In the vast underground training room, immense demonic power surged amid rumbles and explosions, triggering the barriers installed around the room and raising transparent walls.
Rumbles shook the room as countless Magic Bullets rained down, Magic Beams crisscrossed the space, irregular Magic Masses appeared and ran wild, and dense showers of arrows formed from demonic power danced through the air. The display was dazzlingly varied.
Leo focused on controlling his demonic power. Imagining various scenes of destruction, he turned it into cannonballs, arrows, beams, and enormous masses, releasing them one after another.
The power of a High-Class Devil was astonishing. Even a casual demonic attack could destroy skyscrapers and leave craters in the ground like those made by falling meteorites. A full-power strike could even reduce a mountaintop to dust. Few modern weapons could match such destructive power. It still fell short of nuclear weapons, but ranked among the most destructive weapons below them.
If not for the exceptionally powerful barriers around the training room and the unusually sturdy materials used to build every brick and tile, Leo's reckless destruction would have reduced the entire estate to scorched earth in less than ten seconds.
And yet, despite the terrifying destruction he was capable of, Leo didn't seem very satisfied.
"I've only just reached the level of a High-Class Devil, after all. It'll probably take ages to advance to the next rank."
Feeling the demonic power rapidly draining from his body, Leo sighed softly.
Devils were divided into five ranks: Low-Class Devils, Middle-Class Devils, High-Class Devils, Ultimate-Class Devils, and Maou.
Low-Class Devils typically had Two Wings, corresponding to Angels and Fallen Angels with Two Wings.
Middle-Class Devils typically had Four Wings, corresponding to Angels and Fallen Angels with Four Wings.
The pattern continued: High-Class Devils had Six Wings, Ultimate-Class Devils had Eight or Ten Wings, and Maou held the highest rank, with Twelve Wings. The Angels and Fallen Angels followed the same system.
Generally speaking, the more wings one had, the higher one's rank and the greater one's strength—but it wasn't an absolute rule.
Leo, for example, only had Two Wings, yet his strength had reached the level of a High-Class Devil. His power far surpassed his rank, a common problem among Devils who grew too quickly.
When strength grew too fast, a Devil's rank couldn't keep up. This was a widespread issue among the younger generation of Devils. Leo wasn't the only one; Sona was the same.
In truth, though, Leo's growth had been anything but fast.
Thanks to the Pure-blood Devil bloodline he'd inherited from one of his parents, Leo had possessed far more demonic power than a Low-Class Devil from birth. By the time he officially began training at the age of three, he was already considered one of the most outstanding Middle-Class Devils. And yet, it had taken him a full fifteen years to advance to High-Class. That was how slow his progress had been.
Sona had once comforted him about it...
"Devils have incredibly long lifespans. Even the lowest-ranking Devils can live for thousands or even tens of thousands of years, yet most Devils in the Underworld never become High-Class Devils in their entire lives. Those like you and me, born of Pure-blood Devils and blessed with powerful demonic power, who can reach High-Class in just over a decade, are already the envy of many."
Indeed, compared to a Devil's lifespan of tens of thousands of years, a decade or so was so brief it could be called infancy.
Becoming a High-Class Devil at this age was practically a privilege reserved for Pure-blood Devils. Most mixed-blood Devils, Devils of impure blood, and Devils reincarnated from other species never touched that level in their entire lives. Leo was quite lucky.
But he still wasn't satisfied.
He knew how terrifying the strongest people in this world were, and he understood the kind of strength he would need to overcome the crises that lay ahead.
High-Class Devil was merely the bare minimum ticket to enter the events that would unfold in the future. Sometimes, it wasn't even enough to get through the door.
In the eyes of truly powerful beings, a so-called High-Class Devil was little more than an ant.
Take the Eight-Winged Ultimate-Class Devils, for example. Any one of them could deal with a High-Class Devil using just one hand, let alone those at the Maou-Class or above.
The ranks of Devils were clearly defined and strictly enforced, and the gap between each rank was immense.
Take one of the future Heavenly Dragons, the one known as the Red Dragon Emperor. When he was still a Low-Class Devil, he could double his own strength every ten seconds using the power of the Red Dragon Emperor. After building up that doubled power for two minutes, his strength reached 8,190 times its original level. Yet even this nearly ten-thousandfold increase only let him unleash a single blow on the level of a High-Class Devil. It was proof enough that the difference in power between a Low-Class Devil and a High-Class Devil was like that between an ant and an elephant. The two-rank gap was an insurmountable gulf.
By the same logic, even a newly promoted Eight-Winged Ultimate-Class Devil was at least a hundred times stronger than Leo, who had only just reached High-Class. If the other Devil had Ten Wings, that would mean a two-rank difference—a gulf just as vast.
At Leo's current rate of progress, it might take him hundreds or even thousands of years to break through to the level of an Ultimate-Class Devil, if he managed it at all.
But in the next few years, the entire Underworld Society would be thrown into turmoil. By then, even the strength of an Ultimate-Class Devil might not be enough to get involved. How could Leo be satisfied with how he was doing now?
"Phew..."
Drawing his nearly depleted demonic power back into his body, Leo exhaled and muttered to himself.
"There's no way I can get stronger by continuing the way I have been."
As expected, the only way to get stronger quickly was to rely on Evil Pieces and recruit powerful, promising servants.
At least, that was true for Leo.
"I'll put training on hold for now."
Leo folded away his Devil Wings, landed on the ground, and turned to leave.
For now, his top priority was still that cold junior.
Sobu High School, Class 3-C.
Before the bell rang, Leo strolled into the classroom, where he was greeted by a chorus of greetings.
"Good afternoon, Leo."
"Good afternoon, Eligos."
"Good afternoon, Eligos."
The girls, who had been chatting in small groups around the classroom, brightened at the sight of Leo and eagerly greeted him, their enthusiasm unmistakable.
"Hey, everyone!"
Leo replied with a sunny smile. Several girls blushed with excitement, while the boys in the room grumbled inwardly.
"He's a guy. Why does he have to smile so beautifully?"
That radiant smile made the alluring masculinity that seemed to surround Leo impossible to hide. It wasn't just the girls who couldn't handle it; even the boys were a little overwhelmed. They felt as if the dark thoughts in their hearts had somehow been exposed, leaving many of them with complicated feelings.
What they didn't know was that the person whose sunny smile made others feel ashamed of themselves was, in fact, a devil whom countless people considered ugly and wicked.
Even as a Devil, though, Leo was a noble descendant of a Pure-blood Devil in this life. The Eligos Clan had all but died out, but the family's long-inherited nobility still clung to Leo, making him flawless in appearance alone.
Of course, there were people who remained unmoved by Leo.
One such person was a girl seated by the window in a corner, calmly reading a book as if no one else were there.
She was every bit as beautiful as Yukino Yukinoshita. Her long, straight hair was jet black, and a white headband rested atop it. Tall and voluptuous, with full, shapely curves, she moved with remarkable grace. Even sitting quietly, she drew admiring glances from the boys around her.
Looking at the beautiful girl, whose looks and poise were every bit as impressive as Yukino Yukinoshita's, Leo smiled and walked over, taking the seat beside her.
"Good afternoon. You're still radiating literary charm today, Utaha Kasumigaoka."
Leo greeted her with a cheerful grin.
"Good afternoon. And you're still as narcissistic as ever, with your charm spilling out all over the place, Leo Eligos."
Utaha Kasumigaoka's dark red eyes remained fixed ahead. Without even looking at Leo, she delivered a cutting remark utterly at odds with her quiet demeanor—one that bore more than a little resemblance to Yukino Yukinoshita's.
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