Chapter 6 - Projects of the Imperium

Fuerig Castle, Territory of the Lucifer Clan

After the meeting in the Capital City of the Imperium ended, Zarathul returned to the Fuerig Castle at his territory to oversee the reconstruction. Now that the armies of the Lucifer Clan and Lucifuge Clan returned to their rightful place, the revitalization could be started.

It took one month to completely renovate whole Fuerig Castle and all its surroundings. Now whole Lucifer Territory was completely secured and safe from enemies. In this one month, many things happened through the supernatural world.

1st one was that Olympus has closed its borders and even in the Underworld, they left behind many of their territories, which were devoured by the Imperium as soon as the Grim Reapers left them. The Imperium now controlled around 30% of the Underworld and there would be again one massive campaign against the remnants of the Old Satan Faction to reclaim lost territories and also against various stray groups, rogue fallen, and others non-affiliated groups that had territory in the Underworld.

2nd thing was that Zarathul was officially crowned as Crown Prince of the Imperium and also as the Lord Lucifer as nobody from his side of the family didn't have the interest in being Lord. His uncle Rizevim was usually lazying around the Fuerig Castle or he was closed in his laboratory researching god knows what. So this duty fell to Zarathul. On top of that, he was also officially recognized as the Satan-Class powerhouse.

3rd was complete re-structuralization in the Devil Society. It has begun with the speech of Bael Zekram to the nation the next day after the battle, where he criticized the state of devils, the fact that they had fallen deeply in the seven deadly sins, and especially the younger generation was virtually useless. Now was the time to move the whole Devil Society to the forwards and embrace the times of constant change.

And the last thing was preparations for another war. Now the military was completely re-structured, they had around 600,000 soldiers, from which 100,000 belonged to the Legions, which were all High-Class individuals in Magical Level and Body Level and remaining 500,000 were Mid-Class ordinary soldiers.

Then, of course, there were also, special units as Imperial Temple Knight Order, whom all people were at least Ultimate-Class of Magical Level and Body Level and all of them were Runic Knights at the same time.

Zarathul was constantly training for the past month, as he was trying to reach the Super Devil-Class Level of Power as soon as possible, because only then he would have some assurance that he would be able to accomplish his goals, well at least some of them.

Still, he managed to reach the 2nd-Tier Satan-Class Level of Power, both in magic and body strength, which was pretty good. He had perfectly grasped his new powers as the Satan-Class and also consolidated his energies inside of his body.

"Husband, the campaign would be starting soon. I think you should already stop the training for now."

Said gentle voice, as his beloved Grayfia appeared in elegant noble attire befitting for the lady of her status.

"I know, how is the state of things?"

Asked Zarathul in a bored voice as he was still sitting cross-legged and meditating.

Zarathul just nodded his head in agreement before getting another idea.

"What about those two Longinus-Tier Sacred Gears I have ordered to observe?"

Asked Zarathul as he was thinking about two useful Longinus-Tier Sacred Gears he wanted to obtain.

"We have already managed to secure one of them, [Incarnate Anthem], is already in our hands and would be soon transferred to you. It was secured by Lord Rizevim personally. In regard to the second Longinus, [Star Buster Star Blaster] is it in hands of some human magician names Shooting Star who has power around 1st-Tier Ultimate-Class thanks to the said Longinus, under dire circ.u.mstances, he could push his power up to the 3rd-Tier Satan-Class. The man himself is living in America, we are currently waiting for the next orders."

[Incarnate Anthem], was a special Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear that allowed Holy Flame Manipulation and was one of the three most powerful Holy Relicts, together with [Sephirol Grail] and [True Longinus]. Zarathul wanted to obtain this Sacred Gear for himself as he had a special method of how to fuse it with himself without any problem.

In regard to another Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear [Star Buster Star Blaster], he wanted to gift it to Esdeath as a gift, as it would suit to her combat style. She was also lacking high-quality weapon, and what was better than a weapon that could endlessly evolve to unprecedented heights.

