Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena POV – August 8, 2008 DxD.
I took a deep breath as I entered my lab. It had been quite a while—not just the last week. I'd been so busy with everything that I hadn't really had time to spend here more than necessary.
So I practically bounced as I entered the laboratory. The place was filled with papers, books, pens, blackboards, and many, many notes scattered everywhere, potion ingredients, metals, and magical tools; there was even several cyberware devices lying around, and a cauldron simmering on a low flame.
I smiled contentedly, moving my hand to tidy up most of the things, though I left a lot in their current place. I went to the center of the room, where there was a clear spot just right for running some tests.
I sat on the floor before taking a few deep breaths. First of all, I looked inside myself.
Due to the Rite of Union with Bella, my soul was now firmly bound to Bella's. I unconsciously glanced at my left hand and still saw the marks on my skin from the ribbons used for the ritual, forming a ring on my ring finger. I smiled slightly before closing my eyes to see my inner world.
My Reality Marble had remained mostly the same. The only thing that had changed was the enormous waterfall of blood that formed a lake of souls. Both were near the Monolith of The Darkness. The lake surrounded the monolith as The Darkness tainted the souls. No, my Darkness couldn't taint the souls; they still firmly belonged to Bella, but even so, Darkness loomed over them.
And that caused the Nightmares. The Darkness used souls, the very psyche of souls, to create apparitions of The Darkness naturally. They appeared as ghosts made of reddish-crimson-black miasma that floated slowly above the lake around the Monolith.
That… was not intentional at all. The Darkness could not act on its own, not with the iron control of my powers; this, this was simply a natural interaction between The Darkness and the souls.
A natural mechanism, The Darkness, a manifestation that simply formed due to the psyches of Bella's souls.
And it was fascinating. I blinked as I drew one of the Nightmares in. I began to manipulate it and pulled it into the physical world. Then I used The Darkness and strengthened the Nightmare until its body became completely physical. Finally, the Nightmare of a Demon fell before me. I gazed curiously at the creation before me.
I hadn't been able to create Nightmares before, mainly because I didn't know how to use The Darkness to delve into people's psyches and use their traumas and fears to bring a nightmare to a close. At least not subtly and unconsciously.
But now, with Bella's souls available to use, The Darkness could easily grasp those souls and naturally create Nightmares, give them form, and send them into the real world.
That… was actually quite good. Nightmares could be constantly created; they weren't truly souls, but rather… a reflection, an echo of the original. They were simply replicas to a certain extent, simply made with The Darkness. They were an inexhaustible resource as long as I had Darkness and the souls available to recreate them.
I didn't think I'd really need them. From what I could sense, these Nightmares were weaker than their original versions, so they'd hardly be of any use. Still, it was good to know I could create them. I could use them in the Arenas.
I would have to study nightmares more closely to use them against living people; that would be more effective, and now that I had samples and Bella's souls, I could begin experimenting.
With that finally over, I took a deep breath as I gazed at the Monolith and the Lake of Souls. I stared as I saw that everything was truly contained—well, not contained; the souls were here, physically existing in my inner world, but they still belonged to Bella. I could take them if necessary, but they were still hers, and everything remained in its place.
So there was no problem finding souls wandering through my Reality Marble; I simply created a barrier to prevent the Nightmares from wandering too far.
With that, they finished. I finally nodded in satisfaction, then I turned around and finally got rid of the nightmare before creating a portal and attracting what I needed to study.
The Circle of Usurpation.
Something flew out of the portal before I stopped stiffly when I saw what was in front of me. Cia emerged from the portal at the location of the Circle of Usurpation. I blinked before reaching for the Circle where I had left it, only it wasn't there, and Cia looked quite satisfied and full, as if she had just finished eating.
My eye twitched slightly.
"Please tell me you didn't eat the Circle of Usurpation." I begged my wand. Cia smiled smugly before burping slightly and hitting her stomach. I slapped my hand against my palm.
Okay, no problem. The Circle of Usurpation is a divine object, yes, but it was primarily a focal point, a catalyst for the ritual of usurpation. It wasn't unusual for Cia to be able to absorb it if necessary. The problem is that it would now take years to analyze.
I sighed wearily. I could see Cia dozing. I looked at her gently and approached her. I placed a small pillow under her.
"I'll put you in a time bubble until you finish analyzing it," I said gently. Cia stared at me intently. "Don't worry, I'll be here the whole time," I said, stroking her. Cia smiled lazily before falling asleep.
Assimilating divine objects truly consumes all her ability, to the point of leaving her drowsy. I stepped back a bit, created a small time bubble around Cia, and waited. I glanced into her mind to gauge the speed of assimilation before grimacing; this would take some time.
I didn't want to put many years into less than a second, so it would take a little while to get to the necessary point.
I hummed softly as I thought. My Reality Marble had managed to replicate it before Cia absorbed it. But a copy of a divine object was never the same.
In fact, it was a much smaller replica that I was sure could not wrest any authority from the corpse of a dead god, so it was completely useless.
I grimaced as I looked at all the available information from the usurpation circle, which was rapidly filling up while Cia continued to assimilate and scan it.
Well, all I can do is wait... or not.
I hummed softly. I grabbed the half-finished plans of the Circle of Usurpation; the important parts were there: the ritual, the theft, the granting of powers. The only thing missing was divine authority, the strength to actually steal it from divine beings.
I wouldn't even be able to steal anything, since snatching anything required something truly special. But… what if we changed it?
I hummed as I began to redesign the Circle of Usurpation. I replaced everything divine with metals, and divine metals, and then I imbued them completely with the power of Ruin, of Hemalurgy.
Hemalurgy allowed the theft of attributes; the Circle of Usurpation also allowed it, only on a completely different scale.
I began to intersperse and recreate the Circle of Usurpation, The Darkness, The Light, and Sky Flame, all to harmonize and stabilize the process, the same one I used to place my racial templates on my body, only applied to hemalurgy over a divine ritual.
When it finally ended, a circle appeared in front of me. It was a disc the same size as the Circle of Usurpation, but this one… was different.
In the center, I had placed the symbol of Atium, a crescent moon, almost forming a complete circle. It had several spikes piercing the crescent and finally a point where the crescent ended. Around the symbol were four-pointed stars. I looked at it closely, curious about what I had just created.
This… was a safer way to use Hemalurgia.
Hemalurgy was brutal and very, very crude. It involved tearing pieces of a person's spiritual network and implanting them in another; there was no delicacy involved. It wasn't a pleasant experience for either the donor or the recipient. There were so many negative effects for the recipient that I hadn't even bothered to use it or even consider it.
But this… this had practically eliminated all the negative effects. Well, at least on the receiving side. Both the Circle of Usurpation and normal Hemalurgy required sacrifices from the victim. But now, the attributes placed on the receiver would be implemented much more smoothly, almost naturally, like the birth of a Campione, rewriting the spiritual network naturally.
"I am The Root of All Mystery." I murmured as I projected the Circle I had created.
I began to inspect it more closely while going over all the details of the… mmm, Circle of Hemalurgy? Yes, let's go with that.
The Circle of Hemalurgy's capabilities were limited to the attributes of normal hemalurgy: Strength, Senses, Magic, Connection, Emotional Strength, Mental Strength, Memory, Intelligence, and Connection/Identity.
It also worked for stealing Allomantic and Feruchemical powers, but they were useless here. But… could it steal other things? It had already been able to remove the Sephiroth Grail from Valerie, in a clean and almost perfect way using an application of Hemalurgy, albeit a very, very specific and delicate one.
I wrinkled my nose as I thought. I couldn't use the same process; the surgical operation on Valerie's soul was performed with the precision only the Six Eyes could grant me. Creating a ritual for it was… difficult, complicated.
