Prologue

I was 10 years old when my parents were killed, along with most of the people I had learned to call family over the course of those 10 years.

…Wow, that started off heavier than I intended. Maybe I should try again.

Hey, did you know that when I was 10 my entire family was slaughtered?

Nah, the false cheerfulness doesn't really paint a picture of sanity.

Maybe try morose?

When I was 10 years old every person I cared about, every person I knew, was taken from me.

…ugh, way too pathetic for my liking.

Forget it, there's no good way to accurately convey the fact that your entire bloodline and the people who raised you are now 6 feet under.

So yah, 10 years old and now an orphan. Except the world apparently hadn't had enough fun at my expense and then booted me to the roughest city in the Underworld.

Sounds like a real party, doesn't it?

Oh, I forgot a rather important detail. My name is Caine Valefor, 2nd son of the Valefor family of the 72 pillars of the Underworld. My mother's name was Clarissa Valefor and was hailed as one of the strongest Devil's in the Underworld, not far behind the power of the 4 original Satans and easily a top-tier Ultimate class Devil. My biological father was Hayden Geir, a warrior from the Norse who had heard of my mom's strength and tracked her down, wanting to test himself against strong people.

While he never had the chance to tell me all the details, I think I can accurately piece together what transpired between them.

Mom probably kicked his ass so hard that her foot was permanently smelling of his farts and he promptly fell head over heels for her. He had a thing for strong women and often told me that he never would have married a woman if she wasn't stronger than him.

A real goofball of a guy and a great guy to have as a dad.

My 2nd dad, even if he didn't contribute any of his genes, was Philip Magnuson, a talented Magician who served as the polar opposite of Hayden. A quiet and intelligent man as opposed to Hayden's headstrong and boisterous nature, he won mom's heart through his dogged determination to improve Valefor's Magic techniques that had been passed down through the ages.

Therefore, proves that girls do have a kind of thing for nerds. Take that society.

Perhaps most importantly though, Philip gave me my older brother, Jonah.

Much like our dads, Jonah and I was pretty diametrically opposed. Although we were never as extreme as our dads in our differences, I wouldn't consider it an exaggeration to say that we had little in common with regard to our personalities and skill sets.

…I could go on forever, listing all the little quirks we had, the names of all the servants, the time Jonah and I stole Hayden's thunder axe and blew up a tree with it (sort of, but not really, by accident).

But then we'd be here for days, and the details of other people's lives are best given in small doses, not in one giant heaping pile.

Why don't we start at the beginning?