Entering the city with the identity of a priest couldn’t have been easier for Darak, and before long he found out where the largest parish of the place was with the help of some locals. Nothing about it particularly stood out from the churches he visited in the past, although it was rather surprising for a city to not have a cathedral. Albeit, not outstanding either since smaller ones like this generally weren’t important enough to justify stationing a competent priest within.
Instead, he came to the stone and wood building which matched the size of several houses in space alone, but shot up at least twice as high, with a small spire for which a bell rested. This simply marked the hours throughout the day, used by those without clocks or watches to tell the time easily.
The insides were slightly less decorated than what he usually saw in churches, things which obviously stood out to someone with years of experience in all manners of them. This either came down to a lack of good faith from the priests in charge here, or simply inadequate donations and payments. Priests generally offered healing of minor ailments through congregations on weekends, but more serious cases required private enquiry, and formed the backbone of pretty much every religion’s wealth.
Without it they could never afford to keep churches open throughout the continent!
Either way, the pews were a simple light wood, perhaps pine, and lacked cushions or a coat of varnish. The stones were clean, but had been used for years and the wear could be seen all throughout. This was in no way a new church.
“Ah! Brother, welcome to our parish, how may I help you?” It didn’t take long for a wandering priest in similar coarse, brown robes to notice his appearance and approach. The greeting was the same as he’d heard and given hundreds of times.
“A small matter related to the city. I came across this man attempting to capture a young woman to repay some debt, is his identity recognisable?” The young priest’s eyes opened in shock when Darak retrieved the severed head from a dimensional storage and presented it. Some blood dripped from the neck as it had been stored too soon after decapitation.
“Yes! Yes, I can identify him… Please leave it here, we’ll have this matter reported very soon.”
“I think it’d be best if I helped with the announcement, does the parish have any Seedling priests?” Darak faintly believed that he understood why the church had never been able to report this matter, and he guessed it was related to the man’s fear.
It’s not impossible for individuals to threaten priests, such a thing happened quite often in towns and villages without the constant oversight of their god, resulting in cases where they felt pressured to ignore such crimes. As long as he headed the process himself, it would all end soon, with teams of various holy professions rushing to cleanse the city. To that extent, he pushed the frightened man aside and moved into the back of the church where an icon of Manus was usually stored to accumulate faith given to him.
And by pushing open the door at the back of the main room, he came across the icon very easily. The statue was a spear made of stone with its tip buried deep into the ground, as though thrown from afar, and a white ribbon strapped to the tip of the shaft. But it only took a moment of his senses washing over it to realise that there was no divinity within it…
In the past he might have overlooked this, as icons have only trace amounts of divinity, making it nearly impossible to sense, but after months of travelling with Raccelline, and now Icy too?
There was no divinity in this icon. And just to make sure, he strengthened his mind directly with mana through a wasteful expenditure, but still, the icon was nothing more than a piece of stone. So, that raised a very important question, what was this church for?
People came here to pray, he confirmed that, and it was definitely proper. They clearly syphoned funding from somewhere for the church to be in such a crappy position, and… “Ah, three of you are here. That’s good. Care to explain what’s wrong with the icon?”
Three brown-robed men burst into the room, their mana already pulsing in an attempt to force him into submission. It was a childish thing against a priest like him who had been a Sprout for years now. None of the three were particularly old, but something about their eyes was apparent, the way they shook and remained shrunken like a flash of light recently hit them. However, before they got a chance to shout or threaten him, an exchange of mana took place as Darak cast a divine spell, an Apprentice true spell that was more often used against those from foreign races.
A wave of golden light emanated from his chest, like the wave in a still pond from a dropped pebble, and as it passed over the robed priests his already downtrodden eyes darkened further. Today had not just been a matter of his morals being stepped on, but his very beliefs chewed up and spat out by a weak group of scum.
The spell’s purpose was extremely simple, and distinguished which god a follower believed in. And seeing the identity which appeared in his mind when seeing the few Divinus runes within the bodies of these priests left him… Well, unhappy was a poor word.
Livid? Seething? Raging? Probably that last one…
Caldithoth, some third-rate god of the eternals, capitalised on their race’s rather bloodthirsty and domination-driven attitude to grow to such power. And now a bunch of humans not only betrayed their own race but dared to mimic a legitimate church of Manus to draw in power for their disgusting god! These were people who sought legitimate help and aid from priests, potentially placing their lives and souls in their hands… And for what?
So they could be sacrificed to feed the god of an enemy just waiting to slaughter them all?
“It’s three against one. We suggest you quietly leave and forget about all this,” said one of the Caldithoth priests. As Darak never once released his mana, it was impossible for the three Seedling priests to tell how strong he was at a glance.
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“I see it as the other way round. But…” Without waiting, his mana also began to escape his body, but with force and pressure, which made the three Seedlings step back and sweat, already their joints struggled to move in the force and the mistake became clear. “None will get off easily for this sacrilege!”
While scared out of his mind, a thought came to the same man who just talked and he smiled before saying, “Killing us won’t stop us. You’re a dead man walking if you think you’ll escape alive now!”
However, as Darak quietly stood in place for a few seconds, it clearly aggravated the three as though they were being ignored. One of the other two said, “Well, aren’t you ready to die then?”
But as his thoughts were quietly collected, he knew a way to deal with this matter, albeit very loudly. Eyes burning with passion as he stared at the three degenerates nearby, he began his shouting.
A raving chant as though performed by a lunatic.
“I Demand the presence of the original god of man, Manus, to label the sins of those who betrayed brother and sister, AND, wear falsehood to mock your manner! I Demand the land of sinners to be brought to justice, and may my soul be flayed for eternity if a servant has misspoken!” Masses of mana rapidly burned all around him and formed wisps of golden light, exploding directly into tiny shockwaves as though they were utterly failed spells, but he knew this effect was intentional.
However, the three saw his words as something else, never for a moment daring to show an attitude like that. “You’re insane! Why would a god listen to your demands!”
“Don’t compare his greatness to the sacrificial scum you worship. Never–”
He didn’t get to finish that sentence, and ran out of the church soon after to return to the three outside the city, preferably rather quickly.
* * *
Korridan, Jaren, and Rebecca, out of the shadows for once, all stood in a rather large bookstore whilst in the process of purchasing three specific books. These all provided dedicated training methods to reach Gold rank in directions all three specialised in, but first, they had to haggle a bit simply out of necessity. The price of such things was outrageous as a way to catch newbies off guard and overpay, although such things only worked on warriors who hadn’t even hit Bronze rank.
“How about 18-18-16. We know the market price is well below what you have written there.” Korridan’s large stature certainly helped with intimidation to some degree, but the elderly man behind the counter just snorted before rolling his eyes. In the past, he haggled with a few Mithril-ranked warriors! What were a few Steel ranks in comparison?
“30 for each. Do you think I don’t know these evolutions are on the upper end?” Of course, he was right in that regard, a testament to quite a bit of knowledge.
With literally thousands of evolutions offered at Gold rank, it was amazing that he knew which were good or not… Although it might have been a bluff as well. The three were ready to argue until the ground shook gently and all three looked out the window to a sudden source of light on the already sunny day…
“That wouldn’t happen to be Darak, would it?” Jaren spoke up first, commenting on the sight.
Without any care, Korridan threw a pile of black metal coins onto the table and grabbed the three books before saying, “Just keep the change.” They rushed off at his command, realising that their friend very well might need their help.
“Hundred and fifty dreyers? Today’s really a good day… But what the hell did that?” He saw the power of a Blossoming wizard once, an unprecedented being for such a small corner of the world… And the destruction they caused with a single spell was probably enough to destroy the city twice over.
But the sight was far too strange.
A giant spear of golden, glowing light, pierced through the large office in the city centre. It did not cause any damage, instead passing through the rock and stone as though a mere apparition, but clearly it shook the ground when it struck not too long ago. The possibility that it was a ruse remained, but then that wouldn’t explain one last thing.
From here, he could see some Bronze ranks climb it with ease, clearly walking on the golden spear’s shaft.
And on that shaft, a long ribbon of red flew about without the aid of any wind.
…
The three now outside the store, did their best to weave through the crowd of frightened people and immediately rushed into some alleyways. Whilst rooftops are faster, they drew too much attention, especially in rather tense cases like this. However, due to the tight passages and constant turns, the group of three couldn’t truly travel that fast, probably moving about the same speed as a regular warrior, those who hadn’t even hit Bronze rank!
That alone wouldn’t have been too bad, if Rebecca didn’t suddenly nudge Jaren into a wall, allowing him to barely avoid a knife which cut through where he previously stood. Without any time for the three to even ask who was attacking, they simply drew weapons and fought back, jumping up to the roofs above to see a team of ten individuals surrounding them.
Three Steel ranked warriors and seven Bronze ranks… By no means a small force.
Jaren jumped with his bow drawn, ready to fire at first sight, killing two with arrows right through their eyes. Although they clearly slightly reacted as a hand tried to rise up to meet their respective arrow, it was the rest who’d already began to spread out that proved a problem. Rebecca instantly vanished from their sights, invisible on the roof and nearly impossible for any to sense. Meanwhile, she slit the throats of a few more Bronze ranks whilst they fled, but most concerning were the three Steel ranks who didn’t even jeer at their enemies and had a deep frown on their faces.
Didn’t these guys care about who the hell they were? They gulped in unison, but had to throw themselves into the battle regardless.
A convenient sight as everyone nearby noticed the Steel ranks releasing mana on rooftops, although it was clearly in one side’s favour as their three warriors were somehow barely making progress on the opposing two after several clashes, it even seemed as though they were in a stalemate with the numbers advantage!
Oh, and there seemed to be some others on the roof as well? But they just suddenly dropped dead like flies from seemingly nothing.
However, within all the crowds that became scared and amazed by the fight above, there was only a single man running in brown robes who mattered. With thoughts going a thousand steps a second, it took him several seconds to even notice the fluctuations in mana from the individuals fighting, and even longer for his mind to piece together who those people were…
“Lord… What the hell did we do?” Although, even if his god cared enough to be watching, there was no way he’d ever get a response.
Not another one that is.