Chapter 17: Marcus Daily Life (4)

Underworld (Some Time Ago)

A certain red-haired man sat in his office, radiating an extremely serious aura.

"Grayfia... I need you to find out how Serafall is doing her paperwork. It's of utmost importance that you figure it out," the current Lucifer said, his tone dead serious.

"Can't you just ask her how she's doing it?" His Queen asked, looking confused. She was baffled that he had asked her to spy on a fellow Satan.

"I already did… she dodged the question multiple times. I realized she doesn't want to share it," the red-haired man explained.

"Then… there must be a reason why she doesn't want to share it," Grayfia reasoned.

"Indeed. But I need the truth. She finishes all her work before midday. Such a thing is unheard of. If I could do the same, I would have much more time for other things than just paperwork!" He said the last part in a chilly, icy tone, his eyes briefly glowing red as he glanced at the mountain of papers at the edge of his desk.

He was about to use the Power of Destruction on them but changed his mind at the last second.

"Very well. If this is what you wish, I will do it," Grayfia said.

"My thanks, Grayfia." The current Lucifer nodded before returning to his work, while his Queen bowed and left.

A Few Weeks Later

The Strongest Queen had been trying to figure out what was going on with Satan Leviathan.

At first, it was just her mission entrusted by her King, but then she realized something was happening with one of the strongest members of their race.

Serafall seemed much happier… and not the fake "magical girl" act. In truth, Grayfia hadn't seen Leviathan wear her magical girl outfit for some time now.

This pointed to something else going on with the black-haired Satan. Grayfia concluded that Serafall was most likely dating someone.

The happiness, the changed behavior—it was all too familiar to her. But this still didn't answer the question: How is Serafall finishing her paperwork so quickly?

While the silver-haired maid didn't enjoy continuing her spying, she persisted. In the end, though, she couldn't find anything.

This left her with only one option—she needed to track Serafall down in the human world.

Easier said than done, as Serafall clearly didn't want to be discovered. The level of secrecy she employed disturbed Grayfia for some reason.

Grayfia understood that Leviathan was a public figure and likely wanted her privacy, but the extent to which she hid her teleportation circles was over the top. No one in the Underworld concealed their teleportation destinations like this.

'Eastern Europe… that's dangerous, Serafall. Why are you going to Church-controlled territory?' Grayfia tried to trace the teleportation with her magic but immediately lost Serafall's trail once she reached Eastern Europe.

Still, she now had a general idea of where Serafall was, though it would take several weeks, perhaps even months, of careful searching…

Marcus (POV)

It was finally time to test the holographic design table. After finishing the basic OS, the table was now functioning at a usable level.

The whole PC and table designs were completed months ago. But the OS had taken much longer to program. Even with my augmented talent, it still took months because I was working on making it a self-updating system to save time.

There were restrictions in place. I didn't want a rogue AI capable of designing tech and magic weaponry running in the supernatural world.

So the system had limitations on how it could self-update. Nonetheless, it would eventually become a virtual butler capable of assisting me in the field.

After thinking about it for a moment, I decided to upgrade the M.T.M Castor MK II to the next level.

For that, I scanned the paper design and uploaded it to my PC. After going through several filters, I could now see the 3D image of the gun.

At this stage, I still needed to wear special gloves to interact with the holograms. These gloves collected data on my movements and cross-referenced it with the hologram, improving both the hologram and the human interaction with it.

Eventually, I wouldn't need the gloves to interact with the hologram, but to reach that point, I needed to use the table, even though it was quite uncomfortable.

First, I stripped the gun of its case, leaving only the M.T.M circle technique.

Then I upgraded the M.T.M to the next level, adding more accelerator circles, magnifying circles, and booster circles. This made the system much bigger, but that was the point.

The gun would be bigger, and if the gun was bigger, the rail could also be longer. The longer the rail, the more power it could generate.

Speaking of the rail, the next step was the Barrier Rail Technique, or rather, the Barrier Rail System.

For this, I decided to use diamond rails powered by magic. Not only would this accelerate the project even further, but it would also generate heat and friction, both of which would be absorbed by the surrounding barriers and added to the load at the end.

This entire system would increase the power of the shot by about 300-400%. In other words, even a regular man could technically kill a high-class Devil with this, just by pulling the trigger.

While all of this was essentially just upgrading existing techniques or systems, I had also begun working on the cartridge system.

The basics were quite simple: scatter fire, beam version, or even cannon fire. These are basic magic manipulations done through a circle.

That's why it was time for me to summon my first devil familiar…

"Well, I'm almost done with the internal design," I said to Serafall, who was busy with her paperwork.

"Hmm? That was quick. I thought you were going to spend days on it," the current Leviathan remarked with a curious look as she pressed "YES" to sign another paper.

"As if… I'm not doing this on paper anymore. I've already reworked the two main points of it, and now I'm working on the cartridge. For that, I need to summon Venelana." My words stopped Serafall in her tracks.

"What... for?"

"Her Power of Destruction," I said plainly. Serafall sighed in relief after hearing that. Was she jealous or something? Did she think I was going to do something with that brown-haired devil lady?

"I see… are you planning to recreate it?" she asked after fully realizing what I meant.

"Indeed. More like synthesizing," I said to her, before focusing on my Ars Goetia and connecting to Venelana.

'Venelana, it's me. I'll be summoning you soon, get ready.'

'O-Of course…' I received a shocked response from her. Well, I would be shocked too, after not talking for more than a few years.

A few moments later, Solomon's circle appeared, and Venelana materialized in all her physics-defying glory.

The first thing she did was look around. Her eyes eventually locked onto Satan Leviathan.

"L-L-Lady Leviathan!? Y-You're here!? D-Does this mean…"

"I am his Sitri Pillar," Serafall casually nodded at Venelana.

"No... wonder... no wonder I wasn't summoned anymore…" The brown-haired devil looked at the floor, her shock evident.

"Not that you need to be summoned… you can summon yourself. I do it every day. I'm the one who keeps him company in any way he wants," Serafall's words had many meanings, and it seemed Venelana understood that very well.

"Anyway, let's keep this short. I only need some of your Power of Destruction. Once I scan it, you can return to the Underworld." I refocused her attention with my words.

She turned to me, looking me over from top to bottom. A myriad of emotions flickered through her eyes.

"It's fine. I have plenty of free time these days, and I haven't seen you, Master, in more than two years," she said with a certain tone.

If she didn't want to leave, there had to be a hidden motive. Well, I'd find out what it was eventually.

'I should have asked Serafall about the political landscape of the devils,' I thought for a second but decided to drop it for now.

"I see… then you can stay if you want. But let's get the Power of Destruction reading done first." I motioned for her to come over, where a white circle was already being prepared.

"I need you to create a ball of Power of Destruction and make it float inside that circle for a certain amount of time. Can you do that?" I asked while walking over to my computer.

I could see that the circle was properly connected to my PC.

"Easy enough. I assume you're trying to recreate it? While I have no doubt that you could do it, you do know the repercussions of doing so?" Venelana asked with a sigh.

"Don't worry. Satan responsible for diplomatic relations in my garage. I know more than I need to," I said with an eye roll.

"If you say so…"

———

Join my patreon to read Advanced Chapters

-10 Advance Chapter

Patreon.(com)/Blame1

———