Tale of Discovery

Walking back to where we first arrived in the Familiar Forest from, I find Sona and her peerage idling about, bored.

"Sorry it took me a while, something unexpected befell me on the way," I say once I'm close enough.

Sona seems like she wants to say something, but halts when she spots Tiamat whose hand I'm holding.

"Allow me to introduce you to my new familiar: Tiamat," I breezily say.

Tsubaki has a perplexed look on her face as she scrutinizes Tiamat from head to toe and says a little dubiously,

"No way, right?"

Turning my head to face Tiamat, I tell her,

"It seems like they don't believe that you are... you. Care to punch one of them to prove that you are? Preferably the monkey over there."

Looking at who I'm pointing at, Tiamat sees a blond-haired high schooler who's staring at her with bewilderment apparent on his face.

Seeing her not responding, I say, "Tia?"

Tiamat nods her head once and approaches him. Before Saji can react, he gets punched in the stomach with enough force to catapult him dozens of meters into the sky.

Realizing that this will take longer than necessary if I let him be, I fly in his direction to get him back, while forming the Boosted Gear.

[Boost!] (A/N: BOOSTO!!)

Feeling my strength multiply by twofold mid-air, I use Godspeed to increase my speed by "sky-jumping", producing small shockwaves every time I do so.

Once I am in front of the airborne Saji, I kick him in the guts and multiply the force several times to launch him back to where Sona and the co. are at.

Saji majestically crashes into the ground face first.

He's probably in a half-dead state right now. Better heal him up so it doesn't end here.

Landing on the ground, I ignore the looks I'm given and gift Saji with Regeneration to let him heal up.

Then, I look at Tiamat.

Hm... She agreed to come with me, but isn't there supposed to be some kind of contract binding her to me or something?

{That's correct. Father may bless her, and she will be bound.}

Bless her? That's an interesting way to put it. Anyway, how do I do it?

{Father may kiss her.}

On the lips?

{Not necessarily.}

Very well,

"Tiamat, please come over here, I wish to grant you something."

She walks toward me a little cautiously and comes to a stop once she's a few centimeters away from me.

"Kneel before me," I say.

Tiamat immediately scowls, but I don't give her the chance to say anything as I beam a smile at her and say,

"I have no ill intentions by making you do so. It's necessary."

Perhaps thinking that a powerful being such as myself wouldn't need to lie, she takes my words for granted as she VERY reluctantly kneels on one knee.

Not willing to hurt her pride more than I already have, I approach her and kiss the top of her head.

The next moment, I feel a quarter of the energy within my body being sucked out as a thin light covers Tiamat.

Several seconds later, the light fades away, leaving behind the same symbol my Angels have on Tiamat's forehead.

However, there is one thing different about the symbol. It's violet in color instead of blood-red.

Tiamat gets up to her feet and begins to punch the air randomly and inspects her own body several times.

Raising her arm, she mutters something lightly before I feel a small amount of my energy being sucked away as a beautiful sword appears on her hand.

Is that my Creation? Did she just use the power of my Creation? How?

{Father can have familiars under him. A maximum of three familiars can be kept, and they must all be inhuman. The familiars will be blessed by Father's Code itself, so they'll be able to utilize a limited part of it.}

That's rather interesting. From the looks of it, my familiars aren't able to use my powers to an extent that would affect me mid-battle unless I am rather low on energy and they use it up.

Regarding the condition of them being "inhuman", does it work if I create a body that's not of a human's and place their soul inside of it?

Irene doesn't respond to my inquiry, so I put the matter to rest.

Looking at Tiamat's face, I can see a small smile on her lips as she looks at the sword in her hand.

It seems to have been worth it.

Turning my head to face Sona who has been quietly observing everything, I say to her,

"Chess?"

Sona immediately has an extremely serious look on her face as she lightly nods her head in response.

------

This is weird.

Sona and her peerage are overreacting way too much over a game. Especially Saji. He looks like he's about to go through an existential crisis or something. I'm guessing that there is more to chess game we're having than what I'm told. Not that I care.

After we returned from the Familiar Forest, I created a chessboard, a table, and two comfy chairs.

I took a seat and waited for Sona to do the same before we began a game of chess.

Having not played for a long time, I played defensive in the beginning and got on the offensive later on once I noticed a flaw in the placement of her pieces.

Sona was dumbfounded for a short while before she tried her best to save herself. However, I didn't give her the chance to do so, as I calculated the next 6-7 moves for every move she made while taking into consideration the way I would respond and her other pieces.

"Come on, Sona-chan. You invited me to play with you so confidently, so you should at least show me the skills to back it up, no?"

In a game where thinking is everything, psychologically disturbing your opponent is a surefire method of winning. It doesn't matter if it's considered to be a form of cheating, a win is a win.

After all, a cheat that can be countered isn't a cheat. I mean, all she has to do is have a stronger mentality.

This does seem to be the case with Sona as she ignored most of my taunting throughout the game most of the time.

However, that changed once she found herself in a pinch.

This girl... I'm sure there is a reason for her to be so confident in her chess abilities.

Before I know it, the game is over with my win.

She did surprisingly better than I expected her, which means that I somewhat undermined her intelligence.

"Now that we've played our game, I've got to get going," I nonchalantly say before standing up and preparing to leave.

"Wait!" Sona abruptly exclaims.

I look at her while crossing my arm and wait for her to say whatever she has on her mind.

However, she doesn't seem to want to say it anymore as she lowers her sight to the ground for a few seconds before shaking her head and saying,

"Forget it. I'm sorry to have wasted your time."

Waving my hand in front of me, I say while beaming her a smile,

"Not at all. I enjoyed my time with you. We should hang out together sometime in the future."

Seeing her nod, I mutter under my breath,

"Arena."

------

"So, this is my new familiar, Tiamat," I say to everyone once they've all gathered, "She happens to be one of the Five Great Dragon Kings."

The three Angels present are a little surprised before they warmly welcome her.

Tiamat was a little headstrong in the beginning, but she listened carefully whenever the matter concerned me.

I guess it's only natural that she would want to know more about her new master.

Now then, I think I should train Koneko, as I hadn't done it up until now.

"Koneko," I say, attracting the dazed girl's attention before continuing, "You will be training with me."

She quietly lets out an "um" before following me outside.

"You're free to use whatever method you see fit to try to harm me," I state, "Also before we begin, I might as well tell you this."

Creating an ordinary sword and several sharp objects that are floating because of my telekinesis, I confidently declare,

"I highly doubt that you will be able to scratch me."

Koneko seems to be a little riled up, as she changes her posture and her expression turns serious.

Gift:

-Organic Constructs

-Regeneration

-Insight

Seeing her change her arms into claws using Organic Constructs, I say to her,

"If you perchance manage to injure me, I will reward you with whatever you wish for. That is if your wish doesn't go against my character and is possible."

Soon, we begin our fight.

During our battle, I don't make use of my Code and abilities, and just use my physical body to deal with her. Nevertheless, my speed and strength are still more than enough to deal with her.

This goes on for a while.

I mostly avoid injuring her a lot, as seeing her injured doesn't sit well with me for some reason.

And finally, the battle comes to an end as an exhausted Koneko rests against the wall of a building.

Approaching her, I sit beside her and pull her into my embrace and begin to stroke her soft hair.

"Hey Koneko," I say after a few seconds before suggesting, "How about you make your cat ears appear again? I like them."

She thinks of it a little before suddenly cat ears seemingly pop out of her head.

I begin to play with her ears while chatting with her about her school life as well as her past.

Once she told me about what became of her and a sister of hers that I had no knowledge of, I knew that I needed to talk with her if I ever get to meet her.

Besides, there seems to be something suspicious about it as a whole, but I don't know what it is exactly.

I might need to visit the House of Nauberius in the future...

Sensing that she's gotten sad by talking about her past, I comfort her by placing her head on my lap and caressing her cheek.

Once she seems to have gotten a little better, I lift her and hold her within my arms before using Flight to get back to the building that everyone is staying in.

My girls sure know to pick a good place to stay in.

Burj Al-Arab - I'm pretty sure it's rather expensive to stay here in the Rift.

Using Clairvoyance to look for them, I find them resting in the pool that's right beside the sea.

Flying over and landing right in the middle, I see everyone enjoying the place quite a bit. Perhaps, this has increased their standards for when I have to find a place for us to stay in the Rift?

Well, shit. Hah~ Forget it, I will think of something later.

Placing Koneko down, I walk to Akame who's lifelessly sitting on a lounge chair.

"Hello," I say before creating some french cuisines on a plate and placing them in front of her on a small table that I also created.

Akame immediately digs into the food without question.

She's acting like she hasn't been fed for days.

I rub her head a little before going over to where the rest of the girls are all at. Looking at them all lying on lounge chairs instead of going into the pool, I snap my fingers.

Instantly, several swimsuits appear in the air.

"How about we enjoy ourselves a little," I say while smirking.

------

As I'm resting in one of the rooms on a double bed with Sora and Yuno on my sides, I hear a light knock on the door.

"Come in," I respond.

Right after I say so, the door opens as Koneko walks inside while frowning a little.

"What's wrong?" I say as I pat my thighs.

Understanding my intentions, Koneko walks over and sits on my lap before she begins to explain,

"President is facing some trouble."

"And what is that trouble?" I ask her, hoping for something interesting.

"Riser Phenex, the youngest son of the Phenex clan is her fiance. Their marriage is an arranged one set by their families," she continues.

"So? What's the problem?"

"President doesn't want to marry him, so she's planning to hold a Rating Game with him. He's strong, and he's immortal, so it's hard for her to win if she doesn't have a way to deal with his immortality."

I gently massage her ears before asking her,

"First of all, what's a Rating Game?"

Then, I grin as I inquire further,

"And, did you say something about immortality?"