Squire uses Divine Strike!

WanderingDead1 suffers 845 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead1 is destroyed!

WanderingDead2 suffers 855 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead2 is destroyed!

WanderingDead3 suffers 799 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead3 is destroyed!

WanderingDead4 suffers 892 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead4 is destroyed!

WanderingDead5 suffers 844 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead5 is destroyed!

WanderingDead6 suffers 876 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead6 is destroyed!

WanderingDead7 suffers 820 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead7 is destroyed!

WanderingDead8 suffers 900 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead8 is destroyed!

WanderingDead9 suffers 895 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead9 is destroyed!

WanderingDead10 suffers 803 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead10 is destroyed!

WanderingDead11 suffers 847 point(s) of damage! WanderingDead11 is destroyed!

Squire's party has won the battle! Squire has gained 880 experience points and 6 gold(s)!

I can't help but feel a little sick to my stomach as I cut down the lost souls. I know that, in the end, they aren't really humans, but it's difficult to cast the idea from my mind. It's far, far too easy to envision myself having done the same to a group of men and women, and snuffing their lives out for good, knowing that they would never pet anyone again. The imagery doesn't feel so distant, either. All of these shambling beings were once people, cut down in the prime of their lives, and forced to continue walking the same road which lead them to their own destruction. Forever.

Well, not for forever, I suppose. This group certainly won't be going anywhere, after all, there being little remaining of them aside from a pile of bones and rotted, rusted scraps.

"Huh, that was easier than I expected." Slave said, sounding just a little bit disappointed that she didn't get the opportunity to be useful and defend both her mistress and her allies.

"Holy damage." Vile said, "It really does a number on undead."

"Is holy damage that powerful?" I ask, feeling rather proud of myself. I was the only one among the group who could use it. I think. Vile does seem to have an awful lot of spells, so I can't dismiss the possibility that she knows some holy magic as well, but I kind of doubt it. She doesn't really seem the 'holy' type, with no offense meant to the rat.

"Not really." The rat answers back. "It's extremely weak against living flesh, golems, plant life, physical structures, abominations, giants and, well... pretty much everything else."

"Oh." I say, feeling more than a little bit deflated. "Why is my divine strike so powerful then?"

"While that technique does inflict additional holy damage, it primarily acts as a buff, dramatically enhancing your physical strength, albeit only for a few seconds. I remember you testing out that other attack of yours back in the Abyssal Woods. That one inflicted pure holy damage, unmodified by strength or weapons, and proved to be quite ineffective."

I deflate further still. She's right. I had only tried out my Aura Bolt ability the one time and found it to be quite underwhelming. Well, it's awfully hard to complain about the fact that not every one of my paladin abilities are incredibly overpowered.

"I personally object to the idea the fact that Paladin's monopolized the term 'holy magic'. There's lots of magic that comes from the six divinities. Why does that one type get the label?" Carrie says in an annoyed voice.

"Marketing, I suppose." Vile replies, "But I'll agree that it's rather unusual how the weakest magical element is the one most directly associated with the gods."

"It makes sense to me." Slave grumbles.

"Um..." I ask, knowing that I'm about to say something incredibly embarrassing, but unable to really help myself, "What are the six divinities?"

"Seriously?" Carrie-Anne glares at me, "You're one of the agents of Diamond. How can you possibly not know that?"

"Diamond?" I ask, "Isn't that a stone?"

I wince a little as I sense that the crow is about to blow up at me when, fortunately, Vile comes to my rescue.

"Don't blame Squire. As I said before, she's lived a very sheltered life." the rat says, "The short version is that there are basically six powerful beings out there which helped to shape the world and empower the people. They aren't really creatures or even objects in themselves, closer to intelligent concepts, and they don't have actual names as a result. For one thing, although we say that there are six, it's more like there are six categories. Within each one, you can't classify the entries or entities as individual beings."

I nod, but admittedly don't quite understand. My master did mention the idea of the gods in the past, but I'm still a little bit hung up on the fact that they aren't really people or things.

"Since they don't have actual names, they're instead associated with gemstones. Some would argue that the respective stones actually hold divine power and are of real significance, but I'm pretty sure that's just superstition. Human traditionalism where they associate arbitrary symbols with actual power. There is, of course, Diamond, the patron of paladins and knights, who is said to be the goddess of kindness and compassion. Then there's Obsidian, praised by rogues and assassins who embodies the concepts of hate and fear..." Vile continues.

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"Wait, why would anyone pray to someone who makes you hateful and scared?" I ask, feeling a little bit guilty for interrupting.

"That's not how it works. The gods don't make people do anything, they just embody the concepts." Carrie says, still looking a little ruffled, quite literally, by my ignorance. "Fear can warn you of danger and keep you safe, as well as deter enemies. Hatred, likewise, can drive you forward."

"I don't know." I say, still a little anxious, but wanting to contribute. "I don't see how hating people can possibly be a good thing."

"It's not about being good, the point is that it's still a thing. Even if you ignore it, that doesn't mean that it will ignore you. It's a tool, like any other, to be harnessed. It's also the life-blood of the assassin. Okay, occasionally there is practical benefit to destroying ones enemies, but most of our business? It comes from people simply hating one another more than they desire profit. Hate to such an extent that people will sometimes pay an exorbitant amount of money just to see someone else destroyed." The crow says with a sigh, as though this were all incredibly obvious. I suppose to her it is.

"Um, I don't want to be too judgy, but I can't say that I really approve of the whole idea of killing for money." I reply.

"Why not? You've taking plenty of hunting quests, right?" Carrie says, raising a wing before I can object, "...and I know that you're going to say that it's different, but it's really not. You killed because people needed meat, or ingredients or just to be safe. Well, everyone needs something in this world, and sometimes those needs are less tangible than food or water and the likes. Now, I have no doubt that you have been brainwashed all your life to believe that humans are somehow exceptional and completely different from us animals..." I tense bite my lip a little at this, "...but it's not true. They're just another part of the great machine, where things eat and kill and take. Some people need monsters killed. Some need humans killed. Ultimately, it's all the same, and if we don't do it, someone else will, and if nobody else does, well, they're still all going to die, eventually. We assassins are just fulfilling a service, like any other."

I frown a bit, still not convinced. I feel like I could do a better job of refuting this idea than I could many of her others, but then I'm sure she'd just give a superior counter-argument, and if that didn't stump me, things would just keep going back and forth until I had run out of arguments and found myself ultimately defeated. Of course there's more to it than that, too: As I said earlier, I don't want to be too judgy. While I was a little bit hurt that Vile called me 'sheltered', she wasn't wrong. My journey hasn't been all that long thus far, and I've already learned that there are more different ways to live your life than I ever could have dreamed, and I'm hardly in a position to declare any of them to be invalid.

My primary objective might be finding my lost master, but a part of me also wanted to explore new places and meet new people. Sure, all three of my allies are incredibly strange in their own ways, but even Carrie, as nonchalant as she might be when it comes to the idea of taking lives, doesn't come off as evil to me. Now, I still don't approve of the idea of killing people for money, but that's okay, isn't it? I don't have to necessarily approve of it. I don't need to conform to their way of thinking, no more than they need to conform to mine. Maybe Carrie-Anne was right when she described the world as a massive machine, and all of us as essential pieces within it. Maybe every one of those pieces, no matter how different, are necessary in their own way.

My thoughts are interrupted by Vile clearing her throat and glaring at me with those dark, scary eyes of hers. "Do you mind? I'm still in the middle of my explanation."

"Oh, sorry!" I sheepishly reply.

"Ugh, anyways..." the rat sighs, "There's also Emerald, the father of grief and sorrow. Their primary followers are the twenty-four sages, who serve primarily as advisors and philosophers. Then there's Sapphire, mother of magic, who commands the aspects of wisdom and tranquility. the power behind the three great magi..." I perk up my ears with a question which Vile manages to answer before I can even say it, "As much as I like magic, tranquility isn't exactly my idea of a good time. There's also Ruby, the essence of pride, anger and war, and their twenty-two warlords, and finally, Topaz, the embodiment of lust and joy." she smiles her unsettling smile, "That's more my thing... even if I'm not much of a fan of the bards who follow him."

I nod again, knowing without a doubt that I have zero chance of remembering all of that, but something still confuses me. "Those numbers don't seem to add up... there are way more people than that!" I pause, tilting my head to one side, "Aren't there?"

"Those groups, like the shadows and paladins are simply those specifically blessed by their respective deities." Carrie replies, clearly having calmed somewhat. "Very few people are so directly blessed, although some would argue that all magics, technology and ideas are indirectly a product of these divinities. Most followers of the divinities receive little, if any power from them. Some just serve out of devotion or the hopes of less tangible blessings, while others devote themselves more aggressively, in hopes that when a slot opens among the blessed that they will be chosen to replace them."

"Um... how is a 'slot' opened up?" I ask, suspecting that I already know the answer.

"When one of the current blessed individuals dies. This, of course, can happen through a variety of ways, but it rarely tends to be from natural causes. Shadows, for instance, are often murdered by their underlings in hopes that they will be blessed next... and they often are. Powerful mages also challenge one another to duels. Warlords, on the other hand, are so quick to throw themselves into battle that even the most powerful will eventually fall. Even aside from that, there seems to be internal mechanisms meant to ensure an ever revolving number of members. Paladins, for instance, seem to always die once they reach the ninth rank, despite there being a theoretical tenth."

"What happens to them?" I ask. I'm briefly concerned for my master, knowing that he's incredibly powerful and must be of an extremely high rank, but quickly dismiss the idea.

"Nobody really knows. Maybe there's some trial that needs to be overcome, or some powerful monster that they need to kill to advance further. I doubt they are stuck down by divine will or anything, as directly killing people isn't really the God's style, but it seems like a deliberate system to ensure that there is a constant stream of new blood among the blessed." the crow replies.

Slave has been looking incredibly annoyed throughout this entire conversation, but has said nothing, even if her tail has been twitching back and forth in an agitated fashion all the while. She furrows her brow at that last bit, however, looking more concerned than annoyed. "What rank are you, Squire?"

"Um, let's see..." I say as I call up my character sheet, and take a few moments to remember exactly what number that symbol represents, "I'm rank... six!"

"Wait, seriously?" Carrie asks, looking to me with wide eyes, "How long have you been a paladin for?"

"Um... a couple of weeks, I think?" I say, giving the matter more thought, "Maybe a little bit more? Or less? I'm not really sure."

"Wow... that's just... wow..." the crow shakes her head, "Normally, each of the blessing ranks is meant to take years to accomplish."

"How exactly are ranks attained?" Slave asks.

"It varies depending on the class. In Squire's case, it's your typical lawful-stupid stuff, I assume: Loyalty, honor, chastity..." Vile says, pausing when Slave's ears perk up, "Oh, not the fun kind."

"Oh, right." the black cat replies. I can't help but wonder what exactly a 'fun kind' of chastity would entail, but ultimately decide than I'm better off not knowing. "Still... it's pretty weird that she's reached such a high rank so quickly, isn't it? And doesn't that mean that she's only three ranks away from, you know... dying?"

"It does seem kind of strange, but dog's don't live nearly as long as humans. Maybe they just do this stuff quicker? You're not wrong, though..." the rat says, turning back to me, "You'd better avoid getting any more paladin ranks."

"Okay!" I say before frowning, "Um... how do I do that, exactly?"

"Oh uh... just try being a little less... you." the rat finally answers back after giving the matter some thought.

I frown a bit deeper. This might be a lot more difficult than I had hoped.

---

Carrie: "The exposition chapter, backbone of any fantasy story!"

Vile: "Yup. Almost as important as animated skeletons that fight with swords."

Squire: "That took kind of a while... well, at least now it's over with, and there will never be another one!"

Carrie: "Um... sure. Let's go with that."