“Relax I have something special for you after we finish this.” said Zero with a smirk

“I bet you’re just saying that because you forgot about the rest of us.” said Yoko

“No, I didn’t and I haven’t even given their true gift yet.” said Zero as he produced 6 white lights that flew towards Azalea, Dahlia, and Nova.

The lights split and 2 flew to each person. When Azalea and Dahlia grabbed theirs, the light change from white to black like the night with skeleton faces appearing and disappearing randomly and red turning viscous like that of blood with the ladies getting 1 of each color. Nova’s lights also transformed with 1 turning green looking as if it were made of leaves and the other became whiter almost clear and ethereal. The new colored lights then entered into their bodies and merged into their souls.

“What was that papa?” asked Nova

“When I made my disks, I asked the system to forge armor and weapon for each of you using Yoko’s as a template.” answered Zero

“Did you also make one for yourself master?” asked Azalea

“No, I didn’t feel the urgency for myself at the time since I can make anything out of shadows. Even my current clothes are made out of shadows. However, it requires my own mana to repair my clothing but these armors are able to directly absorb mana from the air to repair themselves. They're also self-cleaning and can transform into any outfit or armor.” explained Zero

“That’s a handy ability.” said Dahlia

“Yes, and seeing how it allowed Hikaru to fight an archon has changed my mind and I plan to forge one for myself.” said Zero

“This will definitely help.” said Azalea

“Yes, so now the real reason I called you is to let you know what I want you that you’ll be fighting alongside me. Yoko and I will be very busy during this battle so I plan to have Hikaru be in charge and direct us.” said Zero as he smiled and looked in Hikaru’s direction.

“What?” said Hikaru and the twin goddesses

“As I said I plan to have Hikaru act as a general and observe our battle from here and give instruction and suggestions in real-time.” said Zero further explaining the plan.

“But I’m not sure I’ll be that helpful in a situation like this.” said Hikaru in hopes of making Zero try to change his mind.

Zero walked over to Hikaru and placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Hikaru I truly believe that your input will be a big help to us however, this doesn’t mean that you should force yourself to do this. If you believe you can’t do this then you don’t have to. Just know that I trust you.”

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Hikaru felt Zero’s trust in her and nodded while saying, “I’ll do it. I don’t know if I can help but I’ll do my best.”

“Good that matter’s been settled so I’ll go see Valna and Soma now.” said Zero as he raise his hand to open a spatial portal but nothing happened. “Ah, right my mana’s still being used to heal me so I still can’t do any of the big stuff. Although even at full power I probably still could break through this barrier. Yoko be a dear and open a portal for me please.”

Yoko sighed and opened a portal allowing Zero walked through. Zero appeared in the Hakuba Shrine to find Mina firing basic water and wind arrows at Valna who was in the air dodging with ease. When they notice Zero exiting the portal Mina stopped the magic attacks and Valna landed next to Zero.

“How did you heal so fast?” asked a surprised Valna but Zero refused to answer and placed his finger on his lips silently telling her to keep it a secret.

“Heal what does she mean? I hope you weren’t doing something dangerous Zero.” admonished Mina

“Relax Mina she just meant that I used a large amount of mana making something and she’s surprised I have enough to open spatial tears. Right Valna?” explained Zero

Valna looked at Zero and nodded deciding to back his story, “Yes the amount of mana he used would normally not regenerate so fast.”

“I still don’t so Mrs. Belnades opened the portal for me.” said Zero

“Mrs. Belnades? Who’s that?” asked Valna

“Mrs. Yoko Belnades opened a portal so that I could come here and give you this.” said Zero as he flicked his finger and 2 white lights emerged from his shadow.

The light flew straight at Valna at an incredible speed and entered her body. It flew so fast no one noticed that the white light changed and took a flame-like appearance before merging with Valna.

“What was that?” asked Valna

“That was a special weapon and armor that I made for you. It’ll normally stay in your soul when unused but you can summon it whenever you want. It has other functions but I’ll explain those later since you just need to know that you have a weapon and armor available to you. Your equipment has 1 ability…” explained Zero

Valna thought about a weapon a spear appeared out of thin and fell into her hands. She looked at the weapon and started to give it a practice swing and few trusts to test the spear. Still not used to the spear's ability Valna accidentally activated its unique ability and a flaming spear appeared and shot in the direction of Valna thrust and fired at Zero. Zero still unable to access his mana simply activated his vampiric power to turn into mist and the spear passed through him. The spear impaled a tree and set it ablaze.

“As I was about to explain your weapon and armor have 1 ability each and their sentient so you can communicate with it and learn about them. It looks like you just found out your spears ability.” explained Zero

Finishing up with Valna who had stopped swinging her spear and was trying to figure out what that ability was Zero turned and walked over to Soma’s group that had stood to the side.

“Hi guys how have you been.” asked Zero

Mina walked up to Zero before anyone could answer and started saying, “Zero! Where on earth did you disappear to? Do you know how worried you made us?”

“Sorry about that when you guys exited the castle Yaldabaoth descended and cast a barrier over the castle making it difficult to exit. I was only able to come here because Sophia’s currently fighting Yaldabaoth weakening his barrier.” said Zero

“So, does it look like she’ll come after us?” asked Alucard

“Yes. What's wrong with you? Why are your eyes red?” questioned Zero as he looked at Alucard.

“N…nothing don’t worry about it.” said Alucard as he turned and walked away.

“What’s his deal?” asked Zero

“He’s just embarrassed. So, what did Yaldabaoth look like?” asked Soma

“Like a disgusting fusion of a lion and lizard. I can’t believe Sophia created that; she really has no taste whatsoever.” said Zero as he turned to head into the temple.

“Where are you going?” asked Soma

“Just grabbing something I hid in the house.” said Zero

Zero walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge and found 3 blood bags. Zero had placed these here in case he needed some emergency healing after escaping the castle. Zero grabbed the bags and began draining the blood. With each bag, he drained Zero felt his strength returning a little and his natural regeneration speeding up.

‘I should be good enough now to forge those items.’

Zero exited the Hakuba shrine and saw Mina and Valna back to practicing magic. Zero walked over to Soma and said, “I have to take care of something I’ll be back in 10 minutes.”

“You know whenever you say that either something bad happens or you end up taking longer than you promised.” said Soma

“Relax I really mean it this time. I’ll come back with some help but I need you to do me a favor when Sophia comes I need you to create a barrier to fight or we’ll destroy the nearby city.” said Zero

“Don’t worry about that I already thought of it so I had Alucard help me create a magical circle. There’s an area inside the castle called the chaos realm it’s very large and spacious. This spell will create a similar space to that here.” explained Soma

“Okay thanks, Soma.” said Zero as he and Soma bumped fists as they did when they were still students. Zero then walked to the area where he first appeared and a blue portal opened up in front of him.