but something that I actually appreciated nonetheless.

He joined with the Old Satan Faction and worked with them ultimately to use them as a means to get his sister justice.

And that is where the twist happened.

As Rizevim was already trying to separate me from Katerea but there hadn't been a good enough replacement for her(who would fucking dare), Shalba and Creuserey were smart enough to stay aside while Euclid doesn't come anywhere near me since the last incident. Now with the appearance of Diehauser Belial, this changed completely.

No one could complain about Diehauser's competency in magic or even teaching. The title of 'The Emperor' was enough to put down any objections at all.

So I got my new teacher in strategy and advanced magical theory as well as live combat….and I couldn't be any happier.

The first meeting between me and my new teacher was amusing for both of us as it suddenly appeared out of nowhere….unknown to both of us. Rizevim thought that he had pulled a prank on us. Putting a suspicious newcomer and me in a situation like that to test out both of us. And that too right after the whole drama about spies. If that wasn't mocking me, then I had no idea what it was.

That fucker.

- Flashback –

I had been interrupted from my usual training and was called out to meet Rizevim. It was supposed to be my training with Katerea soon.

The old butler had been outside my door and had escorted me to the meeting place.

Three people were waiting in the room for me. Rizevim, Katerea and another man whom I identified only through pictures and videos.

"Oh Damien, you are here. Come on in. Meet your new teacher 'The Emperor' Diehauser Belial." He waved his hands towards Diehauser who had slightly raised eyebrows and was hiding his surprise quite well with it. "And Diehauser, meet your new student, Damien Lucifer." Now that got his attention.

"Lucifer?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes yes….Lucifer. To be more precise Damien Lucifer Asmodeus…. created from the blood of my dear Father and uncle Asmodeus, a satanic miracle child if you will." His words were almost as if he was singing with happiness while Diehauser finally had wide eyes as he looked at me.

"T-that…." Katerea started to speak but a single gaze from Rizevim shut her up.

"Are you doubting my choices Katerea?" his voice was simple and smooth with almost no change of tone from his previous jovial one yet the warning was still clear.

"N-no Lord Rizevim." She stuttered and backed off.

I for myself was pushing my Occlumency to the best of my ability to keep a neutral expression.

Revealing my identity to someone just out of the blue was….

"Now Damien listen carefully. Diehauser here will teach you about House Traits, Strategies, Advanced Magical theories as well as combat. While Katerea is a very capable teacher, there are very few who know magical theories and House Traits as well as Diehauser." Rizevim chided. "Say, do you accept? Of course you accept. Who wouldn't want The Champion of Rating Games as a teacher."

Although his patronizing tone was annoying, none of his logic could be refuted at all.

Katerea will still find a way to bring me for classes but this would most definitely reduce our time together by a lot.

I put the thoughts aside and nodded slightly towards the surprised Belial who nodded back in reply. "I would be glad for anything I can learn from Lord Belial."

I ignored the hurt look from Katerea right now because if I completely disregarded Rizevim's opinion and threw a tantrum here, it would make him doubt Ophelia's brainwashing….that's if he is not doing so right now.

It was fascinating how much she had learned to act in all this time. Normally she would have been happy to stay away from me but now she knows that I have involved her too much and if we get caught now, she will not be forgiven at all and will die with me.

- End of the Flashbacks –

Since then I have spent the last eight months being taught by Diehauser and it has only served to increase my respect for the man even more.

The man was an absolute genius and equally hard working as well.

I hadn't known anyone to deconstruct unique abilities be it House Traits or absolutely unreasonable Sacred Gear abilities to overcome them with worthless.

I had a wonderful opportunity to analyse the Worthless ability too.

It worked by eliminating a vital part of the Magic. Like imagine if a sequence of steps are needed for a certain result to occur, the Worthless just disrupts the sequence by completely removing a part of the sequence.

This would also explain the weakness of Worthless. First being that the user has to know everything about the type of magic being cast.

Now imagine a fire spell. Even if one doesn't understand every step of the spell, they can still remove the component used to increase the kinetic energy of the surroundings and thus making it powerless instantly.

Obviously without accurate targeting, a large part of the spell has to be overcome and thus a large amount of energy is required, which is coincidentally the second part of weakness – the amount of Energy.

There is a reason why Diehauser can't just Worthless Sirzechs or Rizevim. He simply can't match them in power.

Ajuka would however simply outmatch him in processing speed and amount of magic he can use before the question of power even comes to place.

I had been looking into developing this ability for a long time now and with a front row seat to it, I just had to do it.

I can use Worthless now. The analyzing part of the ability was taken care of by my Archmage Essence and as for power….I think I will have enough of that in time.

Then came the Strategy and combat classes.

Diehauser was a master of strategies as seen in his Rating Games. The King Essence made me able to adapt to it very quickly and it was honestly extremely helpful.

