[|||| =LEVEL 2= ||||]
"Oh, I decided I needed something to do other than lay around you apartments. So I got a job," I said to Kuroka. She looked a little surprised at that but happy and leaned forwards interestedly on the couch I had been laying on just days ago.
"Well… good! Moping around all the time was getting old." I nodded.
"I was getting tired of it too. I've had some time to feel sorry for myself. It's time to do something. I'm working as a moderator for a tournament on behalf of my friend Helen.'
"Helen?" Kuroka asked, a strange look in her eyes and crossed her legs. "You've never mentioned her before, nyah."
"She's a spirit," I told her. "She used to be asleep, latent almost, at a magical school in a different dimension I frequent but when I first checked the place out the power of my soul and the aura - sorry, touki - I emitted woke her up. We've been friends ever since. None of the wizards in her domain can talk to her anyways since they can't feel the emotions in her touki."
Kuroka nodded. "Is she one of those friends?" I paused, surprised at the insinuation.
"The only other person I had that relationship with was Vera and she's…" I trailed off and Kuroka winced.
"Sorry, nyaa…" she said. I shook my head.
"It's fine. Helen doesn't even have a body, by the way. I guess I could make one for her but she really loves her students and I'm not interested in her in that way."
"Aww, so you're not making a harem?" I looked at her incredulously.
"Why would I want a harem?!"
"All the super powerful guys have a harem!" I rolled my eyes.
"Power attracts some types of women, a lot of them the bad kind. I saved Vera and gave her an opportunity. She and I liked sleeping with each other and so we did, but it wasn't very romantic. And I don't think you can go looking for a harem without seeming like a jackass, no matter how powerful you are." She nodded, not seeming all that disappointed.
"So if you met other women who were interested in sharing…"
"If I like them, you like them, they're comfortable with sharing, they like me, and there's no real reason to say no, then sure. I wouldn't mind, but that's about one percent of women."
"True…" Kuroka seemed contemplative. "Well, if you meet anybody like that I'm happy to share if I get to fool around with them." I shrugged.
"I wouldn't mind… but… are we dating?"
"Do you want kids?"
"Not right now. I don't have a house, and while I can get money and things easily enough, I still want to travel and experience new things. Having worlds to explore means that there's a lot that interests me. I can think of ten dimensions off the top of my head that I'm interested in studying at least a little."
"So, later then?" I considered it. I… liked Kuroka. As more than a friend. She was surprisingly dependable and more than a little friendly, not to mention committed to me if her taking care of me when I was down was any indication. It wasn't like I had any pressing threats or responsibilities like I did on Remnant. There were plenty of world threatening beings around but those were always there and I had never tried to play hero. I just wanted a better place for my family, mostly being Ruby. I couldn't think of a reason to say no to have a family again.
"… With later meaning potentially years later and if I don't have any reason to opt out of it, not that I'm expecting or looking for one."
"Then we're dating!" Kuroka said excitedly. She leaned forward and kissed me full on the lips, then pushed me down onto the couch, her hands trailing down my shirt. "And that means… we can do this!"
I decided that dating was a very nice experience not long after. Very nice.
[|||| =-= ||||]
"Up and at em," I said as I pulled Harry out of his bed, thankfully wearing boxers. He flailed and yelled but I had already silenced the area. Helen's amusement and enthusiasm was in the back of my mind.
"I- what?" he stammered as he looked at me in exercise clothes.
"Training. I did say I'd be training you, didn't I?" I raised an eyebrow. He rubbed his sleepy eyes.
"I-yes, but…" He turned to his bed and fumbled around under his pillow, pulling out his want. "Tempus," he muttered. He looked at me angrily. It's six in the morning!"
"Yes," I said simply. "And classes begin at nine thirty. I'm working you until eight and taking you again after dinner until ten. Now get some clothes on. We're jogging."
"But… but why?!" he protested.
"Because wizards are wimpy little sniveling whiners. You aren't. Every auror goes through physical training and you're doing more than any auror does in their entire life. Besides, the fitter you are the better you can avoid spells that would otherwise dismember or kill you, and using less magic to avoid getting hit means you can use more to hit your enemies. Believe me, I don't like working out either but I still do it because I have the time and I can see the benefits. And if you get stubborn and refuse I'll throw you out in your boxers and have wolves nip at your heels. Actually…"
Harry quickly lunged for his trunk beside his bed and pulled out some clothes. I was actually a little disappointed. Wolves would be an effective motivator for him.
About fifteen minutes later I ran alongside Harry in what most would call muggle clothes around the lake a ways away from the castle. It was just a white undershirt and blue sweats but still muggle clothes. It was cold, being November, but since Harry and I were running it was rather nice. Harry, though, had pants, muggle pants, and a baggy shirt. I noted that I needed to get him some decent workout clothes.
"So you see, running isn't all you should be doing," I said breezily, not straining myself at all. "I'll be having you do crunches after this and some pushups, though thankfully for you not much of the second. You need to be fit but you're not going to be punching much, or stabbing as I often find myself doing. Just working your lower body would make you look odd, though."
Harry was breathing too heavily to respond. I noted that he should be able to run longer. Everybody should. Was he actually malnourished? We weren't running at what most people would consider a sprint but we were going faster than normal.
"You should eat more," I told him. "You're growing and you're going to be working your body a lot more than the norm for those your age. You'll be looking like hell after this. So eat until you can't. If others say you're going to get fat or something equally ridiculous or insulting tell them off and that I told you to. Physiology doesn't work that way anyways. People get fat because of genetics more than effort nowadays, their bodies are more predisposed to making fat than muscle, you see. People like you could eat a whole turkey every day and be fine."
Harry tried to slow down, lagging behind. "Catch up or I'll make some wolves. I was serious about that." He sped up a little bit, catching up. Apparently he believed me.
A little later, after pushing Harry through a workout of about a hundred crunches and forty pushups in sets as well as a little stretching, I gave him a fifteen minute break and a plate of bacon and an egg sandwich the house elves made. It turned out that they could teleport pretty far away from Hogwarts. I didn't know they did groundskeeping, but it made sense.
"So is your house still treating you badly?" I asked him while he ate. He shook his head and swallowed.
"No. Not getting any reward or recognition made them stop treating me badly… where did you hear that they were doing that?"
"Helen," I said.
"Helen?"
"She's the spirit around Hogwarts," I explained. "She moves the passages, aligns the stairs, keeps the magic around working properly, and plenty more. She's supposed to keep the students happy and working but she's been sleeping for a long, long time. She only woke up recently. Last summer, I think. She's been more active since then but she can't really do much." Harry frowned as he chewed some bacon.
"Come to think of it the stairs have been convenient lately, and the house elves have seemed happier. I think some students were talking about it. I just thought we were getting lucky."
"That was probably Helen. She's supposed to make sure you all learn properly. She reminds me of a fussy mother hen." We fell to silence as I looked over the lake. I could faintly hear Harry chewing. Working out gave him a serious appetite apparently.
"What are you going to be teaching me?" he asked after a minute before polishing off his sandwich.
"Nonverbal magic first. It's more flexible than people realize and simple if you have the talent for it, which I think you do. I'd prefer wandless magic but you're on a time limit and I don't think that's something you can really teach, more something you learn for yourself. I can give you the foundation though. I thought about doing elemental magic but I never learned the words for spells like that. I learned nonverbal first."
"What kind of school teaches nonverbal first?" Harry asked, licking his fingers.
"The kind that prepares people for combat," I answered. He looked surprised but then understanding. "Now come on. Wand up. We're starting. What kind of spell do you think is best for combat?"
Harry hesitated for a second. "Stupify if you want to avoid… killing," he answered.
"And if you do?"
"The… the killing curse. Or cutting curse if you…" I shook me head.
"Wrong either way, not that there was a right answer," Harry didn't look very surprised. "Combat is fast and messy. There's a hundred and one ways it could go. That's why there's a hundred and one different spells for it. Sometimes it's best to use the cutting spell, sometimes you need a blasting curse, and sometimes you need to just kill somebody with the killing curse. Not that the killing curse always works. Armor blocks it just fine, you know? Medieval, that is. Thin clothing doesn't block the magic but steel about two or three centimeters thick does. It seems like a lot but with magic such armor can be quite light."
