Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, neither do I own any of the multiple resources that I will use for the story in the form of (but not limited to) references.
Author Note: Well, this is embarrassing, if you have already read this chapter then ignore it, there's little difference. Once I uploaded the chapter the first time I noticed a stupid little mistake and I just had to correct it. And now here I am, panicking because I don't see the chapter correcting itself and it doesn't show on the update on the side.
Maybe this is just me not understanding how the site works or panicking for nothing, but anyway I'll delete the previous update and post a new one, sorry for those that read it the first time.
Arrival Arc – Here We Are
"You can call me Seth, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too Seth," Didn't seem like she would ask for a surname, thank Maou. "As you probably already noticed, we are a bit pressed for time." I nodded, indeed, we needed at least a couple of members more to be able to do something decent. "So I'll introduce you to my Rook and then we can go deeper with your… studies."
Looked like there were many more books were the ones that I read and the ones on the sitting room came from. Good. I needed information on this world, and I needed it now. I felt like not knowing everything I could would get me killed sooner rather than later.
Once we all finished the food she led me outside through a door on the sitting room. I noticed that I really liked the forest, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. But I needed to meet my other comr-
I froze.
'That's not… That can't be…'
I'm pretty sure my eyes if I opened my eyes just a tiny little bit more they would have fallen from their sockets. There lying next to the house like a sleeping dog, was a creature that would cause hysteria in the underworld just by being noticed. A creature that the history book described as the true monster of the Underworld. It said that one of these creatures entered a battlefield during the Great War and it took the combined forces of Devils, Angels and Fallens to take it out. And afterwards the armies retreated because of the damages.
A Behemoth.
It looked like a big infernal wolf with a pair of horns as long as my arms pointing ahead. Spikes protruded from it's joints and its fangs and horn looked like they could go through a limb of mine without even feeling resistance. It's dark brown fur was said to be impossible to damage without the use of something on the level of a holy or demonic sword, or some heavy magic attacks.
I started sweating bullets.
It stirred and stood up, noticing our presence. 'Well, life was good while it lasted.' I was six feet tall, that thing was a foot taller and double its height on length.
I turned to look at Seekvaira. She was smiling. Freaking smiling. I took a deep breath. A couple of times.
"Your Rook?" I asked, the behemoth just walked up to Seekvaira and when she put her hand up started licking it. I blinked. 'Is this monster really acting like a dog? It's happening.' She was now petting its head just above the horn between the eyes. 'Is that its version of a purr?' I had already given up common sense when she decided to answer my question.
"Yes, meet Iorek, my mutated Rook, a baby behemoth." That explained it's size. But it didn't keep me from looking at her incredulously anyway. If this girl had a behemoth in her peerage, why the hell was she worried? With that thing alone she should be able to deal wi- "He is also flawed. He is half the size of a normal cub. Also he is not as resistant to damage. That's why I was able to take him in my peerage without dying. He was abandoned by its family."
That explained pretty much everything, but it did little to make me feel less amazed or frightened. I kept looking at them. The creature, Iorek, looked sad all of a sudden. 'Did it understand what she said?'
"It's still amazing." I said sincerely. It- He definitely understood, because he ran up to me and tackled me into the ground and started licking my face. Meanwhile I was just trying not to die with it's fangs so near something as important as my face.
I started awkwardly patting the sides of his head and after a while it seemed to calm down. That didn't stop me from petting it like Seekvaira had before. After the initial shock and everything. I thought I found my favorite member of the peerage. There are very few things that don't manage to be adorable while acting as a puppy. Obviously a baby behemoth wasn't in that group.
"Now, follow me to the library, there you should be able to continue studying our world and how it works." She said signaling me to follow her.
"Wait for me here, I'll come back in a minute."I said to Iorek. What? I really enjoyed playing with the little… eeh, big guy. If this is how having a dog feels I'd definitely get one. He lowered his head at that, and I was really tempted to ask Seekvaira to show me the library latter. But it was better to get it over with.
I waved at Iorek before getting into the house behind Seekvaira. I followed her up to the second floor. As we made our way over to the library she started telling me what would be best to learn first. Etiquette and politics for starters, so that I would actually be able to do my job as her Queen. 'Does it ever get easy to refer to myself as Queen?' She also advised me to read up on Devils specifically, which I already planned doing. And after that to read up on magic and sacred gears, which was also on the plans.
