Chapter 4 A bird

A monstrous sized bird sat perked on a whaling tree drinking from the thick black puss that seeped out of the wallowing faces. After a while the dark bird stretched out its brilliant large wings and took off into the glowing white sky. {Ding} the bell chimed as Father finally walked out of the store drawing Lucius attention from the monochrome boxed tv that sat on a shelf displaying its fire sale bargain price. Apparently birds were more numerous than demons to a factor of a thousand on the surface, but Lucius believed this to be an old wise tale as he'd never seen a non pre-packaged bird before.

Father handed Lucius a small circular disc with diagrams inscribed on it saying “lick it then stick it to your temple it’ll let us talk more privately.” sighing “Fine, only if it's really needed these things hurt my head, and besides these aren't stopping anyone who's interested from listening in.” inbetween licking his own “Just put it on at least so we won't be blaring our conversation out to the whole world.” Lucius begrudgingly stuck it to his forehead with a loud static ring screaming through his head till eventually fathers voice rang through calming down the static. Mid inhale of his cigarette father started talking through the telepathic seal “I'm sure you have a lot of questions about what happened back there , but before I can tell you anything you have to promise to keep the more personal stuff a secret okay.” Lucius nodding his head. Before father goes “That's not enough, I need to hear you say it.” with a smirk “fine I solomonly swear.” Pinching Lucius cheeks “thanks it means a lot.” Gesturing for Lucius to walk with him he began taking the fastest route from this off the path shop. Walking through the dense winding streets they eventually walked through the red neon lit brothels and temples of kazerath. Chuckling a little father finally starts talking “ you know when I was a younger there used to only be 5 gods.” Lucius barely listening focused instead on the strange scantily clad people that roamed around not responding to father. “I actually come from where the worship of Kazerath started.” Grabbing back Lucius attention he turned saying “really, you never talked about it so I just assumed you were from here.” With a face filled with an indecipherable bowl of mixed emotions he goes “no i'm from a place far worse and far away from here a place you might have heard of called the council state of walpurgis.” Tightening his lips together and squinting his eyes, Lucius finally lets out a sigh and goes “nope I got nothing, never heard of the place. What's it like” walking past the largest temple of Kazerath in the Veil a statue of immense grandeur stood out of place in front of the relatively plain looking building. A man, clothless horns almost a footlong and a proud visible snake much longer stood as worshipers in similarly scarce clothing kissed the bottom of his statue begging for love and various other items that despite their similarity could be further from his domain. “A petty god really if you ask me. No different than the billions of spirits that are in hell or purgatory. It only makes sense since his cult started where I grew up.” trying not to stare too hard at the statue, Lucius asked why trying and failing to pull his eyes from the bizarre sight. With the puff of a cigarette father goes “In this world there are gods, and they are cruel. No where better exemplifies their cruel favoritism and indifference to the weak and powerless than the city streets of Dantes. Though I wouldn't realize this till later.” “why” “well you see—my real name isn't Frank, It's Nicholas Von Victor Frankenstein III, and I come from a long Royal Lineage, .” filled with excitement at this declaration Lucius completely turned from the statue asking “ Really does that mean you're Dads like some secret king who's loaded and could give us a lot of money?” With a bothersome look he says “ sadly no, my family hasn't had a member on a throne for over 470 years, and I cut all ties with them 20 years ago and havent spoken to them or been back since.” with a quick rebuttal Lucius asks “then why was everyone so freaked out back there?” scratching his head a little father goes “well just i haven't talked to them and we haven't had a king in our family for that long doesn't mean they're not important I mean there still technically one of the families that are at the pen ultimate seat of the government.” Lucius with a blank expression goes “so there like kings.” shaking his head “no seriously you need to get back in school they should have taught you this. Basically how it works is back 460ish years ago one of my ancestors named Victor Frankenstein became the 3rd Demon king, but what set him apart was his long reign and the fact that he had 14 kids so by the time he died, 12 of them were still around with over 20 grand kids. And Though never officially crowned demon kings his sons sat as the head of the family creating a de facto monarchy, and that system lasted all of about 2 years. After that time passed a man- or more accurately a boy named Miguel Maximoff at just 14 years old stood single handedly above the rest of the world. He was the strongest in the and could have easily taken the throne