Story 2: Chapter 7: The Dragon Awakens (Patreon)

Story 2: Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 7: The Dragon Awakens

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– Mathias –

I stood in front of the guy in black. His bloodlust washed over me and I realised why he was called an Evil Dragon and the strongest one of them all.

The pressure he released was stronger than the previous Tiamat.

Yes… previous Tiamat.

I am pretty sure that despite having the same Rank according to the System, Tia could kick his ass every day till Sunday. But, all of this was not my concern. Right now I just wanted to hit something bad.

Was this a Dragon's fighting instinct?

"Start whenever you are ready. Don't waste my time." He spoke gruffly and I found myself slightly annoyed at the tone.

"Sure. You asked for it." I took a deep breath as my Touki flared and I kicked the ground shooting towards him.

I saw his eyes widening slightly but he raised a hand and punched.

Two fists met and the blast of energy caused the nearby trees to be uprooted and fly.

I couldn't even move him back slightly. On the other hand, I felt my bones get rattled from that clash as I was pushed back as a result.

I pushed my Touki to its peak and my body took on some dragonic characteristics.

Half Dragonification.

I punched again and this time, the blow matched his evenly.

"You are a dragon?" He asked, surprised at my sudden changes.

"I am a Buné. We are related to Dragon's… Well sorta."

"Doesn't matter. You are a dragon and can fight me. That's enough." His aura flared as he charged towards me.

I utilised my Touki to the fullest to match his punches and soon realised that Crom Crauch was a master in Martial Arts too. I currently possess a B+ Rank in Martial Arts and could barely keep up with him, but maybe a part of it was due to his ridiculous power while mine still lagged behind by a little.

This was the first time I was lagging in a physical fight in terms of stats and yet I didn't want to use magic today.

My blood was boiling over and I just wanted to break things with my fists.

And I did just that.

– Tiamat –

She looked on in amazement as the two fought in front of her. The shockwaves from their punches, blowing her long blue hair while the nearby trees had already been destroyed as soon as the fight started. Each of those clashes were like explosions going off.

The little hatchlings in the place were all hidden while a few courageous ones peeked out from behind the unbroken rocks.

This was a fight between Dragons in the raw without any filters.

She noticed it at first when he asked for the fight but there was really something wrong with Mathias today.

He was really venting out in this fight. There was no magic used except for the occasional Dragonfire and truth be told, his power surprised even her. She wasn't sure that she could fight him if she had been her previous self. It seemed that he was training for their fight and she couldn't slack either if she didn't want to throw the match.

Around an hour later, two large dragons stood in the middle of the ground, one black with golden tribal markings while the other red with golden parts.

They were almost equal in size with Crom being slightly larger due to his age but to think Mathias would be able to almost match him was nothing short of a miracle. Even the likes of Sirzechs and Ajuka didn’t reach this level of power till they reached their fifties.

Although, he was not up to the mark yet because she could see that he was only keeping up with the older dragon due to his Touki. Once he ran out, he would be at a disadvantage. Then again, if he used his Magics, it would be a different case.

After all, while Life Magic is unpredictable, Mathias’ real trump card was that magic.

In fact, she had only seen him using that magic a few times in a fight against her and his mastery in the said magic was increasing at an unimaginable rate.

She noticed that in his Dragon form, he was fighting on instinct rather than knowing how to fight in a body he was not used to. He took some hits but was making up for it with his increased Touki output.

This however put him in more of a disadvantage in the long run as he was losing energy faster than normal.

The difference became evident after a few hours when he was thrown back against the walls of the barriers.

The black dragon was not unhurt either. She could see that he had almost had his arm ripped off in the fight and it was dangling on the side but it didn’t stop him from continuing.

This fight reminded her of the times those two idiots fought against each other, causing destruction all over the place.

They both reverted to their human forms and Crom, while shakily walking towards him.

Tiamat realised this and was quick to move forward to interrupt the Evil Dragon if he tried to do something harmful to Mathias only for her senses to scream at her to run away.

Her neck snapped in the direction of the feeling and she was surprised that it was not coming from the Evil Dragon himself as even he was rooted to the ground, looking at the source of the feeling.

It was coming from Mathias over whom a reddish aura which slowly took the form of a being, a reptilian lifeform of enormous size.

Infact, the size of this beast made her look tiny in comparison.

The form became clearer and she saw it.

A Dragon of mastodonic size and extremely muscular body structure befitting its size. This dragon was beyond anything she had ever seen or even heard of. It possessed five pairs of slitted eyes and four digits with claws the size enough to grab and topple over mountains. The sides of its neck and the top of its head had sharp rows of spikes over them, its wings also sported spikes along their leading edges. Its most notable trait lay in its mouth which was completely devoid of teeth except for its one enormous tusk-like fang which gave off a very terrifying aura and its bottom lip was parted in a certain way for its massive tooth to fit. Also of note is that it had a large number of tendril-like tongues.

It just eyed her and every instinct in her body was screaming at her to run. A sort of primal fear enveloping her towards this beast which seemed as if it was a king.

Her body turned into her Dragon form as she roared at it in defiance only to find herself not being able to vocalise any kind of sound.

She remained utterly rooted in her place until the figure dispersed and she fell down to her knees.

What in the name of Ophis was that thing?

It took her a few seconds to gather her beating heart.

She was broken out of her daze by the aura from the Evil Dragon who seemed to have collected himself too and was now heading towards Mathias.

She reached him faster and stood in front of him. “What do you want, Crom Cruach? The fight is over. You won. If you want to fight more, heal yourself and I will accompany you.” She brought out a vial of the Phenex Tears from her clothes and threw it at him.

