In a certain hotel room in Kuoh four people were in a meeting.

“So, you wanted something for me in exchange for a way for me to research easier, is that right?” Azazel questions, opening a can of beer as he looks at Soma in front of him.

Soma had a pleasant smile on his face and didn’t seem harmful in any way at this moment, but he was fully decked out in case of a fight and Azazel could see it almost instantly. The energy emanating from the seemingly normal wear was such that he might as well have come wearing a full plate armor and canons on his shoulder, and Azazel wondered how this kid managed to prepare such a thing as well as how it was done.

“Precisely.” Soma said with more confidence than he was feeling since he was still in front of someone that he was not confident he could run away from in case combat started. “What I want won’t cost you or your faction anything and what I am offering are two techniques. The first allows you to think several times faster and the other allows for compartmentalization of the thought process, allowing you to think of the same problem at various angles at the same time which is also helpful in research. I use it myself and, if you master it well enough and have good enough senses, it improves your fighting capacity by more than one stage.” Soma explained.

It was quite true, even if you can see the enemies clearly there is a limit to how much you can truly do with the information you obtain and you end up depending on instinct considerably. That was simply the reality of combat and why instincts were such an important part of combat in general. However, if your thoughts can be fast enough as to keep up perfectly with the intake of information, then your dependency on instinct lessens and you can better calculate your actions properly and thus improve your fighting ability considerably.

It was not easy to reach that level with those skills, however, it was feasible in the end and a good support skill regardless.

Azazel looks interested at the prospect of such skills, not for combat but instead for research which is his passion. Just thinking about what he could accomplish if he could think and process information faster was enough to make Azazel excited. Meanwhile, the one behind him looks bored since he was not interested in skills like those.

“I doubt some spell used for research can have an effect for combat.” Vali said with a dismissive gesture.

As a descendant of Lucifer, who was a war and fighting maniac, and having a Longinus with a dragon inside that gave him a dragon’s aura and instincts, Vali was an absolute fighting maniac that fought mostly using his well-honed instincts and techniques. Fighting was his one true passion in life and that fact was enough to give Azazel a headache as Vali only thought about fighting and how to fight more. It was to the point where, even when girls tried to seduce him by literally entering his room naked and going on all fours asking to be taken, he would ignore them regardless of how sexy they might be and instead go train.

Azazel even remembers a time when Vali was thirteen that a fallen girl said to him if he wanted to ‘fight under the sheets’. Azazel felt so proud when Vali actually took her invitation and went with her to the room, a proud manly tear of pride could almost be seen on the fallen thinking his surrogate son was finally growing up into a proper ladies’ man, only to hear explosions shortly after and having the girl literally blasted out of the room because Vali understood that ‘fighting under the sheets’ meant literally fighting under the sheats and as soon as they got under the said sheats he used his Balance Breaker and shot a blast of energy at her.

Azazel felt like he failed as a proper teacher that day since he failed to impart on his surrogate son the values of pervertedness.

Regardless of Vali’s failures as a man, Soma just looked at Vali as if he was stupid from his comment about the usefulness of the skills he was offering.

“… If you think that being able to think faster is useless in combat, then you are either a natural genius or a complete idiot. I am banking on the latter option right now.”

At these words, Vali sneered. He did not care about what the other side thought of him, he knew he was a genius in terms of combat and that was enough for him.

“Heh, why don’t we fight for you to find out how good I am in combat? You seem stronger now compared to the last time we’ve met in that impromptu peace talk, it might be fun fighting you now.” Vali said, his aura exploding as the thought of facing a strong opponent made his blood boil and his desire to test his fists against Soma clear to see.

That prospect was the only real reason he even bothered coming along for these negotiations anyway.

“Hard pass.” Soma said dismissively, not showing any interest in fighting for the sake of fighting. “I am not like you, I have other things to do besides hoping for a fight. Me being here is for that reason and if I were to get injured or damage my equipment for a meaningless fight, it would be quite the loss in my books.”

Azazel looks interested in what exactly Soma wanted to do. He knew that Soma was relatively close to the phenex clan and also had in his possession the Twilight Healing (don’t underestimate Azazel’s intelligence-gathering ability), so Azazel figured that Soma wouldn’t worry about injuries. That he actually worried about them made Azazel wonder what exactly Soma was planning to do. Meanwhile, Vali just looks miffed at not having the challenge to face him, again.

“Interesting, so you have something you want to do soon that is related to combat. I suppose it makes sense, considering you are searching for me out of seemingly nowhere.”Azazel comments with a dismissive tone before putting a hand under his chin and fixing his gaze at Soma. “So, what is it that you plan to do?”

“Nothing that you need to know. It won’t relate to you or your faction, at any rate, so what I do in my free time and who I intend to kill has nothing to do with you. All we are here to discuss is about a trade deal.” Soma says and Azazel rolls his eyes at those words, not liking not knowing anything about what caught his interest.

“Che, stingy. How about this, you tell me what it is and I will give you this.” Azazel says before throwing a pair of boots.

“And these are?” Soma asked with a raised brow.

“A test product, my very own artificial sacred gear. Whatever fighting you are going to, if you use this it should help. All I want in exchange is to know where you are going and that you tell me afterward your experience with its usage and how you think it could be better.” Azazel says with confidence. His desire to know information denied to him burning strong, and his curiosity about the usefulness of his gear in actual combat being strong just as well.

This gear was one of his latest creations, Procellarum Phantom. It had the function of increasing the user’s speed and kicking power as well as able to reflect energy when hit by it.

Soma looked it over and found it simply too lacking. He could use it, sure, but the effects would be minimal considering his own current level and he would need time to master this gear’s uses in practical combat, and time is the one thing he did not want to waste considering, well, end of the world by vampire invasion and possible zombie apocalypse and all that (Soma had investigated the vampires of this world and they did have the skill of creating ghouls much like zombies if they so wish).

“Sorry, I am not interested in this. But, how about some of the fangs of dragons? I heard that Draig’s body is in your hands after all.”

Azazel put a finger on his chin in thought before speaking.

“I can give you four fangs of Draig and, say, thirty of the dragon king Fafnir. How about it?”

“Deal.” Soma said instantly.

No kidding, a single dragon fang could be used to build at least 30 dragon tooth warriors, and the stronger the dragon the more such warriors are produced. With the fangs, he already had in hand from Riser’s help, Albion’s body, and now these from Azazel’s hands, he could make at least 1000 dragon tooth warriors.

Don’t look down on this number, with the Blade Blacksmith Soma had obtained from Jeanne he could equip each of these dragon tooth warriors with a holy blade. Even if the blades would be simple, they could have something like a self-destruct effect.

Sure, it would mean Soma would need a bit more time to set it all up, but it would be worth it considering he’d have an army of disposable holy suicidal soldiers that wouldn’t care about their death.

“However, I only accept this deal if you and your bodyguard there signs a geass” Soma says as he motions for Mami who was behind him. She moved and gave him two such Geass that Soma had prepared in advance, he never knew when someone would come along that he should share his plans with right now, and having some geasses ready at hand would save some time.

Azazel and Vali took the contracts and read them over, finding them acceptable, and signing up on them.

After that Soma gave them a simple explanation as to what he was intending, causing Azazel and Vali to smile for different reasons.

Azazel was interested in the Longinus, obviously, while Vali…

“Interesting. Can I come with you?” Vali said, itching for a fight.

Sure, there was the whole Excalibur thing and the chance of beating up that forever irritating Kokabiel to a pulp, which would be a pleasure considering how Kokabiel acted most of the time, but a desperate battle against an entire race that has existed for over a thousand years? A battle that he has no surety he could survive and that would entail combat against who knows how many enemies in their own territory.

Sign him in, that sounded like such a wonderful time in Vali’s ears.

“I don’t know you, but you seem strong. If you join you will have to sign a separate geass about it and, just so you know, I fully intend on using you as bait. Use you to attract the strongest and most dangerous vampires around and have you take care of them while I take care of rescuing the target as well as other matters. I would only help you if you are about to lose or if there is nothing more urgent for me to take care off.” Soma said, explaining in no uncertain terms how this battle would be troublesome and likely to get Vali killed if he wasn’t careful. ‘Do you still want to come along?”

“Where do I sign?” Vali said instantly, a battle-hungry smile across his lips at the thought of how close to death he would get during such a desperate situation.

Azazel put a hand on his forehead seeing his surrogate son’s expression and sighed.

“Vali, calm down. Going to this sort of war and willingly being used as bait, it is too dangerous right?”

“I can deal with it.” Vali said with a shrug of his shoulders, confidence oozing from every particle of his being. He honestly didn’t mind fighting this sort of battle, if anything it got him all excited since it would definitely be quite a bit more exciting than just training anyway.

