Chapter 109
The mechanics of Devil Trigger were interesting, to say the least. During the 30-40 seconds, the ability was active; I basically had bottomless demonic energy regeneration. Angel energy regenerated three times as fast, as did health and stamina.
In any other situation, those rates might have cut it, but not here, not now. I'd need a more potent multiplier to get this done in a reasonable timeframe, so I turned to Yao.
"Don't shoot me down immediately," I began, "but I think we could hack this problem completely with the Timestone."
Yao folded her arms and gave me the stink eye at the mere suggestion, but I pressed on.
"If you put me in a time field where time passed several times faster, I could technically get all of the channeling done in a few hours with Devil Trigger."
"The Eye of Agamotto is the Sanctum's most prized possession. You have no idea how many masters you've disrespected for even suggesting that course of action, not to mention how dangerous it is," Yao scolded, but I had a feeling she wasn't going to dismiss me completely, and I was right.
"Your idea isn't entirely without merit," Yao admitted, "although we'll have to be very careful. Humans cannot withstand the power of the infinity stones for long, and don't get me started on the adverse effect of artificial time dilation."
"I'm not human, though," I reminded her. "And I'm a Nephilim. If anybody's constitution is suited to handling the erratic energy of an infinity stone, it's mine."
Yao hesitated but rubbed her chin in thought. "You do have cosmic energy flowing through your veins as we speak. I will run the calculations and make preparations. In the meantime, you should test your Devil Trigger and see how much energy you can output within the 35 seconds your ability is active.
Energy poured out of me as I activated Devil Trigger, and the world slowed. With a flourish, I pulled Rebellion and poured energy into Unify as if my life depended on it. Initially, it flowed slowly, then gushed like a river.
Over 2000 DE flowed out of me in the first 20 seconds and another 2000 in the last 15. I had a sneaking suspicion that my output rate would only get higher with each outpour.
I crumbled to the floor when Devil Trigger ended with a deep groan. My little stunt hadn't been consequence-free. Every inch of me ached, and it took over 200 AE to eliminate the pain completely.
The experience confirmed something I'd always suspected about my biology. Much like other fantasy races, I had a network of energy channels running through me, allowing me to accomplish the fantastical things I could do.
Channeling that much energy that quickly must've overtaxed it. Luckily, I had Angel Regeneration to stitch me back up and bolster it, apparently.
+1 DE.
It had been a while since I'd gained Demon Energy that easily. With a smirk, I channeled the last of my Angel energy into my skill before I sat down to meditate.
My meditation had fallen behind the most in my training, but I moved to remedy that. Thirty minutes later, I was ready for another Devil Trigger when Yao appeared with Jean, Drumm, and Kaecilius.
"What are you doing here?" I said, raising a brow at Kaecilius.
"Lovely to see you as well," he drawled.
"The Ancient one is about to create a powerful time dilation field," Mordo explained. "We're here to contain your energy levels and keep you from giving away our location to the enemy."
"And I..um, here to observe," Jean said with a lingering look. I raised a brow at the strange behavior before realizing I wasn't wearing a shirt.
"Oh…uh, let's get this over with then."
"How much energy were you able to generate?" Yao asked.
"About 4000 Demon energy," I answered, which confused Kaecilius. Yao then explained that I interpreted my abilities in energy units and quantifiable numbers. When he still didn't quite understand, I demonstrated by filling my fist with a double bust and punching the floor. It was like a grenade had gone off. The punch raised a small dust cloud, and Drumm, who hadn't seen me in months, looked on in amazement.
"You've grown stronger."
I pulled back with a shrug and looked at a startled Kaecilius. "That was about 20 Demonic Energy."
"That's absurd," he muttered, stunned.
"Yeah, and I need 200,000 demonic and Angelic energy to make this upgrade possible," I said. "Thankfully, the former won't be that much of a problem. It's the Angelic energy I'm worried about."
After some deliberation, we settled on a solution for this problem: Stims. They'd perk up my regeneration to absurd levels for 5 seconds, and apparently, according to Shin's notes, repeated use of them stacked up to 3 times in exchange for cutting down the boost duration by 80% with each subsequent Stim.
So, that meant Stim 1 gave five seconds, and Stim 2 and 3 gave a second bonus each.
Luckily, with Yao's skills, we could stretch those seven seconds to 1hr and 10 minutes. Between my Devil Trigger, Meditation skill, and 3 Stims, I should be able to output about 94,000 Angel Energy, which seemed like a crazy number even to consider.
"Is it even possible to stretch out my relative time like that?" I asked her.
"It's not impossible," she said. "It's just extremely taxing to both the caster and the person undergoing the selective dilation. I can perform the technique twice at most in a day."
I laughed at the absurdity. It seemed I was getting my upgrade tonight, but I knew it'd require a level of concentration and mental strain I'd never experienced before. Another issue I could not overlook was the second round of Stims I'd likely need. Yao offered to send me back to the Eye to gather more resources, and it was a blissfully short trip.
To save us all time, I asked Effiong to release a pack of lightning wolves, as many Blood Spinners as she could manage, and a handful of other monsters. She emptied 1/10th of her demon stash into the Eye, and I ended the fight in three moves.
Devil Trigger tripled my stats, 'Down' forced the monsters to their knees, and 'Fire' roasted them alive. I walked away with about 20,000 Red Orbs. After a quick bout of meditation, I was ready for the task ahead and had bought enough Stim to attempt the maneuver a third, fourth, and fifth time if necessary.
I'd be lying if I said I was not afraid of the dilation field, and Jean seemed to share the same sentiment, but I reminded her that it had to be done. Quellitrax was after us, and so was Domina, Shin's agents indirectly, and we would have to deal with the Hulk and Klaue sooner rather than later. There was also the small matter of finding worthy hosts for Shin in exchange for my freedom, a tidbit I've yet to tell Jean or anyone.
After she gave me the equivalent of a mental hug, The time field went up. Strings of green time energy spun around me as the world outside slowed to a crawl, and I immediately began. I activated Devil Trigger and jabbed the Stim into my shoulder. My regeneration, which was already ridiculous, shot up to about 90x with the Stims. I activated meditation, regulating my breathing, and felt the energy output double as energy became substantially easier to manipulate.
I was up to 180x multiplier now. With my current energy pool, I regenerated about 8.7 Angel Energy every minute, which rapidly shot up to 1556. With herculean mental effort, I split my focus three ways. One maintained meditation, while the other two focused on channeling as much energy as I could manage into my sword.
The hour and one minute passed sooner than expected, and by the end of it, I dropped to the floor, spasming as my mind and body readjusted to the sudden shift in time. A crippling headache assaulted me, one that was quickly assuaged by lingering angel energy, which was far more plentiful than I anticipated.
I also noticed that I'd generated about 120,000 Angel energy, nearly a quarter more than I expected to produce.
A look at my stat page explained how it was possible. My Angel Energy and Demon Energy stats increased considerably, giving me more energy per second to generate and subsequently allowing the multipliers to make more of a difference.
Angel Energy: 62
Demon Energy: 77
I had basically cheated my way into a more robust energy pool.
While the ordeal with my mind was easily handled, my body took a bit longer to recover. Greenish veins ran up and down my body from the points where the energy of the infinity stones entered it.
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