AN: Here I am with another chapter to you all,

  Question of the Chapter:

  If you could be a Primarch, which one would you be? (If you don’t want to go to 30K/40K you can choose another verse.)

  Now, here with the chapter:

  ~Razen Antares Gremory~

  “Nice! 1700 points.” Celebrated Neptune in an excited tone.

  Looking at his meager 900 points, Antares sighed with a smile. “Have you really never pyed baseball before?”

  Neptune smirked; “I said I’ve never been to a batting center.” She smugly nodded and sipped from a water bottle; “I pyed baseball plenty of times before.”

  “... Okay, at least I don’t need to feel bad about being crushed,” conceded the redhead while ordering another portion of fried shrimp; “Another round?”.

  “Ready to get crushed again, big boy?” Teased Neptune while gripping her bat and making a few swings in the air.

  Cracking his neck and rotating his right arm, Antares returned a challenging smile towards the purplette; “Bring it on, gamer girl.”

  He was crushed again –but this time he managed to put up a better fight, scoring around 1200 Points to Neptune’s 1800.

  After that, as it was getting te, the couple finished eating and decided to end their day. Closing the batting cage, they started walking towards the entrance to pay their bill.

  “So… what do you think about adding a batting cage to the mansion?” Asked Antares in a pondering tone.

  “Hmmm, it sounds like it would be cool.” Replied Neptune deep in thought; “But half of the fun is going out with your friends, so I still would prefer to go to a Batting Center.”

  “That makes sense.” Agreed the Force user; “Like going to the movies even when you have a movie theater at home.”

  Neptune nodded sagely; “Yup. Albeit I’ve always been a more stay-at-home kind of gal, I also like going out once in a blue moon.”

  Reaching the entrance, Antares searched for one of the waiters and asked him for his bill. The waiter nodded and disappeared inside the building.

  While they waited for the waiter, the couple decided to look at the small store of the batting center, the store was retively simple, it sold mostly baseball-reted things –bats, balls, gloves, shirts, and plenty of other stuff that looked quite interesting.

  Distracted as they were with the store, the duo didn’t notice a new group entering the Batting Center. This group skulked around and walked like they owned the pce, many clients lowered their heads and did their best to appear small.

  “Oi, oi, oi… look at what we have here.” Drawled a gravely irritating voice; “Two shitty Devils corrupting holy soil. How amusing.”

  Completely ignoring the voice that was clearly not referring to him, after all, neither Antares nor Neptue are shitty Devils, so he continued browsing the store wares. Neptune looked at him from the corner of her eyes but seeing just how calm Antares was, the purplette rexed a bit.

  “... are you ignoring me?” The gravel voice sounded quite offended; “Are you deaf?”.

  This line was so cliche that Antares almost burst out ughing, but his self-control ended up winning over so he just continued ignoring it. Neptune, however, didn’t have the same grip on her emotions, yet –so she ughed, hard.

  “BITCH! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU LAUGHING!” The voice owner didn’t seem to like it and started shouting and heaving, heavy steps swiftly approached the duo; “DO I NEED TO TEACH YOU A LESSON, FUCKING WHORE!” Neptune just continued ughing and ignoring the voice and the insults.

  The voice seemed to grow even angrier; “SHITTY SLUT! LET’S SEE IF YOU WILL CONTINUE LAUGHING WHEN I LET THE BOYS RUN A TRAIN ON YOU.”.

  It was instant, without any sound or indication, a hand covered in lighting was stopped a few centimeters before the jugur of the instigator. Antares sighed, doing his best to suppress his rage as much as possible; “Neptune, as much as it pains me to say this, we can’t go around killing fools for saying foolish things.” Admonished Antares with a scarily calm voice, while carefully holding the purplette’s wrist.

  “But I barely used any strength Antares.” Whined the purple-haired girl with gritted teeth; “I just wanted to scare…” she stopped and almost snarled; “...this scum.” The Yakuza didn’t react, he remained frozen, his face pale white and his green eyes widened.

  “You still aren’t used to your newfound strength gamer-girl.” Advised the redhead warmly, while slowly releasing Neptune’s wrist; “Becoming a Devil grants quite the boost to your physique. If your little scare had connected, you would’ve beheaded this poor fool.”.

  “... I want to say good riddance.” Conceded Neptune while looking at her hand; “But I don’t want to upset Ms. Kashino.”

  “Not to mention the shitstorm that killing a Yakuza on their own territory would cause.” Informed the redhead while shaking his head; “Even if he attacked first, I don’t think his Patriarch would ask questions before he starts bsting.”

  Seeing the wannabe Yakuza was recovering from the scare of his life, Antares looked at him with a neutral expression; “Go. We want nothing to do with you.”

  Feeling a wet mark forming on his pants, the Yakuza gritted his teeth and shouted; “DO YOU THINK YOU SHITSTAINS CAN ORDER ME!?” He then rushed forward and swung his right arm.

