Beelzebub and Lucifero scream in outrage as I pull their blood towards me. Megicula is stunned and barely hurt since she can probably control her own blood. It matters little as I compress the blood as much as possible, and with a pulse of Blood Magic, a chalice forms before me.
Ignoring the quickly recovering devils, I drink deeply from the chalice, feeling the mana and magic flow into me with each gulp. I don't stop, even as Lucifero appears before me.
His claws stretch towards my face, but before they can close, I smile as the spark of his magic lights up within me. Lucifero grunts as a blast of Gravity Magic slams into him, giving me room to disengage as I continue drinking, and more sparks of magic ignite as well.
Beelzebub is next as space tears apart violently, but I cancel out his attack with my own as he frowns. 'It actually managed to kill Aldwin, how annoying. I wanted to do it myself.' The devil thinks before warning Lucifero.
"He has space magic. Aldwin is dead. Be on guard." He warned as he started to teleport around. "YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Lucifero roared as gravity warped around him, subject to his rage.
I ignored them as I finished drinking and felt another type of magic light up within me. 'Hide until needed.' That was all I could think about before they attacked.
Magicula tried to help as well, but I quickly dealt with her as her own body started to tear itself apart. She was forced to back off and deal with it as I thanked the stars for modern medical knowledge.
Beelzebub and Lucifero were much harder to deal with. Beelzebub was manageable since I knew how to fight a Space Magic user and could maneuver myself using his own tricks. Lucifero, however, was a different story.
Since he controlled gravity, he was able to restrict my movements a lot when he managed to lock onto me, which could normally be solved by a portal, but Beelzebub kept me in one place as best he could, closing that option.
The best course would be to separate the two, but that's proving difficult as they fight and cover each other's weaknesses very well. If I had distance, I could bombard Lucifero with AOE and single-target spells, before trying what I did to the dragon, but Beelzebub made sure I was always within striking distance.
Beelzebub was the opposite, since he fought more like a mage. I tried again to close the distance and force him into a melee, but Lucifero again intercepted as I hit the ground hard before nullifying his Gravity magic.
"Don't kill him, I still want to experiment on him!" Megicula shouted as she returned with a vengeance, bloody whips and spiralling lances of steel racing towards me as Lucifero locked me down and Beelzebub used his portals and slashes to send attacks from weird angles.
"Like I'd ever let someone as ugly as you test on me!" I taunted Megicula, which worked as she rushed at me, claws outstretched. Only for gravity to slam her to the ground as I punched Lucifero in the face and dove down.
Megicula was able to lift her head, but I shoved it back down as I ripped off her arm and started beating her with it. She yelled in pain as I felt the other two close in. Getting one final smack in, I threw her at Lucifero as a portal swallowed her up, and I ate the arm.
Beelzebub and Lucifero sped up when they felt my mana regenerate some and increase as we started to tear apart the earth near the gate.
Things didn't slow down with the absence of Megicula; they actually sped up as Beelzebub and Lucifero changed the game. Beelzebub stopped using Space Magic and switched to bone magic, calling forth massive monsters and bony weapons to harass me as Lucifero threw a freaking BLACK HOLE AT ME!!
Since it was time, I started fighting back against Beelzebub with his own Bone Magic as he frowned. I didn't really have a counter for the blackhole other than another one, which was a mistake as the two just merged and started wrecking the place, forcing us to move.
As we did, I remembered a move from a lazy skeleton in a game I'd seen, and surprisingly, it worked. Beelzebub's eyes widened a little when the massive dragon head formed.
I already had a good idea of what a dragon's skull looked like, so after forming it, I charged a good bit of mana before it opened its maw and blasted them. Both emerged unscathed, so I grinned as more appeared.
Things went up another notch as a few minutes later, Beelzebub figured out my trick and did the same as hundreds of different skulls appeared, blasting mana beams. Lucifero must have felt left out as he threw out more black holes and increased the gravity, what must be dozens of times what is normal in the area they are fighting, as the gate to the 7th layer opens once again.
I'm still riding the high of mana absorbing I'd gotten from eating Megicula's arm when everything froze, and the world turned light blue.
"When I told you to come find me, I didn't expect you to cause such a ruckus." A calm voice said, as I tried to move to see who was talking, but my body refused to move.
"Don't bother trying to move, I've got you locked in a time spell that froze all time around you, even those two can't escape. Hahaha, look how upset they are." The new voice laughed lightly as I found I could still move my eyes, and yep, they were mad.
Beelzebub and Lucifero were trapped in their own blue orbs that had a band of strange writing floating around them. Just like the voice had said, they didn't look happy, their eyes glaring at something behind me that I couldn't see.
"Although I'd love to stay and chat, I have work to do, unlike the rest of you. I will fix your little mess, though, stretch my magic a little." The voice chuckled at his own voice as I watched the damage from our fight slowly turn back to normal, as if time itself were reversing.
"Oh, it seems you've figured it out already." The voice said as the orb slowly turned, and I recognized the devil who had talked to me back up at the first level.
"Nice to meet you properly this time, strange devil. My name is Astaroth, and I am the Supreme devil of Time."
I wanted to ask what that meant, but Astaroth just waved his hand, and the time bubble I was trapped in followed him, as did the other two. I half expected him to whip out a key and open the gate, but again, all he did was wave his hand, and the gate calmed down and opened.
As the three orbs followed behind their captor, the gate shut behind them after they all passed through, and the violent mana coating returned in full force as it eagerly reached towards them, hissing and sparking as Astaroth took them away.
