Author's Note: I'm working today so you all get this chapter early. Read, Review, Favourite and Enjoy!


Not every weapon to come out of a dungeon is a Devil Arm, nor does a weapon being weak mean that it's safe to wield.

It's dangerous to wield a weapon without understanding what it is. So examinations must be conducted.

The easiest method is observation, if a monster drops a weapon that they were using as opposed to one that manifests when they die then odds are good that the weapon in question is not a Devil Arm or Seraphim Arm, however Demons and Angels also use the drops of their respective factions as well, so this is not the most reliable method.

The adventurers guild keeps a list of known Drop weapons on hand at all times, and the identities of new ones are richly rewarded in Dia, if you haven't yet purchased a book detailing the various drops it is recommended you bring the weapon to the reception counter and have it examined before you use it.

As a rule? If you're cautious and aware of the risks then you should be fine.

Excerpt from Textbooks for Adventurers at the Holfort Royal Academy


Leon looked ahead at the round orb as he tapped his fingers on his cheek.

"So you want me to examine something for you and in exchange you'll give me information about the Nobles movements which concerns me?" Leon was suspicious about the orbs. Whoever was controlling them had an unlimited number of invisible, flying spies small enough to go anywhere in the Kingdom unnoticed. Nick had already been bitching for weeks about how much of the security he had to dial up on the island.

"Specifically. My mistress and I require any information you have on the Saintess's Staff, Necklace, and Bracelet." Luxion didn't like having to consult with this creature, but needs are what they are, and at the moment he needed an expert.

"I held the Saint's necklace during its retrieval. Based on the way that it makes my skin crawl I'd say it was angelic." Leon piped up as he added another thought. "The Bracelet looks demonic to me. I dunno might've just been in the dungeon too long, the staff seems ordinary, but crap like that can develop a spirit of its own from dumping praise on it." All that Leon was talking about was his own speculation, to him it was next to worthless.

"Understood." But he unlike Luxion has the ability to differentiate angelic and demonic energy, and his insight was valuable to confirm whether or not the Saintess's Items were in fact drops from some kind of malicious creature. "One Marquis Frampton is trying to frame you as a plant from the Principality." Luxion stated in simple terms. "He is attempting to build circumstantial evidence against you, so it's best that you do not take any rash action like storming the royal palace itself or unleashing a demon in the middle of the capital." For one thing, Leon was a war hero, so the Marquis would lose face if he blindly threw around accusations without hard evidence, but he did make a sound enough argument to launch a investigation into Leon. "The Queen is on your side here, all of Frampton's evidence is circumstantial at best, my drones are observing him, in the absence of legitimate evidence against you he will attempt to create it, I will record it, and he will die as a traitor deserves. We would also appreciate it if you can confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt the true nature of the Saint's items, and that you not create evidence for Frampton by picking a fight with him."

"Sure. Sure." Leon waved off the orb with his new arm before it disappeared.


Over the Years Rodin has had many imitators in trying to weaponize demonic flesh and craft weapons from them, very few successes.

The Brainchild of one Nico Goldstein is the Devil Breakers, Prosthetic limbs crafted using pieces of various demons for her friend, a demon hunter who lost his right forearm.

Nico eventually came into contact with Rodin personally, and under his tutelage many of the flaws inherent in the designs of her weapons had been corrected, though it did become a moot point, for their original purpose.

Instead with the Advent of the Goliath Armours Nico's expanded knowledge of engineering and arcane arts was put to use in building machines of war that would let the mundane armies of man fight toe to toe with the Armies of Paradiso and Inferno.

Excerpt on Notable Weapons of Humanity


Of the various possible designs Nick and Jenna could've used to replace his old arm, they chose a joke item. Jenna even had a weirdly proud look on her face as she sarcastically told him 'happy birthday!' Rather than a weapon of mass destruction the 'Sweet Surrender' had apparently been designed for use as a sex-toy to help someone who couldn't control his strength with his normal arm in bed. It was legitimately useful for someone like him, an injured person, because it had been built to integrate demonic bodily fluids with the power of rapid healing into it, but that was the limit.

"Are you going to sit there and bitch all day or are you going for the ceremony?" Umbra asked from the usual position on the wall in Cuckoo clock form.