"Excellent. I will take a squad of Temple Knights to go hunt down that man holding the Star Buster Star Blaster. This should not take more than one day, as we have a location of that Sacred Gear holder."

Said Zarathul as he stood up kissed Grayfia on her cheek, before leaving the room and going straightly for the place where the Imperial Temple Knight Order was staying. Obtaining Sacred Gears was one of the strategies of the Imperium to increase strength.

They would obtain Sacred Gear from humans by killing them and give it to the worthy and loyal members of Imperium, who were usually devils or other very long-lived races. This way, the Sacred Gears would stay in the hands of the Imperium for a very very long time. As one of the most important criterium in giving Sacred Gear was personal strength. Sacred Gear could be given only to someone who was Ultimate-Class of 1st-Tier both in body cultivation and magical cultivation.

Imperial Temple Knights were few in numbers, and because of that, they had a simple structure and chain of command. On the top of the order, was Grandmaster. Below him were two Masters of Order, namely Diehauser Belial and Ruval Phenex. Then there were Templar Rank, who were the third strongest members of the Order and after them there were Knights.

Imperial Temple Knight Master Diehauser Belial was a young-looking man like he was in his thirties with mild brown skin and short gray hair and gray eyes. His special bloodline called [Worthless] was able to nullify all energy-based attacks weaker than him. Coupled with the fact he was master in hand to hand combat and other martial arts, he was a nightmare for every magic-user.

"Diehauser, we are leaving for America to hunt down Sacred Gear holder Shooting Star as he has Longinus named [Star Buster Star Blaster] which I want to gift my fianceé Esdeath."

Ordered Zarathul. When they heard the name Esdeath many of them felt a shiver going down through their spine. Esdeath was a very infamous person through not only Imperium but rather through the whole Supernatural World.

"Yes, my Lord."

Belial Clan was originally one of the most loyal vassals of the original Lucifer together with Bael Clan and Lucifuge Clan. Zekram Bael even married the daughter of the Lucifer Clan. In regard to the Belial Clan, Diehauser was chosen as a personal retainer of the Zarathul.

"Shooting Star is someone on the Ultimate-Class level of power, mainly to his Sacred Gear, by the information available, in his Balance Breaker state he is comparable to the 3rd-Tier Satan-Class. Our plan is simple, we will locate the target and stealthy attack to knock him out so we could extract the Sacred Gear from his soul."

....

Human World, North America, Texas

Capturing someone was always harder than to kill someone, as when you are capturing your target you need to be careful to not kill him accidentally and also most importantly you need to have much higher power than your target. After they sealed the space, they attacked their target.

Shooting Star was a young-looking man in his twenties in a cowboy outfit. Fortunately, he didn't sense the sealed space, as they were using even some artifacts to hide their presence as this must be as clean as possible.

Zarathul took out his treasured spear, Gáe Bolg and covered it with countless Magic Seals, that had a single effect. Sealing the target. Then he aimed at the Shooting Star and at his command he and Diehauser, attacked at the same time, aiming at the arms of the Shooting Star, as they wanted to cripple him firstly.

As their target was completely taken by surprise, his right arm was severed upon content with Zarathul's Gáe Bolg and his left arm was torn out by Diehauser who attacked only a second after. After the attack, Zarathul knocked the cowboy Sacred Gear holder out and applied two healing Magic Seals to stop the bleeding and preserve his life, as he needed to be alive during the process.

Problem with Sacred Gears was that they returned back to Heaven when the Sacred Gear holder died, so they were never true holders of the gear. Only recently Ajuka Beelzebub together with Rizevim found out a way how to modify Sacred Gears so they would truly become part of the holder. When the holder died, the Sacred Gear would stay in his corpse instead.

"Good work everyone. Now we must extract the [Star Buster Star Blaster] Sacred Gear as soon as possible from his body and disappear back to the Imperium. I have a weird feeling about this guy, nobody in the world knew that the [Star Buster Star Blaster] evolved from normal Sacred Gear into Longinus, someone was covering for him, and the only faction that has interest in the Sacred Gears are Fallen Angels of Grigori... meh, we should be going."

