Chapter 190: Dragon Eater

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"And this is exactly where we are now."

Azazel announced while looking at the center of the cave. And Erik saw it too. There, at the center of the cave, crucified with big nails all over its body, was Samael, the Dragon Eater.

If Erik would have to describe Samael in one word, it would be horrendous. Yes. Horrendous. At the moment that Erik and Azazel entered the stone room, Samael started to growl in their direction while struggling against his seals to attack them. And they were not even a Dragon. Erik could see that it had lost its mind a long time ago.

"So this is Samael, uh…"

Erik mumbled while approaching the Dragon Eater but being sure of maintaining a safe distance. After all, he didn't know exactly what Samael could do.

"Exactly. The old man sealed him down here a long time ago, but I can already see that we are not the only ones to visit him lately. This place should have been filled to the brim with protections, but I can barely feel them around Samael."

Azazel replied to Erik, explaining how the place should have been. Erik looked around and concentrated his senses around and nodded his head in agreement with Azazel.

"Yes, I can sense some residual energy from the protections that used to surround this place. Whoever disabled them, has been doing it for an extended time."

Erik commented to Azazel.

"So, are we in agreement that this place must be protected again?"

Azazel asked Erik, who nodded his head in answer.

"Yes, we are. Do you want to set a recording function up to show to the others yourself or do I do it? Michael would very much like to know that people are messing with Samael's prison."

Erik asked Azazel. The Fallen Angel hummed a little before answering Erik. He was still analyzing the surroundings of the cave.

"You do it. Your standing is better than mine with the others. We could have signed a peace treaty and alliance, but we don't trust each other that well yet."

Azazel said to Erik. And it was true. The alliance was still very new and it is harder to teach new tricks to old dogs like himself and the other leaders. Trust would come with time. Erik nodded his head at Azazel's reasoning and retrieved from an internal pocket in his jacket a crystal. After applying a little magic to it to serve as fuel to the recording function, Erik floated the object to a high place near the walls of the cave and snapped his fingers to start the recording function.

*snap*

"This is Erik Ravenclaw, together with Azazel, the Governor-General of Grigori. I was given an anonymous tip about a possible activity of people from the terrorist group known as the Hero faction inside Tartarus. The source of it, who prefers to remain anonymous, reported that the humans from the terrorist group were talking with god Hades about releasing something from Tartarus. To investigate this better, I have asked the help of Azazel since he is always looking for a reason to escape from the paperwork."

Erik started saying an introduction to the magical recording, smirking a little at the end after the comment about Azazel. The Fallen Angel didn't even blink with the poke and just mumbled something very similar to an 'it is true'.

"When we arrived at the place, I explained to Azazel what had taken us to come here and we agreed after some discussion that the Titans are out of the list of possible 'releases' since Hades would not agree or help Humans to release what he and his sibling fought so hard to imprison here. Azazel then concluded that if not the Titans, then Samael was the remaining logical choice. He guided me to the place where Samael is sealed and we found visible signs of someone being here recently. The protections that should have been all around are all dismantled, with only the one over Samael itself remaining. Anything that you want to add for the introduction, Azazel?"

Erik commented again, finishing his part of the introduction and asking his partner for this job for his input. Azazel nodded at that before giving his pointers.

"The seal around Samael had been tampered with too. There are signs of someone trying to loosen the seal. I can't say for certain if they were successful with it or not, but it is dangerous in the same way."

Azazel said from his place near Samael with a hand in his goatee, adding to the introduction report of the magical recording. With the introduction done, Erik walked to Azazel's side and started to analyze the seals over Samael.

"The seal had been indeed tampered with."

Erik said after a minute or soo.

"How much?"

Azazel asked Erik. The Fallen Angel was concerned with how much the seal had been tampered with.

"Someone added a type of key to it. Imagine that the seal is a kind of faucet and that the water being held by the faucet is Samael. Previously, you could not get to the water without breaking the faucet and releasing it completely, but now, with the key being added, you can open the register and control the water spillage."

Erik replied to Azazel, explaining what had been altered for the sake of the people watching the recordings later.

"So, what you are saying is that someone is trying to weaponize Samael, controlling how much of it is unsealed. Is that right?"

Azazel concluded, asking Erik for confirmation. The man nodded his head at that before replying.

"Exactly."

Erik replied to Azazel.

"So, now we have to re-do the seal and the protections around it. Can you help me with it?"

