Chapter 25: 25
For Valerie's training, I had to do something special. The Grail was basically impossible to use without going insane, on account of the sheer information overload users experienced. So I used the Bond to filter out unnecessary information. This, combined with a spell designed by the Mage that acted as a magical search engine, let Valerie practice with her Sacred Gear without worry.
The Sephiroth Graal turned out to be completely OP, to no one's surprise. It gave Valerie an instinctual understanding of life, death, and souls, which allowed her to excel in magic that manipulated the body or spirit.
"Ok, look at me while using Sephiroth Graal, and tell me what you see." I requested.
Valerie took a deep breath, and three golden chalices appeared floating in a triangle in front of her. Valerie herself was immune to the holy aura of the Grail, but I wasn't yet. Since she was connected to me in multiple ways, the holy aura didn't burn as much as it should have. Still, that was the first thing I would ask her to fix when she had some measure of control over her powers.
Valerie's eyes glowed white as she looked at my soul through the Grail. She took a couple seconds to process what she was seeing. Through the Bond, I was receiving an abridged report of the data the Grail was filtering. The report used feelings, symbols, and even smells in some places instead of words to describe the data. So far, everything seemed to be working. Valerie didn't seem to be in distress, or overwhelmed by the soul sight.
"Your soul is kind of a big mass of potential. It doesn't actually look that different from a human soul, just sort of slanted somehow. Like it's leaning away from the concept of light. I can still see the primordial human heritage from Lilith, but it's almost corrupted by what I can only assume was the original Lucifer. And there's a unique connection to something base and conceptual. Chaos?" Valerie said.
I nodded. That was all somewhat expected. Devils were originally born from Lilith's blood, and she was the original woman, even if some considered her a demon for leaving Adam and the Garden of Eden. Devils weren't inherently evil, but they were certainly changed to a certain extent by Lucifer. And the connection to the Warp was expected. I still wasn't sure how Chaos worked in this realm, but I assumed it was a force of nature similar to Light or Infinity.
"Anything else? Look deeper."
"There's… a hint of… divinity? And dragon? But they're intertwined, like they both come from the same source. And… hang on…"
I could feel the Grail interact with my soul. Some switch was flipped, some spark ignited, some unseen chain released my soul. Something more roared to life as my soul manifested. Ghostly golden flames surrounded my body. O…K… Apparently Sephiroth Graal was even more OP than I thought. I was pretty sure Valerie just unlocked my Aura.
"Oh! Oh! I didn't mean to do that! I'm so sorry, Taylor. Does it hurt?" Valerie covered her mouth with her hands. Her concern that her instinctive actions had hurt me was plain to see.
I laughed, "I've never felt better! It's like some unknown binding on my soul was just broken. I'm gonna have to ask you to do that for everyone, including yourself."
"I…" Valerie spaced out as her eyes glowed once more. According to the Bond, she was learning what she just did from the Grail. "I just manifested your soul. Those flames are the power and strength of your very being. The Grail says it's an ability that everyone with a soul can use."
"So… yeah, everyone's getting this," I said. "Think you can do it again to the others?"
Valerie nodded hesitantly, "I should be able to. The Grail makes soul manipulation second nature to me. Awakening your Aura didn't even take much energy. It was like it wanted to be awakened and I just had to stoke the flames a bit."
"Ok, good. Next, I want you to try and summon the soul of someone and see if you can use their soul energy to permanently buff yourself and me. Search for someone unrepentantly evil, like Hitler or something, so we don't have to worry about pesky moral concerns."
Valerie's eyes glowed briefly before she shook her head, "I can't summon Hitler's soul. He's still alive. And contracted to another devil, as well, if I read that correctly."
"Huh. I guess I should have expected that. Hitler did survive way too many assassination attempts for it to just be luck. Try someone else. Stalin maybe?"
"Same deal. Though I think Stalin was dead at some point, his contractor must have reincarnated him as a devil."
"You're telling me that, somewhere, some devil has fucking Stalin in their peerage," I asked, incredulously.
Valerie nodded, giggling at my disbelief.
"Ok, fuck it. Give me a second to edit the search engine spell. I'll add a morality scale criteria, and that will make this whole process easier." I said.
Let's see, use Asia as an example of a good person, and let the spell matrix extrapolate a 'good' side of the moral scale. Pol Pot will work for the 'evil' side, can't really think of something more evil than literally tearing babies apart. Adding some rules for rape, murder, etc. should also help the spell matrix develop a profile of what makes someone 'evil'. I was steadfastly ignoring where I would probably fall on the scale. I wasn't 'evil', according to the spell matrix, but some of my actions were definitely dark gray.
"Ok, try now."
Valerie's eyes did the glowy thing, and a ghostly form appeared in front of us. The spirit was male, and dressed in an old-timey monk robe. He had that stupid looking bald bowlcut hairstyle that medieval monks liked to rock.
"What'd he do?" I asked.
"Accused a woman of being a witch after he raped her and she resisted. She was then burned at the stake." Valerie said, cold steely determination underlying her voice.
I nodded, "Yup, that would do it."
Valerie started draining the spirit. The three Grails started rotating in a triangle in front of her. Each one filled with a different liquid as the monk was drained. The ghost let out a haunting shriek and lunged at Valerie.
"Sephiroth Graal: Shield Barrier"
The spirit hit the wall of spirit energy Valerie had suddenly erected. The barrier easily held against the swiftly weakening spirit. Add one more reason for the Grail being OP onto the pile. She could basically use Kido spells.
The spirit finally faded into spirit particles with a whimper. Valerie let her barrier fall, and grabbed two of the floating chalices of Sephiroth Graal. She handed one to me, and kept the other. The cups were full of purified liquid spirit energy. It was somehow more clear than water, and yet shone with power.
Valerie drank deeply from hers. I followed her lead, ignoring the burning pain from holding one of big G's relics. I'd have to have Valerie remove our weakness to holy before anyone else got buffed. Asia would probably love this though.
A comfortable heat followed the liquid down my throat and settled in my stomach. It radiated out from my core, suffusing every ounce of my being. I felt more sturdy after drinking from the Grail. I couldn't quite describe the power increase other than the fact that my soul felt more robust.
"One last thing before we wrap this up for the day. Can you remove weaknesses with the Grail?" I asked.
"Oh yes, that's actually very simple. Let me show you."
Valerie took one of the Grails in her hands. The cup turned slightly transparent, and she dipped it into my chest. She gathered something in the cup, skimming the top of my soul of a fundamental imperfection. When she pulled away, the Grail contained a dark, swirling mass that seemed to absorb light.
The holy aura of the Grail became a comforting warmth instead of the burning light that it was before. The dark mass drained into the base of the cup, absorbed by the Grail for energy.
"Perfect," I said, satisfied. "I want you to do that for everyone else, as well, but you can take your time with that. As long as it's done by the end of the camp, I'll be happy."
"Of course, Taylor. Should I work on buffing everyone at the same time?" Valerie asked.
I nodded, "Yeah, awaken their Auras and have them drink from the Grail after you've removed their holy weaknesses."
Valerie dismissed Sephiroth Graal, and instantly slumped to the ground. I caught her tired form just in time.
"Goodness, I didn't realize that took so much out of me," she said. "While the Grail was active, it felt like I had so much energy."
"Let's get you inside. You'll have to be careful of backlash like this in the future."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone