It Started With Devils & Artefacts

"Hi" Regular Speech

'Hi' Thought

"(Hi)" Marcus's mechanically synthesised voice

[Hi] Quinella/Aurora talking

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Latia, it would seem, can't escape from the shadow of genius.

First, it was her uncle, whose achievement put a load of expectations on the rest of her clan. 

And now out of nowhere, she got summoned by the second coming of Solomon! The man's genius made the previous Solomon look like a caveman playing with stone tools compared to what she saw.

The most obvious creation so far is the woman next to him, who called herself his creation multiple times already.

She knows that it is not truly a living being but more like living magic, in a sense. The blonde devil beauty is still trying to comprehend what kind of place she has just ended up in.

The magic in the air is extremely potent and it's neutral in type. Meaning it's quite pleasing to be here as it is.

After the initial embarrassing greeting, they went to the living room.

"Your decorations are… interesting…" Latia commented as she looked at the ceiling. Seeing fish swimming there...

"It's a river, not an aquarium if you are asking," Marcus said with a smile, he loves the reaction which comes after seeing the ceiling.

Latia's eyes slightly widened before calming down quickly.

"We are underground?"

[Master has a thing for Underground bases…] Quinella said with a shrug. She would prefer a tower, however…

"I see…now that I am here, what do you wish of me?" Latia asked quite seriously, she has already accepted the fact that she will be serving this man until he dies of old age. Her Ancestor had a theory that the original Solomon could only have Ars Goetia as long as he was human.

With Ars Goetia, several key factors come into play. One, such a strong binding has to be very specific. In this case, it targets Lucifer's pillars. Second, it only works on pureblooded devils. And third, it should be a human who has Ars Goetia.

If this is the case then she should only be serving him for a hundred or so years. Quite a short timespan for a devil with a much longer lifespan.

'But then again, this man may have already discovered the means to prolong his life.' The blond beauty thought to herself.

"I was thinking of summoning Ajuka to help me with some stuff related to maths, mind magic and laws of the world. But as they say: no plans are foolproof.

Then again, you will be just as useful." Marcus closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again.

"Sera, come to my side."

Latia's eyes widened for a second as she saw Satan Leviathan getting summoned like it was nothing special!

"You called me~~~?" Sure enough, Serafall appeared in the room. The blonde devil beauty instantly noticed the weird behaviour of the Leviathan.

For one she looked like a woman madly in love. The young Astaroth knew from the stories of the original Solomon that at least half of the devils he enslaved fell in love with that pervert one way or another.

Nothing was to this extreme though … at least nothing her ancestor recorded about.

"I did…" Marcus stroked Serafall's hair as he motioned with eyes to look behind her.

The black-haired devil lady did so and noticed the blonde devil sitting on the opposite side.

"Latia? Master, you summoned Ajuka's niece?" The current Satan Leviathan asked with wide eyes. She remembered how she had this dreadful thought of Latia seducing Marcus!

[We tried to summon Ajuka Beelzebub. But, it would seem Master forgot to double-check the circle. As it only summons female devils.] Quinella said with an eye roll.

"That voice! N-N-No way! Aurora!?" Serafall nearly lost her balance and face-planted into the coffee table when she saw this ethereal looking beauty with extremely beautiful hair. It looks like it was made from glass or platinum as it reflects light into a different set of colours.

[Aurora is the system that runs things. I am Quinella. Or soon to be. Otherwise known as the Biological Assistant model: Quinella.]

When the older Sitri heard this she realised that her gut feeling was utterly right! Marcus is indeed making a woman from his Artificial Intelligence!

In other words, the greatest threat to her is not some girl from a smart family from the likes of Astaroth! But, a woman of his creation!

'Only utterly nuts geniuses would go the route of making life and women like this one!' Serafall thought to herself with cold sweat.

"I see… so, all that genetic research… you wanted to make a body for Aurora...now named Quinella." The black-haired devil lady said with a forced smile.

"Quinella Aurora would be her full name. Which sorta fit her perfectly because of her hair." Marcus said with a smile as he looked at his Assistant who was standing behind him.

Serafall could see her upper form because of just how close they were, no less than two metres…

"I see…I suppose we will be quite close allies then…"

[*Sigh*]

[We are not allies. You are my Master's Pillar. And I am My Master's Assistant. Don't misunderstand our purposes in life.] 

The black-haired devil lady gulped down nervously. This woman was sending shivers down her spine! And she is a Satan. This is nuts!

Is it because she knows that this silver-haired woman holds some sort of control over all Marcus creations? Or is it the fanaticism this Artificial Intelligence has for their Master?

Or maybe both. Nonetheless, she doesn't want to end up on the wrong side of the fence with this nut case!

"Now that introductions are over. Sera you will be taking over the training of Latia." 

Marcus' words confused both devils who looked back at him, instead of the very noticeable woman behind him.

"What do you mean?"

"You're going to be training her in diplomacy. Which means you take her to be part of your office. And at the same time, she will be a middle man with the contract that we have."

"You want her to be part of the contract?" 

"Yeah. Because you are a person with a very high profile you will need someone who can do small scale missions in my name. Like for example buying land, opening a company."

"Oh, OH… I see what you have in mind… but it will be difficult… we are in a Church and Heaven controlled land…"

Marcus looked at her with deadpan eyes.

"No one will feel her demonic energy in my nation." The teen inventor said with an assured tone.

Latia didn't say anything, she just listened to what they were talking about. She started to understand the scale of things.

The original Solomon didn't fear the Original Satans or even Gods from other Pantheons. Because of his energy neutralising powers.

And from the looks of it… her new Master control over energies reached an even higher realm than the original Solomon…

What a terrifying thought…

"If that's the case then we can move without any worries," Serafall said with a nod. 

The blonde Devil saw the side she will never though will see with the Leviathan. The black-haired devil looked like a subdued wife who follows whatever her husband will say.

Truly a terrifying power that the humans and the Biblical God has created.

"Then we need money…"

"Not an issue, we can inflate the currency for a moment. I have an idea for a company."

"Oh?"

"We are going to dominate the phone market and video games." 

"Umm...is there a reason for that?" Serafall asked with some curiosity.

"Nope. I simply feel like going this specific route. I have very little interest in the mundane side of the world. So we can use the company as a cover to take over the county." He said with a shrug. 

"I have no interest in government and such. Thus phones, easy, cheap, and have a lot of capacity. The games because of my holograms. Quinellla's existence and beauty is just proof that I can make incredible games." 

Quinella behind him had a smug look. She twirled with her hair for a bit.

"Not that I am complaining about the phone which I assume will run on the Aurora system but games? No consoles can run such realistic graphics!" Serafall as a gamer knows her stuff. Not that she played a lot after being turned into a Pillar. Well, she didn't have much time playing in the first place…

"Streaming services," Marcus said with a shrug.

"What's that?" The black-haired beauty asked curiously as she once again got on his lap and sat properly and started snuggling while waiting for his answer.

Quinella frowned for a second, before returning to her genetic processing, using at the moment, more than 97% of all of her available capacity for this.

The rest are for running systems all over the network. 3% is more than enough to fully run it without any worries. This just shows how crazy her creator can be with his preparations.

The quicker she fully unlocks the genetic codes the quicker she can be the one who sits next to him with a proper body.

"Using the internet to stream things. Meaning that the video game you play is using the internet instead of the console's machine." 

"You mean your system will be running the game which streams it to the people? Won't this be killing the Playstation and Xbox?" Serafall asked with a confused look.

"And most likely Nintendo as well. Well, it has a separate ecosystem so it might survive." He thought for a bit.

"B-But, you can't just end those like that! Can't you just release the games on discs?" Serafall asked with a pleading look. Quinella groaned behind Marcus seeing that.

So much for the oh great Leviathan! In the end, she ended up at her creator's mercy.

