There was a lot of resentment going on, especially coming from her demon side. I imagined being locked into a tiny gem in the depth of darkness wasn't exactly pleasant. The only thing that had eased her stay in this tailor-made prison of hers was the emotion of anger. Anger was able to connect with this place, with Raven's demonic side, without having to break the gem.
It didn't exactly give her demonic side access to the rest of Raven's mind, but instead, the anger of Raven became more demonic, through which her demonic side could see through Raven's anger. It was exceedingly complicated, and they explained it through her mystical nature and her soul being the same as just another side of the coin.
All this had made Raven think that her anger was part of her demonic side, even though it was just part of her. Her demonic side wasn't all anger, it had other emotions as well. A prideful teenage demon that wanted to experience the world locked away. Of course, her more 'evil' emotions would be more developed.
It didn't help that Raven considered those 'bad' emotions like anger, lust, envy, pride, etc. as part of her demonic inheritance, giving her demonic side easier access to them and therefore worsening those emotions. The only saving grace was that Raven had locked away all emotions inside their individual realms, making her demonic side's influence more difficult.
After throwing insults at each other and talking for what felt like hours, they finally came to a surprising conclusion. "I want to fuse. I want to be a part of you. I want to make friends, party, and fuck. I want to experience the world!" Her demonic side finally shouted with teary eyes as she lashed out with her powers, tentacles smashing into the floor around us.
Her demand wasn't unreasonable. In fact, it was probably one of the best outcomes. Truthfully, I had expected that her demonic side would demand Raven to take her place and live inside the gem, or maybe live individual lives with each occupying the body at different times. I guessed that feeling whole was what Raven truly wanted.
Raven was stunned for just a moment before she took a deep breath. She stood up. "I am sorry." I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. Demon-Raven was expectedly seething as she also interpreted her apology as a rejection, but the misunderstanding didn't hold for long. "I apologize for not understanding what I did to you...what I did to us. Please forgive me."
She bowed to her demonic side, making her wide-eyed and too stunned to speak. "Does that mean you agree?"
Raven gave her a determined nod. "Of course! Clearly, I am not very good with people, but I want to do my best. So if you have me." She finished by extending her hand to the still sitting demon, who looked at the hand in a daze.
After a moment, she stood up and shook Raven's hand before dragging her into a hug while thanking her profusely. "...thank you, thank you..." It was unexpected to see how sincere demon-Raven was. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, but maybe that was just my bias.
Raven rubbed her demon side's back before her inner demon slowly grew more transparent as she slowly dispersed into specks of light which flew into Raven and fused with her. The change didn't stop there. In fact, it was just the start.
The darkness in this hall was dispersed as well, especially after the light shone in from the entrance as the gate broke open, but that wasn't all. The gem that represented her demon's prison vanished from her mind.
The biggest change, however, wasn't something I could see. It was something I felt. My telepathic consciousness was still in contact with Raven's and it made me instantly register the changes, not only in its sensation but also in its might. Her telepathic might strengthen until it was quadrupled, having surpassed the projection that I had sent into her mind by a long shot, but I doubted that would be all. Her magical prowess was probably enhanced as well.
Raven still stood there with her eyes closed. It wasn't until the changes slowed down to a snail that she opened her eyes to look at me. She gave me a broad and happy smile. "Thank you for helping me. I don't know when I would have noticed my mistake if it weren't for you."
It was probably one of the strongest emotional expressions she had ever shown me. It was heartwarming, to be honest. She gave me a powerful hug before she whispered she could take it from there.
After reassuring me that she would be fine without my help, I dispersed my projection and telepathically distanced myself before I finally opened my eyes again.
Raven was still floating cross-legged as she meditated while I stretched my back. Kara quickly drew close and fired off multiple questions as she was concerned about Raven's state as she, unlike me, hadn't woken up yet.
"She is probably still assimilating her demonic side."
"Assimilating? I thought she wanted to use her demonic side as a transformation."
I shrugged. "Probably amounts to the same thing. Besides, they were initially the same person before the ones at Azarath had made her fear her demonic side to the point that she would lock it away in the deepest recess of her mind."
It took but a minute until Raven stopped floating and stood up straight. She looked at her hands as she turned them to inspect them on all sides with a contemplating look on her face.
I knew that look. It was one that was thinking about the new power she had gained and what she could do with it. If I had a better sense for magic, I might have a better assessment of her powers besides the visual dark aura that was currently surrounding her.
Kara quickly approached her best friend and took her hands into her own. "Are you alright?? Do you feel uncomfortable? Do you need help? Is everything okay? You are still you, right??"
