[||||=LEVEL 41= ||||]
"Ophis, I'm heading out to the conference. I'll wake you up when it's time for you to see all your subordinates after they attack everything. I'll see you then. If you need anything just barge in in your usual fashion."
Ophis didn't respond. I had realized that I could enchant an object to emit void for as long as it was fuelled with void attuned mana to make a quiet space for Ophis. Runes don't work for some reason. I think that it's because the runes run off of ambient mana or affinity and there is no ambient void affinity in the world. Storing it doesn't work either. It just disappears. That will make getting a void familiar very difficult soon enough.
The enchantment also lets me go do whatever I want without her trailing behind me. That said, she still liked my affinity straight from the source more for some reason. She called it 'fresher' than the runic circle's void element.
I frankly don't care much. Ophis is nice and we're apparently sticking together so I'll just deal with her for awhile. She's not really a problem anyways. She's kind of like my insurance if I piss off any higher powers as well.
Since Ophis didn't seem keen on responding I focused on the teleportation marker at Kuoh's basement and teleported to it. I had wrapped it in a runic circle to hide it from any prying eyes. I also had a marker at Arthur's house for convenience.
I sensed a few VERY powerful mana signatures as soon as I looked. There were five of particular importance and some others who I believe are the occult research club.
First was the one I'm certain is an angel. He appeared as a radiant light of purity. He was nothing BUT purity affinity and a dash of light affinity, though I believe the purity is innate. Even so his purity affinity wasn't even half as large as my storm affinity. He had a large supply of mana as well, going a bit over my mana. Around three million mana would be my estimate.
Second was a devil, that much was certain. He had an array of affinities but most strikingly was one that appeared similar to corruption but not the same and another that felt like raw destruction. Not like the void, which felt like annihilation to the atomic level and a sort of emptiness but something like it's angry twin brother. It was raw destructive energy bursting with power. That he could even control it was impressive. I chalked the signature up to being Sirzechs. He had a little more mana than the angel. Even with all that mana his affinities were slightly weaker than the angel's. I saw something odd in him though. My instinctual skill, the one I got at two hundred fifty DEX, was telling me to be cautious.
Third was another presence with the same affinity marking her as a devil and an extremely strong ice affinity. What shocks me is how large her ice affinity and mana pool are. Her ice affinity is almost as large as my storm affinity and her mana pool must be around five million at least! Maybe more like six. Probably Serafall then. She's scary…
Forth is definitely Azazel. He had a rather small mana pool, edging around two and a half million mana and his affinities are kind of weak. That makes me think he probably focuses on skill like Summer did. I also recall that Azazel used an array of gadgets and such. He's crafty more than the brute strength of Sirzechs or Serafall, though undoubtedly those two are smart as well.
Finally was definitely Vali. His soul was… well, odd. He only had two distinct affinities. First was what might be a draconic affinity. It felt scaly and powerful and rather odd as far as affinities go. It also supplemented an augmentation in his soul, which seemed like the knots I use for skinchanging but far more complex. The second affinity was the demonic affinity and it was huge. Just a bit smaller than my storm affinity. If I had to estimate I'd put it at four hundred thousand affinity.
Luckily Vali has a small mana pool. Thank dust. Sure it's large but only to the size of Azazel's pool and a bit smaller than that. I vaguely remember that Vali was more a hand-to-hand combatant though. Let's… let's not mess with him unless he knows that we shouldn't kill each other.
The others were pretty unimpressive. Rias, who I recognized from her power of destruction, had quite weak affinities compared to her brother and her mana reserves were similarly small. Le Fey would be able to beat her. Issei, who I recognized because of his dragon affinity, pathetically small as it was, had incredibly small reserves. I'd be shocked if he went further than two hundred fifty thousand.
With all of the people there I thought for a moment as to whether I really wanted to get in there. I mean, sure, I can suppress my mana to nearly nothing and be invisible, scentless, and so on…
Well I'm here for the experiences, hm?
I cloaked myself in the room temperature, switched my illusion cloak to make me invisible, hid my mana as completely as I could, and went so far as to use spatial presence negation.
With exaggerated care I slowly blinked myself into the meeting room, trying hard to be as subtle as possible. When I opened my eyes I saw the meeting room clearly. Everyone looked very impressive, Michael in his golden armor, Sirzechs in a somewhat ornamental military uniform, and… well Serafall looked kind of like she was stuffed in a green suit and shoved into her seat and Azazel like a scruffy stay-at-home dad with a budding neckbeard. Vali lurked in the corner like some sort of brooding teenager.
The others were just as unimpressive, although they were beautiful… and well-endowed in the case of Rias and Akeno. I am a guy. I notice these things.
I turned my attention from the occult research club and paid more attention to the faction leaders, of which Azazel was talking.
"Well then why don't I make it a little easier for you Issei? Try to focus here." I raised an eyebrow at the man's informal address but honestly if he can come to a faction meeting in a V-neck down to his sternum then he can easily ignore honorifics. If I recall, he and Issei are friends anyways.
"If we start fighting again… you'll never be able to have your way with Rias Gremory." I laughed out loud at the shocked silence of the meeting room but nothing really came out, seeing as I didn't actually have a presence in space. It took me a moment longer than everyone else in the room to get what he was saying since Japanese didn't come smoothly to me but that doesn't matter since nobody is looking at me.
"But," Azazel continued regardless of the silence, "if we make peace instead prosperity and propagation become far more important."
A gleam entered the pervert's eyes and a faint blush over his cheeks. "You mean like… baby making?!" Unknown to everyone Michael looked up at the roof sadly, like he was looking for a sign that this wasn't happening. The only person who seems to be enjoying the teasing and drama as much as I am is Serafall, who was holding back a smirk.
"That's right!" Azazel confirmed with a small grin. "Imagine those training sessions." Rias sent the most annoyed look I may have ever seen towards Azazel, considering he was pimping her out to Issei.
"And you can practice every single day." A blush came onto Rias' cheeks. I snickered, not that anybody could perceive it.
"I'm right here, you know!" Rias protested weakly. Grayfia, who I hadn't noticed before, sighed despondently. She and Michael would get along well.
"Peace means a daily dose of Rias loving. War means no sexy-time. Get all that?"
Issei reeled back, eyes wide. No doubt this was a shocking realization to the pervert. His eyes glazed over as he no doubt imagined dirty things. "Peace is number one!" he crowed. "I'm all for peace! I'M GOING TO DO IT WITH RIAS SO HARD!"
I was doubling over in laughter at all this. Oh dust! This is amazing! It's so much better in person! I had on idea there was such a pervert in the world! I took a moment between giggles to refocus on the meeting. When I came back to it the meeting had turned somber and I ignored everything and left a parallel to pay attention and summarize everything for me. It wasn't fun to be paying attention anymore with everyone being serious.
I instead focused on the armies above. The devils, fallen angels, and angels were all in a stand-off, looking aggressively at each other but not making any moves. All of them were pretty weak. I could take them all out I think, judging by their mana and affinities though I can see how they could be strong compared to the rest of humanity.
Even with the factions meeting on equal ground I saw a distinct difference in power between them all. The angels were the smallest faction for sure but they had powerful troops. Their soldiers were all around levels one fifty at the lowest to around three hundred at the highest, though that angel at three hundred eight was an outlier and most of the elite troops were around two hundred fifty.
The devils were the strongest and brought the most troops, however their levels were the lowest and most varied. Most of them ranged around one hundred or one fifty and had pretty weak affinities but twelve of them were quite strong at over two fifty. So they had weak general troops but occasionally had those with a lust for power and they became the elite.
The fallen angels were the weakest. They all averaged out to around one hundred or one fifty and their numbers were small. Some of them didn't even get to a hundred. Their affinities were also weaker than the angels, likely due to being casted out of heaven.
