Chapter 30: Evil Pieces & Soul Pieces

"Are you sure about this Cleria-san? Isn't this way too important?" After a bit of small talk, Cleria gets serious and heads straight to the meat and potatoes. I throw out that question because what she gave me is seriously way too valuable. 

I look down at the small immaculate case, the tiny crack holding it closed does nothing to hold back the flashes of demonic energy. I fidget in my seat at the thought of this being in my hands at this point in time. It's not that I don't want them, but was it necessary for me specifically to have them?

"I'm sure about this, Ryu-kun. It won't be safe with me anymore, I'll talk to Grayfia about this and see what plans we can hash out to deal with it. It's best we keep it safe anyway, I've taken lots of evidence already and they won't be of use to me," Cleria stated firmly taking a sip of her tea. 

"Yeah, but you can always just give it to the guy who made it, no?" I said in a vain attempt to dissuade her.

She completely ignored it with a chuckle as she responded. "He won't mind honestly, he might even insist on you using them as a wedding gift," she finished with a smirk finding my attempts amusing especially after I saved her. I suppose, she did insist on supporting me with something, but didn't know what, so this might be her way of showing it. 

"Ahaha... then I'll graciously accept this gift Cleria-san... thank you," I say wholeheartedly. 

She nods with a satisfied expression on her face. She then excuses herself since she has to show up to the meeting room with my father, Grayfia, and my mothers. Masaomi passes me and bows politely, I do the same and tightly grasp the treasure in my hand.

I did not expect this at all, not even when I was rescuing her because I didn't think she had this, but it will definitely be a step forward. I wanted to try out an experiment. Something I've been thinking about ever since Evil Pieces and the Brave Saint system. It wasn't a priority since I didn't have as many allies as I do now with powers, but it was a good time as any. I'll have to talk with Eve though, so I'll probably be in my room while the girls are off training. Jibril might wanna be present for this though. Maybe even Ddraig...

Dammit, but I can't call her over when she was so fired up about the mission I sent her on. Well, she was irritated that she couldn't be with me, but she already knows I make time for promises so she will have requests for me as a reward for completing said mission. Shit, I'm getting a bad feeling though, it's already been a day... She's fine since she sends me updates on where she is, so I know she's almost to the hideout, but dang the scumbags are really cautious about not being discovered. 

I sigh internally and begin making my way over to my room, carefully tiptoeing past the training room or else they'd sniff me out and force me to go in with them. Don't get me wrong I would love to train but this little experiment takes precedence. With this maybe I'll be able to have some insight on how powerful my system is though I have no idea how it would use these. 

I opened the sliding door, spread out my aura of infinity, and took a seat in the air a bit of help from gravity goes a long way. I'm getting way better at doing this unconsciously. I do stumble a bit though. 

"Alright, you ready, Ddriag? Jibril is still off on the recon mission, so it'll just be you and me."

(We'll face her wrath if we interrupt her, so do not worry. But hmm Evil Pieces, you say? Perhaps those mutated pieces will have some sort of effect. I wonder how this will turn out. Is it necessary though?)

I ponder his question. Though I did say it would help me out now, do I truly need them? Maybe not as they are, but I have no idea how the system will react and change them so we will have to see. I can't be wishy-washy about this either. The mutated pieces are a mystery too, perhaps it'll get a big mutated boost?

"I'm not sure to be honest. This is new territory, but they won't be a waste all things considered. They could still boost a person's power significantly if it just adjusts to my own use," I said with a sigh. 

(That is true. But it might demand resources to improve upon them. Are you willing to part with those?)

He makes a good point, but what's the use of hoarding them? I smother the dragon within me that protests my ridiculous question. I get it damn, but when we gotta use them we gotta use them. "There's no point in holding onto resources, if it asks for them then all I gotta do is give them. It'll do me no good if I cheap out on this."

I ruffle my hair and close my eyes. "Alright, ima start."

I direct my consciousness into my soul throwing out the question to Eve as I hold the box of the Evil Pieces in my hands. 

