CLASH!

Silence…

*Smile fades*

With the old sage stopping his hard-earned victory, Igor frothed at the mouth.

“?#$^@!”

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|DxD|

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Igor watched Sun Wukong with a deadly gaze. It had been a few minutes since his victory had been stolen from him. Even though Atid had been rendered unconscious before his last shot, the blonde was still sour about not being able to get that last hit in. The perfect climax had been ruined for him by the old monkey who was prodding his unconscious friend with his staff.

Sun Wukong whistled as he turned towards the blonde.

“You really did a number on the poor little brat.”

“...”

Instead of immediately replying, Igor lied down with a sigh.

“Monkey sage. What brings you here?”

With the battle having ended unsatisfactorily, all Igor wanted to do at this point was sleep. He barely had any energy to cuss out the old sage at this point with most of it having been sucked by the Kaioken. The appearance of Sun Wukong just served to make him even more tired and unwilling to have any long conversations.

Naturally, Sun Wukong noticed and didn’t waste time.

“I’ve come to you with another offer. Indra is impressed with your talent and he acknowledges your wish not to be directly incorporated into the army. So how about this. In exchange for you continuing to fight on our side, I will personally train you for the foreseeable future. You get stronger, and we get more wins on our side. You are free to walk away at any time. We will not bind you to us. So, what do you say, kid?”

Igor sat up and crossed his legs. He supported his chin with his hand and stared at the monkey in disinterest.

Yet within that gaze, clear signs of skepticism were visible.

“What can you teach me?”

Sun Wukong was undeterred. He already guessed that the blonde must’ve had some sort of teacher or training manuals on his person. Otherwise, there was no other believable way that Igor got this strong and knew such advanced techniques without external help. So he knew that if he wanted to trigger the blonde’s interest, he must arouse him with something practical.

And he just so happened to know where the blonde currently lacked.

“Aura sensing. You’re much better than the average person in sensing aura, but you’re terrible in my eyes, not even worth squat. Once I’m done with you, sensing for someone across the entirety of Earth will not be a problem.”

Sun Wukong had watched the fight between Atid and Igor. He noticed how the blonde always wasted precious time whenever he initiated teleportation. Furthermore, his style of locking onto an energy signature was too blatant that even Atid was able to feel Igor latch onto his lifeforce like an anchor. Although the brunet was a bit too slow to counter, he could brace himself for any attacks that came his way.

Sun Wukong knew that if Igor did not improve on his aura sensing, his signature technique would end up being fatally countered in the future. He could already imagine a scene in the future where Igor tries to attack with [Instant Transmission], only to suddenly get impaled without knowing how.

Not wanting to see such a future happen, he continued explaining.

“For us who are sensitive to lifeforce, we can feel when someone latches onto it. For instance, if you were to try and teleport next to me, I can guess at what side you will appear based on where my lifeforce feels ‘dragged’ the most. Then all I’ll have to do is stick out my staff at the spot where you’ll appear and…you’re impaled.”

Igor did not comment on Sun Wukong’s words, but instead lowered his head in thought. It was a new concept to him that someone can feel when their lifeforce is being locked-on to.

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Yet before he could raise a question about how that worked, the old sage continued.

“Furthermore, I can teach you how to completely suppress your power. Right now, you cannot mingle amongst ordinary people as you are. The power you give off will oppress them.’

Igor raised his head up, his gaze running through the monkey like he was an idiot.

“Huh? Not oven two months have passed and I was able to walk around Italy without a problem. What changed now, monkey sage?”

Sun Wukong closed his eyes, taking deep breaths in the process so as to suppress the urge to slap the blonde into the dirt. He kept them closed, not that Igor would know due to the band covering them.

It was one of these days that the old sage wished he had his pipe with him.

“The reason why kid, is because of the change in your aura. Whenever someone experiences a battlefield for the first time, their gaze changes. It deepens and their mind matures. For you, it went a step further. Your aura changed. It now holds killing intent within it. Normal humans and any other weak entities will have a subconscious fear towards you.”

Instead of concern, that sentence only served to make Igor smile. With a flash of white in his hand, an oversized chicken leg appeared within his grasp.

Taking a bite out of it, he looked at Sun Wukong.

“That’s good news, monkey sage. A lot of troublesome situations can be avoided.”

Igor could already imagine that if he had this amazing aura a few years ago, no one would’ve sought trouble with him due to his foreign heritage. But, fate cannot be controlled.

Yet, Sun Wukong only grinned before delivering the finishing blow.

“Oh? So you’re saying it’s fine if little Asia fears you as well?”

“???”

Igor dropped the chicken leg out of shock. He was first confused why the old sage brought up such a question. But it then clicked in his head that Asia was a human, a weak human. He never imagined that Asia fearing him would be a consequence as well. The thought alone was quickly rising up to be his number one nightmare.

As for the old monkey, he chose to drive the nail in harder instead of consoling the kid.

“Your aura can make full grown men wary of you, not to mention little children. I can already imagine the scene: you visiting Asia, and her running away from you to her ‘grandpa’.”

That did it for the blonde. The scene had already formed in his head and was already replaying over and over again. Just imagining Asia squirm from his presence alone made him anxious. Overcome by fear, he vanished from his spot and grabbed Sun Wukong by his robes.

Yet instead of malicious intent, there was a frantic expression in his eyes.

“Monkey sage! Please help me control my aura!”

The blonde was this close to tears. Truth be told, he had also felt a slight change in his aura as well since that day, yet he never cared much for the consequences. But he never imagined that the consequences would be possibly alienating his only sister. That was something he could not bear.

And that was something the old sage would use.

“I will, I will. So long as you refer to me as ‘master’.”

“...”

The light in Igor’s eyes faded. As soon as he heard the word “master”, he let go of Sun Wukong’s robe.

“I see… I’ll just figure it out myself.”

With a white light covering him, he was about to vanish into the time chamber when Sun Wukong grabbed him.

“Stop! I was just testing you. Come on, I’ll teach you how. Just win a few battles for us like you did and that will be enough payment. As long as you…”

Sun Wukong rattled off as many words as he could. The last thing he needed was the blonde disappearing due to his words and Indra bursting his eardrums. The war god had pinned his hopes on Igor remaining here for the next few years at the very least until he found a way to keep the blonde in the army. Until that time, he placed Sun Wukong with the task of keeping the blonde in Svargaloka for as long as possible.

If Igor left, it would bring him a headache. If he left to an unreachable place like the time chamber, then he would have no head to have a headache. In order to keep the blonde here, the only commodity that could be used was training.

And so with the promise of free training, Igor had no reason to leave.

“I see. Then I agree, monkey sage.”

Looking at the blonde’s smile, Sun Wukong breathed a sigh of relief.

“Good. Now go get whatever it is you need to get. We’re leaving as soon as possible.”

“Eh?”

“What? Did you think I would teach you here? We’re going back to my mountain. There will be no wars for the next few months so there’s no reason to stay here.”

“Oh.”

Then the blonde turned to the side where Atid was peacefully sleeping.

“Heh~. Wait until I come back, brother. I’ll beat you into the ground.”

But Sun Wukong quickly shut down that smile.

“Don’t get too excited kid. Indra will be retreating to his mountain, meaning Atid is about to get some training from him. If you don’t pull your socks up, you’ll be the one losing.”

Igor stared blankly at the old sage before shouting.

“Well what are we waiting for?! Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

The blonde was extremely wary of Atid in his balance-breaker form. He was not confident of winning like this a second time. The last thing he wanted was for the hybrid to get a headstart on him.

[I should see about mastering Kaioken x30. There’s no way he’ll beat me once I achieve that!]

Igor eagerly grabbed Sun Wukong’s shoulder.

“Well???”

The old sage sighed with a smile.

“Fine then, kid. I’ll make sure to ‘thoroughly’ teach you.”

“...”

It was at that moment that Igor had regrets. Not because that he was afraid of the potential training he would have to endure, but because of how the old sage smiled. Red alerts were going through his head, his memory flashing back to how Baraquiel would sometimes look at Shuri.

His eyes widened in fear, when he ‘felt’ the old sage look at him a bit too eagerly.

[P-pedophile!!!]

Unfortunately, it was too late to let go.

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AN

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