138 Until you lose consciousness

Tobio was having breakfast with the other members of Slash Dog. Only Vali and Lavinia were missing. The boy seemed not to have left the training room yet, and Lavinia had been called early by Medea to start imparting her knowledge.

The training room had food for a month, and the maids replenished them every day, so Jason didn't have to worry about Vali dying of starvation.

"Eat well. You'll need the nutrients." Jason told Tobio.

All SlashDog members greeted Jason. Jason sat at the only free space at the table next to Natsume and Shigune. He also joined the breakfast, which consisted of potatoes, eggs, bacon, and a glass of milk to go with it.

Jason always drank the glass of milk before eating the meal itself. Today was not a different day, and he drank the milk as usual. When he finished drinking it, he went to get a potato when...

"Where's my food?"

Jason looked at the rest of the breakfast eaters for an answer, but none seemed to have any idea who it was. Even Shigune, who had the best chance of stealing Jason's food, had no idea what was going on.

Crunch-Crunch

Jason lowered his gaze and saw the culprit. Shigune did the same because the culprit was between her and Jason. The creature was so small that the rest could not see it without ducking.

"Poh-kun?" Shigune spoke.

Yes, the culprit was Nanadaru Shigune's Sacred Gear. A small creature with two horns on its forehead and a strange mask. Jason did not understand how Poh had come this far. He was sure that none of the Sacred Gears were inside the room when he had entered and had not noticed that any had entered since they would have had to open the door, right?

Jason changed his gaze towards the door, and there he saw the reason why Poh had been able to enter without Jason noticing. In the door there was a hole the size of Poh, it seemed that the door had disintegrated.

"Sorry, Jason." Shigune apologized to Jason.

Jason laughed slightly, ironing the matter out. It was just breakfast, nothing to make a fuss about. Jason was more interested in Shigune's Sacred Gear.

"What exactly is his power?" Jason asked the girl.

"Poh-kun is a glutton, so he likes to eat the attacks of enemies," Shigune replied.

Jason didn't understand what Shigune meant. The door opened, and Azazel appeared to explain.

"Taotié/Toutetsu has a feature that places it on top of the rest of the four fiends, which is also why we call it the absolute defense. Actually, the term is wrong, as Toutetsu is not a shield. The power of this Fiend is to absorb any kind of energy; it's a bottomless pit."

Jason raised his eyebrows, surprised to hear Azazel's words. He looked at Poh curiously, the creature's eyes shone with intelligence and desire.

"Are you hungry?" Jason asked the little demon.

Poh nodded. Jason took the tray where his food was and approached Poh. Poh's mask-like face opened, and a bright light engulfed the plate, making it disappear. Jason had wondered if a tray that was larger than Poh could fit inside, but it seemed that what the creature was doing was not eating. Jason had realized that the plate had disintegrated at a molecular level and had entered Toutetsu's infinite stomach.

"Is there anything Poh can't eat?" Jason asked.

"From what we've tested, it can devour anything. But everything has a limit, Toutetsu's is pretty obvious because once his stomach fills up, he won't be able to eat anything else."

Jason doubted that such a thing was exact. He didn't think Poh could absorb his Balmung or his Rho Aias, but he wasn't sure if he could absorb their flames or ice and the mixture of the two. To prove it, Jason summoned a flame in the palm of his hand. Without fear, he put his hand close to Poh's mouth.

Poh opened his mouth and absorbed the flame quickly. Jason summoned more and more flames, and Poh continued to consume them. Toutetsu seemed very excited to see that he could continue eating non-stop, and it appeared that Jason's flames were delicious for Fiend's palate.

"Burp"

Poh burped and fell back to the ground. He caressed his stomach with his short legs. It seemed to be full.

"Hahaha, what an interesting creature." Jason laughed.

Even though Jason laughed, he was a little scared inside. Although it hadn't been to a level that Jason would worry about, the amount of mana Jason had consumed had been abysmal. Poh had been absorbing fire without stopping for a total of five minutes. Thinking that Poh could stop attacks for five minutes while the rest of the team attacked, Jason suddenly felt sorry for Slash Dog's enemies. Jason still didn't know what Poh's true form was like, but Augusta had commented that he could destroy all the forest where they had been fighting before so he should be quite powerful.

Jason got up from the table and said goodbye to the rest. Tobio followed quickly.

"Where are we going today?" Tobio asked Jason. He was hoping for another trip around the world.

"Nowhere."

Jason continued to walk the halls of Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Tobio followed him, and soon they reached the secondary training room. Today it was free as Medea was teaching Lavinia intellectual knowledge.

Tobio and Jason entered, and the door closed behind them. As soon as he entered, Tobio fell to his knees.

"What's happening?" He asked in alarm.

"In this room, gravity is twice as powerful, sit down, and try to adapt to it as quickly as possible."

Tobio clenched his teeth as he tried with all his might to get up from the ground. He wasn't like Vali who could take ten times more powerful gravity. The hardest training he'd gone through was running 10 km, doing a few push-ups and jumping into the bend for a few minutes. For the combats, he had relied on Jin and his instincts with the scythe to defend himself.

Jason calmly waited for Tobio to adapt to the increased gravity. He knew he had to be patient with Tobio at first. The boy was someone who didn't have the foundations and had to start from the bottom. If you took away Tobio's Sacred Gear, there was a boy who could barely defend himself with a scythe.

When he thought of a helpless boy without his Sacred Gear, Jason thought of his childhood friend. Issei was a boy who was nothing without his Boosted Gear. Jason had wanted to train him since he was little, but he had a problem to do that, Issei lacked magical power. His magic power was so low that he could not activate his Sacred Gear. Jason was going to need Rias' help so that he could gain the ability to activate it by becoming a devil.

Jason saw that Tobio had adapted to the new gravity, although he still had difficulties.

Jason's order was simple.

"Run."

Tobio looked at him with a blank face.

"Don't you understand me? I said run," Jason shouted.

"Yes, yes!

Tobio started running, although he wasn't speedy. He had a hard time running with this increase in gravity. Jason hadn't told him how to run, so he started running around the room.

"How many laps do I do?" Tobio once asked him what happened next to Jason.

"Until you lose consciousness."