and followed in the tradition of the past 3 Demon kings, Slaughtering the whole previous clan, but instead he showed mercy let them keep most of their unmatched authority, let them keep and radicalized the council they had created for themselves, and named them a royal family having the foresight that one day he too would die and hopefully his family would be spared and join in the ranks of the Royals if no one could grow to his strength and succeed him. Even to this day his system stands, a Testament to his brilliance. Since Victor there have been 9 Demon Kings with all 9 clans still being alive, 8 in the council. Though I barely would count the Ryomen clan and the Hellraiser clan as true benefactors of this system.” This enthralled Lucius who clampered in to ask “Why wouldn't you consider those clans.” finally walking out of the neon red district and onto the street father looked at Lucius with a little grin before going “Well a couple hundred years ago those two clans fought practically whipping each other out with Shinrikyo Ryomen ultimately winning being crowned Demon king only to die about a year later, leaving a set of twin sons that lived in secrecy which is a practice there family still participates in to this day, and Ironically the last Hellraiser member is Demon king Myers Hellraiser himself who is currently locked in the Frankenstein clans basement.” he says making a cringe face. His eyes growing wide Lucius has to ask to reconfirm “wait did you say your family's basement.” gritting his teeth a little “well yes, but we did it for a purpose.” —----- “and that purpose was” “well he was cursed by king Shinrikyo leaving him in a constant state of awareness as his body grows a gangrenous black leaving him unable to move while his body constantly grows back into that constant state of decay leaving him in eternal torment as he is unable to move.”-----------Lucius did not respond “and the reason why we picked him up is because the Frankenstein bloodline ability Flesh Crafting worked perfectly with this body.” a sparkle grew in Lucius eyes once again “wait does that mean you have some royal super cool bloodline ability.” with a depressed stare at the ground father goes “no I didn't inherit it.” feeling uneasy and trying to lighten the mood, Lucius patted Father on the back saying “It's alright i'm sure the ability was shitty anyways.” with a thumbs up Father fully recovers going “Yeah I wouldn't want to be stuck around with those stuck up assholes anyway. Besides it's a blessing I saw what they were really like. Besides, I love it downhere.” finally making it to the tram they continued their conversation still not saying a single word out loud this entire time. “But what would your Bloodline ability be like?” Thinking for a second “Flesh Crafting works by taking body parts and with our ability attaching it to yourself or someone, and if they have the bloodline ability they can inherit the abilities of their corpse, and some of the mana.Thats why Myers Hellraiser was perfect cause in exchange for replacing his fingers for one of our own we were able to make use of abilities. As for if you're a regular person you can still trade parts, you just can't inherit the abilities unless you steal a Paths ability.” Lucius jumped up from his seat on the Tram going “hey I know what a Paths ability is. you think I have one since I keep creating these arms.” “Probably not Paths are the rarest bloodline abilities and most path attributes you have since birth. Like the two Clans I can think of with it are both Royal Families being the Zodd and Darko families and since birth those two clans have their signature freakish eyes though they cant use their power till their awakening.” “Wait I've vaguely heard about those two what would I know them from.” scratching his chin trying to think of what to say Father goes “oh you properly heard me and Hernan talk about that girls early awakening who apparently was apart of the Darko family, but besides that you might have heard about how the current Demon King is Karness Zodd the first time a clan has had two demon kings.” pausing for a moment to gloat he goes “And I went to school with him.” this instantly hooked Lucius “really what was he like?” with a bravado father starts telling a tale “ A strange look to him with the Zodds signature bright yellow eyes not meshing well with his face, you could always find him buried in a book studying. He was at the top of his class since elementary, but he was always overshadowed by his older brothers who were a lot more boisterous. That was until he emerged at the Walpurgis entrance exam and won handedly with a display of strength that at such a young age put him as a candidate for Demon king. People used to make fun of him but now they flocked to him, almost worshiping him but he stayed the same. Real quiet, but once I saw his power I could slightly understand why my family treated me so badly, forcing me onto the streets of Dantes for not inheriting a strong power ""really are the Zodds that strong.” with a chuckle “ I think it goes for any royal family. I mean despite what I said about the clans almost getting wiped out once the demon king takes place it's not because our families are weak far from it. I mean the