Said Zarathul, as his subordinates appeared out of nowhere and took the body of the Shooting Star to the already prepared place, where the ritual was taking place. To the ritual itself, the extraction of the Sacred Gear took only several minutes until it was done and Zarathul was holding in his hands weird white blueish orb, which was the Longinus Star Buster Star Blaster.

Then he conjured one ball of the [Power of Destruction] with his new style which he called [Truth-Seeking Orb Style] and incarnated body of the Shooting Star to the oblivion, together with the entire place where the ritual was taking place.

[Truth-Seeking Orb Style] was inspired after Sirzech's style of controlling the [Power of Destruction], [Ruin the Extinct]. He was now capable of creating the Orbs out of the [Power of Destruction], which acted as his defense and offense. Compared to the [Gate of Babylon Style] which required his full attention, his new style was more of a passive form. Though it lacked the massiveness and wideness of the [Gate of Babylon Style] where he could literally create hundreds or thousands of weapons by using the [Power of Destruction].

Ordered Zarathul after destroying this whole place down.

...

After returning tot he Imperium, he needed to give the [Star Buster Star Blaster] to Ajuka for research and additional modifications. All Sacred Gears of the Imperium were undergoing similar procedures, while one of the reasons was that they could learn more about them, another was to modify them to be out of the Heaven's range, they were even able to fool the Heaven System to think that they were still tied to the Heaven's System.

After Zarathul arrived at the Ajuka's place, he was practically robbed of the Sacred Gear [Star Buster Star Blaster] the moment he arrived. As Ajuka was a fanatical scientist who loved to research things, new Sacred Gear was the perfect material of research for him, at least for now.

"I heard even you obtained Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear. Which one? And can I research it?"

Asked Ajuka as he was inspecting the [Star Buster Star Blaster] after he took it from Zarathzul who was just sitting on the couch and observing the whole situation with mild interest.

"[Incarnate Anthem] is the one. With this, I would be able to control the Holy Flame and maybe even combine it with my own bloodline to create a whole new Clan Trait. I already have some ideas on how to fuse the [Incarnate Anthem] with my soul, but I have yet to figure out how to transform it onto Clan Trait."

[Incarnate Anthem] was a very powerful Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear as it allowed to control Holy Flame. Now that Zarathul would be able to control the Holy Flame, he would be able to increase his own resistance towards the Holy Element and also, he would have the best weapon against everything of Dark Element. This Holy Flame would be best against powerfull Stray Devils or some dark and evil creatures from beyond the [Dimensional Gap] when the Conjunction of Spheres would happen.

"Hmm... fusing the Sacred Gear to the bloodline to make it the Clan Trait, probably one of the craziest ideas I have ever heard, but I think it could work under very specific circ.u.mstances."

"And those are what?"

"I have a faint idea on how to do it, but you will need to obtain some materials at first. Especially the Blood Essence of the m.a.t.u.r.e Phoenix, though you won't obtain immense regeneration, your healing factor would be very terrifying, probably even superior to the Phenex Family. And to them, if you manage to obtain more then one, if you sell it to them, they will pay you anything you ask. Another thing would be Blood Essence from the m.a.t.u.r.e Flame Dragon and a few others. The real deal here is that the [Incarnate Anthem] though of the Flame Type, is the Holy Flame and when you are Devil of Lucifer Clan and have some resistance to the Holy Element it is not enough, so firstly you will need to obtain those Flame type treasures to make yourself suitable for such fusion to your bloodline and then you could slowly integrate the [Incarnate Anthem] not only with your soul but rather make it one with your bloodline."

Explained Ajuka about his initial idea. For the devil, it was suicide to make the Holy Flame Clan Trait, but if it succeeded, it would be an unprecedented success. Not only this one but rather they would be able to create a whole new Clan Trait and revitalize the 72 Pillar Houses by making new Pillar Houses with the usage of Sacred Gears, though it would require many treasures and many precious materials to make even one of them. Still, it was worth it.

