Part 1

In windowless room inside the main headquarters of the dark Church of Beelzebub, an emergency meeting was taking place. The contents of this meeting were secret to everyone except the ones inside the room. In fact, there was even an enchantment placed on the room to prevent eavesdropping of any kind.

Guarding the entrance of this room was a squad of 4 elite Paladins who, judging from their equipment, seemed well over level 300. Despite their high status, even these elite paladins did not know what the topic of the emergency meeting was about.

Inside the room, there were four people. Three were seated in a circular table whilst the last one stood next to the door.

Of the three people seated, two of them were middle-aged men while the other was an old woman. All of three of them wore expensive equipment with high level requirements.

The woman was the High Seer of the Order of Beelzebub, the foremost seer in all of the Order and the most sensitive person when it came to sense of holy power or divining oracles. One of the men, wearing a gold plated suit of armour, was the Paladin Highlord of the Order of Beelzebub, the leader of the paladin fraction in the Order of Beelzebub. The last man siting wore priests clothes and was the High Priest of the Order of Beelzebub, the overall leader of the entire church.

Without a doubt, this was a meeting of the bigshots within the Order the Beelzebub.

The only person who seemed out of place was the guard standing at the door who wore lower quality armour signifying his rank as a paladin somewhere in the low or middle ranking of the church. Yet despite that, the guard did not appear to be flustered or nervous to be in the presence of these people.

The topic of the meeting concerned an incident that had occurred only a few days ago:

“… Thus, in summary, a massive influx of holy power was simultaneously sensed by 7 of our top seers myself included. By overlapping the areas sensed by the seers, we have narrowed down the location to be somewhere in the Kallamore Kingdom…”

It was the elderly High Seer who was speaking. The High Priest and Paladin Highlord listened intently to her words. Meanwhile the guard was glazing at a corner of the room was if bored by the meeting.

“… As the foremost Seer of the Order of Beelzebub, I can confirm that this influx was caused by the consumption and production of Scared Energy. But the amount of Sacred Energy that is needs to be consumed to cause such a large disturbance… I fear this is only something that can be caused by a Divine Saint.”

“High Seer, this kind of information is valuable to us, however, fights involving Divine Saints pop up now and then once every while. Is it really necessary to hold an emergency meeting just for this?”

The one who asked this question was the High Priest. In response to this, the High Seer placed her doubts out in the open.

“Information of what happened cannot be properly deduced by the confusion of holy power caused by that influx alone. Even I cannot identify that type of Sacred Energy and thus what churches were involved in that incident. Initially, it only seemed like one type of Sacred Energy was involved but then a few minutes later, there was a massive flare of amount of a different Sacred Energy. The thing is, the total amount of Sacred Energy didn’t change at this moment. Just the ratios between the two Sacred Energies.”

“No way…”

“Are you suggesting that-”

“Yes. I don’t have any solid proof but I believe that this massive influx involved one type of Sacred Energy being converted to another type. In other words…”

“There’s a chance that this case may indicate that a church with the power steal Sacred Power has awakened a Divine Saint. Either that or the Churches of Prometheus and Athene that we wiped out may have some survivors who were able to restart their religion. ”

“Hmm. This is a serious matter indeed.”

“Yes, this is the reason why I called for a meeting.”

Having reached the same conclusion as the High Priest, the Paladin Highlord concurred while the High Seer ended her explanation.

“So what do we do?”

“I believe we should investigate this matter above all else. All in favour?”

The other two agree with the High Priest’s decision. Having, determined his course of action the High Priest turned to the guard and ordered:

“Well, Kite you hear the story right?”

“Yep. What do you want me to do with it?”

The guard, Kite, replied coolly in a tone completely lacking in formality. The High Priest didn’t mind it though. They had been friends for many years already. Additionally, despite his appearance, Kite was the possessor of a power that could shake the roots of the Order of Beelzebub.

