Lucy sat on a tall pillar of stone, her eyes locked onto Jered. She didn't seem like someone that would visibly show emotions, but with her wings folded back, and her face twisted into a bitter frown, he could pick apart each emotion that flashed past her crimson jewels. They weren't redirected at him. At least not the anger—that was for the Anti-Pandemonium Alliance and whoever else contributed to John's death.
The sadness was for the death of her brother, so sudden and untimely.
The determination was for the future, and the corpses that would pile up into hills, and the blood that would stretch into rivers. If the Devil herself couldn't live up to her promise of revenge, she might as well retire and let someone replace her.
Hope was for Jered. For his growth. For his companionship. For all the good things to come, and the bad things that would befall upon their foes.
He was John's heir, the successor to his power, a potential candidate for the throne.
Anticipation was also for him, and for the power she knew he would, one day, wield.
But it was not time yet.
Jered had to grow, mature, and hatch into the Sovereign that would bring the entirety of Archiland to its knees.
"You don't know how to use your powers," Lucy dangled one knee over the other and steepled her fingers, "I saw your fight with Minos. It was passable at best. You relied on your more vast mana pool to overpower him. As for your fight with Cerberus? It was less than exemplary. For someone who has a sliver of Shadow blood in his veins, you're pathetically weak. We can't fix everything in three months, but we can patch some of the issues."
He didn't refute her words. He felt strong, in his own right. But Lucy was in another realm of power. If she said he was weak, then he was.
"You have expanded your mana pool to a level that could rival a Royal-Tier. Fancy, right? Well, no. To any Elder Magician, you might consider yourself invincible. But against a decent Royal Magician? The difference in magic density is not something that mana pool can make up for," she stared at him carefully, "And for the love of God, I can't understand how you learned two Royal-Tier spells. They're powerful, no doubt, but you'll never be able to master them unless you unlock your fourth vein."
That was all stuff Jered already knew, but he didn't interrupt her.
"And to unlock your fourth vein, you have to find your capital 'Sin'. Someone from the church would have to find their 'Virtue'. Do you know how?"
"All I know is that it's something that I have to find within myself."
She nodded, "It's not easy because we all have a bit of each sin. Pride. Avarice. Envy. Wrath. Lust. Gluttony. Sloth. In fact, we have a bit of each virtue as well. But considering who we are, we shouldn't even bother looking for any of them. Shadows are born from sin and desire."
Rainey did mention something similar, though she worded it a bit differently.
"My 'Sin' is that of Pride," Lucy continued evenly, "But does that mean that I don't feel greedy, angry, lazy, jealous, hungry, or horny on a daily basis? I feel all of them. But I put my pride above everything else. You can want the whole for yourself, and still not be greedy. It depends on which 'Sin' you give the precedence to. And it's tricky for beings like us, but not that hard."
"..."
"People change when they find what they're looking for. When they find their 'Sin'."
Jered let her words sink in, "Is that what we're going to focus on in the following three months?"
"Partially. That's something only you can do. I can help by giving you an extra push, but that's as far as I can go," Lucy said, "We'll start by honing your spells, teaching you new ones, and get you more combat experience. And you better listen and put in the effort, because I'll be correcting your mistakes along the way," she conjured a whip in her hand and lashed it out in the air, "And we'll do it S&M style."
"..."
He blinked at her, internally cursing his luck.
----
The whip snapped at him, leaving a bloody gash on his back.
Jered grunted, but powered through the painful distraction and continued filling every inch of his muscles with mana. And he had to do that under the constant onslaught of Lucy's sadistic strikes. After they agreed on his training schedule, she brought him to a pocket dimension where no one else could disturb them. Even Demi was not allowed there. She was probably left behind in the Second Circle.
Another flick of Lucy's wrist slit open a long cut on his arm.
The warm, viscous blood trickled down onto the dry ground.
Jered's concentration didn't slip.
"You need to look at me, nephew."
He didn't want to. He could handle the pain, but it was harder to handle her.
"Jered."
Her demonic voice boomed out, and he knew that if he didn't listen, she'd tear his eyelids off.
He cracked his eyes open and looked up at her.
She was slouched on a boulder, her wings tucked beneath her back. She was staring back at him, lips curled into a devilish smile. More importantly, she was naked.
'It's not a distraction if you don't let it distract you,' Lucy had said as soon as he complained about her state of undress, 'Surely, you shouldn't feel an ounce of desire towards me, right? I'm your lovely aunt, after all.'
Jered, usually, didn't let something as arousal dictate his thoughts. He could face a hundred naked, sexy pornstars—all of them begging him to fuck them—and he'd still frown and wonder whether that was a trap or not. However, Lucy was not a pornstar. The human standard of beauty couldn't be applied to her. Her smooth curves were something that could only be found in a digital artist's wet dream. He was pretty sure that she could make an Angel fall with a wink.