Raven chuckled before squeezing Kara's hands, "Yes, I am fine. Don't worry. I am more than fine, actually." Raven smiled warmly before dragging Kara into a hug. Raven's appearance suddenly changed. Her eyes turned into the 4 glowing demonic eyes while her skin turned red.
Her hands wandered down to Kara's skirt and flipped it up before pulling her pants to the side, revealing Kara's pussy to me while looking me dead in the eyes. Kara quickly backed away before smoothing her skirt back down and adjusting her pants.
"Raven!" Kara exclaimed with a bright red face.
Raven smirked and was about to advance towards Kara, but stopped when I coughed while telepathically pressuring her, giving her a moment to adjust her way, thinking by giving her a short distraction. It was effective as her skin turned to normal and her demonic set of eyes disappeared.
She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose before breathing in deeply. A moment later she seemed to have calmed down again, "Sorry about that..." She apologized to Kara, who had a worried frown on her face.
"Are you going to be alright? You are not hurt, are you?" Kara asked, fearing that something unexpected had happened. Raven smiled gratefully and was relieved when Kara approached her again to hold her hands supportingly. It made Raven realize Kara didn't fear her, but was just concerned about her well-being.
Her fear that we would reject her because of her demonic side didn't happen, and it was like a heavy stone off her chest. "Kar, don't worry, I am fine. I had just suppressed these emotions for too long and I need some time to regulate them to a normal degree. Right now they will come out in an exaggerated amount before I can balance all these emotions to a normal degree."
"It seems like it would be a good idea to join me on my Spirit Control Training, then." I commented as I knew it would be helpful to balance mind and body, something that Raven urgently needed. She nodded at my suggestion, probably having thought about it as well.
Knowing that it was just a normal process, and nothing to worry about, Kara was obviously relieved. "As long as you are fine...Does that mean you are going to be randomly getting angry or sad? Or how does it work?"
I rubbed my chin already expecting that it probably wouldn't be random, which Raven supported, "I won't become emotional for no reason, the emotions I would normally feel are just exaggerated and some emotions that I had previously associated with being demonic are going to change me if they reach a certain threshold."
Kara thought for a moment, "So, if you are sad you are probably fine other than being extremely emotional about it, but if you are angry then you are going all badass demon mode?"
Ravens smiled at her. "Yes, exactly if I was sad or any other emotion, I thought as not being related to demonic, my magic might lash out, otherwise I will enter my badass demon mode."
"That might be problematic, right? Especially if you are going to continue patrolling with the Teen Titans. You haven't told them you are half-demon yet, right?"
Her lips thinned as she weakly smiled. "No, I haven't told them yet. I thought it would be best if I told them after I had mastered my demonic side..."
"But now that isn't really an option, especially since it might take a while until you have balanced your emotions. Until then, the risk of exposing that side to them would almost be a certainty. I think it would be better to tell them in advance before you endangered them because you reacted unexpectedly during your missions."
She nodded dejectedly at that. "But we don't know each other for long. It had barely been a couple of weeks. I can't just blurt out that I am secretly a half-demon, daughter of Trigon, one of the worst there is."
I placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to encourage her. "They are going to get to know of it, eventually. I believe if you tell them before you showed your demonic side, the visual impact of your transformation would decrease by a lot since they had probably already imagined worse than red skin and two sets of eyes that glowed."
She looked up at me with a contemplating look on her face, "Maybe you are right... I have to think about it."
"Take your time. Let's go get some lunch, though. I am starving." I said as I rubbed her back, trying to comfort her while also urging her to go upstairs. Kara picked up on the notion and went to Raven's other side to hug her arm as we dragged her upstairs to stuff her with some food.
We barely took a few steps when demon-Raven showed up again, only for her to grab our butts while biting her bottom lip. "How about you cheer me with something else instead of food?"
"Come on, snap out of it!" Kara said with a bright red face to which demon-Raven just chuckled before pinching Kara's chin with her thumb.
She dragged Kara's face closer to her own, "Only if you get me off-"
With a chop on Raven's head, she was shortly distracted and slowly returned to normal after a few deep breaths.
I looked at Kara and oh, boy. "Kara, you can open your eyes again." She opened one eye to peek out as if she expected to see something.
"Oh, you returned to normal." Why did she sound slightly disappointed? She saw me looking over before her head snapped forward while failing to whistle.
I couldn't help but facepalm and sigh. I could already tell that this was going to be a headache. Raven really needed to get her control back, or who knew what would happen? She saw me looking at her before her skin turned red again...
Really? Just a look and she turned demon? There was no way for her to go out on patrol if it was that easy for her to change. Her tongue licked her upper lip, but before she could do something, I spoke up. "Not only will we have to train your control, but we also will need to see how much power you possess so that you could evaluate the situation better..."
