There was a region in the Devil World known as Chevalleze. It was a fairly remote region, but it was one of the few territories owned by the Golgotha family, so it stood to reason it would be fairly well taken care of. Or so one would think.
It was also where Poran and the other mixed-blood devil children had lived before being driven out by the Golgothas, but Aspite, who was currently making his way through Chevalleze, didn't know that. And, even if he knew, he wouldn't have placed any importance on it.
But there was something that caught Aspite's attention as he traveled through Chevalleze, and that was its ugly appearance. It was a wasteland as far as the eye could see, the trees were all dead and any signs that there once had been living people here, such as houses, seemed to be long abandoned.
"I suppose this is what you'd expect from a family that inherits the Death Arcana."
The reason why Aspite was here was very simple: there were 4 big wildcards in the current Devil King War. 2 of those were Marchosias and Fleminar, survivors of the previous Devil King War. That said, there wasn't much to learn about them, they were simply leagues above the other Devil King Candidates, even amongst the Triumph. The other 2 were the current Candidates of Lovers and Death, Yuuto and Lost.
Yuuto was a human, yet he somehow got a Devil King Arcana, who always picked Candidates from noble devil families. Very few people currently alive knew that the Arcanas did that because of an ancient curse placed on them, so popular belief was that Yuuto was recognized as such a big pervert that Lovers ignored him being human and picked him as its Candidate.
Some time ago, Aspite himself would have believed that, but now he knew better. A while back, he visited Yuuto's home and talked with his parents. Due to a slip-up on their part, Aspite got a clue as to how Yuuto became a Devil King Candidate. Once he put the pieces in place, it made a fair amount of sense.
That left Lost as the only unknown left. Aspite decided to dedicate himself to try and figure him out before Ginsei Academy's second term started, but he simply had nowhere to start.
So how is he here in Chevalleze? That is also very simple.
"By the way, how long are you all going to hide for? If you wanted to kill me, you'd have done so long ago, so why bring me all the way here?"
Aspite said, seemingly to no one. But someone did show up. 15 people in fact.
Those were the Candidate of Hierophant, Hirono, and his 14 Cards. Hirono was a boy that looked to be about Aspite's age, or maybe a year older, and his head was shaved bald. He and his Cards wore all black. Aspite felt a chill down his spine. He expected someone from Hierophant, but not the entire team.
The reason why he didn't immediately escape were his own words. If they wanted him dead, he'd have been dead long ago. So at the very least they didn't seem out for a fight.
"You actually noticed us. You really are talented."
"No need for flattery. I knew there was someone following me, but I didn't expect all… this."
After Aspite solved Yuuto's puzzle, he'd been stuck in regards to Lost. Then, suddenly, he got a letter giving him some clues, which eventually brought him here. He had correctly guessed that this had something to do with Hierophant's Candidate.
"So why bring me here?"
"We've been investigating Lost by the Devil King's orders. We were able to trace his origins to here, but we couldn't do more than that. You discovered the mystery behind Yuuto's candidacy all on your own, and your abilities may help us. So, with the Devil King's permission, we brought you here."
"I see."
The Hierophant Arcana was a bit of a peculiar one. It never once, during all of history, chose a Candidate outside the Hiraizumi family. And the Hiraizumi family was known for acting in the shadows on behalf of the Devil King.
Of course, that's not always the case. Some Devil Kings had been such evil rulers that the Hiraizumi family didn't give them their support, but more often than not, they were loyal dogs. Rumors say that they even "preserve" the Devil Kings' lineage in their family to show their loyalty, but that's not a matter Aspite was interested in.
While their real owner was the Devil King, anyone could employ the Hiraizumi's family service, at least in theory. So if you wanted someone discreetly killed, or if you wanted information on someone, or something along those lines, you'd probably look into doing business with the Hiraizumi. That's why Aspite, as well as many other devils, knew so much about them.
"Alright then, lead the way."
"Spread. Keep an eye out, and if you find anything, tell me immediately."
