1 Chapter 1: The Lord of Mysteries
Dante Vermillion, a man who loved all types of fiction. Be it literature, movies, series, mangas or whatever, Dante loved all of it. Despite the flaws many stories had, each of them possessed their author's desire to spread fun and joy to their readers.
One particular story had entranced Dante in a way no other did before it.
Lord of the Mysteries.
A story of madness, cruelty, and sadness. Yet despite that, Dante was in love with the story and its flawed and lovable characters, the world setting, and its origins which had shocked Dante.
How much he wished to take Klein Moretti's place, to free him from his suffering and his loneliness.
His desire was so strong it reached an unknown god wandering the cosmos.
"What is it that you truly desire?" Those words echoed inside Dante's mind. It nearly broke his personality yet hearing the question, only a single answer came to mind.
"I want to become the Lord of Mysteries and be able to grow and take Klein's place in the story!" Those were Dante's genuine thoughts. A mortal could never lie to a deity, thus his words startled the unknown god. A sense of disbelief settled in the deity that had witnessed countless races and civilizations and met billions of people like Dante. Yet none of them managed to express their heartfelt wish in front of him.
"Hahaha. Very well, I shall grant you wish. I shall even grant you something extra as a reward for this entertaining encounter!" With a flick of its omnipotent wrist, the unknown god fueled Dante with an indescribable power. It tore apart Dante's body, restructuring it into the image of the King of Space-Time.
A rush of information assaulted Dante like a waterfall, his mind struggling to keep hold of itself as the influx gave him knowledge about all three pathways connected to the lord of mysteries.
With an ungodly headache, Dante fell unconscious as the influx of information continued rushing in. The unknown god smiled at Dante's unmoving body, he could still see the unwavering fire of his being flickering wildly inside his soul. He was sure the mortal would succeed and reach godhood without breaking apart.
Another flick of his wrist made Dante vanish reappearing inside an ancient hall filled with gray fog.
…
It was unknown how long Dante had been asleep but once he woke up, he found himself in a different spot.
"Where am I?" The rush of information he received through his ascension jumped to the forefront of his mind. Soon he understood that he was standing amidst Sefirah Castle and that he had truly become the Lord of Mysteries.
Dante turned around and saw a long wooden table that spanned a couple of dozen meters inside the ancient hall. Two rows of elegant chairs decorated the table on each side with an extra chair sitting at the head and foot of the table.
In front of the head position of the table was a white piece of paper with something written on it. Dante went to pick it up, intent on reading it.
"Congratulations mortal and achieving godhood. I hope you're able to reach your desire but beware your existence has changed the course of the story. The powers you possess might not be enough, therefor I felt free to gift you another ability to give you the chance to survive.
I added a new function to Sefirah Castle, just think about its control panel and it will explain it to you in detail.
May we cross paths again one day, my dear Lord of Mysteries.
The One Who Seeks The Truth."
Dante placed the letter back down, thanking the being who granted his wish with all his might. After an extended prayer aimed at The One Who Seeks The Truth, Dante followed the instructions written in the letter and summoned a holographic display the size of an average TV.
The screen displayed six categories to choose from:
Prayers
Angels
Storage
Connections
Library
Realms
After pressing on Prayers, a screen depicting the incoming prayers, currently displaying zero. Dante could put the prayer system to automatic or manual to decide if Sefirah Castle should answer the prayers on itself or if Dante wished to respond to them himself. He could also select individuals whose prayers he could get himself despite choosing the automatic option.
The Angels category was a display of all the angels that had sworn their loyalty to him which amounted to zero at the moment.
The Storage category was a display of all the items he had in his possession which were placed inside Sefirah Castle. Once again the amount was zero.
Connections represented the red stars with which the owner of Sefirah Castle could connect with different people. It was the ability that allowed Klein to gather his Tarot Club in the original story.
For now, though, this option didn't display any red star to connect to which confused Dante slightly. His first goal was to create his own Tarot Club and help it grow even faster and stronger.
The Library option was basically the same as his own Wikipedia which would base its knowledge off of books he gathered and placed inside Sefirah Castle.
The last option 'Realms' was something that Dante didn't have any idea about. He tapped it, revealing a large list of names with a small description next to it.
"One Piece, a world filled with those seeking freedom and those seeking to oppress.
Marvel Earth-616, a world filled with heroes and villains.
Supreme Magus, a world filled with ancient creatures that all retained the intelligence of a newborn.
…
Wait, aren't those all different stories I read/watched?"
Dante continued scrolling through the never-ending list of fictional realms, some he knew but most of them were he had no knowledge of. For example 'Boku no Pico', Dante had no idea what that story was about.
"Is this the extra help, that god was talking about?"
After taking a good look at the list, a couple of ideas formed in his mind. Reading from the explanation of the category. Each world existed in suspension compared to himself. Which meant that as long as he didn't enter the world, its time flow would be halted. This means the Lord of Mysteries world will stay at the beginning of the story for as long as he doesn't enter it. Only after entering it once would the time flow uninterrupted with or without his presence in that realm.
"This is perfect… I'll be able to gather artifacts and powerful puppets before joining the dangerous world of LotM! But how should I start?"
He conjured a piece of paper from the void of history and began scribbling down different items and people he could make use of.
"Ten tail, Soul King's parts, devil fruits, infinity stones,…
Superman, Tony Stark, Son Goku, Obito,…
There are a lot of things that could become helpful…"
Too many options and too many ideas popped up in Dante's head. After a while, he remembered something important about a certain series.
"Wait… Why should I gather multiple puppets? Couldn't I just create the perfect vessel? An accumulation of all the most powerful beings across the multiverse?"
Dante shifted his eyes towards the list of realms he could travel to until they landed on 'One Piece'.
"The Lineage Factor… What if Vegapunk can adapt that theory to other races outside of One Piece? What if he creates a Seraphim with the power of the strongest devil fruits, the lineage of the three major races in the Bleach realm, coupled with a Saiyan's unlimited potential?"
A feeling of anticipation built up inside Dante as a myriad of possibilities opened up in front of him.
"I won't know if I don't try! Worst case scenario, I make him produce a Seraphim with all the lineages of the One Piece world and the strongest devil fruits. That should be a decently strong puppet to use in the future."
With that, he pressed on the option displaying 'One Piece', and a brilliant red light enveloped him transporting him to a foreign world of sea and piracy.
