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Transylvania, Romania, November 15, 2020, Current Time: 1 minute and 46 seconds til Midnight
"E- Ehhhhhhhhh!? Valerie's jaw dropped. Revive the Biblical God? Is he insane? If that were possible, Heaven would've done that long ago! She looked at them with an incredulous look on her face. Valerie shook her head. Such a feat was impossible. Other gods yes. Other gods and god-class beings could be resurrected. A feat made possible during the Evil Dragon War. However, the resurrection of the God of the Bible? She knew such a thing was impossible. Completely and absolutely impossible. The whispers had told her of the multiple attempts made by the Archangels before giving up.
"So can you do it?" Issei asked.
"I-"
"Fufufu… Resurrecting Yahweh? Ahahaha! Ahahahaha! How interesting! Hahahaha! Oh! Ahahaha!"
Valerie flinched. That voice. She had never heard it speak so animatedly before.
"These fools wish to revive him? How cute."
Valerie's eyes grew wide when she saw strings of gold and green light swirling around her. She looked up to see their expectant faces. So none of them can see this. Valerie grimaced.
"So…?" Irina tilted her head.
"I'm sorry. I can't," she said.
"You can't or won't?" Irina asked.
"Valerie-san. You'd be doing not only Ophis a service but the Church! We'd be indebted to you for reviving our leader!" Irina said.
"I- I know. It's just that…" Valerie went silent.
"Valerie. We know you can do this! We've seen crazier things done with the Sephirot Graal! Yamato-no-Orochi! A dragon on par with Susanoo was revived! A Dragon with God Class power! It should be easy to revive a God the likes of the Biblical One!" Rias insisted.
The others nodded alongside her. Valerie looked down. She wanted to refuse them. She wanted to refuse her friends. Spare them the feeling of failure but for some reason, Valerie found herself unable to do so.
Valerie closed her eyes and began to call upon the Graal. Her eyes glowed a bright forest green. The burst of aura pushed them all back as the ground shook violently.
"W- What? This never happened when the Graal was used," Vali said.
Valerie closed her eyes in concentration. The God of the Bible's soul… where is it? she called upon her connection to the Concept of Life. However, the moment she did, a sharp pain shot through her body. Her eyes opened as a large amount of blood came out of her mouth.
"V- Valerie!" Gasper ran forward and caught her.
"That's not normal," Salem said.
Valerie gritted her teeth and kept searching.
The voice was chuckling behind her.
"These poor fools. Reviving Yahweh is impossible. Yahweh has no soul… How can he? He's no Elder God nor a God. He may have been weak but He was different from the rest of them at a fundamental level." the voice giggled at what it perceived as their stupidity.
"W- What are you? That's not possible! The God of the Bible is a God! All living beings have souls!" Valerie said.
A shimmering golden phantom appeared before her with a bored look on its featureless face.
"I am the Concept of Life. Are you telling me what I do and don't know? I know that they learned all of this from Ouroboros. I want to tell them. It's been so long since I've talked to a mortal that wasn't a wielder of this cup," the phantom said.
"Huh? W- Wait! You can't!" Valerie cried.
"Val. Are you alright?" Gasper took a step forward.
"Gasper! Stay back!" Valerie held her hand out. The young dhampir stopped in his tracks, wondering what had come over her.
Salem narrowed her eyes. She raised her hand as a gold liquid manifested in the palm of her hand. The liquid shifted and pulsated before becoming a golden cube.
"Divine Key: Chokmah… Ahaha! So His weapons still exist? Ahahaha!"
Valerie clutched her head.
"The Graal," Salem said.
"Huh?" Issei turned around to face her.
"She's talking to the Graal." The British Head raised the cube over her head. The cube pulsed and shifted into an object. A sword. The sword radiated demonic power. That sword was…
"Gram? She… Did she just?" Kiba was at a loss for words.
"Stand back. This could get ugly," Salem said.
"Gasper. All of you have to stay-" Valerie's eyes flickered between red and green. "Stop! This is-"
"Your body? Don't worry, Valerie dear. I won't do anything. I just want to talk and I'm too lazy to manifest here." They all froze when Valerie's voice changed. The pitch lowered. It was no longer that sweet sisterly voice that Gasper recognized nor was it the recovering not so dead voice that the others remembered. She was different. Her eyes were the first thing they noticed. It radiated power they couldn't comprehend.
[I have a bad feeling about this] Ddraig said.
|...| Tiamat sent feelings of apprehension to her host. Issei gulped.
(Calm down, Issei. She's not going to hurt us) Mastema sent soothing waves through him. Issei felt himself visibly calm down at her warm metaphysical embrace.
"Who are you?" Issei asked.
"Hehh? I'm glad you asked, Boy with the Tainted Soul." 'Valerie' said.
"Huh?" Issei felt something inside him die. Tainted soul?
"What's with that face, Basara? Or was it… Arata?" Valerie tilted her head in mock confusion.
"W- Valerie. What are you saying?" Irina asked.
"Or is the name Takahashi Komura more fitting for you?" Valerie's smile threatened to split her face in half. Her now green eyes radiated more pressure than an ultra-pressure gravity sphere. They all felt as if they stood in the presence of a being who viewed them as nothing more than grains of sand on the beach. Numerous and completely insignificant.
"Who are you?" Gasper asked. His eyes began to glow.
"Calm down, Dhampir. You don't want to hurt this girl now do you?" she said, looking down at Gasper with a now indifferent expression on her face. "And you with the Divine Key. Put that away. Or else I'll impale myself on that sword and kill this girl."
Salem and Gasper gulped and wisely backed down.
"As for who I am, well… I have many names throughout timeless eternity. Humans especially had lots of names for me!" she said, raising a finger. "Shakti. Sephira. Sophia. Life. Mother Nature. Catalhoyuk. But, you can call me Sephira. I've always been fond of that name."
"W- What are you?" Rias asked.
"What am I?" Sephira said, placing a hand on her chin. "You can say I am the Graal or the thing that the Graal connects to."
"The Concept of Life," Salem said.
"Oh? One of you is smart enough to know what I am." Sephira began to levitate. "But I guess you all need some convincing judging by the looks on your faces." She snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, everyone felt their power vanish. The supernatural beings in the room had their demonic and angelic powers robbed of them. The dragons rendered powerless.
"W- What did you?" Rias looked down at her hands and tried to call upon her Power of Destruction.
"Are you trying to summon the Power of Destruction? Well, you can't. All the non-humans are now humans and the dragons are just really big lizards. Pretty cool right?" Sephira said, grinning like a hyena.
"Well turn us back!" Akeno said, trying to squeeze out any ounce of power in her body.
"How rude. Did you forget who you were speaking to?" Sephira's face became dark. The entire world- no, the universe itself- began to shake. Lightning crashed outside as winds battered the house. Sephira's face was devoid of all emotion. Her once bright green eyes were now empty pits.
"W- Wait! She didn't mean it! Please forgive us, Sephira-sama!" Rias said, getting in a dogeza.
"Hmmm, alright! Apology accepted," Sephira said. "Hmm, but I guess you'll all be useless in the future if I don't turn you back." she sighed. "Here…"
She waved her hand and everyone felt their powers return to them.
PAH!
Rias sighed in relief when she saw her wings once more.
"I assume that you all have a question to ask me. Especially you, Godou Kusanagi," Sephira said.
"..." Issei didn't say anything. These names had no meaning to him after all yet the Concept of Life called him these names.
"The God of the Bible. Can you revive him?" Irina asked. The Devils in the room flinched at the sound of His name.
"Hehhh? Yahweh? Or what does he call himself now? Jehovah? Allah? Deus? Jesus? Baha? Answer this question first, Child of Man. What name does Genesis call himself now?" Sephira asked.
"G- Genesis?"
"Yup! You know him as a God. I know him as the Genesis or Extinction. It really depends on his mood what I call him." Sephira smiled.
"I guess… we just call him Lord or God," Irina said.
"Lord? God? How pretentious. Did he come up with this or was this name given to him by humans?"
"Humans. Humans called him God," Salem said.
"I see. Well, to answer your questions. I cannot." Sephira floated before them. It was odd seeing Valerie's body like this.
"W- What?" Issei's heart sank.
"I cannot revive whatever the hell He calls himself. I'll just stick to calling him Yahweh." Sephira shrugged.
"What do you mean you can't? Aren't you the Concept of Life?" Rikka asked.
