Chapter 52: Ups... That wasn't supposed to hapen.

"Why are we here again?" Natasha asked with her arms crossed under her chest, giving Tom a disapproving look.

They were standing in front of an abandoned factory where Tom knew a stray devil was hiding. He wanted to test how much stronger he became in the past months. Natasha did not approve.

It wasn't only her who was training. Tom was also putting his all to improve and unfortunately, the spars between them were no longer effective because both of them were reluctant to cast anything dangerous at the other.

That halted any possible progress from fighting each other.

Natasha didn't mind all that much but Tom apparently was just itching to try his new improved version of alchemical circles. Natasha told him numerous times to just try them on her but he wouldn't listen.

"You know well I need to do this. I gotta know if I can deal with a mid-rank being on my own now. This is the best opportunity without attracting much attention." Tom spoke, staring at the entrance to the abandoned factory while rubbing his hands in excitement.

He was different than when he fought Nicholas! This time he will definitely win!

"Yes, you spend a week tracking a mid-rank stray devil, I know." Natasha sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "But if at any time I see you have a problem, we are double-teaming it. That's non-negotiable, alright?" She firmly stated, giving Tom an unyielding stare.

Wryly smiling, Tom nodded. There was nothing he could do than accept her conditions. He knew she acted like that only because she cared about him anyway.

The two walked straight into the factory, finding a massive and deceptively empty interior with no soul in the sight.

"Well, then," Tom crouched and put his palm onto the ground. "Let's see where our little mouse is hiding." He excitedly whispered while channeling his mana into the ground.

An alchemical circle appeared underneath Tom and magic pulsed outwards with him in the center... only for a place behind one supporting pillar of the building to lit up with shiny black sparkles, signifying the presence of a devil.

"Yosh! The locator circle is working as intended!" Tom delightedly remarked as he stood up, his face split in a huge grin.

Seeing that he was found out, a devil walked out from behind the pillar, sneering at Tom and Natasha. Unlike the humanoid shape Tom expected, the... monster was more reminiscent of a massive bipedal lizard with a humanoid face and thin, agile but sturdy-looking tail. Black scales were protecting its naked upper body, its muscles ripped and tough-looking.

Tom briefly glanced at its hands... and yes, it had quite dangerous-looking claws so he instantly put down the idea of melee combat. Despite having a humanoid face, the lizard-devil also sported quite sharp-looking fangs and slitted green eyes on his head covered by messy blonde hair.

Honestly, this stray devil didn't look all that bad compared to the monstrosity shown in the anime. It could be mistaken for a different race or a yokai.

"Ma-gi-ci-ans." It slowly growled out, glaring at Tom while starting to salivate. Clearly, his intelligence was already eroded too much.

Realizing that there would be no intelligent conversation to be had with this guy, Tom snapped his fingers, using the follow-up spell to his Locator Circle. Instantly, another alchemical circle appeared, this time under the 'marked' lizard-devil, and chains made of magic erupted out of it, restraining his movements.

Tom turned towards his girl, "See Natalia? This happens when a King wants to punish an unruly servant he no longer needs."

This was a very good opportunity to show her the ugly face of the devil society. So far, she saw mostly the rosy bits and Tom didn't want her opinion about them to be too positive for her own good.

"They make them mutate into insane monsters?" Natasha asked with a mild disgust showing on her face.

Tom had no idea but he really didn't have to worry about her perception of the devils. She didn't hate them but even she would admit she had serious trust issues so...

"Not all of the Devils are as accommodating as Sarael." Tom said, looking with pity at the struggling lizard-devil who tried to snap the magical chains.

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Tom was happy that his Restraining Circle worked against the mid-rank devil. It wasn't a massive accomplishment by any stretch but it was tangible progress.

"No wonder their reputation is shit if this is what they do to their own." Natasha scrunched her nose.

She had seen many devils and they always looked like humans for the most part. The thing in front of her was different. Insane, blood-thirsty... corrupted.

Killing it would be mercy.

"Couldn't agree more." Tom chuckled, his attention turning towards the lizard-devil and his eyebrows furrowed, "Five seconds, huh? That's okay, I guess." He muttered just as the mana chains coming out of his circle snapped under the strain and vanished in motes of light, the mana in the Restraining Circle completely depleted.

"I kill you!" The lizard-devil growled, preparing to lunge in Tom's direction.

"Let's start the fight then!" Tom grinned, stretching a bit while tapping his foot on the floor, creating a magic circle encompassing the entire floor of the abandoned factory.

The lizard-devil ran at Tom when it suddenly heard a tap. With the corner of its ears, he registered shifting of the surroundings... and then pain flooded it for a split of a second before death claimed it.

Tom, frozen in his fighting stance, had his jaw dropped at the sight of numerous earth, rock, and iron spears coming from the surfaces all around the building, not stabbing but literally squishing the lizard-devil into a bloody paste.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Natasha asked with a cold sweat running down her temple as her eyes were fixated on the bloody puddle under the spears and small mushy remains of the lizard-devil that were slowly falling into it.

She was now really glad Tom cherished her and refused to try his new spells on her as she suggested.

Tom robotically shifted out of his fighting stance, and awkwardly spoke, "Err... I-, I might have channeled a bit too much magic into it?" He admitted with embarrassment in his tone.

'That was surprisingly effective, huh?' Tom inwardly freaked out.

Alas, he didn't take into account that his magic not only got more potent and condensed, it was also boosted due to the fact his body was brimming with Life Energy which acted as a natural enhancer, and on top of all that he had the Gremory Bloodline so channeling the same amount of magic as before would definitely yield a lot bigger result due to his improved control.

Without him even knowing since he never put his full effort into his spells during sparring with Natasha because of the fear of hurting her, Tom's magic improved by several magnitudes.

It probably didn't help that he was now curing devils with Sleeping Sickness almost on a daily basis and his reserves were increasing each day, leaving him with no time to properly refine his control.

Sure, he broke through to the high-rank energy reserves some days ago...

But he never expected it to be this bad!

Or good. Depending on from what angle one looked at it.

His created spikes were tough enough to squish a physical fighter with mid-rank prowess. Now that was impressive as heck, in Tom's opinion. Still... looks like he would have to restrict himself to kiddy spells unless he wanted to absolutely slaughter someone.

'Damn this sucks...' Tom sullenly complained, looking in disappointment at his minced training dummy. 'I wanted to try more of my new alchemy circles.' He dejectedly pouted. 'Stray devils do not fall from the sky… Finding an opponent is so hard!'

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