Chapter 95: Katarina Ford - The Strongest Supporter
[City of Greenville. The Headquarters of the BloodRaven Guild.]
Tobias Grant walked through the wide hallway of the BloodRaven guild with his head held high. There was a stoic expression on his face, but his eyes held an intense excitement that would have been enough to tell anyone just how happy he was! A woman dressed in a long black gown and a veil over her head led him forward with her hands held in front of her respectfully.
The headquarters of the BloodRaven guild was located in the heart of Greenville. As the single strongest guild in the entire country, the BloodRaven guild had been allowed to use Greenville as their base of operations, and this allowed them to take over the maintenance, running, and administration of all the businesses in the city! This was done as a way for the government to ensure that the BloodRaven guild remained within its control while also granting them enough power in the country so that the guild’s leader felt appreciated for what she had done for the world.
There were ten major branches of the guild in America with various minor branches spread out across multiple cities, and each of those major branches held anywhere from ten to two hundred members each. But the main headquarters located in the heart of Greenville held the highest number of members with five hundred people staying in it at any one time.
The building had a niche Victorian-era design to it—something that had been requested by the leader herself. The building had no electricity, so there were candelabras lining the walls and lighting the way with dim candlelight. The windows were made from stained glass that cast a cascading array of colors across the air and ground when the sunlight shone on them, and the floor was made from a granite compound that prevented anyone from being able to walk across it silently.
The sun had already set, and Tobias appreciated the dim candles in the hallway that cast shadows across the ground as he moved. The building had been built in such a way that no electrical signals would be capable of getting in or out, so Tobias knew he didn’t need to worry about anyone calling him to disturb his sacred moment. Because today was the one day in the month when he would have the great honor of standing before his Goddess.
Divine could not begin to describe her beauty. Sacred could not encompass how much value he put upon her very being. It was an honor just to stand before her; to talk to her was almost more than he could bear to withstand!
Tobias Grant and the woman leading him reached an ornate double door crafted from fine black metal. There were barbs twisted around the door like thorns, and in the center of it, there was a matte black cross. The woman moved to the side and gave Tobias some room for him to enter the room, and Tobias took in a deep breath and sighed as he felt his emotions threaten to overwhelm him. He took off his shoes, smoothened down his white hair, and for the first time since he arrived at the building, his face broke into a silly, boyish smile as he finally stepped forward and pushed the doors open.
The room he entered was a chapel. Multiple benches were arranged on either side of the room with enough space in the middle for people to walk through. The room was also dimly lit, and the only source of light was the candelabra burning on a large altar at the very end of the room. Above the altar was a statue of Christ on the cross with blood falling from where his hands and feet were nailed, and in front of the altar a single woman stood with her hands held in front of her dutifully.
To call her beautiful would be an insult to the sheer intensity of her appearance. She had caramel skin that glistened under the yellow light from the candles, high cheekbones that would normally be reserved only for those born from royalty, and light brown eyes that glowed with a golden glow in the dim light of the room. Her hair was a cascading waterfall of white snow that she covered with a black veil, and she wore a long black gown that came down to pool around her feet.
This was Katerina Ford, the leader of the BloodRaven guild and the strongest Supporter-type superhuman in the world! They say that with a single blessing from her, a simple A Rank superhuman could become so strong that they would be able to stand on their own against an S Rank! To put it into perspective, most supporters in the world weren’t capable of boosting a superhuman’s abilities beyond 30%, with some of the stronger ones being able to boost them by up to 50%.
But Katerina Ford as a single unit was capable of boosting a single superhuman’s ability up to 300% of their regular power! And when you add in her innate talent to the fact that she possessed an absurdly huge pool of mana that she could constantly draw power from, it was no surprise that everyone in the world saw her as one of the Five Rulers and a woman who could decide the tide of battle all on her own if she wanted!
"I have brought the Vice-captain for your seven o’clock meeting, Madam Katerina."
The woman who had been leading Tobias to the meeting room bowed towards Katerina respectfully while introducing him, and Katerina smiled at the woman kindly. Katerina raised her hand towards the woman and spread her mana out in a small wave before activating her gift.
"Mmh~"
The woman groaned excitedly, and she could barely contain the intense shiver that passed through her body as she felt Katerina’s power sink into her body and increase her strength! The woman felt power course through her for a few seconds, and when her shivers finally reduced in intensity, she released a sigh and bowed even deeper in thanks.
"Thank you for your kindness, my Goddess."
This was something that Katerina did whenever one of her retainers did anything for her. Katerina’s abilities allowed her to boost the power of any superhuman by a significant amount, and as the leader of the BloodRaven guild, she was in charge of boosting the power of every single guild member to ensure they were capable of handling any gate that they dived into.
But those who stayed close to Katerina and helped her on a daily basis were the luckiest of all the guild members because they received a special boost from Katerina that they had begun to refer to as ’Mana Jolts’! A Mana Jolt happens when a Supporter gives a superhuman a sudden increase in abilities that would only last for a short time. It would be the same as having a dose of adrenaline injected into your veins without any warning! This boost gives them a sudden jolt of power that makes them feel like they are floating on the clouds while also filling their bodies with strength! It was an addictive feeling that would make anyone feel on top of the world with a single dose!
This was something that only the members of the BloodRaven guild knew about, and there was always serious competition between the guild members to become one of Katerina’s retainers because she was the only one capable of giving them such intense ’Mana Jolts.’!