  Briefly looking at the poor waiter who was scared shitless, Antares mouthed a ‘sorry’, before kicking the wannabe Yakuza outside –through the gss doors of the batting center. With a flex of his leg muscles, he jumped right behind the flying Yakuza.

  The entourage who came with the crass Yakuza quickly followed suit, rushing behind the Devil to join the fight.

  Neptune—left with a broken door and a scared waiter—scratched her head awkwardly; “Sorry about this Kanzaki-San. You can send the bill to us ter.” The waiter just nodded absently and rushed back inside. Sighing, she walked outside, ready to give Antares support.

  Jumping on the asphalt outside, Antares looked around and sighed in relief, there were just a few people close—a few people who quickly scattered the moment they saw there was a fight happening—a few more of them stayed and started turning on their cellphone’s cameras. With an annoyed sigh, Antares cast a pulse of Hypnosis to send such foolish people away as fast as possible.

  Groaning, the Yakuza got up and dusted his clothes, impressively, there seemed to be no signs of damage on his body and only his clothing was a little bit scuffed.

  “Remember that I gave you plenty of opportunities to walk away.” Announced Antares while the other Yakuzas quickly circled him, with a little sardonic smile, the Devil snorted; “So, whatever happens next, it is your fault.”

  “Bitch ass loser that keeps making excuses.” The yakuza grumbled and entered into a sharp martial stance, something Antares Martial Talent drank with gusto. With rage clear in his voice, the man growled; “Stop pussyfooting and sprouting nonsense and fight like a man.”

  “Your funeral.” Snaped Andtares back with a cold face, while raising his guard.

  “Get’ him,” the Yakuza shouted and rushed forward, his fist already mid-swing towards Antares’ head.

  Dunking under the swing, Antares swiped at the man’s legs, which he easily jumped over. Mid-air, the man threw another punch at the Antares, who already raised his left hand to defend against it.

  The moment he caught the man’s punch, Antares felt his muscles straining for a bit; ‘Strong. Way stronger than such a no-name thug has any right to be.’ He grumbled inwardly while tossing the man’s arm to the side and punching him in the middle of his chest.

  Tossed back, the man flipped mid-air and fell on his feet with his guard up, his breathing a little bored and chaotic for a few moments, before it evened out.

  “... Your technique is garbage shitstain.” criticized the Yakuza before rushing back. And as unpleasant as this may sound—Antares had to agree with the Yakuza—compared to him, the Devil Heir was vastly inferior in skill.

  Trading punches, the duo continued their fight, and for a brief moment Antares worried about the other thugs, but a side gnce provided him with an image of Neptune absolutely destroying them. None were dead, but Antares could see some broken limbs and spts of blood. But seeing that Neptune was safe, made him let out a sigh of relief.

  A punch hit him in the face for his distraction. “Do you want to die?” Taunted the yakuza while delivering a series of punches; “Do you think this is the type of fight you can be distracted?” The Yakuza kicked the Devil’s shin, hard; “Are you an idiot?”

  Without replying, Antares refocused on the fight, rising his right leg he parried a kick and counterattacked with a punch —only to be stopped by the man’s skilled defense. With a roar of defiance, the man punched forward. Antares parried his punch with his elbow, making the man wince in pain.

  “What the fuck you are made of? I’ve punched steel walls that were less hard than you.” Spitting on the ground, he didn’t forget to add an insult; “Fucking loser.”

  Antares answered him with a punch to the face, Making the yakuza lose a few teeth and spit blood. Originally, the Devil wanted to finish this fight as soon as possible—and considering how superior his physique was when compared to the Yakuza—he could probably do so in a single attack. But when he saw how proficient in Martial arts the man was, and how much Martial Talent was allowing him to improve with just a few moments in the fight, Antares decided to drag on this fight as much as possible.

  Kicking Antares on the shin, the Yakuza scowled as he failed to do any significant damage, again. With Anger fueling his movements, he sent a right hook towards the Devil’s chin –it was a falling, but it was already too te as Antares had already tilted his head backward, the Force user felt a punch to his kidney, which sent a jolt of pain through his body.

  The Yakuza followed with a right punch towards Antares neck, and the Devil once again foolish fell for the faint, receiving another kidney shot from the man. The Force user tried to counterattack with punches, but the Yakuza seemed to have finally adapted to his rhythm, so he easily counterattacked them.

  But sadly for the angered criminal, Martial Talent was also starting to adapt –slowly drinking more and more from the Yakuza’s Martial Techniques and helping Antares improve his own.

  Kicks, punches, blows after blows –the fight raged on and on. The poor asphalt—which was constantly being bombarded by superhuman shockwaves—long since turned into a forest of craters and debris. Neptune—who had long since defeated the other ckeys—was observing the fight with narrowed eyes, her posture tense and ready, so the moment Antares needed any help she could quickly provide so.

