It was clear even as they took the main road to the temple that Obrarians took care of their forests and land. The paths were clear, with few old or felled trees. Some areas had much undergrowth while other parts had few. There was enough of a diversity of flora in these forests that Yarro saw plenty of animals he had never seen before. They had no horses or carriage to carry them the way over though, so the trek was long. Over the trip they learned that the leader’s name was Vroen.

It was hours of walking and by the time they had to go off road to the temple, Yarro’s legs were about to give out. He began to fall behind the rest of the group and drag his feet. Kael stood near Yarro to be sure he didn’t fall too far behind or injure himself if he tripped. “Lwain says we’re almost there. About 5 more miles.” Yarro groaned, which Kael laughed at. “Aww, you want me to carry you?”

Yarro shook his head, the metal ends clinking together. “Why does a temple have to be all the way out here?” he mumbled.

The trek from the road to the temple was even more exhausting. There wasn’t any path, so they either tripped over tree roots and rocks, or exerted more energy making sure they didn’t trip. Even though the forest was well shaded, they were still drenched in sweat from the humidity and exertion by the time the temple came into view. If the main road was so clear, why was this path essentially non-existent? Was this temple not even in use anymore?

The temple itself was tall, with plenty of marble columns similar to the palace. The main room was in a circle shape, and half of the domed roof had collapsed, with a wing extended from the main room on each side. The area was also plenty overgrown. Like the normal amount of vines that would have decorated the temple had been left to its own devices. On the columns were abstract designs of animals behind all of the moss, mold, and vines. The windows were covered by the same dirt. “Wow,” Yarro said.

“I expected something more...bigger…” Kael said. Yarro nudged him hard and he looked at the other confused. “What?”

Vroen looked on the temple with awe though. Like how one might have seen an oasis after spending hours in the desert. “Making a large building like this requires the constant sacrifice of nature. This is against the Obrarian way. Always has been. This particular temple to the Deities is old, so we allowed nature to reclaim it. Follow me.”

Inside was mostly dark from the foliage, with a few sun rays peeking through from the half destroyed ceiling. More vines hung from the ceiling holes. The floor below was home to murky rain puddles. Dusty cobwebs filled the corners. The room was void of any furniture that may have been here in its prime except for a single eroded altar in the center.

Each side of the wall had a fresco, just as the disciples said there would be. They were all quite old and faded. One of the disciples pointed to the one on the left of the door they entered. “Start here.”

It was hard to see in the dark. Yarro tilted his head but till couldn’t make heads or tails of the art piece. Most of the fresco depicted something under a mountain. Various tunnels ran across with occasional rooms. Human figures were painted in some of these rooms. “The Deities came not from the stars, but from the earth itself,” the leader began. Yarro’s head snapped to him, and met only a nod. “It’s true. They were born under the mountain range to our west and didn’t see the stars until their whole lives collapsed.”

“And do you believe babies come from storks as well?” Kael huffed and crossed his arms. His eyes wandered all around the room.

Vroen ignored him. “We call them the Nefrines, and they were actually the cause of their own demise. I assume you’re familiar with the uh, Master Elementals, I believe you call them?”

“They existed back then as well? Over in Listhua, they are regarded as the Deities’ Messengers,” Yarro said.

The next fresco showed various rooms under the mountains with basic shapes of the Master Elementals. Having encountered most of them before, they were easy to distinguish. “Your original assumption is correct. They didn’t actually exist during most of the Nefrine civilization, according to the stories. The Nefrines were so advanced, eventually they began to create things that didn’t exist, and modified their own bodies,” Vroen frowned. “Except…”

The next fresco showed destruction. The mountain had collapsed and was erupting. Some of the inner rooms flooded with water or lava, some were buried or collapsed. In some areas half the mountain tops were blown to bits. Yarro filled in the blanks. “The Master Elementals turned on their creators.”

The next picture showed 4 people encased in ice as they slept under the mountain. “Who we call all powerful Deities, are actually 4 very selfish survivors of their country.”

“How dare you!” Kael marched right up to Vroen and shoved him slightly too forcefully. “You dare sully the name of our Deities?”

Yarro grabbed his hand and pulled him back. “Kael, calm down please. He’s just reciting history.”

“He is reciting blasphemy!”

“Only because those Deities had the power and ability to save their people and instead chose to hide! The world above suffocated while they slept away their mistakes!” Vroen shouted. "It wasn't until Alwar descended and showed us the might of her power that we deemed the Deities worthy of our worship."

Kael glared at him, fury written all over his face. Yarro could see the gears in his head turning before he rejected the idea and yanked his hand away. He crossed his arms and turned his whole body away from them all. Yarro sighed. He was definitely going to hear about it later. He didn’t realize the man was so religious.

The fifth fresco showed the 4 Deities hovering above a wasteland, and the mountain eroded a great amount. The land around them completely barren and devoid of all life. “They woke up to that. No life anywhere to be found. Plants, ash. Animals, dead or starving. What little humans remained were suffering.”

The next fresco showed the 4 still above the eroded mountain, but their eyes were glowing and the land turned green once more. “But here they fixed it, right?” Yarro asked.

Vroen nodded, a proud smile played on his lips. “They saw the devastation their creations wrought and vowed never again should humanity get so close to Godhood.” Suddenly a lot of things made sense. if the Master Elementals were acting on their orders, the ramage around the tank factory made sense, as did the Obrarian guards fighting a random vendor with various "tech."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The seventh and final fresco on the side of the entrance showed a familiar outline of Hirstgate, except bathed in golden light. Typical. “Obraria follows the Deities’ wishes, and as such we are granted safety.”

“You mean like how that one merchant at the festival was arrested? It looked like what he had was almost as advanced as in the painting.”

Vroen smiled. “Don’t be ridiculous. We have no such technology.” Yarro could hear a groan come from Kael but he elected to ignore it. The man was clearly lying, but why? Did he fear the Deities would smite him for admitting it?

Yarro squinted his eyes. “Why would disciples of the Demideity Alwar tell us the history of the Deities?”

“So you can understand your destiny better, of course. Your destiny of hunting down every last bit of dangerous technology that comes into this world, be it science of creation or weaponry. Alwar did as much, so you must also follow in her footsteps.”

Kael burst out a laughter and finally turned around. “You can’t seriously be thinking that. It’s impossible. Not to mention it’s not a Demideity’s job to get rid of all technological progress,” he said. "It's impossible."

Yarro nodded in agreement. “Exactly. It’s only human nature to invent. To find solutions to seemingly impossible answers. To give our kids an easier life. To think we had all that technology, now lost in the ashes of destruction…” Yarro stared at the art piece of the barren land.

“It’s evil! It is the Deities’ will, and you will help us!” The leader shouted with an accusatory finger pointed at them. He stared with such flaming intensity and passion. “Don’t you want your country to heal? Isn’t Listhua having a crisis of elemental power? Do you all want to turn out like that dirty, dusty Lacruss?”

Yarro was beginning to understand why Queen Illa liked to call them barbarians, even though no one else knew why. To reject progress? To willingly opt to stagnate as a civilization on a whole, when there is evidence all around them that they could be doing better? It was madness. His only job was to find corruption in Rylin and he did. Job all done. Anything more and it was his own will, not the Deities’. He grabbed Kael’s hand and turned to leave. “We’ll find another way, thanks.”

The moment the two of them turned around, a ball of fire was thrown. It crashed against the wall and dissipated. A small burn marked the area of impact and trace amounts of smoke rose from the wall. “What are you doing!?” Vroen yelled. The two turned around to see one of the disciple members had an outstretched, bare hand with smoke coming from it.

“I’m done listening to this ridiculous story from barbarians! I was sent here to end your lives, and I will succeed.” She burst from the crowd and threw another ball of fire. Yarro stepped in front of Kael, and with a wave of his hand he was able to dissipate it.

“Why? Who sent you?” Kael shouted. Yarro kept his hand up, on guard and cautious against the entire group now. How many of them are the duo against now? How many will they have to fight to get out? The emperor recommended this group, even. Was he in on it?

The ground beneath them shook. There was an explosion from outside and various debris and planks from the half collapsed ceiling fell. “King Wen will not have you stopping his revenge!” the woman shouted with a smirk.

“You deal with her. I’ll deal with whatever just happened outside,” Yarro said. He turned and ran out the front door. Outside, having carved a violent path through the forest, was a turtle tank aimed directly at him. He thought he took them all out, and how did one even get through this thick of a forest?

