Gleipnir (3)

Chapter 38: Gleipnir (3)

Azrail Astaroth Pov:

[Familiar Forest.]

"So this is the Familiar Forest, huh?"

Alice and I appeared inside the dense forest, and the magic circle under our feet disappeared.

"But this isn't the underworld…" That was the first thing which caught my eye. "A separate dimension, perhaps?"

"You can say that…"

As the two of us looked around the forest, a loud shout came from above.

"GET SOME!"

"Ah, there he is…"

Alice turned around, only to find a middle-aged man standing atop a tree branch, looking at us with a big smile.

"I'm the Familiar Master, Zatouji. Mmh, even though it isn't a full moon, one shouldn't shy away from taming more familiar! Stick with me, and on this day, any familiar you want is yours for the getting!"

Moments after the man's ear-numbingly loud introduction, Alice turned towards me and explained.

"He's an expert when it comes to Familiars. I called him here since he knows where the Nine-Headed Hydra is…"

"It's been a while, Lady Alice!" Zatouji jumped down from the branch, landing in front of us. "And this little devil must be Lord Beelzebub's youngest brother, Azrail Astaroth."

'Hold up…'

I stared at the red-haired man with some confusion. A backwards baseball hat, black shorts, a white t-shirt, a green sweater wrapped around the waist, and the title of a Familiar Master…

'What in the Dark Timeline Ash Ketchum is that…?'

"Nice to meet ya, little one… Remember, when it comes to familiars, you shouldn't forget one rule!"

"And what'd that be?"

At my question, Zatouji clenched his fists and exclaimed, "Gotta catch 'em all!"

"Yeah… Gotta catch 'em all." I gave Zatouji a thumbs up, and his smile widened. "By any chance, are you from Pallet Town?"

"Pallet Town? Never heard of it. I'm from the Madara Town!"

"The Madara Town. Of course… Isn't that the place always in conflict with the Hashirama Town?"

It wouldn't be surprising if the two town chiefs were secretly in love.

"I never thought someone from the 72 Pillars would know so much about my hometown! You're a cool devil, Azrail Astaroth…"

"Ahaha…" I let out a dry laugh at those words. "I only read the folklore behind those towns; that's all…"

"That's amazing, too… Now then, what kind of familiar do you want? A strong one? A fast one? Perhaps a poisonous one?"

"We already have a familiar in mind. Can you guide us to it?"

"Of course! There's no familiar I don't know about! Tell me, which one is it?"

"The Nine-Headed Hydra."

At that blunt declaration, Zatouji's movements halted.

"That evil snake…?"

He then turned towards Alice as if to confirm the authenticity of my words, and she nodded in return.

"Well, it should be fine since Lady Alice is with you…"

After talking about random things for a few minutes, Zatouji guided us through the forest while explaining what kind of familiars lived there.

There were Slimes, Bats, Cats, Tiny Oni, Birds, Sprite Dragons, Dogs, Wolves, and even Elemental Spirits.

It was an entertaining place.

"What's the strongest familiar we can tame here?"

"The strongest, huh?" Zatouji pondered for a few seconds. "That'd be Tiamat. She's strong enough to rival a Satan Class Devil easily, but no one has ever managed to make a contract with her, much less tame her completely."

"By Tiamat, you mean…"

Alice continued from where I left off. "The Chaos Karma Dragon, and the strongest among the Five Great Dragon Kings."

"She's inside the Familiar Forest?"

That came off as a surprise. There weren't any records of a freaking Dragon King living inside this place.

"Technically speaking, the Familiar Forest is Tiamat's domain… She lent it to the devils for breeding familiars and using it as a storehouse for them since the environment was nearly perfect. In exchange, we look after this place and pay her once every century."

"Then, the rule that devils can only come here on full moon…"

"Tiamat created it since she didn't want to be bothered regularly… The only exceptions to that rule are those who work here—like Zatouji, along with the Four Great Satans."

"Then, what about you?"

"I manage the payments every century, so there's no problem in dropping by once in a while..."

At this point, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that Alice was probably the most competent person in our species.

"Hydra's lair is under those mountains…" Zatouji pointed towards the mountain range at a distance from us. "I can't accompany you any further since it's quite a dangerous place."

We thanked Ash Ketchum for his help and moved forward.

As we approached the mountain, I summoned a small bottle filled with purple liquid from my [Dimensional Storage] and gulped it down.

"Blegh!"

The taste was so disgusting it almost made me puke.

It was much worse than drinking tar and expired orange juice mixed with baking soda and poisoned blood.

"Was that…"

"The antidote to Hydra's poison… I made it a few months ago."

"Wait a minute…" Alice narrowed her eyes at me. "Where'd you get Hydra's poison from?"

"Don't look at me like that. I bought it through legal channels…"

"How much did it cost?"

"… 400 Million."

"And where did that money come from? I don't recall you asking someone for it…"

'If I don't tell her now, she'll keep looking into it until she finds out…' Since that was the case, I continued with a light cough. "I ran a small online sca— I mean, business to raise some funds…"

Experiments were expensive. Fight me.

The fact that most of my raw materials came from the black market didn't help much in saving money.

Compared to all that, purchasing Hydra's venom wasn't even worth mentioning.

"Azrail…" Alice blinked at me, dumbfounded. "You won't beat the allegations at this rate…"

"No one other than you knows, so there are no allegations…"

That was thanks to Great Sage's help.

[You're welcome, Master.]

Alice was about to say something, but before she could—

Rumble!*

"What the hell…"

Crack!*

The ground started to tremble violently, and cracks appeared everywhere, similar to a catastrophic earthquake.

Without wasting any time, Alice and I flew towards the sky using [Wind Magic], only stopping at a great distance above the now destroyed landscape.

For us, it was more instinctual to fly with magic than summoning our wings.

"Holy shit… So that's what Zatouji meant when he said this place is quite dangerous…"

"There are many dangerous places in the familiar forest." Alice smiled at my reaction. "Why else do you think we asked him to guide the young devils here?"

The two of us watched as the ground split open, only for nine enormous snake heads to emerge from within, each letting out a roar as the Nine-Headed Hydra's enormous body surfaced from underneath the ground.

The terrifying yet strangely majestic giant snake reared like a tower stabbing the sky, with black scales and nine pairs of green eyes glinting at the front of each head.

Each of its bodies was large enough to wrap around and entirely demolish a skyscraper without much trouble individually.

And as if its appearance wasn't terrifying enough already, the bloodthirsty and dreadful aura leaking from its body could make weaker individuals pass out in fear.

"Hey, Alice… Isn't this a bit too big compared to the records?"

"Hydra can freely alter its body and size; the last time I saw it, it was only a few centimetres tall with a single head…"

"I know that, but to think it could grow that much…"

"Who dares trespass the Great Me's territory?" The Hydra's heavy voice echoed throughout the familiar forest as all his nine heads stared at me and Alice. "Scram now or die!"

'First the Dark Timeline Ash and now a snake that talks like a cultivation novel ancestor. And it said scram…'

Indeed, the familiar forest was strangely entertaining.

"Make a familiar contract with me, Hydra."

At those words, the snake let out a loud, ear-numbing hiss. "I refuse!"

"Well, if that's how it is, I have no choice but to be a little forceful…" My demonic power surged as Arondight appeared in my hand, and I pointed the blade towards the Nine-Headed Hydra. "Alice, please beat the living shit out of this dumbass for me!"

To deal with the cultivation ancestor, I summoned the young master inside me and used his ultimate trump card—family background.

"…"

"…"

[…]

The silence after my words was loud.

"A devil must tame a familiar on their own, whether by force or a mutual agreement… Those are the rules, remember?"

What Alice didn't mention was how no High-Class Devil cared about those rules.

Young devils from the 72 Pillars would receive help to tame powerful and useful familiars all the time.

"You saw how strong that previous sneak attack was, right? I'd have turned into paste if that landed…"

The Nine-Headed Hydra was a lot stronger than what the records said.

Instead of answering my question, Alice asked something else. "What about the prototype spell you wanted to test?"

"I can do that after you deal with it."

"You don't need to be intimidated by that appearance; the current Hydra isn't that strong... While it possesses enough physical strength to easily kill an Ultimate Class Devil, its speed and magical capabilities aren't enough to keep up with you, not in that nonsensically large form, at least…"

At Alice's explanation, I stared at the enormous snake and recalled everything stated about it in the books.

'Hydra's regeneration speed depends on its size, so if I damage it enough, it'll have no choice but to become short to regenerate faster…'

However, there was one problem.