It was common knowledge that devils of the 72 Pillars or Extra Demon Clans were far superior to those common devils, thanks to their Clan Traits. During the old time of the Original Lucifer all Pillar Devils, even the weakest of them was able to achieve the High-Class Level of Power both in Body Cultivation and Demonic / Magical Cultivation, while most of the easily achieved the Ultimate-Class at least in one of them, with training. After the times of the Original Lucifer, the devil race declined too much, fortunately, with the creation of the Imperium, times of decline came to an end.

"If this is a success, we could create several new Noble Houses and drastically strengthen the Imperium as a whole. Also, I wanted to ask, how is the Project Code: Devil Blood going?"

Asked Zarathul after a short thought. Project Code: Devil Blood was a secret project on purifying the Devil Bloodline in the devils with mixed heritage, truth to be told, only for the ones with human heritage, to turn them completely into pure-blooded devils. While Imperium let of descendants of the mixed heritage to be Clan Lords of Devil Houses, all of them had heritage either of youkai or some strong supernatural creatures, while one of them was even dragon. Humans had the lowest potential out of all, it was forbidden for someone even with a bit of human blood to have some position in the Imperium, thus the Project Code: Devil Blood has invented to purify the bloodline and for those with mixed heritage, with a human heritage for them to became pure-blood devils. After some time, it was extended for some members of the other races of the Imperium as the human blood was holding them down and it was a problem that needed to be solved.

"We are making some minor advances and recently we have opened talks with the Jade Emperor's Heavenly Court about a trade of information. They apparently have something that could help us at least slightly so Serafall is negotiating with them about that. I have also, one good news though. We have managed to locate the holder of the Innovate Clear."

When Ajuka finished this sentence, it seemed like the time itself frozen. Obtaining [Innovate Clear] was one of the Top-Secret missions of the Imperium marked with the highest priority. This particular Longinus, Innovate Clear's abilities are said to be an idealized version of both Dimension Lost and Annihilation Maker, the ability to create an artificial pocket universe that can create and support life. However, anything created in there can only live in that universe.

[Innovate Clear] was very special Longinus thanks to this ability as creatures created by it are real and permanent, not like those of the [Annihilation Maker] which were temporal. When creating something with [Innovate Clear] you are using the energy of the Universe itself so you will get perfect creatures. One of the things, that Imperium needed most now, were Mana Crystals, the concentration of pure mana. They were used in technology or in the cultivation of Demonic Energy or Body Cultivation with Magic Body Infus.e.m.e.nt Technique, but sadly Mana Crystals were too scarce and too precious. Fortunately, they had ancient records of the Conjunction of Spheres where were many races described when they were born with Mana Crystal. So the plan was simple, they planned to capture the [Innovate Clear] and use the pocket world as the Monster World, which would be used to harvest Mana Crystals.

Said Zarathul in frustration as he looked at Ajuka.

"Yes, but now we have an identity of the holder. A Japanese human male named Mitsuya Kanzaki, not much is known about him, only that he was even marked by the Grigori as dangerous and apparently he had some enmity with Slash Dog."

Stated Ajuka as he showed Zarathul profile of the Mitsuya Kanzaki, while they didn't have much information on him, they still managed to find his location and place where he was living. Now the only thing that remained was to capture and extract the Sacred Gear.

"Who will be doing the job?"

Asked Zarathul curiously.

"Sirzechs will take care of it with his peerage and he took even a few of his best Legion Commanders. [Innovate Clear] is too important to the whole Imperium as we could obtain a huge amount of resources, so we must be prepared for everything. Five out of ten Legions were mobilized and even Devil Emperor ordered for the Imperial Temple Knights to be on stand by."

Zarathul just nodded his head in agreement. If they obtained the [Innovate Clear] and managed to produce Mana Stones, it would greatly enhance the strength of the Imperium and they would be able to close the gap with strong Pantheons such as Hindu Pantheon, Asgard or Shinto Pantheon or Jade Emperor's Celestial Court.

"Then we can only hope that nothing happens and Sirzechs would return with good news to us."

...

