Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
June 21, 2008 - Serena's POV.
I took a deep breath as I entered my lab almost with childlike pleasure. It had been a couple of days since I'd returned, and I'd spent them simply passing the time and relaxing with the others, which was really nice after all the past few weeks. But now, I finally had some time to experiment, and I had a lot to do, so I put a time bubble around the lab.
The first thing I wanted to be able to complete was the ability to merge different races within myself.
Especially now, I had seen many races in Danmachi, each with its own advantages and traits, and they would only continue to accumulate as long as I was in DxD and other supernatural worlds, so before a large number of racial templates accumulated, I would have to find a way to add them to my body permanently.
Many of them had advantages I really wanted, but it was annoying having to switch between races and lose the benefits of others, so I had to find a way to unite all the races or absorb them uniquely.
I couldn't simply place one template on top of the other, creating a biological overlap with The Light, and then assimilate them and make them permanent with The Darkness; it sounds simple, but it wasn't.
The Darkness takes a Template and exerts its power over my body and soul, but that's a very bad idea. Racial templates aren't independent things; they're systems where everything is connected. If I simply combined them one after another, there would be major conflicts within my body, even a possible rejection of my soul, since some templates operate at that level.
So there was no direct solution. I need to work carefully to achieve what I want.
On one hand, I had the core features, which were the easiest. Ravel's template had shown me that.
I could take the templates, merge them into my Reality Marble with ease, and make them permanent one after another. The traits of the pillar clans weren't mutually exclusive; otherwise, the devils wouldn't be so insistent on unions between pillar devils in the hope of producing offspring with both traits, as the Phenex and Gremory clans were with Riser and Rias.
I can visit different people and get the templates easily. I can get the Phenex, Bael, and Sitri traits right away, and the other Pillars' traits if I take a chance.
Now, all other races were the problem.
There were many redundancies and contradictions if different races were indiscriminately combined. So I had to work template by template. I took a deep breath as I grabbed a template of my body as it was now and projected it onto my Reality Marble.
Now came the most complicated part. I had to take each template, find the trait I wanted, isolate it, map its connections, discard everything useless from the template, and leave only the isolated trait within my Reality Marble.
Then I would have to take my own template, place it on my body and overlay it, find and eliminate contradictions, stabilize the rest of the system, recalibrate my entire biology to adjust for the new traits, and much more to prevent it from collapsing.
Especially because some features didn't exist in isolation; there were organs involved, energy flows, magical or even conceptual connections that couldn't be touched, that had to be perfectly positioned so that nothing would go wrong.
I had the necessary biological knowledge to achieve this; several of my templates were specialists in biology. Rashek, Mustang, The Traveler, and even Emiya, to some extent, and several of them also knew how to manipulate souls. So, that, along with all the necessary information my Reality Marble had already provided about the templates and their biology, was simply a matter of identifying the traits and isolating them.
But even with all the knowledge, manipulating it so perfectly was nearly impossible through normal means. There were subtle details that, if overlooked, could result in a catastrophic error during template merging. Everything had to be done with extraordinary precision. One small mistake could cause internal mutations, loss of ability, progressive degradation, and even complete rejection.
And there was something I could do to achieve it.
The Six Eyes.
The ability to see down to the tiniest detail, both physically and magically, along with perfect control over my magic and other powers, was the perfect tool for dissecting the templates and separating the traits I needed most effectively.
So I let The Six Eyes unleash its full potential, and I immediately felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. My brain still wasn't used to the amount of information it had to absorb each time I let my eyes take it in, even though my brain was enhanced.
Riveria's eyes had greatly enhanced her brain, increasing her capacity to use The Six Eyes with greater ease; she was already rapidly becoming accustomed to them and would eventually reach the point where she could keep them always active.
I improved my brain in the same way and fixed it with The Darkness, with the help of GLaDOS, by scanning and separating everything. My brain was much more robust than a normal brain. Even so, the Six Eyes were still able to push an amount of information that overloaded my brain with everything I could observe with them.
The world didn't just get brighter... denser, it got much denser.
As if reality had always been a blurry painting, and suddenly, someone had turned the focus to infinity.
The air ceased to be air; it was now a swarm. Millions of suspended particles floated in invisible currents: dust, spores, fragments of skin, tiny organisms that drifted slowly in an ocean that humans called emptiness. Each with its own inertia, its own small destiny.
Even my own skin was terribly different; it was no longer skin, it was a landscape, microscopic folds, pores open like tiny craters, bacteria moving from one side to the other.
And superimposed on all of that… was magic. Demonic power, the light, the darkness, magic, any supernatural energy present in this world appeared with such definition that I could almost touch it.
They shone like a stain of incongruous and nonexistent colors; they were not defined by any light or by the eye, so their colors did not really exist. Only I saw them that way, because it was the only way my brain could interpret them, nothing more and nothing less.
Each one of them had its own characteristic; each one beat, as if they had their own pulse, it seemed almost biological, but they were different from each other.
The demonic power seemed like a dense, dark tide, laden with desires and sins; it seemed to exert its own pressure, warping the air, even though I could see it wasn't there, as if the particles were somehow bowing to the demonic power.
Magic, on the other hand, was thinner, like very fine lines, almost docile, calm, and tranquil on the surface; it could be easily wielded and moved in step with other things, but underneath, there was a rigidity, a hidden brute and ancient force that made it impossible to underestimate magic.
The Light almost seemed iridescent; it was as if space itself were becoming more stable as probabilities collapsed into favorable states—it was almost like seeing hope take physical form. The Darkness, on the other hand, was the opposite: reduction, darkness, where the world became simpler, as if everything were moving with unsettling efficiency, as if the universe had decided to eliminate all that was unnecessary.
I almost shuddered at the last part. I focused on my eyes again.
I could push it further, I could feel that I could push my vision even further, or improve it, I could use my metals to push my vision to another level, to a level to see even more deeply into the universe around me, but I was sure that if I started seeing atoms, my brain would fry immediately.
I blinked several times to try to get my bearings, but it didn't help. My eyelids were barely covering my vision. My eyesight was completely clear, so closing them was pointless.
I tried to take a deep breath and slowly looked around. I stopped at a steaming cauldron as I watched it stir on its own. I couldn't help but focus on it.
Bad, it was bad, bad, bad, bad.
I approached immediately, removed the enchantments that held them, and began stirring manually while staring intently at the potion. No, no, no.
Why had I thought it was perfect when it was so wrong? The combination wasn't right, the stirring technique wasn't correct, and the number of turns was off. I could see how they combined, how the magic interacted between the ingredients, and the easiest way to deal with them, so I corrected them.
And that wasn't the only one. I continued correcting the potions with a precision that only the Six Eyes could achieve. The ability to see magic at such an almost atomic level was ridiculous, but it wasn't something I could ignore now that I could see it.
Oh, when I had barely obtained the Six Eyes, I had already used them to try to improve the potions, and I knew the difference between the 'perfect' creation that I could normally achieve, and the 'perfect' one that could be achieved with the Six Eyes.
But at that time, I hadn't had time to properly experiment and research; I couldn't dedicate myself to all the potions in my head. So it had only been a few small and poor tests.
Here, I was surrounded by potions, recipe books, and ingredients waiting to be used, and I let myself be carried away by it all, regardless of what I had been doing a few minutes ago and the origin of the problem I wanted to solve; at this moment, it didn't matter.
I pulled out a notebook and started scribbling, crossing out old notes and creating new ones. Bad, bad, bad, crossed out over crossed out. My eyes would admit nothing but perfection in my potions, and neither would I.
I could feel the hours and days passing as I prepared potion after potion. The pain at the back of my head had remained most of the time, but it slowly subsided; I ignored it; the potions were more important.
"Could it be?" I paused for a few moments at the voice, clicked my tongue. The integration between both ingredients shifted slightly; I turned the spoon 3mm more, and it returned to perfection.
" Yes, Ravel? " I asked without looking up.
"Are you...bleeding?" Ravel asked, confused. I paused once more before looking up. The potion would survive. I stared at Ravel, puzzled. I saw her with my Six Eyes and couldn't help but be captivated. Her face was marked with tiny lines, small creases in her skin that I hadn't noticed before, now easily visible. So many secrets I hadn't seen before, and they were terribly endearing.
Her magic felt so warm, comforting, like an enormous blaze capable of consuming the world—it was beautiful! Her eyes, too; I memorized them completely, every texture of her iris tissue, every fold, every crypt of the iris I could see, the colors she displayed in depth, had me completely mesmerized.
"You're beautiful." I let out a sigh. Ravel stopped stiffly, blushed slightly before shaking herself and looking at me with an almost horrified expression. She ran over, took out a small handkerchief, and placed it over my nose.
"What were you doing to bleed like that?! There's blood all over the floor!" Ravel exclaimed, almost panicking. I blinked almost glassily and looked down at the floor.
Oh… that was a lot of blood. The whole floor was covered in blood; my boots had left marks in it, a lot of dried blood at the bottom, and more fresh blood on top. There was definitely a lot more blood than I would get from bleeding several people dry.
All around me was a jumble of floating books, countless tables and desks covered in books and papers, lots of ink written on them, diagrams upon diagrams, annotations and corrections everywhere. There were also a great many cauldrons of steaming potions and flasks of finished and labeled potions. It was a complete mess.
"Oh... my brain was bleeding for... 18 days." I said absentmindedly while glancing at the clock on the wall. Ravel stopped momentarily and looked at me, almost horrified.
"Are you an idiot?!" exclaimed Ravel, sounding genuinely worried.
"No? My gold kept me constantly healing." I said almost casually, which was a mistake judging by Ravel's glare. I grimaced. "I'm sorry, I... I didn't realize I was bleeding. I was conducting experiments. I needed the Six Eyes, and they pushed my brain to its limit, and I started bleeding. Then I just... lost track of it." I explained honestly. I blinked and looked around. I saw one of the books next to me, along with an Evil Piece that I had apparently taken from my inventory.
The notes on the Evil Pieces were there, complete. My mind caught up, and all the information I'd gathered from them came flooding back. I was… curious. I'd created a potion for succubi, and the answer lay in the crystals the Evil Pieces were made of. I put it aside, put away the papers and the piece.
I delved deeper into my thoughts and saw the race templates; they were completely unraveled, as if dissected piece by piece in a terrifying way. I could see each trait separated, those I needed and those I didn't; even something as simple as a hearing enhancement had been separated and prepared.
At one point, I could even feel GLaDOS helping me with enormous calculations and precision above my mind.
I... I really got carried away, didn't I?
"Sera!" Ravel shouted, making me jump once again. I looked at her, confused, while Ravel glared at me, arms crossed, tapping her foot. I smiled awkwardly as my cheeks flushed.
"I'm sorry," I said timidly. Ravel just sighed.
"You really need to take better care of yourself, especially when you're experiencing things in a time bubble," Ravel scolded me as she came over and finished cleaning my nose. I blinked; the bleeding was much less than it had been a couple of days ago.
My brain had strengthened enough to partially withstand the strain on my eyes; though it wasn't perfect yet, it was better than nothing. I let my Six Eyes power decrease; I almost shuddered when I started to see everything blurry again, even though I had a quarter of the full power of Six Eyes and could see much better than ever.
Luckily, my nose stopped bleeding, and Ravel was able to clean me completely.
"That's time to leave your lab," she said simply. I just nodded. "You have some meetings. You told me to look for you when it's time," Ravel clarified again.
"Of course, once again, I'm sorry," I said simply, waving my hand and wiping away all the blood from the floor. Then I waved it once more, and all the papers were perfectly arranged. I grabbed the book with the potion I was creating and put it in my inventory. "Shall we?" I asked gently. Ravel just sighed.
"Let's go." she said simply as she dragged me out of the lab.
" So, time to get down to business. You mentioned I had some meetings to catch up on? " I asked Ravel curiously as we left the mansion.
Now, just as Ravel had said, she had a few small matters to resolve before opening the Magical World. Since that world couldn't alter the time difference, I had to resolve them now before possibly spending weeks in the Magical World.
