Chapitre 50: Ch. 50 Gathering Divinities
(So, before I start I guess so many people complained that I have to address this. I'll try to go through the major things and I am already dreading the comments from this:
Moka.
I know I built her up and yes she is a great waifu, but shit changes and I am sorry if many feel ripped-off.
Lith is someone who deeply cares for concepts of family, even the Harem thing was something Serafall had to push for. I just can't see him properly getting over his familial feelings towards a girl he essentially raised as his daughter/niece.
Moka's feelings toward him have always been one sided and Lith never made any kind of moves to grow past that, even with the support his lovers had for Moka. So trying to force himself into a relationship he was not comfortable with is definitely not the answer.
I get that it can be unsatisfactory that I did say Moka was going to be in the harem and now she isn't, but in the end I just couldn't do it and it never felt right after I made Lith her Daddy.
This also isn't freaking waifu Pokémon. I usually introduce characters not just for Lith to bang them, but because I try to have them fit certain roles. In this case, Moka was adapted to work as Lith's Rook and anything else developed from there. Just being so close to reaching double digits in harem members feels too much for me.
And any sane person who had been failing at obtaining the affection of someone for years on end, would eventually move on. It wasn't instant, but I had to go through over a century of stuff to reach more important bits for Lith or else I'm never reaching Canon. I've almost reached 300'000 words and I'm at Chapter 50 and still have to power through another 200 years to get to canon, so some things will be rushed.
I'll say this to all you overreacting readers, you cannot have NTR if the male and female in question had no lover-like relationship. A woman moving on with her life to another man is not cheating. A person's crush finding love is not betrayal.
It was ridiculous watching people give 1 star reviews saying Kal NTR'd his dad and that my decision to not give my MC a woman or do oyokodon, which might interesting in r-18 stuff but is mighty weird for me in any other setting, is a deal breaker and that they can't read anymore. And just to reassure everyone, no one who Lith himself has actually displayed desires to get with AND his harem approved of will be 'taken' by Kal. Tiamat, Ereshkigal and Gabriel are all still going for Lith.
The only reason Moka and Milim were even possible is that they were 'of similar ages', Kal grew up with them as the two closest to his mental age, and once he matured and grew strong enough, which he is getting close to Super Devil after over 100 years under his parents and their peerages alongside his potential and blessings, they grew closer and saw him as a man.
It was honestly a bit depressing to see so many people hate on something so minor. I'm already having trouble managing all the characters and their interactions so they don't feel hollow and rushed as I have to go through so much time and material. So just adding more members is making things difficult. Because of this there won't be any kind of big focus of Serafall's or any of Lith's children's peerages due to it just becoming a clusterfuck if I do. At most they'll be a mention and a bit of history for joining, with some appearances from time to time because this is about Lith.
Anyway, this bit is done, here's the chapter.)
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Of course over the years many things happened across the world, with my assets in the human world also progressing.
Unknown to Japan's Principal Clans and even the ruling powers themselves, Tōtsuki graduates essentially enslaved their stomachs to its extreme standards as more and more elite chefs and cooks are forged in through its crucible. If necessary these Alumni would simply leave these 'powerful' men and their families akin to something like drug addicts going through withdrawal symptoms if they were forced to return to 'regular' food.
It was almost baffling how easy it was to get our graduates into important families once they heard of the 'food of the gods' prepared by them. It was becoming a symbol of power, wealth and influence to even have one of them. We had a network of eyes and ears across the entirety of Japan, gathering wealth and prestige for the Academy, which it in turn uses it to gain more as food culture improves as well.
I could likely subtly control the entirety of the mundane side of Japan through their stomachs if needed. The various lords were already improving their agriculture, trade, maritime activities and economies as the search for new flavors grew larger.
The Kure Clan was seeing quite the leap in power as I directed Yasaka to becoming their biggest contractors and supporters in the Supernatural world. This helped the Youkai have willing human agents, who only needed a small bit of concealment for their eyes as opposed to the precautions needed for Youkai.
Aside from this, they've been proving to be growing well after only a few generations, growing more powerful as they assimilate not only strong humans, but also Youkai bloodlines into the mix.
Kal even recruited one Kure Karura, the daughter of the current patriarch as well as a monstrous prodigy even by Kure standards and holder of a Sacred Gear named The Eight Inner Gates. It is a very powerful double edge Sacred Gear which puts enormous strain on the body using the concept of the Inner Gates of Chakra to essentially supercharge the body. This Sacred Gear was almost made for the Kure clan as their bodies are already adapted to go far beyond human limits.
