Bonus chapter for reaching today's goal, if we reach 90 power stones tomorrow I'll drop another bonus chapter to the one I plan on dropping. Enjoy!
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The Stray Devil smiled in a disgusting way and licked his lips as he stared at the girls in front of him. Then his eyes drifted farther back and landed on the other two girls watching from behind. He frowned. Instinctively, he felt danger from those two.
He needed to kill those three and escape quickly.
From the large bulging pimples all over his body, bats burst out from his skin. The bats shot toward the girls. Saeko swung her sword and cut down three bats at the same time, but they suddenly exploded.
BOOM!
Saeko slid out of the smoke, some of her clothes burnt and thin trails of smoke rising from her body. Inside, Celia had already created a magic circle to protect herself and Mahiru.
"Are you okay, Saeko?" Mahiru asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm alright..." Saeko said as she took her stance again.
"Mahiru, focus your energy on weakening him," Celia instructed as she held the magic circle barrier.
The Stray Devil punched her barrier, forming cracks all over it. Then he suddenly felt his power weakening even more than before, and clicked his tongue.
Demonic threads shot out from his fingers, curved around the magic circle, and flew toward Celia and Mahiru. But they were slower than normal because of Mahiru's Sanctum Veil.
Mahiru was able to weaken him even further by focusing most of her energy on her opponent. But she was also maintaining the same boost she was giving her allies, so she was losing her demonic energy fast.
The tip of Saeko's sword flashed through the air as she cut the demonic threads apart again. More bats shot toward her, but she didn't attack them.
She had already predicted that even if she didn't cut them down, they would still explode once they got close enough. So she gathered demonic energy in her feet and dashed toward the Stray Devil.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Multiple bats exploded at the same time, but she weaved between them at high speed and reached the Stray Devil in the blink of an eye.
"WHAT—?!" the Stray Devil shouted in surprise, but it was already too late. With her boost from Promotion and Mahiru's support, Saeko was far too fast for the Stray Devil to react at such a short distance.
WHOOSH!
Her blade sliced through the air and beheaded the Stray Devil.
The corpse fell forward and started turning to ash. Saeko swung her sword to shake the blood off it, then sheathed it.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
Adrien walked toward the three girls while clapping his hands.
"Good job. You three fought well."
"Andy? When did you arrive?" Mahiru asked.
"Before you engaged him. Now let's go back. I'll give you my reports on your performance once we return." Adrien snapped his fingers, and all the blood and traces of the battle vanished.
"Always clean up after yourselves. Now all of you, come here and touch me."
"Wow, right here?" Mary asked with a smirk. "But we might get arrested for public indecency."
"Mary, just get your dirty-minded ass over here."
After everyone gathered around him and touched him, they all vanished from the battlefield and reappeared inside their living room.
"You don't even use normal teleportation circles anymore," Celia said as she immediately sat on the sofa.
"Well, it's faster and uses less energy that way," Adrien said with a shrug. "Now then, all of you go clean yourselves up, then come back so we can talk. Xenovia, Mary, you can do whatever you want."
Everyone went to the second floor, where the large bath was, while Adrien simply lay on the sofa and ordered food.
His mother had returned to the Underworld. He couldn't feel her energy in the area anymore. Then Adrien noticed a piece of paper on the living room table. The paper flew into his hand, and he read the message written on it. It was from his mother.
Adrien,
When you return to the Underworld soon, come visit the island. There are matters we still need to discuss, and I expect you not to avoid them. Also, don't forget what we talked about. You may act carefree, but I know you listened.
—your mom
Adrien through the message inside the storage.
He sighed, "can't they just let me live in peace, they're probably going to talk about this engagement shit."
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"So, first things first. Your formation was correct. Putting Mahiru in the back, with Celia defending her and Saeko acting as the main attacker, was the best choice. So, bonus points for that. Now, for the individual reports..."
Adrien said this as he bit into a slice of pizza.
"First, Mahiru. When you expanded your domain, you immediately sensed the opponent. I could tell from the way you reacted. But it seems you didn't focus on weakening him right away, not until Celia told you to. It's alright since this was your first mission, but always focus on your enemies first. Once you know your enemy's location, weaken them immediately. If you do that, you'll rarely be caught off guard. Keep training, you'll be very valuable to us in future fights."
"Yes," Mahiru said, then hesitated. "But I have a question..."
"Sure. Ask."
"I lose a lot of energy when I try to weaken or strengthen people more than my Sacred Gear already does. So, in longer fights, I might not be able to last very long."
"I understand," Adrien said. "But that's the most important part of Sanctum Veil, so you can't stop fighting that way. There are two things you can do. First, when we fight in future Rating Games, your stats will increase and you'll gain more demonic power. Second, there's something you can work on right now."
Mahiru looked at him carefully.
"Changing your domain while you fight, for example, when the Stray Devil closed the distance between all of you, your domain didn't need to stay that large anymore. If you made it smaller, it would have burned less energy and been easier to control."
He pointed at her with the slice of pizza.
"So from now on, train on changing the shape and size of your domain during battle."
Mahiru nodded in understanding.
"Now, Celia."
Adrien shifted his attention to her.
"Your leadership on the battlefield was great. Since you've been in my peerage the longest, and since I've trained you the most, your experience really showed today. Your control and timing with techniques are already great," Adrien continued. "But you still need more demonic power. For now, focus on training your body. With time, your demonic power will grow too."
He gave her a small nod and smiled.
"Good job."
Celia smiled back. She was always very happy whenever Adrien praised her, so right now, she was practically over the moon.
"Now, Saeko," Adrien said as he looked at her.
Before this mission, her self-esteem had dropped a lot because she kept comparing herself to the others. But she had trained hard every day, and today, she had defeated the Stray Devil herself.
Saeko looked at Adrien nervously.
Adrien stood up, sat beside her, and ruffled her hair.
"You were amazing today," he said. "You read the battle perfectly and adapted quickly. After the bats exploded the first time you cut them, you didn't make the same mistake again. You let them explode on their own while focusing on reaching the Stray Devil."
Saeko's eyes widened slightly.
"Your technique was really good too," Adrien continued. "You were the MVP today."
She lowered her head slightly to hide the smile that had formed on her face. Mahiru and Celia smiled when they saw her reaction. Then Adrien lifted her head with his hand then kissed her lips. This shocked all of them including Saeko who's eyes were wide open through the kiss.
"I know how you feel," he said. "You're my girl, so of course I know. You don't need to hold back, okay? Come to me whenever you want. Understand?"
Saeko's face turned beet red as she nodded.
"Y-yes," she said.
Adrien then turned to Mahiru, as if giving her the same message. Mahiru's face reddened, and she quickly averted her gaze.
"Now then," Adrien said as he lay on the sofa.
He lifted his hand, and the PS5 controller shot into it. Then he turned on his console. He was going to play some 2K.
Saeko suddenly lay down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"Huh!? That fast!?" Celia said as she saw Saeko move the moment Adrien finished talking to her.
Mahiru was also slightly taken aback. Saeko shrugged, and a small smile formed on her face.
"He did say whenever I wanted."
Adrien simply smiled as he started playing.