My attention was grabbed when a pulse of magic swept over everyone. Time magic. It tried to latch onto me but I batted against it with the void, forcing it off of me. A glance around the room showed several people had become frozen as well. Everyone who didn't have a holy sword or an abundance of magical power were frozen.
Before I decided whether to act or not I grimaced as a massive portal opened up in the distance. It reeked of space affinity and had a peculiar feeling in it that I was beginning to associate with sacred gears. I also sensed a faint link to Vali from the portal. A close look revealed that he had a mark not unlike my marker teleport spell upon him. I smiled faintly. How devious.
I barely paid attention to the people talking, only taking the highlights as my parallel filtered out their chatter and instead watched the spells fly in the hopes to use some of them later for myself. Rias was angry saying the magicians will pay for disrespecting her, Michael was saying that Gasper, the half vampire that was in Rias' devil peerage, had fallen into enemy hands and that he froze everyone with his sacred gear.
But when they began talking about something called 'castling' my parallel practically blared 'red alert!' and I turned my attention from the spells of the magicians reluctantly.
Castling was described as a switching spell between the king of a devil's peerage and the rook, both being positions in the group of devils. That sounds like something I'd like to observe and maybe hijack. My space affinity could doubtlessly disrupt the move if I felt like it.
"You can go with her." Sirzechs said to Issei. My parallel whispered that Issei would be able to accompany rias as she switched with her rook, where Gasper was being held. Oh so he was given permission to tag along. Make sure to bring a chaperone.
"Wouldn't it be easier to take out the half vampire with the terrorists?" Vali asked lazily. "If you'd like I can just do it for you." I felt that Vali was a bit of a dick for suggesting that they kill their friend.
"Vali you're such a dick!" Issei snapped. Thank you Issei. I needed that.
"Vali be more considerate of everyone. We're trying to make peace here." Azazel didn't seem overly concerned with Vali's behavior.
"Sorry," Vali said, not sounding sorry at all, "It's hard for me to do nothing like this."
"Fair enough." Azazel conceded. "Then go welcome those magicians. Upset their ranks a bit. I'm sure seeing the white dragon emperor will help."
"Sure." Vali shrugged, seeming just a little eager, and sprouted blue and white wings. Before anyone could say anything he leapt out the window and began flying upwards. I would have scoffed but I had a small decision to make.
Interrupt the switching or be around Vali? … Yeah I'll just follow Vali. He knows I'm supposed to be around, after all.
I simply blinked to Vali's side and matched his speed with motion magic fuelled flight. I dropped all my stealth spells on the way.
"I'm Abyss by the way. Arthur told you about me, right?" Vali didn't seem overly surprised by my presence.
"Arthur called you strong and that you stick with Ophis. I doubt you'll be of any help. Stay back and let me handle this. Cast some spells if it makes you feel better." I want to punch this bastard so badly. He flew away a little speedily and I muttered expletives under my breath as I prepared a chain lightning spell with consumption. The consumption eats the mana of it's targets and uses it to keep going. It's one of my most effective spells for large groups. I use it to kill ants sometimes since it doesn't hurt the environment.
Just because I'd rather not make my reveal quite yet I engaged all my stealth spells again. If people pointed fingers at me as the 'traitor' it might be annoying.
"Balance… BREAK!" Vali shouted dramatically. White armor composed of his draconic affinity materialized around his body. I scoffed at his dramatic anime-esque posing and released my chain lightning spell. It arced between the magicians and took out almost half of them in a second.
Vali, who looked quite pissed off at having less magicians to fight, formed some sort of blue orb in his palm composed of mana and lightning before letting it go. It took out half the other magicians in a similar fashion to mine, although his was made of pure lightning rather than having an auxiliary element.
To speak I used wind whisper, manifesting my voice next to his ear. "You're right. Casting one of my weaker spells DID make me feel better! Thanks for cleaning up my leftovers. I'm sure you would have done great without me doing most of the work." Vali snarled.
"Arthur said we should fight. After we recover I'll see you at his manor."
"That sounds like a brilliant way to teach you a lesson. I'll see you then. For now I want to practice melee combat while flying. I rarely fly and fight at the same time."
With that settled I formed a metal sabre in my hand. The runes of Ruby's glove activated and worked their magic on the sword. It felt lighter, more natural, and most importantly, more deadly.
It's a shame that the magicians are so outclassed. I kind of want a challenge. Well, that and to beat Vali's arrogant face in but that can wait.
I got to killing magicians, which was basically just racing around the battlefield taking heads off. It was pretty fun to run around so fast though. I found myself competing with Vali to kill faster. Sure I could just use my semblance to trap everyone in a storm and destroy their souls with void but that's not really on the table right now. Getting that involved with the plot seems a little excessive.
I noticed the school building go up in an explosion after about five minutes and saw Sirzechs make a barrier with the frozen students inside. What a nice guy.
It was a few minutes later that Vali seemingly got bored and came over to me. "Hey" he said. I glanced over at him. "I'm going to fight the red dragon emperor. Don't interfere."
"You can't tell me to so much as sit down," I retorted, "If you're in danger I'm getting you out so I can kick your ass later.
Vali grunted and flew away, where he immediately punched Azazel, who was now missing his left arm, down so hard he left a crater. I rolled my eyes and went over close to the fight and watched.
"Bad Vali," Azazel grunted, looking up at him.
"Sorry, Azazel. Things looked more interesting from this side." Vali still sounded like he wasn't sorry whatsoever. You know what? I don't like him. Nobody likes him. Then again, I'm an almost-member of the khaos brigade just because it seems interesting as well so I can't really talk. That doesn't make Vali less of a dick though.
"Vali! You're the one who betrayed us!" Issei didn't seem overly surprised. Neither did anyone else actually. Gee I wonder why.
Azazel got up and dusted his V-neck off. "I can understand but there's something I'd like to ask you."
"Hm?" Vali seemed uninterested.
"You know shemlazah-" I have no idea what Azazel just said but I think it's a name. "-my vice governor general. Well he told me about a new group that's been gathering the dangerous elements of the three factions." Azazel's and Vali's eyes met intensely. "What were they called? Ah, right. The khaos brigade."
"I bet I can guess who's leading you," Azazel continued, "Has to be Ophis, the ouroboros dragon, huh?"
"Yeah I work for Ophis," Vali said flippantly. "But neither of us have any interest in world domination. We're just a group who formed in order to use our power. That's it."
"Well that makes a little more sense," Azazel said calmly. "Conspiring with paligloths-" I have no idea who or what that is "-seems a little beneath you but even so… both of you have royal devil blood."
A clammer came from below. Vali's voice boomed over them all. "That's right! My name is Vali Lucifer. I am a direct descendant of one of the dead devil kings. My mother was a human so I'm a half blood. My father was the grandson of the former great devil king Lucifer."
"Of course," Azazel scoffed, "And since you're half human you just HAD to be possessed by the vanishing dragon didn't you? So basically your existence is a joke." More and more I like Azazel.
"I would go with miracle personally," Vali said testily. You know what? This is like the mistral regional tournament all over again. Why am I waiting to fight? For an arrogant dick I don't even like? A timeline that doesn't matter to me? Fuck it.
Appearing without warning behind Vali I channeled some motion affinity into my palm and slammed it into Vali's back through my glove. He went flying at extreme speeds into the earth, faster than Azazel did by a significant amount and I didn't even use any mana.
"You know what, Vali?" I questioned, ignoring the surprised looks from everyone. "I really just can't stand you. I don't really give a damn if you want to fight or not. Deal with your obsession with the weak red dragon emperor now or don't and fight me instead because I promise I'll tan your hide redder than the red dragon's scale mail and give you the beating a brat like you deserves. Miracle my ass. You're more like a divine accident."
