246"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Telepathic conversation"
Sacred Gear
[Epis]
(Ddraig)
{Albion}
*Sound effect*
Previously on Chapter 8…
"Y-Yeah. To them I was invincible, undefeatable, all knowing, the best among best and the shining example of how a human being should be. I was the unmovable and indestructible wall they could seek protection from. Their emotional support." The image of Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan destroying the Walls in Attack on Titan flashed through Izayoi's head. "And now? I'm gone."
Serafall squeezed her eyes shut biting her lips as she couldn't even imagine the sheer pain Izayoi was in, and the pain his young cousins were in now that he was no longer a part of their lives. All she could do was hold him in her arms.
"Don't get me wrong. It's not that their parents weren't around or a part of their lives. It's just that, they were too busy with their work to provide for them. So I had to step in and look after them, raise them."
"I-I… I'm so sorry Iza-tan!" Serafall cried. "I… I don't know what to say! I can't even imagine the pain you're in! I'm so sorry!"
"Don't be sorry, Sera. Don't. You don't have to say anything, let alone imagine my pain. Just… hold me tight, okay? Just… hold me tight."
"O-Okay…"
Preface
"Hey, wanna get married when we grow up?"
A five year old Izayoi jolted in surprise hearing the eight year old foreigner girl he was forced to play with say something so clichéd. He stared at the physically older girl with scrutiny and debated about asking why she would want to marry him despite having knowing him only for a few months.
Sure, he tolerated her and humored her in whatever she wanted to do just to avoid upsetting his and the girl's parents, but that doesn't mean things would jump straight to marriage out of the blue.
Moreover, the girl constantly had that weird but familiar yandere-like-but-not look in her eyes whenever she was in his presence, and being a defenseless five year old, he didn't want to risk any kind of bodily harm to himself or his parents (no matter how illogical the thought of an eight year old harming adults sounded).
After some contemplation he decided not to ask 'why' knowing firsthand how weird kid-logic can be. So instead in a moment of utter genius (read: dumbassery), he said, "No." Seeing the girl gain a weird and scary look in her eyes, he explained, "I want my wife to be someone smart, intelligent, strong and tall." He then pointed at a jeep parked several meters away from the park they were in and continued, "See that car there? In 10 years, if you grow up to be capable of picking that up with one hand, grow taller than me, and become as intelligent as me, then I'll marry you. Otherwise I won't." Izayoi felt bad for giving such a Herculean task to the girl before him, but he didn't have a choice.
In 10 years he will eventually be involved in the Supernatural, and if he agreed to it now, knowing how anime reality works, the girl would show up 10 years later demanding marriage, which not only would be embarrassing for him, but endanger the girl herself to the Supernatural. Which he couldn't allow to happen. Hence, the Herculean task that will no doubt break the girl's naïve hopes and dreams-
"Hmm…okay!"
-what the fuck?
Izayoi dumbfoundedly stared at the girl who had a familiar smile on her face seemingly amused at his attempt to delay the inevitable.
"What?"
"Okay!" The girl repeated, the familiar smile on her face widening. "I will comply with your demands, and in exchange, 10 years later, you will comply with mine. Understood?"
"Hold on! I just gave you multiple conditions that are practically impossible to fulfill! How can you cheerfully agree to them!?"
The girl giggled. "Don't worry about it Le-Izayoi-kun! Nothing is impossible for me! You just wait for me to come back 10 years later and prepare yourself for our inevitable marriage, okay?" The girl booped his nose making Izayoi go cross-eyed. "I will be the husband, and you will be the wife!"
"Wha-"
Chapter 9: Nega
12th June 2008, 6:49 PM
Hyoudou Residence
Third Person POV
Three cloaked individuals stood before the Hyoudou Residence staring at the house contemplatively.
"Irina, are you sure your childhood friends are unaware of the Supernatural?" The tallest one in the center spoke up.
"I…think so? I mean, dad said they were just normal humans with not even an ounce of Mana in them…" The one on the right answered nervously. "Why do you ask Sister Griselda?"
"So what if they are involved with the Supernatural? You're here to visit them, so just get on with it." The one on the left scoffed with crossed arms. "Them being involved with the Supernatural just makes it easier for you to be truthful with them about our intensions, no?"
