16 Revelations and Ice Part 1

(A/N Jake being 30 years in the past has been retconned to 20 years. I know, some of your days have been ruined and your collective disappointments immeasurable from such a profound change… /s)

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"Let's start with the top reason! I know you're a time traveler!"

Jake was shocked—how? Even Dumbledore didn't know that about him! Did she read his mind or something? Was magical mind reading even a thing? Jake was really starting to curse his ignorance when it came to magic lately. Things were a lot easier when he was just an ordinary foster kid who occasionally attended some cheap boxing lessons to figuratively punch his stress away.

Serafall smirked at Jake's once again shocked expression. She didn't know why, but she just found teasing him to be so fun. Maybe because it was like teasing a mini Sirzechs who would actually respond to her advances?

"What?" Jake said. "How did you find out about that?"

Serafall smiled at Jake. "Well, you weren't exactly subtle about your existence," she said. "You obviously don't know it, but the name Gremory holds weight in this world. Your older brother is technically one of the top 10 strongest beings… allegedly."

"I have a brother?" Jake asked, surprised at that. "What's he like? Can I meet him?" He was eager to connect with his family, except his dad who apparently abandoned him and sealed away his powers. That guy could go and rot in hell for all Jake cared!

"It wouldn't be a good idea," Serafall sighed sadly as she said that. Jake looked saddened. She and Ajuka figured it wasn't a good idea for him to meet with his family members before he had technically been born. Maybe they were just being paranoid about it, but time travel of the magnitude Jake had undergone had never happened before…ever.

"Why not?" he asked angrily. "Does he not give a shit about me either, like my shitty father?"

"Wait, what?" Serafall interrupted. "We were under the impression that your father didn't even know you existed," she said.

"Huh?"

"No offense, but we kinda assumed you were an accident during one of Zeoticus's various dalliances throughout the human world," she explained sheepishly. "Are you saying that's not the case?" If true, then that would be big news to share with Sirzechs and Ajuka. The fact that Zeo knew that Jake actually existed and still abandoned him would be huge. The Gremory clan is supposed to be all about family, after all. If the other clan members found out that he abandoned his second son to the human world just because he was a half-devil, then Zeo would have his title as clan head stripped from him!

"It's kind of a long story," Jake said as he scratched his cheek.

"Why don't you start from the beginning, then?" Serafall said. "We can talk about your older brother and your father more another day." That seemed like it was going to be a kind of heavy conversation to Serafall anyway…

So Jake began explaining that weird Sunday to Serafall, trying his best to recall all the details of his encounter with the four members of the Hero Squad. When he got to a certain point in his explanation of what Jeanne said about his mother, however, Serafall sputtered in shock.

"Wai-wait just a minute, Jake," Serafall said. "So this Jeanne girl specifically said that you are a direct descendant of Solomon on your mother's side." Serafall was internally freaking out about that revelation. If it was true, then they would need to keep his mother's side an absolute secret, or else Jake would be killed! And if he was killed, then Sirzechs might go off the deep end and start a war with whoever slew his younger brother...

"Umm yeah," Jake explained, "she said it was the reason I was able to wear a crucifix without being burned by it." Jake's explanation sounded like proof enough in Serafall's opinion. She couldn't think of anything else that would let anyone with a drop of devil blood in their veins ever touch a cross without getting scalded.

"You need to listen to me right now, Jake," Serafall said extremely seriously. "The information that you're a descendant of Solomon and have actually inherited his power can NEVER get out," she said, emphasizing the word 'never.' "If the other factions found out about his bloodline surviving, there will be a war!" she continued.

"Wait, what!?" Jake was shocked. "Just because its power allows me to copy the powers of other people," Jake said. "Why is that such a big deal?" he asked.

Serafall sighed at his ignorance, not that it was actually his fault. "Damn Zeoticus for abandoning his kid!" She thought to herself. She explained, "Jake, it's not just other people's powers, as you put it. It's their bloodlines, their legacies, possibly even their divine authorities that you can copy and imitate. You can literally copy the powers of gods themselves," she explained to him seriously. "You might not know this about gods yet, but you will. The majority of them are extremely paranoid and extremely petty. If there was a being running around using their powers willy-nilly without their permission, then they WILL try to kill them. And it's not just gods that will be angry about having their supposed exclusive abilities copied! Solomon himself went out of his way to steal the powers of as many devils as possible. In the end, he actually copied the powers of all 72 demons of the Ars Goetia, making him incredibly powerful and dangerous."

Jake just nodded along at her explanation. "So tons of people will try to kill me if they find out," he asked.

"That is correct," Serafall said. "We'll come back to your copy powers later. Why don't you continue the story for now?"

So Jake continued his tale of his encounter with the supposed teenage heroes. He eventually got to the part where it was explained that his crucifix was actually a magic seal made with devil magic to hide his heritage and make him appear as an ordinary human.

"Damn Zeoticus, what were you thinking!" Serafall thought to herself in anger as her worst-case suspicions turned out to be true. "Sirzechs will be furious when he finds out his brother was intentionally abandoned!" Serafall also had a suspicion as to why. 'Did Zeoticus know about Jake's mother's heritage? Was he trying to protect his son in some twisted way, or was he trying to just be rid of him.' She wondered.

