Chapter 16: Forging Alliance
*Ring*
The sound of a bell echoed throughout the hidden base that cause the Hexennacht magician to panic as they can feel the foreign energy permeating across their surrounding.
"What! Did the Grauzauberer and Grigori found our trail? We make sure to cover up perfectly during our retreat by mixing up the teleportation coordinates."
"No need to discuss anymore, prepare our sisters for the enemies attack. We must hold up until the remaining one return to hopefully discover the attack and request backup from our vampire allies." One of the important looking magician commanded before ordering few to find out the invading forces location and number.
"Where is Walburga? She is missing from the command chain."
"Fuck! Did that bitch run away and abandoned us here!" The grunt cursed loudly which cause the defenders morale to drop.
"Boss! The manage to get the visual from the outside." Another magician used her magic to conjure an live view that show Ray still flaring out his divinity after ringing the Beckoning Bell.
…
First to arrive are 10 thousands hunters along with all covenant leaders except Djura and Valtr that drop off inside the base to surround the magicians. Since Ray already banned any teleportation for them, their only escape route is the physical exits of the base.
The base is connected to a cavern that has mining shafts the magicians can use to escape and Djura with Valtr group are tasked to start from there while the rest start from above to do a clean house style infiltration by entering through all possible exits. This way, they will eventually gather up all the enemies into one place as they are being pushed back.
When everyone arrives, Ray raises Artemis in 2H form that glows beautifully in her ethereal green light before he leads the charge with an opening strike from Artemis that blasts open the secret entrance while the hunters chanted their warcry that called Ray the Pale Blood King.
Although he brought 15 thousands hunters, not all of them will charge in with him since around 3 thousands of them are tasked to prevent possible interference or support oriented hunters like Blood Priest and Priestess or Choirs member.
The Choir members consist of former scholars, doctors, tomb prospectors and clerics that now form a group of elites serving Ray via Laurence. They mainly are researchers that help pioneer the recent breakthrough in application of magic in the hunter ranks and continue to do so in more fields like improving weapons, creating consumables and many more.
Due to that, they are more advanced in terms of warfare magic than most other hunters. They also have specific groups like spy, treasure hunter, saboteur, preacher or even sleeper agent within this organisation that is useful when Ray's faction is properly established in this world.
After the forceful entrance, both group finally clashed in the underground facility with the magicians having upper hand on the defending side but that didn't last long since Ellen and her group of now combat maid on CR suit infiltrated using the stealth magic they had been trained for few months. They are trained by Ellen and Scáthach to create stealth Territory using their Realizer to increase their versatility in combat operations.
When a hole open up in the magicians defence, Ludwig and Gehrmen along with few hunters apply pressure on the weak point with their relentless assault and finally tear a gap on their defence.
"Retreat! Retreat to the stairs, we going to defend there. We get backup and more cover there!" The leading magician shouted before the defending magicians retreated deeper into the first underground floor that cause the hunter to let out a warcry before pursuing them with guns blazing.
Seeing that they scored their first victorious skirmish, Laurence shouted loudly to chase down the retreating enemies but Gehrmen stopped them since there could be trap ahead.
"The narrow path make us an easy target to range attack if he charge through just like that." Gehrmen said.
"Well let me help with that. Tsukuyomi." Ray called Tsukuyomi who already understand his role before sending defensive plates to act as bulwark for the hunters advance.
"Glory to the Pale Blood King!" The Hunters chant their warcry before charging ahead under the defensive plates protection. Meanwhile Ray is cringing internally but cannot stop them since they are really adamant on using that title ever since Queen Annalise call him as such during the feast. Well the pale red moon on top of them didn't help either.
Along with Ellen and Kurumi, Ray enters deeper into the underground base while being defended by his combat maids. He soon heard the sound of ongoing gunfire and explosion halfway through the hallway leading to the enemy position.
When they exited the hallway, they entered a large cavern that seems to be the main building of the base with what look almost like a village built in the cavern and he already. His estimation there is 8 thousands magicians over their opposite hiding under magic barrier while firing magic on the hunters.
Many hunters were pinned down as they didn't have much cover than the magicians that have urban areas and magic shields protecting them. They seem to be defending the stairway down to the lower floor.
"You! Who are you people that dare to attack us? Don't you know who we are?" One of the leading magician asked while putting on an angry face.
"I know that you lot isn't the crows or Grauzauberer magician. I ask again who are you people who dare attack us. Better answer before the Boss Lady decimate you ants." The magician then shouted again after another one whispered something to her.
