4 Chapter 4

Back in his home, Ace was lying in his bed as he thinking about what to do next exactly. He had an idea regarding the 'plot' of what should happen, namely the fallen angels would approach Isane next and after a date would kill her only for Rias to come and save her life.

Ace could agree to the need for Isane to turn into a devil. The power of the Red Dragon Emperor was certainly a boom that could not be easily ignored, just look at how Issei could defeat so many strong people in a short time and how he saved so many things. However, that growth was not simply because of being the Red Dragon Emperor, the fact that he was turned into a devil, who gain strength based on their emotions and desires, should also be indispensable.

If Isane remained human Ace was not sure she would be able to survive the wave that was coming, his waiting until this point to either train or prepare her was simply his consideration of letting her enjoy her life as an ordinary person for as long as possible. This, however, should be her own decision in the end. Ace simply wanted to avoid just arbitrarily deciding her path for her.

Deciding that avoiding this conversation for much longer was pointless, Ace decided he should talk with Isane about the supernatural, devils, and everything else now. Let her decide her path, if she would follow the way Issei did by joining Rias, joining Sona, or if she would do something else. He would advise her, explain to her all he knew, but he would not just let her fumble her way into a decision she might regret.

However, before that...

"Open chat function, world of Senki Zesshou Symphogear, target [Carol]."

Ace spoke and suddenly he saw himself in front of a large throne room. It was luxuriously decorated with golden and purple designs all over, on the sides there were four platforms, each of which had one of the four Autoscorrers atop it in the poses their master has decided they should be at.

And, in the back of the room, there was a stairway with a large throne present and sitting on it was a short blond girl. She was dressed like the mix of a philosopher and a stereotypical witch.

"Carol, dear Carol. You look great as always, it is wonderful to see you so healthy. How are you doing in this great day?" Ace asked with a cheeky smile, causing the homunculus witch to frown.

"Shut your mouth, merchant. We have traded before and I know you well enough by now, this is no leisure visit. You are not one for those." Carol said to which Ace shrugged his shoulders as he nonchalantly spoke up.

"Well, can't blame someone for trying to act nice. Anyway, would you be interested in a whole new species to study?"

Carol's eyes raised slightly in interest as she answered.

"That would certainly be interesting. Since your first visit, I have understood that my world is quite limited, with not as much worth my time left for me to study after centuries of learning. Originally, my plan to use the Chateu to disintegrate and understand what is left of this world was merely to end my boredom, but now it is rather pointless to kill all traces of life in this worthless world. If you can bring me new things to study I don't mind helping you with something of equal value." Carol said with a smirk.

She was a semi-immortal witch, having produced several copies of herself and stored her memories as if a backup in a computed. When she gets too old or dies in an accident her memories are all 'uploaded' into a new body as another is made to keep the stock of bodies with a constant supply. Thanks to that she has lived for over eight hundred years, her genius in alchemy allowing her to understand most of what this world has to offer.

Originally she desired to use a special weapon she created to disintegrate this whole world and dimension just so she could discover what was left to learn to finally be done with the wish entrusted to her by her father, to learn all there is to know. However, thanks to Ace showing up she now knew that there were other dimensions out there, many mysteries to explore, and she was curious about them as she was no longer bound by the 'small' aspirations of her father.

"Well, to be honest I don't yet have the samples of a new race. But, just as I lack this, you too wouldn't have right now the item I wish to trade. As such, I came to prepare for the exchange." Ace explained casually.

Carol, hearing this, nodded after a short while.

"Very well, what is it you desire?"

Ace smirked as he answered.

"I want you to find fragments of Gungnir. It can be just fragments broken from a symphogear user's armor, it doesn't really matter much to me."

Carol's eyes raised slightly and put a finger in her chin as she thought.

"It is doable. The current wielder of Gungnir seems to have fallen into the manipulation of that hag Fine, setting things up to break some pieces of her armor wouldn't be difficult." Carol said to which Ace smiled.

