It Started With Devils & Artefacts

Her, the Satan Leviathan doing plumber work? What kind of madness is this!?

Well, she is not exactly doing the plumber's work, but it is still the closest one can get! From putting pipes at specific locations to working on the water pressure! She has never done any of this kind of work before!

But, the moment her...Master…that brat… told her how useless she was, the Satan Leviathan decided to just suck it up and do it! 

And so, within a few days she was finally done! His underground garage now had working water! The consequences of her actions? She was now behind on her work! 

She missed several meetings and Serafall no doubt has several piles of documents and paperwork waiting for her…

"Are we done here? Please! Just let me go! I promise I will be a good devil!" Satan was practically kneeling in front of her Master. The woman can't remember the last time she begged for anything.

But, by this point, she had to! There was a ton of work she had to do! And she is behind schedule!

"Fine. Come back to me when you have several hours of free time." He said that with a commanding tone and Serafall almost smiled hearing that!

Finally! Some freedom!

"I understand! I will return to you when I can!" The black-haired devil lady happily replied, thinking that she could return when she had decided the appropriate time!

"No, you will return the moment all the important work is done. Not just when you can."

*Tsk*

The Satan Leviathan clicked her tongue for a second, her master was prepared!

"Fine… I will do just that."

"You are not my first devil, Serafall. I already have practice with Venelana. check this one out." Marcus got into position as he was about to ask her something.

"Serafall, are you planning on spreading any information on my existence?" The next Solomon asked her with a smile.

"Of course I am! Your existence is one of the worst things that could happen to the Devil Race!" The moment Serafall said that she grabbed her mouth trying to stop it from spilling out the beans.

"That will be a mistake. Remember? My life is tied with yours. If you spill the beans, other factions will eventually know about this.

And two. You forget that you can't in any way spread the information. The way I have programmed the thought process is that you can't consciously or unconsciously think about spreading the word.

Instead of blocking the thoughts I am making it so that you can' even think of them." I explained to her casually.

"Did you just say that you have Venelana Gremory as your first devil pillar?" Serafall asked with disbelief. When? How? The brown-haired devil lady is the mother of the current Lucifer!

"She was nearly with me for a whole year."

The black-haired Satan at that moment felt despair rising in her gut. Just how… powerful was this Ars Goetia thing? Serafall even met Venelana during that period! And she felt that nothing was wrong with her, at all!

"It seems you understand now?" He said that with a kind smile.

A smile reminding the current Satan Leviathan of the devils of the old, and the stories she used to grow up hearing about.

*Resigned Sigh*

"I understand. Master, as long as you are not plotting anything against my race. I won't be trying to find my way out of this. Can we agree on that kind of deal?" 

In the end, Serafall decided that her race takes priority over her personal feelings.

"Indeed we can have that kind of deal. My hobby and my lifestyle is crafting and it is always going to be crafting and tinkering. As long as I can get things for my craft I won't interfere with your race. The only reason I had summoned Venelana was because she was a Bael and a member of the Great King house. Your summoning was because of your water manipulation and the strength of an Ultimate Class Devil."

'I see… So he is like Ajuka, this is good news and bad news. The good news is that he won't care about Devil Politics. Which is bad news as well.

I need to establish some ground rules. Easier said than done, especially from such a weak standpoint…' 

Serafall then quickly realised that she could use secrecy against him as well…

"I see… then we have an understanding? As Satan Leviathan I have a very busy schedule. And if you were to summon me in the middle of a meeting or worse, when I have a meeting with members of the other Pantheons it would be a disaster." The Black Haired devil said very seriously.

"Indeed. This is where we will use our mental link." 

"Our... what?" Serafall asked with raised eyebrows.

"Ars Goetia attached you to me, I can feel your emotions to a certain level and…" Marcus stopped talking and instead...

"Do this...we can start talking mentally with each other…" Started talking directly into her head.

This made the Satan Leviathan just gulp down nervously again…

Such power over her was simply terrifying. No wonder Solomon was a top class taboo secret…

When she first heard stories about this human mage, she thought that it was just a human boogeyman, a made-up story so that devils would prey less on humans or otherwise Solomon would enslave them.

