For a while after that, the special training of the Eligos servants settled into a steady routine.
Mornings were for basic physical conditioning and demonic power training. Afternoons were dedicated to individualized training tailored to each servant. At night, they entered the Ancient Battlefield for live combat drills. Not a single day was skipped, and the intensity only kept increasing.
Every day, the Eligos servants trained until they were completely exhausted, filthy from head to toe, pushing past their limits who knew how many times.
If ordinary human girls had gone through training this brutal, even if they managed to endure it, their looks would've taken a serious hit. At the very least, their smooth, soft skin would be gone for good. Getting rougher, darker, and coarser would've been unavoidable.
Yukino and the others had worried about that at first, but as the training went on, they realized they'd been overthinking it.
Whether it was because their natural foundations were just that good, because they'd been reincarnated as devils, or because the hot springs they soaked in every day were laced with beauty-enhancing ingredients—who knew. But after a full half month of training, even though they'd gotten dirty and their image had taken a beating more than once, they hadn't grown uglier, darker, or rougher at all. They were still just as beautiful as ever.
If anything, because they were constantly pushing past their limits, Yukino's old weakness—her lack of stamina—had completely disappeared. The other girls were the same. They all still looked delicate and soft, yet even Mahiru, who appeared the most fragile, could now lift a massive five-meter-tall boulder over her head with one hand. And her figure hadn't changed at all—she still looked gentle and slender.
As time passed, Leo's indiscriminate magical bombardments during morning training no longer sent the girls scrambling in panic. No matter which servant it was, they'd gradually learned to calmly evade the demonic power blasts raining down from above. The same went for demonic power training. Even when Leo deliberately released interference to disrupt them, they could maintain the stability of the demonic power they were manifesting. Their control over demonic power was visibly improving.
Even during nighttime combat training, while the girls were still afraid of ghosts, they no longer tried to turn around and run. Urged on by Leo, they'd grit their teeth and charge in, screaming at the top of their lungs while fighting with everything they had. The noise they caused grew louder by the day.
Leo could clearly feel it—his girls were undergoing a complete transformation.
Their demonic power was steadily increasing, their presence growing stronger, even their eyes had changed. They no longer gave off the feeling of ordinary human girls. There was now an indescribable aura about them.
Yukino gradually began to exude a cold presence, like an ice queen. Asuna was starting to resemble the "Flash" Asuna from Leo's memories—beautiful and sharp, dazzling and fearless.
Utaha's literary-girl vibe shifted into something far more mysterious, like an intelligent mage. As for Mahiru, she looked more and more like an angel descended from the heavens, carrying a sacred air that made it hard for anyone to believe she was a devil at all.
In just half a month, the changes in these girls were so dramatic that even Leo was stunned.
"Before I awakened my trait, it took me a full fifteen years to break through from being an outstanding Mid-Class Devil to the High-Class Devil level..."
That kind of growth rate was already considered fast among devils. After all, there were plenty in the Underworld who hadn't grown at all in hundreds or even thousands of years. But among pure-blood devils, it was only average—he couldn't even compare to someone like Sona, whose combat strength wasn't particularly outstanding, let alone geniuses like Rias.
Of course, genius was still just genius. No matter how talented you were, you couldn't beat someone who was outright cheating.
In the future, there would be countless monsters who reached inhuman levels in just a single year. Take the Red Dragon Emperor, for example—he went from being a useless Low-Class Devil all the way up through sheer hacks. In just one year, he could already stand toe-to-toe with Maou-Class beings. If he went all out and paid the price, he could even defeat a god-level existence—a Super Devil. It was cheating on top of cheating.
Compared to monsters like that, so-called geniuses were nothing.
And while Yukino, Asuna, Utaha, and Mahiru all started out as ordinary human girls, in their own stories, they were all heroines.
In other words, these girls had the potential to be cheaters too.
The proof was right there.
After just half a month of special training, the girls could already hold their own against Leo—so long as he held back from using Zenith Tempest.
Especially Yukino. Her demonic power had fully broken through to the High-Class Devil level, and she could now fight alongside Absolute Demise, coordinating perfectly to achieve a two-on-one effect.
At this point, her strength was enough to contend with an Ultimate-Class Devil. If Leo didn't use Zenith Tempest, he actually couldn't take her down anytime soon.
The other girls had all seen remarkable growth as well. Mahiru, in particular—also a Longinus wielder, and one whose Sacred Gear ranked even higher than Yukino's—was advancing at a pace that could only be described as astonishing.
Leo didn't dare take Mahiru's purple flames head-on. The Holy Power and Purification Power within them meant that if he so much as brushed against them, he'd suffer serious injuries. It was just like his last fight with Cao Cao—he'd only touched the Holy Spear with his hand, and it had nearly been ruined.
And if the girls fought together, their combat results were even more terrifying.
Leo tried it once, letting the four girls team up against him. In the end, he was forced to go all out just to handle them.
That meant once the Eligos servants joined forces, they were already qualified to make Leo use his full strength.
That kind of progress was no joke. Even Leo couldn't help but envy it.
"If I'd had that kind of growth speed, I'd have become a Maou in fifteen years, you know?"
Not just Maou-Class—but an actual Maou.
After all, among the current Four Great Maou, two had reached Super Devil tier, while the other two were well above ordinary Maou-Class.
If Leo had grown as fast as Yukino and the others, reaching Super Maou-Class in fifteen years wouldn't have been a problem. Reaching Super Devil level wouldn't have been impossible either.
Unfortunately, he just wasn't born to be the protagonist.
"Good thing I'm cheating now too."
Thinking about his Servant Conversion trait, and then about Zenith Tempest—the second-strongest Longinus in the world—Leo's bruised ego finally felt a little better.
At the time, Leo didn't realize that precisely because he'd become a cheater as well, two good things—no, not one, but two—would soon come knocking.
That day, Leo was preparing to head to the Ancient Battlefield to continue his own training.
A month of special training wasn't just for the servants—Leo needed it too. His intensity just wasn't as high as theirs.
In the mornings, he trained alongside the servants in basic conditioning and demonic power control. At night, he secretly watched over them during their Ancient Battlefield combat drills, just in case anything went wrong. Only in the afternoons, when the servants were busy with their individual training, did he have time for himself.
That was why Leo had been entering the Ancient Battlefield every afternoon lately—not just to hone himself against the creatures roaming within, but also to make use of its harsh environments.
Zenith Tempest was a Sacred Gear deeply connected to nature, one that controlled natural forces. The brutal environments of the Ancient Battlefield had a very positive effect on Leo as its wielder, helping him better understand the cruelty and severity of nature.
So he deliberately chose the harshest environments to train in. He'd even entered toxic swamps more than once, nearly getting himself melted alive.
But it worked. This self-destructive training greatly deepened his understanding of nature and of Zenith Tempest.
If there'd been a volcano in Eligos Territory, Leo would've seriously considered swimming in magma to see if it would spark even more insights.
These realizations might not directly boost his power right away, but as long as they kept accumulating, Leo was certain he'd eventually apply them in new ways and push Zenith Tempest to an entirely new level.
It was afternoon now. The servant girls had finished lunch and headed to their respective training grounds. Leo was just about to set off for the Ancient Battlefield again.
But before he could leave the camp, two figures suddenly appeared before him within a magic circle.
"It seems your special training is going quite smoothly."
A gentle voice tinged with a faint smile rang out, making Leo gasp in surprise as he called out the visitor's name.
"Sirzechs-sama? What brings you here?"
The newcomer was none other than one of the current Maou—Sirzechs Lucifer.
And he hadn't come alone. With him was Grayfia, his wife and Queen.
Just like last time, the "Silver-Haired Queen of Annihilation," dressed in her maid outfit, said nothing from beginning to end. She stood quietly behind Sirzechs—neither like a wife nor like a Queen, but more like a servant. Anyone who didn't know her would never guess that she was one of the strongest female devils in the Underworld, someone who could go head-to-head with the current Maou, Serafall Leviathan.
"Relax. I'm just here to take a look—and to talk to you about a few things."
Sirzechs's attitude was as gentle and approachable as ever, perfectly matching his Queen's style. He didn't feel like a lofty Maou at all—more like a friendly older brother next door.
But people didn't show up without a reason. Leo could already tell—Sirzechs had something important to discuss.
Probably not a bad thing?
Looking at Sirzechs's warm smile, Leo thought that to himself.
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You can read up to chapter 178 on patreon.com/NiaXD.