“What’s happening?”

“Where’s the Elder?”

“I’m scared!”

“…”

No matter where she went, Renare could only hear chaos happening around her. Even as she left the safety of the arena and ventured outside, the situation was not any better.

Following the abrupt departures of the Elder and the final two candidates Anten and Simon, and with nothing heard from any of them afterwards, the Church followers had begun to panic, worrying that something had gone terribly wrong.

For Simon and Anten’s fierce supporters, they had no idea what the Church was doing to them. For the other people, in particular the members of the Wolf Clan, they had already left the arena as soon as they were allowed to, unwilling to stay out of pride and disappointment at their loss beforehand.

With the Elder’s absence, the situation had gotten especially tense, and despite their superior rankings, his elite circle had also been surprisingly absent, essentially leaving no one around to help lead the people.

“…”

To top it all off, the Enforcers seemed to be occupied as well, with many of them suddenly leaving the arena to go somewhere, completely ignoring their postings or their original objective of being bodyguards for the Church.

As a result, the area around the Great Hall had quickly descended into insanity, with many followers streaming outside into the main square and throughout the compound, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Of course, it certainly did not help matters when the situation quickly began to devolve with a few sudden developments. The loud gunshots, the appearances of Anten and a mysterious figure, and most recently, the fight that was actively occurring over the dorms at the moment.

Naturally, many people had quickly gravitated towards the fight, viewing what was happening over what was once their resting area in shock and utter helplessness.

“Brother Simon! Brother Simon!”

As for Renare herself, she was more concerned about the safety and wellbeing of her friend, the one that she had unintentionally hurt. Despite all the chaos, she remembered that he had asked her to tell him the truth, and she was ready to do so, but with his disappearance, she was at a complete loss.

She had not seen who the person fighting Anten was either, so his present status and condition was still an unknown to her, and so she had not gone towards the dorms and instead loitered near the Great Hall, remaining hopeful that he would come back.

“Hey!”

“S-stay away from us!”

“Back off, monster!”

“Please don’t hurt me!”

However, even as she stayed far away from the current fight, something else was happening in her area now as well, which only increased her inner stress even further.

As she continued to look around the main square, which was packed full of scared followers, she could hear loud screaming and shouting coming from some of them on the far end, which only got ominously closer and closer to her as the minutes ticked by.

I better start heading in the opposite direction. Maybe back towards the Great Hall?

“Renare! We are looking for someone called Sister Renare! Anyone seen her?”

That was when she heard it. In an instant, she immediately stopped in her tracks before quickly turning back to face the terrified shouting section of people.

“Renare! Are you there?”

She had not misheard. Two male voices, none of them she could recognize, were calling her name out loud and asking for her, and based on where they were coming from and the current situation, she could only deduce that those voices belonged to some things that was terrifying everyone as they moved.

“…”

As the people around her who knew the answer quickly shifted their eyes onto her in unison, a bead of sweat began to form on her forehead, and her body uncharacteristically began to shake on its own.

Somehow, she had the growing, funny feeling that she had more to deal with the ongoing crisis than she had originally thought, and that the two men that were fast approaching her were the consequences of her choices, even if she was not sure what she chose that led her down her current path to begin with.

Should I stay? Should I escape?

“Renare! Renare!”

Time was running out, and the people around her had even begun to point their fingers at her. She had to make her decision now, and quickly.

“Uh!”

At that critical moment, she fell down. With all the growing pressure being mounted on her, she failed to watch her step, and she had tripped on someone else’s foot and crashed to the ground hard, with the crowd uncaringly parting away to make her fall even more painful.

“Uuu…”

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As she groaned in pain, she could hear heavy footsteps coming close to her, and the same voice talking, confirming her fears.

“Hmm… are you Renare?”

As she looked upwards, she could see the crowd silently nod and point in affirmation before they continued to move even further away from her position, giving her and the mysterious guys standing in front of her more space to interact.

“…”

Given the strange circumstances, she slowly focused her gaze on the two, taking in their abnormal details with as much calmness as she could muster.

One of them was wearing the standard Enforcer armor and looked normal enough to her standards, but the other one was simply horrifying to look at.

She was not even sure what he was supposed to be, but basing on the books she had read, she quickly decided he was some sort of devilish being, an emissary from the depths of hell itself.

I guess I have to do it then.

“Yes,” she took a deep breath, looked at the two and confirmed, “I am Sister Renare. Why?”

“… I see.”

The devil quietly looked at the Enforcer and gave a quick nod before bending down and extending one of his four giant hands towards her, all the while speaking to her with a rough inhuman tone.

“Let’s keep this simple, my name is Dauma and he is Blake. Come on, we have much to talk about.”

“…”

She was still at a complete loss as to what any of them were saying, but seeing no other option that could clear up any more of her doubts, she accepted his hand and was promptly helped up.

“Thanks.”

“Mm,” the devil huffed as he let go of her hand, “time is running out. Do you know any place where we can talk in private?”

“Yes.”

Her mind had immediately jumped to a place familiar to her as soon as she had heard the question, and seeing how it would do her more good at that point to tell the truth, she admitted it to them.

“Alright then. Lead the way.”

“Yeah, sure.”

The other followers continued to stare daggers at them and whisper to each other as she dusted herself off, kept her head up, and began to walk in the direction of her private place, with the devil and the Enforcer following behind.

