Inside a certain laboratory in the Atlas Institute, there was a faint, mist-like presence floating near the doorway. It was an invisible smoke to those without sharp spiritual sight—a magical boundary set by the institute's own staff.
"Oh my, turns out it's a vampire causing trouble? Now that I really didn't expect. Pretty impressive, actually."
A purple-haired girl in an Atlas Institute uniform, wearing a brimless cap and with three long braids falling down her back, said this with a blank expression before crumpling the note containing that information and tossing it straight into the trash bin.
"Sure, I'm a vampire too, but you're seriously showing me this nonsense? What do I look like, some kind of emergency firefighter? Besides, I'm not from the Clock Tower. I'm the next Dean of the Atlas Institute, you think I'm just going to let people order me around?" The girl, whose full name was Sion Eltnam Atlasia, continued muttering to herself without changing expression, her legs resting casually on the desk. "Let the Clock Tower deal with their own mess—I have no reason to get involved."
Just earlier, while engrossed in her research, Sion had inexplicably received a slip of paper containing information about the magical labyrinth known as the Seventh Alcatraz Maze.
This infamous labyrinth was notorious throughout the magical world. Each floor teemed with peril—phantasmals, chimeras, automatons, deadly traps and complex magical barriers—making it practically bottomless in danger. Numerous adventurers had tried to conquer it, but none had returned. Even the Mage's Association had failed to breach it despite sending official magi.
Now, a vampire had set up a pseudo-Holy Grail at the lowest level and initiated a ritual, which automatically summoned four Servants to the site.
Sion wasn't uninterested in the idea of a Subspecies Holy Grail War, but the fact that the summoning was automatic instantly killed her enthusiasm. After all, she had her eye on a specific relic—something she hoped would summon a particular person.
Back when she first entered the Atlas Institute, her natural talent had earned her top honors and, with that, the Atlasia name, a title passed down to the next dean.
It was then—suddenly, inexplicably—a stone and a half-eaten traditional Egyptian pastry had appeared in her hands out of nowhere.
Even though Sion could swear it was her first time seeing that utterly ordinary stone and the pastry (which had clearly been bitten into multiple times), she was overwhelmed with the urge to cry. It felt as though a wish had been born within her heart—something she had never experienced before.
The ceremony had to be cut short so that the rest of the Institute wouldn't witness the sight of their proud, combative purple-haired prodigy bawling her eyes out. Her eyes were still swollen the next day.
It was then that she learned: the stone and the pastry were relics left behind by a certain Dean Shiali from the 1st century AD, who was said to be one of the very first people ever to take on the role of instructor at Atlas. Even Sion herself hadn't become an instructor until she was eight.
Out of curiosity, she'd dug through the archives to learn more about this Dean Shiali and discovered that, aside from being an undeniable genius, she also belonged to the same Eltnam family and used Ether Lines as her Mystic Code. In other words, she was basically Sion's ancestor.
"Maybe she saw something special in me," Sion had thought. "Maybe that's why she left these items for me two thousand years in advance. I can't let her down."
With that belief, Sion had become deeply invested in her research. Her usual solitary lifestyle no longer bothered her at all.
Then one day, while she was idly examining the stone, she accidentally triggered a hidden mechanism. A recorded voice began to play—and it sounded exactly like her own.
Until that moment, she'd never imagined this unassuming stone was anything more than a well-crafted trinket. But the joy of that surprise was quickly and mercilessly crushed.
"Novia, there's something I want to tell you. Even if you'd say you don't need to hear it... I still want to say it to you.
Congratulations on achieving your goal. You're amazing.
And… I'm really looking forward to seeing you again."
"You didn't hear it...? Why… why don't you know how to use this...?"
Sion immediately recognized the name Novia—the first Pope of the Church, back in the 1st century AD. He had a connection with Dean Shiali?
Even as she tried to remain rational, Sion couldn't suppress her growing irritation. Out of sheer confusion, she secretly consulted the Spirit Particle Simulator: Trident Hermes, to ask if this so-called legendary man had really gone to heaven—and what kind of person he truly was.
The result?
"I always figured someone would eventually try to trace me. I'm glad. Really, thank you for learning my name.
Best of luck to you.
Until we meet again."
"Meet again my ass! Who even wants to see you again?!"
In that instant, Sion could practically see the smug face of that 2,000-year-old Pope, full of smug satisfaction. And all that talk about not marrying, or only ever marrying once—wasn't this just the story of some smooth-talking, two-timing scumbag Pope tricking a pure-hearted Dean and then coldly abandoning her?
This wasn't just her opinion—every one of the seven thought fragments she'd split off for processing agreed unanimously.
From then on, that bitterness took root deep in her heart and refused to go away.
"There's no way he didn't know how to use the recording. It was deliberate. Just like I thought—those religious types are all silver-tongued liars!"
Since that day, Sion had scoffed at every request from the Church to help hunt Dead Apostles. To put it simply, she now found the entire Church insufferable.
Even her wish for the Holy Grail War had changed: she wanted to summon that Pope Novia, and then use all three Command Spells to force him to admit his sins to that stone.
That's why, if the Subspecies Holy Grail War in that labyrinth had allowed participants to summon Servants manually, she might have been interested. Unfortunately, it was automatic summoning.
Still, she had good reason to believe that she could summon Novia, if given the chance—after all, if the stone had been sent out and later returned to her, it should still carry his magical signature, making it a valid relic.
Then, a new message appeared on her desk:
"This isn't a request. It's a trial from the Dean herself—my beloved daughter."
"Tch… why didn't you say so in the first place?" Sion muttered as she glanced at the note, folding her arms. "All this roundabout nonsense. Fine, I'll go deal with it."
But she couldn't help grumbling more as she stood up.
"Still, this should be the Church's responsibility. And I really don't want to run into those guys. Just hearing them chant 'Novia' this and 'God' that makes me want to scream…"