The library was actually in the door opposite to mine. That was nice. It wasn't the biggest library ever, but there was nothing to complain about. It was twice the size of my room, three quarters was shelves alone, and the free space was occupied by a couple of desks with lamps. I also noticed that every room so far had really big windows allowing us to see the forest that surrounded the house, which was good, I liked the landscape.
"That door leads to my study, I'm usually there or practicing magic outside. Just in case you need anything. Dovray, acts as the butler, so he is usually inside the house. In the afternoons he goes out for a couple of ours to maintain the detection spells and traps that he has set over the territory so if you don't find him is probably because of that."
"Over all the territory?" I asked incredulously.
"Look up the Demiurge family while you are here." Was what she answered with before going into her study. Which is what I did. It took me a while but I found a book on devil clans. Soon I had looked up both the Agares and the Demiurge families.
The Agares was the second highest ranking clan of the 72 pillars, which I'll admit was impressive. They also owned a floating city, Agreas, where the crystals used to make the Evil Pieces were found. They also had the unique trait of being able to use Time magic. If that isn't badass I don't know what is.
The Demiurge on the other hand were part of the Extra Demons faction, which is to say that they weren't part of Ars Goetia. They didn't really have a clan trait but they specialized in magical traps so much that it was considered a trait on its own. Not as amazing as freaking Time magic, but if it allowed him to monitor the whole territory it was amazing enough.
Once I was done reading that I left the book where I found it, I would come back to it when I finished reading what was essential. However, it was still early morning, and thinking that I went to my new best friend, Iorek. He was where I saw him the first time, curled up against the wall of the house. He perked up once I came near him. 'So he is guarding or something like that, huh?'
"Hey Iorek, want to go for a walk?" For a second I thought he teleported right in front of me and started bouncing around. He really liked to walk around or maybe he didn't get to do much, with Seekvaira in her study most of the day and Dovray being busy. So I made it my duty, at least in the mornings to give him something to do. Besides I had a plan.
With the baby behemoth running around me I started a jog through the forest, wasn't really worried. Dovray's defenses should be good enough, and I decided not to go too much in, in case I fell in one of the traps, that would be… embarrassing. Besides, I had yet to test the speed enhancement of the Queen piece, the strength would have to wait until I found something to actually test it with, maybe lift a big rock or something. I could punch trees, but that simply would not do for training if a I started breaking them, so that was for later.
Looked like I wasn't that fit before arriving here. Iorek had no problem keeping up with my boosted speed and he was a Rook, not exactly known for their speed. But while behemoths were not know for their speed they were not exactly slow, so there's that to keep my ego from crumbling.
Yeah, a little speed training in the mornings with Iorek would be good. Not only did I really need it but it also looked like it would do wonders for the poor pupp- I mean, behemoth, he really looked like he was enjoying himself. And I have to admit, I was too, couldn't help but smile when he came near me every few minutes to try and get me to go faster.
I think I was on that for an hour or two when I decided to head back. Until I realized that I didn't see the house anymore and couldn't remember where it was. I really wanted to kick myself.
"Hey Iorek, do you think you could help me get back to the house?" I asked tentatively.
He barked with what I guess was an affirmation. 'Seriously, stop being so adorable, doesn't fit with the 'creature of nightmares' I read about.' I thought with a grin on my face.
After a while we were back at the house, and I bid my new training buddy farewell and went inside. Then I went to the kitchen, which I guessed was on the other door of the dinning room, I was right, and got myself a glass of water. After getting to my room, stretching a bit, I decided to take a bath, I was covered in sweat because of the running.
Half an hour later I was on the library, already studying a book about the politics of the Underworld and I have to say, it was boooooring. I expected it to be boring, but that didn't make the read any easier. I just hoped that that one book would suffice.
And like that I spent another week, in the morning I would have breakfast with Seekvaira and Dovray. Later I would go run around with Iorek, I confirmed with our Bishop what part of the forest was clear of traps and the like. Turns out that it would be difficult for me to reach the point where those start, but I decided to no go too far and instead we run in circles around the house after putting good distance from there. Devil stamina and Queen speed enhancement was really a blessing, it felt amazing to just run through the forest. Iorek seemed to agree with me.
During one of the runs we ran into a really big rock. It was double the size of Iorek, I really suffered to lift it, but that ended up being my strength training. Once I started to get used to the weight I would work on moving it to the house, just to up the training.
After that came lunch with everyone again and then reading. The first week went into etiquette and politics as planed. Dovray helped me get used to everything on the etiquette department and I had an idea of how the Underworld government worked now. Then there was dinner, a little of free time (usually just casual reading on the library or playing with Iorek a bit), sleep and repeat.
Half-way through my third week on the house I was studying magic. The short description of demonic magic is that it works with imagination. Once you read that you think, 'wow, easy, amazing', yeah… no.
The long description is that demonic magic works through power, focus and intent. You need to concentrate on what you want to happen, if you get distracted in the middle of the spell then at best you lose the energy you put into it already, at worst it blows you up.
Furthermore, the less idea about what you want to happen you have, the more power you have to put into it to make it happen. Let's say you want to make fire, you have no idea how but you want to make it happen anyway, it'll cost you ten of energy. If you know that you need oxygen, fuel and heat to make fire then you could use your energy as fuel and a bit of heat to start the fire, that would cost you five of energy. That's the theory, from there it varies on a lot of things.
Obviously, doing that process for every spell you use would require a lot of concentration and comprehension work from the caster. That's why most accomplished wizards are really intelligent, their minds have an easier time doing the process through focus rather than energy. There are still energy powerhouses here and there but those are exceptions rather than the rule.
And no, I'm not expanding on these rather than politics because it's more interesting. Not at all.
I was on these when I heard activity outside. That was strange. It had always been quite ever since I woke up. Seekvaira was rarely around save for drinking a cup of tea while reading on the sitting room or going to play with Iorek. Most of the time she is in her study, if I had to guess, studying, working and doing contracts.
She said I will start with the later activity when I get a familiar either in a week or in a month or so, depending on when she managed to get on the rotation with the familiar master. She also said that some devils make newly reincarnated devils distribute the fliers themselves at first. But for her that is a waste of the servants time. Why have your peerage member do something like that for hours when you can start training them? Maybe it's just us that are training centered people but I agree with her wholeheartedly. It wasn't just that I didn't want to go around giving fliers, not at all.
And Dovray usually went around maintaining the house or disappeared to see if the traps and detection spells were holding up, I guessed in the time that he was out he was also doing contracts. Hadn't really asked him that last bit.
So usually the most noise that I heard in the house was when they talked to each other, or when I talked to Seekvaira about what I had been studying, either asking her about something or she wanting to know how I was doing. Dovray on the other hand usually helped me too, but after the etiquette lessons we haven't talked that much.
What can I say, we are a serious no-nonsense bunch. Except when Iorek was around, the mascot of the group really melted our hearts.
But right now it seemed more serious. When I got out of the library I heard Dovray talking to Seekvaira, yes, definitely serious talking. By the time I got to the sitting room all I saw was a flash of the transportation circle. They were gone. I went out and Iorek was still there. He looks uneasy, that didn't really help me calm down.
I went inside and got the book I was reading. With it under my arm I went outside, sat down besides Iorek and started reading. That seemed to help him a bit, which in return helped me. A couple of chapters later I saw the light of the circle again coming out through the window. I marked the page and went inside, the baby behemoth following me until the door.
They looked ok, good. I stared at them for a bit before speaking.
"Something happened?" Seekvaira didn't look like she wanted to explain, or talk at all, she looked positively murderous. I turned around to look at Dovray, still didn't feel like knowing if she could freeze me.
"Someone has been attacking people in our territory for some time now. We haven't been able to get them in time." He said, the last bit seems to hurt his pride. Makes sense, we use his traps and detection spells to look over the territory.
I glanced at Seekvaira when a thought went through my head. 'Of course.' Not only is someone messing around in her territory, whoever it is also makes her look bad. That doesn't help her impress her parents to escape a marriage.
"Do this victims have something in common?" I asked them, they looked at each other. I tried my best to not look offended. Yeah, I probably didn't look reliable at all.
"Not that we know of." Seekvaira answered this time. She was visibly trying to calm herself.
