Chapter 96

For Asia, Igor knew firsthand that even if he brought the most vilest of beings in history, she would hesitate. There was even a very high likelihood that she wouldn't kill them in the end. Her inherent kindness wouldn't let her. But he would change it. Even if she hated him in the end, as long as she finally got the resolve that was needed to survive in the supernatural world.

Because for him, her survival was his topmost priority.

[I'll make her strong through any means possible.]

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|DxD|

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The two men continued discussing a matter of things relating to how Vasco would move on after this. The old man did not hide anything and deliberately told Igor of how he planned to assume total control of the church, a process which would take a few years. Gaining absolute control was something he could accomplish within half a year. It was consolidating his power and stamping out any rebellions that would take years.

Igor didn't try to dissuade him because he knew of Vasco's capability. Besides his own rudimentary knowledge, he heard many stories about the man from Sun Wukong, stories of how he was an absolute beast in the early 20th century, a monster that could clash with a serious Kokabiel. So he was definitely sure that in a place full of pot-bellied old men, Vasco would eventually reign supreme.

Though, he still had one question.

"Will you need my help with Heaven?"

Igor never cared much for gaining knowledge beyond that of which was useful for his training. But the monkey sage managed to grind basic knowledge of the supernatural world into his head so at the very least, he knew who were the top brass of each faction.

He was very interested in fighting Michael and the other Seraphs. Their respective abilities and their years of fighting experience made him itch to test himself against them. Stories of their feats from the bible and other various sources was something he wanted to see himself.

But upon noticing the sparkling glint in the boy's eye, Vasco waved him off.

"Don't worry about them. A little internal strife won't make them act. As long as they get their prayers, nothing will happen."

And he was right. Far worse things had happened in the church but Heaven never intervened. The angels always said it was to let them maintain free will, but he viewed it as incompetence. He knew of the secretly carried out experiments that would make even the most vilest of beings take notes…and the angels did nothing to circumvent them. Them ignoring every single dark thing implied their tacit agreement to their continuation. So it was why he was not worried about their intervention. A little sudden change in the church leadership wouldn't make them interfere as long as he was quick about it.

On the other hand, he was curious about something.

"Enough about me. I want to hear it from your own mouth. How did you make it out Kyoto alive and…"

He leaned in closer.

"...how is your aunty alive?"

Vasco didn't know that Shuri had died. He assumed that the blonde had gotten to Kuoh in time and saved them. But to hear it from the his mouth that she HAD died was something that got an eyebrow raise. It would also explain the blonde's sudden spike in power since grief tends to act as a spark that allows one to supercede their current strength.

He didn't want to enquire before since he didn't want to possibly budge his nose in. But too many things were unanswered as to how the blonde could come and go in the heart of Japan as he pleased without consequence.

And it seemed Igor was willing to answer.

"Alright, old man. It happened like this. I went to Kyoto, killed the Himejima, and left. When I came back to Kuoh, I found that aunty was alive and well. It was then that Amaterasu appeared and told me it was her who resurrected aunty. After that, I took aunty home and after a series of events, I came here."

Silence…

"..."

Vasco was not sure what to say.

"That's it?"

"Hm? Yeah. I'm pretty sure I covered everything."

Vasco couldn't help but palm his forehead.

" 'Covered everything' he says."

This wasn't even qualified to be called a summary. Far too many things had been left out that it wasn't even funny. If Vasco didn't know the blonde as he did, he would've suspected that he was taking him for a fool. The only part Igor even tried to somewhat explain properly was Shuri's revival. Everything else was so lacking in context and information that it may as well be classified as nonsensical, not even enough to fill up the first page of a dossier.

Sighing in exasperation, he decided to change his methods.

"Let's do it like this. I will ask you a question, and you will try to answer. Simple enough?"

Igor was not alright with how Vasco looked at him. He felt as if the old man was looking at him like an idiot, but he obliged anyway with his words.

"Alright."

"Good. First off, what was that power of yours? That was more than your simple Kaioken."

The blonde scratched his head.

"To be honest, I don't know what it is. I didn't even notice I had that power until Shiva told me."

"..."

Vasco took a moment to breathe before looking at the blonde.

"Shiva?"

"Yep."

"The God of Destruction?"

"That's him."

"...the third strongest entity?"

"Soon to be number four. But yeah, that's him."

"..."

With how nonchalant the blonde was, Vasco suspected that he may be lying. The boy even had the gall to insinuate he would surpass Shiva soon. If it were that easy, then he wouldn't have remained the strongest god for as long as he did. It was even more unbelievable that the god amongst gods would actually take an interest in Igor.

The gap between the two was just far, far too wide to even comprehend. It was even more absurd than comparing a normal human to Igor in his berserk Kaioken state. A normal human would break their arm trying to destroy a wall yet the other already possessed the power to destroy the world. And the gap between Igor and Shiva was even more nonsensical than this comparison that Vasco couldn't figure out why Shiva would personally associate with this kid.

But then he thought of how it suddenly made sense that Igor could come and go to Kyoto without consequence. Shiva was truly the one god who could silence all dissent against the blonde with his mere presence.

And this also served to solve another question he had.

"That would explain why your power suddenly vanished from existence."

"Heh? My power?"

Vasco felt he should explain just what kind of a storm Igor caused with his actions.

"Listen, lad. Your power skyrocketed from god class to supreme class in less than a minute. Everyone felt it and everyone kept their senses trained on Japan. When you arrived in Kyoto, I felt your power skyrocket once again. That attack you were charging, it was more than enough to bring an end to all life on earth as we knew it. But then all of a sudden, that extra power disappeared and shortly after that, your power disappeared. As in, you seemed to have vanished from existence. Everyone thought you died in that moment."

Igor tilted his head as he tried to piece the clues together. In all honesty, all he was concerned with in that moment was wiping out the clan from existence more than what Shiva was actually doing there.

But then he remembered the barrier the god had put up.

"Oh, right. I can explain that part. Shiva came out and cancelled my attack and then made a barrier to stop members of the Himejima from escaping, atleast I thought that was what he did. I guess that it also stopped people from sensing what was happening."

Hearing the blonde's explanation finally gave Vasco an inkling to what was happening.

"He is trying to hide your existence. Your actions have attracted the attention of the entire supernatural world and everyone would've investigated you. If the world found out you were an Aryan…"

Even Igor could piece together what Vasco meant.

"War…"

"And not just from the supernatural world. Even the mundane would get involved."

He then grabbed the blonde's shoulder and lowered himself to his level.

"Igor. I don't think you truly understand what your existence means. If your existence leaks, the entire world will be plunged into war. You are an Aryan. No one wants the Aryans back. No one ESPECIALLY wants an Aryan who has the same power level as supreme gods. No…one. And they will do WHATEVER they can to kill you."

Igor crossed his arms and scoffed.

"Then I will kill them as well-"

"Igor, Igor. LISTEN to me."

His grip tightened on the blonde's shoulder, his eyes betraying the immense concern he held.

"Do NOT under ANY circumstance, UNDERESTIMATE the supernatural world. You are strong. I acknowledge that. We give you a few more decades and with that time chamber you have, I have no doubts that you can enter the rankings of the Top Ten Most-Strongest. BUT…listen properly. BUT…there are many methods to defeat someone and unfortunately, many of those methods will not involve a fight."

Igor looked down in frustration, shame, and realisation. Just because he wanted a proper fight did not mean the world would give him one.

"Listen, son of Dimori…"

Vasco placed his hand on the blonde's head.

"You are a warrior. But you are also the last of your bloodline. There's a reason why you are alive and possess the time chamber, the very artifact that upon the discovery of its existence, had the entire world launch an attack on your people. I can tell you from what I've seen kid, not everything is without reason."

His then smiled kindly as he began scratching Igor's head.

"Do this old man a favour, won't you lad? The reason I am telling you all of this, is because I want you to live. You are a warrior through and through. But the world is not filled with warriors. You want to fight and I can see it in your eyes. You desire a great battle, but the world doesn't. They will poison you. They will stab you. They may even brainwash the ones you love into betraying you. Trust me, lad. I know."

His gaze then turned solemn.

"Because the same thing happened to me too."

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AN

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If you're interested in reading ahead, here's the link: patreon.com/HolyGambler

Usually, I would upload two chapters to compensate for missed uploads, but I can't do that today. Yesterday was not an "upload" issue, but a "write" issue. I had to travel to another province (state) on short notice, making me unable to write at all. I will see however about making up for this in two days.