Turns out he was so real that she even ended up as one of his Pillars, well not the original one but his successor.

"I see. Then... please, ask me mentally first before summoning me alright? The less people know about this, the better it is for you, yes?" Serafall asked cautiously and at the same time using what he wanted, secrecy.

"Very well, we have a deal."

"My thanks, Master." She said that while giving him a bow. Then calling forth her Leviathan circle she disappeared from his workshop.

Once she was gone. Marcus looked at his work table.

"It's time… for some tinkering." He was nearly jumping up and down just from the thought of it!

~~~

At first, I decided to do some basic trigger-based weaponry.

Starting from the basics of basics, and then moving it up from there. After the system is done I will be able to work on bigger and better things. Like adding elements to things and stuff like that.

After getting the neutral clay material done, I turned them paper thin and spread it evenly through the table.

Once that was done I started drawing the runic circles. The first one reacts to motion. Absorbing it, and then sending the energy into the second circle which then turns it into magic. 

Once the transformation of energy into magic energy is done it then flows into the accelerator circles. Where it gains more power, then it passes through the magnifying circles for a magnified effect before reaching the final release circles.

After finishing with the runes. The thin paper-like clay was now full of circles.

The system of shooting magic was done. Now all I need is to give it a form.

The most obvious form is a gun.

*Alarm clock*

"Hmm? It's already 17:00? Damn… this stuff is quite time-consuming…" I said to myself as I looked at my handy work on the table.

"But first... some food…" 

…

...

The next day I was back and had started working on the layout of the form.

From the paper-like form into that of a gun which can fit into one's hand.

It took me several days which then turned into several weeks.

Along the way, I had also spent a lot of time simply typing down the future upgrades for this… magic caster? A magic gun? Castor?

The plain-looking clay had transformed into a metal and the item now finally looked like a plain metal gun.

The first thing I noticed is that it weighs quite a bit for my 13-year-old body.

The gun itself looked like a plain Glock. There is a cartridge slot for future upgrades and there was no safety trigger as well.

"Right… first test run," I said that to myself as I picked up the weapon and walked into the test room.

The only room where Devil magic was very much present in the air. For the simple reason that it was enchanted to take hits.

For the test, I had put on some gloves and more protective clothing than usual. While I had done the maths so that it should not explode upon usage, I was still ready to dip just in case something ended up going wrong.

"Test number 1!" I pointed the gun at the wall, holding it with both hands.

"3...2...1!" And pressed the trigger.

At that moment I could hear a hum coming from the gun. And it started heating up before a white circle had appeared at the end of the barrel. releasing a burst of energy in the shape of a bolt.

It smashed into the wall creating a, at least a few inches, deep hole, seeing that I was successful I pulled out my voice recorder.

"Test number 1 was a success, key point of interests... The gun heat-ups, the proximity of the circles generate excess heat, powerful enough to start heating the titanium.

A possible substitute is needed for the metal, possibly a supernatural substitute is recommended.

The shot load is around 3 seconds. Shortening of time is needed. Possibly extra accelerator circles. Hmm... maybe using the rail method… on the barrel itself?" I reported into the recorder before pressing the pause button.

I then looked back at the weapon. I could see some deformations already manifesting…

"Right… one of the strongest human metals and it's melting like nothing? Hell, I need to check the material used by Big G in his Sacred Gears." Mentally recalling what I had read on sacred gears, the dude had multiple types of formulas depending on which gear.

The Longinus ones even uses the beast's energies as material for armour… but that's just asking to bring on a specific weapon to deal with that type of energy… How did that pervert even survive that long on just dragon energy? 

If it was me, who is the hunter then I would have gone the Batman route and pulled out everything I could on weaknesses the dragons have like how he did against Superman.

"Well, time to return to the drawing board." 

~~~

"Master, what are you doing?" I heard the curious tone of my second familiar.

"Oh, Sera you are back… you've been gone for quite some time…" I mentally remembered that she was gone for several weeks!

Hmm, it would be seen Venelana is enjoying her freedom since she didn't even try to pop in…

Well, I will summon her when I need her.

"Testing a cluster of runes in the shape of a gun. As you can imagine it can cast bullets every 3 seconds." I said that to Serafall as I handed over the gun to her.

