Chapter 44: Intermission: Familiar hunt - Flashback
It's time for a reverse back to when Masaru and Jeanne followed Edward to experience hunting stray devils, Diana together with Akeno (Bishop), Stephani (Bishop), Angelica (Pawn), Shirone (Rook), Everest (Rook), Ingvild (Queen), Ichika (Pawn), Yui (Pawn).
Diana looked at the girls while thinking of Jeanne the Knight at Masaru's side doing stray devil hunt
'1 Knight and 5 Pawn pieces left... I honestly wonder just how is that boy of mine going to use those remaining pieces, from the looks of it he is holding back recruitment for these girls'
When they pass through the entrance via teleportation they appeared inside a mystical forest that gave off the impression that there were stars amongst the flora that was flourishing in it's a most natural state, even the quality of the air was several times better compared to the outside world.
Even the sounds of a variety of mythical creatures could be heard from a distance away from the girls who just arrived in this forest world that was called the Pet Forest, but the name Pet does not mean the creatures inside are harmless at all. So beware
Diana led the girls from the front while explaining to them,
"I am sure you girls have already been taught about Familiars right? But I will just repeat it for in case. Familiars whom we devil sign contracts with are considered as a basic requirement for Devils. The reason for this is the fact they can assist their masters in various tasks, be used for information gathering and relaying messages, as well as perform any other odd jobs that their masters could think of."
Diana pushed a leaf aside as they walk deeper into the forest,
"Familiars can naturally be used in combat as well, so the application in using Familiars is required which is why we are here."
"Ah, so the ladies of the Belial has arrived!"
Middle age men wearing an outfit similar to that of Ash Ketchum of Pokemon appeared in front of the view of the girls. Since they were not fans of pokemon and did not watch it they did not find this sight particularly strange at all.
"Evening Zatouji, tonight it will be these girls"
Zatouji was the man's name, he looked at Diana when he heard her confirm these were indeed the girls to sign familiar contracts,
"I see, no wonder you book several days instead of normal few hours huh?"
'Whoever is their master must be lucky to have such a large amount of beautiful girls, guess I at least got some materials'
"Alright ladies, I am sure you heard this before but this is the Pet Forest! Normally devils can only be inside for several hours unless special cases like today where it was booked for several days to ensure each of you finds your chosen partner.
"But please do take note to take care of your mental fatigue and Devil Energy drain you will experience each time you sign a familiar contract since the amount of familiars each devil can handle for a first time contract varies quite much."
Zatouji explains some basics for the girls while he was leading them towards the west first, there was quite amount of newborn monsters that can be made familiars of a few days ago and the parents had already left for the day.
"Also don't rush to sign a contract, sometimes the contract will fail if there is no compatibility between the familiar and Master after all the familiar feeds off energy from their master to grow and if the element energy is not suited it will naturally refuse to sign a contract thus causing it a failure due to compatibility"
Zatoji stopped when he noticed a little tiger cub that was enough to shock his bones,
'Why is this fella here? If his parents come even Diana-sama will have trouble fending them off'
The strangest thing was the fact the white tiger caught a familiar scent on every girl in Masaru's peerage, it could not determine if the scent was the girls own or it could be their parents maybe? But the tiger felt extra familiar with Shirone since they stem from the same racial family which is the Feline family although the one was a mythical beast and the other was a Yokai, Nekoshou.
"To think this little one will come out on its own to look for the little miss, your luck is terrifying, to say the least"
Zatouji spoke as he watches Shirone lower herself looking into the tiger cub's eyes, whether they were communicating or not but Shirone nodded her head before a Magic circle with the Belial family crest formed beneath the two of them, a soft meow could be heard from the tiger cub before the two magic circles turned into particles.
The particles under the tiger cub went towards its head displaying a crest on its forehead for a moment before disappearing, the particles under Shirone entered her body as she could feel a connection towards this tiger cub deep within her.
Shirone staggered a bit as she slowly stood up, Zatouji began nodding
"That is the limit for you right now, you will have to get stronger and then maybe you can sign another familiar contract in the future. But Honestly, just by having this tiger I don't think you need anything else otherwise I can only feel sorry for your enemies"
Diana helped Shirone stabilize her footing first before handing over a potion Masaru created to temporary assist the regeneration of Magical energy at a faster pace.
