"Magus, if you would." I replied without missing a beat as I replaced the items and placed my palms on the counter-top as I looked at him in the eye. "I thank you for the compliment, Mr Fallen Angel of Grigori."
...
"Ah~ so you are able to tell what I am huh?" The man said as he lowered the glass. "You are faster on the uptake than the Sekiryutei. He has been around me for a few weeks now and he hasn't even realized that until I tell him straight to his face. Question is, do you know who I am?"
"Lord Azazel!" The both of us turned to find Mitelt with such a pale face I expected her to faint at any moment.
"My apologies, Mr Emiya. She left our sights for a moment and went out." Xenovia apologies as she looked at our guest with a critical eye and maneuvered her body to act as a shield for the blond.
"Hey there Mitelt, long time no see!" The person now revealed as Azazel waved with a lazy hand and a mischievous smirk. "Looks like you have been taken care of very well."
"Why…"
"Ah, I am here to look around the area." He replied while taking another appreciative sip of the drink. "I have some time to kill before the big meeting and I wanted to see the special guest coming to it."
My eyes narrowed at his words as Azazel let out a pleased sigh at the taste of the drink. Granted, my knowledge on the Bible was minimal at best, but given my discussions with Rias and Sona, combined that with Mitelt's reaction and his words, this was a one of the big shots coming to the meeting.
And he decided to start it off by finding me.
"So you have found me. Guess this makes it easier." I spoke as I noted his slightly confused expression. "One of your buddies decided to pay me a visit in the open a couple of days ago, and he was not being very proactive in keeping up appearances."
"Ah, you are talking about Vali?" His eyes widen in recognition before he adopted a slightly sheepish look. "Well in my defence, he was not supposed to be out and about. He tends to leave the base as and when he wants."
"Please tighten the lease around him." I remarked tensely. "I really don't want to pull off multiple memory wipes in the open streets any time soon."
"No guarantees." Azazel shot my words down carelessly as he took another sip. "But enough about that, Steel Mage." His eyes went to my neck where [Hell's Trident] was reacting very badly towards to the point that I could feel its heat against my skin. "Looks like the rumours were true, you are someone who took a Sacred Gear from Regeis."
"Why does everyone keep harping on it?" I threw my arms up in mock exasperation. "I mean, didn't one of your crew try to forcefully take a person's Gear for themselves?"
"Well, there is the ritual, but that is problematic. The original user in question will always perish from the transfer." Azazel spoke without a care that he admitted to the bit of Raynare trying to steal a Sacred Gear. "You on the other hand are an enigma. In the entire history of Sacred Gears, there is only one gear that allows transfer to other users, and that is a Longinus. Three if I were to consider the more esoteric cases, but even then they are rare. You on the other hand are someone who managed to not only take it from a guy who is on the bounty list for a few years," his eyes narrowed and his expression became analytic. "You did something to it that made it more complete."
How did he know that from a glance?
"Lord Azazel is a Sacred Gear researcher." Mitelt started talking while keeping a nervous eye on the fallen angel. "He has been studying them since the first build and has been trying to recreate them on his own. He can more or less tell what the issue with a glance is."
That was slightly impressive and at the same time, rather terrifying to think of. All I have seen up to now was merely reconfirming my thoughts about God being a very powerful individual with somewhat unusual agendas to create these gears which could house souls like dragons inside and give the users abilities. For the time being, there was a limited amount and supposedly tied to the person based on personality and strengths. If someone else was trying to develop it, I don't even want to consider the crap that would come.
"Well that is that, but unfortunately my research has stalled for quite a while now, I can't replicate certain aspects of the gear properly." The male answered back while keeping an eye on me. "But somehow, you took an ordinary Sacred Gear and made it your own with extras added to it, and I don't just mean by ownership. It is now a compatible part of you, in more ways than one."
That was rather concerning.
"Not to mention the stories I have been hearing of you seemingly influencing other Sacred Gears and taking custody over six of the Excalibur Shards and somehow combining them into one form, well…" He showed a rather cocky smirk. "I think you can understand my interest in you, our mystery guest."
… Okay, this was both a good and bad thing. Bad being that a higher being was apparently interested in my exploits and [Hell's Trident] acting differently. But the good thing was possibly him being a liable source of information for a lot of things.
How should I go about?
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but as someone who is the founding leader of Grigori and one of the previous High Angels of Heaven, would you per chance know about the reason God made these Sacred Gears?" I asked the thought that was on my mind for quite some time. "Since you are a researcher, you should know a little something about their true purpose."
"True purpose?" Azazel looked at me with a steady eye. "What makes you think that?"
"If God really wanted to spread the faith among humans, he could have settled for [Twilight Healing] or any other Sacred Gears that would be more ideal to help out with the faith. Instead he has gears that have abilities akin to those of devils, Vikings and other creatures, items that poison others or those that are meant for war. Not to mention the ones that have the souls of dragons and other spirits sealed inside, and the whole deal with these [Longinus] that supposedly have the power to kill Gods? That is just screaming some other plan aside from spreading the faith."
"Oh~" The smile on his face screamed the whole 'I know something you don't' vibe as he listened to my words. "And what do you think?"
"One: he wants to declare war on other religions, or at the least protection from said religions." I started with my ideas while keeping an eye on his expression. "Two: he is preparing for some catastrophic event involving some monster that needs that many gears to deal with."
"Anything else?"
"... A seal."
There. It was for a brief moment, but it seemed that reply got a small reaction.
"Oh, now why would you think that?" The smirk on his face became the type that seemed to be testing my options.
"Why else would you have thirteen Longinus with spirits of dragons or some other being inside them that could take on Gods? Why would you need weapons that inherit powers from other religions or groups? Why have abilities that downright break every rule in physics?" I listed those points before clenching my fist. "In my experience, such items can serve a purpose aside from being glorified weaponry. The most common would be a seal for something that is so outrageous that it would need multiple items to seal it off."
"..." The air in the bar seemed to have gotten heavier as Azazel and I stared at each other, neither one of us giving ground to the other while the girls held back, Xenovia looking particularly trigger-happy for her sword.
Then Azazel started to chuckle loudly.
"Haha~ look at the both of us, it's like having a showdown from the old west films, only over drinks." He shook his head before looking back at me. "I'll be honest with you. I know a lot about Sacred Gears, but I have my own doubts regarding their true purpose. At least I am not the only one who had the same thoughts of them beings seals for something."
"Is that so?" I looked at him carefully, but I could detect no lies from him. Guess that meant it was the truth unless he had a better poker face than I thought. "Well that is a shame."
"Perhaps, but you have a good brain to consider that." Azazel took another sip of the drink to wet his throat before continuing. "But enough of that depressing talk we had." He looked to me with a keen eye. "How did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Make a Sacred Gear change allegiance on a dime and somehow complete its structure." His eyes narrowed in a manner that reminded me uncomfortably of the magus back at the Clock Tower. "No matter how you slice it, that is something that even God has issues with, and you somehow filled the gaps."
"Would you believe me if I told you I have absolutely no idea how I did it?" I shrugged while telling the truth. "The only thing I know is that the gears tend to come after me once I touched them. That happened with Kiba's swords, and regarding [Hell's Trident], as you said, it was after fighting Regeis that I obtained it."
"Hmm…" He still looked at me before shrugging. "Fine, I guess I won't press you anymore." He drained his drink and placed the cash on the counter. "A little extra for the talk and the good drink."
"Thank you for your patronage." I nodded as he walked back to the door.
"See you at the meeting, boy." With that Azazel left the bar, leaving us in peace.
"Well that was a fruitful meeting, I suppose." I spoke after making sure he was gone from the area.
"Odd fellow, but I guess you are right." Xenovia answered as the others relaxed. "That said though, it seems there are some actively trying to understand where you stand in this area. I guess they don't like the idea of some unknown player coming in without any known agenda."
Well then, one way to find out.
...
A/N : The Story Needs More Power Stones ;)
PS : if we can reach 400 Stones by the end of the week, I will throw you an extra chapter
...
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to my p atreon :
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