4 Chapter 4: Time dilutes everything

The abandoned factory was in a pretty good state. Ironically, it was also where his parents "died", not that the two children knew that.

Frau didn't stop them either, finding no reason to do so. After all, his parents weren't dead.

Now that he knew that the various mythologies were true, perhaps sending an offering to both the underworld and heaven would allow him to save some mana when reviving people. His parents might not have died, but the "just in case" situation always made Frau determined to have enough mana for that.

He looked at the blue screen and sighed.

[268,435,456/268,435,456]

An increase of 32 times from two weeks ago, yet it still wasn't enough.

It was so cheap to remove life, but to buy a life? It was like those nasty businessmen who buy their products at super low prices but sell them at sky-high prices.

Perhaps Hades would make a good businessman.

Just thinking about it made Frau irritated, and clicking his tongue caused a slight echo to resound throughout the place.

"Yii!" Issei shrieked and jumped up from the fright, only realizing that he was just overreacting after Irina and Frau gave him funny looks.

"This place looks normal. It doesn't even look abandoned at all." Irina commented as she looked around the place. There were still machines and boxes left around, but there was hardly any dust nor the generic cobwebs that showed that it was abandoned.

"Say, we shouldn't be doing this. What if something jumped at us? Look, it's already too dark inside." Issei said while already regretting his decision to come here with his two mad friends.

"You're such a wimp, Issei. It isn't even that dark." Irina shot a look at Issei after seeing him tremble like a newborn chick, "Man up, will ya?"

"You're a boy, Issei. Shouldn't boys be the ones protecting the girls under this type of situation?" Frau added his own comment.

"Huh? Who is the girl here?"

As expected...Issei still doesn't know that Irina is a girl.

"You baka!" Irina shouted and stormed off inwards.

"Huh?"

Looking at Issei's confused look, Frau merely smiled in amusement and shook his head in pity, "Come on, now. Let's get going."

Everything should have been cleaned since Frau had used his powers on a large scale to remove all traces of their previous battle.

Two weeks weren't nearly enough to cause some weird smell to appear. Unless it wasn't natural, that is.

Continuing their exploration inside while peeping at the wooden boxes and rusty metal thingies that had weird shapes, Frau suddenly smelled a stench that didn't bring any good news. The smell of metal was particularly potent in this place filled with almost nothing but metal and wood, but even so, the smell of iron from blood was distinct.

'Sigh...yet another idiot coming in here to make a mess of this place.'

To Frau, this place was considered "sacred" until his parents returned. After all, it was the place where they "died", and tainting it with another wave of blood seems...disrespectful.

'How should this one die now? It should be clean, efficient, and allows me to use tons of mana so that my mana pool can quickly increase...'

Frau's thought process quickly arrived at his desired results, and he looked at his childhood friends, who were still sneaking and peeping around the area, searching for clues to their desired "ghost".

If only they knew that there were things far scarier than ghosts together with them right now. Fortunately, Frau wasn't hostile to them.

As for the intruder? He was far too weak compared to even Touji, much less Rizevim. Frau wouldn't even consider him as "scary".

"Yo, let's split up to see if we can find the ghost faster. I don't know about you guys, but I'm feeling pretty hungry."

"Does that mean we have to split up?" Issei asked fearfully.

"You can stick with Shidou if you're scared."

Irina only snorted at Issei's behavior and nodded her head in agreement.

"Great, then I'll go in this direction," Frau said, pointing towards where the blood stench was most potent, "and you guys will go the opposite direction."

Nobody argued against Frau, so they split up, with Issei following Irina like a chick.

'Now that they're out of the way...' Frau walked towards his chosen direction and observed.

As expected, while not very strong, the smell of blood came from this direction.

There were several blood drops on some of the wooden boxes, while some blood stained the walls.

"Oho? What's this? Some free food came running for me at a place like this. I chose this place because I thought no one would dare to come here after the incident, but I guess human children are an exception."

A green-haired man in his mid-thirties appeared from the shadows, wearing similar green attire and a matching green hat. Frau had never wanted to comment on someone's fashion sense so much before.

The green was...disgusting. It was not even some happy green, it was pure vomit green.

"So it's you who was occupying this place? I thought no supernatural denizen would be stupid enough to enter this place after the various investigations, but I guess there'll be idiots everywhere, huh?"

"Idiots?" The man growled in displeasure, "I'll have you know that I'm from one of the 72 pillars of the devil society, the Amy clan who specializes in poison!"

"Wasn't the Amy clan already extinct from the great war?" Frau thought about the general knowledge he gained from studying under the two bishops and asked. The number of families that still exist is 32, while the remaining 40 families are extinct.

"Well, you're wrong. There are plenty of - wait! Why am I explaining to you all of this?!" The man was about to continue explaining when he suddenly realized that he didn't need to.

"Well, treat it as some going-to-die-soon boy's last wish."

"Well, if it's like that, I suppose I can grant you some knowledge as long as you know your place." The man smirked, "Clans might be extinct in name only, but there will always be some survivors that are either too weak or too little in number to form an actual 'clan', thus removing their title."

"I see. Now, die."

[168,435,456/268,435,456]

Without even looking at the devil who completely disappeared into thin air, Frau looked around and cleaned up everything else to remove the last trace of evidence.

While the man wasn't a stray devil, any wandering devil in the human world wouldn't have much of a great goal. In this case, the man who claimed that he was from the Amy clan was testing out his poisons on various animals. There were the usual specimens, like dogs and cats and birds, but there were also some rare animals that Frau had never seen before. A red panda, a sloth bear, and even a super poisonous golden poison frog.

Most of them were dead or half-dead, while the poisonous animals were primarily fine apart from the lethargic energy they emitted.

'They must have been used to extract out poison.'

Frau didn't know what to do with these animals, and he did what he thought would be the best call of action - calling the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and telling them his current location where all the animals were currently being held at.

In this day and age, it was really simple to do so. After confirming that they would soon send someone to verify his words, Frau proceeded to test out his powers.

He knew he could revive somebody - his test with the blade of grass already showed him the results. But what about a bigger object?

"Please..." Frau prayed to God and cast his powers on the corpse of the red panda.

"Reject."

[168,435,556/268,435,456]

Nothing changed, but Frau was not too disappointed. After all, if a single blade of grass costed 130 million, the life of a significantly more complex creature was definitely be at least 10 times more, if not greater.

Since he could not revive any animals, Frau could only proceed to heal the rest of the hundred or so animals before returning to where Irina and Issei were still searching. Healing was significantly easier than reviving.

[168,235,556/268,435,456]

"Frau! Have you found the ghost?"

"Nope."

"Aw..." Irina pouted while Issei let out a bright smile, "Can we go home now?"

Frau smiled as he led the trio out of the factory."

Sure, let's go home now."

∞

"Good afternoon, Touji. What brings you here at this time?" The old priest smiled as he noticed the Shidou family entering the Church just slightly after lunchtime, "And I didn't know you had a daughter, Touji."

"Ojii-san!" Irina pouted as she stared at the old priest who was teasing her. She was wearing a dress, a rather rare sight to behold.

"Good afternoon to you too. I'm here to see Frau."

"Haha...but Frau, huh?" The old priest hesitated for a bit. "I know that circumstances aren't controlled by man, and I can't really fault you for anything. But both of you have been avoiding each other for a few weeks now. Is it really a good idea for both of you to meet?"

Meanwhile, Irina and Grace just stared curiously at the both of them, not knowing what they were thinking about.

"I..."

"Regardless, please come and have some tea and snacks with me while you ponder what you plan to talk to Frau about. Meanwhile, Irina-chan can go visit Frau first."

Touji smiled at the old priest's warm invitation, but his face still left behind traces of exhaustion which did not disappear even after a few weeks have passed.

"We'll take your offer. Thanks for having us."

"No need to thank me. Everything will go along with God's plan. If you don't make up with Frau today, then it would just be fate." The priest smiled as he led them to the common dining area.

∞

"Frau!"

"Irina?" Frau was surprised at the sudden shout as he turned towards the door. The door flew open, and a depressed Irina entered.

"Who are you?!"

"Frau!"

Frau only laughed as Irina pouted as she got teased about her attire for the second time today.

"Hahaha, it's just a weird sight to behold after being used to you being a boy for my entire life. Anyway, what are you doing here? There wasn't any plan to go out today, right?"

"I'm here to say goodbye..."

"Goodbye? Are you leaving for somewhere?" Frau inquired as he went towards Irina.

"Yes. My father has work somewhere else, and we need to move to a country called Europe."

Europe was a continent, not a country, but Frau didn't bother correcting her. More importantly...

"Is your father here?"

"Yeah, why? Ojii-san and my father have some secret between them that they don't want to share with me..." Irina pouted again, and Frau knew exactly what the "secret" Irina was referring to.

"I see. I was planning to give you this on your birthday, but since it's your last day here, I'll give it to you earlier." Frau went back to his desk and opened a drawer, revealing a small lovely box.

Donations from Church were not very plentiful, but being a priest-to-be, he had a salary, albeit a small one, but a salary nevertheless.

A small yet elegant bracelet was inside the box. The purple shined exquisitely, and Irina's eyes shined when the bracelet was revealed. Under the pretext of blessing it, a green glow appeared in his hands.

"May God look after you, granting you great luck in times of need. Amen."

After the blessing, she hurriedly took the bracelet and wore it on her left wrist, and Frau was happy to see that it fitted her very nicely.

"Wow, this is beautiful! Thank you, Frau!" Irina gave Frau a hug as she thanked him.

"You're welcome. And an early happy birthday from me."

The present was no ordinary present. Well...it was actually just a typical pretty bracelet that Frau found from the market for 2500 yen. In the end, he was a child and couldn't afford anything more.

But what made it special was that Frau had cast his own "buff" on the bracelet using almost a billion units of mana.

After all, "luck" remained one of the most mysterious things in the world where even the supernatural world couldn't explain.

Fire combusting without oxygen, water appearing from nowhere, rocks falling from the sky were all explained using "magic", but things like fate, luck, destiny, infinity, and dreams were all still unexplored territories to most, save a select few.

[73,741,824/1,073,741,824]

Now, he was left with just about 73 million units of mana, not that he was complaining since he needed to grow his limits so that his dream of reviving people could come true.

What Frau rejected on the bracelet was terrible luck. Honestly, it was just an attempt to "buff' or "enchant" an item like in those stories Frau heard. He didn't even expect it to work as it was too vague.

Now, anyone who wore the bracelet would not have bad luck. Probably.

For what defines as "bad luck", or for how long the buff will last, Frau had no idea. He only hoped it would last long enough to let Irina grow up safely at wherever she was going to live.

If there were any repercussions from messing with elements such as luck, Frau's thoughts had never even reached there. He was still a child, and a child wouldn't bother himself to care about the consequences. Not to mention he was too weak to go to those territories anyway.

The two remained in a hugging position for quite some time; Irina was not willing to let go of Frau at all.

Eventually, they had to stop. Now that Irina's family was leaving, Frau thought about it and just sighed.

"Let's go see your father."

"Huh? Okay." Irina was startled by the sudden change in topic and agreed without thinking about it.

∞

It was an awkward silence between the two people, one man one boy. The rest had given them a little space to talk, and while Grace and Irina didn't know what was going on, they could at least tell something was wrong.

The silence was only broken by Frau's action of placing the teacup down on the table. Although Frau was the child here, Touji was the one who fidgeted uncontrollably, like how a child was caught red-handed by their parents and was about to get punished.

"Um..."

Frau didn't reply and just stared at Touji, making him feel even more uncomfortable. As much as it seems like Frau was purposefully tormenting the older man, he wasn't. He just didn't know how to start talking to a man who wanted to kill his parents right in front of him.

"So...how are you doing, Frau?"

"...Fine."

"How are you coping with...Yaegaki's..."

"Not too badly."

"I see."

"..."

Once again, silence pervaded the room. It was uncomfortable and suffocating, for Touji, at least. Frau looked like he wasn't bothered at all by the silence.

"Sigh, I won't say that I was forced to follow orders leading to the current situation, but I can definitely say I regret it and am very sorry about it."

"Okay."

"I also don't expect you to forgive me, but I'm thankful for you."

At these words, an eyebrow shot up as Frau asked, "For what?"

"That despite us having this...thing, you didn't stop talking to Irina or stop playing with her."

"Anything that comes from the supernatural side remains in the supernatural side. My feelings about you won't change the way I treat Irina. A child bears no sins of their parents, after all."

Touji could only wryly smile as Frau used the word "sins". He couldn't find a better word to replace it. Ironic, wasn't it?

"Irina is a weird daughter to have. Always acting like a boy, dressing like a boy. Due to that, she doesn't have many friends, despite her cheerful disposition. She never really fit with the girls, while the boys mostly reject her as she was a girl. It's still a mystery how the Hyoudou child still does not realize my daughter is a girl..."

Frau cracked a small smile at the last part but quickly hid it. Touji, being the veteran exorcist, noticed it but didn't point it out, only smiling internally.

'At least he didn't lose all his humanity because of my actions...'

Once again, the conversation stopped here with neither knowing how to continue.

"Sigh, you two...just make up already." Coming inside and noting the quiet atmosphere, the old priest sighed and commented.

'If only it was that easy, ojii-san, there would be no wars anymore.' Frau thought.

"Anyway, your wife is calling for you, Touji."

"Thank you for your reminder. I'll have to leave to catch my flight now." Touji hurriedly stood up and bowed towards the old priest, "Thank you for your care all these years."

"Same to you."

Turning to look at Frau, he opened his mouth and seemed as though he wanted to say something, but after a few seconds, he just closed his mouth and left.

"Shidou-san, you've already lost a friend. Take care of your family."

Touji paused at the door when he heard Frau's words, smiling, "You don't have to remind me about that."

∞

"So, that's it, huh?"

After seeing the Shidou family driving off to the airport, Issei and Frau went to the park.

"Yep. Aren't you glad? Shidou wouldn't be dragging you to see any more ghosts." Frau asked Issei as both of them made their way to the swings.

"I should be...but I guess we'll also be lonely. You don't play much, after all."

"I'm sorry that I'm busy with my Church stuff and can't play with you," Frau spoke sarcastically and playfully, and as expected, he got the desired reaction he wanted from Issei.

Issei hurriedly shook his head and waved his hands in front of him, flustered and denying Frau's words, "No, no, no. That's not what I meant..."

"Haha, I know. I'm just joking." Frau smiled, "I was just teasing you."

Hearing this, Issei pouted.

"Anyway, without Iri-Shidou here to drag me out to play, what are you going to do alone?"

"You'll not play with me anymore?" Issei asked tearfully.

"You're so easy to tease, you know, Issei?"

"Does that mean you'll play with me?"

"No."

"Frau!"

"Hahaha..."

As the two had fun, an old man appeared in the park. Usually, such a sight wouldn't warrant any attention, but this particular old man had a height that rivaled those men in their prime. Which is pretty impressive, to say the least.

The elderly man has the appearance of long grey hair and a matching beard. He wore a gold and white monocle over his left eye without adding the chain, allowing the gathering children to wonder how it stayed on his eye without falling off.

"Have you seen that old man before?" Issei asked as his gaze shifted towards the old man like the rest of the children present.

"No."

"Maybe he came to Kuoh for a vacation?"

"Vacation? Who in God's name would come to Kuoh for a vacation? It's right smack in the middle of Japan with no beach or sea and only a deserted mountain at the edge of our city. Oh, and a forest."

Issei shrugged at Frau's retort when both of them heard the old man shouting.

"Gather around! Gather around!" The elderly man coaxed the children to sit by his feet as though he was about to read some bedtime story to them.

Seeing some of them excited, some weirded out, while some skeptical, the elderly man smiled. It was all in his day of work to see children with various expressions.

Frau and Issei were also amongst the children to see what was happening here. Upon laying eyes on both of them, the elderly man's eye twinkled. His gaze on the both of them, more on Frau, stayed a tad longer before he eventually continues observing the rest of the children.

"What is going on here?" Issei asked curiously.

"I guess we'll find out soon," Frau replied. The old man wasn't from this town. Having "patrolled" around the city for two years together with the exorcists, he roughly knew whether or not a person existed in Kuoh town.

Not to say that a foreigner was weird or unusual, but it harmed no one to put his guard up a bit, especially after all that had happened in this town.

"Let me ask all of you first. Have any of you heard or witnessed the miracle of oppai?"

Frau immediately took out his phone and called, "Hello? Yeah, I'm at Kuoh Park. There's a pervert here preaching."

"Hey, hey! Wait! Let me explain." The old man quickly stood up and begged.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

<8 Years Later>

In the afternoon, a pleasant wind blew. The sun was overhead, but the temperature wasn't high.

A handsome young man was walking through the quiet streets of the town's outskirts, peacefully enjoying the occasional chirping of the birds that nature provided.

He was tall, standing at 182.88 cm, or exactly 6 feet tall, and along with his muscular build, it made him look very intimidating, if not for that goofy smile he had on a permanent basis. He had an angular, long face with a long, thin nose, a large mouth, and narrowed eyes that are a deep blue in color but appear indigo under certain light. His light blonde hair seemed quite long, but it is always spiked up as if defying gravity.

In conclusion? Apart from his height and the slightly more muscular build, Frau hadn't grown much from childhood.

Frau was currently wearing the Kuoh Academy uniform, consisting of a black blazer with white accents over a white, long-sleeved button-down shirt with vertical linings, a black ribbon on his collar, matching black pants, and brown dress shoes. He was currently walking back home after school.

Frau had turned 17 this year and is now a second-year high school student of Kuoh Academy, though his height often made others mistake him as a third-year or even a college student.

When he reached the entrance of the Church, he did not immediately enter it. Instead, he took a small but rather noticeable trail to the right, leading to where he actually lived.

