Settling in, progress everywhere.

Ajuka's lab was built in the floating city of Agares, something about there being mysterious but valuable resources that only the original satans knew about. one such resource being the very same materials and items that evil pieces are made of. So you could say using these foreign materials has been successful. As for the part about nobody knowing about them, well based on my knowledge there are several things in the Underworld that were only known to the satans and their closest assistants. An example of this would be the Malebranches that were once used during the civil war as an experiment and then transported away by house Nebiros. So it isn't exactly "impossible" for the satans to hide something from everybody else. They had at least done it once, why can't they do it again? though this does bring up the question of the value of these materials. you can look at it from 2 different prespective, since house Nebiros did not bother taking these materials away. that means, we are left with 2 possibilities.

1- the satans did not see the value in them and thought they were just a waste of time, so they did not bother commissioning any research on them.

2- they did see the value in them, but decided they were so important that the other houses, including 6 houses of Lucifer, did not need to know anything about them.

and when i say "satans" i mean just Lucifer, since we know from the novels that the descendant of beelzebub who was used as a research subject, did not even know about the existence of the Malebranches. The only people who know were the 6 houses of Lucifer.

There are many questions around the Underworld that can probably only be answered by Lucifer himself, if he was still alive that is.

one of these questions i am currently researching about is the cause of sleeping disease. Here it is theory crafted that the sleeping disease happens due to possessing too much demonic power, in a too weak of a vessel. in dumber terms, when you have satan level demonic power but high class physical strength. the classic glass cannon build every heir is going for nowadays.

But that in itself doesn't make much sense at all because if that was true, then why did it only begin after the death of satans? perhaps one of the satans was capable of curing the disease when it happened in the old times? after all the disease only happens to nobles, so it might have been worth their time to cure a noble, if they had the ability to do it.

But if they had such an ability, they would be bragging about it. and such a favor would always be remmember by any household.

Imagine your sister falls into this disease, and one of your kings personally comes to cure her, how would you react to that?

Well most likely that would become a favor you could never forget. and thus you would pass that favor down to your next generations.

But there is no mention about that ever happening in the history of Underworld.

And the second problem with that theory is that, none of the patients have any of the mentioned symptoms. Misela Bael, Sairaorg's mother certainly didn't had a gigantic level of demonic power, lord Sitri didn't had that symptom either. only Ingvlid Leviathan had a situation of "too much demonic power in a too weak of a vessel."

in the first place that condition seems like something that applies to many satan descendants who were born with incredible amounts of demonic power, but never trained their bodies. too proud to enter a fist fight. Yet despite this only Ingvlid fell to the disease. And she has to be considered a special case due to both her sacred gear and her half human heritage.

This causes me to think that whoever theory crafted this was either stupid, or maybe i am missing something. are they trying to cover for something?

Any natural cause of this disease is immediately refuted by the question of :

"Well if it's so natural, why did it never happen at the time of satans?"

so logically it can't be natural.

something must have decreased, or increased in the Underworld to cause this disease. It is totally possible that the death of Satans has had side effects on the Underworld just like the death big G has had side effects on heaven. Perhaps a change in the demonic power happened in some way. But that is a rather shallow possibility to consider.

Over the 3 months i have settled down here in the lab i have gone through many diffrent studies and theories but every single one of them was rejected because they had plot hole in them somewhere and didn't make sense. 3 Entire months and while there are many answers, they aren't satisfactory at all. as a possessor of mad doctor's essence i enjoy my time here, nonetheless at this point i am only left to ask:

"does this all come down to us being ignorant about the history of Underworld at the time of Lucifer, or am i going down a rabbit hole of misinformation?"

Both are likely as we really are ignorant about the way Lucifer built the Underworld, we just know that he did it.

How he did it? the answer can probably only be found at the book of Lucifer, or from Lilith.

on the other hand the possibility of all this being a huge rabbit hole isn't lost on me either. logically thinking all the people who fell to this disease were important people who fell asleep at some peculiar timings.

Sona's father, fell a little bit after her school project was initiated, why didn't they act on it instantly then? because back then it was doomed to fail anyway. they had the king piece users in the rating games. but when that advantage was taken, suddenly the school became an actual threat. a bit further than that time period, her father fell asleep.

Ingvlid fell when her mother defected from the old satan faction's side during the civil war.

Sairaorg's mother fell shortly after he was found without any destructive demonic energy in him.

it would make sense if there was someone specifically making pills for this disease, but then if that is the case, it has to be the work of Nebiros family. the very same family whose research, supported all of the terrorist groups of this world, and yet they were never caught.

Of course the possibility of all of this being yet another rabbit hole, did cross my mind. after all if it was so simple then Ajuka would have already figured it out.

And at the end of the day i am blaming people without any evidence, so it could just be another hole of misinformation that is manipulating the direction of my thoughts.

but there is a massive difference between me and Ajuka.

I know about Nebiros clan's involvement, he doesn't know that.

we have three culprits here:

1- The person who discovered or made the disease.

2- The one who is spreading it for their own benefits.

3- The one who is causing this misinformation hole.

in Ajuka's shoes, you could say the second culprit may be Zekram Bael, you could say the third culprit may be the council or the allies of Bael family.

But you can never guess the first culprit. because you would never suspect the Baels for the creation of such a fool proof disease. in simple terms, the descendants of Bael are too stupid to make something so revolutionary. they are only good at throwing bolts of destruction around, and their ancestor is such an old traditionalist he would never even think about the idea of the sleeping disease.

Without the context of the Nebiros family's survival and involvement in terrorism, you can never accurately guess the first culprit. at best you can think maybe Rizevim was the first culprit. But that doesn't make sense since why would Rizevim bother with Misela Bael of all people? and lord Sitri fell after Rizevim was dealt with.

So at this moment i am the one who has come closest to the truth due to my knowledge about the light novel, which Ajuka doesn't have.

all of this took a nice 12 months of seclusion to figure out.

12 months? why yes my very first invention when i came here in the Agares territory was ask them to show me their clan trait which was control over time. by copying the sequence using archmage and implementing it using mad doctor's essences i made the first room that automatically slows down time. it charges its energy from the very same stones that make the evil pieces. currently it only slows down time by a multiplier of 4 so the last 3 months outside was 12 inside.

of course such a thing in itself would be counterproductive because, things grow old. maybe that wouldn't matter to devils but it would matter to.... just about every other object in the room. that was the problem i was first introduced into, ruined samples of research were only the first of my issues. its not as if i have completely isolated this room from the world outside or anything, so the objects still follow the laws of the world, just in a much faster speed, which turned out to be costy for their lifespan and usage.

Thankfully though this problem was fixed by runes, there is a specific rune called, RAIHDO(rad), while typically used in rituals, the rune has the abillity to move or remove energies based on the witch's intent, it was easy enough to simply move away the demonic power that is produced by the stones, from the objects. This also amplified the effects of time manipulation on the rest of the room.

While i was at it i did add some other runes for stability, defense and strength as well, such as ELHAZ and ISA. just to make sure nothing unexpected would happen.

I have now studied and learned everything there was about souls and am confident in my ability to cure Ingvlid and make sure she won't have any problems later on either.

I have also initiated the long running project of "find the surviving members of the extinct houses." Astrid is the leader of that project with her "All seeing eye" while Kaya is the one who will take care of them, since her household has nothing to do with the politics of the underworld her own territory is the safest place for these lost lambs.

runes were also useful in this project too, as the rune KENAZ is one that can be used to reveal secrets, or to improve a person's sight to a terrifying degree. a simple usage really, but applying this rune to Astrid's sight was a major success as she has been robbing the ruined castles of these extinct houses, so many secrets, so much wealth hidden, is all being unearthed now. Yeah she is basically Tomb Rider.

Then there is project "rob Agares" a project concerning the usage of my ice powers that i inherited from mom.

Currently being done by puppets i have placed inside their mansion.

I believe by combining my ice and Agares's time manipulation i may be able to create a more superior ice and enter a new level.

the idea is simple. remember that bullshit line Esdeath had? "it is so cold it can freeze time." yeah that's the end goal of this project. except that Esdeath's way of explaining it is too confusing but thankfully there is another example.

In tensura verse we had the same application of ice being used to stop time by Velzard. But the true fans know that Velzard's element was never Ice to begin with, but rather the concept of deceleration, or to slow down. the opposite to Velgrynd's acceleration.

When pushed to the limits this concept could stop time, or freeze your opponent with ice.

I don't have to explain why ice is connected to deceleration right?

