The Birth of Alastor Stele

The demon masquerading as a human had finally finished learning to channel his mana and reinforce himself with it.

He had also decided on a name for his current form, just in time as the man returned.

The man looked at him as if he was shitting gold and puking diamonds, and then said, "Sir, we have your background prepared. If you would follow me?"

"Alastor", he interjected.

"Call me Alastor from now on."

The man bowed and changed his method of address, "Yes Sir Alastor."

Alastor followed the man to a room deep under the earth, to the point he could feel the pressure increasing around him.

The reason soon became evident, as they finally reached their destination.

"Is this?" Alastor couldn't help but ask.

"Yes, Sir Alastor. That is the corpse of an Old God from the Third Heaven that we recently acquired from Lord Amon."

"We have identified it as the corpse of the forgotten God of Hunting, Anhur."

"Lord Amon's intent was to use this corpse to create the effect of a blessing upon you, as well as corroborate your background as a hunter that Anhur took in as a child."

"Since he was a secretive and ancient god anyway, nobody would suspect anything wrong with this, especially since he himself is dead."

"After his death at the hands of demons, you left your lands and headed to the capital, where you entered the Academy's free entrance examination to learnt to hunt demons better."

Alastor nodded along, but secretly did his best not to devour the corpse before him.

His soul would receive a great boost if he devoured this corpse, but it would be for naught, invalidating a much more powerful boost later on.

'Yes, I must get 'that' seed in the future, no matter what.'

The man, who introduced himself as William, procured some hunting clothes and a spear that was made from Anhur's bones.

"When you approach the city gates sir, you must let the guards take you in for questioning."

"We have one of our people there as a captain, and she will allow you entry."

"After that, Lord Amon said you would know what to do."

"If you have any needs, we are always at your command, sir."

With a curt nod, Alastor began treading the path towards the capital of the Grand Alliance.

'Let's start in earnest, shall we?'

................................................................................

Alastor arrived near the capital city walls without too many issues.

He saw that the line to enter the city extended a whole two kilometres, and decided to get comfortable.

After six hours of waiting, he finally reached the gates.

One could not fully appreciate the grandeur of the walls from afar, as being close showed Alastor just how huge they were.

They were also angled inwards from above.

'Like a cage.'

The guard saw his clothes, unnaturally white spear, and sharp gaze, before sighing and pointing to another door.

"Go in, write your name, get all the tests done and get yourself a Tag."

Alastor was a bit surprised at how easily he was let through.

'Do they get many cases like this?'

He entered the room and was greeted by a nurse, who led him to stand in a circle on the ground as she left the room.

'It's dangerous here.'

Alastor could feel it.

He was being watched.

There were also suspicious holes in the walls, perhaps to let something in?

A grid of red light appeared on the ground and made it's way up, scanning his body.

A voice was heard, "Name?"

"Alastor Stele."

"Parents?"

"Unknown. My only guardian was Uncle Anhur."

The questioning continued.

In another room, his inner organs were visible on a large screen, as people worked to ensure that he was no demon or monster masquerading as a human.

Soon, the awaited answer arrived.

"Clear!"

And the demon simply strolled into the greatest stronghold of humanity.

................................................................................

The capital felt similar to the headquarters of the Sloth faction, run by the Obelisk family.

As Alastor watched, shopkeepers set up their shops, guards went on patrol, dogs roamed the streets.

There were two major differences however.

'They're all weak.'

For anything to even survive on the Sixth Layer of Hell without outside intervention, they needed to have a certain level of strength.

Aside from the guards, Alastor couldn't feel anyone even slightly strong in the surroundings.

Except when he looked towards the center of the capital.

'Most of the power is concentrated there.'

The place he was supposed to infiltrate and live in.

The Academy.

'The entrance examination is free for all. The reason less people even try to compete, is because it's the only examination that has a mortality rate.'

Alastor didn't find that particularly intimidating, after all, the First Layer had been a mad scramble for survival.

A demon's life was not of much value, even to themselves.

The Academy accepted all for the examination, no matter how ragged, uneducated, or incapable you looked.

And so, Alastor did not have any trouble entering the examination.

'Only 400 people around me. Closest is the one with a mace. Heavy, I should be able to react. His mana is small enough for me to outpace him, even with his reinforcement.'

As Alastor made plans to deal with everyone around him, the Headmistress of the Academy finally appeared on stage with a quick teleport that most couldn't even catch.

It may seem like a trivial detail, but it simply meant that she could open a hole in space between two coordinates, stabilize it, traverse through it, and close it behind her in the blink of an eye.

'She's about the level of a Fifth Heaven God, or a Demon Prince.'

The smarter ones could easily recognize that.

For a human, that was a great achievement.

She seemed like an ordinary person, if one ignored the sheer amount of mana concentrated within her.

Long blonde hair that seemed to shimmer golden at times, a stature taller than most of the women Alastor had seen, fair skin and similarly golden eyes.

'Ugh, is she blessed by the God of Gold or something?'

She began to speak, but her voice was being heard as if right next to everyone.

"Welcome, you who shall guard the future of humanity."

"You are here to grow, in power, in skill, in life, so you can be made into the greatest weapon of humanity against demons and monsters to ensure the survival of our race."

"Your background does not matter."

"Your upbringing does not matter."

"Your life, does not matter."

"Discard everything before you enter these gates."

"We will break you down, and build you anew, as the greatest verison of yourself you can be."

"If you hesitate even a bit, you will die. I swear on my name."

"If you have changed your mind, leave this isntant."

"You will not be judged or mocked. Do not waste your life without the conviction to go through with this."

A few did end up leaving, but weirdly, their features could not be recalled by any who saw them.

'Magic is quite handy.'

This only served to reinforce Alastor's determination to find a way to defend his Mind better.

He knew all thoughts and memories about transmigration were specially blocked to others by the existence which transmigrated Jace.

The plan, as well as his demonic past, was also locked away by Sloth's Authority.

And yet, Alastor simply could not rest when he knew someone could be in his mind at all times.

The Headmistress concluded her speech quickly after that, and the gates of the Academy opened as the remaining students entered.

As Alastor entered, he felt a familiar disorienting sensation, and found himself teleported far above a forest.

He angled his body to create the maximum resistance, and ran his demonic essence- No, his mana throughout his body.

He almost used the demonic essence hidden away within him out of habit.

He placed the bone spear beneath his feet, with the bladed side placed such that it would cut into a tree.

He only reinforced the body of the spear, and not the bladed side, letting it cut into the large tree trunk on it's own.

After a while, he slowed down due to the tree slowing the blade down.

Usually the spear would have bent, but the mana running through it kept it straight as a rod.

Alastor hopped off the spear and pulled it out, as he observed his surroundings.

'A survival test?'

'Seems easy enough.'

As he looked at the trees around him, he almsot felt nostalgic about the First Layer.

'Wow, nostalgia at this age, I'm only about 5 months old too.'

It was weird how much had happened in just 4 months.

Yes, 3 of them were just him dying over and over, but he had arrived at the Sixth Layer of Hell, been chosen as a talent, became a spy, perhaps became the youngest demon to have their first evolution, became a human, switched power systems, and was now about to give a test to enter the most prestigious Human academy. 

'Whichever Weaver has my fate, is having way too much fun with it.'

And so began the story of Alastor Stele.