Some time later, the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon, Mount Kailash
When everything about the establishment of their little mercenary group was finished, Yhwach and Valiana gathered everyone for the time of the departure from the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon, as their first stop was the Underworld.
Yhwach really wanted to excavate the ruins of the Lucifaad, the old capital of the Devil Race, and search for the Melabranche, the Evil Claws, so he could reforge them into his own personal weapon, because there was no better material than the Melabranche.
During the past few weeks, he had trained a lot with his Divine Authorities and managed to raise his combat prowess to easily defeat some of the weaker Level 5 individuals, which wasn't really that surprising for him, considering the Divine Authorities that he possessed.
Due to the [Divine Authority of the Golden Grace], he was easily able to increase his raw power because the [Divine Authority of the Golden Grace] was able to refine the Faith into pure Divine Energy without any side effects, even though the price was really exorbitant for doing such a thing.
And the [Divine Authority of Destruction] was his strongest weapon because it was able to obliterate everything in its path. It was no wonder that the Gods of Destruction were often regarded as the most dangerous Gods around, and the more he studied the [Divine Authority of Destruction] together with his father, the more convinced he was of it.
Shiva even told him that once he attained Level 8 Greater God at Divine Rank 21 and attained Master-rank over the [Divine Authority of Destruction], then one could easily destroy very own Souls of people.
It was the form of a True Death.
No possible resurrection, rebirth, or anything will save a person from that because once the soul is destroyed, it is over.
The game has ended.
In fact, after some rigorous training and a lot of resources consumed, Yhwach wasn't far from reaching Level 5 Lesser God because he felt that he could reach the Divine Rank 6 if he wanted to, even right now.
He was holding back from accumulating even more energy for his breakthrough, yet he already felt that his comprehension of the Divine Authorities was already deep enough. For the Gods to advance through the Divine Ranks, there were two fundamental requirements.
The 1st Requirement was the necessary comprehension of the Divine Authority of God, which was actually the hardest thing to do. Even though it seemed to be sometimes easier than accumulating enough Divine Energy for the increasement of the Divine Ranks, comprehending the Divine Authority was an extremely arduous task to do.
Then there was the 2nd Requirement, which was to gather the necessary amounts of Divine Energy for God to raise his Divine Rank. This could be troublesome if God couldn't increase the amount of the Divine Energy on his own or if he had to depend on the Faith.
Depending on the Faith once again led to corruption as the Gods were taking too much of the imagination from their worshippers and other rather dangerous elements that were polluting the Faith Energy, making the Gods unstable and prone to madness.
Yhwach could increase the amount of the Divine Energy or, in his case, the Celestial Force in his body on his own by absorbing the ambient Magic in the environment and refining it into the Divine Energy and then into the Celestial Force.
Like the rest of the Gods of the Hindu Pantheon were doing or he could just absorb the Divine Energy from the environment of the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon. This was the advantage of the Gods who didn't need to depend on the Faith, the so-called Innate Gods, as opposed to the Faith Gods.
Innate God was a term for the ones that were either born as God already, or were born into a species that had a racial predisposition to the concept of Godhood and could reach Godhood without depending on Faith and worship.
Faith God was a term for the ones that ascended to Godhood while being mortals through worshipping and Faith. It was also a term for any God that became dependent on the Faith for their very own existence.
Even Valiana improved by leaps and bounds during the past weeks as she was training extra hard for the first venture of the Sternritter, the Star-Cross Knight Order Mercenary Company, even though it was simplified just as Sternritter.
Star-Cross Knight Order was a translation from German.
Aside from Valiana, there was also Bikou, the grandson of Sun Wukong, who often trained with him and Valiana. Bikou was the Yakoi and grandson of Buddha, and he focused most of his time on martial arts and refining his physique.
In the physical aspect, in his base state, he was probably as strong as Yhwach and Valiana, but if he used the Senjutsu, then his physical dimension was superior to even that of the Devil Dragoness herself.
