Chapter 36: Gleipnir (1)
[Underworld: Serafall Memorial Hospital.]
"That's more than enough! Please leave the rest to us!"
Amy rested her hands on her master's chest, who was unconscious on the bed with numerous bandages wrapped around his body. Needles connected with tubes dug into his skin, transfusing blood into his body.
Her demonic power surged, and a green light continuously poured into her master's body without restraint.
Even after all the training she did, Amy couldn't restore blood loss, so her focus was solely on healing his physical injuries to sustain his life enough for the treatment to begin.
"No… I must heal Lord Azrail…"
She could feel her reserves hitting rock bottom, which caused her vision to blur, and she felt like she'd pass out any moment now.
However, that didn't stop her from casting [Healing Magic] to the best of her abilities.
"Ah…"
For a moment, her consciousness blanked out, and she stumbled backwards, unable to control her body.
"You've done enough. Take a break now…"
Alice helped Amy before she could fall to the ground, gently holding her shoulders and supporting her.
"But… Lord Azrail hasn't..."
Sweat dripped from Amy's body, her breathing heavy as she watched a [Transportation Magic Circle] appear under Azrail's bed.
"Everything is prepared! Begin transfer!"
The medics surrounding him initiated the magic circle, soon disappearing along with him.
"Wait… I can keep going…"
"Calm down. Leave it to the professionals now…"
Alice guided Amy to the nearest chair and patted her back.
"Do you want something to eat or drink?"
"No… I'm fine…"
"Take a rest for now. The staff might need a healer sometime soon."
"Yes."
Alice sat on the chair next to the healer, resting her elbows on her thighs and burying her face in her hands.
'Calling Amy here was the correct decision...'
Even though she transferred Azrail to the Serafall Memorial Hospital immediately, no healers were available at that moment, and the ones available weren't good enough.
So, she hurriedly summoned Amy from Bucharest and ordered her to heal Azrail.
It worked, and the [Pawn] managed to sustain her [King]'s life enough to potentially survive the treatment and recover.
However, that thought didn't make Alice happy. Not at all.
'Even if his physical body can heal, what about…' She didn't even have the heart to think it through, much less break the 'real' news to Azrail's family. 'Haah. For now…'
A communication magic circle appeared next to her face, and she contacted the person whose abilities she believed in the most.
{What's up, Alice?}
"My Lord, can you come to the Serafall Memorial Hospital? And please call the others, too…"
{Very well.}
Maybe it was because of the unusual heaviness in her voice, but Ajuka didn't complain about being summoned out of his laboratory on such short notice.
.
.
.
It didn't even take the Four Great Satans a few minutes to arrive at the hospital, and Alice explained what she knew happened with Azrail.
"A vampire, huh?"
"To think someone would target him only a week after the banquet… Was there a flaw in our cover?"
"That's impossible... I double-checked everything and even had Alice brainwash the supposed eyewitnesses…"
"You shouldn't have made such a mess, Ajuka-chan!"
"Even I can't undo past events, so talking about them wouldn't help much…" Ajuka dismissed Serafall's words and turned towards Alice. "Do you know who the assassin was?"
"I didn't see her face, but she used [Shadow Domain] to hold Azrail in place and used her subordinates to power it… That description matches the rumours about how Shadow Fiend operates…"
"Where is she?"
"Dead… I didn't think much before eradicating Shadow Fiend and her subordinates…"
"If someone had enough resources to hire the Shadow Fiend herself in such a short time to assassinate a child… They must be quite well-off and have some good connections…"
"That doesn't matter right now…"
"Don't worry, I'll make sure that dumbass doesn't die. Whatever the case is, he's still my brother…"
"That's not what I'm worried about…"
Alice paused mid-sentence, raising her right hand towards Ajuka before a small cross of purple holy fire manifested above her palm.
Each of the Four Great Satans knew about her sacred gear, but they were still surprised at the scene.
