131 The Shadow of Death...

"W-wait what!? how!?" Mason blurted in surprise, still unable to believe what just transpired.

"I just did this," Moby responded with a smirk, using his devil's hand before surrounding it in a shroud of purple demon energy as he made it slowly become more visible in order to sell his story, making Mason even more shocked than before.

"So, the attack was just my energy, but I made it so weak that it became pretty much invisible to the naked eye. I figured this attack out earlier in the day and found out that it was pretty useless seeing how weak it was. So, I never actually expected to use it! And when you set up the rules of the spar, I knew that I could use this new skill to win so I upped that bet because I was certain of victory! So, what do you think? Not bad right?" Moby explained with a smile.

"PFFFFF! Hahahaha. You know what kid, I completely misjudged you! It seems that you're actually pretty smart and you don't go in everything head first. You kinda remind me of myself back when I was your age! Twisting things more in your favour when you know what you're doing is in your favour. I apologize for all earlier rude comments. We started off on the wrong foot. I think my daughter has chosen well!" Mason said with a smile and bow that really startled Moby.

The head of the Griffith family was bowing to him for an apology, it was something he could not imagine in a million years.

"No no no, please raise your head future father in law, I do not deserve such praise," Moby said in a panic, making Mason lift his head and chuckle in a friendly manner. 

"Anyways, you won the fight fair and square. So, I now owe you 3 favours, ask anything that your heart desires and it shall be done!" Mason said in a cheerful tone.

In truth, Mason was not actually going to give Moby any favours from the start as he had no plans of losing and just wanted to gauge his strength and determination in a fight. But, since he lost and was so impressed by Moby's performance, he decided to go along with the wager.

"Okay, for my first favour, I would like to ask if there exists a black market for abilities?" Moby asked in anticipation. 

"Huh? Why would you want to know such information?" Mason asked in surprise as Moby's question completely threw him off guard.

"I just want to know if it exists so I can browse it to see if there were any abilities that look or act close to mine," Moby explained.

Moby listened intently to every word that Mason spoke as it was all completely new to him. However, he did not stop pushing for his favour. The more he learned about the black market the more interested he became.

"I understand the dangers of such a thing but I promise you that I do not plan on using it for anything other than to just browse. I already have a good unique ability so I have no use in buying any," Moby said with a chuckle.

"Okay, I will tell you the website. I will trust you with this. In your case, checking it out and just browsing will be fine. The website has some insane security that doesn't allow even the government to break through it to see all the buyers and sellers or to just shut down the site," Mason nodded. 

"Thank you so much, future father, in-law! For my next favour, I would like you to bless and accept my relationship with your daughter. I do not ask you for marriage as I believe that it is ultimately up to you to decide such things. I truly really love your daughter and could not imagine my life without her," Moby said with a respectful deep bow.

"Hahahahah! That's it?! Don't worry about it kid! I already accepted your relationship with my daughter! You kinda wasted a favour on it! Well, too late to take it back now!" Mason said with a chuckle.

"In my eyes, I do not see it as a waste at all, I am just trying to show you how much I deeply care for your daughter. She and I have gone through many hardships and good times together and I wish for us to stay together for as long as possible," Moby said in a calm tone without hesitation.

"I understand… Thank you for caring so much for my daughter, it makes me happier than you can even imagine. She has been alone because she had pushed away everyone else in her life and now she has so many good friends and even a proper lover. I was just scared that maybe she chose the wrong person as she lacked a lot of social skills and experiences but it would seem like I was the wrong person all along,"

"Anyways, what is your final favour?" Mason asked with expectant eyes.

"My final favour is that I want to see a glimpse of your true power! I have never met anyone as strong as you and I want to gauge how far away I am from catching up." Moby said in a serious tone.

"Huh!? Are you really sure about this?" Mason asked in absolute bewilderment.

"Yes, I am 100% sure! And, I would also like to know what power level you are if possible," Moby asked with clear excitement.

