"So strong! As expected of a Longinus!"
A Longinus is the highest class of Longinus, and as the name implies, it is capable of destroying gods and Demon Lords. Because of their immense power and danger, such Longinuses are closely monitored by Heaven and the Cadre of God's Watchers. In the world, only thirteen Longinus are known to exist.
The power of [Azure Box of Revolution] and [Ultimate Karmic Wheel], at least judging from Ddraig's description, definitely deserves the name of Longinus, though unlike the Red Dragon Emperor and White Dragon Emperor, they are not as straightforward and brute-force.
"Patchi, how did you even obtain those two Longinus?"
It wasn't out of curiosity or excitement. When Zeroy asked this, her face showed only worry and concern.
The Boosted Gear of the Red Dragon Emperor is a special case. Before the story began, it was actually quite easy to obtain, since its host, the protagonist Issei Hyoudou, had neither combat power nor background support before awakening.
However, the rest of the Longinus are not so simple. Take the White Dragon Emperor's Divine Dividing, for example—Vali himself already possessed considerable power, and behind him stood Azazel, the Governor General of the Fallen Angels.
Or the holder of the True Longinus, Cao Cao, who had Indra backing him.
One of the top ten beings in the world, Indra, ruler of the Thirty-Three Heavens of Mount Sumeru, the supreme heavenly deity and the war god who defeated the Asura King.
Of course, this top ten ranking excludes the Dragon Gods like the Great Red and Ophis in her prime.
"About that..."
Patchouli didn't feel the need to hide how she obtained the two Longinus from Zeroy.
In short... it was pure luck. Though not in the literal sense.
Japan has five great clans. Since ancient times, they have been a lineage of exorcists who hunt aberrations, the leaders of Japan's exorcists, sorcerers, and other supernaturally gifted. They each command the powers of the Five Sacred Beasts (Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Yellow Dragon).
These five clans cannot be called weak, yet neither are they overwhelmingly strong. On the world stage, even combined, they cannot be considered a major force. Their influence is limited to Japan.
To put it another way, even if you combined all five clans, you couldn't muster a single Demon Lord level.
And Zeroy, even before obtaining the Boosted Gear, was already at Demon Lord level.
On the world stage, Demon Lord level is just the starting point. Yet on Japan's stage, barring special cases, Demon Lord level is already the ceiling—and one they usually cannot even reach.
Guided by astrology, Patchouli found one of these five clans.
The clan head's daughter was in a half-dead state. The cause was the Longinus [Ultimate Karmic Wheel] that had awakened inside her, but only halfway, resulting in a backlash of its power against the host.
The power was completely uncontrollable, so the clan head had no choice except to seal his daughter within a shrine using a barrier, all while desperately searching for a solution.
At this moment, astrology guided Patchouli to them. She resolved the problem, took the Longinus, and it was all quite smooth and easy.
Yet to say it was just picked up off the roadside wouldn't be accurate.
The reason the Longinus only half-awakened was because the five clans, without exception, are extremely averse to outside powers.
For generations, they have upheld the orthodoxy of Japan's Shinto faction. Any member who forms connections with other races, mythological factions, or the supernatural world at large is branded a heretic and purged. This has led to countless bloodstained tragedies.
From what Zeroy knew, Rias's servant Akeno Himejima's mother was from one of the five clans. The current Himejima clan head is even Akeno's mother's cousin.
Akeno's mother was killed by the previous clan head's hunt, simply because she bore a daughter with a Fallen Angel.
Their aversion to outside powers is not just ideological but also physical. At least in the clan Patchouli encountered, children were modified from birth through spells.
It wasn't an inhumane modification, yet their bodies were shaped to better suit local techniques and repel external powers.
However, such modification created severe conflict when a Longinus awakened.
So this wasn't mere coincidence.
And not just anyone could have resolved it. Patchouli managed it because of her vast accumulated knowledge, applying various methods to solve the problem.
Otherwise, the clan head wouldn't have been helpless before his daughter's condition.
While the five clans couldn't muster a Demon Lord, they did have deep foundations and abundant resources. Though isolationist, Japan still had its own pantheon.
When Patchouli took the [Ultimate Karmic Wheel], the clan head did show regret and hesitation, but upon seeing Patchouli's strength and that she had already mastered the Longinus, he abandoned that dangerous thought.
Still, that was just the case of [Ultimate Karmic Wheel].
The other Longinus, [Azure Box of Revolution]... that one was really just picked up.
No embellishment at all—like finding a coin on the roadside. She literally stumbled upon it on her way back.
Even Patchouli herself found it incredible.
She repeatedly confirmed through divination, detection, and other methods, again and again, ensuring there was no plot or trap—at least none she could detect—before finally bringing it back.
Even if Patchouli found it unbelievable, Zeroy and Ddraig were practically dumbfounded.
Seriously? Just picking up a Longinus off the street like a cabbage? What are you, EX rank luck? Illegitimate daughter of the God of the Bible?
"Emmmm..."
Zeroy fell into deep thought.
She couldn't detect any threads of fate here either, nor did Hellfire or Evil Slayer show any karmic ties with Patchouli.
It was hard to judge whether to keep it.
Nevertheless...
"Forget it. Since you found it, and no one's come to claim it, then let's keep it. Even if there's some hidden scheme, we're leaving here soon anyway."
Zeroy didn't believe there wasn't some calculation behind it, yet since they'd be leaving shortly, let them plot all they wanted.
"Mm." Patchouli nodded.
That was also why she brought the Longinus back.
"But Patchi, your astrology is insane! It's basically a treasure-hunting skill!"
Even as someone who had watched High School DxD in her past life and knew so much, Zeroy had never encountered anything like this.
Patchouli just used astrology, and boom, a great treasure landed in her hands.
"Teacher! I want to learn it too!"
"Its difficulty is about three times higher than the Solar-element magic I taught you earlier."
"Uh..."
Sky Striker Ace stiffened.
"Gu... I-I can't learn it!"
Zeroy collapsed to her knees in despair.
"And it's not as convenient as you think. This level of astrology requires vast knowledge and consumes special energy to drive it. The deeper the matter, the more energy consumed. To achieve divination on today's scale, you'd need a long interval before being able to do it again..."
"In short, this time was a special case. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gone through two worlds without ever using it."
...
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