The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  “So, that concludes what we have proposed. Those who wish to sign, this is a special oath paper, as the kings and nobles of each respective nation, you represent everyone. This oath is to the God of Fire, that I obtained at a heavy price from the church of the Fire God. This oath will affect all citizens from your nations. Anyone attempting to hurt Zip Null or his family, in any method be it blackmail, kidnapping or killing him for the reason of his ability to forge people, that person and all in league with him or her will be burned by Heavenly Fire.” Morgan said serious.

  Everyone had a grim expression because this will cut all methods to obtain the power by themselves. One by one they lift their pens and begin to sign, the paper burning and two seals of contract appearing between Morgan and the other person. This happened until there was a pile of seals that soon merged into a single one due to it being the same contract. It was stored by Morgan who stood. “I hope you all have a good day.” Morgan said.

  “One question.” Francis said suddenly. “Young man, I remember you had a limit of times per day you could do that, correct?” Francis asked.

  Zip nodded, and Cinder was summoned out.

  “My limit has expanded greatly. I can breakthrough three person in one day but only for the level 30 bottleneck. I can do tempering 100 times a day and forging 25 a day.” She said.

  “Why do you have a limit as a Blacksmithing Devil!?” one of the nobles asked.

  “Devils are affected by Demon Corruption Particles as well. Even more so as familiars since our master suffers along to us. As I grow stronger my resistance to it will go up as I have my body reforged more times and my body and bones are forged with Devil Alloy that resists Demon Corruption Particles. Until then, I need a specific amount of time to filter the particles out of my body and breaking bottlenecks is a huge strain on my body as well.” She said.

  They nod understanding the principle of what she spoke of.

  The nobles and Kings soon left while Morgan was in a happy mood since he could look down on so many nations kings that had once looked down on him. “Come on men! Let’s go have some good ale!” He laughed dragging the three to his manor to drink with them, making Zip uncomfortable by the ‘closeness’ the king had towards even him.

  ***

  Standing in front of a large swirling gate within the Holy Institute, Silvia, whose hair and body had been expertly washed in a hot bath, with her hair glittering, free of the grease it had from it being poorly cared for before but her eyes were dull, lacking in the will to live. She completely lacked the glowing beauty she once had but she had a solemn beauty but it caused others to want to avoid her as if she was a remote being.

  She wore a simple white robe, far different from the women around her who wore light pink robes and dresses that clung to their bodies.

  Around this very group of women and men was a powerful aura coming from their body, the permeated the heart of all who felt it filling them with the desire for the type of love they most wished for.

  It did not make someone lustful, unlike most people believed. The aura of the Eros church priestesses and priests caused the heart to reveal their biggest desire, the type of love they most wished for. Only a person like Silvia who was lost did not feel it because she did not have any love from a young age.

  As they waited, the beautiful voluptuous woman that had saved Silvia.

  “Hail her great Bishop Divada!” The women and men of the Eros Church announced together.

  “With the permission of the Everlight Academy and authorization of the academy and the Eros Church, you children shall be allowed into the Snake Pit Dungeon.” She said and turned before nodding to the elder woman sitting in front of the swirling portal.

  The woman replied with a nod and began altering the destination of the portal that swirled before opening. Everyone followed after her, including Silvia who had two young priestesses beside her talking but were acting as escorts.

  They crossed the portal and appear within a busy city. The students walked through and although she had no will to live, she still looked around, with only a hint of curiosity, this being the only dungeon she ever entered.

  “We greet Archmagus Valmor, we thank you for allowing our church enter through your entrance.” Divada said to Valmor who was sitting on the portal archway.

  Everyone turned and bowed, besides Silvia who didn’t care about respecting anyone or cared for that either.

  Valmor took one look at them all and raised a brow, “We always welcome the Eros church. Your help with intelligence gathering from the monster as well as your healing is always much appreciated.” Valmor said.

  Silvia snorted on the part about healing, believing it was only sexually.

  “We do what we must, it is how our goddess taught us and as thus we must accomplish our duty. It is much different to the Harvest Church who have met the wrath of their own goddess as we speak.” She says.

  “Oh? How so? Did someone bring her benevolence’s wrath upon the land?” Valmor asked with a clear worried tone.

  Someone like the Harvest Goddess cannot be underestimated. She can bless the land but she can also kill it if she so choose bringing chaos to the land through plague and pests.

  “I have heard that the trouble was resolved by a young woman with a harvest angel familiar. Through her familiar, the goddess sent two Dominions of her order who now run the Harvest Goddesses Order. They have also split the order into the Church of Earth Harvest and the Order of Spirit Harvest. The Dominions have revealed a large secret of the church that Archmagus can come later to speak with me about. It has quite a large amount of details.” She said.

  “I shall do so, I thank you for the news. This has yet to reach the dungeon.” He replied.

  “We shall settle in the along the outer wall on the east side.” Divada said.

  Valmor nodded and closed his eyes once more.

