It Started With Devils & Artefacts

The scan results for the Power of Destruction were weird. I needed to use several types of circles to even understand what I was reading.

Basically what I was seeing was scientifically impossible as the power should simply erase everything in its path. But, it doesn't!

It's like a selectively complete-erasion... 

The caster selects what they want to erase from existence, and when the target is hit by the Power of Destruction they are then completely erased, at a subatomic level.

Leaving nothing behind. The way it worked? It's like a semi-conscious energy.

Now the question is can I recreate it? The answer is yes. But, to do that I will need to use Solomon's technique and retract it.

The way that Solomon dude did it was that he negated it by cancelling it through copying the energy pattern. How the guy did that back in 1000 B.C is beyond me. Well the same could be said about the Biblical God who started programming even earlier.

First things first, I won't be able to do it with just one circle. Only those who are born with the Power of Destruction can do that.

Four circles at minimum will be required to even cast Power of Destruction. One for altering the energy, second for emulating the frequency, third for the manifestation and the fourth one for control.

With this discovery, my previous work on the cartridges will need to be adjusted. I was thinking it would only require one circle.

That redesigning is now in order.

"Any luck?"

"It is done. I will need four circles to reproduce it." I replied to Venelana who was simply speechless after hearing that I was done.

"One of the greatest Devil-kind magic, reproduced in less than an hour… I would like to see the face of Zekram Bael when he hears this." The brown-haired devil lady said with an almost mocking smile.

From the looks of it, she truly doesn't like her birth family.

"Well, I am the one who is reproducing it. So, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise." I said to her as I looked back at the computer screen where there were four white circles being drawn.

Though I did notice that it's efficiency was only around 67%, I can assume that I won't be able to select who to erase and who not to…

It seems that I would need to experiment more on it before truly being able to completely reproduce the Power of Destruction.

"I suppose that is true. Nonetheless, my family will try to deal with you as soon as they hear that you can use our family magic. Remember that." Venelana warned me seriously.

"I will remember that. Not that I am using Devil magic. The residue will be that of neutral magic. Your kin will more or less be able to see that I have reproduced it after watching a Bael use the power." I explained to her.

"I see… then I suppose it might just work in your favour." The brown-haired devil lady said with a nod. She was satisfied with the answer.

Once our small conversation ended, I went over to check the circles and see how good my OS was in crafting them.

And to my small surprise, I only needed to edit the small bits before it was usable for some test runs.

But before that, I needed to start working on another project of which I was procrastinating on for quite some time… 

"Sera I need your help, I need another room done," I said with a sigh.

"Hmm? What for?" She asked from the side.

"It will be an assembly line." 

"Are you making a factory?" She asked with a slightly baffled tone.

"Not a mass production one, it's more on a personal level." I clarified to her.

"I see… okay, where do you want it done?" She asked as she got up on her feet. My first devil familiar shortly followed after Serafall.

"Over there." I pointed to the left side of my workshop.

"Don't your neighbours… live there?" She said with raised eyebrows at me.

"Yeah, they live on the surface," I said plainly.

"Uhhh… if you say so…" She said with a resigned sigh, before following me to where I want to expand.

But then I thought about the comfortability of this and future expansions...

"On second thought… let's build it underneath the workshop," I said while turning around.

