[NOVENA]
The moment she arrived in the Headquarters, Novena was whisked away the moment she placed a foot down on the marble ground, taken away from Gloria before she could even react.
As it was, Novena can only exchange bewildered looks with her officer before she's taken down a hallway, through several doors, further and deeper into the Order's Headquarters. There's an air of restlessness and excitement in the air, that much is obvious; no doubt the people are eager for the new group of Knights to Ascend. Save for Nero, almost the entirety of Novena's batch is going to Ascend.
A little odd that Nero wouldn't be included; sure, he's too headstrong for his own good, but he's a good man past his rough exterior. Credo – being Nero's adoptive brother/oldest friend – could've put in a recommendation, but he hadn't. Maybe there's a reason…?
Ah, no matter.
"You must prepare for the Ceremony, Knight Novena," Her escort suddenly says, bringing the Knight back to the present and out of her wandering thoughts. "His Holiness will be presiding over the Ceremony himself!"
Novena perks up, smiling widely. "His Holiness is revived?!"
Another one of her escort nods, just as enthusiastic and relieved as her. "He underwent the Ascension earlier than planned, but it was needed. He fused with a fragment of the Devil Sword Sparda, and His Holiness is reborn as a true servant of the Savior." The escort bowed their head. "Savior bless Him and keep Him."
Novena and her other escorts bow their head in the same manner, speaking solemnly. "Savior bless Him and keep Him, amen."
Their group continued in expectant silence, the hubbub in the Headquarters washing over them, gently coaxing their own excitement at the long awaited Ceremony, the long awaited moment of when their plans and efforts would come to fruition. Soon enough, they reach the waiting chambers, and left Novena there, the attendants inside rushing out and taking their turn in manhandling Novena themselves. The female Knight goes with them willingly, unbothered, and soon enough, she is washed – all the blood, grime, sweat and whatever that clung to her – thoroughly, tanned skin feeling a little bit tender from the attention, and she's stripped out of her abused uniform, instead now wearing a simple white dress. Her hair – cut short because of an errant Assault – is neatly combed and gelled back.
The women amongst the attendants tutted and tsked at her short hair, and she feels the slightest bit of shame; to a woman of Fortuna, her hair was her pride, and the symbol of her womanhood. And for Novena to have such a scandalously short hair, well…
The again, it wasn't like Novena allowed that Assault to give her such a sloppy and horrible haircut. And an unwanted haircut at that.
When Novena is presentable, she is released to the chamber proper itself, resembling the chapel in Fortuna Castle. Pews lined up in an orderly manner, 12 pews on the left of the altar, and another 12 pews on the right. The pews are almost completely filled, and Novena dithered for a moment, searching for a spot-
A hand closed around her elbow, and Novena looks, only to smile widely when she is faced with another of her batch mates. Preces, to be exact; the quietest out of them, maybe even the most… boring. Of course, Novena means it as a compliment, something good, even! With the sheer chaos each person in their batch could cause – Novena is honest to enough to admit that in her youth, she was… something – it was good that they have someone so boring. So normal and easy.
Preces smiled politely at her, dipping his head before he links their elbows together, leading her. "The others are already in our assigned places. Knight Maria and Knight Nicene has been called away not long ago-"
"Yes, I know," Novena interrupts gently, nodding. "There was a demon too close to the Headquarters; a full Devil, to be specific. I engaged it with Executive Gloria while we were en-route, and stalled it enough for three squads in total to be dispatched."
Preces makes a noise of acknowledgement, but otherwise, didn't continue. The taller Knight leads Novena to where the others of their batch are, towards the front, almost centre – His Holiness has always favoured their batch, after all – and Novena is quietly but warmly greeted by her brothers-in-arms, or at least, the ones closest to her age, the ones she really grew up with.
"We honestly thought you died, short-stuff," Ave says quietly, tilting his head just so, long black hair tied in a neat braid instead of his usual pony-tail. His voice, always so rough, is rougher now, though it carried hints of concern. Looking at the others as she slips into a free seat, she saw their concern, and she feels warm. "The scouts…"
"Weren't there, they were too slow to see what happened." Novena says quietly, smiling, reaching forward to squeeze Ave's shoulder. "Knight Nero saved me; I'm alive because of him."
"He's still scary." Caeli, always so blunt, so straightforward. "I don't know how you put up with that beast of a brat." His voice is light, innocent. Despite his harsh words, Caeli is a good man, kind, even. He just… doesn't have any sort of mouth filter whatsoever.
Still, on the topic of Nero… Novena sighs, smoothing out her dress over her legs. "I've told all of you, he's not bad." She says, just a little bit exasperated. This is a years-old argument of theirs that never really went anywhere. "I don't know why you're so scared; he's all bark, and barely any bite. He would be nice, if you treat him just as nicely."
