5 Ch5: That which hides God's limitless light

(MC pov)

As the darkness surrounding my consciousness cleared, I was able to open my eyes to see my surroundings. A dark space with no source of light except the one coming from me, the floor seems like a clear mirror reflecting the darkness of nothingness in this place. Although I never entered this place, I'm quite familiar with this feeling. This is my inner mind, or in other words, my sea of consciousness.

Looking around, I noticed the sudden appearance of a dark fog that's blocking my perception, even though this is my own soul where I should be able to feel anything. Seeing this I decided to listen to my instincts and walk forward, there was no sound in this place, I couldn't hear neither my footsteps, my breathing or even my own heartbeat.

Honestly it's quite the terrifying experience, almost all my sense are cut off, there is nothing to taste, smell or even touch. All I have is the little light emanating from myself, so I focused my attention on it and continued walking in this realm of nothingness.

Thinking about it, this all happened after the awakening of my sacred gear right? So am I supposed to be meeting something inside it like Issei? I don't quite remember a mention of any being inside Annihilation Maker, I think I may have heard one about Dimension Lost, with Azazel telling George that he should contact the consciousness inside of it soon. Well guess I'm about to find out.

Then, as if responding to my thought, I was able to see a silhouette in the fog, though the weird thing is, no matter how much i walked I don't seem to be getting any closer to it. So I just stood in my place, thought a little and focused again on the light inside of me, which I was able to recognise as my will, determination, faith, and started to will it to illuminate my surroundings, which did make it comply and start to get brighter and brighter, lifting this seemingly fldark fog little by little, it didn't erase it though, but I was able to finally see what the silhouette is, and a part of me wished I didn't.

For what stood in front of me is a sinister looking upside down tree, with names engraved on it and a malevolent aura around it, and the moment I looked at it, I began hearing whispers in my ear, not loud enough to make any sense but not low enough to make me able to ignore it. But it wasn't just that, the problem was the eldritch gibberish that I found starting to fill my head, causing me to feel a headache so bad it almost felt like nails are being dug into my skull.

Naturally I started screaming but no voice come from my mouth, I desperately tried to find anything to help me and that was when I remembered the light in me, which I immediately latched into and started to ignore everything else, praying and willing it to take me out of this place making it shine so brightly that it blinded me and the rest of this cursed place.

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Waking up with a gasp, I started trashing and holding my head from the phantom pain in my head, ignoring all the shouts around me I just wanted to get this pain, this memory out of my head. I wouldn't have stopped my trashing around if it wasn't for the soft and extremely relaxing feeling that suddenly descended upon me. It made me feel warm and safe, like the embrace of a mother. I started losing my consciousness again but I was able to hear an extremely gentle and song like voice saying.

"It's alright, you don't have to be afraid, just go back to sleep and rest, no harm shall fall upon you" with the voice lulling me to sleep, I couldn't help but start drifting into the realm of dreams. Before I slept however, I only had one thought.

'Her voice is quite beautiful' after which I blanked out.

(3rd pov)

Looking at the sleeping Samuel, an extremely beautiful girl with curly blonde hair was looking at him, but what truly stands out is the 12 wings on her back and the golden halo above her head.

"Lady Gabriel, will he be okay? And what should we do about this?" Asked Griselda as she looked at the great Seraph waiting for her answer.

"He will be okay now with my blessing, as for what will we do about thus, well nothing. Just let him train as usual, give all the support he or Dulio may ever need since they have very high potential but also make sure they don't overwork themselves, I don't want them to be unnecessarily hurt" Hearing that, Griselda pondered over it a little before inquiring.

"So you blessed him? Does that mean you will become his guardian angel? Also should I tell him about you? The kid is terrifyingly sharp and have a very keen sense so he will be able to sense the blessing" stopping her action of stroking Samuel's hair, Gabriel said.

" No, don't tell him yet. I want to be able to look at his work and what his reaction for the blessing is. I will introduce myself to him properly when he graduates from the training in 3 years. And yes, I have chosen to be his guardian angel." seeing this Griselda kneeled and said.

"Yes your grace, that shall be done, so rest easy and continue your work" seeing her this formal, Gabriel couldn't help the chuckle that came our from her and she grasped the shoulders of the kneeling sister, pulling her up before giving her a hug, then separating and saying.

" I told you many times that you don't need all this formalities between us. And yes, I know you that I can rest assured with you in here. Now I'll have to go back, I think I ditched work long enough. See you later you two" and with that she folded her wings on her and disappeared.

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(MC pov)

Groaning as I woke up, I was feeling very shitty, like damn my head hurts like hell and my body feels a little bit stiff. Getting up to drink some water and do some stretches as usual, I try to remember what events lead me to here. So we had the whole weapon selection thing, and I was able to aquire Ascalon.

Remembering that, I looked around the room to see it on the other side just put down there, thinking a little, I tugged into the connection we had established before opening my hand and seeing the sword glow before coming straight and landing in my hand. After holding it, my headache subdued a little and with that, I was able to remember the rest of the events that followed.

' Well shit, I don't think that this could've been better or worst' and I'm saying this for a very simple reason, first is the fact that when I unlocked my sacred gear, Annihilation Maker, it directly jumped to balance breaker, which honestly isn't that weird considering that I've been feeding it with my mana, desire and ambition for the last 4 years, and the fact that Tobio was born with his balance breaker already on, I find myself not that shocked. Now, for my balance breaker, it indeed turned into a Sub-Species as I expected but in a weird way.

See, normally Annihilation Maker balance breaker is just creating some big ass fuck all cheat beast, and it's been like that for every weilder. Mine however, didn't turn out to be the big monster I expected, in fact it wasn't any kind of monster. No what my Sub-Species allowed me, is directly the result of my wish and hunger for power and my conviction to use anything, even the world itself to reach it.

So it's ability is pretty simple: I'm able to use materials, organic or not, as a catalyst and way to create my monsters, instead of just relying on my power, knowledge and imagination, and this ability is the perfect thing I could've asked for.

Now here comes the bad news, when the manifestation of the Sub-Species balance breaker happened, and with how buggy God's system is, the restrictions on the sacred gear were loosened enough to allow the gear to pull me into it. As for the identity of the 'thing' in it. Well it's pretty simple.

Qliphoth, the tree of evil, symbolising malice and death. It was meant to oppose the Sephiroth of good and life. That said, it was a fundamental pillar of existence - for it had the function of 'concealing'. Fundamentally, it concealed the brightness of Light from overwhelming all existence, making life and civilization possible, it's the pelts that cover the light of Sephiroth, the fog of confusion and madness.

This is how Annihilation Maker works, it constrats with the Sephiroth Graal, while it commands Sephiroth, the principle of life, Annihilation Maker works on the reverse. That isn't to say Annihilation Maker commands the principle of death, no, both life and death fall under the jurisdiction of the Graal. What it does however, is creating animals lacking sapience. They only run on instincts, incapable of higher thought, merely husks. They lack the inner essence that only Sephiroth Graal can grant, you could say that, in a very loose comparison, that the Sephiroth is the soul while Qliphoth is the body.

Thinking back to all of this, I couldn't help but sigh, having to deal with the equivalent of All the World's Evil isn't going to be funny. But that doesn't really stop me, no. While the risk of contacting the Qliphoth and going insane is indeed there, it doesnt really have anything to do with creating the beasts.

I don't have to contact 'it' for me to use this aspect, that's what the sacred gear was designed to do after all. And I couldn't stop myself from getting excited, about all the kind of monsters I'm about to unleash upon this poor world.

After calming down a little, I sat down and went to ask a very important question.

' Hey system, you said that I'll be immune to any and all types of mind fuckery thanks to you, then where the hell have you been when my head was about to explode from the satanic whisper?'

[ Do not be confused host, the system did ensure that the host's mind shall be safe from any kind of external influence. But since the host was linked to the sacred gear and consider it a part of him, the system shall not interfere with any internal actions of the host's mind ]

Looking at thos bullshit explanation, I would like to say that I'm surprised, but I honestly wasn't. From what I understood about this system in the past 4 years. It was designed to be as unattached to me as possible, it doesn't help with any advice, doesn't offer any methods to power up. Basically, it's just a glorified portal to other worlds, which I am thankful for but damn.

[*Ding! There are 3 missions available right now:

--1st mission: Reach and/or defeat a Satan-class individual. Reward: A one use sacred gear extraction ticket.

--2nd mission: Reach Super-class tier and access God's system. Reward: Option to fuse your sacred gear(s) to your soul, making it effectively impossible to extract, nullify or enter reincarnation cycle after your death and will also lift the restrictions on said sacred gears if desired to access its full power.

--3rd mission: Fight and survive against Trihexia/ Prevent the release of Trihexia and kill Rivezim. Rewards: Unlock world jump function ]

Looking blankly at the screen I just decided to ignore it for the moment and continue with my meditation. Feeling my soul and mind, I could easily tell that's there's been a couple of differences. First is this sudden increase in my holy magic reserves, and I'm not talking about when I pull some of it from Ascalon, this is my own reserves, and they somehow fucking became 3 times bigger. Next thing I noticed is my link to my sacred gear was fully opened, looking at the black, bottomless mass of shadow, I knew I could enter it anytime, but I sure as hell wasn't going to anytime soon.

Next, is the fact that this darkness seems to be dancing around the holy energy, no it almost looks like its disdainful of it. Now that I really focus on it, the darkness originating from Qliphoth isn't exactly demonic energy of the Devils, no it seems more like it's a higher form of it. Which would also explain its reaction to holy magic, since that one is actually just a downgraded version of Heaven's unique energy, a higher form of mana called Telesma, which is what was used to create angels.

Shaking my head and focusing once again, I noticed one final thing, it seems my affinity with both Water and Light magic has become higher.

"Sigh, it seems that I really have a lot on my plate for the next 3 years, huh. But that's good, it just means plenty of ways to become stronger and stronger, until i reach the pinacle of this world" saying so, I decided to just go back to bed for now and sleep, since I am technically still a patient.