The transformation was staggering.
I stood in the gym, my breath steadying after the wave of cellular reconstruction. I flexed my hands, opening and closing them. The familiar softness of Issei's palms was now underpinned by a new layer of dense muscle. I felt lighter on my feet, yet more solidly connected to the ground. The chronic, low-level fatigue that seemed part of the original Issei's existence was gone, replaced by a humming, ready energy. This was Peak Human Condition. It wasn't supernatural, but it was a foundation. The foundation I desperately needed.
I looked at my reflection, not with vanity, but with assessment. The body was ready. Now, the mind had to catch up.
As I began a series of basic calisthenics, testing my new limits, my thoughts drifted from the immediate burn in my muscles to the storm clouds gathering on the horizon. The memories of the story—*my story now*—unfurled in my mind like a cursed scroll.
**Raynare.** She wasn't finished. She was out there, hunting for Sacred Gears. And she would find a gentle, blonde-haired girl in an abandoned church. Asia Argento. She would trick her, torture her, and attempt to steal her Sacred Gear, the Twilight Healing. In the original timeline, Issei's intervention led to Asia's death and subsequent reincarnation as a Devil. A chain of events that put a target on both their backs.
My hands clenched into fists. I couldn't let that happen. Not to Asia. She was a beacon of pure kindness in this brutal world, and Raynare would snuff her out for power. I had to get stronger, fast. I had to be there.
But it was bigger than just one Fallen Angel. The peace between the Three Factions—Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels—was a fragile, tense truce, held together by little more than mutual exhaustion. My very existence, a human-turned-Devil who possessed a Longinus, was a spark next to a powder keg. One wrong move, one overt display of power, and I could be the excuse someone needed to shatter that peace, plunging the world into a war I'd only ever read about.
And then… there was *him*.
A face, cold and arrogant, surfaced from Issei's memories and my own knowledge. White hair, icy blue eyes, and a pressure that felt like the void of space. Vali Lucifer. The White Dragon Emperor. The inheritor of the Divine Dividing, the absolute counter to my Boosted Gear. Our clash wasn't a possibility; it was a destiny written into the very nature of our souls. Ddraig and Albion were destined to fight, and we were their current hosts.
A sigh, heavy with the weight of it all, escaped my lips. The comforting burn in my muscles was a temporary distraction from the sheer scale of the challenges ahead. I had a system, a cosmic cheat code, but it operated on a currency I had to earn through grueling effort. I couldn't just wish for power.
I stopped my exercises and focused inward, past the new demonic energy, past the enhanced physique, searching for the core of my power. The Boosted Gear. The Red Dragon Emperor.
It was there—a slumbering sun, immense and dormant. I could feel its presence, a vast potential locked away behind a seal I didn't know how to break. In the original story, Issei awakened it through a surge of emotion and desire. But my psyche was different. My desires were tempered by strategy, my emotions kept on a tighter leash. Would raw desperation be enough? Or did I need to find another key?
"System," I commanded silently.
The golden interface appeared, a promise of solutions.
**Available Points: 1,800**
I navigated through the menus, my eyes scanning for anything that could accelerate my growth or force the awakening.
**> <｜place▁holder▁no▁285｜> Awakening Catalyst: 5,000 Points**
**> <｜place▁holder▁no▁278｜> Combat Instinct (Tier 1): 3,000 Points**
**> <｜place▁holder▁no▁279｜> Resistance (Low): 2,200 Points**
Too expensive. All of it. I was still poor in the system's economy.
Frustration bubbled up, but I forced it down. Panic was a luxury I couldn't afford. I needed a plan. A method.
First, the body. My new physical peak was just the baseline. I would push it to its absolute limit with relentless training, combining demonic energy reinforcement with the system's future purchases.
Second, the contracts. Every completed job was not just points; it was practical experience, a lesson in controlling my power in the human world. I would take on more, harder jobs.
Third, and most critical, I had to find a way to communicate with Ddraig. I had to wake the dragon. Not through a blind emotional outburst, but through focused will. I would spend hours each day in meditation, focusing every ounce of my intent, my *need*, on that slumbering sun within my soul.
I looked at my reflection one last time. The face of Issei Hyodo was set in a grim line. The wide-eyed, dreaming pervert was gone. In his place was a soldier who knew the date of the invasion.
The peace was an illusion. Raynare was a ticking clock. Vali was an inevitable hurricane.
I had a foundation. Now, I had to build a fortress before the siege began. It was time to stop being a passenger in this story and start shaping its outcome.