Karura became Kal's Rook and she's been trying to get his seed every since.
Outside of Japan, the Perseus family saw great success as they became rather famous for their horse ranches. Even receiving some special ones from Apollon, Poseidon, Artemis, and a few others. They even somehow came into a partner ship with the Centaurs, who are quite helpful for handling horses and to understand them better.
There were some weird agreements about the centaurs being allowed to well… breed with some of the supernatural or partially divine horse to give birth to powerful Centaurs as well.
I mean, weird to me, but a female centaur's ass looks the same as a horse's, so I'm guessing it still does it for them.
It did work considering there's been some rather unique ones being born. They've even somehow got Sigil involved in this after he created his own herd. My familiar has been enjoying his life as top horse with his own harem of unicorns. He let willing males and females work things out and made a few unicorn centaurs, who turns out are incredibly treasured healers amongst centaurs.
Weirdest way to gain new allies and connections I tell you.
But the most important and impressive was the Einzbern family.
To explain why we have to go back a bit.
So, due to the spreading of Christianity to the new world and the lack of true supports and beliefs, two pantheons officially fell during the last two centuries: The Romans and Aztec/Mayans.
The Mayans were done in as a result of the genocide committed against their worshippers by the Europeans and the abolition of their worship. This was a massive blow to the pantheon as they collapsed incredibly quickly.
The only true survivor of the event was Quetzalcoatl, who had effectively already been estranged from the pantheon after leaving due to losing a battle and bet against her rival: Tezcatlipoca.
She and her faithful dragon companion Lucoa, were actually found by Mana while she was doing work helping native tribes and groups. Quetzalcoatl was also doing the same, until they felt each other's powers and the situation almost escalated.
That was when Mana called me to handle things.
Quetzalcoatl was, and still is, a rather powerful goddess with divinities related to the sun, wind/air, learning and has a connection similar to those aligned with Venus.
She was tall and had the body of a beautiful and strong warrior, long wavy blonde hair, proud and Noble features, lively green eyes, tanned skin and was dressed in exquisite Mayan garbs. She also wielded a Macuahuitl, a large paddle-like weapon embedded with sharpened obsidian as its edges. (Fate, no chin Crystal)
Her partner Lucoa, was apparently the 'winged-serpent' many had somehow blended the two together. Fitting for her description of 'winged-serpent', Lucoa had an impressively long serpentine body of the same type as an eastern dragon, with pale green scales, two curved yellow horns on her head, a mane of golden hair and two pairs of large feathered wings with one larger pair closer to her head and a smaller one near her tail. (Dragon Maid, human form later)
Lucoa was quite powerful as a dragon, only falling short a bit of becoming a Great Dragon King in fact, with the title 'Encompassing Sky Dragon' due to both her impressive length and abilities.
Luckily for everyone involved and the entirety of the South American Continent, we did not come to blows once I appealed to her desire to protect her people and the fact that Mana had actually been helping the indigenous people in the Americas for a long time now. She was a goddess heavily in favor of 'good', desiring prosperity and progress for those in her care, so once she did cool her head, she did realize the truth of these words.
Her reaction towards us had been fueled by the intense sadness she felt over the state of her people and the incredibly poignant loss of her pantheon as she struggled to maintain the fading remains of what was once a great empire.
In the end I invited Eresh and Tiamat to help me make a 'devil's deal' to the lost goddess: Join my future pantheon and come under my leadership in exchange for not only saving the history, culture and people of these lands, but also the chance at the rebirth of some of her pantheon members if we could gather their divine spirits before they completely fade away.
Long story short, that's how Azeroth got some Meso-American pyramids, a third dragon and its sixth goddess.
And as promised we did manage to gather many divine spirits of her fallen Pantheon. My ability to search the Dimensional Gap and our liberal access to the Land of Shadows permitted us quite the haul.
We even managed to give Quetzalcoatl's twin brother, Xolotl, a position as a death god under Ereshkigal. His divinities were an incredible fit for a Hollow body, which evolved to its peak once his spirit was merged with one. Quetzalcoatl became incredibly grateful and hugged many people in exuberant thanks as she cried tears of happiness over her brother's return, as well as hope for her fellow gods.