"Then… why don't…" Harry seemed lost.
"Because it wouldn't make a difference," I told him. "Such armour would be expensive and it could still be circumvented by a cut at the right place, a pit falling under the person, or just tripping. Wizards aren't cut out to be all that powerful in most cases. I'm the exception, not the rule, and people like Dumbledore are too. Wizards are deadly because they're versatile. They can always take the easy path and that means that there's a lot of spells to make things easy. Cleaning, crafting, travelling, whatever. Taking the easy path is more than easy for a wizard."
"I can see that," Harry agreed.
"Good, now I'm not going to be teaching you to take the easy path," I said, enjoying the grimace Harry sported. "What, did you think you have an easy path ahead of you? Ridiculous. Now, wand up." Harry obliged and fished his wand out from the back pocket of his jeans. I had to get him a wand holster, immediately.
"Think of an effect. Something easy that you do verbally, and close your eyes." Harry closed his eyes. "Think of how you make that effect happen. How your magic feels. Reach for that feeling and pull on it, expelling the magic through your wand. Give it actual effort and push your desire into it. You have to want this to happen. Oh, and ignore those silly wand movements. Do what comes naturally. Magic is natural. If it doesn't feel right, it's not right. Swish or flick or jab or whatever. Now focus and act when you're ready."
Harry closed his eyes and I focused on his magic. I saw his magic morph a little, some mana and world affinity mixing together inexpertly. Sometimes it moved one way but jerked another. It was like Harry was fighting something.
"Stop fighting. Your magic wants something to happen. Let it act as it pleases. Your magic is you. Channel it and let it enact your desire. Don't mold it." I told him. The process stopped for a moment before restarting and becoming more smooth, those kinks less common and less intense. I nodded, not that Harry could see me. It took about thirty seconds before Harry actually cast the spell.
When Harry moved he stepped forwards and slashed his wand. A red bolt appeared from the tip and flew through the air. It went for about a hundred yards and hit a hill, making a little dirt fly up into the air far away. So there was a kinetic force in it.
"That was a stunner, right?" Harry nodded, his chest moving to his breathing.
"That was… harder than I thought it would be," he said, pausing to take a breath in the middle of his sentence.
"It was slower than I thought it'd be too," I commented. Harry gave me an annoyed look. "I also thought you'd take four or eight tries to get any result." I told him. He paused and his lips twitched into a small smile.
"Don't get too prideful. You took twenty eight seconds. I want you to have it down to one, preferably less, and be able to do so without focusing on it too hard so you can dodge while you're forming spells." Harry's face fell into disappointment.
"Now for drilling. This is going to boring for both of us and grueling for you so lets get started. We'll shift to a different spell in an hour, an hour on telekinesis, which should be extremely useful for solid projectiles, and spend the last fifteen minutes sprinting back to the castle. If we get back early you'll have extra time to get ready for breakfast. Consider a shower motivation. Oh, and you'll be doing this all on Saturday, by the way. Sunday's free, though."
Harry sighed, probably expecting a busy schedule already, and got ready to cast again.
[|||| =-= ||||]
"…Ophis." I spoke the name of the devil (figuratively) after playing video games for three hours and getting bored. Then I had decided to study about the multiple alternate universes I had available to explore when I decided to do so, which is to say I read and watched all sorts of fictional works, mainly anime and fantasy novels. But there was, in fact, too much of a good thing, and I had hit my limit.
"Yes?" Speak thy name and she appears. I didn't even release any void that time.
"Should I do anything as your apostle? I got a job teaching a kid but I really need more to do. I can only buy so many games before I get bored."
"Sleep."
"I just did for nine hours."
"I don't need an apostle."
"And I don't need a god. I'm still bored."
"… Help my minions."
"The Khaos Brigade? I guess I could do that. They're dicks, though."
"Dicks?"
