It took quite a while for the man to recover from that shutdown. The Crusader shook his head before frowning right at the Spartan with unmasked fury.

“No, that isn’t– Argh!” He threw his hands up in seeming defeat, before looking away. “That’s not important right now! We should be focusing on finding the tower boss and not dwindling around!”

What a way to ignore the whole question presented beforehand. Either way, the man did have a point. They had been going through this entire adventure without anything to show for it. All they had were battles after battles in this tower that had ultimately only served to boost him up. Though, they did have some leads.

For one, the usage of his divinity. With the new boost to his abilities, he without a doubt had the capacity to find the person that was in charge of this structure. The problem that would come with such an ordeal was the fact that his method wasn’t stealthy. Odds were, the moment he began scanning the tower using his methods, all the soldiers and the monsters would beeline towards his position. That was something that he couldn’t allow at this time.

The other was the stone coffin that was left behind earlier. The soldiers from earlier had abandoned their mission to secure it all for the sake of killing him, as he had stolen their divinity. Thus, this meant that there had to be something of use within that container. Either there was a corpse that they were carrying around for the sake of some kind of weird ritual, or there laid the key to getting to the tower boss.

Either way, that was their next destination. This was something potentially useful and there were no negatives of investigating.

“Come. Let us go investigate the coffin from earlier. Those soldiers had to be guarding it for a reason, no?”

The Crusader seemed hesitant at that. He looked like he was going to say something regarding the action, but in the end, chose not to say anything. His mouth kept shut as he followed behind, looking out for any enemies that would dare to sneak up on them.

Something that was unnecessary. The Spartan already had a clear understanding of the surrounding area, and he knew there were no hostiles nearby. Besides, even if they were to be ambushed, he was far more capable than before. The two of them would be more than capable of dealing with anyone that dared to come across with them.

The walk wasn’t long, which meant they were able to reach the stone coffin without much problem. Nothing had changed so far, and the container was still as it was before: on the ground without anyone nearby. The Crusader went ahead and put his hands on it. With a deep breath, he gripped the underneath of the lid and started to push.

The man breathed in multiple times. He seemed to struggle as his breathing got harder and his body tensed up heavily. The Spartan rolled his eyes before going on in and helping out.

That was when he realized that this stone lid was far heavier than he ever expected. Even with their combined efforts, opening the coffin took a considerable amount of force and strength. The two of them pushed and used all their might and in the end, their efforts gave them results.

The lid was taken off and the insides were shown. They peeked inside, waiting to see what on earth these soldiers had been transporting. After all, to demand quite a sizable retinue meant that the contents had to be important. Why on earth would one send in a large squadron of soldiers to protect a single item if it were not a necessity?

The discovery was one that did not live up to the hype, though the Spartan could easily see why this was something the soldiers wished to protect. Inside the coffin laid a shriveled up corpse that was dressed up in armor, with a greatsword held in its hand. One thing that he had to give credit where it was due, the equipment given to this man was quite luxurious and well devised.

The metal that made up the piece seemed to be of some hard iron, perhaps steel. The sword itself was long and intricate, with several engravings scattered across the blade that were not something he could identify nor decipher. The helmet itself contained numerous fine details, from the way each individual strand of hair was carved into the head of the bear to the utilitarian methods of having the eyes and the mouth be closed yet provide big enough openings for breathing and sight was awe-inspiring. The armor had grown enough to cover up all necessary defensive points of the human body, as well as providing aesthetic value to the entire kit.

Gauntlets that were thick enough to act as defensive or weapons to take anyone on. A giant greatsword that had the capacity to tear anyone down with a single strike. Last but not least, an armor kit that was fully developed and capable of defending anyone that wore it. Wasn’t this exactly what the Crusader needed to replace his damaged equipment?

He turned towards his associate, who seemed to immediately understand what he was planning. The man gave him a long stare, before shaking his head violently and spoke with rage.

“No. I have done too much to give up my morals staying in this hellhole. I refuse to go fall even further from God’s graces by indulging in corpse robbing and looting. Such heinous crimes are against his word and I do not care what sort of arguments you bring up, I refuse to adorn this!”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He cannot be serious. They literally found the necessary equipment for the Crusader to continue onwards without much issue, and now he had to complain about this? True, the act of grave robbing was quite a crime and something that he condoned, but now was not the time for morals. Such things had to be thrown out of the window in these lands.

