Vatican City.
As we walked through the streets of the supposed holy city, I could not help the sneer that formed on my face as I saw the various humans in white robes walking about, trying to cover their innate darkness that I could see quite plainly.
Ever since I used Orouboros, I have been feeling a strange increase in my abilities and new abilities appearing out of nowhere, just like my new vision that allowed me to see what I interpreted as the karmic value of the natives of this world.
In YGGDRASIL, Karma Value was a metric that determined what kind of spells would be the most suited for a player to use, with the values ranging from -500, which would earn the player the alignment of Extreme Evil, to +500, which would earn the player the alignment Extreme Good.
In terms of gameplay, this karma value had the effect of enhancing the spells of that particular alignment and diminishing the spell use of the opposite alignment.
In my case, due to my Extremely Good alignment with maxed out Karma Value, all of my holy spells, light spells, and other such spells that are aligned with the concept of 'good' would be enhanced to an absurd degree, but the price I have to pay is that any of the negative karma spells that I know will be extremely weakened.
For example, if I were to use the Super-Tier evil spell, Fallen Down, which is the negative karma equivalent of my Heaven's Judgement, the power of the spell will be so drastically reduced that it would be equivalent to a Tier-2 or Tier-3 spell at best.
Such is the power and role of the Karma Value in the game.
However, in this world, the Karma Value seems to work a bit differently. Here, the karma value is literally the light of the soul that allowed me to distinguish between people with pure souls, those who have never committed what I perceive as sins against their fellow living beings, and those who have done such things with just a glance.
"My lord?"
Masaomi's questioning tone brought me out of my thoughts, making me look towards him and seeing the bright light radiating from his very soul, indicating his high karma value.
Compared with the neutral grey light I saw from the majority of the people around me, which indicated a neutral karma value, and a large number of black hue that I could see in many a higher ranked priest and nun, which inndicated a negative karma value, the difference between Masaomi and these so called 'vanguard against evil' was like night and day.
Once again, I felt glad that I rescued such a good person from that terrible fate that day.
The world has enough darkness and apathy. What it needs is someone truly righteous and brave like Masaomi here.
"Nothing to worry about, kid. I am just lost in thought."
"....I see."
He hesitated to speak before falling silent again, making me give him an amused look.
Truthfully, I felt annoyed that the boy could not speak plainly with me, partly out of reverence and partly out of fear. But I knew that it was not exactly his fault.
From what I understood after talking to him for the past few days and combining that with what little about the church I could glean from Gabriel (given that the angels of this world mostly keep out of the mortal world), from the very moment they can understand words, these children are taught to love and fear god and his angels, to take their word as law and to hunt down anythig that is considered the 'antithesis' towards the heavens.
Now, the interesting part is how open-ended the interpretation of the 'enemy' is in these teachings. In fact, it is so flexible that the higher-ups can easily make literally anything into the enemy of god and convince their followers that they are fighting for a righteous cause.
A corrupt system run by a few powerful humans for their own gain at the expense of the lives of their fellow men and women. Something that reminds me of my old world.
And given the pure evil I am seeing in many of the people around me, it seems that this corruption has long since infiltrated deep into these bastards.
"If Michael was trying to make me see how incompetent he is as a leader by calling me here, then I must say that he has succeeded splendidly."
"My Lord? What do you mean by that?"
"I mean to say that the majority of the people here are cold and apathetic, something that I do not believe belongs in a supposedly holy city. While the rest are plain evil."
Masaomi gave me a stunned look as I blatantly exposed the true nature of the church, something that he probably did not expect, since no true angel would probably ever admit to mismanaging their duties.
However, before we could move further into the city, heading for the place where we were supposed to meet the four archangels and Vasco Strada, I felt a sudden surge in demonic energy to the west, along with the familiar tug on my soul which told me that something bad was happening in that direction.
Another curious but bothersome ability that I gained after I used Ouroboros. Something that I got the context for after going through Gabriel's memories.
The System of Heaven, created by the God of the Bible.
Ever since I used that ring, this damned system has forcefully connected itself to my soul and has been steadily pouring in strange abilities and instincts into me without my prompting, including my new Karmic Sight.
Truthfully, I could sever this connection whenever I wanted since it felt like the system was trying its best to please me or something, like an eager puppy that would follow my every word. But given the benefits I am getting right now, I decided to let it be temporarily. Until I no longer needed it to make sense of a lot of things around me.
Because this thing has a seriously impressive database of knowledge that I could access at will, allowing me to understand the basics of anything that I don't know.
Like I said, annoying, but very useful.
And right now, it is in its 'annoying' mode since it is telling me that something 'bad' is happening to the West.
With a sigh, I spread my senses, making Masaomi tense up and grip his holy sword while searching for any threat headed my way.
'How cute. Does he think I need protection?'
I suppressed that amusing thought as I concentrated back on my surroundings, looking for the source of that demonic energy.
And sure enough, I found faint traces of it in the snow-covered forests to the west of the Vatican.
The System told me that it was the remnants of some kind of teleportation spell, so I decided to investigate it and see what was going on.
"Masaomi. Looks like we will be late for that meeting after all."
"Anything you say, my lord."
"....You know, there is such a thing as 'too loyal' right?"
The radiant smile that he gave me made me wince a little.
'Too bright! Please turn down that purity of yours. I don't think my whiny and cowardly soul can handle such levels of purity.'
Once again, I sighed and waved my hand in front of me while invoking a spell.
"[Gate]"
A swirling portal of light manifested in front of us, connecting this place directly to the location where I felt the demonic energy trace.
However, what awaited us on the other side was not just faint demonic energy traces.
It was blood.
I saw trails of blood leading deep into the woods, already being covered by the freshly falling snow.
"...Maybe some kind of animal? It is not uncommon for predators to hunt in this area."
"Masaomi. I do not sense any larger life forms in the area, period. No animals, no birds, nothing. It's just plantlife and insects in the area, as if they had all been spooked away by something."
Masaomi fell silent as I looked at our surroundings.
A silent forest. Snow covered the ground with more snow falling from the sky, making it easy to hide any traces of enemy action. Obscured vision due to the low visibility.
A perfect place for an ambush.
"[True Seeing] [See Invisible] [Detect Magic] [Detect Life]"
At once, I used several detection spells, making my eyes shine with multicolored light as I saw through every single light spectrum in existence while also seeing the very magic in the world in a type of color-coded waves and particles.
Fortunately, my caution proved to be for nothing as I did not see anything or anyone waiting in ambush for us. But I did see an anomaly.
In the distance, I could see a strange layer of magic power shaped like a dome, hidden deep inside some kind of building.
Given the various waves of light energy I could see on the building, it is clear that it belongs to the church, but the energy dome inside is definitely not something that comes from the Abrahamic pantheon. The system is telling me that much at least.
'Hm. Let's see what we have here.'
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Author Notes: Read 5 chapters ahead on Patreon: patreon.com/Ruijard1