{Unknown Time, Unknown Location}
Life plays the worst kind of pranks on you. For me, I thought it was the one where it just suddenly decides to end.
I died.
Well, sort of.
[Asura System booting up.]
Because I don't think heaven or hell is supposed to have AI. Not that I know much about heaven—I'm definitely not going there. But even if this was hell, I wouldn't expect tech designed to make life easier to be hanging around. They'd go out of their way to keep things as old-school and inconvenient as possible.
Because, you know… hell.
[Asura System has confirmed the soul is suitable for the body.]
That doesn't sound good. Not one bit.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 0.1%]
Okay, this was weird. Because the moment it said that, I started to feel things. And normally, that wouldn't be a big deal. People feel things all the time, right?
They do. But I was supposed to be dead. Or at the very least, just a soul. And souls aren't supposed to feel anything. They're not even physical.
So if I had to use logic, I'd come to one conclusion: Soul synchronising with a body probably meant it was being bound to one—and that would explain why I was starting to feel something.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 10%]
Either this wasn't your average version of hell, or something weird was going on.
I wasn't in some lava-filled pit, either, with fire around every corner and people being boiled alive for dinner.
How could I be sure? Because I was in a body of water—well, sort of. It wasn't hot. It was actually pretty cool. And as the sync rate ticked up—now at fifteen percent—I could feel the fluid better.
It wasn't water, though. That was clear. It was thicker—like oil.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 20%]
Or so I thought. As I adjusted to it, I realized it was more like jelly. You know, the kind you pop open and slurp down.
This was very weird. And if this was the devil's idea of punishment, he was slacking. Given the stuff I'd done, I wouldn't have complained if I'd been dropped straight into a pot of boiling tar.
So what the hell was this?
[Soul synchronising with the body: 30%]
At thirty percent, I started to see—just a little. Colors flickered through the darkness. A reddish hue behind my eyelids, like when you close your eyes and look toward the sun.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 40%]
At forty, I felt even more. My fingers twitched a little. The glow in front of my eyes shifted from red to white.
And finally, at fifty—
[Soul synchronising with the body: 50%]
—I got my hearing back.
"—he?"
Not perfect.
"—speak!"
But it was something.
"How is he!"
[Soul synchronising with the body: 60%]
By sixty percent, my hearing was fully back.
"H-He is showing signs of awakening, sir."
Were they talking about me? Sounded like it.
"Good! Keep monitoring him. The Asura Heart fragment in him should fully regenerate his body."
I had no idea what was happening, but it definitely seemed like they were behind this. They mentioned Asura, and I remembered that mechanical voice saying something about an Asura System.
And isn't Asura some kind of demon—or deity—from Buddhist and Hindu stories? I don't know much about religion, but I know enough to say this: Asura is something important.
"With the runes in his heart, we shall be able to control him at will!"
Shit.
Was I about to be turned into some Frankenstein knockoff—forced to follow their every command? That sounded like something straight out of a horror story.
But then, as if it had read my thoughts, the mechanical voice spoke in my head.
[The original heart of the body was fully reconstructed into the Asura Heart by the fragment, removing all runes and conditions previously placed on it.]
That… was good news, I guess. Even if I still had no clue what this Asura Heart was supposed to be.
"Lord Rizevim will be pleased with our success! My house might even be raised to a Great Pillar after his revolution!"
Normally, that wouldn't have meant much to me. But just before I switched careers and became a criminal lawyer, I took a case involving that name.
Rizevim.
And it wasn't good. Just hearing it again dug up memories I'd rather keep buried. He also said Pillar—and yeah, that hit a nerve too.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 70%]
[The body appears capable of handling the skills of the Asura. Awakening initial abilities of Asura.]
Once again, I didn't fully understand what the voice meant. Skills? Asura? At this point, it felt less like mythology or religion and more like a video game.
And I didn't even play games. Last thing I touched was some old-school arcade machine ages ago.
[Awakening the first ability of Asura]
[Mind of Asura: Allows you to ignore and negate any and all mind-affecting abilities and skills.]
That... actually sounded useful. If it meant protection from things like mind reading or psychological torture, I'd take it.
The more the voice spoke, the more this really felt like a game tutorial jammed into my brain.
[Awakening the second ability of Asura]
[Eyes of Asura: Allows you to see the Race and Rank of anyone within your line of sight.]
So basically, a cheat code to know who to fight and who to avoid? Yeah, that's handy.
