56- Remember.
After the visit, all left to do is set things up for the upcoming raid on the underworld.
To be fair, Sirzech is risking a civil war and several problems, knowing the ones behind all of this.
As of now, several of their plans and cards are being completely neutralized by me and I fear that in the future this wouldn't be possible if they hide so before launching this strike to the underworld…
Even now, the magician faction of the Khaos Brigade is trying to gain footing in Britain and some of the towns under our rule...
I decided on something more important.
I don't care for the plot and I don't care about what they do but this thing made me feel… sick.
A key part of their plan that I forgot, completely.
This is probably the most important and deadly one.
I don't feel sick for who she is but I feel sick towards myself for forgetting about someone who is trapped and suffering when I can go and save her without much of a problem, I really can do so now thanks to having Scathach at my side and without risks.
And that's what I'm going to do, rescue that girl and... let's make it two while at it, so I can give Serafall some extra work.
So I left a note in her office using a painted bird.
The note said:
Sera-chan~ I found out about a sleeping cousin of yours with the sleeping disease that was hidden away from you and your family~ she was hidden by the old Satan Leviathan faction so… good luck~ She possesses the Longinus Nereid Kyrie and her name is Ingvild Leviathan.
That day, the wailing cries of an enraged monster were heard in Serafall's office. No one knows where It come from since Serafall herself refuses to talk about it.
Well, the sleeping girl's Longinus is quite deadly if used properly, especially the part of controlling dragons and it can be use to even strengthen them
This skill is similar to Jalter's [Dragon Witch] but much more effective since it doesn't rely on its user strength, pretty novel for something that controls dragons and the sea to end up in the hands of the family with the name of the legendary sea dragon Leviathan.
Well, the original leviathan was a beast of creation and destruction that shaped the entire world, something like Groundon and Kyogre but in one single beast, the dragons were simply big lizards that spit fire and could fly.
It is interesting to see how fantasy turned both beings into what they are now.
Aside from that... I've been too relaxed, The Sephiroth Grail is far too strong to be left alone, and, more importantly... I have a strange sensation that this Grail will be important for my future development because of its aspects of life and even death.
This, I feel, will be immensely beneficial to my future development.
So, without further ado, I began my search for her, sending hundreds of bugs, animals, and shadows into the area of the Vampires in the hopes of finding her but I know how long this could take so… i started to look into alternatives to speed the search up
Now the question is how to do it. I could simply raid the place or sneak in and make a door for the girl, a fairly quick and swift movement, but I could also do some other things, such as hiring the services of the Carmilla faction or even Rias...
Well Rias is nothing right now, she is pretty much worthless right now due to her lack of training and a lack of natural growth in Devils that comes with age.
Even Casper is useless right now...
Shishou alone is a hundred times better than anything these two could provide.
I'll try to infiltrate the group with some of my creations, replacing vampires with alternates or just creating new ones, gradually occupying the entire faction with my own soldiers.
But finding Valerie fast is my first priority right now and doing that would take too much time.
They may speed things up due to how messed up their plans are thanks to me, extracting the grail from Valerie earlier than what I expected.
The Grail would also help me with the underworld raid, albeit indirectly, by diverting the Old Satan faction's attention to my attack on the vampires, keeping them busy until we attacked the devils.
Aside from regeneration and immortality, vampires aren't all that powerful, and even those can be easily countered by some of Shishou's runes.
We can't rely on their weakness towards light and holy due to the Sephirot Graal erasing said vulnerability; I'm not sure how far they got with their holy grail study...
Purifying them with Senjutsu still works but I'm not that proficient with Senjutsu and neither are the two little cats.
The best solution would be to read some of the vampires' minds, but I'm still not able to do so, at least not properly and efficiently, resulting in memory loss and the death of the target...
I've only tried it once and it wasn't pretty…
I still don't have a safe way to extract memories from other people, not because I can't, but because I'm in the matter by myself and have little experience doing it, resulting in a crude extraction of memories that are typically damaged.
Any skill related to mind reading is too expensive to purchase from the system's shop, and even if I do purchase them, I still need to level them up.
So... in situations like this, I require the assistance of a teacher or rather… a Shishou.
…
"Mind reading... you should be able to do it fairly easily..." As she said this, a magical circle appeared on the floor, and once it vanished, a Devil appeared in its place.
