Chapter 39: 05 – Window to the Soul
Nero left the guest room where he was talking to Euclid.
The expression on his face was one of doubt, very different from the nervousness he had when entering that room.
'That is impossible. How could there be another Lucifuge? Grayfia and Euclid were suposed to be the only members alive. So where did this little sister come from?'
'Well, the light novel I read in the past is no longer reliable because it shows events that didn't involve my existence. Maybe this new Lucifuge will be something similar. Maybe this universe is similar to the novel, but has notable differences that don't make them the same.'
Aware of the events that will occur in near future, he decided to confirm his hypothesis regarding the connection between the current world and the novel he read.
'If that document is correct, then a new test subject will be used in the Naberius family's experiments. Considering the time I'm in compared to the novel, it must be around that period in which the extermination of one of the 72 pillars will occur.'
Nero was confident that the new subject in the deal with Naberius is none other than Shirone, Rias Gremory's future rook, and certainly the previous test subject will be Kuroka, the pervert cat girl who will join his little brother's group of misfits.
'Okay, I need to organize the situation. First, a new guardian will take charge of me at the end of this week. Second, the Naberius clan's experiment is about to change test subjects, meaning the incident will occur in the short term. Finally, Euclid has another sister besides the strongest queen, so considering the siscon personality present in the novel there is a high chance of him leaving early to visit her.'
The young devil's plan depends on external factors, as it requires Euclid's absence before the arrival of his replacement, only then will it be possible to try to reach Naberius territory and investigate whether the events in the Naberius family will really happen according to what he knows.
'Okay, I know the circumstances, but how the hell am I supposed to get to another territory if I don't even know where this mansion is located?'
Nero watched the landscape through the window.
It was just a large landmass, as there are no oceans, just some lakes. The sky was purple which reiterates the fact that it was the morning of a new day.
According to the books in the mansion's library and with his cheap father Razevan rare knowledge sharing he learned that the sky was originally purple during both the day and night, but the current Four Great Satans adjusted the flow of time to match it in the human world for the sake of the reincarnated Devils. They even reproduced an artificial moon using Demonic Power and made the night's darkness the same as the human world.
'Well one day at a time. I'm going to deal with the problems I can solve with my currents skills and develop myself to fix the rest. The priority is to become strong to be able to witness the Naberius massacre.'
He was clear about his goals and decided to start his training right away to maximize the use of that week.
Heading to the training room, again he follows a basic physical routine of 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, 100 squats and a 10 kilometer run.
After finishing the physical training he returned to experimenting with his shadows, but in the end he have no success in anything similar to the conscious shadows of the Shadow Monarch or the teleportation through the shadows of the vice captain of Clover's Black Bulls squadron.
"What I am missing? I feel like these shadows don't belong to me, there is no deep conection. But it's different when I use this..." Nero gets frustrated by the flaws as he activates his soul power which acts like a small flame on the tip of his index finger.
He tries to manipulate the small flame, managing to move it in the air after a certain effort, and even increase it size. But he noticed that after some minutes he began to feel a tingling in the index finger.
Ignoring the sensation he decides to take things further, now he has made five small flames, one on each tip of his fingers.
Again he decided to enlarge them and try to unify them into a larger one, which he was successful after 8 attempts.
But the problem repeated itself after a few minutes, four of his fingers became tingly and his index finger became numb.
He decided to continue and noticed that all of his fingers were numb to the point where he couldn't feel them.
This numbness was certainly related to soul manipulation, but he didn't know what exactly was happening.
"I see, if I use this power for prolonged periods or excessively then the limb I use will initially tingle until it reaches a state of numbness. Apparently excessive use brings limitations like this damn phantom pain I'm feeling." He raised his numb hand in front of him. "It's dangerous to use in a fight without prior experience, but I still need to find a way to extend my limits or negate this disadvantage."
Before the boy could investigate further about the incident he hears footsteps coming from behind, and when he turns around he sees again the same servant who remained in the mansion and informed him of Euclid's arrival.
The strangest thing was that this old man was supposed to be a middle-class devil, but there was clearly something wrong with him. His energy could not be felt, and his presence was only noticed when he decided to make noise.
