Lucas fell to the ground hard as the rift closed. Judging by the clear blue sky, he was back in his home dimension.

  “Oh god...” Lucas heard a groan beside him.

  Turning, he was surprised to see that the three demons that came with him no longer looked like demons at all. They lost their horns, wings, tails, and their skin tones changed. Cassidy now had a lightly tan skin. Ruth still had pale white skin, but with a more color to it now. Marge’s red skin was now a darker shade of brown.

  “AHHH!” Cassidy yelled. “My beautiful pink skin! My wings! My tail! My horns!” she wailed.

  “It’s fine. When you use demonic energy, they’ll turn back,” Ruth explained as she dusted her suit.

  “Ooh, I like this,” Marge said as she admired her new look.

  “Since we were summoned through a blood pack, we gained a human experience,” Ruth explained. “As long as Lucas is alive, we’ll retain these forms while not using demonic energy.”

  “Neat,” Marge said before embracing Ruth. “Now, why don’t we explore every inch of our new looks?”

  “Maybe later,” Ruth replied with a blush. “We still need to figure out how we’re going to adjust to our new lives here. We kind of rushed things here.”

  Lucas decided to speak up. “Can I ask about the blood pact you mentioned?”

  “It’s a pact that ties us to you. You can give us orders to a certain extent, but it depends on the difference in strength if it’s enforced by the pact,” Ruth explained. “We can’t betray you in any way since that would nullify the pact and send us back to Tartaros.”

  Lucas nodded in understanding. “If that’s the case. Maybe I could help you adjust here.”

  “Oh?” Cassidy smirked. “Are you offering to house three smoking hot demons? I’ll be sure to repay you~”

  “I’ll give you jobs,” Lucas stated.

  “Eh?” Cassidy froze.

  Shinalyn Atican was the eldest child in her family, and she firmly believed that she had a good grasp of her family’s character. Her mother was a very caring person that tended to worry a lot. She was also a very sentimental that finds it hard to let go of even the small stuff. Rose was competitive and a bit of an attention seeker. She didn’t like being ignored and looked over and quickly gets annoyed when she does. Lucas was the misleading one though. He didn’t like socializing, but he could still hold a decent conversation. He didn’t like violence, but he was ruthless when crossed.

  “Your brother is quite the big shot. Why didn’t you tell us?” Monique grumbled. “We could have finished this project way earlier.”

  “I just found out too,” Shina replied. “Anyways, he’s already here.”

  As if on cue, they heard someone knocking on their dorm room door. “I’ll get it,” Aurora opened the door.

  “Good morning,” Lucas bowed.

  Lucas didn’t look like he had a good morning. He was sweaty and his clothes had few smudges. He also had a few grazes on his arm.

  “What happened to you?” Shina asked.

  “Rought morning,” Lucas replied while scratching the back of his head.

  “Oh my poor darli-,” Monique was about to rush to his side before Shina pulled her back.

  “Let’s get you fixed up first,” Shina called him over.

  Althea stared at the three people that arrived with Lucas’s gate card. He had called her earlier about three people arriving to get a job, but Althea didn’t expect them to arrive so fast.

  She didn’t expect them to be demons either.

  “I’m starting to think he’s not normal...”

  “That was tamer than I thought,” Lucas commented as the interview ended. “I thought this would be a major plot point considering how delayed it was.”

  They just asked simple questions like what his motivation for his success was and what his plans for the future were. They did record everything on video and took a lot of photos together for documentation. Lucas also had to sign a bunch of papers.

  “This was about having the ability to approach powerful people. The interview was mostly just a pretense,” Shina replied.

  “Would they believe it was really me though?” Lucas asked since his appearance wasn’t widely known yet.

  “They’ll try calling you to confirm it,” Aurora answered.

  Lucas nodded in understanding. “Are we done?”

  “Yeah. But if you want to spend some qua-” Monique got pulled away by Shina.

  “We’re done. Thanks for doing this,” Shina stated.

  “No prob-”

  This time, the interruption came in the form of an explosion. They all rushed to the window to find out what was going on. In the distance, they could see a trail of smoke rising.

