FoJ: Chapter 8

“So, who’s actually participating in this meeting?”

“Mostly the big players.” Thellsa answers. “Obviously, you’ve got the Romulus clan and their head, which you already know.”

Thellsa picks up a tablet from the table and turns it to show Alex a picture.

It was a wizened old man on a red cassock with a red trim and a red sash.

“That old man?” Alex asks.

“No, that’s Cardinal James Timothy, he’s the head of the local catholic branch, but in America, with its diversity of denominations when it comes to Christianity, does not allow a single one of them to lead in supernatural matters.” She explains. “I mean the man next to him.”

In the same picture, there was a non-descript middle aged man with a gentle smile, he was tall, lithe, and seemed quite athletic behind his father’s garb.

“That’s Father Joey, last name unknown, he’s a veteran exorcist and a holy sword wielder.”

“Like Cillian.”

Akia interjects, shaking her head.

“No.” She says. “The church has ways to increase a person’s Holy Element, giving them the ability to wield Holy Swords.”

“Presumably, Joey got his from a blessing by an Angel, unlike most other artificial holy sword wielders.”

“Why use this image?” Alex asks. “I thought the Cardinal was the big boss.”

“That’s because he wields Carnwennan, Arthur Pendragon’s dagger that was said to grant the ability of stealth, in video game terms he’d be a rogue or an assassin archetype, so pictures of him are very rare.” She explains. “But that doesn’t matter, what you need to understand is that the church takes a backseat when it comes to politics in the americas, so we shouldn’t expect any nasty business from him. Plus, he’s pretty understanding and capable of working with others, so no need to worry about any shenanigans.”

Alex nods in understanding.

Thellsa then switches to another slide, it showed many pictures of a gorgeous mature woman with purple hair and black eyes, she had a voluptuous figure, but most interestingly, in one of the pictures she had four pairs of onyx wings.

“A fallen angel?”

Thellsa nods. “Meet Syraleth, local authority and representative for the Grigori.” She says. “She mostly works with the local government, maintaining the city barrier and trading for resources and information.”

“City barrier?”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Thell muses. “The Grigori maintain a network of large-scale barriers in all large metropolitan cities, New York, Wahington, Tokyo, Berlin, Paris, and more. What it does is it displaces the whole population of the concerned city in a ‘mirror’ pocket dimension in case of a large disaster, like say, two dragons going at it.”

“That actually makes sense.” Alex replies. “Considering what little I know about the moonlit world though, that sounds extremely expensive.”

Thell nods.

“Yeah, but most supernatural factions help in the endeavor, whether using resources, expertise, or protection. It’s a big reason why the Grigori is considered an equal to the other Biblical factions despite their lack of powerhouses, they offer services like this that simply make them too valuable to both the mortal governments and supernatural factions.”

“They’re too valuable to touch.” Aiko interjects.

“Exactly.” Thellsa nods. “Again, that doesn’t matter. What needs to be known is that Syraleth is only coming out of respect to the traditions of the city, the only thing she cares about are her organization’s interests and her side business… Speaking of, Alex, just as a heads up, she might approach you.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Syraleth has a side hustle, she streams fights filmed by some of her familiars on the Devil Net. It’s kind of a hobby, apparently.” She explains. “She’s kind about it, as she won’t do it without one of the fighter’s permissions. So, I think she might approach you for that.”

“Cillian also got the offer, but neither I nor Thell got one.” Aiko explains. “She likes warriors more than mage types than us.”

“Right.” Thellsa deadpans. “Anyways, it’s nothing too bad, depending on how big or exciting the fight is, it can be quite lucrative, since you get a large percentage of the profits. But it also compromises your privacy, her fights aren’t scripted or arranged beforehand, she just spies on her contactors until they get into trouble. If you have something to hide, then I don’t recommend it.”

Alex just stayed silent, a thoughtful look on his face.

He didn’t really have anything to hide, and getting paid for bashing someone’s head in sounds like a nice idea.

If he’s going to fight, might as well get paid for it, right?

Thellsa’s next picture showed a muscular latino man, he was somewhat handsome, his most unique characteristic was a long, very sharp, goatee. But that paled in comparison with the way he dressed.

Not to sugarcoat it, but he looked like a stereotypical pimp.

A flashy leopard print suit under a large, fluffy white coat. A wide-brimmed feathered hat and gold trimmed sunglasses, alligator shoes, and a cane that is literally made of diamonds.

“Let me guess, he manages the local group of succubi?” Alex jokes.

“Ha. Ha.” Thellsa responds. “Believe it or not, there’s an actually logical reason for his getup. This is Matias Paimon.”

“A devil?” Alex recognizes the surname.

“Yes.” She answers. “He’s the heir to the Paimon Pillar family, who hold the title of Kings. They’re not really known for their strength, but as an heir he’s considered a hair breadth away from Ultimate class, and his bloodline ability means he can even contend with Ultimate-Class beings for a short while, it’s also why he’s dressed like… that.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s the power of transmutation; he can basically alter the form/structure of matter/energy.” She explains. “But it’s particularly strange, you see, transmutation is a magical discipline already practiced by alchemists and crafters around the word, and it’s considered very challenging since it requires extremely complicated processes, and has many, many constraints when it comes to energy consumption and computational requirements. Are you with me so far?”

“I think I get that, vaguely.” Alex replies. “So normal transmutation is really hard because it has a lot of limitations, right?”

“Exactly, in fact, you can think of it as simple chemistry facilitated by magic.” She nods. “But due to the devil’s whole power of imagination and bullshit demonic power, the Paimon’s only constraints depend on two things, demonic energy, and the perceived value of the materials/energy used.”

“Oh.” Alex comes to a realization. “So, the things he’s wearing…?”

“That suit? It is made from the Barong, a creature from Balinese Methodology. Those chains are made from Rheingold from the Nordic side, those boots are wyvern leather, that cane is vajra diamond. See where I’m getting at, now?”

“They’re materials, his transmutation would be particularly powerful with them since they’re very valuable.”

Thellsa nods. “Paimons’ bloodline ability makes them very rich, since it can work in any material without even knowing its structure, lead to gold? That’s child’s play, provided the initial material is of the same value as the desired one, they can transmute them with a 1:1 ratio and a negligible demonic energy cost, a cost that can be lowered even more if they include orthodox transmutation principles.”

Alex whistles.

“That sounds overpowered.”

“That’s devil bullshit for you.” Aiko comments. “I’m still convinced that Lucifer was just throwing shit at a wall making them, and just hit the jackpot.”

Alex thinks on that for a moment, and after a while, he thinks that actually sounds reasonable.

What lore they showed in DxD about the creation of devils, whilst few, painted a clear picture.

Devils are a creation using Lilith -the first woman-‘s body, how exactly is unknown, but it seems very apparent that it was inspired by God’s creation of humans, and that it was an attempt to make something “superior” to use as an army in Lucifer’s war.

Later in the story, it was shown very clearly that Lucifer didn’t know shit about how to make devils, or else he’d have fared way better during the war.

Not only did his creations produce monsters like Sirzechs and Ajuka who were more powerful than even himself, but much later in the story, when Hades had Lilith’s body in his grasp, he’d created a hundred devils that included two super devils amongst their ranks.

Whatever it was, it clearly was through God’s ingenuity when creating humanity, hidden in Lilith’s body, that allowed bullshit like that. And with this world, that is seemingly more “realistic” and dangerous than the canon world, that just means there could be a lot crazier shit hidden somewhere.

Alex sighs.

“So, what can we expect from this guy?”

“He’s a wildcard.” Thell answers. “He’s not stereotypically evil, but he’s also almost cartoonishly greedy. He usually spends his time in Wall Street scheming through their ranks for money, and on the moonlit side of the world he and his peerage act like a mercenary unit for the highest bidder. It is very well known that as long as you offer him something precious enough, he’d practically do anything.”

“His brain functions in an ‘Equivalent Exchange’ manner, as long as the price is right, anything can be done.” Aiko elaborates. “Very thematic of him.”

“And his peerage?” Alex asks.

“We don’t know.” Thell replies. “He tends to recruit through temptation, finding greedy or desperate people and paying them for their services. The issue is that he tends to also trade them very, very often. Whatever makeup he has is unknown, so their abilities are unknown. You can expect them to be mostly mid to low high class in terms of combat, however.”

“So that’s it?”

“There’s also whomever the Karnsteins are sending.” Thellsa answers. “They’re sure to be present to the meeting, since they were the reason why this whole mess started, but all I know is that the previous lady was called back, so they must be replacing her with someone else.”

“It’s ridiculous.” Thellsa scoffs. “For big factions, or at least outside ones, you can’t afford to send your crazies to take charge of a place like New York. Just look at the biblical factions, they all have their zealots, madmen, and corrupt assholes, but they always choose someone who can play ball to reprent their interests here.”

Aiko nods in common understanding.

“Imagine if the Church sent one of their ‘Kill anything that isn’t a religious normal human’ exorcists? Nothing will be able to be done.”

Thellsa chuckles, before looking back at Alex. “Anyway, that’s the gist of who’s coming. There are a lot more factions, but they’re either like the local Grauzauberer magicians who are contracted by Paimon, and therefore also represented by him, the dryads, who mind their own business, or the Tiger-kin yakuza, who are too small scale to participate.”

The door opens slowly.

“I’m afraid we’ll have another guest today.” Father Joey’s voice was gentle and unthreatening, but Alex could feel a tension behind his aura, like he was ready to move at any moment.

There was also a large concentration of mana on his left hand, hiding something that he couldn’t quite grasp.

At his sides stepped two people, to his left was Cillian, who greeted them with a nod and stepped to their side, and to his right was a muscular blonde man in a suit.

He was handsome in a captain America way, and walked professionally up to Thellsa.

“Miss Thellsa, it is good to finally meet you.” He extends his hand for a handshake. “I am Magnus Rose, I work with the Supernatural Pacification Authority, or what was just shorty referred as the supernatural branch of the CIA.”

[A.N: Magnus Rose is actually a character in DxD.]

Thellsa quickly gets over her surprise and finishes the handshake. “Is something the matter? I spoke with your people just yesterday; they had no news for me.”

“I’m afraid there was a development, new information came to our attention that brought concerns to the fore.” He turns to Cillian. “The task Sir Cillian was meant to support us on today was meant to act on those concerns.”

“Please, no need for the vague language, mister Magnus.” Joey interjects, turning to Thellsa. “What our friend meant to say that we might have received some news about our mysterious interloper, a mission today was meant to confirm our suspicions, but our adversaries seemingly knew of our coming beforehand.” He says. “To that end, I had Mister Magnus here attend the meeting, I think the different groups of this city must be aware of this new threat.”

“Too late.” Don Renato roughly enters the bar, most of his men were also there, but aside from him, most of them sported some kind of injury, from minor to major.

“We’ve been attacked.” He says with a voice as cold as ice.