Several of the monks ushered them into the main room with open smiles on their faces although not everyone was in such a good mood. One of the men was still limping from where John had tackled him down, while some of the other monks appeared more reserved than the others, throwing furtive glances over at Dei every few seconds. The monks had all removed their masks shortly after greeting the confused skeleton and her friends as the head monk explained their actions.
“Now that your highness has graced the land with your pressence, we need not hide ourselves in obscurity. The masks of the forgotten god need only be worn until you reveal yourself to mankind once more.”
Matthew nodded allong while John studied the faces of the monks as they withdrew their masks, taking particular note of the one woman among their number. The head monk continued on as Dei made it apparent she was still listening.
“We have waited so long for your awakening, highness. Our forebearers of the mask had deduced that there were more gods waiting for us, but many among us had lost faith during the long wait.”
They passed decrepit pews that linned the main pathway down the church's main hall, as Dei saw scattered sleeping areas set up haphazzardly around the room. At the end of the walkway a grand wooden table was setup with half open books strewn about and a forgotten dias behind it.
“So I apologize that we may have, neglected, our prayers over the years as we focused on study and food. Our earlier companions used to put their faith in the gods to see to their bounty, but with the years we had to make due with manual labor and scavenging.”
The group finally came to a stop at the end of the room as the head monk finally turned around to adress them in front of the dinning table.
“But uh, to whom do I have the pleasure of adressing as shard bearer?” the man asked a bit sheepishly.
Matthew looked over at Dei, but then John cut in before anyone could take the hint.
“Hold on a second. How can you tell that there even is a shard bearer around here?” he demanded.
“Well uh. We had our guesses as to the nature of the sixth god's powers based on some of the prophecies given by the other shard bearers after they spread the faith. The next to appear would either be able to manipulate time, or have control over death itself. And considering the somewhat detereorated state of your friend here…”
No one answered him outright until Dei finally decided to pull back her hood considering they already knew, then took off her gloves. She might not feel heat or cold anymore, but wearing gloves sure made it more difficult to do just about anything with finnese in her opinion.
In doing so, some faint flashes of magic were revealed in the manipulation of her wrist joints and the monks decided to take that as their cue. All seven of them bowed as one at her display, and the head monk started talking once again.
“Thank you great lord for the display of your powers on this-”
“I think she used to be a lady.” John cut the man off.
“...Lady. Herald of Death, we exist now to serve you as you see fit. Please allow us to follow in your footsteps so that we may be granted even a modicum of your power as you take your first steps into this grand world.”
Dei had stopped listening to the man as he continued his rather obviously well rehearsed speech. Instead, she felt a surge of energy as seven bolts of energy seemed to sink into the core of her heart at the same time. Eager to see what had happened, she withdrew into the void to take a closer look, trusting Fei to maintain their body until she got back.
Inside her void space she found things noticably different as five orange lights now danced in a circle, and three Green lights flickered in the background. Looking over the number of new embers in the space it was fairly evident that the seven monks had now pledged their service to her, since that was what seemed to cause the creation of sparks, but what did the different colors mean?
She focused on the orange lights for a half moment and their spinning dance seemed to stop under her attention. Together, they approached the center of the circle they had been spinning in, and appeared to merge into a single flame about the same size as herself and Fei as the chorus of the melody erupted into song once again.
“Five Followers gained. Ascension complete. Followers found lacking. Developing solution. Orders of Death.”
Dei tried to cock her head at this before she remembered they were bodiless in here. While all the words came across her ears in a sing song type of manner, they didn't seem to care at all for rhymes or any sort of musical flare other than the soft whispers of the tune all the words followed the notes of. Regardless, Dei set her sights on the orange light as it seemed to wobble in her view, suddenly moving just a little bit differently than it had before.
Two eyes shifted around on the orange flame to look at her, and yes they were quite obviously eyes this time as the essence took her in. The thing that really surprised Dei though was the fact that this flame had a noticeably masculine voice for once.
‘Goooooooood morning beautiful.’
‘Why do I already hate you?’
‘Well thats hardly fair. Its just that when we tell men what to do they prefer to hear the words from another man. Seems more fitting, don't you think?’ he replied in a cold, if charming voice.
‘I cannot believe this is happening right now.’
‘Heh, sure, whatever. Oh, and I am definitely not going by Oei just cause my color is orange. Trust me, I heard how you almost started off our naming scheme.’
‘Okay sure, what's your name gonna be then?’
‘Hmmmm, how about Xei?’
‘Uh, sure. Not like anyone else has to hear your name right?’
‘I’m going to treat that like it wasn't supposed to be an insult.’
Far off in a monastery lobby, an orange ember shone brightly in the chest of the skeleton, casting a dull light out in every direction even through the light tunic laid over her torso. In that light seven new hopeful followers awaited her orders, while two men looked over at her with a mix of awe and uncertainty for the future.
