The Deal: Chapter 10 : Breaking the Shackles (Patreon)

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Chapter 10 : Breaking the Shackles.

- Damien–

I watched as the crowd clamored behind me.

My Shadow Clone is in the room with Gretel while Cleria is hiding and keeping watch.

I have no idea how many people were bound just now so a little drama was needed.

 I kept an eye on the gate and soon got the signal.

“So are you people ready to follow me to the battle?” I raised my voice and a slight use of magic carried it off to the rest of the crowd.

“YESSSS!.” The crowd roared.

“Then,” I turned back, my Observation Haki spread, “KNEEL.”

Almost 90% of the crowd kneeled as if their bodies were controlled by a remote while the clueless ten percent remained standing.

A blast of Conqueror’s Haki stunned the ones standing, making all of them collapse suddenly.

I turned back and looked at the crowd, “Please arrest the ones who were standing.”

That they were standing only means that they didn’t agree to the deal. There are only two ways for them from here on. One is to submit and two is….to die.

While two hundred mid class devils can be a large number, if they don’t sign the contracts, I will have no choice but to kill them. There is a high chance that some of the people can easily leak information to the higher ups of the Old Satan Faction and that would be a pain to deal with.

It didn’t even take a full minute as eighteen hundred vs two hundred surprised and stunned people was not even a fight.

I looked towards Desmond who had entered the barrier earlier. “Search the entire area and capture anyone who has escaped the search.”

“Yes Master.”

I left the rest in the care of the other attacking forces as I walked towards the room where Cleria was guarding my Shadow Clone.

This fight had truly been much better that I had expected in all my calculations. 90% of people being subdued by a single speech is not something I had expected. The best case scenario was 70%.

In that case there would have been a decent resistance….assuming that any of them withstood my Conqueror’s Haki.

Well it’s good for me I guess. Time to take care of the last problem

- Clone Pov-

The door of the room opened and Gregory Bune entered the room. So it was him and not Lord Paimon.

Ophelia is among the crowd. She seems to have already decided the fate of Lord Paimon in her mind.

“Gretel, the Young Lord needs your help outside. The enemy side has more Ultimate Class Devils than us and two of them also have Longinus. I don’t think the Young Lord can hold on all on his own. You are well versed in Space Magic and can be of much better help to the Young Lord against the Dimension Lost than someone like me. Support the Young Lord and leave the barrier to me.”

A reasonable statement albeit a little exaggerated.

A barely teenage devil, no matter how talented, holding against an Ultimate Class Devil with one of the Top level Longinus is impossible, let alone two at the same time.

It can easily be seen that he either wants her to die or simply just send her away from this place quietly.

Gretel turned towards me and bowed, “Miss Vienna, please remain in the room. It is dangerous outside.”

I simply nodded my head sticking to Vienna’s quiet personality when she is with anyone except Gretel and me.

She gave me one last look and left the room leaving Gregory in the room with me.

Gregory for his part didn’t do anything first and waited for around 10 minutes while making sure that the area was isolated and then cast a small barrier around the room.

He walked towards me and stood directly in front of me. “I am sorry for this young Miss but this is for the future of our Devil Race. Your sacrifice will not be in vain and it will push the Young Lord to regain the throne of the Underworld. You should go with pride like a Lucifer.” And then he struck.

And all that remained was darkness.

- Cleria –

Cleria channeled her power as her peerage members reinforced the barrier around the place.

The Bune Devil failed to notice that the one he struck seemed to have popped into a mass of smoke and instead looked at the floor. He noticed the barrier soon enough and quickly took on a defensive position with his experience as an Ultimate Class Devil.

“Who are you people? Come out.” Gregory shouted as dragon scales began to grow on his arms and face.

Cleria instructed her peerage to proceed as she herself used her Worthless Trait to prepare against her opponent. She had already made it a point to understand every Clan Trait of the 72 Pillar Houses from her brother.

Worthless matched with the power Damien had given her was a nightmare for her opponents.

Her Rook cast a spell to bind him in the place but considering the difference between the two people, it wouldn’t last more than half a minute but that was all that was needed. Her other Knight rushed in and slashed his sword towards the man’s chest and used his Sacred Gear Gravity Prison but was stopped by the dragon scale covered arms. Even under the spell and the effect of the Sacred Gear, the man’s movements were barely affected. Only his legs were temporarily frozen in place.

Her Queen took this opportunity to strike and threw several curses all aimed at his eyes and knees while she made her move too.

