Chapter 5 Change.
As lizzy’ alarm went off an unsettling feeling shot through her body as she heard the sounds of clamoring and movement spawning from the Kitchen. she knew it couldn't be Father as he wouldn't be caught dead this early. While Ahlecks, Nix, and Leon were spending the night over in the inner city.
Getting into a tight best fighting stance she could muster, and readying mana around her fist she swung open her door into the main hallway before walking towards the kitchen door with lights beaming under the crack she swung open the door to a shocking sight. Her three youngest brothers were all dressed and ready for school. All in the school's dorky uniform that they have all separately made fun of. A aroma filled the room as Pallas baked a Kappa that Lizzy bought in the market. Looking up from a huddle of text books that were all at least a year behind where they should be. The boys noticing her grew big puppy dog eyes before pleading “Lizzy We’re sorry we told you to fuck off when you tried to wake us up for school, or ditching you in the rain when you tried to force us to come to school, and especially when we locked you in an abandoned wing of the school to run away.” Taking a second to breath “were changed men we found a purpose.” Growing pissed she snatched away the frying pan from Pallas “damnit you're burning my Kappa this was a good deal and you almost ruined it.” Now yelling at the brothers while sleepy eyed and in her pajamas “what made you think this would be a good idea to cook this. Pallas you’ve never cooked a day in your life, and Lucius what do you mean your a changed man huh did you and dad Venture into the red light district, and you saw how fucked up your life can be if you follow the first proverb of (do as thou wills).” folding his arms, with a huge boastful grin he declared “no nothing like that. We all decided we’re gonna become the demon king, but to do that we have to be good in school so now we’re taking it seriously.” Letting (puff) as she tried to hold back her laughter before fully committing she goes inbetween tears of laughter sprang from her with all her anger lost “you guys trying in school you’ll need a miracle to learn how to read much less the stuff there teaching.” With a quick rebuttal “we can mostly read, besides your all goody goody in school so you could just help us.” And with a hesitant “sure” she set in place stage 1 of the boys plan.
Last night
“Stage 1, well to start on our plan we need to make it to the Walprugis entrance exams and to do that we all need to move from the bottom of the class to the top, and since we haven't even been to school in the past 8 months we're gonna need a tutor for this I see no better option than Lizzy.”
It was a strange sight in class. The 3 boys renowned for not caring and never showing up all stole the 3 closest seats to the teacher while being the only people dressed in the school uniform. The class whispered behind their backs “what do you think happened.” “Idk all I know is that old hornless over there has the dumbest haircut i've ever seen.” “shhh what if he hears us, haven't you heard about what he did.” “what no this is the first i'm hearing of anything?” his voice grew quieter. “Apparently he went out and killed the 3 cops that killed his brother, and the ex-priest covered it up for him.” “Really, then he's bad news. I'm not even gonna look at that freak.” Though they tried to hide their conversations it wasn't hard for the boys to make out what they were saying. Before they would have confronted them probably gotten into a fight and been given detention which they would ultimately skip, but now they were changed men. Instead they sat reading Lizzy’s old notes passing it around trying to decipher her dogshit hand writing as they slowly pieced together more and more of what they missed out on.
(phase 2 training)
Knowing Fathers past and that he went to the academy, Lucius assumed he would be the perfect candidate to train them, but father bluntly refused saying that “out of all the things he is he could never be a good teacher.” before asking how serious the boys were about their dreams which they responded as serious as someone could be. With a sigh he said “I said I'd never let you guys get involved, but who am I to deny a man his dream.” as he got out a paper wrote the location of where he could meet his “top enforcers” who could “toughen them up a little.” slightly disappointed but optimistic about their future training they made off to where father said they would be.
Lucius
As someone from the graveyard district I can undeniably say where father sent us was a true dump. Normally father wouldn't even consider sending us into such a bad area, but with Hernan praising my strength so much and me unintentionally killing 3 cops father must have assumed Pallas and Paimon would be safe with me, besides apparently most of the guys were over there at the moment.
The poorest district in the poorest region. It wasn't uncommon for people to go hungry in the graveyard but here every one was skin to the bone with no light in their eyes. Like all the fight had been beaten out of them years ago. On the other side of the tram past a shantee development there lies a rusty huge fenced area. With large towers with guards checking every one before you entered. These were the ghettos for the Lillithians. If you practiced lillithism or were from the lilith theocracy and the had misfortune of ending up in the veil this is where they would be sent. These people were largely hated by just about everyone but themselves as instead of following the pure pantheon of gods they worshiped a singular god called lilith refusing to bow to the worship of any other god except for Shaqar which like everyone they were forced to pay tribute.
