9 Isolation Progression.

Now that he had tamed all of the Shikigami except Mahoraga, he decided to start practicing the abilities granted to him. As Sukuna showed, he, as the master, could replicate the Shikigami's powers without summoning them. 

With Hannibal, he had access to water manipulation, which came fused with darkness magic, causing the water to look black. However, after testing it, he found that it wasn't poisonous or acidic but that the dark magic in the water had another effect. 

Hannibal could control that mana further to manipulate the water through the mana in it. Victor saw plenty of use in this power as he wanted to gain innate water manipulation and, eventually, ice magic. 

Gram and Garm, through their claws and fangs, gained the ability to cut through most defenses to get to the soul. Balerion, as normal had the innate ability to fly and control dark lightning. Ramsa manipulated corrosive acid quite effectively, but unlike Hannibal, she needed to practice controlling that. 

On the other hand, Froggy had poison in his tongue and was good at absorbing kinetic energy. Rumi, the black hare, could create nearly endless clones, which Victor saw used in battle to create clones armed with swords from Lykaon. 

They were not very durable, but they didn't need to be. Orion had the overpowered ability to manipulate raw Divine Energy and use it to heal or fight. He was, without question, the Shikigami with the most intelligence and raw talent. 

While he was more of a healer, the deer could change from passive to fight with its power in battle. Lancelot, the Ox, could build up momentum if he ran in a straight line without stopping. This ability could be seen in plenty of use since the Flash used a similar move by running around the world to do the same.

If Victor mastered this, he could pack more power into his blows. The last Shikigami, Siegfried Tiger Funeral as its name, had a dark ability. According to the Shikigami, its innate power was to take the souls of the dead to use their soul energy to amplify its power. 

This was indeed a profane power, which was not the ability of the Funeral Tiger in the original Ten Shadows. He seemed to gain an ability that would make Death of the Endless hate him if she didn't hate him already since his Shikigami ate souls to grow stronger. 

Unlike them, Siegfried didn't just eat the souls for their energy; he kept them with him like rechargeable batteries. Victor would need to keep this Shikigami in control only to give him souls that deserved it. 

Or take a trip to Hell and use the souls of Demons rather than humans. This was a dilemma, but not really, since it was not that hard to pick out the genuinely evil. Those were the abilities given to him by his Shikigami, and he also had his abilities to master. 

He had planned to stay for a week in the Rainforest to tame the rest of his Shikigami. Now that he did, he saw the use of sticking around. Instead of a week, his retreat lasted the rest of a month. 

At that time, he trained his balance breaker with Yami as his direct sparing partner. As his Sacred Gear, fighting each other was the best training since they knew what the other was thinking at every moment. 

Their fights became not just battles of power or skill but wit as they had to hide their thoughts from each other. He slept only for 3 hours daily as he refreshed his brain with mana. 

It allowed him to ignore the building fatigue, but it was also excellent training in enduring the effects of exhaustion. Instead, he focused on mastering his Balance Breaker and training in using it more than once in case it was dispelled for any reason. 

This was highly problematic as each Balance Breaker drained most of his mana. As such, he had to increase his control over Mana so that he could use less. In his training, he managed to increase the daily times he could use it to three if he was pushing himself. 

Though he did piss off his Shikigami when he ran out of mana, they all lost their bodies and returned to his shadow. He then had to deal with their complaining until his mana recovered, which he found funny. 

Aside from training his Balancer Breaker, he and his Shikigami worked on their abilities together and individually. His Shikigami were intelligent, and they were working to improve their abilities. 

They even spend time giving pointers to Jack and his three dogs. Scarily enough, the Cat listened closely and actively improved its powers. His dogs were a little slower, but they were getting the magic trick down with patient teaching. 

The Shikigami would give Victor pointers on how to use their abilities himself. Aside from training his Mana control, he focused a lot on training with Orion in controlling Divine Energy. Divine Energy could do many things that Mana could, but it was a much more potent energy. 

Using it, Orion could not just heal grievous wounds but also fuel his abilities in battle. As the deer showed, he used his horns to channel his energy into fighting, not just to enhance his physical abilities or use lightning and fire but even other skills. 

He could release raw blasts of Divine Energy that destroyed most of what they touched. Impressive, the other Shikigami kept their distance from the Deer out of respect and fear. 

Though, from the look of it, the deer was just happy to graze on the trees and grass. If asked, Orion would teach the others how to manipulate Divine Energy, particularly Yami and Victor. 

Orion spent the majority of his time teaching both of them how to use Divine Energy because even Yami, the embodiment of the Divine Sword, could not use Divine Energy. It was a part of him, and every time he used his powers, he subconsciously drew on it.

But he never had any true control over it, the biggest thing they focused on. Victor noticed that when they used Balance Breaker, they subconsciously used Divine Energy, which they were already training on. 

With Orion's teachings and the constant training they had, both of them managed to begin to control Divine Energy actively. Yami had it better because he was made of the stuff, but Victor was not. 

Unlike Orion, who used pure Divine Energy, he began to use a mix of Mana and Divine Energy. Using Divine Mana, the mix of the two, he could enhance his abilities to new extremes, even his dark magic.

It was such a qualitative difference that Victor felt confident that, in time, he could fully replace his mana with Divine Energy. He had to increase his control over Divine Energy to turn himself into an immortal Demigod or at least the closest thing to it. 

---

31 days after leaving Dallas for the Rainforest, Victor was in a tree. His Shikigami were down below listening to a lecture by Orion, and they all also wanted to use Divine Energy. 

By enhancing their bodies with Divine Energy, they could all get stronger. Jack, the cat, was even sitting on Siegfried's head, having its larger feline brethren act as its seat. While they all listened, Victor circulated his Divine Energy, which infused Mana through his body. 

The sheer power of this exceeded what he had before, causing slight changes in his body. Pushing this energy through his marrow had a similar effect on making mana-infused blood. 

This new divine energy-infused blood made his already powerful body even stronger. It was such an upgrade that regular mana no longer felt special. Even Yami was doing the same next to him in the tree. 

Together, they tried to find a way to mix the curse with the Divinity of Ame-No-Ohabari. Rather than purifying the curse, they wanted both to fuse, not to lose their current powers. 

Since this was the source of Yami's life, mistakes could destroy him and Victor with him. As such, they moved slowly since, without any of God's seals, Yami had an easier time improving. 

All the times they went to Balance Breaker helped to make the process easier. Yami had a clearer picture of his core, which he was working on manipulating. They would fail today, but they didn't need to. 

After a month, they had improved so much that comparing themselves to a month ago wasn't even a contest. Having Divine Energy alone made them leagues stronger, but all the new abilities they had gained, created and improved made them much more versatile. 

A few minutes later, both of them snapped out of their meditation. Their auras stopped fluctuating, and their energy settled down. Victor and Yami stood up from the tree before joining his pets and Shikigami. 

"We have been in the Rainforest for a month and have all improved. However, we have one issue when we return to my home. Some of you, even if you shrink, will be attention-grabbing. So you are going to have to stick to the Shadows." 

Instantly, everyone turned to Orion, Lancelot, Siegfried, and Hannibal, making those four Shikigami scowl. Being in the shadows was boring, and they preferred to be out rather than kept away. 

Seeing how unhappy they seemed, Victor made a choice. 

"I know it doesn't sound great, but we don't have many options other than finding a farmhouse." 

The 10 Shikigami instantly agreed, saying they should find someone else to threaten. Even Orion, the healer, felt this was a better option than being left in the shadows. 

"Alright then, we will have to find one so we can move. I don't plan to stay in Dallas forever since it is just my home city, and I just wanted to use it to stay away from the League. However, Mexico and South America seem better for my purposes. 

But, leaving Mexico without causing a stir would be borring, so we are going to start a campaign of terror. Our targets are going to be the Cartels to make the Justice League. We left the United States for Mexico. Are you all ready for that?" 

He looked across at his dangerous Shikigami, who were itching for carnage from the look of things. Mexico was a dangerous country as it was the murder capital of the world. Now that he was here, he should have done his part and reduced that number. 

Victor raised his hands as he drew on his Divine Energy-infused Mana. He slammed his hands down onto the ground, drawing on the rainforest's darkness. The shadows rose into nightmarish constructs, from animal monsters to humanoid creatures. 

There were thousands of them, and these Shadows were hungry from the look of things.

"Go, search for signs of criminal activity, and report to me what you find. We have time." 

With his order, his shadows dispersed as they began to move North. The benefit of being made of pure darkness was that physical limits didn't apply to them, and they covered vast distances in moments. 

Once he had his shadows on the search, he just had to wait, and he would get his information. Mexico was a beautiful place, but it could have been better. There were plenty of dirty politicians to get rid of and plenty of criminals that would be better off fed to his Shikigami. 

"Let's go." 

All of his Shikigami and his pets entered his shadow as he and Yami began to move North. At first, he started on a slow walk before he suddenly sped up. When he arrived, he could move at Mach 50. After three months of training, his speed doubled, making him Mach 100. 

With his new training regiment and Divine Energy, he was moving at speeds nearing Mach 350. At this speed, he could move 74 miles per second. He could perfectly run at these speeds by surging Divine Mana into his brain and eyes. 

He could cover an entire country in a few seconds at these speeds. Though the Flash could cover the world several times, it was a step in the right direction. 

(While he seems too fast for Young Justice, Young Justice is just the first DC Earth. The others are going to be scaled up and will need him to be as powerful as he can.)