Surpass Great Red.
Nobody understood the weight of those words better than Leo.
It meant becoming the strongest being in existence, a Dragon God-level powerhouse that no one could oppose. From that point on, he could do whatever he wanted in this world.
He wasn't going to pretend he'd never dreamed about it. He'd fantasized before about one day punching Ophis and kicking Great Red, making every god and devil kneel before him, never again having to worry about some unknown powerhouse appearing out of nowhere and killing him.
But that was just a fantasy. A pipe dream so far removed from reality that not just Leo, but even the chief gods of every mythology could only entertain it in their imaginations. None of them could ever make it real.
Even someone as broken as the original story's protagonist only managed to become a Super Devil after thirty-something years, still light-years away from Dragon God level.
The Infinite Dragon God and the True Red Dragon God Emperor. These two were the insurmountable ceiling of this world. Nobody could reach them, let alone surpass them. Not the famous top ten strongest beings, not even the legendary Trihexa, said to rival Dragon Gods. None of them truly measured up, much less exceeded them.
But now, that possibility had appeared right in front of Leo.
It went without saying: if Ophis accepted his Queen piece and became his servant, the Servant Conversion feedback would be the most absurd it had ever been, triggering a fundamental transformation.
The target was one of only two Dragon Gods in existence, the one said to possess infinite power. A being born destined for greatness. Once she became Leo's servant, no rating of "high potential" or "mid potential" or "low potential" could even begin to describe it.
You could figure it out with your knees. If the servant was a Dragon God, then both the potential and the ability involved would dwarf anything categorized as "high potential."
The feedback Leo would receive... just thinking about it made his heart tremble.
Of course, if it were only that, surpassing Great Red would still be difficult.
Simple logic. No matter how massive the feedback from Servant Conversion was, it probably couldn't exceed Ophis herself.
Ophis was already a Bug-level existence. At most, Leo would become equally broken. To reliably surpass Great Red, that alone wasn't enough.
But if Ophis shared her power with him at maximum capacity, that was a different story entirely.
The entire Khaos Brigade had received Ophis's Snakes and could use the power she'd bestowed. But the Snakes she gave the Khaos Brigade members were small, each one boosting the recipient by roughly one tier at most. She could produce that level of Snake in unlimited quantities without it affecting her at all.
She was the Dragon God called "Infinite." She possessed limitless power. As long as it didn't touch her essence, her core, she could endlessly distribute portions of her strength without weakening herself one bit.
But that level of Snake obviously couldn't make Leo surpass Great Red.
So for Leo to surpass Great Red, Ophis would have to share her power at maximum capacity.
That kind of distribution would absolutely touch her essence. Her core. Once given away, Ophis would definitely be weakened, and she might never fully recover.
However, precisely because of that, if Leo received that power, he would have a very real chance of completely surpassing Great Red.
That was Ophis's thinking.
In her view, if Leo grew stronger through making her his servant and then also received her power on top of that, he could fully surpass Great Red.
Then he could help her defeat Great Red and reclaim her world of silence.
The ruined throne room plunged into a silence even heavier than before.
Leo looked at Ophis. She was completely serious.
He had to admit: his heart was wavering.
Eighteen years in this world. From the moment he'd confirmed he was the last surviving member of the extinct House Eligos, carrying half a pure-blood devil's bloodline, with a future that only required becoming a High-Class Devil to inherit the family, restore the house, and join the ranks of the Underworld's nobility, Leo had been working hard.
Of course he wanted to grow stronger. Of course he wanted power.
He didn't have grand ambitions of conquering the world or anything like that, but knowing that this world was full of overwhelmingly powerful beings, countless gods and devils, he naturally felt pressure. Urgency. A sense of crisis.
As a transmigrator, what Leo feared most was getting dragged into those foreseeable dangers at some unknown moment, wasting the second life he'd worked so hard to obtain.
So even knowing his talent was mediocre, that he couldn't compare to chosen ones like Sona, Leo had never stopped trying to get stronger.
His thinking back then had been simple: become a High-Class Devil, inherit House Eligos, restore the family, be a landlord in the Underworld, stay far away from the chaos of the future, and enjoy a comfortable devil's life until he got bored of it.
It was only after becoming a High-Class Devil, gaining access to Evil Pieces, and awakening Servant Conversion through them that Leo's aspirations grew. He started actively recruiting excellent servants to boost his strength and status, but even that was ultimately about protecting himself when the inevitable crises arrived.
And even then, in Leo's imagination, whether he could use his fifteen Evil Pieces to reach the level of Super Devils like Sirzechs and Ajuka was still deeply uncertain.
Excellent servants were hard to find. Even someone like Asuna or Utaha, who were undeniable heroines in their own stories, had only rated as mid-potential. High-potential required at least a Longinus holder or something equivalent. Talent like that was vanishingly rare, and Leo had never imagined he'd be able to collect them all and convert them into fuel for his growth.
Given all that, in Leo's most realistic projection, reaching Super Devil level and not falling behind the original story's protagonist was the absolute best-case scenario.
At least at that level, even if his opponents were the chief gods and divine kings of various mythological factions, he could hold his own. He'd qualify as one of the world's strongest. Unless a Dragon God-level Bug showed up, he could rest easy.
That was the most realistic future Leo could envision. The goal he'd been working toward all along.
And now, the chance to become a Dragon God-level being, to surpass even Great Red, had just presented itself. How could he not waver?
"...If you give me your power, what happens to you?"
Leo suppressed his inner turmoil and forced the question out, his voice hoarse.
Generally speaking, the stronger a being was, the less willing they'd be to give away the power they prided themselves on. It weakened you without even hurting the other side. Just letting someone else benefit for free.
Without an overwhelming reason, nobody would do something that stupid.
But Ophis was exactly that kind of fool.
"I don't care." Ophis said it lightly. "As long as I can return to a world of silence, that's enough."
Born great, born with infinite power, Ophis was perhaps the being in all of existence who cared least about how much strength she had.
Her mind was pure. Naive. She didn't want to be the world's strongest. She didn't want some lofty status. Whether she was strong or weak, she genuinely didn't care.
That was also the main reason she'd been tricked by the Hero Faction in the original story, losing most of her power. If she'd actually been serious, there was basically no way a bunch of insects could have schemed against her.
Her behavior after losing most of her power in the original story proved this. Even after being drastically weakened, no longer able to defeat Great Red, she remained as carefree as ever. Not a hint of frustration or depression over losing her strength.
Later, when the other half born from the power taken from her returned to her side, she didn't even think about reabsorbing it. She truly didn't care about how much power she held.
The only thing she cared about was defeating Great Red, returning to the Dimensional Gap, and reclaiming her silence.
For that, she didn't mind becoming the leader of the Khaos Brigade, the head of a terrorist alliance, making enemies of countless factions. She didn't mind handing out her power, becoming a power ATM for terrorists.
And now, if it meant defeating Great Red, she equally didn't mind giving the bulk of her power to Leo or even becoming his servant.
The stronger the dragon, the purer the heart. That was both a virtue and a flaw.
In any case, from every angle, Leo could only see this as an incredibly good deal.
The only question was...
"Can a being like you actually be reincarnated as a devil and become my servant?"
Leo had to question this.
The original story had mentioned that beings with divine status shouldn't be valid targets for Evil Piece reincarnation.
Beings with divine status were the highest, most exalted form of life. They themselves symbolized perfection, eternity, and immutability. Even in death, they had the chance to revive. Their life-level was so elevated that mere Evil Pieces shouldn't be able to affect them.
Reincarnating humans or other species as devils was an upgrade, a strengthening. But reincarnating a god as a devil was a weakening, a diminishment. Taking an inherently noble, higher existence and dragging it down to a mundane level.
So reincarnating a god as a devil was impractical. That wasn't reincarnation. It was demotion. Degradation.
And it wasn't just Evil Pieces. Many powers that lacked sufficient authority couldn't affect beings with eternal divine life. In the original story, Vali's Divine Dividing couldn't properly work on targets with divine status either. Its halving ability couldn't function smoothly against gods, and its effectiveness was severely reduced.
If even a Longinus had that limitation, Evil Pieces were even less likely to work.
Moreover, Evil Piece power was tied to the wielder's own capability. If the wielder's ability was insufficient against a high-potential target, multiple pieces or a Mutation Piece might be needed to succeed, and if the target's ability was simply too great, the reincarnation could fail entirely.
Just like with Ram and Rem. Before Leo came along, countless others had tried to reincarnate them and failed every time, proving how much the wielder's own ability mattered.
Under those circumstances, who could possibly be strong enough to reincarnate a god as their servant?
Even Sirzechs and Ajuka, the two Super Devils, probably couldn't manage it.
Given all that, reincarnating Ophis as a servant was nearly impossible.
Even if Leo was special, even if his Evil Pieces were connected to the Servant Conversion trait and had undergone a fundamental change, whether he could reincarnate a Dragon God remained a complete unknown.
"It will work."
But Ophis said it with certainty.
"This power's authority matches my Infinity and Great Red's Dreams. In other words, even we would be affected by it."
She paused, then asked again.
"So? Will you do it?"
Will you do it?
That was a serious question.
With things laid out this clearly, Leo couldn't avoid giving it genuine consideration.
The deal seemed to offer nothing but benefits and no drawbacks. Not accepting would be foolish.
But it also meant Leo would have to help Ophis and make an enemy of the True Red Dragon God Emperor.
That was a Dragon God even stronger than Ophis.
Making an enemy of that kind of being... the danger was obvious.
Even if Ophis said he'd surpass Great Red, whether things would actually play out that way was still completely uncertain.
Whether to help Ophis, the leader of the Khaos Brigade, the head of the terrorists... Leo genuinely needed to think it through carefully.
The temptation was enormous. But if he gave in too easily, the final result could be catastrophic.
Leo took a deep breath and calmed himself down.
"I need time to think." His voice was steady. "I'll give you my answer when I've decided. Deal?"
Ophis watched him for a long time without speaking.
Finally, she gave an almost imperceptible nod.
"...Fine."
She tossed the blazing Queen piece back to Leo.
He caught it and noticed something new. A faint black snake, gaseous rather than solid, like a phantom, coiled and twisted within the Evil Piece.
"I left my power inside that piece."
Ophis said it simply.
"Activate it, and I'll come find you."
The message was clear. When he'd made his decision, he had a way to reach her.
Leo nodded silently, staring at the black snake curling inside the Queen piece.
He said nothing for a long time.