"What do they do to the victims?"
"Always a hole in the chest the size of the heart, from there each victim seems to have holes in random parts of their bodies."
'Doesn't sound pretty to see. Wait...' I had woken up really messed up, Dovray said that I had lost a lot of blood. They said this has gone on for a while.
"Was this how you found me?" They exchanged another look. 'Oh, so it was because of that.'
"Yes." Answered the King. "So you don't remember." Yeah, I hadn't told them I don't remember anything, as good a time as any I guessed. "The closest we have been to trap them was when we found you, in the end they managed to run away before we got there. I had just enough time to decide to reincarnate you."
"Well, thank you for that" And I meant it, I certainly didn't want to die any time soon. "I don't remember anything before waking up on that room." I said signaling upstairs. "If I was your only clue why didn't you ask." They were both staring at me, neither seemed eager to answer.
"We thought that you just didn't remember the attack. And that you weren't fond of your life for how easily you took to the reincarnation, it happens sometimes."
"I… see." 'I guess I can understand that and it explains why they weren't that surprised that I didn't talk.' "Then… maybe the attack is the reason I don't remember anything. But that doesn't seem to help here, or does that tell you anything." Dovray shook his head, Seekvaira seemed to be thinking pretty hard about something.
For a while we stayed on the sitting room just thinking, until the Bishop left saying that he'd make some tea for everyone. Seekvaira and I sat on the sofa, still thinking.
"The victims seem random, but that may be because we are seen this from the wrong perspective." She says finally when Dovray came back, we both looked at her. "The only thing that I think can connect everyone would be Sacred Gears."
I took a second to process that. True, if the attacks were random it could mean just that, but thinking like that didn't help. On the other hand, all the targets having Sacred Gears made sense too. And that is something that we can confirm to some extend, I just needed to see if I had one. Easier said than done though.
"So until we can see if I have a Sacred Gear, we still have nothing." I said quietly. I didn't like it, and neither did they for the looks in their faces. "Guess I'll leave magic for later and I'll start reading on Sacred Gears."
"You do that and I'll see if there is something else that help us confirm this for sure, or point another direction, or tell us something about your memories." We nodded at each other and once we finish we left the sitting room. She went to her study and I went outside to tell Iorek the news. Maybe I was being silly, talking to the baby behemoth, but he seemed to understand us when we talked. He certainly looked calmer when I finished the explanation. After that I went to the library.
The next day before breakfast I was sitting on the dinning room waiting for the food. Seekvaira wasn't there yet, and Dovray was in the kitchen.
From what I found there were several ways to awaken a sacred gear. One of them was by being exposed to difficult situations, be it stressful, frightening or down right deadly experiences. Obviously that's not my go-to method. Second was simply by training, the book said that with enough development on the body the Sacred Gear might manifest on itself, and since I was already working on that I decided to up my training a bit. Then there were a bunch of methods, but those work mainly on specific gears, and we didn't have time for that.
And then there's the definite method. Yeah, a method that works with all of them, but of course it had to have a drawback. You see, Sacred Gears are connected to the soul of the user, that's why subspecies exist, the theory is that all gears are given to a soul that is compatible. But through life some of those souls may be changed because either life messed you up or some other reason. That's when the Sacred Gear adapts to the change on your soul.
But I digress. The method was plain old meditation. Through this, I could try to search inside myself and look for my Sacred Gear to awaken it. The problem? Well, it could take me a few seconds or a lifetime. Yeah, not really encouraging. I would give it a go anyway, not like I had something better to try. So I'd do that after dinner for a couple of hours.
All of this may have been related to why I lost my memories too. Why you ask? Simple, if this people attacked me because of a Sacred Gear then maybe they targeted the Sacred Gear, and not me, then they could have messed up with it, which means they could have messed up with my soul. Yeah, sounds lovely doesn't it?
While I followed those thoughts Seekvaira seated on the head of the table and Dovray finished setting up the table. While eating I explained to them what I found, my theories and what I'd start doing to try and awaken my possible but not confirmed Sacred Gear.
"Sounds like a good plan." Said Seekvaira giving me an approving nod. "It also matches with what I found myself so that's somewhat comforting. Also, taking into account the injuries produced I think that they may be targeting the Sacred Gears as you said. On that note, your injuries were on your chest, and forearms, if that helps with anything." 'Maybe, maybe not, good to know anyway I guess.' I thought to myself while nodding.
