'So you've seen how far you have to climb if you hope to accomplish your goal,' Vritra hummed, 'As you are, you know how far those of my strength range eclipse you, and you will need to be at least that strong if you hope to fight your way through to Cao Cao and claim his head."
Walking through the streets of Kuoh towards the hotel he had booked for the night, Yarden grimaced at the black dragons words.
He was naive. He'd never seen Serafall fight, only had here say which painted her as a wizard and let it cloud his judgement. But even then, he had certainly not expected how easily she could overpower him when it came to physical strength.
It smarted his pride quite a bit. The only solace he had in it, was that he was not using his Balance Breaker or Sword to overpower her casual hold on him.
If he hadn't humbled himself, she certainly would have. Irritating, but there was only one thing to do. Get stronger.
'Fortunately for you, you have quite a few avenues to grow stronger open to you,' Vritra chuckled, 'While we have no idea where the Shadow Prison Sacred Gear is right now beyond possibly in the hands of the Grigori, we do know exactly where Absorption line is and I can easily claim back my soul fragment and grow even stronger, in turn making you even stronger.'
That was an option. Quick, easy and immediate. 'But also a route that could get me into shit with Serafall.' he pointed out.
Vritra scoffed, 'I will merely take back the fragment, I don't need to reclaim the Absorption line ability when I made it in the first place,' he replied, 'Besides, he will be unable use the fragment without my consciousness even should he unlock Balance Breaker, he will never notice the difference.'
Hmm, well that was good then. Yarden was completely up for it. They could search for Saji in the next few days. And it shouldn't be hard to find him considering he should be getting dragged around by Issei Hyoudou and Koneko to help Kiba Yuuto destroy the Excalibur Fragments.
'One path decided, yet another is open to you at any time,' Vritra said in approval, 'Have you decided when you will give a part of your body up to me?'
Sacrificing one of his body parts to Vritra in order to draconify it. Among other things, it would give an immediate boost to his abilities even from just one limb and enhance his connection to Vritra.
The problem was, until he learned to control it, power would well up within the limb and turn it into a dragons limb. And he would be unable to revert it without having the excess power drained from it or learning how to manage the transformation himself.
The end goal of course, would be becoming a dragon himself. Thus, cementing himself as a devil dragon of godly descent.
'Admittedly learning to control it would be a problem,' Vritra mused, before snorting, 'If not for you having me that is. Once we reclaim my soul fragment from Absorption Line, I will recreate the ability and you can then use it to transfer your excess power out to another, not only helping you, but allowing for their own growth as well.'
'That'll be incredibly useful, except the only one I could really do that with right now is Serafall, and she doesn't exactly need a power up,' Yarden rolled his eyes, 'Best wait on that front until I get my own evil pieces then and can recruit someone useful.'
Serafall had returned to the underworld not long ago. And tomorrow, she would put the paper work through for getting him the evil pieces and he should have them within a few days.
In the mean time, she had asked him to stick around Kuoh and keep an eye on things, specifically Kokabiel and make sure her sister didn't come to harm.
Which was fine with him. Because it just so happened, a pair of useful recruits for his own future peerage happened to be in town this very moment and Kokabiel would provide the perfect opportunity to sway them.
Yarden paused as he turned a corner and a familiar holy aura washed over his senses. Compared to Grian, it was pitifully weak, not even radiating a tenth of the strength of his own blade.
But, there was no mistaking the aura of a Holy Sword.
Twin figures stood at the end of the street dressed in white cloaks with green trim. The second his eyes strayed over to them, both of their heads snapped towards him.
Irina and Xenovia. 'Well well, looks like the blessing of Scotland are heavy tonight.' his lips quirked up into a smirk.
And here he was just thinking of them. Scotland truly did provide all he needed.
Without much thought, Yarden made his way over to the cloak clad girls and approached them, "Well now, that's quite the holy power I can sense from you both." he praised, tossing them a little wave in greeting.
Massively weaker than Grian or not, it did not change the fact the holy aura emanating from those sword fragments were each on par with a six winged angel.
All together he could truly believe Excalibur had the power to almost stand up to Grian. Sadly, as amazing as Excalibur was, it was a purely Brittish weapon, merely only part Scottish. Unlike Grian that was a full Scottish holy sword. As such, it would never be a true match for Grian.
