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Fabricator v2 - Chapter 24
🕑 Added 2023-08-31 15:16:25 +0000 UTCJunichiro looked at Mittelt after her outburst only to see her looking at him with a blank expression and dull eyes. When she spoke her voice sounded hollow, “You know. I thought you were just fucking around and having a little fun. Granted digging a kilometer into the Earth didn't seem like much fun at first, but the cave is kind of cool. But then...”
Here her expressionless face morphed into a disturbing combination of pissed off and terrified, as if she couldn't decide which emotion took precedence, “But then you had to go and actually find it! That thing is a death sentence for two weaklings like us!” She started to hyperventilate, “We're fine down here, no way anyone can detect anything through a kilometer of solid ground.” She stared at Junichiro with tears in the corner of her eyes, “But the moment we leave?! We'll be swarmed by everyone with any kind of supernatural sense! They'll be clamoring for our blood! They'll rip us apart, then rip each other apart until the strongest has that thing in their possession!”
She was panting and practically frothing at the mouth as she screamed, “Oh GOD! You're going to restart the WAR!”
As Mittelt had her meltdown and started rambling about the coming apocalypse, Junichiro stuck his hand into one of the pouches on his utility belt. After digging around for a second, he pulled out a small trinket that didn't look like much more than a small golden ball. As Mittelt continued to rant, he casually hooked the trinket up to the watch. The moment he clicked the clasp of the trinket closed, the overwhelming holy aura of Excalibur's Scabbard vanished as if it had never existed.
Mittelt froze as the powerful aura emitted by the scabbard vanished. Her head slowly turned until she was facing Junichiro. Her face was completely blank as she asked in a very flat tone, “What did you do?”
Junichiro just lifted his wrist to show her the scabbard turned wrist watch, specifically the little trinket on it, “Just suppressed its aura. No big deal. Did you honestly think I came looking for this thing without having a way to hide it?”
Mittelt's eyes narrowed as her fear quickly morphed into, what she felt was, righteous anger. She balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into Junichiro's face with a primal roar of fury. She put every ounce of strength she could muster into the blow and aimed directly for his nose with the full intention of breaking it and ending his smug look once and for all.
Things did not go as planned.
Rather than crushing Junichiro's nose into a bloody pulp and likely sending his battered body flying, her fist hit with a mild 'whump' sound and did no damage at all. It was almost like she'd punched a pillow. She stared without comprehension for a moment before she groaned, “Oh come on! I can't hit you when you deserve it?! That's not fair!”
Junichiro just blinked as Mittelt lowered her fist. On his end the punch had hardly registered as anything but a little bit of pressure. Like his nose had been lightly poked rather than punched by the full might of a fallen angel. He slowly grinned as he recognized it was the scabbard at work. It would take someone on Azazel's level to injure him, and even then the scabbard should heal the wound pretty fast. Though he could tell that it would burn through his stamina.
That was something wonderful about the scabbard. As soon as it had connected to his magical core, he'd gained a basic understanding of all of its abilities. There were likely nuances and tricks that he would only learn with experience, but the basic uses were known to him. His durability was monstrous and would take a lot of power to overcome. Even if it was overcome, he had regeneration that was likely on par with a Phenex, though suffered from the same stamina based limitation. He had access to all of the seven abilities of Excalibur, Destruction, Mimic, Rapidly, Nightmare, Transparency, Blessing, and Ruler.
Honestly? The scabbard was broken as hell and Arthur was a goddamn idiot for not using it to its full potential. After all, with the power of Mimic, the scabbard could be turned into anything, including another goddamn Excalibur! Dual wielding Excalibur anyone? He had so many ideas he wanted to test with the scabbard, they would need to wait though.
It took a minute for Mittelt to finally stop muttering complaints and insults but when she did, they focused back on the chest and the remaining items within it. There was still a fairly strong holy aura emitting from the chest and they could see why. There was a collection of weaker holy weapons, including a nice looking sword and dagger pair, along with other religious items.
“It looks like someone packed up a bunch of holy objects all together. Maybe they were being transported somewhere?”
Junichiro shrugged at Mittelt's wild guess, “Beats me. You recognize anything in there?”
Mittelt dug around looking through the items before shaking her head, “Nah, it's all pretty generic stuff that's been blessed or enchanted. Nothing special. Though that doesn't make it any less useful.”
He nodded in agreement as he picked up the holy sword and examined it. There was nothing special about it and it looked rather generic, “Well, this would still put the hurt on any creature of darkness.”
He put the sword back and closed the chest. They took the time to hunt down the other magical auras they could feel but the items weren't anything impressive or really worthwhile to them. With all of the magical items collected and stored in the chest, Junichiro turned to Mittelt and grinned, “Time to put my new toy to the test.”
Mittelt looked over at him in curiosity as he dug into one of his pouches and pulled out a small box the size of a matchbox. He casually tossed it away. The moment it hit the ground it grew in size until it matched a cargo container. Though in this case, it opened from the top. Seeing the massive box, Mittelt turned to look at Junichiro with a deadpan expression, “Really?”
He just gave her a cheeky grin, “Watch this and see why they say that the Excalibur Ruler is the strongest one.”
With a flex of his magical power and willpower, Junichiro commanded the items within the cave to pack themselves into the container. There was a pause before the whole cave erupted in noise. An unknown number of coins, jewels, and other items along with the chest and scales all began moving rapidly through the air and flowing into the container. Naturally, he'd expanded the interior of the container to many times its initial storage capacity.
It took almost ten minutes for the flood of treasure to pour into the container. By the time it was done, Junichiro was left panting from the lost magical power. While Ruler didn't take a ton of energy directly from him to do its thing, it did take some then amplified it to a large degree. That little bit added up quickly when moving what seemed like several tons of small items. Though he made sure the scales went in last so they could be the first thing out. He very much wanted to work with those the moment they returned home.
The empty cave didn't appear to be anything special, however emptying it did reveal a cave exit that hadn't been visible before. Curious, the pair walked down the angled floor of the cave to get near it, “Wonder where this leads?”
Mittelt shrugged her shoulders as she tried to pretend the last twenty minutes of her life hadn't happened. She was still worried and seeing the power of the scabbard in action hadn't helped at all. She looked down the cave tunnel and noted that sometime in the past massive stalagmites within it had been broken and had only partially grown back, “It's probably the proper way in an out of here.”
The light sphere followed them and dulled down to just the right light level as it lit the tunnel for them. It was like walking in broad daylight for the pair as they stroke down the tunnel. It wasn't very long before they arrived at a solid wall. Though it was very obvious, at just a glance, that the wall wasn't natural but was made from melted stone. Junichiro studied it before he waved his hand and used Ruler to make a hole they could walk through.
Junichiro couldn't help smiling to himself. Ruler was by far the most impressive powers of Excalibur and the most useful. Everyone out there currently thought that the Excalibur Ruler fragment could only control living things but they were very wrong. Excalibur Ruler could 'rule' any phenomena, living beings, inorganic matter, and nonliving items. It could even 'rule' over the attacks of other people. It was the very definition of broken. Though, like everything else, it did have limits. He wouldn't be ruling the minds or attacks of gods or god-like beings anytime soon. Cave walls though? Easy.
The pair froze as the light shone on the next open space they found themselves inside of. It was a second wide open area that was even bigger than the first. That wasn't what brought them up short though. First, there were ruins scattered about the place, destroyed. It was hard to tell what they had been other than maybe buildings and a few surviving columns. Whatever the place had been had long since been completely destroyed. Second, there were corpses everywhere. Some of the corpses were nothing more than skeletons while others looked closer to mummies. They weren't just any corpses either, it was easy to spot that they were the corpses of Devils, Angels, and Fallen Angels. It was the wings, wing bones, and feathers that gave it away.
Mittelt looked over the field of death and destruction with wide eyes, “What the hell is this place?!”
Junichiro looked over the area as he thought of a hypothesis, “If we're right and this is one of Albion's stashes... Best guess? They ran here after Albion and Ddraig were defeated in order to claim the treasures we found. They obviously fought and there were no survivors.”
He walked further into the cave and stopped near a pair of well preserved bodies both angels sporting six wings. One angels wings covered in white feathers, the other in black. He could easily spot the two gaping fatal wounds on their bodies, “These two killed each other.”
Mittelt walked over and looked at the bodies. Her eyes widened in surprise as she managed to recognize what was left of them she gestured to the Fallen Angel first, “That's Harut.” She pointed to the white winged Angel, “And that's Sabrael. Harut disappeared around eleven hundred years ago along with his entire platoon.” She looked around the cave, “And we just found all of them.”
They began walking around the area examining the bodies so Mittelt could try and make a list of anyone she recognized. The place was littered with bodies so it would take some time. While they did so, Junichiro was surreptitiously using his Ring of Minor Telekinesis to collect a lot of small samples from the various bodies. Angel feathers, fallen angel feathers, along with bones and flesh from all three races. It was definitely extremely macabre but those bits and pieces could be used in all sorts of different things, just like the flesh and body parts of any other magical creature could.
It was a few hours later when Mittelt gasped in surprise, “The Devil's were led by one of Lucifer's sons!”
Junichiro walked over and looked at the corpse of the devil Mittelt was studying, “I thought Lucifer only had one son, Rizevim?”
Mittelt looked at Junichiro and wondered how he knew that name. Instead of asking, she scoffed, “No. You think that megalomaniac would settle for just one kid? Rizevim was the first, and strongest, kid he had with Lilith. All the others born after, and weaker, than Rizevim were discarded and became the first Extra Demons. Lucifer only had a half dozen kids and, aside from Rizevim, all are dead. Or at least believed dead.”
