"So this is Absorption Line, huh?" Yarden mused.
He was currently resting atop a thick branch belonging to one of the trees in a local park within Kuoh.
With nothing better to do, he'd decided to just find somewhere to laze around, as was only proper and play some gacha games on his phone.
In the meanwhile, Vritra had gotten straight to business after re-absorbing his soul fragment, consolidating his strength, and imprinting the ability that was originally bound to the fragment, into his Sacred Gear/s.
It took a few hours, and the school day at Kuoh had obviously already let out, seeing as the sun was beginning to dip down over the horizon and cast the area in a warm orange glow.
Truly the world should praise his great ancestor for deigning to give them such warmth.
But, in the end, it really hadn't taken Vritra that long all said and done to get things done, and he was now testing out his new ability.
From the black gauntlet currently on his right hand, a thick glowing blue rope of energy was extended from one of the clawed points of his finger and wrapped around a tree.
He could get a rough guess on its speed at draining power just from that alone, and he had to admit, it was way beyond what he expected it to be. And this was only the one, he could create many more just as easily.
Saji may have been stuck to just the one from what he remembered, but he was a complete newbie to Vritra's power, Yarden had been training with Vritra's powers since he was a child, so even a new one like this was easy to get a handle on.
Of course, it also helped that his Scotland given prodigious talent was a thing.
And on top of things, the Absorption Line was no mere fragile tether. Yarden gave his finger a twitch and the glowing blue rope tightened around the tree, easily crushing right through its thick bark and causing the tree to topple.
It slammed into the ground, its sheer weight enough to make the ground rumble a bit.
"….It's a good thing I put up a barrier around here." Yarden mused, that would have probably alerted quite a few people and tossed them into a bit of a panic.
Thankfully, it was a simple enough matter to copy the barrier Akeno created earlier and employ it for his own uses.
'….It was me who explained it to you and walked you through the process you dumbass.' Vritra sighed.
'Semantics.' Yarden rolled his eyes. They were pretty much one and the same really at this point, because it wasn't like Vritra would ever have a new host.
He was too Scottish to be killed off, and even then, in the bizarro world that it did occur, Vritra could probably leave the Sacred Gear at any point.
...Wait.
'Why are you sticking around actually?' Yarden wondered. Could it be, that Vritra had truly come around to the glory of Scotland and being connected to Scotland's first son?
'Not even close you crazy patriot,' Vritra snorted, 'Let me be clear, before all of this nonsense with the Hero Faction and becoming insane as you are, even if I was not whole at the time, I remember everything since you awakened Blaze Black Flare.'
Yarden's brows furrowed, 'What does that have to do with anything?' he wondered.
'Is your head so full of Scotland you can't even comprehend something so simple you buffoon?' the black dragon scoffed, 'To dumb it down for you, loyalty begets loyalty, I too remember the long nights where your only comfort in your life with the loss of your family was Blaze Black Flare. And remember, I have also seen from your memories just the barest hints of what comes in the future, we are far stronger together, than apart.'
Oh.
So it was something as simple as that in the end.
'Don't underestimate the grandness of something so pure and simple,' Vritra sighed, 'You're a mere fifteen year old brat and as simple as simple comes, yet look how powerful you are, your average god would think twice before fighting you if they knew the extent of your strength.'
Vritra really was so smart! But, he wasn't simple at all! He just embraced his heritage and badassery full heartedly.
'You keep telling yourself that,' he could practically feel Vritra rolling his eyes, 'As it is, we are partners, don't forget that. Besides, if Ddraig could go so far with such a foolish pathetic host, think how far I can with you? Being a Dragon King is much too low for the new Scottish Dragon, don't you think so? I think at the very least, Heavenly Dragon is more apt a level.'
Even as warmth flooded his chest and a wide silly smile splayed across his face, Yarden nodded in agreement, "Aye, aye!" he pumped his black gauntlet clad fist, "As if I could let a mere Ddraig and Albion be thought of as higher ranked than the Scottish Dragon!"
'Exactly,' Vritra laughed, 'Now, enough being a little wimp and asking questions you should already know the answer to. Don't you have a job to do? If I remember correctly, Ddraig's host, the cat girl, the previous holder of one of my fragments and the Sword Birth boy will be trying to hunt the Excalibur Fragments.'
Oh, right!
While he was keeping an eye on things as a favour to Serafall, that wasn't to say there wasn't possible benefits of his own to from this mess, he just had to play his cards right.
With a thought, his wings erupted from his back and Yarden took to the sky, dispelling his barrier as he left.
If you're interested in my stuff. You can see it a bit early on Pa---atron. There's a link in an yof my story descriptions.