Cid finally escaped the clutches of… women.
Yeah, women.
After the fight he first got into Rose's embrace, then Alexia and Iris found them and… Well, it did end well, but not so well as he hoped it would end. So, it was not well.
In short, Alexia got jealous at Rose for hugging him so intimately, Rose said that she will do anything it takes for him to love her, Alexia got even more jealous and… Yeah, he felt first-hand the life of Harem Protagonist with his jealous love interests. Iris only suppressed her laugh at the sight; she did seem a bit better, though. Could it be attributed to his speech to her?… Nah, no way.
Then, once they got heated enough, he once again slithered away and went on to do… something… Oh, right! Demonic Realm! He said he would give them three days — well, actually two, but let's pretend it was a joke, — and it was about time he visited them!
"So… he escaped again…" the princesses heard Claire's voice.
And indeed, once they paid attention to the surroundings, turned out one Cid Kagenou has long disappeared.
"How does he even do that…" Alexia massaged her temples.
"Fu-fu~" elder Kagenou puffed her chest in pride, "That's my brother for you!"
"You do realize than even a hailed genius like you can't find him once he decides to disappear?" Iris sent a glare towards the smug girl.
"Yeah, my brother is awesome, right?!" Midgar Princess attempt to poke fun at proud sibling was crushed upon meeting with Claire's brocon tendencies.
"Wait, miss Claire," Rose joined the conversation (this is her beloved's sister, so proper respect has to be paid), "how do both of you even appear and disappear without anyone paying attention to you?"
"Well…" Claire went into thinking mode, "That's because my brother is the most awesome!"
"But…" Alexia felt the incoming headache, "Aren't you the stronger one?"
"My brother is the most awesomest! The most awesome of all awesome!"
Princesses exchanged a glance and sighed. Seems like they wouldn't get answers any time soon…
"Ah, greetings, my Lord," the glasses demoness jolted and bowed deeply upon seeing him.
"Hmm," he nodded in a cool way and looked at the rebuilt castle.
And there was a lot to look at! For the starters, the super-imposing castle of the Demon King (which is super-imposing: remember, important things need to be said twice!) was now actually living up to its name: dark colors, sharp spires, exquisite materials, after all! And the more Cid looked at it, the more he nodded in satisfaction. Even layout was now sightreadable, with one wide straight path to the Demon King's throne room! And the demon guards upon seeing him only stood even more straight than before and tried to look cool and intimidating! And the traps were actually traps of all kinds instead of succubi and incubi trying to fuck you (well, they were still here, but now only as one of the traps, not the whole freaking castle)!
Yes, that's exactly what he wanted! Now his mind and soul are at peace. Oh, and throne room was super-imposing (and super-imposing is good, since he's in super-imposing castle of the Demon King (which is super-imposing)).
Cid sat on the throne and looked over at the kneeling demons. Even though he wanted to be the power in the shadows, who's to say he can't enjoy some other roles from time to time?
"Well then, you positively surprised me…" he started.
They only looked at him with bated breath.
"You actually managed to do my task in such a short amount of time…" he rubbed his chin.
"Thank you for your praise, my Lord," glasses demoness bowed once again.
"Hmm, well then, what is your name?" he inquired.
Like, really, he was bored of just calling her "glasses demoness"!
"N-Name?" …don't tell him.
"You do have a name, don't you?" Cid's brows quirked.
"F-Forgive us, my Lord, we do, but…" she started shaking.
"Nobody bothered to ask that before, I get it," he facepalmed.
Demons only glanced at each other in unease.
"M-My name is Lility, my Lord…" she finally answered.
"Good," he nodded and took out a card (he just made it from one of the Serpent's scales), "see this?"
"T-That's-!" everyone stared at him with wide eyes.
Then, all of sudden, they all fell towards him and started praying.
'What? Again?'
"I am giving this one to you," he passed the card over to Lilith, "And should you ever be summoned by someone who holds a card like this, you are to offer your services freely."
'He-he, I am gonna make them work under Shades! The girls will surely know how to use free man… Hmm, demon-power!'
"Understood, Realm Master," oh, they changed how they address me? Alright, he doesn't mind.
"Oh, and don't try anything funny. Should you do so, and I am gonna do a decimation, but inversed."
"I-Inversed?…" Lilith gulped.
"Yeah, you know, decimation is when I take out each tenth one and execute them?" unsure nods, "Well, inversed would be me taking out each tenth one and killing everyone else."
Huh, why are they so pale all of sudden? He's so kind and good, only taking away 90% of population!… Oh, hello, halo, long time no see. Go-go into Sanctuary, he will deal with it later.
"Ahem," he coughed, "Well, you understood me, right?"
"Of course, Realm Master!"
"Good. And don't forget out contract, y'all: I am still in need of souls."
Time for him to finally bind the Sanctuary!
Spirit of Sanctuary's Control Panel wrote the last will.
Cid immediately met with a problem: he did not have a proper soul structure for binding Sanctuary… yet.
He took out the Demon King's soul and once more studied it.
