Diclaimer: Derek Stiles, Resurgam, Caduceus, Concordia, and any mentioned villains are products of ATLUS. The god Asclepius is derived from Greek Mythology. I in no way do not claim these items my own, nor do I make any profit off of this.
The span of this prologue is the 1800's Anno Domini. This story is based in the continent of Asclepia, a land that prides itself upon it's health industry more than anything else. Such a fixation on this was based on the various strains of disease unleashed by anarchists of the countries many years ago. In the capital land of Resurgam, it was the natural Rosalia; in the metropolis of Concordia, it was the accidental Stigma; and in the countryside of Caduceus, it was the carefully organized GUILT. These diseases weren't like any others, no, they brought about the oddest symptoms with the worst results that wreaked havoc upon the body.
However, a group of medical professionals gathered together and decided that enough was enough. While one half of this "army" was devoted to creating new tools to help against the fight and researching these diseases and their effects, others took to the operating table and laid waste to the scourge. The whole of Asclepia and possibly the rest of the world would have fallen at one point were it not for one vital advantage: the Healing Touch. Passed down by the Father Asclepius, this ability helped a select group of surgeons in a variety of ways. One Touch stopped time completely for a few minutes, another kept a person's heartbeat going while viruses were attempted to be extracted, and yet another managed to seal one's life force within a patient!
With the help of these brave physicians and Asclepius's gift, these diseases died away and whomever plotted and played with them were apprehended and put to death. Names like Adam, Blackwell, Mercer, and Vakhusti became a thing of the past. The people cried at the heavens with joy after their recovery, beginning their festivities with renewed strength and vigor. The members of this group were held with high reverence and thanks. The economy and society of the continent rose higher than ever, almost believed to be a godsend.
And the land prospered, if only for a little while...
Almost a decade later, a minor section of Resurgam was left in ruin. It wasn't another strain, no, our heroes made sure of that beforehand. Instead, witnesses believed it to be a young man in a white suit wielding a concealed shortsword. The description was so vague that no one had a clear idea of who he really was. Some said that he was a surviving member of one of the anarchy groups from the past, others said that he was one of the noblemen of the court just enjoying his sick sense of fun, still others said that he was simply a deranged lunatic, nothing more. Eventually, this man snuck under the noses of Queen Esha and the Six Heroes and wiped the whole of Resurgam off of the planet. Now the rest of the continent saw the seriousness of this situation. The rumors were scarily fabricating into reality.
Soon, survivors of traveling troupes saw that this man was making his way to Concordia. The Holy Trinity motivated the people to come together and turned them into a makeshift army. However, words can only do so much, and the advanced land of Concordia fell to a simple man with a sword in less than three days.
Why was he doing such a thing to this wonderful land? Was it hatred? Possession? Madness? Whatever the case, he only had one more obstacle: Caduceus. Again, he was back to his method of hacking away at bits and pieces of the country. This time, the representatives of this section didn't idle away their time, nor did they hastily gather an army. Instead, they decided to take whatever young children they came across and evacuated the capital city before he made his way to destroy what could be the future of Asclepia.
Now situated in the tiny hamlet of Hope, the remnants of what was diseasekind's greatest nightmare now began to educate themselves in the art of combat. Despite the group's efforts to shift their focus from fleeing to fighting, only one man knew the solution to this terrible predicament.
The First Healer...
Derek Stiles.
A.N.: And the first official AU of my time here begins...
*GASP* Is this the first time ever that I've managed to keep from using special fonts for the whole piece?
Yeah, this is inspired by two things, one being my obsession with a little rhythm game that I've been playing for a while: DJ Max. Once I started to watch the music video for "DIVINE SERVICE", the song for which this fic is named after, I noticed eerie similarities between the couple in the video and Trauma Center's own Derek and Angie. The first thing I thought was "DEREK. ANGIE. WRITE NAO." I was going to do this without a prologue, but over time, I began to think of a proper history for this story, since I didn't like how they're just a a courtyard like "BAM", and so this thing here was born. If you wanna see the video, look it up on YouTube or PM me if you can't find it, although I doubt that it'll be needed.
The other inspiration was when I opened my eyes a few days ago to what the TC/TT section of fanfiction has become. Whatever was left of actual stories featuring just the original casts has become swamped down by eerily matching OC stories (Though my hands aren't so clean). I mean, whatever happened to rising stars like LittleGreenBudgie, tell-her-this, and Wavebreeze? Or the golden oldies like TCGeek and Parsat? For once, I wanted to try my hand at an actual rooted story without anyone outside of canon, which motivated me even more for this.
Well, now that my little rant is over, I hope that you're able to enjoy this story and that you're not entirely butthurt over what I've just written. Cheers.