Something that was irritating Valiana to no small degree was that when they were fighting in close quarters with only martial abilities, then she already started losing, which was pretty annoying for her, who hated losing in general.
This motivated Valiana to compete with Bikou even more, to the point where she started training in the martial arts even harder so she would have a better edge in the next spar, though it always ended the same way.
Bikou was rather a powerful combatant on his own, while he rather lacked the wide-destruction capabilities because he primarily focused on the close quarter combat and the martial arts; he was essentially anti-thesis to anyone who depended on Magic or anything similar as their source of power.
With his martial arts and Senjutsu, he could appear almost instantaneously near his enemy and take him down in a few moves.
Aside from Bikou, there were two other people.
One of them, the more notable, was a person, a heavily armored warrior with an imposing and regal presence. He had white, spiky hair and a confident, almost sinister expression. His outfit was primarily black with gold armor pieces, particularly on his legs and arms, adorned with numerous sharp spikes, emphasizing a dangerous and battle-hardened look.
A striking feature was his massive crimson cape with a fiery, flowing design, giving him an almost demonic or divine aura. On his right shoulder, he wore an elaborate golden ornament resembling a sun or spiked wheel, adding to his dramatic and intimidating silhouette.
His chest armor was detailed with white and gold designs, with a central red gemstone, suggesting a noble or mystical power. It was Karna, son of Surya, the Sun God of the Hindu Pantheon and one of the strongest members of the younger generation of the Hindu Pantheon.
He was one of the strongest members of the younger generation, though due to his very problematic personality, he was usually kept inside the Divine Realm of the Hindu Pantheon.
The last person appeared to be an elegant and composed warrior, exuding a divine or gentle aura. He had dark skin and short black hair, with a calm yet intense expression that suggested wisdom and power. His outfit was a long, flowing white robe adorned with intricate purple floral patterns, giving him a regal and spiritual appearance. The robe had gold accents, reinforcing his noble and divine status.
He wielded a large, curved bow with an ornate design, and there were blue energy-like streaks surrounding the bow, suggesting the supernatural abilities of the Divine Weapon, which his bow certainly was.
"Karna. Arjuna."
The second young-looking man was Arjuna, son of Indra, the Heavenly Emperor, and probably the closest thing that the Hindu Pantheon had to the "Young Master" aside from Yhwach.
Both of them were children of the Pantheon leaders, so their position within the Hindu Pantheon was something very special and high, even though Yhwach was effectively the Heir to the position of the God-King if he ever decided to be the God King of the Hindu Pantheon.
"So... where would be going, our glorious leader?"
Arjuna asked with an almost theatrical bow when the five of them were finally gathered in one place. It wasn't easy to put this group together, that much Yhwach had to admit, that it was as painful as it could get.
Karna was relatively a hard person to approach and convince; Arjuna could be as irritating as Bikou when it came to that, and the monkey Yokai liked to prank and couldn't sit in one place for more than five minutes.
So it was really a perfect dream team.
"Underwood, the former capital of the Devil Race Lucifaad. There are really some interesting things hidden within the ruins of the Lucifaad, the prototypes of the Soul Gears on the same level as the Sacred Gear, yet their raw power is many times higher to the point where they gain sentience and kill anyone who approaches them..."
Soon enough, Yhwach explained the situation with the Lucifaad and the Melabranche Arms to everyone present, mainly to Bikou, Karna, and Arjuna, as they were unaware of the Melabranche Arms and what they were aware of the background of the Melabranche and the Soul Gears.
In the end, it was one of the better-kept secrets of the Devil Race, and not many people were aware of their existence. Now they understood why they were going to the Underworld, even though neither one of them were really keen on the idea for obvious reasons.
"So, can we expect the fight?"
Bikou asked, as he was rather eager to go to the Underworld compared to the rest of the company. For him, it didn't really matter where they were going; the only thing that mattered to Bikou was a good fight and perhaps some opportunity to do pranks on other people.
That would work well for the Monkey Yokai.
