~ 18 hours ago ~
"I'm sorry"
Although Lala apologized seriously, ready to cry at any moment and be scolded by Yuuji, he really did not take the matter too seriously.
"Don't worry, it's actually not as troublesome as it seems."
"But..."
"It's fine" Yuuji interrupted her, waving his hand dismissively. "I was going to need your help with the demons' reproduction issue anyway, so the fact that you couldn't help me was actually more troublesome."
"Eh? But you didn't seem bothered by that" Lala said in surprise.
"You had already fixed the issue and seemed proud of yourself, so I just didn't want to ruin your mood" Yuuji shrugged.
"So it's not just that, since it couldn't be changed, you thought wasting time arguing about it was troublesome?"
"...That could be it too, who knows"
"Pfft, fine" Lala didn't seem too convinced, but still accepted his words before handing him a small flat circle no more than three centimeters in diameter and five millimeters thick, with a red button in the center.
She leaned close to Yuuji's ear and whispered, making sure nobody else could hear. "If you ever get into trouble, press it and I'll appear without anyone noticing to help you without anyone finding out. I promise it's super discreet, even my father can't detect it. I created it for when I needed to escape from him, after all"
Yuuji took the small device and put it away, but quickly smiled confidently and shook his head. "Lala, you know me better than anyone. Do you really think I'll need help?
My survival skills and the sheer variety of them are my greatest confidence."
"Yuuji, overconfidence usually ends badly" Lala made a small playful pout upon hearing him.
"Mona"
[The master's level of confidence matches his current strength, Miss Lala, so don't worry.]
"See?" Yuuji smiled. "That's what the AI created by the smartest person in the galaxy says"
"And your girlfriend" Lala added with a smile.
"And my girlfriend" Yuuji nodded before leaning closer and kissing her.
~ Present ~
[Master, I found the location of the Devilukean royal family and traces of a conversation about the final test.]
After sleeping for a while, Yuuji was awakened by Mona, who finally had information about the last test.
Although the conversation only consisted of Gid telling Zastin to prepare and things like not holding back, going all out from the beginning, and remembering what they knew about him, it was easy to guess that Gid wanted him to fight Zastin.
"Go all out from the beginning, huh?" Yuuji muttered with an amused smile. "Two can play that game"
...
Meanwhile, on Pluto, Zastin was standing beside a yellow spiral portal. He had been standing in that exact place and position for hours. Based on how long the other tests had taken him, he calculated that Yuuji should have arrived a long time ago, yet nobody had crossed the portal.
Even so, he did not dare lower his guard. This was not a simple exercise or something light like the previous times, Gid wanted to test Yuuji's true strength and had explicitly ordered him not to hold back and to give it his all.
Zastin had already mentally reviewed everything he knew about Yuuji and his combat abilities before coming here, and knew that he needed to counter two specific abilities of Yuuji's that Gid had told him about in order to complete his mission.
The first was his ability to completely erase his presence. According to what Gid had told him and what he himself had experienced, this ability allowed him to become completely imperceptible, to the point that even Gid could not find him while he was in that state.
However, this ability had two weaknesses. The first was that the moment Yuuji attacked, he became perceptible again, while the second was that it was an active ability, meaning Yuuji had to consciously activate this state, something he could only do if he knew he was in danger. The time between Yuuji crossing the portal and activating that ability would depend entirely on his reaction speed, but even if only a millisecond passed between the two, that was more than enough for Zastin to end the fight or force him to use his full strength.
The second, and much more dangerous, was the ability that allowed him to reduce his enemy's power. According to what Gid had informed him, this ability not only reduced his enemy's power by half, but Yuuji could even absorb part of that power himself. The worst part was that it did not seem to be some kind of magical ability or anything similar, but rather something conceptual, meaning that no power gap would allow him to avoid it.
Its weakness was that, just like the previous one, it needed to be consciously activated.
Therefore, if he wanted to fulfill Gid's mission, Zastin needed to attack Yuuji the moment he appeared, since the combination of these two abilities gave a prepared Yuuji the ability to increase his combat power and weaken his enemy right at the beginning of the fight, preventing him from observing Yuuji's true level. This was the reason why, despite hours having passed, Zastin had not dared to lower his guard for even a moment and continued waiting.
Of course, if Yuuji found out about this final test, he could simply activate his absence of presence before crossing the portal and ruin everything, but Zastin trusted that there was no way Yuuji could know this.
His plans for this final test were something that not even Lala knew, and there had only been two occasions when Gid and he had talked about it, once when they planned it and another when Gid told Zastin to prepare. Obtaining that information meant breaking into Deviluke's highest-level security systems, something that even Lala could not do, much less an AI created by her.
The combination of all these factors formed Zastin's current confidence.
"...Damn"
But all of his confidence in his preparations disappeared the moment he noticed storm clouds beginning to appear in the sky across an area of dozens of kilometers.
As he drew his sword, trying to locate Yuuji, he noticed the strength disappearing from his body at an alarming rate, stopping when it reached half.
Thump!
The moment his strength was reduced by half, the lightning accumulated in the storm clouds headed toward Yuuji, who finally appeared in the middle of the sky, becoming visible to Zastin.
This surprised Zastin, since this attack also caused his presence to reappear, which was why Yuuji had used it the last time when his fist was already centimeters away from Gid.
Even so, he did not stop to think about it for long and immediately moved.
In the blink of an eye, Zastin had already disappeared from his position and was standing in front of Yuuji, his sword one centimeter away from his waist.
What Zastin, nor Gid, did not know was that Yuuji could not absorb just part of the power he reduced from his enemy, he could absorb all of it.
The problem was that Gid was too powerful, and the last time Yuuji could not make half of his strength his own without causing his body to explode. But now, Yuuji was not only several times stronger thanks to several rounds of drinking Hera's Milk and obtaining more abilities, Zastin was also much weaker than Gid.
Because of that, this time Yuuji was able to absorb all the power he had taken from Zastin, and combined with the lightning his body was still absorbing even now and his original strength, the power ratio between Yuuji and Zastin became 51:50 in his favor.
Although Zastin's sword strike connected with Yuuji's body, instead of injuring him, it only pushed him several meters until he crashed into the ground as if it were not a cutting weapon.
'He's as strong as me' Zastin immediately realized. 'Even a little stronger'
"Even so, a little more strength can't overcome the gap of millennia of experience"
After saying that, Zastin disappeared again, dodging the lightning that continued following Yuuji until he reached the crater he was getting up from, and appeared behind him.
Although Yuuji managed to react and turned around, he found nothing there. Instead, he was suddenly struck from behind, pushing him into the distance again.
"Yuuji Rito" he said, firmly standing in front of him. "Although your current power allows you to withstand my attacks, it won't allow you to defeat me. Right now, your best option is to surrender or use the attack that releases all your power in a single blow, the one you used against His Majesty last time"
"Heh"
To Zastin's confusion, Yuuji's only response was a confident laugh as he stood up and spoke again.
"Divide."
"What?" Zastin was stunned, unable to react as he felt his strength reduced by half again while Yuuji's strength increased at an impossible rate.
At that moment, Yuuji went from being only slightly stronger than Zastin to being three times stronger, such was the level of cheating behind Divine Dividing.
"Impossible" Zastin muttered in disbelief. "That attack, how many times can you use it?"
"Every ten seconds" Yuuji replied, already completely recovered.
"Ten..."
"Divide" Yuuji did not let him finish. Another ten seconds had already passed, and his strength increased again, reaching seven times Zastin's current power.
As the second most powerful person in the galaxy for millennia and the general of the Devilukean Army, this was a power gap he had only experienced before against Gid Lucione Deviluke himself.
With no need to continue talking, Yuuji moved. Zastin discovered that it was impossible for him to follow him with his eyes. Even so, his years of experience made him guard the exact point where Yuuji was going to attack.
The clouds in the sky disappeared and the heavens opened as all the power in Yuuji's body concentrated into his fist, ready to be released all at once.
Although he had guarded himself, Zastin gritted his teeth, knowing that he would not be able to withstand that attack.
Boom!
The blow resonated throughout the entire planet. The kind of power wielded by the second strongest person in the galaxy was no joke, and even Yuuji felt as though his arm had nearly broken from releasing all that strength in a single attack.
Across an area of hundreds of kilometers, the terrain was violently displaced in the opposite direction from the fight, repelled by the impact like a wave of water, leaving Yuuji and Zastin standing on top of a pillar of earth surrounded by dust that blocked their view.
"That could have seriously injured my most loyal subordinate, you know?"
Although he had expected it, upon hearing that arrogant voice there, Yuuji felt a little disappointed that his attack had not connected.
The dust disappeared, revealing the person Yuuji knew would appear standing right between him and Zastin.
However, Yuuji raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised by his action.
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+10 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)