"Thank you so much, Tenka!" Although he had already guessed her answer, Naoki couldn't hide the sparkle of joy in his eyes. Everything was going more smoothly than his expectations. "I'll repay this debt of gratitude someday!"
"..."
However, Tenka didn't answer with words. Standing from her chair, she gently pulled Naoki's hand. She guided the man toward her soft purple satin bed.
Before Naoki could ask, Tenka pushed his shoulders until he lay on his back, then boldly, the Sixth Unit Commander sat on top of his body.
"Tenka? What are you doing?"
From the bottom position, Naoki's perspective was distorted by a heart-pounding view. A pair of "twin peaks" towering high behind Tenka's tight uniform appeared taut, creating visual pressure capable of collapsing any man's logic.
"Of course fulfilling the condition for «Pandemonium» copying." Tenka answered with a cheerful yet teasing tone. She gracefully brushed her hair behind her ear, while a thin meaningful smile graced her lips. "Naoki-kun hasn't forgotten the requirement, right?"
Without waiting for a reply or giving room for protest, Tenka leaned down. Her beautiful face approached until her warm breath hit Naoki's skin, and the next second, she locked the man's lips.
"...!!!"
Naoki's eyes widened, his brain instantly went blank. This situation's development was a protagonist's privilege!
This was the kind of scene usually experienced by main characters like Wakura Yuuki, not him!
In his plan, Naoki imagined he would swallow a strand of Tenka's hair that he requested—a process more similar to how Midoriya Izuku inherited the One For All Quirk from All Might in the neighboring series.
But Tenka clearly had a completely different method.
"Slurp... Slurp..."
Wet and intimate sounds filled the bedroom's silence.
This was a deep and passionate French kiss, the kind of kiss usually done by a couple of lovers intoxicated by love.
Tenka proactively extended her tongue, infiltrating into Naoki's surprised mouth. Their tongues met, then intertwined, moving with increasingly intense rhythm, like snakes in mating season.
(Let's do this!)
That thought crossed Naoki's head.
The situation had already gone this far. He wasn't a naive protagonist who would retreat in fear or confusion. In his previous life, he always hated protagonist characters who looked for a thousand reasons to escape when a beautiful woman had already given herself.
Refusing at a time like this wasn't just unreasonable, but also possibly insulting. Naoki decided to welcome it openly.
"Mhm~"
Tenka let out a sweet low moan when she felt Naoki's hands start to move wildly. The man's hands slid from her smooth back toward her firm buttocks, groping and squeezing them with surprising boldness.
Her previously pale cheeks now flushed faintly, but she didn't try to stop Naoki's bold hands at all. Instead, she brought her body closer, emphasizing the contact between them.
"Slurp... Slurp... Slurp..."
The kiss grew deeper and hotter. The exchange of breath, the taste of Tenka's sweet tongue, and the sensation of her entire body pressing down on him created an intoxicating sensory experience for Naoki.
And it was at that moment, when he unconsciously swallowed the mixed saliva—Tenka's saliva containing her DNA—something happened inside him.
*THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP!*
His heart pounded hard, not just from passion, but because of a reaction from the core of his existence.
A thick black aura began to seep out from Naoki's skin pores, enveloping his body like dark fire. That was the manifestation of «Pandemonium» that was processing, analyzing, and most importantly copying genetic and essential information from its target: Izumo Tenka and the Peach Blessing «Ame-no-Mitori».
"..."
Realizing the transformation taking place, Tenka slowly pulled away, breaking their hot kiss. A thin thread of saliva briefly connected before breaking. Tenka breathed heavily, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she got off Naoki's body.
Her face was flushed, her eyes sparkling with complex emotions: passion, curiosity, and admiration. Tenka tidied her slightly disheveled uniform, especially in the chest and waist area.
She observed Naoki who was still lying down, surrounded by a terrifying black aura.
"It's started." She said with a hot breath still lingering.
The copying process didn't last long, only taking sixty crucial seconds for Naoki's body to assimilate.