The hunters are currently under a stalemate since both sides have good shields protecting them but not strong enough firepower to pierce through the defences. None of the hunters or leaders answered but instead waited for the Choir members to channel their arcane spell [A Call Beyond] and new original spells like [Arcane Bolt] and [Arcane Blast] to bombard the magic shield while also barraging the shield with their firearm.
"Pointless attack. You can barely make a scratch on it and you worms dare attack the Hexennacht." The main star had arrived and looking at the hunters witn contempt as he quicksilver bullet simply bounced off the shield made by three high class magician and helped by few hundred mid and low class magician.
"You all dare attack us with those pathetic toys… even the leaders are only mid class strong while the majority is low class…"
"Where is your real leader huh? No way this worm is able to put down such a large scale teleportation ban." Walburga shouted but only replied with a barrage of spells that impacted the shield.
*Boom* *Boom* *Boom*
The spells impacted the shield and manage to create a crack on the shield which soon followed by more spells as [A Call Beyond] made the highest damage on the shield as the explode like a small stars. The overbearing concentrated energy of the cosmos in the homing small stars hammered the shield with great strength that cause Walburga to look at the Choirs member with her eye widen.
She was definitely very surprised when a mid class spell caster shows the power way above its capabilities. This is because [A Call Beyond] isn't magic that make use the caster power, rather it channel the power of the Great One similar to the Living Failure who pray for the power and was granted by the cosmos or perhaps the Great One themselves.
This allow the Choirs to produce attack stronger than what the can actually afford. Not fo forgot that Ray also buffing them with his [Hunt] divinity.
Seeing that the enemies able to threaten them. Walburga finally take them seriously and with a flick of her finger, she produce dozens of magic circle that shoots barrage of fire magic before the other magicians also follow her.
The hunters under Gehrmen and Ludwig leadership again, close their distance to engage with close quarters combat under the protection of defensive plates layer.
"Glory to the Pale Blood King!"
"Glory to the Pale Blood King!" Everyone chants while charging into the cracked shield and starts chopping down magicians with their improved alloy weapons that cut and shoot better than their old weapons made using outdated materials.
Ray also followed the charge but refrain from attacking since he is hiding his divinity aura using [Presence Concealment] that will dispel is he attack.
Ellen with the combat maids and Kurumi's clone also join the fray as the fight becomes very bloody due to the melee weapon of choice of most hunters that have serrated edge.
Ray positions himself for a surprise attack on Walburga who is busy frying the hunters with her magic. She had yet to use the longinus since she hadn't taken them seriously but it will change after this. Ray initiated his surprise attack with psychic knives that temporarily stunned Walburga before he bashed Artemis on her back, attempting to damage her spine to disable her.
"Ahhhgh…*
Ray actually can simply fight her head on but her cowardly personality will assure that she escapes upon detecting his divinity aura. That's why he has to resort to sneak attack to disable her and prevent her from running away. However the sneak attack failed since she seems to have something to protect her.
"Fuck, I knew you would be sneaking around after not appearing immediately… how can you get that close undetected!" Enrage by the sneak attack, she lash out purple flame with a swipe of her hand. Finally using her longinus, Incinerate Anthem.
Ray jumps away from the path of the fire before dashing forward without bothering to answer her. Ray then uses his invisible spiritual knives to stab her again but this time all aimed on her head.
"Ahhhhhh fuck fuck what is that magic you use." Walburga shouts hysterically as she feel multiple knives pierced her brain and twisted.
Without affording her any breathing space, Ray attacks her with intent to cripple her lest she escape. Little did he know, his psychic attack was so unbearable that she temporarily became mute as the pain from her soul overwhelmed her physical body. The pain she currently feels is multiplied by a hundred fold over and an inexperienced magician like Walburga cannot bear it at all unlike probably the maou satan who can still resist such pain.
This time, Ray aims at her limbs instead of her body centre that is protected by something. He cut off her arms and shattered her legs. Surprisingly she is overwhelmed by so much pain that she cannot even let her longinus go berserk like how Issei can in the anime since longinus will reply to their wielder's emotional state.
This is also the first time he sees the effectiveness of his psychic power although he rarely uses them because rarely he fights to kill like now.
When the leader had fallen, the Hexennacht magicians slowly lost morale and tried to escape but the whole base had been surrounded and they were only able to struggle in vain before being decimated by Ray's people.
