High School DxD: The Lucifer's Devil Trigger — Chapter 35

Chapter 35: The Charred Forest and the Black Snake

“After all, our clan has few members and no branch families, so they haven’t acted too excessively. I suppose that can barely be considered restrained.” Ajuka’s voice carried a heavy sigh through the communication circle. “It’s fine, Levi. This isn’t your fault. I’ll come pick you up; it’s probably not safe on your end.”

Ajuka’s concern for Levi’s safety was evident, but Levi’s response was calm and measured.

“No need,” Levi replied, glancing over the ruined landscape. “The battle on my end has already concluded. But you two really do need to come over. Words won’t do justice to the sheer scale of destruction here.”

Hearing the gravity in Levi’s tone, Sirzechs and Ajuka felt their stomachs drop. They exchanged a grim look and nodded.

The Familiar Forest was a critical asset to the Underworld. If the angels or Fallen Angels noticed a massive disturbance because the Devils failed to clean up their own mess, it could easily spark another three-way war. Ajuka immediately began weaving a teleportation formula, while Sirzechs gave a swift affirmative.

When the two Maous stepped out of the magic circle, the scene that greeted them was too tragic to process.

Only one word echoed in their minds: devastation.

Initially, when Levi mentioned the forest was ‘gone’, they had pictured a blackened woodland of dead, leafless trees. When he added that the destruction was worse than imagined, they assumed it had been leveled into a pile of ruins.

Standing amidst the lingering heat, they realized just how naive they had been.

“The entire ground…” Ajuka murmured, his brow knitting tightly together. “It’s been burned to pure charcoal. The only surviving familiars are low-class beasts immune to extreme temperatures, and their numbers are barely a fraction of a percent of what they used to be.”

Sirzechs let out a long, heavy breath beside him, his eyes scanning the endless sea of gray ash and glowing embers.

Footsteps crunched against the scorched earth. Levi approached, accompanied by Grayfia, whom he had summoned moments prior.

“There’s no need to worry about the familiars,” Levi said, his tone cutting through the bleak atmosphere. “When the forest caught fire, I had one of my servants intervene. Her magic attribute is ‘Void’. She transferred over ninety percent of the familiars into Imaginary Space to shield them from the flames.”

Sirzechs’s eyes widened, a spark of genuine relief washing over his features. “We owe you our thanks.”

Once again, Levi proved to be a man full of pleasant surprises.

Knowing the majority of the familiars were safe, Ajuka finally let his tense shoulders drop. He turned his attention fully to the young man before him. “This is our first time meeting face-to-face, isn’t it? Just as you do with Sirzechs, you may call me Ajuka. Now… what exactly transpired here?”

With both Transcendents present, Levi’s safety was absolute. Ajuka shifted his focus entirely to the investigation. Sirzechs also turned his gaze toward Levi, waiting for answers.

Levi let out a long, deliberate sigh. “To be completely honest, if someone were to stand here and tell me what happened, I wouldn’t believe a word of it.”

He shook his head slowly. “Even the most ridiculous fiction couldn’t invent a fool like this.”

Levi cast a brief glance at Grayfia.

Under the watchful eyes of the two Maous, Grayfia raised her hand. A complex, azure magic circle expanded from her palm, casting a cool blue light over the charred ground. “Rather than relying on words, it is better if you witness it yourselves.”

Ajuka’s eyes locked onto the complex runes spinning within the circle. “A spell to observe the past… Impressive, Grayfia. I didn’t expect you to have perfected this.”

Ajuka had researched this exact branch of magic to gather intelligence, but he had always hit a wall. Half of the necessary foundational data existed in the Underworld, while the other half belonged to the Biblical God and remained locked away in Heaven. Without it, a breakthrough had been impossible.

But Grayfia was different. The missing magical formulas from Heaven were perfectly recorded within the Key of Solomon. Levi had simply handed the entire compendium over to her. When she first received the mythical knowledge, Grayfia had barely been able to believe her eyes. Now, she was entirely accustomed to her master’s casual miracles.

