Finally started a new thread for the first time in forever. I should be able to resolve any odd story ideas that didn't find it's way to the main story and fluff/lewd scenes too. Took some time to write this since I re-read Volume 4 of the light novel to get the sequence of events before the battle right for consistency purposes.
Chapter 10
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If one bastardizes the statement by changing it up a little to read, "For every action, there is a disproportionate and increasingly complicated interaction", then you would have summarized every Xianxia story ever written.
One particular story cliche came to mind when I expanded my senses across Trifas and beyond upon my arrival in this universe.
There would always be an inexplicably rare resource absorbing all the energy in the area that would only manifest itself (or bloom if it's a plant) for a short moment after centuries have passed for no reason other than to serve as a once-in-a-lifetime resource for asshole Cultivators.
For illustration purposes, let's randomize the name of a Xianxia plant and call it "Thousand-Year Old Myriad Etherial Heavenly Herb", or Magical Cannabis for short.
The protagonist of the story is, obviously, insanely lucky or has some sort of gimmick that makes him aware of the existence of Magical Cannabis. Whether he is a time-traveler or has a 'Gamer'-like system that teleports him to the area where it's approximately located doesn't matter.
What matters is that there are probably at least two different powerful sects, one future MC bootlicker and one old monster present trying to grab that piece of Magical Cannabis right at the same time.
And surprise, surprise! Out of all the players fighting there, the winner is none other than the MC!
The MC slaps everyone in the face by doing the 'impossible' right in front of them and depriving them of such a rare resource! The MC then earns the enmity of everyone that had eyes but failed to see Mount Tai, thereby expanding his list of future enemies by getting entangled by the strings of Karma even further.
The author then gets to write another 100+ chapters resolving the latest set of enemies while using them to introduce several more enemies. Once all of them are truly dead, the next higher realm opponents appear together with even more rare resources and avenues of power to take!
When one boils the situation down to its essence, it means that when the famous Xianxia MC luck strikes again and presents an opportunity to attain a rare power (beyond his initial super unique advantage), so too will he get 'lucky' and be in a position where his next set of stepping stones is present.
I should have seriously considered the possibility that my luck would have thrown me in Fate/Apocrypha just when the Greater Grail was already stolen for some time and at the point where it's adjustments by Shirou Tokisada Amakusa was being completed with the help of Shakespeare.
If I had arrived after the Great Holy Grail War I would have just gone with the main looting plan while looking around for why this timeline would get pruned.
If I had arrived a few months before the main event then I would have still gone around looting, but I would appear in the war in order to hack the Grail and summon an additional Servant on my own. After that, I would send my Servant along with Airi and Alfia out to fight the other Servants for EXP and teamwork building purposes.
But it turns out my luck made me miss out on all the fun and sent me straight to the rewards stage.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
What happened to my 'frantic dash for the rare resource' story cliche?!
"Well, let's go check out Bucharest then head over to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, I bet whatever is amiss in this timeline is over there."
A high-speed area relocation movement spell was used in place of the usual teleporting magic since I still need some time to adjust to the local laws that governed space. Best not to risk accidentally teleporting to the other side of the world or somewhere even more inconvenient.
We arrived above Bucharest in a matter of seconds, I double-checked through the city and found that the individuals that made out the alliance against Shirou and Semiramis (+ remaining Red Servants), namely that of Jeanne, Sieg, Astolfo, Chiron, Caules, Fiore, Gordes, Mordred, Kairi, and the homunculi had already left the city as planned.
I looked up at the moonless sky and narrowed my eyes, there was no aerial battle going on, nor was there any fierce fighting taking place in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
At least, not anymore.
I stayed silent even as Airi, Artemis and Alfia started questioning me on what was going on as I pushed my spatial relocation spell to the max, shifting us all safely at the speed of lightning.
A wave of my hand annihilated the magical defenses of the flying fortress of a Noble Phantasm. In the span of another breath, we had all been moved right into the chamber that held the Greater Grail and the last remaining members of the Great Holy Grail War.
I moved my legs for the first time I arrived in this world, crossing over fifty steps with just a single step, then ended my movement technique prematurely to be in a position to stop a katana from executing a badly hurt foe.
"What-?!" The empowered incarnated Servant, Shirou Tokisada Amakusa, couldn't finish expressing his surprise as I flicked my finger at him, breaking the enchanted katana [Miike Tenta Mitsuyo] and sent his body flying through several pillars.
"Master!" Semiramis screamed in response to attacking her loved one, I could see that she was prepared to attack me… which wasn't much of a concern.
"Attacking the peanut gallery is against the natural order. Don't you know that an audience is important for final battles like these? Tsk, tsk." I ignored the Assassin and chided the antagonist of the day after I pieced together the situation.
Everything had been going according to canon until a couple of seconds ago. Sieg and Shirou were having their final showdown after Jeanne used her Noble Phantasm. Upon exchanging some final words, Laeticia's body was left behind, Astolfo flew in to help only to be pinned down by a badly hurt Semiramis. Sieg entrusted Caules to watch over Laeticia while he fought against Shirou with help from Siegfried and Fran's power.
The only difference was that the remaining Ruler Servant somehow managed to keep his cool and decided to throw away any semblance of honor and nobility by attacking both Laeticia and Caules, forcing Sieg to defend them both with his body.
He would have succeeded in forcing humanity into stagnancy by making their souls eternal using Heaven's Feel after defeating Sieg in this timeline resulting in it getting pruned by the 'World' later on.
