Ch 58 – Vergil and Magnus

'H-how could have this happened!' Vergil thought, his body riddled with a multitude of cuts and wounds covering his body with his own blood, his dark blue cloak riddled with holes while his eyes were constantly dilating, both of his irises darting around the rooftop he was on.

'Damn it, I should have known something was wrong once Magnus arrive! His appearance was just unprecedented.' Vergil thought, his body flashing from one point to another on top of another building, his heart thumping like it was going to jump off his chest while he tightened his grip over the black USB stick in his left hand.

'I need to bring this to the Secret Esper Division, they'll have enough manpower to deal with that accursed cult of Magnus.' Vergil thought, his body appearing at multiple points within seconds but his eyes soon widens when he felt the silent bullet appearing directly within his AIM field.

Twisting his body and dropping down to the ground, he felt the hypersonic bullet whizzing past the left side of his neck, his blazer getting a new hole and he sees another one of those cult members appearing in the distance.

Wearing a white priest robe while golden lines run around it, Vergil also sees the golden mask covering the person's eyes and nose, their pale white skin showed off by their exposed mouth that forms an amicable smile that further unnerves his mind.

"Teacher, why are you avoiding us so much! We just want to help you!" his student, Fiona, a Level 3 Air manipulator shouts at him, her grin cracking into a crazed smile while the air around her lights up, indicating that she transformed the air around her into plasma.

"Fiona! You're being manipulated right now! The god you are worshipping is a person Magnus just made up!" Vergil shouts, a katana manifesting in his right arm while he puts the USB stick in his pocket dimension.

"Teacher, what are you talking about! Of course my lord is real! How else could I have achieved this magnificent power!" Fiona shouts, her body glowing a bright green while the air around her gathered in the palm of her hands to form two balls of plasma.

'I can't deny that, but there must be another way she has reached Level 4 or heck, even Level 5!' Vergil thought, his grip tightening on his katana while he takes a sword stance.

"Calm down, Fiona! We don't have to fight one another! Just let me help you and we could talk this out!" Vergil pleads, his heart not wanting to fight against his innocent student.

"Teacher, why can't you understand our noble mission! Don't you know what it's like for everyone to attain heaven! If you don't allow us to bring our Lord's benevolence to the masses, then we will do anything necessary to help achieve his grand dream!" Fiona shouts, the two balls of superheated plasma shooting forwards that divided into countless beams of blue light that burned the air in front of her.

Gritting his teeth, Vergil's body rapidly teleported forwards and dodges her barrage of plasma beams, but as he senses the dodged plasma beams turning around and homing back at him, in response, he closes his eyes and he unsheathes his katana in one swift motion and drew it out to cut the air in front of him.

Swinging his katana in one swift cut, countless blue lines appear all around him that cut all the plasma beams into two, and without stopping his momentum, he directly appears behind Fiona and grabs her by the back of the head and slams her head down to the ground to knock her unconscious.

Looking around him with warry eyes, he lets out a sigh of relief and continues to teleport from one place to another, his katana being sheathed back on his waist while his mind continues to try and figure out what the fuck was going on.

'She said he, so her lord is definitely a man, is the Lord actually Magnus? But even he seems to be devotedly worshipping that thing while I infiltrated their base from before, and considering all of them became stronger all of a sudden, then they must be using something to strengthen their esper abilities, is their God an esper who can strengthen other esper abilities? Or is it a drug?' Vergil theorizes, his head already aching at the taxing activities he had to go through but he must hold on, District 1 is just a few minutes away.

Without obstruction, he defeats the other cult members that appeared in his way with swift blows full of efficiency, his mind already waning but his willpower is keeping him from passing out.

"Ha, ha, I'm finally here," Vergil exhaustedly said, his arms trembling but he calms himself down, assuring himself that he already won because his safety was assured now that he was in front of the SED building.

Putting his bloody palm on the scanner, he walks through the building and sees everyone looking at him in shock.

"M-mister Vergil! What happened!" an agent asks in concern while another one went to get some basic first aid items.

"Shush, this matter is of the greatest importance! Get me the director!" Vergil shouts, as one of the higher-ranking agents in the distance nods.

Walking to the infirmary while he was helped by the young man who first helped him, he seats down on an operating table and takes a series of pills and concoctions to drink and swallow, his wounds healing and got disinfected by the young man by spraying his whole body with a colorless liquid.

Staying in silence, both just awkwardly sit in the infirmary waiting for the agent to return to gain the confirmation that he could meet the director face to face.

"So, mister Vergil… did something happen?" the young agent awkwardly asked.

"Sigh, you don't need to know it for now, if what I think is proven true, then we all might have to accomplish an arduous task in the near future," Vergil shakes his head, the katana in his right arm disappearing into his pocket dimension while the young agent nods his head.

"Vergil, the Director allowed you to visit his room," an agent barged into the room, saying the good news as Vergil nods his head as his way of showing his thanks.

Standing up with a reinvigorated body, Vergil leaves the room and left the duo alone, confused and wondering what Vergil went through, but both silently steeled their heart for the oncoming future.

Walking up to the elevator, everyone looks at him with curious eyes but he simply lets them be, entering the elevator that automatically opened, he presses the button that leads to the highest floor of the building where the director resides.