In conclusion, they suffered around 4000 casualties but they will be revived back in Yharnam as their soul returned to Ray under the effect of his divinity. The magicians however only have 600 left that surrendered to Ray which the Choirs wanted half of them for their research while another half Laurence suggested making use of their magic to Yharnam's benefits.
They looted the place of everything useful, especially magical materials and devices that can be useful while some hunters take the furniture as their spoil of war. After the looting, almost nothing is left. Anything that isn't nailed down has been taken away, few even looted the beautiful floor tiles…
When the lookout team spotted people, Ray immediately bailed out with Walburga in tow. He later managed to subdue the Incinerate Anthem using Dominate as planned and gave Walburga to the eager researcher of Bygenwerth and Choirs to fight for.
Turn out that since every sacred gear has a soul which binds to a host to allow them to use the gear. If he manages to make the soul inside the gear willingly leave the host and bind to him, he can basically take any sacred gear he ever wanted as long as he can subdue it with [Dominate].
If this is the case then he can probably steal the True Longinus because the Dominate process didn't affect the host at all and they would never notice if they cannot see Ray physical taking the sacred gear but the heaven system will still know someone had taken them which is a problem if they found out he is the one hoarding the longinus gears.
…
While Ray is happily assessing his gain, few factions discovered about the incidents although most of the mythology like Egyptian, Indian, Chinese and Norse didn't pay much attention to the slaughter and emergence of new faction since they are quite strong and they honestly didn't give a fuck about a new tiny faction. Like how a homeowner didn't care about a small harmless spider making a nest in their garden.
However the Biblical, Greek and Vampire faction heard the news and started to investigate the incident just after Ray returned home. The latter two are interested because it was very near their territory, especially the Vampire faction.
The Biblical faction however became interested because the Grigori caught and interrogated the escaped magician while the Heaven detected a longinus had changed owner. The unrelated devil however becomes wary because the said longinus that changed owner, the Incinerate Anthem which is their nemesis and most of them become panicked like the noble houses that immediately declared to find out who the owner is and wanted to recruit the owner into the Underworld.
"Azazel, can you share what you manage to obtain from the survivor?" A handsome man with six pairs of golden glowing wings asked Azazel with a serious expression while two other people, one male with crimson long hair and a girl with black twintail hair, sat on the same table discussing the incident.
"About that Michael, we didn't get much from the poor lass. She already went mad for some reason and it's purely due to trauma and not a magic effect." Azazel sighed before he rested his back on the chair while Michael was looking down at the report thinking deeply about something.
"All that we manage to obtain is a phrase."
"A phrase?" The girl with black twintail asked back.
Azazel nodded and flip to the other page of the report Michael was reading before letting everyone see. The report stated the phrase 'Tonight the Pale Blood King joins the hunt'.
"Pale Blood King?" Michael looked with an even more confused face.
"At first we thought it was the vampires doing but later rejected that suggestion after we saw the site and the fact that Hexennacht are allies or at least on the same side."
"What did you find on the site that made you sure the preparator isn't a vampire? I mean, the title sounds exactly what a vampire would have as a name." The girl ask with great interest as she jump from her seat and taken away the report from Michael to look at the images.
What she sees after that shocked her… the bloody remains of the magicians, pools of blood and the gruesome wound on the magicians is what she saw from the report.
"This…"
"Quite brutal right? Even during the Great War, we never encountered something like this." Azazel added
"Michael, did you manage to track down the location where the longinus swapped owner? Perhaps we can find the previous owner and get an answer from that person." The crimson haired man asked Michael and broke him from his deep thoughts.
"Haah… I wish I could, the Heaven System cannot detect its location as if they didn't exist." Michael sighed.
"Then we basically know nothing of these new people?" The crimson haired man asked
"Not really Sirzechs, our scout that skulked around during that incident said that he felt divinity from these people's direction. This helps us narrow down the target to a few people." Azazel explained.
"How about the pale red moon then? The name and the ability does have a relation… pale red moon and Pale Blood King…" the girl mutters while looking at the report intently to find any detail she perhaps missed.
"Sirzechs, we need Ajuka's help to find out about this Pale Blood King guy so I leave that to you and Serafall, please try to keep an ear up. Maybe you can find them using the diplomatic channel since it's impossible for them to not have any relation with other smaller groups." Azazel said before the meeting disbanded and Sirzechs with Serafall teleported away leaving Azazel with Michael.
"Azazel, you actually know more about this than what you just shared don't you?" Michael said while looking intently at Azazel that instantly sighed as nothing really can escape his brother's eye.
"Yes, but you are the same too. You are hiding something too, aren't you" Azazel countered Michael.