My women arrived just as I stomped on the ground, negating Semiramis's attempt to pin me with her summoned chains and poisoned weapons, while also shielding the helpless audience from my own actions using magic barriers.
I then conjured some barriers remotely to shield the five masters of the Red faction kept in some room here from further harm.
"Rude. Were you the one that gave him the idea, I wonder?"
I didn't spare the Queen of Assyria more than a side glance. A wave of my hand was more than enough to heal Sieg of his current injuries, a crushing motion freed Astolfo and his Hippogriff of their command sealed powered restraints.
… Shit! He really is super cute.
I'm in danger.
"Woah! That was so cool! Who the heck are you? Hey, wait, this feeling of the moon… are you a moon goddess?!"
Don't look at Astolfo, don't look at the trap…
"Ahaha… I am the goddess Artemis, but not the Artemis of this world." The blue-haired goddess didn't show any discomfort from being near Astolfo despite knowing his gender.
As expected, cute traps transcend man-hater habits.
Somewhere at the side, Caules was looking like he was forcing a brain reboot, while Sieg alternated between relief for his allies' safety and back to a simmering fury as he prepared to face Shirou once more.
"Dio! What was all that moving around for!?" Alfia complained loudly, I tuned her out in favor of monitoring the movements of the Greater Grail and Shirou Tokisada Amakusa.
"I take it the hard part is over?" Airi was much more understanding, we lived together for nearly a year, she knew my habits very well. I wouldn't have rushed without saying anything to her if the situation wasn't potentially dire.
I nodded quietly, collecting my thoughts and sending it over as an information package to my women, with a request to keep the peace between everyone while I settled things.
"Just wait here, I'll settle things."
And reap the benefits for myself while I'm at it.
I appeared before the Greater Grail where the saint stood, having attempted to sneak away to accelerate the processing of his wish.
"Haha… even the gods are against my wish, then?" He spoke with a resigned smile, truly, he was someone that had discarded his grudges to the point where disappointments like betrayals would only result in him acknowledging it and moving on.
"Not necessarily. I'm only doing this because the 'right' thing to do is to keep this timeline alive." The 'right' thing for me to do to look good in the eyes of my women while also reaping the immediate benefits, that is, hehehe! "I'm afraid that humanity will stagnate once it receives your wish for eternal peace. I've got no problems with humanity gaining salvation or immortality if it's done with the proper foundation in place, unfortunately, the conditions aren't met and the rules of this universe will force the world to end at 2050 if humanity stagnates."
"... What a cruel world."
"Don't sweat it too much. Just don't do something stupid like getting yourself killed and I'll send you to another world where you can make your wish come true."
He still tried to attack me in a last-ditch effort to stop me, but I simply negated his attack and sent him flying back to where everybody was.
I deployed my most powerful barriers and took out several defensive items.
I reached for the Greater Grail, took control of as many of its functions as I could, then sealed it within my spiritual realm where so that Heaven's Feel would only affect me instead of the rest of the world. Not that I would allow it to alter me without my careful direction.
Sitting down in a lotus position, I started Cultivating while diving into my spiritual realm. I continued subverting the Greater Grail and found that most of its resources were already invested in enacting the saint's illegal wish. As for the regular wish, I didn't even qualify for it since I wasn't a winning master-servant pair, there wasn't much energy dedicated to it anyways so I just charged it up with my own mana and began modifying the Greater Grail for my purposes.
The fabricated image of the Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, the representation of the Greater Grail, appeared before it's new admin and started hearing out my requests.
"Keep those wish slots in reserve and use the new mana storage to punch a hole to the Root."
I didn't have to worry about collateral damage since the Greater Grail was activating within my spiritual realm, which is like an entire universe of its own, just a lot smaller at my current level.
The path to the Akashic Records was open, it's Counter Guardian's came pouring out to face me as the source of the entire Nasuverse attempted to delete me from existence.
However, I had already prepared for that, as my spiritual realm was already populated with powerful battle golems equipped with some of my best mass-produced artifacts!
As if I would ever leave my personal spiritual realm without proper defenses, what do I look like, a reckless idiot?!
I continued to cultivate every single law using the profound opportunity I've given myself. With access to parts of the 'Root', I could absorb and comprehend everything I needed to perform 'magic' and more while fueling my Cultivation further.
A fierce battle was being waged on within my realm as my defense system fought off the might of the 'World', my power was increasing to even greater heights, but it wasn't enough to keep up with the rapidly escalating force being leveled against me.
I took the opportunity to look for certain abandoned timelines that were fucked up beyond belief, looking back into the far past, then reached out with a variant of my world crossing spell and refined those already doomed worlds into energy!
Comprehending the knowledge of the root pushed my understanding of all laws to the mid-point of an entire great realm beyond me, but my actual Cultivation level had not increased much. Consuming the energies from worlds that were already gone in the far past (were it not for my time travel/world crossing cheating spell) was my answer to that!
Those worlds had close to zero chances of ever recovering due to the influence of Foreigners invading those timelines anyway. I may as well do everyone a favor, myself included, by depriving those beings of their resources while mercy killing every living being there.
I quickly shut the hole to the Akasha with my own power as I accustomed myself to my new level of power.
If my Cultivation levels went from 0 to 10, with each whole number representing one great realm, then I had just jumped straight from 0.65 to 0.999999. It wouldn't be wrong to say that I was a Half-Step away from the next breakthrough.
