AN: Yo, another chapter here, my brothers.
I just have one thing to say, Friday csses about Algorithms and Complexity are absolutely destroying me, it’s not even funny. Wish me luck. ;-;.
Question:
If you could be a Demi-God, from which phanteon and which God would you choose to be descended from? (Any divine being capable of producing offspring counts. You can also choose a Gilgamesh situation if you have some crazy combinations. Fictional phantheons and Gods also count.)
Now, here is the chapter:
~Asn Argento~
“Fear, huh…” Albion trailed on, her tone a little forlorn.
“Forget about the little bat, he is of little importance.” Ddraig dismissed offhandedly. “I am more interested in the other redhead, she felt… weird?”
Allerica frowned; “I thought she was simply human?”
Ddraig snorted, the undertone of mockery in her snort being almost deafening; “She isn’t.”
Albion sighed at her rival, “I felt it too, she didn’t have the breath of Yahweh or any other creator that I know of. And her strength… It was weird.”
Vallerica raised her eyebrow. “Weird, how? She felt just like a normal, perhaps even weaker High Css”
“She felt like a High Css, yes.” Albion hummed, “But a sealed one.”
Asn frowned; “Sealed?”
“You may not feel it, but Albion and I, who have been sealed for such a long time, cannot mistake that disgusting sensation,” growled the Red Dragon Empress with a little bit of heat in her voice.
“There is still something you two aren’t telling us,” Asn grumbled, knowing it would be absolutely useless to try to force the info out of the two Dragoness if they didn’t want to share it.
“Just be wary of her… she is… weird,” advised Albion in a neutral tone. Ddraig just snorted and remained silent.
“Okay, I can be cautious.” Agreed the blond-haired man with a weirded-out nod.
“It’s a pity that my status will be found out now,” Allerica grumbled; “I wanted at least one more year learning under Father Strada before I announced it.” She scratched her ahoge, which had popped out a few moments earlier; “Won’t it bring trouble to the church? We kinda have way too many Longinus with us now…”
Asn stopped and cupped his chin; “The True Longinus, Zenith Tempest, and the Boosted Gear… yeah, I fully admit it will ruffle some feathers, but it shouldn’t cause too many problems.”
Vallerica pointed at herself; “Well, when you think about it, Grigori has the Divine Diving,” she then scratched her arm; “Tobio nii-san’s Canis Lykaon, and possibly the Annihition Maker if
Azazel managed to succeed in his st idiotic scheme.”
“Oh, so he finally asked you to infiltrate the Hero Faction?” asked Allerica, a little surprised.
She fully admits Cao Cao is one of the most skilled people of her generation, and considering he was trained by Indra himself, he is definitely a force to be reckoned with. But with the little contact she had with him, Allerica still found the annoying man extremely hypocritical in his hate for the supernatural species, principally considering he is a Half-Deva himself.
“Yeah, and It's a pain in the ass let me tell you,” Vallerica shook her head; “They made it look like they were doing me a favor by accepting me in their ranks, and not the other way around.” Vallerica sighed; “And don’t even get me started on how absurdly arrogant those guys are—just because they are the reincarnations of some hero in the past—like I know Hercules was a big deal, or how awesome Romulus was –but you are not them, show me some respect dammit, I am frigging Stan Css” She then massaged her temples; “How did those idiots get the favor of the Infinity Dragon God –I will never know.”
Asn winced, briefly remembering how shocking that piece of news was for their respective factions. Still, there were a few things he had yet to share, and he felt right now was the best time for it; “Talking about the Infinity,” Asn cringed for a moment, briefly unsure of how to proceed. He ended up deciding to be as direct as possible. “Thanks to the creation of the Heavenly Secretary, Michael was able to find quite a few very important files left by the Lord.” Seeing as Big G was mentioned, everyone was intently paying attention to the Cardinal; “Quite a few of them were shared amongst us Cardinals, and one of them in specific talked about The Infinity and how mercurial she is –in a way, her mood can be described as simultaneously infinitely positive and negative, infinitely naive and wise at the same time, a veritable complex web of contradictions that often manifests itself in the form of a very strong cold facade.”
“So while it may look strange that she supported the Hero Faction out of the blue, that is still kind of in character for the Infinity.”
Asn sighed, a half-forgotten headache resurfacing. “And while those aren't the Lord’s notes verbatim, it's close enough. God himself wrote them, so I don’t doubt the authenticity.” Ddraig and Albion were pointedly silent at the moment. Usually, when someone mentions a Dragon, they get all talkative, but even the Heavenly Dragons themselves fear respect the Infinity way too much to babble.
“Okay, things are getting way too heavy,” Kiara commented, breaking the brief silence. “Let’s change subjects a bit.” She then turned to Vallerica; “So… how was the Marriage Ceremony of the Vampire Queen?”
“Extremely boring and stuffy,” Vallerica groaned; “Valerie and Gasper were all lovely dovey the entire time, I bet half of our delegation got diabetes just from looking.” she then rolled her eyes; “Majority of the time I just followed Azazel around while trying to look scary so he could gain upper hand in some of his negotiations… There were also a few fights, but nothing to write home about.” She pompuously waved her hand. “See, boring.”
Remembering something more interesting. Vallerica adjusted her posture, her eyes shining; “Now, did you guys hear about the Golden Cow Milk Fiasco?”
“All I’ve heard was that some arrogant Devil refused to sell Golden Cow Milk to a Youkai and then things escated –a lot.” Articuted Allerica with a shrug.
“Hehehe,” by Vallerica's creepy ugh, Ddraig’s Host could already deduce she didn't know half of it. “Apparently, things escated to a point where The Greater Goddess of Weaponry fought against the Crimson Satan.” Everyone drew a rather sharp breath, such a fight between two Super Tier entities is incredibly rare in the modern world.
Even the more composed Kiara couldn’t contain her curiosity; “What happened?”
“Well, I will jump past the nonsense.” Everyone rolled their eyes at her antics, making Vallerica blush. “Because I am sure none of you care about it.” Vallerica chuckled and then winced; “Albeit there isn’t much of a fight to talk about, they basically kept testing each other the entire time, and when things finally got interesting, the camera died.”
“Sirzechs accessed his True Form?” asked Asn with a frown. Allerica nodded; “Yeah, it's always a pain to film that guy, his Power of Destruction never appears on the camera and his True Form outright destroys everything,” She chuckled. “It annoys the Old Crow something fierce.” Vallerica chuckled even harder, remembering her guardian's frustrated grumbles while he tried to invent yet another camera that would surely be capable of recording Sirzechs.
“Sometimes, I wonder how much stronger that guy would be if he got rid of his shackles,” Ddraig mused out loud, earning concerning looks from the youths around her.
“Ddraig, no one wants to see the Crimson Destruction with nothing to hold him back,” Asn shuddered, extremely gd they didn’t proceed with Ddraig’s idiotic scheme of Killing that man’s little brother, even if he had not even considered it in the first pce; “That’s the nightmare of more than half of the Moonlit World.”
Asn then looked at the ceiling, his expression turning vacant for a moment; “Did you know…” he started in a rather low tone; “In one of God’s documents, he mentions that the Satans are different from normal Devils, a sort of Evolution of a Devil, if you will.” the blonde haired man closed his eyes, a sense of anticipation building in the air; “He mentioned its a strange mutation that occurs to a selective minority of the few most talented Devils –They manage to unlock their True Forms.”
Vallerica raised her eyebrows; “That’s kind of an open secret already. The big four all have their True Forms, albeit the only one I’ve ever seen using them is Sirzechs…”
“No, that’s not the issue.” Asn shook his head a little shakily; “We were led to believe they unlocked their true forms –and that’s it. They have an alternative more powerful form they use to fight. Pretty standard stuff for a lot of people, actually. So no one cared much about it… That’s where we were wrong, oh so very wrong.”
Feeling the questioning gazes on his scalp, Asn quickly continued; “God noted there were three stages to a Devil's True Form, The First stage made their Traits stronger and more flexible, The Second Stage was called the Energy Stage –it expanded their reserves and allowed them to access an energy-like form and the Third Stage is the True Form proper.” Asn smiled weakly; “Now, guess in which stage Sirzechs Lucifer is?”
Every single entity in the booth paled, their complexion turning a few degrees whiter.
Vallerica’s maniacal ugh broke the deafening silence; “So, you are saying that the strongest Devil, an existence firmly in the Top 10 Strongest List, can easily get even stronger?”
Allerica, who was quietly listening with closed eyes, mumbled. “For the first time in my life, I hope what God said was nonsense.”
Asn and Kiara did a spit take, almost choking on their spit in sheer surprise. “Allerica!”
The Pendragon shrugged; she meant no offense by it, and she wasn’t going to apologize over nothing as well, she had more than enough of that for a lifetime.
“Well, besides the initial maniacal ugh, you are taking such information surprisingly well, partner.” Pointed out Albion.
“Ah, talented people will always exist. My objective is killing that bastard, so whatever Sirzechs is doing has nothing to do with me,” Vallerica then grinned; “The opposite, actually. It’s nice to know there are such strong people, it will make the peak less lonely, I imagine.”
“That’s one way to look at it.” Sighed Asn.
“Now that you guys got most of it out of your system…” Kiara then turned to Asn, her pleasant smile not changing in the slightest, But the blonde-haired man felt a cold chill down his back, like always, Kiara can be extremely terrifying when she wants to.
“Asn, we need to talk.”
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
After exiting the cabaret club, the group silently walked back towards the first Dreamers’ Pza, they were all lost in their own thoughts—even the usual energetic Midna was using Antares’ head as a resting pce while she looked at the sky in thought.
It was a rather cool evening, and Antares was keenly aware it would never change; the Dreamscape doesn’t have a night and day cycle, there is only night, and there are only dreams.
Arriving at the pza, he heard Neptune let out a sigh; “Things got really tense back there, huh? Sorry for ughing guys…” She closed her eyes; “I didn't think would escate so much…”
“It’s n-not you f-fault Neptune,” Pyra shook her head with a shy blush.
“It’s also kind of my fault for bringing us into such a delicate situation without proper diplomacy training,” Antares added with a sigh.
Neptune shook her head; “It absolutely is Pyra, Antares. If I hadn’t ughed, perhaps… It was my mistake, I promise I will do better.” She sighed regretfully and changed subjects; “I honestly was rather surprised that guy was a Cardinal,” Neptune hummed.
“I don’t know as much as I should, I admit,” started Antares while browsing the Devilnet on his HUD; “But ever since Vasco Strada was made the Pope, things became a whole lot better –corruption, scandals, experiments… he curbed and eliminated everything, cleansing the Church quite a bit.”
Neptune deadpanned, “And that guy is a Cardinal?”
Antares chuckled, “I know, right? I am more surprised I’ve never heard anything about him before, he is pretty strong after all. ” The Devil shook his head; “But I fully admit that I wasn’t the most proactive person before.”
“You know, I am kinda envious of those guys,” started Midna in a grumpy tone; “Their team has 2 awesome Sacred Gear, and those are two Longinus to boot. How is that fair?”
“It isn’t,” Antares wholeheartedly agreed, “But that’s life for you. Not like us being Devils won't be considered cheating by some as well…”
“Huh, that is kinda true… how did Teach expin it again… hmmm,” Mdina then snapped her fingers, her expression illuminating; “The average Lower Css Devil is roughly 10x stronger than your average human, and you guys are probably higher than that, right?”
“Hn,” Antares nodded; “I should be at the upper side of the High Css,” He then pointed at Eu; “Eu is firmly on High Css, and Neptune is still an unknown, she is a Queen –meaning she received a massive boost to her physique and mana, but she has barely been a Devil for a few days, so we are yet to conclude.”
“Huh, and you, Pyra? How would you cssify your strength?” asked the imp while looking at the shy girl.
“I-I don’t know?… It’s b-been q-quite a while since I f-fought.” replied the red-eyed girl. She indeed defeated the goons that were beating up Oliva a while ago, but punching someone once could barely be considered a fight.
“Well, we will invariably find out when we start to climb the tower.” Midna hummed before flying and plopping down on Pyra’s head; “No need to worry,” she patted Pyra.
“W-What is the big d-deal with those D-Dragon Empresses?” asked Pyra curiously.
“They are strong…” Antares ughed a little mirthfully; “One of them infinitely divides the strength of her enemy, while the other infinitely multiplies her own strength. If any of them wanted us dead, we would barely be able to blink before becoming a smear on the wall.”
“Damn, when you put it like that it's a wonder how any of them can die at all…” Midna mumbled, admitting Antares was making quite a lot of sense.
“Oh, that’s because they mostly killed each other over the ages,” Andtares informed with a strained smile. The others replied with equally awkward smiles.
Eu let out a sigh of relief; “I am mostly gd you weren’t thinking about using Shamash.” Antares winced, and Eu raised her eyebrow.
“Oh? What’s that?” asked Midna, intrigued.
“It's my Sword… A really powerful one to boot,” Antares scratched the back of his head awkwardly; “But the st time I used it… Well… let’s say the results were quite excessive.”
Eu humphed, “He means he became a charred corpse barely hanging by a thread.” The Cryo user shook her head; “Honestly, the only reason he didn’t die was due to sheer luck and some foresight on his part.”
Pyra, Midna, and Neptune looked at Antares differently, a myriad of emotions passing through their faces.
“Okay, in my defense, that was like the first time I fought for real,” the Devil tried defending himself. “We were against some kind of weird mutated being who could use Light—one of a Devil’s natural weaknesses–so I panicked and ended up using something I shouldn’t have.”
“I-I suppose y-you can’t be bmed t-them,” Pyra mumbled while scratching the side of her face.
Neptune nodded her head and shrugged, It was far from the stupidest thing she saw someone doing in their first fight. Antares was pointedly aware they had yet to talk about Pyra and Kiara, but he supposed the purplette would as soon as they were alone –it would be really weird to mention Xenobde and Fate with Midna and Pyra in earshot after all, better avoid these kinds of stuff until they are eventually brought to speed.
Antares didn’t even entertain the thought that the two girls wouldn’t discover the strangeness of him, Eu, and Neptune. It may take a while, but eventually, enough questions will pile up. So one of these days he will end up having to expin a few things, or he risks losing their trust; he just hoped such a time doesn’t come too soon.
“Now, let’s continue –the tower entrance isn’t that far from the pza,” Sighed Midna while flying and plopping on top of Neptune's head. Antares keenly noticed there was a visible reduction in hostility between the two –it seemed they were getting along better now.
“Finally, it feels like it was taking forever, ” Neptune excimed happily. Eu nodded, and Pyra smiled.
“Heh, can’t say I don’t share the same sentiment,” Antares admitted while linking his arms with Eu and Neptune, something the girls gdly reciprocated.
.
.
.
Midna’s words proved to be truthful soon enough, in less than 20 minutes of walking, the group arrived at The Tower’s entrance.
Surprisingly, the entrance was rather deserted –a few teams were coming and going, yes, but none of the massive amounts of people Antares saw at the center of the city.
The entrance towards the tower was quite impressive in Antares' opinion –its size was outright massive, easily taller than a 50-meter giant, and almost twice as wide. Engravings describing multiple mythical battles that had happened and will happen adorned its arching borders like glowing runes. But even then, the most impressive thing of all is that it didn’t have a door, but just a sparkling grey-white fog, looking exactly like-
“A Dark Souls Fog Gate?” mumbled Neptune, not hiding the awe at seeing such a beautiful piece of architecture.
“Impressive, ain’t it?” Minda whispered, “Every time I come to this pce… It never ceases to amaze me.”
“Wow…” Pyra added without stutter, and while she had seen plenty of impressive structures while she was Pneuma and Mythra, The Tower entrance was something special; it emanated a sort of mythical otherworldly aura, as if promising to realize all of her dreams.
The group walked towards the Fog Gate and stopped a few meters before it, admiring the mist for one st moment.
“So, dies?” Antares smirked, purposely acting like a fedora-wearing noble scion, while walking forward, “Ready for your next adventure?” he smiled widely.
Neptune answered with a Toothed Grin, Eu gave a very dylike smile, Midna sent Antares a thumbs up, and Pyra nodded with a blush.
They all stepped forward, their bodies plunging into the fog.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 7 - Day 10
Climbing The Tower was a surprisingly easy affair. Antares knew intellectually that these initial floors were made so even normal humans could finish them. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t find the act of killing the 5743rd Generic Goblin a little boring.
Cutting two more goblins’ heads with his Balmung, Antares let out a sigh; “I think these were the st ones, how are things on your side?” He asked, already knowing the answer with his own senses.
“Pretty awesome,” answered a rather cheerful Neptune, the purplette was enjoying quite a bit being free to test herself to her heart's content; “I just discovered I can extend the reach of my sword with lightning, pretty cool right?”
“Just like Chidori Spear?” asked the redhead curiously, his senses scanning the muddy battlefield around them; many destroyed huts, mutited goblin bodies, and colpsed rocky tents. It gave the impression that a veritable apocalypse just passed through, which is not entirely wrong, considering all goblins in a few hundred miles have been completely sughtered.
“Heh, that was my inspiration,” Neptune hummed while double-tapping a few Goblins just to be sure; “I am also in the middle of recreating Chidori Senbon and Chidori Current, perhaps even Raikiri if I can manage it.”
“What about the Lightning Armor Chakra Mode of the Raikage?” Suggested Antares while helping Neptune double-tap the goblins. “That’s one of the most useful Lightning elemental skills, period.”
“Unfortunately, I am not that skilled yet.” grumbled the purplette while scrunchin up her nose slightly at the sheer disgusting smell of a goblin encampment; “My skill with Lightning needs to be a few magnitudes better for me to just boots my reflexes and reaction speed,” She then sighed; “Things get specially more difficult when we talk about boosting the brain and the nerves, much less the whole body simultaneously.”
“... If you want, I can write down some anatomy books for you,” offered Antares while buying medical e-books with his HUD; “They are bound to help you a bit.”
“Thanks, Stud Muffin,” Neptune skipped on her feet and kissed Antares on the cheek, almost touching his mouth, and smiling shyly; “That will help me tons.”
Absently feeling the kiss on his cheek with his finger, Antares smiled happily.
“You won’t happen to have some about Electricity as well, would you?” asked the purplette while cutely tilting her head.
Antares' expression instantly turned vacant, memories of browsing thousands and thousands of physics books about electricity resurfacing in his mind. Such a turn almost made Neptune panic, but the male Devil quickly recomposed himself. “Don’t worry, I have all the books money can buy when it comes to anything remotely associated with Electromagnetism.”
“Ah, yeah, your Goetia thingy.” Neptune nodded gratefully.
Perking up when he detected three familiar signatures approaching in his senses, Antares turned towards the left; “How did it go, Eu, Pyra?”
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 9 - Day 17
Getting out of the small but sprawling vilge behind him, Antares couldn’t help but praise the practicality of The Tower in some aspects; every floor had at least a decently sized vilge where they could rest, eat, and purchase other essential stuff and necessities. And with each floor, the vilges got better and more inhabited, as if their overall levels were rising. Antares also remembers Midna mentioning that on higher floors, there are multiple of them, with some even becoming immense walled cities that stretch until the eyes can’t see.
Antares briefly looked at his companions and smiled. Yesterday just after killing a particurly annoying hobgoblin soldier, the girls dropped the final piece of armor to fully equip everyone. Granted, it was all Common Grade Dream Equipment, but it was still better than nothing.