"I'm getting up I'm getting up." Leon quickly donned the Varia suit, his helmet folding back in to expose his head, his hair flew for a brief moment before settling over his body as a cape to go with his eye patch while the Knight ensemble was finished by putting Alastor on his hip. "How do I look?" Leon asked arms raised to the side.

"Don't fall asleep again." The Clock hissed and Leon gave a one finger salute before he left again.


Leon's promotion ceremony was serving double duty as an award ceremony as well. Various students had 'bravely fought with their lives on the line against the Principality' so that in turn deserved a reward, medals honouring bravery in battle. Unlike the newly promoted count though, they would only be getting one. Leon would be getting three.

"Leon Fia Blackmore." The Young man in tastefully clashing Neon Orange armour and a Black cape was walking down the aisle with various royal knights and court magicians at either side of him. At once Leon Knelt, removed his sword from its scabbard, and presented it to the King. "For your services to the Royal Family, I hereby promote you to the Rank of Count." The King took Leon's sword, and tapped him on either shoulder before handing it back to him. "In addition, for your skill in battle, magic and in recognition of your service to the Royal Family I name thee a Ace of Ace's, and grant you these three medals."

An Ace is a Armour pilot that has felled at least fifty enemy armours in battle, an Ace of Ace's is a Ace that has felled another Ace, both titles that Leon has earned during the course of the battle with the Principality and more specifically, the Black Knight. There was the issue of him not being in an armour at the time, but everyone told him to just stop bragging. The Three Medals were respectively The Crossed Swords, indicating Leon's status as a veteran pilot, The White Heart, in recognition of his injuries received in Battle, and the Star of Solomon, a pentagram star that in this case had a Obsidian Gemstone in the middle of it, which the King personally affixed to Leon's hair cloak. More than just medals, these were all magic items that increased his body's strength, accelerated his healing, and augmented his magical power and affinity for the Shadow element, thus justifying wearing them in battle.

"In addition, in recognition of your valiant services to Crown and Kingdom, I formally Knight you Sir Leon Fia Blackmore, and place you at the head of the newly formed Blue Moon Knight order, charged with the protection of the Saintess Marie." Murmurs went through the crowd at the news. Olivia's eyes on the other hand were on Leon, wide with fear. "Of course we don't expect you to protect her all by yourself, several young men of the most prestigious families in the Kingdom have already volunteered to serve under you." Angelica saw it this time too, only for a moment, and yet she fears she may never be able to unsee it either.

"Of course your majesty." Leon's voice was perfectly calm, his face the definition of neutrality, anyone who looked at him would think of him the very definition of a knight that had just been handed an important duty as he stood up. "I accept this honour in the spirit it was given, and shall make sure that I live up to the expectations you have for me." The King leaned forward and whispered into Leon's ear.

"I don't like being threatened boy, especially in my own castle."

Leon turned from his King and walked away as a pace that was neither fast nor slow, a completely even walk that drew absolutely no attention aside from the light clanging of his armour before sitting down in a corner of the ball room. Marie on the other hand had a look of horror on her features. The King just placed someone who hates her in charge of her safety! That was a text book definition of the fox guarding the Hen House! Her entire body was trembling in fear just thinking about it!

"Saintess Marie." An official from the church walked up to Marie a few moments into the girl's panic attack. "Sir Blackmore has asked to see you in order to discuss your protection detail. Is now good or would you like to wait until after the event is over."

"Now is good!" Marie squeaked trembling in fear. Now is very good! Now Leon would have hundreds of witnesses if he tried to pop her head off of her body as opposed to tossing her off of his ship. While the King was making a show of handing out participation medals to the various students Leon was getting very specific, very unwanted attention from some people he very much did not want to talk to right now.

"We challenge you to a Duel Blackmore!" Julius proudly wore his metaphorical ass on his head as he spoke.

"What nonsense are you saying to an injured person you idiot?" Leon asked sounding very much like he had slipped out of his polite mode and was back to his usual irritated self.

"We have to restore our honour after all!" On the one hand, it could be considered a sign of their skill in battle that the only person who defeated them was the same man who 1V1 the Black Knight.

