Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV.
"And the victory goes to Serena Prince!!!! Our beloved prince still maintains her winning streak!!! This is really exciting, folks! Lady Prince's Peerage definitely has three great new players! Rebecca, Lucyna, and Riveria!
"Rebecca has proven capable of using a wide variety of weapons and enveloping them in different elements to enhance her abilities! She hasn't repeated any of them during her fights—has she shown everything she can do?! Will she be able to do even more?!"
"And speaking of doing more, Lucyna only showed her magic capable of weakening enemies and empowering allies! Is that all she can do?! Is she hiding aces up her sleeve?!"
"And finally Riveria! I have new information for you, my devils: Riveria is not a simple pawn, no, sir! She's a mutated pawn! That means Miss Riveria's power is much greater than it appears! And we just saw it!
"She unleashed an incredible arsenal of magic with extreme ease and without breaking a sweat! Did we just witness Lady Prince's new Peerage ace?! Who will be stronger!? The Impaler Queen or Riveria?!
"It's too early to know, but I, and I'm sure you too, are eager to find out!!"
"Now, to conclude this Rating Game, a round of applause for all the competitors! And a special thanks to Vaelion Paimon and his Peerage for their considerable effort!! And now for Lady Prince and her new pawns!! See you at the next Rating Game in Pentagram City!!! Thank you for coming!!" The presenter finished her announcement forcefully. I heard the crowd roar.
I simply looked at the opponents; they were all badly injured, but fully healed, enough to stand despite their defeat. I saw Vaelion Paimon and just nodded gently in his direction.
Vaelion sighed, but also nodded; there was no annoyance at the loss, nor was he insulted that he had lost to 'only' a pawn, which was good. I watched as his group teleported away. I sighed.
"Well done, all three of you," I said to the three of them.
"That was fun!" Rebecca said happily, now out of her Titan armor. "We have to do this more often!" she added playfully.
"It was great to be able to test my Aether Editing and use it in a fight. The Quickhacks were really successful; I still have some to design and get used to trying to hack the natural defenses of stronger people."
"The queen and one of the bishops took me much longer than the rest, and their effects weren't as strong," Lucy said with a small smile. I sighed.
"You seemed to be having fun," I said with a smile. Lucy almost strutted.
"Hacking while Rebecca fights head-on? It's nice and comfortable, just like with the crew." Lucy shrugged. "Maybe next time I'll use The Light, if I get cornered." Lucy hummed. I snorted.
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon," I said dryly. Lucy used The Light primarily as a Void Hunter, which meant she could turn invisible at will, and she was really good at it. So she could practically keep escaping over and over again. "And you?" I asked Riveria. She just smiled, almost brightly.
"High Speed Incantation was truly incredible. I've never been able to cast such powerful magic so quickly and consecutively. The ring with Kokonoe and the other spells worked perfectly. Not feeling so... limited is wonderful."
"My magic has always been above my level thanks to my upgrades, but it wasn't something I could really take advantage of with the overly long chants, but with High Speed, it eliminates that weakness; it's incredible."
"And even better, since the chant remains the same, it still counts as Fairy Anthem for me, so I can even lengthen it several more times to keep increasing my magic, and it still comes out in a single word."
"I'm confident I can fight a Level 8 or even a Level 9," Riveria said excitedly. I chuckled.
I was genuinely pleased; we'd had trouble deciding which template Riveria wanted to use. Our first choice was Medea, but Medea had Divine Words. She could use the language of the Age of the Gods to cast spells and magic, but that didn't mean she could replace the chants of magic from Danmachi. The Falnas, despite their divine origin, the magic was not divine.
So we finally chose High Speed Incantation, the ability to cast magical incantations at an accelerated speed. There were two at the top: Merlin Prototype and Lev Goetia. Neither Rivera nor I felt like trying the Goetia/Solomon template, or the rare combination that would be Lev Goetia, so it was ruled out.
Then there was Paracelsus Von Hohenheim, but he was only useful for jewel magic, specifically philosopher's stones, and even though I was really interested in the philosopher's stones from Fate since they were basically supercomputers as well as magical reagents, jewel magic wasn't something that would be useful to Riveria.
So we finally stopped searching and chose the prototype Merlin, albeit a slightly modified one. Honestly, the succubi from Fate weren't the best option. The succubi and incubi there don't have emotions of their own, which is why they feed on human dreams; they need to extract emotions from them to use as fuel to feel emotions themselves.
I was sure the defenses could weaken or even negate the bad parts of the roster, but I really didn't want to risk Riveria, so the roster was limited, and that racial part was removed.
All that did was remove Mixed-Blood Ex Rank from the template and the succubus heritage. Thankfully, Succubus ' Vicinity, Ex Rank, had been retained, albeit under a different name. The combined ability of illusion arts with mystical eyes to be able to absorb mana from any enemy looking at it was something that couldn't be dispensed with.
But aside from that, everything else remained the same, especially Merlin's Clairvoyance, which was just as strong as her male counterpart's. Merlin's Clairvoyance, at Rank EX, was powerful enough to allow her to see absolutely everything happening in the present.
Although Merlin had been born with those eyes from the beginning, Riveria definitely wasn't able to use them to their full potential; in fact, there was much she couldn't directly access. Even so, she had received several enhancements. Her Six Eyes were now definitely sharper in some way, and she had also received a magical boost, along with a great deal of magical knowledge from the flower mage, which was considerable.
"I'm glad you're enjoying it," I said playfully. Riveria nodded vigorously. "Now let's go back to the others; they must be waiting for us," I said to the three girls.
"You guys go ahead, I have to go check on a few things," Rebecca said easily. "We've almost got the preliminary idea for the nightclub ready, the design is almost finished, or something like that."
"Now we're looking for DJs. Do you know how hard it is to find electronic music DJs in 2008? Especially in the underworld? Really hard, especially since we need several to rotate. Enid is recruiting through her record label, and Ravel is promoting it in other underworld cities, but we might have to look in the human world and sign contracts with them," Rebecca ranted. "At least now I also have to take care of the alcohol; it's the most important part!"
"We need a list of normal drinks and cocktails for supernatural beings with weaker constitutions, but we also need magical and very strong alcohol. Do you have... anything for vampires?" Rebecca asked, looking at me. I blinked.
"Uh... no? I didn't know we were targeting vampires as our audience." I said, confused. Rebecca shrugged.
"Ravel spoke with that succubus, Maria, to get a detailed report on the tourist population of supernatural beings in Wallachia who hire succubi and all that, and there were a decent number of vampires to add some options," Rebecca said easily. I blinked.
"Wow... then try The Company's website, you'll find thousands of recipes there. If you want to start looking for something, Sanguis Virginis might be a good option, even though it's a wine." I said easily, and Rebecca wrinkled her nose.
"Wine? This isn't the best option for a nightclub; they're very sophisticated and a waste of time. Don't they need years to be made properly? " Rebecca asked, frowning. I sighed.
"You're forgetting that we can age any alcohol for decades, or even centuries, in seconds, so don't worry about that, just make a list and let's see how to solve it." I said easily, Rebecca stopped.
"Wait... you can age alcohol for centuries in seconds... and you don't have a damn winery or distillery in the city?" Rebecca asked incredulously.
"Yes, why?" I asked easily, Rebecca grunted.
"You're wasting money, Gonk! It's aged alcohol! Not only wine, but also whiskey, rum, tequila, brandy, and many more need to be aged! It sells for more than gold! And besides, we'll need a lot of alcohol!" Rebecca grumbled before turning around, a circle appearing beneath her. "I'm fixing that." I tried to stop her, only for Lucy to stop me; I just watched Rebecca disappear.
"You weren't going to stop her. She gets intense when she's drunk; she usually drinks crap that tastes like piss, but now that she has the opportunity to drink much better stuff all the time, you're not going to be able to stop her no matter what." Lucy laughed amusedly, and I just snorted.
"Go and make sure she doesn't build a distillery in the middle of my island. We can find a place in the city to do it and hire devils to run it." I sighed wearily. Lucy just laughed and disappeared to follow Rebecca. I sighed as I turned to see Riveria, who was chuckling softly.
"Come on, we've made them wait long enough." Riveria said playfully. I sighed and created a portal to where the others were.
"Riveria!" exclaimed several people as soon as we crossed the threshold.
"That was incredible, Riveria-sama!" squealed Lefiya, almost bouncing with excitement.
"It really was amazing, Riveria," Finn said with a small smile.
"Ha! That's the way, Riveria! " Gareth said with a loud laugh.
"Good fight." Ottar said stoically as he nodded.
"How... how did you do that?" Hedin asked, adjusting his glasses and staring at Riveria, almost in shock. "You were able to recite the entire chant at such a terrifying speed, and yet it still sounded so... beautiful." Hedin said, almost mesmerized, as he looked at Riveria. I resisted the urge to hit him.
