I created another light sword to block the sword strike from Meguri. The girl smirks down at me as I am forced to dodge to the side, my light creation breaking in short order in front of her blade as I jump back to gain distance. She managed to put a small cut on my arm in that strike, but that was no issue as I just remade the light weapon before dashing at her once more.
I did not use my breathing techniques, trying to first adapt to just the speed boost from a Queen Piece before I combined it with the breathing techniques to enhance it further.
Thanks to that though, I was not quite as fast as Meguri who was much more used to fighting at this speed.
After some testing I figured that my Light Magic was mostly the same as the light magic used by fallen angels with some small changes here and there. Using light was more and less complicated than I expected though.
It basically came down to pushing magic energy to refract the light around and amplify it until a form is generated. The skill ensured it came naturally for me, until a certain point.
I still was trying to master the skill properly and use this in better ways. I swear though, Sona should really take a chill pill.
The glasses wearing girl has been staring at me so intensely I could think she actually is into me. I guess she must have figured out I am related to what happened to the fallen last night, but she did not ask so I did not bother answering either.
"You are mine!" Meguri shouts as she swings her sword in a downward strike, aiming at my head.
Instead of trying to dodge to the sides I dash ahead, tackling her and throwing her to the ground with a headbut.
It stung a bit, but it was better than letting the girl get the bragging rights of beating me in this spar.
Seeing that I dropped the girl on her butt I smirked down at her.
"I guess I don't need to come to school with a second sword anymore, huh."
"... Whatever. Just help me up, would you?" The twin tailed girl said, and I obliged, still amused at this.
Hopefully she will stop getting on my case in school, even if I doubt it would work.
"Still, how did you get so fast? Was this another of your fancy techniques?"
"Not quite. Besides, if you think my techniques are fancy, I am flattered." I said with a teasing tone, earning a smack on the arm from the girl.
Seeing her pout kinda reminds me of Isane when she is angry at me teasing her when we play video games. Now that I think about it, it has been a while since we last played against one another, huh.
Feeling a small frustration, I move to the side, starting to practice my alchemy for combat.
Right now I have a lot of knowledge on how to do things, but my combat ability with alchemy is not up to pair with my sword skills. I should try and improve further on this, I suppose.
Oh, now that is an idea. I do need a sword and there is a powerful one just lazing about in the Symphogear world I can snatch. Need to talk to Carol about that one, knowing the woman, she can likely get her hands on it for me too.
3° Person P.O.V.
Sona Sitri, the heiress of the Sitri house, sighed at the scene she was seeing.
Originally she still had hopes she could reincarnate Ace, if barely, but something happened last night that changed things.
"Did he awaken his sacred gear?" Sona wondered to herself, not seeing many other possibilities for his sudden learning of light magic similar to that of a fallen angel as well as his rise in value.
It would make sense if not for his power now having a tint more of draconic energy to it. In the end though, she could only stare as he practiced.
"Kaichou, did you notice?" Tsubaki, approaching Sona, questions who nodded her head.
"He is worried about something." Sona said and Tsubaki nodded her head.
For anyone who knew Ace, or was just observant enough, it was clear that the teenager was pushing himself here. He has arrived for hours now and has barely stopped for more than a few moments before his face got twisted and he threw himself into training again.
Sona then remembered what happened last night with the fallen angel cell in town vanishing and now Ace's reaction, the chance of the two being connected was high. To make sure Sona kept watching as Ace trained and, when his back was turned, she used her water manipulation to bring over a drop of his blood that had fallen during his spar with Meguri.
Turning around, she signals Tsubaki to cover things up over here just in case.
The Sitri heiress did not like acting in such ways, but she was the younger sister of Satan Leviathan and has learned from her all sorts of tricks that could be useful. Going into another room Sona called her sister and sent her the blood sample. With this her sister could compare with any DNA sample they find in that abandoned church to confirm Sona's suspicion that Ace was involved with whatever happened in that church.
After another hour, Sona was waiting for the results when-
"It is me, the magnificent, cute, and amazing magic girl, Levia-tan! Sona, where is my hug?" Serafall said as soon as she showed herself, making Sona feel like maybe she should not have bothered with sending that blood sample to her.
Serafall, with her arms extended for a hug, stayed there waiting, waiting, waiting, and no signs of the 'yuri-yuri loving hug' she expected was forthcoming.
"Mou, So-tan you are being embarrassed again."
"SIGH, Please be serious, sister." Sona said, already tired of Serafall's… Serafallness.
The maou pouted but accepted her sister's request, instead continuing.
"So, the one who did all that in the church came to you?"
Sona's eyes widened for a moment at the confirmation of her suspicion, before she returned to normal and proceeded.
"Yes, he is currently in the training grounds. He is a prospective peerage member for me, Rias and Ravel with him undecided over who to follow." Sona explained with Serafall nodding her head.
Inside though she was silently slightly disgruntled that she would need to make sure that the boy would be safe after his stunt. She was kinda hoping it was just someone random with no connection to the devil race if for no other reason than to make it easier for them to distance themselves from the incident.
She was still trying to brainstorm with the others some ideas regarding how to establish a proper peace treaty between the three factions, the less things there were that could rock the boat by even the smallest amount, the better.
Soon, she and Sona returned to the training grounds in time for Serafall to observe Ace facing both of Sona's bishops in a pure magic fight with Ace using his alchemy to face the two.
After he blocked both of their magic attacks, Ace took out several copper coins. Those coins were the ones produced by Leiur who he owned. With those in hand he began to flicker them at the bishops.
Serafal was in doubt about why they were jumping away, but she was instead shocked when said coins gained all sorts of effects mid-flight. Some would accelerate to speeds faster than bullets, some would change shapes into all sorts of throwing weapons, and some even turned from normal size to being meters tall and weighing several tons.
That not being enough, Ace moved his feet and soon he was moving around as if he was ice skating. With this, it was impossible for either Reya or Momo to predict just where he would move next.
Taking advantage of his newfound mobility, Ace moved closer to a side of the training ground that housed a large amount of water. That was something Sona has long since prepared for her own training in her clan trait, and Ace took full advantage of that.
Both Serafal and Sona were shocked when Ace, upon getting to the water side, began manipulating said water in a way that made them wonder if he was part Sitri somehow. The ease in which the water moved as he ordered and the efficiency of it was something normally only seen amongst their clan.
Water currents rising up and attacking as if snakes, twisting and turning to try and reach the two bishops, ice shards being created and launching from time to time, it was quite disturbing for both of them.
This was Ace utilizing the same alchemy techniques from Garie, the water autoscorrer. He was not yet at the same level as her who could create perfect copies of herself and others as if she was making water clones from Naruto, or able to turn into water freely as if she was Juvia, but his skills were still pretty good.
The fight continued on for a time, the two girls doing their best to stop his water manipulation and Ace trying to get to them.
"Enough of this." Ace said as he created a second alchemic formula and released electricity with the water, hitting both girls and shocking them unconscious.
Honestly speaking, the actual energy expenditure he had, despite facing the two girls at once, was less than a third of what either of them spent. This serves to show just how incredibly efficient alchemy is in energy usage, especially the formulas developed by someone like Carol who was a top tier genius who, in her field, is no lesser than even the likes of Ajuka Beelzebub and has been refining her technique for 600 years.
After all, Carol was a woman that originally was able to develop a machine that could decompose her entire universe just so she knew everything there was to know, create as many clones as she desired and transfer her conscience to them to achieve effective immortality as long as she desired to stay alive, and is strong enough to face a God who could manipulate dimensions and nearly killed the god without even hurting the host it had possessed.
Truly, obtaining her cooperation was a godsend to Ace no less than the cooperation from the Demon Slayer core in regards to swordsmanship and technique, perhaps even more.
Serafal was honestly impressed by the display, it was not normal to see someone with an ability like the one he just showed. However, her shock increased considerably when Ace approached the two bishops that he just defeated and used another magic on them.
"Heal."
That was an elementary level white magic, nothing spectacular but was one of the basic skills available to the Hero class from the start. As the light from his hands hit both bishops their injuries healed at a visible speed and Ace nodded to himself, satisfied this worked.
This level of healing was nothing much, but for Serafal and Sona this showed the value of Ace considerably. The number of ways that devils had to heal were limited to say the absolute least considering most healing spells were of the Holy or Light attribute and thus poisonous to devils. That Ace could so effortlessly heal them shows he has a great value for the race in the future.
Seeing that he was done here, Ace was about to go and try to do something else, anything to keep his mind away from more troublesome thoughts, when he saw that Sona returned and with her, Serafal.
Ace's P.O.V.
Well, guess they figured things out.
Still, nothing that I need to worry too much about. This would happen anyway so I might as well face it head on.
Unsurprisingly, Sona waves for me to come over to talk to her.
Might as well, standing in ceremony is too boring anyways.
"Hey Sona, everything alright?" I ask the girl with a smile who nods at me.
"That will depend on what my sister has to say." Sona said, indicating for Serafal to speak up.
"So, you are the prospective peerage member for my So-tan?" Serafal said, looking me up and down. "You seem pretty strong, but don't think you can get my So-tan for yourself. I will be the one to marry her in the future and we will have lots of Yuri nights and make a baby together who will be the cutest thing ever!"
"... I did not know devils had developed some technology for females being able to impregnate one another." I said with a deadpan, enjoying more than a bit the mortified expression of Sona.
"Where there is a will, there is a way!" Serafal said with a confident expression before muttering. "Just gotta make Ajuka figure out something."
"Sister, please, focus on what is important." Sona said, probably no longer able to handle her sister.
Poor girl, she has yet to develop enough thick skin to handle embarrassing family members.
"Boo, So-tan you are too serious. But fine, if you insist." Serafal says before turning to me. "So, care to explain what exactly happened last night? And don't play dumb, we know you were present at the abandoned church."
Thinking for a few moments I considered lying or trying to occult my abilities, but in the end I just decided to be honest for the most part.
Trying to be secretive has its place to be sure, but I intend to join the devils soon (a few days at most) and I will need and do plenty of deals, including those amongst the supernatural and the devils.
Hiding it now would be useless and just make them distrust me later. Besides, Rias already knows of my skill and I have little doubt she will tell others about it.
As such, I tell them most of everything that happened. I only had Garie and Leiur as well as what happened to the corpses of those who died last night. Instead, I told Serafal I absorbed the bodies and weapons of all those involved inside my sacred gear, enhancing it and giving me light manipulation abilities, and that Mittelt and Kalawarner had sold themselves to me fully in exchange for me not brutally killing them.
After I finished telling them everything, Serafal spoke up.
"I don't believe you. A power like the one you mentioned, I never heard of something like that."
I just shrug at that.
"Well, I have it. If you want, I can demonstrate it." I offered and she thought about it for a moment before saying.
"Very well, show me something amazing then." She says and I nod.
I need to exchange something preferably with her with equivalent value. Thinking a bit I come to a thought that sounds interesting.
"How about you and Sona together will give me a lap dance for twenty minutes right now, in exchange for me lending you my White Magic for two weeks?" I offer and Sona raises a brow at that one with Serafal snorting at that one.
"You are quite daring." Serafal says. "Fine then, I acce-
"I hate you." Serafal mutters as we walk towards a restaurant. "I really, really hate you right now."
"Oh, come now. How many opportunities would you have to see Sona do a Lap dance, or share one with her?" I said with a smirk.
"But, but, the one that should enjoy So-tan's first sexy lap dance is me! How dare you take her cherry like that?"
"Oy, oy, say things like that and others might misunderstand. It was just a lap dance, it is not like I told her to grind her phat butt on my cock or something." I answer back.
Who'd know Sona, after getting in the mood, would be so into that sort of play. Shame she is a bit too bossy for me, I prefer being the one bossing others around.
"Kuh, she was sexy, but it should have been sexy for me only!" Serafal's eyes then actually watered a bit and she said. "Why can you get such things and this onee-chan here can't even get a single grope or tongue kiss? The world is unfair, I should go and freeze heaven in revenge over the unfairness of it all!"
I just stared at the over exaggerated woman in amusement. She was acting like that quite a bit, but when it was time to dance she did not hesitate to be even more adventurous with her moves than Sona.
I wonder if she sometimes does that to others during negotiations? I want to say no, but this is a world where boob power is a thing so who knows how perverted high level negotiations can be.
Soon we entered the restaurant and the one we would be meeting was already there waiting for us.
A man wearing a yukata and a slightly lazy expression, having black hair with a golden bang waiting ahead for us. The man was none other than Azazel, the leader of the fallen angels.
By his side was a woman. She has short, somewhat scruffy yet clean white hair pixie cut style in a wild way, with a white kimono of sorts and what looks like a black jacket covering her shoulders. She is als quite well endowed, perhaps even more than Rias if I were to be honest, however her body was much more muscular than most would give it credit for.
"Hey there, something wrong on your end?" Azazel questioned Serafal who was still letting tears fall down her eyes.
I just looked at her once over before saying.
"She challenged me over an ability of mine and, after losing her bet, was forced to give me a lapdance together with her sister."
Azazel just stares at us for a bit before saying.
"Nice. Getting a lapdance from someone strong is always a good time, especially since, in case it goes further, they can actually take the pounding without you needing to worry about breaking them." Azazel said, showing me a hand for a handshake that I took without worries.
"Well, in my case I might be the one crushed if we went that far." I admitted with an easy tone.
Serafal was much stronger than me, after all. If we were to actually fuck, I'd need to fear her accidentally bouncing a bit too hard on my dick and breaking my pelvis.
Azazel winced at that one.
"Yeah, those things can happen. Pretty sure we in Grigory had a problem like that during the seventies when Penemue decided to experience free love and a jackass gave her an aphrodisiac. There are more than a few graves that say 'death by snu-snu' now."
"... Nice." I said and the man laughed a bit.
"Yeah, at least it was a better way to go than most."
Azazel then said.
"So, why exactly did Serafal bring you over here?"
"Because I was the one who destroyed that Fallen Angel cell in the abandoned church." I said bluntly and Azazel's joyous mood grew slightly somber and the girl beside him who was quiet up until now looked at me with the barest hints of interest.
Seeing that Serafal was not saying anything, and considering she'd definitely not allow Azazel to kill or take me away (not after she saw my skills, that is for sure) I just told the man most of what happened last night. About why the conflict happened, what I did, and that the two fallen girls had sworn themselves body, mind and soul to me and me only in exchange for me not killing them.
As for what I did with the bodies and whatnot, I just told him the same as what I told Serafal.
"Then, I absorbed all the bodies and everything else there into my sacred gear."
Azazel stared at me for a bit before sighing.
"Sorry, those four should have never done any of the things they did. Their mission was just to observe the sacred gear wielders in town, make contact if they deem they could be recruited, and to escort Asia Argento into the Grigory."
"Well, they fucked up. I had to save Asia's life in the end and the four of them thought it would be a great idea to kill my cousin along the way too while extracting both their gears." I told the man who winces.
"Again, my bad. Look, how about I help you with learning more about your sacred gear and how to use it in exchange for you forgiving me about this shitshow?" Azazel said and I waved him off.
"Nah, don't worry about it. Just try and keep your subordinates on a tighter leash next time, if it was not for me being strong and them being pathetic weaklings things could have been bad." I told the man who looked very tired.
Looking at his empty glass he muttered.
"I am not nearly drunk enough for this."
Azazel then took the bottle of rum on the table, refilled his glass, and decided to question.
"So, if you don't mind, what exactly is your cousin's sacred gear?"
I could lie, but there was literally no point in doing such a thing so I just said.
"The Boosted Gear."
And with that Azazel spit out the rum he just drunk, all over Serafal and… yep, she was still going full commando. Guess she was still fantasizing about the lapdance she participated in considering how hard her nipples are right now, huh.
The girl beside Azazel seemed to finally get interested in our talks and said.
"Where is she?"
I was about to answer, but the battlelust and expression on her face made me stop as I stared at the girl with cold eyes.
"What is that to you, White Dragon Empress? You want to fight her right now?" I said bluntly, not hiding anything and, with my words, Serafal seemed to get even straighter in her chair.
Serafal, no, Satan Leviathan understands that both me and my cousin intend to join the devil race. The significance of a Longinus user joining the devil race, and that of my Merchant Essence, are both things she cannot just ignore.
Shame the white haired woman beside Azazel did not care as she cockily said.
"I will go check how strong she is and if she is worthy of becoming my eternal riva-"
That was as far as she got before four different alchemic circles were circulating around her, my glare intense as I stared at her.
"Try to touch someone I care for and I will turn you from a strong person into a powerless human before you can even try." I said coldly. The fully killing intent I had from the father of Rengoku, a Hashira who kept his position killing demon after demon for almost thirty years non stop, being released without hesitation.
The girl, however, was not discouraged by this. No, if anything she showed a feral smile at this and-
"Siena, enough." Azazel said, making the girl shoot him a near snarl as white wings surged behind her.
"Siena, you should stop. I am not sure what those circles around us are, but I feel they could truly be dangerous."
The girl was still unconvinced, but she backed down with a scowl on her face.
Azazel and Serafal, seeing that the situation calmed down, also calmed down and Serafal was the one to question me.
"Ace-kun, what was it you showed just now?"
"... Secret." I told her.
I can be honest with things when there would be no point in lying about, but to those that there is no need for me to expose I might as well keep it hidden.
Alkahest is by far my strongest offensive skill, able to decompose and study every single aspect of an object or being. If I already know what 'human' represents, then everything else is just extras I can decompose into its fundamental aspects.
With my current power it would be hard to work against Val… Siena, but if even a bit worked she might lose her advantages as a Lucifer or have her sacred gear damaged permanently.
Still, she was looking at me rather intensely and, sniff sniff, yep she is wet. Damn acute smell sense, I did not need to know this crazy bitch was horny right now.
Is she into power as much as Isane is into, well, everything remotely sexual? Well, whatever, not like I intend to dick a woman who wants to fight and beat up someone I care for no matter how hot she may be.
Anyway, the meeting was soon cut short and as we were leaving Azazel questioned.
"So, can you give those two fallen you took back to Grigory? They are troublemakers, but we are not so numerous as to ignore our members like that." Azazel said and I snorted at that one.
"Saying that after allowing the daughter of Baraquiel to suffer like she did with no support, what, one might even say you play favorites." I told the man with an unamused expression.
Azazel winced at that one.
"The politics at the time were-"
"Fuck politics." I cut him off. "I may not know all that much about what happened, just what those two you are trying to get back told me, but leaving an innocent girl to die just because of politics while trying to rescue those two shitstains I have as property now, my answer is no."
Azazel raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine, fine, that was my bad. Keep those two, I was gonna punish them for their idiocy either way so whatever."
I nod at that and Serafal, between bites of her food, questions.
"So, are you close to Rias's Queen? You seemed pretty pissed about her past for it to not mean anything."
I shake my head at that.
"We are not really close, but does one need to be close to be pissed for someone else's sake?" I told her.
I mean, I am pissed at Muzan back in the Kimetsu no Yaiba world, and I never met the bastard even if I could sell him some useful things.
Heh, it would actually be interesting to sell him the information about the Blue Spider Lily in exchange for the ownership of some of his servants. Just the thought of his face when he finds out it is a flower that only blooms twice a year for a few hours during the day and, beyond that time frame, it is indistinguishable from normal weeds, it would be funny.
Anyway, Serafal just raised a brow before smiling a bit.
"You are a good boy, A-kun. You just need to remember that my sister is mine and mine only so don't try to put your hands on her."
"I never did, she was the one putting more than just her hands all over my body together with you." I told Serafal teasingly, making her change from a fond smile to a glare and pout.
"You bully. I take back what I said you are pure evil! Villain! NTR Bad Guy!"
I just let her complain away, eating my free food. Soon it was time to leave and I felt slight goosebumps at the way Serafall looked at me once over. She may be hot, but I do not enjoy the feeling of someone looking at me as if I am prey.
Regardless, I was soon back home. Seeing that it was only 3PM I decided to take a small afternoon nap and, at night, go to MHA energized to do some deals I have in mind.
Overall, not a bad day.