With Ravel, Ram, and Rem joining in, the entire Eligos peerage grew noticeably larger, and the training camp became a lot livelier as well.
After learning that their seniors from the Eligos peerage were already training here, the three of them didn't hesitate at all. As Leo's servants, it was only natural that they joined in and became part of the training group.
Leo had no reason to refuse either. Training four people or seven made no real difference. They were all his own servants anyway, so they might as well train together.
The overall schedule didn't change much. Mornings were still dedicated to basic training, and evenings to live combat practice. Everyone trained together during those times. The only real differences came in the afternoons, which were reserved for individual training.
Ravel needed to fully familiarize herself with the enhancements brought by her Rook trait, mastering her strengthened abilities while further raising the temperature of her phoenix flames. That kind of training would allow her to grow rapidly in a short time. With that in mind, Leo sent her to a volcano within the Ancient Battlefield, where she could focus on her training.
Ram, on the other hand, had a full ten-year gap.
After her horn was severed at the age of seven, she'd stopped training entirely. Her strength had recovered by now, but the discomfort and unfamiliarity caused by that long hiatus hadn't completely faded. Leo suggested that she start over from scratch, relearning how to wield her power properly before doing anything else.
As for Rem, her training direction was even simpler.
She needed to find a way to maintain her rationality while in her Oni transformation and control herself to avoid losing it.
That was the only path of improvement available to her.
There was no helping it. After a period of basic training and combat practice, Leo realized that Rem's growth rate was painfully slow. Compared to the other members of the Eligos peerage, those with dazzling potential, she lagged far behind. Even measured against ordinary people, her progress was underwhelming.
As an Oni, her physical strength was outstanding. Even without transforming, she was the strongest in the Eligos peerage in pure physique. Not even Ram could compare to her in that regard. But whether it was physical conditioning, demonic power training, or pushing herself to the brink in live combat, her growth remained negligible.
As a result, Rem had somehow ended up at the bottom of the Eligos peerage.
Forget comparing her to Ram. Even Ravel and Mahiru, who had become Leo's servants only slightly earlier than her, were now stronger.
Ravel could at least be explained: she was a High-Class Devil to begin with. But Mahiru had been an ordinary human before joining Leo. She'd joined the Eligos peerage only recently, and before this special training, her strength had been extremely limited. If not for the overwhelming power of Incinerate Anthem, she wouldn't have stood out at all during the Old Maou Faction incident. She might not have even matched a Mid-Class Devil.
Now, after just over half a month of intense training, Mahiru had grown dramatically thanks to her terrifying potential. She was nothing like her former self.
And yet Rem, who had trained consistently for ten years, still couldn't measure up.
That was honestly hard to excuse.
"This definitely isn't right."
After witnessing Rem's abysmally inefficient growth firsthand, Leo immediately sensed that something was wrong.
"In the Servant Conversion trait evaluation, Rem was rated with the same high potential as Ram. There's no way her growth should be this slow."
Among the current Eligos peerage, the fastest to grow were unquestionably Yukino, Mahiru, and Ram.
All three possessed high potential. Once they entered special training, their growth skyrocketed. They grew stronger every single day at a shocking pace.
Asuna, Utaha, and Ravel were rated as medium potential, but their growth was hardly slow. Asuna's swordsmanship was becoming sharper by the day, and her mastery of "Blade Blacksmith" was growing increasingly refined. Utaha, meanwhile, had fully demonstrated her talent with Sacred Gears. She was practically playing with Create World at this point, her strength rising dramatically.
Even Ravel, after gradually mastering the enhancements granted by the Rook piece, was growing at an incredible speed. Her flames burned hotter and hotter, and paired with her Immortal Body, she could absolutely challenge Ultimate-Class Devils across ranks. At the very least, she could hold her ground and force a stalemate.
The three of them might not match the explosive growth of Yukino's group, but they weren't far behind. Among those with medium potential, they were undoubtedly elites, especially Asuna and Utaha. If they eventually mastered their Sacred Gear's Balance Breaker, they would surpass Ravel, a pure-blood High-Class Devil, and become top-tier powerhouses in the devil world.
If even they were growing this fast, then Rem, who shared the same high potential as Yukino, had no reason to lag so far behind.
With that thought, a realization struck Leo.
"Rem's growth… might only show a small portion in her normal state. The majority of it probably manifests during Oni transformation."
Rem's sole standout trait was the terrifying burst of power she displayed when transformed.
In her normal state, she was only on par with a Mid-Class Devil. But once she transformed, her strength skyrocketed straight into Ultimate-Class Devil territory, rivaling Ram, who was hailed as a prodigy. That level of amplification was even more outrageous than most Longinus.
As someone who wielded a Longinus himself, Leo knew this well. Whether it was him, Yukino, or Mahiru, none of them could cross more than one rank before reaching Balance Breaker. Even the original protagonist, using the Red Dragon Emperor's power, could only double his strength every ten seconds. After two minutes, at 8,190 times his base power, he could only unleash a single strike at the level of a High-Class Devil while still a Low-Class Devil.
That was a temporary leap of two ranks.
Rem?
She achieved that instantly just by entering Oni transformation, jumping from Mid-Class Devil straight to Ultimate-Class Devil. That level of enhancement surpassed many Longinus. Even Leo himself would likely need Balance Breaker to exceed it.
Perhaps that was precisely why Rem had been rated as high potential in Servant Conversion, on par with Ram.
In other words, Rem's high potential was almost entirely concentrated in her Oni transformation.
Without transforming, she wasn't just unworthy of "high potential." She probably didn't even qualify as medium potential. And even if she did, she'd be scraping the bottom.
Because of that, Leo believed that most of the growth Rem gained during normal training was being siphoned directly into her Oni transformation.
The harder she trained, the stronger her transformed state became, while her normal self barely improved at all. That imbalance was exactly why she kept losing control whenever she transformed, no matter how much stronger she got.
"If she grows twice as strong in her normal state, her Oni transformation might amplify that into two, three, maybe even four or five times the increase. No matter how much she improves, that overwhelming surge of power will always slam into her and make her lose control."
So in Leo's eyes, if Rem wanted to truly grow stronger, her priority wasn't increasing her power.
It was learning to control the power she already had.
"Then… then what should Rem do?"
After sorting through his thoughts, Leo called Rem out alone one night and explained everything to her. She asked the question almost desperately.
She wanted to improve more than anything.
In the past, she'd wanted to catch up to her sister. After Ram lost her horn and her power, Rem had desperately tried to grow stronger to protect her.
Now, seeing the girls of the Eligos peerage transforming at a breathtaking pace, Rem was even more anxious.
She was afraid of being left behind by her sister, of never being able to catch up again.
Even more than that, she feared a future where everyone else could fight alongside Ram… while she alone lagged far behind, reduced to a bystander as her sister grew closer and closer to the others.
Ever since coming here, the pressure on Rem had only continued to mount.
She'd always known her sister was exceptional. But she never imagined that the others in the Eligos peerage would be just as outstanding, some nearly on par with Ram herself. And yet, no matter how hard she tried, Rem alone couldn't keep up.
It was suffocating.
Leo had noticed Rem's increasing agitation. That was why he'd called her out alone in the first place.
"There's one thing I can say for sure," Leo began calmly. "Tiamat's original idea was wrong."
He didn't waste time on theatrics as he analyzed the situation for Rem.
"Her plan was sound in theory: having the two of you reincarnate as devils. One of you would use the reincarnation ritual to restore a severed horn, while the other would strengthen herself to better control her power. The first part worked. The second didn't."
"She probably didn't anticipate that the stronger you became, the stronger your Oni transformation would grow as well. The result was that you lost control immediately after reincarnation, instead of reducing the risk."
"I'm guessing that the demonic power you gained after reincarnation wasn't very high. At least ninety percent of it was probably absorbed by your horn. It only fully erupts once you transform."
Leo's analysis was immediately confirmed by Rem.
"…Rem really didn't gain much demonic power."
Feeling the faint flow of energy within her body, Rem bit her lip.
For comparison, Ram shattered Eligos peerage records after reincarnation. Her demonic power was now the strongest among them all.
Both Yukino and Mahiru had gained demonic power that placed them among the best of the Mid-Class Devils. Ram's demonic power, however, far surpassed theirs, even surpassing Ravel, a High-Class Devil. At this point, only Leo himself had more.
With such overwhelming demonic power, Ram's wind magic had multiplied in strength. And if she used her Pawn's Promotion, whether to Queen or Bishop, her demonic power would surge even further.
At that point, Ram would become the strongest among the Eligos peerage, surpassing even Yukino, who had long held that position. She might even begin touching a higher realm: the domain of ten-winged devils.
That level would later be known as Special-Class Devil: a realm above Ultimate-Class Devil, second only to the Maou, capable of rivaling weaker Dragon Kings, fallen angel commanders, and the highest-ranking angels.
At present, Leo was also at this level without using Zenith Tempest.
Compared to that, the demonic power Rem gained after reincarnation was pitiful. While she wasn't as bad as the original protagonist, who couldn't even use magic circles to teleport, her demonic power would barely stand out even among Low-Class Devils.
Before this, the least demonic power gained after reincarnation had belonged to Asuna. As a Knight, her strength lay in her Sacred Gear and swordsmanship. Even so, she'd gained demonic power close to that of a Mid-Class Devil.
Rem couldn't even compare to that.
It was hard to justify her "high potential" rating.
Logically speaking, as an Oni, a race with naturally powerful bodies, Rem should have possessed decent talent in demonic power as well, especially since she could learn magic like Ram. Even if she couldn't match Ram, she shouldn't have been this weak.
The only explanation was that this portion of demonic power was also being siphoned into her Oni transformation, only fully unleashed when her horn was activated.
"Right now, your top priority isn't getting stronger," Leo said after a moment of thought. "It's learning to control your Oni transformation."
"You shouldn't be focusing on physical strength, demonic power, or even combat skills."
"What you need to strengthen is your mind. Your heart. Your will, and your sense of self."
Leo looked straight at her, his tone deadly serious.
"That's what you lack the most."
Rem found it impossible to refute Leo's words.
She knew it herself. Her spirit and heart were fragile.
She lacked confidence. She'd always lived in her sister's shadow, labeled useless by her clan. That sense of inferiority had never truly left her.
In terms of physical strength, she was the strongest in the Eligos peerage.
But when it came to mental strength, she was unquestionably the weakest.
Even Mahiru, who had been ignored and hurt by her own family, had grown stronger after seeing her parents' true faces. After becoming Leo's servant, she seemed to have found meaning in her life and no longer felt lost.
Rem, on the other hand, was still trapped by self-doubt, her heart filled with inferiority and fear.
"That's the hardest part," Leo sighed, rubbing his temple.
"If it were just a lack of strength, we could train it."
"But willpower… the heart… the mind… how do you even train those?"
"There's only one way," Leo said, looking at Rem.
"Find a place with no one around. Transform again and again, and keep trying to control yourself."
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