"Deva: The King's Grimoire." Sol read the title and the book opened its one eye. An eye with a yellow pupil encircled with multiple yellow straight lines and a black sclera. It was a black eye with a pupil that looked like the yellow sun.
Sol freaked out and dropped the book. However, the book didn't fall on the ground but floated in the air.
The grimoire looked at Sol. Both the book's and Sol's eyes met. Then memories flashed in Sol's mind.
Sol looked at the grimoire that was hovering and said, "I know this…this cover, eye, the title." He grabbed the book and looked at it. He remembered a similar book from his past life. "I remember now, it's the same as the sketchbook that I had in my previous life."
Back in his previous life when Sol was ten, he was fascinated by the fantasy world that anime and manga had. Inspired by it, he created monsters, weapons, and various other things in the sketchbook he had. He made his sketchbook look like a grimoire and also gave the title 'Deva'. He imagined himself as an owner of the grimoire and played with it. He would create stuff and describe it in a sketchbook whenever he is inspired by something or whenever he had some idea. This hobby led him to dream about becoming a manga artist even though he wasn't that good at drawing. However, after his parent's death at age fourteen, he stopped drawing, and later he had forgotten about the book and his dream.
The pain and sadness that came after the loss made him unstable but with their memories and love, he overcame. After that, he became busy, taking care of himself.
"Is it the same book? Did my sketchbook also travel to this world?" Sol had a vague memory of his sketchbook. Besides, the book he had was a simple sketchbook with his not-so-good sketch and writings. The book he was carrying right now was a completely different book, it was like how a grimoire would be in a fantasy world. He sat and began to read.
As Sol started reading, he also remembered the memories which he had forgotten in his previous life. He remembered how he much loved creating stuff and describing it. He remembered how he used to imitate characters from anime and manga. He remembered wanting to be an artist even though he didn't have a talent for it.
On the first page of the grimoire, there was a big emblem, a golden sun: a golden sphere with a face and golden lines encircling the sphere. The emblem was similar to the book's eye excluding the face and the color. The face on the emblem resembled Sol.
As he read further Sol remembered things related to it. "The picture is better than the one I had drawn and…is that my face?" said Sol. "I remember drawing a golden sun as an emblem but...not the face though." He turned to the next page.
The next page contained the details and picture of the grimoire itself. It was all written in Japanese and was only a few pages. Sol read thoroughly.
The grimoire 'Deva' was a living grimoire that could see and listen and would only open to its owner. The eye in the front cover acted as identification. The eye would be opened only when grimoire was being used. The grimoire had its own abilities such as stealth, suggestion, hover, store, highlight, and record. It could also protect itself.
"My writing and drawing weren't this great. Did it change itself?… and there is also some stuff that I never did," thought Sol. While reading, Sol realized that there was stuff that he had created when he was Kudo and some stuff he had no idea of. He proceeded to the next page. The next page had a full picture of a person. Sol was surprised after looking at the person in the picture.
"Whoa! Is this me?" said Sol with a surprised look. The page had a picture of a fully grown man, wearing a white suit, red tie, sitting on a big throne which appeared to be adult Sol. He then remembered, "Oh, I remember now, this is the character I created for manga that I would make one day. I created it after a movie villain, who was a handsome and powerful King. I really like how he was always composed."
Sol touched his face and looked at the picture in the book, "Looks like I became the character that I created huh." This realization convinced him that this grimoire was the same sketchbook that he had in his previous life. "Does this mean everything I created in the sketchbook became real in this world?" He was thrilled.
Sol continued reading. There wasn't much written about the person in the picture. It gave a brief description about the person stating: he was the owner, master, king, and monarch; he was the owner of the grimoire; he was a powerful and composed absolute ruler who had many followers to do his bidding.
"Absolute ruler huh...Except for the identical appearance I am nothing like that," said Sol, comparing him and the person in the grimoire. Sol finished reading about him and moved to the next page. The next page was about the silver tentacle he had.
"'Silver sentinel'…so that's the name of these silver tentacles," said Sol and continued reading.
'Silver Sentinel' was the name of silver tentacles that Sol had. It was a living weapon that could act on its own and also communicate with its master. Their main purpose for this, Silver Sentinel' was to protect its master. The main body of it was like a silver ball wrapped in many silver tentacles. It looked like a silver ball with spikes. It lived inside Sol's back and would release four to five tentacles to attack and protect. It wasn't directly attached to Sol's body but passed through from inside his body as to not harm its master's body. It could appear outside its master body but it wouldn't, the reasons were: to stay near its master and protect him, and the main body was one of the weak points. Silver Sentinel's weaknesses were a powerful force that could shatter or cut it, fire magic, and attack on its main body. If the silver tentacles were destroyed it would take hours to regenerate or need magic stone or mana stone but an attack on its main body would be lethal. One could increase its strength and size by feeding it magic stones.
