User blog comment:B214/Question and Answers 4/@comment-188.173.207.40-20150404223823/@comment-26268422-20150405012133

In V. 19 Azazel goes to Shiva for help and gets a commitment as a last ditch insurance against total annialation because it is his job to destroy the universe. Shiva is portrayed as super-super-super spiritual and thoughtful and as a teenaged boy in appearance. Ishibumi does not at all appear to be setting him up as a future heavy.

As for Gasper:  Not a longinus, not even an unrecognized one. It is his Vampire power that produces that awesome attack. His sacred gear only stops time. IIRC there is some interaction between the gear and his vampire powers having to do with the evil magician Balor, part of whose soul resides in Gasper's SG.