Unfortunately, I needed more energy for that, I could probably get it easily but staying at this point might give me some advantages. If I ascended to the next great realms then hiding from higher dimensional beings would become increasingly difficult. The safest choice would be to remain at this level until I completely mastered the use of all my current laws to the point where I can defeat enemies the equivalent of one whole great realm stronger than me!
Which would be… difficult to measure, given that I'm the only one with this kind of Cultivation System. Ah well, I'll figure it out eventually.
All of this takes some time to describe but actually happened within the span of one minute.
I came out to the sight of Airi and Alfia literally holding Shirou, Semiramis, and Sieg down on the ground. Turns out that everyone is still pissed off at everyone after all the killing over these past few days. Who would have thought?
Anyhow… Sieg was still turning into a dragonid as a result of losing his command seals that suppressed the curse, thankfully, I was here to help him decide between living normally in this world or going the canon route by using the Greater Grail's power to turn into Fafnir and keep waiting in the Reverse Side of the World for his waifu.
The waifu choice won out. I have never been so proud of this little homunculus.
Not that I've known him for more than a couple of minutes.
Anyways, it looks like Astolfo is still going with that world-traveling itenary.
Shirou and Semiramis managed to have a similar to canon heartwarming talk when they assumed I was going to kill them off. I waited for them to kiss each other before using my new knowledge of Souls and the laws of Life to incarnate them with as much power as I could fit into their bodies then Isekai'ed them into a different world.
"Where did you banish them to?" Airi asked me while Alfia and Artemis were keeping everyone entertained (or reassured), as they too, were privy to my plans that I've urgently modified after discovering the situation.
"Some soft enough world based on a hentai game where they can live together peacefully or try for something ambitious if they want."
I had scouted many worlds for the sake of sending refugees, friends, and enemies to the places that suited them the best. Hentai worlds were generally pretty tame in terms of power-levels and there was enough stuff to do there to keep heroic spirits or anti-heroes busy.
I simply randomized a world within one of my hentai world catalogs and sent them there. Wait, hold on… oh, whew, that's good. I made sure to keep the Taimanin world in a separate catalog, so they wouldn't have been sent there by accident.
"You look worried. What happened?"
"Nothing, really. I was just working up a cold sweat when I almost thought I sent them to an NTR rape world by accident."
"... Why do you even look up those worlds for?"
"... For my enemies?"
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."
"Okay, okay, I'll revise the punishment list!"
Airi only ever quotes the Bible when she feels I'm going way out of line.
I lazily teleported everyone back down to the floor as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon began to crumble properly. Teleporting within the Nasuverse was no longer an issue now that I had sufficient understanding of both the Greater and the local laws of Space.
"-with the surviving Red Masters that, as you said, Karna loyally defended from Semiramis, as hostages we can use them as a bargaining chip... I could offer a conditional surrender to the Mage's Association as the current leader of the Yggdmillennia, formally ending the Greater Grail War."
Caules and I were currently discussing the issue about the Greater Grail's current location having left Yggdmilennia lands, into areas where the Mage's Association technically owns due to Shirou and Semiramis' plans. He had already accepted the fact that he wouldn't be getting the Greater Grail anytime soon from me and so moved on to the matter of concluding this whole war.
"Hostages? Don't you mean my hostages? I was the one to get them out safe and sound remember? And also, is there any benefit to me helping you stay safe from the Mage's Association?"
Airi and Artemis double-teamed me and jabbed me at my sides.
"Ouch! Okay, okay, sheesh, I was just joking! I don't even care for them, you can have the hostages. I wasn't planning on getting anything from you anyway, seeing as you don't have anything I could ever need or want. I was just trying to play up the shameless Xianxia MC this time around and make him squirm a bit by being 'overbearing', I swear!"
Caules didn't know how to react to someone as overpowered as me being 'handled' like this.
Astolfo was just laughing his ass off. Well, at least he has a good sense of humor.
"Anyways… your family coffers aren't going to look good after all this."
"Haa… yes, the association will probably disband the Yggdmillennia clan for good and confiscate everything. I have accepted that and will be happy to just remain the head of the Forvedge family if the punishments remain light."
"Given that they've been monitoring the phenomenon from the distance and likely extracted useful insights from it... I'd think they will be in a good mood. Besides, you have the excuse of being unable to resist and oppose Darnic even if you wanted to."
Caules smiled wryly, "Yeah, there is that. At least this way, my sister, Gordes, and the homunculi should be able to get on with their lives."
Ah yes, Gordes, the father of Chaldea's new director Gordolf, who is surprisingly pleasant for a magus. The remaining homunculi are just getting started with having thoughts of their own, note to self, give them some souls and other buffs discreetly…
As for his sister, Fiore… she had already passed on the family crest to Caules and is determined to leave the life of a Magus, while Caules decided to embrace it instead.
Speaking of Fiore, it looks like she's about to arrive, she was a couple of minutes drive away from where I brought us all to when Caules called her to give her a quick summary of what happened.
"Back to your finances, let's make a deal." I snapped my fingers and conjured thousands of gold coins, with many precious jewels among them, all stacked up on very artistic carts, "I don't really plan to stay here for long, so why don't you exchange 10% of all this to cash, then hand that money over to me and you can keep the other 90%."
My intentions were as plain as day, I got us some legal tender for us to enjoy modern life here for a bit, and Caules would have enough money to jumpstart his family finances.