“It’s very strange how this armor doesn’t feel like anything,” commented a slightly exasperated Eu, slowly rotating her fully armored arm that seemed to ignore the usual armor constraints.
“Yeah, that’s the equipment in the tower for ya.” Chuckled Midna while resting on Antares' equally armored shoulder; “You can think of this equipment as Phantasms, they won’t bother your movement, no matter how much heavy armor you are using.”
“And even then, they are quite effective,” Commented Neptune while striking her pauldron with a Common Grade sword she dropped a couple of days ago. The cnging of metal hitting metal echoed through the dirty road.
“I s-still don’t feel m-much from the p-physical boost,” Mumbled Pyra shyly while analyzing her armored hands.
“That’s because you all are friggin monsters already,” Midna grumbled, but the undertone of happiness in her voice couldn’t be easily hidden; “I estimate we will need to be on the 40ish floor for the equipment to be any good for you guys.”
“Now, to defeat the Floor Boss I think we should-”
Everyone knew such a strategy talk was completely unnecessary due to how strong they already were, but at Midna’s suggestion, they still did it. According to the imp –it is a pretty good habit to engrave in their subconsciousness, something everyone unanimously agreed. Antares also noticed this helped the team get closer and trust each other more, a win in everyone’s books as well.
While Eu made her own suggestions, Antares briefly pondered what the st boss of Morpheus’ Garden would be like—he then chuckled internally for a bit—to call the first 10 floors Morpheus’ Garden was quite comical, considering it was infested with green-skinned pests.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 11 - Day 24
The Boss of floor 10 ended up being quite the disappointment, just a hobgoblin shaman who was quite skilled at melee—nothing to write home about. Pyra defeated it in a single swing of her Aegis bde.
The 11th floor was quite interesting; it was called Morpheus’ Journey, according to Midna. Antares was quite surprised by the floor’s gimmick, while Morpheus’ Garden focused mostly on goblins and the rare hobgoblin. Morpheus’ Journey focused on continuous movement –all the enemies they hunted on this floor were in a constant migration cycle, with gnolls and orcs being the most prominent ones.
After defeating a rge hunting party of Gnolls, the party decided to stop for lunch, usually its Antares—who thanks to his Faerie Feast Perk can cook better than everyone on the team—that is responsible for cooking, but the Devil was surprised when Pyra asked to talk with him.
“Anoo, A-Antares, can I help you cook?” asked the red-haired girl shyly.
“Of course,” Antares replied, happy and excited that someone wanted to share one of his hobbies. “Come here, I will show you how I usually do things.” Pyra nodded and followed the Devil towards their shared camp kitchen, where he proceeded to show her how to cut the meat and take care of the bonfire.
“And if you cut it this way and add a little bit of Orc butter ter, the meat will carry quite the strong bacon fvor, which can enhance the taste for quite a few ptes,” Antares picked the Rice pan and showed it to Pyra; “Rice—for example—has quite the pin taste, but if you add garlic or onions it can become quite a bit tastier, but with Orc butter, its taste becomes just,” Antares inhaled the delicious aroma of the pan; “perfect.” Pyra nodded her head seriously, making mental notes and analyzing every movement Antares made during cooking.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 13 - Day 30
The biggest challenge of the floors on Morpheus’ Journey was just how much the enemies tend to move, it was not just a battle, but an investigation and tracking quest as well, which meant a Dreamer usually had to pack light and be content with constantly moving around at the mere sign of trouble. Thankfully, they had a little more freedom when packing stuff, as with Antares Pocket Space, they could get whatever they wanted without worrying about mobility.
Sadly, they still had to be constantly moving to hunt their enemies and eventually unlock the Boss. This had the undesirable side effect that Antares and company rarely could simply stop, rex, and take care of their basic necessities, well, a problem to only two of them anyway.
“How come no matter what swamp, stable, or shit-stained battleground you guys crawl through, you never need to take a bath?” Midna grumbled while looking at Antares, Eu, and Neptune; “Come on, we just went through one of the smelliest swamps of the entire tower, and you guys smell like fresh mint and vender! How? Just How?” Pyra—while not being as confrontational as Midna—was attentively looking at the talk while she took care of the boiling stew the group would eat ter.
Neptune cackled: “Oh, that’s because we are part of Antares’ Peerage,” the smugness in her tone was almost palpable.
Midna’s left eye twitched; “As if! I’ve seen plenty of reincarnated Devils in my life and none of them had this bullshit power.”
This time, it was Eu who chuckled; “That’s because Antares is Antares after all, obviously, his peerage is different than the others.”
“Okay, I’ve walked on that one,” Midna tsked out loud before looking at the red-haired devil; “So… can you make me part of your peerage then?”
Antares raised his eyebrow; “Are you sure? It is a literal lifelong commitment if I reincarnate you,” he then cleared his throat and started speaking in a solemn voice; “From now, and henceforth or until you die from an act of great violence, you will be mine, and that's not something you can easily back off from.” he summoned the chess case where he stored his evil pieces; “Besides,” Antares stroked the case’s spine; “It’s not like I can reincarnate you right now, I have no idea what reincarnating a Dreamer would do, so it is better to not risk it.”
“So you mean that I have to wait till I get a physical body for you to reincarnate me?” Midna asked tightly, and Antares just nodded. “Damn,” the imp cursed before plopping down on top of the Devil’s head.
“Don’t be s-so down M-Midna,” started Pyra while patting the imp on the head; “Y-You have at least s-some t-time to think a-about it.”
Midna scoffed, “But I’ve decided already?” The imp shrugged. “Not like I would change my mind so easily,” She then looked at Antares; “Only if handsome here suddenly decides to turn uber-assholish or something equally asinine.”
“Ehh, not my calling,” Antares shook his head. “Being an evil asshole is quite inefficient.”
Neptune and Eu chuckled, Midna snorted, and Pyra hid her growing smile.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 17 - Day 42
Double tapping the st gnoll Antares let out a sigh of relief, his posture rexed for a bit, and the Force spells he was using were turned off. “You’ve become quite proficient with your fme, Pyra.” Antares praised the bde, who shyly nodded her head.
“I’ve been talking with N-Neptune,” She took a deep breath, briefly twisting her nose at the bad smell from the gnoll corpses; “And she gave me a c-couple of i-ideas…”
“You don’t need to be shy about it, Pyra,” Antares chuckled, “We are a team, helping each other is what we should be doing.”
“Hn,” Pyra cutely nodded. She also couldn’t help but notice Antares looked incredibly handsome right now –something that only made the shy girl blush harder.
Wearing full pte armor, the dark-grey steel pte gave the male Devil a particur knightly charm, which, coupled with his electric blue eyes, chiseled jawline, crimson red hair, and impressive physique, was like a magnet for many dies. Pyra’s fists tightened, remembering all those hussies in the cities throwing themselves at Antares’ feet, she still can’t fathom how the boy isn’t aware of his charm.
Funnily enough, Pyra and the girls barely noticed the number of annoying suitors they dismissed daily, so insignificant they were in their perception, that the girls didn’t even bother to remember them. Antares found it quite impressive how—even in a life-and-death situation like the tower—people still took their time to be horny, ‘humans’ he shook his head.
“You also h-have fire p-powers, don’t you?” Asked Pyra while slowly walking towards Neptune and Eu. Antares quickly joined her; “I do, they come from my Authority of Finality and my ICHOR.”
“A-Authority?” Pyra stuttered out, surprised. She isn’t as knowledgeable about Draconic Deus as Antares and Midna, but even she knows an Authority is quite a big deal.
Antares snorted; “Don’t need to be so surprised, it’s nothing fancy, yet.” he then stretched his arm and ignited his ICHOR using both the power of the Herrscher of Fire inside the Authority of Finality and the Garuda genes in his ICHOR; “See, pretty standard for now, but I fully admit it has quite the terrifying potential.”
Pyra looked at the fme which burned in an almost hypnotic way; “... It’s quite beautiful…” she hummed deep in thought; “Why don’t you use it more?”
Antares pursed his lips, memories of him burning alive resurfacing briefly; “I-... I am not that good with fire,” he tersely admitted, shoving those memories back where they belonged.
Pyra’s beautiful smile was what broke him out of his funk; “I-I can h-help you,” she offered determinedly and full of sincerity. Antares basically melted under the cuteness and earnestness of the Fire Bde.
“...Ok,” he agreed.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 19 - Day 51
Since Pyra offered to help him, Antares' progress with the Fire element in general has been incredibly fast. Soul Talent with an active teacher to help him along the way has been doing wonders for his progress –and then you put his and Neptune’s ideas into the mix, and Pyra herself has been improving by leaps and bounds as well.
It was a mutually beneficial thing of beauty, and knowing just how helpful having a teacher is to increase his rate of improvement, Antares didn’t hesitate to approach Eu as well.
Currently, they were just about to go to sleep in their tent –Neptune was out in her first watch, and Midna and Pyra were already fast asleep.
“Eu, you know that Pyra has been helping me with my Fire powers, so I thought-”
“You want my help with Ice?” Eu asked with an adorable huff. Her expression almost screaming, ‘took you long enough,’ Antares almost wanted to kiss her right there, but they were having a conversation and that would be very impolite.
“Yes, you are the best Ice user I know, so-” Eu instantly cut him off with a deep wet kiss that sted a few minutes.
“Of course, I will help you, dummy,” she chuckled while resting her head on his chest.
“Thanks, Eu… love you,” he mumbled in a soft tone that came from the depths of his heart.
“I love you too,” she answered without hesitation.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 21 - Day 61
Getting from Morpheus’ Journey to Morpheus’ Labyrinth was quite the change. Like its namesake, all floors of Morpheus's Labyrinth were byrinths. They were heavily poputed by a swell of minotaurs and other bull-like monsters. Antares also keenly remembered Midna mentioning there are a couple of other monsters as well, but to see them, the team would need to access more remote regions of the floor, which is a gigantic pain when the whole floor is a byrinth.
