It Started With Devils & Artefacts

"Hi" Regular Speech

'Hi' Thought

"(Hi)" Speaking through a mechanically synthesised voice

"[Hi]" Marcus communicating through technology

[Hi] Quinella/Aurora talking

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[We have ascended high enough to enter cruising mode.] 'Captain' Quinella said with a serious look.

I could only smile once more. This was already turning into quite an entertaining expedition.

"So, how long is it going to take?" Artemis asked me with crossed arms.

"Around 2 hours. We were flying at around 2000 kilometres per hour. That is more than enough time for Jeanne and Hippolyta to get used to the soldiers that they are going to lead." I explained to her as I started walking towards my seat. Which is like a throne. I could only roll my eyes when I saw it a couple of days back for the first time. All Quinella did was just look away and whistle like it was not her idea…

After taking my seat, I was about to relax, lean back, and close my eyes for a bit. It was a very good and comfortable captain/commander seat. Then I felt a presence and in the next moment, this presence was suddenly sitting on my lap.

I opened my eyes and saw a certain lion girl sitting on my lap.

She looked at me and I looked at her.

"What? I am your pet, according to you. So, as your pet, I demand attention." She said with an extra serious tone. It would seem that she has entered a borderline tsundere realm in our relationship phase.

My hand moved onto her waist. Moving for a little bit, I got her in a better position in my lap. It was then that I realised… I looked like a villain with a cat.

Well, not a cat, she was more of a lion… and in my case, a lion girl. Nonetheless, the way she was sitting on my lap was very beautiful.

Once I changed positions, the beauty was leaning on the right side of my chest just close to the shoulder, my right hand was on her waist, while the left was stroking her cheek.

Honestly, this was the perfect position just to relax and enjoy the flight. Simply put, I don't need to do anything. I could just nap and Quinella would do everything for me. That's the reason why she was created in the first place.

She would even prefer it, if I were to fall asleep, and she could command the operation. This way she could earn more brownie points with me. 

Nonetheless, I am not tired enough to fall asleep, and there was no chance in hell I was gonna. At the moment, I have THE Chaste Huntress sitting on my lap. And she is cute and cuddly…

"There, now you can just relax and enjoy the flight," I said softly to her.

"...Yes, this is good. Tell me, Master, what is going to happen to all those vampires. I know for sure they will resist regardless of your army's performance." She said, getting right to the point.

"Honestly, the Tepes faction will cease to exist," I said to her while gently stroking her hair. By this point, I could feel her completely relaxed in my hands. Which is amazing on its own.

"Only the Tepes faction? That means you're going to let the Carmilla faction and others go?" She asked me softly. The beautiful lion girl was concerned. Well, knowing her, she is only concerned for the children.

"Well, if my kitty is personally asking me to spare the feminist faction. Sure, just for you," I said while stroking her cheek with my left hand.

Her eyes widened hearing that.

"You...will do that?" She asked with disbelief.

"Honestly, I don't care, Atalanta. I only want the cup so that I can return to my research. They can declare world war three on werewolves for all I care. Or go through a blood drinking frenzy. I would most likely just send some people to collect some samples if that were to happen. Anyways, my point is that I don't care about them. So, if you are asking me to spare the Carmilla faction, then I will." I said to her with an honest shrug. They think too much. Honestly, why would I want to wipe the vampires out? I would want them to stick around. Maybe if they are still around long enough someone could make one or two good vampire movies.

…

…

…

Right, I need to type that down. Latia needs to buy some movie-making companies for me.

Atalanta looked quite curious as to what I was doing.

"Movies… how are they related to this?" She asked with a baffled tone.

"Everything, my dear kitty." 

"Are all geniuses as weird as you?" She asked with a weird out tone.

"No idea...I've never met a genius before." I said with a shrug.

~~~~~~Hangar~~~~~~

Hippolyta was sweating buckets under her helmet. She was testing out her new teammates for this 'field expedition' they are calling.

She did try to tell them that they were going to war… to kill… but, they simply told her that their Master and Creator doesn't do war.

Simply put, war is something where two sides fight and have casualties… and this one? It's going to be so one-sided that their programming didn't even pick it up as a 'war'.

No, it's a field expedition.

Surely enough, she was nearly beaten a couple of times in simple hand to hand combat with just one S.P.B.A.! Sure, she didn't use any of her Divine powers, but solely with sheer skill and the experience of 3000 years did she manage to emerge victorious…

'This is nuts. How did Quinella make them this powerful? How do they have this much skill?' The redhead thought with a frown on her face.

"Okay! This is enough!" Hippolyta raised her hand to call it a pause.

She took off her helmet. And cleaned off her sweat. She was only able to beat up three of them in a close hand to hand fight. Even then, she had to take them on, one on one…

This was a reality check for her that, nope, she still needs to train to get better. As these guys were nothing more than creations from bio-chambers from which Aurora can pump them out every couple of hours…

All she can say is that technology is bullshit! How can a couple of hours cover a whole lifetime of experiences!?

Nonetheless, she needed a break and her eyes went to the side where Jeanne was practising with her weapons.

The newest Sacred Gears are nothing like previous ones. Castor and Pollux alone is more than just a Sacred Gear because it is customisable and yet, still has the same things like the capacity to enter a Balance Breaker without necessary training!

It's fascinating and she wants one or two for herself as well!

At that moment, she realised that she needs to be a good girl and woman for her future husband. First on that list is to perform as best as she could in the upcoming war/ field expedition…

After resting for a few more minutes she returned to sparring with her new squadmates. While Jeanne decided to run some squad orientated movements. Since she realised that she needs to perform above and beyond. This was no longer a game to the blonde. No...a lot of points are hanging on this!

Before they realised it, alarms had already started ringing through the whole hangar.

[All soldiers to the battle stations!]

[All soldiers to the battle stations!]

[All soldiers to the battle stations!]

[We are approaching Romanian borders! Less than 10 minutes before we will enter Vampire nation controlled lands!]

Hippolyta and Jeanne quickly stopped whatever they were doing. Thankfully neither of them got tired, instead, they were getting pumped up for what's to come.

Quickly enough they got into positions with their squadmates. Before long, a portion of their helmet HUD was occupied by Marcus who was sitting on a decorated throne.

What, specifically, caught Jeanne and Hippolyta's attention was the comfortably sitting Atalanta on his lap. Her tail lazily moved back and forth.

"[We are approaching the Tepes faction's controlled lands. Our goal is the Dhampir, Valerie Tepes. The daughter of the current King Tepes. She has short blond hair and classic vampiric red eyes. She will be hidden in the basement most of the time because of her gear. Which, according to some sources, is already active. Some of the vampires you will encounter do not fear sunshine or even holy energy so switch to regular magic ammunition in that case.]" As Marcus was explaining that, Jeanne could not control herself and started smiling seeing how Marcus looked like a big bad villain. And the lazy lion girl on his lap only amplified that…

"[Deployment is going to be regular encirclement around the castle, the Infantry will be brought down by the gunship.]"

"[We, of course, are going to offer them to surrender the girl and let them be. But, there is a small percent chance that they will do that.]"

Hippolyta could only nod to herself. This sounds about right. The vampires treat themselves as apex predators of the human world. So, regardless of things… they won't just be giving up.

This means a fight is most likely going to happen. The Queen of the Amazons even wants one personally. She has not fought against Vampires in quite a long while.

Plus, this battle is even more personal to her because she wishes to impress her future husband with her performance. While she knows he doesn't care about her battling prowess. All he cares about is the result. The cup. If her squad is to get the girl first then she will get extra points and his acknowledgement.

That moment, Hippolyta's face hardened.

"[Once the engagement begins, only dispose of the ones who are fighting you. Civilians and kids, let them be.]"

The redhead's eyebrow went up for a second. well, if he says so…

The Amazon Queen believes that this most likely has something to do with the Chaste Huntress who is snuggling harder into him.

This means that this request came from her.

"[With that said. Begin.]"

As Marcus finished, the communication was cut off and another alarm starter ringing, the S.P.B.A started rushing towards the gunships.

"Well, this is it. May the best girl win!" Hippolyta said with an eager tone. Excitement started flowing through her veins. This was it! How long ago was it that she last did something like this!? Honestly, she has no idea! hundreds if not a thousand years! As a huntress of Artemis, she was never in a proper battle for the past 3000 or so years. A skirmish or two? Yes, but that was about it.

"Yeah. I suppose. I doubt I can win against you. But, let's see who can take down the most enemies?" Jeanne suggested.

That moment, they suddenly got a notification on their HUD… Aurora pinged them with the leaderboard option.

…

…

Jeanne's lip twitched for a second. Yes, their lives were quickly approaching the video game realms… if they get these kinds of things…

"Very well. I accept. Squad kills don't count though." The redhead pointed that out.

"Wasn't planning to. May the best maid win!" 

Hippolyta snorted amusingly upon hearing that. This was her first proper day as maid… she just remembered that! And what does she do on her first day as Marcus Goldman's maid? She goes to Romania to slay vampires… totally... What a maid should do!

"Right… may the best maid win!"

~~~~~~Castle Tepes~~~~~~

For the vampires, it was a regular daytime. Meaning the majority of the castle was asleep. Only the bare bones of the staff were up and doing their things.

Even though they were preparing for war with the discovery of the Longinus gear. They still needed their rest.

Though… no one was prepared for a massive...floating ship to just appear above their castle!

"W-W-What the fuck is that!?"

A cloaked vampire looked up with a shell shocked look. The guy was minding his own business and doing the disgusting and quite dangerous task of running his rounds around the small town outside their castle. After all, someone needs to make sure their cattle are doing their things…

And as a pureblood vampire, walking in the middle of the day, even though they have barriers to make the surroundings clouded all the time, it is still quite dangerous for a pureblood vampire.

Still though… The moment he saw a massive ship that looked like it was pulled straight out of a sci-fi flick he knew he had to, well…

Report this to his real superiors… While working for the Tepes factions made his ego as a male inflated, his life is much more valuable than some obscure thing called loyalty. Especially since he is just a grunt! pureblood or not!

So, while most of the sentries rushed towards the castle to report a massive airship just dropping in, he instead rushed towards the edges of the town where the dense forest is.

As he was rushing out of the town and into the depths of the forest, he heard a buzzing sound…

'Bees? No… it's far…'  he stopped for a bit and looked back… he didn't say anything. He didn't look around for long as he continued to rush away. To make sure no one could track his movement and so that he could teleport away from this…

Surely enough he found a good spot and called forth his magic circle… ready to disappear… only for the magic to get out of control and cancel the teleportation… 

"What… the…"

*Buzzing sound*

His gaze went towards the source. He saw a triangle-shaped metal thing with a pair of rotors inside the triangle construct sides. Making the sharp end face him. These things had red lights coming out of the rotors and a pair of railgun-like things pointing at him at this very moment.

The vampire grunt knew one thing at this moment! and that is to run!

The creature of the night trusted his instincts more than anything so he lunged forward right behind a tree. As the spot where he was hiding received a whole bunch of balls of black and red energy! This attack disintegrated the whole area and created a small crater.

'What the hell was that! It shoots magic!? What is this? A super advanced faction just popping from the background?' He thought with cold sweat. Without wasting much time he started rushing forward, distracting whatever machine that was with his weapon and dashing for his life! fuck this! He doesn't get paid enough as it is!

Weirdly enough the flying metal constructs didn't chase after him…

~~~~~~Few Moments Back, Aboard Confiscator~~~~~~

"Satisfied?" Marcus asked the lion girl on his lap. He smiled seeing how cat-like she was. 

"Very. I am surprised that it is easy to persuade you." She said that with a wondering look.

*Snort*

"It depends on what you ask. Do you think I care about the mundane to that point? If it was, for example, you asking me to not take the grail then I would have to lock you up in a room." He said seriously, and she instantly stiffened but, in the end, nodded at him.

"I understand…"

"Good girl." He stroked her hair. 

Atalanta internally thought about this. She started to understand what she can ask and what she can't. Thankfully she was told by him in person…

This means she was saved from messing up by him. Does this mean he doesn't want her to mess up? Giving her more opportunities?

Well, she was going to use that.

While the teen inventor and the lion girl were doing their thing in the main commander seat. Behind them was a certain Moon Goddess and a blonde witch.

While the blonde maid didn't care much about the lion girl's actions, the same could not be said for the silver-haired Goddess of the Hunt.

She had a stormy look, and was trying very hard to think of ways to turn this situation into her favour!

The Olympian Goddess did not expect her second in command to just move in like that! This was not something she had foreseen! 

Does this truly mean everyone here is for themselves? Even her most trusted huntress!? An even bigger frown appeared on her face. Well, if this is the case then she will use all of her available resources to become his wife! Even if it means using her old hunt like this!

~~~~~~Back to Castle Tepes~~~~~~

"My King, what should we do?" One of the vampires asked his king as they looked through the darkened windows. They saw what is considered a sci-fi thing going on… Gunships similar to that from Star Wars were landing on the ground and dropping off armoured men. And this is happening all around their castle…

Who are these people? Where do they come from? King Tepes knows that the human technological level has not reached this kind of level…

So, does this mean it's some sort of supernatural faction?

But who? There is no news of anything like this, he has spies in the biggest factions all over the world. He would have known that there exists an extremely advanced faction of some sort…

A moment later light gathered just outside the castle…

A massive hologram manifested. The King of Vampires face widened seeing a massive human sitting on a throne on his lap was a catgirl of some sort lazily snuggling into him.

"[Hello Tepes faction. My name is Marcus Goldman. I am an inventor, researcher, scientist, engineer, and many more things few of them being a lion lover]" The inventor stroked the catgirl's hair for a bit. "[And a collector of interesting items. I have heard you have an interesting item which I would like you to relinquish to me. If you do that I will let you continue with your owl-like life.

I am sure I don't need to tell you what kind of thing it is? It's a golden cup you should be quite familiar with.]"

Hearing the way this human talked rubbed the Vampire King in the wrong way. There was no respect, no seriousness, nothing!

"Like hell you livestock!" His magic aura blasted the wall with a window out. Now that there was a clear sight the vampire's eyes met with the holographic ones. They stared at each other for a moment.

"I will find you and will kill you!" The Ruler of Tepes faction said with a furious tone.

"[Sure. Whatever floats your boat. Seeing that you don't want to hand over the girl we will take her either way. Anyway, good luck. And try punching them hard, I need that data.]"

After saying that Marcus hologram disappeared and the Tepes King released a pissed off roar. This punk! He is going to murder him!

Once he calmed down a little bit he was about to turn around. But that moment he heard a roar of a jet engine and something akin to a screech.

His gaze quickly returned to the source as he saw jet fighters! Not any jet fighter but futuristic looking ones as they released a metallic-like transforming sound and changed midair into a humanoid form.

"My...King…those… those...are transformers…" 

"Of course they are! Everyone has those now!!!" The Ruler said with a sarcastic tone. This is just fucking great!

"They do!?"

"Of course not! you simpleton!" King Tepes punched the idiot without care. He was far too pissed off and distressed to care.

The amount of jet engines and sounds of transformations didn't cease… it was like there was no end to these jet fighters…

Just a few minutes later. One of the jet fighter transformers pulled out its rifle and pointed at the main gates releasing a quite big beam of black and red energy, erasing the stone building and opening a path into the castle. Moments later the armoured soldiers started rushing forward.

Then… the chaos started…

The vampires started to see things that didn't make sense to them.

One of them saw rain inside the castle, another saw fire instead of water raining down…

Others saw even worse things like… the moon crashing into the earth or angels descending from heaven like it was the end of the world…

"NO, I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" One vampire screamed as he saw the moon smashing into the planet's surface… forgetting that he was supposed to be inside a castle and not outside of it!

"Is...this the end of times!?" Another one lost any hope as he saw angels just descending from the sky. There were millions of them...

