They say college students are wide-eyed and easy to fool, but Lynn felt high schoolers were even easier.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Facing a deal with only benefits and no downsides, Genshirou Saji agreed without even asking about the cost; he was a bit too naive.
However, Lynn had no intention of intentionally cheating him.
Seeing that Genshirou Saji didn't ask, he concealed the side effects of the Blood of Evolution and helped him complete the strengthening.
Once Genshirou Saji had adapted to his newly acquired power, Lynn placed his hand on the boy's shoulder and activated his devouring ability.
Surging Mist poured out from the orb, seeping into Genshirou Saji's body through Lynn's palm to lock onto the Sacred Gear.
"[Eh? This aura...]"
Just then, Ddraig's voice suddenly rang out in Lynn's mind, as if he had sensed something.
"[Partner, the Sacred Gear in this kid's body has Vritra's aura. It seems we've hit the jackpot. ]"
"Yeah, we hit the jackpot."
Lynn replied with a light chuckle.
Knowing the original plot, he naturally knew what the Sacred Gear in Genshirou Saji's body was.
It was a Sacred Gear forged from the soul fragments of the "Prison Dragon King" Vritra, the Absorption Line.
Although his strength was at the lower end among the Five Great Dragon Kings, Vritra was still a Dragon King.
The Absorption Line created from his soul fragments was considered an upper-middle-tier existence among ordinary Sacred Gears.
It was precisely because of this that Lynn placed extra importance on Genshirou Saji, inviting him out for a meeting the very next day.
The Mist rolled in, gradually consuming the Absorption Line.
As the Absorption Line was devoured, a powerful force rose from within the Boosted Gear.
Just like devouring the Evil Piece yesterday, the Boosted Gear gave Lynn feedback again—two clumps of energy with different properties.
The first clump was strengthening energy; it merged into Lynn's entire body, improving his constitution and causing his physical stats and total magic power to skyrocket.
The second clump represented bloodline power. However, unlike the Devil Bloodline obtained from decomposing the Evil Piece, this bloodline power represented Vritra's Dragon King Bloodline.
Its scale far exceeded the Devil Bloodline, belonging to a completely different dimension in both quality and quantity.
With a thought, he merged Vritra's Dragon King Bloodline. Dragon scales appeared on the surface of Lynn's skin, his pitch-black pupils turned into slits, and a terrifying aura suddenly erupted from him.
"Uwah!" Genshirou Saji, standing directly in front of Lynn, was startled by this aura. He subconsciously took a few steps back and tumbled to the ground, a look of terror on his face.
In his vision, pitch-black flames faintly flickered around Lynn's body, making him look like an evil dragon returned from hell to destroy the world—absolutely terrifying.
But in the next instant, these visions vanished. Lynn returned to his original appearance, a faint smile on his face.
"Pleasure doing business with you, Saji."
Lynn pulled Genshirou Saji up from the ground and casually took out a Black Card, stuffing it into his hand.
"I'm very satisfied with the Sacred Gear in your body. This is some additional compensation for you. Go ahead and spend it."
"Uh... thank you." Genshirou Saji nodded tremulously, his expression still filled with fear.
Lynn's aura just now had left a deep psychological shadow on him, one he wouldn't be able to shake off anytime soon.
Seeing this, Lynn used senjutsu to help soothe Genshirou Saji's spirit, then said his goodbyes and left the restaurant.
The Sacred Gear was successfully obtained.
Genshirou Saji was no longer important to him.
His figure flickered and vanished from the street, soon appearing on a barren mountain outside Kuoh Town.
"Ddraig, how do you feel?"
"[It feels like I've been hungry for days and suddenly had a feast. I'm full of energy now. ]"
Ddraig's voice echoed in Lynn's mind.
After consuming the Absorption Line, not only was Lynn strengthened, but Ddraig, acting as the conduit, also received benefits.
Not only was his power restored, but more importantly, the seal left on him by the God of the Bible had been loosened.
"[Partner, my 'Penetrate' ability is back. However, the flames are still a bit lacking. I need more nutrition. ]"
"How much more?"
"[Probably about 10 to 20 Sacred Gears of similar quality to the Absorption Line. ]"
"Then they won't be gathered in a short period of time."
Lynn replied, focusing his attention on Ddraig's newly awakened ability.
As the Red Dragon, one of the two heavenly dragons, Ddraig possessed a total of four abilities during his lifetime.
Multiply and Transfer were only two of them.
As for the remaining two abilities, they were Penetrate and Blazing Fire.
The former allowed Ddraig to ignore an enemy's defense and directly strike the enemy's true body in battle.
The latter was pure Dragon Flame, but its temperature was high enough to melt gods, and once ignited, it could not be extinguished.
Aside from the White Dragon, one of the two heavenly dragons, only powerhouses at the level of the Infinite Dragon God could be immune to this Dragon Flame.
If Ddraig could unseal Blazing Fire, it would be a huge power-up for Lynn, enough to further increase his combat strength.
However, more than ten Sacred Gears at the level of the Absorption Line was not a small number, and it would be difficult to gather them in a short time.
Putting the matter of unsealing Blazing Fire aside for the moment, Lynn studied the Penetrate ability and the Dragon King Bloodline within his body.
"Ddraig, does your Dragon Race have anything like Bloodline Secret Techniques?"
["Can you give an example?"]
"Hmm... for example, weakening human genes through Violent Blood to enhance dragon genes, causing a secondary increase in strength."
["Is that a setting from some manga?"]
"It's a setting from a romance novel. Anyway, the source isn't important; what matters is if it exists."
["Regrettably, there is no such thing."]
Ddraig replied: ["Dragons automatically awaken their innate abilities upon reaching adulthood, and the power of their bloodline is also developed. Activating bloodlines and such is something only humans would research."]
Speaking of which, Ddraig seemed to think of something. After a two-second pause, he added: ["If you want to learn techniques to enhance the power of Dragon Flame, Partner, I can teach you a few tricks. But I'm not sure if you can spit Dragon Flame right now."]
"I can give it a try." With a thought, Lynn merged with the Dragon King Bloodline, and dragon scales surfaced on his body again.
At the same time, the flesh and blood within him changed, and in the blink of an eye, several different organs were formed.
Those were organs belonging to dragons, which under normal circumstances, only pure-blooded dragons would possess.
But with the cooperation of the Dragon King Bloodline and Flesh Control, Lynn successfully replicated these organs.
Following Ddraig's guidance, Lynn quickly mastered the technique and spat out a stream of pitch-black Dragon Flame.
["Eh? This looks like Vritra's Curse Dragon Flame. Did the bloodline power inherit this as well?"]
Ddraig was somewhat surprised.
This was no small matter.
Curse Dragon Flame was Vritra's exclusive Dragon Flame, similar to an innate ability.
If even Curse Dragon Flame could be inherited, then there was a lot of room for manipulation here.
As long as he collected enough bloodline power, Lynn might be able to obtain all of Vritra's abilities.
["Wait! If Vritra's innate abilities can be inherited, then those belonging to other creatures should be possible too!"]
Ddraig's voice carried a hint of horror: ["Partner, what exactly is this ability of yours?"]
"As a chef, it's quite reasonable to have an ability that helps digest food," Lynn chuckled.
He also realized the power of the Devour ability at this moment.
Used properly, this ability was completely a path to infinite growth.
However, considering the mist came from the Mist Plaza that connected all the heavens and worlds, this level of strength was quite reasonable.
Feeling the two masses of bloodline power in his body, Lynn pondered for a moment and suddenly had an idea.
"Ddraig, do you think these two bloodlines, the Devil Bloodline and the Dragon King Bloodline, can be activated together?"
...
Kuoh Private Academy.
Because it was the weekend, there were no classes today. Most people who came to school were there for club activities.
Inside the old school building deep within the campus, at Rias's call, the members of the Occult Research Club gathered together.
"Ara ara, it seems I'm the last one to arrive."
Pushing open the club door, Akeno noticed that three figures were already sitting in the room.
Besides Rias and Koneko, Kiba, who was absent yesterday, was also sitting on the club sofa.
Greeting everyone, Akeno sat down next to Rias with a faint smile.
"Gathering so early today, is it to solve Koneko's matter?"
"Koneko? Did something happen?"
Kiba asked with some confusion.
Because he was absent yesterday, he didn't know what had happened yet.
Seeing this, Rias recounted Lynn's visit to the club and Koneko's bloodline issue.
After listening, Kiba finally understood why he was called to the club so early today: "I didn't expect so many things to happen during my absence yesterday. So, how does the President plan to solve it?"
"In fact, I consulted my brother about this privately, and the Satan Beelzebub was also present."
Rias replied: "According to Lord Ajuka, Koneko's condition is indeed very dangerous, and it's best to go to Lynn for help."
Speaking of this, Rias paused and turned her head to look at the silent white-haired loli beside her.
"Koneko, although it's not great to say this, for safety's sake, try to accept the power of the Nekomata."
"Mm, I understand." Koneko nodded silently, accepting Rias's suggestion.
In fact, the reason she resisted the Nekomata's power was because of Kuroka's influence.
She didn't want to be like her, losing herself in power and eventually hurting her master, Rias.
But the situation was different now.
Continuing to suppress the Nekomata bloodline would instead lead to a power rampage, which was contrary to her original intention.
Koneko didn't want to cause trouble for the people around her, especially Rias.
If suppressing the Nekomata's power was wrong, then she would try to accept this power to ensure she didn't cause trouble for Rias and the others.
"Thank you for your understanding, Koneko."
Rias breathed a sigh of relief after getting the response.
She was most worried about Koneko getting stuck in a dead end.
Since she was fine with it, the next steps would be easy: go to Lynn for help.
However, there was no rush; she could just talk to him when classes started next week.
Ending the topic about Koneko, Rias looked at Kiba on the other side.
"By the way, Kiba, what did you do yesterday? I didn't see you all day."
"Regarding that, I was just about to report."
Kiba's expression became serious: "President, I found someone with suspicious movements at school yesterday, so I followed them to investigate."
Rias frowned: "Why didn't you report to me? Investigating alone is too dangerous."
"I also found out by chance, and I didn't have detailed evidence, so I thought I'd investigate first before reporting to you, President, to reduce the workload." Kiba briefly explained the reason.
After school yesterday afternoon, he was originally going to gather at the club as usual, but on the way, he suddenly noticed a black-haired woman whose aura wasn't quite right.
Coincidentally, Koneko was also nearby, so he asked her to help him take a leave of absence while he followed the woman, eventually tracking her to the vicinity of an abandoned church.
Because that was Church territory, Kiba didn't continue to follow closely but instead hid on the outskirts and observed for the whole night.
"A considerable number of priests and exorcists have gathered in that abandoned church, and there are also Fallen Angels appearing. I suspect that black-haired woman is also a Fallen Angel."
"A Fallen Angel has infiltrated the school?" Rias finally realized the seriousness of the problem.
Kuoh Academy is a property of the Gremory Family, and people from the underworld often enroll here.
Due to their personalities, these people from the underworld often do strange things, making them seem suspicious.
But a Fallen Angel infiltrating the school was another matter; Fallen Angels and Devils were hostile forces.
Even if there was an official ceasefire, the two sides were still fighting fiercely in private, and low-level personnel often suffered casualties.
"Kiba, do you remember what that woman looks like?"
"I do, I've already investigated."
Kiba took out a file from his pocket and handed it over.
"Yuuma Amano?" Looking at the black-haired woman in the file, Rias's expression became increasingly serious.
With such a prominent appearance, she should theoretically be quite famous in the school.
But she had no impression of this name.
The only explanation for this situation was that the other party had used magic to dilute her own presence.
"It seems necessary to follow up with an investigation."
Rias looked up at Kiba: "At the abandoned church, did you find... eh?"
Just as Rias was about to ask about the status of the abandoned church, a powerful magic fluctuation suddenly rose. She turned her head toward the west side of Kuoh Town.
In the next second, Kiba and the others also noticed this sudden magic and looked in the same direction as Rias.
"That direction... Kiba."
Akeno seemed to have thought of something and called out to Kiba beside her.
Kiba also understood what she meant and immediately nodded to give an answer.
"It's the direction of the abandoned old church. That's where I found the Fallen Angel yesterday."
"As expected." Akeno confirmed her suspicion and simultaneously noticed something else: "President, this magic seems to be Lynn's."
"Mm, I know."
Rias stood up from the sofa.
Although she hadn't had much contact with Lynn, she was still very sensitive to his magic aura.
She had just found out that Fallen Angels were gathering at the abandoned church to cause trouble, and the next moment she felt Lynn's magic fluctuation there.
This was a bit too coincidental.
Sighing in her heart, Rias made a decision.
"Let's go, we'll take a look at the church."
...