Chapter 94
Beginning’s End Epilogue
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We know that conflict between Theodore Lorne and the Valkyrie Hjorrdul stemmed from the death of Einherjar Antyr of the Volsung Clan.
It was conflict born from love, passion and vengeance.
You have heard stories like this many times throughout the ages.
We also know why Pani was delayed for so long and we know why the Volsung Norscans were there in the first place.
But where did the Ecclesiarchy fit into all of this?
Who is Mother Leticia and why is she so supportive of Theo?
And more importantly, what was the aftermath?
The origin of all this hoopla stems from the following: A nuclear bomb, a prank and lots of gullible religious fanatics.
It all started during the nuclear incident in Alkebulan where the world was first exposed to Theo’s Golden Terminator Armor.
Glorious in appearance, imposing in presence and overwhelming in might.
It was to no one's surprise that the Terminator Armor caught the eyes of the world the moment it revealed itself.
And while the common populace had their eyes glued in curiosity and awe, everyone else looked at it fear.
To those who were well versed in the heroes and villains that populate this chaotic world, the might displayed by the Terminator Armor was that of a low-tier S Ranked Villain.
This meant that it required at team of at least 4 S ranked superheroes to defeat with a decent chance of no one dying.
Such display of overwhelming power from a group that no one knows, understands or controls would definitely put most military in high alert
Not to mention the fact that the Terminator has nuclear weapons. Weapons of mass destruction are generally frowned upon after all.
And because of that certain stint Jabir’s Hassan I Sabbah did that made it look like the Terminator was their leader, most made the wrong assumption that the Terminator had a massive military might.
Not only did the powerful nations of the world feel threatened by such a mysterious powerhouse, they also launched secret investigations as to who this Terminator was and what was his actual military might.
Naturally they found next to nothing.
Such was expected when facing against the Hassan I Sabbah, the master of stealth and espionage.
The only real lead the world had on the Terminator was 3 individuals: Theodore Lorne, Nosferatu and The Boss.
This was where their investigations became next to impossible to execute.
The Boss was as elusive as the Terminator and Theo was under the protection of the HAA. It’s not easy to send an investigation team to a foreign soil without their knowledge.
And those spies who do successfully make landfall in the Commonwealth immediately discovered that they bit more than they could chew.
Vermilion City was not a safe place.
Theo’s apartment was also close to an area with the worst public order in the city.
The spies either die from gang violence, getting eaten by cannibals, used as human sacrifices, get squashed by falling debris, shot to death or mysteriously disappear from the face of the earth for one reason or another.
While these events were not really important in the greater scheme of things, do remember it for.
The main catalyst happened right after the Alkebulan Nuclear incident.
Du Al Ryien, the Chief Skald of the Undertide in the realm of Alfheim, took Nosferatu’s little prank a little too seriously and announced to the world that the Terminator, named the Machine God by the internet, was in fact a fledgling God with clear hints of divinity.
The internet went insane with theories and speculations
The media centered on the topic for a couple of weeks
Anyone in the world with access to TV or internet knew that the Machine God ‘might’ be an actual God.
Now, what happens when a massive number of people collectively believe, or at least sort-of believe, in a single idea that may or may not be true?
The focus of said belief gains power.
It is not clear how it will gain power or what form said power will manifest in, but the focus WILL gain power.
Such was the chaotic nature of magic and such was the illogical power of faith.
And no one knows more of magic and faith than the religious organizations
When the Terminator was introduced to the world, the reaction of the religious organizations were ‘Meh’
The Terminator was just another S ranked catastrophe just like the others.
While superheroes and supervillains that were ranked S in the danger scale were rare commodities, that’s as far as they go most of the time.
They might get a passing interest in the religious organization’s eyes, but such beings were irrelevant.
However, once the whole crap with the interview became public knowledge, that was when everything changed.
The thing about magic and faith was that it was extremely unpredictable and often became something much greater/worse when ‘facts’ and ‘logic’ was sprinkled in to support its illogic nature.
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The news of a certain individual’s divinity was generally ignored by the common populace.
It can't be helped, right?
No one would believe a claim of divinity.
However, if the one saying such claims were from a well known world where ‘Gods’ truly existed, people’s thoughts would shift from ‘a man made god doesnt exist’ to ‘since this guy is saying it, it might be true’
That ‘might’ may not amount to anything if only one person thought as such, but what if millions had such a thought?
That’s a whole different ball game.
This was the main reason why the religious organizations became interested in the Terminator.
Naturally, they launched their own investigation with the Ecclesiarchy and the Mosque as first responders.
And similar to the governments, they found next to nothing about the Machine God with the only solid leads were Theo, Nosferatu and The Boss.
Unlike the foreign countries, the religious organizations had a lot more leeway in terms of espionage.
They do have ‘agencies’ everywhere after all.
However, the investigations around Theo and The Boss were both pointless and futile.
The Boss was a psychopath that appeared only to kill then disappear without a trace
Theodore Lorne clearly had secrets but any means of finding out left too much of a trail (asking the HAA for help) or were too dangerous to pursue (quite a few lives were lost in Hell Hole district and the scrapyards)
At that time, another potential and more certain ‘God’ had been revealed in the middle east, thus most organizations turned their focus from the illusive prize to a more concrete one.
This time around, the Mosque was the first one to get to the scene thanks to their home court advantage.
The rest were forced to play catch up.