"You have a point." Irina answered before taking a step forward, only to be yanked backwards by Griselda.
"There is a barrier surrounding the perimeter of the house. We don't know what it does, so don't be hasty. And that goes double for you Xenovia."
Xenovia sulked.
"Excuse me. Who are you three and what are you doing here in front of my house?"
Xenovia, Griselda and Irina swiveled their heads in sync to the left to see an effeminate young boy with golden eyes and long white hair suddenly standing there with a grocery bag in his right hand.
"Wha-" Xenovia was the first to react almost bringing out Excalibur Destruction and swinging it at the boy only for Griselda to stop her with a firm grasp on her shoulder.
Irina gasped before sprinting at the boy with a giddy shout of "Izzy!" with open arms, almost hugging him if it weren't for him stepping to the side and extend his right foot making the girl trip and face plant on the ground.
"Uwaah, a pedo…" The boy muttered in fear stepping away from the three of them and towards the house while keeping the trio in his sights. "I'm calling the police."
Griselda could already feel a migraine coming as the boy pulled out his phone and dialed what she could only assume to be the local police. She was about to stop him from calling the police, only for Irina to beat her to it.
"Wait! Izzy! It's me Irina! Your childhood friend, Irina Shidou! Don't call the police! Please! Omph!" She lunged at him, harmlessly passing through the barrier, in an attempt to grab the phone only to get a faceful of the boy's shoe.
Griselda and Xenovia just stared as the boy pointed a finger at the downed Irina and said, "How dare you impersonate yourself as my childhood friend who was boy-" Xenovia snorted. "-instead of a harlot like you!?"
Irina dramatically gasped. "H-Harlot!?"
"Look at yourself first! What's with that skimpy body suit that you're wearing!?" Irina looked down to see that her cloak had somehow lifted up and was now showing her combat suit. "Who wears that kind of thing in public!?" The boy looked away with a blush on his face and continued, "I know everyone has their own kinks-"
"KINKS!?"
"-but that doesn't mean you can flaunt them around like an exhibitionist! It's indecent and lewd!"
Irina gawked at Izayoi while Griselda and Xenovia stared unamused.
A click resounded as the door slowly creaked open drawing everyone's attention to it. Once the person who opened the door stepped out, Griselda, Xenovia and Irina tensed while Izayoi looked relieved.
"Sera!" Izayoi called out making the Church Trio jump. He rushed to Serafall and hid behind her before pointing at the trio. "Look! A bunch of weird women came and one of them tried to grope me!"
"I DID NOT!" Irina yelled mortified as Serafall narrowed her eyes at Irina. "It's all just a misunderstanding!"
Serafall pulled Izayoi flush against herself and faced Griselda. "Griselda-chan, mind explaining?"
"You know one of the weird women?" Izayoi asked in faux confusion making Xenovia twitch.
"I do. So don't worry about them, okay?" Serafall faux assured him before pulling him into her breasts. The Maou was immensely amused at the drama Izayoi created on spot, and took great pleasure in seeing Griselda feel uncomfortable.
Griselda observed the way Izayoi snuggled into Serafall's breasts, and the way Serafall in turn held him flush against her, and realized that the Maou Leviathan was courting a Human child, and the barriers must be to protect him and his family. 'And he called Irina a Harlot…' Internally sighing, Griselda answered, "It's all just a misunderstanding."
"Oh? My Iza-tan is one of the smartest and most brilliant individuals in the world. He is the one least likely to create a misunderstanding."
'If he's so brilliant then how come he mistook his female childhood friend for a male?' Griselda held back a sigh and said, "How about we take this somewhere else? I hold sensitive information that I'd rather not share with anyone but you." She was originally planning to speak to Rias Gremory about the aforementioned sensitive information, but with the Maou Leviathan herself here, she would rather talk to the bigger fish instead.
"Hmm…" Serafall pretended to contemplate her answer as she drummed Izayoi's thin waist before pecking him on the lips drawing a gasp out of Irina. "Iza-tan, looks like I'll be busy with this impromptu meeting, so how about you go inside and wait for me to bathe together?"
Irina's face turned red as her brain registered what the more-than-a-millennium old Devil declared to do with one of her childhood friends. She was about to go on a spiel about ruining her childhood friend's innocence and curse the Devil for doing so, only for Griselda to clear her throat and look at her in warning. Irina deflated and returned to Griselda's right.
Izayoi glanced back at the Church Trio before pouting and reluctantly letting go of Serafall. "Fine… but you'll have to do more than bathing with me, alright?" Irina twitched.
"Got'cha!" Serafall deeply kissed him before pushing him inside the house. Once the distinct click of the door locking was heard, Serafall walked past the Church Trio and gestured them to follow her next door inside the Gremory Residence. "Come."
12th June 2008, 7:21 PM
Gremory Residence
Third Person POV
15 minutes later, the Church Trio were sitting on a couch opposite to the one occupied by Serafall, Rias and Sona, their respective Queens sans Izayoi standing behind them in attention inside the meeting room.
To avoid gathering too many people in one-spot and potentially triggering Yuuto, the rest of the Peerages of both Sona and Rias were told to wait in the living room.
Asia was helping Izayoi cook dinner back at the Hyoudou Residence, hence their absence. Not that Serafall needed either of them in the meeting. With neither Yuuto nor Asia being present, the chances of a fight breaking out was very low.
"Well then Griselda-chan, since we're short of time, kindly get straight to the point."
"Very well. A few days ago, three of the Excalibur Fragments were stolen while in storage under the Church's care. As you might know, of the seven fragments, two each are held by the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Churches with the seventh one missing. This meeting is about the discussion of how one fragment from each sects were stolen and brought to this land."
"I suppose you already know who the culprit is?"
Griselda grimly nodded. "Kokabiel."
Serafall hummed contemplatively while Rias, Sona and their respective Queens were shocked.
"He wiped out the Exorcists that were covertly dispatched a few days ago, which leads to our request: The Devils must keep out of the fighting between Grigori and us over the Excalibur Fragments." Xenovia and Irina nodded to Griselda's words. "That is what I was told to demand from you, but we all know that the three of us won't be enough to defeat Kokabiel."
"Wha-!? Are you going against the Church's orders and asking for the Devils' assistance Sister Griselda!?" Xenovia exclaimed.
"No I am not." Griselda firmly said shutting her ward up. "Doing so would mean to be indebted to the Underworld, and make them take a side, which would leave quite the impact on the current stand-off."
"I-I apologize."
Serafall giggled and said with a smile, "Even if you had asked, I still would've turned you down. This entire matter is between the Church and Grigori. But do know this…" All traces of amusement and friendliness left Serafall as she stared in the Church Trio's souls and said in a deadly tone, "…if your conflict harms anyone from our side, nothing will be left of you." She then smiled brightly and chirped, "Do you understand?"
Griselda cleared her throat. "Yes." Xenovia and Irina trembled in fear, shaken down to their core while Rias, Sona and their Queens impassively watch on.
"Then the meeting is now adjourned!" Serafall said with a clap. "Rias-chan, Sona-chan, make sure your Peerage members know that it's a direct order from me to stay clear of the Church and Grigori's conflict, otherwise you will be held responsible for their actions, and trust me it won't be pretty."
Rias and Sona grimly nodded.
"We shall take our leave then." Griselda said standing up, prompting Irina and Xenovia to do the same.
"Okay~ see you!" Serafall waved at them as the Church Trio used a Teleportation Circle to leave. "With that out of the way…" Serafall smiled at Rias. "Rias-chan, your Knight is very likely to go rogue because of you-know-why."
"Don't worry Serafall-sama, I will make sure he doesn't."
"It's not about that silly~!"
"Then…?"
"Tell him to seek out Iza-tan. My lovely Queen will know what to do with him. Okay?" Rias nodded and Serafall continued. "Now, Kokabiel's aim is to restart the Great War and…"
13th June 2008, 4:10 PM
Underground Training Chamber, Gremory Residence
Izayoi POV
Upon entering the vast open space underground, I immediately locked into Yuuto's energy signature. Without wasting time, I flash stepped over to him and found him surrounded by a swords of various kinds while he examined the two in his hands.
"Any progress?" I asked making him jump.
"O-Oh! Izayoi-kun!" Yuuto took a step back to calm his wildly beating heart before answering, "Yes, I think. Mind taking a look at the swords?"
With a hum, I pulled out a common longsword from the ground and examined it with an analysis spell. This one was definitely better than the ones he was capable of making by the end of the training for the Rating Game. "So, how did you create this one?"
"I imagined forging the swords with my own hands when I created them. I followed every steps that the videos showed and imagined forging them by putting myself in the smith's place."
"Good. Now, do you have an exact design and idea of the capabilities of the Anti-Excalibur?"
Yuuto scratched his chin. "I kind of have a vague idea on its capabilities, but it isn't anything original. And I'm going to need your help with them."
"Let me guess." I stabbed the longsword into the ground and amusedly smiled at Yuuto. "You want the sword to be capable of doing the same things the original Excalibur could do. Right?"
"Y-Yes."
"But you don't know what all of them are capable of. And you're no Magician, hence you need one to help you imbue the abilities to the swords. Am I correct?"
"…it's scary how easily you can read me." Yuuto answered with wry smile on his face.
"Alright then. Let's start with a brief overview of what each Excalibur Fragments are capable of doing. Firstly, Excalibur Ruler, the strongest fragment with the ability to control anything the user wants to. To replicate it, you'll need a strong Mind Control spell which I can provide you with. However, note that its effects won't be as strong as the fragment's. Contrary to what the Church says, it's actually under the protection of the Pendragon Family, which would hurt Church's overinflated ego." And that annoying thing is with Arthur now.
"Then Excalibur Rapidly. It lets the user have increased agility allowing them to be faster than their opponent, which at times can be detrimental if the enhanced speed is something the user is incapable of maintaining."
"Excalibur Destruction. As the name sounds, it's the perfect sword for brain dead swordsmen who only knows how to swing a stick like monkeys. Its ability is to release a wave of pure destructive energy, which we'll need Rias-senpai for creating a stronger version of."
"Excalibur Mimic. Its ability is to take any shape the user wants to. For example, in Akeno-senpai's hands, it will be a whip that can cut into anything that lacks resistance." Yuuto shuddered.
"Excalibur Nightmare allows the user to cast illusions and manipulate a sleeping person's dream." In other words, it's a really, really, really bad imitation of Kyoka Suigetsu. Aizen would've frothed at the mouth in rage if he came across that one.
"Excalibur Blessing. It weakens evil beings like us, the Devils, and Vampires while empowering the users. To counter this, you'll need a Curse spell instead for the Blessing part. Unfortunately, I'm no expert in Curses, so we'll have to make do with the corrupted Ki of nature. Of course, I'll put a strong buffer to prevent you from being harmed by the corrupted Ki of nature, so don't worry about it."
"Finally, Excalibur Transparency. It allows the user to become invisible, which is the perfect weapon for the Issei of last year. Any questions?"
"No. I grasped everything you said. Which one should we start with?"
"Let's start with Transparency. We'll leave Blessing, Destruction and Ruler for the last ones."
"Alright then."
And so the process began. It took several hours to complete the first four with me guiding and inputting spells into the sword mid-forge. I had to inform mom that I'll be having a sleepover with the ORC and briefly explained to Serafall what we were doing receiving a 'good luck' and 'have fun' from her.
It's after we were done with Transparency and Mimic that we were graced by the rest of the Gremory Peerage as audience. They made sure to keep their conversation at low volume to avoid breaking Yuuto's concentration.
It was right past midnight that I needed Rias to give me a small sphere of her Power of Destruction to infuse with the Destruction Replica. After that, Rias and Akeno had left with Issei dozing off in a corner and Koneko watching us.
We completed the seven replicas right when the clock hit 4 AM. I wasn't too exhausted, but Yuuto was barely able to move, panting and wheezing while lying on the ground in a pool of his own sweat.
I scrunched my nose and said, "Kiba-senpai, you stink. Go take a bath and sleep for three hours. The first thing we'll do after breakfast is to merge these seven replicas."
"Merge?"
"Yeah. Instead of constantly switching between them, I'll have you merge them into one sword to avoid wasting time and breaking concentration." I finished waving at the seven replicas.
