The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  Previously he had kept to doing this behind closed doors and not alerting the public of his intentions but now he had done it in the middle of the budding southside merchant area.

  As Opal was playing with Zilch, she smiled and closed her eyes seemingly a nonchalant smile but when Jasmine felt Zilch land on her lap, Jasmine looked at her normally airheaded mother-in-law and was struck with utter fear, as did the level 42 head maid Eva, shivered as a dark pink aura of rage appeared on the smiling Opal’s face. “My my, who could it be?” She said in the same tone as always but there was a hint of rage in her voice that was like a knife that was on the throat of those listening.

  Opal, amazingly, stood up slowly before opening the door and walked down before turning to the young knight.

  “My Opal~! So you have finally decided to join me!” The knight said and walked over, “Come, let us kiss and enjoy our loving lives together, birth many of our children and live in great worryless lives.” He said and moved to hug her.

  Suddenly Opal grabbed the both side of his face, “My my, such a naughty boy.” She said as she clapped both side of his face, “You should look for a young miss for you. I am happily married with a loving family and don’t need a gigolo husband.” She said venomous words as she took a step almost gluing her body while moving her face near his ear where her voice dropped to a tone so low that she seemed a different woman. She open her eyes half way, they shined a cold light in them, “Leave me and my family alone unless you wish to forget you are a man.”

  “GAH!” the knight shouted as he suddenly turned purple without being able to breath, unexpectedly Opal had discreetly kneed him between his leg while using one of the few magic spells she had been able to personally develop and caused her bones to harden like metal and made her strength almost triple. It did not help in normal situations but a sneak attack of this level was perfect for it.

  What is more was that no one could notice because her, rather simple but beautiful, dress had hidden her leg from view so they only saw the young man collapse unable to breath.

  Many farmers that passed through the area or had stands and thought of her as an apostle of the goddess opened their eyes in shock as their hearts beat immensely fast as they saw her ‘miraculously’ drop a powerful knight on his back almost fainted. His mouth was almost foaming as he tried to breath. Opal looked at him with a cold glare and half closed eyes that slowly closed and only left her smile.

  “My my~! Eva, please arrange for an escort for this gentleman to go to a healer, he seems to have been hit with something serious.” Opal said casually but the Head maid had some sweat on her head as she listened to the mistress of the house and thought, “Although she is a bit airheaded, she is a woman of true silent rage! T-To think Lord Null’s Mistress was so ferocious.” Eva thought but quickly walked out, “O-Of course mistress. Please go ahead I shall prepare for the some guards to take care of this sir.” She said bowing.

  Opal smiled at her and climbed on the carriage and told the couch man to go.

  After a short while Jasmine coughed, “Mother-in-law is unexpectedly fierce.” Jasmine said.

  “Fufufu, what do you mean dear? I just kindly told the young gentleman to leave me alone. I really do hope he stops because it is quite an irritation.” She laughed but her familiar smile shined and showed the cheerful Cherub that had a farmer's overalls and hat but in his hand was a hoe in his left hand and a scythe on the other. He had the same smile as Opal. “Let him come back and try something. Hmph.” He said snorting as he went to play with Zilch making the little baby try to grab the little wings like he does to Ashley’s tail all the time.

  ***

  Some time later, Eva left the knight at a healer where everything except his ‘pride’ was healed but that pride that was cursed made his bottled up rage explode as he entered the house he had purchased to stay. It was an extra cost that the people of his church never had to put up with because every time they did the same thing it wouldn’t take much or any time at all to charm the women or males with similar harvest type spirits. What is more, their armor and body was always enchanted in charm magic made to charm the opposite sex they wanted to charm yet Opal not only was not affected, she openly brought bodily harm towards the man completely unaffected, or more properly said, she was affected negatively.

  “SIR! PLEASE! I CAN’T HANDLE THIS ANYMORE!” The man shouted through a magic item used for communication.

  “You know your job, we must acquire her before she advances too far.” the voice on the other side said.

  “But this old woman is completely out of my comfort zone. She is married, has children, has a family! None of my charm spells work on her. Please sir send one of the elder members who fit her better and are stronger than her husband! When that man arrives back I will be dead if I haven’t left with this bitch!” He pleaded.

  A sigh came from the other side, “So young…” The voice said, “Really and this was supposed to be an easy mission. Older new noble women would normally eat up a young noble like you easily.” The man said.

  “S-so I can return and sir will send someone better?!” The young knight asked.

  “No, this is your mission, your test. Even if you need to challenge the lord for his wife it must be done. We cannot allow her familiar to openly evolve. It not only affects the prestige of our goddess who is the only one that can hold the faith of the farmers, ‘those’ reasons will soon appear as well. If it gets out our neutral status might be threatened and may be degraded to a Dark order.” He said.

  The young man’s face turned into a scowl when he heard this. He had no intention of being the one to blame for all the hundreds of years of secrecy to be thrown down the drain. Being degraded from a Neutral Light faith to a Dark faith was a heavy blow that would even affect the standings of the faint itself. Who would prey to a Dark God for a good harvest?

  Until now, almost always when a harvest spirit or angel appeared they would move to keep them controlled. They would be brought back to the church and properly trained in secret keeping the secret a secret.