Upon reaching his home, the first thing he did was to change out of his school uniform, opting to don on his "work" attire, signaling the start of his second not-so-secret identity from anyone - a priest and an apprentice bishop.

Frau's "home" wasn't like everybody else, with a living room, various rooms, and so on. In the past, there were small apartments around the Church to hold singles and devout priests. Yaegaki was one of them, and so Frau lived with him. Even after his father had disappeared, Frau continued to stay. It was not extravagant, to say the least, but it had everything a man needed to live rather comfortably.

After a quick pray and lunch, Frau took his time and strolled back to the gates, where an elderly man was present.

"Good afternoon, Frau. I see you rushed back from school to open the gates, huh?" He greeted Frau as Frau opened the gates to the Church.

"Yes, ojii-san. Please, come in and pray. I'll always be here to listen to any troubles you might have."

"Thank you, but an old man like me wouldn't have any troubles." The old man waved Frau away with a smile as he went past the gate, "Go do whatever a young man like you needs to do. I'll be fine by myself. After all, God is always by my side, isn't he?"

"While God is always by your side, I'm still obliged to do my duties. But if you really just want some peace and quiet, you'll be able to find that in the main hall."

Due to a particular accident 9 years ago, all the exorcists from this Church started feeling guilty and the likes. Touji leaving was the breaking point for the rest of them as they all started going one by one with their family and loved ones, leaving behind only two people - Frau and the old priest.

But just two years ago, the old priest passed away peacefully, leaving behind Frau as the sole manager of the Church. After a small but decent funeral process, Frau decided to do some remodeling to the Church's territory.

Due to where the Church was located, it was no doubt rather rural. It was not because it was far or hard to reach or anything, but mainly because of the lack of entertainment around this place that would attract people.

Capitalism are much more prominent in attracting people these days compared to religion. Frau could only sigh at the ignorant world. 

In spite of the lack of capital, Frau had something else to substitute money: magic.

Demolishing the rest of the apartments leaving only his own, growing more vegetation, and fixing the fence. It was not much, but the Church's territory expanded quite a bit, especially the forest areas.

Frau also placed some statues that he dubbed "Best in the world" and "Nothing else could compare to them", leaving some speechless ordinary humans. 

Despite his efforts, the Church's activity had been declining steadily, though it still opened its gates to everyone with the help of Frau's efforts. Though with Frau's maintenance, the Church was still a rather popular place to hold weddings and sometimes, weirdly enough, birthday parties. 

But when people pay, nothing becomes impossible.

"How's school today?"

"Same as usual."

"With your perverted antics?"

"It's not antics, I'll have you know. It's called appreciation." Frau retorted as he walked alongside the old man.

"Sure, sure. Whatever you youngsters call it nowadays. Back in my days..."

As the old man started on his endless ramblings about his past once again, Frau's brain autotuned to filter out all of his words, and he left for the church kitchen to get a few snacks for himself and the visitors.

When he got back, the old man was in the middle of praying, and a few more people have also arrived.

"Good afternoon to all of you. May God bless all of you." Frau prayed for the people as he, too, started praying for himself.

"Lord God, Thank you for the morning, for watching over me and walking with me. May I find rest and peace this afternoon in all I do, that I may gather strength to work for you until nightfall. Amen."

"Lord Michael, thank you for the day, for watching over me and walking with me. May your blessing of good looks be with me in all that I do, that I would not abuse your blessings for me. Amen."

"Lord Gabriel, thank you for the day, for allowing me to witness your wondrous beauty once more. May the blessing of beauty and purity be with you forever. Amen."

It was weird, but it was Frau's daily prayer. But he wasn't doing this just to troll God and Heaven.

Nothing happens whenever he prayed to God, which was supposed to be the correct reaction as prayer doesn't really do much except give you faith, and that was when it was said nicely. Crudely speaking, it was just giving people blind hope.

But after he discovered that Gabriel was actually a top-notch beauty, he immediately prayed to her as well, and unexpectedly, he managed to sense something within his prayer.

He then tried this with the other angels, and the same thing happened, though Gabriel and Michael both gave the strongest "feedback" to his prayer. It did not give him extra powers or mana or anything like it, but more of a...good luck charm, for a lack of better words. 

The "good luck charm" was so minuscule that if not for Frau's own affinity with mana, he wouldn't even realize it.

So what does that mean?

Well, Frau didn't know. But he had a guess. God was either too busy, didn't exist anymore to reciprocate his feelings, or just outright ignoring him. But if the angels, who probably had the same workload as God, could return his prayers, he didn't see why God couldn't. Thus, his guess leaned towards the second option- that God was dead, or he disappeared into someplace where faith couldn't reach him.

Frau had no idea how strong he is in the supernatural world, but he was sure he was safe from any random devil, fallen angels, or other monsters that he might happen to meet. After all, he could already demolish low-class strength denizens nine years ago, not to mention that his abilities never grew linearly, only exponentially.

He was not being arrogant. He might not have fought a lot, but he always kept track of his current strength, weakness, and more in the rare circumstances that he did.

And Frau's comparison of "random" devils was the superclass devil he fought, so yes, he was not arrogant.

He was confident of surviving even Rizevim's barrage now. But then again, surviving, defeating, killing were three separate things altogether.

Surviving against Rizevim? Definitely.

Defeating him? Hmm...it was a fifty-fifty bet.

Killing him? A superclass devil like him would definitely have a lot of trump cards, so unless Frau could annihilate Rizevim to nothingness, including his mind, conscious, and soul, in an instant, Frau did not even bother trying to kill him.

It was an action that had zero benefits and plenty of risks.

Eight years was a long time. In his first eight years (not counting the one year where he could not even walk), he had already experienced hell training, loss of his parents, betrayal of teammates, killing his way into the supernatural world, and explored his powers. All that within eight years.

Thus, it would take too long to talk about all adventures Frau had gone through, even if it wasn't a lot. So to summarize Frau's current abilities:

First, his mana capacity is basically already inhuman, even compared to supernatural denizens' standards. It reached a whole 36 quintillion units of mana.