—--
Knock, knock, knock! Sergeant Ozwald used the massive metal door knocker to leave a resounding echo throughout the courtyard as his team made their presence known. Four shield bearers and one mage stood by him as they all awaited an answer at the mighty gate style door. It seemed a little odd to Ozwald that the church here was built as though to allow a large number of guests despite the, well lets just call it remote location. But maybe the original builder was less inclined to be aiming for customer throughput and was more focused on building up the whole grandeur of the building. The whole idea was undermined a bit as Ozwald started looking at the lichen making its way up the side of the gateway, a decent representation of the rest of this obviously long forsaken building in the middle of the woods.
“Maybe no one's home?” One of the soldiers said aloud.
Ozwald would have agreed if he hadn't seen dozens of footprints and trails obviously making their way in and out of the cloister in at least somewhat of a recent timeline. it didn't hurt to test though, so he took hold of the door handle and tried pulling only to find the door obviously barred. Letting the iron ring fall back to the wood, he took hold of the door knocker and gave his customary knock one more time.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
No one answered.
“Alright Felix, would you mind blasting down this door for us?” Ozwald finally relented.
“Of course Sergeant.”
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Everyone backed away a good five paces and two shield bearers stacked up against the stone wall to either side of the door with their shields up, trying their best to stay out of the way of any imminent splinters as a lightly armored man took center stage. Sergeant Ozwald decided to stand a step behind the mage, shield ready as the man seemed to reach out into the air to make contact with nothing. Hands outstretched like this the man grunted as the door ahead of them started to groan under an unseen weight before suddenly it folded in half, inward towards the center of the building as the wood cracked in two.
Ozwald was always impressed by the force mages work as the lower half of the door had collapsed entirely inward like a broken sandcastle of wood and metal chunks, while the upper half of the door was suspended in place only slightly bent by the pressure. The soldiers rushed in hardly a second after the door had collapsed, only hesitating until they could confirm the top wouldn't fall on them as they piled into the room.
A cloud of dust had been picked up by the collapse of the door, preventing Ozwald from seeing much else within the room proper, but his men called out to him after they entered.
“Four left!”
“Three Right!”
“No combatants!” The men called out, and Ozwald started to make his way into the room.
A couple of steps brought him past the cloud of debris as small shards of wood shifted uneasily under his feet and he took in the great room. A smattering of bedrolls lined the room haphazardly, as it appeared that the monks here lived their daily lives within the confines of this room, more or less.
He noticed that his men had each reached a robed figure only to put their shield into the square of their shoulder and place the tip of their swords to the monk's throats, but no one made a sound despite the hazzardous entrance. Towards the center of the room a single man in full robe and an eerily carved wooden mask depicting a skull turned to face Ozwald.
“Why do you bother us during our time of prayer soldier of the Federation?”
“You could have just opened the door when we asked nicely you know.” Ozwald replied cooly, walking closer to the man as he talked.
“And interrupt our sunset sermon? That would hardly be proper for our dedication to the faith.”
“Ah yes, and how is your faith taking you these days Priest?”
“It suffices us in times of need, as do all faiths to the shard bearers.”
“And how does your faith suffice when you've been missing your god for all this time?” Ozwald had finally reached the man in the center of the room, casually unsheathing his sword as they continued the conversation.
“It would not need to be a mere faith if we had someone to worship, sure, but that is the route we chose to follow."
Ozwald chose that moment to look over at the monks held at sword point as they looked perhaps a little bit too comfortable with the situation. “Do you not fear death?”
“Why fear death when it will only bring us closer to our god?”
Ozwald brought his own sword up to rest on the nape of the monk's hood, bringing his face up within inches of the masked man. “So you wouldn't happen to be hiding anything in here, oh priest of death?”
“Hiding anything?” The man asked, unbothered by the blade at his throat. “We only hide our faces in anticipation of the sixth gods coming, to better aclimate ourselves to the shard bearer who has not yet revealed themself.”
“Sergeant, I think there's a trap door under the table.” The mage called out as a flick of his wrist sent the table sliding against the ground towards the open dias.
“NO! The holy relics will not be-” The head priest made to lunge towards the mage, but the blade at his throat suddenly opened another airway for the man, stopping him short.
Ozwald looked down at him as he fell to his knees, clutching at his throat with wild eyes as blood came up in heaving sprays across the wooden floor.
“I had asked if you were hiding anything from me. And you lied. My people do not tolerate lies, priest.” But the man had already fallen to the floor, spasming in place.
“Round up the remaining monks in that corner and post two guards over them while we investigate the trap door.”
Someone among the monks started to sob as they were shuffled around and forced into the back of the church, but no one overly resisted his soldiers. The mage Felix walked over and casually pushed in the trap door using his powers along with a bit of the surrounding floor to make for more visibility before two of the shield bearers dropped down to do a sweep.
