Published: November 21st 2024, 6:31:20 pm
I watch the woman pull out a smartphone and type in a number, seemingly turning on face time.
Nothing happens for a long moment, then a voice echoes out.
"Hello? Griselda?" A gentle voice echoes out of the device. It's calming, melodical, and... just radiates peace.
"He has agreed to speak with you." The blonde nun.
"That's wonderful!" The woman on the other end beams.
I open my mouth to say something only to pause.
My vision darkens and suddenly I'm at the place I was almost two nights ago.
The kind old man appears yet again. "Heeeey uh... Suzutsu. Can you do me a favor and not tell them I'm still alive?"
"..." I'm silent for a long moment.
He gives me a sad smile, answering the question on the tip of my tongue. "They'll never grow under my shadow... they'll never reach their full potential."
"They'll also die out because they fall every time they try to make another angel."
"You know as well as I that they'll develop a room to get around that quite soon... heck, you could probably figure out how to make it in ten minutes."
"Point... but-" I let out a long sigh. "Alright. I understand, but... hey... can you make it so Mittelt maybe... uh..."
"Oh. That was something I had always planned. It's just... nobody attempted it. I'll do you a favor and loosen the restrictions for her alone."
"Thanks. I mainly asked for this because, well... I don't like people looking at her as sub-human... worthless... trash. It makes me angry because of how much she means to me, both as my friend and more. If that happened, maybe people wouldn't look at her that way anymore. I know she said it doesn't bother her, but..."
I let out a quiet sigh shaking my head as I move on. "Anyways. I won't tell them... but... wait- I have a question that's always bothered me. Where the hell is the Tarrasque sacred gear? Like... out of EVERY mythical creature that dragon is like THE only one that you should EVER have had easy access to! It was captured by a holy maiden that supposedly met your son, so where is it?"
"Eh. Never really got around to making it into a sacred gear to be honest. Same with the Peluda." He shrugs.
"Yeah... I was going to ask about that one as well. Seems like something you would have done due to its folklore of being refused access to the Ark and surviving the great flood." I shake my head. "Anyways. Your secret's safe with me... I still feel as if you should speak to them again one day."
"Oh, don't worry... I will... but it's not yet time." The man smiles. "Goodbye again!"
I blink several times as I reappear in the world at large.
It's as if the last couple of minutes hadn't happened.
As if that conversation happened in an instant.
I close my mouth, watching the nun walk over as Mittelt shifts to my side, gazing at the phone cautiously.
I lean forwards slightly, eyes narrowing at the small screen.
"Alright. That's too tiny. One second. I'll make this easier for all of us.
I wave my hand, a glowing monitor appearing in the air behind the woman.
"Annnd. There."
With a flash a camera made of white and blue lines appear, a woman's face appearing on the screen. She has light pure skin, long curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes. A golden ring floats above her head and twelve snow white wings frame her body.
She tilts her head cutely seemingly trying to observe what I'm doing. Her eyes flick down to Griselda, to Irina and then to Xenovia who is rolling on the floor.
Her lips turn downwards slightly. "Why is young Xenovia younger... and... in pain?"
"Oh. I gave her an existential crisis by revealing some of the church's darkness... also she called my girlfriend a whore- in nicer words, mind you-." I gesture to Mittelt "Which is why I cursed her to be younger. if you're going to act like a brat... you're going to be one."
"Could you remove it? Please?" The woman asks.
"Fine." I sigh. "Only if you answer a few questions of mine."
"That... depends on the questions. I will tell you whatever I feel I am able... is that fair?"
"It is." I smile brightly. "First off... can god beat Goku?"
"Absolutely!" She beams without a second of hesitation. This confirms a few things...
Firstly? Gabriel knows about dragon ball.
Second. Her halo doesn't even flicker so she clearly believes it with all her heart.
It's possible she just meant Sun Wukong, though... who knows.
"..."
"You're fun." I note with a small smile. "Next question."
