Ch. 3 New friends

- 1 year later

"Aaannnnd done. That's my win." I declared as I finally relaxed.

All around me in the sparring room were unconscious devils and demonic beasts with varying degrees of injuries.

"Shall I begin taking care of the injured master?" A tall but slim devil in a renaissance plague suit asked.

"Go ahead. Tell everyone they can leave afterward, they can no longer help me train." I commanded as a pretty but cold face'd maid with a petite body, piercing black eyes, long straight black hair reaching to her lower back came forward with a refreshing drink and a towel to wipe my naked and slightly sweetly upper body.

"Pushing yourself hard as always master." She flatly commented as she started doing her job.

She was right, using so many weights while restricting my other abilities was quite the disadvantage, but I would not get a proper challenge otherwise.

"No pain, no gain after all." I lightheartedly replied. "So what's on the menu today?"

"There's the inferno boar stew you like, with fresh bread and juice from mana rich apples." She smoothly answered as I put on my shirt and start walking towards the stairs.

"Sounds great. I'll take a shower before heading out. Also notify the rest of the girls about our guests leaving tomorrow." I informed her, to which she wordlessly nodded to.

One quick shower later and changing into my hunting gear, I thought back to how much I've done over my first year in DxD.

The first thing I did was acquire anything I could from the battlefield in woke up in, finding clothes, boots, gloves, capes, a piece of jewelry or two, some intact spears and bows, and whatever I managed to take from the beast corpses. It took a few hours and trips to get everything I could.

After that I began training myself relentlessly. It felt like I was back to being a teenager in my old world again, trying to reach the peak.

The training itself was divided into four parts and the a practical: Physical, Longinus, Demonic Power, Bloodline Power and then practicals at the end of the week.

The physical training itself was the easiest one due to my prior experience in the field, even if the upper limits were raised dramatically. The general goal was twofold: bring my physique up to the level of high-class and ingrain my skills into my body.

To accomplish this I trained to the point of near exhaustion continuously as I abused the gym at my disposal, finding out that it was incredibly difficult to properly build muscles on a young devil body, but I was seeing some good results already as the exercises helped me gain muscle mass and definition already. I wasn't going to look Sairaorg anytime soon, but I can say I can take on multiple mid-class opponents with just my body and high-class ones once I enhance myself using demonic power.

I also used the CQC training floor liberally before and after each workout. I wanted to be able to fight at my peek and most exhausted, and I am not ashamed to admit those sparring golems put me down a lot. Those things have a few settings from beginner, novice, intermediate, expert, master and grandmaster. I have just properly reached expert in every one of them for both pure skill and all out, meaning with demonic powers allowed. These training golems are brutal, efficient, very well programmed, capable of using an impressive number of martial arts, combat styles and even seemingly imitating those more brutish instinctive fighters. I've learnt a lot fighting them and have been developing my anti-humanoid combat skills very well as a result.

Next was the Longinus training. This my most powerful card at the moment, I made sure to train it m religiously in its standard form and balance breaker.

The training I could do in the H.A.H for Alphecca Tyrant was admittedly limited due to the majority of its powers requiring intelligent targets to affect, this necessitating me to take some dramatic actions. This was after I managed to learn how to control my balance breaker properly however, which took two months of training to achieve, all because I couldn't go to the human world and would need to practice on devils. I wanted to make the transformation to be as smooth and secretive as possible, forcing me to learn how to perfectly control the excess energy entering balance breaker exuded by constantly activating and deactivating it.

After achieving my goals for my Longinus, I went out to look for suitable test subjects. I wasn't going to either lobotomize or accidentally kill an innocent devil just for my training, but luckily I found some devils i could only assume were bandits going by the living arrangements and clothing. It didn't take long to subdue them all because of my high-class strength and only their leader barely qualifying to be mid-class. And good thing I tested things out on these guys first because I ended up kill the first five the moment I touched them simply because they couldn't handle the holy energy my sacred gear contained. Three severely injured bandits later however I managed to control the holy attribute enough to not harm them, but I ended up over powering their minds and turning them completely into puppets. I only succeeded into properly brainwashing my targets after another 13 attempts, leaving me with only 4 bandits including the leader. I learnt some information about the current state of things my information package didn't cover, got their stash of stolen goods and money, a few neat pouches to store everything they had stolen and a few story books they had kept.

