This witch trial was really a rollercoaster of emotion for all those who attended it. At the start it was completely different. Rather than trusting the Temple like always, coming into the trial, many believed that the Temple had made a mistake, something that had never happened before. They had never questioned the Temple’s doing as it was the Goddess of Healing wishes they were following, or so they thought. The result was not surprising, they got a conviction out of Maria and sentenced her to death like always. But then someone stepped in and tried desperately to save her life, again something that had never happened before.
That young man spoke about saving the Goddess’s ambassador, about following the Goddess true wishes. But rather what got to the people the most was his actions and the Temple responds. The people in Notre Dame could simply be described as incapable, they relied all of their safety on the hand of the Temple or Guides that ran in this city, they did not want to fight nor did they know how to. The closest they got to satisfy their barbaric killing desire was when the Temple offered to them some witches or demons they could help getting rid of. And even then they were all injured and chained up so the people here can safely kill it. So after generations living like this, they had become cowards, and Liam was the exact opposition to that. He risked his life to save Maria, to fight for what he believed. When Gabriel cut through Liam's body with his swords, it did not waver Liam at all. He was still protecting Maria, knowing that it was a lost cause. They were perhap seeing heroism and true sacrifice for the first time in their life. And this strange feeling in their heart, how it hurt when they saw Liam get kicked down again and again. This feeling that they had never had before, it was like fire burning inside of them. And in a total opposite, the Temple who was supposedly always kind, forgiveness and healing was the one that showed cruelty. From Gabriel's dirty trick forcing Liam to lose his guard, to the way he kicked Maria on to the ground right in front of Liam, to how he tormented Liam and kept on trying to push him down when he was trying to save Maria. And of course they were all shocked when Maria suddenly spoke up begging for help, denying that she was a witch and then throwing her life away to save the young man's life that had just risked everything to save her. Liam’s saying kept on echoing in their head “ I’m going against the Temple’s order. And I’m following the Goddess wishes”, who had they really been following all this time ? Was it the Goddess or was it the Temple. They saw now that those two were different. The Temple could have gotten away with it if it was not for Gabriel's mistake. He could not hide his inner demonic desires and showed everyone what the Temple truly looked like. A spark had been lit inside the people of Notre Dame.
“How dare you interfere with a member of the Temple of the Goddess of Healing” Gabriel spoke. He then redirected his sword toward Luna. But before he could do anything the High Priestess stopped him, he had done enough damage to the Temple reputation already, she could see in the eyes of the people that they were losing their faith as he spoke. She had to stop him right now and do some cleaning up herself.
“Enough Gabriel, the Goddess thanks you for your devotion but stand down for now”, Gabriel snapped back to his senses and acted like a normal priest again after hearing her order.
“No matter, I just need to lie my way out of this again, the people still trust the Temple more than enough to not listen to what this girl got to say” She thought to herself.
“How are you going to prove that the Temple of the Goddess of Healing, the one that has been protecting you for hundreds of years, is wrong ?” she spoke up.
“Don’t you remember what the power of the Goddess could do, it could bring people back to life, it could cleanse a person's soul ?” Luna spoke.
“So what are you trying to say, child ?” the High Priestess said.
Luna signaled Allan, he then showed them the cursed child, the one that they saved earlier.
“Dear people of Notre Dame, do you remember ? This is Glenda Shaw’s child, the one that the Temple sentenced to be a witch yesterday. If that was really the truth and if Maria here is truly a Goddess sent, then she will be given the power to cleanse this child’s soul and body and return her to her natural appearance, am I wrong ?” Luna spoke out loud.
Of course the people remember who this was, how could they forget this hideous creature from just nearly a few days ago. The High Priestess was in an extremely difficult position right now. None of them knew that the monster was still alive and well and how it could get back in the city. And of course they knew that it was not really a demon's child but a cursed one. They just made Glenda admit so, but now they could not say otherwise. If so, they would admit that they knew Glenda was not a witch and they purposely sentenced her to death. The High Priestess had to take a gamble. The people were now demanding Maria to be given a chance to prove her innocence and she could not think of a way that made this look natural, so she trusted her gust and spoke out.
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“That is right, if one truly is given the power of the Goddess like myself, one can perform such a task. If this woman here could do so on her own in front of everybody right now, then maybe she could prove herself to be innocent.” The High Priestess took a chance, a good one at the. There was truly no way that they could find out the way to undo the curse on that child. First they must find out the sources of the curse, then either make that person lift the curse or kill them. There was truly no way they could have done that. And even if Maria really was a Goddess sent, she was tortured for a whole day, no one could have kept their mind sane, not to mention performed such powerful magic.
Maria was given the chance to prove herself, but she could barely stand not to mention doing anything else. She did not know what the plan was either, but Luna gave her a wink and Maria knew that everything was all set up for her. Maria slowly and painfully made her way toward the cursed child. She put her hand forward and then chanted some random words. Suddenly, the deformed creature changed right in front of their eyes, light glowed brightly from her just like when the witch in the forest died. And when it was over, a young woman with armor and sword in hand appeared in its place. This shocked everyone, from the people of the city to all the members of the Temple. Even the team was stunned by what happened. Yes they really did not know how she was gonna turn out to be, but certainly they never pictured a warrior in armor like her right now. Luna looked back to the crowd to see where Kyle was. And there he was, hiding in plain sight, just standing with the people. It was him who came up with the plan, the one who sneaked the cursed child into the city and the one who used the magic scroll to undo the curse.
Right after that, Maria rushed back to where Liam was and tried to heal his wound, she was too weak to use any spell, there was no mana left in her, all she could do was push through the pain and did everything she could to close his wound.
“Can you see what she just did? Tell me now, look at her, see what she is doing, do you really want to tell me that she is a witch. No she is a God sent, release her right now” Luna spoke out loud and the people chanted ordering the Temple to set her free. The High Priestess was speechless, “How… How could this have happened… there is no way..” she said, confusion was on not just her but every single member of the Temple faces. The people then tried to push through the line of city guards and priests in order to get closer to Maria who they now believe to be a Goddess sent. Chaos, that was what was about to happen, The High Priestess could see that very clearly.
“Pray to the Goddess, save her ambassador !” The people chanted. It was getting more and more chaotic and violent by the second as the people were pushing hard against the guards and the priests, it just needed one extra push, one wrong move from anyone to turn this into a battlefield. And the inevitable happened, no one knew who threw the first punch (though sometime after, people could have swore that a young man with black hair did it first), but chaos exploded and the people pushed through the thin line of security. The Temple immediately reacted, more reinforcement needed in the front line and the reserved guards and priests were called upon. Now it was truly a battlefield, the people had for the first time felt that they were truly fighting for the Goddess herself, well or at least that was what they thought they were doing.
Luna took advantage of the situation, shooting arrows and taking down more of the guards to make way for the people to break through. However, it was clear that the priests and the guards were not pushed over. They fought back and greatly pushed the people back, it only really took a few people to get killed or injured by the guards to discourage the majority of the people again. But like Kyle said, these people were religious, and for those whose faiths were strong and blind, they kept going forward.
As the situation was chaotic, the High Priestess thought of a bright idea. In an incident such as this, she could get away with anything, no one could really tell what was going on, anyone could get away with anything, from looting to murder. She gave the signal to Gabriel down on the stage, he nodded knowingly and stepped forward to Maria and Liam.
“Look, he is going to kill the Goddess ambassador, stop him” so yelled the cursed child, who was now a strong and beautiful blond young woman wearing shining armor and weapons. She pushed forward but was stopped by half a dozen city guards. Luna was also in the same situation as she was too busy with the enemies in front of her to help the other. But someone else was ready for this situation from the start. Before Gabriel could get close enough to Maria and Liam, an ice wall appeared blocking his way. Allan was already standing by, just like what he and Liam had planned from the start, though the situation was completely different from what the both of them thought. And then a new challenger arrived, a black hair young man with eyes that were as cold as ice walked up onto the stage and faced Gabriel head on.
The Ice wall duration ran out and the wall disappeared, Maria and Liam could see clearly who was between them and Gabriel. “I’m sorry for being late,” Kyle said. Tears ran down Maria’s eyes and a smile blossomed on her face, “You guys fought well. You should be very proud of yourself, now leave the rest to us.” Kyle spoke.
Gabriel now faced something that he had not felt for a long time, the moment that young man stepped up to the stage, Gabriel felt a shiver. That man was completely different from all those helpless victims that Gabriel was so used to by now.