It was only then that I noticed Azazel cracking it up over on the sidelines. He was actually holding his stomach as he shook in laughter at my torrent of insults towards Vali. "Holy-Oh my-holy shit! Who are you?!" Azazel stifled his laughter and chuckles enough to be only vaguely heard.
"I'm Abyss Mavros, dimensional traveller, wizard, user of the void, and a few other things. I'm practically a member of the khaos brigade myself but everyone there except a few people are such utter assholes like Vali here that I can't stand any of them. The only reason I'm around them at all is because I'm a friend of Ophis' and I want an interesting experience."
"You ASSHOLE!" Vali roared at me. "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN'T INTERFERE!"
"I told you to fuck off when you ordered me to stay out of your business," I said heatedly. "If you want to fight scrounge up the balls to throw one of your weak little punches you broody teenager. Is your armor so white because you're pale in fear?"
Vali roared at me and sprung off the ground at high speeds straight towards me. I shot a beam of heat at him but he dodged easily with a barrel roll and neared closer. Good.
With a smirk on my face I activated my semblance with a burst of motion magic, something Ruby had suggested. The storm inside me exploded outwards with a wave of immensely powerful winds.
Vali's wings worked against him as he was pushed back. With another roar of rage he flapped hard against the winds. I laughed at the idiot's attempt.
That my storm spread over the skies was hardly an issue for me. Sirzech's barrier was still up and nobody was interfering with my fight so whatever. I infused the void into my storm and the effects were immediately felt.
The clouds grew denser and darker, making them hang lower on the bystanders below. The lightning in it rumbled ominously and the winds howled unnaturally when they shouldn't be able to. The mana and affinity in the air was being sucked in at a rapid pace, though around me the mana was untouched just in case I might need it.
On the ground I saw Sirzechs, Michael, and Azazel working furiously to keep my storm away from the club members. My storm had gravitated towards them, being attracted to their rich reserves of energy. For them to take the sapping of their energy and flee would be to leave the ORC and student council to my storm, which they might not be able to escape from.
Michael and Azazel were only able to fight primatively against my semblance, hurling mana and affinity to push the storm back temporarily. They fought with a grit that reminded me of someone who knew they were in a desperate situation.
Sirzechs was the only one doing real damage, along with his sister helping him a little. His high energy power and abundant mana was actually able to push back the void even if it was swallowed up by the nothingness. He didn't seem to be straining too hard, and was picking up the slack from Michael and Azazel, though they both took up most of the work. He didn't seem too interested in getting out for some reason.
The others weren't really able to help, though they tried their best. I saw Issei try to encourage Gasper to use his sacred gear, the power to stop time, to trap me, but it's effects were simply consumed by the dark storm. Issei even managed to think up the idea to transfer all his power to Gasper and push through but it was useless. The storm simply sucked in the power.
I felt through the storm as Vali's affinity fuelling his armor was being ground to nothing under the thick void in my storm, his mana untouched under the protection of the affinity. The winds and rain sucked at his energy but it wasn't enough. I feel it needs a kick.
With a flexing of my will a massive lightning bolt slammed forcefully into Vali's chest. He gasped in pain and his armor shined and dissipated into motes of light. His body flew back down to earth, landing just meters away from the group of people fighting desperately.
He still had mana left but it was being rapidly drained. He wouldn't last ten seconds. The storm sapped away almost a hundred thousand mana a second from him even in it's dispersed state.
My semblance was being amplified by my glove enough that the void was immense in it's own right. More than a million void affinity was fuelling my semblance, after all. If i were to focus my void completely on him his soul would be dead in moments… or would it?
Vali has his dragon's soul in him, after all. He might be able to do something… no. It's not worth the risk. I might piss Ophis off. Besides, there's no real need to test that.
I flew down to Vali's form and let my semblance disperse. The unnatural storm ceased it's howling and quickly faded to nothing. I bent down to Vali's beaten form and quickly punched him in the forehead, knocking him out.
A glance at the group showed Azazel looking at me with a calculative gleam in his eyes, as well as a hinto of fear. Michael had a hard look to his, like he expected me to be an enemy. Sirzechs had something like respect and annoyance. Serafall showed rage. Right, I had almost hurt her sister.
I almost chuckled menacingly when I reached out with my mana and put a teleport marker on the faction leaders and the pervert. None of them noticed. My mana control is proficient enough that I can pull something off like that, though I'm not sure if it will last too long if they mess with it.
"My apologies that you got caught up in that." I said as gracefully as I could. "I'll be bringing this idiot to a safe place now. My apologies for his general assholery and condescending rudeness. Enjoy your… conference."
A glance at the battlefield showed Kuoh town's school levelled to a crater, the ground still hot from that big explosion earlier. The bodies of magicians, some maimed from my sword, some beaten by Vali, and more defeated by other sources, lay scattered around the school.
"Right, well, good luck rebuilding. Blame Vali for the damages. Now I'm off to play video games and relax. I suggest you all do something along the same lines. Enjoy your night." Without waiting for a reply I made a portal and tossed Vali's body through it before stepping through myself.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"This is… this is troubling."
"More than troubling, Oz. It's damn near catastrophic."
"Perhaps cataclysmic."
"Well… do we have a plan?"
"Wait to see if he appears next year for beacon."
"Oz that is the stupide-"
"Qrow do you believe we can storm Salem's castle for Abyss? That we can somehow negotiate his release when he went willingly to Salem? Or that we should assume the worst and ambush him when he emerges again? He is the heir of one of the most important companies in remnant. His goods have begun bringing humanity into a golden age against the grimm."
"He's in Salem's castle right now, Oz. Salem's. Castle."
"Miss Opaque has made it quite clear that her student has not joined Salem, merely begun learning what he believes I will not teach him."
"Dark magics, Oz."
"Salem does indeed know magics darker than I would care to admit. From mere cantrips to give puppies toothaches to magic that will rip a soul asunder and devour it whole."
"Well let's hope Abyss holds a grudge against puppies, huh? Since we're so helpless that we can only let him run around doing whatever the hell he pleases."
"What do you think I can do, Qrow? Do you believe that I should lock him in beacon? Kill him? Try to strip his magic from him - though with his power even years ago that would be nearly impossible - or perhaps I should slaughter his family, being your sister and miss Rose, your niece, and dismantle his crime syndicate, which is, in fact, an immensely tame organization that doesn't even tolerate drugs… I can only do so much."
"Yeah… yeah I know. It's unfair to just look for you for some magical solution. I just hate being so helpless over him. I mean, dust, he's been around my sister for years and we just learn this now? And Ruby… when the hell did she murder a maiden and I didn't… I don't know, Oz. When did marrying a woman get so earth-shattering?"
[|||| =+= ||||]
"That's six hundred." I said smugly. Fey sighed and scrounged up six hundred monopoly money, handing it to me with a sad look.
"I wanted to buy new york from onii-sama." She said sadly.
"Then you shouldn't have landed on boardwalk." I said mercilessly. Two houses on boardwalk and park place just became four each. Ophis and Arthur are both around the greens and reds so I'll hopefully catch one and economically slaughter them.
"I'm putting two more houses on both of these." I said, trying to keep the glee away from my voice. Park place and Boardwalk became four house properties and I rolled, landing on virginia avenue, which I owned.
"My turn." Arthur said calmly. He plucked up the dice and rolled them out, rolling an eight right onto boardwalk. "Oh…" He said. If I listened closely I thought he might be dying inside.
"That's one thousand seven hundred, Arthur." I said gently. He looked down at his money, seeing some fifties, twenties, and a single hundred. He looked at his only properties, the light blues and the browns, the worst in the game, but with hotels on all of them. If you look closely you can see him dying.
"We'll give you a minute, Onii-sama." Fey said gently, though there was a little guilt in her voice. She had funded her own brother's death, after all.
"My turn." Ophis said in monotone. She rolled a twelve onto park place. "Oh… that's not good." She only owned the railroads, some red properties, and seven hundred dollars. All three of them landing on boardwalk or park place was probably my luck stat in action.
"Should we leave this here?" I offered. Arthur looked with wet eyes at the pile of money he had desperately scraped together. It was a pathetic mishmash barely reaching a thousand five hundred, all his properties mortgaged and devoid of houses.
"Let's." He said, his voice a little devoid of happiness. "Vali might have woken up by now."
"He woke up an hour ago. He's just not here because I chained him up in your dungeon." Arthur nodded, completely unfazed.
"When did we get a dungeon?" He asked. I raised an eyebrow.
"You didn't know?" Ophis asked curiously. "That explains why it's always so dusty."
"I thought it was obvious." I agreed. "In the library there's a bookshelf that moves if you pull on it. It doesn't have a secret book you have to pull or anything. You just pull on it."
"Which section?" Fey asked.
"The family records." I said.
"I'll go get Vali." Arthur sighed as he stood up.
"If he wants to kill me tell him that I'm open but I'd prefer if he didn't destroy your manor. I rather like this place." Arthur nodded and exited the room right after I finished. My parallels got busy cleaning up the board game quickly and I got up from the table to get it ready for dinner.
According to Arthur, when he was talking to Kuroka in the Khaos brigade's private internet chatroom, which is a somewhat surreal thing for them to have, she got very interested when he said how strong I was (compared to him) and that I had 'cat ears'. That I associated with Ophis in a friendly manner was the icing on the cake for her.
Curiosity did kill the cat apparently. It killed it quickly too since Kuroka was coming over tonight rather than tomorrow. Since it's my fault that she and Vali are over I offered to cook for everyone. I've had my parallels cooking in the kitchen for the past hour. I figure that tilapia is fine. Lemon, thyme, and some spices will make it fine to my standards.
I don't have any… well I'm beyond broke just like I was in the old days so I just stole the fish. Kuroka won't care from what I remember of her and Ophis probably wouldn't care if I nuked canada or wrote a poem. As far as I can tell she only really cares about the void and the quiet within it, though she does feel fond of the Pendragon siblings and myself.
Luckily the Pendragons have a decent kitchen and everything is relatively organized so my parallels had very little trouble. Since I have nine of them I could probably live my life without lifting a finger.
They're not too useful beyond doing one continuous task (holding a magical effect, keeping a lookout, etc.), housework, and training but they're doubtlessly my most useful skill just because of how much I can get done with them in my free time.
To make them a bit of a double-edged sword I remember everything they do, of course, but that doesn't change that I can get a lot done with them. Even so I like doing something with my hands sometimes.
This is not one of those times.
I reclined on the couch and Ophis plopped down right next to me with an expectant expression. I just wrapped her in my void and she sighed and closed her eyes.
… I've actually got to do some things in this dimension and right now time's wasting. Come to think of it I should write all this down.
First is something that's pretty much a staple of this dimension. Sacred gears. Sure I could benefit off of the boosted gear, OP as it is, or the divine dividing gear, both being stupidly powerful, but I have a more… resourceful idea.
I happen to have a large amount of purity attunement in me from my silver eyes. Obviously it's not like my purity affinity since it amplifies it but I'd call it more like a catalyst for it.
Even so it's unrefined. It's just a mass of energy I can tap into. I happen to know two people VERY interested in this energy that I might be able to get to help me turn the energy to a more suitable usage. A more efficient usage for it.
The first option is Azazel. The guy's the obvious answer to my question. He loves sacred gears and having an energy that's probably appropriate to making one would be a great test for him to create one.
The other guy to use - I mean - work with, would be Michael, the angel Michael that is. Perhaps other archangels as well. The angel likes holy things, being angelic and all, so I can probably convince him to help me form a sacred gear from my silver eyes energy.
The guy was there in the beginning, when God created the sacred gears, so I'd bet there's something he can use to help me out in that head of his or something in heaven to assist me.
Best case scenario I can use both of them to make the best gear possible.
The second task is a bit less of a priority but I'd like Ophis' help to use void. I'm pretty sure that in her infinitely long life she's learned some neat tricks with that void of hers. I'd like some and I'm pretty sure she won't mind me learning from her. The problem is her teaching. Why would she put in any effort, after all? She never really does.
Third is the easiest objective. I want all the media I can grab and bring it over to remnant for my own enjoyment. If I wanted money I could sell it to remnant's media too.
Remnant has a crappy industry for… *Ahem* Adult material except for some tentacle grimm stuff… or so I've been told. From a friend of a friend of course. This perverted hentai dimension is perfect for corrupting the world back home (further) if I ever care to do so.
Finally is something a lot more complicated than the other stuff. When I release void into the world it conflicts with other affinities and disappears. When I keep going, releasing affinity, it just disappears as other affinities come appearing in the same space. Even Poledina's circle of affinity compression is unable to capture void. Void cancels out magic so it cancels out the runes too. My runes on my body have my mana and affinity running through them, including watered-down void, so they're exempt for reasons I don't understand but any attempts to replicate this are hopeless.
This inability to compress void makes finding an elemental for the element very problematic. I need to find an elemental for void or a being that can act as a contracted elemental for void…
Preferably a dragon from the void. That just sounds badass and I like dragons. I've always been a dragon nerd but remnant has no dragons that I know of besides the grimm one and that seems like cheating the system since Salem probably made that one. A real dragon. Not a corrupted elemental given a form that looks like a dragon. But that's for later
"NYA! ARTHUR-KUN I'M BACK!" A voice yelled out into the somewhat empty mansion. That's Kuroka… probably. And why the hell does she go 'NYAAA!'? There's no way she's not doing that just to play things up with her being a nekoshou.
A tallish black figure flounced into the living room. My eyes locked with hers, golden hazel with my dark yellow - which still caught me off-guard since I'm used to silver.
"Oh hi! And you are?" Kuroka, because who else could this be, smiled at me widely and leaned forward just a little, letting me peek over her kimono if I looked. Her kimono wasn't exactly subtle about her confidence. There weren't shoulders at all on it, giving any enterprising man a clear view of the top of her breasts, and the slit down her waist was large enough that you could glimpse her long legs. Other than the kimono she had a yellow ribbon, which I think is called an obi in Japan, around her torso.
Curiously enough I don't see any cat ears, though shouldn't a nekoshou have them? Maybe they're small and under her black hair. It's long hair, after all. Even more interestingly was something my senses told me of. Kuroka was turning out to be a very interesting individual already.
"I'm Abyss." I said with a polite nod. "Nice to meet you, Kuroka-san." Using Japanese honorifics feels a bit weird. I'm in Japan so I should certainly use them but it still makes me feel uncomfortable. To investigate what my senses were picking up I observed her.
Kuroka Toujou
Titles: Last Nekoshou;
Level – 502
HP –
AP – 13,020
MP - 124,440
STR - 371 (+350%)(80%)= 1409
VIT - 362 (+350%)(80%)= 1375.6
DEX - 473 (+350%)(80%)= 1797.4
INT - 622 (+0%)= 622
WIS - 651 (+0%)= 651
LUK - 31 (+0%)=
Semblance: Locked
Affinities:
Infernal: 1512
Space: 1423
Mystical: 429
Perks:
Weak divine core - Despite having aura this individual has only the faintest history of divinity in their blood, making their aura weaker than average compared to remnant. Despite this they are still capable of using aura, which is more than most.
- 50% less total aura
- 20% less benefits from aura
- 33% slower levelling speed for aura skill and aura based skills
Stray devil (Evil piece) - Despite being a devil cut off from the affinity of your master you have managed to retain your identity and power through your high affinity for the infernal equal or greater than your master's affinity at the time of your escape. Thus you retain the benefits of being a devil while having no obligation towards a peerage.
- 5x total MP
- Innate infernal affinity
-Innate capabilities for flight magic; wings are granted as a manifestation of your demonic power
Bio: Left with the care of her younger sister Shirone (aka Koneko) after the death of their parents, Kuroka struggled to make ends meet. Eventually she surrendered herself to the peerage of Naferian Naberius, of a branch of the Naberius family, in exchange for the safety of her younger sister and for Naferian to provide for her and her sister.
Naferian did provide for Kuroka and her sister, yet as his bishop Kuroka was forced to sell herself to him and follow his every order, which were endured for her younger sister and the hope of one day becoming a mid-class or high class devil and gaining more freedom from her master and managing to gain her own freedom from the greater opportunities given to higher class devils.
Naferian, however, prevented Kuroka from attending the devil promotion ceremonies due to the fact that he himself was barely a mid-class devil himself, meaning that Kuroka would be publicly superior to her master when she reached the level of high-class. Having his most powerful peerage member and favorite plaything run free was naturally undesirable to him.
Kuroka, after enduring three years under Naferian's service, killed him in a fit of rage after he suggested that she bring her younger sister into his service 'for protection'. She fled the underworld as a stray devil and soon made her name as an S ranked and later SS ranked stray devil.
After catching Ophis' attention due to her strength she was recruited to the khaos brigade, though she doesn't really mind since she runs free most of the time. Her current goal is to make up with her sister and find a mate to restore her race with.
"Ah, you don't have to use honorifics!" Kuroka said dismissively, a hand on her waist. I glanced away from her status and put it out of my mind for the moment, though my mind was racing with theories.
"Arthur-kun doesn't like them all that much but he's super formal. And you can use english too. We devils speak all languages and Arthur and Fey-chan like to use english. They don't get too many opportunities."
"Thank you, Kuroka," I said gratefully. Japanese still feels awkward on my tongue. It takes more than a few hours of practice to learn a language fluently even if I could technically speak it. "Arthur is getting Vali from the dungeons right now."
Kuroka laughed musically. It sounded honest, if a little exaggerated. "The manor doesn't have dungeons!"
"That's just what the Pendragons want you to think," I said ominously. Kuroka seemed to think on that for a moment before pushing it out of her mind. "Dinner will be ready in a few moments. Do you drink?"
"Just tea and water please!" Kuroka took a step backwards before plopping down on the couch. 'Make yourself at home' seemed to be unnecessary in her case. My parallels were already making some tea but I put on another pot of Raven's favorite tea.
It's deceptively minty and a little sweet like peppermint with that distinctive tea taste and I've only met a few people who didn't like it. According to Raven Summer was actually the one who got her into the tea although she never much liked any other brands.
I personally enjoy the stuff especially with a little honey to feed my sweet tooth. Since everyone is having tea I may as well make some more so we don't run out. Actually I'll make a third and put an enchantment for heat preservation on it just in case.
"Of course," I nodded, "We're having tilapia by the way."
"Sure." Kuroka didn't seem to particularly care. "You wanted to speak to me about senjutsu, right?" I nodded.
"I have a few conditions that let me resist mental influences better than most. However, I believe that I've already gotten a headstart on learning it." To answer the question Kuroka would no doubt ask I raised my hand and coaxed out my aura in it, letting a red glow envelop it.
Kuroka's eyes grew interested. "That would be toki," she said with a small smile. Then her smile fell a bit and she seemed to notice something off about my aura. She narrowed her eyes and stood up, coming closer to my hand in a few short strides. She kneeled down and was looking intensely at my glowing hand.
Then she put it in her mouth.
I didn't even react much. Did she just get really interested in my aura and then put my hand… no that totally didn't happen.
"How… strange." Kuroka was staring intently at my hand, which was a little wet with her saliva-dear god she just put my hand in her mouth for some reason. "You have senjutsu power with your toki but it's… weird. Kind of like they're closer than they should be." Kuroka stood up, still holding my hand. She rested my palm's heel right on her breasts and was looking intently at my aura around my hand. I have no idea if she's doing this on purpose.
"Senjutsu itself is controlling your life force and using it to your advantage to make you stronger, faster, and tougher. It's uses are many, from reacting volatilely with some forms of mana to coating objects in it to become more durable, healing people, storing life force, and so on. Touki is making an aura of your life force around you strong enough that it enhances your physique. It even has a faint physical presence. Enough to defend against magical and physical attacks at the expense of a little life force, which comes back over time. One of the biggest myths about senjutsu is that you don't get lifeforce back but…"
Kuroka seemed to think for a moment. The playful look on her face earlier was replaced with a more thoughtful, curious, and cunning one. "You already know senjutsu I think. Touki is doing just this but with your whole body." She flicked my hand for reference.
"You have something in you that makes your lifeforce WAY stronger though. Easier to draw out too." She looked curiously at me. "What is it?"
"A divine essence," Ophis said, surprising us both. Kuroka hadn't paid attention to her before but now she had her full focus.
"Could you elaborate on that Ophis-sama?" she asked. Ophis sighed.
"Abyss has a watered down amount of divinity in him. Hundreds of generations must have passed but a very strong god, perhaps two, are in his ancestry. It fuels his lifeforce to be greater than your weak essence does. Touki and senjutsu are just techniques for using lifeforce anyways. Abyss knows senjutsu far better than you, though he wastes his divine essence just enhancing his lifeforce when he should be able to control it better."
I just stared at Ophis for a moment. She had never spoken so much before. Kuroka blinked herself out of the similar stupor she found herself in and turned towards me.
"So I can't teach you to use senjutsu because you already know it!" Kuroka smiled mischievously but her eyes held a burning curiosity. "But about your space magic that you could teach me…"
I raised an eyebrow. "You haven't taught me anything, though. If it's a trade of spells you want I wouldn't mind much."
Kuroka's eyes glimmered. "Let's have a contest! It should be easy." She smirked, seemingly expecting to win. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Bring it, kitten. I have more magic than you have shamelessness and know more magic techniques than you'd learn in all your nine lives." Kuroka's smirk grew.
"Prove it then."
I was just about to respond when I noticed Arthur at the table with Le Fey. "Later," I called to her as I rose. Ophis looked over at the table curiously and apparently decided to eat at the table with us for some reason.
"Vali isn't feeling very well right now," Arthur explained. "I think he's talking to Albion and nursing his pride. You landed quite a dent in it."
I shrugged, completely unapologetic. "He deserved more. You should have seen him blowing me off, calling me weak and suggesting I stay behind. I thought about letting him try and fight his supposed rival, the red dragon emperor, but he was being an asshole so I decided I was going to fight him whether he wanted to fight me then or not."
"He's like that," Arthur agreed. "He's better when he's in a more civilized setting. It would be better to have my introduction in person but you seem to have gotten through to him to not belittle you. I heard him mutter something about Albion telling him so as I left. Since the dragons can sense magic in their gauntlets I assume they felt your reserves and decided you were a threat."
My parallels brought over all the food on platters for everyone and Kuroka raised an eyebrow. "When did you get magical dishes?" she asked Arthur.
"We didn't…" everyone except Ophis looked towards me. I shrugged.
"It's just telekinesis. If you want it a bit more long term I could enchant them I guess."
"Abyss-sama enchanting a whole silverware cabinet with even basic enchantments costs hundreds of thousands of yen," Le Fey said neutrally. I rolled my eyes and grabbed a platter a parallel was using my motion affinity to hold up. A glance showed me that it held everyone's tilapia.
I flicked my wrist and a razor sharp scalpel made of glass was in my hand. It barely took me five seconds to make the rune for mana collection on the bottom of the platter. I also made an illusory rune just in case somebody decided to try to learn my runes and a self-destruct rune if somebody disrupted the rune. That took another seven.
Enchanting is flexible and fast but it's also temporary and somewhat weaker than runes. Enchanting can make a sword spit fire with every swing but it runs out of mana quickly unless you have a huge affinity for fire. I could make one that makes lightning bolts for every swing, sure, but it would only last a few hundred swings before I would have to recharge it. Unless I have a rune of recharging on it, that is.
Even so enchanting is more of a household skill than a useful one. It's not terribly hard to do though. I consider it a poor man's runes, though being able to do it yourself quickly is useful and could be used in combat if you knew your stuff but there's always a better option.
That's why it took me just a single second to enchant the platter of food to float and home in on anything that sends a pulse of mana to it. It just takes a little motion magic and the intent. Enchanting is easy.
I tossed the platter into the air and I could see everyone tense and prepare to catch it. When it just floated in place they stopped and looked at it in surprise for a moment. As if I don't know what I'm doing…
I raised my hand and prepared a tiny pulse of aura, which would be visible. The little red pulse shot towards the platter and hit it flawlessly and it floated towards me. I stopped it with a finger and it stopped flying. I dished my plate up with tilapia and gave the platter a push towards Kuroka.
She stopped it and looked curious with it. She tried pulling it upwards and letting go, only to see that it stayed in place. Pulling it downwards did the same thing. She then dished up and pushed it towards Arthur and Le Fey. I was busy dishing up with the boiled vegetables and rice as well as pouring my tea.
It took a minute before everyone stopped playing with the plate. They at least got dished up. Nobody said a prayer, but then again Kuroka is a devil so it would be kind of… meh. Ophis didn't even wait to see if we could pray. She just took a bite and froze. She looked between me and the food a few times.
"You made this?" she asked. Her eyes were as serious as I'd ever seen them.
"I'm a good cook," I said, trying to sound humble. Ophis glanced one more time between me and the food before deciding to eat, savoring each bite. This brought everyone else to try a bite too.
"Oh…" Arthur said. He did that same glance between me and the food like Ophis before he decided to just eat in his polite way. He never really vigorously ate anything but he seemed to enjoy it immensely.
Fey didn't say anything or look at me. She just ate a little faster than before.
Kuroka had the most interesting expression to me actually being a good cook. She ate one bite of the tilapia and I'm pretty sure me and Ophis were the only ones to hear a faint 'Nyah…' come from her. Maybe she isn't faking it? No she's definitely faking it. A faint blush came onto her face and her pupils turned to the slits again as she looked at the food. I remember having a cat before coming to remnant. Her eyes always became slits when she was stalking something. This reminds me of that.
I was the only one to eat my food at a more normal pace. I did the tea pretty well this time too, though everyone seems to be ignoring it. It's a shame. Tea isn't affected by my cooking skill. Raven actually takes pride in that it's one of the few household skills she's better than me at. I make decent tea. She does it better. I don't know how she knows just how to make it other than experience.
About halfway through my meal everyone else was three quarters done. "I'm making cookies too, you know?" I mentioned, "With homemade whip cream. Not that aerosol stuff from the store. Save some space." Ophis ignored me. She could probably eat forever if she felt like it. Arthur slowed down a little on his food and Le Fey seemed to have an intense staring contest with her food before eating some of her vegetables and pushing the plate away. Kuroka had a similar moment of crisis but decided to keep going.
When everyone was done we waited for Ophis, who decided to help herself to our leftovers.
"How are you such a good cook?" Arthur asked me seriously. "I've been cooking for most of my life and I'm not that good."
"I've cooked most of my life too," I said with a small smile, "But I learned from a friend of mine, Summer Rose, who made some of the best cookies known to mankind and was what her daughters called a super mom. When she died I took custody of one of her daughters and eventually learned to get better."
"How long ago was this?" Le Fey asked.
"Ruby was about six so…" I thought for just a moment. "Nine years ago."
"But at that time wouldn't you be…" Kuroka led the question to me.
"It's complicated but the short version is that I'm twenty nine and made a new body because I was stupid and died once." A moment of silence clouded the room's air, except for Ophis' eating, which slowed down for a second before picking back up again.
"You… what?" Le Fey seemed confused.
"Well if you want to be technical I've died twice now but I don't remember all that much from before fifteen years ago. At that time I was in what I think is a car crash and through some circumstances found that I had become one of the very few magic users around at the time."
"About four years later I was experimenting with a technique called soul hearth, where I make an artificial space in my soul and can store things there. I left my body there and tried possessing my friend Summer so we didn't have to buy two airline tickets. In the middle of the flight there was an incident with myself and magic and I ended up suffocating my body in my own soul and permanently possessing Summer for a small time before she died and I had to possess Ruby for a few years. I ended up making my own body through a lot of studying and filling in the gaps with life magic."
"That's… quite a story," Arthur said in muted astonishment. "But you said… your world."
"I'm currently taking a foray here but my home is called remnant and it's in a different dimension across the gap. Ophis can attest to it."
Ophis paused her eating for just a moment. "He's not lying." She immediately turned back to her food.
"It's no big deal," I said dismissively, "Our worlds are mostly equal in technology. Where earth is reliant on fossil fuels mine is dependent on dust, crystallized mana, though the world doesn't realize that magic exists because of government cover-ups and such. You would think that people would realize since it's pretty in your face there but people tend to not question what seems normal. Anyways, remnant and earth are pretty similar in most ways. It's inconsequential for the most part. Well, except that I'm going to be taking all of this world's media for myself. It's way too good to just leave behind. Besides, the USB drives really are universal."
"The more I learn about you the more I want to learn more," Kuroka said in fascination. Her eyes narrowed in a sultry manner. "Much more."
I fought back a blush and pretended to have not noticed her obvious flirting, though judging by her smirk I wasn't entirely successful. "I'm sure we'll learn plenty from each other." As soon as I said that I realized how flirty it sounded. I meant trading magic goddamnit…
*Ding!* New skill acquired! - Flirting
"Hey there Summer. Is it just your name or are you always hot? Wait! No! Summer stop laughing I'm really trying here! I'm not that bad!"
-Taiyang Xiao-Long, on asking Summer to prom
Being compared to Taiyang is fine but on flirting? I feel degraded. I guess I never really flirted with Vera though. We've always been friends way more than lovers. Is this really the first time I ever flirted with anyone? Wow…
To my shock Kuroka laughed a little at that.
"Kuroka-sama do you have to do this at the table?" Le Fey sighed. Kuroka and I both snicker at her.
"Of course not." I said, already knowing what I was about to say was Yang's fault. "We would do it in your dungeon." Arthur nearly fumbled with his tea and Fey blushed like a lobster. Kuroka blushed a little but she seemed more interested in enjoying how embarrassed Arthur and Le Fey were.
Ophis was almost out of food. She may have not even heard what I said.
"Oh look, the cookies are here," I said innocently. My parallels distributed the cookies unevenly, five per person except Ophis, who got like ten or a dozen and an extra glass of milk. I almost thought I saw her eyes gleam but Ophis doesn't feel a lot of emotion so I'm probably hallucinating.
That or the way to her heart and unending loyalty is through her stomach. Somehow that seems more likely. I'm probably the tribe's second highest priority under Raven solely because they wouldn't be able to eat a better meal ever again without me. Ophis reminds me of that sort of relationship.
"These smell… good," Le Fey said approvingly. She was the second to start eating (Ophis waited for nobody and was already devouring the cookies). After just one bite I knew she was hooked. She didn't actually stop eating to give her opinion but just went for another bite as soon as she was done with her first bite. That was signal enough.
The cookies did not last long.
[|||| =+= ||||]
"He's an ass!"
"And you weren't?"