*Sigh*

"Very well…" 

~~~

The brown-haired devil quickly realised that the current Leviathan was pretty much head over heels for the Second coming of Solomon. And this quite terrified her, especially when she thought about what could happen to the Devil race as a whole if Marcus were to suddenly do something to them.

Seeing someone who is always behind a mask, not having it like this and being extremely honest, sends warning bells to Lady Gremory.

Ars Goetia is one truly terrifying power. 

Although she was lost in thoughts, she still assisted with whatever her Master asked of her.

And in a matter of days, the room underneath the workshop was complete. With the two devils working efficiently, Marcus was able to rapidly finish the transmutation/assembly system.

This was where Venelana noticed something strange… the way her Master was working… it was like he had already done it before…

She knows that a project of such scale requires multiple testing and what not. But the way her Master was doing it, it was like he had already gone through this before…

But that should be impossible…

"Don't you think it's weird… How easily he's doing all this? Even Lord Beelzebub would need some time to test a project this huge. But for Marcus… he is doing everything in a single try…" Venelana whispered to Serafall.

"I know… and I have a theory of my own." The Leviathan said with a nod.

"You... do?"

"He is most likely the reincarnation of the original Solomon," Serafall said with a knowing look.

"Like those heroes? But that still doesn't explain how he is this good! This is already a realm beyond what even Lord Beelzebub can do! And he is, as we know, a Super Devil!" Venelana said in a somewhat frantic tone.

"Indeed… I can only guess that he has partial memories from the original. Since he is far too mature for a teenager but he also only started looking at me as a woman after puberty hit him. And as we know, Solomon was a massive pervert who wanted to conquer the entire devil race just for the women." Serafall said the last part with a deadpan.

"True… it is the most likely answer we are going to get…" Venelana said with a sigh. She then decided to ask something important.

"Is it true then? You did it with him?" Marcus' first familiar asked the second one.

"...Oh yes. Master is quite natural at it, in fact. That's why I think he is the reincarnation of Solomon to a certain extent. He is very good for someone who has never done it before." Serafall nodded with a lewd look as she remembered all the times they had done it. It was almost daily. That's why she wanted him to get all pumped up for work because once he was done, he would have his time with her.

"...You do realise that he is a human and you are a Satan?" Venelana said with a sigh.

"That is the silliest excuse I have heard. In front of Solomon's magic, devils and Gods are just easy targets for the King of Magic. And Marcus is his successor…" She said as she watched Marcus who was sitting at his computer looking over something.

Moments later… a portion of the floor opened and a pedestal came out. It was another golden ring…

"It would seem… he has his second ring…" Serafall said with a knowing look.

"So he is bringing those things back!" Venelana had a horrifying look as she saw Marcus putting another ring on his finger.

"I asked him about them before, and he said that Solomon rings were just shortcuts to his magic. This means that he had 10 different shortcuts to specific magics. And the negation one was only one of those 10. The other 9 are different ones altogether." The black-haired Satan explained to the other Devil lady.

"That makes it even more terrifying...don't you think? How can a human achieve such power?" Venelana said while using one hand to cover her face.

"No idea. That's why I am watching over him as much as I can. That's why I am afraid of what he will do to our race if we are to cross him? You don't know, but he has already established barriers worthy of a pantheon around his house…

Before he even had a proper setup for his workshop." Serafall said seriously as she remembered the Diamond Core Heart.

"...I see… I suppose we should try guiding him away from our race and towards other races?" the brown-haired devil suggested.

"That's the wrong way of thinking. He doesn't care for the race, only what it can offer him. As long as no devil offends him, the devil's race is safe." The current Leviathan said with a knowing look as she already had a clear image of their Master.

"You think that he would just erase an entire race?" Venelana asked with wide eyes.

"I have a feeling that it would escalate to the point where Satans would need to act as soon as he revealed Solomon's magic. Devils would panic and would want him to get captured. Which would lead to a very bloody and one-sided fight." The Leviathan said as she had already predicted how the fight would progress.

Marcus is not a fighter. He would simply crush what is in his way. He doesn't have that 'sportsmanship' spirit that many devils or just fighters in general have.

"I see… then let's hope nothing like that will happen…"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Let's go and test this ring out!" Both of the devils were brought back from their thoughts when they heard their Master's words.

~~~

Marcus and the pair of devils entered the testing room. Venelana noticed that it was much bigger than she had initially remembered and the flooring had been improved considerably. There were also rows of mannequins at the end of it. 

The teen inventor pointed his right-hand palm at one of the mannequins. There was an around-50-metres distance between them.

In the next moment, four circles that were very close to each other appeared at the end of Marcus' palm. And at the last one a familiar black/redish orb started to form.