  “... Are you fucking using me to train?” The Yakuza raged, even angrier than before, but this time there seemed to be quite a heavy undertone of fear mixed with his voice; “What are you? A fucking freak?”

  As talking wasn’t a free action, the Yakuza received another punch to the face for his distraction, and this time Antares had put quite a bit more strength behind his punch, sending the wannabe criminal flying to the ground.

  Martial Talent was stopping giving any significant feedback right now, so Antares mentally concluded it was time to finally finish the fight. So he started putting more strength and power behind his blows, his kicks and punches hitting the angered Yakuza with so much strength they created small shockwaves.

  “Fucker…” Grumbled the wannabe criminal while spitting blood from his mouth; “You were holding back on me. But you weren’t the only one.” With a grunt of effort, the Yakuza rushed forward and threw a very telegraphed punch. Antares' first instinct was to defend the punch, but something the Yakuza said—and his own instincts warning him—made him dodge out of the way.

  It ended up being the wiser choice. The moment the Yakuza’s fist was a few steps from connecting with him, it turned into a Dragon Cw.

  Rough dark green scales shaped like that of a carp covered the Yakuza’s arm until his elbow. Martial Talent immediately warned Antares that if he tried to block that scaled arm, he was going to have a bad time.

  Looking at the Yakuza’s eyes, Antares saw that they had turned green and their pupil had morphed into a slit –like that of a cat, or more accurately, a Dragon.

  “Is this the fabled Humanoid Dragon of the Yakuza?” Mumbled the Devil while avoiding a scaled fist, a fist that seemed to dislocate the very air it traveled through, indicating that the punch was quite a bit stronger than before.

  Getting used to the Yakuza’s new movements was a hard albeit simple task, in terms of style he hadn’t changed much, only getting more aggressive and reckless with his strikes, his amped strength turned outright defending against them a bad idea, so Antares settled for deflecting the blows he found impossible to dodge.

  It still hurt a lot, but with his absurd regeneration, the Devil could comfortably deflect them, albeit his clothes weren’t so lucky, as the white bzer he was using was already in tatters at this point.

  Slowly, Antares got used to the amped Yakuza’s rhythm and was now running circles around the angered wannabe criminal. His powerful strikes caused massive damage to the Humanoid Dragon, but it seemed that the dragonification made the Yakuza way more tolerant of damage dealt to his own body, so it was increasingly more difficult to knock him down.

  In a stroke of inspiration, Antares improvised a spell mid-fight, going from the principle of Force Sword, he created a yer of pure Force Attribute around his fists, creating the Force Shell spell.

  With his fists covered by the Force Attribute, his already devastating strikes became even more so. Sadly Antares had to bance himself on a knife’s edge, he had more than enough strength to pop the Yakuza’s head open like a rotten watermelon—but he couldn’t exactly kill him—so he lowered his strength and was using Martial Talent as a guide to slowly amp it up to the point he could knock the wannabe criminal down without causing any fatal damage to him. Unfortunately, the Devil Heir's inexperience was made abundantly clear, as he was taking way too much time to execute what should have been a ‘simple’ knockout.

  Eventually, Martial Talent shone through, and with a well-pced strike on the Yakuza’s temple, Antares managed to stun him enough to allow for a takedown. Gripping the criminal’s head with his big hand, Atares smashed his face on the ground, repeatedly. The impacts of his head striking the broken asphalt echoed through the street, the shockwaves making the debris tremble, and the crater where they were fighting to expand. Eventually, the Yakuza finally stopped resisting, his body going sck.

  “Finally unconscious…” Grumbled Antares in a slightly tired tone; “What an annoying guy to knock out.” Cracking his neck, the Devil looked around and winced, the street looked pretty bad, the whole front of the batting center was a forest of craters and debris, with cracks everywhere and unconscious bodies thrown around.

  “Hey Neptune, let’s pull these guys on the sidewalk and call the big guys, I don’t want to worsen the-”.

  “Heya pimp!” Interrupted a youthful voice that sounded quite calm; “What do you think you are doing with my Aniki?”.

  Turning towards the voice, Antares saw a young man who was roughly his age –with a head of almost shiny ptinum-colored hair, dragon-like eyes spotting the same color, followed by a slightly frowning face that gave him a somewhat intimidating visage. He was wearing a bck bzer with a ptinum-colored half-opened shirt underneath.

  With a burst of his mana that cracked his surroundings and broke the sound barrier, the man appeared right beside the downed Yakuza, two of his fingers resting on the knocked-out man’s temple.

  ‘Fast’, was the first thought that appeared on Antares mind, even with his newfound boost in strength –Martial Talent was basically shouting at him he did not stand a chance. The man’s posture, the way he breathed, the way he walked, and the casual way he used his mana like a makeshift jet engine —all told Antares he was an incredibly powerful opponent. An opponent that made the previous Yakuza look like a crayon-eating child.