After Zarathul left Ajuka, he went to the Esdeath's place together with his gift [Star Buster Star Blaster]. He was in a pretty good mood, as he managed to obtain a perfect gift for his beautiful fianceé and even got some important news and all of them were good ones.

Zarathul was surprised to find Esdeath at the Fuerig Castle, as she should be currently preparing a new invasion to reclaim the remaining territories of the extinct Pillars. Currently, they had managed to re-conquer many lost territories and expanded the territory of the Imperium. Now the Imperium controlled around 35% of the whole First Layer of the Underworld.

"Esdeath what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be preparing for the next campaign?"

Asked Zarathul surprised that Esdeath wasn't in her usual location, which was Military Headquarters of the Imperium. When the Imperium was created, in regards to the military, she was only one level below Marshall of Imperium, as she was Legion General alongside Sirzechs.

"I was waiting for you. We are going to attack the core territories of the Old Satan Faction consisting of the Marbas, Marchosias, Maplhas, Halphas, Andrealphus, and Andromalius territories. They are the last bastion of the Old Satan Faction and it was decided by Marshall Bai Qi, that this would be a good opportunity to dispose of them entirely."

Truthfully Zarathul wasn't surprised, even though they lost almost most of their army, the Imperium was currently restructuring their existing territory, so they didn't have time to attack and conquer more lost territories of the Extinct Pillars.

"Why not, I don't have much to do anyway currently besides training. Also, I have a gift for you."

As he said that, he handed her the Orb which was the [Star Buster Star Blaster] Longinus-Tier Sacred Gear. Esdeath caught it with interest, and only by injecting some of her Demonic Energy she found out that this Orb was, in reality, Longinus, that suited her. She showed a sweet smile before hugging Zarathul closely.

"My husband gave a perfect gift for me once again, so tonight... there will be a surprise..."

Whispered Esdeath in seductive voice to Zarathul with slightly blushing on her face, that completely contrasted to her outfit and role as Legion General of Imperium Legions and fearsome warrior.

...

Forrest of Horrors

Forrest of Horrors was one of the forbidden places in the Underworld due to many dangerous species living there. It was very close to the Fuerig Castle in the Lucifer Territory. Currently, the whole Forest of Horrors was swarming with soldiers of the Lucifer Clan, other personnel and even squad of the Imperial Temple Knights were permanently stationed there. Not talking about one of Super Devils of the Imperium, his uncle Rizevim Livan Lucifer who was also there together with his retainer Euclid Lucifuge a Satan-Class devil.

"My Lord."

A voice that greeted him, belonged to the retainer of his uncle, Euclid Lucifuge, a younger brother of Grayfia. Euclid is a young handsome looking man appearing in his early twenties with silver hair that is tied in a braided hairstyle. He wears a silver robe with detailed accessories. One could say that he was fanatically loyal to the Lucifer Clan, with his undying loyalty and devotion.

"Hello, Euclid. How is the Broodmother doing?"

Asked Zarathul as this was the purpose of his visit here. The last time he was here to check up on the Broodmother it was when he moved to the Fuerig Castle, around one month ago and started living there.

"Devouring everything we throw into the Forest of Horrors. The entire forest that was once full of various dangerous beasts is now full of drones and first combat units she can create, Hydralisks. We have delivered to her more than thirty thousand corpses, one hundred thousand skeletons of various races we have found in the Underworld, through many battlefield sides and several thousand living prisoners. Now the entire Forest of Horrors is basically nest for the Worldeater race, turning into an impenetrable fortress, if the Broodmother achieves the Ultimate-Class, I believe even the squad of the Imperial Temple Knights would have a huge problem staying alive in that place."

Reported Euclid to Zarathul who showed satisfied smile hearing this, and then he proceeded deeper into the Forest of Horrors, well former forest, now the Nest of Worldeater Swarm. When he entered the nest, he immediately sensed the Broodmother and she sensed him.

"Feikenbollo Sillo, I see that you are getting better and better. Your strength is already slowly returning to you as I see."

