Skendus was getting sick of all the formal praises here, so he decided to be even more direct. This was a universe where mana gods shouldn't be worshiped, after all, and from what he could understand, these priests were clearly praising those that they were not supposed to!
The symbolism, their recent stroke of bad luck, etc, he could connect all of those dots immediately, and decided to ask these priests the questions that many other people would hesitate to ask. He didn't hold back.
“Who is Falakame? Is she a Mana Goddess?” He asked.
“Indeed she is,” The priest in the middle, answered fearlessly. “And although her power knows no bounds, our church finds the greatest of honor worshiping her son, Falakus instead! May he be praised forever.”
Before this back-and-forth conversation of pointing fingers could go on any further, the same priest gestured for Skendus to stop talking. It would appear that he'd like to lead the conversation now.
“Let’s skip the stupid questions, we know why you're here. You're marked for death, I can see it, I can smell it, the four of you reek of unholiness!” The priest stated.
“Marked for death? Even me?” Arvena asked, she was nervous, and when the pope nodded, she was aghast. “No one in my town has ever died while ascending through levels, so I'd say you don’t know what you're talking about.”
That was a heavy accusation, but unsurprisingly, the priest had an answer. “This universe protects us from such deaths, Rempegan Lus’ will is unshakable on that matter, yes, but you're still marked, and all of you will die as soon as you leave Valporovus. Tell me, how many times did you almost die ever since you entered our universe, outsiders? Do not play the fool, we can sense that most of you are not really goblins. How many times did you evade death?”
“Recently, a lot…” Skendus admitted, though he was not proud about it.
“Ah, so our gods have taken matters into their own hands.” The priest said, and then stared at Timothy. “From the looks of it, our beloved god Falakus is actively hunting you down, hah! Your fear is reassuring, I saw the same fear in the eyes of many people who got attacked by Falakus.”
“The ape? He was the god? But he wanted to drill my ass!” Timothy intervened.
“Falakus works in mysterious ways,” The priest admitted.
Anyway, with the truth so openly on the table, the next topic was only predictable, they wanted a solution. The team realized that they could not punish these people, regardless of how they worshiped an enemy of their universe so openly, they couldn't punish them, so they had to bite their tongue! Finding a way to dispel the Mark of Death, sounded far more reasonable in comparison for the moment, because they didn't want to spend their entire lives running around in this universe waiting for death to come. The problem was that even if they escaped the God's Punishment Realm of mana soon, they'd still be hunted down by a literal god, which in hindsight wasn't easy to deal with regardless of the future circumstances.
For that matter, as much as he despised it, Skendus asked. “Can we remove this mark? I'd like to believe that we don't deserve to die, so, will you help us, that is, if there is a way to change a god's stubborn decision?”
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“You may appeal against the goddesses' mark, by being blessed by her three sons.” The priest explained, and then his next few words got louder by the second. “The only way for you to do that, is to be accepted, and blessed by all three of our churches! Now, as a token of our goodwill, I bless you on behalf of the Church of Ariuism, on behalf of the very grand church you're standing on, and I bless you proudly! May you be guided towards the light, and achieve the grand lady's forgiveness.”
After the priest announced everything, the huge cross that was in the room with them, shone with this golden, blinding light, and this truly seemed holy in every way they could think of! Then, the crosses on the group's forehead disappeared as well, which seemed related to the prior, blinding glow.
Timothy panicked when he saw the crosses disappear off of his friend’s foreheads, because he feared that everyone's brains would get fried now as some sort of a sick joke, but that was not the case, it did not happen. The marked crosses disappeared from their skin, because they didn't need them anymore, the church had truly accepted them, and blessed them!
“You weren’t joking,” Tim sighed, “Does this mean that Falafel is gonna stop chasing us?”
After he said that, he realized that he absolutely misspelled the name, but to his surprise, the priest maintained his patience, and he didn't take his blessings back. This was good, because he didn’t want to harm the rest of the group due to a reason as stupid as that. He heaved out a sigh of relief.
The priest then answered, “Falakus will stop trying to exact his mother's decree, but Firunal and Farazal will continue trying, so I suggest you make haste. Head for the two other churches, my associates here will tell you where to find their houses of worship.”
“Thank you for your guidance, your Holiness.” Arvena then bowed down, of all people.
It wasn’t that she cared about Ariuism all that much, but she did appreciate the grand gesture of not being hunted down by one of the gods anymore. She almost died of hypothermia due to such related reasons, so she did not want to see what Falakame's other sons were capable of, she wanted to play it safe, and unsurprisingly so because she cared more about her survival and ascension, rather than any weird practice or religion. She simply bowed down to play along, and the priest seemed to appreciate her gesture as well.
The priest gave them a good deal overall, it was a good start for the group, but Skendus wasn't too happy about this. He never cared to be forgiven to begin with, and or accepted, but rather, he just came here to figure out what was going on, and scold religious figures along the way if he had the time. He did not care about these ‘blessings’, but since his friends were overall less threatened now, he played along as well because their safety was more important to him than any old ideal. Skendus could not have the blood of his dear friends on his hands, so he just did a light bow to show cooperation.
Anyway, after they conversed with the other two priests for a little bit, the group were ready to be on their way. The priests were very helpful, so the group knew where they were going next, and they knew how to get there with ease, assuming that they wouldn't get hit by lighting, or something like that on the way there.
They were going to the church which featured the letter H as their symbol, it was just fifty kilometers away from here, and that sounded like a great distance, but it really wasn't if one had a flying dragon at their disposal. They wanted to get there as soon as possible, to convince the priest there to bless them as well, and they figured that it wouldn’t be too difficult to do so, considering how accepting the priest here in the church had been.
A few guards came into the church moments later, to escort the team out of the city. Skendus recognized them immediately, they were the same guards that had been following them ever since Skendus and his friends had entered the city, they were the guards from the main gate! He wasn’t too happy to see them, but at this point it wouldn't make sense to hold any grudges, as they had to be on their way now.
“Thank you, priest.” He said, as they were about to leave. “And congratulations on escaping the God's Punishment Realm.”