After all, the cross showed the image of someone crucified on it.
"Alice, what the hell have you done…"
Ajuka's eyes slowly widened as he looked at the purple cross. No, he wasn't looking at the cross.
The only thing that took all his attention was his brother's soul, crucified to the cross with his consciousness sealed.
"This was the only way I could think of to stop his life force from depleting further—to temporarily seal his soul inside [Incinerate Anthem] and cancel whatever he did to himself…"
One of the basic abilities of her sacred gear was to capture the souls of 'sinners' and use them as a source of power—something she hadn't used in a long time.
Whether it was for the better or worse, Azrail was the worst sinner she had ever imprisoned, which made it extremely easy for her to seize his soul.
That was something her sacred gear could tell, even though they didn't know what sins he committed.
It was so bad that she had to actively stop her [Incinerate Anthem] from destroying his soul by itself.
Alice didn't know what he did in his time at Bucharest, but whatever he did, she was sure that he certainly didn't hold back.
"Hmm…" Ajuka gestured with his fingers, and the purple cross flew towards him, levitating in front of his face. The more he stared at it, the worse his expression became. "This is… a lot more troublesome than I thought..."
Everyone held their queries and quietly waited for Ajuka to continue. After all, they all knew that his knowledge regarding souls far surpassed every one of them combined.
"Let's proceed with the treatment first… There's no point worrying about Azrail's lifespan if his physical body doesn't survive first. I'll think about it in the meantime…"
That was all he said, and Azrail's soul returned to Alice.
---
[One Week Later.]
"Thank you for saving his life, Amy…"
"Lady Celis, you don't have to lower your head…"
Celis held Amy's hands in her hands, her forehead resting on them as she lowered her head.
"No… If it weren't for you, Azrail wouldn't have…"
Celis didn't continue, and her words trailed off mid-sentence.
"Lady Celis, I didn't..."
Amy clenched her fists while staring at Celis, who still held her hands in a tight grip. She opened her mouth, but the words seemed caught in her throat.
She wanted to tell Celis that she didn't heal Azrail—not entirely, at least. All she did was heal his physical wounds and allow him to recover temporarily.
But she couldn't find the willpower to do so.
Everyone knew how worried Celis had been for the past week ever since she received the news about what happened to her son.
Only after she learned that Azrail's life wasn't in danger any longer did she calm down.
However, Celis had no idea about what happened to her son's soul. The only ones who knew the truth were the Four Great Satans, Grayfia, Alice, and Amy.
If Celis were to know of that…
Amy couldn't even imagine how heartbroken she would be.
But as his mother, she had the right to know.
{Stop. Mother doesn't need to know that now…}
As if knowing what she was about to say, a voice rang inside her head.
'Lord Beelzebub…?'
Amy pursed her lips at that telepathic message before glancing towards Ajuka, who stood at the other side of the room with Alice, only for him to shake his head lightly.
Since that was the case, she forced a weak smile, hoping to convey her gratitude to Celis without letting out the truth she couldn't bring herself to speak. "No, Lady Celis… As Lord Azrail's [Pawn], I must help him in any way I can…"
Even before she became his [Pawn], Azrail always treated her with kindness and respect despite her status as a Middle-Class Devil.
She knew how most of the High-Class Devils from the 72 Pillars treated their servants, and she always felt grateful for how considerate her master was of her.
It wasn't even other clans. Even some members of the Astaroth Clan treated those from the Valmra Clan with disdain and disgust. One such person would be the clan's heir, Diodora Astaroth.
Compared to that, being able to serve Azrail was nothing less than a blessing for her.
{You're the closest thing I have to a younger sister. If there's something that's bothering you, ask me for help without hesitation.}
{But Lord Azrail, I'm older than you…}
{That's not the point.}
That was a small conversation they had some time ago.
It might have been a small gesture from his side out of consideration for everything she did for him, but it truly touched her heart.
