“Without your bodies, I can’t even try and resurrect you.”

With the dimension to Aria having collapsed, she wasn’t even sure if there were any bodies to salvage. With their dimension having collapsed, it was already impossible to find it.

“Enough thinking, Aurelia. I must continue to work on these seals.”

The disappointment of having hidden like a coward as her people died resurfaced, and the only way to squash it down was by drowning herself in seals and inscriptions.

[I have failed before. But not this time!]

.

|DxD|

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Time Chamber: 5 years later (7 years after initial entry)

.

Deep inside the confines of the time chamber, Igor was standing still in the harsh weather only found when one ventured deep into the time chamber. Tossed aside were his weighted clothing which consisted of a black undershirt, armbands, and leg warmers. Left in only his trousers and sandals, the blonde had not moved an inch ever since he took off his weights.

Despite the blistering cold, his body was covered in sweat with visible steam wafting off his body. His hair fell down to his sides like a wet mop, his breathing steady despite his prior physical exertion.

Training, training, training, and more training. That is what had occupied most of Igor’s time. As soon as his body stopped growing, he immediately dived into training with higher gravity levels, heavier weights, and somehow, even more intense training regiments.

With his body having experienced over three years in terms of growth, the amount of gains he could make in his training also increased. The well of potential that he had unearthed over his initial two years of training had been vastly expanded.

With his body being eighteen in terms of biology, he was already in his accelerated phase of growth. With his divine strand evolving, the benefits that were brought were considerable. Of course, Igor had never failed to train in his newly obtained transformation.

As time went on, his troubles of taking too long to enter both his suppressed form and full-power form gradually became nonexistent. As it stood, it took him just barely less than a second to power up to his suppressed state. It was not quite instant, but it was a satisfactory result no less.

Entering his full-power state still took him a good three seconds. He wasn’t completely satisfied, but he was forced to accept that this was currently the best he could do. There was only so much ki he could insert into his divine strand before it became pointless.

However, he did come up with a way to compromise. Whereas in his full-power state he was 110x stronger than in his base form, he was able to find a stable state which was exactly at 100x his base strength. In this context, despite the difference only being a mere 10x, the results were obvious at first glance.

“Haaa!”

GRUUU!

Exploding with power, a red aura similar to a flame formed around him. His hair spiked up and turned red in an instant while blue eyes bled away to reveal ruby red. His transformation was controlled with barely an outward pressure that affected the winds around him. Apart from the initial outburst of ki caused by rapidly powering up, there were no further events, a showcase of the control he had over his ki.

But, he wasn’t completely satisfied with that.

[More practice is needed.]

Having assumed his transformation, the blonde clenched his fists before he vanished from the spot.

Su! ...BOOM!

Appearing a few dozen metres away, the blonde let out a powerful punch that caused a massive shockwave. But he didn’t stop there.

Su! …Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Constantly vanishing, Igor seemed to be fighting against an invisible opponent, Brief flashes of red could be observed before it vanished. The power from his attacks were like cannons. Each punch and kick packed a very powerful force behind it.

Su! Su! Su! Su! Su!

The minutes trickled by and slowly, half-an-hour had already passed. Yet not once did his momentum decrease in the slightest. Despite not resting for even a single second, Igor was still brimming with vitality and energy.

Su!

Finally coming to a stop, Igor stood on the ground with his aura still stably emitting from his body. His hair flowed in the wind while his eyes were closed in focus. With steady breaths, Igor slowly drew in his aura until there wasn’t even a wisp remaining.

“Haaa…”

Letting out a deep breath, he gradually opened his eyes. Surveying his body, Igor was satisfied with this brief exercise. Bending over to grab his weighted clothing, he began putting them on one-by-one.

Starting with his undershirt, he had some momentary trouble trying to get his spiked-up hair through the hole. But after about ten seconds, he finally succeeded in putting on his shirt. Briefly levitating to put on his leg warmers, the redhead finally ended by putting on his armbands.

“I’ll need to ask sister to increase the weights for me soon.”

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Having increased the weight of his clothing from one ton to five tons, he could feel that he was getting used to the current weight. In his base state, they were already starting to feel like normal clothing even in over 500x gravity. In his transformed state, they felt like nothing.

Putting his hands into his pockets, Igor took out two scrolls that he immediately placed on the ground and unfurled. With the scrolls lying open on his left and right, there were intricate circles with patterns linking them together.

He had no idea what the patterns and symbols meant…

“Sister Lia said I had to leave a drop of blood and also channel my ki into them.”

…or what they did.

“She only said there would be a big surprise in store for me.”

He was somewhat curious as to what these scrolls could do. Since it was her personal creation, it must be something truly amazing.

“One way to find out then.”

The redhead brought his thumbs to his mouth and decisively bit on them. Drawing blood, he swiped them on the scrolls and at the same time, channeled his ki.

Doof! Doof!

The effects were relatively immediate. Not a short while later, there was a burst of smoke that cleared to reveal two Igors who had also transformed.

“Heh?”

These two clones looked exactly like him, dressed in the same clothes, and even released exactly the same aura and pressure. The only difference between the redhead and his clones was that their faces were blank, completely emotionless without that spark of life in their eyes. They were like dolls…machines with only one purpose-kill!

Su! Su!

Without hesitation, the two carbon copies of himself attacked him. Igor subconsciously raised his hands to block the punch aimed for the side of his head and the side kick aimed for his neck.

Clash!

