Silence heavy as a tomb enveloped the ritual chamber. The only movement was the nervous dance of candle flames and the sobbing breath of Gasper.
Jay stood motionless, his shadow stretching long and jagged across the obsidian floor, while the man with silver hair watched him with the detached curiosity, still calm and collected.
"You know, since we are here and the Grail has already been taken, why don't we converse?" the silver haired man suggested. His voice was smooth, possessing a terrifyingly reasonable lilt that felt like a razor hidden in silk.
But Jay didn't offer the courtesy of a reply and with a mere thought, a surge of blazing purple flame erupted from the air, spiraling toward the Devil with the intent to incinerate. The attack was sudden, but the silver haired man was prepared.
With a languid flick of his wrist, a crimson magic circle etched with silver runes and dark crimson energy with some complicated runes and sigil manifested in front of him. The holy fire of the Incinerate Anthem slammed into the barrier, splashing against it like water against stone. The Devil didn't move an inch.
"Don't you have manners in you, boy?" Euclid asked, his smirk unwavering. Almost looking down at the boy in front of him.
Jay remained silent, his eyes narrowed as he analyzed the interaction. He had been testing the waters, throwing out a low-output burst of base mode Incinerate Anthem flame to test his opponent's defensive speed.
And he can roughly estimate his strength now.
The Devil was trying desperately to suppress his mana, to keep his presence small, but Jay's domain could feel the power seeping through the cracks of his composure.
The man in front of him was no joke. Just by the sheer density of the aura bleeding out, Jay could tell this was likely the strongest Devil he had ever encountered.
He was far beyond the level of Berjequel, this man fight here probably sat comfortably in the realm of Azazel, perhaps even slightly eclipsing the Governor General in raw, concentrated aura alone.
To effortlessly deflect even a base-level attack of the Incinerate Anthem meant that Jay would likely need to go all out against this devil.
'But even he isn't as strong as Susanoo's True Divine Form,' Jay noted internally.
That was the crucial metric. Even if he loathed the memory of that fight.
Jay knew that to fight a Major God of Susanoo's caliber especially in his True Divine Form, he needed the True Cross' All Burning Properties.
It was his ultimate hax, his trump card.
He couldn't afford to waste that level of energy here if he could help it. Before the battle with the Storm God, the devil would have been an insurmountable wall if Jay relied solely on spatial magic and Incinerate Anthem.
But now, with Ame-no-Habakiri and Ame-no-Murakumo in his possession, the latter a blade he had yet to truly wield, two of Japan's four Divine Swords each bearing distinct divine properties, the balance had shifted.
This would be an even matchup as long as he played his cards right,
"You seem to hold a very deep grudge against the Vampires, don't you?" Euclid continued, unfazed by Jay's coldness. "Oh, am I right?"
Jay offered nothing but an empty gaze.
"Ah! Don't tell me you hate us?" Euclid asked, his voice airy and calm.
For a fraction of a second, Jay's killing intent flared. It was a microscopic slip, a tiny leak of his hatred, but it was enough to make Euclid let out a dry, jarring laugh.
"Hahaha, i see... That's wonderful. There are not many things in this world that can put a smile on my face quite like the suffering of humanity. Of course, my duty brings me the most joy, but other than that, this world is just a vain existence of pointless struggles and suffering. Don't you agree, human boy?"
Jay stayed as still as a statue.
"Oh, I am sorry. I forgot to introduce myself properly. I am the most joyous and honored servant of the House of Lucifer, Euclid Lucifuge." Euclid introduced himself.
Now that Euclid said it for the second time, the name echoed in Jay's mind. House Lucifer? He thought of Vali.
"You are not a responsive one, are you?" Euclid sighed. He turned his gaze away from Jay, looking toward the altar where Gasper clutched Valerie's limp hand. "Gasper Vladi... Valerie talked about you often in her dreams. Especially during the Sacred Gear extraction process as she scream in agonizing pain. Such a wonderful, tragic friendship you two have."
