Chapter 15

It took a full hour and thirty-two minutes for the evil pieces inserted into Junichiro's body to complete his transformation into a devil. He felt and recorded every last change as they came and he had to admit, he was impressed. Every last aspect of his physical body had been enhanced by several magnitudes. As for his metaphysical body, his magical power had been fully converted to demonic power. Where his human magical power had felt like a deep and calm lake he could draw from, demonic power felt violent and free spirited. It practically vibrated inside of him and begged to be used to fulfill his desires. Magic spells would likely come easily to him with how eager his Demonic Power felt.

Junichiro took a deep breath and climbed to his feet to stretch. Loud cracks and pops echoed out of his body as it adjusted to the changes and unlocked itself from sitting so long. The final part of his stretch was allowing his two bat-like wings to emerge and stretch wide. It felt weird that they came from his waist instead of his shoulders, but whatever. They were more metaphysical than actually physical. When stored inside of himself, they barely existed. Hell, he didn't even need to flap them to fly! It was weird.

Rias and Akeno looked up from the paperwork they'd been going over at Rias's desk to see his wings. Rias smiled brightly, "Congratulations Junichiro-kun! Welcome to the family." She focused on him a bit and smiled, "It feels like you got a decent bit stronger, your Demonic Power feels excited and stronger than your Magical Power did."

It was true, the change had increased the overall power of his magic by nearly fifty percent. It was significant because of how strong it was behind the sealing. Speaking of... Junichiro grinned broadly at Rias. What he was about to do was solely for her benefit and to improve himself in her eyes. It had nothing to do with his own chuuni tendencies and desire to do this at least once in his life. It was totally for her and her alone... Probably.

He tried to give her a serious look, though it was marred by his own excited smile, "Oh Rias-chan," If she was going to call him 'kun' then she was 'chan' damnit! His voice grew serious and in volume as he spoke, "This isn't even my final form!"

Why did saying that feel so goddamn good?! Oh, because of the sudden look of adoration and expectation on Rias's face. Her eyes were glittering enough to put stars to shame. She even had her hands clasped together in front of her heart while giving him and excited and almost begging look. Truly, she was the otaku queen of his dreams.

Meanwhile, the other three members of the club all had deadpan looks on their faces. Well, Koneko always did, but somehow her look was as dry as a desert on top of deadpan.

With Rias's eyes firmly on him, he reached up and pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal the sealing choker he put on last night. Rias's eyes widened even further in anticipation as he slowly reached up and gently gripped it, "Behold the might of your pawn!"

With that said, he ripped off the choker. The change was instant. Everything he'd sealed away came rushing forth with a vengeance. His Demonic Power exploded in size, density, and power in an instant. A roiling aura of power erupted around his body without his conscious decision to do so. Close to his body the aura was a deep black that seemed to eat light, yet the further away from him his aura grew, the lighter the color became until it shifted to red and grew to become blood red. The aura flickered around him like flames as the waves of power he was emitting caused a light wind in the room. His power continued to swell and grow until it reached a plateau that actually scared Rias a little.

The power scaling and ranks of Devil society were a little convoluted. It poorly combined both political and actual power. Due to being a Gremory, Rias was born as a High-Class Devil, just due to her name. At the same time, her personal power was Low-Class at birth. As she grew and trained a little, her personal power grew to match her political power. She was now a High-Class Devil by any measure, the lower end of High-Class, but still High-Class. For what she was feeling, only personal power mattered.

Above High-Class came the Ultimate Class Devils, followed by Satan Class, and lastly Super Class. She was only aware of her brother and Ajuka Beelzebub being in the Super Class rank. Right now her brand spanking new pawn of less than five minutes was easily pumping out power equivalent to any Ultimate Class Devil Rias had ever encountered.

The power Junichiro was releasing filled her with a myriad of feelings. Confusion, excitement, fear, relief, hope, anger, so many conflicting emotions running through her that she didn't know what to do or say, and then he spoke once more, his voice a demonic whisper that seemed to fill the room with his obvious power, "I can go further."

Everyone stared at Junichiro in shock as his power rolled off of him in waves. He was already the strongest member of the peerage as it was. Now he was claiming he could be even stronger?! It was with a mix of horror and fascination that they watched his arms rise up into their vision while crossing over his chest. With a flash of light they were both covered by red gauntlets with green orbs on the back of the hands and a golden spike near his elbow. The words he spoke sent a shiver down the spines of everyone present, "I present to you, my new king, the newest and strongest Red Dragon Emperor, the Red Dragon of Domination, the wielder of the Boosted Gear!"

Silence.

What were they supposed to say to that?! First, he was way stronger than any of them without using the Boosted Gear. Second, how the hell did he have the Boosted Gear AND The Workshop!? Two sacred gears?! One a confirmed Longinus and the other suspected to be a Longinus in his hands? TWO LONGINUS?! Add in his Ultimate Class power and all of Rias's dreams just came true. Forget every other feeling she had at the moment, two suddenly grew in strength and overwhelmed everything else. Excitement! Freedom! Rias threw her hands in the air and shouted, "YES!"

The silence after Rias's shout only lasted until Junichiro managed to reign in his new power and dismissed the Boosted Gear. He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. With a mental command, his aura hiding device took a scan of Rias's current power level, copied it, and applied it to Junichiro. As soon as it did his Ultimate Class power reduced to feel like High-Class power. It made him suddenly much less intimidating to the three much weaker devils nearby, namely Kiba, Koneko, and Akeno. The three of them only reached Middle-Class in power, though Akeno was close to High-Class thanks to her Queen piece.

Junichiro stretched a little as his clothing rippled like a liquid and quickly changed into his preferred style of clothing, the same style he wore to intimidate Raynare. Though this time he wore a nice emerald green shirt with a teal tie. Might not match but he liked it. He slicked his hair back and took a seat next to Koneko once more. Everyone was still staring at him so he gave them all a confident smirk, "There something on my face?"

Rias was the first to snap out of it and pointed an accusing finger at him, "What was that?! How are you so strong?! HOW THE HELL DO YOU HAVE THE BOOSTED GEAR?! Tell me everything! NOW!"

Junichiro chuckled and relaxed into the love seat next to Koneko, "Well, for starters, up until two weeks ago I was a simple everyday human. Then I awoke my sacred gear. It took a little time but I figured out what it could do. When I did, my imagination went into overdrive. I made my way to a scrapyard and used materials from there to make things for myself."

He flicked his wrist and summoned a container into his hand. The glass cylinder was capped with a metal lid and contained what appeared to be grey goo. The bottle sported a label that read 'Basic Nanites.' He held it up for everyone to see clearly, "This is one of the first things I made and it is what let me grow in power rapidly." His grin grew predatory, "These nanites enter the body and do multiple things. The most impressive is that they combine to create a generator that can instantly refill any Demonic Power that you use."

Silence.

What could they possibly say to that? He had a glass container literally filled with infinite power! Then he continued, "Of course, that's only one thing they do. They can also enhance and repair the body." His clothing ripped and then opened to show off his perfectly sculpted abs and pecs. They were so perfect that a normal human would need to spend hours a day every day to earn and maintain them. He let the women enjoy the view for a bit before willing his clothing closed, "They can work on muscles, bones, and so on to enhance them in a 'natural' manner to increase strength and durability. They even provide limited regeneration by rapidly speeding up the natural healing process. Though that takes the bodies natural resources to accomplish, it's not magical healing."

He summoned up his Psionic Gem and casually used telekinesis to float the container onto Rias's desk so she could have a closer look, "A basic principle of getting magically stronger is exercising your core by casting spells. Imagine how fast you can grow stronger if you essentially had infinite magical stamina? You could blow your entire load in a single spell and have it refilled instantly. Then do so until you grow bored of the practice or your magic becomes too unwieldy to use in such a manner. That's how I became so magically powerful."

Rias gingerly picked up the glass of goo and looked shocked at Junichiro, "Are you serious? That... What you're saying should be impossible!"

Junichiro snorted, "Everyone thinks of The Workshop as some crummier version of Blade Blacksmith or Sword Birth with the ability to make armor tossed in. That's wrong. After all, The Workshop is much more powerful than that, only limited by the users imagination because it's power is simple and terrifying. Omnifabrication! I can make anything out of anything. The impossibility of what I want to make is irrelevant. I could make a nuclear device out of bubblegum and duct tape!"

Rias felt a shudder of pleasure run down her spine. While she might not know the full implications of just what Junichiro could do with Omnifabrication, she could guess at least some. So many Devils, and indeed many of the supernatural communities, ignored a lot of the things humans did in terms of entertainment. Rias, however, was a Japanophile and otaku who loved anime. She could imagine the sheer amount of bullshit Junichiro could do with just a handful of items made from the various media she was familiar with. He could make the wish granting orbs from Drag-so-ball! Mecha Armor! GIANT MECHA! Not to mention any of the number of ridiculous magical weapons and armor from video games! Her inner otaku wanted to chain him to a wall and make him produce every kind of item she could think of. No wonder he insisted on the contract!

There was something very important she had to have the answer to. One thing he had shown her did make her wary and hinted that Junichiro might be a murderer. She looked directly at him, "Where did you get the Boosted Gear if The Workshop was your original sacred gear?"

Junichiro grinned brightly and summoned the moderately sized device he'd used to rob Issei of Ddraig, "I created this. It harmlessly steals the sacred gear out of someone and stores it in a form that makes it easy to grant to someone else." He re-summoned the Boosted Gear, "You can even ask Ddraig himself about the process and his past wielder. I assure you, the one I stole Ddraig from is still very much alive. Even comes to school regularly no worse for wear."

Without being asked, Ddraig spoke up on his own, "My new Partner isn't lying. While I admit to being miffed at him stealing me... I am willing to admit that I approve of the change. My previous Partner was... less than ideal. Junichiro will be the strongest Red Dragon Emperor of all time and bring back the true Domination my name used to wield!"

There wasn't much Rias could say to that. If the dragon was agreeing with his host and seemed happy, she didn't have a leg to stand on to complain. But she wanted to confirm, "So, you have the ability to remove the sacred gear from anyone and then just hand it over to someone else?"

Junichiro nodded, "Yup. It's nearly instant too. Just a few seconds to extract the sacred gear and you're done. It's even painless to boot."

Rias contemplated that for a moment. She was thinking of her sealed bishop, Gasper Vladi. He had the sacred gear Forbidden Balor View, which could stop time, and couldn't control it. His lack of control terrified him and due to circumstances, he'd become a bit of a coward with a severe case of agoraphobia. Being able to painlessly remove his sacred gear until he was a bit more confident in himself wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. It could always be given back to him once he had control over the abilities that being a Dhampir, half-vampire half-human hybrid, gave him. It was something to contemplate.

Rias finally set down the container of nanites and looked seriously at Junichiro, "If everything you're saying is true, especially about..." She gestured to the nanites, "What would you want to provide some to every member of the peerage?"

Junichiro snorted and pulled out three more containers, pretending he was unaware of Gasper being the missing member, "Nothing, I prepared four doses of the nanites, one for each of you. I do need to warn you, the process of working on your body to make it stronger will ache as long as it's ongoing. It's the same kind of ache you could expect from lifting weights just constant. Lucky for all of you, I built in a neural connection that will give you control over the nanites. You can turn off any option you want, then turn it back on at a later time."

He floated all three containers onto Rias's desk and basked in the glowing smile that she was sending his way. Everyone looked surprised and eyed the containers. Kiba finally spoke up just to confirm his understanding, "So, we just use these and we will have instantly refilling Demonic Power, automatically grow stronger with no effort, and improved healing speed? How do we... uhm... how does it get into our bodies? Do we drink it or something?"

Junichiro turned to Kiba, "You're correct, those are the main things it does for you. As for getting it to work, just stick a finger into the container. The nanites are smaller than skin cells so they can actually slip between them without hurting or causing damage. Once they're inside of your body they will locate your mana core and a portion of them will build the device that refills your Demonic Power."

His eyes wandered over everyone, "Keep in mind that the refill is instant. I said you could use it all at once and immediately have a full power source once again, and you can. But! You can also charge attacks and continue to dump Demonic Power into it until it's too much for you to control. There's also constant magic to consider, such as a flamethrower type spell where you constantly expend energy. Such a spell could, theoretically, last forever."

He was thinking about two applications of that particular aspect of having his devices. Once he stole Phenex Regeneration, it could never be stopped by simply exhausting him. Then, when/if Asia Argento joined Rias's peerage, she would be able to heal anything with her sacred gear Twilight Healing without ever running out of power. She would become the greatest healer in the world!

While he was thinking of ways to become more powerful, the others in the room were regarding the glass containers with a fair amount of greed. It would vastly improve all of their power to an unknown degree. Even Junichiro wasn't sure how physically powerful a demonic body could get. He just knew that they could get pretty extreme with no known limit. He planned to turn the physical conditioning of his nanites on a little later, once he got home. He didn't feel like dealing with the aches while talking to his new companions.

Rias finally let out a sigh and looked directly into Junichiro's eyes. He could clearly see how happy and excited she was as she spoke, "I don't know how to thank you for this Junichiro-kun. You have no idea what this means to me. This gift will give me the freedom I crave and help me towards my ultimate dream." She gave a bow of her head in appreciation and respect, "Thank you."

When she looked up at him once more, her smile turned predatory, "Now, lets talk about what else you can make!"

Junichiro fell face first onto his bed with a deep groan. Not only had Rias grilled him for hours on his capabilities and what he'd made so far, but the sheer shame he felt in the aftermath of his Chuuni explosion made him nearly suicidal. To say Rias had been shocked by the many things he'd made, especially his power gems, would be an understatement. There was little room to doubt that he was by far the most powerful person on her peerage. Thankfully, this didn't make anyone jealous and instead prompted them all to want to train more. The nanites would greatly help with that. They all had pride and knowing someone had only taken two weeks to completely outclass them...

Well it was safe to say their pride had taken a hit and they now had the tools to correct that issue.

On the bright side, Junichiro had gotten a sample of Rias's genetics and could now extract the Power of Destruction from it and give it to himself. He also planned to give himself Koneko's natural affinity for touki and senjutsu. Once he made those changes it would be Ddraig's turn to mess with his body. His heart, lungs, throat, mouth, and teeth were all going to be turned into dragon parts. Ddraig promised it would be so painful that Junichiro might wish for death, all with a clear smile in his voice. Junichiro wasn't worried. His nanites would keep him alive through it all. Even if his heart stopped beating, they could carry blood through his entire body and keep it going.

Junichiro rested for a bit before getting up and pulling out the pod he'd made so long ago for modifying his body. He obviously didn't need to make it that early, and in fact, he quickly improved it now that he had so much more power and a better idea of what he intended to do. More information on the process of turning into a devil would help integrate new devil powers more easily.

Once the pod was programmed for his coming changes, he disabled his clothing and climbed into it. The door closed and the machine quickly put him to sleep. It was time for an upgrade!

AN

Hey guys! I didn't mean to take so long between posts but life was getting in my way. The next chapter should be out quicker. If you don't feel like waiting until I'm satisfied with a chapter, feel free to check out the "pat-reon slash thomasdarkrose" versions of the chapters. I'm currently up to chapter 20 there and working on 21 in my spare time along with the next chapter of Birth of a Legend. It's only $2-3 bucks if you're interested.

Until next time!