Chapter 10

"I am Vengeance, I–"

"No, you're not."

I turned towards my companions, eyes wide with utter betrayal. "Borg! You're killing me! You could've at least let me finish my broody monologue."

I even had the perfect set up here… kind of. I was broodily perched on top of a hill–a mountain really–and overlooking the massive forest underneath us. It was a perfect… good enough setting for a little Batman speech.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Saiborg said and bit his lips.

My eyes narrowed. There was something weird about this. It was pretty dark already, but I could clearly see his expression, courtesy of new power, and there was something off about it. Not to mention that Regulus, who was standing next to Saiborg, was doing his best to avoid my gaze.

"It's fi–"

"Didn't mean to interrupt you." He perfectly cut me off before bashfully bowing his head. "Sorry."

I just stared at him. Fool me once and all of that. I wasn't falling for that again. This still surprised me since I didn't know he could play jokes like that, even if they weren't that funny.

"I'll play along next time, alright?" He said with a glint in his eyes as he placed a hand on my back.

"Don't you–"

"Happy hunting." Saiborg grinned before lightly smacking me on the back. Unfortunately, even a light hit from him was enough to shatter rocks.

"You little shit!" I yelled back at him as I was catapulted from the edge, flying straight towards the forest below. Regulus' laughter echoed in the air, though it lasted only for a short moment, the two already long gone from the mountain to look for their own opponents for the night.

With a sigh, I flipped around before my descent slowed to a crawl until I completely stopped falling down. Standing in the air as if it was solid ground, I observed the forest below me, noticing a few potential tracks with my enhanced eyesight.

"That'll do." I nodded and flew down.

Flying was surprisingly easy to pick up. I just had to stare at some planes, watch some birds, and study how the Devils flew with their Magic because their tiny little bat wings were definitely not enough to lift them off the ground. Then I had to replicate it all with Ki because I definitely wasn't flying by relying on my shit Magic reserves.

Regardless, I could now fly and that's the only thing that mattered. It wasn't that efficient, but I didn't care. It was flight, and it brought me that much closer to becoming a true Dragon Ball character.

I winced as I neared the ground, my enhanced senses picking up on so many different scents and sounds. It was disorienting, to say the least. Or it used to be. I was much better at dealing with it now as my puny human brain had evolved over the past few days. Or I just got used to it. Either or, really.

With steps as light as a feather, I moved around the forest, quietly following the tracks I spotted from the air. I paused as I noticed a particular set of claw marks on a tree. My nose wrinkled in disgust as I also smelled the pungent scent.

That thieving bitch was expanding its territory, probably threatened by my presence in the forest. I couldn't even blame it. I'd also feel threatened if someone as awesome as me was prancing around in my home.

I hoped it would leave me alone tonight, but I doubted that, judging by the loud noise I heard in the distance. Annoying, though not something I couldn't deal with. Otherwise, Saiborg's peerage wouldn't have left me here on my own.

Those guys… they were nothing like I imagined Devils to be. They were just far too humane for me to see them as anything other than ridiculously powerful humans.

Granted, Saiborg's group was an outlier. Oh, sure, those new Satans were trying to improve the image of their race, and from what I've seen, were succeeding to an extent. However, there were still plenty among their kind that acted like true Devils with the Old Satan faction being the more prominent ones.

My steps paused for a brief moment as my attention focused on the noise I caught. I stood still for a few seconds before moving on. There was a small group of four deer-like creatures nearby, though they were quickly moving away from me. I could've chased them down with relative ease, but I had a different target tonight, one that I was getting closer to, judging by the scent in the air.

And there they were. Two massive pigs that were twice as tall as me while on all four. Those Underworld boars were true monsters. A single one of them could easily fight off a dozen Low-Class being on its own. Even a Mid-Class opponent would struggle getting past their thick hides and could even die if skewered by their tusks.

They were busy stuffing themselves with some kind of berries, but I noticed how tense they were, their bodies ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. My body blended with the surroundings as I observed them from a distance, taking my sweet time since I was in no rush.

Finished with their buffet, they took off, and I followed closely behind, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. I needed only one…

'Nevermind.' The sound I caught on indicated that I'd need to kill both. It also urged me to act quicker. Oh, well.

My Ki surged, doubling my speed as I took off, easily catching up to the boars. They reacted quickly, but it was too late since I had already jumped on top of one of them.

My legs clamped around the boar's back as it kicked up a storm, trying and failing to throw me off. Its hide was extremely tough, and even I would have a hard time piercing it with my claws, which were stronger than steel, mind you. Their bones, especially their skulls, were even more durable, but they had their weaknesses.

Fingers extended into claws. I held onto its hide with one hand, ensuring my hold on it, while my other one struck, piercing through the boar's ear and reaching its squishy brain. And just like that one of them died, its movements ceasing as I pulled back my hand.

The other one rushed at me with pure rage in its beady eyes, forcing me to hop off the now dead pig. I could've avoided its charge, easily at that, but I took a different approach. Knees bending, I took a stance and held my hands in front of me.

The boar slammed against me with the force of a dozen trucks, but I managed to catch its tusk and pushed with all my might. My feet dug in the ground below me, and I left a trail as the pig carried me back with its monstrous strength. I endured with clenched teeth, bleeding off its momentum as I held onto its tusk.

Finally, we came to a standstill and that's when I struck. First a punch to its head, rattling its brain and stunning it for a second. Then my claws pierced through its beady eye, striking its brain and gauging as much I could with my limited reach. That was more than enough to take it down, and it dropped dead just like the other one.

Two Mid-Class beasts taken down in a minute at most without me even using Touki or any other Ki technique. 'Not bad.' I thought to myself as I lifted the pig over my shoulder.

Now, I had reason for not using more of my Ki abilities. I wasn't just making things more difficult for myself just for fun. No, it's because I had noticed that the harder the hunt, the more I'd gain from it with my new power.

The reward for my effort was… my steps paused for a moment as my skin and bones morphed, becoming a bit tougher. Not the best outcome, considering my endurance was my strongest trait, but I'd take it since it was better than nothing.

The trees near me toppled down, and a behemoth of a bear made its appearance. The thieving bastard observed me, its eyes moving from the pig on my shoulders to the one on the ground.

"Whatever." I clicked my tongue, and it huffed in response as it dropped on its ass, causing a small localized earthquake with its sheer weight.

Shitty fucker was waiting for me to cook the pigs since it knew how good my food was after it stole some of my hunt a few days ago. I tried fighting it, but the bastard was just too tough and agile enough to avoid me hitting its weak points, and it managed to fight me off, making me run away from it. Thieving bitch.

The pigs were quickly beheaded with some Touki infused claws, and I swiftly proceeded to skin them. Their blood was then pulled out with a little centrip, and I was ready to start cooking.

After I set up the fire, that is. Another easy task since I could perfectly cut up the wood with my claws. They sure were a handy thing, heh.

My body tensed as the bear moved, slapping a tree and making it fall right next to me. I blinked at it as it growled, staring at me with its beady eyes.

"Dude… are you stupid?" Of course, it was. "You're not helping. You're just giving me more work."

I ignored its angry growling and quickly set up the two fire pits. I lit them up by snapping my fingers, producing a tiny spark. I might not be capable of throwing around Fireballs like a proper Wizard, but this was easy enough even for me.

The food was done soon enough, the two pigs having been cooked to perfection by yours truly. The bear snatched one of them, and I allowed it to do so. This was part of my grand plan of making it feel comfortable around me before I struck like a viper when it least expected. Maybe I'd even sprinkle some poison in its food to make it easier for me.

Either way, I would surely get something good from hunting a beast that was stronger than me. Hell, I might even get the Grimoire to activate. I still wasn't sure how it worked, but I'd begun noticing some patterns.

Regardless, I had to eat fast. The beast was much faster than me, but that was no reason to give up. Large bites were taken, my sharp teeth easily pulling apart the meat, before I gulped down. The food was then quickly processed, turned into Ki, and shoved right into the Seal on my back.

"Don't you fucking dare," I told the bear after it finished its meal. Drool was dripping from its mouth as it stared at my own pig. "I will fight you!"

My threats fell on deaf ears as I stood up on four, menacingly growling and trying to scare me away. My body tensed, prepared to fight back. We were just about to start duking it out when it happened.

The world shook, the ground below us ruptured and broke apart. The deafening sound came right after, accompanied by a fierce wind that toppled down the trees around us.

Rapture was upon us!

"ROAR!" The bear roared, its hair standing on edge. Somehow, it had managed to keep its balance despite what was going on, and it was staring in the distance with fear in its eyes.

I managed to keep my balance by cheating with Ki, holding myself in the air while continuing to nervously stuff myself with the food. My body moved on autopilot, and I was pretty sure my heart stopped beating for a few moments there. And yet, weirdly enough, my first thoughts were, 'A chance?'

Shaking my head, I decided that this wasn't the best opportunity. The bear was clearly on guard, even if it was terrified out of its wits.

My eyes then followed its gaze, and… the mountain that Saiborg punted me off was just gone. Well, half of it was still there, but it was falling apart, large chunks of rock peeling off and plummeting towards the ground below.

"Holy fucking shit," I murmured, stopping my actions for a moment before I continued eating the last of the pig, quickly devouring it as well and turning into more Ki.

Like, damn! I knew Saiborg was strong, and I did hear them discussing something about whether he should still be considered High-Class in power or not, but this… What the actual fuck? Assuming that was his doing, that is. Because if it wasn't?

A pang of worry hit me. I really hoped this wasn't caused by Saiborg's opponent. I trusted the guy, and I knew that he would pull through no matter what, but I still worried, you know. He was my friend, after all. The worst part was that there was nothing I could do at this moment. I was powerless to help in any way shape or form.

Things then took yet another turn.

A wave of freezing power washed over me, over the entire area, really. I felt so small, so insignificant. I just wanted to curl up in a tiny hole, hoping and praying that the monster floating above us wouldn't notice me. But what if that monster was here for my friend? Could he fight it?

'What can I do?' 

My gaze snapped towards the bear. Its head was pushed against the ground, doing its best at pretending to be an ostrich.

'An opportunity.' My hands moved on their own, gathering close to my hips.

Ka.

Ki poured out of my hands, my energy masked by the mostosus wave of power.

Me.

If I could kill it and trigger the Grimoire. I might just get a power that could help.

Ha.

All of my natural Ki were pushed into the technique, and I started pulling from the ones in my Seal.

Me.

I couldn't hold back anything right now, so I had to make this count.

Ha!

A massive beam of Ki erupted from my hands, flying straight towards the head of the beast. Its body twitched, sensing the wave of energy. I saw its head move in slow motion, ever so slowly turning in my direction, its beady eyes wide open in fear.

The beam hit head on, annihilating everything it touched, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. The bear dropped down, blood gushing out its headless body.

Something clicked. My brain changed and adjusted, and I knew that I could now stay up twenty-four seven. I still needed to sleep, but I could adjust which side of my brain was resting while keeping the other one active.

A great trait. Amazing even. However, this wasn't something that could help me here.

My body froze, and I looked up, seeing a pair of blood red eyes staring at me from the purple skies, carefully observing and judging me. The Grimoire came to live, and I put my hopes in it, praying for something good.

Drakengard and Nier: A Talent for Slaughter - 400 CP

This goes beyond mere talent though. You're a genius at dealing death, the Mozart of murder, the Einstein of evisceration. You're now skilled beyond measure with any weapon you pick up, magical or not. Your body is similarly beyond peer, granting you the strength to cut through plate armor like butter, jump a man's height with ease and endure attacks that would fell mortal men with minor harm. Whether against five men or fifty, you'll be scything your way through normal people like a reaper with a grudge.

But even a talent as great as yours can still be cultivated. The more you kill, the more powerful you'll become. You'll find new, more efficient ways to cut men in half, discover the proper way to behead someone at full speed without breaking a step and learn how to get the best out of a weapon the more you use it, perhaps even finding new abilities or tricks it may hide. All that exercise will help you get stronger physically as well. Your already prodigious strength will grow in time, until you're pulling truly ridiculous anime shit.

This takes time though. At the beginning, you might be more than a match for any man, but monsters are another matter. But if you manage to survive while ensuring that others do not, who knows how deadly you'll get.

This wasn't helpful! It was great, and it stacked with my previous power in a way, but it was completely useless in my current situation. Those blood red eyes were still staring at me, dread filling my body more and more the longer they were focused on me.

And then they were gone, just like that. This didn't make me feel any better. In fact, I was even more nervous now. Taking out my phone, I quickly started typing out a message. However, I felt the presence of three people approach me, right before I could ask for help from the rest of the peerage.

A sigh of relief escaped me as I saw that Saiborg and Regulus were fine. There wasn't even a scratch on them, which meant that they were the ones responsible for all of the destruction.

I was still nervous though. Because the last person with them was the owner of the blood red eyes. The fact that the silver haired woman was dressed in a maid costume did nothing to abide my worries.

Grayfia image. 

"Michael!" Saiborg called out as they dropped from the air. "I'm glad to see that you're unhurt."

"Your acquaintance?" The scary woman asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Michael is… our contracted Magician." Technically true, though I was their chef.

"A Senjutsu user as a contracted Magician?" She looked at Saiborg in surprise, and I saw how her perception of him changed. "Impressive."

'Nope!' I held back my refusal at her words. I refused to admit that I was using Senjutsu. This was Dragon Ball Ki bullshit and that's that.

Was Senjutsu an established Magic system in this world? Yes! Did I care? Not at all! This was Dragon Ball Ki bullshit, and anyone that said otherwise was a fucking liar!

"This is Grayfia Lucifuge, the wife and Queen of Satan Lucifer," Saiborg told me before introducing me to her.

"A pleasure to meet you," I said, bowing my head just like Kuisha had drilled into me after our encounter with Azazel. Powerful people had to be shown respect, even if they had weird kinks and dressed up like maids.

Grayfia nodded at me before focusing on Saiborg. She mostly told him to be a bit more careful when experimenting and training. This Underworld was humongous and was as big as Earth if the planet didn't have any oceans. The Devils held a lot of territory here, but they weren't the only ones that resided in the Underworld. The Grigori also had their own piece of land. Not to mention all the Death Gods that lived here as well.

That reminded me of something. I had to look into the Mesopotamian Pantheon. Just had to check if there were any images of Ereshkigal floating around for… reasons. I needed to know if she resembled a particular gem obsessed girl or not. Purely out of curiosity. Mhm.

"You are free to leave now," Grayfia said after she finished lecturing Saiborg. Then she stared at us as we stood there with pursed lips.

"You… all of you can't teleport?" There was a small frown on her face, but I saw the way her lips twitched. She was surely laughing at us in her mind, making fun of our disability!

Strongest Queen? That's what they called her on the DevilNet, but I didn't care about that. All I wanted to do at that moment was to punch her in the face. That feeling only intensified with her next words.

'So what?' I roared in my mind, but I kept my anger in check.

"My Queen will shortly be here to pick us up," Saiborg said with an aura of embarrassment leaking out of him.

"I see." Grayfia nodded, lips still twitching. "I'll be returning to my duties now."

And with that she was gone. Regulus, the stupid cat, immediately started snickering at us.

"Tannin is cooler." Both of them snapped towards me.

"And I bet he's stronger than the Queen with a maid kink." I thought it was funny how a big and scary Dragon was referred to as a Queen, but I didn't care because Tannin was my favorite Queen at that moment.

Regulus bowled over, hands over his stomach as he burst out laughing. Saiborg looked constipated as if he didn't know whether to laugh or chastise me for my words.

Kuisha appeared before he could make a decision. She took a moment to observe us, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"What happened?"

"Nothing," I answered with finality. "Nothing happened."

The next day, we were all standing in front of a massive box-shaped structure. It was finally done. The first step was completed. It was connected to another smaller building, one filled with a few generators and a whole bunch of large batteries. The generators ran off of Demonic Power, and they just had to dump their reserves in them to make them work.

"Now we just need to test if it works," I said as I showed them how to adjust the settings. It was fairly simple, really. They only needed to tap on the screen in the entrance.

We stepped inside after that, immediately feeling the pressure from the increased gravity. It was weaker than Liban's ability, but this was just the lowest setting since we were just testing it out. Nevertheless, this was a complete success!

"This is perfect!" Saiborg exclaimed, eyes shining with happiness. "I need to move my bed here."

I wasn't even surprised. Of course, the training maniac would want to sleep in the Gravity Chamber. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be.

"The bed will break apart under the higher settings."

Saiborg frowned before shrugging. "Oh, well. I'll just sleep on the floor then."

Yep. That made perfect sense. The rest looked like this was within their expectations.

After we ensured that it was perfectly safe, we cranked up the gravity to the point where all of us felt it, some more than others, but that was understandable. Not everyone was a complete freak of nature like Saiborg.

Then we started training, running and doing all kinds of exercise, including sparring with each other. We still had to be careful to make sure we didn't destroy the chamber, but this place would still ensure that we would be gaining so much more from our training.

Now, I only needed to figure out how to compress time. No biggie.

Honestly, I was feeling optimistic about my chances. All of my projects have been going smoothly and have been rapidly progressing in the last week. It was a bit strange how things were just clicking for me.

My eyes darted to Cori, who was running around the room, sweat dripping down her face. She winked when she caught me staring, and I smiled at her.

Cori was somehow the catalyst for this, I was sure of that even if I couldn't explain why. Things just started working out after we started regularly going out. More accurately, after we started having sex.

Even my other projects were rapidly progressing as well. I was almost done with the first part of the game. The plot had to be changed just a little bit since the seventy-two pillars were a reality here, and I was kind of working for one of them.

The art for the Servants was almost done as well. Cori knew what she was doing even if it took her a bit to get used to drawing on a tablet. We were almost ready to publish the game, which reminded me that I had to look into making a few ads.

My study into Mind and Illusion Magic was going great as well. However, I was delaying the creation of the virtual reality pods for the time being since I needed to make something else before that.

Things were going way too smoothly, and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Hopefully, I will be prepared for when it eventually comes knocking.

Shaking my head, I focused on my training. My newest power stacked nicely with all the other physical powers from the Celestial Grimoire, ensuring that I was improving even faster than before.

As amazing as this was, I still wanted to complain! Why the fuck was it called Celestial Grimoire when it hadn't given me any Magic! And, no, I wasn't counting Ki as Magic!

Breathing deeply, I calmed myself. Magic would come to me. It might take a few years, but I would become a great Magician. That was a promise.

For now, I just had to focus on my Ki and complete the set. I could fly and fire fuck you lasers, so there was only one thing that remained. Twice Critical held the answer that I was looking for, and it was only a matter of time until I cracked it.

'God is bullshit.'

He really was. Twice Critical, one of the weakest Sacred Gears, was a masterpiece, hiding so many secrets within it. The sealing techniques involved in its creation were a work of art. Replicating then would take me years if I wasn't struck with inspiration or if someone didn't point me in the right direction.

However, it was something else that interested me far more. God had found a way to turn a soul into a perpetual motion machine that constantly produced energy. The output wasn't that great, but this was just a lowly Twice Critical.

What about the Longinus Gears? How much energy were they capable of producing?

I wanted that so badly. The only issue was that I was still not skilled enough to play around with souls. I might have to ask Saiborg if he could get me in contact with a Senjutsu master if I wanted to progress more in this direction. I would do it later once I finished with my other projects.

As I continued working out, I couldn't help but fantasize, 'I wonder what a Sacred Gear made out of the strongest being in the world would look like?'