It took me another hour to map out everything in my mind about the Barbatos treasury. And while I could just ask the system, I needed to check the entire place for hidden things as well.
But well, there wasn't anything important besides what I had already figured out.
[Scanning the contents of the Barbatos Treasury: 3%]
Yeah… this was going to take a while. The idea was that after the complete scan, if I ever needed something from the treasury—even if I didn't know what it was—the system could provide it to me.
For example, if I got hurt and needed a potion to heal me. I wouldn't know if that exact potion existed in the system, nor would I know its name. But the system would be able to scan the treasury for a potion that fit the requirements and provide it.
That was the point: to have the items scanned and ready to be pulled out when needed.
Of course, I was also interested in searching the place myself, so I was going to do it manually too. And I wanted to understand more about the treasury's space magic since the book hadn't explained it.
"So, you found the Barbatos treasury?" Serafall's voice came through the intercom as I flew towards the Valefar estate.
I didn't know the current state of the place to bother with teleporting. Besides, I was in the mood to explore a little.
"Yes, and it was rather surprising," I answered, sightseeing as I flew.
"Do know that the gems, jewelry, and gold you have in the treasury might be more than you expect." She said, surprising me a little.
"What do you mean?"
I knew I had enough money, but I hadn't really focused on it.
"Most of the gold and gems were converted to paper money by the pillars," she explained. "So most pillars own estates and cash, but their gold and gem reserves aren't that high. Cash can depreciate over time, especially since we started trading with different realms—like the human world—and thought it was smart to convert everything to cash for the underworld. It… wasn't very smart."
Economics 101: do not keep your money in cash.
And they failed at that. But it made sense. Cash was a new concept for them back then, and they messed up.
"So, I believe other than Bael and maybe Agares, you would have the highest gold and gem reserves. And if you find the Valefar treasury, you might just have the highest gold in the devil world."
Now that was something I didn't expect to hear. But I wasn't complaining.
I was already supposed to be paid by some of the pillars, and now I had even more monetary pull.
I was up, they weren't.
"So, did you find anything special?" she asked. That made me think. I considered telling her a little, but decided to keep it hidden anyway.
"Just that his death is a secret." I didn't take the name directly.
As expected, Serafall went quiet. "You do realize that you have to keep it a secret, right?"
"I figured." I didn't want any chaos, after all. "But that's all, nothing more. Just a lot of money."
She went quiet again, still worried about the whole dead thing.
"Don't worry," I reassured her. "I have no reason to bring that up. It would only cause trouble for both you and me."
I could practically hear her sigh in relief. "Thank you. It would be really troublesome if the rest were to hear of it."
"Yeah," I said as I flew at a ridiculous speed, noticing that I had almost reached the Valefar estate. "And I'm about to reach the Valefar mansion. I'll talk to you later."
"Try to meet me tomorrow," came her reply. "We have to discuss the reconstruction of the Barbatos and Valefar mansions."
I almost forgot about that. It was important, because once the mansions were rebuilt, I could officially take on the title of Lord.
"Alright."
The line went dead, and by then I could already see the Valefar ruins.
It was smaller than the Barbatos estate, but that was expected. There was a difference in titles between the two. Still, that didn't mean the Valefar area was actually small—it was still huge.
"Let's not waste any time…"
I took a minute to look around. The condition was just as bad as Barbatos, maybe even worse. Rubble was everywhere.
The Valefar sigil stood out, covered in scribbled lines and loops. From what I knew, it was supposed to represent a lion. Funny enough, every devil pillar's sigil was supposed to stand for something noble and important. But to me, they all looked like random scribbles.
So, I got to work. This time, I released my Valefar energy, surrounding the ruins with a golden glow.
It was harder to control than Barbatos. I didn't have much practice as the Valefar skills were awakened forcefully. Still, it was enough. I could sense the gate to the treasury.
