Reinhold finished his cup of coffee and wrote back.
"Take away everything in my house. There are enough supplies to last you guys until everything's over. Hide and never come out."
Nothing but a few words of warning.
Reinhold got up and slowly went outside moving in the direction of the outskirts. What his full plans were, no one knew but himself. There was only one thing he had to make sure of, to remove as many variables as possible. He already brought out what he needed out to several outposts in the city, a few hidden in plain sight, others stuffed into outposts that only he knew of.
Luke reorganized his pre-written questions and replies. He tried to sort it out and find another question he had prepared but by the time he found it Reinhold was already gone.
"Rei…" The Reinhold that Luke saw today and a month ago were so different that they were basically two different people.
He went back to Sir Heinster's place to spread Reinhold's words, bringing Miss Howards alongside him.
In the middle of the plaza, the gold-armored inquisitor was still holding his ground, loitering around the vicinity while countless inquisitors were huddled around him listening to his sermon. What was once an open plaza now turned into a war camp, tents were propped up everywhere and various wares were placed about.
"His holiness, the God of Trials, Hyuo'in, has brought upon his grace upon us all. Let us bask in his presence and omniscience that we too may be able to overcome the struggles of the mortal shell."
Each and every single inquisitor was saluting, their actions smooth and practiced. Countless inquisitors kneeled and prayed within their hearts, stubbornly holding onto their faith.
"Today, we will welcome one devout follower and let him join our faith! His contributions in preventing these heretics from speaking their baseless lies and insults gave us the opportunity to spread the good word of our lord! Raxer, child, may you be blessed by the weight of your responsibilities."
Raxer stood up from the crowd, his bizarre appearance still as exotic as before, only the gems that were inlaid within his skin were removed. These gems were replaced with the symbol of the God of Trials, scorched on his skin.
These wounds looked fresh as if they were imprinted just earlier this day. Smoldering embers were still emanating from the marks. Raxer's face did not show any pain, only indifference.
"Let us all witness Deacon Raxer ascend! Let all witness what awaits you if you all follow our faith! Be granted by the power of our god, Raxer! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!"
Systematic thumping could be heard as every inquisitor in the vicinity was beating their chests with their fists. The thumping came louder and louder until a seemingly weakened thump could be heard despite how frantic the entire crowd was.
The golden armored inquisitor, his eyes bloodshot stared directly at where he heard weakness. He raised his ceremonial sword, still glowing with mystical runes of unknown origin. Until…
Blinding light could be seen from beyond the skies above, angelic hymns could be heard, soothing to the soul and calming to the mind. As the red-eyed angels, in the form of eyeballs with numerous feathered wings, descended down upon the masses, everyone in the city could see it happen in front of them. These angels had lithe wings, their entire bodies seemed to be only composed of a floating eye with eyelids with countless wings sprouting on its back.
The eyes of the God of Trials finally descended on this lowly city.
The golden-armored man took off his helmet, revealing a middle-aged man with grey lining his black hair. His smooth face showed care for his appearance but the jarring symbol of a cross piercing a circle marked on his forehead said otherwise.
"Beautiful."
The man's previous anger towards the pathetic inquisitor was quickly shed away in favor of the beauty of the scene before him.
"Ahhhh! How majestic! How divine! Deacon Raxer, do you see your faith being rewarded? Do you see how your faith did not abandon you? This is our only path to salvation! Rejoice! Rejoice!"
Raxer felt the symbols embedded in his body react, multiple symbols started to sizzle as the angel's eyes stared at him. Those many symbols turned red, glowing red even, the symbols seemed to burn his skin yet the indifference in his eyes was unmistakable.
The angels flew around him as if to welcome his new future awaiting him.
Countless runes and symbols swirled around him, it was as if he was wrapped in invisible paper and its writings were surrounding him. Red symbols popped up and about, at this point, Raxer took out two metal coins from his mouth. There was no need for him to hide the coins in his mouth, yet he felt that this opportunity was too valuable to let anything get in the way of it. This coin had the symbol of the God of Trials, a cross piercing a circle, the most eye-catching part of this was that in the middle of the metal coin, it was color red.
"My goodness! Deacon Raxer, or should I say Higher Deacon Raxer. Congratulations on your ascension! I suppose that you feel so invigorated that you could turn stone to dust. Oh, Higher Deacon Raxer, you can speak now, unlike these unascended ones, you now possess immunity in our lord's domain."
Raxer tested the water, the impending sense of death he felt when he tried to speak before was no longer there. Finally, after so long, he could finally speak.
"Sir Yio, I thank you for your guidance these past few months. I'm truly honored to be here."
"No, no. The honor is mine, I never expected to find someone in his wasteland to understand the glory of our lord. May you give me the honor of witnessing the power our god bestowed upon you." Yio closed his eyes and humbly bowed before Higher Deacon Raxer.
