I was in a white space, where no physics seemed to apply. I was just floating. Had the light finally caught up and killed me? Was this purgatory?
"No you aren't dead." A British voice growled to me.
"What? Where am I then? Who are you?" I questioned. I was having a serious case of deja vu, right now.
Suddenly the world changed to black except for a large white western dragon, with piercing blue eyes looking over me.
"I just wanted to introduce myself to my partner."
"Uh, hi. But I still have no idea who you are."
"You will know. When you are ready." Oh, great riddles. I hate riddles. They bore me. "We will meet again. Vali."
And with those words, I awoke with a dream, but if my time with Azazel taught me anything. Weird is actually really normal, most of the time. It was just about time to start getting ready, too. I had a monkey to catch and an artifact to return.
We met in the living room of Azazel's house a few moments later. Rather than my Kuoh Academy uniform, I was wearing my usual street clothes. They consist of a V-neck dark green shit with an open high-collared black leather jacket over. For pants I had on burgundy jeans with a silver jean dropping down and black leather chaps, I have three black cloth bands over my right calf as it is my weaker leg. I don't actually own any other shoes, so I am just wearing the black shoes with black buckles.
Kiyome was wearing her normal Kuoh Academy uniform. In hindsight, it would probably more comfortable for this mission as we would be in a desert, but it was tradition that I wear this for every mission. She was also carrying a crossbow and a quiver of arrows.
Then there was Le Fay who was wearing a japanese school girl outfit. Not the Kuoh outfit but like one that you'd get at a cosplay shop. Not that I'd ever been in a cosplay shop! But anyway, over it she was wearing her usual cape, and on top of her blonde curls was her enormously big hat.
"Ok, now that you are all ready, I will be teleporting the three of you to a small town on the outskirts of the Sahara. Your mission: Find Bikou, and capture the artifact. Bikou is wanted dead or alive at this point. There is no increase in reward for a kill. So letting him live is up to you. I trust in your judgement. Good luck." With Azazel's final words, we were gone.
The town looked exactly like what you would expect it to look like. The ground was covered in sand, and the buildings were built of sandstone. While it was an interesting sight to see, we weren't here to see the architecture.
"So, what's the plan?" Kiyome asked.
"His bandits have been attacking merchants. So, the best course of action, seems to be that we find a merchant vessel, go out with them. And the capture one of his bandits." I responded.
"I found one, Vali sir." Le Fay was pointing to a cart with the usual merchant top sitting at the other side of the town.
"Good work. Ok, lets move out."
We ran over to the young merchant. He had come into town a week ago to buy some goods, before the attacks started. Now has been stuck here looking for bodyguards. Since we weren't serious about staying the whole way, I promised that we'd do the job for free. With our bait settled, we headed off right at that moment.
The three of us stayed in the back with the goods, waiting for the bandits to attack. It was much cooler in here than walking, also I had one more thing to settle before we got to a real fight.
"Kiyome. We'll be putting Bikou's base as enemy territory, so promote as soon as we get there."
"Alright."
We seemed to be making good distance without any bandits attacking. Patiently we waited. It seemed like they would never attack, when we first heard our bait scream.
"That's our cue." I said as we jumped out of the caravan. There were five bandits, each armed with ancient chinese style swords. Replicas of course, as they were much too clean to be originals, "Sorry to bother you. But we'll be your opponents." I declared proudly. With the statement I made my sacred gear activate. Two light blue wings appeared from my back, shining brightly.
The bandits looked over at us in surprise, before a smirk appeared on one of the bandits lips. This bandit was obviously different from the rest as he was the only one wearing armor. "New plan, boys. Capture the two girls. KIll the other one. Sun Wukong should be happy with them." The leader spoke. His grunts nodded and moved away from the caravan. As I expected the caravan sped off, to save his own hide.
"Really? Capture the girls? You realize how cliche that is. Right?" Kiyome said, summoning her tamed harpy and lamia, and pulling out her crossbow. She docked an arrow before taking her usual place at the back of our formation.
I moved myself closer to the bandits, squaring off against the leader. "I'll take the leader. You two get the others."
"That works for me." The leader responded. His grunts moving past me, but blocked by the beasts.
With a flourish of magic, Le Fay was able to build herself and Kiyome advantageous hills to fight off of. With the battlefield set, The leader charged me, pulling his sword. I dodged it rather easily. Despite being their head, he came off as reckless and as if he wasn't thinking any of his moves ahead. With my position behind him, I landed a decent kick to the back of his head.
His soldiers were still trying to fight the harpy and lamia while Le Fay was firing down a barrage of arcane missiles and Kiyome a hail of arrows. They were getting frustrated as every time they dodged a projectile they'd get clawed by the harpy or bit by the lamia.
The leader back up again, smiling. "That was a good kick, boy. But I have a little trick up my sleeve." With that he pulled out a small purple orb. Throwing it at me, it morphed from the small orb, to a large fireball the size of a small car. [Divide]. I activated my sacred gear It got smaller but still big enough to hurt. I tried to dodge it, but as I rolled out of its way, it turned towards me. "You can't escape it. It will follow you until you are burned to ashes. Isn't it wonderful." [Divide] It got smaller but still not enough. Keeping my eyes on the leader, I got an idea.
I ran towards the leader. And feigned a punch to his head. As he went to block, I kneed him in the abdomen. [Divide] The fireball got smaller. As long as I was fighting him on my terms, the fireball was too slow to catch up to me and he couldn't get an advantage if I didn't just run around.
With the other fighting going on, two of the grunts had fallen. It looked like the fight was going well, but just as a third bandit fell to the constant barrage. The entire fight changed. Appearing behind our backline, was a Giant Golbi death worm. Nocking a new arrow. Kiyome turned to the death worm. "Le Fay, you good without me? I can deal with the worm."
"Yes. I should be fine."
"Good." Kiyome unsummoned her beasts, as she jumped off of the hill.
[Divide] The fire ball had finally reached a size where it wasn't of much use. While the bandit leader was crawling to his feet, I grabbed him in a headlock choking him. "Gameover buddy." and with that I snapped his neck. The last bandit, noticed that he had no way to win, as all of his comrades were dead. He attempted to take off into the desert, but the soft sand tripped up his running. And Le Fay caught him in magical binds. I turned around and with one final divide, I destroyed the fire ball with my fist.
Kiyome walked back over to us, an acid burn destroying part of her skirt. Other than that she looked fine and was rather smug about it.
"So. Are you going to tell us where the monkey king is. Or will we have to beat it out of you." I bent down next to our prisoner.
"I'll lead you to him. Just please don't hurt me."
"No promises," I smiled.
So we finally made it to be what looked to be a giant stone shrine in the middle of the desert. The stones were so smooth that they couldn't have been cut by anything other than a super precise laser. It was so out of place, that I'm not even sure how it got here. Let alone questioning how it was built here.
"Here we are." Our prisoner announced.
"Let's go inside first, then we'll let you go." I said. I walked into the building; looking around it was a total disaster. "Yo, Bikou. Are you in here?!" I called out.
"One moment." A male voice called out. His voice was saturated in disrespect but it was also sounded bored and looking for fun. I could also sense a hint of loneliness and sadness. Down the stairs came a young man, about the same age as myself; with short black hair. He was wearing ancient chinese armor and he had a monkey tail. Along with that he was carrying a staff. "What's up?"
"Are you Bikou?" I asked.
"Yeah? Who's asking?"
"Alright." With that one simple word, Kiyome unloaded an arrow right right through our prisoner's skull. "I'm Vali Lucifer. I'm here to get back the artifact you stole."
"Oh. That's all? You can have it. Worth nothing anyway." He picked up an ornate vase from the table beside him. Tossing it over to us, I caught it. I passed it to Le Fay and we got back to talking.
"If it's worth nothing why steal it?"
"Thought selling it would let me live out on my own. Sick of the whole responsibility thing. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah. Guess that also explains why you have the bandits raiding carts. To make money?"
"Yep. It's always just it's your responsibility this and it's your responsibility that with First-Gen. I just want to live my life how I want to."
"I understand. But now you are a criminal wanted dead or alive. So what do you want to do now?"
"I'll figure it out. For once, I'll figure it out on my own." I really felt for the guy, you know. He just wants to live without his ancestor telling him what to do. I think I have an idea how to help him.
"Bikou, I might have an idea. It's not the greatest solution, but why don't you join me? A group of people who have all been on the run before. I'm a descendant of the Old Satan faction, whose family chased me out; I was on the run from both devils and humans. Kiyome, ran away from her arranged marriage, with every other beast hunter wanting to kill her for the infraction of customs. And Le Fay, well she's a mage. We all know how humans deal with mages historically. So what do you say?"
"I'm not sure. Leaving one person telling me what to do, to becoming a devil's servant. Not really my thought of a solution."
"Ask Kiyome and Le Fay they can both tell you that I'm a pretty great master."
"Yeah, Vali is a pretty alright guy. I owe him for everything he's done for me."
"Sir Vali is a wonderful master. Without him, I'd still be in that fallen angel dungeon."
"Whaddya say Bikou?" I held out my hand
"Alright, if it means my freedom from First-Gen, I'm in." He shook my hand. I proceeded to pull a rook piece out of my pocket, and hand it to Bikou where it dissolved just fine.
"Alright, Bikou. Welcome to my peerage, as my first rook let's do stuff."
"So, what stuff is up first."
"First off, we're returning this artifact to the First-Gen."
"You don't mean—"
"Yep." And with that, Le Fay transported the four of us.
"Good work, Vali. Thank you for recovering my favorite vase." First-Gen was wearing his usual prayer beads and sunglasses. He was also carrying a cane, which I knew doubled as his famous staff. The four of us were knelt before him; who is one of the most powerful beings in this world.
"It was no problem, Sun Wukong. I am glad to have your descendant now among my group."
"Ah yes. My problem descendant. It will be good for him to be shown so actual discipline."
"Hey, I'm right here!"
"Take good care of him, Vali." First-Gen laughed. "I did promise something for Azazel when we set this mission up. Vali, if it is okay with you, I can check the total power of each member of your peerage."
"It is fine with me. But I can't speak for everyone, so it's up to them."
"It's fine with me." Kiyome spoke first.
"I agree." Le Fay added in.
"Sure, why not. Maybe then it'll show you I'm not just some little kid." Bikou finished.
"Alright, I'll start with Bikou." He put his hand upon Bikou's head and closed his eyes. After a few moments he spoke, "Bikou, while the rook now embedded in you has increased your already above average strength; you still lack in most areas. I suggest intense daily meditation to increase your knowledge of both senjutsu and youjutsu, then actually using it in training to increase your magical reserves, along with your new demonic power it will round out your impressive physical strength. Your speed can lack at time, but just basic reflex training will be fine as your innate defense and the defense of the rook should be enough to protect you from most attacks. Remember, just because your physical strength is good right now does not mean you can forget to train it more. All in all, a decent choice for a rook."
"Wow, you actually gave me a compliment. That's new, thanks."
"Now the other newcomer, Le Fay." He repeated his process from Bikou to Le Fay, "Your reserve of magical power is insanely big for a girl of your age. Your range of spells is also quite large. As far as your compatibility with the queen piece goes, your strongest is obviously the bishop piece, followed by the knight and finally the rook. I'd suggest basic strength training, and learning any shield spells you don't already know; this will prevent you from just being a glass cannon. An alternative would be speed training and shield spells, but running may take out time for you to cast spells. As with Bikou, remember to still improve your natural strength, for even as a basic glass cannon you will be an incredible threat to a battle field."
"Thank you Wukong, sir."
"Now, Kiyome," Repeating the process again, he began. "Kiyome, speed-wise impressive. As a beast tamer, your arsenal is even more impressive. Your marksmanship seems fine but it could probably be improved. Your ability to run-and-gun with a crossbow is a skill most people never learn. I suggest becoming even more accurate with it. As a beast tamer most of your strength isn't even up to you, but for what I could see you have a rather well rounded group of creatures at your disposal. Your demonic power seems limited to summoning your beasts though, so try and increase your reserves and array of magic. Physically, you also seem to lack, but with the rest of your arsenal considered, you should be alright."
"Thank you."
"Finally, Vali." We began to process. It felt like icy water rushing down your body, then as it was almost over a scorching heat flew back up, and with that it was over. That was First-Gen's special technique for checking someone's abilities and skills. "Vali. You are as strong as ever. Your demonic energy reserves are insane. Your martial art abilities are excellent. Your speed is excellent. And your skill with your sacred gear is excellent. But your sacred gear is exactly the problem at the moment. Your ability with it is so good, you have mastered everything that it can offer you. Even though you've reached such a high threshold completed, it is still only a fraction of the way mastered. The smallest fight will trigger it, I sense that there is more than meets the eye to it, and if you will allow me, I'd like to test this."
"I would be ever so grateful to test my ability against you."
"Alright I'd like you to stand up and activate your sacred gear." Doing as I was told, I looked down at the First-Gen.
"Good. Where I don't know as much about sacred gears as Azazel, this should work just fine." He then jumped up, front flipping and hitting me over the head with his cane, knocking me out.
I was back inside the white void. Floating again, but it felt different now. it felt almost felt like a second home to me. Like I belonged here.
"Hey, you here still dragon, partner, bro." I called out.
"So, you're back. What do you want?" The giant white dragon appeared again, staring me down with his ice blue eyes.
"Would you and this place have anything to do with my sacred gear?" I asked. I have a theory, but I'll need him to talk if I want to prove it.
"Hmm, so you have come closer to figuring it out. What do you figure, Vali."
"I'm guessing that this place is inside my sacred gear and that you somehow have control over my sacred gear."
"Very good. You are correct. I am Albion, the heavenly dragon locked away inside Divine Dividing"
"Awesome, so what do I get for solving your riddle?"
"Since your ability with the gear is so high and you have made contact with me and you don't have any stupid things in place preventing me to grant you more power. I think at this point in time, you have unlocked Divine Dividing's balance breaker, and communication with me at other times than when you are knocked out." He was wearing comical reading glasses and checking things off of some checklist on a human-sized clipboard as he talked.
"Alright, I guess we are now finally partners. Let's do well, Albion."
"Let's Vali."
I awoke still on the ground in front of Sun Wukong with my peerage standing around me. I was also wearing some kind of white armor that had light blue accents and an interesting dragon motif.
"The balance breaker of the White Dragon Emperor, all you needed was a small push to gain a power to start being able to rival gods."
"Wow, Vali. I guess I made the right choice choosing such a strong person to join." Bikou said stunned.
"Vali sir, I'm happy for you."
"Good job Vali, but please don't scare me like that again."
"Thanks guys." I smiled.
"Vali, sorry to interrupt, but there is news that you guys may be needed back in Kuoh. I already deposited your payment into your devil bank account, so good luck on whatever it is you need to do."
"Thanks, Sun Wukong. You heard the man, let's good!" I stood up, still wearing the armor.
""" Yeah""" They cheered.