  There have been several cases where it was almost revealed but such times were always snuffed thanks to the movement of the church and no involvement of the other church. This time though they were treading on thin ice because the family has a very good connection to the two Ice churches. If it got out of hand there might not be a way to conceal it from the Ice church. What made it worse was the presence of the Dark Holy church in the city. It made the young knight’s hair stand on ends thinking of them so close since they rarely set up a new temple.

  “F-fine, I will think of something.” He said and the communication device turned off. The man almost punched the wall bet could only roar in anger as he limped to bed as the feeling of the impact was still present. “Damn old hag, if not for your blasted familiar and your noble status I would have killed you already.” He said and turned to try and get some sleep and let the pain fade.

  Chapter 20

  In the early morning inside the Snake Nest Dungeon, Night and Ernest had finished an early morning spar and were at a cafe, owned by the Donima Firm.

  “The pleasures of this world really are so much better than those in hell.” Night sighed as he smelled the fragrant Celestial Snake Herb tea. A special herb that grows near the Celestial dragon’s mountain abode under its immense and majestic aura.

  “I don’t really understand tea, I like more a cup of the northern coffee brew.” He said.

  Night chuckled, “That dirt water is too thick and smelly, it reminds me of savage demon blood that I had to drink as water.” Night said.

  “NIGHT YOU BASTARD!” Suddenly a roar came from the side street. Wearing armor of an Ice Wolf Feral Demon linked, Void was fuming in rage.

  “Oh, seems it finally happened.” Night chuckled.

  BANG!

  “YOU LYING IMP!” He roared.

  Night’s face darkened as he put down his tea and jumped at Void with his trident appearing and hi
tting the shaft at the coming paw gauntlet. “I would refrain from calling a devil an Imp.” He said coldly.

  It was a highly insulting thing to call a Devil an Imp, only something with absolute power could do that because no one and nothing could fight back against it.

  “You lying piece of ash! You lied about Ember’s growth condition! Even after I was made to say it and spend nearly half the night with her and then the rest… AH! I won’t be satisfied until I leave you a bloody pulp at least once!” Void said.

  “Oh? Still unsatisfied, you should have add some lotion then.” Night laughed at him before let his body be shot back but his wings spread and he casually landed back near his seat.

  Ernest stood up and stepped between causing Void to stop but he was huffing in rage. “Ernest, I like you but unless I vent for that asshole lying to me I won’t be able to rest this rage inside me!” Void said growling in rage.

  Ernest rubbed his head, “Night, tell him the real conditions before it gets out of hand.” Ernest said.

  “I did tell him the right conditions… oh I did forget to mention something though, a Lesser Feral Devil will only evolve when they enter their first mating cycle when they reach level 30 which is when you have to dominate them.” Night laughed.

  “YOU BASTARD!” Void shouted and suddenly a huge block of ice appeared above Night and crashed down like a meteor crashing the devilish angel under before suddenly becoming filled with spikes making him a pin cushion.

  The attack was so sudden that it even killed Night making him return to the seal but it left a bit of the area damaged including the destroyed table, broken cups and damaged wooden outdoor flooring.

  Huffing Void turned to the man that appeared, “Ask my little brother, Xero Null, and he can make a new chair, cup and fix the floor quickly.” He said and turned.

  The face of the man was bright red at the damage but at the mention of Xero, who was famous for already defending ‘his position’ as the fiance of the head’s daughter, four times already, each in a tight even match but winning in the end.

  Almost a month a passed since the first match and he was put under a tremendous amount of stress from countless 13 year olds that came in droves to try and become the husband of the two girls.

  This intense pressure had already pushed Xero, as well as Zip and Cinder who have spent part of their day ‘forging’ Xero and Ashley to level 29.

  Unlike the tempering before, forging was a 30 to 50 hit process and it even affected the soul slightly as well as having even greater effect on the bones and marrows, making them more flexible but harder. Zip joined them each time because the Sword Devil Flames were affecting Cinder too much while his own strength was getting left behind and this was not good since he needs to break through alongside his brother.

  “I’m sorry for Night lying.” Ernest said while paying for the tea and drinks and running after Void who had unlinked.

  “I don’t blame you, only your damned familiar.” Void said as the rage slowly subsided.

  “Where are you going?” Ernest asked.

  “To get my brother to forge me and Ember, we are level 24 but forging has a high level of improvement with just three times more pain, it's nothing I haven’t felt already.” Vold said.

  True to his word, he walked to the Null smithy where he found some few dozen demons but suddenly stopped when he found a small devil looking like a three year old right next to Cinder.

  “Hey who is that?” Void asked, “Your son?” he joked.

  “No, though I don’t dislike the thought.” Cinder said, “This is an Inferior Lesser Plate Devil, my minion, he just evolved last night after spending two weeks in the lava pit.” She said.

  “Why is so small?” Void asked.

  “I still haven’t crushed his demon core so he could lose the Inferior.” She said and pointed, “Go prepare the material we need, yesterday boss and lil bro reached level 30 so they are training outside before breaking through. Get preparing the two kilo of Devil Metal prepared so that I can forge Ashley and my own body as well as boss and lil bro’s body with it.” she said.

