The roar of the crowd shook the arena as they chanted his name.
"SALVON!"
"SALVON!"
"THE BLUE PHOENIX!"
Thousands of voices screamed his name, chanting it in a rhythmic, primal cadence as Salvon Buer stood at the dead center of the scorched battlefield.
This... this was absolute, drug-like ecstasy. He stood there as his name rang throughout the arena.
A manic, wide-toothed grin stretched across his face, his chest heaving with heavy, ecstatic breaths as he stared at his trembling opponent. The match had reached its climax just a moment prior to its start.
A magic blast caught Salvon dead-on. The blast vaporized his entire head clean off his shoulders in a fraction of a second. It was a terrifying, undoubtedly lethal strike that would have instantly sent him out of the game....that was had it been the him from before.
For a terrifying beat, the stadium had fallen completely silent. All waiting with bated breath. waiting for the same thing that brought them all here. to see the so called miracle that they had all heard about.
And just in the next instant, before the smoking torso of the young devil could even buckle and fall, Instead of blood geysering from the wound, brilliant, crackling blue flames had erupted from his severed neck.
Within a heartbeat, the fire had woven itself and followed in a beautiful flash of light, and his head simply reformed, snapping back into existence as if the attack had been nothing more than a passing breeze.
Salvon threw his head back and laughed, a loud, wild sound that echoed over the cheers. "Hahaha!"
The crowd all roaring up again at the sight.
The expression on his opponent's face was worth more than all the gold in the Underworld. It was a cocktail of terror, utter disbelief, and crushing despair.
Buying that strange, swirling blue fruit from Lady Xeno had been the single greatest decision of his entire life. For centuries, Salvon had been a complete nobody from the moment he was passed over as heir for his brother, a footnote in a minor clan, stripped of his heir status and cast aside because he had failed to manifest the Buer family's healing trait, restoration.
He had spent hundreds of years watching his younger brother and peers look down on him with pity and disgust.
And yet, all it took to rewrite his destiny was five million Lucif and a single, disgusting bite.
He almost felt a twinge of guilt. He had practically robbed Lady Xeno blind. Five million was a joke for a power like this. But if the pink-haired merchant didn't know the true value of the godlike treasures she was holding, then that was her own foolish mistake.
His entire physical form erupted into brilliant blue-hot flames, the ambient temperature of the arena instantly soaring. His opponent retreated instinctively, his boots dragging in the dirt.
Salvon's grin widened. "Too late."
He thrust both hands forward. A towering torrent of blue fire exploded across the arena floor, swallowing everything in its path. Stone melted into bubbling slag, defensive barriers cracked and hissed, and the unfortunate devils could only let out a brief, agonized shriek before the flames consumed them completely.
But Salvon wasn't done showing off.
With a thought, his body began to change. His arms and his legs dissolved into the fiery mass, and brilliant blue feathers burst from his skin as a massive, majestic pair of wings unfolded. In seconds, a giant, shimmering blue Phoenix soared majestically into the sky, its sharp, ringing cry echoing throughout the stadium.
The sight left the spectators utterly speechless.
This wasn't some cheap imitation or an illusion. Salvon spread his wings, basking in the power.
His regeneration was faster than that of even the Phenix Clan member he had ever seen. His fire burned hotter, his speed shot up, and his magic had grown too. The fruit had not just given him a clan trait but also made him stronger, placing him just slightly below the threshold of a Mid-high-class devil.
The giant bird dove from the clouds, raining down brilliant embers of scorching fire.
The battle ended moments later.
"WINNER!" the announcer's voice boomed over the speakers. "THE VICTOR IS SALVON BUER!"
The crowd exploded. Salvon landed, his magnificent form dissolving back into a human shape. He raised his arms high, drinking in the deafening cheers of thousands who had once spat on his name.
This was his third Rating Game victory in a row since eating the fruit, and the high of it hadn't faded in the slightest.
Far above the roaring arena, suspended in the heavily warded VIP luxury section, the atmosphere was tense.
Only those of the highest standing were permitted in this room, and currently, it was occupied by the Four Great Satans. Or, more accurately, three of them were actively paying attention, while the fourth, Falbium Asmodeus, was slumped in a plush chair, fast asleep.
Dozens of glowing magic circles floated around Ajuka Beelzebub as his gaze stayed at the devil below, trying to understand. The scientist Satan stared down at Salvon with an obsessive, terrifying focus and a mad glint in his eyes.
"So..." Sirzechs Lucifer finally spoke, his voice serious as he glanced at his silent friend.
No response. Ajuka's fingers flicked in the air, not even bothering with his fellow satans.
"Don't bother, Zech," Serafall Leviathan sighed, twirling her magical wand lazily between her fingers. "Juka is long gone."
Sirzechs rubbed his temples, a deep, exhausted sigh escaping his lips. "I just don't understand how this is possible. Could it be a hidden Sacred Gear? Or some kind of mutation?"
Serafall shook her head. "If it were a Sacred Gear, Ajuka's scanner would have picked up on it. But there's nothing. It's something else...."
"Fascinating," Ajuka muttered, " his DNA itself has changed from what even the Buer's or the Phenix's are like."
Sirzechs leaned back, staring at the ceiling. This single devil had caused him a monumental headache for the past few days.
Waking up to find the Phenex Clan, one of the most influential, outrageously wealthy noble houses of the Underworld, up in arms, screaming about treason and demanding Salvon's immediate execution, had not been his idea of a good starting day.
At first, Sirzechs had assumed the Phenex lords were exaggerating. But after seeing Salvon's blue-flame regeneration with his own eyes, he had been left completely speechless.
Ajuka was even worse. The Beelzebub had been consumed by a dark, obsessive urge to understand the phenomenon. Sirzechs and Serafall had practically been forced to physically restrain him when he casually floated the idea of kidnapping Salvon to dissect him and see how he came to be like that.
They were trying to build a modern, civilized devil society, letting a Great Satan cut open a citizen would trigger another civil war, he had no doubt about that.
But the real mystery wasn't Salvon. It was where the power came from. It isn't hard to find out.
The story, though, was completely ridiculous. Salvon had traveled to the lawless outskirts of the Underworld, walked into an established auction house, purchased a strange, swirling blue fruit, took a bite, and instantly gained the power of a Phoenix.
Who the hell would believe that?
Yet, no matter how many times the investigators interrogated Salvon and others from the leads, the story stayed the same.
They had found the auction house, of course, a small, border-town establishment called Malice & Marvels, founded a year ago by a pink-haired devil woman named Xeno.
That discovery had only led to a massive wall of dead ends. Who was Xeno? No family lineage, no clan affiliations, nothing. No records existed in the registry, which wasn't all that shocking, even they couldn't keep track of every devil in existence after all.
It was as if she had walked into the city, and boom, she was now there. Sirzechs had dispatched his people to follow her, but they returned with empty hands. Xeno apparently was only ever seen inside the auction house.
The moment the doors locked for the night, she vanished completely, leaving behind nothing. Even her employees, questioned under heavy scrutiny, knew absolutely nothing about her private life. And it was nearly impossible to even get a hold of the woman to bring her to them.
The only solid lead they had uncovered was the property deed of the building itself. It is legally registered under the name Raum.
The Raum Clan.
It was a shocking discovery that had immediately sent shockwaves. The Raum Clan was a declining noble house, possessing only about seven main branch members and a few dozen distant relatives who carried the bloodline. They were famous for their ancestral ability to glimpse through time, a terrifying power that had once made them highly influential.
Yet, when Sirzechs' people had approached the current head of the Raum Clan, the reaction had been one of genuine, baffled confusion. The main branch denied any knowledge of the auction house.
And Sirzechs believed them. If the declining Raum Clan possessed a miracle that could grant power through a piece of fruit, they would have flaunted it to the entire Underworld before having a member of the clan take it to regain their lost prestige.
They wouldn't hide it in a dusty border town and sell it off.
Which meant there was a rogue, highly powerful member of the Raum Clan operating in the shadows, that wasn't all that surprising, nearly every clan had people like that, those who were cast off from the clan, were bastards of a member of the clan, or just an off branch from somewhere.
But it was most definitely a Raum, the magic crest showed that much, and because the deeds were under the Raum noble crest. The entire Raum house was now under intense surveillance by the other houses, desperately searching for any link to the mysterious "Xeno."
"And what about the Phenex Clan?" Serafall asked, snapping Sirzechs out of his thoughts.
"Legally? They have no case," Sirzechs sighed. "Salvon did nothing wrong. He bought an item at a public auction and ate it. He didn't steal their bloodline, nor did he break any laws of the Underworld. We cannot punish a devil for becoming powerful."
"But the Phenex pride won't accept this," Serafall pointed out, her playful tone dipping into seriousness. "Someone outside their bloodline is walking around with their signature immortality and power."
"I know," Sirzechs murmured, watching Salvon wave to the screaming fans below. "They will try to bring him into the fold. Marriage, adoption, a deal, they will offer him anything to legally bind his power to their house. And if Salvon is smart, he will accept it."
Sirzechs' eyes narrowed. "Because if he rejects them... I don't think he will survive. At least the Buer are already trying to do the same, trying to bring him back to their side by kissing his ass, he has a bit of protecting."
The Underworld is a very dark place for someone carrying a treasure that kings want, and without people to have his back, Salvon may end up disappearing, so he better either stay close to Buer or join the phenix if he wanted to stay alive that is.
Several municipal districts away, inside a quiet, comfortable living room.
Lucian lounged, stretched out on his plush couch, a cold drink resting in his hand as he watched the projection screen before him. The screen displayed the Rating Game.
A slow, sharp, and incredibly smug grin spread across his face. "Ah, what better way than free publicity," he said as he slurped his drink.
The first domino had successfully fallen. He had introduced a single fruit, and already, the Great Satans were scrambling, the noble houses were running around, and the entire Raum Clan was being placed under a microscope. And that was all just the devil side, he didn't even know what was happening around in other parts.
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