Not your typical one, but a stray one... It's easy to tell because of its deformities, which I assume are due to a safety precaution implemented by Ajuka.
Giving someone a boost in strength without something to prevent treason and the like is more than expected, hell even some loyalty inducer things like dopamine should be included in there to make the servant feel good after following their master's orders or something like that. I know he's worried about the servant overpowering the master, which is why he banned the King Pieces in the first place.
"You want me to… " I asked to confirm but at the same time… I know well that practice makes the master
"Yes. " She told me with a serious and strict tone, she is now in her teaching mode. It really surprises me when she changes from her more expressive one to this in a second.
But I also know the consequences of not listening to her… especially when she knows that you can't die yet you still feel the pain… I even tried to fool her once by removing the pain and it ended quite… badly with some pain-receiving runes shaved into my body and soul followed by another rune to increase pain…
So I started to pry into the Devil mind but… as I expected, something cracked as soon as I pushed myself into it…
Was it fragile from the start or… Did I use too much strength?
With blood pouring from every orifice, including his mouth and with pink stuff in between the blood… his eyes rolled back, as if seeking to delve into his own head looking for answers of what is happening inside there...
I felt... cold, and I began to tremble slightly in discomfort...
It's not that I'm not used to killing, but this feeling is... different. Entirely different.
Because my mind was linked to his, I experienced the whole of his death and the breakdown of his mind... I received knowledge on why, how, and when his mind shattered, as well as the consequences, all while my mind was connected to his, making the impact heavier than it should have been owing to the fear of disappearing being transmitted back to my own mind in a simple yet heavy wave.
But as a cloud of vapor evaporated into thin air, the feeling became thinner and thinner until it vanished somewhere in my head.
When she gazed at me with those wine-colored eyes, I knew I couldn't give up with just this much, so the only option was to keep going...
"Again..."
So, before death came to grab this one, Shishou came to block its path and after making a movement with her palm, runes began to light from within the Devil, and he was back in one piece as if nothing had occurred...
…
First things first, protect myself.
I need to shield my mind from him making a one way tunnel… pretty easy since this is in my own mind so soon enough this part was done.
Second, I'm connecting our minds... I attempted to construct a tunnel, a simple bridge through which a small portion of my will could pass.
…
Done but… and once I tried to walk through it…
"Again... "
…
Let's use another power… let's send a mini monster like a virus entering a computer then send it back to me…
"Again... "
…
How can it distinguish memories in the minds of others? This is my most dreadful wall... Everything is a mess, and discovering something specific is a risk in and of itself, and I still don't know how to pick them up and bring them back to me...
"Shishou… Any suggestions? Oh? Once more..." I asked her, but her brief lapse in attention blew the Devil's mind... yet again.
The main issue is that this guy's mind is weakened to the point of practically collapsing in itself and that I'm too strong for it, causing it to explode if I use too much force...
"You've only used one aspect of your abilities. Try with transmutation. changing something you choose into something you're familiar with while retaining some of its original properties " Shishou's voice opened the door after observing what I was doing wrong.
"Is it even possible to transmute something like this?" I asked as I considered how to apply this to my current situation...
something I'm familiar with...
"You are technically connecting your own mindscape to his, and you can build and do whatever you want inside. It is feasible as long as you can overpower the target." Shishou is correct... When did I stop thinking about it in that way?
Is it because I treat my mindscape like a home?
I don't want to change or tinker with it while there are other people inside because of the potential consequences, which has caused me to... limit myself.
Looking at it as if it were another house rather than my own reality also limited me...
Something familiar...
This time was different... I stopped looking for ways and tricks to solve the problem and simply overpowered his mind, which was surprisingly... easy after imitating what he did to me the first time I entered his.
Soon, his mind began to change into something else, patch by patch it became a black substance familiar to me, and then with a single thought the things I desired and ordered came to me, I watched as the [Ink] joined its brethren as if it had always been a part of them... joining my sea of memories.
It didn't change my personality because I didn't want it to. My memories and his memories became like oil and water; they were in the same location but never connected, yet it could access them, becoming something akin to a movie...
"I did it, Shishou."
"Excellent work. Do it again with this one." Another Circle appeared, and a struggling devil emerged from it...
"Can I take a break... just for a little bit?" by the way she looks at me and the way she pushes the guy towards me...
This is not the last one… right? This one is a mere low-rank one…
so...
I have a long night ahead...