Shoji took his sword out of his inventory and took a deep breath before his Life construct formed.
“Healing Augment!” He said and a pulse ran through it but there were several pulses right after that he didn’t directly say before the construct merged with his body.
“How many enhancements was that?” Marcus frowned.
“Healing, strength, constitution, agility, flexibility, Enhance mental process, psychic aura.” Robin said.
“Aura?” Milo asked.
“It’s basically a surface skin barrier that forms.” Robin replied.
Esper watched and saw everything enter his body naturally and raised a brow, “Why do you not simply augment your body directly?” he asked.
“I can’t, my body is resistant towards psychic augmentation directly. I don't know why and it’s why I failed until now.” He said before lowering his center of gravity while his psi power channeled and instantly controlled the area around him.
Thump!
Like a bullet, next to no air resistance and a mind to follow his speed, Shoji shot at Esper in a single bound and slowed down only when he swung.
The blade edge concentrated the psychic cut while the body filled with psi power which held the range attack and amplified its power.
A barrier formed and to everyone’s shock, a resounding crack came as the air in between the both of them was riddled with cracks and his sword still ran forward but Esper was able to move back.
“That was… sharp.” He said.
“You’ve taught me well. From the first time you taught me to properly do a psychic cut to experimenting with psi power.” Shoji said.
Esper smiled as he took out a spear.
“Swords are not conventional or convenient, war is done with spears. I’m sure you know that.” Esper said.
“I know but that is because swords can’t traditionally cut through metal without getting stuck. That isn’t the case now.” Shoji said as he sheathed his sword and lowered his stance low.
On the sidelines, Ruth frowned, “He’s really boosted himself.” She said.
The next second Psychic energy became visible and he smiled at Esper as he literally vanished and appeared behind the hero.
Instantly his instincts screamed and he ducked as the sword rushed through the spot his neck had been and a massive flying slash shot out from the sword and turned into a torrent of power.
Shoji vanished and appeared above Esper who was turning to counter but had to shift instantly to block the sword coming down.
“What!” several of the others shouted.
“Was that teleportation?!” Vincent asked.
“It reminds me of the teleportation Esper learned 2 years ago.” Chasm Might said.
Shoji was sent flying up but he turned and swung upwards just for his figure to appear coming up at Esper making him dodge by the skin of his teeth.
It was a chilling feeling imagining your enemy flying away and then suddenly using your own momentum against you.
Finally Shoji appeared back across the field and let out a deep breath before his breathing started to increase as the fatigue set in.
Esper looked at him in shock “These children are all monsters, I’ve given only three classes last year on teleportation and no one has picked up on it. Was he training in secret or at home? His usage of this clearly shows he has thought and even trained on this extensively. If I didn’t react to that I might have taken quite the hit.” he thought and finally coated his body in a psychic aura to protect himself.
“Esper is guarding now!” Chasm Might said.
“Clearly, that was honestly a hair raising move. Although it looks like he doesn’t have the energy to use it extensively, he’s spent a considerable amount of time perfecting this as a secret weapon. Esper’s long weapon is a liability against a teleporter.” Mephesto said.
Esper smiled, “Let’s see your reaction time.” Esper said and used teleportation himself and Shoji turned, drawing his sword as he saw Esper appearing, mid swing, behind him and teleported behind him.
Instantly the two teleported almost a dozen times in seconds with clanking coming and psychic blasts coming out from near misses until finally Shoji was sent flying when he had to defend.
“His reflexes are good, Esper is going nearly 60% of his maximum speed. His mental boost must have been quite considerable.” Server Admin said.
Even the heroes had a hard time following it because this wasn’t a speed battle.
The children even less so.
When Shoji finally collapsed, exhausted, Esper appeared and pulled him up, “Good job, you’ve worked out a very good method to bridge the growing gap. The pressure on your body is also considerable and should provide you with the impulse you’ve lacked to continue growing.” He said and patted his shoulder and teleported them back to the side.
“How was he?” Vincent asked.
“Shocking, the first time a student has actually caused my hairs to raise and make me feel scared in the pit of my stomach.” Esper said.
“Compared to the older students, how is he?” Blue Phoenix asked.
“I can’t really compare him to the natural psychics but if I compare him to the people who depend on developing mental energy control, his original level of energy and not even psychic energy, he is already among elites.” Esper said.
“Enough for a few private tips?” Chasm Might asked.
Esper rolled his eyes and patted the boy on his back and returned to his place.