Whenever he thanked her out of nowhere for mundane tasks, the memory stuck with her for a long time and made her feel valued, something she had never experienced.
After all, the Valmra Clan taught her that she didn't possess any 'value' as a person.
[No matter what your master does to you or how they treat you, always adhere to their wishes before anything else. We exist only to serve the Astaroth Clan.]
That was the first thing a child from her clan learned, and naturally, she was no exception.
However, despite knowing that, Azrail always treated her like a person, even helping her develop hobbies other than simply living for his sake.
She doubted any pure-blooded devil would go as far as to take care of their servants like that.
{Amy, thank you.}
{Why?}
{For taking care of me all this time.}
{But you make it sound like I'm leaving your side, Lord Azrail.}
{I was only thanking you, and as for leaving my side, I won't let you go.}
{I am happy to hear that.}
Every time she remembered the horrifying sight of her master's condition when Alice summoned her from Bucharest out of nowhere, the memories she had with him would appear inside her head.
It still terrified her, imagining what happened to him and what he went through.
'What if Lord Azrail... Never wakes up?'
The mere thought sent a chill down her spine, and she pushed it to the back of her head.
"Let her rest for a while, Celis." Sebastian patted his wife's back. "Amy only returned to the clan after spending the last week healing Azrail regularly, so she must be tired. We can thank her later…"
Since his condition had stabilised, the Astaroth Clan transferred Azrail from the Serafall Memorial Hospital to Astaroth Castle, and he was sleeping peacefully inside a room.
"Yeah… I'm sorry for calling you here the moment you came back…"
Celis released Amy's hands and apologised, which caused the maid to shake her head.
"I know Lady Celis is worried, so I don't mind…"
"Thank you."
After a few minutes, Celis and Sebastian left, and Alice approached Amy.
"You don't need to blame yourself… You're the only reason Azrail's still alive. He'd be mad if he knew you were beating yourself up for something out of your control."
"I understand, but…" Amy paused for a few seconds. "When will Lord Azrail wake up?"
As far she knew, Azrail's soul was still with Alice.
"That's…"
Alice glanced at Ajuka, who answered in her stead.
"Alice already placed his soul inside his body, and I finished the integration process…" Probably noticing how everything was going above Amy's head, Ajuka simplified his explanation. "It's similar to how Evil Pieces collect a recently dead person's soul and resurrect them… We only did the process manually with some extra steps."
"Then, when will Lord Azrail wake up?"
"I don't know." Ajuka shook his head, and as his words continued, Amy's face paled. "It could be days, weeks, months, years, decades, or centuries…"
"B-But Lord Azrail doesn't have that much time to—!"
"He's messing with you, Amy…" Alice glared at Ajuka from the corner of her eyes, and he smiled at her. "The sudden loss of lifespan took a toll on Azrail's soul, so the only thing we can do is let him recover naturally."
"If we do anything to hinder his soul's natural recovery or try to restore his lifespan before he wakes up, it'll cause more harm than good…"
"I understand." Amy nodded at Alice and Ajuka's explanations. "And I apologise for raising my voice..."
"It's fine… That was a crude joke, to begin with." Alice rested her hand on Amy's shoulder. "Go and have some rest. I'm sure Azrail will wake up soon."
"Yes, Lady Alice…"
However, despite those words, Azrail showed no signs of waking up for over a week.
---
Azrail Astaroth Pov:
'Great Sage… Take note that the only vampire I don't hate is Elmenhilde…'
[Answer. Noted, Master.]
For obvious reasons, it seemed like Great Sage also felt the same way as me.
"I haven't been this bored in a while…"
I stood atop an ocean floor, which seemed to be stretching endlessly in all directions with no visible ripples in sight, only to let out a tired sigh.
At first, it was a new and pleasant experience, being inside my consciousness for the first time, but I lost interest in it soon enough.
