NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!
I blinked as Yasaka's voice scread into my head as I took [Sealing Dream] from Tiamat's hand.
"What did you do to her?" I raised an eyebrow at the Dragon King blandly.
"Eh?" Tiamat tilted her head at , "The Youkai Queen in there? Nothin'."
She used like a kitchen knife! Do you know how it feels to have your soul sliced through a piece of at?!
"You used her like a regular knife?" I deadpanned at Tiamat, who just shrugged in response.
"You're the one who made carry it around," She said defensively, "If I had to carry around a knife on , I might as well use it, right?"
PLEASE don't give back to her!
We were all standing in the remains of the stadium, which hadn't been rebuilt yet. I had left it that way intentionally, as I wanted Ajuka to know exactly what had transpired once he was free.
"Relax, I won't," I chuckled lightly at Yasaka's words, holding up the knife and staring at the bright yellow blade for a mont, "I'm ending our pact early. You're fine with that, right?"
Of course. I'd much rather not be sealed in a sacred gear, Beast King.
I figured as much, and I paused for a second as I reached into my pocket, ensuring I had everything I needed to unseal the super-genius and normal-genius combination in the seal.
Which was just the Greed Island card that I'd been holding onto. I had considered using it on Sirzechs to get him out of the picture, but I hadn't managed to get any more Nen-based items from the gacha yet - and beating him down was overall much more badass, and allowed to keep him as a subordinate.
Luckily, I had recently acquired an [Aura Increasing Pill] from a [dium] gacha pull. I hadn't expected to get anything that could allow to use Nen from anything less than a [High] pull, but I quickly realized why it was a drop in the [dium] gacha.
Essentially, the pill wasn't all that good. 'Aura' wasn't technically the sa thing as Nen, as Aura was the lifeforce within you, and Nen was essentially the thod to utilize that lifeforce and release it through your body's Aura Nodes.
For a typical Nen-user, the pill wasn't anything to write ho about. It increased your Aura, but one's Aura naturally increased as they trained with Nen, and as they just lived in general.
Having more Aura wasn't even that much of a benefit in the long run either, as while it definitely helped, the skill in which you could use that Aura was much more important overall.
I likened it to Ki from Dragon Ball - it's the life energy that everyone has, and getting more of it is nice, but if you don't have a Kahaha to use the Ki on then you'll still get your ass beat by soone with less Ki but more skill.
But, in my case, it was actually a pretty insane item to get. I didn't have my Aura Nodes open because I didn't have the first clue on how to utilize my life force. The most common way to open them was through ditation and observation, but as I wasn't in the Hunter x Hunter world, I doubted I'd be able to figure it out alone.
I didn't have any Nen users to learn from, and I didn't even know what Nen felt like in order to try and mimic it. As a result, that thod didn't work for .
But, the much quicker and riskier thod was 'Initiation.' With this thod, soone who can already utilize Nen forcefully pushes their Aura into your body, thus forcing your body to open its Aura Nodes to avoid death.
It was risky because there was no guarantee that your body would adapt to the influx of lifeforce - in most cases, the person who had the Aura pushed into them would simply die, or at least be gravely injured or crippled.
But, for , who had [Phenex Immortality], that wasn't a concern. If my body didn't know what to do with the internal energy and I were injured, any damage would just be healed by the skill. It would be a waste of the [Aura Increasing Pill], and I'd have to wait for another one from the gacha to try again, but at least I wouldn't die.
Luckily for , whether because of my high LUK, my powerful body, or the ga system helping out, the thod had succeeded. My Aura Nodes had been forced open when I ate the pill, and as a result, I could use Nen now.
That didn't an I was proficient with it or anything - I had no skills or techniques, and with only a couple of days of practice, I barely knew how to even use it.
But, to use the Greed Island card, 'Origin,' I didn't need to be adept at using Nen. I just needed to funnel so into the card, and then it would activate on whoever I aid it at.
Right now, I was just holding onto the card for insurance. I intended on using it on a bigger fish, either on one of the Dragon Gods or possibly Trihexa in this world, or even on a threat I couldn't handle in another world.
In theory, I could use the card as much as I wanted, as it wasn't like it would expire after being used once. However, that was just in theory.
If I sent Trihexa to Greed Island, and they destroyed the world, then the card would be useless. That was assuming the card worked in the first place - it was connected to the Nen in Greed Island, which ant it would need to be powerful enough to transcend worlds and activate in this one.
Considering how powerful the creators of Greed Island were, I was hoping it would work, but I couldn't guarantee it. I considered testing it on a four-legged dire wolf, sacrificing one for the sake of research, but I decided against it.
I didn't know how travel between worlds worked, and I didn't want to fuck sothing up because I was being careless. If the card really did work, but the Nen woven into it expired from the effort of crossing worlds, then I'd have wasted it.
As a result, I wanted to keep the card as insurance, and not as a triumph card. In this instant, it was in case Ajuka had so crazy shit planned.
I didn't think he did - he was trapped in a seal for the past week, and should've been pretty helpless, but that made him all the more terrifying right now. Even if he didn't have access to his usual resources, leaving the supergenius with a whole week to do nothing but plan as he tried ot learn to control his life energy was concerning.
Add in the fact that another genius in Azazel was with him? Anything could happen here, no matter how much I prepared.
And prepared I had. I glanced over at the other two occupants in the room.
"Tell him to give up when I let him out, alright?" I said casually, looking at Sirzechs and Serafall.
"Sure, Val-chan!" Serafall agreed easily, and Sirzechs just nodded.
Both were under contract with , and with how high of a level that skill had gotten, I didn't think Sirzechs would be able to randomly break out and tag-team with Ajuka. I didn't think he would try either, and I had Tiamat, along with [Sealing Dream], in case he did.
Ajuka might've been a supergenius, but Serafall had confird to that he never tried to research the contract I had her under, so with no information to go off of, he probably couldn't break Sirzechs' contract instantly either.
This was all just precautions on my end anyway - I had beaten Sirzechs in a one-on-one, and that was before I had claid all my quests. Now that I had pretty much doubled all my stats, and gained a shit-ton more skills?
I felt pretty confident in taking them both on, even if I might need a bit of assistance from Tiamat since I didn't have my new armor yet.
"Ti to get started," I said bluntly, raising the knife again as I stared into the sharp yellow blade. My eyes narrowed, and a skill was activated.
Break [Soul-Bound Contract?]
[Contractor: Valon]
[Soul-Bound Contractee: Yasaka]
Remaining Ti: 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 17 Hours, 42 Minutes, 57 Seconds
Y/N
I tapped the Y, and a huge flash of light filled the crater we were standing in. In a split second, there were suddenly three more people standing in front of .
The first was the Youkai Queen herself, who looked about the sa as when I had made the contract with her.
She had a beautiful, soft-looking face, along with long blonde hair. She was wearing a long yellow robe, which didn't do much to hide her sexy body. She had huge breasts - really huge, as they looked around the sa size as Kyons, and the Succubus General was practically all-tits - a curvy hour-glass figure, and thick thighs that couldn't be hidden by any amount of loose clothing.
"Thank you, Beast King," Yasaka just sighed as she escaped the sacred gear, stumbling a bit as she was in a physical form again. I just nodded in response.
Next ca the two n I had sealed in the sacred gear, with both Azazel and Ajuka appearing out of the burst of light.
"Hi Aju-tan! Val-chan wants you to give up!" Serafall waved at Ajuka, adding in her two cents, which were largely ignored.
"Finally," Azazel muttered as he appeared, looking over at dryly, "I'll need a lot of drinks to forget about that. Sitting in a white void is boring as hell, y'know?"
I ignored him, simply looking at Ajuka, who looked a bit different from what I imagined. Instead of his usual pleasant smile, the man was actually grinning pretty widely at .
"You lost," I said simply, and Ajuka's grin twitched upward even wider.
"I lost," He confird, not looking the tiniest bit sad about it. "You truly are a genius, Beast King. Every plan, every backup, and every counter I had relied on actions from myself. While I was sealed, that wasn't possible. You've taught a nice lesson."
I resisted letting my calm face break at his words. I taught the supergenius a lesson?
I don't know if I should be proud or worried, but I didn't let either show on my face.
"You did the best you could," I replied evenly, a slightly smug tone in my voice, but I wasn't lying.
It wasn't Ajuka's fault he lost - he never had a chance from the beginning. He couldn't have expected to be sealed in such a manner, because such a manner didn't exist until I made it possible.
In his eyes, if Yasaka's soul was put into a sacred gear, then that ant Yasaka was dead. If I had killed her, then the battle would've been long and destructive as she used the Leyline's energy to its fullest.
Essentially, he would've heard if Yasaka had died. But, instead of Kyoto being destroyed and the Youkai Faction being left without a leader, nothing had happened. Yasaka had just vanished without a word leaking out, and was now in a sacred gear.
Azazel wouldn't develop a way to make soul-pacts with artificial sacred gears for a few more years, so it truly wasn't Ajuka's fault for not predicting sothing like this. Even if he could prepare for a thousand different courses of action, he had to know that such an action was possible to prepare for it.
