93. Witch of Dun Scaith, Scathach!

Kouske's POV

I am planning to go to the Land of Shadows. I currently only have the power of a peak Ultimate Class (C+) being, with many higher-ranked skills.

My whole skill set and power are unbalanced. After ascending to Ultimate Class prowess, my progress seems to have slowed down significantly as it's a broad class.

The power difference between the High Class and the Ultimate Class is like that of an ant and an elephant, while the power difference between the Ultimate Class and Satan Class is that of an ant and the sky. So it's probably going to take some time before I get there.

Well, I might be able to do this faster if I just utilized every single moment of the day and just focused on training, but I do not want to just lose all purpose in my life and spend every ounce of my being just training until I die.

I would rather enjoy my second chance at life while training, to not lose anything important to me.

I am currently saving to buy conceptual powers like Death, Life, Infinity, etc., which cost at least in the millions and there are also a lot of expenses for Akatsuki members that I have to buy from the Shop as not everything can be found in the DxD world.

So instead of buying more skills, I would rather hone all my skills first to not just become a jack of all trades, master of none.

I also need physical and martial arts training. And who would be better than Scathach, Dun Scaith, the Queen of the Land of Shadows?

If I am going to spend my time training under someone, I would rather it be someone sexy like her.

[That's your main goal, isn't it? Pervert!]

I suddenly heard Clarice complain about it. Let's just ignore her, though she's half right. I do want to train under an expert like her.

"So, what should I do?" I asked Clarice. But I didn't receive any answer for a while.

"Oi!" I yelled in my mind.

After a few more odd minutes, she chose to talk.

[What? Did you not say you would rather just ignore me? Please do so, by all means!] she replied sassily.

"I won't apologize, if that's what you want, you know," I said.

[Hmph! I didn't ask for any.] she replied.

"So, what do I need to do to go to the Land of the Shadows?" I asked but again got no answers.

"...."

"Oi!"

"..."

After a couple more minutes of not getting any answers, I relented. I would rather be the bigger person than waste more time like this.

"Sorry, okay? Now answer me!" I said.

[See, that's not hard to say, although it's a bit insincere. I will allow it!] said Clarice haughtily.

"And you said you didn't ask for an apology," I said.

[I didn't ask for any. It's something you did on your own!] she shamelessly replied.

"...."

*sigh*

"So, how do I travel there?" I asked. Frankly, it's been years since I last checked that function, and this will be my first time using it. I am a bit excited about it!

[You don't have to do much. You want to go to the Land of Shadows, right? Pay up the 2000 points and you will be transported there.

If you want to forge a false identity, it will also be charged based on the significance of the identity,] replied Clarice.

"How would the time work in both worlds?" I asked.

[When you go to other worlds, this world's time will stop. And when you come back to this world, those other worlds' time will stop.

You can also choose to accelerate or decelerate the time dilation in the other worlds when you are not in them, but it will cost you more points,] said Clarice.

I didn't need to forge an identity right now, as the Land of Shadows is a different world, separated from the main world.

So no need to worry about Alya or Gaia's intervention there. However, I will need to forge an identity when I visit one of the timelines in the Nasuverse.

After initiating the process, I was instantly teleported to a vast desert plain. There was no time lag or anything at all.

At first sight, the whole place looked empty. But on another, I could feel the numerous spirits roaming around.

Even just the ones around me ranged from Middle to Satan class in power. They seemed to want to surround me.

Normal attacks probably wouldn't work on them, but I had the perfect counter. My flames could destroy souls, which is what they are, at most.

I charged a large ball of my flames and sent it up into the air. Flaming arrows shot out from the ball, striking down every one of the closest spirits, effectively killing them after a deafening scream.

I would rather not fight a prolonged battle with the stronger ones, so I decided to move and change my pace. But there was nothing but sand, all over the place, as far as the eyes could see.

"Move to your right," I heard a voice in my head.

It wasn't Vritra or Clarice, but I could already guess whose voice it was. So I moved as per the instructions and soon found myself in front of a large palace. The palace was the only structure standing in this empty desert plane.

"Enter," I heard her voice again as the large doors opened up.

As I entered, the doors behind me closed by themselves. I helped myself in, finding a large hall. Following it, I found another door leading to a throne room.