"You made this in the time I was away?" She asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah. I did it quite casually. Since I had ideas constantly popping in along the way… I could have done it several days earlier." I easily explained as I went over the stuff I had on my table.

"Since you are here. Can your devil magic create durable mannequins?" I asked her off-handily.

"Oh? Yeah! I mean yes!" Serafall snapped out from her shock as she looked back at the gun then at her Master.

"Great. Then you will be making some of them in the testing room. Oh, and I will need to reinforce the walls there as well." I said that as I remembered how brittle the wall was.

"Okay…" 

I motioned for her to hand the gun over since I need to start with my upgrades.

"Master, I can only be here for 3 or so hours before I need to return to my duties." She informed me seriously.

"I see. That is enough time for me to upgrade this to a mark II." 

Serafall didn't say anything as she watched me upgrade the gun.

Deconstructing it was quite easy since I had built it for easy assembly and disassembly.

Once I checked the inside of the gun, it was what I had expected. The titanium started to deform. It's either the magic itself or the heat generated from the circles… which should not be normal… 

For now though, l quickly used the transmutation circle to fix it and then started working on the upgrades.

First, small barriers will be built inside and on the barrel, acting like rail for the energy. This will improve the energy flow, then more accelerator circles. For shorter casting.

…

...

"And done…" I said as I finished assembling the gun.

"Did you just put barrier magic inside of this gun?" She asked with disbelief.

"Oh dear Sera. How little you know about how much a simple wall can help, in this situation. It's not just barrier magic. Have you ever heard of magnetism?" I asked her with a smile.

"Umm? How is it related to that?" She asked me not getting what I was saying.

"You see, the barriers are keeping the heat from reaching the metal and in turn that heat will stay inside generating more magic.

But that's not the main part. See, the barrel itself? I use it as a rail to build up power. The longer the barrel the more power it can build up.

It is a simple concept humans use in general." I said with a shrug.

"Says you…" She said something under her breath.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" 

"Nope! Let's go and see how good it is!" She happily said that as she grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the testing room.

