AUTHOR'S NOTES: READ – Well, as you may have noticed, this came out several hours before my normal posting schedule. I wanted to explain this before the chapters to make everything clear. Okay, to make it quick and simple, I have plans for the next couple of hours. Plans that involve spending the rest of the night out of my house and with no plans to return until very late, if at all—late enough to arrive exhausted and wanting nothing more than to sleep. So, it was either post it now, or very late tomorrow when I could get up. Luckily, I finished the chapters in time to post them now. Bow down before me!
And if you're wondering about plans, some friends and I are going to see The Amazing Digital Circus!! In theaters! Yes, I know, it premiered yesterday, but unfortunately no one could coordinate the times, so we're doing it today! I'm really excited about it!
And well, since the whole group hasn't been able to get together very often, we had planned to go out for dinner after the movie, then go somewhere else and hang out, and then go back to someone's house and continue spending the night, so the overall plan is not to go back home.
Next week, the posting schedule will be as usual. Thanks for reading!
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Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
"That wasn't demonic power." That was the first thing Ajuka said, looking at me curiously.
"No, it wasn't in the least... what the hell are you, girl?" Azazel said while staring at me.
"I... I thought I'd seen it wrong when I first saw you, but no... that... that was Luz." Michael murmured as he looked at me, everyone tensed up.
"Light... like holy Light? Like the power of Light that angels use? It definitely didn't feel like that," Serafall said in shock. Michael shook his head.
"No... it has nothing to do with the Holy Light, they're not even remotely similar, but it is... Light, but not the Light we're familiar with." Michael said, confused, as he looked at me. I just laughed slightly. I really didn't think Michael could feel The Light, or even compare it to the Holy Light of the angels. After all, they weren't even close.
Despite their name, they shared absolutely nothing in common, so he shouldn't even be able to register it, or at least compare it with the Sacred Light; he was really curious to know what he was looking at or feeling.
Even so, I moved my staff and let The Light manifest outside my body. Iridescent white energy surged from my body. I moved my staff, and The Light followed with a puppy. Finally, I gently tapped the ground, and The Light flooded the room. Flowers began to grow and bloom around me before stopping.
"What the hell is that?" Azazel murmured in shock as he took a step forward.
"Something of mine, inherently mine, I simply call it The Light." I said with a gentle smile.
"Light... does anyone... does anyone remember what the trait, the power of the original Lucifer was?" Sirzechs asked tensely, and everyone froze.
"You think... that's Demonic Brilliance of Evil Light? The trait of the first Lucifer?!" Azazel asked incredulously.
"No... it doesn't make sense. As an angel... Lucifer was the strongest of us; he was the Morning Star, whose light was the purest of all the angels," Michael murmured, looking at me. "It's... possible that changed due to his transformation into a devil, and then even more so in his offspring, until they transformed and manifested as... The Light that Lady Prince wields," Michael said, looking at me.
I blinked, that's it... I really didn't want to think about how they came to that conclusion, but I'll just let them believe it.
"It's as good an explanation as any; I was never too interested in where it came from, just that it's mine." I said, shrugging.
"I don't believe it. Someone who has 'guessed' her ancestry as part of the Luciferian Bloodline and a self-proclaimed 'lover' of magic shouldn't simply be 'uninterested' in how her power came about." Azazel scoffed, and I shrugged.
"Oh, but I know everything I need to know about it, but it's for me to know, and for you to find out." I said playfully, Azazel just snorted.
" And I suppose you have more secrets that we don't know about, don't you?" Azazel mocked. I smiled mysteriously at him, letting The Darkness emerge slightly from my staff. The darkness formed a mist that seemed to disorient Cia in space, then stopped.
"I have many, but once again, those secrets are mine." I said mockingly, Azazel just stared at me.
"You have to come to Grigori." Azazel said, almost desperately. I sighed.
"No thanks." I said mockingly. Azazel grunted.
"Stop bothering Sera-chan! She has much more important things to do! Like to prepare for our program! " Serafall said with her hands on her hips.
"Priorities, Serafall." Sirzechs sighed. "Although she has a point, no... no matter what Lady Prince's abilities are or where they come from, it's not our place to interfere in her affairs if she doesn't want to tell us." Sirzechs said as you narrowed your eyes at Azazel, who simply raised both hands in surrender.
"Well, well, well, although it was a genuine offer, she was able to create an Artificial Sacred Gear from a piece of the Divine Dividing. Also, I wanted to thank her for letting Vali go. Even if he is a traitor and works for the Khaos Brigade, I... I care about him." Azazel said with a grimace as he sighed.
"Don't worry, he's as dangerous as a fly." I said easily, and I wasn't lying. Vali... hadn't improved at all since the last time we fought. No, that's a lie; he did improve, he got stronger, but the problem is, he was still a damn one-trick pony.
All he had was his Divine Dividing, if you could overcome it. Vali relied solely on his speed, his outstretched body, and his raw demonic power. Yes, he was ridiculously strong with just that, but he had nothing else. And if that didn't work, he went straight for Juggernaut Drive. It was easy to overwhelm him in the right situations once you got past those things.
The worst part was that he remembered he was more than capable of using different types of more complicated magic, and he was able to learn that type of magic really quickly, but it wasn't something he used often.
Azazel just stared at me incredulously before bursting into laughter.
"Oh, by my father, if Vali heard you call him that, he'd be furious!" Azazel said, laughing loudly. I snorted.
"We'd better finish this." Michael chuckled slightly before a mist drifted in through the window and reformed into Bella.
"I'm back." Bella said as she grabbed a severed hand and placed it above her head so it would bleed. Bella drank the blood haphazardly. I could see several of Rias's Peerage shudder and turn pale.
"You took longer than I expected," I said honestly without even flinching. Bella shrugged, swallowed several times before lowering the hand and throwing it to the side of the room. She wiped her lips with her thumb and licked it.
"There were too few here, so I forced one of them to lead me to his lair, and I killed all the magicians there." Bella said simply, and I stopped and looked at her incredulously.
"You followed them to their lair?" I asked incredulously. Bella shrugged.
"It's been a long time since I've had such a lavish feast, I must admit I let my hunger get the better of me," Bella said without complaint.
"You... at least know where they were?" Sirzechs asked with a tense smile.
"Of course, although I think there's nothing left. I had to fight a guy named Euclid. I ripped off his arm, and then he blew up the whole facility." Bella said noncommittally, pointing to the hand on the ground.
"Did you say...Euclid?" Grayfia asked incredulously, her voice trembling. I could see the Satans tense slightly. Bella shrugged, unconcerned.
"Devil, silver hair in a braid, said his name was Euclid Lu- something, his voice bothered me, so I shot him, made a hole in his stomach, and then ripped off his arm. He escaped fast enough after that." Bella said without any concern. I looked at her incredulously.
How on earth did she fight Euclid Lucifuge while I was busy fighting Vali?! Why would the devil even go to fight her?! For the love of—if she could have faced Euclid, she could have faced Rizevim too.
And for all the confidence she had in Bella to take care of herself, Rizevim definitely wasn't someone Bella could confront head-on. In fact, she was even impressed that he could simply go in, kill everyone on Nilrem, and then just wound Euclid enough to force him to flee.
" Are you sure, Miss Black?" Sirzechs asked tensely. Bella shrugged and looked at me. I sighed, approached Bella, and with a thought, my cane shrank to the shape of a wand. I placed it against Bella's temple and drew a memory from her mind.
Then I cast several incantations and let the memory of the smoke rise from my wand, which began to form an image around us. The image was of a young man, about 20 years old, with silver hair and red eyes, glaring furiously. He was missing one hand, and the other clutched a wound on his stomach.
"Euclid!" Grayfia exclaimed in shock.
"I... who is it, Onii -sama?" Rias asked cautiously, Sirzechs sighed.
"Euclid Lucifuge, Grayfia's brother," Sirzechs said solemnly, causing Rias to stare at him in shock. "He was supposed to have died during the Civil War, but... it seems not," he added with a grimace. Azazel sighed.
"That's what I feared," Azazel said with a grimace. "First, Katerea Leviathann and the Old Satan Faction, now Euclid, and where there is a Lucifuge, there is only one person they follow, a Lucifer. Once again, my suspicions have been confirmed, a horrible reality."
"I fear that Rizevim Lucifer, the son of the original Lucifer and grandfather of Vali, is one of the leaders in charge of Khaos Brigade," Azazel said solemnly. That unleashed another wave of conversation, one in which I was more than happy to be absent. Let the leaders of the biblical factions simply discuss everything concerning the Khaos Brigade amongst themselves; some agreements regarding mutual assistance in the event of terrorist attacks were amended, and finally, the Peace Treaty was signed and solidified.
Unfortunately, after that, I had to take them to the place where Bella had attacked the Nilrem. I wasn't surprised at all by the hundreds of dead bodies we found there, but just as Bella had said, the base was destroyed. There was little to nothing left to save. The only thing that was clear was that it was just one of the bases of operations.
Bella had been unlucky to run into Euclid, or not… she had used and summoned the Nilrem mages she had killed, and forced them to take her to their main base of operations, which is why they ended up here.
Luckily, there wasn't much I could do, and they let me go fast enough to escape. I finally sighed before heading for Wallachia. I hummed softly as I flew toward Romania. I had a goal to achieve.
The Sephiroth Grail.
I really didn't want to let Rizevim get the Sephiroth. Oh, I did not doubt that that bastard would find another way to free Trihexa, but denying him the Grails would greatly reduce the headaches he'd give me in the future.
I had previously ignored it because I had no idea how to remove the Grails from Valerie Tepes without killing her. Still, now with my combination of Hemalurgy, Clairvoyance, and Six Eyes, I could attempt to separate Valerie's Sacred Gear and leave her completely healthy.
