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Erza was a member of the Fairy Tail guild; she was utterly loyal to it and would never join another organization.
Tsunade was the same. Now that she was the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, as its leader she could not belong to any other group.
Mikoto Misaka, as a science-side esper, could not use magic.
That was the rule in the Index world: esper powers and magic could not coexist.
Esdeath's pride made her refuse to bow to anyone. She dreamed of hunting gods and becoming a god-slayer; she would never submit to a deity. Even when she served as Grand General in her world, it had been cooperation with ministers, not fealty to a young emperor.
For those reasons, the four of them did not join Hestia's household.
By contrast, Alex, Yotsuya Miko, and Saeko Busujima were ordinary people in the group with fewer ties. Wanting power, they signed up and joined Hestia's household without hesitation.
In the Demon Slayer world, when Shinobu Kocho opened the red envelope she received a drop of Hestia's divine blood and a wisp of divine power.
The god-blood merged into her body, and the divine power wrote a boon on her back.
The same thing happened in the Date A Live world to Tokisaki Kurumi.
After receiving the boon the two of them felt different—an unmistakable, mystical awareness of their own strength, hard to describe but undeniably real.
In the Nasuverse, at the Einzbern family castle, Lokiśhī saw the two newcomers choose to join Hestia's household and made up her mind.
She went straight to Hestia and asked to join.
Hestia had just woken and finished chatting when Lokiśhī arrived. The goddess didn't need to be told what she wanted.
She was no longer a powerless deity who had sealed away her power; she was now an omniscient, omnipotent saint-goddess.
"Want to join the household?" Hestia asked first.
Lokiśhī nodded. She had already broken through to King rank; to reach Emperor rank, or the legendary God rank, the only path left was through a boon.
"Come on, take off your top," Hestia said, delighted. A new member had joined the household.
The Loki household's Nine Demon Princess was hailed as Eorali's strongest mage, and with Lokiśhī in their ranks, Hestia intended to snatch that title away.
Of course, Lokiśhī's magic talent wasn't necessarily the very best—she might not surpass the Nine Demon Princess. If Morgan or Merlin were not Servants but their true selves, and if the originals joined the household, they would easily trample the Nine Demon Princess with their magecraft.
Speaking of which, the Loki household also had Captain Finn, Schwer Jägriss, a genius swordmaiden, the werewolf Bert, and the Amazon sisters—strong household members with both talent and power. To truly outclass the Loki household Hestia knew she'd need to recruit even sharper talent.
Her desire to outshine Loki came from being mocked by them when she first came down to the lower world. That slight still stung, and she wanted to take back her dignity.
…
After closing the chat group, Alex got up and washed quickly.
He ate breakfast and then began training.
He'd already finished lessons on sorcery and magic; today was all martial arts.
As usual, he started with a run and horse stance, then sat to cultivate the Northern Sea Divine Skill.
The rest of the day Luo Hao would teach him the Ten-Perfect Martial Ways.
Luo Hao had chosen the ten: one — blade; two — spear; three — sword; four — axe; five — staff; six — fist; seven — palm; eight — leg; nine — finger; ten — claw.
He'd already been taught blade, spear, sword, and axe; now it was just a matter of proficiency.
He had an entire day to learn the remaining six.
Morning was staff and fist.
With "Heavenly Mountain Plum-Breaking Hand" as his foundation, Alex picked up any martial art with astonishing speed.
Luo Hao demonstrated once; Alex basically memorized it. A few practice rounds and he'd nailed it.
That kind of talent made Luo Hao love teaching even more. He truly wanted to pass everything he knew to this younger brother he liked from the bottom of his heart.
While Alex trained hard, the others didn't slack either.
After Lokiśhī joined Hestia's household, Hestia, eager to make her stronger, used sacred fire to cleanse her body.
Now that Hestia could freely use divine power in the Nasuverse, she wouldn't miss a chance to strengthen her household members. Once she returned to the Displaced World she'd have to seal her power again and be a powerless goddess—so she took every chance now.
The sacred fire purification was like a ritual: Lokiśhī was renewed, her talent sharpened, her mana pool doubled, and her looks improved. She had always been pretty, but after the cleansing she became truly striking.
With strengthened talent, Lokiśhī threw herself into learning Nasuverse magecraft and the glyph magic from the Fairy Tail world that Alex had given her.
Since Alex no longer needed Merlin, he lent the Servant to Lokiśhī. With Merlin's skill "Make Hero" assisting, Lokiśhī learned even faster.
Esdeath, refusing to kneel and join Hestia's household, leaned into learning Nasuverse magecraft on her own. She wanted to get stronger by her own efforts.
Altrisel saw how hard Alex and the others trained and was stunned. They were still in the middle of the Holy Grail War, yet they were relentless in their practice. That was extreme dedication.
By the end of the morning Alex had successfully learned staff and fist techniques.
After lunch he barely rested, moving on to palm and leg techniques.
Thanks to daily horse stance and practicing the Light Wave Steps, his lower-body foundation was solid and he learned leg techniques quickly.
By 2:30 in the afternoon he'd already mastered palm and leg techniques.
Luo Hao was pleased with Alex's speed, and the finger and claw techniques that had been scheduled for the evening were moved up.
But while Alex and the others trained, Tohsaka Tokichika—who'd been waiting—couldn't sit still any longer.
This was the fifth day, and only one Servant had been eliminated so far in the Holy Grail War. That pace would not do.
To speed things up, he planned an attack on the Einzbern family castle tonight.
It was clear now: the Einzberns had allied with Alex and Lokiśhī.
Though they had three Servants, Tokichika had three of his own.
He called in Kirei Kotomine, Kirei's sister, and Weaver, to discuss the night's operation.
"From the last fight, the strongest enemy Servant seems to be Morgan from the Lostbelt. So have the King of Heroes take her on and finish the fight that wasn't concluded last time," Tokichika said, glancing toward Gilgamesh.
At that moment Gilgamesh was lounging on the sofa, one leg crossed over the other, a glass of red wine in hand, clearly enjoying himself.
When Tokichika mentioned the plan Gilgamesh's expression suddenly went ice-cold. "Tokichika," he said, "last time you used a Command Spell to force me to retreat. I haven't punished you for that yet. If you try any tricks this time, do you know what will happen?"
"..."
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