"Young master, you are making great progress. Your mother would be proud, she was the best in the Satanachia techniques being capable of causing large explosions and temporary physical mutations through soul manipulation."
"Wow that's amazing. I would even shake your hand, but it's a shame I can't feel mine." Nero waves his hand which acts jelly-like.
"This is expected since the young master was using his own soul as fuel for his techniques."
"I was? I didn't know where the energy was coming from, but it's nice to know it was from myself. Anyway, I can't use the abilities of the Satanachia clan effectively in combat, and the use of shadows is very restricted. Therefore, my training progress remains into failure."
"Young master, my concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. As long as you persevere, I'm sure you'll achieve the success you desire."
"By your logic the greatest failure that could happen in my life is to continually experience only success, after all a failure is just a delayed sucess since it keep the practice alive and practice is the road to sucess."
"Exactly young master, you got the meaning."
"Yes, I understand, but that doesn't mean there aren't any shortcuts. For example... you." Nero points to the old servant.
"And how could I be useful?"
"You worked for the Satanachia family before you were transferred here, right? Unless I'm mistaken, you must be my mother's personal servant before she passed away."
"Your information is correct. My name is Sebastian and I have been entrusted by the former Lord Satanachia to serve the lady of our house even after her marriage with Razevan Lucifer."
"Since you were my family confidant, you might know something about my clan's secrets. Would you perhaps know about the existence of any records from my maternal family that could guide me in manipulating souls?"
"Young master, there is no need to rush. You are not ready and this is not the time to have access to such things." The man said with a blank expression. "Would you like anything else?"
"No... wait. Actually, there's something I desire. I want to know what's written on the paper Euclid was analyzing."
"It's a spy's report on the Naberius family." The old man smiles.
"And how the hell did you manage to read it without alerting Euclid?"
"I just read it before handing the document." Sebastian's look made his disappointment clear at the obvious question.
"I see, that makes more sense than a mid class devil sneaking behind a ultimate devil." Nero muttered but was still heard.
"Young master, I don't understand why you even considered this absurd idea."
Nero quickly coughed to get Sebastian attention and change the subject.
The servant cooperated silently with the obvious reaction waiting for Nero next words.
"What exactly is mentioned in the report?"
"It says that the former test subject has stopped producing significant results, so they decided to proceed with tests on her replacement who happens to be a younger being from the same nekoshou specie."
'Damn, it looks like the events of the Naberius family are really going to happen like in the novel.' Nero lost his focus, not noticing the old man's strange look. But he quickly composed himself to try to get more information.
"Is there any mention of when testing will begin on the new subject?"
"It coincides with a few hours after Mr. Euclid's early planned departure." The servant emphasized the sentence by raising his tone.
"Euclid will stay here until the next guardian arrives. There is no early planned departure."
The young devil's confidence intrigued Sebastian, what caused him to briefly lose his work smile and act provocatively.
"Ohh he won't. Mr. Euclid is already planning to leave in advance to visit his dear sister and resume his important activities in Qlippoth."
"How do you know that?" Nero stared at Sebastian.
"Young master, I thought you would be hurt by not being ranked among the important activities." Sebastian brought a hand to his mouth covering it as he spoke in a mocking tone.
"That's not the main point, answer the question."
"I just happen to know the information." The older man's expression returned to his trade smile.
Nero wasn't even surprised by the amount of information this suspicious man had, probably Euclid himself informed him or possibly if his wild idea is true he actually sneaked out to spy on an ultimate class. Whatever the explanation, one thing is certain he knew he had to trust the stranger if he want to make his plan works.
"Sebastian, can you take me to Naberius territory after Euclid leave the mansion?"
"Young master, realize your wishes are my commands."
"Why are you helping me?"
"I am not."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Testing you."
"Test? What is your so called test?"
"You'll know when the time is right, until then this notebook can help you." Sebastian gave a worn-out notebook with stitched leather pages to Nero.
"Didn't you just said that it wasn't time for me to have access to books from my maternal clan?" Nero looked doubtfully at the man as he held a book that clearly had Satanachia written on the cover.
"Don't worry young master, you can't read it at the moment and you will understand why I gave you this book when you read it."