This one was between two pillars. When I pulled out the Valefar key, the floor didn't open up like it had with Barbatos.
So where was I supposed to put it?
Looking closer, it seemed like the remains of a broken room. And if it was a room, there had to be a door. And if there was a door—Bingo.
I pushed the key into the empty space between the pillars. Magically, a keyhole appeared right there. The moment I turned it, something unexpected happened.
I thought I'd be warped into another pocket dimension. But instead, the rubble on the ground began to float.
At first, I didn't understand what was happening. But when I realized, all I could do was stare in awe.
The rubble connected together, repairing itself into a structure. Dust from around the area gathered into a rectangle, turned brown, and settled in the middle of the new surface.
A door.
The box that formed around it was a room.
The key had repaired one specific chamber, and somehow, that shocked me more than Barbatos's spatial warp. Maybe because I had already gotten used to Barbatos's way of doing things.
Still, there was only one thing to do—enter the room.
So I did.
The moment I stepped inside, disappointment hit me. The room was empty. Nothing but rubble.
"Did the key not work properly?"
But then—guess what.
You should never doubt the brilliance of your ancestors.
As I stepped further in, the path ahead started to reconstruct itself, expanding and forming a larger chamber.
I quickly realized what was happening, and a very big guess about the true nature of Valefar powers came to mind.
Each step I took, the treasury healed itself. The path behind me crumbled away, closing off and trapping me inside.
Taking one step back was all it took to confirm it.
The Valefar treasury was built so only the true heir could open it. Even if someone else managed to get this far, they'd be trapped. My Valefar energy created the path in whichever direction I moved, and once I crossed a certain distance, everything behind me was erased.
This wasn't simple construction magic. This was something else.
Something that made me smirk without control.
"What is the complement of space?"
If Barbatos was Space, and Valefar was the complement, then there was only one answer.
Time.
Valefar wasn't just about bindings—it was Time. The ability to manipulate time. The Temporal skill wasn't just a fancy ability that came with the bindings, it was the entire point of the Valefar pillar.
"Space doesn't work without time, and time doesn't move without the movement of space."
They aren't just complementary; they're mandatory. One works only when the other is in effect.
So, how does Barbatos work without control over time? And if Valefar controls time, how does it work without manipulating space?
I had a guess, but no clear answer.
For now, I looked around and was glad to see not much difference between the treasures of Barbatos and Valefar. Both were insanely rich, overflowing with wealth.
Valefar at least didn't fall behind Barbatos when it came to raw riches.
But wealth wasn't what caught my attention. As I stepped forward, the gold around me began sinking into the ground, vanishing from sight as if swallowed by time itself.
I wasn't wrong. This place was a time chamber, and I was the dial. Whoever built it designed it so that if the dial wasn't nearby, time would speed up—rotting, decomposing, or burying the treasures. But when the dial drew close, everything reversed, restoring the treasures as if untouched.
Ridiculous, but that had to be it.
And just like Barbatos, I had no clue who created this treasury. I only knew who filled it, not who built it.
The design was similar too. Instead of spatial warps, doors appeared as I walked closer, leading to rooms—an armory, potions and raw materials, a memorial hall, and a library.
The library was what I wanted. I searched for something like the Book of Barbatos but found nothing. My Barbatos great-grandfather wrote the original and his son continued it. The Valefars didn't seem to follow the same practice.
So I had to search manually. Still, I found a few interesting books.
One in particular detailed the bloodline. It confirmed I was the third generation on the Valefar side. The first was Valerus Valefar, followed by his eldest son Orkas Valefar, and his siblings—Ikar Valefar and Isolde Valefar, my mother. That gave me a grandfather, two uncles, and of course a grandmother, though she wasn't mentioned much. Just like in Barbatos' records, women weren't noted beyond their children. My father broke that tradition, though—half his writings were about my mother, his love for her clear in every word.
Then I found the book I was looking for.
The record of the Valefar abilities.