Afterwards I ordered the brainwashed remnants to drop the bodies of their comrades in different areas with carnivorous beasts before killing themselves in their own. I didn't want to leave any traces leading back to me or hinting to anyone that someone with holy attributes was in devil territory. I felt no guilt giving out these orders simply because I knew exactly what type of men these were and what they had done.

I even went so far as taking all the tents and equipment to make it look like they had left, but when I went to clear out the leaders living quarters which were located in a refurbished cave, I found something I wasn't expecting: a petite young woman with disheveled black hair, filth covering her body, naked, and empty black eyes on an emotionless face. A rape victim broken by what she had most likely suffered through. I could see bruises, burns, some cuts and bites on her naked body as she simply looked towards me without any signs of a reaction.

Seeing such a thing was a first for me and I could not help but pity the girl. So I did what I thought was best, I gently grabbed her hand, looked into her broken eyes and commanded her to sleep. I then wrapped the girl up in a blanket and carried her out of that place after taking everything useful. I then flew the both of use back to my home, carefully cleaned her and dressed her in a simple pair of pants and shirt. Then I did what I thought would be best for the poor broken girl, I gave her a new life by overwritten her very concept of a broken rape victim and changing it to a girl I rescued and who offered to become my servant in exchange since she did not have a family anymore and could not support herself.

I essentially sealed her memories of her time in the bandit camp and brainwashed her into creating a new 'truth'. In the process I gained someone to take care of the house and the chores to free more time for training, while she gained one of the best places to live, a stable job, a much better future and to be safe. I learnt the next day that her name was Fia and that she was the type of woman who seemed very cold, but cared for those she deemed worthy and was very dedicated to her work.

I never said I wasn't above using my abilities for my own gains. There's a reason I chose Alphecca Tyrant over the True Longinus or Telos Karma. Hell, the sparring partners and the Doctor were all brainwashed into being there, something they will all completely forget about after they return to their homes with false memories and become sleeper agents who's actions will depends on which scenario is triggered.

I continued this sort of training, learning that I could essentially create new memories, impart knowledge into others, implant timed commands, influence subconscious behavior and make the effects gradual. I also discovered I could affect beasts with sufficient enough sentience with my brainwashing, which was a nice surprise.

It was also interesting to test the 'freeing' and 'sealing' concepts, deepening my understanding regarding these abilities.

For the freeing concept I took a page from how Mercer Frey was said to have used the skeleton key in Skyrim and 'freed' my test subjects from various things like bodily limits, mental limits, but most surprising was when I figured out I could free others from His system, removing devil vulnerability to holy and divine properties. That last one was such a bug I could hardly believe it, Longinus for the win. But I would be very selective regarding this little ability of mine.

The sealing concept couldn't match up to the impact of freeing devils from His own system, something which I will be thoroughly testing before putting myself through, but it was still fruitful. I could seal attacks and then release them when I chose, seal the mind and body in various ways, seal demonic energy, seal entire areas in various ways, and I was able to even seal souls. That last one was interesting.

Both 'freeing' and 'sealing' require at least one of my needles being in the target or around it if I wish to seal a certain space, so there is a minor requirement.

By the end of the year I had killed a few hundred bandits across the Underworld, many with bounties I could claim, giving me a solid reputation as a bounty hunter, but I also rescued a few people being attacked, all of whom I brainwashed into becoming unknowing informants and sleeper agents if needed.