Lucius
I had never been over here, nor had Paimon or Pallas. The roads were a muddy mess and everyone stared at us as we walked past them all looking like empty husks. Father told me to meet up with Valefar who apparently was trying to recruit over here. Normally i'd say you couldn't get any worse than the graveyard but I was currently standing in the exception. The guards questioned us heavily before we entered but there was no law saying we couldn't enter here. The only laws regarding that say that any Lillithians couldn't leave here without the proper paperwork. Walking down the main road all three of us were scanning the surroundings slowly, looking for a blue roofed building, something that was surprisingly hard to find in an area lacking every color but a dead gray tone.
After wandering aimlessly through the ghetto getting increasingly uneasy we eventually saw the blue roofed house, but even this wasn't an exception. With its dull blue with the roof being caved in exposing the gray flaking paint on the walls of the attic. Valefar lengthy ass sat on the porch talking with someone distinct from the local husks before abruptly dropping their conversation to painfully get up and come greet us. “Hey hornless diggin the new haircut it fits you. You're going for the happy go lucky sidekick huh, and Paimon, Pallas maybe you guys need to follow Lucius lead you both are looking a little shaggy." as he slowly squats down on his staggeringly long and lengthy legs. “What's got you all, all the way out here. Looking to convert as you can see there's plenty of opportunity in this community.” he said while raising his eyebrow and eyeing down the boys before chuckling to himself. I finally jumped in trying to get past how annoying he was being. “No Father sent us here to train.” “ poking the eyes of the smiley face he goes “what Liz beat you guys up again and you want revenge or something?”giggling to himself while twirling my hair. To which all three of us jumped in yelling“ no I'm gonna become the demon king.” with a grin and a struggle to get back up from his Russian squat he goes “that's certainly gonna be a lot harder than beating up Liz, but alright then let's get out of this dump.” turning back to the porch and yelling “ hey new guy tell the others I'm going into the inner city then come meet up with us at the spot okay.” This new guy looked to be about 14 with bright green hair, dressed with no shirt on displaying his various badly done tattoos on his chest. He yelled out okay back then went inside. We started walking deeper into the ghetto. Unprompted, Valefar started asking “ what are your thoughts on Freddy?” Paimon answered with a swift “who?” “you know the newbie on the porch.” I answered bluntly, “his tattoos are shit.” this gave him a little laugh “a tattoos a story, and would life be interesting if you didn't have a few bad ones hell i got plenty of bad tattoos. As he opens up his lengthy tailored suit to show a poorly done tattoo of a church. Before going “got this one at 16 when I was in for robbing a noble on the 8th floor. I guess only the Lumos family has enough power to touch us down here.” Unlike with the Demon kings, and all that other stuff I wasn't in school to learn, I knew who the Lumos family were from a young age it was drilled into my head that they were the exception to screwing everyone from the higher floors over. as they were the clan that ruled over the whole of the Veil, and honestly him getting out is a miracle because normally you'd be hung for something like that. Thinking about how it was probably a lesser member of the family. We walked deeper into the slums with now a couple husks looking fed and cautious with them intently watching us. “Don't worry about them, they wouldn't think to touch you. This whole ghettos are territory. anyways I asked you all's thoughts on the new guy cause he’ll likely be working under you guys from now on." This was a shock and we all unanimously asked what!
Ducking under a sign “yeah if Boss sent you out here that could only mean one thing so I'm guessing you will be the newest members of the Frank family.” as if forgetting something he looked serious and asked “you guys don't mind Lillithians right.” to which we responded we weren't bothered by them, just that we found them a little weird which gave him a sigh of relief as he goes “that's good. Let me tell you guys something in this life you gotta work with the little guys, be nice to them cause if you're nice to them give them opportunity you'll have their loyalty for life. That's why the Boss is so smart for claiming this territory, I mean the only guys not starving out here are working with us. they'd give up their lives for us because we give them some food and enough money to hire a hooker every couple months. I mean it's crazy cause I'd give up my life for you guys or the boss, but my buy-in price was a better deal." This was a shock to me. I knew Father worked with some people from difficult backgrounds, but having it laid out to me like that I couldn't help but be impressed.
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We then walked into what looked like an abandoned warehouse. that was filled to the brim with men holding swords or guns all staring daggers at us. “Don't get intimidated, these are the bottom rung guys, besides mister 3kd if you could do that these guys would be nothing” after he said that we then stood in silence there for about 5 minutes as Valefar got increasingly more annoyed before Freddy turned into the warehouse, sprinting to us obviously exhausted saying “sorry boss i got held up by some guards.” which Valefar just shrugged off going “don't worry about i'll have those guards talked to. lets go, it's getting late.” like magic words the guards who this whole time looked forward without saying anything swiftly moved one of many filled storage racks to reveal a tunnel that had been dug behind it.