Here was the problem: he had a good hunch that once he starts working with his own soul, he would not be able to, well, do anything; since the soul is culmination of his being, he had a good reason to suspect that even the smallest attempt to do anything to it would render him unconscious. He could freely manipulate other souls with his will once they were outside of the bodies, of course, but that's the catch: with his will. What would be of his will the moment he touches his own soul? He needed something that would help him with this task.
And that something would be…
"Guess I treated you too harshly…" Cid sighed as he took out the notepad.
Yeah, runes. He will need to create his own rune language so it could act as a substitute for his own manipulations once he enters the phase of soul modification. Yeah, real ironic considering not so long ago he trashed all the rune languages for their limitations, but here he is, trying to come up with a language.
Why not use the existing ones? Well, he needs something that would contain his own will and understanding, anything else will not do.
Why not use Will Inscription? Well, that one will be used! Just in combination with all other methods he knows of, and also don't forget to double, nay, triple back-up!
But Cid was once again met with a setback… Namely, he doesn't know how to create a proper rune language!…
No, hold up, there's an idea. He will use latin alphabet, or rather, the english variation with 26 letters… But with different symbols!…
Nah, bad idea by itself, but maybe will do as a basis that he will expand upon? How about…
Cid started writing in inspiration.
How about using step-by-step instructions? He will explain it right now, because the premise itself seems that good! Moreover, it is way closer to his original goal of something that will do the work instead of him!
Of course, it will not be a bona fide rune language, but rather…
Rather, it will be something like how a combination of words and rules produces an entirely new effect! For example, by adding minus at the start (you know, ⟨-⟩ symbol) he would be able to completely reverse the effect of the next word or phrase!… How will that work? Well, that would depend on his understanding, actually!
In short, what he intends to do is to create a dictionary. Not the language itself, but dictionary. He can use the already existing language as a basis, but the dictionary will explain each different word in full… Or, at least, how he understands that full.
In theory, once he creates this dictionary, he could use it as a substitute for his own understanding… In fact, he suspects that anyone who gets their hands on it will be able to use the understanding he imprinted in it! But for that, he will first need to write at least one word and a set of rules…
Rules… Maybe mathematical? Yeah, that with minus, plus, etc., etc.? Of course, he will need to be able to use it properly; he can imagine how to use the inverse symbol (¬ this one), where using it together with "fire" would extinguish any fire in vicinity, but, uh, what would happen with multiplication of "air" and "fire"…?
Damn, creating magic languages is hard…
"You have gotten his blessing," tall, voluptuous elf woman with somewhat pink hair stared daggers at the no less intimidating human woman with honey-like hair.
"Indeed, I did," the human's honey-colored eyes calmly met elf's blue ones.
Victoria gritted her teeth. The audacity of that bitch! She just got a blessing of the Divine Lord, and she already thinks of herself as a big shot!
Elven woman has just entered Mitsugoshi and requested audience with Seven Shades. Of course, given her standing, she was immediately accepted.
And there she found her. This… Rose Oriana…
"I fail to fathom the plans that Lord Shadow has on you…"
Was she jealous!
Yes, she was jealous! She could understand why Seven Shades got his blessing; they were the first ones, they were doing their job to the utmost perfection based on their talents, they were sisters as much as it was possible for non-blood related people!
Yet this bitch-! This bitch just waltzed into their organization and got his blessing… Why? Why?! What did she do to deserve it?!
Wasn't Victoria his most devoted servant? If so, she will do everything in her power to fix it! She will bring twice — nay, thrice as many cultists' heads! She will build more temples!…
"Victoria, please, relax," Alpha, the First Shade, sighed upon seeing Victoria's inner turmoil.
"As you command, your Ladyship," Victoria breathed in and sat down.
"Master Shadow," Alpha started, "has said that he will visit us tomorrow. In that time, you could inquire about his reasoning."
"I would never-!" Victoria's eyes widened.
Yet another stark contrast: from the whole organization only Alpha and Eta allowed themselves to call Divine Lord their Master and ask about his goals; Alpha by the right of being First Shade and his direct disciple, and Eta by the right of being the one who was called the one closest to his research mindset. Victoria herself could not dare to think about questioning him.
"It's fine," Alpha chuckled, "he himself said not so long ago that he will allow us to have a time with, tet-a-tet… that is, if you do good job."
Victoria inhaled. To be in presence of Divine Lord… To fell his gentle gaze upon herself… Ah…
Hmph, what does that heretic know about proper worship! She was just lucky to get help from kind all-encompassing forgiving graceful wonderful beautiful… a whole book later, probably divine texts one… Divine Lord! Victoria will prove herself, and then… and then…
She blushed heavily.
"Um, Lady Alpha…" Rose whispered, "Is she… always like that?"
"You'll get used to it," Alpha just sipped her tea.
So, you have a choice. One: Victoria jumps on Cid in his, well, Cid persona and calls him Shadow out loud in front of Rose because she thinks as a member of SG that got slime suit and his blessing Rose 100% knows his identity just like all other major members, thus revealing his identity to her. Two: this does not happen, and Rose remains in ignorance.
The next chapter should all be about Cid trying to create Rune language, anyway, so it's plenty of time to decide.