Europe, Vatican City.
It was six in the morning back in the States, but it was already noon over in Italy.
This is the holy land of Christianity, a must-see pilgrimage spot for all Christians.
Today, St. Peter's Basilica was suddenly off-limits to tourists. The official word was that they were doing some maintenance inside.
This kind of thing happens a few times pretty much every year. After all, St. Peter's Basilica was first built way back in 1506, so it definitely needs regular upkeep because of its age.
But inside the church, there weren't any workers doing maintenance. Instead, there were hundreds of clergy members all bunched together. If you didn't know any better, you'd think they were about to elect a new Pope or something.
The Pope, wearing a light yellow outfit, was leading a bunch of clergy members around a pool of clear water that was about waist-deep, loudly chanting from the Bible.
As the clergy kept chanting, it looked like little sparks of light were floating out of them and into the pool. These glowing lights didn't disappear in the water; they just kept on shimmering.
More and more glowing lights filled the pool until the whole thing was packed with them, and you couldn't see the bottom at all anymore.
Seeing this, the Pope nodded and said to the people next to him,
"Get Iris ready."
Pretty soon, a nun wearing a black eye patch came over to the edge of the glowing pool.
This nun had a classic Latina look, with tan skin that had a real Mediterranean vibe.
Even though she was wearing a loose white nun's habit, it couldn't hide her nice figure. But most of the clergy there were older guys, so nobody was really paying attention to how the nun looked.
"Iris, are you ready?"
Iris took a deep breath.
"Your Holiness, I'm ready!"
"Great. Now step into the pool, open your heart, and pray sincerely to God. You'll feel that holy presence pretty soon."
Iris gave a slight nod and slowly stepped into the glowing pool.
The pool, which was only about waist-deep for an adult, now seemed to go on forever as Iris walked down until the water went over her head, and she still hadn't reached the bottom.
A normal person would definitely freak out in this situation, but Iris had a strong faith, so she felt really calm inside.
After going completely under, Iris didn't feel like she couldn't breathe. Instead, she had this amazing feeling of comfort, like she was back in the womb.
The pool water blocked out all the outside noise, letting Iris really connect with her inner self.
Before long, Iris heard a voice calling her name in her mind.
Are you to be my vessel on Earth?
Who are you?
My name is Uriel!
The glowing lights in the pool suddenly started to disappear really fast, like something was sucking them all up.
Seeing this, the Pope immediately got tense.
A moment later, Iris came out of the now clear pool, her face totally blank. She looked over all the old guys there with this really wise look in her eyes.
"My name is Uriel!"
The Pope let out a little sigh of relief and was the first to kneel down and bow to the nun in white.
"We welcome the arrival of the Wise Angel!"
All the other clergy members knelt down and bowed too.
"Alright, get up! Tell me why you needed me to come down to Earth?"
All the old guys there were shaking and helping each other up.
Especially the Pope, who was over seventy and had to kneel – he almost couldn't get back on his feet.
But as soon as Uriel put a hand on the Pope's shoulder, he instantly felt lighter, like he was back in his younger days, full of energy.
"Lord Uriel, it's like this: we've lost contact with Lord Michael!"
"Michael's lost contact?"
Uriel frowned a little, her calm expression turning surprised.
"Yes, Lord Uriel! We've tried to get in touch with Lord Michael, but it's been two months, and we still haven't been able to reach him!"
"I understand. Let me see what's going on."
Uriel's eyes under the eye patch suddenly turned silver and gave off a bright light, like she could see through time and space.
But after a few moments, Uriel's frown got even deeper.
"That's weird, why can't I see what happened?"
The Pope looked a bit nervous at Uriel's expression.
"Lord Uriel, has something terrible happened?"
"The fate of the past seems to have been messed with by some kind of force, so I can't see clearly! But I have seen Michael's location, so you all don't need to worry."
The scene cuts back to the West Coast of America.
Roy, the boxer, had an extra-long "morning workout" with cheerleaders Heather and Penny that didn't wrap up until almost lunchtime.
After their morning exercise, Roy's stomach was totally empty, and he was starving.