  “That’s where the front gate of the school is,” Aurora mentioned.

  Lucas also noticed that it was the direction where he got sucked into a dimensional rift. “Stay here,” Lucas said as he rushed out.

  “Where are you going?” Shina grabbed his arm.

  “Damage control,” Lucas replied.

  With aura boosted speed, Lucas rushed to the scene to find the area barricaded by enforcers to keep the civilians away. It wasn’t the exact same spot where he got sucked in, but it was quite nearby.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  He sighed in relief when he noticed there wasn’t any chaos from the demons invading, but Lucas still needed to find out what was going on with the dimensional rift.

  Lucas approached the barricade. “What’s going on?”

  “Classified. All civilians must stand back,” the enforcer replied.

  “Let him through,” Fredrick Limestrow called out from the sky. “He’ll be of use, if necessary,” the king-ranked mage said as he hovered down on his glider.

  “Thanks,” Lucas said as the enforcers let him pass the barricade.

  “You’ve been busy kid,” Fredrick said as Lucas approached.

  “Had to make up for failing to be a mage,” Lucas replied.

  Fredrick chuckled. “Doesn’t look like you needed to be a mage,” he commented, making Lucas turn to middle-aged man in confusion.

  When they arrived at the sight of the dimensional rift, Lucas expected to immediately get into a fight. But instead, he saw a bunch of humans and demons in suits talking to each other. He glanced at a corner where a car was smoking, the likely cause of the explosion earlier.

  “What's going on?” Lucas asked.

  “Making deals,” Fredrick replied. “What else do you think we do with demons?”

  Lucas looked away with a shrug.

  “You’d be surprised how many demonic energy cultivators there are in the empire,” Fredrick mentioned.

  Lucas stared at the group of humans and demons having a meeting. From what he was seeing, this wasn’t the first time something like this occurred.

  This made Lucas wonder if he could potentially do trades with other dimensions as well. What if he could open rifts himself.

  If other dimensions could do it, why can’t he?

  Rose arrived with Hanna at Lucas’s company building, and she had to admit that the place was impressive. The tall walls hid the massive land that was big enough for a village.

  “It would have been a good heads up to know your brother is Iris,” Hanna grumbled as they got out of Rose’s car.

  “To be fair, he hid it for a while and the topic never came up between us,” Rose replied as they saw someone approaching them.

  It was a tall woman with pale skin and short black hair. She wore a three-piece suit and had a very professional vibe to her. “Hello,” she bowed. “I’m Ruth. I’ll be guiding you to Mr. Atican’s office.”

  “Thanks,” Rose replied as Ruth began leading the way.

  A short walk from the parking lot and they were already in the main building. The first thing Rose noticed upon entering was the army of golems at work. There were enough golems to go to war with a small house.

  “This is the production floor,” Ruth stated. “Commercial golems are created here along with artifact and golem repairs.”

  When they reached the elevator, Rose and Hanna noticed that the doors were transparent, giving them a good look of the next floor.

  “The second floor is where commissions are done. Mr. Atican provides a detailed blueprint for the golems to follow, and they get to work. As long as Mr. Atican has made the golems before, his golems could recreate without issue, even with a few modifications needed to be added.”

  “How much did all of this cost...” Hanna muttered as she stared in awe of the workshops.

  “I am unaware of any financial matters regarding the company,” Ruth replied.

  They arrived at the third floor where they found Lucas standing in the middle of the floor holding up a disc over a barrel of tar.

  The sound of the elevator opening got his attention. “Oh, you got here early,” Lucas spoke. “Nice to see you again Hanna.”

  “Like wise Mr. Atican,” Hanna bowed.

  “Just Lucas will do,” Lucas said.

  “So... why did you ask me to come here?” Rose asked.

  Technically, Lucas didn’t ask her to come. When Lucas mentioned that he had made her a gift, Rose insisted on coming so she could see his company.

  “This,” Lucas went to one of the workbenches that was covered with a tarp.