"But at least I don't have to stay inside [Incinerate Anthem] any longer. It kept nagging me about being a sinner and whatnot…"
I had a rough idea of what Alice did to cancel out the effects of [Life Force Conversion] moments before all of my life force could disappear.
She sealed my soul inside her sacred gear, messing with the spell formation and causing it to deactivate.
However, rather than using it to power herself, she used it as a storage and returned my soul to my body after around a week.
As for the current situation—
[Notice. Master's soul is re-synchronising with his body.]
It was the same synchronisation that happened when I reincarnated into this world, but there was one major difference.
Since Alice forcefully extracted my soul from my body and how it wasn't a natural process like last time, the synchronisation would take a while to complete.
After [Incinerate Anthem] released my soul, I somehow ended up here rather than passing out.
Great Sage now started working with the synchronisation, leaving me all alone in the middle of nowhere.
'There's no telling how long it'll take, so let's research some magic for now…'
The confrontation with Lyra reminded me of something I had neglected for a while.
Despite being one hell of a mage, I lacked offensive spells.
[Life Force Conversion], [A Corpse Never Lies], [Gravity Magic], [Sound Magic], and [Way of the Wind] were all incredible spells, but their main purpose was to support rather than to increase my overall firepower.
The offensive spells I had weren't suitable against those with similar fighting capabilities and could only be used to bully those weaker than me.
As for the commonly used offensive and elemental spells, they weren't energy-efficient enough to suit my tastes. Not to mention, the amount of practice they required to reach a high enough level wasn't something I could waste time on.
So, the only answer was to create some powerful and destructive custom spells.
I originally planned on doing it after three or four years, but Lyra's attack and Ajuka's prank made me rethink that decision.
Life could be unpredictable despite being seemingly perfect—something I forgot after living without much difficulty for over a decade. It was better to prepare in advance.
'I also need to create some soul-related spells for 'that' using my experience within [Incinerate Anthem]. Although, I doubt my time here would be enough to do all that, so…'
Since Great Sage was currently working on the synchronisation, I was in control of all her abilities, which also included [Thought Acceleration].
'Let's use that, too…'
I increased the speed of my thought process by a hundred times to have some extra time for researching the spells I'd need the most right now.
And so, as I kept researching magic while waiting for the synchronisation to end, a little over a week passed.
Naturally, that was only true for the time in the outside world.
.
.
.
"Aah…"
A small groan came out of my mouth, and as my soul finally finished synchronising with the body, my senses started returning to me after spending over two years inside my consciousness.
Touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing…
My right hand rested on someone's head, fingers running through some long, silky and smooth hair.
As for my left hand…
There wasn't any sensation from it.
I slowly opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling, but from the cornice moulding designs, it seemed this room was within Astaroth Castle.
The first thing I did was check my physical condition with demonic power.
'Except for my left forearm, everything recovered properly. There's no pain, missing organs, or sensory delay, and I can control my demonic power without problems, too…'
Except for a few scars on my chest, back, and shoulder, Lyra's attacks left no permanent damage that'd require further treatment.
That was good.
It'd be too much trouble if I needed to find cures for both my physical body and depleted lifespan.
"Hah…"
I slowly raised my neck to the side, noticing Latia's sleeping face squished against the bed because of my hand.
"Mmh…"
Latia grumbled a little when I moved my fingers to ruffle her hair.
'She probably fell asleep while waiting for me to wake up. And if she's here…'
My neck turned towards the other side, and sure enough, Rias was in a similar position, sitting next to the bed with her head resting on my left side.
However, as much as I wanted to, there was no left arm for me to place on her head.
"They spent most of their time here ever since we brought you back from the Serafall Memorial Hospital…"
Alice's familiar voice came from above me, and I let my head drop back on the pillow, meeting her gaze.
She stood behind the bed while leaning on the headboard, her face directly above mine.
"Serafall Memorial Hospital… Isn't it strange for someone to create a memorial for themselves?"
