章 5: Ch. 5 Touring the Underworld
The trip to Lucifaad was a much longer one than it would have been should we had actually desired to head straight there. In the end, it took over six months to reach.
Part of it is because it actually was far away from where we had been living. It would have taken about 2 weeks of constant traveling to reach the capital by flight. It could be faster by using the teleportation circles, but one needs a certain degree of status to use them and I didn't want to just teleport us nearby.
It did allow us to experience the various territories along our way.
The Gremory House was quite rich and influential even before the civil war itself, which would explain why Zekram Bael allowed for his descendant Venelana to marry into the clan.
Their land was large and they had many different natural ressources available. The mountain comparable to Fuji was rather impressive to visit, the Great Lake they possessed was effectively used for supplying fish and selling it to others, they had well established cities and the overall quality of life in these lands was good according to those inhabiting them.
The people were also loyal to the Gremory and proud of their current young master, Sirzechs Gremory, especially after news of his power surpassing the Satans themselves began to spread. As a result of this I couldn't take too many people or I would risk future suspicion.
The Sitri House lands were very different. Instead of developing agriculturally or in mercantile manners, they decided to capitalize on the vast nature their territory encompasses, leading to them gathering many healers who would need ingredients from such places. As a result they've become the unofficial leaders when it comes to medical care in the Underworld.
There are much fewer devils truly living in those lands than places focusing on more economic developments, but the people appear happy and content with how the Sitri House has been governing. The presence of the family heir, Serafall Sitri, also gives the devils in these lands great assurance for their safety as well, reinforcing the loyalty they hold towards the house.
I did snatch some healers and researchers for myself. Nothing too suspicious, but it will be necessary for the future. Mostly younger ones looking for chances to prove themselves and some older ones looking to pass on knowledge and do some good after they've grown tired of the politics every industry develops.
The thought of trying to meet the future Magical girl lover did cross my mind simply because she had been my favorite devil, but unfortunately she was away at the moment.
We also passed through House Agares' lands as well, visiting the famous floating Islands and partaking in the finest agricultural products in the Underworld.
I could see why the place was such a tourist destination, even for a race which can fly like ours. The view is breathtaking while the accommodations are exquisite. Although it was rather expensive due to being targeted towards nobles, the sight of my servants in soaking wet cloths clinging to their bodies was one I found worth it. (A/N: Bathing we're not a thing yet and I doubt devil invented them. At least not yet.)
Most importantly however, I found the crystals essential for the creation of the evil pieces in the future.
The crystals were a point of interest for House Agares, but they hadn't noticed anything truly special about them beyond their ability to link to the demonic power of those carrying said crystals, leading to some aesthetic changes for the most part. Even then the changes themselves take time due to it requiring the devil's power to increase and many, if not most, devils simply stay at their own natural power levels instead of training properly. As a result, these crystals were being used as a signature symbol for House Agares members at the moment.
(A/N: Now that I think about it, aren't most devils basically acting like Freeza before Goku beat him?)
Of course I decided to secure some for myself and create a proper channel to acquire some for my own purposes later. They will be very useful in the future indeed.
My time there didn't led me to recruiting many people however, mostly due to the lower population the floating islands containing the more important parts of House Agares' territory hampering that, focusing more on having people who could have access to the crystals and a few of the people who could help in developing agricultural products matching the ones they have here.
What followed after three pleasant lands visited was something much more in line with what one would imagine a devil's territory. In summary: the few were favored while the rest oppressed.
The average resident had poor living conditions and were naturally fearful of those who were simply dressed in finer clothes. These devils would flinch and cower at the sight of guards or the symbols of their lords. Much of what made these territories rich was near forced labor in mines or the lords only caring about their own capital cities and taxing the hell out of others.
House Satanachia was even blatantly forcing their large number of blacksmiths to create weapons and armor, something which indicated that the Satans have already made their desires to restart the Great War clear internally. Luckily for me, I managed to 'Convince' the majority of them to move to my future territory once the time was right.
The rest were also 'replenishing' their forces via 'conscription'. I managed to sneak into their training grounds to help them have other options when the time comes.
All this really took a lot of time, but i believe taking the chance now was better than later. I can't guess how every house will react once the Satans announce their intentions publicly, but I seriously doubt I would have been able to so easily achieve what I did once they do and tensions begin to rise.
What was slightly jarring was how little the nobles of the Satan families and the Houses of Lucifer cared for or even acknowledged other devils. I've seen some of them openly beating a member of an Extra House and simply killing random devils because it got them off sexually.
I actually had to erase one of those disgusting insects for trying to touch my maids.
It did also involve killing most of his guards and brainwashing the rest into bringing some brainwashed criminals to take the fall for me. Even if the insect wasn't a direct descendant he was still a member of a Satan family and they would not be pleased if a member disappeared, therefor I gave them an easy culprit and answer to who killed him and why. They will then have closure/revenge while showing off their power and won't even think about looking further into things.
Upon reaching Lucifaad we were all impressed by the size and beauty of the place. It was the current Capital for a reason after all.
One could see the official seat of power in the Underworld from far away, telling all where the Satans, and more specifically the Lucifers, resided.
The city itself was set up in a circular manner instead of more sprawling cities of the future or the hexagonal shaped ones found in Gremory lands, with three smaller circles attached to the main one, indicating where the official homes for the Asmodeus, Leviathan and Beelzebub houses were located. I say official since the Heads and Heirs tend to stay in the Castle to look like equals to the Lucifers. At least that last part is more accurate since the death of the original Lucifer and the disappearance of Lilith, but Rivezim being a Super Devil kind of keeps him above the other Satans.
The buildings themselves all took on a mix of Roman, European Medieval and more Modern Renaissance in style, while all important buildings were made from materials like marble and rare trees found in the Human world or across the Underworld. The main streets screamed excess in all forms.
Of course the entire city isn't like this, many smaller streets catering to commoners can be found all over the city as they made their living away from nobles. But as for the overall situation of Lucifaad, one can say it would almost resemble Las Vegas in a sense.
The core of the city itself is heavily centered around 'Sin', meaning one can indulge gluttonously, gamble for wealth avariciously, prostitute yourself or fuck nonstop lustfully, drink or drug yourself to oblivion enviously, fight in the coliseum for blood and death wrathfully, partake in wasting away slothfully, all while doing anything pridefully. Meanwhile the main streets are for the ones preferring more aristocratic pleasures similar to humans as they 'properly' dine, enjoy wines, shop at the best stores, enjoyed tea and the general finer things in life.
This lifestyle being on the condition you are a noble or rich enough to matter anyway. The commoners were forced to bend to their whims while maintaining the city for them to enjoy as they please, making a living away from their eyes to avoid somehow displeasing them. So although the city is the safest (from outside threats), cleanest, and offers the best goods from the Underworld, it can also be a hell for the weak and unimportant.
The perfect place to recruit others no? Especially when the population is actually in the millions and only about 30% of it are nobles.
Beside all that, I discovered something quite interesting during our travels about my Longinus' ability to 'free' talents.
It would appear that the more specific the talent, the greater the boost one receives from it becoming free. I discovered this when comparing the rate of improvement between my servants since they've all had the same schedules since we started travelling.
During our travels, I noticed that Fia's cooking abilities grew at a much slower pace than Liora's, something which I initially thought was simply because Liora enjoyed cooking much more and spent more time doing so, but even when Fia began to actively learn from her out of a desire to improve as a maid she couldn't stop the gap between their skills from increasing. My theory was because the enhanced talent was 'maid', which encompasses many separate talents such as Cleaning, cooking, caretaking, etiquette and whatnot, while I directly enhanced Liora's 'cooking' talent. This allowed Liora to gain a boost equal to the one Fia obtained over all that which the 'maid' talent influences but concentrated in her one talent. I then temporarily changed Fia's maid talent to cooking in order to test my theory and it showed results as she began to improve at a much quicker pace than before.
A secondary discovery was that the abilities she developed under the influence of her freed talent didn't go away, but her improvement rate lowered drastically.
After seeing this I actually changed my own enhanced talent towards martial arts to unharmed combat, removing boosts for weapons in order to improve much quicker in the field i was currently training myself since I didn't have a proper weapon yet. The increase was noticeable to say the least, allowing me to grow towards the grandmaster stage at a much faster rate than before.
During the last six month we also grew stronger as everyone gained more practical experience and bonded as a group.
Fia and Liora have reached the border of High-class thanks to our travels, while Sigil and Gila are now at high Mid-Class. Their teamwork was good as well with Sigil taking on a vanguard role, Fia and Liora were mid-to-long range attackers, while Gila was the support. The four of them could take out a few High-Class beasts using their teamwork.
I didn't focus on improving my strength during this time, only my skills and control.
My physical training has gone better, but reaching Grandmaster in terms of pure skills is still going to take years to achieve. With [Space] on the hand, I've started to learn skills of the master rank as I began learning about different dimensions. I made sure to free my talents for both space and dimensions in order to minimize my chances of screwing myself over. Marvel movies and comics do make one paranoid about other dimensions.
So far I haven't managed to find or create anything like the mirror dimension, but I have managed to create pocket dimensions, meaning I have a storage space now. I've also began learning to manipulate my own space, something which would allow me to be a better Obito since I would have actual control over my ability and could consciously decide what to phase through. I believe I'll be able to have a similar technique to Sirzechs Aura of Destruction and true form by the time I reach Satan-Class, but with a touch of Falbium's [Absolute Defense].
"Be careful once inside the city girls. The so-called nobles can almost do anything they please as long as the Satans don't put their foot down or they fear starting a feud with another noble house.
You know how to disguise yourselves so do it. I would rather not have to kill a bunch of nobles again whilst here, but you can defend yourselves if necessary. Just make sure to bring the troublemaker to me afterwards if you believe he will give us further troubles." I ordered as we moved towards the gate of Asmodeus, named after the closest family to it.
"""Understood master./Yes master!/Of course master~.""" They answered in their own ways.
I do worry about my cute, pretty and beautiful maids.
Devils can be stupid. Good thing most of those called High-Class are pretty weak because they lack any sort of training or experience. Most of them just have the raw power and probably their house ability, which might not directly be combat related anyway.
That's what happens when you simply order 'lower' devils to fight for you while just blasting things.
This is actually why I think the ratings were a rather brilliant idea. Not only do you need a peerage to participate properly, which helps replenish the number of devils, it also give an incentive for devils to actually try to grow stronger and train, while giving them some combat and leadership experience. It can be abused, but what system can't? Even God's system gets abused by Longinus and Sacred Gear users to the point that it's not even funny anymore in the future. There would be no Oppai Dragon if that wasn't the case after all.
Quickly reaching the Gate of Asmodeus as I was in thought, we passed by without any issues due to our appearance and paying the toll without any care. I do look like a noble devil with how me and the girls are dressed, as well as our general air of confidence and strength while the girls respectfully stay a bit behind me, it makes people automatically assume I am a young master and the girls are my servants.
"First things first, let's find a place to stay and then we can explore. I want to get a feel for the city before we start working." I said to them as I looked for an inn to temporarily stay in.
It wasn't going to be for long because we will require privacy soon. I'll either buy a place or brainwash someone into giving me one.
'But for now, time to start a not so hostile takeover.' I thought with some amusement.
'They'll be happy about it after all.' I then added with a devious smile appearing on my face as I looked at the city filled with opportunity.
"They won't even know what hit them. In fact, they won't even know they were hit once I'm done."
クリエイターの想い 
Alexander_the_grey
Alexander_the_grey Big time skip next chapter.
I want to get to the outbreak of the civil war soon so it’ll basically be about what he’s done in the city.
I’ll try to have more interactions, but I’m trying to go through ten years without going ‘and suddenly he’s op and has an army.’
Anyway, that’s generally my idea of how the devils who would become the two factions operated their territory and how they could have been 500 years before canon.
Hope I’m not boring too much and that you all can enjoy.
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