Raising his hand in defeat, Michael explained that the system detected the longinus was subdued and changed ownership willingly instead of the usual being ripped off its previous host.
"That's…"
"Yes, only our father can do that. That's why I didn't share it with the maous." Michael explained.
"Do you think it's him? But I highly doubt it's the old man, he would not do something like this…" Azazel denied the thought that the Pale Blood King is the Biblical god.
"Yes I think that too but Gabriel keeps pestering me to allow her to investigate this. You know how persistent she is if it involves our father."
"Perhaps you should… maybe she got lucky and found this Pale Blood guy. She might accidentally stumbled across him accidentally and found this guy, her intuition is quite strong after all even if she is a complete airhead." Azazel proposed with a smile while shrugging his shoulders.
"You know I can't let her wander around just like that. It might cause more trouble than solving this situation." Michael retorted the suggestion.
"I will inform you if I receive more information about this." Michael then teleported away, finally ending the meeting.
…
Meanwhile in Yharnam, everyone celebrates their victory while Ray is testing his newly obtained power. In his hand is a purple orb of flame that allows him to use flame to do anything from creating weapons out of flame or his favourite one is stake. He copied the Kazikli Bey of Vlad III from FGO. The flame first forms a few purple fiery stakes that first stab the dummies before instantly, an endless amount of stake sprouted from the initial stake and tore apart the already burning training dummies.
"Oh, wonderful Lord Ray. Laurence applauded with several other researchers that joined to look at this new ability Ray had obtained.
"Thank you for the compliment." Ray thanked them before he tried to summon his weapon souls but Artemis refused to be summoned and Ray had to forcefully yank her away from his soul and summon her. When Artemis appeared, she looked at Ray while pouting and refused to look at him.
"I just wanted you to help me to test something out."
"Isn't Tsukuyomi enough for you, hmph…" Artemis then sulked further and looked away instead of looking at Ray.
Laurence and the scholars quickly escaped before they get involved with their god own lover quarrel.
"Artemis… master didn't mean to ignore you. Master wanted to summon you a few times but you refused to leave master's soul during all that times."
"Easy for you to say when you are the one who keeps being pampered and patted by master because of those." Artemis rebuked while pointing on the ears and tail.
"That's why Artemis wants to stay in the soul, because there master's soul is mine and mine only without anyone taking it from me. Hehehe… the irresistible feeling from having our soul joined makes Artemis want to stay in there forever." Artemis giggling dangerously with her face blushing which makes Ray feel approaching danger.
Ray quickly kneels down before he hugs Artemis from the back. "I'm very sorry that I let you feel neglected but I never thought you would feel that way…"
"Hmph, master will keep playing with Tsukuyomi's tail anyway. Master wouldn't be interested in the plain Artemis anyway." Artemis complained while Tsukuyomi looked sad with his ears lying flat since he knew that he did hogged master's attention to him and caused Artemis to feel lonely.
"That's…"
"What? Master going to deny that master prefer Tsukuyomi because he is fluffy. Then why didn't master create Artemis like Tsukuyomi then!" She raised her voice with tears on her eyes while trying to get out of the hug from Ray.
"Artemis… I know I am dumb in matter of love and I can only beg for your forgiveness for my mistake. That's why I will give you a wedding to make you my first official wife." Ray cannot believe what he just blurted out on the spot while squeezing his last brain cells to appease Artemis for neglecting her.
Ray didn't realize that his Cosmic Sicon just became the best wingman with the luck it provided to Ray that caused him to propose a wedding to Artemis. Since she feels unloved by Ray then the only way to fix it is to give her what all his harem didn't have, which is the official wife status.
"O.. oo.. official wife! Wedding… master, you are not lying right? No, master will not lie. Artemis can feel the truth from reading master's thoughts." Artemis instantly stopped trying to break free from Ray's hug and instead hugs Ray herself while laughing creepily with 'huehue' laughter.
Ray however didn't mind having a wedding since he thought Artemis actually deserved it as his longest and first ever lover.
(Note: The author definitely was not blackmailed by his friend to do this.)
While at the side, Laurence overheard the conversation and instantly dropped everything and ran to spread the news before he started preparing for the wedding. The scholars however complained because the demonstration of the Incinerate Anthem was cancelled.
As the news of Ray's and Artemis's wedding spread like wildfire in Yharnam, the celebration instantly stopped and moved to the next day and everyone started preparing the venue which is the Healing Church's Grand Cathedral. The Yharnam's every seamstress are hired to produce the wedding outfit while the chefs and bakers are making the wedding cakes.