The whole palace was luxuriously decorated, but it somehow still felt somewhat superficial and lonely. As I opened the door to the throne room, I saw her, all in her glory.

She had long purple hair and red eyes, and wore a full-body outfit that highlighted her curvaceous figure, complemented by metallic shoulder pads.

She was sitting on the throne with a bland look, her legs crossed on top of each other. She was Scathach, Queen of the Land of Shadows, the witch of Dun Scaith, the mentor of heroes!

"Who are you? And how did you get here?" she asked with a curious but commanding gaze, looking at me. It was as if she could see through my very soul.

"Don't even dare think about lying," she added, her expression turning serious just as I was about to respond.

"I am Kouske Miyamura. I have a unique ability that lets me jump through various worlds," I said.

"You don't seem to be lying. But various worlds, huh? So, are you from another timeline?" she asked.

"Umm... I don't think so. It's a world separate from Alya or Gaia's influence, where the age of Gods hasn't ended yet," I replied, which probably got her attention. She stepped down from her throne, slowly walking towards me.

"A world without Alya or Gaia's influence, where the age of Gods hasn't ended yet, huh? Interesting. But are you sure? No... It seems you wholeheartedly believe it. So it's futile to ask you," she mumbled to herself, shaking her head.

Then her eyes turned sharp as she looked into my eyes, and before I could even react, she was holding a spear—a Gaebolg replica, more commonly known as Gaebolg Alternative—pointing it at me. I couldn't see it coming, but I kept my calm.

"Now for the real question. Why are you here?" she asked in a serious tone.

"Queen of the Land of Shadows, Scathach, please accept me as your disciple. And one day, I will make sure to make your wish come true," I said with determination in my eyes as I stepped closer to her.

Her spear grazed my neck, drawing blood, but I didn't stop. She seemed to notice how it instantly healed, and that made her curious.

Now that I think about it, it was a red flag. Seeing the spark in her eyes when she saw my healing, it was as if she found the perfect specimen.

Well, that resolve was only strengthened after our fight, as she found something she could kill as many times as she wanted without the person dying.

"Oho? Are you so confident in yourself? Let me test you, to see if you are not just bark and no bite," she said with a feral grin as she kicked me in the abdomen, flinging me backward.

Before my body could hit the palace walls, I suddenly found myself outside the palace, back in the desert. The kick was powerful enough to knock the air out of my lungs, making me vomit blood.

Blood could be seen on my lips, but whatever internal or external damage it caused was instantly healed. So, I quickly stopped myself mid-air and brought out Arondight to fight her.

As I was looking for her, my senses were alarmed as I barely dodged a spear thrust from behind, aimed just below my heart. It seemed she wasn't cruel enough to outright kill me. That wouldn't even be a challenge for someone like her.

"Oh? You dodged. Then dodge this too," she said as a flurry of spears were aimed at me.

I quickly conjured numerous shields using my bloodline ability, on top of my barrier, but they couldn't withstand her attacks. They all shattered upon contact. I hastily teleported away from her onslaught.

Then I created multiple doppelgangers of myself, some of which were mere illusions to distract her. Each doppelganger wielded different weapons imbued with various attributes like poison, paralysis, sleep, stagnation, sharpness, durability, etc.

As I made preparations, she just stood there, giving me some time. Normally, she never underestimates her opponents, but maybe she just wanted to see what I could do.

I used my Marionette Mastery to create strings that momentarily stopped her movements and then cast Petrification to freeze her.

Then, as my body doubles and I, used Flash Step and Cloud Steps consecutively, our movements became unpredictable.

Then I made all the body doubles attack her in different patterns with different weapons. One of my doppelgangers used Arondight and Holy-Demonic Light to attack her.

However, her barrier was so strong that nothing worked. Seeing all the attacks, she seemed happy. With a feral grin, she easily broke out of her confinement.

Before I could perceive anything, every single doppelganger, including me, who had already teleported far away from the battle, had a spear lodged in the stomach. The attacks kept coming, and I had multiple holes opened in my body.

Seeing how fast my wounds were closing and completely healing made her attacks much fiercer and more unpredictable.

At one point, I could no longer deflect any of her attacks. The doppelgangers were also out of commission. I kept creating new weapons, trying to attack her.

At some point, I used Telos Karma to try to mess with her luck. Even though she was a lot stronger than me and I didn't have enough mastery over Telos Karma, I tried my very best to make her make a mistake.

Soon, one of my deflected weapons coincidentally ricocheted off another, narrowly missing her and surprising her momentarily.

She quickly used her barrier. At that moment, I used the full force of my Gravity Manipulation to pull her to the ground.

As she started descending, plants began growing from the ground and restricting her movements. But she effortlessly cut through everything, barely slowed down.

In a desperate move, I then summoned a swarm of acidic bugs from my Beelzebub clan ability to surround her and disrupt her vision.

As she attacked the flies to get rid of them, they all started exploding one by one, bursting corrosive liquid everywhere.

While she was defending against them, I used Time Manipulation to capture her in the ashen gold time orb.

Thinking I had won, I approached her with an astonished but victorious gaze. However, she quickly broke the orb and, before I could react, held me by my neck, smiling.

"You have so many interesting abilities. But your mastery over them is still not enough. Even your swordsmanship is crude and showy at best," she said, still holding me firmly.

"And you seem to have a special body. You do have some potential... Very well. I will teach you. But try not to die," she added, smiling mischievously, before I was thrown into literal hell.

Sometimes I wonder, did I make a mistake by coming here? Was I wrong to just follow my lower half, instead of my brain?

But at least she agreed to train me, and for the next few years, she will be teaching me everything from the very basics, especially rune magic, spear mastery, and Nasuverse magics. I doubt I'll ever forget the countless times I'll be killed in training.

No wonder Cu Chulainn, in his own words, was always so afraid of undergoing the insane training from the crazy old hag, with pretty faces.

I must admit, he was right, although he rightfully deserved to be stabbed to death by her, for calling her a hag, as depicted in canon.

*

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During this time, I also visited some other worlds like Danmachi, Black Clover, Campione, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia etc.

I had used extra points to buy better identities. It took some time to get used to my new identities and acquired memories.

But the wildest thing was that I got some crazy abilities just from belonging to some worlds.

In Jujutsu Kaisen, I even got two Cursed Techniques: Essence of Contract (A) and Imagine Breaker. Both were insane, but what was more insane was that Imagine Breaker didn't have any ratings at all, just like my Taming and Summoning skills.

Surprisingly, I could also use those skills from Jujutsu Kaisen without cursed energy, relying only on mana too.

I think there's something about heavenly restriction and equilibrium in Jujutsu Kaisen. I just hope, that world doesn't get destroyed because of it.

From My Hero Academia, I got the quirk, Alteration (B+). In Black Clover, I obtained Mirror Eye (A), which is quite similar to Wizard King Conrad's Key Magic. Being his nephew and a royal has its own perks.

However, one thing that upset me the most was what happened in Danmachi.

I arrived during the Dark Ages of Orario, when Evilus was active and Alfia, Zald, and the Astraea Familia were still alive.

I did manage to change a few things and even saved some, but I still felt revolted by my identity as an escaped captive from goddess (bitch) Kali's nation, a rare dragonoid from an extinct species.

I even had her Falna on my body when I woke up in Orario. It was just disgusting.

I got rid of it through the system. I could have just integrated it into my own Falna skill and gained a sample of divinity, but I refrained from doing so as it would make my connection to Kali even stronger and eternal.

I would rather do that with the goddess of a familia that I choose to enter myself, and not one I was forced into.

However, I will certainly be destroying the Amazoness country in the future.

For now, the time in that world will flow normally instead of being stopped when I am in the original world.

I might only visit them from time to time. But I am still using my doppelgangers to live in some worlds.

[A/N: How is the chapter? Leave a comment!

I chose the shortest way to handle the world travels, implying his visits without expanding too much right now.

Details about his identities in those worlds and the changes he brought, like in Danmachi, will be slowly revealed when the MC revisits those worlds. (Recently, I decided to do those flashback chapters of Danmachi, detailing those events before canon.)

Perhaps through flashbacks from the heroines' perspectives. Next, I will show a bit of Eminence in Shadow and Mobuseka.

What format should I use for inner thoughts? Some writers use italics to show that a dialogue is an inner thought of a character, while others use single quotation marks (' '). Which one should I go with? And what should I use when more than one character is thinking the same thing? I'm really confused about this...]

[A/N: How is the chapter? Leave a comment.

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