Chapter 9: Rivals within the Cult

The Saint of Orum, Victoria, is in despair. She is placed in the very cage the Cult used to hold the heretical Possessed, an unthinkable humiliation for a servant of the goddess. The man… no, the monster who placed her in this predicament… He effortlessly defeated her. Why did the goddess abandon me? Is it because the moment I sensed his presence, my faith instantly faltered and was replaced by fear? Such question filled her mind. While enduring the humiliation, she prayed to the goddess for salvation and forgiveness.

Meanwhile, her auditor, Bishop Drake, is in a meeting with the Necromancer, discussing her fate.

"On behalf of the Holy City of Orum, I offer you our sincerest apologies, Lord Necromancer. The Saint acted on her own without our approval."

"Whether she acted on her own or not doesn't change the fact that you are the auditor who failed to control her. I would need far more than a simple apology."

"Y-You dare!? Even the Cult wouldn't dare take that tone on us!"

"Is that so. Then I shall stop supplying my Pseudo-Artifacts to the Church posthaste."

"N-No! That's… Alright, fine! What do you want in exchange for the Saint!?" Heh heh heh. Being the only supplier of something gives me a lot of power. Hooray for monopoly!

"In addition to payment in gold for every single one of my dead men, I demand 100 souls from Orum. And not just any souls. I want your paladins."

"Wh-What!? That's absurd!"

"Then I'll keep the Saint AND stop supplying the Church with my weapons."

"Wait! I have something… a name that will be of interest. The name of the person who manipulated the Saint into attacking you!"

"A name alone won't satisfy me." I could care less about names right now.

"A-Ah! Yes! I understand. I suppose you already figured out that it was Sir Gaunt who did it in order to eliminate you." I actually have no idea but go on. "T-Then how about this? We'll help you retaliate by undermining his position in the Cult! And we'll pay you whatever amount you want in gold! Please! We can't afford to lose that much paladins! What would the public think if 100 paladins suddenly disappears!?" A good enough deal for now.

"Hmph. I shall return her to you, after you show some result in undermining Sir Gaunt's position in the Cult AND after you paid the gold you owed me."

"V-Very well! I accept!"

In the Vice-principal's office in Midgar's Royal Spellsword Academy, an old man with sickly appearance is reading a letter from the Church, specifically from Bishop Drake, and its contents angered him.

"So the Saint failed to eliminate you and was even held hostage by you. I applaud you, Necromancer. You are indeed a terrifying foe. With their Saint at your mercy, you've managed to turn the Church against me. Now my movements are scrutinized and I will have less funds and men. Hmph. No matter."

The old man took something out of his pocket and stared at it with an evil grin. It was an Artifact shaped like an eyeball.

"When my plans bore fruit and I regain my power and rightful place in the Rounds, you will be the first to die, Necromancer. And that traitorous and pedophilic Bishop Drake will be next. I'll make sure of it."

The Church upheld their end of the bargain and managed to undermine Sir Gaunt's position in the Cult by blaming him for manipulating the Saint into attacking me, even though it's clear that the Church approved of her mission to eliminate me because they had dealings with Sir Gaunt beforehand. Why else would their Templar minions say the Bishop is the one who declared me a heretic and wants to kill me? At least their plan worked and now Sir Gaunt's movements are limited.

My victory caused the Church to turn on him in order to save face and to reclaim their Saint. I've only managed to analyze her blood and wasn't able to do much experimentation on her due to how fast the Church worked to fulfill their part of the deal but I noticed the dormant mutation in her blood and traces of compliance drugs in her system. Heh. Poor girl. It won't be long before you return to me, No. 046.

I returned the Saint to Bishop Drake whereupon he proceeded to give her the compliance drug to pacify her and prevent her from doing anything stupid. She left with Bishop Drake peacefully.

"Hmm… It's good that their activities are well documented."

In a secret underground room beneath the Cathedral of Orum, a blond haired leopard beastkin girl, is rummaging through secret documents belonging to the Church to obtain information about the Cult's connection with the Church and their secret organization, the Templar.