The rest would actually join the divine spirits of the Roman Pantheon we had managed to obtain in our grand experiment ongoing with the Einzbern family, to see if it's possible to create Demi-gods, a reincarnation of a god or help a god be reborn using the great advancements we had made in homunculus techniques to form the bodies.
This was actually the way we planned to try and fulfill my promise to attempt the rebirth of at least some of the Aztec/Mayan pantheon.
But this was also a prime opportunity to study more about divinities, which made Da Vinci and I focus heavily on this project.
We quickly discovered that the current homunculi did not have a durable enough 'container' to hold even the very weakened divine spirits. My own thoughts on the subject were to take a bit of inspiration from the Kure clan and the future Sigurd Institute, by using the DNA of heroes and legends of the past to strengthen the homunculi and test to see if various 'lineages' had better chances at synchronizing with certain divine spirits. This would also allow us to take the Homunculi a step further by giving them the 'best' of 'humanity' on top of their own advanced specs.
As this was going to be a rather long project and I wanted to speed things up, I decided to cheat a bit and use my [Time]. Now instead of having to hunt down hidden/lost burial sites, desecrate graves/tombs or try to find living blood relatives of heroes and the likes, I would be using a tiny bit of time travel.
Of course I wasn't going to do easily noticeable things like fully time travel and steal some blood while trying to mask my presence from all the powerful beings in the world and that time period. I was going to be much more efficient for a simple reason: Every hero has bled. So instead of going anywhere, I would just look into the past until certain individuals were injured at any point in their lives and bring the blood to me.
I even did this with some spit and hairs to be thorough. No need to time hop about when you have powers in [Space/Time]. And this way one leaves minimal traces and limits the chances of people even noticing anything.
This kind of thing is why It's standard procedure for every soldier, official and house member to drink, even if unknowingly, a special concoction which 'seals' any uses others might have for DNA unless willingly given. A bit paranoid, but Magic is a fickle thing which can be used to do many things.
But anyway, the Einzberns were understandably thrilled at this development, heavily studying DNA markers, magical signatures, possible divine lineages and everything that made the source different than other humans. As geneticists, they were already centuries ahead of anything thanks to our assistance, making things go quickly.
Even then, it took over 20 years to obtain three very positive results from the studies we performed.
The first would be that if converted and 'freed' from the 'ego' of the fallen god, the divine spirit can theoretically be taken in by another god sharing at least some of the same divinities to increase the receiving god's connection to them. There might also be chances to awaken new divinities, even if minor ones. This was also a required step to create our own 'Demi-gods' as well.
What needs to be said regarding this is that from my studies, this is only possible because of me. Without my strong innate talents and understanding, deep understanding of souls and matters relating to it thanks to centuries of studying, practical experience in analyzing the sacred gears and powerful artifacts, the data from observing the souls of the myriad races, the creatures, peerage members, gods and goddesses in my lands, the souls in Remnant and the Land of shadows, data from God's systems, and the creation of my own Soul based race, I wouldn't be able to truly know where to start to separate the ego of a god from its divine spirit/core/divinities. And on top of that, one would need an extremely powerful tool to separate said ego, which requires something with the correct properties and power, something of Longinus class like my Alphecca Tyrant's [Sealing/Freeing] concepts.
I can't imagine anyone else having both. Many gods of death, afterlife or souls, maybe even magic, have abilities to understand souls intimately, but they would only create twisted monsters and living disasters if hey tried messing with divine spirits. Hell, maybe even Azazel could find theoretical ways, but without the proper tool he would hit a roadblock.
And this was just the true first step necessary to complete our goals due to the fallen god's ego corrupting any body we tried to give it and the unrestrained power it possessed. Xolotl was incredibly lucky to fit with Hollows so well that his divine spirit adapted its new body to its needs easily.
Now, one could do a few things with a 'blank' divine spirit. As previously mentioned it could be used by another god to strengthen their current divinities or be placed in a compatible body to form a 'Demi-god' with high chances of fully developing into a true god later on. But another possibility is for sufficiently powerful individuals to develop their own divinities using the 'blanks' as a 'Kickstarter'.