"High-Speed Incantation. It's the ability to cast magical incantations at an accelerated speed. There are different levels, and I was granted the highest level thanks to Serena," Riveria said impassively. Hedin looked at me, and I shrugged.
"It's not something I can easily create," I said distractedly. "The Riviera thing was an experiment that went really well, and I didn't understand half of what happened. I'm working on it, but I may not succeed. Riveria is a special case." I said, frowning. Hedin frowned and bit his lip. "Maybe I can make something much weaker, but never at Riveria's level," I added.
And I wasn't lying. Riveria had High-Speed Incantation Rank EX, the highest level that existed, even with her newly purchased template; that had remained the case. After all, it wasn't a skill that gave her power immediately.
My Reality Marble took it as magic and was able to replicate it, but it barely reached Rank A. I could place it in a medallion like the various magics I had granted them, but starting to circulate something like High-Speed Incantation in Orario would practically ruin the entire balance of the families, and that was not something Riveria wanted.
"Stop bothering my dear Odr, Hedin, she'll give it to you when she creates one." Freya said with a gentle smile, though she looked at Hedin for a few seconds too long, Hedin paled and bowed.
"Of course, Freya-sama!" Hedin said immediately. Freya looked at me with a bright smile. I almost snorted; maybe I'd just get Hedin one of them, as long as he kept quiet, there wouldn't be any problem.
"Very well, shall we continue with our date?" Freya asked as she grabbed my arm again. I smiled at her and nodded.
The rest of the day was fairly easy: continuing to show them the city, eating at different places, seeing various sights, until it was finally time for them to return to Orario. Since time compression no longer existed and time moved 1:1 in both worlds, both familias were able to stay much longer than before without any repercussions.
We went to find Loki, a very satisfied Loki surrounded by succubi, and I left her with Finn and the others to take back to Orario. Riveria joined them. I really need to figure out how to thank those succubi for entertaining Loki.
The Freya family reluctantly left, but they returned to Orario at Freya's insistence. She promised them that Horn would soon be summoned to serve her.
Once everyone had left, only Freya and I remained at the mansion door.
"Are you really happy with the date?" I asked Freya once everyone had left. Freya turned to look at me, smiling.
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" Freya asked cheerfully. I stared at her.
"I just thought... You might want something more intimate, really." I said easily, and Freya laughed slightly.
"What? You really think this is all a plan to seduce you?" Freya purred playfully, and I raised an eyebrow in her direction.
"Isn't it?" I asked playfully. Freya looked at me with a playful twinkle in her eye.
"Perhaps it's all part of my plan," Freya said with a playful hum before sighing softly. "Or perhaps I just wanted to spend a day with my children and my Odr," Freya said gently. My eyes widened slightly before softening.
"I see, so I guess it was good?" I asked gently. Freya hummed as she swayed slightly.
"Yes, it was an excellent day. I caught up with my lovely children, got to know the city that belongs to you, and listened to you talk all day while I watched you interact with your subjects. You may want to fool everyone into thinking you hate running a city, but you're actually proud of it," Freya said playfully. I blushed slightly, but snorted.
"Two things can be true at the same time," I said dryly. Freya laughed.
"Yes, they can be," Freya said cheerfully. "I really had fun today. We don't... need an intimate date for it to be one, really, it was perfect." Freya sighed with a small smile. "I... want to do it differently than all the previous times, I want to do it better," Freya said, smiling broadly at me. "And if that means going slowly, well... I can be patient." Freya said playfully. I looked at her in surprise before smiling gently, then I reached out and tapped her nose, making her squeal softly.
"Patient is not a word I would use to describe you." I said mockingly, Freya blushing.
"We were having a moment, you ruined it," Freya complained. I chuckled. I took Freya's hand and pulled her towards me. Freya squealed in surprise as her body pressed against mine. My hand circled her waist and held her steady.
I smiled broadly at her before creating a portal beside me. I quickly turned with Freya, and we moved towards the Great Hall of the mansion, where the starry ceiling shone brightly. We were the only thing illuminating the room. Freya looked at it in surprise before the music began to play in the empty hall.
"Do you want to dance?" I asked gently. Freya looked at me in surprise before blushing and smiling so widely it seemed to hurt her, but she continued smiling.
"Yes," Freya said with a happy sigh, resting her head on my shoulder as we both began to twirl to the music. Neither of us said a word; we simply moved from side to side. It wasn't a bad way to end the day.
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