Transcendense of Aeons I
The Goddess of the Sun felt enlightened. Feeling stuck, as if her power had reached the limit just like the countless gods in Draconic Deus. It wasn't until now that she understood her path hadn't ended... it was just beginning.
She bowed down slightly with the brightest of smiles towards the individual who represented exactly the opposite. A being that was supposed to be evil and wicked yet showed nothing more than humble behaviour. A Devil Emperor with horns, dark skin and a body do die for; which resembled more of a saviour than a wicked being.
"It would be an honour to face you again. If that's okay, could I join these training sessions, Richter-sama?" Amaterasu felt that her paths had broadened and in order to keep growing, she needed to get close to those that had the power to grow beyond the limits of this world.
The path to becoming a Primordial wasn't simple but as long as she had guides, it would be possible.
"Me too" Yasaka landed beside her, having recovered from her light bruises after a goddess from Takamagahara treated her. Just like Amaterasu, she bowed to the sitting Golden Dragon and Jie Yuan. It wasn't every day she got thrashed around like that. She desired to fight Annette once again, next time in better shape.
"Naturally... Jie Yuan?" Richter questioned the Devil Emperor who merely shrugged her shoulders.
"I wouldn't mind explaining a thing or two, I hope Ni Jie is going to take part as well, I have a lot of things to teach my daughter about Profound Strength and also the Evil God Arts" the Devil Emperor was speaking when a bunch of youngsters started to conglomerate around her with gazes containing endless respect.
"Yuan-sensei!" Issei said and all of the students around her looked at her as if she was their bastion of hope.
"Eh?" The Devil Emperor was confused as to why they all were calling her 'sensei' when she didn't even know what that word meant.
"Please, could you teach us instead of Annette-sensei? You're more teacher material" Someone held her hand kindly, it was Tsubaki, Sona's Queen.
"You ungrateful brats! next time we fight, I'll smash you!" Annette blushed with outrage, so much for teaching the brats and they all go lean on the next newer light post. This 'light post' also happened to have a massive chest unlike her, which only pissed her off more.
"You see, she's scary! please teach us! all she does is hit us every day!" Gasper hugged Jie Yuan's hand and the woman felt confused. Is this a boy or a girl? he looks like a girl but sounds like a boy.
While everyone conglomerated around her, asking for advice. The teachers like Venelana, Ajuka and Serafall moved next to Richter.
"Thanks for the display, Richter-sama... it was rather enlightening. It makes me wonder what laws I possess" Diehauser spoke politely, completely different to his usual haughty persona. He knew when he was in front of an individual he couldn't mess around with.
"You devils in this world have a natural compatibility with a variety of elements, unlike in our world where they only know about darkness... like the three of you" She pointed at the nearby Rias, Sona and Seekvaira.
"You, Rias Gremory, have the law of destruction. Seekvaira Agares is compatible with the law of time; an extremely difficult law to understand and perceive and lastly you... Sona Sitri, the laws of water. Despite being devils, your innate capacity makes you superior to the devils of other worlds" Li Suo explained wisely, both she and Jie Yuan had something that Richter didn't have... billions of years of experience to back off their knowledge. It didn't matter what words came out of her mouth, they sounded like sage preachings.
Rias, Sona and Seekvaira looked at each other. They never thought that the abilities inherited by their families were more like an innate advantage towards the understanding of these 'laws'.
"Since we're all reunited here... how about I show all of you the best place to train, Richter-sama?"
"Are you taking them as well?" Richter questioned his treasure spirit, she did say about taking them into this treasure that is the Eternal Heaven Pearl.
The Goddess nodded and extended her arms, rays of light shot out from her body and enveloped everyone present except for the Shinto Gods that had been speaking to Yasaka and Amaterasu... clearly, they didn't have the favour of the Creation Goddess of Life.
"There are certain things I want to explain to you, master. But the Eternal Heaven Pearl has many uses. Through the aeons, there was a single one that Xi Ke had publicly shown and that was time distortion... allow me to show you~".
*RUMBLE!!*
It took a mere second, but the visuals switched like the difference between the start of slumber and the end of dreamland.
Everyone disappeared, the next instant what they saw was a completely different world. A vast space filled with golden platforms as far as the eye could see. Golden energy rumbled around in the form of auroras and a Golden Sky that covered the whole world. Clouds of golden dust made this world look like a paradise. For a moment Richter felt as if he was back at Goldstein.
"This is...?"
The Dragon questioned; suddenly feeling as if he was back home with the sudden urge to switch into his Dragon Form and sleep. Li Suo seemed to feel that as well and smiled as a result; flying and hugging her master from behind, inadvertently placing her humongous chest at either side of his head. Gulping noises were heard but no one said a word. Who dared crave this goddess?
"This is the space of the Eternal Heaven Pearl... in here I'm able to control a customized dilation of time. I could make it so that a month in here is equivalent to a single minute outside, or even more... a thousand years could be a single minute. It all depends on how much energy there is at our disposal".
"Unbelievable... that means" Venelana's lips shivered just like Amaterasu's and the elders they couldn't believe such an outrageous treasure existed... the closes phenomenon to this was the arts belonging to the Agares Family whose control over time was apparently 'unparalleled' at least that's what they thought until now. Lord Agares' space was merely several square metres of area with a time dilation of 1 to 10. Basically, every minute outside was an hour inside.
This world, however... was like a universe of its own. For a thousand years to be a single minute; that was a scale of one to more than a million! The difference was so vast that the Agares' power looked like a joke.
"We could train here for thousands of years before the war...?" Sona walked forward, feeling the warmth of the golden dust brushing against her face, it was so relaxing that she felt she didn't want to leave there ever. Everything was gold. Her gaze travelled to Richter, only to see that he seemed as enthralled by this world as she was.
"What energy are we talking about?"
"Originally all heavenly profound treasures have a storage of energy of their own, this storage is usually profound strength. But we're no longer in the primal chaos, in order for the Eternal Heaven Pearl to work I had to tweak it... now the energy is the faith that master obtains from Primordial Gold, hence why everything around you is like this".
"I see..."
"Does this create a huge consumption on you? why aren't you tired" Rias stepped forward and took Richter's wrist with a seemingly worried expression. The Dragon turned around with lifted eyebrows.
"Could we talk later?"
"...sure, Rias".
"Hehe~ that is what you mortals can't see... the master that you're currently seeing is him suppressing almost 90% of his strength. The reason this world is already this developed despite our connection being so short is that right now he is sending the majority of his energy here in order to not disrupt your world".
"S-So much" Even Ajuka couldn't believe it, "at that stage... strength looks more like a burden than anything else".
"Master, Jie Yuan and I are what you could call 'keepers of balance' of our respective universe. Once you reach this stage, your mere existence will influence the universe you're residing... you two have such native entities of your own in this world" Li Suo stated, having felt how those entities brazenly flared their arousing auras around the world with the intention of a single individual to feel it. Little did they know that there were now more than a hundred powerful individuals that could feel that aura, not just Richter.
"Ophis and Great Red?" Serafall added with a finger on her lips.
"Yes... those two represent two concepts that keep this universe together. They can wantonly flare their strength seeking my master's attention just like they're doing right now... because it is their strength that keeps this world together, it won't crumble under their influence... in fact, if any of them were to be missing, this universe would slowly fall towards its downfall if no one replaced that vacuum. If we were to release all of our energies, it would disrupt the balance they have created. Hence, my master can't release his strength in this universe. He never had and never will. It could handicap your safety".
"N-Ninety per cent... does that mean that when you killed Shiva and tore open the dimensional gap. That wasn't all of it?" Amaterasu questioned the Golden Dragon. An attack that could kill Shiva, could have also killed her... way more effortlessly.
"That was actually fifty per cent... I was in a berserk state back then and released a bit more of my strength. Thankfully Great Red was there to repair the damage that I caused, otherwise the Dimensional gap would have remained like that and your universe would have been invaded by the void of the Z-AXIS... eventually dying off in darkness" Richter shrugged his shoulders as if throwing casual words.
Everyone looked at him as if he was a monster in sheep's clothing... casually talking about destroying their world.
"Are there more existences like you two out there?" It was Benneth who placed that question, merely interested to see how strong she had to become in order to become someone worthy of protecting her master. Even though she felt that she had become stronger after turning into his acolyte... the more she saw his strength, the more hopeless she felt of ever reaching it. The one to answer her question was Jie Yuan.
"A lot more... in fact, Richter, Li Suo, my daughter and I just came from a humongous battle in the Z-AXIS... we had to work together to defeat a foe with our whole strength, if we had fought that opponent singlehandedly, we'd have perished".
!!!
"Richter-sama, you fought someone?!" Grayfia panicked hearing that. The Richter she was currently seeing didn't seem to have any visual injuries... if not for this being mentioned she'd have never known of this battle. Moreover, Jie Yuan saying that they needed to work together meant that her master had been in humongous danger without her even being present.
"Yes... that bastard was quite strong~" The Golden Dragon grinned.
"Master, don't smile!"
"You two had to fight together to defeat that individual!?"
"Just how strong was he, or she...?"
Questions and concern rained on them; after seeing such a devastating display of strength. It was difficult to imagine an opponent the three of them had to work hard together to defeat.