Chapter 12: Huginn and Muninn

Kuoh's supernatural inhabitants were getting more and more tense as they sensed the showdown that was approaching and Jun was also nearly ready with his preparations.

Jun and Ahsaka's plan was simple in concept, eve if not in execution. He knew he would be screwed if he tried to interfere in a way that would lead to contact with either party in the conflict as it was happening so he focused his efforts in getting something, after the battle was over and everyone had their guard down.

Jun's Akashic Throne could collect the souls of the dead and later, if he had the magical energy required to do so, make them into Nasuverse style Servants.

The pans was to collect the lovers' souls, thus earning their favor and later letting them be reborn as Servants to fight for him, even if he had to grant them some of their desires in return.

'I image bringing the two of them together again after death had torn them apart would earn me quite a bit of loyalty on their part.' Jun plotted.

To collect those souls however, Jun would normally need to be present of the battlefield which was a big no no for the current him, considering the level of said battlefield.

As such, he started to develop specialized familiars to collect the souls or at least guide them to him but while he could competently make regular familiars, these specialized types that were probably hard to make even for powerful magi. as the soul in not something to joke about.

He thus needed to study up and learn some more necessary knowledge.

Much like Jun had predicted, due to his Dragon's Wisdom, his mental abilities that had increased naturally allowed for his mental magecraft to improve as well. Thought Acceleration improved another rank and thanks to that, Mental Archive soon followed.

A little while later, Memory Partition did the same and this was a quaçitative change for the magecraft because it allowed Jun to finally make another "room" in his thoughts making his total number of rooms four.

Although the number of different problems Jun could simultaneously deal with only rose from 3 to 4, thanks to his ability to perform first order tetration on each of his rooms, the total number of though processes jumped from 27 to 256.

Thus, not only could Jun consider four problems at the same time, the amount of "processing power" he could attribute to each problem dramatically increased as well.

Also. since he was fully focused on his project and not on training at the moment, this accelerated his research to a monumental degree.

As a side note, despite the minimal training, Jun's Magic Resistance rose in ranks anyway but since even those with an extremely thin amount of draconic blood in them can get around A rank Magic Resistance, he wasn't to surprised since his had only reached B rank at the moment.

When it came to his research, it was mainly focused on magecraft of the imaginary numbers/hollow attribute. As for why he chose that to focus on, the reasons were several.

First, it was a magecraft whose effectiveness is extreme towards being with no physical bodies, which disembodied souls are.

Second, even against those with physical bodies, the effectiveness only drops and doesn't disappear and, the more steeped in mystery they are, the more effective the magecraft is so it would remain useful to Jun beyond this very specific task he currently had in mind.

Lastly, it gave one access to the Imaginary Number Space which could be used for various applications, including a storage space and who did not want a nice inventory magecraft. Not to mention travelling through time and space through it but that was only in the far future.

For now, Jun was content to create a spiritual familiar to capture the souls of the fallen lovers and bring them to him.

In the original series, there were two battles going on separately so he needed two familiars. Their form was unexpectedly important since taking the shape of a being with mythological connotations to death and the afterlife would definitely boost the familiars' abilities.

For mobility and symbolism, Jun chose a bird since they have always had such connotations in legend. Things like owls, vultures, ravens and crows often bore such meanings as guiding souls to the underworld and being pressages of death and misfortune.

Jun was planning on using runes to enhance his familiars so a bird that resonated with the culture would be best.

In the end, since it was going to be a pair of familiars and he was going to use runes made by the Ancient God Odin, Jun decided to base them on Odin's ravens, Huginn and Muninn, naming them as such, since names had true meaning and power in magecraft.

The end result were two purplish black see through blurry forms with the general profiles of raves and sporting glowing eyes.

'Good enough.' Jun thought as the newly born Huginn and Muninn seemingly vanished into nothingness.

'The stealth capacity that allows them to operate in a spiritual plan separate from the physical world, making them nearly impossible to detect seems to be working as intended.' He evaluated.

'Now, I just have to send these two to trail Yaegaki Masaomi and Cleria Belial and wait for the showdown to take place.' Jun said in his mind.

And so he did. For about a week, things remained normal, well, more tense but not yet exploding. The ravens crossed paths often as the Masaomi and Cleria met each other and whispered sweet nothing to each other and discussed the situation.

'Tch! Pansy!' Jun insulted, seeing the pair didn't went past holding each other and kissing.

'I know you're a believer but why save yourself until the marriage? You're dating a devil for Christ's sake! Hehe get it?" Jun internally chuckled at his own crappy joke.

'It seems that despite all the ecchi in Dxd, men are all herbivores past a certain point.' He shrugged.

'Now I'm kinda curious on how long Sirzechs and Grayfia were together before doing it. Don't tell me he waited centuries before tapping that or I'll lose all my faith in the sinfulness of devils.' Jun entertained himself with worthless thoughts.

But then, the day finally arrived and Jun observed with interest, after all, he could obtain data from opponents that, even if he wouldn't face in the future, he could use them as opponents in his highly accurate mental simulations.

As for the prime target for this, it was the leader of the Great King Faction's forces that came to eliminate Cleria, Zekram Bael.

The progenitor of the Bael clan and as such, the originator of the Power of Destruction that made Sirzechs famous, even though the latter's raw power is much higher.

Jun even granted his familiars several types of perception in order to better analyze the battle. But he was soon disappointed.

'That didn't take long . . .' Jun thought as he saw Cleria on her last legs.

Masaomi was still more or less fine but that was due to Touji still trying to convince him, Zekram had no such intentions and truly wanted to end Cleria due to the secrets she knew, as such, he was making quick work of her.

Cleria was powerful, more than Jun thought but still no match for the old devil and soon enough, his the Power of Destruction overwhelmed her Worthless, the ability of th Belial clan to nullify the abilities of people and items so long as they are understood.

The memones the female devil perished, Muninn swooped down and recovered her soul while maintaining himself in a plane of existence beyond the reach of the Power of Destruction.

'Looks like nobody noticed anything . . . Let's risk it.' Jun decided in the heat of the moment and collected the souls of a few of the devils from the Great King Faction that Cleria managed to kill.

'Success! Looks like I'll have some nice materials to work with . . .' He thought.

On the other side, Touji finally found his resolve and fought to kill.

'Touji-ojii-san . . . He's far better than I thought, at least high class being.' Jun evaluated.

Masaomi was not bad himself but to weak for his former leader but unlike Zekram, Touji didn't want to sacrifice any of his subordinates so the battle was a one on one, another reason Masaomi was still holding on.

Eventually though, Touji finished the job, praying for his subordinate's soul as Huginn swooped down to get it.

'Too bad there aren't any more souls to get here . . .' Jun lamented.

But then, things went wrong. When Huginn tried to collect the soul, a rejection happened and holy power damaged it significantly, even inflicting mental pain on Jun through their connection and pulling the raven out of the plane it hid in appearing before the exorcists.

"WHAT'S THAT?" One of them immediately shouted as the others took combat ready positions once again.

'SHIT!" Jun internally screamed as he controlled Huginn to immediately retreat into the spiritual plane and return, leaving the confused exorcists behind.

Still holding his head from the lingering pain, Jun asked himself.

"What the hell was that?"

'Let's see . . .' Jun thought as he pulled up his status.

*

Name: Haikami Jun

Race: Human/Dragon Hybrid

Gender: Male

Parameters:

    Strength: E- ->D

    Endurance: E- ->D

    Agility: E- ->D

    Mana: D->C+

    Luck: EX

    Magic Circuits/Core: EX

    Affinity: True Void

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Skills:

Scion of the Void (-/UEX)

Kalaripayattu (D)

Pankration (D)

Ascetic (E->B): Immunity to basic needs like hunger, thirst and sleep. Performance still drops when avoiding them for extended periods of time but the effects are light until the problem becomes life threatening.

Significant resistance to exposure. Immunity to pain and reduced mortality rate from injuries as well as the sustaining of battle ability in the case of injury equivalent to Battle Continuation (B). Also increases the users resistance to mental effects significantly.

Breathing and Walking (E)

Magic Resistance (E->C): Even at the initial state of integration, any who bears the traits of the Dragon Kind boasts powerful Magic Resistance.

At this rank, spells with chants below two verses are completely nullified and damage from more powerful spells is reduced but High Thaumaturgy and Greater Rituals cannot be defended against.

Dragon Kind Evolution (E): Rank will slowly increase over time as the integration approaches completion, thus allowing the user's power to slowly increase until it reaches the power of a legendary dragon. Grants several draconic attributes as the rank increases.

-Dragon Heart (E): Although truly of the EX rank it is currently in the early stages of development and thus unable to show such potential. The user's original talent and the high grade of the dragon's essence still make its performance superior to any Magic Circuits.

Can double the user's magical energy and generate more at a high pace if engaged at full power but doing so can drain the user's stamina until the Magic Core forcefully shuts down.

-Dragon's Aura (E): The user carries a draconic aura. At the E rank, it grants a small boost in power and possesses the ability to subdue beasts and even low grade Phantasmal Specieses. It also carries a certain charm towards the opposite sex.

-Dragon's Wisdom (E): Innate Knowledge of the wise Dragon Kind. At the E rank it grants one increased mental faculties, an easier grasp of any magecraft and an innate understanding of the Draconic Language which possesses inherent power similarly to runes.

-Draconic Enhancement (E): Continuously active, it slightly raises one's Parameters.

-Dragon Breath (E): A torrent of Magical Energy released by a Dragon, the strongest Phantasmal Species. It lacks an inherent element being pure destructive magical energy released as "heat".

The power is currently at its lowest rank but it can still blow apart reinforced buildings and kill Mid Class beings in a single shot.

Magecraft:

Reinforcement (B)

Magic Bullet (B)

Magic Burst (C)

Mental Archive (C)

Thought Acceleration (C)

Memory Partition (C)

Memory Manipulation (D)

Rune Magecraft (D)

*

The changes were staggering. Jun's race for starters and then the changes in his skill list brough as sub skills of the Dragon Kind Evolution Skill which would determine the progress of Jun's transformation in the future.

All of his Parameters jumped up, now reaching a solid C rank even without Reinforcement or Runes and due to the suffering induced by the change, Jun's Ascetic Skill jumped several ranks to B. His Magic Resistance was also upped significantly.

In his soul, at the place equivalent to the heart, all Magic Circuits now connected to a Magic Core with a far greater performance. Capable to producing magical energy at a fast rate. The quality was great but the integration was not yet perfect a such, it did not yet exhibit the true power of its rank.

Jun modified the trigger for the activation of his Magic Circuits to reflect this change. Now, by turning the key a second time, he can activate his Magic Core in addition to his normal Magic Circuits.

This resulted in the (+) modifier on his Mana Parameter, signifying that his Magical energy had the potential to double once the Magic Core was fully engaged.

Lastly, there were all the draconic abilities Jun received other than the Magic Core which was already mentioned.

Dragon's Aura and Dragon's Breath were pretty self explanatory and their descriptions were specific enough not to leave any doubts. Draconic Enhancement was slightly vager but the effects were easy to observe.

Without it, Jun's Parameters other than Mana would have stopped at D-, meaning that only with the support of magecraft would they reach the power of the D rank but, with Draconic Enhancement, they were instead firmly in the D rank.

Lastly, Dragon's Wisdom seemed pretty simple but Jun appreciated it quite a bit, not only would the understanding of Draconic Language allow him to perhaps develop hybrid rune or even just dragon magecraft but there was something else.

The enhancement of Jun's mental faculties would most definitely allow him to progress further and faster in the mental magecraft that was getting hard to improve and it was only at the E rank, being expected to rise in the future.

'Alright, this is much better than I was expecting, even though the process may be slow, it is much more thorough that something like Sigurd's Dragon Kind Modification.'

'Now, I should go to my training field and get used to these new abilities.' Jun decided and so he did.

After a few hours of practice, he more or less got the handle of things and elected to try and forward his skills in magecraft through practice to see how training went with his new draconic talents and the results were far greater than he thought.

First, much like he predicted, Thought Acceleration immediately rose to B rank and Jun knew the the other mental skills would soon follow with some more work.

The big surprise however, was the use of Tempering magecraft. It seemed to speed up the integration of the draconic magical energy into Jun's body.

It did not improve the speed of the general changes in any significant manner but Jun could feel his body strengthening, even if not enough to raise the ranks of his physical Parameters.

His Magic Resistance sharply increased though and he could tell it would actually rise in rank again with a little more practice.

Jun's routine didn't change much in spite of these changes though. He still humored Irina and Issei by hanging out with them a few afternoons and spent most of his time training this or that or working on something inside his workshop.

But, while he had no changes to his routine, Kuoh was changing rapidly, even if only those with connections to the supernatural knew it.

The conflict brewing between the star crossed devil and exorcist lovers, Cleria Belial and Yaegaki Masaomi and their respective factions was coming to an head and Jun had a first row seat to the action due to his surveillance network that still went unnoticed.

At this point, he was making his plans to try and squeeze some benefits out of the situation but unfortunately, he was far from having the necessary power to do so directly. As such, he had to resort to subterfuge.

Even though Touji and his group knew Jun was part of the supernatural community, that did not believe him to be a factor in all that was happening simply due to the fact they knew he had struggled when fighting Kawamura, one of the most inexperienced and weaker members of their group.

'This is my advantage and one I cannot afford to give up for some meager benefits I could possibly earn now.' Jun thought to himself.

'What I need to do, is come up with a plan to fish something out of this without giving myself away, even if that plan results in failure to get anything, the priority should be not getting found out, even if it means turning out empty handed.' He decided.

Already having some ideas, Jun once again decided to run his rough plans by Ahsaka so they could work out the kinks while maximizing his chance for success, while eliminating the risk of being discovered under any circumstance.

In the end, they settled on a plan and Jun stopped his usual routine to make his preparations. Namely, he needed to create a special kind of familia for this job and thus required study on things he never really focused on before.

'I can only hope I'm ready by the time things blow up, otherwise, I'll have to pass on the opportunity. I wish I thought about this earlier but the only reason this can work at all is because of my recent improvements that came as a result of me focusing on myself.' Jun thought.

He needed a generous supply of magical energy to work on things but he didn't want to draw attention to himself so he had been very slowly gathering the mana in a wide radius to compensate for it and it had been working out decently well.

Now though, his magic core opened up a lot of new possibilities that just were not available to Jun before, hence his current ability to actually try something.

Although success in his plan did not result in short term benefits, it would give him quite a bit of advantages down the road and was the best he could do as of now since the parties involved in the conflict were currently way beyond his league.

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