Chapter 80: Evolution of Two Pillars

{A Month and Half Later — Barbatos Estate}

My hair had grown long, a bit too long. At this point, it was comparable to Sirzechs'. Strangely enough, I actually liked it.

And hair wasn't the only thing that had grown in this time period.

The farms and buildings I had been working on had come along nicely. The tomes from the treasury even allowed for the creation of certain waystones, a kind of teleportation that didn't require wasting your Demonic Power.

This allowed the people working under the Barbatos and Valefar banners to teleport freely between the two estates with ease.

[Potion recipes after eliminating duplicates: 325]

I had added a few new potions, and they were finally out to the public. They were starting to make waves. While I had promised not to involve myself in business against the Phenex, I still targeted the potion areas where the Phenex Pillar had been subpar

A legendary potion that was being sold like hot cakes was the one improving the reproductive capability of Devils. And another was a potion capable of improving endurance.

These potions sold out the moment they hit the shelves. Support from the Baels made it far easier to convince people, and with the new devil population in my estate, I wasn't short on hands either.

[Searching through the eyes of your familiar]

My familiars were far more useful in maintaining my estate than I had previously considered.

The ability to connect to them and see through their eyes made it possible for me to keep an eye everywhere without even leaving my place.

Even now, as I was floating through the skies of the Barbatos estate, I was looking at the working conditions in the Valefar estate.

[Estimated wealth within treasury in USD: $101,000,034,020,110]

My wealth had also broken through an all time high number. If this were the human world, I could crash the world economy and start a world war with my eyes closed.

I had enough money to never worry, ever.

My pillars were growing faster and stronger than ever. With the recent endeavours, countless devils showed their appreciation and came under my banners to work for me.

"Good morning, Lord Faiser."

The devils greeted me when they noticed my presence.

With a wave of acknowledgement, I kept flying towards the manor.

The construction of the commercial area had also been completed and there were far too many devils around the area. So many, in fact, that I had to hide my presence and fly much higher so they wouldn't notice me.

Allowing a 20% discount on all my potion production if bought directly from my estates also promoted tourism, which allowed for higher sales of potions and other produce while also flooding the hotels and motels.

Money was flooding in, so much so that I needed projects to spend it on.

And I had one that I was sort of working on.

"Lord Faiser?"

Finally landing back on my mansion's terrace, I found Ingvild enjoying the sunlight.

It may be artificial, but it was still a sun.

"How was the estate?" she asked, trying to get off the chair.

"Sit," I smiled back. "You don't have to get up."

It was me who walked towards her instead. She had been working herself to exhaustion lately.

Training, studying, and doing all the tasks that a queen was supposed to do as well. Her demonic power seemed to have grown a lot too. If this continued, she might reach Satan Class before I reached the next stage.

Not that it was a bad thing, just surprising.

"What about the others?"

She shook her head. "Haven't been home," she answered. "Bova is still with Satan Falbium, learning about war strategies. Elmenhilde went to the Vampire World regarding the new trade ideas you proposed, and Valerie has been going around helping the injured workers of the estate."

Meaning no one had been lazing around despite having the ability to do so. They could have rested longer after the vampire war, but it seemed to have made them more passionate about things than before.

"And what about Elmenhilde and Valerie's relationship?"

She pressed her lips and gave me a look that told me everything I needed to know.

It wasn't much better.

They had sort of improved, in the sense that they could now bear each other's presence. However, by no means were they friends.

This was something that was going to take time. Probably a very long time.

"Oh, and isn't Sairaorg supposed to visit today?" I asked, suddenly remembering the devil I hadn't seen in a while.

Ingvild nodded. "The maids have already prepared everything, including the guestrooms. And he is supposed to arrive in the afternoon, so the food will be made fresh for then."

That was good enough.

With the Old Satan Faction now gone, helping devil society be free of terrorists, it was now the age of internal politics.

Without an outside threat uniting the devils together, the internal politics had grown more brutal than ever.

Everyone was hurriedly picking sides. The Baels were obviously the most popular, but a new contender had begun to rise: the Agares pillar.

While they had always been second after Bael, they were now gaining a ridiculous amount of attention due to their advancements in magic and engineering.

