World 23467

❖

“I know I promised Lru I wouldn’t ‘cause it seemed like an easy promise but…”

Cu thought back to what Lru told her, right before she answered all of her questions.

❖

“My name… It’s Cu Cole. I have a lot of questions, so please answer as many as you can.”

Lru giggled softly. Something about how she seemed to have found humor in everything put Cu on edge.

“Sure, but you have to promise me something.”

“Yes I promise—wait, I don't even know what she’s asking for… What is it?”

Again, she laughed before replying. “Don’t be scared when you first meet our lord. His presence can feel threatening at times, but he’s not all that bad. Besides, you’re a devil from The Underworld. You’ll probably scare some children if they ever see you, so give a little empathy.”

‘She said I was from The Underworld… Does that mean The Underworld is this reality’s hell?’

Cu accepted the promise, thinking that she surely wouldn’t get too scared.

❖

‘I've been told to wait in the waiting rooms for at least an hour now. It’s a pretty comfy room with books, a sofa, and tables, but it doesn’t help that they still cuffed my arms. At least they’re able to keep the temperature high for me.’

From conversation with Lru, Cu learned a lot. That included the fact that her body was adapted to the hot temperature in The Underworld, and the Middlegrounds—essentially this reality’s Earth—was much colder in comparison.

‘I’ve gotten used to the shackles, the thing is…’

From the moment Cu entered the lord’s territory, she felt a sudden pressure placed on her. Lru explained that it was the lord’s power, and that everyone had gotten used to it. The pressure felt similar to the gray aura that one of the devils used while she was in The Undergrounds, however this feeling was much more intense.

“How much longer will I be—”

*Knock knock!*

“Cu,” said an unfamiliar voice.

“What?” 

The man with pointed ears entered the door. He wore a black suit with beautiful purple embroidery of some sort on the right side of the suit. Cu couldn’t exactly tell what the embroidery was, but it was stunning.

Cu stood up to greet the man, but he shouted: “Qem!” 

In an instant, her body sat back down without her interference.

“H—hey!”

In his hand he had a simple, large brown cloth. He walked up to Cu and wrapped it around her eyes before guiding her out of the room. Though she disliked being forced around, she couldn’t do much about it.

‘I probably shouldn’t make a big disruption… At least the cloth feels smooth. Is it silk or something? Wait, no, that’s not what’s important.’

“Mr… suit guy? Why do I have to be blind folded…”

‘He probably doesn’t know what I’m saying, huh… I keep forgetting English from Earth is the human language here, and no one knows the human language. Well, most of the people I’ve seen have pointed ears, does that mean they’re elves? Are there even elves in the first place?’

For some reason, thinking about another race had made Cu feel some sort of emptiness.

‘Elves… Humans… Hmm… It sucks how I haven’t even seen a single human, aside from…’

Cu thought about the child while she was in The Underworld. He looked like a human child, but the way he fought was anything but human.

‘Since I’m thinking about that kid, how did he get that strong?’

Lru explained that there are two sources of power in this reality. Magic, and kaizen.

Cu couldn’t figure out which was easier to understand. She already had an idea of magic, after all it’s a popular power in stories on Earth, but there were some differences in this world. On the other hand, kaizen was a different power. It’s simple but…

❖

“No one’s sure how it works, we do know that kaizen is a gift from gods. At least that’s what everyone thinks.” For once, it seemed that the smile Lru always had faded while talking about kaizen.

‘Lru doesn’t seem too excited talking about this, compared to magic.’

At its simplest form, kaizen is a concentrated gray aura. Its main goal is to intimidate, this was why Cu felt a pressure when she entered the lord’s territory. The lord’s excess kaizen had spread around the terrority. It can also be used to increase strength and dexterity a little. 

Most believe that it exists as a measure of your existence. The denser or stronger your aura, the more important of a person you are.

‘That’s why I was unsteady about that devil with the gray arm, it was his kaizen.’

Lru described “kaizen’s true power as a reward for your actions. Let’s say someone picks up a sword for the first time and tries using kaizen. It might let him cut through paper in the air, but that’s all. Compare that to someone who practiced swinging his sword thousands of times. Using kaizen then would make his sword be able to cut through logs.”

‘The basis of kaizen feels pretty similar to cultivation stories I read from Earth. I completely forgot how it worked, but I do remember people needing to meditate and the more they did that, the stronger they’d get.’