Higher Deacon Raxer glanced at the one singular inquisitor that was out of rhythm earlier. He instinctively felt a force surround him, invisible to everyone else but in his eyes it clearly enveloped him, lovingly. The God of Trial's domain seemed to empower his newly found abilities, no matter how minute it was.
He reached out towards the off-beat inquisitor and had his hands in a grasping motion. That invisible power formed a giant hand, mimicking the same motion that Higher Deacon Raxer used. He then clenched tightly. The inquisitor had his armor broken, his ribs shattered, and his muscles torn, a giant handprint appeared all over his body, from it, one could count seven fingers.
"Glorious! Magnificent! Truly spectacular!"
Higher Deacon Raxer merely smiled in response. After all this time, he finally managed to attain divine powers.
"If I knew how blessed I am now a mere few days ago, I would've kept Nuane until today so I could finish him off with my own hands."
"That heretic caused his own downfall. Although he went against our lord, he gave you a trial to overcome, and you did. As such, you deserve everything that you earned. It's finally time for you to aid our cause, the Holy War is coming, we need all the forces we could muster."
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The finishing ceremony was concluded, and one more variable was born.
Reinhold was inside a random house on the other side of the city from the hole, there were already three mangled corpses within. He temporarily used this spot as his temporary residence. The owners were already dead and those neighbors that saw him enter had more things to worry about than a burglary.
The girl that used to be affiliated with the guild showed up unannounced and dropped off a letter. She seemed extremely anxious when she gave out this letter. Nonetheless, she disappeared as soon as she gave Reinhold the letter.
Reinhold opened up this normal piece of mail and read through it. His brows furrowed and his stoic expression turned solemn.
"It's one problem after another. Still, within the acceptable changes, the Fanged Lioness might not be able to handle both at once, but nothing changes overall."
Only if Aya chose to follow him things would've played out smoother.
He drafted more plans and chose one that seemed more plausible, relying on his own ability to manipulate the guild than letting it be up to luck.
"Soon enough, the second trial will arrive and instead of passively restricting the masses there will be greater danger. Fortunately, out of the 50,000 residents, only 30% survived otherwise there would've been greater chaos when the second trial comes."
"I don't know what's to come but I know it won't be pretty. Goddess Uyioh, when will you grant me the same strength? I hope I'll be blessed soon."
Reinhold put his attention back to the task at hand. If the enemy was getting stronger then he had to do something, everyone else in the city was too busy cowering in their houses while the guards were already long converted. Only the guild's mercenaries could do something, but the restriction of murder was too limiting.
It seemed to be the intrinsic power that the God of Trial's domain possesses, preventing its challengers from lowering their numbers, only being satisfied if he made them do it. Truly sadistic.
Days further passed, and the evacuation from two different points of the city was finally complete. One near the gaping hole and the other directly on the opposite side of the city. The one near the hole made sense, it was already a danger zone, a bit more inquisitors roamed around but they utterly did nothing. The more interesting spot was the one directly on the other side of the city. Power kegs were placed down, away from the prying eyes of the inquisitors.
"They wouldn't have expected for me to have my own stash of explosives. Time to add in more systemic chaos."
The population started to converge towards the middle of the city, the plaza. Roaming inquisitors looked at the entire situation with a distanced point of view as if they weren't taking part in the madness. A few more roamed near the hole, waiting for more heretics to get punished by going against their 'correct' faith.
At the end of the day, the calm yet tense atmosphere of the dark sky was illuminated by ash and smoke. Another reverberating roar of the explosion echoed through the entire city. Inquisitors ran towards the fiery smoke while nearby commoners ran away, only scaring them. Once again there were yet to be casualties.
The explosion was much smaller in scale, not even breaking through a quarter of the wall. It mainly served to ignite the houses nearby into a great fire. Suffocating ash and smoke bellowed through the skies, tinting the sky muddy grey.
Yio's heard this new sudden development and rallied his forces, wielding his ceremonial sword. Runes flashed as he rode atop his horse and galloped toward the smoke. He felt surprised.
"I thought Nuane was the one who set it up! Who was it this time? That old crone? Or someone else? High Deacon Raxer should have an answer, I'll ask him later."
Countless inquisitors ran barefoot following Yio.
Reinhold was atop overseeing how the inquisitors would react. Ash and smoke touched the barrier formed by the God of Trial's domain.
"Interesting, not even ash is an exception, everything stays inside even if it's dust. One way in, no way out."
Yio was bringing people in a hurry to put out the fire. The danger of suffocation was still real, despite stronger bodies and physical abilities, they were still human, they needed oxygen to breathe and food to eat.
Yio was constantly spewing out orders when he felt a chill gaze behind him. He didn't understand how something could make him feel danger despite being in his lord's domain. It wasn't the overwhelming kind of danger, it was the kind where you knew how lethal it was but it was still unable to reach you.
He looked back and saw red piercing eyes, staring at his every move. It was as if he was being held by this dark figure, forced to dance atop his palm.
He wanted to apprehend him but there was a problem, at this moment the red eyes had a mocking glare to them. These pair of eyes seemed to laugh at what was about to happen.
Another thunderous explosion, one even greater than the one Nuane created. Not even Reinhold could've gone out unscathed by himself, but he still had his scrolls. He activated the Scroll of Protection, shielding himself and five people from the shockwaves that the blast generated. The building under them cracked, unable to hold against the tremors.
The building they were standing on broke down, as well as even more buildings behind them. They safely landed but the Scroll of Protection broke immediately right after causing Reinhold to suffer the blast with his normal body. Luckily three men shielded him from the aftershocks limiting his injuries to a ringing in his ears and a forceful vibration in his body.
These five Gifted mercenaries didn't even flinch from the shockwaves, their enhanced abilities were enough to forcefully withstand what happened.
Reinhold was about to cough from the dust that come out of it but he forcefully held it in, he knew this one action also led to the domain reacting. He clenched his throat and took out a bottle of water from his bag and gulped it down.
He saw the aftermath of what he had done, limbs were all over the place, some even just a pile of meat. His trap was activated yet none of his people died.
"Direct cause, it only cares about what directly led to the murder. Irrelevant to what led up to it."
There was a trip wire connecting to a fuse that was connected to the greater set of explosives. Reinhold didn't fully grasp how it worked but he knew what it did and that was enough for now.
From the corner of his eye, there was another glowing barrier, similar in nature and color to the one that was currently enveloping the city.
"Heretics! How dare you blaspheme against the faithful inquisitors of the God of Trials!" Yio roared from the top of his lungs, completely uninjured.
"Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy." Reinhold immediately retreated, having to get carried due to his recovering leg.
Reinhold recalled the introduction from his father's book, Old Gods: Encyclopedia. No mortal weapon could hurt a god's follower inside his domain, only another god's power could break through it. Outside this domain, they are still considered mortals.
Countless body parts were all around, raining down in the vicinity. Scraps of armor were even shot out at high velocities impaling the streets and buildings with sharp debris, ruining the sense of normality the city once had.
"The only true followers here are that golden-armored inquisitor and Raxer. Other than them, everyone else can die. Let's see if their faith in your god or fear of death is stronger." Reinhold made a mental note, continuing on with his plans.
The person carrying him this time was the so-called second fastest person in the guild, he was bringing Reinhold towards his hideout like he was told to earlier. Meanwhile, the other four mercenaries split away as they were instructed to, making the golden-armored inquisitor unable to catch all of them.
Yio brushed past the countless body parts and tried to find those heretics that caused all of this. Although he seemed to wield ungodly powers, his personal strength seemed to be… lacking. One couldn't really blame him, he was only able to offer 100 blue coins for his ascension at the start. He needed more coins to offer up so he could break through to a higher rank.
This used-to-be normal person offered 100 blue coins, equivalent to 100 lives lost in an illusionary trial. He gained the physical abilities of an average Gifted, but his alignment of the coins led him to branch into the part of the church which focused on sealing and preaching.
Other than the ability to preach revelations given to him by his god, there wasn't much he could do but plea.
"Oh, merciful God of Trials! Your humble servant has failed thee, I beseech thee to give me the power to overcome this hurdle and let me carve my path onto the Road of Divinity."
As if to respond to his prayers, his ceremonial sword's runes shifted and changed, as if its very core was being altered from deep within.
The once-rooted trials within the sword now shifted into obscurity. It once held five trials: silence, exploration, labor, fear, and hope. Now only the Trial of Silence remained as if to let Yio choose the next tools he would need to establish to deal with what was happening.
Yio further deepened his fanatic outlook, deepening his resolve to follow his lord.
"As much as it pains me that a heretic was able to get away with this, the other candidates committed no sin. As a follower of the God of Trials, to follow my god's philosophy is my core, for every trial, there will be a reward waiting for you."
"I truly am blessed. I cannot hold it in, I must do something for my god." Yio's smile contrasted with how angry he was earlier, even the smell of burnt flesh did not dissuade him from his good mood.
He walked over to the corpses and ignored what had just happened. If they haven't ascended, they were as good as fodder.
Seeing the bodies laid bare, Yio suddenly had a great idea.
"Ah yes, why haven't I thought of that? To show my dedication and resolve, I must show his grace to these commoners. The Lord's red eyes, red hair, red lips, red tongue, and red heart show how much sacrifice he went through. This will be a very rewarding trial indeed."