The pillars from which the Satans belonged were popular as well, and now my pillars were getting quite a lot of attention too.

The recent achievements have brought me and my pillars into the limelight, causing people to flock to me lately.

"A lot of presents were delivered today as well," Ingvild stated as the two of us walked inside. "Many of the extra devils also sent their gratitude for your actions."

Reincarnated devils were the least politically powerful beings. They simply followed the pillars that had brought them to the devil world.

Extra devils, however, ranked higher than reincarnated devils. They were always natives of the devil world, but nowhere near the influence and power of the pure blood pillars.

They always got the shortest end of the stick and had to crawl for support under the popular pillars.

"Take note of whoever sent things, including letters of gratitude, and have the legal team write replies on my behalf thanking them." I wasn't going to sit around doing something so tedious. "I will stamp the letters with my seal later on before sending them."

Who would have expected the world of a lord to be so tedious?

Anyhow, none of it mattered right now. I was one of the central figures, and similar to the Baels and the Agares pillars, the devils revolved around me at this point in time, not the other way around. Which was why this wasn't really an issue.

However, it was also time to show the devils that the pillars of Valefar and Barbatos were much stronger than they could ever imagine.

"Ingvild?"

My queen looked towards me with curious eyes.

"Would you like to see what I have been working on for the past month?"

Her eyes sparkled immediately. "Of course."

[Magic of Engineering]

It was time to show the devils why my pillars were just as terrifying as the Baels and the Agares, even without having that many legions.

[Golem Core]

* * *

{Late Afternoon — The Barbatos Manor, Barbatos Estate}

—Sairaorg Bael—

It had been a very long time since he had last seen the devil responsible for keeping the elders on their toes. Especially the Bael elders, Zekram and the rest. That alone made him look up to this friend of his even more.

During the time he had not seen Faiser, he had trained day and night, hoping to match his level by the time they met again. In a way, he believed he was catching up to the boy.

Believed.

That belief lasted only a few moments before he heard that Faiser had fought and killed Shalba Beelzebub, followed by defeating Crom Cruach, and then holding his own against the leader of the Old Satan Faction, the Super Class Devil Rizevim Livan Lucifer.

The news of Faiser reaching Satan Class hit him quite hard and did a number on his ego.

Faiser was climbing the ladder of power. No, he was cruising through it. Whether it was the ladder of strength or politics.

And despite it all, despite always considering Faiser his rival, Sairaorg couldn't be angry about it.

Jealous? Sure. But never angry or envious.

How could he be when Faiser was his friend and the person who had brought his mother back to him?

He was forever indebted to the devil.

And so he kept a sincere smile on his face when he saw the devil walking down the stairs.

"Look who we have here." Faiser walked down with a massive grin, his queen, Ingvild, right behind him. "The heir of the strongest pillar."

Strongest Pillar.

Hearing Faiser say that made him feel a little awkward. Still, managing to return the smile, he lifted his arms wrapped with the straps and handles of the gift bags.

"Says the guy whose only competition is now the Satans."

That made Faiser chuckle. "I still consider you a rival, Sairaorg. Don't tell me that you don't."

Strangely enough, that comforted him.

"Of course I do, Faiser."

He then greeted his queen with a nod, which she returned.

"Now, will you make me keep holding onto these?"

The maids immediately rushed towards him, taking the gifts from his hands.

"Better be something good," Faiser joked.

"How does some premium dessert sound to you?"

"The best."

Because what could you even gift a devil who had singlehandedly amassed wealth on par with his entire pillar? No, maybe Faiser was far richer than the Baels now.

"I know you don't care about devil etiquettes," Faiser said. "So, would you like food, a spar, or to see the estate?"

His friend wasn't wrong. Any other devil would have offered tea or asked if he preferred to freshen up.

Etiquettes.

But neither he nor Faiser cared much for those. They used teleportation circles. There was no discomfort, so why bother resting?

"Spar sounds good," he grinned. "But right now, I would kind of love to see what you have been up to."