“Can I ask why you seem to hate kaizen? You were so happy talking about magic earlier.”

This was the first time Cu saw Lru sigh. “It’s boring, there’s nothing exciting about it! You can spend your whole life learning more and more about magic, how it works and how to get better at it. There’s none of that with kaizen, it just… it’s infuriating! All it does is exists, and nothing more. Being a gift from the gods is such a let-down.”

“Then why do people bother with getting stronger kaizen?”

She sighed again. “Beyond just becoming stronger, you can get a kaizen ability if you do something enough. For a swordsman, he could gain the kaizen ability to stab through walls or floors.”

Lru’s personality flipped as she felt a sense of pride. “Though I don’t like it, I actually have a kaizen ability myself.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Hm-hm… Whenever I activate it while walking, I walk even faster!”

“That’s… helpful. So you’re saying you can use kaizen for mundane things, and you can get mundane abilities.”

“Hey!”

❖

‘So then. Which one of these two did the boy use to get so strong? I want to say magic because if he used kaizen then there would be an aura. However, it could be possible that the purple streaks on his skin was kaizen. After all, gray aura is only kaizen’s simplest form. But in order to have an advanced kaizen, you need to be proficient at it. I’m not sure how long it’d take to be on a level of proficiency—”

“Ahnd!” Spoke the man guiding Cu, stopping her from moving.

“Ah! Oh.” 

‘I guess I’m here. I completely forgot that I was meeting the lord, I was lost in thought trying to figure out the kid’s power. But… will I ever see him again?’

Cu recalled the boy’s lonely, pained eyes and expression that he had the entire time she saw him.

“A—ah.”

The man guiding Cu took off the blind.

“You..?”

The man guiding Cu was much shorter than her, he couldn’t take off her blindfold normally. But, he had bat wings on his back that floated him in the air so he could reach Cu’s head.

‘He’s a vampire? There’s vampires in this world? He also has pointy ears, so is he a vampire elf? Aren't vampires the bad guys in stories? Wait, aren’t devils and things that come from hell usually the bad guys too? Does that mean I’m a bad guy?’

He pointed at a double door right in front of the two, signaling Cu to move forward. Before she could say anything, he flew the opposite way.

‘What was the reason for blindfolding me..? Well whatever.’

Cu walked up to the doors, there were no handles.

‘Do I knock?’

She tried doing so, but heard no sounds being made.

“Huh?”

She stomped on the floor, hearing noises being made by that.

‘Maybe I push?’

She pushed on the door with both her hands which quickly turned to her arms, and then her whole body.

“Just… open… al... ready!”

*Creak! Woosh!*

“Ah!”

With the door suddenly bursting open, Cu fell on the ground.

“Ata, that hurt…”

Picking herself up, she saw nothing but pitch black, even the door behind her was gone.

“Where am I..!”

A pair of something red appeared from the darkness. It disappeared, then reappeared. They seemed alive.

‘Are those eyes? The pressure from the lord’s kaizen is greater here than anywhere else. Does that mean that’s the lord—?’

*Snap!*

One by one, lanterns suspended in the sky started to light up. Out of fright, Cu focused her attention onto the lanterns when she noticed something.

‘It’s faint but I think I can feel something…’

Cu focused her attention onto the last unlit lantern. She felt her horn twitch the moment it lit, but more important than that, she could almost visualize something turning into the flames used to light the lanterns.

‘It was like the space surrounding the lantern distorted and suddenly became flames.’

“Lru has told me a bit about you. I won’t question why you know the human tongue and not The Underworld’s.” The figure saw Cu focused on the lanterns. “Appreciating the magic? Cu Cole.”

“A—ah. Yes… Yes m—my lord!” 

Cu turned back to the pair of eyes and kneeled down. She could see that, aside from the figure’s red eyes, it was completely black. It was shaped as a human, but its black body was somehow both solid and incorporeal. It was also a foot taller than Cu, someone already a few feet taller than a human, though it looked lankier than a human.

“Stand.”

Cu shot up quickly, nervous because of the lord’s kaizen, but after hearing the lord speak, she was also unnerved by the lord’s deep, distorted voice. Looking around the room, she saw smooth wooden walls that were long and tall. At least dozens of feet separated Cu and the black figure. Filling the space were many chairs, tables, couches, bookshelves, and other furniture.

