章 8: It's not my sacred gear!?
"So you made the girl your Bishop huh?"
Calfa was looking at her grandson wondering if this boy is looking for a harem or competent people, Masaru naturally understood what she was thinking so he shrugged
"I am honestly not seeking a harem but I honestly can't help the fact that most competent and ideal members I seek turned out to be women"
'Although Akeno is truly an exception, yes an exception' Masaru reasoned with himself.
Calfa was still sceptical about her grandson but she knew he would not necessarily lie about serious things so she took it as the truth for now,
"Well what's your name my dear?"
Stephani who was clinging to Akeno came out and curtsied according to the minimum manners required Akeno taught her
"My name is Stephani Adramelech, I only just now became Masaru-sama's Bishop. Please take care of me from now on"
Shuri returned the greeting while Calfa looked at Masaru with shock.
"You picked up yet another big fish"
Masaru who heard his grandmother naturally understood but he shook his head
"Not necessarily, like Akeno she too is targeted by her family because of her being a half-devil"
Calfa sighed after hearing this, it was a difficult time to allow the devils to accept hybrids in their community. They only reluctantly agreed with devils born from Evil Pieces but still strongly oppose devils born from a human side,
"Well her sacred gear and clan ability makes it worth it for me to take her in, with an evil piece inside her, her family can no longer make a move on her and if they do... Well let's just say it will cause some scandals"
"Well I will leave you ladies to chat, during the combat I gained some inspiration I wish to test,"
Masaru said his goodbyes and left for his room, the idea he gained was similar to the style his father used.
He never understood entirely how his father was able to nullify attacks and defence during combat, but during his little spar with the swordsmen the sparks he noticed while clashing swords enlightened him somewhat.
When he entered his room he closed the door and immediately sit on the floor taking out his notebook and pen.
'According to my father Worthless nullifies the abilities of people and objects, but could it only nullify abilities? What about energy such as Kinetic energy... urk!... I will have to study my physics a bit more seriously from now on, but the idea seems possible...'
Masaru felt a headache was coming, he naturally had a basic understanding behind this theory but he will need to research it some more.
'The next point would be sickness... For diseases that can not be cured, could worthless be used to destroy the virus until they develop a cure? I believe it will be impossible to replace body parts but eliminating sicknesses or similar situations.... Seems I need to meet up with Sirzech or Ajuka to present these theories, My father is smart but when it comes to areas outside combat and land management it is useless'
Masaru sighed
"Honestly, there are many things that could be used with a Nullification ability such as Worthless. As long as one understands the principle of what you wish to nullify it should be unbeatable, unlike my father I posses the spellbook that can allow me to scan these things faster... Hehe, this should be interesting"
Masaru closed up his book after noting down some other several points and went to bed.
>\/<
"Oh!"
Lord Belial had no words to utter at this moment, in between the mixed feelings of being proud of his grandson who picked another peerage member by luck or the shock because this girl's background he did not know what to say or act.
"Well, I guess we can leave it until we meet Diehauser"
Since he finished setting up his deals including other plans that were halted has now begun to process, the short vacation came to an end and right now they were travelling by train.
"It should not be a problem... But don't you think if a boy enters this group at this stage it will become a problem?"
Calfa mentioned the problem, the reason for it was Shirone and Akeno naturally loved Masaru who was currently being passive in the relationship.
As for Stephani? Well she will probably jump in for the sake of staying with Akeno although they misunderstood her since she always wanted an older sister and not to mention she was using Akeno to watch how Masaru's personality was, Calfa almost misunderstood the little girl for being of "THAT" side of the fence but Akeno cleared it up later.
But no one knew Masaru kept it passive because they were still a bit too young. He did not want to rush the relationship like a fire only to extinguished when the firewood was used up, he thought of letting it flow peacefully like a river connected to the ocean.
"I suppose so unless we get someone who has a strong mentality for not needing a relationship or could tolerate it... It will be impossible"
Lord Belial agreed with this point, even he who is not even in the peerage sometimes feels irritated on occasions but mostly because he was jealous that his wife does not do the same things for him as the girls do for Masaru. He could only smile with pity thinking
'Ah Masaru... Even if you don't want it, you will be surrounded by women...how envi- how ridiculous'
Calfa placed her hand on her forehead thinking of a troubling yet exciting future awaits them
'I will need to teach this boy to stop being too passive... But I don't mind having more daughter in-laws for me to brag about! That fire chicken Phenex enjoys bragging about her son's beautiful peerage filled with girls but any idiot will know those girls are broken and trained'
It was a rumour that some of the peerage members Riser Phenex picked up were abused and trained till their spirit broken enough to acknowledge him as their only master, this rumour was also the source of Rias's disgust towards him.
But if they were to learn of Diodora who was currently laying low key at this moment and his Nun collection, then the crown of a broken harem team would go to him undoubtedly
Stephani cling onto Akeno who had a slightly troubled face,
'I will stay together with Big Sis since she takes care of me as a little sister, but it appears Masaru-sama really is kind...'
It was a mystery behind this sudden change of attitude where even scientist would be left kneeling with no way to figure where or how it all started. Akeno only looked at the little girl thinking
'I have a nice junior to tease but why do I feel a cold shiver down my spine',
Akeno who was used to teasing her juniors or other girls finally faced an opponent she had no idea how to handle!
Shirone was the happiest at the moment of all resting on the lap of Masaru,
'So nice and warm nyaa'
but Masaru was currently thinking about the meaning behind worthless and how to use it. Ever since he started thinking of it last night he could not stop it, the ability to Nullify was truly like a box filled with toys.
He had many ideas on how to use this ability, could this nullified ability be altered with a spell-like placing two magic circles on top of one another to complement each ability?
Like nullifying the approach of the attack and then reflecting the attack back?
Or what of making a sword become brittle enough to be broken with bare hands by nullifying the properties that make it strong?
"What's wrong Masaru?"
Lord Belial who saw his grandson's serious look was a bit worried but Masaru shook his head while smiling
"It's nothing, I am only thinking of some ideas how to apply worthless in other ways instead of a direct approach"
Lord Belial smiled warmly nodding
"That's true, while our ability is to nullify, the strange thing is our ability also has the power to alter things. For example, you could remove impurities from the water and thus having clear water, according to our ability we only nullified the impurities within it but in actuality, we altered the substance by nullifying or could be said remove a part of it."
"Oh,"
Masaru felt this idea was feasible if it works there are even more places he could use this ability. Just because it "Nullifies" according to logic, it does not mean it only nullifies but instead destroys what it deems "Worthless".
It did make sense if you look at the ability from this side so Masaru felt excited to experiment with things at home when he gets back.
>\/<
"Honestly I am happy Mother thought the same as Diana, because I took thought it will become a problem if this child gains a male peerage member"
Diehauser nodded while looking at Masaru's new member, he obviously heard about the story behind this girl and thought the moves Masaru made were indeed correct.
"Diana is on her way with a potential peerage member she found just so you know"
Masaru nodded after thinking for a bit
"If I may ask who is this new member?"
Diehauser only smiled mysteriously
"You will have to wait till you meet her"
After talking some more about the things that happened during their vacation Diehauser noticed the sword attached to Masaru's back which was the gift the Elder of the Pendragon family gave him.
"Masaru come with me"
When the two of them were alone Diehauser became serious
"That sword, do you know what sword it is?"
Masaru shook his head, the sword was close to that of a Roman sword style except for the edge of the blade was curved and the hilt had something similar to a knuckle buster attached to its bottom but with only two holes attached to it.
"That sword is called Hrunting, it's the original sword Beowulf used to slay the Evil Dragon Grendel..."
Diehauser began to retell the tales of Beowulf to Masaru, Masaru who heard this felt he once read a book about this tale somewhere but hearing it from his father he could understand some points of this sword.
"This is a Demonic Dragon Slayer sword, according to the records I once read when I was a child, when you use the blade it increases its sharpness especially against Dragons. The price for using it is a possibility of losing your sanity and act like a beast"
Masaru was a bit shocked as he knew demonic swords have a price to be paid when one uses it, but he thought the price for this sword was simply too light because he did find a book which told about the Demonic Dragon Slaying sword Gram which took the lifespan of his user.