"Th-this is too much! And how did you do that? I can tell that it isn't Projection magic. Is it the Denial of Nothingness?! Do you have the First Magic too! How am I supposed to carry all this-"
I decided to shut him up by handing him an interspatial ring and forcing him to use it himself to collect all the treasure. By the end of it, he was looking at the ring as if it was one of the most precious Mystic Code he had ever seen in his life.
It probably was, but that was a matter of perspective.
Then again, he practically sees me as a god right now.
"Oh, one more thing… I would like your help with a magical experiment of sorts…"
"Yes? Of course, what do you need me to do?"
"I keep a collection of animals across many secret realms, most of them are saturated with my power to the point where the animals turn into magical beasts over a long period of time. I was hoping to see what would happen to one such animal on the cusp of evolving if it were to start living in this world instead of my realms. I would like to think that you are someone I can entrust one of my creatures to..."
Having seen a part of his memories using my senses, it just so happens that I have just the animal with the right breed and temperament as a pet his family once had.
Airi was staring at me with a suspicious look. Ah, can this be called a wife's intuition?
"I'll be happy to!"
"Good! Now, meet Timmy!"
I gave the dog I took out of one of the realms I carried on me a random name.
Just then, a certain voice called out from a limousine, "Brother!"
With a small compulsion, the dog 'wiggled' out of my hands and started running up to the disabled young woman before her brother could react!
"Arf! Arf!"
"Huh? This is…"
Her surprise was expected. The dog I brought out looked exactly like the god used as a 'bad example' of spirit evocation by their father and died horribly in front of Fiore and Caules when they were young.
That dog's sacrifice was one of the impetus for Fiore to continue on the path of the Magus even though she was too gentle to handle it. While she liked studying and enacting magecraft, being a cold-blooded magus was impossible for her. While bringing out that dog was a possible trauma point I personally saw it as a way to give her a second chance to resolve any regrets.
I teleported right to the car door and then tapped one of her legs, instantly fixing the damage for both limbs, to a certain point.
She instantly kicked out at me in surprise, a completely ineffective kick, of course.
"Ow! Who are you? Where do you think you're… touching…"
Fiore stared at her currently functioning legs.
"As expected of Lord Dio." Caules spoke seriously while having a huge smile on his face.
"Just for your information, I've only healed her up to the mid-recovery stage so that she can have the choice of experience the challenge of rehabilitating her ability to walk. It's a generally positive experience when you succeed and will be a nice thing to look back to, heck, you can even write about it in your future autobiography if you ever write one."
It wouldn't be fair to remove all positive opportunities from someone's life. She would have gotten her legs healed regardless, I simply used my cheat abilities to fix her legs while also adding something similar to magic circuits back to them to replace the family crest she gave away.
Her brother simply nodded along and began sharing his happiness with his sister. I stayed at the sidelines so that I wouldn't bother them at this point.
When I looked at Alfia she rolled her eyes at me, as if she figured that I was going to do that.
Airi and Artemis had knowing smiles. I hope they weren't overthinking it or anything. I was just providing my typical OP MC end-to-end services and support package!
Hmm, I'll deal with their possible misunderstandings later. Time to revise my plans to loot the Mage's Association and Atlas a little bit to take into account my new levels of power.
Hmm, with my current powers… can't I give Albion's counterpart a little help? Being stuck as a corpse underneath the Mage's Association and being used as a resource isn't fitting a dragon at all!
More importantly, if I can get the dragon's acknowledgment before he properly leaves for the Reverse Side of the World, it could help me win the Hyoudou's favorite uncle Vali over to my side.
Good.... very good! Just you wait, Father-in-law, not even your rival harem will be safe from my influence!
Chapter 11
I happily hummed to the tune of Sorairo Days as I walked back to my New York apartment upon completing a short shopping trip. It only took a few days for Caules to purchase the place and a couple of hours for me to furnish it myself.
Traveling the world as tourists, staying in all sorts of high-class hotels, and enjoying the world's cuisine with everyone was a change of pace from our usual rush to get acclimatized to things (like our homeworld and my in-laws) or try out a new world's main attraction (e.g. NewWorld Online).
Even so, nothing beats having a familiar place you can return to after a hard day of work. This may just be a temporary base in the grand scale of things, but having a regular place of rest like this does wonders for my women, which is the main benefit from acquiring a local home.
"I can start my plans for real now that I've acquired 'that' contract and the money from Caules." I smiled to myself as the thoughts of acquiring inspiration for new techniques and artifacts comforted my soul.
"I'm home! And I've bought ice cream!"
"Welcome home!" Airi had appeared in front of me in the blink of an eye, with only a frilly apron to cover herself, "Would you like dinner? A bath? Or perhaps...me?"
Aaaah! This is bliss!
I quickly shook myself to put aside my stupid happy look and happily declared my intentions.
"All of the above! But I'll start with you!"
"Kyaa!"
Despite 'screaming' like that Airi's smile made it clear that she had been anticipating this very response. I shut the door behind me, grabbed my beautiful blonde wife by the arm, and kissed her. I didn't hesitate to take off my pants and fuck her against the wall as she wrapped her arms and legs around my body, happily accepting her husband's cock like the lovely wife she was.
"Can the two of you keep your noise at a reasonable level for once in your life?!" Alfia was dressed in a bath towel and appeared to have been relaxing recently, indicated by the magical rejuvenating face mask product on her face (modern pollution irritated her skin) and the earphones dangling around her neck. "And I swear that the two of you have done this exact song and dance just three days ago…"
I casually isolated Airi and me in a small magical barrier so that sound wouldn't escape or enter, fulfilling Alfia's wish while annoying her by not responding to her.