Tight. That's the only way to describe the tunnel. Us three and Freddy were mostly fine but Valefar complained the whole way out about how much this hurt his back making Freddy cast healing magic on him the whole way. We walked like this for about 15 minutes before our tunnel led to an abrupt end in a sewage tunnel. Then just went up the first manhole cover we found trying not to throw up from the putrid smell. before we finally made it up to the back of a small stand in the middle of the street in what looked like Capones district. The shop owner who's face was completely covered in hair only displaying his eyes jumps into a bowing position going “I know I'm late on rent but murder incorporated stole alot of my m—--” in a bad move from having to go through the tunnel he interrupted yelling “shut the fuck up I'm not the collector of this area take that shit up with Ivan.” which the owner meekly agreed to.
walking onto the dense streets of Capones it was obvious right away this was the old part on the edge of the fence as every building seemed to lean over blocking all the trickled down light with a street lamp every block, held up only by magic. Abruptly and with a strangely serious tone Valefar turned to us before asking “how badly do you want to get stronger cause there will be a steep price.” I jumped on it saying “we'd do anything.” with a solemn expression he goes alright we're here, just let me make a call real quick as he stepped away. It was obvious which building it was. The only stylized stable building one with eastern architectural design though done poorly. Hanging up “alright let's go in.” We went in with Freddy meekly following. There were three guys sitting who instantly shot into retention and bowed as we just walked past and up the stairs. Opening the door into a surprisingly large space there were 5 men all doing various forms of training. A tall bear of a man just slightly shorter than Valefar completely Ripped with short stubby horns with a long black beard with black hair walked up shirtless with only the bottom part of a Gi on. “These new associates. they look pretty young?” “not yet there bosses' sons so we cant have them as associates under one of the bosses out of respect so we’ll need to make them.” with a long pause Valefar goes “they want top level training under you, but would you be willing to train some members without them being under you.” upon hearing that black wings stood from his back as he looked over at us. “Are you sure aren't they a little too young?” “I know I hate to do it, but this one here.” pointing at me “killed the three cops that killed his brother so I'm sure he's got it, and the others there Franks im sure they can work it.” with a sign he goes “alright come to the basement I got some {rats} down there that I need some help with.”
We walked down into the basement and just before he opened the thick dark wood door the man asked “ I know your natural born Franks, but are you sure you're okay with what you're about to do. Cause This carries a death sentence over your head for the rest of your life if you're ever convicted.” We had all suspected that this was what we were here for but this line of questioning all but confirmed it and all though scared and nervous we all gritted our teeth and agreed.
Pitch black until the man walked up and pulled a string turning on a faint flickering light. There sat 5 men all bloodied and bruised tied up against a water pipe. “Shaqar says you have to give something to gain something. These are rats we found trying to scurry away from the 13th floor with a couple hundred grand worth of company property. So can you exchange them for your future” from the back of his pants he pulled out a gun that looked comically small in his hands. Before asking one last time “are you sure you want to do this you don't have to do it.” Without saying anything Paimon grabbed the gun and with a smooth flinch less motion one loud Pop rang out as he pulled the trigger. Now with the man on the other end of the barrel slumped over further than he had been. Freddy went next using his own gun. I guess he was getting made with us. I was up. Next I grabbed the gun from Paimon, the gunshots had woken up the guys who now tried to plead for their lives begging, but with one quick shot from me it was over. The last man however wasn't as eager by this point Pallas started crying, snot dripping down his nose and onto his hand that were now shakily profusely as he pointed the gun at the last man pleading at him yelling that he would curse him and all this other stuff while begging and saying he had a family. After a while Pallas pointed his gun down, but knowing he had to do me and Paimon got on either side of him grabbing onto his hand and with all three of us holding the gun he did it one final shot rang through the now eerily silent room as a large pool of blood started to spread from the 4 men.
The silence was broken when the man walked up to me and paimon and gave us a pat on the back as Valefar wrapped his arms around Pallas comforting as he cried into his arms.
After that we went to the family bar just down the street and had a huge round of applause for the 3 new members. Though it was a dark day for all of us with us calling it early on the training leaving that for tomorrow. Though I would be lying if I said any of us slept good that night
We showed up the next day after a long school day of hustling. After going back into the ghetto, and taking the same route with Valefar who escorted us the whole way. once again complaining about his back the whole time in the tunnel. before heading back to ghetto through the city to “not have to go back into that fucking tunnel.” leaving Freddy with us.
Walking in the same three men bowed and once again the bear looking man walked up in the same attire.
