My Queen,
I write this letter with the belief that I have identified a once in a century Saintess Candidate.
Young Olivia is the commoner daughter of a gardening supply store owner located in the Lafan County, she has shown a nigh unprecedented talent for controlling animals through her magic, the same magic that she was able to use to regrow my finger after it was cut off last year during the pirate subjugation operation. I strongly recommend her for the scholarship that you have been planning, she will do quite nicely for our political reforms. At the same time: I feel terrified, both for her and of her. If her power to control others was ever used against the Kingdom, and with her so close to the Fanossian border her existence borders on biblical. For her safety and the security of the Kingdom she needs to be removed from this village immediately and begin training to control her innate powers and learn to use them responsibly.
I recommend you assign your son Julius as her guide and protector while at the academy, do whatever you can to ingratiate her to the royal family, I've already applied to replace the Etiquette Professor, hopefully a friendly face will help keep her grounded and out of trouble.
A letter from Sir Lucas of Holfort to the Royal family post decoding, written shortly before his application as a Professor was accepted
The fire pit was dug, the smell of cooking meat and wild herbs was in the air and two individuals were sitting across from each other on opposite sides of the Noble Hierarchy. Angelica wasn't pleased to learn that Leon had figured out about Olivia, though she wasn't sure if she was even less pleased that it was Rodin who figured it out after only hearing a few stories about the girl. Either way, Leon now had the task to provide an explanation of what was happening, but before that Angelica had to explain how much Olivia means to the country.
"Professor Lucas believes Olivia is the descendant of the Saintess." Angelica explained letting out a tired sigh. "It's not uncommon for people who have healing magic to share her blood, though in Olivia it appears to be particularly thick."
"Saintess? One of the Six adventurers who founded the country Saintess?" Leon asked sounding confused. "I thought you were supposed to be her descendant or something."
"Her Family founded mine." Angelica corrected sounding tired. "I descend from Ann's sister Mary but not from Ann herself." Well that made sense he supposed.
"And Olivia being this Ann person's descendant is significant because?" Angelica made a difficult face, as if Leon had just bitten a difficult target. "It wouldn't have anything to do with Olivia's innate mind control powers would it?"
"It's good that you or your uncle catch onto these matters so easily." Angelica wasn't looking forward to trying to explain that without giving away major political secrets.
"Are you or the Royal family planning on using her then?" And Angelica went back to making a difficult face.
"To my knowledge? No. However Olivia's village is very close to the border with a hostile neighbour. Both for her own, her family and the Kingdom's safety she needed to be removed from there as soon as possible."
"Left and Right had to rescue her from people that were actively trying to kill her!" Leon stated, expressing his opinion on exactly what he thought about that plan.
"Yes." Angelica agreed with that point as she took a deep sigh. "Yet another mess of Julius Rapha Holfort that I must clean up in his place. At least he did me the courtesy of providing me with a friend with the last bout of his idiocy I have to suffer."
"I'm being serious here Angelica!" Leon scolded as Angelica let out a dark chuckle.
"So am I! The fundamental fact of the matter is that Olivia is so dangerously powerful that the only real option the Kingdom has is to either recruit her or kill her!" Angelica snapped as she let out a sigh. "I don't want to have to kill her..." Angelica stared straight ahead at Leon. "I suppose similar feelings are in place concerning you."
"When did this become about me?" Leon asked wanting to back the conversation up.
"Olivia controls Humans, you Control Demons. At her full Potential Olivia will have the ability to raise an army, you on the other hand? What of your full potential, what of the monsters you can raise to fight for you? The armies you can crush beneath your feet?" Angelica stared Leon down eyes narrowed. "When I entered the academy I thought Olivia to be the singularly most dangerous being I would ever come close to. And then I met you. Olivia is cuddly in comparison."
"Olivia was already cuddly though." Angelica nodded her head agreeing with the point. "And I hate to break this to you, but all that Killing me would accomplish is making me move." Leon stated bluntly resting his chin on his fist.
