Page 9

Okay, so to briefly sum it up, our fight did a lot of damage. 

I'm defending my actions but... I don't think I can defend myself when Valentyn and I destroyed a pretty large section of the Great Northern Mountain Range. Hold on. Let me clarify first. I did NOT destroy the mountain—Valentyn did with his magic (and punches). 

I kept on dodging his attacks and that made a mess. I then tried to negate his magic but it was unfamiliar and was protected by some kind of defensive barrier, so I couldn't tinker with the magic equation unfortunately. 

Oh, we were still in the deepest part of the abandoned dungeon so I didn't have much room to evade his attacks, so I had to either block it or negate it. I opted for blocking—it's much easier than trying to figure out how to crack the barrier protecting his magic equation anyway. 

His reaction was pretty funny though, making weird and confused faces whenever I "mysteriously" made his magic disappear (I was using the divine power of erasing) and before long, he stated some harsh things to a young and frail lady like me. 

What? I can address myself whatever I like. It doesn't have to be true. Urgh... fine, fine, I won't call myself a young and frail lady again... 

"I don't know what kinds of tricks you are using to make my magic disappear, but I'll get to the bottom of it!" he said before unleashing a flurry of magic attacks aimed at my head. The fifty small and purple-black coloured balls were surprisingly powerful and fast—although still too slow for them to catch me. 

Let me explain my abilities a bit for your sake to understand these events a bit better. I have three main types of abilities: 
- The different types of Divine Power.
- Manifesting Divine Energy into whatever form I wish.
- And the ability to transform into my "real" self, which grants me immense power and "Authority". 

Authority is the degree or unit of the maximum power of our divine powers and divine energy. The more Authority you have, the stronger your divine powers will naturally be. 

High-ranking beings, like Greater or Arch-type divine beings, will naturally and automatically have more Authority than lower-ranked beings, allowing them to partially control the lower-ranking being. 

That is the general basis of the "Authoritative Rule" that the One and Only Creator implemented. It is something that all beings follow, whether they know about it or not. And that is how I'm planning to make Valentyn my servant; by using the Authoritative Rule. 

Being a divine being, I will have more Authority than a vampire, so, I can partially control him. However, in the end, it's up to him to decide if he wants to agree and become my servant or not. I'm not going to force him to serve me if he doesn't wish for that. 

As for the others, it is self-explanatory. However, I should mention that there are an unlimited amount of divine powers that angels and other divine beings may choose from. It would go from your standard divine powers like erasing, creation, and destruction to very specific ones like the divine power of removing an unremovable curse, the repair of a destroyed anus (I have no idea what led up to the creation of this one) and more.  

I'm not going to list more than two. It gets creepy and disgusting fast and I wouldn't like to traumatise myself so, it's for my own sake, okay?!

Anyway, you get the basis down now. Going back to our battle now, I could remember at that time I wanted to test him and see his strength to determine if he was suitable to be a dungeon boss, and yes, he was suitable. 

His quick thinking and calculating moves make him a dangerous foe if we're on the same level. No actually, if I was at the same strength as him, and we fought, I would have lost. I'm not as experienced as he is in battle strategy, but I do have the advantage of technique control and mastery so maybe it would have been a close match? I don't know. 

Anyway, the fifty small purple-black balls quickly melted away the interior of the abandoned dungeon's lowest floor and snow came piling up in the holes created by the balls. Due to the immense heat of the balls, the melted walls were piping red, in a thick sludge or a glowing red paste. Whenever it came in contact with the ice and snow outside of the walls, the ice and snow melted away into water, which then evaporated into steam. 

The temperature inside the room slowly rose due to the steam, creating a sauna-like experience. I couldn't feel the temperature of course, since I'm an angel, but I'm sure Valentyn did. His attacks became slower and his movement became sluggish. 

"You don't seem to be doing too well in this heat. Shall we take this outside?" I asked him. 

He took up my suggestion by replying, "Thanks for your concern. I'll take up your offer then." 

With his response, and with the help of the divine power of erasing, I punched the wall closest to me and a long tunnel formed to the outside. With that hole, the cold air outside quickly gushed in and cooled down the temperature inside the "sauna" almost immediately. Valentyn revealed his black, bat-like wings and flew into the tunnel I created and waited for me just outside. 

I followed but to my surprise (not really) Valentyn made use of the opportunity and attacked. His attack was not aimed directly at me, but rather he wanted to collapse the tunnel so I could be stuck under the snow and ice and buy him some time to cast some more powerful magic. 

Three, two or even one second may not be that long, but to a magic-dependant user like Valentyn, any brought time is useful, no matter how short or long. In two seconds, I was able to escape from the snow and ice, but Valentyn was prepared for my arrival. 

In those two seconds, he was able to materialise well over twenty different types of magic. His magic spread was also diverse, probably trying to find my weakness first before going all out. His battle prowess is far better than I could ever imagine for such a young vampire. 

I wanted to play with him a little more; it was getting me hyped up, buuut my monthly report was due tomorrow and I wanted it finished before I go submit my daily report for today as well. I don't think Lord Raphael minds if the required monthly report is a day early, so if I needed to submit my daily report today, then it would be more efficient if I submitted them both at once. 

Therefore, I have to act with haste. With all my heart, I do not want to do this monthly status report. I'm going to have Valentyn do it for me. He seems like a pretty intelligent vampire, so I would just need to review what he wrote based on the prompts I give him and go back to the Imaginary Space to Arula's Angel Station where a teleportation pad should be prepared for me. 

But how should I get him to submit to me peacefully? Showing him overwhelming strength might not be a good idea, he might be just pressured to my bidding, while not wanting to, so if some major event occurs, he might leak intel to my enemy. 

That might be the only possible solution I could think of right now. But hang on! 

What if I do show my overwhelming strength and then I'll offer to train him instead? It would be beneficial to both parties; he would be stronger than before, and me? I would be getting a servant. It's one hell of a deal if you ask me. 

So I commenced my plan into action. I noticed that the defensive barrier on his magic equation WAS initially complex and almost impossible to solve in mere minutes, but once the battle dragged out long enough, I was able to find gaps within the barrier and then I was able to tinker with his magic equation, rendering it useless.  

It could use some work, maybe putting on another and more complex barrier after the first one to buy some time to finish his enemy off before they could fully tinker with his entire magic arsenal. 

But I decided to put the plan on hold for a little bit. I wanted to have some fun. I mean, work is not fun at all. It might be interesting, but not fun. On my days off though, I just relaxed and that was pretty much it. 

You guys have no clue how boring it is up here in the Overworld. To be fair, some devices that are sold in the Market do allow direct connection to the entertainment industry of any world advanced enough to have digital entertainment, but they are a hefty three million value or more (usually more) PER UNIT. 

It's crazy expensive, but after I'm done with this temporary job, I'll be filthy rich. Ten million value plus that extra one hundred thousand value as a deposit for taking the job. I could buy even the most expensive of entertainment devices with that kind of value. 

Whoopies. Got distracted again. Um, so, I approached Valentyn with the deal I thought up and he took it seriously. This is the conversation we had. 

"Valentyn! I hadn't had this much fun in ages! Why not become a student of mine? You'll grow much stronger than ever before!" 

"Hah?" he scoffed. "A student of yours? I don't mind if you can make me stronger... but are you that much stronger than I am?! You have only been dodging for the entirety of our battle. Where are your attacks?" he questioned. "If you want me to become your student, come and make me (defeat me)!

"Well said! I'll only be using one attack, however. I'll end it quickly. Are you prepared?" 

"Aren't you looking down on me a little too much, angel?" 

"Well, I'm just stating the facts. Try and block this, Valentyn!" 

Yeah... reflecting on my actions... using the divine power of erasing might have been a little too overkill for a measly being such as Valentyn at that time. He's much stronger now, fortunately. However, he does get some PTSD whenever I use the divine power of erasing... it's completely my fault. 

I materialised a small black ball, around the size of my head, and threw it towards Valentyn. He immediately acted with caution, materialising some defensive barriers, but they were no use. The moment the ball touched the barrier, it would effortlessly travel through it, leaving a hole in the barrier. 

Noticing this, Valentyn sent all of his deployed magic towards the ball and tried to destroy it, but it was no use. Just like the barrier he had deployed several seconds before, as soon as his magic touched the ball, it would disappear. 

"I might be in a little trouble..." I heard him mumble under his breath. I smiled when I heard that. "That little self-proclaimed angel has the power like a devil... quite ironic isn't it?"