It was later that very same day that Santiago was sitting within a room in the Bulwark. The room was a pretty standard issue meeting room. Meeting rooms in the Bulwark could be reserved with little waiting time, doubtlessly because there were so many.

Around him sat the five members of SEDS, which Santiago couldn’t help but wonder what it stood for. They were studying the reports that the ICP had given them, examining their abilities in more that they knew about them.

“You know,” commented Rubén, “I didn’t even know my Shock Bullet had a maximum range. Thankfully I didn’t try to snipe anyone with it.”

Santiago nodded, concentrating in the changes that his own report had compared with the past month.

Satan stage 1-9. Path: NA.

SP: 29-65

Affinities: BLS Absorb, CRS Null, 10% Absorb All Elements.

Powers:

False Tree of Qliphoth stage 2-3. 100,000/100,000-1,000,000/1,000,000-5,279/10,000,000.

-The False Tree of Qliphoth integrity: Stage 2-3-4. Concrete wall-city wall.

-Tainted Miasma production: Stage 2-3-4: 1.5-5-12 m^3/h.

-Qliphoth Rhizome: Stage 2-3-4: Drain 2-6-14 u/s. DMG Weak. Max speed. 51-63-79 km/h.

-Fruit of divinity enhancement: Stage 2-3-4: 1.1-2.3-5.6 Ohr.

-Lasts unrooted: Stage 2-3-4: 2-10-25 h.

Kyrioi apo Metallon Fame bonus.

Devil Speed: Increases movement speed by 40%.

Lesser Cocytus Chill: Causes slight frostbite on enemies, dealing very weak damage over time and reducing speed by 5% (stacks 4 times, 8 with 4 Weak stacks). Priority 50.>

He had gotten Devil Speed when Satan reached stage 4, and Lesser Cocytus Chill when it reached stage 9. They were pretty good in all honesty, and Santiago could see how they would aid him in battle quite easily. What had surprised him after twelve days had passed was how massive the boost to his Qliphoth Tree was when it reached stage 3, but that made sense considering the Ohr requirement had jumped a hundredfold. As for the stage 4 enhancement, little needed to be said as the boost was greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately with the 10,000,000 Ohr requirement the Qliphoth Tree’s progress had slowed to a halt. Santiago had done the math and the amount of time needed to advance was no less than 165 days. This meant being the 16th of August he had had his last boost before, presumably, the last days of January.

The final increase to his power, that wasn’t magic, was the fruit of divinity’s enhance physical attributes. Right now he was at a permanent 4.4 Ohr enhancement. Adding the nanomachines, that increased his physical abilities by roughly half an Ohr and gave him regeneration, he was far stronger than a normal stage 9 mage. That was only if he didn’t count their bound daemons, since that could change things.

Speaking of others he needed to know his new companion’s abilities if he wished to work with them.

“So, what can you guys do?”

Rubén, who Santiago suspected was the brains of this group, was the first to speak.

“I will begin. But first I will once again introduce myself. I am Rubén Gallego Cruz, I dream of becoming a game developer.”

He smiled at Santiago trying to not make him mad. The sight of Santiago fuming for hours as they went through the registration process wasn’t a pleasant one. For the record I took care of Santiago’s registration on my own, and the fact he was a part of the Kyrioi made it so there was no issue.

“My Guardian is called Blue Sniper and, as the name suggests, I specialise in piercing projectiles. My report says I’m stage 43 and I have thirteen powers. First are my self enhancing powers, Eagle Eye, better sight and accuracy; Presence Detection, gives me a sixth sense and does what it says; Presence Concealment, makes me difficult to notice; Vanishment, when activated makes me disappear from the perception of the target, and Soldier’s Body which increases my physical abilities by, uh…”

“What is it?” Asked Akihito.

“The units it gives me are weird. Too much data.”

“Ask the ICP to measure the enhancement in my units.” Said Santiago.

Rubén nodded and placed his hand in a terminal, that was in the center of the desk around which they were sitting.

“It enhances my physical abilities by 3.16 to 3.87 depending on area enhanced. I am better at running than fighting hand to hand for example.”

“The guns I sell go to you.”