The greyish power of Worthless spread over and attacked him as he was defending a second attack from her rook, dissolving the dragon scales momentarily. Her Knight took this opportunity and rushed in to cut off his arm with his sword while his defenses were still down….however at that very instant, his aura burst out blowing them all away. The room was blown away while her entire peerage took a defensive position to block any following attack.

The demonic power burst in waves from the Bune Devil as he started changing into his dragon form.

The Bune’s Clan Trait doesn’t only allow them to tame dragons but also change into them and this was the Lord of the House of Bune who had fought in the Great War and even in the Civil War and survived. If he went down that easy, then the Devil Race wouldn’t have lasted this long.

The bindings on his legs broke as his size slowly increased taking the form of a green western dragon around twenty meters tall with a wingspan of over thirty meters. “Plan B.”

A wave of energy passed over her with her queen at the center. “Balance Breaker.”

Cleria assisted by using ‘Worthless’ to suppress the dragonification as much as she could and in the very next moment the ground shook and hundreds of swords sprung up from under the ground. Holy Swords of Dragon Slaying attribute. Two of the strongest weapons one could use against a Bune Devil.

The Sacred Gear collection plan had not only been used to collect the Longinus but almost any good Sacred Gears or Sacred Gear users around the world.

Her queen was someone with the power to use Fire Magic. Unfortunately she couldn’t control her powers well when she was under stress.

She had once lost control and burned down some soldiers who had been harassing her family for protection money. The unfortunate event also led to the death of her family. The poor girl was severely traumatized.

The thugs were well connected as they were commanded by the Lord of the place himself and she was declared a ‘Witch’ and was being hunted. That was how Cleria had found her.

She was later found out to have been a natural born Holy Sword wielder when she had touched Masaomi’s Ame No Murakumo no Tsurugi by mistake and was not affected by it. Thus they decided to use the Blade Blacksmith obtained from the search on her.

The swords tore through his defenses and the poison of the Dragon Slayer  and the holy attributes spread through his blood. The dragon let out a loud cry and released a terrifying amount of Demonic power. Her Rook and pawn cast several Barriers in front of them which began to crack as soon as they were cast. This power is almost several times higher than any of the other devils they had hunted in the past. The only one she had fought who was stronger than this was Diehauser and he was not even serious while Gregory was completely going for the kill.

The Demonic power burst crushed the entire surrounding. An Ultimate Class Devil is capable of destroying a small country. This estimate was not an exaggeration. The swords crumbled under the power of the attack.

Dragonification increases regeneration rate. That was however countered by the Dragon Slaying attribute. Cleria moved on to the third step.

Her pawn had collected the opened a space channel and brought out their weapons.

Her Knight once again increased the Gravity on Gregory however this time, the effect was only concentrated on half of his body. The dragon was injured enough to be imbalanced. Her pawn took this opportunity and threw a bomb right at the face of the Bune. A massive flame intercepted the bomb but the work was already done. The bomb set off leaving a massive flash of light burning the skin of any devil that was affected by it as well as temporarily blinding the massive dragon. “Amira, do it.” She used her Worthless power on one of the wings of the target and her Queen took this opportunity to bombard it with Holy Dragon Slayer swords. The thin draconic wing gave out as the dragon collapsed to the side.

It let out a burst of flame in all directions to get an opportunity to balance itself and gain some breathing room.

“Promotion Queen.” Cleria declared as her Pawn increased the output of the Barrier and temporarily stopped the approaching flames.

Suddenly black flames of incredible power burst out from her Queen and enveloped the flames of the dragon attacking them.

A head on collision between the two would have been a decisive defeat for her Queen but this was just stopping the stray flames from the attack. Amira could easily manage that. After all, if the Black Flames of Grudge lost so easily, then Amira would really shame her family name of….Dantes.

Amira Dantes, the great granddaughter of Edmond Dantes had inherited a part of his power. The fabled black flames of grudge which is strong enough to burn a High Class Devil to death.

After training, she had gained a certain bit of control over her power but still cannot use it to their full extent as it might harm her soul. However, stopping an attack like this is easy enough.

The injured wing of Gregory Bune was enveloped in the black flames and he let out a loud cry. His eyes turned red and it looked as if he was going to enter Outrage Mode.

“Quick, start Emergency Measures.”

Cleria’s fighting style was the style of Deihauser Belial. She was tutored by him to use strategies to overcome enemies stronger than herself.

Diehauser didn’t become the Emperor of the Rating Games solely relying on his strength. That would have been impossible.

A Rating Game’s rules sometimes makes it impossible to rely on strength alone. Diehauser was a master of strategies and since she was caught in the conspiracy, he began to actively coach her in these.

In these two months, she had already devised all possible counters against every known skill of Gregory Bune and Lord Paimon.

The poison in the Black Flames of Grudge took its effect and the left wing of the massive dragon while the anti-magic effect ate away at his flames.

Amira unleashed another barrage of Holy Dragon Slayer swords but this time it was defenseless. A sword struck its eye, destroying it instantly. It quickly hid its face behind its remaining wing trying to prevent itself from going completely blind.

Cleria wanted to take out its maneuverability so that even in its outrage form, it cannot cause too much damage. With the other wing damaged as well, this task was also accomplished.

The eye was just a bonus.

The dragon’s remaining eye turned red and its outrage mode was almost engaged when a voice stopped everything.

“You look to be in trouble, teacher.”

A wave of blue flames surrounded the dragon, making a protective circle around it and from within the flames a young, silver white haired boy with bright blue eyes slowly walked in.

He waved a hand and blue flames spread onto the dragon’s body but instead of harming it, it ate away at the flames of grudge, burning it with sheer power.

“I have stopped those flames but it would be better if you amputate that wing fast or the poison will kill you.”

The dragon almost on the verge of outrage was broken out of the trance by the soft voice. Cleria realized that it was not simply the voice. It was the Clan Trait of the Paimon. She would have never even doubted it if she hadn’t known the means of Damien.

The Clan Trait of the Paimon can be used to calm people down but to use it to calm down a dragon on the verge of outrage…. Only Damien Lucifer would be crazy enough to even think of something like that.

Damien stared at the dragon as his eye turned back to his orange colour and slowly changed back to devil form. Gregory Bune looked at the boy as he slowly collected himself, breathing heavily on his knees. The poison in his body affecting his movements.

“Y-young Lord.”

“Where is Vienna, teacher?” Damien turned towards her and her peerage and she felt a chill in her spine.

Gregory looked towards him and his eyes widened slightly. Looking at his back and then towards Cleria, he quickly breathed out. “I-it was t-them, Young Lord. They killed Miss Vienna.” He shouted pointing towards her.

A heavy pressure fell on the bodies of everyone present. She felt everyone in her peerage except for herself fall to their knees.

Damien’s face looked emotionless while she was completely bewildered. “One last thing teacher.”

“Yes Young Lord?”

Sphhhlt!

A hand pierced through the back of Gregory Bune ripping through his chest and tearing the heart out.

Cleria felt goosebumps all through her body.

The Damien in front of Gregory Bune faded while appearing behind Gregory with a heart in his hand.

“Why would my own subordinates attack my sister?” The pressure on the whole area was lifted and her peerage members got to their feet.

Cleria took on the lead and everyone, even the attacking army surrounded the place and kneeled in front of Damien. “Master.”

Blood flowed from Gregory’s mouth as he looked stunned at Damien. “Y-y-you!?.”

“You know teacher, I really wanted you to be on my side. In Fact I was actually hoping that it was Lord Paimon who was given the job.” Damien said as he looked at the heart in palm. “You were after all my teacher. One of the best I have had too. So…. Why did you have to do that? Rizevim is an idiot who enjoys the suffering of others. Why did you have to involve yourself in that?”

“W-why? W-hy do all this? “ He breathed out choking on his own blood.

“Hmm isn’t that obvious? Freedom and revenge.  Remember you said that the main family of Lucifer doesn’t get Death Marks in their House Crests.” He simply looked at me. “Well that was wrong. Everyone except Rizevim had a kill switch in their House Crest. Technically he could have killed Vienna while in his office. So the only way I can see all this happening is him trying to cause me unnecessary pain. Did you want to cause me pain, teacher? Did you betray me?” The silence was deafening in the whole place. “If that is so then I only did what you taught me – to kill all traitors.”

The innocent tone of voice sent severe chills down the spines of everyone present.

Gregory lost a bit of light from his eyes as he understood that he was nothing but a pawn in the game played by Rizevim. “I-is this because of the human?”

Cleria's pupil shrank as she expected Damien to blow up the man in a fit of rage. The result however was different.

“Among other things, yes. Rizevim is responsible for many deaths of the people connected to me, including my ‘father’….” The dying man’s head snapped in the direction of Damien, “Lucifer had actually survived the battle against God and even Leviathan was only half-dead. The one to kill them was….Rizevim.”

….

Cleria had not known….that.

She didn’t even know if it was true or Damien was lying.

“So you would understand why I am doing all this to get away from my dear brother? I can’t stand to live under the same roof as the killer of my parents. You were merely used as a pawn to cause more chaos.”

