"I'm all ears," said Naless Death.
"I can eat soone's future strength and give their powers from the future to their present self."
"What the catch?" Naless Death asked.
"It's good that you understand that nothing cos for free," the demon said. "The strength I devour would be lost permanently. But it would only boost your present temporarily."
Naless Death nodded.
The demon's ability was dangerous but good for desperate people.
What demon didn't explain was that Zagreus could reincarnate endlessly. Thanks to it, he could gain near-infinite strength boost since he could just keep eating his endless futures.
The only reason Zagreus was not abusing this power was because the boost was temporary, and that while his future only 'looked' endless.
Even if he could reincarnate endlessly, the universe would die one day.
It ant if he borrowed strength from his future without reservation, one day, he would no longer be borrowing strength since he would have reached the end.
And then after that, he would never be able to grow stronger by himself either, since he had eaten all his future strength.
"What's the boost's duration?"
"It depends on the duration of the contract. Currently, I'm in contract with Zagreus until he clears the Shadow Trial."
"And after that?"
"The contract will end and I will leave."
Naless Death nodded. He understood why Zagreus wanted his help.
After all, while Zagreus would handle everything by himself, it would be detrintal to his future. The easier path would take ti – which was to have soone's help – but it would be less burdenso.
"I see, so this was why the Berserker hated you. You aren't 'earning' your strength, and just cheesing your way through it."
"Heh, he is pissed because he knows he can't defeat . What's 'cheesing' my way through? If you win you are strong and if you lose you are weak. It doesn't matter how and where your strength cos from," Zagreus snickered.
He looked proud to be cheating his way through the ranks.
From what Naless Death had seen, half of the reason why Zagreus was so proud of his strength was because it helped him irritate the Berserker.
Zagreus clapped once to draw attention.
"Now that you know everything. Let's get started on our plan to defeat Berserker."
"Why don't you just bulldoze your way through?"
"I just explained why, bitch. What's the point of completing the Shadow Trial if I'm left crippled after that?"
"Fair enough," Naless Death said half-heartedly.
Seeing his attitude, the corner of Zagreus' eyes twitched.
"Now, now, let's focus on the important things," the demon said.
"Tsk, fine," Zagreus replied. "Since our goal is to make this little shit strong enough to face Berserker when he cos 100 years later, the plan should be obvious. I will defeat powerful monsters, let him devour them, and then he would develop those abilities."
"Huh?" Naless Death frowned. "How do you know about that…?"
"That what? Your Darkness?" Zagreus smirked. "Those six Cores – Worlds actually since they are Cores of Gods – that float behind your back might be heavily modified but I can tell you used Ikuru's Cores as base for it and enhanced it with the Sanguiscreech ants."
Zagreus explained that he knew Naless Death had a Darkness that could devour everything and give it to him.
It made Naless Death realize that while Zagreus acted like a hot-head hooligan, he was always analyzing everything with a cold mind.
"The plan is useless. It won't work."
Naless Death shook his head.
"Think about it. The monsters you can defeat will be within your current level, but the reason you are trying to make stronger is because I would need to deal with Berserker if he is above your current level. Devouring monsters won't help."
"You can use multiple abilities of the sa types to empower them. Do you think I don't realize that? Even if you defeat a weak monster, you can put their techniques and Concept into six Cores and give them six-fold exponential enhancent."
"Yes, I can do that," Naless Death. "But I won't. I will not kill anyone unless they attack first, and no, I won't provoke them to attack first either, nor will I devour them if you kill them for no reason so that I can devour them."
Zagreus was stunned when he realized why Naless Death had been giving an excuse.
"You are telling … You have created a Darkness that can devour everything, which ca from your understanding, but now you refuse to devour others?"
"The True Darkness' main ability is to accept everything. Devouring everything is just an implentation of that understanding."
Zagreus looked at Naless Death as if he was looking at an idiot.
Slowly, his expression turned into one of irritation.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why won't you attack others first?"
"Because I do not wish to kill for carnage and selfishness. Death is rciless, yes, but it's not selfish."
"What's wrong with being selfish? Do you not grow strong for yourself, and for people close to you."
Naless Death didn't answer imdiately.
Then, he slowly said.
"I accept that if it's for soone close to , I might use my Death selfishly, but if it's for alone, then I do not wish to take from others."
"Haah, so you have a bottom line, but you can cross if it's for your people," Zagreus scoffed. "Hypocrite saint bastard."
Zagreus was about to insult Naless Death more when suddenly he closed his mind.
A thoughtful expression appeared on his face.
"This might just work," he muttered to himself.
Then he looked at Naless Death, "So you have no problem devouring others as long as they attack you first for their own selfishness?"
"Yes?" Naless Death felt like Zagreus was soon about to do sothing really fishy, but since he had no clue what it could be, he spoke his mind. "As long as you don't provoke them to attack , then I'm fine with it."
"Of course I would never do that," Zagreus said with a bright smile.
Then he continued, "Now that we have secured a way for you to collect powerful abilities. That brings us to the next step. Fighting. Since this is an important step, we will need to start from the beginning."
He stared at Naless Death.
"You must have Ikuru's trait. If I'm not wrong, it's sothing like domain-type ability. Now what do you think is the best way to use it."
"Entering the middle of the monsters group, and when they attack from all sides, I should activate the trait that would create a domain and—"
"Wrong," Zagreus said, cutting him off. "Are you a fucking dumbass? You literally have the power to take everything from your enemies. So what's next? Are you going to use every technique of your enemy even if it doesn't go with your combat style?"
"Style can be changed—"
"The more techniques each Core has the more burden it puts on you. Moreover, each Core has an inherent limit that can't be crossed until you rank up the Core."
Zagreus' words were rciless.
"Stop trying to use everything. Focus on only important techniques."
"That will be harmful for my future growth," Naless Death said. "What if I have a technique that is exactly what I need to defeat my opponent, but I can't use it, since I never trained that technique and it is too low level?
"The best way to grow is use all techniques I have and train in them to grow stronger."
"So you are going to use train millions of techniques yourself? Do you have ti for it?"
Naless Death didn't answer.
He had been chasing an idealistic goal, but it was far from being realistic.
After all, if it was so easy to master multiple elents and techniques, then every god, demigod, and awakener would be doing so.
However, that was not what happened.
Everyone focused on a few elents and techniques, even if they had thousands of techniques and dozens of elents.
"Well, I do have a way to make sure you can train each technique," Zagreus suddenly said. "But it's going to be quite botherso."
"Just say what it is," Naless Death said.
"See that?"
Zagreus pointed at the blueprint of Devil's Womb (Womb of Devil) that was engraved on the wall.
"That thing had different abilities like being indestructible, and eternal, and many more. And coincidentally, it has the ability to create life inside it too. Of course, we have to remove the ability of life and the ability of fusion, but after that if we add the ability of evolution and then—"
"Talk like you are explaining to a toddler," Naless Death said, interrupting Zagreus.
Zagreus gave him a deadpan stare before he sighed and simplified his words.
"We will create a new Devil's Womb with limited ability. Then, we will start a simulated universe inside it and then we will add the ability of evolution to it.
"You will give all of your extra abilities you gain now, and in future to those simulations. Those simulations will train your abilities for you and you can take them back whenever you want."
Zagreus ant devouring the simulations to get back the abilities.
Since those simulations weren't real, Naless Death shouldn't have any problem with devouring them.
As for Naless Death, he thought of sothing else.
'I can copy back the strengthened abilities with Abyss Mirror, so I don't need to devour them.'
The plan was simple. But it had quite a high chance of working.
"Where will we get the ability of evolution from?"
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