Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.
You Got Power To Control
Joshua had half-expected to have some deals thrown his way when he agreed to let Sairaorg tell his people about him. Granted, not immediately, but after a whole week, he'd thought he'd at least have heard something. Maybe someone with questions about if he could do something or his capabilities and such.
He hadn't heard anything though.
That, however, was perfectly ok for him. It might be unexpected, but it was good too. He might be alright with the Bael Devil but anyone else would be treated with the same suspicion he'd shown the man when they first met. Well, not that bad, since Sairaorg would be vouching for them, but it would still be something that would have him on edge and he preferred to do without that.
'Anyway,' He shook his head, turning away from the Devil flier that had reminded him of that situation. Joshua had taken to carrying the thing around in case his Underworld dwelling friends had anything to tell him. 'Focus, Joshua,' He thought to himself, taking a deep breath in.
Taking a deep breath in, he licked his lip in anticipation. 'Test number seven,' He counted in his head, rubbing his fingers on the card in his hand. A second later, the thing lit up as a magic circle projected from it.
Then, out of it came a knife. Contrary to what would usually happen though, it didn't fall from it. Instead, it flew from it, straight ahead to where the circle pointed. Joshua couldn't help but grin from ear to ear as he heard the thud of the blade hitting the tree in front of him
"Project Gate is… a success," He mumbled to himself.
"Congratulations," Jeanne clapped from close by. On her shoulder stood Margalo, chirping something that probably meant nothing. At least, it didn't mean much to Joshua, but considering how low level his Bond with her was still, that didn't say much.
"Thanks, I really wanted that to work," He said, looking at the dagger embedded pretty deeply on the wood. "I know I have other options for ranged attacks, and even with the knives, but having this option could be useful at some point." 'And I guess I couldn't resist making a Gate of Babylon in real life too,' He added to himself, withholding a chuckle.
"Well, now that that's done, what's gonna keep you up at night now?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, the illusion circles are pretty much done. I do still have to find a way to deal with the smell issue though," He mused out loud as he walked up to the tree and retrieved his weapon. "As for what'll replace this project… Well, I still have ward ideas that I want to try out, for sure."
"Hm," She hummed, taking the bird from her shoulder in her hands. "I'm still trying to see if I can make several swords with an effect that makes them work together," She told him, smiling softly at the bird in her hand. There was no doubt in Joshua's mind about which animal was her favorite.
Which was why she pouted when Margalo chirped something and managed clumsy attempts at steps towards him. Chuckling to himself, he walked up to them and picked up the small thing. Frankly, he was almost afraid to hold her, most of the time. She was so small and fragile looking…
"Missed me, girl?" He asked the little thing. "Have you eaten yet?" The energetic chirping he received was answer enough. "Cheshire!" He called and, sure enough, his first familiar appeared soon afterwards carrying a cricked in her mouth. "Thank you," He said, taking the insect from her mouth and feeding its legs to little Margalo.
"She really eats a lot," Jeanne commented fondly. "Can't wait to know for sure what she is."
"Mhm," Joshua hummed, eyes fixed on the little bird. "So, how's everyone else doing?" He asked as he pushed his training to the side and walked around the clearing, to find Morag and Nagini. "Everything going well? Besides the sword ideas?" He added that last part turning back to Jeanne, who nodded with a pleased expression.
"Yes, I'm trying to fight more of the dummies but I have to underpower them for the moment," She said with a wry expression.
"Hey, it's just a matter of getting used to having more stuff to keep track of. It's like learning to fight all over again, you'll get better," He reassured, pushing against her shoulder with his.
"Thanks," Jeanne nodded, then she looked to the side. "Morag really likes her poisonous web," She said, amused at the sight. Joshua understood though. After all, there was a very considerable amount of webbing with a purple shine where he'd left the spider.
"She sure does," He mumbled with a shake of his head before finding the little Black Widow. He could only smile as he saw her waving her leg at him. "Having fun, eh Morag?" He asked, before giving Margalo back to Jeanne. Then, he crouched down next to the webs, carefully keeping away from the threads and extending a finger for her to join him at least for a moment.
The spider did so eagerly.
However, that was not all.
Immediately something happened, something that he'd almost been looking forward to, really. Energy was sapped from him and he had to stop himself from clenching his fingers around Morag. He took a deep, calming breath in as his eyes widened.
He was pretty sure he heard Jeanne say something, but he didn't have the presence of mind to understand the words. He could only focus on himself, his energy and Morag. The spider's legs twitched occasionally, but otherwise remained as it was… Besides the fact that it was getting bigger, that is.
Eventually, the changes stopped.
[Morag
Rank - D]
"Good job, girl, you are amazing," Joshua praised, scratching the now not-so-little spider's thorax. He could almost feel how pleased she was as Morag squirmed excitedly. "You really are," He mumbled, happy but drained because of whatever that process was.
'What's new though?' His sluggish mind wondered, calling for Appraisal's information.
[Race: Magical Spider]
[Magical Spinneret
The user can produce magically enhanced silk.]
'Huh, no shapeshifting skill but this one changed…' He noted. It wasn't a great change screenwise, but it was an important one in terms of utility. How strong would Morag's threads be now? Would it affect how effective Poison Web was?
"Absolutely marvelous, Morag," He praised again. Next to him, Cheshire shifted into her lynx form and meowed something. It sounded to Joshua's ears like she was praising the spider too, which was heartwarming by itself. "Get Nagini, could you, girl?" He asked, giving the feline a head scratch and a smile before she left to do just that.
"Congratulations, Morag," Jeanne said, beaming at the arachnid as she crouched next to him. 'When did I sit on the ground?' Joshua wondered then, just noticing. He had probably fallen backwards onto the ground while Morag changed.
His mind refocused on Morag then, as the spider started walking over his hand and towards his arm. She didn't stop there, but continued all the way up, over his neck and unto his hair. Joshua chuckled to himself, looking up as if he would find her that way.
"I think you are a lot more noticeable there now, girl," He commented, hearing Jeanne giggling behind her hand.
"You know. I used to be scared of spiders in general, now I find this picture more adorable than anything else," The girl commented with a fond smile. "Nothing normal about any of this at all."
"I think we are forgetting what normal even means," Joshua said, leaning back and placing his hands behind him for support. "I don't think I even want things to be normal anyway."
"Now, there's a thought," Jeanne replied with a fake-thoughtful expression.
"See this, Nagini? You are being left behind," He pointed out when he saw his remaining familiar slithering their way. His expression told the serpent that he didn't mean anything by it though. Even without changing, she was probably just as dangerous as the other two, really. After all, a Black Mamba was a lot more deadly than a normal cat or a spider as it was. This had only evened out-
He didn't get to finish that thought, because when Nagini reached him, she wrapped around his arm. Immediately, he felt it. The drain, the focus, Nagini. The change had started again, this time with his snake familiar.
Her body grew larger and suddenly she wasn't only on his arm. Instead, she was on his arm and his chest. Her scales weren't as smooth as they had been either, having gained a slight bulge and roughness to all of them. With his mind still out of it and his magic reserves almost empty, he ran his fingers over her scales almost mindlessly. It felt… hard. Nagini had gotten a lot more resistant, it seemed.
"I was joking about them leaving you behind, you know?" Joshua mused weakly, his smile growing when he felt the snake's head pushing against his cheek. She was bigger than before, but still a softie inside, it seemed.
'Huh, I'm on the ground,' He realized. Nagini's body made for a nice bed/pillow, he noticed too. 'Not really surprised…'
"Josh? Are you ok?" Jeanne asked and he almost jumped. His scrambled mind had forgotten she was there. "Joshua?" She called, and he tried to focus on her. She looked concerned, pale.
"I'm good… only a little… tired… weird," He tried to explain, but his brain couldn't quite come up with the right words. Things slipped right out of his grasp as soon as he tried to string a thought together.
"I'll… I'll prepare some tea, yeah?" Jeanne told him softly, sounding hesitant. 'Why's she like that?' He wondered, confused. "Look after him, please," She added, this time to Cheshire, who simply nodded. 'Why'd she say that? I'm fine…'
"You are so big, Nagini," He commented, his lost expression turning to a smile once more as his eyes found the ones of his snake familiar. They looked so… Her eyes that before shone the slightest bit with the light were once pitch black pits. It was entrancing, really, he could stare at them fore-
Cheshire hissed something and Nagini turned towards her, replying in kind. Where the cat sounded annoyed, even angry, the serpent was soft, her head hung low. It looked like she was sad, thus Joshua wrapped one arm around her, rubbing her neck.
"Everything ok, Nagini? What's the matter, Cheshire?" He asked the two of them. Both looked away. 'Weird…' Morag was still, he had forgotten she was there too, although, to be fair, with her not moving at all and everything that happened, it was nor surprise, really.
'Speaking of… I haven't checked…' He mused, looking back towards Nagini. 'Appraisal…'
[Race: Jinx Snake]
[Eyes of Misfortune
The user can disrupt the energies of targets with their gaze.]
'So, that's what's up with her eyes…?' He wondered then. Strange, it didn't exactly feel like that when she looked at him. Then again, he seemed to be a little out of it, really…
"Uh," He mumbled dumbly when a cup appeared in front of him. 'Oh, Jeanne,' Joshua realized a second later.
"Come on, Josh, sit up and drink a little," She said softly, gently pushing him up by his shoulder. He followed, his shaky hands taking the offered drink and doing just as she said. "Good, good. Now, could you close your eyes? Focus inside, yes?" She continued speaking and he followed along. This was Jeanne, after all. He could trust her. Jeanne was nice. "Find your energy, your magic. Just… feel them. Focus on them."
'Oh, meditation? I can do that,' Joshua thought, concentrating on the exercise that he'd been doing for months.
[}-o-{]
"Never a dull moment with you, is there, Joshua?" Sairaorg asked, looking between Morag and Nagini. Unsurprising, really, what with the change they'd gone through.
They'd all made a mental note, after he recovered from their change, to never go through more than one shift in such a short time. If it'd left him like that at the time, he didn't want to think about how it would be if they went through it again. It'd most probably use much more energy, after all. Granted, that was assuming there would be more changes, but he was taking no chances at all.
"Sometimes I wish I could have dull moments, man," Joshua replied with a half-smile that was more of a grimace. Then he cracked his neck, took a deep breath in and started his work with the wards with a sense of familiarity. It'd be weird, to go months without setting wards like this once he was done with all of Sairaorg's cities.
"So, I've been talking with some friends and relatives of mine," The Devil told him as he worked, leaning against a wall in front of him.
Joshua simply hummed, listening to him and barely aware of Jeanne and Kuisha talking somewhere behind him. Probably about Margalo or maybe even just idle chatting. It seemed that his adopted sister had struck up a friendship with the Queen, which he… didn't know what to think of, really. Even with his own weird friendship with Sairaorg, all of it sounded strange to him.
"They seemed interested," The other man in the room continued. "I got their fliers to give to you, in case they decided to contact you. I'll give them to you later," He added, making Joshua blink. That was nice and all, even if slightly surreal. Suddenly, he would have a bunch of Devils to contact with if he so wished. 'Never a dull moment indeed,' The human mused wryly.
He idly wondered how other Devils would look like. How would they be? Would they look like normal humans, like Sairaorg did? Would they be different? Would their personalities be more Devil like? Would they be even more weirdly nice than Sairaorg and his peerage?
"I also might… have spread the word in high places too."
At that, Joshua almost messed up the ward he'd been setting up. His whole body tensed up. It was only the fact that Sairaorg was speaking pretty casually that didn't have him running for the hills already.
"It's not bad," The Devil said quickly, obviously picking up on his reaction. "She's nice enough. I just thought you should know. Serafall Leviathan, formerly Serafall Sitri, is one of the four leaders of our society. One of the Satans, I might have mentioned them to you at some point, or it might be in some of the books I gave you."
He was right, on both accounts. That had been a part that Joshua had paid special attention too, just to know who to be wary of. Not exactly people that he would call 'nice', but then again, he didn't know them personally. Joshua wondered if Sairaorg's word was enough for him to dismiss the fears he held for people that were literally called Satan.
"She is a little… eccentric, but so long as you don't do something stupid, you should be fine," Sairaorg 'reassured', or at least that's what Joshua thought he was trying to do. If so, it didn't quite work out, but he appreciated the sentiment regardless. "Anyway, I doubt she'll want to contact you, but she did give me her flier. It's a one way thing though, you won't be able to contact her through it."
'I wouldn't want to anyway, thank you very much,' Joshua thought, taking a deep, calming breath in. Then he paused, surprised that a screen appeared in front of him.
[Title Unlocked: Magician]
'Oh?'
[Magician
Increases the growth speed of Magic, Spells and magic related Skills by 20%.
Increases the efficacy and efficiency of Spells by 15%.]
'Oh, nice,' He thought, quickly replacing his old Title with the new one. It was much better, that was for sure. 'Wonder what caused that? Was it because now more people know about me? That should have happened before. Is it because Sairaorg is here with their fliers? The timing doesn't quite fit but it does sound like a possible reason,' He theorized as he continued working.
"So, I wanted to ask, have you been working on your training wards?" Sairaorg asked 'casually'. Behind him, Joshua heard Kuisha let out a groan. It made the Devil in front of him chuckle awkwardly.
"He has," Jeanne replied for him, sounding exasperated. "He's trying a few things, from what he's told me. Something about improving the progress rate and making it more useful for magicians."
'Well, she got the gist of it,' Joshua thought to himself. It was more complicated than that, but it was probably better to leave things simple anyway. Still, he'd have liked to chat with someone about his ideas though. He liked talking about his wards, sue him.
That got him thinking about his projects. Like how he was applying his readings on both Healing and Ward Magic to try and mesh them together. There were wards that worked like that from what he'd read, but he was trying to make his own thing because… well, because he liked tinkering, really. That, and maybe he could improve the spell, even if only a little.
The other idea was more simple. It was just using the Weakening Ward, really. However, he wanted to adapt it to just affect one's magic. After all, the Weighing Ward worked better to train physical stuff. Having both of them working in general would be overkill, he was sure. Moreover, he also suspected that it would worsen the results, so he just wanted to target magic, since it was something that was left out of the array was currently using.
"Well, once you finish your tinkering, we'll definitely be interested," Sairaorg told him and he simply hummed, to let him know that he heard him. "Speaking of, I think I found something to start paying off some of what I owe you. Well, besides a bunch of other books I'm sure you'll love," The man said, amused.
"Always interested in those," Joshua mumbled as he pulled up from where he worked. He'd decided to take a break in between wards. Doing the whole array in one go was not only hard but also unnecessary. Thus, he let his head fall back and took a few deep breaths to gather some energy. "Any chance I can know what this mystery payment is?" He asked with a half-smile sent Sairaorg's way.
"I'll do you one better," The Devil said then, crossing his arms. "I'll give it to you right now."
"Oh?" Joshua blinked. He'd assumed that the man still had to actually get whatever it was. He was wrong, it seemed. Then, as if answering his confusion, a black circle appeared on top of the table in front of him, courtesy of Kuisha. From it came a weapon that instantly had his interest.
It was a dagger of some kind, which immediately told him that Sairaorg had actually put some effort into this payment. After all, he didn't even know if he'd even read anything about daggers in mythology. Swords, yes, even spears and bows, but everything else he was sure only would have a handful of such items.
It was also… beautiful but it had an unusual design. The blade ondulated like waves on the sea, ending up with a spiking to one side at the hilt. He guessed that the last part doubled as a guard of some kind, but that was just an assumption, really. That part, near where the hand went, had golden accents, which looked almost entrancing.
There was something that unnerved Joshua from it though. The shine, yellow and pretty, would sometimes give him the impression of actually being red. It was momentary, deceptive, almost like something peeking through the gold. Everytime he caught sight of that, Joshua couldn't help but be wary.
'Definitely a Demonic Artifact…' He thought as he cast Appraisal on it.
[Setan Kober
Rank - ?]
'Why do I even bother…?' He almost deflated.
"I take it you like it?" Sairaorg asked. His tone remained casual, almost normal. 'Almost' being the key word there though. The Devil looked… almost uncomfortable, Joshua would say. "It's Setan Kober, a demonic kris, or keris, which is seen as a ceremonial dagger. At least, the normal ones. This one is no decorative weapon though. I'd be careful. It causes whoever holds it to be increasingly more enraged and erratic. However, on the upside, it also makes them stronger, faster, even more resistant."
Joshua took all that information in. He wasn't sure how safe it would be to use such a weapon, even with Demonic Element on his side. Maybe he could test it, if he set up a ward array against himself and gave Jeanne control of it to subdue him in case anything happened. His adopted sister wasn't the best at using wards though, even previously set ones.
"How do you end up thinking about wards when they give you a weapon?" Jeanne asked him, exasperated while Joshua grinned apologetically. How she managed to know when his thoughts went to wards, he didn't know. It was amusing though, he could tell you that.
"Well," Joshua said in the end, pulling out a card and storing the weapon inside. "I'll be sure to keep it close by in case I need it," He added as he put the card back in his pocket. 'Would Mind Resistance work against the effect?' He continued theorizing absently.
"I have bad news though," Sairaorg said with a grimace, just as Joshua was about to start working again. That caused the human to turn his full attention to him. "The Church has been contacting me to set up a meeting between you and them."
"Can they even do that?" Joshua asked, confused. "I mean, aren't you like.. enemies? I can understand if you don't want to cause a war and keep away from each other. But actively communicating and such?"
"It's not a usual thing, for sure," Sairaorg answered wryly. "But it seems they are interested enough to wave away their dislike of us. Isn't that nice of them?" He seemed unable to keep that last comment to himself, but Joshua didn't care much for that.
"So, should I do this meeting thing?"
"Do you want to?" Sairaorg shot back instantly at his question.
"I mean, I'm not eager for that, honestly," Joshua replied with a shrug. He was fine as he was, honestly. He'd much prefer to let things stay as they were. However… "Isn't it a problem for you though? If I say no?"
"It'd be annoying to deal with them, but little else," The man waved away. "I can do it if you really don't want to meet them."
"What do they even want though? Did they say?" Joshua asked, against his better judgment. He wanted to ignore everyone else and keep on living peacefully, he really did. However, it would leave a bad taste in his mouth if he knew he was causing trouble for Sairaorg.
"They didn't say much, honestly. They seemed curious about you wielding Holy Weapons, but other than that, they only said they wanted to talk with you," THe Devil explained, making the human sigh.
"I just want to stay home, training and tinkering. Is that so much to ask for?" He grumbled, massaging his forehead.
"In our world? Yeah," Sairaorg answered unnecessarily.
"Sure, whatever," Joshua said, before he could change his mind. "Organize this meeting. I'm not promising anything though and… I'd appreciate it if you could accompany me to that."
"I can tell them that…" Sairaorg replied slowly. "I don't think they'll be happy with that last part though. Or that the conversation will go well if there's a Devil in the room."
"They know I work with you," Joshua pointed out. "And anyway, if they want me to even bother, the least they can do is be polite. If they can't do that, then they probably won't hear from me again."
"Well, I'll see to it that they are informed of that, if you are fine with that," The Devil said with an amused smile.
"Sorry for bothering you, Sairaorg."
"Don't worry about that," He waved off. "After all, this whole thing started because I asked you for help."
"Well… I better get back to wor-" Then he paused as an idea formed in his mind. "Do you think you could ask them to meet me in a place of my choosing?" 'Because then I'll be able to ward the hell out of wherever I choose to meet them, just in case.'
"That might be a harder sell, unfortunately," The Devil replied, almost like he thought it was a pity. He probably knew exactly why Joshua had asked for that. Maybe he approved. "I'd have loved to see them test your wards." 'Yep, called it.'
"Maybe they'll test my new dagger though and some of Jeanne's blades," Joshua commented, sharing a grin with the Devil. "And your fists too, huh?"
"I knew I liked you for a reason, Joshua."
[} Chapter End {]
(AN:Please remember that this story is not mine and will never be mine. Make sure to give thanks to the original author on fanfiction.net https://m.fanfiction.net/u/11459794/)