Chapter 31: Vampire Hunt (1)
Azrail Astaroth Pov:
"Haah..."
Heaving the loudest and most tired sigh of this life, I fell face flat on my bed. Moments later, my body went completely limp, with my legs hanging over the edge.
I was mentally and emotionally exhausted, to the point where it felt like my intelligence was regressing.
After my life almost came crashing down within minutes, my emotions were all over the place, and honestly, I wanted something to distract my mind.
[Answer. Master might have received the Skill Braindead(Ex) while passing through the Reincarnation Centre.]
Great Sage, not now.
[... I apologise, Master.]
It had been decades since I dealt with the feeling of losing something important, or in this case, almost everything important, which made it a bit hard to process.
Not that I ever processed these emotions, to begin with.
It always felt like my emotions were perfectly sorted out, but now, it was hard to even make heads and tails of them. I understood why that was happening, or at least I thought I did. It was complicated.
In my previous life, all I wanted to do was survive, regardless of what I had to do.
Thanks to that, even after losing everything, like my brother, parents, and girlfriend, I never sorted out my emotions. Instead, I locked them somewhere inside my heart, not even bothering to remember them.
In short, I ran away—not having the willpower to face them head-on, and simply moved forward with life.
All those emotions that had been piling up for decades came crashing down the moment I was about to lose everything again, which made me realise why I felt so unstable, not to mention vulnerable. It'd be impossible to run away if something like that were to happen in this life, too.
'Thinking feels like a pain…'
I didn't even know if my 'love' for my 'current' family was genuine or not. Was I lying to myself, looking for my dead family within them and making myself believe that they were something they weren't?
It made me wonder…
After how much time we spent together, do I still see them as mere replacements for my original family?
For some reason, that thought disturbed me.
After all—
{Great Sage, activate the self-destruct sequence of all three laboratories and prepare to transfer the explosions to the banquet hall. Make sure to teleport Elmenhilde out of the lab before that…}
{Notice. The attack will endanger Master's family and—}
{I know, but we have no choice…}
The moment Ajuka pushed me into a corner, I had zero hesitations about nuking the banquet hall and endangering the lives of my family.
If Ajuka hadn't stopped when he did…
I didn't even wish to imagine that.
It was hard to understand my own emotions, and it still felt that my previous life was easier because I never had to deal with such things.
What a pathetic excuse of an adult I was.
Ajuka's little life lesson had hit a lot harder than he thought it would.
"What a pain..."
I rolled my body around, lying on my back while looking at the ceiling, thinking about something other than these thoughts.
From this incident, a few things became clear to me.
First, regardless of my mess of emotions, I wanted to live this life, even if it was a lie.
There was no doubt about it.
I could sort out my feelings as time passed, but not if everything went to waste, so my priority was to keep this life safe.
But I had no intention of giving up on my research.
Both lives were mine, and I wouldn't sacrifice one for the other.
Never.
That side of me was the same as yesterday, and that wouldn't change.
It was an insanely extreme version of keeping work and personal life apart or the borderline version of Multiple Personality Disorder. Whatever one preferred to call it.
So, to maintain both my lives, I'd need to be even more cautious than I was before, especially when a lot of people would keep an eye on me, including the Great King Faction led by Zekram Bael, the First Great King, and probably the most influential person within the Devils after the Four Great Satans.
I'd need to be careful while hunting Stray Devils in Bucharest, too, as Ajuka had previously said.
Because I, as the Overseer of Bucharest, couldn't simply deny the order of dealing with a Stray Devil hiding in my territory, and that could very well be a trap.
But, well, it wasn't like they'd make a move instantly, so some adjustments before returning to Bucharest should do.
'Great Sage, tell Elmenhilde to double—no, triple the surveillance in Bucharest.'
[Answer. Understood.]
The second thing I learned was something good.
Even Ajuka couldn't follow my [Transportation Magic], and neither could he locate my laboratories, which was reassuring, honestly.
If that bastard couldn't, there was a high chance that no one could. In the first place, he only found me out because of dumb luck, which was weird since my luck was supposed to be higher than normal, at least according to the number of Positive Karma I had in my previous life.
But then again, if it were someone other than him, my life would've been over instantly.
In a sense, it could be considered my luck that the one who found me was my brother. Regarding this matter, I felt both annoyed and grateful towards him.
Annoyed that because of him, the difficulty of collecting test subjects was raised by several levels, and grateful that because of him, I learned an important lesson without losing anything important.
That bastard was an asshole, but he was still my older brother.
Other than the difficulty of collecting test subjects, nothing changed about how I conducted my experiments because my laboratories were safe.
And since no one could follow my [Transportation Magic] circle, finding even one of my four facilities by searching for them was nigh impossible.
Even without the hundreds of Concealment Barriers, the locations I chose weren't easy to reach, even for people far stronger than me.
That was the reason it took me years to establish those places.
"Right, I also have to visit Diodora tomorrow..."
Regardless of the circumstances, I still needed [Kankara Formula] to improve the efficiency of my [Life Force Conversion].
I wanted a good night's sleep, but my mind was too occupied with various things, including the large-scale experiment that Great Sage would soon conduct regarding Darkness Magic.
'Now that I think about it, I wonder if Elmenhilde finished preparing everything I asked for?'
Knowing her, she should've already prepared everything.
Elmenhilde's goal was survival, along with Millarca's safety, and she was willing to do anything for that, even if it was betraying the Vampire Race or her Mother, so her being a slacker was out of the question. After all, her chances of survival were directly proportionate to her usefulness.
And she understood this, as well, so her performance would always remain at the highest level possible.
Her development also needed my attention.
There were too many things on my mind.
"Ughh... It's happening again..."
It was the same as I did in my previous life.
Whenever I felt like there was something emotional that was hard to deal with, I started focusing on various things at the same time to ignore the emotional problem and keep myself busy to avoid thinking about the main issue.
That was exactly how I dealt with my family's ruin, which was also the reason why I didn't think much about them, as it kept reminding me of the emotions from back then.
While I was thinking about how to clear my mind, I remembered what Alice had told me about how she dealt with difficult situations.
{Azrail, if you ever need to clear your mind of useless thoughts and worries, all you need to do is pick up your sword and start swinging it.}
At that time, I never thought I'd ever need to try this out, but the future was unpredictable.
Without even bothering to get up from the bed, I teleported inside the Astaroth Clan's training field.
---
"Hup! A perfect landing!"
Appearing mid-air inside the training field, I performed an unnecessarily grand flip before landing on the ground.
After switching on the lights, along with the barriers around the field, I stood at the centre of the training field before summoning Arondight.
In all honesty, the Demon Sword was a bit too big for my current frame, but it'd be perfectly fine after some years.
Grabbing Arondight's hilt, which I hadn't done since placing it inside the [Sacred Gear Research Lab], I took a deep breath, remembering what Alice had previously told me.
I closed my eyes, and soon, my body instinctively took the stance it felt most comfortable.
{Calm your breathing, close your eyes, relax your muscles, and swing your sword. There's no need to think about your next move. Let your mind rest and move according to your instinct… Do it until your body gives up, and when you open your eyes again, your mind will be a lot clearer than it was.}
I did as Alice had previously told me to, not knowing how my body was moving or what kind of swordplay I was doing, as no thoughts crossed my mind.
It felt extremely peaceful, and I had no idea how much time passed, but I kept swinging my sword without a single thought, letting my instinct take over completely.
.
.
.
"Haah... Haah..."
I had no idea how long I'd been swinging my sword, but when I opened my eyes and came back to my senses, my whole body was covered in sweat.
My demonic power was at rock bottom, too.
I hated the feeling of exhausting myself completely in training until now, but surprisingly enough, I didn't feel tired, not even a little.
My body was physically exhausted, yes, but the mental exhaustion I felt before was completely gone, and my head felt a lot more clear now.
Soon, I used a [Clean] spell on myself, wiping off all the sweat.
'Great Sage, create a new training routine and add it to my schedule. Make sure that it exhausts me completely every day…'
[Answer. Understood.]
There was no point in avoiding combat training for research.
"Is this how muscle-headed dumb people feel after working out—tired bodies but clear minds?"
"Who are you referring to as a muscle-headed dumb person?"
Hearing a familiar voice behind me, I turned around, looking at Alice.
From her clothes, I guessed that it hadn't been long since I started swinging my sword since she wore her favourite pyjamas, so it was safe to assume it was still nighttime.
"I don't remember ever mentioning your name, Alice."
I looked around the training field. Surprisingly, it wasn't completely demolished, which could be thanks to the barriers surrounding the walls.
It wasn't hard to tell that Alice had created these barriers because the ones used in this training field wouldn't even survive a few attacks from me, and the current ones didn't just block physical attacks but sound as well.
After analysing every corner of the field, I finally looked into Alice's eyes, trying to see if there were any changes in how she looked at me.
Apart from the Four Great Satans, Alice was one of the few people who most likely knew what was going on at the banquet.
Unlike others, she should have realised that Azrail Astaroth was the main criminal rather than simply being involved in the crime, so it was a mystery as to how she'd react because I hadn't seen her after the banquet ended.
Then again, I avoided almost everyone after the banquet, like Alice, my parents, Sebas, and so on.
Alice crouched down in front of me, bringing our eyes on an equal level, staring at me for a good few seconds before she giggled lightly.
As if knowing what I was thinking about, she commented.
"Trying to check from my expression whether my attitude towards you changed…? My Lord did play one mean joke on you, didn't he?"
Without waiting for me to say anything, Alice brought her wrist next to my forehead and flicked her middle finger, hitting my forehead.
Ouch.
"You don't think our relationship will change just because of such a simple detail, right?"
Alice had always understood me on a mental level, but this kind of telepathy was somewhat concerning.
"Simple detail, you say?"
I looked at her face, which was only a few inches away from mine, and my intrusive thoughts told me to kiss her, but I pushed them to the back of my head instead of pushing my head forward.
"I'm sure that My Lord has already told you this, but such simple details don't matter in our lives, and they won't change the relationships you have… Not at a grand scale, at least. Even I have done things far more terrible than killing a few thousand people. Not to mention, overthinking everything isn't good for your health."
I looked into Alice's eyes for a good minute, and soon, I chuckled.
My parents, Sebas, Alice, and Ajuka, were far older and more mature than me, regardless of how they behaved. Even with the standards of my previous self, I'd still be considered the youngest in our family.
"Alice, I think I'm in love with you."
Alice smiled, getting up as her pyjamas changed into a casual dress she'd wear on any normal day.
"That's not the most appropriate thing to say right after your engagement party, you know? At least have some patience."
And just like that, Alice delayed my honest confession for a few years once again.
A shame that she wasn't into kids—
Forget it.
"By the way, Alice, what's the time?"
Since she had changed out of her pyjamas, it shouldn't be nighttime like I previously thought, and the clothes on my body soon changed, too.
"Ten in the morning, if I'm not wrong."
Hold on.
'Does that mean I've been swinging my sword for over twelve hours?'
Damn.
"And how long have you been watching me?"
"Around ten hours. I knew you'd be here to clear your mind, so I came to check on you."
"You need better hobbies to spend your time on, Alice."
Better than watching a ten-year-old kid for several hours.
"But contrary to my expectations, your swordplay hasn't diminished even after the lack of training. It remained stagnant, neither diminishing nor improving."
I could tell that it was a genuine compliment, which made me ask.
"Really?"
In all honesty, I believed that my skills would deteriorate with time, but apparently, that wasn't the case.
It made sense after considering how Alice beat swordsmanship into my very soul four years ago. I also practised by myself after her training, except for the past six months in Bucharest since I was busy with my experiments, along with Elmenhilde's training as a lab assistant.
"Indeed, even I was surprised."
A [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared under Alice's feet, and after storing Arondight inside my shadow, I stepped on it.
"... How did you do that?"
Alice looked at my shadow, somewhat confused.
"[Darkness Magic], what else can it be?"
The blonde stared at me for a few seconds, her eyes widening slightly.
"Wait, so not only Devils from the Underworld but also Vampires from Bucharest—that explains why you weren't in Bucharest whenever I checked up on you… I thought that wasn't the case since Vampires stopped disappearing after you helped the Carmilla Faction deal with the culprit, but it looks like you found another way to get them…"
Wow.
She connected all the dots quickly.
A bit too quickly, honestly.
"Alice, how did you get so smart all of a sudden?"
I smiled at her, not answering her question directly.
But yeah.
Ever since enslaving Elmenhilde, I had no reason to abduct Vampires. There were more than enough test subjects within the Carmilla Faction's prison, and she could supply as many as I wanted.
When we first met, I had no idea Elmenhilde could do that, and her enslavement was based on the fact that she was a Noble Vampire, but my investment in her paid off immensely.
When Alice heard my reply, her mouth twitched.
"I have always been smart."
"We both know that's not true, Alice; please don't delude yourself. You've had more blonde moments than both Latia and Vanessa combined."
My mind was now clear enough to make mean comments about everyone once again.
Alice growled, giving up as the barriers surrounding the training field disappeared, and soon, we teleported inside the Astaroth Clan's Castle.
---
"So, when are you going back to Bucharest?"
Walking through the hallway of the Astaroth Clan's Castle along with Alice, I started counting down the things that I needed to do before resuming my duties as the overseer.
"I have to meet Rias; she said she has a request."
Even though the two of us were engaged, nothing much changed in our lives. No one expected us to do anything special about it.
"Then I have to see Latia; she seemed rather mad, so I'll threaten her with books."
Latia was, by no means, happy about the 'prank' I pulled with Ajuka, and coupled with how she wasn't allowed to sleep in my room yesterday, she was most likely turning red from anger.
It was for days like these that I had books stored inside my Dimensional Storage.
Latia was a smart girl. She'd sooner or later understand that the performance wasn't a prank, though I had some doubts about Rias.
"I have to meet my parents."
I won't lie; that part still scared me a bit.
After the banquet ended, I ran back to my room at full speed, completely ignoring my father and mother because my mind was a mess, knowing that Ajuka would be waiting for me there.
'Although, it wouldn't be a bad idea to pin the blame for what Ajuka mentioned on someone else and say that our performance was an attempt to draw out the original mastermind or something like that to clear my record…'
I could frame someone who was a Pure-Blooded Devil and had some reason to plot against me.
Someone who was a dumb and easy target. A devil who hated my guts, like…
"I have to visit Diodora, too."
"Why Diodora?"
Alice tilted her head in confusion.
"I need the prototype of Ajuka's [Kankara Formula], which is inside the storeroom of the heir's Castle, at least according to him."
I hoped that this wasn't a prank or something.
"[Kankara Formula], huh?"
"Right, Alice, did Lord Lucifer leave already?"
"He left early this morning because he needed to frame another criminal to cover up for someone else's crimes. Lord Gremory, Lady Gremory, and Grayfia also left with him. As for Rias, she is staying with Latia in her room."
Needless to say, the criminal Sirzechs was covering for was none other than me.
"... Is that so?"
Alice smiled a bit, but before she could reply, someone called us out from the side.
"Azrail, Alice!"
The one who called us out was none other than Lord Astaroth, who appeared to be around the same age as my father. He walked towards us with a smile, accompanied by Ajuka.
Alice casually waved at them with a smile, and seeing that, I did the same.
"What are you guys up to?"
"Breakfast."
"It's unlike you to be late for food, though."
At Ajuka's comment, Alice slowly looked at me from the corner of her eyes, which made both Ajuka and Lord Astaroth nod in acknowledgement.
While I was well known for being the second most gifted person in the Astaroth Clan, I was also the biggest slacker born in the entire history of our bloodline. It was to the point that never once had I made it to the breakfast table on time, always eating breakfast when it was almost afternoon.
I expended all my energy and brainpower during my experiments, so my battery-saver mode would activate whenever I was at home.
"Ajuka, I wanted to ask you something."
"Hm?"
"Going by your natural growth, how long did it take you to reach your prime?"
A Devil's prime was when his Demonic Power rose to its natural limits by ageing and would no longer increase regardless of how old the Devil got, so the only choice was to increase it through immense training.
And Ajuka, as a Super Devil, had such immense Demonic Power Reserves that it was hard to even measure them.
"A little over a hundred years, similar to Sirzechs."
So it took him a hundred years to naturally reach the level of a Super Devil, huh?
But it was hard to ignore the possibility of him increasing his Demonic Power artificially, but something like that shouldn't be happening with Sirzechs.
"What about the Ultimate Class?"
"Around twelve or thirteen."
"Without training?"
"Absolutely no training; all I did was roam around inside my lab."
He was a walking and talking cheat.
"What about Lord Lucifer?"
"Except for occasionally sparring with me and learning to control his [Power of Destruction], all he did was play a piano and think about Grayfia."
My original goal was to reach the peak of Ultimate Class by the time the DxD plot began, as that would be enough to protect myself while also focusing on my experiments.