After filling up Airi's womb with my semen and allowing the rest to overflow onto the floor, I canceled the barrier and answered as if nothing had happened, "Nonsense. I fucked Airi doggystyle then. Right Airi?"
"Mmnn…" My first wife shamelessly licked her finger clean of my seed as if enjoying a snack, "Don't forget the leash. That was when we were trying out the 'slave-wife' play, it's totally different." She blushed as she recalled the details, "T-that said, I'm still not used to saying things like 'please reward this lowly sow', but I should get it done by the end of the month!"
Alfia stared at the earnest and determined-looking Airi with an astonished look, "You… are you seriously treating this like actual training?"
I took out a sheet of paper showing our agreed-upon sexual training schedule, "It really is. Airi should be proficient enough in uttering degrading phrases by then, allowing us to move on to the 'secretly eager slave-wife' stage."
As if remembering that normal people weren't supposed to be proud of that, Airi suddenly covered up her nakedness with her hands and pouted at me, "D-don't say things like that out loud! If you keep doing that you're going to end up talking about it over dinner in front of my father."
"I see no problems with this."
"You're impossible!"
"I'm just joking! Really!"
Artemis poked her head out of the corridor a second later and said, "That's half a lie."
Airi kicked my shin and I acted appropriately by exaggerating the pain, "Ouch! But it was also half-true!"
"Honestly… We're having roasted pork so let's go take a bath first."
Before we can finally vacate the entrance to the apartment, Artemis stared at the pool of cum on the floor and muttered, "I just mopped that part…"
I snapped my fingers and cleaned it up in an instant.
"You're not in your homeworld anymore. While you shouldn't go all out you can still use your divine powers for little things like this."
Artemis went 'oooh' and bumped her fist on her head, "I forgot."
"... It doesn't have the same effect like that." I ended up commenting on Artemis's act.
"You're supposed to stick out your tongue and wink while you're doing it!" Airi insisted all of a sudden, ah, so Airi's been introducing Artemis to the standardized 'cute girl' playbook.
"I don't think I can do it like that. It didn't feel quite right when I practiced in the mirror." Artemis sighed as she recalled her efforts.
"Isn't it because it makes you look childish?" Alfia critiqued the entire act, but she certainly had a point there.
"Alfia's spot on!" I agreed hurriedly, to Alfia's surprise, "Airi has the cute innocent girl look down to pat even though she's really lewd at heart!"
"T-that's not true!" Airi protested half-heartedly, I continued on without acknowledging her denials.
"-Artemis, in your case, you fit the gentle beauty archetype a lot more, so that kind of act doesn't work the same way. Try for something like placing your hand over your cheek after sighing with a tired expression."
She did just that and looked very much like an Onee-sama type of girl for a moment.
"Yeah, that works a lot better. Though it may fit Alfia more…" My silver-haired companion turned red with both anger and embarrassment.
"I can't believe you are discussing the topic of mannerisms in such a manner!"
"We are merely optimizing character archetype builds." I jokingly answered her.
"It's fun trying out new things." Artemis was completely serious in her response.
"Hmm, learning how to maximize one's appeal is necessary for a polygamous relationship." Airi nodded sagely as she thought of her many mothers.
"I-is that really necessary?" Alfia asked with an unusual amount of curiosity.
"When I was younger I accidentally mistook Ingvild for my birth mother Asia when she hugged me from behind because both of them are really gentle and share a lot in common." Airi had a mortified look when she recalled that part of her past.
Growing up as a child of a harem protagonist really has its own share of problems… perhaps I should sign all my women up to speech and drama classes? Maybe that will help? Or I could throw them into weird situations until they develop even more quirks…
"...What's with that suspicious look on your face?" Airi narrowed her eyes at me.
"I was just thinking about the merits of attending an academy on the performing arts. We could all use some lessons, heck, I certainly have to improve a lot on being dramatic." I smoothly answered her question without giving away my less than flattering intentions.
"Speaking of lessons, do you all need any help with your Cultivation?"
After figuring out how the Falna worked, the process of Excelia accumulation, and refining it into 'Status' points, I expanded upon the process and integrated it into their customized Cultivation manuals (and my own lifestyle, enabling me to process daily insights a lot quicker).
Airi and Alfia no longer needed to rely on Artemis' blessings to have their full potential unlocked (Airi was still Level 1 and didn't get much of a boost, to begin with), which benefited Alfia the most now that her abilities as a Level 9 have become her baseline stats without any further reliance on a divine connection.
Everyone could now Cultivate passively by doing what Adventurers normally did, which is, to live life, work hard and achieve great things. They could absorb energy using traditional means like meditating to absorb energy and contemplate matters, or start chugging down my special pills like drug addicts (I can't wait to introduce Airi to my 'recreational drugs' when we advance through the sexual training schedule further, hehehe...), but by giving them the passive Cultivation option I'm minimizing the chances of them going into closed-doors cultivation.
Closed-doors Cultivation is a nefarious practice that will decrease my quality time with them!
I will prevent them from relying on the practice as much as I can by giving them life experience, dangling some of my comprehensive knowledge of laws for them as rewards (it's a good thing they're stubborn enough to not accept effort-free power, heh) and giving them energy-packed drugs where appropriate!
"No problems here! In fact, I've made a couple of new techniques that I would like to try out!"
Airi's Cultivation was more 'general' like my own since she hasn't fully determined what kind of 'path' or 'Dao' she wants to refine. Even so, she derived many benefits from it and greatly enjoyed using her new control over her internal energies to form special attacks.
"I may need some time to consider a few matters more deeply." Alfia quickly answered me before I properly got to her and then walked away.
I could confront her about it, but I'll give her some 'face' since she's just too shy to say that she's stuck at a bottleneck. Alfia's never gotten stuck on anything for long since I healed her, she will either overcome this herself or she'll lose a bit of confidence by remaining at a bottleneck with little progress for a long time.
As much as I wanted to help her, Alfia has to let go of her pride sometimes and learn to ask for help for things that aren't matters of life and death.
Artemis hummed and embraced me tightly, "Hehe, I quite like expanding my domains like this. My progress is going great, thanks to you… in fact, I think we've become more compatible, so let's 'dual-cultivate' more often, okay?"
I ended up spending the entire night after finishing dinner 'cultivating' with Artemis under the moonlight, in other words, I fucked her outdoors in a public park and taught her the joys of exhibitionism.
The next morning…
I was the earliest riser of the family and used the alone time to finalize my Clock Tower invasion plans.
Sensing a familiar presence approaching, I changed into my casual outfit and looked out the window to see my new neighbor arriving.
Whew, that's a lot of stuff in that moving truck…
A certain lady that left the world of Magecraft was directing some homunculi volunteers while walking with the assistance of crutches outside. The dog I gave her was dutifully guarding her as he wagged his tail with a dumb innocent expression on his face, clearly baiting future mob characters to attack him before he kills them with a single paw.
Sniff, they grow up so fast...
I teleported outside and said hello, "Morning Fiore, need any help?"
Spoiler: Fiore
She turned around in surprise, I could see that a spell was on the tip of her tongue before then tension faded and she relaxed just as quickly upon recognizing me.
"L-lord Dio!"
"Ahem, just Dio. We don't have that kind of relationship."
"Ufufu… what kind of relationship could you be insinuating?"
She recovered quickly and faintly giggled with a gentle smile on her face. The light of the morning sun on her face made the entire moment look exquisite to my eyes.
I smiled back at her and said, "This isn't the Magus world, after all. You don't have to address anyone with greater power in such a respectful manner."
Fiore became shyly embarrassed, "Yes, well, I'm still getting used to it. It has only been two weeks since then… ah, forgive my reminiscence. Would you mind answering a question of mind?"
"Ask away."
"Are you here for any specific purpose or is this a social call?"
"Just here to greet my new neighbor and help her move in."
"N-neighbor!?"
"You're moving into the same apartment complex that my women and I are staying in. You know, the one that your brother got for us."
"T-that brother of mine! What is he thinking!?"
"Oh! The horror! I am such a repulsive being that even my new neighbor dreads my presence-"
"It's not like that! I'm just surprised that my brother would think to set us up like this!"
"Huh? Set us up how?"
"N-nothing! It was probably just a prank!"
Ah, I love playing the dense guy, especially when I get to see so many cute expressions.
"Hmm, alright. Anyways, I'll just help you move everything inside if that's okay with you."
"I appreciate the help."
I teleported everything right into her apartment, then used some of my independent thought processes to manage the unpacking and decoration with telekinesis. I added some of my stockpiled masterfully crafted furniture to fill in the gaps according to her existing items.
Everything was finished by the time Fiore, the homunculi and I arrived at the door to her new home. Her jaw dropped at the sight of a fully and beautifully decorated apartment suite.
"H-how?!"
"Magic."
I said simply while creating the illusion of a rainbow as I moved my hands accordingly.
Fiore's eyes twitched with irritation, it wasn't the first time I spoke about the bullshit that was my homeworld's magic system and it's convenience in everyday life.
Even so, she never stopped wanting to hear more about it. She was even happier when I said that what I did to add 'magic circuits' to her legs would enable her to use my brand of magic.
Fiore didn't wait a second before skim-reading through my grimoire of compiled basic spells and theory that day. She reminded me a lot of… well... myself, when I first learned how to use magic.
"Hold on, if you moved everything so precisely by yourself then…"
"Hmm?"
Her face was red and her fists were clenched tightly, "Y-you saw?"
I tilted my head innocently and repeated, "Saw what? Are you talking about your bras and panties-"
"You pervert!"
I returned to my apartment with a slap mark on my face laughing all the while.
A few hours later…
I was currently taking a walk down memory lane, more specifically, I was walking through the busy streets of where 'Chinatown' was located in London.
While the architecture remained the same, the people and the shops were vastly different from both my homeworld and original world.
I decided to check out a familiar store that was well known for its rude staff back in my first life, only to see two young girls arguing with each other about forgetting their wallet.
When the waiter arrived with the bill, I sensed a small buildup of energy which confirmed my assumption that they were both magus, and stepped in to save everyone some trouble.
"Ah, hey, there you are. I've got the cash you've asked for." I said while depositing the exact amount unto the tray with the receipt, which the staff quickly took away without saying a word, not caring who paid the bill, "Mmm, good times. A bit exaggerated but this is an anime world afterall."
"Hey, what was that for? We had that handled!" The blonde girl with a ponytail complained ungratefully until she took a good look at my face and blushed furiously.
"What my sister meant to say was 'thank you'-" Her blonde sister who wore a cute headband cut her sister short, sternly glaring at her, "-and that we are curious as to why you assisted us after my forgetful sister made one of the classic blunders." She turned out the same way as her sister after seeing my handsome face that was typical for Cultivators.
I shrugged and smiled lightly, "Too much Hypnosis could ruin someone's mind. I'd rather not have that on my conscience since I was here to prevent its use."
"I've never seen you around before. Which department do you belong to?" The sister with the hairband asked immediately while looking away from me, assuming that I was a student in the Clock Tower.
"Are you American? You kinda look American. But your accent is a bit… Asian? Or just not very heavy." Ponytailed sister was pretty perceptive if she could pick that out quickly.
"Hmm, let's talk outside, the staff look like they want us to leave."
"What kind of customer service is this?!" "Rude."
We introduced ourselves as we walked towards a particular part of Chinatown in Soho. Well, I was walking in that direction while the twin sisters were following me.
"I'm Dio Dorana, pleasure to meet you two ladies."
"It's nice to meet you too! Nazica Pentel!" The more rowdy sister with the ponytail introduced herself excitedly.
"I am delighted to meet your acquaintance. Radia Pentel." The more serious twin with the hairband politely gave me her name. "We're both currently attending lectures and classes in the Modern Magecraft Theories department."
"Oh? The one thought by Waver, I mean, Lord El-Melloi the Second? I've heard many great things about his teaching abilities."
"He's awesome! The way he breaks down mysteries is kinda scary but you learn a lot from it!" Nazica exclaimed proudly.
"That he does." I agreed with her as I quite liked how skilled he was in it, especially since I was someone that could understand and replicate any form of magic instantly.
"You still have yet to answer my question." Radia continued to 'subtly' badger me for my answer.
"Oh, about my department? Well, I'll get back to you on that. I just arrived at my stop."
"Huh? Wait, this is-"
I snapped my fingers and opened one of the four pathways to the Spiritual Grave of Albion, located in this bustling part of London.
"A labyrinth right down to where Albion met an unfortunate accident. Tsk tsk, a truly undignified way to die."
Just when they were about to say something, a familiar-looking pair of brothers appeared, "Cousin! There you are, we were looking to catch up on… on… L-Lord DIO!?"
The twin Pentel brothers stared at me with shock and fear in their eyes.
"Oh, Deimlek, Cabit, how have you been? I hope you two have recuperated well from the madness inflicted by Semiramis."
The two brothers were former Masters of Red in the Great Grail War, rescued by yours truly.
"We did!" "Yes!"
The twin sisters stared at their relatives' reactions with shock. The two of them started to overthink like Magi tended to and had fear in their hearts.
"You're a lord of the Clock Tower?! Oh god, I mouthed off to a Lord! My life is ruined…" Nazica looked like she wanted to die.
"Sister! Behave!" Radia admonished her instantly as if to stop me from getting upset.
Haa, even though it would be a good time to demand them to kowtow and cripple themselves for forgiveness, this is just too pathetic.
"Not as such. I am merely a Magician with a few magics up my sleeve, I don't have a formal position in the Clock Tower, but I'm sure I'll make a name for myself in the next hour or two."
I looked back at their male relatives and said, "Go tell everyone that I'm reviving Albion and replacing him with a different source of Mystery."
Without even looking back, I walked right into the labyrinth and released my aura, suppressing all the magical traps and magical beasts that dwelled within.
Hmm, this is quite a big place, guess I should just teleport straight down.
"Waaaaait! Wait up! What do you mean you're reviving Albion!?"
"What my sister means is that 'we would like to observe your magic please!'"
These two sisters… are actually quite shameless themselves. Do they have a deathwish? Charging right into the Clock Tower's most protected area? Just because their relatives' reaction proved I was the one that 'became' a Magician by snatching the Greater Grail at the last moment?
The other magi won't let them get away with this. They are courting death!
Ah, well, I'll feel bad if they get harmed as a result of my actions. I will just have to take responsibility for their safety then and make sure they are adequately protected as recompense for coming this far and amusing me.
"Very well, come along."
I snapped my fingers and teleported us all the way down, but took a detour to the Carillon Observatory, where Sealing Designations were decided upon.
I ignored the protests of the two sisters and kicked down the door, teleported every present staff member, and introduced myself as I suppressed them with my aura.
"Good afternoon peasants! Be honored that this young master will be giving you the privilege of demonstrating your magecraft to me!"
"Y-you dare!? I am Fern-"
I flicked my finger and obliterated the mouthy magi's body instantly, used the Law of Souls to preserve the man's soul, then stuffed it into a soul puppet which mimicked the man's appearance in a second.
"Haa… The path to heaven was before you but you chose the path to hell. Go on Soul Slave, demonstrate your spells for me. Oh, and you can explain your mysteries out loud for the benefit of these two lovely ladies."
I'm not sure what was crueler to them, killing them and forcing them to comply like this... or the fact that they had to explain their life's work and dispel the 'mystery' supporting their power.
Nazica and Radia didn't know whether to scream in horror or cry awkwardly, in the end, they did neither after I used an emotion calming spell on them.
I copied his spells and improved upon them on the spot, explaining how I did it, and then removed the man's soul from the puppet. With another snap of my fingers, I reformed his body and inserted his soul right back to it.