[36,893,488,147,419,103,232/36,893,488,147,419,103,232]

While it might seem very good, it was actually not. He only fainted thirty-five times, increasing his mana pool from 2^30 to 2^65. Especially since he knew the exact way to increase his mana pool, it did not make much sense.

However, now, Frau was not aiming only for a ton of mana capacity. He was also aiming for absolute control over every unit of mana, down to erasing a single atom, and nothing else. Of course, he was still far from it - control over small units is easier said than done.

But Frau was close, and he had an inkling something will change when his control reached a certain level.

But it wasn't just the mana capacity that increased. The mana regeneration increased alongside it, and now it would only take an entire day to regenerate mana to the total capacity from 1.

Second, his powers didn't change much since it depended on his total mana from the very beginning. The only thing that changed was his way of using them.

Frau had found a few exciting ways to utilize his powers, and he had to thank God that he was blessed with some intelligence that he was able to think out of the box. The practice in an attempt to further refine his control helped quite a bit as well.

Third, his swordsmanship. As for his swordplay...well, it wasn't too bad, but it wasn't very good either. If compared to the student council's knight's swordplay, he would definitely win, of course. But that will definitely be due to the crush in attribute and magic type.

Imagine trying to fight against an opponent whose sword could literally erase all your kinetic energy, making it a still target to hit. That is what will happen when faced against Frau.

But if one would to erase everything and focus only on swordsmanship, he would lose. Thus, Frau had only practice the bare minimum for him to be able to use the sword in a way that would not hinder him, but never to transcend to anything more.

Which is quite a pity, as Frau found it quite handsome. 

Next! Magic!

Everybody loves magic, and it made Frau's life a lot easier. From trimming the grass and plants around the Church to cleaning and ensuring that the fence worked the way it should, magic was convenient to ensure the security of the Church and Frau's place.

Frau's overall strength has improved by leaps and bounds, and now, even Frau didn't know where he stood. With the new mana capacity of 3 quintillion, a whole new world of possibilities came with it.

While his powers could technically be considered "magic", Frau did put in some effort to learn some of the more mainstream ones, such as the human magic, and the holy magic granted by being a believer under the Church faction.

Too bad he could not play with holy magic too much as his faith was not very devout. A lot of impure thoughts had accidentally leaked out when praying, particularly to Gabriel, which might or might not have an impact on the amount of holy powers given to him.

∞

When the sun had decided to come off work, Frau decided to call it a day and closed the fences to the Church. When this place was bustling with people and was at its peak, the priest in charge decided to keep it open 24/7.

But with no one available to guard the gates, the idea was shut down. Frau was not going to stay up late just to open the fences for one or two people. While not many people would like to steal some religious things, it didn't hurt to safeguard the bible, the candles, and the benches. Who knows? There are weird people everywhere in the world, it would not hurt to have extra protection.

Frau personally knew a few, and that was only in his school. The world was such a big place; nothing was impossible.

In his own house, he cooked up some dinner for himself after dressing down his priest-wear. While it was not exactly magnificent, it was good enough. He placed two servings of food on the small dining table, just in time for a purple magic circle to appear on the chair opposite of him.

"Frau, nya~!" Before the body had fully spawned, Frau already found his face in between two massive mounds. He was suffocating, but only a lewd smile appeared on his face as his hands reached out to hug the figure back.

"Welcome back, Kuroka."

A beautiful young woman with a voluptuous figure, long black hair with split bangs, and hazel-gold eyes with cat-like pupils. This is what Frau would describe this person.

Soon, gravity started working again as Kuroka slid down to sit on Frau's lap. She was only 161cm tall, a full 21cm shorter than the man in front of her. Even while sitting on his lap, Kuroka only reached his nose.

A perfect height gap, described by Kuroka as, in this way, Frau's lips would directly be on her forehead. And Frau did not disappoint the young girl's expectation.

A light kiss was planted on her forehead, and Kuroka was squirming with delight.

"Nya~ Life is blissful..." Kuroka muttered as she got off Frau's lap and went back to her seat. As she did so, Frau could see that she was wearing her standard attire -a black kimono, a yellow obi, a set of golden beads, and an ornately detailed headband.

The kimono features a red interior and it is open at her shoulders, giving view to her large breasts which, Frau observed with great detail, had no underwear within it. Frau was not one to complain, though; he just enjoyed the sensations felt silently.

Kuroka started munching on the plate in front of her, and Frau joined her in the quick dinner. After a quick wash of plates, the two moved to the sofa, where Kuroka quickly found her spot as she leaned her entire body against Frau's chest, purring contently.

"Nya~"

"Long time no see. Where have you been?"

"The underworld." Kuroka replied with a shudder, not liking her memories in there, "One week in there was hell, nya! No pun intended, nya~"

Kuroka was a Nekoshou, a rare variant of Nekomata. For those who are ill-informed, she is basically what every weeb wants in their life - a cat girl. Being a Nekoshou yokai and all, her primary source of strength came from Senjutsu (ki manipulation) and Youjutsu (Yokai arts). While the latter was not much a problem in the Underworld, the former pretty much rendered her useless as there was hardly any "life" in the underworld that contains Ki. Even if there were any life, they were likely made up of pure demonic energy, making it harder for her to perform her best.

Plus, the underworld did not really give much of a good first impression in Kuroka's childhood.

Frau was curious. To be fair, he did not know what Kuroka was doing half the time. Partly because he was too lazy to find out, and partly because he was giving Kuroka the space that she needed. The former reason took up 90% of the final outcome.

"I wanted to collect more evidence, and also to figure out what Rizevim is planning to do, nya." Kuroka spoke when she saw the curious expression on Frau's face.

Frau's face froze before he gave a wry smile, his hands pulling Kuroka closer to him. Kuroka did not reject the tighter hug, only giving off another purr in delight.

"Rizevim's problem is not really a problem. I'm also curious to see what his true end goal is."

"So you joined a terrorist group for that stupid reason, nya?"

"In case you have forgotten, you are in the same organization as me."

"Nya! We're different! We-" Kuroka could only pause and try to figure out the difference between them.

Both of them were forced to join by circumstances.

Both could also leave now, but chose to stay.

Both had their own goals for staying in this terrorist group as well.

"Nya!" Kuroka could only let out an angry "meow" when she could not refute Frau's words.

Frau looked amused, but continued asking, "If you were given front row seats and a back row seats to your favorite concert, which would you choose?"

"Of course a front row seat, nya! Wait!" Kuroka instinctively replied but quickly realized something, "That's the shittiest analogy I've ever heard, nya! Who would compare a concert to a bridge connecting to another world?!"

"So it's true?"

Kuroka pouted - her surprise information had been preemptively spoken by her, "Nya. But I don't know how they're gonna do that yet. The whole idea seems ridiculous in the first place. Even Ophis couldn't get of the dimensional gap, much less some low-end super-class devil, nya~"

Bold words came out of his lover's mouth which made Frau's lips twitch.

'It's not like you're very strong yourself, yet you want to diss a super-class devil?'

"Hey, I've been working hard, okay, nya~?" Kuroka, seemingly read his mind, replied angrily, "Didn't you notice something different about me?"

"Your boobs grown again?"

"Well, yes, but that's besides the point! How do you even know that, nya? You haven't touched them in a while!" Kuroka retorted.

"Well, we could always change that situation now." Frau muttered as his hands inched upwards from her stomach.

"Wait, wait! We can do that later, nya~" While Kuroka did not mind the physical contact, she wanted to get the important things out of the way first, "Apart from my boobs, what else is different?"

As if trying to give a hint, Kuroka shook her butt. However, in their current position, Frau only managed to focus on something else.

"Frau!" Noticing where Frau's focus is currently at, Kuroka almost jumped up and punched him in the face.

"Hey, hey! I'm just kidding!" Frau hurriedly pacified the angry cat, "You have three tails now, don't you? Congratulations, you've become stronger once more."

"Yet I still can't beat you, nya..."

"Well, I've been learning more from you than you from me, so it's pretty obvious what the outcome was." Frau shrugged. After the angry cat has been pacified, he returned to the previous cuddle.

What Frau had learned from Kuroka was Senjutsu.

Senjutsu is the power to control the flow of life energy, or "ki", in living beings. Using it, one can strengthen both their internal and external bodies or even cause vegetation around them to bloom or wither.

Senjutsu is also pretty versatile where users are able to sense the ki and auras of others thus letting them track targets from far away distances.

Through disrupting the ki of their opponent's ki or severing it, it is also possible to cause direct damage to their spirit and using this as an attack could result in killing their opponent. As such, there are very few ways to defend against Senjutsu.

Senjutsu was already a good thing by itself, but Frau's compatibility and abilities only made it seem stronger.

For every tail a Nekoshou gains, their power multiplies, as do their ability to utilize Senjutsu. But to gain an extra tail, they had to increase their inner Ki.

Before Kuroka met Frau, she only managed to train Senjutsu through mediation - by concentrating on their state of mind and to quietly release their own ki as well as to sense the natural ki of their surroundings, she would be able to convert natural Ki to inner Ki, thus being able to gain an extra tail.

This was also the best way to develop one's skill in Senjutsu. 

But this method was slow. After training for a decade or so, Kuroka only managed to gain an extra tail. So why did Kuroka not want to take a faster method?

Because while it lets the user read and handle spirit power, Senjutsu could also take in the malice and ill will that flows in the world, the so-called "natural Ki". Therefore if an amateur, or basically anyone, used it in an incorrect manner, aka too much natural Ki inside their body without being able to control it, then the malice will end up corrupting the user.

And it's not as though natural Ki could not be used. But the corruption usually happens much faster than the growth of the user, so most people actually become corrupted before actually learning to control natural Ki and convert it to inner Ki.

This is where Frau comes in. His ability, Reject, is a causality weapon. While he might not be strong enough to fully control this weapon, he can utilize a part of it. The most dangerous part about training Senjutsu naturally lies in the natural Ki absorption.

Too much, and you go berserk. Too little, it defeats the purpose of training. That fine layer of balance is something most people cannot do for a continuous period of time, leading to slow improvements.

But what if that "fine layer of balance" increase to "wide range for errors"? This way, they would not have to focus too much on maintaining balance, and instead focus more on refining natural Ki.

Of course, if Frau could completely get rid of the fact that Natural Ki will corrupt users, it would be better. But Frau was too weak now, needing almost 10 quintillion units of mana to increase the margin of errors. That's why Kuroka only improved recently. If Frau could do this for her the first time they met, Kuroka would be more than just a three-tailed kitty now.

Reject is a very powerful ability, there was no doubt about it. But Frau was just too weak to utilize it to it's maximum potential. Sure, erasing enemy's attacks was an easy task, but erasing their existence was much harder, especially when it comes to the truly powerful.

For people like Rizevim, 30 quintillion was far too little to erase him off the face of Earth. After all, the mana consumption was proportional to the objects targeted. The same actions towards an ant and an elephant naturally had different cost, and it was the same for enemies.

But Senjutsu could easily make up for his shortcomings this shortcoming, since it is basically an "armor-penetration" buff. When Frau figures how to merge Senjutsu into Reject directly, that is the day he will truly step into the realm of strong. 

But for now, he'll just enjoy his time with the sexy kitten who have been provoking him since earlier.

"The night's here already, let's go and sleep, Kuroka." Frau flashed a completely innocent smile, leaving Kuroka bewildered as she got princess-carried by Frau.

"Nya?" Before Kuroka could speak any further, her lips had been sealed by another pair.

That night, Kuroka experienced a very new play.

∞

Kuroka was in a dire situation. She didn't expect such an easy mission to turn into such a disaster.

Investigating someone was supposed to be safe, especially when the person being investigated was some weak human. She even paid heed to Vali's needless warnings and stayed extra cautious despite her doubts about the weak human, yet it still went wrong.

It was a trap and always had been.

But she couldn't blame Vali for that. He had even warned her of the dangers and allowed her to not take this mission.

It could be said that it was her own choice that resulted in her current circumstances.

The mission itself was no problem. Kuroka had managed to get what the task required. Naturally, knowing that she was in a safe place after the mission, she had let her guard down. Who knew that the "danger" Vali mentioned did not refer to the actual task itself but the aftermath.

Her space magic had been sealed, and she couldn't escape at all. She could only use her Senjutsu and her Youjutsu to fight against her opponents.

"Hahaha, what luck do we have to be able to meet the SS-class stray devil." A disgusting-sounding voice appeared, and his looks matched perfectly with his voice. With a horribly scarred face resulting from Kuroka's attack, the devil sneered as he witnessed Kuroka backing away from the three of them.

"Hehehe, don't kill her first. Since we have spent so much time chasing her down, we must have some form of compensation from her." The second devil's voice was no better than the first, and his eyes were fixed upon her Kuroka's body. He licked his lips, excited about what was about to come.

"I don't care about that. Just let me have the stray devil's body after you're done with her. Nekoshou are rare, and I don't want you ruining my test subject." The last voice was much soothing, but the pride and arrogance couldn't be concealed.

He also looked bored, as if everything had played out according to his plans.

Kuroka frowned at the last person's words. The entire reason why she was being classified as a stray devil in the first place was due to her being an experimental subject. Of course, it was not the root of the reason, but it sure was the direct reason why she did what she needed to do.

But she didn't let her displeasure and anger blind her. She needed to focus since they had sealed her space magic, a magic that, unfortunately, she was very dependent on.

She was pretty regretful to let her guard down at the most unexpected place of ambush, but she didn't think that the devils in front of her had targeted her the entire time.

The three devils were from the Old Satan Faction. At the same time, they also worked in Khaos Brigade together with various races.

Even though they were all from the same organization, it didn't mean that everyone was happy to cooperate together. There was only one reason for that - because there were different factions within the same organization.

It was like a democratic government system, where different political parties had their individual goals and aspirations for the country. In this case, everyone had their own agenda, and when there was a chance to do so, they would definitely launch attacks on one another.

The three devils in front of Kuroka weren't particularly strong; they would be ranked as "cannon fodders" in the entire organization.

If she was in her normal condition, Kuroka wouldn't even need to blink before killing these three, but her powers were sealed from a trap she least expected from, making her weaker than usual.

Still, she wouldn't let them get to her easily. She still had someone she wanted to see at all cost, and dying here meant that she wouldn't be able to see her dearest sister anymore. And she didn't like that one bit.

She used her Touki to enhance her strength, speed, and durability. She still needed to be careful even with those enhancements. Otherwise, with just one mistake, she would end up in their bed, experimented on again, and killed like a disposable subject after that.

Kuroka cast her poison mist to immobilize them, but like any other mist attack, it was easily countered by wind magic from one of the devils. 

"Tch..." Kuroka clicked her tongue in annoyance seeing her poison mist getting easily countered.

Mist attacks were never meant to be used straightforwardly unless it was a corrosive acid that could immediately take effect regardless of whether the target had breathed in the mist. They were meant to set up an ambush, especially in places where it was foggy so it wouldn't be easily detected.

It also didn't help that her mist was purple in color, making it super obvious what she was trying to do.

Just as the devils thought Kuroka was out of moves, ten Kurokas suddenly appeared and moved simultaneously.

Another devil took out what seemed to be a lamp and activated it, dispersing all illusions in their area.

Kuroka, seeing her illusions disappear, immediately stopped and jumped back. She didn't expect all the devils in front of her to easily counter all her moves.

It was obviously a planned attack. A planned attack from very long time ago.

Her Kashas were easily extinguished due to her lack of Ki. She couldn't use her summoning magic due to her lack of mana, and her space magic was sealed.

Things seemed to have taken a bad turn for her.

"Wind cutter!"

Like any other stupid devil out there, one of the devils screamed out his move, creating several blades of wind that rushed towards her.

Due to his stupidity, Kuroka could predict his movement and wasn't startled at all. But knowing it and dodging it were different things.

Due to her injuries, her movement wasn't as fast as usual, and the wind cutters managed to injure her.

"ARGH!!" A deep gash appeared on her shoulder, tights, and stomach, causing Kuroka to scream out in pain. She wanted to endure it, but it was too painful. She could only hatefully look at the three devils in front of her.

"Hahaha, just stop your useless struggling already and let us enjoy your body." The devil who was carrying the artifact sneered as he walked towards her. He reached out his hands, wanting to touch her semi-exposed breast, but Kuroka sliced his hand with her claws.

The unexpected attack caused all three devils to subconsciously take a step back. The devil who reached out his hand yelled in pain and anger as he quickly withdrew his hand, not expecting Kuroka to still have the power to attack him.

"Kill her! Kill her!" Being affected by the sudden attack, the devil changed his mind and decided to end this. If an alive body poses a threat, then he would just use a dead body.

After all, a hole was still a hole, and he couldn't particularly care less about whether his target was alive or not when his safety was called into question.

A coward's attempt in brainwashing himself.

The other two devils also decided to end her. They each cast their own magic and attacked her at the same time.

"Wind cutter!"

"Water slicer!"

"Body disruption!"

Due to the last spell, Kuroka couldn't move. Seeing the magic aimed at her, she knew that it was her end.

'Shirone, I'm sorry...'

Her only regret was that she couldn't meet her little sister anymore. In fact, she had even subconsciously moved their fighting spot all the way to the forest in Kuoh, allowing her a clear sight of where her little sister lived.

She originally wanted to see her sister in peace before heading back to announce her completion of the mission, but now...

She was unwilling to die here, but she was helpless. Closing her eyes, she hoped that, at the very least, she would die and her body would be destroyed together. This way, she wouldn't be defiled by some nobodies.

"Nah~."

Yet, a casual voice sounded, and almost instinctively, she opened her eyes and saw the man who uttered those words.

The man was in the way of the two magic flying towards her. Yet, he didn't even seem to care.

"Be careful!" Kuroka shouted, or at least, she tried to. She could only warn him in a hoarse voice due to her injuries.

Yet, it seemed that the boy in front of her managed to hear her.

"It's okay. Something of this caliber cannot hurt me."

Just as Kuroka wondered what he was talking about, the wind cutter and water slicer disappeared into thin air, leaving behind no trace that it ever existed before.

"W-What?!" This reaction was not only applicable to Kuroka. It was also applicable to the three devils who watched their own magic disappear into thin air.

"Y-You! What did you do?!"

"Who are you?!"

The devils were worried as they examined the man before them, but he didn't answer any of their questions, seemingly observing the entire situation quietly.

The man didn't seem to be carrying any weapons, nor did he look particularly muscly. Yet, the fact that the devils' magic disappeared made them wary of the man.

"Water slicer!"

Another low-tier magic appeared out of nowhere and shot towards the man. But it was as though there was another dimension between the two parties - the magic disappeared just as it entered a five-meter radius from the man.

"Man, this is getting generic...do all devils have a pre-programmed speech that automatically plays when something unexpected happens to them?" Everyone in the vicinity heard the man's muttering, causing many displeased expressions at his obvious mocking. Only one happened to have a smile on her face.

"Well then! Let me introduce myself. Yaegaki Frau, at your service. May God bless all of you." Frau introduced himself and watched the reaction of the four people in front of him.

And as expected, all four reacted to the word "God" and frowned.

"Thank you for your reactions. Now, are you under Rizevim's orders? Or Euclid?"

"You know Rizevim-sama?"

"Yes."

"How can a puny hum-" The devil never managed to complete his sentence as he, like the magic he cast, disappeared without a trace.

Everyone instantly became alert as they all shivered.

"Now, can you answer my question, please?"

"N-No...we just caught this stray devil a-and since we w-wanted her..." The devil, having just lost one of their friends, instantly replied. He was not stupid; seeing his friend disappear must be the work of Frau. His strength wasn't higher than his friend, so if Frau could instantly kill his friend, he also had the possibility of being killed should Frau wished to do so.

"But since you want her, please let us go! I-I promise that we won't tell anyone!"

Frau thought for a while before he muttered, "Old Satan Faction, huh?" 

The two devils were surprised to hear the faction they belonged to, and even more surprised when they saw Frau smiling, "Sure. Go ahead."

Hearing Frau's words were like hearing Satan's words.

"T-Thank you!" The two devils bowed and quickly flew away, not wanting to remain in his presence any longer.

"Are you going to let them off?" Kuroka's wary voice sounded as she backed away from Frau as well.

"Hm? Oh, you don't have to be so cautious of me." Frau replied with a harmless smile, "I don't have any weapons or armor, and I'm currently in my pajamas."

Now that Kuroka could take a better look at her savior, she realized that Frau was right. He was no knight in shining armor, nor was he dressed in some mysterious cloak and mask. He was merely in his pajamas, looking as funny as one could look.

"Still, you let them off."

"Oh, who said I let them off?" Frau shrugged as he stared at Kuroka's body, "Just because you don't see it doesn't mean that they get to live another day, you know? In this world, you must get rid of your troubles from the roots, after all. By the way, are you okay?"

"...Who are you?" Kuroka was wary and didn't answer Frau's question, opting to reply with another question instead.

"Weren't you paying attention to my grand introduction earlier?"

Kuroka was too dazed that she was saved, but she had a rough memory of what he said.

"F-Frau?"

"Bingo! Yaegaki Frau, 15 years old, 173 cm, 66kg, currently working as a bishop apprentice at the Church."

"Are you going to kill me now?"

"Why should I?"

"Because I'm a devil like them? A stray one, no less."

"Hm? Nah~ I'm not a priest you imagine me to be." Frau replied as he appeared right in front of Kuroka and touched her exposed shoulder, "I have a better proposal for you."

Kuroka was so startled by Frau's sudden touch that she couldn't react. She expected some form of pain to come, but after a while, she felt as though a weight have been lifted off her.

"I can use my space magic?" Kuroka tried out her space magic for a bit before continuing, "What proposal?"

Usually, she would have just let immediately after what had happened, but somehow, the boy in front of her made her stay for a bit longer.

"Yeah, I removed the seal on you. Well, I gotta sleep now since there's still school tomorrow. If you want to know more about my proposal, feel free to drop by the Church anytime you want." Frau answered while touching her other exposed shoulder.

This time, Kuroka felt as though she had been soaked in a hot spring, rejuvenating all her fatigue, healing all her wounds.

"Knowing that I'm a devil, you're asking me to torture myself and enter the Church?" Kuroka, now fully healed, stood up and examined her body.

"Just tell me when you're visiting. I have a way to ensure that won't happen to you." Kuroka merely raised an eyebrow.

"It's related to the proposal." Seeing Frau leave without any more explanation other than the weird emphasis on "proposal", she smiled.

"Thank you, nya~!"

"Ooh! That's the legendary 'nya'!" Frau cheered upon finally hearing a genuine cat girl add "nya" to the end of her sentence.

Kuroka's smile widened as she saw Frau's reaction to that.

'What an interesting priest, nya~.'

∞

Kuroka's eyes fluttered open as she noticed the gentle rays of the sun shining through the window.

'It's been a while since I last dreamt about this'

Kuroka sat upright on the bed and stretched her arms ass a comfortable "nya" escaped her lips. The blanket that was covering her also dropped to waist, revealing her unclothed figure. Glancing at priest next to her, she could not help but think about last night's activity.

While she was by no means a shy little cat, the younger boy in front of her was truly unexpected in the ways he managed to "surprise" her.

Deciding that she wanted to go back to sleep, she tucked herself in the middle of the boy's arm. As the boy's hand automatically closed, one hand couldn't help but reach down and squeezed her ass.

"Nya~, I'm starting to think if you're truly still asleep~" Kuroka didn't mind it, and snuggled even deeper into his embrace under the blanket, making it even warmer and cozier than it already is.

Her current location was quite close to the Church, but even as holy energy started radiating across the territory, Kuroka did not even respond.

"Thanks, Frau. Because of you, nya~" Kuroka muttered as she drifted off to sleep again.

"I'm a devil no more."