"Right…"

~~~

With a crack, like thunder a bolt of blue energy smashed into a mannequin…

*Crackling Explosion*

Disintegrating it completely.

"Test 2 was successful, as expected. The railing system and barrier magic has fixed the heating issue and increased the power by around 150%. The downside is the recoil. I believe I had nearly dislocated my shoulder.

Possible solutions are natural magic reinforcement and regular exercises with natural body growth." Marcus said to the voice recorder.

'The brat truly is the human version of Ajuka… maybe even worse. I don't remember Ajuka being like that at this age, he used to spend his early age reading like... a lot of reading… he only started proper experiments when he was done with magic.' 

Serafall thought with a sweaty forehead as she had drawn a comparison between Satan Beelzebub and the next Solomon.

They are the same in regards to making new things. While Satan Beelzebub is left to his devices for the simple reason that no one can't control him as he would simply leave and still do his thing. Which is extremely dangerous. That is why the Devil council doesn't try to control him.

But her Master is different… The boy is barely 13 and he already created a superior weapon to the ones used by the church!

Worst of all she has no idea how to control him!

"Any comments?" Marcus asked Serafall as he walked over to her side.

"Well, it's superior looking to the weapons used by exorcists." The Satan Leviathan said with a sigh.

What can she say? 'Please don't sell these to the church?'

"Yeah. Thought so, the point is that I made the ammo cartridge area act more like a program." He said that as he showed the empty slot for the ammo cartridge.

"Act like a program?" She asked, confused.

"You know about video games right?" He asked her, remembering that Serafall is a Magic girl Levi-tan…

"Yes?" 

"Well, you know the old style ones where you put a cartridge to play a specific game?" 

"Yes…" She had a look of realisation as she started putting things together.

"So think of it this way. Depending on the cartridge the gun can shoot, demonic energy, holy energy, dragon energy."  He said that with a smirk.

"That's not all, depending on the cartridge it can be a minigun, a particle cannon, or even a magic cannon," Marcus clarified more with a smile.

"But it's a handgun…"

"Did you miss the part when I said that it's an item that turns motion into energy, then energy into magic which is accelerated and released like a weapon?" He said with raised eyebrows.

"Yes...but it looks like a handgun…" She tried to process how a handgun can be like canon!?

"The looks are purely for the sake of how the human hand is holding it. There is nothing 'human gun' inside of it. All there is, are 37 magic circles. Working like a system.

Basically, a low to mid-tier Sacred Gear. since low one's generally only  have 31 circles inside. But, I digress. I can only call this a pseudo gear since I used human materials as a base." He said to her as he swirled the weapon on his finger.

He felt satisfied. Inside his element! Back to making stuff! Finally, he is back!

The moment Serafall heard him mentioning Sacred Gears she remembered the infamous Ten Rings of Solomon. The pseudo-Sacred Gears built by Solomon for Solomon.

The very same ones that made most of the supernatural regardless of their powers quite simply useless in front of the human.

One of the reasons why he was called the boogeyman of the Devil Race.

"So, it's true then? That Solomon could make Sacred Gears?" Serafall asked with more fear than ever before. Does this mean her Master isn't just Ajuka level genius, can bind devils to himself, but also have the Biblical God's blueprint to make Sacred Gears!

Just how dangerous is he!?

"In layman's terms? Yes. So far with some testing I could craft a high-level one. But a Longinus? I need to check one in action. Do some surveying. Check the energy readings.

Big G used a concept as a base for some of them, I could do the same. With the right emulation of dragon energy, I could make something similar to Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing."

The moment the black-haired devil lady heard that he could make something akin to Boosted Gear or Divide Dividing, her mind stopped to a crawl.

The way he said it sounded as if it was only a matter of time for him!

"Impossible… there are only two Heavenly Dragons. and they are serving as the cores of those gears!" Satan Leviathan reasoned with him as she wanted to believe that he can't do it as he was already dangerous enough as it is! But, the more time she spends around him the more fear she felt towards what he can do!

"Hoh? Do you think it's impossible?" He questioned her, amused.

"At base, tell me what a dragon is?" He added another question on top of it with a raised eyebrow.

"..."

"Basically, a dragon is just a sapient energy which is crystallised into the physical realm. All I need to do is mimic it, create artificial intelligence for a blob of energy and it will be a dragon core for me.

Give it some previously programmed dragon abilities and I will have something similar to Boaster Gear or Divide Dividing."

"Even so. They won't be as powerful as the original pair of gears." Serafall reasoned with him.

"True… but what about Mark II? Mark III? Or Mark XX?" He asked her with a curious look.

Now… the Black-haired Devil Lady has realised what this means… once he cracks how to make it… well it will be… chaotic… Everyone will want a piece of him!

That moment, the fear which she had felt towards him disappeared. Instead it was replaced by desire… desire that she needs him on her side! Since she can't kill him! For the simple reason that she will die as well! It only leaves a simple desire that he needs to be on the devil's side!

Knowing the current Angels, they will never want second Solomon to be around them since the majority of angels hated the man, only the Biblical God liked him for the simple reason that Solomon wanted to control and enslave the devils instead of killing them off.

"Don't worry since you are mine I will make some for you." He casually said to her,

"Hmm? You would? But why?" She asked with disbelief as her brain stopped for a second and couldn't understand.

"Because you are mine, my pillar, my power. You forgot that already?" He asked back, also with disbelief that she still hadn't understood her situation. Or are some of them just that slow?

That moment Serafall almost face palmed herself. A small groan escaped from her lips.

'How slow am I? Of course… I am his, I am his power. I don't need to think in this regard. Giving me his creations will make him more powerful!' She understood that yes, she was most probably going to be one of the first to wield them in some sort of battle.

"I am a high profile person, Master. Your secrecy won't last that long if I am to show them in front of everyone." The devil lady said with a frown. She started using a different mentality around her Master. Instead of being reluctant she is now actively trying to help him.

"Don't worry, I am not planning to hide forever. Besides, I won't be deploying 'Scale mails' anytime soon. Foundations are needed for that. But that doesn't mean I can't help you with gadgets." He said with a knowing smile. A smile that means that he knows something important about her.

"Help me with gadgets? What gadgets are you talking about?" Serafall tried to understand what he could give her. All she cares about is So-tan and her work as Leviathan…

"The one which will shrink the amount of paperwork you do as Leviathan." He said that with a knowing look.

That moment Serafall's opinion about her Master went from +10 to +70. For the simple reason that he was the very first person in her whole life to ask if she needed any help with her work!

Even Satan herself didn't know that his offer would have such a fundamental change in perspective!

The solution was obvious like day and night! All she needed was to deal with paperwork! And she can deal with it, then she will have more time to spend with So-tan! And even more time to herself that is... if her Master won't be summoning her often.

"You can do that?" She asked hopefully. Nearly begging him. Not only did she need to deal with her own paperwork but she often needed to deal with Ajuka's side of the paperwork as well!

"Yes. But, first let's return to the workshop." He said that before starting to walk out.

She nodded and with a few magic circles, she fixed the room for him. Before leaving the testing room after him.

