I really couldn't stop my annoyance as I stared at the Demonic power gathered in my hand. It was a pulsing mass of writhing energy, beating to the rhythm of my own heart.
I could feel it tingling against my skin, bubbling and crackling like a living creature.
This morning had actually started off pretty good, my weekly supplies/groceries had arrived as usual. Teleported into place all around the house ten minutes after I finished scrounging for breakfast.
I had burnt a good portion of the morning blazing a metaphorical trail through the random book of the day (Metallurgy as it turned out) I'd picked out by playing eeny meeny miny moe. I never would have figured I'd find Magical Metals to be so interesting but it held my attention more than my book on noble etiquette.
Then four hours ago I turned to my text book, which was essentially Demonic power for dummies.
That was the turning point that left me so very helplessly frustrated.
At it's very Basics I'm great at using Demonic power, move it around, and willing random bullshit to happen.
The two very basics of Demonic Power, it's getting beyond those that my problems begin. Most people will tell you that Devil's can cast spells with their imagination.
That's where my problem starts, I don't have any issue imagining what I want. It's impressing that into my Demonic Power that causes the issue. There's some kind of disconnect that makes it so my image either comes through blurry making the spell weaker, or comes through too clear.
You wouldn't think that last one was much of an issue, but when you cast aiming for a small lighter's worth of flame instead of summoning a small fragment of the very Concept of Fire, well it isn't exactly a good thing.
I still had a small burn from when that occurred and it was goddamn terrifying. I can already hear someone complaining that I'm being a wimp, but I'd essentially had the First Flame from Dark Souls in the palm of my hand. So yeah, they can fuck off.
Thankfully I had figured out I could use things like rituals instead, but I still couldn't cast freehand like every other Devil in existence other than my cousin.
It pissed me off to say the least.
I force down a sigh as I release the Demonic Energy and let it dissipate into thin air, even as I run my other hand through my hair. It's only a momentary distraction before I focus on the set of targets I'd set up in the grassy maybe garden in the back of the manse.
I say sort of garden because there are a couple of flowers in planters scattered about but it's mostly barren ground framed by polished marble bricks about thirty meters wide. I had taken the liberty of setting up a couple of crude stone targets I'd summoned up using a ritual.
They were pretty crappy, barely even resembling a bipedal creature, but they worked for what I needed. I had been hoping to at least practice casting small spells at them but that, well it obviously hadn't gone to plan.
So Instead I summoned up my Power of Destruction, ten vaguely orb shaped masses of Reddish-black non existence blipped into being on each side of me, so twenty in total.
They were pretty small to be honest, but I didn't really need them to be bigger. I didn't even have to think before they started to orbit around me in a double ring formation. Soon after, four orbs broke loose, shooting at my crappy targets in a blur of speed.
Right before they were about to hit they expanded, going from the side of a pretty small marble to full on boulders, swallowing each target whole.
Power of destruction was much easier than magic.
Sometimes it almost felt like it was doing what I wanted it to, before I had even thought of it. Sadly as could be seen by the missing targets, it was kind of pointless to train without there being someone to either attack or distract me at least in this manner. Otherwise I was pretty much just wrecking motionless dummies.
Hmm, wonder if I could make golems? I put a hand to my chin and a thoughtful look on my face as I banish the remaining orbs of power.
Or I could just start going through the training exercises My brothers Knight had given me, and look up Golems later?
Yeah that sounds about right, I nod my head some of snowy red bicolored hair swinging into my vision.
I frowned at that, reaching backwards I tried to find my ponytail only to find that it had come undone, the hair tie having come loose at some point.
"Goddammit I lost another one."
Most of the day was spent training various things, mostly to distract from my growing sense of apathy. Devils, unlike humans, didn't get depressed by lack of contact. No, at first we just started to find it harder to care about things, it would be small at first only little things, then things we would actually notice, and finally it would shift into complete lethargy. Which admittedly sound like depression to me, but its apparently just the Sloth sin running out of control or something.
Admittedly this only applied to devils within their first century of life, after that lack of contact wouldn't even phase us.
To be honest, from the small study on Devil psychology I'd found I should have gone into hibernation well within the second month, So I guess I'm just weird.
Anyway back to training, I'd managed to get my brother to hand off a small training guide to swordsmanship. Just the very basics that could be taught without a guiding hand.
It was also blatantly a japanese swordsmanship manual, kind of expected seeing who exactly was a part of my brothers peerage.
Either way it led to me swinging around a Bokken a couple thousand times a day, not very interesting to hear about.
However what I'd been doing with Power Of Destruction and my Gremory bloodline was far more interesting.
I was using the power of Destruction to 'destroy' the property that allowed a crystal cup to be Transparent. I was having quite a bit of luck with this actually, seeing as it took me almost three months to get it to work.
Every time I did the cup would turn a vaguely unsettling not color that could be interpreted as black. By this point I'd turned the entire set of fine crystal plates, cups and silverware into an incredibly disconcerting dinner set and even then I still can't do it reliably every time.
Although imagining my brother's face the next time he comes around, only to find all the glassware in the entire building barring the windows, had suddenly decided to be very unsettling would be funny.
My Gremory bloodline on the other hand was much harder to train with, even if only because it wasn't something I could use on a whim.
I had been using it to make an entire set of ten coins land standing on their edge.
At this point my record was four out of ten in a single session. Admittedly I didn't exactly spend much time doing it if only because it was incredibly taxing on my mind. The one time I had managed four standing coins I'd nearly passed out from a migraine.
Thankfully it was only a matter of time before I'd be able to do this without breaking a sweat. It was only a matter of adapting to the strain after all, not anything actually dangerous.
There were two ways to use the Gremory bloodline, Active and Passive. Active was obviously actively using the energy to force probability to act in your favor. It was costly and it Drained the strange energy at what the book described as 'suicidally fast'.
Passive was in all simplicity anything that didn't actively pull upon the strange energy. In fact what I'm doing with the coins was essentially just staring at them, willing them to land on their edge. The Idea was to essentially train myself to subconsciously use my bloodline, without actually using my bloodline.
Which was contradictory at best, and incredibly hard to work my brain around.
Eventually leading to the point where the Gremory Bloodline would activate to my benefit without me even realizing it. This method was apparently the only way my ancestors had found to use it without putting themselves at risk of gruesome death if they weren't careful.
It was also a pain in the ass to learn.
I mean really I had been at this for nine months and I was still only barely capable of forcing three coins to land on their side consistently.
So many migraines.
Even worse, from what the book said I was learning it at an impossibly fast rate, since it usually required almost a decade to get to five coins on average.
I was already halfway there!
In other news, my brother's visits had gone from every other day, to every week, only to settle on every other week in the last two months.
It was disheartening that I had only noticed in the last day or so, admittedly I was hyperfocusing on training for Self Preservation but still!
Thankfully Sirzechs didn't seem to have noticed my lack of attention the last time he visited.
Hopefully Everything goes well when he visits today. I think I'm going to ask him for ways to improve my Power of Destruction, if he seems amendable.
Who am I kidding he's such a sis-con there's no way he would say no, even if he doesn't seem to have reached his canon levels of brotherly love.
Just imagining his canon counterpart's level of… affection, makes me ill. Even though he never made it to Serafall levels of Siscon to my knowledge, it was incredibly disconcerting to imagine.
I felt a shiver go down my spine, spinning around as a sudden sense of paranoia descended on my shoulders. Of course I didn't find anything, just a hallway like all the others in the mansion. Albeit this one led to the 'drawing room', I'll be honest I'm not sure why it's called that. It's not like the walls are covered in drawing or anything.
However, every time Sirzechs came, the mansions staff, or I think it's the mansions staff at least. Seeing as during my entire time here I have only spotted one maid, (who disappeared so quickly even with the sparkly quarantine shield), that she might have been my imagination.
Anyway they always direct him to the drawing room, or maybe Grayfia just drags him there .
Occam's razor and all.
So of course that is where I'm heading, since the staff might as well be ghosts (or non-existent) I have to check myself to see if he's arrived. So to save everyone's time I might as well kill time inside until Zechs arrives.
Which leads me to now, pushing open a set of doors, doubtlessly made out of some incredibly expensive and rare form of oak that I find my brother already present inside.
He was also Staring at the glass cup in his hand like it was going to bite him, even as Grayfia stood silently behind him looking incredibly sparkly behind her Quarantine wards.
Point one to my incredibly unsettling dinnerware set I guess.
"Sirzechs!" I called out happily to attract his attention, rushing forward to give him a hug as I did. He had only just looked up before I pulled him into a hug.
Or well I tried? I'm only nine, and as a result tiny in comparison to my very tall brother. Something made that much more apparent by the oversized hoodie and skirt combo I was sporting at the moment.
While it was very comfortable, I might as well have been swimming in it, and it didn't help that my brother lifted me off the ground automatically. Putting me under his arm like I was a devilish handbag, as he gave me a noogie.
"Hey!" I said in indignation, I really don't like being picked up! "Put me down you sad excuse for a devil!" Sirzechs practically wilted like a flower as I was let go, I swear I could see his soul leaving his body.
"Grayfia! Rias doesn't love me anymore!" He wailed in despair, and I would have felt bad for him If I couldn't see the mischief in his eyes. Honestly for the prince of lies he is Ironically bad at lying to any of his close friends or family. Well either that or he;s been intentionally lying badly.
Grayfia was stone faced in front of her husband's theatrics, but I swear I could see her internal sigh as she glared at the crimson satan.
"Rias, it is good to see you again." the gray haired woman said without emotion or even changing her facial expression. Yet it all came off with a sense of warmth, like she was truly overjoyed regardless of her lack of inflection.
That's why I truly do love Grayfia, despite never showing much emotion beyond the rare twitch of her lips I have never doubted just how much she cared.
I outright beamed in her direction, before turning back to my brother.
"Sirzechs! Do you like what I did with the cups, and plates! Isn't it just wonderful?" I spat out as fast as possible, doing my best to look like I wanted his approval for my disturbing work.
I could see him stiffen in his seat the second I mentioned the cups as a strained smile cracked on to his face.
I wonder how long I can tease him with this before he realizes?