Dead…

A woman by the man’s side screamed out, her voice being the only thing that anyone in the vicinity could hear, drowning the scene with malefic agony. As her voice brought everyone to forcefully face the cruel scene happening in from of them, everyone started running away.

“Run-“

“Let us-“

“No, no, no-“

Dead, dead, dead…

“Heretics dare defy the trial set by the God of Trials?! Foolish!” The golden-armored inquisitor raised his voice so that all before him could hear his disappointment.

Reinhold brought Aya down and held her back, covering her mouth with his hands, preventing her from uttering a single word. Reinhold grunted as Aya clenched her hand holding his arm, hearing this she immediately softened her grip.

Tears flowed down from Aya’s naïve face as she saw the mangled corpses left behind by the people who dared utter a word. She closed her eyes, not understanding what happened. One moment, they were alive the next…

Reinhold slowly brought her back out, seeing that the other inquisitors didn’t stop them, he continued to keep Aya from suffering the same fate. His vicious red gaze directly piercing through the man in the golden suit of armor.

After the pin drop echo of bodies falling down, there were only a mere hundred people left from what seemed to be a thousand. These inquisitors didn’t even raise a single hand, yet the once lively plaza had its streets recolored with blood.

Some were just too shocked to react to what happened and kept mum, others did run away but didn’t say anything at all, and the more quick-witted ones also held their companions’ mouths preventing them from saying anything, similar to how Reinhold held Aya.

Aya trembled in defiance of what just happened, still recoiling from what happened. Reinhold kept holding her even though he knew she wouldn’t say anything more. He kept holding her because he understood what kind of agony this kind of scene would cause her. Perhaps something he would’ve wanted someone else to give him back then but now it was too late.

Taking as much time as Aya needed, Reinhold reassessed the entire situation. His assessment, everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

He only hoped that sir Heinster, Luke, and the others realized what was happening and didn’t say anything.

Aya looked back at Reinhold and nodded, letting Reinhold know she was completely fine now. He reached his hand out and Aya picked him up, letting him back up on his crutch. His left wrist had a slight discoloration from the force Aya used, she saw this and bowed a tiny bit.

They took their every step as slowly and as soft as they could, afraid of making noise.

“Hahaha! Fret not young ones, this trial only takes your ability to speak. Don’t worry about making any other noise besides that! Learning fast, eh? I like that! Keep it up!” The gold-armored man gave Reinhold a thumbs up in a casual way.

Hearing this, Reinhold jumped on Aya’s back and she immediately ran forward to Luke’s place. The forge was on the way to Luke’s, so they dropped by first.

On the way, Aya saw mangled corpses all over the place. A few corpses were being held by another person while they were crying silently. She even saw a stroller holding a sleeping baby inside, a mangled corpse behind it.

She ran faster, not caring if those inquisitors saw her full ability, she ran her peak speed. Reinhold could barely hold on but since he was being held by Aya, he only needed to make sure that his crutch didn’t hit anything on the way.

Reinhold jumped off a bit wobbled and clenched his fist, hammering away at the door. He kept hammering until someone opened the door. It was an aged old man beside him were two young children, little Johnny and Chris.

Aya came forward and hugged her sweet brother. They locked eyes, their actions spoke held more meaning than any word they could conjure up.

Seeing that they were both safe, Reinhold waved goodbye at sir Heinster and had Aya carry him off to the next location.

At Luke’s place, Aya was conflicted. Luke was dozing off in the middle of the day. She teared up a little, but her slight smile gave away her true feelings.

Reinhold thought of a plan, he then wrote a few words on this piece of paper.

Reinhold brought Aya over and made her hold his mouth so that no sound could escape. He clenched his fist and punched Luke directly where the diaphragm was located, knocking the wind out of him, literally.

Luke’s bloodstained eyes were visible as soon as Reinhold’s fist reached him. Reinhold didn’t waste time, as Luke was being detained by Aya, he brought out a piece of paper.

“Luke don’t speak, or you’ll die. I’ll explain more after you nod.” Reinhold pointed towards the two bodies sitting on a table, mangled as if a giant hand grabbed them and clenched, tightly.

Luke nodded and Aya let him go after Reinhold gave her the signal. He then proceeded to write more words. In the meanwhile, Aya and Luke were hugging each other, Luke saw how scared Aya was and tried to comfort her. God knows what she saw, the severity of the situation was further amplified when he read Reinhold’s words.

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“Let’s meet up with Sir Heinster, there weren’t many survivors.”

On the way, Reinhold saw from the corner of eye, miss Howards, completely shocked, she didn’t even notice Reinhold beside her. Miss Howards was holding her dear friend, someone she met when she was 14.

He couldn’t just let her be like this, he pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a few words.

“Miss Howards, please go home. It’s dangerous here right now, I’ll help you bury her body.”

Miss Howards finally teared up, she was still lost but seemed to understand that Reinhold was trying to help. She obediently went back inside her home, dragging a pile of thin meat bag leaving a soaked trail of blood.

Reinhold continued on by himself while Aya was sobbing in Luke’s arms. Seeing grotesque body horror that no person should ever see, lest a young maiden such as herself, she eventually just looked down, only seeing the footsteps she made in the blood of passersby. Slowing down really made Aya take in this cruel, twisted scene in full, at least when she was running at full speed it was just a blur but now…

Luke was no different but as much as it made him want to throw up, he had to be strong, strong enough to support her young heart. He didn’t have much to offer her but the façade of safety.

