"Nothing's changed this time around, huh?" Lone said to himself as he peered down into Void's Abyss.
Darkness's peculiar body of purple galaxies appeared next to him. "Well, you haven't exactly gained any new mental or soul-related skills, nor have you ranked up again."
"Right shame that is," Lone sighed. "You're a godly being right? Any ideas on what I need to do to reach B-rank?"
"I'm no expert but I would assume you need enlightenment," Darkness replied with a sage-like nod.
Lone gave it a dirty look before turning around and heading towards its inverted pyramid. "If you don't wanna tell me, just say so. Giving me a hint, though, would be a good way to really start mending those broken bridges."
"It's not that I don't want to," Darkness claimed as it followed after him. "I just can't. Enlightenment is different for everyone. Would it help you if I said you could gain enlightenment by fighting something and almost dying in the same way you've done so thus far? Or, would letting you know that you have just as high of a chance of reaching B-rank by harvesting a tomato and having an epiphany at the same time help?"
Lone stopped in his tracks. "No... No, you're right. I'd just like to be able to really control my aura and tell how strong other people are off-rip instead of relying on Soph's pretty accurate but not perfect Mana Sensing."
"That's fair. Well, ready for the meeting? Monsieur Librarian is pulling for you but I'm stopping him from dragging you away," Darkness asked. "His power grows. In the future, I bet I'd only be able to keep you here for a minute or two at best."
"I'm good. Let me be whisked away," Lone replied.
The very next moment, he was in his usual seat at the long table. Two weeks had passed since the last meeting and the only thing that had changed in the shelf-filled hall was that Swamp's red blotches were no longer present on his blurred green form.
There was no new guest nor no new books this time. Lone had decided to read that single tome of Monsieur Librarian's today and he'd spend however long he needed to get access to it without revealing anything about himself.
"Welcome back, Human, Swamp," Monsieur Librarian greeted. "Let the third Conclave of Seekers commence."
"It's good to see you're in a better condition," Lone said to Swamp.
"Thank you, Human. Asss I sssaid during the previousss conclave, usss Followersss of Lord Delwind are blesssed with long livesss," Swamp happily replied.
"Monsieur Librarian," Lone called. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Of course, though do not be disappointed if I ask for payment as the answer very well may be valuable enough to demand one," the multi-coloured being responded.
Swamp fixed his gaze upon Lone curiously, clearly wondering what he wanted to ask of the conclave's host.
"I killed an SSS-ranked blood, explosion, and wind mage a few days ago," Lone said. "I surprise attacked her - which didn't work - but I ended up being able to trap her, choke her to prevent her from casting more spells, and then snap her neck. My question is this: she had an army of blood creatures at her command. Why did they all just die when she did? Were they entirely sustained with her magic?"
Lone got a sense of shock from Swamp but Monsieur Librarian merely raised a hand to tap the side of his chair thoughtfully.
"That will require payment, I am afraid. Tell me what rank you are at and you will have your answer," the being offered.
'That's... fine. I don't see the harm in revealing that,' Lone thought before he replied, "I'm a C-ranker."
Swamp seemed even more surprised by that revelation than anything from any of their prior conversations.
Monsieur Librarian nodded softly. "The army was made from a pure blood magic spell known as Blood Thrall. It is a fairly simple spell requiring very minimal affinity with blood magic and training to learn. Using it to maintain an army, however, would take centuries of effort and many thousands of litres of blood as well as a handful of earned additional effects. When the caster perishes, so too does the spark of life held within the blood sustaining any thralls made with it. For the army to have persisted after the caster's passing, Blood Thrall would have needed to have been evolved into Blood Servant - a feat a bit above the ability of an average SSS-ranker."
Lone considered that for a bit. 'That's what I suspected. I guess I wouldn't have gotten any levels from killing them anyway, so it's fine they all died when Rosanne did. Glad to have that worry off my chest.'
"Thank you," Lone said respectfully.
Monsieur Librarian nodded. "It was my pleasure."
Swamp suddenly spoke up. "I wisssh to trade knowledge for accesss to the book on the ssshelf."
Monsieur Librarian's shrouded expression smiled. "Of course."
"I am sssorry for asking a foolisssh quessstion firssst, but isss anything that isss new information to you fine?" Swamp asked first.
"Let me assure you both of something before I answer. In this hall, there are no stupid questions. Knowledge is many things: power, currency, helpful, haunting, a necessity, a detriment, and so much more. The lack of it, however? And even more so the desire to fill said vacancy? That, Swamp, Human, that is to be applauded here, not shamed." Monsieur Librarian nodded affably. "Now, your question, Swamp. Yes, anything is perfectly serviceable, but it must interest me on top of being a discovery to me."
