While the three girls slept deeply inside the treehouse, Alear was in another region of the vast world created by his Longinus.
Over the last few hours, he had subjected his own body to intense training, as he did every single day. Now, at last, he sought a rare moment of well-deserved rest...
However, while an ordinary person might choose a hot bath, a cup of tea, or simply lying down somewhere comfortable, he had decided to relax by diving into an active volcano. More specifically, at the center of a gigantic volcanic crater created by himself, an immense lake of incandescent lava slowly bubbled...
At that moment, Alear remained immersed chest-deep in the boiling lava, casually resting one arm on the rocky edge of the crater while letting out a slow sigh of relaxation. Small waves of magma spread around his perfectly intact body, incapable of causing any damage to his skin. If it were an ordinary person, merely approaching that place would already be enough for them to be instantly vaporized by the absurd heat waves released by the glowing lava. For him, however, it was nothing more than a relaxing hot bath.
He even kept a folded white towel over his head as if he were truly relaxing in an ordinary hot spring, making the absurd contrast of the scene even greater. Completely relaxed, he calmly observed the starry sky covering that world created by his Longinus, keeping his eyes half-open while enjoying that rare moment of peace.
His body had already been strengthened to a monstrous level after countless sessions of extreme training. Resistance to heat, pressure, pain, and both low and high temperatures had been part of his infernal daily routine for a very long time. Naturally, his absurd resistance to high temperatures was also a direct result of that insane training.
"...It was a fun week..." he murmured to himself.
Training those three girls had been far more rewarding than he had initially imagined. Watching their progress day after day, seeing them break their own limits, fall, stand up again, and continue moving forward despite the suffering... it brought him a strangely pleasant feeling.
Before he realized it, he had grown more attached to them than he expected.
Ravel was dedicated, elegant, and extremely obedient, the type of woman who seemed born to care for and support someone. Her loyalty and sincere desire to serve him reminded him greatly of Tamamo no Mae. She always tried to do everything perfectly, blushing easily whenever she received praise and working hard not to disappoint him in the slightest.
Mio, on the other hand, was practically a classic tsundere. Proud, stubborn, and explosive at times, yet with a surprisingly honest and pure heart. That mixture of arrogance, jealousy, and unintentionally adorable moments reminded him greatly of Jeanne Alter, something he honestly found amusing.
And Maria...
Well, Maria was simply Maria.
Mischievous, seductive, loud, and full of energy, always finding some way to provoke others or turn any situation into chaos while keeping a smile on her face. In many ways, she resembled Merlin, especially in that absurd ability to throw everything around her into disorder without seeming to care in the slightest about the consequences.
Of course, they were different from the Servants of his past life. Even so, all of it had been strangely nostalgic for him....
Alear sank slightly deeper into the lava, feeling the extreme heat relax his muscles as a small smile appeared on his lips.
"It wasn't wasted time..."
Besides training the girls, Alear had also made absurd progress regarding himself. After countless experiments, analyses, and failed attempts, he had finally managed to evolve his [Transmutation], transforming it into a completely new ability: [Idle Transfiguration].
To achieve that result, he had needed to accomplish something extremely complex.
In short, he gave up the original properties of his [Transmutation] in exchange for an entirely different characteristic, performing a kind of extremely advanced equivalent exchange ritual.
The ritual he used was named [Binding Vow], a Magecraft created by him based on the primordial concept of modern magic.
At its core, magic in his old world had never been about "creating something from nothing."
It was merely the artificial manifestation of phenomena that already existed or could exist within reality, even if it partially ignored the time, effort, and materials normally necessary for such things to happen. To obtain something, another element needed to be used as a price, or something already existing needed to be altered in order to produce a new result. Completely impossible phenomena could not normally be reproduced. Even a spell capable of taking someone to the moon would still require an equivalent or even greater cost than what would be necessary to build an actual rocket.
That was the foundation of all Magecraft: using magical energy to reproduce something possible within the laws of the world.
That was why purely imaginary phenomena, made only of "fantasy" without any real foundation, would eventually be rejected and erased by the planet itself for directly conflicting with the rules of reality.
And it was precisely upon that principle that he had based the [Binding Vow] Magecraft he created in his past life.
The ability functioned as an absolute equivalent exchange: sacrificing something in order to obtain something else in return. However, there was one inviolable rule: a [Binding Vow] could never be broken.