"Power of Destruction…"

"It's familiar...but different, there is no demonic energy in it," Venelana said after she had felt it.

After all, she was very familiar with the demonic energy in the Power of Destruction. 

Marcus didn't say anything, and instead was focusing on controlling it.

The Power of Destruction started going through several forms. From a lance, to small orbs, then other shapes such as a rectangle or a triangle.

"Is it just me or is Master better at controlling it than most Bael?" Serafall whispered to Venelana.

"...it appears so…" The brown-haired devil lady replied with twitchy lips.

Marcus then decided to test its destruction capacities…

It morphed back into a ball before charging up and releasing like a beam.

With a loud cutting-like sound the beam rushed forward, completely erasing several mannequins and digging into a wall.

"Test number one, result: success. Things of note: As previously predicted, copying selective destruction at the moment is impossible, unless the control can be increased through one more circle. The reason for the selective destruction comes from the Demonic nature of the energy." Marcus monologue as he was recording this through his earpiece, his gaze went toward the destruction caused by the beam of destruction.

"So, you still can't replicate that huh…" Venelana said with a slightly relieved tone. She was happy that some of her family power specialness still remained.

"Indeed it most likely comes from your Demonic energy nature. I still need some more testing done before I can replicate it or deciding to find some sort of replacement for it." He said while crossing his hands.

"Well. Anyways, the test was a success, and I can return to my work with the gun." He said with a satisfied look.

He realised that this gun is going to be a lot more than he had expected. For the simple reason that if he plans to shoot beams of destruction then he needs to revamp the whole M.T.M system he has created.

The cartridges need another makeup, while the variations of what form the gun is releasing will need to be added directly into the gun itself.

'Possibly a voice-based system at first then an intent one later on.'

"Sera if you would?" Marcus asked the devil lady.

"One moment."

Serafall called forth her circles which fixed the entire room in just a few moments.

The teen inventor returned to his workshop where he immediately went over to the holographic table and started working on the design of the gun.

He reworked the whole M.T.M system once again, this time with the idea of the cartridges having more than one circle. If the Power of Destruction has four, possibly five. Then he was planning to add that extra control. So that other powers, like healing will also have more than five. it's better if he doesn't have a limit in mind.

Once again he needed to work on the design as he needed to add a fourth system into it. This time it will be at the back of the barrier rail and above the M.T.M system, Marcus calls it the Revolver system.

For now though, it is only going to have bullets, beams, cannons and scattered versions of the things which the weapon can eject.

This means that it will have four circles in rotation. Possibly the easiest system in the whole of the gun.

Finally after several hours of tinkering. Right before it was time to call it a day, he was done with the internal design… now for the hardest part, the gun's outer design…

'Since this gun is for one hand only, well it should be for one hand. Then I need another one for this… hmm… Castor and Pollux… the twins…' Marcus mused  to himself as he typed down the new name of the gun, or rather- guns, onto the project file name which was empty before.

Once the name was done he pressed Enter and saved it, and turned off the PC for the rest of the day.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~

"This is the city… I can sense some of Serafall's demonic energy… though it's extremely faint." A silver-haired woman said with a small frown as she looked around the city. It was quite small.

Similar in size to the one her King got rented out for the devils in Japan. The very same city where Rias and Sona are moving in soon.

Is Serafall in this city because of the relations to the one in Japan? Apart from the size, there are no other similarities.

No, such an idea was brushed aside by the silver-haired devil lady. After looking around she started to look for clues on where the Leviathan could be.

In the end, she ended up not far from a building which looks like a school.

'Serafall pretending to be a student?' Grayfia thought with a frown, she looked around for more after this sudden discovery. 

In the end, she realised that the time for classes was over. So, instead, she decided to return the next day.

At least now she knows where she needs to go.

…

…

…

The next day she finally noticed her target going to school while holding a teenager's hand.

The teenager in question was a good human specimen, his physique was of someone who takes good care of himself.; with short black hair and quite developed muscles. But there was something else around him which was interesting… it's an aura of self-confidence in...something...