[Awakening the third ability of Asura]
[Body of Asura: Allows you to recover from any and all injuries as long as the injury doesn't kill you instantly. You will be immune to sickness and disease, but not immune to physical fatigue or depletion of demonic energy. Additionally, feeding your blood to someone grants the same effect temporarily. Further injuries will require more blood to heal.]
Alright, now that was broken. Overpowered, even. And I heard it mention demonic, so does that mean this is some kind of demonic Asura?
[Awakening the final basic ability of Asura]
[Mark of Asura: Feeding someone your blood leaves an invisible mark on them. With the presence of the mark, you can locate them instantly through thought. They cannot sense your location.]
So… a supernatural GPS. Not bad. Could come in handy.
That seemed to be it for the basic skills, since the voice went quiet after that.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 80%]
When it hit eighty percent, I didn't just hear the text anymore—I could see it. It floated in front of me like some holographic interface.
Was this a prank by the devil? Or God?
Weirdly enough, I got a headache right then. Even weirder—the voice knew exactly what caused it.
[Bypassing the Biblical God's System to remove debuffs and status effects caused by holy-related effects.]
Did it just say… bypassing the Biblical God's System? As in Christianity's God?
[Biblical God's influence successfully removed. Holy prayers, relics, spells, and grounds no longer deal additional damage to you.]
Well, now that was something.
At this point, I just let it do its thing and absorbed as much as I could.
"How far are we into awakening him?" The voice from earlier rang out again. This time, I could make out that it belonged to an old man. Probably late sixties, maybe seventies. Rough, gravelly, and kind of broken.
"About five more hours, lord. By then, his body should be able to wake up."
Whatever math they were running, it was way off. I could already almost move my limbs, and the system—yeah, I was calling the mechanical voice in my head a system now—was moving fast. Ten minutes tops before it hit a hundred percent.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 90%]
[The body is capable of handling bloodline abilities now. Searching for bloodline abilities—]
Okay…
[Bloodlines recognized: Barbatos, Valefar.]
I remembered going to a church camp as a kid, back when my aunt—who'd suddenly found Jesus—basically kidnapped me into it. There was this one annoying kid who wouldn't shut up about King Solomon. Some theology geek.
I also remembered him going on and on about demons, and the name Barbatos definitely came up. So if that's right, Valefar must be one too.
[Barbatos abilities are already awakened inside the body.]
Oh?
[Current Barbatos abilities possessed by the body: Blink, Traverse, Transit, Sever.]
The names didn't exactly inspire confidence, but then the system started explaining them—and I couldn't help but smile. Figuratively, at least.
[Blink: The first Barbatos ability that allows the bearer of Barbatos blood to teleport anywhere within a radius of 500 meters with a single thought. The ability can be used in rapid succession, as many times as you want, as long as you have enough demonic power.]
Only word that came to mind: cool. That could make me nearly impossible to hit—unless there were people who could move just as fast.
[Traverse: The second Barbatos ability that allows you to teleport anywhere in the world with a thought, even to places you've never been, as long as you can imagine the distance. Traverse has a 5-second cooldown and can be used repeatedly as long as you have enough demonic power. You can take others with you if you have the energy. You may also teleport someone against their will if they're weaker than you. For stronger beings, you'll need their consent.]
There had to be a catch, right? Especially with teleporting to places I'd never been.
For all I knew, I could end up inside a volcano.
Also… did it just imply I could kidnap people?
[Transit: The third Barbatos ability that allows you to teleport any being or item without physical contact, as long as you have enough demonic power. Transit consumes four times the energy of Traverse and shares its cooldown and conditions.]
So, same as Traverse—just without touching anything, and at four times the cost. Not the worst tradeoff.
[Sever: The fourth Barbatos ability that allows you to sever anything or anyone at any point of your choice, as long as you can make physical contact. Sever works fully on beings equal to or weaker than you. Against stronger beings, it only causes pain and injuries.]
Game mechanics aside, this sounded like my only actual damage-dealing skill. In a fair fight, I'd have the upper hand. But against someone stronger, I'd be lucky to make them flinch.
That… wasn't great.
So far, these skills looked solid—for running away. Not fighting. Not that I wanted to fight in the first place. But if this was a game I was being forced to play, I might not get a choice.
"Sirzechs Lucifer might have sensed the awakening of the Asura Fragment—we need to hurry!"
Alright, fuck. This confirmed it.
Up until now, I couldn't quite place why these names felt so ominous and familiar. But this one sealed it.
Remember that case I mentioned? The one I regret? Yeah. This was it.
