During these two days children got no food at all and only from time to time guards carried over a couple of buckets of water they could drink from. Obviously this was attitude towards people on the death row and Alex got confirmation when on the third day they received a meal.

While it was expected for the children to wolf down the food like they haven’t eaten in days, since it was actually so, after eating few mouthfuls they quickly became still, sitting expressionlessly while staring in the distance.

‘First you starve children and then during their last meal you drug them, huh?’ Alex thought to himself stealthily observing surroundings and then pretended to also eat a bit and then ‘get high’.

The moment everyone was out, a bunch of nuns came and began stripping children. Alex already cursed himself for not taking the drug, when it didn’t turn out to be what he feared.

The children were only washed and dressed in snow white robes. For some those robes were too large and for some too small, but it didn’t matter since kids didn’t have to walk by themselves. A large group of priests of different ages, dressed in gray robes soon arrived. Each of them picked up one child and carried to a white, open carriage, lavishly decorated with golden ornaments and pulled by a white horse.

‘So forty five rides, I guess.’ Alex thought, ‘I wonder how far are we going? Well, be as it may, I’ll finally see at least a part of Serenity, the magnificent capital of the Holy empire.’

They didn’t go far, but it took a really long time. The carriages didn’t have coachmen and each was escorted by a guard in the silvery armor who held and guided horses by their reigns. The long procession moved through the widest streets of Serenity while large crowds of people cheered them from sides.

‘If this was a joyous occasion and children were not drugged, one could consider it a parade.’ Alex smirked to himself and continued to observe the magnificent city that was, in fact built in a white marble.

When he arrived to Serenity with his mother almost three years ago, he thought that only buildings or their spires were such, but now, with his vision developed and while sitting straight, he realized that not only houses, churches and cathedrals, and even the roads were covered in white marble. In addition there was not a wind breeze that carried over the terrible stench he smelled in slums back then – everywhere the procession went there was this pleasant sandalwood aroma as if an incense burned on every corner.

Of course, it was unrealistic to make the whole city in marble, so most likely it was only a large portion of the center built this way. But one had to agree it was remarkable nonetheless.

After approximately an hour, judging by the unique style of some of the churches, Alex realized they were going in circles. He was already becoming thirsty, but luckily the procession stopped for a moment and then changed the direction.

Few minutes later they arrived at a huge coliseum style building and accompanied by cheers from crowd made a slow tour around it. In the end, all forty five carriages were led in and Alex jolted at the sudden deafening roar made by several thousand spectators. The priest besides him glanced over suspiciously, but after making sure the boy continued to stare emptily in the distance, smiled and waved at the crowd like the rest of the priests did.

Back in his first life Alex had visited the coliseum in Rome and the one he was brought currently to seemed to be almost twice the size. It was possible he felt like this only because he was in a body of a toddler, but it didn’t diminish the impressions one bit.

The one thing that differed from coliseum in Rome were the six huge thrones in the spectator seats at the opposite side from the entrance. Above those six was a huge tent that protected them from the sun and separated from the rest of the people.

The largest throne was placed above the others and on it sat a small figure dressed in snow white. For some reason observers had the feeling it reflected the rays of sun as if it was made of an actual snow. On the thrones below sat four people, dressed in the familiar golden robes cardinal Francis wore back then, while one of those seats thrones was empty. Apparently the new cardinal was not chosen yet.

Contrary to Alex’s expectations, below the cardinals sat not a row of bishops, but three flocks of people dressed in white. While he was pondering about it, the procession made a large circle along the wall of the arena and when all carriages were finally in, stopped.

‘Definitely bigger than the one in Rome.’ Alex mused watching the carriages stop in a large circle and priests getting out.

Kids continued to sit on their spots lifelessly and Alex thanked his luck he got parked in the shadow right below cardinals and pope, but soon he changed his mind. In the middle of the arena there were three stages, or rather – installations, two that looked like wide altars and a huge cage. It took a moment for him to realize that one of those was a funeral pyre and priests were already carrying some children from the procession and placing them on top of it.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘Why the hell I was trying to be a smartass? They obviously intended to burn children together with the dead cardinal and drugged them so they wouldn’t scream. F*ck! This is going to hurt.’ Alex cursed to himself.

But since there was nothing he could do, Alex closed his eyes and began to revolve the force of nature within him trying ‘get a better start’ in the next life. He soon felt how one of the priests lifted him up as well, carried for twenty or so steps and then placed on the ground. Crowd continued to roar in extasy, but Alex did his best to ignore it and kept his eyes closed.