“Sorry about yesterday, I don't want things to get off on the wrong foot. In case I didn't introduce myself, my name is Ivan. By the way, nice to meet you.” as he reaches out to shake all of our hands. After that he goes “ alright now show me your grimoires so i can see what I'm working with.” Paimon happily pulls his out, but Pallas and I just looked at each other with concerned expressions. Which caught onto saying“What are you doing pull them out.” “ummmm we haven't gotten ours yet.” with a look of complete shock he goes “wait really?” to which we were embarrassed, shaking our heads in agreement. With a look of shame he goes “damn I made two kids who don't even have their grimoires yet.” then he goes “wait why did the boss send you to join at such a young age. None of your other siblings are even in the family if I'm right.” Paimon jumps in “he let us join because we're gonna become the demon king and to do that we have to get stronger and train.” face palming he goes “don't tell Boss this, but that's some of the dumbest shit I've ever heard. I mean making you into targets over a dream is stupid.” with a grin “That sounds just like my boss alright time to show me what you got” as he gets in the ring gesturing for Paimon to join. “What's your bloodline ability?” flipping to its pages on the grimoire “it's called fight edit.” “Huh, never heard of it, what's it let you do?” “It lets me edit a fight to the beat of music, but it's not very good cause I can only use most abilities once if that.” clapping his hands together and jumping up and down stretching “don't worry i'll go easy on you just show me what you got whenever you're ready.”
After about a 15 second wait an older rap song started to play emanating from Paimon with its signature slow paced beat. After another 3 seconds Paimon began to move with a beat. In one instance he was throwing a kick to Ivan which he easily blocked. Paimon then instantaneously moved back with the next beat. Next he pointed finger guns at Ivan when the artist sang “pop pop” a cartoonish pop graphic moved right next to his hands which moved up with recoil. Looking over to Ivan he actually had two deep holes where his fingers had been pointed. At that moment however the music turned off. Ivan with a grin “turn the music back on where just getting started.”
At this point a small cohort of everyone else who was training formed around the. Paimon who was grasping at his side before yelling “I cant I'm out of mana I give in.” In the blink of an eye Paimon was getting sucker punched into the gut with enough force to push all the air out of his lungs. “Either you have a pitiful amount of mana or your ability guzzles mana like a whore, either way it doesn't matter. Lesson one” screaming to the sky in our direction “the only way to grow your mana pool is to use it to the point where your gates close if you don't do that then you'll stay the same.” On the ground gasping for air, Ivan kicked Paimon in the hip just enough to make him roll around and apply pressure while saying “turn that music back on, we are just getting started.” struggling to stand back up he turned his ability back on and moved instantly with one beat, and before even being able to throw an attack he fell to the ground now screaming in agonizing pain. Picking him up Ivan hoisted Paimon up into the air yelling “Everyone cheer he closed his gates for the first time today.” Now the room erupted from everyone who was clapping and cheering, showing their support for him. A person quickly came up and healed Paimon though that didn't take away from his agony. Infuriated by what he had done to him, I yelled at Ivan “what do you think you're doing to my brother.” but he just brushed it off “do you not see everyone here celebrating.--- that's cause everyone here has done it hundreds of times to get stronger." Now standing right in front of me towering over me “you came to me so i could train you, and if he can only use his abilities for 10 seconds then he’ll have to train a lot more and do that a lot more.” Now standing on the railing of the ring he goes ‘everyone these are our newest members and they will need our help training them up. These two don't even have grimoires so you'll have to teach them basic techniques and this one as you can see is weak so he will need just as much training.” running up to Ivan seeing Paimon wallowing in pain Pallas asked “how long will he be like this.” “Well it takes about 5 hours for your gates to reopen, so about that long, but it won't be like this every time I mean you kind of get used to it though the pain level never decreases.” From there we all split up to find a person who could train us in things we were interested in for me. I walked up to the weapons bucket and chose a Claymore sword, and choosing a martial art I said I wanted to learn Sambo. Pallas didn't find any of the weapons interesting instead choosing to go all in on muay thai as I guess he saw something on TV and thought it looked awesome. Last there was Paimon who was made to choose Capoeira by Ivan because of how perfectly it matched with his abilities. And with this teacher he would also be learning the crow summoning style, a nature summon ability. Lastly Pallas chose a Kusanagi no Tsurugi sword or the grass cutting sword Grass-Cutting Sword. Apparently it's a legendary sword in some cultures, but no one really knew too much about it.
Stage 3 {consistency}
After that we continued to stay consistent. We would wake up early to study with Lizzy then go over to Valefar to pick up Freddy before going into the inner city through the tunnel to train in our chosen styles with our trainers for the rest of the day and occasionally get minor tasks to do. Before we knew it a drastic change happened over the next 5 months with all three of us shooting up to the top of our classes and with us all excelling in our chosen arts with Paimon seeing a massive growth just like expected. Though nothing out of the ordinary would happen in our lives sticking with our new found continent schedule until me and Pallas’s awakening ceremony.