They tensed at his words and together, pulled down the hoods of their cloaks revealing a pair of very pretty older girls. One, a cool yellow eyed, blue haired beauty, the other a vibrant chestnut haired girl with violet eyes reminiscent of Serafall's and her hair fashioned into a pair of perky twin tails just like his new 'king'.
"Devil," Xenovia eyed him with yellow eyes filled with distaste, a heavy frown on her face, "Why are you giving off such a powerful holy aura? No devil should be able to stand anywhere near such a powerful holy aura without being seared out of existence."
"You think he's in line with Kokabiel?" Irina tapped her chin, "It's not really his m.o but he is a heathen that turned his back on the lords teachings."
"Yeah, no," Yarden snorted, cutting those thoughts off, "I'm just a reincarnated devil that had access to vast holy power before doing so. The Judo Christian faction isn't the only ones with access to holy power you know." he pointed out.
"Ah?" Irina tilted her head to the side at his words, "So...you had all this holy power before becoming a devil then?"
Xenovia on the other hand, clicked her tongue, her frown deepening, "To think someone with such an intense holy power would become a filthy devil," she shook her head in disgust, "Either way, why have you approached us devil? If you have no relation to Kokabiel, we have no interest in you."
Yarden had to force himself not to laugh. He knew after all, how quickly she jumped into being a devil upon learning of Gods death.
"I did, I'm a descendant of the Sun God Belenus," he proudly replied to Irina before turning his attention to the blue haired girl, "And it's not like I have no relation, I'm here in this place right now to keep an eye out for him after all and intervene should he attack the devil heirs in this city."
"A pagan god then," Xenovia snorted in derision, but nodded at his words, "Very well, that is acceptable. We'll take care of Kokabiel before he ever makes a move against Rias Gremory or Sona Sitri."
"Well, if you can manage it, I don't mind letting you girls go about your business," he shrugged. He didn't really care about Kokabiel in the end after all. They wouldn't be able to mind you, they just lacked the strength, "But, if you find yourselves in trouble, I don't mind lending you a hand either. I can take care of Kokabiel as easy as breathing."
Probably not that easily, but he doubted it would be that much of a problem once he sealed Kokabiel's power of light off from him using Delete Field.
"Eh?" Irina made a sound of surprised confusion, "Why would you do that devil-kun? It can't be that you want to grab the Excalibur fragments for yourself!?"
He laughed, "No love, nothing like that, after all, my own holy sword is far superior to even the original Excalibur," Yarden replied braggingly, before smirking and stepping forward towards her. The pair of them tensed quickly, but when he merely raised his finger up and stroked Irina gently under the chin, they stopped reaching for their weapons, "Honestly, just because it would be a shame to see such pretty girls get killed by that annoying crow."
Xenovia gave him a confused look, "What..?"
Irina on the other hand, her cheeks tinted red and she gasped, "Oh my, Devil-kun, are you hitting on me?" she asked, cupping her cheeks.
"A bit," Yarden laughed, letting go of her chin, "But beyond that, I'm a new devil. Just got turned tonight actually. I'm the new queen of the Leviathan so I'm pretty powerful, but unknown. Me helping you guys out and making sure this incident is handled without issue will help give me a good reputation."
Irina's eyes flew wide open and she stared at him in shock, "...The queen of the Leviathan?" she gasped, "You're that important devil-kun? Wow, good on you!"
"That I am," Yarden beamed proudly, "My name is Yarden by the way. Yarden Caelan Odhar Wallace, the descendent of the great William Wallace, son of the holy sun god Belenus." he fully introduced himself, and to punctuate his words he held one hand up and formed a sphere of billowing white-gold holy flames.
"I see," Xenovia nodded, crossing her arms, "Those flames seeping such dense holy power. Your claim of a holy sword and now the queen of the Leviathan. I understand now why you believe Kokabiel to be your inferior."
"Well, not just that," Yarden grinned at her teasingly and allowed his flames to disappear, replacing them a moment later pitch black ebony gauntlets, "I also have two sacred gears. Both God and Scotland itself favour me heavily."
Perhaps when God died he had become part of the land of Scotland and saw the righteous greatness that was the lads of Scotland?
"Two?" Irina spluttered, "People can have two sacred gears?"
The twin tailed girl shook her head and chuckled after a moment, "Heh, it seems Gods all encompassing love even passes to those who wish to become sinners. Truly, a great lord."
