10 Chapter 10

-[Liam]-

Now that he was properly rested, he looked at his desk which held a jar in which a shrunken stray exorcist was detained.

The bastard had woken him up with his screaming so he'd cast a silencing charm to shut him up.

Looking at the tiny man who was struggling and futilely hitting his fists on the sides of the jar, he came to a decision.

'If I recall correctly, Freed was working with Valper and Kokabiel to start a war among the factions.' He thought, using mind magic to infiltrate the man's mind to pilfer his memories and secrets.

Freed was a disgusting person and his memories only attributed to that fact. 'Not that I'm one to talk.' Liam thought as he found what he needed.

"I guess it's time to go priest hunting." He said, watching Freed get a confused look on his face before it changed to one of shock.

Freed could only watch with an expression of shock as Liam put his palm which was coated in red energy on the jar. The next moment, there was a miniature burst of glass and blood as the jar and Freed burst apart.

Feeling the essence he gained, he took out the journal, going to the shop section only to heave a sigh of dissatisfaction. Freed had given him a decent amount but it wasn't up to what he wanted to acquire.

'No matter, it's only a matter of time.' He thought, shrinking the book once more and stuffing it into his pocket.

-[Sona]-

Absent again…

He was absent again!

As she ground her teeth in irritation, she vaguely heard Tsubaki appeal to her to calm down.

Saji, the pawn of her peerage, stood in the corner of the office, too afraid to even make the slightest move.

'I'll bury him with detention if I have to!' She raged, thinking about the boy who was causing her so much frustration.

-[Liam]-

While he was tempted to procrastinate a bit, he didn't want the information he had gotten from the stray exorcist to become useless.

Due to the need for urgency, he now found himself in front of an abandoned building which Kuoh seemed to have many of.

'For a town that has two 'kings', it's not exactly the most developed or efficient in some areas.' He thought as he walked in through the entrance.

'Homenum Revelio.' He thought, silently the human presence revealing charm.

It was an odd feeling as without any flashy display, the spell revealed there to be only one person in the building.

He was a bit worried about whether or not the spell would reveal those who weren't human, considering the fact that there were a lot of them in this world.

He didn't need to walk long until he found a room that was in much better shape than the entire building itself. It was more of a research lab than a room really.

In the center of the room was a short, bespectacled elderly priest with gray hair and a mustache.

"And who might you be?" The priest asked in confusion and a certain degree of wariness.

"You must be Valper Galilei if I'm not mistaken." Liam said instead of answering his question.

His eyes ran through the magic circles and books filled with magic circles that filled the room.

"Freed sends his regards." He added as he focused on the rapier-like sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade with a swirl-like pattern on the grip. It possessed a gold crossguard that resembled a pair of angel wings.

He immediately recognized the sword as one of the seven Excaliburs; Excalibur Nightmare.

The ex priest seemed to calm down a bit at the mention of Freed's name but he was still on guard.

"You're quite young. I don't believe he has mentioned you." Valper said, inching away from Liam, already sensing something wrong.

Unfortunately for him, before he could confirm or deny his suspicions, Liam was in front of him, his hand gripping the older man's throat as he lifted him into the air.

"W-who a-are…y-you..?" He managed to say.

"That's funny, he's told me everything about you. Well I wouldn't use the word 'told' really." Liam said as he once again used mind magic to penetrate the man's mind.

It had the makings of a mental defense but he was just terrible and easy to break through to get what he needed.

About a minute passed before his eyes narrowed as he released the priest to fall to the ground. A kick to the man's chest forced all the air out from his system as Liam walked to one of the tables.

"You know, personally I don't care about your little experiments but I just can't help myself when I see something I want." Liam said as he opened the drawer and fished out a bizarre diamond that was a dark shade of blue and indigo.

"How…do you know about that?" Valper demanded, struggling to get to his feet.

Liam didn't answer as he pushed the diamond into his own chest, a bright light shining as it was absorbed into him.

•••

[Artificial Holy Sword Wielder]

After taking in the Light Container, you have become an artificial Holy Sword user, being able to wield even powerful holy swords.

[Blade Blacksmith]

Blade Blacksmith has the ability to create numerous Holy Swords of different attributes and abilities according to the will of the wielders.

•••

'There it is.' He thought with a grin.

His main objective was the sacred gear that was hidden within the light container due to it containing the spirit of one of Kiba Yuuto's former friends.

There was the chance that the one he would find wouldn't have it but that was a risk he was willing to take.

"I'll be taking this as well." Liam said, grabbing Excalibur Nightmare on the table and examining it. "It'll make a nice souvenir."

Valper finally managed to get to his feet only for the holy sword to pierce him through his heart. "Y-you…!"

Before he could finish, the blade was twisted violently before ripping out of him, letting him fall to the floor and bleed to his death.

Satisfied with this, he teleported back into his library.

-[The Next Day]-

Classes passed by as boring as usual. With an A- in intelligence, it was a breeze for him. Sona was once again furious with him but that couldn't be any less important.

He was currently in the ORC building, lounging as the devils discussed a rather interesting event.

"Numerous people have been reported missing in the past week and the mystery around it is very disturbing." Rias told Kiba, Akeno and Koneko who sat in front of her.

"Missing people?" Kiba echoed in confusion at the rather strange topic for this meeting.

"I didn't know devils also played police. Can't the local cops take care of it?" Liam asked from his position on his conjured couch.

Akeno passed a few sheets of paper to Liam who examined it with interest.

They were pictures showing scenes with bloody floors and scratch marks in the area. One particular picture showed a hand in the puddle of blood.

"Normally we would leave it to them but these disappearances seem to have supernatural involvement. A normal human couldn't have done that." Rias explained what he already concluded.

"Still not seeing why this is our problem. Sona can take care of it, she needs something to do other than nagging me all day." Liam said, handing the papers back.

Kiba's eyes narrowed at his uncaring manner. "So you would just sit back and watch innocent people die? Disgusting." He whispered the last part under his breath.

Liam's eyes flicked to the blond knight. "Call me whatever you want. I don't care too much but it doesn't change what has already happened." He said, enjoying the anger he felt from Kiba.

Rias sighed in exasperation. "Liam, please stop riling Kiba up."

"The fallen angels moving around, could they be responsible for this?" Koneko asked quietly.

That seemed to put them in thought but it was quickly dispelled as Akeno answered. "I highly doubt that. This isn't their style."

"So we have a mystery murderer on the loose with no way of finding them. Quite the scenario, I always wanted to play detective." Liam said with a carefree smirk that seemed to piss off the only other male in the group.

"We have one lead." Rias said, getting their attention. "These killings all happened at night so we'll have to wait till then to catch whoever is responsible."

Liam could only watch in amusement as they made plans to catch and eliminate his creation, unaware that he was the one responsible.

-[Kokabiel]-

Standing in the building with the dead body of the former church researcher in front of him, Kokabiel had a frown on his face.

After the effort he took to steal one of the Excalibur fragments, it ended up with it getting stolen and one of the very few people who were useful dead.

Even the somewhat capable Freed was nowhere to be found. Crazy as the stray exorcist was, he was stronger than the average human exorcist.

With Valper dead, he could only assume that Freed was dead as well. His plan to incite war between the factions just took a few steps back.

He'd have to adjust his plans a bit but the general outline was still the same, gain the attention of the angel faction, build his army of loyal followers and eliminate the two heiresses in Kuoh which would pull the devils into the fray.

First, he'd find the worm who put a wrench in his plans.

-[Liam]-

Laying in bed awake, he thought about his actions so far. He knew that he was bound to get some unsavory attention, if he hadn't already done that.

Even with that, he couldn't bring himself to feel regret. Freedom, that's what he yearned for. To do that, he needed to be strong, strong enough to act without the fear of consequences.

He was a lucky case, he had many ways to get strong. 'But will it be enough?' He thought, summoning his journal to his hand to show him his progress with the branch of magic that he was working on as his ace in the hole.

•••

[Spatial Magic Mastery: Apprentice]

Through magical means, you can manipulate, control, distort, and bend space, the dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move.

•••

'It's still not enough.' He thought, closing the journal as his partner on the bed shifted.

Long black hair spread around as the busty Vice student president shifted closer to him, pressing her naked breasts against his body as she got more comfortable.

Space warped around his hand holding the journal, sucking the book into it.

'Storage space. At least I didn't need to buy a skill for it.' He thought, pulling Tsubaki to him as he allowed himself to sleep.