Raiding bandit camps also resulted in three more maids:

Liora, a short woman with a decent bust, pretty face with brown eyes and curly brown hair. She was a warm girl who liked to cook and gardening. Luckily she had only spent a few days amongst bandits and hadn't been broken yet. I offered her a job as a maid after I heard that the bandits had killed her father and brother when they took her, she accepted. She was brainwashed to slowly engrave loyalty to me and mine, while also being a test subject for what happens when I 'free' a person's talents in their interests, this case being cooking and gardening. So far it has been very enjoyable to partake in the results of her cooking growing by leaps and bounds.

The second was actually a prostitute they had kidnapped by the name of Gila. She was a bodacious blonde woman with seductive blue eyes, full lips, billowing breasts, nice legs and ass. I could honestly understand why they had taken her, especially when I found out she actually had a bit of succubus in her. She had been captured some time ago, but her heritage kept her together during their assaults. I decided to offer to offer her a safe place to work under me where she didn't have to offer herself, she agreed. She later decided to bring pleasure to others in non-sexual ways by taking over the relaxation floor, this proving to be a very good decision when I experienced her massages after a good training session. I also imprinted loyalty into her while also testing out long term sealing by targeting her succubus heritage, calming her sexual desires tremendously and even receiving very enthusiastic thank yous in response.

The third one was Heltana, the most physically damaged girl I rescued. She had a temper as fiery as her hair and eyes as I could see from her memories of her trying to punch and bite any bandit who tried to approach her. I could see she was actually a beauty under her wild, aggressive and desperate expressions. Her body was lean and surprisingly toned, but they had beaten her thoroughly before 'enjoying' her that was for sure. I helped the girl kill those who hurt her in revenge before offering her a place under me. She agreed and after she recovered disclosed she had been a hunter. I ensured her loyalty and 'freed' her talent in the hunt and bow as a test for how combat related abilities can grow under the effect of my Longinus. She is the one responsible for our meat, fur and general animal goods. She is also the only one I am currently training for combat.

Back to my training results, my demonic power training showed much fewer results than any other. Being without any teacher or books to learn from I had to work on it from scratch and based on the lacking explanations from the show and light novel. I could use the bits Fia, Gila and Liora showed me for housework, gardening and sex, but they weren't really useful. Heltana on the other hand had some magic she used when hunting like scent concealment, canceling sound, small scale wind magic and the like, but I found myself rather average when it came to things like that. The only part I have truly seen progressing rapidly in regarding demonic power is with spells regarding my body like strengthening or agility boosting, alongside the sex magic Gila taught me.

As for that last bit, when a succubus descended prostitute offers to teach you sex magic and how to please your partner, you better listen. Plus I'm a healthy young man, I feel no shame having some fun with my sexy and very willing servant from time to time, especially since I'm not in any type of relationship. Plus my brainwashing only affected loyalty, not obedience.

But going back on track, I came to believe I might hold rather average talents towards elemental magic in general, while my perk for talent pertaining the mind, body and soul shone brightest after my affinity with space. This made me prioritize find demonic power applications and spells in those areas at a later date, but for now I focused my training on what could boost my fighting capabilities effectively over putting too much effort in fields which I could study at my leisure after the civil war.

And finally, my training regarding my bloodline ability. I would argue that it has seen the most development over the last year compared to the others. This is mostly because it and my demonic powers were the only things really starting from zero. I knew how to effectively train my body already and had martial skills and combat experience from my previous life, meanwhile Alphecca Tyrant came with its abilities already available to me, leaving only mastering it.

I was able to quickly master basic level abilities such as expanding space and shortening it, as well as improving the range of my spatial awareness and perception to 500m and 750m. It was growing steadily the more I used my [Space].

The rest of the year's Spatial Manipulation training was spent working on the advanced level abilities such as distance manipulation, something I haven't directly target living beings with yet, imbuing attacks with spatial energy, creating barriers and constructs out of spatial energy, the first effectively sealing the space inside and isolating it and the second actually became a creative way to train my control over my power, mastering proper teleportation anywhere within my range instantly and outside of my range with a bit of preparation time, and my most useful combat technique; spatial slicing.

Although I knew all these techniques, it would still take time and combat experience to properly had them into my arsenal.

