DxD: Gambling With Fate

"We're actually getting to go outside?" Noa asked incredulously at Ewald, who made an announcement after their daily combat lessons.

While Noa had heard about Lavinia saying that they would probably be able to go on a field exercise, Noa didn't actually expect this to happen the very next day.

Lavinia hadn't even mastered Short Range Teleportation!

"...Yes. While I believe this is too hasty, in light of your recent progress in your training, the Higher Ups have allowed for a… field exercise, where the three of you will be accompanying a two man cell of veteran exorcists on a mission."

"...For real?" Noa asked once more.

Ewald sighed. "Please let me finish."

"My bad." Noa raised a hand in surrender. "Continue."

"This field exercise will take place in Austria," Before Noa could make another joke, Ewald gave Lavinia and Dulio a pointed look, in which they blocked Noa's mouth. "The presumed enemies are only a small group of Fallen Angels with 1 pair of wings."

The trio nodded.

"Also, while I did say that you three will be accompanying two veteran exorcists, in essence they will be your observers to determine if the three of you are prepared to be greenlit for missions."

Now that was some news. Even if the three were all 10 years old, with the firepower of a Longinus, they were much stronger than a majority of the experienced Exorcists under the jurisdiction of the Church.

Noa, while a natural homebody, also had somewhat of a desire to travel around the world, just for fun. Rather, wasn't that desire rather normal or tame?

"This field exercise will take place in exactly one week from now. The rest of the briefing will take place on the day of the exercise. Now you can ask questions."

Now that got the three going.

"Will we know the Veteran Exorcists accompanying us, and will we be able to ask them for assistance?" Dulio, cautious for his first time in actual combat, mainly asked this question, mainly due to his underestimation of himself.

This was mainly due to his main sparring partners when using Zenith Tempest was either Ewald, Vasco, Noa, or Lavinia. Two of them were the peak of Church Exorcists, and the other were wielders of Longinus.

Only sparring with people against people who were close or above him in combat, despite knowing that Zenith Tempest was the second strongest Longinus, led Dulio to develop an underestimation of his own abilities as a result. But with no one to spar with Zenith Tempest except those four, this mentality couldn't be easily fixed in such an environment.

"No, you three will not be familiar with the two Veteran Exorcists. If your question is if Sister Quarta is one of the Exorcists, I will have to disappoint you. But yes, you will be able to ask them for assistance, even if it may lead to your evaluation dropping."

"Oh…"

"If you are wondering about their abilities, while I haven't worked with them before, on paper it says they have over 10 years of experience on the field, and numerous successful missions."

Dulio nodded in understanding.

"How long is the trip?" Lavinia asked.

"It's estimated to take 3 days total, maximum."

The Long Range Teleportation to head to the Austria Headquarters, and the actual transportation to the town along with a rest before the actual battle would take a total of one day. Getting back would take a similar process.

"Oh…" Lavinia hadn't expected her actual first trip outside of the Church to be only three days.

"Can we buy stuff when we leave?" Noa kind of wanted to buy a souvenir. While Ukraine was his first time out, it didn't count. Since he couldn't bring in objects from DxD into his Inventory, he left the map he bought to Griselda along with his hard earned money that he got from scamming people.

"...The Church will provide meals and transportation at the Austrian Headquarters, but you will have the equivalent of 20,000 Italian Liras to spend freely during your time there."

If Noa remembered correctly from his classes, that was around… 10 USD? Well, in this age that was pretty good. All he was aiming for was a souvenir anyways.

Noa nodded satisfactorily.

Dulio gave a satisfied expression at Ewald's response. After Dulio had gotten the taste of the peak of sweets the previous month, his interest regarding sweets increased. Now knowing that he had spending money, he would use that to try a greater variety of sweets.

He was looking forward to it.

--+--

As the three arrived at the cafeteria to eat breakfast, there were two exorcists waiting for them. One was a kind looking man who looked to be in his late 30s, and another was a serious faced man that had a permanent scowl on his face.

Dulio, their main spokesperson when talking to people for the first time, gave them a bow, Noa and Lavinia following suit.

Noa gave the two Exorcists a glance after he bowed.

Ironically, while the kind faced man gave only a small reaction from Protection of the Faith, the serious faced man gave a decent reaction.

While normally Noa wouldn't bother speaking to the two or even acknowledge them in a public setting regardless, since they were their observers, it would be bad to ruin relations off the bat.

Afterall, no strong reaction didn't necessarily mean they were evil. They could be Neutral. It's just that while Noa used Protection of the Faith to get one step into a good relationship, it could be said that Protection of the Faith also functioned as a door that determined which people could step into Noa's own 'house.'

The two Exorcists gave a small bow in return. The serious faced one opened his mouth and gave a quick greeting, before immediately getting to business.

"We will be your observers for the mission. For our names, while the Church doesn't want us to communicate with you three closely, for the duration of the mission you may call me Father Black and my partner, Father White."

He gestured to Father White, who gave the three a kind smile.

The three gave a nod. While Dulio made an attempt to introduce himself, Black shook his head, and said it was unnecessary.

"The possibility of us meeting after this mission will be low."

Dulio gave a reluctant nod.