He was crying while hugging his knees on the ground after I granted him mercy and gave his life back. He should count himself lucky that I promised my women that I wouldn't kill anyone that wasn't ridiculously evil (I had to lower the bar since most were 'just amoral')… permanently, that is.
"So? Does anyone else want to volunteer their spells? Or do you want to experience what it's like to be torn apart and put back together?"
Only 20% of the remaining magi needed to receive the soul puppet interrogation treatment, the rest were much more compliant after that.
I quickly bound them all with a magical rope artifact temporarily before departing for the core of Albion's grave. Using what I've learned from Heaven's Feel and my own replication of what I've seen from the Sephiroth Graal in the past, I traced back a 'record' of Albion's existence and then reformed it using my own power, then inserted it back to it's core and used my other magical abilities to form its body.
I specifically remade it's body since I had one of my clones looting his actual body that's spread across the underground cavern and hadn't intended to waste any good material.
"Welcome back to the world of the living Albion, say, why don't we become friends-"
"Rrrrwooa...ah!?"
The revived dragon took one look at me and immediately turned around, then dived right into the ground and through into the Reverse Side of the World!
"... Ah… what the… what the hell is that? Are you a dragon or a lizard? What happened to your dignity, pride and self-respect?!"
There goes my plan to get Albion's recognition. Guess I'll just use its body to make cool stuff instead and maybe create new dragons from it.
I sighed and then took out my 'compensation' for nabbing Albion's bones.
I was only doing this for the sake of preserving some magic in this world. It helps that I'm not losing anything of value by giving them this either.
"There we go. One unopened Pandora's Box plugged into the gravesite."
Looking towards the still shocked twins, I explained, "I got this from a dead timeline thousands of years in the past. Pandora hadn't opened the 'box' which is more like a jar, fyi, and that timeline was invaded by all sorts of foreign deities which made it slated for erasure by the 'World'. There were some things I couldn't refine very quickly like this thing, so I just took it with me for research purposes. I already have all the information I need so I'll just leave this to the Clock Tower as a replacement."
In addition to that, I was expecting that some idiot will try to open it in a few decades and doom the world. While I won't be killing these arrogant magi permanently unless they're explicitly super evil, I hadn't agreed to not help them kill themselves, especially when they would deserve it for committing stupid acts.
I teleported us three back up to one of the main rooms of the Clock Tower, bypassing their hundreds of security measures right into their emergency meeting room.
There were hundreds of magi gathered discussing on how to deal with me by the time I arrived.
"Nazica, Radia, what the hell are you two doing with him?!" Lord El-Melloi II almost tore his hair out when I made myself known.
I shrugged and smiled confidently, "Don't blame them. I just dragged them along since they were nearby. Speaking of which, Waver…"
I casually blocked several incoming spells before suppressing everyone with my aura, then I summoned one of my personally crafted Holy Grails, slapped some Command Seals on Great Teacher El-Melloi's hands, then summoned up Iskandar in the Rider Class while giving him a living body so that his 'Master' wouldn't die when providing him upkeep mana.
"M-my King?!"
"You-"
"The two of you can continue your bromance outside, thank you."
I teleported them both to the other side of the country and then separated the good from the bad amongst the Magi.
They could do nothing to resist. The proud 'lords' of the tower (including that asshole dad Marisbury Animusphere) could do nothing as I explained the 'rules' and what was expected of them.
Things began proceeding smoothly after I made an object example of a few arrogant magi while rewarding some of the 'good' ones like Waver's students, some side characters I knew of and that cutie pie Olga Marie (she's so cute) with some treasures and compiled magecraft grimoires.
I probably still traumatized everyone but I've also taught them some humility and empathy while I was at it, so I'd say it all balances it out.
I was finally done with all the magi that were in London by the evening and teleported right into the director's office of Atlas, the director of which was currently having a pleasant discussion with his daughter.
"Good evening, you're Zepia Eltnam Atlasia, correct?"
After a brief moment of shock and several futile attempts to activate the office's self-defense mechanisms, he sat back down on his chair and calmly introduced himself properly, "That's correct. Who are you and what are your intentions?"
"That's quite a lot to unpack, as for that… Nazica, Radia, the two of you look terribly exhausted. Young Miss, could you be a dear and get them something to drink?"
I spoke right at his daughter, Sion Eltnam Sokaris, who looked like a much more positive young woman than her Tsukihime timeline counterpart given that Zepia is actually sane and a good guy in the Fate timelines.
The young woman calmly agreed to my 'request' and I turned right back to face the director of Atlas.
I took out the contract I acquired yesterday and placed it right on the table. His eyes widened near imperceptibly before he released a sigh of resignation, "How may we assist you?"
Since the founding of the academy, the Atlas Temple has been bound to cooperate with someone who possesses one of seven contracts. Marisbury had one of the contracts himself in the FGO timeline, which is how he got Atlas to provide a central Pseudo-Spiritrons calculation engine to the Chaldea, invent TRISMEGISTUS and also provide the Paper Moon to them. Gray's hometown was another example of a contract holder which allowed them to recruit the current director himself to create the Logos React Replica to seal Rhongomyniad.
I simply found one of the lost contracts for my own use some time ago in order to smooth things out with the superweapon creating organization.
"Oh, I'm something of an Alchemist myself... I was thinking that we can start with a trade deal."
<< Index >>
Last edited: Jan 23, 2021
Jan 23, 2021Report
Like+ QuoteReply
<< Index >>
Last edited: Jan 20, 2021
Jan 20, 2021Report
Like+ QuoteReply