Ravel nodded as she took out a small notebook.
"Of course, there are several people who wanted to meet with you. In order of importance, they are: Lord Beelzebub wanted a meeting with you in his laboratory. When I said that you were traveling, he didn't insist; he simply said to come when you had time, but it had something to do with succubi, I think."
"Lady Leviathan had been insisting on an initial meeting for the K-Pop Demon Hunter series. Enid has been preparing everything, but we needed you for the songs. She wants to see if the songs are really up to par, so expect a performance."
"Maria wanted to ask some questions about how to handle the situation in Wallachia and the succubi going into the human world. It seems we're getting more of an influx from the other pantheons and supernatural beings; your defeat against Kokabiel and the White Dragon drew attention to them, and they're hanging around our territory. They're not causing any problems, but Maria needs some guidance on how to deal with them."
"Marion has sent several messages asking about her performance as Loki. Despite my repeated messages that her performance was excellent, she wants confirmation from you."
"Maomao, Sucy, and Sotheby are asking when their next potions lesson will be. Jester wanted your opinion on some new inventions she's created, as well as an evaluation of her magic for portraits and magical photos."
"Speaking of which, after investigating and comparing, I contacted a chocolate house in the Astaroth territory for the creation of the chocolate frogs. I just need your final decision. They will receive us at any time for a taste test, then the contract can be signed."
"Rias and Sona sent messages; they want a meeting with you to thank you for everything with Kokabiel and Vali. Once again, I messaged them saying you were busy, but they still kept insisting."
"And there are 5 other minor meetings, 3 of them involve the city, Lucius is more aware of them, so he'll fill you in, another is a matter related to the sale of potions, and the last one with the city police, although I'm sure Bella can handle that last one."
"And that would be all," Ravel said, closing her notebook. I looked at her incredulously and almost wanted to groan loudly.
"I was gone for only four days and got one day off! Why is there so much going on?! " I asked incredulously before running my hand wearily over my face. "Great, just what I needed. I leave meetings, only to be thrust into more meetings." I groaned. Ravel seemed unfazed.
"With all due respect, it's your fault for practically conquering an entire world," Ravel said dryly. I pouted before stopping. I saw Ravel's cheeks flush slightly and smiled broadly.
"Oh? You like that I've conquered a world? " I asked huskily. Ravel blushed even more deeply. She had glared at me, a look that didn't have much effect as she blushed.
"I'm a devil," Ravel finally said, lifting her chin. I chuckled. I suppose so; if there was any race excited by power, it was definitely devils. In fact, almost all supernatural beings in this world were drawn to strength, and I suppose conquering a world fell under that definition.
"By the way, Astaroth? Do they make chocolate?" I asked dryly as I took pity on her and changed the subject; Ravel just nodded.
"Not them directly, but within their territory, this chocolate shop is under the control of Astaroth, specifically Latia," Ravel said easily, and I nodded.
"Better yet. If I had to deal with Diodora, I'm sure I'd kill him in a few minutes," I said dryly. Ravel nodded. Finally, I sighed. "Alright, let's get this over with," I said wearily.
"It's better to do it now; afterwards, you'll be away for a while, for your wedding, right? " Ravel asked casually. I wrinkled my nose.
"Yes. I don't think it'll be more than a month, I think. By the way, when's the young devils' meeting? I'll be coming around often anyway; I don't think I could spend a month in the magical world without getting bored, but it'll be good to have a schedule." I said easily. Ravel just nodded.
"Actually, there are several important things. In two weeks, at the beginning of July, there's a peace conference in Kuoh. You might be invited to attend as the person responsible for stopping Kokabiel."
"There isn't an exact date yet for the young devils' meeting, but it will definitely be at the end of July or the beginning of August, so yes, there's a whole month until your presence is absolutely required," Ravel said easily, and I just nodded.
"Very well, then let's go to Ajuka. Did he mention a date for the meeting?" I asked curiously. Ravel just cleared her throat and shook her head.
"No, he simply told you to go to his lab anytime," Ravel said easily. I nodded. I created a portal and stepped through it. Ravel followed immediately—time to see Ajuka.
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