Chapter 58 - Motivated Now

"Atypical Property is not a living Sacred Gear."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Unlike other factions we mages, or more specifically Grauzauberer, keep an extensive record on Sacred Gears and their appearances throughout history." Marilyn begins explaining to her niece. "Atypical Property is most notable for being used by Alexander the Great. It is Greek in origin and takes the form of a futuristic-looking box. It has never once been registered as a living being."

"..."

"What I am attempting to tell you is that your Sacred Gear shouldn't be a living being… though that barrier is indeed how the activated Atypical Property looks…" Marilyn put a hand on her chin very clearly genuinely befuddled by these contradictions.

Atypical Property is not a living Sacred Gear, and yet the barrier was no doubt how Atypical Property worked right down to being easy for anything to pass through the barrier it made.

(Could it have evolved?) Marilyn denied the possibility as soon as she had the thought. (Sacred Gears may evolve with each host and may even gain a bit of an ego of their own but they don't manifest as truly living beings unless that's how they were made like Canis Lykaon.)

"Who told you that your Sacred Gear was Atypical Property?"

"My uncle Michael obviously. He's the greatest expert on Sacred Gears there is." Cebrail sounded quite proud of this though Marilyn didn't care at all. If Cebrail were a bit more self-aware she might think "so this is how it feels like" however she has yet to realize she was being treated like a child.

"Indeed…"

(That guy could never make a mistake like that. With his…Sacred Gear…Editor…) Marilyn's thoughts slowed down as she began having a very interesting idea.

"How did you acquire 'Atypical Property?'" Marilyn questions as she now begins walking towards her sword.

"I fished her out of the Dimensional Gap by mistake and after that we became partners." Cebrail explained answering her aunt rather obediently. Though she saw Marilyn picking up her weapon she didn't bother trying to stop her.

"I see…you must be used to such abnormal events…" Hearing Cebrail's simple explanation as to how she acquired Atypical Property she was now quite sure that Michael had something to do with this strange phenomenon. It's likely he added something else to the Sacred Gear in order to boost the amount it could do.

The reason Marilyn now knew this for certain was actually quite simple. If you were to simply be floating around in space truthfully the likelihood of you actually bumping into something is incredibly low due to how vast it is. The Dimensional Gap was much, much, MUCH bigger. So much so that only Dragon Gods and above and perhaps, of course, Rizevim, though he was a very… "special" case due to his Royal Authority.

For Cebrail to have simply accidentally come upon a Sacred Gear, the chances are so astronomically low it could ONLY happen through the machinations of another.

"Show me what your Sacred Gear can do." Marilyn was genuinely curious, to turn the box Zeus once created into a living Sacred Gear; she wanted to figure out what exactly Michael could have used to make such a thing possible.

"Mmm…" Marilyn didn't have to tell Cebrail twice and instantly the woman found her weapon once again gone from her hand in its place was a fly which stuck to her palm in a gross fashion.

"..." Marilyn was perhaps slightly amused by this, but she wasn't going to laugh out loud or anything.

(How spiteful…) Marilyn couldn't help but think as she stared at the crushed fly above her head her sword spun in the air slowly before instantly being replaced by Cebrail.

The Seraphim Princess tried to stab her aunt from above but the woman raised her hand and moved out of the way. As Cebrail's blade scraped her hand only a little bit she switched places with the iron sword again having anticipated a counterattack.

Marilyn, undisturbed by this, simply raised her left hand and caught the sword by the hilt. Surprise attacks like that only worked once against veterans like herself and Cebrail was much too slow to land such an obvious blow.

(I believe I somewhat understand how it works. She can simply teleport within this space however it likely takes up less energy to simply swap positions with existing objects.) Lifting her right hand which she had allowed to be scrapped by her niece's blade and not only was there no injury but the only thing that was hit was the fly as it was now gone.

"..." Cebrail was a bit taken aback, her perception of what a mage is was really twisting a lot because of this aunt of hers. Not a single bit of magic and yet she was physically strong enough to send Cebrail flying easily. Of course, Serafall was like that too but she was a complete anomaly to the universe, and the woman who had tamed Behemoth the Magical Beast King of the Earth, it's a given that she would be physically strong.

Stabbing into the ground with her sword the barrier collapses around the two confusing Marilyn a bit. She knew her niece wasn't giving up but she couldn't tell what the child was attempting to do.

(One of the weaknesses of Atypical Property is that the user cannot enhance nor curse themselves with it, it's great for being used for the support of others but otherwise, it's a cumbersome power that requires quite a bit of stamina.)

The barrier returned however this time it only surrounded Cebrail herself who had entered rapier thrusting stance.

"Hmm?" Curious Marilyn besides whatever her attack was she would stand there and take it head-on.