What he didn’t see was that priests actually separated children in three groups – they put fifteen around the large, luxuriously decorated box, obviously the coffin, on one of the altars that Alex earlier recognized as a funeral pyre, and then fifteen on the second altar which in the middle had a pool of water, maybe ten meters in diameter.

The third group that included Alex was brought and put on the ground in the large iron cage. He opened his eyes for a split second to see that he was put in the middle of the cage right in front of the seats where pope and cardinals sat.

Now, when he was so close, he could discern that the three groups of people dressed in white who sat below cardinals were children, maybe a bit older than him, and youths. It seemed as if three of the cardinals had their own group of cheerleaders with them, but two zones were empty – one without a cardinal, probably belonging to the guy in the coffin, and one who had a cardinal in his seat, but no ‘supporters’.

What surprised Alex the most was that contrary to the other three cardinals who were nicely shaven and looked all neat and tidy, this one had an unkempt beard and hair and continued to nonchalantly read some kind of a book or a scroll without paying attention to anything happening around him.

‘Oh, well. That has nothing to do with me.’ Alex thought and closed his eyes again.

A minute later, the moment the last kid was put on the ground and the cage doors were closed, silence filled the coliseum.

“Lord, guide us!” Suddenly Alex heard someone in a man’s voice whispering in his ear.

In fact, while he knew it was a whisper, it felt like someone was shouting inside of him.

‘What the f*?’ Alex opened his eyes wide in shock only to see everyone in the spectator seats had their heads lowered and their palms pressed together in a prayer.

“Lord, guide us!” Everyone in the coliseum and probably in whole Serenity prayed out loud. It sounded as if a thunder reverberated thorough the city.

“The Lord sees everything! The Lord hears everything! And the Lord knows everything!” Alex heard the earlier voice whispering in his ear again, but this time he recognized the speaker.

It was the small thin figure in the snow white robe. Pope was giving a speech, but used some kind of a special power or a technique that him allowed to basically penetrate everyone’s minds – while he spoke he barely moved his lips, but everyone in the coliseum, maybe even in the city center, heard him.

‘This is some creepy stuff.’ Alex thought to himself and then grinned, ‘But damn you, old man! With this kind of ability you should’ve become a rock star!’

“We, the citizens of the supreme Holy empire, strive hard to spread the Lord’s will through the world. And the Lord sees and acknowledges our efforts – that is why only the most devoted can join His side. Five years ago cardinal Vidal led the Lord’s forces to the east in order to enlighten the primitive barbarians and returned victorious! We have gathered here to pay our respects and say goodbye to his physical body while his soul watches from the above.”

Pope took a short pause and then continued, “Today is a joyous occasion and we all have gathered to celebrate! According to the Lord’s order, to honor cardinal Vidal’s accomplishments, the sacred cleansing rituals of fire, water and blood will be performed by his chosen. Witness how the Lord cleanses our souls, minds and bodies while bringing love, forgiveness and peace to the world! Lord, guide us!”

And the audience responded, “Lord, guide us!”

‘Alright, there we go.’ Alex thought and concentrated on the force of nature within.

He was not completely clear how the following procedure will go, but was certain that every kid in the arena had to die at the end.

Contrary to him, the audience saw what transpired next very well, in fact, this ‘ritual’ was held every year, just on a smaller scale.

Thousands of spectators roared in ecstasy at the same time when the large pyre in the arena was lit up, the kids around the pool were pushed in the water and two trapdoors in the cage lowered allowing six black, calf sized wolves to charge out.

Basically the ‘ritual’ was nothing else than killing a bunch of children in different ways and the only thing that made this procedure seem surreal instead of disgusting was that none of these children screamed or cried for help. They just silently died in fire or by drowning, or getting torn apart by ferocious beasts as if they were some kind of dolls.

A couple of minutes later audience’s excitement suddenly died down and silence enveloped the arena that was filled with a stench of burnt wood and flesh. The children in the water also stopped convulsing and wolves finished tearing apart those in the cage.

Alex already thought he was reincarnating again, when the he realized the unpleasant smell in the air was still there. The next moment he felt someone poking him with something wet … no … someone was licking his hand!

Shocked, he opened his eyes only to see the huge wolves lying around, looking at him with gazes … full of worship? Torn corpses and body parts of the previously drugged children were lying all over the cage that was bathed in blood, but for some reason almost none of it was on Alex or his white robe. And the giant wolf, that was currently licking his hand, was trying to carefully wash the spots clean that got droplets of blood on them!