He didn't know how strong Faiser had truly become. And as much as he wanted to fight, he knew damn well that an Ultimate Class devil with temporary Satan Class effects wouldn't even be able to graze Faiser, who was now Satan Class and capable of tanking Satan Class attacks.

He wasn't the type to back off from a good fight, but when the opponent wouldn't even bother using their best skills, it felt humiliating. That was why he wanted to reach Satan Class before properly challenging the man in front of him.

"The manor or the estate?"

"Estate," Sairaorg answered without a second of hesitation. "Manors feel suffocating, no matter how big or spacious they are."

And he had already seen the manor when Faiser had been given the title of Lord quite a while back.

Faiser glanced at his queen. "Would you like to come with us, Ingvild?"

He expected her to come along. He had never seen Faiser without Ingvild sticking around. In a way, it made him a little jealous.

Ingvild was a terrifying devil, with powers and abilities that dwarfed most heirs and lords. He wanted someone like her in his peerage as well.

Then again, only someone of Faiser's caliber could handle a Leviathan in his peerage.

"I will be waiting here," she said, surprisingly choosing not to go with them. "Bova or the other two might return, so it's better if I stay. Otherwise they might start causing trouble around the manor."

Bova, the son of Tannin. His rook.

Elmenhilde Karnstein, his pawn.

Valerie Tepes, his bishop.

Sairaorg knew it would take a while before Faiser filled out his peerage.

And still, even without a full peerage, the devil was capable of erasing entire armies.

He could only imagine what it would be like once Faiser had a complete one.

"Looks like it will just be us," he said. "You don't mind, do you?"

He shrugged. "As long as you show me the estate's development."

He had heard a lot about it, yet he still didn't know what Faiser had truly done.

The potion sales and the commercial hub, he had seen those. But the rest of the estate? He had no idea.

Faiser extended his hand towards him, as if offering a handshake.

Sairaorg didn't decline and shook it, already aware of Faiser's abilities.

"Then I will see you in a bit, Ingvild."

"Have fun, Lord Faiser."

And without wasting a second, the entire scenery around him changed.

"Wings."

The moment he heard that, he sprouted his devil wings and felt the ground beneath his feet vanish.

They weren't on the ground anymore.

They were in the skies, flying.

"This is my potion farm," Faiser said, finally releasing the handshake. "Or well, where I grow my herbs."

All that Sairaorg could see were thousands of rows filled with millions of magical herbs, each a different color, height, and shape.

"The entire place is maintained by devils that excel in elemental manipulation and weather magic."

He could see that clearly.

Each row seemed to be under some sort of thin veil of magic, providing different climatic conditions for each type of herb.

"The place stretches quite a lot, covering multiple acres of land."

He couldn't even see the end of it, even with his magically enhanced vision.

"And there are a few more places around the Valefar estate for the same purpose."

He saw many devils working the fields and tending the herbs. Some were responsible for the climate magic, others cared for the plants and checked their condition, while the rest gathered and planted new ones.

He then felt Faiser's hand on his shoulder and the scenery changed once again, though they were still flying.

This time they were above a place filled with smoke and fumes.

"This is the Alchemy sector," Faiser said. "The alchemists prepare the potions using the herbs transported from the fields."

Sairaorg could see countless devils running around with barrels, tubes, and massive bottles.

"Of course there are countless middle stages such as drying sectors and extraction sectors before the materials reach here for the final brewing and production, but you get the idea."

Once again the scenery changed, and he found himself above a massive complex with multiple wings.

"We sort the products and produce in here. Decide which ones and how many we will distribute to other devil estates and stores, and how many we will keep to sell in our estate."

And again the scene shifted. This time, he found himself above the most crowded place he had ever seen.

"Finally, the heart of the Barbatos and Valefar estates. A small town built solely for commercial purposes."

He saw many waystones, each connecting to a different Lord's estate. There were even ones that connected to the various places they had just seen.

"The people that come here can also go on paid tours through the brewery on specific days, and even the farms. That's an additional business that attracts many people to our hotels. And obviously the stores selling potions and produce with a 20% discount."

Sairaorg could barely believe what he was seeing.

The guy, who was honestly the same age as him, had commercialized so much in such a short time that it honestly terrified him about his future as a Lord.