However, I decided to up the bar after what happened at the banquet.
"Why're you asking?"
"To set a bar for me." I shrugged my shoulders at Ajuka's question. "Last question, how strong are you...like really?"
Even after reading all the written records about him or Sirzechs, I couldn't tell how strong they were.
It was obvious that they were well above Satan Class, which overlapped with Lower-Ranked Gods, but even then, I had no idea what their upper limit was, and everything was speculation on my part.
"It's hard to explain, but..." Ajuka's smile was enough to tell me that I wouldn't get a proper answer from him. "Very strong. Why don't you create a good enough spell to appraise others and see for yourself."
Ah, well.
The four of us talked for a few minutes until Lord Astaroth said he was about to visit Diodora at the Heir's Castle, which caused me to ask.
"Can I tag along, too? I have something to discuss with Diodora."
"Of course."
Lord Astaroth agreed without much thought, and Ajuka turned towards him with a smile.
"Lord Astaroth, how about showing Azrail 'that' place? You're going to the Heir's Castle either way."
Hearing Ajuka's proposal, Lord Astaroth nodded without much thought.
"That's a good idea, My Lord."
Alice seemed to agree with Ajuka's proposal to show me 'that' place, although I had no idea what was going on, and looking at my brother, I couldn't help but ask.
"What are you talking about?"
"You'll find out when you see it."
Ajuka just grinned at me, not explaining anything.
With that, I, along with Lord Astaroth, left for the Heir's Castle while Alice left to eat breakfast. As for Ajuka, he went ahead to visit our parents one last time before leaving.
---
"By the way, Lord Astaroth, why are you going out of your way to visit Diodora when you could've just summoned him instead?"
"It's about him not attending your engagement ceremony. I would've understood if he showed up late to show his disapproval, but instead, he ignored his duty as the heir and missed the banquet entirely."
"That doesn't change the fact that you could've just summoned him."
"I already summoned him, but there was no reply. That's why I am personally visiting the Heir's Castle."
All things considered, it was Lord Astaroth's fault for not beating some sense into Diodora when he was young.
However, from how it looked, Lord Astaroth was rather angry this time, indicating that he wouldn't cut his son any slack, and with those thoughts in mind, the two of us arrived in front of the Heir's Castle.
"At this point, I hope you become the next heir as soon as possible, Azrail."
"I'll think about it if you let me mess with Diodora a little."
I looked at Lord Astaroth with a smile, and he nodded in return.
Regardless of whether he had his peerage with him or not, I could beat Diodora and his servants within minutes. Hell, even Latia was stronger than all of his servants.
"Do as you please. As long as you don't go too far, there is no reason for me to say anything."
My smile slightly widened at those words, and we quietly stared at the giant door in front of us, waiting for someone to open it. There was no need for us to do anything because the ones inside should've sensed us by now.
Diodora had no servants from the Astaroth Clan stationed inside the castle, so the only ones who stayed here were him and his peerage.
Soon after, the door was opened by a beautiful woman in her late teens, but what surprised us was her appearance.
The woman's face was flushed red with slap marks around her cheeks, her clothes dishevelled with messy hair and heavy breathing, along with strangulation marks around her neck.
'Someone was going hardcore, huh…'
It wasn't hard to tell what was going on minutes before we arrived.
Lord Astaroth shook his head, indicating his extreme disappointment in his son.
"Lord Astaroth, Lord Azrail, welcome!"
The woman, whom I recognised as Diodora's [Queen], bowed towards us, and despite her respectful behaviour, I could feel her displeasure upon seeing me, which was obvious considering how much her Master hated me. But then again, her feelings about me didn't matter.
Except for her being a beautiful Holy Maiden, there was nothing noteworthy about her, and her characteristics were as bland as any random person in this world—a worthless existence, similar to the others that filled Diodora's peerage.
The thing that interested me more was what Ajuka was talking about previously, so I was looking forward to what Lord Astaroth would show me at the Heir's Castle, along with getting my hands on the prototype for Ajuka's [Kankara Formula].
---
Words: 4,399
A/N:
Damn. My bro Todo finally pulled up on Sukuna. Rip Choso tho.
In the next chapter of Sukuna Kaisen, Zoro's gonna pull up.
The Strongest Sorceror of History vs. The Strongest Swordsman of Future.