Hazbin Hotel: Another Adam

So, what can be said about this grimoire I so dashingly swiped last week? Well… in a word – it's just fucking insane.

Not only is it a spellbook in itself, a true treasure trove of knowledge on dark magic, but it's also something like a semi-sentient artifact. This thing, it seems, can itself form and adapt spells, using its own internal accumulator for this, packed to the brim with Darkness. And this Darkness was in absolutely monstrous volumes and incredibly high concentration. I estimated by feel – this contained energy was roughly on par with Alastor at the moment he was empowered by the Loa spirits. And that, by the way, is practically the level of one of the Deadly Sins, which isn't just impressive – it's fucking damn impressive.

Obviously, this ungodly amount of Darkness didn't belong to Stolas himself. I managed to feel his own power when I was near him – wasn't impressed. His level, of course, is higher than average Overlords, maybe ten times so, but for me, it no longer posed any threat. I think that's clear enough. So, the power in the grimoire was either accumulated over years, or… belonged to someone else.

In short, for the entire next week, I literally didn't tear myself away from studying this Grimoire. Yes, yes, exactly like that, with a capital G! I blew off training, experiments with Light, even walks with Lute. I sat in my room, surrounded by pillows, and flipped through the dense pages that smelled of dust and something elusively otherworldly. It was simply a brilliant artifact, a most complex mechanism, the likes of which I hadn't seen or felt either in Heaven or Hell (from what I'd managed to get a sense of). And that was a little worrying. Who the hell could create such a thing? What knowledge, what power must one possess to create not just a spellbook, but a self-developing magical instrument? To embed these spells, incredible in their structure and power, into it? To endow a seemingly soulless artifact with the ability to form and adapt them itself to the user and the situation?

This was the work of a Master. Also with a capital M. And of course, the creator was vain enough (or simply proud of his work) to leave his name at the very end of the grimoire, on the last page, written in a complex, ornate script.

Paimon.

The name resonated somewhere in the depths of Adam's memory. Paimon. One of the highest demons of Goetia, bearing the title of king, who is currently considered one of the strongest, if not the strongest, in this hierarchy, and by his influence and power is equated to some of the Seven Deadly Sins. Under his rule, according to Adam's fragmentary memories, there were at that time about two hundred legions of various demons – this included imps, hellhounds, and even succubi with incubi. And yet all these creatures, by the way, are spawn of the respective Deadly Sins, who, ironically, had much smaller armies of their own. So, you can ponder the real balance of power in this underworld.

The previous Adam, it seems, didn't know Paimon personally, hadn't crossed paths with him directly. This most likely meant that this powerful demon was "pacified" and put in his place personally by Lucifer during that very war between Heaven and Hell. In the canon of the cartoon, Stolas's father was mentioned, also some important bigwig from Goetia, but I absolutely couldn't remember his name. It's quite possible that it was Paimon. Hmm… maybe I should look for him? Although what would I tell him? "Hi, I borrowed your grimoire from your son, care to share some secrets of your craft?" Nonsense. Beat the knowledge out of him by force? Also not an option for now, too risky and might attract unwanted attention. A dilemma.

Alright, Paimon can wait for now. Returning to the grimoire – I was completely immersed in its study. Days and nights on end, I deciphered symbols, analyzed the structure of spells, tried to understand the logic of their construction. It was more captivating than any quest or puzzle from my past life. Lute behaved like a true angel – sometimes just sat quietly beside me, resting her head on my shoulder while I read, often brought food and drinks, reminding me that it would be good to eat something, and when deep night fell, she would gently but persistently call me to bed. What would I do without her? Probably would have just sat over this book until I passed out from exhaustion (can that even happen to me?).

During that week, it seems, I absorbed all the knowledge contained in the grimoire. At least, the theoretical part. I understood the principles of most spells, figured out the rituals and symbols. However, I didn't dare to experiment with them here, in my room. Especially considering my main idea – to try to use these demonic techniques, but replacing the power source, Darkness, with my own Light. This could lead to completely unpredictable results. Better to postpone practical experiments until the next training session at the training ground; at least no one will get hurt there if something goes wrong or blows up.

How does local magic even work, judging by the grimoire and my own observations? Oh, it turned out to be a rather complex, yet elegant system. To simplify, it's divided into three conditional levels of energy manipulation: from the most primitive to incredibly complex. And the whole gist of demonic magic, at least the one described by Paimon, lies in the concept of their combination and mutual amplification. How things are arranged with the Seraphim in Heaven, I still didn't know – Sera stubbornly kept silent, citing the danger of knowledge. Hypocrite.

So, the levels of magic according to my classification:

Level 1: Primitive. What I myself and all of Adam's acquaintances who participated in the War used. Crude Force plus Intent. It's enough to concentrate energy (Light in my case, Darkness for demons), and then clearly embed your desire, your intent, into this energy clot – and you get a result. A beam shot, a power shield, simple teleportation. Primitive as hell, but fast and universal for simple tasks.

Level 2: Technical. What Alastor actively used and what's described in the grimoire. Spells, runes, magical signs, seals, complex rituals. This is already a real science, requiring knowledge and precision. In terms of power and autonomy (a spell can act on its own), this level surpasses the first, but significantly loses in universality and speed of application – time is needed to create an array of symbols or pronounce formulas. Besides, it has a vulnerability: if you destroy a key symbol or seal, the whole "magic" breaks down.

Level 3: Conceptual. Top-tier stuff. The level of Seraphim or the most advanced beings. This is what Sera did when she created angelic weapons – she managed to isolate the very Concept of Death from Light (I still can't wrap my head around how Death can be contained in Light!) and embed it into a material carrier – angelic metal. This level surpasses everything that came before, allowing manipulation of reality itself at a fundamental level. The main condition – your energy (Light or Darkness) must contain the concept you need, and you must know how to isolate and apply it.

There is also, perhaps, a Zero Level – all sorts of minor innate tricks or abilities that work due to the unique characteristics of the user. For example, Pentious creating those sentient egg creatures, or the ability of some demons to increase their size, or change their appearance within certain limits. Often the user themself doesn't understand how it works and can't always control it. This isn't so much magic as biology or physiology, enhanced by local energies.

And now for the most interesting part – "artifact-making," as I've dubbed it for myself. As I understood it, the entire "magical" system here is built on combining these levels of energy manipulation.

Let's take angelic spears as an example: Sera (Level 3) isolated the Concept of Death. Then she imbued metal with it (perhaps also created or altered by Light). And then (Level 1) she simply willed for this concept to remain "sealed" in the metal, making it deadly. That's it. A combination of Level 3 and Level 1.

Sounds wildly complicated, but having analyzed it, I feel I could already try to replicate something similar at a basic level right now. Only, I first need to learn how to fully and safely isolate the necessary concepts from my Light. But otherwise – it seems nothing is overwhelmingly impossible. And this is simply incredible! It opens up such a vast scope for experiments, for creating my own artifacts, for flights of fancy! I can create weapons, armor, tools with unique properties!

By the way, Paimon's grimoire is created on roughly the same principle of combining levels, only an order of magnitude more complex. It's not just "reworked metal," like a spear. It's a full-fledged, multi-level artifact. It combines many different tricks at the level of creating angelic steel: a huge Darkness-accumulating crystal (Level 1 + Level 2 for creating the crystal's structure), a pseudo-intellect capable of analyzing situations and forming suitable spells (Level 2 + Level 3 for the concept of mind?), incredible reinforcement and strengthening of the book's materials themselves (Level 1 + Level 2), defense systems, and much, much more. And the cherry on top was that the Concept of Cosmos itself was embedded in the grimoire. The very same cold, dark cosmos with stars and nebulae that Stolas used for his portals and predictions. And since Paimon could isolate and embed such concepts into artifacts, I can only mentally applaud his genius. This is truly Master-level.

Well, okay, enough gushing. Experiments can wait. Right now, I need to return the grimoire to its place before they really miss it. Replacing it again with my fake. Which, as I now clearly understood having studied the original, absolutely wouldn't work. My "pathetic copy" made of Light was just a pretty book, devoid of all its complex inner workings.

I put on my angelic mask again and connect to the drone's camera, which has been hovering outside I.M.P. headquarters all this time, observing what's happening inside.

I fly up to the window of the seventh floor I need. No one will notice anything anyway – Heavenly spy drones are equipped with an excellent invisibility and noise-cancellation system. Another interesting artifact… I'll have to disassemble it sometime and study its construction…

So, what do we have here? Our wonderful imps deign to argue loudly. Connecting the drone's microphone and amplifying the sound, I quickly understood the reason for their scandal.

Loona, you see, "broke" the grimoire! More precisely, my fake copy, naturally, didn't work, and she decided the book broke on its own (or she dropped it, doesn't matter). And today they just happened to need to return the book to Stolas – it seems he really did need it regularly, maybe once a week, just like in the cartoon. What luck!

Mhmm, good thing I finished studying it in time. I wouldn't want to get involved in Hell's internal squabbles and aristocrat politics for now, not when even simple (ha!) Goetia demons like Paimon surprise me so much with their knowledge. And what other surprises might they have in store? Hell if I know. So my plan remains the same: for now – study magic, train, get stronger. And then… then I can spank some bad girls' bottoms!

I've been getting way too into magic lately… No, I dreamed of something like this in my past life too. In that gray, boring world, among the same gray, mundane people as I was back then, I desperately wanted to stand out. To be stronger, smarter, richer. But I understood that even so, there would always be someone smarter, stronger, or richer than me. And I wanted to be… different. I always felt I was different. And I dreamed of having something that others didn't. Magic. And now I have it, real, tangible, powerful! This couldn't help but bring joy, couldn't help but fascinate. But still… I'm rejoicing a bit too much, almost like a child who received a long-awaited toy. And also this strange feeling… as if I'm not just learning something new, but regaining something long forgotten, something I had already achieved once, shedding liters of sweat and blood… Hmm… What the hell is going on with my head again?

Alright, back to our imps. The gentlemen (and lady) in the I.M.P. office, after yelling at each other for about ten minutes, finally reached a genius consensus. Blitzø will simply give Stolas the "broken" grimoire (my fake). And if Stolas suddenly notices the switch or the non-working magic, Blitzø will make big innocent eyes and say he has no idea what they're talking about, like, "it was already like that." And Prince Goetia, if he needs the book so badly, will fix everything himself or figure it out if necessary. Logical, duh!

Mhmm. And what, собственно, did I expect from a gang of hired imp assassins? Honesty? Decency?

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Excellent joke. Laughed with my entire angelic being.

So, Blitzø will now take the fake grimoire and drag his ass to Stolas's. And how should I best return the real one to him? I could, of course, just discreetly teleport the original into his bag or hands at the moment of transfer, replacing my fake. Quick, reliable, boring. That word again… Boring! Would that be fun?

Damn, lately I've been increasingly drawn to pranking everyone, staging some kind of practical jokes. I wasn't like this before. Is this Adam's influence? But I stopped feeling his emotions or any influence after I returned all the angelic metal from Hell. So what is it? Is my own sanity slowly slipping from the powers and possibilities that have fallen upon me? Fuck, well why is everything always so complicated?!

Alright, I'll figure it out later. Probably, I'll come to my senses over time. Or I won't. Also an option.

And for now… how do I make the grimoire handover to Stolas maximally… fun?

Hmm… I do have one little idea… Oh, yes!

"Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha!" I couldn't suppress a quiet, evil chuckle, rubbing my hands together in anticipation of the show. My fingers instinctively formed the characteristic "I've come up with a cunning plan" gesture.

Lute sighed quietly beside me. I turned around. She was looking at me with disapproval mixed with slight anxiety. Like at a psycho. Ah. Right… Looks like the chuckle wasn't so quiet after all.

Pulling myself together, I quickly assumed my "demonic" form – black clothes, red eyes, bat wings.

I leaned down and kissed Lute, who rolled her eyes again (but I saw she was pleased and a little worried for me). For good luck. After which I opened a portal leading to an alley near Stolas's castle, where, according to the drone data, Blitzø was currently heading.

What's my plan? Oh, it's all genius and simple! I want Daddy Stolas to pester his daughter Octavia a bit with questions.

Yes, yes, the plan is this: I'll wait until Blitzø is approaching the castle. Then I'll "accidentally" appear nearby, call out to him, and "return" the "accidentally dropped" book (the real grimoire). And then, while Blitzø is blinking in confusion, I'll casually notice Stolas (if he comes out to meet his guest) or just say loudly, addressing Blitzø but so Stolas can also hear, something like: "By the way, say hi to Via for me! From Tatsumi." Stolas will surely be interested. I'll introduce myself as a "friend" of his daughter Octavia. And when he, naturally, doesn't believe me or starts suspecting something, I'll innocently shrug and tell him to ask her himself about a certain "Tatsumi" she was chatting sweetly with at Loo Loo Land. Mu-ha-ha-ha-ha! Let him then try to explain to his jealous and suspicious father that I'm not her boyfriend at all, and generally we only met once, accidentally and briefly. I'm sure Stolas will totally "believe" her, just like any other caring parent in his place. I love family dramas!

A sly, anticipatory smile crept onto my face on its own. This will be fun. Definitely fun.