22 Ch22: Training, Time-skip and Plans

AN: So, when I thought and tried to introduce romance, my drive and will to write just seemed to burn and turn to ash. I can't seem to be able to write anything that had romance in it, so fuck romance I guess. It's either that, or drop the story, so it was a pretty easy choice, maybe later I will try it again. Maybe I will just change the love interest or give up on it again. In fact, I actually got a pretty brilliant idea for a love interest that will be able to make with the mc anywhere but not sure if I will implement it. Also about the updates, as I said in the deleted notice, I'm fasting currently so the updates will be close to none.

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(3rd pov)

Above the Atlantic ocean, in a place where no land can be seen, there is a massive barrier that is being maintained by Ladon, the tree-dragon hybrid.

Besides him, there was currently 3 people in the barrier, Samuel, with 10 wings and 1 halo out, floating on one side. And on other side, there was 2 girls who also have 10 wings and halos, those are Valerie and Ingvild.

After Ingvild's reincarnation, she was introduced to almost all the others as just the weilder of the Longinus Nereid Kyrie, a high tier Longinus that is able to control Dragons and the Sea. Only the 4 great Seraph and her fellow brave saints that are reincarnated by Samuel know her true origin, as a former Leviathen descendant. Although very shy at first, over the course of the next 2 years following her reincarnation, thanks to the constant support and help from Samuel and the others, she was able to adapt to the current age and gain more confidence thanks to her training in both her new angel abilities, bloodline and sacred gear. She especially become very close with Valerie, as both have somewhat the same circumstances and their constant training together thanks to the fact that Valerie employs Dragons to fight.

And so, this is one such occasion, they both are training together with Samuel as their sparring partner.

" Well then, it's time to start, I will be leaving the first move to you two. And as agreed upon, I won't be summoning any being using AnnihilationMaker" announced Samuel as he summoned a light spear in his hands and waited. Thanks to the fact he can be considered the highest authority in his faction, and being a Super-class entity, Samuel no longer saw any reason to hide his power or sacred gears, of course he still keep some things secret to act as a trump card. Of course he didn't go around announcing the fact he has multiple sacred gears, but the Seraphs, his brave saints and some of the higher up of the Church, well just Vasco and Christaldi, were the ones that know.

To Samuel's announcement, both girls summoned numerous light spears and started hurling them at him. To the approaching wave of attacks, Samuel just coated himself in Touki before shooting forward to the girls while either deflecting or tanking the light spears. Noticing that they aren't doing much, Valerie started gathering her holy energy to form giant light spears while Ingvild materialised a magical circle, from which dozens of snake-like attacks made of holy energy started attacking him.

Slowing down to deal with the much stronger attacks, Samuel materialised numerous magic circles that started raining lightning and Light attacks, with both volley of attacks cancelling each other. Quickly taking the chance, Samuel seemingly teleported near Valerie and delivered a kick to her face, which was blocked by Valerie who felt her hands break a little before quickly healing.

As Samuel pulled his leg back and tried to retreat, he was forced to defend as Valerie started raining enchanted punch, although he was mostly fine thanks to his Touki armor. This lasted for a few seconds before Samuel disengaged as a blast of condensed water shot at his old position, courtesy of Ingvild, to which Samuel countered by erecting a barrier and shooting dozens of feathers which were intercepted by Valerie. Seeing this, Samuel clenched one of his hands, and soon he was covered in purple holy flames from Incinerate Anthem.

Gathering some of the flames in his clenched hand, he put down the barrier and instead released the condensed flames, which resulted in a sea of holy flames to be unleashed as it headed towards the 2 girls, consuming all attacks in its way. Seeing no other way, they quickly teleported away from their location and appeared quite far away behind Samuel. Turning around to face them, Samuel, who was still covered in both his Touki and Holy flame armor, just waited for then to make the next move.

" Ingvild, this is getting nowhere, we will have to go all out now" murmured Valerie, to which Ingvild had a serious look and said.

" OK, then you go first and I will be going second" hearing this, Valerie just smiled before closing her eyes and focusing all her energy as 3 grails materialised behind her, causing her reserves to triple and her body enhancements to become way stronger, as another pair of wings materialised behind her, making her have 12.