~~~

"First. Answer some questions about the type of documents you do? Are they the same size? Do they have the same layout? The same sorting system?" He asked her as he wrote down something on a notepad paper.

"Hmm, I think it will be better if I just bring some of them here?" She asked with raised eyebrows. It's better to show him the real deal than just describe it.

"Sure. You can do your paperwork here as well, if you want." He said with a casual shrug.

"Can I?" She asked with wide eyes.

"Yes. But first, we need to increase the security of this place. Once the barriers I want are up. You can do the paperwork here." He said with a shrug.

"But why?" Serafall still asked with disbelief.

"I need someone to talk to, no doubt you want that too, second I'd said before but, you are my pillar, if my pillar is not 100% then I will search for solutions to make you 100%. Easy enough?" He explained to her simply.

'So… I am simply married to someone who controls me to large extents. At first, I thought that I was just a tool for him… good to know that he does care about me… but, I doubt he cares about my surroundings… 

Maybe I can use this to my advantage? Maybe I can make devils profit from this, through me. Until we can find ways to bind him to the devil race…'

"Since you want my company! Very well! I will be back in just a few moments!!!" After saying that a much happier Satan Leviathan disappeared with her magic circles.

…

...

…

A few moments later she returned with several types of documents.

"Nice… this is what I needed…" Marcus said to her as he checked out an empty document, then a filled up one.

"Those are the only ones you use?" He asked her after checking the documents. The second coming of Solomon had no interest in what was written on the paper; he only cared about the similarities.

"Yes. We use a completely standardised form." Serafall said with a serious nod. It was like they were discussing battle plans against a formidable foe.

"I see… then this is easy… I only need a basic A. I for this…" He said that more or less to himself.

"Hmm?" The black-haired devil was slightly baffled seeing him just turn around and walk towards his plain-looking clay… which now the devil lady knows is the main material… or more like the base material which he uses to transform into whatever he wants…

Before long she saw him starting to draw on the clay with a single index finger, and at the end of said index finger was a gold/white circle.

He was simply drawing runes with just a finger. 

"Umm… Master… my time is running up… sort of need to return to the office?" She said that with a slightly uncomfortable look. Serafall didn't want to interrupt someone who is working to make her life easier!

"Then go, I will contact you when I am ready, make sure you have some paperwork ready to test. Possibly some dummy ones at first." He answered back without even giving a glance.

"Don't worry I will make sure to bring it." She winked at him before disappearing inside her magic circle.

Once the devil lady was back in her office. She grinned silly. Her gaze went to the stack of paper on her table. A sinister smile worthy of a devil appeared on her beautiful face.

"Soon your reign of terror will be over! Hehehehahaha!" She laughed sinisterly. The laugh was borderline creepy. No one probably knew but Satan Leviathan and Satan Lucifer were going borderline insane from the amount of paperwork they had to do.

So, Serafall was feeling like she was on the edge of being reborn the moment she heard there was a solution to this insanity-inducing bureaucracy of her office. She never signed up for paperwork when she won against Grayfia for the position of Leviathan! And she never signed up for this when they won the civil war!

Nope! She was supposed to be one of the most important people in the underworld! One of the leaders! The whole paperwork nonsense is a conspiracy created by those old devils in the council!

"Heh… once I have the tool, those fools can go and kiss their own asses! Once I have more time I will be able to spend it with So-tan!" She giggled happily thinking about her baby sister.

But then, her crazy grin suddenly disappeared and was instead replaced by a thoughtful look.

Instead of walking back to her office table, she went to the couch and got herself comfortable laying there and looking at the ceiling with a curious look.

Now, the black-haired Satan was thinking about the enigma which was her Master and his personality. She was able to build a solid profile on him, mentally that is. And of course, find out how much her thought process is affected by Ars Goetia.

She can safely assume he cares about her, to the point where he even wants her to spend time with him. This means that he didn't have any sort of prejudice against the Devils… and doesn't think about them as dispensable tools.

'Right… he'd only summoned me because he wanted someone with expertise in water… Since he had Solomon's knowledge, he used that to bind a powerful devil who will be useful to him even after using my water knowledge.' 

'This means that I can also get items for someone like So-tan! But how should I persuade him?' 

For a second she thought about the most obvious way of persuading him and she is a devil after all… but then again, once she starts doing that with him… she won't be able to stop him…

So timing and reason should be the most important factor. And that is when he starts caring about females… and knowing the human bodies… her Master should hit puberty soon…

Once there… she can move in… for a second Serafall had a very lewd look on her face.

For some reason having lewd thoughts about doing it with someone who can build stuff like Longinuses makes her hot?

Is it a devil thing? Thinking of corrupting someone who can recreate Biblical God's work?

"Well...Master… just wait… Levi-tan shall teach you all you need to know about the ladies…" The Satan Leviathan said with a hot but bubbly tone...

~~~~~~Few Days Later~~~~~~

A few days later Serafall was summoned by her Master. She had a small pile of dummy files ready for the test.

When she arrived, she saw something akin to a printer… no it was an actual looking printer… more like a futuristic one with those sharp edges.

"Is this it?" The black-haired devil lady asked with a curious gaze. Was this her salvation?

"Yep. Let me explain." Marcus said with quite an excited tone. The Satan Leviathan quite quickly picked up his happiness with the item.

Internally she smiled, yes… if she wants his attention then all she needs to do is talk about his stuff.

"See that screen? when you put a document inside of the Mass Signing Work Simplifying Machine or… signer for short… it works out the key points of the document for you. Instead of reading a few paragraphs, you only need to read a few lines and all you need to do is press Yes or No. And the machine will sign your signature for you.

If you don't understand the simplification then you can always press No and the Signer will pull that paper out for you to read normally." He explained to Serafall who was already drooling halfway into the explanation.

She had already understood what this does. And it was simply amazing! Why did Ajuka never come up with this!?

By this point, her Master was already a better inventor!

Well, that's probably her bias because of this machine! But still!

~~~~~~~Inventions/Tech/Sacred Gears~~~~~

M.T.M (Motion to Magic) Castor MK II :

A magic casting (shooting) device in the shape of a handgun.

Classification: 

Pseudo Low-Medium Sacred Gear made up of 37 magic circles fused into a single system.

Composition:

The case is built purely from Titanium, the insides are purely magic circles that are placed within barrier magic to keep the heat from touching the metal. (Marcus assumes that magic power is what is deforming the metal instead of regular heat as normally titanium is much more heat resistant.)

Key magic techniques inside:

Basic M.T.M technique: Using a magic circle to capture the motion turning it into energy and then energy into Magic even a regular human can use this weapon as they all need to do is press the trigger.

Basic Barrier Rail technique:  By using barriers like rails empowered by Acceleration circles the blast builds up force, the longer the rail is the stronger the blast will be at the end of the rail.

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

Mass Signing Work Simplifying Machine (Signer)

An electronic device created with a single intention of making one's job of signing documents much quicker.

Classification:

A futuristic item which won't appear in the human market till at least 2025 for the simple reason that it has a basic A.I

Composition: 

Transmuted items like plastic, metal and rubber. Much more durable than regular stuff.

Technology:

Basic A.I: An A.I capable of sorting out text by finding keywords in text in specific areas of the paper. Simplifying the text for the user.

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My Discord server for advanced chapters:

https://discord.gg/hvzgBJg4ss

Along with the advanced chapters, there are also a lot of other fanfics I wrote and did not upload to Webnovel.