“It is nothing major,” Grayfia replied smoothly, though the magic formula in her hand stabilized with flawless precision.

Phantoms of light and shadow began to weave together, projecting the recent past.

Levi already knew exactly what the Maous were about to see. Grayfia, however, had only a vague idea of the events leading up to the forest’s destruction, so she watched the projection just as intently as Sirzechs and Ajuka.

The image solidified. Diodora Astaroth stood arrogantly before Levi and Tiamat.

The sheer entitlement painted across Diodora’s face made him look as though he believed himself second only to God. When the projection captured him spitting words of blatant disrespect toward Levi, the temperature around Grayfia plummeted. Her silver eyes narrowed into icy slits.

If she had been present at that moment…

‘How could I have let such trash dirty Lord Levi’s hands!’ she thought, her grip tightening imperceptibly.

Sirzechs and Ajuka’s disgust toward the Reformist Faction deepened into a cold, hard knot. Yet, feeling the freezing aura radiating from Grayfia, the two Maous could only offer strained, awkward smiles.

Up to this point, the confrontation seemed somewhat standard for an arrogant young noble. But what unfolded next defied all logic for the two Maous.

That fool Diodora actually intended to make Tiamat—the Chaos Karma Dragon—his familiar?

The projection showed Tiamat roaring in absolute fury. In response, Diodora pulled out a writhing black snake to defend himself.

Then, the projection shattered into blue sparks.

Ajuka sighed, waving a hand through the dissipating mana. “The formula for observing the past is still too fragile. The moment a Satan-class entity gets serious, the ambient energy interferes and forces the spell to self-destruct…”

He turned his gaze back to Levi, his expression hardening. “Just as I said earlier—well killed. How could I, Ajuka, share blood with such a brainless relative?”

Sirzechs’s expression turned incredibly complicated. He finally understood Levi’s earlier warning.

Honestly, if they hadn’t seen the projection with their own eyes and had only listened to Levi’s verbal account, Sirzechs would have believed him out of sheer trust. But deep down, a small part of him would have doubted that anyone could be that stupid.

Now, the proof was obvious. Such a fool truly existed. And unfortunately, that fool had been a Devil.

Levi observed their reactions, then caught the brief, odd shift in Grayfia’s expression before she smoothed it back into perfect neutrality. He shook his head and continued the narrative.

“As for what happened after the projection broke, you both know Tiamat,” Levi said, spreading his hands. “She is a Dragon King. No matter how much she might try to restrain herself, she wasn’t going to swallow an insult like that.”

“But as you just saw, Diodora pulled out a black snake right in front of her…”

Levi reached into his coat and produced a sealed magic sphere. Inside, the dark, writhing serpent was suspended in stasis.

Sirzechs and Ajuka stared at it, their faces entirely devoid of expression. They knew instinctively that the creature was dangerous, but they still felt that whatever threat it posed couldn’t possibly eclipse the sheer stupidity Diodora had just displayed.

Then, Levi dropped the hammer.

“Diodora used that black snake, and his magical power instantly skyrocketed to the Satan-class.”

Silence fell over the scorched clearing.

“…What?” Sirzechs breathed, his calm facade cracking. “Are you joking?”

Satans, Dragon Kings, Seraphs, and Fallen Angel Cadres represented the absolute ceiling of the world’s power structure. Anything beyond that fell into the Exception-class, entities that were practically myths.

Yet Diodora—a piece of trash resting at the absolute bottom of the Ultimate-Class Devils—had bridged the gap to the Satan-class using a mere item?

Did that mean this snake provided a boost more exaggerated than a Longinus’s Balance Breaker?

If it were a unique, legendary artifact, it would be one thing. But the true horror lay in its absolute lack of origin. It wasn’t a Sacred Gear. It wasn’t a known demonic relic. It had simply appeared out of nowhere.

What if… this thing could be mass-produced?

“What on earth is that?” Ajuka asked, his voice tight with barely suppressed alarm.

Levi shook his head and tossed the magic sphere to Sirzechs, who caught it carefully. “I don’t know either. That’s exactly why I needed you both here. You need to investigate this immediately. Whatever it is, members of the Reformist Faction have already acquired it, and your intelligence networks caught absolutely no wind of it. This is a severe threat to the Underworld.”

