Days after Yuuto's training with Michael began.

In Marios' room on his tower, the black cocoon Lost was currently inside was shaking and pulsing. If it was an egg, it would have looked like it was almost about to hatch.

There was no one in the room, so no one could hear the sounds coming from inside. If they could though, it would almost sound like someone punching a wall. Every time a new sound rang out, the cocoon expanded.

The cocoon expanded every time it was punched from the inside. Once it was almost big enough to reach the ceiling… nothing happened.

Rather than bursting open, it began to rapidly shrink down, until it was just big enough for a young boy to fit inside. Then it began to change in shape. It assumed the shape of a person.

The thing wasn't human, nor was it a devil or an angel or a god, but it had a humanoid shape.

The black form began walking. At first, its steps were unsteady, but it soon grew used to its own body. It entered the tower's elevator.

It struggled for a second to remember where to go, but once it did, it pressed the button and simply waited for the elevator to proceed with its course.

During the ride, it saw its own reflection. It decided to change into a form it considered better.

"Yeah, it's gotta be this one."

It now looked like a young man with a fairly athletic build, his eyes were golden and his hair a bright red, some of his bangs were in front of his eyes. Not just that, he had wolf-like ears on top of his head. He'd no longer hide his being a mixed-blood devil.

The black thing now had the face of Lost Joudougahama. Or it was more correct to say it was Lost.

That said, the only thing that changed was the face. The rest of his body remained completely dark. You could make out his muscles, so you'd think he was simply wearing a skin-tight black suit, but that would be wrong. The black thing was Lost.

"Yoo, been a while. What did I miss?"

"Master Lost?!"

Marios was obviously surprised when Lost suddenly showed up. Yet, as the good servant Psyconnect ensured he was, he soon went to greet his master.

Lost asked Marios to catch him up on what he had missed, so Marios got to it. He decided to start by showing the progress he and his Cards were making on the models that would become Lost's soldiers through Materialize, Tower's Characteristic Magic.

Of course, out of those, the highlights were definitely the angel Angie and the monster Frankenstein.

Angie was originally Marios' trump card, a work made of the collaboration between him and his Cards based on the mythical creatures known as angels. After Marios became Lost's slave, Lost offered a few ideas for improvements and even gave some of his own black goo for Angie. She had been damaged in the fight against Marchosias, but now she was basically fully repaired.

As for the Frankenstein, it was named like that because of the monster that that name made people think of. Lost's idea was to make use of his black goo, Materialize and a few dead bodies to create the ultimate soldier. But, since Lost's sudden need for an evolution arose, they still hadn't gotten to the corpses part.

"Master Lost, are you… fine?"

"Like, in the head? Yeah, I'm not going to go crazy anymore. I gave these bunch a good beating so they shut up for good. Rather than that, what else went on? Outside I mean."

The reason why Lost had gone into that cocoon was because all the people he'd eaten were trying to take over his mind. He was starting to lose control of himself, so he decided to get his mind under control first. So far, it seemed he was successful, so Marios began telling him of the events that had happened after he entered the cocoon.

In summary, Marios told Lost how Yotaka had gone after Lizel, and enlisted Balance and Seigi's help to do so. Seigi betrayed Yotaka, helping Yuuto and Neith go to Lizel's rescue, which led to Yotaka's death. Because of that, Balance had entered something like a cold war with Summers, trying to find a chance to strike her.

"So she's dead huh. She could have at least taken someone out with her as well. Really, how incompetent."

For a second, Marios thought something was wrong with Lost. But he hadn't really known him before being enslaved by Psyconnect, so he couldn't do much more than suspect something was wrong.

Maybe what had come out of the cocoon wasn't actually Lost. Or maybe, whatever had happened inside there, had changed Lost.

Regardless, these thoughts that would become a hindrance to Lost were quickly swept away by Psyconnect.

"Anyway, I'm gonna go now."

"To where, master Lost?"

"I missed the funeral, but the family probably won't mind a friend's visit, right? Besides, I want to test how much stronger I am. And I am a little hungry as well."

Despite being a mixed-blood devil with wolf-like characteristics, what made Marios think this was a predator going to hunt was the aura around him. If that was any indication, the current Lost was much more powerful than he had been before.


Yotaka's mansion was mostly empty by now. After her death was reported to her parents, they ordered that her body as well as Iratsume's be retrieved. After the funeral, all that was left was to clear the mansion.

A number of former servants had run away with valuables after Yotaka's death, but there were still some that remained faithful to the family. Those servants received the mission to clean up everything and close the mansion for good.

"I hope they can rest in peace."

One of those servants was talking to herself as she headed to the main bedroom of the mansion. She was to make a list of Yotaka's personal belongings that were still there so that other servants could retrieve them.

So she entered the room. The signs of battle were still very visible, but the girl tried to not let it get to her. She wanted to finish her job as quickly as possible.

She decided to start with the dresses. Despite spending most of her time nude, Yotaka had a number of beautiful dresses. Maybe these could be used by another girl. If nothing else, they could be sold for a high price.

"Huh? What's this?"

As she was checking the dresses to make a simple list, the servant noticed something strange. Some kind of black goo on some of the clothes. Because she hadn't noticed it before, some ended up on her hand.

The girl looked curiously, but then something happened. The black goo started spreading, and the shape of her fingers and hand started disappearing. Because of the shock, the girl was a second late to react.

"S-someo-!"

"Shush, no need to scream now."

The black goo spread under her feet and started eating her from there as well. A young man, Lost, showed up behind the girl and stopped her from screaming to ask for help.

The girl was afraid, but Lost didn't allow her the least bit of a reaction. The few seconds it took for her to be entirely swallowed up seemed like an eternity. The only proof of her existence left was the list she was making.

But not quite. As soon as the girl was gone, Lost's form began to change. He took the form of the girl he'd just eaten. No one would be able to tell it wasn't her.

"Ooh, tits."

Well, except that the personality was still Lost's. Unlike before, instead of multiple minds in a single body, now there was only 1 personality, made up of a little of everyone who'd been eaten.

The biggest problem was that Lost no longer could perfectly become someone else, the best he could do now was imitate them. But it was a low price to pay for no longer losing control of oneself. It did beg the question though, how much of Lost was actually left?

"… Shit, I should have let her finish first. Oh well, might as well get to work."

Lost began to complete the servant's work. He'd need this disguise for a while more still, so he didn't have much of a choice.

That said, Lost worked exceptionally well. It seems that, amongst all the women he'd eaten, a great knowledge of things like dresses accumulated, so he was able to finish the list in spectacular fashion. That didn't go unnoticed by the girl's superior, who praised her excellent work, not like it would help her any now.

So Lost was able to keep his disguise. It wasn't long before he made his way to the main Hayachine house.


It was already quite late at night, Yotaka's parents were in their bedroom. To be more precise, Yotaka's mother hadn't left the bedroom ever since she came back from the funeral.

As for Yotaka's father, he still went about his usual business. The mother would have accused him of not being saddened over his own daughter's death, but she knew it wasn't true, so she kept her mouth shut. And she also knew that her husband didn't plan to let this pass without doing nothing, but he couldn't quite act right now, so they had no choice but to mourn quietly for now.

"Mmm!"

"Aaah!"

Needless to say, they were doing quite an intimate activity in the bedroom. It's not like their sex life was nonexistent before, but it had clearly taken quite a step up. Ever since the funeral, they had been constantly doing it in this room whenever he was present.

But Yotaka's mother didn't dislike it, she felt nice having her husband's attention all for herself and not having to share him with his other women. Was he doing it to make a new heir? Maybe to drown his own sorrows? Or maybe because he knew it was the only thing that made her feel alive at the moment? Probably a mix of all that.

Regardless, Yotaka's father just kept swinging his hips as if there was no tomorrow. When they first started their relationship, Yotaka's mother thought it was quite painful, but by now she's grown used to it and even learned to feel good from it.

"I'll be back."

"Okay."

That was all they said to each other. The man walked into some side room, not even bothering to get cleaned or dressed. He probably went to get something to use during sex.

But strangely, the man was taking a long time to come back. The woman was starting to get worried, but then she noticed a shadow. Expecting her husband, she took an inviting pose for him.

"Hmm, that's strange. As much as I'm really thinking of just raping you until you die right now, I don't seem to have any sex drive. Sure, I can make a dick and I can make it hard, but I don't really have the feeling, you know?"

The voice was not her husband's, and then the woman noticed the shadow had wolf-like ears on top of his head. After he took a step forward, the woman was able to see Lost's face.

The woman is a noble devil, logically speaking, she should have nothing to fear against a mixed-blood devil like Lost. Yet, something inside her screamed to get away from him.

So she did. Without a care about being naked and smelling of sex, the woman rushed out of the room. Her leaving the room after her daughter's death should have been an emotional thing, but the emotion behind it shouldn't have been pure fear.

"Good instincts. I wonder if I'll also get them after I eat you."

"Someone! There's an intruder!"

The woman shouted as high as she could. Even if she couldn't beat him herself, a handful of guards should be able to kill this mixed-blood devil, or so the woman believed.

No matter how much she shouted, no one answered. Actually, other than the ones she was making, there were no sounds to be heard.

"You should save your voice, I already ate everyone. You're the last one. But I will hear your last words if you want to say something."

Lost showed up right beside the woman, nearly making her heart jump out of her mouth. Even so, she continued trying to make her escape.

At first, she didn't believe Lost, but the more she ran and didn't find anyone, the more she started to accept the truth. Eventually, she simply gave up and waited for Lost to catch up to her.

"All done now?"

"I've already accepted it. And at least I'll see my daughter again."

"Well, I have no idea what happens to the people I eat, but whatever floats your boat."

The woman let herself be eaten without resistance. In a way, she was almost welcoming it. Though what awaited her not even Lost knew.

After eating literally an entire mansion of noble devils and their servants, Lost was feeling quite satisfied. And, after a satisfying meal, should come some exercise.

Tonight's exercise was gravedigging. Lost searched for the location of Yotaka's grave in his memory, or rather the memory of the people he'd recently eaten, and then headed there.

Digging the earth and breaking open the coffin was no hard task for him. What he found inside was Yotaka's headless corpse.

"Hey, let's look on the bright side, if I put a paper bag over where your head was supposed to be, you'd still look rather pretty."

For Lost, it would have been much better to eat a single Devil King Candidate than to eat an entire mansion of noble devils, but unfortunately eating Yotaka's rotting corpse would do nothing for him. But at least he'd be able to use it as a base for his Frankenstein, so he took the corpse with him.

"But I still need a head. I guess the other girl's will do."

Lost then dug out Iratsume's grave and ripped her head from her body. Having fulfilled his objectives, Lost returned to Marios' tower.

The rotting bodies induced some vomit from everyone who wasn't Lost, but they eventually got to work on Lost's Frankenstein. Though Lost did ask Marios to do some other things for him as well.

This was only the beginning of Lost's climb to power.