Grayfia can assume that it's Serafall who combed his hair into a more modern fashion making it slightly spiking up. From the looks of it, the Satan was telling him how much better he looked now…

'She is definitely in love with this human. And I can sense a considerable amount of magic coming from him. Now, how did he make the Leviathan herself fall in love with him?' The silver-haired devil thought curiously to herself. She was in truth fascinated by this discovery. The Queen of Lucifer is very much curious about this unprecedented event.

Countless pureblood devils wanted to court Serafall, but none of them even came close to seeing her real face…

Yet, this teenager from a small town in a Church controlled territory no less! Managed to make Serafall Leviathan pretend to be a schoolgirl just so that she could attend school with him!

By this point, the silver-haired devil lady was more interested in this juicy story than learning the method of doing paperwork fast!

So, she waited for the time Serafall and her human boyfriend were done with school. And then decided to track them down to the human's house.

Thankfully it was not as boring as she thought watching them over the distance would be, as she saw that they spend quite a bit of time outside enjoying each other's company.

To say that Grayfia was impressed by the Leviathan was an understatement as the devil lady spent the majority of her time on his lap.

From kissing to cuddling to feeding him food.

If not for the fact that the Queen of Lucifer personally knew how dangerous Serafall is on the battlefield or with her ice magic then the one she was looking at could easily pass as a normal teenage human girl in love.

Eventually, her wait was over and she tracked them down to the house of the teenager…

Once she was in front of the two-floor regular looking house she decided to ring the doorbell…

Only that, the moment she stepped into the territory of his house did she feel her magic stop listening to her!

Her eyes went wide as she quickly looked around.

Cold sweat started rolling down her forehead. 

'What is this!?' 

"I am sorry Grayfia… you should have not have tried to track me down…" 

A familiar voice of Serafall appeared behind her.

"Serafall...what is the…" Before she could say anything more, she lost consciousness…

~~~~~~Marcus~~~~~~

"I wasn't expecting for Sirzechs to send his Queen after me like that," Sera said to me as she was looking down at the form of the silver-haired devil.

Not going to lie, the silver-haired devil lady has the same type of body Venelana does. 

What is with these female devils and their absurd bodies?

"So she is the Strongest Queen and the rival to your title?" I asked curiously as I looked at her. The amount of magic she was emitting is off the charts. Thankfully we were inside my workshop otherwise someone would have picked it up.

"Was rival to my title. But I won and she decided to stick with being Sirzechs Queen and his maid." 

"Maid? As in a real maid? And not his wife or something?" I asked her. This is where it was truly getting weird as I remember she was supposed to be Sirzechs wife. Well, I can't truly recall all the stuff I watched nearly 40 years ago.

"No. She is not. The council didn't want the current Lucifer to marry a servant of the previous. Instead, they allowed him to have her as his Queen for the legitimacy of his title. As no Lucifer should be without a Lucifuge to serve him." Serafall explained to me, slightly annoyed and distressed.

"This council has quite a bit of say in the affairs of Satans…" I said with a frown. This reminds me of a constitutional Monarchy of some sort with politicians bitching constantly at their King.

"They are ruled by Zekram Bael, the first generation Devil and Great King. One could say he is the one who is truly running the underworld. The man is old and very knowledgeable on pretty much anything. And no one wants to end on his bad side. Sirzechs included." Serafall said with a serious tone.

"I see, so he is like the old man who has a lot of connections."

"Precisely. Now, what are you going to do with her? Ars Goetia doesn't really have any power outside of the Pillars…" The black-haired devil asked with a slightly nervous tone.

"Indeed. Ars Goetia doesn't work so I am going to make one for the extra houses." I said with a shrug.

"...that's… I guess my concern was not needed here." She sighed in relief before turning back to look at Grayfia.

"Just make sure she does leave the workshop," I said seriously, before going over to my PC.

Going over the list of countermeasures I had, I selected the 'case a high ranking devil arrived' option. Once I'd selected that, there were several other countermeasures I had cooked up.

Since she is Lucifer's queen, I have a good chance of having the perfect spy at the very top.

So, I selected a new form of 'Ars Goetia' . Since she is from Lucifer's servant house, the binding is even stronger as Ars Goetia was originally made to bind 'Lucifer's pillars' ; a branch system can easily be done.

All I needed was to alter a few lines in the chant and change some runes in the circle. It was done in less than 5 minutes. After that, I took my seat.

"Done. Take her to the summoning room." I said to Serafall, as I got back on my feet.

"Already? How easy is it to bind devils for you!?" She asked with a fearful and shell shocked look.

"Sera, the hardest part was to invent Ars Goetia. Once reinvented I could run in circles with this binding. If applied properly I could even enslave gods." I said with an eye roll. Making her even more ghostly white.

"You are a scary one…"

"Then it's a good thing that you are on my side," I said with a smile to which she automatically nodded.

"Good now bring her to the room. Let's get this over with. I still need to return to drawing the design for my guns." 

"Guns?"

"Yeah, it's going to be a pair! I can't wait!" 

