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[Armor stacking: This is a fusion world.
The Evil Piece regulations have not yet been promulgated!
Gasper may be absent!
The Seven Shadows, aside from Alpha, will not be recruited according to the original work, and I will try to avoid OOC!] [The opening pace is relatively fast; images will occasionally be added in paragraph comments] The corridor was quiet.
Poyman scrambled and crawled his way back to the bedroom door — and stopped dead.
Karen was standing there holding a cup with both hands, taking small, careful sips of water.
Her fair cheeks were flushed an unnatural, vivid red, and the corners of her eyes still glistened with traces of moisture she hadn’t quite blinked away.
When she noticed Poyman, she set the cup down and dipped into a curtsy toward Li Ancheng.
“Master…
I-I’ll go pack the luggage now.” “Mm.” Li Ancheng nodded with a quiet laugh and reached out to ruffle Karen’s soft brown hair.
“Pack Tsubaki’s things as well.” “Yes, Master.” Karen gave an obedient nod, turned, and walked away briskly.
She passed Poyman close enough to stir a faint breeze, carrying a scent that was impossible to name or describe.
Then her footsteps stopped.
“Young Master Poyman.” “…Hm?” Poyman turned his head, confused.
Karen lifted the hem of her maid dress, raised one slender leg in its black over-the-knee sock, and kicked the wall with everything she had.
BOOM!
A thunderous crash.
That load-bearing concrete wall burst open like wet paper.
A hole nearly 2 meters across exploded outward.
Shattered rebar and chunks of rubble clattered across the floor in every direction.
The corners of Poyman’s mouth twitched.
His expression froze solid.
He stared at the hole, wide enough to walk an elephant through, then slowly, stiffly, turned his neck to look at Karen’s retreating back.
Still slender.
Still delicate.
Wait.
Karen had just been drinking water.
So what was she doing before that?
Did she swallow something?
Could it be Master’s…?!
Poyman’s pupils trembled like he was standing at the epicenter of a magnitude-ten earthquake.
That kind of thing…
Eating it produces this kind of physical enhancement?!
Are you serious?!
If even Karen had turned into a walking humanoid artillery piece…
Then what about Rurikawa Tsubaki?!
“Wait here until Rurikawa wakes up.” Li Ancheng’s flat, unhurried voice dragged Poyman back from the spiral.
Poyman’s legs went weak.
He snapped into a ninety-degree bow so fast his waist nearly folded in half, practically pressing his forehead to the floor.
“Yes!
Master!” “The school arranged for you is the nearest one — Kuoh Fusion University…” “Kuoh?” A flicker of amusement passed through Li Ancheng’s eyes.
He waved one hand casually.
“Understood.
Explain the remaining details to Rurikawa once she’s awake.” The words fell.
His figure blurred and dispersed, like a drop of ink dissolving in water, and was gone.
Poyman held his bow.
Cold sweat soaked through his back.
A full 5 minutes passed before he dared straighten up and breathe properly again.
He walked to the slightly ajar bedroom door, eased it shut without a sound, and stood beside it like the most loyal watchdog alive.
His eyes, though, kept drifting, against his will — toward that horrifying hole in the wall.
…This is absolutely insane.
…
High above, in the vast open sky.
A lone, pale moon hung overhead.
Li Ancheng’s figure solidified above the cloud layer.
His gaze turned northeast, toward a stretch of dense forest far below.
He raised his hand.
Clenched it lightly.
The entire space distorted in an instant.
A ceaselessly writhing dark-purple mass of flesh was wrenched from the crevices of space and locked in place before his eyes.
It pulsed like a grotesque, oversized heart, its surface split by countless fissures.
A dozen barbed tentacles flailed in frenzied chaos.
From one of the cracks, half a bloodshot eyeball rotated in slow, agonized circles.
“…Alpha?” “Correct?” HISS!
The sphere seemed to sense a living presence.
Several sharp tentacles erupted from its surface and drove straight at Li Ancheng’s face.
He didn’t even raise an eyelid.
The tentacles froze rigid, 3 inches from the tip of his nose.
Then, starting from the tips, they disintegrated inch by inch, dissolving into black mist and scattering on the night wind.
A piercing, inhuman psychic shriek tore out from within the sphere.
“Insolent.” Two words, delivered with perfect calm.
Every tentacle on the sphere went absolutely still.
Even its pulsing rhythm stopped.
That was no longer fear.
That was total suppression at the level of existence itself.
A single-celled organism suddenly forced to stare directly at a supernova.
It couldn’t even form the concept of what it was seeing — it could only freeze, locked in the deepest instinct of its genes.
Li Ancheng slowly extended one index finger.
A faint white light gathered at the tip.
He pressed it to the surface of the most violently writhing flesh.
“Purify.” The dark-purple mass began to contract violently.
Every aberrant tentacle retracted like a receding tide, pulling back into the body all at once.
Blood vessels reorganized.
Bones reshaped.
Skin regenerated.
3 seconds.
The sphere of flesh was gone.
In its place, a golden-haired girl knelt suspended in the open air, without a thread of clothing.
Her long hair cascaded down her smooth back like a waterfall of liquid gold.
Her skin was pale and flawless, like the finest white jade.
Her long lashes trembled, and when she finally opened her eyes, her azure pupils were full of confusion.
A cold wind swept through the heights.
She instinctively curled her legs inward and wrapped her arms around herself.
