Interlude: The Sisters Try Something New

Jess

The forge was a wonderful place, and today was no different. I was alone within its confines though, since Jane was accompanying Mark as their secretary today. We decided to keep a rotation so that one of us would always be by their side, it just happened to be Jane's turn today. That being said, I discovered that the sacred gears of this world that Yahweh created were attempts at recreating what a growth item was that Jane, Mark, and I created.

He did an amazing job, but made something that had different materials entirely, and functioned differently. There were a few differences between the two, a growth item continued to help the user grow in power from the moment it is soulbound, and doesn't actually have a limit, removing any limit on the user's potential. It also eventually develops a soul, some faster than others, one that is aligned with the user.

Sacred gears however, while attached to the soul, needed to be unlocked before they could be used. A holder of a sacred gear could go their entire life without unlocking it if they didn't encounter the supernatural. The benefit of sacred gears would be the constant mutations through sub-species, and balance breakers. Also some of which have what is known as a 'Juggernaut Drive'. The last user of Divide apparently won their bout with the Boosted gear user by utilizing it first. Although it took out all of their lifeforce in trade for their power.

The biggest difference between the two was the fact that Sacred gears already had souls at the start, and growth items didn't. Also, because of the way growth items are, they could easily surpass most sacred gears given time. Right now I had a sacred gear in front of me, twilight healing. I discovered a disgusting fact about many of the sacred gears, especially this one. Yahweh had massacred a large population of many different species in their thirst to create these with their souls.

Growth items did utilize powerful catalysts most of the time from various beings. But didn't require their souls, but rather a part of them. Whether it be their unique magic signature in the case of Kuroko's necklace, or just powerful materials. Like an unprocessed phoenix tear from a powerful phoenix. Or perhaps a branch from a world tree. That's neither here nor there though.

Yahweh seemed to have kept the fact that all sacred gears have souls, instead of just some of them, away from every faction except our own. Take Twilight healing for example, it has the soul of a Pixie. Their race seemed to have gone extinct, but now I know why. If I reported this fact to Mark, they may disrupt their own plans to destroy most of the angelic faction. It wouldn't be good if that was done though. So I would need to report it while reminding them about their plans for the future. Also to make sure that they were the golem goddess and not god.

What was crazy for me when I discovered this information, was the fact that while Yahweh was a master at soul manipulation and creation. It seemed like it was just specialized to the beings of the biblical factions, excluding devils. The more I find out about the biblical god, the more I realize that they make the devils and fallen look like babies in comparison. Of course the devils still trading in souls for power was annoying, I knew that they would stop that once they had a civil war.

But if they didn't? I'm sure that they could be convinced otherwise. Forcibly if necessary. Obtaining twilight healing wasn't really all that difficult to be honest, the user of this gear had no idea they had it, and since Mark was able to just create souls, they could also manipulate them to the extreme. So they safely removed the gear from the user, the user being more interesting than the gear. They were a half human, half devil that gained the sacred gear.

They were abandoned by their devil father due to them not caring about their existence, and their mother passed away more recently due to being killed by some exorcist hunting down a 'demonic abomination'. So we took the boy in and decided to train him, personally. He was young, only ten years old, and his name was Ash. He was currently sitting on a bench nearby as I was disassembling the sacred gear.

"Miss Jess, may I know what you are doing with the sacred gear? I know you all explained to me a bit about what they are and all, but I was curious as to what you wanted to do with it."

"Boy, don't you know curiosity killed the cat?" He actually gained a somewhat fearful look after I said that, but didn't back down and kept staring in my direction.

"I am sure that it has killed many cats, and other beings alike. But I couldn't help but be curious since that was attached to my soul up until now." Ah, yeah that makes a bit of sense. Of course, the boy didn't feel a thing when it was taken out, he was awake during the process and was surprised when he saw it.

"Well, if you must know. Once I dismantle this thing, I was going to try and create something that combines what is exclusive to our faction called growth items, and a sacred gear, so I could see what happens." The boy didn't fully understand what I said, but he did understand the implications of it since his eyes almost bulged out.

"Wouldn't it be dangerous to try something like that?"

"It would, it's why by the time it's dismantled, my two partners, Jane, and our creator the golem goddess would be finished with their current work, and would assist me." The boy still looked worried for me, and even pouted. It was pretty cute to see.

Jane

Doing secretary work was not necessarily a thankless job since I'm thanked for it almost every night by Mark. In more ways than one. It is, however, a necessary thing to do considering just the amount of things that they are researching. Every time we go on an anime binge, there is some kind of absurd power system that Mark does research on in order to implement them here.

Considering the hundreds of folders and files that Mark created, I tend to be the one to organize it all. Otherwise, our children wouldn't be able to decipher things properly. It was like trying to decipher multiple languages at once since Mark took notes in many different languages on the off chance that somehow an outside force obtains their files. Not that that would ever happen considering how secure the servers are.

"I really hate paperwork. Even if it's digital, having to do paperwork is tiresome." It was funny to hear that the only thing Mark tends to complain about is having to do that.

"It tends to come with being a leader of a faction. Let alone an entire race. Cope and Seethe Mark." I giggled as he deadpans at me when I said that.

"I swear, playing cod and introducing memes to all of you may have been some of the worst decisions of my life. Internet culture is one thing that I need to make sure isn't introduced to the rest of the world until at least the 21st century. If not later, if I can help it. The internet was a mistake." Mark continued to type away, going through several documents from the various agents within the golem race.

"Just lock in Mark. All you gotta do is lock in and you will be able to get through it with no problems." They groaned as they leaned into their seat. I took the opportunity to massage their shoulders as they continue to work.

"Jane I swear I will make sure that you can't walk for the rest of the day if you keep this up!" I felt a shiver down my spine, and managed to purr when I saw the expression they were giving me.

"Maybe that's exactly what I want you to do. It has been a few days since we both have been pretty busy~" I rested my chest on their head and lowered my hands a bit further while massaging them.

"Down you insatiable vixen. I need to finish so we can help Jess with their latest project." I fake pout a bit, but relent and let go for a bit to move towards the door.

"Then you better hurry up and finish so I can help you finish~" As I walked out the door, I made sure to slowly shift my hips and tantalize them even further. Dear Goddess I needed a good fucking.

Jess

Mark and Jane came along to the forge after a good amount of time. I had disassembled the sacred gear, had the soul within a container, and the parts beside the forge. We needed to create a growth item that would synergize well with the sacred gear in order for this to possibly work. Therefore, I was happy to see that Jane and Mark brought along a few feathers and tears from our resident golden phoenix.

"Is that what I think it is Jess?" Mark motioned towards the soul that was in the container. I took a deep breath, before speaking up.

"Sadly it is. It's the soul of a fairy. I figured out why they were extinct when I took this out. Before you get upset though, do keep in mind your future plans and what will happen if you decide to disrupt them." I looked in Mark's direction, but their rage did not appear like I expected.

"To be honest, I figured that something like this would be a thing. Since the goal of the leader of the biblical faction was to mimic our growth weapons, they had to compensate somewhere. It looks like they just became a soul stealer. If they didn't do this, I doubt there would be so many sacred gears out there. What's done is done, the only thing we can do is try to prevent new ones from being created in the same capacity after the great war." I smiled at Mark as they moved beside me with Jane to start working on the item.

"Since sacred gears require souls, I could create a soul for this, but make it a blank slate since growth weapons tend to create souls themselves. I will use this fairy soul as a way to revive the fairy race through golems." Jane's eyes widened at that statement, and I had a similar reaction. Fairies were an interesting species based on what I could gleam, they were wish granters in some books, and expert healers in others.

After that, with me at the center point, Mark and Jane by my sides supporting me, we got to work on attempting to combine a sacred gear and a growth item.

Jane

It took us several attempts to make what we were attempting. Each attempt was relatively…Explosive when we failed. Thankfully we are able to keep the materials themselves safe so we could try multiple times. It wasn't until the tenth attempt that we had a functional prototype of what would be a Growth Gear, better name pending.

The item itself floated in front of us with a dark green glow, it was in the shape of two earrings weirdly enough. They flew over to the boy Ash and melded with him right away. He reminded me a lot of Circi. Quiet, serious, but very curious.

Unknown amount of time ago

I spotted Circi in the living room staring at her tablet. The girl has been at it non-stop and has yet to take any breaks since the last time Mark dragged her off to watch anime.

"Circi, I thought I asked you to take a break from your research." Circi jumped, and turned around like she saw a ghost. It was funny to watch the girl show so much emotion for once.

"But Mom, I have found further research into the possibility of a magic alternative to cultivation! It's vastly important to our future growth." She looked at me with a determined and serious look, but I wasn't having it today.

"Not today you aren't, nor are you for the next few days. You have gone long enough without taking some type of break. You are coming with me to watch the solo leveling anime whether you want to or not. Kuroko has already agreed to do so, so there is no escaping it." Of all the reactions she could have given me, I wasn't expecting a pout. It was adorable. I pulled her cheeks and dragged her along to the mini theater we had near Mark's room.

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Sup Peeps! Here is that interlude that I did a poll for on another place! Let me know if you want to see more of them about other characters of the series. Perhaps I should detail the magical adventures of best girl Levi? Who knows what will be in the future. Regardless though, there will be a full chapter sometime this weekend, I just figured I would drop this. I'm getting back into my grove and let me tell you it feels good.

I am fueled by spite and community support, so if ya want to, please comment/review.

Outside of that, check out P.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m/Oshimura (I am currently restructuring it atm, will be fully restructured at the end of this week.)

K.o.f.i: k.o-fi..c.o.m/oshimura

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Also if you see any spelling errors be sure to let me know! I'll fix them up since I don't have an editor.

Thank you for reading and hope to see yall next chapter!