“Yes. My other powers are Shock Bullet, a paralysing physical attack, Piercing Bullet, which is basically an anti-armour attack; Multi-Shot, that shoots between ten and twenty bullets randomly; Guided Bullet, a homing projectile, and Double Impact that doubles the power of physical powers. My three elemental attacks are Tempest Grenade, which is what it sounds like, Elemental Bullet, again it’s just like it sounds, and Poison Rondo, which is a gas grenade but with gaseous poison.”

Santiago was impressed, such a coherent power set was rare outside of the Bulwark. This made him suspect that this A Dimension has its own means of powering up people. Worrying.

“My magic is mostly meant to enhance my powers so that doesn’t change how I fight. As for bonded daemon… all of our bonded daemons are similar, so we could leave that for last?”

“I don’t mind. Nice to meet you, Rubén. Next.”

Santiago’s words were polite, but they were said practically in monotone. It was like he just said them reflexively from practice. Except it wasn’t like.

“Then me! I am Ignacio Fernandez Ruiz, and my dream is to become a respected magician!

My Guardian is the Silver Aquarius Stage 46 and I specialise in kicking ass and buffing my allies. My self enhancing powers are Fluidity, increases my movement speed; Carrier, enhances my strength; Water Shield, enhances my defense, particularly against fire; Earth Connecting Legs, this one is weird, it makes me difficult to move while dissipating 60% of the impacts I receive to the ground; Steelhead, prevents concussions and the like; Aegis of the Mind, protects me against mental effects; Healing Water, gradually heals me over time; Sharing the Water, that extends the effects of my powers to my allies, and An’s Favour, that elevates my water resistance to absorb.”

Ignacio stopped to see Santiago’s reaction, however he was nearly dizzy from the speed and relentlessness of his speech and spent a few seconds recovering.

“You are a meat shield.” He eventually said. He then thought a bit more. “You are the blunt weapon user.”

“Yes! My three active powers are Urn Smash, Star Weight and Star Travel. They are a physical attack, a increase in the gravity of a single target and a short range teleportation. My magic is all about physical enhancements, for me and the others.”

“Good, next.”

His suspicion about the A Dimension having a way of growing Guardians was nearly confirmed. Two people and not a single redundant power? Highly unlikely.

Isabel nodded and spoke next.

“My name is Isabel Reyes García, and I am a science major. My Guardian is the Bronze Aurochs stage 40. I have ten powers.

I have four self enhancing ones, and they are:

Aurochs’ Body, enhances my physical abilities by 7.6.

Thick Skin, enhances my defense by 8 and gives me 20% resistance against ice and fire.

Aurochs’ Rage, enhances by physical abilities by 10 for three minutes.

Charge, enhances my straight line speed by three times.

My six active powers are

Aurochs’ Roar. Dispels mental effects from me.

Crushing Blow, a single physical strike.

Shattering Stomp, causes a localised seismic event.

Two Horns, doubles the power of my physical attacks.

Giant Size, this one is different, it doubles the mass of my attack so to speak. That is to say, my mass doubles for a single strike.

Multi-Strike. Triples the number of impacts received from my attacks for thirty seconds.”

Brute force. Absolute brute force. These words were the only thing that passed through Santiago’s mind. Her entire power set was focused to dealing massive amounts of damage, even the defense ability helped by allowing her to be more reckless. And knowing the relationship between Guardians and mental makeups Santiago decided not to piss Isabel off.

“My magic focuses on healing.”

“A front line healer?”

“These guys didn’t have one when I joined. And Ignacio hadn’t yet gotten Healing Water, so I chose that someone had to be able to heal.” She gave Santiago a thin smile. “And I agree that they are reckless, I am ashamed that I too failed in cautiousness.”

Santiago was inwardly received, he sensed a compatriot. He gave her a small smile and nodded.

“Glad to know. Next.”

Everyone, minus Santiago, turned to Francisca, having reached a silent consensus that Akihito would be the last one to speak. She sighed a reluctant sigh, still bothered by Santiago’s forceful intrusion.

“I am Francisca Hidalgo Santana, I don’t have a dream. My Guardian is the Iron Sentinel Stage 44. I have sixteen powers but nine of those work as a set.