Gasper's head snapped up. His eyes, usually filled with cowardice, were now burning with a raw, agonizing hatred.
"You! What are you doing to Valerie!"
"Oh no, we just borrowed some of her soul," Euclid explained, gesturing vaguely. "See, Valerie is still alive thanks to her special conditions."
"Special... conditions?" Gasper stammered.
"Her Sacred Gear, the Holy Grail of the Secluded World. The Sephiroth Graal is actually a sub-species. A bug in the system, you could say. Instead of manifesting one Grail, she manifested three. Quite greedy for such a small girl, don't you think?"
Jay's eyes widened slightly. He looked back at Valerie. Three Grails. The power to distort the laws of life and death, tripled within a single vessel. It explained why the Tepes faction were so confident in their strength to the point they are not even afraid of Heaven's attack anymore.
"Since she had too many Grails for herself, we helped her take some of them," Euclid said with a sickeningly sweet tone.
"Liar!" Gasper screamed.
The air suddenly froze. A flicker of a candle flame stopped mid-dance as Gasper's time stopping power activated, locking the room in a stasis of stopped time. But Euclid didn't freeze. He stood there, moving his head with effortless grace. Jay too remained unaffected.
Euclid laughed lightly. "True enough, I am lying. But that is a Devil for you. That is what Rizevim-sama told me, and that is what I aspire to be. A True Devil."
The name hit Jay like a physical blow.
"Rizevim… Livan Lucifer?" he murmured, the name leaving his lips slowly as he reached back through his memory.
Euclid's smirk faltered for a heartbeat. He looked genuinely surprised. "Ho~. I did not think his name was so well known, even for a human as young as you. But that is right. The True Lucifer himself, Rizevim Livan Lucifer."
Jay felt a cold, hysterical urge to laugh. Just a couple days ago that Azazel had spoken of this man like a ghost, calling him the evil of all devils.
And now one of his followers was here, which meant he was likely here as well. The coincidence is so unbecoming as if this were nothing more than a simulation.
"Then he is here too?" Jay asked, his voice dropping into a register of pure frost.
"I don't know, what do you—"
Euclid never finished the sentence.
In that millisecond of distraction, Jay reached into the seam of reality and drew a sword from the tear in the void. Ame-no-Habakiri's jet-black blade emerged in a blur, trailing dark light and purple embers. Jay executed a continuous draw, a strike that ignored distance and acceleration entirely.
SHIIING
Instinct saved Euclid's life. His body, honed by centuries of battles and wars, sensed the spatial collapse before it fully registered. He leaned violently to the right, but the slash was already written into the air. The blade severed Euclid's left arm from the elbow down.
As the limb fell, a violet spark ignited on the stump. Euclid's eyes widened. He did not wait to see what the fire would do. He knew exactly what holy flame meant for a devil, especially of a Longinus caliber.
It can truly kill him.
Without hesitation, he severed his own arm from the elbow upward, cutting away the holiness before it could spread like a disease.
He retreated in a blur of speed, watching as his severed hand was swallowed by purple fire and burned to ash before it ever reached the floor.
Jay didn't give him a second to breathe. Using Voidwalker, he reappeared behind the Devil. But Euclid was no longer underestimating his opponent. And the physicality of a Satan-class devil like him was immense. He spun mid-air and a massive magic circle erupting between them.
BOOM
An explosion of silver-red energy burst against Jay. Euclid used the shockwave to gain distance, landing at the far edge of the chamber. He snatched a vial of Phenex Tears from his robes, downed it in a single gulp, and watched as his arm knit itself back together in a wet, meat-clapping sound and a bright light before it healed completely in just a second.
'What kind of fucking attack was that?' Euclid cursed inwardly.
The sword had appeared in the boy's hand almost instantly. If his instincts hadn't forced a dodge, he would be a corpse right now.
But Jay didn't stopped.
