Arc 1: The Quest for Tauropolos

Legend 2: The Chaste Huntress

The sun is shining brightly up in the sky. The air is clean and refreshing even with the smell of seawater all around them. It is a tropical paradise in the Mediterranean where people can enjoy themselves… except, Charlemagne is currently not enjoying himself.

Dressed now in a more casual clothing instead of cloaks, Charlemagne and Mary disembarked from the ship that carried them all the way to Mykonos in Greece. Charlemagne has this 'wtf' look as he step onto the harbor, now wearing a casual suit, with Mary who is now wearing a white summer dress following behind him.

"Mary, why are we in Mykonos right now?"

Charlemagne questioned his… personal assistant who tilted her head in confusion at the strange question.

"You said that we will be going to Greece so as you have wished, I picked a destination in Greece known for its tourism to allow you to relax while you take a short vacation."

Mary simply answered. Charlemagne really wanted to facepalm right now, he really do. But he simply can't when he saw how confused Mary is and she'll very likely blame herself if he told her this is not what he meant. Though in hindsight, he also did not specify where he wanted to go and allow her to assume what he wanted. He'd better make sure to be more specific and not just simply tell her to do things in the future.

"I see. Well this is a nice place and I suppose we could relax for a bit before going to the mainland. I just remembered that I don't have any swimwear."

Charlemagne then rummaged through his suit and pull out something from his inner pocket. He threw the object to Mary who caught it with ease. It's a pair of cards, a debit and credit cards to be precise.

"The debit is yours. I took the liberty of setting up an account for you before we left. The credit card is mine though. Use it to get us a nice room… and order the regular one, not a king suite. One room is fine but with separate beds."

He added as an afterthought, knowing that Mary will very likely order a king suite with a single large bed if he did not specify it, like what she did back on the ship where they share a bed in the most luxurious room on the ship. Apparently there is no such thing as budgeting for Mary when it comes to her attempts to please him.

The assassin bowed respectfully before heading off to find a room as she was told. Charlemagne watch the girl leave with a worried look. The girl can be overzealous in her service to him. Though while he is grateful for her presence, he would've preferred it if she would act more like a friend than some kind of servant. She had been like that ever since he found her and to be honest, he doesn't like it.

"Heh, I should probably work on her one of these days. But first…"

Charlemagne look up to the sky of Mykonos. The sun is shining brightly and people are walking around, having fun. The sound of wave can be heard all around him as well as the cry of the seagulls. The blue haired descendant sighs. Since it has come to this, he might as well enjoy the vacation before continuing his journey… which technically hadn't started yet. He started by exploring the city. Mykonos is a rather beautiful city from what he had heard so a random walk to take in the sight is fine.

As he walked, Charlemagne began to think. Was it really the right thing for him to leave Vatican? Was it right for him to leave his sister there? Probably not. But he just had to, especially after what he learned in France.

He then pulled out something from inside his shirt. Tied to a chain that he wore around his neck as a necklace is a metallic circular object, a ring, one that he found several months ago in France when he was still working as an exorcist. But it is not just any ordinary ring. It is a magical ring. Not only that, this is one of the fabled Ring of Solomon that was supposedly lost after the King's death thousands of years ago.

"Gather fellow heroes and find the whole set of Rings which will show us the path to the Ark of the Covenant huh? What are you trying to have us heroes do, Solomon?"

He wondered. He tucked the ring back into his shirt as he decided to ponder on the mystery later. For now, he should relax.

"…a coffee would be good right about now."

He decided. He looked around the place he is in. Maybe he should find a tourist center and get a pamphlet that has a map of the port town so he will at least have an idea where he is in during his walk. While he can always get to a higher ground or even fly if needed if he ever to get lost, he would rather try to find his way back through normal ways when he is acting as a tourist, not that he wouldn't do it if it can't be helped but it just doesn't feel right with him. It's simply one of his odd fixation on normality.

"Maybe I should ask for directions?"

-Island of Mykonos, forest-

A girl with sharp eyes and long unkempt green hair in school uniform is running through the forest in the island of Mykonos while being chased by a gigantic two-headed dog. Despite wearing a school uniform which is not designed to be worn in such environment, the girl finds no problem leaping over and sliding under obstacles while she ran with speed and agility that would make Olympic runners green with envy.

"Why is there an orthrus here in Mykonos?!"

The girl yelled as she jumped up and reached for a tree branch. She caught a branch quick enough to swing up just in time to evade a bite from the giant two-headed rabid dog she had been running from. The girl landed on top of the tree branch and look down at the orthrus that had stopped and turn around when it realized that it had missed her.

"Tch, why now out of all time when I have no weapon with me?"

The two headed dog leapt and opened its two mouths wide to bit the girl but she had quickly jumped over to another tree branch. She then continue running on tree branches with the orthrus giving chase. Thankfully, she is agile and quick on her feet. She traversed the treetops as if she is walking on a flat surface.

The dog shot out fire from its two mouths, aiming to roast her alive. The girl managed to dodge all attempts to make her a fried human without even looking back, dropping down and swinging from the branch and then leaping into the air while dodging fireballs as they come. It would've been fun for her if not for the fact that she did not plan this at all and she has no time to play with an oversized dog.

"Dammit Artemis, couldn't you just give me the location of the bow directly instead of having me look for it?! How am I supposed to know where 'Arcadia' is?!"

The girl yelled out in frustration as she leapt onto a tree branch again to escape being roasted by a fire-breathing two-headed dog. Never in her life had she ever been so thankful that she inherited the instinct and agility of her ancestor as she cross the forest on treetops.

"I hope Tauropolos is worth all this."

She mumbled as she jumped down onto the ground and slide down a slope. It is a bad day for her to take a walk in the forest without her main weapon. Though to be fair, Mykonos shouldn't be housing supernatural creatures as dangerous as an orthrus because it is a popular tourist destination. Hunters made sure that supernatural population near any major human settlements are kept in check.

So either the hunters are slacking off in their job or she just had a bad luck running across an orthrus that happen to come to the island. Either way, while she could handle weaker spirits and monsters, an orthrus is not something she could fight barehanded. Luckily though, she's not completely helpless.

The girl's keen eyes saw a stone she could use. It is large and jagged enough to be used as a weapon. She picked it up as she ran with the orthrus chasing behind. Once the dog got too close to her, the girl jumped again and this time, caught a dangling vine and use and swing up to another tree branch. She jumped from the vine and throw the rock at the orthrus.

Normally, a simple jagged rock would not do anything to an orthrus' hide. But the girl has not only a good arm strength but an extremely precise aim. The rock found its way to the only place on the orthrus' body that it could damage. The dog cried out in pain as the rock embedded itself into its left head's right eye, causing it to falter mid-run and rolled towards the tree the girl is on.

The trunk broke when the orthrus hit the tree and the girl found her chance to finish off the orthrus. She pulled out a simple knife from her boots and jumped down right onto where the orthrus' right head would be. She knew where to aim and stab the knife where the orthrus' brain would be. She let go of the knife when it found its mark and drive the knife further in by stepping on it, hard, breaking the ordinary object even as the blade entered the beast's brain.

The orthrus growled in pain before its right head fell completely lifeless, killing half of it while the other half is still struggling to move. With half of it dead, the beast won't be able to move reliably to chase after her. The girl walked away, leaving the half dead beast behind her. While it would be much kinder to simply finish it off, she simply doesn't have any other weapon to kill it with, only that ordinary knife she kept mainly to cut woods.

"…I really, really hope that Tauropolos is worth all of this."

The girl grumbled as she head towards the port town where she left her things, throwing away her vests that had been ripped and singed from being caught in branches and the orthrus' fire. Fortunately, her school uniform had been enchanted to be durable. Unfortunately, it is not durable enough. At least her clothes are somewhat intact even if it is damaged. Running through town naked is not something she wanted to try, ever.

The girl then once again took to the trees. It will be faster than simply walking and she wanted to have a nice shower after all that. And a change of clothes would be appreciated.

And so Atalanta, the descendant of the Chaste Huntress who she share a name with, headed back to Mykonos' main town, not knowing that she is about to meet another hero descendant, and the start of a new adventure that will go down in legends.

Nothing much for this chapter. This chapter is the opening to the first arc and occurs roughly four years before DxD canon timeline which will focus on Charlemagne gathering his team. This arc features the first companion, Atalanta. While her appearance and skill is based on Fate Apocrypha's Archer of Red, her personality is radically different because she is a descendant who is raised in the modern world. So don't tell me I get the characterization wrong because this is NOT the original Atalanta. While she retains some personality of her ancestor, she is also he own person with modern day logic and raised partially in the modern world, making her similar but also very different from Archer of Red.

Ohh and for her appearance, I currently based her appearance and costume on Chibichuki Atalanta in school uniform. She doesn't have the ears and tail though.

Next chapter will be Atalanta meeting with Charlemagne and Mary/Hassan of Serenity and the quest can really begin.