"Is this supposed to be a joke?" Angelica didn't look amused by it.
"I'm saying I'd turn into a demon, get sent to Inferno for a while, then come back probably when one of my siblings summons me, and boy howdy can I guarantee I wouldn't be happy with your Kingdom when I do." Leon laughed at his own Joke, Angelica just sighed.
"So you're not even on the level of a threat we can get rid of by killing you." Angelica just let out a sigh. "You're much more dangerous than Olivia is."
"And she already has her claws in me. At least that's what Rodin thinks." Leon stated shrugging his shoulders. "So if you people do anything to hurt her..."
"I know. Believe me that isn't a plan I would be on board for either." Angelica stated as she let out a stretch. "I'm going to bed."
"I'll keep watch." Leon stated bluntly shrugging his shoulders.
Angelica glared in response.
"The excessive body heat I release when I'm unconscious means that I can't have any insulation on me when I sleep. Which means I have to sleep naked, or at the very least in my underwear." Angelica explained as if she was talking to a particularly slow child.
At this point, all of Leon's clothes suddenly unravelled exposing his wiry muscle toned frame and leaving Angelica blushing.
"The Umbra usually make our uniform out of our own hair as it's growing out of our heads. It's naturally durable and with our magic we can quickly regrow it as needed, we also use it as a medium for our demon summons which means that most of the time we spend on the battlefield is spent half naked or fully. One of the rites of passage that young apprentices have to go through is to spend entire months completely in the buff to reduce or eliminate our sense of shame, breaking this rule can lead to being removed from the order entirely, or instead being made to wear outfits that can be considered worst than being naked." At some point in time Angelica's brain seemed to shut down and her mouth was bobbing like a fish. "If you are concerned about me doing something untoward while you're asleep I'm afraid that you are going to have to do something far less Vanilla than putting on a strip tease to arouse me at this point." Leon stood up and prompted a mixture of emotions from Angelica, insulted that he didn't seem to be aroused, relieved at said lack of arousal, and genuinely impressed at the size of his... Angelica immediately squeezed her eyes shut and turned around.
"At least have the decency to turn around while I get dressed!" Angelica very carefully kept herself from shouting, she did not want to catch the attention of whatever stalks this place at night, but she was close.
"Into what?" Leon replied making his exasperation known. "You just said that you're going to be sleeping naked! Do you want me to sit on the other side of the rock all night? Or would you rather I go to another safe zone?"
"Yes!" Angelica snapped tersely.
"I'm not leaving you alone Angelica. You have at least two groups of demons already after you, if you're asleep and alone if something decides it isn't going to let the Rosemary bother them then you are dead!" Leon snapped tapping his foot. "You are the one who made both the decision that you want to be an adventurer and that you're going to be sleeping naked!"
"Turn. Around!" Breathing his exasperation Leon jumped up and sat down on the mirrored stone, Angelica caught one last sight of her would be partner before letting out a sigh of exasperation and quickly undoing the straps on her armour. It was going to be a long night.
The fact that Leon had siblings was mildly interesting to the various girls, Olivia was still off getting pushed through the wringer by Rodin, so that left Jillian, Sarah and Clarice to do their own 'adventuring.' Sarah's nose for machine oil and money led her into a large hangar bay where she saw several machines that were half assembled and hanging on chains from the ceiling. "Hello there." Sarah stated as she looked around the room.
Her sniffing around was promptly stopped by what at first glance looked like a man in a demonic suit of armour.
"Easy there Sarah." Jillian stated as she cautioned her friend away. "Whoever is in that armour is giving off a lot of magical power." As the girl explained that the armoured figure held onto his visor and pushed it up, revealing something that definitely was not a person inside.
Bianco Angelo: An experimental demonic soldier, a Bianco Angelo is a primitive demonic soul that has yet to take on a physical form sealed inside of a suit of Gilgamesh Metal.
