The Devil's Host Objects
Although the Awakening level of the Flame-Flame Fruit had only recently reached 58%, Hughes still felt it was a bit too slow.
After breaking through his bottleneck in Thunder Valley, Laxus's strength will inevitably increase by leaps and bounds in the coming period.
If he doesn't raise his strength to the "Ten Wizard Saints" level and can't easily kill Laxus as before, how can he have the nerve to be Laxus's strict father!
On the other side, Crawford Him gave the toad messenger a look, signaling it to continue leading the way.
Crawford Him didn't care about demons or whether doing so would have negative consequences; he only knew that once Hughes got the item, he could safely escape from Hughes's clutches.
Led by the toad messenger, the group headed towards the sealing chamber.
According to the rules of the Magic Council, only the Speaker and members can enter the sealing chamber. However, given the current special circumstances, no one is bringing up the rules, and everyone is tacitly ignoring them and keeping quiet.
Soon, the once deserted sealing chamber was packed with people.
The sealed chamber was very small, filled with Magic Sealing Stone inside and out. There was only a three-tiered stone shelf inside, on which were placed about a dozen demon-possessed items.
Around the three-tiered stone shelf were some magical artifacts that Hughes had never seen before.
Hughes glanced up and saw about twenty magical artifacts, each radiating special energy. They were interconnected and combined to form a complex magic array that completely enveloped the three-story stone structure.
"Only the Speaker has the authority to unlock this sealing array!" Crawford Him said.
Hughes glanced at it a few times, trying his best to memorize the magic circle, then released his grip, signaling Crawford Him to unlock the sealing magic circle.
Now that things have come to this, Hughes isn't worried that Crawford Himm will pull any tricks. He guesses that Crawford Himm is probably just hoping to get rid of him as soon as possible so he can get away to deal with those senators who are eyeing his position as speaker.
After a series of identity verification steps involving both facial scanning and fingerprint verification, the complex magic array in front of me clicked and then suddenly disappeared.
Hughes patted Crawford Him with a pleased expression, then picked him up and strode toward the stone shelf.
If Hughes remembers correctly, most of the demonic possessions don't need to be unsealed. With just a little stimulation, the demon inside will automatically appear, just like Lullaby.
Unfortunately, Hughes did not find the flute on the stone shelf that housed the Lullaby demon Lullaby.
Otherwise, it's not bad to use it for amusement.
"You can take it all if you want!" Crawford Hughes, who was being held in Hughes's arms, said generously.
Hughes glanced at him speechlessly. He did want to take them all and absorb them to help his Flame-Flame Devil Fruit Awakening reach 100% Complete Awakening.
However, he couldn't withstand it. If the Devil Fruit Awakening increased rapidly in a short period of time, it would drastically increase his mental burden. Hughes had already discovered this when he absorbed Satan's Devil Factor in Clover Canyon.
In Clover Canyon, the Awakening level of the Flame-Flame Fruit increased from 6% to 30%. He had to take four doses of Porlyusica's specially made mental potion to suppress the discomfort in his mind.
Inside Thunder Valley, because his physical abilities were constantly improving, when the Devil Fruit Awakening increased from 30% to 58%, he didn't even need to use a single mental potion, and he was even more than capable of handling it.
Therefore, to prevent mental abnormalities from occurring when increasing the Devil Fruit Awakening, one must either continue to improve their physical fitness or take a large amount of mental medication at once.
Based on his experience from the previous two attempts, and considering the five psychic potions he had left, Hughes estimated that he could only raise the Awakening level of the Flame-Flame Fruit to around 80% at most.
Forcing an improvement is counterproductive. Look for tasks that can improve your physical abilities and that you can currently complete. Strengthen your body again first, and then consider getting your Flame-Flame Devil Fruit Awakening level to 80% to 100%.
With my current strength, I'm already good enough for the early stages of the story. There's still plenty of time, so steady improvement is the key.
With that in mind, Hughes reached out and touched all ten or so demonic possessions on the three-tiered stone shelf, finally picking out a blood-stained dagger and a warm stone and tossing them into his pocket.
"Two should be enough. If that's not enough, I'll have to trouble Dojigiri Ezel as well," Hughes thought to himself.
As for the remaining demonic host, let's leave it in the sealed chamber for now, and deal with it if needed.
He took them all and carried them with him, Hughes that he might succumb to temptation and inhale them without realizing it.
Despite his deep thoughts, only a few breaths had passed in the outside world. Everyone saw that after Hughes took two demonic possession items, he still wouldn't let go of Crawford Him, but instead demanded to tour the Magic Council.
Although he was unhappy with Hughes's use of Crawford Himm to control the others, he had no choice but to agree.
So, a large group of people strolled around the Magic Council in a grand manner.
Crawford Himm truly lived up to his reputation as a selfish and despicable man, even subtly revealing powerful weapons like the Etherion and Face to Hughes during the process.
In response, Hughes could only say that having Speaker Crawford Him was a blessing for the entire Ishgar Continent.
Two or three hours later, the group returned to the square. Hughes kept his word, slashing Crawford Him 'Crawford neck with his hand and then throwing him to the toad messengers.
"The Speaker will wake up soon, so you all need to protect him to prevent anyone from killing him and then pinning the blame on me," Hughes said with a smile, looking at Ogre and the others.
The toad messengers also took a step back in unison, holding Crawford Him and hiding behind the members of the Custody Enforcement Unit.
Ogre, Michello:... You brat, you've ruined our grand plan!
Unseen by anyone, the two secretly exchanged a glance...
Meanwhile, Hughes had already flown above the giant fireball in the sky, and with a deep breath, as if drinking water, he transformed the giant fireball into streams of fiery liquid and swallowed it into his stomach.
He's not some useless Natsu; he can't eat his own flames...
Soon, the giant sun that had been looming over the Magic Council dissipated, and the intense heat subsided.
Yajima wanted to say something more to Hughes, but after looking around, Hughes was nowhere to be seen.
In the town below the Magic Council, Hughes finally found a small restaurant that was still open and was now waiting for the owner to serve his food.
The system's belated but timely notification sounded in my mind.
[Detection indicates that the commander of the East Blue Marine Base has been defeated by the host. The mission "Defeat the Commander of the East Blue Marine Base" is complete!]
[Mission Reward: Armament Haki) has been issued!]
As the notification tone faded, a surge of unfamiliar knowledge filled Hughes's mind. After briefly reviewing it, Hughes opened his right hand, and his palm turned pitch black at a visible speed.
Hughes clenched his fists a few times, a broad smile spreading across his face. "Very good, very powerful. I'll go back and test it on Laxus, let him see the power of using Tekkai and Armament Haki together."
As for now, eating is the most important thing.
The Magic Council drama isn't over yet!