Author's Notes:I do not own Fate/Stay Night or it associated media such Fate/Grand Order and I do not own High School DxD
"Antonius, after discussing your proposal with my colleagues and with the blessing of the Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome, We are open to sharing intelligence on rogue elements within our jurisdiction. However, if I may be bold to ask, why does the King of Uruk need such information?" the metropolitan bishop of Rhodes asked with puzzlement.
With the revival of Uruk, Embassies were sent to pay tribute to Gilgamesh and with that, I and some other diplomats have been sent to greet our neighbours. Diplomacy and politics have begun to overtake my life. Day in and day out, talking and negotiating really gets so droll.
As I made my way through the Levant to reach Istanbul, meeting with local gods, churches, and mosque any other organization that dealt with more magical elements of society has been a drain. However, after finishing this meeting with the Ordothox faith or I guess more specifically the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople then I can go back to bed and crash in the night.
"With our reawakening, our king thought it prudent to reassess the potential threats within the region for the sake of security within the region," I stated frankly.
"I see," the bishop replied before continuing "The archbishop would like to call in a favour."
He said while pushing up his glasses to appear slightly more serious.
"It depends on the favour and if the church is willing to reciprocate." I firmly replied as I didn't want to get that involved in church politics especially if it involved me assassinating some church authority or conquering a country then I'm out. However, a favour with the Archbishop could be useful especially if a problem arises with one of the other Christian sects such as the Catholics of Rome. "The Church will gladly repay your efforts. Would you please follow me?" The bishop asked.
"Of course" I responded diplomatically.
After a five minute walk, we entered a small office that contained dozens of file cabinets. The bishop went through each of them until he found what he was looking for.
The bishop pulled out two files and handed them to me.
"In this file, you will find the information your king has asked for. The other one contains the necessary information needed for your task." He explained.
I took the file second file and began to read its contents, after a good five minutes of power reading I closed the file and set it in my Gates of Babylon.
"Rouge devils underneath the city."
"Those heathens have been causing all sorts of trouble. They have been harassing the civilians for the past few years, but they have been getting bolder in that they are now seducing nuns, and even sexually assaulting the more unwilling ones." The Bishop grimaced.
"I see, have any other similar reports been reported within Christendom?" I asked while I wondered what happened to the nuns. I know Asia was banished from the Catholic Church, over healing a devil with a nun fetish. Were they all banished or did they join their abuser? As I pondered those questions the bishop finally responded to my question.
"The other churches would never openly admit to it." the Bishop firmly stated as he continued with this debriefing. "We want you to eliminate the hideout they have hidden underground to strike back at them."
"I see you want to use a loophole in the treaty by using a third party to do your dirty work." I stated openly to get a reaction out of the bishop.
"I admit you are right on this part though you must understand these devils are tricky creatures. They are targeting lower ranking church officials and those who could not defend themselves. By attacking them there is little risk of escalation as the faithful are too weary to fight back while those devils continue to play games with their chess pieces." The bishop explained while a veil of tiredness began to fill his voice.
"I see" I closed my eyes before concluding "Hmph, very well they will be eliminated."
"Good" The bishop smiled.
"But,"
The bishop froze for a second before I finished my sentence.
"If I find anything down there can I keep it?" I asked as I wanted to take any loot for myself as I needed as much money as possible to buy every mystic code I can from the mages guild.
"Of course though if you find any damning evidence that can be pinned down to a specific devil then bring it here." The bishop said as he walked out of the room leaving me alone to my thoughts.
The Devils have not made any official contact with Uruk which means I will need to hide any involvement that can get linked back to Uruk. The four Satans from what I remember would not care if I eliminated any rogue elements within their faction. However the same can be said for others. If any survivors tell their side of the story then they could blame anyone they want including Uruk. However, if they were all killed then the narrative could be controlled by me.
I started to go through the information within the file one by one until I found what I was looking for.
"At least three devils. Devils have used magic to manipulate the minds of their victims. One victim said she was forced into a narrow underground corridor near the Hagia Sofia. The Sacred Mystery of St. Basil has confirmed the presence of at least one high-level Devil while tracking their movements. It seems like the Hagia Sofia is my starting place." I said to myself before tossing the file into my Gates of Babylon.
I exited the room and handed the Bishop a document.
"A magical binding non-disclosure agreement?"
"Just in case things go wrong" I replied.
"Very well then" He agreed without argument and signed the paper without hesitation.
"If that is all I will report to the Patriarch," he said before disappearing through the many decorated corridors.
"Well, let's get this over with."
Before entering the underground I grabbed a cloak and a mask to disguise myself. While I fully intended to do this mission it allowed me to hunt down lost treasures of the Roman Empire as I knew there was a stash under their somewhere according to the book Gilgamesh gave me.
I began my journey into the underground by making a small splash as I entered the cool water. I looked around and was pleasantly surprised to see the system was mostly still intact. 'The builders certainly knew what they were doing.' I commented as I made way deeper into the system the modern lighting system that lit parts of the system began to slowly disappear as I began my search for any signs of Devils or Roman treasure.
After trudging through the water, I found one of my objectives, I think? It was a mural of the battle of the Milvian Bridge. The battle took place in the year 312 AD between Constantine and Maxentian. Constantine would win the battle and later legalize Christianity in the Roman Empire. Though what is most noteworthy of the mural was not the craftsmanship but its subject the signature it gave off. I pulled out the Gilgamesh gave and went to page 1096 and found the mural in the book. To open the Passage a password must be spoken the little description stated which was underneath the picture of the mural in the book.
"Hmm, what password would some Romans use anyway," I said to myself I went through a list of roman trivia and was stumped till I faced palmed myself as I realized the answer was literally in front of me. The Mural held the answer perhaps not literally but the password had something to with it.
"Hmm how about 'In hoc signo vinces'" I answered. The mural began to part down the centre revealing a hidden stairwell.
"Lucky guess," I shrugged to myself before entering the secret passage.
As I walked into the secret passage I slowly made my way through the tunnels as I began to hunt for my two objectives, Roman treasure and some devils.
After passing through some random traps that ranged from Greek Fire explosives to some automata and deadly creatures I found what I was looking for, a statue of Constantine XI. Constantine was the last Roman Emperor and he perished during the fall of Constantinople. Some call him the marble Emperor as they say angels saved him from death and that one day he would return. The importance of the statue was not the legend associated with it but the statue was near the entrance to the chamber I was seeking.
"This statue could be used as a catalyst if anyone wanted to summon Constantine." I mumbled to myself as I searched the area for the entrance.
I opened the book and turned to the page after the mural and found a hint 'To enter the chamber, prove your worth as a Roman'.
"What does that even mean," I asked myself. Does that mean I should prove I'm a citizen of Rome, a blood test to see if I'm related to the patricians, Roman law, or trivia?
I stood for a few minutes before taking a seat at the foot of the statue wondering how I can prove myself.
Small particles of light began to form around me. My eyes widen as I realized that I may have set up a trap. I prepared myself by equipping my armor and halberd and waited for the trap, but the only thing that happened was the dark murky passages of the underground were slowly replaced with a city on fire.
"The hell is this? Is this an illusion" I asked myself as I looked around me and saw a city under siege. I heard someone say "Kill him!" I turn to face them which only increased my confusion.
"Jannisaries?"I said to myself as I met in the streets. The soldier swung his sword haphazardly as if had been fighting for days and I easily countered him by slicing his hand off before cleanly slicing right through as he screamed. Another tried to stab me from behind but I pushed comrade in the way before stabbing through both of them.
The other Jannisaires stared at warily before backing off as one of the older ones said "Retreat for now."
"Foreigner take this" I heard a gruff voice say to me. I looked to my right and saw the man that the statue was based on slowly bleeding out on the steps of a small broken house. The man was offering me the Imperial Regalia and Crocea Mors "Take it and run to Genoa, the city is lost."
Well if he was just going to give it to me. Sure why not this was just some weird illusion trap in which the victim has to fulfil a mission. These types of traps can potentially entrap someone in a never-ending dream world while their body in the real world slowly decays to nothing. A rather vicious trap but this seems like the right path I need to take to get access to the chamber.
"Very well, Emperor of the Romans." I responded as I took the sword and the purple regalia.
"Thank you" I heard him say as I took off to the harbour. Well, I'm not sure how this proves I'm worthy roman or why the fall of Constantinople but whatever you do what you got to do.
I passed through the streets I encountered very little resistance as most of the Ottomans were finishing off the defenders on the wall while others were polling back to their camp.
I approached one of the last ships to take off and jumped on as Refugees and Italian soldiers rushed onto the boat.
After a few minutes the boat took off and we set sail I watched the city ever get smaller. Slowly the world began to dissolve as I finished my mission in this illusion.
"To be honest that was easier than I expected. Perhaps they did not expect someone who a strong, as I to show up to these ruins or this, or this was a rushed job." I commented as a door appeared and opened itself.
I walked into the chambers and smirked as I found my first large stash of treasure.
"Well let's get everything into the gate and then kill off some devils," I said to myself, as I began to stash everything I found from gold, books, weapons, and armor from the Mask of Aurelian, Coreca Mors, the Imperial diadem, to the Chi-Rho of Constantine I.
"With this stuff, I could proclaim myself emperor of Rome" I said jokingly to myself while stashed some more items.
As I finished emptying the room, I walked towards the statue and said, "Thank you for the stuff. This will be used to protect humanity from Goetia."
I spent a good 5 hours in the maze of an underground till I heard some voices, "Someone, please save me."
"No one is coming to save you. Now be quiet are client is almost ready to pick you up." A voice said.
"Yeah, nothin personal, but we gotta make some dough, but if you want another beating be my guess," Another one said sadistically.
I approached slowly and grabbed a halberd as I planned to end this quickly, but just in case one life to tell the tale I will put on Aurelian's mask just in case someone gets away so now will be able to identify me.
I poked ahead a bit to get a visual and found that the two devils were nearby and oblivious to my presence. Then again I took some time prepping myself for a stealth mission or were they that weak. If it is the latter, then the church needs to up their game a bit.
I waited for a moment until they were both distracted. That moment came as one of the devils turned their back on the entrance while the other was picking up papers.
I sprang into action and quickly decapitated one of the devils while launching a sword through the other one's head before he could react.
I turned towards the small cage the girl was in and can only find myself wincing at the state of the girl.
She was definitely a beauty in the making, perhaps a year younger than my current body, but what was disturbing was the fact she was only covered in rags and there were obvious signs of abuse from bruises to small cuts. It looked she hasn't slept well in a while as bags formed underneath her hazel eyes. My heart began to feel heavy as my stomach churned a bit, but I continued forward.
"Please don't kill me." She trembled and tried to hide as I approached.
"Your safe now, I'm here to get you out of here" I replied calmly, while I grabbed the keys from one of the corpses and began to unlock her shackles.
"You will be fine" I kept on repeating to her as she began to cry, I offered an extra shirt I had, and she gratefully took it. I did not know what to do, but she kept saying thank you, thank you, thank you for a few minutes until she finally calmed down and fell asleep. As she did this I felt glad that I killed them.
Speaking of the devil I still had to deal with the 'Client'. I grabbed every piece of evidence I could without contaminating it. Then I began to wait for this client to appear. But no one appeared and I realized I had other things to do like get this girl some medical treatment. But I won't leave this place without a surprise.
I grabbed the girl and exited the dungeon. I opened the Gates of Babylon and launched some Roman Caltrops that I acquired and experienced first-hand.
"Hope the client dies," I said to myself as those Roman caltrops were deadly as they exploded based on proximity on an individual launching deadly metal spikes everywhere that impale the unlucky person.
After walking out of that maze of an underground I heard a slight tremor and smiled slightly.
"Here is the last evidence." I stated to the clergyman.
"You have done a great service to the church," the Bishop said.
"And our deal," I asked to reaffirm the deal verbally even though it was binding magically.
"Stands." He replied without hesitance.
"Then I'll be off, till next time," I said as I walked out of the church.
"God bless your journey." the Bishop said before getting back to his work.
Gilgamesh stared at a report he had received and frowned but knew it was necessary for he had foreseen the rise of mother harlot and the three grails that have been placed on his domain.
Gilgamesh tossed the report and began to think about his next move.
"Hmph, the future is still uncertain and even more fragmented; if the king of magic wants to play his games then I shall play my own." Gilgamesh scowled, as he moved his knight against an imagery opponent. If he made one misstep then humanity would be wiped out. "What conundrum, Siduri."
"Yes, my king" Siduri his ever-faithful assistant asked.
"Send word to my 'diplomat' to go to Tibet."
Author's notes
Its been awhile since I last updated it. In any case I have lost a bit of motivation for writing in general, but I will continue updating stories whenever I finish a chapter. I have the four other interlude chapter are planned and I have an idea for the third arc of this story(Yes the main crew will DxD will make an appearance in Arc three).
Dasgun - 0
Nofirekiller123 - We are progressing indeed
Guest - Thank you