Her name is Zeta, one of the Seven Shades, the first group of Possession victims saved by her lord, Shadow, leader of Shadow Garden who are fighting a secret crusade against the Cult. She has infiltrated the Holy City of Orum alone on behalf of Alpha, Shadow Garden's co-leader. As she read the documents, she came across a familiar name, a name that Alpha once mentioned to Shadow and the Seven Shades.

"Hm? Necromancer… I've heard of that name before." She kept reading and discovered that the Church regularly made purchases of Pseudo-Artifacts, magic weapons that the Cultists also possessed, from the man named Necromancer.

"So this Necromancer guy is the source of all those troublesome weapons that the Cultists wielded."

As she kept reading, she noticed a drastic change in tone between one page and the next. In the first page, the Church marked the Necromancer as a heretic and a target for extermination and sent the Saint to eliminate him. But in the next page the Church changed its tone and blamed someone called Sir Gaunt for manipulating the Saint into attacking the Necromancer, the supplier of their magic weapons.

"Hmm…. Curious. A failed assassination attempt. I smell internal conflicts. I must report this to Lady Alpha."

Zeta would continue to read the documents until she was forced to leave after being discovered by the paladins of Orum, whereupon she would encounter the Saint face to face on her way out. Said Saint allowed her to escape and when she asked the Saint about the Necromancer, the Saint behaved as if she didn't know anyone by that name, though she noted that the name is both familiar and terrifying and she didn't know why. Deciding not to waste more time, Zeta left the Holy City of Orum.

Few months later I was visited by one of the Seven Blades of Velgalta who happens to be a Named Child as well, Sergey Gorman the Storm Sword. He is a tall and muscular man with red eyes wearing a mask that covered his nose and mouth and a thick green armor with thicker plates covering his left hand which is purple colored. I heard he got both of his position after slaying his predecessor in a duel. Being one of the Seven Blades of Velgalta, the strongest warriors of Velgalta Empire, his strength must be quite impressive… Though still lacking compared to mine. He is another rival for a seat in the Rounds.

"So, you're this Necromancer guy. I heard you're the first guy to notice the existence of Shadow Garden in the Cult."

Again with this "Shadow Garden" business. Even the Cultists in Velgalta believed it? Pfft…

"And what of it?"

"I actually encountered them some time ago in Madlid. 2 of them to be exact. They interrupted my hunt for the last survivor of the Herzog family. I want to know. Where are they?"

"You speak as if I'm involved in their activity."

He stood up from his chair and smashed the table in front of him with his armored hand.

"Of course I am! How else would you know so much about them!?"

"Is that all the proof you have to accuse me?"

"They wield magic slime in ways I've never seen before. You also wield magic no one has ever seen before. You also curiously never encountered them despite being the first to know of their existence. How do we know that you're not the one who created the Shadow Garden in order to undermine the Cult?" Using slimes? How creative.

"Perhaps you're just inexperienced then."

"You…. Are you saying that I'm weak?"

"Compared to me? Yes."

"How dare you!"

We stared at each other's eyes, trying to intimidate one another, until finally he relented.

"Heh. I acknowledge you as a worthy foe for the position of Rounds. But mark my words, Necromancer. The vacant seat will be mine!"

With that declaration, he left the base, but not before purchasing my weapons for his men. Really, these fools who are my competitor for the seat of Rounds can't help but love my weapons so much. Even Zenon Griffey purchased a custom made enchanted mythril sword from me, though he hasn't flaunted such an Artifact in public yet. Just by selling the weapons has made me an irreplaceable asset of the Cult and among the Rounds candidates I am several steps ahead of them in terms of contribution. The seat of Rounds is within sight. Perhaps in a few years…

Author's Note:

More content from Master of Garden game appears! Sergey Gorman appeared and there are mentions about Kai. Me adding these game contents is just me wanting to depict the cutthroat inner politics of the Cult of Diablos, which the Necromancer thrived in.

BetweenIandGirl : isn't the main timeline continuity grease already dead? or do you just grab a random character that kidnap claire?

oh... so you pitted him as same class year as claire... I see why.

Answer: Yes. He is in the same year as Claire. He is actually 2 years older than Cid. The reason is explained in the previous chapter.