"I will not tell you to not use the sword, but if you intend to then I will personally train you till the day you go off to the mountains for your survival trial"
Masaru nodded to show his agreement to his father's arrangement as he too would like to have someone close by who is strong enough to stop him if he goes wild
"We will start the training tomorrow but before that, did you perform the Ritual?"
Masaru shook his head
"No, the Elder did explain what I need to do to initiate it but I did not dare do it yet before I confirmed it with you"
"We can start it after a few hours, I advise you to meditate to focus your mind and remember. During the Ritual you will need a firm will"
Masaru thanked his father leaving for his room to prepare his mind, Diehauser, on the other hand, contacted all of his peerage members for this occasion as he personally did not want to take the chance of his son being in danger during the ritual which will determine if he is worthy.
Masaru however started to look through the Devil e-book reader which was one of a by-product Ajuka created while he was bored to look up information about Grendel specifically, he had the information about Beowulf which were in fragments including the tale he heard from his father.
But the information about the enemy Beowulf faced was too few, sometimes the tales of a weapon were more linked to what they slew or attacked than the person who used it.
And in this case, Hrunting, the sword of Beowulf gained it's fame for slaying Grendel, after reading some information he gained which was not much but there were instances where Masaru thought this dragon had a screw loose in its head.
In some discussion notes, it was argued about the fact that Beowulf instead sealed Grendel in order for it to starve to death, while other said Grendel was sliced into pieces while still being alive and then sealed but the last group believed Grendel was slain.
But there was one point they all agreed on, was the fact no matter how much Grendel was injured it would always stand up.
"This dragon is either mental or a masochistic battle junkie"
This was what Masaru concluded.
Soon the agreed time arrived and Masaru was taken to a medium-sized underground training room Diehauser and his peerage use to train,
"Alright, all of you will stand in a circle formation to surround Masaru who will be in the middle. Masaru the moment you feel you can't handle it, stop the ritual immediately do you understand"
"Yes Father"
Masaru walked towards the centre of the field while the rest of the people surrounded him, he took a deep breath in and blew it out feeling more relaxed and focused.
He gripped the hilt of the sword firmly before pulling out, when the blade was exposed to the outside world in a long time a voice filled with madness could be heard but he knew it was within his mind.
Being in this DxD world for so long Masaru could calmly conjure up a few possibilities when something happened, and this time he felt he was not facing the spirit of the blade but it felt he was facing a dragon instead.
[Kukuku, so you are the new one who wishes to test your mettle to wield me huh?]
The voice who spoke within Masaru's mind dragged him into his mindscape similar to that of a dream communication Ddraig has with Issei, what appeared in Masaru's view was a large dark green-scaled dragon with strikingly similar features as the Grendel dragon picture he saw in the notes he read about.
"You... You are not Grendel..."
Masaru was not certain of this so he could only probe for feedback, he felt the current situation was simply too bizarre as this blade was not a sacred gear.
The dragon who took the shape of Grendel naturally laughed at this naive boy
[You guessed correctly, I took on the form of the creature I slain that awakened me]
Masaru who heard this felt perplex "
"Awakened?"
The Dragon nodded
[You see the dwarves back in the days used the same spirit enhanced metal the previous Sacred Gear creator made to craft me, since I did not have a soul I naturally I was simply a pseudotype... It was only after Grendel was killed and a part of his soul entered the empty space in the blade did I awaken as me, I am Grendel but at the same time I am not]
"Are you a sacred gear?"
Masaru felt his common sense about this world was about to collapse when the Dragon naturally laughed,
[Yes, ever since that man died some changes began to happen like with me. I suppose you could call it being able to input a cheat code in a game since there is no longer a game moderator who monitors it]
Masaru felt a cold sweat run down his back as he felt he underestimated the damage that happened because that man was gone, it was also one of the few things Masaru naturally remembered.