"Fine, I shall trust you for now. Hey Sebastian, there is another thing I would like to know."
"Just say it young master."
"How did you hide your presence when you entered this training room? We both have force equivalent to middle-class devils, so logically speaking it should be normal for me to feel someone on the same level."
"Young master, what are you talking about? I have always been here."
Nero simply nodded in disbelief with this nonsense, and soon the servant continued.
"Young master should be more careful, if I was an enemy you would have died without knowing the reason or the killer."
"I understand, I will take your advice in consideration. Sebastian there is something else you would like to tell me?" Nero asked noticing the strange man didn't leave the room.
"Oh there is. I suggest you to maintain a fixed personality, entertaining Master Rizevim by putting a fake bravado while appearing subservient and idealistic to Mr. Lucifuge is not a wise idea."
"May I know the reason?" Nero asked.
"Your grandfather is already aware of your deception. You didn't really believe a second generation devil would fall for the gimicks of a little devil who didn't even kill his first enemy, right?" Sebastian questioned with a look of pity that clearly said 'You're an idiot'.
"It didn't hurt to try. I never had great expectations in fooling him, but the performance served its original purpose after all I'm still alive." Nero sighs in disappointment.
"Young master, do not be accommodated. You should remain aware that your father has already tried to be submissive and obedient to Lord Rizevim. We saw how it ended."
"So what do you suggest? If I cross the old man's line or openly ruin his plans, then..."
"Then he will find it interesting. A pawn going against his master's orders."
"But in the end he will certainly torture me like he did with Vali or simply eliminate me like he did with father."
"Young master, see for the good side."
"Is there any good side?" Asked Nero in disbelief.
"Of course it does. He will only act against you if it doesn't take much time or if it is extremely necessary."
"Yeah, Even if I disobeyed the most that would come would be one of his subordinates to punish or get rid of me."
"Yes, you are correct, young master. He would probably delight in seeing your pathetic failed attempts to antagonize him."
"You don't need to put it that way."
"In fact, I need to express the consequences. Furthermore, what's the problem with being cruel, weren't you the one who said that evil is an inherent element of any devil's being."
The boy already knew that since Sebastian can get information on an ultimate class like Euclid, his previous conversation is certainly not something that special.
"But I'm still your master, shouldn't you care about my feelings?"
"Not at all, I don't receive for it. Actually, I haven't received a compensation in a long time since your mother died. As for your feelings, there's no point in pretending. I'm already aware that you don't care that I'm being rude. After all, wasn't it the young master who threw away his pride to act in front of Lords Rizevim and Lord Euclid?"
"Got me, guilty as charged." Says Nero with his arms raised. "By the way, I got the reason for not acting in front of my grandfather, but what about Euclid?"
"Euclid is your grandfather's personal mad dog and all the information he has will reach your grandfather, including your peculiar talk about the nature of devils. Congratulations, you perhaps you might upgrade your rank from useless and replaceable piece to an interesting toy in the eyes of our majesty Lucifer." Says the old man. "But besides being a obsessive follower, he is also a talented devil on par with the strongest queen in the underworld. By the way, he also didn't fall into your little theater at any point."
"Any suggestions on what I should do?" Nero runs his hand through his hair, slightly frustrated.
"Maybe start with that book I gave you?" Sebastian answers.
In the absence of more options Nero decided to try to decipher the secrets hidden in the book that Sebastian gave him, perhaps that would give him an epiphany in his soul technique.
So he did what any normal person would do, he opened it to the last page to see how long the notebook is to read.
The notebook had the name of the Satanachia clan written on the cover and when he opened it, it was empty, no sign of writing. When leafing through, it was noticeable that all the pages were blank.
"Is this supposed to mean something?" Nero pointed the open notebook at the servant who just smiled.
"Certain things are not meant to be seen by the eyes. After all they are just the windows to the true vision." The servant gave a cryptic message.
"It doesn't help much." Nero looks at Sebastian with a blank expression.
"It wasn't my goal." Sebastian maintains an expression similar to that of the young devil.
"You are quite rude to a servant."