"You shouldn't say that. Lady Leviathan didn't even charge us for the treatments. She looked disgusted at the thought of earning money from her 'younger brother's' treatment…"
Alice smiled, her short hair falling. It was a rare sight—seeing her forehead without the bangs hiding it.
The thing about Serafall was a joke. Regardless of the bills, I'd thank her properly whenever I saw her, but before that, someone else deserved it first.
"Thank you, Alice." It was an honest display of gratitude. "You saved my life."
If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have made it regardless of who came to save me.
"You used to call me 'big sister' when you were little, and now you're thanking me for something?" Alice chuckled. "And that earnest expression doesn't suit your face."
"Is that how you talk to someone who almost saw heaven?"
"Even if devils had an afterlife, I doubt you'd go there."
"Alice… I love you and all, but that's mean…"
Her smile widened slightly. "Since you can make small talk, you must be fine."
'Ah…'
Mother once told me that Alice used to be one of the politest people, never going out of her way to insult or poke someone, and when I asked what happened to change her like that, Celis replied, "You came to this world."
'My birth did change her a lot…'
Following that, Alice summarised what happened after she brought me back to the Serafall Memorial Hospital, from how she placed my soul back inside my body to who came to visit me at the Astaroth Castle.
Only a handful of people visited since they hadn't publicised the incident yet as it was still under investigation.
The only ones who knew about it were some people from Astaroth and Gremory Clans, the Four Great Satans, Alice, and Grayfia.
However, most of them didn't know who attacked me or what happened to my soul.
As for the staff at the Serafall Memorial Hospital, all of them had their memories erased for the time being.
"These two didn't see me all injured, right?"
Regardless of how mature Rias and Latia were for their age, they never saw someone close to them in such a bad shape. It wouldn't be good if the incident traumatised them.
"They didn't, but Amy's pretty shaken by the incident… She blames herself for being unable to heal your soul and arm, especially after all the efforts you put into training her…"
'I knew she cared about me, but that much?'
That came out as a bit of a surprise.
'I'll talk to her later…'
Amy was as much responsible for my survival as Alice, so I needed to thank her either way.
Training her in [Healing Magic] paid off well enough.
"For now, can you teleport Rias and Latia away? I'll talk to them after they have some rest…"
Alice snapped her fingers, causing two magic circles to appear under Latia and Rias before teleporting them to another location, and the sound barrier surrounding us disappeared, too.
Moments later, I got up and sat cross-legged on the bed, summoning a dead vampire's corpse from my shadow.
"This is…"
"One of Shadow Fiend's subordinates I killed," I answered Alice's doubts, my hand resting above the corpse's head. "It might help in the investigation."
[Notice. Successfully stored the vampire's memories.]
Good.
Considering how Shadow Fiend worked, the corpse wouldn't help much in finding clues about her background or hideouts, but her subordinate's memories certainly would be of some help to me.
"Right… My attack destroyed everything around that area, so there was a lack of evidence…"
"You overdid it…"
"Ahem!" Alice faked a cough and stored the vampire's corpse inside her dimensional storage, soon changing the topic entirely. "By the way, we've already ordered an artificially created arm for you. It should arrive in a while."
'Lyra must've stored my hand inside her shadow because she wanted to patch me up before returning me to her client alive, or so that the client could do it themselves…'
At least before she decided to keep me 'all to herself.'
"There's no need for that. You should cancel the order immediately, or it'll be a waste of money."
Artificially created limbs and organs were extremely expensive and hard to create, after all.
"Please don't tell me you plan on living without an arm forever…"
Alice stared at me with a weird expression, only for me to smile at her.
"Of course not."
A magic circle appeared next to my left shoulder, and—
Thud!*
My bicep detached from it without any blood before falling to the ground.
"What are—?!"
"Wait a minute, Alice."
A [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared on the bed, summoning a large glass container covered in [Preservation Magic] with a left hand sealed inside it.
I opened the container and placed the extra left hand against my empty shoulder.