By combining my ice with the knowledge of Agares family i want to achieve something similar to the concept of deceleration if possible. and then freeze time.

Though sometimes it got too much for my mind, reading too much hurts my small brain.

Which is why i was immensely glad when a deliveryman came to my room today and give me my present from the Belial family.

I asked Cleria for a copy of this a week after our first meeting. It is a series of notebooks studying on the application of their clan trait, 'worthless'. All written by Diehauser Belial himself.

Why was i interested in this? well because you read about other clan's traits when grooming to be an heir. and what i understood about Worthless is that:

Calculations is a wild term but basically put, every spell or action has a certain calculation that needs to be done, in order for the action to proceed and happen. so the way Worthless works is by removing a certain equation out of these calculations.

In dumber terms:

Fire requires oxygen to burn, it is one of the most important components of its "Calculation" so to speak.

So what happens when you remove oxygen from it? simple, it becomes invalidated, because fire cannot burn without oxygen.

that's pretty much what Worthless does, removing an important part of a calculation, ruins the entirely of it.

Similarly imagine if you could remove the Mass from the opponent's punch, what would happen then? well then the punch wouldn't hurt because there is no strength behind it anymore.

That's why they first need to understand what they are up against. You wouldn't think to remove the oxygen from fire, if you never even knew about their interaction with each other in the first place.

Back to the original subject, why did i take interest in this? because my Power of destruction can destroy everything.

This also includes the oxygen around fire.

In other words, on a theoretical level, my Power of destruction should be capable of somewhat imitating Belial's Worthless.

after i learn this next thing to study is evil pieces themselves.

that's project "dismantle the king piece."

*Tockkkkk*

Though that will have to wait as someone just slammed the door open. who you asked? well the only person here who doesn't give 2 shits about knocking.

"Hello again dear nephew, i have got to say this time chamber thing you have here is the best thing there is, its every researcher's dream." said the green haired devil entering in.

Heh wait till you meet shadow jutsu.

Yeah that's another thing that happened. the moment these researchers became aware of the time chamber they demanded i setup the same rooms for them. i refused at first, but as it turns out they can be very insistent when they want to be. Wild animals, all of them. so at the end i exchanged my research with their studies. Of course they had to figure their own ways to deal with the issue of the objects lifespan. This isn't a charity.

Oh whenever they realize there's an entire reaction department that is using Agares clan's trait, without being a member of their family, you can already tell they're gonna blow a fuss.

Not that anyone here would face backlash though, they are a satan's researchers.

"Hmmm, souls, souls, even more souls, Agares family's stolen properties and...notebooks. you know when you asked me to accept you as a researcher i did not thought i would see this." he commented. looking a bit annoyed because he was wrong in his assumption.

"Such a thing only happened because i was not allowed to research evil pieces yet." i replied with a deadpan. for the first time since i came here my age has decided to bite me in the ass.

"That hasn't stopped you from researching your own, neither has it stopped you from asking questions in roundabout ways."

Yes the purpose of his frequent meetings. you see i am officially disqualified from researching evil pieces since i am neither a part of his peerage, nor am i an adult, certified researcher.

but i was accepted here as his apprentice and nobody can really complain if i ask, certain questions from my mentor now can they?

Why does he indulge in this little game? according to him its because he really is just interested in seeing what i would do with all these answers. That, and he wants to see me forming my peerage.

Taking out a chessboard out of his personal space he puts it in front of me, to play a game. he was white and i was black.

though i have learned to pull a fast one on him when he comes for chess.

He moved his pawn from E2 to E4, immediately in response i moved my pawn from F7 to F5.

And then we just stared at each other.

Him with sheer annoyance and me with a challenging look, as if daring him to do the thing.

I watch with pride as satan beelzebub seems to reflect on his life decisions.

The thing is this opening from me gives him the abillity to checkmate me in his second move. but if he does that then the game just ends and he won't get his entertainment.

If he doesn't do it then i will record it, post it on devil.net and call him stupid.

Yeah, it was fun the first few times we played but eventually i decided i will no longer indulge this guy in his game.

"So what changes exactly happen to the body of a person who is already a devil, when you give them an evil piece?" i asked breaking his depressed mood.

"Well not much really a connection is made between the king and the servant, while the servants demonic power is boosted due to this connection. adding on the physical boost of the evil piece in question." he responded. still refusing to look away from the chessboard.

