Waking up after who knows how long, Lucas felt terrible. Opening his eyes gave way to a sleek black ceiling with a large chandelier hanging above him. Luxury spat off it, making Lucas question whether he was still sleeping or not. Turning his head, he noticed how soft the bed and cushion he was lying on were.
From his first glance, everything was tinted an opaque dark-red color, with a touch of purple, only the chandelier was golden, perfectly reflecting the light coming from the magic candles.
At his side, a girl with red skin was watching over him. Her eyes were large, where one's whites were supposed to be, all that Lucas saw was yellow. Yet when they stared at one another, Lucas focussed in on a single thing that truly stood out.
A broken horn.
From the side of her head, a single horn curved upwards. It wasn't large, nor did it look all that sharp, but it stuck out like a sore thumb, or horn, in this case.
Small ridges adorned the metallic-looking-spike coming from her head. They stared at each other for a moment. Lucas didn't know what he had to do. Attacking her didn't make the most sense, but he certainly didn't feel all that safe.
"Whe-", right when Lucas wanted to speak, he felt his dry mouth and sore throat, as if he hadn't used it for weeks. Coughing slightly, the lady stood up and gave him a big smile.
"Welcome to the mansion of the Young Master. My name is Bell, I was asked to take care of you until you got better."
"Who?"
"You don't know the great Young Master? Have you lost your memories or something? Hmm, I'll go fetch him, he'll know what to do," the maid left the room with a skip in her step, making Lucas feel like he was in an even more alien environment than he already was. Having a small moment of time alone, Lucas instantly checked his own body.
'How's our body?'
'Nothing special, magic's dried up though.'
'There is plenty here, let's quickly gather our strength again.'
'Don't like saying it, but fighting's off the table for a bit.'
'What?'
'Look, you won't be able to do a whole lot, I might be capable of forcing a spell or two, but our anatomy is completely fucked up.'
'...explain please.'
'I don't know what happened or how we got here, but our skeleton is completely malformed. I'm seeing spikes and new parts that I've never seen before. Like someone forced it.'
'How could that happen without us knowing about it!? It's our body, isn't it?'
'Shut the hell up man! I'm trying to figure out how to fix this mess you caused!'
'Me? I didn't do anything!'
'You're in charge of the body! Who else could it have been?'
'Only most of the time, when it comes to hard battles, you take over, and you often sacrifice something in order to get an attack in.'
Lucas argued with himself as his body continued to enjoy the luxuries of the comfy bed. A headache almost formed from debating himself until a part of him suddenly realized he couldn't remember anything that happened.
'Hey, what's the last memory in our dome?'
'One where we see Asta enter the portal.'
'Anything else?'
'No...'
'...'
'The fuck happened?'
Trying to remember what happened, all he found was a massive hole, a gap in his memories, as if nothing was ever there. Wracking his brain over what happened, he could only assume Asta would know more, but he had no idea where he would be at.
'Alright, listen up! I'll fix whatever I can, you do your talky talky bullshit. Just make sure we don't get killed.'
'Got it, I'll gather information.'
Trying to get up, Lucas had trouble getting out of his bed. Instead, he just sat upright to inspect the room around him. It was large, for a single bedroom, this room felt like an entire house. There was only a single door, leading outside, otherwise there were windows next to the bed and that was it. He wanted to get up to check the outside, not exactly to see the land, but more to see if it was an option to escape from.
Filled with extravagant decorations and plenty of furniture, Lucas didn't feel at home. It didn't take long before the maid came back with someone.
Skin bright red, his blue eyes and black hair confused Lucas to no end. Not because the combination was strange, but because he recognized the face.
"Asta?"
"Yes," he nodded, "this wasn't exactly how I envisioned showing you, I suppose this diluted the revelation quite a bit."
"I'm still quite shocked."
"Well, it should come to no surprise to you. I expected you to figure it out long ago, not that I tried to hide it all that much."
Asta spoke in a way that showed Lucas this wasn't even supposed to be surprising, but Lucas disagreed.
"Young Master, who is this supposed to be exactly? You never really told me."
"Ah, I suppose I should introduce you two. Lucas, this is my personal maid, Bell. Bell, this is Lucas, my friend."
It almost sounded foreign to his mouth. Just mentioning it felt awkward, as if he might've made a mistake, but he held stead fast.
"Your friend?", Bell's eyes widened slightly, as she knew more about her master than most.
"Bell, you will serve Lucas like you serve me. Since she is serving under me, you can ask anything of her, no matter the request, she will be forced to comply, for that is our contract."
While Asta spoke, Bell made a neat little curtsy, emphasizing the size of her breasts that hanged loose in her outfit. "While you say that Young Master, you barely ask anything of me," it almost seemed she felt insulted, but Asta fully ignored her.
Lucas on the other hand was still wondering what Asta was all about. Sure, there were a few signs that didn't seem to make any sense, like his information network and the fact that while he was completely alone, he still held a noble title, despite having no origin or living bloodline.
