Chapter 7: A Surprising Event

My first mission somehow ended successfully. The only issue afterwards was the relentless questioning from Xenovia. Even with her numerous attempts at annoying me, I refused to give her an answer. This was my petty revenge for her attitude before.

After we finished the mission, we cleaned up bodies and went back to the Vatican. We reported the completion of our mission to the bishop and received a low but decent monetary reward.

As we left the Bishop's office, Xenovia confronted me again. I was about to refuse her, but she did the ultimate "kabedon" on me.

"Uh, so what do you want?" I awkwardly smiled.

"Fight me," she uttered in utter seriousness.

"H-huh why?"

"I'll get the answer out of you after I beat you up." She answered with a straight face.

I pushed her hand out of the way before fixing my shirt and looking at her.

"You know you're going to lose, right?" I asked her with my eyebrows raised.

"I won't know until I try."

"Hmm…how about we do this? I'll give you a fight later, but in exchange, you don't speak about what I did during the mission."

"Yes, that is acceptable." She backed down quite easily.

"Great! We shall see each another time"

Using that excuse, I managed to escape that situation, swearing to never get involved with this troublesome person ever again.

Time passed very quickly; it's been roughly 2 years now, with me turning 15 a couple months ago. I've long been promoted as an official exorcist, and for the past few years I've spent most of my time either training or taking missions. Most of my missions just involved killing stray devils, and I even got a few missions to kill some high-class vampires. I also met a lot of other exorcists from within the Vatican and from outside the Vatican as well.

A very big thing that I came to learn was about the factions in the church. There were different groups in the Holy Church, like the Catholics, the Protestants, the Orthodox, and many other denominations. There was always an invisible rivalry going on between the groups, and it was mostly regulated by the Pope.

I only found out about the existence of factions when I used my magecraft in one of my missions, and my partner, who wasn't from the Catholic church, looked surprised. That was when I found out that the topic of magic's usage is a highly debated one in the Holy Church. Some groups don't like exorcists using magic, but some support the use of magic. For example, some of the talented exorcists, like me or Xenovia, were taught how to use holy magic that was bestowed by the angels and given holy swords, but in some other branches that didn't happen. I didn't really want to be involved in this rivalry, so I mostly minded my own business and completed missions at my own pace.

For the past few weeks, the activity within the Vatican has been at an all-time high. There seemed to be a huge event, which I was called to attend. It was called the Holy Sword Trial. The interior of the Church had a lot of people going in and out preparing for this event.

I woke up this morning, dressed myself formally in my male exorcist uniform, and headed to the main building. The inside of the building was filled with hundreds of people, some of whom were church members overlooking the event and some of whom were participants attending the event.

Most were in nun clothing and priest garb, standing at attention, waiting for the Cardinals to arrive. While the younger ones participating were in uniforms or standard formal clothing with a shawl over their chest.

The reason I wanted to participate in this initiation was because I wanted a holy sword. I don't know if I'm compatible or not, but I wanted to try it out anyway. I entered the Church and stood at the back of the crowd, close to the exit.

*Click**Clack*

Everyone in the gathering heard some footsteps heading into the church. It was the Cardinal who entered the church and stood in front of all the participants.

"Greeting everyone, I thank you all for participating in this event this year. Those who are participating, please line up for the test."

The numerous young exorcists immediately went to line up to be tested for their aptitude to wield a holy sword. Looking at the line, the Cardinal opened his mouth and spoke in a soft voice again.

"On the altar is an orb that will measure your aptitude for the holy element and the amount your body can hold."

As he explained, I felt someone looking at me. I looked around at my surroundings and saw a person staring at me. It was Xenovia who was standing with her mother figure, Griselda, next to her. She was literally glaring straight at me, with an almost murderous look. The most likely reason for the anger was probably because I never gave her the fight she asked for and kept avoiding her.

I, as I always did, looked away and completely ignored her. With me being distracted for a second, the whole crowd gathered in the line, with me ending up almost all the way at the back.

The test had begun.

Participants went up to the orb and placed their hands on it to get the results. The orb basically calculated the value and displayed it in the form of colours. The colours started from yellow and green, which were the lowest, to white, which was the highest. A person who wanted to wield a holy sword was required to have at least the colour violet, which showed they had the required minimum aptitude for holy power.

Names were quickly and uniformly called out, and people went up to get tested. As I expected, most kept failing over and over. But there were a few who did pass the test and I was pretty familiar with them. One of them was Irina, one of Issei's harem members, whose affinity landed on violet.

'If I remembered right, didn't Irina get implanted with a light container used to make artificial holy sword wielders' Those were my thoughts as I watched the event. I wondered how many people had gotten these light containers.

As the test went on, there were multiple church representatives in the background who kept muttering to themselves, most likely discussing who would pass or fail. I think that scene just made most people extra nervous. Some of the guys in front of me were frozen stiff from nervousness and the looks of judgment they were receiving.

It took a while, but it was finally my turn.

"Tristan Beatrice, please come up."

I slowly trudged to the altar and took a second to look at it. Swallowing in anxiety, I walked up to the orb and steadily placed my hand on its surface.

*Swish*

The orb glowed, and instantly the colors changed from green to blue until it finally landed on violet.

"Haah...nice," I exclaimed, relieved.

"Please go stand with the others there," the nun standing next to the altar informed me.

That was pretty much all the test consisted of. With my turn done, I stood by some of the other people passing like me while waiting for the test to end.

…

It took another hour for the event to end, and we were all taken somewhere separately. I just followed behind everyone while quietly observing the five other participants who passed like me. We were taken to a teleportation circle and ended up in front of a huge medieval looking building.

The Cardinal turned back to us and explained with a smile. "The room beyond here is the treasury, where we store holy swords. You guys are allowed to pick one sword that resonates with you."

He opened the door and gestured for us to go in. I, along with the others, entered the building with a slight mixture of fear and excitement.

The sight that I saw when I went inside was quite eye-opening. There were numerous swords scattered throughout the were hung on the walls, some were placed on altars, some were attached to racks, and some were planted on the ground.

Everyone in the group separated, and they all went to look around. I, like the others, started to walk around and scrutinize every sword that came into my sight. I just roamed around for half an hour in confusion while some had already picked up their swords. One of them was Irina, who, just like I thought, had picked up an Excalibur fragment that was on the altar and headed out like the others.

I absolutely had no idea what I was going to pick since none of them had resonated with me so far. So, I tried to close my eyes, clear my mind, and find something that naturally attracted me. That's when it hit me—some kind of natural aura that attracted me like a moth to a flame. I slowly followed that feeling and walked up to a sword.

I opened my eyes and looked to the front, where I saw a familiar-looking sword planted in the ground. It was a silver greatsword with a blue hilt and handle that gave off an odd sense of warmth just by approaching sword was something I had seen before, not in DxD but rather in Fate. It was the Sword of Revolving Victory: Excalibur Galatine.

"Why the f*ck is this here?" I accidentally spoke in shock.

It took me a few moments, but I composed myself and looked forward. I was the last one left in the building, so I had to quickly pick one and leave. I can leave my shock for a later date.

Stepping close to the sword, I grabbed the handle, and the sword showed a reaction. It glowed brighter and brighter as I pulled it out of the ground, until the light completely blinded me.

*Shing*

I still gritted my teeth and pulled the whole sword out and gripped the handle in defiance. Almost like it acknowledged my will, it suddenly dimmed down and returned to its normal state when it was fully in my hands.

Holding the sword in my hands, I swung it around and tested it for a bit after finally deciding to head out. Heading back to the entrance, I saw the Cardinal standing outside the door. He let out a slight smile as he saw the sword I was holding.

"It seems that the sword finally has an owner, huh?" He grinned at me.

"Hmm... what do you mean?"

"That sword of yours appeared out of nowhere a couple hundred years ago. The guy has never let anyone fully wield him, and those who tried had their arms burned off."

"W-what?" I muttered in surprise.

"Well, good luck using that sword. May the Lord be with you." He blessed me as he closed the door and headed back to the teleportation circle.

I was beyond confused, but I still followed the Cardinal and headed back to the Vatican. With that done, we were given a short briefing before we were sent back to our rooms.

I was a bit confused and completely caught off guard by this surprise. I didn't really know what all this meant. Is this just a prank by the multiverse troll? Perhaps it's just a complete coincidence? Or is there another reason?

I was left to ponder these questions with no way of solving them. All I could do was sigh and keep moving forward while accepting everything that was going on. What I had to focus on now was getting stronger and learning how to use this new power.