Chapter 117: Deprivation Ritual
After a brief moment of surprise, Haruto brushed the matter aside.
He had encountered similar situations before. For instance, Koneko should have been a year below Issei Hyoudou, but now they were in the same grade.
This world was clearly not an exact replica of High School DxD; otherwise, characters from other anime wouldn't have appeared.
At this point, even if someone told him that Yuuto Kiba was actually a blonde, big-breasted girl, he could accept that fact without much trouble.
Patting Yuuma's snow-white, delicate, and rounded buttocks, Haruto said bluntly, "I'm not probing into your mission. It's just that I've taken a liking to a Sacred Gear and wanted to ask if you have any methods for searching for Sacred Gears."
"Mmm..."
Yuuma let out a soft moan as she slowly withdrew the dragon from inside her, her delicate face flushed bright red.
After calming her restless body, she thought for a moment and decided that telling Haruto the truth wouldn't hurt. Moreover, to maintain their close and seamless cooperation, it was necessary to clarify things.
"Actually, there's no harm in telling you. We received orders from above that a very dangerous Sacred Gear has appeared here, and we are to eliminate its host," Yuuma explained.
"But so far, we have no idea who the Sacred Gear is residing in, let alone how to eliminate them."
Haruto stroked his chin. This Sacred Gear was most likely the Boosted Gear.
Of course, there was no way he would voice this thought aloud.
"From what you're saying, it seems you don't have a method to search for Sacred Gears either."
"Of course not. Sacred Gears aren't that easy to find. If they were, there wouldn't be cases of Sacred Gears actively choosing their hosts—they'd all be forcibly taken by others."
Haruto rolled his eyes. He was well aware that Sacred Gears were hard to come by. Even the most common and ordinary Twice Critical, a low-tier Sacred Gear, could double the host's power. In the hands of someone already powerful, its effects would be terrifying.
"My mistake. I overestimated you."
He said with some disappointment, "You're right. Even Rias can't actively search for Sacred Gears. Since you're inferior to her in both status and strength, of course you wouldn't have a method either."
Although Haruto was stating facts, that didn't stop Yuuma from getting thoroughly angered.
She viciously pinched the soft flesh at Haruto's waist, only letting go when he cooperatively showed a pleading smile.
With his strength at A-rank, a mere pinch like that naturally didn't hurt Haruto. But since the two were still embracing each other naked, he couldn't afford to disrespect the fallen angel too much.
After venting her anger, Yuuma pouted. "I can't search for Sacred Gears, but I know how to extract them from their hosts."
Before meeting Haruto, when her strength could no longer improve, she had turned her attention to Sacred Gears and specifically sought out methods to strip them away.
After all, finding an unowned Sacred Gear was too difficult, and it might not even suit her.
Extracting one from an existing host naturally avoided these troubles.
Looking at Yuuma's delicate face, Haruto recalled a certain airheaded nun.
"Yuuma-chan, this method would kill the Sacred Gear's host, right?"
He sighed and advised, "Within Kuoh Town's boundaries, you'd better not use it."
Yuuma wriggled slightly, adjusting to a more comfortable position in Haruto's arms.
"Why? Just one person's life shouldn't be enough to make your precious club president relentlessly hunt us down, right?"
Rias indeed wouldn't take action for this reason. In fact, if not for the stubborn Issei Hyoudou, she hadn't even planned to save the airheaded blonde nun in the original story.
"She won't, but if you do it, our cooperation will have to end."
Haruto wanted to help the airheaded little nun, but she was who-knows-where at this point—perhaps not even driven out of the church that adopted her yet.
He couldn't say anything too harsh to Yuuma for someone he'd never even met.
After all, she had given him her first time...
"Tch... So what if it ends? Who cares."
Though she said this, Yuuma had already dismissed the idea of extracting a Sacred Gear in her heart.
Compared to continuously growing stronger, a single tool meant little.
As for the brief sadness and loss she felt when Haruto mentioned ending their cooperation, she subconsciously ignored it.
Haruto stroked Yuuma's smooth, pink back and didn't press the issue further.
He had done all he could. As for the little nun's fate, only time would tell.
At worst, Rias Gremory could use one of her Evil Pieces to reincarnate her as a Bishop-class servant.
Speaking of which, even the dead can be revived. The effects of Evil Pieces are truly astonishing...
"Tell me about the method to extract a Sacred Gear," Haruto said, shaking off the distracting thoughts in his mind.
"What? You won't let me use it, but you can?" Yuuma mocked, "As expected of a devil, you're even worse than me, a fallen angel."
"Let me teach you a term—this is called double standards."
Haruto was unfazed; he had never denied his double standards.
If Issei Hyoudou weren't half an acquaintance and someone he had quite liked when watching the anime, he would have already tied him up and performed the extraction ritual.
Even now, having decided to claim the Boosted Gear for himself, if all other methods failed, he would ultimately resort to forcibly extracting it.
At most, he would prepare a revival method before the extraction.
The scene of the little nun's revival was deeply impressive. She had revived and then re-equipped the Sacred Gear 'Twilight Healing,' rather than having to return the Sacred Gear to be revived.
Haruto vaguely recalled that after this process, 'Twilight Healing' truly became a tool that could even be lent to others.
The revived little nun was no longer the host of the Sacred Gear, merely a user, so there was no longer any worry about death due to the Sacred Gear being extracted.
Yuuma rolled her eyes at Haruto. "Double standards... Hah, that's a fitting description indeed."
Haruto shrugged and added, "Besides, I only said you can't use it in Kuoh Town. Anywhere else, do as you please."
If the owner of the Sacred Gear was someone he didn't know, he wouldn't bother interfering.
If the Sacred Gear Yuuma wanted to seize belonged to an enemy, he might even offer to help.
"Fine, fine, I won't cause trouble for your dear president in Kuoh Town."
Yuuma retorted irritably, her tone dripping with jealousy. Though she herself was unaware, even Mittelt and Kalawarna, who had been watching from the sidelines, couldn't help but exchange glances.
Haruto detected the jealousy in Yuuma's tone, but since their relationship was merely cooperative, he couldn't even be bothered to feign a friends-with-benefits arrangement.
"Explain in detail how to strip away a Sacred Gear." In return, I'll help you with something within my capabilities."
Yuuma's eyes lit up. "It's a deal."
"To extract a Sacred Gear, you need a special ritual. This ritual can only be performed on a full moon night, and you must prepare in advance a statue carved from amethyst..."
After hearing Yuuma's explanation, Haruto couldn't help but frown. Extracting a Sacred Gear was more troublesome than he had imagined.
Not only did the ritual have to be performed on a full moon night, but many things had to be prepared in advance, with the amethyst statue being just one of them.
Finally, the entire ritual would take four to five hours and could not be interrupted to completely extract the hosted Sacred Gear.
No wonder Yuuma didn't immediately perform the extraction ritual on the blonde little nun in the anime—it wasn't that she didn't want to, but that she couldn't.
But no matter how troublesome it was, as a last resort, Haruto still needed to find a way to prepare all the ritual items.
"Yuuma-chan, can you help me prepare a set of the ritual items we just discussed?"
After thinking for a moment, Haruto decided to entrust the fallen angels with the collection. The materials weren't particularly rare, but they were troublesome to gather, and he didn't want Rias to find out about this.
"I can pay a bit extra on top of the purchase price as a commission fee."
Yuuma stretched, her two pairs of black wings spreading behind her. "I happen to have a complete set ready, originally prepared for my own use. I can lend it to you for now."
"Oh? That's wonderful." Haruto's face lit up with surprise. "Thank you, Yuuma-chan. As expected, Yuuma is the cutest."
"Don't celebrate too soon." Yuuma waved her pale little hand and said calmly, "I won't lend it to you for free. You need to agree to one more condition from me."
"What condition?"
"I haven't thought of it yet. I'll tell you when I come up with it."
Gazing at the pure yet seductive fallen angel beauty, Haruto felt uneasy inside.
He was very familiar with this kind of plot, so...
He decisively refused, "How about I just pay you instead? I'll pay 30% more than what you spent collecting them, and I'll return all the items to you after using them."