“Get out of my way Tiamat. This brat… he was holding back on me. He was holding that kind of power. How dare he?” It growled.

“He was not holding back anything. I doubt he even knew what that thing was or if he had it so control yourself.”

“What do you mean he didn’t know?” He lashed out.

“He didn’t have this power before. It must have awakened right now. So if you want answers, you will have to wait until he wakes up. That said, If you try to harm even a hair on his head….I will end you no matter the cost.”

Water and fire gathered around her as she roared.

The little ones in the area had already fainted when it came out so there was no worry of scaring them.

The Evil Dragon roared back in defiance and she stood her ground.

A few seconds later, it kicked the ground in rage and turned towards the gates. “I am done with the fight. Tell the boy, I will return later for another one and I won’t forgive him if he holds back on me.”

Tiamat waited until he was gone and then picked up Mathias and carried him to her place.

- Great Red -

For the second time in recent years, he had felt danger.

As he expected, Crom Cruach had reached Tiamat for the fight he so craved.

The intervention of Mathias was a surprise but not an unpleasant one. He had come a long way and quite fast.

Although he was a bit miffed that he didn’t use any magic during the fight, it seemed like he was just venting out some kind of frustration and using one’s body in such a situation feels the best.

It took him a few moments to look into the cause of the behaviour.

His parents… oh.

To be honest, he would have just blown the ones responsible for it up but from what he remembered from the memories, that place had two of the so-called main characters of this world so he let what was happening happen. If Mathias wanted to leave it to the four Devils, he would respect the boy’s decision.

The thing he was not expecting was that Dragon.

He had seen it in his memories. In that anime called Toriko.

Watching the memories of a different world was one of his favourite pastimes. The only reason he remembered the name of this one was because many of the plants and animals on Mathias’ farm were from this Torkio world so he had searched for more of the information regarding this world.

And there was no doubting it.

It was a Derous. The same one as one of the Eight Kings, the Dragon King Derous.

Now the question was if it was just an illusion or… a Gourmet Demon?

….

….

Due to his timely interference, no one outside the place could sense its presence.

Things just got more interesting and after what seemed an absurdly long time.

- Mathias - 

I woke up to find Tiamat’s face looking at me.

A second later, I remembered what had happened yesterday and got up quickly.

“Did I faint?”

She nodded.

“I lost, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

“That guy was strong.” I replied while laying back in her lap.

If she was offering, who was I to deny? She didn’t mind it either.

“You weren’t too bad either. Especially at the end.”

End?

“What end?”

“When you made the illusion of that giant Dragon with thousands of tentacle like tongues?”

What illusion? Also, why does it sound like a Hentai demon?

I looked at my stats to check what she was talking about and the new entry made everything clear.

Host: Mathias Buné

Title: The Poor Noble, Pure Blooded Devil, The Farmer

Age: 16 years old. 

Body: B+

Mind: B+

Spirit: B+

Magic: B+

Luck: B+

Skills:

Buné Clan Trait:

Dragon Taming: B+

Dragonification: B+

Dragonfire: B+

Dragon's Aura: B+

Dream Manipulation: B+

Zagan Clan Trait:

Life Magic: B+

Gourmet Cells: E+

Gourmet Demon: Derous, S+[E+]

Magic:

Teleportation: C+

Bounded Field Creation: B+

Memory Alteration: C+

Barrier Magic: B+

Spatial Magic: B+

Martial Arts: B+

Touki: B+

Cooking: B+

Abnormality Resistance: B+

Farm Management

Farm Rank: B

Farming Points: 78,512.

Money: 72,569,000Ⱡ

Shop

Inventory

Gourmet Cells? Gourmet Demons too?

The skills were different though.

While my Gourmet Demon made me do a double-take when I saw its grade, I still couldn’t use its power fully. It would simply suck me dry in a single moment of full power use and that was assuming that I could use it with my current level..

I needed a higher level of Gourmet Cells to use its power. Thus the Skill itself was capped at the level of my Gourmet Cells.

Now, this wouldn’t have been a problem if not for the extra note added to the Gourmet Cells. I was advised to increase the Skill by eating a higher grade of food with the regular method instead of using the System because the Skills use Gourmet Energy and they have extremely high energy usage. I would need a better supply of food to use them efficiently.

I mean I could increase the levels with my System but if I don’t find enough food for myself to keep those Gourmet Cells active, it will only backfire.

A good thing was that the Gourmet Cells provided a passive boost just by existing and the boost would only increase as time went on.

While it didn’t show in my stats, I could feel my strength increase by a large margin. My durability had increased and then came the question of Tiamat.

The answer was right in front of me.

Derous, The Dragon King of the Eight Kings.

To think I would have that as a Gourmet Demon or a Gourmet Dragon, I suppose.

“What happened?” She asked, seeing me not answering.

“Ah… I was checking my body for any changes.”

“Anything wrong? I did check but I am not exactly an expert.”

“Nothing. In fact, I think the fight seems to have pushed me to break through my limit. It was still an experimental thing so I was not sure when it would work but it did.”

“What exactly are you talking about?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.

“Hmm, let me explain it in simpler terms. You know how some of my food increases cell activity. What I was trying to see was if eating a higher grade of my crops would make any kind of qualitative change in the cell structure. My bet paid off and I am stronger now? After reaching a certain amount of cell activity, depending on the type of food we eat and their suitability with our DNA, there is a chance that our Cells can break the limits and go beyond their current previous selves. Think of it as an Angel gaining a wing of sorts. They don’t necessarily change races but become stronger and better than their previous selves.”

“Do you mean like Sirzechs and his True Form?”

“Hmm, hard to say since I haven’t seen his true form but I doubt it. The changes are at a cellular level sure but it doesn’t mean they can become as strong as Sirzechs in one go.”