'The shorter it becomes, the more its regeneration, speed, durability, and precision increases…'

So, the best outcome would be to deal with it in the least amount of time possible.

'Well, whatever… As long as Alice is here, she'll bail me out before it gets dangerous, so let's see how successful that prototype is…'

"Such disrespectful behaviour!" Hydra opened one of its mouths towards us, launching a spinning torrent of greenish liquid shaped like a serpent's head that came out of its mouth. "Die!"

'What a potent acid. It'll melt a High-Class Devil's body within milliseconds if it comes in contact with it…'

Hydra's acid was strong enough to melt anyone whose aura wasn't potent enough to protect their skin against it.

Supernaturals could guard against such attacks and abilities by using their aura to cover their bodies, but that wasn't always necessary.

After all, an attack that couldn't hit was meaningless.

"Too slow…"

"I told you, right?"

Alice and I moved out of the attack's path without difficulty, and the acid serpent passed from right next to me, creating a strong gust of wind.

"Let's see…"

I placed my left hand on my chest, surging my demonic power to cast [Gravity Magic] on myself.

At first, [Gravity Magic] wasn't suitable for battles because it took some time to charge up depending on someone's strength and natural resistance since it manipulated the target's Gravitational Field.

The stronger one was, the more they could instinctively resist such magic, and naturally, I was no exception to that rule, which made manipulating my gravitational fields difficult.

But after working on it for a while, I improved [Gravity Magic] enough to decrease my weight without taking too long.

'Now then…'

With my weight reduced to a tenth of its original value, I channelled my aura through Arondight and activated [Way of the Wind], only to—

Whoosh!*

Blitz past one of Hydra's heads almost instantly, stopping at a distance by creating an opposite gust of wind.

'It's as I thought… Reducing my weight is a much better alternative for immediate benefits than slowly training [Way of the Wind]…'

Not to mention, the reduced weight also made controlling [Way of the Wind] a lot easier, albeit slightly decreasing my overall attack power in exchange. [1]

'But the Hydra's durability is insane… My shoulders almost snapped at the moment of contact. If it became shorter, I doubt my physical attacks would even pierce his skin…'

Thud!*

With a loud, meaty thud, the head that previously attacked us detached from Hydra's body, falling to the ground while extruding purple blood from his sliced neck.

The blood from his body was corrosive, too, corroding whatever it came into contact with, from trees, rocks, and even the ground itself.

On the other hand, its original body had already started healing, with the missing head growing back rapidly.

"Astaroth Devil! You court death!"

Hydra's words held nothing but seriousness and contempt in them, and one of its heads charged towards me, intending to crush my body with a single strike.

However, after hearing those words—

"Pfft…!"

I almost laughed out loud at how the snake talked.

"You dare laugh at me, Devil?!"

"You're making it hard not to laugh…"

Activating [Way of the Wind], I moved away from the incoming attack, stopping next to the Hydra's chopped-off head on the ground before placing my hand on its scales.

Even though it wasn't even a tenth of Hydra's body, the severed head was still dozens of times more mass than an average adult.

'[Gravity Magic]…'

I poured my demonic power into the head, creating a gravitational field for it from scratch.

Yeah, I wasn't altering its already existing gravitational field but creating an entirely new one instead.

'Great Sage, make sure to note everything...'

[Answer. Understood.]

"That should be enough…"

It took me a few seconds to create the artificial gravitational field, and the moment it finished, I activated [Way of the Wind] and moved away from the severed head.

After all, the artificial field's purpose wasn't to do something fancy. All it had to do was slowly disrupt the head's natural gravitational field, which would happen without my interference.

Not to mention, if something happened and the head's total mass changed significantly, it'd disperse the artificial gravitational field, so I couldn't stand there and let Hydra attack it.

"Stop running away like an insect and face me head-on, bastard!"

"Don't wanna…"

I started running around the Hydra's enormous body while dodging the onslaught of attacks, and to irritate it even further, I did so with a hair's length.

'Compared to Lyra's precise and lethal attacks, this isn't even child's play…'

Even though each of Hydra's attacks was enough to send me to the afterlife, there was no sense of urgency in my mind.

Maybe it was because Alice was with me, coupled with how the incoming attacks were too predictable and slow.

And as if that wasn't enough, the wounds I inflicted on the snake healed almost instantly, so there was little to no sense of accomplishment in this fight.

"What the hell is your strategy?" With a loud, lazy yawn, I landed on one of Hydra's heads, standing in front of its giant eyeball. "To bore me to death or something?"

"Don't look down on me, brat!"

Without hesitation, another one of Hydra's heads launched towards me to swallow me. I jumped lightly and dodged the attack, letting the other head bite the one I stood on in the process, almost spilling its corrosive blood on me.

'I had no intentions of checking this spell, but well…' With a magnificent backflip, I placed my left hand on Hydra's head, creating a dense layer of Demonic Aura to protect myself as a magic circle appeared on my palm. "[Melt]…"

As those words finished, a dangerously dense amount of electromagnetic radiation came out of the magic circle, exciting the water molecules within Hydra's body, causing them to vibrate and generate heat through friction.

Within ten seconds, the two of Hydra's heads under me melted before falling to the ground, which made me smile.

It was a success.

'I can't use this spell's full potential since it even attacks the user…'

The only method to defend against [Melt] was by condensing a lot of aura around the body, which the Hydra couldn't because of his low magic power reserves and such an enormous body.

Even an Ultimate Class Devil would die if they came in contact with such dense electromagnetic radiation and didn't defend themselves with their Demonic Aura.

If used unrestrained, [Melt] would kill anyone who couldn't defend against it within a radius of fifty kilometres.

The fact that no one could sense electromagnetic radiation would make it extremely hard to defend against.

'To think knowing how microwaves worked would lead to such a fantastic spell…'

[Melt] worked by heating the water molecules within the target through electromagnetic radiations.

In short, it made a living microwave.

The spell wasn't finished yet, but the prototype's performance satisfied me.

"What—?!" Another one of Hydra's heads gasped in disbelief, only to let out a ferocious roar. "You won't make it out—!"

"You're the one who should worry about making it out alive…" I interrupted the Hydra mid-sentence, enhancing my voice with [Sound Magic]. "Let's see how much damage your body can handle…"

Rumble!*

The moment my words finished, the ground beneath Hydra trembled violently.

'Finally… It took over fifteen minutes for the spell to charge up…'

After a few seconds, the objects that weren't attached to the ground started to levitate, from the rubble created during our battle to the broken trees, while craters started appearing at random spots due to intense gravitational force.

It was a bizarre phenomenon.

"Wha—?!"

Hydra's eyes widened as it looked around in surprise, and I turned towards its severed head.

"[Gravity Collapse.]"

The spell formation was complete, and within seconds, Hydra's severed head started 'collapsing' on itself until only a tiny, pitch-black dot remained floating above the ground.

The dot was so tiny that it couldn't even seen with naked eyes, and the only reason I could sense it was because of its chaotic gravitational waves.

"I'll see you later, dumbass." The Astaroth Clan's [Transportation Magic Circle] appeared under me, and I smiled at the Hydra, whose eyes trembled in response. "If you can survive this, that is."

"What are you even—?!"

Zap!*

Before Hydra could finish his words, my body disappeared, reappearing next to Alice, who stood at a fair distance from our battlefield with a frown on her beautiful face.

"What kind of spell is that…"

Since she knew the basics of [Gravity Magic], it wasn't surprising that she could also sense the single point of concentrated mass.

"By touching an object, [Gravity Collapse] creates an artificial gravitational field for it, which clashes with its natural one, resulting in a localised gravitational field disruption, which then causes the object to 'collapse' on itself and condense into a single point. You can think of it as a watered-down black hole that only sucks in a single target…"

I could make it suck other matter inside it, too, at least theoretically, but that would be too much for my current self to control.

"But what's the point?" Alice seemed curious, looking at me with a somewhat confused gaze. "From what I can tell, the best it can do is dispose of bodies…"

"The black hole sucks the target into a single point, slowly breaking down their mass, soul, and magical power into pure energy…" I smiled at the blonde [Knight], and her eyes slowly widened in realisation. "Only to release everything outwards in something resembling a supernova…"

It was the spell I had in mind while creating [Gravity Magic] almost a decade ago. Back then, it wasn't one of my main concerns, so I only worked on it after ending up inside my consciousness.

"Wait a minute… Converting mass into pure energy, not to mention magic power and soul…"

Within seconds, Alice's expression went from thoughtfulness, realisation, disbelief, anger, and helplessness to absolute horror.

Her reaction wasn't out of my expectations, not after she most likely made some simple calculations.

'Her thoughts are written all over her face…'

Based on the formula of E=mc^2, if a human with a mass of seventy kilograms converted into pure energy, the rough amount of energy it'd create would be around 6.3 x 10^18 joules.

For example, that amount was significantly higher than a nuclear bomb, which released around 10^13 to 10^15 joules of energy.

And as if that wasn't enough, [Gravity Collapse]'s efficiency in causing destruction was far greater than bombs, which made it a far more devastating attack.

However, that wasn't the best part of the spell. Even an Ultimate Class Devil's attack could match or surpass that output.

The best part of the attack was—

"Not only the target's mass…" Alice looked speechless, exchanging glances between me and the ticking time bomb near Hydra. "But their soul and magical power are also converted into energy…"

Yeah. [Gravity Collapse] also broke down the target's soul into energy like [Life Force Conversion], creating even more power than simply converting mass into energy.

But since that was the case, the energy created by the soul depended on how strong it was, so the results varied based on who the target was.

For example, the soul of a devil with a lifespan of around 10,000 years would produce a hundred times more energy than a human with 100 years of lifespan.

"It's an amazing spell, right? The energy created from both mass and soul collides together, igniting a new reaction and creating an even bigger explosion…"

The spell took too long to charge and could easily fall apart in the early stages with some disruptions, so it wasn't suitable for battle.

Not to mention, it wasn't and couldn't be used as a power source like [Life Force Conversation] since the reactions were too unstable and violent.

However, that didn't matter much.

After all, [Gravity Collapse]'s sole purpose was unrestrained destruction.

"If used on a living person, their body and soul would condense into a single point instantly, which causes pain beyond anything one could ever imagine…"

At that explanation, Alice stared at me for a few seconds. "Why'd you create such a spell?"

'So that's what she wants to know…'

A soul, when destroyed, would freeze the person's consciousness at that moment in an attempt to preserve itself, making that one moment of destruction seem like an eternity.

The pain of getting one's soul destroyed was unimaginable, even for the oldest of battle-hardened warriors.

Coupled with the self-preservation mechanism of the soul, a person would essentially suffer unimaginable pain for all eternity.

It was a fate worse than death.

"Isn't that obvious?" I gave Alice a knowing smile. "To use it on the ones who sent Shadow Fiend after me…"

That was why I went out of my way to make it as painful as possible for the living targets.

However, despite all that, the spell had some failsafe mechanisms built in to prevent some unexpected phenomena from occurring as after-effects.

From my hypothesis, if [Gravity Collapse] was used on mass and soul beyond certain limits, it could lead to a miniature black hole, wormhole formation, temporal distortions, or even dimensional rifts.

And as much as I felt excited about witnessing them, they were well beyond the reach of my current self.

"And how do you plan on finding the ones behind it? We have no clue about the Shadow Fiend's identity, much less the ones who hired her. It'd be meaningless to point fingers at someone without evidence…"

"Who knows…"

Noticing that I had no intention to be more specific, Alice sighed. "Please don't make any more foolish decisions in the heat of the moment…"

"I know that much, Alice…" I glanced towards [Gravity Collapse], which was about to explode any minute now. "Even during a trial phase, I controlled the spell carefully and used it on Hydra's severed head, which has no soul or magic power inside it to keep the explosion under control…"

"That's for the best…" Alice gave me a small, relaxed smile. "You must've considered Hydra's infinite regeneration and how it'd create a lot more energy than any other mass of similar value, making sure not to destroy the Familiar Forest and cost the Astaroth Clan a huge fortune, right?"

"Ah…" My body paused at the sudden realisation. "Now that you mention it…"

[…!]

The smile on Alice's face disappeared, but before she could react, a blinding white light emerged from near the Nine-Headed Hydra, illuminating the entire Familiar Forest as the temperature around us started to increase rapidly.

The condensed point of mass [Gravity Collapse] made was about to create an artificial supernova-ish explosion any second now.

"You dumbass!"

Without waiting for another moment, Alice disappeared from her position, reappearing at a small distance away from [Gravity Collapse].

She raised her right arm towards the spell, and her demonic power surged as a dense, yellow aura appeared around her body.

'Wait a minute… Is she trying to—?'

Almost instantly, hundreds of cylindrical barriers appeared next to her, covering the mountain range that held the Nine-Headed Hydra's lair, with [Gravity Collapse] and the snake at its centre.

'She doesn't plan on containing the explosion, but to direct it upwards rather than outwards…'

The barriers she created were at least ten miles tall, with nothing to act as a lid above the cylinder.

The pure white light emerging from within the barriers was redirected towards the sky by Alice, along with creating a separate barrier to block all sounds.

And then, it happened.

The white light condensed into a single point within the barriers, only to create an explosion that surpassed any expectations I had while using the prototype for [Gravity Collapse] on Hydra.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*

However, instead of spreading outwards and causing widespread destruction, the barriers contained the explosion, directing its force upwards into something resembling a nuclear explosion rather than a supernova.

The entire Familiar Forest shook violently, creating a shockwave that ripped through the air, with thousands of un-tamed familiars running away from the contained explosion.

But thanks to Alice's quick thinking, most of the familiar forest didn't suffer much damage.

Although, the same couldn't be said for the area within the barriers.

"Maybe I overdid it a little…"

Everything inside Alice's barrier was… gone.

The enormous mountain range had disappeared from the face of the familiar forest, replaced by rivers of molten lava that flowed like veins of fire across the land.

A sea of liquid fire submerged the Nine-Headed Hydra's previously hidden lair, with the lava still creeping through the giant caves underneath; the temperature was so high that it distorted the light inside the barrier.

"A little would be an understatement, don't you think?"

An unfamiliar, mesmerising and feminine voice came from behind me, but before I could turn around—

'It'd be strange if she didn't appear after what happened…'

I felt an overwhelming weight pressing down upon me, which made it almost impossible to utilise [Wind Magic] and stand mid-air without conscious effort.

It wasn't hard to figure out the kind of 'aura' that appeared out of nowhere, not after working with hundreds of Sacred Gears that possessed auras related to various creatures.

However, the intensity of this aura was tens of thousands of times higher than any Sacred Gear I encountered.

It was hard to believe that this wasn't the fully released aura of the person behind me.

'Well…'

I surged my Demonic Aura to resist the intense Dragon Aura, slowly turning around with a small smile.

Although I could already sense her with [Gravity Detection], her appearance was surprising regardless.

The one behind me was a beautiful woman with long, pale blue hair, dark blue eyes, and a cold atmosphere that radiated from her well-maintained figure.

Her body released an extremely dense Dragon Aura, which, when compared to my Demonic Aura, made me appear like a child.

In her right hand, the woman held a little boy by the back of his collar, holding him like a backpack.

'So that's the Hydra's human form… Did she save him from within that explosion?'

I briefly glanced at the Nine-Headed Hydra before turning towards the pale blue-haired woman.

"To think I'd run into the Chaos Karma Dragon. This day is full of surprises…"

"Your Demonic Aura resembles Ajuka, and Alice's with you, too… Are you Beelzebub's brother?"

"Yes…"

I held back the urge to reply with an 'unfortunately' instead.

"Hmm…"

Tiamat exchanged glances between me and the devastation left behind by [Gravity Collapse], only for her lips to curl up into a small smile.

"You did that, right?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?"

"I thought it was Alice messing around at first, but to think that a devil who's barely in the Ultimate Class can create such an intense explosion with Magic alone…"

As she continued, Tiamat raised her left hand and stared at the small bruise on the back of her wrist.

"And for it to leave a mark on my body… Alright. I've decided…"

The Strongest Dragon King pointed her index finger towards me as the Dragon Aura around her subsided, and with a strangely charming smile, she continued.

"From now on, I'll teach you how to fight until you can bring out your full potential and give me a challenge…"

"What…?"

And here I thought things couldn't get any weirder.

---

Words: 4,890

A/N:

1. His physical strength and durability remain the same since his mass isn't altered by [Gravity Magic], but only his weight (since it alters his gravitational fields). However, the additional benefits he has with his weight (like some additional striking strength and ability to stand on the ground at attacks) are reduced.

Don't have a picture of Tiamat. I'll leave it up to you all.

Right, should I make an auxiliary chapter with things like harem members, peerage members, Mc's subordinates, other characters, and their illustrations?

The pictures I have for the harem members won't make it through the censorship (Latia and Amy's didn't), so I might also post the link to Wattpad for you to see the illustrations there.

Also, there might not be any updates for a few days (like 3 to 5). Sick again, thought I'd let you all know in advance.

Keep sending power stones so the fic doesn't lose momentum. Thanks.