Azazel said and asked Erik while cracking his finger and neck, readying himself for some hard work.

"Sure, what kind of seal do you want?"

Erik said and asked back to Azazel, who hummed while thinking before replying.

"Hmm… The 'lock and throw the key away' type?"

Azazel said and started to take out his jacket.

"Ah, My favorite seal strategy. Sealing without caring for release."

Erik replied to Azazel while smiling, but soon after, he made an 'x' with his arms while looking at Azazel.

"The only problem is that it is not efficient. You can't make a room without a door in it. You would create a 'Schrodinger's Cat' problem with the seal, creating instability in the matrix. That was probably why whoever managed to temper with His seal could do it in the first place."

Erik continued saying to Azazel, explaining why that kind of seal would not work well.

"So, what kind of seal do you suggest?"

Azazel asked back, having understood why not having a key would make the seal easy to exploit.

"Coffer type. Sturdy room, sturdy door, sturdy locks."

Erik replied to Azazel, who nodded his head after a second of thinking.

"I will leave it to you, then. While you do it, I will start to re-do the protections around the cave."

Azazel said to Erik, who nodded his head. With that, both men started to work on their own parts of Samael's 'prison'.

Five hours. That was how long it took for Azazel and Erik to finish their work. And they had to admit it. They had done a good job. Azazel had put so many protections around the place that if someone would try to dismantle them without triggering any of it, they would spend some decades doing it at least. While Azazel took the quantity over quality approach, Erik went for quality. He had suggested a sturdy room, with a sturdy door, and sturdy locks. And he had done it. At first, the seal would look simplistic, but it was not. Erik had been very cautious in making it as airtight as possible so there was no way of getting over it without the keys. Yes. Keys. Plural. Erik had made five physical keys for this seal with each one being different from the other. The only way for the seal to be released would be for someone to have the five keys at the same time with five different people holding them. So, one could just steal the keys, take four other random people and release Samael, right? Wrong. For starters, each key had a lock in it. A blood lock to exact. The key would only work if the person holding it is the owner of the blood locked to it. The idea was for each of the four leaders of the Alliance to hold to one key while he would hold to the fifth one. After being blood-locked, the lock could only be released with the authorization of the current holder. This was done in this way so the key could be passed down to the next leader if necessary. If the current holder came to die before passing it to the next one, the key would then be tied to the seat of power that the previous holder used to occupy. For example, If for any reason, Odin dies without passing the key, it would then be tied to the God-King position of the Nordic Pantheon.

Is it fool-proof? No. But Erik doubted that someone would appear, kill the four leaders, and be appointed as the new leader of four factions just to release Samael. If they, for any reason, had reached that point, then he doubted very much that Samael would make any difference since they would have been entirely effed up. The fifth key would be for Erik to hold into it. It was not that he wanted to do it, but, since he was the creator of the seal, he had to have access to it or the seal would become unstable.

"Is it not a bit overkill?"

Azazel asked Erik after hearing from him how the seal worked. Erik shrugged at that.

"There is no such thing as overkill, Azazel. Just lazy people. Now, for the last act."

Erik replied to the Fallen Angel and prepared himself for the last part of the protection around Samael's prison. Erik closed his eyes and concentrated on the exact location of Samael's prison inside Tartarus, visualizing the coordinates for magic transportation to it inside his head just as the physical appearance of the place. Having the image clear inside his head, Erik cast his spell silently. The Fidelius Spell. Erik's magic went like a beam to the visualized place and started to surround it completely. A few seconds later, when a visible cocoon of magic surrounded the place, a pulse of invisible and untraceable magic energy was released by it and instantly traveled through all of Tartarus. Breaching the dimensional barriers, the energy continued to travel in all directions without being detected by anyone aside from a pair of Dragons Gods, who just shrugged the reason for it and continued to do their things. Soon enough, no people that used to know the location of Samael's Prison inside Tartarus could remember the location. When it finished hiding the location, a beam of magic energy was released from the cocoon of energy generated by the Fidelius spell and shot in the direction of Azazel. Having been warned by Erik about it, the Fallen Angel took it like a champ and when the energy from it set, Azazel was the only person in the Universe who knew where Samael's prison was located.

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a/n: In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment that illustrates a paradox of quantum superposition. In the thought experiment, a hypothetical cat may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of its fate being linked to a random subatomic event that may or may not occur. In this case, the non-determination of the content sealed made the seal itself unstable.