After completing his business at the Gremories, Masaru teleported straight home instead of taking the carriage he did pay the driver a tip while he was heading back to the Belial Family Territory without Masaru. Seeing the familiar house Masaru took a deep breath in and out, before saying to himself softly
"I'm back"
As he enters the house but he was soon met by an extremely fast shadow that gripped him in a bear hug swinging him in circles, it happened too fast for him to clearly see but it was only a moment later he noticed his aunt Cleria came to visit.
"You little rascal nephew of mine! You dare not visit your aunt for a year!" Cleria complained, pulling his ear while smiling at Masaru, their relationship was quite close that Masaru considered Cleria something akin to an elder sister instead of his aunt from the way she always treats him.
"Ouch! Big sis Cleria" Hearing this Cleria nodded feeling prouder, she reluctantly let go of his ear.
"Yes, you can call me elder sister it does sounds better... You--- You're trying to dodge the bullet huh?" Cleria realized that he was trying to make her feel proud while trying to stray away from her anger.
Masaru smiled wryly 'Damn, almost got her to forget the reason she was angry' He thought
a Bit further back he could see Masaomi and behind him were cute little hands holding his pants tightly while eyes were looking at him curiously, Cleria noticed Masaru's attention was on her little boy which made her feel happy.
"Oh right every time you visit my son, he was always away with his father huh?, Ishida comes say hello to Uncle Masaru" Cleria called out to her little child.
Masaru who heard this felt hapless that he gained a title of uncle despite being a 17-year-old kid, but he still lowered himself, Ishida felt a bit shy because he was surrounded by beautiful girls, however, seeing Masaru he calmed down a little before walking in front of Masaomi, he gazes into Masaru's eyes "M-My name is Ishida Yaegaki, pleased to meet you"
Masaru gently rubbed the boys head causing the boy to laugh a bit, Ishida liked head pats very much "And I'm Masaru Belial, I would prefer if you call me big brother instead of uncle"
Masaru picked up Ishida who asked him many questions especially about the monsters, Masaru was quite surprised at the intelligence of this boy.
"How about I train you as my deciple when you grow up?"
"REALLY!?" Ishida's eyes glittered with excitement while looking at Masaru expectantly, when Masaru nodded he began to cheer while laughing happily.
"He is going to be a good father huh?" Calfa muttered,
Hearing her mother-in-law's question Diana nodded "Can't wait for the grandchildren"
Shuri covered her lips feeling quite surprised at how beautiful it looked how Masaru was playing with Ishida, "I guess it really does appear he will be a good father"
Unfortunately this time it was an embarrassing time for the girls to hear these topics being spoken so openly, Dominic and Damian was out to handle a few things so only Diehauser was the only man other than Masaomi and Masaru. "Wonder when Masaru is going to get a little sister"
Calfa added causing Diehauser to choke on his drink wondering just how did he end up being involved in this all of the sudden, and Diana blushed, feeling quite embarrassed although mysteriously she did not object this.
Masaru naturally did not know of these topics as for some reason he felt peaceful and relaxing, "Big Brother Masaru, how many dragon kings are there in the world?" Ishida asked,
Masaru thought for a moment, "There are five Dragon Kings, it was originally six however the sixth one is Tannin, he became a devil in order to get a home for the dragons to live in. The other five dragon kings are Tiamat, now she is quite a fiery one but very very kind and playful, then we have Yu-Long the youngest of the Dragon King he is very lazy always saying he will stay at home but he still works."
One by one Masaru began to introduce the Dragon Kings along with some stories about them to Ishida, the strange thing was the fact when Masaru scanned the boy he found that Ishida was oddly very compatible with Dragons. 'To think my little nephew will have such an affinity with Dragons unlike Ingvild who is mostly influenced by her sacred gear and kind heart'
The family held a massive dinner party for everyone which was quite enjoyable, Masaru told Cleria and Masaomi about Ishida's affinity so the two of them will at least know should this little nephew of his get a dragon friend all of the sudden.
After the party, Masaru stretched his body opening the door seeing his bed had been upgraded and the girls were already laying there with his spot open in the middle, the light went off and to dreamland, they went!
>\/<
Boom!
Boom!
Masaru was dodging fist strikes coming at him, currently he was sparring against Sairaorg since his best friend called him over to talk about something he recently picked up. But what surprised Masaru the most was when he ate breakfast back at home in a hurry before coming to the Bael Territory where Sairaorg was waiting for him with a Massive Golden Lion.
Regulus Nemea, the surprise Masaru felt seeing his friend picking up a Longinus like it was cabbage from the side road made him almost question the workings of the Cosmic laws.
Which came to where they are currently fighting, Masaru was busy scanning how the Balance breaker works as it was the first time he personally witnessed the so called forbidden move of the sacred gears which is not suppose to be easily achieved.
And Sairaorg wanted to test his abilities while wearing the armour but because the Bael Family restricted him from revealing the Longinus Masaru was naturally the only choice.
Masaru was currently using his sacred gear to cope with the massive power up Sairaorg underwent, facing a balance breaker Sairaorg was seriously no joke as one of those punches are deadly.
[Boy, you do know you can enter Balance Breaker state. Just use the suppression you are feeling from him and psych up your fighting spirit, just imagine yourself breaking through a barrier]
"What's wrong Masaru you have been having a serious face throughout our spar?" Sairaorg spoke but he was not stopping his attacks at all, Masaru was holding off the attacks thanks to his speed and reflexive sensitivity.
"No, I have been scanning your condition to see how I can get myself into a similar state as you have...." Masaru answered feeling a bit excited.
Masaru changed his tactics in taking Sairaorgs hits head-on, it was manageable but the force behind Sairaorg's punches is really no joke, if Masaru never trained to control his body to it's utmost he would have already been a cripple.
Masaru could feel himself being pressured by Sairaorg but he could feel that pit, something deep within him was starting to stir. The strange thing was the spiritual connection he felt from Drago and his sacred gear began to twirl around one another before merging in a single line.
It was difficult to describe the sense of elation Masaru felt when the connection merged into one, the amount of energy he felt surging from his sacred gear was astonishingly causing his body to flash brightly.
[White Tiger Emperor Balance Breaker!]
Masaru could hear Drago's voice speaking through his sacred gear which greatly shocked him when the light dimmed what was revealed, was Masaru who had an entirely new look.
Wearing a white shirt, grey pants with a chain belt holding it firmly around his waist, armoured black leather boots. Open cloak Jacket with a Belial Crest pattern engraved pauldron attached on his left shoulders.
Deadheart was attached with Avalon acting as it's sheathed however the design and colour were different as Deadheart and Avalon turned into a Katana with a white flame marked sheath.
His left hand was wearing a full leather gauntlet till his elbow and his right hand was a similar gauntlet however it was fingerless, Masaru, however, gained another thing as well... His ears were gone and replaced by silver tiger ears.
"Well damn... There goes my advantage" Sairaorg spoke but there was no regret in his voice, in fact, he felt extremely happy for his best friend to have achieved something during their spar.
"But now you look like a cat" Sairaorg pointed at the ears.
Masaru, however, was still in a stupor as he had to get used to his enhanced eyesight and hearing sensitivity that increased by several folds.
He indicated to Sairaorg for a time out while he was taking deep breathes, similar to how he trained his senses when it got enhanced when he activated his Sacred Gear the first time now he had to restart.
Masaru could feel his ears had changed looking quite similar to Shirone's Neko-mode, He was hoping he did not get a tail but because he had to first focus on his sensitivity while maintaining the Balance Breaker state long enough to get used to it.
[Hehe, you surprised? Even I am you know... Never expected this little granddaughter of mine will include me and Avalon in her Balance Breaker]
'What is my current state?'
[Well other than the fact you can no longer call me or Avalon out without Balance Breaker, I can say your senses definitely boosted, your speed... The amount of metal you can manipulate with your sacred gear increased, Avalon's self-recovery has now been added to the sacred the gear along with its Barrier ability... As from me it gained my Dragon and Beast slaying attributes not to mention the overall boost in your physical abilities]
Masaru nodded, he was certain about the increase in his base specs leaned closer to speed compared to Sairaorg's that focused more on Attacking power.
