He decided to touch it, but,

*Zap*

He hurriedly took back his hand as lightning nearly zapped him and looked at this ball with a thoughtful expression.

“It doesn’t seem like it likes me.”

Azrael found this rather peculiar. No holy weapon should reject him. His constitution made it so he could wield any and every holy weapon without ever suffering from rejection or incompatibility. He decided to do another test, and once again brought his hand toward it.

Lightning begins to flicker on the ball even more violently. The closer his hands was, the more violent it was. Still, this didn't deter him from continuing. Finally, he grabbed the ball and began to slowly but surely pull it out.

*Crackle* *Crackle* *Crackle*

The lightning changed from the initial yellow to red to and clearly became even more powerful and became more dangerous. The previously dark room was lit alight by them. While some of the objects in the room began to be destroyed. The ball even seemed to be struggling in his hand.

"Sigh. Just give up and become mine."

Azrael was just speaking to himself when,

*ROAR*

A deep roar sounded in his head. This roar was so powerful that Azrael nearly blacked out as he was flung to the wall *Bang*

*Cough* *Cough*

"Little… Shit."

For the first time, Azrael lost his usual grace and couldn't help but curse.

*Drip* *Drip*

"Wha…?"

He felt a sort of wetness on his face and when he touched his nose, he was surprised by what he found.

"... Blood…"

Azrael nearly blew a fuse. To think he was wounded by such a weird thing. If anyone saw him in such a situation, he would hide in his bedroom for a few days.

Despite his embarrassment, he couldn't help but look at this ball with a renewed interest. This wasn’t normal,

"Did it develop sentience?"

Every Holy Swords or holy weapons, in general, had a nascent spirit in it. The origin varied, it was either the most powerful being killed by it, a spirit that was added during its conception or simply a spirit that developed over time and use.

But, as befitting of the term “nascent”, this kind of spirit generally stayed asleep and could only be compared to a wild beast when used. They only acted on instinct and were unable to have coherent thoughts. This restriction had nothing to do with power. It was just how it was.

For example, he didn't know what the spirit in Durandal was, but from what Strada told him, Durandal's spirit’s personality was akin to a wild horse. One without enough strength would never be able to use it correctly.

Only a near godly intervention could give the chance for a nascent spirit to gain true sentience. For example by becoming a sacred gear. Some sacred gear housed spirit, sentient spirit, who could interact with their user.

But, it seemed like the spirit of this ball was able to think by itself. After all, it had reacted to his words.

If so, it would be very interesting, no, extremely interesting. Even if the weapon itself was useless, just the presence of a sentient spirit would make it priceless and it wouldn't be inferior to top tier independent type sacred gear.

'Did the old man give it to me knowingly?'

He didn’t know whether or not his father knowingly gave him a holy weapon with a spirit that awakened, but it didn’t matter right now. He wanted it.

*Crack*

He began to crack his joint as he walked back toward it.

“Firstly, let's set out a barrier. It wouldn’t do if I destroyed this house.”

A white light gathered in his finger before fading out. Then, *Whoosh* a dome-like made out of light began to form and grow with him at the center. It didn’t take long for it to completely cover the room.

“Alright. This should be enough.”, Azrael nodded in satisfaction, he had always been talented in this kind of little thing. After looking around and being sure that everything was alright, his gaze finally landed once again on the ball.

“I have heard about loli weapon spirit while reading divers light novels. I wonder if you’re one. Or perhaps you will be some middle-aged dude with black hair and a pair of very cool looking glass?”

He murmured under his breath in a joking voice as he resumed walking and stopped right in front of it. This time though, all his joking atmosphere vanished. He needed to avoid under”

He leaned a little, before once again grabbing it tightly.

*Crackle* *Crackle* *Zap* *Zap*

The result was immediate, lightning began to flicker once again, electrocuting him on the same occasion. Still, this time he was prepared, he even smiled,

“You think this kind of thing can stop me?”

*ROOAAR*

As if his words angered it, even more, another deep roar sounded in his head. Still, this didn’t stop Azrael. In fact, he found it even better. He didn’t know what kind of spirit laid down in this ball, but holy father above was it stubborn.

He couldn’t help but let out a large grin totally unlike his usual personality. This was truly a surprising gift.

The standoff lasted for a short while, when, suddenly, he felt like his consciousness was swallowed by darkness.

----

{Your dream is peace and harmony, isn’t it. How foolish...Look and contemplate your naivety.}

An indistinct voice sounded in his head,

When he opened his eyes he found himself in a gray world. The scene that greeted him was that of a battlefield, more precisely an ongoing battlefield.

The two side fighting were unknown, as they all wore armor with helmet hiding their faces. The result was also unclear. As the two sides seemed to be evenly matched.

Body upon body could be seen as far as the eyes could see as if only death was present in this world. The only color apart from the gray was red. A deep vivid scarlet.

It was a horrible scene, it was a sickening scene.

Some people had the bad habit of romanticizing war. Singing a song of legend and writing epic stories from it. As if it was something beautiful, something meaningful.

The truth, though, was different. The absolute opposite.

War was ugly.

War was sad.

War was meaningless

War was the proof of human ugliness.

There was nothing beautiful in war. Only those who never lived through one or never lost anything due to it would wish for it.

As he watched this scene, listened to the cries and the screams, gazed at the dead bodies that were trampled again and again to the point of becoming unrecognizable, he felt sick.

Azrael felt so sick that he nearly barfed everything in his stomach. He wanted to kneel and hide his face. He wanted to close his ears and flee from this scene.

But, *Shiver* even as his body shivered as much as if he was thrown in an icy ocean. Even as his legs trembled and made his gait unsteady, even as his consciousness became blurrier...He never turned his gaze aside. He watched and watched, branding everything that was happening in his mind no, his very being.

It was only now while watching this scene that he understood for the first time just how much of an ordeal his wish was.

Peace and harmony between the race?

Humans being killed each other for far simpler reasons. Skin color, religion, or simply ideals.

This scene was like a slap on the face, telling him how foolish and stupid he was. How naive and ignorant he was.

The light in his eyes slowly dimmed down, his desire to look away growing stronger. Then,

{Is it truly all you’re worth?}

A deep feminine voice full of disappointment sounded in his head. This simple voice of unknown origin brought back his fighting spirit.

True, he was naive.

He was foolish.

He was ignorant.

But,

But...

“But so what?”

The light in his eyes began to come back as murmured.

“So what if I am naive and foolish. Dreams are dreams exactly because they are so hard to realize. A dream doesn’t become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”

He looked up at the sky with fiery eyes, devoid of their previous weakness,

“There’s only one thing that makes dream impossible, and that’s the fear of failure.”

As those words resonated. Everything seemed to come to a pause, then,

{...I see…}

*CRACK*

The world literally cracked open.