(Do you think it's possible to enhance them, convert them, or otherwise improve these little pieces with the system, Eve?)

[ It... should be possible. It's not something that was meant to happen, but the possibility exists. It does come with a price, however. ]

(Woah, that makes sense I suppose. Nice. But what's the price?)

[ With the Evil Pieces as a Base Ingredient and Soul Points as a Catalyst to Create, it should be possible to make something new. The form and abilities will not be known, but they should still retain the power to enhance a person's strength just the same. ]

(That does sound promising, a bit risky, but nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose.)

I contemplated and then threw out another question. (And the specific amount of points needed to jump-start the process?)

[ By my estimations, it would take around.... 550,000 Soul Points. Nearly half your current amount. ]

(Fuck. That's a shit ton. Alright, it's cool. I haven't taken a look at the Shop yet, but it's probably for the best I don't. Boosting everyone's power is the way to go right now. I already have a shit ton of skills and some I haven't even unlocked or tried yet.)

[ You will still have plenty left over in case of an emergency, so I wouldn't worry Ryu. ]

(Right, you're right. Sorry, instincts are going crazy about losing that amount but I'm keeping myself in check.) I internally take some deep breaths, feeling the sweat accumulate over my brow as I drive away the draconic rage. It's hard, but not impossible. Smoothing it over by telling myself it will protect those I care for and love. 

It settles immediately. 

(It will be harder to control your dragon urges, I say this now because in time you will be able to smother them and overpower them with your will, but since you are far too young, you will be easily influenced. Be careful, you could use different urges to your advantage, but I will be here to help. Do not fret.)

(Thanks, Ddraig. It did take it out of me when I was trying to suppress it, who knows how hard it will get when I get angry.) 

(Let us hope it does not come to pass.)

I grunt in response, I feel him smirk in response since we both know we easily anger. But we do have each other's back all the same. 

After recollecting myself, I turn my attention back to the awaiting Eve. (You can start the process, Eve.)

[ Of course. ]

[ Evil Pieces Detected.... ]

[ Analyzing... Please Wait... ]

[ Purifying... ]

[ Complete! ]

[ Blank Pieces Now Available... ]

[ Creation of New Pieces... Accessible... ]

[ Enhancements... Available... ]

[ Bonding to Host Commencing... ]

[ Please Wait... ]

[ Complete! ]

[ Would you like to begin the Creation Process? ]

[ The Use of 550,000 Available Soul Points is Required. ]

[ Yes or No ]

I then mentally choose the Yes option. 

The box in my hand disappears and lands somewhere within me. I can feel the pull of my Soul Points being drained, I haven't been able to feel this when I used them before, so why the hell can I feel something being ripped away from me?! Dammit, it hurts. 

I control myself and let it happen naturally, the pain gradually begins to fade as I feel the changes happening to the box. Prickly pain begins to appear all over my body, there is no primary target, and I feel it everywhere. An itchy sensation reveals to me that even my skin and veins and mana veins are a target. I suppress the urge to scratch just in time to feel the swirling hurricane of my Soul Points converging into the box, it opened by itself revealing crystal chess pieces, no longer were they swirling with massive amounts of demonic energy, just plain old... mana? No soul energy? I don't know. 

They rotated around each other in a mass of super-charged energy. I felt a slight pull of my blood, mana, and divinity. It dove into the swirling mass and before I knew it I began to picture the forming of my pieces.

I saw one in the form of a familiar eye but in a crystalized chibi form. Then a heart, then a lung, then a mouth, then a brain, then veins and so and so forth. The process rapidly increased in speed where I couldn't process what I was seeing and just let it run its course. 

Eventually, it ended and a bunch of screens took up the space in front of me inside my mind. Huh, that's way too convenient, being able to see it with my eyes closed and open. 

