Twenty of the estimated thirty minutes had already passed. Comfortably sitting in her office, she ‘calmly’ waited for the arrival of Serafall Leviathan.
“I hope this is just routine questioning.”
As calm as she tried to be, she was not confident in outright lying to a Maou.
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|DxD|
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Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su
“Sister…Aurelia…?”
“Yes, Igor. It’s me.”
Aurelia gently cupped his cheeks and slowly began rubbing them.
“I’m here. Can you hear me?”
“...”
Igor took a while to process everything. His mind was somehow stuck between the past and the present, making him seem a bit lost and listless. His feelings were so amplified and all over the place that he found it hard to distinguish between reality and illusion. His mind was functioning so quickly that he couldn’t seem to put a stop to it. It was only because of Aurelia’s voice that he could finally put a wrench in the wheel that was his brain. *
When he finally came to it, he was momentarily surprised to find that he wasn’t seeing in colour, but in shades of black, blue, and gold…the same vision he had when he slaughtered the Himejima.
Su Su Su Su SU SU SU SU SU SU SU
His mind was about to be pulled back into the past when he felt a calming energy gradually envelop his being.
“Calm down, Igor. I’m sensing massive amounts of stress from you.”
Aurelia couldn’t help but worry about Igor. The power he was emitting was humongous. It was to the point that she had to use high level body-reinforcement magic just to not get crushed by the pressure he was releasing.
She could feel that his mental state wasn’t quite there, almost as if he was on the verge of going berserk. He seemed to be on the brink and was struggling to hold himself back.
Yet what she was worried about wasn’t him going berserk, but his body not lasting long enough for him to come out of it.
[I have to calm him down quickly. His body hasn’t matured enough to handle this much power.]
For Igor, it was like a tug of war between the past and the present. Everytime his mind seems to have escaped the cage of his memory, his heart would remember the pain of losing Shuri and use it to pull him back.
Aurelia couldn’t knock him out even if she wanted to. The strength required to penetrate that thick armour of ki surrounding his body was something she didn’t have and any illusion magic wouldn’t work because her mana would be burnt by his ki before it even had the chance to reach his brain.
Her options were exhausted and she could tell that with any further delays, he would really go berserk.
[What can I try? Words seem to work, but barely.]
Her words could reach him, but the effects were minimal at best. The calming magic she tried to send into his body kept getting burnt by his ki before her mana could reach his brain. She could feel the torrent of ki flowing through his veins and she knew that at this rate, his body would only be able to hold on for another five minutes at best.
She was genuinely worried for the blonde. Having this much rage bottled up just wasn’t normal. It was hard to think that the same person who smiled like its Christmas at the sight of food could make such a vicious expression.
“Igor. You have to-”
“Himejima…”
“...”
Now it made sense.
[He still holds hatred for them.]
Hearing him mutter the name of that clan, she could make out what was going through his head. As kindred who both harbour a special spot for the Himejima, Aurelia could imagine exactly what was going through his head.
But as much as she understood his feelings, this wasn’t the time.
“Igor. Listen to me. Listen to my voice. The Himejima have perished, remember?”
“...”
No response from him. That was relatively good. She considered it a miracle in of itself that she hadn’t been attacked yet. But that may change if she doesn’t think of something soon. And with her words having minimal effect, she decided to try one more method.
Removing her hands from his cheeks, she wrapped her arms around his torso.
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“Calm down, Igor. I’m here.”
SU SU SU SU SU SU Su Su Su Su Su Su Su
The effect was gradual, yet instant. The warmth from another person served as an anchor to pull him out of the illusion he had trapped himself in. Her embrace was warm…very warm.
His aura that was violently lashing out gradually calmed down and his hair that had spiked up slowly fell. His power level gradually decreased in line with his Kaioken multipliers cycling down. Pupils gradually reformed in his eyes, but they seemed to have no life in them.
But that was only for a brief moment. Feeling Aurelia holding him so tenderly, a hint of life returned to them. Weakly tilting head up to face Aurelia, blue locked with blue.
“Thank you…sister.”
That was all he could say before his consciousness slipped away.
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|DxD|
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Igor could confidently say that he had never drunk before in his life. Whether it be beer, whiskey, or wine, none of it had ever entered his lips. But he was willing to bet that with how bad his head was thrumming, it was much worse than any hangover one could ever get.
“Haaaa…”
The first thing the blonde did upon waking up was release a sigh at just how bad of a headache he had. Subconsciously spreading his senses, he was aware that he was in his bedroom in the time chamber. He could feel the gym equipment in the next room and the library of books in the other.
Sitting up on the bed, he held a hand to his head and ran it through his hair.
“I’m…never…ever…doing that again.”
Finally opening his eyes, he was a bit taken aback at the number of blankets that were draped over him.
“One, two, three, four…five?”
Headache or not, the blonde knew three out of five of these blankets were not his nor were they in the time chamber previously.
“Weird.”
But not one to overthink things, he let it go. Pushing them away, he was about to swing his legs when he realised something.
“Huh…I’m naked. And I…smell good?”
He wasn’t truly naked. All he was dressed in was a set of black trunks, except those trunks were pulled down all the way to his feet. Knowing it was his sleeping habit that caused him to push them down, he promptly pulled them up.
Glossing over the fact that he was stripped of his clothes, he focused more on the smell that caught his attention. He could detect the faint scent of something vaguely similar to the smell of...
*Sniff* *Sniff*
“...vanilla?”
The blonde had no knowledge of flowers at all so the closest comparison he could come up with was vanilla. It was aromatic and he could admit that he liked the smell. It was in the air and he could make out a scent trail that led out the door.
Swinging his legs over the bed, he was about to get up when he felt his body slightly tense. Groaning at the sudden stinging pain, he pushed on and got up.
“Yep. I’m never doing that aga-whoa!”
As soon as he tried to stand up, his legs gave out on him like wet noodles. Falling back on the bed, he looked at his legs.
Paaa! Paaa!
Giving himself a good slap to the thigh, he frowned.
“Well that’s not good.”
His legs were numb, and felt almost nonexistent. He could barely feel his muscles and just trying to lift his leg yielded no results. But the worst pain came from his calves and ankles. The muscles there were particularly tender and it seemed they had just recovered from being torn apart.
“...”
Igor frowned in thought. He was not oblivious to the fact that he had used Kaioken x100. What confused him was that his upper body felt fine. Logically, his torso and arms should’ve also been shredded from using the Kaioken at such a high multiplier.
And if his body was healing, every body part should’ve healed equally.
“Meh. I’ve torn more on leg day.”
Logging the thought as something he would consider later, he decided that since he can’t walk, flying would be his next best bet.
But the moment he tried to channel his ki…
“?!”
He descended into a world of pain.
“ACK!”
Losing all strength in his body, he fell on his back and stayed like that unwillingly. All the veins in his body were suddenly bulging from attempting to mobilise his ki. His limbs were frozen stiff with his hand even frozen in midair.
Sweat was falling from his brow due to the sudden shock he felt.
“Haaa…haaa…haaa…haaa…”
He found himself struggling to breathe, his chest feeling like it was being crushed by a heavyweight. His mouth desperately tried to suck in more life-giving breath into his body, but he found it incredibly hard to parse it down his throat.
[D-damnit!]
His eyes were filled with unwillingness because self-suffocation was not the way he would’ve wanted to leave this world. Never mind finding it hard to breathe, he was letting out more air than he could take in.
Quickly thinking on his feet, he decided to hold in the remaining breath he had. It was a finite amount, but it was better than nothing. Calming himself down, he had to think of a solution quickly.
Just because his physique allowed him to spend a long time without breathing didn’t mean he liked being stingy to his lungs. It was a very uncomfortable feeling for him, especially since he was caught off guard. The heavy feeling in his chest combined with the shortness of breath made it very hard for him to figure out what to do in a short space of time.
It was only fortunate for him that soon after, the door burst open to reveal Aurelia.
“Igor!”
As the silverrette rushed in, she quickly tended to Igor and planted her hands on his chest.
“You’ll be alright, okay? You’ll be alright as long as you stay calm.”
“...”
Igor wanted to tell the woman he was calm, until he saw something that made him widen his eyes. He finally noticed that she was in black training clothes featuring a vest and a tight-fitting tracksuit. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and her sword was strapped to her side.
Her enticing appearance didn’t faze him in the slightest. He lost count of how many naked women he’d seen on the battlefield. Rather, it was her attire that had his attention, because that vest and tracksuit were his.
[You…my…you took my-]
“Calm down Igor. I’m almost done healing you.”
The woman was visibly sweating and Igor watched as a drop of sweat fell down her cheekbones and travelled down her chest. That trace of sweat fell downwards, circled around the ‘meatiest’ part of her breast until it finally collided with the fabric of the vest.
Igor watched with pained eyes as a small wet patch formed on the rim of his shirt. He did not care for how enticing she looked nor for the worried expression on her face. It did not matter how much pain he was in or how Aurelia was trying to heal him. All he knew, was that those clothes were his.
“...”
And she defiled the manly sweat in them with hers. A shirt he had worn for fifty years was now feminised, and that hurt him more than the crippling pain all over his body.
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AN
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1. His mind was functioning so quickly that he couldn’t seem to put a stop to it. It was only because of Aurelia’s voice that he could finally put a wrench in the wheel that was his brain. *
Explanation: Remember how the Kaioken amplifies everything or nearly everything, it seems like emotions count as well…indirectly though. It says his feelings were amplified, but it appears that has to do more with how his brain is so juiced up on power that he couldn’t control his emotions. It’s like giving a person who has driven a Corolla their whole life a Ferrari. For Igor who was used to Kaioken x50, suddenly jumping to x100 isn’t good for him, especially if he still has unresolved issues in his heart. We still don’t have complete confirmation if Kaioken x100 is a transformation or a simple multiplier.