Two years has passed during Shin's time attending the Angel School. Within this timeframe, many things occurred.
This includes the time when Tapris attended the Angel School a year ago, Haniel turning 2 years old, and many more. Irina and her family moved out of Kuoh Town, resulting in him trying to soothe Ichika, Yae, Akiko, and even the normally mature Rana and the energetic Aoi.
Gabriel, Zelel, and Griselda became even more busy, resulting in them rarely visiting. This also made Shin unable to visit the girls as he can only write to them from time to time now.
According to Daniel, who also have quite a high position among Angels, they were successful on conducting two of their plans. They didn't tell Shin about them being successful on taking custody of Cleria Belial and Masaomi Yaegeki. They agreed on being under the custody of the ninjas that Metatron was acquainted with and wait for the 'Peace Treaty' that Michael plans on proposing to take place.
At that time, Gabriel, Zelel, Griselda, Vasco Strada, along with the other trustworthy people of the church was successful on raiding the base of operations of what seems to be called the 'Holy Sword Project'. When they arrived at the scene, the main culprits are nowhere to be found. It seems that someone among their ranks tipped them about the incoming raid and managed to escape.
They managed to rescue the kids who were on the verge of dying due to poisoning. But, according to the kids, there was one kid who managed to escape. They tried to search for the kid but to no avail. The kid was already nowhere to be found when they tried to search the place.
Based on the information that they gathered during that operation, it is either there is a mole in the church or maybe even in the ranks of the Angels who came with them, or that the suspects somehow found out about them raiding this facility. Because of this, Gabriel swore to immediately find a way to fix the system and the loopholes created in it.
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During his time attending the Angel School, Shin learned about many things. This includes the knowledge about the currency of this world.
He learned this at the very first day of school, during lunch. Before entering the school canteen, they were given some coins that are to be their 'daily allowance'. This was given by the school and not by their parents. According to Gabriel, the fees at the Angel School are totally waved off as they wanted all the Angel kids to learn for free.
But, even though all the necessities inside the school is free, they are still given some 'daily allowance' to make them learn prudence. Aside from that, they are also free to pick what they want inside the store. There are no store owners or clerks inside, making it free for the children to take what they want without others knowing it.
But, there's a catch, if you pick up an item, you need to 'pay' at the counter with the exact amount that is written at the price tags. Cheating will give them a demerit as the teachers will know whether you honestly paid for the item or not.
During his two years inside the school, Shin would always be inside the library when he is free. He would read the books in it to advance study, resulting in him now being 'too advanced'.
The principal, which is an old man with a beard named Sammiel, offered him to graduate early. But, even though he wanted to, he also don't want to take the offer. He wanted to take it since he wanted to study under Vasco Strada who is in Vatican but he also didn't want to because he will get kicked out from Heaven.
But, turns out that it was just an unfounded worry. Gabriel told him that he can actually stay in Heaven until he reached 15 years old. At first, it was decided that he can stay in Heaven until his schooling is over, but they didn't expect him to be recommended for early graduation at such a young age. Thus, they made it so that he can stay in Heaven until he turns 15.
Shin thanked Gabriel and the other Seraphs after learning about this, promising to help Heaven if ever they needed him in the future. He is a man of his word and he will certainly repay them in the future.
Now, some might be wondering why Shin wanted to stay in Heaven for a longer time? Well, that's because of his racial trait. According to his bloodline knowledge, he can gain another tail after filling up the 10 million strands of fur in his tail with mana. This is also the reason why Elemental Foxes have inexhaustible amounts of mana.
Elemental Foxes can shorten the time they needed to cast magic due to them being technically made out of mana and also strengthen their magic by a few folds due to them being adept at constructing, analyzing, and modifying sigils. These 'sigils' are, according to his bloodline knowledge, the main components that consists magic scripts, also known as magic circles.*
That's not all. An Elemental Fox is innately gifted in using magic, proving that they're really almost akin to a being made purely out of mana. Let's take Shin's tail for example. It's base is white in color while it turns golden from the middle of it to its tip. This just represents that Shin has an affinity to Light element right now.
By filling up his tail with the 'neutral mana' in the surroundings, Shin can unlock a new tail while also unlocking a new Elemental Affinity. But, that's not all that Shin can get by filling his tail with mana. According to the knowledge that he received through bloodline knowledge, Shin learned that he could also gather what seems to be called 'elemental mana' to create a thing called 'elemental bead' inside their body.