"That makesss sssenssse." Swamp slowly nodded. "There isss no ssshame in ignorance and wanting to no longer be ignorant..."
Lone watched the reptilian being ponder for a moment as he had his own thoughts on what had just been said. 'Why'd the monsieur think I needed to be told that too? I already think like that.'
"I am the final follower of Lord Delwind," Swamp claimed, sadness in his tone. "And I will rebuild hisss temple, no matter the cost."
Monsieur Librarian tapped his chair's armrest thoughtfully. "The final one... Very well. I was unaware of this. I truly hope you will accomplish your goals, Swamp. The tome's knowledge is yours, as is the content of one more book of your choice when I reclaim more. I was unaware Lord Delwind's temple had been destroyed."
'Lucky bastard,' Lone thought. 'Such simple information that means fuckin' nothing to me...'
As opposed to letting himself get sucked into his jealousy, Lone instead began thinking of how he could do the same: offer information that is useless to him and would be meaningless to Swamp but that might prove interesting to Monsieur Librarian.
As he wracked his mind, the black book with a blank spine and no cover entered Swamp's hands, who immediately began reading its contents.
"I... would also like to trade information for the book," Lone said.
He had noticed that despite the fact Swamp was clearly reading the tome, it was still present on the shelf meaning it was an illusion or a copy or something along those lines, so he could likely read it too.
"Of course," Monsieur Librarian replied. "Do you now wish to tell me who it is that possesses Basic Regeneration?"
"No," Lone answered and instead asked, "Are you aware of Earth?"
Monsieur Librarian tapped his armrest. "Yes, of course." The multicoloured being clearly didn't take Lone's rejection to heart even slightly. "It was a place overflowing with magic and creation. Smaller than most other worlds and it only hosted a few hundred different races and species, but it was quaint despite those limitations."
'What?' Lone was shocked. 'That's... that's not Earth.'
"I can sense the confusion in your eyes. Let's see..." Monsieur Librarian placed a finger to his glabella. "Ah, much has changed. I see. Altros's Milindo, is it? They figured out a way to connect to Earth. The heroes all claim magic is gone from the world. How deeply saddening. I was unaware of this change and your question prompted my discovery of this information. That would have taken me perhaps several cycles to learn on my own. The tome's contents are yours to peruse as you see fit."
Lone almost didn't want to read the book at this point. 'What's a cycle? And more importantly, Earth used to have magic? I mean, that would explain the guy calling himself God who tried to kill Sophie and the pocket dimension he used before she claimed it. But still... what happened? Why isn't there magic anymore?'
The book from the shelf appeared in his hands and now Lone could clearly see a title on its previously blank cover. It read Devils and How to Make Deals With Them by Archsummoner Ruldso Redmore of the Temporal Plane.
Curious and happy to shift his focus to something else, Lone flipped open the book.
Page 1
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
You wish to know how to make a deal with a devil? The simple answer on how can be found in one word: don't.
You are vastly unprepared for the trickery these beings naturally generate. That's right, not trickery they are capable of, trickery that they quite literally create passively.
Even were a demon, devil, or any other permanent resident of any of the many hells born with a pure soul and a penchant for avoiding violence, they would still inadvertently trick and fool any who would meet their words with a coherent response - and the coherent part is debatable at best - into a swift death.
It takes the mind of a veritable sage to navigate the web of wordplay a devil will no doubt lay at your feet should you allow them the chance.
You want my honest advice? Get your unearned power elsewhere. Take your chances with a Djinn. They are infinitely more fair.
99.9% of people who engage in a deal, contract, arrangement, or whatever else, with an inhabitant of the many hells end up dead or worse. The other 0.1% percent is me... was me.
I don't mean people like me, I quite literally mean me. I have never met another being who has entered a deal with a denizen of the many hells and not lived to regret it deeply, people I once pitied and laughed at until recently.
If you insist on trying anyway, buckle up. This book is 4,000 pages of the best fucking advice you'll ever find on the subject from the only living expert. You'd better take it all to heart, because if you don't, you will die or whatever else you can think of that's worse for you personally than that.
"A book on dealing with devils?" Lone asked mostly himself. "Didn't expect that."
Swamp looked up from his own copy of the tome in surprise. "What? My copy isss about a certain type of mussshroom that isss potent enough to kill even me within sssecondsss were I to consssume one."
Monsieur Librarian smiled. "The books that line this hall, or rather... that will line this hall, are very special."
"Special how?" Lone inquired.
