Chapter 137: The Good Doctor

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Years again continued to quickly pass. Ching Shih's boldness in her pursuit to become one of Erik's wives/lovers and make her dreams come true showed some fruits more quickly than one could imagine. It had only taken twelve years after becoming a Devil for Ching Shih to 'seduce' Erik. And she was 'proud' of it. That is, until before Erik's other wives/lovers tell her that Erik had received a 'go-ahead' to 'fuck her brains out'. The face that she made at the revelation got a lot of laughs from the women and even Ching Shih ended up laughing at herself for that.

As the years continued to pass, the world entered a period of fast modernization. With new technologies, came new weapons, and with new weapons came the 'scratchy' for them to be used. That lit up the fire of many nationalists that wanted independence for their countries that were still linked and seen as colonies, starting many civil wars throughout all the globe, together with the process of decolonization and independence of the Americas. Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and Japan, were just some of the few countries that saw themselves drowning in civil wars. During all these conflicts, Erik was working as a neutral faction when the supernatural got, in one way or another, dragged into the conflicts by taking in the wounded people that were caught into the crossfire, be them a part or not of the supernatural world. Of course, if they were not a part of it, Erik would subtly change their memories to something acceptable.

But not everyone was happy with Erik healing their 'enemies'. Some of the factions involved in the conflicts sent some people to try to 'persuade' Erik to stop his healing services or heal just one of the sides of the conflict. Of course that Erik had denied them at every side, propping them to try to force the place to shut down. And try is the keyword here. To say that Erik was not amused with that was an understatement. Erik had them thoroughly beat everyone from the offending group and send them back to their leaders at one inch of death, remembering the supernatural world, once again, that you do not mess with Erik Ravenclaw. That earned him the nickname of 'the Good Doctor'. The funny thing was that he was revered by some and at the same time feared by others. What helped that nickname to root itself was that Azazel, in a strike to curb even more Kokabiel's shenanigans, had spread as gossip material that Erik had beat the Grigori Cadre to one inch of his death too. And he was ok with that too since Kokabiel was acting on his own in going and provoking 'the Good Doctor' at his home.

For that stunt, Erik stopped the trade of exclusive goodies with Azazel for quite some time, making his wives laugh uproariously at the face of horror that the Fallen-Angel's General Governor made. Even the always serious Barakiel cracked a smile at that while Penemue shed tears because of all the laughter.

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After this conturbed time of the world calmed down, Erik dived fully into his research about extra-dimensions. He was fixated on the thought of creating one or even taking one of the empty ones for himself.

And it seemed that Erik would take a lot of time searching for a good empty one if not for a little help that he got from an unexpected source.

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Salvador, Brazil

October 1880

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Erik was repairing his surroundings after having to trash a group of Devils that attacked him while he was doing one of his visits to one of his Group's offices. These attacks were becoming frequent in the last few years and Erik knew exactly who was behind them and why they were doing it. The Old Satans, more precisely, the last 'true' Leviathan, were sending their minions to hurt him as a way of getting some kind of twisted vengeance on Serafall. It was petty, but it matched the modus operandi of the group. It seemed that their collective bouts of explosive diarrhea and months of powerlessness were not enough to curb their pettiness. But Erik was having fun with them together with the 'stress relieve' that he got, so he was not going to complain too much about it.

As Erik was wrapping up his repairs after already having sent the bruised bodies to Serafall's office, he felt a huge presence suddenly appearing behind him. It filled him with a sort of dread that he had not felt in a long time, probably since his evolution' to High-Human. His reaction was a fast one nonetheless. Erik went into guard and jumped to the side, wanting to put some distance between him and the source of the feeling. And then, Erik looked at the source of his feeling and what he saw made him stop in his tracks. In front of him, behind the location where he was before, was a petite figure of a little girl. She had an apathetic look on her face, with pointy long ears that went through a long and luxurious-looking black hair. But, maybe, her most defining figure would be the doll-like black dress that she was wearing. It took a few seconds of confusion, but Erik recognized the being in front of him, which made him relax instantly while letting out a sigh of relief.

*sigh*

In front of him, standing like it had nothing else to do, was one of the two true immortals in this world. A being that was the incarnation of a concept of the Universe, Ophis, the Dragon of Infinity. As Erik observed the 'little' Dragon, it observed him back. Its stare seemed to be looking at something on Erik that others could not see. They stood there, just staring at each other, for some minutes until Erik decided to break the silence.

"Hello, can I help you with something, Dragon of Infinity?"

Erik asked Ophis, who continued to stare at Erik.

"You are different from the others."

Ophis said while continuing her stare, capturing Erik's interest.

"You have evolved with the blessing of the Universe. That is something very rare to happen."

Ophis said again, making Erik smile at it.

"I know, right? I, myself, only know two others like myself. And that is because they are my wives."

Erik said with a proud tone in his voice. He had looked around the world during all of his trips in search of other people like him, Selena, and Joan, but didn't find any. The closest that he got from finding a kindred soul was when he found a group of people in the south of Asia, around China, India, and Korea. They called themselves cultivators and used mana to refined their bodies, getting very high strength and vitality as the trade-off. But they were missing the last step, the Universe's blessing. Something that those who had tried to acquire it, failed miserably, resulting in their deaths. Ophis didn't react to Erik's words and just continued to stare at him. Sometime after, Ophis nodded its head as it had decided on something.

"You will help me defeat Red."

Ophis announced to Erik, who just smiled back at the Dragon of Infinity. To say that he was not expecting that phrase coming from Ophis' mouth would be a lie. A big one at that.

"Sorry, but I will not help you defeat Great Red."

Erik replied to Ophis, who cocked its head to the side in confusion. The Dragon was not used to anyone denying it anything at all. Then, as if remembering something, Ophis nodded its head and raised one of its hands to its front. Above it, a small magic circle made of white-black light appeared and from it, a small snake was created. Ophis then looked at the little snake and then looked at Erik.

"You will help me defeat Red if I give you power."

Ophis said with some certainty in its voice, making Erik sigh and shook her head at that.

*sigh*

Whoever taught Ophis that things worked like that would have to answer to him later, and Erik had a very good idea of the identity of the offender.

"Tell me, Ophis, if someone that has the power that you have could not defeat Great Red, what difference would I, someone who is much weaker than you, would make even if boosted by your power?"

Erik asked the Dragon of Infinity, who cocked its head again in confusion, forgetting about the little snake in its hands. Now that Erik had said it out loud, his words made sense to Ophis. Now, the Dragon of Infinity would of another plan to get rid of Great Red.

"But tell me, why do you want to defeat him so much?"

Erik suddenly asked Ophis, shaking off the Dragon of Infinity from its train of thoughts. Ophis looked at Erik before replying to his question.

"Red kicked me out of my home. I just want my silence back."

Ophis replied Erik in her apathetic tone. He then nodded his head in understanding at Ophis. "And could you not get another home?"

Erik asked Ophis, who shook its head negatively.

"No. Too much noise everywhere."

Ophis replied to Erik, making the man get very curious about what this 'noise' that Ophis talked about was. He then decided to ask.

"What is this noise that you are talking about, Ophis?"

Erik asked Ophis, making it cock its head again in confusion. But then, it understood Erik's question and tried to reply to it.

"I don't know how to explain it."

Ophis said to Erik, who was not disappointed with the answer.

"Just try to describe it to me then. What does it sound like? Does it have places where the noise gets muffled? Things like that."

Erik said again to Ophis, who nodded its head in understanding.

"It sounds like noise. Cracking, popping, scratching, tearing, rustling. It is like a mixture of different sounds that a human would normally hear. And aside from home, where there is no noise, just a noisy Red Dragon, there is only one place where the noise is less loud."

Ophis replied to Erik, trying to explain what it was hearing all time. Erik nodded his head in understanding. He had some theories about the origin of the sound but needed more evidence to reach a conclusion.

"Can you tell me where this place is that the noise is less loud?"

Erik asked Ophis, who sook its head negatively.

"I promised someone that I would not tell others where the room is."

Ophis replied to Erik, who got a thoughtful look on his face.

'So it is a room… Maybe it is the room that the shit head Rizevim created?'

Erik thought in his head while remembering some scenes of the animation that showed Ophis resting inside a room that had its walls covered in inscriptions. It was then that a wild idea appeared on his mind, making Erik smile and look at Ophis.

"Since you can't tell me where the room is, can you take me there with you? This way you will keep your promise and I will get some clues on what could be the origin of this noise that you are constantly hearing."

Erik said while working on the wording of the promise that Ophis had made. The Dragon of Infinity stood in place while looking at Erik and thinking about what he had just said. After some seconds, Ophis nodded its head and a magic circle with the infinity symbol in its center appeared under her and stood in place, waiting for its caster's order to activate.

"Come."

Ophis simply said to Erik, who nodded his head and started to walk to enter the magic circle. He could not peak at the formula that was used to create it, but Erik could feel that this was a transportation magic circle. A very powerful one at that.

As Erik stepped into the circle, stopped and, in a flash of white and black light, Erik and Ophis disappeared from the place where they were standing before.

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Ophis' Resting Room, Unknown Location

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As Erik's vision came back to him, he found himself in the middle of a medium-sized room that had only one door. In the middle of the room was a big bed that had its sheets in a messy state, indicating that Ophis was probably resting there not long ago. Aside from the bed and the door, the room had nothing more. That is if you ignored the enormous quantity of inscriptions written all over the walls, ceiling, and floor.

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