"Here you go master! I tried some new things and hope you like it!" An excited Liora said as she put down today's lunch.

"I am certain it will be even better than last time." I respond, grabbing my utensils and digging in.

Boy was I right. This stew is down right incredibly and she's only been seriously practicing for less than a year. Can't wait to see how she will develop during our long lifespan.

Quickly finishing the delicious meal I thanked Liora before headed out to meet up with Heltana. It's my practical training today and I agreed to go together this time.

I found her on the porch, checking her handcrafted bow and arrows. She has been able to improve their quality tremendously over the last 6 months, making progressively better equipment as she hunts stronger and stronger demonic beats.

"Ready master?" The redhead asks as she puts away her arrows into her quiver.

"That I am Hel. Anything new in the area I should know about?" I ask as she knew the mountains and forest near our home far better than I.

"Yes. There's been an aggressive pack of hellhounds on the prowl near the western part of the forest. Found tracks and leftover carcasses. They seem to be hunting for something." She answered seriously since depending on how old the hound was, it could become quite powerful.

Not a true problem for myself now, but Heltana is about top tier mid-class in terms of power and combat capabilities, hence he caution. She could certainly take on a few hellhounds, but the threat level depends on the pack size and the strength of its leader.

"I'll handle it. We need to make sure they won't mess with the established species too much. I don't want them to trigger a beast stampede by fighting the local bigwigs." I answered confidently as she nods in agreement.

Although I say bigwigs, the only truly threatening demonic beasts for me reside much deeper in the mountains. The ones in the forest are at most low tier high-class in strength, but it would still cause problems for the forest as a whole and for those living near it should those hellhounds mess with them.

Meanwhile my strength without my Longinus is comfortably at top tier high-class. I'm only waiting to develop my body to the same level as my demonic power before making the jump to ultimate-class. Until then I'm concentrating the energy to help improve my body and infuse myself with both it and spatial energy to see what benefits it could give me.

The two of us headed out and flew towards the western part of the forest. I could have teleported us but we both know that it could lead to us missing necessary details.

Upon arriving I can immediately smell the burnt trees and sulfur indicative of hellhounds. We found a spot filled with burnt grass and some smoldering remains, meaning they had rested here, but there was a rather obvious trail to follow, making our investigation into this new pack straight forward at least.

"I would say about 20 to 23 pack members and the leader being quite big. I'd say 4 1/2 meters long and about relatively heavy. The spot he rested on almost melted. My estimate would be that it's a real alpha with low-mid high-class strength master." Analyzed Heltana as she put on a serious face.

"20 pack members is quite large. They would tear apart the natural balance if we leave them alone." I murmur to myself before deciding to eliminate them. "Lets go. They either leave or die."

"Yes master." She replied as we headed in the direction they went.

It took some time to spot their location simply because they had went far. It would seem that they were either in a rush to get somewhere or chasing something. And judging the the large smoke trail and the distant barks, I would say chasing.

"Let's go." I ordered as my translucent wings appears and I took off.

Heltana was right behind me as we sped through the air.

"Well this is unexpected." I noted as we finally saw what the hellhounds were chasing with such fervor.

"What is Satan's name is a unicorn doing here!?" Exclaimed Heltana in shock as that was indeed what we were seeing.

A shining white horse with a Golden horn on its forehead. But sadly its pure body had been tainted by claw, bite and burn marks as it desperately fled from its pursuers. I also noticed something which made the whole situation much more urgent.

"It's pregnant. Like it could give birth any day now." Heltana said as she confirmed my own observation.

"And those hellhounds probably thought she would have made the perfect meal in that situation. Might have even helped their leader evolve." I commented as I thought back to information I had gathered as a bounty hunter.

The reason a bounty hunter would need such information is rather simple, humanoids aren't the only thing bounty hunters hunt, it could very easily be a beast someone put out a bounty on. This necessitates bounty hunters to know a fair amount about beasts and there are public libraries with information on the ecosystems which varies depending on which houses public library you visit.