  Adopting a serious expression, Antares tried to go for a more diplomatic approach“... in my defense. He took an issue with us first.” He started expining; “Me and my Queen right there were browsing Ms. Kashino's wares before he-”

  “I could care less, pimp.” said the man while getting up and putting the green-scaled Yakuza on the sidewalk; “You just beat my Aniki.” He cracked his knuckles with a very asura-like expression, “As a Lieutenant of the Kasuga Family, I must seek reparations.”.

  “If we can reach a peaceful accord.” Replied Antares while tightening his guard and signaling towards Neptune with his eyes; “I do not mind paying for all the damage, including treatment to your fellows. Money is not an issue.”.

  The ptinum-haired man shook his head; “I don’t care about your money, pimp.” The man cocked his fist back, his muscles tensing; “Name’s Lee Shi-Woon by the way.” With his mana simmering to the surface, Shi-Woon smirked evilly; “Clench your teeth.”

  And that was all that Antares was able to do before his face was covered by a white-skinned fist shimmering with ptinum-colored mana.

  Bcking out for a moment, the Devil only recovered consciousness when he hit the ground, and before he could even start to assess the damage done to his body, his stomach was turned into a world of pain when Shi-Woon dive-bombed him with a knee strike, making the force user vomit a mouthful of blood with a few of his innards.

  With some mental crity still remaining in him, Antares immediately designed his Goetia of Gravity to self-healing duty. While his main Goetia did its best to survive.

  Shi-Woon jumped to the side, and with a flex of his leg muscles and a bust of his Mana, he kicked Antares head like a soccer ball. Making the force user bckout again, but thanks to his Goetia of Gravity spamming self-healing, he instantly recovered and kicked up, using the momentum of his kick and the unfurling of his wings to briefly reposition himself straight.

  Seeing the completely intact Antares—with the only indication of the damage he just suffered being the massive bloodstain on what remained of his clothes—Shi-Woon narrowed his eyes and exploded his mana, his body unching forward as if it was plugged into an imaginary jet engine.

  But this time, Antares was more prepared. Even before Shi-Woon exploded with his mana, the Devil was already raising his crossed arms in front of his face. Sadly—while Antares was prepared—Shi-Woon's second punch was equally, if not, more devastating.

  A shockwave burst out, cracking the ground and sending Antares body flying towards the arcade on the other side of the street.

  Groaning, Antares got up and removed himself from the indent his body made into the concrete wall. Luckily, this time he managed to cover his upper body with a Force Shell spell before he was hit, which allowed him to mitigate a lot of the damage. His arms and a few of his ribs were still broken, but nothing his absurd regeneration couldn’t quickly take care of.

  Antares looked at Shi-Woon and noticed the man gring at his own fist. Not wanting to lose such an opportunity, Antares stomped on the ground, casting Force Lance right under Shi-Woon’s feet.

  Rolling his eyes, the ptinum Yakuza just sidestepped the nce. “You know… your magic is way too slow pimp.” He then looked at the Force Lance rather intrigued; “You will never hit me with something so… unrefined. Albeit… I’ve never seen an element like this before.”

  Clenching his fist, Shi-Woon cocked his arm back, a thick aura of ptinum-colored mana covered his entire arm, followed by a smaller, albeit denser white-colored aura. And with an exhale, he punched forward.

  The Force Lance shattered instantly, almost as if it were made of gss. But Antares wasn’t worried about that, oh no, he saw something much scarier before his own very eyes. “You have Touki!?” excimed the Devil in a mix of surprise and horror. As someone familiar with Sairaog, he knows just how much of a boost Touki gives, and it's not small.

  “Oh? Recognized that pimp?, Shi-Woon chuckled, rotating his arm back and forth a bit; “You aren’t an uncultured swine at least.” With another burst of his mana, Shi-Woon threw a punch. But this time even if he was using Touki and his Mana Burst technique, Antares could follow the tailwind of his movements.

  Like what was expected in a battle where the skill disparity was so absurd like this, Antares’ Martial Talent went into an amphetamine-cocaine-crack binge, devouring such an absurd amount of Martial Skill akin to a starved Demon of Gluttony possessed by a Divine Spirit of Greed.

  Antares was veritably having months of progress with every second this fight went on. But the Devil wasn’t worried about that at this moment, he just wanted to survive the beatdown and make sure Neptune was safe.

  Before the Touki Enchanted punch connected with him, Antares recast the Force Shell spell and rose as many Walls of Force as his meager skill with his Trait allowed him.

  It was futile. Shi-Woon strength and skill were far superior. His punch shattered through any and all barriers Antares managed to erect like they were made of thin gss. Before the devil could even blink, he was sent flying through the Arcade building, and three other buildings behind it.

  The bones in his arms, spine, and ribs were shattered into a thousand pieces or more. Pain assaulted his body—but it was nothing that the Devil that had been burned alive couldn’t resist—so with a flex of his Goetia’s will, he completely healed, all the clothes on his torso now gone.

