54 Chapter XL: Songs of Experience

//A/N: Hello niece and nephew. Before starting the chapter, I want to give a little reminder that this is an Alternative Universe so many of the things you are about to read in this chapter are not the same as canon. It is just how I want to write some things about this particular "DXD World" and some different logic behind it to connect it with other worlds' logic. Also, that this as well with this chapter as well as with any other chapter, I have the intention of being disrespectful to anyone, this is just for the sake of entertainment. And more importantly, I hope you enjoy the chapter. //

I opened my eyes, staring at the ceiling. "Jesus Murphy."  I groaned as I was having the greatest headache of both of my lives. "How long have I been oot(out)?"

"Aboot(about) 2 hours." Gramps said with a hint of humor.

I grunted internally as he always likes to mock me anytime that he can with that…it was once just once! But looking at his expression, it seems my "little" outrage was worse than I thought. 

"15 minutes longer than the last time huh?" This was not the first "anger episode" that I had but by far it was the biggest one, well at least I didn't go nuclear. "Well we knew that this was bound to happen, it  was just earlier than we estimated." 

"Yes." Gramps said with a sigh. "It does not help that your [Origins] started to awaken before coming here." 

While we had some clues about my [Origins], I always have been a lot eccentric before my reincarnation/transmigration especially, but after I reincarnated I always had this feeling of…showing off? It is hard to describe, it is not that exactly that I wanted to flaunt the obvious, more like I wanted to be seen or "shine" as I for my standards could have shown a lot more than what I could as myself instead of doing everything as "Luxu" in the Potterverse, this is related to my [Star] [Origin]. Needless to say, there are many other symbolisms that involve [Star] not only being  "the spotlight", but that was the first indicative. 

As for [Sovereign]... I have mixed feelings about this one. I have always been against the whole idea of making a faction of my own… or world domination, mostly for not wanting to do the paperwork I admit since I could use that for research or training. Sure I know that eventually, I will need to lead a team for the missions but aside from that I didn't give much thought to that. As for my short temperament toward people that I consider "Young Masters"... that was nothing new even before reincarnated I did not have patience with them but it got worse with time, especially when they tried to give me orders.

At first, I adjudicated this to Gilgamesh's influence over me, however as much as I despise to admit, we have more similarities than I would like to admit, something that I think that Fuga likes to throw at my face with his not-so-subtle rewards, I am sure that was having a good time looking at my expression at the time. 

However like [Star], [Sovereign] has other meanings depending on the context that is used and how it is used. But what both of them share is that they are a way of referring to something "outstanding". 

"How are you feeling?"  Gramps asked.

"I am fine, a little bit sore for the multiple enhancement spells that I used as well as using [Domain Expansion] and I believe that I was in the "Heat" state that Daniel Park and others in PTJ verse are when they are enraged so it would take me a couple of hours to be at peak state again." Even if I undermined him in my outrage in pure physical stats he was stronger than me without them but he was not a threat big enough for me to use Jeahbongchim(Limit Removal) or Mugotong (Painkiller). 

As for my [Domain Expansion], it has been my project/goal since I started to learn about [Bounded Fields] one of my favorite subjects in [Magecraft] maybe it is because of some subconscious thought with my [Sovereign] origin, you know having everything under my control. Returning to the point, at first it was meant to be my first step toward a [Reality Marble] but after Gilgamesh entered on the stage, it became obvious that I would not achieve that until I resolved that problem. 

[Rearrangement Of The Star] is the ultimate expression of my [Displacement Magecraft] my main Magecraft used for battle.  As with [Unlimited Void],[Self-Embodiment of Perfection] and [Malevolent Shinre] anyone within my [Domain] will be under the "Sure-Hit Effect". With Chazaqiel I just took his concourses out of his body to take him out of commission since it would be annoying to keep the battle going and have more imbeciles in the fight.  There are more things that I could do with it, but it was better than just ripping him to pieces as he is an "important" asset for the moment.

"You know what I meant," Gramps says with a serious expression looking at me directly in my eyes. 

"..." I remained in silence perfectly knowing what he was referring to. 

"*Sighs* Look Little Yozora, I know how you feel about this. Besides what I have seen in the [Dream Cycle], I have watched how you practically walk as if the kids from Hogwarts are made of glass. So you cannot fool me, so just let it out."

"Usually I would not say what I said to Luriel…but those were my real thoughts." I didn't deny anything.

"Of course, I would have phrased it differently but I believe every single word I said in that state." It would be easy to push all the blame on Gilgamesh for everything, it would be as easy as saying that water is wet and that because of his influence, I would look down on people, but that would be what a coward does, and ain't no coward. 

"I am not telling you to do it all the time as you did with Luriel. But why are you taking the exact opposite route?" 

Once again I stared at the roof thinking my next words. "Before summoning you, I had a brief conversation with Kazuma and I asked him the reason for me being chosen as I did not think of myself as being that special, and I really meant it." 

"I always hated this ridiculousness about how some random ass R.O.B. chooses another random ass "average" guy and just grants them power just because they can. At least some had the decency to admit that they wanted some entertainment. Or those random reincarnated guys that become the leader of the team where all the members but him are females with no apparent reason when many of them are more qualified for the job than him. So that brings out the question, why me?" 

"I saw it,  gramps, it was brief but I saw it…" This is one of the things that I never shared with anyone.

"What exactly did you see?" 

