After getting informed of everything, Kisuke decided to end it here and dedicated the remaining time to others.
Cleria and Masaomi played with the kids. Dylan and Cordelia wanted to catch up with Sona. And Sakura went to talk with the other girls, especially Aika, telling her that she had been arranging for her to meet her parents.
Kisuke, meanwhile, left the room, intending to confirm something. Behind him were Yoruichi and Serafall, "Are you going alone this time too?" asked the former.
Rubbing his chin, Kisuke thought for a moment before saying, "I'm thinking of taking you too. Your Bankai could probably protect you from the void."
"Take me too. I know you have enough power, or at least, a safe method to traverse the void after going through it three times.", requested Serafall with unusual seriousness that was very much warranted. Kisuke and Yoruichi knew that she wanted to return to save everyone who was trapped in the seal and join them if possible as a last resort.
Kisuke stopped walking and let out a short sigh while turning back, "I know how you're feeling, but I'd like you to remain here for Sona-chan and other's safety."
"But-!", before she could say it, Kisuke's hand reached out for her head as he bent his back forward to match her gaze, "Between you and Yoruichi, you're most suitable in protecting someone with the latter only being an offense idiot."
"Oi."
Ignoring the small protest, Kisuke smiled gently and said, "I may not be able to do anything right now, but I promise you that I'll do something about Trihexa and save those who are trapped."
Serafall was surprised for a number of reasons and one of them was this was the first time Kisuke patted her head and was shocked to know that it actually felt great. Even though Kisuke did a pat galore earlier, she didn't line up as it was only the kids and his women and she was neither of those.
Next was Kisuke's face coming way too close and a 'cheating' smile that had the strange power to comfort someone.
As an uncanny feeling surged, the heat went up to Serafall's face and immediately slapped Kisuke's hand away in embarrassment, "Stop treating me like a child! Even though I'm temporarily suspended, I'm still a dignified Devil King!"
With a blank expression, Kisuke and Yoruichi simultaneously thought, 'With your strange fascination with Magical Girls, we just can't see that.'
Yoruichi subsequently wrapped her arm around Serafall's neck while shooing away Kisuke, "You still have something to do, right? Get to it and be done with it."
"Fine, fine." Kisuke turned around while chuckling, resuming his walk and leaving the two girls behind, "Be careful." Yoruichi added in a firm tone.
Waving his hand back, Kisuke assured Yoruichi, "I'm just going to ask a few questions, that's all. There's nothing for you to be worried about."
Even then, Yoruichi couldn't calm the restless feeling.
Serafall saw her expression and asked, "Where is he going? And is it that dangerous?"
Shaking her head, Yoruichi replied, "To the 47th floor to ask someone something. Whether it's dangerous or not, I don't know. It's just that confirming things may ruffle things that should be left alone."
.
.
.
While evading everyone's eyesight, Kisuke arrived at the lava pool on the 47th floor and dived into it without any hesitation. With a bubble-like barrier around him, he pushed himself through the heavy magma without much effort and arrived at the hidden cavern that wasn't affected by the temperature outside.
Reaching the pond with clear water that was only half that of its original volume when he'd first arrived in this place, Kisuke sat down.
He only had to wait before the barrier he's expecting went up and said first, "What do you know about Trihexa?"
All that Kisuke received was silence, however, he didn't say anything else and still chose to wait patiently.
Around half an hour later, his patience finally paid off as he received a rather straightforward answer, "I didn't know he was named Trihexa, but in broad terms, he's Chaos and my sister's child."
"..." It was Kisuke's turn to be silent while thinking about all the possibilities this information presented. About five minutes later, he asked, "Can you elaborate further?"
"There's nothing to elaborate and any story I give will just be treated as a possibility by you. There's no point in expanding on this topic with you on the other side of the equation."
Kisuke snickered, "So you've been watching me rather closely, huh. You're more of a stalker than that Chaos."
