It Started With Devils & Artefacts

Quinella had finally done it! The Aurora Artificial Intelligence has massively accelerated the analysis of the data after that 3% disaster, she has expanded her processing abilities again with another expansion.

After her Master's third session there was a 4.5% chance of miscalculation. Which drives her even more nuts. Thankfully by the fourth session, the expansion of the processing facility was done.

And she only encountered a 2.5% chance of miscalculation this time around. Satisfying her somewhat. But, now…

The last session was up and his whole group had gathered to see the 'final form' of their Master.

"Did you ladies feel it?" Serafall asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, Master's magic just eclipsed ours…" Grayfia said with wide eyes, before smiling in satisfaction.

Now she is serving a more powerful being… in raw power. And that just fills her with more satisfaction in her gut.

Soon enough the chemicals were drained out from the chemical room and the doors opened themselves.

Slowly their Master walked out from the room. All the females who saw him just gulped down. 

Quinella could not take it anymore and started walking forward towards him, her steps were still elegant as she quickly arrived in front of him.

Her hand quickly went up and towards his hair. She swiftly brushed it back.

[Yes~~~ Now this is more to my liking. Master~~~ You now officially look super hot!] She announced with a silly grin.

"Hmm?" 

"Damn… Whoa! He totally looks similar to him!" Serafall said with wide eyes. Her cheeks got slightly red.

"Who?" Latia asked, her eyes, however, stayed on her boyfriend.

"Aizen Sosuke from Bleach! Our Master has a similar physique now and his facial expression has similar sharpness even his gaze is similar!" As Serafall was describing her Master, she got slightly hot.

"...Okay… I have no idea who he is…but from the looks of it, he is quite something…"

"He is a supervillain, an evil scientist, and a genius… does that ring any bells?" Serafall asked with an eye roll. She can't believe this girl doesn't know Bleach!

"Oh… I see. You see similarities between our Master and him." Latia said with a knowing look. The black-haired devil quickly called a holographic window, went to Google and showed the image of the supervillain.

"...Yes. Similar but our Master is more handsome." The blonde said with a dreamy look.

"I know! He could easily cosplay as *the* Aizen Sosuke if he wanted to!" Serafall said in a dreamy tone.

By this point, Latia had already ignored her and instead went to approach her boyfriend.

Back to Marcus who heard all that, he called forth a holographic window and turned it into a mirror as he inspected himself in it.

"Hoh. I see what you mean." The teen said softly but, for some reason, the whole group, except for Quinella, turned slightly weird hearing his voice.

His voice was not loud, it was soft, but it commanded some sort of power to it.

Quinella grinned from ear to ear. She was thinking that this would happen! This time it was a victory to her and not the genetics! 

A Human's DNA is extremely complex as it went through evolution for thousands if not millions of years, unlike the supernatural which is created from beliefs or other machinations of powerful beings. Like, for example, Angels and Devils. They were the creations of powerful beings.

So, it's not that complex that they are already in the apex of their given form. Not much improvement is possible for them.

Quinella went through Artemis's DNA countless times. Trying to understand Greek Gods. Trying to find something more. And in the end, she always comes up with the same conclusion.

They are beings shaped by humanity, and ultimately, there was no Supernatural before humanity. Nothing specific was uncovered. The earliest known Pantheons were the Mesopotamian, the Hindus, and the Egyptians with their records going quite far.

There are exceptions though. Like the Heavenly Dragons, the True Dragons or the Dragon Gods. Even the so-called Primordials Gods are not older than these living draconic energies.

In other words, their God bodies have already reached their apex and there was nothing more for them to evolve. Unlike the humans who are shaped and affected by the nature around them.

What the Silver-haired assistant did was quite simple. She dug deep into her Master's DNA. Went to the earliest possible record. Once located, she unleashes it, re-doing that for every single piece.

The artificial intelligence overwrote all the downsides that human comforts did to her Master's body. All the weaknesses were eliminated. Once that was done his body was at the level of a human. The most primal in the sense of evolution.

The senses at its peak, the mind at its sharpest. The muscles are at the most ready. Once that was achieved, she then released all the limiters.

