Even though Akeno didn't join the training of the rest of Rias' Peerage during the summer, she still trained under Serafall's guidance. Although Serafall couldn't teach her much about lightning and especially holy magic, she could still teach her how magic works for her, which was a big help in improving Akeno's general magic usage.
Now that she also accepted her lineage, thanks to Kisuke, her progress became amazing. Maybe more amazing than the rest of her comrades, except Issei's, who was doing some separate training according to Kisuke's manual.
Thanks to already making contact with Kisuke's mother, Serafall didn't ask Akeno to do anything else aside from giving snacks to Ophis, who came by briefly every few days.
And even after the rest of the Peerage finished their training, Akeno didn't stop. However, she still wouldn't miss the events that they had to attend, like the party that was arranged by senior Devils for all of the promising young Devils to meet.
While the young Devils were attending the party, Azazel talked to Tannin, who was training Issei, asking him about Issei's progress, "How is he? The Red Dragon Emperor of this generation?"
Tannin had the appearance of a fifteen meters tall, gigantic western Dragon. With the exception of his lower body, specifically his belly, the inner portions of his long tail and legs, which were beige in color, a majority of Tannin's body was covered in dark purple draconic scales. Also, Tannin had a triangular head with yellow horns, a pair of large, keen red eyes with a lavender sclera and serrated yet sharp canine teeth. He also had claws with long sharp, yellow nails on his hands and large bat-like wings with rigid tips. Additionally, he wore black armored pauldrons that extend down to his arms and a loincloth decorated with metallic accessories.
"I would like to say that he's just a normal human who got involved in this supernatural business by accident.", answered Tannin.
Azazel looked at him and continued, "But?"
"But the will he has is a great boon for a Sacred Gear user like him. Although he has a lot of quirkiness that is hard to describe or understand, I think he has good potential even without much talent. Though if we add the 'white' in the equation, he's too far behind, both in talent and potential.", added Tannin.
"Kukuku." Azazel rubbed his chin, "We shouldn't compare him to that guy in this early stage. I'm happy to hear your remark. I thought you're just torturing him after seeing how you train him."
"You know my methods. It's for strengthening his mind...", Tannin words trailed off at the end.
"Hmm? What's wrong?"
"From the start, I didn't intend to make it this hard for the Red Dragon, however, something is bothering me."
Azazel's expression also turned serious, "What is it?"
"It seems that every time, when we'd finish our training session, he would go away secretly and practice a completely different training method on his own."
Azazel didn't speak and just waited for Tannin's next words.
"I secretly took a peek at him after training activities. But no matter how many times I saw it, I don't understand what he was doing. Issei would first do some normal warm-up exercises before sitting cross-legged on the ground with his eyes closed. However, something strange happened after he sat for half an hour. A strange aura would emit from him and along with it, his body would slowly tear apart."
"Tear apart?"
Tannin nodded, "Yes. You heard me right. His body would tear apart. Muscles would tear, veins would explode, and bones would break. I can also tell that he was feeling quite some pain, as he was trying his best not to cry out loud. But he failed most of the time."
"...What the hell?", muttered Azazel in shock.
"Right? But that's not the strangest part. After doing that for about an hour, he'd fall asleep. At first, I intended to cure him. However, I figured that he has been doing this for a while now and I didn't notice any injury on him the next day so he must be doing something to heal himself. With that in mind, I kept watching, and throughout the night, his body mended by itself. It was also then, that I noticed that his body became stronger compared to the previous day."
"So you increased the difficulty of the training..."
"Yes."
"What does the Red Dragon Emperor have to say? I know you'd ask him."
"He won't tell me anything."
Azazel stayed silent for a moment before asking, "You're not telling me everything yet. This 'strange aura', although you described it as strange, you should have some clue to what it is."
Tannin hesitated whether he should reveal it or not. But he figured that Azazel would find it out sooner or later now that he became their advisor, "I'm not too sure, but I think that aura is composed of at least three components."
"Go on."
"The first one and the most obvious is Ki. He should be practicing something similar to Touki. But the other two are a bit problematic. The second one is somehow similar to the Divinity of other mythological factions while the last one has the smell of Ophis."
Azazel's eyes widened at his words, "Divinity and Ophis? That's indeed problematic... Not just that, it's plain ridiculous! So many things in that aura!? I'm surprised that he isn't dead yet!"
Tannin had only a few words for that, "But it works. I wonder who taught him that training method?"
Hearing that, a certain grinning figure wearing a bucket hat entered Azazel's head, 'Is it him?'
Azazel then recalled the possibility of Kisuke having a connection with Ophis, but this couldn't be confirmed. There was also a strange event where Ophis suddenly appeared beside Serafall, but after that, she claimed that she never met Ophis again. When asked what Ophis wanted from her, Serafall said that she wasn't sure, too, as she left after giving her some candies.
It was a ridiculous claim, but if it was the Ophis from Vali's description, then it would be possible for her to go away after getting some sweets.
Another problematic thing was Vali. Azazel felt like Vali wasn't telling him something very important regarding Ophis. But as his only eye in that terrorist organization, he could only depend on him.
"I'll try to ask Issei, once he has more trust in me. I have to take a look if that training method is really a good thing for him.", muttered Azazel after thinking for a few seconds.
"As of now, I don't think that there are any problems. Although he still can't enter Balance Breaker on his own, he should be able to maintain it for 1 minute contrary to the 10 seconds before."
"That much?"
"Yes. And I think that it's thanks to the strange training he's doing."
The party among young Devils went peacefully, if not for some minor skirmishes. Issei's group also got to meet the one who was acknowledged as the strongest youth amongst the Devils, Sairaorg, and became friends with him.
It was also at this night that it was revealed that there's going to be rating games between the youths. Supposedly, Rias' team was to go against Sona's team. However, the current state of their team couldn't be considered as a proper peerage because of the absence of their King. They also couldn't attend tonight's gathering because of this. So by default, Rias' team won, which didn't feel too good for them.
It was only thanks to Serafall and the Sitri Clan's protection that Sona's servants could keep their status. If not, they might have been considered to be stray devils and would be assigned to a different Devil to keep them under control.
====================
====================
====================
Editors:
28th00: Well now, I'd be curious about the fates of anyone that dares to mess with Sona's Peerage, since Serafall wouldn't let that sorta shit fly without said being's having their heads fly. Sona, who is sufficiently adapted to Kisuke and his tactics, with access to Kisuke himself, would show them what Hell truly is when she comes back also… Welp, wonder what Kisuke told Phis-chama to do with Issei for that aura training?
Alexander: Nothing at all. Kisuke may have asked for her snake, but the training program was written entirely by him.
28th00: I meant in how she can customise her snake blessings to literally do whatever she wants. Most people that get them have the super basic "Power Up" blessing, instead of anything more esoteric in nature that'd probably be a fairy bit stronger.