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{3rd Pov}
After finishing off Regulus, Subaru wasted no time and immediately went after the Sin Archbishop of Wrath.
Without hesitation, he teleported outside of her residence, locking on to her presence using his supernatural senses.
The moment he confirmed her position, he didn't bother with confrontation or conversation—he simply invoked his Authority of Lust, tapping into its aspect of Life and Death Manipulation.
In an instant, her life was snuffed out. She collapsed, dead, before she could even comprehend what was happening.
Unfortunately for Subaru, he was unable to copy her Authority.
The reason was simple—his method of replication required the target's ability to be actively functioning at the time of the attempt.
Wrath's Authority wasn't in use, and since she died before she could activate it, Subaru couldn't acquire it in the usual way.
Still, he wasn't overly disappointed. Her Authority was far too dangerous, unpredictable, and troublesome to leave unchecked.
Even if there was a chance he could have benefited from copying it, the risk wasn't worth it. Eliminating her immediately had been the safest option.
"Her Authority, the ability to forcibly connect souls…," Subaru thought, narrowing his eyes. "Even with the protection of my Aura and the Life Sword acting as barriers, I don't want to gamble on how effective it could be."
According to his calculations, her Authority probably wouldn't have been powerful enough to affect him directly, but Subaru wasn't the type of person who made reckless bets when his life—was on the line.
He had no curiosity to check how his Authority of Envy will work now that his connection with Witch Factor of Envy and Satella has been cut off, he didn't knew if his Authority would fail to work without them.
Taking no chances, he made the decisive choice to end her life instantly. By doing so, he obtained her Witch Factor of Wrath.
After securing it, Subaru turned his attention inward.
He checked the state of the Witch Factors of Greed and Lust he had already acquired in this timeline.
Both of them, after being devoured and integrated by his own version of the Witch Factors, were in the middle of a slow transformation.
They were evolving, steadily awakening new abilities that had not yet fully manifested.
Wrath, however, was an entirely different case.
Since he did not possess the Witch Factor of Wrath in his original world, the moment he gained it here, it triggered an immediate and overwhelming reaction.
A surge of raw power exploded from within him without warning.
Every aspect of his being—his magical strength, his aura, his ki, his psychic abilities, and even the Authorities he had already mastered—rose in magnitude.
They didn't just double or triple.
They increased tenfold, permanently.
The change was so drastic that even his Aura physically shifted.
The bluish glow that usually radiated around him warped and transformed into a vivid pink, pulsing with energy.
Subaru clenched his fists, feeling the immense flood of strength coursing through every fiber of his body.
"What the hell just happened?!" his spirits shouted, unable to fully process the dramatic leap in power.
His contracted spirits, alarmed by the sudden eruption of energy that shook his very soul space, instantly teleported outside to check on him.
The pressure of the new Aura had unsettled them deeply.
"Father has awakened a new Authority," Gloria explained quickly, observing him with a sharp, almost analytical expression. "And remember—he didn't possess the Witch Factor of Wrath before this moment."
Beatrice, on the other hand, was clearly worried.
Her usually calm demeanor cracked as she stared at Subaru.
"The Witch Factors can give birth to dangerous, twisted Authorities! Subaru, are you really okay? This isn't something to take lightly, I suppose!"
The other spirits hovered nearby, tense and unsettled, their instincts warning them of the raw destructive potential now emanating from him.
Then, just as suddenly as it had surged, Subaru's Aura settled.
The overwhelming pink glow vanished, leaving behind only a faint trace of the pressure that had shaken the area.
His spirits breathed out in collective relief as he calmly raised a hand.
"Relax. I'm fine," Subaru reassured them firmly. "Just give me a second. I need to properly analyze what this new Authority of Wrath has given me."
His mind, functioning like a supercomputer, went into overdrive. He carefully examined his body, his soul, and every detail of the transformation.
He cross-referenced the changes against countless powers, abilities, and systems he had encountered through his knowledge of manga, comics, and even his scientific understanding of the world.
Piece by piece, he broke down what the Wrath Factor had done to him.
When the realization hit, his expression twisted slightly. '...So that's it.'
Subaru compared it to his previous gains. His Authorities of Lust and Greed had manifested in ways eerily similar to Tensura's Sin Series Skills. Now Wrath was following the same trend.
'It figures. The Authority of Wrath ended up being exactly what anyone would expect it to be,' he thought with a hint of dry sarcasm. 'The most common and cliché kind of ability people imagine when they hear the word 'Wrath.'
Still, power was power, and this was not something to dismiss. He turned toward his spirits, his expression serious once more.
"My Authority of Wrath," Subaru declared, "comes with two distinct abilities."
All of Subaru's spirits perked up at once, their curiosity immediately piqued. For an Authority to contain two abilities was almost unheard of.
Sin Authorities were already abnormal and dangerous with just one power, so the idea of Wrath holding more than one was shocking.
"First," Subaru began, his voice steady but carrying the weight of his words, "it has increased all of my abilities tenfold. And I mean everything. My physical strength, my speed, my reaction time, my awareness, my cognitive processing—all of it has multiplied by ten. My reserves of mana, aura, and ki have also expanded tenfold, and even my psychic abilities aren't excluded. On top of that… every single one of my Authorities has been empowered as well."
The moment Subaru finished speaking, his spirits collectively gasped, the atmosphere becoming heavier.
"Y–Your Authorities were strengthened too?!" Beatrice stammered, her voice rising in alarm.
Among the spirits, most would have simply accepted that their contractor was impressive and left it at that. But Beatrice understood the terrifying implications.
If Subaru's Authorities had been amplified, then his already ridiculous arsenal of powers had now ascended to another, almost absurd level.
How strong was Subaru, now that his Authorities had been pushed further beyond their limits?
His Authority of Sloth, for instance, already allowed him to manifest vast numbers of invisible hands—phantom limbs that could phase through matter and crush anything within their grip.
At his peak, he could control up to sixty-four of these hands at once.
Then there was his Authority of Greed, which granted him the ability to copy any target's ability, whether it be magical techniques, combat abilities, or even other Authorities themselves.
Because of this, Subaru possessed multiple Authorities stolen from Sin Archbishops and Witches, layering his already overwhelming arsenal.
Most dangerously of all, his Authority of Lust granted him direct manipulation over the very concepts of life and death.
With it, he could end lives instantly, or even interfere with the boundary between life and death itself.
And now, every single one of these Authorities had been magnified, pushed to a new tier of power that no ordinary Sin Archbishop could even dream of reaching.
"Gloria," Subaru said suddenly, breaking the silence. His tone was serious, and his eyes locked on her. "I want to test something. Summon your Divine Axe and attack me with it."
Gloria didn't hesitate. With a flash, Rita appeared in her hands, its overwhelming divine presence shaking the air.
Without holding back, Gloria swung down with a full-powered strike aimed at Subaru.
Yet the result was unexpected.
There was no explosion of destruction, no shattering of the floor beneath them, no catastrophic tearing of the building's foundation.
Instead, the massive weapon stopped dead in its tracks just a few centimeters from Subaru's outstretched palm.
It was as if an invisible wall had intercepted it, halting all of its momentum.
"More strength," Subaru instructed calmly.
Gloria frowned but obeyed. She tightened her grip on Rita and commanded it to push harder.
The axe's edge began to glow brighter, divine sparks crackling violently along its surface as it unleashed more of its true power.
Slowly, agonizingly, the weapon inched closer toward Subaru's palm.
Just when it was about to graze him, Gloria clicked her tongue and pulled the weapon back, cancelling the strike.
At that moment, Subaru deactivated the Authority of Stillness—the one he had copied from Regulus. The air instantly shifted back to normal, the oppressive sensation dispersing.
Beatrice turned sharply to Gloria, looking at her with faint irritation. "What was that? Why did you stop at the last second?" she demanded.
Gloria crossed her arms, exhaling sharply as she dismissed Rita. "What, you think I'm stupid enough to actually land a killing blow on Father? Even if I know he can handle it, this weapon isn't a toy. If I pushed Rita beyond her limit and struck for real, even Father could be injured. I'm not risking that."
Beatrice opened her mouth to argue but quickly shut it.