Once the limiters were gone; it was the time when his DNA was at its most active. The evolution has begun. This is where Quinella truly showed her mastery over genetics.

She has put her Master's adaptability to the maximum possible. Pushing the gene to borderline breaking point. With max adaptability, she was able to then add things from other beings' genes. Like the enormous magic reserves of the Gods, the sharp senses of a predator, not too much though as she still wanted him to be human. So, balance was still needed. So, while he had the senses of a predator it was not to the point where he would start stalking people like a predator.

The most groundbreaking change she made was to add the adaptability of a Stray devil which was to the point of mutation. It was a magic based phenomenon that affects the human body. What Quinella did however was analyse it and rework it to fit with her Master's adaptability.

She made it so that it becomes what people know as 'Zenkai' boost. The new body of her Master receives the damage and his DNA reacts to this damage, it adapts to it and evolves. Raising its magical power to meet this new threat.

In other words. What she has made of her Master is a 'perfect' human. A human without any limits.

It's so great that even the devil ladies who heard his voice felt a tingle in their very being. They knew they were standing in front of something impossible to exist in this modern age and time.

"I do look like him. Quite fascinating. I would even call it a machination of yours." Marcus put his hand on his assistant's chin. Pulling her closer.

"Was it one of your machinations? My beautiful little vixen?" Quinella stupidly nodded multiple times to his questions. Her human processors tried to understand what she just experienced.

The only result she got was that she needs a human body to properly comprehend this…

The rest of the group also tried to understand what they were feeling.

Even Venelana was biting her lower lip. Her mind turned traitorous. The more she thinks about it the more she desires to test her Master's proficiency in certain activities. 

However, she doesn't just want it to be a simple session, no. After all, she is a Devil of the Bael family. For now, she will just observe him closely.

While the other devil ladies who saw the changed Master of theirs could only lick their lips. This was… the Artificial Intelligence truly delivered on that promise to make their Master better!

"I see… you did quite nicely. Nonetheless, you are not allowed to hide things from me. Assuming you also altered some of my looks?"

[I-I-I didn't! T-The only machination I could think about… is… wait! I didn't even do anything! I followed the protocol to the letter!] Quinella huffed as she rapidly went through everything with her enormous processing capacity.

"So, you are telling me this is my natural look?" Marcus raised his eyebrow as he inspected himself.

He clenched his hand and swiftly channelled his magic.

A bright white aura surrounded him at that moment as he called for his enormous amount of magic.

Both Serafall and Grayfia gulped down with disbelief. Their top power was insignificant to this… Serafall could only fight her Master in this case with her Eternity Drive Balance Breaker.

This means Marcus was at least a Super Devil Class being just from raw magic power.

"So, this is it? Quite impressive." 

[I just clocked you at 85% of that of the Red Dragon Emperor at his prime. From the readings we got from the Boosted Gear. And the strength of the soul reading.] Quinella said with a thoughtful look. Still though, she can't believe her Master made her go through that embarrassing moment!

"I see… we will go through extensive tests later on." Marcus softly said that. He looked at the mirror for a second. His facial expression slowly morphed into that of a smile. A smile of someone who knows things. A very familiar smile which was always on the face of a certain genius villain from Bleach.

~~~~~~Marcus~~~~~~

Once again I looked at myself in the mirror. I just went through a whole bunch of scans. 

All my vitals were perfect. The blood samples were scanned and analysed by Quinella. The beauty had 0% miscalculation this time which she was extremely smug about.

I already tried out some basic things. Like, for example, how long it takes for a simple finger  cut to heal.

There was no improvement in my first session. As it was just fixing inherited things. The second one showed me a 30% increase in rapid healing. In the third it was 50% from base humans. In the fourth it was 150%. And in the last one, it was around 1000%. Well, the speed was near instantaneous.

Another funny thing happened, I was almost immune to cuts from sharp things right after I'd cut myself in the finger…

Meaning my body adapted to sharp things… 

[Well, you are in 'perfect' health. The genetic alterations are… Well, they are not there anymore… it's like your body was always like this… the natural adaptability assimilated those changes and accepted them as it is. Strange… I will most likely figure this one out and add it to the S.P.B.A... quite interesting.]  

I nodded at her. It seems that my body adapted to the modification and accepted them as better alternatives. 

Thinking for a bit, I called forth touki. A familiar golden white-ish aura surrounded me, the life force energy was even denser than before.

The power which comes directly from the lifeforce, quite a strange concept. The more 'perfect' my body was, the more I could channel it. I unlocked it after the third session. It got denser followed by the fourth. And now it was like a fire surrounding me.

How this is connected to body and life is still something I need to do some research on.

It most likely reacted to my non-existing lifespan.

Well, we will see what it does later on.

Now, I have magic and Touki. And I could feel that there was something more which I could access. It was like a paper-thin layer that was there keeping me away from whatever this was.

'Well, I will figure this one out soon enough.' 

Once the checks were done I dressed up again and Quinella brought me the tray with my rings…

I noticed there was an extra one…

"This is?"

I picked up the golden ring that was the same-looking as the rest. But, my senses were telling me there was something else.

I know my rings from looks alone, and my magic sense tells me their true nature as well. For example, the Ring of Destruction felt like an endless abyss and the end of things. While my Ring of Focus felt like my maths classroom back from school… it has a sort of vibe to it…

The Ring of Storage felt like the basement where you keep your fruits over the winter. And this… this felt like distorted space…

[I have finished this ring when you were going through your last session. I thought it would be a good gift to you.] She said with a small visible blush on her cheeks.

"Oh… now that is a nice gift!" I said with quite a giddy tone. I could not remember the last time I got such a good gift!

[The Ring of Space, as you've probably guessed. This ring holds the principle of space magic, control and manipulation. The problem however, as you can guess, is the control. But, with your enchanted capacities, alongside the Ring of Focus, you should be able to manipulate it however you want.] She explained to me while I looked at the ring between my fingers.

I was inspecting the runesmith. The Lord of Rings holds nothing on what my Quinella could do.

"Which finger does it goes on?" I asked her after finishing my inspection.

[Left-hand, middle finger.] 

After hearing which finger it goes on, I immediately put it on. That moment, I felt like another filter just went through me. I could see things brighter?

[Don't try to rip space here, Master, you can't do it here.] Quinella said simply with a knowing and deadpan look.

"I see...so, this is how locked space looks like. I can see it now."

[Indeed. I suggest practising space magic where space is not locked and it's nowhere in our backyard I am afraid.] She said with a sad tone.

"Quite the sadist… giving such a toy to me and not letting me use it? I don't know how I should feel about that." I said while shaking my head in fake disappointment.

[...Gah! Don't you dare! I was not the one who decided to lock space so that no creepy space monsters could enter into our home country! And you know it!] She pointed her finger at me with a blushing look.

"Right… I forgot that… I suppose you are not so sadistic towards me after all." I shook my head with an amused smile, remembering that part quite perfectly.

[Y-Y-You… are messing with me! So, this is what it is… ] She said that with a realised look.

[Just you wait! I will have my revenge!] She told me with a cute pout.

A regular human should be terrified. But, I was the one who programmed her basic functions. This means her revenge will be that of either seduction which leads to teasing. Or, a similar type of teasing…

Well, it will be fascinating to see her do such things.

~~~

After the check-ups, I went to the testing room. I wanted to test some of my basic strengths. The leap in fundamental strength was enormous.

"Right… Serafall, we are going to do some basic fighting."

"Eh? EH? Are you planning to kill me!? Your power is off the charts!!!" Serafall shook her head.

*Sigh*

"I said the basics… try using your water powers on me," I said with a shrug. I am not planning some Battle of Fates like Dragon Ball Z has or something like that…

"Fine! You should get used to some physical activity!" Serafall raised her hand and a Leviathan circle appeared. Moments later, a large amount of water manifested, like a torrent, it rushed towards me.

Honestly… I've never fought properly in my life before… but in this situation? Something just clicked for me. The moment the water torrent was in front of me, I grabbed it with magic pouring from me. 

And just like that, with a simple spin, I sent that torrent of water back, flying towards Serafall who was looking at me with disbelief.

She only had a few moments to dodge it. Very embarrassingly she jumped out of the way.

"What was that!? It's like you just used Kankara on me just now!" The black-haired devil exclaimed with a pouty tone. She slowly got up on her feet moments later.

"Kankara? Not quite...or was it? I don't know how Ajuka's magic works, but I calculated the amount of magic you sent me and used the same amount to capture it. Then I calculated the best way to redirect it." I explained to her.

"That does sound quite similar to my uncle's Kankara. But, it's not. Master was able to do it because his magic nature is neutral. And he was able to, quite easily, adapt to the water." Latia said from a distance. I could see some sweat on her forehead. Assuming she felt quite out of place with the amount of power being thrown around.

"...Doesn't change the fact that his fighting style is similar!" Serafall huffed and created several balls of ice and started shooting at me…

'This girl… she needs some spanking!' 

Less than a second later I started slapping the ice balls away like some paper planes. And started walking forward towards the slightly panicking-looking beauty.

Before long she started taking steps back while still trying to do something with her water and ice powers. By this point, she was going overboard and I could use Ars Goetia to calm her down. But, this situation requires some direct intervention.

After all of her attacks got slapped away, I was now in front of her, and behind her  was a wall. In simpler words… she was cornered. My left hand moved quickly and grabbed both of her hands and lifted them above her. Pinning her in place.

While with my right hand I grabbed her chin and made her look directly at me.

*Nervous Gulp*

"Did I permit you to use anything else apart from water?" I asked her while my gaze was directly on her blue eyes.

" 'So...hot!' "

"Hmm?" 

What was that? Did I just hear her voice in my head? 

I looked at her more. I could feel...something more…another energy flowing in me…

"...Master your eyes… they just went through something…" Serafall said with wide eyes. I, for a moment, kept staring at her.

" 'Those look like Innovator eyes! Is that for real? That stuff can happen in real life!?' "

Did I just read her mind? Psionic powers? Is this psionic energy I am feeling?

Without wasting much time I released her from my hold and I could 'hear' her inner pouting.

My eyes went towards Latia and I could hear her intellectual inner self talking.

" 'Marcus is truly powerful now. I should start my training soon so I won't be left behind like this.' " 

Heh, even inner monologues are like that.

Then I called for a holographic window and turned it into a mirror. Moments later, I looked at myself. My eyes widened seeing electricity flowing through my irises 

The pupil was the same, only that the iris got duller and now electricity was flowing through them, the eyes even had some sort of glow to them, assuming they could now glow in the dark.

What was more fascinating was that, the moment this new energy, which I believe is psionic, calmed down, my original eyes returned to how they were before.

"What was that? Did you just turn into an Innovator!?" Serafall asked with disbelief.

"In a way… I can feel another type of energy now. And I can access it too." I explained to her as I started channelling this energy. I feel that I could quite easily mould it with Touki…

"No...way… isn't it like your third energy now?" Serafall exclaimed with disbelief.

"I don't even know if there even existed someone who could have this many energies inside a single body!" The black-haired Satan said to herself and I could hear it quite easily now. My mind-reading is rapidly progressing. Which is quite the convenient power.

"Yes… it would seem it's psionic of some sort. I think I will be able to do things with my mind now." 

"Like mind reading? Feeling emotions? Telekinesis, telepathy…" Serafall started listing all the things I could now probably do with her otaku knowledge.

"Yeah… that sort of thing. For now, you two go back to the workshop and observe my test from there. I will be running a simulation." I said with a thoughtful look. Thankfully I can truly let loose in my simulations and see how much damage I can do with it.

"O-Okay…"

I could feel how Serafall pouted internally for not keeping her like this. While Latia was much more understanding. The blonde walked over to the black-haired Satan and started pulling her out of the room.

Once they are gone. I took a deep breath for a second.

"Begin simulation. New type of energy testing. Send me to New York, Aurora." 

[Understood. I am transferring 2% of total processing power to this. It should be enough to gather and analyse enough data for it.] 

My eyebrow slightly went up… 2% is quite a lot. With the amount of processing power. Even 1% is enough to design, simulate, and test new technology.

So, two is double that…

[Beginning simulation.]

[Activating Hard Light projection]

[Dispersing Realitus Particles]

[Light Prism Online]

[Simulating starting!]

Moments later the surroundings started to shift… buildings getting constructed, the white ceiling transformed into blue skies and I could feel a slight breeze, a shift in temperature.

A few seconds later I could hear cars, people talking. Sounds of traffic and smell of petrol…

'Uhhh, as primitive as one could get.' I furrowed my eyebrows smelling that. 

As much as I loved the internal combustion engine. I got rid of it as quickly as I could in my previous life.

Still though, I am not here for cars…

~~~~~~Inside Simulation~~~~~~

The simulation was extremely realistic… to the point where every single NPC had a personality. Marcus' appearance, a man in a lab coat with an extremely dashing appearance. instantly got the attention of some of the passing-by females.

Not that this fascination lasted long as he soon walked over to the closest building and put his hand on it.

Second, after his weird behaviour, the building's windows exploded. Making all the people scream from fear as they started running away from that place.

Moments later, the building walls started to crack… Those cracks soon spread throughout the whole building before it then exploded in all directions.

The blast was quite powerful, sending cars flying as well as damaging the other buildings.

Before long a purple aura surrounded Marcus as all the cars and remnants of buildings started to float. Their shapes were forcefully changed, going through several different shapes. Stopping at a dagger-like shape. 

Once the changes were done to these constructs, they were sent flying into the tallest skyscraper in the vicinity.

Shredding a portion of the building in the distance. This caused the top of the skyscraper to start falling into the streets below.

Not long after that, dust clouds started to spread through the streets. 

Purple energies easily blasted the dust away as more buildings started to rise from the ground…

This time he was pulling them out with the foundations as a whole. Buildings with multiple floors and sizes were pulled out like they were built from paper instead of concrete and bricks…

Then they started to squeeze into themselves, forcefully breaking down and shrinking into perfect balls of concrete, steel, bricks.

"Hmmm, I am getting a hang of this. Aurora, send an opponent for me."

[Any preference?]

"None. Impress me."

[Sure thing.]

Around thirty seconds later, Marcus heard a loud whistling sound… before a fist rammed into his face.

The teen's eyes widened as he felt his body being sent flying, like a ragdoll going through several rows of buildings...eventually going through the liberty statue like a hot knife going through butter.

Marcus snapped from his shock as pain soon washed through his body. He flipped over creating a platform on which he grabbed himself, stopping in the middle of New York Bay.

His eyes scanned the area. Finding the one who punched him.

"Seriously? Aurora? You're sending Superman after me?" Marcus asked with wide eyes.

[Not just any Superman. According to my calculations, he could easily fight in the top 3 of the World's Strongest Beings. If you can beat him then you are on that list.] The A.I. smugly said to him, goading him to fight against this augmented Superman.

"Heh… I see… I guess let's aim for that position. For once... let's do things the old fashion way." As the teen inventor said that he slowly stood up, his spine and neck already fixed itself and he stretched out.

"That one… I quite felt it." He said to the famous comic book hero who'd just arrived in front of him.

"I punched you as hard as I could. I am quite impressed that you are that durable." The Earth's strongest Hero said with disbelief.

"I was not… now I am, however." Marcus said as he started to float on his own. 

Purple aura surrounded him as it slowly started to form into a flaming one, a second later, particles of all sorts of things started to float around him as well.

At the moment, he had just successfully combined all three energies. and he soon started powering himself up with this new power,a new type of energy.

And the world around them started to shake. The hero in front of Marcus, by this point, was tired of waiting and rushed forward, preparing to punch again.

This time, teen himself met the punch with his own.

The collision sent shockwaves throughout the whole area. Marcus grimaced as he felt his right hand just break.

He quickly swept with his left, sending a space rent. A distorted slash of space.

The blue spandex-wearing hero quickly dodged this with his inhuman speed. Pity that he forgot that behind him was one of the world's biggest cities.

The space rent easily cut through almost all the skyscrapers in Manhattan, flying somewhere into New Jersey cutting through more buildings in its path.

"NOOO! You bastard!" Superman exclaimed with wide eyes as he realised what just happened. Fury manifested in his eyes as the Superhero rushed forward. Marcus quickly meets him midair as the battle of super speed and super strength send more shockwaves through the whole area.

Marcus' insane adaptability kicked in as soon after meeting him head-on, his body started to adapt. As adrenaline was rushing through his body, his mind started working like a computer analysing the movement of the Superhero. While at the same time, finding ways to improve his performance. 

For this, his mind delved into his memory and started analysing any and all martial arts he encountered throughout his two lives.

Before he could even realise it, he already knew Taekwondo, Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Russian ARB…

And in less than 3 minutes of being outperformed by Superman. Marcus was already fighting back with a multitude of different martial arts.

With a powerful elbow strike, the teen inventor sends the Earth Greatest Hero flying into the bay of New York.

The black-haired teen then casually lifted his right hand and a ball of Power of Destruction manifested. He started pouring his new type of energy into  the ball as it rapidly started to grow in size.

Before long, it could easily block the sun; he then dropped the ball towards the bay.

"Let's see if you can survive this," Marcus said curiously as he watched the P.O.D, like a meteorite, descend into the bay.

Moments later the explosion evaporated as all the water in the area was instantly erased and portions of New York were gone.

"Hmm…"

The teen eyes widened for a second.

As Superman was right in front of him. His cape was half gone, there were minor injuries with some bleeding on him. Like a cut eyebrow and some missing pieces of his spandex.

"No wonder you have the title 'Man of steel'. That blast had enough power to erase any lesser being." Marcus said with disbelief seeing that this dude tanked the blast! For a second he thought Quinella was pulling a leg for him. But, that's against her programming.

The Earth's mightiest Hero looked around and saw the state of the city. He frowned deeply.

"Let's change our battling grounds. I am sure space will fit us better than this." As he said that Superman rushed up to leave the planet.

Marcus rolled his eyes for a second and ignited his purple aura rushing forward with similar speed to superman.

Moments later, they were in space. Below them was the blue planet.

"Let's end this!" The superhero roared with a furious look, he was not holding back at all this time and Marcus met him head-on.

Before long, another fistfight started which sent shockwaves easily felt by the people below on the planet.

Nonetheless, Superman instantly noticed that he was losing even in direct contact with the sun. Marcus' progress in martial arts was pushing the hero back.

A single slip was that was needed and the black-haired teen smashed his fist powered by P.O.D into the spandex-wearing hero's gut.

The blast sent the guy flying but the teen was already waiting for him on the other side. He grabbed superman by the head and used his space ring to appear on the moon.

He slammed into the moon with enough force to create a massive crater.

' "I would like to see how you can survive it at point-blank range. Space and destruction at the same time…" ' Marcus said directly into his mind with his psionic powers.

And in the next moment the moon that was orbiting Earth for millions of years was shattered into pieces by a blast of black and red energy.

~~~~~~Workshop~~~~~~

Serafall and Latia were watching the battle with shell shocked looks. They had a chance to see their Master truly going all out the old fashion way.

Against one of the most famous heroes in Earth's History of comic books! 

Even Latia knew who he was and she didn't read much comics! Nonetheless, it was an awesome battle and harshly reminded them of how insanely powerful their Master got through this!

The most shocked of them all was Venelana who was in the background watching all this with disbelief.

This was a movie, not a battle! How can that room even tank this much damage!?

"Seriously… how adaptable is he!? Superman broke his spine and neck! He recovered nearly instantly after it! Not only that but he started utilising Martial Arts through the middle of the fistfight! 

And it only got better through the next few exchanges!" Serafall said with wide eyes.

[That is why my Master and Creator is the 'perfect' human being!] Quinella said with a happy tone. What she saw was simply gorgeous! She took a bunch of pictures of her hot Master!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Along with the advanced chapters, there are also a lot of other fanfics I wrote and did not upload to Webnovel.

Chapters are coming out Monday, Wednesday and Friday around 9:00 AM British time.