Gilgamesh contains the unique properties of being able to turn flesh into metal and has a natural repulsive effect similar to two magnets being stuck together. The Armour itself is built with various mechanical components to enhance upon the Demon's physical and mental abilities as part of the ongoing efforts of the Umbran Clan to teach their demonic followers humanity, in this case the Bianco's regularly have the concepts of Discipline, Honour and Duty drilled into their metal skulls.
Excerpt from the Lemegeton Guidebook of Demons
Sarah got intimately close to the armour, examining the contents of the helmet she made a startling realisation, before the helmet snapped shut. The armour was already moving, a massive tower-shield resembling a beetle's shell on one arm, a long lance on the other, then just as it was about to engage in battle.
"Stand down you." Nick came in and looked at the armour annoyed. "I already completed your maintenance check, so go!" The Shield moved to the back of the armour and opened up to reveal a set of insect like wings before it flew off into the air.
"You put float-stone in the helmet?" Sarah asked confused.
"I put a super conductor in the helmet, then I froze it resulting in effectively the same phenomena as float stone." Nick already had one of his tools in his hands as he went to a chamber in the middle of the room.
"You use float stone on something like that?" Jillian asked watching as the miniature armour flew away thinking through the frivolousness of the Blackmore family.
"Not Float Stone." Nick stated opening a view port on the chamber. "Frozen Super Conductor." Nick corrected, listening to the sound of whatever creature he was keeping inside of the chamber screaming. "Still needs more time to cook." Nick closed the door as he went to another part of the workshop. "I could explain to you all the concept of a Quantum computer, a super conductor generator or a super conductor motor but honestly is there any point? It took me years to figure this stuff out, and I'm too busy for a lecture."
"What is in this thing?" Jillian asked as she walked up to the chamber but Nick stopped her.
"A demon I've been experimenting on." Nick explained as he went to his work table. "Technically it's a Fallen, which means it was originally an Angel, and thus perfect for my experiments." Clarice had zeroed in on one of the machines that were hanging off of the ceiling, the shape was quite familiar to her, the rampant air-bike enthusiast that she is, but large portions of it were wrong. For instance instead of the smooth underside platform where the bike would be able to rest there were instead wheels, as if it were to drive along the ground like a common wagon.
"This is a bike right?" Clarice's confusion only mounted the more she spoke. If this could go as fast as an air bike then on most islands it would run out of space to run on pretty quickly.
"Yeah so?" Nick looked like he was getting more annoyed than anything else.
"Why does it have wheels?" The more she spoke the more confused Clarice had gotten.
"It wouldn't get very far if it doesn't have any wheels." Nick sounded like he was talking to a particularly slow child, said conversation partner glared angrily in response.
"It can't get very far at all! Outside of the capital there's maybe a dozen islands in Holfort big enough to race a land vehicle around!" Clarice double checked what she was going to say with a second look. "And since I don't see a float stone Chamber here I can't imagine that it would fly!"
"Float stone?" Now it was Nick's turn to snort in derision. "You'd use float stone on something this frivolous?" Nick spun what suspiciously looked like a nun-chuck on his finger, before the weapon started to melt down and reformed into an eagle sized bird that was sitting on his arm. "This is Sai Fung. Fastest bird in all of Inferno."
Sai Fung: Sai Fung are the fastest species of bird in all of Inferno, should they decide to move at full speed not even a god would be able to keep track of them.
Each feather is a deadly projectile, capable of being flung at an incredible distance via the rapid movements of their wings with enough force to pierce deep into the bodies of their prey, or should they not strike their intended target wind manipulating magic imbued into each feather ensures that it will be able to 'bounce' off of the target it did hit to find the one it didn't. Even if they do strike their target, the innate magic inside of each projectile creates a vacuum in front of it, tearing through whatever soft target that it strikes and continuing to fly forward as it seeks out more enemies under the guidance of the Sai Fung.