A bible appears in my hand. "Two kings two. Twenty three and twenty four... what the HECK does that mean? Or does making fun of bald people just get you and forty one other boys mauled by bears?"
"The false priests and followers of sin came to Elisha. Insulting the passing of his master. Questioning his anointing as a prophet of our father. He was nearly killed before father intervened."
"With bears." I reiterate.
"Yes." She nods, face slightly solemn.
"Forty Two Boys?" I echo.
"Oh... that is mistranslated. There were none younger than sixteen. I will need to send someone to get that fixed... perhaps I should re-read the bible and make a few corrections." The woman ponders for a moment.
"Alright. Another question. What's it like to have a halo? Like... is it physical? Do you have to duck going through doors? Can you move it? Does it sound like one of those metal triangle instruments if you were to accidentally bump it?"
"Yes, not often. Yes, sometimes." She smiles brightly, amused by my questions.
"Alright, that's kind of all I wanted to know." I shrug idly before turning to Mittelt. "What about you? Any questions for her?"
The twin-tailed blonde ponders for a long moment. "What hair products do you use?"
"Ah. I'm afraid this is all natural." The woman explains.
"UNFAIR!" Mittelt cries, pulling her knees up to her chest as she sulks.
"Alright. I guess that's all we wanted to know. I'll undo the curse... it would have worn off anyways as she was aging twice as fast until she reached her true age. I'll just speed up how fast this works.
A magic circle appears in front of my hand as my eyes glow. "Annnnd done. You'll return to your normal age in about a week. Normally such fast growth would either make you starve or just flat out cripple you, but I've taken care of that. Good for you."
"Now. Since my very important questions are out of the way." I continue, refocusing on Gabriel. "Hello. My name is Suzutsu Hyoudou. This is Mittelt. We are the creators of the Eden system and the co-Ceos of Eden Interactive, what may we do for you, Gabriel?"
"What are your intentions with your video game... Domain of Maigc?" The woman questions.
"Uh... huh. We don't really... have one? Make it fun for people playing I guess? It's sort of a net-positive for all races involved." I glance to Mittelt as she continues where I left off.
"It's our hope that it can be used to somewhat relieve the tensions between races." She speaks. "We just wanted something fun, but we also wanted to improve the lives of everyone who played... we wanted to give back the legs of people who had been in car accidents. To allow sick patients to experience more before their time. To wake comatose patients and more."
"I'm not going to say our goals are purely altruistic. But... if you have the ability to do something big... like stopping world hunger and it's easy. Why wouldn't you? I wanted a fun game where I could really cut loose. Blow up mountains, build giant robots, create army destroying spells. But. Such a thing could very easily be used to teach people new languages. Teach new crafts. Teach cooking. Life skills. Muscle memory carries over."
"Yeah." Mittelt agrees a small smile on her lips. "I just want to have fun... I don't want to be forced to fight in a war that I have no stakes in. If peace comes as a result of this game? Good. That's what I hoped. If people can live out their fantasies? Even better."
I reach over and pat her head causing her to angrily swipe at my hand with a small glare that causes my smile to grow.
"I see..." The woman whispers, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "And... what else of the system? What else can it do if you don't mind me asking? Does it have any purpose beyond this?"
"Well... it does detect sacred gear wielders." I admit after a moment causing her smile to thin.
"Oh. Don't worry. Only three people have access to the logs. Azazel. Myself. And her." I gesture to Mittelt. "The entire reason we have done this is to make a note of it alongside their play data. If they play like an utter psychopath and have a locked sacred gear, perhaps they need to be watched."
"This seems like an incredible breach of privacy... such a thing could easily be used to turn the tide of any war. Being able to locate sacred gear wielders like that."
"It's not in our plans to join any war." I admit. "I'm sorry if my words don't mean much here, but we truly have the best of intentions."
"Oftentimes the path to hell is paved with good intentions." The Seraph has a slightly grim expression.
"Well, in that case, what can I offer you all in heaven for you to accept all of this?" I question.
