81. Holy Sword Project Part 1.
Omniscient POV
Sixth Heaven, Zebel
Heaven is the realm of Angels, depicted as a bright, cloud-above realm with a large gate and floating stone buildings, divided into seven regions. Each Heaven serves a unique purpose.
First Heaven houses low-level Angels and the future Brave Saints.
Second Heaven is a dark area for star observation and the confinement of sinful Angels.
Third Heaven, connected to Purgatory, is home to the souls of the dead and the Tree of Life.
Fourth Heaven features the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Wisdom.
Fifth Heaven, formerly home to Grigori, now holds research institutes.
Sixth Heaven, or Zebel, is the core residence of Seraphs like Michael and Gabriel.
Zebel means quick-witted, clever, and cunning, possibly referring to the Seraphs who reside there and suggesting that these three traits are why they are the leaders of Heaven.
Seventh Heaven contains the Sacred Gear and God's System, with a strong defense system.
In a huge room in Zebel with a large table, the Four Great Seraphs and Ten Seraphs were intensely examining a sword emitting holy energy.
All the others seemed tense. Yes, Heaven was in trouble right now. But if anything, it was a blessing. They had obtained holy weapons superior to those used by mundane exorcists.
But the question was who could make such weapons in such a large quantity? Or were they made by multiple people? But believing that one person made these in such a short time was... quite worrying.
"Raphael, are these reports really true?" asked Michael, looking at the report in his hands seriously.
"Yes. I have personally tested them along with the technical team of Heaven. You can easily figure it out just by looking at the swords," replied Raphael, one of the Four Great Seraphs.
"These are not very powerful, but they will be a great help to us. But how did someone make these when even we, who have been trying to improve the quality of our weapons, haven't been able to do so?" asked Raziel, one of the Ten Seraphs.
"And that too, so many of them! Even we have to exert so much of our power when trying to make just one weak holy weapon by imbuing our pure holy aura in it!" added another of the Ten Seraphs, Sandalphon, looking quite frustrated.
"Well, we already know where they are coming from. But who exactly in Akatsuki has such skills? Not only is the enchantment impressive, but also the smithing is quite good for a low-class holy weapon," said Michael.
"Maybe we can ask Akatsuki?" said Gabriel innocently.
"Well, sister, I don't think he would be willing to give up such information about someone so skilled in his organization. He would most likely want to keep the maker unknown and safe," replied Uriel, one of the Four Great Seraphs.
Hearing this, Gabriel deflated a bit.
"But we should really meet him. It would benefit us to make connections with him, even if only for the opportunity to get more of these weapons in the future," added Michael hurriedly, trying to cheer up his little sister.
"Yeah, we have been overlooking him for a while as we still weren't sure if he's an ally or not. But we should finally get in contact with him now," said Sariel, one of the Ten Seraphs.
"But how many do we have of these now?" asked Raguel, one of the Ten Seraphs.
"A little over 100. But now that the devils know we are buying these, they also seem to be buying the weapons. Other mythologies are also trying to get their hands on these. So it's going to be more difficult from now on, as Akatsuki has also stopped normal selling and is now selling these at auction," said Uriel.
"He must have noticed. He is profiting a lot from this," said Raphael.
"Yeah. But let's first inform the church to bid as high as they can to get as many of these weapons as possible. After that, we should arrange a meeting with Akatsuki. But for now, tell the technical team to keep researching these," said Michael.
"Well, it's going to be difficult even if we try to research this. It seems these were not made normally," informed Raphael, stroking the back of his head.
"How?" asked Uriel.
"They seem to have been made with pure magic. There's also smithing involved, but the enchantment is the difficult part. I will still continue to look into it," replied Raphael.
*
*
*
One of the Catholic Churches, Italy
In a hidden basement room in one of the Catholic Church of Italy, 30 children were grouped together. All were around 9-12 years in age.
They were some of the selected 'talents' to take part in the Holy Sword Project to become 'special' and contribute to the church to help the human kind against all the evils, by becoming holy sword wielders.
Valper Galilei, one of the archbishops and the head researcher of the church, was conducting these experiments in secret.
Since his childhood, he had been fascinated by the legends of Excalibur. As an adult, he aspired to become a holy sword wielder himself, but he lacked the necessary talent.
His fascination with those who could wield such swords led him to the dark ambition of artificially creating such individuals.
He gathered these children, filling them with hopes of becoming 'special' contributors to the Lord. What the children did not know was that it was all a lie.
They were subjected to inhuman experiments by Valper, an evil man whose actions were driven not by a desire to help the church or humanity, but by his own insane urges, 'curiosity,' and 'fascination.'
"Isaiah nii-chan, are we finally going to become holy sword wielders?" asked the youngest boy excitedly, looking at Isaiah.
"Yeah! We finally will!" replied Isaiah, a boy with blonde hair.
"That's the whole reason they called all of us here. Our days of hardship are all over today," added one of the tall boys, also blonde-haired and around Isaiah's age.
"Hey! Don't be so loud. The misters will get mad. They said today is the day they announce who among us will become holy sword wielders," cautioned Tosca, a girl with white hair, also around Isaiah's age.
As the children chatted excitedly among themselves, more and more church people entered the room.
"Mister, how long do we have to wait?" meekly asked one of the girls with brown hair tied in twin tails and wearing glasses.
"Ha ha ha. Your days of waiting have come to an end. We will announce the results now," replied one of the people.
Hearing this, all of them became excited again, chattering about how they would become holy sword wielders and help people eradicate all evils, especially the youngest child with Isaiah, who was around 9 years old, was the most loud and excited. After a moment of suspense, the man opened his mouth.
"You all failed, trash. None of you will become holy sword wielders," the man said mockingly.
"What!?"
"But how?"
"We all worked so hard!"
Everyone started chattering and was heartbroken, repeating the same words in disbelief.
"I-It's a lie, right nii-chan?! We can become holy sword wielders, right?" the boy asked Isaiah. Before Isaiah could say anything, the man opened his mouth again.
"And you all will be disposed of. Your value has been lost, fuckers!" the man declared as everyone from the church wore masks and started using poisonous gas for the children to breathe in.
"You're joking, right? Where's Galilei-sama?" one of the children asked.
"Ha ha ha. He's the one who ordered it. You have all fulfilled your purposes. Now just die," the man said.
Then everyone started coughing violently as the poison began to affect them. They pleaded with the men, but they just laughed and looked at the misery of the children with delight.
""*cough* *cough*""
"N-nii-chan... I d-don't want to die. S-save me!" the youngest child cried, holding Isaiah's hand. Isaiah himself was coughing violently. The child soon fell to the ground.
"Kevin! Kevin! Wake up! Wake up!" Isaiah tried his hardest to wake the boy up, but he didn't respond.
He saw all his friends around him, sharing the same dream of saving humanity, dying to the poisonous gas. All the children tried to fight back and attack the men, but being children, they couldn't overpower them.
"Isaiah, fight back! We might all die here, but you and Tosca are special. You both have sacred gears. You two might be able to make it out of here," said the tall boy with blonde hair, coughing violently between each sentence.
"No, I can't. I can't leave you guys here!" Isaiah yelled, coughing mid-sentence.
"It's not the time for this. Move and use your sacred gear," said the girl with brown hair and twin tails, wearing glasses.
Then all the children jumped on the men as Isaiah made a small knife and attacked one of them. The man stopped Isaiah with his own sword, and another man tried to attack Isaiah from behind.
But Tosca managed to create a small barrier and stop the attack. Then the other children jumped on the two men and held them down with their bodies.
""Run!"" yelled all the children as the men tried to push them away.
The men kicked the children to catch Isaiah as he was escaping, but the other children jumped on the men. All the conscious children used their bodies to restrain the men, even if they were stabbed in the process.
One of the men threw a knife at Isaiah, stabbing him in the back, causing a mortal wound. Isaiah ran, ran, and ran out of the church as blood flowed from his body.
On the snowy path, his body grew cold, and with constant blood loss, his vision became blurry, and his body felt heavy. After running in the forest for a while, he stumbled on something and fell to the ground.
He tried with all his might to get up but couldn't muster the strength. He thought back to all his friends who sacrificed themselves for him to live.
But what had he done? He couldn't even survive; how could he seek revenge on Valper Galilei?! He was the one who betrayed them!
As he thought about his revenge, his consciousness slowly faded, even though he tried his best to stay awake. Then he saw a girl with long red hair appear in front of him.
She seemed to be speaking to someone beside her, but his blurry vision didn't allow him to see the person nor hear their conversation.
Just as he believed he had no chance of survival, as he was fading away, he heard the girl.
"Do you want to live?" the girl asked.
Live? To achieve his revenge, he must live!
"But you will have to forsake your humanity forever. Do you agree?" she said.
For some reason, even in his state, he could somehow hear all she was saying. Forsake his humanity? If it meant getting his revenge, he didn't care if he had to abandon his humanity or even become the very being he vowed to erase!
"Do you agree? Your soul will belong eternally to me!" she repeated.
Was he making a deal with the devil? It didn't matter. With the last of his will, he managed to croak out something resembling a yes.
Then the girl did something to his body, and miraculously, everything healed as something foreign entered his body, possibly even changing his very essence.
He wanted to ask many questions, but he fell unconscious immediately. Afterward, he was briefed on everything, but it didn't matter to him.
He could get his revenge one day. He began to train rigorously in swordsmanship and with his sacred gear, all the while keeping an emotional distance between the girl and himself.
Nevertheless, he remained loyal to her and would have sacrificed his own life to protect her and repay the favor.
However, he soon faced his own powerlessness when he was attacked by a stray devil and nearly died. If not for the timely interference of his swordsmanship master, Souji Okita, he would have perished without fulfilling his revenge. After the incident, he grew closer to the girl and those close to her.
Little did he know, the attack by the stray devil was orchestrated by Satan Lucifer and his knight, Souji Okita, to manipulate Isaiah—now known as Kiba Yuuto—into developing loyalty towards the Satan's younger sister and serving her unconditionally for all eternity!
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