Isle of Man
~ 460 AD
They came during one cold winter night from the sky, their capes fluttering behind them in the wind while their divine armor shone with the light from the moon. Their features, while human, were too beautiful to be considered as such, and it was then that the first tribe of people who encountered them understood that these four beings were not mortals but were instead gods. Faced with the majestic presence of these four deities, the tribe kneeled down while awaiting for them to be addressed while hoping that they did not come for nefarious reasons. As it turned out, they came for one purpose, to make the island home to their chosen people while also giving the island's natives the choice to join them. Afraid of what denying them could mean and having no valid reason why they should refuse, the tribe accepted.
Having expected nothing from the gods, the people were surprised when knowledge on how to better their lives flowed into their minds. Knowledge of how to build better structures to survive against the elements, knowledge of how to create better clothes, how to cook the best food with their resources, and knowledge on many more things that they could never have even imagined on their own. With this gift, the first tribe vowed absolute loyalty to these deities and chose to accompany them when they visited other tribes despite the gods' insistence that it was not necessary since they could quickly and easily make their way around the island. Seeing the conviction in their eyes, the gods relented and chose to travel as mortals in order to accommodate their new companions, an action that caused the people's respect of them to grow even more.
Throughout their travels, the tribe learned that the gods were not originally of this world, but rather each originated from a different world and simply came to this world in search of a place to plant the foundations of their chosen people. They learned that while the sole man of the four was the king and leader of the group, he had an insurmountable amount of respect for the other three who are also his wives. They learned that despite being king he prefers the personal touch that a father would possess as opposed to the more professional touch of a king. They learned that while he is the only war god amongst the four that the others were all powerful in their own right.
Eventually however they came upon a second tribe, a tribe that the first tribe do not exactly see eye to eye with. Many had expected an altercation to occur, however with a few simple words from the Goddess Azula, both tribes chose to leave their differences in the past and collectively follow these deities.
With the addition of the second tribe, the size of the group grew and speed of their travel slowed, or at least it should have. However at this time, the gods chose to take care of every responsibility that would slow down their group. They created shelter from the earth, water from the air, hunted and cooked all of the food with flame that was made from nothing other than Goddess Azula's hands. A flame that, despite its small size, burned hot enough for it to feel like summer.
It was like this that the group traveled throughout the island, going from tribe to tribe and convincing them all to follow these new deities. Throughout their travels they learned many things from the god and goddesses. Any question that they asked were answered easily and expertly enough that the entire group understood. They learned of the many other gods in this world, of the many factions that they make up, and of the current civil war happening within the Abrahamic Faction that is ravaging the lands outside of their island. They learned of the gods' plan to eventually join the war should it go on much longer, causing the warriors of the tribes to vow to follow them into battle. That had earned a laugh from the Goddess Azula and a smile from the Goddess Morgan. They had thought that their offer was being mocked before the Goddess Scáthach had explained that it would be suicide and that if they wished to follow them into war they would have to wait for a few years for the gods and goddesses to complete some form of research. In response to the explanation the warriors had vowed to wait until that time had come, or to prepare their children should they themselves be unable to follow.
Like this, months passed and every single person on the island had vowed themselves to the god. With that done, the group moved to the center of the island where a magnificent castle was easily erected by Morgan before the four deities built a city with the castle in the center. The city is easily large enough to fit everyone on the island while leaving room for when the population will grow. The architecture style for the city is mostly Greco-Roman with a few touches of medieval gothic.
Living in this new city was troublesome at first. The majority of them were farmers, some were blacksmiths, others were carpenters, and some were hunters or warriors as some called them. Due to some spells erected by Morgan, they quickly found that all of the lands within a certain area of the city easily grew food that the farmers would have to farm themselves. The land was self-sufficient and all that would need to be done would be to plant the seeds and harvest the crops once it was time. Everything else, like plowing and tilling, was done magically and just naturally happened. As such the farmers found themselves with plenty of free time while the blacksmiths found that the bulk of their work, which were farming tools, was no longer needed.
While the blacksmiths simply repurposed the allotted time to experimenting with the craft using the knowledge given to them by the gods, the farmers had to choose something new to spend their time on. Some chose to become smiths, others hunters, some became craftsmen, and some even began to experiment with painting and making music. Eventually however, things settled down comfortably and all found that this new life was much more enjoyable than their previous one. Not only was life much easier, but it was also more enjoyable and they had more time to pursue whatever interests they may have.
That all changed however one night when a massive pillar of multicolor lights had come from the sky to strike down the ground in front of the castle. From the lights emerged a group of men in splendid armor and swords at their hips with two women leading them. The people had thought themselves under attack until Morgan and Ambrosius had emerged from their castle with smiles on their faces to greet the group. As it turns out, Morgan has a little sister named Arturia. She herself is a Queen and the men accompanying them were none other than her most trusted warriors, the Knight of the Round Table. With them however, had been Ambrosius and Morgan's daughter, Mordred.
The arrival of the group had turned into a joyful occasion for the people, they had met the goddess's sister and her daughter. As a result they threw a party as a welcome, something that had the pair secretly blushing when outside of the public eye.
With the arrival of the Knights, those hunters who vowed to follow the gods into battle began their training under the Knights. They quickly found out however that while they may be considered warriors amongst their people, to true warriors they are nothing but average men skillesly waving around pointy sticks. As such, the training was brutal, painful, and at times almost mind breaking. They were not being trained to kill normal men, nor were they being trained to kill men with magical capabilities, they were instead being trained to kill the supernatural. Beings that could easily break steel with their bare hands, move faster than the eye could see, and easily wreak havoc to a normal human army by themselves. As such they too had to be able to defeat armies by themselves.
Normally no amount of training would help them reach such a level. At this point in time humanity is not only at a disadvantage due to their frail bodies, but they also had no magic system to help them even out the odds. However, they are not expected to be able to defeat supernatural beings such as High Class devils with their current training, no the training will put them on a high Mid Class devil's level before they are further trained to the ground until they unlock Touki, which will put them on around low to mid High Class devil. Naturally not all of them are expected to reach such a high level, only the most talented will. However, it will put even the weakest one of them at a high Mid Class devil level without any form of enhancement.
Hearing this caused the competitive spirits within the trainees to soar and they began to compete in order to see which ones of them will reach that level. Like this, a few years passed until the day arrived, the day when their lives were changed even more.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isle of Man
~ 470 AD
The Evil Piece System and the Brave Saints are genius pieces of magic and Ajuka being hailed as a genius for their creation is warranted. While the main function of it is to turn anything that is not a God/Buddha or Dragon God into a hybrid of devil and whatever their original species is, it also holds a few secondary functions such as giving those reincarnated as rooks more strength than the other pieces. As far as I can tell, that function was a choice in order to help the reincarnated devils specialise in their strengths. It is somewhat similar to the summoning of the Holy Grail in the sense that it places the reincarnated devil into a class like the grail places heroes into a class. Lancers would be Knights, Sabers would be Queens, Casters would be Bishops, Rooks would be lucid Berserkers. It does not mean that a class form the grail easily translates into a class from the Evil Piece System however, an Archer could just as well be a Bishop or a Knight. The speed of a Knight would be supremely useful for evasion while the magical reserves of a Bishop would allow an Archer like EMYIA to spam Caladbolg.
While it is an interesting piece of magic, Morgan and I figured out all of its functions within the first five years. The time would have been shorter, but we did it as humans without the help of our domains and while helping the people settle down comfortably in the city.
After that we set our sights to the Brave Saints cards. While the premise is similar, the execution is somewhat different. The Evil Pieces were designed to turn anyone into a devil as long as they are not a God/Buddha or Dragon God, like Ophis, regardless of morality. The Brave Saints however had to take things like morality into account since an angel not 'Pure Hearted' will simply turn into a Fallen Angel which would be counteractive to the Brave Saint's purpose. As such it is possible to be rejected by the system.
With our knowledge of the systems we were able to create our own version of it. The first function is the same as both the Evil Pieces and the Brave Saint cards, it turns the chosen into an Edenian. However I was not satisfied with that. While the average Edenian is not weaker than the average devil in terms of magic, physically they lose out easily. My second problem came about when I realised that a devil's potential for growth is much larger than an Edenian's. Give a devil and an Edenian the same amount of time to become more powerful and the devil will easily outstrip the Edenian. I do not want some no name devil to go train for some three years and kill one of my Edenian who has trained for a decade. My third issue came in the form of loyalty. How do I keep them loyal to me without brain washing them. The devils use the fear of becoming a Stray and being hunted down in order to dissuade reincarnated devils from going rogue, but I have no interest of doing that to my people and I don't plan on dedicating part of my forces to simply hunting down rogues. With these problems coming to light, Morgan and I returned to the lab to get back to work.
The first problem to be fixed was easily the one about their loyalty. The answer came to me in the form of the Faith system we use in Asgard. Rather than worry about their loyalty to me, I will let the pieces do the work for me. It won't force them to be loyal or even strengthen their loyalty, heck it will barely interact with their mind. No, the pieces will simply keep track of their loyalty to me and when it reaches a point where they are disloyal it will remove itself from them while also turning them back into whatever species they were and taking away whatever strength or power they gained through the piece. Not only will it do that, but it will also keep a log of how close they are to becoming disloyal and why, allowing me to see it.
The second problem to be fixed was surprisingly the first and we did not even need to do anything to fix it. Rather than alter the Edenian genome to make them more physically powerful, we decided to use their ridiculous potential for magic to fix the issue, and the nasuverse magic system is perfect for that. While an Edenian will most likely be weaker to a devil physically at a base level, with reinforcement they will be easily be able to keep up. Now while reinforcement used by a human will not allow them to dominate a servant or anyone higher in physical combat, Edenians are not humans. Yes Edenians share many similarities with humans, and one may even argue that Edenians are the much more evolved version of humans, that difference plays a major role here. An Edenian's body is easily as tough as an average High Class devil's body and that's all without training. Morgan and I theorise that due to the brutal and savage nature of the MK world, most species focused more on toughness and stamina when evolving as opposed to strength and speed. As such the body of an Edenian can easily withstand reinforcement. However, being the maniac that we are, Morgan and I decided to make the pieces give the wielder an instinctual level of how to perform reinforcement along with perfect control of their magical energy. With a little bit of training even the least talented Edenian will be able to use reinforcement to move as fast as Setanta's Lancer Servant form. All of this is without factoring in their training at the hands of Arturia's knights or without factoring in Touki.
The final problem was a bit harder to solve, but eventually we did. Using a drop of my ichor, divine blood, to alter the Edenian genome, we were able to give them the same insane potential that a genius demigod would have. As long as their body can handle it and they put in a certain amount of work, then they will easily grow in power. That does not however make them demigods since the amount I used was not enough, but it does give them the potential to use any of the powers related to my domain or create sub branches of those powers. It also gives them the ability to become more powerful and breath under water, along with the ability to talk to any sea life and horses.
With that final problem solved, the prototype was created. With their creation however, came a thought. The Isle of Man currently has a population of 53,314 with 10,000 of those being warriors that trained under the Knights of the Round Table. As such I no longer need to create Edenian bodies to put the souls of heroes from the Throne into. However, I already have scanning of most of their souls and not making use of them would be a waste. With that thought I started another round of experiments, implementing imprints on those souls and seeing how they affected the pieces. I wanted to see if I could give the Edenians the same prodigious talent that some of the heroes had.
At first it did not work since there were too many imprints and they heavily clashed against one another. Therefore I narrowed it down to six imprints per piece, one for each class of the Holy Grail, minus Berserker, based on their skills and personality. For Saber I chose Lancelot for his skills, for Archer I chose Arjuna for both his skill with the bow and his personality, Lancer was Guan Yu for his military genius and skill with polearms, Caster was Medea, Assassin was Cursed Armed Hassan, and for Rider I chose Achilles.
With that done I travelled to the mainland and captured the worst humans I could find before infusing them with the pieces. The results were immediate, they were faster, stronger, tougher and one even blasted me with the Power of Destruction. Once I subdued them, I looked further to find any changes caused by the soul imprints. My findings were great to say the least. While they did not receive personal skills that the imprints did not possess in their life, even if legends say they did, they did receive all of the class skills and the life skills of whichever soul imprint they resonated with. If they did not resonate with any of the imprints then they only received the class skills. With my experiments done, I disposed of them before returning home.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AN: Here's the chapter. As usual, tell me what you guys think, especially since I tried to do a montage of what happened in a few years. Since we don't know when the Great War began or when it ended, I'm putting the end of it around 500 AD which will also be the time where Camelot falls and Arthur dies.
Also the first chapter of my Campione fic is published. The name of it is The Godslaying King. The second chapter is already available on my p a t r e o n The link is, (p a t r e o n . com / servantambrosius), minus the spaces. That story will be updated once a week and patrons will be able to read chapters a week in advance along with other patreon exclusive content such as the Authorities that I have come up with and are considering for the main character.