  Fearing Shi-Woon would attack Neptune if he wasn’t there—Antares quickly rushed back—his wings unfurling to give him more speed. Arriving at the broken street, Antares almost breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Shi-Woon hadn’t moved from his pce, and Neptune seemed to have reentered the Batting Center. Antares, using the brief time of respite before he was rag-dolled by Shi-Woon again, used his HUD to send a message to Neptune, expining a pn he had just come up with.

  “Still walking?” hummed Shi-Woon curiously; “Should I start calling you cockroach them?”.

  Getting into a very familiar Martial Stance, Antares prepared to defend himself.

  “Oi oi oi, pimp… what the fuck is that stance?”, asked Shi-Woon in a tone of anger mixed with disbelief; “... are you fucking copying me?” he asked in utter shock.

  Antares just smirked and tightened his muscles, his Main Goetia already preparing the spells he would cast.

  And then, he was flying into the air again, his bones broken and the poor Arcade building acquired another hole. Healing himself, he jumped back into the battle, only to be punched away again.

  Thus, a cycle started –Antares would get punched, his body broken, only to heal himself and jump back into the fight. Shi-Woon continued to beat the Devil up, slowly growing annoyed at the fact that Antares wouldn’t stay down and that he was improving at the same, if not at a faster rate than him.

  “... is this how Ichiban-Aniki felt when he was teaching me?” mumbled Shi-Woon in a speechless tone, as he finally felt what all his teachers and enemies have been feeling their entire lives; “Damn if this isn’t annoying.”

  Time ticked down, and while Shi-Woon could probably spend the entire day punching Antares face in, his patient was wearing thin.

  Antares, on the other hand, was over the moon. His Martial Skill has been on an exponential rise, the rate and the amount he was improving something so absurd even Shi-Woon—the Martial Arts freak—was getting freaked out. After a particurly bad punch that toppled the Arcade building, Antares groaned and got out of the pile of debris.

  Removing the debris stuck to his body, he healed himself and started walking towards his foe/benefactor.

  While he walked, he unconsciously corrected his posture, his steps getting more precise and measured, their sound getting smaller, and the efficiency of his movements rising.

  His sculpted chest went up and down in a rhythmic pattern, his breathing turning into a hypnotic tempo—adjusting itself into a mysterious and supernatural pattern—and then a *click*. It was like everything suddenly made sense, energy rushed through Antares body, fueling and feeding every single one of his cells, and with each breath that he took, his cells became more alive, became simply –more.

  Antares had the distinct impression that his Martial and Soul Talent, joined together with his Aethermorph Heritage smiled evilly for a moment. But his mind wasn’t focused on that, oh no, he was in the absolute high of having cycled a Ki Circution technique for the first time.

  Usually, it should be impossible to use a Ki Circution technique mid-battle, but his Aethermorph Heritage didn’t give a single shit. Ki, according to the Heritage, is considered a magical mean, so the Heritage quickly gripped and stretched it to impossible levels, turning the Power Distribution technique of Shi-Woon into its little bitch in no time.

  With the Ki Circution technique under his own thumb, all of Shi-Woon’s moves that Antares has been copying suddenly made a lot more sense. Much like the Power Distribution technique, the moment he started cycling his own Ki, everything clicked together.

  His steps became swifter, his feet moving at weird patterns and incredible speeds. But for anyone who looked, he appeared to be walking slower, although he moved farther.

  Cocking his fist back, Antares smile turned slightly manic, his Ki following a pattern he worked hard on copying from Shi-Woon –with a malicious smirk, he used Mana Burst, his body exploding forward.

  Shi-Woon froze, as before his very own eyes, one of the most absurd scenes to ever grace his life was happening. So great was his surprise that he simply couldn’t move, couldn’t react.

  Antares body traveled at incredible speeds—the sound barrier long broken—and in less than a blink, he was before Shi-Woon, his previously cocked arm already mid-swing, its momentum being boosted by both supernatural Martial Arts and the jet-like boost of Mana Burst.

  *BOOM!*

  The punch was so strong that its shockwave was more akin to a small explosion, its shockwave cracking the pavement and turning debris into dust. Shi-Woon’s body was unched along the street, flying like a spinning ragdoll with a particur dislike for physics, he skipped on the asphalt like a ft stone tossed into a ke’s surface.

  Laying on the ground, the Yakuza prodigy didn’t know how to react, the bones of his face were cracked, his nose was busted, his teeth missing and his mandibue were dislodged. Thankfully, his plenary-like constitution coupled with his Dragon regeneration and his Ki were already doing their best to recover the damage, he knew he would be up and about in no time –his pride was another story.

  But Shi-Woon was focused on that, his mind was in absolute turmoil, he just saw someone learn the Art of Bck Heaven by just observing and fighting him; ‘What kind of freakish Martial Arts talent must someone have to do something like this?… and what the fuck does Zeocitus and Venana feed their kids? Two kids, and two monsters.’ Getting up, Shi-Woon was greeted by another Spirit-Crushing Fist to his face.

