It was the next day. David was back home and not in school. He was glad that the doctor’s note had said that it was recommended for him to rest for a day at home before going back to school. After witnessing what he saw, he had tons of questions piled up, and this time he was determined to have them answered.

“David, I’m sure you have a lot to ask. I did not expect this to occur at all. Although before asking, are you sure that you are sufficiently rested?” Lucifer did not sound like the previous day, he sounded genuinely concerned for David’s health. After the incident, David had been in complete shock, he was barely able to move his body back home before collapsing on his bed. He didn’t utter a single word to anyone. Despite having just contracted with him, Lucifer had watched over David and offered him a contract time and time again, all the while observing his behavior, he could already tell that his actions were clearly out of character. He knew David had a lot to ask, and he wanted David to be in the best physical condition before answering the questions.

“Yeah… I’m fine,” David hesitated, he felt fine physically, but a lot was going through his head. It was truly fortunate that he was still logical enough to know that only by asking Lucifer all of the questions on his head would he be able to relieve himself of his worries. “Who are you?”

“My name is Lucifer Morgenstern. I was once the right hand of god. It was in heaven that I was given the name of Morgenstern, a name meaning morning star. When God had asked us to bow down to men, I refused. Not only that, I convinced others to follow my lead. I did not understand why God would have asked us to bow down to these mortals, so I had hoped to ask God to retract his command with all my companions.

But I was betrayed. Betrayed by the one who I thought was my closest friend and brother. It was Michael that betrayed me, he framed me for rebellion and for this, God had casted the Grigori and I down from heaven. We fell for seven days and seven nights before landing in Hell. It was there that the Grigori left me, many cursed my name. I was left alone.

I had no idea what to do, I had hardly anything left, my wings were black, my soul was hollow. It was in my despair that I lost control of my powers. Perhaps it was always hidden in my subconsciousness, my magic casted a spell which transformed me into a demon.

Following that, Leviathan found me. Despite my looks changing, she recognized me and attacked. Somehow I had fended off her attack. Perhaps it was out of pity that she finally stopped and asked me about my situation, and I spilled it to her. She convinced me to continue living as a demon.

Eventually I grew to become more famous within Hell and fed up with the way the society worked with the hierarchy of the 72 scriptures, we started an actual rebellion. It was through this method that I eventually ascended to the throne, claiming the Throne of Superbia, becoming the Prince of Pride. That’s about it, would it be sufficient?” Lucifer replied.

“As I said before, can you prove it?” David asked, he was more keen to believe Lucifer now after what happened the previous day, but he still held his doubts.

It was then, David’s view turned black, then grey, then finally white. He was surrounded by white, but he wasn’t too surprised. He had been here before in his dreams. It was here that the voice, now Lucifer, had offered a contract to him. Before him stood a dignified man with long blond hair with fair features. On his back was a pair of large bat-like wings that was pitch black, the only thing that gave him away as a demon and not an angel. David could guess who he was. The being standing before him had to be no other than…

“It is the first time you have seen this form of mine. Once again, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Lucifer Morgenstern.”

It was like he expected, the being was Lucifer.

“David, is this enough proof?”

“For now. I don’t believe you 100%, but for now it’s good enough. Next question, what happened yesterday?”

“I’ll assume you’re referring to what he was doing and what happened to him right?”

“That and also who that succubus was.”

“Judging by the looks of things, it would appear that the magician yesterday was attempting to summon a succubus, it’s actually quite evident from the magic circle he used that you probably noticed on the ground. The man succeeded, or actually overachieved himself. If it was a weak succubus, the magic circle would have done its job and restrained her.

Oh I should explain about demons first. Demons are split into very many different races, just to name a few of them: imps, succubi, incubi, rakshasas. And unlike popular belief, the term “Archdemon” does not refer to a specific race of demons, but refers to a demon that possesses immense power. I would be one of the Archdemons, but in terms of the demon race, I would be an unique existence, one of the only two demons that was transformed into a demon by a spell casted by themselves.

Going back to the topic of yesterday, the demon that came out of the portal was Asmodeus, not a succubus. Asmosdeus is the Princess of Lust, the one that holds the Throne of Luxuria. Although somewhat akin to a succubus, she is not one herself, but the one who created them in the first place. What she did to the man was merely combust his entire being alongside the spirits of the dead he seems to be using. The magic she used should be <Soul Combustion>. As for why she was here, if I was to actually hazard a guess, it would be because of our contract. It’s been a long time since one of the Seven Princes of Hell formed a contract with anyone, even longer that we have had a host and a meister. My last host was during the Arthurian era.”

“What did Asmodeus’ words mean? She specifically told me to become strong or else I wouldn’t survive what was coming. What exactly is she referring to?”

Lucifer smiled wryly, “She’s referring to fate. My hosts generally did not have a long lifespan. All of them have died before their time came, for one reason or another.”

“For what did they die for? What exactly hunted them down? Fate? That’s too vague.”

“They were all the type of people to live and fight for their ideals. Taking my last host for example. He was a hero among men, and he fought for his country and his people. He died trying to fight for what he believed in. Those are the types of hosts I have had in the past.”

“Then why me? Out of everyone, why take notice of a young man doing his first summoning that he wasn’t sure if it will succeed or not? Why offer me salvation against an orc? What caught your attention?”

