Unknown to the mess he created in the clan of Sitri, Hiroshi cautiously walked while waving his sword once in a while to clear the dense branches hanging in front of him.
"I hope that slightly mischievous letter works out well."
The letter he wrote with the help of Ortus previous Host, Elans memories was contrary to his own personality. Elans had very very very great womanizing skills, even many goddesses from different Pantheons entered his harem.
Though Hiro only possessed fragments of his memory, Elans had witnessed the rise and fall of the entire Devil Race, making him thousands of years old. His race wasn''t defined in the memories, yet he could contend against Satan Class Devils without much effort. Oddly enough, no books held any record of his existence like he wasn''t here to begin with.
The reason Hiroshi found it unable to power up was that Seed of Ortus was connected to him the moment he came into this world. Without Seed of Ortus, his soul was incomplete and unable to show the strength he developed from countless hours of training. Why was it like this even Aux-san didn''t know, but he will find it someday.
"How much time left till the gate opens?"
[Four hours, nineteen minutes]
He shook off the green serpent trying to strangle his arm and tried to find a secluded place while also searching for some strong monster. The place he currently roamed through was the very forest Devils used to form pacts with familiars.
He had to do some work here while some extra work if he only became strong enough to even stand in front of that being.
Constantly annoyed by harmless monsters, he finally came across a solitary cave. The deep claw marks on the walls outside the cave signified the presence of a strong monster.
He mixed his aura with the surroundings and entered the cave, hearing the loud snoring noise, he relaxed a tad bit until he finally saw the creature.
Feathers as if made of a sword reflecting a metallic glint as its large body heaved up and down within deep slumber. A natural helmet with sharp spikes extended outwards of its dragonhead, its entire body looked like it was carved out of steel.
Looking at its dragon mixed with bird appearance, he remembered a certain creature from Mythology. The giant bird Minokawa, also known as Moon and Sun-Eater. Of course, the myths were exaggerated because it''s true powers were creating illusions and other abilities were mostly unknown.
He stood there with his incredulous gaze fixed on the 2m large creature in front of him. He couldn''t believe the fact the first random cave he entered would be the home of an infant Mythological beast.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Will my fake powers even work on it?
The fake powers or the origin element capable of changing could also imitate every Devil Clan''s ability, at least in theory. Although it wasn''t possible to use the skills that worked physically, still, reproducing energy types wasn''t a big deal like he did with Sona''s door.
The Clan ability he wanted to copy hailed from one of Extinct Devil families in Underworld, Bun¨¦. One of their unique abilities was the power to tame dragons.
After thinking carefully if he should tame the powerful mythological creature, whose current power should be around middle to high class in Devil terms.
"Well, I can escape if things went awry."
He slowly closed the distance between them, his steps covered in aura moved without any single sound. The more he neared the more chills wrapped around his body, signaling that the creature in front held the power to threaten his life.
He stopped near the dragon head of the Minokawa and crept his hand closer to its head.
A golden aura radiated from his hands and entered Minokawa''s head. Its eyes snapped open, revealing the mirror-like slightly transparent pupils.
Hiro took a few steps back and gazed at the eyes tinged with intelligence. His method ended up failing because of insufficient time.
"Roaaar~!" A sharp roar akin to a child scream came from Minokawa''s mouth. But in Hiro''s eyes, it looked like a challenge.
"You want a fight? Fine, I''ll give you one and tame you with my own hands."
He declared in an apathetic voice, the Minokawa opened its maw wide and roared, sending ripples of shockwaves at him.
He stepped to the side and enveloped his entire body in Touki, the power to utilize one''s life force. Though he was a rookie, Touki still increased his body durability and strength by more than twice.
He pounced forward and pushed his leg toward the steel-like jaws of the enemy. Its head snapped up from the impact, he exploited the opening and slashed his demonic sword covered in crimson aura across its neck. It was the prided ability of Bael Clan, Power of Destruction.
A howl brimming with pain was released accompanied by a stream of blood. Minokawa lowered its head and glared at him with wrathful eyes.
A disdainful smile spread across his lips. "Kid, wetting your pants already?"
"Roaaar!"
He dodged another roar attack and saw Minokawa spreading its wings wide, showing off the sword-like feathers in full glory.
Swirling wind gathered around its wings together with a large number of silver needles made of demonic aura. With a flap of wings, all needles shot toward him.
He calmly analyzed the trajectories of each needle and twisted his body multiple times to protect his vitals and let the rest attack him. Some needles dispersed as it came in contact with his body.
Illusions?
He retreated near the entrance while healing the wounds with the regeneration power of Phenex family. The biggest drawback of using multiple abilities was the consumption of Origin energy. His reserves still between the Low Class and Mid Class didn''t do any justice.
He shot balls made of power of destruction at its dragon head.
"Skreeee~!"
Minokawa tilted its head, still one of them grazed past its ears or where he thought the ears should be.
"Feel like giving up yet?"
"Rooooar~!"
It answered with a bloodcurdling roar, the pride of a Mythological beast wouldn''t allow it to surrender.
"Then I''ll beat you down till you submit."
Hiroshi went in a defensive stance, waiting to recover as much as Origin energy he could.
Another ear-piercing roar started the second round of the battle against the Moon Eater beast.
Trial 6: A Contract
Inside the cave, Hiroshi ducked down and dodged the sharp claw intending to slash his head off. It had been an hour since the fight started, he had already retreated out of the narrow cave. After consuming all origin energy, he was only fighting with the sword and brute strength.
He breathed heavily from exhaustion as blood flowed from many minor wounds spread across his body. His eyes still shone with a scary battle intent and a sincere respect for his foe.
Minokawa''s condition was way worse, its durable body was filled with several holes and cuts. But its mirror-like eyes still held a ferocious glint. It was the first serious battle it fought and lost. Still unable to understand why it lost, the half-devil had lower reserves combined with a weaker body.
"Are you still hellbent on continuing this fight? It will only end in your death and I''d rather not kill an extinct Mythological beast if I have a choice. So let me ask this, will you become my familiar and a partner in my journey?"
He was sure it could understand the words as all supernatural beings had some form of skill to communicate.
"...Human."
A childish voice directly echoed in his head, he looked at the Minokawa staring back with an indescribable gaze. He understood it was talking with telepathy.
"...You are too weak to become our Master¡" it stopped for a moment before continuing, "But this battle showed your courage and determination worthy enough to stand side by side with us."
Hiroshi nodded, feeling just a bit proud of this achievement. The pride of Mythological beasts was sky high, more so when one had a bloodline of Dragon.
"So you like to form a contract of equal relationship? Very well, I, Hiroshi, a half-devil and half-human shall be your companion and a friend until this contract lasts."
A pure white magic circle appeared in front of Hiroshi as his incantation ended.
"Friend? Magnificent, then let us be friends until I find thou unworthy. We shall aid thee in your journey. In return, thee shall protect us and keep us entertained."
A silver magic circle appeared and mixed with the white magic circle, it let out a blinding before scattering in the air.
After the contract was done, he walked closer to the Minokawa and extended one hand. "You can call me Hiro, that''s the name people close to me use."
Minokawa tilted its head for a moment before it also raised its claw and put it on his hand.
"We shall give thee an opportunity to name us."
Hiroshi thought for a moment before asking, "What is your gender? I can''t give you a suitable name without knowing your gender."
"We, like most dragon are a genderless being."
"Oh¡ How about Tsukiha? Tsuki for the moon which your species claims to devour and ha for your blade-like feathers. Though this name is used for girls."The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Splendid! From now on we shall be called Tsukiha."
Minokawa said in a happy voice but its strange way of speaking felt weird.
"What were you doing here in this forest? I thought your species died long ago."
"We are the last member of our race and we were brought here by the Ruler of this forest."
His brows shot open in surprise and cold sweat drenched his back. "Ruler? You mean¡ The Chaos Karma Dragon, the only female Dragon King in history¡ Tiamat?"
"Commoners do tend to call her this way. Yes, she took us in after our birth. We have been here for ten years at least."
"Does she come here... to meet you?"
Tsukiha tilted its dragonhead. "Yes, she does come sometimes when she is bored."
He breathed a sigh of relief, he didn''t fear Tiamat but everyone in Underworld knew of her temper. Every now and then he would hear reports of her havoc. She might just annihilate him if she saw the current state of her guest.
''Aux-san?''
[One hour and fifty minute left]
After a quick nod, he plopped down on the hard ground to recover from the injuries. It took him nearly half an hour to recover whole reserves in this forest filled with dense demonic power. Origin body gave him no benefits other than helping him convert demonic power into pure origin energy.
After healing Tsukiha wounds with the healing ability of the Vepar Clan, he went inside the cave with Tsukiha in tow.
He leaned against the stony wall in a comfortable manner and asked, "How many abilities do you have?"
"We can use illusions, aura based attacks and our strong body to attack. Why are thou asking?"
"Because I need to fight a deadly battle in about an hour. Will you lend me a hand?"
"Of course, we don''t fear any fight. But who are we fighting against?"
He sheepishly scratched his cheeks. "I don''t know myself."
"Buwahahaha!"
He ignored Tsukiha''s strange way of laughing and closed his eyes to remember the abilities of 72 Clans of Devils from Elans memories. Most of them focused on physical traits such as superhuman strength or transformation or just immense demonic power. Only a handful of them had energy type abilities.
The abilities he found were -
?Power of Destruction? from Bael Clan
?Worthlessness? from Belial Clan
?Regeneration? from Phenex Clan
?Lion Tamer? from Vapula Clan
?Dragon Tamer? from Bun¨¦ Clan
?Water Manipulation? from Sitri Clan
?Horse Tamer? from Furcus Clan
?Crack? from Belphegor Clan
?Time Manipulation? from Agares Clan
?Charm? from Balam Clan
?Bear Tamer? from Purson Clan
?Wind Manipulation? fromVin¨¦ Clan
?Demonic perception? from Beleth Clan
?Steal? from Velfar Clan
?Demonic lightning? from Furtur Clan
?Flash? from Shaz Clan
?Flame manipulation? from Aamon Clan
?Stealth? from Goap Clan
?Aura Perception? from Vasago Clan
?Healing? from Vaper Clan
If he could master all of these abilities and incorporate them in his fighting style, his combat prowess would rise to another level.
He lost himself in learning the properties of these abilities, that''s all he needed to utilize them. Mastering them to the limit was another thing, he currently lacked the time to do so.
Tsukiha gazed at the half-devil curiously, truthfully Hiro was the first person it met after Tiamat. So it was unable to determine the true powers of half-devil Hiro. It kept looking until Hiro opened his eyes.
[It is time]
His deep concentration was broken by the artificial voice of Aux.
After glancing at Tsukiha''s curious eyes, he turned his gaze to the front. Space warped in front of him before taking the shape of a black circular portal around 5m in diameter. The black aura fiery aura around its edges looked rather cool in Hiro''s eyes. Behind it laid terrifying threats along with opportunities to get stronger.
His calm look faded and a serious expression took its place. "Let''s go¡"
"Fumu."
The duo of a half-devil and a Minokawa vanished inside the portal.
Bam!
Several moments after Hiroshi teleported, a loud noise came outside the cave. Seconds later, a blue-haired woman entered the cave.
"Someone has the guts to enter my territory and steal that child!"
She punched the wall of the cave. The whole cave shook momentarily before crumbling into dust.
Trial 7: Records
Hiroshi felt his whole body being forcefully pulled inside the gate, the strange darkness forced him to close his eyes from dizziness. The feeling stopped soon, he opened his eyes to see a giant sculpture carved out of white marble. His own 170cm figure seemed nothing more than an ant in comparison.
He raised his head to peek at the face of the standing figure. A masculine handsome face showing a relaxed smile, green eyes carved out of some unknown orb shining.
"It''s Elans¡ the womanizer. I wonder how he handled so many wives."
"This man is someone thou know?"
"Yeah, in a way."
He shifted his gaze and inspected the place. The place lacked any roof, only crude white walls on four sides. His eyes stopped on the wooden door behind the statue of Elans.
"Why am I not surprised by this¡ Let''s go enter that door."
Right as he came near the gate, it opened with a creepy "creak~". He entered the poorly lit hall with Tsukiha following behind.
"Whoa! That''s really something."
"Where do those gates lead? We are having an ominous feeling from those gates."
He nodded at Tsukiha''s assumption. The hall stretched as far as his eyes went. In front of him stood fifteen gates of different sizes. The smallest was around 10 meters, a golden text of ''Two Months left'' hung above it. While the biggest extended for more than 100 meters with ''Ten years left''.
[Host is only recommended to enter the first record with current strength.]
''I just need to kill the creatures born from chaos like Elans did?''
[Affirmative. That has always been the responsibility of Ortus bearer. To eliminate the creatures trying to eat away the Records in Dimensional Gap.]
Record, a small world birthed in dimensional gap by a reason even Elans didn''t understand. Many were as small as a city, while a few reached the size of the very Underworld he lived in. In Elans theory, Underworld along with Earth and Heavens were counted as a Record.
The nothingness in dimensional gap also gave birth to creatures, born with the power to manipulate Chaos. Just their existence in any record distorted its space and caused world boundaries to become unstable. Elans configured the Ortus Mainframe to automatically trap everyone of them in the fifteen records, in other words, the gates in front of him. The higher the size, the stronger the world boundaries it held.
If left unchecked, they would devour the record that trapped them and slowly wander to different worlds through the Dimensional gap and wreak havoc. The time limit above every record showed the time left for it to be consumed.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The chaos element granted them a kind of immortality and only he possessed the power to kill them. Only attacks with Origin Energy could truly kill them. Until now, Elans had been doing it but after he disappeared 15 years ago, no one has taken care of the creatures. He was like a silent hero, protecting everyone from the darkness.
''If I don''t do it, then I''ll be forcibly transferred?''
[Affirmative.]
He stopped in front of the smallest gate. This responsibility felt truly heavy on his shoulders. If he failed, he didn''t know how long it would take for Ortus to find a new compatible host. He didn''t care about others but Sona, Serafall and Lady Sitri were his family.
He once again steeled his determination. "Tsukiha get yourself in combat mode. I have no idea what kind of monster or demon lies ahead."
"Very well."
[Accessing the gate mainframe¡ Complete¡ Opening the gate¡]
Just as aux-san voice stopped, a burst of gray flame-like aura appeared from the gate and created a vortex inside.
Sword check¡ Food check¡ Sumatofone check¡ Tsukiha check...
He nodded at Tsukiha and entered the dark blurry vortex.
His vision darkened for a moment. He blinked his eyes to adjust and observed the area. The surroundings appeared to be a normal forest, just the sun hanging above the clouds was pouring out grey sunlight bringing a bizarre coldness instead of warmth.
"Where are we?" Tsukiha blinked its eyes and looked around curiously.
"Roaaar~!!!"
"I take that back, it''s not normal."
The roar even silenced Tsukiha for a moment. A chill crawled on his back, he hurriedly covered both of them in a transparent aura, stealth ability of Goap Clan and hid behind a tall tree.
A moment later, Thump! Thump! Earthshaking noise came from the front. He peeked his head out, only enough to catch a glimpse of the creature, a body covered in spiky dark green scales pointing outwards and thick muscular arms that appeared thicker than the tree he was hiding behind.
Every step of it caused a tremor and produced a loud noise. The ten-meter tall trees around only reached its waist. Giant was the only word that came to his mind.
He furiously scanned the memories to find any information.
"Damn, an evolved cave troll... its power should be around High Class to Ultimate Class."
"What are we going to do?" Tsukiha asked in an excited tone, feeling the thrill of adventure.
He was at a loss of word at his new partner, but he couldn''t deny the thrill himself. After assisting the Sitri clan for years, the current situation gave rise to a strange sense of freedom in his heart. The fresh smell of lush trees only increased it.
It doesn''t feel bad.
The situation wasn''t as bleak as he thought, if push comes to shove, he will fly away on Tsukiha''s back. The slow giant might not be able to catch him at his base speed much less Tsukiha''s flying speed.
"We will search for a safe base in this forest then find some weak monsters. I need to test something."
He climbed up on the tree and surveyed the area, he found the back of the Giant troll moving towards the west. He shook his head and swept his gaze over the vast forest. To the east, he discovered a barren wasteland, yet for some reason, he sensed some dangers there.
[Scan finished¡ A thousand and nine chaotic lifeforms detected in a radius of five hundred kilometers]
It''ll take a lot of time going through an area this big.
He jumped down the tree and used aura to suppress any sound. He tapped Tsukiha''s snout and headed toward the East.
The chilly wind caressed his cheeks, the sunlight only increased the chills further. His devil body seemed to have no temperature resistance in this place. After half an hour of walking, he stopped in his tracks. He barely heard the roars ahead of him.
Tsukiha also heard it and stared at him with an inquisitive gaze. Apparently, it trusted him enough to leave all the hard decisions to him.
He smiled softly and followed the roars to arrive in an open area. What greeted him was an epic battle¡
Trial 8: The infant dragon
Hiroshi''s eyes fell on the monster around 2 meters in length, standing on two legs and a tail ending with a tip resembling an arrow. Its front legs attached to wings and a head akin to a bird.
Did someone fused a bird with a wyvern?
Its opponent had a really long body structure with lanky arms. It was able to quickly dodge wyvern''s black flames and pounced on its back. It raised its long arms in the air to ferociously pound wyvern''s back. The wyvern furiously flapped its wings to fly but the troll acted intelligently and swiped its sharp claws across the right wing of the wyvern.
"Kraaawr!" Wyvern released a high pitched roar, but then a strange thing happened. Rather than continuing, the tall troll turned its tail and ran towards the wastelands.
A sense of danger enveloped Hiroshi''s body, he trusted his instincts and hid behind the tree with Tsukiha. He concentrated the stealth aura on their bodies.
Roaaar!!! An angry roar nearly frightened Tsukiha. He peeked his head, only to gawk further. A thin reptilian body wrapped in red scales paired with two large wings on its back, a flexible tail longer than its body and golden eyes shining in its dragon-head.
''An infant fire dragon, this one appears to be Middle class at most. The wyvern should barely classify as Middle class. We can handle them but we need to finish it faster before we attract other monsters.''
"Tsukiha, we are killing them, but let''s be quick, okay?"
"We wanted to fight that dragon," Tsukiha shot a look of hatred at Dragon, feeling ashamed of fearing an infant dragon.
The wyvern fell flat on the ground as if begging for its life. The dragon with a scornful look raised its right forepaw and struck down on wyvern''s head.
His heart thumped loudly in his chest, the thrill of fighting with his life on the line really elated him. Before the dragon could deal the final blow on wyvern, he darted forward. The red dragon not expecting any sneak attack got a straight kick on its face that nearly knocked its brains out.
Hiroshi ignored the dragon and stabbed the longsword in wyvern''s skull. The wyvern opened its beak and screeched loudly, nearly popping his ears out. He twisted the blade and injected the blade with origin energy.
The dragon finally snapped out of its stunned state and opened its maw to eat the delicious creature in its eyes. Hiroshi had no intention to move even when the dragon was right behind him showing its fangs.
"Don''t forget us!" Tsukiha in a near frenzy state, kicked the ground and crashed into the dragon. Seeing the open mouth of the dragon, Tsukiha responded by widening its jaw and biting down on its throat. It stopped any chance of breathing fire.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The taste in Tsukiha''s mouth nearly disgusted it. "Hiro, kill it quick. It stinks so bad that we are about to vomit."
"That''s the smell of Chaos element, rotten down to its core."
Hiro said without looking away from wyvern''s corpse. He bent and placed his hand on its head.
[Purifying Chaos present in lifeform¡ Conversion in process...]
A small maelstrom of origin energy swirled around its corpse and gradually became closer. Snap! Snap!... The whirlpool compressed and broke down wyvern''s body until only a tiny orb was left in its place. Even after losing most of the energy in purification, the candy sized orb overflowed with origin energy.
Hiroshi smiled and snatched the rather warm orb and placed it inside his mouth.
It does taste good¡
In a happy mood, he dashed toward the dragon held in place by Tsukiha. He felt a bit bad for using Tsukiha like this.
Covering his hands in Touki, he stabbed the place where the dragon heart should be. His sword easily penetrated through the flesh on its chest. Just as his sword was about to pierce the heart, he stopped and jumped back, narrowly dodging the tail swipe.
"Hold it tight!"
"We are trying our best!"
He poured origin energy into the blade and gave it one last push. The struggling stopped as the dragon took its last breath.
"It was easier than I expected."
The familiar vortex engulfed the dragon corpse and turned it into a candy twice the size of wyvern one.
Tsukiha watched the process with wide-open eyes. Unable to comprehend a single thing about it. But the excitement of discovering new things overtook the curiosity.
Hiroshi moved his gaze between the candy in his hand and Tsukiha. He sighed and broke it in half. No matter what, his partner really helped him this time.
"Here, eat it, it''ll make you stronger."
"Really?" Tsukiha stared at the candy with a face full of enthusiasm.
He tossed the half origin candy in its mouth and gulped down the other half. A warmth spread through his heart along with a surge of origin energy. He could feel his reserves increasing at an unimaginable rate. After it was over, he quietly looked at Tsukiha trying to digest the energy. It might take a minute or two, so he decided to do something.
''Aux-san, check my reserves.''
[Scanning Host''s body¡ Amount of origin energy is equal to High Mid-Class according to the standard set by Previous host.]
Nice, we need to move or some other thing might pop¡ here it is¡
The tall troll that ran before returned with dozens of its kind. But all they found was a small creature looking their way with a hungry gaze. Their bodies felt chill but being the creatures of Chaos, they screamed with all their all might.
Nice¡ more prey, more candies...
Hiroshi darted into the fray of trolls, his sword left afterimages and beheaded the trolls. Five minutes, he looked at the dozen corpses lying in front of him. He smiled and created a dozen candies and ate all of them.
Thanks to origin energy killing Chaos creatures is easier than fighting devils of the same class.
His eyes squinted in delight, he didn''t know if it was the pleasing taste of candy or becoming stronger but he was in a really good mood.
"Tsukiha, I''ll call you Tsuki from on. It''ll be a nickname."
"I still haven''t forgiven thee for leaving us alone¡" Tsukiha whined near his face.
He laughed wryly and began making his way toward the wasteland.
Let''s see what dangers I will experience here...
Trial 9: Evolution
The golden sun shone brightly in the sky, weirdly enough, it rained down grey sunlight in place of normal bright white. Below it laid a barren brown desert, several mighty mountains could be seen in the distance. Near one of those mountains stood a youth and a strange dragon-like creature. Both of their eyes gazed into the dark cave.
It''s been half a day since they killed the infant dragon. They encountered a group of Tall trolls right after they entered the wasteland. After making a batch of candies, he began searching for some base. They found nothing even after searching for 5 hours. As a last resort, he made Tsukiha scan the area from above which attracted two infant dragons.
He sighed and took care of them in minutes, gaining another two candies. They followed the path to the cave Tsukiha found and ended up here.
Hiroshi''s deep blue eyes let out a terrifying glow as he pushed his perception to the limits with the ?Demonic perception? ability of the Beleth Clan. He stepped inside the spacious cave and swept his glare over the natural made high grounds. Blue glowing figures laid there, telling him about enemies.
One, two, six, fifteen¡
"Tsuki, ready for another round of candies?"
"Yes, we indeed like those. It tastes good and makes us stronger at the same time."
Hiroshi nodded his head and jumped above with muffled footsteps. Looking at the ugly trolls sleeping peacefully, he couldn''t help but wonder if they were the same kind of creatures that once caused chaos in many worlds.
Trihexa¡ also known as the Apocalyptic beast was the first chaos creature to break the world boundaries of 15th or the strongest record in Ortus and nearly destroyed Heavens. This all happened when Elans was busy slaughtering monsters in the 14th record. Even Biblical God was unable to fight against Trihexa. In the end, God risked his life to seal the Apocalyptic Beast using numerous forbidden seals. This incident wasn''t recorded in any history, God never told anyone about it except the Seraphs. But Elans who secretly dated ''Sandalphon'', one of the Ten Seraphs, knew about it. He even went to check the seals in the ''End of The World'' and praised the seals his ''Father-in-law'' placed.
Hiroshi after mulling over something that an occurrence might not happen again, swung down the blade coated in a crimson aura, decapitating the troll before it could even open its eyes. He inwardly praised the Beleth Clan, also known as Devil Assassins and proceeded to finish off the rest. Not a single noise was heard and he had taken fifteen lives.
Maybe I should assassinate a few of the old fogies in the Underworld, that will make the Underworld far more peaceful¡Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Finding his own talent for assassination, he mused to himself with a calm smile.
"Hiro make candies!"
Facing an overly excited Tsuki, he nodded and one by one created fifteen candies of Origin energy.
Let''s call it Origin candy from now on¡
He gave seven to Tsuki and ate eight of them. He could feel her reserves rising, nearly breaking through to the High Class level.
It''s really sad that I can only bring my contracted familiar here¡ I''ll contract every strong familiar¡
Tsuki lowered its head and curled its head near its stomach. Threads made of silver aura flowed from its body and formed a shining cocoon, enveloping Tsuki''s body. It looked to be evolving or more precisely officially stepping into High Class. Even before he met Tsuki, its reserves appeared infinitely closer to High Class ranking. He was only able to defeat it because of his vast range of abilities and Tsuki having zero real battle experience.
Surviving here might get easier with Tsuki, Let''s set up my base...
First of all, he erased the smell of blood to not attract any monsters while they were resting and placed a barrier on the entrance of his new base. He leaned against the cave and brought out the Sumatafone covered in pink from top to bottom.
With a small smile, he powered it with barely a percent of his demonic power.
"Hmm, what''s that?" Sensing another fluctuation of energy, he flipped over the smartphone. A heart shaped sticker was pasted on its back, the fluctuation he sensed came from it. He removed it and inspected its magic circle with demonic perception.
"Tracker¡ why does Sera onee-chan want to stalk me? For my safety?"
He shook his head and burned the tracker then began browsing through the smartphone. Finding nothing interesting, he watched the episodes of Miracle¡îLevia-tan until he got bored of it and admired the pictures of Sona, his former Master, dressed in a Magical Girl dress. The blushing expression on her face increased his heartbeat for some reason, even Serafall onee-chan stored her pictures on the smartphone. Her costumes differed from a nurse, a teacher and even some things he really shouldn''t be looking at.
He released an exasperated sigh and opened the inventory app installed on the smartphone. 2d pixelated icons appeared on the screen, he pressed two of them.
Seemingly out of thin air, a blanket alongside a pillow emerged right on top of him. The origin energy in his body won''t let him feel the need to eat or even drink. As long as he didn''t expend any energy in fighting, his body could go on forever without any external source of energy.
As Hiroshi fell asleep, the cocoon around Tsuki''s body shook intensely. Cracks formed on one end and stretched all the way to the other before a head popped out of it.
"We became stronger again. We even chose our gender as a female. Should we tell Hiro?"
She fell in a loop of thoughts before nearly screaming in irritation. Our mind isn''t really suited for smart things, she thought and eyed Hiro sleeping with a strange object in his hands. She sneaked closer and picked it up with her claws far thinner than before.
''Who is this woman? What kind of clothing is this? Does Hiro like this woman?''
The woman on the smartphone''s screen was Serafall wearing a revealing demon costume and holding a whip in her hands.
''We won''t let anyone have him. He is our partner.''
She quietly put the phone back to its place and rested her body near Hiro.
Trial 10: Ritual
Hiroshi opened his eyes and frowned, creases forming between his brows. The tail with a striped pattern of blue and purple coiling around his body really bothered him as the soft feathers at tip tickled his nose.
Wait, a tail?
His eyes followed the tail to find Tsuki sleeping peacefully. The changes it went through boggled his mind. The blade-like feathers on its wings were nowhere to be seen as new shiny blue soft feathers replaced them. It also discarded the dragon-like helmet on the head to put on a crown made of feathers. Tsuki''s previous form looked really rough compared to the current elegant and beautiful one.
He also noticed pale purple streaks running from feathers to Tsuki''s chest, creating an interesting pattern similar to the crest of his own magic circle which looked like an orb placed on top of a blooming leaf.
That pattern is there because Tsuki is my familiar?
Waking up to find Tsuki binding him was unexpected but the changes it went through after evolution were unimaginable.
He gripped the tail and freed himself, waking up Tsuki in the process.
"Hiro?"
He heard its voice, which sounded clearly soft and feminine instead of its usual childish neutral one.
He stood and stretched, shaking away the drowsy feeling. "What happened to your body? Even your voice, don''t tell me you changed your gender from being genderless?"
Tsuki raised its head hidden in the wings and revealed a yellow short and curved beak and shining eyes of silver blue.
"Why? Does our gender bother you? Are we not fit to be a female?"
He slightly averted his eyes from her powerful gaze, trying to bore into him. "I never said that. Your defense went down from evolution?"
"It did not, look," she said and spread her wings wide. Every feather of hers glowed with a silvery light and turned hard like a stone.
For a moment he was really mesmerized by the beauty of Tsuki bathing in pure light before he squinted his eyes in deep thoughts.
That''s a great powerup, she can fly and perform many movement tricks with her agile body. Furthermore, she can use them for defense when needed¡
"It''s time to go, we have only killed forty one out of thousand and nine monsters¡ I hope we can contend against Ultimate Class after this."
He placed a magic circle of teleportation and led the pouting Tsuki outside the cave. They climbed down the deserted mountain and headed toward the forest to kill some random monster.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
"Tsuki, scan the area from above. I don''t want to meet that Cave Troll until I''m assured enough to kill it."
"Hiro can''t fly?"
"I can if I create wings from origin energy. But the process is not efficient for the current me."
"Then let us help Hiro! We really enjoy flying. Before it was hard to fly with our hard scales but now, we can fly all we want!"
Before he could deny, Tsuki hooked his scruff with her beak and shifted him on her back.
Soft and warm...
That was his first impression after touching the silky soft feather on her back.
Tsuki flapped her wings to create a frigid gust of wind, he steadied his position as she launched in the air. He focused the stealth aura to maximum or they might attract a group of dragons at once.
This process is more consuming than me flying but it''s really new¡
The soft breeze fluttered his hair as he tried to keep his eyelids open for scouting. In a few minutes, he was already done mapping the mountain range with ?Demonic Perception?. Their results were much better than he expected, the amount of Low-Class monsters were quite high in these areas, with a few Mid Class monsters acting like a boss of sorts.
"Tsuki, I''m done. Let''s start with that place with the highest numbers. Land near that pass between mountains."
Tsuki slowed down and lowered her altitude before landing where he pointed. Hiro jumped and turned his glare at the caves built on both sides.
Hm, it''s pretty calm for a settlement with hundreds of monsters¡
He considered his choices for the attack, stealth or frontal. Let''s check it out first, he thought and entered the cave. His devil ability to see in the dark worked perfectly here. Keeping an eye on his surroundings, he moved deeper. He noticed some old symbols carved on the walls. Wiping the dust over it, a picture appeared showing a dragon with multiple heads.
Don''t tell me, this silence...
"Tsuki, move faster!"
He boosted his physical strength with touki and rushed forward. The cave opened in a wide hall as if a whole mountain was hollowed.
He glared at the giant serpent in the center of the hall. Hundreds of lizard men surrounded it without any words.
"Hiss!"
The serpent lifted its head and hissed. Every lizardman dug their claws in its own chest and crushed the heart mercilessly. The hundreds of bodies crumbled into specks of dust and gathered around the serpent.
The massive wave of chaos element gathered in a place chilled his body to the core.
These monsters even learned to perform rituals to evolve¡ Even at the cost of their own lives.
He turned to Tsuki, who floated a battle-hungry smile on her face. Mostly all dragons were battle junkies and true to their desires. The serpent in front was also evolving in a type of dragon.
Hydra¡
"Tsuki, we are going out. It will be Ultimate Class at the very least. I don''t have any confidence to survive a single hit, much less fighting it."
"No, Hiro. We can do this. We will ambush it right after it finishes evolving. We believe Hiro and I can do anything together."
That might be an overstatement...
"As you wish, but I''ll teleport the moment we begin losing. No need to risk our lives when we have two whole months left to complete the objective."
"Fumu."
He shook his head and walked closer to the mass of chaos swirling around the serpent, ignoring the bells ringing inside his mind. He took position behind it and ordered Tsuki to stay in front.
Finally, the chaos settled down along with the curtains of the battle against yet another Mythological beast...
Trial 11: Five-headed Hydra
The veil of chaotic air settled down and revealed a giant monster around 7m in length. Four thick legs with sharp claws supported its massive body. Five dragon heads attached to its body with extended necks simultaneously raised their heads and released a thunderous roar as if announcing its presence to the world.
Hiro hiding behind the Hydra covered his ears in origin energy. He really wanted to dash and kill the arrogant snake.
"Hiro, we have a new plan. Please put your trust in us and follow our instructions."
He nodded, his glowing eyes stalking the right opportunity to strike.
As the roar stopped, Hydra finally laid its eye on the creature standing proudly in its presence. The five pair of eyes began to burn with scorn and opened one of its mouths to shoot a breath of blazing fire.
Tsukiha snorted through her nose and shot a silver breath of her own to counter the fire. The eyes of Hydra widened in surprise before the arrogance and pride overtook its rational thoughts. It used the rest of its ability to kill the arrogant creature.
Tsukiha decided to get serious, the hail of frost and fire were deadly but the poison was more dangerous. One head was useless it seems, she thought and launched in the air to dodge. Floating in the air, she glanced at Hiro''s eyes glowing brilliantly. A strange feeling flooded her heart but she controlled it and used her final trump card.
Her body began growing at an unimaginable rate until she was nearly twice the size of Hydra.
Hydra''s arrogance shattered into pieces. But the instincts of a chaotic monster ordered it to kill every living creature and consume them.
"Hiro now! Try to cut off the heads as fast as possible."
Hiro pushed his touki enveloped body to the limits and jumped after the fifth step. His feet landed at its back. The longsword in his hand erupted with crimson aura, he wasted no moment and pierced the uncovered flesh near the spine.
Almost immediately, a loud shriek was heard. Hiroshi paid no heed and dragged the sword across the spine to near its neck and severed one of its heads. He glanced at Tsuki wrestling with three heads at the same time.
Sadly, no regeneration for you. Origin energy won''t allow you that luxury...
At the same time, his instincts buzzed at the incoming danger. He leaped off its body, dodging the poisonous breath that might''ve really melted his body.
The crimson aura disappeared and wind coiled around his sword in a whirlpool. He lifted his sword. Zing! Zing! Zing! The three slashes generated a wind blade each and attacked all three heads engaging with Tsuki. The blood flowed from the long slashes on its neck.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
But Hiroshi knew they were just superficial with the high vitality of this damned Hydra. His origin energy could halt its regeneration provided with chaos element.
He once again leaped on its back and ran toward its neck, his sword creating a long trail of wound as he evaded each poisonous breath by a hair''s breadth. The sword enveloped the power of destruction smoothly sliced another head off. But the Hydra''s poisonous breath grazed past his back. The poison mixed with chaos element melted the touki then clothes and finally his skin.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! The burning pain in his back was endurable. If the vile poison entered his body, he might as well say goodbye to this world.
[Detected Poison in Host''s body¡ Removing all status effects]
Luck appeared to be on his side, you should have told me sooner. He cursed and looked at Tsuki''s body covered in burns and wounds. Two heads of Hydra had buried their fangs in her throat and wings.
A burning rage nearly took over his body before he took a deep breath and ignored the poisonous breath wrecking his body from outside. He plunged the sword in its neck. The Hydra screamed again and left Tsuki, but he wasn''t lucky enough as something slammed his back, blowing him away.
Cough! Cough!
He crashed against the wall and coughed out a mouthful of blood. Fortunately, his body was protected by touki or he might have been severely injured.
"Hiro! How dare you hurt our Hiro? How dare you!?"
Tsukiha''s eyes turned dark when she saw Hiro getting injured. Her mind nearly lost all sanity as she was about to enter the Outrage state of mind but Hiro stopped her with a shout. She noticed him walking without any difficulty and turned to Hydra left with only two heads and the last barely hanging on its neck. If she tried to remove it, the head might regenerate immediately.
Her new skill ?Transform? depleted her stamina faster than she thought. We really are stupid, we shouldn''t have dragged Hiro down with our battle junky habits, she regretted in his heart.
Hiro could intuit what she was thinking. He gulped down one of the origin energy candies of the infant dragons he saved up. Half of his origin energy recovered in an instant and his reserves inched closer to High Class. He used some of it to heal the wounds and dashed toward the Hydra.
Time to finish this¡
He thrust both of his hands and crimson magic circles materialized before his hands.
"Crimson bullets"
A burst of crimson shot out of both magic circles and hit the Hydra, the dangling head was severed and the other head had a deep hole in its neck.
I still need to work on my control¡
The attack took away a third of his reserves, he still didn''t stop. He was really close, only two heads and he will slay an Ultimate Class foe. His fear vanished as his heart throbbed in excitement.
"Tsukiha! Leave it to me and rest!"
He shouted and kicked the ground. In the air, he slashed at the heavily injured head, cutting it off and dodged the fire breath from the last head.
"Die!"
He swung the sword and injured the leg. He dashed and hid under the Hydra''s giant frame. His sword pierced its unguarded stomach, it still retained this trait from serpent. The painful screeches rang like music in his head.
I can do it!
A confident smile appeared on his face as he lightly evaded the attack from the tail and reached Hydra''s back. The Hydra angrily swung its tail and threw fire breath but Tsuki intercepted them with her aura attacks.
The moment it came to its senses, a crimson light flash flashed and its eyes blanked out.
Trial 12: Demonic Lightning
Hiroshi, instead of creating origin candy, walked toward Tsuki, who had now returned to her former size. He couldn''t stop the frown when he looked at the wounds on her body. Most of her beautiful feathers were charred or frozen stiff.
He gulped down another candy and began healing her with ?Healing?.
"You muscle-brained idiot. Your plan was to distract Hydra with your own body and let me finish it off. I''m not letting you formulate any plan from now on."
Tsuki was unable to deny his words. She still tried to fight back for her dignity.
"Why are you calling us muscle brained? We never di¡ª"
"Shut up! Look at your neck if I saved you a minute later Hydra would''ve broken your trachea bone. Even if you are an almighty creature you are not a dragon completely born from energy! My healing won''t work..."
Though he could heal her, he lied to peg down her confidence so she won''t become a complete battle junkie charging into a fight without thinking.
She hung her head, strange feelings clouding her mind. She sensed the concern in Hiro''s voice but he was treating her like an immature kid. I won''t allow him to treat us this way, we are equal partners, she thought and raised her head.
Her fierce gaze only lasted for a moment as she stared at the fist-sized ball in Hiro''s hand.
Seeing the heart in her eyes and her tail wagging furiously, Hiroshi shook his head and broke the ball into four parts.
"I''ll give you one of these after we return."
"We are okay with that!"
Honestly, he didn''t want to use origin candies to manipulate her but thinking it was for the best for her, he proceeded with the plan.
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He teleported back to the base and gave Tsuki one fourth while eating one fourth himself. A stream of cold energy flowed through his body as his reserves reached back to the peak in an instant while increasing the limit higher and higher. It lasted only for several moments.
[Host has surpassed Mid-Class and entered Low High-Class.]
Finally¡
He watched Tsuki sleeping cozily. The feathers were also better after he healed them.
Might as well use her feathers¡
He shrugged and leaned his back against the fluffy and comfortable feather and closed his eyes.
Half an hour later, Tsukiha woke up to find Hiro snuggling? close to her. She was happy, despite not knowing why. She slowly raised her wing and used it as a blanket to cover Hiro.
What is happening to us?
In some confusion and happiness, Tsuki dozed off.
---
The next day, Hiro woke up with a refreshing feeling. After finding he was trapped inside Tsuki''s wings, he pushed the wings and got ready to completely clean up the mountains.
Tsukiha also woke up moments later then the duo moved out of the cave for slaughter.
Following the same routine, days passed, Hiroshi and Tsukiha killed numerous monsters together and increased their power at a tremendous rate. Tsuki reached somewhere in the middle of High Class while Hiro also reached the same. Both of them had cleaned up every area except one, the base of Cave Troll. Hiro scouted the place once to find the Evolved cave troll wasn''t alone, it had a whole family with a Mountain Troll at Ultimate Class lurking within the giant cave created in the mountains.
Today was the 20th after entering the record. The duo set out to finally be done with the mission and go back home.
Standing outside the entrance of the cave, Hiroshi looked at Tsuki''s eyes squinted in delight. He was unable to find the reason for her happiness. In the last few days, he always woke up near her, sometimes in her wings or other times bound by her tail. He even tried sleeping far away from her but to no avail.
He shook his head and focused on the task at hand. "First we''ll finish off the small ones before engaging the giant one together, understood?"
"Yes!"
"If you try to charge on your own?"
"We''ll not get any candies¡" she spoke in a miserable tone, hoping to get some pity.
Shaking his head sideways once again, he entered the cave in stealth mode.
In the wide cave, three giants laid on the ground. Their chest heaved peacefully, completely unaware of the young man standing right beside them.
These trolls even as chaotic creatures love to sleep¡ It''s easy this way¡ Where is the Ultimate Class one hiding now.
His eyes glowed as he used the ability, but he only found three life signatures here. The ones sleeping in front of him.
Weird¡ Is it out to buy something? he thought with an amused smile.
He signaled Tsuki to stay behind. He was pretty confident when it came to assassination. Black magic circles formed in front of both his hands aiming at the Giant heads.
Time to test the infamous Demonic version of Holy Lightning¡
The magic circles shone, at the same time, the eyes of three giants snapped open. They, however, were too late. The black bolts of lightning already hit two of the trolls, frying their brains from inside out. The lightning created from origin energy was an instakill for creatures capable of giving troubles to God Class beings.
Hiroshi turned to the last troll standing in front. He shook his head and sent two crimson bullets to explode its head.
High Class ones are no challenge now¡
"Kraaaawr!!!"
Hearing the terrifying roar, he ran outside the cave. The more than 20m tall giant with brown skin and two small horns growing out of its forehead. It stood face to face with the transformed version of Tsuki. The scene looked really worthy to be called Battle of Giants.
*Flash!*
He couldn''t help but capture the image. He won''t encounter such a scene every day.
Trial 13: The Letter
Now, where should I start from¡ Of course, it''s the legs!
It was fortunate that no trees grew on this side of the forest or his movements might be hindered.
"Tsuki! It''s our usual plan!"
"We understand!" she screamed back and took off in the sky.
The troll moved its right arm thicker than any tree and swung down the tree in its hand, hoping to bring down the bird. The attack met nothing but air and smashed into the ground.
Hiroshi shook his head and ran toward the troll, trusting Tsuki will keep her promise and not act irrationally. His body clad in a layer of silver touki went undetected by the giant.
Narrowing his gaze at its legs, his eyes began glowing. The world lost all colors as he pushed ?Demonic Perception? to the limits. Two white thick legs appeared in his vision. His eyes clearly reflected every micro detail from the hair on its skin to the tissues forming the muscle.
He held the sword in both hands and slashed at the area with least density of muscle mass.
"Awwwrgh!"
Tsuki exploited the chance and shot her silver breath at the knee of the wounded leg, injuring it even further.
Troll moved its head and found a small creature below. It raised its legs and stomped down, the foot exploded the ground and caused a massive shockwave.
A Silver pair of wings grew on Hiroshi''s back. With just a thought, they flapped and boosted him diagonally.
"Bang!"
Tsuki didn''t stay silent and rained down demonic aura needles from her wings. Although the needles only penetrated less than five centimeters, it still brought out a bloodcurdling scream from Troll.
That''s what you get for being slow¡
He thought and targeted the same wound on its flesh behind the knees. The troll lost its balance and fell on one knee. It glared at Hiroshi and its hulking fist tore through the air and arrived in front of Hiroshi.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Fuck!
Hiroshi barely dodged the punch and yelled, "Now! Close your eyes!"
Hiroshi snapped his fingers. A blinding light flashed near Hiro. The muscles around Troll''s eyes shrank along with its eyes. Even with high regeneration, it will require at least a minute to get back its eyesight. It was the ?Flash? ability of the Shaz Clan capable of blinding God Class beings except it lasted only for a second or two.
Tsuki timely seized the opportunity and tackled the Troll to the ground.
Hiroshi landed beside Troll''s head. Tsuki was barely restraining its hands with her claws and beak while scorching its head with her breath. He wasted no time to stab its brain with the crimson sword.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
He forgot about everything and stabbed like a madman, only stopping when his sword met something soft. He fell on his butt and breathed a sigh of relief. The Troll''s brain matter slid down its split-open head, creating a gross sight.
He covered his nose and touched the head of Troll. The familiar process began and lasted for a minute because of the height and mass of the Troll. He looked at Tsuki with a smile. Finally, the last monster died under their hands.
He picked up the candy and stood beside Tsuki. She nuzzled her head closer to his face. With a forced smile, he patted her cheeks.
Sigh! She is really clinging to me nowadays¡ Aux-san, teleport us out of here¡
[Scanning for chaotic life-forms in Record... Zero]
[Initiating extraction... Opening a gate to Ortus hub]
The familiar gate opened in front. Hiroshi, along with Tsuki walked inside and appeared in the familiar hall with gates to different records. He swept his gaze over the hall faintly lit by some unknown means. A new table was there with a white paper floating above it.
He walked over and grabbed the paper with lines of text written on it.
''My successor! I thank you for taking over this ''responsibility'' from my aged shoulders. You are indeed a promising young man~ As a reward, I have left a fine weapon for you at the dark elves residing in Svartalfheim city of Norse faction. They know me well so they won''t cause any trouble for you. I''ll still warn you to only trust your instincts. By the way, this letter was left fifteen years ago for anyone who manages to clean up the first record and I''m not alive or gone missing by that time.''
I can''t believe that he died of old age or someone killed him? Just where did he go?
"Hiro? What is written on that paper? Can we see?"
He lightly nodded and passed over the letter in his hands. She trapped it under her claws and read over the text.
"We are going on a long journey after I meet Sona¡"
Now that they weren''t in a Master and Servant relationship, he found it odd to say her name without any honorific. The current relationship between them was childhood friends with feelings for each other? He stopped the line of thoughts before it got too complicated.
Tsukiha felt a strange sensation when Hiro mentioned the name Sona. She clearly sensed the feelings in his voice.
Is this jealousy? Are we feeling jealous of that woman?
Hiro, preoccupied with his own thoughts, asked, "Before that, I believe we have to meet Tiamat¡ Can you calm her down? I don''t think she''ll let me go that easily."
"We won''t let her harm Hiro. Not until we die."
He nodded gratefully and glanced at the first record with the golden text ''One year left'' and second showing ''Seven months left''. Four months were enough to clear it, so he planned to spend three months outside for training and equipment.
If only this place wasn''t in the Dimensional Gap, we could use magic here to teleport anywhere... Aux-san, get us out¡
He dragged the curious Tsuki inside the gate. Just as they stepped out of the gate, a massive wave of demonic power washed over them.
Tsuki adopted a serious expression and stepped in front of Hiro and eyed the magic circle.
"So you finally returned¡"
A moment later, a voice came and a woman appeared out of thin air. She had a beautiful face and long pale blue hair and a navy dress clothed her voluptuous body.
Hiro wasn''t the least bit delighted to meet her. The cold anger hidden in her blue eyes sent chills down his spine. Despite that, his brain worked overtime to create a strategy capable of surviving.
He unknowingly incurred the wrath of the Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat.
Trial 14: Challenge
"We didn''t want to do this, but we know your anger and we won''t allow Tiamat onee-san to touch even a single hair on Hiro''s body!"
"You! You changed your gender for this coward devil hiding behind your back. I brought you here and sheltered you from various factions vying you as a prized possession. Is this how you repay me?"
The calm voice of hers hid her anger. The dragons were always deeply loyal to their friends and families. However, the one thing they truly hated was a betrayal.
"We are not betraying anyone. We are just prioritizing our own happiness and Hiro is that for us."
"Oh look at you talking so big when you are still a child. But there is one thing I''m curious about¡ How did you evolve so quickly? In my estimation, you needed another ten years to become High Class."
Hiro was a bit touched by Tsuki''s declaration but he wasn''t able to stay in the back anymore. Weren''t they supposed to be partners helping each other? He calmly walked in front of Tsuki and glared into the blue eyes of Tiamat.
"...Tsukiha is my familiar and I won''t hold back if anyone tries to mistreat her. Even if they are one of the Dragon Kings." a cold glint flared in his deep blue eyes as he drew the sword from his waist. "Be careful though, I don''t plan to die without taking an arm or two."
Tiamat opened her eyes wide before an amused smile appeared on her cold face. She once again appraised the young Half-Devil standing fearless in her presence. As a dragon, she respected courage and bravery.
"You aren''t entirely a spineless idiot I thought you to be. Be that as it may, you lack the fists to back those heroic words."
"I acknowledge that I''m weak. That''s why I challenge you to a duel where you will limit your power to my level or do you lack the courage to defeat a ''weak'' cowardly devil?"
Tiamat dangerously narrowed her eyes and a burst of blue aura erupted from her body. Seeing the brat still standing with a faint smile, she snorted.
"Why do I have to prove something to you? I can just kill you and be done with it."
Hiroshi''s gaze turned sharper and the side of his mouth turned up in a mischievous grin.
"Because you don''t want to kill me. You want to know how I helped Tsuki in evolving. You, like all dragons lack the new things that can bring a single sense of excitement to you. Aren''t I right?"If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Tiamat nodded her head. "It is indeed true that I''m bored enough to kill the holders of Boosted Gear for some treasure I won''t ever use. That doesn''t mean anyone can come and challenge our dignity."
Hiroshi slightly tilted his head and answered back, "How about a bet? If you win I''ll help you evolve to Super Devil level which any dragon rarely reaches and if by any chance I manage to win, you''ll have to become my familiar on equal terms. I''ll still assist you in your evolution. How about it?"
Tiamat thought for a brief moment before a wild grin appeared on her face. "I agree. But the fight will not be fair and fun, so you choose another game that will excite me more."
Hiroshi flashed a bright smile. All this time, he waited for this very moment. He wasn''t very sure of beating her in a head to head fight even if she limits her strength.
"I heard you are very good at stealth. So how about we do a challenge based on it?"
As he expected, the challenge quickly piqued her interest. "Go ahead. I''m listening."
"I''ll hide anywhere in this forest and you have to find me in a day. If it comes to hiding aura I''m confident enough to beat God Class beings."
Tiamat snorted at his baseless boasting. God Class beings, my ass, she thought.
"I think you agree then let''s start it right now. I''m pretty tight on schedule."
She waved her hand and a massive blue barrier enveloped the sky. "Alright. I have placed a barrier so you won''t be able to teleport out of here. You have ten minutes, go hide anywhere."
Tsukiha looked at Hiro with stars in her eyes. She couldn''t believe someone managed to fool Chaos Karma Dragon Tiamat. After witnessing his stealth firsthand, she could declare to the world her Hiro won''t lose. She really wanted to proudly puff her chest and boast about it to everyone, but sadly enough, she had no friends¡
Hiroshi nodded at Tiamat and began to unbutton his shirt without minding the gaze of two females. Soon, his figure came into view. The well sculpted muscles that still regained flexibility. People might have called him weak but he didn''t care. He believed speed was the most important factor for any swordsman.
Tsukiha snapped out of her daze and stood to the right of Tiamat. "H-Hiro! You shouldn''t undress in front of Tiamat onee-san. That is shameful!"
Hiroshi tilted his head, clearly confused by her behaviour. "My clothes stink of blood. She will easily find me if I go like this. So I''ll wear new clothes."
"Okay, we understand."
He pulled down his leather pants and began browsing through his Sumatofon''s inventory for another pair of pants.
Tsukiha curiously eyed a certain part of Hiro''s body. "Hiro, what is that thing on your body?"
"..."
Tiamat also stared with a slight shock in her eyes.
"Monster."
She whispered and shook her head. She turned her head to see Tsukiha''s eyes shining with a curious glint. She believed all of her care wasn''t enough to raise this kid properly.
---
Hiroshi strolled through the forest without any worry in the world. His ?Stealth? was top-notch ability added with his own ability to match his aura with surroundings. He wasn''t worried about Tiamat finding him but her not accepting the outcome. Her name was Chaos Karma for no reason other than her causing chaos everywhere with her short temper.
Sigh! I hope she prioritizes her pride over rage¡ I need to find a place to pass the day¡
Six hours passed like this, Hiro managed to find a cave. Rather than a cave, it was a super-deluxe house brimming with treasures. It was none other than the humble abode of Tiamat. She was out there searching for him and here he was, resting on the bed inside her room.
"This enchanting scent is bothering me for some reason¡"
He muttered under his breath and shut the book in his hand. He was pretty safe here. If by any chance she couldn''t find him and started to burn the whole forest. She''ll never burn her own house.
He shook his head and began playing with the Sumatofon before closing his eyes to improve his knowledge of his own abilities.
Outside in the forest, Tiamat was flying with the help of her dragon wings. Her predatory gaze roamed throughout the forest. She couldn''t help but praise the skills of Half-Devil.
As time passed, her small respect turned into admiration. She became more serious about the challenge and once again surveyed the forest from above.
Twelve hours later, a small doubt arose in her heart as she searched the forest. Twenty hours later, she became a bit ashamed of her own arrogance. Twenty-three hours later, she became sure that the half-Devil tricked her. Her shame turned into anger and she transformed into her dragon form. All the rage was dished out in the forest in the form of fire breath. Fortunately, Tsuki was there to stop her or the forest might become nothing more than ashes.
"Argh! Brat! Come out!!!"
Trial 15: New Familiar
(A/N :- Hiroshi is now renamed to plain simple Hiro...)
***
Tsukiha increased her size to stop Tiamat from going into outrage mode and razing everything in sight.
"Tiamat onee-san, please calm down! We''ll take you to Hiro."
Tiamat returned to her human form and looked at Tsukiha with a cold smile. "Do it. I want to see where that brat is hiding."
Tsukiha tracked Hiro''s location with her connection created by the familiar contract and created a magic circle to teleport which Hiro taught her.
Both of them appeared in a large room with blue walls. Tiamat at first found this room familiar before her eyes fell on the brat peacefully sleeping on the bed.
"..."
"How did this brat bypass our defensive spells? Even that red-haired Maou won''t be able to do it without brute force."
She directed the question at Tsukiha who hesitated to tell her Hiro''s secrets but under the cold gaze and the fact, her onee-san will also become Hiro''s familiar melted all of her reluctances.
"Hiro can manipulate his own aura to match any person. He might have used that to enter this house."
Tiamat''s eyed the half-devil sleeping and assessed the true power of this ability.
''This brat can assassinate anyone with his stealth and aura changing ability, on top of that he has immense demonic power which he didn''t appear to be born with. He might be a good candidate.''
"How old is he?"
"Hiro turned fourteen on the day we met."
"Still too young. I accept this loss. My arrogance clouded my judgement¡" she continued with a sigh. "I promise to become his familiar."
"Yay! Tiamat onee-san! Now we can fight those bad monsters together!"Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She threw another questioning look at Tsukiha. "What bad monsters? I didn''t ask it before, tell me where you two went for the past twenty days?"
"Nice. Let''s form the contract then."
Hiro, who was faking sleeping in fear of her wrath, spoke up as he stood from the bed. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to keep his aura hidden.
"You were awake the whole time!?"
"Hiro!"
He wanted to dodge but he let Tsuki rub her cheeks on his body. He shot an inquisitive gaze at Tiamat, conveying about the contract.
Tiamat let out a sigh before nodding her head. "I''m ready to form a contract. I have conditions. First of all, I''ll have full freedom to decline any order I don''t want. I''ll help you train in exchange you''ll help me reach the Super Devil Class. I want to know all about this process and the monsters Tsukiha-chan fought and most important of all, you''ll address me Tiamat onee-san."
Hiro nodded his head, her conditions were fair. He never expected Tiamat to become completely subservient just because he formed a pact with her. Her most important condition was the easiest in his eyes.
It''s just a form of addressing, nothing major, he shrugged at the thought.
Enduring the fluffy feeling on his cheeks, he began explaining the things about Records, Chaos creatures and a general idea about Ortus.
The astonishment on Tiamat''s face grew as the words said by Hiro brought a sense of excitement to her. She couldn''t wait to meet the creatures herself and devour some origin candies.
"Hmm¡ Now what are your plans? When will you enter that location!?"
Hiro shot a blank stare at her, the Chaos Karma Dragon was looking at him with shining eyes, creeping him out in a way.
"I''ll go to Sitri mansion first. Then the plan is to find something in Svartalfheim, the city of Dark Elves and Dwarfs. So it''ll take at least two months before we enter the second Record."
Tiamat let out a heavy sigh. "That''s not much... considering we waited for tens of thousands of years¡ How will you enter Asgard? Devils are not really welcomed there."
Hiro smiled faintly as he replied, "Don''t worry, I have my own way to enter that city."
"Wait! Why are you saying that? Are we not coming to Svartahim!?" Tsuki released him and grabbed his shoulders with her wings.
"...No. Taking you means inviting all the troubles to me."
"That''s not fair! We wanted to visit that Svartahim place."
"Tsukiha-chan! I''ll make sure he takes you with him so don''t trouble him for now."
Tsukiha calmed down from Tiamat''s words and glared at Hiroshi with an indignant look.
Hiro shrugged his shoulders. He was thinking for her best. Taking her will mean another butt load of origin energy to camouflage her and who knows if Odin met them by chance. He wasn''t confident enough to hide her in Old Man Odin''s single eye.
He created the magic circle for the familiar contract. Unlike the naive Tsukiha, Tiamat checked over the magic circle, only then did she create her own blue magic circle to finish the contract.
"Now take back that barrier. I need to sneak inside Sitri mansion. I''m also curious how you''ll make sure I take Tsuki with me."
"What''s your relationship with that Clan?"
Tsukiha''s ears also perked up at the question, she also wanted to know about his past.
Hiro let out a sigh. "I used to be a servant of that house."
Tiamat frowned. "How come I never heard of someone talented like you? Though I heard about a trash half-devil leeching off their Heir," she stopped and looked at the blank stare on his face. "Don''t tell me you are that trash."
"Sorry for being trash."
"Ahahaha, I wonder how their faces will be if they knew the trash half-devil was saving everyone''s lives in the background."
"Hiro is not trash! Stop calling him trash!"
He smiled bitterly. You too should stop.
Shaking his head sideways, he created a magic circle and vanished, leaving behind Tiamat and Tsukiha.
Tiamat turned to Tsukiha with a mischievous smile. "You sneaky little girl. You marked him as your mate without informing him. Have you ever thought what if he rejected you? You''ll always stay single for eternity."
Tsukiha''s glowing eyes opened wide before tears began forming at the corners. "Doesn''t choosing mate means we can always stay with him as his partner? H-Hiro won''t reject us, right?"
"That''s up to him to decide. I can''t force him for this."
She said and massaged her forehead, thinking how to explain this naive girl about mating. She decided to push back this topic to a later date.
"I''ll teach you the skill to transform into humanoid form. You already have ?Transform? so it''ll be easy."
"Yay!"
Trial 16: Dragon God?
Hiro arrived outside the outer gate of the Sitri Mansion. For some reason this all so familiar Mansion seemed foreign to him. He couldn''t grasp the reason even after thinking for several minutes. He just stood there as people passed by him unable to detect him.
He shook his head and faked Serafall''s crest to enter the Mansion. Her busy schedule didn''t allow her to stay home at this time. People won''t double question others and assume this as another one of her pranks.
"How did this gate open?"
"Ghost?"
He walked past the guards examining the gate for any problem. He noticed a group of devils rushing around.
What''s going on? They all appear to be the trash who bad-mouthed me before¡
While eying the group, he walked in the direction of the mansion.
Oh, there is a guest¡
He found Sona in the garden. She was seated on a chair. On the seat opposite her, a crimson-haired girl sat sipping on the tea. Her blue eyes carried sharpness unfitting of her age. A silver-haired woman in maid clothes stood behind her with her hands clasped on her lap. A calm aura emanating from her body and a serious look in her red eyes.
The infamous Gremory princess and wife of Maou Lucifer¡
Just as he stared at her, the maid frowned and shifted her gaze in his direction. The temperature in the area fell down by a few degrees.
"What happened?"
Rias asked, noticing the sudden change in the atmosphere.
Grayfia took back her aura and bowed. "I''m sorry for interrupting Ojou-sama. I just had a misunderstanding."
"It''s fine. Ah! Where were we?"
Sona, who absentmindedly gazed in a certain direction, turned to Rias. Call it a woman''s intuition or something, but she had a hunch Hiro was near. She couldn''t get this feeling out of her mind and Grayfia''s reaction only strengthened it further.
"We were talking about the past of your Rook, Knight and Queen."
"Yeah, I''m really troubled how to heal their trauma and they already announced my engagement to ''that'' man."
Sona sighed at her nonchalant tone. "Are you not worried about this? His ''reputation'' is not so good from what I heard."
Rias ignored her friend''s worried tone. Taking a sip of tea, she smirked at her friend.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"I''m fully confident in beating him. I still need to bait him for a one on one fight and that''s it."
"Ojou-sama! Please mind your tone, you are the current Heir of Gremory Clan."
"It''s not like I wanted to become one," Rias muttered under her breath.
Hiro was frozen at his position. He even had to stop breathing to cheat the senses of Silver-haired Queen of Annihilation.
Her reputation isn''t just for show. Her aura is even stronger than Tiamat¡
He took a last long look at Sona as if burying her picture in his mind before he slowly backed away. The maid might sense him if he just stood there.
Fuck my luck¡
He strolled around to relive some memories. He couldn''t shake away the feeling that something fishy was going on here. He stalked the suspicious bullies for clues.
Street after street, he silently tailed the three devils leading him to a facility located somewhere inside Sitri Territory.
The three of them searched the vicinity for any person before one of them opened the door guarded by multiple security artifacts. They were all unaware of the guy entering the facility with them.
The biggest of the bully finally opened his mouth. "Fuck that fucking Elder Bonis. Making us do all the dirty work while he himself lives inside that Mansion."
"Yeah, fuck him with his family. If we get into trouble, I''ll drag him down with us."
"Of course, he thinks he can outsmart us."
They all chuckled boisterously and stopped in front of a room. The leader took out a key and opened the door.
Hiro curiously scanned the room to find nothing. It was just a simple room. The leader devil pushed the bed in the middle of the room. Hiro''s eyes widened in surprise at the magic circle carved on the ground. It had a crest that looked like two crossed swords.
This sign, where did I see this? They are actually spies? Let''s see who they are spying for¡
He stood behind the three devils and cast the illusion magic to change his appearance into an average japanese youth.
Tsuki''s illusion skill is really out of the world....
The magic circle glowed with a fiery orange and teleported him to an unknown location. He had a magic circle ready to escape if things went south.
Once again, his eyes opened wide. The scene around him appeared to be a large hall. Devils in dozens of numbers roamed around while talking to each other.
They are all members of different clans¡
This really puzzled him, he never met a gathering of so many different devils under one roof except formal occasions.
Just as he was about to move a cold sensation gripped his neck. He slowly turned around to see a small girl tugging the hem of his shirt. Beneath her long black hair, he noticed the pointed ears. Her expressionless black eyes had pupils like reptiles.
Feeling her overwhelming aura, his ?Demonic perception? unconsciously activated and darkness covered his vision. Endless darkness reminded him of a certain god from Elans'' memories. But that individual had the body of an old man not a kid. He forcibly shut down the ability and glared into her eyes.
"Ouroboros Dragon?"
The girl nodded her head, no one could believe this little girl was one of the two strongest Dragon Gods, Ophis. She was capable of destroying anything. Elans theorized she could be counted as one of the Chaotic creatures as she represents Infinity and Chaos to some extent. However, the nothingness in her dulled the effects of Chaos to literally nothing.
"You... are... him?"
He sensed no malice or anger from her question.
"Him? Who?"
The devils finally noticed the stranger talking to Ophis. Before they drew their weapons to strike down the intruder, Ophis glared at everyone with her expressionless eyes.
"Who is this ''him'' you were referring to?"
Hiro once again asked, he never had any memories of meeting her. Who in the world can even forget about a meeting with Ophis?
"You¡ are the¡ Origin?"
He frowned, unable to comprehend her words. "What origin?"
Ophis tilted her head as she answered, "...The Origin?"
"..."
Trial 17: The strange trio
Is Ophis talking about Origin Energy?
Hiro confusedly gazed at Ophis who looked up with her big black eyes. She grabbed his hand and tried to lead him somewhere. However, she was unable to pull him because of the difference in height and her not utilizing the true powers.
Is she really the Dragon God? She looks like a normal kid to me¡
He observed her for a long moment before giving in. He was also curious where she wanted to take him. Ophis nodded and took a step forward.
*Bzz!* For a moment, the space around Hiro vibrated. In the blink of an eye, the scene around him disappeared, replaced by grey walls on all sides. It was a simple and spacious room that was anything but special.
She teleported me, but where?
"Ophis? Can I call you that?"
Seeing her nod, he added, "And you can call me Hiro."
"...Hiro."
(I still can''t believe this cheeky brat is White Dragon Emperor.)
(Bastard! How dare you! Fight me!)
(There there Vali¡)
The voices coming from the only door in the room made Hiro hesitate. He could smell trouble that was ensuing inside that room. He looked at Ophis staring his way blankly.
He didn''t know why but he could somewhat sense the emotions in her blank eyes.
"Where is this place?"
"Khaos Brigade. White Dragon."
He shook his head, gaining any information from her was nothing better than banging his head on the wall.
"Come, join us?"
Hearing her invitation, he thought for a moment before nodding. He also wanted to know the reason spies infiltrated Sitri Household.
"I''ll think about it. First, let me meet others."
(Nyahahaha, Vali is an idiot. Look at him blushing so hard, nya~)
He tried to ignore the unruly laugh despite the elegant voice of the owner and entered the room with Ophis. Inside there, two males and one young woman sat on a sofa watching something. Just as he was looking at them, they all spotted him. Everyone reacted to his presence differently.
The silver-haired boy dressed in a white shirt and shorts had soft features like a girl. Battle intent? dwelling inside his blue eyes. The young man with light brown hair was wearing Chinese armor. His brows eyes had a playful glint with a powerful battle spirit. Lastly, the black-haired young woman was dressed in a black kimono with a red interior. Hiro''s gaze was fixed on her head. An intricate headband sat there with two cat-like ears twitching on its side.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
He then moved his gaze down to see two tails resting on the sofa.
A Half-devil, a Youkai and a Nekomata¡
The silver-haired boy jumped from the sofa and landed in front of Hiro. "You look strong. I challenge you to fight me! Face the dragon sealed in my right hand!"
He looked at the boy with a frown. Ophis tugged his sleeve and pointed at the silver haired boy.
"Vali, White Dragon."
Vali raised his right hand and two white wings materialized on his back with eight blue feather made of energy. Smiling proudly, he introduced himself.
"Yes, I''m Vali. The descendant of True Lucifer also holds the one and only Vanishing Dragon."
"So this is the White Dragon Emperor of this generation¡" Hiro muttered under his breath.
Ophis nodded at the side and pointed at the armored young man aiming his long staff at Hiro.
"Bikou¡ A descendant of Son Goku."
Bikou began his introduction with a playful smile. "Hello, the young man who looks like Japanese. I''m Bikou from the clan of Sun Wukong. I also challenge you to fight if you win I will let you face our leader, the True Lucifer~"
Hiro completely neglected Bikou and Vali''s presence and looked in the hazel golden eyes of Nekomata. He could sense cautiousness and hatred inside them. He was sure she was one laughing before he entered the room.
"Kuroka, a Nekoshou."
Where did I hear this name? ¡ Kuroka¡ wait! She is the SS-Class terrorist who killed her Master, a devil from Naberius family¡
Kuroka stood up. The pair of tails growing from her swung around in the air. "Nya, what is a devil doing here? Is he joining us, Ophis-sama?"
Ophis nodded her head and grasped Hiro''s right hand. "Hiro is strong."
"My senjutsu sees a strong aura around your body. You should be a High Class Devil from my calculations. And also can you stop hiding your true appearance, nya~?"
"Why should I? I might agree if Ophis says it but sorry I don''t take orders from terrorists like you."
His offhanded remark provoked a growl from Kuroka. She even took an offensive attack and a dense magic power was released from her body. However, it lasted only for a moment before it was shaved in half.
"Divide!"
Hiro spotted Vali with his hand touching her back. The wings on his back shining brightly. Kuroka turned back and lifted Vali by the scrunch of his neck.
"Brat, I like you a bit. It doesn''t mean you can meddle in my affairs, nya~"
"L-Let me down. I order you to let me down!" Vali yelled as he flapped the wings to break free from her grasp.
"Exteeeend! Nyoi-bo!"
Hiro''s instincts triggered. He perceived a staff heading his way at a breakneck speed. He could easily evade it but decided not to. Cladding his hands in silver touki, he slapped away the staff trying to hit his chest.
After repelling the attack, he turned to Bikou smiling broadly. The attack wasn''t filled with any intent to harm, it was more like a probe.
"Had enough? I won''t be holding back next time."
"Ouuu~! You are strong. I love it, let''s fight more next time!" he glanced at Kuroka glaring hatefully his way and smiled. "I feel like I might die if I continue."
Seeing this, Vali''s battle spirit rose to another level. He managed to break free from Kuroka''s grasp and appeared in front of Hiro.
He is underestimating me...
Hiro tilted his head, dodging the silver ball made of pure demonic aura. He let out a sigh and clasped both hands of Vali and lifted him high. He was more than 170cm while Vali was shorter than 150cm.
"Say kid, do you really don''t have to act this? Attacking a stranger on their first meeting."
Vali gritted his teeth and glared at Hiro. He was stopping himself from using Balance breaker.
"I''m not a child! I''m fourteen years old!"
Hiro who was about to yawn, opened his droopy eyes. "You are fourteen?"
He swept his gaze over Bikou and Kuroka. The former nodded with a snicker while the latter glared at him but still nodded her head.
He narrowed his eyes at Vali. "If you want to fight, we''ll do it later. I don''t have any time now."
This group was an oddball, he might turn into an idiot if he stayed here for more than a day. Hiro shook his head and turned to Ophis.
"What is the purpose of this group? Why were those devils gathered in a place? And what is Ouroboros Dragon doing in the Underworld?"
At this moment, the blue wings on Vali''s back emitted a faint light. While a lofty voice resounded directly in Hiro''s head.
"I remember your aura from somewhere."