{A Day Later, Gremory Mansion}
A paper. A damn paper, really?
[Imagine the name of the person and their characteristics to locate them.]
So, I could find anyone with this paper, huh?
Funny thing was, it just looked like an old, coffee-stained A4 page. Then again, magic never makes sense, but it's real.
"So… you'll be getting your Devil Pieces today?"
That was Rias. Over the past two days, she'd gotten a little more comfortable around me. At first, she barely looked me in the eye, but now she talked to me just fine.
"Lord Beelzebub said I would be getting them, so I believe so."
Devil Pieces were a game changer. Having a team loyal to you? That was a dream in a scenario like this.
The real question was, who would I pick?
Definitely not from Rias' peerage. Well… there was one person I wanted, but she wouldn't show up anytime soon. Other than her, no one.
"Are you sure you don't want some rose tea before you leave?" That wasn't Rias.
"No, I'm fine."
This girl… she played too much.
She crossed her arms like she was disappointed, but all that did was push her already big chest forward. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she was doing it on purpose.
"I just don't feel like it, Akeno."
She was seductive, and she knew it. The black hair, soft violet eyes, amazing body, and that naturally sultry voice—Akeno was fully aware of her features, and she used them.
"Would you like anyone to go with you?" Rias asked, still scrambling around trying to pack. She clearly had more than a few days, but apparently, that wasn't enough for her.
"I can go with you." This time it was a guy's voice.
Smooth voice, smooth face, bright eyes, blonde hair.
Yeah, that was Kiba. The pretty boy devil. He was everything a knight should be—handsome, upright, courageous, and always ready to take the lead.
Two devils were missing. The cat girl, who was probably out snacking, and the vampire with severe social anxiety.
I had met Koneko. As for Gasper… not sure if met even counts. The moment we saw each other, he bolted back into his box and stayed there. Haven't seen him since.
I turned my head, still slouched on the couch, and gave Kiba a smile.
"It's fine, Kiba," I said, going back to my thoughts.
But this time, I wasn't thinking about myself. I was thinking about Rias and her crew.
Why… were they so weak?
[Rank: Middle-Class]
I mean, I was an Ultimate Class, and I wasn't much older than them. Sure, technically I have lived for hundreds of years, but I'd been frozen in time, locked at Ultimate Class since forever.
At least Rias was listed as High Class, but…
Now that I was more used to demonic energy and could sense things better, I could clearly see the gap between me and her. Not ability-wise, but in raw power.
Even with her enormous reserves, her power was unstable and didn't radiate much. She was barely clinging to High Class, and that was only thanks to her Bael and Gremory blood.
Now, someone could say the same about me. But no matter how lazy I was, this body came from the time of war, and even the laziest person trained back then.
She… clearly doesn't. Haven't seen her do a damn thing since I got here.
"But it's still hard to believe you're from the era of Civil War," Akeno said, sitting down against the couch near me. "I know you were frozen in time, but it must feel so different, right? Seeing the world change so much?"
For me? Not really. The devil world tried to mimic the human world, so a lot of things still felt the same. And since I was from the modern world, most of it made sense anyway.
"I feel a little uneasy at times," I admitted. Though that had more to do with being in this world and magic in general. "It does feel different, very different even. But compared to the chaos back then, I prefer this unfamiliarity."
She smiled, pleased. "Maybe being frozen in time wasn't so bad." Then she seemed to realize what she'd said. "That—sorry."
Yeah, that was insensitive. But I didn't care.
"It's okay," I told her. "It's not bad as you said, I have no intention of living through those times of chaos ever again."
The others gave me caring smiles. They'd clearly heard stories about those days from the Gremory parents.
Surprisingly, even though I'd only been here three days, I'd adjusted pretty well. Everything felt natural, and the Gremorys treated guests so well they almost made me feel like I belonged here.
Almost.
But I knew I wasn't meant to stay. And, as if to remind me, a green teleportation circle lit up on the floor. Everyone in the hall knew who it was.
Time for me to get up.
"I hope you're ready, Faiser."
The voice came before the figure.
"I am, Lord Beelzebub."
Ajuka Beelzebub. One of the Four Satans. The mind behind the technical advances of the devil world, the one running all the research and development in the underworld. And he was here to give me my Evil Pieces.
Green hair. Robes that looked like the standard Satan uniform. Sirzechs and Falbium wore them too, just in different colors. Serafall was the only one who ignored the dress code.
"Then come," he said, nodding politely at Rias and her group before summoning an even bigger teleportation circle. "It won't take long."
I sighed. "I'm not using this teleportation method to your place next time."
I already knew how awful it felt. I would rather Blink than step into one of these circles. But since I didn't know where his place was, I needed the ride.
