SSS Demon King System: The Rise of a Dying Extra-Chapter 10: Lloyd Holmes.

"Alright, Operation Lloyd Holmes, commencing."

Lloyd was somewhat rushed today; he had gotten up late. When he wanted to start his investigation, it was already noon.

Still, he was on time. The first step was to sneak into the kitchen.

The boy slipped in as best he could to steal a piece of bread; unfortunately, just at that moment the cooks entered.

Lloyd had to hide while listening to gossip, but managed to slip away in the end.

Moreover, he had managed to gather more information about Clarinda: apparently, she had a romance with one of the guards. They had been seen going out at night in secret, at similar hours.

Lloyd was somewhat confused.

He suspected Clarinda because of his mission, but what did a romance have to do with all this?

"It doesn’t matter, now I just have to wait."

After that, the boy spent some time wandering around the mansion.

He used his eye on some staff members, but got nothing conclusive. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

The boy decided the best thing was to look for Clarinda’s room to find her diary, but remembered he didn’t know where she slept, so it was impossible.

"I should have asked Sebas. It doesn’t matter, it’ll be tonight."

Having said that, the young man headed toward the library.

He had had a revelation, so to speak.

While he couldn’t use magical power, the system didn’t specify any precise power source, so he could simply find another one.

Lloyd already knew the types of energy in this world:

Magical Power: It’s the refined version of exterior profane power.

Used by those with a root or a grimoire.

Magical beasts use it innately, almost as an extension of their biology.

It can also be used through artifacts or runic inscriptions.

Profane or Demonic Power: It’s the exterior essence that contaminated the world.

Demons use it to do magic or demonic arts, since it’s essentially very dense and ominous magical power.

Demonic power has the ability to break the world’s principles, though few can use it properly.

It’s also what gives form to the "djinn," the exterior scavengers that came after the great mutation of the continent.

Sacred and Divine Power: It’s the power of the heavens, used in sacred arts.

Divine power is granted to those who show their faith to the gods, allows performing miracles through rituals like chanting or prayer.

One can also become a god’s apostle to use these arts without ritual.

Apostles are the only ones who can use divine power along with saints, who are blessed from birth.

Divine power is the power of the gods, which dilutes when entering the world.

Each god has their own faction in the Lux Pulcra church.

However, the church believes that Mara is the one and only true goddess, that the rest are mere aspects of her.

Calling Mara "god" would be lowering her, since she cannot truly be described by mortal words.

All those born in the sacred land are born with her blessing, which while slight, is quite useful.

However, her blessing prevents using other power sources.

Spiritual Power: It’s the energy of the soul, which when refined allows reaching new levels of existence.

Only humans from the eastern continent managed to preserve their spiritual core.

They continue practicing the art of cultivation, reaching different Celestial Realms.

Prana: It’s the "existential dust," arising from the deterioration of the world when the veil fractured.

By absorbing it, you can strengthen and increase the level or existential density of a target.

This, when mixed with the spiritual core, allows creating Qi.

It’s said that sufficiently pure Qi can equal the divine power of the gods.

Elemental Power: It’s another form of Spiritual power, since it’s born and emanates from the soul of the world.

Elemental power is what gives form to nature spirits.

It was used by druids and is now used by elves, who are humans who evolved to obtain a stronger connection with nature.

Elves are one with nature; at birth a Spirit is created that will follow them for life, though elves can have multiple contracts.

Aura: Aura isn’t a power source as such, but an emanation from each being that tells their essence.

Swordsmen with a root burn their magical power to strengthen their aura; by mixing both, they can achieve more varied phenomena.

Kū (Void): It’s an imperceptible essence that cannot be confirmed, but is intuited to be there.

It’s the engine of every inexplicable phenomenon.

It’s said that Touki is caused by Kū, but requires some energy source to sustain itself.

It’s also the basis of onmyodo and certain martial techniques.

Lloyd recapped that in his mind. There existed the energy of the individual soul and the energy of the "worldly" soul; they were opposites in many senses.

Spiritual energy was pure and unique, but carried by many, while worldly energy was really a large whole that manifested in hundreds of forms.

Spiritual power was the only energy that could be considered native to the world he was in.

Then there was chaos energy and order energy, which is the source of demonic and divine energy.

However, these two operated outside the world as such, until the great catastrophe occurred.

That’s where demons appeared, and where humans who prayed obtained help.

The rest weren’t energy as such or were variations, like Ether, which was used to operate techno-magical machinery.

Now, knowing that wasn’t useful.

First he had to find a way to harness some energy, though he knew these were really obtained by birth and didn’t get along well together.

They tended to reject each other or feed on one another, but generally didn’t work well together.

A mage could use aura, but couldn’t use spiritual techniques.

However, there were exceptions: half-breeds.

Though the truth is they weren’t exactly users of two energies; for example, a half-elf could have a root and make a contract with a spirit.

However, he wouldn’t be born with a "twin spirit."

Knowing that, Lloyd’s only hope was to pray that his condition would allow him to skip that rule, though he didn’t have too much hope.

Still, the boy spent the rest of the day studying what he could, and that same night, Sebastian arrived with his report.