Everyone is excited for Ray's first wedding and forgets that a few hours ago they had slaughtered thousands of magicians.
Most of his harem decide to become the bridesmaids except Shinano who is away and Ellen who joined the combat maids as their leader which will be his personal guard during the wedding. For Tsukuyomi… he also became the bridesmaid. Meanwhile Gehrmen, Ludwig and Laurence become the groomsmen.
Ray and Artemis are totally oblivious to what is happening right now as they are absorbed into their little world while whole Yharnam is in a frenzy to prepare for their wedding.
Later that night, Ray manages to test what he wanted to test and his weapon souls are able to also use the Incinerate Anthem because they both are physically bonded to his soul. They can fully use the longinus gear without any restrictions as opposed to Ellen or the spirits duo who are only able to use them with limited access since their link isn't as close to his soul as his weapon souls, especially Ellen, who has the weakest link among everyone. She is only able to apply a layer of the flame on her weapon.
…
Next morning, Ray woke up from his sleep to see an unfamiliar ceiling. He also can hear loud noises of chattering and things being moved around.
"The groom finally awake huh." Ray hears before he quickly sober up and sees that he is currently not in his mansion and people are busy preparing something while he sees Laurence and Gehrmen is bringing him an outfit that looks like a Victorian style wedding tuxedo and a top hat too.
The jacket and pants are creamy white in colour while the shirt inside is pure white. The embroideries are made of gold thread and a few engraving of the hunters rune on the chest and sleeve part of the jacket for some reason.
"Quick! Wear this and follow us to the Grand Cathedral, the event will start in another hour." Gehrmen said with a smirk on his face.
"Didn't expect the boy I once met and trained to finally grow up as a fine man. Perhaps I get to see kids before I kick the bucket. Hahahaha"
"Indeed, I am also happy to be granted the honour to attend Lord Ray's wedding as the groomsmen." Laurence said.
When everything finally clicked in his head, Ray just realized that his wedding is starting in an hour. His mind is trying to understand what just happened since he had yet to tell anyone about his plan to hold a wedding.
"Wait… who planned this wedding? I didn't remember giving any order to prepare for this wedding…" Laurence instantly looks to the side and whistles while Gehrmen look at Laurence and Ray in confusion.
"..." Ray stares at Laurence with a deadpanned face.
"Haah, well what's done is done. Having it early isn't really a problem at all but next time when deciding anything personal like this wedding, please consult me first."
"Yes, Lord Ray." Laurence instantly saluted.
'Having fanatics like this is very hard to manage…' Ray complained while changing his outfit instantly using inventory equip function since the outfit is a pain to wear manually.
After that, Ray led by Gehrmen and Laurence to the venue. While they are walking there, Ray receives a lot of congratulations from a lot of people that are either helping or simply attending the wedding. The whole venue is decorated with white and pink roses as the main theme.
When Ray arrived, he could feel a lot of eyes looking at him which made him feel slightly nervous. Soon, Ellen and his combat maids appeared with their weapons equipped to escort him to the inner part of the Cathedral.
Due to the size of the crowd, not everyone can enter the Grand Cathedral and most are outside since it's already packed full with people.
After almost an hour passed, the wedding had started and Artemis soon arrived with Kurumi, Nia and Tsukuyomi while wearing all sorts of Victorian style outfits. The one reading the vow is Laurence under a priest's attire and holding a giant registry book.
The whole ceremony went without a hitch as the groom and bride finished their vow, multiple loud cannon blasts were heard which was made by Djura and his group of Powder Keg hunters who did a cannon salute to indicate the wedding success.
Everyone partied all over Yharnam to celebrate this wedding until nightfall. During the night, Ray's harem gave them privacy to have the whole night to themselves which end up with sex that last from midnight till morning but at least Artemis is being gentle and didn't broke his hip again.
…
A week later, Ray is having his honeymoon with Artemis in Kyoto. He did bring Ellen and a few dozens of his maids. Nia wanted to stay at his home in Kuoh while Kurumi who took the role as the Cafe manager also stayed to manage the cafe. Tsukuyomi tags along in his unsummoned form with Ikaros.
They are having fun visiting temples, shrines and local landmarks. Ellen and the maids also follow, although dressed in suits and black sunglasses like bodyguards while maintaining distance from them. Many locals thought Ray and Artemis as some high profile individuals to have bodyguards following them.
