Chapter 18: Elmenhilde Karnstein (1)
"Great Sage, has there been any noteworthy development?"
Great Sage could remotely control all four laboratories even if we were in a different dimension, and in my absence, it continued research on various things based on my orders.
However, thanks to that, Great Sage couldn't use all of its calculative power all the time.
So, while keeping the bare minimum amount required in day-to-day life, Great Sage dedicated most of its calculative power to research.
The last time I came to the [Darkness Magic Research Laboratory] was around two months ago, so there were a lot of things that needed to be addressed.
The one who primarily used this facility was Great Sage. The facility I used was for things other than researching Darkness Magic.
[Answer. Please move towards test subject number 13.]
"Number thirteen..."
The glass container marked '13' contained a female vampire, most likely from the Tepes Faction.
And although the Vampire in question was a Pure Blooded Vampire, she was, like most of the waste of spaces here, a Low-Class.
I couldn't get my hands on a Noble Pure Blooded Vampire as they rarely left their residence, so this was the second best option.
As for the Dhampirs stored here, they all belonged to the Carmilla Faction. The Tepes Faction kept all their Dhampirs in a separate castle, and simply barging in wasn't possible.
It was no wonder that the Carmilla Faction started exerting so much effort to capture the culprit after losing many of their servants.
Managing with only this many subjects was troublesome, but well, life was all about compromises.
'I hope Elmenhilde can help solve this problem. It'd waste my time otherwise…'
The rest of the test subjects collected were in different laboratories, categorised according to their uses.
"So, what's up with this one?"
[Answer. The ability to store things inside shadows was discovered.]
"Hm? Use it."
[Answer. Activating 'Life Force Conversion' on test subject number thirteen.]
Darkness started to envelop the vampire's body, and soon, a hole only about ten centimetres in radius appeared on the ground.
Generally, Low-Class Vampires could only manipulate Darkness and Shadows, not create them. But with [Life Force Conversion], it was possible to take control of and force their Magic Power beyond its racial limit, pushing them to do things they shouldn't be able to in exchange for breaking both their body and soul.
A few seconds later, I summoned Arondight from my dimensional storage and slowly placed it inside the shadow—the blade first, followed by the hilt.
Arondight had a summoning spell placed on it, so losing it wasn't one of my concerns.
After all, it'd be embarrassing to lose my new gift inside a Low-Class Vampire's shadow.
"Close it."
At my order, the hole in the ground disappeared.
"Amazing…"
I couldn't feel Arondight's presence, not even a single bit.
"Alright, Great Sage, bring it back."
[Answer. Understood.]
The hole made of Darkness reappeared, and moments later, Arondight's hilt came out of it.
Pulling the sword out, I placed it inside my dimensional storage again, turning back towards the Low-Class Vampire.
From a beautiful woman in her late twenties, she became an old lady on her deathbed after a measly storage spell. Witnessing the Low-Class Vampire's fate, a heavy sigh escaped my lips.
"Although [Life Force Conversion] is a magnificent spell, the efficiency is still a mess… Then again, it's not like Low-Class Vampires have that strong of a Life Force, to begin with, so it's somewhat understandable."
It'd require a lot of time before my efficiency in using this spell increased.
"Transfer all of Number thirteen's Life Force into powering up the facility; she's almost dead either way. After that, integrate the storage function into [Darkness Magic] and transfer it to my brain."
[Answer. Understood.]
The Low-Class Vampire's body completely disappeared, leaving behind an empty glass container filled with greenish-blue fluid.
The ability to store things inside Darkness was the first step in creating a spell that'd let me freely travel through shadows, completely erasing my presence.
"Maybe, I'll also end up with some useful information about 'that' thing..."
Although it was rare, some Vampires and Dhampirs were born with abilities that far surpassed their racial limitations, although it mostly happened in the case of the Dhampirs. These beings had far more raw power and could manipulate Darkness to a far greater degree, but it was something that the vampires, whom I read the memories of, didn't know much about.
It was similar to the walmart version of Super Devils within the Vampires. They were far weaker but more in numbers.
Naturally, it was one of the things that interested me the most about their race, along with them being the perfect beings for the study of [Darkness Magic].
