174. The Kind Demon’s Kin

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You have gained a new Title; The Kind Demon’s Kin.

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The Kind Demon’s Kin

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Note: The power at the origin of this title surpasses the System’s storage and encoding levels. No information is obtainable.

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The Kind Demon’s Kin resonates with your soul and skills…

Soul’s Decree has leveled up! 2x

Primal Soul Core has leveled up! 2x

Despair Aura has leveled up! 5x - Exceled!

Absolute Cover has mutated into Absolution of Belphegor (Lv. UEX)!

Ireful Shell is quieting…

Call of Fangs has Evolved and Ascended into Call of Hounds (Lv. 11 ⋆)!

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Rakna opened his eyes to this window and after skimming over its content, he dismissed it only to be faced with a pair of golden eyes staring at him unblinkingly. He dazedly responded in kind and his mind caught up with the fact that he was lying down on something soft.

He observed the unknown woman leaning over him and his eye twitched. She had a lustrous dark skin, mature facial features, and black hair going over her shoulders that incidentally stopped her bare chest from being completely exposed. Other than that, two feline ears were twitching on top of her head and he could also see the tip of a black tail wagging near her right side.

It didn’t take long for Rakna to notice she was entirely naked and that he was probably lying down on her lap. But by far the most striking realization he had was who she was.

“…you got to be kidding me.”

The moment he spoke up, the woman promptly smiled widely. “What do you think, devourer? This body should be more to your taste, right? I’ve always taken pride in my human form.”

“…you want my honest opinion?”

“Yes!”

“You look a lot more elegant than I could have ever imagined.”

“…there is an insult hidden behind that pleasant compliment,” she retorted blankly. “Oh well, you called me elegant. I’ll take it. So, can we mate now?” She asked enthusiastically as her tail wagged back and forth in excitement.

“Higure, my answer to that is doubly more negative than before…”

“Huh?! Why?!”

“Because it’s easier to ignore a giant cat’s flirt...”

Higure blinked then grinned. “So… does that mean you find me so beautiful that you can’t help but be too embarrassed to do it? Is that it?”

Rakna groaned and ignored her gleeful tone as he sat up. He looked around and recognized the room where Fray’s book on Arimane was stored. The place was completely demolished with many holes in the walls as well as destroyed furniture.

After looking a bit more, he stood up and walked to a certain object lying on the ground. He picked it up and the killing intent contained inside of it washed over him. The book hadn’t changed at all but its power seemed to be tamer now.

Rakna started flipping the pages and when he was at the halfway point, the text began to distort incomprehensibly as if it had been encrypted. “So, there is a second part to this, after all… There is probably a lot as well since it takes half of the book.”

“Well, that is to be expected from the current most powerful god alive,” Higure commented as she approached from behind and peeked over the therian’s shoulder. She was a just few centimeters taller than him.

Rakna’s eye twitched. “Put on some clothes.”

“Aww, and here I thought you would like to admire me a bit more,” the lioness jested and with a small burst of soul power, she was speedily clothed with black pants and a crop top which let her midsection and her defined abdominals breathe. Her body was very well-trained without taking away any of her sensuality.

She stretched a bit and let out a low moan. “Ah, my muscles are still spasming from that fight,” she complained and clamped down her own arm to stop it from trembling.

“That fight?” Rakna raised an eyebrow and looked at her, still in the process of convincing himself that the woman in front of him was Higure.

“Yes. It was an odd creature with scales, fur, a dragon head, and four feathered wings. It must have been a condensation of your uncle’s power. I had to hastily perform a soul technique to defeat it and turn into this,” she said and waved at herself. “I was temporarily able to use mana and my own magic but it’s gone now and I will probably be exhausted for a long while. That thing was uselessly strong for a projection,” she grumbled with a pout.

“The specter…” Rakna muttered as he remembered what Arimane told him. “So… you know about ‘it’ already?” He asked afterward.

“That you’re Eternal Night’s nephew?” Higure replied amused. “Yes, we figured that out. Fray was able to tell the connection between the book and the cross when you touched it.”

“And I am genuinely still astounded by the revelation,” Fray remarked as he entered the room with a tired Rexam next to him. The Luquila chirped happily and went to cuddle Rakna who patted his head.

“Where’s the brat?” Higure asked with a tilt of her head.

“You mean Fen? His Tailed Pearl took everything out of him. He’s sleeping outside.”

“Ooh, Fen, huh?” The lioness grinned. “What a cute name. I’ll use that instead. That’s tease material for that juvenile wolf.” Rexam suddenly started chirping at those words and she chuckled. “Yes, yes, I hear you. Hm, why don’t we call you Rex?”

The Luquila chirpily nodded whilst prancing around the room.

“And there go my hard-thought names,” Rakna said sarcastically and Higure laughed.

“By the by, Rakna, you should quickly return to your body,” Fray remarked.

“Oh, shit…” The werewolf now remembered where he had been when he grabbed the cross. “The dinner will get cold…”

“…that’s your first thought?” Higure scowled exasperatingly. “Shouldn’t you rather be sorry if you made them worry?”

“That too. But you have no idea how good Flavia’s cooking is.”

“Right…”

“You don’t have to fret about their worrying about you,” Fray informed him as he began the repairs of his library. As its maker, he had of course some amount of control over it. “Your soul and mind were put into a state similar to cryostasis and they are being heated back up as we speak. Barely a few seconds will have passed outside when you leave.”

“Interesting… does that mean I could somewhat control my soul to slow down my perception of time?” Rakna asked curiously.

“Hm, yes and no. It is impossible to alter your time perception outside. But while you’re in the soul realm, a full week could be equal to no more than a day in the real world.”

“I see. That could be useful,” Rakna said and sighed. He glanced at the book in his hand and handed it to Fray who reluctantly received it.

“This book is… a bit more docile now but it stills gives me shivers… especially now that I learned whose life it tells.”

“There are new pages but the text is unreadable. See if you can find out anything.”

“I understand... I will take a look.”

Rakna nodded and when he was a second away from leaving his soul scape, he heard Higure say one last thing; “Remember to think of a day when we can mate!”

He immediately got the urge to groan and it ultimately came out once he was back inside the hotel room with the cross in his hand.

“Are you okay?” Nyx asked and he blinked a few times. He shook his head to get rid of the small dizziness he was feeling and nodded calmly.

“Yes.”

“If you say so. You have been staring at the cross for nearly five seconds.”

“I’m fine… I just realized something and was a bit surprised,” Rakna replied and stored the cross.

“Um, why can’t I sense your mana, soul, or presence anymore?” Evelyn inquired and Rakna turned toward her with an equal amount of confusion.

“What do you-” He interrupted himself and mentally opened a few System windows. He read them and exhaled. “Nevermind… it’s a recent skill I got…”

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Designation: Skill/Sin of Sloth/Passive

Name: Absolution of Belphegor

Tier: 1

Requirements: 2000 ATC <✗>, Level 500 <✗> …Error… Error...Error… 456fsd1x.slx…

Correction…

Requirements: The Kind Demon’s Kin <✓>, Absolute Cover <✓>

Description:

Absolute Cover is an anti-type skill… Error… Error… 9631472.tnxa.slx…

Correction…

Absolution of Belphegor is one of the Ultimate Skills of the Sloth Series. The bearer of this skill will gain the ability to hide from everyone and everything as long as the search isn’t backed up by a skill superior or equal to this one.

The user’s status will be entirely hidden at will and they may decide which elements can be displayed or not to their leisure. Level differences are irrelevant.

Additionally, this skill will erase every trace of the holder; soul, mana, sound, appearance… Once activated to its fullest in conjunction with a stealth skill, one could mistake the user for nothing more than a rock on the side of the road.

Effects:

- Improves furtivity by 500% (+1000% when asleep).

- Increases mana and stamina recovery speed by 1000% when asleep.

- Increases effectiveness of healing methods on the user by 500%.

- Immunity to divination and foresight.

- Acquire the skill; All Virtues Shall Sloth.

- If not awakened, unlocks the Extra Magic, Sloth.

- Acquire the spell; Path of Absolution.

Special Effect:

- Any act made for the sake of Sloth will have its efficiency raised by 500-1000%.

Note: The Sin Skills are separated into seven categories named after the cardinal sins. They are the peak of the System with most of them being Tier 1. There also exist the Virtue Skills based on the seven great virtues.

Additional Note: This is an Ultimate Excel Skill. It is non-upgradable.

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Designation: Skill/Spontaneous Skill

Name: Call of Hounds

Tier: Special

Requirements: Wolf King <✓>, Level 300 <✗>… Error… Error…

Correction…

Requirements: Wolf King <✓>, The Kind Demon’s Kin <✓>

Description:

When the user activates this skill, their howl will call every suitable wolf in the vicinity to come to battle.

Error…Erro… Correction Taken Over Manually by E.V.A …

When there isn’t any suitable target, the user can summon Elemental Wolves from their surroundings with a level matching double of the quantity of mana spent for each. The wolves’ level cannot be higher than the user's.

Shadows, light, water, fire, wood, earth… each summon will have different specialties and abilities based on where or what it was summoned at. The wolves can remain active as long as they are provided mana as well as being close to their source element.

Note: Your intimidation power against lupine creatures has increased further.

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Eva is watching you:

So many alerts… I can’t even… what if I take those away from you… I don’t want Eternal Night to be mad at me… Oh no, what if he learns I made you swear on your life?!

Oh shit, I’m dead!!

BIG BROTHER, PLEASE PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR ME!!! PLEASE!!

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Rakna rolled his eyes at the many errors on his screen and Eva’s message at the end. ‘That old man was not even truly here but he’s already hijacking the System…’ He thought but also couldn’t help but feel excited when he saw the two skills. Especially the new magic affinity he received.

‘I also have a skill and a spell to check out from that. And Call of Hounds… seems to be many times stronger,’ he mused silently and sighed. ‘I will go over that at another time,’ he decided and stood up as he heard Flavia telling them that dinner was ready.

AhraManyu

If you wanna get a good idea of what Higure looks like, you can search Karin, from Blue Archive. She’s pretty close to it. Just imagine her with cat features, a bit older and mature, her hair a bit shorter, and there you go. You pretty much have it.

Also, for those who don't know, these characters '▅▃▂' were used on ff.net to describe out worldly roars. One of the most recurring instances of this was with Berserker from Fate. But if you guys don't know about it, I guess I'm just one of those who spent too much time reading stuff over there. But to be fair, the hidden talent is massive.

People like to make fun of fanfictions because of all the kids and degenerates there are that make them (*ahem* Ao3 *ahem*). But you can't help but be awed when you come across literal masterpieces with flawless writing that genuinely bring the original work to another level. Not necessarily making it better or worse, but constructing a completely new and enjoyable story. I honestly have more respect for some of the authors there than I'll ever have for my myself.