Somehow Cleria truly believed that statement. The only doubt was the identity of the parent that Damien was referring to.

Gregory Bune lowered his head. The shock of having their beliefs crushed and being betrayed is hard for anyone to recover so quickly.

“I-I am sorry.”

“If you are really sorry, then tell me, who else was involved in this? Who else wanted to kill Vienna?”

The man who lost almost everything breathed out the words, “Euclid Lucifuge made the plan and Lor….Rizevim agreed to it.”

“Okay.”

The pain, poison and the loss of heart took its toll on the man as he crumbled down.

“As you have betrayed me, I cannot send you off in a proper manner….but I do want to do so….so will you teacher, make a deal with me?” he looked at Damien with half glazed eyes and blinked. “Offer me all your power and in return I will give you an ending worthy of your name.”

“O-k-ay.”

“Then goodbye Teacher.” A pillar of Blue Flames burst around Damien and rose to the skies. It stayed like that for a minute after which it dissipated.

No one said a word.

The body of Gregory Bune, The Lord of the House of Bune, the son of the Original Bune, disappeared along with his soul in the legendary flames of Asmodeus.

Damien stood up in this place. “Set up a spell strong enough to vapourize the whole place and teleport us to our base.”

Cleria bowed.

It was finally the end of this farce.

- Damien –

I did feel a tinge of sadness despite everything when I ripped Gregory’s heart out. I didn’t have to lie when I said that I really wanted him on my side.

That said that option went down the drain as soon as he agreed to attack Vienna.

I walked towards the place where Ophelia was waiting for me.

“Is it done Ophelia?”

“Yes Master. Father has sent a ‘dying message’ to the headquarters that everyone in the base has been killed and that you died while killing eight Ultimate Class Devils in a fight along with Gretel.” She showed me a contract. “He signed the suicide contract before heroically self-destructing to take down an enemy Ultimate Class Devil.”

Her tone was emotionless but I felt a bit of emptiness inside her. He was after all her father, no matter how much of a scumbag he was.

“Keep that for your brother or yourself. Use it when your brother is stronger than your father or on yourself or else he might not be able to withstand the energy.”

She bowed slightly, “Yes Master.”

I gained all of Gregory’s powers at the last moment and I could feel my Demonic Power reserves almost at the level of Mid Satan Class Devil. It is just that the potency of his Demonic Power was much less than my own so the gain was less.

The best gain however was the Clan Trait of the Bune. The dragonification aside, the Dragon Tamer abilities alone are one of the best things I could ask for.

It would have been harder to make him agree to the deal if he hadn’t been injured, poisoned and on the verge of death. My ‘Bewitching Voice’ wouldn’t have worked so well on convincing him. He would have noticed the change in his thoughts in an instant.

All I had to do was push his thoughts in a direction and take all the benefits. I stopped using the ‘Bewitching Voice’ directly before the deal so that it doesn’t affect the deal itself.

Dragonification also has a lot of room to progress. I remember that Ophis could make a body out of Great Red’s flesh which would be far stronger than any natural Devil Body. Dragons naturally have a higher power limit than Devils. This obviously doesn’t apply to me as I have The Blank’s Essence but Dragons power is also useful for something else. Dragon’s souls are exceptionally strong.

I mean Vritra’s soul was chopped into pieces for centuries and could still be combined and even awakened as a whole again.

This shows the tenacity of a Dragons soul.

Can the Dragonification Trait help me replicate this Trait?

I looked forward as Gretel came towards me.

No words were said. I went ahead and washed my hands.

Gretel used her magic to dry them.

I somehow didn’t know how to feel.

This is the opportunity that I had been waiting for all this while but now I don’t know how to feel.

The attacking force set up the spell. Cleria returned to me along with Ophelia. Their peerages stood behind them.

The rest were teleported by the user of Dimension Lost.

“It is done Master. You can activate the spell anytime.” Ophelia bowed slightly.

As I thought of the scene about to appear in front of us, a sudden thought came to my mind.

“Do you know what true art is?” I asked, smiling a bit.

They had a confused look on their faces and I chuckled at my own joke.

“True Art is an….EXPLOSION!.”

BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

“Let’s start the next part of our lives with an explosion.”

- Scene Change –

We teleported to the base after the wonderful exhibit of art.

“Dummy!” Vi ran into me, hugging me tightly.

She almost forcibly had to be kept here when she found out about my plans.

I had kept the whole plan and the supposed dangers of it from her till the very last moment so that she didn’t do anything stupid.

She had denied staying back as soon as she heard that Gretel and me will be in the very center of the fight.

It took a lot of convincing from both Gretel and me to finally get her to agree to this and stay behind at the base. She was after all the target of the assassination.

There might have been more than one person and attempts. Even a stray hit from an Ultimate Class Devil could have killed her.

She is strong. Much stronger than probably any other Devil her age right now….but she is still at best as strong as a strong Middle Class Devil. Not even a High Class one.

There was no way I was going to bring her to such a place where there were dangers at every corner.

“It is fine. We are free from now on.”

Yes. Finally free. No need to hide my talents. No need to pretend to have stupid reasons for everything I do. No need to hold myself back anymore for anything.

Right around the age of twelve when the children of Devils start their fastest growth period, till the age of twenty five.

I am going to abuse the fuck out of this time.

Next goal is to make my subordinates into Peak Satan Class and my marked subordinates into at least Pseudo-Super Devil Class in the next few years.

I plan to use every skill from every world I can think of in this aspect.

- Scene Change –

I stood in the training field of the underground base and watched Vienna and Gretel learn the Shadow Clone Technique.

It has been two weeks since I became free.

The first thing we did was pass on the ownership of Dimension Lost to Gretel. The Ultimate Class Devil who possessed it had already signed the loyalty contract and had easily given up the Longinus but not before making a Spatial Barrier around the whole base. Helena and Gretel had then worked on the Dimension to stabilize the barrier even further.

I want to start their training but to truly milk every bit of time, I decided to teach them the Shadow Clone Technique.

This Technique can be learned due to the effect of The Archmage Essence. It not only allows me to use any type of energy but also teach others any system of energy usage.

The Shadow Clone Technique can be used to learn any magic or studies as they need the experience and the physical training can be done by the main body in the meantime for the all-round development of skills.

I haven’t seen any devil except for the Bunes and Barbatos able to fight at close range and even they only do that due to their Clan Trait being physically attributed. Apart from Sairaorg, there has almost never been a Devil who has trained in Touki. Not even Diehauser Belial.

Sairaorg could crush any High Class Devil with Touki alone without even trying. This goes to show just how much potential was being wasted by all the Devils.

We don’t have any alternative other than to become stronger to even live. > The Old Satan Faction will be hounding us like mad dogs should they ever discover Gretel, Vienna and I are still alive and the Current Government would be too wary of us to not try anything. People in places of power more often than not become too resistant to give it up and react extremely hard when they feel any threat to their power.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I don’t know how much the current government is corrupted, but one thing is sure and that is….the old guys will absolutely not give up their power.

Not to mention the other factions.

So for the sake of our freedom, there is only one way out – To become so strong that they will not even dare to fight against us.

Why is it that even with all the bullshit the current government is pulling with the Evil Pieces, no one declares war on them and just watches the entire devil race accumulating power?. Well there is only one reason….well kinda two reasons Sirzechs Lucifer and Ajuka Beelzebub.

Two of the top ten strongest beings in the various worlds are in the Devil Faction.

The old guys use them as shields and do whatever they want.

As for the two themselves, from what I have found out from Charlene, the younger niece of Falbium Asmodeus, Sirzechs Lucifer is someone who genuinely wants peace. He has seen too much war and was in a similar position as the current us during his childhood, hiding his power alongside Ajuka to avoid the attention of the Satan Descendants and their lackeys who were then the ruling body.

From that they rose and took over the rule. In a way I can sympathize with them as I have seen the behavior of the Old Satan Faction and I know their feelings…. but that will probably have no effect on our relationship.

Ajuka Beelzebub. Probably the person whom I respect the most and am the most wary of despite not having met the man himself is someone according to Charlene who will support Sirzechs in whatever he does. It’s Sirzechs who keeps quiet when the old devils cause trouble to not start off disputes and solve things in a peaceful manner so Ajuka also keeps quiet.

I can understand Sirzechs’ thinking as well. The Devil Faction might seem like the strongest of the three factions but its strength is in fact not stable at all.

The Fallen Angels might have people with different opinions but if there is a war, they will all fight for the Grigori, there is not a shred of doubt about it, but the Devil Race would likely go into a Civil War between different Houses as well as between the Reincarnated Devils and the Pillar Houses as soon as the news of a war arrives and internal disputes at the time of war is probably the worst thing one can ask for. The dissatisfied parties grit their teeth and bear because they are afraid that a rebellion in normal times will be crushed and even if the Satans are involved, they will not give anyone any mercy. They have no hope of winning against such monsters so they bear everything.

If that changes somehow, then well…. Lucifer save the Pillar Houses.