“Clear!”
“Clear!” They yelled up, one after another. “Just a bunch of boxes down here boss.”
“Open them up.” Ozwald called down before stepping into the hole himself, casually making the ten foot drop with his feet only stinging a little bit at the end of it. His soldiers were already at work, thrusting the tip of the swords under the lids of the nearby boxes and wrenching down to pop the lids. Some dried herbs over here, some salted meat in the barrels, and finally a singular box filled entirely with bones. The soldier that opened that last box recoiled a bit after he looked in, but a quick search through the contents revealed that none of the bones were animated and the team moved on until they had gone through the entire basement.
Ozwald scratched at the back of his head for a moment, slightly uncomfortable with the idea that he had killed a man for keeping his store room secret. A hand descended from above to help them jump back up, considering the ladder down had collapsed as the mage punched in the entrance, and soon the whole team was back upstairs taking in the subdued monks. His men said nothing as Ozwald took one last look around the church then signaled for them to start backing out of the area.
Taking a single gold coin out of the pouch on his belt, the man bent down and placed it on the chest of the head monk he had killed barely ten minutes ago.
“Apologies for the inconvenience, but thank you for your cooperation today. Long live the Princes, and peace be to your sixth god.” He addressed the gathering before turning on his heels and leaving with his men
The sun was starting to set by the time they left the courtyard, and Ozwald turned a watchful eye over his team.
“They must have passed by the monastery without stopping. We’ll search through the night to catch them while we still have a chance.”
—
Sitting in a dark crawlspace just wide enough to fit the three of them, Dei decided to fall into her void space just to pass the time while she was scrunched between the two men beside her who took up far too much space.
‘Ah, pleasure to see you again back home so soon. Remind me, why is it suddenly my job to operate the legs on our body?’ Xei greeted her.
‘Because you missed the fun part where we got our teeth kicked in for two days learning how to use those legs.’ Fei rolled her eyes at him.
‘Yeah, and how do you think I know the skills to operate the legs without looking like a complete fool like you two did? Its not like I just completely forgot everything when I split off. We are me!’ Xei started yelling a bit.
Dei sat sillently as the other two flames kept going back and forth, content to merely take in the void for a moment or two and listen to its song and watch the blue embers bounce back and forth in anticipation. The three burning sparks seemed to be playing a strange game of keep away until one of the sparks suddenly winked out of existance.
‘What the.’ Dei muttered as she continued watching for the third spark to reappear any second now. Surely it was just playing hide and go seek right? But stare as she might, the third spark just wasn't coming back.
‘Now where did that little thing go?’ She muttered to herself.
CRASH! In the distant reality outside of the void, Dei had the distinct impression the ceiling had just imploded above them. Sure enough, when she pulled her way back towards the light, it was evident that both Matthew and John were looking intently towards the main part of the basement as several thuds could be heard behind the thin layer of wood concealing them.
“Clear!”
“Clear! Just a bunch of boxes down here boss.”
“Open them up.” A cold voice answered as several men got to work in the background until they eventually opened the large box that was hiding the trio's hiding place. A bit of shuffling around happened as the soldier searched the box before deciding enough was enough and moving on without any issues. With her bone sight, Dei had the distinct pleasure of watching both Matthew and John tighten their hands around their weapons in that moment.
‘Wouldn't it be fun to watch them let loose like wolves with their backs to the wall?’ she thought to herself.
Eventually, the soldiers moved on from the basement and only a few muffled words from above stairs could be heard before the church went quiet once again.
Dei had just started to get bored, sitting in the dark, before Matthew decided he had had enough and set his back against the wall to push the massive crate away with his legs. Several objects tumbled around in the box making an odd hollow sound that Dei only started to understand once she had left their small hole to see the box was full of bones.
‘Huh.’ She hardly had time to register the meaning of this before Matthew had wrapped his hands around her waist and started throwing her up towards the open lip of the upper level. Not quite expecting this, Dei flapped her arms a bit before she caught the edge of the wood with her boney hands and started sliding backwards on the tractionless wood. A momentary bit of effort from Xei helped modify their hands until they were a little bit more claw like, and the sinking feeling in her stomach stopped as Dei finally caught a grip.
‘I'd say that was the action of someone that doesn't deserve leg duty.’ Xei chirped, but the other two just ignored him.
Soon enough the rest of the trio had managed to help each other out of the basement to stare down at the body of the head monk as the rest of the clergy group gathered around them with passive faces. The woman among them seemed to take the lead then and reached down to the deceased priest to remove the mask from his face. With a few quick movements behind the back of her head, she had quickly replaced her own mask with the more ornate one and let it rest on her chest as she promptly went to her knees facing Dei.
“We live to serve, and we die to serve. Herald of Death”
The five other monks promptly fell to their knees as well.