Piers rested on the bed, thinking, "So Mephisto's power is still way out of my control, huh?" He decided to practice controlling his physical strength. "I need to stop it from draining my energy and control it instead."
He went to the training room and activated his strength. As the day passed, Zen came to his room the next morning. "Piers, time for training," he said. Zen saw that Peirs was not there, and Zen thought, "Where is Peirs? Did he remember Rei's appearance all along? He went and looked around and suddenly saw the training room open. He went inside and noticed Piers, grunting in pain with torn legs.
"Piers, what are you doing?" Zen asked.
"I'm trying to control my physical strength, but I can't," Piers said.
Zen sighed. "Well, today is our last day before we leave, so I won't be able to teach you much. But let's try this: first, sit cross-legged and try to summon your strength."
Piers sat down, and dark whirlwinds stirred around him. "Now, imagine everything around you is an egg, a very delicate egg, so just use very low strength."
Piers stood up slowly and with great care. He grunted in pain, but his legs weren't torn. He jumped slowly and grunted again, but his legs were still intact. He then ran slowly, but was moving fast, and still felt a little pain. He threw a slow punch, and a force of wind came out. He felt pain again, but he noticed his healing factor was stronger and quicker. He could now use this power without tearing his body apart.
"Yes! I can use this power now!" Piers laughed.
"Then how about we practice, now that you can use this power?" Zen asked. Zen took out his sword, and Piers smiled, used his power, and started running around the room with increased speed, trying to get control over where to attack since he was not able to see while running at high speed. He attacked with his sword, and Zen blocked it. Piers backed off and used the Phantom Sword Technique; however, he noticed he did not have much control of his strength to use it along with the Phantom Sword Technique. Zen moved to counter him, and their swords clashed. Piers covered his sword with Hellfire and created a flaming arc. Zen easily dodged.
"You're getting better at this, Piers," Zen said.
"Let me see how much you can take," Piers replied. He made several more flaming arcs, but Zen dodged them and closed the distance, pointing his sword at Piers's throat. "You are still too young to defeat me," Zen said.
As their practice continued, Piers's skills developed, and the training finally came to an end. They went to their rooms.
That night, Piers read The Luminarium and started singing Chorus Vitae. A soft, faint light began to glow around his body. He noticed that even though he was using white arts, it wasn't very effective. His small wounds were barely healing, and his large wounds weren't healing at all. Piers thought this might be because he wasn't proficient enough in white arts. He decided to practice a different one and looked at the Hidden Arts category. He found Chordae Fati: "Reveals the invisible threads of destiny connecting people. The caster may nudge one thread to influence outcomes. Pulling the thread too hard snaps the thread, causing misfortune for both the target and the caster." Piers decided to learn it, channeling the energy he felt during Chorus Vitae. After a few hours, he was still unsuccessful. Knowing he had to leave tomorrow, he decided to get some sleep.
The next day, Piers woke up and got ready to leave. He put on his 1000 Demon Cloak, placed the Phantom Insignia at his waist, put The Luminarium on the right side of his waist, and hung the token on the left side of his chest, inside his coat.
Zen came to Piers's room. "Piers, are you ready? It's time for us to leave this place and go to the main branch."
Piers nodded. "Yeah, I'm ready." They walked out of the Black Devil Mansion. "Now it's time to go to the Devil's Hell Branch," Piers said.
In a nearby town, Bret went to a warehouse he had identified as an intelligence warehouse. As he went inside, he said, "Hello, guys, I'm after information about the super soldiers in the Imperials."
On top of some stacked crates, several figures stood. "The price for information is high," one said.
"Oh no, I'm not here as a buyer," Bret said. He cut an arrow that flew toward him. All the figures on the crates started firing arrows. Bret used his sword to cut all of them, not letting a single one hit him.
"You know Imperial techniques!" a figure said.
"Yeah, and I've even been through their trials," Bret replied. He threw a few daggers at one of the crates, jumped on them, and then leaped onto the top of the crates in less than five seconds. "Now we're on equal footing," he said.
A figure with a sword lunged at Bret, but Bret stopped his sword, kicked the man's legs to make him lose balance, and then kicked him off the crates. He threw daggers at the man's feet. At the same time, another man approached him, and Bret's sword clashed with his. One of the archers fired an arrow. Sensing it, Bret stopped resisting the clash, which made the other man fall toward him. Bret grabbed his hands and used him as a human shield to take the arrow. The man grunted in pain as the arrow hit his side and coughed up blood. Bret threw him off the crates.
A figure said, "You are powerful, but we have our archers all locked on you. If you fall, you will die. Surrender now, and we might spare your life."
"You're right," Bret said. "I should surrender. That's the most obvious choice here. However, I have a different plan."
"Fire!" the figure commanded. As many arrows rained down on Bret, he said, "Imperial Sword Style, Bronze Form: Enemy Attack is My Ally." Bret used his sword to deflect the arrows toward the figures on the other crates, killing them.
"Stop firing!" the leader yelled. Bret used his daggers to kill the people on the crates below and then killed the archers.
"We surrender," the figure said.
"But the leader, we can't surrender now!" one figure argued.
"It's best to know when you've lost, especially if we want to survive," the leader replied.
Bret jumped down. "Fine. Tell me about the super soldiers. I know they're creating artificial bloodlines. What else is happening?"
The figure threw a bunch of files at him. "Take this and go away. Don't return."
Bret smiled. "Sure."
As Bret left, one figure asked, "But is not this important information worth many golds? we should kill the boy in his sleep."
The figure muttered, "No, that's not required, let him take this information after all this information is nothing of value compared to what's coming in the future."