Chapter 627: The Devil’s fooled ploys
Zeke was the descendant of the Devil, there was no doubt about this fact in Eiro’s mind. However, from the way that Zeke was acting, it didn’t seem as though he was pretending, or knew anything about who Eiro really was. In that case, even if the Devil did place him here, then it wasn’t just to get someone close to him. More importantly, there was no way that the Devil thought Eiro wouldn’t be able to figure out who Zeke really was. Eiro was pretty sure that the Devil was aware of what Eiro could do, more than anyone else.
However, it was also possible that this was the ploy of a higher power. Not of a god of course, but the strings of fate being pulled behind the scenes. Either way, there was a reason why Zeke was here, Eiro just had to figure out what that reason was.
Though, there was one thing that he knew already; with Zeke’s appearance, it was more than just clear that things were moving closer to the point at which Eiro and the Devil would have to fight.
“So the Devil knows you’re here?” Bavet asked while Eiro was in thought, and the demon raised a brow surprised, “Obviously he knows I’m here. I’m a Viscount and the ‘Hero’s Companion’. There’s no way that he doesn’t know about me being here. Rather, he was obviously the one that sent the turtle, bull, and bird after me while we were in the hero’s homeland.”
“…Oh,” as if he only just connected those dots, Bavet let out a sound of surprise. Eiro rolled his eyes, “I honestly have no idea what he was thinking with that, but considering that there were two artifacts involved, together with a Tortle of all things… he was probably convinced that he could kill me back then.”
“Wait, seriously? I thought the Devil is a genius planner, and he’s always a hundred steps ahead. How did he think he could kill you?”
“Because he doesn’t know everything he thinks he does. It’s impossible for him to know everything. For example, the extra splinter inside of me. It was given to the Sage not too long before his death, by a being much higher than even gods. Obviously the Devil wouldn’t know about that. But through it, I’ve grown at a considerably faster rate than you would expect,” Eiro pointed out, “Besides that, there are plenty of small things that the devil could never possibly know about. Sure, he had given me his mark, but that doesn’t give him complete knowledge of every single thing that someone with the mark does and thinks. There are limits to a Royal’s powers.”
Seeing that Eiro was planning on leaving this classroom, Bavet made sure to properly clean up the demon’s transformation, “So… do you think he changed his expectations and is ready to attack you with another plan now?”
Eiro thought for a moment and shrugged, “He surely must have changed certain aspects of his plans. He’ll be more prepared than he would have been before, but that just means he’s going to throw more pawns at me. But that’s fine, I’m prepared for that. I have a rough idea of the structure of the Devil’s army, anyway.”
“You do?”
“Of course. Just a bunch of strong, really unique monsters, and a huge army of weaklings,” Eiro said, “That’s what it boils down to at least. The Devil’s powers are centered around desire. He can take someone’s desire, feed off of it, and make himself and the owner of said desire stronger through it. Most likely, he picked out a bunch of different species of monsters and forcibly evolved them until he got some unique pawns. But unique doesn’t mean strong, obviously, just… unique. Deeply focused in one direction, most of the time.”
Eiro continued to talk as he walked through the halls of the academy, obviously using magic to block out the sound of his voice from anyone but Bavet, while also making it look as though his lips aren’t moving to leave no chance for anyone to figure out what he’s talking to himself about.
Since Bavet couldn’t respond while they were out on the open like this, at least not with this many people around, he was staying silent as Eiro was making his way to the next class, talking about his understanding of the Devil.
“Though, there’s just one problem with the Devil’s powers. One ability that is going to be both useful, and absolutely fatal. He can connect the central material plane with the underworld,” Eiro pointed out, feeling some spikes dig into his skin as Bavet was showing his confusion. Quickly, he explained, “Before I met Jura, after meeting the kids, we stopped at a small town on our way. But, as it turned out, that town was one of the Devil’s toys. At night, the town turned into a subset of the underworld, and numerous demons were just waltzing around. Granted, I know now that they weren’t real demons. Rather, they were created by the Monster King as a gift to the Devil, most likely. The Devil was using them to play around with the ways that demons could develop under peculiar circumstances. I’m convinced that there’s other places just like that town scattered all over the place, but the important part is that the town existed in the first place. He created a mirror of that town in the underworld, meaning that he owns a part of the underworld. Obviously, that means he’s a high noble, if not a king with his own throne. While that’s true for me as well, I haven’t been able to lay claim to my throne yet, technically, so I’m in a tough situation.”
Eiro walked into the next classroom, where more new students were still gathering. For now, he sat down on the chair, continuing to explain things to Bavet, “The underworld is another plane of existence, meaning that it works in a different way to here. Hell is a place where rules are absolute. If a Demon King makes a command to those in his land, they have to follow that command perfectly, they just have no choice. Not just that, but they can control the space itself to a degree. Their will becomes reality in their own land, particularly when they’re dealing with other demons. That means that, if the Devil can pull me into his land, I’ll be in a tough spot. I’d been freed of the original sin after I evolved into a new species of demon, so I don’t know if I’ll be under the same level of control as other demons, but it’s a possibility. Something to keep in mind, at least.”
Bavet seemed to be rather nervous about the idea of Eiro fighting against the Devil if he had the power to move across planes like that, but Eiro simply smirked, “What, you think I’ll lose after hearing that? Don’t make me laugh, I’ll wipe the floor with that guy. I said that it’s fatal, but also something useful, didn’t I? If it comes down to it, the moment I’m in the underworld, I can claim my throne, and with it, my land in the underworld. And now, just imagine what kind of place a Demon King with Holy Energy can create,” Eiro pointed out with a grin he was trying to hide with his hand, “It makes me excited just thinking about it.”
The demon could feel goosebumps all over his body, but they weren’t created by his own skin. Rather, Bavet seemed to shudder due to the vibe that Eiro was giving off. With an apologetic smile, Eiro got up, removing the magic that he was using the cloud the conversation he was having.
“Welcome to Beginner Magic Circle Engineering, I’ll be your teacher for this semester,” Eiro continued with the brief introduction to this batch of new students. This class was a bit smaller than the other, and had less completely new students, but most of them were still unfamiliar to him. He continued this lecture quickly, though, since it was only the first day, he didn’t go much into any theories. He just showed off some cool things that the students would learn about throughout this semester, and then told them what they should expect. That was going to be most of today. Slow classes that left Eiro plenty of time to get an initial evaluation of his new students done.