Arthur sat in the living room, Compendium of All Things floating in front of him. Two new entries were glowing.
Name: Alucard
Grade: Purple
Description: Strongest being of the Yōkai Domain
Reward: Ryūjin Jakka
…
Name: Akasha Bloodriver
Grade: Purple
Description: Immortal swordswoman
Reward: Full Counter
…
"Ryūjin Jakka, huh?"
Arthur raised his brows a little.
That was straight from the Bleach world.
The oldest and strongest fire-type Zanpakutō.
Once released, it could unleash flames said to reach six thousand degrees.
In Bankai, its temperature could rival the sun's core.
No need to explain how absurd that was.
After that brief surprise, Arthur looked at Akasha's reward.
"Full Counter…"
He frowned slightly. Took him a second to place it.
Instead of claiming the Zanpakutō first, he chose Full Counter.
A special power flowed into him.
Information followed.
Full Counter came from the Seven Deadly Sins world.
It let the user bounce back any magic-type offensive attack coming at them — and send it back with several times the original power.
With this in hand…
As long as the gap in overall level wasn't too ridiculous, Arthur could reflect the enemy's magic right back at them.
At the same tier, it was basically cheating.
With his current A+ / nation-wiping baseline, even if someone at S- / continent level hit him with magic, he could still reflect it.
And once he reached S- himself…
Even S and S+ level magical bombardments could be sent straight back.
Another broken ability in the bag.
Only then did Arthur claim Ryūjin Jakka.
In his consciousness space, a blazing sun-like fireball appeared out of nowhere, then shrank, shrank again, and finally flew straight into his soul, merging between his brows.
A flame mark appeared.
In front of him, a katana took shape.
Nothing flashy — a deep-purple hilt, oval tsuba, brown scabbard.
That was Ryūjin Jakka in its sealed state.
After taking both rewards, Arthur opened his own stat screen.
Name: Arthur
Rank: S– (Continent)
Concept: Sever
Abilities: Supreme King's Authority, Third Magic, Invisibility, Frozen Domain, Sky Magic, "A Knight Does Not Die Barehanded," Fog Realm, Reversed Heaven & Binding Curse, Blazer, Rasengan, Full Counter
Items/Armaments: Divine Machine Dragon · Bahamut, Ten-Thousand-Mile Flight, Innate Armament · Myriad Phenomena Cards, Ryūjin Jakka
"Ranked up~."
Seeing himself go from A+ to S–, Arthur was a bit surprised.
Then he thought about it — it was reasonable.
Getting the Blazer talent.
Manifesting the Innate Armament · Myriad Phenomena Cards.
That had lifted his energy ceiling.
So he'd jumped from nation-wiping to continent-level.
And that was just the base.
If he added the Myriad Phenomena Cards and Ryūjin Jakka on top…
His normal combat state should be able to brush the ceiling of S+.
Undefeated below SS / planetary.
And with the Sever concept… he could even hurt things above that.
Good.
Now he looked a little more like those webnovel protagonists.
Rank was only a reference anyway — real power always beat whatever was written.
Arthur closed the Compendium.
Claiming the rewards hadn't caused any disturbance outside.
About ten minutes later.
Moka and Akasha came back down.
Akasha was now wearing a fitting pink dress.
White lace at the collar.
Her snow-white collarbones showed just enough, her neck long and elegant.
A ribbon tied at her waist.
Her chest pushed the dress out in a very persuasive arc, which in turn made her already-slender waist look even more holdable.
Her long legs were hidden by the skirt.
Only her pale feet could be seen, in a pair of summer sandals.
Her rosy-pink hair fell to her waist, two strands draped over her shoulders.
A pink ribbon was tied behind her in a bow.
Her fair cheeks had a natural blush.
Her lips were petal-pink, slightly curved, and that gentle, sweet smile on her exquisite face made her look harmless and warm.
From the outside, she didn't look old at all.
Eighteen. Maybe nineteen.
But Akasha was, in truth, over two hundred.
Of course, two hundred was nothing.
Tohru started at forty thousand.
In front of endless lifespans, numbers weren't worth much.
Arthur's eyes flickered as he looked her over.
"I want to talk to Moka's mom alone," he said with a smile. "Tohru, you girls go sit in the second-floor lounge for a bit."
"...Oh."
Tohru, Moka, Shuzen Ya'ai, and Shuzen Kokoa all glanced at him and Akasha, something unreadable in their eyes, then nodded.
They turned and went upstairs.
With their strength, even on the second floor they could've listened in clearly.
But since Arthur said to step out…
They'd just have to hold their curiosity in.
Once they were gone, Arthur smiled at Akasha.
"Come sit. I've got a few questions."
What he was actually thinking about was…
How was he supposed to address her?
"Mother-in-law"?
If it were just him and Moka, that would've been fine.
But with his current guess…
"Mother-in-law" didn't feel quite right.
"Alright."
Akasha nodded softly.
She came over and sat beside him.
A faint fragrance wrapped around his nose.
Akasha smiled gently at him. "Xiao-Bai, you want to know about me and Moka, right?"
"You've already guessed most of it."
"Mm."
Arthur nodded. At her calling him "Xiao-Bai," his eyes flashed with that same odd look again.
Akasha went on, smiling:
"Then I'll tell Xiao-Bai a story."
"About two hundred years ago, I fought Alucard with two companions."
"With our strength, we couldn't kill a True Ancestor."
"So I made a decision — I used my own True Ancestor power, combined it with sealing techniques, and sealed Alucard."
"About sixteen years ago…"
"My consciousness, which had been sleeping because of the seal, woke up. I realized Alucard's consciousness had already escaped."
"So I created an avatar."
"At first, my goal in creating that avatar was to leave and find those two companions…"
"…and go hunt down Alucard, who had escaped with all of his consciousness."
"But when I made the avatar, my True Ancestor power was accidentally inherited by the avatar…"
"…and, miraculously, became new life."
"That's the Moka you know now."
"Because I couldn't bear to get rid of her, I changed the plan."
"I created the Rosario to seal Moka's power, and left my own personality-will inside it."
"Because her power was sealed, Moka's true personality was sealed in the Rosario too."
"So I sealed my memories… and used my own personality-will to form Moka's outer personality."
"So the Moka you usually saw, Xiao-Bai… was actually me."
"Now that my memories have returned and my consciousness has gone back to my body…"
"Moka can finally control her own body for real."
"…"
Hearing this, Arthur leaned back a little, thoughtful.
No wonder he'd always felt Moka's memories were one-way — like the pink-haired Moka was sharing everything with the silver-haired one…
But silver-haired Moka had never shared back.
Because "Pink Moka" wasn't a separate Moka at all.
She was Akasha.
Not, like he'd first thought, "Akasha's avatar + part of Moka's soul."
After a moment of thinking, Arthur met Akasha's eyes and asked:
"In that case… what are we now?"
Akasha's smile curved wider. "You didn't feel it?"
…
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read 60 chapter ahead on P@treon if you're interested: patreon.com/ZeusOp