DxD: Gambling With Fate

After easily defeating his 3 opponents like they were ants on the road, Noa made his way back to Lavinia.

"Hey Noa, I think the Church really did set up the Youth Tournament," In Lavinia's hands was a piece of paper. She handed it to Noa.

While Lavinia would have went to watch Noa's matches, seeing as he would probably finish in record time, she took the opportunity to look further into Noa's offhanded remark about the Tournament Brackets.

As Noa read the paper, he realized what Lavinia was trying to say. It seemed that a majority of the people who were chosen by Holy Swords were in their own separate blocks and didn't have other stronger opponents in that specific block.

While Lavinia didn't know much about the Church's Politics, it was pretty sad to see the Church rigging even a Youth Tournament.

Will her wish of preventing children from being abandoned be ruined by the Church as well?

It would be pretty disappointing if it did.

Noa hummed. He understood the crux of Lavinia's worries for the future.

"Well, if worse comes to worst, I could probably just kill all the corrupt ones." Noa casually said with a shrug.

"That was not what I expected to hear when I finished my matches." Walking from a distance to Noa and Lavinia was Griselda, who gave Noa a weird expression.

"Just an offhanded thought."

Griselda gave Noa a look. "Sounds less like an offhanded thought and more of an intrusive thought."

"The world just can't accept my greatness..." Noa brushed his hand through his hair in an exaggerated manner, getting deadpans from the two girls.

"So did you win your three opponents as well?" Noa asked Griselda, changing the subject. While Griselda was older than Noa and Lavinia, she still held a physical disadvantage against her opponents, as despite outliers like Noa and Dulio, the average age of the youth participating were from 15-17.

Griselda nodded. "It was easier than I thought it would be."

Noa passed Lavinia's sheet over to Griselda, who looked at Noa with a questioning expression. 

"Just look at it," Noa nodded toward the sheet.

Griselda gave Lavinia's paper a once over, before frowning. "No wonder..." Despite most of the competitors being male, making up over 70% of the tournament, all 3 of her opponents were female.

With 128 Competitors, Griselda neither had the time or could be bothered to research her opponents. The most she did was look at her first opponent.

Mainly cause the prize wasn't anything to aim for. Despite only being 14, she had a wide range of connections and was generally respected as a female exorcist. She only applied because she wanted to clash blades with older Exorcists and gain some experience.

In a sense, she just wanted to widen her horizons, as this was the first Youth Swordsmanship Tournament the Vatican hosted in a while.

Now knowing that her matches were made easier, a feeling a disappointment arose.

"Yep." Noa sighed. "It seems that Politics are once more in the way of Piety." Not that Noa was particularly religious, but with the supernatural being real in this world, it was easier to except events from the Bible actually being true.

He had an Angel friend to talk to, for God's sake.

Griselda reluctantly agreed.

The Church and Exorcist system primarily gave way to 3 Large Aspects of an Exorcist or Higher Clergy.

Political Power, Physical Power, and Public Piety.

Most of the Church's decisions are done by people who have a large amount of [Political Power].

However, with one added on aspects such as [Physical Power] and [Public Piety], even if one's [Political Power] was less than some, [Physical Power] and [Public Piety] made up for it.

Vasco Strada is a good example with someone with a lot of [Political Power], but his Reputation in both [Physical Power] and [Public Piety] allowed him much more unspoken authority and respect amongst his fellow Cardinal Priests, more specifically regarding Exorcists.

However, despite being the person with the highest overall stats in all three aspects, he was only one person.

So while Vasco could wield unparalleled authority regarding some aspects of the Exorcists, there were some blind spots he couldn't have full authority over.

Purely Political events such as the Sword Selection Ceremony was one of them.

The three Longinus Wielders, Noa, Lavinia, and Dulio all had high stats regarding [Physical Power], but because they weren't allowed greenlit to go out yet, their [Political Power] and [Public Piety] were practically nonexistent.

Well, if Noa revealed his friendship with Gabriel, both his [Political Power] and [Public Piety] would drastically increase, not that Noa would do it without Gabriel's permission.

Noa didn't really know why Angels didn't really do anything about the Church's corruption issues. Now in front of a prime example of corruption, it popped up in his mind.

Only being in a Training Institute really made him forget.

Maybe he should ask Gabriel next time.

"Is that why you made that offhanded comment?" Seeing as Griselda only heard Noa's statement about killing all the corrupt ones without context, it wasn't surprising that Griselda gave Noa a weird expression.

Noa nodded. "Yeap. Also why I debated whether to join the Church or not."

That made Griselda's eyebrow rise. "Wasn't it because they wouldn't give you anything...?"

"Oh, well that too of course."

That got a deadpan from Griselda.

Their conversation was interrupted by an approaching Dulio. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Killing the corrupt." Noa responded, an accompanying reluctant nod by both Griselda and Lavinia. Without context, it sure sounded bad.

"...What?" Was Noa finally going insane? But Griselda and Lavinia both nodded.

Noa looked toward Griselda and nodded at the paper in her hands. Getting the memo, Griselda held out the paper to Dulio.

Receiving the paper, Dulio read the contents, and reminiscent of Griselda's reaction, slowly frowned as he read more. "...No wonder..."

"Were your matches easy as well?" Lavinia asked.

Dulio nodded. "My opponents were way younger than I thought they would be." He wasn't aiming to win either, but for an entirely different reason.

Aiming higher meant a higher chance of the complaint going through. While he was a little relieved that it was easier, knowing that the Church did it on purpose kind of poked at his pride.

"Well, it seems the difficulty would spike at the Round of 16." Noa noted. While Holy Sword Wielders did get an easier time in the Tournament, Natural Holy Sword Wielders were still extremely rare.

The other three nodded.

"Well, I still don't think I would lose, what about yall?"

"...I might have some difficulty against David Cerro." Griselda admitted her next opponent at the Round of 16 would probably be the new wielder of Excalibur Galatine. Not only was he older than Griselda, he had 4 years of experience against the Supernatural, while Griselda was only approaching a year.

"...Who?" Noa asked. It sounded familiar but he couldn't put a face to the name.

"...The guy you stole from me for the Holy Sword Selection Ceremony?" Lavinia added.

"Oh that guy, I remember him..." Noa trailed off.

"Are you sure...?" Dulio asked, not convinced in the slightest.

"...Wait, what do you mean by stole from me?" Griselda interrupted.

Lavinia quickly explained the bet the three had to her, getting an exasperated expression from Griselda. While she kind of expected such behavior from Noa and Lavinia, even Dulio participated?

Their conversation trailed off when a Sister approached, informing them the preliminaries were nearly over. It was time to head to the same field used for the Exhibition Match.

--+--

A/N: The 3000PS bonus chap from last week if I remember... This is super short because I didn't wanna write the tourna as well today. Well, the tournament is probably going to last 1 or 2 more chapters since this entire arc was supposed to be an interlude to my actual first arc.

Super sorry for this short stack of a chapter.

Lowkey glad I kind of took a longer break than expected. Kinda wanted to post tomorrow to prevent a possible 2000 PS before the week ended, but didn't want a super long hiatus.

--+--

We have Powerstone Goals!!!

2000 PS - Extra Chapter

2500 PS - Extra Chapter 

3000 PS - Extra Chapter 

3500 PS - Extra Chapter

4000 PS - Extra Chapter 

and more if it's even possible.

Extra chapters will be released the day after the goal is reached, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM KST cause that's when I'm free. They'll also be generally shorter than normal chapters.

Normal Chapters will be released every day during the times from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM KST cause I normally get inspo throughout the day.

Also, comments, powerstones, and reviews are always appreciated.