Chapter 36

Immediately after waking up, Theodore began tinkering with the Serpent's Arcane. After experiencing it first hand, he now understood that it was practically the same as the other Unique Magic, although instead of the spells being predetermined based on his needs and how the magic had awakened, the Serpent's Arcane was something that needed to be improved and built upon on his own.

Now that he knew more about what he was dealing with, he got to work.

It was the most difficult thing he'd ever done in his two lifetimes, although he also found the challenge entertaining. He needed to draw a magic circle himself and even set a specific incantation to activate the spell.

The System had suggested to start small, so he's currently trying to create his first Basic Spell.

Multiple magic circles of various sizes were spinning in front of his vision as he stared at the many panels next to him, it was created by the System to help him manage the Serpent's Arcane easier.

[A Unique Magic such as this would usually take years to create.] Asclepius spoke in an awestruck tone as he watched Theodore work. [You're lucky to have such an assistant, it's practically cheating at this point.]

"I've been cheating ever since I've reincarnated." Theodore spoke out loud, waving his hands around and the light screens moved to his motion. "Even so, this is hard…The circles kept breaking."

Just as he said that, another magic circle shattered and slowly faded away.

[Um…I can't say why it's not working either, you're doing everything perfectly. Anyway, what spell are you trying to make?]

"…Well, I don't have anything specific in mind."

There was a moment of silence before Asclepius spoke up again in a confused tone. [What…? That's the most important part of creating a spell! You need to know what you're making first!]

"Oh, really? I thought it would appear at random."

[No! Didn't Ouroboros just tell you that this Unique Magic is an empty shell? You need to fill it up on your own!]

Theodore genuinely thought he would be given a Basic Spell once he'd finished with the outline, the idea of him actually having the freedom to make 'literally' anything he wanted hadn't crossed his mind once. "Oh…"

[Why didn't System tell you?]

[Because he didn't ask.] The System replied in its usual monotone voice, replicating Theodore's.

He would ignore his own stupidity and thought about what sort of spell he wanted to create, since it was supposed to be a basic spell, he thought to experiment with it first. 'Something like an energy beam should be easy…'

With that thought, he began moving around the panels and the magic circles once again, but since he now knew what he was doing, it didn't take long for his first basic spell to manifest itself.

The five remaining magic circles in front of him slowly shifted into one, the lines adjusted and moved until it combined their distinct patterns into something new, the circle glowed a soft green, signaling that it'd now became a part of the Serpent's Arcane.

[The Basic Spell 'Venom Blast' has been created.]

['Venom Blast' has been added to the archive.]

<<Unique Magic: Serpent's Arcane

Lvl.1

Type: Versatile Magic.

Requirement for Upgrade: Usage and increase proficiency.

Cooldown: Depends on spell (5 seconds to ???)

Description: Magic created from your Draconic Bloodline, it uses the 'Dragon Energy' (DE) that is stored and generated within your 'Core', it is a very adaptable magic that can change its form into anything the caster wishes, only your imagination and knowledge of the arcane can limit what sort of spell you can use.

Spell List:

-Venom Blast [NEW!]>>

<<Unique Spell: Venom Blast

Rank: C+

Origin: Serpent's Arcane

Type: Damage.

Cost: 30 DE

Cast Time: 1 Second

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Description: A basic spell created as the first attacking spell of the Serpent's Arcane, it takes almost no effort to cast and can heavily injure low-ranking opponents, the Venom Blast has the potential to inflict the 'Poison' status condition onto an enemy as well, though due to it being quite weak, the chance are around 1-5% depending on the enemy's resistance.>>

Theodore wasn't surprised in the slightest, he thought to create a weak, basic spell as a test and this was the result, though now that he knew what it's like to make his own spells, all that he needed to do now was make more. "Is there a limit to what I can make?"

[The more it breaks the Rules of Magic, the harder it is to create.]

"Rules of Magic?" He raised his eyebrows at the System's explanation.

[I can give you an example; If you were to create a spell that can tear apart reality as we know it, that is breaking the Rules of Magic, it is possible, but will be extremely taxing on your body and mind.]

"What are the Rules of Magic exactly?"

[It is a combination of words written by the deities of magic following the events of ■■]

Theodore flinched slightly after hearing the static noises at the end of the System's sentence. "…The what?"

[…The ■■]

That slight pause sent chills down his spine, he was curious as to what could've happened that the gods had to write a new set of rules for magic. "Can you explain what…that is?"

[It was an event that'd almost ■■ the gods.]

The static persisted, it seemed that something was preventing the System from speaking about whatever 'event' has occurred in the past, though Theodore thought it would be a good idea not to continue questioning it for the time being.

But then suddenly, Asclepius spoke up. [Do you still want to know about ■■?]

Theodore was surprised. "You know something about it?"

[Well, I've only heard tales, but none of us can say its name because of a vow we made. Everyone has to make that oath or else you'll be marked as an enemy of the gods.]

"Why just the name?"

[It's a big taboo.] Ouroboros spoke. [The ■■ is an event so devastating and utterly humiliating for all the gods involved that it must not be spoken of, ever.]

"But you guys are talking about it now?"

[I'm a minor god, they barely care about what I say.] Asclepius explained. [Anyhow, I can speak a little bit about it, the information could be useful for developing your magic. If you know more about how the Rules of Magic works then the chances of you developing something new would increase.]

"Are the Rules like…written rules?"

[Nope, to be honest, I don't even know what the magic gods did to create such a thing. But basically, its main purpose is to prohibit the use of Godslaying Spells.]

"Godslaying Spells?"

[Asclepius…You might be going too far.] Ouroboros warned in a worried voice.

[Don't worry, just saying that much should be enough, you do understand where I'm going with this, right Theodore?]

Theo pondered about it for a moment, he didn't think that just trying to create his own magic could lead him to finding out something so big. Though he was a fast learner, and it didn't take him long to piece the information together.

He didn't dare to speak of his discovery out loud and kept it in his thoughts. 'Basically…If I don't make anything that can become a threat to the gods, I'll be fine.'

'Wait.' Theodore frowned at an abrupt realization. 'System, you said it's still possible to break the Rules of Magic, right?'

[…] The System didn't reply for a few seconds. [Yes. Though at your current strength, you'll most likely die from the process.]

Theodore wasn't planning on creating Godslaying Spells, he wasn't ready to make an enemy out of the gods just yet, he knew how powerful they could be, judging from how the mysterious god had managed to reincarnate him and gave him this much strength. '…Still something to keep in mind though.'

He then went back to creating more spells for the Serpent's Arcane, pushing those thoughts to the very back of his mind.

.

.

.

<<Unique Spell: Dragon Claws

Rank: B

Origin: Serpent's Arcane

Type: Damage. Utility.

Cost: 120 DE

Cast Time: 5 Seconds

Cooldown: 20 Seconds

Description: A multi-purpose spell capable of tearing regular steel to shreds, the spell manifests a dragon's claws in a 'Phantom' form and will move towards its target at high speeds. The spell can manifest itself anywhere with the limit being the range, which can extend up to 10-meters from the caster. The dragon claws can also be used to grab hold of a target as a temporary binding, the phantom of the claws are quite durable despite it only having half of an actual dragon's defenses, making it difficult even for medium-rank opponents to break free.>>

[The Intermediate Spell 'Dragon Claws' has been created.]

['Dragon Claws' has been added to the archive.]

<<Unique Spell: Reverse Scales

Rank A+

Origin: Serpent's Arcane

Type: Personal Buff.

Cost: 300 DE

Cast Time: 10 Seconds

Cooldown: 3 Hours

Description: A spell capable of massive destruction, it will imbued the caster with the Status Condition 'Rage' and buff all of their stats by 2.5x, if the caster has a naturally strong mental strength, the duration of 'Rage' can be reduced or negated all together, however, if the caster cannot maintain themselves while 'Rage' is still in effect, the Status Condition 'Rage' will instead turn into 'Insanity', which will extend the duration of this spell by 10 minutes. The Reverse Scales spell has a normal duration of 20 minutes and the 'Rage' Status Condition will stay active for around 5 minutes.

[The spell can automatically take effect when certain conditions are met.]>>

[The Advance Spell 'Reverse Scales' has been created.]

['Reverse Scales' has been added to the archive.]

Theodore frowned at the new advance spell, it wasn't exactly what he had envisioned in his mind, he wanted a powerful buffing spell to use in case of emergencies but he never expected the drawbacks to be this severe. 'Insanity? That's one of the worst debuffs for a skill…'

'Insanity', something only the Berserker or the Beastmen class had to deal with, it strips the user of any and all rational thoughts and will cause them to become less fearful of pain and death, those inflicted with the 'Insanity' status condition will not falter for even a second even after being attacked or have their limbs cut off, they will fight until either the 'Insanity' effect ends or until they draw their last breath.

'Usually the condition will only appear as a drawback to powerful skills…' Theodore stared at the Reverse Scales' description. 'Then again, I guess a two point five buff is pretty strong, considering my stats…'

The problem wasn't that he couldn't control his own emotions, but it was how the Status Condition 'Rage' works.

'Rage' can build up over the course of the duration, and it will consider the caster's inner anger prior to being inflicted as well. Theodore was worried that his own anger that he'd been suppressing this entire time would further fuel 'Rage' and eventually turned it into 'Insanity'.

'It's hard to recover from Insanity…Many untrained Berserkers had to be put down because of the status effect, it's terrible.'

He just had to hope that he wouldn't need to use Reverse Scales when he's near people.

Theodore dismissed all of the magic circles and panels before sighing tiredly. He stretched his arms in the air before sliding off of his bed, deciding to go out for a walk. 'The garden looked beautiful at first glance, I should go check it out.'

Opening the door, he was greeted by a demon maid that was walking by, she smiled softly and gave him a bow. "Good morning, Your Majesty, would you like anything for breakfast?"

"Ah…I'll have a chicken sandwich."

"Right away, where would you like it to be delivered to?"

"The garden, I'll be heading there right now." Theo pointed towards his left. "Also, did Asmodeus leave yet?"

"Yes, she'd left quite a while ago, Your Majesty."

Theodore nodded, if the demon king still hadn't left, he would've paid her a visit to tell her personally, though he was glad that she was responsible enough to know that her people needed her to be there instead of idling by at her friend's house. "Thank you, you can leave now."

After the maid gave him another bow and left, he made his way downstairs and headed towards the garden.

It was a large glass dome located at the back of Pearl Palace, nicely lit up by multiple floating fireballs, the flora inside was carefully being tended to by a demon gardener and several maids were there to sweep the leaves from the pathway, some of which lead up towards dome pergolas made from white marble.

Theodore looked around and saw some bird-like creatures flying around, they were about as small as pigeons but had orange feathers with colorful tints at the end of their wings and tail, their eyes gleamed similarly to crows, and as they let out chirps, he could see rows of tiny teeth along their beaks.

He wasn't that curious about them though, they looked quite cute as they examined him from the tree branches.

'That's the new demon king…!'

'Ayo, for real?'

'Yeah, I heard he forced Lust to surrender.'

'Dayum bro.'

Theodore heard the demonic birds whisper among themselves and he couldn't help but huff at their use of language, he left them alone and walked down the pathway while looking around the garden.

…

'CLANG!'

The sudden noise of metal against metal caused Theodore's head to turn towards the source, with a frown, he began walking towards it until he came into an open area.

It was supposed to be a basketball court, although three young men had changed it into their personal battlefield.

Rhys was dodging a barrage of arrows while Eugene was following closely behind him, his arms swinging the large battleaxe wildly in hopes that one of his strikes would connect.

The blonde's eyes landed on Theodore's unamused expression and he instantly froze as his eyes widened, allowing Eugene to catch up quickly and was about to bring his weapon down on Rhys' back. "I CAUGHT YOU!"

Rhys was faster though and he quickly turned around, the sword in his hand instantly went up and blocked the battleaxe's blade, causing a loud noise to erupt from the impact.

Somehow, Rhys managed to overcome Eugene's beast-like strength and pushed him back, causing the brunet to stumble slightly and giving him enough room to make his escape.

However, Rhys didn't get to run very far since Merlin already had his arrows trained onto his figure, the bow in the ginger's hands gleamed an ominous purple under the lights of the fireballs and violet arrows began to home in towards Rhys.

The blonde narrowed his eyes and swiped his sword in the air, it was a wild motion yet it seemed like a dance when they were all combined into one. The projectiles were cut in half the instant they came within the sword's attacking range. "F*ck! Fight me one on one you cowards!"

Merlin rolled his eyes and continued shooting, he switched his tactic and decided to fire five arrows all at once, this made it more difficult for Rhys to block and two of them managed to impale themselves into his right thigh and shoulder. "Technically I plan on going solo, but Eugene joined in on his own accord."

Meanwhile, Theodore was gripping his forehead in disbelief, though he made no move to stop them since he was also curious about how the fight would turn out. 'I thought they would be satisfied with what happened yesterday…I guess being made a slave hurt their prides more than I thought…'

Rhys gritted his teeth, fighting through the pain as his blade moved even faster than before, suddenly the sword caught on fire and they would lash towards any arrows that he couldn't cut down, burning them away into small light particles. "Just because I'm a slave doesn't mean I was weakened!"