Especially since my only experience was removing Valerie's Sacred Gear, I needed more examples or something to help me. I wrinkled my nose and groaned in frustration.
The Sacred Gear extraction ritual. The ritual that Raynare and her group possessed, which they could perform to extract Sacred Gears. Although it was by force, it was still a good start.
It was a shame I'd already sold Raynare and her group. Would I have to talk to Azazel and ask him for it? Hmmm. Soul manipulation. I moved my hand with ease, and three Grails appeared before me.
I moved the Grails between my hands. I had resisted using them, mainly because I didn't want to delve into the principles of life and death. But the Sephiroth Grail was what allowed the manipulation of the soul in a way that was much easier than I could achieve.
I wrinkled my nose before taking a deep breath. I immediately pushed the Grails out and could feel an infinite amount of information being forcefully thrust into my brain. I gasped and released the Grails. They fell to the ground with a metallic clinking, and I breathed heavily.
I brought my hand to my eye as I tried to process all the information I'd received from the Grails. One reason my brain hadn't gone catatonic like Valerie's was that it was far more robust thanks to my Six Eyes. My brain had adapted to receiving a near-infinite amount of information. That, and thanks to The Company's defenses.
I take a deep breath, pick up the grails, and examine them closely. I've seen things and discovered even more. I'll have to create a ritual from scratch, but it's doable. But that's not important, not now. I've seen some things that will solve the problems I've had for a while.
I looked at Cia before breaking the time bubble and letting her sleep. Then I grabbed my Circle of Hemalurgy, created an anvil with The Light and a hammer with The Darkness. Then I seized hundreds of Bella's souls and drew them into the physical world. I would repay her later; now I had things to do.
I took two souls, placed them in the Circle of Hemalurgy, and activated the ritual. The ritual was much smoother than I expected, both the extraction of the soul items from the donor and their placement within the recipient.
But ignore that last one; I cared more about the donor's soul. That… would definitely kill anyone. Remove everything, absolutely everything: connection, identity, mind, senses, strength, destiny, powers—remove everything from their soul. The only thing I left was magic. Magic in a completely blank soul.
Even so, I kept her soul and placed it upon the anvil. I grasped the Sephiroth Graal before unleashing my power. This time, I didn't delve into the principles of life and death, but instead began to manipulate souls. Making them malleable, turning them into clay in my hand. I kept the Grails active around me. I released the Grails, which then began to float around me, still active.
I took a deep breath, grasped the soul in my hands, and a massive blaze of Sky Flame erupted from the Anvil, burning the soul with intensity. Once the soul was ready, I crushed it with the Hammer of the Darkness. I grabbed another soul and placed it back in the Circle of Hemalurgy. I stripped it of everything again, leaving another soul blank.
I grabbed that core and placed it on top of the first one before hammering again. I didn't stop. I kept repeating the process. Hammering and hammering. Core after core. I kept compressing and joining cores one after another.
Souls of devils, souls of magicians, wizards and witches, souls of vampires, of humans, of adventurers, of fantastic beasts, of monsters—anything that would do and that Bella had inside her. I kept hammering again and again and again as I molded the souls with my newly revealed compression.
Asauchi.
The weapon that had given me the most headaches. I had scanned Ravel's Zanpakuto, obviously. Instantly, like my Reality Marble. But I hadn't even been able to replicate how it was forged.
I had seen part of the method by which Asauchi were created. They were a collection of souls created and forged by Oetsu Nimaiya from Bleach. He forged every existing Asauchi. And it wasn't something I could replicate with my Reality Marble.
Asauchi were the ultimate Zanpakuto, blank slates with the potential to become anything. But creating them… that was something else entirely. In Bleach, clusters of Hollow souls were known as Menos Grande and transformed into Gillians. An Asauchi was essentially the more refined equivalent of Menos Grande or Gillians.
Souls without being Hollow, you use to form a cluster of souls, compressed and joined into a sword, empty, a blank slate until a Shinigami arrives and they evolve. Whereas Asauchi evolved with a Shikai and a Bankai, Gillians evolved into Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde.
They were practically the same. Two sides of the same coin.
And it was the same as The Witness. The First Knife.
I didn't have the tools that Oetsu Nimaiya used to forge Asauchi. But I had my own tricks.
With Circle of Hemalurgy, I cleansed souls, removing all that was unnecessary and preparing them like blank canvases to be used. With the Sephiroth Graal, I transformed souls into clay, ready to be molded. The Darkness acted as my hammer, integrating and welding, uniting one soul with another, creating a single core like The Witness. The Light served as my anvil, shaping the structure, mending any fractures, and uniting them in ways The Darkness alone could not, sowing the seeds of potential growth. And Sky Flames harmonized the countless souls, allowing them to resonate as one and softening the obvious mistakes I was making.
If I couldn't replicate the method of creating the Asauchi... I would create something entirely of my own.
I kept hammering away for who knows how long in my lab, consuming soul after soul. I could sense Bella's displeasure, but also her curiosity as she glanced over my shoulder, but I ignored it. I concentrated.
I used my Six Eyes to the limit to see each soul, to make sure there was no imperfection. Finally, when I was satisfied, I was sweating buckets. I wasn't one for physical exertion. I was a damn witch; I didn't exercise even though I could hit with tons of force. Still, I didn't stop.
I grabbed Cia, still asleep, still absorbing Circle of Usurpation, but that didn't matter. I was able to command Cia to revert to her default form. A wand. Her normal form, her initial form. I placed it on my anvil, still ablaze, then thrust my Proto- Asauchi into it and began hammering again.
I kept pushing, forging, and molding the Asauchi, shaping it inside Cia. I was creating a damn Zanpakuto with my wand, and by a damn hell, I would. I kept striking it for hours. My arm burned; even with my regeneration, my arm had struck the Asauchi tens of thousands of times. Every point had to be perfect.
I finally breathed heavily when I finished, looked at Cia asleep, but now I could feel her in a completely different way. I felt connected to my Wand; she was mine, but she was still a wand, transformed by my Schiavo and gained a little intelligence.
But that was her limit. Now… now she had a soul of her own—an Asauchi. And Cia would evolve. She didn't know when. Or how, but she would. She wasn't a blank slate. The Proto- Asauchi she created, which was now part of Cia, had been brimming with soul magic.
It wasn't anything impressive considering the souls I had available, but hundreds of them was a nice boost. And most importantly, even though Cia was 'just' a wand, she still had her own essence, her own being, and that influenced the Asauchi. I was truly excited to see what Cia could become.
I breathed heavily before I felt anything.
I smiled as I held Cia between my fingers. She was still asleep, but I couldn't wait until she woke up. I kept looking at her before feeling a tug from my clothes.
Aria undressed me, leaving me completely naked. She transformed into her Cloak form and practically stared at me. I chuckled. I carefully set Cia aside and picked up the hammer again.
My whole body ached from the exertion. My nose was bleeding from pushing all my powers to an almost impossible degree of control, especially with Sephiroth Graal and Six Eyes operating at full power. But I had already started, and I had to finish, right?
I let out a laugh as I grabbed another of the souls and started hammering again. I'd already created a damn Zanpakuto in the form of a wand. What was the difference between creating another one in the form of clothing? To hell with Bleach's logic that you could only have one Zanpakuto or whatever, or that Asauchi had to be swords. These were my Asauchi, my Zanpakuto. My Wand and my Cloak. That's what they were and what they would be.
With a wild grin, I started hammering again. I didn't know what Aria or Cia would become, but I didn't need to know; I would just wait until they were ready.
Author's Notes: Long chapters! Lots of talking, lots of rambling, sorry about that!