“I knew something was wrong about her…”

“She probably cheated to get Brother Simon in too…”

“What a freak…”

There was no mercy given to her from the people as they hurled muttered insults and accusations while she passed them by, and she understood them from a logical perspective. They were utterly terrified and confused, and so they had to attack anything that they were uncomfortable with; that was their current belief, and nothing she said could change that.

“…”

Deep down, she knew she could not rebuke them, fight back, or even break down even if she could. There was no way the people were going to forget her easily now, let alone easily forgive her with their mindset.

If only—

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

All of a sudden, a loud screeching noise abruptly stopped everything. All the whispers, all the staring, and every movement halted as everyone, including her, slowly turned towards the source of the grating sound.

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE”

That sound was something most of them had not heard before, and even if a few had, they had not heard it for a long time. But as they realized what had made it, they understood.

It was coming from the public address system, installed all throughout the Church compound. Having been unused in years, many followers had begun to believe that they were merely there for decoration, a relic from a forgotten past before the end, something that was not needed for their Church to survive.

And yet, the speakers, placed at each corner of the main square, were working just fine, blaring out that ugly noise for all of them to hear and to put all their unconditional focus on them.

“EEEEEEEEEEEE—testing, testing. Is this thing still working?”

As the infuriating screeching finally stopped and a voice came on, a shiver of recognition quickly passed through the followers, who promptly began to pay more attention to what it was about to say.

“Good, good,” the weakened, yet still charismatic voice of the Elder blasted through the rusty speakers to them, “now, please listen to my message, loyal followers of the Church, wherever you all are.”

“…”

“My beloved followers, for over two hundred years, our Church has grown past its simple roots and into a safe sanctuary for everyone. We have maintained our convictions, and more importantly our beliefs, for the Goddess, who few of you may know is the true founder of the Church. We have pledged our unwavering allegiance to her ever since we joined, and we have continued to do so even till today.

However, with a shining brightness comes a cancerous darkness. Forces of evil have tormented our pure Church ever since we were formed, and now it has become stronger than ever. These forces aim to destabilize us, make us weak, steal the Gift our Goddess had asked us to protect and use it to destroy her efforts to save this world.

Because of those looming threats, we sought to find a worthy candidate, capable of wielding the Gift and protecting all of us from these forces, and on this day, we believed we did.

However, we were mistaken, and I shall now tell you the complete and honest truth. We had underestimated the reach of evil that sneakily infiltrated our ranks, perverted the Goddess’ teachings, and deceived every single one of us. In my hubris and excitement, I overlooked the corruption that had spread, and I was brutally attacked for it.

Now, as I am recovering from the injuries incurred from my mistakes, I have only this to say to all of you. Pay close attention to what I say, and do not hesitate to act.

I have discovered for myself that the candidate we knew as Anten is the root cause of every misfortune that has recently befallen us over the past few weeks. She has infected the current holder of the Gift with her evil and is now in conflict with him as I speak.

In addition to her deceiving all of us, she has also invited her accomplices to wreak havoc and chaos within the Church itself. The intruders that we intercepted the previous night are connected to her and are no doubt still hiding or roaming around in the compound as I speak.

Before I make my request, I shall tell you all a secret that the Church has been hiding ever since it has been formed. Every single follower has been receiving the powers of the Goddess’ Gift all this time, not just its current wielder.

As long as they have held strong convictions and beliefs in their hearts in support of the Church, they have received the power to change fate, to shift even the worst outcome to an acceptable one.

Do not be afraid of your strength, beloved followers. Look inside yourself and you will be able to find it. Once you have done so, I urge all of you to use it for the benefit of the Church, and to fulfil the request that I have already given to my closest friends inside my own Circle and will currently give to all of you.

Stop the culprits behind our fall, the ones who called themselves Anten and Yuu, as well as their intruder friends, including Dauma, who will appear to you all as a devilish being with four arms, and anyone who accompanies him.

My followers, I implore you to use everything you have, and make sure you do anything you can to stop all of them!”

“… hold on…”

The slow realization finally hit everyone who had been listening to the message, and those in the main square all turned towards the area where they had last seen the beings, the ones perfectly matching the Elder’s descriptions.

To their horror, the three, including Renare, had already vanished, leaving behind only an empty square where they once stood. They had slipped past them without their knowledge.

“Stop them… we must stop them… we must stop them!!!”

The initial shock that they had all received quickly grew into a burning hatred, and soon, every follower began to shout and chant together, letting their hidden thoughts and emotions out all at once.

“This way!!!”

The Church guards who were off-duty and in the crowd joined in on the rage as well, directing them to the armories and encouraging them to pick up weapons to fight. Guns, knives, anything they could get their hands on they took, even if they had not used them before.

They were no longer powerless or helpless. They were still scared, but now they were not letting it rule over them. Instead, they had unanimously embraced it for their new mission, letting it run free inside them and alongside their hardened beliefs.

In addition, their enemy was now no longer an unknown, but a real, tangible group with names and identities, which allowed them to easily identify and take care of them their own way.

Within the span of a few minutes, the once peaceful and benevolent Church had now become a formidable fighting force, focused solely on fulfilling the Elder’s request and nothing else, willing to take down anyone who opposed it.

“Save the Church! Save the Church! Save the Church!”

As the crowd roared, the Elder’s voice also shouted above them as he finished his message to them.

“Now, go forth, my followers, and take down our enemies! Believe in justice, believe in faith, and believe in retribution! With your help, our Church will live again!”

“OORAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

There was nothing that could stop them now.