Thankfully, there were a few Oases distributed throughout the byrinth, but they all had a one-third chance of being a den of monsters, a city, or just a real-life oasis with trees, a ke, and lots of grass. The gamble-like nature of these pces gave every Dreamer a slightly sour taste in their mouths, but Antares and company honestly didn’t mind, even if they found a den of monsters; it was just a matter of time before the creatures were thoughtfully purged.
“It’s still quite weird why you all aren’t rushing through the floors,” sighed Midna while looking at the pile of minotaur bodies ready to be burned by Pyra and Antares.
Neptune rolled her eyes; “We already expined it –we are doing it this way to sharpen our skills,” Neptune then pointed at the male Devil; “Look at Antares for example, his magical skills grow daily, and he has been learning about Ice from Eu and Fire from Pyra, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few weeks those elements are as useful as his main one.”
“You know you can’t physically or magically improve here, right?” Midna asked with a raised eyebrow, she had already made this fact clear more than once.
“We know, but that doesn’t mean we can’t grow in skill,” With a small pulse of her mana, Neptune covered her right hand with Lightning; “Look, when I started I could barely use Lightning without a Magic Circle, but now…”, she waved both of her hands that now where covered by her Raikiri Spell; “I can do it with barely any effort. Yeah, my mana pool didn’t grow, but my control, my skill, did.”
Midna cupped her chin; “… I already know that,” she sighed; “I am just a little frustrated seeing all those groups bst through us,” she grumbled.
Neptune chuckled, “Who didn’t want to climb The Tower again?” Midna pouted, “I didn’t want to before we all agreed on a reasonable solution.”
The purplette nodded; “Fair.”
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 26 - Day 72
Learning Ice Magic from Eu and Fire powers from Pyra, Antares' progress in both disciplines is nothing short of prodigious –and while most of it is certainly due to his Soul Talent and Aethermorph Heritage at py, Antares himself has quite the liking for the subject. So when you combine a massive talent, competent teachers, and the student's own enthusiasm, you have quite the terrifying combination for progress.
But while their magical skills have been growing, the team did not forget to improve their own Martial skills as well. With the techniques Antares copied from Shi-Woon as a foundation and a plethora of enemies they could fight to their hearts' content, their skills at melee and with their chosen weapons have been improving by the day.
Eu focused mostly on her greatsword, swords, and spears, opting to master the bded weapons as much as she could. She, of course, didn’t neglect hand-to-hand combat, but the greatsword will always be her main weapon.
Neptune went for a more agile style, opting for one-handed swords, katanas, sabers, and daggers, improving her cutting power to the point she didn’t even need to flow Raikiri through her weapons to cleave through solid steel. It was a thing of beauty, speed, and dexterity –but not only that, because as a Queen, she has the benefits of a Knight, Bishop, and Rook pieces all put together, so she has been mixing a lot of magic with her physical attacks as well.
The purplette improvements were massive, but her ck of Surtr training was quickly showing itself—Eu's physique outpaced hers by quite a bit—and while the Rook aspect of her Queen Piece gave her quite the advantage, by now, everyone could see Eu was somewhat superior.
Pyra had quite a simir style to Eu, but while the Cryo user used more dance-like movements in her fighting style, Pyra, with the exact opposite of her personality, used a more explosive and strength-focused style, using detonations, jets of fme and explosions to deal great amounts of damage with her fme-covered sword. Albeit now with some of Neptune’s and Antares’ ideas, she has been using her fmes in more diverse ways as well.
She tried many different weapons, but her bread and butter will always be bdes, so she focused mostly on swords, Greatswords, and swordspears. Antares was actually quite surprised that Pyra had managed to keep up with him and his peerage; she doesn’t have Soul and Martial Talent, after all.
He and Neptune specuted that it might be a bleed-up from Mythra and Pneuma, but there has not been any concrete evidence, bar Pyra’s eyes fshing gold from time to time.
The Red Haired girl also took to Martial Arts and Ki like a fish to water, once again, astounding Antares with how talented she was, even without company meddling.
Antares—besides magic, of course—focused mostly on greatsword and hand-to-hand, improving his skill with both in equally great measures, albeit he has been thinking of starting to learn how to wield warhammers as well, as he always found the weapon cool.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 30- Day 81
Antares' third Goetia—which he decided to call Goetia of Electromagnetism—finished forming a couple of days ago, and while working with three minds, aka three Goetias, is a new experience for the Devil, he had plenty of time to get used to it.
With Electromagnetic Force now added to his daily training, one could say that Antares’ schedule was packed –Gravitational Force, Pure Force, Fire, Ice, Martial Arts, and Weapon skills were already difficult to juggle and bance, but now with Electromagnetic Force added to the mix, things got a little bit tight, but Antares was far from compining about such abundance.