Heather and Penny had eaten a good amount of high-protein stuff, but they still needed some real food.
Their plan to catch up on sleep had to be bumped to an afternoon nap.
While eating lunch, Roy checked out the local Los Angeles newspaper.
Not surprisingly, there was nothing about the subway cannibal monster in any of the papers. And there were no reports of anyone going missing on the subway last night, so it looked like Roy's little intervention after getting on the last train had done the trick.
According to the paper, everything in Los Angeles was hunky-dory, peaceful and quiet, like nothing had happened.
But Roy knew how many hidden issues were lurking beneath the surface of this calm scene.
At least for now, the FEA (presumably a fictional organization) must have made some kind of deal with the cult behind the cannibal monsters. Neither side wanted this to blow up in the public eye.
This also meant that Roy and Dahlia probably wouldn't have any more trouble.
After all, Roy managed to take down half of those cannibal monsters. He didn't believe the big shots in those cults weren't scared.
If they pushed Roy too far, none of them would be able to get away.
After finishing the newspaper and putting away enough food for five people, Roy finally felt satisfied and went to take a nap with Heather and Penny.
The two girls had also worked pretty hard during their "morning workout" and definitely needed an afternoon nap to rest up.
They slept until dusk. Because Roy had such a high constitution score (49!), his recovery ability was insane. He only needed a few hours of sleep to get his energy back to full.
Heather and Penny had been awake for a while already. They'd gotten plenty of sleep the night before and were now in the living room watching soap operas.
After getting dressed and coming into the living room, Roy started talking to the girls about his plans for what to do next.
"Open a studio?"
Hearing Roy's idea, Heather and Penny both looked surprised.
"Yeah, I'll probably be working with the FEA a lot, picking up some freelance gigs. If I pay taxes as an individual, I'll get totally ripped off!"
Heather had already taken over her family's business and knew a bit about this kind of thing, so she immediately agreed.
"Roy's right! We definitely can't let the feds get away with that!"
Just thinking about it made Heather wince. She'd had to pay a huge inheritance tax – all those sweet, green US dollars!
Penny seemed a little hesitant.
"But we're not accountants, and we don't really know the laws in all the different states."
Heather thought for a second and then made a suggestion.
"Roy, we could hire Nord to handle this!"
Nord was the lawyer who helped Heather with the inheritance stuff back then. The old guy was trustworthy and really reliable.
Roy nodded.
"Sounds good! Heather, you get in touch with Nord and have him help us sort out the studio situation. Afterward, I can make him the studio's legal advisor."
"Okay."
Penny looked at Roy and Heather.
"But we still need an accountant, otherwise, dealing with taxes is going to be a pain! The bar I used to work at was the same – every year, the owner would be grumbling and complaining."
Yeah, in a country like America with so many taxes, you could end up throwing away a ton of money if you don't have an accountant.
"Let's just get the basic structure of the studio set up first. We can figure out the accountant situation later. If we have to, we can just outsource it to an accounting firm."
Penny suddenly thought of something and grabbed Roy's arm, shaking it.
"Honey, I want to work in your studio! Otherwise, I'll be so bored doing nothing all day!"
Then Heather also grabbed Roy's other arm.
"Honey, me too!"
Roy thought about it for a second. He did need to find something for the two girls to do, otherwise, they'd just be sitting around doing nothing and getting lazy.
"Alright, maybe you guys could try studying for an accounting certification! For now, you can be my secretaries!"
Secretary for work stuff, and for other... ahem!
Penny seemed to catch on to what Roy was thinking and suddenly sat on his lap, using a fake sweet voice.
"Boss~ then you have to pay me a really high salary, okay?"
You had to give it to Penny – she knew how to have fun. That one sentence made Roy snap to attention.
"That'll depend on how you perform!"
Penny felt Roy's, uh, "enthusiasm" and instantly went all weak in the knees.
"Boss~ I'll definitely perform really well!"
Then Heather joined in on the role-playing.
"Boss~ me too!"
The three of them were getting into it, but they didn't actually go all the way. The two girls had just had a pretty intense "workout" in the morning and were still a bit worn out, needing some time to recover.
