Hiroshi stood in the now faintly lit hall, the source of light wasn't anywhere to be seen. Still, he was unable to see the height of the hall when everything above him was pitch black.
Nothing was here except for the white orb in front of him, it appeared out of thin air and just floated there. A white gooey liquid enclosed the orb or it was made from the very liquid, he didn't know. Something inside him was very attracted to touch the ball, it was like an instinct.
[Touch the Seed of Ortus to finish the transfer]
"This is the seed of Ortus?"
[Affirmative]
Someone or something replied to his question in a monotonic tone.
"Who are you? What is this place and why am I here?"
[You're currently talking to the main interface of Ortus. Touch the Seed of Ortus to receive the answer of every question]
'What should I do? What is this Ortus anyway?'
His brain worked furiously, trying to find anything related to this thing called Ortus. Thanks to Master, he had read many strange books related to supernatural but none of them mentioned Ortus.
"Can I deny it?"
[You have full rights to accept or deny it. But, keep in mind that you won't be able to grow strong without Seed of Ortus]
His brows furrowed in a deep frown. "What do you mean by that?"
He knew about his own body condition, even with half devil bloodline and putting his body through hell every single day, he wasn't able to grow stronger than low class. His demonic power reserves barely matched the standard of a Low class Devil. Half of his discrimination stemmed from his lineage as a half-devil while the other half was him being unable to even fight Low-class devils on even footing as he had no inherent abilities from his devil or human parents. If only...
"I want power… Power to protect my Master and help her in achieving her dream."
He raised his hand and touched the black orb. A cool and warm sensation enveloped his hand.
[Transferring Ortus to new Host]
This time he heard the voice directly inside his mind.
[Detected seals inside the body… Removing all status effects]
[Task complete… Planting Seed of Ortus]
[Rebuilding Host's body from Origin energy]
[Requires extracting the 'Evil Piece' from the Host's body… Commencing Extraction]
"Aaargh!"
He held his aching head, his face twisted from the sudden sharp pain ravaging his head.
Memories too painful to remember rushed inside his mind, the memories before his master found him… and memories of some unknown being.
Several minutes later, Hiroshi stood up from the ground, his deep blue eyes gleamed in the darkness.
"Those devils, just how can they even do this?"
He whispered and bent down to pick a white item from the floor.
"I hope Master doesn't beat me hard for this."
It was the pawn piece his Master used on him. Before he felt unworthy of it, but now was different. He curled his fists and declared,
"I'll show everyone that Master wasn't wrong in choosing me. Her dreams, I'll help her in fulfilling them. I hope those devils don't disturb my master..."
He quietly scanned his body for any changes, but couldn't find one. But he felt different from before, he sensed something inside his body that wasn't demonic power. It was dense and pure unlike demonic power. His reserves also increased by a margin, now he was somewhere between Low class and Middle class Devils.
[It is Origin energy, the creation of Seed of Ortus. The 'Origin' of all elements, able to overwhelm any element, while also capable of changing into any form of energy, but Host is too weak to utilize its complete potential.]
He flipped his palms while directing the energy, a pure white ball of Origin energy appeared above his palms. He willed it to transform, as expected the ball turned black then golden.
"Fascinating indeed, to be able to wield holy energy as a half-devil. Unfortunately, I'll be hunted down by every faction if I use it in front of anybody."
Devils, Fallen-Angels and Angels, even Gods will hunt someone like him when all factions are currently in a deep stalemate. He was fine with it but Underworld higher ups will target his Master's Clan for him.
Sadly, this power came with a heavy responsibility. He felt no obligation to fulfill it but he had no choice...
"Should I call you like the last Host said? Aux-san?"
[Host is free to call me whatever he likes.]
The same artificial voice sounded inside his mind.
"Remove the barrier. I just want to go home now."
[Task completed]
In the blink of an eye he found himself back in the same street. This time it wasn't like before, it was completely packed with Devils.
