Her eyes begin with the hilt itself, the core was only a battery, but the hilt, the hilt was an engine. From what she could see the hilt was made with an infusion of mithril and adamantine, but the mixture of the two was so seamless that the untrained eye could easily mistake the metal for pure mithril due to its light blue hue. The base used multiple mana contraction runes, most likely to contain and compartmentalize the divine magic that ran through the engine. The trigger was made with a simple rune in place, the drain on the user's mana would be benign, but with divine magic running through the weapon, it would take an considerable amount of power to even hold it.

That fact alone impressed the young Rei with Sigrid's attempts to modify it. There was a problem that could occur in the end, the core influence was left completely bare and without any attempt to conceal the depravity that seethed through it. This was probably to maintain the maximum amount of power that the feather contained, but whose feather was it? The only answer she could come up with is the feather of the fallen angel Naberius, and if that was true, the influence of the feather could easily have a more profound effect on the young woman.

This had to be tested at a later point, for now she was going to need to write and analyze this *formula* of runes used to maintain the edge of the blade. On the prongs of the inner hilt she could vaguely see markings, with a test of mana she could see them glow only slightly, they were so small. She looked around the desks of the work room, the guards making sure to eye her closely to ensure her work was being down without any suspicious action.

A magnifying glass! Now she would be able to look deeper into the rune work of the engine, and upon inspection her heart sank. Even smaller runes? How was this even possible, she had no tool in her disposal to write a rune that small, and what was more complicated was the use of the word of *creation*, something on the core had to act in tandem with this rune for this to make any sense at all, or maybe, maybe it was installed with a runic circle.

On the bottom of the core, her suspicions were confirmed with the presence of a sustenance rune laced on the edges of the bottom of the core. That combine with a runic circle is what made this machine work in unison, the circle was going to be difficult to make, but if it was made with another divine instrument, she would be able to get in the middle of the creation and sustenance runes, and potentially add an addition that would allow the runes to intake and produce holy energy. From what she could tell, the elements of cosmic and lighting were branded onto the engines triggering runes, but the occult function was left into the inner core.

She wouldn't be able to completely remove it's occult properties, but they could be suppressed by *battery* with near equivalent power to the feather. The runes in place would need to be drawn near the elemental conversion portion of the engine. Quickly she began to recreate the formula of the runes onto her notebook

[Sub Holy] Oc x ManaRc/intake

The circle was going to need to be written in blood, a large amount of blood...as she begins to record her findings the young Rosengard enters the room.

"Miss Sigrid, this is going to be a very lengthy and complicated process, we can potentially trade over the force of holy magic over occult, BUT....I won't be able to completely remove the occult magic inside of the blade, the core itself is a very complicated process, it would take years to attempt to make a new one, and to be honest, I only think that this core took weeks for the original forger to make. I'll have to do some research on the people who made this weapon, but on the bright side, we will only need to make one refined runic circle."

"The bad new is that we will have to use blood to do it, the worst news is the potential origin of this feather. If it is that person's feather, then using this could be dangerous for you and your family Sigrid, if you're willing to take those risks we can begin, but we should do some type of tests first before we start the circle." The young woman pull out three small vials from her knapsack and placed them on the table, if you have no problem with it, I need to have a small blood sample to test the reaction it will have with the core if you don't mind."

So much to do, but it was all for the sake of progression, and for the threat of war. War was terrible, it drove good people to extreme measures to protect what they believed was good...how would this venture effect Sigrid's journey through life, how would it effect Akroma's? In the end, the only thing that would be certain, was that time waits for no one.
(Akroma Rei)

As Sigrid entered the room, she could already see Akroma well at work over the intricate machinery and framework that made up the blade itself. It was fascinating, but far too complicated for Sigrid to take meaning - or even bring herself to discern just what Akroma attempted create.

Her infancy was full of runewriting, and some of it had stuck with her over the years, but her knowledge wasn't as refined as it used to be. Its use came even less when confronted with the delicate work that made up the runes set in place, with Sigrid only being able to interpret the most rudimentary facets.

"You're doing a wonderful job, Akroma..", she complimented with a nod. "However, the feather, as I've said, probably belongs to a fallen angel. It's innately depraved, no matter how it's put... but it'll be necessary if this weapon is to retain its current power. War demands sacrifice, I'm afraid.", she addressed.

"As for the circle, that's splendid news. I'm willing to contribute to its making in any way I can." She looked to the girl. "I'm guessing my own blood will be needed for this? "
(Sigrid Rosengard)

Her question was dodged, but she knew what this could possibly be, she pushed her thoughts aside and responded to the young princess. "Yes that would be very kind of you, whenever you're ready please use this to extract samples at your own pace." She handed her a small surgical knife and made her way back to examining the engine in place. With her microscope she could see the rune work literally burned into the etchings of other runes, how small these runes possibly became were something that she could only examine with a more powerful magnifying glass.

One thing she took away from this was that inscribe a copy of a rune into itself compounds the effects of the rune ten-fold. Her pages were soon filled with notes to help her personal progression, almost taking a backseat to her actual task, but with time, she had to push forward with what she promised. "Alright Miss Sigrid, The runes placed into this construct are very...intricate to say the least. The base and the engine have two distinct styles of runes, the circle we need to draw will have to be able to weave into both. The hilt of the blade was drawn with compounded runes, or, runes inside of runes. Like writing a sentence, and then writing the same sentence in the each letter of the larger sentence. Right now I can only see up to two layers, but that's only because the magnifying glass I have isn't powerful."

"I don't have the means to fully replicate that style, but that can be circumvented if the source of the circle is of equal power to the current core. The core was written using elemental binding – when the person finished writing the command, they binded lightning and cosmic energy to the core. I suspect that Occult magic was also bonded to the core, BUT, the power of the feather completely absorbed it, and stained it into the walls of the core."

"Our best bet, is using blood to mimic compounding, but I want to see how your blood reacts with the current core in place. Since you're going to be the primary wilder, the weapon has potential to bind to your soul. I only say this because a majority, if not all divine exploits need the force of one's soul to project it's full power. Secondly, a rune was placed to subvert some of core's suction on the soul, forcing it to use it's own energy to power a majority of the machine. The weapon in its current state, isn't at *full* power, so to speak. Since mana comes from a portion of the soul, using it charges it slowly, but allowing it to touch your soul will do so at a more substantial rate. If we don't want it to hurt you, we need to recreate those seals with holy magic, it won't remove the occulting power, completely, but it can suppress it until another occultist triggers its original affinities."
(Akroma Rei)

A lot of words put together that made her head spin - that much was understood. However, Sigrid got the basics down for the most part. Details of the heaviest importance were made note of and addressed.

"Very well, so, we can't exactly shift its affinity, but we can put a lid on it while another is set in place, is what you're saying.", she looked at and promptly picked up the surgical paraphernalia presented before her, whereupon she played around with the knife designed to extract precious blood.

She wasn't exactly keen on doing it.

"Interesting.", the word escaped. "If it's of any significance, my blood carries trace amounts of Judeal Loki's. Perhaps it would react better than its previous user? It's a forethought."
(Sigrid Rosengard)

"I see."

This could mean trouble, but for the sake of science it was going to have to be done. She began to flip through her pages to find a space to find a space to begin drawing her trial's table. A majority of the time, blood carried only a small amount of mana but in this case, her hypothesis was complete extraction, upon applying to the feather, the divine magic would filter the divine energies inside of her blood and discard any useless material. Her thought was based on the nature of divine magic itself, a majority of divine conduits were in most cases not fully made naturally.

As she finished her tables, her eyes shift over towards the royal, she could feel the tension slowly set in the room. "Are you afraid of knives Miss Sigrid?" her tone was joking, but she knew the danger behind holding the blood of the divine, it would take a lot of trust to be able to experiment with it, trust that she probably has not built in this moment. "You can take all the time you need, I'm going to have to look over how to begin this trial in the first place anyways."
(Akroma Rei)

"No no... I'm no stranger to sharp objects. I'm simply deliberating on the other aspects of this experiment.", Sigrid soon corrected, preparing to commit to the project she'd started. "For example, how would the addition of an extra feather affect the overall performance? Would it be detrimental, and moreover, is it even possible?"

Amid her queries, what she assumed to be three containers of some kind - likely vials - were grabbed a hold of in their foundation, wherein she began to meticulously slice the flesh of her wrist, ensuring no major arteries were severed. It was a lot less painful than it looked, registering as nothing more than a sting as the surgical blade broke the skin that held her blood.

It trickled slowly into the vials as she held her arm above them, making sure every single drop fell into the narrow openings. It was a slow process, only sped up as she squeezed at the wound to expunge the blood available before clotting began. It was more than enough time bought for Akroma to look over any missed details or details that needed fabrication.

"This isn't so bad... I'm hoping that this idea of yours will work."
(Sigrid Rosengard)

"Thank you very much Sigrid this will be very beneficial to us indeed." The vials of blood are placed near the center of the table, she was going to need to use them soon while it was still warm and fresh. She turned to the young woman and began to explain the potential process at hand. "Another feather would make the process easier, but forcing it with a foreign feather could prove to be chaotic, I'm not sure how it would react. All I know is that the engine itself is more than capable than holding that kind of power, the real uncertainty would lie with you Sigrid."

"The influence of depraved object could be a lot, I know your strong, and you have ties to divinity yourself, but these are remnants of REAL divine beings Sigrid, the will of these feathers may seem small, but they can reach into your soul, in fact, that's what it's designed to do sigrid. The soul is what power's divine magic in itself, and to be honest, I doubt that there are any mortals in this realm that have a deep understanding of biomechanics of divine or even semi divine beings."

"This can be done Sigrid, but you need to be careful, your will needs to be completely unbreakable, and *incorruptible*. They say when an angel has fallen, they are completely unredeemable entities, cursed with the vices of sin for all eternity, I don't want that to happen to you. No one would want that for anyone in this world Sigrid." Her warnings a laid bare, and the work was now ready to begin, from the workspace she pulls out small eye droppers, filling out a vial of the blood inside of it and exposed the core onto the desk.

"Alright Sigrid, here we go, I'm going to place three drops of blood on to the feather itself, since your blood is divine, it should have *SOME* sort of reaction. What I predict is that the core will extract the divine magic out of your blood and discard your human DNA entirely. I'm not sure if that's how it will turn out but this is what I predict." Quickly the three drops of blood are dropped into the center of the core, the response of the core's magic was something that left her completely bewildered......

Slowly, the blood lays suspended in the air, *orbiting* around the center of the core. Sparks of red and white lightning occasionally make contact with the drops of blood, but from what she could tell, the blood itself wasn't altered in the slightest. "This....I don't even know what this is Sigrid...I don't understand this at all, give me a moment please." She takes the surgical knife from the table and quickly washes it with water. The blade soon find its way into the tip of her pointer finger, and her hand delicately hovers over the core.

The drops of blood immediately make contact with the core with no effect what's so ever. Her face was dumbfounded, but at the same time, excited for the discovery. More drops of Sigrid's blood is placed into the orbit of the core. Sparks continue to fly and collide into the drops of blood until something even more extraordinary happens....the blood begins to cohere together forming a small ring around the core, and again, red and white sparks begin to generate from the core to the ring of blood.

"This is astonishing, the core itself recognizes your blood as an extension, of itself. The reaction between your blood and the core is small, but it's enough to change everything. Maybe, just maybe, the core's power can adjust itself to your mana if enough blood is used in the seal. This is a good AND a bad thing Sigrid. The good new is that the seal will be easy to meld together if you have your blood meld into it, using another divine medium will only make things much more simple. The immediate problem is that since your blood is related to the feather, the influence it can carry is much more prevalent than if someone like your father was wielding it."

"Are you sure you want to tamper with something this risky Sigrid? Is the risk worth the reward in the end?"


(Akroma Rei)

The Rosengard watched attentively as the process unfolded before her. It was certainly magnificent seeing how the blood itself contracted and morphed into various shapes, adopting various forms in its amorphous state - almost as if it were living.

What had Sigrid taken aback, however, weren't the repercussions that came with tampering or even dealing with remnants of a fallen being, but the fact she was somehow related to the feather being used. It used to be an afterthought, but now it had been made irrefutable: it was Judeal Loki's; her great-grandfather's.

The risks that came with it were - as Akroma had put it -- substantial. Not only because she was literally using her depraved and wicked ancestor as a weapon, but because of the drawbacks that came to linking one's soul to such a being. It was, regardless, necessary in her mind.

"Kraus made us so that we could be redeemed, and our souls cleansed. I'll be capable of handling it, even if it's trying. I don't plan to use it much, either way. It's a weapon meant for slaying the the indomitable, and I intend to use it as such."

Her fingers rapped on the table while she rested a cheek upon a single hand, studying the entrails of the weapon for herself.

"Besides, I'm sure that its influence would be minor in my case."

Of course it would.
(Sigrid Rosengard)

"It's a slippery slope Sigrid, just make sure that you're careful with this kind of thing ok?" Concern was the only thing that colored her tone, scientific excitement aside her work would be lessened substantially by her find, but it would still be a lot of work to do. How large would the circle need to be was her first question, how much blood would she need to give to make it. "Sigrid, by any chance, would you have the second medium on your person, also...where exactly did it come from?" Her collection of depraved divine materials was one that puzzled her, where were these being coming from, she knew that judeal was her relative, but what was the second entity....and how did her father even come by a weapon such as this.

The adventures of Royals seemed to be covered in darker dealings than she realized. Pushing past her thoughts, she began to draw a sketch of all the necessary seals on her notebook. "Alright this is going to be a lot of work, we'll need to draw the seal on the ground first, then trace the seal in your blood, at the center of your seal should be the divine medium to lock in the command without ANY hitches. Once that is complete, there should be enough room in the core to fit the second medium inside so we should place the core in the center. "

"The hilt was designed to hold an unyielding amount of power, so we don't even need to tamper with it. All that needs to be done, is the transcribing of the command onto the original feather, using the power of the second feather. The first ring of runes should be made with Flow of Lifeforce or –Yassum, Fehu, and Ren. Each rune needs to be repeated in that order for the first ring, so look at this drawing very carefully for me ok?"

" A lot of blood is going to be used once we finish the runic circle, so you have to perk yourself up Sigrid, passing out will force us to start over, blood's potency lifetime is not a long one."

(Akroma Rei)