These possibilities opened up many new doors for me and my close ones. Possibilities I discussed with the World Spirit, with the two of us forming a plan which would significantly help the formation of our Pantheon and reduce her burden. This plan was to bring my girls, peerage, and the goddesses under my leadership, to Mars in order for the World Spirit to gift them a divine 'spark' linked to Mars, which they would nourish with their own energies and souls in order for it to gradually 'evolve' them into true goddesses representing who they are. And only once their own divine spirits start properly forming will they use the 'blanks' to hasten their developments. The ones who are currently goddesses will have to essentially 'convert' themselves into Martian Goddesses first.
This process would be facilitated for my peerage members by using myself and my connection to the evil pieces as mediums, hastening the process immensely.
Now I did say I would help bring back some of the Mayan/Aztec Pantheon to Quetzalcoatl, but I would not prioritize them over having my people, who I know and trust above all others, gain more power in this world and securing their safety even further. This is why many of the current divine spirits in stock were being 'reserved' for the right time, leaving the rest for the experiments.
But said experiments were not as successful as we had hoped.
Even after thousands of tests and trials, we only managed to have two homunculi make it through the joining of the divine spirits into themselves.
-Flashback, Einzbern Top-Secret Facility
"From what we've gathered, it would seem that our lack of heroic lines from the Americas might be the biggest denominator regarding our constant failures in forming fitting bodies for the divine spirits my lord." Justeaze Einzbern reported as the head of this project.
We had been trying to analyze possible explanation for our failures in adapting Aztec divine spirits to new bodies for some time, especially after we finally managed two stabilized 'Demi-gods' using the Roman ones.
As it stands we currently succeeded in merging the spirits or Mars and Neptune into new bodies, while the rest had been met with failure or were 'reserved'.
Our most dominant theories would be the many 'inhuman' or animal traits many of the Meso-American gods possessed and that we just hadn't found the right matches in terms of bloodline.
Both were reasonably probable due to the only successfully 'reborn' god was Xolotl inside a Hollow body, but the other divine spirits rejected those forms.
But the bloodline problem was a difficult one, especially due to our success on subject 'Mars'. She did have a bloodline considered 'heroic' in some ways, while also having traces of divinity, but it clashed against the theories we had thanks subject 'Neptune'. This is because 'Neptune' had been a carefully calculated risk using blood from Roman heroes alongside Greek ones with direct relations to Poseidon/Neptune, while 'Mars' somehow became illegible using the blood of an Asian line but had significant ties to war.
This indicated that not only blood ties would be needed, but that maybe the spiritual links of the source to the main divinities of the divine spirits were also a factor.
"I will discuss this with Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl. I am not an expert and gazing through the entirety of their histories and lands would simply be far too annoying." I replied to the first true homunculus as we begin to walk towards the facilities housing 'Mars' and 'Neptune'. "What of their status?"
"Their development has been stable, if marginally different from standard homunculi. Both have significantly stronger bodies, spirits and magic, but it would seem becoming 'Neo Demi-gods' has reduced the ingrained calculative abilities and adaptability in favor of extreme specialization." Justeaze calmly answered as she looked through the data faster than any human.
"So their divinities are customizing their bodies for peak performance in their fields." I stated as we walked through the hallways of this place only thought possible in sci-Fi movies in my past life.
'Shining white corridors, sleek metal walls and magical lights, truly futuristic. Especially when we are the 19th century.' I thought as appreciated the most advanced facilities I had on Earth itself.
This place was even concealed from the eyes of gods, with even protections in place to stop Great Red from seeing things through dreams. But I doubt it would really care considering Ciri and I constantly go through the Dimensional Gap and has never done anything.
"That is what the data suggests." The albino beauty replied. "'Neptune' has seen an incredible link to water and when he brainwaves fluctuate there have been consistent instances of heavy weather activities nearby, suggesting maybe an affinity to storms. The divine spirit also seems to be nourishing her body far beyond any recorded specs for a Homunculus, with some estimates placing her somewhere around draconic levels of strengths and durability."
As she spoke we now stood in front of 'Neptune' herself.
This room was where both successful subjects were being carefully monitored by the best using the best.
It was a large room filled with blue holographic monitors, scanning equipment and life support systems, all connected to two clear vats filled with fluids meant to support the immense energy consumption, nutritionally and magically, the two subjects were undergoing during their growths and adaptations.
On the left was 'Neptune'.
Subject 'Neptune' grew to be a woman perfectly balanced between female beauty and fierce warrior, with eye catching legs secretly filled with enormous power, pert posterior which would draw men in but also allow her to charge through near anything, powerful muscles hidden beneath smooth skin, large breasts, all topped off by a serious beauty's face and the long white hair the majority of first generation homunculi.