The top of the turtle tank popped off and a woman rose from it. “Oh, don’t worry, love. There’s more turtles on the way. Surrender now and we won’t kill you here.”

She seemed awfully confident. “I don’t think so,” Yarro said as he cracked his knuckles.

“Hmph. Have it your way then. Aim!” The woman went back inside the turtle. Now poking out of the top slot of the turtles, where the top and body of the tanks met, were rifles. Their aim was adjusted to point directly at Yarro. “Fire!”

Bang!

The rifles fired off and Yarro was filled with thick lead bullets in an instant. Ringing of the small explosion. Birds fluttered away in the distance. He fell back from the force of it all. Pain. Overwhelming pain. His body refused to move. Not even his head could lift off the ground. Yarro groaned, loudly. Could he push out the bullets?

It burned. Like they were fusing into his skin and body. His body was trying to rapidly heal, and was set on keeping the bullets on the inside. He groaned again and took a deep breath in preparation. Yarro focused on the bullets in his body, and tried to force them out. Slowly, one by one, the bullets came out and clinked against the stone foundation of the temple. It must have been his Demideity part of him, though the holes these bullets left were definitely bleeding. Yarro groaned once more as he forced himself to stand up.

“Aim!” Yarro planted his feet solidly on the ground to prepare himself for another round and outstretched his hand. He needed to time this right. Explosions mean fire. And secretly, he was happy his other parent was the Fire Deity. No source material needed, unlike water.

“Fire!” Yarro clenched his hand into a fist the second he heard the trigger. As a result, a much larger explosion happened at once from inside the turtle this time. The screams were cut off and the turtle jumbled to the side for a moment. Smoke rose from the openings.

The woman from before managed to escape her turtle. She tumbled to the ground and tried to crawl away. Most of her flesh was already burnt off, and some bits even melded to the grass and stretched and pulled apart from her body as she tried to escape. “What...did you...do?” her voice rasped out in between heavy breaths.

“You didn’t think killing a Demideity would be that easy, did you?” In truth, Yarro had no idea what he did, how he did it, or that he was even that powerful. It was kind of scary.

“What in all the stars did you do!?” She repeated, her voice leaving her more and more. “That wasn’t…fire manipulation.”

Yarro paused, an eyebrow raised. “Of course it was fire.”

The woman could no longer move forward. She was quite literally melting into the ground as the inside of her body continued to cook. “No… there was… lightning. But... not..."

Yarro, confused, took a few steps forward. Her breathing became more rapid and short. he wasn't sure she was suffocating from the fear induced by him getting closer, or from her wind pipes fusing closed. Yarro stopped at the turtle and took a glance inside. The smell was the worst part. He almost gagged at it and for a moment the smell of Dawic came back to him. The entire interior was blackened and burnt, with charred bodies still giving off smoke. Some were forever frozen in their firing position with their rifles now glued to their hands. What did he do?

“You tried to kill a Demideity using machines.” Yarro turned back to her, but the woman was already a puddle of goo on the grass. Upon closer inspection, it clearly wasn’t only fire that was used. Water and air Demideities used lightning, so that couldn’t have been it either. It wasn’t magma, as he couldn’t control the earth. What did Vroen say again back at the castle? Something about plasma?

Yarro glanced around and that Kael was just now coming out of the building, covered in blood. He walked up to him, glanced at the goop on the ground, and then back at Yarro. “So. What happened out here? Your beard has some gray streaks in it now.”

He didn’t realize he used so much power that the energy took some of it from his own self. Yarro pointed to the former body of the attacker. “These were King Wen’s people. I did some weird...explosion thing...”

In an instant he frowned and turned around. Yarro followed his eyeline to see a very traumatized Lwain, Vroen, and 2 others. “Then I suppose these are the only ones not in on the plan. They all ran to hide once the fighting got started.”

“You fought that entire group?” Yarro asked in awe. There were about half a dozen people in that group.

“Half of them didn’t even have an element. It was no challenge at all.” Kael waved his hand dismissively. No wonder he wasn’t so phased. “Come on. We need to have a chat with Emperor Sopros.”

Yarro had a gut feeling that he might need to physically restrain the man once they arrived.