“So what was that Dragon?”

“It was… how do I say this… he was kinda my inner demon or inner spirit in a way. I only theorised this but if someone’s soul is strong enough and their body matches the strength, they can host an inner spirit. Although the chances of it are even rarer than awakening the cells. Like if one in a million people can awaken their Gourmet Cells, then one among those million people would be able to host a Spirit of their own. They take a lot of energy but you can think of them as sort of Sacred Gear spirits inside a person or even better one of those Divine Spirits which the Five Principal clan members use in Japan but they use my energy to use their powers. So if I cannot provide them with enough energy, they would be useless.”

Tiamat had a complicated expression on her face. “I wouldn’t say that it is useless. Even the sight of that being made me feel the chills.”

“Really?!” I asked, surprised. I mean I knew that it was probably the highest Ranked thing I owned or had ever seen but still for her to say something like that…

She just nodded but didn’t speak any further so I didn’t probe either.

“So, what got you all riled up yesterday?” She asked, making me remember the incidents of yesterday.

I became quiet.

She caressed my hair and waited for me to speak.

“My parents… they were murdered.”

Her hand paused for a moment but she continued and so did I. “There was an experimental facility in the pits where some members of the Naberius house were running illegal experiments to create Super Devils. It was why those Demonic Beasts had become so frequent. They were experimental products. My parents and their peerages had found the facility but were captured and experimented on.”

I became quiet.

I was calm. The sleep and the fight calmed me enough to speak freely but it still felt bad thinking about it.

“What of those Naberius?” She asked.

“I… had a talk with the head and found out the location of my parents’ bodies. He and his subordinates are in prison. I… made sure that he would never do anything like that… ever again.”

….

….

“Good.”

“Sirzechs and the rest will be raiding the research facility in the Naberius territory and recovering the bodies of my parents. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to control myself so I let them take care of it.”

“You did the right thing.” A few moments later she added. “Do you want to kill them?”

I looked back at her and shook my head. “No… that would be too kind to them. I already gave the head a punishment worse than death.”

“Good.”

I spoke after a few minutes of silence. “There was a chance they were alive. If only I had informed others earlier…”

“You couldn’t have known. Moreover, it was the job of your maid, not yours. You couldn’t even have known. Not to mention, there was a chance that someone wrong could have found out about it and tried to silence you first.”

“Hmm.”

Right.

I didn’t even know if they were dead or alive when I woke up in this body.

I didn’t say anything and closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The wounds from the previous day were healing. I didn’t take any healing aids but I was still recovering faster than before. Nothing ultra fast but still better than before. The Gourmet Cells really are something.

"Matty, what happened to you? Are you alright?" I saw Armin running towards me.

Lavinia and Ingvild looked worried too. I didn't see the others but they might be inside.

There were a few people with him whom I didn't recognize either.

I nodded.

"I found out from my brother and came as fast as I could. What happened to you, how did you get injured?” He said, looking at my wounds.

I was not completely healed because I didn’t use any healing aid because I didn’t feel any urgent need to do so.

“I was sparring. Don’t worry. I am fine.” I shook my head with a light smile.

Venting out and a good sleep made me think clearer now.

“About your parents… I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Armin. Don’t be.” I said as we walked towards the house.

Lavinia and Ingvild asked me about my condition too. Apparently, they had visited the place where we had spared and the destruction of the place scared them. Then not finding me had worried them even more. I told them about what happened and it took me some time to calm them down.

“Matty, are you sure…”

“I got myself adjusted to the facts for years now, Armin. This was something out of the blue but not something that would change the main things. My parents are gone. They won’t be coming back whether I go and kill each and everyone involved or not. I saw to it that they get punished. All I need to do now is to see that my parents get a proper funeral. Let’s stop this discussion for now.”

He nodded.

“So, who are the new faces?” I asked, looking at the people behind him.

“Ah, they are my new peerage members. Well, half of them at least.” I raised an eyebrow and he explained. “Tobio is my new Queen. Kouki is my new Knight and Hyousuke is my new rook. Shigune is my newest pawn who took three pieces to reincarnate. Natsume on the other hand doesn’t wish to participate in Rating Games much so she didn’t join my peerage. I brought her here to see if you needed a peerage member. I mean, you are not planning to actively participate in Rating Games either so your plans match. You get a strong Peerage Member and she gets the protection she wants.” He said pointing towards the girl who bowed lightly.

She was nervous.

“Hmm, sure. But you also know the work we do here. Are you sure she would be willing to do so?”

“Yes.” The girl answered for herself. “Armin-san has explained about your business after we signed a contract of confidentiality. I don’t like fighting much and I think this job suits me quite well.”

I looked at her for a few moments. “In that case, you can stay here for a few days and see how things work here. If you agree to join after that, I will have no problems. I just don’t want you to regret your choice later on.”

She nodded and others seemed to have heaved a sigh of relief.

Were they worried about her?

They were shown around the outer farm by Ingvild while Armin and I talked to each other about yesterday.

He explained how he recruited them, which was basically explaining everything about their situation. The human world, the supernatural world, what they carried, what was the significance of their Sacred Gears and how others would react to it, especially Tobio and then about the Devil society in general.

Armin then visited them regularly and frankly talked to them about everything which their joining his peerage would entail.

They joined his peerage finally when he promised the safety of their families under the name of his House and the Satan Asmodeus.

Funny thing is that Shigune also didn’t want to fight much but she still joined his peerage because of Hyousuke Koga who was a very good friend of hers.

Rias and Latia came along with their parents in the evening.