  While his mind was being assaulted by pain, and his body was treating the asphalt as a new lover, parts of Shi-Woon’s mind continued to wander; ‘Did he get better? Again?.... If just two weeks can turn someone from utter manure to this monster, I shudder to think what he would be capable of today if he had spent his 18 years wisely.’.

  Giving a look over towards the street, Shi-Woon winced internally, everything was a chaotic destroyed mess; ‘Maaan, Ichi Aniki will have my head, and so will Sae-Ra and Sae-Hee. So-Seol will probably ugh at my face and go along with Sae-Ra’s and Sae-Hee’s punishment just for the ughs. Ji-Nie… she would just be pissed she wasn’t here to fight him as well… and I am going to have to sleep on the couch for the rest of the month, won’t I?’ Shi-Woon sighed internally.

  ‘Still can’t let this guy beat Kizu Aniki without any consequences.’ Shi-Woon got up and cracked his knuckles, his presence thickening and turning a little sharper; ‘Let’s take this up a notch and finally put an end to this mess.’

  With another Mana Burst, Shi-Woon appeared beside Antares, his leg cocked back and his Ki swirling in the correct pattern for Seismic Step.

  Antares' manic smile deepened, and in another shocking dispy, he used Mana Burst to increase his momentum and followed with a very amateurish copy of Seismic Step.

  *BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

  The two kick techniques connected, followed by massive shockwaves that broke every single window in the street, the broken floor sunk even further, creating another crater under the two fighters.

  Shi-Woon tsked, jumped backward, and used Mana Burst to advance again –following with a Cyclone Chain Kick, the repeated spinning kicks catching Antares off guard for a moment.

  The Devil wasn’t discouraged by the new move, however –as he matched every single kick with a Spirit-Crushing Fist.

  Shi-Woon upped the rhythm again, stretching both his arms in opposite directions, Shi-Woon used The Primordial Form, his consecutive strikes followed by a double palm attack more than effective enough to break the bones on Antares’ arms, he then followed with a Bck Origin Reversal, pressuring the Devil Heir with even more consecutive strikes.

  Getting close to Antares, Shi-Woon smiled evilly, his blood-soaked teeth turning him into quite the grim visage. The ptinum-haired man then opened his mouth and used the Cry of the Phoenix, Antares’ ears burst and he heard nothing more.

  Momentarily stunned from having his inner ear explode, Antares was barely able to raise his guard when he saw Shi-Woon take a strange stance, the Ptinum-haired man's arm cocked backward close to his belly button, and his back turned towards Antares. With a slightly deranged smile, Shi-Woon leaped forward, his torso turning and his fist thrusting forward.

  Stunned as Antares was, he barely managed to react and move himself out of the way. Which ended up saving his life, so instead of losing his whole torso, he only lost half of it. Thankfully, it didn’t touch the spine or the heart.

  “... Fucking bastard…” Shi-Woon breathed a little tiredly; “Did you just dodge the Chaotic Heavens Destruction Strike by instinct alone?”

  Getting up from the ground, Antares gritted his teeth while his torso slowly regenerated back, this regeneration was incredibly costly and the Devil felt his nutrient reserves bottoming out. He didn’t have much regeneration left—unless he wanted to cannibalize his own body, which would set him back days of Sutur training.

  “... Thanks for the lesson, teach.” Antares provoked with an evil bloody smirk while assuming the Chaotic Heavens Destruction Strike stance, prompting the ptinum-haired man to widen his eyes and use a Mana Burst forward, falling right into Antares’ trap.

  Tightening his muscles, Antares punched forward with the Spirit-Crushing Fist, using Shi-Woon’s own momentum against him. The Yakuza managed to dodge in time, but his left shoulder was still grazed by the attack.

  Using Mana Burst again, Shi-Woon retreated, putting a little bit of distance between himself and Antares.

  “I really didn’t want to have to use this pimp.” spoke Shi-Woon with gritted teeth, his skin bubbling and waving as if it was made of wax; “...be fttered as you will the first outsider to see my scales.”

  With a draconic growl that made the entire street tremble, Shi-Woon's body transformed –ptinum-colored scales burst from his skin, slowly consuming his fists completely until they turned them into Dragon cws –scales appeared on his face, his eyes completely turning into that of a Dragon’s, his mouth widened and was filled with dragon fangs so sharp that even the air itself was running away from them, two whitish-pnum horns erupted from his head – his shoes tore open, showing that his feet had also turned into Dragon cws.

  His aura increased exponentially, its sheer conceptual and physical weight turning the entire atmosphere of the street heavy enough that it became difficult to breathe, if a simple civilian or even just a low to mid-css entity was here, they would be instantly crushed to paste.