In the sa vein, I wouldn't randomly prepare for Ajuka to throw a mind-controlled Trihexa at . Why? Because how the hell would he control Trihexa like that?
It wasn't possible, and that's what my plan was to him.
"I agree," Ajuka just grinned even wider, "Which makes this all the more sweeter. I thought I had planned for any action you took - I had a setup to block any move you made, but you did sothing I couldn't imagine. I lost completely."
Ajuka glanced around at the destroyed stadium, then at Sirzechs, raising an eyebrow at his longti friend, "How bad was it?"
"Half the pillars are dead, I'm magically enslaved, and he's about to rule the whole Underworld," Sirzechs replied dryly, grinning lightly.
"That's scary," Azazel said blandly, glancing over at Ajuka, "That's exactly what you said would happen in the seal."
"No, I said all the pillars would be under his control, not dead," Ajuka shook his head bluntly, giving a curious look as he muttered, "But, half are dead? Only half? And, dead but not under succubus magic?"
I opened my mouth to answer, but he just chuckled before I could, "Ah, this unpredictability is why you're so interesting, Beast King."
"Appreciate it," I just chuckled back, and I was silently glad I didn't explain it to him.
In an optimal world, forcing the now-extinct clans to be my subordinates would've been better in the long run. I'd have more powerful subordinates, but I had been planning for the short term.
And by short-term, I ant the very short-term, as I wanted my plan to be finished and my kingdom solidified while Ajuka was still sealed. Trying to force the other pillars under without wiping them out would've taken ti and effort, and my actions of killing them in the stadium worked to make appear more threatening to the other factions in the world.
That threatening reputation was needed, as the day following Sirzechs' defeat had been a pivotal one. With Sirzechs unconscious and Ajuka sealed, along with my armor destroyed, that fear of Tiamat and was the only thing stopping any other factions from making a move to strike while we were weakened.
I had been particularly worried about Hades making a move, as he must've realized that my conquering of the Underworld, which included his Realm of the Dead, was starting to beco a reality.
But the God of the Dead had been strangely silent since the duel. He hadn't contacted or anyone working under , nor had he made any moves.
"Now, for the serious talks," I said bluntly, shifting the conversation as my eyes bored into Ajuka's while [King's Aura] and [King's Command] activated, "While I outsmarted you this ti, I'm not arrogant enough to think I can every ti. Accept a contract with , or I'll kill you."
I didn't wait for his answer as [Contract Making] activated.
[Valon] [Beast King] has offered a [Master-Slave Contract!]
[Master: Valon]
[Slave: Ajuka Beelzebub]
"I expected as much," Ajuka simply nodded, accepting my condition rather easily.
[Ajuka Beelzebub] [Ultimate-Class Devil] [Maou] has beco a [Subordinate]!
[Subordinate Tier]: [Slave]
As he accepted the contract, a quest was completed in the corner of my vision.
[Quest Complete!]
Conquer the New Satan Faction
Subdue or Kill [Serafall Leviathan]
Subdue or Kill [Sirzechs Lucifer]
Subdue or Kill [Ajuka Beelzebub]
Subdue or Kill [Falbium Asmodeus]
Rewards:
All [Territory] owned by the [New Satan Faction]
All [Subordinate]'s owned by the [New Satan Faction]
50,000 STR
50,000 END
50,000 AGI
50,000 INT
50,000 CHA
50,000 LUK
50,000 HREG
50,000 MREG
All unclaid [Sitri] related skills!
All unclaid [Gremory] related skills!
All unclaid [Astaroth] related skills!
All unclaid [Glasya-Labolas] related skills!
All [Sitri] related skills will be raised to level 25!
All [Gremory] related skills will be raised to level 25!
All [Astaroth] related skills will be raised to level 25!
All [Glasya-Labolas] related skills will be raised to level 25!
It was honestly a bit underwhelming after getting so many stats and skills from the pillar quests, but I wasn't going to complain about free rewards. I was taking down the New Satan Faction anyway, and this was just the icing on top.
"But, do you believe I won't be able to break this contract if I tried?" Ajuka asked simply, his grin looking unnaturally as it widened even more.
"No, you certainly can," I answered evenly, "But you won't."
The contract was more for insurance than anything - if he broke it, then I would know he was up to sothing.
"Why is that, Your Highness?" Ajuka responded, shifting to the more respectful title despite a slightly challenging tone in his voice.
"Because you're a genius," I said simply, "If you need to explain it to you, then you're far less capable than I believe. In which case, I don't need to be worried about you anyway."
