The addition of Ravel, Ram, and Rem made the entire Eligos Peerage grow even stronger, while simultaneously making the training camp much livelier.
As Leon's servants, once they learned that their seniors in the Eligos Peerage were all here for special training, Ravel, Ram, and Rem naturally joined in without hesitation, becoming members of the training team.
Leon had no reason to refuse. Whether it was training four people or seven, they were all his own peerage members, so they might as well train together.
The content of the special training didn't change much. The foundational training in the morning and the combat practice at night were fixed; everyone participated in those together. The only difference lay in the individual training sessions in the afternoon.
Ravel needed to become thoroughly familiar with the enhancements brought by her "Rook" trait and master her powered-up abilities. At the same time, she needed to further increase the temperature of her Phoenix flames, which would allow her to grow rapidly in a short period. Consequently, Leon sent her to a volcano within the ancient battlefield to undergo special training.
Ram had a ten-year gap in her development. Ever since her horn was cut off at the age of seven, she had stopped self-training. Now that her strength had been restored, the sense of discomfort and unfamiliarity caused by that gap hadn't been fully erased. Leon suggested she focus on reclaiming her power, essentially training from the ground up once more without worrying about anything else.
As for Rem, her training direction was quite simple: find a way to maintain her rationality while in her Oni form, controlling herself so she wouldn't lose her mind.
This was Rem's only path for improvement.
Unfortunately, after a period of basic and combat training, Leon discovered that Rem's progress was indeed very slow. Not only was she lagging behind the "rising stars" of the Eligos Peerage who could stun the world with their potential, she was even doing poorly compared to ordinary people.
As a member of the Oni Race, her physical capabilities were quite high; even without transforming, she was the physically strongest in the Eligos Peerage, surpassing even Ram in that regard. However, whether it was physical exercise, magic training, or even pushing her limits in life-or-death combat, her growth was negligible.
Thus, in the current Eligos Peerage, Rem had actually become the bottom-tier existence. Her strength could not be compared to Ram's, and she was even inferior to Ravel and Mahiru Shiina, who had joined Leon's peerage just shortly before her.
Ravel was one thing—she was a High-class Devil to begin with. But Mahiru Shiina had been a completely normal person before becoming Leon's servant and had been with the peerage for a very short time. Her strength before this training camp was extremely limited; if not for the immense power of the "Incinerate Anthem" she definitely wouldn't have had such a brilliant performance during the Old Satan Faction's raid. She might have been weaker than even a Middle-class Devil.
Now, after more than half a month of special training, Mahiru had grown tremendously thanks to her startling potential and was entirely different from before. Yet Rem had been training consistently for ten years, only to end up inferior to Mahiru. It was truly a bit pathetic.
"Something is definitely wrong here."
Leon immediately realized the issue after witnessing Rem's extremely inefficient growth rate.
"In the evaluation for the 'Peerage Transformation' trait, Rem was judged to have High-tier potential just like Ram. How could she grow so slowly?"
In the current Eligos Peerage, the ones growing the fastest were undoubtedly Yukino Yukinoshita, Mahiru Shiina, and Ram. All three possessed High-tier potential, and once they entered a state of special training, they grew at an astonishing speed, becoming stronger every single day.
Although Asuna Yuuki, Utaha Kasumigaoka, and Ravel had Mid-tier potential, their growth was by no means slow. Asuna's swordsmanship was becoming sharper, and her use of "Sword Birth" was becoming more proficient. Utaha, in particular, was fully displaying her talent for Sacred Gears, having mastered "Illustrated Storybook of the Phantasmal World" to an impressive degree.
Even Ravel was growing rapidly as she mastered her Rook traits. The temperature of her flames was rising, and combined with her immortality, she could certainly challenge Ultimate-class Devils across tiers—or at the very least, maintain a stalemate and stall them out.
The growth rate of these three might not match the High-tier potential of Yukino's group, but they weren't far behind. They were certainly among the best for Mid-tier potential. Specifically, if Asuna and Utaha could successfully master their Balance Breakers in the future, they would surpass a pure-blooded High-class Devil like Ravel and become top-tier experts in the Underworld.
If even Asuna and the others were growing so quickly, there was no reason for Rem, who shared the same High-tier potential as Yukino and the others, to grow this slowly.
Thinking of this, Leon immediately formed a hypothesis.
"Rem's growth in her normal state might only represent a small fraction; the larger part of it is likely reflected in her Oni form."
Rem's only bright spot was the massive burst of power in her Oni state.
In her normal state, she was only equivalent to a Middle-class Devil, yet upon transforming, she surged to the level of an Ultimate-class Devil, comparable to the "Prodigy" Ram. This was even more exaggerated than the power-up provided by a Longinus.
As holders of Sacred Gears, whether it was Leon, Yukino, or Mahiru, they could only challenge opponents one level above themselves before reaching Balance Breaker. The protagonist of the original story used the Boosted Gear to double his power every ten seconds; after two minutes, his power was 8,190 times his normal state, yet that only allowed him to release a strike equivalent to a High-class Devil while he was at the Low-class level—a temporary jump of two levels.
What about Rem?
She could achieve that just by entering her Oni state, jumping from Middle-class to Ultimate-class and skipping two entire grades. This degree of enhancement was more exaggerated than many Sacred Gears. Even Leon would likely need to use Balance Breaker to exceed that level of amplification.
Perhaps it was precisely because of this that Rem was evaluated as having High-tier potential, equal to Ram.
In other words, Rem's High-tier potential was likely entirely concentrated in her Oni abilities. Without transforming, she probably wouldn't even rank as Mid-tier, or if she did, she would be at the very bottom.
