CHAPTER 339: ANGELS AND THEIR CREATION

"..." After giving my class at the gym, I came to the church to see Lucius, and as expected, he welcomed me without any issues.

"So Pandora, what brings you here?" He asks, offering me a cup of tea as we sit down in his office. He has an amused smile on his face as I observe the colors of his emotions.

’Yellow, cyan, and silver... It means he’s content, doubtful, and attentive to me... It’s much better than the colors from a few months ago.’ I can never make the cyan disappear from him.

He always has that color, as if he’s always suspicious of me, even though we’ve now gained a certain degree of friendship. I guess overcoming his paranoia is difficult, and he’s very good at pretending that everything is completely normal.

"Lucius, I came to talk about a topic that I think interests both of us," I say to him, not drinking what he offered. I want to be brief about this.

"And what would that be?" He questions.

"I want to talk about the monsters you’re creating in the basement of the church, the ones that used to be human..." I say, and his colors immediately change.

"... That’s a rather... bold statement, but I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about," he says, as if that’s enough for me to stop bringing up the subject.

"Don’t worry so much, Lucius. I’m not here to condemn your actions. In fact, I’m interested in helping," I say, and he seems shocked.

"..."

"Hmm, how much do you know?" He asks, wanting to be sure of how much I know so that he doesn’t end up saying too much.

"I don’t know? Maybe I know more than you’d like," I say, making it clear that I won’t reveal how much information I actually have.

"You’re clever, I suppose you take after your father? Grand Duke Veritus is quite intelligent when it comes to hiding things... Anyway, how could you help me?" He questions, no longer hiding his hand.

"I’ve received a divine revelation, and I think I can help resolve the flaw in the creation of your angels," I truly want to help him create angels. There’s a mistake that Lucius isn’t calculating.

The demon king has the ability to control monsters, and the [Angels] are fundamentally a type of neutral monster, which means I can command them by force as long as they don’t have power equivalent to mine, which is easy. After all, there’s no way mere elemental spirits can surpass me in power right now.

"..." Lucius seems to be thinking.

"You want to help with the creation of angels? That’s... interesting. You possess a great affinity for holy magic and have already proven to be quite blessed..." He appears to be weighing his options.

"Pandora, why would you help the church? The Grand Duchy doesn’t have much to gain, even if the angel project is completed. All the credit for the angels will go to the church, even with your help, and that won’t change much," he questions, thinking I want some kind of increase in authority.

"I don’t care about that. In fact, you don’t even need to reveal that I helped in their perfection," I say, leaving him more confused.

"... What do you want to do?"

"Nothing. My reason for helping is much simpler. I think our enemies need more than just to be defeated. They need to be humiliated, crushed, to realize their inferiority."

"We must surpass our enemies in every possible way. I simply believe that, as someone who knows our enemies well, I should help however I can."

"..."

"How... benevolent of you," he says, while it seems he’s weighing the weight of this decision. If he lets me in on the project, he may reveal some very bad things for me, but if he doesn’t, he has no way of knowing what I’ll do.

"I... I think I can allow your participation in some areas. Your affinity for holy power is interesting, and it can help us a lot in solving some problems. But do you really want to participate, knowing you won’t literally gain anything from it?" He questions.

"Of course. We’re friends, so it’s natural to help each other. Besides, I’ll also gain something. I’ll be able to hear the cries of despair from our enemies in the future when they are shattered by the power of the angels," I say to him with a smile.

"... Hahahaha, I like the way you think. So, let’s see how the new generation can help with this," he says as he stands up from the table.

"Come with me. I’ll show you the first part. If you pass, I’ll give you access to the real thing. However, if you fail... I’m afraid I can’t accept your help, and I believe I’ll have to remove you from the church," he says with a smile.

"I believe my Goddess will give me all the support I need to pass this trial," I say to him, equally with a smile.

"It’s really great to see how you think. I wish Rosanline was like that too. She barely participates in the project, even though she has so much holy power," he says, as if it were lamentable, while opening a passage in the wall.

’I hadn’t noticed this... The magical security of this place is really bizarre.’ Even using my Mana, I could only find some of the few passages, but others remained hidden.

"Ah, yes, and Pandora, I recently went to see that demon... And I must say, your way of torturing her a few months ago was quite unique, a little profane, but strangely functional," he says, referring to Beta.

’It seems he finally noticed.’ Shogo left two plugs in Beta’s breasts that were full of milk, so now the milk must have become a problem to be solved, and he must have pulled the plug/adhesive from her chest and seen the shape.

"Could you tell me why you did that? And more precisely, how did you manage to overcome the resistance and regeneration of that demon?" He asks, genuinely interested only in how I overcame the resistance and regeneration.

"It’s potions," I tell him, and he seems momentarily surprised.

"Potions, you say..." He seems to be thinking about something and soon widens his eyes, as if he’s noticed something.

"How didn’t I think of that before? How brilliant! If we use potions, we can easily surpass natural magical defenses, depending on the type," he murmurs.

"I understand what you did. This can be a great advancement in the research on the angels. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone who can make quality potions. Perhaps we should contact the Mage’s Tower," he says, while I remember that this place still exists.

’Oh, yes, that place still exists, huh? It’s so isolated that I didn’t pay attention to it.’ This is one of the places where in the past, Elena said I shouldn’t go yet.

"Pandora, considering this, I don’t think you have any problems with us using people for tests, right? After all, it’s all for a prosperous future. Sacrifices are inevitable," he says with false sorrow.

"Of course, sacrifices for a greater good must always be made," I agree with a smile, while the secret passage reaches a fork, and he takes the left.

"Pandora, since you seem to be good with potions, what’s the best way to inject them into the angels?" He asks with genuine interest.

"It’s quite simple, Lucius. When someone drinks a potion, the effects are partially diluted, which doesn’t affect the original result much, but prevents it from having 100% of the real effect."

"The most efficient way is to inject the potion directly into the veins, in important areas like the chest near the heart, the back of the neck near the spine, and finally directly into the head," I tell him, and he seems to be thinking a bit.

"It makes sense. That would force the potion to show more direct results in the body, although in return..."

"It would overload the body more easily," I complete his assumption. Shogo injects his fluids for body modification directly into the body instead of just making the target drink, thanks to which I understood the best places to inject potions.

"Hmm, so this option, although it maximizes efficiency, can also be dangerous. It’s useful to know that," he says, while I decide to question.

"Lucius, since I’ve talked about potions with you, how about you tell me how exactly you discovered that humans can be turned into angels? That’s something that really intrigues me."

"Actually, it’s quite simple, Pandora. To convert humans into angels, we don’t use the body, but rather magic. The holy element is the bridge for this conversion," he says, and I think about it.

’Oh... it makes sense. If you ignore the different parts and focus on the common ones, both the humans used and the real angels have the holy element as something in common.’ Now it makes sense why all the chosen ones have a high affinity for holy power.

’I hate having to share my knowledge, but if it’s to gain his real trust, it’s worth it.’

"Lucius, I think I’ve already figured out where you’re failing in the creation of the angels," I say, and he freezes.

"... I see that you know a lot. If you can understand this after just hearing these few things, then tell me, what could be the mistake we’ve been making for decades?" He questions, not with mockery, but with genuine interest in my opinion. This is good, but unfortunately, it also means I have to give up knowledge that I learned through my own effort.

"After my research using demons, I discovered something interesting. When we manipulate a living being, it’s not enough to just alter its magic and use it as the basis for the new form."

"The body also needs to be suitable for what the new being is. It may seem obvious that the body will change along with the magic, but that’s wrong. The body doesn’t change, it deforms."

"The change has to be made manually, or the body will end up ’deformed’. I bet most of the angels either die or end up looking like non-human monsters, right? That’s because they were deformed."

I say to him, and he seems incredulous. He probably thought the flaw that made the angels look like humanoid monsters was something else.

"... This changes a lot of what we’ve researched. So... the way to create a complete change would be to use potions made with holy magic and the flesh of monsters with biological alteration capabilities, so that the potion can manually change the body’s form correctly!" He arrives at the answer on his own.

’I didn’t even need to mention the monsters... It seems the church is also experimenting with monsters if he was able to get the answer so quickly.’ Now Lucius seems euphoric, as if he’s found a scientific goldmine.

"Forget the test, Pandora. With this knowledge handed to me so readily, I clearly see how willing you are to help us. Rest assured, you will have a very high position in the research," he says with a smile on his face.

"I appreciate the offer and accept it. In the end, it’s all to make the world perfect by eliminating those inferior races," I say, and he nods.

"Yes, you understand. Finally, someone who truly understands. If you were my daughter, I’d give you half the church just for that. Our research will advance greatly now."

"Let’s go back and take the other path. I’ll show you the test area. Let’s see what other genius ideas the new generation can contribute to evolve our research," he says, returning the way we came.

’His emotional colors seem good, and the doubt has reduced...’ His mask crumbled for a moment, and I saw the madness that hides behind the façade of benevolence. He’s just a crazy religious fanatic, like Mikael said.

’It’s okay, sacrificing a bit of knowledge doesn’t matter.’ This is useful in many things, but if it’s to have him tell me the abilities of the heroes, it’s fine that I teach these things.