She pointed at the dead devil, specifically at the crest on the armor it wore, “That's the crest for the House of Lucifer. That alone wouldn't make this one of his kids but...” She gesture the the set of six wings that the devil had, “Only Lucifer and his kids had more than a single set of wings among the Devils. Every other Devil, no matter how strong, only has a single pair.”
Junichiro nodded along as Mittelt explained but couldn't help asking, “How do you know that?”
Mittelt scoffed, “It wasn't a secret really. More... a taboo to talk about near Devils. They don't like to think about their 'Supreme Leader Lucifer' having weak kids. So Rizevim got held up and any kids that didn't meet that standard got the boot. They were still easy to spot though due to their multiple wings. Bit of trivia, I think it was the weakest one that founded the house of Lucifuge, the house the current Satan Lucifer's wife is from. Interesting eh?”
Junichiro snickered a bit at that. Then with a wave of his hand he collected the entire corpse of the spawn of Lucifer. It was in relatively good condition. Like all the strongest beings down here, his body was only mummified instead of reduced to a skeleton. That left the corpse with a fairly large amount of flesh and Junichiro had some ideas.
Mittelt arched an eyebrow as she watched him collect and store the corpse, “That's a bit... a lot gross. The hell you want the body for?”
“It's one of the few actual genetic relations to Lucifer and Lilith. I want to study the crap out of it and possibly render it down to potion ingredients.”
Mittelt looked a little green at that, “That's so fucking gross. Seriously?”
Junichiro just shrugged his shoulders, “It's something exceedingly rare. Of course I'm going to collect it and see what I can learn from it.”
Mittelt gagged a little but didn't say anything else. She'd seen Azazel do worse so...
He gave Mittlet a smile and finished collecting everything near the body. All the pieces of its broken armor and even its sword, some weak demonic sword that likely didn't even have a name but was worth studying.
They spent the next few hours looking around with Mittelt still taking down names of anyone she recognized. Unfortunately, that was limited to only Angels and only those with four or more wings. Considering the majority were all two winged, it wasn't very many names to take back. Junichiro continued to collect a bunch of samples from every corpse they came across. He didn't know what he would use the bits and pieces for right away, but he would study them and come up with something.
Shortly after they finished their survey of the area, they returned the way they came and left through the tunnel they'd made. There was still more to the cave, after all they hadn't explored it completely to find where the actual entrance was located. They chose to stop as it was starting to get late and they were both tired from the days surprises. Once the exited the sewers, they let themselves into the trunk of the ATV and made their way to the living quarters.
For their home away from home, Junichiro had gone all out. The place wasn't massive but it did have everything they would need, Bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and even a dining slash living room to relax in. Everything was enchanted, including the bathtubs so they would permanently maintain the best temperature and even had water jets for massages.
-----Line Break-----
Mittelt sat on her bed, fresh from relaxing in a very much needed bath. She was staring at the list of names she'd written down and holding her cell phone. Today was just... so much. She needed a moment to collect her thoughts after everything that Junichiro had put her through. She had no idea how Azazel-sama was going to react when she spoke to him, but it had to be done. Hidden or not, that crazy boyfriend of hers had one of the most powerful, non-Sacred Gear, items on the planet.
Mittelt took a deep breath, then pressed the call button on her phone. It rang a few times before an annoying voice answered, “Milly! How goes the exploration with the kid?”
Mittelt let out a long groan of frustration. She could practically hear the smirk in Azazel's voice as he said, “That good huh?”
“We found Harut's body and his platoon.”
There was silence for a moment before a much more serious sounding Azazel spoke, “Tell me everything.”
Mittelt shuddered a bit at the tone he used. It was the same tone he used when leading them during the Great War, the tone of Azazel Governor General of the Fallen Angel Army. Mittelt told him everything, from beginning to end without leaving anything important out. Junichiro might be her boyfriend, but it was also her assignment to protect him, even from himself. She would tell Azazel-sama everything and let him decide on the appropriate course of action.
-----Line Break-----
AN
Surprise!
So, how's that for some world building? The DxD wiki only says that the Scabbard was found underground where different religions fought. So I had plenty of ambiguity to play with. I figured, the three factions all fighting over one of Albion's Dragon Hoards to get the loot within sounded like a valid reason for them all to fight to the death.
What do you think?
Comments
Ehren Morris
I honestly don't care that you changed it. As long as you don't write a bunch of plot holes and maintain continuity. Maybe I missed it because I tend to skim but Mittlet told Junichiro to keep everything a secret nowhere did she say she won't tell Azezel. Also she knows that the stray devil was there on purpose nobody is getting mad at her for that she is like 4000 years old even if she knew he was like 40 he would still be a child. Oh I think it would be funny if he made the scabbard be a normal unassuming screw in his arm
BookDragonling
Yeah, if the MC has any self-respect the relationship should be over after this. Not only did she try to punch him with all her strength she then told Azazel everything.
