Mordred was currently in a meeting with Azazel and they were having a stare off.
"You want to make artificial sacred gears? So you could power up humans who don't have one?" Azazel was baffled by his difficult goal.
"Basically, yes. Sacred gears offer too much versatility. And using it with magic is humanity's greatest weapon. Look at how strong the hybrids are due to it." Mordred explained.
"That's a good point. Vali is going to be the strongest white dragon of supremacy. Past, future, and present. Even if you didn't train her. That's a fact." Azazel could only wonder what Grigori would be if Vali got to be with them.
"Right? So can you teach me how to make them? Anything you know." Mordred wanted to have a trade and Azazel smirked.
"What's in it for me?" Azazel had the high ground and he was thinking of messing with him a bit.
He actually liked Mordred. He was a breath of fresh air. Not too arrogant, not too aggressive, and wants to have change.
Something that is needed to have peace between the other factions. And that's what Azazel wanted.
"Well, I think this might interest you." Mordred concentrated and he showed Azazel the runes on his body.
Azazel almost choked as he forgot that Mordred is the very first sacred gear that his father made.
And he was definitely a masterpiece that surpasses all the other Longinus. After all, containing 7 evil dragons is no joke.
Not with Apophis, Azi Dahaka, and Crom Cruach being sealed inside him. Those three could rival Ddraig and Albion with some work after all.
And Azazel even knows this. Because he was able to borrow Fafnir's strength for a bit by making a contract with the dragon king.
Even imperfect and needing a lot of work, it boosted his strength twofold if he enters balance breaker with that artificial sacred gear. A dragon's essence is simply nuts.
Vritra which is the weakest dragon king by far can rival the Longinus. And he was fodder compared to the heavenly dragons.
"Ope, only a peek though. So, do we have a deal?" Mordred smirked as he saw Azazel almost drool at the thought of studying his father's Magnum opus.
"Tch, deal. You strike a hard a bargain, kid." Azazel sighed as he couldn't resist the temptation.
"Let's shake on it." Mordred smiled. "Yeah, yeah, now let me see!" Azazel's eyes turned bloodshot.
"Careful, I'm still not entirely sure if you're a pedophile. And your words can be misinterpreted." Mordred raised a brow and Azazel coughed violently.
"I already told you! I'm not into little kids. And certainly not little boys!" Azazel huffed at him and Mordred stared at him with suspicion.
"The more you deny it vehemently, the more it makes you look guilty." Mordred can never be too careful.
"Ahhh! I told you! It's a goddamned misunderstanding." Azazel sighed and he slumped down on his chair.
"Okay." Mordred showed him his runes once again and Azazel analyzed them carefully.
"Incredible... I don't have a fucking clue how to interpret this. Odin can be the only one that would be able to help me with this." Azazel marveled at the primordial runes that glowed on Mordred's skin.
"Well, I'm a user of primordial runes too you know?" Mordred dropped a bomb on him.
"Gah! You tricky little... So that's your aim? Get everything you can out of me is it?" Azazel nodded at him with respect.
"Hmph, of course." Mordred grinned and Azazel sighed again.
"Fine, what do you want?" Azazel rolled his eyes and Mordred thought about it.
"I want Grigori to make contracts with humans. Find as many people with good mana reserves to turn into mages for me." Mordred requested and Azazel raised a brow.
"We aren't specialized in that kind of thing, why not ask the devils?" Azazel was confused.
"Honestly? I don't trust them with humans, at all. Grigori too, but you can't enslave them with evil pieces. You have nothing of that sort. And sacred gear wielders are reported to you." Mordred thought about it well.
"Hmm, good logic. You definitely can't trust devils with humans. They used to ask souls for payment after all. And with the evil pieces, turning people into slaves have been rampant. That's why there's so many strays." Azazel sighed.
Something then clicked inside of Mordred's head. Stray devils are those who killed their masters or rebelled. And it's either due to mistreatment or demonic power corrupting them.
"It seems that I also need to have a little talk with Ajuka." Mordred thought about the creator of them and he wanted to unravel the mysteries of the evil pieces.
Stray devils that aren't completely lost to their demonic powers would be great soldiers. Strap them with artificial sacred gears. And you're golden.
And that's what they currently lacked, numbers. Their quality is through the roof, but soldiers that could fight battles elsewhere would be good too.
They're in a disadvantage in numbers. They're spread too thin.
"I see that you've got a little something cooking up in your head. I don't know what it is, but it must be terrifying." Azazel chuckled.
"It will be, it is just a few ideas right now. But if I'm successful, it will be a game changer." Mordred smirked.
"Okay, we accept that too. Explain what's with these runes. They look like squiggly lines to me." Azazel was stumped.
"Here's the nexus to the runes. You know the Dantians right? It's actually pretty similar. In the middle of my chest is the one that connects it all." Mordred showed the largest rune on him.
"It supplements all the others with runes that passively absorb natural energy." Mordred pointed at it.
