Just Like a Tidal Wave

"Whispers are starting to spread about us," Gabriel told him and Joshua turned towards her and raised an eyebrow. It was expected that would happen, after all. "I guess I just wanted to keep things private and you a little lower profile for a little longer," she said, smiling a little sadly towards the angel he'd given an extra pair of wings that day.

They weren't going overboard with that just yet, slowly testing the waters, as it were. Even though he was sure he had things well enough in hand, he didn't see the damage in keeping the project under testing phase for a little longer. Besides, as Gabriel said, it allowed him to keep under the radar a little, as it were.

Not that it was possible to do that overly much anymore, considering how quickly he was building a reputation for himself. More and more people were becoming aware of things involving him and the true scope of his character. Inevitable, he supposed, but he took some solace in the fact that some things would still remain outside public knowledge.

Sadly, that didn't seem to include his love life, apparently. Again, it wasn't surprising, considering they were going on public dates. Unavoidable, if anyone asked him. Neither his partners nor him wanted to try and go the secret dating route. For once, everyone was in agreement on something that he considered annoying enough not to bother with.

"At least they don't know I'm the one giving you wings," Joshua commented, to which the angel hummed in agreement. Angels were actually great secret keepers. Betrayal was a bit of a no-no for them, who'd have thought? It was anathema to them on a number of levels. So, when they were made to promise not to reveal who gave them extra wings, they kept their word.

"Speaking of, when are you going to start with Azazel's side?" Gabriel asked and he pursed his lips. "You'll have to do so soon," the angel pointed out and he nodded, acknowledging her point.

So far, he'd put things off as much as he could. That was partly the reason why he'd given as few extra wings to the angels too and Gabriel knew it. If he wasn't giving Heaven more wings, then Grigori couldn't reasonably get pissed at him for not doing the same with them. And while he did want to put preference treatment towards the former to get back at the latter, he also didn't want to go back on his word.

So… He'd have to, he supposed.

"There's the fact that I don't trust the Fallen to keep their mouths shut though," he replied. It was an excuse and both of them knew it, but it wasn't untrue. Fallen were much more likely to spill the secret of who was giving more wings to angels on both sides – after all, people would put two and two together – and that was just not something he wanted to deal with.

He'd already been told that other factions would very much take an interest in him if he was openly making factions stronger. He'd already drawn a fair bit of attention with the stunt with the Phoenix Spell, really, but he'd gotten away with that because he set up new arrays for other factions and such and they weren't all that common. Giving wings to both angel factions though? That was bound to stir things up a lot more.

The only reason they didn't expect the devils to raise much of a fuss was because he'd also been going around curing Sleep Disease patients. That and because while the Phoenix Spell wasn't exclusive, the devils certainly had more of it, even in its relatively limited nature. That and because Serafall was the most open of his partners, so the devils were still fairly sure that he was in their pockets more than anyone else's.

They were wrong, of course, but nobody was going to point that out to them just yet.

"You're not wrong about that, but that doesn't change things," Gabriel told him and he nodded, getting back on the conversation track. "It's going to be hectic for a while when things get out of hand though," she added, sighing. It was telling that she said "when" and not "if" too, because there was no way things would be kept under wraps forever. Joshua was doing things that were too big to be hidden for an extended period of time, after all.

Things would get out. The real extent of his involvement in the Phoenix Spell and the Sleep Disease cure, Project Ascension's effects and even his relation with Gabriel, all those things and more would just lead to his political presence being all the bigger. That'd bring headaches for everyone involved.

"Politics suck," he said, letting out a sigh himself.

"At least you have someone else deal with those for you almost completely," Gabriel pointed out wryly and he smiled. Ravel really was a Godsent… or a Satansent, considering Serafall had been the one to send her his way? Either way, he really appreciated the fact that she enjoyed managing his business, political or otherwise.

"Delegation is the best thing ever," he commented, drawing a snort from the angel. "You should try it."