The thick black aura enveloping him gradually faded, absorbed back into his body. Naoki slowly opened his eyelids, revealing dark red irises that now glowed with sharper intensity.
"How is it? Did it work?" Tenka asked with an enthusiastic tone. She extended her hand, helping pull Naoki up from the bed.
As an answer, Naoki chose to prove through action rather than just words.
"See for yourself."
Suddenly, his pupils shifted shape, transforming into an Inverted Cross structure of blackish gold that appeared to emit a faint light.
Behind his back, a faint visual of the Qliphoth Tree diagram appeared. The Thaumiel part—the peak of that tree of darkness—glowed brightly indicating the first slot had been perfectly filled, while the other nine parts were still dark and empty.
*CLING!*
Accompanied by a strange phenomenon of several white bird feathers falling in the air, a dark portal identical to Tenka's appeared in the middle of the room.
"Seeing it myself gives a really different impression compared to just hearing the theory." Tenka murmured in awe. She touched the edge of the portal, feeling the spatial fluctuation she recognized very well.
"Let's go."
Regaining the confidence and self-esteem of a man that had been lost, Naoki held Tenka's hand tightly. Without hesitation, he pulled the Sixth Unit Commander into the portal he created himself.
"..."
A thin smile bloomed on Tenka's face; she didn't mind being pulled like that. In fact, she really liked the feeling of being led by someone she acknowledged.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
"This place is..."
As soon as they stepped out of the portal that immediately closed behind them, Tenka immediately recognized the scenery around them. They stood in the same barren Mato landscape, under the gloomy sky, surrounded by characteristic horn-shaped rock formations.
"Yes. This is where I was chased by a horde of Shuuki before finally falling into that hole." Naoki pointed to a depression in the ground not far from them—the same hole that had dramatically changed his fate.
*RUMBLE!*
As if provoked by their presence, the ground around them moved. From within the earth emerged dozens of Shuuki, they immediately growled and charged viciously.
Before Tenka could raise her hand to act, Naoki stepped forward in front of her, blocking the woman with his sturdy back.
"Let me do it, Tenka." Naoki said without looking back. His voice was full of confidence. "This is good. They can be perfect test subjects for my new power."
Tenka looked at his back, then a small smile appeared. "Mm. Do your best, Naoki-kun. If something happens, I'll step in."
Naoki turned slightly, giving a confident smirk. "Just watch your man in action."
Hearing the sentence that implicitly confirmed their relationship, Tenka was immediately overwhelmed by a wave of happiness.
Indeed, she had a very confident and somewhat hedonistic personality, always seeking pleasure and satisfaction. As soon as she decided she liked Naoki, she acted without hesitation, instead of waiting for the other party to make the first move.
*ZING!*
In Naoki's raised palm, a small spinning wormhole appeared. With a casual gesture, he teleported the orb right into the middle of the horde of Shuuki running in the distance.
"Die, you cursed monsters!"
*BOOM!*
The next second, the small orb expanded instantly to reach a radius of one hundred meters.
The effect wasn't like an explosion, but like erasure. Inside that giant black circle area, space itself appeared distorted, then collapsed inward. Everything inside that area—air, dust, earth, and dozens of Shuuki—was sucked in, compressed, and annihilated without sound, as if erased from reality. Only leaving a smooth and flat ground surface in the affected area.
Naoki and Tenka had already teleported to a higher location to avoid the impact of that spatial explosion.
Tenka stood still for a moment, then clapped slowly.
*👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!*
"Amazing, Naoki-kun! I really can't believe my own eyes." Tenka praised while walking closer and hugging Naoki's arm. "Your proficiency in manipulating spatial coordinates, precision when opening portals, even your destructive power output... it's truly equivalent to mine! You're not just copying, you seem to have been training with this ability for years."
Tenka rested her head on Naoki's shoulder, gazing at the now silent Mato landscape.
"You're truly a miracle, Naoki-kun. A man who obtained a Peach Blessing... I can't wait to see the faces of the other Anti-Demon Corps officials when they see you later."
"With you, the future of the Anti-Demon Corps, perhaps even the world, will become far more interesting."