Once Shirone was assisted they continued to delve deeper into the forest, the girls were quite amused to see a variety of creatures in the forest. Some of them appear to be cute like a furball cat that was like a ball of fur with two legs, there were even small creatures with the resemblance to Raccoons that were digging under the ground at quite the fast speed.
Just as they kept walking a little monster beast jumped onto Stephani's shoulder causing the latter to scream loud enough to shock everyone including the beasts to stand still for a breath time, Zatouji who is used to this kind of situation looked at the little imp that was standing still on Stephani's shoulder with an affectionate look in its eyes.
"Ah, the Dream Imp huh?"
Zatouji looked at the little creature that had the face of a griffon, little larger ears similar to that of an elephant, bull horns that looked like copper with black stripes, it's body full of fur and limbs resembling that of a cat with a pair of tiny wings and a tail that normally appears on a succubus.
"That is a dream Imp, although it does not resemble an imp that much but the habits it has is what gave it, it's named. They are incredibly mischievous by nature but never take on their preys head-on, because of their strong natural talent in Illusion Magic they will lure their prey with this magic till the prey finally succumbs and falls asleep for it to kill it. Hench it is called Dream Imp, for you to get that I can only say as expected of an Adramelech descendant, that is their signature familiar"
"Adramelech? You knew?"
Stephani asked Zatouji feeling a bit reluctant at first but she loved this little ugly child who is a bit naughty for scaring her but it will make an excellent familiar for her,
"Well The eyes and Hair along with that beast is something only that family will have after all"
Zatouji explained, the moment Stephani completed her contract it appeared she was better off compared to Shirone,
"If you girls are wondering why this girl is fine signing a contract compared to our Nekoshou girl, then it lies in the quality of the beast. The higher the potential, the higher the cost of demonic energy it will be"
Hearing this explanation made some things more understandable, along the way there was no other beast that could capture the interest of the girls till they reached the largest lake in the Pet Forest which was dubbed the Water Serpent Lake.
The reason Zatouji led them here was because of the Leviathan descendant, it has been many years he last led a Leviathan Descendant and felt it truly was the fate for him to lead a descendant of this family once more which excited him to see it. The Water Serpent Ritual...
"Now this is the Water Serpent Lake, Little missy I want you to walk over the lake till you reach the middle of it"
"huh? Isn't it dangerous?"
Diana looked at Zatouji who shrugged,
"For anyone it will be dangerous but for that girl it will not be, in fact, this is the location where the last Leviathan Descendant conduct their familiar contract after all"
Diana kept quiet but silently began to prepare herself to move at any given time should she feel Ingvild is in danger, Ingvild looked at the lake then at Zatouji
"Won't I have to swim there?"
Zatouji could not help but cock his brows up looking at this girl for not knowing something basic about the Leviathan clan but then realized she was the last descendant.
"Use your family's power to walk on the surface, remember whatever happens, don't display fear to whatever arises from the lake or it will fail"
Ingvild could not understand why Zatouji was only giving selective information but she knew this man could be trusted based on everyone who referred him as a guide for the Pet World, she took off her shoes and took the first step on the water.
She felt a strangely familiar feeling with this water as if it has been a part of her body long ago, she immersed in the feeling without realizing that she was already walking towards the middle of the lake.
"Why is she walking in a Daze towards the middle of the lake!? It's dangerous after all!"
Diana wanted to move but Zatouji stopped her
"If you care about that girl's safety then stay here, right now the ritual that made the Leviathan Family chose their next true heir has started"
Diana looked at him
"But the leviathan family is gone, she is the queen of Masaru"
Zatouji nodded
"Yes I know, you can think of this as being a Ritual to measure the potential of the Leviathan Descendant. You see each time a descendant of that family is born they will be brought here to walk on the water, this water is mysterious and holds a strong connection towards the family and inside it lives the water serpents who has the purest bloodline linked towards the Mythical Beast Leviathan the Sea God"
"The manner of how they test the strength of their descendants link to the leviathan bloodline will depend on the number of Serpents emerging from the waters, this is not about being the pure devil or not but about compatibility with the water serpents.
"However, they test their descendant potential in the number of serpents willing to become familiar. The highest number in the past was only two adult Water serpents and this was about a little more than a thousand years ago. So you can see how difficult it is to please these water serpents, should any person that does not have the leviathan bloodline in their veins it will anger the water serpents which is why I stopped you... The girl will be safe even if she fails"
Diana who heard this reluctantly pulled back while watching Ingvild who was walking over the waters, each of her steps sent out a gentle wave of ripples.
One by one shadows were appearing below the surface of the waters, the sheer numbers were enough to cause them to become vigilant while Zatouji felt quite excited since the Ritual has officially begun.
First droplets of lake water began to float after separating from the lake water one by one, the moment a circle was completed a young water serpent would emerge from the waters allowing the ring of floating water to float around its blue scaled neck.
At the side of each, its head was red fins with dragon feature face, Ingvild who saw this serpent smiled as she simply began twirling around the like as if she was skate dancing. There was no reason behind this action, for some reason Ingvild only felt like her body wanted to move this way and she followed it, it felt like she was flying across space with stars gathering around her.
It didn't take long for the lake to be almost full with water serpents, even some Adult size Water serpents emerged causing the excited Zatouji to take his hat off. The scene that he once witnessed a thousand years ago replayed within his mind, there too was a beautiful purple hair woman.
Dancing in the lake like Ingvild did now which shocked the entire Leviathan Clan to the core. Because of the manner how the Water serpents began to swim along with her dance allowing her to pass each of them one by one touching the water serpents as she passes by.
It was only after half an Hour Ingvild stopped dancing and stood still in the middle of the lake, she never realized what she did as she only immersed in this comfortable feeling. Every single serpent bowed their heads towards her causing Zatouji to take a step back out of shock,
Diana who saw this looked at him fiercely demanding an explanation, Zatouji wipes his sweat off his forehead as he explained.
"You see, this is something that happened in the past as well but not on such a scale. When the serpent bows it means its not worthy of being her familiar, you should understand a dragon's pride is something not to be underestimated and these serpents to bow their heads means her potential is simply something I can't even compare anything related to the Leviathan clan... EH!? What the hell are these two doing here!?"
'This group of girls are all monsters! Why the hell are they can they attract such mythical out one at a time with ease'
Ingvild did not hear this but she instinctively understood these serpents paid her respect but felt their not worthy to serve her, soon the serpents began to split apart revealing two water serpents much young but different from other water serpents in looks.
As the two water serpents went pass the rest the heads of water serpents bowed even lower towards these two compared to the rest, Ingvild felt a happy aura enveloping her which came from these two so she too walked towards the two little serpents.
When they finally stopped in front of everyone, the two serpents nudged their heads onto her hands. The moment their heads touched her hands a different contract was initiated compared to the usually familiar contract.
"I will say this now, this girl will not be able to sign any more contracts with any other familiar"
Zatouji place the hat on his head as he continues,
"If you compare the water serpents to a Noble rank, then those two water serpents would be a prince and princess. To think the Dual Water & Ice Royal Water Serpents would appear. Just what kind of monstrous children am I dealing with here"
Diana smiled
"You dare call these girls monsters?"
Zatouji looked at her sternly
"If they are not monstrous talent, then geniuses are common and common are idiots... That how far the difference is. Just two of the girls formed contracts with mythical beasts that can grow without training to the level of Satan Class. Do you understand what I am saying? Growing up, no training just eat and sleep and they will reach that level of power"
Diana felt shocked but happy at the same time that the safety of the girls went up several times with this, once the contract was completed Ingvild came back unlike the other girls she too was fine but like Zatouji mentioned she will not be able to sign a contract with any other beast because those two water serpents will kill it since their pride will not allow any other beast near their chosen master.
"Since we are done here, we can start by heading north before we head to the eastern side of the forest. Honestly the forest is several hundred times larger than what we are walking, but the kinds of familiars I believe is suited for each of you girls is where I will lead you first"
Zatouji did not bluff, thanks to his many years of experience he could already write a list of candidate familiars for each girl upon seeing them once.
Along the way, Akeno signed a familiar contract with a small bat, and a tiny humanoid creature with a single horn on its head which was a small Oni, its appearance was similar to a caveman with fur on his lower body but its green upper body was bare.