"The thing is, if they are targeting Sacred Gear users, how do they find them?" I asked, because that's something that came to my mind several times while searching information. As far as I saw, it's really difficult to tell if someone has one, and that's if it's awakened. If the Sacred Gear is dormant then it's impossible to tell unless you had something like the Boosted Gear that gave you the aura of a dragon.
"Maybe a Sacred Gear that detects them, it's the only thing that comes to my mind." Said Dovray. 'Yeah, that could be.' And I was willing to go with his reasoning, he was the one specialized in detection spells. Seemed like Seekvaira thought the same just nodding as an answer.
And after that I started my new routine, exercise of speed and strength on company with the gigantic puppy, Iorek, have lunch, study, this time on Sacred Gears, dinner, and meditation. And let me tell you, that last one is nothing like they picture it on the books. It was just me trying to clear my mind and teach it to feel something it had never felt before and I had no idea what I was looking for. Yeah, that was gonna take a long time.
It had been a week and a half since then, the physical training was certainly doing it's job. I was nowhere near a toned body, but I had noticed the difference between before and after during the training, and that was something. In the study department, I was simply reading the encyclopedias with info on all Sacred Gears, but that's gonna take a while, so I was switching between that and magic books.
Now, to important stuff, meditation… What can I say that I haven't said already, it's gonna take a while. Oh, I'm not saying that I had no progress, I had some, just… not enough. At least I got to the point where I could clear my mind. If I have to try and explain how it feels I would say that is like when you are half-asleep. That moment when your mind switches off but you are definitely awake. It's a strange feeling, one moment I was thinking about whatever, or trying to clear my mind and the next thing I know there's nothing. And then my mind switches on and I notice that I passed an hour like that.
Still hadn't felt anything special on that state, and that didn't help my peace of mind. Luckily there hadn't been any other attacks, so there's that. The others seemed to have upped their training too. I had seen Seekvaira go into the forest to train her magic more and more. Dovray too, seems to go out earlier, either to train his magic or to put up more defenses, maybe both.
A brief conversation with both confirmed this. I also found out that aside from her family trait she used a bit of wind magic, but not much. Like many of the clan devils, she seemed focused in her family trait. While Dovray is trying to find just how they are bypassing his arrays.
With that said, looked like Seekvaira managed to get in the rotation of the familiar master on the first try. So there we were, standing on the transportation circle waiting for it to activate.
And then it lit up.
[}-o-{]
'I think this guy is a few cards short of a full deck.'
At the moment we were following the familiar master around the forest. Let's just say that I started doubting the guy. But Seekvaira assured me that it would be fine, even though I could see her eyes twitching from time to time at the master's antics.
I also got to see their familiars. Seekvaira had a snowy owl. 'How fitting.' Not that I would tell her that. Dovray for his part, had a pair of goblin like creatures except they were gray, their ears pointed downwards and their pointy nose was flattened against their faces, it looked like a triangle with a corner pointing at each white eye and the other pointing downwards. He said the species was called Kobaloi. Let's just say they weren't pretty to look at.
For my part, I didn't know what I was looking for really. There where several types of familiars. Battle familiars, servant familiars (like Dovray's), messenger familiars (like Seekvaira's), information gathering familiars (again, like Seekvaira's), healer familiars, even familiars that can act as transportation. But for the moment I was just looking around and admiring the creatures that populated the forest.
However I was also feeling uneasy, I saw Dovray looking around a couple of times and when asked he said that he felt like something was following us. That wasn't a comforting thought when we were in the middle of a forest filled with who knows how many different types of creatures.
After three hours of walking through the greens, we stopped to rest a little. Seekvaira didn't seem to be in a hurry so that helped me don't feel impatient. That didn't mean that it didn't bug me that it was taking so lon-
I saw a shadow move from the corner of my eyes. I turned to see what it was and blinked. It moved again, a shadow moved. That in itself wasn't much, this had happened a couple of times already. The thing is, there was just that, a shadow. No body or anything. It moved again.
"Hm, hello?" Everyone turned to where I was looking at. The shadow had vanished.