"Artemis…"
"Yes darling." Artemis looks at Ray while smiling sweetly. Sweet enough to make people instantly have diabetes upon looking at her.
"Haah, let's have our lunch before we visit the last temple on our list."
"Yes darling." Artemis still looks at Ray with the same smile.
"..."
"Can you not call me 'darling'..." Ray finally voiced his words.
"Then what do you want me to call you?" Artemis asked him while showing a fake pout.
"How about just-"
"Nope, I have my right and freedom to call you darling or my husband anywhere anytime." Artemis protested.
"And I keep being stopped by the police. The fact that we didn't have a proper certificate to prove our marriage, forced me to use magic to divert the police."
"Can you at least not use that title in public. Please…"
"Nope, I have my right and freedom as your proper wife to use it anytime I want and I will not be swayed otherwise." Artemis said before acting cutely like a tsundere trying to win an argument.
"Okay okay, I'm sorry. I am very sorry for looking at the fox Youkai last night. So, please stop trying to get me arrested by the police."
"Hmph, finally admitting your sin."
"I just took a tiny glimpse… just a little glimpse and you are already trying to get me arrested. Thank goodness I can use hypnosis magic."
"Serves you right, trying to look at other women when your wife is in front of you."
"Come, let's find a restaurant to have our lunch and invite Ellen and the others too."
"Yes ma'am" Ray finally gave up and confessed his mistake.
They later found a restaurant that serves traditional Kyoto cuisine. The restaurant is an old style building of two hundred years old and already has 3 generations of owners.
"How many people to dine in?" The waitress asked respectfully after thinking he is a big shot foreigner.
"How many people can you take?" Ray asked while scanning the restaurant with his psychic abilities which found that it was relatively empty and he also sensed Youkai inside.
"We can take at most 50 people."
"Well let me reserve this restaurant then. You don't need to worry about the money."
"Ellen" Ray called and she came forward to give stacks of money around a million yen.
"If not enough, you can ask for more from her." Ray told the waitress.
The waitress panicked because she felt the oppressing energy from Ray when he was spreading his senses into the restaurant just now. The restaurant was opened by the supernatural people of Kyoto and has a human repelling barrier around. The energy from Ray made her feel like a small rock compared to Mount Fuji.
"Ah, enough sir, please follow me" the waitress quickly led them in to dump them to another waitress inside. Ray and Artemis took a private dining room while everyone else occupied the normal seats while also guarding the entrance to the private room.
Coincidentally, Azazel and Serafall are also here in another private room since they have diplomatic jobs to do in Kyoto related to the Youkai faction.
"Hey, waitress."
"Yes?"
"Who just arrived? I feel a lot of people just entered the restaurant."
"I'm not sure but my friend that served them just now said that a couple and their bodyguards just came in to dine."
"Ah, thanks for the information."
They waited for the waitress to leave before putting on a sound insulation barrier.
"Serafall can you sense the couple?" Azazel calls her by her real name instead of 'Levia-tan' because they are talking about a serious topic.
"No, I can only feel one and her soul feel…"
"Artificial like a sacred gear?" Azazel continued.
"Ah! Yes, that… it feels like I'm looking at a sacred gear."
"Hm…"
"Maybe the girl is an Independent Avatar type Sacred Gears?" Serafall suggested.
"No, It's impossible because I'm there when my father created these sacred gear and I never saw this sacred gear at all. Its attributes are also quite weird… moon and cosmos."
"Sorry Serafall, I have to skip this visit. I can't exactly let something this intriguing slip my eyes."
"Wait! Azazel, you can be doing this. We already missed the meeting once due to the sudden meeting." Serafall quickly tries to make Azazel not go on with his investigation.
"Just cover for me this time, this one is very important. Can't you understand? A new sacred gear not made by my father. Perhaps someone had exceeded me and managed to create an artificial sacred gear." Azazel starts to talk extensively about the sacred gear and Serafall gives up to convince him since he is nuts when it comes to sacred gear.
When Ray leaves the restaurant an hour later, Azazel starts following him and spying on him to dig more information about Artemis who simply baffled him a lot.
A fully alive and very human-like sacred gear. Azazel can see through her human-like cover which isn't her true form but rather a physical manifestation of the artificial soul that has an exact same flesh body created and sustained by its host mana. He didn't know what her true form was but just looking at how human like she is had him speechless.
He also feels strange that the host treats his sacred gear like his lover and they even show their affection. Perhaps the sacred gear host is just lonely and sees his sacred gear as his lover or has a weird fetish.