  Divada lead everyone, the presence of the Eros church was quickly picked up by the residents of the dungeon and some of the nobles came to give a small greeting.

  The Eros church is a rare neutral church. She is regarded as both a Light and Dark god depending on how some people see them. This is mainly because of their ties with monsters and how their familiars can be used as instruments of mating with monsters. The moral of common man is regularly repulsed by bestiary. That said, their work extends far beyond simple sex and lust. As a neutral faction, they are also the best mediators between enemy or nations as their aura, if they wished, can possess a calming air as much as it can have one to induce lust. Their aura is one of their best weapons. Another is intelligence acquiring, this comes from the fact that they can speak to monsters and animals who do not normally have the ability to speak. This job is useful to explore dungeons and find materials.

  They walked outside of the east side and instantly spread out to flatten the area and begin construction.

  Divada walked over to Silvia and gently lifted the downcast face by lifting her chin, “You are as adorable as you once were.” She said.

  “I do not want to be, I am neither a slut or whore like you to open my legs to men. If anyone comes to me for this, I will rip them to pieces.” She replied ruthlessly.

  “You do not need to worry, these young maidens won’t allow that.” She gestured to the two behind her. “You should walk around the city, the air is many times fresher, there are many beautiful places that you can meditate at. Try to witness the world without the blindfold you know as ‘the Holy Church’. Try to look with ‘your’ eyes.” Divada said.

  Silvia just blinked, her eyes cold and unloving, dead to the world and all things in it.

  Silvia turned and walked through the gates once more while Divada sighed as she watched that innocent girl, ruined by the selfishness of another.

  Silvia walked along the roads but she kept looking down, sometimes she looked around just a bit forward so that she would not hit anything or anyone. What is more, she felt incredibly uncomfortable whenever she passed by a man,
be them guard, knight, noble, king or even just a student. If one bumped into her, her heart would instantly speed up and she would have the desire to run or get rid of the cause.

  After several times that this happened she was walking when she heard a familiar voice and turned to see Xero, Univa and Meldie at a diner, with an outdoor patio so when she saw him, Xero sensed her look and looked her way.

  “Silvia?!” He said in shock.

  The girl, emotionless, stopped and after a moment of thought, walked over. “So you are here.” She said.

  “This is my academies city so we are here.” Xero said.

  An awkward silence filled the area making Xero even more uncomfortable because of how she was just standing there, with a solemn, dead, aura.

  “Um… did… something happen? And who are they?” Xero asked seeing the unfamiliar pink robed maidens.

  “They are escorts from the slut god’s church.” She said.

  The girls frowned including Univa and Meldie but they also sensed something wrong with Silvia. They had met at the camp last year and had been present when she was hunting Ernest. The ‘her’ from then and her now couldn’t even be compared to each other, they were different people.

  The maiden on the left took a step forward, “We are priestess of the Eros Church, we are her’s escorts… or more like, we are the people that are preventing her from killing herself and her child.” She replied.

  “HUH!” The three said.

  A blue flash appeared and Ashley jumped down and in her hand were some swords, obviously her minions that she had gone to pick up for some reason.

  “Huh? Did something happen?” She asked.

  “Demon, you have surpassed level 30.” Silvia said looking at her but no longer cared. She had no drive to really care for anything.

  “This is that blind justice girl right? Why the hell do you look so soulless?” Ashley asked but suddenly felt a sharp pain in her horns as her flames joined and Ignia came out.

  The next scene was very strange.

  “Grah! Grah!” She exclaimed and flew in front of Silvia’s face and looked her in the eye with curiosity, like a child with a new toy.

  She floated around her and exclaimed in some strange way before flying through her hair without burning and then hugged her face.

  “What?” Ashley was confused. Towards no one had Ignia reacted like that besides Xero. What reason did she have for liking Silvia so much?

  “What is this?” Silvia asked with mild curiosity for the little flame creature.

  “It’s my flame, my Holy Sword Devil Flame. It's a pesky little thing that my race births, it's our greatest weapon but also our biggest pain in the ass because they don’t like us.” Ashley said.

  In reply, the little flame spirit looked at her and stuck her tongue out.

  “Holy?” Silvia said.

  “To breath life into a devil fire you need holy mana. My race unconsciously produces holy mana that equally hurts ourselves. We prevent it from destroying ourselves by gathering it into our flame which eventually births a holy fire spirit. If you compared it to Holy Flame of the Fire God, it isn’t much weaker in grade as long as a Sword Devil becomes a God.” Ashley said.

  If Silvia had heard this before she would have tried to kill it but now she only nodded.

  “Miss, what did you mean by child?” Meldie asked the priestess.

  “Silvia is pregnant. She was assaulted one time and became pregnant by her assailant. She is like she is today because she was thrown out from the Holy Light Church because those who took her also took her familiar and removed her blindfold in the middle of it causing her to align with the Goddess Eros.” She replied.

  The girls gasped at the story and looked at Silvia with some pity. This was due to knowing how big her blind justice and faith towards it was. To be unjustly raped and then thrown out without reason was a harsh treatment that no one deserved.

