章 370: Knight of Asora

As everyone settled within the guild Mirajane and Anne quickly set about trying to get some food and drink to everyone, while a few other people even went to help them. As could be expected everyone was so hungry that they dug in the second that the food was set before them, however they still kept one ear open to listen in on what Alex was going to say. It was only after Mirajane finally rejoined Alex, as she was a big part of the reason for this discussion, that Markarov finally said,

"Ok then, now that everyone is sated for the moment why don't you begin with why the enemy general seemed to know you, and hates you so much." When he heard that Alex issued a brief condescending laugh, before saying,

"Of course the first thing you'd ask about is one of the only things I can't answer with any certainty." Markarov frowned at that, and asked testily,

"Can't, or won't?" This time Alex looked at him with complete seriousness and said,

"Can't. I never met him before, so I can only guess why he hates me based on a few context clues, this for instance." As he said that Alex summoned the Boosted Gear on his left arm, making everyone jump as they recognized it from the very same armor they saw earlier.

Alex then went on to explain who he was and the world's he had been to, as well as the fact that the Dark Emperor and his four generals had similar backgrounds. The entire time Markarov and the others listened silently and attentively, none of them being too surprised about other worlds due to having already heard about the trip Natsu and others made to the world called Edolas. Instead several more of his questions were answered as Alex spoke, until he finally said,

"As for that particular general's hatred for me, I can only speculate that he wanted to go to the world I started in to live his dream life, but I ruined that by getting there first. Even if that is the case though, I don't understand the intense hatred he seems to hold towards me instead of simple dislike or aggression."

Though Alex could assume one of the reasons the copycat didn't like him was due to his relationship with Rias and the others, his attitude was more like Alex was his mortal enemy that killed his entire family or something. Even the other reincarnators he encountered that wanted Rias and the others for themselves were simply agitated that he 'laid hands on their property', and didn't show the level of rage and hatred his newest opponent had. The only thing he could say for sure was that he must have already been to the DXD world, which made Alex feel as if he should return home as soon as he could since there was no telling who had gone there after he left.

Just as he had decided to have Hajime focus on getting the portals working, Markarov asked his second question.

"So what are these 'Evil Pieces'?" Alex turned his attention back to him and said after a second of contemplation,

"Glossing over their history and creation, Evil Pieces are used to reincarnate chosen individuals into Devils. Based around the game of chess, sets of fifteen pieces are given to the master, the 'King', and then those who receive an Evil Piece from the 'King' will become a part of their peerage." Markarov nodded slowly show he understood what Alex was saying so far, before clarifying,

"And so now both Lucy and Mirajane have joined your peerage, which means they are now both Devils and your wives?"

"Yes. If the 'King' so chooses, then they can choose to give their Evil Pieces to those they fancy, turning them into their own harem. Lucy was already aware of this condition, and came to me anyways in order to receive the power she needed to help her guild mates. Meanwhile Mirajane didn't care about the condition for receiving the Evil Piece, as long as she could protect her brother and sister." Instead of saying anything to him, this time Markarov turned his attention to Mirajane before asking with genuine care and concern in his voice,

"Are you really ok with this?" Mirajane glanced at Alex briefly before turning her attention back to Markarov and saying resolutely,

"I was the one who didn't care about the price for the power I asked for. And like I told Elfman earlier, even if I could go back knowing what I do now, I wouldn't change a thing if it meant being able to help my family and guild mates." The members of Fairy Tail let out a collective sigh at Mirajane's words, as it meant she had pretty much sold herself just to be able to help them fight once more. Markarov also sighed before turning his attention back at Alex, and saying,

"Only a couple more things, how did you know your Evil Pieces would give Mirajane her powers back? Was it possible for you to do so without an Evil Piece, and did you simply take advantage of the situation for your own benefit? And then finally what will happen to Lucy and Mirajane from now on?" Alex silent for a second before saying,

"The Evil Pieces use demonic energies to reincarnate their users, I suspected that since Mirajane's abilities were already demonic in nature it would jumpstart them. As for if we could have helped her without one, I couldn't really say.

"If it was a physical injury holding her back then I could've simply used Regeneration magic like I did on Gildarts, except Mirajane's powers were being suppressed due to psychological trauma instead. We do have access to a form of magic similar to Regeneration called Spirit magic, which could be used to work on someone's mind, but I'm not sure if it would work in this specific case unless we actually gave it a try, or how long that process would actually take."