And she didn't mind 'opening' herself for him. By accident, of course.
"Well? Carry on," Lucy chirped, her thighs rubbing against themselves, "Or do you need me to give you a more impactful reminder?"
Even though she said that, her whip still flew at him.
More blood spilled out.
Jered forced himself to keep looking at her as he injured and damaged the fibers of his muscles with mana. She had told him that it was a harsh training exercise Swordmasters used to become stronger. He didn't know why he, as a Magician, had to go through that. She explained that by doing that, he wouldn't only get physically stronger, but also refine his control over mana. In fact, after a week of that tedious drilling...
[Mana Manipulation has become Lv.MAX]
[The spell 'Mana Manipulation' has evolved into the Elder-Tier spell 'Mana Control', Lv1.]
[Your magical abilities have been enhanced by 10%]
[You have learned the Neophyte-Tier skill 'Physical Enhancement', Lv.1]
[Experience: 4%]
[This skill allows you to use mana to boost your physical attributes and perform superhuman feats.]
A blue, almost invisible, coat of mana hung his body.
Jered could feel his hands bursting with explosive power.
"Punch that boulder," Lucy commanded, "Don't hold back."
He was not confident that he could do any damage to it.
"Do it," she ordered, her tail wagging around merrily.
Jered walked up the boulder, loaded his fist, and then let it sling forward in a flimsy cloud of mana. A sharp, sheet of pain blinded him. He quickly withdrew his hand, blood flowing out of his crushed knuckles. His fingers were a mangled mess. Luckily, his mana was quick to abate the pain and repair the broken bones and torn tissues. As for the boulder? Only a negligible crack was left on its rocky surface.
"So-so," Lucy tutted, "You don't even know how to punch. I get that you just learned that skill, but you could have done sooo much more than that."
He sighed, "Cut me some slack, I haven't trained in any martial arts."
"Good. We'll add that to our long list of things to correct."
"..."
She whipped him, "Keep punching!"
----
A crown of fire surrounded him.
"That's your fire, Jered. Just because the initial shape is that of a circle, it doesn't mean you can't mold it into something else. Control it," Lucy instructed, her dainty foot dangling down the boulder she was on. Of course, she didn't forget to flick the diabolic scourge at him, "Use your 'Telekinsesis' if you have to. Just bring that darn thing under control."
Jered heaved a deep breath in, his mana running rampant through the complex layout of his Mana Circuit. Fire was a very volatile, hard to tame element. And it required a fine control over mana to do what Lucy requested. The spell had a pre-determined shape, after all. Changing that while keeping the fire going was no cakewalk. He exhaled, calming down the torrent of mana in his body.
The fire around him split into swirling tendrils, but he continued and applied more pressure. With the aid of his 'Telekinesis', the blazing limbs re-conjoined into a single shaft of fire. Now he had to give it a form. Belief and Visualization. That's what Jerry told him.
"Use a simple form," Lucy supplied.
A simple form?
No. Jered wanted to prove himself to her. She had been torturing him, both mentally and physically. She had been hurling insults at him. Even if for a brief moment, he wanted to see a flash of surprise on that seductive expression of hers. He wanted to show her how wrong she was. Therefore, he mustered every scrap of talent he had, and poured it into the image in his head.
Something that would impress even the Queen of Hell.
The pillar of fire flickered, sliming down into a curved stem barbed with thorns. And as it grew, the swirling leaves on its top blossomed into a cone-shaped flower head, layers upon layers of petals stretching around it. Some of them fell off, and drifted along with the chilly breeze. The pocket dimension they were in was a vast, dead mountain land with barely any light. And that rose of fire scorched the darkness away. It floated in the sky, elegant and alive.
Its warmth reached Lucy, bathing her face in its fluttering light.
"That's not a simple form," she said quietly, not taking her eyes off of it, "You fool..."
She had even forgotten to whip him.
Jered's forehead was covered in a sheen of sweat. The pressure of keeping the molded fire in the air was immense, and his Mana Circuit was starting to ache. It was not because he lacked enough mana, but because his 'Mana Control' was not high enough to pull that off without consequences. And the fact that he still managed to do it was a brilliant display of his talent. He let his control over the rose ebb off.
The burning rose crumbled into tiny wisps of fire that dispersed in the wind.
He flopped on the ground, panting slightly. And despite his exhaustion, he couldn't help the proud smile lighting up his face. Everything considered, it was a small victory. But it was one that exceeded his aunt's expectations.
Lucy stared at him, mirroring his smile with one of her own—but this time, a genuine one.
"You truly are my nephew."