After that, Roy's life in Los Angeles suddenly became a lot more chill.
The Santa Monica Cup elimination rounds weren't until the weekend, so he didn't have much to do for now.
Heather and Penny, on the other hand, got busy. The two girls started making arrangements for the studio.
Especially Penny – she seemed serious about getting that accounting certificate and bought a ton of study materials to learn accounting on her own.
This was a good thing, so Roy encouraged Penny and hoped she'd succeed.
He also spent time with Dahlia and Cici. Roy's company made them smile more and more, and the dark clouds of the past seemed to have completely disappeared.
Of course, there were also Saltana and Mary, but Saltana had been working crazy hours lately and was basically MIA.
As for Mary, Roy would chat with her every time he went to UCLA.
Roy could tell that Mary liked him a lot, but they just hadn't quite crossed that line yet.
It was that whole "more than friends, but not quite lovers" thing.
This was probably because Mary was a little unsure about Roy's, shall we say, "enthusiasm" for women, so she hadn't been able to fully commit.
Whatever, Dahlia was like that at first too, right?
But he still managed to win her over, didn't he?
As long as he kept things going like this, Roy was confident he'd eventually win Mary over too.
Man, he was just so busy! Roy wished he could be in two places at once so he could manage his time better.
But in the past few days, Roy had this feeling like someone was watching him. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination.
Or maybe Beelzebub's cult didn't dare to attack him directly, so they sent someone to keep tabs on him. If that was the case, that cult was pretty ballsy.
Roy decided to find a way to draw out whoever was watching him.
That night, Roy, Heather, Penny, Mary, Dahlia, and Cici had a barbecue on Santa Monica Beach, just like a family.
It was a shame Saltana was working non-stop lately, totally exhausted, and couldn't make it to the barbecue.
Otherwise, it would have been perfect.
Mary seemed to really love kids and spent the whole time playing with Cici. That girl definitely had the potential to be a great wife and mother.
Cici was having a blast. Having a pretty older sister play with her, her cheerful laughter echoed in the night sky by the beach.
Just then, Roy felt that sensation of being watched again.
There wasn't really anywhere to hide on the beach. Roy looked around and quickly spotted a young guy in the distance, sneaking glances at them from behind a beach umbrella.
Using a beach umbrella late at night? That was way too suspicious!
"I think someone's spying on us!"
Roy's words surprised the women. They all started looking around, trying to find the spy.
"No need to keep looking. That guy's over there by the beach umbrella."
Dahlia looked towards the beach umbrella and immediately saw a familiar figure.
"I'm going to go grab that guy. You all wait here for me."
With that, Roy instantly took off, running towards the beach umbrella.
"Wait, Roy!"
Dahlia tried to call Roy back, but with an agility of 32, Roy was gone in the blink of an eye.
There was nothing Dahlia could do but tell Heather and Penny,
"Could you please keep an eye on the kid for me!"
After saying that, Dahlia ran off in Roy's direction.
The spy saw Roy running towards him and took off, but he was way too slow compared to Roy. He hadn't run very far before Roy tackled him to the ground.
"Alright, buddy, you actually dared to spy on me! If you don't want any trouble, tell me right now who sent you!"
"F*** you! Nobody sent me!"
"Still being tough, huh?"
Just as Roy was about to rough up the spy, Dahlia ran over, out of breath, and stopped Roy.
"Roy, don't! It's my ex-husband, Kyle!"
Roy raised an eyebrow, lowering the fist he had raised.
Oh, it was the ex-husband. Roy thought it was Beelzebub's cult!
Kyle stood up angrily, glaring at Roy and Dahlia.
"Dahlia, you divorced me because I cheated on you, so why would you get with this womanizing jerk!"
Kyle started grilling Dahlia, clearly holding a lot of resentment.
Dahlia was momentarily speechless. They did get divorced because Kyle cheated, which she couldn't stand, leading to the breakup.
Roy glanced at Kyle. The guy had some decent looks, but he was skinny and weak – definitely a pushover.
"People are different. I can handle three or four at once and keep them happy. Can you do that?"
Iris (original character, couldn't find a suitable image, using this for now)