By the time Leo returned to the castle with Stella, the fires were already out.
Not naturally. The Dragon God still standing quietly in the ruined throne room had taken care of it, likely just to keep a place to stand. Ophis looked as if nothing had happened, her expression unchanging, but her eyes followed Leo the moment he entered. They weren't empty anymore.
The castle was wrecked beyond the word "dilapidated." Between the earlier shockwaves and the fight with Stella, everything outside the throne room was scorched rubble.
Leo set Stella down, took off his jacket, and draped it over her still-naked body. Then he turned to go find Kanna.
Ophis spoke first.
"...You're looking for this hatchling?"
She was holding Kanna by the scruff like a sack, dangling her in front of Leo.
"Ughh..."
Kanna let out a weak whimper, limp and unresisting. Her legs hung slack, her head lolled, completely out of it.
"What happened to her?"
"She was being controlled." Ophis said it like it was nothing. "So I knocked her out."
Leo's mouth twitched.
Simple enough to piece together. After Stella's blast wave sent Kanna and her bubble flying, the hatchling had broken free from the weakened bubble, only to be brought under Laevateinn's control. Laevateinn could subjugate any dragon whose bloodline potential fell below the wielder's. Kanna might be stronger than Stella in raw power, but in bloodline potential, she was inferior. So the moment Stella's defensive instinct kicked in and she started fighting Leo, the freed Kanna had been drawn in by Laevateinn, about to join the fight against him.
She never got the chance. She'd run straight into Ophis, who knocked her out with a single tap.
Leo took the groggy hatchling from Ophis's hand.
"Thanks."
If Ophis hadn't intervened, fighting two Dragon King-class opponents at once wouldn't have been a real problem at his current level, but it would have been annoying.
Ophis didn't care about his gratitude. She was staring at him, watching him like he was something fascinating. Then she spoke.
"Your power. It's special."
Leo paused.
Special?
"To most people, maybe. But to you, it shouldn't be anything worth noting."
His Zenith Tempest, his Maou-Class demonic power, his elemental traits. Impressive by any faction's standards, sure. But to a Dragon God who treated gods as insects, none of it should matter.
Ophis said nothing to that. Instead, she held out her other hand.
A magic circle Leo didn't control materialized in front of him. From within it, an Evil Piece drifted out and floated into Ophis's palm.
His Evil Piece.
And not just any piece. The Queen.
The one piece that had never found its owner.
The moment it touched Ophis's hand, the Queen piece erupted with light so intense it was almost blinding. Brighter than any reaction Leo had ever seen from any of his other Evil Pieces. Not even close.
If every other piece's reaction had been a campfire, this was a star. The radiance of a sun's core.
Leo's pupils contracted.
Ophis held the blazing piece and spoke quietly.
"I can feel it. The power connected to this piece... its authority is on par with my Infinity and Great Red's Dreams. Perhaps even above them."
Her voice was soft, almost weightless, but it struck Leo like a hammer.
"Just now, you became stronger because of this power, didn't you?"
She had watched the entire process. Leo using the Evil Piece on Stella. The Servant Conversion feedback making him stronger. She'd seen it all.
Leo finally understood. The "special power" Ophis was talking about wasn't his Sacred Gear or his demonic power.
It was Servant Conversion.
"Super Devil." Ophis looked directly at him. "Your kind has those, correct?"
Leo blinked, then nodded without thinking.
"Your power is something similar to that." Ophis's eyes rippled faintly. "But theirs is of the body. Yours is of the soul, of magic... perhaps something even deeper."
Leo fell silent.
He understood what she meant.
Sirzechs. Ajuka. Even Vali's grandfather, the son of the original Lucifer. The reason these three were called Super Devils was because their very existence had undergone a mutation, elevating them beyond the devil race entirely.
They were racial transcendents. Mutants who had evolved past what devils were supposed to be. As Ophis said, their transcendence was physical. Of the body. Of the blood.
According to Ophis, Leo was the same.
Leo Eligos, the young devil the Underworld had such high expectations for, was also a Super Devil.
Just not in the same way. His mutation wasn't of the body or blood or race or life. It was of the soul, of magic, of something deeper still.
And from that mutation, Servant Conversion had been born.
If that was true, then Ophis's claim that its authority rivaled the Dragon Gods' concepts made sense. Sirzechs and Ajuka were no longer truly devils but something beyond devils. So Leo's mutated trait couldn't be an ordinary devil's ability either. It was something above that. A power, a concept, operating at a fundamentally higher level.
Leo never expected to learn the true nature of his mutation here, of all places. And he certainly never expected to be a Super Devil himself, one even more unusual than Sirzechs or Ajuka.
But... why? Because he was a transmigrator? Had his soul mutated when it crossed into this world, eventually producing this result?
That was the only explanation he could think of.
"...What kind of luck is this?"
Leo rubbed the bridge of his nose. His feelings were complicated.
Ophis didn't understand or care about his inner turmoil. She simply watched him and continued.
"It requires a medium, but... if used properly, this power could one day surpass me. And Great Red."
She paused.
"Can you help me defeat Great Red?"
The request blindsided Leo, yanking him out of his thoughts.
"You... you want me to help you defeat Great Red?"
Even Leo was taken aback.
But Ophis was serious.
"I can't defeat Great Red on my own. But if you can surpass me, surpass Great Red, then you can."
She had taken what she'd seen in Leo's power and turned it into hope. And honestly, that hope had more basis in reality than anything the Khaos Brigade had ever promised her. If what Ophis described was truly possible, then Leo genuinely could reach that level someday, unlike the Khaos Brigade's empty promises.
The problem was, Leo had zero reason to agree.
Defeat Great Red? Setting aside whether he even could, he had no grudge against the dragon. Why would he pick a fight with the strongest being in existence just to help a lost girl find her way home?
While Leo was mentally rolling his eyes, Ophis spoke again.
"I can share my power with you. As much as possible. And I can help you grow stronger."
She held up the Queen piece, still blazing with light, her expression unchanged.
"If you use this on me and make me your servant, you'll become much, much stronger."
The words entered Leo's ears and sank straight into his core.
"And then, with my power added on top... you should be able to surpass Great Red."