"Believe me, I would, but I have an image to maintain. I can't afford to besmirch my reputation even a little." He almost wanted to point out that her dating him probably did that, but either it did and she'd decided that was the important thing to do so in or she'd tell him – again – that it wasn't quite as big a deal as he thought it was. "You're just lucky you're basically representing yourself for your Pantheon, considering the Egyptian deities don't really care how you go about it so long as you actually do spread your influence and thus theirs," she pointed out and he didn't need her to. He really appreciated that, even if the aforementioned gathering of gods and goddesses made him feel like he was barely more than entertainment.

At least he had way more freedom than he'd expected when he agreed to represent them and they helped when he asked, so he wasn't complaining too much.

"They are nice like that, yeah," he commented, rolling his eyes fondly when he felt a few appreciative hums come through the Charm connection at him. "On a different note though. I think we're done here right," he mused, turning to look at the now four-winged angel, who was still testing her new power and what it meant for her. "Wanna go somewhere for a drink and something to eat?"

"Hm, I like the sound of that," Gabriel replied instantly, beaming at him, which immediately made him smile back at her.

Sometimes it was the simplest things that caused the most impact.

[}-o-{]

"Don't you think you're been too passive in your approach to magic?" Joshua asked, leaning back and taking a sip from his cup of tea as he looked over the circles his student had presented to him. "A fair bit of nature is passive, of course, what with plants and all, but animals can be fairly active, even herbivores and such. I feel like being assertive in certain spell designs could work well, don't you?" he mused out loud.

Then again, Nature Magic was Karin's thing, not his.

However, he'd long since given up explaining that kind of thing to his Stars. They hung on to his every word like they were the truth of existence and they urged him to speak his mind as much as possible. At one point, Joshua had just given up and started giving voice to whatever came to his mind. If he was wrong about something, then he'd just take that from his Star's favor debt.

It actually worked well for him, really, or so he'd thought at first.

In Ravel's words though – and slightly disappointingly to him actually –, they wouldn't be getting rid of what they owed him anytime soon even with that idea. A shame really, since Joshua could really do with some people around him not feeling like they had to bend over backwards for his every whim. Alas, that was more difficult to accomplish than one would think.

It also probably didn't help that his magic insights were not often wrong. He wasn't always right, but what he came up with was usually at least useful. Never had he thought he'd wish for failure, but it was a close thing in that case.

"You think so?" his student asked, frowning at her own notes and spell circles as if trying to see what he saw and how she could apply what he'd said. "Maybe for things that are more aggressive, more… predator-like," she mumbled, picking up an empty sheet and starting to scribble something on it.

"As I said, even herbivores can be assertive, defensive spells could work that way too. Even plants can be big and imposing or thorny, or poisonous, right? Not really what one would call active, but not passive either. Does that make sense?" Joshua explained as best he could. Magic was about calculations, sure, but there was a lot of vagueness, meanings, relativity, mythos and more involved in it too. "Maybe you can look at the spells and see what part of nature better fits with it, is it a flower, a hawk, a fish, an elephant, a tree? And then you go from there, how would you represent that into a spell design?"

"Yes, I think I see it," Karin said, her voice barely above a whisper as she continued writing. "Thank you, Professor Davis. You've given me a lot to think about."

"Don't mention it. Let me know if what I said helped, yeah? And don't be shy to ask me to set up a testing ground for you if you decide to try this out," he told her with a grin. It was always interesting to see new magic and his Stars never failed to impress, on top of that. So, Joshua was actually looking forward to Karin – and any of the others around, really – asking for him to check on their experiments.

"Will do, Professor Davis," Karin dutifully agreed, nodding, picking her stuff up and moving back to the desk in the small classroom Joshua had gotten.

As it turned out, Agnes had less than zero issues with him making a more exclusive class for his Stars. If anything, it was the Stars themselves that had put up some resistance – token resistance, but resistance all the same – to the idea. In Ravel's words, they didn't want to owe him more, but then again, they didn't want to reject the opportunity to further their careers.

Joshua had just sighed at the whole thing and waited to see if they'd agree or not.

As it turned out, they did.