"W-W-Why is it raining inside the castle!?" The other one was shell shocked seeing water! Everywhere!

"Fire! Fire! Do something!? Why are you just standing there!?" The vampire who saw the fire was confused as hell as no one was doing anything when he saw fire spreading like wildfire inside the castle even before the invaders entered their castle!

"Control yourself, this is not real!!!" King Tepes said with a pissed off tone. He tried to make sense of this. As he saw the picturesque landscape of hell around him. This made no sense to him. He quickly assumes it is some sort of illusion.

The only reason he didn't panic over the top was because he could not sense any heat from this supposed hell. Meaning it was an illusion...

Then he tried to use his magic… This was the time when he started panicking… because his magic… it didn't listen to him…

'This...human… what...freak is he!?'

Before he could notify his vampires. Screams of pain followed. He knew his men were getting slaughtered because he heard sounds of whistling which were similar to the sounds of projectiles. This means these soldiers don't use regular guns but something else entirely…

"Ooh… a big fish! I wonder how many points for you?" 

King Tepes snapped out as he saw a female soldier. From the looks of it, her rank is higher than the rest.

"Points!? I will drink your blood and kill you slowly…"

*Bang*

*Cough*

The Vampire ruler's whole body twitched, searing pain washed him over. He looked down and saw a hole in his chest.

"Y-You… you didn't even allow me to finish my speech!" He said with disbelief. What nonsense is this! Where is sportsmanship! Exchanging threats is one of the most important things before fighting!

"No time. Points first. Speech later." 

[BALANCE BREAKER!]

The girl's right pistol transformed into the shotgun. She pointed it at the vampire leader's head. And pressed the trigger. Shaving the head off as if it was made from paper…

"So, the leader didn't have any of the upgrades? Weird? He most likely wanted to see if the upgrades worked before making himself immune to the weaknesses." The girl thought with a shrug before checking her points.

"Nice! I am in the lead!"

She fist-bumped herself before rushing off to kill some more vampires.

~~~~~~Castle Tepes Basement~~~~~~

Doors blasted off its hinges as S.P.B.A. rushed inside leading the front was a female soldier with a slightly different colouring. She had a spear in her hand. 

Weirdly enough no one was guarding this place at all.

"Check if anyone is hiding here." She ordered her squadmates. 

"Understood." Quickly the soldiers descended the stairs of the basement. Just like the vampires, they can easily see in the darkness, thanks to their helmets.

Soon after, Hippolyta herself descended. There was no fighting. Meaning no one was there.

Once she was there they started to check room after room. Until they finally saw her target.

'Just like the description. Female, Short blond hair, classic vampire red eyes.'

"Valerie Tepes I presume?" The Queen of Amazons asked.

"Y-Yes… who are you? What is going on?" The blonde vampire girl asked with a confused expression, she was wondering who these people were!

"You will be coming with us. Our Master wants you." 

"Excuse me?"

Before she could say anything more, one of the soldiers lifted its gun and shot at Valerie. Electricity washed the girl over as she lost consciousness.

"Sorry, Ma'am. Following protocol. Acquiring Sacred Gear is not negotiable. Once it's removed then discussion can follow." The one who shot the girl said as he lowered his rifle.

Hippolyta slowly nodded… yeah… even she was knocked out when she surrendered… 

This is confusing so she needs to read the 'protocol' otherwise miscommunication can happen.

As the redhead was thinking about this, the soldiers went up and picked up the knocked out girl.

Soon enough another party rushed in.

"Oh c'mon! You're already here?!" Jeanne said with a pouty tone. She nearly stomped her feet. This is nonsense! How did the redhead get here first!?

"I am. We got the girl. We should sweep the castle of any stragglers. Make sure no surprises pop up." The redhead offered.

"Yes! Let's go, guys! Let's see if we can find more vampires!" Jeanne ordered her squad as they rushed back up the stairs.

*Sigh*

'Since when killing things became a sport? Is this how Vampires feel when they are hunting down people? Is this why Aurora created a leaderboard? To see who will hunt more of these vampires down?

Well, the A.I. is a Sadist… and most likely wants to rub this into the face of these bloodsuckers and show that humans can do the very same thing… The problem is… that there is only one human who is doing anything here…

An even bigger slap then?'

*Sigh*

'Why am I even thinking this much about this?'

~~~~~~Aboard Confiscator~~~~~~

"You let that vampire escape. Why?" Atalanta asked me as she was still sitting comfortably on my lap.

I thought that when we were going to 'negotiate' with Vampires she would jump off. Nothing like that happened. So, she didn't mind being seen like that. Which is amusing and quite something else.

"And why not? He dropped his weapon. And I issued an order to not kill anyone who doesn't fight back. I did promise that to you." I said to her with a shrug. 

She nodded at me and snuggled into me a little bit more. It would seem that she does have that feline thing. Once she drops the whole serious nature of hers.

"I see. It is wonderful to know that you do keep your promises like that. I have met many humans who did not hold the part of their deal. So it's quite refreshing." She said that with a soft tone.

"That's because it depends on how convenient it is. Humans are beings of comfort. So, the less convenient a promise is, the harder it is to keep it.

For example, would you easily accept the position you are in right now? Hmm? If we are talking about your past self?"

"...no… it would need to be very convincing… most likely something of the same calibre as you to make me do this…" She said with an uncomfortable tone. 

"Indeed. So, in a nutshell, promises with greed don't mix when it concerns humans." I clarified to her. She nodded at me. Most likely already experienced that as Huntress of Artemis.

[Master, Valerie Tepes has been brought aboard the Confiscator. The mission is a success.] Quinella said to me as she walked over.

I nodded at her and motioned for Atalanta to get up. While it was a heavenly experience, some things need to be done…

The blonde lion girl slowly got up. She stretched out, feeling like she just woke up after a great nap. Her tail wiggle back and forth for a bit.

"Shall we go then?" I got myself up from the seat. Stretching out for a bit. 

I looked at Artemis who had a sour look on her pretty face. She didn't like the fact that Atalanta was the one who sat on my lap and not her.

Well, we are going to see how she is going to behave from now on. And of course her relationships with Atalanta.

Once I started walking, the rest followed me. It was time to see how posh this Sacred Gear grail is…

~~~

Marcus looked at the knocked out pale blond girl. She had short hair. And was quite the developed beauty. As expected of a DxD character.

Without wasting much time, he put his hand on her and several white and gold circles manifested around the Dhampir girl.

Soon. A glass-like container came out. One could see three small cups inside of it.

"What the… it has three cups?" Artemis said with disbelief.

Marcus didn't say anything, instead, he made the container float to a prepared scanning table.

Moments later a familiar light started scanning it.

The teen inventor summoned a holographic window and started waiting for the full scan.

With the amount of processing power the Confiscator had, the wait was not long.

"Well… I had my speculation but this is just sad." He said with a sigh as he started reading through the scan log.

"What did you find out?" Artemis quickly walked over. Followed by Atalanta and a very curious Le Fay.

"I had my doubts, you see. This is not the cup used by Christ in the last supper. But something else entirely."

"Obviously! It's called Sephiroth Graal and not the Holy Grail!" The silver-haired Goddess said with an eye roll.

"Indeed. But, tell that to the other people who believe that this is THE cup. Believed that for 2 thousand years. Not to mention the core of this is a concept of all things. It feels like the Big G just went whole YOLO on this gear." Marcus said while his eyes didn't leave the holographic window.

"YELO? What does that mean?" The Goddess of Hunt asked with even more confusion it's like they are operating on completely different wave lines…

"The literal meaning is 'You only live once'. It is usually associated with doing something foolish and extreme. Because you only live once and you want to do it.

I am saying this because the concept for this is quite wide. And it manifests differently with each individual. In this girl's case, it manifested as three cups. Because she most likely is quite educated and read many books on mythos thus losing herself in not fully grasping which cup is real and which is not..."

"Thus...three cups.." Artemis finished for him as she sort of understood what this meant...

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