Chapter 281

His breaths were husky, his body so hot white wisps of water vapour could be seen coming out of his mouth. His heart beat like an overzealous engine. His arteries were pushed so close to his body his skin adopted a very slight tinge of red.

Compared to before, his strength had increased to an astonishing 170x multiplier. It seemed like a small leap from his previous 165x multiplier, but for his someone of his calibre, it was massive.

"HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

GRUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

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|DxD|

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Imposing, unyielding, domineering---that was the aura Igor gave off without doing anything. He stood in silence with his eyes closed. Crimson aura rapidly fluctuated around him like a flame, yet he was cool like the waters from a lake.

But in this state, his calmness could quickly be replaced by spontaneous outrage.

"!"

His eyes suddenly flashed open, revealing a pupil-less gaze before he exploded in a blaze of untold power.

"HAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

GRUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

Once more, a swirling red dust storm quickly formed around him. His roar to the skies engulfed the region in his terrorful wake.

It was only fortunate this seemed to be a brief outburst. His aura calmed and the pressure decreased once more. His roar was no longer sustained, leaving it to fade in a vague echo.

"Fuuuu…"

He breathed out calmly, as if his previous outburst was nothing more than a way to relieve himself. Were it on Earth, such a 'casual' action might've seen a devastating loss of lives were it to be done in populated areas.

"My power is increasing…overflowing…"

His voice came out raspy-like. Every movement of his muscles could be seen when he clenched his fists. Waves upon waves of demi-ki filtered out of his body and escaped through his skin as aura.

There was no suppressing this overwhelming surge of excess energy. So it'd be better if it was put to good use.

"Hehehehehe. Come out! I want to fight you."

{...}

His words were graced by silence, but his grin did not fade. In fact, it was threatening to spread even further. It was already remarkable he had the patience to remain standing without acting out. But how long that would last, nobody knew.

In the end, Triny couldn't help but mourn the inevitable. Either she came out or he came inside---the latter being an unwelcome scenario.

Given how much work she put into perfecting the mindscape, she didn't want it trashed by this troublesome blonde.

Sigh…

Since he seemed conscious enough to be aware of her presence, she decided to get everything over and done with.

{Fine.}

From his forehead, a golden stream of energy poured out before it started materialising a few metres in front of him.

She first appeared like a golden statue that slowly gained life. Her arms were crossed in annoyance. Her eyes were closed as if she didn't want to see this annoying pest.

Slowly, a gentle surge of chakra solidified her form into corporeality. All the four elements combined to give her a solid living form with nature energy acting as the soul to support her presence.

But she never imagined that just as she opened her eyes, she'd come face to face with Igor's demented grin and a charged orb especially prepared for her.

"HelloooOOOOO!"

Ka…DRUUUUUUUU!!!

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|DxD|

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Three days of fighting, it took three days of fighting to sate Igor's desire for battle. The fight ended not because he was fatigued or anything, but because his need for food finally outpaced his desire to continue fighting.

It was over these past few days that Triny finally got a glimpse of how much energy Igor had and could generate at any given moment. He could release attacks larger than cruise ships like they were nothing. Any energy he burnt was swiftly replaced by a batch of fresh demi-ki from his divine strand.

Triny did not default to her true form, but used her Origin Mode combined with the Aura-Flowing State. She'd initially dominated him, but Igor was far too quick at adapting. The stronger she was, the faster his strength climbed to match hers.

By the end of the second day, they were equal. In her current state, she was two-times stronger than him in his Demigod State and nearly twenty percent stronger than him in his full power state.

Such a gap was not something that could easily be closed without significant training, yet he caught up to her in just under 48 hours.

What was worse, he wasn't easy to put down. His reserves were endless. His healing rate was too high and his endurance was unmatched. Her full-power punches couldn't harm him with enough damage to take him out.

It was during those times she lamented the weakness of the Aura-Flowing State, but it was also this technique that gave her a fighting chance. She even wondered why she agreed to not using her true form. Being equals was annoying!

But nonetheless, the fight had raged on without a decisive winner. Igor's ludicrous growth made her once more realise this: he was still a Demigod. If his full-powered state allowed him such insane adaptability, how powerful would he be if he became a god?

Perhaps even if she regained her true body, she still wouldn't be his match. But that only served to make her desire for more power. He already knew how to use nature energy without her help. It wouldn't be long before he could create it, especially once he can use chi.

If she was still weaker than him by then, would he still need her? Maybe she'd be tossed off to the sid-

"Ow!"

"What are you thinking about so much? You're worrying me, Triny."

"..."

She was brought out of her daze back to the real world. It'd just been a while since their fight and Igor was in rags. Her dress could easily be recreated using chakra.

Igor had powered down to his normal Demigod State. He no longer had that crazy expression on his face. His mouth was covered in grease and aside from the red hair and eyes, he looked very normal.

Still, his worry made her feel a bit calmer.

"Don't worry about it."

She waived off his concerns. The future was still far and unknown. As long as she worked hard, she'd remain ahead of him.

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|DxD|

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Time Chamber: Four Months Later (4 years after entry)

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There was a reason Igor was so focused on mastering control over his full-powered form. It wasn't just a transformation. It was an evolutionary trigger, a true representation of his form as a Demigod.

If he referenced the term correctly, using what he now called his True Demigod Form granted him 'XP buffs' in battle or training. This was completely different from his Demigod State.

His True Form could not be classified as a simple transformation. It was universally known that transformations were only direct multipliers. Lifting one hundred kilograms in his transformed state would only give him the same benefits as lifting ten kilograms in his base state.

But for his True form, it was different. His True Form was like his new base state. Training, fighting, any increases to his strength would be 'buffed' considerably in comparison to his base state.

It was for this sole reason Igor wanted to attain control over it. It was no longer a mere transformation. That was why he now called it a 'form', not a 'state'.

His fights against Atid and Triny were proof of his prognosis. To gain an almost twenty percent increase in power was something that would atleast take him weeks or even months to obtain just through fighting.

If he trained like a maniac, he MIGHT just see an increase just under a week, and that's with using his Demigod State to heal himself. To reference those weird terms once more, his True Form was 'broken'.

Four months of training saw…a small increase in power. It was still large, but it couldn't be compared to fighting with Triny. Four months of training propelled his power from 200 to 230x his base state.

It couldn't be helped. Over three-fourths of the time was spent tempering his control. If he included fighting, he might've broke the three-hundred margin, but that would also make it that much harder for his body to endure the transformation.

His biggest obstacle during these four months was regulating the amount of ki his divine strand produced. Not only was he burning through food like there was no tomorrow, but it made training harder since his muscles were already inflated---they were as strong just as they were weak.

His True Form placed his muscles under constant tension from the huge amounts of demi-ki flooding them. Rigorous training was a sure way to snap them to pieces. If he could manage to regulate and decrease the amount of ki he produced, he'd be able to decrease the swelling.

But that was easier said than done. Four months of effort and he'd barely managed to decrease his muscle mass by three percent. It was too hard. His ki circulated over two-hundred-times its normal speed. Trying to squash that down was the same as trying to place his palm over a pressure washer---if he wasn't careful, he'd tear his ki veins apart and those were a pain to heal from.

He'd initially thought of giving up and fighting Triny for a quick increase in power, but tha't be tantamount to asking for death. Keeping a lid on his energy was hard enough as it is. Igor figured--no, knew if he continued to get stronger, he'd reach a point where he truly wouldn't be able to control his energy.

At that point, his body would overflow with demi-ki and if the power-high just so happened to make him lose his mind, he'd explode like a balloon…a very gory balloon. Going out while fighting wasn't a bad way to die, but self-deleting himself and not leaving a full corpse was an embarrassing way to go.

Triny's strength without using her true form was somewhere around 240x his base strength, and that was if she really pushed herself. If Igor pushed himself, he figured he could get to the 233rd multiplier.

If he fought Triny, he'd bridge the gap between him and her in a few hours at most, but then he'd probably die of energy overload. Once a certain circulation speed is reached, he can forget about cancelling the transformation or releasing any energy attacks.

Rather than take the risk, it'd be better to obediently focus on training his body through his base form, which brought him back to nature energy once more. Crazy how things went full-circle, but needs must be met.

His plan was solid and would've brought immense benefits, but his strong body was like a glass wall holding back a dam---one crack and it's all over.

It sure was annoying when he arrived at that regretful realisation a week prior. Triny, like the annoying little midget hag she was, took the opportunity to hound and tease him over how he wasted time.

True, he did waste time. He wasted time learning nature energy only to find out it was useless when it came to controlling his instincts. Then he wasted more time training for a form that'd bring him more losses than gains in the short run. But if things were looked at with a magnifying glass, everything he's done wasn't really a waste of time…maybe.

He'd mastered nature energy and he's learnt more about his True Form. Sure he could've focused on one aspect at a time, especially given how much little time he had, but he couldn't be blamed for his lack of knowledge.

His newly-gained insight was helpful, but it wouldn't prevent him from getting a beating from Atid in the upcoming war. That idiot Goku-lover must've surely picked up some tricks since their last battle. Igor might've lost once, but it'd be embarrassing if he disgraced Prince Vegeta by losing to a pervert and his loser dragon again.

He still had a year so for once, he decided to put off his training and work together with the Triny. Those three tails she gave him were cool and he was so looking to the other four.

"Wake up, old hag! It's time to train!"

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AN

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Some might wonder why Igor can use his Origin Demigod State to reach 500x his base strength, yet struggles to handle a measly 230x multiplier in his true form. All of this can be explained rather easily.

To put it simply, the problem lies in the quantity of energy produced and the circulation speed. For starters, Igor produces a LOT of energy in his true form and that energy circulates through his veins at 230x his normal circulation speed.

It is extremely hard to control such energy, especially when he continuously produces it. That's why he can't even reign in his ki inside his body. It always leaks out and the only way to stop him is through hunger or overwhelming strength.

The Origin Demigod Suppressed State on the other hand is different. I know it's a mouthful but bear with me for a moment.

The circulation speed is the same as his transformation's multiplier, meaning the speed is 50x his normal circulation speed. That's poultry compared to what he's used to and it's easy to control.

The key aspect to take away here is this transformation is more focused on quality instead of quantity. Nature energy already enhances his base form by a 10x multiplier. If the transformation is stacked on top of that, the results speak for themselves.

The only reason he can't bear it for long is the strain to his mind. The boost to his perception is so massive his brain can't handle all that information. If he can train his brain to withstand high loads of information, then he'd be able to safely push to combining his Origin State with his Demigod State. At that point, he'd have a 1000x boost to his power.