None of the original characters in this story will have any involvement in the main plot. All of the events in this story happen alongside the main plot in the game, but all four characters are just random adventurers trying to pursue their own goals, being largely unaware of the true danger that the world of Altera faces.

Chapter 1: Gifted Priest Saito

---1 week ago---

At the age of 10, Saito is the youngest Cleric in the Divine Order. He started his training as a Cleric barely six months prior, after a fire broke out in his home at Mana Ridge. Irine and a small group of Clerics that had just arrived rescued him from the fate that befell the rest of his family that night. At first, he was an understandably sad orphan, but Irine was always around to cheer him up, and he decided to join the Clerics as more and more began to set up camp in the town of Sorceresses. To him, the Divine Order was his new family.

Saito’s training progressed swiftly. While he wasn’t nearly as physically strong as the older Clerics, his mastery of light magic was exceptional. So exceptional that nearly six months after he began training, he was now making his way through the crowds of Saint’s Haven, a far cry from the quiet Mana Ridge.

In his pocket, Saito had a wallet with five gold pieces from Irine, along with a photo of himself and his mother. Saito also had a permanent invitation into the royal castle. Bishop Ignacio had requested Saito to attend in a ceremony made specifically for him, for he was about to become the youngest Priest in the history of Altera.

Saito didn’t look too shabby either. To prepare him for the ceremony, Irine commissioned Blacksmith Belin to create a special set of Blue Lion Armor for Saito, a set that would specifically fit a 10 year old boy. Tamer Lindsay even commented on how cute Saito was, with his well-kept brown hair and that innocent stare from his green eyes, and how it was especially cute that he was in a dark uniform made for advanced Clerics. (Lindsay didn’t know that Saito was a Cleric for real.)

That was before Irine quickly caught up to Saito and dragged him away to prevent him from being caught up in Lindsay’s insanity, though.

---

Saito was being escorted by several guards on his way to see Bishop Ignacio. The first thing he noticed was the throne, or rather, who was sitting on it. King Cassius the Third didn’t seem to be that much older than him at all. King Cassius looked thrilled to see someone else around his age in the castle, and he probably would have leapt down from his throne to greet Saito personally if it weren’t for the fact that Duke Stuart would disapprove of the idea of the King speaking to a commoner like Saito.

As for Saito himself, he didn’t dare say anything, as Irine warned him not to do so unless asked to.

Then, a woman stepped in front of Saito. He guessed that this was Lady Kaylinn, the Court Sorceress. Irine never told Saito anything about Lady Kaylinn (for she was far too kind to do so), but he had already heard about the infamous Court Sorceress from Cleric Trainer Enoc. Man, what a difference hair makes. Kaylinn’s face reminded Saito of his mother, but her hair really did have that homicidal paranoid ‘I-clearly-don’t-get-enough-sleep-why-do-you-ask’ look like Enoc mentioned.

“Well, well, well. This must be the young Cleric that the pig-headed Ignacio was talking about. What’s your name, boy?”
“My name is Saito. Nice to meet you, Miss Kaylinn.”
“…Huh. Would you look at that? At least this young Cleric knows his place, unlike a certain other hag-faced Cleric, wouldn’t you say?”

A rather revolting man resembling a wrinkled pig appeared from behind one of the stone columns, peering down the hall. Saito actually had no idea what to expect from Bishop Ignacio beforehand, as the other Clerics never said anything beyond the fact that he was the current Pontiff after Teram disappeared, and that being summoned by him to Saint’s Haven was a great honor. Now he understood why he knew more about Lady Kaylinn than the actual Bishop himself.

Bishop Ignacio was waddling down the hallway to greet Saito.

“Ah, the young prodigy is here! I see you have already met Kaylinn.”
“Ha! Gaze upon your revolting leader of the Divine Order! How did a monster like him become Pontiff of the Divine Order? What do you think, little Saito?”

Saito found himself agreeing with Lady Kaylinn. He looked like a monster – no, he looked even uglier than any monster that he had ever fought back at Mana Ridge – and Saito wondered if Ignacio actually was a monster. It’d be rather ironic if it turned out that the Divine Order had a monster for a leader. Maybe the Bishop was just old? If so, he aged horribly and probably could use some help from the Sorceresses. Of course, Saito never outright said all of this to the Bishop.