Until now I hadn't had a chance to learn these in detail. It was definitely the most productive period of time I spent here.

As for our personal relationship, he tried to remain professional as much as possible, trying not to make emotional connection with me. A wise decision too.

Rizevim wouldn't have let any weakness go by.

That however changed once when Gretel and Vienna joined us.

It was something that I had taken up on myself.

It started when Vienna, who was now eight years old, had asked to be taught magic. I had been teaching her exercises about Occlumency till now but real magic was something that needed the House Crest.

I didn't think I could teach Vienna to control her Demonic Power enough to cast magic all the while hiding her abilities from everyone. She was still a child and she was one of the few people on whom I wouldn't enforce the loyalty of my Binder's Mark. That was there only to protect her life in case Rizevim or anyone else did something. The others being Aria and Gretel.

So I could only wait for the Lucifer Crest to be applied to Vienna. I could technically force Katerea to use the Leviathan Crest on Vienna but the amount of bullshit that would cause not to mention the questions it would raise were not worth it. The same was the case with any other self-invented Crests.

Vienna had been very cheerful about learning 'Real Magic' as the cheeky brat had called it. Occlumency being boring….not that I denied it though. Occlumency had been boring without a doubt.

All that had come to crash when Razevan the fucker had denied it altogether.

'She will be taught with the other children of the servants when she is ten.'

I wanted to rip off that utter bastard's tongue when I heard that. Shalba and Creuserey agreeing to it didn't help the matters either.

Katerea also had to keep up with the façade.

Vi almost had tears in her eyes while she was clenching her fingers.

They had done so in front of the servants after all.

The servants laughing and trying to show their approval to kiss their asses was what made her cry finally.

She looked at me at that instant, looking at her teary eyes, I felt something crack inside of me and let out something that I had thought I had finally gained control over….Conqueror's Haki rumbled and the mob characters fainted, the glasses and the wooden furniture in the room cracked as Razevan skipped a breath while the other three took a few steps back in shock.

"Why are you laughing?" I looked towards a servant on his knees heaving for breaths. "A child with Lucifer's blood will be taught with servants? Since when did we fall so low?" I looked towards Shalba and the other three. "Such an insult will not be tolerated by me. I will look over her studies myself." and with that said, I left the room taking Vi with me.

Not giving anyone any time to say otherwise.

Since then I had taken up all the responsibility for teaching Vi. Gretel, as my personal aide, helped too.

She teaches basic Magical Theory and Elemental Magic to Vi while I help her with Occlumency and mind magic. We have decided to keep these two magic as the only ones to teach her for now. mind magic will be much more useful to her than anything else….whether it be keeping calm herself or to overcome the wills of all the previous wielders of her sacred gear.

She accompanies us when Diehauser teaches me magic along with Gretel but she sits on the side only listening to everything that is being taught.

The nerfed Archmage Essence helps her understand magic much better than normal.

When Diehauser found out about Vi's situation and that I had taken it upon myself to teach her, although he didn't show it outwardly, I sensed his emotions and all of it was respect and approval for my action. This was also a reason why he allowed Vi to stay with me and Gretel during the class.

This also brought our relationship closer. Although nothing was said outwardly, his behaviour had subtle changes.

The other significant progress happened after four months of that.

This time by another one of those five girls, Victoria Valac.

She was honestly one of the most cheat existences I had ever seen.

Like seriously, the Clan Trait of the Valac was utter fucking bullshit.

The Seeker's Eye had been rare and rarely strong enough to be of significance. Except for the first Valac, the others hadn't really measured up to the mark.

Victoria however was a unique case because she actually had a decently strong Trait. Despite her average demonic power reserves, which most of the foolish devils considered as the measure of power, she was absolutely flawless.

A light blonde with blue eyes who had what a lot of new devils lacked nowadays, patience and common sense. I like her especially because she is someone who could plan for the long term and choose allies whom she can trust(if we leave the cases of The Binder's Essence) out of it. Then again, that might have something to do with her Trait too.

Seeker's Eyes helped lead the user to whatever they desired. A simple pull depending on how strong their Trait is.

It reminded me of the compass of Jack Sparrow.

She was the key to my next plan to search for sacred gear users. Like Vienna, some of the others might have changed so I had no idea who might be who.

Victoria's presence helped narrow down the line of search by a lot.

This led me to my next target.

This time however I didn't leave to meet them myself but sent Cleria for the job. Lavinia Reni was recruited on her way to Grauzauberer with the promise that she will be helped to find the whereabouts of Augusta, the Witch of the East and will be helped find any information about Glenda.

I had known some of it from my knowledge of the novels but Glenda, The Witch of the South of 'The Wizards of Oz' had taken Lavinia as an apprentice with the intent of studying her Sacred Gear. She however had pretended to be a kind and loving mother to her and had trained her as an apprentice….only till she had completed the research. After that she had sent her away to Grauzauberer with an excuse of making friends while she had faked her death at the hands of Augusta. Later her research had been used by the strays of the Five Principal Clans, the Utsusemi agency to create Utsusemis.

All the while Lavinia herself searched the world for her teacher's supposed killer.

Now, the story in this world might be different. Vi being a girl alone had changed a lot of things so relying on the knowledge of the future won't help unless in special cases.

It had been easy to collect the information about those people if you had sources and after providing some of it to Lavinia, it was easy to make her agree to collaborate with the Belial devil.

Cleria, who had supposedly died, still had her Evil Pieces because it was 'lost' before her execution and since she was 'dead' no one could summon the pieces back. Then again those pieces couldn't be used by anyone other than Cleria so the devils were not really worried about it either.

Cleria used both of her Bishops to reincarnate Lavinia as a Bishop under her, the Devil heritage empowering her further and increasing her magical reserves.

This had happened four months ago and since then Diehauser had been teaching both Cleria and Lavinia magic aside from me. For Cleria it was simply so that his sister could live peacefully. I haven't had the opportunity to visit them yet but I do plan to do so soon. I just have to find an opportunity for it.

The other Longinus Wielders are all in areas that are under surveillance which makes it difficult for me to reach them right now or in places that I have no idea about. Apart from the Longinus, the other top Class Pieces or Hero descendants are already under other powers or hidden.

Dulio had somehow gotten under the church's eyes and was taken in almost instantly. Same was the case when the child holding the spirit of the 'Maiden of Orleans' had been discovered.

I had no luck trying to find Cao Cao so he was probably already taken in by Indra or Sun Wukong. Kuoh is currently under extremely high surveillance. Hopefully my next targets are reachable.

Not being able to leave much is becoming a massive problem for me.

I did get another task started while inside this place though.

Gathering and inspecting the servants of the Old Leviathan who were loyal to her and had a noble status. Then inspect if any of them had a business in healing or medical services. The names of the hospitals in the areas of those nobles and their own personal details.

The goal this time was to find Ingvild Leviathan.

This world had two of the three strongest beings being Dragons. Ingvild's power was extremely attractive to anyone even if you discounted her ability as a Leviathan Descendant and High Satan Class demonic power itself. She was just too much of a prize.

Information about said Devil was not available though. It was almost as if she didn't exist because none of the Old Leviathan's servants actually betrayed her. Some of them did stay back but they still worked for the Old Satan Faction. Thus, I could only conclude that whoever it is that was hiding Ingvild had hidden her from even the Old Satan Faction and Katerea….which was actually a wise decision.

Seeing how Vienna would have been treated if not for me, I would actually like to praise the nobles who hid Ingvild actually.

The search had been carried out by Ophelia this time. It was the task that I had assigned her. I also asked her to get me the list of all the devils diagnosed with the Sleeping Disease.

The disease was EXTREMELY rare.

And from what I have found, it is neither genetic or communicable.

I didn't have a lab to study it but the cases of the disease were easy to spot because of the sheer rarity of the disease.

I had asked Ophelia to covertly gather as much information as possible about any patients.

On the other hand I did find some extremely interesting facts about the Disease itself. Or rather than calling them facts (because I cannot verify them for myself right now) it is better to call them….observations.

I did find out a surprising fact that almost 40% of the affected people were either political opponents of the Great King Faction or neutrals.

Then the fact that the first case of this disease was found after the death of the Original Satans and before the Civil War and has continued on till today.

Misla Bael conveniently gets affected by the disease after she is ousted from the Bael House.

I searched my memory for other patients and found that in the future even Lord Sitri is affected by the disease.

Now some would wonder why Lord Sitri if the current Satans are also sided with the Great King faction.

Well that assumption would be a false one because the Great King Faction doesn't mean the Great King himself.

The Faction consists of hardcore devil traditionalists who believe in blood supremacy of the devils above all. In simple words, stuck up old men, too used to being in a position of power to know the reality of the new world.

They have engaged in more than a fair share of their own shady deals. After all, the economic situation is also a factor in being a Pillar House. There are currently eight suitable Houses which have Pure Blooded Devils which can easily be revived but are not because that would mean distribution of power and no one likes to lose power, especially not old dudes with a mile long pole up their asses. Second, they don't have enough money for it.

Yeah, blood supremacy was ultimately a farce to keep most of the economic profit to themselves.

Now where Lord Sitri factors in all this is Sona. Her School would have made it so that many low, middle and reincarnated Devils would have done well in Rating Games and made the higher positions harder to rig with a handful of King Pieces.

Him dying suddenly would have led to a massive problem too. So he oh so conveniently fell into the Sleeping Disease and Sona was forced to become Lady Sitri thus diverting her attention from the Rating Game School for the low, middle and the reincarnated Devils.

Conspiracy Theory? Maybe. I would still like to err on the side of caution.

This disease needs a cure and I need to somehow contact all the Pure Blooded Devils of the 'Extinct Houses' to perhaps make a better support system.

They can make decent candidates for the Sacred Gears that I have been collecting all this while.

I mean as strong as Humans can be, Pure Blooded Devils have a natural advantage over them and I am not going to give up any advantages to myself on the account of devils being evil. I have seen and know for a fact that in this world Devils are just like humans in terms of thought process.

Humans can be just as corrupt if not more if provided with opportunity.

No need to beat myself up over a redundant moral dilemma now.

I had more important things to concentrate on.

I looked at Vienna throwing around a wave of ice magic at the Training dummy(ughh), no pun intended. Although she has only been learning for four months, she has progressed a lot.

Divine Dividing's training can only progress slowly for now. We are all too strong for her to divide right now and thus we can only make a magic directly for her to try and divide.

Believe me, trying to put your hand directly in any kind of offensive magic is hard to do. Much harder than just touching the user and dividing their power.

Both Gretel and I are too strong for Vi to use her powers on directly so the only thing we can do is make blocks of ice that she tries to Divide till she is at the limit of her Demonic Power and then hold that state as much as possible, forcibly expanding the size of her energy reserves.

Although this training is well and good, there is another problem with it.

"BORINGGGGGGG. DUMMY, GIVE ME ANOTHER EXERCISE ALREADY. TEACH ME A COOL MAGIC." Whined the adorable ball of fluff who is currently jumping all over the place.

I hadn't encountered this with Gretel and had completely forgotten to consider this problem at all.

Vi was a child. Fortunately a child that was more or less shielded from most of the horrors of the place. Gretel had seen too much and had barely had a sense of self when I had first met her, thus when she got a chance to become something that could break through those shackles, she took it with both her hands. She had already been very mature….too mature due to her circumstances whereas Vi while still a little better than the other dumb kids of the Devils, still had her childishness.

It was something I was quite glad about. I wanted her to enjoy her childhood, at least as much as she could. The fact that the Essences helped her learn any magic taught at an incredible speed also didn't help.

Children don't really have the concept of mastering things.

According to her, if she can make ice, she has already learned Ice Magic.

"Tell you what Vi. If you can hit me using your Ice Magic in one minute, I will teach you another Magic." I offered with a slight smile.

She brightened up for an instant but then soon frowned, "You are trying to trick me Dummy. You are too strong for me to hit."

Ah….she has become smarter.

"Ow come on, I will even close my eyes and will only dodge without using any magic. Don't tell me you can't hit me even with a blindfold?" I mocked.

"Hahhh. A blindfold. Line up Dummy, I am going to kick your ass and then you will teach me cool magic." She punched her palm with the other hand getting ready.

"Lady Vienna, you shouldn't use such language." A voice interrupted her, making her freeze suddenly.

"But Gretel….see….Dummy was teasing me. It's….it's his fault."

Ah….yeah. Somehow Vienna is afraid of Gretel's lectures. She had told me in our private time that it was because she didn't like seeing Gretel disappointed or wanted Gretel to hate her.

As for me, the little gremlin doesn't think I will hate her for these things.

Hah….a child has me figured out and I want to beat the likes of Rizevim.

I sighed.

"You should still control yourself. You are the Young Lady of the prestigious Lucifer line. Please handle yourself in a suitable manner." Gretel preached.

It was kinda funny to see an eight and half year old being scolded by a thirteen year old. It would have been funnier if I hadn't been in the body of an eleven year old.

I tied a blindfold to my eyes. "Okay ready when you are Vi." I need more practice with my Observation Haki. This skill becomes stronger as I push it. Currently only the spars with Gretel and my clones in the rare cases when I am inside Katerea's private grounds can help me.

While Gretel is nowhere near as strong as me, her Space Magic is very annoying. The prediction of those moves helps me push my Observation Haki further while helping Gretel make her techniques even more refined. Short distance teleportation, distorting the space of a certain area and then releasing it like a stretched rubber sheet to shatter anything in that area.

She has invented her own version of a Kamui-like attack. That shows the sheer genius she has in terms of space magic. She has been working on increasing the number of attacks and the invocation speed all this time. Now there are beings who can break space with their attacks, weapons that could replicate the same feat but….they are rare, very rare. Or the Dimension Lost wouldn't be considered the strongest Defensive Type Sacred Gear. If she masters this technique, she will have a very strong and almost unavoidable type of attack for anyone who was lacking in a detection type technique.

She has even developed a few variations of this technique. Imagine pinching space like a sheet of rubber at a point and pulling it back and releasing it. I hadn't known it could generate that much force. Apparently Gretel knew.

Her Space Bullet as she calls it to tear a hole through a ten meter Ice Wall she had made through her own Magic. A wall as strong as reinforced steel of four times the width.

Space Magic is such a cheat.

"Ready Dummy. Here I come" shouted Vi so loud that I wouldn't have needed the Observation Haki to know her place.