"They tell the members of the Conclave of Seekers what it is they need to know the most," was all the mysterious being said in response. "Knowledge is valuable. The tricky thing about knowledge, however, is that while even the tiniest crumb of information can topple an empire, that can only happen if the right person learns of that particular crumb's existence."
"I'm going to topple an empire?" Swamp asked curiously. "And knowing about thessse... mussshroomsss will help with that? Lord Delwind worksss in mysssteriousss waysss."
Lone, in response, shook his head. "It was a metaphor."
"What'sss an empire?" Swamp asked.
Lone sighed and waved his hand. "Another time. Monsieur Librarian is saying the book is telling us something we really needed to know. Which would imply I'm gonna need to deal with a devil or demon or something and you... you're gonna eat a mushroom that would have killed you."
"What'sss a metaphor?" Swamp asked but quickly followed up with, "Ssso a fungal edible would have been the end of the Followersss of Delwind. It isss a good thing we paid the price, no? What isss Earth, by the way? And what isss a devil?"
Lone shook his head. "I'd rather not answer either of those questions. the first on account of it having value to the table's head and the second because I don't really know. I'll quick-fire your other two questions though. An empire is a type of ruling power. I assume you have tribes or something. That, but on a significantly larger scale. A metaphor is just a way to say something indirectly, I guess."
"You are a very honessst perssson, Human," Swamp noted in a happy tone, not appearing to be offended even slightly by Lone's curt offhanded handling of his questions.
Monsieur Librarian had nothing more to say from the looks of things, instead returning to his silent thoughts or whatever else it was the mysterious being did during these meetings.
Seeing that, Lone sighed and got stuck into the tome. He didn't trust it at all. Why would he need to deal with an inhabitant of hell?
Some eldritch being crawling out of the Deepwinds he would have trusted, but a devil? It was so unlikely to the point of being almost laughable.
Lone was getting closer to thinking Monsieur Librarian was some sort of mystical charlatan of some sort rather than a being powerful enough to piggyback off of and then cut off a godly being like Darkness. Still, he would read the book on devils.
For all he knew it could be accurate and might even be helpful one day, especially since he did plan to reverse-engineer summoning magic eventually. Inhabitants of the many hells were common targets for a lot of summoning magics, after all.
As he read the book, a few passages, in particular, stood out to him amongst the rest. So little of the information stored in the tome being useful wasn't overly odd.
After all, it took Lone no time at all to realise the book was little more than an autobiography of sorts for this Archsummoner Ruldso Redmore. It detailed every single encounter he'd had with devils and demons and many of those encounters were very similar.
Still, there was wisdom to be gleamed so gleam it Lone did.
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Page 732
My first dealing with an Arch Devil. I can't even speak the stupid beast's fake name and what I can say about the encounter is limited at best.
Suffice it to say, it wasn't very happy I was using it to learn and document a safe way to deal with its breed.
Arch Devils are not at the top of the devil hierarchy, but they are close. All I can say is this: if you meet an Arch Devil who has two succubus tails, tell them I regret nothing and I'd fucking do it again!
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Page 2,326
With my fourth successful dealing with an Arch Devil concluded, I think I can safely make a conclusive evaluation of this class of demonic beings.
You're fucked. You're just fucked. It's that simple. I've spent twenty thousand years trying to break the bindings between me and that first Arch Devil (refer to page 732 for context, but if you haven't been paying attention, stop reading this book you worthless ingrate and give it to someone who it might actually help).
It's useless. I now know they just need to speak to bind you. Well, not quite 'speak' like their lesser, the normal devils, but it may as well work that way. Let me tell you exactly why I'm absolutely buggered in a sense.
When I first made a deal with Sendrela, Arch Dealachadh Devil, Lady of the 16th Wrought Hell (yeah, get fucked, bitch! If you ever read this, I may not have broken the bindings, but I sure as fuck learned how to bend 'em!) she introduced herself and asked me to take a seat.
Where a normal devil may bind you by forcefully ordering you and utterly destroying your mind in the process, Arch Devils work by a certain set of unbreakable rules. Unbreakable but highly malleable.
I, in my foolish excitement to finally have a meeting with an Arch Devil, while not verbally agreeing, did, indeed, sit down at her offer. This created a deal between us. I had done her a favour by sitting, thus, giving her power over me until I did something of equal standing in her eyes.
Of course, I clearly have yet to do that and likely never will since I, well, y'know. Since I fucked the succubus and tricked her so she didn't get a single drop of my life essence.
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Page 4,321
It worked! It fucking worked!
