Kisuke led the trio to the medical facility, which was only beside the laboratory. Inside the facility were several large rooms and the group entered one of the deepest. In the center of the room was a glass pod connected to the ceiling with various cables and support beams while it was connected to the floor by a short staircase.
To the side were various terminals with wide screens attached and each one of them had already started running as soon as the lights in the room turned on, "Please take off your clothes and prosthetics.", Kisuke said after turning towards Nyx. But before he heard her answer, he immediately headed to one of the central consoles.
Normally, Nyx would feel repugnant when someone told her to take off her covers. But Kisuke's serious and commanding tone that was devoid of any lust didn't allow her to think about it as she answered, "I can take off my clothes, but my prosthetics were directly connected to my nerves so an operation is needed just to detach them."
"I could immediately ask the one who attached those limbs to remove them, but it'd take a few days.", added Athena.
Kisuke then pointed his finger to a nondescript hanging cabinet on the left side of the room and said while operating the console, "Look for the BFG-909 and drink half of the bottle."
Thanks to the millions of self-replicating and automated drones that he'd left for half a year, Kisuke wasn't just able to build the whole hideout, but was also able to produce various things, including ordinary medicines, "Don't let your Divine Aura automatically expel it from your body."
As the nearest person to the cabinet, Tiamat walked towards it and was able to immediately find the bottle containing an unknown liquid with the label that Kisuke had mentioned, 'He couldn't even name it properly. Or maybe he did this so that no one else could steal information about these medicines. Even in his own hideout that's almost impossible to find, he's still too cautious. I wonder what hurt him?' she thought while tossing the 100mL bottle towards Nyx.
The Goddess of the Night caught the bottle but hesitated. She then looked towards Athena in hopes to clear her confusion.
'Looks like she's so afraid of him that she couldn't even think properly in this situation.', sighing, Athena reassured her, "Don't worry and just do it. As he has said, you have to manually control your defenses so that it won't automatically purge the effects of the concoction."
Nyx understood what Athena was trying to say and felt ashamed. In an attempt to erase this embarrassing feeling, Nyx hurriedly opened the bottle and downed it, of course, while following Kisuke's instructions. It didn't even take a minute for her to immediately feel its effect, or more accurately, she couldn't feel the constant phantom pain that she'd gotten accustomed to any longer, '...This... I'd never thought it would be such a liberating feeling...'
"I'm sorry to interrupt, but please remove your clothes. Unless you want it to be bloody and torn."
Athena and Tiamat didn't know what Kisuke was talking about but Nyx understood what he wanted to happen. She didn't hesitate any longer and directly removed all of her clothing, showing her former immaculate body full of unhealable scars that were left due to Kisuke's Magic mixed with Spiritual Power hitting her.
Without any word of explanation, Kisuke turned towards Nyx and raised his right arm towards her before two Magic Circles appeared in between the flesh and artificial limb. By closing his hand, the Magic Circles shrank rapidly, cutting away the meat and bone that was attached to the prosthetics.
"Hey!" Athena reacted.
Kisuke proceeded to stop the flow of blood by physically blocking it with Magic, "Enter the pod before the painkillers lose their effect."
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"Ladies and gentlemen~! Welcome to the preliminary rounds of the Azazel Cup! I can see that there is a large audience in today's stadium, including some prominent ones~!", shouted the blue-haired announcer in the middle of the platform, "Team Red Dragon Emperor of the Blazing Truth, Team White Dragon Emperor of the Morning Star, Team Spear of the Heavenly Emperor, Team Rias Gremory, and arriving just now is the Team Imperial Purpure! Looks like the first match for today is gathering various eyes of interest!"
As he mentioned the names of these teams, the cameras panned out and showed them on the big screen. Since they are the main contenders for this tournament, they were considered 'prominent' names, especially the first two due to their popularity and status as Heroes.
Kisuke looked through the glass pane and couldn't hide his surprise, 'This world is crazy. How the heck are they this strong already!?'
Although he couldn't accurately gauge their strength by just looking, he can see the qualitative and quantitative leap in their aura. From his point of view, he felt like he just saw multiple Kurosaki Ichigo's appearing out of nowhere, not because of their strength, but because of their rate of improvement.
Kisuke couldn't help but compare them to the Captains and Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13, 'Conflict and struggle couldn't be the only reason as Soul Society was never short of it. Even with a long life of strife and battle, most of the Captains were stagnating.'
But then again, he compared this world's recorded history to today's era and can easily see that this is a unique occurrence, 'A strange occurrence that triggered a mass evolution. Is it because the world is in deep shit?'
But thinking about it again made him depressed and smile wryly, 'So does that mean Ywach's ambition didn't put us in deep shit and that was just the world returning to its natural order?'
"Without further ado, allow me to introduce our players for the first match! First off, the team that's managed to lose every single match that they've participated in despite their base power being above their opponents, the Team Shooting Star!"
Opposite of where Kisuke's team was, appeared was a team composed of 10 people, all of which he didn't have any data on. That is natural because his source of information was the Three Faction which didn't really know anything about them prior to the tournament.
"But please don't let their match history fool you as many industry critics and experts predicted they could be one of the contenders on the main stage, mainly because each one of them is improving at a monstrous rate! Led by their team leader, Shooting Star and the wielder of the newly discovered Longinus, Star Buster Star Blaster, this team almost defeated a team composed of Gods! Surely, this time, they'd have a greater chance and catch their first win!"
The group then exited the tunnel they were in and went up to the platform while waving to their fans.
Kisuke turned to Tiamat and asked, "Hey, how ridiculous is this 'monstrous improvement'?"
"I don't know where this 'ridiculous' is placed in your rating, but I can safely say that it's an eye-opener. While each of them is strong, with their leader capable of pulling out at least an Ultimate Class attack, all of them are inexperienced in battle. But as if a dried-up sponge, they are soaking every bit of experience from their matches and are improving and learning at a very impressive rate. If they play it well and a bit of luck, I do believe that they can enter the main stage."
Immediately after the crowd's cheer for the team lightened up, the announcer continued his introduction, "Now to the team that entered halfway and is considered by many as the most controversial, Team Urahara Shouten!"
"Since this is their first appearance, it's an honor to introduce the surprising people that compose this team! First and foremost is their team leader, the former terrorist and one of the people that saved the Underworld with Great Red's help, Kisuke Urahara! Not much was known of him aside from his possessing a Sacred Gear unknown even to Heaven and the fact that Ajuka-sama rated him very highly, making his 'King' position rise up in value! Whether it's just Ajuka-sama's favor or not, we'll know once we see him perform in this match!"
"However, contrary to one's expectations, he's not the one who made this team so controversial but his members! Starting from the Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat-sama who was known to be the head referee of the Rating Games, leaving her position and participating in the tournament!"
"Next were the two Gods that are hiding their identities through a thick cloak and white bone mask for each of them! Many Gods are watching this match because of their presence."
"Following was the former member of Sona Sitri's peerage, Saji Genshiro! A reincarnated Devil who possessed all four of Sacred Gears that are related to Vritra, the Prison Dragon! One could even say that he'ds already successfully taken the title Prison Dragon for himself and is regarded as one of the brightest youth in today's era!"
"Finally, and almost the most surprising in my opinion, Seekvaira Agares, the heir of the Agares Clan! Suddenly withdrawing her own team from the competition, she has reappeared, but under someone else!"