As for Kaylinn, she was already calling Saito by name. That was an improvement, he guessed. From what Cleric Trainer Enoc told him beforehand, he was expecting Kaylinn to try to kill him on sight because, “You should pray to the Goddess that she doesn’t think that you’re an assassin sent by the Divine Order. We’re not even fit for the assassination business, not to mention that it is not an honorable path to take. Our sheathed weapons constantly clanging against our shields already announce our presence to monsters one mile before we even get there!”

Bishop Ignacio cleared his throat. “Well, Saito. Before we begin the ceremony, why don’t you demonstrate to the Court your mastery of light magic? Guards! Release the poochums!”

Saito thought, “But no one said anything about poochums!” Apparently everyone but the Bishop thought so too, as there was confused mumbling throughout the court hall. Soon enough, everyone heard barking coming from one of the side hallways. Three Poochums hopped out, wondering why they were suddenly granted freedom, and looked up the hall to see everyone staring at them. They then saw little Saito, and thought they were being adopted by him. And so they charged at him with joy.

Saito panicked as the three Poochums approached him with eagerness that he had never seen from any Poochum before in his entire life, and raised his wand. The wand sparked with blue lightning, and Saito slammed the center Poochum with a Righteous Bolt, sending that one flying down the hall and into the door, with lightning sparks frying the other two Poochums before they even noticed what just happened to their buddy. Everyone else quickly darted behind the pillars and the throne as the lightning sparks spread out.

A few seconds after everyone else was absolutely sure that the lightning sparks were gone, they peered out from their hiding places. Lady Kaylinn and Bishop Ignacio were among the first to step back out into the hall. Saito had a ‘what have I gotten into’ expression on his face.

Lady Kaylinn was not amused. “Wait a minute. These are MY poochums!”
Bishop Ignacio ignored her. “Well done, Saito! You are clearly ready to become a Priest. Let us proceed with the ceremony!”

Ignacio held out a bright, glowing white stone, and instructed Saito to kneel. And so Saito kneeled, with the other two dead poochums still beside him, and no one bothering to remove them. “Fair Goddess, protect this child with your divine blessing, as from this point onwards, he shall serve you as a Priest of the Divine Order!”

The stone shattered, and Saito felt an odd power flowing through him. Ignacio continued.

“Congratulations, Saito. The ceremony is over, and the Goddess has approved of your ascension. As the newest Priest of the Divine Order, serve her well, for her will is the will of us all.”

The nearby guards were thinking something along the lines of, “That's it? Beyond the old drapes that he just had us haul in yesterday, how does this resemble ANYTHING like a ceremony fit for the youngest Priest in all of Altera? I was expecting food!” King Cassius, General Duglas, and Duke Stuart had the same puzzled look. Lady Kaylinn frowned, as if she knew what was coming.

“Well, Kaylinn. What do you think? Saito is a brilliant one, isn’t he? How about that gifted Sorceress of yours? What became of her? I never did get to see her, even though you used to hold her in such high regard. I am sure that she is still out there and that the Goddess is still watching over her, though. Maybe one day, Saito will meet her.”

There was an audible groan throughout the court hall.

---

Later that night, Saito decided that he wanted to ask Lady Kaylinn about why she bore a resemblance to his mother, intending to completely ignore Irine’s earlier warning. Her resemblance was most likely a total coincidence, as Enoc did tell him about her layers upon layers of makeup. Either way, he wanted to say hi to her somehow, as it appeared that Bishop Ignacio was planning on keeping him around the Court.

Saito looked at his picture of himself and his mother, and then up to Lady Kaylinn. She was using her staff to braid her hair, or something. She also looked angry. Saito decided then and there that Kaylinn had absolutely no relation to his mother at all, but before he could even think about turning around and leaving…

“Why are you staring at me like that, Priest?”
“…I wanted to say hi.”
“Just wanted to say hi? There has to be another reason that you’re here. Ignacio sent you here, didn’t he? Quit wasting my time and just spit it out.”
“Uh, I thought you looked like my mother, and…”

(Whoops. Lady Kaylinn had been desperately looking for an excuse to humiliate Saito after that little speech by Ignacio and the murder of her three pet Poochums. And she just found it. Even if the excuse was about as silly as trying to reach into the Abyss, pulling out a Golden Dimensional Rabbit, and expecting it to hand out two plates for Toxic Spray.)