All of this is however Charlene’s honest opinion. I will have to see things for myself.

I for my part have started to use the Shadow Clones to work on several things. Those are first, my Illusion. After getting a feel of Razevan’s ‘The Prince of Lies’, I have started implementing it in my illusion technique. Hiding the manipulation of energy under a lie. This step requires experience with the Clan Trait itself and is not like the normal Fidelius which is just a simple spell and is just done by using it once. I am using the prisoners as test subjects. Hopefully I can gain enough experience with it soon enough.

The Illusion is going to be absolutely stunning. I can already feel it.

The second is the training of my body. While I broke and healed my muscles repeatedly with my demonic power and so my body is far stronger than a normal Devil (or else I couldn’t have torn out Gregory’s Heart so easily), there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Touki is an obvious skill to learn.

Another thing that I want to learn is….Armament Haki. It is the only Haki that I haven’t been able to use so far though.

Armament Haki has extremely high potential. Especially for someone like me who has an endless supply of Haki that I even have to consciously suppress so as to not accidentally crush everything suddenly. The training basically involves the Clones trying to….well….will the Haki into existence. It hasn’t been too successful though. I can feel myself getting stronger but I am not sure if I have Armament Haki. I remember that the Kuja doesn’t all have black coating for Haki. That is supposed to be one of the stronger ones. My current level was like the Kuja crew. To advance forward, I followed the words of Rayleigh and fought with my clones.

Haki develops under pressure.

The third is my Sacred Gear.

I have finally used Telos Karma permanently on myself.

The Power of Luck is really a cheat. There is a chance that something can happen and Telos Karma just increases that chance several thousands of times over depending on my power levels. If the power is enough, even Gods can be killed. This fact is in fact not wrong at all. Telos Karma is overpowered.

For example if there is a chance that someone will slip during a fight. Telos Karma can manipulate that probability which is say one is ten thousand to absolute if the user is strong enough. I don’t know what the Balance Breaker is or how to reach there so I am only using the normal form.

This Longinus is a cheat among cheats.

Need Money. Manipulate the probability and you can win a lottery very easily.

Need to kill someone. They might slip on a banana peel and get stabbed with a fork during the slip.

These are probably the easiest uses.

The better ones are just manipulating the probability of an experiment to succeed, manipulating the probability of someone breaking their limit during training or even some conceptual tier manipulations simply. Imagine using the Enhancement Drug on a low class devil and manipulating the probability so that they survive. Continue it a few times and we have a High Class or even an Ultimate Class devil.

This Sacred Gear was born to be paired with The Essence of the Mad Doctor.

The fourth is my attempt to search for my own Clan Trait of the Lucifer House. Did I inherit one? If yes then what is it?

Razevan proved that I might have one completely different from other people. Something associated with the Myth of Lucifer.

While not having one might not make much of a difference for me as I can always pass off The Broker Essence as the Clan Trait, having one will no doubt be helpful to me.

Till now there has been no progress.

“This thing is too hard.” Vienna pouted as she huffed in exhaustion.

“It is supposed to be. You don’t even know the basics about chakra, how do you expect to learn the Technique which is Ranked B in terms of difficulty? Moreover due to our Lucifer lineage, we are far stronger than normal devils, who in turn are already stronger than humans. Chakra is dependent on someone’s physical energy which is life force which we have in spades and mental energy which is our magic which we also have much much above the rest. With such enormous amounts of Chakra, it is only obvious that you will take a lot of time controlling it. Once you do it however, you can reduce your training by several times. So stop complaining and concentrate already.”

She pouted but as the first step of training, took a leaf and tried to stick it to her forehead.

I made a calculation and found out that I had enough chakra to make around one thousand Shadow Clones. It is just that the information that I get back after even twenty minutes of that is enough to make me faint.

To be precise it was around two week worth of information. A devil’s brain is much stronger than a Human’s but that much information was like a mental attack. I won’t be taking that risk anytime soon.

I decided to test my limits. To do so, I started with dispelling twenty Shadow Clones after twenty minutes, then forty Shadow Clones, then sixty and then eighty until I would feel serious discomfort.

My limit to such a method was three hundred and twenty clones at once for twenty minutes. I would have a serious headache for an hour after that. I did discover that my limit to the information overload was increasing with each such mental attack. The process is a bit slow but it is definitely there.

Today I also have something to look forward to. Ophelia will be bringing Kuroka and Shirone here for training.

They had been treating Celine all this time to try and heal her mind.

As soon as I had transferred over to the Russia Base, Katerea had gone over to the prison where Celine and others were kept and proceeded to kill a few of the prisoners to vent her frustrations. It was obviously done on my orders.

Celine being killed there allowed me to use The Binder’s Essence and summon her with Ophelia.

She has since then been in treatment for the mental injuries.

I want to test how Senjutsu interacts with Chakra and if the youkai of this world can use Chakra easily.

I sensed some auras entering the training ground and stopped my training, looking back.

Ophelia, Cleria, Kuroka, Shirone, Lavinia, Victoria, Helena and Alicia came together.

Except Charlene and Celine, all the people bound by me are present.

Alicia, Charlene, Helena and Victoria often have other jobs to do so they cannot stay away from public view for very long. Even here, the Shadow Clones are extremely useful, that is why I called them all to come over and start learning the technique.

Kuroka is the same age as Vienna, which is ten years and a few months old and hasn’t had to go through the experiments. Although her strength was supposed to be a lot lower than her current self, the nerfed essences made up for the absence of the experiments and even more.

She has been trained by an expert of Senjutsu since the very beginning without the interference of the demonic power. She is in a sense even better than she would have been if she hadn’t met me.

“Damien-samnyaa~” the little black cat rushed to me and hugged my arm, her tail swishing behind her in joy.

We have talked several times since I bound her through her link so we were not strangers.

Shirone on the other hand was much more cheerful than the emotionless self she would have ended up as. She was three years younger than Kuroka at slightly above seven and had an extremely cute pixie cut with a white kimono which had a space for her tail. Her ears twitched as she looked at me shyly but didn’t come closer without asking. Her ears twitched as she watched Kuroka hug me.

I beckoned her with my other hand and she shyly came forward. She is so cute.

I caressed her head and she literally purred and I couldn’t help but smile.

“Hello Shirone, how have you been?” I asked the girl who had almost melted with the headpats. She looked up at me and merely nodded shyly.

Someone on the side was perhaps equal parts jealous and fascinated by the while haired cat loli. Vienna looked at me with a pout and came and took my other arm, asserting her place. Such behavior reminds me of the time when Aria was alive. Vienna had gotten much more reserved with such things.

“Kuroka, Shirone, Lavinia, meet these two. The gremlin hanging on to me is Vienna Lucifer and the other one is Gretel Lucifuge. They are the closest people to me and you both can trust them as much as you trust me. Vienna, Gretel, the black haired one here is Kuroka, the blonde one is Lavinia and the cute one here is Shirone. I think you already know the rest. They are all people whom I have directly marked. You can ask them for any help if you want. Shirone and Kuroka will also be joining us from time to time while Lavinia will be staying with us from now on to train.”

 “Ooh what will we be learning today nyaa?”

“Ninjutsu.”

Helena raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a specialty of the Ninjas in Japan? I had no idea that you also recruited a Ninja, Young Lord.”

“I haven’t. The ninjas in Japan use different techniques than the one I am talking about. I will only be teaching all of you a few tricks which will be useful for everyone. But first of all we will have to learn how to use Chakra.” I stopped Kuroka from speaking up, already knowing what she was going to say. “This Chakra is different from the Nature Energy you use. It is a combination of the Physical Energy or Touki with the Spiritual Energy that the Onmiyoji generally use in equal parts. That energy will then be manipulated with the use of several hand signs. Each hand sign aligns with an animal and a sequence of these hand signs will be used to perform a technique. As all of you have already been marked by me, you can use almost any type of energy as long as you have a complete idea about it. We will be practicing the use of chakra first and learn how to control it.”

I made ten Shadow Clones for them to practice with.

I have to think about some basic ninjutsu too.

Some of them are extremely useful.

But for now I need to concentrate on Martial Arts.

The Essence of the King gives the user an extremely high talent and proficiency with Martial arts and all kinds of weapons but I still need to learn them because of the nerf. I asked Cleria for help and she suggested practicing with her Knight Desmond for starters.

As for Touki, Kuroka has learned the basics and I just need to raise my basic strength.

For a long uninterrupted training period, I made only one hundred and twenty clones. With ten clones guiding the rest, I assigned the other ten to practice the swordsmanship stances, twenty five each for Mad Doctor research, Illusion Training, Magic Training and Haki Training.

This is going to take a long while even with the clones.

- Euclid Lucifuge –

Euclid smashed the bottles on the table, shattering them in rage.

The bottles of alcohol both filled and empty made a mess of broken glass on the entire floor.

Again.

He lost again.

Again to some guy who claims to be Lucifer.

This time however Gretel died as well.