Apparently, Sirzechs and Ajuka hadn’t informed anyone about the events and they only found out about the raid from the news when the Naberius house’s facilities were laid to waste and the bodies of several people were recovered which included the bodies of my parents. They were taken for some autopsy and will be brought back here by tomorrow.

Serafall had already come and informed me of it.

Currently the Satans were running damage control and were trying to contain the situation from getting worse.

They had discovered the hand of the Old Satan faction behind the research and this led to even more investigations and a big scandal being revealed.

Finally, two days later, things came to an end and the bodies were brought back to my territory and a funeral was conducted. It was a relatively small ceremony. I did send the invitations to every Pillar House as suggested by Leila and Venelana but very few of them showed up.

Actually, only the four Satans and their families along with Euclid and his family showed up. A surprising addition was Lord Belial who apparently knew my grandfather and came to offer his condolences.

Normally they would have helped our family but knowing their own conditions, my parents had never asked for help.

Some others sent servants but the others didn’t even do that.

I am a nobody right now while they are the people who practically rule the Underworld. Why would they care?

To be honest, would the president of a country care if a small-time farmer of his country sends him an invitation for something?

My parents were practically outliers and them not coming to the funeral was all but a known fact.

That said… I remembered everyone but didn’t say anything.

True bonds are tested in times of hardship.

- Three Months Later -

Three months have passed since the day of my parent’s funeral.

I was in a private room in the Agreas Stadium with my peerage members except Tiamat who was actually present but not in the room with us.

Several other people had joined us as well. For example, Rias, Latia and their peerages as well as Sairaorg’s new peerage members. Their parents and family members were in other rooms with other Lords.

Although, Euclid and his family joined us.

“The sushi in this place is so delicious nyaa~” The soft and content purring of the new additions to Rias’ peerage sounded in my ears.

I turned my head to see a white haired little girl with cat ears and a tail, eating the sushi in front of her with a blissful expression on her face. She was sitting in the lap of another cat-eared girl with black hair and golden eyes who was caressing her ears.

The newest addition to Rias’ peerage were Kuroka and Shirone.

Kuroka was found in the laboratory raid of the Naberius House and was being experimented on. She was an up and coming figure in the Rating Games due to her talent in Senjutsu. She was interrogated and after a week or so, released. In the meanwhile, Shirone was in Rias’ care. She offered to have both sisters join her peerage when they were cleared of all their charges and they accepted.

Kuroka took Rias’ Mutated Bishop because she was already a Bishop and could only be traded for equal or greater value pieces. She originally took both the pieces of her previous King. Now, she was only using a Mutated Bishop Piece.

Shirone on the other hand became a Rook.

I guess, me getting Gasper didn’t let her peerage get weakened by a lot.

Leila was able to save a Kitsune for Latia’s peerage as her Bishop Piece so she earned a lot too.

I on the other hand got another Peerage member and I wasn’t talking about Natsume.

My new Rook was an unexpected surprise to me.

I didn’t even dream for him to accept to join my peerage but he did and just like that Crom became my new rook.

We had fought several times after that although not to the same extent.

I was improving with each fight due to my Gourmet Cells and was able to hold better against Crom. I once jokingly said that he is like a wall and would make an excellent Rook and invited him to join my peerage.

He accepted.

The guy roams around the world even now so I don’t know where he is. I didn’t stop him either.

According to Tia, for now it was better to hide his existence.

I will reveal him when I come of age.

As for Euclid, he has been doing regular health check-ups for me since they found me injured in the spar and discovered my Gourmet Cells.

I explained everything to them and the experiments they conducted resulted in the same results.

My peerage members had health checkups too to see if they were changed in any way. None of them showed any signs of awakening Gourmet Cells.

It was decided that the chances that the food I sell matching the ideal food for awakening of the Gourmet Cells of the consumer would be too low and thus nothing changed.

“Your cells are more active than before. Do you feel any inconvenience while doing your normal job?” Euclid questioned me and I shook my head.

I consumed several high ranking foods and my Gourmet Cells ranked up to C Rank but that was it.

The Higher Ranked food was only available after Rank up so increasing my Gourmet Cells was going to be an extremely slow job for now.

But more on that later.

Today was something we came here to celebrate.

The reason we all gathered in this place today was because today was Armin's first Rating Game.

Armin became eighteen years old today and will be making his Rating Game debut against Vance Amon, the Heir of the Amon Clan.

The Amon Clan’s House Trait was their Poisonous Fire. It did what the name implied pretty much.

Vance Amon was an experienced player of Rating Games with an age of over One hundred and fifty years and a pretty decent peerage where all his peerage members were at the very least High Class Devils with two nearing the levels of Ultimate Class. He himself was an Ultimate Class Devil in strength, although not in Rank yet.

His peerage was among the top 50 players of the Rating Games at 33rd place.

The fact that Armin was to play against such an experienced player in his debut Rating Game was already making news.

It was supposedly a random draw so maybe my bestie just had bad luck.

That said, I doubted the match would be simple.

After all, in the last three months, Armin stayed at the farm. He told his father that he was going out somewhere secret for some private training with his peerage members and disappeared from the eyes of the common people.

Only his elder brother knew that he was at my farm.

All he and his peerage did in these months was eat, train with me until they fell down, rest only to repeat the same thing when they woke up.

His peerage members, the boys especially, were greatly stimulated when they saw a spar between Armin, Sai and I.

Well, it was the two of them against me but yeah.

They put in a lot of effort and I put in the best food I could for them.

The result was a team which had gone from complete noobs to a somewhat competent one. Tobio could totally wreck a High Class devil or even two if he went all out with his Sacred Gear while the rest could go toe to toe with peak Mid Class Devils, which was a lot considering they knew next to nothing about fighting a few months ago.

Unfortunately none of them attained Balance Breakers except Tobio who was born with his, he just had trouble controlling it. Last time, I had to step in myself to stop him when he went out of control. 

Then again, those things are actually extremely rare.

I assume that with a controlled Balance Breaker, Tobio would enter the levels of Ultimate Class easily while the others would be able to contend with Peak High Class Devils.

“Who do you think will win, Mathias?” Euclid asked me as we looked towards the Rating Game which was now in the planning period.

“Armin obviously.” I answered without any hesitation.

“Yup. Big Bro Armin will win this one. No question.” Sai added his two Liliums.

“Normally I would agree as well but Vance Amon is a very good strategist on top of having a very well balanced team. Many people considered him an idiot when he started the Rating Game when he recruited eight pawns with one piece each but he through hard work alone has turned them into a team who can fight and take down experienced Ultimate Class devils with their teamwork. Not to mention, their strategies which involve the entire peerage. On the contrary, Heir Glasya Labolas’ Peerage, while much better in potential, are still new and have no experience in Rating Games. The only reason Vance is putting off becoming the Head of the House is to first get the rank of an Ultimate Class Devil.” Surprisingly Latia joined in the conversation. I remembered then that the Amons were close to the Astaroths and Latia knew the Heir quite well.

“What now?” Euclid smiled seeing the situation.

Latia, Rias and I have been spending more time with each other since my birthday. They were told about the engagement proposal and they both agreed to get to know me better. They have been paying more visits to the farm, especially since the funeral to console me.

Rias was extremely energetic and cheerful all the time. She, while smart, was easily excitable. It was not annoying though but more like livening up the atmosphere wherever she went. She got along very well with Valerie and they played around in the farm along with Akeno and Shirone.

Kuroka joined them too but she had calmed down a lot after the incident and was a bit more reserved. Although, sometimes her mischievous side showed. So she was recovering. She generally spent her time with the other girls.

Latia on the other hand was like a miniature version of her mother. Sharp like an obsidian blade. She analysed everything with ruthless precision and then broke them down into simpler more efficient parts. Sona might be a genius in strategies but Latia was a different kind of a genius altogether.

That said, she had her cute moments too. This princess was a classic Tsundere and Kudere mixed and making her blush was one of the things I was learning to enjoy the most nowadays.

She liked these kinds of debates quite a lot.

And Euclid, that bastard enjoyed seeing her debate with me. He had this look that annoying elder brothers had when seeing their little sibling with a girlfriend. All that was left was for him to give me a thumbs up. Who knew that the Vice Head of the Devil’s Scientific Research and Development Department was such a stupid romantic.

Even his wife looked at him with a smile and shook her head.

My friendship with the mad scientist had bloomed in the last few months and outside of his work, I found him to be a very amusing guy as well.

He was becoming somewhat of a bro.

Sai pouted. “Well… Big Bro Armin will still win.”

“D-don’t get me wrong. I don’t want him to lose. But the chances of his winning are very slim, at least statistically speaking.” She looked at me, slightly flustered. She was probably worried about my thoughts.

I smiled at her and waved off her worries. “I don’t know much about Vance Amon or his peerage outside of what I have heard from you but I trust Latia’s assessment.”

She looked relieved but soon her cool and aloof look came over her face again.

I continued. “That said,” She looked at me challengingly, “I do know of Armin’s ability and this time, I must disagree with Latia’s assessment. She made a mistake not in her analysis but in the information gathering process.”

“Oh! And what is that?” Euclid smiled at me, clearly enjoying this more than he should.

I smiled. “Armin is stronger than his opponents. So, he might have a good chance to win this one.”

I already scanned them and while Vance Amon was strong, he was only a C- Rank while Armin was at C+ Rank. It was two Ranks difference in stats. To put it into an easily understandable perspective, Falbium was at B Rank in his overall combat power. Serafall was the same. But even those two only had C Ranked physiques.

The current Armin was physically stronger than all four Satans. Not to mention his own Clan Trait would make it nigh impossible for anyone with a weaker attack to breach his defence. I mean, there was a chance that he could get caught or ganged up on but he was used to fighting against me and not to mention, he still had the trump card left.

Vance Amon might not get an easy win after all.

"This assessment of yours is quite contrary to the popular belief of the Underworld, Mathias. The odds are 15 to 1 in favour of Vance Amon in the betting polls." Euclid said, looking towards the stadium now.

"Just because people choose to believe in something doesn't necessarily make it correct." I countered and here I smiled at him. "And no. The odds are 18 to 1 in favour of Vance Amon. I would know. After all… I did bet a hundred million Liliums on Armin's win today. "

….

….

The room went eerily quiet.

All the people in the room looked at me as if I was crazy… Well except Sairaorg and Shirone.

Latia was open mouthed at the reveal.

- Serafall Leviathan -

“Quite a crowd gathered here.” She said as she looked at the stadium from the top floor of the Vip Waiting Rooms.

“They are making a political agenda of this due to the cleanup we did during the Naberius incident.” Falbium sighed, looking more exhausted than lazy.

The Pillar Houses were quite shaken due to their attack on the Naberius House. It was only due to the bodies of several Pillar Devils found in the laboratory that they calmed down, aiming their anger towards the now almost isolated house.

But this didn’t stop them from being wary of the power in the hands of the Satans. They were trying things to show their power and suppressing the influence of the Satans.

Armin’s debut was affected by this. What was normally supposed to be a fight with a normal High Class Devil changed into a fight with an Ultimate Class Devil who still didn’t have the rank. The loss of a Satan’s brother in their first Rating Game, especially the Asmodeus who was incharge of the defence would then be used as a point to attack the credibility of the Satans. The attacks would be even worse if Armin lost badly.