"Could you allow us access to this detection system as well?" She asks slowly.
"That's... not really my call to make. It's Azazel's. I will admit, I'm more in favor on giving it to you than when Serafall asked, but still." I mutter.
"What do you think?" I question.
"I'm for it... as long as the church never gets their grubby hands on it. Heaven is by nature good. I'll fully admit that. They can't be evil... otherwise they'd have already fallen. But the church? They don't have that restriction. They can be, and have been, arguably one of the most evil parts of the Biblical triad over the past five hundred years or so."
"They... cannot be that bad, can they?" Gabriel whispers.
"Asia Argento." I point out suddenly.
"Pardon?"
"She is a nun at the 'Faithful Church' in Modena Italy. She is currently fifteen years old, has the Twilight Healing sacred gear, and her living conditions are only slightly better than indentured servitude. She cannot go outside. Has no friends. And has been forced over the past seven years since she was brought from an orphanage after unlocking her sacred gear to perform miracles for those who make donations to the church. A staggering ninety percent of this money finding its way to the bishop in charge's pockets. The food she eats is bland. And her only pastime is reading things the church allows her which is quite narrow."
"In addition." Mittelt speaks up, reading from my watch. "It is believed that the bishop is making a genuine attempt at keeping her concealed from the wider church at large and has been suspected of entering contact with Diodora Astaroth. Someone who is known to have fifteen exiled church nuns in his peerage."
"Huh... I wonder how Serafall missed that guy." I mutter under my breath. "That's like a giant 'hey, I'm going to be an issue for world peace' sign."
"He is also the younger brother of Satan Beelzebub." Mittelt notes.
"eh. I doubt that'd stop her... and I doubt Ajuka even cares about him beyond a 'oh, he exists'... or whatever little care he did have will vanish after he finds out he's a sick little bastard."
Mittelt seems to be slowly crawling more and more out of her shell around the Seraph. Her bubbly smile and personality seeming to put her at ease.
But that bubbly smile is gone, a look of mild irritation on her face.
"Do not worry... I will be checking these claims of yours extensively." The Seraph seems to silently communicate with people out of view. "If they are true. I thank you two for telling me. You would have stopped a tremendous injustice."
"Is there anything else you need?" I smile.
"Not at the moment, no." The woman shakes her head. Her eyes are drawn to Mittelt, her head cocking to the side. "Well, there's one more thing, but this is merely to sate my curiosity... have we... met before? Mittelt was it? You seem familiar, but I can't really put my finger on it."
"I'm a second generation fallen." Mittelt sighs. "I'm the same age as this guy here. Plus a few months, at least. We've never met, Miss Gabriel."
"Still can't believe you're older than me." I scoff, looking away from the girl.
"What's THAT supposed to mean?!" She frowns.
"Tiny." I smirk.
"I'll hit you. Don't make me." The blond threatens.
"Psssh I guess it might hurt to get stabbed by your little toothpick hands." I shrug idly, my smug smirk remaining.
She thumps my shoulder.
"Wait... you..." Gabriel seems to pause, gazing at Mittelt suspiciously.
She lets out a gasp, stars practically appearing in her eyes. "WAIT! ARE YOU AZAZEL'S DAUGHTER?!"
Mittelt flinches back. "W-What? H-How did-"
"I'm an auntie!" The seraph beams. She seems over the moon.
"H-Hey- don't- don't say that so loud!" Mittelt protests.
"You're sooooo cute!" Gabriel smiles. "You know. Your father was such a brat when he was younger."
"Weren't all of the seraphs and stuff created at the same-"
She pouts slightly. "The meanie. Not telling me that I had a niece. I'm going to give him a piece of my mind the next time I see him!"
"So you're both dating right? Will I be a grand-auntie soon?!"
"Depends on what supernatural races count as 'soon'." I roll my eyes.
"In the next twenty five to thirty years." The Seraph announces, her blue eyes glinting with amusement.
"Probably." I shrug, causing the immensely powerful angel to let out a small squeal of delight.
Irina tries to not let her jealously show.
"Please... don't tell anyone." Mittelt sighs.
"Huh? Why?" Gabriel blinks twice, a look of pure innocence on her face.
"Do you know how many people would target me in an attempt to get at HIM?!" The blonde to my left questions. "It's a lot!"
"To be fair." I begin slowly. "At this point is there really any point to lying about it? I mean... considering..."
I bring my middle, index finger and thumb together light sparking around my hand. "If they try I'll just vaporize them with Fairy Law? You're not really a pushover either. I'm honestly surprised you haven't gotten your next pair of wings yet."
"I've spent the last ten years inside. In a lab. Trying to perfect virtual reality... twelve hours- sometimes more- a day. Seven times a week. Not a lot of opportunity to get out and train."
"Fair. Fair." I relent.
"What do you two intend to do now?" Gabriel asks, a kind smile on her face.
"Well, immediately? Sleep. I am exhausted." I begin to list off. "After that? I kind of need to check on things happening in domain of magic. Azazel apparently got Kokabiel to join so I want to check on how he's doing. Uh... might post the boss battle with the wyvern to drum up some more interest in the game... I might go and bully Serafall some more. That was fun."
"Oh?" There's an amused glint to her eye.
"I've heard that you have quite the rivalry with Serafall." I observe. "Could it be... that you are perhaps intentionally playing into that?"
"What? That's ridiculous." The Seraph blandly replies, her smile growing.
"And yet... you didn't say no." I grin, already liking the blonde woman more and more by the minute.
Anyone who enjoys bullying Serafall is a good person in my book.
"One second. Let me see this."
The phone in Griselda's hand floats out of her hand. An extension cord extends from my watch as I plug it into the charging port.
"Let's see here... ah! There we go!" I send over the clip I showed Azazel a few days ago, unplug the phone, then float it back over to Griselda. "Oh. And by the way, that phone's compromised. There's a few viruses on it that check over all messages and send them to a third party... I did a little curing though back before we started speaking."
Light seems to shine on Gabriel's face. As if she were watching a tv in a dark room.
"Funny. That's what I said when I saw your show."
Gurgle
"I mean really, how utterly predictable can you be? There's no stakes. No loss. Your two part special cliffhangers are obvious at best, creatively bankrupt at worst."
Ah. She's watching it now.
Her smile grows. "Heh."
She seems to pause the video and looks back to me and Mittelt. "Thank you for clearing things up. I'll see you two later! I hope you have a good rest!"
[Split]
Several men stand around a long table, the one at the head of it casts a suspicious glance around the others. He has dark hair but blonde bangs, Azazel, the leader of the Grigori. "So. I have been informed that someone has been intercepting my orders for kuoh town... this place is a highly important location for me as it is home to NOT ONLY the little siblings of Leviathan and Lucifer... but also the home of arguably our best researcher, the creator of the Eden."
"I'm going to just get this out of the way. Tell me now. Are any of you to blame?"
A man with long black scraggly hair, blood red eyes and pointed elf like ears lets out a small yawn, he has dark circles under his eyes. He raises a hand. "My bad. I wanted to start a war."
"Kokabiel." Azazel sighs, grasping the bridge of his nose. "Haah. At least you told me. Is the game sating your battle lust?"
"it is." The elf-like fallen grunts. "For now. I'll look forwards to when people can actually challenge me. But for now the monsters are more than enough."
"Normally I'd do something to punish you, but just... just stay out of my hair for like... a decade damn it." The watcher growls. "Alright. Now onto other topics."
[Split]
BANG
A blast of magical power streak forwards from a strange flintlock-like pistol clutched in the hands of a red haired girl.
She is surrounded by several others.
The first? Her best friend, disguised with white hair. Sona Sitri.
The next, her... older Niece, Milim Gremory.
The final person- on her party- would be the stan of foreign affairs herself. Serafall Leviathan.
Other people here are a blonde girl, her username just 'Saber', one guy named 'Kirito', and some short blonde called 'Alicia'. Someone who had chosen the beastfolk race.
They had partied up as well and as of this moment their two parties are being... mutually beneficial.
They as a collective took a quest that should reasonably be quite a bit out of their capabilities, but, needs must when the wolf quest is being swamped by people.
It makes her think... they'll need a new method to level up when the real game comes. Everyone's going to be rushing to Fairy Tail for the missions. It might be better to seek out something else.
Her bullet strike a bandit in the chest, causing him to let out a loud shout as he staggers backwards, his leather armor scraped and scuffed. Both from this shot and the previous one.
Bandit Level 8
56%
Her attacks really hurt. But she's seeing a small flaw in her... build...
Group B all have weapons. Nonmagical weapons. Kirito and Saber use swords and Alicia uses two daggers.
She doesn't have that. Nor does Sona... and while they are out-dps-ing them. They are both starting to run a little dry on magical power.
"MILIM PAAAAWNCH!"
A pink haired girl with twin-tails slams a right hook into a jaw of one of the bandits, his head being engulfed in flames from that pre-order ring of hers.
"Hehehe!" She chuckles. "MILIM KIIIICK!"
A roundhouse knocks the flailing bandit flat, he poofs into motes of light.
Rias shakes her head, narrowly dodging a sword swipe and bringing up her magic pistol and pulling the trigger.
BANG
CRITICAL HIT!
Huh?
The bolt slams into the underside of the man's mouth, just behind the jaw and snaps his head backwards.
He collapses back, dead as he poofs into motes of light, leaving behind a rusted dagger.
"IT'S A BOSS!" She hears the only boy of their group, Kirito, shout as a seven foot tall man slowly struts from a nearby tent, a massive axe hoisted on his shoulders.
"Damn it." The man growls. "What the hell's with all the noise? Can't a man drink in peace?!"
He scans the surroundings, eyes narrowing.
Bandit Leader Level 12 {Mini-Boss}
100%
Ooooh boy.
Username: Ruin Princess
{Level: 7} (56.3%)
Title: {Beta Tester}
Health: 94%
Mana: 9%
Stamina: 88%
Strength: 3
Agility: 3
Durability: 3
Vitality: 3
Magical Potency: 20
Magical Regeneration: 14
Luck: 5
Unused Points: 0
This could be bad...
She watches Serafall knock aside the bandit she was fighting. His leg broken.
Oooor not...
She rushes forwards, ducking narrowly under the horizontal swing of his axe.
Her gauntleted fist finds itself buried in his stomach, knocking the wind from his lungs.
Yeaaah. Uh... she got temporary banned for trying to dox the creator... kind of uncool but a small part of Rias wishes that she did. She's a little behind with levels, but she makes up the difference with sheer combat experience.
Of course... that attack...
Bandit Leader Level 12 {Mini-Boss}
98%
Really didn't do much.
The others quickly jump in as she raises one of her pistols.
She's got... maybe one shot left. Two if they don't kill him quickly.
She needs to bide her time.
Sona comes to a halt beside her.
"How much?"
"I'm at five percent-" Sona begins only to cut off as she glows brightly.
"Oh... I leveled." She mutters. "One hundred percent it is."
A fireball the size of a baseball appears in her hand as she cautiously walks forwards.
The boss' health is slowly whittled down more and more.
Whenever he attacks, he is struck by blades. Whenever he is punched, there's typically a follow up by the other pugilist.
And now... fifty percent-
"You little- OI YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! GET THE HELL OUT HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU ALL!" He roars.
Numerous men climb out of the nearby tents, adjusting their armor and drawing their weapons. Apparently they had been sleeping and had to put on their armor... waaaait maybe in the real game she could sneak in and kill them while they are still asleep!
Oh... but yeah, summoning ads is kind of bad.