I continued to make suggestions as we entered the kitchen to prepare something for the three of us. The seriousness of the conversation had long reverted Raven to her normal self.
...
Two days later, Raven's training had been optimized, and she continued to make substantial progress, but with time there were some problems that kept coming to the surface. For one, Kara and I were triggers for her. Just the slightest sexual innuendo or tension was met with lust, but since she didn't have an outlet, she had threatened us she would 'whore' herself out if she couldn't get what she wanted.
During these times, she was in full-on demon mode and wouldn't hesitate to go through with her threat. Raven realized that she would have been devastated if she had gone through with that and got rather desperate. During this time, the moments of her emotionally lashing out increased even if she regretted it afterward, but it just wasn't something that she could stop yet.
We introduced her back into our dreams as a compromise, which satiated her lust for now, but the problems didn't stop there. Feelings of being left behind and other forms of sadness because I didn't shower her with the same affection as I did for Kara as well as jealousy made themselves known.
The only silver lining was that the occurrences decreased as she went on with our training, but of course, that just meant that her emotions didn't trigger her demon transformation. However, that didn't mean these emotions weren't there, which made even the densest person realize what she wanted.
Kara had been subtly pushing me to include Raven in our relationship. Her interest in Raven didn't escape my sense, but I was hesitant to give in to any suggestions. Raven could handle the transition to balance herself even without me treating her the same as Kara, though I could also tell that she hoped for it.
Maybe it was my bias because of my previous polyamorous relationship that I wasn't sure whether I should accept their advances. Honestly, I didn't care about society's view on this, but it was different for Raven and Kara.
If they were not only ostracized for being an alien and half-demon but also because of the relationship they had with me, it would be difficult for them. It wasn't a good idea to publicize something like that. Of course, it would be fine if no one knew about it...
I shook my head. There was also the effect it had on me, on the way I thought about my relationship with Kara. Once Raven was introduced, I might get more lustful and have ideas of expanding it even further, which was probably not something Kara thought of... Of course, I could just let Kara decide who to introduce... I rubbed my forehead at the headache that was my relationship.
I tried to bring my focus back to my meditation on top of the spiky pole. Around 10 hours had already passed since I started the session. Kara and Raven had already taken a break or had returned to their other training routines.
I wasn't ready to quit just yet. There was just a tiny bit left. Currently, I maintained the Super Saiyan transformation, while it only enhanced me by 1.8 times. The drain on my endurance was almost nonexistent. In fact, there was no drain at this stage that would force me to release the transformation anymore. My body was already used to higher degrees of enhancement and could recover even with the strain, which made a 1.8 times enhancement laughable.
Truthfully, I could already start my step-by-step desensitizing routine, but thinking about giving up before I had reached the same level as Goku and Gohan had reached wasn't sitting well with me. Besides, it would be good practice for my ki control. The speed I was improving at wasn't to be underestimated, so I didn't feel like I would waste my time.
It had only taken 2 weeks and a few days until I had mastered Super Saiyan to the extent that I could maintain it indefinitely. Given another week or two and I would reach the level of those freaks, at least in the downward direction.
I still had to master it until my body could handle 50x times the enhancement given by the transformation and after that, not only did I bring most of the first Super Saiyan transformation to the surface, but it also laid the groundwork for the next step. Ascended Super Saiyan.
In the foreseeable future, I would be able to achieve the highest strength I could currently reach with my expertise. Super Saiyan 3 was out of my reach for probably the next couple of years, but maybe I could skip that transformation and directly turn my attention to Super Saiyan 4 or if my plan with the new gods succeeded, I could enter godhood even before being an Ascended Super Saiyan.
There were some routes I could take and only time would tell what will be the most attainable for the short term. I would take the route that would give me an increase in strength in the shortest period of time. I wasn't a cultivator and needed to build a foundation to prevent hidden injuries. If I can skip transformations to attain a higher power, I would do that.
Although I was confident in the power to defend me from anything this universe could offer, there were some beings that weren't bound to just this universe and I doubted I would be anywhere near to being able to defeat them. All I needed was time to grow and I would surpass them all, one by one.
Without me realizing my power dropped to 1x times my base, meaning that being a Super Saiyan was now no different to me than it was to be in my base state. I stabilized myself as I felt my excitement almost make me lose control over my ki and my balance on the pole. After several deep breaths, I opened my eyes again before jumping to the floor of my training hall.
A mirror on the wall showed my appearance of pale golden hair and tail and with blue-greenish eyes. There was no fluctuation in my aura either, making me appear rather normal. The first hurdle was overcome. Now I could either decrease my power even further until I could sleep while being Super or I would go the other way until I could handle the full power of Super without strain.