Azazel shocked his head in exasperation at his ‘son’s acting so wilful. A battle maniac was a battle maniac, he supposed, and trying to control and limit him further was likely not the best of ideas.

Looking at Soma, Azazel looks pensive for a moment before speaking.

“I won’t intervene in what Vale decides to do. He has his own life and I am no helicopter dad anyway.” Azazel said, making Vali almost roll his eyes since Azazel was still denying him a chance to go and challenge the entirety of Asgard by his lonesome. Ignoring Vali’s reaction, Azazel continued. “As long as he comes back home and his actions don’t damage the Grigory too much he can do whatever he wants.”

Vali, on the side, just snorted as if to say ‘damn right’, but was ignored by Azazel who continued speaking.

“But, we got out of the main topic. You proposed a deal, you will give me those two spells, but you never said what you want me to do to compensate. So, what is it?” Azazel said, wanting to get things back on track.

Soma just smiled and spoke.

“You see, I am not an ordinary human.”

“Obviously.” Vali said and Azazel nodded. “There is even a bet between me and Azazel going about what you are. He votes a new sacred gear mutated inside you, I vote a son of some minor god of the Norse with some human, probably descendant of a hero.”

Shaking his head at this Soma spoke.

“Sorry, I am full fledge human… ish. A modified human would be the most appropriate term I suppose. Quite a nice job in building this body, did it myself.”

Vali looks incredulous while Azazel looks interested.

“That sounds interesting. I was thinking of doing something like that myself, changing some parts for some interesting new ones.”

Soma chuckled and said.

“It is quite alright as long as you know what you are doing. Besides, you original angels were supposed to be perfect creations of God, so wouldn’t you changing a part of his ‘perfection’ to something better be a good slap to the big guy’s face?”

Azazel put a hand on his chin and a smile started appearing on his face.

“Interesting, very interesting. Now I will definetly have to look into that.”

Soma just shrugged and continued.

“Amongst the modifications I did to my body, there is a magic engine. It let me become immune to a chosen element of magic and instead of taking damage I can transform that magic power entirely into my own source of energy.”

That was not entirely true, Soma could transform any and all non-physical magic attacks into pure energy, but if he could trick others into believing he had a glaring weakness then all the better. Besides, considering he was going to war with the vampires soon, he wasn’t sure if the magic engine inside him would be able to stay hidden anyway.

Better to preemptively release fake information as to mislead others later.

Azazel looks extremely interested at that one as he mutters.

“It is almost like you made yourself become a sacred gear.”

Soma just shrugs.

“I am better, in my humble opinion. But anyway, I want your help. Namely, I want you to attack me with pure light attacks until my ‘batteries’ are charged enough for this fight. You wouldn’t lose anything besides one or two hours of attacking me with light spears and, in exchange, you get two spells that will accelerate your research considerably. A good deal, right?”

Azazel, however, was barely listening as he stared at Soma up and down before speaking.

“I accept, but you gotta answer some questions I have about body modifications.”

“No thanks. That is out of the question, I am not such a nice guy that I would share my research with an old guy who asked nicely. I am here for business.” Soma said easily and sternly. He was willing to share somethings, but the information of how precisely his body works as well as how to make others was completely out of the question.

Sighing, Azazel could only accept since he too could understand being reluctant to share truly important information just like that.

“Very well, I will help with attacking until you are charged and, in exchange, you give me those spells.” Azazel said in defeat.

Soma nodded and the began the process right away. Azazel sent light bullets one after another into Soma.

He started small, sending just one at a time as he wasn’t really sure if the absorption worked as Soma said, but soon his face started to change as the frequency of shooting and the power of each of those shots kept increasing more and more.

Azazel and Vali stared in wonder as every hit against Soma was as if hitting a pool of water, you could see that there was contact but it couldn’t cause any damage to Soma as all the magic energy was absorbed by the moment it hit him.

By the time Soma judged he absorbed enough magic power and couldn’t take any further even Azazel felt shocked as about 70% of his total reserves were all used up just like that.

This was Soma’s current limit in magic energy, around 70% of ALL the energy inside a top Satan Class powerhouse. This may not seem that impressive, but upon remembering his techniques and how much he could accomplish with so little magic energy previously, well…

He was terrifying.

“With this, it should be barely enough.” Soma said with a nod. Standing up as he felt the energy held within his very bones. With this, it would be far too simple to use some of the more unique spells he knew.