Unlike Grayfia, he cannot even see her anymore.

He had high hopes for her when she started improving in the Lucifuge House’s Magic. An Ultimate Class Devil at 12 years of age. She would have surpassed Grayfia. She would have surpassed that red haired fake. She would have been his masterpiece.

BUT….it was all gone.

Another attack.

Euclid would bet his life that it was the red haired bastard trying to finish off anything and everything related to him. They must have found out about Damien Lucifer and Gretel, two potential Super Devils in the making so they had attacked in advance. It was something he would have done as well. It was something anyone with a shred of brain would have done to remove future threats.

And Gretel had to follow that entitled brat who was born in a test tube.

He had already been the reason for his mother’s death because she chose to carry him for nine months as a service to the late Lucifer.

Carrying someone with the blood of two Super Devils without being related to them by blood took a toll on her, sucking her remaining life away leaving her with only four to five years of lifespan. She might have already known that and choose that way to kill herself, ending any chances of any other Lucifuge being born from her. Euclid knew this but he still couldn’t do anything to stop it. He wanted her to pay for her betrayal. The betrayal which had cost him his beloved Grayfia, yet….

Now everything is gone.

Dead.

They were all dead.

He had denied it once but no matter how much he checked, it was the truth. The trackers on their souls were gone. The kill switches on both Damien Lucifer and the half breed were gone. He went and personally witnessed the scene of battle and the only thing left there were the eerie blue flames threatening to devour the souls of anyone who came even close to the place in the midst of a gigantic crater as if some ancient Titan had simply torn out that piece of the world.

While thinking of all this, he got a call from the Headquarters.

“Euclid.”

“Lord Rizevim.”

“It seems that the blood of my father and Asmodeus turned out to be a failure. If he couldn’t even survive against a bunch of trash, then he was of no use to begin with. And here I thought that he would be better than Razevan.”

A part of his mind asked him if he could do the same? Taking down eight Ultimate Class Devils and two Longinus wielders at eleven years of age but a larger part of his brain, the one which was filled with rage and envy pushed this aside. Damien Lucifer….no he was not a Lucifer. A Lucifer wouldn’t be so weak. He wouldn’t have failed to save Gretel. There was no way he was a Lucifer. Euclid clenched his hand as he listened to Lord Rizevim.

“I think it is time that mother dearest picked up the slack and helped us out. I want you to collect the best team of scientists that you can and start experiments to make new devils. Those insects are very proud of their numbers, so we will face them with numbers.”

“Yes Lord Rizevim. I will do so as soon as possible.”

An idea came to Euclid’s mind.

The Mother of All Devils who gave birth to the entire Devil Race. The one who gave birth to the first Lucifuge. Couldn’t she be used to make another Lucifuge? one better than every other.

The idea stuck to his mind and everytime he thought of it, he became more convinced of his plan.

A new devil race.

If the current devil race will keep denying him his dreams, then he will create a new Devil race to work with.

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Beta Reader: LuluViBritania(FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author’s Note :

It's been a long time since I got back to this story. I wanted to plan in detail for the next arc so this chapter took much longer.

A lot happened in this chapter.

The Death of Gregory Bune affecting Damien was just that. A bit of sadness that he couldn’t be on his side. Gregory had been a good teacher and actually had no enmity with Damien and had only been good to him. It would be unreasonable to hate him. It was just that he did the one thing that shouldn’t have been done and thus the ending.

We finally have the arc’s end.

It is finally time for Damien to train without any restraint.

I am planning to go full meta with this.

Learning Shadow Clones and matching it with Occlumency and Mind Palace and abusing the shit out of it.

The chakra reserve would also depend on the physical and spiritual energy which is basically life force which devils have in spades and magical energy which is also much higher than normal humans.

Chakra needs to be abused for all its benefits.

The Shadow Clone Technique is a hack that needs to be used to its fullest. It will also make up for the lack of time for all of Damien’s direct subordinates.

I am planning a slight time skip and a few more recruitments before we start some of the main events in a few chapters.

We will also see the butterflies affecting the world soon and probably a meeting with Azazel.

Maybe Damien will lighten up a bit in the next few arcs as we see the interactions with Lavinia, Kuroka and Shirone.

I will delve a bit deeper into their interactions and meetings in the later chapters.

Their personalities might be slightly different as they haven’t had the same childhood so don’t complain about that.[B/N: Some will anyway because the Karens can’t help themselves]

Euclid and Rizevim are planning some new shit.

Imagine this to be the time skip between Naruto and Naruto Shippuden(Except with real training).

So enjoy the chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.