[Phenex Estates]
[Riser Phenex]
"Aaaaahhhh!!! Ahhhh!"
"Anhhh! Nhhh!"
A tiny fist swatted out and booped a tiny nose, and immediately eyes scrunched up- the waterworks starting. The whining babe was quickly scooped up and bounced gently on a lap as little Rias Gremory clutched at her smarting red nose. In the meanwhile, a startled little Sona looked between her tiny fist and the crying Rias a few times before her little mind made the connection and she too started to weep. Tiny tears dripped down her cheeks as she flapped her arms around, no doubt looking around for her mother, but alas her mother was seated me and looking over my shoulder intently.
She was... frustratingly close- I could feel her hot breath kissing the back of my neck but I knew that she was merely curious about what I was working on so diligently while this little picnic was going on.
Hariella Sitri was a raven-haired beauty with green eyes and a more than generous figure, and rather than the dresses that all ladies were used to wearing she was more casual with a vertically striped sleeveless turtleneck that did more to accentuate her curves than hide them. With a flick of her wrist, a small magic circle came into existence- a basic and inefficient telekinesis spell- and little Sona floated up gently in the air and bounced and tumbled a little bit before coming to rest in Lady Sitri's arms. The mode of transport had caught little Sona off guard, and her tears had stopped well before she ended up in her mother's arms and pressed against her bosom.
Little Seekvaria was content to observe while rolling a ball back and forth between her legs by flicking her tiny feet, and my sweet little Ravel was glaring balefully at Rias who continued to cry; my sister was nestled in my mother's arms, but unfortunately the blue light of prophecy was glowing within my mother's eyes- so for now she was lost to the world except for the little girl held securely within her grasp. It was going to be a short one, I could feel it, no more than a few days at most, and of that I was thankful; it had scarcely been two weeks since her last episode, and I wasn't the only one who disliked seeing her in such a state.
Yet despite being nearly completely unawares, the three other women of the Four-Way Alliance were keen to see their closest friend and lover included in their activities.
After all, it was an incredibly rare treat for four children to be born so closely together in any of the Pillar Houses, and seeing them all playing with one another was something they took every opportunity to relish in.
As to why I was taking part in these little gatherings every week?
Well, it no longer took me two days to recover from going into the Dungeon. My father's words were true and I was out for little less than a full day now with every trip- the enchanted bed had been doing the majority of the heavy lifting but my own power and spirit were finally able to take on the increased strain and bolster my recovery. This time savings not only saved me a fair amount of money from not having to pay my tutors twelve extra days per year, but it also allowed me to do things like attend these weekly picnics instead.
I was still able to train in the mornings and evenings, and during these afternoon excursions- the venue changing each week on a rotation between the Agares, Gremory, Sitri, and Phenex estates- I was able to do my homework while still spending time with my mother and little sister.
Don't get me wrong, it was rather distracting trying to write on a lap bench while there were four babies burbling, laughing, squealing, and crying in the foreground, but I just chalked it up to some additional training on staying focused. I failed more often than not because babies were rather entertaining and their antics decidedly wholesome, but I was able to complete a fair portion of my work before the afternoon frolic came to an end.
It also was a great way to ingratiate the Satans to me.
You see, the Satans have a lot of work to do.
Work that cuts into their time with their precious little siblings.
I provide for them a very important service, and they pay me handsomely for it- in either money, resources, or favors. Nothing major, but it always paid to be useful to them.
As to how I provided said service? Well, above my head, roughly five meters, floated two flaming orbs roughly the size of a baseball and said baseball was my first original spell that I created with the help of Ruval, Regen, and my father.
Pyromancy was a rather broad umbrella term for a variety of different spell types based around the element of fire. It wasn't just the creation of flames, the control of already created flames, or utilizing fire to make grand explosions; it was also the manipulation of energy itself and has other, lesser explored roots such as divination. For thousands of years, mages have gazed into flames to attempt to divine the future or see the past, and it was that particular path that I decided to take with this spell.
In this particular case, I created a spell that utilized two identical orbs of flames that existed in the same place at the same time, much like a quantum entangled pair; what the 'Sender' orb saw within its view was transmitted to the 'Receiver' orb in full detail. The colors were not accurate, as they were tinted by the colors of the flames themselves- sort of like a Night Vision tube- but the clarity was absolutely stellar.
I wasn't the prodigy most people believed me to be, and as I was nearing the end of my academic studies (I wager that I'll be finished with them around the time I turn eleven, exceeding even my father's expectation of me being complete by the time I received my Evil Pieces) I found myself struggling to make full marks to continue my streak of success despite the absolute hax that was self-hypnosis.
Thankfully my brothers and father were more than happy to assist me in filling out the necessary structures to make this spell circle as accurate, useful, and efficient as possible. It was once more a humbling reminder of how helpful the Phenexs as a whole were to their families; I'd been hesitant at first to ask for help, but the moment Ruval put away his books and sat down next to me to aid me I feel incredibly sheepish.
The teasing that I had been expecting never came, and if anything my brothers seemed to be quite happy to have me come by and see them more often; looking back on it I'd probably given them the impression that I wanted to be seen as some unfailing child or something like that. Or maybe they were just glad to have the chance to feel like older brothers and feel included in my daily life?
Regardless, their knowledge and experience were a boon for me, and they helped me fill out my spell circles far more than what most of my peers thrice my age could have accomplished on my own, and because of their help, I had a low-cost, extremely long range divination spell that was well-aligned with my natural elements of fire and wind. With an almost fully fleshed-out spell circle, I could maintain them both with only a single thread of mana each, though choosing the 'power save' mode meant that I could either look through them or control them; utilizing two threads of mana allowed me to do both at the same time, which was handy when I needed to maneuver them around beyond my line of sight.
As to why this was important?
Well, the two orbs above me were the 'Sender' orbs, and their 'Reciever' orbs were sitting on the desks in Lady Leviathan's and Lord Lucifer's offices in Lilith. Considering it was their lunch break, which these gatherings had suspiciously been timed to coincide with, there was no doubt in my mind that both Serafall and Sirzechs were shoveling food into their mouths while their eyes were glued onto the orbs.
I provided additional 'So-tan/Ri-chan' time and they paid me.
Already their favors had been a huge boon for me because I had been looking for a Touki instructor, and given its rarity in the Underworld not even my Lord Father had enough reach to search outside of his direct lands without causing a few ears to perk up. However, the fingers of the Maous were a little bit longer and more deft.
With their scouting and my Father's backing, we had Sagiyama Kotaro, a reincarnated Nekomata, his wife, Sagiyama Michiko a Half Breed Bakeneko, and their two daughters Ni and Li, hired on as contractors of the Phenex family. It was impossible not to recognize the two nekomata as the same pair in my original counterpart's Peerage, even if they were a half year younger than Rias, Sona, Ravel, and Seekvaria. Which was interesting because I had sworn I saw that they were both reincarnated devils and not Low-Class purebloods.
Well, calling them 'purebloods' was a bit of a misnomer, as even the Devils running the liberal New Satan government had a strict definition, but I personally defined them as being non-reincarnated devils of natural birth.
Regardless, if that had changed- or was never possible in this universe- then what else had changed? Was Issei Hyodou not the holder of the Boosted Gear? Could the events of the future have changed as well?
The more I thought about it the more I realized that thinking myself in circles wasn't going to help me any, and since I barely knew anything about the DxD franchise to begin with worrying about it was only going to be a distraction. Even if some key things changed it wouldn't matter if I just got really fucking strong; there were very few problems that couldn't be solved with the proper amount of force... even if it tended to stray into 'Hammers solve everything' territories.
Still, Kotaro-sensei's King was taking a two-decade-long sabbatical from the Rating Games circuit to focus on straightening up his noble house's affairs, and the money that I was paying him for his Rook's services was incredibly welcome given their dire financial situation. With my Touki instructor secured in a nice little cottage near the Phenex Servant's Quarters I felt a lot better about my training in the future; we would be spending the next few years going over the fundamentals of Touki and hand-to-hand combat, and once I was freed from my academic obligations then I could devote myself to his tutelage in earnest.
"And what, pray tell, are you looking to achieve with this particular spell, hmm?" The throaty voice of Lady Sitri caressed my ears and I did my best to not leap out of my skin.
Gah! Woman! You're too close! Way to close!
I fought down the shiver of her paradoxically hot yet cool breath teasing the hairs on the back of my neck, and I leaned away slightly so that I could properly look at her.
"I'm creating a spell, Lady Sitri. Or at least putting together the fundamentals of it," I was hesitant to show my work, but with how much she was hovering over me already she'd likely seen the formulas and sketches on my paper- a good old Ti-83 calculator seated next to the small ruler and pencils on my lap desk.
When she arched an eyebrow I couldn't stop the sigh from leaving my lips as I tried to explain what it was that I wanted to accomplish. Normally a devil would scoff at the thought of sharing their secrets with other devils, especially those outside of their immediate family, but seeing how my parents interacted and upon learning their history together I felt that I could be free and open with them; especially since it was highly possible that I could be betrothed to any one of the four girls that were present.
There was no point in betting on the marriage contract between the Phenex and Gremorys playing out, so keeping myself open with all of my possible future in-laws was just smart in my opinion. The Four-Way Alliance had roots deeper than some of the oldest trees on Earth, and that meant something to them.
Shifting back over the spell I was developing, I wanted to have a stable of signature moves that I could pull out when the chips were down- given our family's affinities and nature we were predisposed to utilizing the talents given to us by our birth; fire and wind. Ruval was a Master of fire manipulation in all of its forms while Regen chose to seek a different path as our family's resident Master of wind; my father was equally balanced between fire and wind, just as I was.
There were family magic circles that we all had access to, and I could utilize them very well given the amount of training I've dedicated to control, visualization, and throughput. The circles themselves were antiquated, however, made back during the days when the Original 72 Demon Pillars walked the Underworld and their Legions were fully staffed by powerful High-Class pureblood devils; while they still worked even in this day and age, their effectiveness was reduced with the shift in the world. They were still powerful, but their costs had increased rather considerably as the centuries passed by.
Ruval and Regen had taken it upon themselves to go through our family's vast repository of spells and create more detailed versions that meshed better with the current laws of magic. It was amusing to me that it was the human creation of modern science that was what drove the magical development of devil kind forward, but that was only done by those who could see its benefits; Ajuka Beelzebub was the primary driver of these efforts, and my brothers had seen fit to follow from one of the Great Satan's wisdom.
"-so as you can see, by force-feeding a great deal of wind through a narrow tube the Venturi effect takes hold; this drastic increase in velocity would make the flames created at the end of the... 'tube' extremely energetic and far hotter than what I could conceivably do right now with my current level of ability."
I mean, I could create extremely hot flames by simply calling upon my Phenex Fire and dumping a fat load of mana into my blood trait, but they were nowhere near as hot as I'd like and the costs were ruinous. I had spell circles that were capable of generating the levels of heat I desired, but those had to be overfed and I had to watch them like a hawk because the overload made the circles themselves extremely brittle and unbalanced; it took longer to push the formulas to boot, and those precious seconds mattered in the heat of battle.
Never mind the fact that the fragile spell circles could be more easily broken by outside interference... or just simply blow up in my face.
No, I needed a custom job, and there was no better way to get a spell to function exactly how I wanted than to do it myself.
It just meant that I had to purchase collegiate-level textbooks on Fluid Dynamics and the like from MIT via my friendly local librarian.
A blubber caught my attention and I looked down to see Sona's little eyes staring at my papers intently while her mother tapped her chin and hummed.
"Have you considered the Bernoulli principle and how it might affect your calculations, little Riser?" She tapped my drawing with a long but carefully manicured fingernail, "Just as velocity increases so too must static pressure decrease. It's part of the principle of mechanical conservation of energy, don't you know?"
I felt my lips flatten into a thin line as I considered her words.
I'd only known about the venturi effect from those neat little cigarette filters when I did my usual bouts of on-again/off-again smoking while working the drilling rigs; the smoke was forced through multiple tiny holes and they spun out a lot of the tar and heavier particulates leaving the smoke much cleaner when you inhaled. Considering the filters were always coated in nasty-looking gunk whenever I finished smoking I knew they worked, and I never had any hacking coughs that my pack-a-day co-workers had either.
I scribbled the words 'Bernoulli's principle' off to the side and promised to look it up in the textbooks the moment we got back.
That and I needed to do some more digging into symbology as well- if I could make a metaphysical connection between the circle and some entities such as Gods or powerful monsters then it would also make creating this spell infinitely easier compared to going through a pure-number crunching route like I currently was.
It was how I created my signature 'Arrow Artemis' spell, after all. Not that anyone else has seen it except my brothers, so to call it a 'signature spell' right now is a bit much, but in time it will be one that everyone will know! Maybe. I will be doing Rating Games since I think it will be good training, and getting some notoriety here in the Underworld will only be a good thing because to devils reputation means a lot.
Little Sona waggled her hand in my direction and Lady Sitri saw fit to release the child from her arms, and the tiny devil crawled into my lap, forcing me to push my desk further down onto my knees.
She patted the desk, "Uhn!"
Rolling my eyes I quickly put away everything else into my messenger bag before pulling out a slip of paper and placing my smallest pencil into her tiny hand. She was only a year old but devils physically and mentally mature far more quickly than humans, though if you looked at the state of the Underworld you would never know it.
She immediately marveled at her ability to move her arm and draw a line with the pencil, and then she went hog wild, a happy mumble leaving her lips as she drew zigzags and made lopsided ovals.
Though once she started to enjoy herself, like clockwork, the other three came to investigate- Ravel having a harder time escaping my mother's tender embrace- and I was soon drowned in a puppy pile of Pillar babies.
I could practically feel the jealousy radiating off of the twin orbs of fire floating above me.
Yes, cope and seethe my Maous! Cope! And! Seethe!
I punch. I punch. I punch. I punch. I punch.
Again and again, I punch.
In the last few months under Sagiyama Kotaro-sensei's careful eye, I punch.
And listen to him talk about Ki.
I forcefully exhale, throwing my fist forward, tightening my core, and leaning into the blow to ensure that I put all of the force behind it that I could from the current opening stance of the Kuroneko Kata. It was difficult to maintain my balance without a tail there to align my spine but I wasn't the first one that sensei had trained in his former clan's style and I wouldn't be the last one either.
Left arm. Right arm. Left arm. Right arm. Punch after punch. There was no stopping to rest or take a break- I kept on punching until I was no longer able to lift up my arms, and then?
Then he'd have me deactivate the restraint cuffs and resume punching once more.
We were in front of his cottage, just outside of the waist-high white picket fence where Ni and Li sat on a large cushion- the two babies watching me intently. Sagiyama Michiko, sensei's wife, was tending to a grill where a variety of meats were skewered on metal spikes; every so often fat dribbled onto the meat, causing a flareup that sent a waft of heavenly scents my way.
"Ki is one of the very foundational energies that all things exhibit in the world," Sensei's voice filtered into my ears, and while I listened I just kept punching. No matter how much my shoulders and back were begging me to rest.
I was stronger than him, if only just barely, but there was no doubt in my mind that his skill and training would trump me every time unless I went full-out with my blood traits and abilities.
We were both solidly High-Class in strength, and while I was a High-Class solely because of my birth he was a Mid-Class devil only because his King didn't feel he was academically ready to take the High-Class devil tests. One of the conditions for his contract with us was that he would have access to our school system, and he was currently enrolled in the classes for Mid-Class devils such as himself. It would take the better part of a decade for him to be able to pass muster given his current academic exposure, as there was a lot of catching up he had to do not just in the basics but with geopolitics, formal training, etiquette training, and so much more. A lot of Mid-Class devils could attain the strength but getting the education needed to make it through the High-Class exams was a huge sticking point because High-Class devils had certain duties that were required of them, and thus attaining a sponsorship (if their current King was unwilling or unable to help them) was one of the many ways of getting the help they needed to make the climb.
"Ki can be found everywhere there is nature, Riser-kun. In the ground beneath your feet. The rocks on the side of the road. The grass that sways in the wind, and even in the wind itself."
However, most devils never helped out reincarnated devils out of the goodness of their hearts, and when opportunities like his came around- a wealthy and well-respected Pillar family offering to educate and sponsor him- only a devil with a chip on their shoulder would refuse. Given that we were also paying his King a tidy sum in addition to himself, it was one of the best deals that he could have ever hoped for. This is especially true since our territory was so permissive to devils who weren't pureblooded.
"Trees, insects, birds, and all animals of the kingdoms have Ki. Human mortals typically have the most among the mundane despite their inherent frailty, but that is because they have an equal amount of physical and spiritual ki that harmonizes with one another; most animals lack the mental faculties to cultivate the spiritual ki to compete."
Sensei had the intellect and drive to ascend to the ranks and become a High-Class devil, but given the dire straights of his King's territory they simply didn't have the means to get him educated enough to pass the academic portions. Of course, they could have just utilized the tutors of the young lord whom he served under, but most in Academia in the Underworld were old and didn't consider reincarnates devils at all.
"The mystical side of the world, however, has far more natural-born users of ki than the mundane. A human might one day be able to manifest their ki after decades of rigorous training, but the mystical species of the world are sometimes said to be born with ki in hand."
I threw another punch, but it was immediately intercepted by Sagiyama-sensei's open palm.
His golden eyes bore into me.
"You have reached your limits, Riser-kun. Drop the restraints and then resume. You still have five hundred more punches to throw before this training session is concluded."
With a soft sigh, I closed my eyes and focused on where the five points of the restraints Veranda placed on me made contact with my magical reserves and I slowly closed them until they were nothing but pinpricks to my senses; I couldn't close them fully lest they fade away completely.
"When will I be moving onto something other than punches, sensei?" I ask respectfully, "Only out of curiosity, of course. I do not doubt your teachings but a little something to look forward to wouldn't be amiss."
"Oya? Are you being too hard on your cute little student, Ko-kun?" Michiko tittered as she rotated the skewers with her bare fingers.
His ears flattened against his head, his cheeks pinkening, but he maintained a neutral expression, "I am only teaching the boy as I was taught, Mi-chan. You didn't seem to complain when I taught Boros-kun this way."
"Ara~, Boros-kun was merely a street devil who wouldn't stop begging until you agreed to teach him, Ko-kun," The bakeneko tail's slithered behind her languidly, her brown furred ears flicking, "This is the son of our dear sponsor, Lord Phenex-sama, and he is also paying us very handsomely. Don't you think you could give him a little more?"
I quirked an eyebrow. On the inside.
Was sensei not used to teaching someone of high noble standing? I could see it given how gruff he was with me in the beginning. Not that I wanted any special treatment, but to be fair I wasn't a no-name street kid that didn't stop pestering until I got what I wanted; I was a paying customer and not a freeloader. A very powerful and important one at that.
He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head to the side as he thought deeply.
After a few moments he nodded, "That does seem to make sense, Mi-chan."
"Ufufufu~, of course it does, meat-for-brains. Why, if it wasn't for the head on my shoulders we would still be pinching pennies with Valac-sama," She pulled the skewers off of the grill and sat down a plain, beaten steel pot filled with water and rice.
"Valac-sama has been kind to us, Michiko, do not speak ill of him," He frowned softly, the unspoken 'especially in front of an outsider' was clear as a bell.
Ah, from what I remember the Valac family had been one of the Presidents of Hell; they fell outside of the normal nobility and were primarily used to act as the primary administrative families during the Original Lucifer's reign. They still had plenty of legions, sometimes even more than their higher-ranked noble counterparts, but the quantity did not make up for the lower quality; a single legion under the command of a Knight of Hell, such as House Furcas, was said to be able to hold their own with any three legions under the Presidents. The Valac had been nearly destroyed by the Heavenly Host in the opening century of the Great War, and their siding with the Old Satan faction saw them further reduced; it was only their bowing of the head that didn't see them exiled, but even in the six centuries since they had never recovered.
So to see a reincarnated devil like sensei defend his King so is surprising given the history that the Valac as a family had.
"Of course, dear~. Valac-sama is a kind-hearted young man, that is true, but it appears that his family's administrative acumen skipped right over him! He thinks that achieving a high rank in the Rating Games will earn him back his father's good graces, and yet he does not see that his father does not adore us as he does."
Big oof. The poor guy was probably kicked out of the family for taking in reincarnated devils into his peerage; the grudges of the old blood run deep. Though seeing as he was still the only Heir to House Valac he couldn't be discarded outright...
Sensei made a noise that amused me in his throat before turning back to me, "Anyway, Riser-kun. The day you can finish throwing one thousand correct punches with your restraints on is the day that we will move onto teaching you how to kick properly. One thousand kicks each, and then we will move on."
I looked up at the moon in the sky, "And I only have three hours with you each day..."
Seeming as though he regained his vigor the man placed his hands on his hips and smirked, "Then I suppose that you'll have to punch and kick quickly, no? A street rat was able to do at least this much, so I expect more from you."
"Ohoho~, that's not nice dear~."
He twitched but recomposed himself.
I have a funny feeling that he was just lying out of his ass right now, but rather than call it out I simply went back to punching.
Taking on the restraints had set back my progress in the Dungeon.
No, not in the way that you're thinking, but they did significantly cut back the number of laps that I was able to do before I found myself crawling on my hands and knees.
Before I put the restraints on I could make ten complete laps around the Dungeon, countering and smashing my way through the illusions. This progress was not linear, as the longer I stayed the more numerous and powerful the illusions became. As I grew, so too did the Dungeon. Or maybe it just released a little bit more power at me as it sensed my increasing resiliency.
The restraints sapped away at my mana just as quickly as the tether between myself and the Dungeon did, and the increased physical resistance forced me to fight for every step that I took.
I had thought about maybe checking out the second ring to see what it was like, but Clarissa had expressly forbidden it; she was easily thrice as strong as me, but even she only felt comfortable staying in the second ring for a handful of minutes at a time. Her passion was being the best maid and lover that my father could ask for, not training.
And boy did that throw me for a loop when she told me.
I remember not too long ago that Clarissa felt like a strongly burning furnace compared to my flickering fireplace, and yet after just three years, I was quickly closing the gap between us. I was half-again as strong as an entry-level High-Class devil, but as to where I measured up to my original counterpart I had no idea; I knew he was considered one of the stronger young Devils, but seeing he didn't hold a candle to the Strongest Young Devil, Sairaorg Bael, that didn't give me much to work with.
I could only base my strength on those that were around me, with Ruval being the strongest of the Phenex family bar none; my father was close to being considered Ultimate-class, as were the rest of his friends, but Ruval was easily ten times as strong as our father was... and even still Ruval was only being 'considered' for the Ultimate-class promotion.
Er, well, title. Moniker. Classification.
There wasn't a 'test' to become an Ultimate-class outside of pure strength, and even if there was an academic portion for it who wanted to be the one to administer it and tell an Ultimate-class devil that they failed the test?
The gaps in power between classifications only grew larger the higher up you went. A Mid-Class devil was only worth five Low-Class devils in strength, and a High-Class devil- despite how much it grated on them- was worth only two Mid-Class devils in strength. An Ultimate-class devil? They ranged anywhere from fifty to one hundred High-Class devils in strength, with Satan-class devils being worth at least ten Ultimate-Class devils.
I don't know how high a Super Devil is over a Satan-Class devil, but if that scaling kept increasing then the amount of power that Sirzechs Lucifer had was mind-boggling.
Serafall-Leviathan was at the peak of the Ultimate-class rankings, with only Grefiya Lucifuge in contention, but she was still a fair distance from actually breaking into the realm of Satan-class.
Sairaorg Bael if I remember correctly, was able to crack the Ultimate-class barrier with his little kitty companion armor, and he was only two years younger than me!
It was galling to think that he managed to acquire so much strength so quickly, even if it seemed to me to be a cheap power-up utilizing a Longinus Class Sacred Gear to bolster him.
I would just have to make do with what I had at my disposal, but that meant that I needed to extend the amount of time that I could train... and for that I needed help.
I had a plan, however, I just needed to talk to my father about it and then I could see if it would even work or not.
My legs gave out on me and the restraints snapped my wrists to my waist while locking my ankles together.
I fell forward and could do nothing as the rough cobblestones rushed up to greet my chin.
Ow. I think I might have chipped a tooth.
"Auntie 'Rissa..." I mumbled into the musty, dank floor of the Dungeon.
"Are you finished for the day, Young Master?"
"Uh-huh." I couldn't even nod, I was that tired, "If you could get me out before the floor starts growing eyeballs again that would be swell."
God- ah, ow- I hated it when the floor grew eyeballs. Out of all of the illusions that this wretched place had shown me, the eyeballs were the absolute worst.
Just walking on the surface of a giant eye, or walking on a carpet of smaller eyes while feeling them pop underneath my shoes like icky bubble wrap was something that could actually make me gag.
My father's Queen scooped me up, pulling me over her shoulder as if I was a sack of flour instead of carrying me like she used to; though I suppose I was starting to get too big to be comfortably carried like that.
I gave the Dungeon a half-hearted wave as the doors were closing behind us.
"Mhmm, bye, Dungeon-chan. See you next week."
I could have sworn I saw some of the fog wave back, followed by some sinuous chuckles, but I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me.
The spell circle flares to life above my head.
Six rings made up this circle, with twelve sigils interspersed equidistant from each other- two sigils per ring. An algol, a five-pointed star, sat perfectly in the center, but that was a common trait for all devil-related magic circles. Each sigil had its own purpose- one described the nature of the spell, others were dedicated to the more scientific aspects of modern spells with formulae and thesis filled within them, and the last remaining ones were a bit odd to see. One was an ornate Greek sun, to symbolize Apollo- which highlighted his fire and archery- while another symbol was of an ornate Greek bow and arrow for Artemis. The last was a stylized lioness that represented the Greek Hero Atalanta.
Yes, before you ask, this spell was indeed a blatant rip-off of the Fate franchise, but it was just too good to pass up.
More importantly, tying this spell to the fabrics of established legends not only made it more potent, but it gave it some very badly needed stability. There was a lot going on with this spell, and for it to be useable by someone at my level I essentially needed a crutch based in mystic symbolism until I could further refine the mathematical and scientific aspects of the spell. However, even if I managed to write out sound formulas for what the spell was supposed to accomplish I wouldn't give up the mystical tie-ins because they just made the spell so much more useful.
I wasn't actually asking for any sort of Divine aid from Apollo or Artemis, instead, I was relying on the world itself- and the echoes of the legends that occurred in history- to give this spell some much-needed oomph.
Without that mystical linkage, I would only get out of the spell what I put into it, but with it? The spell was far more devastating.
Six threads of my mana attached to half of the sigils, powering them up evenly; the rings that were powered began to spin. Once they were sufficiently powered I shifted the threads over to the six sigils that were unpowered and started powering them up.
The whole process took fifteen seconds, but at the end of those fifteen seconds, the spell was ready to fire.
I shifted one thread over to the Observation Flame hovering over my shoulder, and immediately my sight jumped to its companion orb floating high above us.
The Phenex Basin was where all generations of Phenex clansmen had used to test out their most powerful spells. It was a vast desert almost thirty kilometers in diameter, and it was nothing but sand and blasted, melted rock. I was standing at the top of the tallest stone spire, with Ruval and Regen standing patiently behind me. Down below, roughly five hundred meters away, were a few dozen hardened magic steel targets that had been set up courtesy of my eldest brother's peerage.
"Arrow Artemis," I intoned lowly, and while I felt rather silly speaking the name of the spell, in this world names had power.
My sight immediately became overlayed with a grid, and I focused it over the target area, adjusted the size of the area until it roughly matched how far apart the furthest targets were, and then I released the spell.
Two large arrows streaked toward the sky- one composed of Hellfire, and the other of Phenex Fire. Phenex Fire was the easiest for us to control, and while Hellfire didn't burn as hot, there were some things that Hellfire could burn that Phenex Fire could not; spirits, ghosts, ki-based effects, and mystic protections that could ward off a 'standard' fire-based effect. What Phenex Fire could not burn, Hellfire could. The issue was that there was more often than not very little that our inborn flames could not burn, so mastery of Hellfire typically fell to the wayside for most of the Phenex family.
Our father was the sole exception to that rule- he had to master Hellfire simply because there were too many powerful devils that could no-sell his flames during the wars he fought in.
Firey orange and red sailed like lightning toward the sky next to ghostly pale green, and once they reached the targeted altitude my spell plotted out a heatmap of projectile concentrations on the grid- I had a split second to adjust a few of the zones, but it was enough to get the majority of the rain that was to follow on target.
The two arrows suddenly changed trajectory, like a pair of Javelin missiles, and they shot toward the ground at break-neck speeds until they were about seventy-five meters above the target zone... and then they exploded into a shower of Phenex Fire and Hellfire arrows. There were three hundred of each, but that could be adjusted during the start-up phase, with the raising and lowering of the projectile counts affecting the strength of each individual arrow; though that was if I didn't overcharge the spell.
A massive cloud of dust and sand was kicked up high into the air, forming a small mushroom cloud that obscured the targets as the last of the arrows slammed into the ground near the training dummies and exploded brilliantly.
The shockwave from the blast smacked me in the chest just a second and a half later, the pressure causing my ears to ring. Yet I had the biggest fucking smile on my face.
I could barely hear the slow clap from behind me, and I turned my head to see that Regen had pulled his hands out of his blue jean jacket pockets and was giving me a nice little round of applause. He had a huge smirk on his face, but that didn't twig me nearly as much as it would anyone else; Regen had been a huge help in getting this spell stable, even if it was Ruval and Father who had done most of the heavy lifting.
Outside of myself, that is.
I couldn't claim to be the sole architect of this powerful spell, but I wasn't going to discount my own efforts like a maroon. I worked hard for it! I did the maths! I imagined the interfaces! Provided the idea and made the mystical connections! I did the lion's share but I didn't do it alone!
"When you said you got it finalized with Father and dear Ruval's help I don't think I quite expected it to be that nice, little brother," I kept on grinning as Regen stepped up next to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, a loud whistle leaving his lips, "It's slow to start up, but compared to what I've seen even in Ratings Games the set-up isn't too bad given the results... though lets take a look at the damage, shall we?"
A red spell circle formed in front of him, and I could see the sigils for strong winds, but nothing for the formulas; I'd have to peel the circle apart to take a look at the goodies within, but Regen promised he'd show me some tricks when I got the new spell I was working on out of its conceptual stage. A second later a massive gust of wind blew down from the circle and started making its way quickly down toward the targets, and he kept powering it until the cloud of dust and debris had been completely blown away.
He snapped his fingers and my Observation Flame spell appeared above his shoulder- the bastard was able to do my spell without even making a circle- and while one hovered next to his eye the other shot into the sky before making its way over toward the ground zero; another OF spell orb followed his own.
"A handy little spell, Riser," Ruval remarked as he placed his eye directly up to the orb itself, "I'm thinking of debuting this in my next Rating Game, that is if you don't mind."
"I don't mind at all, Ruval, in fact, it's... incredibly flattering," I scratched at the back of my neck, "Though you do know you don't have to actually peer into the flame directly, right?"
He pressed a finger into my cheek after clicking his tongue, "Tch. Of course, I helped make it, you know? But the outside observer, though? They don't. If someone watches the footage from my next match in order to scout me out- which they always do at my level- they'll see me physically looking into the flames; such misdirection can provide a number of tactical benefits."
Ruval had over five hundred Rating Games underneath his belt, with a record of 439 Wins and 61 Losses; almost all of those losses have been to the six other members in the Top 10 that were higher than him. He was very rarely challenged these days, but at least three times a year someone from the low teens and even low twenties would name him as their next opponent; my brother was in the Top 10 not just due to his personal strength, but he also has a lot of flexibility with his peerage members. That he had a keen mind for strategy went without saying.
"Not bad, little Riser," Regen's ruffling of my hair returned my attention to him, "Those targets were meant to simulate the toughness of an average Mid-Class devil... and there isn't much left of them."
My sight slipped back into my orb and I surveyed the battlefield myself.
The magic metal targets weren't completely destroyed, but it looked as though someone had taken a .50 BMG to a panel of untreated sheet metal; holes as thick as my thumb had been drilled into the targets by the dozens, and all showed signs of warping from the heat. Even after the wind blew away the dust a heat mirage wafted from the impact zone as small rivulets of molten slag slid down the surface of the targets and dripped onto the blackened, scorched stone below. Some targets had more holes than others, but that was the nature of a pin-point area of effect attack such as this.
Sure, the arrows exploded once they penetrated, but it was the penetration and the heat where most of the damage was delivered.
"That was only ten percent of my mana," I licked my lips as I inhaled through my nose, "I could easily feed it another thirty percent with the current iteration of the circle... maybe even fifty percent if I was careful with it."
After refining it some more I could dump almost sixty percent of my reserves into the spell and the devestation would be amazing.
For a High-Class devil such as myself.
"Don't get ahead of yourself," Regen flicked my ear lightly, "You need more control; you could only power half of the rings at one time- you're lucky it's so stable to begin with."
"I designed it with six rings and twelve sigils specifically because it was the most stable and forgiving," I shot back, "Three rings and nine sigils would have forced me to condense far more into far less. Not to mention I can only handle six threads at a time, so six and six makes a lot more sense than six and three, or five and four."
Regen snorted, "Yeah, you made the smart choice there- while more streamlined... a nine-sigil array would have blown up in your face."
"Well, this isn't a spell that I'm meant to cast quickly in the first place. Eight seconds from circle formation to impact is what this twelve sigil array can do if I can power all twelve up in unison," I bit my thumb as I pulled my sight away from the training dummies and back to Regen, "Ideally this would be an ambush opener, or I'd have my peerage buy enough time. A standard fireball spell this is not."
"It is a wonderful spell, Riser, though I already have enough spells in my Peerage's repertoire that have similar roles. What I've been lacking, however, is a way to scout myself without exposing myself to danger needlessly," He looked thoughtfully at the Observation Fire spell over his shoulder, "I rely heavily on Julius to handle the scouting for my peerage, and I always feel terrible forcing him to hole up in the Castle to provide overwatch while the rest of us get to play; he's come up with almost a dozen new spells that he hasn't gotten to try out yet, and that has made him-"
"Testy as all hell," Regen finished for him, and the middle brother threw an arm over Ruval's shoulder before placing a hand on mine, "You just got to bend him over and give it to him hard to get him to loosen up."
"You might be fine with sleeping around with everything that walks on two legs, but I however do not like men," Ruval rolled his blue eyes as he shrugged his younger brother's arm off, "I still have to get married, and I don't have the luxury of being the spare to foist my promiscuity off of."
I tilted my head, "Wait, I thought that everyone was sleeping with their Peerages in the family?"
Regen's eyes widened a little bit before he started barking in laughter, but Ruval snapped his fingers and a wall of wind swept up around Regen to dampen the sound of his laughter.
"I have only slept with my Queen, Riser. I do adore the ladies of my Peerage but I need to find a wife of good breeding first before I start taking liberties with the rest of them," He winced, "All of the ladies that I would consider being near me in strength are... of the Old Satan faction. The ones on 'our' side of the fence are either too young or aren't powerful or influential enough."
I started snapping my fingers rapidly, the name of the potential Lady on the tip of my tongue, "What about...uuuuhhhhhh... the... that Furfur girl, Sabrina? She's an Earl, of lower standing than us, but she's plenty strong, and her family's mastery over the storms is at least aligned with our winds... and fire can easily make the conditions for lighting. I'd say it's a good match, and I've heard she's pleasant."
My eldest brother shifted his stance, cocking out his hip and arching a queer eyebrow at me, "Who did you hear this from? You never get out of the house and socialize with anyone. If it weren't for the Ladies taking you out with the babies every week the only time you'd set foot out of the estates is to go spend it crawling through the Dungeon."
My face blazed red and I'm pretty sure my ears caught fire.
"Mother... and the Ladies told me."
I'm not a shut-in! I do useful things! I train!
"Besides, I'm not required to attend parties and the like until after my debut and turn ten," I mumbled as I looked off to the side, which brought my eyes straight to Regen.
This was unfortunate because Regen must have heard me because he was now down on his knees cackling like a loon; thankfully Ruval kept the wind up so his guffaws wouldn't pierce my thick skin.
Ruval sighed and placed his hands on his hips- his eyes tracking up toward the moon in the sky, "I suppose that does make a great deal of sense. Though I get the feeling that you were only half-paying attention to their gossip while you were with them, because if you did you'd know that her older brother- the Heir- fell victim to the Sleeping Sickness and that makes her the prospective Heir unless he wakes up."
I grimaced, something that Regen shared as he swiped his hand through the veil of wind that surrounded him- my older brother showcasing his mastery over wind as he took direct control of the currents from Ruval, "You need to get married already so that I can get married."
My head reared as though I'd been struck, and he flicked my nose, "Don't look so surprised, little brother. As much as I love being a party animal it does get grating after a while; having a sweet little while to make babies with for a few decades before trotting back out onto the party scene would be like a break and a boon all rolled into one."
A few years ago I thought that Regen just partied because he liked the lifestyle, but it wasn't until this year that he and Father opened up to me about how everyone played their parts in the family.
Ruval brought the family prestige with his 7th place ranking on the leaderboards, and his position also afforded him inroads with the very upper crust of devil society; the true movers and shakers that were collectively known as the Great Kings faction held their court within the hallowed halls of the Ratings Game Committee.
While Ruval cavorted with the highest of the high, Regen was a man of the Mid-Class and High-Class alike, and it was among them that he networked.
I honestly had no idea as to where I'd fit into the family dynamic, but given my 'tolerance' for the Low-Class maybe he'd make me a Devil of the People? I mean, I wouldn't mind running around the kingdom and seeing to it that our public works were functioning smoothly and without issue. I had no problems rubbing elbows with everyone from the lower rungs of society because despite my previous life's hefty income I was part of said lower rung.
"Well, I for one am happy to hear that there is more depth to my brother's character than 'Hornball Extraordinaire'-" I side-stepped the open-handed swipe at the back of my head, and ducked the follow-up swipe toward my forehead.
He frowned at my speed while I waggled my eyebrows at him, "I'm getting much faster, Regen. You'll need to actually try if you want- eep!"
I narrowly avoided the knuckles from his closed fist by throwing myself off of the cliff; I spread my wings- pointing myself toward the teleportation circle- and pushed myself at the fastest speed I could possibly manage.
I had hoped that I could get there before he could get his hands on me, but alas...
I had to nurse the bruises he gave me for the rest of the day so I didn't ruin the physical training I'd done earlier that day, but seeing him getting flustered was well worth the sibling beating I got for it. It would only be a few years before I caught up to him, and then I would surpass him.
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