Black Solstice-Chapter 21: Research [3]
Nola guided me deeper into the library, asking a few quick questions to narrow the search.
Before long, we stood before a particular row of shelves, each filled with books on the Demon Realm, its history, politics, and geography.
After helping me choose a few volumes, the upperclassman offered a brief wish of luck and quietly vanished.
It happened so fast that it was late to even blink.
I could only stare at the now empty spot where she’d been standing moments earlier.
A soft rustling drifted from the reception area behind, the sound of pages turning. She was probably already there, reading the Poem of Pity.
If I didn’t know better, I would have taught she was an assassin. Wait... actually, being a librarian is a perfect cover for the assassination profession. I wonder what type of demon she is.
Perhaps she was a vampire. Then again, the only vampire I’d encountered so far was Seraphis.
Maybe they weren’t a common devil species.
Who knew, really.
The thought drifted through my mind as I briefly considered becoming a librarian.
It seemed like the perfect cover.
There would be no need to worry about running into too many devils, and the chances of meeting someone who could easily discern my identity as a human would drop significantly.
Once more, I could also use my free time to read quietly, discreetly, without drawing attention. A place where information flowed freely, where knowledge was currency, and where no one questioned why you lingered for hours.
It was almost tempting.
But I shook the thought away. I hadn’t come here to hide.
There were things I needed to learn, and blending in as a librarian was only one of many possible strategies.
For now, the priority was simple: gather information, understand this world, and survive long enough to decide what came next.
Worst case scenario, I would be forced to use my letter of withdrawal and escape the demon realm via the tunnel. Though I doubted such a situation would truly come to pass if I stayed cautious, it was still a possibility I couldn’t ignore.
Alright. Let’s do this one step at a time. This should be a good place to start.
With that decision made, I set my books on a nearby table and returned to the shelves.
As I scanned the spines, a particular book caught my eye.
Its title read:
"The 72 Pillars of Infernal Sovereignty."
Intrigued, I pulled it free and returned back to my seat.
† †
A few hours passed.
Closing the book, I pressed my fingers against my temple, trying to soothe the dull ache that had begun to pulse beneath the surface. My mind felt heavy, as though it were struggling to arrange the flood of knowledge into some coherent shape.
It was far more information than I had expected, dense and difficult to absorb.
According to The 72 Pillars of Infernal Sovereignty, the Demon Realm, commonly known as Nifleheim, had once been ruled not by devils, but by monstrous beings known as Hollows. This was long before the separation of the two races, before the Great War of Saints and Demons carved a line between worlds.
When St. George sealed the boundaries and the demon race found themselves confined within the desolate land of Nifleheim using the «All Dimensions Severing Spell: Curtana», they were forced into a struggle that lasted generations.
The text described it plainly. The devils of that era were far weaker than the devils of today.
Because of this, the devils who were already struggling to replenish their numbers found themselves in an even more harrowing situation and suffered losses far greater than they could endure.
Most of the original 72 Pillars were eradicated.
Only a small handful survived.
The remaining Pillars included... far more than I expected.
Though fewer than half of the original seventy-two had endured, the fifty-three that survived had evolved into the backbone of modern demon civilization, each reshaped by centuries of desperation and adaptation.
Bael, of course, was mentioned first. They oversaw national martial law and high council duties, though their numbers had thinned to a shadow of their ancient glory. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦
Other Pillars, however, had not survived by strength but by transformation.
Agares had retreated into the Silent Marshlands, using their expertise in geomancy and territorial mapping to become the realm’s official surveyors.
Vassago were stationed in the Obsidian Desert Frontier, running sprawling observatories and intelligence networks. Their diviners were the closest thing the demon race had to a system of early warning.
They resembled me of the church clergy.
Some Pillars had also embraced the concept of death.
For example, Gamigin, ruling over the Sapphire Ossuary Coast, oversaw necromantic forensics and spirit investigation.
Marbas lorded over the Sing Shong District, an industrial powerhouse where medicine and engineering fused into a single terrifying field. They were the reason demon prosthetics were said to outperform natural limbs.
...Allegedly.
Others turned toward economics, manipulation, or more questionable endeavors.
Valefar, residing within the Crescent Fang Trade Zone, had become the architects of commerce.
Amon of the Burning Howl Wasteland raised war-beasts the size of small buildings.
Barbatos restored the dying lands at the Whisper Grove.
Paimon maintained the golden academies of knowledge, their scholars shaping demon society more than any warlord.
The deeper I read, the more the Pillars felt like competing governments rather than families.
There were healers like Clan Buer in the Spiral Highlands, diplomats like Gusion in the Thorned Peninsula, and the charismatic manipulators of Sitri who ruled Emberfall’s valley of embers.
Beleth commanded the warfronts.
Leraje ruled the forests with their precision archers.
Eligos spread cavalry culture along the storm-battered coastlines.
But some entries made me pause.
Glasya-Labolas, for example, governed the Crimson River Reaches, a region famous for its silent assassins. The note in the margin mentioned that the house trained covert operatives who could pass unnoticed even in their own shadow.
Nola’s face flashed in my mind.
I quickly turned the page.
More Pillars followed.
Bune, keepers of infernal currency, ruled the Verdant Treasury Isles.
Clan Ronove had lifted their territory into the largest agricultural provider in the demon realm.
Clan Berith forged weapons in the Scarlet Armory District, their metalwork rumored to rival divine steel.
Some territories sounded like places no sane person would visit.
The Void-Heart Academy Enclave, ruled by Astaroth, where dimensional theory was practiced like religion.
Nethergale, Gaap’s territory, where spatial tears were studied and sometimes accidentally widened.
The Thunderstep Plains, where Furfur commanded the weather like an orchestra of storms.
Others were vital but unsettling:
the Tortureforge Citadel of Sabnock;
the Bone-White Workshops of Malphas;
the Broken Gold Ruins of Raum, master of relic retrieval.
Still others maintained control over the seas, the skies, or the dead:
Vepar in the abyssal trenches,
Focalor in the storm-torn coastlines,
Bifrons on the lantern-lit funerary steppes.
By the time I reached the final entry, I realized just how complex the demon world truly was.
These weren’t simply noble houses.
They were the pillars literally holding Nifleheim together.
Without them, the demon race would have crumbled long ago.
’How interesting. It seems like Nifleheim is two or three times bigger than Earth in comparison. In fact, it seems some part of it are still unexplored till today.’
’There are a total of three continents, excluding the Hollow Continent that is completely dominated by monsters. Dreamscrape, Mist Domain and Daemon Continent.’
’From what Seraphis told me, I am currently in the Mist Domain and Solstice Academy is located in the Dark Lands outside Capital City, which is the biggest city in the demon realm.’
That explained the constant presence of high-ranking devils around the academy, and why the curriculum was stricter than I had initially imagined.
Mist Domain was... a buffer zone.
Basically, it was a place where politics, espionage, and diplomacy overlapped in ways that could either protect or destroy you depending on the method and how well you navigated them.
I leaned back in my chair and let out a slow breath.
’What to do? Staying in the demon realm would be more problematic than I expected.’
Somehow, it was even more complicated than Earth.
"Tsk. What a pain."