"Correction, an unpaid servant and you don't care anyways." The old man says before turning around to the door. "I will take my leave and go see if Mr. Lucifuge needs anything. If you need something just ask."
After Sebastian left Nero decided that physical training would not be very effective with his numb hand, so the best option would be to decipher the book he received to get clues regarding the ability of the Satanachia clan abilities.
He sat in the middle of the room and opened his notebook. Once again he was faced with blank sheets of paper.
After a few minutes of trying everything including turning the book upside down, hold a page close to a flame to reveal hidden ink, throwing it on the floor or the classic movement of hitting the object to make it work. However, he didn't get any results.
Frustrated, he activated his innate demonic ability to train without any support of the book.
"Who needs this useless book, I still have a good hand and I'm not afraid to use it." Nero was comforting himself even though he knew he needed to find a way to decipher the object. "I wish Sebastian would give me more clues. How about hitting the book with my own power, that can work, I think, maybe? The notebook is from the Satanachia clan and so are my skills, it doesn't hurt to try."
While keeping a small ghostly pale blue flame crackling in his non-numb hand he was amazed, as he looked in the direction of the book he noticed that when he looked through the blue flame he could see letters written on the paper.
"So that's what he meant by what the eyes don't see. Very interesting, but maybe if I do something like this..."ĺ
Nero closed his eyes, then focused on them as he activated his clan ability. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was able to read the entire notebook.
"It worked! Who knew I was a genius. I was expecting something disastrous like attacking myself with my own power, but everything went well." The brief success raised his ego, which was low due to constant failures in training with his sources of magical powers. However, he quickly focused on the most intriguing thing in the room, the book in front of him.
The cover of the book said 'Basic Manual for Introducing Idiots to Satanachia Techniques'. Throughout the pages there were basic tutorials on how to access the energy coming from souls and suggestions on effective ways to use the skills.
Among the suggestions in the book, the ones that most intrigued the boy were those that referred to making the soul compact and implode, causing a large wave of energy, and the other was the idea of making a soul siphon to remove it from a body and put on an object.
According to the notes, the most effective process for using souls would be to manipulate the souls in the environment and use them as fuel for other techniques. But the same document informs that this is an advanced way and noobs will not be able to do this.
"I wonder who is the asshole that wrote this manual. My maternal grandfather or maybe... please don't be my mother. Being mocked by my own mother would be shameful, not that I really care."
Frustrated, Nero continued reading the manual that constantly mocked the reader for being a beginner and gave useless tips for the moment informing him about advanced techniques that he would not be able to perform.
Some of the useless suggestions regarding stupid begginers techniques consisted of: "Self-detonation of the Soul", "Transferring yout own soul into an inanimate object", and "Erasing your own soul".
In some there were certain observations, such as when transferring the soul that "you not only lose your body, but also your memory and your personality. Recommended for people bored with their own lives who want something new... Reminder in the majority sometimes it is something irreversible since you become an inanimate object" or in the case of erasing one's own soul which stated that "the result of the technique is the non-existence of one's own being, highly recommended for those who longs for death but fear pain, it is a good for those who do not want to feel pain" and in the case of self-detonation said that "recommended for birthday parties that need a little entertainment, it is also recommended for anyone who is a weakling and wants to try to cause damage to the opponent, but remember that the damage is equivalent to the power of your soul and if you are a weakling your soul most likely is too".
But there was something that was present in every case and it was the fact that the author reiterated that those technique are so simple that even an idiot can do it, but it is also so useless that only an idiot would do it.
Among the various advanced techniques that were present to diminish the reader were: "Soul Transmutation", "Possession", "Animate objects", "Creation of Artificial Souls", "Summoning of Ghosts", "Manipulation of Souls in the Environment", "Soul Erase", "Soul Siphon", ... and a technique called "Oversoul" which consisted of materializing one's soul in physical form outside the body.
After some hours of reading, the young man came to the conclusion that he needs to continue using his own soul as fuel for his techniques, but he can innovate by trying to influence things beyond his own soul by fusing a fragment of himself with something external.
Suddenly a pain came to his eyes forcing him to close them. When he opened them nothing could be seen, just black and pain coming from the eyes.