The surprise however was when the attack came from the opposite direction.

The midget had tried to trick me much to my happiness.

I simply moved towards the left a little dodging it. "Tch tch tch….really Vi, I thought you had better aim than that."

What followed was a shower of icicles around me while I danced in between them.

Her frustrations increased and her control over her attacks became weaker but the power behind them increased….although at the cost of more demonic power. However in a situation like now, where precision, speed and tactics were needed, it was bound to inevitably fail.

Soon after, the match was called off by Gretel but not before Vi threw a small car sized ice block at me.

I stepped out of the way and walked towards her as she collapsed on her knees breathing hard.

"You *huff* had to *huff* have been cheating. That blindfold *huff* was *huff* fake." She pointed her finger at me indignantly.

I tied the blindfold on her eyes, shutting her up completely although she struggled to open it. I hugged her and sat on the floor, slowly caressing her hair.

"Tell you what. If you can master Ice Magic till the level Gretel teaches you to and learn Occlumency to defend against my attacks, I will teach you the technique I just used. Till now only I and Gretel know how to use Observation Haki and she was also taught by me. A special technique that was created by me. Don't you want to learn this Vi?" she twitched and I continued, "To be able to fight even with your eyes closed. That would look so cool right?" I looked towards Gretel, "That's a fair deal right Gretel?"

"Yes Master. The Occlumency lessons will also help Lady Vienna learn the technique faster." She answered from my side.

I pulled her hand making her sit beside me and caressed her hair too.

She might show off the stoic face everywhere but she probably needed this more than Vienna or me.

"Promise?" Vi whispered, getting her breath together.

"Pinky promise."

"Hah….who makes Pinky Promise. Are you a kid Dummy?"

….

This brat….I chuckled.

Although a little finger took hold of my own soon after.

"You should do that Vienna. The mind magic will help you handle more of my power without being influenced. Dragons are temperamental beings. That said people are like the steel of a blade, when they lose their temper, they lose their worth and power." commented the voice from Vienna's wings as Albion joined the conversation.

I, despite myself, snorted at that "Like two dragons during the Great War."

"Oh….please. As if they were preaching sermons about world peace there. They were fighting and so were we. The battlefields happened to coincide. Not much of a coincidence if you ask me considering how much of the whole world they were fighting in though. But that hypocritical old father of the Angels sealed us inside to 'Empower Humanity'. What gave him the right to do so? What gave him the right to seal us? It is not as if they weren't killing and fighting? So, they can fight but we dragons cannot fight? If he wanted to empower humanity, he had more than enough angels which he could have sealed but….NO, I want to make a Super Powerful weapon which will help increase my influence on the people to make them pray more. And since the distribution is random, no one can sue me either. Well having fun with all that aren't you….in the bland afterlife." The old dragon went on a rant.

If I hadn't known better I would have thought that Big G had accidentally sealed Lucifer inside the Divine Dividing or Albion somehow had a feud with Big G instead of Ddraig but they would be surprised at the amount of resentment that Albion had with the Creator of Heavens.

"You really hate Big G….or rather Grampa, I suppose don't you?" I smirked in a good natured teasing.

After one gets through the rough exterior of the cold and aloof Dragon, he is one of the best people one can know….although my surrounding people here don't exactly set the bar too high….but we can get the hint.

"He is a close second to Ddraig on my list of the most hated beings. He has done too many things, things that many don't even know about to create the Sacred Gears. The lower class Gears like the Twice Critical have been made from the souls of young Welsh Dragons, the Sword Birth's were made from the souls of Demonic Beasts….even so called Blacksmith of the Holy Swords, the Blade Blacksmith Sacred Gears were made with the souls of High Faes."

"Faes? As in the Fairy Race? Weren't they the allies of Heaven?" I asked surprised at the reveal.

"As if that self-centered person would ever have allies? He couldn't even trust his own children. For someone who always preached forgiveness, he was too quick to throw his children out when it was inconvenient to his image." the Dragon took a breath and continued, "The Faes had demanded that the Excalibur and other Holy Swords be returned to the Lady of the Lake for the arrival of a chosen one. The Biblical Heaven had outright denied it along with the church and declared the swords the property of the Church, just like the Norse swords. The Faes had protested and broke their alliance with them and isolated them in Avalon. Why do you think they cannot repair the broken Holy Swords? It was because they never made one in the first place. When some of the High Ranking Faes had come out to retrieve the swords, they were killed by the Church. The Creator of Heaven had then taken an opportunity to use those souls to make the Sacred Gears known as Blade Blacksmith to arm his people with Holy Swords against the Devils in the Great War. The Faes have since then isolated themselves from this world completely." The Dragon just casually revealed news that would break the faith of many people if disclosed.

Then again the simple fact that the God of the Bible was dead was already more than enough to do the job and much easier at that too.

"So the Fae are still alive?" I asked, interested in the subject.