Once established, the pact became absolute, engraved directly into the user's soul, body, and even existence itself. No matter the method used, whether force or magic, breaking a [Binding Vow] was simply impossible without paying a catastrophic price.
And that price...
Was something far beyond ordinary pain.
If someone violated a vow of that kind, they would suffer torment so absurd that even someone as inhuman as Griffith would probably cry like a child before it. Compared to the punishment of a broken [Binding Vow], even the Crest Worm ritual of the Matou Family would seem like a merciful paradise. It was horror on an existential level, something that simultaneously destroyed the mind, soul, identity, and perception of reality itself—a suffering so absolute that even Lovecraftian Gods would probably consider it excessive.....
He had spent several years of his past life studying countless rituals, contracts, and systems of equivalent exchange in order to create that Magecraft. From small rituals to absurdly complex ceremonies involving such concepts, he analyzed practically everything he could find related to the idea of "price" and "compensation" within modern magic and the Age of Gods.
[Binding Vow] eventually became his greatest trump card during that time.
An extremely dangerous and abnormal technique, something that practically no ordinary magus would be capable of reproducing.
And all of that had only been possible because of his bizarre Origin.
However, the ritual used concepts originating from the Magecraft of his past life. Adapting it to this new reality had been extremely difficult, but the final result also removed several limitations that his former ability possessed.
In the end, he performed an extremely radical exchange.
He abandoned the ability to manipulate organic and inorganic matter through his old [Transmutation] and, in exchange, obtained something completely new: the power to manipulate souls.
That had only been possible because his former [Transmutation] was not that far from reaching a similar level already. Furthermore, all the insane training and countless experiments he carried out during the last week within that world ended up serving as the perfect foundation for that evolution. Overall, it was almost like saving several entire years of effort in exchange for an immediate price, sacrificing part of his future potential in order to reach the finish line far ahead of time.....
Yes, it was something extremely complex, but he was genuinely satisfied to have finally achieved an ability of that level.
Through [Idle Transfiguration], he ended up discovering something unexpected about himself.
His soul was, in fact, only around ten percent human. That perfectly explained why he had been born possessing a Sacred Gear. However, the strangest part was not that. Upon analyzing that small human portion of his soul more deeply, he realized that it also did not belong to an ordinary human.
There were extremely ancient and powerful traces mixed within it.
Most likely, his mother possessed direct descent from the Hero Clan.
That also explained several things that had previously seemed disconnected in his mind: the reason his father had taken him to that village during his childhood, the reason he made him train alongside those children back then, and even the excessive care he always showed in hiding certain information from him....
He decided that, after curing Sairaorg's mother, he would personally seek those answers himself, this time in a far more definitive way....
Now that he finally possessed an ability capable of directly interfering with the soul, many things that had once been completely incomprehensible finally began to make sense before his eyes.
One of the most interesting discoveries involved precisely the hereditary characteristics of demonic noble families.
For example, whenever an heir of one of the Seventy-Two Pillars was born, their soul carried a peculiar kind of "line" or spiritual mark. That structure functioned almost like a trigger or special circuit responsible for awakening the unique characteristics of the bloodline within the individual's [Demonic Power].
Naturally, that was also deeply connected to the family's blood.
After all, blood functioned as the physical medium sustaining that spiritual information, while the soul was responsible for activating and shaping those characteristics individually within each heir.
Since he could freely alter the structure of his own soul through [Idle Transfiguration], he could theoretically acquire the characteristics of different noble families of the Underworld simply by reproducing those spiritual marks within himself.
And that was only the beginning.
In theory, he could also remove Sacred Gears from their hosts, implant them into other people or even into himself, modify his race almost instantly, and perform countless other absurd alterations related to the soul.
His soul manipulation was terrifyingly unrestricted!
The moment he obtained [Idle Transfiguration], he even felt something strange: as if his consciousness had briefly connected to an immense "corridor" or invisible flow through which all souls inevitably passed after death.
And, theoretically...
He realized that he could pull souls back from that place for an indefinite amount of time.
It was still something extremely vague to him, and he would need to study much more before fully understanding that phenomenon. However, there was one thing he knew with absolute certainty: it was possible—he could become a necromancer....
Although that was still far away....
Alear let out a long sigh, almost satisfied, as the towel over his head slipped slightly.
"...There's still a long way to go...." he murmured to himself, his low voice echoing throughout the volcanic crater. "I need to work on new projects related to my Longinus...."
His rose-magenta eyes shone with a mixture of excitement and complexity.
At present, he had not yet achieved the Balance Breaker in any of his Longinus....
Sacred Gears possess a maximum activation state known as Balance Breaker, also called Forbidden Move. It is the most powerful manifestation of a Sacred Gear. Once achieved, the Balance Breaker can be activated again much more easily than during its first manifestation.
An incomplete Balance Breaker can be obtained through self-sacrifice by the user, such as in the case of Issei Hyoudou in the original story, who sacrificed his left arm and transformed it into a dragon arm. However, that method is not considered a true Balance Breaker activation. That unstable form is called [Over Booster].
Generally speaking, the Balance Breaker can only be awakened when the Sacred Gear wielder undergoes a dramatic change or shock that triggers the release of that supreme power.
The known manifestations of the Balance Breaker can be divided into three categories: Crest Side, Abyss Side, and X Side.
Crest Side is considered the regular state of the Balance Breaker, obtained through strengthening and marked by a drastic change in the user's spirit. It is the original Balance Breaker of a Sacred Gear and also the so-called Subspecies Balance Breaker. The latter differs by creating alternative forms based on the wielder's desires, granting unique abilities that are generally more powerful than those of the standard form. The exact method for awakening a Subspecies is unknown, but it is believed to directly involve the user's personality. Some highly skilled wielders have even demonstrated the ability to partially direct the abilities they obtain.
Abyss Side represents an advanced form of the Balance Breaker, obtained when the user seeks to surpass the limits of Crest Side and reaches a state of fusion with their Sacred Gear, causing an even deeper transformation.....
Finally, X Side is a rare and irregular manifestation that cannot be classified within the previous categories. It is characterized by sudden changes or atypical combinations of different states, being considered an exception among exceptions. Among the known examples he remembered from the original story were [Illegal Move Triaina] and [Cardinal Crimson Promotion] from Issei Hyoudou; [Malebolge Vritra Promotion] from Genshirou Saji, resulting from the fusion of his four Sacred Gears into one; and [Forbidden Invade Balor the Beast] from Gasper Vladi....
He could already be considered someone who had walked halfway toward the Balance Breaker of his [Innovate Clear]. Most likely, what he was developing would end up becoming a Subspecies. After all, he had managed to consciously direct the abilities he wished to extract from the Sacred Gear, something extremely rare even among talented users. Even so, he knew he was not yet "polished" enough to achieve a true Balance Breaker. He lacked refinement, understanding, and most importantly, a strong enough emotional trigger to provoke a complete awakening.
Currently, his [Innovate Clear] possessed four main abilities: [Accelerated Dimension], [Creation], [Life Imitation], and [Status Recovery].
Meanwhile, his [Zenith Tempest] was still at a far more incomplete stage, possessing only three known abilities so far: [Climate Manipulation], [Element Manipulation], and [Bubble Manipulation]. Among his Sacred Gears, it was clearly the furthest from achieving a Balance Breaker.
And honestly, he believed he understood the reason for that.
Perhaps his greatest difficulty in fully awakening his Sacred Gears was directly related to his excessively pragmatic personality and his relative lack of truly intense ambitions.
After all, Sacred Gears were driven by the power of desire.
And that was precisely what defined their strength.
Even after becoming a Devil, a person's desires continued to exist, and the deeper, more obsessive, and more genuine those desires were, the more strongly the Sacred Gear would respond to its wielder.
In the end, Sacred Gears had never been merely weapons or divine tools.
They carried within themselves the will of the one who wielded them.
They grew together with the user's heart, reacting to their emotions, traumas, dreams, obsessions, and needs. Over time, they could evolve, acquire new abilities, and even completely change their nature depending on the path followed by their wielder.
It was precisely from that intimate connection that absurd phenomena such as the Balance Breaker were born—the manifestation of a Sacred Gear's true potential—as well as the mysterious Subspecies, alternative forms shaped directly by the individuality and desires of each user.
But Sacred Gears were definitely not the only things he intended to focus on over the next few days....
He let out a long sigh before slowly rising from the incandescent lava, magma flowing down his body without causing any damage as he calmly reflected on everything he would need to do over the coming days...
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