"The Omniverse... I saw it all for instance the vastness of it, its never-ending expansion, worlds being created while others being destroyed, countless souls out there… it made me realize…how minuscule we are in the great schemes of things, later Kazuma informed me that all I previously thought was fiction was real."

"That is the reason I asked Kazuma. Being realistic for a moment at the time there should be someone better qualified than me for leading a team, someone with actual experience on the field. In the infinite possibilities of the Omniverse, there should be someone competent who would love to take the job and have a second chance. But what was his answer? Is it just that I got lucky…I have a rare soul capable of resisting corruption, just by that fact alone was chosen, it would matter not if I was incompetent as sooner than later someone capable would join the team." 

"Well is it not great for them that I am many things but incompetent? But it is just more than that." 

"You know, both of my parents were busy people as both of them had very time-consuming work, I would not say that they were absent parents as they spent almost all their free time with me when I was little and did not have any near relatives around, I was taken care of by an old lady that lived in the apartment next door."

"She was a very sweet old lady I used to call Sayu-Obachan but since she had problems in her joints it was hard for her to move much, so most of the time we were just in her apartment. But she had an impressive book collection, something that her late husband left behind. So for most of the time she read to me some of the books that were meant for children…but when I least realized I was already able to read Hiragana and Katakana." 

"But I kept that as a secret since in my mind if they knew that I could read without help they would not read it for me and I enjoyed that. I silly thought now looking back, but hey I was just a kid." I was 3 years old so is no surprise

"But after understanding them, I grew curious about the Kanji so "secretly" I started to look at other books to learn Kanjis…later I found that Sayu-Obachan knew about this but let me do as I wanted since she found my antics cute. I still remember the first children's book that I read alone, Kaiketsu Zorori, the story of a Fox whose only ambition was to become the greatest prankster in the world."  Well, people who say that books influence children are not entirely wrong…

"But then came the time when I needed to go to the Elementary School…you know what were my first words after going there?" 

//A.N: From what I investigated, the equivalent of Kindergarten or Preschool is not part of the obligatory school system, but most people decide to send their children. There they learn Hiragana and Katakana which is a more phonetic alphabet like the Hangul(Korean alphabet) some parents decide to teach their kids at home. As you know there are a lot of Kanjis, but for common life, they only use about 2000 or so, so in the first six years of primary school they learn a little more than 1000 kanjis, and in the rest of the basic education the other 1000.//

Gramps shook his head as those were not part of the memories shared in the [Dream Cycle].

"Why are the other kids so dumb? Do they need "special" help?" 

Gramps deadpanned at me. "Strange enough, I don't find it hard to believe." 

"Of course, Sayo-Obachan reprimanded me as any sensitive adult would do, then my mom also reprimanded me for saying mean things about my classmates, as for my dad…well he ended up sleeping on the couch that day." I sometimes wonder if I inherited my sense of humor from him.

"I didn't have many interactions with kids of my own age at the time, so I did not have so I did not have anything to compare with. That was the first time I realized that I was not like the other kids. Besides the obvious physical differences, things were easier for me to learn than for others." 

"Long story short, not everyone is the same and has a different pace of learning." Those were not the exact words, but that was the meaning behind them. 

"That didn't make me have an inflated ego or something like that, maybe I just liked to brag in front of my parents for praise." Every kid wants to make their parents proud. "And after Hiroshi's birth and became aware, I liked to act as the cool "Onii-sama", who could do everything." Everyone wants to be the cool brother.

"Besides, it is not like I could do everything at first glance if I wanted, it was just that it was easier for me to learn…I could "see" the connections." If I could do everything by just looking, otherwise Daniel Park''s card would have been mostly useless for me. 

"When you started to learn [Nen] you mentioned that you chose it because they have similarities in the basis, are those the connections you are talking about?" 

"Like the saying "All roads lead to Rome " for me everything is…connected in a way. Even the most miscellaneous activity or knowledge related. There are ones that are more obvious than others like dance and martial arts as both of them need good footwork and rhythm. Cooking and potion-making are similar in their fundamentals even if Snape will rant about it. Everything is connected…even if the path is small and full of potholes."

"The more I learn the subsequent things that I want to learn become easier even if they are not related to anything. But I never found a reason to search for praise outside the home so I acted normal…my "normal" before you say anything." 

"It was not as if I was trying to pull out the "Hidden Genius" or something like that. It is just that I never found a reason to brag about it, to point out…the obvious." Well damn, I sounded like Homelander. 

"And since I did not go on that route my scores were always on the top and together with my looks I was the center gossip, not that I really cared about that as I always thought about them as jealous brats." 

"But even if I did not take their words seriously, my little to no patience with certain types of insults is nothing new." 

"When I was 13 years old there was this kid Fuji Daisuke, he was 15 at the time and the "Ace" of the baseball team, and many High Schools wanted to recruit him for their teams, so as any teenager he had his head full of hot air." 

"On my part, while I had some interest in sports, I deemed joining a team too time-consuming as I had other interests." Besides I am more of a Basketball man…I blame Slam Dunk for that.

"At the time we were moving a lot since my dad was promoted and my mom started doing most of her work from home so she didn't have any issues with that. So I didn't bother with bonding with anyone since we could move at any moment, so I was the outcast of the school." Not that I minded at the time.

"And let me guess, he picked on you and you defeated him on his field," Gramps predicted the events that transpired. 

"Nay." I denied. 

"I destroyed him." 

"He started to mumble a lot of things that I can't recall since he thought that I was not giving him enough respect or some shit like that, but what I do remember is that he said: "Yes you should run with your Konketsuji brother." 

//A/N: The word Konjetsuji means Mixed-Blood Child, a Japanese Person with one of his/her parents is not Japanese. But unlike other words like "Halfu" or "Daburu" is used in a derogatory way.// 

"That was the first time in my life that I felt enraged." I will not say that I never felt annoyed in my life at that point, but it was the first time that I felt the scorching feeling of rage in my guts. 

"Unlike me, Hiroshi was a sensitive child and looked a lot more like our mum. So it was harder for him to "blend in" with the other kids of his age." Kids could be even worse than adults since they don't have developed social skills. 

"It would be easy to beat the senseless out of Daisuke, too easy. But no…I wanted to humiliate him, show him his place like the maggot he was." 

"So I followed him in his stupid game, gave him the field advantage, and gave him the delusion of an easy victory,  I made him think that he had the higher ground, only for him to fall harder." 

"We made a simple bet, he would be the batter and I would be the pitcher, one out. I would be his errand boy for the rest of the school year if he won but if I won he would just have to comply with one of my orders." 

"I never had played baseball in my life, at most I just watched some random games on the TV and sports manga but as I said…everything is connected. I just had some throwing practices to familiarize myself with the weight of the ball and adjust the direction while throwing, not much different to playing dodgeball in a sense." For me at least. 

"The first pitch was pretty simple, just a fastball in the upper inside corner that just barely entered the strike zone. Daisuke was surprised by the speed of the ball since in his eyes I was practically an amateur, so he could not predict this, so this was the first strike." 

"In the second pitch, I did the same with a fastball in the upper inside corner just a little bit faster this time. This time Daisuke acted by reflex from the previous throw, but this time I made sure that it was really out of the strike zone. So that was his second strike." 

"Now this is when Daisuke started to feel the pressure, the bet in question was not a big deal if you think of it so he shouldn't have been worried about that but no…his pride was at stake. He could not allow an amateur, someone with no experience to best him in his field of expertise." 

"He was pretty sure that I would make an even faster pitch than the previous ones exactly at the same spot as I was taunting him, but no… I was not there to have a competition, a heated sports battle, no, no, no,  it was a public humiliation." 

"So instead of doing what he expected, I simply threw a slow straight ball to the lower outside corner. He was able to barely react to this and hit the ball, but it ended up being sent in my direction which I just easily caught." 

"Of course like the loser he was, he did not accept his defeat, so once again we started but this time I was in the batter zone." 

"This time it was many times easier as the dumbass tried to do exactly what I did in the first pitch, out of pettiness or just to prove that he could do anything that I could…idiot." 

"Needless to say, it was a home run, if you know where the ball is going to hit it is easy to do it if you properly hit it and it is easier if you know where the ball is gonna be." Of course, it is easier said than done as it needs good hand-eye coordination.

"So what did you ask him to do?" Gramps asked. 

"Nothing…I just told him: "If I wanted a disappointment, I would rather ask your parents since they seem to be well-versed in creating disappointments." Normally I would say that I am not proud of what I said…but that would be a lie. 

"For the vast majority what I did, would seem pointless and his attitude very immature…but that is the point he was only 15. For him Baseball was the center of his life, the only thing where he was the best from his perspective, his ticket for a better life and a random "nobody" just bested him, and to make things worse it was someone that never practiced in his life." It is all a matter of perspective. 

"What happened to him?" Gramps asked for the sake of knowing.

"Apparently he asked for a "break" from the team, after that, I do not know as I moved from that place a month later." 

"That was the first time I found out how terrifying it could be for some to be overshadowed. How dangerous it is for the mental care." 

"No, I do not regret what I did." Not even once I felt an ounce of guilt about it. "I would say that a part of me enjoyed it." Every action reacts. "But there I realized how fragile is the sense of self, at that point, I never had such a problem…until I reincarnated." 

"Everyone wants to be the "Main Character" of their story and have this sense of uniqueness and in a sense they are quite right, they are the main characters in their story and everyone is different even when they have counterparts in the vast omniverse, even just a tiny detail makes them different…but that does not mean that they are good "main character"." 

"Humans like to think that they are good in at least one thing, maybe not the best but good. They kept telling themselves that, but as ironic as it sounds to me saying this, there was a saying within the westerns  "No matter how good you are at something, there's always an Asian kid better than you." It sounds fun and all… but it stops being funny when you are in front of that." 

"All their "hard efforts" become nothing in front of said prodigies, you just become…normal." 

"Of course, I couldn't care less about random nobodies, but I do care about Hiroshi. By no means Hiroshi was talentless, dumb, or even worse…a lazy bum." I shivered at the thought. "But even a shiny star is not recognizable if there is a shinier star beside it.  I was worried that he would end up like the others." There are a lot of studies that backed my fears, so I grew worried about him using a "fictional" example. It would be as with  Sheldon and Georgie, even if Georgie was a damn genius when it came to business he was always outshined by Sheldon. 

"So it became a habit of mine, treating everyone as if they were made of glass… except for the assholes they can who to hell for all I care, and since even with my eccentric personality I was never the type of person to show up so it was not hard for me to do so." 

"And even when I just minded my own business, people were whispering about how things were so easy for me, that I never had to put effort on anything…that did annoy me, even if things are easier for me than the rest, I still have to use my time and effort to learn something, it not like the knowledge "magically" appeared on my head." 

"Those with that kind of mindset are mediocre people, not having the natural talent and whining about that but still not doing anything to improve yourself, I abhor those kinds of people." Maybe that is why I liked characters like Shirahama Kenichi, Rock Lee, Mumen Rider, and Jack Hanma. Even if I don't share their views on life on a fundamental level, I respect them since they overcame their limits with strong will. 

"Maybe that is why I was biased with Ron at the beginning with my "knowledge" of the future. And got along pretty quickly with Hermione even if we have somewhat opposite personalities besides the love for studying and books. But to be fair everyone is biased." 

"I do not think that having "small" dreams is mediocre, sometimes those "small" dreams are even harder to accomplish depending on their situation or are big for them. "Having a plentiful and peaceful life." for me maybe the first one could not be impossible, but for the second part? I think that is almost impossible. Everyone has different perspectives in life and goals so as long as they pursue them with everything they have, at least in my eyes they are not mediocre." 

You know something funny." I ask with a hint of humor. "I can bet half of my books that Fuga pitties this world." 

"After all, I have no strings attached to this world."  In this world, I am…free.

"When I said that most of the people I have saved so far are just the byproduct of my goals I really mean it, I am not saying that to hide my true feelings or just thinking of myself as a good samaritan and what I did was the obvious thing to do for most of the people. No.no.no is just that I could afford the luxury of helping them."

"I can feel bad for people, I can cry for an unknown person, curse at the cruelty imposed on people, be disgusted at the atrocities that people are capable of,  and be empathic with them. But it does not mean that I will go and search for everyone in trouble, I am not a saint after all, I am just human at my core." Even in the Potterverse in the non-supernatural world, there are conflicts all around the world, like the Bosnian War that just started, the Mozambican Civil War that is on its last legs, and the Guatemalan Civil War that has lasted over 30 years, yet I will do nothing about it. I am just offering my services to the Empire of Tenochtitlan since I can profit from it and there is nothing that the non-supernatural world can offer me. 

"Maybe sometimes I am too Human." I could not help but snort at my words.

…..

Day 13 

"Well, at least this part of fanfiction is wrong in this universe," I said to myself after inspecting the [Twice Critical] that I got from the drunkard of the same town where I got [Innovate Clear], it is a common trope in those that they are made out of Draig's flesh, but so far what I got with [Structural Analysis] and [Eye Of The Blacksmith King](One of [Armiger] abilities) they are not or at least this one is not.

"The Biblical God used the body and soul of a Dragon and engraved a degraded copy of the [Boost] ability to it. The soul had no ego, most likely because it was made out of a young Dragon that had no consciousness and it is used as the engine for it to work." I mean it kinda of makes sense since doubling one Physical and Magical strength is not an easy fit, mainly when they are made for any random human that may or may not know about the Supernatural World.

"And as I suspected I cannot create copies of [Sacred Gears] or at least not everything. While the concept of [Weapon] is very broad and Zelretch created it based on one of the "VS XIII" universe, so if it is similar to the Final Fantasy XV, it was "An innate ability to conjure magical weapons" 

  "Replicating [Innovate Clear] is totally out of the question, as for the [Twice Critical] well it created a hollow shell but it means that if I put the soul of a Dragon or other compatible option, I could potentially have a good weapon in hand for foot soldiers, but if dragon's souls are the only one compatible option maybe I should abstain of hunting them in this world."  When I get on my hands the [Sephiroth Graal] I could just summon the souls of dragons to use them as an energy source and when I finally learn [Heaven's Feel] they will be an infinite energy source, maybe I can do the same with the [Resurrection Stone]. But I would like to test the differences between the souls of Dragons of multiple worlds, there are many "Isekai" worlds where dragons are common as well as "Hunter" worlds. Skyrim also could be a pretty good option. 

"But that brings out the question of why the rest of the supernatural world is not haunting them? I mean the [Twice Critical] even if it is a discount version of the [Booster Gear] it still doubles the power of the wielder.  I mean for Issei at the beginning of the canon it means almost nothing but for someone strong, it would be a pretty good increase in power. The clone of Siegfried of this world is a good example of this. Of course, maybe it doesn't work well after a certain threshold but for most of the races here, it would be a significant increase.

"It must be a matter of pride along with politics. The fact that [Reincarnated Devils] can still use them after becoming devils may discard the possibility of rejection or else is a thing of slow adaptation since they had it from the beginning or maybe God didn't foresee the invention of the [Evil Pieces] but who knows if that is the case since he must have a pretty advanced type of [Clairvoyance]." 

"Well regardless of that Big G certainly was a genius by creating this and being able for anyone being able to use it, especially since they can evolve with the wielder, very ahead of its time Azazel took more than a millennium to create a new one and as far as I know except for [Malebranche] the devils equivalent of [Sacred Gears], no one else was able to create something similar to them. Of course, I remember the ones made with the help of the [Sephiroth Graal] but honestly, it was just "Control C + Control V" and they were not perfect copies." 

"It makes me remember that bullcrap about the Patch Tribe and their "Traditional Patch Art", technology way above their time that came out from space ... .did I raise a flag?"  I mean it would not be outside of possibilities, ExE were a bunch of "Outer gods" that came from another dimension, maybe the Biblical God was one of them. I mean I already stumped on a "Korean Novel Cliche" . Maybe he was like the Parasite Queen from The Second Coming Of Gluttony that escaped from Kim Soohyun or the Martial God as he is mentioned in the novel. Maybe the Biblical God was like that.

"Anyways I should explode Agreas before leaving." I don't have anything against the Agares Clan, but…that is the place where the Special Crystal used for creating the Evil Pieces and Brave Saints, is not a top priority but if the opportunity presents itself…

"Why does it have to be explosions with you all the time?" Gramps asks as he enters the room. 

I raised my left eyebrow at his question. "Aside from the fact that true art is an explosion? Is just because it is convenient." I mean I doubt that I could really eradicate the whole floating island by myself taking into consideration that it must be protected and fortified, but with the right [Noble Phantasm] I could make it inhabitable for the devils. "Besides it is just a possibility, I still haven't decided how much I want to actively interfere with the whole "canon", even if it is probably screwed." 

"I understand, If we were to stay here you wouldn't mind changing things, but since we are going to leave in little less than a year and return later, it could make even more "annoying" development," Gramps said, perfectly understanding my point of view. 

"Exactly, while it is true that I learned to not care about "canon" or the "plot", having at least a baseline guide is helpful. I do not doubt for a single moment that once we return in the future I will give the middle finger to it after noticing the differences." In multiple stories, the protagonist reincarnates in a world that he knows and always tries to keep the "canon events" as much as possible. In DXD the common troupe would be to help Rias with her engagement with Riser and all that Yabadaba. I can relate to them since there is a sense of safety in knowing exactly what is going to happen and many do not have the same advantages as me or a reliable person like Gramps on their side. 

"What about the Fallen? Did he already make his move?"  Gramps changed the subject of our current plans. 

"No…I'll let them feel the uncertainty for a while, use the marked Fallen Angels to create rumors about me, make them paranoid about what I left behind, and with some luck create a little scrimmage between the Judeo-Christian faction. I know that they will have problems with insiders in 500 years, but from what I extracted from Chazaqiel they have problems with spies even in this era, so my deeds will reach the ears of many factions. Let them theorize everything they want and feed them with missing information." 

"And unknowingly to them, they will aid me to stand on the top." 

…

Day 22

Inhabited Island on the Caribbean Sea.

"All preparations are done!" I said quite excited as today I will bind [Innovate Clear] with me. 

In most fanfiction, when people steal a [Sacred Gear] they automatically incorporate it to themselves as if it was just piercing their ears or wearing a necklace….I don't know how things work in those universes but at least here it is not that easy. 

[Sacred Gears] even with the messed up management of the [Heaven System] because of the death of the Biblical God. They still retain their most basic function, Adaptation. At the end of the day even if they are with the user from the very same moment that the user is born, they are still foreign objects to the souls at the end of the day much like [Magic Circuits] but the difference is that [Sacred Gears] adapt to their users. 

To be precise they "resonate" with the soul of the user, a clever move from the Biblical God as with very few exceptions every soul is different, all of them have different wavelengths. Rejection is a possible problem if they were just handed like that, it would be similar if some idiot Magus tried to transfer a [Magic Crest] to someone outside of their family, and even if it were a member of their family, there is always the risk of rejection, that is why normally the process of transfer is a slow one during the childhood of the one who is going to receive it. 

Something similar happens with the [Sacred Gears], even if they are latched to their wielders with those weird tendrils that I saw before. They are in a "power save mode" to give it a name, while at the same time, they keep adapting to their wielder's soul and body to avoid rejection. For example in Cannon, Valerie Tepes should have died by the mere fact of having the [Sephiroth Graal] one of the Holy Relics is incompatible with the nature of her Dhamphir physiology or in the case of Tobio Ikuse who since birth was able to use it's [Balance Breaker] maybe it was because it had a "Perfect Resonance" with it and later when he achieved[Abyss -Side Balance Breaker] is because their "wavelength" became the same, of course, this is only a theory since I have yet to meet the guy…if I meet him. 

"So I assume that everything is safe now?" Gramps who was in the corner of the room asked.

"Mmm, I would not say that is 100% but safe enough to not get any permanent damage or something that will take me out of commission for a long time, at worst it would be just a couple of days." Even with preparation and the knowledge that I received from the [Eye of Blacksmith King], there is always the unknown factor. 

Gramps nodded at my answer. "Good enough, I will be on guard in case some "unexpected guest" decides to come here," He said with his spear resting on his shoulder. 

"Thanks, gramps, the defenses of this base should be good enough, but you know, constant vigilance." This is one of the decoy bases that I asked the other me to do for me since there is no way in hell that I would risk giving the location of our main base. 

After creating a clone with enough [Magic Energy] I passed him the [Mystic Code] with the [Resurrection Stone].

"Oversoul." The other me said without hesitation summoning Winged Kuriboh. 

"We will be in your care, partner." The both of us said at the same time, with the other me patting the head of Winged Kuriboh. 

"Kurii kurii!" Winged Kuriboh said, raising his little claw to his forehead meaning that "he has our back"...seriously who taught him that? Maybe it was me…

'Roooar!' My other partners roared saying that they also wanted to help. 

"It's okay guys, I know how you do feel after not having a chance to help against the Fallen Angels, but you also have an important role in this if something goes wrong, all of you are my "Thump Cards" " Even with the intended pun to assure them that I am not leaving them aside, they really have a role to play, in one of the most "inconvenient" scenarios in the last part of the process. 

'Roaaar' It seems that my words worked on them as they look motivated now. 

"Well everyone let's start the first part," I said going to the center of the room, activating the first [Bounded Field] around me. 

"Winged Kuriboh, please create a barrier around the room." I requested my fluffy partner his aid. 

"Kuri kurii." Winged Kuriboh said while light enveloped the room around us. 

"Other me, keep watching for any anomalies that could be happening." 

"You got it, boss." The other me said nonchalantly but his(my) gaze was focused on me.

"Gramps, if anyone is so stupid enough to come here with all the defenses of the place…go for the kill, no questions asked," I asked Gramps to do so as this process involves my soul, I do not care about any idiot who can mess up the process, and I am not even going to bother to get them as test subject.

"Understood." Gramps said prepared for any possible "enemy" 

I took the [Black Card] where [Innovate Clear] was sealed from my [Dimensional Pocket] to start the process.

.

In my hands, there is a blue crystal orb with a little tree inside of it. [Innovate Clear] The Miniature Garden Of The Green Tree Of Innovation. While this was on the last place in my list of important originals [Longinus] that was in the case that I could just acquire just one of them with my limited time here, but thanks to Kazuma that is not the case.

For most people, the "limitations" of this [Sacred Gear] in comparison with [Annihilation Maker] and [Dimension Lost] would be huge, but I am not like most people. Not being able to teleport? Short-Range of effectivity? Please…I can do that on my own. The monsters created with it not being able to "live" outside of it? Screw the rules, I have [Displacement Magecraft]!. So no, those are not disadvantages for me, besides [Innovate Clear] fits perfectly for me. And most important since I want to use more than one [Longinus] it is the perfect base to allow this without straining my soul. 

I stored away the [Innovate Clear] but this time instead of sending it inside my [Dimensional Pocket] or another [Black] its location was different…It was inside of [Armiger].

Sitting on the floor in a lotus position, I closed my eyes to send my consciousness inside of my soul.

…

Opening my eyes, I was once again inside my inner world, I could see the never-ending starry sky as all the stars of multiple colors began to shine brighter as if they were happy at my arrival. Maybe a subconscious reaction in the case of most of the stars since I am always bewitched at the beautiful sight in front of me, a very narcissistic thought taking into consideration that is the visual representation of my soul.

Now thinking about it, it must be because of a subconscious thought that one of my favorite classes in Hogwarts is Astronomy and my fascination with stargazing since one of my origins is [Star] and why my favorite place in the world became The Salar de Uyuni even with my preconception of "The Final World" from Kingdom Hearts to the point that it became my Inner World.

In the distance, I could see the city of Uruk, Gilgamesh's "territory". Not all the time when I come here I have to put up with the parasite's stupidity, it only happens after I have a strong fit of anger with something related to the both of us or just when I want to piss him off. 

Leaving all the unnecessary thoughts aside, I walked in front of my throne which I assume is a representation of my [Sovereign] origin, it might seem too little in contrast with everything else that represents [Star] but is not at all. The throne is never in the same place it is always near wherever I go and most importantly is the hidden meaning, as a Sovereign, under my domain, there can be only one ruler, and that is me.

Sitting on my throne allows me to feel a deeper connection with my soul, many times stronger than any other method that I have tried in the past, so there is no better place than my throne for the delicate process that I will do.

From the very beginning, since I knew that I would come to the DXD World, I planned to at least take one [Sacred Gear] for myself. From my logical side, it was to satiate my curiosity of study them and create some of my own in the future as well as increase my strength, while my otaku reason was to have the full experience of this world since in a way is the main essence from the story leaving aside the almost hentai logic of this world. 

But there was a problem that I overlooked thanks to my knowledge of the "canon" as well as multiple fanfictions. There the logic behind acquiring a [Sacred Gear] was the following: "I steal it with whatever mean I have and just introduce it to my soul." and that is basically it. But because of this, I ignored the big fat problem, my soul. 

As I said before maybe this is how it works in this concrete world but since I am here that is what matters. To begin with the "tendrils" will never be able to "pierce" my soul as it is too strong for them to be able to do so and even if it was just the case that as the "easy way," there was also no way that it could just enter to my soul like that, as my natural defenses will not allow it.

Of course, I could always do the same as Kanzaki Mitsuya and just use some "terminal" to be able to use them, something similar to what Aozaki Touko did and I have previously theorized on how to do it, but I would rather not. Or the expensive solution, buy them with the Store Points, but that would take a lot of time, why waste points when I literally have them in front of me?

[The Organization] has means beyond what this Middle-Tier world and myself have at the moment, so there is no surprise that they could "engrave" knowledge, skills, abilities… etc. on my soul. And using [Armiger] as a prime example since the closest thing that I have to a [Sacred Gear] is literally inside of my soul being one of my strongest assets as well as indirectly being the reason for my biggest headache in both of my lives. Sure I don't doubt that they are capable of "extracting" it from my soul but I hardly believe that they would be able to do so without damaging my soul as [Armiger] is now a part of myself.

The funny thing about all of this is that thanks to Kazuma I was able to solve this inconvenience, not that I would ever admit it in front of him.

He calls me a "Cheat Character" on whatever occasion he can…so that is what I did, I "cheated".

I took [Innovate Clear] from [Armiger] or more being more specifically [Royal Arsenal] as it allows me to store any weapon that I collect and use at my will. Even while they are described as "tools" at the end of the day, they are just weapons created to "help" humanity. Usually, I would not be able to bring anything or anyone from the outside world not even my partners, but since [Armiger] is a part of my soul and [Innovate Clear] was inside of it, Vive les détails techniques!

Speaking of technicalities, [Royal Owner] should be helping me with this, but it just helps me to "use" any weapon without incompatibilities, but this particular case was not a problem of compatibility as I could use the [Innovate Clear] if it were in my hands, but that would be inconvenient. 

[Innovate Clear] started to react at being released in my soul, it did not release it's tendrils as it seemed to be…confused? For the lack of a better term but under my guidance thanks to [Royal Owner] it skipped that step and started the [Soul Resonance]. 

Usually, this process is slow and could take several years to finish under the "safety measures", but I do not want to waste that much time. So I turned off said measures and with this [Innovate Clear] started to amplify its "Wavelengths' ' and I started to send back mines as creating a cycle which made the [Soul Resonance] process go into an accelerated pace.

With every passing cycle the intensity increased both in speed and complexity since without the safety measures the wavelengths became more erratic and I had to send them back with the same "frequency" so the [Soul Resonance] doesn't get interrupted, basically it was an extreme rhythm game….a Japanese rhythm game.

The reason for this is that even if every soul has a unique wavelength, it can also change depending on a plethora of reasons, stress, fear, and anger being the most common ones, something that goes accordingly with people unlocking [Balance Breaker] something that…well it is not the right time to talk about it.

After several minutes after the process began, [Innovate Clear] reached a critical point, so it is the moment to be more proactive. 

"Just to be clear…I was reading William Blake before it was mainstream." I said to no one in particular.

"To see a World in a grain of sand; Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand, And Eternity in an hour." I chanted to embrace the concept of [Innovate Clear] which is the creation of a "fake universe".

[Innovate Clear] started to shine much brighter than before and started to float above my hands, but I was not finished yet.

"While thy branches mix with mine, and our roots together join; Thou the golden fruit does bear." With these words [Innovate Clear] flew directly to the starry sky to combine both "physically" and "spiritually" to give birth to something new.

"There is nothing above the starry pole, Nor there is something below the starry floor, As our stars embrace all as a whole." 

With the final verse, an intense light could be seen in the sky, shining brighter than most of the stars in [Inner World], and after a few seconds, the brightness started to decrease allowing me to see a new violet blue colored star in the sky that stood out a lot compared with the majority of the stars, being too close to a silver colored one.

My lips moved upwards involuntarily to form a smile as I could perfectly feel the connection with the new star which represents [Innovate Clear] along with everything I can do with it. And soon enough that smile turned into a big grin. 

"HAHAHA!" I started to laugh frantically at my success. "It worked!"

"A perfect merge with my soul, just like [Armiger]!." Honestly, this was the best possible outcome. "The best part is that I have access to everything! No bullshit reasons to hinder my development! No unexpected power-up stupidity when I get angry that makes me go berserker! The prophecy This is….what the heck is this?" My euphoria dropped down in an instant at the feeling of someone trying to enter into my soul.

Twice I had a similar sensation, both of them in the Potterverse, the first one when I touched one of Voldemort's Horcruxes and tried to leech to me to no avail. The other one was with a "Dark Wizard" in France, he tried to possess me but his soul just "bounced" back at him, needless to say, I erased him with a [Fiendfyre Curse].

"Weird…it feels as if whoever is trying to enter is not making it on purpose as if something was…" Staring at the newborn star, I realized what was happening. 

"Just my luck, Dorkfest continues…" I thought to myself as it was apparently inevitable for me to meet at least one member of every faction of the Judeo-Christian Pantheon, my third least favorite Pantheon in this world. "So even if the [Heaven's System] is a mess and Michael does not have full control over it, it is using [Innovate Clear] ironically as the "North Star" to track me down." 

"Damn you stupid fanfic tropes!" I cursed at the current inconvenience. "While it was within the possible outcomes that I theorized, I still cannot sever the link that [Innovate Clear] and the [Heaven's System] as I am still halfway through the solution that I planned for this." But in this world it would be easier to acquire the necessary "things" to finish it.

"Besides it seems that it is a "One-Time-Event" so there is not much risk with this. And even if it is not, I can still block it and ignore it, but…" A creepy smile formed on my face at the thought of what I was about to do. 

"It would be a poor display of manners to not entertain a guest, even if he is an unwanted one," I said as I looked directly at [Innovate Clear]. "It seems we will have our first demonstration of power."  I said as I left briefly from my [Inner World] to "recollect" something to entertain Michael even better. 

….

Third-Person Point of View

Michael was not having a good day, not at all.

It has been two long weeks for the Leader of The Heaven Faction. Normally that amount of time for a Seraph would be almost like a blink as they have been on earth for a lot of time since they were the first creation of The Biblical God.  But the current situation made him feel as if time passed slower. 

What is known for the majority of the Angels in heaven, is that an unknown person or group of people is hunting [Sacred Gear] wielders. Michael revealed that someone aside from [Grigori] is capable of stealing them from their righteous wielders and has already stolen a few of them, including a [Longinus], and has the means to search for them even if they are not awakened. Michael entrusted his brother and sisters with the mission of monitoring the members of the church with powerful [Sacred Gears] and searching for any suspicious activity in their territories but not engaging directly in battle if possible. 

Angels are not capable of lying and Michael technically did not lie as he just did not specify the exact number of stolen [Sacred Gears], he did that to motivate his brothers and sister since everything made by their creator is sacred in their eyes. And from the information that they could gather from his spies inside of Gregori, it is the most likely scenario. 

But Michael did not like to do this, not one bit. He hated the fact that had to use this means as his former brother did in the past, but with the years of being the leader of the Heaven faction, he accepted the fact that there were things that he needed to do and his personal feelings come second for the sake of preserving [Heaven] in the place of his late father.

All of this is with the finality of finding some clues about the biggest problem for the Angels, the one capable of using a similar energy as the one in the Second Heaven. With the threat of this being replicable, there is no doubt that many Factions would try to get hold of this. 

It is no secret that the Judeo-Christian Pantheon has earned the animosity of several Factions over the years. With the Devils causing mayhem and doing as they please in other territories and their goal to conquer the world. Fallen Angel's actions as the Devils with some other problems rising here and there. But as for the moment, there is no doubt that Heaven's Faction is the most hated Faction by other Pantheons. 

With the Biblical God stealing treasures and souls from different factions to create the [Sacred Gears], the constant expansion and the stealing of believers from other religions made them one the ones receiving the most hate from other Pantheons. The only thing that prevents everything from going in a full-scale war, is the fear of the other gods to face his Father. What deters every pantheon from attacking any of the factions inside the Judeo-Christian Pantheon, as it happened in the past, they have made temporary trusses to face other Pantheons. 

But this maybe could entice them to ignore that fact since even if it does not originate from the same "source", they also can use [Light Element] and [Holy Element], especially the Celtic and Greek Pantheon. Adding this to the equation, might be able to tempt them to finally declare war, after all gods are rancorous beings.

Sitting at a table with his Seraph brothers and sisters, Michael was having a meeting when suddenly he felt something a signal from the [Heavens System], specifically the part in charge of the [Sacred Gear].

Abruptly standing, Michael teleported himself directly to the Seventh Heaven without saying a word to his brother and sister who had mild-panic expressions on their faces as at his actions. 

Now in the Seventh Heaven, Michael looked up to the [Heaven's System] as it was going haywire because of someone or something trying to forcefully take a [Longinus] from it. Quickly looking at the previous information, it seems that at first, it found an "error" on the system since for a moment the [Longinus] "disappeared" from the system. 

But soon after said [Longinus] "found" a new user, which created another "error" as different from [Incinerate Anthem] that one should not be capable of said feat. But the main problem started when the [Soul Resonance] process began, as the safety measurements were disabled, 

After trying to forcefully turn on the safety measurement to no avail, when the process reached a critical point, the [Sacred Gear] itself was trying to disconnect from the [Heaven System]. 

Michael wasted no time as he sat on his father's throne to enhance his connection with the system he desperately tried with all his power to stop the process, as the forceful extraction of a [Longinus] from the [Heaven System] could potentially create unknown problem with the system, and Michael was not willing to let that happen, 

Michael was able to slow the process so he persevered until he felt that even if the connection was getting "thinner" and if he kept that way, he would be able to avoid it's separation from the system but to his surprise, out of nowhere the process halted. 

He let out a breath of relief as even if he was confused about this, at least he achieved his goal. But that feeling did not last long, as a bright light started to shine in the system, so bright that made him feel perplexed that light made him close his eyes and unknowingly it took his consciousness to another place.

Feeling the intensity of the light go down, Michael opened his eyes, recognizing that he was no longer in the Seven Heavens. 

"Where am I?" Michael asked himself, as he started to look around with wariness for being in an unknown place. 

A place that seems to have an everlasting night sky that has an uncountable amount of stars on it and the ground mirrors that scene making it hard to discern where the sky and earth begin and where they end. But most of his attention was on a group of stars with colors that were not possible by natural means, that shined brighter than the rest. 

"You know, I am getting quite tired of blondies coming here as it was a public space." Someone behind Michael in a joking way.

Michael quickly turned around to see the person who said those words, just to get astonished looking at the man. 

"You…it is not possible."  Was the only thing that Michael was able to say, looking at the man in front of him.

...

Hello niece and nephew. Its uncle author and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. 

For once there will be not a rant about my shitty job, it feels weird, HAHAHA

So in this chapter, I wanted to give importance to Yozora's background so you could understand a little bit better some of his behavior and views in life, besides doing whatever the fucks he wants hahahaha

And also my views on how to manage some things in this particular DXD universe. Obviously this is not how it works in canon, but hey since the beginning I said that this is an AU so, why instead of just changing the fact that Grayfia is single, why not something else? I mean I did it with the potterverse and I think that I did a pretty decent work hahaha. 

And I hope you liked how I managed the whole thing about merging with Innovate Clear, a little advice remember this and what happened after, it would be important for the future.

And in the next chapter besides scaring Michael, Yozora will go on an adventure to a different country! So wait for the next chapter!

So with anything else to say, thank you for reading this chapter.

If you like this ff so far, please make a review on the main page, this will help me a lot so more people get interested in reading it. 

Also, leave a comment with your thoughts on this chapter and maybe drop a stone or two(My precious) hahaha. 

See you again in the next chapter!