Excerpt from the Lemegeton Guidebook of Demons
"Birds do not now nor have they ever needed float stone in order to fly." As Nick explained the mechanics of the Sai Fung's flight the bird in question was flying around the workshop. "What they do is get real fast, fast enough that the air has to move around them, and they take advantage of that." Nick held out his hand as the bird turned back into nun-chucks and landed in his hand. "As the air moves around them the current pushes on their wings, and depending on the angle that they have them set to pushes them up, or in one direction or the other lemme show you." The bike was lowered onto the ground from the ceiling chains, Nick walked over and jammed the Nun-chucks into the side of the steering rack, the entire bike lighting up as Nick revved the engine. "Open the gate!" The Bianco standing at the garage door's side began pulling down on a chain, lifting the gate up to the roof in the process. Nick revved the engine and drove the bike at top speed out of the gate, suddenly the Bike transformed, wings unfolding from the sides as the wheels were tucked inwards. A magic formation appeared in front of the main body of the bike moving air behind it at an accelerated rate, giving the wings more life and pushing the bike forward at an accelerated rate.
Cavaliere Carnival: A model of Motorcycle that was created, supposedly, by accident. After being carved off the body of its original owner a suit of Gilgamesh and Qliphoth roots were fused to a mortal motor cycle to form a unique demonic machine bearing the namesake of the original demon. Other variations have been manufactured over the years as technology improves and innovations appear, the latest model, Cavaliere Carnival, has the power to transform into a weaponized aeroplane and is more than comfortable to use on both the ground and in the Sky.
Excerpt from Rodin's Weapon Catalogue
The Girls looked over at the open air as Nicks made several excited shouts of 'Woo Hoo!' and 'Yeah!' as he nimbly danced in the air with his Air-bike. No Clarice supposed that it wasn't an appropriate term for this, it was near as she can tell a completely different machine after-all. In its base form it was like a bicycle, albeit a motorised one, but now it was gliding through the sky, a Sky-Cycle.
"If you don't want him I'll take him." Sarah had a big goofy grin on her face.
What else was she supposed to say in response to this? Here she has a genius engineer who has just managed to turn the entire Air-Bike industry on its head. Like most things, to fly in the air a air bike requires float stone in order to float in the air, here was something that in fact didn't need any kind of float stone in order to operate at all, not to mention the apparent float stone substitute that he came up with, and that was only one piece of monster powered technology in this place with some kind of strange machine in every corner.
"Spread out." Jillian summarised both the girls thoughts and their next course of action in one go. Jillian went for the work table, Clarice to the books on a shelf against the wall and Sarah started to look at the other half assembled machines that were in the workshop. The box that was underneath the table was vaguely familiar, a Armour's analytical engine, a box of gears and magical jewels. Opening up the table Jillian discovered more jewels on a slider before she closed it again. "Assuming that everything is in the correct configuration for this to work..." Jillian found the on Button, the entire table lit up and produced a three dimensional view of a battlefield, complete with airships and armours. By the looks of things it was a detailed map of a battlefield, not only that but soon the two sides soon engaged each other in battle too. "Is this what I think it is?" As Jillian was asking that question Nick flew back into the workshop, noting that his audience had already moved on with the next thing that they could play with that he had left lying around.
"Everyone's a critic." Saying that Nick dismounted from his bike and went to work on the project that he was going to get to that day before being interrupted.
Angelica was not in what you call a speaking mood arriving back in the living area of the compound. She was scammed out of the Devil Arms that she spent several hours stalking powerful demons to obtain, put on a strip tease for a guy who didn't even have the decency to get hard and now she would be returning here to assess just how disappointed she really should be. Storming through the Tavern Angelica looked at the wall of weapons that had been put into lock down, soon spotting the familiar Durga weapon.
"How'd it go with yours?" Olivia was already at the bar, Rodin having just served her a tall glass of milk.
"Some people just have to learn the hard way." Rodin had already prepared a mug of coffee for Leon as Angelica was zapped away by the lightning wreathed weapon.
"How is a weapon that uses fire incompatible with a fire mage!?" Angelica snapped as she found another weapon attached to the wall, the Rusalka club. "See what I mean?" Leon stated as Angelica was squirted away from the weapon.