Since I was literally trapped in time and couldn't move, I decided to try and refill my mana, but found that even mana couldn't move within this spell, as Astaroth grinned at my failure.
Stumped and a little annoyed, I looked around the seventh layer, a bit confused. Why was it just a void? There was nothing around, no sky, no ground, no light, just an empty blackness that seemed to consume everything.
Occasionally, I did see a few flashes of light in the distance, but wherever Astaroth was taking us, it was away from the lights.
Eventually, he stopped as I moved my eyes to see a massive purple dome. Astaroth waved his hand, and Lecifero's sphere flew into it. The same thing happened a while later with Beelzebub and a pale white dome.
Finally, we reached what must be Astaroth's dome as he chucked me in, and I hit the ground. Groaning, I got to my feet and found myself in the lobby of a massive library.
"Welcome to my home. There's a kitchen on the second level if you want to eat, not that you need it. Oh, there's a section on the fifth level that goes over multi-magic individuals if you want to steal some spell ideas from others."
Astaroth then gave me the grand tour of his 'home' as I numbly followed along, very confused. He showed me about 15 levels of his massive library, and sprinkled in among these levels were various other rooms.
Some were for physical training, looking like a personal gym of sorts. Others were target fields, which were for magic if I had to guess. There were also bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and even a 'fun' room that was mildly disturbing.
Finally, we ended up back on the bottom floor as Astaroth sat down with a smile. I slid into a chair, feeling dizzy as I tried to comprehend just what was going on.
"So strange devil," He started as I tried to return to the land of the living, "Do you have a name, or will I just have to give you one? I've got plenty, but I can give you a list if it helps you pick what you want instead of thinking of something!"
"I don't have a name yet, but why am I here? You said you had answers, but all I've seen so far are thousands of books and a giant library that hurts to look at." As if to prove my point further, the library itself started shifting around as the nearest books turned from How to sense Mana, for beginners, to The best way to deal with magical headaches.
"Ah, yes, I do have answers. They're right in front of you!" Astaroth gestured to the library around us as I made a face, and he grinned. "Ah, you're no fun!"
"All the knowledge of this world is within this library. Ask me what you want, and I can find the answer. Sometimes it may take a while, as even I have yet to read all that is within this place, but I'll certainly try."
Still trying to wrap my head around things, I threw out the first question I had. "Where are the humans at?" Astaroth nodded and snapped, as a projector came out of somewhere and displayed the massive tree from before.
"This is a basic representation of our world," He said, gesturing around before pointing to the roots, "This is where we are, the Underworld. It contains seven levels that descend; stronger devils can be found the lower you go. Low, Medium, and high-ranking devils are present on almost all of them.
Above High ranking is Supreme. That is what those two idiots you were fighting before are, as well as a few others. I'd say you're in between High and Supreme-ranking right now, almost there, you just need another good push!
As for the humans, they reside in the 'living world' as the others call it. We devils can't just go there when we want; we have to be summoned, or the gates have to be opened by the Qliphoth advent ritual."
My eyes followed as my brain struggled to keep up with all the tangents he kept wandering to before snapping back on track. "And where do I come in?" I mumbled, "You could have killed me back on the first level, yet here I am. Why?
Astaroth smiled, creepily.
"Why, you're going to help me take over the Underworld AND the Living Word!"
I raised an eyebrow at that, "How could I possibly do that? You control the fundamental force of TIME; the best I can do is Gravity and Space. Certainly effective, but you're in a class of your own."
"My, such kind words." Astaroth preened, "Well, you see, you aren't from this world and so-" I cut him off, lunging at him before I froze.
"Sigh, I knew you would do that, stay still and listen!" He chided as I found myself back in my seat. "You aren't from this world, I know, because I've been monitoring the timelines for the past few centuries as I plan my next 50 moves before they happen.
There are several variables that my alternate selves have failed to overcome and have died facing. Especially that stupid STAR MAGE!"
The library shook with Astaroth's agitation as I eyed the towering shelves in worry; they wouldn't fall on me, right? He ignored that as he kept rambling, and I slowly pieced things together.
"See, if I wish to control both realms, I can't let a normal human control my power and do it for me; that's what all the others did, and they ALL failed. So instead, when that foolish human tries the binding ritual, I'll just take over his body for myself!
Going over his plan, he really did a great job and almost won! In the end, though, he failed, and all the devils of the Underworld died, and the world had peace for a few centuries as the Supreme and High devils slowly regenerated back from nothing."
"Where do I come in?!" I interrupted as Astaroth snapped out of it. "I get you have this great plan to control the two realms, but how can I help when all your alternatives have failed, especially if you plan on following the same plan they did?
I'm a wildcard, yeah, but I can't fight the world, not yet anyway. Plus, I don't know how to get to the Living world, as far as I know, I'm stuck down here since no one is going to try and bind or summon me, because they don't know I exist!"
Astaroth considered that for a while, and I used the time to sit and organize my thoughts as I finally got everything straightened out, as Astaroth returned to us.
"You're right, I didn't realize that I would inevitably fail since I did plan on following the exact plan of the others. See! This is why I need YOUR help, since you're not from this world, your thinking isn't limited by the narrow box we all understand reality to be!"
He then stood up and went searching for books, and upon finding them, returned.
These talk about the kingdoms of the human world: The Spade Kingdom, the Heart Kingdom, the Diamond Kingdom, and the Clover Kingdom. Read these while I revise my plan, you've already given me much to think about!"
I stared at the pile of books before me, grimacing at the thickness of the bindings. I did find it mildly amusing that each kingdom was related to the symbols on decks of cards, mildly.