After nightfall, he followed Ray's group back to an inn they rented and sneaked around trying to find a chance to meet the host and the sacred gear. He found his chance when Ray was having a dip in the hot spring bath.
He feel weird that he cannot detect Ray's presence at all and the only way he can detect him is by physically looking with his eyes. He entered the hot spring bath as another visitor that rented a room in this inn and waited until Ray entered before he follow.
He cleans himself with a quick bath to find Ray before he sits next to him while dipping in the hot spring pond.
"Hello" Azazel tried to strike up a conversation.
…
'Shit' Ray cursed internally when he saw Azazel suddenly sit next to him and tried to have a conversation. The black hair with blond hair bangs and a goatee is hard to mistake for another person.
"Yes?" Ray replies casually while trying to keep calm. Azazel must had seen something interesting to go out of his way to meet him.
"You are a sacred gear holder right?"
"..." 'I'm busted, did he know I stole the longinus?'
"No need to deny, the girl with you today. Where did you obtain that sacred gear?"
Ray is relieved when Azazel talks about Artemis instead of the Incinerate Anthem. Artemis does appear like a sacred gear, a magic weapon that can bind to soul and possess sentience.
"It's a secret." Ray decides to keep quiet about it although not denying that he owns sacred gear. It's better to keep quiet than outrightly deny or he will have Azazel sending people to keep investigating him.
"Hum… well nothing can be gained for free but surely it has a price. Name your price, I am Azazel of the Grigori willing to pay anything for information regarding sacred gear… especially yours." Azazel said with his trademarked smirk.
"Anything you say?…" Ray is pondering if he can use this chance to gain an ally since he will need one to smoothly establish his faction and having Grigori, the rather neutral one, is his best option possible.
"Yes, anything." Azazel smirks even wider since he is bound to gain what he wanted since the other party is truly considering his offer.
"Then let me clarify again, what information would you want from me regarding my 'sacred gear'."
"Where you get it and what its function is." Azazel quickly tells Ray in glee.
"Then my price will be you making an alliance with a faction. I will tell you where I get it, its function and even who created it." Ray said with confidence that Azazel will eat the bait especially when he will tell who created it, which is him. He is laughing inside knowing he will scam this guy known as the most shrewd person in this world.
"Hum… What faction? Just for your information, I will reject any terrorist factions."
"You should have seen the recent faction that flatten the Hexennacht? Yeah, that one."
"Wait! That's you?" Azazel exclaimed in surprise.
"I'm a representative." Ray tell half truth to confuse Azazel while also to shift this diplomatic job to another person since just a little talk like this is enough to tire him up, what more if he needs to negotiate and stuff.
"Oh, well I accept. Let's make the contract and agreement." Azazel stands up enthusiastically before dragging Ray away to finalize the details.
…
Back in his room, Artemis sits while looking outside the window to watch the open sky while waiting for Ray who took a long time in the bathhouse. He better not be caught peeking at the Youkais again. With her is Ellen while the rest of the maids cum bodyguards occupied all adjacent rooms.
"Should I send someone to find Ray?"
"No need Ellen, I don't think he will dare to peek at the Youkais for at least another week. Maybe he is buying the pudding again." Artemis said while looking at Ellen who is also in a bathrobe like Artemis.
"Hum… he seems to like the mango pudding sold near the inn, perhaps it's a good idea to have one of the maids to learn how to make the pudding."
"Oh, a good idea. I recently learned that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach… Perhaps I should learn too." Artemis said which Ellen supported before the door slid open and Ray entered with Azazel.
"Oh she is the sacred gear avatar…" Azazel exclaimed before he tried to inspect her but Ray quickly gripped his hand strongly before saying.
"I know that your interests are now purely due to sacred gear but she is my wife. Be respectful will you?" Ray said while trying to intimidate him using Haki to apply spiritual pressure.
Azazel is stunned for a second before he fakes a cough and sit on the table opposite of Ray who has Ellen and Artemis on his side.
"I know love knows no bounds but this is the first time I see with both eyes someone who has sacred gear as a wife." Azazel tried to make a joke to lessen the tense atmosphere but sadly only Ray understood his humor and the other two look confuse or offended.
"What's the problem with having Artemis as a wife?" Artemis asked while feeling offended.
"Oh father, he even named her Artemis. The goddess known for preserving her chastity." Azazel laughed while slapping his thigh but as before, none laughed with him which made it awkward.
"Uh… sorry. I tried to make it less tense with jokes." He finally stopped and stayed silent.
"Well let's bring out the contract you just made and we can start the exchange." Ray tells Azazel who nodded and quickly takes out the contract to enforce the exchange and make sure both sides will keep their words or suffer backlash on their soul.
Each other signed the papers and verified it before they enter the main event that Azazel was anticipating.
"Well with those done, now you should start spilling the beans. Cmon, who created her." Without wasting any time, Azazel quickly asks Ray.
"That you should answer it yourself." Ray said while looking at Artemis who nodded.
"Artemis is created by Artemis's husband and master, Ray Elliot." Azazel quickly turns into a frown before he looks at Ray who is trying to hold his laughter.
"Not cool man, you can't just scam the fallen angel best known for deception." Azazel looks flatly at Ray. Although he is being scammed, the term they agreed on is valid because Ray indeed kept his words.
"Then what about the artifact used as her base self and function?" Seeing there is no point crying over spilled milk, Azazel determined to salvage what he could to recover his losses.
"Her base form is a weapon revered as a holy sword. Obtained from Chalice Dungeon, an old labyrinth created by an ancient race of superhuman beings. I obtained the sword after slaying its previous wielder, a holy blade user of a certain 'church'." Ray tried to explain with a disproportionate amount of information to catch Azazel's interest.
"A holy sword… Can you show me her sword form?"
Ray looked at Artemis who sighed before she vanished and Ray summoned her 2H form and showed it to Azazel, clearly indicating see only and no touching.
"I have never seen such a holy sword before… I sense no holy energy from it at all." Azazel said while looking at Ray suspiciously. However he is speechless when Ray activates the moonlight energy that glows in mesmerising ethereal green light.
"For your information, her previous name is Holy Moonlight Sword. Hence she is named as Artemis, you know… moon attribute and moon goddess."
Azazel however was shocked by another reason entirely. When Ray activated the moonlight energy, he finally felt the soul inside the sword. It's a goddess, Artemis's soul is unmistakably a goddess however her divinity is the moon and another one that feels like the cosmos but something didn't feel right about it… he can feel the unsettling feeling like something is digging and inserting something in his brain. Painless but feel extremely uncomfortable.
"Ah, yes… You say that she was discovered from a labyrinth created by an ancient powerful being, the Chalice Dungeon…"
"The base form? Yes."
"Can I visit the dungeon? I have something I wanted to make sure of." Azazel quickly put aside everything about sacred gear and now became obsessed with the eldritch divinity he sensed in Artemis but didn't know what it was. He can feel something is not right about it and he has felt it before and for once prayed to his father he isn't right about this or it will be catastrophic.
He felt it before during the Great War, he was surveying the ocean when he overheard from sea god Poseidon that something very dangerous dwells in the depth of the sea. The lost city of R'lyeh, dwelling of The Great Dreamer that will cause untold catastrophe if awakened.
Every pantheon, faction or group. Even the strongest dragon never dares to get near it's dwelling, afraid that they will awaken the dreaming one.
His father, the Biblical god once warned him that the creature is a cosmic deity that has great power that even him will struggle to win against the weakest one due to their inherent power with corruptive effect and their intangibly as a multidimensional being.
"Sadly the only way in is by a ritual that needs to be carried out which requires special chalice and material as offering to enter."
"The materials are very rare and limited. Using such valuable materials will need to pay great price as it is very hard to obtain them." Ray replied. He didn't lie about it again since he does have a limited amount of that material and it will be a pain to obtain them again since he isn't willing to be stuck in a dungeon filled with creatures that will happily tear him apart for more than a second.
"It can't be helped than…" Azazel said
"May I know what distressed you this much?" Ray asked after seeing that Azazel looked very distracted ever since he showed Artemis's ability.
"Nothing you need to care about. When will I meet your leader to set up our alliance pact?"
"Tomorrow morning at seven, I will wait for you here. You can bring your escort if you want but not too much, it's a diplomatic mission after all." Ray holds out his right hand to Azazel.
"Yeah" Azazel then shakes Ray's hand before he leaves the room.
After that, Ray spends his time with Artemis and Ellen before he sleeps after feeling tipsy from consuming warm Sake that he ordered from the inn.
—————
(Note: Not much action this time since I'm laying down the foundation for future events.
I got this idea to involve Cthulhu from DxD Overlord. Since Ray is an infant Great One masquerading as a human or humanoid, I might as well use his lineage and dig as much material as I could. Also, one of the canon Great One from Bloodborne will appear later but as a foe or an ally? Well keep reading lol. I really wanna spoil it but hav ta keep resisting ta urges.)