"I wonder if I should try out the other grades of Super Saiyan. Might be helpful in case something happened..." I muttered to myself before I powered up and released all the potential of the transformation. The veins in my body bulged as the power flowed through my body, filling it with heaven-defying strength. When I finally reached a 50x increase, to my surprise, it didn't stop.
My strength increased even further.
51.
52.
53.
54.
Only after reaching a multiplier of 54 and a little did my power stop rising. No, in fact, I could get even stronger. I extracted all the power and ignored the limits of my body and, just like I expected, my strength increased while my muscles grew bigger.
I stopped the increase after the strain got increasingly worse, feeling as if my body was slowly breaking apart, so I returned to a 54 multiplier before I waited as I watched the clock. Only having to return to my base after around 15 min... I had been so focused on suppressing my ki that I hadn't noticed it... My future path just got clear.
Although it might seem that it was better to master the full power right away, instead it would be the slower approach. The assumption that I had, in the beginning, wasn't entirely correct, thinking that I was desensitizing my body to the increase of power by the transformation. Now that the time I could maintain the transformation was getting increasingly longer, the full range of the transformation got easier to handle, but it didn't stop there.
So, although I could only hold a 1x times increase indefinitely, the normal full-power transformation was getting easier to maintain and stronger as well. Of course, the result pointed towards my body getting desensitized and me being able to handle the true full range the transformation offered, but I could feel that it was influencing me in another way as well.
It felt like I could pull out more of the transformation that there was just more ki than there was before, more power than I could pull out of my body. It felt bizarre, but I imagined it had to do with my s-cells. Even though the transformation had gotten even stronger, I was able to hold on.
Since the s-cells produced the energy I needed to transform, then the transformation might also mutate or recruit more cells to become s-cells. Not only would that mean that being transformed would create more s-cells, which in turn meant I had more reservoirs for my transformation ergo more power.
It would also explain why the transformation was so straining in the beginning, but got easier to handle after getting used to it. S-cells were just more resilient and could handle the energy for the transformation a lot easier. My other cells would just get exhausted under the pressure of the transformation.
There was a lot I could conclude from that for the next transformations. If all cells that could mutate in a Saiyan's body mutated to s-cells, wouldn't that be the peak strength for the transformation?
If SSJ2 or SSJ3 were truly just powered-up variants of Super Saiyan, wouldn't that mean they were more akin to techniques that used the power of Super Saiyan in a way that granted more power? Or maybe the normal SSJ was just not enough to rouse all its potential, which was why it was easier to use the next transformations?
I shook my head. It was too early to make any assumptions. I would wait until I reached the limit of this transformation before trying to go beyond it. If I became an Ascended Super Saiyan, I could sense the changes and go from there, but until then I would have to rely on the normal transformation.
I stretched for a moment before I looked at Kara and Raven, who were battling each other while dealing with the anti-gravity androids simultaneously. The two were around the same level. Well, after Raven got her access to her demonic side she was sometimes curb-stomping Kara, though one couldn't underestimate the adaptability of a Kryptonian. Her strength was increasing quickly.
It wouldn't surprise me if she could hold her own against Clark, even though he had been absorbing solar energy for a lot longer. If the trajectory of their strength increase remained the same, they could beat Darkseid in about 2 months and individually at that. It was insane to think about, but they were getting strong fast, especially Kara after she decided to actually try. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I hoped they would be able to keep up with me in the future.
My training regime and the training hall probably helped with that, but their progress was only possible and mostly attributed to their individual physiology. I expected much of them.
After watching them for a while, I let them to their training hall and headed upstairs, thinking about the magic artifacts that Morgaine wasn't capable of getting. Those probably have to wait until Raven was back to normal. It would be more than dangerous if she couldn't maintain it during our treasure hunt.
Who knew what kind of traps or enemies we faced? I needed those two at their best and sharpest. Of course, I could go alone and get the magic artifacts. I was rather confident that I could get some of them with ease, especially if the major hindrance was just a mystical creature that needed a beating. Of course, the experience would still be better and more useful with Raven and Kara around.
Just after exiting the training hall and going upstairs. I heard my communication device sound out, letting me know that someone was trying to contact me.
"Hmm?" I looked at the request of the Justice League, asking me if I could take over the shift now since there was a mission in space and someone needed to hold the fort. The others were already there and ready to go. They needed many people to cover the front line, which was why everyone else went with them, but since even Batman could help, the enemies seemed to be very weak.
Knowing that it would probably take several days and it was something that would bore me, they guessed I wouldn't be fond of that trip and would rather stay here.
Wait, did they think of me as a homebody? I questioned, before shrugging. It wasn't wrong in this case. I readily agreed to it and answered that they should leave it to me. It wasn't like something big would happen while they were away, right?