Finding Alex's honesty acceptable, Markarov indicated for him to continue regarding his last question, to which Alex explained, "As for what will happen to them from now on, of course the two of them will travel with me to new worlds to fight by my side, but I will never make them completely abandon Fairy Tail. Once we figure out the technology and magic for it, we'll open a permanent portal to Earthland so that they can return and visit whenever they want, after we deal with the Dark Emperor and his forces of course."

There was a collective sigh of relief when the guild members heard that Alex didn't plan to take Lucy and Mirajane from them right away, or for good. What they didn't know though, was that once they could permanently open up portals between the world's Alex was planning to either move some of the guild's to Asora, or establish branches of them for Asorians and people from the other worlds they connected to to join and post jobs.

Out of everyone though Markarov appeared to be the most relieved, as to him the majority of the younger guild members were akin to his own children. Many of them had lost their families or otherwise ended up on their own at very young ages before eventually finding their way to Fairy Tail, where he took them in and taught some of them how to properly use their magic.

Mirajane and her siblings were one specific example, as the kind and motherly woman was once forced to question her own humanity after she awakened her Satan Soul. It was Markarov who taught her that her demonic abilities were simply a form of magic known as Take Over, and who presumably helped her siblings learn their own forms of Take Over as well, which was what helped convince Mirajane to stay with them at Fairy Tail.

It was right as everyone started calming down regarding Lucy and Mirajane's fate though, that Alex suddenly dropped a bombshell by saying,

"Now then, saying all that, what do you think Erza?" As he asked that, Erza didn't need to ask for clarification when she looked at him and noticed a red horse chess piece in his hand, a 'Knight'.

"Is this what I think it is?" Erza asked for clarification, to which Alex nodded and said,

"Yes. I have one 'Knight' piece left out of the two, and I would like to offer it to you." With her loyalty to Fairy Tail, and knowing that such an offer meant joining Alex's harem as well, normally Erza would immediately reject it like she had rejected several offers she'd gotten to join other guilds over the years.

This time however, she hesitated.

With refusal on the tip of her tongue, Erza couldn't help but recall the overwhelming power displayed by Alex and the women that followed him, including how both Lucy and Mirajane seemed to have become noticeably stronger almost immediately. While she wasn't THAT dedicated to becoming stronger, the current situation of the world and their guild forced her to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

She knew from the beginning that Alex and his wives didn't intend to fight all of their battles for them, as he had already expressed several times that his main concern was the Dark Emperor and his generals.

But what about the rest of his forces?"

"If I accepted this, would I still be able to fight the dark guild forces alongside my comrades before you leave this world?" She was slightly surprised when Alex nodded and stated,

"Of course. One of the abilities granted by my Evil Pieces is something called a status, and through it you'll be able to gain what's called experience points. The idea is that as you gain experience points your level and various attributes, such as strength, agility, ect, increase, and the way you gain experience is through killing opponents such as monsters and people. As bad as it sounds, fighting the dark guilds is too good of a chance to gain experience to have you, Lucy, and Mirajane pass up." (A.N. Before anyone mentions it, yes attributes still exist in their system. Alex just hid them in the first chapter to keep them out of the way, basically I didn't want to deal with them.)

Erza nodded in affirmation as she stared at the Evil Piece in contemplation, while everyone else around them held their breath, and Markarov stared at them intently. As much as he wanted to tell her not to accept it, Markarov had always encouraged freedom to his 'brats' in their pursuit of strength and magic, believing that one wouldn't become a stronger if all they cared about was following the rules. Naturally of course there was a difference between the freedom he encouraged to them, and the actions of heinous individuals like dark mages.

That was why he could only sigh in acceptance as Erza took the offered Evil Piece, and glowed with a dull demonic light before a set of leathery bat-like wings sprouted from her back. After she took a moment to adjust to her new powers, Erza turned towards Alex and knelt before saying seriously,

"I, Erza Scarlet, hereby pledge to devote my everything to serve you, mind, body, and soul. To rid our world of those who would invade and destroy it, and to fight alongside you against similar threats in other worlds." Though Alex didn't care for such stuffy pledges and formalities, he recalled Grayfia's earlier chiding about how he should act more like the emperor he technically was, even if he was never formally crowned.

And so, in the face of Erza's pledge, Alex stood, and summoned a golden sword that shone so brightly with divine light, that the majority of the people watching had to shield their eyes, while Erza, Lucy, and Mirajane all felt their skin crawl in the face of the intense holy/divine power of Ascalon.

"Erza Scarlet, as the Emperor of dragons, yuuki-onna, and all who call my domain their home, I hereby knight you!" After he spoke Alex lightly tapped the point of Ascalon's blade on each of Erza's shoulders, before saying,

"Rise, knight of Asora!"