There was a brief silence as several muscles worked overtime to overcome the three-way deadlock that had suddenly risen. The friction alone from the deadlock caused the area of clothing caught in the crossfire to burn away

Fortunately, Igor managed to get his head back in gear after this sudden surprise attack.

[I don’t know what they are, nor do they seem like they’re willing to talk.]

Gradually pushing away each offending limb, aura began emitting from his body.

“You must be the surprise sister mentioned.”

The aura of flames around his body grew in intensity as his ki churned faster and faster throughout his body.

“I’ll have to thank her. A fight is exactly what I needed.”

He could feel from the aura his two clones were releasing that they inherited his current strength. It mystified him, but only briefly. The how’s and why’s did not matter at the moment. Just as a hungry man does not ask what ingredients were used in the food, so would he not ponder how these two clones came to exist.

Su! Su! Su!

In nigh perfect synchronisation, all three of them moved and began fighting.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was a two-on-one, Igor against his lookalikes. Streaks of red meshed against the aurora-filled sky of the time chamber as fast-paced combat ensued.

[I missed this!]

Despite being entangled in a seemingly unfavourable situation, his blood only boiled even more. Blocking one attack after the others, he was being pushed back. From the skies to the ground, Igor was continuously forced to retreat. The clones worked so well in synchronisation that he couldn’t even squeeze in a gap to launch a counterattack.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

With his hands working to parry the continuous attacks issued by his clones, he barely had any time to charge a simple ki blast. But, if there was one thing Igor learned during his stay in the Heavenly Realm, it was that sometimes, resourcefulness was more important than strength. And having gotten used to being attacked by multiple people, he had picked up a few ways of getting out of an encirclement.

This time, instead of parrying or dodging, he began diverting the attacks of one clone towards the other in an attempt to disrupt the flow. He did not need long.

Even a single moment would be more than enough to build up ki for either an offensive such as a ki blast, a defensive move like an explosive barrier, or neutral techniques for escaping like the Instant Vanish.

With the clones constantly sticking close to him, he just had to create an opportunity.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! *GRAB!*

Realising an opportunity had presented itself in front of him, he grabbed a leg aimed for his waist and swung it towards the clone reeling itself to follow with a punch to his chest. The clone with its fist clenched noticed the leg of the other clone coming towards it and as such, was forced to briefly pause…and that moment was all Igor needed.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the redhead replied with a trick that had rarely failed him since day one.

“RAAA!”

Opening his mouth, he let out a red blast wave of immense power.

Kruuu!

The two clones were forced to dodge. Splitting from each other, the ki wave blasted towards the sky before dissipating into motes of red wisps of ki. In face of a threatening attack, their faces remained emotionless like a doll’s. The two clones stood slightly apart from each other, their hands clenched and their outfits billowing in the catatonic winds.

They only stood apart by just a few metres, but it was more than enough for the blonde to start launching a counterattack with a technique that was very useful in this current scenario.

Placing two fingers on his head, he vanished…

Tswii!

…and appeared above one of the clones…

Tswii!

…before appearing beneath the other one.

Booom!

With a powerful horsekick to the chin, he sent the clone flying into the skies. Locking on to the energy signature of the other clone, he was about to vanish when he suddenly lost it.

[Wha-]

Tswii!

“?!”

BOOOM!

Caught offguard by the clone’s ability to also use the Instant Transmission, Igor was sent flying to the ground by a powerful heel kick to his shoulder. Had he not dodged, it would’ve landed on his head. Fortunately, he was still coherent enough to stop himself from crashing into the ground head first.

Backflipping in midair, he gently landed on both feet before looking into the skies at the two clones who had just regrouped.

“Heh~. I admit. That was certainly a surprise. I never thought a lookalike could also use the Instant Transmission. This means you can use more of my techniques, right?”

““…””

Neither clone replied or even acknowledged that they heard his question. Their eyes remained locked on him, their gaze cold yet empty. Like dolls, their expressions remained neutral throughout the entire time they fought. Like husks, they were only puppets that had a purpose- to destroy the original.

Su! Su!

And they would be merciless in their task.

CLASH!…Gu! Gu! Gu! Gu! Gu! Gu! Gu!

Different from his excited state, Igor was serious. His battle-thirsty expression had been replaced by a calm demeanour. Even as he traded blows with the clones, it did not ease. Dodging what he could and parrying what he couldn’t, the redhead remained on the defensive against the onslaught of his clones.

Their attacks were clearly aimed to kill, despite the evident lack of killing intent. This was not a normal spar, but a battle of attrition. Facing the onslaught from two of his clones in insanely fast-paced combat, it was normal to assume that Igor would tire out quickly, especially when not long ago, he had been training prior to this without rest.

But…assumptions could only be assumptions, not assurance.

GRUUUU!

Having long since primed his ki beforehand, Igor quickly deployed a burst of red aura around him in the form of an explosive barrier. Having successfully managed to repel the two clones again, the redhead didn’t chase after them.

Instead, he started stretching his head.

“Mmm…thanks for that. Now that the cramps are ironed out and my body’s fully warmed up…”

The clones didn’t attack…because they couldn’t.

FUUUUUSH

…because they were locked down by the heavy pressure he was releasing.

“...let’s begin round two.”

GRUUU Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su Su

With a blazing red aura manifesting itself around him, the redhead was finally getting serious. There were absolutely no signs of fatigue anywhere on his body.

In fact, he was brimming with vitality.

Tswii!…BOOM!