Saito watched Lady Kaylinn’s face suddenly turn sour. Something about the eyebrows especially made him feel like Kaylinn was staring into his soul and looking to conjure up his nightmares to eat him alive. Or cast a wicked spell that could remove his head from his shoulders. That was something Enoc failed to warn Saito about.

“I look like your mother? Impossible! There’s no way someone as beautiful as I would have given birth to a stupid ugly Cleric like you! Even having a clueless poochum or a dumb goblin as a child would be an improvement! Just insulting! LEAVE, NOW!”

Enoc also failed to warn Saito about her mastery of fire. While Saito stood there with a completely shocked expression, Lady Kaylinn summoned a fireball, and it exploded in his face before he could even blink. She also set the carpets on fire so that he couldn’t stop, drop and roll. And the decorative drapes that Ignacio brought in for the ceremony too, for good measure.

Saito ran around crying and in total panic, setting fire to even more things that he passed along the way in his embarrassing mad dash to find some help. Saito eventually made his way outside and tumbled down the stairs into Irine and Enoc, both of whom were wondering what the commotion inside the castle was beforehand. Then they frantically got up and tried to put out the fire. But a Sorceress’ fire is not easily put out, and they eventually gave up and threw Saito into the fountain behind them.

Bishop Ignacio ran outside to see what was left of his little Saito, with Lady Kaylinn following behind to see the end result. Irine was trying to pull him out of the fountain, and all she could really do (since shields are quite heavy) was prevent him from drowning or emotionally dying from complete and total rejection. At least the fire was out. Upon seeing Ignacio and Kaylinn, Cleric Trainer Enoc figured out the real reason why Saito was in Saint’s Haven.

The next morning, the first thing Enoc did was to request that the young Saito be transferred to somewhere far away like Carderock Pass for his own safety, much to the dismay of Ignacio and to the relief of Kaylinn.

---Present time, at the Autumn Shore, outside of Carderock Pass---

After that particular incident, Saito has been scared of Sorceresses since. He didn’t hate them like most of the other Clerics did, at least not yet, as he did not understand why the two groups absolutely loathe each other. He figured that the hate will probably come flowing through him naturally later. For now, as a Priest, he believes that his concerns are better directed towards cleansing the land of the undead and healing the injured.

He then briefly thought about what he was going to do as soon as he met an undead Sorceress, and shuddered.

Saito felt really sorry for Irine, who decided to pay for the repairs to the castle as a result of the fireball incident. He was on his way back to Carderock Pass, hoping that he will make enough money from his completed Adventurer’s League Commissions from the Dread Forest to repay Irine. As it stands, he currently owes Irine 50 gold, even though Irine has already insisted numerous times that it wasn’t his fault and that he doesn’t need to pay her anything. He made okay progress so far during his first week in Carderock, as he now had 10 gold in his wallet.

Also, his photo survived the incident. He also managed to keep that permanent invitation into the Royal Castle. Not that he was ever planning to use it again.

A bony hand suddenly burst out from the ground. So did several others. Saito drew his wand and raised it. A holy rune appeared on the ground where the first skeleton was, and a Lightning Relic suddenly fell out of the sky and crushed the skeleton. That coupled with his Chain Lightning made short work of the rest of the undead, but why was the relic still firing off lightning bolts like crazy?

He then heard the sound of a leaf being crushed behind him. Saito turned around and launched a Lightning Bolt at whatever was there, and saw a Sorceress blinking out of the way.

The Sorceress had a purple ponytail, red eyes, and was wearing the Iris armor. She was also far younger than most of the other Sorceresses he had met, but she was still a bit older than him, probably by around five years. Maybe Lady Kaylinn sent her to finish him off? But she was way too far to be the reason why the Lightning Relic was still firing, and she was walking towards him, screaming, “Hey, what was that for?!”

So Saito decided to try to apologize. The Sorceress then suddenly jumped backwards. Then she disappeared.

His wand was gone too.

The Lightning Relic also disappeared, far earlier than expected.

And there were three spiders where the Relic used to be that weren’t there before.