"It's the best way to travel," he said, surprisingly smiling. First time I had ever seen him do that. "Though, with your Barbatos ability, I can see why it feels uncomfortable."
Uncomfortable? It felt like being trapped in a free-falling elevator. Sometimes it even felt like the elevator had been tossed into the ocean.
"I'll see you all later," I said as Rias kept fussing over her packing. They nodded back, and that was all I had time for before the god-awful teleportation kicked in.
At least the excitement for the Evil Pieces kept me distracted from the fall. In an instant, we arrived somewhere else.
Sure, it was fast, but compared to my Blink, this was like riding a tortoise.
"We're here."
Imagine any sci-fi movie about genetics—labs filled with giant test tubes, capsules bubbling with strange liquids, and machines sparking with electricity in blue, red, yellow, white, and purple.
Yeah. That was the kind of lab we ended up in.
And inside it was an unexpected devil. Bald.
[Rank: Satan-Class]
Falbium Asmodeus, head of the military and one of the Four Satans.
"Took you two a while," he said, eyes fixed on a capsule instead of us.
Not sure what he meant by that. Ajuka had brought me here the second we saw each other. No delays. Unless he made a detour before showing up before me, it sounded more like impatience.
"We still arrived," Ajuka replied, his dry humor never really matching mine.
"You did," Falbium said, finally turning to look at us. "And welcome, Faiser. First time in a mad devil's cave?"
I glanced around. "It's… something."
The only thing missing was live humans floating in those massive capsules.
"No need to be confused," Ajuka said calmly, pointing at a massive metallic construct. Cylindrical, covered in hundreds of rods. "All you need to do is register your biometrics in that device. With a quick scan, it'll produce your Evil Pieces."
So that was it. I'd half expected paperwork and delivery. But this worked better. I'd get my pieces on the spot.
"Don't worry," Falbium reassured from the corner. "It's over before you even notice."
Notice what?
"Now," Ajuka said, guiding me forward, "place your palm on the circular net."
The net was a metallic mesh glowing green, leaking faint blue light.
I did as told, pressing my palm against it, waiting.
"Don't move or we'll have to redo it," Ajuka reminded. The machine hummed, taking a few seconds to boot before I finally felt it.
The green-blue light crawled onto my hand. At first it felt like nothing, then it spread.
"Don't move," Falbium warned again.
Easier said than done. The light crept up my arm and across my body like some kind of viscous liquid. I hated it immediately.
Worse, it didn't just feel like liquid. As the device analyzed me, it felt like millions of tiny ants walking all over my skin. No pain, no burning—but it was disgusting.
"Just a few more seconds," Ajuka said.
That's when I noticed it—something I hadn't seen before. A screen. Its frame matched the machine so perfectly it was practically invisible until it lit up.
As the scan finished, the display glowed and formed 3D icons.
Chess pieces.
Pairs of knights, rooks, bishops. A single queen. Eight pawns.
Everything but the king. And of course, the missing king piece had a reason—taboo, too many shenanigans tied to it. Best not to think about it.
But of course. With my body, with this system? Nothing could ever just be normal.
"That—" Falbium, who had been standing in the corner without much interest, finally spoke up. "Mutations?"
He stepped forward, and so did Ajuka. Both of them looked at me with surprise.
The mutation in question was with the pawns, and honestly, it shocked even me.
But why? How?
"How is that possible?" Falbium asked, turning to Ajuka, who looked more than just shocked. His eyes were wide. "Aren't mutations supposed to happen during the growth of a devil? Explosive growth over a short period triggers mutations inside reincarnated devils—not when they're first received."
On the screen, the pieces began to change. They grew larger, more detailed, lined with intricate designs. They weren't ordinary anymore. They were… improved.
But the explanation didn't come from Ajuka.
It came from the voice I sometimes heard.
[The Asura Heart is pumping pure demonic energy as an opposing factor to the scan, preventing full analysis of your body and mind.]
"His scan…" Ajuka muttered, baffled. "The device can't comprehend it."
He rushed to the machine, fiddling with it, trying to fix the problem.
[As a result of the opposition by the Asura Heart, mutations have appeared in some of the Evil Pieces.]
I didn't even know what to say.
[Normally, the energy pumped by the Asura Heart would only block the scan from analyzing your body. However, because the Evil Pieces are adapting to your body, they have become fractionally compatible with the pure demonic energy. As a result, a portion of that energy has been absorbed into them.]
So… the heart forcefully mutated the pieces?
And not just one or two. The entire pawn set. All eight.
Most would want a mutated queen, but I knew better. Mutated pawns were terrifying. Pawns could promote into any other piece—and with mutation?
That was basically having an entire set of mutated pieces.