Given this, Leon believed that most of the growth Rem gained from her daily training was being "stolen" by her Oni form.
The harder she trained, the stronger her Oni form became, while her normal self improved only marginally. This resulted in a situation where no matter how much she trained or how strong she became, she would always end up losing control after transforming because the power spike was too immense.
"If she gets twice as strong in her normal state, her power in the Oni state might increase by three, four, or even five times. No matter how much she improves herself, she will always be overwhelmed and lose control due to the mental shock of that super-powered Oni form."
Therefore, Leon believed that for Rem to effectively increase her strength, she shouldn't focus on improving her stats, but rather on trying to master the power of her Oni form and prevent herself from losing control.
"Then... what should Rem do?"
After figuring these things out, Leon called Rem out alone one night to explain his thoughts. Rem asked the question with a sense of urgency.
She was desperate to improve.
In the past, she wanted to catch up to her sister. After her sister's horn was cut and she lost her power, Rem worked hard to become strong enough to protect her.
But now, seeing the girls in the Eligos Peerage all becoming stronger at a transformative pace, Rem was becoming increasingly anxious.
She was afraid of being left behind by her sister, never able to catch up again.
Even more, she feared that all the other companions in the Eligos Peerage would be able to keep up with her sister and fight alongside her, while she alone would be cast aside, forced to watch as her sister grew closer to the others while she became a mere bystander.
Since coming here, Rem's stress had only mounted.
Her sister was excellent; she had known that since childhood. She hadn't expected the others in the Eligos Peerage to be just as outstanding—some even comparable to her sister. Only she was failing to keep up, which was truly agonizing.
Leon had noticed Rem's growing agitation, which was why he had called her out.
"First, one thing is certain: Tiamat's previous idea was wrong."
Leon didn't beat around the bush and calmly analyzed the situation for the anxious Rem.
"Her idea was good—having the two of you reincarnate as Devils so one could use the ritual's power to restore a broken horn and the other could strengthen herself to better control her power. The former worked, but the latter went off course."
"She probably didn't realize that the more you strengthen your own power, the stronger your Oni form becomes. As a result, you lost control immediately after the reincarnation, and the risk of losing control wasn't lowered at all."
"I suspect the demonic power you gained after reincarnating isn't very strong, because at least ninety percent of that power was absorbed by your horn. That power only explodes outward when you transform."
Leon's analysis was immediately confirmed by Rem.
"...Rem's demonic power is indeed not very strong."
Feeling the weak flow of magic in her body, Rem bit her lip.
By the way, the demonic power Ram gained after reincarnating had already broken the records of the Eligos Peerage, making her the person with the highest magic capacity among the members.
While Yukino and Mahiru had gained demonic power that made them elites among Middle-class Devils, Ram's capacity far exceeded theirs, even surpassing the High-class Devil Ravel. Currently, her magic density was second only to Leon's within the team.
With such immense magic, the power of Ram's signature wind magic had increased exponentially. If she were to use the "Promotion" trait of a "Pawn," whether she promoted to "Queen" or "Bishop," her magic power would surge even further.
At that point, Ram would be the strongest in the Eligos Peerage, surpassing even Yukino, who had been the strongest until now. She might even be able to touch a higher level—the realm of the Ten-Winged Devils.
This rank would later be known as "Special-class Devil," a level that transcended Ultimate-class and sat just below the Satans, comparable to low-level Dragon Kings, Cadre-level Fallen Angels, and Seraphs.
Currently, Leon—without using "Zenith Tempest"—was also at this level.
In comparison, the demonic power Rem gained after reincarnation was far inferior. While she wasn't like the original protagonist who couldn't even perform a magic circle warp, her magic was weak even among Low-class Devils.
Previously, the person with the least magic after reincarnation was Asuna Yuuki, as her "Knight" abilities were focused more on her Sacred Gear and swordsmanship. But even Asuna had gained magic close to a Middle-class level. Rem couldn't even match that, which truly failed to live up to the "High-tier potential" evaluation.
Logically, as a member of the Oni Race with naturally strong bodies who could still learn magic like Ram, Rem's talent for magic shouldn't have been this poor even if she couldn't match her sister.
The only explanation was that this part of her magic was also being claimed by her Oni form, only to be fully released when she triggered her horn.
"Right now, your priority isn't to work hard at physical training, but to find a way to control your Oni ability."
After thinking for a moment, Leon spoke to Rem.
"What you need to improve isn't your physical strength, nor your magic capacity, nor even your combat skills. It's your spirit, your heart, a stronger will, and your own convictions."
Leon looked at Rem and spoke with great seriousness.
"That is perhaps the thing you lack most."
Rem found herself completely unable to argue with Leon's statement.
She knew herself that her spirit and heart were not strong at all.
She lacked confidence and was fragile. Growing up in her sister's shadow and being viewed as a failure by her clansmen had left her with a deeply self-deprecating side.
In terms of physical strength, she was currently the highest in the Eligos Peerage.
But in terms of mental strength, she was undoubtedly the weakest.
Even Mahiru Shiina, who had been ignored and hurt by her family, had grown increasingly resilient after seeing her parents' true faces. Since becoming Leon's servant, she seemed to have found a purpose in life and was no longer lost. Rem, however, still lacked self-confidence, her heart filled with self-doubt and cowardice.
"This is also the most troublesome part."
Leon sighed as if he had a headache.
If it were just a lack of power, there were plenty of ways to train that.
But how does one train the will, the heart, and the spirit?
"We'll have to use the blunt method," Leon said, looking at Rem.
"Find a secluded place and try to transform over and over again. Try to control yourself."