I opened it quickly and read through the pages.
I wasn't surprised when I found the stages of Valefar.
"The first stage of the Valefar bloodline is called Bind, followed by Disperse, Temporal, Absorb, Cognition, and Wield. There is said to be another stage beyond these, maybe more. But despite every effort, no Valefar has ever surpassed Cognition. Only two—Valerus Valefar and Isolde Valefar—ever reached Cognition and managed to tap into Wield."
Interesting. So mother was stronger than her brothers, and that was despite the fact she hated fighting. She was definitely a monster.
Just as I thought there was nothing left in the book, turning the pages made me pause.
"To my dear son, if you ever see this, know that you can reach the seventh stage of Valefar, and once you do, you will be able to surpass your predecessors."
She… expected it?
"I am aware that our fall is close. Cognition is an ability that allows you to predict future movements of your enemies by a few seconds, but if you can synergize, you can also view the past and the future. Unfortunately, the future is not in your control. You cannot view the point that you wish. The views of the future are random, and they show the fall of both Barbatos and Valefar houses, and the revival by your hands. I do not know how we fall, but I am certain you will be the one to make it rise again."
I could only stare at the text, shaken by the ability.
"The ability you need to figure out is the wield ability, ones that let you wield the aspects of both houses, Barbatos and Valefar—time and space respectively."
I did figure out what they meant, and it confirms it.
"You will figure out the other abilities the moment you reach the stages. However, with wield… you will have to figure it out yourself. Neither your father is able to fully understand the wielding ability of space, nor I am able to fully understand the wielding of time."
That wasn't good. If they couldn't figure out those stages, how was I supposed to reach the seventh stage?
"We expect that you can break into the seventh stage by understanding even a bit of the sixth stages of both bloodlines together. Though there is a stage beyond seventh, I saw a glimpse of the future. I do not know about it, but I heard a voice saying that there was an eighth stage. And for that, you need mastery over the sixth stage."
This was slowly turning into a headache.
"Though, I did figure out why it was impossible for me and your father to reach the seventh stage."
That did interest me.
"The seventh stage of Valefar requires a certain amount of control over the space element, and Valefar does not possess space." Interesting… "Similarly, Barbatos needs time for their seventh stage, and they don't possess time."
They were created to fail, huh?
"So, you, as the child of both Valefar and Barbatos, are capable of wielding both and breaking into the next stages." She explained, "I have a theory that the reason is connected to Lucifer and Lilith, and has to do with their blood and magic binding us. How and why, I do not know. I only know that to reach that level of power, two devils of complementary bloodlines need to connect."
Following that, she had written only two lines.
"But I believe you will solve it, Faustus. And we are grateful that you were born to us. Thank you."
I closed the book and stood there for a while.
My parents were good people, weren't they?
A sigh left my lips as I tried to collect my thoughts.
Worrying now would do nothing. The only way to survive in this world is by being strong. To do that, I need to reach the seventh stage, and the eighth if it truly exists, as well as figure out the powers of the branches.
This treasury was most certainly built using a branch of temporal or mixing different skills. I need to reach that level to make a difference for my two pillars.
System, assimilate the Valefar treasury key.
[Assimilating Valefar Treasury Key!]
A few seconds later, the message appeared.
[Valefar Treasury Key has been successfully assimilated!]
And with that, tired, in pain, but wearing a massive smile—I decided to leave the place.
Scan all the contents of the treasury.
[Scanning the contents of the Valefar Treasury: 0.1%]
The Barbatos treasury was already at 8%, which meant this one was going to take a while.
Slowly I stepped out the door, watching the treasury crumble back into dust.
I was a rich devil now. A very rich devil.
"So, you finally showed yourself, Faiser Barbatos!"
Unfortunately, sometimes… you're not given the time to enjoy your wealth.
Sometimes, you have to deal with nuisances.
Yeah. Annoying.
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{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01with 30+chapters.}