With a fragment of Gungnir he could sell it as a knockoff Longinus as they can be installed in someone's heart to let them create their own Symphogear. And with the Gungnir having a strong God-Slaying aspect, it would be quite a hot selling point.

That it also was a ticking time bomb that would assuredly kill the user after some time and this Ace wouldn't install like that on his own people was beside the point. If he liked the person, he could always remove the gear when it was close to start damaging the body and replace it with a new one.

"That is great. Expect to hear from me in at most two weeks' time, probably less." Ace said to which Carol nodded and waved him off.

Ending the transaction Ace dispelled the contact and his image in the throne room disappeared, Ace's mind returning to his body.

"Well, now that I have this I can at least have a nice gift to whatever peerage I join. That it would also serve well as advertising will also be a nice bonus." Ace said with a smirk.

If he joined Rias or Sona, both would be thankful for something on the level of a Symphogear and when others took notice he could sell the other fragments for a lot. He would gain the recognition and goodwill of the peerage he joins AND advertise for others a product he could produce in a relatively large amount as those armors regenerate and he could always break the armors produced by the users he 'creates' to have more armors to sell. Nothing better than a resupplying resource that could be sold for a lot

Feeling refreshed after finishing making a new deal Ace decided to get going.

Getting out of bed he moved to the room across from his. Knocking at the door three times he heard a shout.

"Wait a sec, I am getting out."

A lot of shuffling could be heard as Isane's door opened only a sliver. Her brown eyes looking to see who it was and seeing Ace she opened the door a bit more as to be able to show her face but not her room.

"Everything okay? Need anything?" Isane asked with some curiosity since Ace rarely ever would come over to her room.

Scratching the back of his head Ace spoke up.

"Look, I need to talk to you a bit. It is important so I am coming in." As Ace said that he opened the door right away.

The room had a scent Ace's nose, which was basically equal to the nose of Tanjiro from Demon Slayer, felt quite keenly. It was the scent Isane had whenever she was masturbating, a fact is proven by the computed open in an Eroge and the chair in front of it being visibly damp.

Looking back he saw his cousin with a sheepish expression as she went to the computed to change what was being shown. As she was doing so she accidentally removed the earplugs in it and-

"Oh yeah, Onii-chan, right there. Teach this slutty sister to only be like that for yo-"

Isane panicked and just turned the whole computer off right then and there.

Ace just raised a brow and Isane coughed in her hand to try and recompose herself. Her normally white face turned crimson pink as she said.

"You saw nothing."

Ace just rolled his eyes.

"Nothing I haven't seen before. You might not notice it, but sometimes you like to speak the lines together with the characters when you play and the walls in this house are not that thick. At least you are not into slave and pet play right now, even if incest masochism isn't that much better. Still, an improvement I suppose."

Isane just looked defeated at the comment before she went to her bed and laid in it, pushing her head to her pillow.

"Ahhh, you totally hate me now that you know how perverted I am."

Ace just looked at her overreacting and without a care gave her a slap on the ass to make her stop and look at him. The sound of the clap echoed as Ace admitted to himself that this was a rather nice ass, despite Isane having never trained or anything.

"Stop your nonsense and sit properly, perverted cousin. I have known how you are a raging pervert for years now and I am still here with you despite it all. Just stop your nonsense for five minutes, I have something important to talk to you about."

Isane just stared dazedly at him for a moment and spoke.

"You slapped me in the ass."

"So?" Ace said. "It shouldn't be anything much for me to do that, God knows how many times you entered in my bed while I was asleep and dry-humped me while sleeping. So sit up, calm down, and listen to what I have to say. Otherwise, I will do worse to you."

Isane's eyes actually shown interest as she huskily spoke.

"Worse, how?" Seduction was clear in her tone as she sent lusty-filled eyes at Ace who did not seem to care as he answered.

"Show our grandma your internet history." Ace said, and instantly Isane sat up instantly as if she was a proper young lady.

That was to be expected, however. Their grandparents didn't yet know how perverted Isane was, this being a secret and a bit of a shame for Isane and her parents. Ace and Isane grandparents liked to treat her like if she was their little cute and innocent princess, pampering her every chance they got. If Ace were to show Isane's browser history to them, well, that opinion would surely change a lot.

Seeing that Isane was now in a condition of actually listening, Ace continued.

"Very well, now that you stopped being a raging pervert for five minutes, I will begin. Tell me, how much do you know about religion and mythology?"

"... I know what I saw in anime?" Isane questioned more than answered, until she remembered something. "Oh, and I remember Irina-san mentioning something about the biblical God. He is, like, an old man in the sky who is always peeping at what we are doing and has a plan for everything and is quite vindictive."

Ace heard her, raised a brow, and asked.

"Let me guess, this Irina showed you the Old Testament, right?"

Isane nodded.

"Yeah, the God she praised so much sounded more like a jerk to me than anything else." Isane said with a shrug. Being raised in a house where religion was never really relevant her opinions about God and other religions were not really that strong either way.

Ace actually sweatdropped at that comment about God being a jerk, but thought in his heart.

'At least she won't care as much when she finds out that the big G is dead.'

"Well, I guess a lot more study is in your way then, because those were true-ish." Ace said, causing Isane to freeze.

After a bit, she gave a dry laugh and said.

"Hehe, good one Ace, but there is no way that is true."

Ace just looked at her seriously without blinking before he moved his hand, a green alchemical portal surged in his hand. A small tornado appeared at the top of his hand, gyrating calmly there and making Isane stare in shock at what she was seeing.

"Now you believe this world is not as mundane as you thought?"

Isane looks at this scene for a good while, not saying anything, until.

"THAT. IS. SO. COOL!"

Yeah, she started going nuts about magic. To be fair, besides being a raging pervert Isane was quite a bit of a tomboy inside and the thought of magic was just too much for her.

"Okay, tone it down a bit. We don't want the entire neighborhood knowing that I can do magic." Ace admonished, making Isane calm down a bit. "Can I continue to explain?" He asked to make sure

Isane, now relatively calmer, nodded her head.

With that done, Ace continued to explain more about the supernatural with some emphasis on the three factions since they were the ones he understood better.

As he explained everything he knew about the structure of the supernatural Isane finally asked.

"How did you come to know so much?"

"Because of a power I was born with. Whenever I make a trade with someone both parties must fulfill it. Thanks to that and some luck I found out about all this knowledge." Ace explained.

It was BS, but no one could call him out on it anyway since none in this world understood yet how his Essence worked as of right now. But eventually they might understand some of it as he worked more with others, and Ace knew that. If someone has to know how his power worked a bit more first, it might as well be family.

Isane looks surprised and lays down on the bed to think. After a while of silence, she spoke up.

"Why did you tell me this? You normally would never tell me about these sorts of things, preferring to protect me."

"As well I should, we are family and if I can protect you from some stupid nonsense, then I will try my best." Ace said, causing Isane to smile.

"You know, having you say that makes me calmer. Knowing someone is there to protect me and all. However, you didn't tell me. Why did you explain all this to me now?"

Ace thought for a bit about how to answer before opening his mouth again.

"Because the devil kings in town are looking to recruit in their peerages, and we both have Sacred Gears. They already tried to recruit me, I gave some conditions for joining so we will have to see who I will join. However, I am quite sure they will try to approach you as well. I think you should join one of them, but only if you feel it is the right thing to do. Anyway, I will help protect you as well as I can, and we will start some light training as soon as we figure out how to unlock our gears, if not earlier." Ace said, already thinking about what sort of training he would be putting Isane through.

Somehow, Isane was also thinking on all sorts of 'trainings' she would be put through by Ace, a perverted giggle escaping her lips at those thoughts.

Both were strangely in sync, and completely out of it at the same time.

Shaking his head to stop thinking of making Isane run around town in a way similar to what Kenichi was forced to do in History Strongest Disciple, but keeping the memory for later as a possible way to help train Isane, Ace decided to leave his cousin to rest. She would need time to think before anything happen anyway, he could at least let her rest for the night.

Tomorrow, training starts.

///---///

Four days passed since then. Now it was Friday and after experiencing these days with both Rias and Sona, he was confident in his thoughts.

Both were terrible bosses.

Sona Sitri, under Ace's observation, was even worse than he expected. Normally, for a school on the level of Kuoh with over 800 students in high school and with around 50 clubs, small and large, the student council who had to take care of the finances of all clubs as well as plan events and anything else was already a lot of work. Add to it that Sona basically took over the position of the Moral Committee to watch over the rules in school only made it worse.

Was that enough? Fuck no, she then took over a large part of the administrative work of the school as to learn how to do it.

The council then had their work as a devil and after just two days observing them, Ace came to a realization.

It is not for nothing that Sona's peerage was weaker than Rias's peerage, they never had any time to train! Working from 7 AM to 22 PM every day with just half an hour rest of lunch and dinner each, how can this group improve in fighting this way?

For Ace, that was unacceptable. Even if he was to join her through some strike of bad luck, he would make sure to be a 'ghost' member of the council at best, only showing up to help every once in a while and for just a short time, there was no way Sona would be paying him enough for him to become a full-time white-collar worked under an overworked and stressed-out boss.

Ace was someone who wanted power, prestige, fame, to have everything he could have and to live as he wanted, which of course meant making sure this world was still standing by the end of the year, and none of that was related to being a corporate slave like Sona's entire peerage felt like.

As for Rias's side, how to say it...

"Here, ahhh." Rias said, feeding Ace some meat from the bento she prepared for him. All around there were students glaring, the guys and many girls were glaring daggers at Ace, but some of the girls were doing the same towards Rias. Namely, the girls from the Kendo club that were not too happy about the sudden interest of the red-haired beauty.

This has been happening since Ace talked of joining her, since day one she tried to find ways to please or attract Ace to her side. Small gifts, acting flirty, preparing home made meals, hells when he visited the ORC she was literally taking a shower 'coincidentally' and happened to get out of the bathroom with only her panties on.

Ace would not admit it no matter who asked, but she was definitely extremely sexy and he felt attracted to her body at the very least. Her antics of trying to impress him were amusing, like a child fumbling as she amateurishly tried to seduce him at times, but being such a clueless virgin that it was more funny than sexy most times.

On one side, Ace was impressed by her willingness to go that far to get him to join. Especially since she didn't try to use Koneko who was decidedly the closest Ace had of a friend amongst the devils, her not using Koneko in such a way was a positive in Ace's eyes. However, if she thinks that sex would interfere with his sense of reasoning regarding making deals then she was dead wrong. He saw emotions like lust and desire for sex as one thing, and deals as another entirely. He would not be led around by the dick when it comes to making important deals.

And, in truth, Rias, as a boss, was not too impressive in Ace's eyes. No, not her work in itself or her ability to find talents, all her peerage members were well trained and strong in their own right. Ace had little doubt they were individually stronger than Riser's peerage... but that was only individually.

She currently only had 3 members able to fight, and, of the three, two refused to fight at full force with the one left being so focused on the concept of chivalry that he completely missed on the ways he could become stronger.

It was like her peerage didn't want to win for fucks sake, if one intends to fight and needs to win they must be willing to go to any lengths to win and do truly their best. How can she win when her peerage was like this? Few numbers and allies that refused to give their all, it was no wonder in Ace's mind that she lost in the CANON he knew off.

Not only that, she had no plans on how to deal with Riser's regeneration or the Phenex Tears his peerage was sure to have in hand.

