So what, if I want to be a Harem Protagonist?

by FrancoGamerxz

An Eroge-induced epiphany leads Hyoudou Issei down a path of hard work, excellence and extreme degrees of trauma suppression. Add to that a grumpy old dragon, an overpowered sacred gear, a frisky succubus and munchkin-worthy tactics that put the capital P in "Power Creep", and you've got yourself a nice mess. Oh, and there's also devils, and angels, and stuff. (Cover by Yutaku)

8. The Seed of Darkness

Hello! I'm sure you know what comes next...

Review Response corner!

jvt135 says: "Good fight scene, good lime, great ending. This some good shit. My only complaint is that Travis and the Incubi seemed kinda cliche and generic. Im glad to see that Travis has some mystery stuff goin on, with the "seed" and all, but I think you can definitely make him a more interesting character than how he is portrayed in this chapter."

A: You'll get a deeper understanding of Travis' nature, and that of Incubi in general, soon, so don't worry about that.

Xerzo LotCN says: "i know just cause they are waifus and have limes or lemons doesnt mean they are in the harem also no dont say things like that dont smash my dreams TT-TT

im glad his training showing such good results so fast suoer nice

that was pretty bad ass day he did super well too bad the lime got interrupted before it became a lemon it could have been a bit more before the cut off short on details

nice fight i think ise might have won or tied who knows but i think he just revealed the boosted gear well he didnt even boost so base power nice

no not succubus main waifu nooo that scumbag better not do anything welp time to go on a quest to rescue her right and possibly gain blood crazed waifu (kinda like toga bnha/mha)? also the incubus are kinda fucked"

A: Issei's growing stronger and more astute as time goes. He knows that boosting strains him, making it better for use in short, single fights instead of multiple long battles, so he's using other skills and leaving Boosting for the last resort. That being said, his opponent seemed to have been interrupted as she was doing something, so keep that in mind.

Gumball8866 says: "welp travis just pissed off a dragon, I wonder if well be seeing either the boosted gear balance breaker or the dreaded juggernaut drive?"

A: Everything's a possibility. The future is uncertain, my friend.

LuluViBritania says: "any more asinine gimick scenes like that only occur to interupt sex scenes will drastically lower the quality of this story FYI escape techniques like that are completly useless when in worlds were people can sense energy especially in DxD where not even Senjutsu users can suppress their life force to the point specific life force sensors(like Succubus/other Senjutsu users) cannot detect them. this is a serious plothole"

A: It's not an asinine gimmick, it's a key event. Having the princess of a nation, and waifu of the main character kidnapped isn't a gimmick. Plus, this is a world of magic. There are escape magics such as dimension lost that allow one to just nope out of there at any moment, and there may be others like it. Not necessarily a plothole.

snowyassass1n says: "Ohhh shit the rage of a Dragon next chapter...also huh looks this IS going to be one of those fics where the mc gets interrupted every time he tries to have some fun with his girls huh?"

A: Not at all. The first time it was done, it was for a proper reason that will be explained soon. The second time it was a major event. It won't always get interrupted.

RunDownLord says: "I need an explanation as to why Issei wasn't vaporised since he's still just a weak human who hasn't done any physical training yet.

I thought the logical course of action would've been to boost as much as possible then transfer the power to Aquila, or does that not multiply her power?

Lol. Waking up shirtless in a forest with a brand new tattoo. That's Amsterdam for you"

A: The explanation comes in following chapters, you'll understand how Issei survived. Plus, Issei doesn't even know about the full capabilities of the Boosted Gear, so it wasn't an option at the moment.

Winter Kitsu says: "Nice story btw so kunou won't be part of the harem? Shame..."

A: As I said before, and keep saying, the future isn't set in stone, so one never knows what may happen.

With that out of the way, it's time to get into the story!

~oOo~

"Where is she?"

Everybody was taken aback at Issei's tone, none of them expecting the sheer malice that he exuded. The air stilled as the succubi and incubus watched the brunette turn around to face them, his angrily-narrowed eyes landing directly on Phillip, before he spoke again.

"Where did he take her?"

Bristling at Issei's tone, Phillip spoke up.

"Do not take that tone with me, child! You have no ide-"

He was interrupted by a blur of motion that slammed him back-first into a wall.

Issei had a tight grip around the old Incubus' neck with his right hand, which he also used to pin him to the wall, before pointing the sharp claws of the boosted gear straight to his eyes.

"Start talking or I'll gut you like a fucking fish!"

Indignation filled the old Incubus, but before he could do as much as summon his power, Laveria spoke up.

"Calm down, Issei. I am sure that Phillip had no idea about any of this happening."

Without turning away from Phillip, Issei spoke up.

"How can you be so sure?"

He suddenly felt an oppressive aura that he was familiar with, which was followed upon by Laveria speaking in a cold tone.

"He is aware of what I would do to him if I ever connected this plot to him."

Issei begrudgingly released Phillip, stepping away from him and trying to reorganize his thoughts. As he did this, he could hear Laveria speaking.

"I want Jenny and Hari analyzing the magical residue from their teleportation to see if it leads us somewhere. Xinthia, get your sharpest-minded together into an investigative squad, they'll go with Phillip's procession back to Bauxis and tear his castle apart in the search for clues. Lellian is to go with you, her gifts will make her very useful for this."

"I'm going as well."

Everyone focused back on Issei, who's face had assumed a look of obstination. Sighing at how she knew he would take it, Laveria spoke up.

"No, you are not, Issei."

"What? Why?"

"You are not a qualified investigator, as my people are. Your presence there could lead to the potential loss or destruction of evidence necessary to locate Lilith and Phillip's mistake. Other than that there is the fact that other men do not go into Incubus territory. They are attacked from all sides, often at the cost of their lives. It's part of incubi's instincts, to dispose of competition."

"..."

Issei wanted to contest this decision, to fight against Laveria until she let him go, but the knowledge that it could make it even more difficult to rescue Lilith held Issei back from doing it.

Instead Issei powered down, his teeth gritted as he turned his back on the entire group in frustration, heading back towards his room.

"Issei."

The brunette stopped mid-step at Laveria's call, prompting the succubus queen to speak on.

"Your training sessions with Xinthia are doubled in time. I need you to be ready."

Nodding once, Issei left for his room.

~oOo~

Lying in bed, awake, Issei could only toss and turn as he thought back to the fight.

'I was the one who told Lilith to face that bastard... I should've had her get help, and taken them both on.'

'If you did, you would die.'

'...I could have stalled them enough for Lilith to get help!'

'No, you could not, and you know that that's bullshit. You would have died, and she'd have to carry that guilt for the rest of her life. And unlike a kidnapping, death is irreversible. You can still save her.'

'I wouldn't have the need to save anyone if I were strong enough to at least defeat the one fighting me quickly! This is my fault more than anyone else's. I was the stronger one of the two of us, I should be taking care of her! Protecting her! I started working hard, trying to change so that I could avoid something like this, but it still wasn't enough! I'm still not strong enough!'

'Then there is only one thing that you can do. Get stronger.'

'Will you help me do so, Ddraig?'

'...Yes. I believe it is time to teach you more about the Boosted Gear, and it's powers.'

~oOo~

Xinthia watched from a distance, her power completely suppressed, as Issei seemed to be thinking deeply, his face locked in a frown of concentration.

'I believe this is a good opportunity to teach you more about the Boosted Gear's true capabilities.'

'...True capabilities?'

'Yes. To be quite honest, you've only been using primarily the utmost basics of the Boosted Gear, which is the power multiplication. You've been increasing the amount of power you have available, your physical prowess, and the power of energy attacks you've been using, but that's all you've been doing. The only "ability" proper you have is the power given to you by the Aquila Victis.'

'Why didn't you tell me about any of this before?'

'Because you were doing well enough as you were. Fact of the matter is, most users of the Boosted Gear become completely dependent on it's power, neglecting pretty much any other avenue of growth. You, Issei, have been doing the opposite. You've been working in the manipulation of power itself for combat purposes, and developing skills and abilities other than those linked to the gear itself, abilities that possess an intrinsic combat value.

Your electrical aura, for example, would allow you to fight even without the Boosted Gear. Other than that, you've been fighting smart as much as you are fighting hard. If I told you of a quick way to get stronger faster that depended completely on the Boosted Gear, it's possible that you'd focus completely on that, to the detriment of your development in general.

You won't always be able to make use of the Boosted Gear's powers, so you need to have more than that in your pocket.'

'...I see.'

'Yes. Now, for the Boosted Gear's powers. The innated ability of the Boosted Gear is the ability to double the power of it's wielder every 10 seconds, up until their body's upper limit. That tended to create a limitation on the maximum power output of the user based on their physical capability, which meant that humans would take years upon years to get to a significant level.

You managed to get around this limitation by compressing the energy generated by the Boosted Gear outside your body, meaning that your only strain is to channel the energy needed for the physical enhancement. In that way, you're already ahead of the curve as far as boosting goes. Just remember that you can boost pretty much any other ability of your own.

A subset of this ability is called [EXPLOSION], which instead of subjecting your body to these gradual, unlimited increases of power that also result in increased physical strain, depends on the Boosted Gear's ability to measure an opponents power, building up only the required amount to overcome them, before releasing it onto your body.

This ability allows the user to minimize the strain of the continuous doubling of their power via a self-imposed limit, when the normal use of the Boosted Gear could have your power doubling beyond the one needed to defeat a weaker enemy, just for virtue of how long you take to defeat them, instead of how difficult it would be to do so. However, after the [EXPLOSION] the is a [RESET], wherein all built up power fades, and you become unable to [BOOST] for a certain time period.

You've actually been passively using half of this ability. Your boosted gear has been continuously active for over a month now, but the boosts only start when you intend them to. All you need to do now is grasp the power measuring and storing facets of the gear.

The third ability of the Boosted Gear is more of a supplemental one, than one that you can use directly, which is the Boosted Gear Gift. It allows you to [TRANSFER] your built-up power to another person or object. You can do this for more than a single person/object, but the results will be inferior, and there will be more wasted energy. You can also use this ability to focus more power into a specific part of your body, to get a result beyond the general boost you already have to your physical condition.

Another ability of the Boosted Gear that I have recently figured out, from your contact with the Eagle of Victory and Tantric Energy, is the fact that the Boosted Gear seems capable of storing other powers within itself. I believe that the same could be done with objects, but I'm not sure about that part.

Those are the Boosted Gear abilities that you can access.'

'...That sentence implies there are more.'

'Indeed there is, however you are not ready for it right now. Not physically, and especially not mentally. If you tried to go beyond and reach the next step, you would either die, or lose yourself completely, go on a rampage, and kill and destroy everything around you until either your lifeforce was depleted, or you were killed.'

'That's bad.'

'Very. Now, you should get started with your training.'

~oOo~

"Hah... Hah..."

Xinthia watched Issei with a mixture of admiration and trepidation. He had been training continuously for 5 hours, mixing his attempts at mastering his sacred gear with his physical development training.

"...I can do this... First... Shining Dragon's Coat!"

A sparking aura of electricity surrounded Issei, causing his clothes to rustle, as did his hair, the tattoo on his arm gaining an intense yellow glow, as did the Boosted Gear's jewel.

"Now..."

[BOOST]

The arcs of electricity surged around him, pushing outwards and breaking the ground under him as they went, while Issei's face changed into a focused frown.

'Instead of boosting a bit at a time...'

The brunette crouched into a battle stance, his eyes closing as he focused on the shadow of a previous opponent. He managed to conjure up the image of the girl he had been fighting the previous night, the one Travis had called Mary. She was standing across him, a pair of red blades in her hands and ready for use.

His eyes snapped open in an instant before he swayed, dodgin an imaginary bladed swipe for his throat, repeating the action before hopping backwards. He focused primarily on dodging the slashes, not wanting to give her more blood with which to attack him, even as he tried to focus on building up power in his sacred gear.

'Focus... Focus...'

He felt a good amount of power starting to build up in his gauntlet even as he fought the shadow...

[BOOST]

Until his power doubled, with the excess of built-up power just dispersing uselessly. The jarring sensation of his power just slipping out of his body caused him to stumble, giving enough time for his imaginary opponent to go for a stab to the chest, one which he had to block with his right forearm before retreating, meaning a crippled arm and more blood for 'Mary' to work with.

Considering this training session another failure, Issei banished his imaginary opponent before allowing his power to fade. The exhaustion of continuous exercise caught up to his body, causing him to sway before falling over forwards. Expecting to meet hard ground, Issei was surprised when he felt something warm and hard propping him up.

"Did you forget your instructor already, maggot?"

The brunette looked up, his gaze falling on Xinthia's amused face.

"Xinthia? What are you doing here?"

Raising her eyebrow, the succubus responded.

"I don't know for sure, but it is a possibility that my presence here is connected to the fact that this is the area where I'm supposed to instruct you at, and that we were supposed to train today."

"Oh. I guess I got so caught up in what I was doing that it slipped my mind."

Sighing at that, Xinthia allowed Issei to lean on her as he unsteadily walked back to the castle, before her curiosity reared it's head.

"About that... What exactly were you doing? I watched you shadow box for a while, before just lowering your fists and restarting, again and again, but I didn't really understand what you were trying to achieve."

"I was trying to learn to use one of the Boosted Gear's techniques, the ability to raise my power to the level specifically required to defeat a certain opponent, without having to constantly up my power gradually during the fight and wear my own stamina down."

"Have you thought about having an actually living opponent to test this ability on? Because I'm not sure your Boosted Gear can respond to the power level of a nonexistent shadow."

"..."

'...'

"I'm an idiot."

"Indisputable fact." 'That was a known quantity.'

Issei felt like crying.

~oOo~

"You have questions."

Issei nodded at Laveria, any levity wiped from his countenance.

"What is this... Seed object?"

"The Seed... It is an artifact of great power that figures proeminently in Luxurian mythos. It has a long history."

"We can't do anything until your people figure out where Lilith is, so I'd say we have much time."

"I see. To know what the Seed is, you need to know it's origins. It all began with the Biblical God.

As you may know, the first beings He made were the Angels, those who were to serve as his aides, to serve, love and worship him eternally. However, as you know, his first creation, Lucifer, rebelled against him, and so he was banished from the Heavens forever.

That, however, seemed to have given him the understanding that worship from beings made specifically to worship him was not wholly satisfying, and that it could lead to betrayal, hatred and resentment. In that moment, he decided to create beings of free will, those who could make the choice in whether to believe, or not to.

He started by creating the Garden of Eden. A place of purity, and peace, that would protect and harbor what he intended to be his greatest creations. Then, he made the plants and animals, so that these beings of his had company, sustenance, and beauty to behold.

After having created the perfect conditions in Eden, He took two handfuls of dirt, shaped them and gave them the gift of life, giving origin to Adam and Lilith, the first humans.

However, not all was good. As you know, everything that exists has an opposite facet, the other side of the coin.

Just as Light gave origin to Darkness, and Love to Hatred, the Purity and Virtue within the first humans gave origin to Corruption and Sin.

Not wanting sin to taint his ultimate creations, He took all of the world's evils, those which existed beyond the borders of Eden, and decided to place them within Eden itself, under his protection and watchful eye.

He condensed sin into as small a form as he could and then buried it, expecting it to be forever hidden. He did not expect sin to not desire to be hidden.

This desire caused Sin to reveal itself as it could, and the Seven Deadly Sins grew into the form of massive trees, each of them bearing fruit.

He was unaware of this, focused as he was on his creations, so He had not devised a way to protect them from it. Things came to a head as Lilith ended up wandering into the wrong section of Eden.

Feeling hunger, she chose the fruit of one of the trees and ate it.

The fruit she ate had been the concentrated for of the Sin of Lust. However, pure as she was, Lilith did not become 'Corrupted' by it, per se. He innocent, naive mind interpreted Lust not as a detestable, sinful ideal, but as a way for one to express their love and appreciation to their partner.

Lilith went to Adam and she tried to show him her new form of love, the one that derived from the warmth of the loins, but God happened to see, and he did not like it.

He asked Lilith about what she desired to do, and how she reached her conclusion after the explanation had been given, which lead to him discovering the various Fruits of Sin. Feeling that the Sin had irrevocably corrupted Lilith, yet still loving her as a Father loves their child, he banished her from Eden, sending her out into the world with a protector to ensure that she would not be harmed by others.

Out in the world, Lilith did her best to spread her manner of professing Love to others, something which spread throughout the various pockets of humanity existing outside of Eden, those that were under the jurisdiction of the other Pantheons.

With Lust spreading universally throughout the planet and the various beings that inhabited it, so did Lilith's power, and her desire to find a partner to complete her.

This enormous amount of power attracted the attention of Lucifer. Lucifer decided to lay with Lilith to gain powerful offspring, so that they could be used to wage war against heaven itself, however he was not successful as Lilith believed Lust to be a manner of expressing love, and she did not feel any love for Lucifer.

Understanding this, Lucifer figured out another plan. He would use his silver tongue to corrupt Lilith, until she finally allowed herself to be bedded by him. Day after day, week after week, Lucifer constantly approached Lilith and whispered evil things in her ear, trying to corrupt her and her ways.

Eventually it started working, and an evil emotion started blossoming within her heart, Jealousy. Jealousy for the fact that God loved Adam more than her. Jealousy for the fact that Adam loved God more than he did her. Jealousy for the fact that those she taught managed to find love, and she did not.

However, the still was a part of the old Lilith within her heart that understood the true nature of Lust, and that abhorred this new feeling. When Lilith promised Lucifer to lay with him and bear him children out of spite, this part decided that enough was enough. It ejected itself from the whole that was Lilith, taking with it the truth of Lust and leaving behind a hollow echo of that power. Said Echo was enough to trick Lucifer and the shell of whom used to be Lilith, and the two joined together and gave origin to devils.

The true essence of Lilith supressed her power and hid amongst humans with her guardian. While living as a human, she caught the eye of a blacksmith. Said blacksmith was successful in courting Lilith, resulting in the two getting married.

Eventually they decided to have children, which lead to Lilith telling him of her true origins, and her story, expecting him to reject her. However, he told her that her origins had no importance in the face of his love, and the two laid together.

Lilith became with child eventually, giving birth to the first Succubus in history, Leona. Desiring to hide the nature of their daughter in order to protect her from both humans and the supernatural, Lilith and her husband left their village and decided to live in solitude, in a far away forest.

Father, Mother and Daughter lived together happily for many years, but eventually the Blacksmith's human nature caught up with him, and he died of old age.

Mother and Daughter mourned for him, and for Lilith, her one true love had passed away at that moment.

Eventually Lilith felt the desire to have more children, but she was unwilling to lay with another man, not wishing to let go of the memory of her husband, so she instead did something different.

She took as much Tantric Energy into herself as she could and concentrated it within her womb, her only instruction for it being 'to give life'. After some time she gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. Sparda and Ayala.

Eventually Leona went out into the world, searching for a lover of her own, while Lilith raised Sparda and Ayala, and kept spawning more children, giving origin to more Succubi and Incubi.

A good few years later, after more of her children went out into the world, Lilith decided that she had lived enough and that she wanted to go meet her love in the afterlife. In order to do this, however, she would have to give away the power of Lust to another, making herself into a mortal woman once again, and that's where the troubles started.

Her various sons and daughters started fighting amongst themselves, trying to determine who was the worthiest of them all to inherit Lilith's power.

Amongst all of her children, with the exception of the absent Leona, only Sparda and Ayala kept the peace, neither of them desiring to have the power to themselves. That led to her final decision.

Lilith reached out to her oldest daughter, Leona, to return home, and she did so with her husband; and to her God-assigned Guardian.

There, in front of all her assembled children, Lilith split the power of lust in two, bestowing half onto Ayala and the other half into Sparda, before tasking Leona and her Guardian to ensure that the two were safe and protected.

Leona and Ayala set off with their sisters and established Luxuria, while Sparda and their brothers established Bauxia, the two nations kept separate by decision of their leaders, Leona and Sparda, in an attempt to keep the two halves of the power of Lust separate.

However, this peaceful solution did not suffice. As the older generation grew old and either perished or gave power to the next generation, the spirit of peace was forgotten by both sides. Dissatisfied factions emerged amongst either nation's people, some desiring to rise to power over their own nation, others wishing to wage war upon the opposite one for various reasons, amongst them a sense of inherent superiority based on their gender, or a simple desire to take the other half of the power of lust to themselves.

In an attempt to stymie their people's unrest without resorting to civil war, both nations declared all-out war on eachother, which was interspersed with some short resting periods as each side took the time to lick their injuries, before going back to fighting one-another.

Things came to a head a few centuries ago, during the 'Battle of the Blood River'.

Back then, my mother and Phillip's father were still reigning, and while both weary of war, neither desired to turn things into a civil conflict within their own nations.

Me and Phillip were designated as squad leaders during a specific battle, one that was waged in a stretch of no-man's-land that possessed a particularly large, wide and dangerous river running through it, with the bigger, primary bridge being up north, while down south, where the river ran somewhat shallower and not as dangerous, there was only an old, dilapidated bridge, one that no-one could ensure wouldn't rot away at a moment's notice.

Our strategies happened to mirror one-another in that there was a main designated squad fighting up river, at the main bridge, while the secondary squad was supposed to sneak into enemy territory through the secondary one and set up an attack, with the intent to split their focus between the front and backline, and to take them down in the confusion.

Our two squads were designated to cross the older, more decrepit bridge, ended up meeting eachother, and we ended up fighting. The battle was long and arduous, and I lost many a friend, but things eventually reached a climax when only Phillip and I were standing. The two of us engaged in battle with ferocity, neither wishing to lose and dishonor themselves, their nation and their parent.

Our battle stopped when Phillip and I fell into the water, and instead of finding the clear water that we expected, we were dunked into a river of red.

Then, seeing the corpses of our friends and allies littering the bridge, battered and broken, their blood painting the whole river red, the two of us lost any desire to fight with eachother. We rallied the remainder of our squads, and together, we marched into the primary battlefield.

We managed to force either side to retreat, before we managed to convince our parents to enter diplomatic relations, and eventually peace.

This resulted in civil war in both nations, as the militant factions disagreed with the ruling of the royal families."

"Wait a second."

Laveria gave Issei her attention, prompting the brunette to speak up.

"I asked you about the 'Seed', and you start talking about Eden, and Adam and Lilith, and end up in civil war?"

"Just pay attention and you will eventually understand where I'm heading with this."

Shrugging, Issei sat back into his seat while Laveria resumed her explanation.

"I can't speak for Bauxia and Phillip, but I can definitely say that the Luxurian civil war was more brutal than any other battle I had fought in before. The leader of the other side was a Granddaughter of Ayala, Jianna, and she possessed immense potential using Tantric Energy, and all it's various magics. My mother felt that she was too old to be capable of competing with her, so the task fell to me.

I disagreed with her. I might have had four pairs of wings back then, but Jianna was much stronger than me, being on the verge of gaining a fifth pair. That's when my mother told me about a method of gaining enough power to defeat Jianna."

"The Seed."

"Indeed. You see, Ayala and Sparda feared that as long as the powers within themselves lived on, their possessors and the entire world would forever live in danger. So, instead of passing the powers on, they allowed the powers to die with them. Literally.

Ayala's burial place is a secret kept only by the Luxurian royal family, the blood descendants of Lilith through Leona. It is protected by a massive beast of great power-"

"The wolf."

"-and it is also the place where the Seed can be found. You see, Issei, high amounts of concentrated power generally have a hard time dispersing. Ayala died with half of the power of Lust, the spiritual aspect, within her, and that power did not wish to disperse.

It coalesced, instead, in the form of a fruit tree, as was within it's nature from the beggining. However, since the power Ayala possessed was incomplete, the tree could not bestow the full power of Lust. Instead, any fruit that this tree gives grants the eater an extreme increase in Tantric Energy reserves, and a deeper connection to the power of Lust."

"...So, the seed is a fruit from a tree, that increases sex power?"

"Not just sex power, but the connection that one has with their inner lust. This makes one's inherent sensuality shine if they possess it, and actually grants sensuality to someone that does not possess it. It makes any individual the closest they can be to a succubus in nature, without actually being a succubus; exuding a constant allure that in low amounts gets the attention of, and in higher amounts completely enthralls someone of the opposite gender as a general norm, and occasionally an individual of the same gender, if they happen to be so inclined.

This deeper connection also gives the eater an increased aptitude with Tantric Energy manipulation. Consuming it has the potential to instantly make a low-class fighter into a high-class one... If they do not lose their mind to it, that is."

"What do you mean?"

"Tell me, Issei... How did it feel to you when you were getting it on with Bernice? Did you feel any foreign impulses? A guiding force? Perhaps even a voice nudging you into doing certain things?"

The brunette blinked owlishly, before responding.

"I... Actually, that's exactly what happened back then, and when I was with Lilith. There's this tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me the best moment to do each thing."

"That is a direct consequence of how close you are to your inner Lust. You are closer than almost any other human ever, Issei, to the point that you are comparable to a Succubus or Incubus in that aspect. Now imagine what would happen if you were listening to that voice day and night, year after year for the rest of your life as if it were someone screaming into your ear through a megaphone. That is how it feels to gain a deeper connection with your inner lust. Returning from that is extremely difficult.

Believe me, I know."

"So eating the fruit would make someone incapable of resisting into a sex maniac incapable of functioning in the real world?"

"Worse, a sex maniac incapable of proper functioning in the real world, with an insatiable desire to sexually conquer others, and an Allure that only the stronger willed individuals can resist. It would be catastrophic. Humanity would constantly stop functioning whenever this person emerged, with everyone's lusts overflowing to the point that they'd perform acts of insanity, such as engage in sex with animals, or inannimate objects. The individuals with stronger drives or with darker fetishes would be completely unable to keep their impulses at bay, which would lead to them hurting people, especially innocents.

Traffic accidents would occur as the drivers forgot everything about driving and traffic regulations and focused instead on reaching the climax of sexual pleasure at any cost. The supernatural world would not be unaffected either, with the majority of the supernatural beings falling for this sexual frenzy. Beings of purity would be corrupted, beings of vice and sin would predate on all others, regardless of the consequences.

Humanity would be made aware of the supernatural. And then things would get really ugly."

"I can imagine. The few humans either strong-willed or lucky enough to be unaffected by this sexual aura would be horrified and enraged about the fact that an entire world was capable of acting in a hidden manner as the supernatural world has, in a manner that allows them to predate on normal humans without being made accountable for their acts.

Fear would fuel paranoia, which, in turn, would fuel hatred and prejudice. War would break out between humans and the supernatural wherever it could be reached, and when high-to-ultimate class beings were brought into the equation, so would nuclear arms."

"Yes. It would be the end of the world as we know it. It's the reason why the Seed is kept protected at all moments, and why no-one is allowed to just consume it at will. Anyone incapable of resisting the Seed's influence is to be immediately terminated."

"I see. It's harsh, but it's the best thing to do in this situation."

"I'm glad you understand that. That means that you probably won't object to the fact that I intend for you to eat it."

If Issei's mouth was full he'd either have spat everything out, or choked on it. A befuddled look came onto his face as he processed what Laveria had told him, but she spoke up before he could respond.

"Of course, I do not speak lightly, nor without considerable thought. My initial objective was to use the Seed on you after years of training, first with Xinthia, then myself, in the ability to use your Tantric Energy, and in resistance to mental attacks, however things changed when my baby girl got kidnapped.

You may not have noticed this, Issei, but you are quite literally our only hope."

"What? What do you mean? You have an army, and there are monsters like Xinthia and yourself here! I mean, I want to do my absolute best to help rescue Lilith, but I'm not going to pretend that the chances wouldn't be higher with someone of Ultimate class or higher in the matter."

"As much as I'd like to lead the search for my daughter personally, I cannot do so, Issei. The truth is that Luxuria is a heavily sought-after country. Various individuals would like to get their hands on Succubi, be it to use them as bedwarmers, pets or trophies, or for the possibility of learning to harness one of the most powerful, and plentiful powers in the whole world, which Lust happens to be.

If it was noticed that either high amounts of, or a few high-level succubi were on the move, the rest of the factions of the world would shift their focus onto us, and try to profit from the situation in some manner. Hiring mercenaries would be foolhardy, as they would gain much more in the form of favor and esteem by selling the information that the Luxurian princess was missing to other groups, than they could gain in wealth from us.

Everyone and their mothers would try to seize Lilith, and use her however possible, including as a pollitical piece in an attempt to get me to act, and give concessions, and so on and so forth.

I am extremely reticent in asking for support from Incubi, and I'm quite sure you understand why, given the circumstances behind this whole ordeal. You are, quite literally,Lilith's only hope.

And as much as it might hurt you to hear this, you are not ready.

The magical residue from the teleportation didn't lead to anywhere concrete, and instead just pointed west. Other than that, the signature was muddled so that the race and individual behind the enchantment could not be detected. That means Travis is recieving some serious backing, and that probably means henchment and women in various power classes, with the possibility of one or two ultimates.

You may be capable of defeating a mid-class, maybe even match a high class if your went all out with no concern for burning yourself out, but those odds would absolutely crush you. However, learning to harness the power of your own Lust would push you far beyond how strong you currently are. Together with your lightning abilities, and your Boosted Gear, you should be capable of matching an Ultimate-class fighter."

"...Fine. I'll do it."

"Not so fast. Consuming the seed right now would completely overwhelm you. No, what you'll be doing instead is training with Xinthia. I have already instructed her to shift the focus from increasing your raw combat capabilities, to making you as proficient and resistant to Tantric Energy as possible."

~14 days later~

"No, no, no! You're a human, you can't just shunt the power to your body! You need to split the Tantric Energy from your inherent magic, and then give it the instruction to harden while simultaneously infusing it within the bodypart, object or weapon that you wish to Reinforce!"

Issei wiped his brow clean of the deluge of sweat pouring off of him, his breaths coming out in tired gasps and wheezes. He looked down at his right arm which was shaking intensely from the sheer amount of times he sent an excessive amount of power into it, overtaxing it's resistance.

"Again, Maggot! And this time like you mean it!"

Gritting his teeth angrily, Issei focused back on splitting the threads of power from one another even as the purple threads fought against his efforts, trying their best to stay mixed together with the other colors.

'Wait a second... I could...'

Closing his eyes and focusing deeply, Issei grabbed as much Tantric Energy as he could and pushed it into the Boosted Gear, allowing the remainder of the sacred gear's own energy to focus on boosting his body's base abilities.

'Now, I can try that!'

"HAH!"

[TRANSFER]

Issei felt the raw Tantric Energy start shifting, flooding towards his right forearm.

'Harden... Harden... HARDEN, GODDAMNIT!'

Purple markings akin to a tribal tattoo sleeve spread along Issei's arm, causing Xinthia's eyebrows to raise, while Issei himself could only marvel at how physically powerful he felt at that moment.

Intent on testing that power, Issei cut off the flow of the Boosted Gear's multiplied power from the entirety of his body before walking towards a tree. Instead of punching or slapping it as would be the norm, he decided to do something different.

Issei grabbed the tree right by the middle of the trunk, positioning his hand for the best possible grip before he squeezed. His fingers sunk into the tree itself, giving him a great grip on it, before he tensed the muscles in his arm, and pulled.

"Holy shit..."

The brunette could only stare almost incredulously at the tree that he had ripped from the ground by the roots with way less effort than expected, using an energy that didn't tax his body to channel and store, and that instead made it sturdier, and easier to keep together.

"This ability is fucking amazing!"

"Yes, it is, and you've only scratched the surface. Your application is incomplete, the power hasn't properly settled in your arm, probably due to the fact that you cheated and used your Boosted Gear for it. When you manage to directly Reinforce things, you'll understand just how powerful a properly trained user of Tantric Energy can be. Now go hit the showers, we're done for today."

"Yes!"

Dropping the tree in his grip, Issei allowed the Tantric Energy that had been shunted into his arm to disperse throughout his body, taking off his shirt to wipe himself clean of sweat as he headed back into the castle.

His focus was still on his training even as he headed towards his room, causing him to miss the speculative and appreciative looks from the maids as he had been ever since Lilith had been abducted.

He closed the door behind him after entering his room, then procceeded to disrobe on the way to his bathroom.

He allowed the warm water to loosen the knots that had built up in his muscles, providing him a good level of relief, before actually washing off the sweat and grime. Toweling his hair dry, Issei walked back to his room naked and still wet...

"Hello, Issei~"

Only to meet the latest annoyance of his life.

Well, it was more 'one annoyance' out of a set of many. The day after Lilith was abducted, a bunch of Laveria's sistes and cousins showed up in a display of 'solidarity', bringing with them their own daughters in a transparent attempt at securing any one of them the role of the Luxurian heiress.

Ever since they first caught sight of him shirtless, and the Tantric Energy rolling off of him pretty much after every training session with Xinthia, they had tried their absolute best to lure him into their bed.

Issei kept ignoring them and went out of his way to avoid them, to their irritation, and seemed to be stuck on their 'annoying cousin Lilith' instead, prompting them to just try harder, and to up the ante, with this latest attempt being the boldest one amongst them so far.

"You seem very stressed, why not allow me to help you... Unwind~?"

Eleanor, the firstborn of Laveria's second sister, was lying on Issei's bed, completely naked, her seductive aura flaring at full strength.

The brunette completely ignored her, moving past the bed without as much as sparing her a look. His face stuck in neutral mode, Issei worked on choosing a set of clothes for himself, only to feel a pair of arms wrapping around his neck from behind, even as a large, soft pair of breasts pressed onto his back.

"Mou~, won't you even look at me? Am I that ugly?"

Issei did not respond to her, prompting her to up the stakes again and to reach around him, her hand going for his-

"Stop."

She was surprised by the simultaneous application of a commanding tone of voice and a tight grip on her wrist stopping her from her prize.

"Come now, Issei, I've heard from the maids about you, how you're a hot-blooded male with a healthy appreciation of the female body. Why do you deny yourself access to my body? Why not just let me do something that we both know you'll enjoy?"

"Because this is not the time to be doing something of this sort. My girlfriend is missing, kidnapped. My focus is on that, and that alone, for now and until that situation is resolved. Your behavior surprises me, however. Did you not come here to show solidarity for Lilith, and to give support to Queen Laveria?"

Eleanor scoffed out loud, before responding.

"Solidarity? You know as well as I do that none of those shallow bitches I call cousins came here to show any level of solidarity, or support. Our mothers basically brought us here in some sort of macabre interview with auntie Laveria, to see who gets to become Heiress of the Luxurian throne after Lilith is pronounced dead!

I don't care about Lilith, my mother doesn't care about Lilith, my aunts and cousins don't care about Lilith, and you won't even remember her after I'm through with you, so just do what you're supposed to as a man, toss me onto that bed and have your way with me, goddamnit!"

Eleanor squealed in delight as she felt herself be tossed onto the bed, with Issei standing over her, naked, his eyes shaded by his bangs. She was already drooling just by imagining getting her lips around that thick, juicy-

"Out."

The succubus blinked owlishly, before speaking up.

"W-what did you say?"

"I told you to get out."

Incredulity and anger filled her simultaneously, prompting her to explode at him.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? Who in their right mind would refuse to fuck someone as hot as me when they're all but spreading their legs for them? There has to be something wrong with you!"

"I already told you to get out of my room."

"Is this about that entitled little count of a cousin of mine? Miss 'I'm too good to spend time with you skanks', miss 'I'm the fucking princess, so I'm better than you'. Is that it? She's worthless, a non-factor by now!"

"OUT!"

Issei's voice was backed by an explosion of power from him that threw Eleanor and the bed she lied on across the room. The succubus fell from the bed mid-flight, which was probably good for her as the bed shattered on the opposite wall of the room.

A green aura of power rose around the naked form of Issei as he glared at Eleanor who sported a nasty sneer, before speaking up.

"If you don't fuck me right now, I'll tell everyone that you raped me! If you don't want to die, you better get on your knees and get your fucking head between my legs, right fucking now!"

The nimbus of energy around Issei intensified, creating scorch marks on the floor under him while sparks jumped all around his body. The sacred gear user took a menacing step towards Eleanor, while the nasty succubus kept speaking.

"I'm warning you! The punishment for forceful sexual relations with a succubus is death in all cases!"

Issei took another step towards her, his power causing his hair to whip around and various objects in his room to fly around him, while Eleanor's confidence waned slightly.

"I-I'm the Queen's niece! No way they'll l-let you get away with it!"

Step.

"T-the people will riot! T-t-they'll h-have your head for this!"

Step.

"O-one m-more step, and I'll... I'll scream!"

Step.

Eleanor opened her mouth to release a scream only for Issei's hand to wrap around her mouth, forcibly silencing her, and she had to shiver at the look of sheer, unbridled hatred that Issei gave her.

The brunette leaned towards the girl, his eyes narrowed and his pupils lengthening into slits, as he snarled out at her.

"Do you know what you're going to do right now, Eleanor? No? Well, let me tell you. You are going to get the hell out of my room. You get as far away from me as possible, and you stay there. You do not search for me, you don't try to send me messages through others, or seek me out in any possible way. Failure to comply with these instructions will result in very bad things happening to you. Nod if you understand."

Her eyes welling with terrified tears, the girl nodded as hard and fast as she possibly could with Issei's hand covering her mouth, prompting the brunette to finish.

"Good, you seemed to have understood. Now, I will release you and you will leave instantly. And if I ever hear you badmouth my girlfriend again... I will make you wish for death."

He released some of his Pressure onto her to make his point, before letting her go and stepping back. He watched as Eleanor dazedly made it back to her feet, making her way out of the room in an almost drunken sway, a wet trail going down her leg and staining his floor.

He exhaled tiredly as she left his line of sight, his shoulders sagging as the emotional weight of the whole matter finally hit him. An ugly feeling welled up in his chest, something dark, oily and disgusting, yet Issei reacted by swallowing it, and burying it deeper, considering it not to be a priority, or an immediate problem.

'Now is not the time, Issei... You have to keep it together!'

Brushing off the previous interaction, the male sighed forlornly at the loss of another bed of his, before allowing his feet to take him to the dining room while his mind wandered.

His thoughts that were usually filled with breasts, butts, legs and thighs were lately full of images of him punching straight through Travis, to extremely bloody and gory results. Fantasy after fantasy of him getting payback on the bastard filled Issei's mind, attempting to drown him in anger, hatred and bile, and his ability to resist those impulses slipped more from him with each passing day.

Lately Issei wouldn't walk anywhere anymore, he'd stalk anywhere. His previous friendly and cheery disposition was gone, replaced with forced smiles and hidden brooding. His time was primarily invested in training, with less and less time being invested in eating, resting and relaxing, a situation which worried Ddraig greatly.

'At the rate things are going, Juggernaut Drive is going to be a certainty... And with the other powers that he has...'

But the dragon kept silent, knowing that this was the sort of issue that Issei had to figure out for himself.

The brunette re-asserted full control over his body as the dining room door came into sight, using his right hand to push them inwards...

"THERE HE IS! THE ONE THAT VIOLATED MY BABY GIRL! SEIZE HIM!"

Only to be met with a squad of guards that he had never seen around the castle before, all of them scowling, sneering or snarling towards him, various weapons, including swords, spears, axes and bows pointed towards him.

At the other end of the room Issei spotted the naked and crying figure of Eleanor being comforted by the myriad of cousins, many of them who had previously given him looks of lust and desire giving him now looks of either fear or disgust.

His head slowly, in an almost-lethargic moved back from Eleanor to the woman that had shouted out loud about someone being violated, before his neutral frown started twitching.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the corners of Issei's lips started turning upwards, a few light chuckles emerging from his chest.

CRACK.

"Really? Are you sure you want to do this?"

"OF COURSE I AM! You're a filthy wretch with no sense of decency, attacking my baby girl just because she refused your advances!"

The twitching of his lips stopped, leaving a placid, eerily-calm smile on his face, whiles his own voice assumed a similar tone.

"If you attack me I'm not holding back."

His relaxed countenance in the face of the overwhelming odds had some of the guards backing away slightly warily, preparing themselves to rebuff some sort of attack. Eleanor's mother, seeing this, unleashed her wings and tail, allowed her nails to grow until they were each as long as a man's forearm, and then let her Pressure flow outwards, revealing her to be at best mid-class.

"I'll separate your head from your shoulders myself!"

She slashed at his neck extremely fast, faster than almost anyone else in the room could even follow, only for Issei to dodge by taking a single backwards hop.

Angered, she dashed after the young man, delivering a wild flurry of slashes, only for him to dodge her, again and again.

Issei's retreat was gradually moving him towards a wall, causing a grin to emerge on the woman's face as she effectively trapped the boy.

"I HAVE YOU NO-urk!"

She was surprised by the lightning-encased fist that had embedded itself on her gut, taking her breath away and causing her to cough out some saliva, before she was forced to dodge an arching kick from her left that would have struck her temple and rendered her unconscious.

Rubbing at her sore stomach, her gaze returned to the brunette with his left arm encased in a cast, her eyes warily following the streaks of lightning that danced along his skin.

"What's wrong? Weren't you going to take off my head? Come on and do it!"

The woman sneered at Issei, not managing to cover her wince of pain as she straightened back into her initial stance, keeping a wary gaze on the boy.

"I somewhat underestimated you and you got a lucky hit in. Won't happen again."

Issei responded to that by dashing towards her at an impressive speed, a streak of yellow left behind in his wake, before the sound of an explosion resounded throughout the dining room right before a blast of pressurized air, a consequence of Issei's leg meeting her right forearm.

Issei jumped away from the clash, flying head-first towards the wall before flipping middair, landing on it feet-first.

Allowing the momentum to force him to coil his legs, Issei blasted off towards the succubus, his feet aiming for her head, forcing her to sway to the side to avoid the blow, causing him to right himself middair before landing.

He then allowed his face to turn toward either side of him, noticing the fact that he had been surrounded by the armed soldiers.

The woman spoke up again.

"Surrender now, cur, and your death will be quick!"

"That one sounded particularly familliar right now... Anyways, I'm going to have to say no. Surge!"

A surge of electricity flew outwards from Issei, slamming into all of the succubi surrounding him and causing them to fly a considerable distance away from him, either dazed or unconscious.

The woman responded by brandishing her claws, allowing Issei to notice the fact that purple veins of power started creeping up along them in a Reinforcement.

'If that's how she's playing...'

"Sparking Dragon's Talons!"

Shifting his right hand into a knife-hand posture, Issei allowed streaks of electricity to run down his arm and wrist, before stretching out beyond his hand in the shape of a single blade of yellow-colored solidified electricity, which released a light humming sound with each of Issei's movements.

With no more words to say, the two dashed towards eachother, Reinforced nails clashing with Dragon Talons and resulting in a bladelock. The succubus reared back her other hand before thrusting forwards, intent on skewering Issei's head.

Issei responded by changing the angle of the clash between blades before causing his Talons to grow longer, intercepting the second set of nails.

Tensing his arm, Issei pushed his attacker back, allowing the electric blade to disperse before pointing the palm of his hand towards her, then curling his fingers into tiger-claws.

"Thunder repeater."

Small balls of electricity starting sparking at the tip of his four fingers and thumb before shooting towards his attacker, small balls of condensed electricity reminiscent of bullets forcing the woman to dash around Issei in an attempt to move out of his arm's way.

She shifted her weight in anticipation of an opportunity to pounce on Issei, causing the young man to jump backwards from her while increasing the firing rate of his Thunder Repeater, peppering the walls and floor of the room they were in with tiny, smoking holes, with melted slag at the edges.

He stopped firing his small bolts, splaying his fingers wide open and allowing a bigger ball of electricity to coalesce on the palm of his hand, causing his attacker to seize the opportunity and attempt to avoid the more dangerous attack by dashing towards them, her claws already mid-motion for her planned slash.

Issei already expected her to try to pounce in case he prepared a charge-type attack, which was exactly why he fled towards where he did. As he started charging his attack, Issei stepped on one of the swords of the unconscious succubi guards strewn around the room.

When his attacker dashed towards him, Issei's leg blurred as he kicked the sword towards her face, forcing her to stop mid-motion to dodge, managing to do so by a hair's breadth, giving Issei time to fully charge his attack.

"Thunder Cannon!"

The circular bolt of electricity shot towards his attacker and exploded on contact, discharging a good amount of electricity into her and throwing her through the double doors of the dining room out into the hallway.

The woman barely managed to keep her consciousness, her body showing the damage she acquired in the fight, while Issei slowly and calmly strode towards her, his left hand still within the sling that it hadn't left ever since Issei ended his training earlier that day, while he wiggled the fingers of his right hand in an attempt to get rid of their numbness.

He stood over the defeated succubus, his face still in it's placid, happy-looking state as he spoke with a light tone.

"Well, it seems my head is still attached to my shoulders, ne?"

"I'LL KILL YOU!"

The brunette spun preternaturally fast in response to the shout, his hand shooting towards Eleanor's throat, stopping her mid stabbing motion.

"Well, Eleanor, it seems that you got what you wanted all along, you have my attention now. The question is... Will it really be worth it when you're dead?"

Eleanor leveled a glare on Issei, prompting him to squeeze her throat and cut off her air supply, causing her to start clawing at his hand with both of her own in an attempt to free herself, her feet kicking uselessly middair as her face purpled.

"Eleanor, my baby!"

Issei ignored the downed woman, his focus still on the purple-faced succubus that attempted to pry his hand away from her neck.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?"

Issei's focus shifted abruptly to Laveria, the source of the shout, causing him to absentmindedly release his hold on Eleanor's throat, causing her to fall back onto her ass on the floor as she greedily gulped air in, her fingers lightly touching the dark bruising around her throat.

"Oh hey Laveria. I was just attacked by these two lunatics, so I decided to have a little fun at their expense."

Eleanor's mother spoke at that, if one could call hysterical shouting 'speaking'.

"LUNATICS? FUN? THIS BASTARD ATTEMPTED TO VIOLATE MY BABY ELEANOR!"

Laveria's already serious countenance became even graver as she spoke.

"That's quite the accusation you're throwing out, Illyasova. I hope you have evidence."

Eleanor's mother, whose name had just been revealed to Issei to be Illyasova, gave Laveria an incredulous look before speaking up.

"Evidence? ISN'T ALL THE EVIDENCE YOU NEED RIGHT HERE? Felled succubi soldiers! The bruises along my baby girl's body, my own battered state, the fact that you found him STRANGLING HER! Is there any other conclusion one could draw?"

Laveria turned towards Issei, implicitly giving him a chance to defend himself before taking action.

Issei's response was to walk towards Eleanor and hoisted her up by the arm roughly, before dragging her towards Laveria.

Before Illyasova could speak out about her daughter being roughly handled, Issei spoke up.

"Look at the bruising around her neck, see the thickness and spacing of the finger marks there. They match this newest bruise on her left arm, from when I lifted her and dragged her towards you."

He then pointed towards her opposite arm, which showed a bruise similar to as if someone had grabbed her arm much too tightly, before pointing towards the slap-shaped bruise on her face.

"These are different than mine. Smaller hand size, lesser strength, and they were clearly applied by a left hand. My left hand is encased in a cast."

Illyasova's eyes widened in surprise at those observations, as did the eyes of the other girls within the room that had been glaring at Issei earlier, before the brunette continued.

"She has a black eye, but it's size doesn't match the size of my closed fist, it's much too small, as if it were administered by someone with a smaller hand size. None of these things were done to her by me."

Laveria looked towards her sister, before speaking.

"There may be a conclusion or two that differ from the one you drew, Illya."

The Luxurian Queen turned towards her niece, adressing her directly.

"Facts don't seem to line up with the picture you wanted people to paint, Eleanor. Do you have anything to say for that?"

Seeing the doubt and skepticism in the eyes of everyone around her caused anger to emerge from Eleanor's heart, prompting her to explode, breaking the image of a 'hurt little girl' she had been trying to foster up until then.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW? ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO SIDE WITH HIM OVER ME? BELIEVE A TOTAL STRANGER OVER YOUR OWN NIECE? YOUR FLESH AND BLOOD?"

Ignoring Eleanor's disrespectful outburst, Laveria responded calmly.

"Issei isn't a total stranger. He is a remarkable young man that has earned my respect and esteem, just as he has earned my daughter's. I would accept no less for my son-in-law."

"So that's it? He gets to go free because he's Little Lilith's Boytoy? Why do you insist on showing favoritism for a total failure of a succubus such as that bit-"

She stopped mid-sentence as a heavy Pressure centered itself on her, weighing her down to the point that she was unable to breathe.

The source of this pressure was Issei, who's face had changed into an almost feral look as he snarled at the girl. Issei's right arm shot towards Eleanor's throat with the intent to crush it with a single blow, a situation that only got averted due to Laveria taking Issei's wrist into a tight grip.

Dissatisfied with this, Issei's left shoulder moved as he woeked on removing his arm from the sling, only for Laveria to speak up.

"While I completely understand the intention behind this attack and wish to do something similar, I am going to have to ask you to calm down, Issei."

The brunette seemed to not even hear Laveria, managing to rip his sling appart, but before he could break free from the cast, Laveria spoke up, her voice laced with soothing magic.

"Calm and Relaxed, Issei~"

She reppeated the same words over and over again, causing the brunette's eyes to start drooping, his energies fleeing from him as he fell into a deep slumber.

Turning towards her sister, Laveria spoke up.

"I want you and your wretched crotch spawn packed and gone from my castle in 20 minutes, Illya."

Illyasova opened her mouth, only for Laveria to talk over her.

"Non-debateable. Leave."

Huffing, the adult succubus dragged herself to her feet, taking her daughter with her with the intent to pack their things.

As soon as the two were out of sight, Laveria spoke out loud to the rest of the assembled succubi.

"All of you scram! There's something better to do with your time at this moment. If there isn't, then find one! Out!"

They dispersed, taking away with them the unconscious soldiers as well, leaving behind only a deeply sleeping Issei and a worried-looking Laveria.

"His mental state seems to be slipping."

Laveria turned towards the side, watching as Xinthia, the source of the previous sentence, walked out from behind one of the hallway's pillars.

Tenderly stroking his head, Laveria responded.

"It's not surprising, or unexpected. He's been bombarded left and right with deeply shocking events and revelations for almost a month or two straight, now. Add to that the fact that his girlfriend was kidnapped right in front of him, the absurdly intense training regimens that he undertakes on his own volition, the lack of sleep and sexual release, and it'd be more unexpected, and more worrying, if he displayed no signs."

"...Do you still intend for him to eat the Seed and singlehandedly shoulder the burden of attempting to save Lilith?"

Sighing morosely, the Succubus queen responded.

"You know that there is no other way, Xinthia. All any of us could do now would be to put our trust and belief in Issei. To believe that he'll be able to overcome this, that he'll be capable of resisting the Seed's influence, and that he'll ultimately succeed in saving Lilith.

I know that it's unfair to put such a large burden on the shoulders of a single young man who has just recently found out about the supernatural, but... If I cannot believe in Issei and hope for his success... The only alternative would be to give into despair, and to give up on my baby girl.

It may be selfish of me... But I'm not going to do that. Ever. No matter the cost."

" 'No matter the cost' almost cost you your own life back then during the civil war, against-"

"I know, Xinthia."

"Are you willing to accept the possibility of something like that occuring again?"

"I believe Issei would be most comfortable sleeping in a proper bed, to catch up with all the hours he's lost over the weeks."

Xinthia nodded at that, allowing Laveria to change the subject of their conversation, aware of the fact that her queen would look at things through various different paradigms now before taking action, or pushing others into doing so.

Still, she did not believe that her queen would change the course of her actions. She just hoped that Issei could rise up to the challenges in his path, and the expectations that were being set for him.

~Chapter; END!~

I know that this chapter took a long ass time to come out, but there are legitimately good reasons for that. One of them is the fact that I lost the first few drafts of the chapter that I had written. I'd write it, only to open the file the next day and find it absolutely empty.

It legitimately made me want to cry.

After adopting the habit of clicking the 'Save' icon 15 times every few sentences, and 15 more times before closing the file, I finally managed to get something written down... Only to have to axe the majority of it from the middle down as it was a disjointed, sloppily-written mess, put together as fast as possible in an attempt to get out fast updates.

I decided to take more time to try to actually get something good out instead, which also contributed to this late upload.

Now the chapter is finally out, and we can see how Issei is dealing with the entire situation revolving around him. We learnt a bit more about the origins of Succubi and Incubi, we got a glimpse into the Lilim family dynamics, and a few other thigns.

I'd like to know what you thought about the chapter, if there are any doubts that I could answer without spoiling the plot, and any other type of general feedback that you could give me, all of those in the reviews, and, if needed, in PM's.

Other than that, I'd like to announce the fact that I'm thinking of writing a coupleo Hero Academia (My Hero Academia) fanfictions, the premise of the first one being 'what would happen if Izuku took his desire to become a hero despite being quirkless more seriously from the very beggining', and the other one being 'what would happen if an Izuku that is almost the polar opposite of the canon one met with all might on the faithful slime attack day'.

GIve me your thoughts, and... Yeah. Thanks for reading!