average royale clan strength is from tier 12 to 9 with your everyday person being Tier 1-3, but there's a reason Demon Kings are almost never from the same family. While royal families are stagnant with their abilities almost never passing the founder's strength, throughout the world a couple people will awaken to Tier 13.” “Is that impressive.” “Well normally it's possible to swing up 2 or 3 Tiers when fighting depending on battle IQ and factors like that, but Tier 13 breaks the scale entirely. To test your tier you prick your finger and your blood then mixes in the water and after a appraisal spell is used which will change the watters color and how it moves, with you able to move up tiers with training, but for Tier 13 when put to the test the water will turn pitch black and shatter whatever container its in hardening into violently sharpened shards. So in essence to be a Tier 13 means to be almost infinitely stronger than anyone below you with the difference between a tier 12 to a 13 being a rounding era that would equal zero.” Lucius with a grin goes “since im already so strong do you think ill get to be a demon King.” with a smile and a pat on the back as they walk off the train into the graveyard district. “ I think you definitely could if you trained hard everyday actually went to school and studied, and I hate to say this maybe it'd be better for you, but you would have to move out of here to the capital of Dantes and go to school there preferably where I went at Walpurgis Academy, but it could be any of the elites schools over there.” growing excitement “Really you think I'll get to be respected even without horns.” looking down with a huge grin “they'd have no choice but too if you were the strongest.” This lit a fuse in Lucius who decided to sprint home leaving father behind. Busting through the door he eagerly ran into his room. There Pallas and Paimon were playing on the Devi Box. moving in front of the Tv completely interrupting them to their annoyance he demanded an audience to tell them about all that he had learned without telling them the parts father wanted to keep secret. Though not before they made fun of his haircut, undeterred he started “--was the inspiration behind my hair cut one of those stress balls, why you lit— Never mind it's unimportant. What I need to tell you about is Demon kings.” unimpressed they go “we've heard of them.” pinching both of their cheeks “no you don't get it were stuck downhere never being allowed to see the surface mocked for who we are and what we are, when there are people out there with power like we wouldn't believe who get to do what they want want when they want and have everyone's respect based on nothing but there strength.” a little skeptical “ but were not nobles or anything.” a smirk drew across his face “ well yes, but Father told me there has only been one instance where two demon kings were related.” “so” “that means that we have as good a shot as any. Plus will have advantages. Pallas were probably related, and Well today I went to go see the head bishop about me having my powers early and he said he saw potential in me becoming the demon king so that means you should have just as much potential as me.” flipping to Paimon “and you Paimon you're probably the smartest person I know and if we start training today you will have a six month head start on both me and Pallas with you already having your grimoire which should give you plenty of time to close the gap.” Pallas was almost instantly convinced, but Paimon still seemed skeptical so in one final push Lucius goes “think about what the downside is of us getting strong anyways, no matter what us getting stronger will allow us to protect our family so something like Jordis never happens again, and worse case scenario we become strong enough to become lesser nobles so we still get to move out of here." Succeeding Paimon gave in saying “fine I'm sold, but that's gonna be a huge mistake.” puzzled they both asked “why?” with a villainous cackle “ because i'm gonna become the demon king and you guys are gonna be forced to be my lackies till i die then you will fight as old men for my throne mohahahahaaha.” Lucius and Pallas looking at each other and almost telepathically sending a message. The next instant the two brothers dove on Paimon as they all three started wrestling each other, each proclaiming how and why they were gonna be the demon king. By the end of the day the brothers had set in course a plan they were gonna follow with advice from father until they turned 16 and could go take the entrance exam over on Walpurgis. Paimon being about 7 months older than the brothers would go a year ahead of them leaving the three together having a training period of about 2 and a half years.

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With the last bit of daylight the boys along with Liz and Father went to pay Jordis a visit. They brought him some leftovers and once father and liz left the brothers lit some of the devils lettuce he had in his room for him and lit it for him. With the brothers all eagerly just like before having a one sided conversation with Jordis though this time about their new found dreams and this time without his occasional uninterested sarcastic comments.