The information I gathered on the hellhounds is enough to know them in depth due to their presence in many parts of the Underworld. Large wolf-like creatures ranging from 2-6 meters in length, completely covered in black fur besides the flowing veins of green sulfuric fire traversing their bodies. These demonic beasts are capable of tracking the marked souls of their preys and traverse tremendous distances to chase after them. They are capable of breathing intense flames and their claws are sometimes covered in acid. These hounds travel in packs, with the largest ever recorded at 143 pack members. Hellhounds grow into Alphas of their species should they become acknowledged by various members who become part of its pack, further evolution is possible should they encounter the proper stimuli. The most common evolution would be the Grim, which has the ability to attack souls, and Lava hounds, wolf-like creatures made out of molten lava.

'Killing a unicorn, a pregnant one no less, would definitely turn that alpha into a Grim and even possibly a stronger variant due to the strong curse energy one would release from killing such pure beings.' I morbidly thought.

"Hel, you take on the stragglers. I'll deal with the leaders." I ordered to which she acknowledged by notching an arrow and firing.

Trusting her to be able to deal with this level of enemy, I sped up to reach a now cornered and exhausted unicorn surrounded by hellhounds.

'This feels cliché, but I'd feel like a dick if I just let these annoyances kill a pregnant unicorn and then fuck with my hunting ground.' I thought as multiple lances made of space energy appeared beside me and shot down as a few hellhounds pounced towards the resigned looking unicorn.

* Sphhhlt* x5

The sudden turn of event as the five attackers tumbled forward, bleeding profusely from the new holes through their bodies startled all the creatures bellow.

The hellhounds immediately looked around and started sniffing, but only the unicorn seemed to have noticed me as she looked up. That is until I landed on the larger Alpha with a spatial energy covered fist and made his head explode.

That got their attention very quickly, making them intimidated and angry. They growled in anger and began to circle around my in an attempt to find an opening.

Too bad for them I was already finished with this fight. They were in my range and gave me enough time to calculate exactly where I would need to attack. So in one quick 360 as I made a horizontal slashing motion with my hand, a thin bluish-white line appeared and sliced every hellhound surrounding me in half.

They stood no chance. It would take a Pillar house Devil with at least mid ultimate-class strength to contend with my [Space]. That is just part of the perks for being a true son of Lilith herself.

I didn't even need to double check or look around to know all the hellhounds were dead and that Haltana was coming due to my range encompassing the entire area. The only other living being left was the unicorn.

Said unicorn was looking at me wearily but still very cautious. I don't doubt it could sense that I was a devil, something unicorns don't particularly like. Doesn't help that I'm not a virgin either.

"It's alright girl. I'm not here to hurt you." I softly said as I slowly approached her.

I could tell it wasn't doing good. It was bleeding profusely from deep claw marks on its hind legs, had a nasty bite mark on its neck and I didn't have anything which could help. Theoretically devil magic could heal if you know how to do so, but the demonic energy would be near poisonous for a unicorn.

Suddenly it neighed and basically collapsed, breathing heavily.

"Master! It's going into labor!" Heltana declared as she landed beside me.

"Damn!" I softly cursed as I knew what would happen. "She won't survive giving birth like this."

"No. She won't." Agreed the huntress as she sadly gazed upon the struggling mother.

It doesn't really matter that we are devils. Most of us can understand a mother struggling to bring new life into the world and the sadness she must feel being unable to watch its own child grow is always an unbearable one.

The two of us observed in solemn silence as the unicorn finally gave birth to a little golden foal with a little bump on its forehead.

The look of longing and love in the mother's eyes were clear to see even for us as she watched her newborn struggle to get up.

In this moment I decided to approach the two due to feeling the mother's heart beat starting to slow down. She just didn't have much time left.

She heard me approached and looked at me defensively as she was prepared to die before letting anyone hurt her child.

"I'm not here to hurt you or your child. I want to help. It's important that feels whatever love it can get after all." I gently say as I slowly neared the struggling foal.