"Am I still the official apprentice or are we all apprentices now?" Meredith asked him, peering closely at him from where she sat at her own desk. Immediately, all of the Stars stopped whatever they were doing to look at him. Joshua just raised an eyebrow at them, but they were far from deterred.

"Is that kind of thing done? Having more than one apprentice?" he asked, taking another sip from his tea before leaning forward on his own desk.

"It's been known to happen, with two or three apprentices in exceptional cases," Levi answered, because of course he did. If someone could have answers for a trivia question, that'd be him. It was honestly great, as far as Joshua was concerned. He was glad to hear that more and more people were recognizing the value of just straight knowledge. Levi was like having a Magical Wikipedia available, and one that fact-checked itself to boot.

It was amazing.

For some reason though, his words caused the rest of the Stars – sans Meredith – to deflate. Was it because they didn't think they were exceptional? Or because they thought he'd choose one or two of the others and leave some of them out? Was it something else?

Ultimately, did it matter?

"Hm, I guess I'll tell Agnes and see when she wants to announce it," he commented idly, drawing intent stares from all the students. Why did they look so surprised? When had he done things the normal way anyway?

"I'll start working on that, Mr. Davis. Should I set time aside to manage them more directly?" Ravel asked him then and he knew it was more of a request than anything. Not only was it rare for her to volunteer to do work unrelated to him – if it had ever happened at all –, but he also saw it in the way her calculating gaze was directed at the Stars.

"Go for it," he answered with a slight smile.

Why the Stars looked so nervous, he didn't know, but he was sure it'd be fine.

[}-o-{]

[Carmilla Karnstein]

Joshua Davis' presence was completely different during his second visit.

Where before he'd been imposing and unshakable, the pressure of his standing flooding the space around him, he was now a relaxed, borderline laid-back, and she'd have thought he was a regular magician if she hadn't known better, not even an outstanding one at that. He had a complete control of his presence, evidently, over who he was and who he was perceived as. He wasn't there as the Pharaoh any longer, instead being just a magician performing his trade, and as such he'd had the Egyptians pull back.

"Nice room, nice location," Davis commented, looking around appraisingly. He seemed more curious than judging though, as if he didn't care if the place was appropriate for someone at Carmilla's station and was only checking that it was fitting for his job. It was almost enough to make her feel better about her rather… subpar living arrangement. The Tepes hadn't been content with stripping her of her position as leader and ruining her political standing, after all. "Very nice, actually. Strong ley lines, that'll come in handy. I think I'll be able to do more than I thought," the man commented, seemingly pleased with this new information. "Nice," he repeated, cracking his neck.

"I'm glad it is to your satisfaction, Lord Davis," she replied, twitching at the same time he did, her out of concern and him out of annoyance. She was still not sure what the matter was, but everytime she called him by his title, he reacted the same. She was almost tempted to ask if she should call him something else, but he hadn't brought it up, so she assumed it was the best she'd get.

It wasn't like he was in her position, stuck with a title that she despised for what it reminded her of. He was in a position of power over her. If he wanted her to call him something, he had to mention it and it'd be done. Not like she could afford to disrespect him, even if he wanted her to call him a title that wasn't properly earned.

Maybe he was too stubborn to do so?

"Right, I should get started, I think," Davis replied, keeping whatever had crossed his mind to himself. "This will take a while, so if you want, you can go over the details of the exchange with Ravel, Carmilla," he told her and she had to hold back a scowl. She couldn't tell if he'd made that sound almost like an order on purpose or not.

She was fairly sure that he was trying to anger her, or at the very least annoy her. Because even if the man was as ignorant of how politics and even common etiquette worked, there was no way his pet devil was too. So, either the Phenex wanted to make an enemy of Carmilla by misinforming her superior, or Davis was doing things on purpose. She was inclined to believe the latter was the case, considering how deferentially the devil acted. The girl wasn't that good an actor, Carmilla was certain.

"That sounds… reasonable," she replied, but she could tell Davis no longer was paying attention to her. Instead, he summoned a myriad of pieces of paper and various materials right on top of those. She could see the many magical circles drawn on the sheets and the varied foci Davis had brought. Wardstones, leaves, branches, flowers, fruits, fur, bones, fangs and many other things were now littering almost the entirety of the room. At least, those parts not currently occupied by Davis, his familiars, the Phenex and Carmilla herself.

"Should we stay here or should we move away?" the aforementioned devil asked, breaking her from her observation and making her turn towards her. "There's plenty to go over in terms of specifics," the girl pointed out to her, her voice neutral, bordering on deferential too. Carmilla barely was able to take a small measure of pride in the fact that at least in that conversation she'd be the strong one.

Not that it meant much, considering the Phenex represented Davis, but it was something.

"What is it that your employer is looking… for?" Carmilla asked, pausing and feeling a shiver run down her spine when magic washed over her. Her eyes darted to the side, to look at Davis, and she almost gulped when she sensed the spell now looming over her. She could feel it so clearly, the giant, watchful presence, staring at her with no emotions, only scrutiny, like a gigantic lens pointed straight at her.

"First of all, anything you might have in these fields of magic will be of great interest to Mr. Davis," the Phenex girl answered her calmly, professionally, as if the man she represented weren't burning a hole in Carmilla's skull with the spell he'd just cast. And that was far from the end, because another spell joined the first a second later, just as the Phenex passed her a sheet of paper with magic branches written as a list.

This time, there was no emotionless presence though, because the new spell felt like a snarling werewolf standing right behind her. Carmilla resisted the urge to bring a hand up to her neck, almost able to feel fangs closing in on her. She could sense it, the presence of the spell, waiting for her to give it an excuse to jump and destroy.

"Artifacts related to those fields of magic would be appreciated too, especially the ones underlined at the end," the Phenex continued and Carmilla noticed immediately that the devil knew what she was going through and she was enjoying her suffering very much. The gall of the-

Evidently, Davis was just getting started, because another spell cut through Carmilla's thoughts. And then another, and another. Soon, she was completely surrounded by spell presences, and none of them was reassuring. All of them watched, all of them threatened, all of them promised and Carmilla could only stand there, barely able to follow what the Phenex said and almost breaking her composure as each piece of magic was cast.

Davis had certainly earned his reputation as a master of his craft.

Now, if he could be less terrifying while applying his expertise…

Carmilla would have appreciated that.

[}-o-{]

[Joshua Davis]

"You're getting antsy," he commented idly.

"I can wait," Raynare argued, her voice clipped and cold. It kind of belied what she was trying to tell him. The fact was that he was right. "I don't like it, but I can wait. You'll have use for me yet, won't you? And you'll give me more wings, more power."

"Probably, on both accounts," he replied. His eyes weren't on her, but he was paying attention. It was just that it kind of lifted his mood to see Kuroka training with Koneko. He didn't interact much with the older Nekoshou those days, despite basically living with her, but it wasn't necessary. Their connection was Koneko and neither cared to expand on that, he guessed.

He kind of gathered that Kuroka had given up on him, which he was grateful for.

"Then everything's fine," Raynare told him, all but shrugging. "You've given me more than Grigori did in all my years of service. Weeks, months, years, decades? I can wait that long," the fallen explained and this did make him turn towards her.

Maybe his perception of things was skewed. Supernatural beings were used to things taking years and years. Him? Things happened within months when it came to him. Perks of having a System, he supposed, but also Perks of being motivated as fuck on top of that, really.

He needed to get shit done fast or Trihexa would end it all.

So, on that note…

"You're kind of a power maniac," he said, smiling a smile that was not at all kind at Raynare. "That's good," he commented, apparently catching her off guard a little if the slightly widened eyes were any indication. "Train, Raynare. Train more. Reach the limit of your four wings and I'll give you two more. Then train to reach that limit and I'll give you two more. I won't stop until I can't push your limit anymore or you can't handle more," he told her and that'd have been a threat for any sane person, Joshua was pretty sure. Raynare wasn't quite what he'd call sane though.

"You promise?" she asked, her lips pulling up into the kind of crazy grin that he'd expected. He could almost see the purple shine of Incinerate Anthem burning somewhere within her eyes too. His already cold smile turned even more so, weary eyes half-opened.

"I'm strong, but I'm not the strongest," Joshua said, not quite answering, but Raynare didn't seem impatient. Instead, she hung to his every word like they were a lifeline. "My familiars are strong, but not the strongest. Everyone on my side is like that. I need the strongest. Maybe it'll be me, eventually. Maybe it'll be Cheshire. Maybe it'll be Kuroka."

"Maybe it'll be me," Raynare added, and if her grin widened any more, he'd worry her cheeks would tear open. The mad glint in her gaze grew worse. Funnily enough, he found that comforting.

"Maybe it'll be you," he repeated with a nod. "Whoever it is, I'll be fine with it, so long as my enemies are dead and my family safe," he said with a shrug.

"You know this already, Davis," the fallen told him, staring intently into his eyes. "But give me power and I'll be whatever you want me to be. I'll be the attack dog you need. Your enemies will burn to less than ash. Anyone that so much as gets in your way will disappear with but a word. I'll be your flame, your sword."

He wondered if she did that, chose those words, on purpose. Who knew though? Maybe she had meant it exactly like it sounded, or maybe she was making the same connections he was from her speech and the situation. Was it fate, that she was like that, that he'd given her Incinerate Anthem?

Was she to be his Uriel, the Flame of God? Some kind of connection to his Salvation of God? What did any of that mean anyway? He didn't know and he hated that he didn't know.

Not for the first time, he checked her status screen.

[Title: Pillar of Salvation]

"Hm, I think we might test that soon," he commented idly, not quite relieved to hear that. "For now-"

"I'll be waiting, training," Raynare interrupted with a firm nod and, when he nodded back at her, she floated up with her wings and moved to an empty spot in the training facility. He just watched her, calm as he could be on the outside, with emotions burning inside him.

It was one of those days, after all.

It was one of those days in which Trihexa loomed over him, more dark and frightening than ever. He didn't remember what the Beast was supposed to look like, but he didn't need to. If anything, that made it more terrifying. Khaos Brigade, what was left of it, was more of a mystery than anything else he knew and they were lurking in the shadows, getting ready to unleash his worst nightmares on the Earth.

And Joshua didn't know what to do.

Once he dealt with the vampire factions and hopefully got to Valerie before shit hit the fan, he'd be out of ideas. He didn't remember anything else he could use to try and cripple Khaos Brigade after that. It'd be just a game of attrition like it had been for much of their "war" and Joshua hated that, because it meant the crazy bastards could do something unexpected and get to him, to his family.

He didn't like that, not at all.

Friday pulled closer to his conscious, concerned and fearful and angry, but mostly confused. So, Joshua took a deep breath in, focused his mind and did his best to calm her down. He'd brooded enough, he supposed and it was better to knock it off before Yasaka, Serafall or Gabriel dropped by. Or even worse, Kunou could decide to skip one of her classes and appear any second and he would not drag her into his shit mood.

So, Joshua sighed, stood up and moved towards where his familiars had gathered. Better to get some training done and blow off steam while he was at it. He didn't train his physical skills nearly enough anyway, so he might as well.

What he wouldn't give to have some Khaos Brigade idiots around to just…

Oh well, something for another time.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

Well, some pieces moved a little… I think? Maybe? Or maybe they are prefacing some movement, at least. I can tell you guys that much.

And then there's the Carmilla section, which stands out to me. Not only because it's the plot line that's moving the most, but also because it was fun. Don't ask me why, but I find it extremely entertaining to write her parts, especially from her PoV. I don't know why, I just do. So I'll be happy with that and move on.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Maybe even liked the Carmilla part like I did?

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: Favorite DnD class? (I might be in a bit of a DnD mood, for those not aware of what goes on in my Discord server) Mine's Beastmaster Ranger which… is unfortunate. I hear it's one of the worst subclasses, but my love for classes that use minions to fight is absolute. I think some of that showed in this series, actually, what with all the familiars.

See you.