Chapter 2: Chapter 2
"Fascinating. Truly fascinating." Azazel said as he admired the information he managed to obtain from Yuki's body. He had never seen an energy quite like that one, it was entirely different than any other he had ever seen but it had a striking similarity to something he was interested into already.
Sacred Gears.
The similarities were great for those who knew where to look and Azazel certainly knew. Sacred Gears centered on putting the spirit of another being into it and connecting the instrument to the soul of the user, granting them a specific skill for use. This power, however, did not depend on other spirits.
It was, for the lack of better words, the manifestation of Yuki's own soul into a physical form and with the ability to interact with the world at large. The discovery of such a thing was enough to make Azazel want to jump in joy and do a happy dance as this could be just the breakthrough he wanted to create his own artificial sacred gear.
The mere thought of what he could accomplish if he could study it deeper was enough for Azazel to imagine the many ways he would be able to even imagine before. He might even go beyond his father's best work in the Longinus!
"Hey, I did what you asked so can you help me with what I asked or not?" Yuki said a bit annoyed on the side, the six years old boy now sitting upright as he looked at Azazel who had almost forgotten the boy was even there by now.
"Oh, right. I almost have forgotten that for a second." Azazel said sheepishly. "So, let me sum up what you knows. You have memories of what might have been a previous life and in those memories, you had information over how to awaken this-"
"Spirit Power, yes." Yuki said and he had to shake his head as he spoke in a whisper to himself. "I guess having a thunder spirit now made me a bit more explosive than I would have liked."
"What do you mean with that exactly?" Azazel asked in wonder, everything he had found out from the kid was simply far too interesting and every information opened all sorts of new possibilities for him.
"I mean that a spirit usually has something that relates to the person as it is the representation of one's soul. If one has an Earth-related spirit it is likely that they will have a very stable personality while if they have a poison-related on then the person is likely quite vengeful and likely plotting. In my case, in this previous life, I had the Ice Phoenix and I was quite aloof and emotionless, especially after becoming stronger, but now with this other spirit, my personality became much more explosive than before."
"Interesting, quite interesting. We will need to roll some exams on it later." Azazel said, his mind working a mile per hour already and Yuki nodded.
"Sure, but let's return to the matter at hand."
"Oh, right. Almost forgot that for a second there." He said before coughing in his hand and continuing. "Amongst the information you had is the method to train it which involves being surrounded by the element for a better training environment, which is not a problem seeing as we have many places we can modify for your needs, and that the power of your spirit rises until level 100 where you become-"
"A God, yes." He said easily, making Azazel feel his eyes twitch. The thought of a human ascending to become a God was enough to make Azazel more than just a bit worried. If it was just one person then it shouldn't be a problem but if many humans developed that power and started to become Gods things could become quite complicated very fast.
"Anyway, every 10 ranks is a natural barrier and to break through it you must obtain Spirit Rings which are obtained in the slaying of an enemy."
"That is correct." Yuki said. "And I believe any supernatural being should work with what I sense around me right now." And it was true, the energy he now could sense in Azazel and every fallen angel around had some similarities with that of Spirit Beasts in his eyes.
"Understood. So, you want me to help you in taking someone who is still weak so you can kill him or her, correct?" Azazel said clinically, not bothered with the talk of killing someone.
"Yes, I will put spirit rings in only one of my spirits for now since putting them on the other spirits later would grant better results." He said and Azazel nodded.
"I understand, and have you decided which one you intend to focus on for now?" Azazel asked, interested in the answer.
"Yes, I intend to focus on the Ice Phoenix spirit." He said and Azazel nodded. His reasoning for this choice was quite simple, he was more used with the Ice Phoenix, having the memories of his past life to guide him. If he were to try and cultivate with the Raijin (the lightning spirit) it would be decidedly different and he could not hope to wield his sword spirit until he was older due to it's sheer size.
With that Azazel went to take a look amongst the list of people in the dungeons that were waiting for execution. As someone who was in command of a strong force and with many territories he had many people and creatures captured, mostly stray devils or the random mish-mash of mixed blood individuals that went high on power and tried to do something stupid. There were many, many of those out there and many were killed on the spot but some were simply captured to be used as test subjects.
Azazel may be a chill guy for most but those who forget he was a leader during a civil war and survived when the Gods and the Satans perished while maintaining most of his fighting force intact was foolish. He was a capable leader who knew when to be soft and when to be cruel, for him to use captured stray devils for his research was nothing much and that was also how he developed the technology for the removal of sacred gears.
Looking over the list he selected a few of those with the right element and presented them to him.
Looking them over Yuki examined each of them until arriving at a more interesting one. It was a stray devil that once was an Ice Spider descendant, a species known for their control over ice and able to release threads that could freeze those captured in them. It was a good enough fit and she was only at Mid-class level. Yuki was not yet sure how well the spirit rings obtained would be like but it was as good a chance as any for him to test it and even if this one failed there were still many others he could use.
Seeing the choice Azazel pulled the number and requested for someone to bring this one over. It was five minutes later that Azazel and Yuki arrived in a more open space and Yuki could see the stray devil getting closer. It was a woman with sickly pale skin and blue lips but her expression was anything but pretty, her face being terrible to behold and a large scar on her face from one lip to the other, her lower limbs being replaced by that of a spider and six dots could be seen in her forehead. She wanted to scream and attack them but she was being held down by the guards and she had a gag in her mouth.
"So, do you need to do anything special or just, you know, kill her and be done with it?" Azazel asked, the scientist in him shinning through.
"In all honesty, I could simply kill it and be done with it, but there is a way to do this that will get the best results possible." Yuki explained, making Azazel interested. Seeing the interest Yuki explained. "It is to torture the person, make it so that she carries as much rancor and anger towards me as possible. That would make it so that the power of the spirit ring is as strong as possible."
"Cruel." Azazel said and Yuki just looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"Please, as if that means that much. On my dreams, I have seen and done much more than just that and from just a glance I can tell that this one is not of a good sort. I can tell, clear as day, that this one has killed and enjoyed it. Besides, I never said I was a good person." Yuki said before he started it. His indiferent expression as he opened his wings of the Ice Phoenix being clear to see as a freezing cold air could be sensed by all.
The stray devil, however, felt it much worse. It felt a dread infinitely worse than anyone could understand as the aura of the Ice Phoenix covered it. Birds restrain spiders naturally just as Yuki's ice was the ultimate nemesis of all other forms of ice.
Yuki was about to start the torture when he saw the state this one was already in and just shook his head. There was no point to even doing anything to it, it was already terrified enough without him needing to do anything.
Anti-climatic really.
Taking a dagger on the side he slipped it into the woman's neck and slit it, the blood flowing out as she dropped to the ground. A few seconds later a yellow ring came out and Yuki started the absorption process.
It, too, was surprisingly smooth since his spirit completely suppressed that of this Stray Devil. Azazel was having a field day as he examined the process closely, noting the similarities with some of his interpretations regarding the creation of Sacred Gears and some of the information being enough to make him want to scream in joy. This was simply too amazing, too great, he was getting more out of this than he would get from an entire year of research, easily.
By the time Yuki finished it he could feel his power rising and he began to consolidate his energy when he noticed something strange.
"Huh?" He began to try some more and this time his lips quirked a bit in happiness and expectation. "Azazel, show me the list again. I believe I not only have Innate Full Spirit Power but my rank upon getting my first ring is 20. Then, let us go one more time, shall we?" He said and Azazel had a wish to laugh, two chances to examine this process and compare the results, look for differences in them and search for them. Oh, this day was getting better and better.
///---///
After having everything settles Yuki could leave Azazel's lab and go to the residence he was assigned to. He honestly wanted to stay with the family he knew, it was one of the few things that could make him be Yuki Himejima and not the Ice Phoenix Douluo, but he could not really complain now seeing that in this place he felt that he needed to emulate more of that old self of his.
He was on a strange place, surrounded by people he knew nothing about whatsoever. He could not risk acting like a child when so many possible threats were around and many likely would like nothing more than to kill him.
Moving to his quarters he had to raise an eyebrow seeing that his room had a plaque saying 'Yuki's Room' on top and the room on his side had a similar plaque that said 'Azazel's love room, ladies only ;)', seeing this Yuki could realize that this was going to be an interesting next few years.
Entering his room he saw it was quite plain, without much to speak off. A bed, a table, some chairs, and nothing much else. What made him tilt his head to the side was the fact that, on his bed, a sleeping Akeno was already there. With amusement coloring his eyes Yuki went to bad and laid down, almost instinctively Akeno clung to him in her usual manner.
She probably was feeling lonely and came to his room to talk to him, but could not stay awake as it was quite late so she just slept there. It was endearing to him, to see this girl be like that. In his previous life he lived a life of complete isolation, disdaining any contact with other people and being distant to all others. However, in this life, he was not the same. He no longer was alone nor wanted to be alone, strange as it may be for himself to think that.
Holding on to Akeno's body he could remember clearly how many stronger people were out there, heck in this very building there were many strong people already. If that was so then he had to be better, he would become strong enough to protect anyone he wishes to, he would do that for sure. However, if only for now, he would simply sleep. His body was not yet ready to replace sleep with cultivation and he was quite sleepy right now.
Closing his eyes he did not dream of his past life, he dreamt of simply playing with Akeno, of cooking with Shuri, and of playing chess with Baraquiel (and winning).
It was a good night.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone