It Started With Devils & Artefacts

Once I was back at the Sitri Estate I immediately pulled out my laptop. My laptop was another gadget which I made in preparation for my trip to Japan.

Just like my PC, the laptop parts are extremely easy to change and replace. It was fully designed to be easily upgradable.

With my laptop in hand, I walked over to the knocked out brown-haired teen.

Pulling out several magic readers that looked like what doctors use in hospitals to read a person's heartbeat.

I wrapped them around his left hand, then connected them to my laptop, I then put my hand on him as I started sending some magic into him.

Finding Boosted Gear and making it physically visible. For some, it's quite hard. For others, not so much… All one needs is to find the 'switch'.

Moments later, in a burst of red, the twice critical form appeared on his left hand.

"It doesn't look like Boosted Gear…" Serafall said from the side as she was observing it all.

"That's because the core of the gear is still asleep. Ddraig is what makes Boosted Gear the Boosted Gear. Otherwise, it's nothing more than a Twice Critical." I simply told her, as white circles started to appear around the pervert's hand.

Seeing all that I immediately started operating my laptop, starting the Gearscanner.exe. Seconds later a window appeared and the magic circles started spinning. A progress bar for the scan appeared on the screen.

Once the scan started I leaned back into the Victorian era couch and simply waited for the basic scan result.

[Scan Completed]

[Sacred Gear Boosted Gear scan complete!]

[Scan uploaded to Aurora Network]

[Do you wish to read the Log?]

Without wasting any more time I pressed yes. I saw the 3d image of Boosted Gear and its core, Ddraig. The scan has fully scanned the dragon's signature and its energy readings.

Meaning that just from the readings alone, I could now start developing either dragons since they are beings of pure energy or start creating weapons to fight against them…

Finding out how energy got consciousness will be an interesting side activity.

Nonetheless, the dragon's soul at the moment was not interesting, what is interesting though, is the data Boosted Gear has collected over the centuries.

The moment I pressed on it, my laptop lagged for a second. The amount of information it had was astounding even for me. When I started reading, I realised that all of Boosted Gear's previous hosts had left a small bit of themselves after their death.

Basically, it's like a cache of an app or something like that. According to the logs, the admin of the system should be cleaning it after each cycle. But since the Admin… the Big G, kicked the bucket, no one could maintain the gears at their proper condition.

Thus the cache continued to pile up, eventually starting to affect the gear itself. Since the gear is directly linked to the host's emotional level it can also affect it fundamentally…

"If this was any less sturdy then Boosted Gear should by this point crumble and turn into dust…but instead, it started mutating…" I explained to Serafall since I knew she was waiting for an explanation.

"What do you mean?" The black-haired devil lady asked with bated breath, she is super focused now that we were researching one of the Longinus.

"The Boosted Gear is full of the remnants of previous hosts. It reached to the point where the gear started mutating, unlocking something classified as [Juggernaut Drive] by the system. It's something that should not be possible and dangerous for the gear and it would most likely kill the host. It's quite simply tapping into Ddraig's power without any restraints. No human should be able to do that without decades of training. There are logs stating that it has killed countless hosts over the past 2500 years." I explained to her as I showed her the, now sorted out, logs. Showing a host's name and reason of death being ERROR [JUGGERNAUT DRIVE].

"This… the gears are like miniatures computers or something?" She asked with confusion and lots of disbelief.

"In a sense. They are magical computers, yes. But… Boosted Gear...is extremely simple… it's like tinkering with the very first windows…" I answered honestly. Then again they were first created when humans were still playing around with clay and trying to figure out how to make bronze weapons.

*Snort*

"Tell that to Azazel who has been tinkering with them for the past 1000 or so years…" Serafall snorted at me with a cute pout as she crossed her arms and looked away.

"It's not my fault that he is cluelessly walking through a forest without the right direction…" I said with an eye roll before returning to the logs and digging deeper, finding the files related to the Balance Breaker… which is recorded as SYSTEM ERROR/// BUG/// WELSH DRAGON SCALE MAIL.

"Heh… it's amusing how everyone is praising the Scale mails and its power. Which in truth is recorded as nothing more than an error in the system." I pointed at the screen. By this point, Serafall had walked over and ended up sitting comfortably on my lap.

"So it's true then… Balance Breakers didn't exist when the Biblical God was around…" the black-haired devil lady said with wide eyes.

"No. Because they are spiritual level artefacts they get affected by the hosts raw emotions. Most of the time rage, on a lesser scale than willpower. For example, our Boosted Gear here has an 86% ratio of achieving Scale Mail through Anger and rage alone.

The other ones are the need for power or lust for more power." I explained to her while pointing at the statistics.

"This is incredible… the Boosted Gear is like an open book to you… could you… recreate it?" She asked that while thinking for a bit.

"I am already using what you all know as the Boost ability of the Welsh Dragon. It's in the Diamond Core Heart and Castor & Pollux." I said with an eye roll before checking out more on the scale mail… what I found is extremely disappointing.

"Well...this is primitive beyond belief. I thought the Scale Mails were a masterpiece worthy of studying. But this is basic. The dragon energy is spread throughout the whole body and is then crystallised as an armour. It's simple." I said with disgust.

"All I need to counter this is an Anti-dragon field. The crystallisation will fail, and the boost in energy will disappear, the Gear user will be naked after that. And that's just an Anti-dragon energy field. I could also just use anti-dragon magic and this Longinus user would simply be dead. Tell me Sera you call this God slayer worthy? It's nothing but the basics among basics. If Gods are this basics then… it's just sad." I said while shaking my head, I thought there was more. But this is just sad. If they are so reliant on a single thing like this, then I will abuse it, until they learn their lesson.

After my short outburst, Sera didn't say anything else. She knew that she was not so different as she was purely reliant on her demonic magic.

Still, there were some note-worthy stuff to look over. Specifically...Boosted Gear's Boost ability. 

Turns out it's not that mysterious after all…

"Heh… so to use it you just need to transform willpower into Magic," I said while having a thoughtful look.

"A perfect ability for an emotional being," I said to Sera. Who nodded back.

"Indeed. Dragons in general are very emotional beings. The pair of Heavenly Dragons were especially like that. At least that's what I have heard. They were killed way before my birth." Serafall added her own two bits.

I nodded at her before continuing to look for more. I do know that Ddraig had piercing ability. But none of the recent hosts had it, so I went to older logs…

"Hmm. The last Ddraig host to have the Pierce ability was around 1500 years ago. After that, there was a spell of the average host. Resulting in the ability being drowned in the remnants of the lost souls…" 

"Truly? I don't even remember Boosted Gear having such ability!" The current Leviathan exclaimed, from the looks of it she never knew the gear even had this ability.

"That's because the last host to have it was around 1500 years ago," I said simply.

"That's a long time ago even by our standards." 

"And the world started to move away from the supernatural as the supernatural started to hide. Meaning that there were fewer chances of Boosted Gear even awakening. 

The logs prove that. The period between awakening of the gear is getting wider and wider as time progresses. The world was simply a less dangerous place." I sorted out the files before focusing on the last host. Which didn't even have the scale mail.

"The last host was around the Napoleon wars…making it close to two hundred years ago. And the guy didn't even achieve the bug stage." I gave her an overall view from what I have read.

"Bug stage?" She asked with a confused and slightly amused look.

"The balance breaker is a bug stage which developed from the fact that no maintenance has been done to the Sacred Gears for the past two thousand years," I explained to the beauty as my fingers stroked her long hair.

"I thought it was because no one was sitting in the chair upstairs there?" She said while pointing her finger towards the sky.

"It's the same. The fact that the chair is empty and because no one can properly maintain the system." I said with a disappointed sigh. Pity that the dude is dead. He would have made a good friend to chat over stuff with. I can assume that his art would have been much better after so many years have passed.

"You sound disappointed."

"Of course. I lost an interesting individual to chat with. I bet his gears would have been much better if he was around." I said honestly to her.

"...Only you could see the Biblical God as a chat buddy…" Serafall said while shaking her head in disbelief, the beauty in my arms simply couldn't believe it. 

"Possibly. Anyway… time for me to run some maintenance for the gear." I said  while starting to run some diagnostics for the gear.

"...What are you going to do?" Serafall asked with a slight amount of concern.

"I will run some maintenance and clear the cache. You wouldn't want him to achieve Juggernaut drive simply because Gremory or your little sister refuses to show their boobs or something worse now would you?" I said in an obvious tone.

"He... could do that? I mean achieving Juggernaut Drive just because of that!?" The beauty on my lap said with a slight bit of trepidation.

"There are close to a hundred remnants of angry hosts… especially because of the rivalry between those two heavenly dragons. It's even worse since this perverts drive is extra powerful for… breasts he could easily achieve both Balance Breaker and Juggernaut Drive.

So I won't risk something like Juggernaut drive in an area where my tests are being run." I sharply explained to her.

"...Yes, it will be better this way…" Serafall nodded with a slightly paler look. It seems she has started to understand the issue of this.

With a few clicks of my mouse, the Boosted Gear was now clean. And the maintenance fixed the issues in the system. 

Now. It was safe. There won't be any wacky nonsense of this brat getting power-ups from something ridiculous like poking breasts or just being lust-driven to achieving Balance Breaker.

Still though… I will be keeping my eye on this idiot.

The dragon factor is quite fascinating. And I have a living test subject, not just readings on the data I have collected.

"All done, you can take him back to this house," I said to her.

"Okay… but, where does he live?" She asked the obvious…

"Take my Aurora Glasses." I handed over a case with glasses inside.

"They work in Kuoh?" Serafall asked curiously as she took them.

"Yes. The Internet is a thing you know." I said with a shrug.

"...You are using the internet?"

"More like hijacking it, the firewalls are very primitive," I said with a smile. Remembering all the hacks and wild goose chases…

"I don't even want to figure out how many laws you broke with that…" Serafall said  while shaking her head and getting up from my lap.

"A devil thinking about human laws? Well, that's new…" 

She rolled her eyes at me.

"I don't care about them. But, it's you who broke them, so that's why I care." She said that simply but honestly.

Trying to earn her brownie points along the way. As expected from my cute and sexy not-so-magical-girl Sera.

"I see… anyways…let me first disconnect this guy before you send him on his way…" Skipping the conversation about me breaking the law and I got up from my couch instead and walked over to the pervert's side removing the scanners and recalling the Sacred Gear back into his body.

"On a different note, Master… Can you recreate the Boosted Gear?" Serafall asked me as she was about to teleport away.

"Recreate? I can't recreate Ddraig. Not yet. But, make something better? Quite easily. My M.T.M is already superior to Ddraig for the simple reason that he has a limited amount of energy while my M.T.M can generate indefinitely. Both Boost and Pierce can be easily replicated. I could even tamper with Transfer.

There are many ways to make this better Sera. You forget that this gear was created close to 3000 years ago. They were not created to improve like the Juggernaut Drive or Balance Breaker Scale Mail. People in a sense are slowly breaking these toys. And since they are not receiving maintenance I won't be surprised if the stronger gears with beings sealed inside start to explode or break apart to some level." I said with a shrug.

"I thought he made them impossible to break…"

"Such thing doesn't exist. The Sacred Gears are resilient because of the alchemical metal they were created with. Now that I scanned the Boosted Gear I will be able to recreate this adaptable metal. But, like I said, there is a breaking point to them.

100 or 1000? Or maybe 10000 years. the weight of those souls would have made the host go insane quite quickly unless the host decided to deal with the previous hosts themselves." I explained to her while getting back on my seat.

"So… either the remnants of the souls or gears themselves…"

"The Scale Mails were not supposed to exist. It's a bug. Each time an excessive amount of Dragon energy leaves the gear it can damage the Sacred Gear.

Simply put. Don't use artefacts that are not meant to be used in that way

Even here… " I showed her the logs.

"The Gear had to adapt to 1340 different cases of burst of energy. While it survived and will survive much more in future there is always a chance it might just… break." I explained to her.

"I see… this means that you could simply create a gear which can and is supposed to achieve a Balance Breaker instead of being a bug in the system." She said with an understanding nod.

"And could simply upgrade it later in the day too. While these… they can't be upgraded unless they are back in Heaven and are pulled out from the system and going through maintenance. The worst part of this is that the user still has to have good relations with the dragon inside of it." I added more, by this point Serafall understood what she wanted to understand and disappeared with the brown-haired pervert.

~~~~~~Later~~~~~~

Now that the holiday season was over I had no chance to hunt some stray devils.

Though I don't really mind. By that point, I was far too interested in the things I have recorded from the Boosted Gear.

Especially since I was back in my garage. With a much bigger screen. And Aurora which sorted everything out for me. I was able to dive into the data much easier.

First the metal. The metal of Boosted Gear is special. It's a fusion of Ddraig's energy and transmuted metal. Meaning that it's much more durable, and the history of it speaks for itself. But at the same time, it's extremely vulnerable to its weaknesses.

Anti-Dragon fused weapon with soul damage… could one-shot it or critically damage the structure. And worst case scenario, even destroy it permanently.

It's powerful but it's powerful towards specific things. 

Now that I know the method I can start creating my own version of Scale Mail. Only that mine won't be this primitive. All the Boosted Gear Scale Mail does is bypass the restrictions placed on the Boost and Ddraig leaks his energy around the host. Boosting overall performance of the host by 9~11 times depending on the host's body durability.

The armour itself has nothing special, it's simply the crystallisation of the draconic energy. There is no special magic in it. No special technology... nothing… Only Juggernaut Drive develops a Longinus Smasher which is also nothing more than the dispersal of excess energy the body has accumulated. A fail-safe to protect the gear.

That's why… I have to create this myself from the ground up, just like with my guns…

Minimising the logs from Boosted Gear, I went over to the folder named Projects and opened it. There were only two projects there… Project Diamond, and Project Aurora, other things like M.T.M or Barrier Rail are in separate folders under the name, Systems.

Project Diamond was a project way back before I had even created my PC so I had to backtrack it and type everything down after it was set.

This new one though… 

I need a name with some personal meaning… remembering all the mecha anime I watched… remembering the very first one…

I quickly went to my internet browser and checked if it exists in this world…

"Gundam...Seed…" Entering the name in the Google search bar and pressing enter I saw….it…

It is around… and I am in the period when Gundam 00 is still in the works…

"Well, this is going to be interesting…" I closed the internet browser and went back to my project, creating a new file and naming it Project Freedom.

After my favourite mech. Sounds ironic how I am the one enslaving devils but talking about freedom…

It can also simply be how the Scale mail, or a suit, or whatever it's going to end up as, will give one the 'freedom' to go where normal humans could never go.

After the project file was created I started in the designing stage. 

Quickly drawing Freedom Gundam. It was weird drawing a mech, I was quite used to drawing cars. But, I still drew a perfect copy of it. Funny how the last time I saw this anime was around 30 years ago. I should rewatch it in this timeline to see if they changed the plot in some way.

Nonetheless, once I got the front done, I drew the back of the mech. Then from the sides as well.

Once those were done I sent it to Aurora for 3D rendering. 

Turning around and looking at the mech appearing on the holographic display I went over putting on the design gloves and the stylus. It was time to make a drawing come to life….

First was the obvious. Making a human fit inside of it. Unlike the original Freedom, it won't be a 50-metre tall machine but instead around 3 to 2 metres tall.

So resizing it then putting a human inside was the next thing. Nothing too scientific. The only real issue was adjusting the suit to the world.

First the chest piece. The thrusters are to be discarded, The suit will run on magic, not uranium. Once the thrusters were gone.

I started working on the main power source. And for this, it will be a customised Diamond Core Heart, unlike the one.here in my hometown or Kuoh it won't be shaped properly like diamond, instead I am only going to have it look like a prism. To make up for the lessened durability I went with extra layers of protecting casing, after this was done Aurora did some basic rendering. Adding some basic systems and laying down the technology.

Next was the arms. Readjusting it for human physiology, and continuing with spreading the network of magic systems and technology like the servo motors for the elbows, for extra power of the limbs empowered by magic. It could generate even more power.

Then for the legs I simply repeated the same process with the arms. Moving on to the helmet. The design of Freedom is to remain. And instead, the inside of the helmet was adjusted to the human head. Adding an Aurora visor and making a full Holographic support display.

Once that was done… comes the hardest and most important part…

The energy wings…

Probably the most difficult part. As no matter what I came up with I ended up in failure.

Meaning another system needed to be created just for this.

'Heh… let's go with magic crystallisation for this…' 

After thinking about this I went over to the Boosted Gear logs and found this in Juggernaut Drive…

Tinkering for a bit. I created a basic circle for this….

Adding it to a handle. A basic M.T.M circle… and…

*Sound of Beam*

A blue lightsaber…

"Is that a lightsaber?" Serafall asked me as she heard the sound of a lightsaber.

"Nice right? Pity... that it has no force behind it." I swirled the blade like an amateur for a bit before showing how harmless it is…

"You could make a bunch of money if you were to sell these…" The older Devil said with a thoughtful look.

"Right… I am not sharing M.T.M with the whole world…" I said with a dull tone.

"... You could always replace it with something else…" She reasoned with me.

" I am sure magic crystallisation is not widespread either. I haven't heard anyone even using it." I said while turning off the lightsaber and returning to my PC table. Now that I can turn magic into energy wings I need to make it fly…

'That's quite simple actually…' 

After thinking of it for a bit, the energy wings will be channelling flight spells…

'Not only that… it can emit other spells… like Solomon's signature spell…' 

Adjusting the designs quickly and inputting specific changes, I pressed enter for Aurora to do the math to see if my ideas are feasible.

A few minutes later after spinning in my chair. And making Serafall pout at me again for ignoring her. The math and emulation was done…

[The design rendering is complete]

[The armour is possibility at: 99.97%]

'In other words, the current design is possible.' I thought seriously.

This means the rough design is done. Now for the real deal.

"It's done. The rough design is done." I said to the still pouting devil lady.

"Oh? Already!? But you have only been working on it for 2 months!"

"Isn't this like a large step forward? Tons of new systems! Making things come together…" Serafall walked over, Checking the computer screen.

Instead, I pressed the mouse button and dragged it into the Holographic display.

"You… I wanted to say this before… but, you just decided to make Gundams into a reality…" The Leviathan said while shaking her head and walking over to the holographic display.

"Heh… you know Gundam?" I asked her, thinking that she only knows magic girl stuff.

"I should be the one who is asking this. You never said you were into Japanese Anime in the first place!" She pouted hard on me.

"You could easily ask me to cosplay if you want, you know!" She said while taking a stance from Sailor Moon… yeah for some reason I remember those…

"Right… we can discuss that at a specific time."

"Sure thing~~~ as I said I can dress however you want~~~" She said that with a seductive wink before looking back at the armour.

"So… what are the specs?" She asked me while crossing her hands.

"The material it will be made with, is the very same one Big G used to make his gears. The M.T.M inside of it will continuously make the armour stronger. Making it indestructible in a sense.

While also being powered by a Diamond Core reactor. Meaning that I don't even need to use my magic in any sense."

Her eyes widened for a second before calming down.

"In a sense?"

"Indeed. The space inside is limited and there isn't much I can do to make it better." I said while putting my hand on my chin thinking for a bit.

"Meaning that G-Force or any outside elements can affect it."

"Magic circles or magic spells can't sort it?" She asked me with crossed arms.

"I will be using both tech and magic to fix those as much as possible. But I won't be flying to space or deep underwater with this. While, it will protect from extreme cold or heat. It does still have limited protection from extreme radiation.

"I will be using barrier magic in future though. At this moment this is nothing more than a Mark I. So as to have some data to work on when I am making the next model." I explained to her while looking at the holographic display of Freedom Mark I.

Even when this is not done I am already having extra ideas for future models.

But for now, I need to make this into reality first before I can add those new ideas.

~~~

I wasn't just working on my scale mail. When I was resting I would occasionally check on how the girls were doing in Kuoh…

And as expected of Sona, she progressed with her powers and also progressed with her peerage, the girl regularly trains with her peerage.

While Rias? Aurora showed me that she improved… 0% since I had installed Diamond Core Heart.

The only peerage member who improved on their own was her Knight the blonde kid with the swords Sacred Gear.

The devil girl played the regular school student, did her devil contracts and spent time watching anime and indulging herself in modern human society…

When she has a marriage hanging on her head…

'Right… that's the wisest thing to do…' I deadpanned after going through the data. She constantly talked with her Queen about the marriage… but she never did anything… didn't try to look for new members even with the Diamond Core Heart.

In truth, she did use the barriers a lot. But, that's mainly to satisfy her devil nature and observe humans…

Unlike Sona who did use the power to check if the people had gears or not.

After taking a deep breath I decided to show this to Venelana. Either she straightens her daughter out or the redhead won't be receiving any help from me in the future.

Before long the brown-haired devil lady was in front of me. Serafall and even Grayfia were there as well.

All of them were curious about my abrupt calling.

"So around 9 weeks have passed since I installed the Diamond Core Heart in Kuoh. As you all know I have been monitoring everything that has been going on there.

Including the pair of Devil heiresses living there." That moment Serafall and Venelana stiffed for a bit.

Seeing how serious I was, they assumed the worst…

"Here is the report on their progress…" I pulled out two tablets and placed them on the table. On the screens there were a pair of pictures, one was of Sona and the other one was of Rias. And next to it there was a percentage… 

Where as Sona improved by 7% overall, Rias was at a… 'respectable'...0%

"..."

"..."

"As you can see Venelana your daughter has done nothing over the past two months. She has not trained her peerage which overall has a higher potential than Sitri heiress'. Neither has she trained herself. In truth, the only thing she did of worth was her homework. Which I no doubt will help her immensely with her marriage problem…" I said with a very sarcastic tone. Which made her blush from shame of her daughter.

"So, to fix this you will talk with her. And remind her that she is under a devil contract with me. And as a contractor, I am disappointed in her. This disappointment can lead to the point where she will lose any help from me in the future.

I do not need people who just use my invention to peep on people constantly and watch what they are doing." 

The brown-haired devil lady nodded seriously multiple times as she was fighting back her shame.

"I understand I will talk with her as soon as possible. Please give her another chance!"

"We will see. I suggest you go and talk with her now. It's morning in Japan at the moment." I said to her as I looked at the clock on the computer screen.

~~~~~~Venelana~~~~~~

The Lady Gremory was furious with her daughter. She has positioned her in the perfect place. To receive attention from a Genius inventor like her Master.

The only thing her daughter needed to do was show some motivation to get stronger! She saw what Sona did in the report. The girl did basic things and it was enough for Marcus.

All she needed to do was not be lazy! Especially when there was the arranged marriage coming up and her Master wanted to see how Rias will deal with this issue!

What all she did was... nothing! Even if she doesn't know what to do, you could at least spend some time practising your family magic! Like Sona does!

That's why she was infuriated by all this! Especially for getting scolded instead of her lazy daughter's place!

Without wasting any time Venelana teleported directly into Rias 'office'.

"M-Mother!? What happened, why are you here!?" Rias asked with disbelief and complete shock. She did not expect her mother would come to the human world like this!

"We need to talk, Rias. We need to talk about your laziness for which I was scolded by Leviathan herself…" Venelana said with a pissed off look.

Rias gulped down seeing her mother like this….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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