"Bad people. Jerks. Terrorists."
"Oh…" Ophis looked down and thought. I looked to my games and wondered if there was anything else I could play at all. I quickly came to the conclusion that I really was just bored of my games. I wanted to do something, not lay about.
"Help your minion," she said.
"Who?"
"Your worshipper."
"Oh. Oh! Elsyria! Right, I forgot about her… maybe I should grow my church?"
"Yes," Ophis agreed. "It is an excellent way to waste time."
"Thanks, Ophis," I smiled. "I'll go do that."
"Mm." Ophis disappeared in a short swirl of black energy and I stood up and felt for the connection to Elsyria. I reached through it and saw a strange scene.
"And here we are, the holy ones who serve the righteous darkness! We are the absence left by an infinite emptiness!" a feminine voice shouted. In front of me there was a congregation of various people in robes.
"Hail the apostle!" they chanted fervently.
"Hail the Apostle!" Elsyria repeated with a grin. I disconnected from her senses and sat in shock.
"Oh fuck," I swore. I recalled my conversation with Elsyria last time. Nothing had seemed too off. I told her to send me monthly reports on Issei and his company, which she had done even if they weren't at all useful and I told her to move to Kuoh town.. I also told her to be my agent in this world. Fuck me sideways.
Hoping against hope I looked through our connection again and tried to use observe on her. It was even worse than I could have imagined.
Elseria Vertagris
Titles: First follower of Abyss
Level – 107
HP – 360
AP – 5760/5760
MP - 212/7160
STR - 20 (+80%)=36
VIT - 38 (+80%)= 68.4
DEX - 66 (+80%)= 118.8
INT - 191 (+0%)= 191
WIS - 178 (+0%)= 178
LUK - 52 (+0%)= 52
Semblance: [Locked]
Affinities:
Storm: 1398
Nature: 1092
Void: 811
Metal: 715
Space: 276
Divine: 171
Communion: 102
Perks:
Devotee of Abyss - Due to being under the patronage of Abyss Mavros, who has deemed to patron you, you are granted one percent of his strongest three affinities, though the amount of affinity available to you may be variable upon his will. Additionally, you may focus and communicate with said patron, though he may choose to ignore you, and he may transfer power to you as he sees fit. In exchange for these boons your pools of energy are completely under his control and your energy regeneration will fuel his pools of energy when not in use for your own reserves of energy.
Bio: Elseria is the third daughter of a prominent exorcist, Jameson Vertagris. She holds no hold on family inheritance or important connections within the church, which her family has served within for generations. With no unique affinity or outstanding talent, Elseria had no support from her family or the church in learning magical means of success, nor did she have any talent in exorcism as her sister did and thus turned to divine methods of success years ago.
Unfortunately, Elsiria found no divine visits from angels either. Her father cut off support for her due to her lack of talent and poor relations with him that persisted for years. She was excommunicated at her father's request and turned to more pagan methods of magical success, which she stubbornly persisted at.
Elseria, in desperate need of personal success, sought to contract with a god. Specifically Ahriman, the Iranic god of darkness and evil, due to his inactivity and placement in a comatose state centuries ago. In her practice she came to meet several notable supernatural figures including Iris, greek god of rainbows, a reaper in the service of Hades named Ulk, and the deputy shaman of the pagan beliefs of Europe, who is only known as Alan.
Upon attempting to summon a fragment of Ahriman to attempt a binding Elseria contacted you, who fit the specifications of her summoning chant better. After declaring her your agent in her world and granting her unique powers, not to mention casually summoning Ophis in front of her, She utterly devoted herself to you, utterly overwhelmed by your magical power and generosity in her seemingly darkest hour.
Using your burgeoning mythos as the Apostle and blossoming reputation as defeating several satans and the vanishing dragon's host she took her responsibility as your 'agent' as divine will. She slowly subsumed others she knew from her experiences in pagan magic into a cult based around you, using her powers of void as proof of validity. Over time, upon seeing the wildly successful cult numbering hundreds after your displays of strength and her efforts, she believes your meeting to be destiny and that your fates are forever intertwined.
Forever intertwined? Fate? Who the fuck did she think I am?! Why did she build a cult?! Why would that be a good idea?! I slammed my hand onto my face, just feeling exasperated beyond belief.
… Well, I wanted work. Here's a cult. Great. Now what to do about it?
I quickly decided that there were three options. Destroy it, use it, or make it somebody else's problem. I could just cut off Elsyria, but she hadn't really done anything wrong, just interpreted my words wrong. The cult would fall apart pretty quickly without 'Divine proof'.
I could also control it, making it do my bidding, which would be easy, but cults were kind of unstable. That said, I didn't have much investment in the cult and Elsyria seemed to be a great cult leader if she made it this far. As for making it somebody else's problem I didn't know who I could dump the cult on, but the Khaos Brigade would probably take them if I did some threatening and dropped Ophis' name.
After a minute of thinking I groaned and reluctantly accepted that I should pay attention to my followers. It might be useful to have a bunch of minions. It certainly was in Remnant. Roman was a great help. I could probably get that house I wanted from the cult too. It wasn't like I was lacking in gold. I had my metal affinity, after all. Or I could just steal from somebody appropriately evil. There were plenty of rich devils, after all.
I looked through Elsyria again and found her in a back room washing her face. I teleported behind her and waited a moment. When she raised her hands and stood up she turned around and froze.
"M-my lord," she said in reverence. She fell to her knees. "I knew I would see you again!" she said a little tearily.
"I… just get to your feet..." I sighed. Elsyria sniffled and stood up, looking up at me with unhealthy devotion in her eyes. "So… you've made a cult." Her eyes lit up.
"Yes!" she yelled. She blushed and coughed, embarrassed. "Um, yes. I'm… well I'm your agent so I… made a religion. Um… we're not a cult."
"Robes," I said flatly, poking her shoulder. She looked away and the blush worsened.
"… Religions all start somewhere." she muttered. I sighed.
"Yes, I suppose they do. So what is it you intend to do with this congregation you have?" Elsyria grinned widely, the devotion shining strong once more.
"I want to serve you! You could help so many people! And we could help you a lot! We humans, well, we get a lot wrong. Gods could help a lot more but they just… don't for some reason. But you? You're really, um, down-to-earth in a way. I know you're not really up for thunder and booming commandments but that's okay! You're super powerful but don't let it go to your head. Besides, even Ophis acknowledges you as a god."
I nodded grudgingly at Elsyria's logic. I would be a great overlord because I don't actually want to be an overlord. I would keep the people in line because it was my responsibility but I wouldn't abuse my power. I just wasn't the person to do that sort of thing. I preferred to laze around and mess with teenagers in alternate dimensions.
"I can see your point," I admitted. "But I don't actually want to manage a church."
"That's fine!" Elsyria said happily. "I've been managing these people for a few months now. It's pretty easy once you get some confidence and practical experience, but it does take a lot of work."
"And when this cult of yours gets bigger?"
"I can still manage them then, or learn how. I think I'm pretty good at it. It's easier than traditional mathematical magic anyways. I don't really need donations or anything from my church right now. I just ask that 'when the time comes, do your part' and help them out. I read a bit about psychology and apparently helping people with the promise of a favor later on is the best for getting people to obey you." I decided not to ask about why Elsyria was looking into how to get people to obey her.
"So you want me to… rule the world?"
"No, just guide the church we build around your mythos. Go do something impressive in public and our church will probably grow more. If you could bless others like you did me, making them your followers, I'd reeeally appreciate it! Oh, and you don't mind that I'm calling myself your head priestess, do you?"
"I don't mind, and I was planning to give your congregation the same connection you have, though I'm going to make it a lot weaker than yours. About a third as powerful with void, I think, and half as powerful in storm. As far as the church goes I'd say that you should enforce peace through violence. That's effectively what I did at that factions meeting, though hardly what I was intending to do. Show strength to avoid using it."
"I like that," she agreed. "Peace through violence sounds a little violent for what I think you want, though. How about… peace through power? It seems more flexible that way and less aggressive."
"You're right, I like that more." I nodded at her little catchphrase. Elsyria beamed at me and I smiled lightly at her.
"Could you show up tomorrow around three? I'm going to call a mass congregation saying that everyone is going to get a blessing and a visitation from our god. Do something dramatic and bless everyone and they'll be super happy! Recruiting will definitely go up."
"Three tomorrow works. Would you mind reaching out for economic power, though? I have raw power myself but I can't do all that stuff that requires hard work. Leading a company isn't really a godly thing. Say that as you're gaining power in mortal affairs my power in godly affairs grows or something."
"Oooh! I like that! I'm getting ideas already! I'll get everyone to do some mere mortal stuff like starting businesses. Thanks, my lord!" I nodded at her and paused, considering whether to help out Elseria just a little more.
"Actually… let me tell you about semblances. They're related to touki and I think you'll appreciate them. Call them a gift of devotion. All you have to do is meditate and use your touki, in fact."
Elsyria's eyes widened as I explained and she was laughing madly when I was done.
[|||| =-= ||||]
"Harry, meet Kuroka. She had nothing to do and I had no reason to tell her not to come so she's going to help out with your training this time." I gestured towards her and she smiled and waved as Harry walked near the lake, which I had told him to do at seven at the end of our morning session.
"Hi, Harry!" Harry stared at her for a moment and then stared some more at the cat ears on her head. Then he looked down at her face but his eyes decided to keep going lower and his face burned red.
"Um, hi," he said a little meekly. I understood why. It was her… bountiful personality.
"She's my girlfriend," I said with a sharp smile in a calm tone. Harry's eyes widened and he looked to Kuroka again, who was looking at me with amusement.
"… Cat ears?" Harry asked a little desperately, probably hoping to change the session.
"Kuroka's half nekoshou, a type of yokai, which are Japanese spirits, though they're also demons of a sort" I explained. "I'm just always using a bit of my animagus form but Kuroka was born this way, which is also why her ears are a bit different." Harry nodded and looked between us, Kuroka in a long shirt and jeans and myself in the sweats I'd worn in the morning and a longer shirt.
"I'm here because, well firstly I was curious about Abyss' new job, but you're going to be practicing reflexes and senses and Abyss didn't mind some help." Harry grimaced at the word reflexes, his mind probably already coming to conclusions.
"I'm going to cast some pain hexes at you. You're going to dodge them and stay alert for when Kuroka decides to throw something at you from a different angle," I explained. "You need to be alert at all times in the challenges. An attack from an unexpected angle probably means injury or death. You need to not only be able to sense it, but react to it as well. In this, I also want you to try to rely on your magic to tell you when to dodge."
"How the bugger do I do that?" he asked in disbelief.
"Practice," I said seriously. He opened his mouth but closed it a moment later, apparently having nothing else to say.
"Done? Good. Let's go." I raised my hand, my middle and index fingers pointed. I collected a miniscule amount of aura and mana along with a little mind affinity and flung it as a sea green projectile at Harry. He stepped aside but was unprepared when a second bolt flew a second later. He yelped and raised a hand to his chest with a pained expression.
"Oh, come on!" I complained "One bolt? One?! I get that this was your first try but these don't even sting that much. And next time don't stop. Bear through the pain. They're at like a bee sting level of pain too. You can easily take that." Harry sighed then looked in alarm at where Kuroka was just a moment ago.
"Where'd she…" he trailed off and leapt to the side when a small blast of purple energy went through where he was just a moment ago. When it got too close to me half a second later I lashed out with void and destroyed the blast.
"Hey, not bad!" Kuroka cheered, wisps of purple energy around her hands. Harry stared at her aghast.
"What would that have done?" I asked.
"Paralysed him," she answered casually. "Oh, and hurt a bit but not much. It's a really minor youjutsu anyways. He would have been up in a minute."
"Stunning students is illegal," Harry murmured quietly.
"For teachers, now learn because pain is a good teacher in my experience." My fingers glowed sea green and Harry looked in despair at them. This would be his norm for the next week.
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