How was he supposed to compete, as the future Lord of Bael, against someone who looked like a full fledged commerce mogul?

"All this… in mere months?" Sairaorg looked at Faiser. "How?"

"One or two hours of sleep a day, twelve hours of effort, and ten hours of training does that." He chuckled. "Though now I can pretty much let my money make money while I focus on my personal training as well as training my Legions."

He already knew that Faiser trained a lot, but the Legion part made him curious.

"You recently acquired the rank of King, didn't you?" he asked. "Makes sense considering all your effort so far. But that brought a lot of land and the ability to have additional legions, didn't it?"

"Mhm," Faiser nodded. "I started with about eight legions, mostly because I didn't have enough devils to fill the rest of my legion slots. Roughly around fifty five thousand soldiers under me. But right now, I have more than a hundred and fifty thousand devils serving in my legions."

He placed his hand over Sairaorg's shoulder once again.

"And even after so many devils joining, the rank of King still leaves another seventy thousand or so soldiers to be added. Devils that I have yet to scout."

He had heard that the additional lands Faiser had acquired were going to be turned into more farmlands and training grounds, some even to be used for creating a new familiar forest. But he hadn't heard much about Faiser's peerage. Other than a lot of extra devils and reincarnated devils wanting to serve under him.

"This… is the current status."

Sairaorg's eyes widened.

Never, not even once.

Never in his nearly two decades of living had he seen such a massive army.

Over a hundred thousand devils.

All training together in a massive area that was being destroyed and reconstructed in real time.

"What… is this?" He couldn't move his eyes away from the scene.

Despite the Baels having a humongous army, he had never seen such a force gathered together just to train. Unless there was a war, they simply didn't assemble like this.

"I believe training works better when everyone is coordinated. The war showed me that coordination is something my peerage, my legions, and I all need to work on." Faiser pointed at the commanders leading and clashing against the commanders of different legions. "So I train them together. Each legion specializes in something, so they go up against the legions that are stronger in the areas where they fall short. It helps them overcome their weaknesses faster."

He saw swarms that looked like ants trampling over one another.

That was how large the army felt.

An insane number, an insane sight, and an even more insane devil lord who seemed almost proud while watching devils break each other's jaws.

"Don't worry, the potions heal them instantly."

Those who got injured healed themselves by consuming health potions, and those who were exhausted drank energy potions.

"Ten hours of physical combat training and four hours of studies and strategy training. The rest they use for sleep and food," he said. "Their pay is good, so no one complains. The potions keep them alive and active. And those who do complain usually stop once they see their families being happy with their paychecks."

"You are insane…" Sairaorg hissed.

That only made Faiser show an even creepier grin.

"Well, you haven't seen my most treasured part of the legions yet."

"What—"

Before he could finish, the entire scene changed once again.

And this time, the place felt rather… hot.

Like magma.

* * *

{Present — Secret Grounds, Barbatos/Valefar Estate (?)}

Even now I wasn't really used to this ridiculous temperature.

"Fuck is this?!"

Sairaorg yelled out, unable to hold himself back after seeing the scene.

And how could he?

The ground beneath us was made of magmic rock, magic surging underneath it. One small explosion and the lava could shoot right at us.

In this place stood only a few devils, each personally picked by me.

"Where are we?"

I could only grin at that.

"Secret."

I wasn't letting anyone know the exact location of this place. There wasn't any particular reason for it.

I just felt like it.

"Even the working devils don't know the location. Whenever they have to leave, they send a magical signal to me and I teleport them in and out of here individually."

And since the place was quite spacious but mostly empty, the devils noticed us immediately.

"L-Lord Faiser."

One greeted me at once, followed quickly by every other devil around.

There weren't many of them. Less than thirty devils in total.

But each of them was special.

"At ease," I assured them. "It's just a simple inspection."

Sairaorg looked at me. "What is this place?"

What was this place?

Simple.

"It's a production factory," I answered, confusing him even further. "Since you know that I haven't been able to fill my legions fully, I created a certain force that can help cover for the lack of numbers."

Seeing him still confused, I pointed at one of the devils.

"Show my friend here what I am talking about, please."

