Without the slightest hesitation, Jeanne accepted Takeyo's pawn piece.
"Eh,"
The moment she merged with the blessed chess piece, power surged through her body in waves. Her entire being evolved, transforming in ways she'd never imagined possible.
Perhaps because the sensation was so overwhelming, she let out a soft, involuntary moan.
The sound drew curious glances from nearby shoppers, several turning toward the changing room with raised eyebrows.
Are they... doing business in the changing room?
Nearly everyone who heard the sound had the same scandalous thought cross their minds.
Takeyo observed Jeanne carefully. Her attributes and race were undergoing a fundamental transformation right before his eyes.
He'd foreseen this outcome. After receiving the pawn piece, Jeanne was evolving into the race most suited to her true nature, a Saint.
A Saint existed somewhere between gods and mortals. For someone carrying the blood and soul of Jeanne, this evolution made perfect sense. Becoming a Saint aligned with her legendary predecessor's nature.
Though the current Jeanne was only a descendant who'd inherited fragments of Jeanne's blood and soul, it was enough. Her awakening as a Saint wasn't strange at all, it was inevitable.
As Jeanne finished absorbing the piece, Takeyo heard the familiar notification.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for completing sign-in! Sign-in level: Gold!]
[Sign-in plot: The Return of the Saint!]
[Plot: How can you refuse a girl who loves you? Convince Jeanne to join your team.]
[Congratulations to the host for the reward: Super Magic, Sky Fall · Modification!]
[Superposition Magic Sky Fall · Modification: Massive heat descends from the heavens, destroying everything within the magic's range as if the sky itself were falling! Those within range receive continuous fire damage per second, while those outside remain unaffected. Particularly effective against undead creatures. Sky Fall · Modification inherits the original spell's devastating power while offering multiple variations, capable of inflicting tremendous damage to different races!]
"Now then, Jeanne... you're my person," Takeyo said, looking at her as she opened her eyes.
"Yes..." Jeanne nodded slightly, responding in a barely audible whisper.
Really... everyone knows this now. Why did you have to say it out loud?
After finalizing Jeanne's recruitment, Takeyo happily paid for their purchases and arranged for the clerk to deliver everything directly to his house.
Originally, he'd expected to help Jeanne carry numerous shopping bags around. However, now that she'd absorbed his pawn piece and become part of his household, they could simply teleport everything to his home except for the single empty room he'd been saving.
"By the way, Takeyo... I need to say goodbye to them first," Jeanne said after they'd walked a short distance from the store.
"Of course," Takeyo replied after a moment's consideration. "That's no problem. If they try to stop you, just mention my name."
"And if they still won't let you go, contact me immediately. I'll handle it personally."
What's Cao Cao to me? he thought dismissively.
The potential for attracting Indra's attention didn't particularly concern him either. In fact, it might work in his favor, people would assume he was a descendant of the Mahatma Rama. After all, abducting a descendant of Jeanne fit the profile of a hero's offspring.
According to Takeyo's recent investigations, descendants of the Mahatma Rama hadn't been born for thousands of years. The bloodline had likely been severed entirely.
Vishnu might have known the truth, but Takeyo had already dealt with him personally.
If anyone confirmed his identity as Rama's successor, they wouldn't question his true nature. Knowing he possessed the Ten Incarnations might only be confirmed by Vishnu himself. Even Ajuka only had vague suspicions, nothing concrete yet.
"Okay!" Jeanne nodded vigorously, her enthusiasm evident.
"I'll tell them when I return!"
After absorbing Takeyo's pawn piece, betraying him had become impossible. The chess piece created a fundamental bond that precluded such actions.
If Cao Cao knew that his original plan, sending Jeanne to communicate with Takeyo and potentially recruit him to the Hero Faction, had completely backfired, resulting in Takeyo stealing one of his best members instead, he'd be absolutely furious.
Though the sign-in was complete, the date had to continue.
Treating someone like a disposable tool and discarding them immediately after getting what he wanted would be far too heartless.
As the sun descended toward the horizon, Takeyo and Jeanne climbed to the perfect location for watching the sunset.
The bell tower, the same one where Takeyo had first discovered Ophis.
Takeyo looked down at the girl who'd closed her eyes and nestled into his arms, then leaned down gently.
All in all... ahem... those months of studying dating psychology and relationship guides hadn't been wasted.
During their first official date, Takeyo achieved something significant, Jeanne had initiated their first kiss.
If someone didn't know what to do when the opposite sex gazed at them tenderly and closed their eyes shyly, they'd truly deserve the title of "great sage" in the worst possible way.
Fortunately, he wasn't a great sage.
"Thank you for taking care of me during that time," Takeyo said after several minutes, looking into Jeanne's eyes.
"No... I should be thanking you," Jeanne replied softly.
What had moved her most deeply was witnessing Takeyo use power that damaged his own body to kill a god, all because he'd seen her injured so severely. He'd killed a god for her sake!
And not just any god, one of the world's most powerful deities. Would anyone else willingly do such a thing for her?
That single act had transformed all the complex thoughts and conflicted feelings accumulated during their previous two encounters into genuine affection. Even though Jeanne had cared for Takeyo throughout his recovery, she'd never complained once.
In truth, this might have been a beautiful misunderstanding. Takeyo simply had needed to kill Vishnu regardless...
However, Takeyo had no intention of exposing this beautiful misunderstanding. That would be unnecessarily cruel to Jeanne.
Besides... his house had plenty of empty rooms.
"Hm?"
While Takeyo was touring the night market with Jeanne that evening, he suddenly sensed a message through his magic circle.
"Jeanne, let's call it a night for today. We'll have plenty of opportunities to go out again. After all, you'll be staying at my place now, we'll have all the time in the world."
He suspected something had gone wrong on Irina's end. To avoid any unexpected complications, he planned to check personally.
"Um, I have nothing else to do. Why don't you take me with you?" Jeanne asked quietly.
"Alright... okay then."
Takeyo smiled helplessly. It probably wasn't anything too serious, and bringing Jeanne along shouldn't cause any problems.
"Hold my hand."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt softness and warmth envelop his hand.
[Incarnation! Vamana the Dwarf!]
Taking a single step, Takeyo followed the guidance of his magic circle and appeared at Irina's location.
"Well, well..."
Takeyo and Jeanne materialized beside Irina.
"It seems they're using a strategy of splitting up. Operating separately makes it easier to defeat them one by one," Takeyo observed with a slight sigh.
Because Irina was the only one at the scene, he could only draw this conclusion.
Takeyo walked to Irina's side and began examining her condition.
Fortunately, she had his defensive magic circle protecting her, so Irina hadn't suffered fatal injuries from the direct attack. She was only slightly wounded and had passed out.
"A direct hit from a light spear? Well... fortunately, she'll recover soon."
"By the way, Jeanne, don't you want to test your new strength?"
Takeyo asked while healing Irina.
"Eh? Takeyo, what do you mean?" Jeanne didn't quite understand.
However, she had just mentioned wanting to test the increased power she'd gained after absorbing the chess piece. Her hands were definitely itching for action.
"Over there... there's a crow with black feathers. With your current strength, I don't know if you can defeat it, but even if you can't, there shouldn't be any real danger."
Takeyo pointed toward the sky, where a black-winged fallen angel was flying toward Kuoh Academy.
"A ten-winged fallen angel?"
Jeanne spotted Kokabiel soaring through the night sky.
"Yes. With your current power, Jeanne, there shouldn't be a problem. Go pluck his feathers. But if he tries to flee, there's no need to chase him..."
Takeyo considered for a moment before speaking.
"Understood! Leave it to me!" Jeanne immediately activated her forbidden hand, the Sacred Dragon of Conviction!
Originally, using her Balance Breaker had elevated her to the level of a high-class Devil. Now, after her evolution, she should possess the strength of somewhere between a quasi-Satan and Satan-class being.
However, once she fully adapted to her new sacred body, reaching Satan-class power in her Balance Breaker state would only be a matter of time.
"Boom!"
After activating her Balance Breaker, Jeanne mounted the Sacred Dragon of Conviction and flew toward Kokabiel's position.
Takeyo helped Irina sit up properly.
"You're really willful, you know that? Both of you went to recover the holy sword together, and look what happened..."
Takeyo sighed.
There was no helping it. The two of them were basically smoke bombs thrown out by the church. In reality, Michael had no plans to seriously pursue this matter.
He simply didn't want any complications before the tripartite peace conference.
"But... you'll learn soon enough... The so-called Almighty Lord has died."
Takeyo sighed again, then began restoring Irina's torn clothing.
Although he hadn't studied professional medical treatment, between his immortality-based recovery abilities and the healing techniques he'd learned from various divine systems, his treatment effects were quite good.
After a few minutes, Irina's injuries had completely healed. She just needed to wake from her unconscious state.
Of course, if he used more aggressive methods, waking Irina immediately would be simple. But there was no need for such rough treatment.
After healing Irina, Takeyo looked up at the sky.
"If I'm not mistaken, Kokabiel's heading directly toward Kuoh Academy, right?"
The entire map of Kuoh was crystal clear in Takeyo's mind. Kokabiel's flight path was unmistakably leading straight to the academy.
As he watched Kokabiel, an exclamation point appeared above the fallen angel's head, visible only to him, accompanied by a pleasant notification sound.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for triggering plot check-in! Sign-in level: Diamond!]
[Sign-in plot: The End of the Ten-Winged Fallen Angel!]
[Plot: Defeat the perverted fallen angel Kokabiel.]
[Sign-in time limit: 6 hours.]
[Sign-in remaining time: 6 hours.]
"Oh?"
This was genuinely the first time Takeyo had seen such a concise, straightforward plot sign-in. But... for the stability of the three major factions, Kokabiel absolutely had to die by Takeyo's hand.
Yes, indeed. At this point, Takeyo already regarded the three major factions as his own territory.
Within a year at most, Takeyo had the confidence to bring all three factions under his control through his own power alone. If he factored in various sign-in rewards, it would probably take less than half a year.
During this period, any conflicts between the three factions were nothing more than internal friction in his eyes, all completely unproductive actions.
The reason he wanted to unify the three factions was simple: the leaders of all three were quite reasonable and easy to work with. He was already familiar with their personalities.
As for other divine pantheons? He had no idea how much trouble they might cause.
"Go ahead and make your last stand. Your life is like a candle flickering in the wind."
Takeyo watched Kokabiel, who had finally broken free from Jeanne and was flying toward Kuoh Academy, and smiled slightly.
There was only one thing at Kuoh Academy that deserved his concern: the holy sword that was about to be forged. Or perhaps... there might be some master-level opponents there who could inspire his fighting spirit and give him something to look forward to.
"Sorry... I couldn't stop him..."
Jeanne dismounted from the Sacred Dragon and landed, revealing an apologetic expression.
With her strength having just reached quasi-Satan class, stopping Kokabiel was impossible. Kokabiel's power was at least quasi-Satan level, and coupled with his combat experience from participating in the great war between the three factions, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he possessed Satan-class combat effectiveness.
"It's fine. Just leave him to me."
Takeyo smiled gently.
Jeanne's inability to stop Kokabiel was exactly what he'd expected.
"Yes!" Jeanne smiled and nodded.
If it was Takeyo, she believed he would win.
After all... Takeyo was the man who'd defeated a god for her sake.