“…Uh…
D-did you…
save me?” “Mm.” Alpha heard the quiet reply from above and looked up instinctively.
She found herself gazing at a handsome young man standing in the moonlight.
His expression was calm.
He simply waved a hand.
A voluminous black robe materialized out of nothing and wrapped itself around her slender, delicate frame.
Li Ancheng didn’t look at her again.
He shifted his gaze down toward the forest below.
His sight cut straight through the layers of branches and leaves.
Down there, a boy with short black hair was wielding a sword far beyond his years, cutting through a band of thieves with cold, practiced efficiency.
“Cid Kagenou…” Li Ancheng murmured the name quietly.
The corner of his mouth curved.
The guy who topped the Tiger Vote thread for most-wanted teammate rather than friend.
Only ten years old.
He pulled his gaze back and took in the golden-haired girl before him, who had gone completely still with a dazed expression.
The body was pure.
Flawless.
But far too weak.
Fragile as a glass ornament that would shatter at the first touch.
And he had neither the time nor the patience to babysit a child.
“My name is Li Ancheng.” “From this moment forward, your name is Alpha.” He raised his hand and pressed his palm to her forehead.
The next second, the Law of Time rippled outward from his palm in widening rings.
Time began to accelerate.
“Ancheng…” Alpha opened her mouth to speak.
Her body lurched.
The entire world seemed to slam into fast-forward.
Only she was left behind, thrown headlong into the current of time.
Cells divided in a frenzy.
Bones lengthened and grew.
Her childlike frame shot upward at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Her figure filled out into full, graceful curves.
The stunning beauty unique to elves unfurled completely.
In the span of a few short breaths, she crossed years of time, from a young girl into a cool, poised young woman.
[Image / Eighteen years old this year~] But it didn’t end there.
The instant the acceleration stopped, a second force followed immediately behind.
Not magic.
Something more fundamental than that.
Li Ancheng used the Law of Darkness to brand a mark deep inside her body.
Even if this elven form could currently hold only one billionth of the Law’s true power, that was still enough to place her above the vast majority of the strong in this world.
And there was no upper limit.
The power would continue to unseal without end as she fought.
In the blink of an eye, the transformation was complete.
A dark, teardrop-shaped mark surfaced slowly on Alpha’s smooth forehead, then faded beneath her skin.
Alpha felt the terrifying power surging through her.
It was nothing like the magic she had ever known before, more primal, more direct.
A single thought was all it took to move it like her own hand.
“…Brother Ancheng?” Her voice had completely shed its former dryness and childlike pitch.
What came out was clear and magnetic, carrying the quiet resonance of someone grown.
She stared at her now-slender fingers, her eyes wide with shock.
“Calling me brother is fine.” Li Ancheng withdrew his hand with a light laugh.
“I have no family in this world.” “Would you be willing to become my first family here?” Alpha drew a slow breath and straightened in the open air.
She pressed her right hand solemnly over her heart and bowed deeply.
“If this is your will…” “Then Alpha shall obey.” “I will be the sword in your hand, cutting down everything in your path.
I will protect you, brother.
I will help our family grow…” She paused.
“This world is not exactly safe, after all.” Li Ancheng smiled.
A quiet, understated smile.
It was enough to send a warmth spreading through Alpha’s chest.
“I have no need for anyone’s protection.
But I like the sentiment.” “From this moment on, you are…” “The Grand Steward of the Demon Court.” “Understood!
Brother!” Alpha’s heart leaped.
She bowed again, respectful and precise.
The words had barely left her lips when her brows furrowed slightly.
She snapped her head toward the night sky to the side.
Ink-black Law luminescence bloomed and swirled around her entire body.
Far off in the distant sky, an enormous surge of magic power was approaching at high speed, carrying an aura of raw destruction and making no attempt whatsoever to hide it.
“Brother.” “Don’t bother.
Let’s go.” Li Ancheng shook his head with a smile.
The Crimson-Haired Ruin Princess.
Moves fast, he had to admit.
He waved one hand.
Together, he and Alpha dissolved into the night and were gone without a trace.
The next second, a deep crimson light descended onto the exact spot where they had been standing.
It gradually faded.
Rias Gremory’s figure emerged beneath the moonlight.
Her crimson hair fell in a cascade all the way down to her hips.
The Kuoh Academy uniform she wore was stretched taut over a figure that was, frankly, absurd.
A pair of black devil wings spread from her back, and the Power of Destruction churned visibly around her.
“Strange…” Rias furrowed her brows, azure eyes sweeping across the empty night sky in every direction.
“I clearly felt a powerful surge of energy.
How could it simply disappear?” She closed her eyes.
Her nostrils flared slightly as she drew in a long, slow breath.
“What a domineering power…” Rias opened her eyes.
The corner of her mouth curved into a confident smile, layered with the desire to conquer.
“It doesn’t matter that you ran.
The moment you show that power again, I will find you…” “My next servant will absolutely be you.” …
In the dense forest below.
Cid was about to flick the blood from his blade when, as if touched by some instinct, he raised his head and looked up at the night sky.
A streak of scarlet light flashed through the clouds and was gone.
All that remained was the bleak, solitary moon and a few wisps of thin cloud.
“Hm?” Cid frowned.
He muttered quietly to himself.
“…Was that my imagination?” ➤ Next: The Demon Court Gains Another Core Member, The Exiled Nun