At his command, Erza rose from her kneeling position to stand tall as everyone in the guild hall applauded her, despite not knowing what exactly Alex was talking about. Meanwhile, Grayfia watched from the side alongside the rest of Alex's peerage, sans Kuroka. Their expressions were filled with pride as they watched their husband/master properly act as Asora's emperor for the first time.

What followed was rounds of congratulations to Erza from her fellow guild members, but without Natsu and Gajeel the atmosphere seemed more subdued than usual. Of course leading the congratulations from Alex's side was none other than Shizuku, who welcomed Erza wholeheartedly as her fellow 'Knight' of Alex's peerage.

It was only after night had fallen that Alex seemed to be able to talk to Erza once more, during which he explained to her how to use her new status.

"Status!" Erza ordered her status to appear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Erza Scarlet

Race: Human

Titles:

Titania

Job: Jobless: 100

Jobs Available:

Knight, Sword user, Lance User, Great-sword User, Axe User, Staff User, Hammer User, Dagger User, Shield Maiden, Heavy Armor user, Light Armor User, Cloth Armor User, Templar Knight, Dark Knight, Flame Knight, Water Knight, Earth Knight, Wind Knight, Lightning Knight, Naughty Knight

Passive Skills:

Superhuman Strength: Level 5

Superhuman Speed: Level 5

Enlarged Magic Power: Level 7

Heavy Armor Skill: Level 7

Light Armor Skill: Level 6

Cloth Armor Skill: Level 3

Sword Skill: Level 8

Great Sword Skill: Level 7

Lance Skill: Level 4

Axe Skill: Level 3

Staff Skill: Level 3

Hammer Skill: Level 2

Dagger Skill: Level 2

Shield Skill: Level 5

Active Skills:

Telekinesis(Weapons): Level 7

Requip-The Knight: Level 8

Unique Abilities:

Reincarnated Devil: Knight Evil Piece

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she looked over her status Erza asked Alex all of the basic questions that the girls usually had about the system, before she eventually chose the 'Knight' job to start with.

"And so I can get stronger with just this?" Erza asked as she received the notification that several of her skills increased in her head. Alex nodded and said,

"Yep. As you kill opponents you'll gain experience points to whatever job you currently have, and once it maxes out you can choose a new job that would either increase your current skills, or even grant you entirely new ones. And as long as you keep maxing them out, there's no limit to the amount of jobs you can have."

After his explanation Erza respectfully bowed towards him yet again, before saying, "Truly, thank you. It seems that no matter which way we turn you're helping us time and again. Once all of this is over, I don't think any of us will ever be able to thank you enough." Alex however waved away her thanks and said,

"Even if it doesn't seem like it I'm still getting more than a fair amount of compensation. For each one of the other reincarnators I kill I'll get the chance to acquire one of their powers for myself, and in the short time here I've already gotten three more incredibly beautiful wives. Any man in my position would consider himself the one who's benefiting the most."

When she was reminded that she was technically Alex's 'wife' now, Erza's face turned almost the same color as her hair as she simultaneous recalled the scandalous events of the day before, and her private actions later that night. This reaction only worsened when she also recalled that both Lucy and Mirajane were Alex's 'wives' as well, making her wonder if they'd be expected to 'perform' together like some of the books she'd occasionally borrow from Levy.

Before Erza could slip even further into her embarrassment, and Alex could try and tease her for it, Anne suddenly appeared as she asked, "So what was this 'great idea' you had to gain information about them anyways? You haven't told any of us." Alex looked at her and said after a second of thought,

"It's an idea that we need Kuroka for, but she hasn't gotten back from what I gave her to do earlier. I'll wait until she returns before I explain it." Though Anne looked as if she was about to pester at him to explain then and there, she didn't get the chance to as a new voice suddenly intervened,

"You were talking about me~Nya?" With everyone's attention focusing on the sudden appearance of the nekomata, Kuroka suddenly jumped into Alex's arms and said,

"It felt like I was gone for so long~Nya, pamper me!" Alex could only smile wryly as he obediently started scratching his 'Queen' behind the ears, making her purr despite everyone watching them. Though she was only gone for a few days from her point of view, that didn't mean Kuroka would pass up a chance to get Alex to cater to her if she could help it.

After nearly a minute of pampering though, Alex stopped and asked, "So, what did you learn?" Though she was annoyed that Alex wasn't scratching her behind the ears anymore, she still looked up at his question before flashing him a mischievous cat-like grin.