Involving children in this mess… sigh. What was the underworld coming to? What was it that they fought for then?

Her mobile rang and she found a message from Euclid. Reading the message made her giggle, earning a look from her colleagues.

“Mathias bet a hundred million on Armin’s victory.”

Sirzechs had his mouth slightly open while Ajuka merely raised an eyebrow. She then relayed the second half of the message.

“Euclid just bet five hundred million after hearing that. He says that it would help his research if he got more funds.”

This made Sirzechs curious. “What were the odds again?”

Ajuka looked up. “Eighteen to one in favour of Vance Amon.” He said fiddling with his magic circle. “I bet five hundred million under several other names as well to not draw any attention.” He finished making Sirzechs hold his head in exasperation.

The research in the Devil’s Scientific Research and Development Department took insane amounts of money which was mainly generated by the sheer number of patents Ajuka and Euclid had. There was obviously funding from the government but it was still not enough for them. Ajuka had several businesses and contracts with top businesses in the human world related to the technology department while Euclid was involved in biological research and medicine. They are always on the look for a chance to earn money for no other purpose than to fund their research.

She looked at the time.

Eight minutes left till the match started. “Put in three hundred million from me too.” She asked Ajuka.

“Ahh what the heaven. Put in two hundred million from my side as well, This is my brother’s debut.” Falbium laughed before resting his head on the table for a nap.

Sirzechs by this time was completely exasperated and finally let out an audible sigh.

Though three minutes before the match started, he asked for five hundred million to be added too… under different names.

The match began.

Vance Amon’s peerage quickly spread throughout the field, taking different strategic positions everywhere.

On Armin’s side though, none of his peerage members moved and only he walked forward.

“What is he planning to do?” She raised an eyebrow.

No one answered her but she soon got her answer when the other side attacked.

Four of the pawns of the Amon peerage were using magical guns at long range and shot directly towards Armin who was walking directly towards the Amon territory.

The shots caused explosions around the place and the bishop took this chance to shower the area of impact with several other spells.

The blasts went on for an entire minute before stopping.

The bishop looked quite confused and looked towards his King. “Is it over?”

The King shook his head while looking tensed at the area of impact.

And out of the flames came the star of the show. A thin layer of Demonic Power protecting his clothes but not even a speck of dust on him.

The crowd roared in cheers.

Armin took a look around and headed towards the King of the opponent’s peerage without even paying attention to the rest of the members.

“Attack.” Vance Amon finally took command and attacked in the earnest.

- Armin -

The first word that came to his mind as he saw his opponent’s peerage racing towards him was… slow.

They were barely crawling compared to the level he had gotten used to in the last three months. He slowly eyed the attackers. Two Rooks, one offensive and one defensive took lead of the charge while the bishop who didn’t attack till now set up a defensive perimeter around their King.

He did admire the balance of the Amon Heir’s peerage. One bishop of his was completely focused on Defensive magic while the other on Offensive magic while the same was true for the Rook and Knight. Half his Pawns were ranged fighters while the other were close ranged ones who worked in a team to engage an enemy. They were like the four member party of those RPG’s that Mathias sometimes talked about.

That said, they were effective… or rather would have been if they weren’t so slow.

Armin kicked the ground and under the shocked gazes of his opponents team, appeared in front of the Defensive Bishop. This one was also an expert in forming Magical Traps and that was something he didn’t want to deal with so… he had to go first. With this thought in mind, he punched.

The body ricocheted from the ground and Armin saw the lights in his eyes go off but before the sound of his retirement came out, he grabbed him by an arm and used his body to smash the two pawns who had closed on his back.

Three lights shone in the ground and in a second three of his opponent’s members were out.

“Vance Amon’s, One Bishop and Two Pawns, retired.”

The Queen and King of the peerage didn’t expect the move at all and completely blanked out for a moment. Just enough for him to kick the Queen in the gut and then knee his face.

He then threw Queen’s body as a shield against the Amon’s fire as the King hurriedly changed the direction of his attack. The next second the Queen had also retired as his body disappeared from his hands.

“Vance Amon’s Queen has retired.”

The two rooks had recovered from their shock and quickly covered the King who had surrounded himself with a circle of Poisonous Fire.

The element of surprise was over. At least he got the other two Ultimate Class beings out of the fight before they could recover from their shock so he counted it as a win.

“”I didn’t expect you to be this stron….”

Armin interrupted the speech of the Amon heir as he went on to use his second move.

He collected his Demonic Power in his arm as several magic Circles lit up around him.

“SHIELDS!” The opponent King shouted but Armin smirked and instead of punching ahead, he punched the ground below him.

The ground rose and cracked in several places as if a massive tsunami of earth. The thing which he wanted however was done.

The entire area was covered by a layer of dust, making visibility nearly close to zero, though Armin was not affected by this.

He had been learning Senjutsu in his free time and knew the basics of sensing aura. He detected the presence of the enemy king almost immediately… not that he made it any harder by all that fire he was encircling himself with.

Now, normally, even with his shields, Armin wouldn’t be an idiot to go straight ahead and punch his enemy through the flames but… that was him from two years ago. The current him had been fighting Mathias fucking Buné Zagan. His Dragonflames made this fire look and seem like a candle light.

Several barriers appeared around his body with a mere thought. His control over his Demonic Power had improved with the use of those Shovels from Hell. He was currently at 4 tons weight while Mathias used 64 tons.

That monster.

A lovable and kind monster… but a real monster nonetheless without doubt.