Reinhold softly knocked on the door in front of him, once again meeting the gaze of sir Heinster. He gathered everyone in the smithing room and took out a few pieces of paper which he wrote on. These words made everyone in the room realize just what kind of situation they were in, except of course, Aya and Chris.

Reinhold then wrote on the paper to let them know that as long as they followed and abided by the trials the inquisitors would not dare touch them, except for a few overbearing situations. He also specifically reminded them to not run, running outside this soft, warm barrier without permission was equivalent to suicide.

Taking Aya and Chris to a separate room, he tried his best to convey to her what he wanted to do. In the end, they saw Reinhold draw a picture of the broken city wall and aggressively crossed it out, he then drew a skull on it. After making sure they understood, Reinhold sent Chris out and went on to try and convince Aya about his next plan.

In summary, his plan involved sending letters to a few houses at night. Aya didn’t understand why she needed to do it but at this point Reinhold seemed to be the only person who had any semblance of control of the situation. She nodded and left the room as well.

She recalled something Reinhold said, something that struck her in fear despite how physically stronger she was. It was something primal, something that her instincts made her want to run away from.

‘To show my conviction, this time I won’t hesitate to do what I think is right.’

She then remembered an earlier conversation than that.

‘There’s something that’s about to happen in a few days and I need you to be ready.’

“This must be what he was talking about, he managed to figure out something was amiss while everyone else was deluded, terrifying.” Aya sounded in her mind.”

Although Reinhold knew something was going wrong, he didn’t know what kinds of different situations would arise from it. All he knew for sure was that he needed a distraction, little did he know that this distraction would’ve forced the other party to bring their plans ahead of time.

The once lively, vitality filled morning turned into a silent, blood-fogged nightmare. The streets were paved in blood, inquisitors were casually walking about, unconcerned about how the citizens would’ve reacted.

Reinhold brewed a cup of coffee and let Aya drink some to keep her awake. Her widened eyes sparkled, the bitter taste she expected didn’t happen, instead a sweet soft caramel-like taste mellowed her taste buds. Reinhold meekly smiled as he took out his own bitter coffee and drank it. After finishing their drinks, they moved out.

Reinhold stood atop another watch tower, overseeing the entire situation in the dead of night. A teenage girl with red hair was jumping from place to place leaving behind notes on various homes that still had life in it. She didn’t know what these letters had in them, but she dutifully followed Reinhold’s wishes.

The red eyed youth spotted a small conundrum on the streets, a buff man brandishing a butcher’s knife ambushed an inquisitor. As little as the time it took for Reinhold to breathe, the fight was already over. The buff man overpowered the inquisitor and managed to slice away at the gaps of his armor, slicing his neck deeply.

The inquisitor looked at the buff man, the armor covering his expression. The inquisitor died.

“They’re still human, it seems like that golden-armored inquisitor is the only person with any supernatural power.” Reinhold thought to himself.

The buff man, exhausted and drained of his anger fell down, he saw another inquisitor running frantically at him. The new inquisitor brandished his sword and sliced away at the buff man, yet the buff man didn’t die but was immobilized by having his tendons cut, the newly arrived inquisitor kicked away at the floor and kept punching it as if to relieve himself of anger.

“He’s… not killing him? Odd. It also seems these inquisitors can’t go against the trials set by the gold-armored inquisitor.”

The buff man smiled and laid back, fully avenging the anger in his heart the exhaustion caught up to him, he fell asleep. Reinhold’s eyes glinted at what happened to the buff man’s neck, it slowly opened up inflicting the same injury he inflicted on the inquisitor.

“Strange rules, very strange rules. This will come in handy in the future, better make note of it.”

By the time the moon hit its peak, Aya came back, her hands empty of any piece of paper. Reinhold nodded and went back home. All he needed to do now was wait.

The next morning came, not even the chirping of the birds could be heard. All the animals were dead.

Reinhold did nothing for the entire day, other than the visit of his neighbors this morning, he spent his time reading his father’s book.

Then night came, Reinhold closed his book and went over to Luke’s place to get Aya back to where he was observing yesterday. They both drank their own cups of coffee and moved out.

“It’s finally time, lets see if it’ll work out.”

Aya wondered what Reinhold was doing, he just looked at the gaping hole in the city walls and simply stared. With no other task at hand, she sat by his side. Before she could sit down, Reinhold took out a drawing telling her to look away.

Aya had a terrible feeling coming up when she saw that. This unnerving feeling increased when she saw a young girl being dragged away by what seemed to be her father towards the gaping hole in the wall. She remembered how adamant Reinhold was to not go outside yet this father-daughter duo was about to do it.

Reinhold looked at the moon and then back to Aya, as if he was waiting for something. Aya’s mind overworked, by the time she decided to run towards them, Reinhold took out a scroll from his hands, mentally chanting the activation spell caught Aya and binded her with thick vines.

She tried to break free, but she realized her strength was sapping, she then remembered the cup of coffee she drank earlier, it tasted sweeter than yesterday but that was all.

“Reinhold must’ve drugged me! Dammit!”

Reinhold weirdly looked at Aya struggling at his feet.

“I already used twenty doses of Muscle Numbing Poison, I thought I already overestimated her but it seems like she’s more gifted than I thought. Next time, fifty doses should do the trick.”

He then ignored her weakening struggles as he looked at the father-daughter duo running full sprint towards the gaping hole in the city walls.

“Now what happens if a mortal goes past a god’s domain?” Reinhold was about to find out.