"First why don't you dry-off." Rodin was about to toss Angelica a towel but she already steamed all the water off of her body. "And then I can tell you why you really went after those demons." Angelica lightly growled as she sat at the bar. "So what's the biggest question you have about the demons that you went after?"
"How does a 'Water Spirit' use fire and Ice?" Angelica asked as Rodin prepared a cup of tea for her. To Angelica's mild concern the Aroma told her it was her favourite blend, which she did not take as a coincidence.
"Ice I would hope is relatively obvious, or else we're going to be here all day." Rodin stated already cleaning another glass.
"Basic Water Magic." Angelica stated bluntly.
"The Fire on the other hand is advanced water magic." Rodin twirled around his finger and lit a flame, from which water poured out and into the glass that he just finished cleaning.
"Some kind of magic trick? You can use multiple elements." Then Angelica looked closer. "This water has no magic infused into it." Which means that unlike regular water Magic Rodin didn't force it into existence with brute magical power. "You created water from flame how?"
"Water is composed of two basic elements, one part Oxygen, to two parts Hydrogen, both gasses that are commonly found in the air. They're also highly flammable and turn into water when burned. But if you can create water out of magic, then you can create these highly flammable gasses." Rodin explained, fully understanding that he's only answered one half of the mystery of fire from water.
"But what of the spark? Surely you can't set the flame with just gas alone, you have to ignite it." Smart girl, Rodin was looking forward to seeing her and Leon's kids.
"Observe." Rodin brought over a candle and with a snap of his fingers lit the flame. "Other than 'Burning,' 'Melting' or 'providing Light' I want you to tell me what this candle is doing." Angelica's face scrunched in confusion as she looked at the candle. "While you are figuring that out I'll have a word with my god son in private." Rodin indicated for Leon to follow him into the store room for another chat.
"Well?" Leon was just as eager to make sure that Olivia wasn't going to degenerate into a megalomaniac as Rodin was. Rodin just smirked as he took out a cigar and lit it up.
"She'll be just fine. I managed to cure that nasty habit of her defaulting to mind control magic whenever she's in a high stress situation. She also has enough materials to understand the theoretical implications of her powers." Rodin looked mighty proud of himself for someone who basically spent two days trying his damnedest to give a young lady lung cancer. "For now it's up to her to decide what she's gonna do from here and the Kingdom to decide how much they're going to leave her be or not."
While Rodin was explaining the situation to Leon Angelica was looking at the candle as she let out a sigh.
"Olivia." The girl in question looked away from the book on anatomy and bio-chemistry she was reading to look at Angelica, the Milk mustache lightened the serious mood that was about to happen. "We need to talk."
"Is there something wrong Angie?" Olivia looked greatly concerned for her new friend, she even started calling her by her nickname without Angie giving the go ahead first.
"There's no gentle way of saying this. You are the person the Crown and Church intended to have declared the saintess." Olivia's face screwed up in confusion.
"I thought Marie was supposed to be the Saintess!?" Olivia asked the overwhelming implications having not sunk in yet.
"Marie is a half starved cripple, and if she was half as good at magic as she is at getting into Julius's pants there wouldn't be nearly as many problems right now as there is." Angelica snapped humorlessly at yet another reminder of all the time she wasted on Julius.
"Would things be better if I was declared the Saint then." To a degree, even Olivia had a idea of the implications behind her situation, she grew up on the stories of the founding five too, even then Angelica could tell she was already starting to feel overwhelmed.
"Absolutely not!" Angelica snapped making her opinion abundantly clear.
"But Marie-"
"Is a vile wretch, and if I have my way she will never obtain the prestige and respect she has deluded herself into thinking she deserves, not until she earns it at the very least." Angelica snapped again. "More importantly: there is nothing that the kingdom would need you to do that they can't get Marie to do, and I feel a lot less sorry for her having to do them than I would you."
"Really?" Olivia didn't seem convinced yet, so instead Angelica appealed to her humanity.