There are various noise around her – varying levels of disbelief or outright derision – and Novena can only roll her eyes. She loves these guys as if they're her blood brothers, but their unwillingness to even try and be nice to Nero is grating. Fortunately for Novena's blood pressure, Oratio steps in, ever the responsible one.
"Calm down, the service is about to start." Everyone shifts then, sitting straighter, falling quiet in reverent silence. Just then, Maria and Nicene slips in to join them, the others shifting to make space for them. Novena nods at them, mouthing a quiet 'thank you' to the two who came to her aid earlier.
Nicene, the sweetheart that he is, grins and nods, while Maria smirks at her, smug and so superior. Novena can only roll her eyes, before turning back towards the altar, putting the white veil Preces gives her over her head. She doesn't have time for Maria and his ego right now, no matter how indebted she is to him.
His Holiness enters the chamber then, whole and alive, and Novena finally breathes in relief, feeling gladness deep in her heart upon seeing the Vicar alive once more, complete. Better than ever. His Holiness moves over to the altar, smiling over at them with a kind face, warm with fatherly affection and adoration. The hush that falls over the Knights is reverent and worshipful, and Novena is the same; she lowers her head, casting her eyes to the ground in respect and adoration of the man who raised her with his own hand.
His Holiness speaks then, launching into a sermon. He speaks of servitude, loyalty, their faith in their Savior, the Dark Knight Sparda. It was an old sermon, told ever since Novena was young, but like the first time, she still listens raptly, attentively, her attention to His Holiness's voice and words unwavering. She's sure she can recite the sermon word for word, something Nero would no doubt mock her relentlessly for, but she doesn't care.
Not when the words of faith and hope are one of the few things that keep her alive and sane.
The sermon continues, and near its end, a communion was called. They all rose, the ones in the front – including Novena and her brothers – being the first to line up before His Holiness, standing before the basin filled with blessed water.
One by one, they take the cup, and drink the water. His Holiness watched the proceedings with a proud smile, quiet but there, and soon enough, it's Novena's turn to drink the water. She takes the cup, dips her head towards His Holiness, who smiles at her in fondness. She smiles back.
"Savior bless me and keep me." She murmurs, before dipping the cup into the water, taking some of it, before drinking.
It burns, the water, but she doesn't let pain show, doesn't let it affect her as she drinks and drinks the holy water. It burns her inside out, tears up her throat, threatens to melt her oesophagus, and settles in her gut like acid.
It hurts, but then again, keeping to the faith was hard. To live is hard.
Novena drinks it all, without a change in her expression, without the shaking of her hand, and she sets the cup down softly, with a soft clink.
His Holiness smiles at her in pride.
The blessed water has always burned them, ever since they were young. But it was fine, His Holiness said, confirmed by the Chief Alchemist, that the holy water burns them because it rids them of their sins, their impurities, their failures. A divine purging, a soul-deep cleansing in order for them to forgiven by their Savior, to be made new. The first years were worst, but as they kept to the tradition, all these years, it got better. Until the burn was something familiar, something expected.
It hurts, but when she tells Nero she can stand a lot of pain, she means it.
Novena joins the rest of her brothers, already kneeling, head bowed, hands clasped together in prayer. She slips between Nicene and Caeli, and she bows her head the same way as them, clasps her hands the same. With their group complete, they pray together, as they were taught to, way back then.
"Our Savior, thou art Thee in Hell; worshipped be Thy Name. Thy Legion come, Thy War be done, our lives and swords laid at Thy feet. Give us this day our strength and faith, and forgive us our weakness, as we fail to cut down the demons that torment us so. We plead Thee not to abandon us, not in these times of darkness and terror… For Thy power is absolute, thy grandeur, thy glory, forever and ever…" The lift their heads as one, looking up towards His Holiness who watched over them. "Amen."*
With a wordless gesture, His Holiness bids them to stand, to follow him. All the Knights present did so, and they moved with supressed, eager smiles.
It was time to Ascend.
The Ascension Ceremony is a curious ritual, Agnus had found out, almost two decades back. Closing in on three, actually. Of course, it wasn't called that back then. Simply a nameless ritual, found in a book, in a place with no name, no history, no life.
While it's true that the Ascension Ceremony the Order of the Sword has in their control is developed and perfected by him, the truth – the absolute, grating truth is that he isn't the one to make it from scratch. Isn't the one to build his crowning glory from the ground up. It irks him to no end, makes his teeth grind, his fists clench, his lips to stutter over his words worse than usual.
Anyway. Back to the then unnamed Ascension Ceremony.
It was a rather curious ritual, because aside from being demonic in nature – because of course it has to be demonic – it speaks of drawing out the demon from a human's soul. It spoke about a sleeping demon inside every soul, inside every human, and with the ritual, that demon could awaken, take the human's host place or coexist, and the demon could live.
The ritual detailed that millennia ago, there isn't a single human. This is fact. Agnus knows that fact as well. But the creation of human didn't come from the evolution of primate to homo sapien, no; the ritual said that no evolution happened when it came to the creation of human, but rather, humans are begotten from the devolution of demons.
Utter hubris, in Agnus's opinion.
It's ridiculous that humans are descended from demons, as nice as that thought is, but demons do not devolve, as Agnus has proven from his own research. After all, who is he to believe? His updated, modernized research born from the fruit of passion and science? Or the ramblings of a lunatic from centuries ago? Of course he'd believe his own work! He saw the truth; his eye is open to it.
Still…
The ritual gave him an idea. It gave him a thought to entertain, a thought that would become the finalized, the perfected Ascension Ceremony.
Humans may not evolve to become a human, but… But humans could certainly fuse with them. Unite with a demon, one way or the other.
Possessions, speaking through mediums, supernatural activity, supernatural acts, miracles; all influences of demons, through a human. Demons may not be able to cross the barrier between the human world and the demon world, but the stronger ones, the ones classified as 'Devils'… they certainly could reach the human plane with their influence. They're strong enough to expend the energy, expend power to leave imprints on the human world, made stronger via a conduit that is born of this world, is of this world. Humans.
Through humans, Devils can be stronger in a plane where they do not exist, and on the same note, humans can be stronger with the presence of a Devil. Theoretically, a possibility for coexistence between Devil and man can be achieved. A union born of a devil and human, but not through procreation.
But demons, specifically the Devils, would not consent to being 'assigned' to a human, no? They have their own pride, so stubborn, so foolish, selfish. Too greedy of power to ever share it. Agnus had to find another way of fusing man and demon together, and his answer came to him in the form of Devil Arms.
Devil Arms, as he found out a relics wrought from the very soul of a Devil. More often than not, Devil Arms are weapons of mass destruction, powered by the essence of their original form, the weapons having almost the same abilities as when they were complete and whole. Devil Arms, also, are essentially a dead Devil, but without the annoying aspect of non-existence. Moreover, a Devil Arm still carries a complete soul. Supressed, yes, but whole.
Now, if one were to transfer the soul within a Devil Arm into a human…
Novena watches as the operators affix the Devil Arm she will be absorbing into the extraction machine, placing it carefully within the glass cube, watching as wires attach themselves to the Devil Arm. The lights briefly glow a violent shade of red, before fading to a pure white colour. Novena allows herself to be manoeuvred into the stone table, laying atop it, relaxing as wires are affixed to herself this time. She knows the process, knows what it means, so she's not too worried.
She's the last of their batch to ascend, the others having gone first, but that's fine. Beyond the Ascension chamber are the others, recovering from their own Ascension. Novena turns her head, looks at the Devil Arm she had picked, the one she'll unite with in a few moments.
Devil Arm Dracula.
She found it in Germany, in one of the overseas hunt she managed to participate in, when they sought out Devil Arms both to power the Savior and for the Ascension Ceremony. As she was the one to track it down and successfully retrieve it from a trap-riddled tomb, she was given the right to fuse with it, if she so chooses. Eager, Novena had agreed, accepting that when the time comes, Devil Arm Dracula will be absorbed into her.
The time is now, and the Devil Arm pulses quietly in its containment. She always felt a pull towards the Devil Arm, the small, wicked looking stiletto. All these months since she retrieved it, she often finds herself seeking it out in the Room of Relics.
Maria caught her once staring at it, hand poised to grab the stiletto through the barriers. She didn't return for quite a while.
Now though, it's fine; she's not too worried anymore. After all, the soul within Devil Arm Dracula shall become hers. She will subjugate it, make it her own, and she'll Ascend as an Angel, freed from the weakness of her human flesh, freed from the chains holding her back from her full potential, what she truly could be.
She'll turn the very power of demons on to its kin. Fight fire with fire. Just like what the Dark Knight Sparda had done.
As the Chief Alchemist starts the Ascension Ceremony, with His Holiness watching from the balcony above all their heads, Novena closes her eyes and accepts the Blessing.
She jerks at the initial introduction of pure demonic energy into her system, but it didn't hurt, just supremely uncomfortable. Like there's… something, beneath her skin, in her bones. Pushing outwards, applying pressure, slowly, gently, but insistently, until Novena feels like her skin and flesh is too tight. It settles after a moment, but she can't help gritting her teeth and squirming, sweating beading at her temple.
She feels it then, her insides changing, her very muscles and organs morphing in a way it decidedly shouldn't. Oddly enough, she feels no pain, just. Discomfort. She can't help jerking up the stone table this time, gasping when she feels her bones break and shatter before reforming in the same instant. It didn't hurt, nothing in the Ascension hurt, but.
The process is over almost as soon as began, just a handful of minutes, not even five, but Novena is gasping, sweating, shaking just a little bit because that was an ordeal she… she wouldn't repeat. She pushes herself up on her arms, feeling so weak and unsteady, but she manages it. The first step is done. The Devil Arm's soul is within her body, residing beside her own, but she has one more step to fulfil.
She's not united fully, not yet, not until she takes the next step.
The operators scurry to her, helping her to her feet-
"Oh," One of the operators blink, stepping back and looking up at her. "Oh my."
"Is something wrong?" Novena asks, worry flooding her mind, more and more as the other operators begin to take notice as well, stepping back and looking at Novena with wide eyes. "Um…?"
"How fascinating!" It's the Chief Alchemist this time, Agnus. He skitters over, adjusting his monocle, pen flying across his clipboard at speed. "It seems the union with Devil Arm Dracula also produced physical changes within you, same with the others! But with your unique physiology, the changes are far more prominent, far more obvious… I must record this, look into the difference of male and female candidates subjected to the Ascension…"
Novena stares after for a moment, confused, before looking down on herself and-
Oh.
Her dress, which brushed down to her ankles, is now three inches above her ankles. Maybe even four. She lifts up the hem, looks at her legs, then at her arms, wrapping her hand around them and squeezing. She's much more muscular. Nothing overly dramatic, not even much enlargement of her muscles, but, she was a little on the skinny side, then. Now, she's, well… She doesn't even know.
She pushes past that awestruck operators with apologetic words, stumbling over to the mirror, and she could only stare. The Novena that stares at her from the mirror is her, yes, but. Different. This one looks every bit the warrior. A Knight, strong and solid. Nothing like the delicate, waifish image Novena HAD before the Ascension.
A grin curls her lips, and she's amazed that in the mirror, she doesn't look beautiful, but she looks handsome. In a roguish sort of way. Now, maybe Nero's jokes of her looking like a guy – she can't help her chest is flat, alright – isn't so far off, and he wouldn't even be able to give her grief because of how good she looks.
She turns away from the mirror, towards the operators. She's dallied long enough, she needs to finish this, she needs to finish her Ascension, complete what should be hers-
"Take me to the White Room."
The White Room is where the final step of the Ascension Ceremony is taken. There's no fancy equipment in there, or any trials to face and conquer before a Knight can deem himself fully Ascended. There's only a sword there, just a couple hands longs, and someone waiting to clean away the blood that would no doubt make a mess.
After all, the last step to the Ascension Ceremony is to die.
"Agnus," Sanctus calls softly, voice gentle and warm. Honey to the ears of the faithful, a comforting call to the sheep in his care. "My favourite, she's well?"
"M-more than well, Your Holiness!" Agnus enthuses, drifting closer, hands flipping through the papers in his clipboard. There's an excited gleam in Agnus's eyes, filled with something manic, something mad. "Out of all the Knights that Ascended today, she produced the highest results, despite her initial low outputs! It's an unexpected turn of events, true, but this is only the second time we've performed the Ascension Ceremony on a female human, and the first one where we have data from the start of the priming process until the Ascension itself."
Sanctus nods, pleased. He didn't chose wrong, when he chose the child he named 'Novena', 25 years back. He personally watched her grow, personally raised her even. Taught her the right things, what she should be, what she needs to be, and she flourished oh so wonderfully. She's a wonderful investment, paying off more than Sanctus expected by spades. Such a wonderful child, truly.
"Have you extracted what you needed, then?" Sanctus then asks, remembering the surprise that Agnus delivered to him, almost seven hours earlier. "The seed."
Agnus lips curl up in a satisfied smile. "I-I-I have, Your Holiness. It's potent, as expected. It will take root immediately, especially when directly introduced to the womb."
Sanctus nods. "Then the Project is proceeding nicely. Far earlier than anticipated, even. Such a fortunate turn of events." He remarks, pleased. The Vicar of Sparda turns to Agnus, who dips his head in reverence. "Complete the Project. Angelo Novena shall be the carrier of Project Bloodline. Tell her it was a direct request from me. Pull her out of the active roster, if you must. She must be protected. And the offspring that will no doubt grow within her."
It will be Sanctus gift for her; the honour of being the one to carry their God's Children.
In the White Room, Novena plunges the blade into her chest, dies, and is reborn.