This is a "surprise mini chapter"; it's not the next chapter as such, but a preview of the "Things" to come, that I had already prepared for quite some time. This kind of "mini-publication" is usually a "Chapter-Prologue" used in a classic way in fics where the [Campione] series is used, and this story was not going to be the exception.
I must say that IF YOU DON´T LIKE SPOILERS, not even the small ones, YOU SHOULDN'T READ the last part of this chapter at all (specifically the news of the "Compilation of the assembly of the "Copper-Black Cross ")
The next chapter, as I said, will probably be ready by the end of the month, or in the middle of December.
Best Regards!
Interlude: The News.
Excerpt from the 19th century book by the Italian magician Alberto Ricardo.
...For the fact of facing the Divinity, playing with the supernatural knowledge of the magicians, and since they are the "Devil Kings" born of the gods, we have called them [Campione]: Creatures that rise above the others. The Angels, on the other hand, gave them the title of [Nephalem]: Giants, of Giants. Which, in my opinion, is very appropriate.
Nephalem-Campione-Godslayer- They are the Lords, the Kings of Mankind, The very pinnacle of the human race.
Since they slay a celestial being, as "Punishment", their "blood" and "Skin" becomes the "blood" and "skin" of a Devil. But let that not deceive them, because underneath that "demonic shell", there also dwells an existence close to both a god and a human; A transcendental existence that can invoke the divine power belonging to the Deities, without being completely a God, A human being, or a Devil.
Nephalem-Campione - Godslayer - is the supreme ruler, the supreme sorcerer.
Of all mankind living on Earth, there are very few who have the power to oppose them.
Nephalem-Campione - Godslayer - is the illegitimate son of Eve.
Unfortunately, only mere mortals cannot fight against them.
Those who stand a chance against them are also classified as transcendental beings; their "Campione" brothers, the major Gods, the Super-Devils, and maybe...with a lot of luck, their "little cousins", the "Nephilim" with a fully mastered "Longinus".
About the latter, I still wonder...Why did God give Sacred-gears to humans?, did he want to give more protection to mankind?, did he want to control the disasters of the heretic Gods or the Campione turned Tyrants?, no "Nephilim" can become "Nephalem", because a Nephilim is in "essence" a demi-god...
...So what is the purpose of having created more humans with monstrous capabilities?
Fourth decade of the 21st century, Cardinal Vasco Estrada's letter to the Vatican
Finally the reports coming from Hokkaido Island seem to indicate that the heretic deity who had escaped from his seal, the Divine-King Sun-Wukong, was killed along with the red dragon.
The reason?: The birth of the Sixth Supreme Lord.
An exorcist of the Orthodox church that we had left as a spy on that island since months ago, gave me a vague description, but that gives me an "idea" of the identity of the one involved in stopping such a catastrophe; a white-haired man wearing a red shirt, whose age couldn´t be confirmed: with the devil sword in his hands, he ended the life of a heretic god who supposedly couldn´t die.
I can't imagine what the exact origin of this man is, but now, in a short time, there won't be a single person in the whole supernatural world who doesn't know of his existence.
Apparently more than half of the innocent civilians in Higashikawa City perished as a consequence of the devastating battles unleashed between Sun-Wukong, and the apparent reborn Welsh Red Dragon. Approximately 900,000 people lost their lives that day. The rest of the inhabitants of Hokkaido Island fortunately suffered no casualties, and their transformation into apes was reversed.
I will pray for those souls who didn´t survive.
My prayers will continue to ask that their souls may rest in peace.
We were very lucky, the extent of this catastrophe could have spread all over the world.
If that had happened, how much blood would have been shed?
Would the 5 [Nephalem] that existed at that time have been able to defeat this Monkey King?
It´s probable, but also uncertain...
The only thing certain, is that if they fought on earth, Cities, islands and even whole countries would have disappeared unless some mythological faction had the courage to face the Monkey King; But he was a God who became stronger against more than one enemy; His authority [Equal to Heaven] prevented him from being faced by more than one individual: if two or more gods or other beings faced him, his strength and magical power doubled. Literally, he became capable of facing a celestial army, by himself
My heart still trembles at the thought of what had happened if that catastrophe would to spread to the rest of the world.
About Higashikawa City ... 80% of the great city is in ruins, and will remain so for a while.
The Devils have already altered the memories of the surviving inhabitants; they implanted in them the idea of "an unexpected disaster" caused by the "fall of a meteorite", so the devils won't be able to use magic to rebuild the city quickly.
In any case, it seems that the human world will continue to depend on the "True Devil Kings" to achieve peace or at least an imitation of it.
The earth will continue to need the incorrigible blood of Eve.
Fourth Decade of the 21st Century: Excerpts from a Japanese report of the Shinra clan related to the verification of the sixth [Campione], 1 week after the incident in Hokkaido.
In his myth, Being born from a stone of the primordial chaos, Sun-Wukong had a skin that was hard to pierce like a rock, but more importantly, during the course of his "Mythological life", he managed to obtain immortality through 7 different methods, which made him almost impossible to kill. In his myth, the monkey king survived being beheaded, dismembered, cooked and various other executions that occurred during his imprisonment in Heaven and during his adventure with the monk Sanzang. He acquired a kind of "borderline invulnerability" where the only safe methods to kill him were to completely destroy his body plus his spiritual core (soul) and/or damage him with a transcendental power or a conceptual damage.
We, part of the five clans that protect Japan, knew that this deity had been sealed approximately 1000 years ago by "The Devil Sword", [Sparda], a demon-god subordinate to the Prince of Darkness. That accursed devil-god, whose whereabouts are currently unknown, was forced to seal the [Monkey King] for some unknown reason; but no doubt, if he could have killed him, he would have done so: Reports of [Sparda's] existence mention that he was incredibly ruthless.
Ironic, isn't it?
A mere human being accomplished what [Sparda] could not; A human killed a god that was practically impossible to kill!
And this Japanese who ended up becoming [Nephalem], has gained an authority from the monkey king!
A king has been born again in our lands!
What should we do?!
Should we swear allegiance to him?
Should we abandon the blessing of the 5 divine beasts and the Japan's Gods?
Or should we convince the gods to cooperate with him? Form an alliance?
Or should we just consider him as Ruler of Hokkaido and ignore the existence of that Island as we did since we lost it to the biblical factions?
This "Dante" who has become [Nephalem], so far, we have little information gathered regarding his person.
From his appearance, he doesn' t appear to be originally from Japan; he is approximately 25 years old, and his physical features correlate with humans born in northern Europe. Also, we don't know if "Dante" is his real name, as apparently he was dedicated to "hunting beasts" even before becoming [Nephalem], all for a price if someone could pay him; he is a kind of mercenary; and therefore, we believe he is hiding his real identity.
Where did this person come from?
Who are his parents?
Why did he decide to become a mercenary?
But more importantly...
Why is he in the company of the heiress of the Gremory clan And a divine ancestor of the fallen angels!?
If he has any kind of relationship or cooperation with the demons and fallen angels; If this new [Nephalem] is allied with any of these factions, there will be little we five protective clans of Japan can do to oppose his will, even with the blessing of the 5 divine beasts. No doubt we will soon have to start negotiations with the new king.
Because if we don't, the consequences for our nation if we oppose his will, will be terrible!
We must not forget what happened with the last [Nephalem] born in our land!
Oda Nobunaga, the devil king of the sixth heaven! That ruthless woman ruled us with tyranny and nearly wiped out the Shinto and Buddhist faction of Japan in the process!
And so, I make this request! We, the five clans must gather together as soon as possible!
A general assembly to agree on how to proceed with this new king must be organized quickly!
Assembly compilation of the "Copper-Black Cross", Report on "Dante", 2 month after he became a Overlord.