“We do not have a choice. We need to have all the advantage we can gather, and that means we need to ensure that you are fully equipped. Change out your armor and let us not discuss this any longer.”

“No, this is something I demand we discuss!” The Crusader roared as he stepped forward, “This is something that I put my foot down! I refuse to do something like this!”

“Then what? How do you expect us to find a replacement armor kit for you? Where do you think we can find a blacksmith in this place to help us repair your equipment? Do you honestly think that all of this is possible with the way the world is?”

“I think– no, I know that it is possible,” his associate spat as he glared at the Spartan, “I know that we can find a blacksmith in this city and one that can not only repair my equipment, but even improve it to the point where it is nigh indestructible.”

“Where in Tartarus do you get this kind of confidence?”

“From my understanding and connection to God.” The Crusader closed his eyes before putting his hands together in prayer, “I understand fully that his will is still in this world and that having faith in his capabilities to provide will continue to serve us. Because of his will, we have been able to continue onwards despite everything the Devil has sent our way. There is nothing to worry, as we will be able to get what we need without much issue.”

He stared at this lunatic with wide eyes. No way. This had to be a joke, an error in judgement over such a thought process. He wanted to believe that the man in front of him was doing a joke and wasn’t being serious.

Then he looked the man in the eyes, and he was forced to admit that yes, this bastard was serious. He couldn’t believe everything now.

I knew this idiot had that kind of thought process, but I didn’t anticipate him being this much of a zealot. This was something I couldn’t anticipate even with all the details– no, that’s wrong.

The Spartan couldn’t help but sigh as he looked at the floor. No, he could have easily predicted this to be the situation certainly, he had merely chosen to ignore all the warning signs for some bizarre reason. All of this explained the weird mindset he had with bravery and all of that reckless action. He was still pining for that dead god from earlier, and thus was letting all of that taint his thoughts and actions. This was something he’d need to curb here and now before all of that escalated into something far worse.

He took a deep breath, before looking directly in his associate’s eyes.

“Absolutely not. Why are you being so foolish about all of this? Do you honestly think that God is directing your actions now?”

“He is! If you think that–”

“I don’t know much about this Devil character you speak of, but it is rather blatant that he is meant to be the enemy of this God, right?” The man seemed to hesitate at that second, before nodding. The Spartan took that as an understanding to continue and proceeded to go for the throat.

“Then you are a fool. Here we are, in a world where this Devil has taken over everything. This God of yours have called us here to kill him and gifted us his divinity to do so. Yet, some of these monsters and soldiers seem to have access to those divine powers that come from their own soul. Why do you think these monsters have a piece of God in them?”

The Crusader got ready to reply, before freezing. He seemed ready to speak, before silencing himself once more. There was a moment of trepidation as he struggled to come up with any reasonable explanation that would satisfy his own thoughts. The man couldn’t come up with any words, seemingly stunned by the thoughts being brought out by the Spartan’s questioning.

Said man chose to continue forward instead of letting him think over the proposed question. He took a deep breath before going in for the throat.

“There’s a reason: he is dead. He has been butchered and split up amongst this Devil’s followers, all for the sake of continuously bearing his will down on this land. This God of yours cannot provide any help, or will, as he is dead. He has no ability to help, no way to give any guidance, nothing. He has been taken down and there is nothing we can do.”

“Shut up!” The Crusader roared as he stepped forward, “My Lord has not died! He is still alive! He–”

“He died! The Spartan shouted back, getting into the face of his associate who stepped back from the pure intense aura he was putting out, “He was vanquished! Taken down and forced to rely on people that don’t even believe in him to save the people! What makes you think I was worthy of your God if I do not even think he exists? What reason is there for his divinity to be held by the Devil now? There is nothing you can say or do, your God is dead. Your morals and everything you have lived for is all gone.”

“But… The bishops. They–They said–”

“Have any of them see this God of yours? Have they spoken of him in the same way we have seen him? Do you really think they were the voice of God, all of them?” At that, the Crusader went still. Deathly so.

He did not seem to know what to say after that. Rather, it was best to not say anything at all in this situation. For his associate seemed to be completely overwhelmed by all the information that had been levied upon him, and ultimately did not have a response to all of this.

The man looked down on the ground, before going ahead and sitting down. He looked at the stone coffin and did not say anything after that.

All he did was stare with misery.