"But alas, not a single Dhampir here has such high latent abilities. Hell, they don't even come close..."
The Demonic Power in my body surged, and within moments, all the test subjects within the room were shifted to one side, creating a lot of space.
'This place will need some more containers for the ones I'll take from Elmenhilde's investigation team…'
I'd personally make sure that the Carmilla Faction captures the 'culprit' behind the disappearances, so the least I could do was take something of value in return, right?
"Great Sage, which facility has extra containers ready for use?"
[Answer. Laboratory No. 3 has twenty-seven unused containers available in the storage room.]
"Three? The one in the Underworld, huh..."
A large [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared on the ground, covering most of the remaining space, and twenty glass containers teleported inside the room.
By now, my mastery over [Transportation Magic] was so great that no one could follow me once I teleported away.
In most cases, those strong enough could follow others who had recently teleported because their knowledge of magic was far higher, and they could trace the remaining magic power left by the person, but no one could do that with me.
Theoretically, at least. Ajuka might be able to do it, but Alice certainly couldn't.
"Let's connect these glass containers to the power grid of this lab..."
Only if there was a way for Great Sage to do physical work, too, like some robotic hands…
[Notice. That's skill abuse, Master.]
Right. It was occasional, but Great Sage had been making some weird comments these days.
After connecting the glass containers to the power grid and checking that none were defective, I nodded to myself.
"Now, let's drop by that laboratory before returning to Bucharest..."
As those words ended, a magic circle appeared below my feet.
---
[Human World: Laboratory No. 2.]
Appearing in a room similar to the Engine Room of the previous laboratory, I looked around to check if everything was in order before heading down with the help of the hidden elevator.
There was no particular reason for me to hide the elevators except for them being cool.
If my previous self were to see this, he would probably facepalm from how childish it was.
Childhood did rub off on me.
"That's a familiar scene..."
The room I was currently in was a lot bigger than the [Darkness Magic Research Lab], and it stored far more things than just Vampires and Dhampirs.
There were Humans, Reincarnated Devils, Half-Devils, Dhampirs, and Human Magicians stored inside several glass containers.
All these people had one thing in common.
They all were Sacred Gear wielders I found and collected after years of hard work.
Some of the Reincarnated Devils here had 'killed their comrades out of nowhere and defected from their masters,' which made them all Stray Devils in the government's eyes, while the others simply disappeared overnight.
"Hmm…"
Apart from the stored living beings, several objects were neatly placed around the room, levitating mid-air over various tables with holograms around them.
There were swords, light swords, shields, daggers, guns of various attributes and elemental powers, swords used by Exorcists, and so on.
Most of them were Sacred Gears I had 'temporarily' removed from their host's body.
Some Sacred Gears didn't have a physical form, so there were things like an intangible bottle floating mid-air.
As for why they were 'temporarily' removed?
The moment their host died, the Sacred Gears would disappear, returning to the Sacred Gear system within the Biblical Heaven, and currently, there was no way for me to keep them in this place other than to keep their owners alive forcefully.
The methods Sacred Gear System used to recall them to the Biblical Heaven were beyond me, at least for now.
"Maybe I should go on another shopping spree soon?"
Naturally, the marketplace was the human world, and the products were Sacred Gear wielders.
Since I killed all the Recovery Type Sacred Gears a while back in an accident, I needed to look for some more now.
'And there's also the thing about recruiting and training a healer for my peerage…'
But despite all those efforts over the years, I still couldn't locate a single Unawakened Longinus user except for the one Manager Kim had told me about—Issei Hyoudou.
I was about to bring him in, too, but his life force and body were too fragile for me to temporarily remove the Boosted Gear from him.
It'd be too much of a risk to take chances with such a top-tier test subject, so the things related to him were put aside until a method to successfully extract Sacred Gears was created.
If the Boosted Gear disappeared because of Issei's accidental death, there wouldn't be a second chance to find that particular gear again.
After all, 'Boost' was one of the abilities that interested me the most. It'd be one hell of a steal if I could replicate it by studying the Boosted Gear.
And to ensure that happens, the priority was to learn more about the Sacred Gear's creation.
I walked around the room, checking the various holograms that were all over the place, before moving towards an empty table.
I summoned Arondight and placed it above the first table as it levitated mid-air, doing the same with my set of Evil Pieces.
This laboratory was what I'd consider my base for learning about the technology of the supernatural world with the help of the Great Sage.
My expertise wasn't technology, after all.
The two laboratories within the Human World were primarily used by the Great Sage, as the one I'd be using was in the Underworld.
Out of my four labs, one was a 'fake,' which appeared to be a normal research facility, in case I needed to bring someone along to test something. Showing one of my real research facilities to other people wasn't an option.
Other than that, I hadn't yet started any actual experiments because they'd require my attention more than the things that Great Sage could handle.
"Since I can summon them at any given moment, let's leave them here, at least until it's time to play with them… Great Sage, make sure to analyse the Attribute Crystals used to make Evil Pieces."
[Answer. Understood.]
"Right, before going home, there was that thing I wanted to test out..."
The moment my words finished, a transparent, palm-sized ball appeared in my hand.
"Great Sage, give me the owner of this Sacred Gear..."
I only knew what the Sacred Gears and their abilities were, but it was impossible to remember the owner of every Sacred Gear even with my near-perfect memory.
The Sacred Gear in my hand wasn't all that special, as it only allowed the user to create and manipulate fire, and even the fire wasn't all that strong.
From my previous calculations, even if mastered to its full potential, the best this Sacred Gear could do was barely kill a Middle-Class Devil.
It was not something worth mentioning, to be honest.
Soon, an unconscious black-haired man in his late twenties teleported beside me. From how he rested on the floor would make someone wonder if he were asleep.
For the normal humans that hadn't awakened their Sacred Gears within my collection, I made sure to disguise their disappearances as accidents, if not outright delete their existence from other people's memories entirely.
"So that's the user of this Sacred Gear..."
I looked at the man once before teleporting away to an underground training room.
.
.
.
Thud!*
The palm-sized Sacred Gear landed on the floor with a small thud, rolling on the ground until it was at a distance away from me.
"Just to be on the safe side, let's create a few barriers around it."
Twelve layers of semi-transparent barriers appeared around the Sacred Gear.
With that done, I crouched down and placed my hand over the man's head.
[Life Force Conversion.]
During this time, I learned that it was possible to take over a person's Sacred Gear using [Life Force Conversaion] after temporarily extracting it from their body, as the spell gave me control of the target's newly created magic power by sacrificing their Life Force. And naturally, that included pushing the Sacred Gear beyond its limits.
It was like remotely controlling a toy car, though it couldn't be used much on Humans since the ones in my collection had such little Life Force, not to mention that the efficiency of [Life Force Conversion] wasn't that good.
The experiment this time was simple.
Just how much power can a Sacred Gear, which only had the potential to kill a Middle-Class Devil barely, generate if the user's life force was sacrificed in one go?
It was a small attempt to imitate the Juggernaut Drive of Divine Dividing and Boosted Gear, or the Breakdown of the Beast used by Regulus Nemea, which all relied on the wielder's Life Force, granting them exponential powers.
But since this Sacred Gear had no beast sealed inside it and had no source to draw such power from, I wasn't expecting much results.
I chose the fire-related Sacred Gear because it was one of the most useless ones in this facility, and the wielder didn't seem all that special, either. He was probably even below average among humans.
The Sacred Gear started to glow in a reddish light, and after a few seconds, flames started appearing around it.
The flames got condensed into a single point under my control.
Just as the wielder's life force was about to end, the flames released themselves in full force, causing them to erupt and cover the area within the barriers.
"Hmmm…"
The eruption of flames broke through one barrier after another, and they only disappeared after eight out of the twelve barriers were gone.
"That strike was strong enough to one-shot an average High-Class Devil..."
It was impressive, in all honesty.
'The results weren't in line with what happened with the several Recovery Type Sacred Gears I sacrificed…'
Maybe different Sacred Gears required more than a simple power boost to go beyond certain limits?
"And there it goes."
Moments after the flames subsided, the Sacred Gear disappeared and returned to the Biblical Heaven, indicating that its owner had died.
The man next to me had turned into a dried-up corpse, and soon, blue flames erupted around his body, burning the corpse away within a few seconds.
[Clean.]
The spell cleaned the ashes of the corpse, along with the smell of burned flesh.
"This is why I like the [Power of Destruction] so much..."
It was the perfect power for trash disposal. Rias and Sirzechs had no idea how lucky they were.
If someone were to get both the [High IQ] of the Astaroth Clan and the [Power of Destruction] from the Bael Clan, it'd be a sight to see.
The [Power of Destruction] would reach its maximum efficiency with the perfect control granted by the Astaroth Clan's [High IQ] rather than being used as a weapon simply for brute force by both the Bael and the Gremory.
"But this experiment went much better than expected... It didn't match the description of having the Sacred Gear adapt to the user, but that's because the user had no desires since he was unconscious."
That made me wonder…
"Should I choose a Sacred Gear user and start the 'Big D Plan' instead?"
Well, there was no need for me to figure out everything at the moment.
"Let's go back home..."
After some time, I teleported back to my new house in Bucharest.
---
[Bucharest, Romania.]
Inside my office, there was a deep silence.
'It seems like Amy went to sleep after preparing my room. Ah, well…'
With those thoughts in mind, I walked out of my office and approached the room that was supposed to be mine.
However, the moment I stepped inside, something completely unexpected happened.
"Amy?"
"Yes, Lord Azrail."
"Am I in the wrong room?"
Amy shook her head.
"This is your room, Lord Azrail."
"Then why are you here, and what's with that outfit?"
Although I had already noticed a while ago, Amy was a rather beautiful girl in her late teens, and her most notable feature was her voluptuous body.
Other than that, she was a tall girl with pale skin, purple eyes with light blue pupils, and long, dark violet hair that became lighter at the ends, along with a beauty mark below her right eye, which complimented her beautiful face perfectly.
All in all, she was beautiful, and even with the Underworld's standards, she would be considered extremely beautiful.
But what took my attention wasn't her face.
Amy was dressed in very enticing purple lingerie, complimenting her hair, which showed most of her breasts, all while emphasizing her figure, revealing her perfectly curved waist, along with smooth thighs that I wanted to be wrapped around my face.
Yeah, I was down bad. Fight me.
[Image.]
"Please read this, Lord Azrail..."
Amy walked towards me and handed me a letter.
'This handwriting…?'
It was a letter from my father.
[Son, I know you grew up faster than those around your age, and there must be things you're too curious about, but I can't let you do something you might regret later... I know you're mature enough, and I understand why you wish to live alone with a beautiful girl like Amy, away from home, to experience some necessary things in life. Everyone has their desires; I won't blame you. Amy is a beautiful girl, isn't she? I understand why you specifically asked for only her to accompany you, so go for it and become an adult...]
[—World's best father.]
'Father, what the fuck…'
It was difficult to decide whether to secretly burn this letter or pass it over to my mother. Sebastian might end up on the streets if the latter happened.
Male devils would, in some cases, engage in this stuff at the age of eleven or twelve, but seriously, which father would pull a stunt like this?
And although I was packing more heavily, I was still ten and had more important things to focus on.
"Amy, seriously, what's wrong with you?"
"What do you mean, Lord Azrail?"
Amy tilted her head in confusion.
She was from a clan that had served the Astaroth Clan for generations, the Valmra Clan. Most female Devils from the Valmra Clan would end up as concubines for the males from our clan. It was a tradition of sorts.
Even Sebas had a woman from the Valmra Clan as his concubine and personal maid.
In a sense, the entire clan existed only to serve us.
A fucked up system, yes. But we were Devils. No one cared about it much.
"How come you agree to something like this?"
"If I can use my body to please Lord Azrail, the one considered the future of the Astaroth Clan, I couldn't be more proud and happy."
I exchanged glances between Amy and the letter in my hands. Great Sage could tell if she was lying or not, but there was no need to ask something like that.
After all, something didn't feel right. My father and I were frank with each other, but not this frank.
Not to mention, as someone who had known Amy for a few years, I knew she wasn't the type to take these things lightly, even if it was with me.
It would've been less surprising if Sebas planned this since my brother could do something like this for me, but my father wouldn't, at least not when I was ten.
To check out if I was right or not, I sighed, showing clear disappointment.
"Amy, you can go back to your room."
"B-But..."
Amy seemed in panic, so I asked.
"What's up?"
"I-If Lord Azrail doesn't take me, I'll be given to Lord Diodora… I don't want that."
That made sense.
If she had gone to Diodora with consent, I would've considered her mentally sick.
It didn't take long before Amy's eyes started getting watery, and from how it looked, she might start crying anytime now.
"A-Am I not good enough for you?"
"It's not about you or your body. You're perfect, honestly."
"T-Then..."
"Fine, I'll take you in as my maid so you won't be given to Diodora, but go back to your room now..."
The tears in Amy's eyes slowly disappeared.
"R-Really?"
"Yeah, so go to your room."
Amy slowly walked towards the door, but just as she was about to open it, she turned back towards me.
"Lord Azrail, are you sure you don't wish for me to serve you? I am fully prepared and willing."
"I don't, and don't pull down your panties."
Despite how tempting the scene was, I tried to shoo her away, and although it was for a brief moment, Amy seemed disappointed before she smiled brightly.
"Lord Azrail, you are a very good person... A lot better than Lord Diodora."
I knew it.
I was half happy that I didn't do anything and half disappointed that things were what I expected them to be, but I still feigned ignorance on the outside.
"What are you talking about, Amy?"
"Please, read this."
[Ahem! If you're reading this letter, then you've passed the test, my son. I'm proud of you. In reality, your mother was concerned about you because you've been meeting that scumbag Diodora a lot within the past months, so we were worried that you'd end up like him… I had to check using such a method after you asked for only Amy to accompany you to Bucharest.]
What kind of badly written novel scene was this?
'Father, I swear you were smarter than this... Who nerfed your intelligence out of nowhere?'
The reason I wanted Amy to accompany me had nothing to do with her looks, well, for the most part. Apart from being an eye candy, she had been serving as my maid for four years now, and she knew all of my needs pretty well.
But to worry about something irrelevant like that.
I knew about it already, but it was still surprising how nice my family was when measured by our race's standards.
And honestly, I wasn't the one hanging around with Diodora. He was the one who found all the ways he could to annoy and point fingers at me.
His inferiority complex had grown a bit too much in the past years.
On the other hand, I had already done worse things than forcing a few Holy Maidens and mind-breaking them into slaves like my dear cousin.
I had no idea how many people Diodora killed in his life, but I probably killed at least ten times of that just in this life.
But yeah, it was understandable why my parents were worried about me being influenced by someone that incompetent.
[But the thing about Amy wishing to serve as your maid is true. However, since you're mature enough, I'll leave that decision up to you. Just to let you know, she's very talented when it comes to Magic, especially Healing Magic, which she specialises in. I kept her talent in Healing Magic a secret for now, but if you don't hurry, she might be snatched away by someone else. I previously offered Amy to be a part of your Peerage, and she agreed, so I placed her under you four years ago for you to know her better.]
A personal maid from the Valmra Clan, huh?
Accepting Amy as my maid was the same as accepting her as my concubine. She must be aware of that, as well.
But that wasn't what interested me the most.
There wasn't a shortage of beautiful women in this world, including the ones who'd be more than willing to be with me, so the thing that took my interest was—
'Amy can use [Healing Magic]?'
Unlike other kinds of Magic, [Healing Magic] highly depended on one's natural aptitude in that regard. After all, it was extremely hard to create the perfect magic frequency that could heal all the races with different sorts of energies inside their bodies, like Demonic Power, Light Power, Holy Power, Magic Power from various races, and so on.
Methods to heal weren't rare, like Recovery Type Sacred Gear, Senjutsu, Phoenix Tears, Vampires healing by resting inside their coffins, Devils healing simply by resting cause of their Demonic power, Angels with Divine Blessings, and so on.
The rare thing is someone having [Healing Magic] that worked on every race through only natural aptitude.
Everyone in my circle lacked talent in that area of Magic, from Alice to Latia, so I was looking for someone with a Recovery Sacred Gear to recruit, but a suitable candidate never appeared.
"You can use [Healing Magic]?"
Amy proudly smiled at that question.
"Yes, Lord Azrail."
After summoning a knife from my dimensional storage, I stabbed my hand, making sure that the blade passed through my palm.
"L-Lord Azrail, what are you doing?!"
It seemed like that caught Amy off guard.
"Don't worry; I only wish to see your healing abilities… Even if you can't heal it, it'll heal naturally in a while."
Although it took her a few seconds, Amy calmed down, and I presented her with my now-stabbed hand.
She grabbed my hand with her left hand, and soon, it emitted a green light while she pulled the knife out with her right hand.
'It doesn't hurt even when she's pulling that knife out...'
After around half a minute, the knife was out of my palm, and the wound was nowhere to be seen.
My hand was as good as it was a minute ago.
'She's quite talented...'
"You seriously wish to serve me as your Master?"
"I do." Amy nodded.
"So you'll only listen to orders from me? Not even my parents?"
"Yes."
'Great Sage, is she lying?'
Thanks to [Sound Magic] that I created, Great Sage could find out if someone was lying or not by listening to their heartbeat, along with the frequency of their voice.
[Answer. No. The individual Amy's words are sincere.]
"But why me?"
It was a question out of pure curiosity.
"As a member of the Valmra Clan, serving someone from the Astaroth Clan is only natural... My sister is Lord Diodora's [Bishop], but I despise him. I'd rather serve Lord Azrail, as I always believed that you were a much better Master to serve than Lord Diodora. Not to mention, your previous actions of rejecting your father's gift, coupled with what I have observed for the past few years, have just proven that right. I am wholeheartedly willing to serve you as my Master. It will be my greatest honour. And if Lord Azrail rejects me, I will end up being given to Lord Diodora. That part was no lie."
'Great Sage?'
[Answer. Everything she said is the truth, Master.]
"Amy, do you know how to fight?"
Amy politely shook her head.
"I know how to cast long-range attack spells and basic self-defence, but I'm still more of a Healer."
'We'd need to work on that, then…' With those thoughts in mind, I continued. "How about joining my Peerage?"
At those words, her eyes widened slightly.
"Lord Azrail, are you sure?"
"Yeah."
Amy's Demonic Power reserves were already quite good, even by a High-Class Devil's standards, and she wouldn't require any immediate boost.
And it wasn't like I didn't plan on training her.
After thinking about it for a second, I raised my hand as two [Pawn] Pieces appeared in my hand.
'One of my [Bishop] is a Mutation Piece, so using that right now without studying is out of the question. And I'll need the other [Bishop] for reference, too…'
After all, simply having [Healing Magic] didn't make someone pass the criteria to be my [Bishop].
'And I always wanted to see how an Evil Piece contacts the [King] with their subordinates, so reincarnation Amy is better than doing it with some random person and killing them later...'
Not to mention, it'd be pretty rude to reject her after all the things my father did for me to be able to recruit a Healer.
On that note, I still had six other [Pawn] pieces to work with, so it didn't matter if one or two were gone.
"If you are ready, I'll reincarnate you with two [Pawn] pieces."
Evil Pieces only worked on those who were alive if the target was willing to be Reincarnated.
After taking a deep breath, Amy nodded.
"I am, and it will be my honour to serve you."
The two [Pawn] pieces in my hand started floating towards Amy, only to enter her chest slowly.
The Astaroth Clan's Magic Circle appeared under her feet, and after around a minute, it disappeared.
'I see… So that's how a connection with the Evil Pieces is formed…'
Amy opened her eyes and looked at me before falling to one knee, lowering her head.
"I, Amy Valmra, swear to serve you, Lord Azrail Astaroth, as my one and only Master until death do us part..."
"I'll be counting on you, Amy..."
"Please, Master."
Amy looked up at my face with a smile.
"But first, you should learn how to dress up properly."
Amy seemed confused at first, but she soon realised that she was kneeling in front of me while wearing the alluring purple lingerie.
For the first time since this conversation started, she looked genuinely embarrassed.
"I apologize for the indecent display, Master."
"It's not that big of a deal, and I quite like it. But make sure to dress properly in front of outsiders, okay?"
"Yes."
"Then, I'll be seeing you tomorrow."
"Good night, Master."
"Good night, Amy."
Amy bowed towards me, giving me a magnificent view of her large breasts before leaving my room.
'I hope she has decent enough potential to match my expectations, or else…'
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