"This is the Fire area of the Pet Forest, it is close by one of Lady Tiamat's roosts she sometimes comes to relax"
Zatouji explained the area they arrived appeared to be much hotter compared to the previous area, the ground was hard and dry while the number of trees in the surroundings was quite few but some of them were larger than normal-sized trees.
Angelica sensed fast movement within two of the trees near them, she was not sure what manner of beast it was, but since she was an elf having a familiar that could move this fast would be ideal for her especially if she needs a partner to support her if they fight in the densely packed forest.
She looked towards Akeno who noticed she wanted to make her move towards Akeno before leaping into the tree thanks to elven characteristics being close to nature her ability to climb trees was catching up with the shadow of the beast she spotted.
The closer she got the clearer she could see a pair of pink naked butts with the rest of the body covered in blood-red fur, on top of its head was strands of golden hair giving off a feeling like it was wearing a crown.
It was a Fire Monkey that was rare in this side of the area as they were mostly more active in the southwestern side of the pet forest because this Volcano is the residence of stronger fire-type beasts.
"To think it will be something like this"
Angelica felt strange having the thought before of having this monkey as her familiar but she carried it out, she similar to Masaru believed in fated meetings after all.
When Angelica came down with the Monkey Zatouji rubbed his chin looking at this combo and nodded,
"For an Elf, a monkey who is close to nature in a way does appear to be a good choice, but girl... I heard Elves like things are beautiful, this monkey might pass off as being cute while being young but when it grows it will be anything but cute or beautiful"
Angelica smiled while the Fire monkey looked at him with displeasure,
"Unlike my families and friends, I choose efficiency overlooks. My dream is to travel the world and there are many great dangers in the world since that is the case what is the use having something beautiful but is useless in combat... which is why I chose to sign it with this monkey"
"Anyone wants to try their luck walking up the volcano to sign a contract with a fire type creature?"
Zatouji asked the girls, Yui looked at him
"Isn't the fire creatures aggressive?"
Zatouji nodded meaningfully,
"If it was outside the pet world I would agree, however, the fire creatures in this region may appear to be aggressive but they are what the humans call battle enthusiastic creatures that prefer to fight to see whether you are worthy for them to follow"
Yui who heard this nodded while walking alone up the slope, normally humans would stay clear of volcanos but Devils with their powers could take these risks easily.
Other than some fire warthogs, flame wolves, and other creatures there was not a special one that could grasp Yui's attention, the higher she went the hotter it became forcing her to use water elemental magic together with Wind elemental magic to counter the heat.
Shortly signs of Fire Earth dragons were sighted from a distance far away, these are earth dragons without wings but instead of being an earth element dragon it was a Fire Earth element which allows this dragon to spew out lava as it's dragon breathes.
Soon she reached a height where small red light ball floating around, she could sense fire magical elements within this balls of light and when she tries to touch one of them they move away as if little mischievous kids playing tag with her.
The more she tried to touch the more she could hear the faint giggles that were almost inaudible to hear, she was honestly not sure what she was doing but she kept chasing them while they giggled till a brighter ball appeared in front of her without warning scaring her a bit.
Soon the light began to fade revealing a Salamander that was currently floating in the air, it had a blood-red body with yellow spots here and there on its body that releases flames now and then. It was staring at Yui intently as if trying to find some answers to its curiosity it held towards this girl who would play with them.
Yui started the contract magic and strangely enough, the salamander did not reject her at all. Once the contract was established Yui could more or less now guess what race it was and surprisingly it was of the spirit race, the fire element spirit.
When Yui came down with the fire spirit chose to relax on her shoulder attracted everyone's curious gazes, even the salamander raise its upper body with its chin pointing upwards like a proud little mascot feeling happy with the gazes it was receiving but the gaze of Zatouji prompted it to spew out a fireball to warn him to not gaze at it so intently.
"Fire Element Spirit and a high ranking one at that, well this much I can accept. If you pulled out the Fire Elemental Spirit King Salamander itself out I would quit working as I might end up dying from shocks"
Zatouji spoke as he started to lead the girls towards the North.
Stopping at a nearby empty cave Zatouji turned,
"We will be camping here tonight, unlike the large lake from the west, the north is colder compared to other regions and very rare Water Type beasts lurk in this region since the amount of food is scarce. Meaning we will need to be at full strength to move through the region and finish it in one day, we can't stay the night there as we might freeze to death"
>\/<
Next morning the girls, Diana and Zatouji got dressed in thicker clothes. The familiar their signed contracts were sent back into the forest since they can summon their familiars at any given time when needed.
But before they were able to leave the ever so perfect maid Ichika spotted a spider that was hidden deeply within the cave, if she did not sense the faint traces of space fluctuations form the spider she might have overlooked this spider.
Since this spider had similar attribute as she had and she honestly did not want to waste time looking for a different familiar chose to initiate the contract and by luck this spider was asleep.
Perhaps it sensed space energy which it was familiar with that caused the contract to succeed in its sleep, but when it felt the link with Ichika it woke up gazing at Ichika who was looking at it.
The Spider was dark grey in overall with black tribal markings around its butt from where it cast its space element magic from. When Ichika came out with the spider the girls naturally took several meters away out of shock seeing this small spider the size of a hand sleeping on Ichika's shoulder. Zatouji who saw this was quite surprised,
"It has been seven hundred years I last saw this little creature, it's called Wandering Tarantula, it was named by a Reincarnated devil who was the first one to discover it. It's a space elemental creature that sometimes phases from place to place with its space magic, it even can survive in the Dimensional Gap. Misy your family is Seere correct?"
Ichika who heard Zatouji's question nodded at him,
"That makes a bit sense that you could detect that one, it might not be powerful as mythical beasts but it sure is rare as one"
The time they spent was short in the northern region, only Yui who managed to sign a contract with a Water Spirit. But Zatouji went mad again when he saw Akeno who signed a contract with a Black Turtle, it could be considered the trip to the north was quite fruitful.
When they went towards the east were the forest is not so densely pack like it is in the centre of the Pet Forest, was where Angelica managed to sign another contract with a Gale eagle that was pure white eagle with faint tints of pale green at the borders of each of its feathers.
Stephani managed to find a rare Holy Lion which was a beast only devils with similar characteristics like her devil family who can transform and use holy element magic without being injured could sign a contract with, the strange thing was the fact this lion was simply an albino Lion unless one could sense magic there will be almost no way to determine the difference between the two.
Two days have passed and currently, the team was heading to the South Eastern side where the earthen elemental beast thrive, finding a familiar with Everest was the most difficult thing Zatouji ever encountered as every familiar he suggested did not succeed at all.
So his last option was to introduce something that was on the brink of extinction, the reason it was on the brink is because of its proud nature to not submit to any devil weaker than it and it's a refusal to breed with other species.
The surroundings of the south-east was truly a rocky terrain with several small mountains between the larger mountains, the creatures made caves in almost every mountain. It truly was a paradise for Earth Elemental beast, living within this terrain was a dragon that was common in Norse mythology for having poison breathe however this dragon mutated due it's father's characteristic it gained thus becoming an Earth/Poison elemental dragon.
"If you can't get that dragon to approve of you, then you simply won't be able to sign a familiar contract with any creature in this forest"
Zatouji spoke with certainty, Everest was already annoyed at the fact her previous contracts failed and this time she will be sure to succeed even if she had to "teach" the dragon some manners.
>\/<
"Oh, You girls succeeded in your familiar contracts?"
Diehauser who was currently helping his mother cooking dinner today sensed the girls and Diana just arrived back at home, but Everest was the one who smiled brightly as if a illusory light was shining from her body at how happy she was.
"Did something good happen for her?"
Diana looked at Diehauser who asked something complicated, she smiled bitterly
"It was good for her but unfortunate for someone else"
Diehauser who heard this was confused but noticed it was not best to ask.
>\/<
"WHAT THE HELL!!! I refuse to guide those monsters in this forest ever again"
Zatouji was shivering while remembering the sight of the Dragon girl dragging a Wyrm dragon several times larger than her beating it up to the point the dragon threw away it's own pride and wagged it's tail like a dog to live.
"Hell! Is that even still a dragon or a dog?"
'They're scary... That girl if she is angry is scary...'
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
CompleteNoob
CompleteNoob 02/08/2020
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone