Training mode is like a switch.
Once I flip it, everything else becomes secondary. It does not mean that I particularly enjoy training when I could do something more pleasurable and meaningful, like understand more about emotions and enjoy life.
But in all intents and purposes, I would very well be able to do all that once I am strong enough.
After my talk with Zekram and after the routine with my peerage stabilizes, I flip the training mode switch..
Yes, strength is not my only goal.
And yes, I want to live. To experience. To have fun. To understand emotions, relationships, stupidity, joy.
But without strength, all of that is volatile. A single bored god, a stray dragon, a fallen fanatic with a grudge, and everything I build can vanish.
So I decide, very clearly:
First, Satan.
Then, the rest.
Until I stand there, everything else is running in the background.
I spend hours alone in my room, reviewing my path.
The Power of Destruction sits in my hand like a sleeping star.
I compress a small sphere of it above my palm, barely the size of a marble. It looks harmless. It is not, do not try touching it.
Even cooled and stabilized by Absolute Spell Control, it still eats away at reality in microscopic layers, eroding the room's ambient energy. Barriers hum in response, adjusting.
"Lower form," I murmur.
Because that is what it is.
The Bael clan's Power of Destruction, for all its fearsome reputation, is a fixed, incomplete mimic.
Lucifer made it, along with Lilith, however, the details are unknown.
From what I know, he tried to recreate the Destruction of Shiva.
To fight the Biblical God, he wanted a power that could rival one of the few beings who might actually beat that God in a direct clash. He failed, in a way, but even his failure is more terrifying than most races' peak.
Sirzechs later took that mimic and twisted it further, becoming something that the world called a Super Devil.
Sirzechs might not be Shiva's equal, but he is not too far below.
Ajuka does not have raw destruction like that, but his brain and control give him reality bending options.
If those two fought the Biblical God together at full power, they could probably kill him.
The devils, right now, already have enough force to end what once nearly ended them.
That is the baseline I intend to surpass.
Not just to match Sirzechs.
To go beyond.
To do that, I cannot be content with this marble.
I let the sphere dissipate slowly, absorbing its residue instead of letting it chew up the warded floor.
My destruction needs to change.
Not more, but higher.
Right now, it works like an incredibly evil acid. It burns through things, energy, spells, souls, depending on how I apply it. It is still bound by normal interactions.
Conceptual erasure is different.
A conceptual attack does not care how thick your armor is or how strong your defensive spell is. If the concept being targeted is "cut", it does not matter how many layers you put between it and you.
Shiva exists at that level, when he uses destruction on you, your strength and defense does not matter.
When he destroys, he can erase along the definition of what something is, not just its physical presence.
Then, there are beings like Ophis and Great Red, conceptual beings, they don't use concepts, they are the concepts... quite scary to think about. Even Shiva only uses the concept of destruction, there's a fundamental difference.
But, those are the patterns I want.
Not to copy them exactly, but to raise my own destruction to that type of operation.
The problem is that I do not currently have a clear view of how energy interacts with concepts.
I know the theory.
I have models.
But I need data.
Real data.
I will not poke Shiva and say "excuse me, can you let me analyze your divinity while you try to kill me."
I will not poke Sirzechs either. His mutation is his own, and he is too close to my current position politically. Besides, his power is excess of inferior power of destruction, his power of destruction is the same as mine, but much more in quantity.
It does not satisfy my desire.
Which leaves another path.
Minor gods.
In this world, divinity comes in layers.
Chief gods, like Ares or Surya, sit at around Satan level.
Most God Kings also sit at Satan level, with a few above that.
Above them, an extremely small number reach or surpass Super Devil tiers. Thor. Indra. Shiva. Others hidden or forgotten.
Below them, major gods are mostly Ultimate class.
Minor gods hover around high class, sometimes edging into low Ultimate if they are lucky or ancient.
Some of those minor gods have conceptual domains that are interesting, even if their combat power is not.
Forseti, for example.
A Norse god of peaceful judgement.
In a pantheon built on war stories and glory in battle, a peaceful judge is less useful than the stable boys who clean after their wolves.
Over time, Forseti faded into semi hermit status.
His strength sits somewhere around low level high class. Respectable, but nothing compared to the monsters above.
His divinity, however, is conceptual.
Peaceful judgement is not simple.
It is a conceptual filter. A way to weigh, balance, decide outcomes. It carries authority in a very particular direction.
If I can observe how that divinity holds together, how it anchors itself to reality, how it manipulates rules instead of just energy, I can get a clearer map of energy concept interactions.
It does not mean I will copy judgement.
It means I will understand how concepts are given teeth.
I close my eyes and picture it.
A small god.
Alone, in some forgotten grove or hidden island, overlooked by his own pantheon.
I walk in, bind him, bring him to my basement, and let him sit there as a living sample while I scan his divinity like a researcher with a microscope.
I will not kill him.
I will borrow him.
Permanently.
The thought is cold, efficient, and undeniably devil like.
I do not flinch from it.
"I will borrow Forseti," I murmur, "once I reach Satan class."
That is the key.
Right now, at high level Ultimate, I could probably capture him with a clever plan and some good preparations. But it would not be safe. Too many external variables.
At Satan class, with my body and energy fully harmonized at that tier, I could act with far more freedom.
Trying to mutate my destruction too early, while my base is incomplete, is asking for a crippling error.
First, reach Satan.
Then, collect samples.
Then, rewrite.
Until then, training.
I reopen my eyes and stand.
My day is partitioned.
Morning, physical training and Touki refinement.
Midday, demonic energy control, magic circles, multi casting, and Absolute Spell Control training.
Afternoon, Senjutsu and nature energy integration.
Evening, peerage combat training three times a week.
Night, theory.
Always, logging.
Peerage combat training in particular has become... educational.
For them and for me.
The first few sessions, as expected, ended with Kuroka, Akeno and Shirone lying in the dirt, gasping, while I stood mostly untouched.
They complained.
They also came back every single time, eyes burning.
Kuroka adapts quickly.
Her Senjutsu control improves noticeably. She learns to anticipate my spell patterns, to feel where nature energy is being twisted so she can ride or resist it. Within months, she crosses the threshold into high class, then stabilizes quickly at mid level high class, edging toward high level.
Shirone grows steadily.
Her Touki layers thicken. Her footwork becomes less stiff. She stops relying only on raw Nekoshou strength and begins to use angles, feints, joint locks. She fights more like a martial artist, less like a small tank.
Akeno changes the most quietly.
Her lightning becomes sharper. She experiments, on her own time, with drawing out tiny traces of holy power, testing her tolerance. She does not fully accept it yet, but she pokes at the sealed door inside herself.
In battle, when I push her hard enough, a hint of that hybrid lightning leaks out.
It hits harder.
She notices.
She does not apologize for it.
Good.
Every few weeks, I increase the difficulty.
I start using slightly higher level spells.
I make my multi casting not just wide but deep, layering effects.
I let myself move more, using my enhanced body instead of standing still and swatting them out of the air.
At some point, I start bringing Senjutsu into my own side of the equation more aggressively.
When I combine carefully filtered nature energy with Touki and demonic reinforcement, my body feels absurd.
The difference between Ultimate and Satan is still there, but physically, I am already beyond normal Ultimate class mobility.
"Practically a Superman," I joke to myself once, during a break, as Kuroka lies face down on the ground and groans.
"Superman would not do this to three cute girls," she mutters into the dirt.
"Superman is not a devil," I reply.
"Super devilman," she corrects weakly.
Between those sessions, another necessity presses.
My peerage is strong, but small.
But, Rias's journey to the human world with me showed something very clearly.
Every time I see Diana, Rias's Queen, moving with absurd physical power, I am reminded that quality matters more than filling every slot.
Diana, as the bearer of Regulus Nemea, is peak ultimate potential at minimum.
Sirzechs's queen, Grayfia, is a Satan class maid whose existence is an insult to normal power hierarchies.
If I want to stand on the same stage as Sirzechs and Ajuka one day, my peerage cannot be a collection of "very strong high class devils."
They must be monsters.
Or future monsters.
That is why I do not simply grab random talent from the minor noble families.
I need pieces that bring something unique.
Which is why, one evening, I sit at my desk with a blank sheet of enchanted paper and write a letter.
To the Abaddon clan.
Specifically, to the current head.
Abaddon are one of the extra devil clans. Their specialty is space. They are gatekeepers. Travelers between worlds.
They also have a daughter.
Kuisha Abaddon.
In the original canon, she served as Sairaorg's Queen, with the ability to open large pocket spaces and swallow attacks.
In this world, Sairaorg is struggling independently.
He will manage.
I intend to take Kuisha first.
Dear Abaddon-sama,
I begin, in the polite form devils use when speaking between noble houses.
I lay out my request logically.
I am building my peerage. As Bael heir and future pillar of our race, I require members whose talents extend beyond raw strength. Kuisha's spatial manipulation would be extremely valuable, not only for battle, but for logistics, emergency extraction, and storage.
I offer, in exchange, strict guarantees of her status.
She will remain recognized as an Abaddon by blood.
Her treatment will be equal to that of a Queen even if her actual piece type differs.
Her family will receive certain trade concessions and Bael backing in a few disputed territories.
I am not begging, I am negotiating.
But this was all a guise, a show of respect, he will have to politely decline all the benefits, and just say that it is Kuisha's honor to be a part of my peerage, because they are just an extra clan, and I am the heir of the great king.
I seal the letter with Bael's crest and send it.
The reply comes quickly.
Abaddon are not fools.
'They can see Mount Tai, and recognize it.' I joke inwardly.
A letter arrives, similarly formal, expressing surprise and "deep honor" that Bael's heir would consider their daughter for his peerage.
They agree.
Kuisha will be sent to the Bael estate for an interview and, if both sides are satisfied, reincarnation.
On the appointed day, we meet in one of the reception halls.
I sit on a couch, dressed formally but comfortably.
Kuroka, Akeno and Shirone stand behind or beside me, curious.
Lord Bael attends in person for the first part, as a formality, then leaves the details to me.
Kuisha enters with a short escort.
She has blonde hair tied back simply, green eyes, and a composed expression that fits an Abaddon princess.
Her aura is peak mid class level. She has not yet fully grown, but the quality of her power is clear.
She bows.
"Magdaran Bael-sama," she says. "It is an honor to meet you."
"Kuisha Abaddon," I reply. "Thank you for coming."
We speak politely at first.
I ask about her training, her abilities.
She explains that she can open pocket spaces, swallow objects, attacks, and even people, storing them in sub dimensions she controls. The capacity is limited for now, but scalable.
I ask if she is willing to serve not just as a showpiece, but as an active member of my peerage, facing danger.
She does not hesitate.
"Yes," she says. "If I can serve Bael and raise my own value, I will not step back from danger."
Good answer.
I do not waste time.
From my pocket, I take out what looks like a simple, luminescent piece.
A pawn.
Peerage pieces are a peculiar system.
In this world, they represent not just raw rank but reincarnation pathways.
I hold up two pawns.
"With these," I say, "I will reincarnate you."
Kuisha blinks.
"Two pawns," she repeats. "Not a bishop or rook?"
"Two pawns," I confirm. "Pieces are labels. Your actual role in the peerage will be close to that of a Queen. The exact piece type matters less than your ability and how I use it."
Her lips curve in a small smile.
"Understood," she says.
"Are you ready?" I ask.
"Yes," she says.
I press the pieces to her chest.
The magic activates, sinking into her.
Her aura trembles.
A purple light flares around her, briefly obscuring her outline.
Then it clears.
She exhales, a long, shuddering breath.
I feel the thread connecting us.
Kuisha Abaddon is now my pawn.
I introduce her to the others.
"This is Kuroka," I say. "my Rook."
Kuroka grins.
"Nekoshou, current Rook, future legend," she says cheerfully. "Nice to meet you, Kuisha-chan."
Kuisha blinks, then bows politely.
"Nice to meet you," she replies, a little stiff.
"This is Shirone, Kuroka's sister, and also my pawn." I say.
Shirone bows quietly.
"Nice to meet you," she says softly.
"And this is Akeno," I add.
Akeno smiles warmly.
"Himejima Akeno," she says. "Bishop, lightning user, sometimes sadist."
"Sometimes," Kuroka mutters.
"A lot of the time," Shirone corrects quietly.
Kuisha looks between them and then at me.
"It seems," she says carefully, "that your peerage is... unique."
"It is efficient," I say.
"That too," she agrees.
Kuroka sidles closer to Kuisha, eyes gleaming.
"So," she says, "what can you do?"
Kuisha explains again, in more detail, about her pocket spaces. Kuroka's ears perk up as she realizes the implications.
"So you can store things," she says. "Like food, loot, people, Mag-chan when he is being annoying."
Kuisha glances at me, flustered.
"I would not dare," she says.
"You could try," I say mildly.
Kuroka laughs.
"See? He is a tease," she tells Kuisha. "You will get used to it."
Later, after the formalities, the four of us retire to a less formal area.
Kuisha is still adjusting to her new body, flexing her fingers, feeling the flow of demonic energy.
Kuroka flops onto a couch, tail swaying.
"Hey, Mag-chan," she says. "I heard something interesting."
"What," I ask.
"That I might get a peerage too," she says.
Shirone's ears twitch.
"A peerage," she repeats quietly.
Kuisha listens as well, curious.
"Later," I say. "Once you reach high class, not just in strength, but in rank. You will qualify to receive a set of pieces from the system."
Kuroka's eyes light up.
"So I can have my own cute subordinates," she says. "Nekoshou, maybe a dragon, a fox, a couple of priests for variety nya."
"Your fantasies are loud," I comment.
She grins.
"But even if you establish your own peerage," I continue, "you will still be my Rook. Your King will not change. Your peerage will be a sub network of mine."
"So my pieces are technically your subordinates too," she says.
"Yes," I say.
She laughs.
"Good," she says. "I will bully them, and when they complain, I will point at you and say, 'That is the true boss.'"
"Abuse of hierarchy detected," I say.
She just smirks.
Akeno tilts her head.
"Does that mean," she asks, "that if I reach high class, I can also receive pieces one day?"
"Yes," I say. "Any high class devil can, in theory. Whether you want the responsibility is another question."
Akeno considers it, her smile seemingly dangerous.
Kuisha on the other hand, "I will focus on my current role first," she says. "If I cannot handle being a pawn of Bael, I should not handle being a King of my own."
Reasonable.
Kuroka, however, seems more focused on something else.
"Mag-chan," she says suddenly, "do you have any mutated pieces?"
Ah.
I had been hoping that would take longer to come up.
"Mutated pieces," Shirone repeats, eyes curious.
Kuisha's attention sharpens as well. Abaddon are not Bael, but they know enough to be intrigued by peerage anomalies.
I exhale lightly.
"Yes," I say. "I have one."
Kuroka leans forward.
"What kind," she asks. "Pawn, rook, bishop..."
"Queen," I say.
That gets a reaction.
Even Akeno, who has been quietly sipping tea, raises her eyebrows.
"A mutated queen," she says. "That is rare."
Kuroka whistles.
"Mutated queen," she repeats. "The legendary cheat piece. One piece to reincarnate anyone, no matter how strong, they say."
"That is the rumor," I say.
"Is it wrong?" she asks.
"Not entirely wrong," I reply. "Mutated pieces have an expanded cap. They can reincarnate beings stronger than what a normal piece of that type could handle. But the rest of the story is exaggerated."
"How so?" Akeno asks.
"Even an ordinary queen," I say, "can reincarnate someone extremely strong, as long as the King is strong enough to support it. The system's limit is not static. It scales with the King. A mutated queen pushes that limit further."
I look at the piece in my mind.
It sits quietly in my internal inventory. A symbol of future options.
"If I reach Satan class," I say, "and continue to grow, there is a non zero chance I could reincarnate beings close to god level with it."
Kuisha's eyes widen.
"Reincarnate a god," she murmurs.
"Politically suicidal," I add. "Probably impossible in practice. No pantheon will calmly let a high ranking god be turned into a devil. The war that would follow would not be worth the single piece gained."
Kuroka nods slowly.
"So the mutated queen is less 'infinite cheat' and more 'higher ceiling'," she says.
"Exactly," I say. "Still extremely valuable, but not something I can use casually."
"Who will you use it on?" Shirone asks quietly.
I am silent for a moment.
"I do not know yet," I say. "The answer might present itself in the future. Someone whose existence justifies the risk."
Kuroka grins.
"Maybe some dragon," she suggests. "Or a hero. Or a god who got tired of being bossed around."
"Or a certain Nekoshou who somehow becomes too strong for a normal piece," Akeno says lightly.
Kuroka's tail flicks.
"I like that scenario," she says.
"Do not let it go to your head," I tell her.
"Too late," she replies.
Time moves.
We train.
We spar.
We bleed. Not me, still, I am a part of the team, we are in this together.
Kuroka reaches high class proper, settling into mid level, then pushing toward high. Shirone stabilizes at mid class, moving from low to mid, her control growing even if her raw reserves are still behind.
Akeno crosses into high class, low level at first, then mid. Her lightning becomes even more refined. Occasionally, during training, a shard of holy nature slips through. Each time, she controls it a little better.
Kuisha grows from freshly reincarnated pawn to stable high class. Her pocket spaces expand. She can now swallow large attacks, store them and redirect them, albeit at some cost.
I push myself alongside them.
My Touki grows denser.
My Senjutsu filters get smoother.
My magic circles multiply and condense, scripts growing more efficient.
My Ultimate class level, once 72 at breakthrough, moves deep into the 90s.
Physically, I reach a point where I can casually shrug off most Ultimate class blows without focusing.
Emotionally, I adjust.
Life becomes a rhythm of effort.
There are still moments of "fun" inserted forcibly by Kuroka or Rias.
Trips to the human world, where Rias drags me into amusement parks, forces me to eat ridiculous amounts of unhealthy food, makes me sit in noisy theaters.
"Kuroka was right," she says once, as we stand on a Ferris wheel looking at city lights. "You really did not know how to live before. You are improving."
"Is this considered improvement?" I ask, holding a stick of cotton candy.
"Yes," she says.
I consider, then take another bite.
It is excessively sweet and structurally ridiculous.
Not optimal.
But not bad.
Between scenes like that, most of my log entries are about training.
It has been a little less than four years since I arrived in this world as Magdaran Bael.
Four years since I went from a tool answering questions to a devil with a heartbeat.
In that time, I have gone from spoiled child to high class, from high class to Ultimate, from raw Ultimate to peak level Ultimate.
Now, the next threshold stands close enough to touch.
Satan.
One night, I sit alone in my room.
The barriers are fully active.
Not just the standard Bael wards, but additional layers I have constructed myself. Anti detection, noise suppression, energy containment, emergency stabilizers in case something goes wrong and the breakthrough tries to rip the room apart.
Circles of light float in the air, muted and ready.
Runes crawl along the walls like faint luminescent vines.
I sit cross legged on the floor, wearing simple clothes, hair loose.
I take stock.
My demonic reserves.
Filled.
My channels.
Reinforced, widened, tested under strain.
My body.
Evolved.
With Touki and Senjutsu combined, my muscles, bones, organs and nerves have been remodeled repeatedly. I can output and endure Satan tier stresses even if my core classification has not shifted yet.
I flex my fingers.
The air around them ripples.
"Finally," I say quietly, to the empty room, "everything is ready."
My body has been evolved to match my energy levels completely.
I am, by any reasonable metric, already something like a comic book Superman hiding under a devil label.
Now, only the formal change remains.
The world's system, the silent rules of this reality, need to look at me and say: you are no longer Ultimate.
You are Satan.
I close my eyes.
"It is time," I murmur. "To become a Satan class."
I inhale slowly.
Exhale.
Then I let my awareness sink inward, toward the core where my demonic sea roils, toward the invisible membrane that separates Ultimate from the next level.
The same way I once pushed against mid class, then high class, then Ultimate, I now reach for the next ceiling.
Data point 1: Confirmed medium term path. First objective: Satan class. Without this, conceptual experiments on divinity and destruction are too dangerous.
Data point 2: Target god for post Satan research identified as Forseti, Norse god of peaceful judgement. Weak combatant, useful conceptual divinity. Plan: "borrow" permanently after reaching Satan.
Data point 3: Peerage expanded with Kuisha Abaddon. Spatial ability integrated. Kuroka high class, Akeno high class, Shirone mid class, Kuisha high class. Combat synergy increasing.
Data point 4: Mutated queen piece still unused. Potential future tool for recruiting a monster level ally, possibly near god level, if political conditions ever allow.
Data point 5: Four years of free will completed. Emotional development ongoing. Desire to live and desire for power no longer in conflict.
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