Her pistol comes up as she rushes forwards, a blade slashing across her stomach causing her a twinge of discomfort. One percent of the pain.
But. In that moment she jams a pistol into the man's chin.
BANG
CRITICAL HIT!
SHE CAN TARGET WEAK POINTS!
But...
He's not dead.
Bandit Level 8
32%
Hurting. No doubt about that, but very much alive.
Suddenly two fireballs strike the man, removing the last bit of his health.
Rias turns as Sona continues to throw balls of fire at the new enemies, softening them up slightly as the knife wielder manages to capitalize on some of their pain.
After quite a hard fight, the bandit getting stronger once his health reaches ten percent- even managing to cut off Serafall's arm after nearly one-shotting her- but he is eventually felled by the two parties.
Now they rest, gathered around the campfire.
Serafall gazes down at her stump, just above the elbow. Its like her arm disappears into little glowing motes of red light. "This is weird. I don't like it."
"I wonder how limb loss is treated in this game..." The black haired swordsman who is sat on the other side of the camp mutters. "Does it come back on its own after you completely heal? Do you need to go to a specific NPC?"
Saber speaks up. "It looks a little bit longer than it did... maybe it just takes time. Probably hours... after all, they wanted this game to be realistic right? But they also wanted it to be fun... they probably wanted losing a limb to mean something, but not completely ruin your experience.
Rias' gaze strays to the large treasure bag in between them. "So... shall we see what we got?"
"Sure." Kirito shrugs as he walks forwards and opens it.
With a flash, streams of light seem to streak out to the group.
One for each.
A small bag of 'Jewel' rests in her palm.
Bag:
Contains 38000 Jewel
Hey that's pretty good! When they get back to the guild and split the rest of the reward, this mission would have given nearly fifty thousand Jewel!
That's what her pistol is worth! Maybe she could save up enough to try out some more items!
Oh! She'll have enough for that 'celestial spirit key' in there! that looked interesting!
It was a spirit for the 'Little Doggy' whatever that means.
It might have been bought already. It was being sold for twenty thousand.
She looks to the others. Saber got a hatchet...
Bandit's Iron Hatchet:
Your typical hatchet. Nonmagical, but it's made of Iron meaning the edge is quite durable. At least moreso than copper. It has seen quite a bit of wear and tear, however.
Base Damage: 30 (Scales with Strength <Medium>)
Huh... that's interesting.
Serafall has gotten a pair of leather shoulder pads, Milim got some leather boots, and it looks like Kirito has a small iron dagger.
He turns. Offering it to Alicia. "Here. I don't use knives. So you can have it."
That's quite a gift. It improves her damage from the copper dagger's base of five- with low strength scaling- to a base of fourteen with low strength scaling.
"R-Really?!" The girl mutters. "Then... have my money instead."
She holds out her bag of jewel.
"So... what now?" Rias asks. "I kind of want to go back to town and see about buying that celestial spirit key... I want to see how it works!"
"We should turn in the quest. It'll probably level us up... and I bet we accomplished a bonus objective by defeating that bandit leader. The quest was only to subjugate ten bandits, yet we even beat their leader." Kirito agrees.
"I'm really close to leveling up." Rias nods slowly.
Milim actually had.
It's clear that not all of the experience is shared through the party, just a portion.
They all rise to their feet.
"it was fun working with you three..." Rias smiles. "We should do this again sometime... maybe when the game officially starts."
"Maybe. Maybe." The black haired swordsman mutters.
"I might." Saber agrees.
"Hey. I'm down." The beastfolk who's about as short as Koneko shrugs. "It'll help to have friends, right? No way in hell could I have done this on my own. Though... honestly, you four probably could have if that bandit leader wasn't here."
"That's true. You four are great." Kirito compliments. How'd you do so much damage."
"Oh! I fight people all the time!" Milim beams.
"Experience." Serafall mutters.
"I min-maxxed Magic." Rias shrugs. "A poor decision. I'm running on empty."
"Same." Sona agrees.