So for the next few hours, days? I don't even know anymore. Time was weird enough in the Underworld, but since Astaroth controls time, things are even wackier inside this place. After finishing the stupid books, I had a decent grasp of what was going on in the human world.
Since I also have some basic meta-knowledge, I've been able to figure out that it's about 20 years or so before the cannon starts. I also found some interesting facts, though.
Apparently, there are two massive demons hidden under the Spade Kingdom castle, and the royal family there serves as the primary and last line of defense against them. Currently, a trio of siblings is rising rapidly in the ranks of their military.
The Heart Kingdom is as reclusive as always, keeping to themselves and perfecting their mana method. The Water Spirit is also still contracted to their King or Queen.
The Diamond Kingdom is a mess since they are starting a program to make child soldiers, a great idea, except the man in charge is contracted to a devil. They are also running out of a lot of important resources, triggering a war with the Clover Kingdom that mostly consists of dozens of border skirmishes.
The Clover Kingdom itself is stable on the surface, but tensions between the Nobles, Commoners, and Peasants are at an all-time high. That, paired with the fact that they have no Wizard King at the moment, leaves them in quite a vulnerable spot politically.
Despite this, they retain a strong front, with the six Magic Knight Squads keeping peace and order in the kingdom, while repelling foes from all around.
To be honest, there were plenty of problems in the Clover and Diamond Kingdoms, which would give us plenty of room to climb and seize power; the more difficult ones would be the Heart and Spade kingdoms, as they are the most unified and the strongest, for now.
But that was for future me to deal with, right now I had to find Astaroth cause stars know what that lunatic is up to. I'd only been here for . . . a while, and that devil has been up to nothing but comic tomfoolery.
Don't get me wrong, Astaroth could probably rip my arms and legs off and wave them at me before I realized it, but at times it was as if I was stuck in a library with a child.
Then there were the times he would walk in on me and just stare, silently. I often didn't notice for a few minutes, which disturbed me greatly, but other than that, Astaroth was very calm and actually quite intelligent.
"Oh, you finished with them already? Not bad, I thought you would be a slow reader." He said as I entered a room full of floor-to-ceiling whiteboards, each with dozens of plans all connecting back to one big plan in the center.
"So are you done being an evil maniac, or are you actually able to teach me anything?" I asked as he looked offended, "Of course I can teach you, that's the whole reason you're here! Now explain to me what everything in any plan I make hinges on that is simple and taken for granted by humans."
I didn't even have to think too hard as the answer came out, "A Grimoire. Without it, we can't use our magic to its fullest, nor can we expand our spells and see how we can improve. All of this can be done without one, but it's a tool that helps as long as we don't let it become a crutch and a deadweight."
Astaroth nodded, happy with my answer, as he left his manic ramblings on the boards behind as he dragged me over to a training room. "Since you know the history of the Human world, you likely have seen how they use their magic, but now it's time to learn how devils use magic in the human world."
He then sat down on the floor, and I did the same, and he continued.
"Now, for obvious reasons, Devil summoning is forbidden in all but the Spade Kingdom and one recluse family in the Clover Kingdom. Devils have been known to break free of the binding ritual and wreak havoc before being sent back down here.
So to avoid them, you now need to learn how to hide your mana signature. This will also make sure that you're always being evaluated by those who would seek to harm you. If you constantly emit magic, they know what you are and can plan around it.
But if you only show a little at a time, no matter what plans they have, they'll always fail as they don't have the entire picture, and then they die."
He kept talking, explaining more things, but I tuned him out as I used my mana to try and shut off as many senses as I could. It seems it was working since slowly Astaroth's voice was fading as my sense of sight left with me closing my eyes, as touch and smell also faded.
Now that I was basically in my own sensory deprivation tank, I tried to sense both the mana inside my body and the mana outside it. It took some time, but I was eventually able to sense and differentiate between them.
Now the hard part, drawing back all the mana that was leaking from my body. I tried to force it back in, but that didn't work, and it seems I couldn't coax it back in either, so instead I tried gently guiding it.
It responded more to that, so I continued to guide it into my body, drawing as much as I could into my core, where it sat as I opened my eyes and breathed again. Astaroth nodded when I looked at him.
"Not bad for a first attempt. Seems you already know a bit about hiding things like that, so it should be a bit easier. There is still plenty leaking out, though, so try again while I walk you through it."
For a while, all I did was release and contract my mana. It wasn't that hard, but it did tax the brain a bit since Astaroth had me do it so many times. When I asked why, he said it was better to prepare a hundred times and only fail once; that's why we were going to practice a thousand times and never fail.
Pretty strange words, but still something I could use as I finally could do it fast and frequently enough for him to be happy. He then went on to explain all the various ways humans use magic.
"Humanity is a very lazy species, and is always looking to feel superior and do less work. That is why the Nobles have commoners and peasants do all the farming, even though the Nobles have the magic power to do twice as much within a third of the time.
The Commoners, in turn, do the same to the low-born peasants since they don't have as much mana as a Noble, but still more than the peasants, who basically have nothing.
My plan will erase all of these barriers, giving everything and everyone a fresh start to prove their worth, no matter their origin.
