Waking up in a dark room, the first thing Haruki noticed through his darkened vision was a glass chandelier gently oscillating above him on the bed.
'What kind of idiot puts a loose chandelier above the bed?' Pulling himself up, he looked around trying to find the guards that he was sure would be present. To his surprise, the room was empty, and the only jumbled chatter he could hear was coming from the other end of the door where guards had been stationed.
'Status!' With nobody in sight, he decided to quickly survey the changes in his stats. 'Race: Incubus, ouroboros, status readjusted: alive, current spiritual trail: Stable…What the hell is this new section? And why do I have two different races listed in race?'
Puzzled by not only that, but a lot of other changes such as the demon servant count being reset to zero as well as possessing the emperor's curse in the curse section. Most startling of all, however, were his newly acquired titles.
"Ouroboros, is that a title too?" Unsure as to how it affected his abilities and powers, Haruki jumped to the next title listed at the very top. "The demon lord of lust…Did I acquire it after killing Asmodia?"
Put in a dilemmic situation, Haruki had no clue whether to feel assured by the title or not. After all, unlike many others, it allowed him to borrow strength from lust demons under his command, but with his servant count turned zero the effectiveness of the title was just as much of a mystery as ouroboros.
Getting off the bed, he walked up to a vanity desk to check up on his abilities. Once standing in front of the mirror, Haruki shifted from his demonic form to Snow and then to Rose to further push the limits; he even managed to transform his hand into that of a frost dragon hybrid.
"What else should I check no-" While scanning through the skills, his eyes landed on the magic affinity chart. "No fucking way."
Looking through it, he noticed that he now had an affinity towards all kinds of elemental magic including true holy and true dark. What threw him off further were countless other affinities that had been listed in runic language and at the end of it all was one last intelligible affinity for magic.
"Ouroboros again?" Like a nesting of bugs, the word ouroboros was plaguing everything on Haruki's screen of stats.
'She said Deus helped her build this system, maybe asking him about this stuff would help?' Chalking it up for later, he turned towards the doors ready to head out and face whatever was about to happen. For now, all he was supposed to do was keep up a low profile and figure out a way to invade the land of fairies and souls. To reach that end, he had no other choice but to adhere to the commands of the emperor.
Moving towards the doors, he heard a slight commotion on the other end, and before long came storming through, the general of south Razor Alumnibolt. As soon as he entered, his eyes turned to Haruki. Right behind him, Nabe stormed inside the room with a look of pure dread reflected onto her face.
"I knew I felt a demonic presence, he's alive again!" Reaching for his saber, he drew it out as a precaution against Haruki.
"Razor! Don't agitate him! He might still be hostile from being revived!" Nabe exclaimed, holding the tip of Razor's saber by a leash made of dark miasma.
Irked by Nabe's attempt at restricting him, Razor glanced at her with a frowned gaze. However, since Haruki was no longer to be treated as a threat, he was forced to simply let out a sigh and put the saber back into its place.
"Be thankful, the emperor's gone insane or both of you would be minced meat by now," Razor said, turning his head towards Haruki.
"What do you want?" Tired of the snarky rascal, Haruki retorted with a frown as well.
And although he felt like reaching for his sword again, Razor kept his calm and simply decided to leave the room with Haruki on Nabe's watch. Left behind in the room, Nabe wasn't too keen on approaching Haruki or even mentioning their companion-hood from before. Their interactions together had been few, and so she didn't feel compelled to help him, while at the same time, she had no reason to condemn him either.
"Let's just pretend nothing happened," keeping things vague in case someone overheard them, Nabe moved her fingers to the lips to warn Haruki against spilling the beans about their relationship. "Now if you don't want to get in any trouble, keep shush…"
Taking note of her warning, Haruki decided to keep their past interactions a secret and act as though it was the very first time they were meeting face to face.
"Why did you bring me here? Where are my servants? My companions?" Kicking up his acting, Haruki began to play out the part of a dazed frantic who'd just woken up from a coma.
Doing her part in the play, Nabe played along. Giving him a light briefing, she told him that the emperor would meet with him in a day or two since he was too fazed after dealing with his aggressively impulsive brother.
'It feels weird to be a servant, but not be compelled to do whatever they want.' Even though he'd turned into a servant of Atlas, unlike the covenant with Asmodia from before, he was the master of his will and nothing was imposed on him until he somehow managed to really piss off his new master. 'Let's hope I can gain his trust and figure out more about this land of fairies.'
With that thought, he was taken out of the room by Nabe for a quick trip around the castle of a god. Carved from a single ore of obsidian mined by the extinct giants, the entirety of the emperor's castle was as dark as a bat's cave. Had it not been for the natural flow of lights through the open rooms and windows, the majority of humans acting as guards wouldn't be able to navigate through the place.
"Stained glass everywhere, what's this obsession of royalties with stained glass?" Following Nabe, Haruki asked her out of curiosity.
"They all have their meaning apparently," stopping by one such window, Nabe turned to look at it for a moment. "Just like this one."
Looking at it himself, Haruki noticed a domeish stained-glass window, embedded with sapphire pieces so dark it almost appeared the same as the obsidian from the castle walls. In it, however, he spotted squished bodies of dark-skinned children with only one of them crying out its heart.
"It's the same image from your memory," having already seen her memories, Haruki accidentally ended up mentioning it out loud. Thankfully, there was nobody around them to hear what had just slipped his mouth.
"Yeah…Apparently, these windows show the past of those who are bound to walk within these walls, however, they change their designs to show those memories only after those events have already transpired," finishing her explanation, she began leading him towards the outward garden.
Upon getting there, Haruki was greeted by the raging eyes of numerous royal guards looking right at him from their barracks by the training grounds. Clad in armor of gold, and exquisite weapons of all kinds, they seemed more than ready to assault their master's new toy.
"First, an elf, then a devil, and a demon…" Grunting in frustration, one such soldier couldn't keep his thoughts to himself. "As if we have to just accept it!"
Raising his jeweled sword, he held it firmly and directed it towards Haruki. Unfaltering Haruki and Nabe simply stood in front of the group of soldiers slowly gathering behind the man. Knowing well enough that none of them stood a chance against Haruki, they had nothing to fear. Instead, being out in the open, Haruki was left contemplating whether he should try to escape by flying and meet up with the rest of his group or stay here for a while longer until things became a lot clearer.
'From what Nabe has told me so far, it doesn't seem like Asuka or the others have been captured or hurt, but if I try to escape the emperor's general and soldiers are bound to hunt them down in hopes of finding me.' Deciding against escaping, Haruki looked back down to the soldier.
As his eyes met with the one leading the charge, Haruki stretched his soldier a little before taking up their offer for a fight.
"Take your time you bastard, we're not letting you back into the castle," following the leader's words, the other soldier began to surround Haruki from all directions.
Cracking his neck, Haruki moved towards the apparent leader. Standing inches from the grip of his blade, he looked right into his eyes before speaking.
"I needed to check my skills anyways, to see just how much death has affected my reflexes," feeling confident, Haruki gave him a smile.
Clenching his teeth, the leader of the rebels was obviously not too pleased by the mocking demeanor.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)