Sol took out the small magic stone he had obtained from his pocket. "So I can feed magic stone to it? But how?" The grimoire closed itself and hovered. The eye of the grimoire glowed creating a yellow magic circle. Then the magic circle sucked the magic stone Sol was carrying in his finger. "Whoa! So this how you feed," said Sol. The grimoire opened the page that Sol was reading and landed in his hand.
"Did it work?" asked Sol to one of Silver Sentinel. "Looks like I need to feed more magic stones to make you stronger," said Sol. He turned to the next page which was about the white snakes.
"White Sentinel," read Sol.
'White Sentinel' was white snakes that Sol had, long white snakes with red eyes that would appear from Sol's back. The abilities of this 'White Sentinel' were: it could store limited stuff in it, it could share its view, hear and smell, it could also see in the dark, detect things from heat, track down living beings from its sense of smell, and one could use it to speak. One of the main abilities is that its bite could release poison or any other potion that was fed to it. However, White Sentinels were not fighting type so they could be cut down easily with powerful hits. For now, there were only two white sentinels. One should feed a magic stone or small breast to grow and increase its strength, ability, and defense. A snake beast should be sacrificed to revive one white sentinel if it were destroyed.
After reading about the abilities the 'White Sentinel' had, Sol was amazed and excited. "Whoa! it may not be able to fight but it does have many handy abilities," said Sol. "Share sense," Sol said and he shared the vision from White Sentinel/white snake which he had on one side of his back. He saw the surrounding through its eyes, and also could hear and smell. Then Sol saw a dead mutant beast that he had killed earlier and commanded "Devour it." The white sentinel rapidly moved towards the dead mutant flying squirrel, coiled it, and swallowed it whole in a few seconds. Sol got dizzy and felt gross as he was still sharing the sense with the White Sentinel.
Sol undid the sharing of sense with White Sentinel. "Silver Sentinel and White Sentinel I remember creating these as a protector for the King character earlier." Sol thought, "Since I became the same person as that King character which I drew back then, I guess I have his abilities."
Sol closed the grimoire. He stood up, "I should go home before Mom and Dad start calling me." The Silver Sentinel and White Sentinel went back inside Sol's back. "But, where should I hide the grimoire, should I just carry it like this?" Sol wondered. Suddenly the grimoire turned into a red ball of light and went inside Sol's chest. Sol was amazed and could only say, "Whoa!"
Sol was happy with his achievement. He entered the forest, risked his life to find an answer but he obtained more than he had imagined. With this, he had a way to become strong. He picked up the wooden stick, metal bowl and went towards home. As he went he thought, "With this grimoire, I think I can be strong."
* * *
Later that night, Sol went to his room after he had dinner and helped his mother in the kitchen. He sat down on his bed, a bed that was perfect for one adult person and more perfect for five-year-old Sol. The room was dark with little moonlight from outside.
"Deva," called Sol. A red light ball appeared from his chest. Then it turned into the grimoire, floating in the air, and its yellow eye was blinking and looking at Sol. He asked, "Is there anything about, like the red creature or red demon octopus in the grimoire." From the beginning, he was curious about the red creature that saved him and wanted to find out about him. It was the reason he went to the forest and risked his life.
The grimoire flipped the pages itself and stopped at one page. The words and picture glowed, making Sol see in the dark. "Oh! So there is something about it," he said.
"Red Sentinel: Red throne," Sol read the title, "Yup this is the one," he said. The page had a big picture of the large red creature with solid tentacles, head with the horns in the place of eyes, black horn curved from the side towards the back, large mouth with sharp teeth, long solid tongue rolled on the floor like a carpet and on tip of the tongue was a big throne with a golden sun emblem on top of throne stile. Behind the creature was a big branched murex shell that could fit the whole creature.
'Red Sentinel' appearance made Sol thrilled. It was different compared to when Sol had seen it first. He remembered the time when he created this creature. "It seems I created it as a living throne after seeing one of the thrones in the game," said Sol. "So the throne protected me huh!
He asked, "How can I summon it?" The grimoire highlighted a part where it stated that 'Adam' should be summoned first in order to summon 'Red Throne'. "Adam?" said Sol. The grimoire flipped the pages forward and stopped at the page titled 'Adam'. Sol read a few lines and stopped, "What do I have to do to summon this?" said Sol. The grimoire again flipped the pages backward, stopped at a certain page, and highlighted a small paragraph. Sol read the paragraph and was dispirited, he thought, "How am I supposed to find that many stones?" He lied down on his bed, closed his eyes, and thought for a while. The grimoire turned into a red light ball and went inside Sol's chest.
"Looks like this is the only way," said Sol after thinking for some time. He opened his eyes and said, "Okay! then…let the hunt begin."