We Will neither Break nor Bend

[Joshua Davis]

He looked forward, expression empty of emotions as his mind worked.

The screams were barely heard in favor of processing all the data his spells were feeding him. There was a lot to go over and the painful wails weren't really giving him much other than… Well, that the process was painful, which was both expected and already proven. So, that was useless to think about. Might as well focus on everything else, since it was all new.

Wasn't like Katerea hadn't earned herself this treatment, considering she joined a terrorist organization hell-bent on causing the end of the world for petty pride. Maybe she wasn't aware of that last fact, but she was aware that they were all pieces of shit. Furthermore, she hadn't seen anything wrong with what she did and hadn't spared a single thought to the fact that what Khaos and herself did might be wrong.

At least Kalawarna had been small fry, someone that didn't really have a lot of options when she was recruited. She'd have gotten killed if she decided to say no. She had ultimately been a loyal member and all, but it was a little more forgivable when it was someone that was low on the totem pole.

Katerea was a higher up, she had the power and the options to say no and do something else with her life. Instead, she'd decided that she was a petty bitch and she wanted the world to suffer the consequences. Which was why Joshua was a lot less sympathetic with her, obviously.

So, he didn't feel bad at all for testing things on her, Shalba and Kokabiel. There was a lot of information they could provide on a number of things, after all. Was it wrong of him to experiment on prisoners? Probably. He wasn't too clear on it, but he thought it was a war crime.

Ultimately, things were different in the supernatural world, he guessed. Because nobody had so much as tried to dissuade him of what he was doing, so that had to mean something, right? For once, he was grateful and not really all that awkward about it though. If what he did was wrong, after all, he'd still have wanted to go through with it and that'd have caused a lot of problems.

Joshua needed the information, all the information he could get. He needed it so that he could be better prepared, so that he could grow stronger, so that he could face Khaos Brigade on a better footing. Khaos had some bullshit characters on its side and Joshua couldn't afford to pull any punches.

Not when Trihexa was looming in the distance, the ever approaching threat.

He knew canon had dealt with it ultimately. However, canon had long since been thrown out the window. Furthermore, even if things went according to canon… That wasn't something Joshua could let happen, for a number of reasons. Not only had the entire thing been a shitshow, but a lot of factions had been crippled with the resealing of the Beast, sending some of their strongest people into the seal with it.

People that included Serafall.

So no, Joshua needed to stop that from happening altogether.

For that, he needed more options, more countermeasures, more plans, more wards, more hexes, more boons, more magic, more people, more power…

He needed a lot of things. So, he'd work to get all that he could possibly need. He'd make his familiars stronger. He'd train Raynare and Kuroka. He'd spellcraft as many spells as he could come up with. He'd earn more favor with factions and powerful people. He'd continue to wage war against Khaos Brigade.

"... You… monster," Katerea muttered, half out of it as he stopped his spells from poking, prodding and pulling at the power of Ophis that resided in her body now. Joshua found that fascinating and he couldn't wait to crack its secrets, find a way to emulate or at least use that. It'd take time, but he imagined it'd be great to have as an option for himself or for someone else.

Alas, it'd take time. Not only because he only had a single unused vial of the stuff, but also because the thing was… very much not safe to use. Katerea, Shalba and Kokabiel were affected by their use of the thing. It was consuming them, twisting them, corrupting them.

Joshua actually likened it to the Evil Pieces effect on Stray Devils. Just like those were corrupted by the demonic energies in them, uncontrolled by a devil King, people were just as tainted by the power of Ophis coursing through them. It was something that not just anyone could handle and the fact that two Satan descendants and one Cadre weren't able to handle it without help spoke volumes.

As it was, Joshua actually had to step in and support them against the effects of the thing. For one, because he needed them to remain somewhat intact so that he could continue gathering data undisturbed. For another, dealing with it was something he had to get better at anyway, so he might as well practice with targets he didn't care for.

"Yeah, well," he replied, unconcerned by the out of it glare that the female devil was sending his way. "Again, you should have known better," he commented with a shrug, noting down some new data in a notebook.

Shalba and Katerea could call him a monster all they wanted. The fact of the matter was that he had accepted the fact that he might be one long ago. If being a monster kept his loved ones safe, then so be it. He couldn't afford to be nice and soft, not when his enemies didn't care for how badly they'd hurt everyone for their goals, or as their goals.

If the roles were reversed, they wouldn't care for him.

And for everyone he cared about, Joshua didn't mind stooping to their level.

[}-o-{]

"You know the drill," Joshua said, glancing around the training grounds he had taken at House of Water for his class that day instead of the usual classroom. "And I'm sure you can feel my spells around already anyway," he added with a lazy smile.

It was kind of interesting. After a while, he'd gotten used to teaching, but it hadn't become boring, somehow. It was just… a part of the routine, something calm, something stable, something he was used to and was confident in. His students learned and he taught, they got better and he felt useful for helping them. It was a nice dynamic, he decided.

He enjoyed it, even if it wasn't the most exciting part of his day.

In a way, it was like Asia's garden. Tending to the plants wasn't fun, but it was fulfilling. Teaching held the same kind of joy for him, he supposed. More directly, since it was also accompanied, occasionally, with interesting ideas brought by students, sometimes unknowingly, sometimes knowingly.

"Those same spells will take care of any mishap, so don't worry about it. Just do your best," he told his students, who all shuffle where they stand. He didn't blame them much. It was different from testing modified spells of their chosen branch or even wards from their secondary magic branch. Hexes were not nice and neither were their failure effects. Spell failures were dangerous on even the most benign branches, but with things like Hexes?

Yeah, he really didn't blame them for being nervous.

Even the guy that actually had Hex Magic as his main branch was nervous and Joshua respected him all the same.

He was probably the one that had the most reason to be afraid, actually.

"Now, we have to get started some day," Joshua commented mercilessly. Because he understood their nerves, but he still had to keep things going. He had a class plan to stick to and he didn't have an abundance of time to waste. "Who wants to go first?"

Predictably, nobody answers.

That's why he brought Plan B.

"Kunou, can you choose someone?" he asked, his smile gaining a bit of an edge. Really, his students should know better than to not engage by then. The only ones exempt from his annoyance were the Stars, which he'd specifically asked not to be the first to offer for stuff. The rest of the classes were starting to take advantage of the buffer effect the Stars gave in regards to classes, since they were always the first to answer or ask questions, which meant that everyone else didn't get to or, more specifically, need to participate as much.

"Her!" his daughter called, as if she were picking her teammate for a game and not sending someone to demonstrate their magic prowess in front of a class with quite the volatile branch of it. The woman in question, a little on the older side of his classes, looking somewhere in her thirties if he had to guess, nodded stiffly, a grim expression on her now pale face. She looked like she was off to a war and not a practical exercise in a class.

Joshua wondered if it was a magician thing to be more dramatic or if maybe it was another case of him being the weird one out…

Idly, as the woman prepares to cast her spell, Joshua glanced at his daughter.

He brought her to the class not only to help him pick randomly people to test their magic first. The actual reason was that the House of Water had some nice places to look at around the association's base. So, he'd brought her on a little trip and she'd insisted on going to his class.

Thus, there they were.

He'd made sure to demand Agnes had the best security she could get, which apparently included actual gods and goddesses from a handful of small local-ish and not-so-local-ish pantheons. He'd gotten a list that he shared with Yasaka and Serafall and they'd approved, so that was good. Had that little whim burned a ridiculous amount of the favor he'd gotten from House of Water?

Definitely.

Kunou had enjoyed walking around and getting a tour from Agnes herself though, so Joshua counted it as a win. Ravel hadn't been a fan of the decision, but she'd gone along with it too, so he appreciated that. Not like he'd gotten rid of all his favor anyway and he was consistently building more with each class he gave anyway – some occasional defense setting jobs he took –, nevermind being an actual part of the association.