With Neptune’s insights and plenty of Physics books, which he devoured easily with Science Talent, Antares had been progressing quite fast with his newly acquired Goetia. He also has to admit that having three Goetias to work with accelerated his Magical and Scientific progress by quite a massive amount.
So it was no surprise that Antares immediately started building his fourth Goetia, and while the difficulty and time he takes to create a Goetia exponentially increases with each new Goetia he creates, he was confident he would manage to build quite a few by the time he finishes The Tower.
The boss of the 30th floor ended up being a little bit more impressive than its predecessors –it was a four-armed ten-meter-tall minotaur, and it held a different weapon in each hand, it could’ve, perhaps, proved to be a nice small chalnge, if Neptune hadn’t speed blitzed it with her Raikiri.
.
.
.
~Razen Antares Gremory~
Floor 31- Day 88
From floor 31 and onwards, Antares and company found themselves in Morpheus’ Armory, and wasn’t it quite a surprise when they found just how crafting-centric the floor is. At first, in the first 30 floors, the group rarely found anything about crafting –only a bcksmith or the other, perhaps an Alchemist here and there in the biggest and most prosperous cities, but overall, there was little.
Morpheus Armory, on the other hand, was packed with them. Big sprawling cities focused wholly on the art of crafting –Smiths, Alchemists, Architects, Inventors, Engineers, Tailors, Enchanters, and the list keeps going on.
The terrain of the floors also contributed massively to the prosperity of such professions, rocky monsters that, when killed, dropped an array of different metals. Pnt-like monster that, when cut down, gave their syers a swathe of myriad herbs that can make even the richest alchemists salivate. In summary, these floors were a veritable paradise for crafting.
“Heh, if these guys back there didn’t have to kill the Boss to go up, I bet everyone would be swarming for the 40th floor.” Midna hummed while the group traveled through the supposed ‘capital’ of floor 32.
“D-Does the 40th floor have better d-drops?” asked a curious Pyra, the stutter almost gone from her speech by now.
“Yup.” Midna smirked; “It also has the best craftsman as well, so while it is adorable that you all are taking your time to decide your professions, I suggest we reach the 40th floor as soon as possible,” She then pointed upwards, her head dramatically tilting backward; “There, you can more easily decide your profession and find a decent teacher to go help you with it.”
“Do we really have to take a profession?” asked Neptune with a small frown.
“Not necessarily,” hummed Midna while flying around the group; “But getting a hobby is quite a good thing for your mind, liking it or not, killing stuff 24/7 does take a toll on your psyche, so a profession can be quite a healthy coping mechanism.”
“I don’t know… I feel completely fine with it.” Added Neptune absently.
Midna felt her eyebrows twitch in annoyance; “That’s because you Devils are freaks! Freaks!” she grumbled without any heat; “Not every race was created for fighting and killing, you know? Some of us do need to have healthy coping mechanisms.”
Antares, Neptune, and Eu chuckled.
.
.
.
AN: Yo, another chapter comes to an end.
And yeah, like I’ve said in previous notes, I have zero intention of going floor by floor in The Tower, principally when the crew can easily blitz through the easier floors with their skills.
And some of you may have noticed, but Antars and company are treating these initial floors more like a training trip(This is the main cause of why the progress to day ratio is so inconsistent). Think of it like an RPG, they are now grinding their skill levels so their “Leveling”(Climbing) will go more smoothly. And while their stats remain unchanged when they get out, their skills will be fantastic.
Now, about professions. This was something that I mostly decided to add because I thought the characters were cking a hobby of sorts, they were slowly turning into battle maniacs that only liked to fight and train, and I do not want to summarize everyone’s personality to that.
Next chapter, we will focus a little bit on crafting as well, and give a little bit more of world-building.
About the Asn Part, we finally find a little bit more news about the world outside and what the other factions are doing. And yeah, I decided to make Azazel into a very shrewd menace, and let’s say I have some very interesting pns for the grigori, hehehehe.
Now, I already said way too much, so I will stop babbling. Have a nice weekend, everyone. ??
Answer:
Honestly, this question was harder than I thought at first. I went through the cssics, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Apollo, but while still very cool, none of them clicked with me in any way.
The Jade Emperor? Certain an interesting prospect. Heck, maybe even Pangu?
Indra, Shiva were also very cool options as well, but I still felt it didn’t click with me.
Then I started thinking of fictional pantheons, the Aedra, the Daedra, New Gods(DC), Cthulhu Mythos, the Aesir, Vanir, the Giants, and even the Chaos Gods or the Emperor(Being a Primarch is always cool)
But in the end, I chose a Demigod of Eru Ilúvatar. Besides being something quite cool. That would make me basically an Aniur? I think? Which is pretty great unless your name is Morgoth, then you gotta be grumpy and evil. Jokes aside, I chose this mostly because I am reading some Tolkien at the moment, so it’s a totally biased and heavily influenced choice.
~ClearSkySage