Armin punched with all his strength, through the famed Poisonous Flames of Amon and the Heir of the Amon, the devil said to be an Ultimate Class in strength, Vance Amon shot out like a bullet, making holes in every building he hit and finally on the barrier of the Rating Game Stadium disappearing in a flash of light as the final announcement of Armin’s win sounded.

“Vance Amon has retired. The winner of the Rating Game is… Armin Glasya-Labolas.”

As he heard this announcement, a thought passed through his head. ‘How much time did this take?’

- Mathias -

“Two minutes and eighteen seconds. It was the shortest match recorded in the Rating Game history. People are calling you ‘The Beast Behind the Glasses’.” Koga laughed as he read the news from his mobile phone.

“Smashing someone with their peerage member can do that to people.” Kouki smiled while Tobio, while looking shy, also had a smile on his face.

Armin on the other hand was completely unphased.

Currently, the guys of our little group were changing clothes to get ready for the party of Armin’s Birthday.

The Rating Game ended as a surprise for everyone, including the participants.

Yes, even Armin was surprised at how quickly the Game ended.

Apparently he was not expecting his opponent to be this weak. I don’t think he realises that in terms of physique alone, he was an entire Rank above his opponent while his Magic was on par with his opponent. They were basically smashing their heads on an unbreakable wall… or rather would have if they had had the chance.

All this time Armin was used to fighting me and Sairaorg who have ridiculous physiques. Sometimes, he even sparred with the dragons in the farm who are known for their physiques so he probably didn’t realise the difference between different types of fighters. And when he did, he was utterly disappointed by the entire Rating Game.

He was preparing all this time to fight against an Ultimate Class being to prove to his father and teacher that he didn’t need coddling only for the result to be so…

Yeah. My friend was frustrated.

But that doesn’t take away our fun in teasing him.

“Still… two minutes and eighteen seconds. It was too fast.” Sai said as he struggled to put on a tie before Tobio helped him.

I couldn’t help but say something at this moment. “That’s what she said.”

…

…

The room burst out in laughter except the speaker who didn’t understand the meaning of the line.

The shyest one, Tobio, chuckled at it as well while Armin himself had a ghost of a smile on his face after a long time.

“What? Who said what?” Sai asked, utterly confused.

“Hmm, your Queen Kuisha said that she liked your black suit better than the green one.” I said picking up the black suit and handing it over to him.

“But Green is cool. Green is for veggies.” He smiled innocently giving me a solid Guy vibe and I decided that I needed to put a stop to it before I had a weirdo in a green jumpsuit singing Youth in my farm so I pulled him to my side.

“While green is a good colour for the veggies. We are not veggies, Sai. Wearing Green is a no go. Especially a hat. Yeah, no green hat.” I shut up Kouki, who was going to comment something before he could. “Say that and I will make you wear a Green hat to the party.”

He became quiet.

Some explaining later, the guys were ready to face the crowd in what was basically a giant dickwaving party in front of the whole Underworld.

This time around I use my Armin shield to prevent idiots from surrounding me. Thankfully, the range of the Armin Shield had expanded after today’s performance and had a passive effect of preventing people from annoying me to avoid annoying him by relation So I was fine.

That said, I still had company.

While Armin and his peerage were entertaining the guests who were all eager to lick his boots after the scary performance today, Latia and the rest were still free and I was hanging out with them. Armin’s pawn, his oldest piece, was accompanying us.

Lisbell Oriax, was the daughter of the younger cousin of the Head of the Branch House of the Oriax and as such had little to no importance in her house.

Thankfully, her mother was a friend of Armin’s mother and she took a liking to her.

Lisbell was not a good fighter per say. Only at the level of a strong Mid Class Devil, that said she was very great at managing paperwork and management in general.

From what I came to know, she was being trained to be Armin’s second wife/mistress and help him manage the house in the future or even the first wife depending on a suitable offer appearing.

They were childhood friends and were actually very compatible with each other.

Armin often told me about her and from what I found out, she was one of the only people outside his mother and me who supported his painting hobby.

They were both people of few words though.

This time Leila was worried that I’d cause some chaos with the gifts so she had already prepared a gift from my side before the event.

Armin agreed with it as well.

What was new, unlike the previous parties I had attended, was the dance.

Yes.

The last two parties were of twelve year olds while this was the party of a Devil who had just become an adult and bestie was a hot commodity right now.

Armin’s mother had used Lisbell as a protection against the so-called hussies from taking away her cute son.

Yes, Armin’s mother adored her son A LOT.

She was just a step short of Serafall in this matter.

I kinda wonder if that was the reason Armin was so like Sona and also why he always found reasons to not let me meet his mother before this.

We had the opportunity to meet each other right after the Rating Game and she told me quite a few stories about Armin’s childhood.

Embarrassing ones too.

She thanked me for helping Armin all this time, be his friend as well as introduce him to the Peerage members.

She knew there was something about me but Falbium asked her not to ask and she was the wife of a military family Head as well as the mother of a Satan, she knew the things to ask and not to ask.

Now, coming back to the dance, I was accompanying Latia whom Leila had left in my care. She knew that I was not one for such formal events and would find an excuse to skip it so she let Latia hang on to me and asked me to accompany her to dance.

The little princess understood my intentions and we only danced for a while. Leila had hammered the Skills of a noble in me and I didn’t exactly make a fool of myself.

We excused ourselves after two songs and went back to the side of the hall.

“How much did you win in today’s bet?” She asked me while we picked something to eat for ourselves.

“Hmm, something short of a billion and a half Liliums.” I answered. The food was made from some of the lower ranked crops from my farm and the taste was quite something.

I chuckled looking at her with her cute mouth open in shock.

I picked up a piece of cherry and popped it in her mouth making her yelp and then bristle as she looked at me in half pout and half anger.