"Is it an error?" Falbium asked, standing right beside me as the uncomfortable glow still crawled over my body.
"There… is none." Ajuka frowned. "The computations are flawless. The hardware is working perfectly."
"Then why can it not analyze his status?" Falbium pressed, glancing at me.
Ajuka hesitated, then gave the only explanation he could.
"You remember how we could never fully understand the Valefar ability?" he asked, and Falbium nodded. "And how Faustus' bloodline always interfered with teleportation and similar magic circles, sometimes without him even trying?"
"You mean…" both devils looked at me. "His bloodline is responsible?"
It wasn't. But if that's what they wanted to believe, fine by me.
"Since there's no error in the software, hardware, or even the magical inscriptions, that's the only logical answer," Ajuka said, shaking his head. "I may need to reconfigure the device another day to adjust for his bloodlines."
My heart sank.
"You mean… I'm not getting my pieces today?" I asked, voice coming out more annoyed than disappointed.
Ajuka hesitated, staring at the device, while Falbium looked straight at me.
"That would be unfair," Ajuka finally said. "Giving you eight mutated pawns? No other devil heir gets pieces like that."
Falbium, though, wasn't nearly as strict as he looked.
"But," he said, placing a hand on Ajuka's shoulder, "isn't it natural? These mutations aren't an error. They're the result of his bloodline. Which means they're his by right."
Ajuka frowned. "What are you getting at?"
"We owe Faustus," Falbium said, his tone dropping serious. "And this… this is likely a gift his parents left for him. It's only right that we give him what's rightfully his."
I didn't know what they owed my father, but whatever it was, I was glad they owed it.
"That… is still unfair to the rest," Ajuka said, pressing his lips thin. "But it's also unfair to him to be denied the pieces. He did get them through his own powers… not because of an error."
Yes, and!
Ajuka looked at me and sighed. "You're right, Falbium. He deserves them."
Without another second of delay—knowing that if he hesitated, more doubts would creep in—he pressed a certain combination of keys on the device.
"Stay still," he ordered. "You might be the first devil to ever receive mutation pieces without having to grow them to that level."
Noticing my confusion, he smiled and added, "Might. I still don't know if the device can produce direct mutated pieces."
"We can only find out," Falbium smirked. The green-haired devil nodded and twisted a knob.
"Yes, we will."
In that instant, it felt like the millions of ants crawling over my skin rushed back inside the device. The light retreated, and the screen before me showed multiple chess pieces forming. Not just appearing like before—this time they were being shaped, molded out of something like clay.
From shapeless clumps into solid designs.
A queen first, then the two rooks, the knights, the bishops… and finally the pawns.
They looked exactly like the intricate pieces I had seen earlier, except this time they were huge—almost as big as the queen piece itself—and glowing brilliantly.
When the process ended, the device grew hot.
"You can remove your hand," Ajuka said. I didn't waste a second. "Now, let's see how good your luck is."
He pointed to a smaller device set a few feet away, connected to the main one with thin glass tubes and wires etched with tiny magic circles.
That's when I realized just how sharp devil senses were. No human eye would've noticed those carvings.
The smaller device looked like a platform with a mat on it. A massive magic circle was drawn there, glowing bright in purple and gold—the colors of my two bloodlines. Mostly purple, though.
It wasn't hard to figure out what that meant.
"Luck of the devil," Falbium laughed. "It really applies to you."
Yes. The pieces.
All purple—the queen, rooks, bishops, knights—each one radiating demonic energy. They were my Evil Pieces, materialized out of light itself.
But the golden glow… that was different. It wrapped itself around the pawns, forming vine-like designs across their surface. Mutated pawns. And they were mine.
"Congratulations, Faiser," Ajuka said. "You are the only devil to start out with mutated pawns."
If that wasn't surprising enough, the system had another gift for me.
[Congratulations! You have completed a hidden quest!]
[Quest Completed: Acquire Evil Pieces no other devil has ever held!
Condition Fulfilled: Possess pieces that stand out from all contemporary sets.]
[Reward Obtained: Bracelet of Shapes]
[Bracelet of Shapes: Allows the user to create weapons and items of various shapes, and infuse them with demonic power to strengthen them. The more power imbued, the stronger the item. Can only create one item at a time, and size cannot exceed six feet in any dimension.]
Amazing, isn't it?
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{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01 with 30+ chapters. (Currently at the Vampire Civil War arc)
Upcoming arcs: Vampire Civil War
Rise of the Fallen (Kuoh starts from here)
Dance of the Dragons
Gods of Japan
Mount Olympus
Gods of Dragons
The Lord
}
And sorry about unstable update schedule, I have a dog-shit immune system. Alsooooo.... Why is medicine so expensive? It's basic survival stuff ffs.}