The seven that work together allow me to create barriers of any shape anywhere within a 352 meter radius of my. I can tailor make them to resist particular elements.

The other seven are all self enhancing minus two, Cleansing Light, that dispels lasting powers or magic on a target of my choosing and Ritual Dances, which created dancing elementals that deal damage to my enemies for as long as they dance.

The six others are Sentinel’s Watch, that increases my defense by 14; Paracelsus’ Doctrine, increases the power of magic of the four classic elements; Target Lock, which is basically disabled friendly fire; Sentinel’s Eyes, increases the range of all my abilities; and Rightful Duty, that negates my need to sleep for three days before I have to sleep normally, it recharges when I sleep.

My magic is all offensive and defensive from the four classic elements.”

She clenched her fists when she saw that Santiago just nodded.

“Understood. Akihito.”

Santiago watched Akihito as many facial expressions appeared in his face, before he made up his resolve and spoke.

“You know me. My Guardian is Tamamo no Mae-“

“Kuhahahahahaha! Hihiehehihihihi, pftkukuku, iiiiiiiii.”

***

It took a few seconds for Santiago’s laugh to subside and for him to recover his breath, yet they had had a tremendous impact. Rubén couldn’t believe that the raging and composed man before him laughed like that. Ignacio was sharing Santiago’s merriment. Isabel was shaking her head in disbelief. Francisca had decided to search what kuudere meant and how well it described what was happening.

Akihito was completely embarrassed, having wanted to never reveal his Guardian to Santiago. He knew he would never live it down.

“How are you doing your imperial courtesan? How was yesterday’s evening whispering with his imperial majesty? Are you as beautiful as they say you are?”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.”

“May I know if I have the grace of receiver your wonderful words? What are the abilities under your disposal? I have heard there is no matter under heaven that your wisdom isn’t capable of answering, so what is the answer of life, the universe and everything else?”

“42.”

While Santiago bantered with Akihito, who was tolerating him with wry smile on his face, Francisca turned to Ignacio and asked.

“What is a kuudere?”

“Someone that is cold in the outside but warm to those he cares about.”

Francisca nodded solemnly to Ignacio, who returned the gesture.

“It fits.”

“Right?!”

The intervention brought some needed amenity to the room, allowing Santiago to fit in better. He had changed from that weird, imposing guy to the guy that teased Akihito. Like everyone else.

Eventually the chatter subsided and Santiago returned to the conversation.

“Awesome teasing material aside, what does the most famous courtesan of Japan do?”

“Hah, you will keep doing this your whole life, won’t you?”

“With a probability of 50% and a margin of error of 40%.”

“Great. Tamamo no Mae Stage 51 has two specialties, curses and magic.”

“Curses?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh, we fit.”

“You too?”

Santiago recognised the twinkle in Akihito’s eyes and resolved to avoid telling him the name of his power for as long as he could. The teasing would be eternal.

“Yes. What are the actual powers?”

“Self enhancing powers I have three. Fox Constitution, enhances my speed and agility by 11. Nine Tails, increases my sense of balance massively and the power of my curses by 9%. Power of the Nine Tails, enhances my magic by 50%.

I have twelve active powers. First Tail through Sixth Tail debuff respectively, strength, speed, defense, elemental resistance, magic strength and a debuff that increases damage by magic all by 20%. The Seventh Tail triples the power of my next magic attack, the Eighth Tail charms an enemy,” Akihito looked resigned as Santiago contained his laugher, “and the Ninth Tail doubles every power I have related to tails for three seconds with a nine minute cool down.

Hoji allows me to possess an object. Sessho-Seki poisons my enemy. Finally Foxfire is a fire element attack. My magic is offensive in nature.”

Santiago reclined backwards, thinking deeply. Akihito waited his judgement as Santiago looked pained.

“Fine, I’ll tell you.”

“What?”

“My Guardian is Satan stage 9.”

For the following minutes Santiago explained in detail the nature of his powers. For some reason he failed to notice that as he explained them the members of SEDS turned deathly pale, and exchanged worried glances. Once he was done explaining the False Tree of Qliphoth Akihito was trembling, and when they heard about his Guardian’s elemental resistance he was gnashing his teeth.

“And that’s pretty much it. My Weak curse complements your Nine Tails, how many times do they stack?”

“Once.” Akihito said this half heartedly, too worried about the implications of what he had heard.

“Which means we would be able to rob a daemon of his entire strength. Well, depends on Priority and ease of cursing but that is for strategizing. I will later need a more detailed breakdown of your abilities everyone, but for now I need to know the place where these Twelve Kings reside. You know, to properly prepare adequate supplies.”

Santiago waited for an answer, but saw that it wasn’t coming. For some reason he didn’t think of the implications that the five of them were looking at him with worry in their eyes, so he just looked at them.

Rubén eventually answered.

“The City Where There is no Day.”

“There, huh? Nasty place. I will now brief you in what you need to know about that horrible dumpster.”

***

The meeting had lasted two hours, but the members SEDS were sure they would have to listen to the information again. Worry had been knowing at them, but they had failed to discuss it in front of Santiago. While their words would change and he wouldn’t hear what they’d say they still didn’t like discussing the details about their mission in public.

So once they separated for the day the five of them went back to Akihito’s flat to discuss the information.

“So, Santiago is Satan.”

Said Francisca, a complicated feeling in her heart. She may not like Santiago much, for now, but she didn’t want for Satan to be anyone they knew.

“But why is he Satan? Adam told us that Satan was the worst person in Madrid, Santiago isn’t that bad!”

“Maybe it is that years ago he was that nasty, but he mellowed with time?” Reasoned Rubén.

“No, Santiago was grumpy but not a bad guy.” Said Isabel.

“What? You knew Santiago?” Asked Francisca.

“He is Grumpy.”

Those words froze the air in the room. Their impact was like that of an atomic bomb, a truth no one wished to hear. Francisca began to tear.

“He is?” She asked, desperate to not believe that was not the case.

“Yes. You didn’t know his name but I did.”

“Then why didn’t you approach him during your school years?!”

Isabel looked down and grimaced.

“I was too ashamed of my actions that time to even look at him. Even when I saw he was alone I couldn’t bring myself to try and accompany him.”

“But he is even worse than when we met all those years ago! How could you stand seeing him regress so much and do nothing about it?!”

“Let it go Francisca,” said Ignacio while looking at the ceiling, tears welling in his eyes, “none of us have the right to take the moral high ground here. We are all at fault. Except Akihito.”

Akihito looked around and coughed.

“What are you all talking about?”

Rubén was the one to speak after a lengthy silence.

“We never told you why we stopped being friends all those years ago. We…”

Akihito then got what was going on.

“Santiago is one of the twins you used to know?” He frowned. “Then that event, and why you blame yourselves, is that Santiago’s sister was murdered back then and you abandoned him?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“We were dumb kids, the situation was… I can’t speak of it even now. Just now that we blamed Santiago for Marta’s death.”

Akihito’s eyes widened.

“That is an incredibly low blow.”

His friends had nothing to say, remaining silent.

“Why did you not know his name?”

“Isabel and Marta presented him to us as Grumpy, because he was truly grumpy back then. He was not cold like now, he just complained a lot.” Said Francisca with a nostalgic expression on her face.

“I see. I think I know why we can enter that place.”

“I think so too Akihito. Adam said only those connected to that place to begin with can enter. If we were friends of the Satan… we’d be very connected.” Commented Rubén.

“If that is the case we must keep him away from Moloch. Who knows what that bastard would do if he knew.” Said Isabel.

“I think we should bring him with us. They’d never guess that their precious Lord Satan would go against them after all.”

Everyone was surprised at the unprecedented insight of Ignacio’s idea. Looking at each other they nodded, agreeing to the plan.

“Ah.”

“What is it Akihito?” Said Rubén.

“We forgot to tell him about the Booster Daemons.”

“Ah.”

***

“How goes the search for Lord Satan, Belial?”

“We have few clues Lord Moloch, the search is difficult.”

“Be swift in it. Until we have awakened the origin of the Qliphoth we won’t be able to resist Ein Sof.”