So it was something I had been ignoring, or rather, I forgot about until Cia ate the Resurrection Stone and was able to summon the souls of dead people.
It was… a little disappointing. There wasn't much I could do with those souls; I couldn't interact with them in the 'physical' sense, so to speak. If I'd wanted to bring the soul of a supreme devil, I couldn't just grab it and give it to Bella to make her her familiar, or I couldn't manipulate that soul to tear out pieces of it.
I could simply talk to them; they couldn't lie to me, me as the possessor of the stone and them as mere souls; they couldn't lie, in fact, they didn't care, the dead had little or no lingering emotion, so they didn't even bother to lie.
But… Sephiroth Graal was different from the Resurrection Stone. I didn't really plan to use it; I didn't need to revive anyone dead. But, let's say, summoning the souls of evil dragons or devils and stealing their abilities? Now that was interesting.
Getting to the Tepes family castle was really easy. I took a Time-Turner out of my Pocket Space, and stealing it from the Ministry was really easy. Despite the amount of security the Department of Mystery had, it was nothing I couldn't avoid with the Six Eyes.
I placed it around my neck and turned it several times, enough so that my real self was still at the Peace Conference.
Was it necessary? Not really, but the less I could be linked to the disappearance of the Sephiroth Graal, the better. Sneaking into the castle and ignoring all the vampires was ridiculously easy.
Finding Valerie was more complicated than infiltrating the vampires' magical defenses; it was almost disappointing. When I finally found where they had Valerie locked up, I saw her sleeping inside a cage. I sighed.
I created a portal and gently pushed Valerie through. Then I crossed another portal, emerged in my lab, and gently placed Valerie on one of the gurneys. I took a pill and, careful not to wake her, forced her to swallow it to put her into a deeper sleep.
Finally, I extracted the Hemalurgic Spikes and began to operate on them. I was able to see the Sephiroth Grail with my clairvoyance—or rather, see them, the plural. I could see the three grails; they weren't in the physical world, but I could see them so easily that I could even touch them.
Pushing the Sephiroth Grail into the real world was easy; the three grails appeared, floating above Valerie. The difficult part was the surgical operation on her Spiritweb. The Sacred Gear was far more tightly bound than she had anticipated; it was nothing like operating on Lupin and his curse.
Even so, I barely flinched as the spikes moved swiftly over Valerie's connections, magic, and soul. Slowly, I began to sever all the Grail connections as I pulled her apart.
I could see how a much cruder method of Sacred Gear extraction could kill the wielder. The intricate and intimate way in which Sacred Gears were bound to people's souls was truly awe-inspiring; it only made me want to see the Sacred Gear System that God had created, capable of managing Sacred Gears and placing them within a soul at birth.
I had to constantly monitor Valerie's health while I operated on her, but slowly the Grails were being extracted. I don't remember how many hours I had been operating on Valerie, but I finally finished extracting all the Grails.
I sighed with relief before repairing all the damage I had caused to Valerie and ensuring she remained completely healthy, without any harm. It was difficult, but with a colossal amount of Health stored in gold to constantly heal her soul, Valerie was completely healed.
I took a deep breath and sighed with relief. I looked at Valerie before giving her the potion to expel the one that was keeping her asleep. Then I put her back to sleep. I glanced at the time absentmindedly and stepped out of the time bubble I had set at the start of the operation, then set an alarm.
I approached the three grails placed on a pedestal. I tried to scan them superficially; I didn't want to use them unprepared. It was supposed that whoever came into contact with them could see and learn the principles of life itself; they would be powerfully shown how life and souls are created, and much more.
My mind was much more robust than most people's, but I wasn't so stupid as to take careless risks, so I watched them as I scanned them. They were… fascinating; I was really tempted to use them.
Learning to create souls… might be useful; knowing how to mold them would also be good.
Finally, I slipped away from them, just in time to hear the alarm. I hummed softly and checked the time; it must have been right when the peace conference ended completely. I didn't even bother writing a note or anything; I simply drew a circle under Valerie without any distinguishable details or symbols that could be traced back to me. Then she disappeared, sending her directly to Kuoh, where Rias and her group should be. They could handle Valerie without any problem.
Meanwhile, I've carefully stored the Grails; I may be interested in them, but unfortunately, I have a lot to prepare before experimenting with them.
In addition, I had a mega structure to build and a wedding to finish organizing.
Author's Notes: Okay, for those who aren't up to date on Wuthering Waves, in two days, the collaboration with Cyberpunk Edgerunners is coming out, featuring Lucy and Rebecca as playable characters (I squealed with excitement when they were announced, yes). What does that mean? It means that, just like with Silver Wolf Lv.999, I'll be adjusting their base templates as more information becomes available.
Especially since, with Lucy, I used her collaboration with Guilty Gear to give her access to the Backyard and improve her base template. There isn't much more information about the collaboration, so they might not add anything too extraordinary, but I wanted to mention it now.