"Haa... Haa..."
I'm very exhausted, and I am experiencing an extreme amount of pain.
"The metamorphosis has reached its limits, you'll have to train yourself from now on"
I'm in this state because of Metamorphosis Magic, which I've been using to strengthen my body, at first, there was only slight discomfort and soreness, increase in strength was also substantial, but as of lately it could only be described as nightmarish, my growth in power has also stagnated
Just as Alter said, I won't get any stronger with this, with magic that is.
As Alter said, from now on I will be going full in physical training, I've already prepared a personal gym in my underground base.
Of course, normal equipment won't be good enough for me, who is already in the realm of superhuman, so I enchanted the weights with 'Gravity Magic', I can increase their weights as I please.
Well, enough about that.
Today I'll be learning the last of 'Ancient Magic', I was supposed to learn it much earlier, but due to my parents ever-approaching deadlines in their respective jobs I had to help them out, so acquiring the last magic, and subsequently sleeping for several days, was postponed
I've already warned both school and club about my expected absence, so I don't have to worry about them.
I have to say though, having a school run by devils, and being one of them, is rather convenient.
"If you don't want to spend the next few days here, go to your room already"
I did as Alter instructed and went to my room
"You know, I haven't slept for so long I'm kinda excited now"
How long ago was it? I can't even remember.
"Are you an idiot?
"Don't be like that, Alter. Lately, I've been quite drowsy, you know?"
"Get some sleep then"
"...hehe"
I've been really excited about magic, it didn't even cross my mind to get a shut-eye.
Anyway, I arrived at my room and sat on my bed.
Without anything else to say, Alter gave me the last remaining magic
"Kuh"
To say it was painful would be an underestimation, it felt like my head would literally explode
"GYAAAA!"
Thus, I fainted after letting out such a scream, good thing I sound proved this room for this occasion.
.
.
.
.
.
Sometime later at school.
"I've missed quite a lot, huh"
I said absent mindedly to no one in particular in the gym hall.
I've acquired all the Ancient Magic, unfortunately, I didn't go all 'I understand everything in this world!', but I've indeed got enough understanding that I can take any concept and turn it into magic, it's called a 'Concept Magic', as the name suggests it can turn any concept into a usable spell, magic to perfectly resurrect dead? It's possible, magic to travel between worlds? Do I even need to say it? Magic to insta-kill anything regardless of its power? Pfft, a piece of cake... not really, while it is possible to do all of that, to create a spell a strong desire is needed, and that's underselling it, the desire needs to be beyond the level of obsession, bordering madness, and because the way it works, it's almost impossible to use a spell made by 'Concept Magic' more than once...
Well, it's possible to counter that downside by making an Artifact with it, that's what Alter did.
Anyway, while I was knocked out(I was just sleeping), a new member joined the club, and the peerage, Hyoudo got character development, read as power-up, and turns out his shitty 'twice critical' is actually a super strong Longinus type sacred gear, that can double users parameters every ten seconds, literally a geometric progression as a power
"Wow, what a twist."
Alter said in a mock surprised voice, but his monotonous tone suggested otherwise
'You knew...? From when?'
I couldn't help but ask
"Meh, soon after his reincarnation"
... I see because he tempered an evil piece
"I have to say, that Ddraig fellow is quite a conversation partner"
What he said, truth to be told my idea of stacking 'Limit Break' was partially inspired by the 'Boosted gear', I never gave it much thought further than that, but looking at it like that it feels like I'm ripping off, I'm not really planning to change my plans because of this, but I know that there will be some headaches waiting for me down the line
Currently, the whole club is in the gym hall, Very soon we'll play dodgeball with the student council to decide who'll get to go to the familiar forest.
Two days ago the student council gave us a surprise visit to introduce the new members, we only exchanged names and everything else got overshadowed by other pawns antics, though thanks to them both parties avoided the problem of overlapping schedule, with only two peerages in this school you'd think they'd have that figured out but no, apparently.
Anyway, they played two versus two tennis, but that didn't get us anywhere, so here we are now.
"Headband?"
The president asked
After we were done with stretching Hyoudo gave all members matching headbands
"My~ my~, how cute"
Himejima added
"I made them this night, seeing how much effort you all put into this, I wanted to at least do something for everybody"
As Hyoudo said that with an awkward smile I felt strange alienation from this group, even though I've been the peerage member longer than him, he managed to get closer to them than me
"That's your fault, you know?"
Indeed, I distanced myself from them, and now I have this shitty feeling that I'm an extra person here
'I was a loner for a reason'
I buried these feelings as put the headband on
'let's wrap this up quickly, so I can go back home ASAP'
"Suit yourself"
The student council has already arrived and the games about to begin
Though I said to 'wrap this up quickly', the enemy team gets to start the game, I don't know if they forgot my existence or what, but nobody really aimed for me
'Even though I'm not even using 'Presence Concealment'
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait much longer, the vice-president Shinra threw the ball at me with quite a heavy weight behind it
'They're really going all out with their flashy magic, huh'
I activated a 'Diamond skin' skill and caught the ball with relative ease.
By the way, this skill coats the body in a hardened shell of mana with a diamond-like pattern, otherwise, it doesn't have anything to do with the diamond.
The onlookers were rather surprised, but we'll ignore them for now.
Now, who to throw it to~? Not like there's much of a choice, the enemy team only has their president and vice-president, while our team only has me and Gremory...
"How did we get here..."
I unintentionally said out loud, I wasn't even spacing out that much...
Regardless, since there are so few options, I've decided to return the favour, this will be my first throw in this game, so I'll go all out
Firstly 'Steel Arms' and 'Steel Legs'.
'Steel Arms' to increase my arm strength and 'Steel Legs' for a solid footing, a big factor for generating force.
Next, 'Mana Conversion' to convert mana into a raw strength, additionally, I'll use 'Shock Conversion' to further accelerate the ball.
I cocked my arm back, ready to throw the ball
The vice-president seemed to get an idea of my intentions so she readied herself
Before I threw the ball I decided to go for an overkill
"... 'Limit Break'"
"""!?"""
Instantly crimson magical power exploded around me
"Haji―!!!
Before the president could fully voice her surprise the ball was already thrown.
The results were instantaneous, Shinra vanished and a person sized hole appeared behind where she was supposed to be standing
"""..."""
Silence... complete silence...
I didn't expect her to vanish like that... if she'd use her sacred gear...
"That was... a total overkill..."
It's unknown who said that, it even could've been me
"There is no overkill in my dictionary"
Who ever it was, Alter didn't agree with them
.
.
.
Yea, we won
Now we are at our club-room celebrating
""""""Cheers!""""""
"Though it went in the strange direction at the end, our occult research club achieved victory over the student council, and it was all thanks to you!"
Said the president in a pleasant mood
"Even though I was outed first..."
Hyoudo was rather dejected about that... also that nut shot.
"But your headbands gave our group a spirit"
Kiba encouraged
"yes~"
"That's right! Issei-san!
Himejima and Argento also didn't fall behind, Toujou gave a simple 'Nn'
I would also like to say something positive, but... meh, doesn't really matter
"Though, Hajime what was that at the end?"
Oh, someone remembered my existence? That's new
"Yeah! What the hell was that?! I couldn't even see the ball fly"
Hyoudo also became curious, rather everyone became curious
"'Limit Break'... that's what you muttered right before throwing"
"Wow, president you have sharp hearing, haha"
I'm not trying to hide anything, but that doesn't mean I'm burning with desire to explain.
"My~ my~, I also heard that"
... Whatever
"That's a...n abilities of mine, it triples all my parameters"
I said
"You can also call it... trice critical... haha"
I guess they are too surprised to laugh at my joke
"That joke sucked"
"You have a sacred gear?!"
Thankfully Hyoudo was there to break silence
"It's not a sacred gear, just an ability of mine"
"And you have it, just like that?"
"Essentially, yes..."
"Hajime, how did you learn an ability like that"
This time it was president.
I don't like to lie, so I'll tell the truth
"The voice in my head taught me!"
I said with an uncharacteristic cheerful smile
"The voice... in your head...?"
There is disbelief in her voice, everyone is looking at me weirdly... even though I said the truth
"And how long have you been hearing that voice?"
She asked, does she actually believe me? Unlike the rest she has talked with Alter, so she can't just dismiss this as me simply going crazy
"How long? For almost a year now"
"Is that so?"
The president put her hand on her chin and went silent for a minute
"Well let's drop that for now..."
Ah, she gave up.
A year ago I was a normal human, no matter how hard she may look into my records she won't find anything supernatural
"She may be thinking you have a split personalities or something"
Most likely
'doesn't really matter what she thinks'
"You... you... I knew you had zero friends, but to think that you'd go this crazy from loneliness..."
Hyoudo said with a pity dripping from his voice
"I'd have never guessed..."
"Don't you need a... therapist...?"
Everyone is looking at me with pity now
'No, don't look at me like that'
"That's how you dig your own grave, dumbass"
This sucks...
A/N: hello there, dear readers.
I am alive and well. Why didn't I update all this time? Well, I took a break for my finals, and then I kinda didn't write any more, in short laziness.
I'm a bit iffy on this chapter, but I hope you liked it.
See you soon(this time for real).