Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya, Solitary heart and 8kagi
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Badum
Did you know?
On average a normal healthy person could only stay in total silence, hearing nothing but his heartbeat for about an hour before showing signs of insanity.
Badum
Now taking away one's sight, touch, smell, and taste, leaving you with nothing but your thoughts. How long would one person last in this situation? Half an hour? Fifteen minutes? Even less? Who knows, I couldn't even remember if I've been in this state for minutes or hours at this point.
'Just this morning I was wonderingwhether or notI was in a hentai world, but this situation gives me a strong wuxia-cultivation world vibe.'
I read enough of those stories to know that being stuck in a dark room for a hundred years was just a regular Friday for the protagonist. Thankfully I was not a protagonist.
For some reason I felt like I just jinxed myself.
Badum
This heartbeat seemed weird because it wasn't mine in the first place.
'I can't even hear my own, let alone feel any part of my body.'
I was in a strange yet disturbingly familiar scenario right now. I did not know why, but I did feel that I have been in such a situation before, but I couldn't remember how.
Badum
It was a heavy feeling.
Because of the sheer force behind each beat, my entire being trembled. It couldn't have come from a person. Some may believe that it might have originated from a giant, while others believe it came from a god.
Badum
But, for me, the answer was fairly straightforward. You might wonder why. Well... because I was standing right in front of the source of the heartbeat, which was neither a giant nor a god. But something more unassuming, something no one would expect for a—heart?
Resembling a red crystal-like sphere, surrounded by a dark violet mist with a hint of black in the middle, just floating there.
'Now isn't that ominous.'
I circled the red orb for a bit, inspecting every aspect of it, out of curiosity. It was clear, and the inside looked like it was filled with mirrors. No impurities could be seen inside, in a way it looked even more pristine and mesmerizing than any ruby I ever witnessed on the internet.
"It really is beautiful."
Badum
"Why thank you; I'm flattered that you find my soul so appealing."
The ruby-like gem lit out of nowhere, followed by a heavy, gruff, and menacing voice emanating from it. In dread and shock, I took a quick back step. Out of reflex, I summoned [Delete Field] as a way to protect myself from whatever just happened.
"Wait, did this gem just say something?!"
"Hahahaha!" The voice bellowed in laughter, probably by seeing me panic and finding my actions funny.
'Now isn't this just great, even a random floating red gem is making fun of me.'
"You have a keen sense of observation, partner, and I would prefer you call me by my given name." It first said sarcastically, before asking me to call it by a name.
"Your name?"
I just met this thing, and it already thinks we somehow know each other? But I had a feeling in my gut, albeit a faint one, that I knew who or what this thing was.
"By your silence, I can tell that you don't know who I am. That's a shame, I have been fighting alongside you the entire time, giving you my powers and even protecting you in the worst of times. Come on, partner, think harder, you know me." It said confidentiality.
The feeling I had before grew stronger with each moment. That was when I felt a small pulse from my Sacred Gear, the more I thought about it, the clearer my answer became. Rias did inform me before about how sacred gears were made and how their powers came to be.
"Vritra,"
"Hahaha, you finally realized it, partner."
This time the room changed no longer was I in a dark and empty space but standing on a burned field, surrounded by black flames. The sky was covered by the specter form of a giant snake-like beast. Its large serpentine body flew in the sky, covering every inch of it thus blocking out the sun.
A large head stared down at me with its two red eyes. "Indeed it is I,Vritra, the Prison Dragon! I am one of the five great dragon kings who have the power to rival ultimate-level beings and Lucifer himself! I had my body sliced into many pieces and all of them sealed into sacred gears. Though I am only a fraction of what I used to be. I can still rival any god or dragon arrogant enough to look down upon me." Vritra's voice made my entire body tremble, I felt that I could collapse at any moment, but I held on stubbornly.
"HikigayaHachiman, as this era's 'Black Dragon King' we have much discuss."
The dragon descended from the sky, making the air itself rumble, and the earth shake and crack with his landing. My mind went to what he just called me a moment ago,
"Black Dragon King?" A pretty grandiose-sounding title and a trouble magnet for sure.
'All I did was fall asleep, why did that lead me here?'
.At this point, I was resigned to the mysterious power of this world messing against me. I looked up to thebeas-noVritra, he looked more like an eastern dragon rather than a 4 legged western dragon.
Heck, even the former had claws or something.
Vritra instead had tentacles and a long snake-like body with smooth scales.
'Ew, tentacles, reminds me of Chtuluu.'
"I can sense your confusion with my appearance, as you may have guessed I look different from my fellow Dragon Kings."
No, I hadn't met any of them yet, so I didn't know what they even look like in the first place. I heard about Tiamat from Rias, who apparently lived somewhere in the Familiar Forest, and from her general description he got from the many times, she had the application of a western dragon.
"Kind of, I know that you originated from the Hindu Pantheon. It even mentioned how you were defeated by the hands of Indra."
Grooooooowl
Shit, I didn't mean to offend the guy. But before I apologized Vritra cut in before me.
"That jealous, narcissistic, poor excuse of a god! The mere mention of his name still brings up painful memories. May he one day die, gutted by the veryAsurashe has slain!"
His angered voice thundered across the sky, summoning both a storm and the rain. He then lowered his head until we were eye to eye.
"I commend you for having done some research on my past, many chose to ignore that part and focus more on my abilities. Your actions prove to me that you are a man of great wisdom."
Well sorry to say this pal, but I mostly did it out of boredom when I was eating my lunch. If that is wisdom, then I won't state otherwise.