"Heh…"

"I have no power level," Mason said, seemingly teleporting in front of Moby, causing a massive crater in the wake of his step before punching towards Moby with such immense force and speed that his fists looked like a blur. 

His white eyes had shadows leaking out of them that made death feel like it was in the air with a smile on his face, he looked like the true shadow of death. 

Moby stared at the blurry fist ripping through the air and blotting towards his face completely unable to react from its sheer speed alone. 

No matter how he looked at it, Moby was starring straight at his death. However, he still did not give up as his will to live and instincts screamed at him to dodge. 

To his luck, he was unable to dodge but Mason's fist stopped mere millimetres away from his face, sending him flying away towards the nearest wall at unbelievable speed. From the force of his punch, the wind pressure managed to even pop the defensive bubble around the arena and break many things in its path even though he did not touch anything.

"I know you can't hear me but I am really sorry kid, but you asked for it, I'll call a healer to heal your wounds and help bring back your consciousness. An-" Mason said before being unexpectedly interrupted. 

"Old man! Who are you calling unconscious! I-I am completely fine, just a few minor scratches that's all," Moby said, limping out of the dust cloud with a bloody face, holding his right arm that broke from the impact.

'Just so you know he was holding back quite a bit, if he wasn't you would have been dead or might have even exploded on the spot,' Avilia explained to Moby in a calm tone.

'Well fuck me sideways, I have a really long way to go if I even dream to catch up to him. That was absolutely insane. Now I really wonder how strong you were when you were a demon lord…' Moby responded, still in a state of shock trying to endure all the pain ravaging his body.

'Stronger than you can imagine…' Avilia responded with an ominous yet confident smirk.

'This kid keeps impressing me more and more! I thought for sure no one at his strength level and age would be able to stay conscious from that attack. Not from the pain but from the extreme horror and fear of facing absolute death in the face. Also, his 3 favours were not that bad. I fully expected much worse like asking for a large sum of money or asking for Jayden's hand in marriage. The more I talk to this kid the more I like him more and see part of him in my younger self… You have chosen very well my sweet little honey bun, I should have never doubted your words,' 

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Moby, who was now fully healed, and Mason entered the living room where everyone else was, laughing at each other jokes that leaned a little on the darker side.

"So, why did the guy with no arms and no legs fall of his bike?" Moby asked with a smile, trying to hold in his laughter.

"I don't know… Why?" Mason asked in confusion.

"Because he got hit by a refrigerator!" Moby responded, making Mason spit out his coffee. 

"PFFFFFFFFFFFF!!! I was not expecting that!" Mason responded, holding his stomach trying his best not to laugh.

If it weren't for the clear age difference, it looked like they were best friends.

The rest of the family was sitting on the couch watching TV as they waited for Moby and Mason to return and all of them were shocked to see how Moby and Mason were acting to say the least.

For the rest of the night, the family spent the entire time chatting and cracking jokes while playing some VR video games that Moby had never tried before which felt ultra-realistic and more fun than he ever expected.

At one point, the topic shifted towards how Moby and Jayden met which Jayden then told her father,

"I will explain it to you later but not now dad!"

It was around 7 pm when the group decided to finally go back home.

As they were leaving the door, Mason stopped Jayden before whispering in her ear.

"You have chosen a good boyfriend! I am so happy for you,"

Which she then snarkily replied with a chuckle saying,

"I know,"

Alex was not able to go with Moby, Jayden, and Abby as he had to go back to his family mansion which the group of course did not mind at all. 

During the somewhat long car ride home, Moby could not stop thinking about his encounter with Mason and how much stronger he was than he expected. What bothered him, even more, was a statement that he made that made little sense in Moby's mind.

'I have no power level. What is that even supposed to mean? Does he mean that his power level is so far off the charts that it can not be read?�� Moby thought, trying his best to explain and make sense of Mason's words as he did not get the opportunity to ask him.

While Moby was still in deep thought, Jayden interrupted him and asked about what he and her father discussed which he then proceeded to tease her saying that he told him that if he cheated on her that he would personally tear him to shreds. 

"Wait, did he really say that!?" Jayden asked in surprise.

"Nope, he didn't actually say it but I am sure that it was an implied statement," Moby replied.

"Good! I don't want him to tear you to shreds! Because that job belongs to me if such a thing happens!" Jayden said with an aura of death surrounding her, a wide smile on her face.

"Heh… Good thing that such a situation that will never ever happen right?" Moby said, rubbing the back on his head making Jayden chuckle before proceeding to explain to her and Abby everything that had transpired, making Jayden slightly annoyed at her father for injuring Moby and Abby praising him for his strategies and unbreakable resolve like usual.

When the group got back home, they immediately went over to Jayden's PC that she had in her room in order to do some... shopping.

Moby was the only person in the group that still did not have an ability and it was finally time for him to choose one. In fact, the only reason he fought and went through all that trouble planning was in order to gain enough money to buy a good ability as it would stick with him for his entire life.

Moby immediately pulled out the small piece of paper that had the address of the black market site and instantly went to it. He did not bother looking at normal auctions and markets like Qbay as most of those abilities were not to his liking.

He wanted something that fit and blended well with his pure demon energy as to not attract too many questions, But, now, he thought that he was able to broaden his horizon as he had a fairly new "ability" that has yet to develop and has seemingly endless possibilities. And, since it is completely unique, nobody could question him at all and no one would suspect that he got his ability from the black market as he would mix it with his own skills.

At first, he was going to buy a pure speed, strength, or defence enhancing ability or a mixture of the three which was immediately scrapped as it would be too bland and not versatile at all.

Stretching was another ability he scrapped as it would be way too obscure to fit with the rest of his skill set.

Basic elements such as wind, earth, and water, basic sound manipulation, small gravity control for support, weak astral magic, ability to rotate the body 360 degrees to form a drill, the ability to buff allies, healing, all of those abilities and many, many more were completely disregarded by Moby when he looked on the legal websites.

He wanted something that can flow and fit with his current move set while adding a lot to his arsenal. He also avoided support based abilities as he was not the type of person to do that as 

he found the support role extremely boring and frustrating. 

Plus, what kind of demon lord would want to have a support based ability?

As Moby logged into the black market, he was immediately greeted by a large list of many, many, new abilities that he could not find on the legal websites.

The only problem was that they were 10s if not 100s for times more expensive. Moby began scrolling up and down at all the new abilities trying his best to find a good one with Abby and Jayden in the back trying their best to give him advice.

Toxic/poison abilities, Spikey extending tail ability, multi healing ability, iron skin ability, limited time invisibility, much stronger legs or arms, Web creation, strong psycho/telekinesis, were some of the few abilities that he scrolled by during his browsing session.

After an hour or so, he had seen every single ability on the site and had narrowed down his options to 3 that fit in his budget of 200 million dollars. 

During his entire search, he was unable to find even a single fire ability, lightning ability, or blink ability no matter how hard he looked which proved indeed how rare they were and how no one was able to illegally get one. Or, that they are just out of stock.

It was a little sad since blink was one of the main abilities Moby was looking for as he thought that it was very overpowered in combination with the rest of his skill set.

The 3 abilities Moby narrowed his search down to were as follows:

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Heart of Ice

The ability to create and move ice out of nothing but the user's own mana. The user will be able to bend and move the created ice and already existing ice to his heart desires. Experts of the ability can also control the temperature of the ice and use it in the other 2 states, gas and liquid giving them full control over water. 

Cost: $170,000,000

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Radiant Soul

The ability to manipulate and create light at the user's will using mana. The ability also allows light to be formed into strong beams and to even be created into energy based objects and weapon that have some solid properties.

Cost: $185,000,000

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Dimensional Shift

The ability to teleport to any marked location, the farther it is the more mana it will cost. The maximum amount of marks the user can have at the start is 5 and will grow more as the ability is progressed. Once the amount of marks exceeds the maximum, the oldest mark will be removed to make room for the new one.

Cost: $195,000,000

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