[From the looks of it, you can easily maintain the current state for a month which is really a lucky occurrence because your soul is healed so there are no side effects from straining your body a bit like training]
Masaru finally somehow gotten used to controlling his senses as he opened his eyes looking at Sairaorg who was quite surprised, Masaru's eyes became catlike amber coloured.
Swoosh!
'Hmmm?'
Swoosh Swoosh!
Masaru was a bit perplex, he feels something moved but he was not sure if he really was thinking what it was, slowly he turned his head looking at his backside to see a lovely white tiger tail swinging happily till it went limp because he felt pitiful.
'Holy hell! Did I end up becoming a catman!?'
He screamed in his mind. Sairaorg who did not see the inner distress of his friend and instead felt excited, "How about we continue our spar?"
Masaru heard this nodded thinking it will be better if he took his mind off this problem, soon the fight resumed but Sairaorg was having much more problems dealing with Masaru's attacks.
Masaru's reflexive sensitivity allowed him to react fast enough to launch four fist strikes when it takes a trained man one strike, the downside was the power behind each strike was not up to par with his speed so Masaru considered training his physical body harder from now on since he no longer needs to hold back anymore.
When the two of them completed their game of Spar, they were sitting on the grass drinking water, "I've been meaning to ask this of you but how do you train?"
Hearing Sairaorg question Masaru smiled, "Because I couldn't train my body too much, I had to focus more or my Magical and Ki control using those ball and puppet toys, however, I did train to control my body by submerging my body within a deep lake while wearing an air mask to breathe underwater. The pressure of the water will allow you to feel every muscle that moves when you take an action, the more you train you will soon realize how to efficiently move which minimizes unnecessary movements"
Masaru chuckled before continuing, "But you can't only train in the water but wearing weight as you do is something I do as well, otherwise, while my body is already accustomed to heavy pressure and if I come out of the water I might smack someone dead by accident"
"Interesting, I never really thought of training in deep waters but it does make sense. The pressure of the water can kill an average person but the two of us who trained our bodies can take it" Sairaorg nods thinking he will go find a lake to go train in soon.
"So what are your plans for the next year?" Masaru asked while taking a sip of water,
"Well, train, study. We also have that Younger Generation Rating Game Sirzech told us about so don't expect me to hold back" Sairaorg said with a smile,
Masaru responded with a smirk, "If you hold back my friend, I will be very pissed and will tell your mother"
Sairaorg looked at Masaru feeling quite surprised his friend dared to threaten him with his own Mother but he simply laughed it off like it was really just like him.
"What about you?" Sairaorg asked,
Masaru felt a breeze blow, "I will start looking for my next peerage member, can't have the slots empty for too long since training coordination and teamwork takes a long time... Besides I heard you faced them as well, those Mixed Race Army"
Sairaorg nodded with a surprising dead serious expression, he remembered the occasions he fought against them "They are not strong individually but there is so many of them I sometimes wonder just where they all coming from"
Masaru simply yawned as he did not want to answer everything for his friend, he felt it would be good if Sairaorg investigates this on his own "Well at least they provide us, Dummies, to train teamwork with"
Sairaorg laughed at this crazy friend of his who simply enjoys making each piece useful even if it is an enemy.
>\/<
Later that day Masaru went over to camp out the day near the lake to start officially his training, first he went only deep enough to put enough pressure of his body and started a routine punch, palm strike, kick and other movements feeling his entire body muscle moving against the current of the water.
Boom!
BOOM!
From outside people would hear an occasional explosion with water spraying into the skies, luckily they were already notified that their young master Masaru was training there today so the Farmers were not surprised but some even began to gamble on how high the water can spray by the end of the day.
Despite feeling exhausted, his sweat was washed off while he was training underwater he also ensured to keep his body temperature stabilized so he would not easily catch a cold.
However, he felt excited, his soul has healed, he could train like he really wanted to without any worries without restriction seals.
Being excited gave him a short burst of extra energy to punch and kick out before he went out of the lake to BBQ some fish he slapped out of the lake during training.
Stretching his body he smiles looking at a distant location, he could more or less make out the shadow of a cat before it disappeared. 'Time to train some more'
13/08/2020 - changes made