"Then let's review what would happen if you did become the saintess. First and foremost: Marie would be executed." Olivia recoiled in shock at that. "You've both failed to realise just how much influence that position holds and how much respect people hold for it. After that, you would functionally become a slave to use your power to influence and heal the masses on a constant basis, something that would make you a massive target to every other country. Last but not least, you'd have to marry at least one of the five fools, possibly all of them." Olivia's features melted into a look of horror. "That would be the bare minimum needed to salvage the political mess that Marie has left behind."
"Absolutely not!" Olivia spoke in a tone that broke no room for argument and refused to elaborate further.
"I'm so glad that you agree." Angelica looked back at the candle, after a few minutes of burning the flame had started to move down along with the drips of wax. Rodin and Leon returned from their private chat as Angelica reached the answer. "The Answer is Movement, as the wick heats the wax it moves down further on the candle." Angelica concluded after minutes of observation.
"Very good." Rodin blew out the flame. "So the Rusalka can move the water gasses in such a way that they are set on fire. Which is fantastic for them but effectively useless to me." Angelica stated letting out a sigh.
"No points for getting things half right." Rodin countered bluntly holding up an ice cube. "In magic, Fire and Ice are two separate things, but outside of magic what are they?" Olivia looked like she knew the right answer but Rodin silenced her with one look.
"Temperature." Angelica concluded having thought long and hard. "Fire and Ice at the end of the day are merely Hot and Cold. So you are implying that not only can I use my magic to make things hotter, but I can also use it to make them colder as well." Rodin smirked in the affirmative, Angelica would never be forcing an ice block into existence but water isn't the only thing that can freeze. "But how does that relate to lightning?"
"If fire is energy trying to stay still the lightning is energy being sent into specific directions." Rodin replied as if the answer was obvious. "You're going to be getting quite familiar with these topics soon enough." Rodin snapped his fingers and two latches came undone on his trophy wall, the Rusalka and the Durga weapons. "Educate her on how to use her powers, and in exchange I offer you healing and release." The two weapons soon proved themselves eager teachers.
Ultimately, Devil Arms are so much more than mere weapons. They are your partners, your mentors, and your enemies all in one.
Each Devil arm possess it's own will and desires, even as you use them as bludgeons against your enemies remember that they are working with you for a reason, and while these reasons may seem numerous on paper they at some point boil down to one thing.
The Devil Arms ultimately desire to reclaim their true demonic form, there are ways of doing this, the first is over time, as they fight a Devil Arm skims materials off of the creatures they kill to enable their healing and return to power, ideally this is other Demons but many also make do with Angels, their masters allow this as a strong weapon means a more dangerous fighter.
The second, a wielder will feed a Devil Arm magical energy as they fight, and should they completely run out of energy the weapon will be given an opportunity to seize control over their wielder's body for themselves.
Rarer still is the third way, Many a demon have resorted to negotiation as a way of regaining their former glory, for some they swear in Sheba's name to serve their new masters for the rest of their new lives, others bargain away their secrets and knowledge for their freedom.
Never forget the universal truth when it comes to Devil Arms, Today's Enemy can be Tomorrow's Friend, Today's Friend can be Tomorrow's Enemy.
Excerpt from Jeanne Blackmore's Lecture on Devil Arms and other Demonic Weapons
Review Section:
Rodvek97: Wouldn't you?
RonaldM40196867: I'm not a big Christmas fan.
Dakota Bruder: November 30th, are you saying you would like me to stop publishing until January? Angel Trigger, Angel Masquerade, and no that would be a horrible idea, it's worse than going into the heart of the enemy camp unprotected, it's like cutting open your own chest for them to rip your heart out. The series you're thinking of is My Next Life as a Villainess, something you could've figured out from Googling Katarina Claes. Marie is the worse kind of psychologist: she's a hooker, when they learn your deepest darkest desires they use them to blackmail and manipulate you into wrapping themselves around your finger.
RedRat8: I have a few ideas.
guest: Only in this chapter?