"Why am I here and why didn't you talk to me before?" I first used [Delete Field] about five years ago, I even created a variant ability. So why after all that, did he decide to talk to me now?
"You must understand, partner. Unlike most sacred gears, I am but a piece of the originalVritra, I am wounded, broken and my soul is weak. To preserve whatever I have left, I hibernate for long periods, until my host has enough energy to awaken me. It does not help that your soul is an unusual one as well."
What? My soul was weird? Guess it was related to my reincarnation in this world. I hope that he wouldn't scout my memories and find out about my true origins. That was not something I wished to share with anyone anytime soon.
"How is it unusual?"
I knew the answer but wanted to confirm it.
"Well...for someone so young, you possess a rather mature soul."
Yep definitely because I was close to my 30's and my soul reflected that.
"The other issue came from the fact that I could not fuse with it properly. Before you fret over something unnecessary, know that our souls have fused in perfect harmony now, or else you wouldn't be here. The obstacle I faced with your soul was for its foreign nature, it looked different from the human hosts I had before." he explained it to me.
'It's because I am not from this world, to begin with.'
So it was like my soul was a USB-C port while Vritra was used to souls that came with a USB-3.0 port. So he had to adapt.
'A stupid sounding analogy but one that makes kinda sense to me.'
"So where does this leave us at? Will I be able to grow stronger faster from now on? Can I use other abilities from the sacred gear?"
If I gained any benefit from this, might as well know of it immediately.
"I'm asking you this becauseI'm starting to fall behind my friends in real life. I cannot contest against a devil's physique and its many natural gifts."
"You ask many questions, while I have yet to ask one. But I will humour you, take it as a welcoming gift from me. Now listen well, first of all, it is not up to me to choose how you are to live out your life. I am but a mere tool, a weapon, so it's all your choice. Second of all, sacred gears were created by Yahweh for humans to have the means to defend themselves against supernatural threats. This gift works in accordance with the wielder's willpower and desire to grow in strength. You have already shown so by creating the Restrict ability without my aid. Something not many could boast about. And while in combat, two minds are better than one."
That's good, meaning that I could come up with more variants than I initially thought of. And having a thousand-year-old advisor did not seem too bad. I already talked a lot with myself to the point of dazing off.
Now I have an excuse!
But there was still one matter that worried me.
"You called me this era's 'Black Dragon King', but I can't become one, sorry. I don't have the drive to rise above the masses or rule over others. I don't even have your entire set, I'm pretty sure others have it already, and I can't just take their sacred gear away from them, can I? All I want is to live a normal life with my friends and family without the constant danger of a random villain appearing out of nowhere."
I told him my intentions. I did not have the drive of a generic anime protagonist, I was a realist, not a dreamer.
Vritra shook his head, "I'm afraid that is no longer an option for you, partner. The world is a cruel place and more so for powerful entities like me, just look at how I died. The moment you came to be born in possession of my gear, especially [Delete Field] which houses my original soul, unlike my other sacred gears that only have my will powering them. Dragons by our very nature instinctively attract other powerful beings, it is a natural law and from that, we gain numerous powerful enemies. You have already attracted the attention of a devil and a fallen, it is an inevitable reality. And concerning my other parts, they will come to you, the stronger you become."
"And if a poor soul who possessed one of them, someone who was less attuned to one of my parts, were to face off or even be close to you then the gear...will rip itself out of his own body. Again, forgive me partner, but that is just how reality works."
I already started to feel sick in my stomach, the extraction of a sacred gear was practically a death sentence to its host. I've read many research notes on this matter; none so far have ever succeeded in keeping the host alive.
"My presence is both a boon and a curse to you, partner, you must learn to adapt."
Adapt huh, guess I would just continue doing what I have been doing so far.
A single clear cristaline sound reverberated around the room
The world suddenly started to dim. The billowing flames started to die out and Vritra's shape became even more distorted and transparent.
"It seems that we have run out of time. You held for a long time, but our souls have reached a limit. It is time for us to depart. See you soon,HikigayaHachiman."
Before I could even say something I found myself falling towards the abyss.
'Again, this feels familiar!'
The feeling of falling into the deep void almost brought upon me a memory of which I never remembered having. But it soon disappeared as fear took hold of my heart from the fall.
"Waaaahhhhh!"
{Break}
-Hachiman's bedroom, Morning-
I woke up agitated, taking heavy breaths while covered in sweat and my heart beating at a hundred miles an hour.
'A dream?' I thought. 'No, it was too real to be a dream.'
I ran my hand through my sweaty hair, making me feel very uncomfortable. "Right, I did not shower yesterday." The fight really knocked me out yesterday.
As I tried leaving my bed, my hand came down the edge of my bed to find support. Instead, I gripped a soft yet firm material. 'Oh.' It was round and bigger than my hand. I squeezed my hand out of instinct, Moan~
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'Oh, no'
My head mechanically lowered to where my hand was, and I was greeted to the sight of a naked Rias Gremory, her crimson hair all tangled up on my bed and my right hand grabbing one of her breasts while she moaned sensually from my touch.
'Why...'
Someone knocked on the door.
"Hachiman-kunit's time to wake up! I also need to check up on you to make sure you're not injured." said Akeno as she opened the door.
'Why me…'
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The next 5 chapters of Snafu, Harry Potter and my 3 other Fate fics (Fate Coiling Sword with 3 chapters, A Fake Familiar Reborn with 3 chapters and To love a sword having 4 chapters) are already available on my P@treon. With 4 more Broly chapters at /NimtheWriter. Also, I post monthly commissioned arts on each story, already posted a few on an Archer's Promise, Broly and Snafu.