I was able to not only summon an Arch Devil and his entire army of devils and demons, but I bound them all to my will in exchange for some worthless information on how to kill some nobody group of secular Divines.
He had to fulfil my terms when he was done, and boy was it glorious. I got an Arch Devil to kill one of its peers.
I'm going to do it. I'm going to try to summon "Her". I doubt I'll succeed. It's just a completely different level of existence even when compared to the Omni Devils, and I stand almost no chance of success with the Emperor Devils.
If I don't feel confident dealing with just a single step above the Arch class, why not shoot for the stars, eh?
I'll publish this journal. Maybe spruce it up a bit, add extra notes. Warn others away. Let's say... 25 copies? I'll write 25 copies then I'll do it. I'll invoke "Her" name.
If you're reading this, thanks. You're probably gonna die if this interests you enough to light a fire in your chest, but I believe in the me that believes in you (because this me doesn't).
All you have to really remember is to never allow a devil of any kind to talk you into doing something you don't want to, infinitely more so for an Arch Devil. If you can, kill them before they can even speak or somehow bind them to your will first (impossible without my bloodline or a very specific type of unique skill).
Good luck.
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"Ah, hello," Darkness greeted as it stuffed a grape into its mouth. "That took a while."
Lone shrugged as he found a set of cushions to sit upon. "I guess the monsieur is regaining his power? I only got booted out when I was done reading my book."
"Book?" Darkness asked inquisitively. "I'm surprised he let you just sit there and read one of your tomes. Actually, you can access your Dimensional Storage from in there? You aren't physically there, so that seems rather unfeasible."
Lone shook his head. "Nah, it was a book of Monsieur Librarian's. "Devils and How to Make Deals With Them by Archsummoner Ruldso Redmore of the Temporal Plane" was its title."
Darkness looked startled. "You read that?"
Lone nodded. "From cover to cover."
"And you weren't, oh, I don't know, beset upon by various types of infernal flames?" Darkness asked, a jovial tone in its voice. It then consumed another grape.
Lone raised an eyebrow. "Should I have been?"
"Oh, yes, absolutely. I don't believe Infernal Flame Resistance is in your rather large skill catalogue, is it? If I recall correctly - and I presume I do - anyone without master rank in that skill or not at least a Divine being should instantly be burned to death upon even touching that book, let alone reading it," Darkness claimed.
"So... it's a genuine book? Everything in it was true? All the advice?" Lone asked. "The stories? The exploits? Ruldso Redmore?"
Darkness nodded its purple swirling galaxy head. "Oh, yes. That's why it was cursed. Every single one of its remaining volumes were affected. It couldn't be destroyed on account of preparations from that wily little summoner, but some very powerful devils were able to make it incredibly hard to read. Or was it one devil? I can't quite recall. Oddly enough, my fellow Primal Life would likely know more than I do about this. The hellish planes aren't exactly my forte."
"Huh." Lone leaned into the cushions a bit. "I wonder why Monsieur Librarian thought I needed that knowledge then."
"Oh, probably because there's a devil in the middle of your camp waiting for you to wake up," Darkness said casually.
"There's a... what?!" Lone exclaimed, panic rising in his chest since he was painfully aware of how dangerous devils were now thanks to the book.
Darkness nodded slowly. "Yes, an Arch Aghaidh-choimheach Devil. If I remember correctly, he was Zel, the Seventh King of all Demonkin? I do apologize if that isn't entirely accurate. I was recently locked in a ball for a few centuries though it's unlikely he evolved or devolved during my extended involuntary vacation."
Lone quickly got up and shouted, "And you didn't think it was important to tell me this why exactly?! I was in that hall reading for hours!"
"Oh, I'd imagine. Even with your level of Reading Mastery, 4,321 pages is quite a lot," Darkness agreed. "And it didn't seem urgent. He's been waiting patiently without disturbing your companions for about two hours or so. I assume he wishes to speak with you, but what do I know? I'm just a Primal living in an upsidedown pyramid trapped within a C-ranker's soul."
Just before Lone ejected himself from his own soul, he asked, "Would you have told me if my friends were in danger?"
A serious aura consumed Darkness. "In a heartbeat. Your moniker of Immortus the Immortal is quite accurate, I do assure you. I do not wish to be trapped here for all eternity with a jailor who hates me. I would have even attacked that hall of Monsieur Librarian's to get your attention if I felt it was necessary."
That gave Lone a moment of pause. "I appreciate that."
He then dismissed himself from his soul, leaving Darkness alone.
The Primal sighed. "He's a very lucky boy to have such a lucky girl attached to his hip..."