Tale of Discovery

Chapter 62: Battle in the Arena

I wake up to the sound of my alarm blaring. Irritated, I swiftly stopped it.

Right... I have to go to school...

Opening my eyes, I see Sora sleeping soundly beside me. It's like the sound of the alarm didn't reach her ears at all.

Well, I can't judge her for that, as she must be quite tired after yesterday night's... game.

As I raise my body from the bed, I suddenly recall what happened before I fell asleep.

Why did Juno make contact with me after so long? I kind of feel guilty that I am thinking of this so objectively, but I've got no choice.

"Juno," I say.

Several minutes pass and I still get no response. She hears me speaking to her right? The spiritual connection and all that.

Putting that aside, I think of what she said to me. If I'm not mistaken, it was related to an arena? I remember her speaking of something like that back in Project Charlotte.

Why did it get unsealed so abruptly? She had said something along the lines of it being unlocked once its time is due.

Irene.

{Yes, Father?}

Tell me everything you know about the Arena.

{Affirmative. The Arena is a place where Father can train those that wish to get stronger. In there, all damage is taken mentally. In other words, even if someone dies in the Arena, they'll be exhausted for at most 6 hours outside. Also, there is no specific location for the Arena, and may vary from time to time.}

{Father can make use of the Arena in several ways. One of them is taking inhabitants of the Platform or the Rift Father is in. The other is related to the Knowledge of the Tales.}

She stops her explanation. I'm going to assume she doesn't have anything more to say.

What I understood from her explanation is that I can make use of the Arena to bea-, I mean train Rias and her peerage.

The same thing goes for my Angels. Now, the only thing that's left is finding out how the Arena operates.

So... how do I access it?

{Father must simply say "Arena" while thinking of it.}

"Arena," I say.

The next moment, my vision blips as I find myself somewhere unfamiliar. It seems to be a city. The question is, from where?

Suddenly, a floating system window appears before me, and written on it are three words. Two of them all unclear to the point that they are unreadable.

"Calling," I mutter as I stare at the only readable word.

Right after my muttering, another system window pops up. Written on it are the words,

"Call upon those that you wish to train."

Well then,

"My Angels."

It doesn't take a second before I get a reply from all three,

"Yes, All-Father!"

I suddenly feel some kind of stream of knowledge flowing into my brain as I learn how to operate the Arena with it. After a while, I say,

"Be prepared for being summoned."

In response, I get a collective "Understood."

--

Raising my right arm, I channel my general Essence Energy through my arms as I focus on a spot in front of me.

A few seconds later, motes of light begin to take form out of nowhere and proceed to take the shape of three humanoid figures.

Once the materialization process is done, I find my Angels kneeling before me. Upon further examination, I see that they seem to have excited looks.

Oh, right. I need to reward them for following their orders well during the battle against those pathetic excuses of a Devil.

"My Angels, I'm going to introduce you guys to a method of training that should increase your strength substantially. However, before that, I have decided to reward you for your performance during yesterday's battle."

My words seem to be nothing but bliss to them as their excitement keeps on growing.

"What reward do you seek?" I ask them because I literally have no idea what would be considered a good reward for them.

Hopefully, they won't ask for anything absurd.

I look toward Raynare, indicating that she is the first one. She immediately gets up and stands straight before gracefully walking closer to me and kneeling once again before saying,

"This one wishes to feel All-Father's power."

Intrigued by her request, I ask her, "How would you like to feel it?"

She immediately responds, "All-Father's energy guided through the hands."

Is that all?

Well, she asked for it, so she's going to get it. Thus, I begin to circulate my Holy Essence within my right hand before placing it on her head.

The next moment, the respectful look on Raynare's face is replaced with a look of euphoria as if she is going through the most pleasurable thing in the world.

Feeling her soft hair, I'm tempted to go further than that, so I do it.

Slowly moving my hand down to her cheek, I lightly pinch it. Raynare instantly has an otherworldly feel to her as if she has ascended to a new realm.

I don't know why, but I feel like it's dangerous to keep on going, so I swiftly pull my hand back from her face.

That doesn't seem to affect her, as she is still in a daze with the incomprehensible complexion still visible on her face.

Ignoring her, I turn my head towards Kalawarner.

Unlike the arrogant and spiteful look she had when she first saw me, she now has a look of worship and excitement as she notices my gaze on her. Aware that it's her turn, she makes her wish,

"This one would like to serve All-Father by massaging His body."

Immediately after she utters those words, Raynare breaks from her stupor and turns her head at a speed that's comparable to my casual jogging, while Mittelt looks at her from the side wide-eyed.

What's with those reactions. It's like she has asked for the most absurd thing ever. However, isn't her request more of a reward for me than her?

I take a look at Kalawarner's body and see how good her figure is. Then, I move my sight to her huge breasts. Yeah... this girl massaging me is definitely a reward for myself.

"Very well," I simply say.

Finally, I move my sight to Mittelt who has a complicated look on her face. After a few seconds, she seems to make up her mind as she takes a very, very deep breath before saying,

"This one wishes to call All-Father 'papa'."

The world immediately seems to freeze as I feel dark energy seeping out from Raynare and Kalawarner who are both looking at Mittelt with disbelief.

Her request is a rather strange one, but I don't believe that it would have any other consequences other than earning me a few questionable looks from others. Besides, she looks like a child, so it's rather suitable.

"Granted," I say.

Raynare suddenly looks crestfallen. Who am I kidding? There is no way I haven't realized what's going on.

In the long term, Raynare has lost out quite a lot in this little exchange. However, I'm not going to let one of my cute Angels be sad,

"Raynare, from now on, you are to let me pat your head and play with your cheeks whenever I want to."

This has the immediate effect of her expression going from complete despair to bliss, while the others' brows twitch.

Everyone wins in this. Especially me.

Well then, time to try out the Arena. Why is this place called an Arena if it's a city?

"My Angels, fight me."

They immediately prepare for combat as they materialize their weapons and extend their wings, however, suddenly something unexpected issues.

Raynare who is standing with her weapon, ready for battle, suddenly utters a yelp as a new pair of pure-white wings protrudes from her back.

She gets on her knees as the aura around her begins to change.

Mittelt and Kalawarner both have an expression of jealousy as they look at the new pair of wings.

I remember Koneko saying something about individuals with more power having more wings. So, I assume that the Raynare right now is going through a process similar to "powering up".

After a while, Raynare recollects herself and gets up from the ground before saying,

"This one apologizes for delaying All-Father."

Waving my hand in front of me, I say in a dismissive tone,

"It's fine. I'm sure that you will make up for the time lost by showing me your process."

My words seem to ignite a flame in all three pairs of eyes as the aura they give off changes from "I will prove my worth" to "Nothing can stop me from achieving glory".

Let's start.

---3rd POV---

Flying through the air, Victor creates several ordinary swords and launches them at the Angels.

The next moment, Victor is pleasantly surprised when he sees his Angels casually dodge them despite the velocity of the swords.

Next, he wants to use flames as a form of attack and see how they would react to it, but before he can do so, the Angels fly separately.

Raynare is flying straight towards him, while the other two are coming at him from both sides.

A smile forms on Victor's face as golden veins begin to form on his arms. Holy Slash. Upon using it, lines made of light move at an extreme speed towards all three of them.

Mittelt barely dodges one, cutting her arm, while Kalawarner and Raynare both dodge it perfectly.

The smile on Victor's face grows as he mutters, "Truly worthless. My Angels alone can easily wipe them out."

He then prepares to get serious as he looks at the double-winged Raynare coming at him with pride.

---1st POV---

It took a while for our battle to be done. However, it was worth it. Looking at the girls who are worn out, I feel proud of their progress.

They all have incredible potential. It makes me wonder what the reason for them becoming Fallen Angels was in the first place.

In the little skirmish of ours, I didn't go all out, but they were nevertheless much better than anyone I've faced up until now, excluding Ddraig.

Looking at Mittelt who has a couple of scratches on her arms, I use Telekinesis to lift her and place her on my lap.

Then, I begin to heal her up using my left hand while using the other to play with her squishy cheeks.

Honestly, I can make my Angels train Rias's peerage and it would still be extremely effective. I mean, they successfully beat them up before, and now after going through this battle, their skills have grown.

I would be surprised if it didn't, as they fought against someone much more powerful than themselves.

Leaving that aside, this Arena sure is interesting.

During the battle, some of the buildings were "fakes" that didn't exist physically. As for the other buildings, they were even more interesting as if they broke, they would regenerate after exactly 10 minutes.

This can mean a lot for training, as you will learn how to time attacks and learn how to make use of the environment by memorizing the "fake" buildings.

"Papa...", suddenly Mittelt who's lying on my lap mutters.

They're such good girls... Unlike a certain someone. I'm planning to get them to train here right after school today.

Oh, crap. Forgot about school. But, what do I do with the girls? Will me leaving cause them to be forcefully ejected or something?

{Negative. However, they will be stuck here, unless Father grants one of them a little authority to get in and out of the Arena. Perhaps, also call others in and out of it.}

Yeah, that sounds good enough. As for the lucky one who will get the authority, it will be Raynare.

---

Opening my eyes, I find myself on the bed I left on, with Sora still deep asleep.

Checking the time, I see that it's about 10 AM.

Making sure to make no noise, I slowly move toward the door and undo the changes I had done to it yesterday night before heading to the kitchen.

There, I find everyone sitting on their seats patiently waiting for me, and perhaps Sora. It seems like they've been preventing themselves from getting bored by watching stuff.

Mainly the TV attached to the wall and the news channel on it showing off the "series of unordinary happenings in Tokyo".

"Good morning, everyone," I say.

I clear my throat by coughing once before saying, "Sora is a little exhausted, so I will just create our breakfast for today."

This immediately gains me a few pointed looks.

___Extra A/N___

Yo guys this is to clear some stuff up:

-The appearance of the MC (Rift) is basically Haru Kasuganou but with a more toned body as well as a slight increase in height.

-The appearance of the MC (Project Charlotte) is Yu Otosaka + Haru combined. Mainly taking the form of Yu Otasaka with the originally brown hair having streaks of white.

-The characters from Platforms don't "know" about this change and take it as their original appearance with little to no change.

-If a character can tell that Victor has taken over someone's body, it's most definitely going to be related to a sudden change in personality, mannerism, etc.

- So far, it is apparent that Victor has reincarnated twice.

If you have any further questions, please ask. I'll try my best to answer them without spoiling.

Good day/night.