"Most possible... our scouts have seen some forces of the Old Satan Faction lingering around the ruins of the Lucifaad and, most importantly, perhaps some of the surviving members of the Six Houses of Lucifer."
Yhwach knew that there were some remnants of the House Lucifer lingering in the Lucifaad as they were researching their some secret research on the behest of Rizevim Livan Lucifer, so it was certainly dangerous.
There were many powerful devils in the Six Houses of Lucifer, as the closest followers of Lucifer, and during the golden age of the Devil Race, the Six Houses of Lucifer were able to get their hands on the highest amount of resources and cultivated a lot of powerful devils.
Till now, according to the intelligence that the Hindu Pantheon obtained, most of the Level 4 Devils and above of the Old Satan Factions were actually from the Six Houses of Lucifer. If they were indeed going to the research facility of the Six Houses of Lucifer, then it was highly possible that there would be some Ultimate-Class Devils standing guard.
Though, nothing was for sure because Lucifaad was close to the territories of the New Satan Faction, so everything that was being done in there was carried out in absolute secrecy, and nobody knew about it.
"It is also very possible that there would be some Level 5 Devils in there..."
High Ultimate-Class Devils were rather rare among the devils, especially nowadays, when most of their younger generation was without much perspective. Devils were a rather particular species that were created and bred for a sole purpose.
War.
Without the war, they were like a rusted weapon, becoming dull and useless. Even though most of the Pure-Blood Devils could reach a relatively high level of power, at least compared to the other species, even without much training and just getting older, that was only in terms of raw power.
Nothing else.
Not to mention to combat prowess of such Devils was shitty low.
"So now that everything is clear, we should get going."
When Yhwach explained everything that he wanted to explain, it was time to depart for the Underworld. As the years have passed since his first visit to the Underworld, he has polished the control he possesses over the Space Magic and mastery over it, so now he can open portals between unguarded Dimensions as long as he has the coordinates, rather easily.
Without it, it was rather a problematic thing, but still doable as long as he put some effort into the matter. Traveling between the Draconic Deus Dimension was a rather straightforward matter, as long as one was traveling between the Dimensions that were not protected.
Many of the Dimensions existing within the Draconic Deus didn't have protection against unauthorized entry.
Most Dimensions existing within the Draconic Deus that had some defenses or who had very powerful defenses were actually the Divine Realms of the Pantheons and Pocket Dimensions that served as headquarters for the Mage Associations.
Underworld, in general, didn't have any protection against unauthorized entry because the Underworld wasn't even under a singular ruler. For Yhwach, creating a portal to the Underworld was as easy as breathing right now, especially with the help of the Unique Skill Great Sage, who would help him do so.
The passive effects of the Great Sage, like Thought Acceleration, Parallel Calculation, Thought Partition, and Chant Annulment, were extremely powerful when it came to Magic.
Even though, for many of the supernatural creatures, Magic worked without the chants, they even needed to do chants when it came to the more complicated or powerful spells or if they wanted to increase the power of the said spell that they were casting.
For Yhwach, this was null as he made a few movements with his hands and created a portal that led directly to the Underworld, to the outskirts of the Lucifaad, as he got the space coordinated when he was in the Underworld for the last time.
"Well, who wants to go as the first one?"
***
Underworld, Lucifaad
Even though it had been several years since the last time he visited the Underworld, even though it could hardly be called a visit as he had been teleported to the place by a magical accident in one of the experiments with the Space Magic, he could see that this place has hardly changed at all.
"This place sucks."
Those were the first words that Bikou said when they arrived at the Underworld, as the future Monkey King didn't like the Underworld already because of the weird Nature Energy that was flowing through the entire dimension.
Every world has its own Nature Energy. A form of energy that exists in the atmosphere and the earth. By gathering the Natural Energy in their surroundings and combining it with their own Life Force or Chi, Sages or Yokai are able to enter Sage Mode and use Senjutsu.
For the Underworld, it had a peculiar branch of Nature Energy, something that wasn't sitting well with Bikou because Nature Energy was of the Demonic attribute like the rest of the entire Dimension, which was rather detrimental for someone like Bikou.
"Use the Runic Formation that I gave you to start filtering the Demonic Energy from the Natural Energy of the Underworld."
Yakoi were specifically connected to Nature Energy as they had the best affinity for the manipulation of Nature Energy, and they also had the greatest number of Sages. The ratio was ridiculous because, for every human Sage, there were around forty or so Yokai Sages, perhaps even more if one counted the hidden ones.
And that wasn't even mentioning the fact that every single Yokai was able to use Yoki and Touki almost on the instinctive level.
For that reason, Yhwach gave Bikou a specific device that would allow him to filter out the Demonic taint on Nature Energy, as the Yokais were innately connected to Nature Energy. Not all Yokai would have the same reaction if they were under the effect of a similarly attributed Demonic Affinity or so.
The Yokai had a variety of attributes; there were many Yokai were Demonically-attributed; for the Yokai like that, the environment of the Underworld would be like paradise as the Nature Energy was highly dense in this place.
He could see that Yokai, like Nekomatas, Nekoshous, and so on, would thrive in an environment like this one.
"So what exactly are we searching for?"
Yhwach heard Arjuna ask as the former capital city of the Devil Race was a huge place, moderately said. Lucifaad served as the capital city for the entire Devil Race for many centuries, and only after the Devil Civil War was the city abandoned after it was largely destroyed during the final siege of Lucifaad by the New Satan Faction.
Nobody really wanted to invest more resources into rebuilding the bunch of ruins, especially not the New Satan Faction, and the Extra Devil Houses didn't really care that much, and the Old Satan Faction officially disappeared after their defeat into the deepest parts of the Underworld, where they were hiding till this day.
"We are searching for the entrance to the underground research institute that served the House Lucifer. During the Devil Civil War, Zaorama Nebiros unsealed one of the Malebranche, the deputy commander Barbariccia, as he asked if he could do anything to turn the tide of the war. Barbariccia asked him to unseal another of the Malebranche, and if there was anyone resenting their powerlessness, Zaorama brought in the young Beelzebub descendant to undergo the experiment of receiving the Malebranche's power, which allowed him to transform into a Fly Chimera as he observed the havoc that the Fly Chimera unleashed upon the battlefield, it destroyed everything in their path, together with large parts of the city and turned into the rubble while in the end, it was being killed by Sirzechs Lucifer."
This was part of the Devil Civil War that was most commonly hidden from the history books nowadays, as the Devils of the New Satan Faction were not really keen on people learning about the existence of the Melabranche.
"We only know that Zaorama Nebiros fled the battlefield, and by many testimonies, he fled the Lucifaad... but we managed to discover that the true research facility of the House Lucifer, where the Melabranche are located, is in fact deep underneath the Lucifaad. If the information is correct, then this place should have some secret entrance leading to the underground where we can find the facility housing the Melabranche."
Yhwach was sure that the facility that was housing the Melabranche, where the Six Houses of Lucifer, or at least what remained of them, was somewhere beneath the Lucifaad. And with Valiana here for that purpose, because Yhwach predicted that some defenses would require members of the House Lucifer specifically to unlock.
Helel, Luciel or Lucifer...
Whatever his name was at the moment, there was one constant.
The man was extremely cautious and cunning, to the point where he didn't even fully trust the other fellow Satans, Leviathan, Beelzebub, and Asmodeus, during the Great War of the Supernatural, so it was only logical that he would leave some things just for himself.
And there was no better thing to leave for himself than the existence of the Melabranche.
"Should we divide? We can cover the greater area..."
Yhwach outright denied Valiana's proposal because dividing was out of the question; this place was too dangerous for them to wander either alone or just in two.
"No... it is highly possible that this place is secretly controlled by the remnants of the Six Houses of Lucifer and Old Satan Faction. There should also be a considerable number of experts within this place, so if we split, we become an easy target."
He was cautious above everything else as he had an entirely different plan in his mind.
"We shall activate the Concealment Wards... with the collective power of all of us, it should be strong enough to elude the senses of even a Level 7 entity or whatever protections that the Old Satan Faction put over the Lucifaad."
The portable Wards that he had created should be enough for this purpose, but until they found the entrance to the underground complex beneath the Lucifaad, they were prime targets for the ambush or whatever else.
They would scour through the Lucifaad slowly but safely while avoiding possible ambushes that were prepared by the Old Satan Faction.
"Be on alert all the time; it is highly possible that we could be ambushed at any time."
Yhwach was careful when moving through the Lucifaad, and even though Valiana and Bikou thought that he was just being overly cautious, Arjuna and Karna agreed with his approach because the last thing that they needed was to fall into some trap due to their carelessness or arrogance.
"The Devils are known for their cunning..."
Arjuna remarked as they entered the Lucifaad and could, for the first time, see the price of the Devil Civil War and how destroyed the city was. Their more concrete target was the Royal Palace of the Lucifaad, which served as the home for the Four Great Satans, and most importantly, it was the place from which Lucifer ruled the Underworld.
Even though, technically speaking, the Royal Palace was supposed to be the throne palace for all four Satans, it wasn't. Beelzebub, Leviathan, and Asmodeus had their own castles within the Lucifaad from which they were ruling.
Yet all of them were totally obliterated during the Devil Civil War, and nothing remained, not like they would have anything of importance, as Yhwach knew that the most important was the Royal Palace from which Lucifer ruled.
"Why are you so sure that we would find the laboratory underneath the Royal Palace? Not like I want to question that because it sounds rather logical, but wouldn't it be in other places?"
Yhwach nodded to Arjuna's question as if it were a valid one. Aside from his foreknowledge from the canon, there was another reason why he was so sure. It was actually one of the secrets of the Hindu Pantheon and a place of historical importance.
"Do you know why Lucifaad was built in this precise place?"
He asked as they passed through another wave of ruins that were blocking their path, as the entire city was filled with the echoes of death and decay... It wasn't really the best place around, and if he could have it, Yhwach would leave this place as soon as possible.
For some reason, since they entered the Lucifaad, he had some sort of very bad feeling about this place. He couldn't place it; it wasn't dangerous or anything, but just a very bad feeling...
Seeing that nobody was answering, Yhwach proceeded to explain
"When Helel fell from grace, this was the place where he first fell from the Heavens, and this was also the place where he first created the first Devil..."
Soon enough, everyone realized why this place was so important to the Devils and why Lucifaad was built where it was built.
"So you are saying?"
Even Bikou, who was often the slowest in their group, suddenly realized the importance of the Lucifaad.
"Yes... this was the place, or rather, underneath this ground, Helel underwent the ritual and became Lucifer and then together with Lilith created the Devil Race... in the underground laboratories of the House Lucifer, the birthplace of the entire Devil Species."
This was something that only a few oldtimers were actually paying attention to the happenings across the various Dimensions, Sub-Dimensions, Divine Realms, and everything else within the Draconic Deus.
Obviously, nothing could escape Shiva's attention with his Third Eye, but he wasn't the only one in the Draconic Deus who was aware of this. There were many in the Draconic Deus who remembered how and where Helel became Lucifer and what followed.
They knew that underneath the Lucifaad, there was a very extensive network of underground pathways and areas that were transformed to the enormous laboratory where Lucifer and Lilith were personally creating new Devils, Clan Traits and carrying out various experiments.
And at the deepest level were the sealed Melabranche.
The journey to the Royal Palace of the Lucifaad was rather problematic on all fronts. Every possible pathway was covered by the ruins, all roads were covered by ruins, and sometimes the chunks of stone or another type of material were too huge to move physically.
And all bridges that were connecting the place were also destroyed, so they needed to walk on foot and often walk around the entire place all over until they reached their destination. The fact that they lacked a map wasn't helping at all, because it was very easy to get lost in this place as everything looked rather similar...
Destroyed.
Fortunately enough, the ruins of the Royal Palace were huge enough to be seen even from a far distance, so it was at least helping them to navigate across the ruins, and they could go in a specific direction in hopes of reaching the Royal Palace.