~~~

When Grayfia opened her eyes, she saw an unfamiliar ceiling. One thing for sure was that she was laying on some sort of couch and the sound of multiple fans reminded her of the computers in Ajuka's lab.

Was she moved to some sort of lab!?

She tried to move but was then assaulted by head pain.

"You're finally up! I hope I didn't hit you too hard!" That moment she heard the familiar voice of Serafall. Grayfia quickly moved through the pain and looked around.

Finding the black-haired Satan Leviathan sitting not far from her on another couch.

"You! You knocked me out! What is the meaning of this!?" Grayfia's red eyes nearly glowed as she snapped at the fellow devil.

"Because you can't tell anyone what you find here. There is a reason why I am hiding my movement." Serafall said with a sigh.

"Who possibly requires such secrecy!? Even from Lucifer himself!?" The silver-haired maid was not buying this at all!

"Because my allegiance, just like yours, has changed." The black-haired devil said sharply.

"What!? What are you talking about!?"

"Just check yourself out and tell me what you feel?" The current Leviathan simply said to her.

Grayfia quickly inspected herself… and she felt something… has happened to her very being! It's like… she was rearranged at a spiritual level!

"What...is this!?"

"Ars Goetia." 

"..."

"...impossible! Solomon is dead! His heirs are dead, his magic is lost to time!" The silver-haired devil lady screamed while shaking her head. She was in denial but she can tell that it truly was what had happened to her!

How did a simple, even absurd mission end with her in the hands of the Devil race boogeyman?

"Well. He is indeed dead without any heirs, but his magic is very much alive." Then suddenly she heard a male voice from behind.

That moment the Queen of Lucifer simply knew it was her Master. It was a gut feeling, a strong gut feeling. This quite terrified her as her instincts were telling- no, screaming at her to serve him.

"Y-You are the successor to that man's magic?" Grayfia turned around and looked at him. Now she was not seeing him as just a mere human. Nope! that evaporated the moment she understood that he inherited that man's diabolical magic.

"Not just succeeded in his magic, but improved it considerably. To the point where I can enslave extra house members like you." He said that with a simple shrug.

"...I see…"

"Indeed. You will be working for me now as well. But, don't worry though. Serafall does more than an admirable job at keeping me company. So you can return to your usual duties of being Lucifer's Queen." He said plainly to her.

"I see… you want me to spy on my King?" She asked with a dull look. She looked like she wanted to kill herself.

"I have no interest in regular things. I am an inventor. I would prefer if you were Ajuka's Queen but beggars can't be choosers. So I will stick with Lucifer's Queen instead." He explained simply and shrugged at her again.

Showing that he truly doesn't care.

"That's the best part, Grayfia. He is better at inventing than Ajuka!" Serafall found the perfect moment to brag about her man in this situation.

Nonetheless, she followed the black-haired devil's gaze and saw… something entirely from the Sci-fi movies she had to watch with Rias a couple of times as her babysitter…

A holographic display which showed some sort of magical circles and pieces which looked like a... gun of some sort.

"Master is designing something which can be considered a high-level Sacred Gear!"

The Leviathan's words were like thunder in clear skies. That moment the maid remembered that Solomon was Biblical God's only true disciple -to an extend- and he inherited the secrets of the Sacred Gears thus the ten rings!

Grayfia put her hand on her mouth trying to process what this could possibly mean to the Devil Race.

"Beautiful isn't it? I saw this weapon evolve from nothing more than a mere metal construct! When it's finished, even a regular person will be able to easily kill a High-Class devil without any issues!" Serafall said with a proud tone. By this point, Grayfia has realised that Leviathan has truly, completely gone to the second Solomon's side.

"Do you even realise what this means for our race? We were this close to being enslaved by a human 3000 years ago!" Grayfia motioned with her fingers how close they were to getting enslaved by Solomon. The only reason they lost was because Solomon was getting old! That's it! Quite simply because of his natural human limits!

Nothing could stop him before that! While the Biblical God just sat back, relaxed and watched how Lucifer was getting owned by a mere human again and again…

"And who said we are getting enslaved by him now?" Serafall asked Grayfia with raised eyebrows. After all, Leviathan observed Marcus for a few years now. There is no indication that he wants to enslave her Devil race!

"...well… you were enslaved?" The silver-haired maid reasoned with her.

"Right… so you two can discuss my 'invasion' of the devil race while I return to my work. I love conspiracy theories but I prefer the technological ones. I mean I usually try those out for shits and giggles, but possible invasion? Those are discussed by nerds who like military stuff." Marcus said while shaking his head, he turned around and walked back to his PC.

"As I was saying… I was enslaved simply because he wanted an expert on water manipulation. And because I was a Satan…" Serafall clarified to Grayfia who was blushing red like a tomato. The maid was extremely embarrassed. The unnatural fear she had for Solomon which she never thought she would have, has manifested the moment she realised that the boogeyman of Devil Race was the real deal…

And she was now his pet, slave or whatever, since she definitely feels a strong urge to serve him. Most likely an effect of this new type of binding which was used on her.

"I see… so he has no interest in invading the underworld and enslaving our people?" The Queen of Lucifer asked with a relieved tone.

"Most likely not. As long as our people don't provoke him, to the point where he has to move out with force then there is no need to fear him." Serafall explained to her.

"Easier said than done! Serafall! He enslaved both me and you! There will be war if our people find out about this!" The silver-haired devil lady said with a sigh.

"That's why I approve of his secrecy! But you just had to stumble on my location like that!" The current Leviathan replied back with an angry pout.

"I had a mission from my King! Now that you reminded me, how do you do it!?" Grayfia asked with a pissed off tone. Here she was a slave to second Solomon because of some silly paperwork!

"Do what?"

"Don't play games with me. How do you do your paperwork so fast?" The silver-haired woman asked with a tired tone.

"Oh, that! Marcus invented an electronic device to do it! Now I can spend almost all my day with him!" The black-haired devil said with an extremely happy tone. The paperwork, the threat to her sanity has been completely subdued and are never to be raised again!

"I see… I still need to return this information to my King." The strongest Queen said with a sigh. She massaged her eyebrows, how is she going to do that?

"Indeed we have prepared the information for you if you are out of commission," Serafall said as she handed over a piece of paper with the information the maid needed.

Grayfia read over it a couple of times before freezing it over with her magic and turning it into dust.

"Are you sure this is wise? If Sirzechs learn about the genius of...our...Master…" the Queen of Lucifer grimaced, "then the rest will also learn and there is the possibility that the connection will be made between us and him…" 

"Our master won't be hiding forever, he only needs to build up his base power, once he is powerful enough there won't be a need to hide anymore," Serafall explained plainly.

"And that's what I am afraid of… what comes after…"

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

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