"No! I just told him to wait until I was done with my rival! Then the fucker beat me over the back of my head and belittled me!"
"You told him to stay back and shoot some spells condescendingly when you first met him. Then he immediately showed how adept he was at spellcraft, far more than you. Did you realize that he used no mana in that attack? He simply willed the lightning to form and it did, and I believe that he didn't use it to its full capacity either considering that he took out exactly half of the enemies around you. In fact, he used no mana at all in that entire fight. Had he done so… well I would be telling my warnings to my next host."
"…"
"You were in the wrong here, Vali. True, he did not have to intrude in your challenge of the red dragon emperor but he was well within his rights to do so. None of his words to you were false although I admit that his belittling made my blood boil as well. Had you ever spoken to me as you did that man I would challenge you to a duel without question. You should not be surprised that he did the same. I even told you of his power during the toying with the mages and you dismissed me out of your focus on the red dragon emperor."
"I have to prove I'm stronger than him."
"The red dragon emperor, your defeater, or your father?"
"All of them."
"Then I suggest you ask the help of the man, what did he call himself? Abyss? Yes I believe that was his name."
"Why would I ever go to HIM for help?!"
"Power. He is a master wizard without doubt and he wields the void as if he were a spawn of Ophis herself, not to mention that he is somewhat skilled with that blade of his. You are resourceful. He is reasonable, or so he seemed. Deal with him as you have dealt with others like Azazel in the past."
"… Fine. I will speak with him but I will not bow to him for his knowledge."
"Have you ever bowed since we met?"
"No."
"And you never shall. Until you meet a mate that is."
"Ugh."
[|||| =+= ||||]
It took a solid hour and a half of letting the food settle before Kuroka was ready to fight, or more specifically, fight with weapons and space magic. To me and the Pendragons it's more to see how long Kuroka lasts than if she wins.
I explained the absurdity of the inequalizers and we agreed that it was too unfair to use. I'm not beating gods with it but I'm sure not going to get my ass handed to me with them on.
However, the gun portion of the gloves had fascinated Kuroka. Nobody ever used guns in this dimension. When I talked about enchanting the bullets and using runes on the guns she seemed intrigued by the idea. I demonstrated with an innocent tree and I think I can say that Kuroka has a newfound respect for guns.
That doesn't mean she's getting a gun though. Fine by me.
"Ready?" I called to confirm the first round's start. I was answered with a slight pop behind me and my instinctual skill calmly telling me to duck. I did so and nearly got a haircut.
My halberd shot out of my soul space into my hands and I jabbed at Kuroka, to which she backed off slightly. I warped space so she was closer and slammed the spike at the end of my weapon into her gut, eliminating a third of her aura in one hit.
She was surprised so I twirled my weapon to an assault rifle and opened a tiny portal at the back of her head and fired a burst of bullets.
Kuroka let out a 'NYA!' of surprise - seriously I can't tell if she's faking - and took action once more. I felt her mana appear behind me and I teleported right behind her. Rather than use my hands to attack her I used the 'resist spatial interference' spell to make her stop magically playing with space.
I actually felt her try to teleport again but the space she was in resisted her leaving, completely catching her off guard again.
I took some small pity on her and swung my fist forwards to knock her out but she took me by surprise for the first time. She grabbed my fist with her hand.
I felt my body get sucked into something and found myself inside Kuroka's aura…
She brought me into her soul space? It looks like a grey field. Booooring. I should show her how to make it decent. I'll help her steal a house or two. Hm… but she would need a larger space affinity to really keep cool stuff in her aura. Like a lake…
She has, what, eighteen million liters in here? Ugh. Puny. You know what, she's pretty fun to be around. I think I'll keep her around if she wants to stay for awhile.
I rolled my eyes and felt her aura around me inside hers. My aura was so much stronger than hers it wasn't even funny. I slammed my aura into hers from the inside and she was completely caught off-guard. I did so again and her aura broke open. I pushed mine outside of hers and engulfed it, essentially putting her in a spiritual armlock.
With an almost leisurely feeling I exited her soul space and looked to see Kuroka cloaked in a red aura, my aura, over a faint midnight blue aura. A strand of aura still connected me to my aura as always. I scoffed and recalled all my aura. Kuroka, freed from the aura repression, swayed woozily from side to side.
"Muuugh…" she groaned. "What did you… do? Nya." I almost rolled my eyes a second time at that little verbal tic she does. It's almost getting a little annoying actually.
"Your aura is WAY weaker than mine," I said flat out. She looked somewhat offended. "I've been controlling my aura since I was four. More power and skill made subjugating your aura easy. Especially from the inside." She seemed to grudgingly accept that.
"I've never fought another toki or senjutsu user before," she muttered.
"Then now you know what not to do, hm?" I questioned. "If I were weakened you could have caught and subjugated my aura yourself. I've done that a few times myself against people I especially hated. I drained them of their lifeforce and strengthened myself by taking their affinities."
"Affinities?" Kuroka looked confused for a moment. Then her face lit up. "Oh! You mean attunements Nya!" I shrugged.
"I call them affinities. Anyways, onto the next challenge." I stepped towards her and rested my hand on her shoulder before offering aura to her. Her eyes widened and she looked confused. I rolled my eyes.
"You're supposed to take the aura you know."
"Ahh, right." Kuroka clumsily seemed to grasp my aura with her own and messily assimilated my aura into her own. Oh dust she's so hopeless.
"Close enough." I gave, though she really wasn't all that good with aura. Maybe slightly worse than your average huntsman by my guess. So by my standards she was crap.
I didn't react when she channeled her aura - sorry, life force - towards her head. Her eyes returned to focus quickly and she seemed lucid again.
"Oh. I'm better now." Kuroka stood up easily and dusted her kimono (and breasts that were somehow still covered) off. "So how did you do any of that? And was that a portal? Not to mention how you blocked my teleportation or how you knew when I was going to teleport and where."
"My teleportation was just practice." I explained and blinked left to right a little quickly to demonstrate. "I blocked your teleportation by… well the closest analogy is that I took control of the space around you and made it more solid, which makes moving through the space harder. However, I know a few more ways of blocking teleportation other than that. The portal was just that, a portal. Practice and experience has helped me to make them extremely fast regardless of distance."
"And sensing?" Kuroka prodded.
I rolled my eyes. "Mana sensing helps me tell both through the fluctuations of mana around me, but if you want to learn the equivalent of it I would suggest that you gain greater attunement. That's pretty easy too so it shouldn't cause you too much trouble."
"Nya… I have no idea how to raise my affinity. I know sorcerers do it all the time but I don't know how myself," Kuroka said sheepishly. I just looked flatly at her. I got the spirit checkpoint skill at two hundred fifty wisdom. No way she doesn't know how… right?
Kuroka looked at me with an insulted expression. "I don't know! I've always been focused on senjutsu and fighting or avoiding the devils out to get me!" She sounded frustrated, extremely so.
I think I get it. She acts teasing and joyful but she's actually really frustrated by how much more powerful I am compared to her. It probably hurts her pride as an SS ranked devil, which I'm pretty sure is a combat ranking, and from that whole terrible childhood and crappy master her bio spoke of I can understand how strength could be important to her.
"You could just ask, you know," I said in exasperation. Some people just won't ask for help if they want it. Kuroka tilted her head slightly towards me and I felt suspicion in her aura. Yes, yes, I seem like a suspicious bastard and all. Shame on me for feeling a little empathy for someone with a tragic backstory and deciding they were worth being friends with.
"I've got things to do so I'll see you around." The quicker Azazel gets to study the sacred gear stuff the sooner I get a stronger power to use against Salem. Well, probably stronger. I'll bet that I could use one of the archangels for the founding of a new sacred gear if I used my dark sage title to suck their essence and souls out of them and into a gear. I'm pretty sure anyways…
Without bothering to wait on Kuroka to hook me into a conversation I reached into the marker for Azazel and pulled myself towards him, feeling that queer pulling feeling for a moment before I teleported.
[|||| == ||||]
"Who was that?!"
"Calm down, Kiba. He called himself Abyss. I don't think he was lying. There's no reason to."
"Who he is can wait until later. I'm more concerned about what he did than who he is. We know he's strong and that he's an associate of the Khaos Brigade and more importantly, Ophis herself, which helps confirm what I said about her leading the Khaos Brigade. Personally I'm inclined to believe him on this. It explains his amount of power if nothing else."
"I agree. His capabilities are more important than anything else right now. That power of his was strange. It was like the opposite of magic. Especially with how much of it he could use easily. I have no trouble labelling him as an SS rank youkai."
"Nekoshou…"
"I know, Koneko. Apparently you and your sister aren't the last nekoshou after all. I'm pretty sure he used touki to enhance his strength."
"He knows senjutsu. I sensed it… he's incredibly powerful. He easily has twenty times my lifeforce and that power he used barely consumed any of it."
"Perhaps his lifeforce is linked to Ophis' power? I've seen plenty of sacred gears before and that wasn't one. It seemed more like a more powerful version of the power of destruction you have, Sirzechs."
"His power wasn't like the power of destruction. The power of destruction affects magic and the physical world equally. His power destroyed all the ambient magic and attunement around us."
"Even I can sense it."
"Quiet, Issei. Onii-sama is talking."
"So while my and Rias' power is equally physical and spiritual, able to affect magic and mass his affects only magical power."
"Incredible. I wonder…"
"What, Michael?"
"What would his power do to an undefended soul?"
[|||| == ||||]
"Azazel." I greeted. The man turned quickly and as soon as he saw me he reeled back and formed a spear of light ready to attack me with his only arm, that being his left one. Then he thought better of it when he saw I wasn't attacking and the spear dissolved into motes of light.
"Ahh, Abyss, right?" He wore his friendliest smile but I saw uneasiness in it. "And you're not here to kill me, right?" I almost cracked a smile. I like this guy.
"No I'm not here for that although I'd prefer that this meeting stays between us. I want your help developing a sacred gear." Azazel's smile was like plastic.
"And why, exactly, would I do that?"
"Because then you'll get to see how a sacred gear is made firsthand. I have within me an energy that causes my toki's attunement to purity, or holy as you call it, to be amplified immensely." I demonstrated by flaring the silver eyes essence in me, causing my aura to turn white and wispy again. Azazel looked at me calculatively.
"Unfortunately I don't deal with terrorists so you're going to have to find somebody else," he said with that same falsely pleasant tone of voice.
I sighed. "You don't think Michael would be terribly happy to help me, would you? I believe that he was there for the creation of the gears."
"Probably not," Azazel said simply. "But it's a holy energy so you never know."
"You're sure there's nothing I can do to convince you? I could show you quite a bit, being a nekoshou and wielder of powers you clearly don't understand. If this is about the whole Khaos Brigade thing I assure you that I can prove to be far more of a nuisance than they are."
Azazel looked contemplative.
"I have other things to do rather than work with you, you know," I said casually. "I heard that an idiotic bimbo serving under you, Raynare I think, extracted a sacred gear from that devil girl's soul. Twilight healing. I don't care about that myself but I also know of the user of the boosted gear. I'm certain that my ability to manipulate my lifeforce would lend me advantages in using the gears. They might even survive if I lend them my own lifeforce."
"You're not exactly a good person, are you?" Azazel looked at me flatly.
"No but I'm not quite a bad one either," I explained, "A bad person would kill the gear users and steal their gears, which is easy. I could kill Vali and Ophis would probably not care much since I'd have the gear myself." A flicker of anger went over Azazel's face at the mention of killing Vali.
"But there are plenty of other people I could take gears from too," I continued. "That Cao-Cao guy has the true longinus, you know? I wonder what I could do with that! But what I really want to try out is consuming the soul of one of the creatures in a sacred gear. Just wonder how much power I would gain by slowly draining Ddraig of his life force until he's a husk of a dragon fit only for euthanasia."
Azazel's face was ashen. Maybe filled with terror. I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh did you not know I could do that? Drain a creature of strength by eating their soul? I've only done it twice before, once on a monster that threatened my family and hurt my best friend and one other time on a serpent of Ophis' that she created by accident during a skirmish with great red. I wouldn't mind doing it a few more times. I mean, I can manipulate lifeforce and as a result of that my soul. Did nobody realize that we could sap a soul of strength until now?"
"You're a monster," Azazel said simply.
"A monster I may be but not because of what I do but what I can do,." I said chidingly. "I have monstrous strength, certainly, and monstrous potential but not monstrous morals. The monster you're thinking of would do those things. I have not done any of those things I speak of. Only considered them."
"… You just want a sacred gear from that energy within you, right?" Azazel asked, still pale-faced.
"Yes,." I confirmed. "Can you do it? I'm able to help." He waved me off.
"I can do it. Give me the energy and a month. I made the down fall dragon spear myself. The hard part is getting something that can be used to make the sacred gear. That you have the energy already to make the gear is enough to make one. Power without structure. Metal without a shape. I just have to take that metal and make it into a gear. Easy… well not quite but I can do it." A grim smile came onto his face.
"But I want something in return." Of course he does.
I rolled my eyes. "What?"
"Don't ever do any of those things you just listed." I stared at Azazel like he was an idiot.
"No." His teeth clenched but I spoke again before he got started. "I'm not actively going to do those things. Vali is a brat but he doesn't deserve death. The occult research club members are naive and so on but not deserving of having their souls torn apart. I do terrible things to terrible people. I don't do awful things to the people who haven't done terrible things. Even so, I'm capable of forgiving people who commit those crimes. My assistant back home used to run with slavers willingly. Now she helps me run my tests, sometimes serve as a subject if the experiment's safe, and manages my little responsibilities."
Azazel was silent but instead of saying anything he just sighed and walked over to his desk. He rummaged around a drawer for a moment before he pulled out a small gem of some sort. He slammed it on his desk.
"Here. Put the energy in and leave. Be back next week." Without waiting for a response he sat down at his desk with a scowl.
I shrugged and went over to his desk and picked up the crystal, though I observed it to make sure it was safe first. It was a crystal prison apparently, designed to store souls, mana, affinity, and whatever sort of energy fits. I closed my eyes and fell into meditation to look closely at my soul. I drew on the silver eyes essence first and felt the essence amplify my purity affinity.
I opened my eyes. "Do you want my purity attunement in here as well?" Azazel was quiet for a moment.
"Nah." Then he went back to ignoring me.
I turned away from the man and returned to my soul. The essence didn't want to leave my soul. It was latched onto my purity affinity. I focused my will and aura on the purity affinity and forced it to let go of the essence it was so bound with. The essence was cast loose in my soul and I directed it out towards the crystal prison. A second later I felt the absence of the amplifier and felt a little mournful. I miss it already.
I left the jewel on Azazel's desk and a small smile crossed my face. "Do you know where an evil dragon is?" Azazel stiffened.
"No." He said with finality. "All the evil dragons are dead or sealed."
"Sealed, you say?" I ask curiously.
"No." Azazel stonewalls. I don't think he means no as in not all of them are sealed but rather 'Stop asking questions'.
"Fine. Then where can I find strong people to fight?" Azazel sighs.
"Just go to the second circle of the underworld. Or the third. The farther you go the more horrible things get." I frown. I would probably need my purity if I needed to go somewhere likely to be high in the infernal affinity. That or I would need an infernal affinity myself. I'm pretty sure only devils have an infernal affinity, though. Them and evil beings… hmm. Well I guess I have a month off. Oh noooo…
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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