Beyond Critical - Chapter 10.2 (Patreon)

Hmm…

Honestly, despite the stupid name of it, that was a really powerful Sacred Gear. Not exactly a Longinus, but it was still amazing. And really, those other ones he brought up weren't anything to sneeze at either.

But, there was one Sacred Gear he'd love to get his hands on or have someone close to him have. Because increased combat power was all well and good, but this one thing he really lacked.

"What about Twilight Healing?" Kaito asked, "Do you have one of those?"

"Nope," Azazel shrugged and dashed his hopes immediately, "Those are one of the rarest Sacred Gears outside of Longinus, pretty sure pops only made two of em and the only one I know with em' right now just got reincarnated as a devil."

Well….there went that idea. And of course the only healing sacred gear he knew of, that was super rare, almost as rare as a Longinus apparently, would end up with that perverted clown.

Maybe that idiot was so lack luster in everything, because all of his potential, looks and intelligence got dumped into his luck.

Well, he supposed there was nothing to be disappointed about considering he was still being offered a choice from a bunch of Sacred Gears regardless.

"I'll take the one you made then." Kaito decided. Weighing the pros and cons, the sheer speed increase from it, if he gave it to Irina, would be amazing. During the fight with Satanael, she was just as fast, if not faster than him even with his magatama, Touki and twin boosts enhancing him

And honestly, the speed increase would be incredibly helpful assuming they ever ran into something they didn't stand a chance against and running away was their only option.

"Oh?" Azazel grinned, "That's fine with me, actually I'm glad even. Any chance I can get you to let me test her out with it after she's got used to it then?"

There he went assuming he'd give it to Irina again. Though, it was the most obvious choice for sure and the one he was leaning to. But she'd still have to accept it.

"Sure," Kaito agreed, before smirking, evilly, "But Irina's time is precious, she bakes my protein cakes after all. You'll have to make it worth our time."

"Eesh, what a money grubber!" Azazel grumbled, but didn't say no.

….Hey now that he thought about it. Swindling money for doing shit for these supernatural twits sure would be lucrative for him, wouldn't it?

"Whatever, we can come back to this later," Azazel sighed, "Instead, let's get the serious business out of the way. You're the one who killed Satanael right? What happened there?"

If the fact he didn't contend his words about Satanael insulting his artificial Sacred Gears wasn't proof enough that Azazel hadn't been watching the fight, then this did.

"I mean, it was pretty straight forward," Kaito shrugged, "I went full go from the start and rushed him alongside Irina, took him by surprise with how weakened he was and tossed him around a bit, then he pulled Arondight out of his ass and decided to copy the flames in his wound and try and take us out."

"Oh, so he copied Tobio's flames huh? That was a smart move." Azazel mused, stroking his chin.

And name dropping the holder of Canis Lykaon so casually. Was he expecting Kaito to react to it?

Well, no matter, "He did almost kill me then if not for Irina blocking him, though we still got hit pretty bad in the process," he continued, "That was when he started boasting at first and let it drop that God is dead just to rub it in a little more to Irina."

That made Azazel wince, "I figured he'd done something like that considering the girl stuck around and nobody has come for those swords you two have yet, still, dick move man," he shook his head, "Poor girl, though not that I can really blame Michael too much, the system pops left behind is already bugging out and faith is important to it, they can't let any potential risks hang around."

"It's still a stupid move." Kaito snorted.

"Not denying it, but I'd take stupid over everything failing, might have been the tiniest possible risk at all she'd spread it, but the it was there." Azazel shrugged.

"Whatever," Kaito shrugged back, "Either way, while he was doing that I decided to turn my organs into that of a dragons with the energy in my Twice Critical an-"

"Wait, wait, wait, you did what?" Azazel stopped him right there, "Like I know that's possible and all, but usually a dragon would have to do it for you, I mean the Evil Piece system the devils have was based on this ability of the dragons you know, but there ain't any dragons in the Twice Critical's, I know, I've checked, pops only crafted them from the flesh of the Red Dragon Emperor after we all teamed up to beat him and the Vanishing Dragon."

"You all?" Kaito raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, those two were crazy man," Azazel literally shivered, "I'm telling you. Me, all my boys, Baraqiel, Kokabiel, Satanael, the works. The four original Satans, the four new ones, Michael, Gabriel, hell all of the Arch Angels, tens of thousands of our united troops and even Pops himself. Bringing those two crazy dragons down was a horror show for sure and they decimated our armies."

…Fucking hell. He knew Ddraig and Albion were stupid powerful, but he hadn't realised it had taken all of those powerhouses to bring them down.

He took a second to digest it, before continuing from where he left off, "Anyway, there ain't a dragon in them, but there is energy left over from the Welsh Dragon," Kaito explained, "I'd already discovered it a while back but didn't really want to go through with it for a while, but Satanael forced me to. So I got a power up, which was multiplied because of the Twice Critical's and it was enough for me to kick his ass and overwhelm him."

"Hmm, I suppose that's possible," Azazel nodded, "Checks out at least."

"Yeah well anyway, just as I was about to kill him, he decided fuck it all and stopped using his light to stop the flames hurting him and decided to take me out with him," Kaito continued, deciding not to mention the Evil Pieces, "Luckily, I'd made him drop Arondight when I was beating his ass like he owed me money, so I grabbed it, managed to take him by surprise and stab him through the heart with it and kill him."

"Hmm…." Azazel stared at him seriously, and for a moment Kaito thought he may have been about to call out his withheld information, "…Well that was anti-climactic. Damn, Satanael didn't go out with a bang but a wimper huh? Poor guy, that probably stung that ego of his something fierce."

In return, Kaito shrugged.

"Well, it was going to happen either way, kind of funny though he got taken out by a kid with such a common Sacred Gear though considering his ambition and all," Azazel chuckled lightly before sighing and sobering, "What about his body? I couldn't find it when I checked out the place you fought, did you destroy it?"

In reply, Kaito held up his left hand and summoned his second Twice Critical, "I stored it in here," he replied, "You want it back?" it wasn't like he needed it, but he might be able to get a decent other payment for handing it-

"Actually, you should keep it in there." Azazel cut him off, a gleam in his eyes.

"…Why?" Kaito couldn't help but ask, giving the man a blank stare. The only reason he hadn't gotten rid of the corpse already, was because regardless of him being dead it, it might have been worth a pretty penny to someone.

"Hmm, did you know that adding outside sources of power to a Sacred Gear can make them evolve and change?" Azazel informed, "You said there was energy from the Welsh Dragon in those Twice Critical's right? Why not feed that corpse to the energy in one of them and see what happens?"

He did know about that actually. It was just….it was too stupidly convenient to work that easily so he figured he was missing something.

"If it was that easy, Sacred Gears would evolve all the time." Kaito replied dryly.

"Well sure, it depends on the Sacred Gear itself and the user," Azazel pointed out, "Like not to brag kid, but when we winged type folk made by pops hit ten wings, we get pretty damn strong. Ultimate-Class strong actually, and Twice Critical are nowhere near that level alone. With that kind of power difference, it should be well enough to trigger an evolution into a Sub-Species for you at the very least. It’s not exactly something that most can get their hands on all that easily, Ultimate-class is kind of a big deal."

…Huh.

"I'll look into it later." Kaito replied.

Preferably back in his home, after Irina had reinforced the barrier she had put around his home with her holy power so nobody could feel what was going on inside.

"Boo, do it now kid, don't be lame!" Azazel in return, heckled him, "It's the least you could do since I told you about it and let you keep Satanael's corpse, he is my brother ya' know!"

"And you're so broke up about it." Kaito rolled his eyes.

"I'll have you know I was really sad when I found out you killed my poor little brother," Azazel huffed, "I even a shed a tear."

This guy was such a ham. Was this guy the original troll or something?

But, if he thought about it logically. Attempting something like this, would be better done under the supervision of Azazel right? Since he was y'know the big expert on Sacred Gears.

"Fine," Kaito rolled his eyes, "But put up a barrier or something would you? I don't want the devils sensing it and bothering me even more."

Azazel gave him a weird look, "Kid…I put up a barrier ages ago, why do you think nobody has been around but us?" he replied, "Hell, I thought you wandered over this way because you saw the barrier."

Kaito froze.

Azazel grinned, "Wait, are you telling me you didn't notice? How could you not sense something so blatant while inside it?" he began laughing, "Your sensing abilities suck kid!"

"Eat shit." Kaito replied in a very mature fashion.

Instead of waiting for the leader of the Fallen Angel's reply, Kaito focused on the Twice Critical on his left hand and within just a few seconds, his consciousness retreated from the physical world into the core of his being.

His soul.

He appeared in a familiar void, twin dragons of energy lazily flying through the sky above him.

…Actually could it even be considered a sky, since it was just…upwards in his soul?

Questions for later. He didn't know jack about this screwy soul shit right now after all.

He focused on the energy dragon that was part of his second Twice Critical and willed it to land.

It stopped in its tracks and did just that, flying straight down to land before him. And while it did, Kaito focused on the storage space of his newest Sacred Gear and what he wanted.

The naked corpse of Satanael appeared at his feet, handsome even in death.

And totally butt naked. Well, bar a pair of designer Egyptian silk boxers. The only piece of clothing Kaito hadn't yoinked off of him for himself.

"Eat." Kaito commanded simply.

The dragon of crimson red energy rose up, its maw opening wide as it bent over and promptly swallowed the Cadre's corpse.

It was kind of bizarre to watch as the energy dragon swallowed Satanael whole. yet, because it was energy and partially see through, he was could literally see as Satanael slipped inside it and slithered down in the bottom of its stomach area.

…And just hung there, suspended in the energy.

He stared at it for a few seconds.

Nothing happened.

"Fucking Azazel, he's full of shit." Kaito scoffed, rolling his eyes.

And then the corpse erupted into a bright blinding light and Kaito had to hastily turn away to shield his eyes.

The last Kaito saw of it, was the light expanding inside the energy dragon, moulding into it and both swelling upwards and outwards.

His eyes stayed closed for a few seconds, and he could feel…something running through him.

When he finally did open his eyes. It was to find the corpse and energy dragon completely gone. Only one remained. flying lazily through the sky.

"…What the fuck." Kaito uttered blankly, absently bringing up his left hand to run it through his hair.

Only to pause when he saw the bare skin of his arm.

His gauntlet was gone.

His eyes widened, "What the fuck where is-" he spun around in a bit of a panic, only to feel something on his back as he did. He looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened at what he saw.

Huge metallic black and gold wings stood proudly erupting from his back.

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Ignore the second gauntlet for now. I couldn't make one with only one gauntlet sadly.