"But won't that feed the other dragons? The planet's natural energy is tainted after all." Azazel wondered.
"There are filters for it. The runes are also connected to my magic circuits. And they flow to certain points of my body as they purify them." Sun Wukong explained the flow of natural energy in Mordred some time in the past.
And it intrigued the victorious Buddha immensely. "That's some high level shit." Azazel couldn't help but frown.
Something of that caliber could make entire continents explode. Mordred is a battery that's taking in massive amounts of energy all the time.
"Then, most of them are anti-dragon runes that give me the concept. Coupled here and there with stabilizers." Mordred finished his simple explanation because it would be too complicated to explain fully.
"I see, how about the soul parts? How do they get contained?" Azazel asked.
"They're fused with my soul. I believe that I have great affinity with dragons. Or I won't work as their prison. Yahweh used me as the main material for the sacred gear instead of other things. Like magical metals, as is the case with the heavenly dragons." Mordred shrugged.
"So the affinity and comparability of the materials also need to be there, huh? Is that why father used Ddraig and Albion's cut up bodies for their sacred gears?" Azazel talked to himself.
"Most likely, the souls or concepts will refuse the fusion process if they aren't compatible. You can't just slap on some runes on something and call it a day." Mordred already tried it on Jeanne's blade blacksmith.
Her swords didn't really change that much, even though he tried to imbue them with more holiness and light.
"Thanks, here ya go. Have fun with that." Azazel tossed him a flashdrive and Mordred nodded.
"Nice doing business with you." He teleported away and Azazel started working on his new ideas for sacred gears.
Thinking that he was trying to compensate too much and copy Yahweh. Which isn't possible in the first place. The guy created angels.
__Ajuka's Lab__
"Hello, it's nice to see you." Mordred popped inside of Ajuka's laboratory and Ajuka sighed at him.
"Listen, you can't just go inside of here without an appointment. My secretary will go crazy. So, I assume this is for business?" Ajuka sat down for a bit and slicked back his hair.
"Umu, you are smart indeed. Listen to me and don't blow me off immediately. But I want to study the evil pieces. Did you know? I have Sephiroth Graal with me." Mordred smiled at him and Ajuka blinked.
Which was already rare, as he is rarely surprised, ever.
"Damn, what other things do you have in that forest? I'm curious now." Ajuka smirked a bit and Mordred shrugged.
"Now, that would be my little secret." Mordred smiled and Ajuka sighed.
"Fine then, keep it. I'm warning you, even I'm not sure about the deepest secrets of my evil pieces. They're my magnum opus." Ajuka gave him the original blueprint of the evil pieces.
"Really? That's it? No negotiations? That was easy." Mordred was expecting some haggling.
"It's to show you good faith, please. If you ever need to counterattack... Don't rope in civilians." Ajuka requested sincerely.
"Umu, I'm not planning to do that in the first place. And don't worry about civilians being in the crossfire. I have something for that." Mordred smirked, thinking about Momiji's Innovate Clear.
She has been making great steps in controlling it. And they have been able to make a chamber in the place that slows down time ten times.
Scathach even abused the shit out of it so the weaker members of their team would be able to catch up. And the mage types received close quarters combat training.
"Is that so? Then I'll leave it to you. The rumors about your group has been ramping up. So I thought you'd retaliate." Ajuka sighed in relief.
He doesn't really want to fight Satan class dragons. And he is absolutely sure that Tiamat isn't going to let herself be protected by them, especially her son. So she would improve as well.
And he has no idea what she is cooking up. The last time that dragons had a clear objective. Ddraig and Albion rampaged hard enough to bring together three of the largest factions in the world.
A mother that it's fiercely protective? Ajuka remembered the time they were prepared to die to protect the underworld in the past. And he speculated that was Tiamat entering outrage.
Though he wondered why the underworld got away Scot free from that.
"Thanks Ajuka. And be wary, I can smell that you've had contact with the dimensional gap. I thought that you should know." Mordred gave him a service and he teleported away.
"Wha? But I haven't been to the dimensional gap..." Ajuka was confused. Then it clicked inside of his mind. He isn't the smartest Satan for nothing.
"There's a traitor among us that's lounging around the dimensional gap..." He wasn't able to notice it with his Kankara formula, because how can you analyze absolute nothingness.
"Troublesome, now I can't continue with my work until I find out who it is." Ajuka rubbed his temples.
Meanwhile, Mordred returned to the familiar forest and he went to Momiji's dimension made with Innovate Clear.
"Momiji, can you call Ise to power up the hyperbolic time chamber? I really need to work on something and it will take some time." Mordred requested of her.
"You're pretty busy, Mordred. Sure, but master Scathach has been training us hard. I want something for Erina and I." Momiji pouted at him and he thought that was understandable.
Things got easier as he got used to it. But Scathach worked him to the bone when it was time to train.
His training with her was the most intense, he didn't even do exercises anymore. They just fought in mortal combat and tried to kill each other.
His family even thought Mordred is a masochist or something. Fighting for hours on end against someone who reached the apex.
"Okay, shall I cook you up a nice meal?" Mordred smiled at her and Momiji immediately called Erina.
They valued good food a lot, being starved by the Nakiri clan. So they were obsessed with it.
"Put in some massages, we really like them too!" Momiji beamed at him and Mordred nodded.
"Consider it done." He patted her head and he was sure that if she could purr, she would do it.
He indulged them a bit, the twins were whipped and turned into punching bags due to their supposed curse. With Erina causing bad luck due to Telos Karma.
So just like with Valerie, Mordred typically gave in to their needs. Not like it was huge favors in the first place.
He then started his work and learned everything about sacred gears, along with the evil pieces.
"How do I study the evil pieces? I should have asked for a sample. Wait, I have one with me..." Mordred rolled his eyes and he took out one of the pieces.
His mutated knight and queen. And the normal rooks. "Let's see here, mutation pieces occur when the power of the king or the servant is high. But it occurs most of the time when changes in their power is sudden." Mordred read about the evil pieces.
"So my case is the first one. And I did notice that Vali and Ise's evil pieces turned into mutation ones. Must be due to their balance breakers. Lavinia and Dulio too." Mordred thought that was pretty in line with Ajuka's theories.
"But I have to say, he is truly a genius. He made evil pieces centuries ago. Yet the angels and fallen haven't been able to copy it at all." Mordred read more about it.
And the evil pieces use the crystal in Agreas; Seekvaira's family's territory.
Using the crystals from Agreas, Ajuka created a feat of science and magic. Combining the two to create the evil pieces that can reincarnate beings into devils.
Turning them approximately 97% devil. Using their DNA to transform them. And with his almost unmatched analysis skills with Kankara formula.
Ajuka puts a modified forbidden spells that changes one's soul. It was supposed to consume souls and assimilate it as your own.
But he changed it and instead fused the old soul with the new essence that came from the DNA. It is a marvelous piece of work.
"Hmm, I see. Azi Dahaka, you of course know about this right?" Mordred communicated with him.
"Kekeke, wanting to ask for some help? But too bad, you won't get anything from me." The 3rd head replied.
"You won't use it to torment some weaklings anyway." The 1st head huffed.
The two then prevented the 2nd head from telling him how it worked.
So Mordred brute forced it and analyzed the spell in the evil pieces instead.
And after some grueling analysis, he found out that it worked similar to a forbidden magic called consumption magic.
Real consumption magic worked in any type of consumption. Eating someone, draining their energy, soul, etc. But the evil pieces assimilate the original traits and add a devil's on top of that.
It was the reason why Tannin is still weak to dragon slaying weapons and the typical weaknesses of devils as well.
"So they turn mad due to the sudden change in their very essence... I guess I can work with this. Freed and the other children of the Sigurd institute is similar." Mordred was satisfied with his findings.
And the next one was how they will be armed; artificial sacred gears.
He learned that they would need tons of treasures that are rare. Something that they can't get their hands on. Being a pretty small faction and all.
Magical metals, materials harvested from magical beasts, gems that are conductive to magic. There's a myriad of materials needed.
And he was stumped, so he went back home for now.
"Mordred-nii, what's up?" Shirone was eating a burger skillfully while playing with a handheld.
"I'm in a slump Shirone, hah." Mordred sighed and he thought that road blocks were natural.
"About what?" Shirone kept on playing, but her ears twitched. Listening intently to his worries.
"I need to arm our mages and new members. They're squishy, humans can't fight against supernatural beings just because they learned how to use magic." Mordred shrugged.
"Sounds tough, it would have been fine if they could harness touki. But Sairaorg trained for years before he could do that." Shirone thought of ways on how to improve humanity's physical parameters.
Mordred is a firm believer of balancing one's self. He has seen its effects after all, with Scathach being their master.
She is unrivaled in close combat and she can also use magic perfectly. She's the bane of the supernatural beings who let their powers do the work for them.
"Tch, stupid carves. I can't get an Alatreon plate." Shirone clicked her tongue." She was already farming for hours.
"Hmm?" Morded took a look at her game. "Hunting dragons? Isn't that friendly fire?" He chuckled and Shirone chortled.
"I have to make armors and weapons with their materials nya, RNGesus hates me though. And I refuse to let Erina give me good luck." Shirone had a gamer's pride.
"Armors and weapons... Materials from dragons." Mordred suddenly went quiet.
"Thanks Shirone, you gave me an idea." Mordred kissed her forehead and she froze.
"Nya! Nyanyanya!" Shirone didn't know what exactly happened. "O-one more time?" But he was already gone.
"Damn it nya... I thought that RNGesus has smiled upon me." Shirone got frustrated and she started hunting relentlessly for materials instead.
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Thanks for reading everyone, internet was down as well. Stupid companies and their perpetual lateness. Anyways, ciao.