Not denying his words, the voice continued, "Because the fate of this world rests on your hands. Chaos, on the other hand, was only interested in the deepest part of the Dungeon and wouldn't pay any attention to anyone or anything as long as they don't cross the boundary of this world or a big accident happens."
"So my paranoia is pointed at the wrong person... or being, huh," Kisuke scratched his head and thought about what should be his next step now, "But although it's good for me that he isn't paying very close attention to me, he's too arrogant to think that I can't do anything to him."
"It's because you can't do anything to him. Even if you include all your companions, the completed Infinite Dragon God, and every God in this world, you won't be able to extinguish his existence."
Kisuke's nonchalant expression immediately changed into a frown, "There's no way to kill him?"
"There is. In fact, there are multiple ways to kill him. However, what I said is that there's no way to end his existence."
'Yet she told me that the fate of this world is in my hands?' Kisuke thought about this contradicting statement and reached a conclusion, "To the extent of your knowledge, I see. But aren't you giving me too much credit? And you don't even know what I might want to do. There's a real possibility that it'll be me who'll end you, you know?"
However, the voice gave an answer that Kisuke was not expecting at all, "I don't care. As long as everything ends. I will be giving my all for what I want, but whether it's a satisfying end for me or not, it doesn't really matter anymore."
And for the first time ever, Kisuke heard the mysterious voice's most heartfelt words, "I'm tired."
Kisuke became silent once again for a few minutes before he let out a long sigh, "Do you realize how contradictory those words are?"
"A life of not living. Spend almost an eternity doing that and you'll change your mind."
"Er... No thanks. I'd just kill myself if I reach that point."
"Expecting freedom at that point, you're still naive."
"There's no point arguing this since I haven't reached that yet.", Kisuke then stood up and stretched his arms, "One final thing. What does this Chaos ultimately want?"
"An army."
"Hmmm..." Kisuke closed his eyes and rubbed his chin in contemplation until he reached a decision, "Yosh~! Let's do it this way. When the right time comes, I'll kill you, then you kill him."
AN(18/03/2022): Discord: http s: //discord. gg/ cczgMZ8t5h
Editors:
28th00: I feel like saying “People die when they’re killed.”, but… When it comes to these entities, are they even really ‘alive’ anymore? More of a concept than a being, right?
Kisuke only returned a day later and everyone was back to their usual habits of refining their experience and basics.
"Welcome back~!" Yoruichi said as she separated from Kuroka and Koneko's simultaneous attacks and greeted Kisuke, "How did it go?"
"I finally got a better picture of the overall situation and made a goal according to it. However, I won't be revealing it for the time being since it's still bound to change and we might not have anything to do with it." Kisuke replied as he sat down on the bench with Medusa coming out with a tray of tea in her hands.
He then looked around and asked, "Where're our dear Goddesses and the children?"
Yoruichi sat down beside him and answered, "Aika's accompanying them on the surface. They're still enjoying the new atmosphere Pandemonium is giving them."
"Is that so?" Kisuke finalized the schedule he had in his head and gestured to everyone present to come closer, "I'll just tell them later, but let's discuss what we'll be doing this month."
With another look around, he took note that Kuroka, Koneko, Akeno, Irina, and especially Sona were more beaten up than usual and asked, "You've been doing this all night?"
Just their silence and Serafall's worried look already gave Kisuke the answer, 'I understand Akeno-san and Irina, but it has been a while since the others have become this impatient. Looks like the news about Issei being one of the strongest fighters on the other side rattled them quite a bit.'
Kisuke was absolutely correct, however, it wasn't just about Issei, but also those around him. They knew for sure that the people they left behind were not lagging behind Issei and they had a feeling that they were, who were experiencing a legitimate war, were already stronger than they are right now and they couldn't sit still knowing that.
Not that he couldn't understand them since they seem to have reached a plateau and couldn't improve as fast as before.
Kisuke let out an audible breath and said, "I know how you're feeling, but trust me, you're doing fine." But even after saying that, nothing had changed.
Since they needed to be convinced so that they would have the needed confidence for what they needed to do next, Kisuke thought for a bit before stating, "How about this? Let's compare Issei's progress to yours using RPG terms."
Grabbing their attention, Kisuke continued, "If we were to translate Issei's progress into RPG terms, then he's advancing normally. Leveling up, defeating bosses, acquiring skills and equipment."
"You girls, on the other hand, already maxed your levels before even reaching the first boss. However, due to you not yet defeating the boss, even if you have tons of skill points, you haven't advanced to a class change and couldn't acquire the skills and equipment needed to progress."
Stopping for a moment to drink his tea, Kisuke continued, "Well, that's a very rough analogy but you all should have understood my point."
Still skeptical, Sona fixed the position of her glasses and asked, "So we just need to 'defeat the first boss'? How do we do that?" But despite her tone, she couldn't mask the hopeful gleam in her eyes and it was the same with others as they waited for his answer.
Kisuke finished his tea and set aside the cup with a loud clunk, "That is what I want to discuss with you now. Within this month, your abilities should improve at least ten times, and that's just a conservative estimate."
But instead of Sona, the first one to doubt Kisuke's words was Serafall, "That's ridiculous! How can someone train and become ten times stronger within just a month! With my current strength, it took me centuries to reach this point! Don't even compare it to Issei-kun since he's using one of the Heavenly Dragons and once he reaches the power of a true Heavenly Dragon, it would take a lot of time and effort to improve any further!"
Kisuke nodded at her words, agreeing with it, "That's true. After he's reached a certain point, which is most likely Ddraig-san's prime, it would be harder for him to improve further. However, that's only an established common sense."
With a large grin, Kisuke added, "And you know what happens when you depend too much on common sense here, right?"
Pouting, Serafall answered, "...An unnecessarily huge headache."
Shrugging his shoulders, Kisuke carried on, "It's actually both easy and hard because it's just a fine line that you have to cross. All you need to do is to develop or discover an ability that would ignore the physical, magical, and spiritual laws of the world."
While the others still had no idea what Kisuke was talking about, Serafall understood a bit of it and finally agreed that '10 times' was indeed a conservative estimate. However, she was certain about one thing, "That's not a fine line. There's an enormous gap to achieve that. I know because I'm on the edge of that precipice."
Since Kisuke told them that they'd only need a month, developing a conceptual power never occurred in her mind since she believed that to be impossible.
Kisuke correctly guessed what she was thinking, but he understood her point of view. After all, if not for him being an expert in a certain subject and having special knowledge, he wouldn't have easily guessed the main reason why becoming like Sirzechs is 'easy'.
"I won't be going through specifics right now, but I can promise you that it's at the very least, doable. Basically, we will be cheating for you to achieve it with my help, but there shouldn't be any differences than if you were to achieve it on your own."
Kisuke then took out some small bottles that contained his usual candies and passed one to everyone except for Yoruichi and Medusa, "Take one candy every morning starting tomorrow. This is for the preparation of what you're about to go through."
"Of course, there's only a single me so we have to divide the schedule. Starting tomorrow, for a whole week, I will be helping Sera-tan and Sona-chan. Next week would be Kuroka and Koneko-chan."
"Next would be Aika, but she will only need three days. After that, the rest of the month would be allotted for Medusa-chan."
"Eh?", not expecting to be not included, Irina asked with an almost broken voice, "W-what about us?"
And just like her, Akeno was also very worried. They thought that they were included with those who haven't 'defeated the first boss', but it looks like that wasn't the case. They were already feeling useless, yet they would be left behind yet again.
To make it worse, Kisuke let out a long sigh and said, "To be honest, your situation is so complicated that I don't really know how I should help you both. However, I do have an idea of what you should do."
Kisuke then faced Yoruichi with a serious expression, "Yoruichi, I'd like you to watch over them closely during this month. With what I'm about to ask them to do, they are most likely going to die."
Editors:
28th00: Ah, the infamous “Death Training” of Kisuke is coming into FULL effect, huh? Sera-tan, you’re going to experience it personally this time! AND A DIRECT VERSION TOO!