Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
June 7, 2008 - Serena Pov.
I looked at the paper in front of me in confusion. A devil contract. I hadn't received one in months. Mainly because I'd completely removed the leaflets with my information from the public. I'd made some before taking my High-Class Devil Promotion Exam. Now I was too busy to take any of these.
In fact, even the others were too busy for this. Lucius and Ravel managed most of the city's operations, and although much of the necessary work had been taken care of, the city was still largely self-sustaining. They still had many tasks to complete.
Enid was diversifying too much, dividing her time and keeping herself completely occupied with whatever caught her attention at the moment, now with her TV project. But she still spent part of her time at the hospital. Her treatment was in high demand, as there was nothing she couldn't reverse so far. We were even receiving patients from other cities.
Medical tourism experienced significant growth thanks to her.
Narcissa was busy with her clothing store. For some reason, I found her at one of the universities the other day, teaching classes on etiquette and how to behave around pillar devils. Apparently, it was in high demand and almost mandatory for those seeking government or management positions, or the like.
I guess it made sense. While it didn't really bother me, I wasn't the one they were constantly running into. Lucius and Ravel were the ones who happily took care of all that, and their etiquette and manners were practically ingrained in their very being, so it came naturally to them. I suppose they took it as some kind of prerequisite.
In addition to having to interact with pillar devils from other cities, it was inevitable that they had a more or less high position of power.
Bella, the only one who'd had any free time, had decided to command some sort of police force. Or whatever she'd formed. The population of Pentagram City was made up almost exclusively of common devils, but there were also a decent number of reincarnated devils.
Reincarnated devils who wanted to separate from their kings, for various reasons. Bella had encountered some of them while training and decided to join because she was bored. Then the reincarnated devils began following her around like lost puppies, even while Bella stopped the occasional crime, so those devils began to imitate her.
And it all just grew from there. While the city's quality of life was on the rise, a large number of people remained unconcerned; they simply did as they pleased. The downside of accepting a large number of people without conducting thorough background checks.
Bella also patrolled Wallachia. The human city I was in charge of. I didn't really have any plans for Wallachia. But since the succubi were constantly operating in that city with my full permission, I had to keep stray devils, fallen angels, exorcists, other devils, and other supernatural races who might want to attack them, or who could be a danger to them, at bay.
Which was good. Less work for us.
All that said, none of us had had time to make contracts in the human world. The strangest thing was that the contract was the address from which I felt the calling. Kuoh. Someone in Kuoh was calling me. Not in Wallachia. And that was extremely rare.
But now I was really curious. I cast a heavy copper cloud over myself to conceal my demonic power, and Aria completely covered me while making me invisible before opening a portal to Kuoh near the summoning point.
I crawled along the ground to the small dock. Where a man was fishing. My eyes opened slightly.
Azazel.
Governor-General of the Fallen Angels and Grigori. He shouldn't be in Kuoh, not at this time. Kokabiel still hadn't appeared. What was he doing in the city?
I guess there was only one way to find out. I approached, still completely invisible and hidden, and slid across the floor without making a sound.
"Azazel." I said as Aria made me visible. I could see Azazel tense up completely before relaxing almost immediately, turning his head and smiling lazily at me.
"Ah! Look what we have here. The prince of the succubi." Azazel said happily. I raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"You called me," I said dryly. Azazel laughed happily before hitting the seat next to him.
"Do you fish, miss?" Azazel asked, ignoring me. I wrinkled my nose.
"Not really." I said tersely. Still, I sat down and grabbed the second rod he pulled out of... where did he pull it out? I shrugged as I readied the fishing rod. "So? Why call me? Why in Kuoh anyway? If you managed to call me, you should know that I'm in charge of Wallachia." I said simply as I waved the fishing rod and cast the bait away from me. Azazel whistled lightly.
"You seem to know what you're doing," Azazel said, laughing. "So, what? Curiosity." Azazel hummed. I simply pressed my lips into a thin line. Azazel sighed and decided to continue. "I was in town investigating a certain disappearance of four of my operatives and a little nun who belonged to Gregori temporarily."
"When I couldn't contact my subjects and the little nun turned into a devil, let's just say I got curious. You don't know anything about that?" Azazel asked with that same lazy smile. As if he didn't even care. Ah... I suppose it was really my fault that he was in Kuoh.
"Why should I know about the events in Kuoh?" I asked tersely. "You should call the city governors if you want to know what happened," I added with a shrug.
"mm?... I thought you were close to the Gremory girl. After all, there's a lot of talk about it." Azazel said amusedly, I raised an eyebrow in his direction.
"I can't say I'm aware of that... gossip. I tend to ignore it," I said simply.
"It's not too hard to understand. After all, you helped break up young Gremory's engagement to your brother-in-law, going against your fiancée's family. People talk." Azazel said with a mocking smile. I rolled my eyes.
"I didn't know Gregori's leader had time for gossip. Especially when it's completely false," I said dismissively.
"Curious. So not the Gremory girl? Perhaps Sirzechs is your target? " Azazel asked with a lascivious smile, leaving no doubt as to what he implied. I shuddered completely and almost gagged.
"I'll find a way to kill you if you ever involve anything like that again," I said with a snort of disgust. Azazel burst out laughing.
"Okay, no Sirzechs either. What about Ajuka? " Azazel asked, his eyes shining. I made a face of disgust and shuddered slightly.
"No, neither. Zero men, no men at all. I thought it was obvious, having three fiancées. I don't have a single straight bone in my entire body." I snapped. Azazel let out another laugh.
"Hey, I don't judge! Women, men... other things. You decide." Azazel said while laughing. I glared at him. "Fine, fine, women are your thing." Azazel laughed. I rolled my eyes.
"Let's get to the point. You summoned me just to ask me what happened to your fallen angels? Something I obviously wouldn't know." I asked dryly. Azazel shrugged.
"Not really. I couldn't care less. There were signs that those four were getting involved in something they shouldn't have. Still, it's my duty to find out what happened to them. If you happened to know, well, that would be fortunate," Azazel said simply. I was getting the urge to smoke just talking to him.
"A pity for you, then." I said simply. Azazel hummed lightly.
"You've made a lot of waves, Lady Prince," Azazel said, his eyes twinkling. "Pentagram City is on the lips of every pantheon," Azazel said playfully. I bristled completely. That was bad. The last thing I wanted was for it to be on the lips of every god and supernatural being.
"I didn't know founding a city was something that caught the attention of all the supernatural beings. You'd think they'd have better things to do," I said dryly. Azazel burst out laughing.
"Not normally, but when there's such a clear division in a society and the Satans allow it? And even support it? Well. Everyone's watching to see if a second civil war breaks out," Azazel said with amusement. Though I could hear a hint of concern.
"Starting a civil war is the stupidest thing to do and the furthest thing from what I want to do," I said dryly.
"So? What's the plan? " Azazel asked curiously. I shrugged.
"There isn't one. They just asked me to do it," I said honestly. Azazel froze, looked at me almost incredulously, and blinked a few times.
"Did they… ask you to do it?" Azazel asked, confused. I nodded as I moved my rod around a bit.
"The succubi needed a safe place to live. They asked me for it. So I made a city." Sums up exactly what happened. Azazel looked at me for a few more seconds, blinking, before he started laughing out loud.
"For my Father's sake! You're telling the truth!" Azazel laughed out loud. "This is incredible! You've given every pantheon such a headache trying to figure out what exactly was going on in the underworld, and you just did it on a whim! " Azazel laughed. I laughed lightly.
"Now. It's not my fault you're so paranoid that you see shadows where there aren't any," I said amusedly. Azazel caught his breath and smiled widely at me.
"You're right. It's only our fault," Azazel said amusedly. We both fell silent before Azazel stood up as he dropped his fishing rod. "Well, I guess I have everything I need," Azazel said as he dusted himself off. I raised an eyebrow as he began to put the fishing rod away.
"So soon?" I asked simply. Azazel sighed.
"As much as I'd like to keep talking to you, Lady Prince. I have a lot of work to do, and if I don't return, Penemue will come looking for me." Azazel said regretfully. I snorted in amusement.
"Pity you," I said mockingly. Azazel laughed.
"By the way, before I forget. Here." Azazel said before taking something out from inside his kimono and throwing it to me. I caught what looked like a gauntlet with ease. " Twice Critical. A fairly common Sacred Gear, but someone told me you were looking for one for some experiments."
"Wait, what?" I asked, confused as I looked at the Sacred Gear in my hands. Azazel simply ignored me and turned around before starting to walk.
"Some other day, we can compare notes if you like. I'm also very curious about your potions. We might be able to work something out if you need more Sacred Gears." Azazel continued before looking over his shoulder at me and smirking. "By the way. Say hi to Ajuka for me, and thank him for giving me your contact information." Azazel said with a smile before disappearing into a teleportation circle.
I stood completely alone on the dock before groaning loudly. Of course, Ajuka was involved. And I'm fairly certain he simply forgot to mention it. I looked at the Sacred Gear in my hands. I guess he was serious about getting me a Sacred Gear so I could test my UBW on it.
I didn't know he'd contacted Azazel. Which was interesting, since there wasn't a peace treaty in effect yet. I really wanted to know how he managed to get me a Sacred Gear, even one as common as Twice Critical.
I took a deep breath. UBW hadn't automatically analyzed it. But that doesn't mean it's incompatible. Maybe UBW simply didn't recognize it as a 'weapon' because it had never seen one. It wasn't a Noble Phantasm, which my projection magic was 'calibrated' for. So let's see.
I sat down on the dock and placed the Sacred Gear on my legs. I couldn't sense any magic pulses with my nearby Allomantic Bronze, so I was alone on this dock in the middle of nowhere. I didn't even know Kuoh had a lake.
Take a deep breath and exhale.
" Trace On." When my projection magecraft barely touched the Sacred Gear and identified it as a weapon, I eagerly, almost greedily, grabbed it. It was… terrifyingly easy to project a blueprint and the history of the Sacred Gear.
This… was really good. I could definitely replicate Sacred Gears without hesitation. It seemed that the divine system was in charge of the distribution, not the creation, of Sacred Gears. So they didn't count as divine constructions. Well, they were made by God, certainly, but the materials he used for his creations weren't of divine origin.
Returning to Twice Critical, I could feel UBW becoming like an eager puppy, now that it recognized Sacred Gear as weapons —something I could replicate. It was in tune with my senses once again. I should now be able to replicate Sacred Gear as if they were weapons or NP.
I threw the Sacred Gear into my inventory. And I concentrated.
" I am the bone of my sword." I barely finished the first line of my chant when the gauntlet formed on my arm. I looked at it from side to side before activating it. It was easier than I thought; the Sacred Gear was attached to me, so a simple mental command was enough.
I could feel my demonic power suddenly growing. I blinked a few times before wrinkling my nose.
X1.3.
I knew it would be a downgrade from the original, but Twice Critical could double the stats. But my replica could only increase by 30%. It was an increase, yes, but nothing really remarkable. Although…
I wanted to reduce the Twice Critical ring size, but it was so large that it wasn't possible. It ended up being a fairly thick bracelet. I grimaced.
Still, I started replicating the same bracelet on my entire arm. When I ran out of space, I replicated them on my other arm. When I was done, I had 10 Twice Critical bracelets on both arms.
They all activated simultaneously. I gritted my teeth at the slight imbalance in my power surge. I could see black stars forming on my skin out of control. After a few moments, the magic became easier to control, and I almost wanted to sigh in disappointment.
Really… even a 30% increase is nothing compared to the original. Ten times 30% exponentially is only a little over 13 times my original power. Boosted Gear, on the other hand, would reach a 1,000-fold increase with the same number of duplications.
Using duralumin and using energy blasts was much easier than creating these twice-critical duplicates. Perhaps at some point or in an emergency, it would be useful, but for now, it was almost a waste.
I sighed as I undid the projections. Perhaps… if I find a way to copy it perfectly? Through the spirit realm, I was able to connect with the divine metals in a more intimate way and be able to thoroughly analyze them. If only I could do it with Twice Critical, then I could replicate it perfectly.
Something Shirou had only been able to do with Avalon. Avalon had been within Shirou for years, years where UBW was able to fully understand Avalon, allowing it to replicate itself perfectly.
I'd definitely have to try it. Also…
Hmm, UBW was able to replicate weapons through shared memories with Servants. I'm not sure if it's possible through video. Video can't fully capture a weapon's structure, so the copy would be even more degraded than seeing it physically if it worked.
But since they work with memories… would it work if I asked for Sacred Gear memories and analyzed them in the Pensieve? I'm sure Ajuka must have seen hundreds of Sacred Gears.
I had a lot to investigate, and I opened a portal-
I froze before frowning and looking back at the city. Holy energy? Near the school. I could easily distinguish it. Where devils sounded like really low drums to my senses, holy energy was high-pitched, almost angelic drums. They were easily detectable.
I tried to focus more on that sensation and felt the sacred energy more precisely, but what I also noticed was that they resonated like humans. Exorcists, without a doubt. And… looking back on the date, I guess they must be Irina and Xenovia.
What a… coincidence.
I grimaced as I considered this. I was actually curious if I could replicate the fragments of Excalibur from this world, so… why not?
I closed the portal to the underworld and opened one near Kuoh Academy, then turned invisible once again and walked through it.
Author's Notes: First of all! I have an announcement to make! Not next week, next next week, I'll be on vacation from my full-time job. That week, while I won't be busy, I won't have access to my computer to write comfortably, so I'll be taking a short break for a week! Sorry!
To be more clear and concise, next week, on August 1st, I'll be posting chapters as usual. August 8th will be the week I take vacation, and I won't be posting anything. On August 15th, I'll resume posting normally!
I had already requested the vacation week some time ago, and I always forgot to mention it! Sorry!
and that's the whole announcement!
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