Chapter 19: A short trip.

Seeing everyone had left, I walked over to my mother who was still sitting at the desk organizing papers. Wrapping my arms around her neck and planting a kiss on her cheek, she looked up at me with a smile, "Let me finish organizing, then I want to take you and the girls somewhere." I nodded at her words and walked out and told everyone we were going out. Then, I waited in the living room while others got ready.

Inanna was the first one that was finished. She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch to my left. "So, how are you liking it here? I know I have been a little busy these last two days since we got here, but hopefully the girls have been making you feel at home."

She nodded at me with a smile, "Yes they have, Serafall and Kouko have been fun to spend time with, Grayfia has been showing me around and I went to a few different cities with them and Inari yesterday. It was fun to spend time with them, but I am curious on what I can do here to get stronger. Other than repaying my debt to the Asano's, I also got the opportunity to start learning Senjutsu while guarding Yasaka. Over the years of guarding her, I have gotten proficient enough in it that I had nothing else to learn. So when you said you were leaving, I wanted to take the opportunity to see if I could learn something else to make me stronger. Honestly, I don't know what else I can learn, I know Touki, Youjutsu, and now Senjutsu."

It didn't even take me a second to give her a response, "Magic. There are tons of different types of magic out there for you to learn. We can talk to my mom to see if she knows anyone that can teach you or get someone to teach you magic."

She gave me a bright, grateful smile, "Thank you Valerian." I nodded at her words and made some more idle chat with her, and learning more about her. After almost an hour, all the others had made their way into the room and were waiting for my mother to get us all.

She walked in and saw us all ready, "Okay, I want to take you guys to the Familiar Forest. Technically, I should've taken you years ago when you became a mid-ranked devil, but since none of you have gone before, I'll take you now."

I was surprised that the familiar forest was even a thing at this point. It was never clear how or when the familiar forest became a tradition, but I can now assume clans would take their younger generations into the familiar forest and it later turned into peerages as well once they were made available.

I could see Serafall, Kouko and even Grayfia were excited to go. I wasn't particularly excited, since I knew exactly who I wanted as my familiar, but I'm not sure she would be there yet. Even if she was, I wasn't entirely sure I could beat her. I wouldn't lose to her, but I wasn't sure if I could beat her either. Guess it doesn't hurt to try.

My mother made a teleportation circle and all of us stepped into it. With the flash of light, we arrived in an open spot surrounded by a forest, with the bright, full moon above us. My mom walked in the front of us and faced us, "Okay. I recommend splitting into groups of two and going to find your familiars with each other. While you all should be stronger than most of the things here, there might be a few stronger monsters."

Everyone nodded and split into groups, Grayfia and Serafall went together, Kouko and Inanna went together, then my mother and Inari went with me.

"So what are the strongest familiars in the forest?" I asked in curiosity.

My mother thought for a moment, "There are three strong beings here that you might be able to make your familiars. One being the Nine-Headed Hydra. It's fairly young, but strong nonetheless. There's a winged white tiger, though it's fairly young. Lastly, the Chaos Karma Dragon, Tiamat, somewhat recently took up residence on the south part of the forest in a cave. If you're lucky, you can convince her to become your familiar. Though since she's a dragon, the only way to do that is most likely to beat her in a fight."

'So she is here... Guess I'll try. Not like she can kill me.'

"Do you know where her lair is?" I asked her.

She shook her head in denial, "No, you're going to have to find her. Inari and I will keep an eye on the girls to make sure they all find familiars."

I nodded and flew out towards the south side of the forest looking for a cave... Which I found a lot of... Eventually, in the corner of the forest was a large, secluded cave that I found and there wasn't a single other creature around. I entered the cave like I did the others and there was a deep breathing sound that echoed through the cave.

I kept calmly walking and in front of me was a large, celestial blue colored dragon was breathing in a rhythmic pattern, indicating it was asleep. All around the room were piles, upon piles of gold, soul coins, and various expensive objects. Included in them are some weapons that radiated a somewhat strong aura. Apparently, the dragon hadn't taken notice of me, since it was still in it's deep sleep.

I cleared my throat audibly to get its attention, which it did causing it's eyes to shoot open and its muscles to tense as it raised it's head looking at me. I smiled wryly, "Hello Tiamat. I came here to make a deal with you."

She raised her eyebrow and spoke in a deep gravely voice, "What type of deal?"

"Simple really. If I can survive your strongest attack unscathed, you will become my familiar, if not, I'll give you some treasures." I replied in a calm tone.

She didn't say anything and looked at me for a minute, "I won't become your familiar. I refuse to be anyone's familiar. If you are able to survive my strongest attack, and survive for twenty minutes with me injecting my aura into your body, which if you can't keep it under control can completely destroy your body due to its chaotic nature, then I will become your partner. Additionally, if you can beat me in a fight, you can be my mate as well."

I shrugged, "Works for me."

I walked out of the cave with Tiamat in tow. Flying a few feet into the air, I turned and faced the Dragon King and spoke, "Hit me whenever your ready, then we can do your aura test."

She didn't reply, but started gathering an enormous amount of energy in her mouth. I could easily say she was God-class in terms of strength, but this attack alone, if given the time, might be able to obliterate a Heavenly Dragon-class with this attack. I knew if I was a normal devil, even being as strong as I was, would stand zero chance against this attack.

It took her a full two minutes to charge the attack, which in a fight would be impossible to get off, before, without warning, released it at me in an extremely concentrated beam of Chaotic energy. When it hit me, I didn't feel any pressure, it felt like a warm stream of water washing over me. Kind of like I was in a warm shower.

What caught me off guard was that this energy instinctually felt extremely familiar to me. The chaotic nature that made up the energy was refreshing to feel. I could feel it being absorbed into my skin as the energy washed over me, rapidly increasing the strength of my powers.

{ Due to the chaotic energy being passively absorbed, your powers have been strengthened, specifically your time and space powers. }

My eyebrows shot up in surprise and the energy beam gradually got smaller and smaller until it dissipated and Tiamat was once again in front of me, though her breathing was haggard and I could tell that attack took a lot out of her. Though admittedly, if that attack hit anyone at God-Class they wouldn't survive for a second.

"Well, I survived, so how about to next part." I said in a monotone voice.

She looked at me in complete shock, the most surprising part to her, other than the fact that I'm unscathed from it, is not even my clothes are out of place. It's like the energy simply avoided me, though if she knew I actually absorbed it, she would have passed out from shock.

"R-right. Come here." She said breaking out of her shock.

I flew down to her and she glowed in a white light and her body shrunk smaller and smaller until it was roughly 5'6'' tall. (Feet. I'm American and don't know metric, sorry.)

What appeared in front of me was an extremely beautiful woman with pale blue hair, dark blue eyes and a busty figure. She was dressed in a dark blue sweater and a navy blue skirt with dark blue stockings and heels.

(I don't have any pictures for her, and I don't want to use the one from Fate since it's overused and tbh I dislike the overly large horns.)

"Let's start." I said as I landed next to her.

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Sorry about the late post, I've been sidetracked all day.