I wasn't taught about this in a….well unbiased manner so it was always nice to find another opinion on the matter.

"Oh they are safe for sure. I don't think anyone can find them if they decided to hide in their little garden. No one can enter there without invitation either. This was the reason why they, despite not being a warrior race, survived so easily during the Great War while many spirits allied with Heaven didn't live through the War." he said with complete surety in his tone.

It did give me much to think about.

- Scene Change –

I was taking a shower when I received the news of Alicia. "There has been a development Young Lord." She said directly through the connection of The Binder's Essence.

"What development?" I asked while proceeding to turn off the shower and dry myself.

"Two hours ago, a child was admitted to a hospital under my family in Verona, Italy under the social service programs to help the poor. The child was diagnosed with an extremely powerful Sacred Gear at the levels of a Longinus." She hastily told me everything she had found out. "A four to five year old child with grayish blue hair, tan skin, purple eyes and named Leonardo was brought to us by some social service workers. One of these people had reported that the parents of this child were poor workers in the construction sites around the town. The child was diagnosed with mild malnutrition along with a case of flu. What do you wish to do with the child?"

This was a way for me to search for Sacred Gears. I have asked all of my people to start groups to help people, especially children all over the world.

Making orphanages, introducing health care programs, scholarship groups, educational tournaments and such groups were starting to find children with sacred gears as well as rare talents as in Hero Descendants.

Stealing sacred gears from those who have already activated them is slightly risky so this method was used.

It was basically what the Church did. Only they experimented with the children to make super soldier wannabes.

We are instead providing them with options as we are taking care of their studies and living arrangements and providing them with job offers. If they accept it, they will be trained in combat or other fields. If they don't, we will simply trade the Sacred Gears off and continue funding their lives until they are self-sufficient.

This method has wielded a significant yield already in finding us four high class Sacred Gears already.

Anyways, Leonardo? The kid with the Annihilation Maker?

"Do you have the contracts I have made for such cases?" I asked, suddenly remembering the contracts.

"The ones for Sacred Gear exchange? Yes, I do. Each of us have a dozen of those at hand? Do you wish for us to extract the Sacred Gear with the contract?" she asked to make sure if I wanted to recruit the child or extract the Sacred Gear.

"What kind of people are his parents?" I asked, thinking about something.

"They are devout church followers. If we don't complete the extraction soon, I doubt that the child won't be recruited in the church." She replied.

Normally I would have recruited the boy without a single moment of hesitation….but still had his parents?

Yeah….I'd rather take the Sacred Gear and find another suitable Host for it.

Lavinia had no one with her and could easily be recruited. If this boy had been an orphan or else shunned by others, I would have recruited him too.

If I had to train a host from the ground up, I would rather pick up someone with more potential and no other ties to the world.

I wouldn't lie that the Binder's Essence was useful and I would probably be dead without it… but being surrounded by yes men all the time could be incredibly bad. It can make me lose all my inhibitions and that is why I am choosing my targets very carefully. Not to mention the powers I can offer.

This was one of the reasons I haven't used the loyalty function on a few people despite them being marked and have only put a confidentiality contract with it and even that was skipped with Vienna.

Moreover I doubt that the parents of Leonardo would be happy. Imagine the parents of devout church people agreeing for their child who might have a World Destroying Weapon made by God, being sent to the literal child created from the blood of two of the most hated enemies of Christianity.

I am already thankful that I even had the chance to get Leonardo under Alicia's search radar for a moment.

"Extract the Sacred Gear. Offer him complete treatment in return and a reasonable amount to provide for his education and welfare." I commanded as I proceeded to wear my clothing.

"It will be done, Young Lord." She replied.

This was a windfall. If I get this one, I would have enough power to hold myself and be independent soon. Not to mention that it will have crippled the Hero Faction before it can even be born. I doubt that without the Dimension Lost, any quick escapes that they made would be possible so their operation would already have been extremely difficult. Now with the Annihilation Maker out, that would be near about impossible.

While it is true that the 'True Longinus' is still the strongest, Cao Cao alone with his bunch of Hero wannabes won't be much of a problem.

I would have tried acquiring the True Longinus too if it hadn't been for 'The Will of God' inside it. I have no idea how it would react to me.

Could I even bind something like that? Theoretically, I would need to be stronger than the Biblical God to bind him….but the question was, was it worth it?

Which people do not realize something extremely important, I know it for a fact.

The Biblical God's disappearance has caused a heavy imbalance in the System. It has caused the Sacred Gears to attain Balance Breakers and even evolve. This has caused something like the Holy Demonic element to exist or Sacred Gears being bounded to half-devils too.

Most of these are the powers that I am using. If suddenly the Biblical God reappeared due to my Binder, and the balance is somehow restored, I will lose much more than I will gain though.

So binding the True Longinus' will is out of the question.