"Honour!?" A familiar sounding voice echoed out, the five fools turned around to face three familiar young women. "You're challenging a one armed one eyed cripple to a duel!" Sarah, Jillian, and Clarice were dressed in a golden backless dress, turquoise sun dress and sea-foam ball gown respectfully as they glared ahead at the five young men who just committed the height of foolishness. "There isn't a single honourable bone in your bodies between the five of you!"

"You're staring Chris." Jillian was mildly miffed that he never looked at her like that. "It's rude. You're going to make him self conscious."

Jilk wanted to retort that Blackmore couldn't be self conscious if his life depended on it.

"How can I not stare? The Black Knight is the greatest warrior in two Kingdoms! The Great undefeatable foe that haunts our people's nightmares! And here we have someone who was able to beat him back! Defeat him even!" Chris had a weird look of admiration on his face as he gestured to Leon.

"Your Dad never lost an arm to the bastard Chris." Leon emphasised his point by raising his non-blaster arm and pulling back the armour to reveal the Sweet Surrender underneath.

"By duel you mean with armour right though?" Clarice however noticed the arrival of a certain midget to join in on their conversation. "How exactly did you guys manage to get your hands on armour?"

"We bought the pieces using the money I earned!" Greg looked especially pleased with himself. "I couldn't find a reputable seller, so instead I had to buy scraps and salvage and have the parts put together by a professional!" Greg looked at Sarah with a big smirk on his face and a malicious smile. "There's lots of armour smiths in the country that are discontent with the Winchesters!"

Sarah returned the malicious smirk, her vein popping visibly.

"Oh? My factories only employ reputable armour smiths. If we refuse to hire somebody, it's because they have all sorts of problems." Sarah stated by way of reply, sparks flying between her and Greg.

"It's scary how much you two have in common." Leon gave a dry comment on the situation.

"Greg." Marie had gone stiff as she walked in on the conversation, the fact that she wasn't moving kind of contrasted with how her saint items seemed to be clanging against her clasp and the other parts of her outfit. "How much Dia did this cost?"

"It's not a matter of money Marie!" Julius was the one who stepped in to answer on Greg's behalf. "It's about restoring peace to our relationship!"

"I understand that." Even in this dead eyed state where Marie was restraining herself and suppressing her urge to scream with her entire body she didn't forget to careful choose her words that helped to cultivate her image and not ruin it now. It was scary how good she was at this. "I'm worried that you all spent an unreasonable amount of money." Currently they have two sources of Income, Greg's job as a receptionist and Marie's adventuring + allowance from the church, and they had seven money sinks that they needed to pay for when you include Kyle. "After all the days I had to camp out in the dungeons and boil grass for food were so harsh..." The Five Fools faces were cramping at Marie's words.

"Let me guess." Leon had another annoyance stacked up on the day, the revelation that he actually understood the mental gymnastics that made up these fools thought processes. "Marie told you guys that she doesn't care about your money, so you guys assumed that means she doesn't mind it if you take her money and do what you like with it?" The Various people who wanted to meet with Leon had been listening in on the conversation, some briefly mused if it was a bad sign that they were completely uninterested in their crown prince proving himself the fool once more. "Even though money means that she doesn't have to risk her life fighting monsters or against the elements for food and shelter. Is that correct?" Marie's eyes were shining. Finally! A man with Common Sense! "Oh that reminds me. Your cut from the farms are in." Leon stated indicating the nearby window he had been sitting at.

"'My cut?'" Marie tilted her head cutely in confusion.

"Your cut of the profits from the Coffee farm." Leon clarified. "Or did you forget that your families territory was absorbed into mine along with the rest of the Offrey's islands?" Marie immediately ran out to the window and pressed her face into it. A armour was being used to unload a crate with officials from the bank receiving it.

"Th-That's my money?" Marie squeaked in confusion.

"That's taxes to help develop your territory yes." Leon clarified bluntly. "Here in the capital to purchase lumber, stone, refined metals-" Suddenly a blonde haired missile rammed Leon and wrapped herself around his leg, hugging with enough super human strength to cut the circulation if he wasn't wearing armour. Suddenly Leon could feel several death glares aimed at his location. "If you idiots are jealous, try getting jobs instead of envying people with money." Even though Leon was scolding them, he was trying to get Marie off of him before he had to get his leg replaced too.

