Family Secrets

Hector woke up shaking and cold sweat on his back.

When he looked around himself he saw that he was in his room. Golden streams of sunlight were warming him. It was already morning and only after a few moments did he realize that he had woken up.

"What... was... that..." he put his hands on his head as he felt a headache after experiencing his memories.

"I see. Who knew that I had forgotten so much from my life? My from my birth to my death, but now it is returning so it could be worse."

Hector stood up from his bed and started to prepare for the day, as it is Monday so soon he will participate in tarot club.

"But before let's eat something." He said to himself and went downstairs for breakfast. While walking downstairs he was still slightly light-headed and so he used the handrail to steady himself as he walked down the stairs. As he walked down he saw the maid already up and cleaning the house.

Villa was big and so the need for dusting came often and in great amounts. Luckily for him, he had diligent staff that took care of it.

"Albert had an eye for picking people for the job we looked for."

Hector then went to the kitchen and told the chef what he wanted for breakfast and went to sit behind the table.

When he finished eating he went to the common room to read newspapers as he had time before the tarot club will start.

While reading the newspapers he saw as Albert entered the room and walked towards him. He could see that Albert wore a serious expression and so he put down the newspapers and sat more straight.

"What happened?" Hector asked as he will be busy later with the tarot club and hopes that nothing will happen at the same time, as he can't pray to Klein for leave for the meeting yet.

"Nothing happened sir. I just came to talk to you about your successful transition from ordinary human to beyonder, and already sequence 8." When Albert spoke about advancement Hector felt surprised but held himself back from reacting as Albert didn't stop talking yet.

"Please don't worry about me finding out, contrary it is a good thing as now it is time for you to know the truth about your family. It's beginning, rising, and inevitably falling. And most importantly our banishment from the rest of the family."

"What do you mean?" Hector didn't know what to say as the original owner of the body had no knowledge of this matter.

"You see, I have originally served your grandfather who was a descendant of the Andariel family, one of three great devil families that were founded in the 4th epoch.

"Three great families were bestowed powers from the abyss by our God Dark Side of the Univers. To whom we devoted our lives and in return, we gained power and prestige. At least that was written in chronicles in our libraries and stories that were past down.

"And yet, the truth is much different. Our powers did not originate from our god. Yes, he could bestow great power but if we wanted to advance we could rely only upon ourselves. For you see, your grandfather found the truth.

"Our so-called God is bound in the Abyss corrupted by some unknown force, Abyss itself has become a place where even devils can't live anymore. He saw as members of our families were corrupted through our worship of the Dark Side of the Universe. While all pathways can bring corruption it is us that are most susceptible to it. As in sequence 8, we lose our conscience we no longer have guilt to hold us back, and at 5 we revel in our desires and the desires of others. And so with time and power members of families fell to corruption.

"And so you grandfather propose more temperament approach to our desires. We would still follow them, and let them guide our path but not so much be controlled by them.

"He desired others to control themselves more and as you can guess others weren't wise enough to heed his warning. They wanted to kill him for his blasphemous ideas but they didn't dare as he was a saint of sequence 3.

"And so they banished him from the family. Some followed him, a few who believed in his words, and others who could not betray him as they were bound to his will." When Albert stopped talking Hector was excited at the prospect of this information. If it was old Hector then he would be horrified and lost at what to do. But now when Vilkar inhabited his body he saw new paths open to him, old glories that need be brought back, new ways he can get what he needs for advancing, and old debts to settle.

"I have many questions but first, what could possibly corrupt the god?"

"Unfortunately your grandfather wasn't able to find out, and after banishment, he was not interested in finding out. His mind became focused on making a new devil family that would become his source of vengeance, but unfortunately, he failed when churches found out about one of his cultists, who then unknowingly led them to rest. He was able to escape and hide his identity but he died soon afterward.

"But he had a child your father and from him, you were born. Powers of abyss run deeply in the Andariel family banished or not your grandfather wished for his legacy to continue but unfortunately, your father perished after becoming a sequence 7 serial killer. I do not know the cause of his death but I'm guessing it had something to do with the rest of Andariel's family.

"Originally I thought of giving you sequence 9 potions on your 23 birthday as you were already half sequence because of your father. But to see that you were able to achieve it on your own, and then even advance to sequence 8... It warms my rotten heart to see you grow so fast.

"And to see that you instinctively took that ring I believe that fate has great plans for you."

"This ring? Yes, I was able to feel something from it but I still don't know what is so special about it." Hector asked barely containing his excitement.

"Look at the ring more closely master. You will able to see two cracks as you advanced to sequence 8. The more you advance more cracks will appear until the whole ring will break and the gem in the ring will transform into a beyonder characteristic of your grandfather.

"With his last strength he started to make this ring and with his final breath he ordered me to take his characteristics and seal them as the gem in the ring."

"I see..." Hector didn't know what to say but to marvel at the characteristic of sequence 3 that resided in his ring."

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Hector had many more questions that he wanted to know and Albert was more than willing to answer them all. At least he knows that he has more enemies than he thought.

'I will need to be careful when interacting with other devils. Especially with Jason, I don't know if he knows about me or only sees me as some random person who stumbled at abyss pathway.

'But I can't do anything with that so I can only wait and see how will things develop. Not to forget grandfather's desire to start his own devil family.

'To have one's own devils to call upon would be the worst thing. Maybe I should start one myself, only finding members can be complicated as they cant be killing indiscreetly, and they need a guide... It is decided I shall write the book of rules of conduct for devils which I will teach any prospects that could potentially join.

'I shall call it "Book of Sin"'