  “Grah! Grah!” Ignia suddenly exclaimed and suddenly began to spin around Silvia, leaving behind little sparks and making a very beautiful sight to see before stopping in front of her belly that was slightly swollen but without an experienced eye, would not know was the result of being pregnant.

  She looked curiously before moving close and giving a little kiss just over the womb suddenly the area below her belly button shined and strange blue glowing tattoo formed before sinking under her skin. Then, slowly tiny bits of holy and fire mana was attracted to her.

  Ignia floated up to Silvia’s head and kissed her above the bridge of her nose in the middle of her forehead and from a glowing circle, a tiara like glow formed around her head before similarly sinking into her skin and vanishing.

  “Graaaaaahhhhh~!” Ignia stretches her little fire body while yawning before floating to Xero and hugging and kissing his cheek before floating back to Ashley’s flames to sleep.

  Everyone was paralysed by what had happened.

  “What?” Univa muttered.

  “Wasn’t that a Spirit’s blessing!?” The maiden on the left exclaimed!

  “What is a spirit’s blessing?” Xero asked.

  Extremely agitated, the woman on the right, breathed heavily, “It’s one of nature's biggest blessing after the divine protection of a god. Only a person loved by a spirit but living through hardships will be given this blessing. It is given as a means to attract happiness and joy into the life of the blessed person. An evil person will never be given this blessing and a spirit can see the very depth of a person's soul and known whether a person should or not get the blessing.” The woman said.

  The other was happy when she looked at Silvia, “That little spirit put two blessings, one for the baby and one for Silvia. She loves you both and wished to give happiness to you both.” She said.

  Silvia just remained as she was but snorted after a while, “I want to return, I have had enough of walking.” She said solemnly.

  “Ah! D-do you want us to go with you?” Xero asked getting up and taking a step closer and reaching his hand for her.

  Feeling his hand she violently turned and slapped.

  PAH!

  “GET AWAY!” She said taking several steps back.

  Xero held his hand out while his cheek was bright red.

  “Hey! What is your problem!? He was only asking if you wanted us to go with you! You don’t need to slap him with full force!” Univa said, angry about what she did.

  “J-just stay away.” She said in a desperate voice before turning and walking away quickly.

  The two maiden apologized for her and quickly ran after her to catch up.

  Xero just remained silent but felt his face burning, he held it for a while before healing it, “I think we should go home. I-I’m sorry but I don't feel like walking around anymore.” Xero said.

  The girls had a reluctant expression but Xero’s still expression made them nod making them pay and go back home before he closed himself up in his room, confused about what happened.

  Chapter 24

  “What? Silvia is here?” Ernest said surprised.

  Xero nodded a bit downcast.

  Ashley who sat beside him made a ‘tsk’ sound with her tongue. “Stupid brat was all gloomy and that aura of blind justice was dead. She was no better than a doll but the brat still had the nerve to slap Master when he was only worried about her.” She growled in anger.

  “Slapped him?” Ernest replied. “Although I knew she didn’t like demons or demon familiar owners but to randomly slap someone is weird.” Ernest said.

  He looked at Night who was nonchalant about the subject. “You made her develop Androphobia.” Ernest said through the link.

  Night looked at him out the corner of his eye, “She developed it herself, it has nothing to do with me. It is not my fault she is scared of men now when I just gave her to some men.” Night replied.

  Ernest kept his poker face but his aura visibly darkened after hearing that. “She is probably afraid of men now, even children as long as they are males, probably.�
�� Ernest said.

  “Why would she be afraid?” Meldie asked.

  Ernest scowled, “She was sold and raped to some bandits.” He replied and sighed. “I guess we shouldn’t worry anymore, I never had any relations to her to begin with.” He said.

  Night chuckled, “Yeah, I’m sure Ernest is more interested in Nad-”

  “RETURN TO YOUR SEAL!” Ernest shouted cutting Night and forcing him to return while blushing greatly.

  When he looked up he only saw three confused children but when his eyes met Ashley’s, paled a bit as he saw her lips part into a cat like grin.

  “I wonder how father is?” Xero asked solemn.

  He was only turning 13 this year but he was already getting overwhelmed by the events. Previously his father was here to help him weather everything. “I hope nothing happened.” He muttered.

  Everyone nodded and Ernest blushed slightly, “I hope Nadir is okay.” He thought before his face heated up as he thought about what he had just though.

  ***

  As for Nadir, she was actually enrolled into the Lurian Empire National Academy in the mercantile and management course to work on the talent she showed previously.

  That said, she was currently half asleep in class as she looked at the teacher. Although she had talent, Nadir was also one with a much shorter attention span. She wasn’t a fan of extensive studying and actually liked to play with her familiar more.

  Her familiar, a Level 14 Stone Spirit pot had no sentient spirit and depended on her mental state to do each spell and control. Her pot had the spells Dimensional pot, Mix, Cook, Boil, Synthesis, Extract, Combine.