To hear his secretary tell it, House of Water couldn't get out from under his thumb even if he wanted them to.

Somehow, the thing Joshua considered himself the most grateful for was that Ravel and Agnes took care of all the politics involved. He just needed to do stuff and leave the people-ing to them. That suited him just fine and made him all that much more grateful for Serafall throwing the Phenex her way.

"Whenever you are ready," he commented, focusing back on the class as the woman triple checked her set up. The hex was fairly simple, but he didn't rush her. So long as she was actually working and not shuffling nervously, then the time was accounted for. He'd made sure to set aside plenty because he expected people wouldn't be very quick about it.

"Dad! Look!" Kunou called excitedly and Joshua turned, raising an eyebrow at the sheepish student in front of her. A girl about Meredith's age, by the looks of it, stood in front of his daughter with a nervous smile on her face. She was casting magic too, and Kunou seemed thoroughly entertained by the earth golem in dog shape that trotted around in front of her. "Isn't it neat?!" his daughter asked and he smiled a little wider.

"Sure is," he replied, glancing towards Ravel, who huffed with an exasperated smile and started noting down something. Was it a good idea to reward a student just for that? No. If there was one thing Joshua loved doing though, that was spoiling his daughter.

Granted, he needed to do that in moderation, but that was only in regards to the bad kind of spoiling.

He was pretty sure Yasaka would approve of something minor – if slightly silly – like that.

[}-o-{]

Project Life – originally a combination of Everchanging, Intelligence and Soul – was being tested once more.

This time with something more serious than making tea.

On one side, Raynare was working with Incinerate Anthem, shaping the fire into animals and having the Gear help her give them more life instead of just making them fire puppets. It seemed to be entertaining for the Sacred Gear with awareness, which meant that Raynare had an easier time working with it and it worked for Joshua's purposes, so it was kind of a win-win-win. Everyone was happy with the arrangement.

On his other side, Kuroka faced Jeanne. The reincarnated nekoshou was having some fun going all out in her senjutsu and youjutsu practices, which gave him plenty of info in regards to life energy usage and such. 'Been a while since I did more than regular training and sensing in regards to life energy, now that I think about it,' Joshua mused idly.

As for Jeanne, she was still getting used to The Maiden.

Joshua would admit to thinking that the Gear creation was a very impressive piece of summoning. It reminded him of a Susanoo from Naruto, sort of. Except that The Maiden was a solid piece, made – somehow, don't ask him the specifics – of swords. Armor in the shape of a woman's upper chest and head, with a single arm and a giant sword. It floated over and behind her, like a looming presence, a manifestation of her battle spirit…

Or, maybe, a manifestation of Jeanne D'Arc in general.

Joshua didn't delve too much in Sacred Gear bullshit if he didn't need to though. He had entirely too little time for all the things he needed to work on. So, he decided to focus on the aspect of Jeanne's Balance Breaker that he needed at that very moment.

Why was he analyzing all three of them though? Simple. He was trying to create a spell that would think for itself, analyze new variables and apply them to itself. Like at that moment, where he had made a basic energy absorbing array and linked it with the "intelligent" spell to try and have it drain Incinerate Anthem's fire constructs, Kuroka's senjutsu and youjutsu spells and Jeanne's Blade Blacksmith crafts.

And…

'Lots of work needs to be done,' he thought wryly. The spell got confused a lot, but it did manage to adapt at times. Joshua was kind of glad about it though, because he was wary of progressing too quickly when it came to making artificial intelligence. It gave him time to think over possibilities, observe things and make sure that he didn't forget anything.

As it was, he was coming up with a number of ways to avoid producing magical skynet. None of them were guaranteed to work though, so he'd have to be careful and continue working on that. As of that moment, his best bet was magical intent and maybe something else that could give that an extra oomph to more securely lock the goal of the spell array and contain it to only achieving what he allowed it to achieve.

This was where things got troublesome though, since Joshua himself had, several times, overrode the bindings of others and placed himself in control. With Nurarihyon, he'd designated himself as the master of his defenses before turning them on the faction leader. The same had been done when he was attacking Hexennacht too, or even other Khaos bases that he'd targeted.

It was doable, if increasingly difficult depending on how good the bindings were set up. Alas, nothing was infallible, so he was reluctant to place his trust on that when it came to Artificial Intelligence. He had to find something though, because there was no way he could keep going without some sort of failsafe in place.

And without Project Life, there was no way he could counter Annihilation Maker.

Joshua was trying, he really was, but there was nothing that came to mind that could work on literally anything. Because that was what the Longinus Gear basically was. It could make any kind of creature imaginable, and that meant that Joshua needed just as many options to fight back, which he had… just not as quickly at hand. Annihilation Maker could make anything with a thought and energy. Joshua needed to actually put in the work to make adjustments or new spells and there was no way he could out-speed the Longinus without Project Life basically doing the thinking for him.

'This is gonna take a lot of work…'

[}-o-{]

[Penemue]

Meetings had been tense since the attack on Kyoto.

Not something that was overly surprising, Penemue would admit. It was just something that her mind couldn't help but bring up everytime she found herself in that room, with those people. The atmosphere was nothing like it had once been and it had changed the whole thing from a somewhat calm affair – almost a break from regular work – to something she dreaded being part of.

Azazel had managed to calm down Yasaka, Serafall, Gabriel and Joshua with his explanation that Vali was actually a spy. Evidently though, that hadn't really made things go back to normal. All it had done was ensure that they were still part of the whole alliance that had been set up.

And yet, Penemue found herself more nervous than if they had been kicked out.

Because she'd have found it understandable if the leaders were wary of them. She'd have done the same thing, after all. No, something else was going on though, because they were bordering on hostile throughout all meetings. Even Joshua, who had gone back to mostly just being there and barely speaking, couldn't be bothered to look at them with anything but cool contempt.

"And that's what Vali informed," Azazel finished his report with, all smiles like they weren't in what was now borderline enemy territory. The only reason they kept going was because… Well, Penemue would have stopped going, but Azazel insisted and it wasn't like she didn't see the merit.

Khaos was a menace and they needed to be dealt with.

At the same time, Penemue could do without being a step away from getting killed, quite honestly.

"We'll look through those," Serafall commented, all smiles and cheer, but there were little things that told a different story. Penemue had very much noticed how she no longer addressed either Azazel or her with a nickname or even a name. It was like the devil had to force herself to speak to them at all.

And that was only one of the things.

Another was what she said, like there'd be much more going on in regards to Khaos Brigade and the meeting than they would be aware of. They were no longer core members of the whole thing. No. Now, they were just… underlings, for lack of a better term. It was galling, but then again…

"We can deal with some of them, you know?" Azazel replied, smiling even wider. "No need to do everything yourselves."

"Except there is," Joshua commented, his voice cutting through the whole room. For one, because he hardly spoke. For another, because it was still very jarring to hear him speak so coldly, so curtly. It was a stark contrast from the mild-mannered man she'd come to know. "In case it wasn't clear, none of us trusts you, Azazel. Grigori even less so."

Well, way to be blunt about it.

"That hurts, Joshua, truly," Azazel said, not at all looking actually hurt. "I thought we were reasonable people here, man."

"That's your problem," Joshua pointed out, sitting straighter and locking his gaze on her boss. Penemue, for her part, found herself freezing. Not at the words or anything related to the human in the room, however. No, what gave her pause was the slight, almost unnoticeable shift in Azazel.

She doubted even people as skilled as Yasaka, Gabriel and Serafall couldn't tell, but she did, by virtue of knowing Azazel better than most, if not anyone at all.

He was wary.

Azazel was never wary.

"You think I'm reasonable, Azazel," Joshua continued, unaware of what he'd caused. "But I'm really not," the man said, cracking his neck and looking as at ease as anyone could be. "You seem to think we've forgiven everything because of your little spy project."

If anything, the stiffness on Azazel seemed to grow more pronounced and now Penemue had no doubt that the others must have noticed.

"I don't know about everyone else, but I haven't forgiven anything," Joshua told them with a smile that held no cheer nor warmth.

"Why though? I know you went through a tough time, but now we have more information to-"

"Kunou still gets scared at sudden things," Joshua interrupted Azazel with, the facsimile of a smile he was wearing falling apart. "Maybe you think that's an acceptable price, but I don't. Vali Lucifer contributed to that and that makes him unforgivable, as far as I'm aware."

"He wouldn't-"

"He had no control of the situation, not with Cao Cao, True Longinus and Annihilation Maker involved," Joshua interrupted again. "Because if he had any control of that situation, Khaos Brigade would have been destroyed already."

"Joshua-"

"Don't bother," was what followed before a short, cold chuckle. "I don't care for your lies, or your manipulations, or whatever trick you have in mind."

"Joshua," Azazel said, firmly and just as sharp as Davis had been. A moment of seriousness seldomly seen in Penemue's boss. "I'm trying to be patient, but you are testing me. I'm not one to be pushed around, Joshua."

"Neither am I," the human replied with a slight smile on his face. "You thought you could do whatever you wanted and it'd be fine because it was against Khaos Brigade? You were wrong."

"You won't budge, will you?" Azazel asked, bitterly amused.

"I'm glad that's clear," Joshua answered, his grin widening.

"You know you aren't the only one with allies, right?" Azazel pointed out, making the other three faction leaders around the table stiffen. "And furthermore, much as they might like you," her boss continued, emphasizing the last words. "They still can't favor you too much without getting in trouble with their people."

"You think I need them to deal with you?" Joshua asked back, not missing a single second. "I only need myself to deal with Grigori. Do you want to know why?"

"This, I have to hear. It's been a while since my faction has been looked down on like this," Azazel said, annoyance clear in his expression. "You've grown bolder, Joshua."

"I've grown determined, which is different," the human replied, waving off the comment. "And the thing is simple. You know, I've been working on a little something called Project Ascension. You might remember that," he added.

"Threatening to withhold that from us? I didn't take you for that kind of person," Azazel said, not a single hint of amusement present anymore. "And after we helped you so much?"

"There's nothing in this world that's more important to me than my family," Joshua answered with, just as serious as her boss was. "The moment you put them in danger, you stopped being on good terms with me, no matter what."

Penemue was suddenly very aware that it was difficult to breathe in that room.

"And if you think that's all I can do, it's almost funny," Joshua commented, leaning back where he sat. "Let me make you aware of a little something. You can see it as the only benefit you'll get for whatever goodwill we had before this mess you started. I came up with something recently, a little something I'm calling Project Descension."

Project Ascension.

Project Descension.

Penemue gulped and glanced towards Azazel, who had stiffened.

"Maybe you aren't as smart as I thought you were," Joshua continued talking. "Because you seem to fall for the same thing everyone else does, thinking I'm just a human. I'm not just anything, Azazel. I'm Joshua Davis, Pharaoh of the Egyptian Pantheon. You'd do well to remember that I'm just as much of a pushover as you, which is to say not at all, despite how I usually like to do things."

As if to prove his point, his presence in the room grew bigger, stronger, more oppressing.

Penemue could almost feel the Egyptian Pantheon's might looking down on her.

"Keep that in mind."

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Life goes on for our boy, even if confrontation is threatening and looming. Khaos Brigade is in Joshua's sight more than ever. Azazel and Grigori are in deep shit. And lastly… Kunou is still adorable and Joshua's still a teacher.

It's kind of fun to see the contrasts in Joshua's day to day as of right now, don't you guy's think? I thought it was interesting, at least.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you think Project Life will get somewhere or will Joshua have to give up on it?

See you.