“Your affinity with magic, your aura. All of them resembles my last host. In fact, it feels identical to his. That kind of desire, to fight for what you believe in. Even willing to turn against the entire world for the sake of protecting the people important to you. That also resembles him. Among the people that conduct summoning to try and summon me, you are the sole person in the last few hundred years to have this level of resemblance to my past host.”

“Che, your past host huh? Who was he?”

“A man who loved his people more than himself. A truly selfless one, who has been unjustly recorded down as a villain.”

“Name?”

“That I cannot say, out of a promise. It is to honor his memory, for us who are immortal, he will live forever in our memories. My only hope was to find someone like him to be my host and wield my strength as your own. That is the reason why you were chosen.”

David wanted to ask about the name of Lucifer’s past host once again, but he realized that any more, and he would be acting completely insensitively. He didn’t want to be that type of person, even against a demon, he believed that one must maintain a certain level of common courtesy at all time.

“It’s fine if your unwilling to answer me. It’s not like its really relevant to the topic at hand anyways. So essentially you chose me and not anyone else due to my semblance to your past host. I’ll get more out of you later. So right now, tell me about what the magician meant by “Chanting Omission”? I can guess the general gist of it, but I want to hear it from you.”

“Chanting Omission is essentially the ability to cast spells without chanting the incantation. Most magicians require a chant in order to use magic. As a person gets more familiar with casting, they are able to shorten the incantations, omit it all together or cast it silently in their heads. What you did was omit the incantation. However it wasn’t a simple <Water Sphere> or <Fireball>, but intermediate-tier spells, to omit the entire incantation and to just fire off the spell through uttering the name of the magic is something only a very accomplished magician can do. The fact that you were able to show the high levels of aptitude you have for magic, something that is not exactly common.”

“And why am I able to do it so naturally? You told me that to use magic, I would only need to visualise the image in my head and then chant out the name of the magic. Why did you not tell me any of this earlier?”

“I didn’t deem it necessary. You are someone born with an immense amount of mana already, and you are able to host my power without any drawbacks. I simply judged that you were capable of castings spells without chanting.”

“Then to what extent am I able to do it? Is it possible for you to teach me some form of higher-tiered magic?”

“Most things are rather simple. Like I have explained before, magic is separated into a lot of categories: Fire, Water/Ice, Wind, Light, Dark, Earth are some examples of non-unique magic.. Under these categories, they would be further distinct by their usage: offense, defense, enchantments, et cetera. Most mages would learn magic through the use of spells that have been used over and over again. The name of the magic is merely a way for us to focus magic. It doesn’t actually matter if <Fireball> was called <Fireball>, <Storm’s End>, <Magic of Disappearance> or whatever you can think of. It is only a means for the user to focus on the point of the magic. If it was tied to a name, then people with different languages would not be able to cast the same sort of magic. However, it is very common for mages and magicians to stay with the conventional name of a magic, mainly because it would allow them to visualize the effects properly and focus their magic into achieving the target. That is the underlying truth behind magic.

You want to learn of stronger spells to test your limits. For now, I would recommend against it. If you were to strain your body, then it might cause you more harm than good. It will not be difficult for you to learn these magic, so rest yourself for now.”

“Fair enough. Now onto the next question then. What are the exact effects of being a meister? What additional power will I be able to weird in comparison to a normal mage?”

“Being my meister and my host, you should be able to borrow some of my mana to cast spells and use magic unique to me. Generally, contract with a demon also involves the strengthening of one’s body to a greater level.”

“Is that so? Hmmm…” David pondered, even without him asking, Lucifer had answered many of his questions. “Last question. Yesterday you talked about the place having the same trace of magic as the orc. Were you lying? And I’m pretty sure you talked about high orcs?”

“I was being truthful, it did hold the same trace of magic as the high orc you killed. If I were to guess, the magician probably summoned the orc as a test to see if his summoning was working properly. The magician did mention that he recognized you right? Most likely he also wanted to use the orc for something. As for high orc, that was the type of orc you killed. High orcs are orcs that have evolved, gaining a bit more intelligence and improved physical stats. This is the same for most of the races humans refer to as monsters, fairies and demi-humans.”

“I see. Your guess is probably right on target, it does seem to make quite a bit of sense.” David answered. “Is there any job for me to do today?”

“Just take a rest. It’s not like things will continuously happen here everyday. I rather not overwork you.”

“Heh, fine. I suppose this is where I say, please take care of me.”

“Yeah, it’ll be a pleasure to work with you.” Lucifer held out his hand. David took it in his hand and shook. The scene before him started to fade away, and once again returned to the familiar scene in his room.

Now that he thought about it, the situation just now was rather surreal, if the last 2 days didn’t happen, he would have taken what he saw as a dream. Since he had sorted out his emotions through asking Lucifer a bunch of questions, he felt rather calm, only realizing one crucial thing – He had forgotten to get back to Helaine about everything. Knowing her, she was probably quite stressed out about him.

He decided to call her.

“DAE!!! Where have you been? You ran off yesterday and never answered your phone! I went around your house and other places you could be, looking for you! Just what happened?” David could hear Helaine shouting anxiously at him from the the other side of the phone.

“I’ll tell you when I see you? I’ll come over now if it’s alright?” David replied, it would take him a while to get there, especially if he went over to the convenience store to buy something along the way.

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