Uncountable believers kneel inside the dark cathedral. Silence pervades. They stare at the ground with dead eyes, tears about to fall from their lifeless eyes.
Outside, the rain falls endlessly, accompanied by lightning strikes. Dark clouds above, dark land below. Is as if the god itself is angry and wants to punish the foolish mortals who offended him.
Although the cathedral is located underground, thanks to the lack of light and absolute silence inside it, the believers can see and hear it thanks to the single stained glass window leading to the outside. Usually beautiful and intricate, although with slightly perturbing contents, the large stained glass window shines right above the altar, like a spotlight illuminating the giant statue placed there. But now, the intermittent light gives it a monstrous, horrific vibe.
"Brothers. Sisters. Today is a fateful day. The worst day in all of history."
*Flash!*
A lightning strike illuminates the cathedral for an instant. Standing right in front of the giant statue, the hooded man looks tiny in comparison. The statue, with raised arms and lightning coursing through them, looks ready to spell destruction at the kneeling believers.
The man, with a broken voice on the verge of crying, continues. “Today, we’ve committed the worst blasphemy.”
*Flash!*
The statue’s maniacal grin and gaze, usually a source of inspiration for the believers, now raises fear in them.
The contrast between the hundreds, possibly thousands, of candles that usually illuminate the cathedral’s thick and sturdy walls and columns exacerbates the gloomy mood. Just a few of them remain ignited, the bare minimum for moving around.
Everyone’s faces are obscured by the lack of light, hiding them within the hoods. A dark mob. Tens of players dressed in black, hoods hiding their sorrowful faces. Is this a funeral?
After a dramatic pause, the man continues his speech.
"We've enjoyed His favor since the foundation of this church. He has blessed us with new experiences, growing His dungeon so we never got bored. He has blessed us with His teachings. He has shown us the correct way to live. He has given us time to grow in numbers, surely expecting the day we would pay Him back..."
His words send goosebumps running down the believer’s spines. Not a single soul is unaware of the deeds they committed.
The man makes another pause. The crowd drops their heads even further in shame, although their eyes start shining in fervor.
"I still remember when it was only Al and I, in our first time in this game. We casually strolled into the first dungeon we found... There, we were illuminated with the truth, and we… Khm!" The man fakes a cough, wiping away the tears about to fall from the corner of his eyes, "...sorry for digressing."
None of the believers seem to mind it, though, so he decides to proceed with his speech.
"He has done so much for us… But how have we repaid Him? We have done nothing! Nothing we've done even compares to what he has done for us!" His chicken crest shakes with his enthusiasm. "It’s even worse. Today... Today, we committed the worst mistake. We, in our foolishness, dared to interrupt His immaculate plans. It's unforgivable! A sacrilege!"
Murmurs start spreading through the multitude of believers. Some nod in agreement, while others ask for forgiveness. Some even start banging their head on the ground.
Through the repetitive sounds of head-smashing and the voices, the man’s loud speech resumes once again.
“You all know it already. Today we were supposed to help Him. We thought we could find Him, show Him our readiness to do anything for Him, and happily obey any of His orders. But in our supreme foolishness, we instead made Him deliver divine punishment upon us. Now, he doesn’t want to have anything to do with us!”
The murmurs grow into cries of agony, intermixed with the continuous banging sounds. Lots of players put their hands together in prayer, and tears would have started to fall, if this wasn’t happening inside a game.
But the man standing in front of the crowd raises his hand high up in the air, his voice filled with hope and conviction.
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“Don’t worry, fellow believers of the only truth. Not everything is lost, I know what we can do to redeem ourselves. Everyone gets a second chance! A chance to grow to an even stronger belief. A chance to relearn everything from scratch! A chance to get back on His grace as it always has been and should be in the future to come!”
Slowly, the believers calm down, ecstatic expressions on their faces. They trust the leader’s words, as they always have.
“He will forgive us. But to achieve it, we must first show we’re doing our best to repent.”
Slowly but surely, the light starts to fill the cathedral once again as the candles start lighting up by themselves. At the same time hope fills their hearts, the believers start asking the man in front of them what they have to do to atone for their crimes.
“It’s easy, my fellow believers. We just have to do penance for a day.”
The word ‘penance’ starts spreading through the crowd, together with a mix of surprise and expectation.
“Tomorrow… Tomorrow, it’ll be Penitence Day. Every single one of us will have to go into His esteemed dungeon and dive into it repeatedly. At least a hundred times! Each one of us will go there to find ourselves and relearn his teachings from scratch; and by the end of it, we’ll be reborn! Then, we’ll stand back up as His most devout believers. And surely… surely, He will forgive us and favor us again! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
As he laughs, the man makes the same pose as the statue behind him, now completely visible thanks to the light coming from the candles.
“And then, when we have regained His favor, we’ll take revenge upon the bastard player who interrupted us during our sacred reunion, and also the main cause of our mistake! That bastard, rude, annoying, and ugly player who thought of herself as someone important!”
The crowd cheers, agreeing with him. “Yeah!”
“We’ll make her pay for all we’ve had to go through! We’ll make her regret the day she crossed us. Furthermore, He will love it, as for the looks of the interaction between them, He also despises that abominable demon! Hahaha!”
“Down with her!”
“She’ll pay for treating our god without the respect He deserves!”
The shouts get louder as more and more believers start badmouthing that player.
But then, before the situation spirals out of control, the leader raises his right hand and they immediately shut up. Smiles grow on the faces of the believers, and their eyes start glowing ominously. They already know what’s coming next, as they’ve been waiting for it.
“Because, as you all know… Everyone will come to learn the truth eventually! All Shall Despair! Fufufu! Hahaha!”
“All Shall Despair! All Shall Despair! All Shall Despair!”
The shouts fill the cathedral, making it seem like a gloom from before was but a lie. The storm outside has long calmed down, and everything looks as usual.
The only sign that tells the truth of what happened is the HP bars of some of the believers, which are, for some unknown reason, slightly depleted.
“All Shall Despair! All Shall Despair! All Shall Despair!” Like a wave, the shouts make the cathedral’s thick walls tremble.
*Bam!*
Everyone suddenly shuts up when a side door slams open and someone steps inside. They glare at the intruder as if he were committing the gravest of sins.
The man standing in front of the statue turns to look at the intruder. “Not now, Bil… I mean… not now, First Apostole. Can’t you see this is–”
The newcomer steps forward, toward the altar, ignoring everything else. “This is important, Leader! I swear by the name of my Teacher.”
The Leader spins his eyes around in disbelief. “Sure, whatever you say. What’s so important…?”
“It’s this!” The newcomer pushes a screen in front of the Leader. “We’ve received information that there’s a real-life auction with an item signed by the Mad Rat himself.”
All the believers gasp in shock at the same time.
The Leader starts shaking. “W-W-WHAT!? Why didn’t you tell me any sooner!?”
“I’ve rushed here as soon as I–”
“What are you waiting for?” Interrupts the Leader, “Show it to me immediately!”
He reads the contents of the screen and as he does so, his legs start shaking so much that he has to grab onto the First Apostole’s shoulder to stay standing.
“T-this is… this is… This is the chance to get our hands our our first holy relic! Fast, everyone. We must make sure the holy relic doesn’t fall into the hands of unbelievers! No matter what it requires, we must get our hands on it!”
Under his orders, all the believers start getting ready to leave the game. They want to look for the holy relic as soon as possible.
Right before they start leaving, the Leader reminds them, almost as if it were an afterthought. “Ah, and don’t forget. Tomorrow is Penitence Day, okay?”
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
They didn’t learn anything.
Although they called this an ‘epic failure’ and sought to make amends, like diving into ‘The Mad Rat’s Lab’ to relearn everything from scratch, they didn’t understand the reason why they upset their ‘god’ in the first place. But thanks to this, Andreu got a ridiculously huge cp boost, after so many players diving into his dungeon and purposely allowing themselves to be killed.
So… All’s good that ends good? …maybe?