"Your attention please everyone!" As the situation with Marie and her boyfriends were unfolding The King suddenly spoke up again. "For the final award of the evening we have these two Embodiment's of Radiant Feminine Beauty responsible for playing such critical roles in the battle against the Principality! Angelica Rapha Redgrave, Heiress of the Redgrave Family, and young Olivia born of common stock!" Olivia still didn't have a last name, officially anyway, though that would have to change today. "I award You both the Star of Solomon and positions as officially recognised Court Mages." Though most of the time a Court Mage was a person who stayed on the islands/capital and conducted research into magic, in times of war they're recruited into the army as combat medics and powerful artillery pieces. "It is my hope that this new position will bear many fruits for the future of this nation."

The King took Olivia's hand and gave it a kiss. 'Ah the King is going after another one.' The King's preference for women was quite well known, age fifteen to eighteen, fawning over him and his inflated Heroic legend all the way through their inevitable 'fruit bearing.'

The entire room suddenly felt a sharp spike in the back of their heads, like getting stabbed, and it suddenly disappeared though the wound called fear still remained. At once the entire room turned around to see Leon, still sitting in the corner on the stool he got from somewhere looking bored and uninterested, a saintess who was far stiffer than she was before still clinging to his leg.

"Thank you, your majesty." Olivia was smiling sweetly at the king who was hiding the cramps of pain in his face, every bone in his arm had been made to magically crack forming a line going all the way from his finger tips to his shoulder blade. "I, a lowly nameless commoner, appreciate that you, the King of this nation, have deigned pay this humble me your attention, despite the so much more lovely woman beside you." Olivia had been warned by Angelica that the King would make a pass at her, there was even the possibility that she'd be pressured into joining his harem, Angelica's father and brother had apparently threatened him with a fiery castration to make sure he didn't touch her, it was important that Olivia deliver a firm message to the king about not dipping his quill in her ink pot, one that preferably didn't expose that she had done so in front of the entire court. "Rest assured, I will have the appropriate paperwork filed, and my independent knight house will be established in due time."

Meaning 'No I will not become a bed warmer for a man old enough to be my father thank you sir.'

Soon the Ceremony was finished, the King had toughed out the entire evening with his arm in its fractured ruined state until he could get healed by the church.

"It is not wise to provoke Blackmore your majesty." Luxion's usual floating orb had a bow tie attached to it by Erica. "Even I, the pinnacle of Ancient humanities technological development, cannot stress strongly enough how much damage that young man's family did against the Extra-dimensionals during the Shattering." Luxion had extensive knowledge of how many Angels, Demons and worse were slaughtered at the hands of the Umbran clan during the time of his masters.

"Luxion and I agree!" Mylene snapped shaking with rage at her husband's latest act of sheer stupidity, and more personally infidelity. "We have enough on our plate with Fanoss's blatant hostility! We don't need the territory that borders with them getting into bed with them again!" The Queen snapped tightly clenching her fist. "Your constant whoring around is bad enough to deal with when it doesn't threaten the safety of the Kingdom!"

"A little bit of provocation is necessary to determine his loyalty." From the King's perspective Frampton's logic of Leon being a mere teenager fending off the Black Knight had merit, after all he was a opponent that he, the greatest armour pilot in the Kingdom, struggled to dispatch. "Despite being angry he did not lose his temper and did his best not to show his hostility."

"With all do respect your majesty, but this is the face he made when he realised you assigned him as Your Son, his friends, and their girl friend's minder." Luxion produced a holographic image of Leon during his promotion, emotion had been drained from his face while he glared ahead at the King murder and bloodlust in his eyes.

"But only for a moment." The King countered. "And I suspect only because he let his face slip."

A point Luxion had to agree to, even he was only able to catch a single frame of Leon's death glare, and he was recording him.

However Luxion was not done yet.

"This is the face he made when he saw you flirting with Olivia." The Hologram switched to a figure of nightmares, a body covered in blood red scales the cracks between glowing with a black light, a hole in the chest where a swirling black hole had made its home. Two taloned black wings rested on his back holding his shoulders. A vaguely human face that could easily be Leon's was making itself known but with ugly black scars trailing outwards from the eyes leading into ghostly black hair and a red blade like crescent shaped horn that seemed to go through his entire head like it had been stabbed. "That is someone who wants to kill you, your majesty." Luxion's flat monotone failed to convey his incredible horror at the King's literal fuck-up!

"Fine fine." The King visibly waved off the Drone's concerns as he relaxed into his throne, his mind was already on which of his concubines he'd be spending the night with. "If you're so concerned you can assign one of your drone bodies to follow him and make sure he doesn't get up to any shenanigans."

"Would you please stop provoking him!" Mylene screeched in despair.


"How could you do this to us!" Once the ceremony was finished Julius and company tracked Angelica down and confronted her about a certain bit of hell that she was putting them through.

"And here we have Julius and friends with their complaint of the week." Angelica was still wearing her dress from the ball as she read the information packet that one of her followers had given to her, though now she also was wearing her uniform's blazer as well, on account of the cold night air. "What offence have you imagined I've committed this time?"

"That we imagined!?" Brad squeaked as he held up a familiar copy of 'The Fujushi Boys' for Angelica to see. "Shouldn't we be asking you that!?"

"Oh yeah that." Angelica treated the situation like it had nothing to do with her. "Some of my new followers asked for seed money to publish some books. They were doing quite well last I checked."

"Doing quite well!?" Greg squeaked as if he wasn't sure he had heard Angelica correctly. "You call this doing quite well!?"

"Greg you guys haven't accepted any weird food from girls lately have you?" Angelica asked with a tone of genuine concern. "Given the story board for the 12th volume they just gave me I can't discount the possibility that they're planning on doing something weird to you." Angelica plucked a picture from the folder and held it out to the five fools, whose features melted into a look of sheer unadulterated horror.

"Ah ah..." Julius had no words to describe what he was looking at, the concepts of gender-flipping and 'girls with guy parts' didn't exist in this world. Yet.

"You cannot allow this to continue!" Jilk snapped angrily as he indicated the folder in Angelica's hands.

"I agree, if their appearances diverge too much from what you really look like it could invalidate the entire point of doing this." Angelica stated as she put the picture in the folder away.

"I'm talking about the reputation of the royal family!" Jilk snapped glaring with a mad look in his eye.

"The reputation of the Royal Family?" Angelica had a seething glare in her eyes now. "Before you talk about me damaging the reputation of the royal family, you should think about your actions some more!"

"What are you-?"

"Leon beat you fools up, now that he's injured and can't defend himself you want to beat him up in return." Angelica stated in simple terms. "That is what the people who saw you all at the ball are thinking."

"It wasn't like that-" Chris had been most excited to talk to Leon after he had beaten the Black Knight, to the point that he couldn't wait to talk with him and challenge him to a spar.

"It was exactly like that!" Angelica scolded angrily. "And if you fools have managed to grow any sense of decency since the duel you will apologise to Leon after he's out of the Dungeon!"

"'Out of the Dungeon?'" Julius seemed to have zeroed in on the wrong part of the lecture. "He's in the dungeon? But the ball just ended?"

"Yes it did." Angelica stated as she let out a sigh. "Tell me you idiots, how mad would you be if Roland or someone like him tried to put his hands on Marie?"


The following morning, Leon would come out of the dungeon dragging with him the drop items both the angel and demon bosses from the bottom of the floor setting a all time record for clearing the school's dungeon. On a unrelated note, the dungeon had been closed for several days after, the guild officials citing severe structural integrity issues from something punching, slashing, blasting and other phenomena they couldn't quite comprehend through the various floors and walls of the dungeon.

In all honesty he was rather short on friends he wasn't related with, and holding up on his island all day makes him stir crazy. If Angelica and Olivia weren't here he would've blown the whole pop-sickle stand months ago.

"Count Leon Fia Blackmore." Leon had just sat down to breakfast with Angelica and Olivia, there was a tea set spread out before them and a selection of bagels had been prepared for them, Olivia even had a novel picked out for the three of them to read while they had breakfast, then a certain tooth pick appeared to annoy them. "You may open your heart to justice and join us in our righteous crusade against the vile Kingdom of Holfort!" Hertrude spoke with absolute certainty of what she was saying, there was no room for doubt or contradiction whatsoever.

Leon leaned over and gave a kiss on the cheek of both of the women he was about to eat with before taking his thermos and bagel. With a loud crunch Leon took a bite out of his bagel and walked away, drinking directly from his thermos as he realised that he was not only not hallucinating, but was also being followed.

"Fantastic." This was going to be a long day. "Why aren't you in a jail cell?" Leon was already walking towards where he knew that Marie and her boy toys liked to hang out.

"I am the representative of the Fanoss principality for our two countries cultural exchange program."

Leon's brow started to twitch.

"Is that what you call attacking a civilian cruise ship full of students?" Leon looked around the area. "Where are your guards?" Angelica at least had male followers following her around at the start of the school year, even if Hertrude wasn't a prisoner, which at this point she might not be, she should still have protection of some kind.

"Such things are unnecessary while I am a voluntary student at the prestigious Holfort Royal Academy of the highest learning." Hertrude stated her face completely straight, despite having only called the Kingdom Vile a few moments earlier.

"Voluntary? Is that what you call getting kidnapped by me and Angelica?" Leon asked as he spotted his target.

"Leon. We have to apologise about our-" Chris looked like he wanted to talk with Leon but he ignored him and instead grabbed Marie by the Collar of her uniform and dragged her off.

"What is she doing here!?" It was hard for Marie to not panic when met face to face with the girl capable of dropping a weapon of mass destruction on Holfort at any given point in time, she didn't even protest being rough handled.

"Learning." Somehow Leon's reply didn't give the impression that he was talking about Hertrude's 'Enrolment.'

"Count Leon Fia Blackmore you have not answered my question yet." Hertrude stated in her usual inflectionless tone of voice.

"I have problems with working for people who tried to kill me." Leon explained as he arrived at the courtyard, where he knew the first years were gathering, or rather a significant chunk of the people Hertrude tried to feed to monsters back on the cruise ship were located. "And I suspect they have a problem with going to class with people who tried to kill them too." The various people gathered together looked directly at Hertrude with murderous eyes the moment they realised who she was. "I need her alive." Leon stated bluntly to the gathered crowd. "Keep the damage limited to what the midget can heal."

"Wait why are you getting me involved with this!?" As Leon walked away and sat down on a bench to resume eating his breakfast he threw a bag of gold coins of Marie's feet, who made a sound like a feral animal as she dove to protect her horde.

As Hertrude was trying to process this new chain of events she got hit with a right hook to the face and hit the ground. After that it was a free for all, and Hertrude was the Pinata.


Queen Mylene Rapha Holfort Nee Repard,

It has come to my attention that after the assault on my person the other day the original group of knights that you had assigned me are inadequate. As such I request the right to personally choose my guard's among the ranks of Holfort's various knights, Count Leon Fia Blackmore head of the Blue Moon Knight order. I understand Lord Blackmore's duties with protecting the Saintess already leave him quite occupied, however I would like to cite the facts that the Saintess and I have largely the same itinerary, the fact that Lord Blackmore protected me from a group of ruffians my first day at school, as well as the fact that the Blackmore's are neighbours to my own principality, and thus positive relations between us is the first step to long overdue reconciliation between our two nations.

Sincerely Princess Hertrude Sera Fanoss of the Principality of Fanoss


Review Section:

RonaldM40196867: As I'm given to understand a Robe is a westerner's bastardisation of a Kimono, lacking the better material that goes into a Kimono.

RedRat8: Yes and no? I only have a questionable familiarity with Dead Space so I'm not sure that's how it works.

Guest1: Marquiss not Duke. Mylene is aware to some degree of Frampton's treachery, if she didn't need the political stability that comes from her Minister of Defence not being exposed as a traitor, as it stands she already has the perfect fate lined up for them.

Guest2: Coitus interruptus.

MogtheGnome: Then why are you reading the story?

Dakota Bruder: Not in the main series, but in the Marie Route Spinoff it's explained that what we know as the Founding Five killed a secret sixth founder, so in response the Saintess turned her signature items into phylacteries for her soul with the intent of taking over whatever poor schmuck put them on and then using them to destroy the Kingdom.