Chapter Two - King Candidate

"Umm... pardon me asking Lady Gabriel but weren't you vehemently against the creation of the 'Brave Saints' because it-" The researcher Angela began only to be interrupted by Gabriel.

"That was then and now is now! I'm prepared to allow you lot to scan and analyze Solomon's Ring as long as you guys can get things done quickly." Gabriel crossed her arms and looked down at Angela.

"Mm... yes I-I'm certain we can get it done by the end of the month..." The woman's speech was slow and respectful as if her words were practicing social distancing.

"Cebrail if they do anything strange-"

"I know, I'll call for help."

"Good girl~" Gabriel pats her daughter's head before letting Angela take the child's hand leading her into the facility.

Cebrail had to admit looking at Angela she was no doubt a beauty not as beautiful as her mother, but enough to likely turn the heads of most men and perhaps some women as well.

She had long blonde hair which reached down to her waist, shiny blue eyes, and eight white wings marking her as a rather powerful angel. She wore a white lab coat as well, very typical of a scientist but it didn't seem to be made to contain a body like hers as all of her curves were easily seen as if she were wearing a skin tight suit rather than a pencil skirt.

"Err... is something the matter princess?" Angela asked nervously, her eyes flickering from in front of her to Cebrail who was staring at her with an intense glare.

"Aren't you too erotic looking to be an Angel?" Cebrail scrutinized the researcher with only the slightest hint of annoyance in her tone.

"U-Uhh w-well-"

"Who are you trying to impress?" Cebrail poked the older woman's boob finding her finger sinking into the flesh easily.

"W-Wait princess-" Angela attempted to protest only to be interrupted once again.

"Uncle Raphael maybe?"

Angela visibly blushed at this, her entire face turning red with embarrassment. (H-How could she know that? I-Is it that obvious?!?)

"Your face... you must be thinking 'How could she know? Is it really that obvious?' right?" Cebrail guessed her expression completely unreadable now that she had lost her glare.

"Are you psychic princess?!?" Angela exclaimed in shock.

"No you're just very obvious..."

"B-But how could you guess Lord Raphael immediately?"

"Uncle Raphael is the head of the research division, aren't most women attracted to men with more power than them?" Cebrail questions with a cute and innocent tilt of her small head, her big yellow eyes piercing through Angela's heart like an arrow.

"P-Princess w-who taught you something like t-that?" Angela didn't know who told her that but she knew it was best to correct things like this in children while they were still young so they didn't turn out like Azazel.

"Don't be so serious, I was joking."

(J-Joking? But she looked dead serious though! I really can't understand the princess at all...) Angela lamented in her head as the two finally reached the Brave Saints research lab.

It was surprisingly normal with a huge vat of black liquid with tubes and wires connecting to various instruments and smaller vats of holy water.

"Is that... demonic power?" Cebrail asks curiously, walking up to the vat of black liquid. Epis, who had been in her arms the entire time, suddenly crawled its way frantically to the top of her head to hide itself in her hair.

"Indeed it is! We err... 'borrowed' a king piece from the Devils in order to run our experiments. I'm happy to say that it's been going very well so far!"

"..." Cebrail stared at Angela flatly causing the woman to remember who exactly she was speaking to and begin to panic.

Sweat began pouring from her forehead as nervousness built up in her stomach, "P-Princess, please do not tell Lady Gabriel about this..." She pleaded with Cebrail. Gabriel was already vehemently against copying Devils with the creation of the Brave Saints if she knew that the research used demonic power as the base she might even destroy the whole facility!

"No need to worry, I understand what my mom is like." Cebrail reassured Angela who let out a large sigh of relief. "How does it work?"

"Ah, well a king piece is like a perpetual motion machine of demonic power, it's actually quite impressive and only possible for Devils given their magic is the manifestation of imagination." Angela takes Cebrail to one of the computers connected to the king piece. "We use the light power to keep it contained and analyze the properties as well as the spells used."

Tapping on the computer a few times a diagram appeared of the king piece much to Cebrails interest, "As you can see we've gotten a lot of the spells down but a few of them are so powerful they had to be encrypted using a dense wall of weaker spells."

"I see... but how does that involve me?"

"Rather than untangling the web of spells used for encryption it's simply much easier to look at the clean and simple original." Angela takes Cebrail's left hand in her own, holding them almost romantically by the fingertips. She was looking at the ring on the child's finger, a golden ring with two lines of incantation on it one of the outside one on the inside. It was an impossible masterpiece which somehow weaved so many effects in just two simple lines. Such a creation was only possible for the one the ring was named after.

The wise king Solomon.

"You mean the Evil Pieces are based on Solomon's Ring?"

"Is it so surprising? The Devils owe a lot to the wise king."

Cebrail gave Angela a quizzical stare this time truly confused.

"Hehehe~ I guess Lady Gabriel wouldn't teach you anything about Devil history given her feelings about them." Holding Cebrail's hand she takes the child to another machine, "You see Devils weren't always so human looking, in fact they weren't always so capable of having such a wide range of emotions."

Angela sets Cebrails hand in the donut shaped scanner telling her to hold it there before letting go and continuing her words, "It wasn't until Solomon granted them 'humanity' that they turned from one track minded beasts to what they are today. He even helped them structure themselves by creating the 72 pillars."

As she explains this she moves to a nearby machine and presses a button. Instantly the blue light of the scanner shines on the left side of Solomon's Ring.

"He was a great man I believe, though a great deal of Angels often declared him a heretic that played both sides."

"But wasn't he given wisdom by God though? That would mean he supported Solomon no?" Cebrail asked as her fingers twitched slightly, the scanning was oddly making her skin feel a bit sensitive.