Scotland was a great god indeed. And now that he thought on it. Didn't it make sense? Delete Field should have been in the possession of Azazel, outside the reincarnation cycle of the Sacred Gears after being extracted. Who else but their maker could call them to another? It was odd in the first place how Yarden's soul transferred worlds.
Could it be, that after his death in the Great War, God stuck around and became one with Scotland? And then intervened when Scotland's greatest champion was in threat of being killed?
After all, Yarden himself was both Scottish and a Catholic before ending up here. 'It makes sense to me now.' Yarden gasped inwardly in realisation.
After all. How could God of the Bible die? 'Ignoring that gibberish, it is indeed odd that Yahweh died to the old Satan's,' Vritra chimed in, 'He may not have been the most powerful, but he was definitely in the top ten and his abilities like mine were not so simple they were mere brute force power. I am not ashamed to admit, he would have crushed me in a one on one fight, yet I would have done the same to any of the old Satan's.'
He knew he was reaching. But, there was something else to consider as well. He could freely think and talk about God of the Bible without any headaches or anything like that. His holy bloodline should not be able to counteract that, it was a different thing entirely.
Something just seemed to click with that thought to him. Yahweh had become Scotland. And he, Yarden was the greatest current living lad of Scotland.
Which meant those filthy former Satan's had struck out at Scotland itself.
It was all beginning to come together now. It was odd in a way, why a proud Scotsman like him accepted working under Serafall despite not wanting anyone having authority. Was he being guided by Scotland all along? Scotland itself wanted him to become a devil!
'But why?' he wondered. The only thought that came to mind, was for him to punish the evil descendants of those filthy former Satans that dared to strike out at Scotland.
"Devil-Yarden-kun!" Irina's voice broke him from his patriotic, religious thoughts, "Yooho, are you there? You just kinda blanked out." she waved her hand in front of his face.
Yarden shook his head, "Yeah, sorry about that," he replied with a grin, "I was just thinking you're absolutely right, God is a pretty great guy."
He'd have to be, to be one with Scotland after all.
Irina nodded approvingly, "Huh, maybe some devils aren't so bad after all?" she mused, "Is it possible for devils to be followers of God?" she turned and asked Xenovia.
The blue haired girl shrugged, "I would usually say no, yet he as a devil does not feel pain from the name of the lord being spoken in front of him," Xenovia crossed her arms, "It still doesn't make sense for me though that one who would think so highly of God, a descendant of a pagan god no less, would then join with the mortal enemies of the church and become a devil."
Yarden snorted, "You think too little," he crossed his own arms, "It's obvious is it not? Why I have two sacred gears, when I was only born with one. The second came to me when my life was in danger and saved me. And why even as a devil I feel no pain from speaking or thinking of God." he raised an eyebrow in challenge at her.
"Oh, and why's that?" Xenovia challenged right back with a raised eyebrow of her own.
Yarden snorted, "It's clearly the will of Yahweh Of The Scots." he bragged proudly.
They just stared at him for a moment. Before Irina broke the silence with a nod, "It does make sense right?" the chestnut haired girl looked to her partner, "Even the Satans can't talk about God without feeling pain. And God is worshipped in Scotland as well, so he is a God of Scotland."
"...The logic is sound, because I can't find an argument to refute it," Xenovia nodded, "Indeed then, it is possible for devils to be followers of God." she agreed.
'...I cannot believe I'm actually seeing literal exorcists agree with this nonsense.' Vritra gaped.
Yarden ignored the non believer. Honestly, you'd think he'd have learned by now with how he was now a Scottish Dragon. Why couldn't God of the Bible transition as well?
"That's why, if you two find yourselves unable to beat Kokabiel and his bitch ass minions, you should just give me a shout," Yarden told the pair of them, "I'll come save your pretty little asses." he winked.
Xenovia nodded, unbothered by his words, "Again, a sound logic. As a follower of god you to have the right to punish Kokabiel for his sins." the blue haired teen agreed.
Irina on the other hand, her cheeks had flushed a bit at his words, "..Ah, is it fine then for one God clearly favours to flirt with us?" she wondered.
"Obviously, or I wouldn't be doing it," Yarden rolled his eyes. Scotland would never deny its proud son the chance to get laid with such a beauty, "Anyway, I'll catch you two later then alright?" he bid them goodbye with a wave which they returned.
He left them with quite a bit to think on. And he had quite a bit to think on himself while working on getting a grasp of his new inborn abilities.