Sparks flew from underneath Rhys' feet and without warning he would dash forward at abnormal speed, he reached Merlin from across the basketball court in seconds which caused the ginger to back away on instinct, stopping him from continuing to shoot his arrows.

Rhys' sword moved through the air and connected with Merlin's bow, which was pulled up just in time to block the strike, though the blonde wouldn't let his target recover from his shock and he continued to furiously slash at the bow, pushing the ginger back.

Eugene could only stand by and watch, not seeing any opening that he could take advantage of, he was afraid that if he got too close, Rhys would use his monstrous speed to move out of the way and he might end up hitting Merlin instead. 'Damn…He's good.'

Theodore hummed to himself as he crossed his arms, he'd never been underestimating Rhys once during their two fights, though because he'd grown so strong, he could barely notice that the blonde was actually quite amazing in his own rights.

Rhys suddenly stopped his attack for a split second, causing Merlin to think that he was about to retreat, however, just as the ginger adjusted his bow's position, he was struck in the face with a burst of flames coming from Rhys' extended palm.

"Merlin!" Eugene cried out and decided that this was the time to go help his partner, the brunet gripped the handle of his axe with two hands and rushed towards the target.

Rhys simply turned and swatted the battleaxe away with his sword, he was using two hands as well to maximize the force behind that strike.

It was important because Rhys knew how physically strong Eugene was, and he needed just a few seconds of the brunet staggering to execute his plan.

Rhys instantly closed the remaining distance between him and Eugene, his sword fluidly moving through the air as his rage-filled eyes fixated on the neck, wanting to decapitate him with this one move.

"Enough."

Theodore was suddenly by the two men's side and he grabbed the blade of the sword with his bare hand, blood dripping from where he'd touched it due to the weapon's special skill.

Rhys swallowed nervously as he looked up at Theodore. "I…They attacked me first…"

"I know." Theo let go of the sword, allowing Rhys to unsummon it. "No one died and that's all that matters."

Merlin was standing where he was while a shield of translucent snake skin flickered away, it seemed to have blocked the fire spell for him. The ginger still had his eyes widened with shock as the black bow disappeared from his hand. "What are you doing here, Theo?"

Theodore looked at his friend as he dismissed a System notification.

[The Personal Attribute 'Scales of the Serpent' has been activated!]

"Just here for a little walk." Theo replied back with a shrug, noticing that 'Super Regeneration' had already healed his injured hand.

Eugene strapped his battleaxe against his back. "We were about to win, mind you."

"Win!?" Rhys' sudden shout surprised even Theodore. "I f*cking kicked your asses!"

Theo huffed with a roll of his eyes before his gaze eventually landed on Eugene. "If I hadn't stepped in, your head would be flying right now."

Eugene narrowed his eyes, slightly taken aback that Theodore would take his archnemesis' side this time. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, I could've blocked that."

Theodore sighed as Merlin walked towards them. "Anyway, we heard from the demon lady about some battle? What's that about?"

"Ah, that." He'd almost forgotten all about the Hall of Sins, he still needed to prepare himself to face all of the six demon kings and currently no progress was being made so far. "Yeah, what about it?"

Merlin raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to be okay? I mean, it's the demon kings you're going to fight."

The ginger's words made Eugene laugh. "C'mon, aren't you his best friend? You should be cheering him on, not doubting his strength."

"Hey! I'm saying it because I'm worried!" Merlin frowned at the brunet and immediately they began arguing with each other.

Rhys would take a step back so as to not get in the way of the two other men, he looked at Theodore for a moment but then his gaze averted to the floor. "I…I will just go back to my office."

"—Then why don't you help him through his training arc?" Merlin shouted.

"Huh? Why should I help him? You do it!"

'Training arc?'

"Wait." Theodore's order caused Rhys to stop dead in his tracks just as he was about to walk away. "I have an idea, hey both of you, come here for a moment."

Merlin and Eugene looked at each other for a moment but then turned towards Theodore. The ginger spoke first. "You need something?"

"Yes, you guys' help specifically." Theo said as the Ophiuchus' Staff rose up from the ground beside him, once he'd grabbed onto the handle, the small portal underneath would disappear.

"Our help?" Eugene raised an eyebrow, curious as to what he wanted from them.

Though the three men's eyes would suddenly widen when Theodore tilted his staff forward and a bolt of magic shot onto the floor in front of them, the ground was instantly scorched and smoke rose from the spot.

He had a neutral expression on his face, although Merlin was the first to summon his weapon, the black bow, knowing that Theodore was truly serious about what he wanted to do, "Fight me, all of you."