Not having held back on his research, during his academy days, he had investigated Asta plenty yet found nothing, which only seemed weirder.
It was only during their travels that Lucas picked up on certain things. Like his information network that seemed to span the entire kingdom of Frigus.
'There's no way he could've built that entire system by himself.'
'So he used an already existing one. One that is willing to sacrifice the lives of both The Holy Kingdom and Frigus.'
'I can only come up with stupid conclusions based on information from the past.'
'Just say them, the smartass will correct you.'
'Stop it. It's clear what he used now, though I wasn't expecting him to work with such a group.'
Lucas didn't need to think looking at Asta now, but considering the past, there was no perfect way to come to any concrete solution.
"You used the Demonic Cult as your pawn?"
"Of course, those fools worship anyone who is demonic, it's easy to take advantage of the dumb and stupid."
The maid didn't exactly know what was going on, but seeing the smiles on both of their faces, it must've been good. "So Young Master, what do you want to do next? Please know that The Duke asked you to visit him once he is awake."
"Yes, I'll go in a minute, please go tell him that we will be arriving."
Nodding, Bell left the room, leaving Asta and Lucas alone for a moment. "Lucas, I don't have a lot of time to explain, but let me tell you this. We have left Aurora and are on the Demon Planet, or more accurately, Sabaoth. I am a demon, or devil, or whatever you want to call it."
"That much I could piece together," getting out of his bed, Lucas felt terrible. His body was in shambles as his anatomy was warped in places. It would take some time to fix everything, and he knew it. Still, it didn't dampen his mind in the slightest. "So The Duke is a ruler over this place?"
"Correct, there were once a bunch, but now there are only 13 left. The Duke is called Astaroph the 51st. I am Astaroph the 52nd."
"Oh," suddenly it became clear why Asta never talked about his family name.
"Yes, the favor I talked about. My father wants to retire, but needs a fitting heir. So I'm up against my siblings for the seat."
"I see. I get it. What do I have to be careful about when meeting your old man?"
"Don't call him an old man for starters. If you think me arrogant, he is a lot worse. It'll mostly be me who will do the talking, but if he asks you any question, try your hardest to please him."
"You want me to suck up to your dad? Also, glad to know you realize you're arrogant."
"I'm not, it was just a figure of speech. And yes. I can't explain it right away, I'll do so in time. For now, let's hurry."
Exiting the large bedroom, Lucas walked through large halls, each way too big for a normal human, but he knew to set his common sense aside in this place. He hadn't given it plenty of thought, the idea of being on another planet completely destroyed his beliefs for a moment.
Still, he ignored it for the most part, assuming it would make sense later on. He didn't have the time to wrap his head around his circumstances. For now, he would have to follow Asta's plans.
'I suppose we should start calling him Astaroph though.'
'Forget it, I ain't saying that long ass name every time. If he lived with Asta for years, he can handle it for now as well.'
'Fair, I suppose.'
Eventually, they arrived at a massive office. There was way too much room for something so simple as a single desk, which while large and luxurious, took up barely any space.
Behind the desk stood an enormous chair decorated with rare gems and scales. In this seat a single man was seated. Eyes black with white pupils, the man was tall, with two large horns pointing towards on the sides of his head.
"My son. You have finally come home after all these years. Yet the only thing you brought back was a single human slave?", his voice deep, there was an underlying disappointing tone that reverberated through Asta's body, yet he held steady in front of this force.
Lucas tried to gauge how powerful the man before him was, fully ignoring the insulting comment. Yet he couldn't feel the slightest bit of magic from him, which only made Lucas nervous.
"Father, while it might be hard to believe, during my travels on Aurora, there were barely any mages that pique my interest. Lucas was the only person to surprise me multiple times. I believe that as long as I have my current forces and him I'll be able to defeat the others."
"Hahaha! Oh, my poor boy, I was hoping you had some kind of plan, but it seems I made a mistake putting my faith in you."
While the Duke was smiling, Asta and Lucas knew he was far from happy. "Your siblings, even from the lower families, have already reached Rank 3, yet here you stand before me proclaiming you stand a chance? I thought you were smarter than the others, explain yourself."
Asta made a small bow. "We have the necessary tools to breach through Rank 3. Besides that, we have killed multiple Rank 3's with our current power."
The Duke lost his smile as he stared at them. "Then stand up," the Duke words were spoken lightly, but carried his aura, pushing them down. Both Asta and Lucas felt their bodies being crushed by a massive increase of gravity. Collapsing on their knees, the pain was horrible as they did everything in their power to not completely lie flat on the ground.
Lucas had trouble staring at the Duke, who sat bored in his chair.
'This isn't even his full power, is it?'
'Yes, this is just a small test, he must've reached Rank 4 or even Rank 5.'
'Then keep your mouth shut, alright?'
'I should be the one saying that to you.'
'I'll have you know I don't have time to pay attention to what's happening, I'm fixing what you broke!'
While Lucas was engaged in another needless debate with himself, Asta knew he had to impress his father if he wanted any chance at the throne the man was sitting in.
Asta snapped his fingers to release an array that pushed the aura slightly away, but waited for Lucas to start.
From behind him, a reddish aura started to leak out, eating at his father's aura. Slowly, they started to rise up. The Duke looked in with mild interest.
"So you can stand against a Rank 3's aura, though a weak one. How far can you go?", not even lifting a single finger, the aura suddenly grew in power, pressuring them back on their knees.
Asta activated a second emergency array, releasing some of the aura they gathered from Malek, enough to catch their breath. Lucas was just barely hanging on by a thread. His body was still in repair, going all out would only break him down further.
Still, when he saw the pure disappointment in the Duke's eyes, he knew this wasn't the time to care for his health. Unleashing his aura to the fullest, he refrained from using his personal rune to boost it.
The dark reddish aura grew in power, eating away at the strength of the Duke's aura, who lightly squinted his eyes when he looked at Lucas. Raising his aura slightly, Lucas and Asta were back on their knees, barely holding their body together as their bones started to slightly crack from the pressure.
Lucas stared at his personal rune and knew he could activate it, but refrained from doing so. Using his strengthened body, he tried to push himself upwards only for the Duke to increase the intensity again, making both collapse on the floor.
"Hmm, so it only amounted to this much?", suddenly the pressure vanished. Asta got back up, staring at his father in the process. "Are you not impressed?"
"Not exactly. You barely held it together under so little pressure. Do you think you stand a chance against your brothers and sisters?"
"Do you think they would be able to resist like we did just now?", Asta wasn't scared of his father despite the massive gap in power. No, he would not back down or show weakness in front of him.
"I can easily bring them here in a matter of minutes. I'll show you."
"I'm not talking about now, when they were Rank 2, do you think they could even do anything else except submit?", Asta stared directly into the void that was his father's eyes.
The Duke stayed silent as he stared at Asta. The two stood there for minutes in silence as an invisible pressure prevented Lucas from talking.
"Fine. The result of this wouldn't have mattered in the first place. I cannot stop you from trying to become the successor. Just know that if you truly desire it, you will have to become a lot more powerful. As my only son, I had high hopes for you. If you believe you and that slave can accomplish anything, do it. Show me, Astaroph the 52nd, prove to me you're worthy."
"I will become the successor, I guarantee you, father."
The Duke didn't show any kind of agreement, simply staring at his son. "Leave."
Asta bowed before moving out with Lucas in tow.
Leaving the Duke behind, he stared at the closing door. From the shadows a figure appeared.
"He still hasn't tossed that hobby. It seems like he is stuck in the past," the figure stepped into the light. Being bathed in light from a luxurious chandelier high up in the room, he looked like an old man, yet the power radiating from him wasn't to be scoffed at.
"I don't mind that he plays with arrays. What I despise is the fact he's still refusing to use his powers."
The old man nodded. "Indeed, he seems to have cleared the illusion on his skin, but refuses to show his horns. Frankly, the child possesses great power and has intelligence far outpacing the other candidates."
"He is still my son, despite all."
The figure walked closer to the Duke as they spoke casually. Behind the office stood a massive window that stretched to the ceiling. They stared outside beside one another.
"With his current power he will die against them. My own son will definitely come after him."
The Duke nodded, "I'm aware, even if he stands successfully against them, if he takes this seat, he'll be up against the other Dukes. There's no way to win if he isn't willing to use his Demonic Powers."
"Then should we awaken them?"
"How do you propose we achieve that? We would have to shake his heart to the core without him hating us at the end of it."
"Give me some time to figure out a way. I won't disappoint you."
"You never disappointed me. I'm just afraid he'll die before we get a chance to improve our odds."
"I'll have my men make sure he stays alive, sir. Besides, your son has always shown us he can achieve his goals with his own resources. I think we should give him a shot."
The Duke took his time to respond, preferring to look outside the window. Outside, the sky above was light red, yet it was only midday. Due to a strange fog covering the planet, the sky always seemed to bleed, not bothering to show any kind of blue or color deviation. Only during night did the scarlet fade slightly.
"The boy he brought with him. He wasn't giving it his all."
"I could tell. Though I'm curious where the young master found someone like that, he shows some promise."
"Indeed," the Duke contemplated about what move he had to make next. Despite not telling his companion, he believed the boy held a lot more in store for him. He had increased the pressure more on him than his own son, yet didn't flinch in the slightest. Combining that with the fact he was holding back and still being Rank 2, it might've been the thing his son was missing to succeed, a loyal knight.
"Either way, don't interfere too much in their struggle. If anyone notices our actions, we would have to silence a lot of people."
"Hohoho, don't you worry, sir. Might makes right in the end, even if people saw through my disguise, what would they do? You have nothing to worry about."