18 Power up
Night Raid's hideout...
"I have no evidence to back up my guess but it is a fact that I saw Valdis near that woman. They even looked on close terms, though, Valdis acted a bit awkward." Leone reported what she saw and her suspicion of Valdis being behind Sheele's death which caused everyone's faces to turn grim.
"Did he really change sides?!" Tatsumi clenched his right fist.
"It all makes sense now...No simple guard would be capable of killing Sheele and dodging two attacks from my Pumpkin...VALDIS!!!" Mine grit her teeth as her hatred for Valdis heightened.
"I can't believe it...I refuse to believe it was just an act all that time" Tatsumi said with a disappointed face.
"Even if it wasn't an act, the fact that he became our enemy hasn't changed. The next time you meet him, don't show any mercy, I doubt he will have any for you." Najenda said with a cool-headed tone.
Everyone solemnly nodded except for Mine who was dissatisfied with it.
"Why won't we go after him?! He knows the whereabouts of our hideout!"
"He might have changed sides, however, Lubbock's threads haven't caught anyone approaching near our hideout. He could have revealed our hideout already but he hasn't...yet. We can instead prepare for possible ambush and surprise our enemies instead. Anyway, currently, Valdis isn't one of our main concerns. There have been crimes committed in Night Raid's name, someone is trying to frame us and incite the public against us." Najenda explained which caused Mine to finally calm down.
---
Valdis rented a room in one of the inns on the main street nearest to the palace. He has been getting a few notices for a while, being informed of Night Raid's and mainly Mine's hatred for him. All these notices actually have generated more than 500 Villain Points for him which caused his mood to brighten up a bit despite having his cover blown up.
'Leone must have connected the dots of me wearing the Imperial Police's armor and the circumstances of Sheele's death. Well, since I already achieved my goal of having Mangekyo Sharingan, I think it's the time to fully invest in the potions.'
---
[Name: Valdis
Unique powers: Mangekyo Sharingan(100%)
Villainous Shop
Villain Points: 1550
Consumption: Body Enhancing potion (19/50); Mind Enhancing potion (5/15)]
[Body Enhancing potion x1 + (50 Villain Points)
[Mind Enhancing potion x1 + (100 Villain Points)
---
'Buy 5 Mind potions and 21 Body Potions' Valdis decided to spend all his points on the potions. He was aware that these potions had lessened effect the more he consumed but he had no time to train
Valdis spent the rest of the day and the next day holed up in his room, consuming the potions he bought. Since each potion equaled a certain amount of time spent training, it was too physically and mentally exhausting to consume so many potions in a short interval.
During that time, he also started experimenting with Mangekyo's abilities and found out that he can't just make anything appear or disappear. During that short time of experiments, he found out that he needs to have a fundamental understanding of the things he wants to appear. When it came to changing things, this restriction seemed weakened by quite a bit. For example, he could easily and fairly quickly change a sharp blade into a dull one or bullets into rubber bullets He could probably make them disappear but that required much more stamina and would obviously put more strain on his eyes.
The day Valdis was supposed to go to the palace and meet Esdeath arrived quickly. Before leaving the inn, he took his time meditating, thinking about several things in peace.
---
[Name: Valdis
Unique powers: Mangekyo Sharingan(99%)
Villainous Shop
Villain Points: 0
Consumption: Body Enhancing potion (40/50); Mind Enhancing potion (10/15)]
---
The moment he opened his eyes and revealed his Sharingan, the aura it excluded changed a little. It became even colder and more intimidating.
'Let's meet her and see what she wants from me. As I am right now, I am more confident in fighting Esdeath in case she tries anything against me.' Valdis thought and made his way to the Imperial Palace where he was immediately stopped by the front guards even with his Imperial Police armor on.
"Stop! What are your intentions for visiting the palace?!"
"Don't hinder me" Valdis said and both guards' gazes became vacant.
"Understood, sir" The palace guards let him in without any resistance. As for the reason why he didn't mention Esdeath...He knew that one cannot just simply walk into the palace even if he mentioned her name, furthermore, he had a feeling that this was her first test for him. To see if he can get past the guards.
After all, he was just a simple Imperial Police guard, why would anyone believe that he has a meeting with someone as important as Esdeath?
If it was before drinking all those potions, he doubt he would be able to control the guards so much, after all, the palace guards were all courageous and strong.
.
.
*knock* Valdis found the room he was looking for so he knocked on the door a few times.
"Who is it?" A cold voice belonging to Esdeath responded, clearly not in the mood to be interrupted by just anyone.
"I have been told to come here 2 days ago" Upon hearing Valdis's words, doors almost instantly opened with Esdeath in the doorway.
"You really came, good, it would have been a pain to hunt you down" Esdeath smiled sweetly but her words would give shivers to the others, well, except for Valdis at this moment.
'He has changed...somehow his entire presence has gotten even more attractive. Maybe it's just because he made a good impression on me and I couldn't wait to meet him again. Everybody had trouble answering my questions so it's hard for me to distinguish these feelings I have.' Esdeath noticed a subtle change in Valdis's aura but didn't question him.
Valdis just helplessly smiled at her action which prompted her to ask a question with a grin.
"How did you get past the guards?"
"...They were a nice bunch, they just let me in" Valdis said confidently and after he got past the front guards, no other guards approached him since he was nonchalantly walking through the palace and no one would ever think that he infiltrated it.
"Oh, really?" Esdeath detected his sarcasm, however, she liked his confidence. She didn't bother asking how he got past them and since there was no commotion outside, there was no need to get involved and calm the guards down.
"Let's go" Esdeath exited her room with a mask in her hand, on their way, she explained where were they going and who are they meeting.
When they arrived in front of the room of their destination, Esdeath put on her mask and wanted to enter the room but was stopped by Valdis.
"General Esdeath-sama"
"Hm? What is it?"
"You have said that you want to test their abilities, may I be the one testing them out first?"
Esdeath's eyes widened beneath her mask when she heard his question.
"You do realize they are all Teigu users, right? Even if they won't use lethal force, I think it's too much." Esdeath wanted to test Valdis even further however she wasn't unreasonable as to send him against 6 Teigu users.
"Doesn't having odds stacked against oneself make it even more entertaining. I doubt Rebel Army would play fair and fight one on one either."
Esdeath could feel his rising excitement and couldn't help but smile too.
"You took the words out of my mouth. Show me, what exactly are you capable of!"
When both walked inside, everyone turned their attention to them. Esdeath questioned their business being in this room before kicking one of the guys who wanted to explain why they were gathered there which served as a signal for Valdis to get started.
Despite wearing quite heavy armor, he quickly arrived in front of a young man with blond hair and threw several punches in his direction just to test his reflexes. The young man was capable of deflecting all of Valdis's punches, though he decided to regain some distance between them to recover his posture. It was evident that if he were to defend against Valdis' punches for a while longer, he would lose his posture and definitely get hit.
Valdis suddenly felt a killing intent right behind him and narrowly dodged the punch coming from above, it was Saryu who just missed him. When he wanted to kick her away, he was forced to jump away from her to get away from the Koro's sharp teeth.
However, the moment he landed, he had to draw a dagger and parry a short girl's katana to the side.
"You aren't aware of your surroundings." The girl wielding katana said when they got Valdis surrounded from all sides.
"Now, Koro!" Saryu ordered and jumped towards Valdis with a crazy smile. From the other side, the girl also made her move and she nimbly arrived near Valdis once again, slashing her katana at the same time as Saryu swung her fist and Koro opened his mouth in order to bite. Only a blond-haired guy remained still and observed from distance.
At that moment, Esdeath frowned.
'It seems like this is the end, he has tons of potential but needs to be trained by someone...' She was already satisfied with his performance but she didn't plan on interfering since the girl didn't swing her katana with the intent to kill.
*BANG* Esdeath's eyes narrowed when the joint attack produced a strange sound only after the smoke cleared up, her eyes widened.
"What is this?" Saryu questioned when she felt hit something solid, upon looking more closely at the thing surrounding Valdis, it was a dark green aura in form of some kind of ribs.
"Some kind of armor...Teigu?" The short girl jumped away and muttered with a serious expression.
'So this is the feeling of using Susanoo, it can certainly give someone a feeling of invincibility' Valdis thought and the dark green aura around him was spreading and getting stronger, making everyone in the room finally take him seriously as they felt threatened by the cold evil aura.
The guy who previously got kicked in the gut by Esdeath got up.
"I don't know what you have against us but don't think that we will let you be the only one to use Teigu" The guy said and put the sword in front of him and pierced the floor with it.
"GRAN-!"
"That's enough!" Suddenly, everyone felt a chilling aura permeating their skin. Esdeath has seen more than enough so she decided to stop it before it got too serious since she felt that Valdis actually wanted them to use Teigu against him.
While she felt that his actions were a bit foolish, she couldn't help but like his fearlessness and desire for battle.
'I am sure he is the one!' Esdeath blushed beneath her mask, already forming a plan to make Valdis hers.
