Synthetic Blood

The room entered another phase of silence and it was Kisuke who broke it yet again with his jovial tone, "Well, the last bits were just speculations from my part so take it with a grain of salt~."

However, everyone couldn't be as carefree as him, "Damn you... And here we thought the worst things that could happen were a war among myths and the complete release of Trihexa. Even though it's just a possibility, you just told us a much grimmer future," muttered Azazel in frustration.

"Even though those are just mere speculations, it was backed by some evidence. As much as we don't want that to really happen, we have to prepare for it," added Michael.

"Kisuke-kun, thank you very much for sharing this with us today. If not, we may've been caught off guard by enemies we didn't expect." Sirzechs gave his sincere gratitude.

"Hmmm... Looks like I have to prepare some things on my side too," Odin talked to himself while stroking his beard with a serious expression.

"Rudra may have some idea about this, but it'll be good if there's a concrete plan spanning the whole Alliance to tackle this," Sun Wukong added some thoughts of his own while blowing out smoke.

Azazel then threw his head back as he leaned on his chair, "And it doesn't help that we may lose some of our forces soon!"

'They are losing some of their forces soon?' thought Kisuke as he saw Azazel glance towards his direction for an instant, 'But what does it have to do with me? Does he want me to do something?'

Little did he know, Serafall slowly looked away and tried not to join the conversation.

The other leaders, specifically Barakiel and Michael knew what Azazel was talking about and could only sigh.

Stretching his arms, Azazel jokingly asked, "Hey Kisuke, don't you have something that could strengthen these kids? You know, to counter this threat, they at least have to reach the Heavenly Dragons or Chief Gods levels."

Everyone sighed yet again until Kisuke suddenly took out two small white vials.

Azazel immediately straightened up his back and asked Kisuke with wide eyes, "W-what's that?"

With a clueless expression, Kisuke answered, "Eh? Weren't you asking me if I had something? Here you go."

"No! I wasn't actually expecting you to take out anything! No one in this room was expecting you to! It was very obvious that I'm just joking!" shouted Azazel.

"I was thinking he'd take out something, though?" retorted Serafall.

"Same," added Issei.

"Except you two!" Azazel snarled at them, but he immediately curiously looked towards the vials that Kisuke took out like everyone else. He could instantly tell that the vials have some sealing mechanics that kept its contents hidden, "Anyway, what's that?... And how much is it?"

"Ehem. This will be for free."

As soon as Kisuke said that, however, except for Michael and Gabriel who kept their gentle smiles, everyone else gave him a dirty look. Not that they can be blamed, though. They'd already heard and witnessed his 'business transactions' and the word 'free' was very far from those.

"Ehem..," Feigning a cough yet again, Kisuke ignored their reactions, "Please think of this as my contribution to world peace. Since you'll be doing most of the work, it'll also benefit me indirectly."

But despite giving his reasoning, no one believed him fully.

Still, Azazel couldn't help but ask, "What is that anyway?"

"These two are specifically for Issei and Vali-san."

But before Kisuke could explain any further, Vali interjected, "I don't need it. I don't want anything that boosts my strength artificially. I'll get stronger with my own effort."

"Vali... Don't say that. I don't think Kisuke would give us something that will boost our strength temporarily or hurt our potential for measly gain..." retorted Issei. In fact, he's a bit nervous now as he knew how Kisuke did things and thought, 'I wonder how much it'll hurt this time...'

Kisuke grinned and said, "Issei is right~ Although this is a concoction, it does not aim to boost your strength artificially, but to get you used to your Dragon Aura further, resulting in immense gains~!"

Issei became even more nervous and Serafall slapped her forehead since she already had an idea of what he wanted them to do.

"Quit the sales talk and tell us what it is and how to use it," said Azazel in anticipation.

"Ehem. Well then, allow me to introduce you to my creation. Modified Samael's Blood!"

"Uhmm... The what?" Azazel thought he didn't hear it correctly.

"Modified Samael's Blood."

"Samael's Blood!?" Azazel finally stood up from his seat, "Are you insane!? Are you asking them to take that!? Even a drop of that could potentially kill them!"

Even everyone else was wide-eyed after hearing what was inside those vials. Vali, on the other hand, shook in nervousness. He never thought that this shopkeeper was insane enough for him to give them what is essentially their antithesis, 'H-he won't force it on us, right? We can reject it, right?'

However, instead of Kisuke himself, it was Ajuka who defended him, "Settle down, Azazel. He said it's modified. I don't know how you could modify that thing but let's listen to him first."

"Ah... I'm sorry. I lost my cool there for a bit," Azazel sat back down while sighing. Though it only showed how much he cared for Issei's and Vali's wellbeing.

Without minding Azazel's understandable behavior, Kisuke continued, "To explain, this is Samael's Blood that I took out from both Himejima-san and Irina and modified it for Issei and Vali-san's use. But before I go any further, please allow me to explain how the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing work."

"For Issei and Vali-san to use their Sacred Gear abilities, they have to give it their Demonic Power or Ki. However, these Dragon abilities can't directly use those energies so instead, Ddraig-san and Albion-san convert those energies to Dragon Aura."

"But with the Heavenly Dragons out of the equation, these Sacred Gears become next to useless. Of course, they can convert it themselves, but that's too complicated and slow that it's not viable in combat."

At this point, Ddraig's voice suddenly resounded, "That's true. If either Albion or I become dormant, it'll be very hard to use the abilities, and Balance Breakers would be next to impossible."

Sirzechs furrowed his brows and asked, "At what point will you become dormant?"

It was Albion who answered, "As time goes on, the battles are becoming harder and harder. If at some point, we need to use anything at our disposal to win, it would be after that that we would need to take some time to sleep and recover."

Clapping his hands, Kisuke gathered everyone's attention again, "With that in mind, I modified Samael's Blood for them. Why Samael's Blood you say? It's because it has the most effective Dragon Slayer properties that would be useful if used correctly."

"Although I said modified, I only changed a few things within it. First is I removed its subproperty to corrupt and devour souls, which in turn, weakened its Dragon Slayer property. However, that's just what I needed, and adjusted a few more things so it'll be suitable for consumption and won't instantly kill the recipient."

"Won't instantly kill the recipient, you say?" interrupted Serafall, "So it'll still slowly kill them."

Hearing that, Issei and Vali shuddered. However, even more cold sweat covered their backs when they heard Kisuke's reply.

"Well, don't mind such a minor detail~."

"Minor!?"