Scarlet 49 (Patreon)

Scarlet 49

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Commissioned by Sivantic

Wordcount: 2500

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“So, you’re the beast that’s been worming his way into So-tan’s heart!” Bouncy. Excitable. Pink. It was like looking at Sona, if she was drawn by a man committed to drawing the best and most ecchi magical girls. This was Serafall Leviathan, one of the Satans of Hell, and she was wearing a magical girl outfit with a skirt that was too short, and a top that generated the almighty ‘boob pocket.’ The female uniform of your school has it. It’s different when it's not in a uniform, Ddraig! “I’ll have you know that I’ll punish you for your grave crime of trying to steal my lovely little sister away from me!”

Alright, what kind of punishment are we talking about? Does it involve—

Taylor!

Right, in front one of the most powerful and influential people in existence, so I can’t be as perverse as my instincts wish me to be.

I’d really rather you not be perverse at all, but I know it’s not really up to you.

“I wouldn’t say that I’m worming myself into her heart. Rather, I’m doing my best to treat her right and convince her to keep me around.” If I had a little sister, that’s what I would want to hear. A humble statement from the guy and with the power to end the relationship firmly in Sona’s hands. “I’m just doing my best and hoping she won’t throw me aside, Leviathan-san.”

“What!? How dare you think my lovely So-tan would ever do such a thing to someone she cares about!? Are you saying that she’ll throw you aside the moment she’s displeased, and not try to fix you up to be the best you can be!?” She charged at me and put a finger against my chest and scowled at me with a firm glare on her visage. Sona’s features flashed at me. Oh no. She’s looks just like Sona when she wants something. “I’ll have you know that my dear little sister would never just give up or throw someone away! You should know that, if you’re really serious about her!”

“I do. I just don’t want to be the exception, Leviathan-san.”

“So, you do plan on defiling her and staying with her! Well, just so you know, you’re not stealing So-tan’s purity while I have anything to say about it! I’ll be there to stop you no matter what it takes!” Oh, if there’s any diety out there listening, please stop this Satan from saying words that hentai heroines use to ‘protect’ their friends and loved ones. This is your own fault for liking NTR and its genres. Look upon your favorites list and drown in your poor taste. “You’re never going to defeat me, let alone my training, Issei Hyoudou!”

I had almost nothing to say to those words.

This dialogue almost a 2-Koma instant loss comic, yeah.

This is going to be difficult.

“I’ll prove that I’m worthy of courting your sister. I have no intentions of having her choose between me and her family.” I did my best so that the twin-tailed bombshell in a too-tight cosplay outfit couldn’t misinterpret me. Sona had wondered whether to come along or not. Why should would didn’t occur to me until now, since she was so busy with the conference. “Please, rest assured, Leviathan-san, that I’ll be on my best behavior.”

Leviathan glared up at me and took a step closer, all but mashing her prodigious chest against my sternum, as she placed one hand on her hip and pointed a gloved finger at me.

“I’m watching you, mister. Don’t think that you can get away from me!”

If not for the fact that I already had loving, caring girlfriends, if this happened to me before I got into a relationship with Rias and Akeno, I’m not sure what I would’ve done.

But I was, so I was able to punch down my arousal and answer the Satan still mashing her chest against my midsection.

“Please, do. I don’t intend to hide anything from you, Leviathan-san.”

Thankfully, at that, she was satisfied, nodded, crossed her arms… beneath her chest while still mashed against me.

Ganbare, Taylor!

There’s working hard and trying to do the impossible, Ddraig!

“Hmph, fine. But I won’t be satisfied with you being Sona’s groom unless you can beat Sirzechs!” Leviathan announced and gave a wide smile. That impossible standard was probably meant to make me feel fear and back down, but she just grinned more widely when I nodded. “He-he, of course, I need to be super tough on you, if you need to beat him. Are you sure that you can do that, Issei-kun?”

At the thought of being trained hard enough with the intention of beating one of most powerful beings in existence… I managed to get my libido under control.

Power, after all, is necessary to protect anything I wanted to hold dear.

Yep.