"Heeehhh? Just because I am the Embodiment of all Life doesn't mean I'm omnipotent. I can do many things. Create souls, birth Gods, bring into existence and end worlds but I cannot revive Yahweh," Sephira said.
They all looked at her with a confused expression on their faces.
"I don't understand. You are Life itself. How can you not return one measly God to life?" Rossweisse asked.
"Measly? Hah! Measly! Yahweh might have not been as powerful as some of my creations but I wouldn't call him measly! Hahahaaa!" Sephira laughed.
"Stop going off topic please, Lady Sephira. Why can you not revive the God of the Bible?" Rossweisse ignored the pain that came with saying it.
"I'll give you two reasons. One is long and convoluted," she said. "As you know, the Sephiroth Graal is connected to me. I give it power but only a small portion. The me you are talking to is nothing but a shadow of my true self. It's the same with the others. The Ophis you see. The Great Red you met. They are nothing but a projection of their true selves. The Graal allows me to manifest a small portion into your world. That being said, the Graal is only capable of resurrecting those whose souls are still intact because it only possesses an infinitely miniscule portion of my true self. Do you understand? If it has no soul, I cannot bring it back to life," Sephira said.
"But… the G- He has a soul to bring back right?" Vali asked.
"No. There is no soul to bring back. Even at my fullest, I'm not even sure I can bring him back. He never possessed a soul to begin with," Sephira said.
"What do you mean by that?" Issei asked.
"I'm saying that Yahweh is soulless. He has no soul. He's purely an abstraction that represents Genesis and Extinction. In simpler terms, he is the complete opposite of Ophis, who represents Infinity," Sephira said. "I cannot bring back something on that scale, even at my full power."
"So this was all useless then? At this rate, we'll have to offer Lilith up to Ophis on a silver plate," Issei said.
"You said there was a second reason?" Ingvild butted in. The room went silent. She did say there was a second reason.
"This second reason? Oh right, I did say that. Well, this one's quite obvious. The only reason that would make sense to you all," Sephira said.
"What do you mean? Come on, let's hear it," Issei said.
Ddraig, Tiamat, and Mastema facepalmed at Issei's attitude.
"I see that you inherited quite a bit of your attitude from her, Child of Man," Sephira said.
"Huh?" Issei tilted his head.
"Let's say Yahweh does have a soul and I can resurrect him. That would still be impossible for me to do so," Sephira said.
"Why? You just said that if he had a soul, you can bring him back," Irina said.
"Yes but I can't resurrect anyone who isn't dead." she huffed at the angel.
"Huh?"
…
…
…
"EHHHHHHHHH!?" Everyone's jaw dropped. Even the normally composed Salem's mouth was open. The weight of this revelation hit them all like a sac of bricks dropped from a hundred story building.
"W- What do you mean he's alive!? We were all told he died during the Great War!" Xenovia said.
"T- That's right! The Lord has passed into the next world!" Asia said.
"I'm the Concept of Life. I can tell who's alive and who isn't. Or do you not trust that, Child of Man?" Sephira said.
"N- No but…"
"But nothing. Whoever told you that has been wanting to keep a secret," Sephira said. She closed her eyes and smiled. So that's where you've been. If that isn't ironic then I don't know what is.
"Are you going to tell us where He is?" Issei asked.
"No. I've done enough favors for one millenia," Sephira said, landing softly on the ground.
"So you're going to have us look for Him ourselves then," Issei said.
"Of course." her face was beaming.
"Can you at least tell us where He is?" Irina asked.
"A hint? Like a scavenger hunt or whatever it is you mortals call it," Sephira said.
"Y- Yeah, like that. At least so we can have our forces have a good place to start," Salem asked.
"Hmmm…" Sephira placed her hand on her chin. "How about… read Volume 21. Wait no, that's too obvious… uhhhh, hmmm. You know, being all-knowing means that I can't come up with any good hints. Uhhh, that book! The Bible! Or the Torah. Maybe, I forget which of the two has the clue you're looking for. But it's in the last book. There's a clue there that can help you."
"Is that it? I was expecting like a poem or something," Issei said.
"Why a poem?" she asked.
"Aren't super OP beings like you supposed to speak cryptically?" he asked.
