Spade

"What the fuck Vanica!"

"What?"

"You never told me we were going to fucking north pole!"

Entering the region of the Spade Kingdom, Grim was hit by icy weather, snow covered fields and fog filled sights.

He had entered into a land of eternal winter.

Activating [Breath of Flames] he had to forcibly warm himself up lest he risk freezing to death.

"So you can use it like that too." Megicula muttered quietly studying the applications of his magic.

"Woah!" Vanica gasped before proceeding to squeeze in close in order to share his warmth.

"Me too!!"

"...You're parents definitely spoiled you as a child."

"Hehehehehe."

"Y'know, being called a spoiled princess ain't exactly a compliment right?"

"HEY!" She yelled and pointed at her tiara.

"I'm a Queen~" She giggled and stuck her tongue out.

"Yeah? You're a queen and I have a gold fish."

"Eh? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Nothing." He shrugged. 

"I just thought we were both mentioning things that no one gave a fuck about."

"..."

"..."

"Do you really have a gold fish?"

"Fuck if I know."

---

Flying through the various territories belonging to the Spade Kingdom, Grim was impressed by just how much larger this kingdom was compared to the Clover kingdom. Even the Heart kingdom couldn't compare.

'I wonder what the Diamond Kingdom is like?'

While approaching the capital, Vanica talked about facing once again once she reached 100% of Megicula's power.

"That's actually been bothering me for a while now. Are you actually using all of Megicula's power or just 100% of what your body is able to handle?"

"That's... A really good question. Megicula?"

"What Grim said is correct." Megicula spoke up. "The contract between us does indeed give you access to my power. But unless you become a devil yourself, your body wouldn't be able to handle the full extent of my power. Therefore what you consider 100% of my power, I consider 40-50% at best."

'Become a devil herself?'

"Is it possible for a human to become a devil?" Grim asked having never heard of such a thing before.

"Mmh." Megicula nodded. "If a person's affinity is high enough and the right conditions are met, it isn't difficult for a human to become a devil. You can even consider weg a form of partial devilization."

"Interesting." Grim muttered.

'So its kinda like when the elves reincarnated.'

'When the right conditions were met, the humans who reincarnated into elves also possessed the features and mana of the reincarnators.'

Just like the Devils's Tree of Qilphoth and the Elves's Tree of life, Grim found the similarities between the two species astounding. Funnily enough, both species made use of humans in order to obtain the same goal, to walk this world.

Thinking about it now, it all made sense. Both elves and devils represented the opposite ends of the same scale. Humans on the other hand stood neatly in the middle.

What would a child between a devil and elf look like? Long ears were a guarantee since both species possessed this trait. But beyond that who knew? Was it even possible? Since elves possessed high levels of normal mana while devils used nothing but negative mana, could a child between them even be conceived?

Maybe they'd just come out as an extremely powerful Dark Elf. Or maybe they'd come out as something else entirely. Such possibilities...

"Hey Grim! You listening!" Vanica called out seeing that he was in a daze.

"Huh? Yeah... What'd you say?"

"...We're approaching the palace."

---

-Zenon POV-

"How is he?"

Looking at the unconscious Dante whose body was floating in a vat filled with unknown liquids, Zenon turned to Moris.

"Hmm..." Looking at the readings on the monitor, the magic scholar and previous shadow ruler of the Diamond King Moris pushed up his tinted glasses.

"Listen Zenon, you gotta start having some faith in me. I wasn't in charge of all the sorcery studies in the Diamond Kingdom for nothing. By the time I'm done with your brother, he'll be even stronger than he was before."

While Moris was talking, Zenon felt something in the distance pull on his consciousness. Raising his head and looking at the ceiling, he muttered "Vanica."

---

"You guys really need to invest in some indoor heating."

Walking in with Vanica by his side, keeping his hands in his pockets Grim used his [Hyper Focus] to scan the entirety of the castle.

"Oh?" His brow arched up as he sensed two people both possessing identical mana signatures belonging to the same devil.

"That's new." He muttered as the sound of footsteps in the distance grew closer.

'Another devil host huh.'

But unlike the two in the basement, the one approaching him had a distinct mana signature.

"ZENON!!" Vanica squeeled seeing after seeing who was approaching.

Running over, she jumped on him and put him in a headlock.

"Big sis is back!"

Allowing her to do so, Zenon's eyes never left Grim's figure as he asked in a deadpan voice-

"Are you done?"

'This boy... I can't sense his mana.'

"Boo." Vanica groaned and released him for her hold.

"You were much cuter when you were younger."

"Who is this?" He asked indicating to the unfamiliar young man who forced him to raise his guard. In fact, there had only been one person whose mana he couldn't sense. That devil host from the Clover Kingdom.

"That's Grim!!" Vanica answered pulling his arm. "Come on, let me introduce you."

"Hey Grim, this is my wittle brother Zenon."

Just as she was going to pinch his cheek, she quickly found her hand slapped away.

"...He's shy."

-Anyway, Zenon, this is Grim. He savagely beat the hell out of me when I went to the Heart Kingdom.

"He did what?!"

"Yeah~ But its cool. He's gonna help us achieve 100% devil power!"

While Vanica was gushing over the thought of fighting Grim again, the two men sized each other up.

"..."

"..."

Grim was the first to break the silence.

"I like your jacket... I think it'll look good on me."