This so called 'elemental bead' can strengthen their spells, according to the element of the 'elemental bead' while also shortening the casting time and the time needed to master a spell of the said element. But, a major drawback is how slow he seem to gather mana and it depends whether the place is also dense with mana.
According to his senses, Heaven has a denser amount of mana than in the Human world. This made Shin want to stay here for a longer period of time. Besides, he also didn't want to leave Raphiel, Gabrielle, Tapris, Haniel, and his parents.
"According to the amount of holy power I can control, I can now probably awaken my gear," Shin murmured.
It is a holiday right now so he don't need to worry about attending school. He had already tried to awaken his sacred gear in the past but he was met with failure. It seems that his sacred gear is kind of different. Aside from 'desire' he also need to awaken it by channelling energy to it.
"Once I awaken it, I will apply for an early graduation and ask Big Sis Griselda to bring me along with her to the Vatican. I want to study swordsmanship under Mr. Vasco Strada. Then, maybe I could ask Metatron-sama about training under the ninjas," Shin said after pondering a little.
He knew that awakening the sacred gear will result in some kind of light show or fanfare so he opted to make the excuse of visiting the Hyoudou house. There's a nearby forest there so he can try to awaken it there. There's currently no governor to the place so no one is really monitoring Kuoh right now.
"Still, the autumn breeze is really quite chilly. Guess that's a given since it's already October in this human world. I haven't visited this place for almost 3 months after my seventh birthday," Shin murmured.
After walking for a few minutes, making sure that the Angel who escorted him to here is already away, Shin started to channel his holy power and the 'desire' that he had. That desire was the surprising amount of desire for battling strong opponents.
"Come on! Please work!" Shin shouted.
But, nothing happened. Seeing this, Shin seems to have deflated as he thought that he will finally unlock his sacred gear after a long time of training. It seems that he was wrong.
"Hoho~. It seems that there's a little guy here who is lost inside the woods!" a sinister sounding voice said.
"What are you doing here, kid? And, I felt that someone around here emitted a huge amount of holy power. Was that you?" the voice said.
When Shin turned around, he saw a man, no, a creature with what seems to be a bear's(?) body. It does resembles a bear but was also more eerie and disgusting than a bear.
"Who are you? A stray devil?" Shin asked to confirm.
"Uhuh, ThAT's RigHhT! I'm aAaa LOww clAaSs dEevilL of tHe Astaroth ClaAanN!" the low class Devil said.
After confirming the creature's identity, Shin made a shuriken out of his holy power.
"Then, I guess you are here because you are hiding from your pursuers?" Shin said.
"That's RiGghhTt!" the low class devil said.
Hearing this, Shin's eyes sharpened.
"Then I guess I can fight you without reserves," Shin said.
In truth, he felt like his blood has been itching for a fight ever since. Now that he saw someone to take this out on, with legitimate reason to beat him up, Shin felt quite pumped up.
Shin covered his whole body with holy power and threw that shuriken at the stray devil's eyes. When the stray devil saw this attack, it dodged it by leaning backwards.
*swoosh*
*sizzle*
The shuriken passed by its cheeks, creating a small wound. This made the stray devil enraged as it looked at Shin's previous location, only to find out that he's no longer there. Seeing this, the stray devil was even more enraged as it began to roar furiously.
"RoOoOooOaAaaARrrR-"
But, right when it was roaring, the back of its knee and its kneecap was sliced while some sizzling sounds can be heard from the wounded part of its body.
"GrruuUuaAaarrRrr! You stupid son of a b****! I wilLL sliCe yOu to piECes wiTh mY clAwS!" the stray devil said in rage.
It tried to reach out but to no avail, the cut that Shin made on the back of his legs and kneecap prevented him from using his lower body to its full potential. When it wanted to once again shout out of rage, it suddenly heard a bone chilling voice behind it.
"Try to repeat that annoying roar once again and I will surely cut you all over your body that you can't even move a muscle with my sword made of holy power," Shin said with a very cold tone that he didn't know he had.
Looking at his small hands, Shin finally understood why he feels so eager to go to battle.
'As a race that has an animal as its origin, I still have the instincts that follows the law of the jungle,' he thought.
He slowly let his fox ears and tail show up as his pupils turned into vertical slits. His small fangs grew sharp as it slightly protruded out of his mouth.
He tried to concentrate and focus on trying to tap on his hidden potential and awaken his sacred gear. Now that he's feeling the rush of being in a battle, he thought that this time, it will work.
After leading his holy power to cover his body, it gathered in his legs and feet before a bright light covered his whole legs and feet. Then, a round spherical object formed on top of his kneecap as it released a blinding amount of azure colored light. Shin shielded himself from the light, finding it too bright.
When the lights faded, Shin felt like something is covering his whole legs and feet. When he looked at his feet to check on it, Shin saw a greaves. It was a kind of metallic greaves that reached until his knees. It is jet black in color with some slight azure engravings. It has blood red colored jewels on the kneecap part. The azure colored part would glow intermittently, making it look quite beautiful.
"I finally awakened it?" Shin murmured.
As if to answer Shin's query, the blood red jewel shone as it flashed continuously.
「Void Greaves! Final Liberation!」
Then, he heard a voice that sounded sweet and childish at the same time.
「I just lay dormant inside the sacred gear for a short while and I woke up seeing you engaged in a battle right after? It seems that I didn't choose my host wrongly~!」 the voice said in a giddy manner.
"Good morning, partner! You finally woke up!" Shin said excitedly.
「Hahaha! Thank you, partner! You can call me Yuki, you know?」 Yuki said.
"Yeah, I guess I'll start calling you that once again! I just wanted to try calling someone partner for once is all~!" Shin said while scratching his cheeks.
「Ah, Shin, it seems like we need to talk at a later date. I have a reward for you as well for awakening me,」 Yuki said.
Right when Yuki finished talking, a loud and deafening roar resounded right near Shin's ears.
"RoOOoOOOoAaaAAaRrrRrrRR!"
Hearing this, Shin was immediately annoyed. He immediately ran towards the stray devil as he summoned a sword made of holy power and started to slice the stray devil in the joints of its feet.
He didn't stop at this as he immediately gathered a large amount of holy power at his sword made of holy power and readied to slice it in half. But then, the jewels on his [Void Greaves] shone as Yuki's voice resounded.
「Amplify!」
Right when the voice resounded, the holy power that Shin injected doubled as the sword visibly doubled in size. He then brought down his sword towards the now shivering stray devil.
"No! Please don't kill me! I-I... NoooOoooOooO!"
Shin didn't pay attention to its pleadings as he is thoroughly pissed off by it. Understanding that Shin isn't listening to him at all, it tried to bring down both of his huge and burly arms towards Shin.
Right at this moment, Shin's sacred gear glowed once again as it announced,
「Accel!」
When it said that word, a huge amount of what seems to be lightning erupted from Shin's body and surrounded him. Clad in lightning, Shin felt like the stray devil was so slow that he could easily dodge its attack. And so, he did.
*swoosh*
Shin ran towards the stray devil's back, visibly faster than his previous speed by a few folds. While running, he slashed his huge sword made of holy light to the unguarded flank of the stray devil. Then, he used the force of that slash to pivot and turn in a complete 360° angle.
With the centrifugal force that he built up and the wild lightning that clads his body covering the holy sword as well, Shin brought down his sword towards the stray devil. The diagonal slash cut through the stray devil's fur and skin like a hot knife through butter, dissecting it.
*slash*
*BOOM*
*crackle*
Midway through his slash, Shin willed his sword made of light to transform into countless needles and scattered it all around the stray devil's body. Along with the loud crackling of thunder, Shin was blinded by the bright light that engulfed the stray devil.
When the light faded, Shin only saw a huge crater. There's no stray devil in sight as the creature vanished without any trace left.
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A/N:
• Sigils have two kinds, Architect sigils and Control sigils. Architect sigils determine the phenomenon and the Control sigils maximize its effects. These two are needed to form a 'script'.
• Scripts are what we all know as a 'magic circle'. These scripts are formed by combining Architect and Control sigils.
• Scripts are used in forming a physical phenomena known as magic.
• Magic referred to the skill in manipulating mana to perform physical phenomena.
• More in-depth details will be explained at a later chapter. There's a designated chapter explaining these things about magic.
• Neutral mana is the unattributed mana that is present throught whole universe. It would always be present, no matter where that world, space, or place is.