  “W-what!? You're going to make them out of metal?!” Void shouted.

  “Don’t overthink it lil bro, I’m just adding traces of the metal to their skeleton, unlike other demon races, we need to completely reforge our body or they would be consumed by the power in my and Ashley’s body. This metal will help them filter and reject demon corruption particles that enter their bodies when using our full power.” She explained and looked at Ember, “You will need even more, the girl is the most savage of us, not to mention it's going to be a pain in the ass to break her bones when the time comes since they are level 45 Giant Tiger bones she assimilated.” Cinder shook her head.

  “Well… I guess it’s fine, anyway can you forge us?” Void asked.

  “Sure, just let me finish giving out the orders that would take a few hours for them to accomplish.” Cinder said and began to walk around shouting at the demons to do something or another. What scared Void was that materials for making Devil Metal that soon began to come out. Mithril and Demon Core infused and smelted iron ingots. There was almost 400 kilos of each and they began to throw the material into a very small 1 meter wide plated devil forge which was definitely from the small one showing it would probably be forging as well. The forge lacked an altar though and there was only a black stone at the center but as the metal slowly melted it began to float up over the rock.

  “Such a strange thing.” Ernest said.

  Night appeared and looked at the forge, “Inferior Plate Devils can’t even access 1/100 of a true plate Devil like Cinder, he can’t even forge real demons, they can only prepare materials for their master.” Night said.

  Void glared at them but still the demons kept throwing the metal in together until all 800 kilos were in and the little devil took out a hammer and turned into his demon form. He was at the size of a human adult and looked more like a Iron Scaled Demon instead of a Plated Devil if not for the armor on its body.

  It jumped and smashed the hammer down suddenly causing countless symbols and things to appear on the mass of metal that was suddenly compressed slightly. He kept jumping and hitting and slowly the metal was compacted while dense streams of black mana flowed into it. Mithril is a shiny white metal while iron is grey, when mixed it remains white but with each hit the metal slowly turned more black. When he was finished, the liquid metal was one fourth of the size and the liquid ball slowly solidified and the demon jumped and kicked it out before jumping off its forge and reverting to its devil form and start to roll the huge ball to a store room.

  Cinder soon appeared, “Come on, I’m busy today and I need to be rested for later, I’m doing tempering since I need all the energy possible for Boss and lil-bro’s breakthrough.” She said.

  Although Void wanted to have a forging but he had to accept this.

  After the intense session Void just glared at Night and walked out after healing to go drink more of his anger away.

  Ernest just smiled wryly while watching him go away.

  “What’s under his skin?” Cinder asked.

  “Night told him only half the information for ranking up Ember.” Ernest said.

  “You mean her needing to be level 30 before mating with her?” Cinder asked.

  “You knew?” Ernest asked.

  Cinder shrugged, “He never asked.” She said.

  Night began to laugh loudly.

  “You boys just stay out of the way, I still need to prepare the person who will be forging and as well as prepare the lava pit for all the energy it will need.” She said before walking away.

  Ernest was completely confused by this and looked to Night for an answer.

  “Err, there are rumors that say that a Sword and Plated Devil are a kit, a set need to be forged together and need to be the same level range to make the same break through. Problem is that they are very noble level devils and need almost five to ten times more energy to make th
e same breakthrough. It's the reason why Cinder has never once put away her forge here allowing it to constantly gather more and more mana as well as tempering Ashley so much to refine her own forge and make it stronger.” Night said. “They are just rumors though.” Night said.

  The two stayed against the wall and soon enough Cinder came out with the little Devil and took him to her forge and put him in the center.

  She then suddenly turned into her demon form after setting up the forge and began to pound the tiny devil.

  Ernest cringed when he saw the little devil turn into a meat paste. In the chest, the demon core shined and the body was reabsorbed before it got hit again.

  Thirty hits in total the Plated demon core became 10 cm big before it formed into a 5 year old devil boy that looked just like the one before but it was a bit bigger.

  After walking off, it suddenly shined and became like Cinder looked when she first appeared but a bit smaller, at three meters seventy five centimeters tall.

  “He still needs some tempering.” Cinder muttered and put him back on the forge in his small form before going into the storage pulling out several dozen low grade steel armor sets that seemed scrapped and tossed everything into the lava pit.

  The armor was turned into liquid and soon it was completely purified making 100% pure refined steel that magically climbed the side of the forge altar and filed the etchings of the formation with liquid steel.

  Cinder began to forge him again while that liquid steel was slowly eaten by the demon core that increased another centimeter finally reaching 11 cm and his demon form being four meters tall.

  “This will have to do.” She complained but was forced to go with this arrangement.

  She sent him to sleep before she went and grabbed the ball of Demon metal, shaking her head and called for some more materials to be dumped in her own forge before she dropped the metal. Soon a ball of liquid metal formed on the altar and she forged that as well until it split up and became four 30cm big solid pure black metal balls. It looked no different to a cannon ball and another she picked it up easily and nodded when she put the metal balls carefully on the ground, the area around it instantly cracked under the impressive weight.