Beside her was project 'Mars'.
"As for 'Mars', it would seem that physical growth has been halted in favor of 'refining' the body to its utmost capabilities, but no negative impacts have been recorded. We were rather surprised by the 'blank's' 'choices' in this matter." Justeaze explained quickly.
Ironically, unlike 'Neptune, 'Mars' did not have a body one would say belonged to warrior at first glance. She was almost skinny, with a smaller stature, lithe body, smaller breasts and ass, and a cold beauty's face. But when one looked deeper, like I did when I compared her data to my own, Musashi's, Scáthach's and other available warriors, one can discover that 'Mars' possesses a body designed for war. Hidden explosive power under fragile facade, built to evade blows but still being capable of tanking powerful attacks even if on a lower scale than 'Neptune', extremely efficient use of every last bit of nutrition she intakes, synaptic response are through the roof, and her 'milage' is likely beyond anything I've ever seen. 'Mars' could last days, if not weeks in full combat situation while keeping herself that optimal levels.
But there is more than just their specs which differentiates them from other homunculi and a reason why many have begun referring the two as 'sisters' beyond them being the only successful 'Neo Demi-gods'.
Both 'Neptune' and 'Mars' had the classic homunculi white hair, but their skins had deep natural tans and most strikingly, there were mystical tattoos on their bodies which no one had given them, strengthening their bodies and being part of the process which changed them.
'Mars' had two white ones starting at her collarbone, down her front and linking just under her bellybutton, which all homunculi have due to fetal feeding being done through an artificial umbilical cord, then separating again to go down her inner legs.
'Neptune' had red ones, in more of a tribal motif, placed in various areas such as her left bicep, side and thigh, above and below her breast, and above her pubic area.
(Caenis and Altera from Fate)
Unlike all those present and the equipment available, I was capable of seeing things much deeper thanks to my Devil magic piggybacking off my knowledge. And while I was giving them a once over, I noticed something which made me excited.
"Bring them to the testing ground." I ordered immediately, stunning Justieze and the other researchers in the room until their brains caught onto the implications and they excitedly began fulfilling said order.
"They are about to awaken? Both of them at once?" Asked Justeaze as we began moving towards said testing grounds.
"Indeed. How fascinating life can be sometimes, that both chose to awaken now." I replied with an excited smile.
"Um my lord? Why are you going to the entrance instead of the observation chamber?" The woman asked hesitantly.
"To test them of course." I answered as my lab coat and work attire changed to a purple tank top, with black Chinese martial practitioner pants and light sneakers, leaving behind a stunned Justeaze until she simply sighed and went to the observation chamber.
I knew the power levels and all the specs of both subjects, and now was time to see how they behave and their combat prowess. Numbers can only say so much after all.
So I waited in the testing ground, which was a room built to take on powerful battles and simulate various terrains using a plethora of magic. It also served to restrain more dangerous or wild homunculi if needed.
It took about 15 minutes before both subjects were on the ground and wearing spats and sports bras to cover themselves. Another 10 for them to begin stirring and slowly get up.
'Clear disorientation, overloaded senses, some awkwardness in body control, all perfectly in line with normal homunculi awakening.' I thought as I kept a close eye on them.
"Hello." I simply said to the pair, causing them to instantly focus on me, then each other, all wearily as their instincts seemed rather active.
The two were quickly getting used to their bodies as they distanced themselves from each other in relative silence.
Well 'Neptune' was growling slightly.
I avoided calling them any sort of names until they could pick one themselves once they were more 'aware'. A name is very important and personal after all.
"My name is Lith Azaroth. And I, alongside many others, am the one responsible for your births." I calmly said as I slowly approached the two.
'Neptune' had a very animalistic reaction as she bared her teeth while growling, but also retreated slightly while tending her body. 'Mars' remained still as she coldly observed our every movement.
"Do you not wish to talk? I believe you should have received a suitable education while in you vats." I continued as I stoped walking at a suitable distance.
"Grrr! What do you want?" 'Neptune' growled.
"To see if my efforts were worth it." I answered evenly as I looked at them.
"… Dangerous." 'Mars simply said as she focused completely on me.
"Indeed I am. But do you not wish to test yourself against a foe you cannot defeat? Do you feel your souls fighting your instincts to clash against me? Or will you run in the face of my challenge?" I told them with a grin. "This is the first decision of your lives, so show me who you are at your core."