The devil bowed. "As you wish, my lord."

He rushed towards one of the older devils, who, upon seeing me, hurried forward.

"How many would you like to see, my lord?"

Sairaorg glanced at me again at the mention of how many.

I could only grin.

"Well, about a thousand sounds good, doesn't it?"

"Of course," the old devil nodded. "And how big should they be?"

"Not too big. About the size of my friend over here."

"What are you talking abo—"

"Just watch."

I pointed at the old devil, who began ordering the others in the area to gather in a semicircle.

The old devil squatted down, placed his hand over the scorching ground, and began chanting. The other devils followed soon after.

Before long, the ground began to shake.

Cracks widened across the surface and magma started leaking out.

"That's…" Sairaorg could only mutter as the magma seeped out and gathered in random places.

Like jelly.

No… more like a sort of mould.

In a very short time, the gathered magma began taking the shape of humanoid figures, roughly the same frame as Sairaorg.

One, two, three.

Just like that, a thousand of them formed and cooled, shifting from molten magma into hardened rocky figures.

"Golems…" Sairaorg mumbled.

I nodded.

"Exactly," I said. "I can produce more than a hundred thousand with ease."

Technically, I could do it myself without the need for other devils. But it was an incredibly tedious task.

Hence the workers.

"But they need the casters to keep pumping them with energy," he said, looking at me. "How are thirty devils going to manage providing energy to a hundred thousand golems?"

Good question.

They couldn't.

They couldn't even properly sustain the thousand that had just been summoned.

But the answer was very simple.

"I have my ways."

[Sub golems detected.]

The Magic Engineering skill combined with the Golem Core that I had received ages ago worked wonders here.

[Synchronizing sub golems with core golem 'Ancalagon'.]

Core Golem.

Something I had to temporarily use all my abilities together to create, just to reach the level required to make it. A being that brushed against the status of a Super Devil. Forcing my magic into it caused a mutation that removed the original limit of low and middle class.

It was also something I definitely couldn't release into the world without a very good reason.

If anything, even letting it out of here would probably wreck my estates.

It was a doomsday device.

Something meant to be summoned only when nothing else worked.

For the do or die moment.

So many things had gone into creating it.

The Golem Core. Part of my Demonic Power, my own Asura Blood, Magic Engineering, Vampire Blood, Human Blood, countless other forms of blood.

And the leftover flesh and bones from Crom Cruach's corpse.

The tiny bit that I had managed to secure.

No one other than me had seen the golem. Not even the workers here. They didn't even know that they were very much standing on top of it.

The magmic surface.

The one that created the sub golems.

The brain, the main body, and the source that allowed me to control the other golems at will without wasting a single bit of my power or energy.

[Golems can now be controlled with your will, or be left under the control of the Core Golem, Ancalagon.]

"This is my secret that I haven't shown many devils, Sairaorg."

With a single motion, all the golems knelt before me.

"And I hope you will keep it a secret as well, friend?"

With that, I allowed the golems to release their power, causing the workers to sweat a little.

Sairaorg could barely move as well. His eyes were glued to the scene.

"All of them are at the highest tier of Middle Class, almost High Class…" He gulped. "If you can create a hundred thousand at this level… you might just have the strongest army in all of the devil world."

Most legions were comprised of Low Class and Middle Class devils, with a handful of High Class ones. The commanders were rarely Ultimate Class, and even that was usually reserved for the most elite legions.

"Maybe."

But what he didn't know was that I could create a hundred thousand of these golems… not at Middle Class, but at High Class power levels.

That, he didn't need to know.

After all, some things were better left as a surprise.

As for the Core Golem?

Best not even think about its level. It was strong enough to make the Satans come here personally.

"I can count on you not to speak of this, right?"

It really didn't matter if he did.

But it would be nice if he didn't.

"I… won't." He was too shaken to think straight, but I believed him.

And well, I still had something other than this.

And while it was a single use item and still with Ajuka, it was enough to match the level of importance of the Core Golem.

And I already knew who I was going to use it on.

**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

{A/N: Got a pat reon named RedLamp01 with 30+ chapters + Other Stories.}