“Even if you bring me to the brink of death, Asia can heal me up. No matter what, I won’t fail to gain the power that you think that I should have.”

In my previous life, I had a taste of what real power was in the last moments of my life. What it felt to call upon entire armies of parahumans and fight against something that was almost beyond death… still lingered in the back of my mind. Now, in this world where ‘God’ existed and so did so many other divine entities and their foes, I knew that I needed strength and power. I was never going to have what I once had, but I had Ddraig and the willpower to endure whatever pain and suffering I had to in order to get the power that I needed.

So, I wasn’t going to back down.

Ever.

…

“Mou, this isn’t fair! You’re actually learning and growing stronger!” Serafall pouted, stamped her feet, and groaned whilst holding a magical girl stick, as I got up from her latest attack. “You should be running away screaming in terror!”

“Most people would. Probably.” We started after picking up Asia and hopped into a dimensional space which she made for our training. I didn’t know you could make dimensional spaces with such ease. Ddraig had told me that normal people couldn’t, so I just chalked it up to Leviathan being truly strong. “Thanks, Asia.”

“Y-you’re welcome, Issei-kun! You’re doing a lot better now!” Asia cheered me on and was beside a cooler filled with snacks, which was atop a padded picnic blanket for her. She also had some spare books and other things to enjoy herself with. I wouldn’t have minded if she just took breaks, but she insisted on helping. “This time, you lasted a whole minute more than the last!”

It’s always nice to know that I’m improving.

“This should be scaring you away! Not making you more determined.” Leviathan cutely stamped her foot again and glared at me with slightly teary eyes. I was almost tempted to apologize, but it was hard to not feel proud. I’m evading and tanking pretty strong hits from someone considered to be one of the strongest in reality. As far as I was concerned, this training was perfect. “Whatever! Magical Girl Levi-tan won’t be easily defeated! For the sake of my family and friends, I shall defeat you!”

Asia being present also allowed me to ignore Leviathan’s one-liners better.

Strange, usually Asia being nearby just eggs Rias and Akeno on—Oh, that’s a big blast.

Moving in a fight and avoiding attacks is a lot more difficult than experienced fighters care to show. Attacks from range are meant to be fast and deadly by design. No one’s going to throw around attacks that can be dodged without purpose. With someone like Leviathan as my practice partner, I had to predict, act on instinct, stretch out my ability to detect magic, and read her body perfectly.

I really hate the fact that you can tell how she’s going to fire her beams by looking at how her boobs are moving.

Shut up, it works!

Slashing beams make them move diagonally!

Look at her shoulders, they move too!

Pillar beams have them surge forward!

The wrist! She moves her wrist to make that thrust motion!

When they’re still, it’s a bombardment of constant orbs!

She literally strikes a pose and fires them while holding her ‘wand’ up!

The boobs tell me everything, and I can keep track of them no matter what!

I give up.

Anyway, once the matter of detection was solved, there was the matter of actually evading. Slipping to one side before an attack lands, rolling away, or making fancy acrobatics like in games wasn’t applicable.  Invincibility frames weren’t a thing. People couldn’t just phase through attacks. I had to physically move out of the way, calculate how long that move takes and how far I’d get with that move, and take into account all the other attacks going my way.

You’ll see that sort of bullshit later, but you’re right for the most part. Right now, it’s about predicting, evading what you can, and tanking what you can’t.

With that in mind, I engaged Leviathan’s latest barrage of projectiles.

The first session, she’d knocked me down with just the ‘beams’ of her attacks. Straightforward pillars of pure energy the size of marble columns that bore into the ground of the dimensional pocket she’d created. They came at me… close the speed of a rushing car, and she’d flattened me into a crater within a few seconds, too fast for even Boosts to matter in the fight.

I already knew that I was weak to an overwhelming, initial strike, but that was a wake up call.

The fifth session, she started mixing up more attacks. The ‘slashes’ formed crescent shapes of differing sizes and they were quicker than the pillars. Sent them speedily at me, controlling my moves, and even though I could endure them that didn’t mean anything when she trapped me and had one of her pillars smash into me and knock me out.