  When Lucas pulled the tarp off, it revealed a pair of angel wings. The wings exuded a radiant glow that contested with the lights of the floor.

  “Holy shit!” Rose ran up to the wings. “Did you kill an angel or something?”

  Lucas looked away. “Something like that.”

  Rose went around the work bench to get a good look of the wings from every angle. The feathers were real, while Rose could see that they were attached to a cybernetic skeleton.

  “Here,” Lucas pressed something on the workbench and the wings suddenly compressed into what looked like a white wheel. “Put this on your back.”

  “How?” Rose asked in confusion, seeing no straps on the wheel.

  “Just do it,” Lucas replied.

  Rose sighed and shrugged before placing the wheel behind her, only to get surprised when the wheel locked in place. It didn’t attach itself to her back but hovered on her back as if it was connected. Even when she moved around, the wheel didn’t fall.

  “How the hell...” Rose muttered.

  “It is mana bonded,” Hanna spoke up.

  Mana bonding was a feature of high-ranking artifacts, which allowed them to form a bond with a specific person and attaching themselves to them. Only the bonded person will be able to use the artifact and call upon it.

  Lucas smiled at her. “It is,” Lucas confirmed. “Think of literally spreading your wings.”

  Rose nodded and pictured herself spreading her angelic wings. The artifact obeyed and her wings materialized like magic. Rose tried moving the wings to try and fly, but they only began waving around and threw her off balance.

  “You’ll need to learn to move them,” Lucas mentioned.

  “No shit,” Rose grumbled as she tried to steady herself.

  “Good think I know someone that can help you,” Lucas said as the elevator opened to reveal a dark skinned with woman with short black hair.

  “Who’s ready to fly?!” the woman yelled.

  “This is Marge,” Lucas introduced the woman.

  “How is she going to teach me how to fly?” Rose asked in confusion, seeing Marge didn’t have any artifacts of her own.

  Marge responded by spreading her bat wings along with her skin turning red.

  “I’m going to die!” Rose yelled as Marge pushed her off the building.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Hanna asked in concern as she watched her friend falling from the sky.

  “She’ll be fine,” Lucas said as Marge caught her before taking her back up into the sky and dropping her again.

  “May I ask how you got a demon to work for you?”

  Lucas chuckled at Hanna’s question. “I went through hell and back.”

  Hanna just looked at him in confusion, but he didn’t elaborate on it. While Rose practiced how to fly, Lucas headed to the outdoor testing field. When he arrived, he saw Jared on the field, testing his latest project.

  Obviously, after they were done submitting their resignation at Waywood, Lucas reached out to them. They planned on starting their own artifact line, and Lucas wanted to help them by giving them a place to start out.

  A new workshop was constructed on the property based on Jared's preferences, giving him a place to work on his projects.

  “What are you working on?” Lucas asked.

  Jared responded by activating the device he left on the ground. The device activated and created an exact replica of Jared.

  “Hit it,” Jared said as he back away.

  Lucas shrugged and pulled out an artifact in the form of a rifle from his spatial core and fired at the clone. When the clone took enough damage, it exploded and sent out a blast of soundwaves around it.

  “Neat,” Lucas commented. “You really like soundwaves huh.”

  “It has a lot of applications,” Jared replied. “Testing out a new golem?”

  Lucas shook his head. “Not yet. Still looking for that runesmith from the market event.”

  Jared chuckled. “Macey is going to get jealous of how much you’re looking for that woman.”

  Lucas just gave Jared a flat look. “Very funny,” Lucas said. “By the way, any news on Sanie and Kier?”

  “Both of them already resigned from Waywood, but they’re working on getting licenses,” Jared answered. “A dealership license for Sanie and a medical one for Kier.”

  Lucas nodded.

  “If you’re not going to test out a golem, why’d you come out here?” Jared asked.

  Lucas smirked. “For this.”

  Jared watched as Lucas’s hand was shrouded with a bluish aura, then he chopped at a target dummy, tearing it apart.

  “What the fuck was that?!” Jared exclaimed in shock. “Are you a mage now?”

  Lucas shook his head. “Not a mage.”