The most innovative thing about Humanity is also their laziness, since they will go to great lengths to find the fastest, most efficient way to do things. In this case, that is magic, need tools for farming? Magic. Transportation, Magic. Fighting, Magic.
Everything these humans do revolves around or directly uses magic. Yet they are still confined to this boxed-in thinking that you lack, that even I suffer from, and since you aren't limited by that, this time everything will work."
I had to ignore him again as he started talking about random parts of his plan that he still had yet to explain to me, so I decided to go read and find out for myself.
Humans have a variety of different types of ways of using their magic, just like Astaroth said, but none have such a variety as the commoners. Although they don't have the raw power and elements capable of leveling battlefields like Nobles, they have more control over things like finer details in fabrics and food, things no Noble would willingly touch.
So, despite not having much mana, they are still able to control a decent amount of any kingdom and bring tangible wealth to the upper class and the kingdom at large, depending on their specialty.
After some time, Astaroth comes and finds me, "It's time you learned how to fight like a proper mage, follows." He then led me to a training chamber that had some targets in one spot, and an open area that seemed to stretch forever.
"I seldom come in here anymore, but you will make great use of it. Use the targets for marksmanship training, try using smaller spells and constructs. Once you can do that, we'll move on to fighting at range and using mana more effectively.
I didn't really want to, but I went along with it as I threw myself into training.
For a while, all I did was blast the targets with each time of magic bullet, before making specific spells to hit certain parts of the target, when Astaroth came by a bunch of weights, 'for later,' he'd said as I eyed them before returning to training.
I already knew I could hit anything I wanted; now I needed to be able to incapacitate without killing, so after swapping out the targets for more humanoid-looking ones, I started aiming for specific spots that wouldn't bleed too much when hit.
This was what I'd needed since I can't really pulverise my competition in whatever kingdom we end up in, since it might mess up his plans. So I ended up having to bring out Weapon Creation Magic again as I tried to make as simple a rifle as I could for general use.
That ended up being a bolt-action 25-06 rifle. It was something new, since I was used to either modern weapons like M4s and AR's, or advanced plasma weaponry that had auto tracking features that usually linked to armor.
So I ended up having to really go at it with the rifle as Astaroth came by and asked questions about the strange weapon. I ended up giving him a bunch that he could mess with, since it was good practice for me to make the gun and the ammo with magic.
I also decided to keep a .44 revolver as a sidearm. The poor thing was absolutely useless against the devils of the Underworld, but against squishy humans? Best thing ever if I wanted to throw in a nasty surprise for anyone foolish enough to press me.
Eventually, Astaroth got bored tinkering with the rifles as he came back and dragged me away for a brief lecture on how to fight like a mage before we actually fought.
Astaroth had the simple job of getting as close to me as possible; I had the hard job. Stay as far away as possible, land as many spells as I can, and don't get hit by him. Sounds easy, until you remember he can control time and just appear in places.
He went easy on me, but I was still unable to land a hit on him after dozens of matches, just delaying the inevitable. He also would sometimes just fly around in strange patterns. As I tried to hit him, I got close a few times, but then he would just appear somewhere else, and I'd miss.
So to work around that, I first locked onto his mana and then cast spells, making them track his movements so that even if the spell missed him, it could chase after him and close off routes of retreat.
Races also started being the norm as he pushed me physically and magically. He never did explain the purpose of some of the things we did, but I kept finding ways to improve something, which must have been what he was looking for.
More time passed by, and I started seeing less of Astaroth as he seemed to be getting ready for something, constantly running around and checking books in his library, only to disappear again.
I didn't really care what he did as I had my own plans for this world, but I kept that to myself as I kept training day and night, not that I could tell the difference in this crazy place.
Finally, one day, Astaroth appeared before me and motioned for me to follow. He led me not up, but down into the basement under the library, as he showed me a massive ritual circle as he stood in the center.
"It's time for me to go to the Living World." He said simply, "You remember what I told you of the devil hosts?" I nodded, "Humans who have contracted devils and receive a portion of their power and can unlock more, but it requires them to give something up for power. Dangerous for the human involved."
He nodded as the circle lit up, and I stood right outside it, "I suggest you try and find a human desperate for power and take their body, but it's not a priority since I'm going to personally find you a vessel."
I nodded as the ritual came to an end, as Astaorth looked around one last time, "We'll have to give you a name when we see each other again." He grinned as massive pulsing chains burst from the magic circle and wrapped around him, constricting tightly as I felt his mana get drained.
Astaroth then started to sink into the magic circle, but as his head touched it, he flexed his power, and all the chains snapped, as screaming was heard from the other side.
Once he was gone, I returned to the library and found some unwelcome guests waiting in the lobby. "I wonder what made you brave enough to barge into here, Lucifero, Beelzebub?"
The pair snarled at me but didn't move, clearly expecting Astaroth but getting me. Knowing what they were after, I flexed my mana, now much stronger than the last time I met them, as the library responded to my will.
"Impossible!" Lucifero hissed as Beelzebub dragged him away. If the Black Library was responding to the will of the strange devil, that could only mean one thing: Astaroth was dead.