Besides, even if Rias's peerage was full of elites that were individually much better than their counterparts in Riser's peerage, there was a certain quality in quantity, and Rias lacked the numbers and did not seem intent on finding said quantity for herself. She wanted to only have the best of the best in her peerage, an admirable desire, but unrealistic if she had such time constraints as she clearly had.

If she truly wanted to, couldn't she just openly proclaim that she, the heiress of house Gremory, is in search of peerage members? If she did so publicly then several people appearing for recruitment were bound to appear. She could then select the best possible members amongst them and fill up her peerage.

Just like that, Rias's greatest disadvantage would be gone and she'd still have powerful or at least capable people in her peerage to help her go through with her ordeal.

And yet, she refused to even think about doing this. Fuck it, if she just made Akeno just use Holy Lightning then Riser's regeneration would be useless and she could win for sure, but she refused to do this as well since it would hurt Akeno's feelings.

Rias was too soft and kind, she was not suitable for a leader in Ace's opinion, she'd likely work much better as a second in command instead of the actual leader. At this point, even if he joined her he wouldn't fear Riser in the Rating Game, instead, he'd fear Rias losing the game due to her excessive softness or some silly notion of pride.

After interacting with the people from Demon Slayer, especially someone like Ubayashiki, he had seen what a true ideal leader should be like, and Rias was so far away from someone like that man that it wasn't even funny.

Eating the lunch given by Rias Ace noted that Isane was talking with Akeno, the two getting along relatively well much to Ace's surprise.

"Miss Gremory, I think that even if I don't join you, there is someone else who would be interested." Ace said with a slightly joking tone.

Rias just smiled and nodded.

"True, Isane-san has become good friends with Akeno and myself. We were thinking of going to do some shopping on this Sunday if you are interested in coming along."

Ace shook his head.

"No need, I have other matters I intend to take care of and I am quite sure Isane needs a break anyway. Me being around would not let her relax properly." Ace explained.

From the following day of Ace and Isane's talks, the girl has been going through what Ace could describe as rehabilitation training and what Isane would call torture. One must understand, Isane was someone who had never done any sort of physical training or practice and, as such, was not used to the work needed to improve the body's natural fitness.

But Ace knew that putting her under too much pressure would do no good, so her going out now was not a bad idea in Ace's eyes. And as for letting Isane go with Rias and Akeno, Ace had no desire to manage Isane's whole life anyway and if she wanted to hang out with those two then that was her deal. Ace would only worry if she was going out in a date with some possible sleazbag or going solo since both situations were too dangerous for a mostly naive defenseless girl with a body like hers. If she was with Akeno and Rias, then there wouldn't be such an issue, and the two devils would never harm Isane as they understand that Ace was not someone they could mess around with so casually.

Rias, hearing Ace speaking of other matters, had her face cloud a bit before she sighed and acquiesced.

"Very well, hope you enjoy your weekend." Rias said before waving him goodbye and leaving for her own classroom.

She was quite confident in herself, being sure that she could convince Isane to join her as well as Ace. She had noted him giving her a once over more than once and, in all honesty? She quite enjoyed it since it showed appreciation instead of blind lust or possessiveness like she felt with so many others in the past.

With him and Isane, who had certainly a dragon-type sacred gear, it would increase her chances of winning her freedom by a large margin!

As for Ace, he was more interested in something else at the moment.

Ravel Phenex.

The girl has approached him a few days prior about him joining her peerage. He had told her his requirements and she agreed to them, but she too had a requirement.

It was a weird one actually, beating up her older brother, Riser Phenex.

Ace felt it was weird karma that the world seemed to want him to beat up the flaming chicken, but unlike with Rias he had only to beat Riser, not defeat him. As such, as long as Ace proved able to overwhelm Riser and force him to regenerate to what would be a fatal damage on someone else, he pass.

It was simpler than truly defeating Riser since he didn't need to worry about the devil's regeneration. As for the reason to do need to defeat Riser? That was very simple, because Ravel wanted Ace as her Queen!

Yes, the Queen piece, the strongest piece and arguably the most important after the King itself. For that, she as well as her family had some basic requirements. It is not like just anyone would suffice, especially with the Queen's main job being to protect the King. Even if Ace was strong, Ravel wanted to be sure he was strong enough, so she programmed this challenge.

Of course, even if it failed, if Ace was strong enough he would still join the peerage, just not as Queen.

And why Ace was so invested in actually DO becoming the Queen Piece?

"So, let me make sure of this." Ace said on the phone to Ravel. It was now late as Ace had spent the after-class hours with Sona to see her work and it was already dark out. Seriously, that girl really loved to work. "If I become the Queen piece my salary will be fifty kilos of gold and two doses of Phenex Tears every month with a start bonus of five hundred kilos as well as five doses of Phenex Tears? And if I become another piece the value will be just 70% of that?"

"Yes. You said you wanted your payment like that, so I think this is a good enough price." Ravel said. "Of course, if I need you for something else I will pay separately, money is never an issue."

Hearing this words, it made Ace's face split into a smile.

"Pleasure doing business with you. So? When is the fight?" Ace questioned.

In truth, he was mostly split between Ravel and Rias right now.

Sona was not what he wanted on a boss, unless her offer was particularly generous in regards to payment there was no way he would follow her corporate slave peerage. He would also demand payment for overtime work and payment for anything beyond the bare basics, for some reason, Ace rather doubted that the Sitri Heiress would be willing to pay.

Ravel was very appealing, even if there was the fact that he would have his work cut out for him considering that the Chaos Brigade would certainly come for her to produce artificial Phenex Tears like they did in CANON. Not only that, he would need to probably maneuver Ravel to keep her close to the plot as to let Ace intervene when needed so he figured he'd likely need to seduce her somehow as to make her do what he wanted.

Probably not too hard a deal, considering she originally fell for Issei without him even trying to get her, and she was quite pleasing to the eye as well. Ace figured he would only actively pursue her if he judged it as necessary, who knows how things will turn out anyway, and if he felt it was needed then he might as well do it.

As for Rias, she was also a good option. She hasn't yet said precisely how much gold she can take out, but she should be filthy rich as well so it wouldn't be an issue. Her only request was winning the rating game, and considering how Isane was with the rest of Rias's peerage Ace wouldn't be that opposed to joining the redhead's group if for being around to make sure the bumbling pervert wouldn't get hurt or die.

Regardless, this fight against Riser would be useful since it would let him more perfectly understand the Phenex's strengths and weaknesses. After the fight Ace would more clearly be able to measure the chances of victory from Rias. Even if he doesn't join Rias, he could still train her if requested as he could make any deals as long as they did not DIRECTLY go against whoever his king may be, and who the marriage partner of her older brother is doesn't sound like something that should or would matter directly to his king.

Loopholes, gotta love them.

Moving happily out of school with thoughts of how much gold and money he would be getting, he didn't even notice the woman who came behind him, tapping at his shoulder.

Turning to look he saw a sexy older woman with golden-brown eyes, long wavy dark blue hair, a sexy expression, and a body that could put even Rias to shame in sheer proportions. She was wearing a maroon, trenchcoat-like top with a wide collar, a matching miniskirt, and black heeled shoes. The trenchcoat top was open at her chest, giving a view of her breasts and cleavage. She also wore a gold necklace around her neck. She appears to wear a white shirt underneath her top, but it can only be seen from the bottom.

"Hey, onii-san, how would you like to have a small date with me!" The sexy woman said to Ace in a husky tone.

Ace looked at her up and down for a few seconds, noted her clothes, tone, and looks, before he spoke up.

"Sorry, not interested in paying for a whore. If I want to fuck someone, I can get better for free." Ace said instantly, turned around, and left.

Kalawarner stared at her target's back, her expression very ugly as she was so firmly and humiliatingly rejected just like that. Not only that-

"Hey!" She stretched as she ran to be in front of her target, her eyes ablaze as she stared at him. "Apologize for me this instance! I am not a whore or anything like that."

Ace, completely unimpressed, just raised a brow at her words.

"You are not? Then why you act, dress, and look like one? Do you just like to have men thinking you are that easy?" Ace questioned, making Kalawarner's eyes flare in indignation.

"What you mean by-"

Before she could continue Ace put a finger to her lips on a shushing gesture and said.

"Shh, shh, I know. You are not happy to have your fetish of being thought of as a cheap whore exposed. It makes sense, it is humiliating to want to sell yourself for cheap buck just because you think you are worthless, but please don't bother me with your issues. You may rather go for easier prey to satiate your weird sex desires, someone more willing to treat you like you want, like those two." Ace said as he pointed to the distant perverted duo who were practically drooling over Kalawarner from the distance.

Being satisfied with her incredulous looks Ace directly passed by her and went his way.

His indifferent expression, however, changed as he moved away from her. Thanks to his enhanced sense of smell Ace naturally could note that the woman who just approached him was a fallen angel, which means that they certainly started to move.

Taking out his phone Ace called for Isane. She did not yet had her gear unlocked after all and had no way to protect herself, it would be better to meet her as to make sure she was safe.

RING

RING

RING

The phone rang for a while and Ace's expression turned graver and graver as time passed until someone finally answered the phone.

"Isane, where are you? We need to talk right now and-"

"Moshi, moshi, is this that devil lover on the other side? Sorry, the owner of this phone is currently a bit BUSY, HAHAHAHA!" A frenzied laughter echoed on the other side of the phone and Ace's expression turned from normal to stoic neutral in a single second as he realized that things just turned from bad to downright terrible.

"If you hurt a single hair of my cousin's head I will-"

"It is too late for that, idiot." The one on the other side said. "It seems like the bimbo boss failed her mission, so we will do it another way. I will explain it so that even a stupid piece of shit devil lover like you can understand. You come to the old church in two hours, no warning any of you devil friends of what is happening or anything like that. Be here at the time and she will still be alive, fail and this sweet piece of ass dies and I will enjoy the body afterward, hahahaha"

With that, the call was cut and Ace stood frozen in place, not moving a single muscle. Then, as if nothing had happened he began moving again before speaking.

"I agree to your terms, pleasure doing business with you." Ace said, cementing the fact that now the enemy would not be able to kill Isane as long as he showed up in time. If they tried then they would perish before they could, the rules of a deal are decidedly absolute and no one can deny it.

With this Ace had directly decided that he needed more strength. If it was just to defeat those fallen it wouldn't be particularly hard to do it, but with Isane captured things changed.

Deciding on what he had to do, he knew he had two hours to be at the abandoned church. On the past Ace had already used his alchemy knowledge to make instantaneous teleportation solutions so reaching the abandoned church would be all too simple. In these two hours, he would need to get stronger and the only way Ace could think to do that was one trick.

It would complicate things immensely and likely cause troubles all around, but to save his stupid cousin Ace had to take the shot.

With a decision in his mind, he walked to a park nearby, ready to make a new deal.

///---///

AN:

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Quick question before I leave, I can choose to maintain alive one of the female fallen, who should it be? Do remember that Ace would likely take this one as a sex object since he is still interested in sex and would like a convenient person to relieve himself without all those emotional worries.

Besides, he is a horny person who wants sex as well as anyone, but he doesn't want to do it with Isane as he does not want to force himself on her whatsoever. He would not force himself on anyone he considers as friends or potential lovers, but if it is a defeated enemy that sold herself to him for her life, well, that is another story as he doesn't need to care about their desires or anything like that. It is a twisted way of seeing things, but it is how it is.

Anyways, comment and follow my fic, tell me what you would want to see next. Until next time.