The Ecclesiarchy, who had the least favorable position in the middle east, had no choice but to divert a large amount of their forces to the new God and left their very best tracker in Vermillion City in hopes of finding something
This tracker was Mother Leticia.
Technically speaking, she was already retired and her position as ‘Mother Superior’ in Vermilion City was nothing more than an empty title. She held next to no power and had next to no responsibilities.
Perfect for retirement
The main reason why Mother Leticia was still enlisted in the Ecclesiarchy ranks because of her secret: She very very close to being a ‘God’
This stemmed from her high skills in manipulating others into discovering the secrets of others via conversation.
While ‘Mother Leticia’ was relatively unknown, her nickname ‘The Interrogator’ was wildly feared by all of the magic world.
She may not be the strongest in combat especially when compared to the other ‘Gods’, but the information she extracted led many enemies to their doom.
Truth be told, Mother Leticia struggled considerably with this quest.
She abandoned trying to find The Boss due to his extremely elusive nature and focused on Theodore Lorne… which also proved to be a challenge on its own right.
She couldn't go up front and ask since it would instantly raise suspicion from the HAA, thus she used the media to grant her an interview with Theo’s known acquaintances.
It was easy to get the media’s cooperation with a bribe.
However, even with that, Theo’s acquaintances knew next to nothing about this ‘secret’ of his.
To make matters worse, his inner circle blatantly refused to even breath the same air as the reporters.
An understandable sentiment.
As Mother Leticia was about to surrender her pursuit, she had a lucky break when she spoke with one of the cafeteria ladies in HAA.
It was a random encounter between 2 old hags where they complained about the stupidity of the youth.
This lunch lady, Miss Samantha, was more than she seemed
A former mafia boss, the teacher of Crow and her protege, a part owner of Theo’s company and most importantly a treasure trove of secrets.
She was able to get a sizable amount of info before Miss Samantha was able to overpower Mother Leticia’s influence over her.
This actually surprised Mother Leticia.
Only a handful of people would notice her interrogation, let alone resist it and Miss Samantha was among them.
With a promise of pain and destruction, Miss Samantha left Mother Leticia.
Too bad.
Mother Leticia liked Miss Samantha quite a bit.
The things Mother Leticia was able to draw out was that Theo was The Boss and his base was in the scrapyard.
Thus she went there to investigate.
What she discovered there was a terrifying cult that sent shivers up her spine.
Unlike the many nutjobs in the scrapyard, this cult looked as though it was a high structured unit with rituals, traditions and customs.
This ‘cult’ was making use of the exact techniques used by many of the religious organization in their infancy.
But more importantly, they were heavily armed and decently skilled.
Mother Leticia had a bad feeling about this cult and wanted to investigate them, however, this was also the time that she accidentally met The Boss AKA Theo.
After that, the Valkyrie Incident happened.
Now, what was the aftermath of said incident?
First, Freyja’s public apology
Quite a few senators, councilors, a mayor, a few HAA officials and police officers were under investigation for bribery, criminal negligence and many other crimes.
They did try to defend themselves in the court of law, but their defeat was only a matter of time.
It was their words against an Aeserian Goddess after all.
More importantly, this led to Theo’s group complete pardon from any form of crime they have committed.
Naturally, Theo abused this opportunity by forcefully taking the 9th district of Hell Hole for himself.
Those who resisted were killed, those who surrendered were ‘reformatted’ and those who ran were allowed to do so.
Obviously, a lot of people (especially the criminals) were not happy of this and used the media to get the government to act.
Unfortunately, the open support of Freyja and the Ecclesiarchy for Theo’s cause prevented anything from happening.
Second, the fear of Theo within Vermilion City.
It was natural for a lot of people to fear the person who fought off many assassination attempts, force the Valkyries to a surrender and took over an entire district from criminals via brutal violence.
The military, law enforcement and the local government feared him due to the forces he had under him.
They have already wronged Theo with the whole Valkyrie Incident, and was terrified what the young man would do for revenge.
The HAA and the Superheroes also feared him.
One does not simply murder a bunch of Valkyries and gets away with it.
Yet Theo did exactly just that and even had the Valkyries beg for forgiveness.
And the very idea that they abandoned Theo at his time of need was a massive PR nightmare that threw their credibility down a cliff.
They did try to fix things with Theo but they had the door slammed in their faces.
Clearly Theo was pissed off at them, and with good reason.
A few tried to force their way in, and those few were sent to the hospitals with gunshot wounds and a few missing limbs.
The media, naturally, was told politely to fuck off.
Those who refused to cooperate were in for a ‘shocking’ surprise via tasers.
The only ones that were allowed to meet with Theo were his family, his friends (Vivi, Phoebe), his lover Dorothy and his business acquaintances.
Last and not the least, Theo’s business.
For some unknown reason, Theo’s cheap cybernetic limbs business suddenly received orders from many companies all over the world.
Governments, Megacorporations, shady organizations and some really famous companies that scared the crap out of Theo were looking to make a deal with him.
Some of the deals were on the shady side with the monetary gain so big that Theo was tempted to simply say NO due to how suspiciously good the terms were.
And this happened BEFORE his company was officially in business.
In summary, the Valkyrie Incident unintentionally turned Theo’s group into one of the most powerful factions in Vermilion almost overnight.
However, in the far distant future where humanity was among the stars, the Valkyrie Incident was more than just an ‘incident’
This was where it all began.
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