And suddenly everything is blinding.

I let out a groan of pain as I cover my eyes. “Awawawawa! This isn’t good!” I panicked almost… childish voice? Not quite feminine, but… like an anime voice.

“I didn’t stop them… but it’s all your fault! You shouldn’t have listened to creepy voices in the dark!” All he needs to do is add ‘baka’ and he’d complete the act. Recovering enough to squint at him he’s… well as feminine as expected… Femboy I believe would be the term. Long twintails on the side of his head being a soft blue with a… coat? Complete with a cleavage window, which his lack of anything to show is one of the major reasons I am siding with him being a male… That and boyshorts reinforce it.

“And I can’t just return you to Earth if you have a monster core!”

He pauses and takes several breaths, “Okay, it’s fine. I can still fix this! I’ll just convince him to be a good person… Which means I’ll have to bribe him…”

“Truly a paragon a virtue,” I quip, before pausing, surprised I can speak now.

“Don’t scoff at me! I am Ariel, the Lion of Heaven, Lord of Air!” He snaps at me and… I suppose is trying to look intimidating.

“Bitch, you look like a discount Disney princess waiting on her Prince Charming™ to solve her problems. Don’t try to look big,” I scoff at the display. He is taken back by it before flushes red in anger.

“Disney princess? FUCK YOU I AM A MAN! I LIKE GIRLS”

“X to doubt.”

“Fine! You want proof! I can switch out your core for something better for free!”

I pause at this… I can get rid of the core Carn **** upon me… but… I highly doubt he’d be giving me another dark core so… would that cause problems? … Didn’t Mel say something about my soul sequestering and … agg… aggu… nating? Fuck I didn’t know what that word meant in the first place, but sequestering is to keep things separate so they don’t interact right? So it really shouldn’t matter if their natures are opposed then cause they won’t interact.

Ariel seemed to have mistaken my silence for something else, and has pulled out a bunch of cores from… somewhere… Did I… Was I not paying attention or what? He pauses for a moment, “So uh… we’re technically not supposed to use but…we’re also not supposed to reincarnate humans from different worlds but everyone does that so… it should be good… right?” After a moment to convince himself, he shows them to me, “They’re so much better than the Dark Cores!”

I handle them and analyze them. Unlike the goddess, who directly poured the knowledge into my mind, it seems he’s incapable of such things. They’re far more limited choices, but they are… interesting… First the Type. Beautiful is almost a perfect analog to the Dark Core’s options, 20% stat boost, with an effect on those defeated… However… not really sure what a ‘pretty’ dragon would look like, nor do I find that… necessary. If I have to beat up people to get them to love me that… leads to interesting implications… Regardless, the other two are far more interesting… Doom immediately sticks out to me. The ability to bypass immunities is huge, especially since depending on how things work, the ignoring of defense might mean that 5% damage could be far higher than a ‘peer’ opponent could do with a hit. However… I already have minions and giving them 5% of my stats, which presumably includes any buffs I have, makes even the weakest of chaff capable of dealing chip damage to anything I can face, combined with the immunity to fear… I can turn my minions into a pretty potent army.

Yeah… I think Inspiring is the choice here… Now there are some very interesting choices for the ‘family’ options. Screw angels, besides most of my targets are going to be immune or highly resistant to light magic, so it’s biggest buff is moot. Spirits sounds… incredibly potent, with powerful resistances, and generally useful buffs. Fairies sound surprisingly useful as well, however very definitely a magic caster, which I’m not exactly geared towards… Maybe useful for broadening my strengths, but it doesn’t sell me… Which means it’s between Spirits, and Sin Eaters, which has a far weaker bonus, though I am a dragon who has a great bonus in and of itself, and it covers my greatest weakness… Experience gain. Besides, Ariel is hesitant on it, and that has to add a few points. The fact that what I kill stays dead and the possibility of them through resurrection or speak with dead magic, leaking information on me becomes impossible is just the icing on this cake.

Now just to… Get the unwanted core out… somehow. Puzzling on it, I try to ‘examine’ them… and I find them… My dragon core is happily seated, and at peace within my soul… And the other one… is trying to change me… Yeah, out. With almost surprising ease, it pops out, seemingly not having taken root? I’m puzzled by this but Ariel quickly snatches it up and focuses a column of light onto it… shattering to to burning pieces, as I grab my chosen core and replace it quickly. And… while the changes that Carn’s little ‘prank’ don’t seem to undo… This core’s changes are… immense… I feel… hollow? Like a void… hungry but… not for food? It’s… I mean, I haven’t felt hungry since I… died… But this is… I don’t know. Regardless, this femboy angel has no intention of letting me process what’s happening to me and just continues on.

“Okay, now that I convinced you to listen to me… Don’t answer. I have much, much better things in store. Not that I can give them to you for free. Unlike those two, I pride myself on making honest deals! And I know you’re a porn addicted serial **** who is planning to be a piece of shit doing things like burn down cities, ****, desecrate our temples, ****, hunt down those good girls, and ****.” Lovely assumptions. My anger does flare, but I contain it as he continues running his mouth, “However, I have some Divine Oaths that are absolutely unbreakable. With ‘never ever ever getting out of these’ restrictions I am willing to give you the good stuff!” While I’m about rip him a new ass for talking shit, but I stopped with this, and shifted my weight as I hold my tongue just a little longer. Ariel likes his lips nervously, “I can give you a blessing… Uh… two blessings… and a divine miracle… For each oath… And the Divine Oaths come up with some benefits of their own!” He tries to sell them… hard. **** even… Looking over the Oath’s they’re not even that restrictive. Well at least for me. Mindless destruction that has no benefit hardly interests me. Not sure I really am going to bother with cities, but if I am, conquest and getting all the benefits from owning a city seems a lot more…useful then just getting a bunch or rubble after leveling it. On that same note, killing all my potential subjects… Not particularly useful either. The only one that is kinda restrictive is the last one, which requires me to ‘defeat’ the Demon King. And mostly that’s because it actively requires something from me. The tracking element is the only particularly useful feature of it in my opinion as well. Still I have some questions.

“So why doesn’t love humanity cover those that are fighting for the Light?”

“Well… Technically, there is an exception for those who are fighting against your side, so the heroes who take this could still ‘deal’ with those that turn their back on the light but… while you have a light core… You’re still a monster, so you kinda count as both sides… And thus both so the exceptions… Kinda counts for both. Not even the Goddesses anticipated a situation like this.”

“And defeating the Demon King… Doesn’t that sort of… undermine the point of the heroines?”

“Yes… but, a victory is a victory, even if you have redundant plans made pointless… And besides, defeat doesn’t actually mean kill. There are cases where mercy is warranted after all, and the Oath has to allow for that, so it counts defeat as making them abandon their long term evil plans.”

“Well… I’ll take all three Oaths.”

“Really? Really! That’s great. I knew I was getting through to you. I am just that amazing after al-”

“Get to the Blessings and Miracles you promised,” I snap, which snaps him out of his self-aggrandizing and to sheepishly lay out what he was offering.

He only had six blessings, so I got all of them. Being able to turn into a human is quite useful for keeping a low profile and just… convenience. I’m used to being a human so that’s nice. Having a private… retreat is also nice, though I’m not entirely sure what I am going to end up using it for at the moment. Though it is reassuring that even bloodthirsty pixie queens can’t break in.

Now Immaculate Conception is… sort of a trick. It does give me the knowledge to make these Emanations, however, it requires me to construct… well essentially a factory, and feed it a constant stream of raw materials in order to make them, which sounds like an absolute pain in the ass. Maybe if I capture a city, I can get working on it, but the only thing that I can really use is the fact that even if I decide to make minions the… ‘old fashion way’ I can use the knowledge to… ‘edit’ them.

Warmth… gets me questioning the Goddesses of Light a little bit… but I guess it’s common for humans to pray to the gods in general for children so that might be why? Still, I guess causing people to not freak out immediately can be useful, especially if I do end up taking over humans… It really seems like I’m getting many abilities useful for that… Actually a lot of my abilities from my monster core also gives bonuses to minions, so… theoretically I could turn humans into minions and they’d benefit from those bonuses as well right? All the more reason not to mindlessly slaughter.

Angelic Protection is generally useful, with some useful key immunities and a solid buff to defense, but nothing game changing.

And finally God’s Eye. Ariel is… of course, bragging about it and himself. As I focus it on him and something immediately catches my eye, which causes me to blurt out, “Times caught by heretical gay thoughts counter? Fetishes? Damn!”

While Ariel is having a mini-meltdown over I look over and find… several thing that are… Unusual. First off, it appears that ‘gender’ is a… choice for angels, as they can just change it… And little Ariel here is a filthy pervert. Apparently over a thousand years old, this little angel has watched many a failed heroine get railed by monsters, and gets off on it… Even wondering what it’d be like to be her… Leading to the heretical gay thought counter… Which is in the hundreds. Heck, his current opinion of me is “Stupid sexy darkie!” What a sexually repressed little bundle of neurosis he is. Well, probably am going to have to use this against him sooner or later, so useful information. Still… he’s trying to deny everything at the moment… and I need to get the Miracles out of him.

After several minutes he finally calms down and gets back to business with a literal, “Forget everything that happened.” I won’t… but that’s for later.

“And now for the best of the best,” He states happily, once again getting back to his egotistical self, “Only heroines can even dream of laying eyes on these! So be grateful for this chance! And don’t think you can get these anywhere else!”

I look over the list of five offerings. I almost immediately discard the Key to Apollyon. An experience farm is nice, but I’m expecting that this is more of a special battle arena… which in games, like this world is supposed to function, and from what Ariel said, are more… post main-story things. I’d probably get trounced if I go in there early, and this isn’t a game where I have save points and can just see what it’s like, or play over and over until I luck into a win. Simply put it’s too dangerous and too late game to be much use. While I suspect they wouldn’t be too eager to make friends with me, I also suspect that it has a safety mechanism to prevent me from taking them out as well… Otherwise why would Ariel be so content to hand it over?

Regardless… which of the remaining ones should I not take? Pure Lands just synergizes too well with my dungeon core, so that’s an obvious one, and the extra xp tick is nice, but probably not a game changer. Mark of Submission is probably going to be very useful for dealing with the heroines. Can prevent the situation where the defeated ones decide to jump in when I’m trying to deal with the others, since the plan is to pick them off one at a time. Which leaves God’s Blade, and Enoch. Enoch sounds powerful, however it is weaker then the evolved Final Form but a bit, which I should be able to get, and while it stacks with it, I don’t know how severe the whole ‘dying means destruction of your soul’ is, considering I wasn’t aware I even had one until not long ago. In addition, if **** means destruction of the soul since it’s fused with the body, wouldn’t injuries suggest damage to the soul? Sounds… too risky. No. God’s Blade, a powerful attack which admittedly scales off magic which isn’t my highest stat, though does have the 500% from just being a dragon so would be higher than most other builds still right? Regardless it pierces defenses and furthermore, buffs all my allies an additional time.

I tell him my choices, and I feel the power of these miracles. And then we both notice something. I notice this strange gem floating next to Ariel… almost translucent… and seems important. As for Ariel, he seems to have discovered that the Mark of Submission has… reacted strangely to my energy. And he’s freaking out.

“Why does it look like this!? Is it because you’re a monster? It’s supposed to be an easily concealable mark on the collarbone, not a womb tattoo!” He exclaims strongly, a hint of fear working into his voice, “No this is… this is bad! This might be a mistake. I can’t…” I grab the gem while he’s distracted and his attention suddenly shifts, “Wait? NO! Give it back! If you don’t, I’ll be **** to be your Guardian Angel! I don’t want to guide, heal, protect, … comfort, care for a monster,” He pleads desperately, though a hint of sexual tones work in the final few words as his imagination runs wild for a moment. He recomposes himself… sort of, as he continues to whine, “I’ve never been a Guardian Angel before! And I need my first time to be with a cute girl! Not a monster!” As he continues to whine, since he seems to be unable to act against me at the moment, I see if I can apply the Mark of Submission to gain a more concrete control and… He twitches for a moment, shuttering as his eyes roll into his head. Is he… cumming? And he continues to, as a mark works its way onto his belly above where a theoretical womb would be.

As he… recovers, panting, he looks at me far more submissive than his previous bravado. Clearly understanding I now have the power over him. Gently caressing the gem, I ask, “So who knows about me currently.”

“Wha-?” He seems baffled by this line of thoughts

“You’re my Guardian Angel right? So I need to know about threats to me, right?”

“Um… I don’t think anyone should know,” He says, before adding, “As… as far as they know, there is just a wayward soul that needs to get sent back. I… I only discovered that the darkies took your soul when I tried to reach you.”

“Can you keep it a secret then?”

“Oh um… yes? I mean if I return to heaven they’ll notice the mark immediately… and that I’m a Guardian Angel now. So… they might wonder what is going on?”

“Well… do you have to return?”

“I mean… I don’t but… they’ll want to know… And my boss will yell at me if I just leave again.”

“Then… can you contact them without revealing the mark… Let them know you’ve become a Guardian Angel and are busy with that?”

“I… am not supposed to become one without permission.”

“But you still could… Can they reach you in my domain?”

“No… they know of it, and I’ve… hidden from them in there before so… it should be safe… At least unless a Goddess personally decides to bring me back, but they normally have better things to do.”

“Then just tell them and hide in there.”

He nods, acting strangely… like he’s waiting for. Using the God’s Eye on him, I see his mood has shifted to ‘Anticipating my owner pinning me down and breeding me like a bitch.’ Right… well… I’m not sure how that’d work considering he’s a guy and I don’t have a body yet but… I’ll keep that in mind.

“Is there anything else I should be aware of before I… reincarnate?” I ask, before pausing and asking, “Actually how do I do that?”

“Oh, are you ready? I can do that for you,” And he reaches out and… pushes me through… something?

Once again I’m sinking, though into light as he calls out, “I’ll deal with things on my end and will be waiting for you in your domain Master! ~ <3 ~”