thomasdarkrose
patreon
The Phenex Rises - Chapter 6
🕑 Added 2024-09-24 16:43:49 +0000 UTCRiser sat in the middle of the garden at his home in the human realm, the one he, unfortunately, shared with Rias. He was meditating while using his Total Concentration Breathing. It was something he’d taken to doing on a regular basis as he wanted to get to the point of using the skill at all times, even in his sleep. The longer he could maintain it, the more it would benefit him as it provided a constant, if small, increase to all of his parameters that would slowly but surely make him stronger over time.
It stacked with his natural growth as a Devil. Add in his constant training and the other skills he’d been gaining from his weird little quest system, and his growth would be considered pretty monstrous by the standards of most devils.
He slowly opened his eyes and smiled when he spotted Koneko still sitting across from him practicing the same technique herself. Over the last week, she’d taken a clear liking to him. He had no idea why and couldn’t think of any of his rewards that might have had any effect on her. Maybe it was because he was teaching her Total Concentration Breathing? Although, she was at the same place he was, just working on making it something done naturally without thought.
While she continued to meditate and breath, he climbed to his feet and began moving through his Fire Manipulation Mastery kata. Using it each day stacked even more growth onto himself. Not to mention it gave him a deeper understanding and appreciation for his fire magic. His only regret was that he didn’t have something similar for his wind magic. In fact, he found it slightly odd that he hadn’t gained a single thing that really applied to the aspect of his innate abilities as a Phenex.
It didn’t take him long to move through the various kata and finish his basic practice for the day. He still planned to hit the gym in the basement and work his body to the bone for a couple of hours, but other than that he just had a bunch of free time. Which, honestly, was nothing new. Even before things changed he’d been very lazy and spent most of his time just indulging himself. With the exception of his time in Rating Games, he lived a very hedonistic lifestyle.
The change was actually a welcome one, but he still didn’t have a lot of things to fill his spare time with. He’d have to look into that. Maybe Rias’s prank of putting out his summoning fliers would provide him with some entertainment. He’d also contemplated taking a few courses at Kuoh’s college, but he couldn’t think of a single class that had any relevance to his life.
He collected his towel, wiping the sheen of sweat off of his face while making his way into the house. Koneko probably noticed him leaving and didn’t care. Despite her spending time near him, they didn’t talk much at all. Maybe that’s what she liked about him, the silence?
As he stepped into his room to get changed into some workout clothing, Xenovia walked in without knocking, “Riser, someone named Kuisha Abadbon called while you were meditating.”
Riser smiled and finished pulling on his shirt. His stomach now looked as if it had been carved from marble with perfectly defined abs. He’d always been in shape, taking pride in his looks, but ever since he’d started working his ass off to get stronger his body had transformed into a work of art. His muscles flexed and moved beneath his skin and were clearly visible without being massive bulges. His overall form hadn’t changed much, he was just stronger and more defined. He didn’t want to become a massive wall of muscles, so he wouldn’t. This did, however, mean that the women in the house tended to stare anytime he had his shirt off, much like Xenovia had been before he finished pulling his shirt on.
“Thank you Xenovia, I’ll give her a call.”
Xenovia nodded, “Will we be training this afternoon?”
“Unless something comes up from this call, yes.”
He’d taken to teaching Xenovia everything he could. She was a member of his peerage now and the stronger she became, the better. Total Concentration Breathing was the first step and she’d taken to it like a fish to water. It didn’t hurt that he’d cheated a bit when it came to making her stronger.
During the battle against Kokabiel his failure to use Overhaul to win the fight instantly made him explore it a bit. A few tests easily explained the problem. Simply put, he had to be stronger than his target to have the full effect of the Quirk to be available. Against people his equal or stronger, it was less seemingly effective. Which meant it worked perfectly fine on Xenovia and allowed him to fast-track some of her growth. A little work on her bones and muscles led to her being significantly stronger than she had been. Even so, it only worked to a point. From that point on it was up to Xenovia to get stronger.
Even so, his little bit of work had more than quadrupled Xenovia’s strength. Sadly, it didn’t work on the more metaphysical aspects of people, such as Demonic Power. So, despite her physical strength easily being High-Class, her demonic power was still stuck in the Low-Class range. It would grow though so that was fine. Besides that, she wasn’t a magical fighter anyway so her physical power was much more important.
With her message delivered, Xenovia left to go back to whatever she had been doing before. They hadn’t gotten all that close, yet. He didn’t see any point in rushing into anything with her. As beautiful and determined as she was, he wanted to get to know her better before he started trying to father a child with her.
With her gone, he lifted his hand and cast a simple communication spell to call Kuisha. It only took her a few seconds to answer and appear as a small magical hologram in front of him, “Lord Riser, it’s good of you to call. My Lord Sairaorg was wondering if you would be interested in making another trip to visit him?”
Riser rolled his eyes, “Kuisha, drop the stiff official stuff. I’d love to come and get my ass beat down by Sairaorg in another spar.”
She lifted a hand to her lips as she giggled, “He’d really like that.” She looked left and right as if looking for eavesdroppers before whispering, “He’s got a small surprise for you.”
Riser chuckled, “Oh? Well, I’ll be sure to enjoy it as much as I can. I should be there within thirty minutes.”
“We’ll be waiting. Until then, Lord Riser.” She gave a little wink before hanging up.
He snorted and decided on a change of clothing. Whatever he wore to spar with Sairaorg was likely to be heavily damaged, best to wear something he wouldn’t mind throwing away after.
—--Line Break —--
Riser stepped off of the teleportation circle and was greeted by the smiling face of Kuisha, “Welcome back, Lord Riser.”
He rolled his eyes at the playful jab, “It’s good to see you again Lady Abaddon, you’re looking as lovely as ever.”
She flushed a little at his sincere tone. As beautiful as she was, he wasn’t really interested in her. Mostly because he was certain she had a thing for Sairaorg and he wasn’t about to be that kind of guy and try to steal her affections. This led to his comment being one hundred percent true and not the least bit offputting as he only meant what he said with no ulterior motive.
As if to prove his point, she lightly slapped him on the shoulder while flushing slightly, “Knock it off. Sairaorg is waiting for us out back.”
Riser followed along as Kuisha led the way. It was a nice quiet walk on the grounds. Despite Sairaorg being banished to the edges of the Bael Clan’s territory, it was still Bael territory meaning it was nice. They soon arrived to find Sairaorg and a few members of his peerage waiting for them. Sairaorg gave him a bright smile and waved enthusiastically, “Riser! It’s good to see you again.”
Riser chuckled and walked up to Sairaorg and shook hands, “It’s good to see you again Sairaorg. I’ve been looking forward to our next spar to see how far I’ve come, and how far I still have to go.”
Sairaorg’s grin only grew at that statement, “Good! I’ve also got something I wish to show you.”
Riser glanced at Kuisha with a raised eyebrow and got a nod in return. Clearly, Sairaorg was proud of whatever it was he wished to show Riser. There was no need for more words as they both moved apart to begin their spar. Sairaorg took a casual-looking horse stance that didn’t fool Riser for a moment. He knew exactly how well-guarded Sairaorg was despite looking so open. He hadn’t known that in their first spar and had paid heavily for thinking the big lug had holes in his defenses that could be exploited.
As Riser took his own stance and studied Sairaorg, his eyes widened in surprise as he witnessed Sairaorg breathing in a specific way. Veins bulged on Sairaorg’s arms and his body swelled slightly as he used Total Concentration Breathing.
“You’ve got to be shitting me!”
Laughter filled the area as Sairaorg, Kuisha, and the present members of Sairaorg’s peerage laughed at Riser’s flabbergasted face.
“Come on! You were already crushing me into the ground and now you’ve copied Total Concentration Breathing?”
Sairaorg grinned broadly and gave Riser a thumbs up, “It took some trial and error…”
“And you coughing up more blood than is healthy!” Came from Kuisha on the side.
Sairaorg flushed a little but stuck to his guns, “Trial and error to get it right! This really is an amazing technique. Do you mind if I teach it to my peerage?”
It spoke volumes that Sairaorg hadn’t simply stolen the technique, which was ostensibly ‘invented’ by Riser, and taught it to everyone already. Riser chuckled and shook his head, “Go for it, but only them. Alright? I don’t want everyone in the Underworld suddenly knowing my technique.”
Honestly, it shouldn’t have come as such a surprise that Sairaorg had managed to copy the technique. The man was a certifiable genius of hard work. He probably saw through most of the technique, which really wasn’t complicated, and worked the rest out like he said.
“I promise, thanks.”
Riser nodded and dropped fully into his stance as he too began using Total Concentration Breathing to buff himself. They both observed each other and moved at the same moment to some unseen signal.
—--Line Break—--
Riser groaned as he lay on the ground in a limp puddle of bruised feeling flesh. The spar with Sairaorg had been just as brutal as the last, maybe even more brutal since Sairaorg could stack Total Concentration Breathing with his Touki making him ungodly strong. Riser might be mistaken, but it really looked like Total Concentration Breathing actually amplified the power of Touki. Touki was using one's life force to amplify their strength and breathing was directly linked with life. Thinking of that made him wonder if his own aspect of Immortality might have an impact on how powerful Touki would be for himself. Though he suspected he was a long way from learning that particular skill on his own. He didn’t even know where to begin and Sairorg had just unlocked it through sheer brute force, something it would take Riser a long time to match.
A shadow fell over his face blocking out the light and making him open his eyes. He spotted Sairaorg holding a hand out to him with a big grin on his face, “You did a lot better this time!”
Riser groaned but accepted the hand up, “You’re one crazy sonuvabitch, but I admit that was fun.”
Riser paused when he noticed the grimace Sairaorg had when he said ‘sonuvabitch’ and paused, then blanched. Right, he’d forgotten about Sairaorg’s mother being in a coma from the sleeping sickness, “I’m sorry, I didn’t think before Is poke.”
Sairaorg gave him a slightly strained smile but waved it off, “It’s alright.”
Riser sighed but froze as an idea popped into his head. Slowly a smile curled his lips as he looked into Sairaorg’s eyes, “I might be able to make it up to you.”
Sairaorg, being the total bro he was just waved it off, “Really, it’s not a big deal. I know you didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I think I can heal your mother.”
Silence permeated the area. Riser witnessed a battle of emotions of Sairaorg’s face. Rage fought with hope until his face fell completely blank, “Explain, quickly.”
Riser understood and explained his plan, “Everyone knows that we Phenex have an aspect of Immortality that fuels our regeneration. What most don’t know is that it’s that very aspect that allows us to produce Phoenix Tears. I’m sure you’ve noticed during our spars that there are two distinctly different flames when I regenerate from my wounds, orange and blue.”
Sairaorg nodded. He hadn’t asked because he didn’t really care about why they were different. Riser continued, “My clan trait has mutated.”
That got a few gasps of surprise from everyone listening in. Mutated clan traits were a big deal. It was also a complete lie on his part. It was just the only way he could logically explain what he planned to do.
“Part of that mutation is a second healing factor, the blue and yellow flames. I’ve been practicing with it, and much like how I can use my original healing factor to produce Phoenix Tears, I can give away the entirety of my secondary healing factor to someone.”
As one would expect, that claim got a lot of gasps of shock. To be able to give anyone the same healing ability as a member of the Phenex clan was a huge deal. Sairaorg instantly saw what Riser was getting at, “You believe that giving your healing to my mother could awaken her?”
Riser nodded, “I do. At the very worst, it will at least heal any damage to her body that she’s sustained from the coma. But, I think it’s very likely that it would wake her up entirely.”
Sairaorg studied him for a moment before he asked, “And the cost?”
Riser shrugged his shoulders, “While my power is within her I will no longer have access to it, though I can take it back at any point after that with no ill effects to either of us. Though, after I do take it back I will lose access to it for a full week. Other than that? No real cost.”
Sairaorg narrowed his eyes, “I meant the cost to me. What price do you want in return?”
Riser smiled a little playfully, “Nothing. I’ve already got the most important thing you can give me, your friendship.”
Riser really believed that. Sairaorg was someone he wanted in his life because just being around him made Riser want to be a better person. It made him feel like he could be that better person and make everyone proud of him. This was something he could do at a minimal cost to himself that would have an enormous impact on his friend's life.
Sairaorg studied Riser for a few moments in silence before he gave a firm nod, “I’m willing to give it a try. When?”
Riser shrugged his shoulders, “Now’s good.”
Sairaorg looked surprised, “You don’t need to make any preparations or anything?”
Riser shook his head, “Nah, it’s pretty simple and straightforward.”
“Then we’ll go now.”
There was a definite edge fo excitement and hope in Sairaorg’s voice. Riser wasn’t one hundred percent sure that the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix would actually cure the sleeping disease, but he also didn’t see a specific reason it wouldn’t. It could easily heal deadly wounds and could even be used to slow or stall the spread of diseases when used on someone else, which had a much-reduced effect. He really hoped it worked so his friend could have his mother back.
—--Line Break—--
It took very little time for them to arrive at the hospital. Sairaorg was leading Riser and Kuisha to the room, the staff barely glancing at them after recognizing Sairaorg and knowing where he was going. It was clear he visited often. The room they finally arrived at wouldn’t have looked out of place in a home.
Devils didn’t have the same sense of aesthetics that humans did. Case in point, the hospital room had wooden floors, a large window, bookshelves, carpets, and paintings adorning the walls. As Devils, they weren’t as susceptible to diseases or sickness. They weren’t immune, but highly resistant, and things that would put a human into a hospital were a mild inconvenience for them at best. The biggest business for hospitals in the underworld were injuries.
Misla was laid out in a bed with the sheets pulled up to her neck. She looked… haggard, old almost. It just went to show the damage the disease was doing to her. Any devil her age should appear to be in their early twenties not in their late forties. Even so, Riser could see that she must have been quite beautiful before she got sick.
Sairaorg calmly walked up to the bed and lifted the sheet so he could gently hold her hand, “Hey mom. You’ll never believe who I brought here, Riser Phenex! I told you about him before, remember? He used to be just like everyone else. Then, one day, he just walked up to me like he’d never talked trash behind my back and apologized! Can you believe it? I thought it was a scam or trick, but he’s been upfront with me ever since. He’s even sparred with me! Twice! I’d even call him a friend now.”
Riser felt a brief flash of shame when Sairaorg talked about their past interactions. He had been a bit of a jackass before. He liked to think he was better now.
Sairaorg continued, “I know I usually visit on the weekend, but I came early this week because of something Riser says he can do that might help you wake up.” He squeezed her hand, “Hopefully I can tell you all about it when you wake up.”
He gently tucked her hand back under the sheet and turned to look at Riser, “Good luck.”
Riser nodded and walked up to the side of Misla’s bed. He touched her forehead with the tip of one finger and used Overhaul to get a good look at her. He could see the damage that had been done to her body due to atrophy but nothing that pointed to why she was in a coma. That meant whatever the sleeping disease was, it was based on the metaphysical. Since there was nothing he could do to heal her that way, he granted her the power of the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix. Instantly her body erupted into bright blue flames with streaks of yellow running throughout.
Sairaorg stepped forward aggressively but stopped when he saw that there was no damage being done or the scent of anything burning. The haggard look on Misla’s face began to fill out as he watched. It was almost like watching someone age backward as all the damage was undone.
It only took a few moments for the flames to heal her body and fade away. Silence filled the air as everyone watched Misla in anticipation. There was no telling if it would work but as time dragged on it looked more and more likely that it hadn’t. After five minutes of nothing changing, Sairaorg looked away from his mother to look at Riser. Riser ignored how wet Sairaorg’s eyes looked as the man spoke, “Thank you for trying. It’s more than others have ever attempted before.”
Riser sighed and looked at Sairaorg, “I’m sorry it didn’t work. I was so certain it would.”
Sairaorg clapped him on the shoulder, “It’s alright. She looks much healthier, so it helped some. Thank you.”
Riser nodded, “I wish I could do more.”
They switched positions so Sairaorg could once more take Misla’s hand into his own, “I’m sorry that didn’t work mom. But, it’s alright. I’ll come see you again this weekend like normal, alright?”
He gave her hand another gentle squeeze and froze like a statue, “Mom?”
He looked at the silent vitals monitor causing everyone else to do so. Previously the reading had been very steady, now it looked erratic as several of the lines spiked repeatedly. Sairaorg looked at the once limp hand that was now gripping his own tightly. The vitals monitor spiked violently as Misla’s eyelids began to flutter.
Everyone was silent as they watched with bated breath. It was another couple of minutes before Misla’s purple eyes slowly opened for the first time in years. She inhaled deeply and began to stretch like someone waking up from a particularly good nap. She blinked a few times before her surroundings finally registered. Her eyes slowly widened as she took in the sight of her suddenly much older son, “Sai?”
“Mom!”
As the two embraced and broke down in tears, Riser manfully looked away and ignored how wet his eyes felt. Instead, he focused on Kuisha and tilted his head toward the door. This didn’t feel like a moment they should be intruding on. Kuisha gave a quick nod and the pair of them made their way out of the room, closing the door behind them.
They walked down the halls for a bit until they found some seats they could relax in. After sitting, Kuisha looked at Riser with newfound respect, “Thank you for doing this. It will mean the world to Sairaorg.”
Riser smiled and gave a casual wave to dismiss her words, “It’s fine. He’s a good man and I’m glad I could help.”
Kuisha shook her head, “You don’t understand. Even with everything Sairaorg can do, with the hell he’s put himself through, there wasn’t a single thing he could do to help her. You’ve now done more for him than almost anyone else.”
Riser just shrugged his shoulders, “It was just an idea, I didn’t even know if it would work. Besides, I know I’m getting far more out of my spars with Sairaorg than he’s getting from me. This could be considered me paying him back for past and future sessions.”
He was grateful to Sairaorg because he could really feel how he’d grown from his last battle with the man. Broken Limiter had made his growth easier by removing all the things that would limit it. Every time he healed from the damage Sairaorg did to his body it automatically grew stronger to resist damage in the future. He couldn’t calculate exactly how strong he’d grown, but he knew he was one more step closer to reaching Ultimate-Class with his base state. It was still fuzzy and hard to know when he would reach it for sure, but it would definitely be soon.
Kuisha studied Riser for a while before nodding, “I’ll be sure to pass your words along to Sairaorg.”
Riser nodded and climbed to his feet, “Thanks. I’ll see you some other time. I’m sure Sairaorg will be spending quite some time with his mother and I can’t spend too long in the Underworld.”
She chuckled, “Yes. Rumors of your ‘suffering’ in the human realm because of the interference of Sirzechs Lucifer have spread even to us in the middle of nowhere.”
Riser chuckled at that. It was the whole point of him giving in to the demands to begin with. The more the rumors spread, the more it looked good for him and bad for everyone else involved. He was the ‘martyr’ suffering for a bride who clearly disliked him and a future brother-in-law who was willing to do whatever it took to get in the way.
He still had hope the whole thing would be called off, but it was looking less and less likely as time went on. Then again, he was being extremely impatient and there were still a few years before things became official.
With that happy thought in mind, he made his way out of the hospital. He’d need to look into the patients of other hospitals. He had a new member of his peerage to recruit in the next week or two. After he took back his power from Misla tomorrow he would have to wait at least a week before he could use it on someone else. Specifically, Ingvild Leviathan, who just so happened to also be asleep due to the sleeping disease.
As he walked toward the exit he finally looked at the system alert he’d gotten the moment Misla Bael had awoken from her coma.
[System Alert! Hidden Quest Completed!
Breaking the Unbreakable
Is it a disease? A curse? Or something else? No one honestly knows what the Sleeping Disease actually is. What they do know is that no one has ever woken up from it in the past. You have, essentially, performed a Miracle, something that is the pervue of the divine. Keep up with the miracle making and you just might ascend to divinity! Sairaorg’s undying friendship is just a nice bonus.
Reward: Spark of Divinity: Magical Recovery]
Well, that was… interesting. He now had the tiniest spark of divinity within himself. It didn’t mean much though, it was so small even the most observant deities wouldn’t notice it without looking specifically for it. So, while that didn’t mean much, what the spark did do was very helpful. It quadrupled his magical recovery rate. It was a very helpful boost.
Riser was sporting a bright smile as he stepped onto the public teleportation circle and teleported back to his place in the human realm.
—--Line Break—--
Riser stood in a hospital room looking at a young appearing woman, who was technically something like one hundred and seventeen years old. That made her nearly a century older than himself, yet she’d only actually lived for about seventeen years and spent the last century stuck in a coma due to the insidious sleeping disease.
The girl lying in the bed was Invlid Leviathan. She was rather beautiful having maintained her looks despite the long coma. Even her long purple hair was well-maintained. He suspected there were people loyal to the Leviathan line taking care of her. Though the ease with which he’d gained access to her also suggested they weren’t watching too closely.
Well, there was no point in wasting time. He placed his finger on her forehead and did a quick scan with Overhaul. The results were similar to the ones he’d gotten when checking Misla eight days ago. There was nothing he could detect that could be the cause of her coma. Well, that didn’t matter. He transferred the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Phoenix over to her.
He watched the flames envelop her in their embrace and fix what flaws her body had gained from the coma. When they faded, he sat down and waited. Judging from what happened with Misla, he expected it to take a short time for her to show any signs of awakening.
Speaking of Misla, awakening her had been one of the best decisions he’d ever made. He now had a lifelong ally and friend in Sairaorg. The guy had insisted he owed Riser a debt that could never be repaid. In reply, he just asked for more training. Sairaorg had promised to train him into the ground at every possible opportunity… It might not have been the wisest request he could have made.
Thankfully, Sairaorg and the others had kept quiet on just how Misla had managed to awaken from the sleeping disease. Riser was grateful for that but had been prepared for them to spill the beans as well. Frankly, it would make his reputation skyrocket and everyone who had a relative in the same situation would be begging him to awaken them.
He tapped his chin. There would be no hiding what was about to happen in this room. People would make the connection to him and rumors would spread. Thankfully, he could think ahead and planned to head straight to his father with Ingvlid at his side. She would be the living proof of his ability and it would allow his father to capitalize on his new ability. It would also keep Riser from having to deal with other people personally while giving his father leverage to improve his standing in the political arena.
Riser was truly grateful that he could use his father as a shield against politics!
He was pulled out of his thoughts by a soft groan coming from the bed. He glanced at the monitoring device for Ingvlid’s vitals and saw them going crazy, similar to how Misla’s had. He put on his best smile and climbed to his feet to make his way to the bed. Her eyes slowly opened showing that they were an interesting shade of orange. It was honestly nice to see a color other than purple or blue on a beautiful girl. She looked at him and then around the room, clearly confused about the situation. He remained quiet, letting her come around in her own time and not rushing her.
Eventually, her focus returned to him, “Where am I? Who are you? What’s going on?”
Riser maintained his smile and spoke in a soft reassuring tone, “You are currently in a private hospital room within the Underworld. I’ve got the unfortunate duty of informing you that you were a victim of the infamous Sleeping Disease. As for who I am, I am Riser Phenex third son of the House of Phenex. As for what’s happening, I’ve just used my clan trait to awaken you from your sleep.”
Ingvlid, probably due to not being quite at one hundred percent mentally yet, didn’t outwardly react to his words. She thought them over for a minute before asking, “How long was I asleep?”
Riser’s smile fell a little at that, he wasn’t looking forward to telling her the truth on that, “Almost one hundred years.”
Ingvlid’s eyes widened and began to water, “My parents? My friends?”
Riser sighed softly, “All gone, I’m afraid. The civil war claimed many lives. I don’t have details but I’m relatively certain that your mother met her end during the war. I don’t know about your human father but with so much time passing…”
It didn’t need to be said. Even if he’d lived the perfect life and taken excellent care of himself, he would have died of old age at least a couple of decades ago. That was highly unlikely though. Odds were the Old Satan Faction had hunted him down for ‘despoiling’ someone of the Leviathan bloodline.
Tears silently rolled down Ingvlid’s cheeks at the news. He tried to be gentle with the news, but there wasn’t really a way to cushion the news that she’d been asleep for a century and everyone she knew was probably dead.
“How did you wake me up?”
Riser returned to smiling, trying to help lift her spirits, “My clan trait mutated. I can grant a portion of my Immortality to other people. When I do it heals them completely. I have to take it back to give it to someone else and there’s a week-long wait before I can do so, but it can be done any time I want.”
“Why me?”
Riser looked slightly sheepish, “Honestly? Greed mostly.”
“But I don’t have anything.”
“Not greed for money, but greed for you. I wanted to wake you up and invite you to join my peerage before anyone else could.”
Ingvlid looked more relaxed after he said that and Riser could understand why. Plainly stating his greedy intentions was far more believable than he did it for altruistic reasons. Devils were not particularly well known for doing positive things for people for no reason. There were always strings attached.
“You wish for me to join your peerage? Why? I’m nothing special.”
Riser’s smile became slightly more genuine at that. She might not realise it, but her demonic power actually dwarfed his own. He was also aware of her inheriting the original Leviathan’s power, Sea Serpent of the End. A extremely powerful water ability on the level of a Longinus in power. Not to mention a Sacred Gear that was mutating into a Longinus as they spoke that gave her control over dragons and the sea making her water magic even more powerful.
Frankly, he couldn’t think of anyone more appropriate to be his new Queen. He had a mastery over fire that was leagues beyond any other ‘master’ in the same field. She had power over water that no one else could hope to match. They could become opposite elements working in harmony.
“There are a lot of reasons. You are one of only two Leviathan’s who still live and your cousin, Katerea has sided with the Old Satan Faction who would happily kill you due to your heritage. As a Phenex I have an extreme mastery over fire, as a Leviathan you have control over water, I honestly believe we could make an excellent team. I also happen to have a thing for beautiful women.”
The last comment caused Ingvlid to flush with embarrassment, but she didn’t shy away while she digested his words, “Why should I join you?”
He’d been waiting for this question: “Because I can protect you. There are many people, on either side of the civil war divide, who would wish to see you either dead or enslaved. For example, I have no doubt that Serafall Sitri, now known as Serafall Leviathan, would happily force you into her peerage to further legitimize her claim to your family name. She was one of the powerhouses in the Anti-Satan Faction during the war and is now one of the four leaders of the current devil government.”
She seemed to be digesting my words. It helped that Riser believed everything he was saying was the truth. He had no doubt that Serafall would do just about anything to get Ingvlid into her peerage as a trophy to further legitimize her rule as the Leviathan. He could also admit that a part of him wasn’t totally against it, mostly because he wouldn’t mind seeing Ingvlid in one of Serafall’s Magical Girl costumes. That would be quite a delicious sight.
Seeing that Ingvlid was still thinking and didn’t seem to have any further questions, for now, Riser spoke once more, “I’m not going to ask you to make a decision right now. In fact, I would prefer you not choose now. Instead, I would like for you to join me in the human realm, get used to the present world, and then make a decision.”
She looked at him curiously, “The present world?”
He nodded, “It’s been nearly a hundred years. The world has changed greatly as technology has grown and changed. It will be a lot for you to take in but I’ll be there to help you along and teach you all about modern society and technology. Once you’re all caught up, and gotten to know me better, then you can make a decision on what you wish to do.”
Riser grinned playfully, “Once we get you caught up with modern times you could even attend the local school and make some friends with the people there if you wanted.” He grimaced slightly, “Though that will mean asking a favor from my fiance.”
She looked at him curiously, “Is that a problem?”
He shrugged his shoulders, “Our parents are the ones who chose for us to get married and created the marriage contract. Rias, my fiance, has hated me from the very instant she heard of the contract and has blamed me for it ever since. To hear her tell it, I am a vile fiend who only wishes to steal her freedom from her and turn her into little more than a baby factory. The truth is, I can’t stand her and would happily look for someone else to marry. Thankfully, it’ll be at least another four years before we have to marry. I’m hoping to find a way out before then.”
He looked into her eyes and became very serious, “I have no doubt that when you meet her she will tell you all kinds of horrible things about me. I’d just like to ask that you come to me and ask about the full situation before coming to a conclusion.”
She studied his face in silence for a few moments before she nodded, “I can do that. And, I think I would like to go to school.” She looked a little shy, “I’d like to make some friends.”
Riser smiled brightly and held his hand out toward her, “That won't be a problem at all.”
She took his hand and he teleported them out of the hospital.
—--Line Break—--
Okay, so he might have been scolded, rather badly, by his father when he called to inform him of his actions. Though after the yelling about the kidnapping, he was given major props for getting his hands on a living descendent of the Leviathan line with the potential to recruit her into his peerage. His father would be running interference for him on the whole kidnapping thing and helping to continue to hide his ability to awaken people from the sleeping disease. He was forced to promise to wake people for his father in recompense. It would gain them a ton of powerful allies in exchange. By the end of their discussion, his father was exceptionally proud and practically vibrating in excitement over how their fortunes would continue to improve.
Riser didn’t mind whatever his father was planning to do. It was for the family and that’s what mattered the most. He racked the weights he’d been lifting, the several tons no longer proving to be as hard to lift as they had been a short hour ago. As he stood to pick up and add more of the magically enhanced weights to the bench press, the door to the gym opened and Ingvlid walked in.
Ingvlid had taken an instant liking to modern clothing and now wore a short skirt, stockings, and a shirt that showed off ample cleavage. She bordered on the lines of sexy and cute. However, her attitude made her fall firmly on the side of cute. She practically flounced up to him, her skirt bouncing dangerously the entire time, “Hi Riser! Rias said something and I wanted to verify it.”
This was the second time today she’d come to him about something Rias had said about him. He sighed and sat down on the bench while waving his hand in a ‘get on with it’ manner, “What’d she say this time?”
Ingvlid came to a stop right in front of him, “She said you were a jerk that said a lot of mean things to her right up until you two fought in a Rating Game.”
Riser sighed deeply and ran a hand through his hair, “Yeah, that’s about right.”
His admittance caught Ingvlid off guard making her look confused, “So you were mean to her?”
He nodded, “I was. There’s some context you should know though. We’ve been engaged for years. When I was first told about it, I was excited. Even when we were much younger, Rias was beautiful and I could see she would grow up to be as gorgeous as her mother. But, I did want to get to know her better, her looks just made things more exciting in the beginning.”
He looked Ingvlid right in the eyes, “The very first time we met was horrific. She didn’t even attempt to get to know me before accusing me of trying to steal her freedom. Then she poured a drink over my head and stormed out of the restaurant. She has never made a single attempt to actually get to know me. I tried to get to know her several times, but she saw me as the evil in her life and treated me as such. I admit, it got to me and I started lashing out a bit and being a jerk around her. Now? I just do my best to ignore her.”
Ingvlid hummed at that, “I see. Thank you for telling me.”
“No problem. How is your studying going?”
She sighed and wilted, “There’s so much to learn! How could the world change so much in such a short time!”
Riser chuckled at that. For devils, a hundred years really was a short amount of time. Yet humans had advanced dramatically since the early nineteen hundreds. Even worse, for Ingvlid, they were now making breakthroughs in technology on a nearly yearly basis. Just in the field of computers alone things were getting faster, smaller, and more convenient. If his memories were right, things were only going to continue like that for a while until the advent of the smartphone. Then the world would be going to hell after the invention of social media. Thank the Maus that he could just go and hide in the Underworld at that point!
“You best get back to studying. If you take too long you might end up even further behind with how fast humans are progressing!”
That earned him an annoyed groan. Still, she made no move to leave and looked around the gym, “Why do you work out so much? Aren’t you strong enough already?”
Riser chuckled and lay down so he could grip the bar to the bench press, “I’m really not all that strong. I mean, I’m not some nameless mook that dies in their first fight, but I’m also nowhere near as strong as many members of our race, let alone the ones at the top.” He looked her square in the eyes, “Hell below, you’ve got more Demonic Power than I do and you’ve never trained in your life. I push myself to get stronger so that I can have what I crave the most.”
She looked back into his eyes, “And what’s that?”
“Freedom.”
She hummed while nodding in understanding. They’d deliberately kept her true last name hidden so that she could maintain her freedom until she made a choice on what she wanted to do with her life. Rias had a big mouth and if they’d revealed that Ingvlid was a Leviathan, the four Satans would have descended on their house within minutes. It was her big mouth that had their rating game pushed forward to begin with.
Ingvlid finally turned around and skipped out of the room. Riser couldn’t help wondering if she was flashing her tights-covered panties at him on purpose as her skirt bounced with every skip. He quickly put it out of his mind and focused back on his workout. He wanted to be bench-pressing fifteen metric tons by the end of the day. If he kept going at this rate he would soon be a physical match for Sairaorg in his base state. That would be one hell of an accomplishment.
—--Line Break—--
Riser stopped reading his book as he felt a familiar tug. He rolled his eyes and silently sent a curse toward Rias for passing out fliers with his summoning circle on them. Thankfully hardly anyone believed they were real and attempted to use them. Hell, the last time one had been used it had been by Azazel. He highly doubted the same thing would be happening this time. Even Azazel wasn’t willing to disregard the rules that much.
Regardless, it wouldn’t do to not answer the summons. He set his book aside and double-checked his appearance before accepting the summons and teleporting out of his room. When the light from the magic faded he jerked back at the sight before him. A massive man covered from head to toe in rippling muscles that towered over him wearing a magical girl outfit that would have looked skimpy on Serafall stood before him.
He recovered quickly and gave a polite bow in accordance with proper Japanese culture, “I am Riser Phenex of the Phenex Clan, you have summoned me so I have come. What is it you desire?”
The man held up a DVD with a magical girl wearing the same outfit as himself on the cover, “I want to be a magical girl!”
Riser stroked his chin as he examined the muscular man, “Sure, not a problem.”
Mil-tan blinked in shock then asked in a vulnerable sounding voice, “Really? The last devil-kun couldn’t and he hasn’t answered any of my summons since.”
Ah, right, this was one of the sex offenders regular customers in the canon. Since he’s been stuck in the Underworld for weeks now it was impossible for him to go to any summons. Especially since he couldn’t actually teleport.
“Don’t worry. I am a man of my word.” Riser held his hand out, “What is your name?”
Mil-tan reached out to grasp Riser’s hand, “Mil-tan!”
“Well Mil-tan, this might hurt a little bit, but bear with it.”
Mil-tan nodded and turned serious. Riser scanned his body using Overhaul. Mil-tans entire body exploded into a cloud of red mist that swirled around before reconstituting together once more. Mil-tan groaned her new voice a much higher pitch than her previous one, and hugged her body. The pain only lasted a moment but the memory lingered long after the pain was gone.
After a minute or so, Mil-tan finally recovered and unsteadily climbed to her feet. Riser admired his work, he’d really gone above and beyond for her. Though, he hadn’t quite gone so far as to make Mil-tan a ‘girl’ but more of a woman on the shorter side. Still taller than Serafall though. On top of that, he’d given her a perfectly symmetrical face with the looks of a classic beauty by Japanese standards. He didn’t need to do much with her hair as it had already been long and well-maintained. Other than that he gave her an hourglass body with proportionate breasts and a bubbly rear. She would definitely turn heads anywhere she went for all new reasons now.
Mil-tan looked at her much smaller hands before running them over her body. With a shocked squeal of excitement, she ran further into her apartment and stopped in front of a full-body mirror to examine herself. Riser calmly followed behind and watched Mil-tan examine herself. She seemed a bit out of it so he pulled out his phone and began to put in an order to the memory corps. It was a group of devils that specialized in memory magic to help maintain the masquerade. They did work on the side for cases like this where a human needed their identity modified for some reason. In this case, they would be hunting down everyone Mil-tan knew and changing their memories to Mil-tan always being a ‘her’. They would also change all official documentation. Within twenty-four hours the world would never know that Mil-tan had once been a massive male bodybuilder.
Mil-tan finally looked at Riser using the reflection of the mirror, “You did it, you made me a girl.”
Riser smiled and put his phone away, “I did. However, the magical part will take a bit of effort on your part.”
Mil-tan turned around to face him and looked curious, “What do I have to do?”
Riser gave her a serious look as tension filled the room. Mil-tan swallowed at his serious gaze. Finally, his lips moved as he spoke, “You will have to…” The tension grew almost unbearable as Mil-tan wondered what the price would be, “... Study!”
The tension instantly vanished and Mil-tan gave Riser a look as dry as the Sahara Desert, “Really?”
Riser chuckled, “I’m afraid so. Magic for humans is, basically, a complex form of math to calculate magic circles that you then need to memorize to cast spells. It’s very boring but is the only path you have for learning magic. It’ll take me a day or two to get my hands on a proper primer for you so you’ll have to wait for that. In the meantime, I’ll have some professionals make the necessary changes so no one questions you are who you claim to be.”
Mil-tan looked over her shoulder and nodded in understanding. No one would every believe she was who she claimed to be with her entirely new body. The only thing that even looked like her past self was her hair. She looked at her outfit, feeling infinitely more cute wearing it in a female body than she ever had in her male form when she realized something. Her clothing fit her new body perfectly even though it had been made for her male form, “Why do my clothes fit?”
“Ah! The ability I used on you allows me to break anything down and rebuild it in any way I wish. In your case, I not only turned you into a woman, but I also gave you denser muscles and bones with tougher skin. Basically, I had to compact all the mass you used to have into your new frame. Don’t be shocked when you step on a scale and see you still weigh the same amount. As you are now, you’re probably even stronger than you were as a man while still being as soft as a woman should be.”
Mil-tan looked at Riser in awe, “Thank you! Mil-tan can’t wait to tell all of her friends!”
Riser blinked and then nodded when he remembered Mil-tan was part of a group of similar men, all muscle builders who wanted to be magical girls. Well, business was business, and having a bunch of potential magic users owing him favors wouldn’t be a bad thing. Hell, with Overhaul he could reverse their ages as they got older and keep them alive for centuries, if not longer. They would only get stronger over time making it a worthwhile investment.
Riser gave Mil-tan a thumbs up, “Go for it. However, I hate to step on the mood, but there’s some business we need to take care of.”
Riser typed on his phone a bit before turning it around to show Mil-tan the price for his services. He’d actually put a huge discount on it, shouldering the entire cost of the memory services himself. As for the sex change, he could charge whatever he wanted since it wasn’t a common listed service and he chose to only charge a hundred thousand yen, a pittance. Lastly, was the magic primer tome, which wasn’t all that expensive at fifty thousand yen. All told, the final price was one hundred and fifty thousand yen plus the first refusal when Mil-tan was ready to become a contracted magician.
As expected, Mil-tan pointed at the last stipulation, “What does this mean?”
“As you learn magic and become more powerful you will need more resources, books specifically, but other things as well if you decide to create a focus, such as a wand.” That seemed to excite her, but he continued, “What a lot of magicians do is make deals with Devils to become contracted magicians. The devil provides resources and the magician provides exclusive rights to the usage of their created spells. I want the right of first refusal if you become good enough to become a contracted magician.”
Mil-tan looked surprised but nodded in understanding, “Alright!”
From there it was all official business before Riser left for the night.
—--Line Break—--
“Buchou! Akeno-san! Oh, it’s so good to see your boobs again! Oh! You too Koneko-chan, even if they are small. Ahhhh I’ve missed all of your boobs so much!”
Riser pinched the bridge of his nose as he stopped at the threshold of the teleportation room. Right, today was the day of the family visit at Kuoh and Rias had managed to get permission for Issei to come back to Earth for it. He glanced at Ingvlid and Xenovia by his side, “Brace yourselves. The moment that loud-mouthed sex offender sees either of you, he will no doubt stare and probably make comments. Whatever you do, do not encourage him or he will never, ever stop.”
Ingvlid nodded while she put on her ‘serious’ face. Xenovia just maintained her usual stoic facade. Together they walked around the corner and came upon Rias and her entire peerage standing in the greeting room. Kiba had a strained smile on his face as he was completely ignored. Koneko looked pissed. Asia looked heartbroken as it seemed like she’d been completely ignored by Issei’s boob obsession. Rias and Akeno both sported awkward smiles as they greeted the pervert. Riser could see there was some, metaphorical, distance between them. Clearly, Rias was far less amused by Issei’s ‘antics’ now that they’d spent quite a while apart.
As they approached, Issei’s eyes zeroed in on Ingvlid’s chest, “Who’s boobs are those? Did you recruit another busty babe Buchou?” He didn’t give her time to answer before his eyes locked onto Xenovia’s chest, “Two new pairs of boobs? Ah! This must be heaven!”
Riser stepped in front of an uncomfortable-looking Ingvlid and turned his gaze to Rias, “Get your pet sexual predator under control, Rias.”
His voice pulled Issei out of his boob-fueled daze. As soon as Issei registered that it was Riser standing there his entire attitude changed, “You! It’s all your fault! If it wasn’t for you I would have been luxuriating in Buchou’s boobs! Instead, I was stuck with nothing but dragons for weeks! MALE DRAGONS!”
His left arm flashed with red light as he summoned the Boosted gear, “But all of my suffering wasn’t for nothing!” He pointed at Riser with an armored finger, “Now I can defeat you and save Buchou from your vile grasp!”
Riser gave Issei a deadpan look that slowly panned over to the still-silent Rias. It was her job to control her pawn, but it was clear by her little satisfied smile that she had no intention of doing so. In that case, his gaze moved back to Issei, “I warn you now and only this one time. If you attack me, I will not hold back and you will die.”
That instantly wiped the smile off of Rias’s face, “Iseei, stand down.”
“I can take him Buchou! I’ve trained for this!”
Rias remembered the duel between Riser and Issei, how easily Riser had crushed Issei even with the Boosted Gear’s Balance Breaker active. She had no doubt that Tannin would have trained Issei at her brother's request, but she knew something Issei didn’t.
Riser had been doing almost nothing but training too.
“ISSEI! Stand DOWN!”
Issei turned to look at Rias in shock, “Buchou?”
Rias sighed as she focused on Issei with a stern look, “You can’t beat him. Even if you did it would change nothing.”
Issei looked heartbroken, “But your brother said…”
“Enough!”
Riser noted that Sirzechs was clearly still plotting if he was taking the time to visit Issei and put stupid ideas in his head. Issei, meanwhile, looked heartbroken as his shoulders slumped and the Boosted Gear faded away, “Yes, Buchou.”
Riser ignored Issei and focused on Rias, “I’m warning you now, Rias. Keep him on a short leash. If I catch him peeking on, attempting to molest, or even just making Xenovia or Ingvlid uncomfortable with his presence, I will turn your pet sex offender into a pile of ash.”
Rias glared at Riser while an aura composed of the Power Of Destruction erupted around her, “Do NOT threaten members of my peerage!”
Riser stared at her, unafraid and unimpressed, “Since it’s clear you have no control over him, and he clearly can’t learn, I will do what I must to protect my guest and peerage member from his predations.” He stared into her eyes as his presence seemed to fill the room and loom over everyone but the two women behind him, “He is an utter embarrassment to you and your family. That, by extension, makes him an embarrassment to me and mine. If you cannot get him under control, then make preparations for his funeral. I will no longer countenance his shameful behavior and challenges toward me. DO. YOU. UNDER. STAND?”
Rias tried to stand defiant against Riser, but he had always been stronger than her. Now he dwarfed her. Just his presence crashing down on her made her legs tremble and her aura sputter until it vanished and she was left as nothing more than a girl standing before a behemoth. Eventually, she nodded in acceptance.
Riser’s presence immediately faded away, “Good.”
Riser turned to guide Ingvlid and Xenovia away from the room.
“Hey! You can’t talk to Buchou-”
“Issei! ENOUGH! Be SILENT!” Rias practically screamed at Issei to get him to shut up.
Riser looked over his shoulder and stared into Issei’s eyes, “The next time you challenge me, I will kill you, even if you sacrifice your entire body to Ddraig, you will die.”
Issei managed to look into Riser’s eyes for a few seconds before looking away from the firm conviction Riser had. It left no one doubting that Riser would follow through with his promise. Issei was on his final warning. One toe out of line and his life would be forfeit.
Riser turned away and offered his hand to Ingvlid. She quickly latched on. The trio left the room and made some distance between them and the others. Once they were out of earshot, Ingvlid shuddered and looked at Riser, “He won’t be staying here for very long, will he?”
Riser shook his head, “No, he will not. He will either be sent back to the Underworld, or I will incinerate him.”
“Good.” Xenovia spoke up, “I’ve been looked at by creatures who had vile intentions toward my body before. Even the worst of them didn’t make me feel as dirty as that boy did.”
Ingvlid nodded in agreement, “I feel like I need a long hot bath to get clean after that.”
Riser gave her a playful smirk, “Can I join you?”
Ingvlid laughed and slapped his shoulder playfully, “Nope~!”
Xenovia, spoke up on his other side, “You can join me.”
Ingvlid giggled, “Xenovia, naughty.”
Riser smiled as the two girls started teasing each other. Despite the brief moment with Issei, life started to look pretty good in the human realm.
—--Line Break—--
AN
9.8k words, but this was a good spot to stop. School invasion in the next chapter.
Alright, so this isn’t what I was planning to work on next, and I still have a half-finished chapter of Fabricator v2 in the works, but it just isn’t coming to me properly. So I switched to this and knocked this chapter out in a couple days.
I also admit that I was slightly sidetracked by the release of Satisfactory 1.0. I’ve played it on and off for the last four years so I had to jump in and explore it now that it’s finally finished and out of early access. If you’re not familiar with Satisfactory, it’s a game all about efficiency and building machines to build more machines to get to the next tier of items. Think Factorio, but as a 3D game with a first-person view. It can be simultaneously fun and frustrating as hell.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter!
Comments
King_Gluttony
Are you still alive? I'm half joking, but for real, it is a little disconcerting to go 3 weeks without a post.
Cody S.
While there is truth in what you've said, all you have to do is look at how the majority of the Underworld treated Issei. The dude is... well it's Issei and he became a popular children's figure with a song about Boobs. That says a LOT about Devil Society and none of it is good. If Riser went straight to Godhood from here (ignoring the Dragon Transformation) he would be a Devil-God His race wouldn't change, he would have actual divinity is all. However, he's much more likely to transform into a dragon due to Dragon Slayer Magic before he gains enough Divinity to become a God. From what I understand of Fairy Tail lore, the transformation means he would be a true dragon, not just a transformation like a bune. So with everything he's likely to gain from the system by that point, he'd become a Dragon God on par with Ophis and Great Red. I highly doubt anyone among the Devils will say shit about his race at that point. Obviously, he's likely to gain his dragon aspect before then which will have some consequences but not too many that would be terrible. Since he was a devil first, I plan for his eventual dragon transformation to have devil aspects to its looks. There will be some drama from it, but it won't bother Riser. He's not as uptight as the original. And, even then, aside from the cat girls, it looks like most of Riser's peerage were originally humans, so I don't think he was outright racist to begin with.
King_Gluttony
If he gains enough Divinity, would he even be considered a Devil anymore? Of that same vein, when he regains his humanoid form after his Dragon Slayer Magic turns him into a Dragon, would he have actually changed his race or just gained a Dragon Transformation like the Buné? I thought Riser and the whole Underworld put a lot of stock in being a pureblood devil. While power speaks above all, you have to admit him no longer being a devil would change things both socially and politically.
