A Deal Between A System & Its User (Part 1)

Back in the living room, Azazel and I were discussing the topic of materials I'll need for more guns. The reason for it, is because some of the blueprints I made required more than just steel, Dust, and Grimm bones. Some would need stronger metals, and other materials, to actually function as intended.

And, Azazel kindly brought up a panel of various metals and other stuff across the multiverse that I could choose from. But, most of them were stuff that I wouldn't be able to work with, either because I didn't have a specific tool to work with them, or because I didn't have the knowledge to use them. Luckily, one of them did seem like something I would be able to work with, though, when I asked him if he could get some of it, he outright denied my request.

"Please, Zel. Can't you just get me a little of it!"

[No, Eve, I won't get you it]

"Come on! You got me all the other shit without a word, so why is this any different?"

[It just is! So, I won't be getting you any]

"Please! It doesn't need to be big or anything, it could be as big as a grain of rice, I don't care, I could work with that! Just please, I need it!"

[You could make plenty of guns without it! You don't need it!]

"Yes, I do! I need it to make even stronger guns! Imagine what I could do with it!"

[I know you could make better weapons with it, but I don't need to imagine it to know that you'll regret asking me for it!]

"How could I regret this? It's metal from a weaker version of Hell, it shouldn't even be that dangerous to work with based on the info you showed me! And, it could make any normal gun ten times more powerful against nonhumans, twenty times if I make a whole gun out of the stuff! Come on, Zel!"

Yeah, the thing we were talking about was a form of steel found only in a specific version of Hell. Apparently it's made from the solidified blood of demons, and the essence of hundreds of ghosts, which makes it pretty powerful against any species that the ghost didn't belong to when they were alive. Basically, if it ain't human, this metal will fuck it up when in a weapon.

This would usually sound like a reason not to get it, on account of the link to demons, but it actually just seems like a damn strong (and most likely magical) metal. Which, is why I can't understand why Azazel doesn't want me using it. I don't even need anything special to work with it.

[Eve, no. You will genuinely regret using that shit. I am not joking here]

"But, why will I regret it? What's the problem with it? Cause I'm looking at the info you gave me, and it doesn't look bad." I asked as I looked back at the panel with the info on the demonic steel. The metal labeled as being from the world of Panty & Stocking, which did surprise me when I first saw it.

[You just will, okay]

"No, no, not okay! I can't understand why you don't want me getting this shit, because you won't tell me! So, either you tell why I'll regret it, or we'll be stuck in this cycle for the next year!" I really didn't want to back down on this, because this metal seemed far too good to pass up on!

[....]

Azazel stayed quiet for what felt like half an hour, mulling over how he would answer me. He knew exactly why I'd regret choosing this metal, but he also knew that if he told me why I'd just say bullshit and keep asking for it. So, he decided on a third option.

[How about we make a deal?]

"A deal? What kind of deal?" Although I wanted to get this metal as soon as possible to make stronger guns, I also wanted to see what Azazel was going to propose. Mostly because of the possibility that I'll get a fuck ton of the metal, and other stuff, in return.

[I'll get you that metal on two conditions]

"Okay, what are your conditions?" I said as I looked up at his panel, he had my full attention.

[First, no matter what happens after you get the metal, you can't complain, or blame me for what happens]

"Alright, that's a pretty easy condition." It really should be, all I'd need to do is keep my mouth shut, and not think about insulting Azazel. "What's the second condition then?"

[You need to complete two stages in a row]

"Well that doesn't seem so-"

[Ah! I wasn't done yet!]

Azazel said, stopping me from finishing my sentence, though, I still jinxed myself by even trying to say that phrase.

[You need to complete two stages in a row while only being able to attack with whatever guns you make. No using Bloody Berserker to tear open the Grimm, no using Siren Song's sonic screams, no infusing yourself with Dust, no making armor imbued with Dust with Clothing Generation, and absolutely no throwing Dust in any form to act as an explosive! Oh, and I will be modifying the Grimm just like the last two times]

I just sat in silence for a full minute while staring at Azazel's panel, rereading what he said to make sure I was seeing things. Soon after the silence was broken by my frustrated yells of disapproval. "That's basically all of my strategies out the window! What the hell?!"

[Those are my conditions, if you don't like them, then tough shit! You don't really have a choice in the matter]

It pissed me off how right he is. I'm in a pocket dimension that he seems to control, he provides me food, he provides the materials I need to make guns, and I just have to deal with it, because I don't have any say in the matter. So, I grit my teeth, took deep breaths, and chose the only option I have.

"Do I have to do it today, or do I get some prep time to make more ammo and other shit?"

[I'll give you a week to prepare]

"Alright.... can you show me my status?...." I said as I stood up from the couch.

[STATUS

Name: Himiko Toga/Eve

Species: Human(?)

Title: N/A

Semblance: Bloody Berserker

Quirks: Transform, Healthy Body, Siren Song, Clothing Generation

Minor Skills: Parkour Expert, Master Chef

Skills: Unarmed Combat, Movement Prediction, Flash Step, Perfect Gunsmith

Soul Bound Item: Blessing of The Messenger God

Physical Strength: Low Superhuman]

With that, I went to go change back into my blacksmith outfit, so I could get to making more ammo, and maybe modifying Grimm Fate to get even more out of it.

I didn't speak to Azazel for the entire week as I put all my focus onto my work. In that time I swapped out the grip on the first version of Grimm Fate, the one with no bones, for another carved femur, since I wanted to dual wield in case I have to deal with an absolute fuck ton of Grimm.

On top of that, I also managed to make some decent modifications to both Grimm Fate's. Now they have the same fire rate as an MP5, and they use a lot less Dust in each shot, but I did have to sacrifice a bit of that explosive power they have to do this. Though, doing that shit took me less than two days, since I didn't have to make them from scratch this time, and I had some experience under my belt now.

For the last few days I decided to work on three things, a special gun to act as a back-up in case shit hits the fan, working on my aim a bit, and making as much ammo as I can. I know damn well that my aim isn't perfect, so I'll have to mitigate that problem by giving myself as many chances as possible to land a killing shot.

Now, after working on all that shit, it was finally the seventh day. I sat on the couch loading the last magazine with bullets bigger than my hands when Azazel decided to say something, after a week of neither of us talking to each other.

[Eve, your prep time is up]

I let out a tired sigh as I placed the final bullet in the magazine. "Looks like it's time to face the music..." As I said that I placed the magazine in my inventory, and got off the couch to head outside.

As I stepped through the door I immediately noticed that the air smelled different today, it was a familiar smell, it was that of a rainstorm nearing. This is weird, because this was a pocket dimension, and I hadn't seen a single day here that didn't have practically perfect weather till now.

But, I'm just gonna chalked this up to Azazel either raising the difficulty a bit, or him making things seem more interesting. Whatever type of Grimm I'll fights will decide which it is.

While looking up at the dark clouds in the distance, that were mostly hidden by the red leaf treetops, I pulled out both of my Grimm Fate's from my inventory. The cold bones that made the grips felt oddly nice in my grasp.

"Come on, Azazel, let's get this over with..." My voice lacked any energy, and there were the faintest signs that I was developing dark circles under my eyes. While I was trying to make as much ammo as possible for today I may, or may not, have refused to sleep for more than three hours.

[You sure you still want to go through with this? You don't need that metal, but you do need sleep. I mean, seriously, you're beginning to look like you could pass as Aizawa's blonde niece]

I shook my head in protest of Azazel's worries, even though they did hold some truth to them. I was genuinely starting to look like I could pass for a distant relative of the sleep deprived hero, especially since my hair was a mess and had been left out of the buns that I usually put them in each morning.

"I don't need sleep... I need more power... power that I can only get by using whatever you give me... So, unless you want to take back the deal, stop talking, give me the song list, and spawn the damn Grimm already...." My lack of sleep caused me to not bother to filter my words like I usually did so I don't sound like a bitch.

[*Sigh* Fine. But, just remember my first condition when everything is done]

"No bitching, I know...." I said as I quickly scrolled through the panel that held thousands of songs on it, trying to find a good song for this fight.

While I continued to scroll through the list, seven massive King Taijitu's spawned in the distance. Each one easily dwarfed me in size, and could potentially swallow me whole if they managed to get me in one of their mouths. Yet, I just continued to focus on the list, even as they noticed me and began to slither in my direction.

"Hmmm... No, no, no, no, maybe?..... No...." The serpents continued to close in on me, some of them almost uprooted trees with how fast they were moving to what they believed to be easy prey.

"Should I go for something angry sounding, or something energetic?.... Choices, choices..." One of the snakes managed to get ahead of the rest of its kin, the Grimm's eyes focused solely on me as it got closer.

"Maybe I should go with this one-" Before I could finish my sentence the white head of the King Taijitu finally got close enough to lunge at me, it's mouth wide open to devour its prey.

But, when it went to swallow me whole, it was met with nothing but the ground that I once stood on. I had suddenly disappeared from its view, this made the Grimm cry out in frustration as it frantically looked around for me. Though, this only made it kick up a bunch of dirt and dust, which only made it harder to locate me.

"Oh... I'm sorry...did you want to choose what I sing for your funeral?...." I spoke with mocking tone from inside the cloud of dust that surrounded the snake.

Both heads of the Grimm tried to look find where my voice was coming from, but one of them was quickly met with a small cyan projectile to its left eye. As soon as the projectile made contact with the eye, it cut it open, before exploding inside of the split eye, taking both the eye and a small portion of its face. This caused both heads of the serpent to hiss in pain at the lose of one of its eyes.

[Now playing, Leave It All Behind by Cult To Follow]

"Well... too bad.... I don't feel like singing for a pathetic worm like you..." When the dust settled, I was revealed with Bloody Berserker covering my legs, and one of the Grimm Fate's I held aimed at where its eye once was.

The black head of the King Taijitu lunged at me in an attempt to swallow me whole again, but I disappeared right before it could make contact with me. A moment later it was met with a fuck ton of shots from both Grimm Fate's to the back of its head, each one making a small explosion upon contact.

Although none of the shots seemed to pierce its skin, it was obvious that they did plenty of damage judging by how the scales on the back of its head were destroyed, and the pained cries that came from both heads.

Its white head quickly turned towards where the shots came from, where it saw me standing on the air with both my guns aimed at its other half, only to just as quickly lose sight of me again as I disappeared right before its eyes. The next moment its other eye was shot out, making the white head blind and causing it to scream out in pain at the top of its lungs.

'Heh... Movement Prediction and Flash Step are fucking broken for this shit...' I thought as I used said skills again to avoid one of the other King Taijitu's that finally got close enough to try and attack me.

Just like I thought, Movement Prediction is pretty useful when in combat, especially when it works alongside Flash Step. With those two skills I was able to quickly move to the Grimm's blind spot, based on where they'd be going, and could attack them when they least expect it.

Though, there was one major problem with me using Flash Step, I wasn't used to moving so fast so quickly, so my vision ends up being a little fuzzy for a few seconds everytime I used it. Luckily, the King Taijitu's, and their eyes, were such big targets, it was practically impossible for me to not hit it somewhere.

Now all seven of the King Taijitu's surrounded me, one covered in injuries from my previous attacks. Even though I was tired, even though I was surrounded by enemies, even though my vision was fuzzy, I couldn't help but have a sadistic smile grow on my face.

I quickly used Flash Step again to move high up into the air when the Grimm all lunged at me. After that I immediately used the Blessing from Hermes to stand on the air, and began to fire at the serpent Grimm below me with reckless abandon.

The beasts all hissed in pain as dozens of Hard-Light Dust projectiles rained down at them from above, each one making a small explosion as they made contact with the Grimm, and when the Dust ran out, I just ejected the cartridges and loaded a new ones. At this point I might as well be bullying the things, because they had zero means of fighting back, they couldn't spit poison, they can't really throw anything at me, and I wasn't even giving them much time to even think.

I continued doing this for a couple dozen minutes, making the King Taijitu's suffer as each explosion lead them closer to their end. Eventually, when the Grimm had finally gone quiet, and the majority of their bodies were blown up, the clouds had finally gotten close enough for the rain to pour down on me.

[All of them are dead. If you plan on cooking them later, gather them now, because the first of the two boss battles will start soon]

I did as Azazel had advised and quickly went down to the ground to store the fresh corpses in my inventory, I'd think about what to turn them into when this is all done.

A bit after I stored the last oversized snake in my inventory, I heard a loud hissing noise behind me. Quickly looking back I saw what could only be described as the biggest fucking snake I've ever seen. The Elder King Taijitu was far bigger than any Grimm I've killed prior, when it moved one of its head up it easily surpassed the trees in height, making them look like mere twigs in comparison.

"That's a big bitch...." I said before quickly shooting both Grimm Fate's directly at the off brand Jörmungandr, only to be disappointed after the smoke from the small explosions faded, showing that not even a scratch was left on its scales.

"Well... fuck...." As soon as I spoke those words the creature let out a roar so load that it made my ears bleed. I thought it would've went straight for the attack, but instead it suddenly digged through the ground so quickly that it disappeared into the earth in mere seconds.

"Shiiiiiiit...." My eyes widened as I instantly understood what this thing could do, so I quickly used Flash Step multiple times to move into the air, where I then used Hermes' Blessing to keep myself above the ground.

It was a good that I did this when I did, because a moment later the damn thing popped out of the ground where I was originally standing. I could've sworn I heard it click its tongue at the fact that I avoided its attack.

When it caught sight of me again, it dug back into the ground, the second head eyeing me until it went down with its other half. I didn't know if the thing could launch itself into the air from the ground, but I didn't want to find out either, so I quickly went even further into the air.

Again it popped out of the ground a moment later, its body going up higher into the air, directly where I was prior. The first head didn't even bother to look around for me again it just dove right back into the ground, but the second head, its eyes were glued on me almost instantly. Knowing what was coming, I changed my position again the second the entire thing went under.

This routine of me moving around and the Elder Grimm trying to get me went on for a couple minutes, and both of us were getting frustrated. The Grimm because it kept failing to get me, and me because I had tried shooting it in various places, even its eyes, but not a single shot did any damage.

"Fucking durable ass snake.... Looks like I'll have to use that..." I said as I tossed both Grimm Fate's back into my inventory, and changed my location again after the Elder King Taijitu came up again.

As the Grimm dove back into the ground, I pulled out a gun that was easily double my size, and if it weren't for my superhuman strength, I wouldn't have been able to even move it, let alone fire it. It was a whole damn anti-tank rifle, modeled after the same one that Seras Victoria used, the Harkonnen. Though, unlike the Harkonnen, it had a much bigger shoulder piece and was comprised mostly of black steel, wood from the trees in the Forever Fall replica, and of course, Beowolf bones for the grip and massive shoulder piece. But, there was one thing about it that made it especially good against a Grimm like this.

"Let's see how you deal with this...." I said as the giant serpent launched out of the ground once again. 

The moment its second head came out of the ground, I firmly gripped the barrel (yes the barrel) of the gun, and used Flash Step to rush it as quickly as possible.

As I got closer to it, I focused my aura through the rifle's barrel, causing it to flow the gun all the way to the shoulder piece, where a Dust crystal, embedded in the bottom of it, began to glow brightly. I raised it high above my head, and the moment I was close enough, I slammed it down on the second head of the King Taijitu as hard as I could.

Normally, hitting a Grimm with the dull back end of a weapon would be less effective than most means of attacking, but this only applies to normal shit. What I made wasn't just abnormal, by the standards of those in Remnant, it was probably completely fucking stupid. I mean, who sticks a Dust crystal in a weapon and expects it to be more powerful than just shooting Dust bullets? Me, that's who.

You see, after the test with Grimm Fate, I figured that the addition of an entire Grimm bone (even if carved) perfectly focuses my aura to amplify the power of the Dust. Hence why Grimm Fate was so much more powerful than even its weaker counterpart that only had a small amount of the bone mixed into the metal.

So, tell me, what happens if you put an entire skeletons worth of Beowolf bones into a gun, stick a whole Dust crystal in it, and then swing it at a living creature with more than enough force to shatter an adult man's rib cage?

Pain.

Right as the shoulder piece was about to make contact with its face, that had gotten wet from the rain and covered in mud from the digging, a large portion of its head froze solid. It then shattered like glass almost instantly as the back end of the rifle slammed down on it at full force.

The head that just lost a large portion of its face lost consciousness at the sheer amount of pain it suddenly felt, that probably would've made an average person die on the spot from shock. This caused the other head to lose its balance and fall onto the muddy ground below. With how the King Taijitu was built, as long as you take out one head, the other head will always be dragged down by the dead weight, or die trying to get rid of it for its own survival.

"Hey.... worm..." I yelled out as I looked down at Grimm that was essentially less than a fish in a barrel right now.

The seemingly main head of the Elder King Taijitu looked up at me, pure rage evident in its eyes met my own.

"Do you wanna know why you lost to me?...." I flipped the rifle in my hands, the barrel now aimed straight at its eye, and I took out a magazine of Dust bullets from my inventory.

It hissed at me, which was most likely its way of saying, 'I don't give a fuck!', but I just continued speaking as I loaded the magazine into the anti-tank rifle.

"Because...." I made sure the first bullet was in the chamber, and then aimed directly at its pupil

A smile graced my lips as I pulled the trigger, the bullet that had a light blue glow about it shot out at incredible speeds, soaring through the air as the rain continued to pour down. It went through a couple raindrops, each one froze after having the bullet pass through them.

Right as the bullet was about to hit its mark, my smile grew even wider, showing my sharp teeth, and looking just like the same smile that Himiko often wore. When the bullet was less than a hair's breadth away from its eyeball, I finished my sentence.

"....bitches love cannons."

The bullet went through its eye like a hot knife through butter, and just as quickly as it went through, the dust in it started to take affect. From the Grimm's eye ice began to spread at rapid speeds to cover the entire body, the rain that made it wet only acting to make the process even faster.

When the process, that only took a few seconds, finished, all that was left of the once great beast was an oversized ice sculpture that vaguely looked like a deformed snake.

[That's one stage down. Ready for the next?]