  Antares looked rather grim at this situation, the high of learning a Ki Circution technique momentarily put aside by the titanic beast before him. And then Shi-Woon took a deep breath, air swirling like a vortex rushed towards his now alit throat. Antares eyes widened; “A breath attack? Shi-”.

  Without even finishing his excmation, Antares used Mana Burst and rushed forward, but his now-sharper eyes could see he would not reach Shi-Woon in time. Knowing how devastating a dragon’s breath attack was, Antares knew he needed to stop it at all costs, not only to save his own skin but to stop Shi-Woon from completely vaporizing the street. He briefly thought about using his Patterned Elemental Weave, but he had emptied his stock fighting against the Balrog wannabe.

  He then mentally reached inside of himself, more especially his own Dantian, he may just have learned what he suspects is the Art of Bck Heaven, so there is an alternative that he can use to boost himself, and while normally he would need a massive bout of Rage to enter such state—his Aethermorph Heritage didn’t care—so seeing as he had no immediate option, with a strong flex of his will, Antares reversed the natural flow of his Ki.

  And immediately bcked out.

  ~Yasaka Hirume~

  Yasaka was having a rather pleasant afternoon –she just checked the stocks of a few of her investments and saw they were all on the rise, which immediately pleased her –her favorite novel got a mass release, giving her around 25 chapters to enjoy, and she just had a small breakthrough in her use of Senjutsu.

  Right now she was inside her private hot springs, enjoying a very rexing bath while she meditated and became one with nature –one of her favorite and most rexing pastimes.

  Steam rose from the hot water, bubbles, and soap made of carefully cultivated products turned the already medicinal water into an even more precious liquid. Yasaka's voluptuous figure shone with a rather enticing light in the low visibility of the springs.

  Sadly, such a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere was broken by a ringtone.

  “This ain't a song for the broken-hearted

  No silent prayer for the faith-departed

  I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd

  You're gonna hear my voice

  When I shout it out loud

  It's my life

  It's now or never

  I ain't gonna live forever

  I just want to live while I'm alive-”

  Groaning, Yasaka whined; “... only my work cellphone can make me find Bon Jovi, of all things, annoying.” Gesturing with her shining hand towards a corner of the hot springs, her cell phone slowly flew towards her.

  Tapping the accept button, she put the phone on speaker; “Hello, Yasaka speaking.” She tried her best to maintain her professional tone, but a little bit of her annoyance still slipped through.

  “Look at the Kashino Batting Center.” Came a strange female voice that Yasaka didn’t recognize. But before she could even reply or ask any other questions, she heard an explosion in the background, and the call ended.

  “... this is a mess I will have to deal with, isn’t it?” she let out a very long sigh while slowly getting out of the hot springs. Parts of her wanted to completely forget whatever that call was—principally considering it was from an unknown number—but she knew postponing dealing with this problem, would only create an even bigger mess to deal with ter.

  With a small flex of her will, her Touki briefly exploded to life –fully drying her body, ears, and tails. With another wave of her hand, a neatly folded stack of casual clothing appeared before her. Putting on her clothes, Yasaka let out a groan of displeasure, albeit Antares would fully argue that it sounded extremely sensual if he was here.

  Spreading her senses in the direction of the Kashino Batting Center, Yasaka instantly scowled; “I knew bringing Dragon Boy here would result in this…” She then closed her eyes and put an effort into hiding her annoyance; “But no one ever listens to me.” She grumbled before spreading her senses further; “Huh… baka-Ichi at least had the forethought to also bring Dragon Boy’s mates, they should help to contain his more destructive urges somewhat.”

  With another flex of her will, Yasaka teleported to the top of the Batting Center. Looking down, she saw Shi-Woon beating the absolute shit out of the Gremory Heir. But Yasaka couldn’t help but feel intrigued, no matter how much Shi-Woon broke Antares, the young Devil always got up.

  Scanning the surroundings, Yasaka nodded in relief when she saw there were no civilians nearby; ‘At least they had the foresight to disperse the normies.’ She thought inwardly while her eyes zeroed in on a bunch of bodies on the sidewalk; ‘Yakuza? Oh, they are alive at least… so that is how the conflict must’ve started. Devil Boy fought some Yakuza, Shi-Woon saw his comrades get beaten up and decided to beat up the aggressor… standard Yakuza stuff.’

  Yasaka continued observing the beatdown, her eyes slightly narrowing when she saw something different on Antares, focusing her senses on him, she felt her left eye twitch in surprise mixed with irritation; ‘Is he getting better? Genuinely?’.

  And then Antares started breathing a little differently, making Yasaka squint her eyes; ‘Don’t tell me…’ she mumbled inwardly, a little bit of dread building inside her. And then the Devil punched Shi-Woon back and sent him flying.