“It will cause chaos,” Ajuka agreed, his grip tightening. He looked at Levi, his eyes filled with deep respect. “I know I’ve said this before, but I must say it again. Thank you, Levi. Truly. Thank you for doing all of this for the Underworld.”

Levi offered a modest grin. “Don’t say that. Am I not a part of the Underworld too? Since I have the power to handle this, then with great power comes great responsibility.”

Hearing those words, genuine warmth and gratification softened the faces of the two Maous.

They had absolutely no idea that Levi had orchestrated the entire incident from the very beginning.

With the snake safely handed over, Levi smoothly filled in the rest of his fabricated truth. “After that, Tiamat was completely blinded by rage. The two of them clashed. The collateral damage was escalating too quickly, and I feared the entire region would be wiped off the map, so I had to step in and mediate.”

Levi’s eyes darkened appropriately. “At first, I didn’t want to involve myself directly. But Diodora said things I couldn’t ignore. He arrogantly declared that since I had seen the black snake, I had to die. He also confessed that he murdered the Familiar Master to keep this secret.”

Levi paused, letting the weight of the revelation sink in.

Thanks to the recent upgrade to his Clairvoyance, Levi had unlocked a minor degree of Past Vision. When he had initially gone looking for the Familiar Master and found him missing, a casual glance into the past had unearthed a massive, unexpected clue.

Hearing of the Familiar Master’s murder, the disgust on Sirzechs and Ajuka’s faces morphed into cold fury.

However, they also understood the tactical reality of the situation. Facing a sudden Satan-class opponent, while simultaneously dealing with a rampaging Dragon King, capturing Diodora alive would have been impossible.

Levi’s actions were entirely justified. Completely reasonable.

“Diodora is dead, and the black snake is now in your hands,” Levi concluded. “The Familiar Forest, however, was burned to the ground by a breath of dragon fire from the enraged Tiamat.”

“I had my servant save the familiars, and then I personally beat Tiamat into the dirt.”

Levi felt the stage was perfectly set. He looked at Sirzechs and Ajuka, his tone shifting into absolute, calm authority.

“Now, Tiamat is my servant.”

He let the silence hang for a fraction of a second before continuing. “So… regarding the Familiar Forest, I am deeply sorry. The familiars are alive, but the habitat is ruined. Since the destruction was caused by my new servant, I will take full responsibility. I will use the resources of the Lucifer Clan to reconstruct the Familiar Forest to its original state.”

—This was the true objective Levi had been building toward.

When it came to familiars, he had no intention of letting Sakura control just a handful of beasts. If he was going to use her abilities, he was going to play on a massive scale. Sakura could store entire herds of demonic beasts within her Imaginary Space, deploying them as a personal army. When their numbers dwindled, she would need a place to replenish them.

The Familiar Forest was the perfect breeding ground.

But the original forest belonged to the Underworld government. He couldn’t just harvest familiars at will without drawing attention.

Now, the board was wiped clean. The forest was ash, and he was the one paying to rebuild it. Once the Lucifer Clan funded and constructed the new habitat, the question of who truly owned the Familiar Forest would become very blurred.

If anyone else had made this offer, Sirzechs and Ajuka’s political instincts would have immediately flared, suspecting a power grab.

But Levi’s reputation in their eyes was currently flawless.

Instead of suspicion, Levi’s offer only cemented their belief that he was an incredibly noble leader—a man willing to shoulder the immense financial and political burden of his servant’s mistakes, all to protect his family’s honor.

Sirzechs, who hailed from the House of Gremory and viewed his own peerage as precious family, felt a deep resonance with Levi’s actions. His respect for the young Lucifer soared to new heights.

Ajuka and Sirzechs were old friends; their thought processes often mirrored one another. Looking at Levi now, they both felt he was almost too soft-hearted.

Neither of them suspected for a single second that Levi was smoothly transforming the Underworld’s public Familiar Forest into his own private, military-grade arsenal.