“I want you to go and investigate this incident and react according to your judgement. Additionally, I want-”

“Hey! You can’t go in there!”

“Sorry! I was ordered to pass on this message no matter what!”

The sounds of shouts came from outside the room. Suddenly, the door burst open and a panting messenger appeared. The messenger confirmed the identities of the occupants in the room, kneeled down and said:

“This is an urgent message from the Head of our Branch in the Kingdom of Haven! The one of our holy relics was stolen during transportation by a group of thieves!”

“What!? How!? Didn’t we double the number of guards during the transportation? How did this happen!”

Despite the High Priest’s hysterical questions, the messenger could only shake his head in response as he remembered how the operation was conducted.

“It was a trap! The entire situation was a trap… The mastermind behind this played us all like a devil spinning a chessboard! We couldn’t do anything about it… and before we knew it they had already gotten away…”

Cowering slightly at the look of fury on the High Priest’s face, the messenger added the last bit of the message he was told to be deliver.

“And also… the thieves left a note behind…”

“Oh! Did they they screw up?”

“No… it’s…”

Without any further explanation, the messenger took out a folded piece of paper. The High Priest unfolded the piece and paper and read its contents. Afterwards he punched the wall and yelled:

“Kite! I’m giving you another additional assignment! Hunt down these thieves and retrieve our holy relic!”

It was then that the High Priest slammed the piece of paper on the table and stormed away. The remaining occupants in the room peered over to read the piece of paper, curious to see what could make the High Priest so angry.

The note simply read:

Seeing as this object piques this humble servant's interest, one shall retain custody for now. By this simple expression of borrowing intent, your consent would be most desirable. The object in question shall be returned after thorough experimentation. Should the object in question be deemed to require our protection, the experiment could possibly be extended, one humbly prays for your understanding — Royal Arsenal

Part 2

In a forest in the Kingdom of Haven, another certain meeting was taking place.

A rag tag group of people were gathering around a certain person waiting to be assessed. This group of people were not people who had randomly formed a group from virtual or online encounters. They were all the associates or rather, the subordinates of that man in reality. In their hands was a golden sceptre, a holy relic belonging to the Order of Beelzebub.

“So how did we go boss?”

“You managed to fulfil your objective but you almost didn’t get away. In the end I can’t really say that you did well.”

“We passed right?”

“Yeah. You all passed.”

The crowd cheered as they heard their assessment had been positive. The man who had assessed them sighed and muttered under his breath:

“Who knew that virtual reality could work so well as a combat stimulator… I didn’t believe it when they first suggested it to me…”

Even if he taught his followers knowledge about magic and combat, it would be useless unless they had the necessary experience to undergo and survive life or death struggles. After all, he had no real standards for who he accepted into his association, as long as they held a grudge against a certain rival association he would accept them.

In the end, one of his students had answered his problem by suggesting that they use the virtual reality game, Royal Road, as a training stimulator for real life.

The man watched his subordinates celebrate for a moment before yelling:

“Alright! Time to move along before the church sends people to catch us!”

Immediately, the crowd quietened down and followed his orders. To have obtained this level of obedience, one would almost assume that the man was someone who ruled through fear. This was partly truth. However, overwhelming this fear was the respect and awe that the subordinates had for their leader. It was the feeling that no matter how hard they tried, they would never be able to surpass or fight alongside their leader.

This was true in reality.

And now, after a series of unfortunate chance encounters, this fact now held true in virtual reality as well.

Conversely, the man had a handsome face, dark hair and an upright proper aura around him that made you think of nobility.

Having recently joined this world, he had somehow managed to find himself in a fierce battle earlier on and had unknowingly obtained a gamebreaking powers.

Thus, England’s Prince of Black Lightning, Alexander Gascoigne, makes this presence known in the continent of Versailles

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Word count: 1682 words.

A short chapter.

A few people were wondering who the 4th Campione playing the game was. Well, here’s your answer.

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