Under the gaze of the mother, I carefully lifted it and brought it to her teat so that it could get the very important first milk needed by most mammalian species, magical or not. Fortunately it looked like nothing was wrong with the little ones sucking reflex and he was drinking like a champ.

The mother simply looked at her child warmly and with sadness as it knew it could only experience this once before she passed.

The little foal soon finished its meal, after which I lifted it again and brought it near the mother's head.

"You have this once chance at least. Make this little guy feel all the love he'll need to make sure he knows how much he meant to you." I said to her as I backed away to give the two some measure of privacy.

With a grateful look, she then turned to her child and began to softly clean it up. Carefully getting every bit she could as the little one enjoyed the feeling of being cared for, blissfully unaware of his mother's weakening. She didn't care however as she continued to pour her emotions into this one chance at being her little one's mother.

*sniff*

I looked over and saw Heltana crying at the sight. A sight I must admit touched my heart with a deep sadness for the two.

As the mother finished lovingly cleaning her child, she looked at me with determination as I approached the pair again.

"If you'll let me, I wish to take care of the little one in your place. I will make sure he grows strong and no harm comes to him." I said to her as she looked straight in my eyes, looking for any signs if deceit.

Seeing none, she nodded her head in acceptance.

In response, I initiated a familiar contract with the little foal and since the little one didn't know what was happening and couldn't agree even if it wanted to, the mother did so in his place, forming a bond between myself and the little one.

Immediately I began feeling various emotions but the primary being confusion and curiosity.

With that, I let her enjoy whatever time she had left with the child alone.

The result being a beautiful and heartbreaking scene as she gradually feel asleep for the final time, while taking care of the little one.

I only interfered when the foal realized something was wrong with its mother and feeling of confusion, worry and sadness could be felt. In response I did my best to send it feelings of care and warmth as I gently stroke its neck.

'To think the first child I raise isn't even my own.' I thought as I gestured Heltana to come take the mother's body.

She would be buried in a peaceful area of the H.A.H, not left out here to rot or be eaten by scavengers.

I myself was carrying the foal as I cast some hypnosis magic to make it fall asleep and to let it experience its mother's love in its sleep at least.

I teleported the three of us back in silence.

This as been a very emotional outing and I need to prepare some things for the new member of the family.

_______________________________________

EXTRA AUTHOR NOTE

Lith is kinda going to be in Grey areas with his actions even though he is a good person. He chose Alphecca Tyrant and he is going to use it.

Speaking of Alphecca Tyrant, the idea for a controlled balance breaker comes from how Vali could just pop into his scale mail with no fanfare at all. I thought why couldn't my guy do that by training for it.?

Power level:

He is at the peek of high-class in terms of energy, something he's making sure he doesn't cross before his body catches up. But do keep in mind that just with his energy he can already match low tier ultimates due to the innate superiority of beings from Satan families. Wiki says that the Satan families used to have gatherings of young heirs just to show off that their heirs could beat all the other ones and make them fear their superiority.

Using purely his abilities as a devil, demonic energy, magic, body and bloodline abilities, he can take on mid ultimates from Pillar families and some high tier ultimates from extra or normal devils depending on the match ups.

With his Longinus he can actually harm Satans due to their natural weakness to its holy attribute, but this would be extremely dangerous since one direct hit from a Satan would most likely kill Lith.

As for the unicorn, it was kind of a mix of ideas really.

At first I thought of what kind of familiar he could have and went through the usual suspects: dragons, mythical beasts, rare creatures, the last of its kind, etc. But then I thought to match him with a creature related to space, which made me remember the unicorns from the Witcher universe. Those fuckers can travel through dimensions, know the destiny of people and have high intelligence. So the little guy is basically going to grow into having those abilities and more though his link with Lith and his [Space].

And finally, the birthing and death scene was inspired by the birth of Terrycloth from Toriko. That shit made me tear up. Hope I did it justice.

Open to some name for the little guy. And yes it is a boy. No weird anthropomorphic unicorn girl in the future.