After Hirono said that, 9 of his Cards vanished as if they had never even been there. Those were probably his Suit Cards, meaning that the ones left would be Hirono's Court Cards. In other words, the Knight, Prince, Princess, Queen and Ace.
There was something that caught Aspite's attention though. It was Hirono's Queen and sister, Hinata. Namely, her looks.
It wasn't love at first sight or anything, it was just surprise. Because their missions usually involve stealth, Hierophant's team wore a mostly black costume that also stuck fairly close to their skin. Of course, this showed a lot of the females' curves, which was a weapon in itself, and Hinata was no exception.
What surprised Aspite was the sheer size of her breasts. They were simply too big, huge even. All of Hierophant's Cards were from the Hiraizumi family, so it stood to reason they were also students of Ginsei Academy. Aspite could remember most of them, except for Hinata. She looked to be about Yuuto's age, so a year younger than Aspite. Aspite didn't pay too much attention to his underclassmen, but he feels he'd probably remember her simply due to that absurd bust. Yet, nothing came to mind.
"Let's go."
While Aspite was lost in thought, Hirono had sent his Court Cards ahead. Aspite felt a bit embarrassed over having lost himself in thought with such a trivial matter, so he decided to just forget about it.
As Aspite and Hirono walked to their objective, the Golgotha mansion, Hirono took this time to catch Aspite up to what they had already discovered.
In short, Lost had been a mixed-blood devil born in this region. One day, the lord of the region and current head of the Golgotha house, Thron Golgotha, had visited the village Lost lived in. Lost and some other mixed-blood devils were taken to the Golgotha mansion.
Hierophant's team was unable to find out anything more than that. The only thing more that they found was that the other villagers had been later sent away by Thron and his son Morus, as well as a handful of mercenaries. They were currently tracking where these people might be, but it wouldn't be long until they found Poran and the others with Neith.
But, at the moment, that didn't matter. Aspite had been listening to Hirono and trying to see if he could piece anything together. The biggest revelation here was Lost being a mixed-blood devil, but even that wasn't anything too surprising. If Yuuto, a human, could be a Candidate, then why couldn't a mixed-blood?
They eventually arrived at the Golgotha mansion. It was as damaged as everything else, if not more. The rumors of the Golgotha family being dead were seeming more likely by the second.
"Let's start here. See if we can figure anything out."
The room they were currently at had all the traces of a fight. Broken furniture, damaged walls and windows, blood. It wasn't hard to guess something had taken place here.
"World Revision."
Aspite said the name of his Characteristic Magic. A small 'word' of 3 meters in diameter formed around Aspite. With this, he should be able to figure out what took place here.
World Revision did that by taking all available information, such as the residue of mana in their air and other evidence, and putting it all together inside itself. It was as if Aspite was inside a painting of the past that had come to life.
"Take pictures and notes. Prepare a spell."
Hirono ordered his Court Cards, which had shown up again out of nowhere. Hinata and another girl started taking pictures, 2 boys were writing something on their notepads and a third girl was preparing some spell.
It wasn't hard to notice a problem with Aspite's method, World Revision only had a range of 3 meters, so a lot of the room was left out. Aspite could observe the rest of the room by walking around, but it would be hard to see the whole picture. That's why Hirono had his Cards keep a record.
Aspite walked and flew all over the room, doing his best to cover up the entire area. The more he moved, the clearer the picture made by World Revision got. It took a while and many laps, but they eventually got everything.
The girl who had been preparing a spell before seemed to finish. Once she activated her spell, the pictures the girls took seemed to come out of their phones and into reality. The girl still had to adjust some things, but this allowed Aspite, Hirono and the others to properly see what World Revision had shown them.
"What kind of creature is this?"
It wasn't hard to make out that someone had been attacked here. Actually, multiple people, from what the remains of mana showed. But it was hard to make out what had attacked them.
If anything, it looked like some kind of wave had come at them.
"Hinata, anything?"
Hirono asked his sister. She took a second to think and then replied.
"This isn't any creature I know. If anything, it seems more like a spell, but there's no caster. There's another thing that bothers me. While the mana from this… thing… is clearly visible, the mana from its victims seems to have faded away. Almost like…"
If they were eaten. Hinata didn't say that, it was just too absurd of a possibility. Even if a beast ate someone, their mana would still remain. It wouldn't be something like this. But it's something that popped into everyone's minds.
"… If it's not any known creature, could it be one of the Golgothas' experiments? Surely everyone here knows the rumors."
There was a very old rumor about the Golgotha family. It said that they did many kinds of experiments, creating all kinds of monsters and the like. Many believed it was just a story to scare off kids, almost like a boogie man, but some believed it was true.
If anyone knew the truth other than the Golgothas themselves, surely it was the Hiraizumis. That's what Aspite seemed to imply.
"Let's go to the basement to check their experiments."
And it seems Aspite was right. Hirono led the way and they all headed down to the basement.
There, they found exactly what you'd expect from a family that does illegal experiments. Holding cells for prisoners, a bunch of test tubes, preserved specimens. But, much like everything else, it was mostly destroyed. It would be hard to make any other conclusions than that there were experiments going on here.
"Before we rely on World Revision again, let's first take a look around by ourselves."
Of course, this was something that Hirono and his Cards had already done before, but there was no harm in looking again. They might just stumble upon something new.
Their luck wasn't so good, but Aspite did see something that caught his eye. It was a label on a piece of glass. The label simply read "Darkness". Aspite tried asking, but no one knew what had once been inside that glass.
"Nothing else to see here, so let's get started. World Revision."
Once again, they followed the same procedure and viewed an image of the past. This one told a different story from the other one.
There was the silhouette of a young boy in the corner, but something happened to him. His form changed into something and he attacked the others in the cell with him. Then, he escaped and proceeded to attack everyone else who was there. At least, that's what they guessed happened.
It seemed that this boy had become the 'wave' they had seen in the previous room.
"But what does it mean?"
No one could answer that. They figured their time was better spent looking for more clues elsewhere, but something stopped them from doing that.
Hirono and his Cards received a communication from one of the Suit Cards, but the communication was cut off right after.
While it wasn't much to go by, Hirono had a bad feeling. He was about to order everyone to escape, but then he saw someone blocking their way out. It was a mixed-blood devil with wolf-like ears, Lost.
"Wasn't expecting any visitors. Welcome to my birthplace, please feel at home."
Despite Lost's friendly expression and voice, it wasn't hard to guess things weren't looking good.
Hirono and Aspite were both Devil King Candidates, Hirono was even part of the Triumph. And Hirono's Court Cards were also present, even if some of them weren't exactly focused on combat, they could at least defend themselves. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like Aspite and Hirono's side had a big advantage.
But something was wrong, and they could feel it. As they stared at Lost, it was like they were staring at death itself.
"You met my Cards?"
"I did. Good people. Tasty as well."
Strange as it may have seemed, Hirono could feel his Cards' mana from Lost. He remembered what they'd seen in the previous room, as well as what Marchosias had informed the Devil King after his attack. It seemed safe to assume that Lost could absorb other people and gain their power, that also meant Hirono's other Cards were dead.
Hirono silently communicated that to his Cards. Of course, they were all saddened by those deaths, after all they were both friends and family, but now wasn't the time to mourn. So their expressions barely changed.
Lost raised his feet to take a step. By the time he'd put it down, everyone here would likely be dead. It wasn't hard to guess as much.
Maybe predicting this, or maybe he'd simply decided to act first, Hirono's Knight took out his sword and stabbed it on the ground. A barrier in the shape of a cube surrounded Hirono, Aspite and the others. Lost hit it face-first.
"Nice one, Ken."
The Knight, Ken, simply nodded. He was a man of few words, but his skill with the sword was undeniable. And his Devil Sword which created barriers around targets proved itself a good defense even against Lost.
"Don't think this will save you."
Or so they believed at first. Until they heard Lost speak.
As if he was melting, Lost's figure became liquid. The black liquid quickly surrounded the cube created by Ken's sword. It first covered the floor on which the sword was stabbed, but it wasn't long before it had completely surrounded the cube from all sides.
All that was left was complete darkness. And somehow, everyone could feel that they weren't in the same place they had been just before.
Ken then noticed something wrong with his sword, so he took it out from where it was stabbed. The part that had been in contact with the black liquid was simply gone.
Ken could maintain the barrier even without the sword stabbed on it, but it severely weakened the barrier. So much so that it now sounded like it was going to break under the pressure.
"Nana, prepare a Transite for all of us."
"Y-yes, I'll get right on it."
Hirono ordered his Princess, a girl called Nana, to prepare a spell for all of them to escape. Despite her seeming nervous, she was good at magic. In fact, the best mage in Hierophant's team.
The walls cracked and black liquid was starting to seep in. A drop of it was going to fall on Nana, but Ken put his arm over Nana to protect her.
A second later, Ken noticed something strange with his arm, so he cut it out. It might have seemed extreme, but it was the correct decision. Any longer and he would have been eaten entirely, not just lost an arm.
Aspite activated his Characteristic Magic. Ken quickly noticed his intention and opened a hole in the barrier. Aspite had made a world where Lost couldn't get in, and what was already in had to go out. So the arm, now entirely covered in black, was ejected and Ken once again closed the barrier.
"Y-your arm-!"
"Don't worry about it, just finish your spell."
Nana nodded, thankful for Ken's sacrifice to protect her. She quickly finished the spell that should teleport them all out.
She then fed it mana and… nothing happened. There were no flaws on the spell, that much was clear, so what could be going wrong?
"I-it's like… the spell's being eaten."
It was hard to make sense of, but it was the best explanation Nana could give. As little as that answered, Hirono had no choice but accept it as fact for now.
But if a Transite wouldn't work, what could they do? Did they just have to wait for their deaths to come? Despite Ken not showing it much, he couldn't just keep losing blood like this for too long.
"Can you make this barrier a circle with 4 or 5 meters of diameter?"
"… I won't be able to keep it for long."
"Just do it."
Ken noticed Aspite's intention. At his signal, Ken reshaped his barrier. Aspite flew to the center and activated his World Revision.
The new world Aspite had made seemed like the inside of his mansion. At that moment, everyone saw their escape route.
"Everyone, jump in."
Hirono gave the order and he and his Cards jumped into Aspite's World Revision. By the time they landed, they were in Aspite's mansion. Of course, the owner was also with them.
Aspite closed the world just as the barrier broke. It was a good thing none of the black liquid came over. They didn't want to figure out if it would die without the main body, or if they'd had to deal with 2 Losts.
Of course, once they noticed they were safe, they began taking care of Ken's wound. Nana used healing magic on him and Hinata asked to use Aspite's medical equipment. He wasn't heartless enough to just kick them out, so he told them to use whatever they needed.
"I think we figured out what happened there."
"Seems like it."
While everyone else was taking care of Ken, Aspite and Hirono talked with each other.
After all that, it wasn't hard to figure out what had happened in Chevalleze in general. Lost, a mixed-blood devil born there, had been subjected to the Golgothas' experiments and became… whatever he was now. He had the ability to absorb others and gain their powers, and was growing more and more powerful.
There were still many unanswered questions, but for now this would do. They had to report this to Barbatos to see what he'd do about it.
"Aspite, do you want to come with me and report this to the Devil King?"
"Might as well. I want to see what he'll do about Lost. Maybe he'll even ask this great me to deal with him."
Hirono could tell Aspite was worried deep down, and they might as well stick together. Lost growing more powerful did no favors to no one, so there was no reason to leave any easy targets if they could help it.
Once Ken was more stable, they headed to Barbatos to report their findings. After that, Hirono and his Court Cards paid their respects to the Cards that had died by Lost's hand.