After buying everything on the list, he created a magic circle and teleported to the Castle.
Meanwhile, the whole territory of the Sitri clan was on full-alert. The princess poked the Elders of clan to search for her pawn at any cost. She herself stood at the Mansion front door and waited for him.
Her expression was calm but the purple eyes behind the specs had a hint of worry inside them.
Hiroshi teleported outside the gate of Sitri Territory. He verified his identity by touching the magic circle set up near the gate.
The gate made of strengthened metal slid open. He walked through the path in the garden and reached the front door and noticed a black-haired girl standing at the front door, the devilish smirk on her face reminded him of the past sufferings.
He gulped down his dry saliva and braced himself. He knew his fate when his Master made this face, it never ended well for him.
"Sona-sama. I'm deeply sorry for worrying you."
Without any reply, she clasped his wrist and dragged him inside the Mansion.
"Sona-sa—"
"I don't have any time right now."
A silver haired old man in butler outfit tried to ask something, but Sona coldly sent him away.
"Mas— Sona-sama…"
He forgot she disliked being called Master.
"Shut up! Do you know how worried I was when I lost the connection with your Evil piece? For a moment there I thought… I lost you, but the Evil piece never returned to me. So I—"
He shook his head. "I won't leave Sona-sama alone, I still am the sole pawn of Sitri Peerage."
She pulled him inside a tidy room with a bookshelf filled with Grimoire and books of supernaturals.
"What happened to you earlier? I need a detailed story."
He nodded his head and slowly explained what transpired today while omitting some information about Seed of Ortus.
I never got why every single person that gets turned into a slave by devils seem 100% fine with it....
Wouldn't you? You would get power, a lifespan of 10,000 years, and from what's written, they are servants -- not slaves. And the Devils don't ask much in return either, allowing them to live a good life. There aren't any downsides (unless 'pride' (idiocy, self-righteousness, narcissism) is what you are talking about?)
@Tek Do you need me to point out Diodora and I don't belive a moment that he is the only devil like that.
We see it from the peerage of Rias whose family is known to be loving and caring to their peerage.
@Brenster100 Diodora is one of the few exceptions, but we see Rias' peerage, Sona's peerage, even the dumb musclehead (Soarg or w/e his name is). Even Pheonix isn't too bad, though it is as harem as Rias'. From what I remember, Diodora and the old Satan Faction seem to be the bad ones (that are described. Of course, this is from an outside POV) -- and that is likely because they hated humies.
@Tek given that the New Satan faction committed genocide against the Nekoshou I'm not sure I would call them good.
And again that is what we are shown that what 4 peerages out of 100s if not 1000s
@Brenster100 Then again, the kitties seem likely to drown in their power and turn 'bad', so it's possible that there was a reason behind the genocide. Of course, it isn't explained completely, so this is my guess.
Either way, I would still think that immense power and a minimum-length lifespan (no lifespans should be less than 10,000 years in my opinion) is worth the gamble.
Then again, I am the sort of person who prefers to be ordered around -- that way, I don't have to do the bother of planning things out, and if (when) things go wrong, I can blame it on the one in charge and don't have to suffer the worry/regret/ and guilt lol. (It's all their fault).
@Tek What are you talking about? It was explained.
Kuroka killed her master as he wanted to experiment on Koneko (Again, this is the good devils)
The devils then covered up what they were doing by saying that Kuroka lost control of herself due to Senjutsu and that is why they killed all the Nekoshou in case they all went mad due to Senjutsu.
(She never went mad she just didn't want her sister to be a test subject in crazy experiments)
@Brenster100 Ahh, I must have missed that. Thanks for pointing it out.
Either way, my last point I stick by lol.
@Tek Or you end up as a test subject for cruel experiments, and if you refuse they can kill you with no recourse that's a big gamble...
@Brenster100 Eh, what in life isn't a gamble?
From what is shown about the new faction, the odds are better for a good ending.