Chapter 46 - Days Of Youth

Simon laid on his bed as he stared straight at the empty ceiling of his room. He felt relaxed as he admired the pure mundanity of the paint, and felt closer to sleep as such.

Without the need to prepare lessons and attend school, Simon had much more time to just purely train. Because of this, he could actually sleep on time and rest properly. This would be something that he enjoyed dearly as a devil; a good night's sleep.

'It's been a long time since I could sleep well, I hope it stays like this. Training and sleep, perfect balance, who wouldn't take this over a life sickness and f***ing worry?'

'My life is good. I can do what I want and do it as a d.e.s.i.r.e. But all I want to do is to become 'better', every second of my life is for improving. Who the f*** wants to stay the same for their whole life? I say no! I will improve until there is nothing left to improve on!'

'That's something I would say if I was still a naive tw*t.'

Simon turned his head and faced to the side, slowly falling into slumber.

'Maybe I can do better...'

A week later:

Simon enjoyed another week of intensive training in combat, etiquette and conditioning. Every day would be a new discovery, but no discovery was interesting. It was at this point when Simon realised that he had run out of things to do. He couldn't improve his foundations anymore, meaning that he needed to breakthrough towards 4th rank, something that he needed to contemplate over.

With his twin brother only a 5th vision 3rd rank, Simon couldn't really become a 4th rank without gaining too much attention from his father. On the other hand, Simon didn't want to restrict himself. With a breakthrough being the only suitable option, Simon decided to draw on his perfect foundations and his own knowledge to create the most efficient breakthrough method.

'With my foundations, I can probably take some of the more harsh methods to breakthrough to 4th rank. The easier methods can weaken my potential in the long run, so I can't really take it easy. This leaves me with 44 options, but if I narrow them down to only the most gut-wrenchingly terrible ones... well I got 5.'

'Mind Twisting Method: initiates a breakthrough by gathering visualisation in the mind, which can cause a collapse in their conscience if one doesn't have high mental strength and good foundations. The benefits include superhuman processing and improved coordination.'

'Cold Heart Method: initiates a breakthrough by gathering ice element VP into the body, particularly in the heart. The method comes with the risk of death from a frozen heart, causing excruciating pain before expiring. The benefits include excellent affinity of Ice, and a natural Ice Queen vibe.'

'Body Melting Technique: initiates a breakthrough by submerging the body in extremely hot fire element VP, which can literally melt a person. The benefits include fire affinity and improved defences.'

'Pure Soul Tech- Nope. That requires me to become a eunuch for life. I won't be able to cash in my hard work once the A.d.u.l.thood Ceremony comes by. I am not going to dedicate my life to becoming a devil nun.'

'Yin-Yang Bonding- F*CK OFF!!! I am not going down that god-forsaken path. I view myself as a monogamist now.'

With these 5 options placed in front of him inside his head, Simon was left or ponder yet again. He liked the first three of the options, but he didn't like any of them more than the others. He wanted something that would be undeniably the best for him. While the thought that Mind Twisting looked a bit better, he didn't really like the idea that much, plus he already had good enough processing as it is.

With Simon being at around the 2nd vision of 3rd rank, he knew that he still needed to get to the breakthrough point before he could start the process, but that didn't matter when his foundations were already so great that he could breeze through. With 16 years of unending torment, his body and VP had become undeniably freakishly stable yet Intense. A stark contrast from what Devils normally possess, being volatile and chaotic.

'So I guess I might as well work my way to 8th vision for now.'

After 2 months of hard work, Simon made his way into the breakthrough point. Any other devil would simply channel their power into themselves to breakthrough, but Simon knew that this wasn't the only way to go about things.

Standing in the centre of a quiet and unlit courtyard, Simon revelled in the beauty of the demon world's architecture. The last weeks have been filled with hard work, but now Simon felt like he could finally breakthrough.

"If none of these methods are good enough for me, then I will just have to create my own method."

'What if I use blade VP on myself? According to the revisions, these blades are made of blade VP, so why don't I just use these?'

'And to add some effect, I might as well inject them with a ton of random elemental VP.'

Saying this, Simon pulled all the VP from his body into his blades and directed them all at his body.

'Masochism? Eh, I'm used to the sting.'

PUCHII

A devil's blood can also determine the quality of a devil's body and VP. Red being very poor, Purple is poor, Black is average, Green is good, and blue is very good. What was leaking out of Simon's body was orange blood, blood that could melt concrete.

With the bleeding of his limbs and the reabsorbing of his VP, Simon started to feel a faint energy heat up from within him. This would be something that Simon had failed to obtain in his last life.

'Failure?'

A tinge of black soon appeared his ivory horns, giving them a weird feeling of comfort and strength.

'Is this failure? What happened?' Simon inwardly asked as his body fell to the ground.

"Horns of grey before the A.d.u.l.thood Ceremony? This son of mine is very interesting... he managed to progress his horn quality at an unattainable time. And 4th rank? Hmmm... this son of mine amazes me sometimes."

"He might just be able to compete with those monsters one day."