‘That’s the lord, right? Then this is his room? I would’ve never expected such a well made room in a fantasy world. He must be rich then.’

Cu tried relaxing herself, recalling how Lru told her to act normal around the lord. However the lord’s kaizen kept her tense. Cu’s eyes looked around the room before making its way onto the lord’s, seeing that its eyes bore into hers. They both looked away from each other’s gaze.

“I apologize, I haven't met many of your kind, let alone in recent times.”

“Y—you haven’t met many women, my—my lord?”

“...”

‘That just slipped out, I wasn’t thinking!’

“You aren’t wrong, it’s hard finding capable women that I can allow in my company.”

‘Is he really a villain? Though I think that was a bit of sexism, wouldn’t a real villain try and beat me up for making fun of him like that. Maybe I was just jumping to conclusions about these people.’

“My name is Void, pleased to meet you. You may refrain from calling me lord, you aren’t one of my men yet after all.”

“Thank you, my l—Void. May I take a seat next to you?”

Void motioned her over to a seat in front of his desk.

*Step, step, step, step…*

‘Wow…’ 

While Cu walked closer, Void’s kaizen was getting more and more intense. However it always stayed to a point that was manageable.

‘Would it be possible to get a kaizen ability just by sitting in someone’s kaizen?’

“My l—Void. Can I ask a question?”

He nodded.

“Is there a reason why I was chained and blindfolded while being brought here?”

‘And was there a reason why I had to wait so damn long?’

Void chuckled in his distorted, creepy voice. “It’s like you knew why you were brought here. I called you here to give you a decision.”

‘That’s not ominous at all.’

“You may leave my territory and live on your own, or you can become one of my subjects and serve under me. I had you chained so you wouldn’t do anything rash, and I had you blindfolded so in case you decide not to join me, you wouldn’t know too much about my territory. Caution is important these days.”

‘The logical decision would be to follow him, right? I don’t even know where I am, where would I even go if not from here?

Cu muttered aloud while thinking. “Gate…”

‘From Lru, the only way for devils to appear here is through the Gate connecting the Middlegrounds and The Underworld. I have no idea how often that opens, but Void said that he hasn’t seen many devils before. That means that I’m not a species native, and I’m probably not common here.’

“What’s the catch, why do you want me?”

“Don’t make me sound nefarious… Though you’re right in assuming you have a purpose. For a devil, you use your brain a lot more than your fellows.” 

‘Maybe ‘cause I’m a human. Well, former.’

“There are three types of men I need in order to fulfill my master’s wishes.”

Cu kept her surprise silent. ‘He has his own master? I can tell that Void’s strong just by his kaizen, so how strong is his master?’

“I need strong men who can physically solve any dispute, men who can innovate and lead us to the future technologically, and men who are capable of gathering resources to supply the two. As a devil, you are naturally one of the physically gifted. So, which do you think I need you for?”

“What exactly am I gonna do?”

“I’ll be sending you to one of my training camps as you may be inherently strong, but that does not mean you are capable of the tasks needed. The one camp you’ll be sent to will be based on your capabilities right now.”

“My capabilities right now? What do you mean—?”

Void’s red eyes suddenly grew brighter, it again bore into Cu’s, but this time far more commanding.

‘Is this what Lru meant when she said the lord can be intimidating?’

“Turn around.” 

‘His tone suddenly became serious!’

As if a soldier listening to their commander, Cu turned around and stood straight up.

*Chiiing!*

Cu felt the constricting chains on her arms fall down. She turned around to see what happened just to get a staff prodded on her neck by Void.

“Your goal right now is to stay alive from my attacks. I will not be holding back, if you die then you were naturally too weak to serve me. I wish you luck, Cu Cole.”

Void pulled his staff back. His incorporeal parts tightened together, causing him to appear more visceral.

He snapped a finger at the door and multiple men walked in the room. 

‘Didn’t I struggle to open that door? They opened it so easily.’ 

Cu couldn’t sense any kaizen from the men who walked in, but they were able to effortlessly move everything. That included the large tables, bookshelves, and furniture outside of the room. Within just a few minutes, the room was empty aside from the lanterns in the air, Cu, and Void.

*Slam.*

“Prepare yourself, I will attack at the end of my count. Three, two…”