Altair, Kingdom of Stella
17th August, Year X791
I have only managed to remember a lost part of who I was since last month. This part that was lost makes up a huge majority of the man I became when I was growing up.
The life of an Assassin is never easy but I have found comfort in the words of the Creed as well as in its surviving members after the Purge four years ago. Following the demise of the White Legion, the remaining Assassins decided to band together and form a headquarters underneath the kingdom of Stella, with branches in each of the nations of Ishgar.
The whole system and upkeep of the brotherhood are done by one Master Thorn, who everyone looks up to for wisdom and inspiration in these times where we are struggling to gain a presence on the main continent. All we are now is simply a remnant of what we once were, hence the moniker that people associate us with these days.
The hellspawn has emerged from the shadows in order to find me and draw my lady's power for themselves; every spawn of hell found themselves trapped within the chain whip which I had acquired before dealing with Jormundgandr in Crocus. However, each one spoke of impending doom upon the kingdom before they were absorbed.
Now I head to the national museum and research centre to learn about the capacity of magic in my body. I aim to find answers that I seek.
National Museum
"What brings you here today sir?"
"I am here to be a volunteer for your research program," Virgil replied the front desk.
"Ah! Miss Bel would be delighted to have another volunteer! This way please!" the desk girl ushered him to a room from the lobby and gave him instructions to follow.
"While I go and get Miss Bel, please change into these clothes for a quick body examination," the girl smiled, "she will take over when I return."
"Thank you." The Assassin picked up the tunic, turned it over in his hands to see if there was anything out of the ordinary before stripping down. When he was done changing he sat down on a chair in the room when the door opened to reveal the enchantress he had met on the first day he stepped foot on Stella. He decided to keep quiet about it to test and see if his hood actually did its job of concealing his face.
"And who might you be?" the enchantress extended a hand out in greeting as the desk girl left the room.
"My name is Virgil," he gently took her hand and turned it up and bowed to kiss it when she stopped him.
"There's no need for that, really," he saw a strange expression on her face as if she was struggling to blush in embarrassment. "But I appreciate a man who knows the old customs and culture. You seem familiar. Have we met before?"
"I doubt so," he replied. "It is not every day you meet a double amputee, however. Did I remind you of someone?"
"Hmm…" Miss Bel thought. "Vaguely. Now Virgil, what I'm going to do now is a simple spell that will tell me what I need to know about you. Just so that you know the level of transparency we're aiming for, the spell will also tell you things about me. Fair?"
"Fair enough," he replied, "although I do not really see the point of forcing yourself to tell me about… well, yourself."
"Are you working as a jester?" she smiled before her serious expression returned. "We shouldn't be expecting much from you for the time being… wait."
Virgil saw who she was through the magic circle she conjured up; a high enchantress by the name of Irene Belserion, of the Alvarez Empire. The hair was a scarlet red, similar to another mage that he had seen before but could not remember at this point in time. The eyes, however, were a stark reminder that the other mage brought absolute punishment everywhere they went, and pain along with it.
He saw the same eyes before in Irene and it shot a warning flash of pain in his brain.
I do not know who this woman is but she seems so familiar!
Through the magic circle, his eyes caught the occupation of the front desk girl that had brought him in earlier.
It seemed that she didn't notice his expression of pain or he must have hidden it so well that she exclaimed, "Where have you been all this while?!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"How in the world do you have so many magical reserves? This will greatly speed up the research to leaps and bounds! Interesting… very interesting…"
"What is so interesting?"
"You come from a long-forgotten bloodline but that doesn't explain the gargantuan amount of magical reserves you have. Do you know any magic?"
"Just small illusions," he replied, "nothing spectacular."
"Only small illusions? It seems that you are capable of so much more."
"If by that you mean a greater sense of using magic or the greater good, you may be right," he said, "However the problem is just that I would rather focus on dealing real damage with tried and true methods over a medium that has been known to run out."
"But with your reserves, chances are you won't ever run out of magic," Irene stated.
We will see about that…
Underground Laboratory
"Well well," Irene spoke to herself as she watched Virgil behind a glass panel running on a treadmill powered by his own magic. "You are full of surprises my dear friend. Who would have thought a double amputee would outperform all my other volunteers in both skill and magic capacity?"
"Miss Bel?" one of the assistants approached her, "the data we've collected for this particular volunteer seems to be out of sync with the baseline data that we started off with. Would you like to take a closer look?"
"What's wrong with him?"
"While his magical reserves fit the criteria, the team looked into the possible origin of where he might have developed such a vast reserve and...what we deduced was a bit strange."
"Hmm…" Irene took the file and perused through it, finding the paragraphs that detailed the inconclusive evidence about Virgil. Similar to a demon but no known samples to find a match in the database? His cells have stopped ageing as well but his body still functions as normal. Says he's not a frequent user of magic but there's a constant flow of magic coming out of him.
Just what are you, Virgil Teivel?
Virgil could be seen running faster and faster on the treadmill, drastically gaining speed and still he was not tired. He continued to press on until the magic treadmill gave up and overheated, before comically breaking down into spare parts, sending the man flying forward and through the dry board wall.
With this amount of magical reserves… he can effortlessly power and sustain magic mega weapons like the Etherion cannon. I need to engineer a test for him.
"Virgil, I think that will be all for today," Irene spoke.
He poked his head through the hole he had just made. "Apologies about the wall."
"No worries," Irene replied, watching him leave the lab. "You will definitely be of use to the Empire."
After a day of work…
Virgil made his way around the museum, looking for other things of interest that would take his mind of the fact that his gargantuan magic reserve could power up a superweapon like Etherion.
I heard those thoughts coming out of your mouth, Irene. This idea of capturing me for the use of the Empire does not sit well with me.
The Assassin walked through the ancient civilisations section of the museum and noticed a few artefacts that Mentor Thorn had been teaching him about the past couple of days when he was training with other Assasins in the underground.
It was a carving of an Apple of Eden into a rock tablet from the city state of Veronika, with all sorts of intricate details and lines that he could see were patterns of some kind, probably indicating the ownership of the Piece of Eden. Next to the tablet was a small placard of information about where it had come from and the history behind this tablet (even though it was falsified) but the name at the bottom of the card brought yet another sharp pain to his memory.
Fabian Normand?
Looking again at the placard, he gazed at the name, trying to remember what it was that triggered the pain.
Someone dangerous? Someone in power? Someone influential? Who?
The pain struck his mind again and Virgil ended up having to write the name down and look it up later when he could. In the end, he decided to save some time and ask Mentor Thorn instead.
Mentor's Study
"Fabian eh?" the old man looked at the name.
"Who is he?"
"He happens to be the Veronikan ambassador to Fiore," Thorn replied. "A real nasty piece of work."
"How nasty?" Virgil's head tilted to one side in confusion.
"He was the reason behind the purge in Fiore and the downfall of one of the greatest Assassin bloodlines we've ever had. Fabian Normand was the one who poisoned Dina Bianca and coaxed her to hand over information about us to the Templars."
"From what I know, he has never set foot in Fiore at all," the daemon Assassin recalled, "he usually has one of his subordinates fill for him or he sends instructions across the border by a secret courier service."
"It's the Templars doing their own dirty work basically, but from time to time he makes a social call to international delegates in Mercurius."
"But no one knows when and how he comes in and out of places such as these," Ghost spoke.
"Correct. However, we have found a valuable piece of information about him that may bring us one step closer to eliminating him from the big picture."
"And that would be?"
"We have reports of a new addition to his entourage in Veronika, a woman by the name of Riley, who only has her first name. It is understood that she was added to his entourage as someone seeking protection from the demon that was terrorising demon hunter guilds."
"I am aware of the daemon that did the terrorising but this news of a woman has never reached my ears before."
"You remember the first guild that the demon attacked?"
"Phoenix Crown. That was the first place the daemon chose to display his power."
"That woman, Riley, was from that guild that was brutally destroyed. The only reason she sought help wherever she could was that her friend Kat was afflicted by a deadly disease."
A disease that I am also very familiar with.
"The latest update is that she is pregnant with Norman's child."
That threw Virgil into shock.
"She is easier to track down because of her previous hunter lifestyle and she will be easier to target because of the fact that her magic is now more focused on developing the child."
"That is unacceptable, Master," Virgil argued. "It is already bad enough to go after a man but his family? This woman and the unborn child had nothing to do with it!"
"Maybe you don't understand, boy," the old man argued back. "Our enemies have never been one to respect the privacy of the family and the ethical use of leverage! If they won't give us the respect for innocent family members, then what else will they do to get to you?!"
"I am not a child killer. I am not a killer of innocents."
"Mark my words boy," Thorn warned, "the spawns won't be innocent when they come after you."
The next day
Irene Belserion
Catch him and make him a power source for Alvarez's weapons. This could not have worked out better than any other plan August could have come up with.
But how to lure him in?
"Miss B," Virgil Teivel is here to see you," the receptionist peered through the doorway.
"Thank you. Please bring him in."
As the Assassin sat down in front of her, she noticed that he had traded out his usual garb for a more practical pair of trousers with pouches and a shirt that was hidden under a white-patterned poncho that covered his entire torso. Without a doubt, there would be a hood for him somewhere on his poncho; it was a feature that she had learned to identify him with.
Apart from the usual modifications to his trouser leg and shirt sleeve to accommodate his prosthetics.
"I notice that we are not doing the usual tests today." He observed, "Is your research nearing its completion?"
"You can say something like that. But to the matter at hand first," she brought out a file from her pocket dimension, "I have the results of the tests that you have been doing with us."
"Ah yes," Virgil sat straight up in his seat. "Please explain this to me."
"In essence," Irene started straightaway, "Your body is a very large magic container that stores a gargantuan amount of eternano. How your magical reserves developed over time, no one knows. However, what we can deduce with your magical capability is that while you don't primarily use magic on a day to day basis, your reserves have the capacity to power up magical weapons the likes of Abyss Break, a few Jupiter cannons, and quite possibly, Fiore's Etherion."
"Really? I had no idea that I was remotely capable of that," Virgil's eyes widened in shock. "If you are telling me this, there must be something that you are offering me."
Sharp as ever.
"Come and work for the Empire of Alvarez. We will offer you full immunity from the rest of the world and grant you every wish."
"Seems a bit too far fetched," Virgil commented. He stood up and made for the door. "Let me think about this," he said.
"I will only accept a 'yes' from you." Irene stood up and blocked the door with a magic seal once he was through. She held up a hand and a small thought projection of August, leader of the Spriggan 12, appeared in her palm.
"The offer has been proposed," she calmly told him.
"And has he accepted it?" August stroked his beard. "Surely your charms have had success with him."
"He has neither accepted nor refused the offer," Irene replied. "All I have simply explained to him is the amount of power that he holds but not the means by which he can use them."
"You play a dangerous game. If the boy realises who he actually is on his own, Our lord's cause will be lost."
"I will ensure that he will join us," Irene spoke this with a grim smile.
"I will hold you to that. I will update our mutual contact Normand after this."