"No. Who do you think I am? Death? Ein Sof? Eternity? I don't speak in riddles, Child of Man," Sephira answered.
They all looked at her with confused faces. Sephira sighed. Of course, these people didn't know who they were.
"Right. Well, we're sorry for making you come down here, Lady Sephira," Rias said.
"You should be. I had half the mind to eradicate your souls from existence. Make it so that you never existed across all of time and space but… meh. I was quite impressed that you all had the gall to summon me after disrupting the Cosmic Cycle of Life and Death multiple times." Sephira smiled, unnerving them.
They all chuckled nervously, knowing of what she spoke of. Issei's revival. The Evil Dragon War. They were all examples of when Life and Death's eternal dance had been disrupted. Truthfully, if she did decide to destroy the Universe, none of them could stop her. It wasn't her claims that made them doubt, it was the fact that they knew she had the power to back her threat.
"Well, I'll be off then. Don't worry, Valerie will be fine. She won't remember a thing, past trying to revive Yahweh," she said. Her green eyes faded back into red and a bright golden light engulfed the entire house. Valerie stumbled forward and fainted. Gasper managed to catch her before she hit the ground.
"Is she?" Rias asked.
"She's just sleeping," Gasper said.
"Come on, let's bring her up to her room, Gyasuke," Issei said.
Gasper nodded and began to carry her upstairs. The others followed after him.
"Issei, wait." Rias placed a hand on his shoulders. He turned around to see Vali, Irina, Rikka, and Mitsuki waiting. Salem also stood there.
"What is it?" Issei asked.
"Do you think we should tell the Gods? I'm sure they all felt it," Rias said.
(Actually, they didn't…) Mastema said.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Issei asked.
(Didn't you feel it? Sephira froze time across the Universe. We were the only ones she kept unfrozen.) Mastema said.
"What do I tell them?" Issei asked.
"Issei. Issei!"
He looked up and saw Irina snapping her fingers. "Sorry, I was thinking…"
"Should we tell them?" Rias asked.
"No. There's a high chance that no one sensed her. If she's as powerful as she says she is, then it's easy for her to mask herself from them," Issei said.
"So we just leave this blank? How are we even supposed to prove that the God of the Bible is alive?" Rias said, ignoring the piercing headache as best she could.
"Hmmm…" Salem placed a hand on her chin.
"We can't," Rikka said. "There's no possible way for us to prove it but… we can just say that Valerie said he was alive through the Graal. That should be grounds for them to at least believe us on some level."
"But to think that he's been alive this whole time. He's been sitting back and doing nothing while Heaven and the world suffers. Did he even care?" Irina clenched her fists. She shook her head. Such blasphemous thoughts would cause her to fall.
"Whether or not He was aware of what was going on is irrelevant at this point. You all need to consider how this information would affect the entire Supernatural World. The fact that He's alive would have very negative consequences on your pantheon, Miss Gremory," Salem said.
"Yeah. They'll think that we purposely told the World that He was dead and that we're planning something behind their backs. Even though we're all allied, there are still a lot of Gods who don't trust the leaders of our pantheon. We need to tread carefully," Rias said.
"That's why we should tell them what we learned," Issei said. "They have a right to know."
"There's a chance that the Archangels were aware of this," Rikka said.
"They probably were aware of this all. I doubt that they didn't attempt this back when the Great War ended. Sephira probably told them the same thing that she told us. That He couldn't be revived but do they know that He's alive?" Irina asked.
"We can't be too sure. We have to say this in a way that doesn't make it look like a secret," Rias said.
"That's easy. We'll use Ophis as an excuse. The Elder Gods would be able to back us on that. They're old enough to know the relationship between the God of the Bible and Ophis. Maybe. Hopefully," Issei said.
"In the event it doesn't work, I'll have something prepared from the Archives. A very watered down version of the truth." Salem crossed her arms.
"Thank you, Lady Salem," Issei said.
"Don't thank me yet. We're not out of this. One other mystery just got added to our pile of troubles," she said.
"Right," Issei said.
"I need to get back to headquarters and sort this mess out. The other leaders and I will have a meeting soon. Taki will inform you about the rest," Salem said.
Rikka, Mitsuki, Irina, and Issei nodded.
Salem bade them farewell and disappeared in a yellow magic circle.
"So what now?" Issei asked.
"We need to go check on Valerie first. Using the Sephiroth Graal and getting possessed by the Concept of Life must have done a lot of damage to her body," Rias said. She and Vali made their way to the stairs followed by the others. As they walked to Valerie's room, Issei's mind was in turmoil.
(Are you alright?) Mastema asked, appearing next to him.
"..." Issei nodded. His mind flashed back to what the ancient being had told him in that moment.
Sephira's light engulfed all of them, causing Issei to throw his arms up to cover his eyes. He blinked when he felt nothing. Instead, he felt a soft breeze. Issei lowered his arms and saw a shimmering golden phantom with green strands of light emanating from her vaguely feminine body. A pair of viridian eyes looked down at him.
"W- What's going on? Where is everyone?" Issei asked, noticing that he was all alone with her.
Sephira smiled and floated around him. "I took us somewhere private to talk. Make yourself comfortable. We'll be here for a while."
"What about the others?" Issei prepared to summon Boosted Gear. His eyes widened when he couldn't detect Ddraig or Tiamat.
"If you're looking for the two dragons, you can stop. Your body and the others are still on Earth, suspended in time. I stopped time in that world so I can talk to you, Child of Man," Sephira said. She waved her hand and summoned a table and two chairs. "Sit."
Issei nodded and nervously sat in the chair across from her. Pizza appeared on the table.
"Pizza?" he asked.
"I find pizza to be that world's crowning contribution to the world," she said. Her form shifted into that of a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. Sephira wore a white flowing frilly layered robe.
"..." Issei remained silent, preferring to eat his slice silently.
"This is no fun. You're so much like her," Sephira said.
"Her?" Issei tilted his head in confusion.
"Helel. The Dawn Star. The Adversary. Ha-Satan. The Angel of the Abyss. You know, The Devil?" she said.
"Oh." Issei continued to eat, slightly confused by the comparison. He didn't know in what way he was like the Creator of Devils but chose not to question it.
"See. That right there. That snark that she had," Sephira said, pointing at Issei's face. "I liked it better when you screamed tits all the time. At least you were entertaining. Now, you're just this mature pervert."
"I mean. We all grow up. I still think about fondling all the boobs in the world," Issei said, deadpanning at her.
"I know. But that's not why I brought you here," Sephira said.
"Then why did you bring me here?" Issei asked.
"I just wanted to talk to you. I don't get many visitors here in Atziluth," Sephira smiled as she slid a cup of soda to Issei.
"Oh," Issei said, taking a sip.
"You're quite relaxed for someone with a lot on their shoulders. How fascinating," Sephira said.
"I have to be or else I'll crumble under all the pressure." Issei took another sip of his cola. The cola here was divine. He never tasted anything like it. "So what was it you wanted to talk about?"
"A lot of things. Your world for example. The future of that world is blurred to me but I can still discern individual paths. Yours, for example, is filled with strife. Filled with bloodshed and despair," Sephira said, a twinkle entering her eye. She smiled a bit as Issei shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Those words didn't make him feel any better.
"T- Thanks for the heads up," Issei replied.
"I'm not doing this to warn you. I just find it interesting that you're at the center of this cosmic plot," she said.
"I'd hardly call a war between Devils cosmic," Issei said.
"If only you knew," Sephira replied. "But maybe you'll find out soon when you meet Him."
"God?"
"Yes."
"I'd love to meet God. The only thing left to do is find Him which I can't because you won't tell us where he is."
"There's no fun in that. Besides, even if Yahweh isn't the one to tell you, there is someone else who can. Lots of things are going to happen from here forth. I just hope the others are prepared for it as much as you are. As I might have said earlier, this world's future is unknown to me now." Sephira raised her hand and manifested his entire universe in the palm of her hand. "I know I said I wouldn't speak in riddles but I can't solve your world's problem for you."
Issei remained silent, preferring to eat his slice. He wasn't even hungry.
"I haven't been down to this universe in eons. The last time I was there, the Gods were born." She sighed wistfully, remembering that day those hellions came into existence. Now all they did was run amok amongst the Earth. She wondered if she should kill them all and start over.
"So why did you come now? Why did you come when we wanted to resurrect God?" Issei asked.