Saying his goodbyes to Azazel and Vali after telling Vali when and where to be if he was to truly come along, Soma returned home to deal with the final preparations. It was a troublesome process to make sure all his preparations were in order and to count his stock of disposable soldiers like Golems as well as see to the creation of the dragon tooth warriors, but it was the final preparations that were necessary and by the time he finished it he was confident he obtained enough for what was to come.

By the time Soma was ready to go and, in the airport, he looked around to see who decided to come along with him. There were Gentle, La Brava, Vali, Mittelt, Mami, and Mirana. Soma raised a brow but did not mention how Aya and Kiyoharu decided not to come, or better said he informed Aya the wrong time for the flight and asked Ravel to distract her so she wouldn’t come along.

Aya was strong, no questions there thanks to her sacred gear and Kaleidostick, but Soma wouldn’t take her to a warzone when he knew she would do so mostly for the wrong reasons. He could see that if Aya came along it would be because she thought that she had to help him, not for fighting the enemy but to be useful to Soma. She was not mentally ready to face a battle like that, it was far too dangerous for the girl just yet. And as for Kiyoharu not coming along, Soma had actually asked her to watch over Aya instead of coming even if her gear could prove invaluable for what is to come.

It was a tough call for Soma, Kiyoharu’s gear could extract information from the enemy very easily and help in several ways, meanwhile, Aya’s gear could let them bypass the barrier of the Tepes clan without any issue or risk of detection, but Soma could still deal with that part of the job even without their help and that was exactly what he intended to do.

Looking at everyone, Soma’s eyes focused on Mirana and he couldn’t help speaking up.

“It seems like you decided to come along.”

“Yes. And I told one of my friends about what we are doing and to inform my superiors in three days if there is no communication with her.” Mirana said and Soma smiled slightly.

“A good decision. As long as we are already there the Church can’t really hurt us by informing the vampires of our presence and maybe some assistance is sent our way from them.” Soma said and Mirana smiled at that.

Vali, on the side, scowled a bit.

“Great, now the church might send someone to interrupt my fun.”

Soma shrugged.

“Don’t worry, you will be able to fight freely there. You ARE the bait, after all. Sending you to fight from the front with minimal support with the intent of having you face as many enemies as possible as to make the operation for everyone else easier sounds like fun, doesn’t it.” Soma said, equalling Vali to Cu Chulain and knowing how effective such words would be for battle maniacs like them.

Vali’s scowl turned into a predatorial grim as he spoke.

“That sounds like a great idea. I knew there was some reason I liked you. Maybe after this we could fight it out.”

“Maybe. I wonder how I would do against a dragonic devil, after all, and how effective my sword would be against you.” Soma mentioned and Vali raised a brow, wondering what sword he was talking about since he hasn’t heard of Soma using any special blade until now, nor did he hear about any special blade being stolen or in Soma’s possession besides Excalibur Blessing, which was far from able to be a true danger to Vali himself.

Of course, Soma had no intention of fighting Vali right now, but after the vampire situation was dealt with maybe he would actually let Vali enjoy this battle he so clearly wanted. It was not like Soma would have to deal with another world-ending disaster soon after, after all.

With everyone ready it was time to go, the vampires wouldn’t exterminate themselves.

///—///

As Soma and the others entered the plane to leave Kuoh, a certain former bishop, a fallen angel that looks like Voldemort that got caught in grease fire, and some other associates were arriving in Kuoh at almost the same time. It was a coincidence that both sides haven’t met in the airport as their meeting might have changed how things would have played out.

But, then again, the path might change but the results would be about the same. What is destined to happen would happen, and if in one reality the vampire looking fallen angel might have been thrown into prison to suffer in frozen hell for all of eternity, this reality was not as kind to him and one way or another, he is not gonna live long enough to regret stepping into this town. Of that, one can be certain.

///—///

AN:

So, sorry for the wait. I am back from the Dengue Fever and I am mostly all better, who had that fever can tell how much it sucks.

In other news, I have to say, this chapter was far from my best. I had to force it to come out as I just don’t know what I am doing with this particular arc anymore and I regret doing this vampire arc. I am almost deleting this arc entirely, it would make writing further much easier at any rate, but I feel the readers would complain so I don’t know.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this and please check out my other fics. Ideas are appreciated and if anyone is interested in working with me on this or another story please send me a PM in Fanfiction net, I am all ears.

Until next time, peace.