0020 The Way of Some
"Exalted father, please...
... Protect this humble servant of yours against this demon from hell...
... Fa... Fa... Fa... Father... Pro... Pro... Aaargh!".
In the light of the two moons, the man was shaking as he prayed, his knee was bruised from kneeling on some sharp rocks, but he didn't even care, for in front of him, a black demon with white eyes watched him without making a single sound.
As he prayed, the humanoid cocked its head to the side, as if thinking about something with doubts, but at some point, the creature got tired and opened a large white mouth and bit half the head of the man kneeling in front of it.
The scene of the man falling to the ground with half his head missing, froze the body of the rest of the people who intended to flee to the forest, and at the same moment everyone ran again, but this time going to the sides, fleeing both the Servant of the Mother and the Envoy who watched everything from afar.
In a few seconds, several Servants of the Mother emerged from the forest, or the tall bush, trying to capture the fleeing people, some people who were kneeling in prayer in their despair, had their bodies torn apart and devoured by them.
"Fuuuuck! Run guys!".
"Shoot! Try to kill!".
One of the officers tried to run away while shooting, Harris tried to follow him to calm him down, while Andrew and Lucas were between watching the Envoy and trying to help the desperate people.
*"Fuck you, I need the Father, this is no longer a simple investigation..."*.
Feeling several small objects like arrowheads inside his body, the Envoy was already tired and for a long time he held back the pain in order to complete his goals, but now it was all for nothing, there was no reason for him to try harder, everything has already gone wrong.
So he just turned around and walked away normally, and seeing this, Andrew and Lucas felt relieved to have one less problem, but realizing that these monsters could be even more troublesome, they went looking for Harris and the other policeman, who ran towards the main road.
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"Let's hurry Father, I'm worried about Alicia...
... Those popping noises are annoying...".
"Easy girl, I'm an old man, don't make me run!
Watcher, would you like to go ahead?".
"No sir Father, my duty is to protect you, if what the soldier said is true, there may be other heretics around...".
"Okay... Boy, you did a great job coming to report, stay here and help this family... Come on!".
Outside the house of Maycon's parents, the Father's group received the news of the Envoy, Maycon's family were desperate when they learned that he was a heretic, so Alcione took a few minutes to calm them inside the house, and now everyone was ready to go to the shed.
The would-be soldier bowed and entered the house, while Jenany ran ahead, but was held back by the Watcher, and so the three of them made their way to the main road.
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"Get up Nathan! Let's join that group in praying!".
"No no mom, we told Alex we were going to wait here!".
"Haven't you seen these hideous things walking around?
I remember my mother saying that we needed to pray more, now seeing everything that happened today, I'm afraid son...".
"No, I will wait, I don't want to be with these people!".
"Son, Alex is an unbeliever, and look at Lucius, he was too and he died...
... Son, please... I'm not asking, I'm ordering!".
Julia was convinced to join the large group in prayer, she saw the Envoy passing them by, and as much as Alex's explanation about him going after the fastest ones made sense, she no longer wanted to think about anything else, she just wanted to hold on to something that might give her some kind of hope and security.
Then she pulled Nathan by the ear and forced him to his feet, and they both walked back to the shed, with Nathan complaining, and she talking about Alex and Lucius' disbelief.
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"Shhh... Don't make noise...".
On the side of the main road, away from the rice farms, the path was mostly straight, with few curves bypassing small hills, and on top of one of these hills, some fruit-bearing bushes were the favorite hiding place of small species that liked to eat such berries.
But now, a group of young people was hiding among the bushes, watching a large group of people from the church pass by in the distance, they managed to count more than twenty would-be soldiers, seven white knights who can be both Envoys and Watchers, and a fat old man in a white robe, perhaps a Father or Cardinal.
A group with half that amount already nearly took them to their deaths, and seeing so many people arriving, they swallowed hard trying not to make any noise.
"On here! On here! Heretics here!".
"Shit! Run!".
"Spread out!".
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Hiding on the other side of the road, the would-be soldier surreptitiously following them was happy to see another church team arriving, and so felt free to show himself, shouting to warn others of the hidden heretics.
They started running away from the church group, and the church group didn't realize what was going on, as they were lost in some kind of conversation between them, but when they noticed people running away from them, it could only mean one thing, heretics.
Three of the knights lit up the place with their bluish green aura coming out of their body, they were quick to run, but the distance to the Maycon group was not easy to reach quickly, and following behind them, ten more would-be soldiers ran, scattering on all sides.
"Incinerate!".
A blade of bluish green light flew towards one of the girls, but Maycon burst a flame into the blade's path in time, causing it to catch fire and fall apart in the air, preventing it from hitting the running girl.
"Incinerate!". "Incinerate!". "Incinerate!". "Incinerate!".
Unlike the other skills, Incinerate was a skill that scared more than it caused destruction, but it could also hurt a lot if a person were hit squarely, and out here in the open, Maycon had the freedom that Thomas didn't have inside the underground salon.
And so Maycon was the main asset in hindering the persecution of the men of the church, but slowly he lagged behind in comparison to the others.
"Jeffrey go away!".
"No, I will not abandon anyone else today!".
"Shit man, you really are an idiot...
... Remind me to teach you some skill if we make it out of this alive!".
"Leave it to me, let's be the heroes!".
Realizing that the Maycon was falling behind, Jeffrey came back and stood by his side, the quick discussion between the two turning into a friendly smile, they knew it was difficult to get out of this alive, but for the sake of others, they stayed to stop the church from advancing.
And so, one young man casting burst of fire in all directions, while the second young man held a stick beside him doing nothing, caused the knights to mock them both.
"Just capture them, we have to keep moving forward...
... Let the others get away... They're just weak cockroaches...".
The shout of order went out from the fat old man who stayed behind, and soon everyone focused on Maycon and Jeffrey, who realizing that their friends were safe and hearing that they would be captured, felt relieved, at least they weren't going to die now.
So one of the horsemen approached and knocked them down one by one with a blow to the head, and the would-be soldiers came and carried them both into the group.
"Stop wasting time! Let's go!".
The two were tied up and placed on a stretcher for the soldiers to carry, in a few seconds the group resumed moving following its original path.
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"I think just wearing these robes is better than wasting time changing all my clothes...
... Black is good for hiding at night...
... What do I do with cell phone?".
"I don't know, it doesn't work here, I don't even know if it works anywhere...".
"I'll carry it as a precaution...".
"Come on, we can't delay...".
Now dressed in black robes, Alex and Helena walked around the outside of the shed, going along the side that was still intact, avoiding contact with the people who were there praying, that way if any enemies appeared, they would still be hidden.
After a few minutes of walking, they arrived back at the tree where Julia and Nathan were supposed to be waiting for them.
"Holy shit, where did they go at a time like this?!".
"Calm down Alex, let's find them...".
"Man, isn't it possible they went looking for a place to piss in the middle of all this?".
"Stop Alex, maybe they went back to the shed?".
"Helena, Julia is sometimes very stubborn, I can already imagine where she went...".
Alex was extremely annoyed at the idea of Julia and Nathan going back to the shed to find the group praying, he knew Julia very well, and knew that this was a real possibility of having happened, and so they both looked at the shed.
"Helena, I'm going to need you to convince her to leave here...".
"Okay, but we can't waste too much time if she really doesn't want to...".
The two looked at each other and Helena noticed Alex's sad look, Nathan was someone closer to Lucius than himself, but even so, Alex wanted to keep Nathan and Julia close to help as much as possible, on behalf of his friend who would have done the same.
"Let's go...".
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"At least these suckers left plenty of ammo behind...
... I'll be able to protect myself for a while if I hide well...".
Amidst the many bodies of dead people, Henry searched the first policeman killed by the Envoy, during his search until the present moment, he found the body of one of his friends with the head destroyed, and the other one he didn't even see a body.
He was nervous, but at least he knows that Sandro is alive somewhere, the main question was if he could find him.
He looked suspiciously at the blue-eyed religious man who was looking at him with a big smile on his face, he found this guy very abnormal even by his parameters.
"Shit, are they still shooting non-stop?
Damn, they'd rather die than follow me, they're a bunch of weaklings, if only I had someone to command...".
The shots still didn't stop, and the doubt between going it alone or finding followers made him stop for several seconds, but in the end, the smile of the guy surrounded by people kneeling praying made him give up on finding someone.
"Shit, I'll just go to where the minority went, it should be safer...
... And if I'm lucky, I find some single sucker to follow me...".
Henry chose to follow the northern path, past the rice fields, and so the man surrounded by people just followed him with his eyes, watching him go.
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"Little Sister, did you let your Servants devour these people?".
"Sorry Sister, but I let them eat only those who look like Sigredio believers...
... These people disgust me...".
"No problem, we don't need them all, just a few as a sample...".
"Sister, why did you invite those two?".
"Quiet, this is official business...
... They should be taken to a Great Sister for analysis, only then can their affairs be made public, if Great Sister wants to...".
Somewhere in the forest, three women, two young and one older, were sitting side by side, they wore brown dresses with yellow and green accents, both had long straight black hair and light to tan skin tones.
Sitting on the floor, each had an oil lamp by her side, helping to light the darkness in the forest, the eyes of the three of them glowed with light brown colors, a shade of grayish brown, and while they were talking about the people being devoured, one of the two asked something to the older one who, upon hearing the question, lowered her head, her face a little red.
A noise was heard from one side from the trees, and from there a Servant of the Mother appeared holding a sphere the size of a child's head, he walked straight towards the woman the two girls called Sister.
Soon, the Servant of the Mother handed the sphere to the woman, and within seconds, the servant crumbled to dust on the ground.
"Good boy, thank you for your services...".
"What is the name of this artifact, Sister?".
"Quiet, this artifact must not be mentioned to anyone...
... I hope you two don't describe it to other people, it could cost your lives, do you hear me?".
"Yesss Sister!". "Yesss Sister!".
The Sister wrapped the artifact in her baggy clothing, while the two young women were curious about it, but upon hearing that their lives could be taken from them just by mentioning such an object, it made them both respond in fear.
In a few more minutes, noises were heard again, only this time from the other side, and from there, another Servant of the Mother appeared, one of the little ones, and right behind him, Sandro and Erika came out from behind some trees, looking fearfully to all sides.
"Very good, let's finish our task here!".
"Yes Sister!". "Yes Sister!".
Seeing the two arrive, the Sister turned her face away so as not to face them, and then gave her command, so the three got up preparing to leave, while Sandro and Erika stared at the three women, not knowing what to do.