"Yes, this is true... however not every Angel agrees with every decision made by God..." Angela lamented pressing another button causing the scanner to begin scanning the top of Solomon's Ring.

"I guess that makes sense." Cebrail could understand it, it was like having an extremely charismatic boss that you can't help but like and follow even if you don't agree with all of their business decisions.

"You seem to not have used Solomon's Ring at all, princess. Do you know what it does?"

"Of course I do." Cebrail confirms with a flat tone.

"Err, w-well may I ask why you haven't formed any contracts?" Angela asked tentatively and pressed another button on her machine to scan the right side of the ring.

"People are a hassle. I'd rather not bother when I can do everything I need to on my own."

"Uhhh... u-umm, you can't do everything yourself p-princess, you should make at least one or two friends in your youth. You don't want to end up as a cat lady do you?" Angela tried to make sure her tone didn't make it come across as if she were scolding Cebrail, though a child, simply by the virtue of being the only child to Gabriel her position was higher than Angela's by a mile.

"Muuu... no I don't..." Cebrail frowned as she imagined herself with a great many cats all over her. It would be even more of a hassle taking care of those things.

"You see? E-Even if people can be difficult to understand at times, you can just find people that aren't difficult to understand right?" Angela pressed the final button which began scanning the bottom of the ring.

"People that are easy to understand..." Cebrail muttered to herself.

(Issei Hyoudou... he's pretty easy to understand. All he cares about is s*x. But... it would be annoying if he tried doing that to me. I still remember that intense scene with Raynare...) Cebrail thought, visibly blushing as she thought of all the things Issei did to that busty Fallen Angel.

Seeing Cebrail blush Angela couldn't help but be a tad bit confused however just as she was about to ask about it the scanning machine dinged indicating that it was done.

"A-Ah!" Angela looks at the screen more closely with surprise. "It's no wonder we couldn't properly recreate a new system using the evil pieces as a base!"

As Cebrail took her hand out of the machine Angela was staring at the data on her screen intently, her eyes moving rapidly as they read each line over and over again.

"Solomon's Ring is created using both demonic and holy power! The evil pieces had to substitute the holy elements with demonic ones!"

"That means?"

"It means they weren't actually trying to encrypt the spells but instead had to use over 100 spells to make up for the holy elements the system was missing! I believed they were all useless but no!"

"Does that mean you have everything you need now?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! I can have the Brave Saints system done before the end of the week!" Angela confirmed excitedly, this would be her greatest achievement yet! With this the other Angels wouldn't look down on her and she could stand by Lord Raphael's side proudly! Since it was a task given by Lord Michael himself her status would surely be enough!

"Hmm~ then I'll leave you to it~" Cebrail made her way to leave but was stopped by Angela who had been snapped out of lala land by her words.

"A-Ah! W-Wait don't you need someone to guide you back?"

"Nope. You just get to working since your hands seem itchy." Waving behind her Cebrail leaves the room without looking back.

"I-I'll make sure you're the first to get a deck princess! Thank you!" Angela called after her.

(Does she not remember I don't need one? Well whatever~ I guess it won't hurt.) Cebrail thought, hearing the woman from the hallway.

*Ring* *Ring* *Ring* *Ring*

A minute after the little seraphim princess left the room Angela's phone began to ring, drowning out the buzz of the machines in the room.

(Huh? Who could be calling me? Maybe it's- LORD RAPHAEL!!!) Upon seeing the name of the contact her mind spun and she fumbled around with the phone before finally pressing the answer button.

"G-Good evening Lord R-Raphael!" She greeted a bit too loudly in her nervousness.

"Hello Angela~" A calm and silky smooth voice came from the phone, a voice that would very likely put a woman on their knees even before seeing the face accompanying it.

"M-May I ask why you have called me? N-Not that I d-don't want to speak to you Lord Raphael!"

"Hmm~ I was just calling to ask how it was."

"How it was?"

"The meeting with my niece I mean. She wasn't too rude was she? If so I apologize, she can often be horribly blunt and is still getting a grasp on social cues." Raphael seemed to already have excuses lined up if his niece misbehaved at the research facility and even outright apologized. One of the Four Great Seraphs really and truly apologizing to a grunt like her!

Angela almost couldn't believe it.

"N-No Lord Rapheal she hadn't caused any problems at all, in fact she was very cooperative!" Angela really hadn't had any issues with the child. In fact she would go as far as to say she liked Cebrail quite a bit. "Truthfully L-Lord Rapheal I had thought from her constant deadpan stare that she would be much too mature for how young she was, but instead she seemed quite curious as a child normally would be. Looking around the lab but never straying from my side!"

"Yes, that does seem like her. She didn't comment on the demonic power we were using?"

"She was curious but was very understanding when I explained it to her."

"It's strange don't you think? That a child of Gabriels could have seemingly no prejudice at all. It almost makes me want to laugh." Raphael's tone had turned from a worried one to a humorous one and it seemed as though he was holding back a bit of laughter on his end.

"Indeed I was surprised too! Lady Gabriel is well... Lady Gabriel so her daughter should have at least a bit of her personality you know?"

"Oh don't worry she does! Why do you think I had to call and ask you if everything was alright? I even evacuated the entire facility just in case! Though that was mostly for Gabriel..."

"Mmm..." Angela was still a bit miffed about that internally, they had all drawn lots and she was the one picked to stay behind. If Gabriel had insisted on entering with her daughter even though she was banned there was no telling what the consequences would be, and she would be the one bearing all of them basically.

"Well I'm glad to hear everything was alright! I'll be back in the lab tomorrow." With those words the two bid each other farewell and hung up the phone.