I came out of my room. Today was a day that I was being taken outside and not with the likes of Shalba who had only taken me out to the labs where experiments conducted by his people were present, all the while bragging about it all.

No finally after a six month period, I was being taken out by Katerea again.

It is not like I hadn't tried binding both Shalba and Creuserey too but it is just that both of them had been maintaining a certain distance from me since the Rizevim incident. It was clear for everyone that even Katerea was endangered last time due to 'Rizevim's Ploy' so no one wanted to take the risk.

That however didn't mean they stopped contacting me though. It is just that….they were a little more wary of me….well fuck that, they both looked like they were walking on pin-cushions. It was quite suffocating.

If I had tried something during those times, things would have been bad.

Simply because the meetings were never in private and there were just too many people around.

Today's meeting was for another trade. I had considered meeting Kuroka and Shirone but till now we can only talk through our mental links after a single meeting. I cannot meet them without exposing them to the Old Satan Faction and I know for a fact now that Shalba was experimenting on Youkai subjects.

Pushing the thoughts out of my mind, I walked out of my room.

Aria was waiting there with breakfast already. Razevan had left a while ago.

Vienna was still getting ready in her room.

I looked at her. A new bruise was on the corner of her lips. I clenched my hands, digging my nails into my palms almost drawing blood from the skin.

Again, she is putting on that cheerful face. She looks at me and hides all that pain and puts on her smile to cheer me on again.

I hate it all.

Fuck.

If I can't even help the woman I like almost as a mother, what good are these powers?

I gritted my teeth, breaking the unspoken rule between us.

"He did it again?" I whispered slowly.

She looked at me for an instant before realizing what I had said as her eyes widened.

"Why do you bear this?" I spoke as I walked forward holding her hand.

I can help her in many ways but if she herself doesn't want it, then I will do nothing. I don't want to change her mind with magic. No matter how beautiful the cage, it is ultimately a cage. No matter how well a bird is treated, it is still a prisoner. I don't want her to trade prisons from this place to her own mind and masters from Razevan to me.

"Y-young Lord." She was surprised by the question, then proceeded to hug me.

"It's because he is my husband. He is under a lot of pressure and sometimes loses his control in anger. It is my duty as a wife to support my husband, always."

Bullshit.

"Once is understandable….twice can be forgiven somehow, but so many times? Do you even remember how many times it has been?" I asked not giving up here.

"It doesn'…."

"Eighty three times in the last four years, sixty two in the last one and a half years itself. I know. I have counted it all. At this rate he will kill you sooner or later. So answer me why?"

She looked into my eyes and answered, "He will never kill me. It's because he is my husband."

FUCK IT.

"THEN WHAT ABOUT US? WHAT IS VIENNA? WHAT ABOUT….what about me?" I almost pleaded.

The last few years had been much more painful because of the torture that Aria has been going through. It had escalated when Vienna's Sacred Gear was revealed and even further when I had killed those people during the spy incident. I have somehow been able to keep Vienna out of it as much as I could but Aria suffered.

All I need is that one word.

Anything.

Just a single help….a single please.

She however proceeded to hug me softly, placing my head in her bosom. "Vienna is my sweet daughter….and you are my…." She cupped my face in her hands and looked me directly into my eyes. Her eyes were soft and filled with love and affection. Please say that word, my whole being urged again…. "Cute little," only to be crushed "….Young Lord." She smiled.

The glasses in the room shattered. My heart shattered along with them. I looked back at her and her face was shocked but right now I needed some time for myself.

I pushed my Occlumency and swallowed the lump in my throat and spoke in my usual stoic voice, "I will eat outside today. Thank you." and left without turning back.

Tears threatened to fall but I didn't turn back and left, hiding everything under my mental shields.

On the way, I saw Razevan walking back and if my hate could kill, Razevan Lucifer would have been a mangled corpse on the floor right now but I simply walked ahead, not paying any attention to him at all.

- Scene Change –

We teleported to the decided place in a flash of our Magic Circle as I scanned the area to check for any spies again.

"All Clear. No one followed us this time." I announced as we waited for the other party to arrive there.

I had more than enough thoughts going inside my head so the time spent was quiet and soon a black car arrived.

Katerea set a barrier to keep our identities hidden.

The trade this time was a unique one.

Soon a young boy of around eighteen years arrived on a bike. I sensed no one else in the area so this was the only person here.

I used an illusion to change myself to look older. A young child doesn't look good at negotiations and a young boy like this might not take me seriously after looking at my young form.

The boy soon came inside the warehouse and looked around to check if anyone else was present.

I sensed the metal around the area vibrating but didn't say anything except merely keeping an eye on it. The Sacred Gear responds to the will of the user and this is one of the stronger ones. It is inevitable that something like this would happen. I would doubt the situation if something like this didn't happen.

If anything it showed good instincts. He was checking the area for anyone else using the vibrations of the iron in this place.

I can see myself not regretting this decision now.

"Are you the one who left the message?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"That would depend on what that message would be?" I asked.

"The offer about the job?" the man

"Technically I didn't leave the message but yes, the message was from me." I smiled trying to lighten the mood. The boy looked at me with suspicion.

On one hand, meeting someone for the first time in such an abandoned warehouse didn't do much to invoke feelings of trust on the other hand, I didn't have any other choice.

After the last meeting, I didn't want anyone to get any idea about where and who I was meeting. Any public area would have made it extremely hard to look for spies either so this was the only place I could think of. Considering that I haven't even met Lavinia yet and I am here to meet this boy personally, it is already evident how important he is for my plans in the near future.

"I will tell you outright that I have no intention of doing anything if it is illegal. I am preparing to join law enforcement. I just need money to pay my bills right now. So if this is any of the shady business, I am out already." He spoke upfront.

Katerea's emotions flared a little at his straightforward attitude, what with her not being used to such instances of communication and she was about to say something but I raised a hand and stopped her.

I actually liked his attitude and smiled. It is good to have such open-hearted and honest people around too.

"I assure you that it is nothing illegal. We will provide you with payments for all your bills and in return you just have to work for me. A bodyguard's job if you will." He raised an eyebrow at this and I smiled and explained. "I require a bodyguard against certain….special people." I replied while an icicle formed above my hand.

The boy tensed before I dispersed the icicle and looked directly at him.

"I can't tell you much about me right now except that I need help from people with special talents. When I start my business, it will ruffle some feathers of extremely influential people and while none of them can do anything to me politically or socially by then, it is a sure shot assumption that I will be targeted. I want to hire you for a protection routine for myself.

"Why me?" he asked, voice neutral and guard up.

I smiled, "We know about your special talent. I have no idea if you know what that power actually is but it is something that will be invaluable for my protection. In return, we will provide you with training and resources to develop that power to its fullest extent and reach your full potential in return for your services to me."

"Isn't this just magic?" he asked, bringing his hand up as iron dust in the surrounding swirled into a spike of iron just like my icicle and floated right above his hand.

"If we go into technicalities, then yes, it is magic but….it is different from what I used. I will explain everything later on."

He looked a little pensive but after a moment of thought looked at me and sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "Umm sure. As long as it's nothing illegal, I am all for it….although I don't even know the name of my employer yet."

I chuckled at this too. "I will tell you my name after you learn some methods to protect your mind. There is no shortage of people in this world who can read minds at will or simply hypnotize you easily. Protecting your mind is the basic of the basics."

"You've got to be shitting me man. Mind Readers are real? That is so scary. Imagine some creep looking into my mind directly. They have got to be rare right?" he asked, suddenly looking pale.

I laughed again, "I can estimate over a few ten millions beings that can do so easily." I mean almost all devils can use some form of mind magic however weak against normal people. The same is the case with normal supernatural beings. "To keep the existence of the Supernatural world a secret, it is one of the first things taught to anyone before being allowed in the open in the human world."

"Shit! So people can get the password for my computer directly from my head?" he asked looking horrified.

I burst out into a laugh, "And even know the location of your hidden stash in your hard disk drive. It is very easy." His face paled with each word I said.

"I'm in bro. You give me your training and I will protect you as you have asked. No illegal stuff though. I am not into criminal stuff."

Well….that went off easier than I had thought.

Perhaps his simple nature along with my use of Bewitching Voice and inhuman Charisma from my King's Essence worked to make this easier.

I brought out a contract with the details already written in it. "This is a contract between you and me. Make sure to read it properly."

The thing with contracts with normal people is that – they don't take it seriously.

The saying – 'Read a contract properly before signing,' is true no matter the world.

"The contract is cool. I would like to clarify that I have a girlfriend whom I do not intend to leave." He spoke a little hesitantly.

The offer was too good to give up anyway so it was understandable why he was hesitating.

"That's fine. If you want we can arrange teaching sessions as a scholarship program or even in this area. You can meet your girlfriend whenever you want. Just be reminded of the confidentiality contract. You cannot disclose any information about the general existence of magic without our permission." I looked a little conflicted and I was more calmed by it than anything. It showed his inherent loyalty which I want to be directed towards me. "Don't worry though. If you two are married, we can even extend teaching Magic to your wife….that is if you continue the service properly."

And thus the bait was hung in the front. He steeled himself and signed the contract and handed it back to me. I looked it over and felt the contract solidify and smiled.

"It is nice doing business with you Mr. Magnus Rose. I know that we will get along well." We shook our hands and smiled at each other.

We stayed till Magnus left and were about to visit Lavinia to check her progress when I heard a voice.

"Dummy….please come back. Dummy please. Mama….she's….she is not talking. She is not waking up. Dummy come back. Please Dummy." Vi's voice rang through our mental link and as my brain comprehended the words, my blood chilled instantly.

_x_x_