Chapter 61: The Universe is Unfair
—
The bell rang not long after Rias left, so I had to put an end to my break and return to class.
Classes ended some long and boring few hours later. Still, the day was good. Nobody irritated me, so I didn't feel any urge of genocide. Now I could finally leave.
"Does your 'boyfriend' still come to pick you up?" I asked Shoko as we walked by the paved road leading to the gate, referring to her little sister.
"Yes, she does," Shoko replied cheerfully. "I'm really lucky to have her, aren't I? I'm glad I am not as much of a problem to her as before."
"That does sound lovely," I agreed. Ruby should learn from that little girl.
We reached the gate and waited. Speaking of the devil, Ruby called for me as she walked towards us. Tsubasa and Kana were with her.
"Idiot Onii-Chan!" Ruby waved at me, still salty about the kiss on the nose when she should be happy and giddy.
"Hey," Tsubasa smiled at me from behind the energetic blonde.
Beside them was Kana, the short redhead who was looking at me with a frown. And when I looked back, she looked away with a hmph. What?
"Looks like you 'enjoyed' your little trip, congratulations," Arima Kana muttered in an almost inaudible voice.
"Yeah, thanks, Loli-Senpai." Thoughts that were usually intrusive in my head, acted on their own as I reached out a hand and patted the stunned little girl. "How've you been? I heard you have been working with Ruby?"
"Y-you! You!" She slapped my hand away. "What did you just call me?! Ugh, you two siblings! And don't pat me, I am older than you!"
"Hah—" I let out a laugh at that hilarious last line. Nice delivery.
Lil Kana seemed to have had enough as she burst out like a volcano and began to throw hands. It was oddly cute, her hands had a hard time hitting my face so she just hit me in the chest. It felt like… flocks of feather balls bouncing off my chest.
She stopped a minute later, panting heavily as she shot me a glare. "Tomorrow I have to go to your place to shoot something. Pray that we don't cross paths because I won't hold back next time!"
"And you pray that we don't cross paths in a private space…" I warned her with an evil look on my face.
"...." Kana stared at me, and then quickly hid behind Tsubasa. "He's joking, right?"
"Um…" Tsubasa, who had an interesting encounter with me in a private space before, stayed silent.
A few minutes later, Yuzuru came to pick Shoko up. The girl kept staring at me with odd eyes, pulling Shoko away from me and leaving the area as soon as she could. I was planning to talk to her for a bit, but it seems she had mixed impressions about me.
The four of us left the school gate, caught a train, parted ways with Kana, and three of us reached our home.
"Come to my house's gym in half an hour," I told Tsubasa before she left.
* * *
On qué, half an hour later Tsubasa came to the gym. She wasn't the only one, in fact, there were three other ladies present.
I wore a tee shirt and trousers, while three of the four girls wore clothes suitable for the gym. Only Asia wore a casual gown as she had ice cream and watched us from a chair.
In particular, Ruby looked cute in her dolphin shorts and black tank top. Tsubasa was too shy in the tight clothes to display her full charm.
[Image Here]
"I meant to ask, what's up with Tsubasa?" Ai stretched a little in her tight leggings and crop top as she looked between Tsubasa and me. "She has that weird hair change; I recall even her personality changed during that. Tsubasa, do you have multiple personalities?"
"Uh," Tsubasa looked at me, unsure what to answer, and Ai raised an eyebrow at that.
"Something like that, you will get to know over time," I explained, making the older woman frown. "Don't be mad, it's sensitive for her. Be respectful of people's privacy. You do know that she isn't your child whose privacy you can disregard on a whim?"
"Are you saying I don't respect your two's privacy? Ruby?" The woman looked at her daughter for support. "Say something."
"Erm…" Ruby looked away.
"...."
"There you have it," I waved it off. "Let's move on from this subject. I didn't call you three here to waste time."
"Okay," Ai sighed, her shoulders drooping a little at the betrayal from her daughter.
"First, you two," I looked at Ruby and Tsubasa. "A thousand pushups and five hundred pull-ups, right now." The girls looked at me in silence. "What? It shouldn't be hard for Tsubasa with her enhanced body, and Ruby you're a 5th Circle Mage, the mana in your body gives you greater than average adult man strength. Stop staring and get into work."
Exchanging glances, Tsubasa was the first to get to the floor and push the ground. She looked surprised, blinking, before she sped up her work. It was easy for her. Ruby shot me an annoyed look and then got into work too, she wasn't as strong as Tsubasa but she got it with ease too.
While they did that, I looked at Ai. "I said I'll teach you some defensive magic, right? The best defensive magic for you at the moment is the ability to conjure clothes with a spell. If you're in a serious situation, you can't just run off and spend minutes changing clothes." I explained, to which she looked up and nodded in agreement.
"I was thinking of that too. So a spell like that exists?"
"Mom, if spells that can carve a hole through the city exist, then this is basic magic." I laughed.
"Wait, you never taught me something like that," Ruby complained as she did push-ups and looked at me in shock. "What is this?"
I shrugged. "These are daily life magic. Why do you want to learn these? You are already lazy, if I taught you these then you'd become lazier."
Ruby tried to argue, but Ai cleared her throat and nodded. "He's right, your room is always dirty, Ruby. If you can destroy cities with magic, shouldn't you at least fix your room with your bare hands?"
"...."
"Anyways," Ai smiled, clasped her hands, and looked at me. "Teach me, teach me."
"About that," I looked at her. "I need to do the thing I did last night to fill your butterfly with Qi. Since you don't have a Mana Pool, I need to create one for you. Except it's not a Mana Pool that is located on your lower abdomen… but a Mana Heart."
Meaning, I had to kiss her chest. Naked chest. Skin to skin.
"...." Ai stared at me dryly while Ruby and Tsubasa were left in a shadow of confusion.
"I don't trust you," she said and looked at Ruby. "Sweetheart, since you can do magic, you must have this Mana Heart thing too, right? How do I get one?"
"Well, some lucky people are born with it, otherwise you have to train for a few years to form one naturally," Ruby explained as she worked and looked at me. "Why are you saying you can give her one right now? It took me years of annoying training to form it."
"Because I'm a [Underlord] now," I said with a shrug, Ruby suddenly looked like she had been scammed and wronged. "I can easily create an Energy Path inside a person's body, and also conjure up Dantians and Mana Hearts."
If I was making Ai into a martial artist, I'd have given her a Qi Pool – a Dantian – but since a mage-build was better for her, the Mana Heart method was the most effective.
Looking back, one of the main reasons I picked Path of the Raging Sky was because this would allow me to turn normal people into Martial Artists and Mages. A visionary such as I have been planning for this day for fourteen years.
"...There has to be another way," Ai said. I'm glad she didn't argue that she'd take the usual way and train for a year, that'd ruin the whole point of emergency. She looked at my lips, shivered a little, and then looked away. "You know so much; you must have another way."
I sighed, "Actually, there is another way."
Her eyes sparkled and she grinned. "I knew it! What is it?"
"We can fulfill a ritual, by sacrificing ten thousand virgins, which will give you an instant Mana Heart." I looked at her grimly.
"What? You are messing with me!" The woman with two children yelled like a little girl, the only remaining possibility weighing upon her. "This has to be another wicked trick of yours!"
I looked hurt, "Y-you don't trust me? Wow, I… wow. I'm speechless."
"...."
When she gave me a blank stare, looking through my act, I chuckled. "It's fine, there is another way. It'll take a minute." I walked to her. "Open your mouth."
"...." She again stared at me blankly. When I shrugged and pointed at the others in the room, she sighed and trusted me enough to open her mouth. This did hurt me a little though, unlike the act before. Did she really have this little trust in me?
I held back a sigh and raised my left hand over her face. She blinked but kept her mouth open. My right hand moved.
– Chht!
With my palm straightened, a blade energy, Sword Qi, formed on my right hand. I sunk it through my left hand, causing blood to splash outwards. Shocked gasps filled the room, the girls got up from their positions.
Ai was too shocked to move, as droplets of blood began to drip down her throat.
She'd have shut her mouth instinctively, but I held her in position with aura control on her body. She stood still, her eyes wide, as blood traveled through her system.
The [Blood Icon] from my 6th life, as the God of Time and Blood, tried to manifest itself. To enthrall the human my blood was flowing through. But I pressed my will against the Icon and forced it away.
My right hand let go of the Sword Qi, but the blood kept dropping from the open wound on my left. I didn't allow my natural healing powers to close the wound. My right hand then reached out and gently grabbed the side of her face.
The woman turned her eyes to me, unable to move, as she glared at me. Was she mad I made her drink blood? I suppose it's kind of gross for normal people. But she has to bear with me since this would allow me to use [Pure Storm Baptism] on a control level high enough that I could use it to forge a mana pathway and a Mana Heart. If I could kiss her chest, it would have worked too, but this was faster anyway. Also, I would be able to keep all the pain of the process away from her and redirect it to me through the blood.
With my hand on her face, I channeled my Qi in her. My Storm Qi rushed through her and began to forge pathways inside her.
It was a process that took a few minutes, throughout it I kept bleeding into her mouth. She kept glaring at me, and I noticed droplets of tears in her eyes. Did it hurt? Odd, it shouldn't hurt her, I was taking all the damage inside me. It hurt for me, like having molten lava pass through my veins, but it was bearable for someone like me. I failed to stop a trail of blood from dripping down my lips, sadly.
Finally, the process ended. I moved my left hand away from her mouth and moved my right hand away from her face. I smiled at her and let go of the aura that held her in place.
"Looks like it's worki-"
Her hand came flying and planted in my face, making me blink. Fine, I guess it was sudden to force-feed her blood, I'll take this on the house.
To my shock, the beating didn't stop with just the slap. "Die! Die! Die!" The woman kept yelling and hitting me, punching and slapping, and kicking even. Her voice broke at one point, and she began to cry, as she kept hitting me. At that point, I caught on to the situation and realized she wasn't this mad because I fed her blood.
She was mad because I fed her my blood.
"W-why did you cut yourself—?!" The woman slapped me and hicced. "You should have told me! I would have done the first option! Why didn't you tell me you have to cut yourself for this?! Die!"
I stared at her in silence before feeling my lips leak a sharp sound and I began to laugh out loud.
"Are you crazy?! Don't laugh!" She hit me one last time, wiping her tears quickly, and looked at Asia who wore a dumbfounded look. "Asia, come heal him, quick!"
"Hey, I am already healed," I stopped my laughter and showed her my left hand. "It's not that big of a deal, it's just a small cut." She might have lost consciousness if she saw me when I tanked the phoenix fire.
Ai turned to my hand with red eyes and a deep frown. She inspected the wrist from afar and then held it, looking into it from closer. Then she looked at my face. "It still hurt, right?"
"A little," there was no need to tell her that I received more pain than just the wrist.
"Never do something like this ever again," she looked at me with a vulnerable glare. "If it means that you won't get hurt… I would take any other option available."
Naturally, in my uncountable years of life, this was not the first time something like this had happened to me. But… overall, taking this scene with her with all the other unique ones where we interacted, it was an odd mixture even for me. This was the first time I met a woman of this kind. Really, how is she so lovely?
Ugh, no, this isn't good. Given the mindset I am in right now, I might do something without thinking right in front of everyone if I let my thoughts run more.
But seriously, women like her were rare in my life. It made sense since she was kind of special, being my mother and all. I rarely romantically pursued my mothers, the only other time I did this was in my 6th life before I became the Sorcerer of Eternity. Then again could that case be considered me pursuing her? In that world, Vampire parents simply had a very close bond with their children since having children was very hard for them, and it was my tall gray-skinned vamp-mom who groomed me.
Entirely different cases.
I still loved her though. It hurt when I lost that woman over and over again right in my arms. Even after a thousand years in a time loop, it ended the same way every day.
But that woman and Ai were vastly different, so I don't see her in Ai. Ai is unique. While my Vamp-Mom was a mature elegant woman with the wisdom of a sage, Ai's just a little girl. Mixed with the fact that Ai's also an anime character I knew of before, she's a unique element I didn't know I still had left to see in my life.
"Yeah, I won't," I smiled at her after putting a stop to those monologues. "Then next time be prepared to be embarrassed a little."
Thanks to the [Switch] from the morning, I didn't feel sad when I recalled these times. The Venerable One couldn't be bothered; it was just a study of the two situations. So I could easily pull through the conversation, maintaining eye contact.
"Yeah," she still glared at me, too angry at… herself to be embarrassed at my joke.
"Anyways, let's change the subject." Since the other girls were staring at us with stupefied looks on their faces, I decided to make the situation a little less awkward and moved on. "You have the Mana Heart now. I don't know if you can feel it, but I can sense it."
"I can feel it," she replied, putting a hand over her chest. "It's like a sun inside my heart."
"Good," I nodded. "It will be a little hard to follow since you're new at this, but try to do as I do."
It was a simple enough spell, so I could cast it without dying or getting injured. I took a breath in, casting normal magic after a long time, as I decided to chant for her ease.
"Vestum Mutatio Elegans," I said as smoke burst out of my body and when it vanished, I stood with my clothes changed. I wore white hanfu robes with a black belt around my waist, standing with my hair tied behind me as I looked down on the world.
"Wow, it suits you," Asia said.
"I thought you'd choose some Emperor clothes," Ruby said, taking a long look at me.
"It truly does suit you," Tsubasa checked me out. "If only your hair was longer it'd have looked best."
"Hm," I took their words with a nod and looked at Ai. "This isn't an illusion; your clothes actually transform. Now it's your turn. You have to 'will' for your clothes to change, and imagine the clothes you're going for when you cast this. Try a Witch Outfit, I'll teach you actual defensive magic then. Barrier Magic."
"Alright,"
"Now try to cast the spell. Don't be dejected when you don't succeed, we will try for a few hours since you're new at this. The magic words are: Vestum Mutatio Elegans."
"Sure, let me see." She nodded and then began to spin a finger in the air as if she were using a wand. "Vestum-"
She said one word, and smoke burst out of her. She coughed from behind and waved her hand to scatter it away. When the smoke vanished, she stood coughing in the outfit of a typical witch.
[Image Here]
"…."
"But she didn't say all the words though?"
"I think you said she'd need to train for a few hours?"
I ignored the girl's question and looked at my mother with a sigh. Well, she did give birth to me. Naturally, she's a fountain of talent.
"Ah- ha ha!" Ai let out a dramatic laughter as she checked herself out. "I have succeeded at once! And you brat, you said it's not my genes that made you two this strong but that damned blessing? Keep lying to yourselves!" The foolish woman had a magic wand in her hand now, because just changing her clothes activated her [Wardrobe] power to give her the other things a mage needed.
"This is stupid." Ruby let out a harrowing sigh from behind, feeling dejected as she recalled the days of long training she had to go through to learn a single spell before she got her Kagemimic.
The rest of the night passed with me training Ruby and Tsubasa physically, while Ai trained a bunch of Barrier Magic.
**
**
**
Author Note: Good, we got lots of vote yesterday. So here is a bonus chapter today, enjoy! And don't forget to vote for MORE!!
If you want to read the next 20 chapters right away, visit my Patreon.
Link: Patreon.com/Master4thWall