So, that was another weakness of mine.

My weakness wasn’t just being taken out early, but also being focused down, suppressed, and taken out before I could ramp up.

Then, after I acclimated to those attacks, she added the orbs.

They were slow compared to the two other attacks, but they sought me out with minds of their own, while in small groups. Not only that, but their effect wasn’t just damaging. Getting hit with one of the beachball-sized attacks locked me in place with a spell for a second. That’s right, despite being bright pink like all her other attacks, the orbs had a totally different effect. Ddraig told me that I should be very resistant to most magics, but what about a very simple magic with the power of someone like Leviathan behind it?

Yeah, if you can get through my resistance, holding me still for a second was enough to bombard me the rest of your attacks and kill me. Therefore, I had to look out for traps or advantages made by well-prepared adversaries. Leviathan can make a spell like this on the fly, right during battle, but someone with the time and resources could do the same and kill me after holding me still for a second.

I faced combinations of these attacks for over fifty sessions, hardly lasting more than two minutes each time, because Leviathan always had a new trick.

Beams that were different lengths or a fraction slower than others.

Crescent attacks that were so thin that I could barely see them head on, or smaller and much faster.

Smaller and smaller versions of the orbs, almost the size of bubbles, and becoming more and more transparent.

Leviathan, Sona told me, had the talent and the power to truly use magic.

I hadn’t understood, until I faced her, and… found myself in another crater with Asia healing me again.
This time, I hadn’t even lasted ten seconds into the latest barrage.

And, I knew that things were over, as Leviathan floated over me and crossed her arms.

Pink down there, too.

Nice.

“T-this isn’t over! The time’s just up and I need to be somewhere else, is all! I’ll definitely make you stop seeing So-tan!” Leviathan declared, whilst floating above me. The fact that I was seeing straight up her skirt didn’t matter in the slightest. “You’re going to give up eventually, Issei Hyoudou! Mark my words, you’ll never beat me, let alone Sirzechs!”

I knew just how to reply to that.

“Thanks for the training, Leviathan-san. I’ll do my best to prove myself.”

“Dang it! Stop being so reasonable! Why can’t you be mean!?”

With those words, Leviathan fled and the dimensional pocket collapsed, placing us in the middle of the school’s forest just outside of the Occult Research Club’s small mansion.

Asia took the opportunity to drag me over to the picnic blanket and start healing me, as I’d gotten crushed by the numerous attacks.

"...Ise-kun, are you sure this is the best way for you to learn? Leviathan-san… she seems to just be crushing you.”

“Ouch. That hurts, Asia. I was trying my best, you know?”

“Eh!?” Asia’s eyes went from worried to shocked in an instant. She must’ve realized what she said. Instantly, her faced turned a vivid shade of red. Cute. “Oh, I didn’t mean that, Ise-kun! I mean that—

“I know, I was just teasing you, Asia.” I nodded and sat up, already healed, and when I clenched my fist… I felt it. I couldn’t break my body through training anymore. So, each time Leviathan and I fought, I had Ddraig focus on making me better, while Asia fixed me up. Leviathan hadn’t gone very far, but muscle tears, organ trauma, and micro-fractures weren’t something I could make anymore through training my usual methods. This was my best bet. “And, it is. Don’t worry. I won’t be crushed for long. I’m getting stronger and stronger. Before this break ends, I promise that Leviathan will have a real fight on her hands. I promise.”

Asia… was easily mollified by my words.

I would’ve felt bad, if I didn’t intend to keep that promise.

Ddraig?

Yeah?

Is it finished?

Yep.

I stood up, looked into the distance, and focused with my gaze.

The leaf on a tree dozens of kilometers away suddenly came into view.

Dragons were able to rain fire from high above in the air onto their targets on the earth with ease.

And, I knew from experience in my previous life, the ability to ‘see’ my opponents was of immense importance.

I’ll reforge all my senses, until I could get my maximum possible range in this body, and after that I’ll come up with the best ways to attack.

The biggest advantages come from the smallest angles.