Eventually, they reached the part of Jake's unsealing of his powers and how his latent stored magic started rampaging after being repressed for so long. The Georg guy tried to use his "Dimension Lost," but Jake ended up absorbing its powers somehow, and then it mixed with his rampaging demonic power, and BAM! He ended up getting flung through space and time to Britain 20 years in the past. "And here we are now," Jake said as he finished his tale.

Serafall just sighed at Jake's luck. The fewer people that knew about his bloodline, the better, and there were clearly at least four other people in the future who knew about him. She would need to "take care" of those four so-called heroes. Serafall asked Jake for the exact date and location of where the meeting took place so she could inform Ajuka about it. To her, the one good thing about Jake being sent to the past meant that they could plan a bunch of contingencies for his future.

Serafall smiled kindly at Jake as his explanation was finally finished. "Okay, I've got the whole situation in hand now, and honestly, it was a lot more than I expected," she sighed a bit. "But that's okay," she said, perking up. "Because now we can plan some contingencies for the future... even if it's 20 years from now. My good buddy Ajuka has a perfect memory, so he won't forget any details I give him," Serafall said to Jake as he nodded along, not quite following her but pretending that he was. "Anyway," she continued, "you don't need to worry about those so-called heroes once you get back to the future. We will handle them."

Truth be told, Jake had kind of forgotten about those four with everything that had happened so far at Hogwarts. He supposed it would be nice not to have to deal with them, though. They were all kinds of dicks to him anyway. "They were just extremely arrogant assholes," he thought to himself.

"So now that my explanation is over, what now?" Jake asked Serafall, to which she smiled. Her smile was still beautiful to Jake, but this one seemed to be a bit... sadistic?

"Now?" she said excitedly. "Now we train you in real magic. Not these weak Hogwarts spells tailored for wands, but real devil magic!" She exclaimed. She didn't really think Wizard magic was a complete waste, but outside of a handful of strong spells their magic just plain didn't measure up in sheer power to the rest of the world! And after watching Jake almost die, and hopefully Grayfia never finds out about that (Serafall shuddered), she wanted him to have a powerful and versatile ability up his metaphorical sleeve. Hence her ice magic.

Jake just nodded along. Learning some ice magic didn't sound too bad to him. So why did he suddenly feel a creeping sense of danger? "So how do we go about doing that?" he asked.

"It's quite simple, really," Serafall said slyly as she brought forth a small portion of her demonic power. Suddenly, the entire forest clearing, from the biggest trees to the smallest blades of grass, was instantly frozen solid! Jake was shocked at that display of power! It only took a few seconds for him to link all the frost around him with the giant ice cube that smashed the dragon and saved him the day before!

"It was you who saved me yesterday!" He exclaimed, pointing at Serafall.

Serafall giggled at his apparent revelation. "Indeed, it was I, the Great Maou Serafall, who saved you! And you should be thankful to me because now this Maou is going to allow you to copy her ice magic!" As she said that, her magic flared up even more, and the temperature all around them dropped even further. A blue, misty aura surrounded her menacingly.

"Wait, I thought you didn't want me copying other peoples' powers!" Jake exclaimed, confused.

A magic circle formed along Serafall's hand before she pointed it towards Jake. "I never said that!" She replied. "I just told you not to tell anyone about it," she elaborated. "Besides, ice magic is pretty common in the supernatural world, so no one will bat an eye at you being able to use it. Now, the records from 1000 years ago weren't exactly clear, and my memories are a bit foggy since I haven't studied in hundreds of years, but I do recall that in order for Solomon to be able to copy another being's power, his whole body had to be sufficiently exposed to it. That's how you were able to copy Dimension Lost's abilities when it was used on you!" With her explanation finished, she fired a giant wave of ice at Jake!

Jake did what anyone else with basic survival instincts would do in that situation—he dodged out of the way! "What the hell!" he shouted as he rolled on the frozen grass from his last-second dodge. "Are you trying to kill me!?" he exclaimed.

"Of course not," she replied. "I would never try to kill you, Jake," she said kindly before she once again smiled slyly. "I am going to have to hurt you a bit for you to copy my ice magic, though." She fired another wave of ice magic at Jake, too fast for him to dodge this time! He threw his arms in front of his face protectively right before it slammed into him, and he felt colder than he had ever felt in his life. It was as if he was being frozen down to his very core. The girl of Jake's dreams turned out to be a lot more powerful and sadistic than he had initially thought...

Jake dropped to the icy ground after the spell connected with him, completely shivering as his skin turned almost completely blue. His clothes and hair had comically been completely frozen over. Serafall couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt about blasting him with her ice magic, but his current icicle-like appearance was undeniably hilarious. She wished she had a camera to capture the moment. Besides, it wasn't her fault he had such a masochistic bloodline. She wondered if Solomon was just a total masochist himself to be able to willingly endure the attacks of all 72 demons just to copy their powers...

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-end chapter-

And that brings this chapter to a wrap. Leave some comments or reviews! I'd love to get some more responses!

A special thank you to my Hero Team Patron(s): William G.

Read chapters ahead of time at p.a.t.r.e.o.n --> FiveStarTomato