'Mars' kept quiet as her emotionless face stayed the same, but I could see the impact of my words on her stirring soul.
'Neptune' on the other hand decided to act.
"Bring it! I am not coward!" She proudly declared as she burst forward with great strength, but little skill.
She wildly swung her fist at my face, only for me to redirect the flow of her strength and send her flying into the ceiling with a single hand.
"You should have received some form of combat instructions. But you charge like a beast." I simply said as 'Neptune' fell, but before she could land I sent a kick to her stomach, causing her gasp in pain and rocket into a wall.
Trying to catch me by surprise however was 'Mars' using 'Neptune's' body as a cover to approach and take the 'opening' brought forth by someone attacking.
The smaller girl sent out a spear hand coated in a reddish energy towards my supporting leg, indicating this girl already had some grasp on her divinities, while showing keen instincts of limiting a superior opponents mobility.
It was just too bad I used said leg to jump above her strike and landed on her outstretched hand.
"Good try. Nice job using your head and impressive that you can already use that energy." I complemented genuinely with a smile.
"How?" She simply asked with innocent confusion and desire to know why she failed, with no dejection.
"I could feel you coming. Eyes are easily fooled so one needs to train all their senses. So knowing you were coming, I kept my center of gravity and didn't overly commit to my kick, allowing me to simply jump." I answered with a light smile as she just absorbed my words while keeping me on her arm.
'What a polite and innocent girl. Even if she can mercilessly go for the kill.' I thought with approval.
"Again." 'Mars' said as I came down from her arm and she distanced herself a bit, planing her next move.
And due to everything being so new, I let her indulge in this learning experience.
"Ghraaa! You bastard! Take this!" Shouted 'Neptune' as she jumped over from behind 'Mars', her whole body coated in a wild blue aura indicating she either figured it out instinctively or just copied 'Mars' on a larger scale.
With a sigh, I let her approach with her overhead slamming motion, until she swung her fists down at me and I just slightly move out of her range and slapped her arms hard enough to make her spin in the air until she slammed into the floor face first.
*long and painful groan*
Not caring for her 'comrade', 'Mars' took her shot by rushing with a flurry of blows I could only describe as efficient and ruthless, coating only the parts she was striking with her divine energy, but unfortunately her efficient approach was also too simple and straightforward, so I simply blocked all her spear hands, chops, kicks and strikes.
It was kind of adorable when instead of becoming reckless, she broke away and pouted at her own hands.
"How?" She again asked as she looked unsatisfied that her flurry didn't work even though her face was mostly expressionless.
"Too obvious. You channeling energy like that warned me how you would strike and always choosing the most efficient path doubled the predictability for someone experienced like me. You have to mix in fakes, vary your attacks more, do something to give yourself an opportunity instead of waiting for one." I answered her patiently.
That sent her into another round of thoughts as she began to internalize my words immediately.
The berserker on the other hand finally got out of the dent she made with her face, sporting quite the nosebleed.
"Face me! Stop running from my strength you coward!" She shouted as I couldn't understand why 'Neptune' was rampaging around when 'Mars' is the one with an ex-war divine spirit inside her.
"Looks like a lesson needs to be taught to the naughty student." I coldly declared as I just let her punch my gut with all her strength.
"Ha! Got you!" She happily yelled until her satisfied smile drop as she looked up from where her fist hit me to see my unimpressed face.
"Strength means nothing if you don't know how to use it." I coldly told her as her eyes widened and I noticed her body instinctively feeling the impending blow as my fist lay gently on her solar plexus.
'Zero point impact.' I thought as power coursed from the ground and up my body before it rippled through 'Neptune's' body and a great burst of air flow out from her back, but left her right where she was.
She couldn't even make any sort of pained sound because she couldn't breath at the moment, then collapsed as if her strings were cut.
But it would seem my little display woke something up within 'Mars' as her power erupted out of her.
"Dangerous." She simply said as she held out her hand and 'grasped' for something.
Much to my surprise, the girl summoned an actual divine weapon. A sword with a multicolored blade, unique four pronged blade and hand guard, with an odd pommel.
"Well I'll be damned. She managed to pull out the Sword of Mars." I muttered with an excited grin.
'These two are quite fascinating for essentially being newborns.' Enkidu commented with mild interest from within me.
