While his arm was slowly healing, Kisuke approached the girls and asked Claire, "How did you do that?"
Even though she was very tired and laying on the ground, Claire gave him a cheeky smile and proudly answered, "Amazing, right? [Worthless] really is wonderful."
The moment Kisuke heard that it suddenly clicked in his head, "...You used [Worthless] to forcefully tame both Demonic Power and Holy Power?" But even after saying it out loud, Kisuke still couldn't believe it.
"It somehow worked." Claire shrugged her shoulders, "But it took a while to smooth it out."
Kisuke was rendered speechless because he knew that was impossible to achieve with just 'It somehow worked.' Naturally, there are cases where Demonic Power and Light Power could mix and the most popular example of this was Yuuto Kiba with his Balance Breaker. However, there's a big difference in how Claire acquired her equilibrium compared to the former and that was that she's directly storing both Powers inside her body.
In Yuuto's case, he could use Light Power with the help of his Holy Swords and that's the same for those who could use both Demonic Power and Light Power. They needed a medium to facilitate their use like a Sacred Gear or some other special tool that was related to Heaven. Even then, when used, it was always a mix of both Powers and their opposition was its main point to produce a huge amount of force.
As only Devils with a strong relation with Heaven could use something like this, there aren't a lot of people who could do it.
In Claire's case, with the arrow of light that she used, she's fully capable of using both Powers in their purest form on top of not needing a medium to achieve an equilibrium, 'If her [Worthless] could really do something like that, then her ability was already bordering that of a Super Devil if she's still not one. That would explain how she could easily neutralize my Shinigami and Hollow abilities.'
Asking any further questions would be useless since she probably isn't really fully aware of how ridiculous her abilities are. Instead, Kisuke congratulated the girls, "Good work. From the spar just now, I'm sure that the three of you are all on Ultimate-Class level, and with your Soul Gears, you should be able to match an average combat God and if you are together, you are fully capable of matching a Leader-Class God."
The three of them weren't aware of their real level and thought they were just around High-Class due to the absence of competition. But after Kisuke's confirmation, all of them stood up and cheered up despite their heavy bodies.
'That's still a bit of an understatement but this should be enough to make them careful on how they swing their fists around.'
However, their celebration was cut short by Kisuke's next words, "And now that we're done, begin cleaning up and restoring this place, at least to how it looked before we started."
The girls were stunned and looked around the training grounds that were utterly trashed beyond recognition before turning back to Kisuke, "...All of this?"
Kisuke nodded while returning back to his Human form since his arm was now feeling a little bit better, "All of it."
The girls looked at each other and knew that this would be a daunting task in addition to being a massive pain in the ass. It was then that Claire noticed something and asked, "...Why do you sound like you're not helping?"
Before answering, Kisuke pointed in a certain direction. The girls followed his finger and saw Ophis and Lilith silently standing at the edge of the training grounds. Since they'd been with her all these years, they could tell the mood they were in despite not showing any apparent expression, and right now, they could see a 'lonely' aura on the two of them. Was it because they felt they were being left behind?
"I have the most important task. Pampering and consoling those two."
The girls didn't even question Kisuke's declaration and nodded with all their might, "Understood. We'll do our best."
.
.
.
Three hours in, the girls are still working hard to restore the training grounds. Meanwhile, Kisuke was feeding Ophis and Lilith various things throughout those three hours. Since they aren't exactly normal, the food that they are taking was just being absorbed by a bottomless pit.
Kisuke, Ophis, and Lilith were just talking about random things that were focused on their daily lives and how they were adjusting to Human society. They immediately admitted that it was confusing and hard. They also had poor memories regarding common sense and manners but Kisuke attributed that to them not really understanding the underlying meaning behind 'common sense and manners' since they didn't really need it until now.
"But it seems that you two aren't a bit frustrated. Are you enjoying it?"
Ophis and Lilith immediately nodded without a shred of hesitation and the former said, "I desired peace and quiet. That hasn't changed, but the meaning of it did... The previous peace and quiet I was hoping for was an eternal silence, but right now..."
Ophis tried to find the right words but couldn't so Lilith continued for her, "We desire peace and quiet... And the fulfillment it brings instead of the emptiness."
Kisuke understood what they meant, "That's great. I'm glad that you were able to find something fulfilling."
Ophis nodded, "And it's thanks to you. I'm not sure what I would have become if you didn't reach out to me."
Kisuke turned to her and smiled wryly, "You know why I reached out to you at that time. Don't make it sound like I lent a hand to save you."
Ophis nodded again, "That isn't important."
Lilith then pulled his sleeve to get his attention, "As a show of gratitude, we'd like to help you."
Kisuke patted her head and chuckled, "You've already done a lot for me."
Ophis grabbed his other hand and put it on her head herself, "But you're currently lost."
Kisuke was surprised for a moment before sighing, "...Amazing. You two really have eyes for the most inconvenient things."
Ophis and Lilith kept staring at him as if trying to pressure him to speak and it didn't even take a minute for Kisuke to cave in, "I want to bring Claire to a very important place because she has the ability to help me immensely. However, that place is also very dangerous and my priority should be your girls' safety."
Ophis then let out a small snort and returned her attention to the snack, "Unnecessary. We can protect them. We're strong. And I can protect you too."
Lilith also did the same as if losing her interest at his 'insignificant' worry, "We're coming too if they're going. There's no question about it."
Kisuke didn't say anything else and just contemplated on what he should do, 'If it was the past me, I wouldn't have hesitated like this. After all, apologizing is a lot easier than getting permission.'
Editors:
28th00: The Dragon Loli’s find your worries insignificant compared to your lack of headpats and snacks.
Four hours on the mark later, the girls were finally done with their clean up and understandably, they were extremely tired and the allure of just dropping down and sleeping on the ground was great.
"Great work." Kisuke welcomed them, "You don't have classes today so take it easy."
"Finally..." Claire murmured under her breath and didn't really have any energy to process what Kisuke was saying.
Ophis and Lilith approached them and began conjuring the Magic Circle for their teleportation to return to the floating island of the Ouroboros Academy. But before they disappeared, Kisuke called out to Claire for one final time, "Claire, I'll send you some documents about Shinigamis and Hollows later. Cooperate with Aika to study the properties of their basic techniques and spells."
Claire just waved her hand while yawning, "...Got it. I'll go to Aika-neechan's place later."
Ophis and Lilith both had small smiles on their faces and thought that they'd have to prepare for a long trip.
Kisuke also saw those smiles and thought that he'd have comrades comparable to a large army when he went to that place, 'This is actually more reassuring. After all, if things go the way I expect it to become, I would technically be aiming to destroy that world.'
.
.
.
A week later, Riveria and Kisuke were standing in front of the portal that would take them to the 'Dungeon' World. Since any strange movements from the other girls would result in unwanted attention, they could only send them off through a screen, [Don't you think the Evies will notice this portal once it's fully activated?] Sona asked what she was most concerned about.
"They probably will. I mean with that kind of outpost on the moon, it's almost impossible for it not to have some kind of radar that could detect a drastic bend in space." Since the Evies have developed a portal that was much more sophisticated than Kisuke's crude attempt to connect two places, it's obvious that they had countermeasures against it. It is one of the main reasons why Kisuke wanted to learn their technology. As for the other reason, that'll be a surprise for Chaos if he really suddenly turned the tip of his blade at him.
[So we just have to pray that they don't pinpoint your base?]
Kisuke shook his head, "No prayers needed. The base is still under an Illusionary Barrier. Even though they could detect the portal, as long as we don't open it for too long or too wide, they'll never be able to find this place."
Sona sighed in relief, [That's good. Have a safe trip and don't forget our souvenirs.]
Within the same room as Sona, each and every one of the girls started wishing them good travels, but they were more interested in the souvenirs that Kisuke would bring them back and even requested specific things.
That went on until Kisuke finally lost his patience and closed his notepad to stop accepting requests.
The girls only giggled at each other but they still gave the two of them a proper send-off.
Now that they were finally ready, Kisuke fully activated the portal that connected to the void. Kisuke and Riveria immediately hopped into it so that the portal could close as fast as possible.
"There they go. Now that Kisuke is away, that should reduce the number of people that are trying to get to him." Sona muttered after ending the call.
"You said it!" Irina seconded, "Only seven years went by but there are already a bunch of idiots that want to challenge the Evies thinking that they aren't a big deal and would be made heroes if they could succeed."
"Those idiots are easy to manipulate so we should be on guard against those approaching them." Akeno held her aching forehead, "The real problem is the increasing number of Evie worshippers. There are already some reports on attempted impairment of the barrier all over the globe and we still don't know how these hunk of metals are communicating to the people here on Earth."
Medusa also chipped in and said, "It's either a special power or an influential faction covering their tracks, but most probably both. Since everyone knows about Great Red's death, this was already inevitable."
"As it stands, we might really have to use our students and alumni as soldiers," Kuroka added with a heavy tone.
Everyone became quiet after that and the frustration was very obvious on their faces. Immediately after, they started discussing the countermeasures that they could make, but in the end, nothing concrete was concluded.
.
.
.
The moment they entered the portal, Kisuke immediately sharpened his senses. As the portal closes, so is the void around it moving strangely, 'Reinforcement? He's taking away our path of retreat?'
A minute later, the darkness around them seemed to get darker and darker as they went through until it tried to swallow and crush them. The protection that they got from the portal was still holding up but there were already cracks in its defenses, "What's going on? It wasn't like this when I came through.", asked Riveria while preparing to reinforce her defenses.
"Can you hold out?"
Riveria wondered why Kisuke didn't answer her question but didn't dwell on it much and nodded, "I think I can."
"Good. Let's speed up." Kisuke stretched out his hand to her and Riveria didn't hesitate to grab it.
Two minutes later, the crushing pressure of the darkness around them had increased by multiple folds but they could already see the light at the end of this seemingly endless and cruel tunnel.
But the moment they reached the exit, the pressure instantly reversed and they were greeted by a giant ball of land and sea and the vast expanse of space behind them along with the absence of the familiar force that kept their feet on the ground.
While looking at this breathtaking scene, Riveria tried to speak up but no sound came from her mouth.
[Use telepathy. We're more than 300 miles from the ground.] Riveria heard Kisuke's voice inside her head.
She then replied, [What are we doing here?]
[My anchor points are working fine but we were cut off before we could reach them], Kisuke answered while thinking, 'He was way too excited to close our path behind.'
Editors:
28th00: Chaos or the Mecha? I assume Chaos.