She realized Gloria was right. For a brief moment, she herself had been convinced that Rita might actually harm Subaru despite his defenses.
The tension in her chest eased, but only slightly.
Subaru, meanwhile, spoke up, his expression thoughtful as he analyzed what had just occurred. "As I suspected. Regulus's Authority of Stillness has been strengthened. The proof lies in how Rita reacted. Remember, that weapon has cleaved through Regulus's Stillness before, even when he had it fully activated. Yet now, even when Rita was glowing at near maximum output, it still struggled just to inch closer to me. That means the Authority of Stillness I copied has undergone a significant enhancement thanks to Wrath."
"Though, to be precise, Rita has another function as well," Subaru continued, his tone measured but his excitement barely contained.
"That axe doesn't just cut. It has the ability to siphon away the powers of its target. If Gloria had been given a full minute, Rita probably would have eventually slashed through me regardless of my defenses. But at the same time, if I had chosen to retaliate in that instant, I could have destroyed Rita outright with the Authority of Stillness alone."
Even as he tried to remain calm, Subaru couldn't completely hide the thrill in his voice.
The results of this test weren't just proof of his own growth, but also proof of how formidable Gloria's weapon truly was.
The unexpected balance between his new Authority of Wrath and Rita's inherent abilities left even Gloria looking slightly surprised.
"Umu! As expected of Father!" Agni exclaimed enthusiastically, pumping his fist in satisfaction.
"Haha! There's no one in the world who can even compare to our father and contractor!" Aqua shouted proudly, her expression gleaming with admiration.
"Daddy… is the best," Sylphy murmured softly, her words quiet but heartfelt.
"Father is the bestest!" Gaea added in her usual bubbly manner, bouncing up and down with unrestrained energy.
"Indeed! As expected of Betty's contractor!" Beatrice huffed with a small snort, but the pride in her voice was clear.
Subaru, standing there surrounded by his spirits' unreserved praise, couldn't help but feel just a little awkward.
It almost felt like a scene out of a family gathering, with children all showering their father in compliments about how cool and unbeatable he was.
Still, he didn't brush it aside completely.
Instead, Subaru looked back at Gloria and continued, "This also proves something important about Rita itself. The fact that it could resist a ten-times-empowered Authority—even one like Stillness, which is already counted as one of the three strongest Authorities in existence at its base form—shows that Rita's true destructive potential is far greater than we've credited it for. Perhaps, under the right conditions, it might even be capable of killing the Witch of Envy herself."
Gloria held her weapon tightly as he said that, her expression hardening, before she gave a small smile and dismissed Rita, letting it vanish into nothingness once more.
Of course, Subaru wasn't naïve enough to believe that simply wielding Rita could instantly end the Witch of Envy, especially not the version from his timeline.
He knew better than anyone that Reina and the Witch of Envy from his original world were completely abnormal compared to their counterparts in other timelines.
They possessed strength that far surpassed what was supposed to be their standard.
And that was on top of the fact that even the "weaker" versions of Reinhardt and the Witch of Envy across other timelines were still universally acknowledged as the first and second strongest beings in existence.
The sheer gap between them and others was so absolute that it was almost comical.
After addressing that matter, Subaru shifted the topic and finally revealed the nature of the second ability tied to his Authority of Wrath.
This one wasn't passive like the universal enhancement.
It was an active ability—one that gave him power proportional to his anger.
The angrier he became, the stronger he would grow, and the growth wasn't capped at tenfold.
It had no fixed limit, at least none that he could currently measure.
Most importantly, this ability wasn't uncontrollable.
Subaru could decide whether or not to invoke it whenever he felt genuine anger, preventing it from becoming a liability.
The discovery of this second ability only reinforced just how dangerous Wrath was as a Witch Factor.
One ability that permanently multiplied his strength across the board, and another that granted exponential growth based on his emotions.
Together, they made him an even greater anomaly than before.
With his spirits still murmuring about the implications, Subaru turned his focus back to reality. His gaze sharpened, fixing firmly on his next targets—the last remaining Sin Archbishops.
The ones who embodied Gluttony.
To be continued...
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