So for the king piece the only difference really is the boost of the evil piece itself. a boost of betwren 2 to 100 times in power. not that such a thing would matter in the grand scheme of things. they are still weaklings.

I was at the low levels of ultimate class, when i measured my parents power again and Mum was still 40 times stronger than me. despite the fact that i grew stronger, that was the momment i realized i can only measure whatever the other party allows me to measure.

there are 4 tiers to each level.

the power diffrence between each tier of a class doubles, so a mid tier ultimate class is 2 times stronger than a low tier, and a high tier ultimate is 4 times stronger than a low tier one. by these calculations if Mum is a peak satan class, in terms of power then she would be 128 times stronger than a low tier ultimate class.

So it actually doesn't matter how many times their power gets increased in the face of an actual monster, they are still just ants. I suppose that's why Diehauser is stomping them even without the king piece.

its kinda of ironic when you think about it this way, the ones who are stronger, are still the ones who rely less on king pieces.

"How would the piece react to a ...wounded soul then?" i ask just to make sure.

"It would wary i suppose, the evil piece does fundamentally shake the core of the servant once they recieve it. so it would really depend on situations, sometimes this change might heal the soul, and sometimes it might just shatter it. i suppose it would depend on how damaged the soul already is." he answered, now more interested in the topic.

"Suppose the soul has been asleep for a long time, how much damage do you think that would do and how would the piece react?" i asked.

"A sleeping soul huh. depending on the condition of the surroundings and the body, i would say not much, as for how the piece would react, i imagine the piece would shake the core and that would wake the soul up." he answered, now sporting an amused expression, as if he has seen through my plans.

There are ways to increase the chances of that, gotta delve deeper into scathach's knowledge on runes. i haven't tried too many of them, initially because if the wrong person knows about them it would become a headache, and because even if i had a need, demonic power was there to answer me anyway. why get unwanted attention?

"What about cases in which the evil piece was destroyed somehow?"

"Leads to death."

"So it could be removed, if only done by your own hands."

he nodded to that

it is impossible to extract the king piece forcefully without killing the user. As i thought Ajuka's cooperation is absolutely necessary. I can't just kill them in the middle of the rating game and then plead to the fifth

"What is your theory on the effects of the satan's on the Underworld?" i asked, just to clear my final doubts.

"An interesting question however the answer is to be very disappointing. The answer is nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing"

That is unexpected, coming from this man.

"You see i cannot research something that nobody knows about. Sure it does sound incredible to discover something no one else knows, but where do you even start with that? perhaps Underworld was effected by their deaths but so far we haven't discovered any change of significance. thus we have no subject to research on, no evidence, no knowledge. Thus my answer is simply: nothing." he elaborated.

That is the problem though, the most obvious issues caused by that Guy's death, are caused because his system in currently without an administrator. the changes made by his death, independent of the system itself, can only really be felt by the angels.

But i won't dismiss his logic either, even if there were some changes after Lucifer's death, those changes were so small and insignificant nobody has felt them.

"What qualifies as a longinous?"

"it's simple at the basis of it, what kind of weapon, granted to a single human is capable of killing gods, holy spear achieves this with its 'truth ideal' heavenly dragons have juggernaut drive forms, every longinous has a way to turn a completely normal human into a god slayer. would it work on shiva? debatable. would it work on a low level and some mid level gods? absolutely."

that complicates things, as it stands gaining a descendant of Leviathan as a servant itself would make a fuss, much less actually getting one with a longinous.

Not that i care though. I am determined to get her in, the problem comes from 'which and how many pieces am i investing' i would almost always want her as a bishop if possible, but that would probably require 2 bishop pieces.

Considering they are both mutations it might be better to just use the queen piece, and get 2 other bishops.

I may be underestimating a mutated bishop.

Need to get stronger to get Ingvlid as a bishop.

Ahh everything really does come down to strength huh. I am about peak of ultimate class now, assuming Ingvlid is a low satan level, i would still need a year or 2 before i can confidently get her as a servant.

"That reminds me, your father has arranged for your...training trip."

Now that's good news.

"I will be going there in about.....2 months or so."

This time chamber has been very useful, all of my plans are basically pushed forward by 2 years now.

the next plan i had after all of this research and testing ends was to go visit the dragon mountains, before travelling around the world.

I am finally getting out of this place.