Seeing the change, Samuel decided to take a shot, and inscribed dozens of ᛚᚷᛜᛊᛏ( Fuel Air bomb) on some bullets, once shot and the mental command is given, water vapor in the air will be transmuted into oil by the Laguz, Gebo and Ingwaz runes, the oil will then be set on fire by the Sowilo Rune. The combustion of the large amount of oil will suck up nearby oxygen, causing every living thing within its range to suffocate and die. As the bullets approached, multiple barriers suddenly appeared in front them, which made the trigger go off, as multiple explosions went off and the air was being sucked but it was quickly stopped by even more barriers that surrounded the explosions.

Ahead of him, Samuel saw that Ladon was now floating behind Valerie with Grendel who was summoned too. Looking around, Samuel was able to feel an attack coming from above, which made him teleport away was a giant shot made out of water, containing Ingvild passed his past location and continued downwards until it fell into the sea. Looking downwards, he could see a whirlpool starting to form in the ocean below.

"*ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR*" the loud voice made Samuel look at the source, only to find a grinning Grendel accelerating towards him.

Seeing this Samuel just grinned too as he concentrated holy energy and Touki into his fists before hurling himself into Grendel, which caused a giant explosion as soon as they clashed. And from the clouds of smoke, Grendel was the one to be shoot out as Samuel was floating there with 12 wings and 2 halos.

Materialising 9 truth seeking orbs, 2 quickly shot out and formed a wall to block several giant holy light beams and spells which originated from both Ladon and Valerie. Making the 2 truth seeking orbs that blocked the attack fire a void beam at Valerie, Samuel pointed one of his hands at the approaching Grendel and unleashed a torrent of purple holy flames, which Grendel greated with the infamous Dragon Breath attack, causing yet another explosion. As the void beam reached its destination, it was blocked by multiple hundreds of complex barriers and soon was nullified thanks to Ladon. Valerie looking ahead, saw both Grendel and Samuel entering in a physical fight as they exchanged punch after punch, sometimes Grendel tries to take a bite only for Samuel to either dodge or just catch his teeth with his hands.

Looking around, she could see that Ingvild was soon to get ready as the whirlpool was already getting completed while the weather has changed with rain starting to fall in great quantities. Looking at the still ongoing fight, she just focused on supporting Grendel and letting defense to Ladon, as she gathered absurd amounts of holy energy in her grails.

Samuel, still entangled in the fight with Grendel, who either shrugged any hit or instantly healed it, also noticed the change in the surroundings so he decided to up his game. Making a giant explosion and pushing away Grendel with it, he gathered half of his truth seeking orbs into a large, double-helix shaped sword, in which he channeled the Dimensional Gap energy and sent a sword slash towards Grendel.

The Dragon, upon feeling the terrifying power of the sword which reminded him of Ophis, coated himself in his Dragon Aura and tried to weaken the slash using his Dragon Breath. As the slash arrived, it cleaved through the dragon breath with ease and instantly reached the dragon who crossed both his hands in front him while coating them in his aura causing a clash that lasted for close to 2 seconds before both hands were cleanly cut and the attack to leave a deep cut on his torso.

Watching Grendel starting to regenerate, albeit somewhat slowly because of the chaotic energy lingering in the wounds, Samuel didn't need to turn as the other half of his truth seeking orbs formed walls and barriers to block the oncoming onslaught of holy light spears, beams and even swords that were unleashed by Valerie. As the rain of attacks continued, Samuel just sent made one of his truth seeking balls launch itself towards Valerie while he himself started raining down spells upon spells on both sides. Ladon seeing the approaching doom ball, tried to stop it with multiple barriers but with no success as the black sphere just smashed through them. Seeing this, he decided to just teleport both of them as he doesn't have enough time to put a more complex barrier anymore.

As the situation turned to the worse for Valerie and her Dragons, there was a loud melodious hum from the sea that carried immense power with it, which seemingly boosted the power of both Dragons as Grendel was actually able to push back Samuel for the first time and bite down on his arm, but even then his teeth couldn't penetrate through the Touki armor, albeit they did made cracks on it. Quickly de-manifesting the black sword, Samuel made all his Tuth seeking orbs focus on Valerie and Ladon as he forced Grendel's mouth open and forced a ball of concentrated Holy light down his mouth before throwing him away as the ensuing explosion ripped apart his lower jaw that was soon regenerated.

Looking below, Samuel could feel Ingvild, who now had 12 wings seemingly merge with a part of the ocean that was saturated with holy energy as 5 giant snake like heads made of said water rose from the ocean, 3 already firing beams of holy energy at Samuel who had to manifest magical barriers as he was busy with Grendel and all the truth seeking orbs were fighting Valerie and Ladon. One of the heads was seemingly the source of the loud hum that was enchanting itself and the Dragons while the last one formed a giant magical circle in the sky.

Samuel who was still covering himself with holy fire was able to feel what the magical circle did, as all the rain that came in contact with him exploded in a small insignificant force but still a nuisance as there was a downpour, while the ones touching the other Dragons and Valerie seemingly enchanted and healed them.

Seeing the arrival of Ingvild, Valerie finally summoned her last unit for this fight. With the 3 grails glowing, another dragon manifested. It was a black colored eastern dragon having a large body about 20 meters long and ochre belly. Despite its snake-like appearance, it had four limbs and four wings. It also have eerily drooling fluids coming from its huge mouth. This was Niðhöggr, also known as the Abyss Rage Dragon, an evil cannibal dragon that is stronger than the current 5 dragon Kings. As its a Dragon summoned by Valerie, it was already extremely enchanted, and with this it appearance right now, it was also enchanted by Ingvild's singing and rain.

Seeing the situation starting to turn around, Samuel decided to up his game too, summoning the True Longinus in his hand while manifesting Incinerate Anthem behind him, which had a soul strapped on it. Soon the Soul manifested a body made of purple holy flames, as it turned into a giant 8 headed dragon made of holy flames. Indeed, this was a part of Yamato-no-Orochi's soul that was being used to manifest the balance breaker, although thanks to the fact that all restrictions on the sacred gear were lifted, and with both Samuel's power and the Holy grail, it was still able to exert a power compared to its peak.

The massive dragon upon manifesting, went straight down towards Ingvild who tried to control it but to no avail as Samuel was manipulating it by the Holy grail, Incinerate Anthem and Alphecca Tyrant at the same time, 3 longinus which were being used right now. Seeing that she can't control it, albeit just causing it headaches or making it go limp for few seconds, Ingvild just decided to fight the Holy evil dragon, as 5 extra giant water snake heads manifested and started trying fighting with the dragon who was vaporising all the water near it but still not changing much as the vaporized water just returned back to its original state. Seeing this, she started trying to drown him with giants waves and even started manifesting typhons and cyclones upon him, to which it responded by biting down on the snake heads while breathing great quantities of holy fire tainted with some venomous properties.

Seeing Ingvild occupied, Samuel began the fight with the 2 dragons by bombarding them with Telesma filled feathers which made chuncks upon chuncks of their body to disappear even when they were using their Dragon Aura, but that didn't stop their advance or regeneration, albeit the later was struggling because of the nature of Telesma, and soon entered a fight with Samuel who easily capable to inflict wounds, albeit small ones, on the dragons thanks to the True Longinus.

As the fight continued without clear winner for more than a half day, the first change apperead with Ingvild who couldn't support her transformation any longer and soon turned back into normal. After which Valerie ended up also giving up as she was cornered by both the Truth seeking orbs and the Yamato-no-Orochi avatar. Watching the exhausted girls, Samuel just smiled a little, de-summoned all the Dragons after he made Ladon repair any big damage that may have happened. He then took the girls and teleported away, making the giant barrier disappear.

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(MC pov)

(Location: First Heaven: Brave Saints headquarters)

Appearing in the headquarters of the brave saints in the first heaven, I put the girls who were unconscious in their beds as they share the same room, not because they didn't have a choice, but because they just wanted to, or more like Valerie wanted to. After going out, I was greeted by a smiling Gabriel.

" Samuel, glad to have you back. So I presume that the girls are unconscious after going overboard again?" she inquired, although she already probably knew.

" Indeed, they wanted to test how far can they push me if they went all out. Although they did a pretty good job all things considered." I answered with a sigh as I started roaming around the first heaven with Gabriel, who had a fit of giggling as she knew how excited the girls can be when it comes to trying to 'prove' themselves to me, even if there is nothing to prove. Even if I didn't use Ascalon as it was too lethal to Dragons thanks to the fact it was fused with a part of Samuel or Annihilation Maker, the fact they forced me to use Incinerate Anthem balance breaker is a pretty big feat all things considered.

We then fell into just a normal conversation as we continued our walk until we reached one of the few gardens in the city.

" Alright, so what's the big deal? I'm sure you have work to do, and while I know you like to ditch it from time to time, this isn't exactly how you would go with it" I asked her, despite already knowing the answer. She pouted a little at that and I just continued to look flatly at her.

" Fine, fine, you don't have to be such a buzz kill. The situation is serious though, so let's take a seat" Saying that, she sat down on a bench and patted the spot next to her, as I just say down and waited for her to continue.

" So as of yesterday, 3 of the 6 Excalibur that were stored has been stolen, one from each of the 3 big factions, the Catholic Church, Protestant Church of England and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Thanks to the tracking mechanism in the core of each Excalibur, we were able to trace them into Japan, specifically Kuoh Town, the current territory that us being lent to the Devils by the Shinto faction." she explained as I just nodded for her to continue.

" This is a very sensitive problem as our intelligence point to the fact that the culprit is most certainly Kokabiel, although it seems his actions are just his own and not representative of Grigoro. Above that, the Devils currently occupying Kuoh Town, as you probably already know, are the sisters of the current Satan Lucifer and Leviathan, so if anything happens to them, war is the most likely scenario." she stopped a little to just look aroumd a little, probably reminiscing about the times before the 20 Grigori fell.

" So as you see, we can't actually send a too much powerful force as that will be like an open threat to the Devils, so we settled to sending only our current Excalibur weilders as with that, neither the Devils nor the Fallen will be able to say anything or try to place the blame on us. So Jeanne, Irina and Xenovia will be going to Kuoh Town soon, as we are only waiting for your confirmation on the matter." As she waited for my answer, I honestly was just suprised it took a whole day for this to reach me.

" Well, I don't see any real problem, but I will just have them take shadow soldiers so that I can respond if they ever need it" I answered to which she just nodded. After that, we just had a little chat and bid each other goodbye as I proceeded to teleport away.

Appearing in the location in the human world where I felt 2 of my shadow soldiers, I was greeted with 2 people who have 10 black wings each. Seeing me they quickly dropped to the ground on their knees.

"" My lord"" Kokabiel and Satannael said at the same time, each one being controlled by a nail from Alphecca Tyrant.

" Kokabiel, I believe you met Valper Galilei?" I asked to which he answered with a curt " Yes".

" Then, proceed with your original plan, albeit make sure to not actually kill anybody and just fuse the 3 Excaliburs you currently have when the time comes, although I think you will need to weild the fused thing yourself as without it, you'll probably get defeated pretty easily once Jeanne go all out" to which he simply nodded and teleported away. Thinking back to this, I remember the changes that happened because of my actions, as because there was no Asia, Raynare and her ilk didn't stay in the city as they had no business there, which made him take a longer time to manifest the Boosted gear completely. Other than that, the plot was pretty much the same, they lost the rating game, Issei sacrificed his hand, used holy objects that he probably got from Grayfia. So the only significant change was the fact that Issei now is now more of a wrecked teenager with deep insecurities and never got any chance to either face them or have any sort of revenge, nothing important I'm sure. Looking to the still kneeling Satannael I said.

" Well, then, have they contacted you yet?" I asked who nodded his head and answered.

" They did my lord, in fact, I have a metting planned with their leader himself, the one you want to find" this news brought a smile to my face as I said.

" Well, why don't we go and meet him, the rat and his master has been hiding in the human world for too long. It's time to finish things here." As I got ready to go I remembered one thing.

" By the way Satanael, the name of the organisation, is it the same as the one I mentioned?" to which he responded.

" Yes, their name is Nilrem, with their leader secretly being Euclid Lucifage" after that I just nodded and told him to summon me when the meeting is close, which ironically enough, will happen at the same time as Kokabiel's attack on the Devils.