  “What. The. Fuck!?” Yasaka excimed, not bothering to hide her voice or surprise.‘This is not how Ki Circution techniques are supposed to work!’ she screamed inwardly, feeling that all her vast knowledge of Ki was absolutely meaningless; ‘He was supposed to need to be in a calm environment, enter a deep meditative state that required both a serene mind and a rexed body, and only then should he be able to start learning how to use Ki Circution technique. Not in the middle of a fucking battle. His Ki should be raging and cycling like an angry beast, something impossible to distribute or circute.’

  Massaging her temples at the absurdity of the situation before her, Yasaka's disbelief only grew when she saw the Gremory Heir steal technique after technique from Shi-Woon. ‘Techniques so sought after, that any minor faction would literally commit genocide for them –stolen like they were some cheap piece of bread.’ plopping down on the roof of the Batting Center with her legs dangling from the border, Yasaka groaned in annoyance; ‘... I am way too sober for this shit.’

  The battle now was a little more even in Yasaka’s opinion, but she could feel the regeneration from Devil Boy reaching its limits; ‘How interesting, to use the body’s own nutrients to heal –he must need to eat a lot of food to keep up with such absurd regeneration.’ Yasaka mentally noted down, perhaps she could replicate something simir with Senjutsu? Worth a try.

  Then she heard a very loud and characteristic growl, something that made the hair on her tails stand on end. Turning towards Shi-Woon, Yasaka sighed and suppressed her growing frustration; ‘... Seriously Dragon Boy? Did you really have to transform?’ Yasaka asked internally, before briefly closing her eyes in realization; ‘So even someone like you can feel fear, huh… Did Antares absurd Talent really scare you so much?’

  ‘In the end, Baka-Ichi was right, the Gremory Brat is indeed another Super candidate on the Devil’s side.’ Yasaka mentally admitted, even if she suspected as much herself already. Looking more deeply at the Devil, Yasaka briefly licked her lips; ‘He is a hunk at least, oh my, I didn’t know he was packing those muscles under all those clothes. Makes me want to sit on his face and lick them all- calm down girl, not the time to think about that kind of stuff.’

  Shaking her head, the kitsune prepared to intervene, whatever Shi-Woon will do after he goes Dragon will probably be nothing wise, principally considering just how much more impulsive and arrogant the transformation makes him.

  When she saw the whirlpool of mana before his head, Yasaka's eyes widened and she instantly jumped down, only to be bsted backward by a massive baleful wave of Dark Ki.

  Looking at the Devil she was ogling a few moments earlier Yasaka’s eyes widened even more; ‘... did he just achieve the Bck Origin Threshold!?’, she excimed inwardly in even bigger surprise.

  With her senses enhanced by both Touki and Senjutsu, Yasaka observed in slow motion how Antares’ Ki started cycling completely in reverse, something that should kill all but the most experienced practitioners of the Art of Bck Heaven –and the boy just learned it today and was already putting many Masters to shame. Yasaka’s headache grew many folds.

  His aura turned completely dark –powerful, intimidating, and oppressive; ‘But to be fair, since he is a Devil it was already so… so the Threshold should have only enhanced it.’ Seeing vapor start being expelled from his body as if it just entered into an Overclock mode, Yasaka winced.

  Stopping someone in the Bck Origin Threshold is a very difficult process, as the User's Conscious mind switches with their subconscious one, a subconscious mind that is being flooded by rage and a need to fight. The subconscious mind then starts piloting the body that just had its limits removed, while the Conscious Mind watches everything, unable to stop its own subconscious self from acting like a cornered berserker beast.

  Antares speed tripled—and in one instant he went from being too te to stop Shi-Woon’s breath attack–on the other, he entered the Threshold and instantly appeared right beside the transformed Yakuza, punching upwards while aiming for the Martial Artist's chin. The Impact of the punch traveled throughout Shi-Wons body, the Spiritl-Crushing Fist causing devastating damage to his skeleton and flipping his head up towards the sky.

  A beam of superheated magical energy—wide enough to disintegrate an entire school bus—pierced the clouds.

  .

  .

  .

  AN: And this week's chapter is finally over, hope you guys liked it.

  The Aethermorph Heritage finally started revealing some of its overpoweredness. Honestly, I am pnning quite a few more of these along the way but they will take time, just know that anything that falls under the purview of Soul Talent is considered a Magical Mean—which is literally a bitch before the Aethermorph Heritage—so Antares will be having literal banquets in some specific universes.

  Let’s see who will get the reference in Shi-Woon’s way of speaking. ??

  Answer:

  Considering my pfp, I bet most of you guys already know the answer to this one –It’s our favorite bluey boy, Roboute Guilliman.

  And the universe I would like to go towards would be Either Douluo Dalu, as you probably know by now, that’s one of my favorites, or ZZZ(Been pying the game for a bit and it seems quite fun to scare Wise and Belle as 12ft tall Demigod. But now that I think about it, going to Genshin or Star Rail as a Primarch would be quite rad as well, Primarchs are basically made to deal with the BS from those verses.)

  ~ClearSkySage