Fortunately enough, during the few hours that they were advancing through the ruins of the city, aside from some random Demonic Beasts that lived in the city, they didn't encounter a single soul.
Demonic Beasts were rather a common occurrence in the Underworld; they were animals and beasts that were corrupted by the Demonic Energy of the Underworld, mutating them into their new and stronger forms.
Compared to the more traditional Magical Creatures, the Demonic Beasts were more aggressive and powerful in certain regards, especially in their attacks and eagerness to fight and kill.
They were regarded as bloodthirsty and dangerous overall compared to the more traditional Magical Creatures. A lot of this was actually attributed to the presence of the Demonic Elements in their very own beings because they were influencing them far more than any other sentient species.
But the Demonic Beasts were mostly ignoring them for a large part because neither of them was visible to their senses due to the Ward that they were using to hide their presence, and it was working rather very well even for this usage.
Soon enough, they arrived at the former Royal Palace... or rather what has been left of it, as everything else was destroyed by the passage of time and the war that took place there.
The former Royal Palace of the House Lucifer was a massive, crumbling demonic castle, its jagged spires clawing at the blood-red sky of the Underworld. The once-mighty fortress was now a ruin, its dark obsidian walls fractured and overgrown with veins of blackened, thorn-covered vines.
Various statues that were once proudly decorating the castle, their twisted faces frozen in eternal agony, were crumbling from their perches, their shattered remains littering the cracked basalt pathways.
A massive main gain that led to the courtyard of the castle, now broken, once adorned with wicked sigils that pulsed with Demonic Energy, everything was covered by rust or was slowly falling apart as its rusted chains rattled eerily in the unnatural wind.
"We are going to the Great Hall... the main entrance to the underground should be somewhere there."
Yhwach told the group as they slowly and, this time, extra carefully strolled through the ruins of the Royal Palace, as this time, it was also guaranteed for sure that this place was monitored by the Old Satan Faction or at least by the House Nebiros, which was managing the underground laboratory complex.
"Be careful and maintain the formation... I can already sense around fifteen different Wards in this place that were created by the Devils living in this cursed place.
"He then warned everyone as they went through the huge staircase straight to the Great Hall as he felt that they were being watched through some Magic Monitoring Wards and other types of Wards. For him with his sensitivity to Magic and Unique Skill Great Sage, it wasn't that hard to miss.
The Great Hall and beyond were in total shambles; its vaulted ceiling collapsed, revealing swirling storm clouds that cast an ominous glow over the skeletal remains of fallen Devil soldiers from the Old Satan Faction and New Satan Faction that died in this place.
It seemed that nobody really bothered to transport these corpses out, as they were just here, together with many pieces of weapons and armor that were already rusted, though some were in almost perfect condition.
Deep within the ruins of the Great Hall, the Royal Throne of Lucifer was located, or at least what had remained from it. Now it was just a cursed throne of jagged bone and molten metal, sitting upon a raised dais, its surface scorched with infernal runes that flickered weakly, as if whispering forgotten incantations.
"This place is heavily cursed..."
Karna, who was typically silent, spoke for the first time; everyone could feel that this place was cursed. Probably to such a high degree that it would drive lesser men to madness if they were in this place for a longer time than a few moments.
It seemed that either someone cursed this place deliberately or it was cursed naturally from the sheer death and destruction that happened in this place in regard to the Devil Civil War and its last days, when most of the city, together with its inhabitants, was razed to the ground.
Shadows slither unnaturally across the walls, remnants of the dark power that once ruled here. The air was thick with the scent of sulfur and decay, and the distant echoes of tormented souls seemed to whisper through the hollow corridors.
"Don't do anything... let it pass... we need to move."
Yhwach said as he looked at Karna, who wanted to summon his light to purge the darkness from this place, but he stopped him because it was dangerous. It was also a useless thing to do as it was totally unnecessary, and the only thing that they would achieve was to alert the devils about their presence.