Ajuka wasn't stupid, and we both knew it. If I were being safe, then I should've just killed the man right now, but I knew he wouldn't try to do anything stupid.
Essentially, he was trapped right now. The Maou wanted what was best for his people, and that was what he had always wanted. Before, he had been in a battle of intellect to secure more power by taking it from .
Now, his people were my people. They were under my rule, and what benefited would benefit them. Ajuka's only chance to separate the two would be killing and taking back control of his race, but we both knew that wasn't possible.
We were now in a more Zekram-Ajuka relationship than how we had been before. We were on the sa side, and while I was sure he'd continue to sche and undermine , he'd do it to benefit both of us.
That would be annoying, but it wasn't really a problem. He was still a supergenius - if there was anyone who was seeing sothing I wasn't, it was this man. His use as a powerful subordinate, genius general, and overall Maou for the devils under far outweighed any annoyance he could cause in the future.
It wasn't like I was much of a hands-on ruler anyway. I left most of it to Raya, Vargan, and Velrissa already. Now that I had a much larger faction under my rule to manage, I was fine with keeping Ajuka around.
"I prefer supergenius," Ajuka's grin stayed wide as he just nodded, "But you're correct. I'm disappointed that I couldn't hold my own in our battle, but I'm glad to be working with you now, Your Highness."
I just nodded at his words, turning my hard gaze to Azazel. He held up his hands in surrender instantly at just a look.
"We already made a deal, right?" He raised an eyebrow at , "I'll be honest, I was just playing both sides. I didn't think you'd really beat the devils, but now that you have, the deals still on, right?"
"Of course," I just grinned lightly at his words, "I'm a man of my word. But, since you didn't believe in keeping up my side of the offer, you'll be fine with accepting a contract, right?"
My deal with Azazel had been pretty simple - help make the artificial sacred gear to seal Ajuka, and when I take over the Underworld, he can lead the Grigori as a sub-faction in my kingdom.
The man obviously didn't think I'd really be able to take over the Underworld, but it was a perfect offer for him. If the devils defeated , then he'd say he helped because he was threatened, and he'd get off scotch free.
The devils and the Grigori were already semi-enemies, so it wasn't like they could see it as a betrayal or anything. He'd avoid my wrath, get so more research done on artificial sacred gears, and have no real downsides.
But, on the less likely chance that I won - less likely in his eyes anyway - then he guaranteed his faction's safety. Rather than being taken over and losing a huge portion of his race in a war, he had gotten in my good graces early.
"Yeah, yeah," Azazel sighed, looking like he had expected as much.
[Valon] [Beast King] has offered a [Master-Slave Contract!]
[Master: Valon]
[Slave: Azazel]
[Azazel] [Cadre-Class Fallen Angel] [Grigori Govenor General] has beco a [Subordinate]!
[Subordinate Tier]: [Slave]
And, in that instant, another quest was completed.
[Quest Complete!]
Conquer the Grigori!
Subdue or Kill [Azazel]
Subdue or Kill [Baraqiel]
Subdue or Kill [Shemhazai]
Subdue or Kill [Kokabiel]
Subdue or Kill [Benemue]
Rewards:
All [Territory] owned by the [Grigori]
All [Subordinate]'s owned by the [Grigori]
20,000 STR
20,000 END
20,000 AGI
20,000 INT
20,000 CHA
20,000 LUK
20,000 HREG
20,000 MREG
All unclaid [Fallen Angel] related skills!
All [Fallen Angel] related skills will be raised to level 25!
I blinked in slight surprise as the quest completion appeared. I technically only had Azazel and Benemue under my control now, so I hadn't expected to complete it until I t the other three fallen personally.
But, I guess since Azazel was head of the Grigori, and they all belonged to the Grigori, and thus were his subordinates, the quest decided that was enough. I had subdued them in an indirect way, as I ruled the man who gave them orders.
And, with those quests completed, it seed I only had one major quest left to go.
Hades was the last one blocking from officially ruling the entire Underworld, and he was about to be in for a rude awakening.
It wasn't just taking him on - but instead a legion of direwolves, succubi, dwarves, cyclops, devils, and fallen.
The God of the Dead was up against the might of the Dragon King Tiamat, the Superdevil Sirzechs, the Superdevil Ajuka, the Governor General Azazel, the Maous Serafall Leviathan and Falbium Asmodeus, the descendant of the Leviathan in Katerea, and many more.
And, of course, he was against the ruler of all of them. He was against the Beast King.
I never thought I would pity a god, but in this instance, I truly did.
Hades was about to be in for a rude awakening.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read the next 7 Chapters right now on Patreon/Koyon !
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