An entire week passed in the blink of an eye. However, in the outside world, only about an hour had gone by thanks to the absurd difference in time flow inside the [World Where I Can Personify God].
During those seven days, Mio, Maria, and Ravel were practically dragged through a true hell of training.
Alear's methods were brutal.
Exhausting.
At times, even cruel.
The three of them came close to giving up countless times throughout the week. There were moments when they could barely stand, situations where both their bodies and minds had clearly reached their limits, and even occasions where they seriously began questioning whether that could still be called "training."
But Alear… was an excellent teacher.
Or, at the very least, an excellent "motivator."
Whenever one of them seemed on the verge of completely breaking down, he always found some way to push them one step further, whether through words, pressure, provocations, or simply by placing them in situations where giving up stopped being an option.
And in the end…
It worked.
Beyond the increase in physical strength across every aspect, Demonic Power control, magical mastery, and combat experience, the three of them ended up strengthening something even more important:
Their own willpower.
Their determination had grown drastically during that hellish week.
That day, shortly after noon, in the center of a vast plain now covered in craters, cracks, and deep marks of destruction, Maria was fighting with absolutely everything she had. In her [Succubus Form], which she could now maintain for hours without major difficulty after the hellish week of training, her attacks had become incredibly powerful compared to last week. Her silver hair was partially stuck to her face and neck because of sweat, while her eyes shone intensely, filled with fierce determination.
Even completely exhausted, she continued advancing without hesitation.
In front of her, Alear remained standing calmly, attentively observing every movement the girl made while she unleashed a brutal barrage of attacks against him.
"Haah… Haah…!"
Maria punched and kicked relentlessly, using the explosive and aggressive combat style Alear himself had taught her throughout that week. Every strike carried monstrous force. Whenever one of her punches accidentally hit the ground, a crater several meters wide instantly opened. A side kick was powerful enough to easily shatter a rock several times larger than her own body.
And yet…
Alear blocked everything using only two wooden chopsticks.
And the reason for that was absurdly simple.
He had literally just finished lunch before training began....
.....In fact, he initially had no intention of fighting seriously. However, the moment Maria charged forward confidently in her [Succubus Form], he simply decided to keep holding the chopsticks instead of using his fists....
But, as always…
That quickly became part of the training.
With a calm and almost bored expression, he dodged, intercepted, and redirected each of her attacks using minimal and absurdly precise movements. Whenever Maria left an opening, especially posture flaws, excessive force, or predictable movements, he struck specific points on her body using only the tips of the chopsticks.
The hits didn't cause serious damage, but they hurt a lot....
If it had been a week ago, Maria would have been whining and unable to get back up because of the pain, but she
And they were precise enough to completely interrupt her flow of movement and instantly throw off her balance.
The objective was simple: engrave that pain directly into her body.
Create muscle memory through instinct.
Alear wanted Maria to learn not to leave those openings so deeply that, in the future, her body would react automatically before her mind even realized the mistake. After all, in a real fight, a single opening could mean instant death.
BOOOOM!!
Maria was sent flying once again, her body rolling across the dirt before she finally managed to stand up with difficulty.
Her chest rose and fell rapidly while her entire body glistened with sweat. Her partially destroyed clothes clung tightly to her skin, but even completely exhausted, her violet eyes still burned with determination.
Then she smiled fiercely.
And charged at Alear again without hesitating for even a moment, her feet blasting against the ground with explosive force as she closed the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Haaah!"
She unleashed a brutal sequence: a fast straight punch, followed by a powerful cross, a left hook, and a spinning low kick.
Alear remained almost completely motionless, the two wooden chopsticks spinning between his fingers like natural extensions of his body.
Tap. Tap. Crack.....
He intercepted the jab with one chopstick, redirected the cross with the other, and blocked the following hook with his own elbow, completely nullifying the impact before the force could even fully form.
The instant Maria's low kick tore through the air toward his leg, Alear explosively rotated his body and perfectly executed [Bajiquan]. His foot slid across the destroyed ground while all the power in his body concentrated into a single short and devastating movement. Shoulders, waist, hips, and legs aligned perfectly in a compact explosion of force.
Then—
BAM!!
The chopstick struck directly at Maria's balance point through a [Beng Quan].
Even using nothing more than a small piece of wood, the impact felt like a sledgehammer exploding against her center of gravity. Maria's entire posture instantly collapsed, the flow of force through her legs was interrupted, and her own body lost stability mid-motion.
"—Kh!!"
Her violet eyes widened.
Before she could regain her balance, Alear had already stepped further inside her guard.
Tak! Tak! Tak!
The tips of the chopsticks rapidly struck three different points around Maria's shoulder, ribs, and abdomen, each blow precise enough to trigger sharp pain and momentarily lock her muscles.
Then came the final impact.
BOOOOM!!
Alear unleashed an explosive shoulder strike using pure [Bajiquan], hitting Maria head-on and violently launching her across the destroyed plain. Her body spun through the air before landing on her feet, sliding several meters through the dirt while carving two deep marks into the cracked ground.
Without giving her time to catch her breath, Alear advanced once more.
His movements were completely different from hers—short, compact, and devastating, like concentrated explosions at close range. A single sudden step instantly erased the distance between them before he executed a [Pi Gua], a descending cutting strike using the chopstick as an extension of his palm.
Tak!!
Maria quickly raised her forearms to block the attack, but before she could stabilize her posture, Alear had already connected a [Liu He]. The so-called "Six Harmonies" perfectly aligned shoulder, elbow, and wrist into a single explosive flow of force through his fist.
BAM!!
The impact partially pierced through her guard and struck directly against her shoulder, violently spinning Maria's body to the side.
She reacted immediately.
Using the momentum of her own rotation, Maria launched a high roundhouse kick aimed directly at his head.
WHOOOSH!!
Alear simply leaned his body backward in an almost impossible motion, letting her heel pass mere centimeters from his face before instantly counterattacking with a [Zhou Da].
The explosive elbow strike emerged without any unnecessary movement. The chopstick served as an extension of the impact while the elbow brutally struck Maria's ribs.
CRACK!
Maria spat saliva mixed with a bit of blood, but used the impact itself to continue rotating her body. Immediately afterward, she launched a double spinning kick, her heel slicing through the air with a sharp and dangerous whistle.
SHRIEEEEK!!
This time, Alear did not dodge.
He simply planted his feet into the ground and assumed the characteristic stance of [Bajiquan], keeping his body firm and stable like an immovable mountain while crossing the two chopsticks in front of himself to receive the impact directly.
BOOOOOOM!!
The collision generated a visible shockwave that exploded across the plain, violently cracking the ground around Alear's feet.
Maria's eyes widened.
It felt as though she had kicked an absolute steel wall.
Before Maria could retreat, Alear rapidly rotated the chopsticks, trapping her ankle for a brief instant before violently pulling her forward while advancing at the same time.
Then came a brutal [Jian Kao].
BOOOOM!!
The shoulder strike hit directly against Maria's abdomen with absurd explosive force, concentrating the full destructive power of [Bajiquan] into a single close-range impact.
"Guh—!!"
Her violet eyes widened instantly as all the air was ripped from her lungs.
Maria was launched like a projectile across the destroyed plain, flying nearly twenty meters before colliding against the ground and violently rolling through the dirt, carving a small trench with her own body.
CRAAAAASH!!
Rocks, dust, and fragments of earth exploded around her.
"...Haah… Haah… Haah…"
Maria tried to stand up immediately.
Her arms trembled violently. Her legs were too weak to support her own weight. Her entire body was covered in sweat, dirt, and small reddish marks left behind by the precise strikes of the chopsticks.
Even so, her violet eyes still burned intensely with determination.
She was determined to win.
Or at least land a single hit.
After all, at that point, it wasn't just pride anymore.
It was her dream.
For the sake of her dream of recording her beloved Alear-sama and Mio-sama during their first time, she needed to keep fighting until the very end! She had to land at least one hit on him in order to fulfill the promise Alear had made at the start of training. Land a single hit. And her dream would come true.
Alear slowly lowered the chopsticks, looking at Maria with a slight nod of approval.
"Your close combat has improved a lot. Your reflexes, offensive pressure, and transitions between boxing and kickboxing are already at a genuinely good level..." he commented calmly before raising one of the chopsticks and pointing it at her. "But you still put too much weight into your finishing blows. Whenever you try to end a combo, your center of gravity becomes compromised for a moment. That leaves you exposed."
Maria panted lightly while staring at him.
Sweat ran down her face.
Her arms trembled.
But her violet eyes still burned intensely.
"It's not over yet, Alear-sama!"
BOOM!!
Before she even finished speaking, Maria charged forward again.
The earth exploded beneath her feet as she vanished from her previous position in a brutal burst of speed. Her right fist came first in a quick jab to test his guard, immediately followed by a heavy cross aimed at his face.
Tak! Tak!
The chopsticks intercepted both strikes with absurd precision.
But this time, Maria didn't stop.
She violently twisted her hips and unleashed a sequence of attacks far more fluid than before, mixing short punches with low kicks from difficult angles.
Whoosh! BAM! WHOOSH!!
Alear slightly raised an eyebrow.
She really was improving in the middle of the fight.
Several dozen meters away, sitting on the ground and equally exhausted, Mio and Ravel watched attentively.
Mio's breathing was heavy, her black top torn apart and her leggings in rags, dirt and sweat marks covering her skin. Her large breasts visibly rose and fell as she caught her breath. Ravel wasn't in much better condition, her lilac-and-gold outfit dirty and ripped in several places, her blonde hair disheveled, but her blue eyes still shone with focus as she analyzed every movement.
"Maria… is pushing herself too hard...." Ravel murmured, almost out of breath.
Mio merely nodded, her eyes fixed on the fight.
At the center of the field, Alear redirected another powerful kick from Maria using a chopstick, struck two precise points on her ribs and shoulder, then spun her body through the air before slamming her onto the ground once more with a dull impact.
THUD!
Maria fell onto her back, her body trembling from exhaustion, but soon planted her hands against the ground, trying to stand once again. Her violet eyes still burned with determination, even though her legs were visibly shaking.
Alear lowered the chopsticks and looked at her with a slight nod of approval.
"You've improved a lot in controlling your strength. But you're still wasting too much energy in your attacks. That's enough for now....."
Maria let her body fall back onto the ground again, panting heavily, a tired yet proud smile on her face.
"…I'll still… hit you someday… Alear-sama…"
"You only have one more week left, so... do your best!" Alear said in a calm and casual tone. Without waiting for a response, he raised his right hand. A soft pink glow enveloped the three girls simultaneously as he used [Status Recovery] like always.
Within seconds, every bruise, cut, muscle ache, and extreme fatigue completely disappeared. Their bodies returned to peak condition, as if the entire day of hellish training had never happened. The three of them were already used to the sensation since they had experienced it hundreds of times throughout the week. It was impressive, but no longer surprising...
Maria sat down on the ground, stretching her arms with a satisfied sigh.
"Uwaaah~ This never stops feeling good…"
Alear stored the chopsticks away with a casual gesture and looked at them.
"I'm going to train by myself for a while now. You three make your own food. Rest for the remainder of the day and prepare yourselves for tomorrow."
Before any of them could respond, he simply disappeared. His body dissolved like leaves in the wind, scattering into pink particles that were carried away by the breeze, completely vanishing from sight.
The three girls remained silent for a few seconds, staring at the place where he had been.
Maria was the first to speak, puffing her cheeks exaggeratedly:
"…He just disappears like that out of nowhere after destroying us the entire day. What a heartless teacher…"
Mio snorted softly, but there was a faint smile on her lips.
"…Let's eat. I'm starving."
Ravel slowly stood up, still holding the notebook against her chest, and nodded.
"Yes. Tomorrow is going to be even harder…"
__________________
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