[ Creation Complete! ]

[ 605,000 Soul Points Remaining... ]

[ Use of the Host's Blood, Mana, And Divinity a Success ! ]

[ Evil Pieces have now been transformed and enhanced to fit the Host. ]

[ The Creation of the Soul Pieces was a success... ]

[ The Host is now able to View this on his System Status as a Function. This Function is directly linked to Soul-Bonds but is separated as well. ]

I see. I keep my eyes closed as I gather the relevant information and organize it.

Let's take a step back. Before I get into my own system, I wanna look over the information about the Angel's and the Devil's. The process is similar to the function of the Brave Saints and Evil Pieces. And to get the explanation out of the way for those two, it basically reincarnates a being of any race into an angel and devil respectively, increasing their forces because of their declining birth rate. It increases their life span, they can use either holy or demonic energy and get a significant power boost. So on and so forth. Pretty simple, of course, there are other moving parts, like the King Piece and Queen Piece, and the Joker card and all that other stuff, but I don't gotta worry about it.

Well, it wouldn't hurt to have it. I let the information stream into my mind as I recall those tidbits of information from the DxD world for my benefit. It's immensely interesting how it works and my system replicated it to fit my needs. Ah, don't you just love a system that grows with you, supports you with an AI- who's starting to show emotions-, and provides power boosts. Well, I do. 

Grinning to myself I dive right in. Now the standard procedure would be the reincarnated individual getting my 'human' race added to their own making them a hybrid. And they do, but it depends on their compatibility and their desire. If they truly do wish to share my humanity then yes they will have it properly adjusted. But the updated procedure would be selecting either of my three races that compliment their own, they will not get all three, and will match according to their power and not mine. So if I'm a dragon god then yeah they're not gonna be one, it would be possible if they were at the same power level as me though. Food for thought. 

Insane right.

Well, let's see what else. I poke and prod at the info that I organized and like an office worker finding a file that needs to be thoroughly read I find one that pertains to my growing... wives. Ah yes, with this it will be far easier to... conceive a child because of our compatible races. Sure it can be offset with skills and all that other stuff, but having it as a passive and a way to boost their power is far better. It would ensure the possibility of having kids regardless of fertility and such. The awesome part would be that the child will either have one of my races, or one of my wife's races, or a combination of ours. While that is amazing, get this, a child that is born a full-blooded human has the potential to inherit characteristics of another race as they age and vice versa. Holy shit, a guarantee that my kids are gonna be healthy asf and have power from the get-go, sign me the fuck up. Shit. I feel like ima cry. I'm happy they're gonna be strong, they deserve the best! None shall do them harm or else they will incur my wrath! I'll tell them limb from limb as they watch me devour the heavens from which they spawned! Or hell... or any place actually. They'll suffer alright!?

Ahem, sorry.

Filing away the metaphorical folder, my mind then brushes against how it would affect the guys who would like to join my 'peerage.' Hmm essentially we'd be 'blood brothers,' our strength rises as each one of us gets hurt in battle only, it steadily increases as more of our blood is spilled and we gain insane battle combos when we fight together. Alright, now this is what I'm talking about. It's easy to lose ourselves in the frenzy, so to counteract it we would just need to practice keeping in control and place some countermeasures, like a spell or something to snap us out of it.

Or we can just bulldoze through the enemy until the effects fade away. The battle combos would be a combination of attacks that link together and we would know intuitively how we can pull it off in the heat of the moment when we learn it. But we won't start with one since we gotta achieve a certain percentage. Now where is the detail about what it means by streng- aha, I found it. 

It looks like it depends on what we are up against and what attacks we are using a lot. If the enemy is using primarily physical blows then we all get a boost in our defense. The same deal with the magical attacks it launches our magical defense increases. Hmm and for our own attacks it targets that particular 'punch,' or 'spell,' it has to be specific like me using my Gravity Starbeam. 

That shit is rad as heck. 

I focus once again and my lips curl into a grin as I sift through more of the info. According to my system and Eve, the Soul Pieces boost all stats, but certain 'pieces' boost certain aspects or even abilities/skills further. 

Hehe, let's check them out.