As mentioned in the above document, "Dante", took the authority he named as "Unbreakable" from Sun-Wukong and "Scalebound" from the legendary Welsh Dragon, but that was only the beginning;
In just a few weeks, he also assassinated the following deities; Quetzalcoatl's twin, the Aztec Underworld God, [Xolotl]! and the Heretic God responsible for the birth of the legend of [Sir Kay]! *1
"Unbreakable", "Scalebound", "Doppelganger", "Trickster"; These are the names of the [Authorities] he has taken from all those gods, and which we managed to identify before he was victorious against the Balkan Devil!
Our spy, Lavinia Salvatore gathered all the information she could from the new Overlord, and has given us some of her findings.
At the moment, "Dante" seems to have restrictions on some of his authorities, but his level as he has shown since the first day he became a [Nephalem] is already high enough to stand up to any existence on the level of the gods, and any of the following [Campione]:
The Monsters' King
The Martial Arts' King
The Priestess' King
The Theater's King
The Thieves' King
Because of Dante's constant taunting of his opponents plus his abysmal power along with his authorities which have similar Characteristics but at the same time different capabilities in comparation with the autorities of his other 5 brothers [Nephalem], we have earned him the title of:
"The Jokers' King" *2
Therefore, I beg you all not to forget him. Even if he has barely been reborn as [Nephalem], there is no denying the fact that he is a [Campione] above us all.
To both the frail humans and the veteran "Grand Knight" that is me, Erica-Blandelli, he is still a Overlord who holds a place above us all.
Therefore, it' s imperative that the sister of our stupid Paladin, Lavinia-Salvatore, continues to draw closer to this king: she will continue our "negotiations", and hopefully, we will not have [Dante] as a future enemy, but as a powerful Ally. *3
Next chapter: Mission 07: "What? Now am I the King of Japan?!"
Author's Messages: As I told you, more than a chapter, it was a kind of prologue/introduction, mini-short.
Best Regards!
Chapter Clarifications:
*1 For the moment, I have chosen these gods as the next 'Bosses' to appear in the story, before Dante faces my version of Kokabiel (Samiel), and my version of Voban.
*2 The others [Campione] won't be long in coming, but just as a clarification, in the [Campione!] series and also in this story, each of them is given a "title", which relates to their Authorities and personality, which carry a "Theme":
For example, in this story: the "King of Monsters" is a vicious Campione, whose Authorities transform him into powerful "hunters" in the "form" of monsters: another Campione has the title of "King of Martial Arts", as she has mastered and brought to the pinnacle every martial art in the world, apart from having an authority that gives her an absurd strength.
In any case, some of the "authorities" that I will give to Dante, and that have "references " to the video game (both the original and the reboot, or even other capcom games) will include similar "capabilities" of the authorities of the other [Campione], they will be versatile; so in that letter in the fic's story you just read, that magical organization interested in an "alliance" with "Dante", they ended up giving him the title of "Jokers´ King" because of that, and also because the concept of "Joker" or the poker card "Joker" besides being able to impersonate any other card, also represents the "Jester", a character that makes fun of others, and that takes almost nothing seriously, just like Dante. And Dante by himself is already a "Joker card" in the DMC video games, so I wanted to give him an appropriate title in this story.
*3 Lavinia-Reni, is a very beautiful, tender and Canonical Italian woman from DXD. In this story, I'll change the magical organization she belongs to, as well as her last name, and I'll also add a brother (brother, whose Campione connoisseurs surely already know who he is XD), for reasons you'll understand later. But don't worry DXD fans, her personality and background will be almost the same as the original Lavinia Reni, although...Tobio-Ikuse never existed in this story, so I think you can imagine what plans I have for Lavinia.
Reviews:
Since I don't know if the reviewers are going to read this mini-chapter (cause the mini spoilers), I will respond to the reviews of the previous chapter in the review section of the next chapter.
However, I thank you all for leaving your messages. I'm very happy to know your opinions about the story :)
Have a nice weekend!
Best regards!