For the next week Alex continued his training, but he also cut a few hours out of it so that he could spend more time with the girls afterwards. After his session with Ophis and Bova he took Gabriel for a walk along the beach, and each day after he would take one of the girls out as well. First it was visiting a pastry store with Koneko, then he went to a movie with Asia the next day, and Rossweisse dragged him to discount stores after that.
Though many guys would find it tiring to go out so many times repeatedly, Alex enjoyed his time with the girls since he was spending more than a month training each day. Occasionally he would have Ophis and Bova join him in training, as they worked towards increasing his strength. Though Bova didn't seem to realize it, his strength was growing at an amazing rate per session, a result of both Ophis's training and the increase in Gravity.
It was now the day before Vali's match against Typhon, and both Ophis and Bova were staring at Alex in awe. They had both watched as he spent the last several "days" training with his previous form, perfecting it and trying to move to the next level. Now they both watched in amazement as the aura they felt coming off Alex increased at an alarming rate, and his muscles started bulging to an even more exaggerated degree while his aura turned chaotic. Ophis was simply interested in Alex's transformations since it was something new, but Bova watched with both amazement and pride at the prowess of his lord, even if he himself was lacking. He was looking forward to the final match of the tournament, when everyone would see just how powerful his lord was.
***
The next day Vali had just finished his fight against Typhon and his foster brother Vidar, and he was still shaking from the adrenaline rush of facing the king of monsters. He had been anticipating this match almost as much as the one against his rival, the Red Dragon Emperor, Alex. When Vali recalled the power he used to defeat the heavenly emperor Indra so easily, he shuddered in anticipation. As he arrived at the infirmary where his retired members were Bikou suddenly appeared and clapped Vali on the back while saying,
"It's hard to believe we even beat the king of monsters, now it's just your rival Vali! Make sure you give him a punch for me, ok?" Vali smiled at Bikou's words, and the reason for them. While fighting against Typhon's team his foster brother Vidar focused completely on Bikou, and ignored everything else around them. When Bikou asked what he was doing, Vidar simply replied that he wanted to eliminate the monkey as soon as possible, and chased him until he achieved just that. It appeared he still held a grudge against Alex for sitting on him, not that Vali was surprised, and he also got a laugh out of it. When she heard his words Kuroka smiled evilly, and poked Bikou while saying,
"What Nya? Too scared to test your luck against him yourself?" She then started laughing at Bikou's expense, to which the monkey king sneered and retorted,
"At least I'm not sleeping with the enemy, unlike someone else." Hearing this, Kuroka's smiled widened even further, and she replied,
"Nya, Don't tell me you're jealous that he gets some and you don't? Tell me when was the last time a woman let you near her?" Bikou turned red faced when he heard this, and almost shouted back,
"Just because I don't flaunt them doesn't mean there's no women interested in me!" Kuroka was about to say something back, when Vali interrupted,
"Both of you please be quiet, we really don't need to discuss either of yours sex life." He then went to sit with Arthur and Le Fay, while the masked member of their team prepared tea. The masked person was of course Elaine, who adopted a similar approach as Grayfia after joining their team to prevent the pendragon house from finding her. Not far from Le Fay was a large grey wolf curled up on the ground, none other than Fenrir, the god devouring wolf himself. The other members of their team, Gogmagog, and the current Zhu Bajie and Shu Wujing had already left after the match. After the tea was served they all started seriously discussing the next match.
"Firstly what are our chances of winning?" Arthur asked seriously. At his question they all turned towards Kuroka, who simply shrugged, and said,
"You all saw how strong he was against Indra, Nyan. I won't discuss the specifics about his strength, since Vali probably wants to see for himself, but I will say he's been training constantly since then." They all nodded at her words, as the fact he'd been undergoing intense training daily was no secret to those living in Asora. Bikou then added,
"There's also his team, which is comprised of three Maou class opponents, as well as a dragon kings son and the former number two of the rating games." Arthur nodded, and added,
"Don't forget Vasco Strada, a former leader of the church. He may be merely human but his power is nothing to dismiss." Bikou laughed and replied,
"Yeah, but you'll be the one to go against him anyways right? You both can be contestants for the strongest living human, it's only natural you'll want to go at each other." None argued against Bikou's words, as they all considered it natural that Arthur would intend to fight Strada from the start. As if going with the flow Kuroka jumped up and declared,
"Then I call dibs on taking on miss maid Nyan! It's time I teach her a lesson!" Though many of them wanted to say Kuroka might not be Grayfia's match, they let her be. They had several Maou class beings as their opponents after all, even if she didn't win Kuroka could hold Grayfia up for a while. Bikou then spoke up,
"I'll take the dragon kings son, Bova. I fought his father before so I want to see how he compares." No one argued this, and Vali looked to Le Fay while saying,
"Then we might be able to leave Serafall leviathan to Gogmagog, and Fenrir might be able to hold Crom Cruach back a while. That'll leave Le Fay, Elaine, Zhu Bajie, and Shu Wujing to deal with the rest." They all nodded in acceptance, as they would be unable to come up with a more detailed plan until the game itself started, and there was another week left until it. With that decided Kuroka used the mist to bring them to Asora, and she and Le Fay left to Misty Manor with Fenrir following them. While everyone else entered their own manor, Vali instead left for the training center.
After talking with Seekvaira and entering the training room, Vali instantly activated his Diabolos Dragon Lucifer amor and began training. This was the armor he attained through the blessing Ophis granted him with his power of Lucifer, and the reason he made it so far in the tournament. Vali recalled when he asked Ophis if Alex was granted a similar blessing, but strangely all she said was that she was working on it. It was with this armor Vali hoped to match his rival, as he was more aware than anyone the difference between them.
With this in mind Vali began his "week" long training session before his match against Alex, the match they both knew would end the heavenly dragon rivalry.