"Can you drop a Phoenix Tear on me?"
"Ah, right…"
Alice was so dumbfounded that she followed those words without questions, summoning a Phoenix Tear from her storage and dropping it on me.
"Haa…" I moved my newly attached left arm for a while, only to reveal a satisfied smile. "It's as good as the old one, if not better…"
My shadow went down and devoured the bicep I had previously detached.
"Is that…?"
"Ahaha…" Ajuka's amused chuckle came from the other side of the room, and he continued from where Alice left off. "A limb artificially created from his cells… He probably prepared spares in case something like this ever happened."
I turned towards Ajuka, only to find him leisurely sitting on a chair. In front of him was a chessboard, revealing an unfinished game.
"I never thought you'd come to greet me so soon… I'm truly touched, brother."
That was a lie.
I sensed him and Alice when I woke up with [Gravity Detection].
However, there was no point in letting him know that. Knowing Ajuka, it'd take a few seconds to hide his gravitational fields if he knew I could sense him using them.
After all, it wasn't an impossible feat for accomplished magic users, as even Alice could do it in a minute or two.
So, letting others know about this ability was out of the question.
"That's… Even with our best technology, it needs over half a year to create one limb by artificially growing cells for supernatural beings, and for it to be this precise…"
Alice's surprise was a given.
Devils hadn't yet caught up to the advancements in tissue engineering that I had accomplished in my previous life, which only increased after researching the living organisms from this world.
It wasn't hard to create spare limbs and organs for someone within a week or so, including supernatural beings.
In the 'fake' laboratory, I grew and stored spare body parts since regeneration was out of my current capabilities.
That was why it didn't matter much when Lyra slashed my arm.
Ajuka, on the other hand, seemed more intrigued than surprised. "I see you haven't wasted your time while playing as the overseer of Bucharest…"
"Please. I'd be disappointed in myself if I needed to take such an easy job seriously…"
"There's something I need to talk about…" The chessboard on the table re-arranged itself. "Come here, let's talk over a game."
"Fine…"
I spent over two years inside my consciousness, and the only thing I did was research magic, from offensive to things that'd help with my current situation, so it'd be a nice change of pace.
The results were satisfactory, but thanks to there being no way to verify them inside my consciousness, the spells still needed to be fine-tuned accordingly, as they were still prototypes.
I moved to the chair across from Ajuka, and Alice sat on the empty bed.
"First, tell me how much lifespan you currently have."
"Around five years…"
"For over ten thousand years of lifespan to vanish in a few minutes… You never had the time to improve the spell that converts Life Force into Demonic Power with [Kankara Formula], huh?"
'He figured out what kind of spell [Life Force Conversion] is with such little details…'
At this point, I wasn't even surprised. He was my brother indeed.
"Yeah."
"But since you're so relaxed, you must have already thought of a method to restore your life span, no?"
"Two methods."
The first was to collect the Nekomata sisters that Manager Kim talked about before my reincarnation.
Youkai could perform Senjutsu to heal one's physical or mental condition, which relieved fatigue and restored lifespan.
And since the sisters were from the main cast, their abilities wouldn't be weak if I trained them personally.
I could also look for another High-level Youkai. The Astaroth Clan would be more than willing to pay a hefty price for someone to heal me.
However, there was one problem with this method.
Whether Senjutsu's healing abilities could compare to my demand was still unknown.
It'd be game over if they couldn't recover my life force with a certain amount of speed.
And even then, the process might take a long time.
'I also need to look into the House of Naberius first. The time Manager Kim mentioned isn't that far away…'
As for the second method…
It was much simpler, and it also allowed me to perform the first method depending on the situation.
I already had the spell ready for it. The only thing I'd need was a suitable candidate.
Not to mention, the second method might help me to achieve much more than simply healing myself.
"Do you know how the body and soul are interdependent yet incompatible?"
"I can understand them being interdependent, but incompatible? No idea…"
Our game started, and Ajuka explained about the creation of both life and souls without taking any questions. He talked about the principles of life, the concept of death, resurrection, reincarnation, how various pantheons manage the souls of their human believers, and so on.
It was hard to understand some parts, but I still listened and remembered everything for future reference.
"The soul needs to coexist with the body, but the latter isn't a perfect vessel to hold it…"
"But aren't the body and soul in perfect sync for every living being? Mathematically speaking, the numbers prove that they exist for each other, quite literally…"
Altering the soul affected the body, and vice versa. That wouldn't be possible if they weren't and needed to be in perfect sync.
And if that weren't the case, an invention like Evil Pieces wouldn't exist.
"That's what I once believed, too…" Ajuka smiled at my statement. "But if they're made for each other like you said, the concept of lifespan shouldn't exist in living beings, and everyone should enjoy eternal life."
"Wait, you mean…"
"No matter how much the soul tries, it cannot perfectly coexist with the vessel and slowly loses its power as it keeps existing in this world, while the body loses its vitality to hold the soul properly, and those two factors combine to create the concept of limited life span—whether it be a hundred years for humans or over ten thousand years for devils depending on how strong their souls and bodies are…"
"So lifespan wasn't a byproduct of them coexisting, but…"
"A flaw because they can't coexist perfectly." Ajuka finished his words, and after a few seconds, he asked. "Now, I have a question. What would the perfect vessel for a soul be?"
A perfect vessel would be a body that wouldn't let the soul lose its power over time, essentially eradicating the problem of a limited lifespan.
A body that could exist and hold the soul without using its powers.
"An immortal body that can either live forever or regenerate on its own and hold the soul within it without support from the soul's power, essentially having infinite vitality…"
"That's correct... Even if someone had a spiritual lifespan of five years, if they had a perfect vessel that wouldn't let the soul lose its power over time, then that five years of lifespan wouldn't decrease no matter how long one lives…"
"A perfect vessel…"
Vampires were the closest to 'beings who could live forever' that I knew of—a species whose spiritual lifespan wasn't even as much as Devils, but they still managed to live past it because their bodies were immortal.
However, Vampires needed blood to maintain the health of their 'immortal bodies' and to not live as rotting corpses, so they didn't have infinite vitality and couldn't regenerate on the spot.
As for regeneration, the Phenex Clan came to mind, but their clan trait required Demonic Power, so it wasn't related to vitality or body.
'I only know of a single thing that can be considered a perfect vessel…' My eyes widened after realising what Ajuka was trying to point out. "The Nine-Headed Hydra…"
"Alice once said you wanted that snake as your familiar, so you must've wanted to acquire its perfectly immortal body, too."
I glanced at Alice from the corner of my eyes, and she avoided eye contact, letting out a small mutter. "I only mentioned it to pass the time… Who would've thought he'd remember it after so many years?"
Everyone knew Alice's favourite topic to talk about was me, so there was nothing I could do about it, and the two of us waited as Ajuka continued.
"If you succeeded, it'd give you more than enough time to have someone else slowly heal your lifespan throughout the next few years…"
'So that's the method he came up with, huh…'
Honestly, his plan wasn't worse than mine, and it even had extra benefits if I were to combine our ideas. However, for him to believe I'd accomplish something as significant as copying the Nine-Headed Hydra's immortality—I couldn't understand where his confidence in my abilities came from.
'I've already prepared everything related to Hydra, from the antidote to the equipment, so if it can solve the immediate problem of my life span, doing it before schedule won't hurt…'
"I'll think about it…"
"Moving on, do you have any details about the Shadow Fiend's mission?"
I told Ajuka what happened inside the [Shadow Domain], albeit leaving the part about my power temporarily increasing enough to far surpass even the Satan Class or the final use of [Darkness Magic].
"I can think of three factions that could've had enough contacts and resources to hire Shadow Fiend…" Ajuka stared at the chessboard as he continued. "The Great King Faction somehow realised we fabricated the reports, so they wanted to read your mind and investigate the truth. If it had nothing to do with you, they would've re-attached your limbs, erased your memories, and pretended that nothing ever happened. The chances of that being the case are over the highest."
That wasn't far off from what I came up with.
Great King Faction didn't lack both connections and resources. Considering Lyra's personality and work ethic, she must've charged a ridiculous amount to capture her target alive instead of assassinating them on the spot.
Not to mention, I saw what happened to Cleria five years ago.
Even Diehauser Belial hadn't yet found the ones behind her death.
'Maybe I should visit Diehauser Belial after things related to life span are dealt with. He'll be hella willing to end the Great King Faction if he knew about everything that happened to Cleria…' With those thoughts in mind, I continued. "What about the other two factions?"
"The Tepes Faction or Carmilla Faction. While their chances aren't nearly as high as the Great King Faction, it's still a possibility. You've caused plenty of their people to disappear, right?"
"Hmm…"
Those guesses were reasonable, but we both knew that the culprit was most likely the Great King Faction.
"Well, it could be some unknown faction we don't know of…" Ajuka made one last move before getting up from his chair. "But that's all I had to say for now…"
"What about the game?"
"Look at the board; I already won."
"Huh…?" I rechecked the pieces, but it wasn't checkmate, but moments later, my eyes narrowed slightly. "Ah..."
No matter what moves I made next, I'd lose in the next eighteen to twenty-four moves.
But since I wasn't playing wholeheartedly, the loss didn't feel as bad as it should have.
"Go talk to our parents and everyone else." A [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared under Ajuka. "They're still worried sick about when you'd wake up. Right, if you can't do anything about your lifespan, tell Alice to contact me."
And with those words, he disappeared.
"He came, gave knowledge about the principles of souls and life, obliterated me in chess, and left…"
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."
At Alice's words, I leaned back on the chair. "Honestly, he feels more like someone who finished the main quest and is doing side quests for the sake of it…"
"That's the best description of My Lord I've ever heard." The blonde [Knight] let out a small laugh, taking a seat across me before storing the chessboard inside her dimensional storage. "So, when are we going to the Familiar Forest?"
"We?"
"Devils can only go to the Familiar Forest on the night of a full moon, remember? I can take you there without any reservations."
'The Nine-Headed Hydra would be the best opponent to check that prototype spell against…'
It had a large enough body, and it could regenerate from the after-effects, too.
However, there was something I wanted to know before that.
"Alice… Who are you?"
For a second, she paused at that question, but moments later, she opened her mouth.
"What do you mean?"
"Even if you're a Human/Devil Hybrid, you don't have any [Knight] pieces inside your body… Why are you posing as Ajuka's [Knight] and a Reincarnated Devil?"
It was a question out of pure curiosity.
"I'm not a Human/Devil Hybrid…" Alice smiled at me. "I was born as a pure-blooded human, and Lord Beelzebub reincarnated me into a devil…"
"Then…"
"I became a Devil before Evil Pieces came into existence… In a sense, you can say that I'm the first Reincarnated Devil to exist, but my body and soul are much closer to that of a Pure-Blooded Devil than a Reincarnated Devil."
"If that's the case, why are there no records of you having [Incinerate Anthem] or even your existence, in general?"
"That's kind of a long story…"
"I don't mind. I've been waiting for the Forbidden Alice Lore for a while now..."
The corner of Alice's mouth twitched.
"Don't treat me like a game character…!"
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Words: 6,191
A/N: We going after the Great King Faction with this one.
The word count getting bigger. Gotta control it.
Something to take note of: Azrail was the only one who developed the prototype spells inside his consciousness since Great Sage was speeding up the synchronization of his soul and body. That's also why Mc isn't reacting much to that incident. For him, it's been over two years of complete isolation.
The spells he created will be revealed as the plot progresses.