"Shit, I am blind." Nero starts to panic, but quickly calms down. "My hand recovered after a few hours while reading, my eyes should recover too... I hope so." He comforted himself as he squeezed his own fist and checked if his muscles were really still intact.
A few hours passed, and the young man's vision returned. The first thing he did was observe the sky, which unlike before was not completely purple, but in a tone very similar to the human sky that he had seen in his human life.
"It would be fun to see a normal sky again. This one is beautiful... but still purple." Nero sighs, noticing that instead of the sky blue tone, the purple tone was still present even at night but mixed with the darkness of the night sky.
Then the young man retired to his quarters to sleep until the morning of a new day when he would return to training.
He maintained the same rhythm of physical and magical training throughout the week. The strangest thing was that every day, without any warning, the same servant appeared, watched the boy's training for a few minutes and left the room. At the end of each day, he would rest briefly for a few hours and return to the same routine.
Every day there were small advances in the handling of shadows and souls, the bigest progress was on the latter even if in a rudimentary way Nero found different ways of using them by being inspired by the stupid ideas in the diary and mixing them with some things considered complex. In the end he obtained several theories that would need an experimental environment to be tested, the soul itself was not something safe to bet on.
The routine continued until it reached the sixth day. It was when Euclid summoned the boy to his grandfather's office.
When Nero opened the door he was greeted with a direct statement.
"Nero Lucifer, I will leave the estate early, but you will remain under the supervision of your servant until your permanent guardian arrives tomorrow. Understood?"
"Yes."
"Great, now you can leave." Euclid looked back at the paperwork that seemed to have decreased significantly since the beginning of the week.
"May I ask what is the reason for your early departure?" Nero asked, trying to see if he could acquire any information by looking at the papers out of the corner of his eye.
"Nothing of your business, just family matters." Euclid rejected the question and looked directly at the boy.
Nero understood the signal and left the room to give the Lucifuge space.
Upon leaving the room, he was greeted by the same servant who watched him daily.
"Hello Sebastian."
"How can I help you young master?"
"Let me know when Euclid leaves. I'm going to train one last time before we leave."
The young man went to the training room and trained again, but this time only using his physique and his shadows. He was aware that if he used his soul he could risk going into unknown territory with his body numb.
After about an hour the servant came to the training room.
"Young master, Mister Lucifuge has already left the mansion."
"Sebastian, take me to the Naberius family's territory."
"Your words are my command." The servant bowed slightly and made a sign guiding the boy to leave the place.
"Are you ready, young master? Or would you like to pick up something before you leave?"
"I'm fine. Let's go."
Then the servant activated a magic circle of teleportation magic.
The clan symbol of the Lucifer appears similar to a silver colored four-winged bat which has Devil horns on its head.
When the teleportation ended, they appeared in front of the Naberius family property, both of them were immediately spotted by two guards.
"Hold on! Who goes there?" Says the guard on the left.
"Dumbass, look at the teleport symbol. They are clearly from the Lucifer clan." The other guard comments while slapping his friend on the neck.
"Oh, asshole, look at them, they're a kid and an old man. Clearly not Lord Lucifer or Lord Lucifuge." The first guard responds by returning his colleague's gesture.
"You're right, I don't recognize those two." The second guard scratches his imaginary beard trying to associate the figures with some previous emissary sent by Rizevim or Euclid to check the loyalty of Naberius clan towards them.
"See! I was right, they must be pretending to be from the Lucifer clan falsifying the symbol with magic." The guard on the left puffs out his chest with pride.
"Is it even possible to change the teleport symbol?" The colleague asks doubtfully.
"I don't know, it should work, maybe. The boss is trying to create super devils who cares about a symbol." The guard on left shrugs.
"Intruders identify yourselves immediately! Or else..." Says the guard on the right.
"Or else we might punch you and them unalive you!" Says the other guy.
"Yeah, what he said... wait... we need to capture them first. We need more test subjects, have you forgotten?"
Seeing the tantrum between the two guards, Nero was inicially shocked, but decides to solve the situation with style.
He calmly spreads his 10 bat-like devil wings without uttering a single word and keeping a cold expression while staring at the guards.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone