Both Azazel and Shemhazai stood off to the side where Raynare had been sitting earlier. Next to them, Raynare stood stout and silent. Her gaze occasionally fluttered over to them and studied the two with veiled admiration. At least, she thought she was hiding it well. Everyone else noticed but paid no attention to it.
Serafall skipped further away from that group toward a more open rocky plateau nearby. When she turned to see if Adam was ready, though, her jaw dropped, and her eyes widened into saucers.
To everyone's astonishment, Adam removed his Hawaiian shirt, then his skechers, then his pants… In moments, he stripped down until only a leaf remained covering his crotch.
"Wow. Yeah. I think I believe he's Adam now. Only he could have a body like that," Azazel commented. "What's with the fig leaf, though?"
"It is fitting, considering the famous art of him in the human world," Shemhazai commented.
Meanwhile, Raynare blankly stared at Adam's body. Her purple eyes roamed over Adam's taut muscles and butt for several seconds until blood dripped from her nose. Upon feeling the warm trickle of liquid from her nostril, her face paled and reddened at the same time. She immediately wiped it away with her sleeve. Annoyed at herself, she turned around and laid down with her back to everyone else.
After recovering from momentary shock, Serafall tilted her head and asked, "Why are you taking your clothes off?"
"They are normal clothes and might get destroyed," Adam answered.
"Uh... I could cast a spell to make them more durable," Serafall offered, barely keeping her eyes from lowering to Adam's shredded abdominal muscles.
"It's fine. They're already off, anyway," Adam said. Then, turning to the three Fallen Angels watching from the side, he met Raynare's eyes just as she subconsciously turned to take another peek. Even though she whipped her head around instantly to avoid his gaze, he said, "Come take these from me and make sure they aren't damaged from the spar."
Lips twitching, Raynare first looked at Azazel with a pleading gaze. However, all she got in return was a nonchalant shrug. Her shoulders drooped upon realizing her boss had zero plans to help her. In fact, she even noticed him smirking with amusement. It must have been her imagination. Thus, she sighed and walked over to take Adam's perfectly folded clothes from him without making eye contact the entire time.
"Thank you," Adam nonchalantly said while handing over his clothes.
In response, Raynare clicked her tongue, spun around, and stomped back to her seat atop the boulder. She didn't even notice herself bringing the clothes closer to her face centimeter by centimeter after sitting down. Her nose twitched, and she lifted the clothes closer and closer to her nose. She breathed in deeply. Then, the fabric brushed the tip of her nose.
Raynare froze. A moment later, her eyes that had glazed over regained their clarity. In a fit of anger, she threw the clothes down on top of the rock.
"What the hell was I doing," She mumbled to herself in a dumbfounded manner.
"Hm?" Azazel perked up and turned his head to face her.
"Nothing!"
Uninterested in whatever was happening there, Adam stretched and walked closer to Serafall.
"Do you need a weapon or anything, Adam?" Serafall asked.
In response, Adam looked at his right knuckle for a moment with a thoughtful expression. Then, he answered by raising his fists in a boxing stance.
Raising a brow, Serafall then inquired, "Are you ready, then?"
"Yes. Start whenever you want."
"Alright. If you say so."
Serafall raised her palm and summoned an ice lance. Although she normally operated from a distance with powerful spells, she decided to probe Adam's physical prowess first.
Stones exploding from her initial position, Serafall launched toward Adam and lunged her ice lance toward his shoulder. Although she closed the gap in the blink of an eye, halfway there, she saw Adam's eyes gleaming with eight-pointed red stars.
The ice lance careened past Adam's shoulder, missing him by a few hairs. She barely saw the flicker of movement, but his body definitely moved a few centimeters left just before she reached him.
Behind Adam, a gust of wind tore apart the stone and earth several meters past him. Chunks of stone flew into the air and froze into ice crystals that shot outward like shrapnel.
"Fast," Shemhazai commented.
Azazel nodded in agreement. Then, he glanced at Raynare. The girl stared at the scene with narrowed eyes as though doing her best to perceive the movements of these powerful beings. He summoned a magic circle and erected a barrier of light around them.
"Just in case it escalates. Wouldn't want our clothes getting dirty," Azazel said.
"Right," Shemhazai muttered, briefly glancing at Raynare and Adam's clothes.
Meanwhile, Serafall widened her eyes and hopped sideways. Adam's fist flickered into the space she had been standing at the exact same velocity as her first attack. Wind fired out like a cyclone from his punch.
Serafall blinked once, and yet Adam already returned to his boxing stance.
'High-Class level of speed seems like child's play for him, then,' Serafall concluded.
In order to probe further, she raised her speed and lunged forward again. She stabbed and slashed at Adam numerous times for several seconds. The tip of her ice lance tore back and forth through the air with a whistling hum. She only aimed for non-vital areas, but it felt like fighting air due to missing every time.
On the receiving end, Adam's figure flickered away from every thrust with zero wasted movement. Serafall did her best not to get distracted by his practically naked body.
Ten swings turned into one hundred, incrementally faster each time. Serafall focused entirely on trying to land a blow. Initially, she took it easy due to not knowing for sure whether or not Adam could handle it, but she quickly changed her mind. Her thrusts quickened by the second until everything around them froze from the freezing wind whipping out from her ice lance.
Calmly observing the steadily more frustrated expression on Serafall's face, Adam started blocking instead of just dodging. His palms and knuckles smacked the ice lance. Over the next few seconds, Serafall's scrunched brows relaxed a little.
Then, Adam jabbed.
"Hughk!"
The fist caught her in the solar plexus and sent her rocketing backward into a mountainside in the distance. Stones and boulders tumbled down around the point of impact.
Dazed, Serafall blinked and lowered her gaze to look at Adam through a cloud of dust. The man now stood a few hundred meters away. A dull pain spread through her abdomen.
"Ugh. I barely moved in time to lessen the impact. Really didn't see that coming. Did you have to hit that hard, Adam?" She grumbled while dusting off her dusty magical girl outfit.
Hearing the complaint despite the distance, Adam explained, "It was only as fast as your last attack. You grew complacent from my lack of attacks."
Serafall groaned and stepped out from the crater her body made in the mountainside. Bat-like wings sprouted from her back, and she flew into the air while saying, "Still, did you have to hit your so-called step-daughter that hard?"
Adam only gave a calm smile in return.
"What's with that look? Take this, then!" Serafall exclaimed. She extended her arms in front of her. A blue magic circle larger than her own body appeared. Hundreds of ice spears rained down at Adam as she giggled and said, "You might be fast, but surely one of these will hit you. I'm more of a magician than a physical combatant, so be careful!"
Looking up at the rain of ice spears that looked like the collective missile bombardment of an American Navy fleet, Adam studied the magical process occurring using his Eyes of the Lord.
"So that's how magic works for them," He mumbled to himself.
Then, he stomped the ground in front of him.
*CRAK-OOOOM*
Under the force of his stomp, a shockwave shot out from the breaking of the sound barrier. Cracks exploded outward in a cone from Adam's foot. A giant mountain of stone and earth launched upward.
Nearby, in Lucifaad, every resident Devil showed puzzled expressions due to a sudden earthquake. Over in the Grigori territory, the Fallen Angels experienced the same thing.
Even further away, in the city of Lilith, a red-haired Devil raised his head after feeling a slight tremor in the desk and floor beneath him. He stopped reading the document in his hands and turned his head toward the old battlegrounds nestled between the Devil and Fallen Angel territories.
Narrowing his eyes, he glanced over at the silver-haired woman preparing tea nearby who also halted her movements. His blue eyes met her red eyes, and they both nodded in understanding.
Back on the battlefield, upon seeing a legitimate mountain's worth of stone rising into the air with a loud roar that made it like like the opening of a dragon's maw, Serafall's jaw dropped. The Fallen Angels watching behind the barrier below showed similar reactions.
The countless ice spears rained down upon the underside of the stony mountain that appeared in their path and froze the entire bottom surface into an ice sculpture. The now-frozen mountain of stone then fell back into the crater it came from. An explosion of dust and stone shot outward on impact.
As rocks pelted the barrier in front of them, Azazel muttered, "That's some crazy work."
Shemhazai nodded in agreement.
In contrast, Raynare sat as still as a stone on the side of the road. Her eyes lost focus upon seeing a mountain being raised as a defensive measure by nothing but a simple stomp. Crazy feats she had seen in times past, but stomping a mountain into existence? It made her brain short-circuit.
A wisp of air shifted behind Serafall. Even though wind whipped at her clothes and hair in the aftermath of the falling earth, she felt the difference.
Summoning an ice shield around her, she spun around in the air.
A fist slammed against the ice shield and shattered it like a pane of glass. She fluttered backward to avoid the impact.
Shards of ice fell to reveal Adam floating in the air at the same height as her. She started casting another spell, but then halted upon laying eyes on him. Her eyes widened in shock.
There, Adam hovered with black bat-like wings sprouting from his back. Even so, he still felt undeniably human to her. She didn't feel Devil magic at play. The red star-like pattern in his eyes stared back at her.
"What? How is that… That doesn't make any sense," Serafall stammered.
Down below, the Fallen Angels also looked stupefied.
"Hm. I'm not sure I like these ones, actually," Adam mumbled. He then looked down at the Fallen Angels who looked like ants from this height. The skin on his back quivered, and two black feathered wings sprouted from his back alongside the bat-like wings.
"What the hell?" Serafall gasped. "How do you have wings like that?"
Adam only smiled in response, then muttered, "I think I prefer the more natural feeling of eagle's wings, but those usually require my arms, so this is fine."
"What?"
"Just talking to myself."
"Are you going to explain how you have wings like that as a human?" Serafall asked.
"No."
Pouting slightly due the lack of explanation to her curiosity regarding Adam's abilities, Serafall raised her arms and started casting spells left and right.
Numerous ice shields manifested in between her and Adam.
Dozens of blue magic circles appeared in the sky above them.
A storm of ice rained from the sky.
Adam's naked figure covered by naught but a seemingly indestructible fig leaf blurred. He flickered back and forth in Serafall's vision, narrowly avoiding every shard of bombardment.
Then, he flickered to the space beside her and punched.
More focused than before, Serafall barely leaned back in a dodge. Adam's knuckle grazed her chin.
Her hand whipped upward and cast an icy cyclone in retaliation.
Adam then appeared on the other side, forcing her to dodge again.
Before long, the temperature dropped. Hail and ice scattered across the plateau and turned it into a frozen wasteland. Every spell exchanged for a punch. Every kick in turn received a retaliatory spell.
Down below, Azazel narrowed his eyes while watching the spar that spiraled out of control.
"Is he… toying with her?" Shemhazai asked aloud after watching for a while. "He moves faster than I can perceive, yet Serafall is dodging his attacks at the last second every time."
Azazel hummed thoughtfully, then replied, "If you haven't noticed, her movement and reaction speed has increased by a small margin since the exchange started. It's only increased by a fraction, but that is notable for a Maou like her."
Purple eyes alighting with realization, Shemhazai mumbled, "He's training her?"
"It seems so, as hard as that is to believe."
"In that case… how strong is he?"
"I don't know. Even in the moments where I can perceive him, I have yet to see a drop of sweat."
"I see."
"And who might this man be who is fighting Serafall Leviathan?"
Azazel and Shemhazai whipped their heads around to look at the owner of the new voice that joined their conversation. They instantly spotted a red-haired man dressed in noble attire and a silver-haired woman wearing a maid uniform walking toward their barrier.
"Sirzechs Lucifer and Grayfia Lucifuge," Azazel greeted with a polite smile and nod of his head. "What brings you two here?"
"This, obviously," Sirzechs answered in an unamused tone while pointing at the two people fighting in the sky. "What exactly is going on?"
"They are sparring," Azazel casually answered while waving his hand to make an entrance for the two newcomers in his barrier.
"Sparring?" Sirzechs responded in a puzzled tone of voice while glancing at the chaotic battle above them. Then, he entered the barrier and asked, "So, who is he?"
Grayfia followed behind Sirzechs but kept her gaze on the wild spells and shockwaves caused by sharp punches that echoed across the sky.
"Adam," Azazel answered with a knowing smirk.
"Adam who?"
Azazel chuckled at Sirzech's serious tone and replied, "You know exactly who I'm talking about."
"That's impossible."
"Is it?"
Sirzechs fell silent and raised his eyes to look at the battle in the sky again. Then, he said, "You're saying he's that Adam?"
"The one and only. I didn't believe it at first, either."
"I see."
Grayfia finally spoke up at this point and said, "Rias contacted me earlier mentioning an Adam she had met. I was going to inform you once you finished your work."
Narrowing his eyes, Sirzechs asked, "Rias met him?"
"Yes. She said he caught a Fallen Angel in her territory and then asked to be a teacher at her school."
Sirzechs raised a brow. Even Azazel and Shemhazai showed some curiosity.
Back up in the sky, Serafall panted heavily. She struggled to avoid the attacks flying at her and barely avoided most of them. By now, she realized that every single punch struck at the absolute limit of what she could realistically dodge with her current strength.
She realized it halfway through the spar. Her agility improved by a noticeable margin under the threat of Adam's punches. However, she still frowned. Not even a single drop of sweat was visible on Adam's face, and it frustrated her.
Completely out of physical or magical options that might give her the upper hand aside from trump cards that didn't suit a simple spar, Serafall resorted to one final option. Her eyes glowed pink as she tried to exert a magical charm to sway Adam. Of course, she did not plan to leave him charmed after the spar, but she still felt guilty using such an underhanded tactic.
Yet…
Eyes shooting wide open, Serafall moved her head to the side, barely dodging a casual punch.
"How did you break out of that so easily?" Serafall asked, stumbling back a few steps.
Adam chuckled and answered, "I fell in the Garden, but my only sin was disobedience. It is only natural that you would fail to control my will."
Raising her hands in defeat, Serafall flew back and said, "Ugh. That's enough. This has already gone way past a spar at this point."
"I see. If you ever want to do it again, let me know," Adam offered.
Still panting from exhaustion in a way that made her large breasts bounce up and down with each breath, she sighed, considered how her agility improved, and replied, "I'll think about it."
Then, her eyes brightened, and her smile widened as she exclaimed, "But, hey, do you want to be in a movie? You could totally be Levia-tan's villain!"
Taken aback by the eagerness and playful attitude that suddenly returned to Serafall's demeanor, Adam paused for a moment. Then, he nodded and said, "I'll consider it."
He then absorbed the wings back into his flesh as normal cells and dropped from the sky. Serafall widened her eyes and flew down after him to try to catch him. Due to his velocity, she failed to reach him. Even so, he landed on his feet, cratering the stony ground beneath him. Serafall landed next to Adam a moment after.
"Sheesh. You scared me. Did those wings have a time limit or something?"
"It's a waste of energy to keep my body shaped unnaturally longer than necessary."
"Oh~. So it's really a temporary thing, huh?"
"Think of it however you will," Adam responded. He then looked over at the two newcomers, chuckled, and said, "Let's go greet your friends."
"Eh? When did Sirzechs and Grayfia get here?"
"A few minutes ago."
With that, Adam walked toward the group with Serafall in tow. However, a few pairs of eyes tracked his bare body with unnecessary focus, not that Adam of all people cared about such a thing.