Gremory SI - Chapter 3 : Blue Flame Resistance..... (Patreon)

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Gremory Territory, Underworld.

—Shin Gremory–

Sitting in front of a crackling fire, he looked at the rotating piece of meat, waiting for it to be done so that he could finally have dinner. It was a weird creature that was native to the Underworld, and like most native fauna of the Underworld, it was not docile and had actually attacked him first, which was strange because most of the animals in the forest knew by now that he was not to be attacked.

He would have thought that slaughtering the bigwigs of every single species in the forest would have granted him some respect, but apparently not. Either way, he was thankful for the weird rabbit-goat hybrid thing that attacked him, as its meat was downright palatable compared to his usual game, as he focused more on meat quantity rather than taste. 

Leaning back on the giant wooden log behind him, he groaned out loud in boredom, as he was basically done with his training and couldn't find anything else to do. A thought brought over salt and pepper, showering the meat before the spice containers disappeared.

At this point, spices were still a luxury inside the Underworld. Not luxury as in only the Satans could partake in it, but definitely something that was to be enjoyed maybe once a month instead of being used for every meal. Part of being a member of House Gremory meant he had a fixed quota of that stuff, and more importantly, he could steal the extra that the other Pure members got without any chance of being caught.

How did he manage to pull that off? One might ask. To that, he would reply with only one word.

Magic.

Magic, especially the one that was granted to Devils, was a thing of beauty. Imagination based Magic was something that was basically reality warping that was hampered only by the amount of Demonic Energy being poured into the spell and the spell matrix. If someone, like Ajuka would in the future, could figure out a unique spell matrix capable of doing anything and pump absurd amounts of Demonic Energy into said spell, then they would be able to warp reality around them.

Not quite to the level of omnipotence, but the ability to influence elements in a localised zone without having to slog through decades of practice and study like the other races was a huge advantage. It was no wonder that Devils had abysmal fertility. He shuddered to imagine the consequence of a Devil race that could pop out kids at even a quarter of the rate that humans do.

The entire world would either be the Underworld, or it would be burning as Devils ran amok everywhere.

Shaking his head, he was brought out of his thoughts by the smell of the meat, which told him that it was almost done now and with his track record of cooking, wherein he was never able to get his meat just right, he just gave up and took the meat off the fire and covered it in a small sphere, using steam to cook it the rest of the way. Hopefully, this time the insides will be done properly.

As he was a growing boy, he needed all the food he could get, and unfortunately, he did not want to mingle with the rest of the House, which was practically a necessity if one wanted to partake in the feast that House Gremory threw three times a day, every day, even for the lower tier members of the House.

As he said before, House Gremory was, even now in these tumultuous times, well known to be a freak when it came to treating the lower tier Devils. It was as if the politeness and kindness gene was present inside them, but it was kinda suppressed by all that was happening around them, and just needed the death of all but a single main line couple and the heir, who happened to be the Strongest around and become the ruler of the entire race, for House Gremory’s true kindness gene to come out shining.

Snoring at the ridiculous thought, he dispelled the sphere before summoning a large plate. He waved his fingers in the air as the meat was neatly cut into pieces using his air blades, before falling down into the plate in pieces. Not finding the meal appealing in the slightest, he nevertheless decided to get it over with before he could…..

Before he could do what exactly? He asked himself.

He had long since outgrown the forest, and there was basically nothing he could do to grow here. He hadn’t yet figured out what his final build was going to be. He was just kinda winging it and doing everything he could do to grow stronger in all the conventional ways that mattered.

He had done all the physical exercises he could do, and could not find any more challenges, not without venturing out into even more hostile environments. He did not know how to use gravity magic as well, and while Imagination Magic certainly could help him, he would like to have a little bit more structure with something as dangerous as Gravity Magic. It wouldn't do for him to try to double Gravity to get some physical training in, only to increase it more and injure himself in a way that his Phenex Bloodline couldn’t properly treat.

In this dog eat dog world, he could not afford getting injured in a manner his bloodline couldn't treat. He hadn’t yet found anything that could do so, but he was in no hurry to find out if the perk had any limitations or not. The [Topped UP] perk could certainly mean that it had no limits, but he would much rather be strong enough to never need it.

Unfortunately, to grow stronger, he had to reach and surpass his limits, and lately, the realisation was setting in that it was not going to happen while being cooped up inside Gremory Lands.

Now, he was only 11 years old, and as such, it was completely normal for him to stay inside House Gremory, especially since he wasn’t anyone important, not to mention did not have the necessary Red Hair. Even if he was strong enough to kick most people’s asses here, he was not that important. In fact, it was likely that his strength served as just another reason why he was never taken outside the House.

Most probably, Zephyr will keep him inside until he was at a suitable enough age to be shipped off to either Lucifaad or to one of the many war posts that Gremory had to maintain, to make sure he would remain forgotten and out of reach of the mainline House Gremory. 

Chewing on the gamy meat, he pondered where to go from here. He could try to increase his Demonic Energy reserves more, which was the only thing that seemed to be working, seeing as he was still a young Devil and in the phase where the most growth happens.

Regularly expelling Demonic Energy to make sure it expanded worked very well, because it was double training. He worked out his reserves, and also he got used to feeling so exhausted that he felt like he would keel over the next moment.

It was also good practice to make sure his mind and brain knew that the Phenex regeneration would run out the moment he ran out of Demonic Energy as well.

Once he was done with his meal, he got up, stretched, and flicked his wrist, summoning fire all around him. With a mental flex, the orange and red fires turned blue, all contained within a magical forcefield to make sure he did not set the air on fire before he burned everything in the area.

He was inside the forcefield as well, and as such, sustained burns as well. As it turns out, Phenex were not immune to fire. Nope, just resistant. That resistance could be built up, which is probably what happened to most Phenex kids as they spontaneously burned in the younger years as their magic manifested, but then their regen kicked in as well to heal them. This cycle must increase their resistance as they grow up, making them mostly immune to flames they could summon and making it appear that they were immune to fire.

These Blue Flames were a recent phenomenon, which is why he was not immune to flames of this level yet. Even so, the minor burns that appeared on his skin that healed soon after were a far cry from what he used to suffer early on. One more parameter that he was about to max out.

Beyond this, he was going to need a much higher level of fire that he was working on. But he had a hunch that beyond the Blue Flames, the increase in temperature was going to be incremental at best, and as such, his body should easily be able to adapt to that. One more avenue of improvement lost.

Everything pointed to him having to finally get out of this territory and venture out on his own, something that he had been hoping to avoid, atleast until he reached the same level of strength as Zephyr Gremory, the Head of the House. 

Once the fire ran out, he dispelled the force field before moving deeper into the forest, to the base he had dug out for himself, deep underground, where the temperatures were very hot, but being a Phenex, they did not bother him whatsoever. A new set of clothing manifested on top of his body as he just flew to his hideout, desperately hoping to anyone who would listen that the whole Bloody fights that led to the Civil War were alteast a few decades away.

He could just imagine the happiness he would feel at punching in the current Belzebub’s face with a surprise attack, and become the hero of the Underworld. It would be glorious, only that glory needed strength that he did not have right now.

Everything came back to strength, and with that came the concrete decision that he was going to leave soon. It was time to punch some real Devil faces in for combat experience, you see.