I laughed.

She shook her head and looked back at her plate but then I heard her voice.

“Matty.”

“Hmm.”

“Help me train too.”

….

“Sure.”

No other words were said but I didn’t need any other words either.

She was very prideful and for her to ask me about this was already a lot. It would be petty of me to force her to say anything more. I accepted.

- Sirzechs -

While he was not one to use cuss words, the grins on the faces of his colleagues can only be described as ‘shit-eating’. But then again, he was sure that if he looked into the mirror right now, he would find a similar look.

After all, who didn’t like free money?

He looked at his account. 9 billion Liliums.

This was more than what the Gremory House earned in two years.

“Hahahaha I would gladly pay half of this money to look at the faces of those Great King faction members. They must have lost a decent fortune in this game.”

“A total of fifty two billion.” Ajuka provided the exact numbers making even Sirzechs wince lightly.

That must have hurt… badly.

The economy of the Underworld was mainly controlled by the Great King faction which is what they used to restrain the Satans mainly. The entire faction controlled a vast amount of wealth and almost every house worth their salt was involved in the Rating Games, making it one of the most prosperous industries in the Underworld.

This amount was obviously not enough to shake their foundation or anything but enough to make them feel the pain for a while. Just between the six of them, the four Satans, Euclid and Mathias, they had lost almost 38 Billion Liliums.

“Still, it meant that more than enough people believed in Armin’s abilities.” He asked.

Falbium was the one to answer. “Nah. It was my mother and father. Father was actually planning for this from the very start while Mother was actually pissed that Armin’s game was used as a political agenda and put in all her savings to bet on his side. Father was strutting around with his chest puffed like he was the one who won.”

Yeah.. .Lady Glasya-Labolas doted on her children as much as Serafall doted on Sona. She was just not in a position where common people would know about it.

“I think I kinda understand why Leila was so worried about Mathias crashing the Underworld’s economy. Even when not intending to do anything, he almost broke the legs of the Great King faction.” Serafall laughed and Sirzechs agreed.

“And not only Mathias, even Sairaorg won twenty million Liliums while Lord Bael… lost five billion. He didn’t even attend today’s party citing that he was feeling under the weather. Lady Bael attended the party along with her son.” Euclid smirked.

“Still, I didn’t expect that kind of performance from Armin. I’d dare say that he is physically stronger than us at the present. Do you think he too awakened the…” He looked at Euclid who shook his head.

“Not really. I checked. None of them except Mathias has awakened those Cells. The chances of awakening those things are extremely small and even that would require high level foods being consumed regularly for years and pushing the body to its limits. Not to mention the issue of compatibility between the food and the consumer. All we have seen is what happens when someone fully utilises the boosts given by those food crops with training to match.”

“From what I heard, Mathias and Armin sparred all day long, healed up, ate, slept only to repeat the process again in the last three months. Even a normal devil going through such gruelling training would grow at an insane pace. The food only supplemented the growth.” Euclid explained.

“But what now? With Armin showing this kind of strength, the Great King faction will be even more wary of us. It was a good thing that he didn’t disclose the abilities of his peerage members or things would have been worse.”

“There have been four marriage proposals from different houses already. Mother used Lisbell as an excuse but the worst part was that even Lord Oriax proposed his own daughter as a candidate. Mother is looking for another girl to possibly shut the mouths of the people. It’s just that such a thing is easier said than done with Armin suddenly being the centre of everyone’s attention.” Falbium explained while looking tired. “He decided that he would go off the radar by saying that he wants to find and train his peerage for a few years, to give us some time. Father agreed as well. He had his fun today so he wasn’t in a mood to shake the boat much.”

“And he can hide in the Buné territory most of the time.”

Falbium nodded.

“What about the other children at the farm, Serafall?” He asked. Among them, Serafall knew the best about the farm. With Euclid regularly visiting the place and she herself teaching a few of Mathias’ peerage members, she was the closest person among the four Satans.

“Hmm. Ingvild is such a cutie. She sings so well that I wish she could sing for my Levia-tan Show. She is also very talented. It’s just that she is kind and doesn’t like hurting others. Lavinia on the other hand is an innocent airhead but she can be downright brutal when fighting. Her abandonment issues are almost dealt with due to the therapy sessions with Leila and she is now associating with everyone very well. The two Damphir children are still young and Mathias doesn’t want them to invest all their time to just train. Leila is teaching them etiquette and manners while Euclid is teaching the girl about her Sacred Gear and how to control it.”

Yeah… the Sephiroth Graal. Heaven would riot if they found out that one of their relics was born in a Damphir who was now a Devil. The death of their father has really affected the System.

“What about the new children?”

“They are starting to acclimate to their new lives. All of them are interested in their new abilities and are training to explore more of their Sacred Gears and Magic.”

“Then let them train. These children are the future of the Underworld. The stronger they are, the better.”

At this point, all of them completely agreed.

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Beta Reader: LuluViBritania(FF.N, SB, WN and QQ)/-LuluViB|99th Britannian Emperor(Discord)

Author’s Note:

So, a lot of things happened.

Armin finally had the Rating Game debut and got a title.

We got two kittens visiting the farm and got introduced to some new characters.

The result of the Rating Game was basically this:

The Great King Faction: Who screwed us? Who?

Armin’s dad: All according to Keikaku.

Armin’s Mom: Keep those hussies away from my son.

Satans and Euclid: I’m rich hahahaha.

I will plan for the next few chapters and develop the existing characters and the farm a bit before going to the part where Mathias is revealed to the underworld.

Maybe, even take a small part in the Slash Dog plot and see the reactions of other factions to Armin’s insane performance.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.