Despite being in potential danger, Skendus and the group ate their meals quietly, and calmly. They were calm because if someone was to attack them, they could protect themselves! Those guards had to be within the God's Punishment Realm of mana, considering that Skendus could read their minds without much of a struggle, in other words, those guards were perfectly killable.
“They’re protecting the church,” Timothy pitched, as he jammed a whole beef steak down his gullet. “Meaning, they really got something to hide, they could be hiding ingots of gold as far as we know.”
“No… the church of this city alone is worth a few tons of gold, so I'm guessing gold doesn't have a huge value here.” He argued, “In places like this, I'm guessing that ideals are oftentimes worth more than gold, because regarding wealth, each and every single guard here is richer than we are. One of them had a belt covered with jewels, back at the gate, and that belt is only supposed to hold his mace up. They're rich, very rich.”
That was not something the rest of them wanted to hear, but then again it was quite believable. This was one of the most well-kept cities that they've stepped foot on, facts being that even Arvena was not accustomed to such pristine, stone streets, and orderly government systems, and this was amazing, because it wasn’t easy to maintain a city that had about five-thousand stone buildings in it, no. As far as they understood, this city did not have an owner either, it wasn't ruled by any king or prince of sorts, but rather it was just well-kept by its people, and by the fact that wealth was abundant here. Such grand order was foreign to everyone in the group!
“Let’s just try not to die here, or get tossed in a dungeon, and let's keep our plan simple, we'll kill anyone who tries to kill us. I can't believe we're here because a mystical bastarding ape popped up in my dreams, but we're here, so keep your eyes peeled please, we can do this.” Timothy added.
“We won't spend more than six hours here tops, that's what I'm hoping for.” Arvena added, “I do not like these Gong bastards.”
After they finished their meal, the group paid the servants with a couple of gold coins, and then stood up. They were to explore the deeper parts of the city now, because by all odds, something as valuable as a huge church would not be located near the city walls, where it would have too much potential to be wrecked by any random attackers of the city, or any random disbelievers.
…
The group found the church. It was located in the heart of the city, just as they predicted, and they were granted entrance by the guards there almost immediately. This church had guards as well, because it was absolutely huge in size, perhaps about one-hundred meters wide, and thirty meters tall, it was truly something worth protecting!
“Wow…” Ortana's mouth hung agape, “Are you guys sure that we aren't reverting to their religion? I want to be part of a rich church too, I like gold.”
“Well, har har har.” Arvena fake laughed, “You keep forgetting that the last time we saw a symbol like the one this church is flashing, Tim almost died. I've spent twelve-hundred mana points trying to keep him alive.”
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“I'm just joking…” The other said, however, she was not joking.
Either way it did not matter, this city did not accept reverts, regardless of how it looked like this place was blessed by the gods. One may even think that Ariuism was race-specific, it wouldn't be a big surprise to the group.
Anyway, after they entered the church, they got absolutely baffled by its contents! The outside of the church had its layers of gold here and there, sure, they noticed it, but it mostly featured these large stone columns that held the structure up. The insides of the church, however, were completely the opposite!
Gold was plastered upon every wall, every room, in every shape, way, or from! One would think that a quarter of the micro-universe's wealth was stashed in this one place of worship, that's how rich it seemed!
“A single one of their golden daggers would make me rich back on earth, I wouldn't have to work for a decade…” Tim thought, as he was becoming greedier the more he viewed the inside contents of this church, he was not happy.
Perhaps he was focusing on the wrong thing too, because they did not come here for the gold, no, they came here for more information. Since Arvena didn't know much about the Ariuism religion, the group had to figure things out themselves here, in person, and for that matter they had to be on the lookout for anything symbolic, rather than anything materialistically valuable!
Thankfully, Skendus was more vigilant than his friends in comparison, he was very alert. He saw tens of those crosses with bent arms so far, he even saw a big cross before when he was outside, it was on top of the church, and it was majestic in every way!
However, he was not impressed by its beauty, as he was not here to admire another religion. The very roots of his beliefs were very much against religion, because he did not believe in, or simply, he refused to admire the senseless punishment that the Mana Gods ‘bestowed’ amongst the various species. He really couldn’t stomach the latter.
Anyway, they walked all the way to the other end of the church, and there, Tim realized that at least one part of the church was very similar to what humans would make. There were three bent crosses in a single room, and they were huge, almost mystical even, because they expelled an energy that was difficult for them to comprehend. The cross in the middle, however, was the biggest!
There were tons of seats in front of these crosses as well, long benches of sorts, and this was what made this church look very earth-like. Tim almost felt at home here!
Besides the three crosses, there were three priests. Each of them were as old as grandfather clocks, but they did not seem as weak as one would assume they would be, they were very alert!
“What brings you here, mages?” One of them asked, it was the priest from the big cross in the middle. “Are you interested to hear us pray today?”
“Sure,” Skendus walked a couple more steps forward, and then he asked them directly. “How about you tell me who you pray to? What are your gods called?”
Almost as direct as him, the priest then answered. “I pray to Falakus, son of the supreme goddess Falakame, may she be praised now and forever! My associates here pray to her two other sons, and although they're present in my church, my associates shall never bear our cross with pride. My associates here pray to Firunal, and Farazal, also sons of the supreme goddess Falakame - The symbols they represent are vastly different to mine!”