Purple flames erupted from beneath Euclid's feet. He leaped upward, narrowly avoiding the geyser of heat, only to find Jay already waiting in the air behind him. Euclid lashed out, grabbing Jay's elbow to redirect the next swing, but Phantasmagoria activated. His hand slipped through Jay's arm as if it were made of smoke.
They passed through one another, a ghost and a devil dancing in the vaulted shadows.
'The same technique that rendered my explosion useless,' Euclid realized.
He didn't hesitate. Dozens of magic circles manifested in a sphere around Jay, detonating in a synchronized chain reaction. The concussive force was enough to level a fortress, but Jay had already blinked away and reappearing next to Gasper.
Jay stood his ground, his breathing steady, his mind a whirlwind of calculations.
'The surprise attack didn't work… And he can read Habakiri's attacks by timing his dodge with my swing,' Jay thought.
The physicality of a Satan-class Devil was on an entirely different level. Even with the physical boosts granted by Habakiri, Euclid's physicality still eclipsed his human body.
Jay seriously considered learning Senjutsu and Touki. Enchantment magic simply could not boost his speed to a significant degree anymore.
Euclid landed softly, his expression no longer amused. It was cold, focused, and utterly lethal. He had almost died to a human. The humiliation was a bitter pill, but the danger was even more intoxicating.
"I must admit that you are strong for a human. Very strong, in fact," Euclid said, his voice stripped of its mocking lilt. "Considering all the limitations your race possesses, you are a special one. A genuine anomaly."
Jay said nothing. His mind raced, calculating every possible way to land a hit on Euclid.
"I would glad to be fighting you but my presence is needed elsewhere, so I will need to take my leave," Euclid announced.
A teleportation circle of brilliant light began to swirl around him.
But it was the window Jay had been waiting for.
Everyone knew that normally, once a spatial shift of a Teleportation magic began, the object inside was untouchable as it phased between dimensions. But Ame-no-Habakiri was called the Heaven-Severing Sword for a reason.
It didn't care about the rules of space.
Jay swung.
Euclid, initially believing the teleportation would protect him, felt his soul scream a warning.
He forced a desperate, agonizing lurch to the side just as the blade cleaved through the space where his heart had been a microsecond prior.
The world-cutting slash bisected the air, leaving a scar in reality that hissed with violet static. Euclid's figure was enveloped in the final flash of the teleportation circle and vanished, leaving only the fading scent of ozone and the scorched floors of the ritual chamber.
The room fell silent once more. Jay lowered his sword, the dark purple glow of the blade slowly receding.
"Tsk," Jay hissed, his voice heavy with irritation. Euclid had escaped.
He turned his gaze toward Gasper and the hollow shell of Valerie Tepes. The battle in the ritual chamber was over, but the Holy Grail War was only just beginning, and it was already moving into a far more dangerous phase with the involvement of the Devils.
***
On the corridor far away from the Ritual Chamber, Euclid staggered through the shadows in a rare state of disarray. His left arm had been severed once more, the cut so deep it had even grazed his shoulder. Blood splattered the stone as he leaned heavily against the wall, his breath uneven for the first time in centuries.
With a sharp click of his tongue, he reached into his coat and uncorked another vial of Phenex Tears. The liquid burned as it flowed down his throat, and in an instant, flesh knit itself back together, bone reforming, skin sealing as if the injury had never existed.
Even so, the sensation lingered.
To be maimed twice in succession. By a human.
Euclid's expression darkened, something unfamiliar stirring beneath his composed exterior. Not fear, but a sharp corrosive interest. A reminder that this world could still surprise him.
'Rizevim-sama must be informed,' he thought. 'A human capable of this cannot be ignored.'
He exhaled slowly, forcing the thought aside.
"But that can wait," Euclid murmured to himself.
Straightening his posture, he resumed his walk through the corridor, each step measured, his composure fully restored. His destination lay ahead, where his master awaited.
He would be present to witness it.
The birth of a new ruler in the vampire world.
Of course, only with the Devil's permission.