'Indeed. But they need guidance to reach their full potentials.' I replied.
'Just like all beings do. You brought them into this world as unique entities, hence it is your duty.' My partner seriously said as we observed 'Mars' strengthening herself.
Not waiting once ready, the girl swiftly approached with an upward slashing motion, but suddenly stopped, letting the blade extend like a razor sharp whip.
'Already applying fakes.' I thought as I dodged the slash, only to see her flipping in the air and sending out an even quicker slash downward this time.
I decided to see how much she could do as I constantly dodged her slashes and thrusts, until I decided to help her out a bit more.
"Don't simply swing the sword. Carefully guide your opponent where you want them. Simply trying to kill or maim with every strike limits your options and leaves the opponent room to predict your targets." I instructed her. "Don't just attack from the front, move, find favorable positions, try to force me off balance.
Like this."
I say as I mildly shift the trajectory of her thrust, step closer and send out a spear hand she hastily tries to counter with a swing of her extended blade, but I simply shift my target and grasp her sports bras, flow to her side and break the balance of the girl, making her fall to the ground and position my fist in front of her face as her eyes widened in surprise at my 'gentle' way of taking her down.
"How?" The confused girl as she already knows I will explain.
"I did what I told you. You thrusted so I shifted your balance, then sent a 'fake' attack which I was prepared to change depending on your hasty response from an unfavorable position, used your completely broken stance to place you where I wanted you to finish the fight." I answered patiently as she worked out what just happened in her little head.
"Again." She said with visible determination in her eyes.
"Sure." I gently replied as we began what was just becoming a lesson at this point.
It was fascinating to see such a 'pure' warrior just absorbing every lesson and advice, then incorporating it so quickly. She was relentless, determined to improve and was showing great instincts on how to incorporate her divinity into herself. She might be a bit expressionless, but the way she acted told me she was basically a child being taught something she loved.
Something to remember was that even thought I was beating them both easily, this was from my point of view as a super Devil in not just energy but also body and skill for both martial and magical styles. If it was a regular Ultimate-class then they might have gotten steamrolled by these two.
Their innate strength might also explain why they apparently hadn't learnt much from the astral education. The current system takes the strength of the target into the astral self, so the weaker but more skilled programmed instructors, could have just gotten overpowered before they could teach anything.
It took over an hour of 'extremely intense combat' for 'Mars' to drop from exhaustion. The only reason for this was that she was running full throttle and then going over he limit the entire time as I carefully upped the difficulty over and over again as she adapted. All this while using her divine energy rather generously as well. It was very good for her first spar with me.
I quite liked the girl. Although a bit cold, she was passionate under her expressionless face and innocent to no end. Made me want to teach her. So i laid her down and place her head on my lap as she rested her body but kept asking me questions about our 'fight' then contemplating before asking something new.
But eventually, like all others before her, she fell to the ultimate technique: True Head Pat. Falling asleep after some time.
'She reminds me of myself when the gods first created me.' Enkidu commented gently.
'I can see the similarities.' I responded in understanding.
'Do not betray the innocence inside of them.' He then seriously said.
'I know. My decisions brought them into this world and I will be responsible to teach them about it.' I replied, knowing of their weight one should bear when forging life.
Enkidu grew quiet as I felt his pleasure over my sense of duty regarding the two beings I was responsible for creating, so we simply waited in silence for now.
The reason I stayed in the room with 'Mars' instead of finding a proper bed, was to see 'Neptune's' reaction after my little show of power.
It took another half-hour before her divinity had finished rearranging her shaken organs and for her to begin to stand up again.
So I carefully got up, left a pillow for 'Mars' and formed a protective barrier so she wouldn't be disturbed.
"Learn anything yet?" I asked the much calmer 'Neptune' as she eyed me with extreme caution.
"Hmph!" Was the simple retort as she did a rather similar grasping motion as 'Mars' had done before a very large golden trident appeared in her hand and golden shield with a trident decorating it showed up on the other.
'And now Neptune's Trident.' I thought briefly as two divine weapons appeared in a day.
She then shifted into a thrusting position using the shield's design to protect her body and see her target while steadying her trident.
"Finally you stop acting like a rampaging berserker." I said at the sight and calmly approached.