I once defended a client accused of murdering his friends. Didn't believe it at first—the guy looked too weak to kill three boys each twice his size. So I took the case.
Turned out, he was mentally unstable and obsessed with a certain Japanese animated show.
To prove he wasn't in his right mind, I had to research that show. That's how I learned Japanese cartoons are called anime. The show in question? High School DxD.
A messed-up anime about a kid obsessed with boobs. Just… pure pervert bait.
I started analyzing my client's behavior in connection with the show, and that's when I discovered the truth.
He had killed the other three boys for ruining a limited-edition figurine of a character named Koneko.
I was glad to lose that case and help put him away.
But that's not the issue here.
The issue is: I went deep into researching that anime. Watched it. Read fan wikis. Lurked Reddit threads. All to understand that lunatic better. I never touched the source material—the light novels—even my client hadn't read them.
So, what's the big deal?
Well… that show had a character named Sirzechs Lucifer. A ridiculously broken character. It also had Rizevim—who they mentioned earlier. And it used the concept of the 72 devil pillars. Pillars. Again—brought up here.
Oh, shit.
That's where Barbatos and Valefar came from—not King Solomon directly, but inspired by him. They were devils from the 72 pillars. I hadn't connected the dots before because Barbatos and Valefar never appeared in the anime—they were probably already dead by then.
Now it all made sense. And it sucked.
This world was a nightmare. Gods, devils, dragons—beings strong enough to wipe out cities or worse—lurking around every corner. And I had… what? A handful of teleport tricks and a slash move?
Yeah. I was absolutely fucked.
[Valefar bloodline abilities are sealed in the body and have not been awakened.]
The system spoke again.
[Forcefully awakening Valefar bloodline abilities.]
For the first time since I'd gained consciousness, I felt pain. A sharp, blinding headache ripped through my skull. Thankfully, it lasted only a few seconds before the system spoke again.
[The first four bloodline abilities of Valefar have been awakened.]
[Current Valefar abilities possessed by the body: Bind, Disperse, Temporal, Absorb.]
[Bind: The first Valefar ability that allows you to bind any being, regardless of race, by summoning invisible chains. You can restrict their whole body or target specific parts. Beings equal to or weaker than you can be fully restrained, while stronger beings will only be slowed. Bind lasts until you run out of demonic power or choose to release it.]
Now that… was useful. If it could even slow down someone stronger than me, and I could land enough weak but irritating hits? I might just be able to make it count.
[Disperse: The second Valefar ability that allows you to disperse any attack or effect directed at you, as long as the caster is currently bound. Attacks can be dispersed as long as they haven't made contact with you. Effects can be dispersed even after contact. Disperse takes much longer to work against opponents stronger than you.]
So, in theory, they could just throw another attack before I even canceled the first one? Still, better than nothing.
[Temporal: The third Valefar ability that allows you to move the time of a targeted item or being either forward or backward with no restraint, as long as you have enough demonic power. For beings stronger than you, you can only affect a small part of them, and using Temporal on them consumes a tremendous amount of demonic energy.]
Now this… this was the best ability after Blink. It didn't say I couldn't affect stronger beings—just that I could only target a portion of them. That was still huge.
I just had to figure out what tremendous meant in terms of demonic power. Like, how insane are we talking?
And finally, the last ability.
[Absorb: The fourth Valefar ability that allows you to absorb the demonic energy of any being you have bound. From beings on your level or weaker, you can drain up to 70% of their demonic power. From stronger beings, you can absorb 30%. Consuming demonic power from stronger opponents causes significant pain.]
Imagine this: you're fighting a dozen enemies. Most are weak. One is strong. You use the weak ones as fuel to power Temporal and hit the strong one where it hurts.
That was all I got for now. And honestly, these abilities? As precious as gold.
Right then, the system spoke again.
[Soul synchronising with the body: 100%]
[Soul fully synchronised with the body. You may take full control of this body from now on. The Asura System will be unable to affect you unless you will it to.]
Perfect.
[Name: Faiser Valefar-Barbatos]
[Age: 18 (518)]*
[Race: Pure-Blood Devil]
[Rank: Ultimate Class]
[Bloodline: Valefar, Barbatos]
[Valefar Abilities: Bind, Disperse, Temporal, Absorb]
[Barbatos Abilities: Blink, Traverse, Transit, Sever]
[Asura Abilities: Mind of Asura, Eyes of Asura, Body of Asura, Mark of Asura]
[Items: None]
Ultimate Class?
Fuck! Now we're talking.