Said Zarathul as he was standing in front of the Broodmother Feikenbollo Sillo, who was now several times bigger than before. She stood proudly on the four huge legs, and her two pairs of eyes were looking directly at Zarathul. On her head, she had two sharp horns and her mandibles were looking like two sharp scythes.

"Yes, slowly yes."

Said mechanic voice belonging to the last Broodmother of the Worldeater Race.

"How have you progressed on analysis of the various races?"

Asked Zarathul with anticipation, as this was one of the most important moments of the day.

"Analysis on the races Devil / Angel / Fallen Angel crossed 300%, all of the three races are coming from the same root, so from a certain point, additional procedures are becoming easier, now I am able to create units with some resistance to the Holy Element. Human analysis is completed as in the previous dimension I have devoured millions of them, and I have managed to make a progress on the analysis of the God race to 50%. Also, many of more mischievous races and analysis were obtained."

Reported Feikenbollo Sillo in usual mechanic voice to Zarathul who was very pleased with this answer.

"What types of drones could you create?"

Zarathul wondered about this for a long time as the Broodmother never mentioned it to him before.

"When I was on the peak of my strength, I have focused on the elite units and specialized ones. Usually, the broodmother would decide style of her unit making, either she will choose the quality or quantity. I have chosen the quality and I have created only a few types of troops, while all of them had perfect genome and abilities, and now after analyzing more races, I have managed to make many improvements.

Drone:

Basic building drone of the Worldeater Swarm. They are small workers that are the foundation of the Swarm as they are responsible for obtaining materials for Broodmother and many other mischievous things.

Hydralisk:

Hydralisks are covered in armored plates. The average Hydralisk was 5.4m long. 3 - 3.5m tall, and weighed anything from 500 kg to 1000kg. At "cruising speed," they could move at terrifyingly high speed. They also showed their dangerous streak by shooting powerful spines coated in toxin, their claws were sharp as scythes and their armor plates were far more durable than any metal. Priding in high Magical Resistance and resistance to many elements they were perfect warriors of the Worldeater Race, brutal, efficient, terrifying and yet elegant, flexible and obedient. All these traits were forged into a single dangerous weapon named Hydralisk.

Tyranid Warrior:

Huge humanoid insect, around 5m tall, weighting usually more than 2000kg. They are more intelligent compared to the Hydralisks and far more dangerous. They are elite soldiers of the Worldeater Swarm, created on the analysis of many different species. In regard to their intelligence, they are able to command a big amount of Hydralisks on their own and even to learn or use weapons. They also have higher resistance towards various forms of energy or elements.

Swarmlord

The Swarmlord in a uniquely powerful Worldeater bioform based on the records and genetics of countless races across the Dimensions. Compared to the previous units, they are born with zero combat strength as they are capable of evolution and cultivation. Each Broodmother could only create four of them. They are of various forms and shapes, depending on the intention of the Broodmother. Swarmlords are extremely intelligent, far superior to any A.I. and are genius commanders. A.d.u.l.t Swarmlord is more terrifying on the battlefield, where they are regarded at natural calamities, thanks to their personal strength and commanding abilities.

For now, I am able to create only the Hydralisks from combat units. When I reach the Ultimate-Class I should be able to create Tyranid Warrior and on the Super-Devil Class, I would be able to make Swarmlords."

All units were extremely formidable, and even Hydralisks were around Middle-Class and when the Broodmother reached the Ultimate-Class she would be able to raise their combat power by some amount. The combat power of the Tyranid Warrior was Ultimate-Class. Of course, stronger the broodmother was, stronger her units would be.

"What exactly you need to create the Swarmlord?"

In regard to the Swarmlord, they were category itself. They could reach unprecedented highs. Even one of them would be an extreme boon to the Imperium if enough time was given to them.

"In regard to the Swarmlord, there is a completely different process in the creation of Swarmlord and other units. In order to create other units, I only need Biomass and some of my energy, now it is Demonic Energy and I can create any ordinary unit I d.e.s.i.r.e. When creating the Swarmlord, I need the material base, so the corpse of formidable being at least at the level of Super-Devil is needed and also the arduous amount of divinity and Demonic Energy needed."