[As for your question, I am a sacred gear but I am not... I am probably more appropriate to me a Demonic sword with a spirit]
Masaru nodded thinking that it would be more appropriate to call him such as a sacred gear chooses their host before the host is born.
[You are quite calm after receiving this information... Most people think I am mad or lying]
Masaru looked at the dragon, from the looks of it the madness was still there but it was much more mellow compared to the notes he read, since he knew this dragon will not be able to spew his secrets if it acknowledges him he decided to lay down a secret card he never told his parents to bait this dragon.
"I am a human who reincarnated... no, it will be proper to say Transmigrated since the host who previously lived in this body died and I took it over by chance. As for why I am not doubting you is because I naturally have knowledge of this world, but the problem was in the world I came from this world was a storybook"
The dragon's eyes widen thinking he heard the something beyond his wildest imagination that was hard to believe,
[Story book?]
Masaru nodded
"Although it was only fragment memories of it, it naturally included the fact that man died and rules began to fall..."
The Dragon looked at Masaru with interest but then looked at him sternly
[Young boy, I don't mind acknowledging you but you have two other things lodged into your body. It appears one is only in a semi-awakened state while the other is dormant, you will need to find something that can act as a vessel for the second object otherwise if you accidentally awaken it, it will fight for King Mark which acts as the vessel for that spellbook currently]
"Huh? I thought a human can only have a single sacred gear"
The dragon who heard this looked at the boy strangely before saying it a vague term,
[I am not sure what that spellbook is but I sense demonic divinity power from it, the other I feel a presence in it so I believe the second would probably be your sacred gear but whatever you have awakened first is not]
Masaru felt conflicted, he was not certain if he should fear his current state or feel excited. But the thought of getting killed in a conflict within him was not a good idea,
"Do you know what this spellbook is?"
The dragon did not apparently wish to talk about the spellbook any further only snorted
[Look for it yourself, since you are a bit interesting and I can sense some familiar feeling of loving battles from you I will reluctantly acknowledge you]
'That spell book almost destroyed my consciousness, I best be careful with how I deal with this kid or I might really get myself killed'
Masaru nodded before placing his palm on the location nearest to the dragon's heart to complete the ritual. He could feel his surrounding was shattering revealing him who fully unsheathed his sword, a smile formed on his face but at the same time, he felt worried.
'Was I mistaken about the spellbook?.... What about this vessel term this dragon told me about'
While Masaru was trying to think a way out the dragon sleeping in his sword responded to him
[Maybe if you can get something that is similar to this King Mark in your soul, it should probably work]
Masaru's eyes widen from shock as he realized what this dragon meant, but it was impossible for a king to have an evil piece of someone else in their body.
"Masaru, did you succeed?"
Masaru looked at his father who looked worried about him, he nodded
"Yes I have, the legendary evil dragon Grendel or a small part of its soul rests in this sword"
Diehauser who heard this displayed a stern face as this kind of dragons were considered "Evil" for a reason,
"How is your mind? Any changes?"
Masaru shook his head
"No changes, I feel the side effects minimized even further... But I heard some unsettling news"
"What is it?"
Masaru looked up to his father with a strange complicated face
"According to Grendel, the spellbook I have is not my sacred gear. Apparently I do have a sacred gear but once it wakes up the spellbook and my sacred gear will battle for the vessel, according to Grendel that King Mark I gained when I received my evil pieces from Ajuka is a vessel of sorts so I need to find something similar"
"This----"
Diehauser would feel happy if his son would have another power that could make him even stronger in the future, but if the story of the sword spirit was true then his son is in greater danger instead! Diana who heard this approached the two smiling
"I am honestly beyond shocked because I can't make up whether it is truly a coincidence or simply fate, but Ajuka-sama has sent an invitation. Apparently, after he heard about Masaru's Divination spell incident he wanted to meet Masaru once more to take a look and see if he could find a reason for this"
-------------
Author Note:
The chapter has been edited, if I missed anything, please drop a paragraph Comment and I will fix it
クリエイターの想い 
CompleteNoob
CompleteNoob 27/07/2020 - made some changes
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