"Because I felt like it. And I wanted to help Ophis out a little. My older sister can be so stupid at times. In terms of intelligence, she's not as smart as the rest of us," Sephira said, giggling at her older sister's lack of awareness. "I guess that's how she lost her powers."
"So you're helping us out because of Ophis?" Issei asked.
"That's part of it, yeah. And I'm bored. I've been alive before the dawn of time. And besides, if this were any other universe, I'd just sit back and watch that world burn," she said.
"I see."
"So, how did you get your powers? No Devil has inherited the Ohr Ein Sof since Lilith," Sephira said.
"Ohr Ein Sof? I thought it was called the Shevirat Ha-Kelim?"
"Oh right. That's what Helel's version was called. So how did you come by this? You're… well, you're not a Devil," she said.
"I don't know the exact specifics but Beelzebub said that my powers came from being fed Lilith's blood," he replied.
"Eh? That's it. What a load of bullshit," she said.
"What?" Issei was taken aback.
"Yeah. That's a load of bullshit. Lilith's blood would have given you at least one devil power or two if you were lucky. The Shevirat Ha-Kelim is a bit too coincidental no?" Sephira said.
"..." Issei remained silent, preferring not to respond. She was right. His powers were too much of a coincidence to ignore but he chose to due to the situation. It was only now that she mentioned it that Issei was thinking once more. Was there some connection between his family and Lucifer?
"Though."
Issei looked up.
"You are descended from Adam and Eve like all humans. Maybe a bit of God's power trickled down to you and you got lucky." Sephira had a mischievous smile on her face. "Or maybe, you are just that special to inherit Helel's power."
Issei nodded. "Maybe. I'm just glad to have this power to protect the oppai- I mean people that I love. Irina, Rossweisse. Kuroka. My friends and family. I don't care how I got this power. I'm going to use it to protect them."
"Hahahahah! You sound just like her! She said the same thing to her Father when she found out what the Gods had planned for Adam and Eve!" Sephira said.
"Planned? Wait, I thought Lucifer hated Adam and Eve?" Issei said.
"Really? Humans actually believe that?" Sephira asked.
Issei nodded.
"That's sad. Helel loved her younger siblings so much that she fell for them." Sephira sipped her drink.
"Can I go back now? I thought you would tell me something important but you're just telling me things that I could've learned from someone else like Az-nee," Issei said.
"You're every bit as cheeky as she was. But you're right, I shouldn't keep you. I can't keep time suspended in that world forever or Ophis and Great Red will think something's wrong. I look forward to how you live your remaining days, Lamb of Judah."
"Huh? Remaining days. What are you-" Issei never finished his sentence. Sephira waved and Issei found himself standing in the foyer of House Tepes along with the others.
"It's nothing," Issei said to her.
Mastema frowned. She said nothing and floated after him.
Issei's mind was plagued by Sephira's final words to him. Remaining days. What did she mean by that? The only reason she would say that is… His eyes widened. He stumbled in shock.
"Are you alright?" Irina asked, turning around.
"Y- Yeah I'm fine. I'm still trying to process this," Issei said. Irina nodded and went into Valerie's room. Issei stood outside for a few more seconds.
Remaining days. Is… Is my deal still active?
Some quick notes to go over before this chapter ends.
Sophia is the Gnostic Aeon of Wisdom and the one who gave birth to Yaldabaoth after falling from Pleroma.
Shakti (don't crucify me Hindu Bros) is the primordial cosmic energy and in Shaktism, she is equated with Brahman and is worshipped as the Supreme Being.
Sephira is derived from Sefirot which means Emanation in Hebrew.
Catalhoyuk is a proto-Neolithic settlement located in Anatolia where the Seated Woman was discovered.
So a lot happened in this chapter despite it being 1000 to 2000 words shorter than the average. I made it this short because it's essentially just introducing Sephira/The Concept of Life. She won't be back for a while so this is the last time you'll all see her. Anyways, big bombshell! The God of the Bible is still alive... somewhere in this world. Don't worry. I won't take away attention from Belial just to look for Him so you can all rest easy. Unless... no, I'm kidding. This will be a secondary plot point in the final half of this arc.
Anyways, I'll see you all in the next chapter! Remember to review!
(What do you think happens at Midnight?)