Chapter 6

Training(AKA hell)

Yuuta P.O.V

The portal...was...an interesting experience. It felt calming in a way. It is comparable to feeling the sun on your face, not hot, but it was hitting you with the perfect amount of warmth, a nice light breeze flowing over your face and a faint hint of flowers rustling and tickling your face.

Somewhere along the line, Rikka had let go of my hand and somehow got past me. After I finished my brisk walk through that bliss, I felt my face ram against the ground.

And I heard everyone at the very least giggling or chuckling.

While I was still in there, Hisoki had flipped the portal so when I came all the way through, I'd tumble to the floor.

Yumeha was having a blast, laughing at me.

I grumbled as I picked myself up and looked around. A feeling of...dread washed over me. We were now in what seemed to be some kind of dead forest. The grass was hard, sharp, and more of a gray than green. The trees didn't have any leaves and their branches sagged slightly as if they still had leaves. But the most startling thing was how wrong the entire thing felt.

I felt like something was watching every little breath I took, the feeling told me there was supposed to be life here, and there once was. It almost felt haunted.

I glanced over to Hisoki. "S-so, it doesn't seem like there is any life here"

He faced me entirely, now he was chuckling, although I could see he was tense. "Yeah, why would the safest place have anything in it? The enemy normally doesn't bother with this place because of its apparent lack of life and magic"

"Good point"

"This forest...it's dying," Nibutani said softly as she patted the grass next to her sadly.

"Not quite, it's dead by normal standards. It's given up" Hisoki growled. I may have some...not so intelligent moments when it comes to saying certain things at the wrong times, but it seems this is a sore subject to our God friend here. The best course of action is to say nothing about it. Especially when he is likely my safest bet of getting out of here.

"This forest is a sign that the actions of The Dark Organization must be corrected," Rikka said solemnly. "This forest is a historical grounds placed under several protection laws and spells, it sustained itself with the constant magic flow from several sources but it was cut off when the Boundary Lines came into effect. It no longer tries to live with the little magic it has left"

Hisoki flexed his fingers. "I never thought this would have been the 'safe' place. My magic has dropped considerably, but nothing major"

"How much would you give an estimate of?" Rikka inquired as I let my eyes wander a little after noticing that Rikka and Hisoki wanted to chat and the other girls were doing the same.

"Out of my total one hundred, I had easy access to maybe a solid 87% back in the other world, but here it is more around 68%"

"I see so around a 19% drop. How much further do you think you could potentially lose in other places?" Rikka said holding a hand to her chin.

"Currently this is up in the air for me. This was my home, I was born here so the seals aren't as bad. Since I can't predict how far I could end up from here, I don't have much of a clue" He said, eyes alert, looking around as if he was searching for something.

So this is his home turf.

A small mental image of a smaller Hisoki straining with magic as he played with animals running on bright green grass. I glanced at one of the trees closest to me and noticed a carving in the wood.

A few strange symbols were scratched into the bark, but in a language, I didn't recognize. What sent a chill down my spine, is when I noticed the message seemed cut off.

The rest was heavily scratched off, resembling the claws of some large cat. I gulped. "Hey, guys! I think we should stay on guard!"

I really wish I could prepare some spells but I'm in the middle of a dead forest. Easy kindle if you get what I mean and I doubt Hisoki would approve of me burning down this place.

Hisoki suddenly materialized right next to me. Eyes scanning the words. "That little fiddler's handwriting-"

He ran his fingers over the bark. He took a deep breath. "There are small hints of blood here and it's relatively fresh. Not to mention the scratches are from an animal like a panther, tiger, or..."

I winced at that. The fact he trailed off isn't too good sounding. The other girls gathered around.

"How fresh do you mean?" Nibutani asked worriedly.

He ran his fingers over the words again, although I don't think he was checking how old they might have been. "I'd say the oldest it can be is 3 weeks, youngest is likely 4 days"

I stared at him as his jaw clenched. "What do you think it could be?"

"Not what, who" He hissed. "Maahes, that cold-hearted son of a bit-"

Something made my entire body flair out warning signals and I whirled around to be greeted by the sight of a large bulky man's body with a lion head. His long shaggy brown mane acted like hair and a beard. He was shirtless and had serval large muscles larger than my head. On his head stood a weird red and white hat. The red part was wide and almost shaped like a short chair, nestled in the middle was a taller white part that resembled a bowling pin. He wore something almost like a skirt around his legs, but they held an intricate golden and red pattern. By his waist, there was a large golden knife gleaming and in his right hand was another knife just like it. Long and sharp.

His maw opened a little and a deep male voice filtered into my ears. "My my my. What do we have here? A lost cub trying to find his old pack? With a new gang of friends, I see"

"Maahes...you oversized mangy fleabag! You freaking fake pharaoh think this is funny?!" Hisoki growled, and I noticed his body was giving off more energy. His body was giving off a subtle golden glow, with bits of heat attached to it.

"Oh~" A deep baritone this time emanated from the loins throat. "What had changed about you, my old friend? You normally aren't so quick to anger"

Hisoki glowered at the loin, making all of us quickly regroup behind him. "You dirty mutt! You said you'd watch over them! You promised me you could keep them safe! But you-"

A sick smirk lifted on the loins lips. "You know how it is, I prioritize my domains of war over protection"

The same metal bo staff materialized itself into Hisoki's ready hands. This time after the gold attached itself to the ends, red stretched over the top end and a dark blue over the bottom half.

"I know something else you prioritize" Hisoki spat. "You sick monster, you ate them, didn't you? You always loved devouring captives whole"

I gagged at that. Now I was recalling something from a brief history class. Maahes was a loin-headed god from Ancient Egypt. He was tied with a few different things such as war, protection, weather, knives, lotuses, and lastly...devouring captives. So this is a real god, how many more of them could there be? This isn't something like Hisoki where he was simply elevated to a title and given domains, this is a 100% fully known and researchable god from mythology.

I saw a glint shine in Maahes's eyes. "Did I mention how delicious they were? However, your mother was more than up for a few rounds with me-"

The large loin was cut off by Hisoki's fist colliding into the maw of the beast which sent him flying back through several trees.

Hisoki quickly turned to us and snarled. "Run! I'll handle this guy and watch out for more, this bastard, as self-assured as he is he wouldn't come without some lackeys!"

Hisoki's body flashed a bright green before he rushed after the other god.

Instantly after Hisoki was out of range for us, something dropped from above.

A foot rammed into the top of my head pinning me to the ground.

I grunted as I hit the floor, drawing the attention of the other girls.

A familiar flash of light and a new voice entered the fray, telling me Kumin had called for help.

"Pikachu use Iron Tail!" Kumin yelled and the figure on top of me had around five seconds to realize that the girl with the pillow was the biggest threat before a zigzag-shaped tail coated in metal smacked them away.

I quickly jumped to my feet and saw my savior. A yellow rodent-like creature, it had a lightning bolt-shaped tail which was mainly brown, along with some more brown stripes along its back, it had fairly long ears that had black tips and lastly, it had bright red patches on its cheeks that were spark electricity.

Great another charger was summoned to help us.

"Thanks for the help-" I cut off as I looked at the small creature.

"Pika pi!" It replied as more sparks flew off its checks while it crouched in a battle position.

I tilled my head.

"This is Pikachu," Kumin said simply. "He comes from a world where there are several creatures like him known as pokemon. People have learned to co-exist with them and a few pokemon even can speak."

I glanced at the small creature and patted its head. "Uh, thanks?"

"Pika"

I glanced around. Nibutani, Rikka, and Dekomori were all gone. I started to frantically search for them, noticing some fog rolling in. Then I heard an annoyed grunt followed by a loud thump.

Nibutani stood victoriously over three fallen ninja-like people. "Oh thank god I found you again, when you vanished I had no idea what to do"

I looked at her confused. "I haven't gone anywhere, I had fallen to the ground and Pikachu here saved me"

"Really? That's odd one second I was with you guys and the next you weren't there." She said as she examined me curiously. "Is this some kind of trick being played on us then? I don't detect any foreign magic"

I glanced around the forest, I felt like something was watching me. "Maybe it's the forest. After being inhabited by a god like Maahes corrupted what little magic this place had left"

"Possible"

I quickly grabbed Kumin and pulled her closer to Nibutani. "We should stick together and try to find Rikka, she likely can see perfectly fine with her eye, or maybe even predict where we should go."

We traveled like that, close together. Pikachu was the only one to go off sometimes to take an enemy down.

I heard the sounds of grunting...male grunting.

"Maahes! You are pathetic" The voice of Hisoki filled my ears, I could hear it distorting. "Even at your peak, you couldn't best me when I'm damn near my worst"

A roar of pain echoed from where I could hear his voice. "How does that feel, you arrogant loin? Have I wounded your pride enough to make you tell me why you thought it would be a good idea to cross me?"

The steady voice of the loin came out, but not quite the same as before. "I- AH! I-I was told you were dead! I swear I wouldn't have-"

A loud slap rang out. Hisoki spoke again slowly as if he was speaking with a child but his voice held no kindness. "Coward, I don't give a damn what you would have done if you had known. All that matters is what you did, and how I'm going to make you pay it back ten-fold"

"T-there are still a few that are alive! I swear I'm not lying!" Maahes sputtered.

"Where?"

"S-somewhere here! I was told to find everyone that lived here and get rid of them! Your mother got away! I even saw your old man soul go free!"

"Have a good time reforming" Hisoki said simply before a slashing sound rang out.

The next thing I knew, I was back where I was before I had gotten hit, and so were the other girls. The only difference was the seared and frozen body of the god Maahes on the ground, head sliced cleanly off.

I stupidly noted that Hisoki has access to fire and ice with his staff.

Hisoki was leaning heavily on his staff blocking Yumeha's view of the carcass. "I rewound our positions to when he first showed up"

Yumeha tackled me into a hug. "Big brother! Scary men came from the trees but then Rikka-san and Stag-san came in and saved me!"

I patted her hair down and gave Rikka a small smile. "Thanks for looking out for her"

Rikka swished her face away from me. "Tis was nothing, The Wicked Eye would never leave a child to fend for themselves"

As I rubbed my sister's back I realized something she had said. "Stag? Who is stag?"

Hisoki perked up. "Did you say stag? Are you positive the name was stag?"

A new male voice that sounded light entered my voice, causing the hair on my arms to stand up. "Yes, I'm quite sure that was my name."

I quickly whipped my head over to where the voice came from. A Stag, that was until it shifted into a boy that looked around our age. He was tan, had large brown eyes, stood taller than Hisoki, nestled in his mop of light brown hair was a set of horns much smaller than when he was a stag.

Hisoki lunged for the new boy, quickly trapping him in a hug. "Oh thank the gods your okay stag!"

Stag let out a chuckle and returned the hug. "Things have been crazy since you left, what name do you go by now?"

"Hisoki, I'm still checking in to see if I'm sticking with this body though," He said with a shrug.

Hisoki backed up and motioned to Stag. "This is Stag, he was one of my friends from when I was around here. Stag these are who I think are the chosen ones. Rikka is the one with the eyepatch, Yumeha is the one with the staff, Nibutani is the one that has orange/brown hair, Kumin is the sleepy-looking one and the dude is Yuuta"

The chosen ones? Does that mean we are meant to succeed?

"Ah I see," Stag said as he looked us up and down. I felt self-conscious as an almost disappointed look crossed his face. "You have your work cut out for you then. The Organization is getting stronger by the day."

Rikka stepped forward. "It is nice to formally meet with you noble nature spirit, I am the 95th holder of the Eye that once belonged to the Wicked Lord Shinigan, otherwise known as Rikka Takanashi"

"The pleasure is all mine Wicked Lord," He said with a curt nod. "Is this all of your forces?"

"Currently all of us, minus Yumeah, are frontline members of this fight" Rikka explained.

I also stepped forward. "S-so, is there any more of you around still?"

"Fountaully, around 65% of us were able to make it to safety," Stag said before his eyes glowed with rage. "The majority of us that didn't make it were children and elderly. We have been safe for the most part and thanks to Hisoki disposing of one of our problems, we should be able to let our hair down a little, so to speak"

"Who is hurt?" Hisoki asked

"Fiddler has...passed on. He wanted to leave a warning in case you ever showed up. He didn't make it and destroyed part of his message to make Maahes think the message with incomplete but he shifted his hand into that of a lion. He made sure you could connect the dots" Stag said gravely. "Thankfully there has only been one other death. But one remains in...worsening health."

My throat felt dry.

"Who is in fatal condition? Maybe one of our mages here could do something-" Hisoki started but got cut off

"That won't work," Stag said, face still a tad grave. "I think it's best if you came with me, they are barely holding on...waiting for..."

He slowly set off, and Hisoki quickly trailed after him. "Stag don't tell me it's- Stag answer me!"

His pleas went ignored.

Before he got too far away he called out to us. "Don't follow us, head back to the portal. I'll be with you shortly"

Soon enough, we were back. Yumeha was teleported back home and Rikka escorted us to an empty park.

"It's his mother" Rikka stated.

I swallowed hard. "We don't know that"

"Yuuta, before it could be seen as you just not being the brightest but now this is just you ignoring the signs" Nibutani sighed. "Stag wanted to show him and refused to say who it was. Clearly, it's his mother on her deathbed or someone at least very important to him. Maahes mentioned his mother 'being up for extra rounds' meaning he did something"

"I could sense it, a soul of a demon who has lost its luster. A deathly feeling indeed" Dekomori said with a solemn nod.

"Pikachu mentioned finding something, not in the best health," Kumin said sadly. "He likely could sense her in some kind of way"

"Nevertheless, we need to discuss things," Rikka said gravely. "It was all we could do to stay behind and let Hisoki handle this."

"Yeah, I had to let Kumin save me back there," I said with a heavy sigh.

"It's not that big of a deal Yuuta-san, if it wasn't for Pikachu, I doubt I'd have been able to do anything," Kumin exclaimed as she patted me on the back.

"I was swarmed, there were at least 15 of them, and was about to lose when I was called back" Dekomori rose a hand while she spoke. "It was deathly horrid, to think I could be overpowered so simply"

"I- had some trouble," Nibutani admitted. "Even though there were only 3 of them, I don't know much other than to ram them because of the close range and the surroundings. Not to mention my spells would have been useless if I had a chance to cast them"

"I too had some trouble. It wasn't until Stag had appeared that the fight became easy. While Yumeha may be a proficient mage, she is still just a child not suited for combat" Rikka said with a nod. "Each of our assailants had a reading of at least 400. Much stronger than my sister. I assume they think the priestess is more than enough to keep the few stragglers of our rebellion at bay They were conceited to think someone like Hisoki would come along"

A new portal opened up. Hisoki walked through with a sombered expression. "I have new instructions"

His clothes were different, instead of the casual clothes he was wearing before, now he wore a tux and a plain thin bag slung over his shoulder. "Ignore the outfit, I attended a quick funeral."

He threw the bag to the ground. "One of you take it and figure out which one of you it will be going to, I'm not in the mood" He slumped down on next to me.

Rikka reached for the bag. "Which one of you wants thi-" She yelped as she yanked her hand back. "What is contained within that bag?!"

Hisoki gave her a deadpan look before he slapped a hand to his forehead. "Oh, it's one of the spears. My curse must be acting up again. I 'forgot' that only the person it's bonded to can pick it up at all"

"It would have been nice knowing that beforehand," I said flatly

"Don't worry, your little girlfriend is fine, it will shock you only lightly unless you get closer or require a high bolt" He said

Rikka let out another yelp and turned her head away. For a second I thought I saw a splash of red on her face.

Besides, I don't have a girlfriend. Me and Rikka would never-

*Que various romantic images to flash within mind*

I shook my head. Nope! Nope! I will not start falling for the weird Chuuni girl! Even if she is cute, odd but funnily most of the time, and always tries her hardest when she cares!

If I hadn't started shaking my head, I would have noticed the look on Nibutani's face as she looked between Rikka and me.

"Anyway, I think it's either Nibutani or you, Yuuta," Hisoki said. "Quick Change: Casual Outfit"

His clothes changed back to what they were before and he grabbed the spear. He tossed it to me. Instinctively, I reached my hand out to catch it, only to feel as close as it is to being electrocuted.

I quickly dropped it.

"I take it that's a no"

"You don't say?" I snapped as I massaged my injured hand.

He tossed it to Nibutani who had caught it and quickly unwrapped it. It was bright white metal laced with gold. The tip was golden lined with silver metal that glowed a little.

"The spear of Enlightenment," Nibutani said breathlessly.

I snapped at Hisoki. "Why didn't you just take it out of the bag?! Then we could have figured out the name, and pinpointed who it would belong to"

"Where is the fun in that?" He asked plainly. "Anyway, if you want to use that separate from your weapon it does have a hidden ability, all of them do. I think yours allows you to steal all positive emotions from people and use them as a booster. If you want to give them back you can, but it is 'Enlightenment' because it sheds light on whatever hidden positive emotions you may have."

"So...I've heard" She slowly said with pursed lips.

"Wait they have hidden abilities?" I asked. "Do you know all of them? Speaking of which, don't you know how to make weapons like these, considering that how they would have been made has been lost or everyone would be able to walk around with these in their back pockets?"

He groaned a little. "Yuuta, I'm not some protagonist, that's Rikka's job or yours. All beings old enough know how to craft weapons like these, the process is dangerous not to mention the caliber of the materials is harder to find nowadays"

"So, in theory, you could make one?" I asked

"Sure if you can find me at least the still-beating heart of a zombie that exploded exactly 3 weeks ago," He said throwing me a glare. "Or the soul of a newborn child's imaginary friend after being crucified that weighed exactly 5 pounds under the child's brain."

I paused taking in how oddly specific they were. Not to mention I doubt babies would even have imaginary friends considering they don't have a clue what's going on. "Are those the base items needed?"

"Indeed Dark Flame Master, the required materials only become more difficult to obtain each passing second, with their scarcity only rising," Rikka said with a solemn nod. "It is much easier to find these weapons that were scattered amongst the cosmos"

...neither of those sounds easy in the slightest...but these are higher than god-tier weapons.

"Anyway, my Sensei was very clear on which one to go after next." Hisoki cut in. "The spear of a Million Souls"

Dekomori jumped in the air. "YES! HAHA! When I receive my latest weapon, I shall test Mori Summer to truly determine if she is truly the one I admired!"

Hisoki deadpanned. "I thought-"

"Nothing of it! It is of the topmost urgency that we acquire the spear!"

Rikka leaned forward. "Forgotten one, may I ask something of you?"

"Of course"

"Do you think we can gain this next spear at our current level?" Rikka's question stopped all of us in our tracks. She had a good point.

"No...Not as it stands." He paused, a look of deep thought crossing over his face. "Two days"

"Two days for what?" Nibutani asked

"That's when we will get the spear, two days from now" He stated, starting to look determined.

"Is that realistic?" I asked.

"It will be when I teach you one of your strongest attacks," He said. "Once I touch up on the girls fighting skills we could do it, there are a few gods there but I can take on more than one and you guys just need to team up."

Strongest attacks? What could that be? My old persona had a small set of spells, a select few were strong, but most were something he could basically spam if needed, and the really strong ones I knew well.

"Meet me at the school tomorrow, after classes are done, I shall take you guys off. Maybe pay respects to my old master as I try to pass her teachings off to you" He said before getting up and walking away. "Don't bring Yumeha, she doesn't need this kind of training"

"Maybe he is grieving?" Kumin offered. "He does seem like the type to not let too much slip."

"I think...his mother died there and his master was the one holding one" Nibutani said softly. "It must have been his master, I'd assume she was in the forest at the time and managed to save everyone, not to mention he suddenly brings here up out of the blue"

"Yes, it's a high possibility" Rikka muttered

"We shall learn some things not fit for the Exalts during this training, are you fine with that?" Dekomori asked with her eyebrows wrinkled.

"I'm all for learning some more fighting tactics, my spells are very defensive and not very quick" Nibutani replied

"Oh my! Fighting? Is he going to teach me how to do more than summon?" Kumin asked

"Hard to say, you have a very wide range of options when it comes to your magic," Rikka said swiftly

"Can I just say I'm not looking forward to this?" I groaned, not trying to imagine all the hellish things he might try to do to us. There is a small chance his Master taught him after he became a god, meaning training meant for a god.

.

Next day

.

I placed a hand on my chest after I glanced around. "Quick Change: Workout outfit"

My school clothes were replaced with a simple black long-sleeved exorcise shirt with a pair of dark grey sweat pants.

I walked over to the front of the building where everyone was already waiting. Most of them were in their school clothes.

Hisoki was now wearing a dark green sweater, black jeans, and poking out of his right sleeve were two bracelets, one black rubber and had metal pieces on it(one long metal bar and two much thinner ones next to in keeping it in place) and the other was made of a nice looking brown wood, one metal ball in the middle that resembled a twisting dragon, the bottom had some blue beads and in between some of them was 3 see-through gems.

"Good your here" He stated before a portal opened. "Come on"

Without asking any questions, we all quickly walked through.

On the other side was a large grassy field. At the very edge of my vision was a small house to my left.

Hisoki pointed over to it and we wordlessly walked to it, once reaching the house we could see a small gravesite on the right side of the house and a small farm on the other.

"Here, my master's old getaway house, there is some food I want you to eat at least a little of before we start," Hisoki said before opening the door.

The inside...was very homey and cozy. I expected some large grand entrance and something much larger on the inside...maybe a dragon or two.

We made our way to the kitchen and a small plate with 6 cookies on it was there. Chocolate chip, minus one sugar cookie. Each shinned a little, a small rainbow but including colors like black and gray.

"Eat these, if you want more, there is some in the jar," Hisoki said as he pulled one off the plate, bitting into it and I noticed there were two large jars behind the plate.

I picked off one cookie and Hisoki motioned for Dekomori to take the sugar cookie.

I took a bite and flavor exploded in my mouth, the nice warm gooey center bit of the cookie mixed in with the nice crunchy outside, and the chips just melting in my mouth.

The other girls seemed equally shocked at the taste and when Hisoki noticed he cracked a small smile. "Didnt take me for a guy that could bake huh?"

I nearly spat out my cookie. "You made these?! Without magic?"

"Well not exactly, if you couldn't tell by the sparkle effect they had, they aren't entirely without magic but yes, I made these with my own two hands and some eggs, and flour"

He reached into a small fridge and pulled out some glasses of milk, going back a few times so there were enough for all of us. "Drink up, These are also a little magic"

I took one milk cup and noticed the same sparkle coming from the milk. Should I be worried about digesting this much magic? He wouldn't try to kill me right? He's not like that...right?

So after we finished that snack(all of us went back for a few more cookies) we followed Hisoki outside. On the way there, a small picture frame caught my eye. A small boy that vaguely looked like Hisoki, he had the biggest smile I've ever seen and had one arm wrapped around the shoulder of a boy that looked like Stag and the other around a woman with bright pink eyes and red hair. She seemed around the age of 20, but with magic people, you can never really know. The skin under her eyes seemed to be a patch of dark pink, and I noticed one on the nape of her neck. All three were smiling brightly, without a care in the world.

I looked back over to the others and realized I was being left behind so I scampered after them.

Hisoki walked by the grave, conjured some flowers, and placed them on it. "Master, I pray you watch over me as I teach them the lessons you taught me"

I glanced at the tombstone, trying to shed some light on who this person(/something?) was but it was in some odd language, something that I didn't recognize even after comparing it to what I knew of the magic language. In fact, it looked like the writing on the tree-

Then some strange words in a foreign tongue flowed out of Hisoki's mouth like water.

Rikka looked thoroughly stunned before whispering to all of us. "It's the old language, I thought it had died out centuries ago. Rumor has it, if you are powerful enough and speak spells in that tongue, your spells will be much more powerful because of its ancient rooting in our magic system. However, we changed languages so more people could access magic"

After a few moments, Hisoki snapped his fingers and we were once again in the Overlap.

Unlike the normal bare area it was, this time it was a tropical island. Complete with a waterfall, sandy beach, tree area, and large cliffs.

"Rikka, come with me," Hisoki said as he strode over to the said waterfall.

I glanced at the other girls, to notice that they weren't in their normal Overlap outfits, and neither was I.

He came back and directed Dekomori over to a very heavy tree area.

Nibutani was lead over to a large cliff head.

Kumin was left in the sand.

Lastly, I was led into a shallow pool area.

"All right, can you all hear me?" Hisoki called out, and we all said yes. "Good, I'll be brief with you guys, you all have at least one weakness I will be working on with you guys today, I will tell everyone this weakness because you are a team, and should not have anything about your fighting style hidden from them because that could cost your lives, are we clear?"

"Y-yeah"

"Good, Rikka, your durability is...questionable, so to increase that I want you to stand in the waterfall, now in random intervals, a large rock will fall, onto you that is. The water has a fairly high pressure so I hope you tense up your body."

"Got it!" Rikka called as I could see her step a bit closer to the roaring waterfall.

"Now Dekomori, I have no better way of saying this, you might be strong but not the brightest, so to up your quick-thinking skills, I want you to run and jump up those palm trees, from one tree to the next. Naturally, some of the trees might not be able to take your weight at the bit you jump at them from so you will fall, you have two options then, start over from the bottom or try to catch yourself and try again. I will be growing more trees and knocking them down at random places so you need to work around that."

"I understand!" Dekomori exclaimed as she crouched a bit.

"Nibutani, you need to master that new weapon of yours and find a new outfit. Your current one is restricting you and not suited for the combat you are planning to pick up. I will send some demons on you, weak ones, and I want you to fight them at the same time, using your new ability while you are at it. Now your main challenge is to fight me off when I join your opponents in the battle for 30 seconds at a time, I will hold nothing back so expect some heavy hits"

"R-right!" Nibutani summoned her massive cannon shields.

"Now Kumin, us hoping you summon some random overpowered person from somewhere will not help our odds, it is highly possible you would summon someone rather weak when we need it or someone way too powerful than we need at the time, so I want you to try and control the power of someone you summon. And try bringing in weapons, this will be our main advantage having someone like you bringing in some overpowered weapons. Not to mention this would be your first time summoning consecutively, I will be throwing gummy worms at you at random times, blaring music to break your concentration"

"I'll try my best!" Kumin placed herself down on the sand and started drawing a large circle.

"That's what I like to hear!" Hisoki flashed her a grin. Then he turned to me. "Now Yuuta, your problem is you lack a lot. You got technique and more than enough strength to back it up, but you still have a lot of restraint on yourself, too much. Not to mention you don't have a single drop of the skill you used to have with the sword nor some of your most deadly spells with it. I will teach you to use one, but it may rampage and kill one of our beautiful lady friends here. Your challenge is, to pressure you into doing it right, I will try to kill you without warning and no giving time-limit."

My jaw dropped. "Oh great!"

Hisoki's body flashed a bright gold, and suddenly there were 5 of him. "This is how I will keep tabs on all of you."

The other 4 hisoki's walked off to intrust the other girls and the main one looked at me. "Time to prepare everyone, we all start at the same time and end at the same time, no exceptions, the stamina/growth cookies and milk I fed you guys should keep you guys raring to go, and if needed I'll fix you up"

Hisoki looked me up and down, reached behind his back, and pulled my sword out from thin air. "Take off your shirt"

"...what?" I asked, wondering if I got some water in my ears. I could feel the girls set their gazes on me as my face started to flush.

"You heard me, your shirt will restrict you and not to mention your magic flow, that material is horrific on the effects of magic." He said plainly.

My voice dropped in volume. "What...what if they stare at me?"

"Are you shy? Well I could take my shirt off as well, and besides the girls won't be paying that much attention to you, they have to worry about my clones killing them" He said before calling out a spell. "Quick Change: Bare Chested"

His chest came clear into view and my shoulders sagged in defeat. "Q-Quick Change: Bare Chested"

My shirt left me and I felt the stare of the girls vanish. Thank whatever god is watching over me!

"Alright, Begin!" One of Hisoki's clones called.

"Alright, here" Hisoki threw me the sword. "Now, grip it with two hands considering this is your first time in a while"

I caught it and followed his instructions, holding the sword in front of me(blade pointed out) with my legs spread wide.

"Bring your legs closer, this isn't some martial arts stance, you're not bracing yourself to catch someone, you are only bracing for the surge in power." He explained and I brought my legs closer.

"This good?"

"A little more- that's good," He said. Before taking in my form one more time. "Straighten your back, relax but don't slump your shoulders"

I quickly followed his instructions.

"Now, channel your power, as much as you can into the blade and call on something you nearly did in our fight"

I reached deep inside of me and pulled, some(what I assume to be) magic energy flowed into the center of my body then into my arms, and lastly the Termination Breaker Sword.

I glanced at myself and dark purple power was rolling off my body as the sword glowed, and then turned a dark purple color.

I pulled on more power and I felt something snap in me. My arm was giving off some strange feeling. Some magic was pulled out and it felt like it was searing hot and crushing me, I felt my heels dig into the silt under me.

YOU DARE TRY TO USE MY POWER, YOU FOOLISH BOY?! A large voice that I could only describe as draconic roared in my mind. I SHOULD INCARCERATE YOU WHERE YOU STAND!

"So, it has finally shown itself" Hisoki chuckled

The Overlap around me faded and I was standing in a strange area, with a large cage in front of me. Standing in the cage was a large black, silver, and dark purple dragon. It sat proudly around 20 times taller than me and at least 50 times longer than me. Its large wings were spread, showing the burgundy color of the skin there and its size larger than 5 cars. Its bright emerald eyes peered right into my soul.

What is it you seek mortal? It asked without moving its mouth.

"I-I don't know, I wasn't given any details." I stammered.

"Wow, 'Dark Flame Dragon' what a title," Hisoki said as he walked over with a large grin on his face. How is he even in here? "You know funny they never asked your true name Miavairit"

My mouth felt dry. He is talking to the beast confined within me like it was some friend he was speaking with for the first time in a year or two.

Master...it seems you are well.

"Yes, quite."

Nevertheless, it was odd being shifted into this new form, I still need some adjusting.

"Well that's odd, you should have finished by now, your brother has finished his"

Please refrain from mentioning him around me, we still are not on the best terms

"I'm sorry for interrupting" I blurted. "But how do you guys know each other and how does this help me in the slightest?"

"Yuuta, I am the Master off all the original monsters. Miavairit, Lord of the Dark aka Dark Flame Dragon is one of them. You see what I want you to do, is channel Miavairit through the sword."

Master, are you sure? The power might be too much. The dragon actually managed to look worried.

"Of course I am, we need the full destructive force of the duo that is the Dark Flame Master. You apply power to Yuuta and then Yuuta mixes his own with it and it's deadly spell time." Hisoki said simply

The Dragon turned back to me. If it is as my master commands, I shall do it. Be very warry mortal, for those around you are not the only lives you are risking. Your own is on the line

I threw my hands in the air. "Of course it is."

Suddenly I was back in my stance in the Overlap.

Hisoki snorted. "Glad to see he is as passive in my presence as ever."

"What the heck just happened?!" I exclaimed.

"I entered your mind space to speak with your dragon to convince him to let you use this." He said quickly. "Fairly simple stuff"

"No, it's not!"

Suddenly, Hisoki was in the air behind me and his foot rammed into my head, sending me spinning.

I struggled to stand up, ears ringing, and pain racking every little pulse my body did. "What the heck was that for?!"

"I said I'd try to kill you randomly."

I shoved myself up, feeling all the pain subside as I took the same stance. "Fine!"

I quickly charged my power again, this time I didn't stop once I hit the time for the dragon's power.

I felt something materialize over my shoulder. I glanced and found a miniature version of the dragon forming and slowly snaking its way around my body.

I shoved more power into it causing the dragon to grow, now it was snaking along my arms.

Hisoki materialized next to me and tried to shove a steaming hand through my chest but I managed to jump back, barely holding onto the flow. This time, however, he didn't stop there.

He followed after me, and I raised my sword to block, losing the magic flow and Hisoki started pummeling the blade.

He's waiting for me to try again!

I waited for a solid 5 minutes before he backed up.

"Faster, you need more power now," He said almost demandingly.

Once again I took my stance. I charged power faster than before, and with much more force.

It's my power, so therefore it will listen to me!

The Dragon materialized once again and quickly snaked across my torso, and my arms until finally on the blade. After it snaked off the blade, even then it still wasn't large enough. It slipped off the sword and spun in a circle around me, growing larger with each second. After a minute, it was nearly fully grown and slightly different than what I had seen.

Now it held the front half and its wings but its back end was sleek and slowly thinned out like a genie but there was no end attached to a magic lamp, it was just surrounding me. It let out a deafening roar and the water shook.

Hisoki exclaimed. "Man, that is awesome! Anyway-" Suddenly he was right over me again and this time he slammed his foot into the sword, embedding it into the ground, knocking off my concentration. The dragon exploded in a wave of heat. "Do it again but faster and in a different position, your opponent isn't going to sit there and wait for you to charge that in one minute or for you to take a stance."

I groaned. "Will I escape this alive?"

I felt dead tired...And I think he still has a few hours planned for us.

That's the Master I remember, ruthless! I paused when I heard the dragon's voice in my head.

Great now the dragon in my arm is also in my head!