“Stop, you stupid birds!” Tenner ordered, running through the Holy Glow, bumping into every second metal bed, pain firing in thighs. “He’s fine! I need tending!”

Joining into a group, the dafpigs stopped and started pecking at the exit.

Tenner jumped over a bed and slammed into the same door, stopping himself in the middle of the group of dafpigs. He nudged the birds away.

They returned and he started kicking. Birdy voices wailed, wings flapped, and they all crashed onto the floor, loud thuds following their descent.

Tenner sighed, the last of the frustration the birds had instilled in him coming out with his breath.

Then he turned to stone for a moment. Yes, he’d stopped the birds, but they’d still pecked for a few centuries. He tried focusing on the door in front. The awful sounds of the Glow overwhelmed any other. Give me predator, CHEK! The perk faded over a few minutes, but its boost, during every one of them, helped tremendously. He couldn’t live without it, now. Come on! Predator!

[Predator has succeeded! Manipulating being’s perception…]

He grinned, took a deep, satisfying breath and… trembled. Fire set under his soles, throwing him against the wall -- the door started opening.

“I knew it,” the familiar voice of the slimy guard spoke. “That Tenshot is up to no--”

Tenner dashed left then flung a heavy punch. A groan came from in front of the fist. He punched again until the only sound was that of a body hitting the floor.

Time to go.

The door slammed shut from his weight. It was much quieter and darker in this lobby. Loads of hallways and doorways, not just the one Tenner had entered through, led out of it. On the right wall hung a kid-tall and Gi-wide painting of Kristus getting touched on the forehead by a finger from the sky and touching a follower himself. Under it stood a metal door with countless scratches and peeled off paint at hand level.

Tenner blinked a dozen times--his eyes took a while to adjust--and nodded to himself. Yup, that priest really is that self-loving. The guard beneath him groaned, one hand on his bloody nose, the other reaching up. Tenner stomped and shook his head, but instead of cracking bones, his foot hit the ground.

“We’re not all complete idiots, you know?” the guard spoke, wrapping the hand that should’ve been crushed around Tenner’s foot. “My brothers? Maybe. But certainly not me.”

Tenner yanked the leg out. The man clung on, hopped off the ground and jumped on Tenner, hurdling them both to the floor. As Tenner’s back connected with the ground, both fists covered his face.

His instincts could tell an onslaught of punches would come before it did. And when knuckles soared at him, his mind entered hyperfocus, blocking each punch.

The guard screamed, keeping up the intense tempo for half a minute.

Tenner knocked the guard in the gut with a knee and rolled, pinning him to the ground. Not a single better idea came to him -- he punched like the guard had.

The man blocked a few punches then started catching Tenner’s fists. Tenner put all his force into a right jab. It was almost invisible from the speed and almost knocked Tenner off balance. And the guard caught that punch as well. Tenner’s left started strangling him.

Doesn’t matter how powerful a punch, one shouldn’t ever give it their every drop of attention.

The guard scratched and slapped Tenner. The lack of air and panic stopped him from thinking straight. He might’ve had the chance to get out, but the need to get out doomed him.

Tenner unzipped his blood-soaked jacket and unsheathed the axe, slowly, to see the fear overwhelm the guard. The man’s face went from one of panic to one of madness. Anger and hopelessness switched places every moment. When the axe’s shadow grazed his skin, his eyes closed and let out a tear. His lip started trembling, failing to form last words.

Tenner chopped the guard’s neck into half, unleashing a spray of blood onto the floor.

Once catharsis left Tenner, a deep disappointment swelled inside.

How could he do such a thing? Cause misery and agony to so many in the name of an imaginary god? The guard hadn’t deserved to live another second, though he’d managed one incredible thing: he made Tenner believe, if even for a single thought.

I hope your hell is real and I hope that you burn in it for all eternity.

Getting up, Tenner hid his axe. For now, he’d done his part in punishing the church. For now. He ran towards a corridor. Something pecked and flapped. He slid to a halt. A dafpig. It had somehow sneaked through and pecked at the metal door under the Kristus painting.

Beak on metal was… quite loud, to say the least.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

He could’ve grabbed the bird and returned it to the Glow, then removed himself from the church, all without causing any sound, but once he made a step towards it, the feeling of getting grabbed zipped through his body. He’d be dragged and beaten. Tenner shook his head and ran into the hallway.

The door slammed open behind him and a pair of footsteps emerged. One guard, donning a puffy outfit and a net over his head, grabbed the dafpig while the other one ran after Tenner. Without time to remember the turns, Tenner kept straight, his hands grasping the axe’s handle once more.

The pursuer turned towards the Glow. “Wait...” He turned to the corridor Tenner went in. “You’re not one of us!”

Corridors, rooms and screams all flashed by. Within seconds, Tenner appeared in some sort of park, covered by a glass dome on the church’s roof. At least five men trailed him, more coming from corridors all around. The only way left was a magnificent door, a golden text inscribed in it.

Kristus quarters.

***

Ginormous bookshelves, spanning the whole room vertically, levitated at Tenner’s height off the ground. The desk in front of which the priest sat did as well. Above the desk, from the wall, hung a large copper cross. Blue lights--like those under levitas--kept the furniture levitating. There was a glass ceiling, which would break from the smash of an axe handle, into the midnight sky.

Tenner shook his head, focusing away from the roof. Before he thought of ways of how he’d break through it, he had to get to it. That’d be tricky, he knew. Guards flooded in through the door behind him while, ahead, Kristus got down from the desk, a frown on his face.

Tenner hopped towards the guards, birthing fear into their faces, then aimlessly swung in Kristus’s direction -- this was the only way he could buy some time.

Kristus stopped in front of him and raised a hand.

“Cease,” he said. “Tenshot and you, my men.”

The group of guards froze at once, exchanging glances with one another.

“Is it wise to--”

“Tenshot, tell me the truth and I shall spare your life,” Kristus spoke sternly. “Do you accept the trade?”

Tenner nodded.

“How did you get in?” Kristus turned to his desk.

“Back entrance.”

“Ah, indeed. Not all of my ideas are perfect,” Kristus spoke. “Perhaps because they’re still tainted by the echoes of the moon’s whisper? I was greedy. The Holy Glow uses plenty of electricity, you see. I thought I could save by turning off the barrier lasers at night, instead hiding the exits with shadow. But I was mistaken. Saving money isn’t worth it if it doesn’t save lives.”

“You made endless other mistakes,” Tenner said.

The priest stopped and focused on the cross above his desk.

“Leave. Tenshot remains with me.”

A few of the guards tried speaking, but all that came out were a few stutters and mutters. Silence engulfed the room for a moment. “We understand.” They bowed and left, shutting the door after themselves.

“Did you know that God is real?” Kristus said.

“I only know that he’s not.”

“You don’t have to believe in the same God as I do, nor do you have to listen to what I’m saying, but you do have to believe in a God. In the end, he was who brought you here.

I don’t know anything about you, except that you made it to me, did what was meant to be impossible and fought against insane odds. We’re similar in that aspect, Tenshot. And in many more.”

“Will you let me go now?”

“You’ll leave yourself. But not through any exit.” Kristus pointed upwards and finally turned back to Tenner, their gazes meeting. “I have got to keep up appearances, Tenshot. Like you, this company operates on faith based on sound evidence. If my clients realize that I’m not who they think I am, everything will fall apart. I can’t have that. Not until I’m the head of the biggest company in the world, until even the Corporation bows to me.”

“Another similarity, you’d say,” Tenner spoke. “What do you sell?”

“Faith and… HXB8. My profit isn’t made up of only money -- power is what I seek,” the man said. “You know what HXB8 is?”

Tenner walked over to a bookshelf, shaking his head.

“A solution made from twelve chemicals. Some call it ‘God’s Touch’, some call it...”

Tenner’s eyes narrowed.

“You make money pumping your followers full of drugs?”

“It gives them relief from rejection, the process that never ends.”

“It’s… beautiful,” Tenner uttered. “Best con I’ve ever heard of.” As the words left his mouth, his skin crawled. And it’s the most awful too. This was the evil he had to rid the world of. The way how didn’t matter -- nothing could compare to such corruption.

“I figured it’s fair for you to know. I learnt how you got in and you learnt of my business plan,” Kristus said. “You’re different and you’ve got a wit. You probably understand why I’m keeping you alive.”

“Because you couldn’t kill me? Or because you want to use me?”

“Because power requires sacrifice: to achieve my dreams I’ll have to give up things I love deeply. That is not a problem, but… I’d like to indulge just one more time.” Kristus grabbed the copper cross off the wall and twisted it around in his grip.

Tenner knocked a row of books down and started climbing a levitating bookshelf.

The shelf swayed from his weight, floated up and down.

Tenner felt his grip weaken and chopped into the wood. The axe held him whilst the shelf normalized. Then he got to climbing again.

Kristus took a few dozen creditcoins and a laserpistol out of the bottom of the cross, turned to Tenner and looked up until he found him.

“Goodbye, Kristus,” Tenner said breathlessly.

“What’s the last thing that makes us so similar, Tenshot?” Kristus continued, ignoring Tenner’s words. “I think it’s our dedication to the hunt. When I had a contract, I never stopped. You seem like you don’t as well.”

H-he’s… Tenner froze, arms shivering. A bounty hunter?!

Tenner almost let go, almost fell a dozen meters, but in the last moment, pushed himself to the top of the shelf and sat, his mind exploding.

“I haven’t had a good hunt in years. I had to give up my first love when I became Kristus. Even years before that I struggled to find a worthy opponent. You, Tenshot, are exactly what I need to move on in peace.”

The cross started glowing a blinding blue.

Tenner raised a hand to cover his eyes from the light. That was the moment when he knew he had to leave this Realm. Even if it had a church and a priest, it was godforsaken. He’d pay off the stupid debt, get CHEK Extensions and never look back.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Run!” Kristus said, swinging the glowing cross. “This hunt won’t be any fun if you die before leaving.”