Today was another day, and another day meant another twenty-four hours at one’s disposal, to do with what they wished. Many would only use around fourteen of these hours, while sleeping for the other eight to rest and recuperate. But the young dark mage, sleeping in the owner’s room in the Swineherd Pub, was not most people. He had twenty-four hours at his disposal, and he was planning on using all twenty-four of them. He had heard that there were plans for things to come very soon, involving his guild, Grimoire Heart, but he had no way to know exactly what it was that the guild master had planned. After all, the members were simply the instrument of Icarus, who in turn was the instrument of the guild master Crowley, to be played as he saw fit and for whatever he required. That was the way of Grimoire Heart, the way it had always been, and likely the way it would always be. A master, his second, and the powerful members that made up the guild. Unlike most guilds, Grimoire Heart was not widely known to the public, nor were the members known throughout the world, at least not for their guild’s exploits. No, this guild was highly secretive, who’s members only knew of the truth of its existence. Others had heard of the guild, but none knew of the members, or of the location of the Ark: the guild’s flying guildhall which made appearances occasionally throughout the world, staying to the mountain of Sieghart currently, but for how long the young dark mage could not know. All of the guild members also possessed codenames, by which they were known throughout the world, keeping their personal names known only to Grimoire Heart. Unfortunately for most in the guild, these nicknames were difficult to understand as names. Most described the holder in a singular word, whether it be Carnage for Yumi, Strategist for Erebus, or Black for Caius. These, albeit true, nicknames did little to hide the true names of the holders, as they sounded like fake names. That was where the dark mage, Odin, felt pleasure at his codename. Lucifer was the name given to him by Icarus, a name that already belonged to another in Odin’s life, making it fit as a cover name. Lucifer Morningstar, powerful mage and owner of the Swineherd Pub, that was how the young mage was known throughout the world, and it was perfect for him. After all, his magical powers stemmed from the use of a demon’s abilities, that demon being Lucifer: the demon prince of darkness and ruler of hell. The name suited the owner, and it worked as a true name to the masses, appeasing any who would otherwise question the use of a name like ‘Strategist’ or ‘Carnage’.

The time was four o’clock in the morning, and the town of Oak was silent, with everyone in it still sleeping off the work of the previous day. But not Odin. He had risen at this time due to how quiet it would be, as it would allow him to think and move through the town in good time, getting to his destination without wasting any unnecessary time in moving through crowds. The olive green haired dark mage would rise from his slumber and go for a shower, to clean his body and get him ready for the upcoming day. As the water fell onto his chest and slowly found its way to the floor, Odin couldn’t help but let his mind wander somewhat. That was the thing with showers, they always caused you to enter an almost meditative state, and allow many thoughts to drift through the mind, to be considered or ignored at the user’s request. That morning, the water of the shower caused Odin to engage in conversation with his demonic partner, a conversation made through thought, thus causing no noise to escape from his door other than the pitter patter of the water as it hit the ground. Today we will be training, we have lost too many battles and we need to improve. We didn’t even make it past the first round of the martial arts tournament, losing to that Finn character should not have happened. Next time we meet him, we fight him and we win. Our magic is stronger than most, and with it we will destroy any who stand in our way. Odin’s head was silent for a moment, allowing the water to once again take over as the dominant source of noise in the room, despite having been the only source to outsiders. It was a brief pause, however, as soon enough Lucifer replied, in his normal, suave yet firm voice that he was known for. [size=16]Do not allow emotion to cloud your judgement, boy.You lost that fight because you weren’t strong enough, nor were you prepared for it. In the next fight, you must keep your head clear, and focus on the moves of your opponent. Remember, we must always follow our orders, no matter what. We are but pawns in a grand game of chess played by the master, and we must never make an overly intrusive move without cause or order. If we were to attack the guild that Finn belonged to by ourselves, who’s to say we’d even survive, and if we did, do you really think Grimoire Heart would allow us to live? Of course not, we must be smart and make our moves as desired by the master. Only after that can we focus on our own desires.[/ size]

Annoyingly, Lucifer was correct, as usual, and Odin had no response to the former’s words. Instead, he just focussed once more on the water pounding his body, like a constant stream of bullets being fired at him at point blank. It seemed everything in the world could be taken as a metaphor for pain and hurt. Shaking his head at the dreariness of the thought, Odin finished up in the shower and got dressed for the day ahead, deciding to don his natural training attire of a navy blue top and trousers, with sandals, before throwing his red cloak over his body for warmth as he descended the steps of the Swineherd Pub and began to make his way through the streets of Oak.

Walking through the streets of Oak, Odin didn’t waste any time by taking side roads or alleyways. He knew exactly where he was going, and how to get there as quickly as possible. He was going as close to ‘as the crow flew’ as he possibly could, which was a lot easier when there only were two other people out in Oak town. The first was a drunk man who looked like he was just getting back from, seemingly, a great night, judging by the lipstick marks printed on his cheek and… further down. A very good night indeed for the drunkard, or not, depending on who it was that had left the marks. Odin didn’t bother waiting to ask, and instead avoid making eye contact with the man, to avoid having to start any unwanted and unnecessary conversations. The second person out at four o’clock in the morning was a woman, which was a strange thing for Odin to see. He had no qualms with seeing a female at this time in the morning, but it was more that all the stories of people having been murdered or worse usually involved women as the victim, and it wasn’t obvious what she was doing, or where she was going. She smiled in a very friendly way and moved almost into the path of Odin, which is the only reason he managed to notice the concealed blade she had inside her coat, which she tried to use to slash the face of Odin. She was clearly a novice bandit, but a bandit nonetheless, no doubt praying on men who thought she would be the prey, not that Odin had at any point given her any reason to suggest he would try to do anything to her, or even acknowledge her existence, as she was not important to him whatsoever. Rolling his eyes at his misfortune, Odin was able to sidestep the blade by bouncing to the side where the hilt was, limiting the time spent with an actual knife to his throat, and causing the woman to be spinning his way, unable to stop herself as she came into contact with the dark mage’s fist, which connected with her jaw, giving off a very satisfying thud, and causing the woman to stumble to the ground backwards from the force. That was the only chance she would get to leave, and so Odin waited for her to stand up to see what it was she wished to do. She got up, and put her fingers to her lips, sending out a high pitched whistle, and signalling three more to come out from the shadows into the light, and the cold of the streets. Four bandits in total, one woman and three men, all of whom had small, easily concealable daggers in their hands, having no reason to hide them now. It seemed that it was now time for the four bandits to attack Odin, kill him, and steal everything he had on him, which was literally nothing at that moment, not that they’d believe him. And they were about to try and kill the owner of a reputable pub, as well as a pub that was more than happy to take in customers of the less reputable nature. And, lastly but by far the most important fact, they were about to try and kill a B rank dark mage of Grimoire Heart, one of the most terrifying guilds that no one even knew of. Rolling his shoulders back and cracking his neck quickly, Odin transformed into Lucifer, a choice only made due to how dark and empty the streets were, and the fact that these bandits were not going to last very long. He hadn’t yet decided if he was going to kill them or not, but at the very least they were not going to be walking away with the valuables of a dead man. As the demon took form, the suave voice once more echoed throughout the streets of Oak town, a smirk forming on the face of Lucifer, [size=16]”You should’ve gone for the drunk, at least you might’ve gotten away with that one.”[/ size][/i] Naturally, they didn’t take that well, and all lunged at once at the demon, who responded by activating an old spell of his, igniting his entire body at the moment on contact, and causing them all to be burned by their own attacks, even if their blades still managed to slightly damage the body of the demon. The follow up was a lot more damaging, as Lucifer decided to use a new ability he had finally managed to get used to using recently. Using the wings that formed during the transformation, Lucifer flew a simple ten meters into the sky, before using his most powerful spell on the group of bandits: incinerate. By placing one palm in front of him and one behind, the powerful blast was fired directly at the group, catching them all in its cone as it instantly burned them severely, giving them a great amount of damage and instantly causing them to lose consciousness from the shock. Amused and satisfied that they would no longer cause a problem, and no doubt be found in a few hours, Lucifer decided to once again continue on in his journey, now that he could complete his journey in peace. He reverted back to Odin before making any more movements, as he wouldn’t want to worry any more people that could be awake at this early time, although he really hoped he wouldn’t have to deal with any more people trying to be heroes, or idiots. He had a task to do, and he’d much prefer if the world just left him alone to get it done. Was that really too much to ask for?

It seemed like that was indeed too much to ask for, as Odin wasn’t yet destined to make it to the mountain range outside of Oak, which was his destination. He had originally planned to go to the forests of Oak to train, but that plan had been quickly put to rest after Odin realised one major factor in his magic. The demon Lucifer was a master of Fire magic, an element that would not do well, or rather would do too well, in a forest. Keeping a low profile was one of the main rules of being in Grimoire Heart, and Odin did not want to ruin everything by starting a forest fire and burning down Oak town, that wasn’t very inconspicuous after all.

To get to the mountains, the same place where Odin had fought Nastasya and Caius only a few months ago to increase his own ability, he had to follow the same path as he had before, a path which took the young mage through the forests, which was where he now found himself. That training had gone very well for Odin, as both he and Lucifer had defeated Nastasya and Caius, one of whom was the same rank as Odin, and one who was stronger. Although, the battle had not ended instantly, nor had the battle ended simply because people couldn’t continue. Odin knew very little about Caius, who’s codename was Black in the guild, but he didn’t expect the strongest member of the guild to easily back down from a fight. As such, he had surrendered after taking Lucifer’s Incinerate at point blank range, having first placed himself there with a knife placed in Lucifer’s back by the wind mage. That knife had caused Lucifer to be at the mercy of his opponent, meaning he couldn’t move unless moved, but the same aspect held true to Caius. He wasn’t able to move away from where he was either, meaning it was simply for the demon to extend his palm onto the form of his ally, before destroying him. Unfortunately, it had caused Lucifer to take the full brunt of Nastasya’s formerly strongest spell: a scythe formed of darkness that was as strong as Incinerate. Now, Odin was curious to see what her strongest spell was, as she had changed in her magical abilities. Now that she was no longer human, a vampire, she had gained many new abilities, the biggest of which being a new magic, using the properties of blood. This magic was a strange one, as to use it Nastasya needed some blood in the vicinity, which she had previously created by spilling her own. A magic that almost required you to damage your own person to initiate its abilities, it was certainly a strange magic. And, now that Odin thought about it, he had indeed seen her strongest spell, or at least a spell that rivalled Incinerate in terms of damage. She had used it on the creatures Mabuz had created using his White Claudia serum: she had formed two helixes created out of the blood she had spilled. It was a powerful spell surely, but Odin wondered if it would tip her over the edge as the stronger of the two. It was something he really wanted to test out, as Nastasya was the most trusted of the Grimoire Heart mages for Odin, and he had both completed missions and sparred with her, making her his longest ally as well. There last battle, which had involved Caius had ended with Lucifer as the victor, but the young dark mage wondered if this would still be the case, with so many new factors introduced in their next fight, such as the new vampiric abilities of Nastasya Crowe, would it make her stronger, or would she lose again?

Odin’s train of thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of his next distraction, and the reason he’d be late once again to the mountains where he wished to train. Out of nowhere, a giant creature appeared, one that looked strangely humanoid, but was much larger than any human Odin had ever seen. A giant perhaps? Although this creature looked much more monstrous than any human Odin had ever seen. Perhaps it was just a freak of nature then, much like Odin himself was, as well as the demon Lucifer. Sighing as he knew this creature would not let Odin just walk past it, he once again activated Lucifer, allowing the demon to take him completely to get the battle over with as soon as possible, as Odin just wanted to get to work. After all, he had left Oak town at four in the morning to try and avoid interactions that would slow him down. At this rate, given that it was turning six o’clock in the morning, Odin would have been just as well leaving later and dealing with the crowds, he’d probably have made it to the mountains, trained, and returned to the Swineherd by that point. Regardless, this creature wasn’t going to move, and so it had to be taken down, something Lucifer was very good at. The issue was the forest, and that Lucifer couldn’t just use Incinerate as he had previously, since it required time to be ready once again. This battle could prove more difficult than he had originally anticipated, and he was effectively banned from using his magic, lest he burn down the entire forest. Thus began a brief encounter of dodges and rolls of demonic eyes as Lucifer avoided the simple attacks of the creature before remembering that finesse beat strength most of the time, and so the battle was concluded by Lucifer jumping up to the height of one of the trees, and attacking the temple on the side of the humanoid’s face. As expected, the creature fell, landing with a dull thud as it shook the ground beneath it. With the second person stupid enough to attack Odin defeated, he finally made his way to the mountain range to train.

Now that he had finally arrived at his destination, Odin decided to spend a little time meditating before he started the physical part of his training. It made sense in his head to clear his mind of any unwanted distractions before he worked himself tirelessly to get stronger. The only downside was a small issue that only Odin had to deal with when it came to relaxing and meditating: there was the constant noise coming from Lucifer inside his mind. Although Lucifer wouldn’t speak during the meditation period, that didn’t stop his existence from making an impact on Odin’s life, no matter how hard he tried to ignore it. Lucifer’s presence was nothing substantial in the dark mage’s head, but it was like a constant buzzing in his ears, a noise that he couldn’t get rid of, but also couldn’t just ignore due to its pitch. This was what made it difficult for the young mage to properly meditate, as he couldn’t empty his mind, no matter how hard he tried. So today, he would try a different approach. He had heard tales of a monk, a man who lived as a recluse in the woods not far from Oak, making his home in the Oberon Forest. This monk, while living in the forest, had learned of a way to meditate without emptying his mind, as was the common way to do it. Instead of emptying his mind, he did something that nearly contradicted everything about meditation: he let the thoughts enter his mind and consume him, but then pushed them to the side. The ‘trick’ to his form of meditation was not to focus on emptying the mind of all things, but rather to give the mind something to do, a point of focus, to allow the brain to ignore everything else in favour of the one. That focal point was the breath, as Odin sat in a meditative position to allow his body to relax and his mind to focus. Then, he began to breath, rapidly at first from his long and arduous journey through Oak and the forests before slowing it to a deep breath every few seconds, and allowing his mind to focus solely on that breath, making sure to keep the rhythm of the breath and not let it change. This act of giving the mind something to focus on still allowed thoughts to flow into Odin’s head, but those thoughts, much like a river, just flow on through the head of the young mage and passed, leaving only the breath. A few minutes of this practice went by before Odin felt refreshed, and he activated Lucifer for what would be the last time that day.

The next few hours were a blue, as Lucifer and Odin devised a new attack to be used for the time when Incinerate couldn’t. Incinerate was a powerful move in its own right, but there had to be a way to condense it into a more accurate version. Already today, Odin and Lucifer had unlocked the abilities to decrease the natural strength and the endurance of his enemies, as well as the demon Lucifer regaining the ability to fly, as well as control of his wings. This new spell, which would be known simply as Burn, involved creating a singular sphere in the palm of one of his hands. This sphere could then do one of three things, each use for a different situation. For one, the most simplest of the uses, the sphere could be fired at the opponent as one complete orb, dealing the most damage in the smallest time, a spell to not quite rival Incinerate but come very close, becoming Lucifer’s second strongest offensive spell. The second ability that could be used in conjunction with this spell was to split the one sphere into two, before firing the two orbs at the opponent, each orb dealing half of the damage of the full orb. The third and final ability was to split these orbs again, to deal even less power spread over more projectiles. Despite the power individually becoming less and less with each new ability, the overall power of the spell remained constant no matter which ability was used, and the three different types could easily be used against an unsuspecting opponent, one who would anticipate one orb could be met with four different orbs, all coming from different angles, or vice versa. An opponent expecting to deal with a multitude of weak attack could be faced with one powerful spell. It was a versatile attack, which is what had earned it a place in Lucifer’s arsenal. With four new spells completed in the day, Lucifer trained for a brief time more before returning to his home, as pleased with the day as Odin was.

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