Merle's POV

Well, I was not planning to include another person in the plan but looks like I have no choice.

Now that I have received the green light to enter the final stage I can perfect the city-wide circuit and overload the magic circuits of the church region. This will allow me to have about an hour to infiltrate the church and save my father.  

Hmmm, a letter from the church. I assume it is about the new weapon designs. I suppose I should give them something to show I am making progress but what? Looking at the weapons I have right now, I don't think these will be able to satisfy them. So far I have tried to search for an equivalent substitute for elemental shards but the material just seems to be unsubstitutable.

"What else can carry out spirit resonance as well as the elemental shards? I have tried forcing the circuits myself but that has just made a very weak version of the magic weapons. They simply get destroyed by just a single spell."

Anyway, why am I stressing about giving them magic weapons? If I do give them these weapons they will surely terrorise more lives.

Looking at the content of this letter isn't this a stroke of good luck? I don't even have to lift a finger to put my plan into motion. All I have to do now is to just play the part assigned to me and my father will be free once again. So they want me to incorporate this red feather into a weapon. Is it some kind of artefact? Looking at it I feel quite a strange but oddly familiar signature on it. This must have belonged to a demon as I can practically feel the dark energy oozing from it. 

It strangely reminds me of Rae, does this belong to Rae? No, it can't be I mean she is still in the Labyrinth after all. Maybe it is Trina's? No, I don't think so I mean she has been missing for quite a while so maybe it is her's but it's a feather so maybe not. From what I can tell vampires don't usually have wings but still why does this feel like it very much belongs to a vampire similar to Rae? Maybe it's a half vampire half something else hybrid? Well, we can't count that out I mean I have seen a half witch half elf so anything is possible.

So they want me to craft a weapon out of this? Oh how beautiful. I think this has just given me an idea of how to perfectly cripple the church.

***

"Ivan, could you please come with me to the office."

"Right away madam principal.

"So how is it going madam principal. Did you manage to find a solution to your problem."

"You will know once we get there... Okay here we are, please come in."

"Thank you. So master what did you want from me. Did you find a way to infiltrate the church?"

"Yes I did but I need your help. You see the church has been pressuring me to make powerful magic weapons for them and I think they just gave me a thing that will allow me to achieve that."

"Master what do you mean!! Are you going to assist them in making those weapons?"

"Well yes and no l, you see they want us to craft weapons of mass destruction suited to there taste and that is what we are exactly going to make."

"Wha- What do you mean!! I thought you had planned on attacking the church with me. Are you going to give up and abandon the plan? Are you going to abandon me?"

"Relax Iv- Aurora, I told you that I am going to attack them and kick them where it hurts and that is exactly what I am going to do. Do you see this?"

"A feather?"

" Not just a feather, a demonic feather. They gave it to me with hopes of I developing a powerful weapon for them and that is what I am going to do."

"Oh I see now, so you are planning to make the powerful weapon but sabotage it so they can't use it?"

"Exactly, and that is why I need your help."

"Ah, I see... Count me in. So what are we going to do ."

"Look at this. I have studied the feather for about two days now and have come to the conclusion that this feather belongs to a creature that has opposing energies."

"What do you mean?"

"Can you sense the dark energy within it?"

"Yes of course."

"Now feel the tender flow within it."

"Ah, I see what you mean, it feels like the flow is tangled by something else. It doesn't feel purely demonic."

"Exactly, at first I thought that the church had tempered with the flow but it doesn't feel unnatural so it must have not been them. The energy must therefore exist within the source."

"This energy reeks of celestial nature."

"I think so too, from the signature I could tell that this belonged to a vampire and as seeing it has celestial energy this must be a daywalker to. You know how very few daywalker exist."

"Yeah that's true, they are very few daywalkers."

"looking at all this I deduced that this is some sort of celestial vampire."

"What do you mean?"

"Well celestials are known to have wings and that is what the church is known most for so this vampire must be some sort of experiment on their part."

" So they are still creating more hybrids to see what powerful creatures they can concot, how diabolical!!"

" Anyway after studying the feather and it's properties, I have the perfect plan for it. We are going to make twin daggers with it."

" Twin daggers why ?"

" To separate the energies and break their synagy of course."

" Oh right."

"Here is the plan of development for the two daggers. One will store it's dark energy and the other it's light energy we will then mark a circuit that connects the blades to other blades that you will put curses on so that the daggers and the other swords will be connected and while the daggers will provide powers to the other blades the curse will affect the user, we can't really put the curse directly on the daggers can we?"

"I suppose, they must have put a contingency in place."

"Okay let's get to work."

It took us quite a lot of trials to get the desired effect but after ten days we were able to create a working prototype. And just in time for the two week deadline I had been given. They really know how to work people like dogs, anyway I don't care about that. All I know is by the end of this I would have gotten my father back .

"Aurora we are finally going to get our justice."

"... Master, there is something that has been bothering me."

"Really, what is, I think the weapons are perfect and the plan doesn't feel to have any flaws."

"Don't you find it suspicious that every thing is going very well. Like don't you think there is something off here. I mean isn't the red feather a dark object?"

"Well yes so what is the problem."

"Ok, How come the church sent you to work with a dark object. If they really didn't know about your dark nature then they definitely wouldn't have... I mean how did they expect a mere mage to manipulate it. I know you are new the dark magic thing but the way you manipulated the flow felt almost like something you did as second nature so you must have not realised it but you definitely wouldn't have been able to do it if you didn't have dark energy within you."

"Now you mention it, why did they send it to me. Did they know of my dark seed? Wait if they know of that what else do they know. Is there maybe a spy around me. I cant put it past them. What should we do if our plan is know by them."

"Calm down master. Let us think of a solution."

"What solution is there?... Ok breathe in,breathe out. Let us review the plan. From the map I have of the place we have general idea of area so maybe we can sneak there if we are fast enough. There is no enough time. We can't modify the - ...

We can't fix the plan but maybe we can set up a failsafe."

"What do you mean master"

"Well read this then you will understand."

" ...but master isn't this a little bit dangerous, well we have no choice do we."

"Okay, I will do it for you."

"See you at the end of the road. I will use this spell to inform you when the time is right."

"Are you sure you will be okay without me."

"Come on I will definitely be okay, I am more than just a mage."

"Okay, I will see you when all this ends."

With that we parted our ways and I headed straight to the church to present the daggers to them and enact my plan.

They welcomed me openly not showing a shred of hostility . The circuit was already in place working when I walked in but many of them didn't seem to have realised. It might be a trick on their part but...

"Hello great sage it's an honour to finally meet you. I hear that you have created a powerful weapon for us. Do you care to explain how it works."

"...It's an honour to meet you too, should I refer to you as Arch bishop or his holiness."

"No,no I wouldn't dare, I was recently appointed to this post after his holiness acquired the title of Cardinal so it would be improper of me to use that title very freely just refer to me as your Grace."

"As you wish your Grace. Well this weapons have been designed to give powers and have control over the blades they bond with effectively creating more powerful weapons and loyal soldiers."

"Oh that's interesting, I would like to see these blades in action."

"Of course here they are for you."

"Hmmm, I have got the perfect candidate to test them out on but this space won't allow for proper manipulation of them so let us head to the field near the witches' tower."

Did he just say the witches' tower? Isn't that close to the area they keep their captives. It can't be this easy right.

I was happy until...

"Okay here we are and here he comes."

"Isn't, Isn't that my father."

"Yeah, look at him you can barely recognise him. We did a bit of an upgrade on the previous great sage. Don't you like what we have done with him."

"... Dad! Are you ok?"

"Don't try talk to him, he no longer knows who you are."

"What did you do to my father?"

"As I said we gave him an upgrade. Don't you like what we did with him. I mean he was no longer useful as a sage so we repurposed him. Now at the expense of his magic and freewill he has been given physical abilities beyond human imagination 

Give him the daggers so that he can test them out."

"Noooo!"

"And why not, I thought you would be happy with the reunion."

"How can I be happy with this sort of situation."

"Let us see just how good this prototype is."

"No you mustn't, the blades are faulty and will most probably kill him, so please don't give them to him."

"Ahh, I see you were planning on fooling us with sabotaged weapons. 

Well just give them to him, she tried to trick us so she should know that her actions have consequences."

"Stop it or I, or I will poison you all."

" What do you mean?"

"Don't make another step towards him or I will poison you all."

"What are you waiting for, it only a bluff."

"I warned you guys so don't blame me for the fall out."

The message was sent and within minutes the place was flooded with miasma.

"I see so you had a back up plan but I think you are underestimating our abilities. You might be quite a genius crafter and mage but your tactical talents need some work. As you can see the weapons are at his hand and seeing he is a chaos knight this miasma shouldn't hinder him in the least. Tell the specialist to order him to attack, I think we have a few failures that we can test the blades on."

"Are you even human, do you think that people are just objects for your use."

"Don't worry about it, they are not humans so you shouldn't care much about them. Besides I want to see how good those blades are even if they are sabotaged."

"Please don't, there is a possibility that he may go on a rampage."

" Don't worry too much, I am sure the specialist has him under control."

I have to stop this some how but how, I currently can't use any of my abilities as I... Wait how is that so called specialist controling him? Maybe light magic and dark magic work differently to the other types of magic, maybe I too can use dark magic, but how? I don't know a single thing about dark magic apart from seeing and manipulating it's flow. But maybe that is enough for me to stop him from activating the blades.

Looking at him and the blades I think I see certain places I can intercept the flow rendering him harmless but first to immobilize him with the miasma...

"What just happened, why is everything black."

"Greetings to you great sorceress, I am Stella the time witch."

"Time witch?"

"Yeah, I know you have many questions but we don't have enough time to answer all of them. To begin with right now we are in my innate domain called the Time capsule and this is all thanks to your innate domain. I know you don't understand anything I am saying right now but all I want you to know is that you have to save the witches. That is the only way you can have a chance against the church."

"Save the witches? What about my father?"

"I am sorry about your father but he is a lost cause and there is nothing you can do about him all that is left is to kill him before he becomes an instrument of calamity."

"Kill him!!! Why would I."

"That is the only way to save him..."

The veil of darkness has been lifted. 

What did that voice mean by I should kill my father. How dare she even suggest such. He is the only family I have left. I can't be the one who does this, how can I call myself a part of that family if I am the one who is responsible for their destruction. She doesn't know what she is saying, I will definitely find a way to save my father.