"Seth? Did you see something?" Asked Seekvaira after seen that there was nothing there.
"I think so, give me a second." And with that I walked a bit into the forest to a place where the others where hidden by the trees. "You there?"
And it appeared again, the shadow. Looking closely it had a human shape, maybe more on the female side. It was difficult to tell, aside from being just a shadow it wavered like it was made of smoke.
"Were you the one following us today?"It came closer a bit closer, I took that as a yes. "Why?" Hey, I may have an idea, but I didn't want to offend it by directly asking if it wanted to be my familiar. It lifted a wavering arm to point at me. 'Here goes nothing.' "Do you want to be my familiar?"
It stood next to me. After I repeated the chant that Seekvaira taught me the shade seemed to fuse with my shadow, making it turn completely black. I shrugged, I would have to search a description in the library later. Maybe the master could tell me something.
"I got my familiar." I told them, Seekvaira let a tiny bit of surprise show in her poker face, while Dovray looked like he already knew.
"The thing that was following us?" So that's how he knew, he felt it when we were talking. I just nodded and moved my arm, telling her to show herself. After a second she appeared next to me. Now surprise was definitely in their faces. I guess even in the Underworld it's not common for shadows to move on their own.
"Oh, an eidolon, the shade-spirit familiar, they usually stay on the shadows watching, rarely showing themselves to the living. A good familiar for information gathering, they can also help relay messages if it is loyal enough to show a physical form." The first part felt somewhat awkward, I didn't know she could talk, she hadn't so far. And the second part was good to know for when the moment came.
I let a small satisfied smile slip on my face and looked at my familiar. It felt oddly good to have her around, like when I was around Iorek. Can't say I saw that coming, but I wasn't complaining. When you don't have memories further than a couple of weeks ago you tend to try and enjoy any connection with the world.
Then we went back to the house after thanking the familiar master for his time. When I introduced Nico, the shade, to Iorek I couldn't help but laugh at the look of the behemoth. He went right through her after trying to tackle her like he did me the first time. Nico hid right on my shadow again, and I could feel a wave of worry and nervousness. 'Is that her?'
"Don't worry, it's just his way of saying hi the first time. Hey Iorek, take it easy, she is just shy, say hi like normal." He tilted his head and barked. Nico came out and waved at him. The worry had disappeared some, the nervousness was still there.
That seemed to give the baby behemoth his cheerfulness back because he was already bouncing around and barking happily. I seriously can't take it, this over-sized puppy is just too cute, and if the warm wave I felt was anything to go by, Nico agreed.
After that introduction I went to ask Dovray if one of his familiars could teach Nico what she needed to know. And with her occupied I went to the library again.
After a bit of searching I found information on eidolons. Looked like she couldn't talk because she was too young. It shouldn't take long for her to start with that, and it would take even more time for her to be able to take physical form. That was troublesome, how would she distribute the fliers if she couldn't even touch them?
That's what I talked with Seekvaira and Dovray over dinner. In the end it was decided that she would take over the patrolling duties of one of Dovray's familiars once she learned what she needed to. In exchange that kobaloi would distribute fliers for me. Good. For a second I thought I would have to do that myself in the end, thank Maou.
[}-o-{]
Now, onto the contracts. There wasn't really anything special about them, which was good. With me still not knowing magic due to my Sacred Gear searching I was just a mix of Rook and Knight, which meant I was a physical type for now. With that in mind, Seekvaira sent me to the physical type requests.
That meant I ended up doing things like helping a granny move furniture in her house, her tea was really good. Looking after the child of a single mother while she went to work, I did that one a couple of times a week and took all morning, much to Iorek's dismay. I also helped a guy clean up his apartment when his girlfriend was going to visit, that was a funny one, if a bit disgusting at times. There's the time I helped a builder that lacked an employee due to an emergency too.
All in all it was a busy week. And like that, my first month as Seekvaira Agares's Queen ended.
Author Note: I'm new to this writing thing, so any mistakes you think I made feel free to point them out. Also I'm not even near the point of knowing this story to the smallest detail, so if you think I don't follow cannon point it and I'll change it if it's not an intentional thing.
Author Note 2: I will have a busy weekend and week so I'll probably have another chapter come out by Friday, Thursday if I'm lucky.