As soon as I was in range she thrusted her trident, but her intentions were a bit obvious so I simply side stepped. This made her step back and try again as we began a rapid game of 'try to stab me'. But she got frustrated and gathered her energy before combining it with her thrust to creat a blast of sea water acting like a hammer.
I evaded by sliding under her attack while the water concealed my movements and stood up to make it look like I hadn't moved.
"This isn't working very well for you. I don't want to see you rampage around, but try using that trident to attack more proactively. You have the right idea by mixing the blast there into your attacks too." I said to her as she just looked at me a bit blankly before shaking her head and thrusting again.
This time I stepped back to force her to come after me.
She hesitated of course, due to having some measure of fear from my blow earlier, but soon began to push forward.
'Like I thought, her strength allows her to wield that large war trident one handed while her durability allows her to properly defend even if using only one arm as well.' I analyzed as 'Neptune's' strikes and attacks began to have a proper flow even if they were more brute strength than technique.
She started using the bladed edges of the outer prongs to add slashing attacks, mixed twisting thrusts to widen the striking area, then further added some proper water attacks to mess with dodging estimates.
Unlike 'Mars' though, 'Neptune' was working more on instinct and feel to pick up the best ways to use her weapon and powers. She did listen to my words from time to time, but often decided to just power through until she had an epiphany of some sort to push herself further.
She is the type of fighter who works better by seeing and doing, plain and simple. So in a battle she can experience rapid growth, but will suffer without someone there to push her or if she doesn't have any sort of inspiration.
The complete opposite of 'Mars'.
'She would probably get a kick out of fighting against Diana though.' I thought as i dodged another blow, stepped in quickly, pulled on the shaft of the trident with far greater strength than 'Neptune' could muster and then pinned her on the ground as my knees forced her biceps down and my fingers rested above her throat.
"That was much better. I look forward to your future improvements." I told her as she was still trying to catch up to what had just happened.
I then stood up, gently lifted the sleeping 'Mars' and then made my way out of the testing grounds.
We had enough data on their current styles, growth types and best methods to help them grow already.
-End Flashback.
After the first meeting and spar, I regularly returned to spend time with them and guide them further along. I also brought Sera and our peerages to meet and spar/educate them.
Diana really hit it off with 'Neptune' who had later taken the name Caenis, while Sera essentially tamed her before making her her second Rook using her mutated piece.
I didn't have a problem with it, but it was interesting for Perseus to think he essentially got a new half-sister/cousin depending on how you want to look at it. He did serve as a good example for water/sea manipulation too.
Meanwhile 'Mars' took to following me around like a little duckling when I was around. She did like learning from Scáthach as she was the best instructor amongst us, but ultimately followed me everywhere.
It's not like it bothered me since I was fond of the cute, rapidly growing war Demi-god. I eventually had her choose a proper name and it was eventually chosen to be Altera.
And since I liked her, none of my other members had any issues with her and she followed me around anyway, I offered her a place in my peerage.
Just like that I gained a new pawn well on her way to becoming a genuine goddess of war later on.
_______________________________________
EXTRA AUTHOR NOTES:
This bit was surprisingly longer than I thought. I was actually planing on having another event in here, but then the chapter passed 7000 words and I thought it was better to just divide it.
Now as you've seen, Lith is doing some rather crazy shit using the opportunities he gains.
Right now he's focusing on further developing the strength of his people so they can grow stronger faster. Becoming full blown gods/goddesses isn't an instant process and becoming a powerful one certainly isn't either.
So now Lith has a healthy amount of options available to strengthen his own peerage. And yes only his peerage due to various issues which would arise if Serfall's peerage started having gods in it.
And so with this I introduce Caenis and Altera to DxD verse.
Dunno why but I just chose them when I was going through my options, plus they shared a lot similarities apparence wise, giving me the opportunity to basically make it a trait of 'Neo Demi-gods' to have white hair, darker skin and markings.
Caenis joins Sera's peerage as her second rook because she can handle her better and her group is pretty much centered around water and ice anyway and her body basically makes her a perfect rook.
Altera joins Lith because they just kind of clicked. And I just like her.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed.
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Alexander_the_grey
Alexander_the_grey Next chapter will be about Azeroth becoming a neutral zone in the Underworld.
Gonna have some fun with Azazel because I got some fun inspiration regarding him. Odin will show up too and likely some negotiations with Heaven.
I’ll see how things go from there.
Then after that should be another timeskip until Lith recruits his next Peerage member.
Enjoy.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone