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Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 48)
🕑 Added 2024-02-11 04:00:01 +0000 UTC"Gaius, what the heck do you MEAN you are quitting your position as the fifth satan?! You haven't even officially BECOME it yet!" The twin-tailed magical girl exclaims as she slams her hands lightly on my table.
"Oh. You see. There's actually a little law that would seriously affect me as I am now." I state as I reach over to the side. "Ravel if you would?"
A clip board is placed in my hand and a dainty finger points to the lower quarter of the paper placed within it.
I begin reading aloud. "To prevent potential bias in the political landscape, a member of the four newfound satans must lose all connections to their houses, they, likewise, are only permitted to marry someone who has shunned their name as well. To prevent any potential weighted future votes, Satans are not permitted to marry another satan-"
"Oh. I didn't actually know that." I hum as I continue on. "Additionally, should a Satan have a harem, they are forced to renounce any and all sexual contact with the other parties to prevent decisions being manipulated by outside forces."
"What... is this?" Serafall blinks slowly.
I look to Ravel.
"Devil Copulation law, section twenty-eight." She supplies.
"That." I answer the Satan.
"I don't recall this law being within the law books the last time I checked." Serafall mutters while glaring hatefully at the clip board in my hands.
"Oh, you probably wouldn't, the laws were officialized a little over one hundred years ago but they are purposefully kept obscure seemingly on purpose." Ravel states with a small nod.
"Sooo basically, our love was doomed from the start." I shrug.
"Who approved these laws?!" The magical girl snarls.
"Who else?" I ask with a raised eyebrow. "The Great King faction. They didn't want any potential 'upstarts' to threaten their rule, so they tried to cripple the Four Satans potential to have offspring. You can see why this might cause a problem for me, devil with four fiancées. One of them being a satan."
Her eyebrow is twitching slightly as she continues in a low growl "ooooh I see... I can't do anything about this. I'm Foreign affairs."
I hear her teeth clench as she grits out another sentence, seemingly trying to set the clip board on fire with her glare alone. "I'll be sure to bring this to the attention of Sirzechs."
She is visibly shaking with rage.
"We have a couple ways of doing this." I shrug. "We have blackmail, general diplomacy or the nuclear option A and the nuclear option B."
Her rage slowly dissipates as she lets out a long sigh, bringing her hands to her head as she rubs her temples. "Can... you explain those for me. I'll try and give any input I can, but this is really a conversation you and Sirzechs should be having."
"This is a law that effects ALL Satans, so reasonably shouldn't ALL of the Satans be capable of commenting on it?" I ask idly.
She looks up. "Good point! Lay on those ideas you have and I'll give you my honest options."
"The first is blackmail." I shrug. "I've discovered quite a few dirty secrets of the great king faction, and reasonably, they don't want these to get out, nor can they afford to kill me."
"Probably a bad move." Serafall shakes her head. "Good plan B, not a good plan A, they'd worm their way out of it or try to blackmail you back... and besides... they can't kill you, sure, but those you care about?"
She allows her last five words to hang ominously in the air.
"Fair point" I nod slowly.
"The second is... general diplomacy, making several crucial points about myself to get the law changed. Maybe threaten to withhold Remnant or my fertility potions from them until they stop acting like fucking idiots."
"I see. Very possible." Serafall nods in approval.
"Then for the nuclear options." I smirk. "The first, is walking in there and threatening to kill them if they don't change the law for their sheer insolence at daring to try and dictate what we can or can't do."
"That sounds more along the lines of something the old satan faction would do." Serafall points out idly.
"Good point. B is a little more subtle. Release their secrets, collapse their faction, absorb the broken pieces into our own."
"Ooooooh." Serafall grins. "I like that one!"
She pauses abruptly. "But... that'd cause some serious unrest."
"True." I nod slowly. "That's why I called it a nuclear option. Or at the very least an option we take after destabilizing them for a couple decades or so."
"I already more or less plan to limit what 'older' devils can affect in places like Remnant. It'll be practically a new slate for us. We can craft laws basically however we want them to be."
"A good plan." Serafall smiles only to pause abruptly, a thought seemingly worming its way into her head.
"Oh! I forgot to say, you did REALLY well at the meeting of the three factions!" The woman grins as she reaches over the table and pats my head. "Good job!"
I shrug slightly. "It was honestly nothing. I was terrified of messing up the entire time."
"But speaking of the meeting... have the great king faction signed the treaty?" I ask with a small smirk.
"They have. Luckily we didn't have to do anything drastic to get them to agree." Serafall nods as she crosses her arms across her bust, looking a little annoyed. Not at me, of course, but just in general.
"They've agreed to all parts, correct? In particular the clause to reveal any Longinus they know of, right?" I continue.
Her eyes narrow immediately. "They have... I assume that they haven't exactly been truthful to us?"
"Well, I mean, because they pissed me off so badly, I'm going to tell you that they arranged the murder of Cleria Belial and her priest lover because she found out about king pieces... and they are using said pieces to rig the rating games for their advantage... also yes, Sairaorg Bael's pawn is Regulus Nemea... no, not the wielder of Nemea... the legitimate SPIRIT of the sacred gear... that's like me dragging Ddraig's soul out of my sacred gear and reviving him to be my minion."
With a dull flash a crystal ring appears on my finger.
"Why don't you? Er- without the minion thing, of course."
"I genuinely have no idea how he did it." I answer the ring. "Like, he didn't even do anything. The previous wielder of Regulus Nemea died and the spirit was just like... walking around... unopposed. He really abused his mother's lion taming trait to get him in the peerage."
"I see." The dragon utters as the ring swiftly makes itself scarce again.
"How do you know about king pieces, Gaius." Serafall frowns, her eyes narrowing.
"Oh? I know a bunch of secrets, actually. Tis a special trait of mine to be able to piece things together if I try hard enough!" I smile brightly. "Did you know Azazel has at least eight body pillows of Gabriel? And that Gabriel is actually secretly super jealous of our relationship because now you have someone to love you while she's all alone? Unable to get dick without falling?"
The satan's eyes narrow slightly. "I see..."
"Yep. Just ask me anything and I'll have like... a ninty... uh... one? Ninty one percent chance of knowing it." I state with a small smirk and a shrug as I tap the side of my head. "I've got an eidetic memory, so there's probably a lot of garbage up here."
"What was the first thing I ever said to you?"
"To me or just like... in my presence?" I question with a small head tilt. "Cause the answer to the first is ' You're alright! I thought you were going to die!' Then you picked me up and pressed my face into your breasts and said 'You poor thing! Don't worry, big sis Sera-tan has taken care of those bad guys who hurt you!' After which you took me to your office and filled me in on the things that changed in the past five hundred years or so, taking a keen interest in me because I looked vaguely like Sona with the black hair and purple eyes."
"…"
"But if we're talking the latter, I'm fairly certain you were all 'Dah dah dah! Tis I the miracle Levia-tan here to save the day from you foolish trouble makers!'." I suddenly gesture to Ravel with my thumb. "Then you blew up her father's butler's wings with ice magic and honestly sort of fucked my regeneration for a bit causing some needless pain."
The satan flinches slightly, her eyes softening as a slightly guilty expression appears on her face.
"What is my computer's password." The satan questions slowly, seemingly testing to see how far my knowledge legitimately goes.
"Hm. Good question. Judging from you as a person, and that computers as a general idea are actually fairly new... it's probably something along the lines of 'Super-Sexy-So-Tan' with a few numbers at the end... probably a sixty nine cause that's what you want to do with her."
She visibly flinches, not being quite so subtle with it this time.
"Does So-Tan love me back? Like in a super HOT way?" She eventually questions.
"She does fantasize about it rarely, only to feel disgusted with herself later because 'incest is wrong'." I nod slowly.
"Incest is wince-" Serafall catches herself and looks away slowly, seemingly having her mind drawn back to a certain event in my past.
*Ahem* she coughs as she gets back on track.
"You... are throwing around a lot of accusations." Serafall mutters lowly. "Do you have the proof of these things?"
"I mean, no... not really. How would I even get proof of that? You could probably get someone to meet Sairaorg's pawn fairly easily, he is being told to keep it secret, but I trust that you could at least get a small hint of the Longinus' power... thus giving you a reason to search less-subtly. As for other things, I could easily ask Valerie to call the souls of Cleria Belial and her husband... maybe grant them a new life in exchange for their statements? The rating game thing is going to be a lot harder to figure out, however."
"But let me just say, Diehauser is an absolute BEAST. Roygun and Bedeze, the current number two and three use king pieces to augment their powers and Diehauser STILL remains number one. That dude probably deserves a satan position even more than I do through sheer skill and power alone."
"These are things that... will be extremely hard to prove." The foreign affairs satan slowly states. "I believe we should pursue diplomacy first, while slowly but surely enacting all of these to slowly bleed them dry over the next century or so."
Ah... devil life... where a hundred-year plan is honestly a mere blip on the political map.
"Yeah." I nod slowly. "They can't continue to exist in the long term if they are going to keep trying to turn everything to their advantage like this... how else are we going to turn it to OUR advantage?!"
I glance over my shoulder to Ravel. "By the way, these guys are prepared to kill because of the knowledge of the king piece. Be wary. I don't want you hurt... if you are, there's not a damned thing that'll stop me from rendering them a bloody puddle."
"Right." She nods slowly. "I won't say a word."
My eyes stray to Serafall once more. "By the way, Sera-tan... there's one thing I would like you to do for me that would probably benefit the satans in the long run... I want to have the ability to partake in rating games... this is primarily to get my name out there, but it'll also have the benefit of teaching my peerage what it'll be like in a true fight... as they are now, they are strong, yes, but they don't have TRUE combat experience. People might find the sudden shift to my satan position a little jarring... as I am now, I'm merely 'the guy who fucked over the Phenexes' and that happened like a year ago. I'm old news... that doesn't even slightly tell how strong I may or may not be. People will look at me and think 'wait. This random kid is going to be a satan?! Ridiculous!' If I establish myself through rating games it'll make my promotion FAR easier. But for it to truly work. I'd need to get an undefeated record much like Diehauser."
"Besides! Technically I'm over five hundred years old AND the lord of my house. There's no reason for me to NOT take part in rating games." I state with a small smirk. "Also, I've got a vicious streak a mile wide. I'm like a coiled spring ready to burst, a volcano waiting to erupt and I sort of want to bleed that out before I take an important role in devil society... In my life, the number of meaningful fights I've been in can literally be numbered on a single hand.
"This is surprisingly well thought out." Serafall notes with a slight frown as she scratches the side of her head. "Yeah... you do need to get a little more combat experience... it'll be a good way to pass the time as we negotiate with the great king faction. Alright. I'll see what I can do!"
"Oh. One more thing." I state with a deathly serious tone as I steeple my hands in front of my face. "This is incredibly important."
"What is it, Gaius?" The satan questions.
"When I get my Satan title. Please... PLEASE... for all things unholy... just call my position 'Satan Decarabia'. I am the last Decarabia... and the last Malthus. Any of my future offspring may take the Malthus name. Reasonably, as my clan trait is. It is a new standard for the Decarabias. I see no need to create an absolutely ridiculous name like 'Satan Satan'… and honestly, I am far too used to saying 'Gaius Decarabia'."
"I- we can't just elevate your previous house to the level of the four satans."
"So what? Are we making up names, then? What the hell is a 'Satan Satan' the satan of satan affairs or something?!" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"It's not that simple-"
"Gabriel wants to keep it 'Satan Satan'." I deadpan with a half-lidded stare.
"Satan Decarabia it is!" The woman relents immediately.
I give her finger guns. "Very nice- oh... it looks like Azazel is here now."
She gives me a blank stare.
"Oh. And he even brought the white dragon emperor... it seems he was getting pissy about my continued denials to fight and is here to set up a play date which involves me violently and repeatedly bashing my fists into his face." I note with a small head tilt.
Serafall gives me a slow blink as she looks to the door, then looks back.
"Want to stay and watch me beat up Vali Lucifer?"
"LUCI-"
She sharply inhales, then exhales. "Yes. Why shouldn't a descendant of Lucifer have divine dividing."
"To be completely fair to him, I don't think he hates anyone in this world more than his grandfather." I state with a small mischievous smile. "Care to stick around to watch the potential fight, or do you have other things to do?"
She lets out a low click. "I suppose I could stick around."
We wait in silence, looking to the door.
"Lord Decarabia. A-Azazel is here to see you." A maid meekly states as she opens the door, Azazel struts inside like he owns the place, Vali keeping a fair distance.
"Well, well, if it isn't the Kid Satan and Serafall." The man grins, his eyes straying to Ravel. "And Phenex girl."
"You should really give people a heads up before you drop by." I deadpan with a half lidded expression. "Also. I resigned from my satan position."
"Wh- why?" The man blinks.
"They wouldn't let me have a harem." I shrug with a slight smirk.
*Snrk* the fallen snorts. "Alright, Kid, whatever you say."
I snap my fingers twice, causing Ravel to place the clip board in my hand then I flip it around and hold it out to the fallen. I tap the lower paragraph with my index finger.
He leans forwards slightly, stroking his goatee as he skims the text.
He gives the clip board a genuine look of disgust. "What the hell?! That's stupid!"
"My thoughts exactly. Which is why I quit my unofficial position before it became official... also the name fucking sucked... I'll let political incident take care of itself for a while. I've got other things to worry about."
I give the fallen leader a half-lidded stare. "I assume you are here to schedule a little playdate with Vali, there?"
"Tch-" the white dragon emperor scoffs with a heated glare.
"Well, yes." Azazel nods. "Buuut I also thought I'd drop off these."
With a flash a sacred gear appears in his hand, it looks like a shin-bracer.
"Oh... the rest of Vitra's gears." I blink slowly. "Alright. I'll call Mittelt soon."
"Now hold your horses, kid satan. I thought you were going to give me an offer I couldn't refuse for those~" the man smirks.
I glance to Serafall who shrugs, seemingly fine with me doing whatever.
"Alright then." I smirk. "I'll give you one... but I'll take care of it after my little fight with Vali."
"I wouldn't call the fight between two heavenly dragons a 'little' thing." Azazel frowns.
I give him a half-lidded stare. "Oh, believe me. Normally, that would be the case... but in this scenario? If he actually makes me try once I activate a certain aspect of my sacred gear... I'd be surprised."
My nonchalance seems to irk Vali severely, judging from his eyebrow twitch.
"Alrighty. I'm personally interested to see how strong this generation's current red dragon emperor is!" Azazel grins as he claps his hands together.
**Linebreak**
I stare at the leather jacket wearing delinquent with my hands in my pockets, a bored smile with a half lidded stare on my face, I have ditched my suit's blazer, leaving me with the white dress shirt underneath and black trousers.
We are stood within a forested meadow, lines of trees surround us on all sides, in the distance behind me, is a lake with several small rivers and babbling brooks flowing towards it, large mountains litter the surroundings. It's as if we are in a large bowl.
This is a temporary dimension created by Azazel for this scenario.
"Why aren't you using your sacred gear?" The descendant of Lucifer scowls.
"I don't really need it yet." I shrug, a small smirk worming its way across my face.
"Then I don't need Divine Dividing." He declares.
"Your funeral." I state as I slowly raise a single hand.
'You're going to need more that that.'
'Oh, believe me. I know. This is just to piss him off.'
Five ethereal vaguely arrow-shaped objects float from my open palm, lazily snaking out in the air, they shoot off suddenly at incredible speeds, the half devil's eyes widen slightly as he dives to the side, but the spectral missiles suddenly swerve and smash into his chest, causing him to stagger back as if he was shoved roughly by something. His shirt has several large scuff marks on it, the magically enhanced jacket resisting the magic missiles fairly well.
He lunges forwards, swiftly clearing the distance between us, I take a step back, avoiding his first punch, his leg comes up and a kick lashes out towards my face, but I block it with a forearm.
Three plumes of black fire rockets from my offhand, one after another, Vali avoids them by tilting his body backwards and leaping away.
The final strikes a magic circle with a flash of sparks.
'You should try the greater version you have. The hellfire ray I think it's called? Infectious ray won't do much cause he's the only target.'
'Contagious Flame' I mentally correct. 'I've got it. Don't worry. Just luring him into a false sense of security.'
He lands in a crouch, looking fairly bored. "If this is all you have, I'm going to be disappointed."
'that arrogant little-'
I give him a half-lidded stare. "Alright."
I cast, bull's strength, cat's grace, bear's endurance, followed swiftly by mage armor, shield, and Mythic Haste.
'Oh? Ohohohoho this'll be good!'
He quirks his eyebrow at the magical power sparking off my body.
I suddenly lunge forwards, causing a grin to cross the face of the battle-crazed teen.
He ducks a punch narrowly; I block a counter and swerve around him as he shoots off a single blast of demonic power.
Our fists smash into each other as he whirls around, his eyes widening fractionally.
He is hurled backwards as a pulse of magic explodes off my fist, he flips across the clearing, eventually sliding to a halt a good thirty feet away.
I cast Mythic Fly on myself and slowly float off the ground without the use of my wings.
I blur forwards, far faster than my earlier speed, I reach the descendant in less than a tenth of a second, my hand striking him in the stomach.
He staggers back as I whirl around and lash out with a kick.
He raises a hand and catches it, but it doesn't stop my other leg from lashing up and snapping his head back.
His grip loosens for a moment, allowing me to tear my leg free.
My hand comes up, a crackling orb of black energy about the size of a tennis ball appearing within it. "I'd dodge this if I were you."
"Intensified. Empowered." I lowly breathe as the orb shakes and doubles in size, then as fire flickers around my body it grows yet again by more than half.
Vali's eyes widen as he blinks tears out of his eyes, my kick to his nose probably stung like a bitch, it's even bleeding.
"Hellfire." I whisper as the orb explodes outwards, sending a massive ray of swirling, crackling, black fire lancing towards the Longinus wielding devil.
"VALI!" Albion snaps as divine dividing appears on the teen's back.
{VANISHING DRAGON BALANCE BREAKER! SCALE MAIL!}
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
The fire eventually clears, revealing an armored figure standing there with his arms crossed.
The forearms of what would normally be a pristine white armor is blackened by ash and soot, dim black fires crackle in the grass as the armored figure slowly uncrosses his arms. "Well now... that was dangerous..."
His voice sounds slightly echoey now.
'Balance breaker already? Wow. That was certainly a powerful attack, then.'
The faint smell of ash and brimstone lingers in the air.
Leave it to Albion to shrug off ninty D-six plus two hundred and seventy damage.
That's more than enough damage to wipe great wyrm dragons off the face of the earth in a single attack.
Though, I suppose he did divide the damage by eight.
He suddenly lunges forwards with great speed.
Everything slows down as I channel mythic power.
I punch forwards, my hand striking a magic circle that springs to life in front of his torso, I dodge his forwards punch and lash out with a kick that crashes into another magic circle, this time causing it to crack slightly.
I hop back from a backhanded swipe, then suddenly lunge forwards again.
His hand passes through my body as the illusion fades, revealing that I was lunging in for an attack just behind the illusion, his head snaps to the side as a small crack appears in his helmet.
I duck around a snap kick that is briefly halted by my shield spell, then smash my elbow into the center of Vali's chest, causing him to take a step back as I hear his teeth grit in either frustration or a bit of pain as the wind is knocked out of him.
He reaches out a hand towards me, but I slide on my knees in between his legs and hop to my feet, smashing a fist into his face as he whirls around, causing him to stagger as a second punch strikes his chest.
His fingers brush my forearm.
{DIVIDE!}
Weakness spreads throughout my body, causing me to hop backwards.
He's on top of me immediately, I duck the first attack and my mage armor absorbs the second, the third and fourth smash into my torso and fling me like a ragdoll across the meadow and into the surrounding forest.
'How do I dodge his next attacks effortlessly while looking like a badass?'
I let out a long breath as my vision dims. I close my eyes and kip-up to my feet.
I slip my hands into my pockets.
I twist around a punch, the white dragon emperor rocketing past.
He blurs around, swiftly circling around for another attack as my eyes barely crack open.
I backflip over his kick and glare down at him as he passes underneath.
My hands come together and block his next punch as I land on the ground, my feet carving trenches in the earth as I am shunted backwards.
My arm comes up and barely deflects a kick over my head as I crouch.
I step past him and slam my elbow into his back, the sound of shrieking metal meets my ears as the maximized, empowered, intensified force punch spell strikes him.
The vanishing dragon is sent rocketing away from me, flipping through trees and carving a trench in the dirt as he rolls roughly to a halt.
He flips to his feet, barely avoiding three large mace-head shaped objects of force which impact the earth he was sat in moments before with heavy thuds that kick up plumes of dust.
I swipe my hand upwards before he even moves, he blurs forwards as my hand wraps around his armored throat, I twist and smash the Longinus wielder into the earth as black flames crackle at the tip of my finger.
His knee comes up and smashes into my ribs, launches me off of him and causing my attack to narrowly pass his face.
I land on my feet and brush off my shirt which is certainly filthy, considering it is a white dress shirt and I just got launched through a forest.
I hop abruptly, my knee meeting Vali's fist as I cock a hand back and punch down at him.
His face plate cracks as he is blasted backwards, falling in a heap a short distance away.
'annnd. That's the end of my omniscience induced foresight.'
"Alright. That's enough." I state as a ring appears on my finger.
The crystal ring rapidly expands over my hand as I clap my hands together, transferring some of the crystal over.
The crystal grows, covering my fingers and creeping up my arms as it flashes and turns to metal.
"This... is the last moment you hold any form of advantage in this fight." I state slowly.
[BOOST!]
"He's right." The orb in the back of my gauntlets glow. "But even then... my partner fought back against yours when he was in his balance breaker... without relying on ANY of my power... a sad showing, Albion."
"Hmph. What's a sad showing is that you allowed yourself to be taken from a wielder and have accepted another." The glowing wings reply as Vali fishes himself from the dirt.
"My old partner was and is nothing more than a pathetic weakling who hadn't even known of the supernatural until the gear was rightfully taken from him." My gauntlets reply. "My new partner is far greater than he could ever be. I thought that would be clear with how he has been toying with you from the start."
"Do not think for a second that my partner was using the full extent of his strength for even a moment, Ddraig." The wings snarl. "My partner's power goes far deeper than you could fathom!"
""Prove it"" Ddraig and I state at the same time.
[BOOST!]
The white dragon emperor appears in front of me, fist cocked back, he punches forwards, white gauntlet gleaming with dividing power as it strikes me in the face, it's as if a thunder had exploded out from the location, grass is blown outwards as the trees rattle.
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
That gale inducing punch...
Merely managed to turn my head about an inch to the side.
I turn my head, forcing his punch back, I reach up and grab one of his shoulders with one hand.
[BOOST!]
My head smashes into his own, shattering his helmet almost completely, leaving armor around the chin and cheek areas.
{DIVIDE!}
I suddenly gut punch him.
[PENETRATE!]
His armor detonates around my fist as it makes contact with his stomach.
He coughs blood as his eyes shake.
"W-What?!" He gags.
I block his pain-filled sloppy kick with my forearm.
{DIVIDE!}
I lazily chop his chest.
[PENETRATE!]
His armor shatters as my hand cleaves through it, the force of the attack causing him to take a step back from the sheer force of the blow.
{DIVIDE!}
{DIVIDE!}
I counter two punches with two of my own.
[BOOST!]
"This is what I meant... by taking away your greatest strength..." I state slowly with a serious frown.
{HALF DIMENSION!}
The ground around us folds inwards, creating a massive crater for the surrounding fifty or so feet.
The only thing unaffected by this ability is Vali... and myself.
I punch him in the face, causing him to stagger backwards.
"Let me run you through the way my boosted gear is a cut above the rest." I smirk, shooting the vanishing dragon emperor a vicious- and victorious grin.
I hold up a single finger. "Number one."
[BOOST!]
[RITE!]
"God god god." The gauntlets chant as Ddraig seems to be taking sick pleasure in the sudden turn in the fight.
The half devil lets out a grunt of pain as he staggers back, clutching his head with his hands.
"The ability to increase the power of holy rituals far beyond their normal effect." I smirk.
I land a snap-kick to his torso that launches him away.
"Number two!"
[BOOST!]
[DREAM!]
I snap my fingers creating hundreds of light spears.
They all rocket down at the vanishing dragon who flips to regain his footing and creates a massive magic circle to block them.
They slip through the magical barrier, most shattering on contact with the ground, but a few do manage to pierce the devil.
He lets out a snarl as they impale his limbs.
I snap my fingers once more, causing them to shatter like glass, revealing no wounds left on the satan descendant at all.
"Manipulation of dreams and illusions that are perfect in every way... allowing me to create visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory hallucinations... and it even allows me to make you feel pain."
"Number three." I hold up a third finger.
One of my gauntlets morph into a black blade with red veins running throughout. The red jeweled cross in the center of the handguard gleams as the boosted gear makes another callout.
[BOOST!]
[IMITATE!]
I slash the blade downwards, creating a massive wave of demonic energy that Vali dives out of the way of as it arcs off into the distance, leaving a trench in its wake.
"The ability to copy most weapons I see, including magical effects."
Vali gets to his feet slowly, wiping his bleeding mouth as his armor mends, I see a grin on his face as the Caledfwlch copy returns to a gauntlet
'ugh. Battle junkie.'
"Reason four."
I disappear in a puff of smoke as the boosted gear calls out its next ability.
[BOOST!]
[SHROUD!]
The white dragon emperor scans the area cautiously.
His head snaps to the side, his leg is swept out from under him, causing him to collapse to the floor as a dent appears in the back of his armor a moment later.
I reappear, standing over him, my foot pinning him to the ground.
"That one's sort of self-explanatory, so I'll let you figure it out."
"Number five."
I slip the tip of my foot under his chest and kick upwards, sending him roughly to his feet, he staggers left and right as he regains his bearings, he raises his fists-
[BOOST!]
[ACCELERATE!]
Dozens of punches riddle his face and torso, blasting him back a moment later.
I disappear, reappearing in his path, kicking him aside with a simple roundhouse.
"Super speed."
"Reason six? I really like this one."
I point a single gauntleted finger at the armored figure.
I cock my thumb back like the hammer of a revolver and twitch it downwards.
"DODGE!" The wings call out.
[BOOST!]
[DEVASTATE!]
The glowing wings of Divine dividing flap rapidly, carrying Vali skywards, narrowly avoiding the titanic cone of destruction that continues for at least one hundred feet.
Vali flips around in the air. "I who am about to awaken."
"Ohoho?" I smirk. "We're doing this? Alright, then."
"Am the Heavenly Dragon who has taken the principles of supremacy from God" the white-haired delinquent chants as his armored figure begins shaking.
"Reason seven!" I call out as my gauntlets extend, the fingertips becoming long and blade-like.
"I envy the "infinite" and I pursue the "dream"!" Vali calls out, as his body begins morphing with sickening crunches of bone and flesh. His armor melds with his skin as his visor splits into a mouth.
I stab both hands into the ground and I begin to run, carving small cuts in the earth wherever I go. Cleaving through root, rock, grass, basically everything in my way.
"I shall become the White Dragon of Supremacy" his arms extend into longer limbs tipped with incredibly sharp claws. As do his legs. That strange tail thing at the back of his armor extends into a true tail.
I eventually come to a halt where I first started.
"And I shall take you to the limits of white paradise" Vali finishes as his glowing wings grow and extend. "Juggernaut Drive!"
I stab my gauntlets into the earth.
[BOOST!]
[OVERRIDE!]
The land beneath my feet rumbles and shakes as the white dragon looms in the air.
"Come Red Dragon Emperor!" Vali roars, voice far more monstrous than it was before. "Show me what you've got!"
He swoops down as the boosted gear returns to its original twin gauntlet shape.
I uppercut the air.
The earth beneath Vali rockets upwards.
"Gh-" the dragon grunts as the earth knocks it upwards, something else voices its opinion on suddenly being granted the ability to move and follow orders
"GROOOAAAAH"
The entire surrounding landscape lifts upwards, forming two rocky earthen legs, a torso, and two extremely powerful looking rocky limbs without fingers.
I am stood atop a large mound of earth shaped roughly like a head. Trees and rock cover parts of the earthy giant, but it is mainly featureless
I swat my hand downwards, causing the massive golem to smack Vali out of the sky.
He lands surprisingly gracefully in the absolutely mangled landscape below, on all fours in a slight crouch, with a flap of his wings he rockets upwards... right into the large rocky clap I tell my golem to do.
The fingerless hands crush the dragon on both sides-
[BOOST!]
The rocks abruptly explode as the dragon tears itself out of the grasp.
{HALF DIMENSION!}
Everything in the surrounding mile or so begins to grow smaller and smaller.
"Should we finish this up, Ddraig?" I ask idly. "I don't think Seven really has much of an impact anymore."
"Could we get him to divide himself?" The gauntlets question.
"Eh, possibly." I note as I watch the dragon breathe a laser beam that cuts off one of the golems arms. He does it again to cleave off a leg. "But we already used override in this fight... and we've got two more abilities to go through... though we have been displaying one of fairly often already... and the second has been on since I started using you. There's just been no name put to it."
Vali seems satisfied with his work, targeting me, he lunges forwards yet again as the golem begins slowly falling.
Two large plumes of dark fire explode from my back as I take off, planning to meet the dragon head-on.
The dragon opens its mouth, charging another beam.
"You've already seen number eight!" I call out as Vali fires.
I bring a fist back and punch the rapidly approaching beam.
[BOOST!]
[PENETRATE!]
The beam splits around me in a Y shape as I fly through it. It eventually ends as I reach his head, his entire body snaps to the side to follow his head after I punch the dragon in the face, a tooth is knocked from its mouth.
[PENETRATE!]
Vali spirals out of control for a moment before getting his flight back under his own constraints
"And now, what we've all been waiting for!" I grin. "Number nine!"
I disappear with a sudden burst of movement.
[ACCELERATE!]
I snap the dragon's head to the side with a punch, then appear in its path and kick him in the chin, snapping his head upwards.
I land several swift punches to Vali's neck and fly past him, holding out a hand to his open back.
[DEVASTATE!]
The scales lose their glimmer as a blast of destructive energy hits them, a blast of red power washes over his back as he lets out a roar of annoyance.
He whirls around, jaws snapping.
"And now for the coup de grace." I grin as I disappear with a noise akin to shattering glass as his bite connects.
I promptly dropkick the side of the dragon's head.
[NEGATE!]
He is shot downwards, his body rapidly shrinking.
I allow myself to fall after him.
He smashes into the ground, creating a massive crater and a huge plume of smoke.
I land gracefully at the edge of the crater, with a swipe of my hand the dust clears, revealing Vali stood there, buried up to his knees in the earth.
It looks like he corrected his fall at the last second.
The balance breaker disappears as he falls back unconscious.
[RESET!]
"Well. That was enjoyable."
"You know, it actually was pretty fun." I agree with a slow nod.
"It has been a while since I managed to have such a decisive victory against Albion."
"Cause your main power sort of sucks compared to his?"
"Oi. What the hell do you mean by that?"
"I mean... couldn't he have the power of an ant and divide like... god... and immediately drag them down to an even one on one as it absorbs the power while if the ant had you, they'd have to boost like a billion times?"
"No. Divine Dividing has a power cap. If the wielder surpasses it, the wielder could easily die... if a regular human were to divide an ultimate class devil, their sacred gear would be overcharged and possibly explode them... violently... I've seen it once or twice. One of my past wielders ambushed one of Albion's weaker ones after boosting to their maximum. They didn't know what hit them when their power turned against them."
"Eh, that's fair. I like the boosting aspect far better than division." I nod slowly. "I'd need to find powerful people to steal power from to accomplish all of my bullshit, then."
"But you are correct in assuming that Albion's power is indeed quite a bit better in a one on one situation... if both of our wielders were the same, with every boost and divide, they would grow stronger while my wielder would remain stagnant."
"I'm honestly surprised your admitting that." I blink slowly at the gauntlets.
"Albion may be my mortal enemy, but I do know strength when I see it. I'm not blind. My power, however, shines in preparation and against numerous opponents."
"Huh." I hum as I roll my shoulders and slowly walk away from the crater. "Soooo, I'm gonna go and grab those Vitra gears really fast."
"I'll take a nap."
"You do you." I shrug with a sly smirk.