The two Exorcists gave a small briefing, which was a repeat of what Ewald had said the previous week. They would go to Austria, stay at the Church's accommodations for the night, finish the mission in a day, and come back. Unless there were unexpected circumstances, it would take a maximum of three days.

As the two Exorcists left the cafeteria to prepare the transportation to the Vatican to Teleport to the Austrian Headquarters, Noa took the opportunity to make a joke, looking at Dulio and Lavinia.

"...Say my name."

"...Noa?"

When was Breaking Bad even released again...? Damn it.

"Nevermind." Noa shook his head. "Do we have anything to pack?"

"I don't think so." Lavinia shook her head. While it sounded kind of depressing, they literally had nothing to pack. Lavinia and Dulio were able to use Cleaning Magic, and they were already wearing a custom made Exorcist Battle Suit. Noa was… Noa.

"Then let's get ready to cook." Noa rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"...Sure, Noa."

Dulio gave Noa a wry smile.

--+--

The way to the Austrian Headquarters wasn't actually that tedious. Ironically, getting to the Vatican from the Institute of Virtue took more time than getting from the Vatican to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, as they had to drive to the Vatican.

Arriving at St. Stephen's Cathedral, the clergy there gave a relatively good welcome to the three Longinus Wielders and their accompanying Veteran Exorcists.

While some of the staff seemed relatively surprised at the young ages of the trio, the more older staff looked like they expected them already, which wasn't that surprising, seeing as they already had their debut at the Holy Sword Festival.

There, they were given a similar magic item that Griselda held when they had first met that led to the direction of where the Fallen Angels were last sighted. Noa didn't really know how it worked, but Lavinia looked at it with wonder, so it was probably a decently advanced Magical Tool.

That shit can't compare to his In Progress Jeweled Sword Zelretch, in which even after a month of studying this world's Magic, Noa made… no progress.

Noa had Merlin's Illusion Magecraft and Luvia's Reinforcement Magecraft, so one would normally expect that it would give him some insights into Magecraft as a general study. However, that was completely mistaken. Instead of giving him the entirety of the basics that make up Magecraft, it just gave Noa the ability to use that Mystery and knowledge of how to use only that specific Mystery.

How it was created and the basis of such Magecraft wasn't included in said package.

If Noa could think of a decent metaphor in how to describe what the Knowledge of their Magecraft was, it was essentially the Gacha System Downloading an app called [Knowledge of Merlin's Illusion Magecraft] on the computer that was Noa. However, Noa was completely unaware and clueless of the code that goes into the creation of the app. 

Furthermore, if the knowledge was just general Illusion Magecraft, he would have more insights into Magecraft in general, but with the classification being the 'Peak of Merlin's Illusion Magecraft,' which were 'Illusions so Real that the World Believes it' it meant that the app that was [Merlin's Illusion Magecraft] was in it's most recent update, with no way to go back to previous updates.

Noa might have been able to have some insight into the creation of the Jeweled Sword if he had knowledge of Jewel Magecraft, but without the App to reference off of, he was stumped.

And with only himself being able to use the Fate Universe's Thaumaturgy that he knew, he had no teachers or any reference other than his Extra Skills.

With the magic compass now in possession, the group made their way to the closest town near the last sighted location of the Fallen Angels.

In the car arranged by the Austrian Branch, Father Black briefed the three once more.

"The group of Fallen Angels are expected to be all 1-Paired Fallen Angels. The estimated number is around 5, but the thing that you need to be aware of is that information can always be false."

Father White nodded.

The five arrived at the nearby town at the inn that they would be staying at.

After eating a quick dinner, they retired for the night. The two Veteran Exorcists stayed in the same room and Noa and Dulio stayed in the same room. As a girl, Lavinia had her own room to stay in.

In Noa's room, Dulio and Noa were having a small conversation.

"...Hey, don't you think this is going too smoothly…?" Dulio asked Noa. This may be his paranoia acting up, but everything just felt... scripted.

The Field Exercise itself was sudden, and Lavinia hadn't even mastered Short Range Teleportation, directly countering what her tutor said. Ewald also had said the mission was rather abrupt…

Noa nodded. "I had the same fucking thought."

Noa felt something unusual, but couldn't pinpoint it.

Just as Noa finished speaking, there was a knock on the door. Noa carefully made his way to the door to see Lavinia through the peephole, but something… felt off.

Her eyes were unfocused, her pale skin glassy. Her entire appearance looked 'fake.'

Opening the door, Noa made eye contact with 'Lavinia'.

As strength surged through his body, he could easily come to a conclusion, and an unfamiliar feeling of panic ran though his back.

…That isn't Lavinia.

--+--

A/N: Start of an actual arc. The involved characters are mostly ocs with a small amount of actual characters, but this is a fanfic like 14 years before canon. This is the 4000 PS extra chap from last last week. Actual chapter and 2000 PS chapter coming later today.

--+--

New Powerstone Goals starting this week I changed them to make it realistic.

1500 PS - Extra Chap

3000 PS - Extra Chap

4500 PS - Extra Chap

Max is 3 extra chaps a week. My parents don't mind me writing, but they kind of want me to make money, so I'm going to 'try' and set up a patreon soon, and I need time to fill that shit up.

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.