The claiming of the castle was something I would remember for the rest of my days honestly. I gleefully walked up, took out a permanent Sharpie, and then signed my name on a corner of the gate. And after doing so my system pinged. [Central Point Of Realm Acquired! Reward - ten job tokens.]

[Quest issued!] [King of the Hill!] [Control the central point of the realm for one week to earn an additional ten job tokens, along with unlocking territory management functions.]

Yuki just gaped at me as I snapped my fingers and the strong golden wards in front of the gate faded and disappeared. And in response, I chuckled and said with an excited grin. "Hey, they left... And the universe itself respects the calling of dibs."

I then took Yuki's hand into mine as I pulled her into the Asian-style castle and we began looking around. And we noticed something very quickly, there was zero staff taking care of the castle itself.

It said a lot about the leaders of the Gumiho, that the large castle had literally zero staff. Not a single slave, maid, or gaslight orphan tending to the place. No, every single inch of the place was covered with wards. Wards that cleaned the castle, defended it, and all but acted as the place's electric system as the castle had modern lights, water, and everything else.

Which was also a reminder about how those Gumiho twins were capable of and would regularly go to Earth to pick up 'food'. They knew of the joy of modern amenities. Which was just perfect as now I got to use those lovely joys again.

We quickly made our way to the top floor as that would be likely where the sister's main bedroom was and as we took in the castle I easily saw how wealthy the two Gumiho were in how they lived opulent lives. They decorated the castle's interior brightly with the walls being a burnt gold and the trim being a bright red that reflected the nearby light and made the room so much more bright.

The place was beautiful honestly, As we explored we realized there were zero bedrooms for other people, but a lot of entertainment spaces like libraries and even a literal movie theater of all things. And finally, as we entered the top floor, we found the twins shared bedroom but as we went up the large staircase from the lower floor, I realized the staircase was honestly too long for between the floors.

The bedroom was a single large room, with us entering from one side, and on the left and right-hand sides there were the paper windows that would lead to the outside balconies, and against the back wall there was a single stupidly large bed. Besides the massive harem bed, there were two sets of sitting tables and a couple of actual thrones for each table so that the sisters could sit in comfort at the tables.

But what was special were the trophies... Spread across the entire back wall where the bed was, were dozens, maybe even a hundred plus small cubbie hole boxes and mounted within each hole was a 'trophy'.

"Hearts and livers from strong people of various races, Sealed extracted lesser Sacred Gears, Holy and Demonic Weapons... Oh, this is a Tenseiga." Yuki said and finished with a frown as her hand zipped backward from the sword she was about to inspect a zap of green lightning hit her and I threw an inspection at the sword in question.

[Tensaiga Blade - Blade made from the remains of a powerful Youkai that hated its own kind due to being sold to the human smith Muramasa to be made into the famously insane blacksmith's swords. Effects can only be wielded by a human, and in doing so the sword absorbs the wielder's lifespan and life force to grant the user great physical strength. And should the wielder kill Youkai with the sword, the sword will devour the youkai's soul and lifeforce and lifespan and return some of it to the wielder to extend the user's lifespan if they kill enough Youkai.]

"That's a pretty messed up sword... Hell this whole trophy wall despite the great loot within, is just a monument to the people they killed over millennia." I muttered realizing the number of 'great' people that must of died to fill this wall with loot, but as though to remind me of the great life span of those twins I noticed on the bedside stand on each side of the bed, there was a level on each side.

So while Yuki kept looking at and began taking notes of the things she recognized, as the twins were so nice as to put little metal cards labeling the items and when they acquired them. I inspected the actual room itself to see if there was a hidden safe or something.

But I didn't flip those levers as I was attracted to a noise Yuki made as she made a loud noise of disbelief, I looked over as she was kneeling in prostration before another sword but as I looked at the sword, my vision darkened and my system pinged loudly. [Warning! Divine Trial of Authority taking place! [Warning, User has had his consciousness moved to the trial site!]

Even as my eyes readjusted I heard the sounds of chirping birds and as my vision cleared I realized bright natural sunlight was washing over my form, and as I took in my surroundings I saw I was within a very well-designed gazebo, and was sitting down upon a throne of peachwood. "A trial?" I muttered before it hit me, I may not have known what sword that divine instrument was. But I recalled the Continental had several heritage treasures you could pay dearly to have the opportunity to pass the weapon or magical abilities trial to be used at your own discretion.

I then stood up from the throne and then a cool feminine voice spoke into my ears. "Welcome trial taker. I am the spirit of the blade of Kusanagi, and I see within you is the ambition to be a ruler." The voice spoke and my face twitched at hearing what divine instrument that I had stumbled upon.

See the Kusanagi blade was famous for a number of reasons. Not only for its strength, and many abilities. But for how their wielders were all arrogant dumbasses who for whatever reason would go into battle without the sword and would end up losing the damned thing. Supposedly the sword was lost when the child emperor, Emperor Antoku lost the blade within the sea during the battle against Minamoto no Yoshitsune but if it was here with the Gumiho? Then how did it get here?

Either way, my thoughts were cut through as the same cold female voice continued. "You will be tested in three segments. A trial of combat, cunning, and a trial of leadership." The voice explained and before I could react my vision blurred and I saw my supposed trial of combat before me.

Standing before me, was a traditional figure of beauty. She wore a beautiful kimono that had golden dragons lying and being intertwined around highly detailed Sakura trees in full bloom.

But her dress was only one part of her attractiveness, as she had pure black reflective hair that went down her back to her waist and her face was a delicate work of art as her obsidian-like eyes gazed upon my form. But looking away from her body and appearance I saw that she was wielding the now unsheathed form of sword Kusanagi and herself.

The sword Kusanagi itself for a literal divine instrument... Was deceptively plain honestly, it had a flat squarish guard its handle looked to be wrapped in snake leather and the blade itself was a good meter and a quarter long.

It was no curved katana and instead a straight sword that reminded me of a Chokutō or maybe a Jian-style blade. But either way, I looked away from the blade and back into the obsidian gem-like pools of darkness that were her eyes. "And what do I need to do, to pass this trial?" I asked plainly.

As much as I wanted to say how I didn't know she was a divine instrument and that I wasn't ready... I highly doubted such a chance to take a divine trial to earn the right to wield a literal divine tool would come again so easily. So I mentally buckled down and got ready for the events.

Kusanagi sighed a long tired thing that echoed like the hissing of a well-oiled sword being drawn from its sheath and I raised an eyebrow at the noise as she took a breath and spoke. "To think I could be welded by someone born out of the Land of the Rising Sun." She lamented and my face twitched at her racism.

I couldn't help but get my dig in. "Hey... At least my people don't give a divine weapon to a child emperor who then takes it out to a sea battle where the divine sword has no real power and then loses it to the sea." I retorted and she scowled at my response, and likewise, I saw her hand tighten on the sword.

"Your test starts now, defeat me to earn the right to hold myself within your palms." She said and then her form blurred as she disappeared from my sight, and I knew what she was doing. I mentally called for a Celestial Bronze shield I had in my inventory to put behind my back but as a ding rang out, I rolled forward instinctively, I still felt a hot slice of pain race across my back as Kusanagi's seemingly razor-sharp blade carved through my enchanted jacket and scored a cut across my back.

Kusanagi gave a wane smile as she spoke cooly. "I am a divine instrument of war, of dominion, I will not have a possible wielder challenge me with lesser tools. Take charge with your merit or bow your head and forfeit."

With the moment of brevity, I looked at the system ping and saw the simple system message read. [Warning, Divine Trial stage 1 Combat- States, that user may not use weapons during this trial.]

What a fucking chore... A combat trial but I cannot use weapons?

I grimaced and said bluntly. "This seems rather redundant to have a weapon's divine trial to forbid the use of weapons during a combat trial."

And she just nodded and said flatly. 'Indeed it is, but frankly, I tire of wielders getting used to my power, and then thinking it is their own and then fighting without me, and then dying like a fool." She finished with a hint of frustration and sadness in her voice and then she shook her head as she refocused on me. "Now defeat me." She ordered and like before she used purely insane speed to all but teleport behind me to slice into my back.

In the moments as we talked, I processed her speed, and the strength in her movements and finally came to the realization that she was strong, physically stronger, faster, and had much greater reflexes than myself. In a straight hand-to-hand fight, I was greatly disadvantaged except for a height advantage but that was negated by her speed being greater.

But this wasn't hand-to-hand, she had a sword, while I had nothing. Nothing but the clothes on my back, but at that thought, I had an idea and I slipped my jacket off myself and as her swipe came down upon my back again her sword sliced into my jacket and through it without issue, but as she retracted her arm I pulled one of my jacket's sleeves catching her arms on the scraps of the jacket and making her blink at the move.

Even as I did, I heard the jacket violently rip apart as a small tornado of wind blades tore the surrounding parts of the surviving jacket apart, but there was one little issue with that, the runes I had engraved upon the jacket didn't like being violently torn apart and as she mulched the jacket the runes and all the magic within the violently reacted when broken apart.

Creating a loud explosion of pure mana detonating in the air sending Kusanagi skidding backward with her hair flowing backward and her ornate kimono blowing open exposing her large breasts as was per the universal laws of DXD before she skidded to a stop her form blurred and she returned to her previous pristine appearance but now across her face was a scowl.

"I believed that I made it clear that there would be no outside weapons." She stated coldly.

And in response, I retorted flatly. "Battle isn't fair, nor prone to following rules." And as I said that, a small smile crossed her face and she visibly relaxed as she then nodded.

"Indeed, you pass. This trial was never about combat and the harm I did to you was but an illusion, The only thing you needed to do was think outside of the box and either surprise me or just use brute cunning and strength to subdue me." She explained as she all but glided around me and I blinked as I felt a soft hand touch my shirt-covered back and realized that my back didn't hurt at all anymore.

She then bowed her head slightly as she said with some contrition. "However, I do apologize for ruining your enchanted jacket as I needed to give the test its weight, and I used an actual attack." She apologized and I accepted it gracefully while saying with some amusement.

"It's alright I can make another one with better runes this time," I explained and her eyebrow rose in interest as she muttered about finally having a possible wielder who wasn't a ham-fisted warrior out to conquer lands and be a boring mundane administrator.

With that said there was a moment of silence as I stared at Kusanagi, and likewise she seemed content to simply stare at me... And as we had that staring competition, I realized that having a blinking contest with a fucking living sword embodiment was stupid in the extreme so I coughed and said wryly. "Soooo... Now what?" I asked wondering what the next test was going to be.

And then Kusanagi blinked before shrugging as she said flatly. "No. I do not plan to give you any other tests."

For a moment I thought that she was going to kick me out of the trial space and fail me, but she continued while I went still. "For the tests of cunning and leadership that are set for my divine trial from my creator, I am deferring those trials to instead. I want you to kill those two nine-tailed Gumiho Daijin and Konria, you liberated me from... They have attempted many a time to have other people become my wielder and earn my blessing so they could eat them and gain a sliver of my power." She explained coldly and then she continued with a small smile.

"The tests are of cunning and leadership... You are a base human, with no Sacred Gear, heroic lineage, or reincarnated spirit guiding you. Anyway, you lead those two to their doom within the next five years will satisfy the trials, and in turn, I will bless you as the new divine bloodline of the Land of the Rising Sun." She finished.

As she said that, I idly thought about the current Emperor of Japan and wondered how the family and the Shinto would react if a Westerner was declared the new royal bloodline of Japan.

And then she bowed her head slightly as she spoke formally. "Then I Kusanagi, born of the spine of Yamato No Orochi will be in your care Jake Barriss." She said making me blink as I never told her my name but she only smiled almost impishly as she winked and my vision blurred again a series of pings rang out as my system seemed to have had a stroke and began rapidly spitting out information at me.

"Are you alright?" Yuki asked hurriedly and I realized I was laying with my back against her chest as we were both on the floor but she was cradling my form and next, I realized I was bleeding out of my nose and eyes.

[Warning! Blessing of Kusanagi activated! The user's bloodline has been changed from that of Swedish to native Japanese, so should the user die, he would be fast-tracked to the Shinto afterlife instead of Norse.] [Other effects include being accepted by Shinto shrines as partial holders of the divine right to rule. Youkai and native humans will also have their bloodline react and will naturally submit and be more respectful of the host, Shinto gods will not harm the user unless greatly provoked due to the karma Kusanagi will curse them with. Users may use Japanese Leyline with four times the efficiency for all things that do not harm the leylines.]

There was a huge slew of information honestly but my further inspection was cut short as Yuki said something that snapped me out of my haze. "Your hair got turned back with silver lines through it as well." She said and I got up and looked into one of the mirrors next to a dresser to see that my hair looked like something out of a painting as my hair had gone from blond to black with almost shooting star like, silver strands breaking through the pitch black mop of hair atop my head.

"Jake, what happened?" Yuki asked quietly, and I realized that Kusanagi was no longer on its shelf and was now strapped to my side as I noticed it, my jacket just disintegrated into pieces from how I moved to look at my hair.

I audibly took a breath as I laid my palm over the handle of the sword and spoke wryly. "I think I possibly became the emperor of Japan."

Yuki's eyes snapped back to the sword and then back to its cubby hole from which it was originally and her eyes widened as she whispered. "Oh." There was a moment of pause before she spoke quietly as she covered her face with a hand. "That's truly the Kusanagi No Tsurugi, the divine sword of Man to claim the mortal side of Japan... Jake, why are you, so you always." She said weakly and sounding... Just so done honestly.

I flicked her nose making her whimper at my abuse as I said flatly. "I just looked at the sword and my consciousness was pulled into the divine trial." I then shrugged as I continued with a wry smile. "My divine trial to earn the right to wield the sword was won by her getting blown up by my jacket when she cut into the runes and they exploded in her face," I explained and Yuki's face twisted before threw up her hands in defeat.

My life was the very idiom of 'living in interesting times' She knew it, I was used to it, and she just had to get on my level of running into nonsense.

Either way, I clapped my hands and took a deep breath as I eyed the other treasures and wondered if I should try to stick one of the lesser Sacred Gear's within me but as though in response my system pinged.

[Warning! The user may only host a single Sacred Gear within his soul due to the system absorbing it and upgrading it to also have better potential.]

Well, that was that, none of these were Longinuis level or that great honestly. Even if my system doubled their potential or even by five, they still wouldn't be as good as something like a Longinus or even a proto-Longinus.

So I just chucked them into my inventory and thought I could sell them off to Ariana to sell to the Continental for a good price. Maybe with three Sacred Gears, I could get a crack at learning a magical martial art like the Jade Emperor's inheritance for example.

I then looked at the levers on the side of the bed and as I pointed them out Yuki she nodded and said her idea of what it was. "Yes, it seems to be a mechanism to move the bed to the side to allow us to reach the enclosed lower level that was between the flights of stairs."

"Well let's see what's down there... I doubt it can be anything better than Sacred Gear's and a literal divine sword." I said but as I said that, I realized just how rich and powerful beings were that had millenia to hoard their wealth of treasures... 'How rich was Azazel and what kind of super valuable treasures did he have honestly?' I thought before my lips twitched at the reminder of all the Sacred Gears he surrounded himself with to study.

And then Yuki and I both flipped the switches, and with a hissing noise of unsealing air the bed moved to the side breaking the seal but in front of the hole was a set of pitch-black thick drapes that could only be opened up via the middle of the of the drapes that would unfold when we pressed into it.

I sent 'observes' and everything to make sure it wasn't cursed or anything but as we pushed past the thick drapes, I realized it was utterly pitch black in darkness past the drapes so Yuki created a brightly glowing magical glyph that spread icy blueish light around while I... I used a high-power flashlight because wasting magic for a light source was too costly for me.

But as we went down the stairs we saw another set of drapes at the bottom and after checking for traps and not finding any, we moved past them and we were welcomed by two sources of light. Two pillars of glass that from the roof to the floor were in the middle of the room, and within those two cylinders were two forms.

"Jake... No." Yuki drawled and my lips twitched as we got closer and we fully took in the forms locked away in the tubes floating in some clear liquid.

I used an observation on the left and it read. [Ahri, Ninetailed Gumiho Lvl 55 - Sealed. Likely untrained due to undeveloped magical energy. Likely born of the original Gumiho.] The glass was perfectly clear so I could easily see Ahri's form and take in her long black hair and voluptuous frame that matched the rest of the Gumiho I met. And of course with the notice I counted, and indeed she had nine fluffy white tails.

And then with twitching lips, I looked at the right tube with an observation. [Musashi Ninetailed Gumiho Lvl 57 - Sealed, likely untrained due to undeveloped magical energy. Likely born of the original Gumiho.] Musashi herself had purplish black hair and... She had Yasaka-level massive mommy milkers.

Her tails were mostly black with the ends of her tails lightning up to a grey tip but seriously... Her tits even when she was floating in a fetal position could be seen pressing around her knee's with how large they were.

I looked at Yuki and she firmly shook her head. "No Jake, you already have kitsune at home!" She said firmly and I shook my head strongly as I couldn't help but play into the meme.

"But Yuki look at them! They literally have more tails than all the ones I got at home put together!" At that, Yuki's lips twitched in amusement even as I gleefully looked at the rewards for possibly subduing or training up a nine-tailed Gumiho/kitsune. Not to mention with these two, I would have gotten my 'Nine Tails' or nine Kitsune. Plus for all, they were nine-tailed Gumiho... They were fucking weak, they were Kunou in being a nine-tailed kitsune at birth due to her extremely strong parent.

They had great potential and probably a good deal of power even now, but could they use that power? Probably not at all really.

I laid a palm on the cylinder for Ahri and I said frankly. "Look... I want nine kitsune to finish the set. I won't take another one, past that number unless one of them dies, but these two can be a potent upgrade to my strength should they submit." I then looked behind her and I said wryly.

"Plus do you really want untamed Gumiho sealed away under your bed when you are trying to sleep?" As she went to dryly respond with something along the lines of just killing them here and now I surprisingly nodded as I continued. "Yes, they are dangerous but regardless I wish to try to get their fox marbles, should they utterly refuse then we deal with them here and now," I said with finality as no matter what I would prosper.

If I really wanted to be fucked up, with my golemancy I could carve open these Gumiho's bodies and shove a bunch of clockwork, runes, and rituals into making them into a stable undead slave.

Gotta remember... Ariana's book from her time learning in the Golden Order Academy was a school of magic created by MacGregor Mathers. And he was a stone-cold fucker who made the devils who made deals for his soul too terrified to come to collect to the point, that Sirzech's came and scooped him up for his Peerage with how he was one of the best mages period.

He had zero compunctions on limits of study and freely shared his knowledge in order to help acolytes of magic learn for they too would typically share their own experience in magic and he was known to study the journals of students to see their own views on magic. Even if it was the most twisted of magic.

Either way, I had a lot of options even if they utterly refused. I spoke up. "We will awaken one, first to see how it goes. And then we will move on to the other depending on how the first one goes." I explained and Yuki growled under her breath but said with a roll of her eyes.

"Very well. But I am preemptively telling you, I told you so." She finished making my lips twitch in amusement as I looked down and saw the brightly glowing red button on a plate next to the tank that had some independent wards hooked into the tank to operate it and I idly noted how the wards were separate from the main castle's systems keep this off the grid as it were.

 

 

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