Slowly the estoc glowed brighter and brighter as if the full moon itself was in Cebrail's hand. The power swelled and swelled and Cebrail was actually surprised, she had expected Marilyn to take the opening to attack her so she herself could counterattack but her aunt wasn't budging even a little bit.

(Well I can't just hold this, it's going to explode…) Cebrail relented and thrusts her estoc producing a large beam of magic infused with her silver Light Power.

Marilyn's eyes widened as she saw the attack coming for her, undoubtedly it was a rather powerful attack stronger than Cebrail should have been able to produce with the amount of energy she dumped into her sword.

The beam enveloped the mage who still stood there as she was resolute in her wish to take the attack head on. Several buildings were blasted behind her with large holes in the shape of circles.

The blade of the estoc shattered to pieces and Cebrail dropped its hilt to the ground while dust covered the area.

This was the price she had to pay for using her Sacred Gear to enhance her weapons to the limit. In essence, she turned them into one-time use explosives. This was due to drawing out 100 percent of the blades power which completely tanks its durability.

"I see. You can draw out the power of objects as well so long as they are within your barrier. However, it must also depend on the quality of the item as while that was quite flashy…" The dust settled revealing Marilyn standing there with her arm raised and a slightly smoking palm. "It was incredibly weak. Just a light show. A parlor trick."

Before Cebrail could respond Marilyn teleported next to her and faster than she ever had before kicked Cebrail in the side sending her flying once again but this time straight through the wall of the church a ways away. Despite her small body the stone of the wall easily gave way from the force she was sent with, rolling on the ground several times she landed on her stomach.

"*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* *Cough*" Blood flowed out of her mouth and she couldn't help but groan. Though she healed fast it couldn't be doubted that Marilyn's hits were the same as being hit by around three truck-kun's at the same time. That kind of pain would easily follow you to your isekai life.

"You seem unused to pain." Marilyn pointed out stepping through the rubble.

(Hmmm… more than training, what she really needs is motivation.) Marilyn had noticed that her niece very much seemed to be relying on her own raw talent, instincts, and intuition to fight. Even if she did in fact train before it was unlikely that she ever actually pushed herself, simply learning new techniques or applications wasn't training, it was studying.

There was something else as well. Marilyn had realized that Cebrail's body was actually incredibly weak. So much so that she suspected if her blood hadn't been holy water which constantly healed her body then she would be completely bed ridden.

As a matter of fact even holding a sword may have been impossible.

However, this very same blood was her greatest weakness. Constantly suppressing her Magic Power and effectively shortening her life span every time her heart beats. It was limiting her potential and her options. If Marilyn had to guess the child may not live past the age of 25 if the problem wasn't fixed asap.

Pushing herself up on slightly shaky hands Marilyn asks a question that was all too familiar to Cebrail. A question she asked most of her own opponents.

"Why is it that you fight?"

"..."

"I don't think you're the kind of person that would chase after power needlessly, so what are you fighting for?"

"It isn't really me that needs to get stronger… I basically can't die… but… those subordinates of mine are like jelly. So easy to squish and eat. They had nowhere else to go so I took them in." Cebrail sounded genuinely a bit sad, as though taking them in was a bad thing to do. "With me, they will be forced to fight. Since I will be forced to fight. They need to be stronger so they don't get squished."

"I see. So you fear more for the lives of your allies than your own. How surprising, it seems I should reevaluate who you take after more between your mother and father." Marilyn was looking at Cebrail quite a bit differently now. The little Seraphim Princess seemed honest to a fault whether because of pride or because of naivety. She also seemed to value others quite a bit.

Merlin wasn't really like this at all. He believed in cleanliness and purity. He didn't trust many people besides himself and even Marilyn didn't understand what exactly this next project of his fully entails. All she knew was that he had been making a particularly powerful seeming Artificial Angel and a bunch of crystals similar to the Light Containers made by Valper Galilei. His funding and sponsoring of that project seemed to have not simply been for the sake of gaining more holy sword users.

She needed more data, not only on Atypical Property but also on Cebrail herself. It was the first time the woman found herself interested in any family besides her older brother as to her family was nothing special. Even the ties of blood could be replicated with magic, and they could be broken by actions. Her mother proved that a long time ago.

"Hmm…" Marilyn stopped a few feet in front of Cebrail as the child picked herself back up. "People find it hard to give it their all when they aren't properly motivated."

"I don't under-" In the middle of Cebrail's words Marilyn casually tossed her iron sword at the Seraphim Princess with a wave of her hand.

Cebrail wasn't someone to fall for tricks she herself used and so she moved to the side dodging the attack almost instinctively.

Unfortunately, she was careless in not realizing that the attack was never aimed at her to begin with.

The iron sword sunk dangerously into the shadow behind Cebrail created from the light coming through the hole she had created, shocking the Angel and causing her eyes to widen in panic.