ABUJA: CENTRAL NIGERIA
SAINT BERNADITO MEMORIAL CATHEDRAL
MAITAMA
JANUARY 23RD 2017
Bishop Valerio smiled at the man in front of him, his contributions were quite lovely. After all, who would willingly give up his twin daughters to the lord in order to thank and encourage the church for their hand in supporting the rebellion to make the central Nigeria its own independent territory. But the church has much more in store for the beasts of the central region. It was unfortunate that the rest of the country saw them as nothing, it was the land with its bountiful resources that was valuable, not the people within it that are barely above the levels of beggars.
The only people with any sort of real power are the sanctioned merchants with passes across the state borders, they were the ones in charge of keeping the people fed, in exchange for resources. Normally farming should not be this hard, but the central states of Nigeria were ground zero of a biological weapon some 35 years ago. It was system created and orchestrated as at the time it was an attempt by the then unified government to terraform the area into one that would give endless resources. Their plan worked, precious metals, oils, stones and ores could be found in abundance, but in return the main source of life, existence and society; food was lost.
There was a civil war and the split of the nation into three major geopolitical zones. The Caliphate to the north, the New Biafrans to east and south east, and the Old Eko kingdoms to south and southwest. The central area of Nigeria is probably the most coveted piece of land in the known galaxies. And the other three geopolitical zones have been fighting each other tooth and nail just to get it. However even with all of that, they had still been very well united in all fronts to make sure that no other country or force tries to take advantage from the outside.
To prevent the central states of Nigeria from falling into foreign hands, all three areas had a central figure head that represent the country every year at the Unicef, Ecowas, and WHO terminal tournaments. Due to that the country still had legitimacy, and the Central area was not designated a no man's land and left for scavengers to rifle through. And beyond that it was a strategic point in the map as you could very well launch invasions into the Caliphate, the New Biafra and Old Eko states, and this had brought everything to a stalemate. Except of course the rest of the world were all still potting and trying to find a way to get a hold of the resources, however there was one foreign power with a foothold, and it was a foothold that was pretty much spread across the entirety of Nigeria, and that was the church.
And word had come down from the Vatican that the pope was tired of waiting. The lands of the central states were not just rich in resources they were rich in dungeons and card dimensions, many of them unexplored and those of them explored remained unconquered. It was access to new card skills, new terminal orbs and terminal beasts, and new resources. Now more than ever as word has been spreading around that there was a system update in the very near future. And this was incredibly and extremely important. The last time there had been an update the terminal beasts became a thing, and the time before that it was card cradles and decks. And it always ushers in a new era.
The entire world was frantic to have resources made available and at hand. During every system update all of the dungeons experienced a reset. Clearing floors gave rewards for the first person to be in that dungeon, and even being amongst the first people or person to be in the dungeon would net you and terminal beast or orb massive rewards. It was rejuvenation of the universe, but of course it would also usher in a new era of war and bloodshed. Not much is known about the upcoming system update, all people was a timeline on the system shop page, and that was just under six months away.
Never the less it was time the church made a move, they needed to have their agents destabilized the Caliphate, The Biafrans, and the Old Eko kingdoms. Causing enough havoc that it would give them time to build their rebel army that could and should be able to keep the three major forces out of the central state while the church builds a base and strong presence within whilst exploiting the area for the resources it had. Bishop Valerio was the one the Vatican had ordered to make sure their plans worked, and honestly there was no better man for the job.
Before he had renounced his old life, took his vows and became a man of the cloth, Valerio was a consigliere for one of the oldest mafia families in Rome. A family that was headed by Emperor Julius Nero Romanus Augustus Caesar IV. Powerful is a word that does not do justice to how dangerous and influential they were. However, they were shakeup for a failed coup and Valerio was on the losing side. His only escape was to take up the vows live as a man of the cloth for the rest of his life. He made his choice and damn was it a good one. Now as it stands he had a team prepping to hit a top secret caliphate facility in Sokoto, apparently there was some ground breaking tech weaponry in development there. This would be the first of attacks that would start a chain reaction around all of Nigeria, a smokescreen, a play for power, after all nothing brings more profit than war and death, and right now he was God's holy angel of retribution and death. Getting rich and living a sanctified life of sin in the process would be just a bonus.
He turned to the twin girls and smiled as he said to them, right in front of the altar where a statue of the sacred virgin was standing. "Take off your clothes my lovelies, let uncle Valerio see what's underneath those dresses." He smiled…. twelve year olds were the best.