Nega: Transparency is a single edged short sword. Nega: Mimic is a bracelet. Nega: Rapidly is a katana. Nega: Nightmare, Nega: Blessing, Nega: Destruction and Nega: Ruler are a long sword, broadsword, great sword and another broadsword respectively. Each of them had their own designs and spell inscriptions, but what they all shared in common is the black, purple, red and white color scheme. At this point, I won't be surprised if Yuuto's Anti-Excalibur ended up being a replica of Excalibur Morgan.
Nonetheless, whatever happens to Yuuto after the completion of the sword will be all his doing, not mine.
14th June 2008, 8 AM
Underground Training Chamber, Gremory Residence
Third Person POV
At the present moment inside the chamber, Yuuto and Izayoi now had the entire Gremory Peerage, Serafall and Asia as their audience. Pushing their audience's existence to the back of their mind, Izayoi and Yuuto got down to the final stage to forge the Anti-Excalibur.
With a nod from Izayoi, Yuuto levitated the six of the seven replicas and used Nega: Mimic to coil around them like a spring. Then the boy closed his eyes and started with the first step of forging.
Everyone quietly watched the collective swords slowly but surely heat up and take a yellow-orange hue. Then the swords merged into one large block of steel before slowly folding until it became a palm-sized cube two feet away from Yuuto. Following that, the cube then started thinning and lengthening until it vaguely took the shape of the blade of a long sword.
Then it slowly morphed into the shape of a proper long sword blade, and started steaming when Izayoi constantly poured water over the entire blade. After a few minutes, once the blade was cooled down, it regained a lighter shade of the yellow-orange hue implying that Yuuto reheated the blade and let it cool for several minutes down to room temperature. By the time the blade cooled down to room temperature, Yuuto was drenched from head to toe in sweat, before finally moving to creating the handle and the guard of the sword.
The entire process took three hours to complete, and the end product was a plain, nondescript black long sword. There was no sign of the previous purple, red and white colors that the replica fragments had. The only things that differentiated the completed product from a common long sword was the fact that it was all black, and the sheer power it emitted simply by existing.
While Izayoi personally wasn't pleased with the aesthetics of the sword, his patience with Yuuto was rewarded in the form of a large, genuinely happy smile on the boy's face as he held the sword with an excitement akin to a child receiving their Christmas present.
"Look! Look! We did it Izayoi-kun! We did it!" Yuuto cheered like child and hopped all the while cradling the sword. Then he froze and turned red when everyone started clapping and congratulating him.
After several minutes of applause I asked the big question. "What are you gonna name it Kiba-senpai? You can't call it Anti-Excalibur, because that would be too lame. Remember, names hold power, so you must be careful with what you name it. And please don't go with something edgy and chuuni names like Blazer Shining Darkness Blade, cause that would bring Azazel down on your head." Serafall cackled.
"What does that have anything to do with Azazel?" Rias asked curiously.
I just looked her straight in the eyes and said, "It was the name of his first Artificial Sacred Gear."
"Oh."
"Yes, 'Oh'." I faced Yuuto and asked, "So? What's gonna be the name?"
Yuuto looked down at the sword he was cradling and smiled. "I'll call it…"
Note: Happy New Year everyone! It's been a long while since I updated an actual Chapter. I'm sorry for taking so long to update this chapter (small as it is), but my private life hasn't been so well since the last chapter (not that it has gotten better). This is the chapter I managed to write over the last couple of months and seeing as I couldn't add anything else to it, I decided to upload it.
I haven't decided on a name for Yuuto's new Sword, so feel free to come up with one in the replies!
There's some news for you guys.
I opened up a Ko-fi account recently after my family started pestering me to start earning money for myself instead of mooching off of them, so I've decided to become a Beta Reader. This is because, I've been beta reading a friend's work for over a year for free and now decided to extend my services to others who need it. If you're interested, contact me in Private Messages or more preferably in Discord using Hikori Takeo#3025 and we can negotiate either a fixed price per chapter or a rate of a certain amount per 1000 words. It's up to you. Here's the link: ko - fi zelshia _ millena _ 95 (remove the spaces after copy-pasting the link)
Also, my results this Semester at University didn't turn out so well, so I might not be able to work on the next chapter anytime soon. This might not even be news to some of you, but I'd still like to have you informed. That isn't to say I won't be able to Beta Read since it would count as a small job.
Once again, a Happy New Year to everyone~!