Shoji felt very proud that he could get the chance at rare private lessons from the pinnacle of psychics. Although his original power makes him more limited in what type of psychic abilities he can do, being a master of the few he can do and getting creative with them to expand his horizon is better than having 100 techniques and not enough proficiency to make it work when it matters.
For combat, being a master of one is not the best thing but being a master of few is fine.
“Alright, anyone want to go?” Chasm Might asked.
Blue Phoenix smiled and called Rudy, he wanted to see the boy’s progress and they got to witness a battle between phoenix.
Rudy’s flames typically concentrated into his feathers, even in his human form he could make the feathers into his ice flames but the most dramatic attacks were definitely the separate attacks.
There is nothing like seeing a bird shooting huge bolts of lightning or lighting a field on fire or freezing your opponent.
The most chilling was when he used the ice flame though.
Everyone felt like their faces would burn from the brightness of the blue flames yet where it passed, turned into a tundra landscape completely dry from how rapidly the moisture froze.
Blue Phoenix got caught in a pincer attack when Ruby’s feathers scattered but surprisingly, they turned at him and suddenly blasted raw energy on him encasing him in a 10 meter wide block of ice that released smoke from how cold it was.
The trapped phoenix actually looked small because of how much his flames had snuffed and he shouted as his flames heated up. To cause the flames to explode.
It was honestly a fight of compatibility, Blue Phoenix was a physical fighter because his flames healed instead of destroyed. He could still do quite a lot, after all shockwaves caused from powerful explosions would always injure but his direct flames could not injure Rudy.
Still, he was sent face first into the ground turning into ash and appearing at the save point.
Finally Chasm Might stepped up and Robin walked in.
Besides Lola, this slug fest was literally the one that shook the ground the most and it was easy to see why. Robin’s psychic energy and life essence had grown immensely purer but naturally using divine force was probably the key that caused the most of the impacts.
It should be said that Robin didn’t limit himself to a slug fest, he had trained all way and used his gravity in quite creative ways with his most used being his fists coated in forward momentum gravity.
It would not affect his strength one bit but the person receiving the fist would feel the weight of the gravity hit them like a truck.
The first punch taught Chasm Might just that.
Full heart pumping, triple parallel flow and then gravity, it shockingly sent the super strength hero flying back and left his arm tingling like he had punched the world core.
Robin was still beaten down into a pulp by the end but compared to the first classes after the gamer space reached level 3, Chasm Might was finally feeling pressure.
Marcus, Silk and Ruth were also taken and tested by him and the most shocking was Marcus.
He had trained using Robin’s suggestion and constantly trying to pacify his Ki and over the last year, his transformation had started to change slightly. Since he formed Ki, his transformation had retained silver hair but over the month's, it had gained a strange tint. A few hairs along his back actually had the faintest color of orange.
For Silk, his entire skeleton had transformed into biologically infused metal and you can probably guess how hard he was to punch. With the process of Life essence forging, he was working towards seeing what iron will eventually evolve into under so much True qi and life force fueling the transformations.
All of the children went through the ring and when it was done, the heroes were all happy.
Well most of them.
Bookkeeper, Vibrate and Miss America watched, Bookkeeper was the only one who actually spoke while the others just watched alone the process.
The other 8 were happy because they each seemed to have found a spectacular start to focus their teachings into the next generation.
Miss America looked at Vibrate, “Thinking of getting a disciple?” She asked.
“Powers focused on vibrations aren’t exactly common and it will take a while for me to have an exact notion of the type of people I can train. For the time being I’m thinking of just accepting trainees who produce soundwaves and possibly speed powers, depending on the type since not all of them can effectively use vibration as a source of energy to go fast.” He said. “And you? You’ve got every single thing going for you, the literal superman of modern times. Except for having his literal same weakness to magic, is there a need for you to have disciples who aren’t your own powers or direct child?” He asked.
She looked at the children presently there, “I think the thing that stands out the most about me is my invulnerability. Even now it's an exceptionally rare and expensive power.”
“So?” Vibrate asked.
“I will set up classes to train defensive strength types. My invulnerability is the reason why I don’t die easily so training heroes with a predisposition to be harder to kill feels more correct. Though… I will have to adapt my training so they can still dodge dangerous attacks.” She said.
“Oh, I didn’t expect you to be so self aware. I’ve read hater blogs about you, they always say that despite being America’s strongest, you are like a slug who doesn’t dodge.” He joked.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“If the punch will not send me flying and endanger the surroundings, there is no point in dodging. That is the point of an impenetrable defense.” She said and got up.
“Why not try to look into the little sister of Chasm’s Disciple. She has a simple hardening power which was fully incorporated into her body. I’m sure she would be over the moon.” He chuckled.
“Just like those guys, they have to prove it. The kid had the inheritance from the teacher which kept Chasm.” She said.
Vibrate naturally knew and he looked and got up because all the heroes were a part of this now.
***
Lola sat in the club crying, she had been there for nearly an hour when the door opened to Grace.
She sighed and walked over but Lola spoke before she sat down.
“Did you know?” She asked.
Grace paused, “About?” she asked.
“Lily having to sacrifice herself to give birth to a hybrid to become the supreme god of demons?” She asked.
“Yes, I was told what the Lord Hierarchy contract was. The demons who get this contract attached to them are the closest creatures to fallen angels.” She said.
“Yeah… she only fought for survival and not power.” Lola said, sad.
Grace sat down and pulled her into a hug and like a child she let herself drop to her lap. “Are you the same? I mean, your primary deity was once a supreme god.” She asked.
“No, my contract is called the Mortal Saint Contract, basically I am bonded to a true deity and can be considered a living saint, though I am not a big mouth like religious idiots who would likely have long shouted about it.” She said.
Lola got silent and Grace did not know what to say so she summoned the god.
He took one look and smiled but looked at her expression and then Grace before changing his tone. “I am sorry for not informing you of the true nature of your contract. The children who typically get this contract are all exceptionally loving people and would not take the final step needed.” He said.
Lola looked, “Is she truly gone?” she asked.
He sighed, “Yes, even if you ripped your soul in half with her memories on one side, she would not reform.” he explained.
Lola turned her head and sniffled quietly.
“I can only say it is for the safety of the world and you should be just as aware.” he said.
She sniffled, “By taking command of the demon realm, I will cut his source of power which is the chaotic and conflicting elements. The 14 demon lords are basically aspects of his power and channel it into him.” She said.
“Wait! Really!” Grace said.
“Don’t underestimate them, archdemons are a step ahead of this child, basically demigods in development after condensing a Life core, Demon lords are literal gods of a primordial aspect. They are above archdemons so her enemy is 14 creatures stronger than heroes on a biological level. Remember that your father is a greater demon but is a hero but archdemons are creatures a step above.” he explained to Grace.
“I know how to make it… it’s pretty easy to do it now.” Lola begrudgingly said. “My constitution combined with Lily’s and I have about 5,500 with over 6000 in my stats.” She said.
“That’s! That’s nearly what I have.” Grace said
“Yes, you should pay attention because the process for divine essence is no different.” he said.
“But I don’t have divine essence.” Grace said.
“It’s just holy power and life force.” Lola said and looked at her.
“I’ve had life essence since I was a child like you.” she said and looked at the god. “If you require help you simply need but ask.” He said with a smile.
“We will deal with that later.” Grace scoffed at him.
Lola looked and sat up, “So… what now?” She asked.
“You grow by binding demons, basically you pull imps or lesser demons under your contract, process their life force into devil essence. It increases your followers and the amount of Life force.” He said.
“I’m not going to do that yet.” Lola said.
“I’m just saying how the Lord hierarchy works after the devil lord is born.” the deity replied. “After reaching the limit of power your body can handle, you can use that pressure to make a Devil Core, the equivalent to the life core.” He explained. “You also learned several types of channeling methods. One for humans with demon familiars, ones for humans with demons inhabiting them, hybrid demons, basically every categorization of demon or celestial creature user. Grace, after she gets divine essence, will still be a human with celestial familiars. You personally have a unique version for yourself, just like Robin has one, the teacher who birthed the stone will eventually discover his own. Each god has a unique method but most of all is how to train your mind and soul. Each demigod is different in how you do it and it is important to have a stable soul.” He said.
“So that is why Robin feels so different.” She said.
She slowly sat up and a glow shined from her heart and spread out through her life force and very much like Robin, she used a special flow that channeled her devil essence and formed small sparks of her divine spark all over.
After it was done, she took direct control of the demon energy, it channeled separately and began to flow in a particular pattern. Then she drew upon raw life force and did the same and both energies began to blend before devil essence came in and linked the chain similar to death mana Milo used but the form she did was vastly different.
All that lacked was mental energy and it began to flow. It was wispy and thin but running through the divine spark, the mental energy returned with demon energy and as it broke into her mind, the energy surged with an immense heat and Grace heard a massive shatter and crack.
Crunching and breaking happened from Lola as her mental space, mind and soul broke down until not a single piece remained and demon energy burned and changed it.
Being conscious of each separate energy made her conscious of how unbalanced her body was as well.
It smashed and broke down until a pure clean energy sank and rebuilt her mind at the core and Mania’s soul housed it around. They merged seamlessly and, besides the memories, the thing that stood out the most was a massive monolith within her mind which was her contract that bonded her with her chosen demon.
As she opened her eyes, strands of psychic energy blossomed in her mind and it began to flow and join the two other raw energies and absorb mental energy to produce psychic energy.
Lola was still sad but she looked at them, “I… I will go home, I just want to sleep.” She said.
Grace smiled and got up, “I’ll take you there.” She said.
At the same time, she looked at herself and tried her best but her size would not change making her a bit sad that she could not return to a full human form.
When she got home she cried to her mom and after a bit she went to her room.
“Sorry that your daughter had to be like that, it was a secret we couldn’t easily expose.” Grace said.
“No, we understand. The danger that villains pose is obvious all around us. Just the attack is proof enough why you make those decisions.” Lola’s father said.
“Lola is honestly luckier than my father or the other old heroes who were the ones to finally beat the villains out from the world. There wasn’t even an option, it was do or die to create heroes.” Grace said
History of heroics was not a pretty one and it would never be no matter how much glitter and sunshine is sprinkled on it. It was war and there is no other way of calling it.
Grace let Lola rest at home in safety and headed to the school since there were still classes and she had likely missed some hours already.
***
After classes, the heroes were gathered to talk about the results that came about after the students had corrected their status. Very similar to the first year that the gamer space came into effect, there were things to look out for like Marcus who had altered proportions.
Eventually it got to the topic they all wanted to talk about and the final topic.
“So disciples.” Mephesto opened the topic up.
“Those children are seriously surprising, especially the psychic, he had been in the lower tier but immediately I can say he is in the top 10 psychics in the school.” Esper said.
They nodded and commented, traded ideas based on all the elite class students.
“Milo was shocking but then again, Robin, Shoji and Lola have constantly called him the most disgustingly talented out of the four since they were small in terms of their raw ability’s power.” Chasm Might said.
“The child is not restricted to my old vision but it is a breath of life to see him invent and create undead using abilities instead of rituals.” Vincent said.
“True, I never expected him to use my personal ability in that fashion.” Techno replied.
“The twins didn’t show that much change besides their spawns getting better at fighting though.” Server Admin said.
“Neither has Kevin but you don’t hear me complaining.” Techno replied.
“Kevin has grown quite well but I guess surrounded by so many shining examples…” Chasm Might said.
The others nodded, “How do those boys plan to develop?” Vibrate asked, curiously.
“Well besides training so that their bodies support their immense life force, we’ve come to the conclusion, after a year of study, that digital spawns can incorporate technology not so different from me except in their own way. Within this world, they are technically always in a solid data form, they are still a mass of data and something data can do is add more data on top of it.” Techno said.
“What does that mean?” Blue Phoenix asked.
A hologram of the original Hacks appeared. “What stands out about this dragon beast?” He asked.
“Its skin is plated armor.” Chasm Might said.
“Exactly! With small experiments, we’ve found that this digital skin, because it is a skin, can absorb similarly shaped items made from minerals mined and refined here in the digital world.” Techno said.
“So you are saying that to try and trigger another evolution, you are planning to forge out new armor made of digital metal?” Mephesto asked.
“That is the idea, their bodies are composed of common metal and the gamer space and training does help them grow but just like the infant form and child form, they have a more firmly established limit that requires evolution and reconstruction to deal with.” He said.
The AI goddess actually appeared when he said this, “I have even developed a status uniquely for my digital spawns which identifies their biological limits compared to you earthlings who grow by surpassing that. For us, surpassing means evolving.” She said.
“Makes sense, evolution would not make sense if it wasn’t used. How strong are they expected to get if they evolve?” Mephesto asked.
“They are adults which can range as far as strongman to braveman, from my calculations, their mega evolutions should be anywhere from braveman to hero but there is naturally a large training curb that needs to be filled to achieve their full potential.” The AI goddess said.
“That is a big gap.” Miss America said.
“Indeed and the digital world is still unable to generate such creatures naturally due to a lack of energy, space, competition and more since the current spawns are adapting to city life as the area has been adapted to human cities.” She said.
“We will move, don’t worry.” Techno said, “After I’ve developed the technology to properly use digital metal in complex manners.” He said
“Complex?” the others muttered.
“It’s 10 times denser, the only successful complex objects that have come out of it is bone metal digital alloy which was only forgable by people with abilities tailored to forging bone into bone metal.” Techno explained. “At this time I’m just changing industrial parts which meet the metal so that I can shape it like power hammers. Otherwise it is the incoming tool that will get smashed apart before the metal even warps a bit.” Techno complained.
“Can’t you just replace the material in the digital design?” Chasm Might asked but the goddess shook her head, “Digital metal is unique because it can only be melted and molded, not programmed. It is why digital spawns are not created with this metal.” she explained.
It made them understand now why, “So that explains the twins and techno’s hardships… now we should talk about the biggest shock.” Chasm Might said, looking at Grace and Mephesto.
“Lola…” Mephesto sighed and rubbed his head.
“She is in bed right now because of the shock and somewhat because of the betrayal that we did not tell her but regardless she is now, biologically, the same creature as ‘him’ but her ‘purpose’ is the exact opposite. Even if her power, aura and just outright appearance might be similar, that means nothing because she is on our side.” Grace said and explained what she learned in her talk.
“So that is where he gets that immense source of demon energy that constantly blackens his figure. If his power source is the demon lord of hell itself then it will definitely be a long drawn out battle for that child to properly convert the dimension to its proper purpose.” Miss America said, knowing the severity of this information.
“Currently she is prohibited from leaving, it will take about a year for her to properly rebuild her body with her essence but assuming, from what she said, I don’t doubt that within the month she will condense the core, like Robin, out of her Devil essence.” Mephesto said.
“Can she handle the impact?” Chasm Might asked.
“Yes, we don’t need to worry, she is biologically adapted to handle it. Her devil biology will evolve once the core is formed and she will likely undergo a more intense evolution.” Grace said. “She also gained instinctive knowledge from the contract pertaining to all kinds of demon or celestial contracted powers. Basically the form for humans, hybrids or contractors to harness and produce Divine or Devil essence and then condense the core.” Grace said.
“That’s great! This means Mephesto can finally take that step.” Esper said.
“Yes, I won’t know if I will be like that child however and form a divine spark, my demon half is different from her.” he said, seriously.
“Don’t worry, if you are or aren’t, divinity isn’t important, finally getting a threat that can properly endanger super villains is a must. The children are going to rise as heroes in the near future and we have to expand ourselves and create the first super heroes to protect them until they reach their potential.” Chasm Might said.
“How should we proceed with Lola’s education at this point? If her evolutions continue she will really be teaching us.” Esper asked.
“At the end of the day, she is still a child and requires at least a full highschool education. There is still a huge gap between the weakest heroes and the strongest.” Vincent replied.
“Let’s deal with it as it comes, there are quite a number of the elite class who are just as cracked as Lola, Robin included. What did his stats end at last year?” Server Admin asked.
“Should have been base stats just hitting over 4000.” Chasm Might said, “Then you have the multipliers from the traits.”
“So upwards of 6k.” Server admin said, “He is probably stronger than most of the braveman teachers we’ve brought along. After all, even with just an initial production of divine force he beat up the entire Stretch Company alongside his sister.”
“I’m honestly worried about something else.” Chasm Might said.
They all looked confused, “What?” Mephesto asked.
“I think we should make it clear to the entire academy what Hero Disciples are because besides the original students, the thousands of new students will think it is something gained from beating the students we regard as disciples. It could end very badly since this time we didn’t filter students since we pulled everyone.” He said.
“So you are worried about egos.” Miss America asked.
“Of course, sure the children are strong but it's not like there has never been powerful abilities and everyone was given access. Just in braveman academies, there were as many as 5,000, and then just in the North American area, we took in all the heroic courses students from upwards of 30,000 highschools. The number isn’t that different from the south america region and just barely filled in the numbers by contracting all the heroic teachers who were teaching there as well after they were cleared.” Chasm Might said.
“You have that worry but since we have to follow the official international heroic teaching guidelines, we also need to divide civilian military, common heroics and Elite heroics among… hundreds of thousands of students.” Techno said.
They instantly groaned when that was brought up, sure there were thousands of braveman and teachers who already worked with students so there was a notion of what to do but it was a big change, especially the equipment and training program that had to be done.
“He is right, you should make it clear that ‘hero disciples’ isn’t an academy title but a personal one before trouble strikes.” Miss America said.
They all agreed and then went over the rest of the students before finishing up events that needed to be dealt with.