"Hmm… you know that just might be possible. Aurora could process the game to push the console to the peak. Making the game stand out from the rest of them." Marcus thought about it while stroking Serafall's hair who quickly nodded several times.

She doesn't want Playstation to die out! 

"Anyway, Latia, how good are you with the whole management thing?" The teen stopped thinking about games and looked at the blonde bombshell sitting opposite of him.

"Even though I am the Heiress of the Branch family of Astaroth, I am quite versed in management, administration, and running a household. Those things are expected from me." She explained simply.

"In other words, aristocrats. High-class lady."

"...I suppose that's how modern humans could see me. I have heard nobility is a dead thing in the current human world." She said with a slightly raised eyebrow. Latia barely left the underworld so the human world is quite alien to her.

"Indeed. It died out from their stupidity and inability to be aristocrats. Adding on top of having no proper power to separate themselves from the rest. And you can already imagine the rest. They died out with world war 1 and 2." Marcus gave her a very abridged version of it.

"Now then, I suppose it's time to show you around this place before you properly settle in." The teen inventor said as he motioned for Serafall to move. This has started sending warning bells to the Leviathan who quickly understood that her Master was going to show his place personally to Latia!

~~~

"I suppose we should start with the floor dedicated to the living space first." Marcus offered his hand to the beauty who was pleasantly surprised that he could act like a gentleman.

Latia had no idea that her Master was quite experienced when it comes to attending things like galas and events of different sizes.

While Quinella for a second needed to recalibrate and readjust as her master had just shown a side she never knew he had! 

[As expected from my creator! Even now he can still surprise me!] The Artificial Intelligence thought internally. If she could she would feel proud and even a heartthrob at this moment.

While Latia and Marcus left the living room Serafall had to return to her work. If one could see her face they would want to run away for the simple reason of just how pissed off she was.

She didn't want Latia to meet Marcus! Like never! The Astaroth clan and Marcus should not interact! For one, they are intellectuals. And the blonde devil he was hanging out with is raised to be the perfect wife/mistress/lover to any devil.

Serafall knows that Latia will notice that her Master is interested in her. And once she sees that opening, the blonde will attack it with everything she has just to gain some control from the man who has enslaved her.

After all, the girl is a pureblood devil who was raised in devil society.

"This is the dining area with the kitchen next to it." Marcus simply showed a large room next to the living room which had a river for ceilings.

Now, this room has quite the fascinating decor. No chandeliers and the ceiling this time was being illuminated by the daylight sky.

"I can assume you got this idea from Harry Potter and the Great Hall of Hogwarts?" She asked curiously because this is what it reminded her of.

She asked this without any fear of being branded a weeb because of the mechs she saw in the living room. She instantly knew that her new master likes his fantasy things.

"Quite. It's not magic though. It's more holograms. It can switch to anything you want, like this." As Marcus said that, the hologram display changed multiple times showing different types of ceilings. The best one though is the snow…not actual snow but it gives the effect that people are eating under snowy weather.

"This is impressive… I have noticed that there are no doorknobs, no light switches, and no handles of any sort… I can assume that this is because of artificial intelligence, yes?" Latia asked him. Earning an approving nod from her Master.

The blonde as they say is rapidly learning and adapting to her situation and is trying not to get blown away by what she saw at the same time.

"Partially, there are holograms in all the rooms… like this." Marcus brushed his right index finger down and a window appeared in front of him.

"You can control the kitchen from any room you want. For example, I can select my food from the menu and it's going to be prepared by the transmutation machine in the kitchen. Or, I can order raw materials to be created and then I can make the dish myself." The teen inventor led her to the kitchen after showing off the holographic window.

The kitchen was… kitchen-like looking. But it was also lacking any sort of shelves. Most probably because of the transmutation machine.

"You use alchemy to make food?" She asked curiously. This was unique, to say the least. She knows of alchemy. But she never heard anyone reach such a high level.

"To a certain extent…"

[And by that he means that his alchemy level is beyond that of the Biblical God who created the Sacred Gears. He used their formula and reached a level way beyond theirs.] Quinella said with a groan. Why is her master downgrading everything!?

"As I said, to a certain extent." Marcus ignored what his beautiful assistant said. He still has to learn more about molecules and stuff. So it's nothing much in his eyes.

Latia's eyes bulged out hearing that. Was her new Master that humble or was it just not something impressive in his eyes!?

"Next is the leisure room…" 

What the blonde Bombshell beauty saw next was quite simply a pillow heaven. There was a sea of those and on the side of it were many rows of bookshelves…

She saw that it was in use… a blonde girl was reading a book…

"Oh, that's one of the maids, Le Fay Pendragon. Today is her day off so she is reading the books here."

The blonde saw that it was her Master so she quickly got onto her feet and rushed forward to meet this new addition to their… team? Faction? Something along those lines.

"Le Fay Pendragon...I am… umm… a consultant on magic and a maid here. Nice to meet you." The girl said that with a lady-like bow.

Latia had a knowing look for a second. This girl's surname is very well known in the supernatural world. The Pendragon family is old and is famous for their magicians and swordsmen who are descended from the original Arthur and Morgana.

So seeing one here is not too big of a shock. More like a welcoming surprise.

"Latia Astaroth. I am… Our Lord's Devil, representing the Astaroth Pillar." Latia did her respectful bow. Somewhat embarrassing the blonde Maid in the process who didn't want this high-class devil lady bowing to her like this!

"I-I-Its fine!" Le Fay quickly shook her hands as it was nothing. She then quickly looked at Marcus and asked her question.

"Master, do you need me for something?"

"No. You can return to your reading." The teen inventor motioned for her to return to her rest.

"The books are not real if you were wondering. They are all hard light holograms. This way new information can easily be added. And those shelves are not as stationary as you may think." He led the beauty towards the shelves as he showed how the shelves work.

With a hand motion he made the middle section move separately from the rest. This shocked the blond because It was like going through rows of clothes in a clothing shop. Only here you were going through an endless amount of books.

[Any digitised book on the internet you can find here, if you think something is missing you can always leave a suggestion and it will be reviewed.] Quinella said from behind them. 

"This...is... impressive…" 

This is a whole massive library inside a small room. One thing she noticed is that these books are in different sizes. Meaning that these holograms are also considering the amount of pages there are.

A stupidly large amount of details for such a small thing!

And it just shows the magnitude of the genius of her new Master.

"You can use any of these facilities if you want. Now let's move to the next one." Marcus led the blonde beauty to the next room right next door. Leaving a thoughtful looking Le Fay behind.

"Next is the gadget room…" The teen said as he led the beauty through the corridor.

"What is the 'gadget' room?" She asked with a slightly confused look.

[It's the room where common classification items are kept.]

"Common? As in? I do apologise for asking such weird questions. But, I have never been in the house of such a genius…" Latia had to admit it, but even her uncle falls short in the genius level that is her Master.

The beauty was observing him with a different type of gaze, by this point… she was observing him as a possible suitor…

"Phones, tablets, laptops, Aurora glasses. All the items which my Pillars and household members can use." Marcus clarified as he motioned for her to enter this room.

What she saw was quite honestly a high tech item shop. Pedestals highlighting items for sale. Latia definitely felt like she was in a shop at the moment.

"Pick a phone, and any other items if you want." He motioned for her to pick whatever she wanted.

"Are… you sure?" She asked with slight disbelief.

"You are my pillar. An extension of my power. It brings me a certain amount of satisfaction when you use items created by me." Her Master clarified with a bright smile. Which made her slightly gulp down and fight off a fluffy feeling she had in her stomach.

"...Okay…" 

'This guy has me in the palm of his hand. He could easily do whatever he wanted. Yet, he is playing the long game.' 

The beauty thought to herself as she walked deeper into the so-called 'gadget' room.

The first and the obvious choices are the phones, the new growing trend in the human world.

Her gaze went on to the holographic window which says the specs of the phones.

'I am pretty sure screens have resolution, and there should be some buttons?' Her hand went over to a phone and she picked it up.

It was an extremely thin phone with one side being a screen while the back was similar to some sort of glass.

[G-Phone 2]

[Next generation of phone replacing the outdated G-Phone.

The 8k screen was replaced with a new Realitus screen which emulates reality to approximately 80%

The back camera received a similar update with Prism lenses hidden in the glass.]

'There are camera lenses?' Latia quickly checked the back of the phone.

'Where? Where is the camera?' She checked the back more seriously, without any success though…

"You won't be able to see the camera lens because it's the glass itself on the back of the phone," Marcus explained with an amused look.

"Truly? Incredible…" She said with a small amount of awe as she returned to reading more about this phone.

[The memory of the phone has been upgraded to a 64TB flash snap memory drive. The processor has been upgraded to the next generation triplex neuron chip]

'I have no idea what this means but this is impressive...are these even gadgets in the first place!?' The blonde tried to process what she just read. But she knows the basics like TB for terabytes and neurons… most likely related to brains…

Nonetheless, she didn't want to get over the head with this.

Then a brilliant idea popped in her head. Why not ask Marcus for an explanation?

"While they are great… it goes way over my head. Can you explain to me?" She turned around and asked him.

"...Sure."

The teen inventor walked over and started explaining about the phone and other gadgets to the blonde beauty, who used this moment to get as close to him as possible, while trying not to look too suspicious.

In other words, she is using herself as a tool of seduction. As she noticed his wandering eyes several times already.

In the end, they spend way longer in the gadget room than all the previous places, combined and doubled.

And Marcus? He was more interested than ever in the girl for the simple reason that she tries to understand what he is explaining. One of the extra-large reasons why he utterly likes his Quinella is that he can have a conversation with her!

Similarly to Latia who wants to understand! Unlike Serafall who is a good listener but quickly gets lost in the explanation and simply listens to him talk.

Most importantly Latia understands the significance of the gadget.

"Y-You do realise that with your alchemy and perpetual energy you could solve the majority of the world's problems right?" Latia asked him with a dry voice.

Her mind is a mumbled mess at the moment as she just learned the basics of his technology.

"The world's problems are not my problems, Latia. Even if I am to share this. It's going to end with selfish people who will exploit it regardless." He explained casually as they were walking towards the other room. She was carrying a small bag feeling like she had just gone to a shop.

It had her new laptop, a tablet, headphones, Aurora glasses and a phone.

Any piece of these gadgets would bring either revolution to the outside world or just the end of the world…

Thankfully they are all tied up to her and will malfunction the moment the tech realises that she was no longer her owner.

Which is...on its own, an incredible safety measure…

But, even so, even if the remnants of these 'gadgets' could push the world's technology by 10 or so years!

For example, the touch screen of the phones is nothing more than in the infancy stage in the outside world! But, at the moment if this tablet, this laptop, or this phone's screen could get to the outside world, it would push that technology by 10 to 20 years!!!

This is incredible! And she is not going to lie to herself… Her dream man was always someone like her uncle. Intellectual, someone who is somewhat humble. Yes, Marcus is humble… Well, it was more like, he doesn't see his achievements as impressive, which makes him humble in her eyes.

"I see… I can assume that you will create more companies which will improve the world?" Latia asked him with a raised eyebrow. Marcus only looked at her with a baffled look.

"Never crossed my mind." He said honestly.

"So… you want to make video games and sell smartphones, but not sell cheap energy or food?" She asked with a truly baffled look.

"None of those are cool, so I don't see a reason to." He answered with a casual shrug.

Latia slowly nodded. That moment she made up her mind, and she knew what to do next.

"Here it is… the Entertainment Dome," Marcus said with a proud look.

The blonde bombshell beauty quickly realised that this must be insanely BIG if Marcus is this proud!

Let's get in…

…

…

…

The moment the doors slid to the side and they stepped in they were greeted by an orange desert as far as one could see…

"Hmm? A simulation is running?" 

[Checking… it's Jeanne, she is inside Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones.]

"Eh? She likes Star Wars?" Marcus asked with a baffled tone. This was the first time he was hearing it.

[Not quite, she wanted an 'experience'. So, I told her to go to a Galaxy far far away… I never thought she would take it literally and get sucked into the Star Wars experience.]

[She has clocked around 47 hours at the moment and is playing as a Jedi Knight.] 

*Whistle*

"Well, she is quite good with a sword…" Marcus shrugged after realising that.

"Hmm… are we transported to another world? Because it feels like it…" Latia asked with wide eyes as she looked around.

The heat, the sand, the atmosphere… it's like she was in a completely different place.

[This is the peak of holographic technology. The Entertainment Dome. Our Master created this to experience the ultimate experience while being at home.] Quinella said with an arrogant tone. She wanted to show this to the girl from the very start. To make her see the level of her Master's genius! 

Nonetheless, she could accept the slow introduction the girl had. Still, such a slow introduction lessened the impact the Entertainment Dome has.

"Just...how? I don't sense any magic… my senses are telling me that everything here is real. How can such a thing exist!?" Latia asked with very wide eyes. She tried to find some sort of sense of… fakeness, but the more she tried the harder it was to differentiate between what is fake and what is real!

"Put on the Aurora glasses and see for yourself." The teen inventor said with a knowing look like he was about to share some sort of secret.

Latia pulled out her stylish glasses and put them on. Moments later the HUD came online and her vision changed. Now she saw it! Saw what is truly happening in this place!

She could not wrap her head around how this is happening! The room is nowhere as big as she saw before! And she could see a blonde teen girl swinging in the empty air not far from them!

The blonde bombshell beauty wanted to understand how this worked! So the vision changed again and she saw some sort of particles taking shapes, and some waves of energies were added to the mix.

"See, the hard light particles are emulating the heat on your skin, the vision itself is intercepted by the prism light technology, while the smell is emitted by the vents in the room.

All of the senses are intercepted to give a complete feeling of immersion." Marcus explained to her as he immersed himself in the Geonosis desert. Oh, it's hot, but he doesn't care. At the moment he just has the feeling that he was in a Galaxy, Far, Far Away.

"This is incredible…" She took her glasses off and once again immersed herself into this world just like he did.

"How we don't smash into the walls and things like that. The lady I saw was not that far…"

Latia didn't finish as she saw a massive ship descend from the sky. Her eyes widened even more when she saw gunships starting to fly out from the large ship's bottom.

She continued to watch the gunship fly somewhere. And by this point, her curiosity was at its peak as she wanted to see what was going on!

"What is happening here?" The blonde asked with extreme curiosity. But neither Marcus nor Quinella were too shocked or anything like that.

"You never watched Star Wars?" Marcus asked her.

"I know of it. It's a very big thing in the United States. But, I never had a chance to watch and understand it properly." She explained honestly.

"I see. Then we arrived at a very convenient time. Follow me." Marcus motioned for her to follow him as they started walking.

Now more than ever does she wonder how they haven't smashed into the blond who should be in front of them just a few metres away but… they have already taken so many more steps!

"If you are wondering, Aurora is controlling our senses, this way we are never going to smash into Jeanne who is not far away from us," Marcus explained to her. Which only made Latia even more impressed by this place's illusion-like capacities!

After a few moments of walking, the group started hearing sounds. Sounds of explosions, destruction, sounds of beams and similar lasers.

Latia hastened her steps and she saw things in the air which looked like ships of different sizes. Many of them looked like flying balls.

Finally, she arrived at the edge, realising that they were on higher ground and the action took place lower.

"By the Satans...this is a massive battlefield!" She said with wide eyes.

"Indeed! Welcome to Geonosis and the beginning of Clone Wars! This is the opening battle of the war and the ending of the second movie of the prequel trilogy!" 

"We...are...in a movie?"

The girl finally understood what was going on. The Entertainment Dome is reenacting the battle from a...movie…and made it absurdly realistic!

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