61 61. Halo's Revelation and an Invitation.

Kouske's POV

I somehow woke up early at dawn, but the next morning, I planned to take a day off.

As I gazed at the Telos Karma inside the Orb in my hand, it looked just like a halo, radiating golden energy.

It appeared quite majestic, lighting up the whole room and causing Lavinia to wake up with a cute moan.

"Nnnnn...!

"Ko-kun? Why is it so bright? Is it already morning?" asked Lavinia, still a bit sleepy as she rubbed her eyes.

"Sorry, Rey-chan. You can sleep. It's still dark outside. I'll work in my study," I replied, putting the Orb inside my inventory to make the brightness go away.

Then, I stayed a bit with her, softly caressing her head to ensure she fell asleep again.

As I was walking to my study, I saw Sakuya up and working. Man, she works too hard.

Maybe I'll need to force her to take some time off. I think I'll need to advance my plan for us all to visit Italy.

But Elle's paperwork is still not done yet.

"Kouske-sama? You're up early. Do you need something? I'll bring you a cup of coffee," says Sakuya as she sees me.

Normally, I start my day by drinking tea or coffee, alternating between the two.

"Sure, a cup of coffee would be nice. But have you had enough sleep? Isn't it too early to work? It's still dark outside, you know. You can just sleep more if you're tired," I said, trying to encourage her to rest, fully aware that it wouldn't be easy to convince a diligent maid to refrain from her duties.

"It's alright. I am fully rested and ready for my work. I'll go make your coffee," says Sakuya as she heads back into the kitchen.

I entered the study and brought out the Orb again. After inspecting it for a while, I placed it on my chest.

It got sucked into my soul as I felt a new force entering my body, but I couldn't pinpoint the power.

It was dormant. It wasn't hard to activate it, as I had already experienced how to activate a sacred gear.

After a while, a bright golden halo formed over my head, momentarily brightening the whole room.

Fortunately, I could control the brightness and stop it from glowing too much.

During this time, Sakuya came with coffee in her hands, standing still as she looked at me and the halo over my head.

"What's with the halo, Kouske-sama?" asked Sakuya curiously as she served me the coffee.

"Do you remember the Longinuses that I mentioned before?" I asked with a grin.

"Yes," she replied.

"It's one of them, Telos Karma, to be exact. I didn't expect it to be a halo either. But it kind of looks nice," I replied as I looked excitedly at myself in the mirror. The halo fully complemented my golden hair.

"Yes, you look majestic, Kouske-sama," replied Sakuya with a slight smile on her normally stoic face as she observed me.

"It actually looks similar to Yehweh's halo. That bastard must have designed it similar to his own for some self-satisfaction of his," replied Vritra, startling both of us.

"Oh. No one actually knows how Telos Karma manifests, otherwise, the angels would have tried harder to get a hold of this," I said.

"Then, wouldn't this cause more issues if the angels see this?" asked Sakuya, concerned.

"Longinuses always bring problems, girl," replied Vritra.

"Hmm."

Thankfully, I could choose to make it invisible. It could even change shape to look like a crown.

After that, I opened my status to see how it was perceived by the system.

Telos Karma/God's Halo (A): It has the ability to manipulate unseen strings of fate to manipulate fate and causality.

Wow! It's even listed as God's Halo, and this baddy can even affect causality!

Unknowingly, I break into a burst of crazy laughter, making both Sakuya and Vritra look at me strangely.

I'm sure Clarice feels the same, but fortunately, she's keeping quiet for now.

After I stopped laughing, I could see some transparent and colorful strings coming out of Sakuya's body, some of which were connected to me too.

Is this what it means to be bound by the strings of fate?

I could vaguely understand which strings represented what. Some represented her contract with me, some represented her death, love, luck, unluck, etc.

If I could break some of them, they might cause some adverse effects, but I won't be testing this on her.

And I even knew that it still wasn't powerful enough for me to be able to truly harm her, as my connection with Longinus was totally new.

Also, she's many many times stronger than me, so I can't do much, and the strings seemed very hard upon touching them.

Maybe I can do something about her strings of death to make her immortal or something. A thought for the future.

Maybe I could even connect two separate strings and see the effect. I'll have to experiment on all this later with some guinea pigs.

I guess Mitsuya never fully uncovered its full power.

"What are you doing, Kouske-sama?" Sakuya asks as she sees me touching the air like an idiot.

"I can see strings of fate. So I was touching them," I replied, which sounded pretty crazy even to me, but then explained to her.

Both Vritra and Sakuya were impressed by it. Maybe it can do more than just luck manipulation. I will discover it all in due time.

"So what does my fate look like?" Sakuya asks curiously.

"I can't predict fates... yet. But I can see that yours looks beautiful, and we will be together for a long, long time you cannot even imagine," I replied as I touched the various colorful strings connecting the both of us together.

It felt like we were closer than ever as I touched them. And I think I even saw some tints of red on her face.

"I have work to do. So I will leave," Sakuya says stoically as she promptly leaves.

"Brat, you are on the right track to becoming a decent Black Dragon King. Keep it up," said Vritra, encouraging me, to which I could only nod.

Arondight (B+): Arondight is a versatile sword with the unique ability to manipulate holy-demonic light, allowing users to tap into either holy or demonic power depending on their inner nature. Its adaptability makes it a formidable weapon in the hands of skilled wielders. With the potential to wield both types of light separately, Arondight has the capability to unleash powerful attacks and potentially raise its rank even higher. However, mastering this dual power requires careful control and understanding of both holy and demonic energies.

Afterward, I also tried out Arondight. I could manipulate the holy-demonic light quite easily.

But it can also change as per one's inner self, allowing people of demonic/dark nature to use demonic light while letting people with a pure heart use holy light.

The power behind it was also amazing. I can only use the holy-demonic light, which is in its base form.

But if I could use both holy and demonic light separately, then the sword could produce much more powerful attacks, and it might even raise its rank.

People might think that holy-demonic light should be stronger than only holy or demonic light.

But if one can get access to both, it will be easier to control both powers and condense them. I will have to find a way around it later.

Thankfully, the system was pretty detailed about it, and I could even feel Clarice's smugness oozing out, but she was still staying awfully quiet for some reason.

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Ravel Phoenix's POV

"Did he eat his meal?" I asked the maid who went to retrieve the utensils from my third elder brother's room quite a while ago, as I stand in front of his room's door right now. But why did it take so long?

"U-umm... Yes, Oujou-sama," replied the maid, her breath quite uneven and her clothes somewhat disheveled as she tried to quickly fix herself upon seeing me standing there with the empty utensils in her hand.

"Why do you look like that? Are you feeling unwell?" I asked, concerned, as she had been serving our house for quite a long time, probably even before my or Riser nii-sama's birth.

"No, I'm alright. Just a bit tired, if anything. Thanks for your concern. I will take my leave," she says with a smile as she leaves hurriedly.

I could see some watery fluids in the place where she was standing before, and even smell some fishy, pungent scents wafting in the air when she opened the door.

But before I could examine anything, another maid came quickly, wiping the place clean and entering the room with other cleaning agents.

What was that? My, 6-year-old, young self had not yet developed enough to understand it back then.

I returned to my room dejectedly, feeling frustrated that I still wasn't able to meet with my brother, as he was still cooped up in his room and refused to meet any other family members.

My father, mother, and even my two brothers, who are always busy and mostly away from home for a long time, tried talking to him.

But he didn't budge from his stance and refused anyone entry except for the occasional maids and his Queen, Yubelluna.

He wasn't at fault, so my parents and brothers let him take his time.

It all started a few months ago when my father brought up the topic of engaging him with Rias Gremory.

Before then, my brother had never paid her much attention.

But after the talks, and as he had previously seen her at various parties and functions, he easily agreed to the idea.

Nii-sama was so happy and excited for their first official meeting after finalizing their marriage contract.

But that Rias Gremory ruined it all. She publicly humiliated my brother. Now he's a laughingstock among the nobles.

For what?

Because he was trying to be more accommodating to her?

For trying to suggest a better, more comfortable, and simpler place where they could relax and talk, instead of that fancy and luxurious restaurant with many nobles present, trying to make her less nervous for their first meeting?

He only tried to make her less nervous and be more considerate, but this is how she repaid him.

He planned so much for her that day. But it was all ruined. My brother was so heartbroken and deeply ashamed.

I have never seen him make a face like that before.

My father and mother were furious.

But the Gremory Clan Head and my father seemed to have worked it out, due to their long-time friendship.

But that girl, who was the cause of all of this, didn't even have the decency to come apologize herself and even had the nerve to say that she would never apologize.

I will never forgive her for hurting my family and tarnishing our reputation!

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Cleria Belial's POV

"Come on. Do it! How long are you going to prolong and delay it?" says an annoyed Rangiku, sitting beside me.

"I am doing it, okay? Just don't rush me so much! I will send the message when I am free!" I replied.

She has been pestering me a lot these days, saying some unthinkable stuff. I might not know much about love, but just thinking about him all day, fantasizing about him, or having my heart race just by thinking about him doesn't mean that I LOVE HIM!

It's only because of Rangiku's unbelievable words that I have become much more conscious of this.

Now she has been pestering me to message him for a meeting. It's actually been a while since we last met.

It wouldn't hurt to meet my savior and try to repay him more.

NOTHING ELSE!

It's not like I have any other ulterior motives.

NONE at all.

I believe the others would also like to meet him again, especially Navirose; she was quite eager to fight him.

"Do it right now, in front of me. I don't believe you will have the courage to do it later," says Rangiku, blandly.

Her words are making me even more conscious and uncomfortable.

I've been trying to write a message for the last 15 or so minutes. Writing and deleting, being formal and informal, starting with a casual hi-hello or asking about his family but it might seem too personal, etc.

So I just couldn't make up my mind on what to say or how to say it. This is all making me kind of dizzy.

"Give me your phone. I will do it for you if you can't," says Rangiku, trying to take hold of my phone from my hand.

"Just leave! I am busy and will do it later," I replied.

After bickering a bit, she left but didn't forget to remind me about setting up a meeting with him.

After she left, I took hold of my phone that I had left on the side after finishing some work. Somehow my heart's racing, and I can even hear my heart beating.

*thump* *thump*

[Hello, Akatsuki-san. I trust this message finds you well. It has been some time since our last correspondence, and I hope that life has been treating you kindly.

I am writing to propose a meeting at your earliest convenience. There are matters we would like to discuss, and it would be beneficial for us to gather and exchange thoughts in person. In particular, Navirose is eager to challenge you to a friendly sword fight, and we believe it would be an enjoyable opportunity for all of us to come together.

Please let me know when you are available, and we can arrange a suitable time and place for our meeting—looking forward to your response.

Sincerely yours, Cleria.]

Letting out a sigh of relief, I finally sent it. Do I sound desperate or too eager? Maybe I should have worded it differently!

*sigh*

It wasn't all that bad until I noticed the last line! My face burned as I stared blankly, trying to figure out how to unsend it. But to my horror, it was already sent!

Later on, Rangiku gave me an earful, saying she was telling me to ask for more of a private meeting between the two of us, like a D-DATE, making my mind almost blow up!

Asking for something like that is so shameful!

She wouldn't shut up no matter what and my mind was already occupied with something else! So I tuned her down.

[Author's Note: What did you think of the chapter? Feel free to share your thoughts (COMMENTS), leave a REVIEW, and even drop some power stones. Add it to your collection if you enjoyed it. I'm open to constructive critiques that help me improve and grow as a writer, so don't hesitate to provide feedback. Give me your opinions so that I can write better! Thank you for reading!

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Can you recall the sequence of events involving Cleria, Akeno, Koneko, Gasper/Valerie, Tobio Ikuse and Kiba? Do you remember which events occurred before the others? Let me know your thoughts!]