“I’m sure you are all aware of the recent tragedy that occurred in Arc village a month ago, so let me confirm it for you. Twenty knights were massacred that day, it seems to be the work of one hybrid, this monster goes by Ray. If any of you have heard of such a person, please let any of the knights know.” Sierra said, as she looked over the crowd.

Ray instinctively looked tense, he tried his best to remain calm, Vincent quickly pinched him in his arm. Ray took a deep breath and focused on his target.

“Due to this tragedy, the church has decided to send more train blessed knights to the lower outskirts villages, in hope of protecting the people. The knights, and I will do our best to make sure you are protected,” Sierra told them.

“How can we trust you?”

“What makes you different from those that died?”

“We should just leave, and head towards the holy cities.”

The villagers in the crowd were shouting at her, Sierra walk closer to the edge of the podium of the church, suddenly she released her energy, a gust of wind went through the crowd, her blue aura engulf her body, slowly it completely turn red, there was a red line, an inch in width spreading throughout her visible body parts.

“You can all rest assured, I promised to use everything I have to protect this village, I will gladly give my life to make sure you are all protected.” Sierra declared.

The crowd remains silent, hearing her every word, no one in the village has fully seen a blessed knight with their very own eyes.

“I only ask for your help, we can’t fully protect this village unless we have everyone's support, so I hope you understand what I am trying to say. You can rest easy if any hybrid dares to show their face to me, I will make them regret it.”

The crowd started shouting questions, until Sierra waved her hand to silence them.

“If you have any question, deacon Stevan will answer them, I made sure to tell him everything I know, he will gladly answer your question, now then, I will take my leave, it is a pleasure to meet you all, I hope we can get along.”

With that Sierra turned around and went back inside the church, the deacon Stevan, stood where she was, and started answering the crowd question. Most of the villagers left back to their home, Vincent, and Ray stood in the same place.

“Should we be doing something Vincent?” Ray asked.

“Yes, since Sierra went back in, let go talk to the old captain, he is behind the deacon. I should be able to convince him to let us talk to her, follow me.” Vincent told Ray.

They walked until they saw the old captain Brandon. Vincent waved at him, to get his attention, Brandon turned to look at him.

“My what an incredible speech that was. You must feel honored working for such a person, of such caliber, I am sure she will help protect this village from harm.” Vincent said.

“Ah, Mister Vincent, I didn’t notice you were in the crowd, how can I help you?” Brandon asked,

“Please you know Vincent is fine, I was hoping to have a talk with the new captain of the knights, if you can arrange that I would be most grateful.”

“Yes, we actually were planning on going to talk to you, but this works fine, give me a couple of minutes to see if Miss Sierra is available.”

“Please do.” Vincent said, with a fake smile.

“If you don’t mind me asking, is the one behind you joining you?” Brandon asked.

“Ah yes, I completely forgot to introduce him, he is my nephew Sam, he is from Ashton. I invited him to live with me, so he could learn my ways, and one day open a shop of his own though he will leave us in a few months.”

“Hello,” Ray muster.

“It’s nice to meet you, though you would only be here for such a short time. I hope you enjoyed your time in the village.”

“Thank you.” Ray said.

“Well then mister Vincent, and mister Sam, I will be back shortly.”

Brandon bowed his head and headed back inside the church.

“Is this really ok?” Ray whispered.

“What do you mean?” Vincent asked.

“Well you know, a hybrid going into a church, is that not considered sagrileged?”

Vildred looks at Ray confused. “Oh you’re serious.” Vincent bursted into laughter.

Ray looked at the ground, while Vincent laughed, he could feel his face turning red with embarrassment. “I just meant, is it really ok.”

“Ah, fresh-blood, we will be fine.” Vincent looked at the villages looking at them, he waved at them, until they turned their heads away.

“After all this is just another sin we are making, I can’t even tell you how many I caused, and plus including what you have done, the last thing you should worry about is entering a church. Though I think it’s weird how you are reluctant to do this in the first place.” Vincent whispered.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“It's not like that! Sorry,” Ray whispered back.

The doors of the church opened, and Brandon came out and looked at the two. “Both of you can come in, Miss Sierra would like to speak to you.” Brandon said.

“Thank you, Brandon, Sam let’s go.”

“Yes,” As Ray went up the stairs of the church he couldn’t help but to think to himself,

{I know this is something I have to do, but why do I feel so reluctant to do it? It's not like I am going to burst into flames… Right?}

They went into the church.

***

On the edge of the village of Alton, was Viola's home, she lived by herself, secluded from the rest of the village, she was inside working on her paper, when she was interrupted by knocking on her door.

Viola went to answer it, she open the door and found no one, Viola step out of the house looking around, when she found no one she went back inside, Viola headed back into her room, soon she heard rustling of papers, she ran inside, Viola tried slamming the door open, but before it could hit the wall, the door was caught by the person inside.

“Tried not to make any loud noises, the last thing I want to do is face Vincent.” The person said. As the person faces Viola with a smile.

“Rita!” Viola said, Viola hugged Rita, “It’s been awhile, you still insist on going inside someone's house without knocking.”

“Habits are hard to break.” Rita said.

Rita is in her mid thirties, with short, dark blue hair, she wore a green gloak, she had a short black tunic, with blue underpants. She had bags under her dark green eyes. She wore a golden necklace

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to the village?”

“Sorry, I just wanted to grab my things without facing Vincent since the whole fight I think everything is going to be awkward. I rather not deal with that.” Rita said.

“Oh, I see, he is still going to be completely angry that you left without visiting him,” Viola said.

“He will be fine, I left him a letter where my stuff was, he is going to know I was there regardless, so I thought a letter would explain it.”

“So I take it you won’t join him in what he wants to do?” Viola said.

“No, he simply wants to move on already, I can’t do that, especially to our master, after everything she has done for me. I won’t leave her.” Rita said.

“He won’t accept that, Rita, he is going to want to speak to you in person.” Viola said, with a worried look.

“He will, regardless if he wants to, or not. Don’t worry by the time he gets back I’ll be long gone. The next time I meet him is when we have the grand meeting for taking down the pillars.”

“I guess, so is there anything else you need to get?” Viola said.

“No, I just wanted to talk to you, it will be a while until we can meet again, I wanted to tell you goodbye” Rita said.

“Ok, do you want to head to the living room, we can sit down?” Viola said.

“Sure,”

They both headed to the living room, sitting opposite of each other.

“First thing first, is there something you want to tell me?” Rita said.

“Yes, it is about my progress as a lead, as well as the situation with our master.” Viola said.

“You just need a couple more missions until you can become a lead, I already talked to our master. Once you complete all those missions, she will finally tell you what you want to know.”

“Can you at least tell me if he is still alive?”

“Don’t worry, our master wouldn’t promise something if she didn’t mean it, that knight is still alive, once you become a lead, our master will give you his location.” Rita said.

“Good, I have to be the one to kill him,” Viola mumbled to herself.

“How do you think you would feel after you managed to kill him, will you be happy, sad, or even fulfilled?”

“I don’t care about that, the only thing that matters to me is him dying, you wouldn’t understand you never lost someone important to you because of the church.”

“True, I was barely a kid when our master took me in, but that doesn’t invalidate my reasons for doing this Viola,” Rita said.

“I know, I'm sorry, after I'm done with what I am doing in the village, I will contact our master, to find out my next mission.”

“Oh, and what exactly are you doing? Does it have to do with the new person Vincent took in? I saw the room, it seems someone is living with him?”

“Yes, Vincent was ordered to train that hybrid,” Viola told Rita.

“Really, after what happened last time, I’m surprised he would accept training someone so soon after our big fight, so you are helping Vincent train this new hybrid.”

“Yes, Vincent asked if I could help him, the boy is not bad, I'm sure he will be able to complete his mission.”

“Hmm it seems you have a high opinion of him.” Rita said.

“Well of course I do, he is also my student, I want to make sure he survives no matter what, so I’ll make sure he is ready before he takes on his mission.”

“And what if he dies.”

“He won’t!”

“....Viola.”

“What!”

“You still won’t let it go will you?” Rita said.

“It’s different, Ray isn’t him.”

“No, but he reminds you of him, doesn’t he? Is he also the same age as your brother when you lost him.”

“So what if he is.” Viola said angrily.

“Your brother is dead, you can’t replace him, everytime you see someone that resembles him Viola, it is not safe for you. You’ll get yourself killed if you keep doing this.”

“I don’t need the reminder, Rita, I will be fine.”

Rita sighed, rubbing her forehead. "You're just like her, you know."

"Who?"

"Cata- nevermind forget it, are you sure you'll be fine?" Rita said.

"Yes."

“I hope so, I really do. You should see this to the end, well I’ll be going now, do me a favor, and give the new hybrid my condolences, after Vincent reads the letter, he will go through one hell of a beating.”

“I’ll make sure he won’t be there.”

“Are you sure about that? If Vincent finds out you knew I was here, he won’t forgive you for it.”

“I’ll be fine.” Viola said.

The both of them stood up, Rita grabbed her things, she headed out the back door.

“Well Viola, it was nice seeing you again, though I can’t really understand your feelings, I do hope you can see it from my point of view, I don’t need you dying on me.”

“I..I’ll try Rita, I promised.”

“Good, then I'll see you.”

Rita shoved the huge bag over her shoulder, and started walking away, as she reached the entrance of the forest she disappeared.

{Why, Why do I get attached so easily? Ray does in a way remind me of …. I hope you won’t fail Ray, I hope you aren’t like the others. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on you.}