'Once I give him the flash drive, dealing with the cult would be much easier than doing it alone. After that, we'll find out how they were able to raise their levels so fast and strengthen Academy City as a whole.' Vergil thought, his heart calming down after he took deep breaths, his training kicking in, and waited for the elevator to come to a halt.

Feeling the elevator halting in place, he heard a ding above him and sees the metallic door in front of him open on its own, showing a hallway and a multitude of doors around the hallway, but the one on the opposite end of the hallway is where the Director resides.

Walking up to it with silent steps, he felt his body relaxing at the grasp of victory and puts his hand on the wall to scan his hand one final time.

'Finally, that damn cult would get eradicated once and for all.' Vergil thought, the door opening upon confirming that he was indeed Vergil, feeling a gust of cold wind greet him upon the opening of the metallic door, he calmly walks through it while his guard was completely down.

"Vergil, seat down," the Director said, his deep voice magnetic and full of authority.

"Yes sir," Vergil said, walking up to the singular metallic desk at the far end of the room and he sees the Director's chair was turned the other way around to look at the glass wall that shows the full view of District 1.

Sitting down on the office chair, Vergil quietly sat down and waited for the Director to speak.

"So, Vergil, what could I help you with," the Director said as Vergil instantly responds.

"Sir, you need to see this, after snooping around Zenith Academy, I found a cult and the details are currently inside this USB drive," Vergil said, the USB drive appearing in the palm of his hand and he slides it down on the metallic table.

"Oh? A cult?" the Director said, his body still facing the other way as Vergil nods his head.

"Yes sir, it's a full-blown cult who worships a fictional, made-up God by the student Magnus, but they seem to have somebody or something that allows them to grow their level either rapidly or even instantly," Vergil explains as the Director finally turned his body around to look at Vergil in the eye.

Watching him grab the USB stick, the Director takes out a metallic tablet from the desk to insert the USB stick.

"Magnus, level increased, have more than a hundred members each estimated to be Level 4 or above, how impressive. My my, you really did great work for finding this out, Vergil, and all alone at that! Let's see what other stuff this cult has…Oh, what's this?" the Director said, his voice intrigued.

"What is it, sir?" Vergil asked.

"Have you ever wondered… what it's like if heaven was over earth?" the Director said, a grin appearing on his face as it seems like Magnus learned Braun's paranoia.

(Inside a dark room)

Watching the holographic screen in front of him and how Vergil fell right into his trap, Magneto chuckles and waves his right hand to dismiss the screen, instead, he refocuses his gaze to the other end of the wall where a picture of Braun resides.

'My lord, please grant me your wisdom and strength for the oncoming battle to seize the Secret Esper Division for ourselves and further our plan while you are away, for you are the almighty Messiah of this world who would grant us heaven over earth.' Magneto said, his voice full of devotion to his one true God who has answered his prayers time and time again.

Standing up, he walks through the door and was greeted by the sight of his army, no, his lord's army that ranges in the thousands, each and every one of them wearing a white robe to represent that they were part of their Lord's divine army.

"Men! Our dream of achieving the goal has finally reached one step closer! If we are able to, no, the moment we seized the Secret Esper Division, we'll finally be able to infiltrate the Board of Directors of Academy City!" Magneto shouts as everyone cheers, raising their arm to the sky to prepare for the silent operation they were about to commence.

(Back to Braun)

Dangling on the edge of the wall of Bourn without anyone noticing his existence, Braun could be seen enjoying the peace for the moment as blades of grass and green leaves sway around him due to the weak, even unnoticeable air vortex around him that made his hair constantly swing in every direction in a rotation-like manner.

But his peace soon falters when he saw the white cart in the distance being dragged by two white steeds of majestic appearance, their manes well-kept and their eyes full of loyalty to their master, Elizabeth the Ice Princess.

"I-is that the cart of Elizabeth, the Ice Princess herself?!" the guard beside him shouts as all the guards protecting the wall mutter in shock.

"Didn't she disappear to Lazur many weeks ago to catch the rumored Ice Dragon? I even heard she was defeated by a nobody in Laeborg even though she had an Ancient Ice Dragon, and the opponent was also rumored to have only used a single slime! How unbelievable is that!"

Standing up, he hops down on the ground to get a better view for himself.

As the cart halts, everyone saw a pair of dainty white legs covered in a white, crystal-like dress seemingly made of ice as the guards felt their hearts thump in fear.

"Jack Bourn! I have come to challenge you for the title of King of the Eastern Continent!" Elizabeth shouts, her voice resounding through the area as time seems to have slowed down for everybody in the kingdom upon hearing her booming voice, for the idea of challenging a King might as well be challenging a God.

AN: This is 2155 words, you're welcome.

You might wanna check out FBM (Old Version), IR, The One That Shall not be Named, and TGOH, I may or may not have posted unreleased chapters that were written months ago. Also, I'm just going to say it but they're dropped, I might take a brake for FBM after Volume 6 and do a rewrite for IR with a new name for Rintarou because his name's cringe and if I do a rewrite for IR, I'll definitely make him a mad psycopath who will probably fuck the dead body of his past self because you know, for science.

(June 17, 2022 – 205th day of writing)